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Why This Discussion Matters

Let’s Get Started

Let’s Get Started

by Kraig and Anne Elliott

This website explains what the Bible says about the Law of God and why we believe it is still for us to obey today.

It will work best to read the articles in order, like you’d read a book.

Table of Contents

Why This Discussion Matters

  1. Which Bible passages apply to us today?
  2. Common views on Israel and the Church
  3. Keeping Israel and the Church distinct

Definitions

  1. Who are the People of God?
    • God’s Plan for Israel
  2. Who is Israel? Who are the Jews?
    • Who else is Israel?
    • How to become part of Israel
    • Special characteristics of Israel
    • How many “peoples” does God have?
  3. What is the Torah?
    • What is the Law of Moses?
 Coming Soon…
    • What is the moral, ceremonial, and civil Law?
    • What is the Law of Christ?
    • What is the “Oral Torah”?
    • What is legalism?
    • What is lawlessness?
  1. What is salvation? What is sanctification?
  2. What is circumcision?
  3. What is the new covenant?
  4. What is the kingdom of heaven?
  5. What is the Church?

Common Questions

  1. Is the Law required for salvation?
  2. Why did God give the Law to Israel?
  3. Is the Law too difficult to keep?
  4. What would happen if Israel didn’t keep the Law?
  5. What did Paul teach?
  6. What about Old Testament sacrifices?
  7. What about clean and unclean foods?
  8. What about historical church teaching?
  9. What did Jesus teach about the Law?
  10. Did Jesus abolish the Law?
  11. What is the book of Acts about?
  12. Did God set Israel aside?
  13. What are some Biblical pictures of Israel and the Church?
  14. What is the book of Galatians about?
  15. Didn’t the priesthood change?
  16. What about end times?

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Filed Under: Why This Discussion Matters

Why This Discussion Matters

Why This Discussion Matters

by Kraig and Anne Elliott

In January 2006, someone remarked to us that the Bible had answers to many things but certainly not everything that we need. It might have been a casual remark, but it haunted us.

Yes, the Bible told us how to have eternal life, but did it tell us how to live?

  • We knew we were supposed to have a good marriage, but did it tell us how?
  • We knew we were supposed to be good parents, but did it tell us how?
  • We knew we were supposed to love other people, but how should we act in specific circumstances?
  • Why were there so many opinions—on music, clothing, styles of worship, and even denominations? Which were right, and which were wrong?

God brought to mind a verse:

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:3-4).

This verse was clear that the answers were in God’s Word, the Bible, because it said that His divine power had given us everything we need, through our knowledge of Him.

Knowledge of God isn’t an arbitrary thing. We should be able to open up our Bibles, search for an answer, and find it. If we didn’t have something we needed for life or godliness, it was obviously because we didn’t have a thorough knowledge of Him, as revealed in Scripture.

Which Promises?

We decided to start in Genesis and read, with the intention of discovering instructions God had given us for life and godliness. It didn’t take long until we discovered a problem.

Much of the Bible just didn’t apply to us!

For instance, a friend of ours was involved in a type of “prosperity gospel,” and she was fond of looking at Deuteronomy 28 for assurance that God would bless her financially if she were a believer. However, it was clear from the context that these words were written as a national blessing to Israel.

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of YHVH thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that YHVH thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of YHVH thy God…. (Deuteronomy 28:1-2)

“We are Christians, not Jews,” we said, “so these promises cannot apply to us.”

The problem was that we knew that almost the entire Old Testament was written to Israel, not to the Church. It would be taking it out of context to apply the Old Testament’s instructions or promises to us in the Church. Yes, there were principles. Yes, there were some good stories, poetry, and proverbs. Yes, it told about the coming Messiah, but it held very few instructions for us. In fact, as we read into the New Testament, much of that was also written to Jews, rather than to us.

Why did 2 Peter 1:3 tell us that the Bible’s promises would give us everything we needed for life and godliness, when so much of what it said applied to someone else in a period of time long gone?

And as we realized that very little of the New Testament had been penned or was available to believers when Peter wrote his epistles, we were even more frustrated. They didn’t have access to Paul’s epistles. The little we had read that was directly written to the Church certainly could not contain everything we needed for life and godliness.

It felt like we were taking scissors to the Bible… snip… snip… snip….

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Filed Under: Why This Discussion Matters Tagged With: 2 Peter 1, Deuteronomy 28

Common Views on Israel and the Church

Common Views on Israel and the Church

by Kraig and Anne Elliott

It was becoming increasingly obvious why we needed to understand the context of each passage we were reading. Specifically, we needed to know to whom it was addressed.

We needed to understand context because there were certain commands and promises for Israel, and there were commands and promises for the Church. We needed to rightly interpret which commands and promises applied to us personally.

There are generally two accepted views on making a distinction between Israel and the Church.

  • Dispensational theologians, such as Scofield and Ryrie, teach that there are two peoples of God, and that these two people are distinct from each other.
  • Covenant theologians, such as John Calvin and R.C. Sproul, teach that there is only one people of God, which was first Israel, but that Israel was replaced by the Church. The promises given to Israel are symbolically fulfilled in the Church.

We have never been fans of the covenant view because, if the Church has replaced Israel, then how could God keep his promises to the literal, physical nation of Israel, specifically regarding the land of Israel? I realize that some prophecies in Scripture are symbolic and allegorical — but the promises to Israel about inheriting the land of Israel look like they are literal, at least when I just open up my Bible and read it in ordinary words.

On the other hand, according to dispensationalism, commands given to Israel were given through Moses and applied to the nation of Israel until the formation of the Church. After Christ’s death and resurrection, we are in a new dispensation, one of grace and truth, rather than one of law.

The dispensationalist theologians propose that God works “in different ways at different times.” For instance,

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds (Hebrews 1:1-2).

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17).

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Filed Under: Why This Discussion Matters Tagged With: Hebrews 1, John 1

Keep Israel and the Church Distinct

Keep Israel and the Church Distinct

by Kraig and Anne Elliott

A dispensationalist keeps Israel and the church distinct. This is stated in different ways by both friends and foes of dispensationalism. Fuller says that ‘the basic premise of Dispensationalism is two purposes God expressed in the formation of two peoples who maintain their distinction throughout eternity.’ A. C. Gaebelein stated it in terms of the difference between the Jews, the Gentiles, and the church of God.

The essence of dispensationalism, then, is the distinction between Israel and the church.

— Charles Ryrie, Dispensationalism (source).

Why is the dispensationalist so eager to keep Israel and the church distinct, or separate from each other?

Ryrie explains,

All interpreters feel the need for distinctions. Obviously this does not prove that dispensationalist’s distinctions are the correct ones, but it does demonstrate that the need for distinctions as basic to the proper interpretation of the Scriptures is recognized. There is some truth in the two statements ‘Any person is a dispensationalist who trusts the blood of Christ rather than bringing an animal sacrifice’ and ‘Any person is a dispensationalist who observes the first day of the week rather than the seventh’. That is true simply because every person who does not bring an animal sacrifice or who does not observe Saturday as his day of worship recognizes the need for distinctions in the interpretation of the Bible. The dispensationalist feels that his system supplies the answer to that need. (source)

Ryrie is saying that unless we want to be under the law of Moses, like the Israelites were, then a distinction between Israel and the church is essential. Unless we want to have to give up eating bacon and pork, or unless we want to have to stop attending church on Sunday, we’d better make sure to keep a distinction between Israel and the church.

How do dispensationalists support this with Scripture?

One verse often used is Romans 10:4.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

A second passage is 2 Corinthians 3:7-11.

7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

However, these verses by Paul seem to contradict words by Jesus in Matthew 5.

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-20)

This is tough to understand! Jesus said he would not abolish even the smallest part of the law, not even after He had fulfilled them. He said that they would last until heaven and earth disappeared — which obviously hasn’t happened yet.

So has Paul made a mistake? No, Scripture cannot contradict itself.

Peter admitted that Paul’s letters are difficult to understand.

15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. (2 Peter 3:15-17)

He also said that in his day, “unlearned and unstable” were distorting Paul’s letters to say they meant something that they didn’t. In fact, he clearly identifies these people as “wicked.”

While Paul is often said to have been the first to teach that Christians are not under law any more, he himself claimed to have followed the law of Moses throughout his life.

But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets (Acts 24:14)

He believed everything that was written in the Law? What about animal sacrifices?

Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings. Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult (Acts 24:17-18)

According to Numbers 6:13-20, “those offerings were a ram of a year old for a burnt-offering, a sheep of the same age for a sin-offering, a ram for a thank-offering, a basket of unleavened cakes, and a libation of wine” (Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible).

20 And when [the elders in Jerusalem] heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto [Paul], Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:

21 And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

22 What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.

23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;

24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law. (Acts 21:20-24)

We also see that Paul continued to worship on the seventh-day Sabbath in the book of Acts. Some say that he only offered animal sacrifices and worshiped on Sabbath when he was with the Jews, keeping a distinction himself between Jews and the church.

According to dispensationalists, ‘the basic premise of Dispensationalism is two purposes God expressed in the formation of two peoples who maintain their distinction throughout eternity’ (source).

However, Paul seems to say something else.

19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

It certainly sounds as if Paul is saying that Gentiles are part of the same group of people as Israel, not two separate peoples who maintain their distinction.

He goes on to say,

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel (Ephesians 3:6).

In fact, years before this, Jesus told his disciples,

14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:14-16)

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Filed Under: Why This Discussion Matters Tagged With: 2 Corinthians, 2 Peter 3, Acts 21, Acts 24, Ephesians 2, Ephesians 3, John 10, Matthew 5, Romans 10

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