Deut 13: If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods”; which you have not known; “and let us serve them,” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The NT told us faith is more important than righteousness, the NT told us Jesus is God, the NT told us God exists in a trinity, the NT told us the laws of Moses are a curse. Should we follow what God told us in the Torah or follow the teachings of the NT??
2007-10-25 11:21:45 · 6 answers · asked by Jonny 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Angel, Galations 3:13 speaks of the "curse of the law" that Christ has freed us from.
2007-10-25 11:42:16 · update #1
William, intersting answer, I'm going to have to think about that. How do you respond to the miriad of verses in which God tells us He is not man and that He is alone??
2007-10-25 12:33:58 · update #2
I think Jesus might have fulfilled this. The NT is right: all you need is faith to get into heaven (faith that Jesus died and rose again to save us for our sins), Jesus is God, and God exists in a Trinity (One God, three parts; three parts to one whole God. As to the NT telling us that the laws of Moses are a curse, I am curious as to where you got that. Please e-mail me and let me know.
I think we should follow the teaching of the NT, because it is the Gospel. The Torah is law: it won't save you, all it can do is condemn you.
-Angel
2007-10-25 11:34:40 · answer #1 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are wrong in your assessment. I will illustrate it in just one of your points. You claim that the NT tells us God is a trinity but the OT says he is only one. That is not true.
Though it is true that God is only one, God has told us in Torah that he is a trinity. In Genesis he refers to himself as we and uses plural verbs. In Genesis he talks about himself creating the world and being essentially the father of creation. This is the creator God, whom we call the Father. In Genesis, a human wrestled with Abram at the banks of the Jabbok and after wrestling all night, changed his name to Abraham. This was God in bodily person, whom we call the Christ. In Exodus, God calls Moses from the burning bush. The burning bush was not consumed. It was not burning but had the glory of God on it. It had no bodily form. This was the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that was seen in the Temple, on the Arc of the Covenant, the same glory that was the pillar of fire and smoke.
So you see, you are incorrect. Each one of the things that you contend were said in the NT can be contested. God has truly inspired both the New and Old Testatment.
You do not understand scripture and you do not understand God.
2007-10-25 18:52:52 · answer #2 · answered by William D 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I disagree with your interpretation of this...
The New Testament didn't tells us that faith is more important than righteousness...but it did say that faith in God rather than faith in ourselves was a better way to achieve righteousness. that on our own, righteousness is out of our reach...but through faith, we can achieve it.
Matthew 5:6 -- blessed are those that thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.
Matthew 5:20 -- that except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
The OT often spoke of different aspects of God...different manifestations if you will. It spoke of the spirit of God inhabiting man, it spoke of God who ruled his kingdom in heaven...and it even spoke of God who walked among people in human form...one reference even mentions a son.
The NT didn't say that the instructions given to Moses were a curse...but that the laws of man they were perverted into were a curse. Jesus didn't alter the laws of God...he even said that not one letter of it would be changed until he returned at the end of times. However, it is pretty obvious that we (humans) don't have the ability to enforce those laws...and that's the curse. When we look to other men to interpret and enforce laws, we will fail...but when we trust God to write those laws on our heart, we can succeed in following them.
Should we follow what God told us in the Torah or in the NT...both I'd say since they are consistent regarding what God expects from us. He wants us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and body and to love one another. He wants us to seek his counsel and trust in his guidance so that we don't do harm to ourselves and to others. While men tried to take ownership of Torah and make it a legal issue, the NT reminded us that God wants us to seek him directly and not rely on a set of laws and punishments prescribed by men to achieve righteousness.
The distinction is perhaps a bit vague, but is it quite valid...do we go to God to ask him if something is right or wrong for us or do we go to a religious leader? The human implementation of the laws God gave to Moses created a system that told people to seek the wisdom of other men...Jesus commanded us to seek God's wisdom directly.
Jesus never told people to go after other gods...in fact, he told us to stop making gods of other people and to return to the one true God. He never suggested that God was anything other than the God of Moses and Abraham!
Now, I can understand why some might think that Jesus directed people away from God...because so many followers of Christ made (and still make) the same mistake the people made in the OT...they put other people in the position of seeking God's wisdom and passing that information along second hand. Too many people are simply too lazy to take the time and expend the effort to seek God's will in everything they do (to pray without ceasing)...instead, they entrust other people to do the work and then tell them what they need to know so they can go about their lives with a simplistic rulebook. Great way to be deceived and God knows it!
2007-10-25 18:52:12 · answer #3 · answered by KAL 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You asked did Jesus fulfill the prophesy from Deuteronomy 13 and the answer is He is verse 4.
2007-10-25 18:30:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, that and several more prophecies which were historyically written hundreds of years before he was born.
Also, some of the prophesies in Ezikel have been coming true over the past 60 years.
2007-10-25 18:28:48 · answer #5 · answered by Strats!! 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Dude drop teh bible and walk away , Ignorance is le bliss. =)
2007-10-25 18:28:03 · answer #6 · answered by Star Trek Freak :D 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋