Did God change his mind?

Question

God gave Moses a set of laws to follow. Then Jesus came and changed a lot of those so did god decide that he didnt like the old rules and decide to make new ones? I thought that he was perfect!! Please ancwer this my faith is waning because I cant figure this out!!

Answer 1

Jesus did not change the old rules. Matthew 5:17 states, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

Jesus amplified many of the Mosaic commands (Matthew 5:22) to limit human evil activity even further: "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, ' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

Jesus was as interested in inner purity as in outward purity. This is not new, see Jeremiah 31:33: "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Answer 2

Nope. The laws of the old testament were obedience laws like you give little kids. "Now don't you do that again or I will put you in the corner" type laws, because the people were incapable of living the higher law.

Within that lower law was the law of sacrifice which teaching by symbolism. It was representive of Jesus Christ. When Christ came, the people were introduced to the laws that the other laws prepared them for. The new law said that not only did you have to not lie, steal, etc, but also you had to love your neighbor, do good to those who misstreat you, turn the other cheek etc. It is a much higher law. Many of us are clinging on to the old law. We want revenge. We want to be angry etc. by the way, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Answer 3

Some laws are universal moral laws. This includes 'do not steal', 'do not kill', and others. There is no disagreement that these laws are to be continued to be obeyed today

Some laws are cultural universals. Which means laws geared to Israel's culture that have a universal moral law behind them. As an example, the prohibition on trimming your beard [Lev. 19:27] relates to pagan practices that cut facial hair for magical purposes. So the universal behind this cultural would be, don't do the occult.

And then there are ceremonial laws. Instructions for building the Ark of the Covenant, for example - and the dietary laws belong here, as their purpose was to make the Jews "different" and to serve as a testimony to their difference in the most intimate ancient setting, that of meal fellowship.

Answer 4

Read Jeremiah 31:31-34. God told the Jewish people that a new covenant was necessary (this is because of the many times the Jews broke the Mosaic Covenant, which resulted in God "divorcing" them as His "wife" -- see Jeremiah 3 and the entire book of Hosea). Jesus brought the New Covenant to the Jews FIRST (which was later opened up to Gentiles, as prophesied by Isaiah) and it was sealed by His sacrificial death.

Answer 5

The law is still just as valid as ever.

The problem is that the law was never intended to be a way to get to God. It was, and still is, a measuring device. We can place ourselves next to it and see how we measure up to its righteous requirements. The problem we all discover is that we never quite measure up to the righteous requirements of the law - We fall short of achieving the perfection that it demands.

So, faced with this problem, how can we possibly get to where God is? God sent His One and only Son, Jesus to live that perfect life. He fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of the law and God says we can be forgiven through Jesus' perfect life, if we just accept it. So, you see, the law still does what it has always done. It acts as a road sign that both warns us that the bridge ahead, the one that leads to God, is out and it directs us to the only passable detour, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

You are doing the right thing in seeking wisdom from Godly counselors.

Answer 6

Here's the way I understand it. The Mosaic Law contained many principles for living a decent life. Jesus summed them up in only two laws or commandments (1) Love God (2) Love your neighbor as yourself.

If you keep just those two laws, you will not, of course, kill, steal, or otherwise do harm ("sin"). Jesus brought freedom. Your own brain and conscience tell you what the law is.

Answer 7

No

Vicki, the sermon on the mount as Jesus outlined did not change any of the Hebrew laws.

Remember, when the latter event was unolding the Hebrews approached Jesus and asked:

"Why have you come to change the law?"

Jesus replied:

"I have not come to change the law, i have to furfill it."
Matthew 5:17-18

The latter allowed the gentile a share in the plan of salvation.
Before Christ appeared on Earth their was no salvation for the Gentile.

Gentile = Non hebrew.

Answer 8

Don't feel that Jesus "changed" anything. In fact Jesus Himself even said, "For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Matthew 5:18) Jesus fulfilled what Moses and God gave, that is the Law.

Answer 9

The 10 commandments were being abused... Instead of being used to change a person's own life, they were being used to condemn others.

The Greatest Commandment Jesus introduced "Love God and Love your Neighbor as yourself," cannot be used to condemn others.

Thanks for bringing this up... it's a very interesting subject.

Answer 10

I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but it was questions like that that pushed me away from the church and towards Jewish observance (I was born a Jew, but not raised Jewish, so technically I'm considered a "returnee" as opposed to a convert - to recently disenchanted ex-Christians, I would actually recommend the Noachide route, which is a much easier way to get on G-d's good side according to the Torah than actually becoming Jewish).

So it's like this - one of the assumptions of Christianity is that the Jews were wicked and went astray, and so G-d replaced His ETERNAL covenant with them with a new covenant with Christendom. Islam is based on a similar assumption about Jews and Christians, namely that the Torah and Gospels are of divine origin, but Jews (whose main preoccupation for thousands of years leading up to the emergence of Islam was the study, teaching, and observance of Torah) and Christians had corrupted their respective scriptures. This is actually paradoxical because the Qur'an also says that G-d's word (which the Qur'an also says includes the afformentioned Jewish and Christian scriptures) cannot be corrupted by human beings. The only answer I've ever gotten from a Muslim that actually addressed the question (my professor in Islamic Thought class, herself a devout Muslim, simply commented that it was a good question) was that the scriptures Jews and Christians have are not the "real Torah" and "real Gospels." To me, that just sounds like an enormous cop-out. But getting back to your question...

So Christianity basically teaches that G-d changed His mind. Islam claims that He changed His mind TWICE. Meanwhile, if you look at the original scriptures, G-d says in numerous places that he will never add to, subtract from, or replace the Torah he gave us. In fact, our laws teach that any "prophet" who attempts to tamper with or replace our laws or asks us to follow after a foreign G-d (and nothing is more foreign to Torah than G-d in human form - G-d is the Creator, man is a creature, these are by definition two distinct entities, and one cannot be both creator and creation), such a "prophet" is deserving of the death penalty, and any miracles they perform or predictions they make, none of those mean anything.

Like you said, G-d is perfect. So if He gives a revelation and tells those receiving it that it is valid FOREVER, never to be altered or replaced, well, logically, if G-d exists beyond the confines of time and space (both of those are creations of the Almighty, who is both omnipotent and omniscient, and therefore they cannot restrict Him), and He says something is good forever, then He can't change his mind once (as per Christianity's teachings), let alone twice (as per Islam) or more (as in later monotheistic religions).

If you really can't figure out the answers to these questions within the framework of Christianity (and even if you can) I recommend keeping an open mind and evaluating the problems from all possible perspectives. I looked at the schism between Judaism and Christianity from both the Jewish and Christian perspectives and wound up Jewish. I'm not saying the same will or should happen to you, but I will tell you that the Jewish rejection of Christianity is based on a solid logical foundation. Christianity requires faith, which in the western sense means that at one point you have to stop thinking and JUST BELIEVE. Personally, once I got to a certain age, I just couldn't buy into a religion that tells me you have to turn off your brain to be devout.

Whatever you do, don't make any rash decisions. Study these issues thoroughly from all possible angles, take your time. Most people say you should "follow your heart," my blessing for you is that you should follow your brain, even if it means going against the current of what's popular, and that you should be granted the wisdom to discern between truth and falsehood.

Best of luck to you in your search.

EDIT: "me" is referring to Paul (Saul) of Tarsus, and he/she has a good point. The Christianity that we know today is more a product of what Paul taught than what Jesus taught.

EDIT: Lakely - Um, the commandments to love G-d and to love one's neighbor like oneself weren't introduced by Jesus any more than Albert Einstein invented science. Hi, I don't think we've met. I'm a Jew. My ancestors brought the concept of monotheism to the world, and were the recipients of the Torah, that taught both the commandment to love G-d and the "Golden Rule" for more than fourteen centuries before Jesus was born. Oh, and we brought you Jesus too - our bad. (I thought about being all serious about it and admonishing you for a total ignorance of pre-Christian scripture, but I think satire can be much more persuasive, plus it's more fun.)