In Matthew 5:17 Yeshua the Messiah made this statement, "Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets." In light of this very plain statement by our Master, why is that so many people think He came to destroy the law?
I've gotten into many discussions about the law of Yahweh as found in books such as Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, etc. and the first thing that usually comes out of people's mouths is, "Well, that's Old Testament" or "We are not under the law," or "That's been done away with." They then explain that Christ died and we aren't obligated to keep the law any more. If all this is true, then wouldn't it mean that Yeshua did come to destroy the law? Wouldn't this mean that a part of His mission was to come and take away the law and not require us to keep the law? Well of course it would and that is why the teaching that we do not have to keep God's law is so dangerous. It makes Yeshua out to be a liar. He told people to not even think this, yet preachers not only think it they proclaim it to the people week in and week out. If ever a person comes to their pastor and asks them about this or that commandment, the common reply: don't worry about that, we aren't under the law. What a way to deal with a question. No explanation, no exegesis, and you can forget dealing with the passage expositorily. Just say we are not under the law and it seems everything else does not matter. I say that we should respect our Lord and that means respecting His words. He told us not to think it. Do you love Him enough to obey this command? Don't even let it enter into your mind that part of His mission was to destroy the law; that wasn't why He was commisioned by the Father. He rather came to deal with sin which is the breaking of the law. He came to pay the penalty for sin which is death; not to do away with God's standard of righteousness. Do you believe in Yeshua? Do you believe His words in Matthew 5:17? Matthew Janzen
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Mark 13:32 states the following (NASB):
"But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." This seems pretty straight forward to me. Not even the Son of the Father knows the day and hour of the coming that is predicted in Mark 13. One of the attributes of Deity is that Elohim is omniscient - all knowing. There is absolutely zero that Yahweh Elohim does not know. There are too many passages in the Bible that make this clear. Isaiah 46:9-10 (KJV) will suffice for now: "Remember the former things of old: for I am Elohim, and there is none else; I am Elohim, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." I have shown Mark 13:32 to many Trinitarians as well as Oneness believers and generally they usually explain to me that the Son really does know the day and the hour, exactly the opposite of what the passage blatantly says. The response goes something like this: "Well, Matthew, he was talking about his human nature not knowing, but his divine nature really did know." What this amounts to is someone saying, "I realize he said he did not know, but I believe that he really did know." Is this what Yeshua was trying to get across to his listeners when uttering these words? Was he trying to tell them that although he said he did not know he could at any point switch over to his divine nature and know all of a sudden? Do you honestly believe that is really what he meant? Is is much easier to allow the passage to speak to us from its context. The Son of the Father doesn't know, right in line with the angels and me and you. This is what the Bible says, and there is nothing in the context of the passage that would lead us to believe otherwise. I'd much rather stay with what is actually said, rather than the exact opposite of what is said. Matthew Janzen Sometimes we get to the point where we believe that there really isn't anybody in the world that is righteous. Is this incorrect on people's part? A favorite Bible verse for many church goers today is one that proclaims, "There is none righteous, no not one." You will find this verse in Romans 3, but it is quoted from its predecessor, the book of Psalms (written much earlier in history). Psalm 14 has this to say concerning their being none that are righteous:
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. Yahweh looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." [Psalm 14:1-3] There is a parallel verse in a later Psalm (53) as well which basically reiterates what is stated above. The obvious context of these verses is that the author is speaking about those who say in their heart that there is no God, no Creator. These men are corrupt and partake in abominable works. However, in the Romans passage where Paul cites the verse we see that there is a broader meaning to the text. Paul quotes the passage, but in context applies it to all those who have sinned against the law of Yahweh (Romans 3:9,19). Have you ever transgressed the law of Yahweh? I certainly know that I have, and I meet people everyday that have as well. If you have ever fell short from perfect obedience to Yahweh's law, then you fall under the category of those who have sinned (Romans 3:23), and in this sense there truly is no righteous person, that is, no perfectly righteous person. The point of Romans 3 is to show that there is a need for a Savior, something the Old Covenant saints readily recognized. See, this wasn't something that Paul "concocted" during his lifetime. I remember speaking to a woman on the phone one time who was telling me that she believed Paul was a false apostle. I had heard this before, but had never experienced someone telling me in such blatant terms. One item of disagreement she had with Paul was that he said there was none that were righteous, yet she read of many people in the Bible who were righteous. I attempted to explain to her that I believe there were are righteous people in the earth, made righteous first and foremost by the grace and mercy of the Almighty, but Paul's point was that there are none perfectly righteous. I then tried my best to show here that just before Paul made his claim he wrote "as it is written," meaning that he was quoting from earlier texts of Scripture. It wasn't that people like David and Solomon believed people were righteous and then Paul came up with the idea that nobody was righteous. David understood the need for a Savior in Psalm 130:3-4 when he stated: "If thou, Yahweh, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." Solomon also understood this fact when he wrote long ago: "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." [Ecclesiastes 7:20] The point is that all of Yahweh's children have understood the need for salvation. They have recognized that they cannot save theirselves, that they need someone to pull them out of sins captivity, the slavery of transgression. We need to always keep this in mind and never think that we have come to the point where we are somehow justified by our works. We should rather trust in Yeshua, the Son of Yahweh, rely on him for our salvation, placing our faith in Yahweh's word. Tonight is the first session of a two night debate I'll be having. Whenever I engage in a debate it is very difficult to study about anything else except the subject matter of debate. In this case I've been entrenched in Christology for the past couple of months. I must say that I have again come to know my Almighty and His Son in a more intimate way.
One Scripture I've really been meditating on lately is John 17:3. In this chapter Yeshua prays what many theologians call the high priestly prayer; the prayer just before His betrayal and death. In this verse He speaks of eternal life, and states that eternal life is in knowing Him and His Father. What is astounding though is that He identifies His Father as the only true God and distinguishes Himself from that position in the very same verse. "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true [Elohim], and Yeshua [the] Christ whom you have sent." [ESV] Notice here again that Yeshua is praying to His Father (vs. 1) and has already identified Himself as theSon of the Father (vs. 1), proving He is not the Father. He has also stated that it was the Father that gave him authority over all flesh so that He could give eternal life to those the Father gave Him (vs. 2). This proves that Yeshua is not the Almighty for He had to be given this authority. It is at this point that He expresses the knowledge people must have in order to have eternal life. To know His Father as the only true Mighty One, and to know Him (Yeshua) as being the one who was sent. The common Trinitarian (or Deity of Christ) position is that the verse speaks of having a joint knowledge of the Father and the Son in order to have eternal life. Therefore, in their minds, if Yeshua is not God why would we have to believe in Him to have eternal life? This must mean that He somehow must be God, yet at the same time distinct from the Father He is in prayer to. This point misses the argument I am making as well as dismisses the authority of Yahweh. First, there is no disagreement from me that it takes a joint knowledge of the Father and Son to have eternal life, but that's not the point of identification I'm making. Our joint knowledge is in knowing (1) the only true Mighty One, and (2) the one sent by the only true Mighty One. In this verse it is obviously the Father that is the only true Mighty One, and Yeshua is the one commissioned by Him. Yeshua does not even identify Himself as the only true Mighty One. Second, Yahweh has the authority to save His elect people by means that He chooses. If Yeshua is not the Almighty (which I am proposing) and Yahweh still chooses to save His people by His only begotten Son, commanding people to believe in the Son for eternal life that is not a problem. We must do what the Father tells us to do. If the Father begets a special Son, and commands us to believe in Him for eternal life, the He is the Father's means of salvation and we must not argue about such. Belief in the Son does not prove the Son is Yahweh Almighty, it only proves that Son is an important vehicle in the Father's ultimate salvation of His people. When the dust settles, the passage is still emphatic that Yeshua called His Father the only true Mighty One, and distinguished Himself from that position in the very same verse. Why not believe what Yeshua believed? Matthew Janzen |
AuthorBlog by Matthew Janzen. Lover of Yahweh, Yeshua, my wife and 5 children. All else is commentary. Archives
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