Also an English translation of the name of God may be YHWH, which has no vowels. But I think you are correct that it's about taking His name in vain.
A critical study of the Bible
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Also an English translation of the name of God may be YHWH, which has no vowels. But I think you are correct that it's about taking His name in vain.
Dr.3D
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That's the way I see it too.
People often take things to the extreme. Here is a quote from the scriptures about something people carried out the extreme.
And another.....
Putting these things together, many even today unscrew the light bulb in their refrigerators so they don't kindle a fire.
ARealConservative
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thank you! I am extremely ignorant of all faith, but especially the jewish faith.
I'm curious why Christianity didn't preserve this view. I understand the New Testament radically modified the law, but much of the Old Testament is still considered sacred to Christianity, such as the commandments.
Dr.3D
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The Laws and the Covenants
Well, you have asked a very good question, and one that takes a bit of explanation. I will try to explain it by using the scriptures.
All quotes are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Added emphasis is mine. Note numbers have been removed for clarity.
Notice from the above verses, the old law is not removed but just no longer in effect. It is still needed to show how we came to our present state of grace.
Here Paul explains that we are no longer under the law but instead under grace.
We have died to the law through the body of Christ, we are no longer held by the law and it enslaves us no more.
We are free from the law of sin and death! We have new commandments and no longer have to be slaves to the old written laws.
Jesus put an end to our having to be slaves to the old written law.
Here is the new law (commandment).
Again we are reminded of the new law (commandment). This is now written in our hearts. Our old stony hearts are now fleshy hearts just as the old law was written on stone, the new law is written in our hearts. (see the parallel)
Here Paul tells how he is only bound by Christ’s law. The law of Jesus is easy to remember. It is in our hearts and not written on paper or stone.
We are not justified by the works of the law but through our faith in Jesus the Christ.
Are we justified by the written law or by believing (faith) in what we heard?
If we remain under the works of the law, then we are under a curse! We can no longer observe all of the things written in the book of the law. Even when there was a temple and the ability to have sacrifices, those of the old covenant were not even able to do so.
Jesus set us free from the guardianship of the law. There is no need for the tutor after we have graduated to being justified by faith.
Paul was disappointed by those who after he had been with them were still keeping the ‘Holy Days’ of the old covenant laws.
Those who would be subject to the old covenant laws did not listen to those laws nor do them. Now, instead of listening to the new law Jesus has given us, they continue to cling to the old laws.
Those who would continue on with the old covenant laws have fallen away from grace.
Here is the law we are to have written in our hearts. There are actually two…. The first one is to love God with all your heart soul and strength. These two are the laws (commandments) Jesus wants us to keep. These are the commandments referred to in the book of Revelation.
If we are truly led by the spirit, we should not subject ourselves to the written law of the old covenant.
I urge you to check what the above verse implies for yourself.
We are told to avoid controversies about the old written law and such as they are not profitable for anything. (something we are guilty of at this time)
This confirms the stone tablets are also part of the old covenant written law.
We may see from these verses, there is nothing new in what Paul is saying. The new covenant was prophesied in the book of Jeremiah.
Paul is showing how the prophecy has been fulfilled .
The old covenant became obsolete when Jesus died and then later it disappeared with the destruction of the second temple. It was no longer able to be followed. All of the sacrifices were unable to be observed nor any of the temple services of the old covenant.
Again it is confirmed the tablets of stone were of the old covenant. This old covenant is finished and we are now living by the new covenant.
Just as God said He would, He sent His son and made a new covenant with His people. He confirmed it with many in the last of the seventy weeks. He wrote it in their hearts and not on tablets of stone as before.
Please be aware, I am not saying the Sabbath was not sanctified by God as a Holy day. It was sanctified by God right after the sixth day of creation. What I am saying is we should not keep the old covenant laws concerning how it is to be observed. One may work, build a fire or anything else one normally would do, even on the Sabbath. What we must do is remember the Sabbath is sanctified by God as Holy! I am not saying we should observe a pagan day rather than the Sabbath for the day we should have church services we may have church on any of the days of the week as long as we don’t acknowledge that day of the week as being sacred to a pagan god.
We have but one what may be called ‘Holy Day’ now. This day is the day when we observe what may be called the ‘Christian Passover’. By eating the bread and drinking the wine we are to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us and the reason He made it. This day is not just to be observed once a year as we may have been told, but rather as often as needed to remind us of the sacrifice God made when He gave His son as the final sacrifice to save us from slavery. This freedom is not just to the slavery of sin, but also from the slavery to the laws of the old covenant. Continuing to keep the old written laws of the old covenant is refusing to accept the grace Jesus died to give us through His body and blood. Refusing to accept the new covenant, we curse ourselves by rejecting His gift.
We are now free from all of the burdens of slavery to laws and sin. We have in us a heart not of stone but of flesh and written in or on our hearts and minds are the commandments of our Lord Jesus the Christ. We are not subject to any of the old laws written on stone or by Moses on paper. Instead, we have the Holy Spirit as our guide and know in our hearts what is righteous and thus what we should do. If perhaps we slip, we know it is our flesh that has made the slip and not of our spirit. Yes, we are to remember the old laws, written on the tablets, for if we did not know what they said, we would not have known sin.
Should we continue to sin because we are free from the law? Of course not!
Let’s think of a little story to illustrate the situation:
A certain man owned a store where when we were kids, we would go in and take what we wanted and put the things in our pockets without paying. The man knew we were taking those things but didn’t say anything, thinking he would wait till later to talk to our parents about the problem. Later, we learn the man knew we had taken those things and is going to talk to our parents about the problem. After we had learned the man was going to talk to our parents, his son goes to him and pays for everything we took and tells him the account is settled. Should we now after learning how his son has redeemed us from the consequences of our wrong doing, go back to the store and continue to steal from the store owner? We should know from this point, we were wrong and not intentionally do what we had done before.
We need to understand the old covenant is gone and behind us and accept the new covenant as it was made with us. There is no need to observe what the people of Israel accepted as the first covenant as they broke it and a new covenant was established to replace it. We are now members of the family of Abraham and heirs to the promise. As members of Israel, we have a new covenant and should observe it because the old covenant has been abandoned.
Further proof of the abandonment of the old covenant follows.
Magnesians is a letter written in the early 100's C.E.
Notice how the Sabbath is still on the seventh day of the week, but the first day of the week is the Lord's Day.
The Didache was written around the years 50–160 CE, most likely 75 CE.
This proves the Sabbath was not changed to Sunday by the Roman Catholic Church, as is often claimed by many who hold fast to the Saturday Sabbath.
Well, you have asked a very good question, and one that takes a bit of explanation. I will try to explain it by using the scriptures.
The Laws and the Covenants
All quotes are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Added emphasis is mine. Note numbers have been removed for clarity.
Notice from the above verses, the old law is not removed but just no longer in effect. It is still needed to show how we came to our present state of grace.
Here Paul explains that we are no longer under the law but instead under grace.
We have died to the law through the body of Christ, we are no longer held by the law and it enslaves us no more.
We are free from the law of sin and death! We have new commandments and no longer have to be slaves to the old written laws.
Jesus put an end to our having to be slaves to the old written law.
Here is the new law (commandment).
Again we are reminded of the new law (commandment). This is now written in our hearts. Our old stony hearts are now fleshy hearts just as the old law was written on stone, the new law is written in our hearts. (see the parallel)
Here Paul tells how he is only bound by Christ’s law. The law of Jesus is easy to remember. It is in our hearts and not written on paper or stone.
We are not justified by the works of the law but through our faith in Jesus the Christ.
Are we justified by the written law or by believing (faith) in what we heard?
If we remain under the works of the law, then we are under a curse! We can no longer observe all of the things written in the book of the law. Even when there was a temple and the ability to have sacrifices, those of the old covenant were not even able to do so.
Jesus set us free from the guardianship of the law. There is no need for the tutor after we have graduated to being justified by faith.
Paul was disappointed by those who after he had been with them were still keeping the ‘Holy Days’ of the old covenant laws.
Those who would be subject to the old covenant laws did not listen to those laws nor do them. Now, instead of listening to the new law Jesus has given us, they continue to cling to the old laws.
Those who would continue on with the old covenant laws have fallen away from grace.
Here is the law we are to have written in our hearts. There are actually two…. The first one is to love God with all your heart soul and strength. These two are the laws (commandments) Jesus wants us to keep. These are the commandments referred to in the book of Revelation.
If we are truly led by the spirit, we should not subject ourselves to the written law of the old covenant.
I urge you to check what the above verse implies for yourself.
We are told to avoid controversies about the old written law and such as they are not profitable for anything. (something we are guilty of at this time)
This confirms the stone tablets are also part of the old covenant written law.
We may see from these verses, there is nothing new in what Paul is saying. The new covenant was prophesied in the book of Jeremiah.
Paul is showing how the prophecy has been fulfilled .
The old covenant became obsolete when Jesus died and then later it disappeared with the destruction of the second temple. It was no longer able to be followed. All of the sacrifices were unable to be observed nor any of the temple services of the old covenant.
Again it is confirmed the tablets of stone were of the old covenant. This old covenant is finished and we are now living by the new covenant.
Just as God said He would, He sent His son and made a new covenant with His people. He confirmed it with many in the last of the seventy weeks. He wrote it in their hearts and not on tablets of stone as before.
Please be aware, I am not saying the Sabbath was not sanctified by God as a Holy day. It was sanctified by God right after the sixth day of creation. What I am saying is we should not keep the old covenant laws concerning how it is to be observed. One may work, build a fire or anything else one normally would do, even on the Sabbath. What we must do is remember the Sabbath is sanctified by God as Holy! I am not saying we should observe a pagan day rather than the Sabbath for the day we should have church services we may have church on any of the days of the week as long as we don’t acknowledge that day of the week as being sacred to a pagan god.
We have but one what may be called ‘Holy Day’ now. This day is the day when we observe what may be called the ‘Christian Passover’. By eating the bread and drinking the wine we are to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us and the reason He made it. This day is not just to be observed once a year as we may have been told, but rather as often as needed to remind us of the sacrifice God made when He gave His son as the final sacrifice to save us from slavery. This freedom is not just to the slavery of sin, but also from the slavery to the laws of the old covenant. Continuing to keep the old written laws of the old covenant is refusing to accept the grace Jesus died to give us through His body and blood. Refusing to accept the new covenant, we curse ourselves by rejecting His gift.
We are now free from all of the burdens of slavery to laws and sin. We have in us a heart not of stone but of flesh and written in or on our hearts and minds are the commandments of our Lord Jesus the Christ. We are not subject to any of the old laws written on stone or by Moses on paper. Instead, we have the Holy Spirit as our guide and know in our hearts what is righteous and thus what we should do. If perhaps we slip, we know it is our flesh that has made the slip and not of our spirit. Yes, we are to remember the old laws, written on the tablets, for if we did not know what they said, we would not have known sin.
Should we continue to sin because we are free from the law? Of course not!
Let’s think of a little story to illustrate the situation:
A certain man owned a store where when we were kids, we would go in and take what we wanted and put the things in our pockets without paying. The man knew we were taking those things but didn’t say anything, thinking he would wait till later to talk to our parents about the problem. Later, we learn the man knew we had taken those things and is going to talk to our parents about the problem. After we had learned the man was going to talk to our parents, his son goes to him and pays for everything we took and tells him the account is settled. Should we now after learning how his son has redeemed us from the consequences of our wrong doing, go back to the store and continue to steal from the store owner? We should know from this point, we were wrong and not intentionally do what we had done before.
We need to understand the old covenant is gone and behind us and accept the new covenant as it was made with us. There is no need to observe what the people of Israel accepted as the first covenant as they broke it and a new covenant was established to replace it. We are now members of the family of Abraham and heirs to the promise. As members of Israel, we have a new covenant and should observe it because the old covenant has been abandoned.
Further proof of the abandonment of the old covenant follows.
Magnesians is a letter written in the early 100's C.E.
Notice how the Sabbath is still on the seventh day of the week, but the first day of the week is the Lord's Day.
The Didache was written around the years 50–160 CE, most likely 75 CE.
This proves the Sabbath was not changed to Sunday by the Roman Catholic Church, as is often claimed by many who hold fast to the Saturday Sabbath.
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heavenlyboy34
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that ^^ is fascinating, thanks. 
Dr.3D
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that ^^ is fascinating, thanks.
You are very welcome. I really hope if someone has a problem with my explanation, they will let me know what mistakes I have made.
jmdrake
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All you've done is proven that the Sabbath was changed by man after Jesus had left for heaven and all of the original disciples were dead. Acts and Hebrews 4 verify that while the apostles were still alive the Sabbath was still the 7th day. And Jesus declared himself to be Lord of the Sabbath. (Hence "The Lord's Day" initially meant Sabbath). The reason for the change later was initially for early Christians to differentiate themselves from Jews who were being crucified. A good book on this is From Sabbath to Sunday by Samuel Bacchiochi. http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/books/sabbath_to_sunday/
The fact is that the Catholic church itself teaches that it changed the Sabbath and the Catholic church claims people like Ignatius to the Trallians to be Catholic. Holding up evidence of extra Biblical church tradition doesn't change the veracity of that claim even if you believe the particular tradition was "pre Catholic".
Further Ignatius introduced the error of elevating one church member over other in direct contradiction to Christ's teaching of servant leadership. Note that in his Epistle he stressed that people be "subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ". (See: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0106.htm) It claims the change based on the power of church tradition.
While Paul did mention the position of bishop, he never said anything about the idea that people should be "subject" to bishops and he most definitely didn't elevate the position of bishop to being equivalent to Jesus. The New Testament makes it clear that Christ is the head of the church. Not some bishop.
I suggest we keep this thread on the Bible and not delve into church tradition.
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Dr.3D
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I have that book and have read it.
I had nearly decided to leave off the part "Further proof of the abandonment of the old covenant follows." but decided to add it anyway. The Church of Rome did not become corrupted till the 4th century, so I thought it would be safe to assume those fellows were not part of what happened from that point forward.
I was asked a question and I answered it the best I could. If that makes me a bad guy... then so be it.
Now do you have any problem with what I explained before the part you objected to that falls below "Further proof of the abandonment of the old covenant follows." If so, please tell me about that.
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ARealConservative
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+rep for thoroughness!
Dr.3D
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I agree with you in that the doctrine of the Nicolaitans crept into the church long before the 4th century, as evidenced in the letter to Pergamos in Revelation 2:12. A church hierarchy should not exist except that it be a servant to the members of the church.
jmdrake
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I don't object, but I think it's incomplete. When Jesus was asked what was the greatest law He said:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt 22:37-40)
Now how do you show love for God? Well here is what Jesus said:
15If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John 14:15)
And further:
21He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)
Now let's look at the commandments. Not all 600+ that the Jews had by the time Jesus came to earth. (Which is why He said Matthew 15:9
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.) But the simple 10 commandments given in Exodus 20. Forget the 4th for a moment since that one is controversial. Can you see the connection between the other 9 and love for God and your fellow man? If you love God are you going to put Bael or Zeus or money or fame before Him? Are you going to worship stuff made by human hands whether it Molech or Asteroth or your new Lamborgini? Are you going to use His name to express your anger? Will to take His name in vain another way by claiming Christianity but making no attempt to live it? (And yes I know that I personally fail to live up to the name Christian, but I try not to). Either 4 or 5 of the other 6 commandments have been incorporated into our laws one way or another. Murder, stealing and perjury are all against the law. Adultery is still illegal in some states, although not enforced. But it still can come up in divorce even in so called "no fault" states, especially with regards to child custody. There is no law per se requiring children honor their parents, but minors are legally subject to their parents. The command against coveting is a thought crime and cannot be directly incorporated into law (nor should it be).
I agree with your point about the law being written on our hearts. But what does that mean? When Jesus came he dispensed with a lot of the traditions that were either added wholesale by the religious leaders, or that were part of the sacrificial system meant to point to him. But other parts of the law he strengthened. Murder was strengthened to include hatred. Adultery was strengthened to include lust. (See Matthew 5). When the rich young ruler came to Jesus, Jesus realized that he had unknowingly made a god of his wealth. So Jesus told him to sell what he had and give to the poor. When the young man was unwilling to do this and turned away, the disciples asked "Who can be saved?" Jesus replied that with man this was impossible, but with God all things are possible. (See Luke 18). Keeping the spirit of the law (as opposed to just the letter) is possible only if God puts the law in our hearts (seat of our mind). After all, it is from the heart that evil comes out. (Matthew 15:19) If hateful/lustful thoughts can be controlled then hateful/lustful acts will never happen.
Note, while this is called the "new covenant", it isn't really that new. Enoch had this kind of relationship with God, and God just took him to heaven without him dying. Moses had such a relationship that when God was ready to destroy the rebellious Israelites, Moses offered to die in their place. Hebrews 11 is all about old testament characters who lived "by faith". So why wasn't this generally true? Because most people didn't want that. When God spoke directly to the children of Israel, they told Moses they didn't want direction communication with God, and that they would prefer that he speak to God for them. (Exodus 20:19) But under the new covenant there is no Moses or Aaron or Joshua. There is just you and your high priest Jesus. (Hebrews 4:14)
God's love in your heart is what is supposed to motivate you. It's not supposed to be some mechanical checklist. But those observing you should at some point see similar results. The law still exists because it shows you what sin is. (Romans 7:7) Further in Romans 2 Paul points out that even people who don't know God keep the law having learned it "through nature". Paul went further to talk about the "circumcision of the heart" which helps one keep the "spirit of the law" rather than just the letter. (Romans 2:29)
So, that's my understanding of the new covenant. It is introspective rather than inquisitive. We are supposed to concentrate on getting the 2x4 out of our own eye rather than getting the speck of sawdust out of our brother's eye. (Matthew 7:3) And rather than condemning anyone standing in fear of our condemnation, we should tell them that we don't condemn them and admonish them to "sin no more". (John 18:11)
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jmdrake
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Minus the Sabbath, can you think of any commandment that shouldn't be kept?
We are no longer under the law. But, my question is this: Are the Ten Commandments part of the law or are they separate?
Folks, lets not forget that the Bible is composed of 'selected' books. There are many books which were not included in the cannon due to group consensus. Perhaps some of those other books should have been selected over the cannon—as they may be more consistent.
KevinR
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It seems the law is still in effect:
"It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid." (Luke 16:17 NAB)
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17 NAB)
Kevin...good stuff. What do you make of the book of "Hebrews"? The author claims we are no longer under the law. Did the "law" die with Jesus on the cross?
ARealConservative
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keep it going guys. I find this debate highly enjoyable, even though I have to be a wallflower in it.
KevinR
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Here's a verse in Hebrews where the Holy Spirit basically says the laws are here to stay:
“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” (Hebrews 10:16 NIV)
He adds on “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”, so your sins died on the cross, but not the law.
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