Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: davidbu@tekigm2.men.tek.com (David Buxton) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Law and Love Message-ID: Date: 7 Oct 89 23:17:58 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or. Lines: 135 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I read with interrest Mike Siemen's post to this newsgroup. You seem to think I am side stepping something. Be specific so I can be responsive. Send me email asking me to post a reply and I will, presuming I understand what it is you think I am evading. You suggest I am intolerant of your views. Over the years the tables have generally been turned the other way around. SOME Sunday keepers, with their Blue Laws, have sent Sabatarians to jail where some of them died, (Late 1800s time frame or so). Some Sunday keepers have seen fit that Sunday should be legislatively brought forward as a symbol that this is a Christian nation. So often Sabatarians cannot land a job or loose their jobs because of their Sabbath. I know of no laws on the books that legislate anyone to keep the Sabbath but there are plenty of laws on the books, that if inforced, would try to legislate me to be a Sunday keeper. I simply want to stand up and show that there are solid scriptural grounds for the stand that we take. That if someone wants to be legislative then there is more basis for the Sabbath - I abhore the idea of any such legis- lation. Not for a single moment do I wish to imply that YOU have anything against my Sabbath. You have made it clear that you are no party to Blue Laws. Thank You!! OK then, be patient, hear me out. Let me make my stand. And then lets move on to other things. I have a little more to say about the law but I've said enough about the Sabbath. I'm done with that topic if you are. -------- One point that I do want to take up is the point that some make -- that in the Old Testament there are the Commandments and that in the New Testament these are replaced with the Law Placed In the Heart. My position is that these statements are easy to find in the Old Testament. The Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that the 'New Heart' experience is not the 'New Commandment' but rather the means, or the way, by which we keep the Com- mandments. It is Christ in us and not by our own means that we are to keep the Commandments. Let me site my texts: -------- Love your neighbor as yourself. (Lev. 19:18) Ten Commandments repeated in Deut 5. Then in Deuteronomy 6 we find - "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (Deut 6:5) And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; (Deut 6:6) That is how God wanted the Children of Israel to keep His Commandments. And they instead chose to do it by their own means. Man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) That he may turn our hearts to Him to keep His commandments. (1 Kings 8:58) ". . . servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, . . ." (1 Kings 14:8) No king before or after like him "who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might" (2 Kings 23:25) His delight is in the law of the Lord. (Ps. 1:2) "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." (Ps. 19:7) "Wait for the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." (Ps. 27:14) It is not sacrifices that you desire. I delight to do your will, Oh my God. Your law is within my heart. (Ps. 40:6-8) God knows the secrets of the heart. (Ps. 44:21) Create in me a clean heart. (Ps. 51:10) God does not delight in sacrifice or burnt offerings. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Ps. 51:16,17) Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. (Ps. 119:18) "Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in your law." (Ps. 119:70) Oh how I love thy law. (Ps. 119:97) "Oh how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. (Ps. 119:97-100) "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Ps: 119:105) "My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end." (Ps. 119:112) I love thy commandments above gold. (Ps. 119:127) Thy commandments are my delights. (Ps. 119:143) Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. (Ps. 119:165) ". . . keep my commands in your heart." (Prov. 3:1) "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understand- ing; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (Prov. 3:5,6) As he thinketh in his heart so is he. (Prov. 23:7) "Can the Ethopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil." (Jer. 13:23) The time is coming when I will make a New Covenant - I will put my law in their minds, and write it in their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. (Jer. 31:31-33) "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh." (Eze. 11:19) Get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die . . . for I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. (Eze 18:31:32) "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." (Eze. 36:26,27) ". . . Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty." (Zech. 4:6)