In the old testament, there are so many rules that God made. Like in the book of Leviticus. Chapter after chapter of rules, dont eat this, dont touch unclean things, dont think these thoughts. And then there are all these rituals you have to do to "cleanse" yourself if you do something wrong. Just an example of what i mean; the bible says you cant eat pork because it is unclean. If i eat pork, choke on it, and didnt get a chance to ask for forgiveness before I die, will i go to hell because of it?
I am not looking for confrontation regarding the validity of the bible; I believe in it, was raised in it. I just have never known, how do i distinguish which laws are as pertinent today as they were back then?
BTW, I know, all laws regarding sacrificing are moot, because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice.
I have also always heard that the bible was written by men and has been editied and changed so much that who knows what in it is really from God and how much is just the word of man. But what can you do? I fear eternal damnation, I have to take the bible as my guide.
Thank you all for your insights, i do greatly appreciate it.
So many different points of view…I was raised Chrisitan, but since i was forced to go to church 5 out of 7 days of the week since i was 8, I strayed once I left home. Now, I am trying to learn on my own. I live in Germany, and finding a good church, not just a military chapel, is near impossible. I do thank you all for taking the time to read and answer. God Bless you all.
There were many laws to follow strictly, to the letter, but this was done to separate themselves from the pagan practices around the Israelites to set them apart from the rest of the nations. Jehovah wanted everyone to know that they were His people and that they did not follow the pagan practices of the other nations, nor did they form marriage alliances with them (Deut 7:1-4).
If you recall, though, the nation of Israel turned away from following the true God, Jehovah, and he took his spirit from them and allowed them to be killed, or captured and enslaved by powerful armies, twice – 607 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. (2 Kings 25; 2 Chron 36; historical data of 70 C.E.)
This was showing that God had taken his blessing away from Israel and he made a New Covenant, one with a spiritual nation and with his son, who was able to cleanse mankind so that they could approach Jehovah God in prayer and get forgiveness of past sins (Matt 6:9-14; Heb 9:22; Col 1:14). It is only by means of Christ Jesus that we can gain favor in Jehovah God’s eyes, again, so this is why his death was so important (Acts 10:43; Heb 10:18). After the sacrificial death of Jesus, mankind was "cleansed," by his blood and so this took the Old Law, the Mosaic Law, and voided it, if you will, and thus began a New one (Isa 53:12; 1 Pet 2:24; Col 2:14). Since we had all sinned by means of Adam (Rom 5:12), a perfect man, then we needed to have the blood, or life, of another perfect man take his place, as a ransom, and the only one qualified for this was, God’s son. But Jesus was raised up and he resides in heaven with God (Matt 16:21; 1 Cor 15:4; Phil 2:9; Acts 2:33).
the bible is religious BS…
if you can comprehend that, then do this:
create YOUR Relationship with Our Creator and eliminate religion from YOUR Life.
Peace be with YOU
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Save YOUR Soul and create YOUR Relationship
That was the old testament. We are supposed to go by the new testament. Where we have the 10 commandments. That’s mostly it as far as living. If you actually follow those guidelines. But, you also have to be baptized. Acts 2:38.
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Hi, The books in the old testament like Lev. does not apply to us today when it talks about not eating certain foods. God laid down this law for a particular reason. we can eat any meat today. It would not be disobeying anything that God has put in the bible.
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Most people just follow the ones they agree with.
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.
You were called to be free.
But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your ‘God’(Not fear of God)!
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in the nature of ‘God’.
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
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Ship round then shop around, study all the religions Islam, Buddhism, and all Christianity cults then decide which to follow by yourself.
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God made all these rules to protect and uphold his special people, as delegated by themselves, the Israelites. However, to actually try and help you, all those cleansing rules are moot after Jesus died on the cross, as you said. Now you can simply think for forgiveness. I don’t think god will burn you for eating pork then dying directly thereafter, I mean is he really that petty? cough.
Anyway,
Jesus is the ultimate cleansing of all sins, he was the one sacrifice for all sins and so all these rituals, practices, cleansing things are irrelevant.
To distinguish which laws are actually relevant, well, anything the New Testament is a good Christian guidance and generally what you should live by. WWJD? The tacky wristbands are your way to go. But otherwise, I’d say the 10 commandments are mostly good things to live by. If god is actually love, then the rules outlined in the bible are NOT just god sitting there being a petty biatch dictating rituals and worshiping because he can, they’re there for life guidlines which will make you happy with a purposeful life.
Sorry if my answer is jaded and thick with sarcasm, I can’t keep out my own views seeing’s I’m all but Christian.
I hope I helped even a little.
Good luck with your Bible fun.
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Your best bet is to get input from your pastor/preacher and then make up your own mind
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the one rule that i follow by from the bible is LOVE thy neighbor as you would yourself….even if you dint feel like it or like them just love them as you would yourself cause that’s what Jesus did and that’s why i follow him…
as for the mutha load of rules and what not just follow the ones that keep you away from sinningg and what not likepremaritall sex, lust for money, power, sex etc etc, alcohol abuse, lazinesss, gluttony, pride, the seven deadly sins etc ya know and the only ritual that is still practiced today is the holy communion. but i reackon Porks alright cause God created it and it was only seen as unclean cause it was a rubbish collector of an animal…lol but a tasty one…
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hahahaha omg you have to read the new testament silly. A.D.? after Christ died he died for ALL our sines. so back then pigs were well. . . sinful and they didn’t eat sin or touch any thing sinful so they wouldn’t sin. but when Jesus died every thing changed now you can do all though things. (except for the 10 commandments.)
and God bless! woot woot!
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me and my bible.
The Old Testament was the law of that time… The time before Christ… There is a New Testament which we follow as the prophecy has been fulfilled… Christ our Savior has come and He has laid out our new laws which in essence are no different than those of the Old Testament… Love God with all your heart and soul, love yourself and others… if you do these things, you can not possibly break the original commandments…
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follow those vich u personally think u cn do n rvich ur heart accepts…
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me….
listen girl i see this way i will get ridiculed yes but who cares it doesn’t matter which god you believe in but how we see our own good within ourselves and to help others is what matters there will always be rules how you act on your self inhibitions is your job and to help others is our cause as a people
hell i don’t believe in god i believe in a goddess and it doesn’t really matter cause as long as were doing good to the world and not doing bad that is the main cause
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i dunno shit thats down there in me heart and me noggin
do you no what an inductive leap is? no? well it is the assumption that god exists. Just because there is all this stuff does not mean there is a god. people just jump to the conclusion that there is because they are uneducated and over imaginative – hence why most religions came about when people supersticious and very gullable.
in conclusion, trust the bible when it deals with social and moral issues like love thy neighbour, good samaritan etc. however, when the bible says things like "god does not permit this" its all rubbish. follow rules you make yourself and the ones which make you feel like you have done the right things. You can always use utilitalitarianism or situation ethics to help you along
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Hunni that’s the old testament.. we follow the new now because jesus was the ultimate sacrafice we don’t kill lambs and all that. But i’m baptist and know a little about presbityrian
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If you believe in the bible is the word of God, then you need to follow ALL the rules.
If you simply believe there is a God and that the bible is a human creation, then you don’t need to follow any of the rules.
Any religious leader that would say rules A, B, and C are still valid while D can be ignored is not a true believer. If God does exist as the perfect being the bible describes, and the bible is the word of God, then to intentionally ignore any part is the same as ignoring God.
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ur supposed 2 follow all of dem not just the easy ones cus ur too lazy! u should know that if u r a christian. but ur prob neww to da religion
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church
The answer to your question depends on whether you are trying got follow old Judaic law or whether you want to live under Christian law.
remember in the new testament that God sent Peter a vision of a giant sheet with all sort of unclean animals on it and God told Peter to "eat" and Peter said "I can’t, Lord, it’s unclean." and God said "Who can call unclean what I call clean?"
Also, in Romans, Paul says that all options are open to you, (nothing is "wrong") but not everything is expedient (that doesn’t make it smart) and he simultaneously cautions you not to violate your conscience or to cause another to violate his/her conscience.
When Jesus came he didn’t come to break the law, but to fulfill the law… so, if you are saved through Jesus, then you have already fulfilled the law, and therefore all options are open to you.
If you want to try to fulfill the old testament law on your own, however… then I don’t know the rules about if you choke and die on a piece of pork. Besides that, though, Old testament law doesn’t just require that you ask for forgiveness, it requires specific blood sacrifice depending on the type of crime committed. God in his omniscience is the judge of who is going to heaven or hell and I’m betting that His system is way more fair than anything a human can come up with. So it would be asinine of any individual to try to say "you’re going to hell!!!" or "you’re obviously going to heaven." That’s where all that whole bit about "Don’t judge lest ye be judged" comes in.
Probably, though, if you are trying to fulfill the old testament law to avoid going through Christ, you’re screwed. The whole concept of trying to fulfill the law, and the blood sacrifice, was supposed to be an act of faith looking forward to Christ’s ultimate blood sacrifice and fulfillment of the law. (this doctrine is not part of judaism) If you try to have the actions, but are denying the faith, then how can you be saved? "For by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is a gift of god, not of works, lest any man should boast."
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the bible
There were many laws to follow strictly, to the letter, but this was done to separate themselves from the pagan practices around the Israelites to set them apart from the rest of the nations. Jehovah wanted everyone to know that they were His people and that they did not follow the pagan practices of the other nations, nor did they form marriage alliances with them (Deut 7:1-4).
If you recall, though, the nation of Israel turned away from following the true God, Jehovah, and he took his spirit from them and allowed them to be killed, or captured and enslaved by powerful armies, twice – 607 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. (2 Kings 25; 2 Chron 36; historical data of 70 C.E.)
This was showing that God had taken his blessing away from Israel and he made a New Covenant, one with a spiritual nation and with his son, who was able to cleanse mankind so that they could approach Jehovah God in prayer and get forgiveness of past sins (Matt 6:9-14; Heb 9:22; Col 1:14). It is only by means of Christ Jesus that we can gain favor in Jehovah God’s eyes, again, so this is why his death was so important (Acts 10:43; Heb 10:18). After the sacrificial death of Jesus, mankind was "cleansed," by his blood and so this took the Old Law, the Mosaic Law, and voided it, if you will, and thus began a New one (Isa 53:12; 1 Pet 2:24; Col 2:14). Since we had all sinned by means of Adam (Rom 5:12), a perfect man, then we needed to have the blood, or life, of another perfect man take his place, as a ransom, and the only one qualified for this was, God’s son. But Jesus was raised up and he resides in heaven with God (Matt 16:21; 1 Cor 15:4; Phil 2:9; Acts 2:33).
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God’s Word the Holy Bible
I didn’t really take the time to look up the unhealthy facts about pork until just now.
Clearly, the law against eating it is not there just to keep us from eating something that’s actually good for us.
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pork:
http://www.onlinetruth.org/Articles%20Folder/eating_pork_can_be_hazardous_to.htm
let me give you your first step: you obviously know about Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for your sins. BUT, have you realized you’re a sinner, came to an understanding that you deserve to go to hell, realize you need a savior, and accepted Christ as that Savior in your life?
the reason i ask is because of this "If i eat pork, choke on it, and didn’t get a chance to ask for forgiveness before I die, will i go to hell because of it?"
to me that tells me either you’ve never taken that step or you believe you can lose your salvation.
the Bible is clear that salvation is eternal. if you’ve accepted Christ as your savior then you don’t have to worry about committing a sin and worrying about asking for forgiveness for it before you die. obviously if you have sinned you’ll have the desire to repent and forsake it, but when Christ died God forgave your sins past present and future. a prayer of thanksgiving for the shed blood of Christ and God’s forgiveness is 100% appropriate, though.
once you’ve made that step the rest will come into place. if your Church is teaching things that are contrary to the Bible then go find a Church that teaches sound Biblical doctrine.
(you can eat pork, don’t worry.)
Christian liberty is a wonderful thing. the Apostle Paul didn’t eat pork because he was Jewish by blood and he didn’t want to offend anyone that feels eating pork is wrong, although he felt there was nothing wrong with eating it.
as believers in Jesus Christ we’re not bound by the law. the law is given to us to show us that we can’t meet God’s standards on our own. When we’ve accepted Christ as our Savior we’re considered as righteous as Him in God’s eyes.
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Bible college grad.
all the ones that apply to ur gender
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1) How do we know which rules in the bible to follow?
The bible itself makes it very clear (with only a very few exceptions) which rules Christians are required to follow and which rules Jews are required to follow. Acts 15 is very helpful!
2) In the old testament, there are so many rules that God made.
Acts 15 addresses this issue *completely*.
Jim, http://www.bible-reviews.com
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