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03: Christ and Religious Tradition – Hit the Mark — 8 Comments

  1. It seems to me my SDA faith also follows some traditions of men. Excommunication is a tradition following the first church (Catholic) and their practice. Sin is sin, which we all seem to be under, but through the blood of our Savior and His love, we can ask and have forgiveness. You break one Law of our Lord we have defiled all Ten. So this brings me to this one fact we have all sinned,and our church is a house for sinners and Saints. The church cannot save us only Jesus can. We should not judge anyone, but love everyone no matter their status, or life style. When we do judging we are doing a job which is only Jesus job,for it it His blood. AMEN

    (4)
    • Dennis, I certainly agree that we are to love everyone. However, the Bible makes clear that everything is not to be tolerated among believers. Check out these examples: 1 Corinthians 5:1-8, Romans 16:17.
      Let me know what you think. Thanks!

      (4)
      • Thank you Curtis.
        We can distinguish judging in the sense that is due to God alone from judging in the sense of determining what is right and wrong and taking necessary steps to save the sinner and the church. 2 Timothy 4:2 "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." That is why the church is called out to preach the 3 Angels Messages to point our errors of the world and warn people to repent of their sins and come to Jesus.

        (3)
  2. The fourth commandment says, "KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY". To follow this commandment, like the Pharisees we surrounded it with minor laws ,(we call them traditions now) like, You shall not cook on Sabbath, you shall not play, you shall not travel, you shall go to church, you shall not buy, you shall not fetch water, you shall not take a bath, you shall not iron, you shall not go to school, you shall not read other books other than the Bible, you shall not sweep, you can add to the list.

    "Thou shalt not kill". Because we consider our bodies as the temple of God, we surrounded again this law with minor laws like you shall not smoke, you shall not drink intoxicating liquors, you shall not overeat, you shall not eat between meals, you shall not drink coffee, tea, softdrinks...you can add again to the list.

    If we make a list of these minor laws, I think we will also come up with maybe not 613 but at least a hundred.

    These are the GOOD traditions that our lesson is talking about that help us follow more faithfully the laws of God.

    I think, The idea of having these traditions came from the writings of Mrs. White but the difference now is, Mrs. White is different from the Pharisees because not like them she had a direct instruction from God to do what she was doing as she always says, 'I was instructed by God". And therefore we can say that the instructions Mrs. White is giving us are instructions coming directly from God. In spite of this, we are not allowed to put these writings equally on the level of the Bible.

    As I understand, Laws have nothing to do with our sanctification now in the New Covenant. So what do you think are we getting from these traditions, more of benefits or more of dangers? Are we going to disassemble these laws or add some more?

    (5)
    • Mervin, you said, "As I understand, Laws have nothing to do with our sanctification now in the New Covenant."

      I look at it quite a bit differently even though I do realize that God is the one promising everything not us. The covenant as stated in Hebrews is:

      "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Heb. 8:10 NKJV).

      Notice here that God's laws are still involved. Sanctification is the process of growing up into Christ, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom. 10:4 NKJV). That doesn't mean that the law was done away with but that Christ is the end goal of the law because it is a transcript of His character.

      The word "sanctification" is found five times in the New Testament. The first text states that Christ has become everything for us including sanctification - He is the forerunner, the example who sets the standard (1 Cor 1:30). The next text which uses the word twice gives an example of what sanctification involves:

      "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God" (1 Thess. 4:3-5 NKJV).

      That takes in adultery but goes way beyond that. It includes any kind sexual immorality for instance, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness" (Gal. 5:19 NKJV), etc.

      The third use of the word is found in 2 Thesselonians, "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13 NKJV). Here it becomes obvious that salvation isn't only just belief but also includes something we are actively involved in that includes the working of the Holy Spirit (I would suggest things like what Paul says in 1 Thess 4:3-5 above).

      The last place is, "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1:2 NKJV). What is it for, Obedience and the application of the blood of the cross. I think you can easily see here why I feel that God's laws are absolutely involved in sanctification. It is the promises that make the new covenant different than the old covenant not what we do as saved people.

      (3)
  3. For our church to be an orderly organization (the body of Christ) we must have rules and guidelines. God always works through organization. The challenges comes when we do not all submit to the rules ourselves but enforced those rules to the letter of the law. Christ's mission was fulfilled when He demonstrated and fulfilled all the laws in the spirit of the law. The Sermon on the Mount embodies how we must treat others to live out the spirit of the law. God has granted us everything we need to live for Him and live like Him. The church must take on the challenges of discipline, but before we make any decision, each decision maker must place ourselves in the position erring one, and beg God for us to be merciful and kind in dealing with our erring brother or sister with compassion and love. If discipline is done in love, most time the erring child of God will be remorseful and accept the decision. Discipline is a tough challenge to deal with, when all the evidence of the erring one is available and there is no remorse. We must still pray for that erring one and always lift that soul up with prayers to the Lord. Remember the early church had to deal with it and we also have to deal with also. The best advice is to err on the side of mercy.

    (3)
  4. Let scrutinise what makes a person to be
    defilement.
    The Pharisees were good to keep in
    mind the tradition laws that have made
    them to cease obeying God's commandments.

    When we read the bible in book of
    Matthews 15:20, Jesus Christ is detailising the parable of what makes us to be defiled.
    We have find that to eat food without washing hands can't defile us, but what we can think and do according our heart it defile us, how and why?

    For out of the heart is where evil thoughts,
    murders, adulteries,fornication, thefts,
    false witness and blasphemies comes from.

    Mind you my brothers and sisters in Christ,
    this verse is the one which is used by some other churchs to pursued people and giving them the option to eat and drink what their body accept. But the bible is directly telling us that we shouldn't take this food for instance( poke).
    The words of God should not be excluded and added because every word recorded their is from Our heavenly Father.

    (1)

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