Goddess Easter's Fertility Eggs Ritual

The false goddess Easter (Isthtar/Eostre/Ashteroth/Astarte/Semiramis/Isis, etc.) worshiped as the "Queen of Heaven" by pagans for thousands of years has a feast dedicated to her annually on the first "Sunday" after the first full moon following the spring equinox.  Legend has it that Easter dropped from heaven into the Euphrates River, hatching from an egg and turning a bird into an egg-laying rabbit.  This can be confirmed in many historical sources, and if you're reading this, it means you have a whole Internet full of free encyclopedias and free books on Google, etc. so that you can easily and quickly verify this.

Some already know this pagan history, but many do not know how exactly the dyeing and hiding of Easter's eggs fits into pagan history.  I'll soon get to this most disturbing truth.  Read on.

There are two groups of Christians, as put forth in Christ's parables and in His revelation to John.  In chapter 12 of Revelation there is depicted the true Church of God, all the spiritual virgins who keep themselves pure by "keeping the commandments of God and the testimony of Salvation the Anointed (Jesus Christ)."  Then there are chapters 17 and 18 which depict the spiritual whores who have fornicated true worship with pagan worship and breaking the commandments of God in order to keep the traditions of men.

Today most who call themselves Christians more closely follow Rome's false religion of Christianity rather than follow Christ.   They keep the feast of Easter to celebrate Christ's resurrection, without any authority from Christ.  Historically Easter's feast celebrated her son Tammuz's resurrection from the dead, as he was killed by a wild boar at the age of forty, and it's said that is why ham is customary to eat during Easter's feast. 

Those who worshiped Easter and Tammuz would go Easter's temple.  Virgins would be impregnated by the temple priest(s).  The following year, each and every year, the three-month-old infants would be sacrificed.  Eggs would then be dyed red with the infants' blood, buried in hopes of good fertility (for the land, etc.), and the belief was that they'd hatch several months later on Tammuz's birthday, December 25. 

Still today in some churches (Catholic and Orthodox and perhaps some Protesting Catholic churches) Easter's eggs are only dyed red.  It is explained to the sheep that it symbolizes Christ's blood, but where in the scriptures do we find a feast of God that involves dyeing eggs and celebrating Christ's resurrection?

The scriptures say:

When the ETERNAL your God shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go to possess them, and you succeed them, and dwell in their land; Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before you; and that you inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. You shall not do so to the ETERNAL your God: for every abomination to the ETERNAL, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it (Deut. 12:29-32).

However, then, when you knew not God, you did service to them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed on you labor in vain (Gal. 4:8-11).

Are you keeping rituals in your Christianity religion that you do not understand?  Are you letting your children participate in Easter's egg dyeing and hiding?  Do you believe it's innocent fun since you're using commercial synthetic dyes and not sacrificed infants? Or are you horrified that you've been taught that such traditions have been adopted by the Church of Rome and are still kept by her protesting daughters?  Do you believe keeping such things honors Christ, or would you rather not keep the adopted pagan holy days and instead keep the holy days God commands under the new covenant?

The days are found in Leviticus 23 of your bible.  They were kept differently under the old carnal covenant than they are now under the new spiritual covenant, but they are still the Eternal's holy days, and they foreshadow things to come (see Colossians 2:16-17).   It's important to know the meaning of these holy days that the true Holy Father commands and to stop following after the traditions of the false holy father of the false whore church in Rome.

To understand more about these feasts, see this brief outline on how God's feasts outline His true plan of salvation.

Stay tuned with the upcoming blog posts leading up to the new covenant Passover and Unleavened Bread feasts.  I'll be giving away one free copy each of two books, my God's Law of Love, the Perfect Law of Liberty: Jehovah's Ten Commandments Still Apply Today and fellow brother in the Lord Keith Hunt's The Biblical Prophets for Today.  These are testimony to the law and the prophets.

Two Types/Stages of Forgiveness

It recently came to my attention that the opposite topic of judgment and condemnation—forgiveness and pardon—is perhaps as confused and misunderstood as the former.

I've explained elsewhere before (not sure whether on this blog), as have others the right understanding on judgment.  If you already understand this, feel free to skip down to the bolded "Forgiveness" after the first line of asterisks. I'm not about to go into depth on it now, deeply quoting scripture, but summarily:

Many twist the meaning of the scriptures and ignore much scripture on the topic of judgment and/or simply do not understand.  People say you should not judge anyone for their sinful behavior, "...because Jesus said not to."  The fact of the matter is that our Lord and Christ said to take heed and be careful with our judgment, because with the same measure of judgment we apply to others, our Father God will apply to us (Matt. 7:2).  Basically, it was a message of not being a hypocrite and a lesson on God's righteous judgment toward us being what we apply to others.

When you read other scriptures, it becomes clear that Christians are expected to be able to judge righteously.  Christ told us to "judge righteous judgement," and "not according to appearance" (John 7:24). Paul rebuked the Corinthians for taking brethren to the judges of men, saying, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" (I Cor. 6:3).

If we lacked good judgment, how would it be that we could choose not to engage in sin like those around us?  If we did not judge that dishonoring God, idolatry, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking, dishonoring parents, murdering, adultery, stealing, lying, coveting, and such are sin, we are sinning!  

So you say, "Oh, but you should judge the sin, not the sinner."  But the scriptures say a different thing than what you say.  Oh, sure, the scriptures do say that we should not judge those without, meaning not DECIDING (one meaning of judging) whether the person is doing what is right or wrong, but meaning that we can't go PENALIZING those without.  Paul said to the Corinthians, "But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler-- not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove that wicked man from among yourselves" (I Cor. 5:11-13).

But then on the other hand, the scriptures teach us to rebuke the wicked: "Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself" (Ezek. 3:19)

Basically we are to JUDGE what is right and wrong and walk in that, as Christ walked, not going against our conscience.  We are to not be hypocritical with our JUDGMENTS, making sure if we JUDGE our neighbor or brother in something, we are not guilty of the same.  We can penalize a sinning brother or sister by casting them from a church group or from not associating with them, if they choose not to repent, but we cannot penalize those without.  We are going to be around sinners in this world, and we are to be lights (but not choose those people as our closest buddies).  We can judge them by DECIDING what they are doing is wrong and by REBUKING them, just NOT PENALIZING.

If a person is an unrepentant and practicing liar, whore or whoremonger, or thief, is it wrong to judge by saying the person is a liar, whore or whoremonger, or thief?  Of course not!  What nonsense!  It's called the truth, and some people just hate the truth, and so they misquote scripture.

************************************************

Okay, now on to FORGIVENESS.

First we know that we must be willing to forgive others if we want God to forgive us:

And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses (Mark 11:25).

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:12, 14-15).

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses (Matt. 18:35).  This is the conclusion of the story of the wicked servant, which I'll write more about shortly.

We have all sinned and done horrible things.  It's easy for us to look at others and judge what they've done as worse than what we've done, but have you considered that in many cases you may be wrong?  Have you considered that you're judging by appearance, rather than righteous judgment?  Remember, God judges the heart.  Have you considered that most of the persons you are judging as being worse than you started with a genetically worse sin inheritance to struggle against and grew up in a worse sin-saturated environment to also struggle against?  Have you ever stopped to consider that those persons hate their sins, too, and struggle badly against them?  Have you ever meditated on whether you might actually be worse in God's eyes than some of those persons, because He is looking at the heart, and even though those other persons stumble and fall with worse outward sins that appear to man to be more horrible, that person is more repentant at heart and is trying harder not to commit those sins of heart and outwardly than you are with your lesser outside sins?

We have all sinned and fall short of God's glory child, the Perfect and Righteous Firstborn, Salvation the Lord (Rom. 3:23).  We are all filthy compared to my Beloved Salvation.  Since it's hard to read the hearts of some, and we know also that some judge us wrongly, because they don't know our hearts and how we may struggle greatly with certain things, we need to focus on our Lord and be so grateful He chose us and died for us so that Father will forgive us, if we repent of our sins.

Since we're so grateful for Father and Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua), we need to be just as forgiving as they are.

A Maskil of David. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered (Psalm 32:1).  This was repeated by Paul in Romans 4:7.

And rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the ETERNAL your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil (Joel 2:13).

Now, indeed there are those who have repented and have been forgiven by God, but the scriptures also make clear that there are those who God has not and will not forgive, because they have not repented. God plans punishment for those who are sinning, but IF they repent, He forgives.

"Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin" (Jer. 36:3).

Repentance is required for forgiveness of God.  A few more references:  Acts 8:22; Hosea 14:2; Ezekiel chapter 18 (highly recommended read).   Quoted from my book God's Law of Love, the Perfect Law of Liberty: Jehovah's Law Still Applies Today, pg. 30:

    Those who do not keep God’s law will not inherit eternal
    life (Romans 2:6-13; 6:16, 23; 8:9; I Corinthians 6:9-11; Galatians
    5:19-21; Ephesians 5:3-6; II Thessalonians 1:7-9; Hebrews 5:9; 6:4-6;
    10:26-31, 38-39; James 5:19-20, II Peter 2:20-22; 3:9-18; Revelation
    3:5; 21:7-8; 22:12-15; Exodus 32:33; Psalm 1:6; 5:5-6; 15:1-2; 34:16;
    37:9, 20, 22, 27-31, 38; 119:155; Proverbs 2:21-22; 10:30; Isaiah 24:5-
    6; 66:24; Ezekiel 18:4, 20-21, 23, 26-28, 3.—32; Hosea 4:6; Malachi
    4:1-6; Matthew 4:17; 5:7-20; 7:21-23; 19:17; 24:12-13; Mark 1:15; Luke
    10:25-28; 13:3; Acts 2:38; Acts 5:32; Acts 17:30
    and more).

In other words, those who don't repent will not be forgiven, as you must be forgiven in order to inherit eternal life. 

If God does not forgive those who do not repent, does that mean we should not forgive?  This is where a lot of people are very confused.  That is the reason for my strange title.  The answer is both yes and no.  I will explain in depth.  The answer is in the scriptures.

Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and IF he repent, forgive him (Luke 17:3).

 Does it say, "And whether or not your brother repents or not, forgive him?"  No, it doesn't.  BUT, it also does not say you should seek revenge or harbor bitterness in your heart.  In other words, you should possess a FORGIVING SPIRIT.  You do not know whether that person will later repent.  You are to REBUKE the person (in kindness of spirit, of course) and possess a forgiving spirit.  IF the person repents, forgive him (or her).

Again, except this time it is not for a brother in the Royal Family, but for the "wicked":

"Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself" (Ezek. 3:19).

The following details the same conversation quoted above from Luke, recorded from Matthew, and explains what to do if your brother (or sister) does NOT repent:

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Matt. 18:15-17).

So, rebuke the transgressing brother, and if he doesn't listen, then take one or two more with you to confront him again, and then if he still doesn't listen, take it to the whole local church community, and THEN if he or she still doesn't listen, it says you should regard your brother or sister as a HEATHEN.  You should regard the person as one of the wicked, one of the ones "without" the church.  In other words, the person is NOT FORGIVEN, until the person REPENTS.  Does that mean you harbor hate and bitterness toward the person?  NO!  You should maintain a FORGIVING SPIRIT and LEAVE IT TO GOD.  In the end, if that person returns to the world and is overcome with wickedness and never turns from his or her ways, God will avenge you for his or her transgression(s) against you.

Before the story of the wicked servant:
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven (Matt. 18:21-22).

The above scripture is after the one I posted right before it, but it's before the one I posted that concluded the story of the "wicked servant."  So, it's in the context of a REPENTANT person, who after rebuked, repents.  Soooo...you should forgive your brother or sister who has sinned against you, but how many times?  What if the person transgresses multiple times?  Should you forgive each count?  When Salvation said not seven times but seventy times seven, he meant that you should be willing to keep forgiving, as long as you can detect the person is truly repentant at heart and is sorrowful about what he or she is doing against you.

A good example of this is the spouse who struggles with substance abuse.  Say one partner has an alcohol addiction or tobacco addiction.  That person is not just affecting him- or herself.  This kind of sin affects the spouse and other family members.  An addiction like this can be very hard to overcome.  For those who struggle with such an addiction or are married to a spouse who struggles with it, you know over the course of many years that the person can quit for periods of time and relapse over and over again.  It's difficult!  But you know he or she is trying, else the person wouldn't bother trying so hard to quit and wouldn't be so sorrowful over it and the problems it causes.  So forgive, forgive, forgive.  There are other examples, too, like the person who stands you up over and over, forgetting your meeting, or a spouse or friend who keeps slipping up with an Internet pornography addiction.  

So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow (2 Cor. 2:7).

Again, this refers to a repentant person, someone in sorrow.  It's bad enough for the repentant, sorrowful individual to cope with his or her own sin.  It's just too much for that person to also bear the sorrow of friends and family (and especially members of the Royal Family) rejecting and not forgiving him or her.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots (Luke 23:34).  

Christ said the people who were dividing up his clothing and mocking and saying ugly things about him when he was on the cross knew not what they were doing.  They didn't realize who he was and that he was innocent.  They must have thought he was receiving just punishment, that he was a blasphemous troublemaker.  Notice Christ did NOT say, "Father, whether or not they know what they're doing, forgive them."  Of course not!  What was the point of Christ's coming to earth and dying for the transgressions of mankind if God is willing to forgive everyone, regardless of what they do?


Now, sometimes it can be difficult to get to a place of forgiveness toward someone, while in other cases it's relatively easy.  If you've done the same sin and understand it, you might find it very easy to POSSESS A FORGIVING SPIRIT toward the transgressor, unless you are hypocritical, like Salvation said of those who judge without removing their own sin first.

In the last two or three years I've had to change my debit card number twice, due to fraudulent use.  I do a lot of my purchasing online, so I memorize my card number.  It's irritating to me, more than anything, whenever I have to get a new card and to file a report for unauthorized charges on my account.  NEVER have I cursed the persons who have done this to me, NEVER have I possessed an unforgiving spirit toward the transgressors, and it's quite easy for me, because my husband and I were guilty of the same many years ago (before conversion).  We transgressed against around 70 different people for an amount of $30k to $35k, fraudulent use of a credit card across interstate lines, when I was seventeen years of age.  I understand why people are driven to do such things.

Do I know whether the people who have transgressed against me have repented of their deeds?  I do not know.  Have I forgiven them?  I hold a FORGIVING SPIRIT toward them.  This means that I do not know whether they've repented, as I DO NOT KNOW THEM.  It's between them and our Creator.  It's up to God to forgive, IF they repent.  I've done MY part.  God knows I possess a forgiving spirit toward them.  If they don't repent, then God will eventually punish them for their sin.

Now what about sins that we can't relate to and struggle with forgiving?  What about forgiving adultery when you can't imagine doing something so atrocious, or how about the murder of your spouse, child, parent, sibling, other relative or one of your best friends?  

Remember how we've all sinned and done horrible things?  We've not all done the same things.  We've not all committed adultery or murder.  But remember the way God sees things differently than we do?  Remember how some struggle with worse things?  (And remember that the HEART is what God judges, and some people desire such horrible sins in the heart, but they fear consequences from man if they transgress outwardly.)

I used to be guilty of murder in my heart in my teens.  I carefully premeditated different persons' murders. I know, it's awful.  It's absolutely appalling to me now.  I've since repented of my sin of murder.  Did I actually physically kill someone?  No.  But I still was guilty of the sin of murder before God.  I've repented and feel terrible about it.  What if I'd have actually physically carried out a murder?  And then, as I have in my real life, I later had terrible remorse and repented?  Would I not seek for forgiveness from those whom against I trespassed?  Would I not hope for forgiveness from the victim's family and friends?

Murder is a difficult thing to forgive, even for those who understand it, whether it's premeditated or whether it's a result of rage, and even more difficult if it's a child kidnapping-rape-murder.  But we are basically all guilty of our Lord Brother's death, because of our sin.  He was murdered for us.  God expects for us to forgive even murder....IF the transgressor repents.

Of course there are unsolved murders and unknown adultery partners and unknown thieves.  There are a lot of persons out there who have transgressed against us whom we don't even know!  We can't rebuke them!  Do we just forgive them?  What if we struggle with forgiveness?  

I think it helps to imagine the unknown person realizing before you that they've transgressed against you and apologizing in great sorrow to you.  You can SEE in your MIND'S EYE that they are deeply sorrowful (even though they may never meet you).  They feel absolutely awful for what they've done against you and are totally repentant.  Is that not how you have felt before our Righteous and Good Father and our Beloved Lord Salvation?  THAT is how you can then find that FORGIVING SPIRIT.  That's ALL YOU NEED.  If you do not know your transgressor, try this out!  It HAS WORKED FOR ME before.  I have unknown transgressors out there who committed horrible acts against me, and I hold NO BITTERNESS OR HATRED OR REVENGEFUL THOUGHTS against them.  God knows my heart is filled with a FORGIVING SPIRIT toward those unknown persons.  If they repent, God will FORGIVE them, and that pleases me.  I will also say, on the other hand, if they do not repent, I know God will PUNISH them.  He will AVENGE me for their transgressions against me, and that also pleases me.

This is perfectly holy, righteous, and good, no matter what anyone tells you.  We do NOT have to sit around feeling that we must forgive unrepentant people who love wickedness and hate us.  That is NOT what God expects of us.  He expects for us to possess a FORGIVING SPIRIT, not a spirit that allows people to just run all over us.  We are NOT to possess a REVENGEFUL, HATEFUL, BITTER SPIRIT.  

This is what I meant in the title by "two types/stages of forgiveness."  There's the FORGIVING SPIRIT and there's actual forgiveness.  And then there's manly forgiveness and Godly forgiveness.  For example, a person may forgive someone for becoming an unrepentant practicing homosexual, but will God forgive it?  No, He won't.  God doesn't go by man's rules.

And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” And he got up and went home. But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men (Matt. 9:2-7).

We can't forgive men the way God can.  As you see above, the scribes realized that God is the only One Who can truly forgive as far as our spiritual standing is concerned. We may forgive things that we do not think are sin, but God is the ultimate Forgiver/Pardoner.

Moses had asked God to forgive Israel and to blot him out of God's book in their place, and the ETERNAL said:

"...Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book" (Exo. 32:33b).


Notice what these perfectly righteous Children of God of the scriptures said about UNREPENTANT SINNERS, when it comes to FORGIVENESS:

Jeremiah and Jeremiah Quoting the ETERNAL God:

Yet, ETERNAL ONE, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger (Jer. 18:23).

Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the ETERNAL (Jer. 6:15).

"Why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken Me And sworn by those who are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, They committed adultery And trooped to the harlot's house. They were well-fed lusty horses, each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife. Shall I not punish these people," declares the ETERNAL,“And on a nation such as this shall I not avenge Myself?"  (Jer. 5:7-9)

This speaks of punishment rather than forgiveness, BECAUSE they would not repent after continual rebuke.

"We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven" (Lam. 3:42).

Nehemiah:
 
Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders (Nehemiah 4:5).

David:
 
You, ETERNAL God Almighty, you who are the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to wicked traitors (Psalm 59:5).

May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the ETERNAL; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out (Psa. 109:14).

It is time for you to act, ETERNAL; your law is being broken (Psalm 119:126).

Paul:

Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works (I Tim. 4:14).
 
I've said this a few times, and I know many righteous Christians pray this way.  This is a very wise way to put it, because the Lord knows whether the person will repent.  If Alexander the coppersmith repented (even if he never saw Paul again, he could have cried out to God and felt horribly sorrowful about what he'd done and wished he could take it back), then the reward for the work of repentance was forgiveness, but if he didn't repent in due time, he would have "gotten his," if you know what I'm saying. 

Isaiah:
 
So people will be brought low and everyone humbled-- do not forgive them (Isa. 2:9)

This last one is talking about the time of great wrath of God in the future, when he will have rejected his people Jacob.  The context speaks of the land being full of materialism, idols (think of the Washington Monument phallic/penis obelisk and the sun god/goddess "Statue of Liberty"), tons of horses and chariots (think of all the fancy motor vehicles), and many fortune-tellers.

And finally, in Revelation, God's True Children symbolically cry out:

AND THEY CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, SAYING, "HOW LONG, O LORD, HOLY AND TRUE, DO YOU NOT JUDGE AND AVENGE OUR BLOOD ON THEM THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH?" (Rev. 6:10).

I have done as Jeremiah and the others have done toward certain ones on this earth.  For example, one of my most-hated targets is the evil ones at the top of Monsanto and the evil ones in our governments and the evil ones at the top of other corporations who knowingly unleash evil upon the peoples of this earth and DO NOT CARE!  Yes, I cry out to God, "WHEN will it be that you send my Beloved to PUNISH these evil ones?!"

It is PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS to want vengeance on evil persons or people who sin against us who do not repent.  BUT WE LEAVE THIS UP TO GOD TO DECIDE, because we simply DO NOT KNOW whether a person will repent, especially if our transgressors are unknown.

******************************

So again—and as summary and conclusion—we are to possess, as Children of the Most High God and brethren of the Lord Salvation the Perfect Firstborn, a FORGIVING SPIRIT without thoughts of hate, revenge, or bitterness against our transgressors but a RELAXED AND TRUSTING knowledge that IF the transgressors do not repent, we will be avenged by our Loving Father and Lord Salvation.

And if we truly TRUST God, and we are patient for that day of Christ's return, then it's not too difficult to possess that FORGIVING SPIRIT toward ANY transgressor, meaning we're willing to forgive anyone who repents. And for those who don't, we keep our pure spirit as not to defile ourselves and suffer with bitterness that will poison us, and we trust that God will avenge us.

Answers to Jessica's ("Raggthyme") Questions

Jessica aka Raggthyme posed some questions in the comments section of my post entitled New Covenant Does Not Abolish Law But Does Abolish Old Covenant.  I could not post my answers in the comment section, unless I were to make comment after comment after comment.  I posted a reply to get an email address, but I have not heard anything in these last months, so I have decided to share the answers here in a blog post.  Perhaps it will also be of help to others.  I will quote Jessica's questions here, and then I will post my answers after each.

Thank you Tara. I read your article on the Paul rejectors, it was full of info and very interesting. These folks I've come across who reject Paul do so (it seems) because they believe Jesus, being the word of God made flesh, was actually the Torah in flesh. I will write out some of the things I've read and then post what I am struggling with and what I disagree with.

But not as the carnal “old” covenant based on letter.

1.They say that He commanded we follow Him, that He did not come to abolish the law but to live it perfectly. And by giving us His Spirit, we are able to walk as He did. And when we sin, He is the propitiation for our sins, being that he died and rose again.

True, except he did it truthfully, from the heart, not limited to some letter [of the law] to simply avoid penalty.

2.They mention John in his first epistle a lot, who says that if we say we abide in Him we ought to walk just as He walked. This, in their estimation, means that we obey all the commandments of God the way Jesus did.

True again.  All ten commandments and all that they encompass.

3.That Jesus was angry with the leaders because they didn't keep the Torah as God intended, but they added all the commandments of men to weigh people down and keep them from entering the kingdom, not having a heart for God but for themselves. Jesus came to draw men to Himself, the Torah (teaching, instruction) in flesh to fulfill it from the heart.

True.  Men did add and add (just as our own leaders in the U.S. do), taking away liberty.  At the same time, they were corrupt at heart and didn’t keep commands where they count, themselves (again, just as our own leaders).

4.They say in Rev. 2:2 Jesus is referring to a trial of Paul at Ephesus, where they tested him and found him (and others) to be false apostles. They say there are only 12 Apostles which Jesus Himself commissioned to go into all the world, to all nations (Jew and Gentile), and Peter says that by His mouth the Gentiles should hear...

 This is false assumption regarding Rev. 2:2, and they are foolish to think apostles would stop with the first twelve.  They died just like all other men.  They are not here today to do the work of an apostle.

5.They also say that Jesus, condemning the eating of meat offered to idols in Rev. was referencing Paul, a type of Balaam, since Paul said an idol is nothing, suggesting that the conscience of a man supersedes the Law of Moses, causing the children of God to sin.

Jesus said himself that some things were allowed under Moses because of carnality.  Furthermore, a lot of physical/carnal ordinances applied (penile circumcision, tassels, etc.)  Idols truly are nothing, and how are we to know whether someone sacrificed meat to idols and why bother asking whether someone did, because we know they are indeed nothing and are not going to truly defile the  meat, as long as the meat was good to begin with--not an animal not intended for food (like pig or dog) and free from disease and/or loads of hormones and antibiotics.

6.They bring up the fact that Jesus only wrote to the 7 churches in Asia because they were the only churches He established and rebuked in love. 

Those were true physical church groups, but there is a bigger message there, likely representing ages of the Church and the dominating characteristics, all of which serve as a warning to each of us as individuals, too.

7.They say Paul admits all in Asia had forsaken him and that means they didn't receive his doctrines. Jesus commends the church in Ephesus for standing firm in the faith, testing those who say they are apostles and are not.

Paul’s doctrines were the same as the others and the same as Christ’s, so what was said to Ephesus has nothing to do with Paul.  Those in Asia simply rejected truth.  People rejected the truth when received by other apostles as well.

8.They say James was written for a trial of Paul, specifically correcting the doctrine of justification by faith alone, saying Abraham was not justified by faith alone, but by doing what God commanded, thus his faith was made perfect.

There is no contradiction between what Paul and James wrote, and those that teach such obviously ignore all of Paul’s words.  He taught very clearly that one must keep the law as defined by the ten commandments (in their spiritual intent, of course, just as Jesus magnified examples for us, recorded in Matt. 5).  We are saved by grace through faith, not by works, but if we are not abiding by the commands and we have no works, then we don’t have true faith.  If we believe something, truly have faith in something, then we do that thing.  If my son has faith in me, then when I tell him not to walk into the road by himself, then he will work obedience.  Those who do not have works to back their faith do not have true faith and do not have grace, either.

9. They say Jesus told His 12 Apostles "freely you have received, freely give" whereas Paul taught that the Scripture about not muzzling an ox was written for men and that he should be allowed to reap their material benefits.

Paul freely gave and worked his own trade, but he was correct that some of our tithe money can go to those who are devoting most of their time evangelizing.  Think of how difficult it must have been for Paul with all his travels, need of food, etc., and all the time he put into teaching, leaving little time to do his regular work to support him.  We--the member of the spiritual Church Body--make up the new covenant priesthood.

10. They say that Jesus warned that if any man says He returned, believe him not. And Paul was given a whole lot of instruction from this Jesus he met on the road to Damascus that added to what Christ taught His Apostles.

He never did return bodily to the earth.  John also was revealed things and heard Christ speak (the Revelation).  Wonder how they neglect to remember this.  In neither case did Jesus return bodily or ever contradict any previous teachings.

11.They say all the factions of Christianity come from Paul and his letters, not from the teaching of Jesus Himself. That there is one flock and one Shepherd, there are not supposed to be shepherds/pastors or teachers in the congregations of the Lord's people. This has led to much error. 

Paul taught the very same thing in his first letter to Corinth.  Peter also warned about people twisting Paul.  Paul is not liable for people twisting him and making a religion(s) based on their misinterpretations of his teachings any more than Mary is liable for people worshiping her as the “Mother of God” and “Queen of Heaven.”

I would say first, I myself question Paul because of some of the things listed above. I am asking God for wisdom, which I believe He gives liberally to those who seek to know the truth and not follow the ways of any man. I'm asking that He root out all error from my heart and show me what is true.

So if you don't mind, I will start with my struggle with #11. I have always questioned the countless number of denominations that all name the name of Christ, but hold to so many different doctrines. Jesus said that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. All these teachers teach something different because they all interpret the Bible differently, especially Paul's writings. This divides. If we would have followed Jesus teaching, no one would be called "teacher" or "leader" save Jesus alone and all brethren would heed His words spoken in the gospels. He has the words of eternal life. These are recorded in the 4 gospels and I believe the words that came out of His mouth are our Father's words and are fully sufficient for knowing Him in truth. John even says that the Son has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true. The word was made flesh and dwelt among them. This is that Prophet to whom Moses testifies, saying that God would command Him what to say and all should heed His words. My sheep hear MY voice... amen?

Now Paul comes along, with this vision of Jesus, never having met Jesus in the flesh. He just sees this bright light who proceeds to give him much doctrine in revelations etc. I am not at all saying this isn't from God, but I want to test ALL things. Shouldn't we test every vision and revelation? Even Paul says, let God be true and every man a liar. So my question is this.. John says that Jesus Christ (Eternal Life, the Word of the Father) has come IN THE FLESH, and by this we can know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. I believe this means that every word which proceeded from Jesus own mouth came of the Father, that we may live thereby. This is the Spirit of truth. Jude says they were to contend for the faith which was ONCE FOR ALL delivered to the saints. Was there really a need for a second appearing of Christ (not in flesh) to teach much doctrine and mysteries never taught to the disciples? Maybe so, but I still want to make sure I'm hearing His voice alone. Jesus tells His own that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth and would bring to their remembrance all that He taught them. If Paul met Christ on that road and repented and believed, wouldn't you think he would have gone to the twelve to receive Jesus doctrine? He even prayed "I pray not for these alone (his disciples), but for all who would believe in me through THEIR words."

I have to say it is interesting that Paul refers to these revelations he had, and that John also had a Revelation and wrote it down for the 7 churches. The difference though is that John said that it was a revelation of Jesus Christ, which "God gave him to show his servants" and he sent and signified it by his angel to John. So that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. Whereas Paul, all alone, heard this voice and received instruction privately, then taught this to the churches. I don't understand why the Lord wouldn't have revealed Himself like He did with John, since He Himself said that He comes in His Father's name, by His authority. Not speaking on His own authority or by His own name. Some say the Jesus who was revealed to Paul spoke by his own authority, not in His Father's name. I won't go so far as to call this one an "angel of light" as they do, but I still question and want to test this against Jesus own words. He says He goes away and sends the Spirit to lead them into all truth. 

Concerning visions, you’re forgetting that the Lord told Ananias in a vision that Saul (who became Paul) would come and that he should baptize him.  Peter also had a vision of animals, and the Lord spoke to him in that, revealing that he should not consider gentiles as unclean.

While Paul gives a TON of instruction to his churches, teaching so much doctrine on practical living and mysteries and such, John writes in his first epistle to the church with such simplicity, that they needed NO MAN to teach them because the anointing they have from God teaches them, His word abiding in them. Jesus said the words He spoke to them while He walked on the earth were "spirit" and "life." John says that the Word is that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was made manifest to those who saw and touched and walked with Him. That they were actually the Father's words, commanded (as Moses said in Deut) by God to be spoken to the people so they would heed them, (every word) and live by them.

I myself do not believe the these folks who say Jesus commanded us to follow the Torah. I believe He commanded us to follow Him. That He alone is the Good Shepherd and the Way to life. I believe that He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets when He spoke God's words to us and finished the works of His Father. I believe that Christ Himself is our Law. If we abide in His teaching, found in the gospel accounts, believing and obeying all that He taught, we will ourselves fulfill the requirements of the Law. And when we fail, He is the propitiation for our sins. The Spirit is given to us to do all of this, not by our own strength, or by the flesh, but by the Spirit of God we walk in obedience to Him and know Him. And this is eternal life.

At least that's my understanding of things so far. I am always open for God to help me see where I am in error. I don't know what to believe about Paul, but I don't think one needs to read his writings to understand that Jesus brought about a New Covenant. He said that the Law and the Prophets were until John. He is the New Covenant. So I figure if I just spend my time reading the gospels for awhile, and letting that soak in really deep, I think all the other things will fall into their rightful place. Thanks for letting me share with you, Tara. I hope to hear what you feel about these things I've mentioned.

Well, Jesus himself said before he left to “teach” all nations, baptizing them... Some have the gift of teaching, while others have different gifts.  Many teachers even can learn one from another.  BUT, everyone with God’s Spirit conception has the ability to search the scriptures to make sure the teachings are correct and can also be led in right or wrong by the Spirit.  So there is no contradiction.  We can be led by the Spirit, but not all have a teaching gift, which is a very useful tool to help other members in the body grow.

"Forever" in the Old Testament: Does it Always Mean Eternal?

There is a growing number of people in Christendom coming to see the truth that the religion of Christianity started by Rome is a mixing of the truth with pagan/heathen doctrines.  Many are coming to understand many truths, such as the true Sabbath being the seventh day of the week--not the first, and that God's seven annual feasts and seven holy days are the ones found in Leviticus 23 and do not include the pagan Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and other wicked days in disguise that are listed on the Roman calendar.

However, a large number of these people, rather than carefully PROVE ALL THINGS, put themselves under the old carnal covenant.  Many of them are in effect rejecting, at least in part, the new better spiritual covenant.  They are still blind, having a veil over their eyes.  They do not understand the teachings of Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) our Savior, the Firstborn of God, the Word.  They do not understand the teachings of Paul.  Some of them go on to reject Paul, which is dangerous, because truly to reject Paul, one must also reject Salvation, for Salvation's teachings and Paul's are one and the same.  Yea, I recently found that one friend of mine no longer believes Salvation was the Messiah/Christ/Savior.  But, as the scripture in both the old covenant times and new covenant times teach, you don't really know the Father if you do not know the Son.  You can't have one without the other, because they are one, just as Salvation and Paul are one.  And all that are Spirit-begotten and are walking in the Spirit, growing in grace and knowledge, recognizing Christ as their head and Father as Christ's head, should all be at one.

I'm about to explain one of the things that seem to so confuse those who have decided to throw away their love of the new covenant and what our Savior did, and so rather than keep the law (including the holy days) under new covenant law, they believe they are to keep the old covenant, which is INSANE, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep it perfectly. There are many things that are impossible to do.  There is no temple, no Levitical priesthood, etc.  These people MISS THE BOAT!  They teach penile flesh circumcision is still a must.  They teach wearing tassels is a must.  Oddly enough, though, though they condemn themselves with their own WORDS that they must keep ALL OF THE LAW OF MOSES IN LETTER, I don't know any of them that wear scriptures on their hands and foreheads. Oh, there are Jews who still wear phylacteries on their foreheads.  Looks absolutely ridiculous!  Just do a Google image search.  Does that honestly help them keep the law?  Certainly not the way God expects one to.  ONLY having the begettal of the God Spirit helps keep the law in spirit as God intends. The person always is WANTING to do what is right and is so properly led to do righteousness.  My almost-eight-year-old son is just a child, and even he understands.  He says, "Momma, it's hard to not do the wrong thing."  And I did a video interview with him regarding penile circumcision, and he revealed how absolutely carnal and ridiculous the people with carnal covenant mindset are.  He understands one must be changed IN THE HEART.  Carnal people are concerned with OUTER SHOW.

FOREVER!  The carnal covenant people are stuck on this word "forever" in the old covenant scriptures.  Some of them seem to even think it means "eternal."  Well, I'm sure we'd all agree that we should NEVER commit adultery.  We should ALWAYS/FOREVER keep our marital vows.  Right?  But, what does NEVER, ALWAYS, and FOREVER mean?  Man marries. God does not.  When we are no longer in the family of man but are in the family of God, there will be no marriages.  No need for such a law for eternity, is there?  Even in the family of man, FOREVER does not literally mean FOREVER, does it?  What if the covenant is broken by death?  Is not the person freed from the covenant to his or her spouse?

If I told my young children to ALWAYS hold my hands or hold each other's hands before walking across the road or parking lot, to NEVER not hold my hand, what does that mean?  Are they expected to be attached to me literally ALWAYS/FOREVER until I die?  When they become adults, does that rule still apply, even though I said ALWAYS/FOREVER?  Of course not!  People who actually REASON in their heads know this is not the case.

I'm now to going to quote what I said in another recent blog post that discusses the "forever" issue:

2. Under the old covenant, per the law of Moses, a person is commanded to choose a physically unblemished lamb, a male yearling, on the tenth day of the first month of the year and keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, take the blood and paint the doorposts of his home, roast the lamb whole (no boiling) and eat the flesh of the entire lamb along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Ex. 12:13).  It was to be an ordinance throughout Israel's generations, forever, to remind them of God's saving power to deliver them from Egyptian bondage (vs. 14, 17).  However, under the new covenant, Salvation the Anointed King is our spiritually unblemished (I Pet. 1:19) Passover lamb, and he commanded us to keep the NEW covenant Passover with unleavened bread and wine to symbolize his broken body and shed blood and that we are to keep it to remind us of his death, which is God's saving power to deliver us from bondage to sin (Luke 22:20; Matt. 26:28).  Do you keep the old covenant Passover or the new covenant one?

Uh-oh!  Those old-covenant teachers MUST reject Salvation's teaching, if they are going to reject Paul for adding or taking away from the law of Moses, because Salvation did it!!!!!!!!!  THEIR MOUTHS NEED TO BE SHUT!  They keep leading people astray.  This goes back to the scriptures Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the Jews were so foolish that they could not see in the reading of the old covenant that the old ordinances were to come to an end.  They were TEMPORARY!  A daughter is to obey her father FOREVER!  But, unless you are a complete fool, you know that the meaning of "forever" that I just used is not as long-lasting as some would like to make you believe that the "forevers" in the old covenant are.  When a daughter is given in marriage, she then belongs to her husband and obeys him!  IT NEEDS NOT TO BE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND!

AND

6.  Under the old covenant, it was commanded that we hate certain enemies, for example the Ammonites and Moabites (modern-day Jordanians) were not to enter into God's congregation forever (Deut. 23:3).  Oh, look!  There are those words "for ever" again (even though it had just said ten generations, so we can use LOGIC and conclude that "for ever" in this verse meant that UNTIL the ten generations were up, the people were forever not to let those people in God's congregation).  The Lord Salvation taught that we should love our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48) and be forgiving and merciful.  We shouldn't judge anyone by what their ancestors did.

Do you now understand that "forever" doesn't mean "eternal" like some will have you believe?  Yesterday, a friend of mine posted something on FB about Passover being a commemoration of the exodus of the [physical] Israelites from the Egypt.  I commented and said that the old covenant Passover was a commemoration of that event, but the new covenant Passover is a commemoration of our Savior's death, and it has new symbols.  HE is our Passover Lamb, and we now partake of unleavened bread and wine as the symbols to symbolize his body and blood.  We don't eat his physical body.  Those things SYMBOLIZE partaking of his divine nature.  In the carnal covenant, people ate a carnal (fleshly) animal--a lamb without physical blemish, but the new covenant Passover is all about remembering the spiritually unblemished Lamb of God who rescued us from SIN.  Being released from the bondage of Egypt was a TYPE of being released from the bondage of sin.  Another person commented on the post and said that the Passover was commanded to be an "eternal ordinance."  I simply replied and said the scriptures taught no such thing.  And they don't.  Once the plan of salvation, as pictured by the seven feasts and holy days, is complete, there will be no need for the Passover.  There won't even be the sun and moon for our times and seasons.  There will be no such thing as a solar year, so definitely no Passover in its season.  No need for that.  The former things will be passed away, our sadness forgotten.  And as for THIS TIME, while the Passover DOES still stand, the old covenant one has been REPLACED by the new covenant one.

Of which Passover will you partake?  Will you be having a meal of lamb, unleavened bread, and herbs and be spending your time thinking of the physical nation of Israel being led out of Egypt, or will you eat your meal of whatever before you partake of the new covenant Passover, which is not a meal but the partaking of unleavened bread and wine while meditating on Christ's death and how we need to partake of his Godly spiritual nature?  Old covenant law or new covenant law?  If you do the former, you break the latter.  You decide.  The old covenant is DEAD, just as a husband of a wife can die.  I'm betrothed to Christ.  Which covenant have you entered?

New Covenant Does Not Abolish Law But Does Abolish Old Covenant

This is somewhat of a continuance of my last post.  Friends, are we humble and wish to honestly grow in grace and knowledge?

Those who claim with their lips and the words of their mouth that they accept Salvation--Jesus Christ/Yeshua Messiah--but who then turn around and teach that all must still keep the entire old covenant law are in actions rejecting Salvation.  Some openly reject Paul and all his writings, but since Paul was very much at one with Salvation, they also reject Salvation's teachings with their actions, though they don't dare do so with their words.

Friend, are YOU one being deceived by such teachers?  Are YOU then turning around and teaching others they must do the same?

THE NEW COVENANT CERTAINLY DOES NOT DO AWAY WITH THE LAW OF GOD, BUT THE NEW COVENANT DOES DO AWAY WITH THE OLD COVENANT!

First, you must identify whether you truly are a Paul-rejector or not.  Some openly reject Paul, but others know if they reject Paul's writings, the validity of all the scriptures then comes into question, so they accept Paul's teachings with their lips, but in their actions and their teachings to others, they in fact reject Paul.  In rejecting Paul, people are truly rejecting Salvation, too, although they may not realize it.  Now, read the following words of my sleeping brother Paul, and ask yourself whether you are allowing yourself to be blinded and whether you ACCEPT or REJECT Paul's words:

But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart (2 Cor. 3:14-15). 

Before I write more, I want to share the commentary on verse 14 by Albert Barnes, the 19th century Protestant theologian, as his commentary on this is very applicable (my bold and underlining for emphasis):


But their minds were blinded - The word used here (πωρόω pōroō) means rather to harden; to make hard like stone; and then to make dull or stupid. It is applied to the heart, in Mark 6:52; Mark 8:17; to persons, in Romans 11:7; and to the eyes, in Job 17:7. Paul refers here to the fact that the understandings of the Jews were stupid, dull, and insensible, so that they did not see clearly the design and end of their own institutions. He states simply the fact; he does not refer to the cause of it. The fact that the Jews were thus stupid and dull is often affirmed in the New Testament.
For until this day ... - The sense of this is, that even to the time when Paul wrote, it was a characteristic of the great mass of the Jewish people, that they did not understand the true sense of their own Scriptures. They did not understand its doctrines in regard to the Messiah. A veil seems to be thrown over the Old Testament when they read it, as there was over the face of Moses, so that the glory of their own Scriptures is concealed from their view, as the glory of the face of Moses was hidden.
Of the Old Testament - Greek, "of the old covenant." See this word "testament," or covenant, explained in the notes on 1 Corinthians 11:25. This, I believe, is the only instance in which the Scriptures of the Jews are called the "Old Testament," or covenant, in the Bible. It was, of course, not a name which they used, or would use; but it is now with Christians the common appellation. No doubt can be entertained but that Paul uses the terms in the same manner in which we now do, and refers to all the inspired writings of the Jews.
Which vail is done away in Christ - In the manifestation, or appearance of Jesus the Messiah, the veil is removed. The obscurity which rested on the prophecies and types of the former dispensation is withdrawn; and as the face of Moses could have been distinctly seen if the veil on his face had been removed, so it is in regard to the true meaning of the Old Testament by the coming of the Messiah. What was obscure is now made clear; and the prophecies are so completely fulfilled in him, that his coming has removed the covering, and shed a clear light over them all. Many of the prophecies, for example, until the Messiah actually appeared, appeared obscure, and almost contradictory. Those which spoke of him, for illustration, as man and as God; as suffering, and yet reigning; as dying, and yet as ever-living; as a mighty Prince, a conqueror, and a king, and yet as a man of sorrows; as humble, and yet glorious: all seemed difficult to be reconciled until they were seen to harmonize in Jesus of Nazareth. Then they were plain, and the veil was taken away. Christ is seen to answer all the previous descriptions of him in the Old Testament; and his coming casts a clear light on all which was before obscure.

Adam Clarke's commentary may be even better, and it's shorter and more to the point:

But their minds were blinded - By resting in the letter, shutting their eyes against the light that was granted to them, they contracted a hardness or stupidity of heart. And the veil that was on the face of Moses, which prevented the glory of his face from shining out, may be considered as emblematical of the veil of darkness and ignorance that is on their hearts, and which hinders the glory of the Gospel from shining in.
Until this day remaineth the same veil - They are still ignorant of the spiritual meaning and intention of their own law, called here παλαια διαθηκη, the old covenant. See the word explained in the preface to St. Matthew.
In the reading of the Old Testament - Here is an evident allusion to the conduct of the Jews in their synagogues: when they read the law they cover their whole head with a veil, which they term the טלית tallith, veil, from טלל talal, to cover; and this voluntary usage of theirs, the apostle tells us, is an emblem of the darkness of their hearts while they are employed even in sacred duties.
Which veil is done away in Christ - It is only by acknowledging Christ that the darkness is removed, and the end and spiritual meaning of the law discerned. 



Aha!  The false teachers out there who are into this "Messianic Judaism" religion and others who teach the new covenant is not really the new covenant but rather a "renewed" old covenant are BLIND like the Jews, not understanding the meaning of the old covenant scriptures.  They do not want to accept the new covenant so that they can have the veil removed, because they are too concerned about LOOKING OUTWARDLY RIGHTEOUS TO MEN!  (Note:  I blow to pieces the false teaching of the "renewed covenant" by going to the actual Hebrew.  Click here for my study article.  It's the first point after the introduction.)

If a person would just READ the gospels and Hebrews and Paul's writings, I would think the confusion would go away, mostly, anyway, but I'm not sure what people are doing.  I think they are too busy listening to their false teachers and desiring to look outwardly righteous, instead of actually READING and STUDYING the scriptures.

Let's look at some of the laws that CONDEMN the false teachers out there who teach we must go by ALL the law as given to Moses, the written law that was given as what we now call the old covenant.   Remember first, the promise of the Savior was given to Abraham 430 years BEFORE the old covenant, so the old covenant could not annul the new covenant (see Gal. 3:15-29).  Please get your bible, and CHECK the scripture references. PROVE what I'm saying, whether it's right or wrong:

1. Under the old covenant, the law states that gentiles must be circumcised (in the penis) in order to partake of the Passover (ref. Ex. 12:48).  The new covenant Passover was instituted by Christ (ref. Luke 22:20; Mark 14:24; Matt. 26:28).  Under the new covenant, gentiles who wanted to join God's covenant, circumcision is not required (ref. Acts 15:24; Rom. 2:28-29; I Cor. 7:19; Gal. 5:12-13, 15) and for those of Israel or Judah who enter the new covenant, at that time it would have been irrelevant to discuss circumcision, because such men were already circed in the penis from infancy.  What our parents do to us during infancy has no bearing on what kind of person we end up being and whether we choose to serve God when we become adults.  We are to examine ourselves before partaking of the new covenant Passover so that we do not partake of it unworthily.  If the old covenant regulations still stand, then an uncircumcised male (regardless of blood heritage) would be partaking of it unworthily.

2. Under the old covenant, per the law of Moses, a person is commanded to choose a physically unblemished lamb, a male yearling, on the tenth day of the first month of the year and keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, take the blood and paint the doorposts of his home, roast the lamb whole (no boiling) and eat the flesh of the entire lamb along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Ex. 12:13).  It was to be an ordinance throughout Israel's generations, forever, to remind them of God's saving power to deliver them from Egyptian bondage (vs. 14, 17).  However, under the new covenant, Salvation the Anointed King is our spiritually unblemished (I Pet. 1:19) Passover lamb, and he commanded us to keep the NEW covenant Passover with unleavened bread and wine to symbolize his broken body and shed blood and that we are to keep it to remind us of his death, which is God's saving power to deliver us from bondage to sin (Luke 22:20; Matt. 26:28).  Do you keep the old covenant Passover or the new covenant one?

Uh-oh!  Those old-covenant teachers MUST reject Salvation's teaching, if they are going to reject Paul for adding or taking away from the law of Moses, because Salvation did it!!!!!!!!!  THEIR MOUTHS NEED TO BE SHUT!  They keep leading people astray.  This goes back to the scriptures Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the Jews were so foolish that they could not see in the reading of the old covenant that the old ordinances were to come to an end.  They were TEMPORARY!  A daughter is to obey her father FOREVER!  But, unless you are a complete fool, you know that the meaning of "forever" that I just used is not as long-lasting as some would like to make you believe that the "forevers" in the old covenant are.  When a daughter is given in marriage, she then belongs to her husband and obeys him!  IT NEEDS NOT TO BE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND!

 3.  Under the old covenant law of Moses, a person was commanded to pay damages for physical hurt done to another human being (Ex. 21:24-25; Lev. 24:20), but the Anointed One pointed out that we should have mercy for those who deserve it (Matt. 5:38-40).

4. Under the old covenant law of Moses, it was permissible for a man to write a bill of divorce to his wife, if she did not find favor in his eyes and that she could then be another man's wife (Deut. 24:1-2; Matt. 19:7).  But, Salvation said that unless she was put away for fornication, one should not divorce, and if one does and marries another, it is adultery and causes the woman to commit adultery if she marries another (Matt. 19:9; 5:31-32).  He said, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts allowed you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so (Matt. 19:8).  DID YOU CATCH THAT?  READ IT FROM YOUR BIBLE.  MEDITATE ON IT.  FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO!  JUST LIKE FROM THE BEGINNING, A LOT OF THINGS DONE UNDER THE OLD COVENANT WAS NOT SO.  IT WAS A CARNAL COVENANT MEANT TO BE A TEMPORARY SCHOOLTEACHER, BUT SO MANY STILL DON'T GET IT.


5.  Under the old covenant law of Moses, vows were to be sworn unto Jehovah by His name (ref. Deut. 23:23).  Salvation, however, when he came to preach the Kingdom of God (Matt. 11:13; Luke 16:16), taught that we should not swear by the name of God nor anyone or anything else, but let our yes be yes and our no be no (Matt. 5:33-35).

6.  Under the old covenant, it was commanded that we hate certain enemies, for example the Ammonites and Moabites (modern-day Jordanians) were not to enter into God's congregation forever (Deut. 23:3).  Oh, look!  There are those words "for ever" again (even though it had just said ten generations, so we can use LOGIC and conclude that "for ever" in this verse meant that UNTIL the ten generations were up, the people were forever not to let those people in God's congregation).  The Lord Salvation taught that we should love our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48) and be forgiving and merciful.  We shouldn't judge anyone by what their ancestors did.

7. Under the old covenant, in order to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, you were commanded to take the fruit of good trees, the branches of palm trees, fruits of thick trees, and willows of the brook.  (Wonder how I'd obey, when there are no palm trees here.  Lev. 23:40)    Under the new covenant, of course, a visit to Jerusalem is not required to keep the feasts of God, and the new covenant temple are the members of the Church, the Body of Christ.  Jesus, our Lord Salvation, said that the Father sought those to worship him in SPIRIT and TRUTH, and so would not be worshiping in Jerusalem (John 4:21-24).  This applies to everything else festival-related that was required under the old covenant to be done in Jerusalem.  Are you reading the scriptures?  Are you checking these things out for yourself?  Are you either blindly agreeing with me or blowing off what I say so that you can continue on believing as you are setting your heart to do so, or are you putting away your laziness and checking these scriptures?

8. Under the old covenant, the priesthood was of the tribe of Levi (Deut. 18:1; 21:5; 31:9).  Priests were to be chosen only from the Levites.  In addition, such men were not to bear any physical blemishes, such as blindness, lameness, flat nose, hunch-backed, scarred or scabbed up, etc. (Lev. 21:18-23).  Under the new covenant the priesthood is headed by Christ (who was of Judah), his being the high priest and all those during the Church age who are begotten with God's Spirit--the Holy Seed--make up the new covenant priesthood.  Whereas the Levitical priests offered up physical sacrifices of grain, flesh, etc., we are to offer up spiritual sacrifices.  Study the following scriptures:  1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:27; Rev. 1:6; 5:10.   Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) was prophesied by Isaiah not to be a good-looking man that any person would naturally desire him for his looks (Isa. 53:2).  It says no where that he had any deformities, but he was not handsome.  It was to be deliberate.  God desires sons who look at things as He does, judging the spiritual things and not the physical.  Believe it or not, this was revealed here and there throughout the old covenant writings!  It was repeated that one should circumcise his heart and that one should not judge outer appearance and that God didn't desire sacrifice but obedience and on and on.

If you read and study carefully, you'll notice the very few people you read about in old covenant times who possessed God's Spirit were not carnal.  David did not even visit the priests for sin sacrifice after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah (Psa. 51:16-17).  He spoke to Heavenly Father and said that he knew God did not desire burnt animal sacrifice, OTHERWISE HE'D GIVE IT, but he knew God wanted a broken spirit (over his sin) and a contrite heart.  He and the priest also broke the law of Moses at another time when he was running away from Saul, by eating the shewbread (I Sam. 21:1-6; Matt. 12:1-7).  Yet, David has been chosen to be the king heading the entire twelve tribes of Israel during the Kingdom of God age on this earth (Eze. 34:23-24).  Of course, Salvation shall be the top King of all, and there will be ranks.  Underneath David, but also over the twelve tribes of Israel, will be the original twelve apostles (not Judas Iscariot but Matthias, his replacement) over each tribe, and so on.  David was truly a man after God's own heart, and he could see past the old covenant rituals.  He understood that they were a schoolteacher for carnal men.  He knew it was a man's covenant, a carnal covenant, to point out the fault of the way a man thinks and judges things, all based on OUTWARD SHOW in the FLESH.  Then the new covenant shows God's heart, His view, the perfect way God thinks and judges things, all based on the INWARD HEART in the SPIRIT. 

If you want to please God, you need to start thinking the way Salvation did, the way David did, the way Paul did, the way all God's true Spirit-begotten servants think.  You need to stop thinking carnally, because you cannot please God that way, though you may be deceiving yourself and others that you can.

9. Under the old covenant, Israel was commanded not to eat an animal that died of itself.  We who live with our modern advanced knowledge don't need an in-depth explanation of this.  We know why it's not a good idea to do this.  The animal may have died of a bad disease, which could then be passed on to you.  Now, it was allowed, however, to be given to the gentiles who lived within Israel's borders (Deut. 14:21).  Now, if you have a Godly heart, I would hope that you do not have BLINDERS on your eyes, that you cannot see a problem--a FAULT--with this.  Now, as I explained in my recently published book God's Law of Love, The Perfect Law of Liberty:  Jehovah's Ten Commandments Still Apply Today, for a very poor gentile neighbor, if he had nothing to eat and would otherwise be starving, eating the flesh from such an animal might be a better risk than not having anything to eat at all, but if you truly have the HEART OF A SON OF GOD, and you could afford to do so, then you would rather let the death of such an animal be a REMINDER to offer a GOOD and SAFE animal's flesh to your foreigner neighbor who is living in poverty.  What true Christian person thinks with the mind of, "My cow just died, and who knows what caused it, but I'm going to give it to my black neighbor to eat.  He's just a Blackie.  He's not as clean as I am, all white and sanctified by God because of my white flesh.  It may not be safe for me to eat, but ol' Blackie can eat it."

How SICK, if you actually think this way!  Do you not READ through the law of Moses and see the GOOD principles, but do you not also see the FAULT, the SHORTCOMINGS of some of it???  Are you BLIND to it all, as Paul said of the Jews of his day?  Are you so carnal?  Some things were ALLOWED under the old covenant, because of the HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS, the CARNALITY of the people.  But those who possessed Godly hearts lived more Godly than what the law of Moses allowed.  They did not seek divorces over little things.  They did not seek out multiple wives.  They did not give animals that died of themselves to their foreigner neighbors.  They did not feel the need to wear phylacteries on their foreheads (ironically enough, Jews still do this today, as seen here, but I've YET TO SEE those who insist on penile circumcision of their sons and wearing of tassels in their clothes wear phylacteries on their foreheads.  INSANITY!!!!!!  HYPOCRITES, HYPOCRITES, HYPOCRITES!  CAN YOU SAY, "HYPOCRITES?!"  Oh, yeah, of all those who hurl their condemnations at me because I live the new covenant and will not live their old covenant ways and teach others to do so (b/c they won't to make a boast in the flesh--Gal. 6:13), NOT ONE have I seen wear phylacteries on their foreheads and things attached to their hands!

Now, is it SIN to circumcise your sons or to wear tassels or any of these other things?  NO, absolutely NOT!  But, it is a sin to reject the new covenant by mandating that others keep the old covenant (the promise of Messiah was BEFORE the old covenant, do not forget).  And they are certainly putting themselves under a CURSE, because CURSED is the person who enters the old covenant and who fails to do all the things commanded therein.  Many of the things are IMPOSSIBLE to keep right now, for there is no temple in Jerusalem, and many could not visit three times a year, every year, even if there was.  Just CRAZY, the things people believe and teach.

 10.  The last example I care to give time to give (ten is enough) is that under the old covenant women who gave birth to a child were to go through a cleansing period (Lev. 12:1-8).  Now, it is true that a woman should rest and recover, and it is true that a woman should abstain from sex until she is finished bleeding and goes through her physical cleansing.  Usually the bleeding lasts no longer than six weeks (or around the 40 days the law of Moses prescribed for cleansing for a male child).  The law of Moses, though, prescribed EIGHTY days for a female child.  In addition, during the entire time of this cleansing, a woman was not allowed to go to worship services or to touch ANY HALLOWED THING.  Can you imagine that God, who wants to be worshiped in SPIRIT and in TRUTH, would mandate a woman under the new and better covenant not to touch her bible so that she can read the Word of God for six to twelve weeks?  The HOLY Word of God.  Do you believe a woman is to stay away from her congregation (if she has one) for six to twelve weeks?  What about the sacrifice that she is to make at the temple afterward?  You are not doing a good job of keeping the old covenant if you are not visiting the Jerusalem temple to make the commanded sacrifices!  A bit of a dilemma, wouldn't you say?!

Of course, if you are reading this and have any sense at all, and especially if you have the heart of God, if you are truly a begotten son of God and know or are learning to know how to please God, you surely realize how UTTERLY RIDICULOUS some people can be, and they are DECEIVING many.  False prophets abound!

The bottom line is this:  The new covenant does not do away with doing good, keeping the law in the spirit, but it does do away with the old covenant!  People loved God and their fellow man BEFORE the establishment of the old covenant.  People kept the Ten Commandments BEFORE Moses delivered them at Sinai, BEFORE all those added old covenant things were enacted.  People put God first, worshiped Him in Spirit and Truth without bowing to images, they did not worship him in vain or blaspheme His Holy Name, they kept the Sabbath holy, they honored their parents, they did not murder, they did not commit adultery, they did not steal, nor did they lie, nor did they covet.  They kept the dietary and agricultural regulations that were given from the beginning.  All that was done by righteous men BEFORE the old covenant, and it can surely be done now. 

In God We Trust?

I get emails and such every once in awhile that make a big deal about the removal of the national motto "In God We Trust" from various public places.  I got such an email today.

Now, it's not that I don't think the removal of "In God We Trust" isn't a big deal; quite the contrary.  But, rather the point I wish to make is that it's quite hypocritical.  After all, seventy-something percent or more of our nation's population claim to be "Christian," and yet if that percentage was truly Christian, we wouldn't even have this issue.

The fact of the matter is that not even close to seventy percent of people in our Israelite nation of the United States of America trust in God.  Whenever my husband or I tell one of our children to do something or not to do something, and he or they choose to disobey, we become upset and ask the child(ren) why he did not trust us.  Why did he disobey our words?  Trust and obedience goes hand in hand.  If a person trusts another, why would the person disobey that person's words, unless the person just flat out delights in following that in which he or she knows is false?  If I tell my son he's in extreme danger of getting hurt if he rides his bike without his hands on the handlebars as he's going across bumpy terrain, why would he, in his right mind, then ride his bike with his hands up in the air while speeding across bumps?  Either he didn't believe--didn't trust--what I told him and rather believed that he was not in danger of getting hurt, or he didn't care whether he got hurt and was willing to take the risk of suffering bad consequences for temporary pleasure of delighting in folly.

Our nation's people, over all, do not trust God.  They may trust certain things He has said, but for the most part they do not trust Him.  They are liars.

This nation's people--stiff-necked Israelites and the strangers that live among us--have rejected God's words as false.  They have rejected His perfect Law, defined by its ten commandments and their statutes.

These people draw close to God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him; they are hypocrites (Matt. 15:7-9).

This people daily breaks the first commandment by putting other people and things before the Most High God.  They put other gods before the Most High.  It's not wrong to honor others, but God comes first, and when men are wrong, we should rather obey God (Acts 5:29).

The people of this nation breaks the second commandment by making special a likeness of a heathen god with long hair and a beard.  They call the likeness Jesus Christ and feel as if they are honoring him by hanging up pictures of this likeness.  This people erects idolatrous images such as the Statue of Liberty and the phallic Washington Monument obelisk.  They sport obelisks on top of their church buildings.  They erect crosses and Christmas trees, and they even sing praises to the tree:  "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, I think you are so lovely!"  They then offer gifts (sacrifices--they sacrificed time and money) under the evergreen, just like heathens throughout all time.  A certain percentage of this people bow down to and kiss various images, including the heathen goddess known by various names and the title "Queen of Heaven" and whom they claim is the "Virgin Mary," the mother of our Christ.

This people daily breaks the third commandment by claiming that they follow God and yet break His commandments.  They worship Him in vain.  They commit blasphemy.  They throw around His name and titles carelessly and also throw around blessings and curses by Him carelessly and profanely.

The people of this nation break the fourth commandment by profaning the seventh-day sabbath that was sanctified and made holy from the very beginning--from Genesis 2:2-3--and by instead honoring Rome's substitute Sunday, the first day of the week, and today even most professing Christians don't even rest on Sunday or set aside time to spend with God and fellowship with other Christians and do more bible study.  They call God's true sabbath and other feasts [like Passover and the Feast of Trumpets] that outline the true plan of salvation a burden of all things, but they delight in Rome's feasts that are entrenched with heathenism--the abominable Christmas, Easter, January 1, Halloween, etc.  They reject God's calendar and his new year and his new months (new moons).  They engage in unfair labor practices.  They reject the Creator's land sabbaths, and instead they rape the land year after year and spray toxic pesticides on the land and its crops.  They use toxic synthetic fertilizers to return nutrients to the soil, due to their wicked transgression of the land sabbaths.  More and more of this nation's people, even those who profess to be Christians, believe and teach that we evolved from apes, rejecting the creation account in the scriptures.

The people of the United States break the fifth commandment by dishonoring our Father God by disobeying all His commandments, and they dishonor their mother earth that our Father gave to us for our nourishment and nurturing.  They dishonor their earthly father and mother by disobedience and curses.  The parents dishonor their children with more various abuses and neglectful actions.  They do not teach their children the Law of God each day and how to follow it with their thoughts and actions, "marking them on their hands and foreheads."(Deut. 6:7-8) Instead, parents teach their children lies like the Christmas Santa Claus and that Christ was born on December 25 and the Easter Bunny and egg hunting (rooted in heathen worship of sex and fertility) and that Christ rose on Easter Sunday.  They encourage them to have Rome's mark on their hands and foreheads (Rev. 13:16), to follow the ways of Rome in their thoughts and actions.  The parents sacrifice their children to Molech by aborting them or making daycares and unGodly public [government] schools rear them.

Our stiff-necked people breaks the sixth commandment by murdering a hefty percentage of every child conceived, especially children who would have been destined to be firstborn.  They are sacrificed to the god of this world.  They are sacrificed for convenience, for the pursuit of materialism, for selfishness.  Infants and older children are injected with deadly vaccines.  Babies are fed ill-health-causing formula even when the mothers can breastfeed.  People feed themselves and their children abominable meats like pork, squirrels ("tree rats"),  lobsters ("cockroaches of the sea," as my husband calls them) and would-be healthful meats like beef and chicken, if they weren't factory-farmed.  They delight in gluttony and drunkeness and the abuse and misuse of other drugs--some of which are fine in moderation for recreational, medicinal, and religious use; and some dangerous manufactured ones that should never be used.  They believe and trust the US FDA, rather than believe and trust God's FDA.  Much of the food and drugs that this people consume are absolutely abominable.  There are more and more whacked-out citizens of this nation who go on killing sprees and murderous rampages.  More innocent children are brutally murdered.  Children are even murdering other children.  People are hateful and disrespectful to each other.  Less and less people even smile or wave, anymore.  People delight in fighting sports--both people fighting people and animals fighting animals.  They engage in reckless driving and road rage.  They let their dangerous pets roam loose, without regards to the protection of their neighbors.  Men abuse their wives or their children.  People partially or totally disregard their health, hygiene, and safety or that of others.

The hypocritical people of this nation that claims to be "under God" nearly totally disregards the seventh commandment.  The marriage covenant is not taken seriously.  Divorce is considered almost a certainty in every new marriage, and adultery thrives.  It's actually statistically higher among those who profess to be Christians.  Fornication and pornography runs rampant.  Homosexuals engage in the most abominable acts.  Children are prey for sexual perverts, at risk of pornographic exploitation, molestation, and rape.   Musical lyrics are tainted with immoral sexual references.  Books and movies are awash with cheap immoral sex.  A large percentage of the populous is infected with at least one STD.  People engage in sex during menstruation and delight in doing so.  This hypocritical people lusts after movie "stars."  They wear immodest clothing.  The physical fornication and adultery of this nation reflects their spiritual fornication and adultery, their fornicating with a false christ, all the while claiming to follow the true Christ, who kept His Father's Ten Commandments.

This nation's people delight in breaking the eighth commandment.  They steal from God in denying Him tithes (Mal. 3:8).  They steal time and property from their employers.  They shoplift.  Some commit burglary.  Some commit robbery.  Some commit identify theft and/or credit card fraud.   They violate copyrights, and they plagiarize.  Some are guilty of kidnapping. Some mistreat their hired servants and cheat them of wages.  Bankers and individuals are guilty of excessive usury or usury upon the poor.  The hard-working poor are oppressed, and the lazy poor are rewarded for their laziness.  Vandalism and other property damages are common.  Animals' rights are unheeded.

Our people reject the ninth commandment.  False witnesses are numerous.  We're swamped with bribes.  It's hard to find trustworthy friends and associates.  Vows are broken.  Gossip reigns.

Our people delight in breaking the tenth commandment. Contentedness is nearly non-existent in this nation.  Desiring material things is okay, but not when it leads to idolatry, stealing, etc.  When a person cannot desire something while being content with what he has so that if he does not obtain what he desires,  he's still happy, then he has a problem.  Our people just want and want and want more and more and are simply not content with what they already have.  They are unthankful and materialistic.

So, "In God We Trust" is a blasphemous motto when it is uttered from the mouths of most of our people.  It's a transgression of the third commandment when it comes from most people's mouths.  If our people truly trusted God, they would not hesitate to deeply repent of their sins.  They would stop coveting and fornicating.  They would stop their idolatrous observance of Rome's festivals and would delight in observing God's, including his seventh-day sabbath.  They would start teaching their children the ways of God as a way of life and stop watching the trash on television.  They would break their idolatrous images.  They would throw away their pornography and dust off their bibles.  They would change their food and drug habits and their style of dress.   They would stop their stealing and their fighting and their cold attitudes toward others.

This nation as a whole does NOT trust in God.  They complain about the taking down of the displays of the Ten Commandments and the removing of the motto "In God We Trust," but in their living they reject the Law of God saying that it has been "done away."  If the Law has been "done away," then there is no sin.  Sin is the transgression of God's Law (I John 3:4), and where there is no Law, there is no sin (Rom. 5:13).  If there's no sin, then there's no need of a death sacrifice, and so Christ died in vain.  But, of course there is a Law, and only those who repent of transgressing it receive grace.  The rest must die for their sins, because the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).  The sacrifice of Christ does not cover the unrepentant.  Many will say to him, "Lord, Lord, were we not good Christians who went to church every Sunday and gave to the poor and prayed to you daily for others?"  And Christ will say to them, "I never knew you.  You transgressed my Father's Law"  (Matt. 7:21-23).

What about YOU?  Do you trust in God?

Psalm 119:142, 163                                                                          

Old Covenant Carnal Showings

An Introduction:

What inspired me to write this study article is that the previous co-owner of my Christian mothering forums believes that one must wear the blue fringe at the four corners of his or her clothing, spoken of twice in the law of Moses (Num. 15:37-40; Deut. 22:12).  This caused her to break away from co-owning and co-managing the forums.  She is indeed being a blessing to others in other ways, and she is still dear to me.  However, I strongly disagree with her on this issue.  I did wear tassels for around a year's time, but I was so turned off by my friend's pushing them onto others as if they were a requirement under the new covenant turned me off of wearing them at all, anymore, since I do not want to be associated with being of that mindset.  Using such things as a teacher to those not yet begotten with God's Spirit is probably the best way to use them. I mainly wore them in order to provoke conversation in others (who asked about them), and it's easier for Christians to identify each other in that way…but the more I thought about this, I realized my own error, because it's better for someone to SEE how I actually conduct myself and THEN ask me questions rather than ask what those things are dangling on my clothes. What if I happened to not even be acting appropriately? My heart should come out in my actions, and people should see that I'm different b/c of THAT, not b/c I wear some badge that symbolizes that (which I can wear whether I'm acting the right way or NOT).

As far as the second reason I wore them: I may get some Christians' attention, but it's more likely that I'll only attract those who are hung up on outward show, regardless of whether their hearts are right or not, AND as far as my identifying others, most who are deeply righteous and live by the Spirit of God do not wear tassels. I have to find them by identifying their actions that result from their hearts being right. 

So while I know that some wear the tassels but are not hung up on physical show (whether true or false), I was referring to the majority in the world who wear them, which from my experience have been hung up on outward show to make other flesh-and-blood people think they are righteous (regardless of whether they are or they are not). People who are too focused on this have the fear/respect of man and not of God. We should tremble at what God can do if we have the wrong hearts and minds. We are fooling ourselves if we think we can hide our thoughts from Him.

I believe the outward show Spirit-begotten children should have first and foremost is what naturally results from having a good heart and mind, NOT the things that symbolize it and is often nothing more than dressing up a wolf in sheep's clothing.  

An in-depth study of the Levitical priesthood, sacrifices, washings/baptisms, and other carnal/physical ordinances is highly recommended. The more you read these things in the Torah and compare them to the NC, the more you will begin to understand how the physical ordinances were a SCHOOL TEACHER to bring people to the REAL high priest, the one and only perfect SACRIFICE, the true CLEANSER and HELPER, and true OBEDIENCE.  None of those things could take away sin, and none of those things could save or make a person truly clean.  They were for carnal-natured people.  Salvation can only come from a clean heart.  Even obeying the Ten Commandments just physically will not ensure a person's salvation.  A person must serve them with his or her HEART. That is how we are all judged.  A person can obey the Law by the letter perfectly and still be thrown into the lake of fire.  Transgression of many physical commandments and statutes calls for the physical death penalty, but the judgments of the Law are there for to deter carnal-minded people from transgressing it.  Spiritual-minded people do not need that deterrent, because they love the Law and want to obey it with the desire of their hearts.  However, EVERYONE who transgresses the spirit of the Law will die spiritually.  Their bodies AND their spirits will be destroyed in the lake of fire, from which there is never another resurrection. 

The bottom line is that God judges our HEARTS.  He designed our spirits and bodies in a way where he can record/track our thoughts, feelings, etc.  This is technology far advanced than what man currently has.  It's our hearts and minds that matter.  If our hearts are right, then we're going to be keeping the spirit of the Law, and it naturally follows that we'll be keeping the letter of the Law, and when our hearts are right, we have deep remorse whenever we mess up.  God has always wanted this.  He has never gotten delight from sacrifices but rather obedience to the Ten Commandments.  It's a person's choice as to whether they want to do various cleansings/baptisms, have their foreskin circumcised, wear tzit-tzit, and offer animal sacrifices and offerings, etc. whenever there is a temple of God standing.  None of these things count toward salvation or good works.  Under the new covenant, all these things are replaced ("made of necessity a change in the law," meaning the law of the priesthood, sacrifices, cleansings, etc.).  Christ is our sacrifice and our high priest.  The Spirit of God--the same kind of Spirit that is within our Father and within our Lord--is our cleanser and our helper.  

********************************************************************************

I'll start with reproducing chapters 7 through 9 of Hebrews with bold and underline emphasis mine:

Chapter 7

1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; 2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. 5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: 6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. 7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. 8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. 9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. 10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. 13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. 15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, 16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal [fleshly/physical] commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. 19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. 20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:

21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)

22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.

23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: 24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 28 For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

Chapter 8

Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. 3 For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. 4 For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: 5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. 6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Chapter 9

1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. 3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; 4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.

6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10 Which stood only in meats and drinks [concerned only with food and drinks], and divers washings [various baptisms], and carnal [fleshly/physical] ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. 18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Chapter 10

1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

**********************************************************

My friend with whom I disagreed said that she was "shocked" and "[could] not believe" that I did not follow "all of Torah."  (Torah is the law of Moses, given by God.)  My answer is as follows:

I guess that would depend on what you mean "all of Torah." Nothing has been "done away," but things have been changed. Christ's sacrifice replaces animal sacrifices (Heb. 10:1-14). That isn't to say that they can't still be done, but they are not required. Physical circumcision is not required (Acts15:1; Rom. 2:25-29; 4:9-12; 1 Cor. 7:18-19; Gal. 2:3, 7-9, 12; 5:2-12; 6:12-15; Phil. 3:2-5; Col. 2:11). Various washings, shavings, and other physical ordinances aren't required (Heb. 9:9-10). It's not that these things are "done away." It is just returned to the way it was before the Levitical priesthood and before the old covenant of circumcision made with Abraham. We're back to the order of Melchizedek with Christ as our High Priest. These things have always existed spiritually in those who have had God's Spirit, even before the Lev. priesthood and sacrificial system. They were only given in physical ordinances to help teach the carnal-minded (all those without God's Spirit, which used to be a choice few compared to today) TEMPORARILY, "until the time of reformation" (Heb. 9:10). 

So, no, I'm not going to push any of these things upon anyone and tell them they must do so, b/c it's contrary to scripture. We ARE required to keep the Ten Commandments and their statutes (including statutes that are added over time by our spiritual knowledge, in other words by judging the evidence of changes, for example dietary choices that have come along since Moses, and the statute on incest was not from the beginning, but with changing time, it became necessary to add that statute, b/c genetics had become so bad that you couldn't healthily marry that close). These are the principles that were from the beginning. Law is truth, and truth is law. Science/knowledge teaches us that. If something is true for humans, then it's law under the Ten Commandments.

There's nothing that physical circ., animal sacrifices, wearing tassels, and physical washings can do to save a person. These are all symbolic of what a person must have to be saved (the only sacrifice that saves is Christ's, and the only thing that truly reminds a person to keep the commandments and cleanses a person is the Spirit of God). 

We should be careful not to be one who glories in a person's flesh and their outward physical showings, when none of that is going to do anything to save them. Therefore if the uncircumcision [those uncircumcised, which are mostly gentiles] keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: be he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. ~Rom. 2:26-29

The physical ordinances under the priesthood and sacrificial system and circumcision are not part of the Ten Commandments. This is clear in many places in scripture, the above passage included. It's differentiated clearly, because if a person must be physically circumcised in order to be considered one who keeps God's commandments, then it wouldn't be worded the way it is. It says that one who is uncircumcised is considered circumcised, IF HE KEEPS THE LAW. But, you are saying that person isn't keeping the law. That's not what scripture says. 

They had these SAME arguments in the early days of the Church. Read all through the new testament, and you can see it. The circumcision issue was heavily debated. You can read all about it in Acts 15 and the whole book of Galatians, as well as in Romans and a spattering here and there. There were those even then who tried to burden people into thinking they must still do those physical ordinances in order to be converted or saved, and it's just not true.

I'm not a different person on the days I wear my tassels than on the days I don't! It doesn't affect how I follow the Law. It's what's in my heart. A snip of foreskin cut from a penis isn't going to change how a man keeps the Law or not or whether he even keeps it at all (there are plenty of people in this nation who are circed but do not keep the Law, so WHAT benefit does his circumcision do him--Rom. 2:25. None, he's counted as uncircumcised in God's eyes). A person must be circumcised in the heart. A person doing ritual baptisms/washings or head shavings or whatever is not going to change how well a person is keeping the Law. These things can be physical reminders, but it doesn't do anything to deeply convert a person. Only the Spirit can do that. As scripture says, the Old Covenant had its faults. If it was so good and could save a person, then the NC would not have been sought for. None of these things could ever save anyone. 

So, if you are including these things in your definition of what people here must agree to, then no, I do not and will not agree. These things are left to CHOICE. 

I hope we can come to an agreement, but there's no way I'm going to turn away from my scriptural knowledge on this and impose such things on people as requirements.

************************************

Now some analogies I wrote up:

Let's say you took the Mensa test and passed and so became a member of Mensa.   Let's say you decide to wear a Mensa pin.   Does this pin alone prove that you are a member of Mensa?  Of course not.  Anyone could get ahold of a Mensa pin and wear it and claim to be a member.  You are truly a Mensa member if you pass the test, if you have the mind for Mensa.  On the other hand, a true Mensa member who doesn't choose to wear a Mensa pin is still a true member of Mensa.   The pin doesn't matter either way.  It's just an outward showing, and both true members and false members can wear the pin and claim to be members.  What really matters, regardless of the pin-wearing, is that a person truly passed the test and really is a member.

You could get a fake driver's license and carry it around.  Would that prove that you passed a driver's test and are fit to drive on our roadways?  What if you did pass your driver's test and are fit to drive, but you left your license at home?  Are you somehow rendered unfit to drive?  No, you are not, and a law enforcement officer can easily look up your information.  Now, granted, you may be ticketed for not having your license, but why is that?  Because a driver's license is helpful for the law enforcement officer.  He's human and doesn't know that you passed your test and are fit to drive.  The license itself is just a showing of your capabilities and makes it easier and more convenient for other human people.

Does the wearing of a ring on the left ring finger alone prove that one is married (or whatever outward symbolism one may show)?  No, anyone can do this.  What if a married individual doesn't wear a ring?  Does that mean the person isn't married, and does it mean he or she doesn't love his or her spouse and is not loyal?  (My husband usually doesn't wear his ring; he did on a chain for awhile, before the chain was tarnished in our water.  It causes problems on his finger during work and actually has caused problem on a chain, too.  In other words, it's a burden [and actually potentially dangerous], but it doesn't change the fact that he is married to me and loves me.)  The only inconvenience, really, is that the outward show is not there, so other people might not realize you're married (which doesn't really make a difference these days, as people don't seem to care whether one is married or not, sadly.)

Does God need us to have some outward showing that we keep His commandments:  the tip of the penile skin snipped or some tassels hanging from our clothing, etc.  Does water truly cleanse one from his or her sins?  (Baptism by water is the only command under the NC that is a physical ordinance, and it's right prior to the second baptism--that of the Spirit.  Once the person has the Spirit of God within him or her, what is a physical washing, except if someone is filthy and needs a bath?  As Christ said, if you are clean, you are in no need of a bath.)  Do animal sacrifices do anything to cover our sins?  Does a human priest have any power over forgiveness when mediating between God and us when we sin?  

None of it matters if a person does not have God's Spirit and does not keep the commandments in the spirit.  These physical things can show to other flesh-and-blood human beings that we desire to keep the commandments, but there are those with these physical things that don't keep the commandments in spirit, and so what do those physical things matter?  They're worthless.  They count for nothing.  Likewise, if one is truly keeping the commandments in spirit, then God knows it, and some physical outward showings aren't needed, anyway.  It matters not one way or the other whether a true child of God who is keeping the law in the spirit does any of these physical ordinances that symbolize a reminder to keep the commandments, that a person keeps the commandments, or that one is clean from his or her sins.  God knows the person is, and that is what matters.  

I wear the tassels, but they are absolutely worthless for that which they were intended.  The purpose for these under the OC were to remind a person to keep the commandments.  Well, I usually only look down and see them when it's time to sit on the toilet, at which time they become rather burdensome.  The rest of the time they do not bother me being there, but the only time I really see them is a time when they become burdensome, because I have to make sure they don't go into the toilet.  And quite honestly, how many people are usually thinking thoughts of transgression against God, their neighbors, or themselves while they're sitting on the commode?  So, what good is it that the person sees the tassels right then?  Ten minutes later, he or she has long forgotten about the tassels, and some temptation or something has come before him or her.   As one of the fellow brethren said, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second" (Heb. 8:7).

It didn't work!!!!!!   People are carnal.  We must have God's Spirit WITHIN us to remind and help us to keep the commandments.  We must circumcise our hearts.  We must be cleansed of our sin by the Spirit. We must have our past sins covered by the blood of Christ.  We must have Christ's continued intercession. All the carnal ordinances which foreshadowed these things were [and still are] worthless!!!  They did nothing to save or cleanse a person.  They did a very poor job of reminding people to do what is right.  Their HEARTS needed to be changed.  All these things were only meant to be imposed "until the time of reformation."  They were meant to be a "schoolteacher."  

For anyone who thinks a person must do these in order to be right with God, he or she totally doesn't get it, does not see the big picture, does not understand, and needs to do some serious prayer and study.  

These things are clearly differentiated from the Ten Commandments and their statutes.   There is more than enough scripture that bears this out.  And none of this stuff matters, but what DOES matter is the keeping of the commandments of God (I Cor. 7:19).  

And as I've said before in another place, a person can keep the Ten Commandments in their letter and also be on his or her way to the hell fire.  It's the HEART God judges.  Anyone can keep the letter of the law without even having God's Spirit.  Most people seem to have little to no trouble not murdering someone, committing adultery, lying, keeping the sabbath, and so on, in the letter, if they either choose to do so b/c they are more or less moral people or if the judgment (penalty for transgression) is enough of a deterrent.  But, it's not the physical death penalty anyone ought to be truly concerned about, and it's not the letter of the law anyone should be concerned about.  It's the spirit of the law.  THAT is what we're all being judged on, dear friends.  Are we keeping the commandments with all our heart and mind?  Men might not know.  Men can be fooled.  That's especially true if a person is doing a good job of keeping the letter of the law and perhaps truer still if they are showing off with physical ordinances.   But, God is not fooled.  

To be brutally honest, my Father doesn't give a flip whether anyone is wearing tassels or has their foreskin snipped or any of those other things.  What He cares about is whether His children are keeping His commandments and whether they are keeping them in the spirit, with all their heart and mind and life.  All those ordinances are supposed to remind us to keep the commandments and to be a physical badge to others that we are.  They are NOT part of the commandments themselves.               

************************************

When I was in high school, I had honors and was in the Beta Club, was voted Most Studious, Best Dressed, and Most Likely to Succeed.  I was in several clubs and held an office of parliamentarian in one of the clubs.  I was voted Who's Who Among American High School Students.  I had all these credentials and honors, and I was given this jacket.  I was given patches and pins that I could put on the jacket to show everything.  I never did get the patches put on, and I didn't put most of the pens on, either.  It probably didn't matter, either, because most already knew I was distinguished.  I could have done this, but not doing it certainly did not mean that I somehow wasn't what it all represented.  Really, though, it's all there for show, so you can show it off to those who don't know.  It's a choice, not what makes a member…just an outward boasting.

Also think of a person's looks and personality.  Some are deceiving.  Many lovely-looking people are lovely in spirit (mind).  BUT there are ugly-appearing people who are actually beautiful (inside) and beautiful-appearing people who are actually ugly (inside).  It's really what is inside that counts.  The outside is just a bonus.

There are plenty of people out there who hold college degrees but do not do well in their field of supposed expertise.  Some even cheated to get the degrees!  On the other side of the coin, there are no shortage of people who know their field of study very well but hold no man-made degrees to "prove" it.  Well, a piece of paper isn't really proof, anyway.  Whether the person really can do well what it says is what matters.  Some who have the paper can, and that takes them further in the world of man, but those who know their stuff and who do not have the paper are not inferior as far as God is concerned.  And if a man is wise, he'd judge a person on what he or she really can or does do.  They're usually better than those who have the supposed outward proof (which is not the outward proof of actually doing it but just the paper or whatever).  They have usually spent more time really focusing on what is important rather than what man requires is important.  It's indeed harder for these people to be noticed, but if they're really that good at their field of study, they'll eventually be noticed by the wise.

******************************************************************************

Another Analogy and Further Reiteration:

Say my husband tells me to pick up some razor blades for his razor.   I forget and so disobey his command.  He gets upset and frustrated, and so he tells me the next time I go out to get him some razor blades and to write it down as a reminder.  He added this command so that I'd remember the other command.  The writing a note isn't going to matter one way or the other in the great scheme of things with my husband.  If I bring home the razor blades the next time, he's not going to then ask to see the note I wrote to make sure I wrote the reminder.  At that point, he doesn't care anything about a reminder note.  The thing that did matter was that I got him some razor blades.   If I say, "I didn't write a reminder note," he's not going to blow up and say, "Why didn't you follow my instructions?!"  He'd say, "Well, I'm just glad you got my razor blades.  That's all I care about."  If I had written a note and told him that I'd written the note like he told me, he would say, "Oh, well that's good.  I'm glad you remembered to get my razor blades."  If I had written a note and had forgotten the blades, anyway, he would be upset, even more upset that I was foolish enough to have the reminder and still not get the blades!

Sometimes I've written reminder notes to myself for various things but have forgotten to look at the note!  Two weeks ago, our cats had a vet appt., and I'd written it in my planner, but I didn't look at my planner that morning.  So, the physical reminder didn't even do any good!   

Now, wouldn't it be something if we had a technological advancement, maybe a microchip or something, that we could have put inside of us that would tell us things so that we don't forget?  This would totally do away with the need for physical written notes and such that have such fault.  Wouldn't it be great if when my husband told me to get him some razor blades (or whatever), and I was in the store about to leave that I heard a voice (b/c of the highly advanced chip or whatever inside of my mind) that said, "Don't forget the razor blades?"  That would totally do away with the need of a written note, which much of the time I forget to look at, anyway.  What good is a note if I can't even remember that I have a note (or left it home or in the vehicle, etc.)?   It's not the note that's important, anyway.  It's getting the razor blades!  

I'm so thankful that I DO have a highly advanced mind within me to remember my God's commandments.  If I had to rely on the tassels to remember to do His commandments, I'd be in quite a pickle.  And I know my Righteous Father doesn't care whether I'm wearing tassels or not as long as I'm keeping His Law--His Ten Commandments.  The tassels are worthless if I'm not doing what's important in the first place.  It's like Paul said of circumcision.  It's worthless and means nothing if a person isn't keeping the Law, but if someone who is not circumcised is keeping the Law, then that person puts to shame the person who is physically circumcised.  It's the uncircumcised person who is keeping the Law who is justified in God's sight, not the circumcised person who is not keeping the Law (Rom.2:25-29).  The Law here, is of course, the Ten Commandments and their statutes...the Law that matters.  

David also had God's Spirit and knew what really mattered to God.  David said, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears has thou opened:  burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required" (Psa. 40:6).  Well, did not God require these things?  HE DIDN'T REQUIRE IT AS PART OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS!  The sacrifices and offerings were because people broke the Ten Commandments and their statutes.  In another place, when David was writing a psalm of repentance after his sins of adultery and murder, he said, "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:  thou delightest not in burnt offering" (Psa. 51:16).  Now, do you think David would have felt condemned if some other fellow came along and said, "Oh, David, I CAN'T BELIEVE you are a Torah-breaker.  I'm SHOCKED.  We are to go by every word of the Torah, and you are supposed to offer sacrifices for your terrible sins."

WELL, what did God think of David, who claimed that God didn't require those things?  God said that David was a man after God's own heart.  God loved David so much, despite the terrible mistakes he made (but repented of greatly), that He chose David to be right underneath Christ in the Kingdom of God on this earth.  David will be ruling over the 12 tribes of Israel.  David had and was led by God's Spirit.  He knew what really mattered.  He looked forward to Christ's sacrifice.  That was what he put his faith in.  He lived in the time of the Old Covenant, yet He had a NC mindset.  He had God's Spirit.  He knew very well what God wanted.  Those animal sacrifices were for carnal people.  All those reminders and those washings were for carnal people.  Those with the Spirit of God dwelling in them knew and know what really matters, the keeping of the commandments of God.  If we're doing that and have the right heart toward His Law, then God isn't even going to bother to look and see whether we're wearing tassels, snip our foreskin (if we're male), offer animal sacrifices and other offerings, do ritual washings, etc.

If we're already keeping His commandments, then why would He care about those other things? He doesn't.  Those things were in mind for carnal people with whom He found fault (b/c of their Law-breaking), and those things still didn't do anything to change them.  Only God's Spirit can do that.  After each of those Psalm scriptures I quoted above, David added, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psa. 40:8) and "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:  a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psa. 51:17).  

David and Paul understood the difference between God's Law as defined by the Ten Commandments and their statutes and then the carnal stuff added for carnal people and knew that those things didn't even help those carnal people.  David lived under the OC and Paul under the NC.  They both were NC-minded and knew what mattered.

I will not feel condemned by anyone who tells me that I break God's Law b/c I don't follow or teach these things designed for carnal individuals as a school teacher, especially when most such people do not follow the Ten Commandments in the spirit and only look at what Moses wrote 3,000 years ago without bothering to continue to grow in grace and knowledge (as Paul pointed out as an example that those who boasted in their law-keeping of circumcision broke the idolatry, adultery, and stealing commandments in one way or the other).  I'm not here to please men and their faulty ideas.  I seek to please my Father in heaven, and He knows me and my heart, just as He knew David and his.  I know what my Father sees as important, and it's sure not whether I'm wearing tassels on a given day or doing any of those other carnal faulty reminders and other such things.

I am NOT saying everyone who wears tassels lacks the right heart and only caring about outward show. I certainly am not saying that. What bothers me even more is that I'm concerned about that same person, because she and I had a conversation not too long before this incident, which revealed to me that she indeed thought the physical was more important than the spiritual.

I was talking about how spiritual sin is what matters. (For example, a person can continually hate or desire to murder someone but never physically does it, and there can be another person who physically murders someone in a fit of rage but previously had not had any feelings of hate toward that person and felt bad afterward. Perhaps in the world of man, the latter would get the death penalty, but before God's judgment seat the former person who never physically laid a hand on the person he hated will be condemned, while the one who physically murdered but in spirit felt bad about it will not be condemned.) Well, I got a response along the lines of, "Yes, I know spiritual sin is bad, too." I knew then that she and I were not on the same page. Bad, too??? That is WHAT matters! Period. The way she worded it revealed that she believed the physical is more important.

As I said in another place, a person who has a righteous heart is NATURALLY going to have less physical sin than a person who has an unrighteous heart. But, EVERYONE--good hearts and bad hearts--commits PHYSICAL SIN. Again, some may commit MORE in number, but it doesn't matter of the number…only one sin earns the death penalty. The DIFFERENCE between a person who has grace and the person who does not is the HEART. Spiritual sin is what matters. Now a person can dress all in white and talk about God all the time (there is someone who resides in Rome who does just this) and can deceive billions of people into thinking he's righteous with all the outward show. But, the person will never fool God. God knows our hearts, no matter what we do to show to other flesh-and-blood people to make them believe we are righteous. 

It's going to be IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to get me to believe that in order for me to prove to God that I have an obedient heart, that I have to have all these outward show of things. Baptism of repentance is the only thing required, which happens (excepting special circumstances) BEFORE the begettal of God's Spirit. It's repent (of breaking the Ten Commandments) and be baptized, and THEN one gets the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God, which circumcises my heart and reminds me always to obey, and SHOULD naturally come out in my physical actions so that people can see what kind of person I am, is SOOOOO much better than a foreskin clipping (which wouldn't apply to me, anyway), tassels, and whatever else.

I certainly do not need some box of written scriptures hanging from my forehead or around my wrist. God never seriously thought that would change anyone. A change has to be from the heart and mind. Those scriptures aren't supposed to hang in a physical box on our forehead and strapped on our hands. The Law is supposed to be written in our MIND (behind our forehead), and supposed to be evident in our actions (with our hands):  the mark of God, his Spirit in our mind.  None of these things are the Ten Commandments themselves, and all the physical stuff that symbolized keeping them does nobody without God's Spirit any good (and on the flip side those with God's Spirit don't need them).