Attention Believers! 5 Lies You Should Know About the Bible…….
Lie #1: Jesus cancelled many of the Laws of Moses.
Biblical Truth: In Matthew 5:16-19, Jesus says,
Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The meaning of the Scripture above is clearly that Jesus came to teach us the right interpretation of God’s Law and to demonstrate how it was to be lived out and practiced. It is obvious from His words that He did not come to cancel it, change it or hope to toss out a few commandments that would not fly with non-Jewish believers. A new or altered religion was not His goal.
All too often, people adopt and defend personal ways of life or the traditions of their own church instead of God’s Law. The establishment of man’s traditions being more respected and believed that God’s actual commandments was happening in Jesus’ time - and it is still being practiced today.
Jesus, however, was obedient to all of God’s commandments (not just the one’s the church upholds today) and taught His disciples to live likewise. In the Great Commission, Jesus tells the apostles to go and make disciples, baptize them, and …teach them to observe all that I commanded you.
He is telling His Jewish followers to go into the world and teach everyone (Jew and non-Jew alike) to live like Jesus had taught them to live - in obedience to the Old Testament as well as the New. All followers of Jesus are therefore to follow and promote the commandments of God, not just an abbreviated list. If you carefully examine and pray concerning the Scriptures listed above, you will find that they both say something similar: The followers of Jesus are to live and teach ALL the commandments of God, not just the ones upheld by the church today. This is not to further discredit the church, it is simply to say that the church has established traditions that are obviously different than what Jesus and the Scripture teaches.
At Marion Bible Fellowship, we certainly agree with the general community that people are saved only by grace because Jesus paid the death penalty required for our sin (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are not saved by obeying God’s commandments, but God does expects the believer to demonstrate our love for Him in our salvation by living our lives according to His commandments (Ephesians 2:10).
If you have questions or comments related to this point, please e-mail us at [email protected].
Lie #2: The Old Testament isn’t for Christians.
Biblical Truth: The Hebrew Scriptures (or what is now called the Old Testament) was the “Bible” for both Jesus and the apostles - the Gospels and the Letters of Paul had not been written. In 2Timothy 3:15-16, Paul encourages Timothy that,
…from childhood you [Timothy] have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness/
These “sacred writing” are the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) – the only “Bible” that was in existence. Paul is thus teaching his young student Timothy, who was not Jewish, to know and follow the commands found in the Old Testament, not just the New Testament! Maybe we should take the Old Testament more seriously as we listen and learn from Paul.
Marion Bible Fellowship knows that the New Testament cannot be accurately interpreted without referring to the Old Testament. No section of the Bible is complete without all the others; the New cannot stand without the Old and vice versa. Not only is it true that Jesus and Paul most frequently quote verses in the Hebrew Scriptures, especially Deuteronomy, they also demand faithfulness to all its commandments as noted above.
If you have questions or comments related to this point, please e-mail us at [email protected].
Lie #3: Jesus moved the Sabbath to Sunday.
Biblical Truth: Nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that Jesus or His followers worshipped on Sunday, the first day of the week. There is no Scripture that suggests that the weekly day of rest and worship is changed to Sunday or where they command the change from Saturday to Sunday. The Sabbath, which begins Friday at sunset and ends Saturday at sunset, has been and continues to be on the seventh day of the week.
The argument that Jesus wanted His followers to change their day of worship to Sunday to honor His Day of resurrection is manufactured and nowhere to be found or suggested in Scripture. Jesus certainly would have made it clear to His followers if He was changing one of the most often repeated of the Ten Commandments. Goodness, even after His death on the cross, His followers faithfully delayed attending to His own body because the Sabbath was approaching.
And it was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed after, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. And they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. Luke 23: 54-56
Did they not understand that the Sabbath had been changed to Sunday (or canceled as some modern churches teach)? The fact is, that Jesus (nor Paul, nor Peter, nor any Biblical writer or follower of Jesus) changed it. The church changed it at a later date to separate the faith from its Jewish, Hebrew roots.
One argument from the Apostolic Scriptures draws on Acts 20:7. The verse states,
…and on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread…
This gathering on the first day is argued to represent a Sabbath gathering. Instead of that, it is actually describing the Jewish custom of a fellowship meal, which occurs after sunset on Saturday immediately following the Sabbath. To rightly interpret this verse, one must know that the Biblical day began right after sunset. This custom is still in effect today. Additionally, the description here mentions nothing about resting or worship, just a meal. If worship and resting for a day, as the Sabbath command requires, simply means that we get together and have some bread, the critics of Saturday Sabbath may have a point, but such is not the case.
The early believers did not change the Sabbath, the church did that at a later date. At Marion Bible Fellowship, we gather on Saturdays, just as the earliest believers did and we promote a day of rest from Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset to enjoy family and extra times in the Scripture and with God.
If you have questions or comments related to this point, please e-mail us at [email protected].
Lie # 4: Jesus and Paul started a new religion with Christianity.
Biblical Truth: Truth be told, if we look at the church today and compare its practices and teachings to those of First-Century Christianity, we would indeed think a new religion had been started! Jesus did not come to establish a new religion but was sent by God to rightly instruct the people and their leaders in the Hebrew faith. He not only was the prophesied Messiah, sent by God to save all mankind, both Jew and Gentile, from their sin, He was also sent to correct the errors that had crept into the Hebrew faith. Contrary to our modern impression of Him and an anti-Jewish rule-breaker, He remained obedient to all the commandments of Scripture and gave us a deeper understanding of them as well. For example, the sixth commandment, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20: 13), was further interpreted by Jesus to mean we should not hate a brother (Matthew 5:21-22).
Would it even have been Biblically permissible to cancel the Old Testament and start a modified or new religion as some claim Jesus or Paul did? Absolutely not! God the Father was careful early on in the Scriptures to attend to the possibility of someone coming along and tampering with the commandments Moses recorded. Deuteronomy 13:1-5 states,
If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.
Several things can be understood from this passage.
- God would never send someone that would cancel or change any part of the commandments. In fact He decrees here that if anyone come and teaches that some or all of the commandments have been changed or canceled, the Jews are to kill him.
- If Jesus or Paul did indeed change some of the commandments or cancel some of them, then the Jews were right in killing Him. It, of course, is not true that Jesus or Paul canceled commandments, but the church today incorrectly teaches they did.
- Since breaking a commandment is the definition of a sin, it is unthinkable that Jesus would promote sin among His followers by counseling rebellion to the Torah (teachings of Moses) as this verse forbids here.
Marion Bible Fellowship upholds the teaching of all the commandments to those who attend. The original believers in Messiah were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles who worshipped together in the synagogue, listening to the teachings from the Torah. New believers, who were unfamiliar with the Scriptures were asked to initially abstain from idol worship and sexual sin. It was assumed that they would be presented with the rest of the Law of Moses during their worship together with the Jews on the Sabbath.
For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the Synagogues every Sabbath. Acts 15:21.
First Century Christians followed the Hebrew Scriptures, kept the Biblical festivals and holidays (not just Christmas and Easter), rested on the Sabbath, and grew in all of the Law as quickly as they could learn.
If you have questions or comments related to this point, please e-mail us at [email protected].
Lie # 5: The Church replaced Israel in God’s eyes.
Biblical Truth: The first Christians were Jews. Christianity began as a sect of Judaism, the sect of the Nazarenes. When Gentiles became believers in Jesus as Savior and Messiah through the preaching of Paul, they attended synagogue to worship and to learn the Hebrew Scriptures. They understood they were now added to the Hebrew faith. They were not required to become “Jewish” first through some traditional ceremony. It was understood that they were one with Israel by worshiping God and through the belief and salvation they had by faith in Jesus the Messiah. Paul states,
...remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace who made both groups into one… Ephesians 2:12-14.
Marion Bible Fellowship teaches that it is a myth that the church replaced Israel and that God abandoned His chosen people. Such thinking is repeatedly opposed in the Scriptures. Such teaching would require God to change His mind, which is denounced in the Bible on many occasions. The same line of thinking also leads to a false assumption that Jesus can change previously written commands and truths of the Old Testament, such as rules of the Sabbath, food laws of what we are to eat, and what holidays are celebrated. Such is not the case and would mean that nothing in Scripture is trustworthy and could be changed at any moment. In truth, man has been the agent of change for all that is currently contrary to the Word of God which, thankfully remains constant throughout time.
If you have questions or comments related to this point, please e-mail us at [email protected].