Statues

>Jehovah's Witnesses do not allow their members to read anti-J.W. material, not just discourage the reading of it.

When the Church was compiling the NT and the ecumenical creeds the Church did not allowed dissenting positions and burned them.

 

Do you go to church at all, or does Hebrews 10:25 mean nothing to you?

Do you not believe Matthew 18:18?

Isaiah 26:9. I still rather doubt that you think about Jesus 24/7. And if you speak the truth, I hope you don't drive or operate machinery.

I never said or even implied that material objects have the Spirit in them. No, not even the Bible which some people reverence as though it were a sacramental.

Oh, then you are a Catholic.

Because you were very specific about the "Catholic Jesus" and the "Mormon Jesus" (your words). Yet you omitted the Protestant Jesus whose likeness is seen a lot more often in our culture, at least in the South where I live.

Do you attend church? If so does it have a statement of faith?

 

The word image covers a lot of territory.

Many Baptist and other non-Catholic churches have crosses and flags at the front of the sanctuary. Orthodox churches have icons. I do not see a great deal of difference ... they are images. To me it all boils down to attitude ... what one believes about those images. The flag or the cross can be an idol for some.

 

nailed it!!!

 

Colossians 2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

Exodus 20:8-10 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.

Moriah, it sounds like you are saying that you don't do what God said in Exodus 20:8-10, and that you don't follow it because the new testament passage somehow tells us not to do what God told us to do before? How can you make any sense of this?

 

I guess I should explain how I understand the old testament law applies to Christians.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Christians are not under the mosaic law. Our rules of morality all come down to Jesus' commandments of love - that we love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. Many of the old testament laws still apply under these principles, but not all of them. The food laws don't fit in under these rules, but many of the other laws in the mosaic law do fit into this. Most of the ten commandments are based on love of God and neighbor, but the specific day in the 4th commandment does not follow directly from love of God, however the idea of setting time apart for God and allowing people rest from work do follow from the law of love. Similarly, the first commandment follows directly from the law of love of God in the sense that we must not have false gods, but the specific mention of graven images which made sense when God had no incarnate form to be represented by a work of art, no longer follows directly from the commandment to love God with all our heart mind and soul. In fact we have crucifixes and pictures of Jesus in our home to promote and increase our love of God.

So in Acts 15 the apostles were applying Jesus great commandments to the gentile converts and decided that they had to follow some rules but not others. This power to judge what rules follow directly from the law of love was part of the authority given to the apostles to guide and teach the church.

 

First, the answer above was given in answer to a lawyer who gave Jesus a question "Which is the greatest commandment of all." It is presumed that the lawyer was referring to the Ten Commandments. Thus all other commands such as those pertaining to diet and clothing etc. are moot points.

Second, These two commandments do summarize the Ten. The first one summarizes our relationship with God which is stated in the first four commands. The second commandments summarizes are relationship with man which is stated in the last six commands.

Third, all but one of these commands are mentioned in the NT. The one that is not commanded for believers to keep is "Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath Day." This is because it was a command given specifically for the Jewish nation.

(Exo 31:16) Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
(Exo 31:17) It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

The keeping of the Sabbath Day was a covenantal sign between Jehovah and Israel and their generations forever. It was never meant for Gentile believers to keep.

 

I'm not sure that the question was just about the 10 commandments. Jesus didn't respond with an answer from the 10 commandments, instead his answer was two of the commandments from the larger mosaic law:
Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Leviticus 19:18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

And Do you not set aside one day a week for the Lord? Is it okay to make someone work for 7 days a week? Most Christians follow at least some part of the 4th commandment.

Also how do you pick and choose which old testament laws to follow? There are rules about sexual morality, foreign aliens, tithing, charging interest, etc. etc., Not every one of them is mentioned in the new testament.

 

Ray VanderLaan teaches that the Ten Commandments are like chapter headings in books.

He teaches that in those days a king would make two copies of main points of a covenant and each party would take one copy and put it in his most sacred place. Moses took both copies because his most sacred place was the same as God's most sacred place on this earth.

 

Those two commands summarize all ten.

To keep the Sabbath:
Never travel more that a Sabbath Day's journey (5/8ths of a mile)
Never cook on the Sabbath (make coffee or tea, or use anything that represents fuel--electricity or gas.) Don't make any food at all. All must be made the day before.
Even going to a restaurant would be causing others to break the Sabbath.
Don't go to any store of any kind, buy gas or do any shopping whatsoever.
Don't turn on your computer or TV. That would be considered extra work and energy expended unnecessarily. Consider that they were not allowed to gather fuel then. A boy was stoned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath.
--Read the laws concerning keeping the Sabbath. I don't believe you could ever keep the Sabbath. It was a day given for the Jews.
And the Sabbath is only on Saturday; not on Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week. The Sabbath is on the seventh day of the week. Christ arose the first day of the week, Sunday. On the seventh day, Saturday, God rested. Are you sure you keep the Sabbath Day holy?

I am not under the law; I am under grace.

 

No, I don't keep the sabbath. But we keep aspects of it. We have 1 day a week that we set aside for the Lord and only do work on that day if it is necessary. It's not the same as the sabbath, but it takes some of the aspects of the sabbath that are relevant to love of God and neighbour.

I agree with you - we are not under the law, we are under grace. Our moral actions are guided by the law of love written on our hearts. This gives us freedom to apply the law of love to new situations without a thick list of laws that govern our every action.

Hebrews 10:16 "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

It is under this freedom that some Christians have decided there is a place for images of Christ in their worship, in a way that interprets the commandments in light of the new reality of an incarnate God and in light of the fact that the images help us love God more instead of detracting from our love of God.

 

To set aside one day a week for rest is a principle derived from Genesis one, from Creation (some call it the Creation-sabbath). God rested on the seventh day. It is not a law, but an example for us to follow. We don't follow the Levitical law.
We also set aside Sunday in remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ.