Because most Christians myself included have been taught that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ via his death on the cross at Golgotha, his subsequent burial, and his later resurrection were effectively the end of the need for the Torah; it is so vital that we actually TEST such a notion.
In addition to the thirty seven (37) passages I posted at my other blog (www.nailed2thecross.blogspot.com) which are systematically abused to "prove" that Christians no longer need to keep the laws contained in the statutes; commandments; judgments; ordinances; and testimonies of the Torah other verses are also twisted to "prove" that "the law" is no longer an element necessary for Christians.
We FREQUENTLY hear the response "I'm not under the law; I'm under grace!" Yet almost 100% of those who make that statement if their lives are examined still behave in a way that the Bible calls "wicked." Failure to recognize what it actually MEANS to be under grace; or to be "under the law" comes from false doctrine that has been injected into the Church for centuries. My friends Satan is well skilled at being sneaky, and is an accomplished liar. He has had a great deal of time to perfect his lies which have been spewed from the pulpits by men who often are workers of iniquity themselves.
About six years ago I decided I would begin looking at the appearance and usage of the term "law" in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. What I discovered was both exciting, and terrifying at the same time. I can tell you that what I have learned has altered my thinking about Christianity, myself, the identify of Messiah and how we should be responding to his sacrifice over 2,000 years ago.
Please do NOT think that I believe myself to be some kind of a prophet. I am hardly worthy of such a title. If you knew what I struggled with just between my ears on a daily basis would you KNOW I'm just a man like you. I struggle with my flesh, my thoughts, and my actions. I look at myself and recognize that if I were to attach a label to myself "wicked" is a better choice than "righteous." When I read Paul's statement where he is lamenting his own sin and struggle with his flesh it tells me I am not alone.
"14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."
There are MANY, MANY, MANY Christians today from all different denominations who will declare their righteousness through the blood of Messiah while they behave in ways that the Bible indicates the wicked behave, myself included. I am not going to play "high and mighty" while I throw stones at glass houses. God is no respecter of persons and he doesn't care about politics or who you are. He cares about how we respond to Him and to HIS INSTRUCTIONS.
I'm going to assert to you that BECAUSE we were not taught the foundation FIRST, beginning in Genesis; instead starting in the Gospel of John that we have failed to grasp what was firmly planted. We have failed to grasp the intended permanence of the statutes, commandments, judgments, ordinances, and testimonies of (EFEI) spoken by His own mouth.
BECAUSE we start in the Gospel of John and focus on the epistles of Paul calling them "scripture" while being ignorant ourselves of what the BIBLE calls "scripture," and of what "SCRIPTURE" says about the statutes, commandments, judgments, ordinances, and testimonies of (EFEI) we misunderstand Paul and twist his words out of ignorance to mean what they do not.
We have been programmed to fail by men who were programmed to fail themselves. Instead of being trained in actual righteousness we were taught by men who were the children of iniquity. Men who were simply feigning righteousness themselves because they were deceived, and deceiving others along the way.
We have inherited LIES from our fathers and have held to a form of godliness, but that form lacks the power and authority that comes from those who actually ARE servants of (EFEI).
Come with me as we examine the appearance; and usage of the term "law." Follow along as we unlock the underlying language discovering that what the New Testament actually says about Torah isn't what we have been told. Learn for yourselves why Paul is so difficult to understand, and how we can stop the madness of iniquity that is engulfing our families, friends, co-workers, communities, our leaders both local and national, and the peoples of the nations.
It is time to set things straight for those who belong to Messiah. Time to open our eyes to see; to clean our ears that we might hear; to circumcise our lips; and our hearts that Messiah might write the instructions of the New Covenant upon our hearts that (EFEI) might call us "My People."
When most of us pick up the Bible and read in the New Testament passages that use the term "law" there is most frequently the assumption that the writer is referring to "the Torah." Sometimes it is CLEAR the writer isn't speaking about the Torah; but is making a reference to another law. Unfortunately because Christianity has the tendency to ignore anything "Jewish" including "Jewish Law" aka the Mishnah; Talmud; Gemara; and the Shuchan Aruch they fail to recognize when Paul is making reference to the "Jewish Law" and NOT the Torah.
Back when I began researching the appearance and usage of the term "law" in the Bible I started by identifying all the passages where the English term "law" appears. Then I began looking at the Hebrew terms which were translated "law" in English (for the Old Testament) and the Greek terms which are translated as "law" in English (in the New Testament).
When I started looking at the Greek terms in the New Testament I noticed there were different variations of the same "root" word. There was one passage in particular in the book of Galatians where Paul uses three (3) different variations of the Greek term "nomos" which left me wondering WHY? Why the variations? If he is talking about the same "law" then why isn't he using the same word? We treat same things the same way; and different things different ways.
If we look at a Concordance under the listing for "law" what we discover is that EVERY passage containing the term "law" in the New Testament supposedly has the term "nomos." However "nomos" is the ROOT word. In fact that is the way the concordance works. My friends the concordance is an INDEX for locating where words appear. It is NOT a dictionary, or a Lexicon. The Concordance is NOT the definition of the term; it provides you with a range of terms that can be used to define a word. Sometimes that range of terms are even terms that are opposite in meaning. How can we determine the proper definition? Context my friends.
When we examine The Appearance and Usage of the Term Law in the Bible what we will discover is that there are actually eight (8) different variants of the Greek term "nomos" G3551 which exist within the Greek Translations of the Bible. These include the LXX (Septuagint) which is responsible for 77% of the volume of the Biblical Text and is 100% of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the TaNaK. The other 23% is the Greek Translation of the New Testament. Together these two Greek collections comprise 100% of the Biblical text. These eight (8) Greek terms are most frequently rendered as "law" or "the law" in English.
There are also an additional five (5) terms tied to the root term G3545 "nomimos" that appear in Greek which are most frequently rendered as "laws" in English. These variations appear only twice (2 times) in the New Testament but fifty eight (58) times in the LXX.
My friends if we do not know the difference between where are how these terms are used it is quite possible that you will find yourself twisting Paul's words and placing yourself in opposition to the very Creator and His intended response to HIS INSTRUCTIONS.
The Strong's Exhaustive Corcordance will list G3551 (νόμός) "nomos" at the term in almost all New Testament Passages for the term rendered "law" in English. However if you manually go and verify the text you will find that "nomos" isn't always present; what is present is one of these variants listed. Nomos is simply the "root word." This also happens to be the case in the LXX. What we will discover is that two (2) of these variations NEVER appear in the New Testament EVER; two (2) of these variations are NEVER used to mean "the Torah;" ONLY (1) ONE of these variants ALWAYS refers to Torah; and the remaining three (3) are used in such a broad manner that they are used both to refer to Torah; and, to the laws of men.
What this means is that we SHOULD be identifying WHICH variation is being used to help provide context and if one of the (3) three most broad uses appears we must utilize some method of investigation to properly rule out what Paul isn't or cannot be referring to so that we come to the right conclusion about what he is saying instead of the wrong conclusion as many before us have already done.
As you begin to come along with me examining the appearance and usage of the term "law" you will notice that I have highlighted the term "law" so it is easy to located in each passage. Additionally I have listed the Hebrew term and Greek Term used to translate that Hebrew term in the following manner:
H8451 (בתורתי: Torah) G3551 ( : )
Friends the Hebrew term for Torah will have other prefixes and suffixes that add words like "the" or "in" or "My" to it. For the sake of time, and to reduce the volume of material you need to wade through I have not posted the entire Hebrew and Greek (LXX) passages but have researched what terms were used myself and listed them.
Obviously to be skilled at reading Hebrew one needs to have a working knowledge of the language. What I would like you to do it not necessarily take my word for it but to VERIFY what I am posting with a software program like E-Sword; Blue Letter Bible; or Logos. You will find that certain variations of G3551 as I stated NEVER refer to Torah; while another ALWAYS refers to Torah and the other other three which appear in both the Old and New Testaments are used in such a broad way that we CANNOT and SHOULD NOT insist or default to the setting of "they mean the Torah."
Grab a pad of paper, some highlighters, a cup of coffee and let's begin shall we? Follow me to the next post!
Back when I began researching the appearance and usage of the term "law" in the Bible I started by identifying all the passages where the English term "law" appears. Then I began looking at the Hebrew terms which were translated "law" in English (for the Old Testament) and the Greek terms which are translated as "law" in English (in the New Testament).
When I started looking at the Greek terms in the New Testament I noticed there were different variations of the same "root" word. There was one passage in particular in the book of Galatians where Paul uses three (3) different variations of the Greek term "nomos" which left me wondering WHY? Why the variations? If he is talking about the same "law" then why isn't he using the same word? We treat same things the same way; and different things different ways.
If we look at a Concordance under the listing for "law" what we discover is that EVERY passage containing the term "law" in the New Testament supposedly has the term "nomos." However "nomos" is the ROOT word. In fact that is the way the concordance works. My friends the concordance is an INDEX for locating where words appear. It is NOT a dictionary, or a Lexicon. The Concordance is NOT the definition of the term; it provides you with a range of terms that can be used to define a word. Sometimes that range of terms are even terms that are opposite in meaning. How can we determine the proper definition? Context my friends.
When we examine The Appearance and Usage of the Term Law in the Bible what we will discover is that there are actually eight (8) different variants of the Greek term "nomos" G3551 which exist within the Greek Translations of the Bible. These include the LXX (Septuagint) which is responsible for 77% of the volume of the Biblical Text and is 100% of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the TaNaK. The other 23% is the Greek Translation of the New Testament. Together these two Greek collections comprise 100% of the Biblical text. These eight (8) Greek terms are most frequently rendered as "law" or "the law" in English.
(νόμός) "nomos"
(νόμω) "nomo"
(νόμόν) "nomon"
(νόμόυ) "nomou"
(νόμων) "nomon"
(νόμόι) "nomoi"
(νόμόις) "nomois"
(νόμόυς) "nomous"
There are also an additional five (5) terms tied to the root term G3545 "nomimos" that appear in Greek which are most frequently rendered as "laws" in English. These variations appear only twice (2 times) in the New Testament but fifty eight (58) times in the LXX.
(νόμιμα) "nomima"
(νόμιμους) "nomimous"
(νόμιμον) "nomimon"
(νόμιμων) "nomimon"
(νομίμως) "nomimos"
My friends if we do not know the difference between where are how these terms are used it is quite possible that you will find yourself twisting Paul's words and placing yourself in opposition to the very Creator and His intended response to HIS INSTRUCTIONS.
The Strong's Exhaustive Corcordance will list G3551 (νόμός) "nomos" at the term in almost all New Testament Passages for the term rendered "law" in English. However if you manually go and verify the text you will find that "nomos" isn't always present; what is present is one of these variants listed. Nomos is simply the "root word." This also happens to be the case in the LXX. What we will discover is that two (2) of these variations NEVER appear in the New Testament EVER; two (2) of these variations are NEVER used to mean "the Torah;" ONLY (1) ONE of these variants ALWAYS refers to Torah; and the remaining three (3) are used in such a broad manner that they are used both to refer to Torah; and, to the laws of men.
What this means is that we SHOULD be identifying WHICH variation is being used to help provide context and if one of the (3) three most broad uses appears we must utilize some method of investigation to properly rule out what Paul isn't or cannot be referring to so that we come to the right conclusion about what he is saying instead of the wrong conclusion as many before us have already done.
As you begin to come along with me examining the appearance and usage of the term "law" you will notice that I have highlighted the term "law" so it is easy to located in each passage. Additionally I have listed the Hebrew term and Greek Term used to translate that Hebrew term in the following manner:
H8451 (בתורתי: Torah) G3551 ( : )
Friends the Hebrew term for Torah will have other prefixes and suffixes that add words like "the" or "in" or "My" to it. For the sake of time, and to reduce the volume of material you need to wade through I have not posted the entire Hebrew and Greek (LXX) passages but have researched what terms were used myself and listed them.
Obviously to be skilled at reading Hebrew one needs to have a working knowledge of the language. What I would like you to do it not necessarily take my word for it but to VERIFY what I am posting with a software program like E-Sword; Blue Letter Bible; or Logos. You will find that certain variations of G3551 as I stated NEVER refer to Torah; while another ALWAYS refers to Torah and the other other three which appear in both the Old and New Testaments are used in such a broad way that we CANNOT and SHOULD NOT insist or default to the setting of "they mean the Torah."
Grab a pad of paper, some highlighters, a cup of coffee and let's begin shall we? Follow me to the next post!
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