Do You Obey God Rather Than Men?

Christianity as a whole in today’s world has a diverse range of beliefs. It seems that some of them are so drastically far-removed from each other that the only thing that they have in common is that they claim to follow the same book. Is it really possible that all of these denominations are right? Is it okay for everyone to have his own interpretation of the bible? Not only do I believe that this is not okay – I can show you from the bible that it’s not okay:

1 Peter 1:20-21

No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

There was no such thing as a denomination in the day of the Apostles. There were groups of churches that were close enough together to keep correspondence and visit with one another, but they were all considered part of the “church of God” and they all held to the same doctrines. But which doctrines did they have? And how did they get them? Just as Peter stated in the above scripture, there is only one correct interpretation of the bible: God’s interpretation.

Unfulfilled Aspects of God’s Law: The Day of Atonement

This is a second installment of a series on unfulfilled aspects of God’s law, focusing on the Holy Days (the first part can be found here). To quickly review, the premise of this argument is that God’s Law cannot yet be taken out of effect because, according to Matthew 5:17, a new heaven and a new earth must come before even the smallest part of the law passes away. Furthermore, it says that this won’t happen until everything has been fulfilled. God’s Holy Days, commanded in Leviticus 23, are aspects of God’s Law that have not yet been fulfilled, which demonstrates that we should still be keeping God’s Law – ALL OF IT. The application and administration of certain things may change, such as how Christ is our once-for-all Sacrifice and our High Priest now instead of the Levites, but there is no scriptural evidence that any of it has been annulled. Therefore, we must strive to satisfy all of God’s law to the best of our ability and with the help of God’s Spirit. If you don’t already know about the Holy Days, I hope this gets your attention so that you’ll open your heart to understand. Remember what the scripture says:

Romans 15:4

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

The Second Commandment – Is it Different from the First?

It occurred to me that the 1^st and 2^nd of the Ten Commandments are redundant if you do not have the proper understanding of what each one means. Read them and think about it:

Exodus 20:3 – You shall have no other gods before Me.

Exodus 20:4 – You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them…

Depending on what you believe about how these two commandments are interpreted, they may appear redundant. The 1^st commandment says that you should have no other gods besides the true God. Some mistakenly assume that the 2^nd commandment is exclusively talking about idols. If so, then it is redundant, since an idol is a false god, and is therefore prohibited by the 1^st commandment. This begs the question: is the 2^nd commandment simply an elaboration on the 1^st, or is it addressing a separate issue?