Watch the vid below by Steve McVey, Christian Lie #27: “What our nation needs is a return to God’s law”, and my comments follow…
You hear it all the time, “the answer to our nation’s problems is a return to God’s law”, it’s not just untrue, it’s…
A big FAT LIE
This is such a commonly held belief in the United States today.
You hear the televangelists get up there and shout it… the conservative politicians repeat it… and the American public thinks “man that sounds good”.
But that’s ALL that’s good about this lie, it “sounds” good…
The search for “God’s Law”
First off, what is a “return to God’s law”? We can’t return to it, until we know what it this law IS. So let’s search for a Biblical definition–starting with the Old Testament, shall we?
Concubinage (women as breeders), polygyny(men having multiple wives), capturing women in battle and forcing them to be wives, levirate marriages (when your brother dies, you’re required to father a child with your brother’s widow), fathers forcing their daughters to marry a man that pays the father the marriage price–regardless of girls wishes, and women as property of husbands, these are all Biblical!
Ex 22:16 says “When a man seduces a virgin who is not yet betrothed, he shall pay the bride-price for her to be his wife. If her father refuses to give her to him, the seducer shall pay in silver a sum equal to the bride-price for virgins.”
Deut 22 tells about a husband’s property rights in his wife. If a bride was not a virgin at marriage, she was regarded as “damaged merchandise.” While a girl should be a virgin, nothing in scripture suggests a man has to be a virgin. A girl’s virginity is only highly valued because she is worth less to her father (who ‘owned’ her until she was married) if she has been slept with…
Surely this male-dominant culture isn’t the one we need to return to in order to “save our nation” is it?
Is this elusive law in the New Testament?
Ok, so you’ve been studying scripture and understand we as Christians are no longer under the old “law”– the Old Testament.
You understand that Christ came to fulfill the law with his death and resurrection.
Great!
So I guess we go looking for “God’s law” in the New Testament then right?
This is what most Christians do, they jump right in with the Pauline and other NT letters looking for some “guidelines… some rules… some moral standards…”
GREAT! Let’s start with one of the pastoral epistles, 1 Tim 2:9-12:
Women should stop braiding their hair… Stop wearing gold and pearls… and stop wearing expensive dresses. (But then again what constitutes expensive? The expensive dress I buy my mom is cheap to bill gates)…
Also, all the female evangelists of today are going to have to quit and start serving tables, because “a return to God’s law” forbids female preachers who teach over men.
And it also would require that NO woman holds authority over men… so no more female bosses… Or senators… or having women in any other position where they have ANY authority over men. It’s all right there in 1 Tim 2:9-12 — check it out.
Cherry Pickin’ Christians!
So both these examples of God’s law don’t sound so great do they? So what’s the answer?
Here’s what most Christians do: they decide to take parts of the letters and teachings from Paul and other NT writers that they LIKE and AGREE with and apply them to their life as “divine commands”.
This then becomes “God’s law”.
(Most often Christians like to take the various sexual prohibitions (many of which are poor translations or taken out of context) found in the NT and say this is “God’s law, the one we need to return to–if we want to save this “Corrupt” nation of ours!” While completely ignoring the other teachings on the same page, some in the same verses! Our culture has an almost fanatical obsession with sex and it being “unclean”… mostly do to greco roman influences on early Christianity… but I digress!)
But as James told the early church in James 2:10 (amplified Bible): “For whosoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it.” You either keep ALL of it, or you’re guilty of breaking ALL of it. You can’t “cherry pick” commands you like and commands you don’t if you’re claiming to be following God’s “new law”. (Note: James was referring to the OT law, but the concept still applies).
Our nation does NOT need a return to God’s law…
What we need is Christ. Coming to Christ, receiving His spirit through the process of salvation, and allowing Him to express Himself through us each and every day IS the answer to this Nation’s problems… NOT to look for a set of “laws” to follow!
Christ is God… God is Love… therefore Christ IS Love.
Christ said that the whole law is summed up as “Love God and love your neighbor”… Paul echoes this statement in His letters. Even noting that you can have all the spiritual gifts in the world, and do all the most “Christian” acts in the world, but if you don’t have love — they’re worthless! (1 Corinthians 13:1-9)
Allowing Christ to express Himself through you each and every day means you’ll start loving more… being more understanding… showing more empathy and having more mercy with your fellow man… MORE of all the “good stuff”.
So the idea that “our nation needs a return to God’s law” sounds good on the outside, until you dig deep to find examples of that law, and find out you’d rather not have it 
No, what our nation needs is “a return to Christ” with no extra laws, rules, regulations, or moral standards derived from cherry picking which scriptures we agree with and which ones we don’t!
What’s your thoughts on this? Post them in the comments below!
###
5 Things I’m Grateful For Today:
- It’s not up to me to write this blog, Christ is doing it through me!
- It’s sunny and getting sunnier each day!
- A client of mine had a great product launch yesterday!
- I went to D.C. yesterday — air and space museum baby!
- I get to test my resolve to let Christ work through me while teaching Taekwondo to a bunch of rug rats again today …
{ 0 comments… add one now }