Frank Apisa wrote:
And I suppose you will tell us how you know there is a God -- and how you know what that god has stamped and what it has stamped it on????
Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handywork.
Romans 1:20
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Frank Apisa wrote:
I am well enough acquainted with the Bible to know that no less a personage than Jesus Christ himself is quoted as saying:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come, not abolish them, but to fulfill them. Of this much I assure you: UNTIL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS AWAY, NOT THE SMALLEST LETTER OF THE LAW, NOT THE SMALLEST PART OF A LETTER, SHALL BE DONE AWAY WITH UNTIL IT ALL COME TRUE." Matthew 5: 17ff
Stoning homosexuals is part of the law. Jesus says it still stands.
well....lets take a closer look...
How did Jesus fulfill the law? In his personal life He fulfilled all the demands of the law by living a sinlessly perfect life under it (Galatians 4:4; John 8:46; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:21-22). He also fulfilled the prophecies of the law concerning Christ (John 5:39; Acts 3:18-24; 13:29; 2 Peter 1:19) and the types of the law (Hebrews 8:4-5; Luke 24:44-47). By preparing the Jews for the coming of Christ, the law fulfilled its purpose in Him (Galatians 3:19-25). Finally, the righteousness before God which was the purpose of the law but which it could not give is fulfilled in Christ (Romans 8:3-4; 10:4-10). Having been fulfilled, the law has served its purpose.
Jesus came to pay the debt to law, a debt that man could not pay. Colossians 2:14 teaches that Christ's death "cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." Thus Christ in His death for all mankind satisfied the requirements of the Law. Those who are in Christ are no longer bound by such; our debt has been fully paid.
Following the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, the inspired apostles taught that the Law of Moses was no longer in effect. In Romans 7:4, Paul wrote, "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God." In v6 he said, "But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter."
In Galations 3:24-25, Paul said, "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." In Ephesians 2:14-15, he said that Christ "broke down the barrier of the dividing wall (between Jews and Gentiles) by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances."
In 2 Corinthians 3:6, Paul spoke of the Law as "the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones" and as a "ministry of condemnation". He referred to such as "that which fades away" and "the old covenant. Paul said we are "servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."
Finally, consider the letter to the Hebrews, the very subject of which is a comparison of the old and new covenants. The writer said in 1:1-2: "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son." The inspired writer then, in the remainder of the letter, explains that the way of Christ is far superior to the Old Law of Moses.
Hebrews 7:11 speaks of Christ as another priest who would not be needed "if perfection is through the Levitical priesthood." But since such was not possible, "of necessity there takes place a change of law also" (v12). V18 speaks of "setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness." V22 says that Christ then is the "guarantee of a better covenant."
Hebrews 8:6-7 states that Christ "is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second." Then in v13 it says, "When He said, A new covenant, He has made the first obsolete." Hebrews 9:1 and 9:18 speaks of the "first covenant" compared to the "new covenant" in 9:15 and 12:24. Hebrews 10:1 says that the Law was simply a "shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things." 10:9 says, "He takes away the first in order to establish the second."
