Before we get to the main point of
my first entry, I’d like to make one thing clear. You MUST keep an open mind
when reading this. Forget about being told to shut your ears or risk the devil
laying little hell spawn doubts in your brain that pick away at your religious
fibers until you’re an empty husk of your former self; that’s not going to
happen. Try to follow along as unbiased
as possible, because this is going to be fun. Maybe not for you, but for me it
will be, so you should feel happy for me.
Now,
today we will be reading the Bible! “Oh boy” you might immediately think. You
know everything important about the Bible already! Why do you need to listen to
another iteration of Jonah and the giant fish, or Samson and lion-carcass
honey? Well, this blog is not like what you’ve been told all these years of
your life. This blog is going to teach you about flaws, contradictions, and
fallacies of the Bible, along with some things that Christianity got wrong (it
just got personal, didn’t it?). So, let’s delve into our first, and probably
most important, Bible lesson!
The
passage I have chosen has been spoken by none other than Jesus, the Three and
Only, Christ, at the Sermon of the Mount. Yes, the one with the infamous beatitudes,
which I’m sure some of you have permanently ingrained in your brain due to
rigorous repetition in multiple Bible classes for at least a decade of our
short lives. This passage follows directly after the beatitudes, but was never
poured over in the same way which we studied the beatitudes. Why is that? Well,
let’s find out!
Matthew 5:17-20
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and
earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will
by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one
of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be
called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these
commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you
will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
So
what was that all about? You may remember skimming over it, as I do myself, but
never really reading it. Well, what
importance does it hold to be my first blog post? Let’s go nice and slow to
figure this out, piece by beautiful piece. And feel free to refer back to the
text whenever your mind feels like coming up with justifications for this,
shall I say, “threatening” passage.
“Old Testament” from “Law or the Prophets”? Well you see, the
first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, are commonly known for their
long and very specific rules listed for the Israelites to follow. The Prophets
are those like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel that foretold of Jesus’ coming. In
general, the Old Testament is accepted as the Law and Prophets which Jesus (and
the rest of the Bible) refers to.
Jesus
says here in verse 17 that he didn’t come to ABOLISH the Law or the Prophets
(Old Testament), but to fulfill them. “But Mr. Daniel! I was told in Bible
class that Jesus threw out the Old Testament, which is why we don’t have to
follow the Laws of the Pentateuch!” Well Billy, Jesus never said that. He
specifically said that he DIDN’T throw out the Laws or the Prophets. I have
some speculation on why Christians would want to disregard more than half of
the Bible, but let’s finish reading the passage first.
Jesus continues on about he didn’t
come to abolish the OT in verse 18, stating that “until heaven and earth
disappear”, not a single word will be removed from the Law. If you thought you
could weasel out of that first verse, this second one kind of binds you to ‘a
really really really long time’ until the Laws are abolished. These fun Laws
mandated by God himself aren’t going anywhere, Jesus confirms. In verse 19,
Jesus mentions how those who don’t follow even one of these Laws will be called
“least in the kingdom of heaven”, whatever that means. In general, Christians
don’t really care about being called “least” in heaven! As long as I get to
heaven, I’ll settle for least of the best! But verse 20 is where things get a
little more troublesome for Christianity.
Verse
20, and I quote (I promise; you can check the original text above), says “For I tell you that
unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of
the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Uh-oh spaghetti-o.
“Did Jesus just say that obedience to the Old Testament Laws is equivalent to
righteousness, and that righteousness is needed to get into heaven?” That he
did, Billy! Some might say that this directly conflicts with when Jesus says he
is the only way into heaven, but that’s a contradiction I’m less focused on
right now. I’m wondering more about how in Jesus’ name (literally) did
Christians conclude that Jesus abolished/threw out the OT Laws? Here, Jesus is
making himself quite clear: ‘I am not abolishing the Laws. You need the Laws
and extreme righteousness to enter heaven.’ For the sake of avoiding argument
on the shaky contradiction of what gets you into heaven (although that’s a
pretty big problem in and of itself), I’ll pay more attention to how he
explicitly says that he ISN’T abolishing the Laws or the Prophets, aka the Old
Testament.
How did Christians interpret ‘I abolish the Law’, from
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law”? My two favorite theories
are these: Christianity threw out the Old Testament despite Jesus’ teachings
because it made Christianity remarkably easier to follow, and/or because the
Law and Prophets are not compatible with modern, civilized society.
My first theory about making Christianity easier to follow
I hope is self-evident. Getting into a religion is much easier when the pass to
heaven is “Accept Jesus as God” compared
to the much more difficult task of “follow every single Law”, especially
when these Laws could compose a Holy Book in and of themselves. When the early
church realized that Gentiles weren’t exactly flocking to become obedient
robots, they perhaps changed the rules a little bit so that Gentiles would find
the sect of Christianity more appealing.
My second theory is quite easy to see in action today if
my first theory was a little hard to believe for you. Imagine today’s society,
namely the United States of America. Now, we can’t even get past the 10
Commandments before breaking the rules such as not taking the Lord’s name in
vain, keeping the Sabbath holy, honoring your father and mother, not stealing,
not bearing false witness, and not coveting. Most of these are broken daily by
the majority of Americans! And the commandment about not coveting your
neighbor’s possessions is literally the ENTIRE idea behind Capitalism!
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| Broken literally and figuratively |
Imagine
if we Christians had to also follow Laws that mandated the stoning of
adulterers and sorceresses, and repetitive verses that set up regulations on
keeping slaves! No modern society could function under these barbaric Laws! It
doesn’t help that the God of the Old Testament is often portrayed as a
sociopathic murderer (contrary to what the New Testament is all about).This
would explain quite well why Christians have ditched the Old Testament; for
convenience. Not because Jesus said so, or because Jesus made the Law obsolete,
but rather because we don’t want to follow Christianity correctly if
‘correctly’ is ‘psychotic’. This is one of the most fundamental beliefs of
Christianity, that Jesus abolished the Law and made it non-applicable to us.
But clearly-one of the most basic beliefs in Christianity-is wrong.
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| But Jainism on the other hand.... |
I would first like to say well done. You are choosing to tackle a risky subject, and you seem to know what you are talking about, so I applaud you. However, I must respectfully disagree. Prepare for a long-winded response. STARTING NOW. In the passage you selected (Matthew 5:17-20) Jesus was simply setting up the story so that those listening would know what to look forward to. Remember, this was in the beginning of His ministry. So He was saying, “I know you’re trying to figure out what I’m about. Am I a rebel leader saying to not follow the Law? No! I haven’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. The Law is always going to exist, and I am not encouraging disobedience. Obey the Law, and later on, I’m going to fulfill it.” If Jesus flat-out said He would abolish the Law, then the people would go crazy. Remember, Paul didn’t flat-out say slavery is wrong because he realized that if he said that, people would get the wrong impression and believe Christianity is simply an anti-slavery crusade. Similarly, Christ didn’t want people to just go on disobeying the Law, because then His true mission would get muddled in the process. Instead, He said that He would fulfill the Law, which stated that a perfect lamb had to be sacrificed in order to atone for one’s sin. Jesus came to Earth as the “Lamb of God,” perfect in every way. He obeyed all the laws, and because He never sinned, He never deserved punishment and death. He could then take the place of the lamb and atone for all sins, which He did when He died on the cross. He FULFILLED the Law in this instance. To backtrack a little, Jesus said that unless your righteousness surpassed that of the Pharisees, you could not go to Heaven. The Pharisees were notorious for their ability to keep the Law, but they had all sinned at least once. They were the most righteous people on the planet, as close to perfect as humans could get. So being more righteous than the Pharisees would be a tall order to fill, meaning that like zero people could go to Heaven. So what does that all mean? If you sin, you can’t go to Heaven? No! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and this was an inevitable truth from the creation of Adam and Eve. The only way to be made righteous is to have sins atoned for, which is what Christ did by dying on the cross! In that way, He made anyone who accepts Him and believes in Him righteous, more righteous than the Pharisees. Therefore we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ didn’t abolish the Law, He just offered an alternative route to righteousness, since the Law was impossible to follow to the letter. So what the church emphasizes is NOT obedience to the Law, which will always fail, but belief in Christ, because THAT is what gets one to Heaven. Sorry that I wrote such a long reply, but a complex issue like this requires a complex response, which Phillip already gave much more eloquently than I did. I just wanted to give my two cents. Although I disagree with the blog, you have done a very good job with it, Daniel, by raising quite interesting questions that have no simple answers. Bravo.
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