“Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” He was also saying to them, “You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.” Mark 7:8
Last week we explored whether your worship is in vain. Continuing we look into neglecting the commandment of God you hold to the tradition of men. Traditions themselves are not bad, although the origins of most are pagan. However, when you set aside the commands of God in favor of your traditions you move into lawlessness, which is sin.
Scripture tells us that in the times if Jesus (Yeshua) the church leaders had created a commandment for the washing of hands (Part of what is called the Oral Torah, which Paul writes against) and taught it as though it came from God. Ok, washing hands before a meal is a good thing, right? So how can this be bad? Teaching it as a command violates the law by adding to the commands spoken by the Father.
Another command that they completely invalidated is what we know as the fifth commandment, honor your mother and father. This command when violated carried a penalty of death, which would eliminate the disrespectful behavior of the teenagers today, but I digress. The church leaders said that if one were to donate the money to the church, money that was to be used to take care of the parents, it was allowed. Thus they basically said to God, hey your command is no good for this day as we need the money in the church treasury.
Moving to this day and age, we read in the news about Christians fighting to keep the Ten Commandments in our public places. A month doesn’t go by that some Atheists group doesn’t complain about those Ten Commandments being in a place offending some poor lost soul. Yet in those same Ten Commandments the church is fighting for, they ignore the fourth commandment saying it was changed to Sunday.
So I can hear Yeshua (Jesus) clearing shouting as written in Matthew 15:2: “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you saying this people honors Me with their lips but their heart is far from me. Church leaders want you to believe that the sinless one who took our place for the death penalty violated the law by changing it. Oh, those same church leaders will acknowledge the Old Testament law to dip into your pockets just like they did in the times of Jesus (Yeshua) and call it tithing. Tithe is mentioned in the new testament twice (Mat 23:23 & Luk 11:42) and both times as a “WOE” to those church leaders.
It is high time we start reading our bibles without the doctrinal glasses given to us by church leadership and start asking the hard questions:
- Why do we worship on Sunday?
- Where in scripture was the fourth commandment, keeping the Sabbath changed?
- If it was changed, how could it be done without practicing lawlessness?
- Why is it we only keep the tithe law from the Old Testament and not the rest that was intended for us?
- Why do we keep Christmas and Easter and not the commanded feasts of God?
Using your head and not the “lies handed down from the fathers” (Jer 16:19) what do you read in scripture about the above? Please post comments and opinions below.
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