One would think it bizarre if religious people stood around watching their leaders execute and silence people for asking questions, for expressing their opinions, or for rejecting the religious dogma. So why isn’t it bizarre? What is happening in the major religions in the twenty first century is beyond bizarre.  If the essential tenet is the one God idea and if the One true God is to be distinguished from the false gods by his love, compassion, and justice why have we been playing around with government regulation of thought?  Asaph affirmed, in one of his songs (Psalm 80), that God, if he  were hungry, would not ask us humans for food.  It is absurd and futile for us to think that God does not have the means to impress individuals with his call and generosity. In the religious movements and cultures of our times there is so little proof of edification and uncontrived unity that the manipulation and sabotage of spiritual health are conceived as normal and the real authority labelled as rebellion and disloyalty.

16) But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes And to take My covenant in your mouth? 17) For you hate discipline, And you cast My words behind you. (Psalms 50:16-17, NASB)

Shush already about truth

Many cultures are practically divorced from morality and decency because what is important to most nations is not faith and hope and love, but military and financial success.  Misogyny, xenophobia and national cultures are not sustaining truths, and people can find no rationale for them.   Governments change and they change the tone of culture and progress. We actually love our own silos of truth, so much that we defend them passionately. If the curiosity of an infidel like me about Mecca ‘s holiness could be answered hospitably would that not be light years ahead of anti-Muslim immigration policy, such as preferred by the Republican party of United States?

No sustainable development without courageous parenting

Prayer in schools, compulsory public expressions of piety are poor substitutes for conscientious parents.  Yeshua of Nazareth is a good example of how the home is the ideal place for shaping great public servants.  When he was 12 years old he had the experts in the temple in Jerusalem scratching their heads over his questions.  No temple, mosque, synagogue or church will ever be credited for creating a society where people give heed to what is good.  Even now they are debating about what goodness is.  It is not the blah blah blah of our sages, but the things God has demonstrated:  doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with your supreme interest (Micah 6:8). If Mary and Joseph had trained their son to say yes to everything the scribes, ruling priests, and elders said, Judaism would be a dried up dead sea. The Nazarene is to be credited with pouring hot water down the rabbit holes of Mosaic tradition. There was no way for Judaism to continue dominating the lives of the Jewish people after the corruption of the temple services and the dishonesty of the scribes had been detected and exposed.

Redemption of failed systems

What are Christians saying about Christ when they adopt the prophetic tradition of Judaism? After reading Paul’s experience in Asia Minor or the plight of believers in Judea there is nothing left of the Mosaic legacy for anyone to follow. On the weirdest fringe are people who try to bring to life the rituals of the levitical priesthood and the ordinances of the civic regime that characterized Old and New Testament times, even when Moses himself announced that a person would arise who would call the shots in Israel-Judah. When the chosen badge is a diet or a holy day one has to wonder if people understand the difference between holiness and childish handrails.

“Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.”

1 Corinthians 13:8

Childish things are not nebulous practices all humans experience. They are the practices of the Jewish people in the Mosaic legacy.

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.

Galatians 4:1-3

Elementary principles (stoicheia, στοιχεία) to be discarded (Galatians 4:10)

• observe days
• observe months
• observe seasons
• observe years
• submitting to decrees, such as “Do not handle”
• submitting to decrees, such as “Do not taste”
• submitting to decrees, such as “Do not touch!”

All of these (stoicheia) are to be understood as purely matters of the perishable and must be classed as anthropoid commandments and teachings (Colossians 2:22, NASB). Surely they sound good, but “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly (also “carnal”, as opposite “spiritual”) indulgence.” (Colossians 2:23, NASB)

Authority and Sabotage

I hope the consistent use of literature and the institutionalization of offices like prophet and apostle by all the modern movements related to the Bible does not amount to wool over our eyes. No modern movement is authorized to define the gospel. Once they have manipulated scriptures relating to creation, the Mosaic Legacy, the Kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of Judah, the exile, the restoration and corruption in New Testament times, they think they will have arrived at the point where they can say they are the authority, “Do not ask us any questions; we tell you what the truth is”. Then everything is topsy turvy, grace is law, faith is works, love is isolated holiness, righteousness is doing all God has spoken, the cross is phase one of salvation, and the Lamb of God is a levitical priest.

Let’s make no mistake about the gospel or our faith, because there is one version. The church is not broken nor is the gospel in need of a 2.0. We need to know that our salvation is a common heritage, and we are contending earnestly for a faith which was once for all handed down to the saints (Jude 3, NASB). Nothing happens to change the gospel, our salvation or our faith.