MOSES LAW FROM GOD OVERRIDES CIVIL LAW

God supposedly gave Moses the Law with which to govern the people and their religion.

According to many, God was head of state over the people of Israel because Moses and the priesthood consulted with him regarding legal and political issues and he gave commands. Judges did not make their own rules but enforced God’s rules. God was in the place of a king and since God should be king of the world it follows that all nations should be ruled by God. God being king makes the system one that can be extended no bother for God is king and he is everywhere. It would be more awkward if men ruled for God and God did not act like a king and speak for himself.

Perhaps the Law was only for Israel for Israel was a theocracy? It is perhaps true that the Israelites set up a theocracy. If so, this theocratic rule extended to Israelites and believers who were out of Israel as well. The pope rules Catholics no matter where they are and has a theocracy in the Vatican City. God gave Israel the law but put officials in charge to administer it. The Hebrew religion not God was the head of state.   

The people consented to be subjects of the Law of Moses which was the law that ruled them as the citizens of his kingdom on earth. Moses read the laws of God to them and they said they would do all it contained. God did not impose his Law on the people so it was a democratic choice. Exodus 19:5,6 is used to prove that God imposed his will on the people but it does not say that at all. The people were to be true to God and God would be true to them so it was their choice. The people were asked for their consent meaning God would have found another people for his Law if they hadn’t so the Law had to something that all nations should ideally observe for they had got the Law revealed to them by them.
 
The Lord once he got their consent commanded that the factions of Israel be kept in line by force. If a part of the people wanted to break away and adore idols they had to be utterly destroyed. Nobody was allowed to leave. When people who believe that God is bad and pagan gods are better have to be forced to stay in Israel or be destroyed it is clear that it would be inconsistent to hold that the Law is for Israel alone when people who had separated by schism and ceased to be Israel were still persecuted and forced.

The Jews were wandering through different territories and different legal jurisdictions for they were a wandering people at the time God made the law of executing killers, homosexuals, adulterers and witches and indeed the whole Law. This means the Law of killing has to be obeyed no matter what the civil jurisdictions think. It means that the Law is to be obeyed even if the state forbids it. This shows that other civil jurisdictions were regarded as contemptible. God wants people to have law so it follows he wanted them to have the Jewish law only.
 
Look at the following argument. “Revelation 13 has the antichrist ruling the world one day. The doctrine of Armageddon infers that the world will be run by people who hate God and who oppose his people. Armageddon is the final battle between good and evil on earth and implies that evil has taken over and seeks to finally eradicate good at Armageddon. Both suggest that Christians are not to try and take over the world (page 45, Whatever Happened to Heaven?).”
 
This is crazy because God could want Christians to try even if the Antichrist will be the winner. The Antichrist will try to destroy the faith and the Christians don’t see that as a reason for sitting back and letting things take their course.
 
Jesus Christ and John Calvin argued that the ten commandments, in the Law of God, say more than they seem and they all advocate love. Both men taught that love was the essence of the Law of God. Jesus said that you shall not murder meant you shall not be angry with your brother. That is like murder in your heart. Calvin said that the commandment is equal to love your neighbour as yourself. It is just another way of saying this. Jesus doubtlessly would have agreed (page 81, GOD A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED Keith Ward, OneWorld, Oxford, 2003). Calvin argued that the first commandment which says not to worship anything but God and not to bow down before images of God means that God is to be adored and loved and trusted and thanked and that we must not think we can represent God adequately in our imagination or by using images. To bow down before an image of God is paying homage to an inadequate picture of him. It is honouring the perception you have of God and not God himself and is the sin of idolatry. The New Testament makes it clear that Christians should obey the commandments and love their neighbour. Clearly the commandments are for the whole world. The other commandments of the Law that are not in the ten commandments are endorsed in the ten commandments for the other commandments decree how God is to be worshipped and served. So the ten commandments by implication require the whole Jewish law to be kept by the whole world.

Calvin claimed that the commandment to keep the sabbath day which is in the ten commandments means not so much keep one day a week for rest and worship but to worship and rest in the Lord all the time, every day (GOD A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED Keith Ward, OneWorld, Oxford, 2003). By rest, Calvin does not mean sitting around doing nothing leaving it all for God to do. He means that we work for God yes but believing it is all his work and we are doing nothing. It is God working in and through us. The first commandment that we must adore God alone and trust him alone takes care of Calvin's point. He stretched the interpretation of the Sabbath commandment too far. God wants one day kept for literal rest and for literal worship. God certainly demands that he be worshipped all the time not just on the Sabbath and we can worship God while washing the floor. So the command to keep the Sabbath day certainly indicates a duty to attend public worship.
 
 
WORKS CONSULTED

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Christ’s Literal Reign on Earth From David’s Throne at Jerusalem, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, undated
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Essentials, David L Edwards and John Stott, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1990
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, Uta Ranke-Heinmann, Penguin Books, London, 1991
God’s Festivals and Holy Days, Herbert W Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God, California, 1992
Hard Sayings Derek Kidner InterVarsity Press, London, 1972
Jesus the Only Saviour, Tony and Patricia Higton, Monarch, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 1993
Kennedy’s Murder, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1964
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Radio Replies Vol 2, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1940
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Set My Exiles Free, John Power, Logos Books, MH Gill & Son Ltd, Dublin, 1967
Storehouse Tithing, Does the Bible Teach it? John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1954
Sunday or Sabbath? John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, 1943
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The Encyclopaedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason W Archer, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1982
The Enigma of Evil, John Wenham, Eagle, Guildford, Surrey, 1994
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The Plain Truth about Easter, Herbert W Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God, California, 1957
The Sabbath, Peter Watkins, Christadelphian Bible Mission, Birmingham
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The World Ahead, November December 1998, Vol 6, Issue 6
Theodore Parker’s Discourses, Theodore Parker, Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer, London, 1876
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THE WEB

The Law of Moses: Is It Valid Today?
www.ark_of_salvation.orgJewish_law.htm

The Law of Moses and the Law of Christ by Arnold Fruchtenbaum
 www.ariel.org/ff00006c.html

Is Old Testament Law for New Testament Christians
www.souldevice.org/writings_law_gospel.html