Comment Response: Just How Do We Handle Levitical Law?

First, I would like to say "thank you" to all of you who have posted comments on my blog! I really do look forward to reading them - even if you disagree with me. To anyone who has not posted, but has read this blog, please feel free to post a comment (you can do it anonymously)! If you have any questions or want me to expound further on anything I will do my best, but please post your comments!

Ok, now to reply to a comment from my "A Line in the Sand -- Marriage" post. The comment was a little on the sarcastic side, but that is not a problem. The commenter and I have talked and there are no hard feelings! I would like to respond to the arguments in the post. The contents bring up a good question - just what do we do with the Old Testament Laws?

First and foremost, I need to make clear my post was only defending against the redefining of marriage. You mess with that and you are tampering with a tenant of my faith. That is why I drew that line, not to attack or to offend, just to defend. Second, what most people do not realize is that the Bible is a "progressive revelation." The theologian, Charles Hodge, explained it like this:

"The progressive character of divine revelation is recognized in relation to all the great doctrines of the Bible. What at first is only obscurely intimated is gradually unfolded in subsequent parts of the sacred volume, until the truth is revealed in its fullness."

Ok, now back to how we handle the Old Testament Law. There are three classifications we can put the laws: civil law, sacrificial law, and moral law. There are also three different ways in which we can handle the laws.

1. We can throw out the civil and the sacrificial laws, but keep the moral laws. We can throw out the civil laws because these were established for the the Nation of Israel - the laws were for those people at that time. The sacrificial laws can be tossed out because Christ was the sin forgiving sacrifice and so ended the old covenant of sacrifices and started the new covenant. We are then left with the moral laws, also known as the Ten Commandments.
   
2. We throw out all of the Old Testament (OT) Laws. All the OT Laws are out, unless the New Testament (NT) says they still apply. We are then left with nine of the Ten Commandments. The command about the Sabbath no longer applies because Jesus said he was our Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:9-10).
3. Lastly, we keep all the OT Laws. All the OT laws still apply, unless the NT says they do not. Again, we are left with nine of the Ten Commandments.

So, no matter how you deal with the OT Laws, you are still left with the Moral Law. But you may ask "why should we even look at the OT Laws if they no longer apply?" By looking back at the laws we can see God's attitude toward us and Himself; we can learn from the principle.

I will now respond to a couple of the specific points:

"My Dad would like to sell me into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for me?"

First of all, we need to establish what slavery is, as I have said in posts past, meanings of words change throughout history. OT and NT slavery is not what we think of slavery today, it was more like indentured servanthood (similar to employee/employer), not like the slave trade that we know of. Secondly, if we look at the context of this verse it talks about the correct treatment of slaves.

"Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?"

Again, as stated before, context, context, context. When you look at the context and understand the reasoning of this verse you see that God wants His people set apart. The practices that were forbidden were what the pagan cultures were doing and Israel was to have nothing to do with it.

My view of the Bible is as such: it is the inerrant, infallible, inspired, and sufficient Word of God. This is my presupposition. As I said before, when reading the Bible you cannot just "cherry-pick" or just pull out one verse to make your argument unless you have check the surrounding verses for the context.


--The Wretch