If there is confusion or error relative to things of a spiritual nature, Satan is at the heart of the situation.  This Truth explains Christianity’s totally wrong beliefs relative to God’s Law.  As stated in the previous posting, those in the early church were taught about His two laws, why they were created and why one of them was nailed to the cross.  Because Satan has blinded the eyes of salvation seekers ever since, the vast majority of church people have not understood and still do not understand the Law situation.  This ministry was created to remove the blinders for those who have eyes to see and a heart to believe and obey what God shows them in His Holy Bible.  I trust that readers of this website have such eyes and hearts and will believe and obey what He tells them.  With that hope expressed, let us continue in His revelationary process.

As a reminder of the Apostle Paul’s message concerning JUSTIFICATION (not salvation) and the Law, I will repeat a foundational Truth: “by the works of (obedience to) the Law will no flesh (person) be JUSTIFIED.  Though the word “salvation” is not found in the book of Galatians, the words  “JUSTIFY” and “JUSTIFIED” are mentioned eight times.  This makes the subject of the letter perfectly clear.  But Satan has deceived billions of people into seeing “salvation” where God has written “JUSTIFICATION,” which are different acts that take place at different times in the lives of people who have met different requirements.  Church people usually use the the two words interchangeably, along with the word “conversion.”  However, they are three totally different words with totally different meanings that take place at different times.

In Galatians 3:1 Paul uses the word “bewitched” to describe the power Satan has over the church’s belief process.  Paul had earlier used the word “troubled” to describe the church’s confusion concerning the Law (1:7).  He also said that the false prophets whom the devil uses to “bewitch” and “trouble” church people are cursed by God.  The irony is that billions of people pay those whom God has cursed for bewitching and troubling them to bewitch and trouble them.  Only Satan could orchestrate this lunacy, then cause the people to reject the Lord’s written proof of the lunacy which He has placed in the Book they have with them while listening to their ear-scratching hirelings tell them that God’s proof is Satan’s lie.  And to top it all off, the Author of the lie has supposedly saved them!!  Truly, Satan has deceived the whole world (Rev. 12:9).

The Truth that JUSTIFICATION is attained only through faith is as old as mankind, as is God’s Gospel/Law/Truth.  In Galatians 3:8 we are told that “the Scripture (“the Word” who became Jesus of Nazareth–Jn. 1:1-4,14) preached the Gospel to Abraham, telling him that, for his descendants, JUSTIFICATION would be awarded only by faith.  In verses 10-13 Paul makes a statement that church people have used as undeniable “proof” that the Law was done away with, etc.  Here he states that to do the works of the law is to place oneself “under the curse,” that “no one is saved by the law,” that “the law is not of faith” and that church people have been “redeemed from the curse of the law.”  All of which is true.  The problems are: 1) the people confuse justification and salvation; 2) some believe that they are one and the same; 3) they confuse God’s moral (Ten Commandment) Law and His sacrificial law; 4) some believe that they are one and the same; and 4) they all “know” that the law (laws) was (were) “nailed to the cross.”

The Lord will now expose to the reader Satan’s deadly lie by taking him/her to a statement He placed in verse 19: “Wherefore then, what purpose did the (sacrificial) law serve?  IT WAS ADDED because of TRANSGRESSIONS” (sins).  By a careful reading of the episode recorded in Exodus one learns that the Israelites refused to obey the Ten Commandment Law the Lord had just given them.  Recall that “To transgress the Law is sin; for sin is the transgression of the Law” (1 Jn. 3:4).  Recall that Jesus (the Scripture/Word) preached the Gospel/Law to Abraham who was the forefather of the Israelites (Gal. 3:8), as well as all who would follow in His steps of faith and obedience (Rom. 4:12).  God is no respecter of persons.  What He requires of one He requires of all (Acts 10:34)–both Israelites and Gentiles.

Now let us turn to Deuteronomy 5 where we find Moses reminding the Israelites that God (the Word–Jesus Christ) had given them the Ten Commandments as a condensed form of His entire Law, which today involves the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation.  He had told them in an audible voice that obedience to “My voice”–the Law–would make them His people indeed.  In the first 21 verses of Deuteronomy 5 Moses repeats the Ten Commandments which informed  them (and all of mankind) exactly what God required of them in order to be His people.  Then in verse 22 Moses says something that explains why so much confusion exists relative to the two laws.  Once the Ten Commandments were completed, “HE ADDED NO MORE.”  Nothing more than the Ten Commandments was needed.  The people (then and now) had only to obey the Ten Commandments in order to remain in good standing with the Lord.  No other law or commandment was needed.  The Ten Commandment Law was perfect, complete.  So plain, so simple, so ignored by the whole of Christianity for 2,000 years.  Anyone can obey the Ten Commandment Law.  If, that is, anyone wants to obey it.  Few did then and few do now.  Sin, religious people have concluded, is much more fun than holiness.  If I remember correctly, God said something about sowing and reaping, something about wind and whirlwind.

Because the people rebelled against (transgressed) His Ten Commandment Law, God created the SACRIFICIAL LAW so that, if they would obey it, He would not kill all of them, which He threatened to do.  He did kill off everyone over the age of 20 during the next 40 years as they wandered in the Sinai desert.  Those who died in the desert were the adults who had “transgressed the Law” the Lord had given Moses in the form of stone-etched commandments.  Now back to Galatians chapter four.  Let us not forget that not even the church’s favorite verse–John 3:16–was written in stone.

In verses 1-5 Paul tells the Gentile converts that, like children who are heirs of what their parents would leave for them, the Old Testament Israelites were “under tutors and governors until the time appointed by their spiritual Father (God).”  Paul symbolizes this tutorial period as being “in bondage to the elements of the world.”  The church would remain heirs (“children”) until “the fullness of the time had come” for God to “send forth His Son, born under the tutorial (sacrificial) law, “to redeem those who were under that (tutorial/sacrificial) law.”  That officially took place on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. when the New Testament Church came into being.

Paul was writing to Gentiles who, having been converted to Christ, had been living under His Ten Commandment Law.  Now some in the church were telling them that they had to obey the tenants of the sacrificial law in order to be JUSTIFIED.  They were being told that their supposed “justification by faith” was a false justification (the forgiveness of all past sins) and that they must offer blood sacrifices in order to be correctly JUSTIFIED (which the modern church has confused with salvation).  Many within the early church were believing Satan’s false prophets.  In verses 9,10 Paul tells those being “troubled” and “bewitched” by self-proclaimed “ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:13-15) that: “A little leaven leavens the whole loaf,” meaning that it only takes a few to corrupt the many.  “I (Paul) have confidence in you that, with the Lord’s help, you will not allow the corrupters to affect your minds, and that they will be judged according to the damage they have caused.”

In Galatians 4:8-10 we find a statement that Satan has used to turn billions of people away from the Lord by confusing the Law issue.  This is a classic example of God’s “fine print,” which the church masses have ignored because it would prove that their theology is wrong.  It doesn’t get any “finer” than what Paul wrote to those who were (are) seeking to gain JUSTIFICATION–not salvation, as we are incorrectly and repeatedly informed from pulpit and podium.  Here God, through Paul, says this: “… when you (converted Gentiles) did not know God you served and obeyed those who WERE NOT GODS.  But now, after you have known God, and are known by God, you want to TURN BACK to those weak and beggarly gods and to be in bondage to them AGAIN.”  Note it: these Gentiles had been in bondage to false gods before they came to the Lord, before they had been taught His Law and how to obey it.  Now they were desiring to RETURN to their old gods and AGAIN be in “bondage” to THEM.  In verse 10 we find Paul stating something that supposedly offers “proof” that God’s Holy Days are no longer to be celebrated.  He condemns those who have returned to their former gods by saying, “You observe days and months and times and years.”  The church uses this statement to do away with God’s weekly Sabbath along with His other Holy Days.

But let us remember that these were people who were returning to gods they had worshiped and obeyed BEFORE COMING TO CHRIST.  Contrary to church opinion, he was not referring to the Old Testament Law (the Torah) which the Ten Commandments did NOT do away with.  Nowhere are we told that God’s Holy Day commands were nullified by Christ’s death.  Recall that Jesus said: “I did NOT come to destroy the Law or the (writings of) the prophets” (Mat. 5:17).  Let us also remember that the New Testament Church was “founded on the (teachings of) “the PROPHETS and apostles” (Eph. 2:22), that the writings of the prophets were preserved to serve as “our examples upon whom the ends of the world have come (I Cor. 10:11).  Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come earth to “magnify the Law and make it honorable (again)” (42:21).  Notice that The Ten Commandments said nothing about doing away with the Holy Days.  Recall that God commanded the Israelites to observe the Passover every year on a particular day “FOREVER” (Exo. 12:14).  Recall that by that time “Israel” included a “multitude” of Gentiles who, having become spiritual Israelites, were required to obey their God (Exo. 38).  The same commands applied to all of the Lord’s Holy Days and still do.  Note in the Book of Acts how many times Paul said that he wanted to be in certain cities on certain Holy Days.  Why, if not to celebrate those days with the churches in those cities?  Please read God’s Holy Days for more clarification relative to that subject.  Key word–Days.

Instructions for downloading a series are found under NOTICE in the Introduction to this website.  A list of the website’s series and their key words is available for the asking.  To receive a list of series titles simply email me at LPJ4142@gmail.com   Having sent the list I will not contact the recipient unless asked to do so.

In the next posting we will turn to Paul’s letter to the church at Rome which, we have been told by Satan’s false prophets, puts an end to the Law question.  Indeed it does, but not in the way the counterfeit church proclaims.  In fact, the Book of Romans proves that IN ORDER TO RECEIVE SALVATION UPON THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST ONE MUST OBEY GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENT LAW IN LETTER AND SPIRIT.  L.J.