The last time I said those words they generated a laugh from the one to whom I was speaking.  The recipient of my message is not alone.  Much of the world, including the church world, views God’s original written Will and Testament as a singular, restrictive, demanding, polarizing, segregating series of no-option commands designed to appeal to only the most dogmatic originalists who are living in the distant past.  Such was the mind-set of the Old Testament prophets who took the Lord’s Word literally and preached His commands to all who sought after the unseen dictator Who ruled every aspect of their lives.  One pillar of “the church” asked me how I could honor and obey the God Who had orchestrated all the blood-letting written about in the Old Testament?  His accuser was thankful that He had stepped down and turned religion over to His Son.

Church consensus holds that everything changed when God created the New Testament Church and gave His more loving, sensitive and understanding Son total control over it.  Having rejected His Father’s dictatorial, “My way only” method of rulership, Jesus allowed man to have a major say in how he would conduct his life.  Church people contend that Jesus has replaced His iron-fisted Father’s Old Testament book of commands and punishments with an all-inclusive, self-determined, “any way you want it” religious smorgasbord of grace-based options called the New Testament.  The problem with that theory is that it is nowhere found in God’s Word, which Jesus defined as Truth in John 17:17.  However, that theology IS found in Satan’s version of  God’s Truth known as “church doctrine,” which is commonly known as “… what my church teaches” or “… what I have always believed.”  Satan’s desire is for well-meaning church people to believe that the Old Testament is simply a book of restrictions and warnings relative to breaking God’s Law.  Satan’s version of the New Testament allows man to conduct his life according to his desires.  Not just wrong, but deadly wrong.  This series will prove that both Testaments were written by a loving God to the object of His affection–mankind.

Is the New Testament a refutation–a setting aside–of the Old Testament?  Did Jesus come to earth with a new system of religion that changed everything?  Were the two testaments meant to be separated with one replacing the other?  Is the entire Bible the work of one God Who was writing to one group of people?  Were there two Gods with two different plans for the present and future lives of two different groups of people?  Read The God of the Old Testament.  Use the key word “Testament.”  Each of those questions requires a separate series to answer.  The subject at hand involves God’s Words to mankind.  Those Words were recorded by His prophets and apostles (Eph. 2:20/ 1 Cor. 10:11) and condensed into Ten Commandments.  The question is: why was the Old Testament presented in the form of raw, strict, dictatorial orders–“COMMANDments”?  Commands denote no options, no exceptions, no alternatives–one way only.  Dictators issue commands.  Is God a dictator?  How could God be a dictator and love those to whom He dictates?  Doesn’t love require persuasion, not dictation?

Readers of this website know that Jesus commanded those who would be part of His Father’s church to obey the same commandments issued to their ancient ancestors by their God.  The only exception involved the blood-sacrificing, ritual- following law issued by Moses.  That law was put in place because people refused to obey the Ten Commandments (Gal. 3:19).  Note in Deuteronomy 5:22 that, after giving the Israelites the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai, God “added no more.”  The sacrificial law was installed later and was a stop-gap measure which would allow the sinning Israelites to remain alive so that the Lord could fulfill His promises to Abraham.  Relative to God’s original Ten Commandment rules of engagement, has anything changed?  Those questions are also answered on this website.  Back to the question of what the Holy Bible is all about.  As is the case with anything God does, there was a reason for His writing and preserving it.  We will find that the reason can be summed up in one word: LOVE.

“For God so loved the world ….”  What did He do to show His great love for man?  Yes, He did send His Son to die for all mankind.  But that was not all He did.   One more act had to be done by Him in order to give Christ’s life, death and resurrection meaning to mankind.  Question: how do we know that Jesus came to earth and died for the sins of mankind?  How do we know how to relate to Him?  How do we know the outcomes of having either a good or a bad relationship with Him?  There is only one source of information concerning God, Christ, Their work, its purpose, man’s relationship with Them, etc.–THE HOLY BIBLE.  Without that written and preserved Word man would know NOTHING about the things of the spirit.  Without the Bible the church would not exist; there would be no way to know anything about the spiritual past, present or future of man.  Proof–check the religious beliefs, practices, etc. of those who have no access to the Truth.  Do any of them worship the Biblical God, or His Christ?  Do any of them know the name “by which we we must be saved?”  They do not.  They worship various other things such as the sun, rock formations, planets, animals, ancestors, etc.  God tells us in Hebrews 8:10,11 that one day “all will know Me, from the least to the greatest.”  And why will men know God?  Because He will “… put my Laws (commandments) into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be a God to them and they will be My people.”  Note it: God repeatedly tells us that we can only KNOW God by having His Law written in our hearts and obeying it.

If I promised to give you a beautiful, exquisitely furnished house, but under one condition: YOU MUST PAINT IT.  Would I not have the right to command that you paint it EXACTLY ACCORDING TO MY EXACT SPECIFICATIONS?  And if you failed to do EXACTLY AS I COMMANDED YOU, would I not have the right to rescend the promise?  Of course I would have those rights.  God gave His Son, who voluntarily underwent incredible torture and a horrendous death to provide salvation for mankind.  DO THEY NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO COMMAND ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE TO THEIR LAW IN ORDER TO RECEIVE WHAT HAS BEEN SO PAINFULLY OBTAINED?  DO THEY NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO AWARD THE PRIZE OF ETERNAL LIFE ONLY TO THOSE WHO OBEY THEIR COMMANDS IN THIS LIFE?  DO THEY NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DECIDE WHO RECEIVES THE PRIZE?  Of course They do, and They promise to exercise those rights.  So says Jesus Christ throughout the New Testament time and time again, as this website repeatedly proclaims.

The Godhead (Father and Son) did not have to allow man to spend eternity with Them in paradise–the ultimate love gift.  But They chose to do so.  Why?  Because of Their great love for man.  Come, let us reason together.  Because They paid the ultimate price to redeem man, They have the right to demand certain things from man in order to qualify to receive Their blood-bought gift?  THE BIBLE, THEIR BOOK OF COMMANDS, SIMPLY TELLS MAN HOW TO RECEIVE THE ULTIMATE GIFT FROM THEM.  THEIR COMMANDS (LAW–RULES OF ENGAGEMENT) ARE DESIGNED TO SHOW MAN HOW TO RECEIVE THAT GIFT.  WHAT GREATER LOVE IS THERE?  JESUS SAID THAT GREATER LOVE HAS NO MAN, THAN TO LAY DOWN ONE’S LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.  HE SAID THAT ONLY THOSE WHO “… DO WHATSOEVER I COMMAND YOU” ARE HIS FRIENDS (JN. 15:13,14).  HIS COMMANDS/LAW OF LOVE CLEARLY REVEAL THE PATH ONE MUST WALK IN ORDER TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM.  HE DIED IN ORDER TO CREATE THAT PATH, TOLD US IN WRITING HOW TO WALK IT, THEN PROVIDED THE HOLY SPIRIT TO EMPOWER US TO WALK IT.  IF THAT ISN’T LOVE, THEN I DO NOT KNOW WHAT LOVE IS.  L.J.