Religion and Gay Marriages

[jegs2]

Found the following:


1 Cor 8:1-9
1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
3 But the man who loves God is known by God.
4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.
5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"),
6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
(NIV)

Paul deals with examples of what was considered sin by Jewish law. There is also the following:


Acts 15:5-11
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question.
7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.
8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."
(NIV)

Those passages seem to deal with circumcision, but they may also have meant other Jewish law. The point the apostles were making was that nobody was Saved by obeying the law, but rather through faith in Chirst.

[LadyTevar]

Okay, is there a similar passage explicitly declaring that it's now OK for a farmer to plant two kinds of seed in one field?

I don't know -- honestly haven't thought about that one, but I'll try to find out...

This is the verse to which you refer:


Lev 19:19
19 "'Keep my decrees. "'Do not mate different kinds of animals. "'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. "'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.
(NIV)

My initial analysis is that those laws were intended only for the theocracy/kingdom of Israel, but that is by no means certain. Most of us wear clothing woven of two or more types of material.

I was once told in college that these verses were meant for the 40yrs wandering in the desert, when such rules could be seen as survival-based.

Lev 19:5-8 talks about offering a 'peace sacrifice' to the Lord, and that if any of it is uneaten (by the household? by the priests?) after 3 days, throw it in the fire.
Lev 19:26 reads in part 'Don't eat bloody meat'.

I don't know about you, but even cooked meat when has been laying out for three days in 90-100+ temperatures I'd be wary of eating, and as for clotted blood? EEEEWwwwwwwwww.. I've seen roadkill in July! Think of the flies!

Lev 19:23-25 says that "When you come into the land" plant trees for food, but don't touch them for 4 years. On the 5th year, you may eat your fill.

Good idea! Let the tree mature so you get a good crop!

As for the 'mixed seed'.. well, would you want to plant your crops only to find that half your seeds were from weeds?

[LadyTevar]

What we must also remember is that each church Paul wrote to was started by different disciples, who like many sects today, had different opinions on how best to worship. Many of them, like the Corinthians, were more Gentile than Jewish in membership. Paul was trying to bring them all together under one basic set of rules... which may be why he's called the First Pope Thus, by amending the Jewish law in his letters, he manages to meld Gentile and Jew together into a whole.