Pedro Melendez

Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ had prophesied: “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). [See: Beware of False Prophets and Predestination.]

The future time in which this alarming prophecy was to take place is explained in verses 1-3. The disciples of Jesus had pointed out to Him the buildings of the temple in Jerusalem. [This temple, rebuilt by Zerubbabel after it had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:8-17; Ezra 3:8-6:15), is known as the “second temple.” Later this temple was refurbished and embellished by King Herod (as John 2:20 indicates and as Josephus writes in his Wars of the Jews, Book I, Chapter XXI, Section 1). This was the temple in Jesus’ day. The first or original temple, which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed, was that built during King Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 5-6).]

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“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  (Galatians 6:1-2, NKJV)

Many who read and profess to believe in the Bible take the above-quoted verse to mean that, for Christians, only “the law of Christ” needs to be observed — as against the “law of Moses” (the Old Testament).  In fact, for a long time it had been the practice of many evangelical organizations to issue in their mission fields only the New Testament (with perhaps the Old Testament books of The Psalms and The Proverbs added at the end of the New Testament copies).  [See: Moses and Jesus — Are They Contraries?].

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“My poor child, you didn’t have to keep the Sabbath anymore. Why, you’ve carried a burden which I had come to ease! You made it difficult not only for yourself; you hindered others from accepting My gospel because your Sabbath-keeping was a stumbling block to them.”

That’s how, more or less, some would imagine Jesus Christ, on Judgment Day, as saying to His follower who insists on keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, now that Jesus has already, supposedly, “fulfilled” it by being our “Sabbath” — our rest. 

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Most people who have read the Christian Bible believe that “the Feasts” mentioned in Leviticus 23 are the feasts of — and for — the Jews and the Israelites. These people consider these feasts  a part of obsolete rules meant only for Israelites but not for Gentile converts to the faith of Jesus of Nazareth. The seventh-day Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths or holy days, listed in this chapter of Leviticus, are summarily classed as “ceremonial” and are tossed out the window, as have been circumcision and the sacrificial system of Israel. [See: Freed From Bondage.]

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Many Bible students have looked at the apostle Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 3:17 (“…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty“) and have taken this to mean liberty from having to obey God’s law — particularly the commandments, statutes and judgments which God gave to Israel through Moses.  “Free from the law!” (Romans 8:2), exult many who profess belief in Christ, thinking that they have been freed from these requirements.  But the sad reality — when we come to understand The Whole Counsel of God — is that these students have so concluded without really understanding what Paul meant by the “law” which Christians are freed from.

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Among the doctrines of the Christian faith, one of “the most puzzling and least understood” is said to be the doctrine of predestination — and understandably so. Over the decades people have debated, often heatedly, issues involved in this doctrine.The doctrine has polarized those who, on the one hand, smugly believe they have been “predestined” by God for salvation while others have been “predestined” to damnation, and those who, on the other hand, cannot believe in a God who seems incomprehensibly capricious and arbitrary, showing “favoritism.”

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Today almost a third of the world’s population professes belief in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. How sure are these people — and those who watch their lives from different religious angles — that Jesus is indeed their Lord? If you say you are a Christian, how sure are you that Jesus is really and truly your Lord? Only a few questions are as important to your salvation as this one!

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“Impairment of the ability to read, often as the result of genetic defect or brain injury,” thus Webster’s New World Dictionary defines “dyslexia.”

Dyslexic or dyslectic persons often misread words by interchanging letters or combinations of letters — or even whole words and phrases. Thus, for example, such a person might read “not” as “ton” (or vice-versa), “hobo” as “boho,” etc. Or this one-liner by Stewart Francis: “I read that ten out of two people are dyslexic.”

When it comes to spiritual matters, there is also impairment in man’s ability to read the Word of God, the Holy Bible. That is, with man’s natural reason alone, man often misreads God’s Word. The irony is that most people read books on such matters as the sciences and are generally agreed about what the books mean. But not so with God’s Word. It seems like some spiritual “genetic defect” or “brain injury” has been passed on to all mankind from our first parents, Adam and Eve. [See: “Your Eyes Will Be Opened!”]

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Long, long before Jesus warned that false prophets would arise during our time (Matthew 24:11, 24) — and long, long before the apostle Peter warned about the same threat to true Christian believers (2 Peter 2:1-2) — there had been many false prophets in Israel (and in the world, for that matter).

“But there were false prophets also among the people [the ancient nation of Israel] even as there will be false teachers among you [God’s Church], who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber” (2 Peter 2:1-5, NKJV throughout, unless otherwise stated).

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“No walls, no ceiling…,” cried a plaintive 1970s song. It expressed a longing for freedom from restrictions and inhibitions that many in our modern world feel hemmed in by. Indeed, the words “liberty” and “liberation” have been used to explain some definition of “freedom” which people want, or which Jesus Christ is supposed to have brought to sinners. “Limitless” or “unlimited,” a word bandied about by mobile phone service providers and by some restaurants, expresses the idea. So does the wish or boast: “without borders” or “beyond borders.”

The question is: Is there never a place for walls and ceilings – for limits or borders — in our lives? What is God’s Word on this?

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