Dear Mike,

Your article was great and inspiring. I started looking for answers, because my church and so many others keep saying, “We are not under law but under grace.” This statement is used to excuse even the sins referred to in the New Testament. But yet, in the same breath, “Let’s listen to the worship team while collecting tithes and offerings.”

When I started looking into just scripture, I started to see the wrong but wasn’t sure of myself, so I started looking online for answers. I came upon a Messianic Jew site, and they insist that if you are truly saved and have the Spirit, you will abide by the OT laws, except the ceremonial, because there isn’t a temple. In other words, they insist, through Romans and Jesus’ statement in Mark, that the Law is not abolished. They say that you are still required to wear the tzitzit, etc. They also use what Paul says he does in Acts, where he shaved his head to prove that he wasn’t preaching against circumcision, to prove that the Law wasn’t abolished. The Messianics insist that Paul and the other Apostles still followed Jewish custom and that, if they did it, that proves that the law is still valid, otherwise Paul would be guilty of false teachings.

Your article is so awesome, but I am still confused. The Messianics make a good argument for obedience to the Old Testament, but people like you make a good argument not to obey it. I have two children, 6 and 9, and I don’t even know if I should teach them the Bible, because I don’t understand it. I thought that I was saved because, in my heart, I want to please God and love and appreciate Jesus so much, but at the same time, if I truly had the Spirit, would I be so confused? I want to go to heaven, and I want my kids to also, but I don’t know how to teach them if I am so unsure.

Thanks and Blessings,

S____

Hi S_____,

There has never yet been, in the history of mankind, a single person who was not confused when he first began his walk with God. This is referred to in scriptures as a “wilderness” experience. It is typified by Israel’s ‘wilderness’ experience.

I wish I could make it easier for you, but God is the one calling the shots. You will come through this period, and you will be matured and strong in Christ and His Word, because you are being forced and challenged to “search the scriptures to see whether these things be so.”

Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Act 17:12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.

Moses spent 40 years in the ‘wilderness’ of Midian before God called him to lead Israel out of Egypt.

Act 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

Right after His baptism, when he heard the voice of the Father tell Him, “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” even Christ had to endure a “wilderness” experience and be tried of the devil. Every temptation presented by the Adversary was preceded with a challenge to what Christ had just been told by His Father:” If you be the Son of God…” But notice who it was that “drove” Christ into the wilderness:

Mar 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
Mar 1:11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Mar 1:12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. Mar 1:13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

You may not yet realize it, but we must all contend with ‘wild beasts; and the angels will [ also] minister unto [ us].’

Your experience is typified by Paul’s three days of total blindness, followed by his time spent in the “wilderness of Arabia.”

Gal 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

I suggest that you read Christ and The Torah. Also read Rightly Dividing The Word. Your confusion is as temporary as Paul’s blindness. When you have come through this experience, you will have no doubt what to teach your children.

In the meantime, remember James:

Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

This is “all of God”. When you can, read After The Counsel of His Own Will. You will see clearly that it is really God who is calling all of the shots. He is on your side. You cannot lose.

Mike