45 For I am Yahweh who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.’” Leviticus 11:45 (LSB)
The resistance in today’s version of the Church of Jesus Christ to commands such as the one above is rooted in rebellion. Yes, I know that is a blunt statement. Yes, I know that there are huge segments of the church in America that believe that the Old Testament is not for them. However, the truth does not stop being the truth simply because people refuse to believe it. I run into this quite a bit. I teach something or write something that is a clear command of God that we must obey, and someone will say or write something like, “well everyone knows that that can’t mean that because God isn’t like that.”….
Excuse me but since when does what people believe about God change what God is like or diminishes the veracity of His commands? I grew up in churches that were primarily doctrinally Dispensationalist. I won’t go into detail about that hermeneutic (that is all it is) because that is not what this post is about, but the end product of interpreting the Bible dispensationally separates the Bible into multiple dispensations that actually end up teaching that there are multiple ways to be saved depending upon which dispensation one is living in. The teaching that God’s commands to be Holy are irrelevant for the New Testament believer comes from this type of hermeneutic interpretation. I am sure you know by now that I am firm believer in Covenant Theology. Those of us who believe and teach that God is a covenant God know that the moral Law in the Old Testament is very much in effect and the commands to be Holy, to not murder, to not steal, et cetera are for all believers in every generation. Peter believed this as well. <continue reading post>