In response to your keeping of the 10 commandments, you state we are not under the Law of Moses. I do believe the Ten Commandments are the laws of God. Jesus states several times throughout the New Testament to keep the Father’s commandments and he also reiterated it again in the Revelation of Jesus Christ chapter 22. I say according to the Word of God, those who don't keep the commandments and listen to men who say we aren’t under the law are indeed in trouble. The same hold true with the Sabbath to keep it holy. Unfortunately people have again been misled according to MAN’S doctrine and not with Gods commandment. Gods word does not confuse anybody, only mans interpretation of it. God’s commandments and every word in the Bible are for all men and women and not for different cultures or religions of faith. Gods Word is Gods Word.
Answer
I agree that the Ten Commandments are laws of God. My argument was that the Bible clearly states that they were the laws of God for the Jewish people. I agree we are to keep the words of God that apply to us. The question is, what applies to us and what applies only to certain people? To say that the entire Bible applies in every particular to every person becomes ludicrous. Otherwise you come to the position that every individual must build a big boat because that is part of God’s word to Noah. “Make thee an ark of gopher wood.” (Genesis 6:14) If I only had one child, would I have to offer him on an altar in Jerusalem because of God’s command to Abraham? You may say these are ridiculous examples because it is clear that the command was specifically to Noah or Abraham. But you are the one who said every word is for all men and women.
To say that the Law of Moses, which includes the Ten Commandments, is binding on everyone today, you would have to show that it was binding on non-Jews at all times. Even the Law made distinctions between Israel and “strangers.” “And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof.” (Exodus 12:43) There were those who were expressly exempt from the law of Passover because they were not Jews. Gentiles were forbidden to enter the inner courts of the Temple. Paul was almost killed by the Jews because somebody claimed he had taken a Jew into the Temple. (Acts 21:16-31) So even under Torah, not all commands were for all men and women.
It is true that Jesus often made reference to the Law, and taught the Law. That is because he was a Jew, speaking to Jewish people. He had to keep the Law perfectly in order to be the sacrifice for sin. (Hebrews 9:12-14) (The verses that follow, incidentally, talk about him mediating a new covenant.) He had to keep the Law perfectly in order to be the sacrifice for the Jews. (Galatians 4:4-5)
If you insist that the Law of Moses is binding on non-Jews today, how do you explain Jesus’ saying he came to “fulfill” the Law (Matthew 5:17)? If you insist that the Law of Moses is binding on non-Jews today you have to reject most of the New Testament. You can’t accept the book of Hebrews, because it says we are under a better covenant, a new covenant (Hebrews 9:15). You can’t accept any of Paul’s writings because you have to reject the book of Galatians. If you reject any of Paul’s writings you have to reject them all. You can’t accept the writings of Luke because he tells in Acts 15 about a conference in which the Gentile Christians in Antioch were told that they didn’t have to be circumcised, or keep Sabbath or the other holidays of the Jews. You can’t accept the writings of James or Peter (and possibly the book of Mark), because Peter and James were mentioned by name in Acts 15 as saying that the Gentiles did not have to keep the Law of Moses. That leaves you with a New Testament consisting of the book of Judas (Jude), and possibly the writings of John.
The question of circumcision raised in Acts 15 and the book of Galatians is probably most problematic for you. The position of the apostles and James, and Paul, directly contradict the position you hold. They specifically state that non-Jewish Christians do not have to be circumcised. Yet you say that all the laws of God are for all people at all times. I’m sorry, but I prefer to pay attention to the writers of the New Testament.
I can accept that you probably don’t eat ham, that you keep Sabbath (which is much more involved than merely assembling on the Sabbath), and that you have been circumcised if you are a man. I would be interested in knowing whether you also wear the tallis, a four-cornered garment with tassels on it. I would imagine that you have a difficult time buying clothes that are not cotton/polyester blends. Where did you buy the shofar you are required to blow on Rosh HaShannah? (I bought mine through OneStopJudaica.com and paid as much for shipping as for the shofar itself.) Do you have pictures of your sukkos from last year? In what way are you working toward the rebuilding of a Temple in Jerusalem? I don’t mean for all this to sound belittling or sarcastic. I am just wondering how fully you keep the Law, since you say every bit of it applies to you.
I have no objection to your keeping the Law, although my understanding is that you do not have to if you are not of Jewish heritage. If you want to keep any or all of the Law (at least that can be kept without the presence of the Temple), that is up to you. My only problem is when you bind that on all non-Jews when the apostles and elders of the first-century church clearly said that the Law of Moses was not binding on them. I am under a new covenant, a new law. Wherein that covenant coincides with part of the old I obey. But that is not because it was part of the old covenant, but because it is part of the new.