Hi my name's Fa— Ah! Ha ha ha!
Hi my name—
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
You know, often times if you're a Bible reader,
if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in Scripture and the Word of God,
oftentimes people will say,
How can you believe in the Old Testament because there are these Old Testament laws?
You don't seem to be paying attention to all of the Old Testament laws.
It seems like you're kind of cherry-picking the laws you like
and you're ignoring all these other laws in the Old Testament that you don't like.
If you're going to follow any of them, you have to follow all of them.
That's a fantastic question. It's a really great challenge
and I think a lot of Christians they don't know how to respond to it.
So here's some thoughts.
Well, let's go back to Pope Benedict XVI.
He wrote a book called Jesus of Nazareth and in that book, he's looking at the Old Testament.
He was able to kind of break down— he pointed out that Scripture scholars
are able to break down the Old Testament laws into kind of two different kinds of laws.
There's what he called the apodictic laws and the casuistic laws.
The apodictic laws are those that are given by God.
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not kill.
The casuistic laws are like case-based, right?
So there's if so-and-so does such and such, then here's the consequence.
So apodictic laws and casuistic laws.
The apodictic law— so those commands that are meant to be the commands for all times and all people in all places.
The casuistic laws are, by their definition, are case-by-case— they're contextualized.
Now here's how I make sense of this.
When I read the Old Testament, you can really pretty quickly discern
that the Old Testament commands or laws
fall into what I would say three different categories.
Now I know Pope Benedict said two: apodictic and casuistic but
but let's make it simple. I'm not a very smart guy, so let's just make it as clear as possible.
There are your Kingdom laws, having to do with life in the Kingdom of Israel.
There are your temple laws, having to do with worship in the temple.
And then, there's your moral laws or what Pope Benedict would say apodictic—
those big commands for all times, in all places and all people.
So, why don't we listen to all these? Why don't we follow all of these?
Well, you'd say this. Okay, Kingdom laws.
How come we don't follow the Kingdom laws for the Kingdom of Israel?
Well, that's because the Kingdom of Israel doesn't exist anymore.
As an example, right here out the window on the road, it's a 30 mile an hour speed limit.
That's the law.
When the state of Minnesota ceases to exist— I'm not saying that is happening anytime soon
but time goes on, kingdoms rise and fall—
when Minnesota ceases to exist, the speed limit out here will no longer be 30 miles an hour.
That law will cease to be in effect because the context of the law will cease to exist.
The kingdom, the state will cease to exist.
Same thing when it comes to the Old Testament.
Those Kingdom laws have ceased to be in effect because the Kingdom has ceased to exist.
Same thing is true when it comes to temple laws.
The temple doesn't exist. It was destroyed in like 70 AD
and therefore because of that, the laws regarding worship and life in the temple,
they're no longer in effect.
But those third kinds of laws, laws for living, laws that are applicable at all times and all places for all people,
that context still exists, right?
There's time, there's people, there's places— those laws did not pass away.
We can either see God's laws as hemming in our lives
or we can see God's laws that, when we follow them, giving purpose and direction to our lives.
I've found in my own life, that the more and more I stay close to God's law, the more freedom I have,
the more joy I have, and the more life I have,
And I've also found that when I try to break God's law and do my own thing,
I find that I have less freedom, I'm more of a slave.
I find that I have less joy, I have more sorrow,
and I find that I'm living this life that just dissolves.
It's not like it even goes into the gutter. It kind of just dissipates.
But lived with God, even obeying his laws,
gives us a life of purpose.
I invite you to live a life of purpose.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike.
God bless.
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