Mormon

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by stardusttwin
While the Ten Commandments are useful, Christians are under a new covenant with God (based on Christ's sacrifice) which allows one to pray directly to HIM and not go through the priests and other strict dictates of the Old Testament (like animal sacrifices and yes worshiping on Saturday).

Jews do pray directly do God!! And, they did throughout the Old Testament. As I said in the other post, Jesus came to fulfill the law. Because of his sacrifice, animal sacrifices were no longer necessary. Rather than the laws of Moses, Jesus brought the law of liberty - freedom from restrictions only so far as one pleases God and does not become a "stumbling-block" to the weaker brother. And, Saturday worship is a special cultural connection that God has with Israel. It was not made obsolete by Jesus...it was fully realized in him.

If you read the New Testament there were ongoing debates when the faith was first founded about those that were still trying to follow the old rules and the new (for example circumcision while popular now used to be a way to identify a Jewish man and was not practiced by others).

I admit that I'm a bit more progressive and trying to break free from the reactionary nature of Protestant Reformation thought, but I would challenge this point and say that it was not an issue of following "old rules and the new." It was an issue of using the old rules to exclude non-Jews from the faith.