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<td valign="top" ><p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. (Deut 5:10 KJV)</span></p></td>
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<h1><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Early Church View of Law given Moses</span></h1>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Proof of Paul's relative unimportance and lack of influence in the leading centers of the church is the early church's view of the Law given Moses, including whether to observe the Sabbath. (Paul in Galatians ch. 4 railed at the "foolish" Galatians for observing Jewish sabbaths, new moons, etc.) There was no Roman Catholic church until the 300s, so these early 'fathers' are simply the voices of orthodoxy in the earliest church.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong>Clement of Rome</strong> (70 AD). In his <em>Letters to the Corinthian</em>s -- part of t<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zR8knvuZAeo/UMI6ID74ePI/AAAAAAAABi0/n6mSXvdKQck/s320/clement+1.jpeg" alt="" width="128" height="161" style="float: right;" />he early New Testament canon -- <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Clement's First Epistle affirms in 1:5 that the Christian community initially "walked</span><strong style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;"><em> according to the Laws of God</em></strong></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">," but recently "walked [not] according to the rule of <em><strong>God's commandments</strong></em>" (2:4). The same work references the sacrifices still ongoing at Jerusalem, and exhorts to continue the offerings and sacr</span>ifices required by the Law. (<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=wEFMAAAAYAAJ&dq=jesus%20%22afraid%20of%20death%22%20jerome&pg=PA80#v=onepage&q=jesus%20%22afraid%20of%20death%22%20jerome&f=false">17: 14-22</a>.) <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This places it as written no later than 70 AD when the Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed. See our article <a href="/topicindex/207-clement-letters-to-corinthians.html">Clement's Letters to the Corinthians</a></span>.</span><strong><strong style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 20px;"> </strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Justin Martyr</strong> (100-165 AD). Justin referenced Matthew 5:20 when Jesus says we must live a more righteous life than the Pharisees to "enter heaven." This followed Jesus teaching the Law would not pass away until heaven and earth would pass away, and that those who teach against the Law's continuity are "least," but those who teach its continuity are the "greatest." (Matt 5:17-19). Justin then comments what 5:20 means in that context. In the <em>Dialogue of Justin</em>, it says this meant Jesus intended our behavior must “surpass <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Justin_Martyr.jpg/200px-Justin_Martyr.jpg" alt="" width="181" height="104" style="float: right;" />the Pharisees’ <em><strong>way of living,</strong></em>” and if we did not, we “might not be sure [we] could be saved.” In context, Jesus portrayed the Pharisees as lawless -- teaching tithing, but nothing else from the Law. (Matt 23:23). Hence, Justin was saying that Jesus in 5:20 said one had to live a better life than the generally lawless Pharisees.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Irenaeus</span></strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (130-202 A.D.) of Lyon, France gave the early judgment on the Law's continuity among Christians at total odds with Paul: "The decalogue [Ten Commandments] however was <strong><em>not cancelled by Christ</em></strong>, but is always in force: men were never released from its commandments." ("Against Heresies," </span><em style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 21px;">Ante-Nicene Fathers</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">, Bk. IV, Ch. XVI, at 480 / also at this <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103416.htm">Catholic link</a>) This was actually a heading. In the text, Irenaeus explains: "<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Preparing man for this life, the </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Lord</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> Himself did speak in His own </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">person</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> to all alike the words of the </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Decalogue</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">; and therefore, in like manner, <em><strong>do they remain permanently with u</strong></em>s, </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">receiving by means of His </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">advent</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> in the flesh, <em><strong>extension and increase, but not </strong></em></span><em><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">abrogation</span></strong></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">." (Book 4 Ch .16.4.) </span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong>Irenaeus</strong> similarly said in the same context: “The commands of the old covenant, as <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/Saint_Irenaeus.jpg/200px-Saint_Irenaeus.jpg" alt="" style="float: right;" />epitomized in the Decalogue, since they were functional before Moses (AH 4.15.1; 4.16.3), <em><strong>remain authoritative in the new covenant</strong> </em>(AH 4.16.1). Christ does not contradict the Ten Words. He fulfills and <em><strong>expands them</strong></em> (AH 4.13.1).” See Ligon Duncan, “Irenaeus of Lyons - A True Radical Orthodox Theologian,” Reformation 21 (2006)<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> at </span><a href="http://www.reformation21.com."><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">http://www.refor</span>mation21.com.</a> In </span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Irenaeus’ attack on the heretic Marcion, he cited Matthew 5:20 to prove Jesus had every intention the Law must continue. This passage proved that Marcion committed <em><strong>a heresy</strong></em> by teaching that the gospel was “in opposition to and overturning of the [Law] of the past.” (Irenaeus <em>Against Heresie</em>s Bk. IV.) In other words, we must exceed the obedience to the Law which the Pharisees failed to follow -- as Jesus depicted them as largely lawless except for tithing. See the <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/e-catena/matthew8.html">e-catena for Matthew 5:20</a> at www.earlychristianwritings.com.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong>Didascalia Apostolorum</strong> (early 200s). This work that reflected orthodoxy of that period says one of the four identifying marks of heretics is they taught against employing Torah and Prophets. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">One scholar, Oskar Skarsaune, in “Heresy and the Pastoral Epistles,” </span><em style="color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Themelios</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> 20.1 (October 1994): 9-14 at </span><a href="http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/heresy_skarsaune.pdf" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">10</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> notes that</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">a passage in the Syrian <em>Didascalia Apostolorum</em> [from the 200s], defining heresy [states]:</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 60px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"[The heretics] all had one law, that they</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 60px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">* should <strong><em>not employ the Torah and the Prophets</em></strong>,</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 60px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">* and that they should blaspheme God Almighty,</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 60px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">* and should not believe in the resurrection." (Citing 5 Didasc. 23 (VI:10), quoted according to R. Hugh Connolly,<em> Didascalia Apostolorum</em> (Oxford, 1929 (=1969)) at 202.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong>Clement of Alexandria</strong> ca. 200s in </span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">Exortation to the Heathen</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> taught as a principle they should listen to the Hebrew Prophets (of which he cited Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and Moses) as a means to <img src="http://liturgyandmusic.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/clement.gif" alt="" style="float: right;" />know the road to salvation -- echoing Christ's words to the rich young ruler:</span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">It is now time, as we have despatched in order the other points, to go to <strong>the prophetic Scriptures</strong>; for the<em><strong> oracles present us with the appliances necessary for the attainment of piety</strong></em>, and so establish the truth. The <em><strong>divine Scriptures and institutions of wisdom form the short road to salvation</strong></em>. Devoid of embellishment, of outward beauty of diction, of wordiness and seductiveness, they raise up humanity strangled by wickedness, teaching men to despise the casualties of life; and with one and the same voice remedying many evils, they at once dissuade us from pernicious deceit, and clearly exhort us to <strong><em>the attainment of the salvation set before us</em></strong>. (Clement of Alexandria, "The True Doctrine is to be Sought in the Prophets," ch. 8 at this<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html"> link</a>.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Clement then goes into an extensive series of quotes from the Prophets, which includes Moses, and cites Paul as in support -<em><strong> as if Paul never said anything about the Law's abrogation</strong></em>, to prove the moral necessity to do away with idols</span>:</span></p>
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<p id="vi.ii.viii-p5" style="text-indent: 2em; line-height: 24px; margin: 0em; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #efefef;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Jeremiah the prophet, gifted with consummate wisdom,<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p5.1" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p5.1" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">932</a></sup> or rather the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah, exhibits God. “Am I a God at hand,” he says, “and not a God afar off? Shall a man do ought in secret, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? Saith the <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Lord</span>.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p6.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p6.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">933</a></sup></span></p>
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<p id="vi.ii.viii-p8" style="text-indent: 2em; line-height: 24px; margin: 0em; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #efefef;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">And again by Isaiah, “Who shall measure heaven with a span, and the whole earth with his hand?”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p8.1" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p8.1" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">934</a></sup>Behold God’s greatness, and be filled with amazement. Let us worship Him of whom the prophet says, “Before Thy face the hills shall melt, as wax melteth before the fire!”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p9.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p9.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">935</a></sup> This, says he, is the God “whose throne is heaven, and His footstool the earth; and if He open heaven, quaking will seize thee.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p10.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p10.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">936</a></sup> Will you hear, too, what this prophet says of idols? “And they shall be made a spectacle of in the face of the sun, and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth; and they shall putrefy before the sun and the moon, which they have loved and served; and their city shall be burned down.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p11.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p11.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">937</a></sup> He says, too, that the elements and the world shall be destroyed. “The earth,” he says, “shall grow old, and the heaven shall pass away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” What, then, when again God wishes to show Himself by <strong>Moses</strong>: “Behold ye, behold ye, that I Am, and there is no other God beside Me. I will kill, and I will make to live; I will strike, and I will heal; and there is none who shall deliver out of My hands.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p12.3" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p12.3" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">938</a></sup> But do you wish to hear another seer? You have the whole prophetic choir, the associates of Moses. What the Holy Spirit says by Hosea, I will not shrink from quoting: “Lo, I am He that appointeth the thunder, and createth spirit; and His hands have established the host of heaven.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p13.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p13.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">939</a></sup> And once more by Isaiah. And this utterance I will repeat: “I am,” he says, “I am the Lord; I who speak righteousness, announce truth. Gather yourselves together, and come. Take counsel together, ye that are saved from the nations. They have not known, they who set up the block of wood, their carved work, and pray to gods who will not save them.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p14.3" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p14.3" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">940</a></sup> Then proceeding: “I am God, and there is not beside Me a just God, and a Saviour: there is none except Me. Turn to Me, and ye will be saved, ye that are from the end of the earth. I am God, and there is no other; by Myself I swear.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p15.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p15.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">941</a></sup> But against the worshippers of idols he is exasperated, saying, “To whom will ye liken the Lord, or to what likeness will ye compare Him? Has not the artificer made the image, or the goldsmith melted the gold and plated it with gold?”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p16.3" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p16.3" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">942</a></sup>—and so on. Be not therefore idolaters, but even now beware of the threatenings; “for the graven images and the works of men’s hands shall wail, or rather they that trust in them,”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p17.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p17.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">943</a></sup> for matter is devoid of sensation. Once more he says, “The Lord will shake the cities that are inhabited, and grasp the world in His hand like a nest.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p18.3" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p18.3" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">944</a></sup> Why repeat to you the mysteries of wisdom, and sayings from the writings of the son of the Hebrews, the master of wisdom? “TheLord created me the beginning of His ways, in order to His works.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p19.3" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p19.3" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">945</a></sup> And, “The Lord giveth wisdom, and from His face proceed knowledge and understanding.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p20.3" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p20.3" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">946</a></sup> “How long wilt thou lie in bed, O sluggard; and when wilt thou be aroused from sleep?”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p21.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p21.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">947</a></sup> “but if thou show thyself no <a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02/Page_195.html" class="page" style="color: #ffffff; display: block; padding: 4px 5px; margin: -4px -5px; background-color: #660000;" title="Page 195">195</a>sluggard, as a fountain thy harvest shall come,”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p22.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p22.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">948</a></sup> the “Word of the Father, the benign light, the Lord that bringeth light, faith to all, and salvation.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p23.3" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p23.3" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">949</a></sup> For “the Lord who created the earth by His power,” as Jeremiah says, “has raised up the world by His wisdom;”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p24.3" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p24.3" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">950</a></sup> for wisdom, which is His word, raises us up to the truth, who have fallen prostrate before idols, and is itself the first resurrection from our fall. Whence Moses, the man of God, dissuading from all idolatry, beautifully exclaims, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord; and thou shall worship the Lordthy God, and Him only shall thou serve.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p25.5" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p25.5" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">951</a></sup> “Now therefore be wise, O men,” according to that blessed psalmist David; “lay hold on instruction, lest the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the way of righteousness, when His wrath has quickly kindled. Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p26.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p26.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">952</a></sup> But already the Lord, in His surpassing pity, has inspired the song of salvation, sounding like a battle march, “Sons of men, how long will ye be slow of heart? Why do you love vanity, and seek after a lie?”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p27.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p27.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">953</a></sup> What, then, is the vanity, and what the lie? The <em><strong>holy apostle of the Lord</strong></em>, reprehending the Greeks, will show thee: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and changed the glory of God into the likeness of corruptible man, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p28.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p28.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">954</a></sup> [Romans 1:21,23,25] And verily this is the God who “in the beginning made the heaven and the earth.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p29.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p29.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">955</a></sup> But you do not know God, and worship the heaven, and how shall you escape the guilt of impiety? Hear again the prophet speaking: “The sun, shall suffer eclipse, and the heaven be darkened; but the Almighty shall shine for ever: while the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and the heavens stretched out and drawn together shall be rolled as a parchment-skin (for these are the prophetic expressions), and the earth shall flee away from before the face of the Lord.”<sup id="fna_vi.ii.viii-p30.2" class="Note" style="line-height: 17px; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: 40%;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html#fnf_vi.ii.viii-p30.2" class="Note" style="color: #880000;">956</a> </sup></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;">(See this<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.ii.viii.html"> link</a> for original text.) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Tertullian</strong> in 207 A.D. was the voice of orthodoxy when he wrote <em>Against Marcion</em>.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Marcion advocated in 144 A.D. a Paulinist movement, claiming Paul alone was the apostle to the Gentiles, and the Jesus portrayed by the 12, including Matthew and John, was for a different dispensation. Marcion insisted the Law given Moses did not apply in the NT. <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Tertullian.jpg/220px-Tertullian.jpg" alt="" style="float: right;" />Marcion relied upon a truncated version of what looks like Luke's gospel</span>.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Tertullian blasted Marcion's claim the Law was abrogated in Tertullian's 207 A.D. classic entitled <em>Against Marcion</em>. Here are references to this discussion from Tertullian, <em>The Five Books of Quintus Sept. Flor. Tertullianus Against Marcion</em> (trans. Peter Holmes) (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1868).</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">First, Tertullian rebuts Marcion's claim that Christ did away with the Law by discussing Jesus' instruction to the leper to follow the Law's requirement for giving thanks for a healing. Tertullian writes:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">The law about lepers had a profound meaning as respects* the forms of the disease itself, and of the inspection by the high priest. The interpretation of this sense it will be our task to ascertain. <strong><em>Marcion's labour</em></strong>, however, is <strong><em>to object</em></strong> to us the <em><strong>strictness of the law</strong></em>, with the view of <strong><em>maintaining that here also Christ is its enemy</em></strong>—forestalling its enactments even in His cure of the ten lepers. ....<em>Id.</em>, at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HMIUAAAAQAAJ&dq=marcion&pg=PA326">326</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Forasmuch, then, as He was Himself the veritable High Priest of God the Father, He inspected them according to the hidden purport of the law, which signified that Christ was the true distinguisher and extinguisher of the defilements of mankind. However, what was obviously <em>required by the law He commanded should be done</em> : " Go," said He, " show yourselves to the priests." ' Yet why this, if He meant to cleanse them first 1 <strong><em>Was it as a despiser of the law</em></strong>, in order to prove to them that, having been cured already on the road, the law was now nothing to "them, nor even the priests ? Well, the matter must of course pass as it best may,6 if anybody supposes that Christ had such views as these !7 But there are certainly better interpretations to be found of the passage, and more deserving of belief: how that they were cleansed on this account, <strong><em>because they were obedient</em></strong>, and went as the law required, when they were commanded to go to the priests; and it is <em><strong>not to be believed</strong></em> that persons who <strong><em>observed the law</em></strong> could have found a cure from<em><strong> a god that was destroying the law</strong></em>. <em>Id.</em>, at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HMIUAAAAQAAJ&dq=marcion&pg=PA327">327</a>-28.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Second, Tertullian proves Jesus did not do away with the Law because He told the rich man that obeying the Law's precepts was the key to eternal life. Remember, here if Paul were a true authority in the church, Tertullian would have had to address Paul's opposing thesis upon which Marcion explicitly relied, but Tertullian ignores Paul and simply cites Jesus' words in rebuttal that the Law remains and Jesus simply supplemented but did not supplant them:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">When afterwards " a certain man asked him, ' Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ?'" [Jesus] inquired whether he <em>knew </em>(that is, in other words, whether he <em>kept) </em>the <strong><em>commandments of the Creator</em></strong>, in order to testify that it was<em><strong> by the Creator's precepts that eternal life is acquired</strong></em>. Then, when he affirmed that from his youth up he had kept all the principal commandments, [Jesus] said to him : " One thing thou yet lackest: sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">1</span> Well now,<em> </em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><em>Marcion</em></strong></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">, </span>and all ye who are companions in misery, and associates in hatred with that heretic, <strong><em>what will you dare say to this</em></strong>? Did <strong><em>Christ rescind the forementioned commandments</em></strong>: " Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother?" Or did He both keep them, and then add<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">3</span> what was wanting to them ? This <strong><em>very precept</em></strong>, however, about giving to the poor, was very largely <strong><em>diffused through the pages of the law and the prophets</em></strong>. This vainglorious observer of the commandments was therefore convicted of holding money in much higher estimation [than charity]. This <strong><em>verity of the gospel then stands unimpaired</em></strong> : " I am <strong><em>not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but rather to fulfil them</em></strong>."<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">6</span> He also dissipated other doubts, when He declared that the name of God and of the Good belonged to one and the same being, at whose disposal were also the everlasting life and the treasure in heaven and Himself too—whose<strong><em> commandments He both maintained and augmented with His own supplementary precepts</em></strong>. He may likewise be discovered in the following passage of Micah, saying : " He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to be ready to follow the Lord thy God ?"<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">7</span> Now Christ is the man who <strong><em>tells us what is </em></strong><em><strong>good, </strong></em><strong><em>even the knowledge of the law</em></strong>. " Thou knowest," says He, " the commandments." <em>" </em>To do justly"— "Sell all that thou hast;" "to love mercy"—"Give to the poor;" " and to be ready to walk with God"—" And come," says He, " follow me." <em>Id.</em>, at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HMIUAAAAQAAJ&dq=marcion&pg=PA332">332</a>-33.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Note here Tertullian also quoted from within the famous Matthew 5:17-19 -- that Jesus says He did not come to abrogate the Law but to fulfill it, and not one jot or tittle will be taken away until a new heavens and earth</span>. For more on Tertullian's view of the Law, see <a href="/topicindex/679-true-versus-spurious-tertullian-on-the-law.html">True versus Spurious Tertullian</a>.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Church Pre-205 AD Followed Law Given Moses</span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Tertullian was defending practices that were still ongoing in the 200 AD period -- observance of Sabbath, Passover, etc.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Historian W. D. Davies explained how Jewish Christianity still predominated by this juncture:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">"Everywhere, especially in the East of the Roman Empire, there would be Jewish Christians whose outward way of life would not be markedly different from that of the Jews. They took for granted that the gospel was continuous with [the religion of Moses]; for them the New Covenant, which Jesus had set up at the Last Supper with His disciples… did not mean that the covenant made between God and Israel was no longer in force. They still observed the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles; they also continued to be circumcised, to keep the weekly Sabbath and the Mosaic regulations concerning food. According to some scholars, they must have been so strong that right up to the fall of Jerusalem in ad70 they were the dominant element in the Christian movement" [W.D. Davies, "Paul and Jewish Christianity," <em>Judeo-christianisme </em>(1972) at 72, quoted in Samuele Bacchiocchi, <em><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=bomKPQAACAAJ">From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity</a></em> (2000) at 151).</span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Origen's Homolies on Exodus Near 220 AD</strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Origen in about 220 AD reviews the Ten Commandments delivered by God to the Israelites who escaped Egypt. Origen clearly says Christians are bound to the Law because we escaped allegorically Egypt through Jesus. For example, in <em>Homolies on Genesis and Exodus: Origen</em> (ed. Heine)(2010), beginning with the First Commandment to 'have no other gods besides me,' Origen writes:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Therefore, to you <em><strong>also</strong></em> who went <strong><em>out of Egypt through Jesus Christ</em></strong>, and were "brought out of the house of bondage," it is said, "you shall have no other gods besides me." (Ed. Heine) at <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=X_mSBavPcq4C&lpg=PA316&pg=PA320#v=onepage&q&f=false">320.</a></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Origen does this with all the other of the ten commandments as he proceeds. Origen clearly believes they apply to Christians.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Origen equally does defend that disobedience can be cured by repentance, and thus the Law is not an invariable curse. (Origen contradicts Paul who depicted in Galatians 3:10-13 the uncurable <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>negative</em> curse we suffer if we thought the Law still applied.) Origen in the same homily later says:</span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But even if this unfortunately sometimes happens [<em>i.e.</em>, fornication], he wishes, at least that the soul be converted [lit. turned around] and <em><strong>return</strong></em> and repent. For this is a new kind of goodness that even after adultery he nevertheless would receive the soul which <em><strong>returns</strong></em> and repents from the heart.... (Ed. Heine) at <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=X_mSBavPcq4C&lpg=PA316&pg=PA327#v=onepage&q&f=false">327</a>.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Origen defends that the Law given Moses still operates in the Gentile church by an analogy. He says the church takes up Moses just as Pharaoah's wife took Moses in the basket up from the river. Moses was filled with filth and pitch from being in the river. But when taken up, he was cleaned up and purified. So Origen explains that the church has the same Law but purified of the overlay that Jews put on the Law that made it difficult to discern:</span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But when Moses comes to the church, when he enters the house of the Church, he grows stronger and more robust. For when the veil of the letter is removed, "perfect and solid food" [Heb. 5:12-14] is found in the text....[L]et us take up the <em><strong>Law of God to ourselves</strong></em> when we come to the waters [of baptism] ... Let not its cheap and obscure cover of the letter be despised by us....Let us take up what is perfect and robust and let us set up these things within the royal dwellings of our hearts. <em><strong>Let us have Moses large and strong</strong></em>...And let us pray our Lord Jesus Christ ... reveal and show us in what manner Moses is great and elevated. (Ed. Heine) at <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=X_mSBavPcq4C&lpg=PA316&pg=PA246#v=onepage&q=baptism&f=false">246</a>.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, Origen then uses Paul as his ally that the reproach from the Law is used by God that we might not be condemned with the world. For the reproach which the Law, and God's chastisement thereby brings, is that God might keep us from sinning and being condemned with the world, <em>i.e.</em>, being lost forever. Origen writes:</span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I choose that while I am in the world that the Lord visit my sins and reform my transgressions....For this reason, when we are reproached, when we are chastised by the Lord, we ought not to be ungrateful. Let us understand in the present age so that we may attain rest in the future, as also the Apostle says, "When, however, we are chastised by the Lord, we are being reproached that we might not be condemned with the world." [1 Cor. 11:32.] [(Ed. Heine) at <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=X_mSBavPcq4C&lpg=PA316&pg=PA332#v=onepage&q&f=false">332</a>.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">Hence, in context, Paul is enlisted in saying God's reproaching us and chastising us -- sometimes by means of His word - the Law - or by events, is so "we might not be condemned with the world." Origen is thus using Paul to say what the modern evangelical church by and large ignores Paul equally supports: a tenuous salvation that will be lost less we heed God's chastisements so we "might" not be lost with the world. Origen clearly thought sin against the Law, particularly the Ten Commandments, would lead to the loss of salvation. Origen used a passage in 1 Cor. 11:32 to prove that thesis. Origen goes on to quote from the Ten Commandments about its principle of mercy: "However, he also returns 'mercy on those thousands who love him.' " [Exodus 20:6.] Origen adroitly points to this principle in the Ten Commandments - that love brings mercy - because it is the proximate cause of <em>not sinning: </em>"For those who love do not need reproof for they do not sin, as the Lord says: 'He who loves me keeps my commandments. [John 14:21] And therefore perfect love casts out all fear. [1 John 4:18.] (Ed. Heine) at <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=X_mSBavPcq4C&lpg=PA316&pg=PA332#v=onepage&q&f=false">33</a>2.</span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Post-220 AD Still Following The Law</span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">By the time Chrysostom wrote in the late fourth century, he could berate Christians in Antioch who were still observing the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth) with the Jews. ("<a href="http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=1040">Pulpit of Preconceived Ideas</a>," <em>Vision</em> (2011).)</span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></h2>
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