Graber - Section J, J2

<Section J> H. Graber states: “THE LAW: The doctrine of the professed apostle Paul very emphatically negates the Laws of God. BY WHAT AUTHORITY? We read in Rom. 1:17, ‘For therein is righeousness [sic] of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.’ (Not the law) <Section J-2> Here we need to point out how Paul many times misquotes the Prophets of the Old Testement [sic]. <Section J continued> This is quoted from Hab. 2:4, which reads, ‘the just shall live by his faith.’ Again Paul says in Rom. 6:14, ‘For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.’ Certainly we can understand this, because the law was not given to the Gentiles, but neither did Jesus Christ offer salvation to the Gentiles, because they do not need it, for the original sin was not imputed upon them. Eph. 2:15, ‘Having abolished in his flesh the enemity [sic], even the law of commandments contained in ordinances;’ Rom. 4:15-16, ‘Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.’ Paul is telling us that if we repeal the laws of God, then there can be no sin. That is the same as if we repealed all criminal law, then we would have no crime! WHAT DOES JESUS TELL US CONCERNING THE LAW OF GOD? Jesus tells us in Matt, 5:17-18, ‘Think not that I am come to destroy, but to fulfil [sic.]. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’ (emphasis added) Has heaven and earth passed, or did Jesus change His mind? We also read in John 14:15, ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments,’ And again, in I John 2:4, ‘He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.’ WHO DO YOU BELIEVE, JESUS OR THE PROFESSED APOSTLE PAUL? Paul tells us over and over again that the law was negated by the cross. If that is true, Why did Jesus Christ not give us one word of evidence that this is so?”

In reply to section <J>: Beginning with the first few lines of the paragraph (which occupied the last three lines of page 3, and continued into page 4 of Graber’s original document), Graber makes a treacherous attack upon Paul’s views concerning the law. Graber states that “Paul very emphatically negates the Laws of God”, which is a vile lie, for Paul clearly states at Romans 3:31 (from the A.V.): “Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea we establish the law.” Graber is very short of understanding, and so that you may see what I speak of here, I will take the time to explain a few things concerning the law under the New Covenant.

First, as can be witnessed by history, the Levitical laws in the Pentateuch, based upon but not a perfect image of Yahweh’s law (i.e. Matt. 19:8) certainly had their purpose, and still do: for we see today the greater part of the enemies of Yahweh, the seed of the serpent, have trapped themselves in the Old Testament law – and not having the Faith of the Anointed – they have voluntarily condemned themselves! Both Paul and James, as you will see, make allusions to this. Both jew and muslim claim to believe and accept the Old Testament, and all (and they are nearly all descendants of Cain) are condemned by it!

Now it is certain that Yahshua Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfill, both the law and the prophets. Now, let us see just what the prophets say concerning the New Covenant, which all agree that Yahshua Christ, Yahweh Himself, compacted with the children of Israel:

• Jer. 31:31-33: “Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers ... which my covenant they brake ... But this shall be the covenant that I will make ... I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ...”
• Isa. 51:7: “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law ...”
• Jer. 32:39-40: “And I will give them one heart, and one way ... And I will make an everlasting covenant with them ... I will put my fear in their hearts ...”
• Ezek. 11:19-20: “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances ...”
• Deut. 30:6: “And Yahweh thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed ...”
• Jer. 4:4: “Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart ...”

Now it should be evident, that if the laws of Yahweh were to be written in our hearts [a promise made only to Israel] then there is no longer a need for the written Levitical law, for the matters of the Law, encapsulated in the 10 commandments which Yahweh Himself illustrated (i.e. Mark 10, Luke 18), are common sense to OUR RACE! Paul explains these things in Hebrews 7, and in Romans 7:6 and 2:29 where he explains that we keep the law in spirit, and not in letter. The jews pretend to keep the law in letter, yet their Talmud is filled with many devices of “reasoning” and vile ways to get around the law! Know that even in modern litigation according to the laws of man, that courts often cite the difference between the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law” and realize that Paul is explaining that same thing here to the Romans.

So it should be obvious, that the removal of the yoke of the Levitical law is a matter of prophecy along with the New Covenant – [Yahshua says “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”, Matt. 11:30] – and Paul explains this very thing over and over, but using different methods for Romans and Hebrews, since they have different perspectives. Where Paul writes at Romans 2:14-15 “For when the Nations, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law ... which show the work of the law written in their hearts” is Paul not demonstrating that the Romans – themselves a part of “lost” Israel – are indeed Israelites to whom such a promise was made? Compare this to the words of the prophets quoted above! And where Paul tells the Corinthians at 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.” Is Paul not showing the fulfillment of the words of the prophets: that the New Covenant was being brought to Israel, whom the Dorian Greeks also descended from (as I can demonstrate in history and archaeology)? Read Paul’s quote of Jer. 31:33 to the Hebrews at 10:16. If one studies prophecy, one must come to the conclusion that the children of Israel are NOT bound to the written law, yet they should seek to obey it voluntarily. This is what Paul explains. The children of Satan have bound themselves to the written law, and never being able to fulfill it, they have condemned themselves!

Now this I can go further to demonstrate, but what I have written here should be sufficient. The children of Israel following the law in Spirit, and not in letter (the written law), is in itself a fulfillment of the law and the prophets, which Christ came to accomplish, and did! To deny such is to deny Him. Paul does not deny Christ: H. Graber does! Yet I will discuss a few more things concerning Paul and the law.

At Colossians 2:14 Paul states that the ordinances, not the entire law, were nailed to the cross. These are all of the rituals, sacrifices, oblations and such. Daniel 9:27 prophecies that when Yahshua confirms the covenant, “the sacrifices and the oblation [He shall cause] to cease.” These are what Paul calls elsewhere “the works of the law”, which in Ferrar Fenton’s translation (and in my own) you will find translated “the rituals of the law”, which are precisely what Paul means. That these were done away with are also a matter of the law and the prophets, and it was NOT written on our hearts to continue them! Of course, the catholics have a schedule of rituals that they have substituted, none with any foundation in Scripture (not even water baptism!). So enough of this, now we will see that James and Paul agree on the law!

An examination of the epistle of James, compared to Paul’s epistles, demonstrates that James and Paul were in complete cohesion regarding the law, and so was Peter. Here I will demonstrate such.

• Romans 2:13 (see 2:14-15 quoted above): “For not the hearers of the law are just before Yahweh, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”
• James 1:22-24: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”
• Galatians 2:4: “And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ ...”
• Galatians 5:1: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
• Galatians 5:13-14: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh [i.e., to follow lust], but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’.”
• 1 Peter 2:15-16: “For so is the will of Yahweh, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of Yahweh.”
• 2 Peter 2:1, 19: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying Yahweh that bought them ... While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”
• James 1:25: “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
• James 2:10: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
• Romans 2:25: “For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.”
• Galatians 5:2-3: “Behold ... if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing ... every man that is circumcised ... he is a debtor to do the whole law.”
• James 2:12: There is a problem with the A.V. translation of this verse. The word μέλλοντες is treated as a Substantive and translated “they that shall be”, which is only necessitated if the word were preceded by an Article, which it is not. Also, the A.V. places an Article before “law” which does not exist in the Greek, hence here is my own translation: “Thusly you speak, and thusly you do: as going to be judged by a law of liberty.”
• Romans 14:10: “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”
• James 4:11-12: “Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”

So with this it must be evident, Paul taught liberty from the letter of the Old Testament law, and to follow it in deed and in Spirit, and these same things were foretold by the prophets, and also taught by James and by Peter! And who can read this, then deny such? Now compare Luke’s account of James’ and Peter’s opinions concerning Paul’s teaching and the law at Acts 15, and now that you see that this by no means conflicts with Paul’s epistles, with James’ or Peter’s epistles, with the prophets, or with the gospels, what may one say? Surely Paul said much more concerning the law, and it should be examined, but none of it is with fault. Paul may only be attacked in ignorance, or by those caught up in the deceit and devices of Yahweh’s enemies: among whom I count H. Graber, and Scott Nelson!

Now we shall go on to review the statement which H. Graber made at <Section J>: “THE LAW: The doctrine of the professed apostle Paul very emphatically negates the Laws of God. BY WHAT AUTHORITY? We read in Rom. 1:17, ‘For therein is righeousness [sic] of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.’ (Not the law) ... ” <Section J-2>

In reply to section  <J-2>: Among other things in this paragraph, discussed above at <J>, Paul is accused by Graber of “many times” misquoting the Old Testament, a blatant lie once one sees that: (a) the majority of Paul’s quotes agree with the Septuagint rather than the A.V. (b) often Paul is simply paraphrasing rather than quoting (c) quote marks were not used in Greek, they belong to modern translators (d) the Old testament texts have not come down to us in perfect form, some New Testament quotes disagree with both the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, and some of those do agree instead with the Aramaic Targums! (e) these circumstances exist in every New Testament book, not only in Paul (or Luke or Mark). Here Graber’s duplicity is quite obvious, for he is a liar and a fraud! The LXX version of Habakkuk 2:4 (by Brenton, and a fair rendering of the LXX Greek): “... but the just shall live by my [Yahweh’s] faith.” Who is a deceiver, but H. Graber? There is not any contradiction between Paul and Yahshua Christ, whom Paul follows!