Love and Obedience Rewarded – Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment.

March 16, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; commented

Matthew 23, Jesus warned the people about the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. At that time they had formulated the Talmud, which regulated every aspect of Jewish life. He did it in the form of telling of seven woes. Read the chapter carefully and draw your own conclusions.

Deuteronomy 11. Love and Obey the LORD, remember all He has done, meditate day and night on it and always teach the same to your children. God set before them a blessing and a curse, it dealt with obedience.

Deuteronomy 12. God proclaimed the One Place of Worship. All other places of worship where false gods have been worshiped must be destroyed. You may eat from all clean animals, but do not drink their blood.

Deuteronomy 13. Apostates must be severely punished.

The Torah specifies clearly that if you become an apostate you must be killed. Nowadays, if a Jew converts to Christianity, the Orthodox Jewish family holds a funeral for that person. The reformed and reconstructionist Jews do not follow this practice. In Islamic states with Sharia law as their law; honor killings are common, and sometimes even includes death for association with unbelievers.

During the time of Christ the debate was raging between the teachers of the law and Pharisees about salvation among nearly all other things. The Torah clearly indicates you had no chance to be saved without God’s intervention, so every ear you had to perform the Atonement, and it was valid for one year, and had to be repeated yearly, in addition to all the other sacrifices. This was clearly insufficient, so they supplied it with additional requirements, and if you did everything right, maybe you had a chance. Most of these additional teaching were in place during the life of Christ , and the complete Babylonian Talmud was finished in the 2nd century.

This is the complete Babylonian Talmud. It is written in Babylonian Aramaic . There is also a Jerusalem Talmud that also includes agricultural laws. This explains Jesus’ reaction to the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. They had made understanding and applying the law the exclusive domain of the elite, thus exercising control of the people.

August 13, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

1 Corinthians 13, the Greatest Gift, the most quoted passages in the Bible after John 3:16, and for good reasons: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” My Christianity teacher in public school in Sweden a long time ago also quoted nearly every class: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” He did it in Swedish of course. When I became a believer at the age of 31 I finally understood what he was trying to convey.

Song of Solomon 3, a Troubled Night, the Coming of Solomon.

Song of Solomon 4. The bridegroom praises the bride.

Song of Solomon 5. The Shulamite’s troubled evening.