So, you know that whole thing where people are trying to discredit the Bible's teachings by quoting the scriptures about beating your slave and not eating shellfish? God showed me the answer. In Acts 15, (Acts is in the New Testament, the book right after the four gospel accounts, [Matthew, Mark, Luke, John] and is all about the growth of the church after Jesus' ascension into Heaven and the discipleship of new believers, Gentile, Jew, and slave alike) there were Jews coming into the new Gentile (Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew) churches and telling them that to be saved, they had to be circumcised and follow the Laws of Moses.
This was confusing and disturbing to the Gentiles, who were told all they had to do to be saved was give their life to Jesus. Well the church elders in Jerusalem discussed what to do about this, the converted Pharisees saying 'Yes' those are important, but Peter (the disciple who denied Jesus before the Crucifixion) stood up and said,
Acts 15:7-10, "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?"
You see the laws written by Moses, given by God, in the old Testament were never meant for Gentiles, they were meant for the Jews, some of these laws important for hygienic reasons, and others harsh, and others just plain silly sounding. But the point is that THEY WERE FOR THE JEWS. You can't take it out of context. At that time, God was physically purifying the Jews and setting them apart from other nations. Some of these laws were even pointless just to test the Jews obedience, and some impossible to keep, to show the Jews their own powerlessness. Please don't just read something out of the Bible, read the WHOLE Bible. It says at the end of Joshua, after ALL the laws were given, that Joshua was the witness of the Jews covenant with God to keep those laws.
Joshua 24:14-22 14 "Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God."
Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you."
But the people said to Joshua, "No! We will serve the Lord."
Then Joshua said, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord."
"Yes, we are witnesses," they replied.
He spoke the truth of God; God could not forgive us without denying His holiness, at least not without the perfect sacrifice (JESUS).
Back to the early church, they sent out letters, personally delivered by two church leaders, Barsabbas and Silas, with Paul and Barnabas, saying that they were saved by the grace of God, not circumcision or following of laws none of us can follow 100% of the time. Although they did warn them to stay away from a list of other things, because there is no point in being saved, if you continue to live in what you claim to be saved from. Abstaining from sin does not save you, but it's what happens when you become saved.
And about homosexuality, some people say that because it's only mentioned as a sin in the Old Testament, that it can be ignored like the other laws. Heads up, it's mentioned in the New Testament,
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God."
1 Corinthians is the first letter to the early church in Corinth, warning them against living in sin after being saved. These verse aren't saying that if you have committed these sins, you can't get to Heaven! They're saying, these things are sins, and if you're still living in them, you haven't been or have refused to be, saved from them, and are not saved. They are listed together, because all sins are equal. (Murder is not listed because it is illegal pretty much everywhere, and was illegal in Corinth; they already knew it to be wrong.)
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