Greg Laurie, not a Jew

I am on the night shift. I go in at 7:00 pm and leave at 7:00 am. Sometimes I listen to Christian radio on my way in to the factory – the music motivates me. One day last week, I started my truck and was getting ready to pull out of the parking lot when I heard Greg Laurie’s voice saying, “And that is why we, as Christians, do not have to celebrate the Saturday Sabbath.” He continued, “You see, that commandment was given to the Jews!” He almost yelled it, as if to say, "Don't you understand!?"

Greg went on to tell his audience why they should obey the rest of the Ten Commandments; why they are still valid in the life of modern Christians, and how they are a good moral framework for us today.

I could not help but think of the ignorance displayed in his comments. Who did he think the other nine Commandments were given to? Where does the Word of God differentiate in the dialogue of the Ten Commandments which ones are for the Jews, and which are for everybody? It doesn’t. Greg Laurie made the statement that a Christian does not have to obey the Saturday Sabbath because it is for the Jews. God’s Word says nothing of the sort. In fact, it says the opposite. Jesus states that The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mar 2:27). Notice that Jesus didn’t say that Sabbath was made for the Jew, but for man.

If we are to follow Greg Laurie’s method of disregarding the things that were “given to the Jews” then we have a huge problem. To start with, the book of James in the New Testament was (as stated in the first sentence) “...to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad...” (Jam 1:1). See the problem? Maybe Greg would have us throw the entire book out. After all, it was given to the Jews, wasn’t it? I don’t think there is any other way to interpret the “twelve tribes”. They are clearly the twelve tribes of Israel. And what about Hebrews? The name says it all. I am no Hebrew, and to my knowledge, neither is Greg.

Greg doesn’t actually follow this rule though. He taught a (prerecorded) message two days later on “Thou Shall not Steel”, in which he stated that we are steeling from God by not tithing a tenth of our earnings to the church. Can you guess which scripture he used to make the claim? Mal 3:8 “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” A simple study on these “tithes and offerings” will show even the most unlearned Bible scholar that they were commanded to the Jews, in order to provide for the Levites in the Temple. Here it is:

Num 18:26 “Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, [even] a tenth [part] of the tithe.”

Did you notice what “offerings” means? Is Greg telling us that we should offer up heave offerings too? I doubt it. I think he has merely transposed out 21^st century meaning of “offering” into the mix. Greg is telling his audience that we are robbing from the Lord by not paying 10% via the offering plate in church every Sunday morning.

I find it absurd that Christians can listen to comments like the ones Greg Laurie is making, and never even think to search them out in the scripture. We are called to make sure our teachers are teaching sound doctrine. I believe that Greg Laurie has fallen short of that goal when it comes to his separating Jew and Gentile commandments. They are all God’s Commandments. As servants of the Almighty, should we be allowing Greg to choose which of God's Laws we are to follow?

And about the "moral law" business. I heard a teacher say once that since Jesus said the greatest commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." If the greatest commandment relies on our love for God, wouldn't all of his commandments be "moral commandments"?

Just something to chew on.