The Ancient Paths are Better

Thus says Yahweh: “Stand at the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the way of the good is, and walk in it, and find rest for your inner selves. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Jeremiah 6:16

We lose sight of our past as society progresses and every day brings something new and enlightening to us. The lives our children are currently living would be completely foreign to our grandparents, and I am sure that our grandparents lived much differently then people one hundred years prior. It is possible to progress too far, especially when progressiveness seems to be defined by how far society is able to move away from the instructions of the Creator.

There is a Creator God who called a group of people out of the nations to deliver His message to the world. The world has always “progressed” far from the ways of God throughout history and ancient times. I am speaking of the specific God who created the universe and revealed Himself to people throughout history to deliver specific messages. These messages always involved warning people to turn from there wicked ways and practice justice and mercy. The Creator’s idea of justice is much different than how we define justice today.

Throughout the scriptures, we are told to turn back and repent. It is the ancient path that we are to turn to, despite teachers today telling us that we can forsake the commandments of God and His ancient paths. This is pure deception, and people accept this teaching because they say in their heart, “We will not walk in it.”.

Popular Bible versions have had anything about commandment keeping scrubbed from their pages where possible. An example of this is found in Revelation chapter twenty-two. The newer versions that do not use the Textus Receptus manuscripts, are clearly obfuscating the scripture. First, the King James Version:

Revelation 22:14–15 (KJV 1900): ¹⁴ Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. ¹⁵ For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

The English Standard Version, along with many others have a different rendering of these verses:

Revelation 22:14–15 (ESV): ¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

One could argue that “those who wash their robes” are doing so by keeping the commandments; however, these words make it much easier to draw subjective meanings from the text. People will say “we will not walk in it” .

I am not implying that the King James version of the Bible is necessarily better than some of the other versions. The King James version was translated from a different manuscript than many of the modern translations. Following the “ancient paths” is something that seems God has made clear to those who seek Him diligently, but if one wants to serve God in a casual manner, these ancient paths are hidden. Is it “those who wash their robes” or “they that do His commandments”? Let the reader decide and act accordingly.

Pastor Andy Stanley is a very good example of one who has progressed to the point of abandoning the ancient paths that Jesus taught. These ideas are not new at all though. All one has to do is study the teachings (or what’s left of them) of the first century heretic, Marcion, who had a similar message as Andy Stanley. The following is from an article in churchleaders.com:

Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta, argues that Jesus’ new commandment—to love one another (John 13:34)—“replaced all the old commandments.” Although the 10 Commandments “played a significant role in God’s creation of the nation of Israel,” he writes, “Jesus’ death and resurrection signalled the end of that covenant and all the rules and regulations associated with it.”

The result, Stanley says, is that Christians, as “participants in the new covenant,” are “not required to obey any of the commandments found in the first part of their Bibles.” Instead, they’re “expected to obey the single command Jesus issued as part of his new covenant: As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

People such as Andy Stanley have pitted Jesus against the Father and Creator God all through history. This was the message of Marcion too. Yahweh the Creator told us to ask for the ancient paths and prophesied there would be people like Andy Stanley that would say, “We will not walk in it”.

John 14:23–26 (LEB): ²³ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and will take up residence with him. ²⁴ The one who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. ²⁵ These things I have spoken to you while residing with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name—that one will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything that I said to you.

Jesus only spoke the words that His Father spoke. This is where the commandment to love one another came from. It is one of the two great commandments.

Mark 12:28–34 (LEB): ²⁸ And one of the scribes came up and heard them debating. When he saw that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³² And the scribe said to him, “That is true, Teacher. You have said correctly that he is one and there is no other except him. ³³ And to love him from your whole heart and from your whole understanding and from your whole strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ And Jesus, when he saw that he had answered thoughtfully, said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to put a question to him any longer.

The only way to love people as Jesus loved them is to follow the commandments. No one can love someone while stealing, lying and cheating them. The scribe in the above account knew that keeping the commandments was a higher calling than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Those things were necessary because people didn’t keep the commandments. Jesus told him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”, because Jesus saw that this scribe was starting to “get it”.

The idea that we must simply love people the way Jesus loved people, and that this is the only commandment, is an interesting concept. In one sense it is true, because it is the fulfillment of the law to love one another; however, without the complete instruction, it leaves people to define love for themselves. More recently we see this path of “love is love” that Andy Stanley is embracing, rather than the love defined by Jesus. Are we able to love people by telling them things contrary to the way God defined love? For more about this, please refer to this article at the Baptistpress: Andy Stanley’s Stance on Homosexuality Questioned.

Jesus loved people by pointing them to the ancient paths. These are the ways of His Father. If we give them the necessities of this life without preparing them for meeting the Creator, then we have not loved them.

John 8:10–11 (LEB): ¹⁰ So Jesus, straightening up and seeing no one except the woman, said to her, “Where are those accusers of yours? Does no one condemn you?” ¹¹ And she said, “No one, Lord.” So Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”

In this story, the woman was accused of adultery. The accusers tested Jesus by asking if she should be stoned. In order for her to be stoned under the law, there would have to be two or three witnesses and also the man. Jesus could not accuse her under the law because he knew the law. The point of Jesus coming to earth was so that there was forgiveness for these types of sin. Under the law, the only solution for adultery was stoning. There was no sacrifice or offering to bring to the priest to receive forgiveness for breaking these commandments. We will never know if this woman was guilty of committing adultery, but Jesus told her to “go and sin no more”. In order to “go and sin no more” we must be able to define sin. The only way to define sin is by the words of the Torah, which is the instruction of God the Father.

It is common in Christianity to say that the stipulations of the new covenant are different than that of the old covenant. This idea of “new” and “old” makes us think this way. The “new” covenant should be looked at as a refreshing of the “old” covenant with the means to be able to stay in covenant available to us. One could argue that we have not seen the fulfillment of the new covenant based on the Jeremiah quote we find in the letter to the Hebrews.

Hebrews 8:11 (LEB): ¹¹ And they will not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

This sounds more like Millennium kingdom language because we still have to teach our fellow citizens about God. Everyone certainly does not know Him yet, but they will. It is up to us to point people to the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) and what He taught. He taught the ancient paths of His Father. It is unfortunate that today, people like Andy Stanley are leading the masses astray. To be fair, he is just an example of thousands of leaders and denominations progressing themselves out of the kingdom of God. I pray for wisdom and guidance from the Spirit of God sent to us to deliver the truth so that we will not be deceived and believe the lie.

Isaiah 24:1–6 (LEB): 24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste and is about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants. ² And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the female slave, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends. ³ The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, ⁵ and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth, and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn, and few men are left.

The earth is going to suffer great losses, and already has, because people have broken the eternal covenant by transgressing God’s laws. Yeshua came to empower us to be able to keep the eternal covenant, not make it obsolete. The ancient paths are always better to follow than those paths presented by the progressives. Repent and believe the gospel!

The featured photo is by Lili Popper on Unsplash.