(My reply to) Soldier_in Christ- Since we\'re talking about what Paul says, I feel I should preface this with the statement that I do not consider Paul to be a prophet. There is much we can learn from our brother Paul, but I do not believe these letters are the direct revealed Word of G-d. As to his message in this passage, I\'m not condemning anyone. I\'m not saying you\'re not a real believer or you\'re not a committed Christian, or you\'re going to hell if you don\'t keep Torah, or anything like that. Likewise, I would ask those who do not keep it not to look down on those like me. BUT as I\'ve mentioned before, the Christian interpretation, that \"The law\" was too harsh, and Yeshua (Jesus) came to offer us an easier way does not stand up to scriptural scrutiny. In many ways, he called us to a higher standard, not a lower one. That\'s all I\'m trying to do, as well; To call those who feel led to do everything which is pleasing to the L-rd to familiarize themselves with, and try to get their lives in accordance with Torah, which is the everlasting Word of the Living G-d. >Does this not mean that we can eat any kinds of food and still honour the Lord and obey Him? You can eat it and still be honoring Him in other ways. I don\'t see how you could be honoring Him BY the act of eating pork, but I\'m open to rebuke or other perspectives, as I don\'t claim to have the final truth. Likewise, you can be obeying Him in other facets of your life, but the act of eating pork, (or shaving your beard, or working on the Shabbat, etc...) itself is not something we do in order to obey Him. He doesn\'t order us TO do these things. So, in my view, the best we can hope for with every Torah-breaking act we do is that HaShem will look upon these acts as being neutral. But then again, is there really a neutral? Yeshua said it both ways, those that are not for you are against you, and those that are not against you are for you, as well as You cannot serve two masters (G-d and self) and so forth. DHFan- doesnt it make sense that standards would change with circumstances? (i.e. OT times, saved by works, vs. NT and present times, saved by grace) (MY REPLY)- This is kind of a \"strawman\" argument (for those who understand debate lingo). See, it never really WAS about \"saved by works\". That\'s a Muslim concept, not a Jewish one. We were never saved by works. It was always grace. Think about it.. Imagine I\'m an ancient Israelite, living my life by Torah. I commit some sin, and now I must make a sin offering. If I\'m a shepherd, this means I must find my best lamb, perfect, spotless, without blemish. Had I used this lamb for myself and my family, this would be the best meat for my family, and the best wool for their clothes. But I can\'t use it for these purposes now. I deprive myself of it, in order to make the sin offering. What if I\'m NOT a shepherd? Then I have to scrape up to acquire the lamb.. Not just any lamb, this must be the perfect lamb. I must offer the shepherd enough to make it worth his time to trade me the best lamb he has in his flock. And again, I do not gain meat for food, or wool for clothes from this transaction. This is all so that I can make a sin offering to the L-rd. Does any of this sound like the kind of thing that is an actual service to the L-rd, to further His kingdom? Heck no! These actions are not \"saved by works\" because these works aren\'t doing anything for G-d. They are not building up the empire of the L-rd. Rather, they are to dig us out of a hole we\'ve gotten ourselves in. This hole must be filled before we can build on top of it. From OUR perspective, however, they are far more powerful. I am deprived of something of value, something which would feed my family for quite some time, something from which I could make a fair amount of textiles, something I could barter and get quite a good offer out of. I have to kill this perfect specimen, and understand that this animal is dying a meaningless and fruitless death because of MY sin... and I would understand that this is what I\'m doing to G-d when I ignore His Word and commit sin. It is not much different today. One big difference is that while offering the lamb is a complicated and costly experience, and really makes me not want to sin for a long time (so I won\'t have to go through the sin offering for a long time), since we now have the Eternal Lamb to sacrifice, it seems to be a far less effective deterrant to sin. I\'m not out anything if I sin, so I may be more tempted to sin next time. I may take a more liberal approach to what is or is not a sin. But I digress. I respectfully submit for your consideration that \'sin offering\' was not for G-d\'s sake, but for ours. He commanded it, yes, but what does it benefit Him? It taught us a lesson, however, a lesson, that many today would do well to learn. It was always saved by grace. Leviticus can tell us the proper procedure to follow for a sin offering, but does it guarantee us that if we follow it to the letter, our sins our forgiven? If not, then it was definitely \"saved by grace\".. It was an exercise to make us feel the full magnitude of our sins, and to change our hearts, so that we may be prepared, so that we may know that our only hope is in the L-rd, in His lovingkindness, and His mercy, that He will perceive our change in heart, our trust in Him, and like Avraham, that He will count it to us as righteousness.