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We are a Christian Fellowship meeting in North London with a strong interest in teaching the Bible and understanding our time in
the light of Bible prophecy
The 7 Laws of Noah
Can You Tell Me How To Keep The 7 Laws of Noah?
I have lived for about 20 years in a Jewish quarter of London and during
that time have had several conversations with Orthodox and secular Jews. For
three years I worked as a teacher at an Orthodox Jewish school. Recently I
was talking to members of the Lubavitch who were spreading their message to
the local Jewish community. When the person I was talking to discovered I
was not Jewish he gave me a leaflet about the 7 Laws of Noah, which, he
said, G-d requires the Gentiles to keep.
According to this leaflet, "The Rebbe has called on all the people of the
world to abide by these seven laws and all their ramifications." The Laws
are:
Do not worship idols.
Do not blaspheme.
Do not murder.
Do not steal.
Do not commit immoral sexual acts.
Do not be cruel to animals.
Maintain justice.
Now here is an interesting fact. Apparently this is important information
which G-d wants the Gentiles to know and yet this was the first time I had
been told about it. As one who had lived for so long amongst the Jewish
people I was in a much better position to receive this information than most
Gentiles and yet it took nearly 20 years for me to receive any literature
informing me what these 7 laws are and encouraging me to keep them. What
about the millions of Gentiles who never meet any Orthodox Jews and are
therefore most unlikely to find out that G-d requires them to keep these 7
laws?
Obviously these laws mean that many people in our society are in deep
trouble with G-d. Just take the law on not committing immoral sexual acts.
The mass media are constantly bombarding people with the idea that there is
nothing wrong with sexual immorality and undermining the sanctity of
marriage. The result is that children growing up in a stable family with
both parents are becoming a minority in our society.
Well don't most religions condemn adultery and promiscuity? Maybe, but what
about the law on not worshipping idols? There are people all over the world
who worship images of the Virgin Mary, Buddha or a multitude of Hindu gods,
as they are taught to by their religions. Who is going to enlighten them
about what G-d requires? What is more even if we do tell them what G-d
requires, unless we tell them how to keep G-d's commands they are no better
off.
In 1970 I became convinced that I had broken G-d's commandments and was
guilty of sin in my life. People came and told me that G-d had sent Yeshua,
Jesus the Messiah, to die as a sacrifice for my sins and rise again from the
dead in fulfilment of prophecies in the Bible like Isaiah 53, Psalm 22,
Daniel 9.26. Through repentance and faith in Him I experienced forgiveness
and received the power of the Holy Spirit to live a new life under His
control. I came to understand what the L-rd meant when he gave Jeremiah the
prophecy about the new covenant,
"I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts; and
will be their G-d, and they shall be my people." Jeremiah 32.33
I also came to see that G-d requires much more of us than the 7 Laws of Noah
which the Rabbis say the Gentiles should keep. In the Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew 5-7) Yeshua made greater demands on us than the Torah, dealing with
the inward attitudes that lead to sin and not just the act itself. For example:
"You have heard that it was said by them of old time. You shall not commit
adultery: but I say to you that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her
has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matthew 5.27-28
I discovered that the only way to keep these commands was to receive a new
birth by the Holy Spirit, something also prophesied in the Tenach: "A new
heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart
of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them." Ezekiel 36.26-27
Yeshua also told us to go into all the world and teach all nations "to obey
everything I have commanded you." (Matthew 28.19-20). Because the first
Jewish disciples obeyed this command the Good News of the Messiah has
reached the Gentiles. As a result there are people all over the world today
who have turned from dead idols to worship the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and
Yakov through the Messiah Yeshua.
Today there is a great controversy about whether we should bring this
message to the Jewish people. The Rabbis say that the Jewish people should
keep the 613 commandments of the Torah and the Gentiles the 7 Laws of Noah.
The new covenant through Yeshua the Messiah is not relevant we are told.
The first disciples of Yeshua, when forbidden by the Sanhedrin to teach
about Him in Jerusalem, dedded to obey G-d not man. As a result before long
their message had spread throughout Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and into
the Gentile nations round about.
But what about today? As I said at the beginning of this article I worked
for three years as a teacher at an Orthodox Jewish school. I enjoyed my time
as a teacher there very much and got on well with both pupils and staff.
However my time there strengthened my conviction that the Jewish people need
the new covenant to know G-d as much as the non Jews.
Sometimes the other Gentile teachers would make remarks about the things
which were different at this school from ordinary schools - the Jewish
festivals, the prayers, the traditions and customs. These were interesting
to me, but what I found more significant were the things which were the same
as in every other school which I have taught in - the pupils' tricks to get
out of work or cover up things they had done wrong, the factions and bad
relationships amongst the staff. It was no worse than anywhere else, but no
better either. I saw the reality of sin spoiling the relationship of love
for G-d and one another in this school as in every other school I had taught
in (including church schools).
The conclusion I came to was that both Jews and Gentiles need the power of
the Holy Spirit to give forgiveness and new life in the Messiah Yeshua.
During my time as a teacher at this school I often had times when I felt the
tremendous love Yeshua has for his own Jewish people and his great sorrow
for the harm that has been done to them in the name of Christianity, often
the exact opposite of everything He taught his disciples to do. We
Christians too need to repent and keep not just the 7 Laws of Noah, but the
teaching of the Messiah we profess to believe in. Because He is alive today
He has the power to help us keep G-d's laws in truth, not out of fear of
what others will think of us if we don't, but out of love for G-d and our
fellow men.
