[teejay]

Satjas,
My friend Forgive me but I think you missed my point by a planet or two though some of your points about past tools of violence.Turn to the book of Mat 15:1-20 And then Mark 7:1-23.The scribes and Pharisees, expecting to see Jesus at the Passover, had laid a trap for Him. But Jesus, knowing their purpose, had absented Himself from this gathering.... "Then came together unto Him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes..." As He did not go to them, they came to Him. For a time it had seemed that the people of Galilee would receive Jesus as the Messiah, and that the power of the hierarchy in that region would be broken.The mission of the twelve, indicating the extension of Christ's work, and bringing the disciples more directly into conflict with the rabbis, had excited anew the jealousy of the leaders at Jerusalem. The spies they sent to Capernaum in the early part of His ministry, who had tried to fix on Him the charge of Sabbathbreaking, had been put to confusion; but the rabbis were bent on carrying out their purpose. Now another deputation was sent to watch His movements, and find some accusation against Him.

The ground of complaint was His disregard of the traditional precepts that encumbered the law of God. These were professedly designed to guard the observance of the law, but they were regarded as more sacred than the law itself. When they came in collision with the commandments given from Sinai, preference was given to the rabbinical precepts.Among the observances most strenuously enforced was that of ceremonial purification. A neglect of the forms to be observed before eating was accounted a heinous sin, to be punished both in this world and in the next and it was regarded as a virtue to destroy the transgressor.

Christ and His disciples did not observe these ceremonial washings, and the spies made this neglect the ground of their accusation. They did not, however, make a direct attack on Christ, but came to Him with criticism of His disciples. In the presence of the multitude they said, "Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread."

Jesus made no attempt to defend Himself or His disciples. He made no reference to the charges against Him, but proceeded to show the spirit that actuated these sticklers for human rites. He gave them an example of what they were repeatedly doing, and had done just before coming in search of Him.....

"Full well ye reject the commandment of God," He said, "that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death, but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother...."

They set aside the fifth commandment as of no consequence, but were very exact in carrying out the traditions of the elders. They taught the people that the devotion of their property to the temple was a duty more sacred than even the support of their parents,and that, however great the necessity, it was sacrilege to impart to father or mother any part of what had been thus consecrated. An undutiful child had only to pronounce the word "Corban" over his property, thus devoting it to God, and he could retain it for his own use during his lifetime, and after his death it was to be appropriated to the temple service. Thus he was at liberty, both in life and in death, to dishonor and defraud his parents, under cover of a pretended devotion to God.

Never, by word or deed, did Jesus lessen man's obligation to present gifts and offerings to God. It was Christ who gave all the directions of the law in regard to tithes and offerings. When on earth He commended the poor woman who gave her all to the temple treasury. But the apparent zeal for God on the part of the priests and rabbis was a pretense to cover their desire for self-aggrandizement. The people were deceived by them. They were bearing heavy burdens which God had not imposed. Even the disciples of Christ were not wholly free from the yoke that had been bound upon them by inherited prejudice and rabbinical authority. Now, by revealing the true spirit of the rabbis, Jesus sought to free from the bondage of tradition all who were really desirous of serving God....

"Ye hypocrites," He said, addressing the wily spies, "well did Isaiah's prophesy of you, saying, "This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.".....

The words of Christ were an arraignment of the whole system of Pharisaism. He declared that by placing their requirements above the divine precepts the rabbis were setting themselves above God.To the multitude, and afterward more fully to His disciples, JESUS EXPLAINED THAT DEFILEMENT COMES NOT FROM WITHOUT, BUT FROM WITHIN. PURITY AND IMPURITY PERTAIN TO THE SOUL. IT IS THE EVIL DEED, THE EVIL WORD, THE EVIL THOUGHT, THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW OF GOD, not the neglect of external, man-made ceremonies, that defiles a man...Satjas it may be well for you to note this point carefully.I notice that you were talking about thoughts.

SOME PROFESSED CHRISTIANS SPEND HOURS THAT ARE WORSE THAN THROWN AWAY, IN STUDYING THIS OR THAT FASHION TO DECORATE THE POOR, MORTAL BODY. WHILE THEY MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR LIKE THE WORLD, AND AS BEAUTIFUL AS THEY CAN, THEY MUST REMEMBER THAT THE SAME BODY MAY IN A FEW DAYS BE FOOD FOR WORMS. AND WHILE THEY ADORN IT TO THEIR TASTE, TO PLEASE THE EYE, THEY ARE DYING SPIRITUALLY. THE OUTSIDE APPEARANCE IS AN INDEX TO THE HEART. WHEN THE EXTERIOR IS HUNG WITH RIBBONS, COLLARS, AND NEEDLESS THINGS, IT PLAINLY SHOWS THAT THE LOVE FOR ALL THIS IS IN THE HEART, UNLESS SUCH PERSONS ARE CLEANSED FROM THEIR CORRUPTION, THEY CAN NEVER SEE GOD, FOR ONLY THE PURE IN HEART WILL SEE HIM.

Even so the dress question is not to be our present truth. To create an issue on this point now would please the enemy(Satan). He would be delighted to have minds diverted to any subject by which he might create division of sentiment, and lead our people into controversy.

WE Christinas(Those who accept the cross)should threfore dress with simplicity. They should clothe themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety. Give to the world a living illustration of the inward adorning of the grace of God.We should place ourselves under the discipline of the living oracles of God, subjecting the mind to influences which form the character aright.