I am not a Jew! I follow the Bible, and not Jewish traditions. The verse referred to is:
Leviticus 19:27-28
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
God repeated many of His commandments often. It is always good to check the context, and then look up the other times he states the commandment.
Leviticus 21:1-5-9
And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people: But for his kin, that is near unto him, [that is], for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. [But] he shall not defile himself, [being] a chief man among his people, to profane himself. They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
Both times that God talked about shaving off the corners of your beard…He did that in context of, doing that for the dead.
I do not shave off a patch of hair on my head, or make cuttings in my flesh, or anything like that for the dead, so I am in compliance with this law.
2. Why don’t you put a box on your head like the Jews?
Again, I am not a Jew. The Jews use the following verse for the reason to put the tefillin on ones head:
Deuteronomy 6:6
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
If the Jews interpret the part “and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes” to mean to put the tefillin on their heads, then why don’t they use the part “shall be in thine heart” to surgically put the tefillin in their hearts?
3. The Jews have a different practice of circumcision than what is commonly practiced in America today. If you are going to practice all of the law you need to be circumcised like the Jews.
Can you guess my answer to that statement? I AM NOT A JEW! The scriptures say that the foreskin must be removed on the 8th day with a sharp stone. If my parents circumcised me on any other day by any other means it is my parents that have sinned, not me. And to say I need to have my circumcision done over again is absurd! It is not even possible to cut off what is not there!
4. It is a commandment to stone people for breaking the Sabbath. If you are going to obey God, then you need to start stoning people.
Should a private citizen in the United States today, go out and stone someone for breaking the Sabbath? The answer to that is no. The reason is the same as “should an ambassador to the United States enforce the United States’ laws while he is living in Russia?” The answer to that is “no” as well. You see, the ambassador is not a police officer (a high priest servant) hired to find people who transgress the law (sinners), to bring them to the Court house (the Temple), in front of a judge (a Levite priest). And until God’s system is back in place, one (a Citizen of the Kingdom of God) can not enforce any penalties of God’s laws while in a foreign land (any nation that does not have God’s laws as the laws of the nation). Just as an American ambassador, while over in Russia, can not enforce the laws of the United States (even though he is still bound by US law), you as an ambassador of Christ, can not enforce the laws of God.
To put it another way, let us say that King David or a Levite was taking a trip to another country, and he saw someone breaking the Sabbath. Even though they have the authority to arrest them when they are in Israel, they have no authority while in another country. (Not to mention that everyone needs a trial and at least 2 witnesses for the death penalty. If David brought the Sabbath breaker to the foreign court, it wouldn't do any good because their laws were different than Israel's laws.)
We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven (Philippians 3:20). Christ is our King (Revelation 19:16). We are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). Unless God sets up a country again with his laws and his temple, we as ambassadors have no authority to enforce God's penalties anywhere on Earth. The United States would be much better off if they started practicing all of Yahweh's laws, but they chose to rule themselves than to let Yahweh rule over them (We will see soon if that was a good idea).
5. Why don't you make sacrifices for sins?
Because I am not a Levite.
6. Do you follow all 613 Commandments?
This argument is common by those that are against the law of God. They make it sound like a huge burden. I would like to point out that most of those statutes can be summed up to one law. For instance, if one only has sex with his/her spouse (of the opposite sex that is not closely related to him/her) then that person is in compliance with at least 22 of the 613.
If a person is not a farmer, a king, a soldier, a nazarite, a leper, or a Levite priests, then over a hundred of those laws do not apply to that person.
Some might say something like "So you admit you don't follow all the law, and only the ones that applies" then they will quote James 2:10 out of context. To them I point out that Jesus was not a leper, a Nazarite, a Levite, or a farmer so he did not have to practice the laws they practice either.
I think it is much easier to follow God's 613 (actually there are more...the official Jewish count missed a few) than to obey the 2.5 million laws of the United States. God is so smart and loves liberty, he can run his whole nation with less than 1000 laws!
Most people who use this "look at the burdensome 613 laws you have to obey" have not even read all the laws. God did not give us crazy laws for no good reason. With a little thought, one can make sense of every law (and sometimes, God even tells us why he gave us that law). See: Making Sense of the Law
