Did Christianity lose its way?

[eider]

Sometimes people tell me that the Israelites didn't do so well, and so how could their laws have been so good?
The answer to that is easy......... they stopped keeping to those laws!

ISAIAH {2:3} And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

ISAIAH {30:9} That this [is] a rebellious people, lying children, children [that] will not hear the law of the LORD: {30:10} Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: {30:11} Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

ISAIAH {40:3} The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. {40:4} Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

................. and then came the Baptist, offering redemption and cleansing for nothing, and he told about the corruption and hypocrisy of the leaders................


Matthew {3:3} For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.


Mark {1:3} The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. {1:4} John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Luke {3:4} As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John {1:23} He said, I [am] the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.


................................. clearly the Baptist knew about the way back.....to the old ways and laws

Next post......... and what about Jesus?

[eider]

A short discussion about 'the way' between members caused me to wonder what such a term might have meant, and where it was first written down.
It will take a long post to fulfill the whole presentation about 'the way'..
But it begins to look as if many of the churches lost their way..

I searched through some books of the bible for this term, and since it also refers to roads and journeys etc most frequently, any complete research might take me days, and so here are a very few verses from early books which can help to show what the Abrahamic God is reported to have told the Israelites.

The highlights are mine. 'The way' seems to be a title for the old laws. So does the word 'manners'.

Here we go:-

GENESIS {18:19} For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

EXODUS {6:10} And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. {6:11} The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. {6:12} And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

EXODUS{18:19} Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: {18:20} And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.

EXODUS {32:7} And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted [themselves: ]{32:8} They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have

LEVITCUS {20:22} Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. {20:23} And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. {20:24} But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I [am] the LORD your God, which have separated you from [other] people.

DEUTERONOMY {5:33} Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and [that it may be] well with you, and [that] ye may prolong [your] days in the land which ye shall possess. {6:1} Now these [are] the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments,

DEUTERONOMY . {8:2} And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, [and] to prove thee, to know what [was] in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no

DEUTERONOMY {9:12} And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted [themselves;] they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

DEUTERONOMY {11:22} For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;

JUDGES {2:16} Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. {2:17} And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; [but] they did not so.

JUDGES {2:20} And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; {2:21} I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: {2:22} That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep [it,] or not.

SAMUEL {22:22} For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. {22:23} For all his judgments [were] before me: and [as for] his statutes,

PSALMS {18:21} For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. {18:22} For all his judgments [were] before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.



.................and so a selection of verses from the Old Testament tell me what the ways of the Abrahamic God were, they were the laws.
............... and how about what the Baptist and Jesus said?
...............my next post................... tomorrow!