MARCH 31 THE JESUS QUESTIONS
JQ#12
*Who decides what is legal, God or man?*
“What man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls
into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?
Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?”
(Matthew 12:11-12a)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS, today I start my prayer to You with a desire to do honor to Your Name
by doing all that my limited abilities will allow me to do to share “God’s Truth”
and instill in others a desire to know and to love God on a higher plane
than ever before! Lord, as I started my day today by reading one of my
prayer’s written to You in 2004, I am impressed by how wonderful You have
been to me all these years as I have been seeking You and Your Truth!
Lord I pray back to You these many years later a portion of that 2004 prayer —
“Your Truth” is timeless: “Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, there is none
but Thee. We in our unworthiness only magnify Thy Grace. Our filthy sin only
makes Your Love shine brighter than can be described — and so our
worthless lives become priceless treasures with but a drop of Your Grace.
Let Your Light, Your Truth, and Your Love be our Way and our Life!
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees as He and His disciples were
eating heads of grain while walking through a field and the “legalistic”
Pharisees admonished Jesus:
“Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful
to do on the Sabbath!”
(Matthew 12:2)
It was at this point that Jesus answered the “legalists” by asking a series
of Questions in reply to their accusation of “legality” against what Jesus
Himself was “allowing” His disciples to do — the following series of
Questions (Matthew 12:4,5,10,11,12) can be summarized as
JQ#12 — “Who decides what is legal, God or man?”
The Pharisees are in essence declaring that Jesus is guilty of doing
“what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath”
because He is allowing His disciples
to engage in an “unlawful” act on the Sabbath, and being the “Leader”,
He must be held personally responsible for their “lawbreaking”!
This “accusation” of “allowing His disciples to do “illegal” activities
on the Sabbath made Jesus also “guilty by association” at best but at worse
Jesus is “guilty of being ignorant of God’s Law”
By making this accusation that Jesus is breaking “Jewish Law”
the legalists have set up a “trial”
between “man’s law” and “God’s Law” —
and instead of Jesus being on “trial”,
the Pharisees and thousands of years of “legal tradition”
will be exposed as “hypocrites” by the Truth of God
as Jesus basically presents His case against the “religious legal system”
established by the “doctrines of men” verses the
“Commandments of God”
and His Divine Argument against all “legalists”
can be summarized by this JESUS Question
JQ#12 — “Who decides what is legal, God or man?”
(Matthew 12:4,5,10,11,12)
In order to establish the “facts” in this “trial” of “God vs. man” we must
establish as best we can all the circumstances of the accused, establish
“motivation” of the actions of the accused, and then “examine” all the
“evidence” of the event in question. To establish these facts we must refer
to writings and historical documents of this historical event for there are
no living eyewitness; however we must seek to show by the eyewitness
accounts that the event in question can be established as fact
by circumstantial evidence. The event in question actually took place
over 2000 years ago and “logically” therefore, the “accused” must be
proven to be present at that event or “legally” there can be no trial!
If we cannot establish as “fact” that a “crime” occurred, then how can
someone be “accused”? Legally it is imperative that the “accused” must
be proven to be present at the scene of the crime and then the accused
must be “proven” to be “guilty” of performing the actions that resulted
in the accusation! Let us begin with the original charges and
produce what circumstantial evidence that is available to us using
trustworthy historical documents and recorded facts.
Let us start with a modern definition from a current legal dictionary.
In an article titled:
“Circumstantial Evidence:
Legal Definition of Circumstantial Evidence”
we read:
“Information and testimony presented by a party in a civil
or criminal action that permit conclusions that indirectly establish
the existence of a fact or event that the party seeks to prove.”
The article also cites the U. S. Supreme Court from Holland v. United States,
348 U. S. 121, 75 S. Ct. 127, 99 L. Ed. 150 [1954] as the court stated:
“circumstantial evidence is intrinsically no different from
testimonial [direct] evidence.”
and the article concludes:
“Thus, the distinction between direct and circumstantial evidence
has little practical effect in the presentation or admissibility
of evidence in trials.”
Contained in the article is a reference to “Scientific Evidence” and states:
“In addition, much Scientific Evidence is circumstantial, because
it requires a jury to make a connection between the circumstance
and the fact in issue.”
The first Circumstantial Evidence that should be established by the
definition of circumstantial evidence is that circumstantial evidence
is also known as indirect evidence and in its own definition states:
“[Circumstantial evidence] is distinguished from direct evidence,
which, if believed, proves the existence of a particular fact
without any inference or presumption required.”
Two things to note as we present circumstantial evidence is
(R1) “Proof” is established by “belief” for both circumstantial evidence
(“…because it requires a jury to make a connection…”)
and indirect evidence (“…which, if believed, proves…”).
(R2) “Circumstantial evidence" is also known as “indirect” evidence
and as such has the legal standing equivalent to “direct evidence”
and is also equivalent to “Scientific Evidence”.
Therefore the first circumstantial evidence presented in order to
establish “proof” is
Exhibit 1 CE — To establish “proof”, “belief” must be involved, regardless
of the type of evidence used. The Holy Bible is a collection of 44 identified
eye witnesses that have been used thousands of years and has been
considered trustworthy for that same period of time.
Exhibit 2 CE — The Bible: John 20:31 states “…these [eye witness
accounts] are written that you may “believe” that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God…” .
Therefore if “proof” is established by “belief” in “circumstantial evidence”
that the U. S. Supreme Court declares as “legal”,
then we need to ask ourselves why we don’t “believe” the Bible
“since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”
(Hebrews 12:1)???
Or the more important question for our world today is
“Why do we refuse to accept as Truth that which was proven
over 2000 years ago and since the initial proof has been witnessed
by thousands and verified by millions of eye witness accounts?”
If Jesus is not the Resurrected Christ
why are there so many witnesses that saw Him dead
and actually talked to Him after His Resurrection
and why do millions of “believers” declare that Jesus
is still Living today
and He is still talking “TRUTH”
to those that will listen!?!?!?
