Carrie Wigal

I’ve been reading through a document that was presented to me a week ago on “The Covenant and The Law“, and I’ve been scouring my Bible for truths concerning several points being made in it.

There were three points that were mentioned that the author seemed to think were “givens”: the Priesthood, Sacrificial Rituals & Circumcision are all no longer required. I used to freely spout that off as well, but the past few months I’ve been seriously reconsidering my longheld belief concerning this.

I admit I’m still stumped about Circumcision. I haven’t given up on it yet, but for the moment I’m okay with not having that completely figured out at this point. Regarding the other two, however, I dug deep into the Word this weekend to find out what it has to say about them, and it was very exciting.

WHAT DID JESUS SAY?

First, I start with the underlying premise that Jesus said,

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means dissappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18 NIV)

The author of the document finished with these verses, expounding on the meaning of the word “fulfill”, but neglecting to speak on the meaning of “abolish”. His premise concerning this verse was since it was already determined that the three “givens” are no longer applicable, then Matt 5:17-18 “cannot mean what advocates of keeping the Old Covenant law claim it means“. Honestly, I was shocked by this line of reasoning.

Why wouldn’t we want to start with Jesus’ words and then determine the truth concerning controversial matters, rather than drawing a conclusion about controversial matters and making Jesus’ words fit in with our conclusions?

When I personally study Scripture and I have a thought about what something means concerning a matter, I go back and re-read through whole books that touch on that matter to see if my understanding gels or conflicts with it. This helps me to stay in line with the Word. I recognize I can still be off, but at least it keeps me in check from being way off.

Anyway, let’s just for a moment consider the possibility that Jesus meant what he said, when he said he didn’t come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. What about the priesthood and the sacrificial rituals? Read more »

Over the past few days I have spent gobs of hours poring over Romans, with notepad, pen & highlighter in hand, and I found it very fascinating. It took having to take notes to get through some of the language, but boy, was it worth it.

I’m a visual person, I guess. I like charts and pictures to help tell a story. And when I started to map out Romans, things became much clearer.

UNDERSTANDING RIGHTEOUSNESS

A few weeks ago when I was reading through Romans, specifically chapter 3 verses 21-22a, something jumped out at me.

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

This little word “this” made me think that it was referring to a particular type of righteousness as opposed to another one. And the one it was referring to was a righteousness:

• from God,
• apart from law,
• that comes through faith
• in Jesus Christ.

Well, what other righteousness is there? Read more »

Earlier this year I started a Beth Moore Bible Study covering the Psalms of Ascent. She talked about how we were going to go on a pilgrimage in this study, and in one of the first lessons, she asked us to describe in one word how we were feeling at the onset and write it down on the first step in a staircase (illustrated in the back of the Study Guide). And the word I chose was “misunderstood“. Sometimes I feel like I’m still on that step.

Unfortunately, due to some other factors (both good and not so good), I was unable to continue keeping up with the study. I did my homework here and there and I attended a few of the video viewing sessions, but I never went through all the lessons to get to the top of the staircase. I may revisit that study guide again some time, but for now I’ve set it aside.

I sat down here at my computer screen to share what’s been on my mind, but I’m feeling more inclined to share what’s on my heart at the moment. I hope you’ll bear with me. Read more »

Yesterday, I wrote an article called “He That Preaches Another Jesus“, and I spoke of a “Christian Jesus”. In retrospect, I think I should not have phrased it that way. I think I should have said “the Jesus I learned about growing up”.

I recognized before I hit the publish button that this article would cause a stir, simply because of it’s controversial content but I didn’t want to add to the controversy by using words in such a way that it was disparaging to a particular group of people. For that, I am sorry. (I have since edited it to reflect the change in terminology.)

Most of the controversy that I see is over the holidays/days commonly identified with Christianity: Christmas, Easter and Sunday/Sabbath. Read more »

“I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. “ – 2 Corinthians 11:1-4 NASB

I have often wondered what was meant here by “preaches another Jesus“. I think I thought this was referring to a different messiah, but quite honestly I can’t remember now. That’s because I think I now understand what this is talking about.

Have you ever run into someone who knows a family member of yours but didn’t know you were related to them? And have they ever started talking about this family member, describing them to you in such a way that you didn’t even recognize who they were talking about because that’s not your personal experience with him/her? That is exactly what I’m thinking this “preaches another Jesus” is referring to. Read more »

I have a blended family. My husband has a child from a previous relationship whom we’ve raised together for the past ten years, and we have three children of our own. God used my personal family situation to teach me a lesson this year about the Family of God.

But first some history…

You see, in many Christian circles there is an understanding that there are two sets of rules for the people of God…one for the Jews and another for the Gentiles. And this is what was taught to me, sort of, indirectly. For example, I’ve asked in the past why we didn’t keep the Sabbath or the Passover, and I was told because these were Jewish days. As Christians we go to church on Sunday and celebrate Easter.

Although I was confused about a great many things, I simply accepted that answer…until this past year, that is.

This is what I used to think…. Read more »

Written By: Ty Wigal

This is that Moses, which said to the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you of your brothers, like to me; him shall you hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give to us: To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, Saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets,

‘O you house of Israel, have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yes, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which you made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’   – Acts 7:37-43

Consider a view point based on the above Scripture:

Moses was off doing his priestly prophet duty.  He is representative of the law (big stretch there huh?).  While he was away, the people were without law, antinomian so to speak.  They thrust the law away from themselves and turned back to sin (bondage/Egypt….another big stretch here). Read more »

I was reading Hebrews in my NIV Student Bible last night starting from chapter 7 until the end of the book, and I had an awesome time of study. I found myself asking questions and as I searched Scripture, I was finding answers. It was very exciting. I went to sleep with all of this on my mind and woke this morning still hungry for more.

So, I decided to open up to the beginning of the book and I read the “introduction” provided by the publishers of this particular Bible, and Oh, my! Read more »

I grew up in a Christian home, having attended church most of my life. I went to a Christian University and was even a “wing chaplain” for two years. That was almost 20 years ago. I have read/studied the Bible off and on my whole adult life.

In all this time I had the idea that I as a gentile-turned believer in Jesus Christ am not expected to obey the law of God as outlined in the Old Testament. I had the notion that it was either passed away or it was just for the Jews to obey. Boy, was I ever wrong. At least that’s what I’m finding these days.

Here’s one reason that leads me to believe I was in error… Read more »

A few years ago I started writing quite a bit about my take on the political scene. This past year I’ve taken a bit of a back seat to that topic. In fact I’ve been laying low, not saying much of anything. Not here, anyway.

I started throwing some of my ideas around concerning the Bible on Facebook last spring and shook some folks up with my statements. Wow, I didn’t expect the kind of responses I was getting. Someone suggested I use a blog format to better hash out my thoughts. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now, but due to technical issues and time constraints I held off.

Well, now the technical issues have been resolved and I’ve been rearranging how I spend my time: focusing on what’s most important and tossing aside the frivolous stuff. So, I hope to use this blog to communicate my current thoughts on the “other” taboo subject, religion. Well, not just “religion”, but more like my understanding of God and what He expects of His people. I’ve had a bit of a paradigm shift, to say the least.

I hope those of you who choose to tune in will understand I’m just trying to communicate my understanding of things. I recognize that I am still in the process of learning, and my aim is to remain humble and teachable. I am not trying to be a teacher, but I am trying to share what I’ve learned with the expectation of learning more.

This will remain an open forum with comments enabled on every post. I encourage healthy discussion, especially if there are opposing views. My only request is that we remain loving in our words and attitudes, and we rely on Scripture (the Bible) as our source document.

I hope you’ll take the time to try to understand my position, and I will do my best to try to understand yours should you wish to share it.