Thank you so much, both of you, for your help and responses, much appreciated.

I realize now that by the end of this one I will have unintentionally told you a fib in the email I wrote this morning when I said I wouldn't write another lengthy one-please forgive me. This time, I really do promise I won't do it again after this one. For whatever reason the responses given by you two opened something up for me in the thinking process, so you might have given me the chance to pull a great deal of this together. Unfortunately, it's led to a couple of more questions I might have to ask you~.

Concerning the ceremonial defilement issue I wrote about this morning that you've responded to here, I think a person can struggle to make sense of these areas but in the end, as you both point out, once we get to the NT itself the story ends up being about Jesus Christ and what He did for us-that's the only explanation that makes sense.

The great complexity, again, is to ask why God would have had them partaking in these various rituals to begin with. If, however, a person looks at all such things from the standpoint of Jesus and than looks at the process in reverse, maybe than that is the only way we can truly understand what the intent was to begin with from the overall standpoint of the human need for a Saviour. That gives me a lot of hope suddenly to look at this from the opposite angle-instead of putting Jesus on trial, than, perhaps it's best to let Him do the explaining and look it another way-thanks again for the answers, both of you.

In addition to the ceremonial aspect confusion, the following would than remain as my only real source of confusion regarding the OT, which has to do with the law-

Most Christians today conclude that from a Christian standpoint God's New Covenant in Christ abolished the Old, including the law w/ the exception of the 10 Commandments, though Jesus revealed a different way for us to live by such even in that case.

Knowing that God doesn't change, however, we know He still treasures righteousness and for His children to do all we can to live for Christ the right way.

Thus, we know, for example, that He doesn't like children that speak disrespectfully to their parents, and/or those engaged in something like sorcery or witchcraft.

In the OT, however, these people were stoned to death for such infraction, albeit in the case of the child disrespecting his/her parents the law appears to lie out a situation where the child does so repeatedly, etc.

Today, in this age, obviously we don't execute people for such violations. From the standpoint of the Bible, however, what reason is given for this change?

Is it that precise point that we acknowledge that we're all sinners, the call now being to accept Christ and live for Him as best we can while bringing others into His Kingdom, and once that takes place the attitude and Christian heart drives one away from such things?

Case in point-in a recent poll, it was estimated that 80% of today's adult film stars were molested as children.

In the OT, however, regardless of childhood circumstances, etc, these people would have been stoned to death. Here today, however, the Christian, while certainly condemning such behavior, would make the effort to embrace the person and bring them to Christ and lead them to repentance.

So while I understand certain differences between the OT law and God's New Covenant through Christ, still there are other parts of this I have a hard time understanding. In terms of the following question, if I understand this correctly I'm guessing most of it might go back to Jeremiah 31:33-34-

In a national storyline months ago, many were outraged w/ a pet owner that took few precautions with a known viscious pet bull that wound up killing a child. The natural response among the majority was that the owner was liable because he didn't take enough responsibility to take care of the situation with the animal.

Well, there it is right in Exodus 21:29, the premimse, at least w/ the vast majority of the population agreeing about such, with the exception of the call to kill the owner.
That said, we're literally witnessing Jeremiah 31:33-34 play out right before us than, aren't we.

The point to all of this I suppose would be to ask if Jeremiah 31:33-34 is the main reason we don't follow the OT law structure anymore specifically aside from reading it to better understand God's ideals of justice and righteousness, this because under the New Covenant God's law is already written on the heart among believers in Christ, the major changes being-
1-that Christ helps guide us to the right path
2-the call for executing the wrongdoer in the vast majority of cases (The pit bull owner, prostitute, sassy child, sorcerer) is taken away because we realize we all fall short and all have sinned, and thus under the NC forgiveness is granted upon genuine repentance which would negate the call for executing the wrongdoer, even though justice is clearly still warranted outside of that in terms of righting the wrong.

This was a very confusing process for me to get through in terms of the OT study, and clearly I still have a long way to go. Thankfully, however, at this point, thanks in large part to the many kind souls He sent to help me along the way like the two of you, I was able to find my way back to Christ the Person.

When I went into this at the first, the confusion led me to legitimately question Jesus which was the most heartbreaking experience of my life. While I have a long way to go to get to where I need to be for Him, the heart's love for Him had meant so very much throughout life, even if such was a childlike faith previously. Thus, when these OT questions came to surface, it felt as if I was stabbing my Best Friend in the back-the guilt was just terrible.

Again, though, with the help of His people like you two, I think I'm finally back on course, so I truly can't ever thank you enough. Please take care now.