Thread: The Issue of the Ceremonial Law - the Shadows - in Acts
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The Issue of the Ceremonial Law - the Shadows - in Acts
Posted : 5 Oct, 2013 05:19 PM
The Issue of the Ceremonial Law - the Shadows - in Acts
Acts 21: 17-21: "And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
18. And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. 19. And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. 20. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: 21. And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs."
John Gill says of Acts 21: 20 that "...and they are all zealous of the law; of the law of Moses, of the ceremonial law, as Paul might see by their being at Jerusalem, to keep this feast; for though they believed in Jesus of Nazareth as the true Messiah, yet they had not light enough to see, that he was the sum and substance of all the ceremonies of the law, and that they all ended in him; and therefore were zealous in the observance of them, and could not bear to hear of their abrogation. "
These Jews who were zealous of the law were much the same as the Pharisees who believed in Christ but insisted that Christians follow the law of Moses in Acts 15: 1-5.
John Gill's view of Acts 21: 20 expresses the New Testament doctrine that what he calls the ceremonial law, which is that part of the Torah that Hebrews 10: 1 and Colossians 2: 16-17 say are mere shadows, was done away with. Those who do not have ears to hear this New Testament doctrine cannot bear to hear that the shadows have been done away with when Christ the substance appeared.
I know of nothing in the book of James that supports the teaching that the shadows - the ceremonial laws - were continued after the Cross.
The movie Peter and Paul presents the conflict between Paul and the Christians under James at Jerusalem fairly accurately according to the Book of Acts. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Dmh8oJwc8
In the movie at one point Peter talks to James about some point of doctrine that Peter finds wrong and James tells Peter that Peter gave him the leadership of the Jerusalem Christians. Peter, in scripture, was,in fact,the first leader of the Jerusalem Christians.
In Acts 15 James agreed with Paul in part but in part agreed with the Jews who wanted to keep the law of Moses, the ceremonial law. James says in Acts 15: 19-21:
"Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
20. But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
21. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day. "
In Acts 21: 20-21 James states to Paul that thousands of Jews believe and are zealous for the law, but James says they know that Paul teaches the Gentiles to forsake Moses. Then, James sends Paul to the temple to take part in a ceremonial law purification ceremony which leads to the Jews trying to kill him and his imprisonment by the Romans from which he was never set free.
We do not know what Peter and John thought about the thousands of believing Jews who believed but were zealous for the ceremonial law that James informed Paul about, with no indication that he, James, agreed with Paul that the ceremonial law was a mere shadow which was done away with when Christ appeared.
I know of nothing in the book of James that supports the teaching that the shadows - the ceremonial laws - were to be continued after the Cross for all Christians or just for the Jewish Christians.
The issue of the ceremonial law between Paul and James as the leader of the Jerusalem Christians is not discussed in an explicit way in the NT. But we know that Peter in II Peter 3: 15-16 calls Paul our beloved brother and says Paul wrote some things hard to understand which they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle with to their own destruction. This does not sound like Peter at this point disagreed with Paul.
This issue shows how subtle the difference is between sound doctrine and falling off into unsound doctrine and in this case into the spirit of anti-Christ. If no distinction is made in the law of Moses between the shadows, the ceremonial law, and the moral law then both must be accepted, or both rejected, in the New Covenant period.
The Issue of the Ceremonial Law - the Shadows - in Acts
Posted : 5 Oct, 2013 05:41 PM
The apostles and elders came together to consider the matter. (vs.6) Again, they were given this authority to do so in Matt 16. Now, it was after this that they concluded "But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood." The whole disposing was of God.
Matt 16:19 [KJB:PCE])
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Prov 16:33 [KJB:PCE]
The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD .
"I know of nothing in the book of James that supports the teaching that the shadows - the ceremonial laws - were continued after the Cross"
