Which Laws Did The Church Council Mandate?

Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, and Dave, we like to do the other segments of the program, but this is always the greatest blessing to me, and the most edifying.

Dave:

Sometimes it’s very difficult when we come to difficult passages.

Tom:

Right, but that’s what Peter said, these things would be difficult, that’s why there is no easy to understand paraphrase Bible that’s going to help, we want literal translations.But anyway, we are in Acts chapter 21, and we’re going to pick up with verse 25.Paul was getting ready to go through a religious—, I won’t call it a ritual, but there were certain things that Jews needed to do for purification and he wanted to demonstrate to the Jews in Jerusalem that he had not overthrown the law by any means, but certainly it wasn’t the law that would savehim.No one could keep the law.Verse 25 says:“As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.”Obviously the counsel here, this particular counsel, it wasn’t a Vatican counsel, Dave.But it was a counsel where they came together to decide Paul’s ministry or to discuss Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles, and how valid it was with regard to the scriptures.Verse 26:“Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.”

Dave:

This is a tough passage, Tom, and we discussed it somewhat last week, that he’s not putting himself under the law for salvation, but let’s get the picture here.Paul is a Jew, and there are certain observances that are still legitimate, and we mentioned, for example, the Passover, every Jew ought to keep the Passover.It’s amazing that they do, that’s a fulfillment of prophecy because so many Jews do not believe at all, and yet they keep the Passover.In Exodus 12, God said, You will keep this Passover throughout all your generations.So there would be nothing wrong with keeping the Passover.

Tom:

Because isn’t it like our celebrating the Lord’s Supper?This is a memorial of what He has done, what He did for us on the cross.So wouldn’t that be the same for the Jews with regard to their deliverance out of Egypt?

Dave:

Yes, absolutely.See, this is the great proof.I don’t want to go into detail but what is the big controversy in the Middle East today? There’s a people that call themselves Palestinians who say that land belongs to them, but they don’t keep the Passover.And Exodus 12 says, You will keep the Passover, and then when your children ask you about this, in times to come, Why do we do this?You will say, Because our ancestors were led out of Egypt.So this is the proof to whom that land belongs.Okay.So, Jews should do this, they ought to do it.

Tom:

Well, Dave, can I just interject this—maybe some people weren’t following you.When they were led out of Egypt they were led into the Promised Land.

Dave:

Amen, thank you.

Tom:

That land is the Promised Land.It was promised to them by God.

Dave:

Amen.That was the whole purpose of bringing them out of Egypt.So they were taken right into the Promised Land.So you have proof that this is your land, that your ancestors were brought there because we keep the Passover, and that was why you were supposed to do it.It’s a memorial, as you said.Tom, if I can interject something very quickly.We’ve said it a number of times, but we have proof that this actually happened.How do we have proof? It will stand up in any court of law. If you an event witnessed by a multitude of people, just a lot of people, at least, and that was immediately memorialized by some event, some special observance, which was thereafter kept up regularly in the case of Christians, once a week the Bible says, the first day of the week they came together to break bread, and so we have proof that Christ died and rose again.Because just before He went to the cross He said, Do this in remembrance of me.Now they wouldn’t do it in remembrance of Him if He didn’t rise from the dead.And the fact that the church has kept this year after year, week after week, year after year, it’s proof it actually happened.Nobody—let’s say, 500 years later the Jews are living over there in the Promised Land, the land of Israel, and one of them says, Hey guys, I’ve got a great idea.Why don’t we say that we once were slaves in Egypt and that we were let out of Egypt and God told us to roast this lamb and call it the Passover, and there’s a whole story around this, you know—we could help the story, and we’re supposed to do this every year.What would all the Jews say?We didn’t do it last year, we didn’t do it the year before.You couldn’t just make it up.Okay, you can’t just start something in memorial of something that didn’t happen because, Well, we didn’t do that last year.All right, so this proof.So it’s legitimate for Paul, as a Jew.Now there are other things that were involved, and he’s going to—he can’t get near the Temple without doing these observances.These are Jews who come from all over the world to go to the Temple in certain observances.Paul wouldn’t be allowed among them unless he followed certain procedures.So on the one hand it seems odd because Paul has made it very clear, we are not under the law, I’m not keeping this in order to get saved.On the other hand, I’m keeping this as an observance as a Jew because these are certain commands God has given us.Well, that’s not going to go!

Tom:

No, he’s wanting to do things absolutely right, Dave, and sometimes we say things on this program—and we try to be as articulate as we can, but sometimes we don’t communicate that well, even when we do communicate things very well, people don’t get it.Well anyway, verse 27:“And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, Crying out, Men of Israel, help:This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place:and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.”It wasn’t true at all.

Dave:

Verse 29:“(For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)”So now we’ve got, in spite of Paul’s efforts to pacify them and make them think, Well, I believe what the fathers said, I believe what Moses taught, and so forth.They have false accusations against him, and he is just upsetting them.So it’s not going to work.Jews that were of Asia—they knew Paul, he had been out there preaching in their cities.But he never said, he wasn’t teaching all men against the people, against Jews, and against the law and against this place.

Tom:

Was he being accused of being anti-Semitic?

Dave:

Apparently.

Tom:

That’s one thing that flabbergasts me, that the Bible is anti-Semitic, that Jesus is anti-Semitic, I mean, What?

Dave:

Tom, it’s interesting to me.I try to be rational, I try to reason with people, but sometimes I think, what is the point?Now Paul, he has gone through all the procedures, he’s showing you that he’s in favor of this.He’s not against this place, the Temple, he’s not against the Jews. He wants to identify with them, and it backfires on him.They don’t even see that, they just think he’s infiltrating them like a spy, and he’s going to be a—

Tom:

Just a subversive.

Dave:

Thank you, subversive among them.So, of course, that was not what God wanted him to do, but Tom, we went into that.Did God really want him to come?He was warned not to come, and so forth, and we went through that.You can get the tape, we’re not going to go back over it again.

Tom:

It will be coming up in a little bit because of what they do to Paul.

Dave:

I believe he was in God’s will, and God is going to use this to take him to Rome.