Windshields

On Sunday morning, everyone who attended the 11:00 service had a bit of a surprise on their windshields.  That is, someone had gone through the parking lot and placed a message on every windshield, with the intent that we would all read it, and know what it is that this (unidentified) person wants us to think.

Firstly, I want to assure everyone that this communication was not from Good Shepherd Lutheran church.  In case you may have though that this was from us, know that the odds of me leaving notes on everyone's windshields on a Sunday morning are zero.  Secondly, to the person who left such messages, on the off-chance that you are reading this post, I would encourage you to, instead of leaving things on windshields, to come and talk to either myself, or to attend the Bible study group on Sunday morning to get an idea about what it is that we believe, teach and confess, before you start papering vehicles in our parking lot.

Now that that's out of the way, let me address the content of the leaflets for anyone who may be confused or perplexed about what they found there.  The essential core of these leaflets would appear to be that the entire Bible should be read through from Genesis to Revelation.  I would assume that most of you reading this today would agree so far.  Where you probably wouldn't agree is with certain things in this letter that are factually incorrect, as well as what we would call theologically incorrect.  I will begin with the things that are factually incorrect, or otherwise flawed, then will move on to the theological inconsistencies.  I will do my best to give links for everything that I am talking about, that you may not take my word on things.

Firstly, we need to talk about the nature of Hebrew and Aramaic.  The letter is correct in stating that knowledge of Biblical languages is important in order to come as close as possible to the intended meaning of any passage (any translation also being an interpretation).  But it is curiously ironic to talk about mistranslations and to also say that the English word 'Jesus' was "translated from the Greek word 'Lesous,' which was translated from the Hebrew word 'Yeshua'."  When we're talking about translation and precision, it should be noted that there is no such word as 'Lesous.'  Sure enough, there is no letter 'J' in the Greek language, you'd be looking at a letter closer to an 'I', but definitely not an 'L'.  Is this a typo or a lack of knowledge of what is being spoken about? Uncertain, but matters like this do put the emphasis on accurate translation on shaky ground.
The next topic is that of the Khabouris codex.  This manuscript is claimed by the letter we all received to be 'approximately 50-60 years older than the earliest Greek manuscripts.'  I went to the site https://therefinersfire.org/khabouris_codex.htm and you can too.  Let me know what happens when you click it.  I got nothing.  So, I was unable to do research on this khabouris codex from the website that the letter recommended, which led to me doing research on it the way anyone else would do - through googling, etc.  It was there that I found the research on the Khabouris codex, linked as there.  Is the Khabouris codex 50-60 years older than the earliest Greek manuscripts?  No, it is not.  The Rylands papyrus P52 is typically dated between 125-175 AD.  The earliest copy of the Khabouris codex comes out between 300-310 AD.  Now, again, this isn't hugely important, as Aramaic Bibles are just as necessary as Greek Bibles for reaching all the people of the world, but where it is important is in the implication that the Aramaic Khabouris codex is in some way more authentic in its message than the Greek New Testament.  We will get to that when we talk about the theological implications.

The remainder of the letter seems to be largely about why it is vital to keep and obey the appointed feasts and festivals, as well as to keep and remain kosher as far as the Old Testament commands would dictate.  Now, I'm not going to get into the theological implications of this yet, only the practical ones.  If you were planning on keeping kosher, you still could, and many Jews today do.  But there are festivals that are literally impossible to keep in the manner that you would have been commanded to do in the Old Testament.  The one that jumps out to me is the festival of booths (which Christ celebrated in the New Testament).  Given that the letter we all received instructs us to keep these festivals in perpetuity, forever, it will be very difficult to do if the 'Hakhel' is impossible to do in the absence of the temple.  Now, if the observation of the Hakhel had to be modified due to the temple not existing anymore, then perhaps the lack of existence of the temple tells you that the adherence of the people of Israel to these festivals is open to modification.

To say that these commandments to observe these festivals in the way that they were prescribed in the Old Testament is something that must be done for all time falls apart with the understanding that some no longer can be done in the prescribed fashion.  We already talked about sukkot, but we also need to talk about Yom Kippur, which, in the Old Testament, requires sacrifices to be made in the Temple. Rosh Hashanah also calls for a fire offering to be offered to the Lord.  I hope you're starting to understand that even people who are calling for full Christian adherence to these feasts would have to modify them in absence of the temple.  So, if you were going to modify these feasts, how would you do it?

There are two ways.  And this is where things get theological.  Things get theological because they essentially have to.  Something happens with the arrival of Jesus Christ, and his desire to fulfill all righteousness, to fulfill the law.  Any attempt to try to keep the festivals in the exact way that they are prescribed in the Old Testament will be frustrated since 70 AD due to the fact that the temple is gone, and has not yet come back.  In its absence, you would have to modify your observances of the festivals to fit a new reality.  And ultimately, that is what happens in the appearance of Jesus Christ and the work that he does.  Jesus came to fulfil the law, which is definitely true.  He didn't come to abolish the law, that much is true, but the law as relates to the separation of Israel from the rest of the world.  It is worth understanding that the festivals, purity laws, things of that nature were there to separate Israel from the nations around them, that Israel may be the place for the messiah to arrive.  The sacrifices were there for the forgiveness of sins until such a time as the messiah should arrive to complete the work of salvation for the entire world.  Once that was accomplished, and Jesus said 'it is finished,' the temple was no longer needed.  The temple was no longer needed because the sacrificial work was done.  And if the sacrificial work was done, then returning to any kind of sacrificial worship would actually be harmful instead of helpful. This is because it reduces the grace of Christ to nothing, given that you would be conflating your salvation not to his work, but to your observance of feasts and festivals.  But if you are observing the feasts and festivals, and you can do everything except the sacrifices, except the thing that can forgive and take away sins, then what are you actually accomplishing?  All you end up doing is adding more laws, by having all the law of the Old Testament without the gospel of the forgiveness of sins.  And that is ultimately where all of this falls apart.

Where this argument always goes is exactly what is on the refiner's fire website: That the Grace of Christ becomes invalid.  And as soon as that happens, then there is no forgiveness of sins at all, because the temple, the sacrificial system and everything about it is gone.  What we believe as Christians, though, is that Jesus told us that we will no longer worship on the mountain or in the temple, but in spirit and in truth.  He told us that 'it is finished,' and when that happened, the temple curtain was torn in two.  Not long after that, the temple itself was destroyed, with not one stone left upon another.   So, that brings us to what to do with all the Old Testament feasts, festivals and so on.  What do we do with Sukkot, or with Yom Kippur?  Well, the most important thing to know is that we, as Christians, didn't cease to celebrate these festivals.  We just celebrate them in their fulfilled form.  The best one to talk about at this time of year is Pentecost.

As a Christian, did you know that Pentecost was a Jewish festival? It is the feast of weeks, Shavuot, where the Hebrew people would gather to give thanks for the harvest, fifty days after Passover.  Now, as a Christian, I would imagine that if you were to celebrate Pentecost, you wouldn't be gathering together to celebrate the harvest of crops.  Rather, you'd be there to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the chosen disciples.  Does that mean that we as Christians refuse to celebrate Pentecost, or do we celebrate it in a Christological way?  This celebration for us celebrates the work that God did to expand his church out into the world, not the gathering of grain from a harvest.  This is how the nature and character of the festivals change as the lens changes.  We see these things as matters of Christ's love, not as matters of observances of a space and time that have had their time and are now no longer necessary.  If it were necessary to follow through with these sacrifices, it would still be possible.  It is not, therefore we rely fully and completely on Christ.

Two things left.  First of all, please take the time to read the book of Titus this week.  It isn't long, only 3 chapters, but it does talk about how you should devote yourself to Jewish myths, and to the commands of those who turn away from the truth.  It also says that 'to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.  They pretend to know God, but they deny him by their works.  They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.'  One of the people we were told to look up by this letter is Jim Staley and his work on Old Testament morals.  He's in jail for fraud.

PJ.