Eliseus and Sis. Alvear -
As we are already into the Passover period, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the first day of the first week of counting the Omer, the teaching on the Spring Festivals is abou half complete. Visit the thread
Spring Festivals and
Counting the Omer for more information. There are a lot of attachments and linked web sites.
Mike - I understand your position and have no difficulty with it. Of course, Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Festival of Weeks , Shavu'ot, etc, are not Jewish holidays or Holy days. And, when Jesus returns to earth and establishes His kingdom, anyone who does not observe the fall harvest festival of Sukkot (the Festival of Booths), will be cursed of God. If we are all going to be required to celebrate this festival, we might as well get some understanding as to what it is all about. Right?
Perhaps, as you have already alluded to, there just might be more to this kind of study than meets the eye. Reading the New Testament from an Apostolic world view puts some of what has been general believed by the Western Gentile thinking Christians in a very different context. It is something akin to translating Shakespeare's works into Chinese and expecting an Asian reader to be able to truly understand and appreciate Shakespeare's works without the benefit of knowing British history, culture, or language. While not impossible to over come, this lack of knowledge does pose some very real interpretation problems for the Asian reader.
For starters, remove the page that is titled "New Testament", think of the four Gospels as one book called 3th Kings, The book of Acts is actually 3ed Chronicles, and Revelation is still Revelation. All of the Epistles then become the God inspired Commentary to the existing Word of God - there is nothing "new" in the New Testament, that has not already been identified in the "old". (Revelation being the promised expansion of the writings of Daniel.)
After the observance of Shavu'ot, I'll pull together some notes on
The Law of God and Living under Grace, and start a teaching thread on that subject - unless you or someone else would like to take the lead on that subject now. As a matter of fact, that would lesson some of my current work load.
However, if anyone would like to start that teaching, remember that Abraham, the father of faithful (Ro 4:13 "It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.") also lived under the Law of God and kept them all - and that was long before the event at Mt. Sinai. Not exactly what has been taught in Sunday School, right?
Kind of makes studying Romans, Galileans, and Hebrews a little more involved, than just lifting some selected words out of a few books and creating another stand-alone doctrine.
I look forward to reviewing such a teaching.
Shalom.
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