Comments on The Daily Spurgeon: Purge out the leaven

What I meant was that keeping the Feasts is not Te...

2009-06-25T21:29:54.883-04:00

What I meant was that keeping the Feasts is not Temple dependent. Throughout Acts Paul together with Jewish and Gentiles believers literally kept Sabbath and the Feasts.

He says, let us keep the feast, what feast? The Feast of Unleavened Bread which is a literal feast once a year. Nobody celebrates a "spiritual" Feast of Unleavened Bread and at a random date.

Then he explains how to keep it, when you take the literal bread, think of it as the bread of sincerity. Literal Feast with spiritual meanings.

The Colossians passage is generally taught exactly...

2009-06-25T19:28:21.742-04:00

The Colossians passage is generally taught exactly backwards. Those were believers in a city influenced by gnostics who didn't believe in any special days or in enjoying food.

These believers were being judged by non-believers for keeping Sabbath, the Feasts, New Moons, enjoying food on these special days.

Paul was a great student of the Law. He would never call the Law "commandments and doctrines of men" as in verse 22. He knew better that the Law was God-given. What he refers to in Colossians are the teachings of the gnostics.

In the phrase "but the body is of Christ", the word "is" is not in the text, but is supplied. The text says "Let no man therefore judge you..., but the body of Christ".

The Feasts have nothing to do with the Temple. They were celebrated by the People of God way before there even existed a Temple. They represent the schedule of God's plan which is still future.

William, I don't wish to engage you on this in gre...

2009-06-25T15:05:16.009-04:00

William, I don't wish to engage you on this in great length as it's really not germane to the post. But Paul is clearly not speaking of the literal feast if he's talking about bread of sincerity. Your use of Colossians 2 is also in my opinion questionable. The substance is Christ, who had come already. But let's recall that the feast were still be literally celebrated as the Temple was still standing. That, aside from reasons of grammar, is another reason why Paul could say "they are a shadow."

Otherwise why does he say not to let anyone judge us in respect of such things?

The practice of spiritualizing the Scriptures came...

2009-06-25T14:25:36.995-04:00

The practice of spiritualizing the Scriptures came with the Greek influence and the Gnostics. Just like in the previous example with Paul, we have to first keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread literally and the spiritual meaning is second.

And by the way one cannot keep this Feast without first keeping Passover, same with Pentecost, so indeed they were keeping the Feasts. If the Law is done away with (or spiritualized), then why do we have to keep the Feasts?

Colossians 2:17 speaks of the Feasts "Which are a shadow of things to come" not past, but still future.

Thanks, William. I understand what you're saying, ...

2009-06-24T08:10:27.345-04:00

Thanks, William. I understand what you're saying, but I think Spurgeon was simply explaining that particular practice of "housecleaning" an audience which might have been unfamiliar with it.

Actually Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore ...

2009-06-24T03:24:08.713-04:00

Actually Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Both Jews and Gentiles were keeping the Feasts. In the Tanakh ("old testament"), they are not called the Feasts of the Jews, but the Feasts of YHVH.