(May 19, 2012 at 2:44 am)Creed of Heresy Wrote:(May 18, 2012 at 9:08 pm)Polaris Wrote: Romans 14:20 (This is from Paul reiterating what Jesus said twice, during His ministry and after)
"Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble."
Acts 10
"9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
This is true, here...although when I was still a believer, I often asked myself: "What does it look like when 'heaven opens?' Nobody's ever been able to describe that...do they mean the sky? Why do we never see the sky opening up anymore? What would lay beyond? And why is it that these earth-shaking things happened all the time during the times of ignorance but have never happened in times of skepticism? Having your faith tested sure doesn't make sense, since these overt displays were made back then, why is now any different?" Never satisfactorily answered, of course...
But also when I read the verse I took it to meaning that god has to specifically make something clean, because if nothing else the Hebrew language, if it specifies something, it's very pointed on what it's specifying. The verse, therefore, translated as painstakingly as these all are, means that, specifically, god must make them pure, and that Peter was being shown these specific animals were all to be pure for eating. But does it apply for everything else? Well, Romans certainly seems to indicate so and quite clearly, but still, the specification there always made me pause and think for a moment.
Either way, hence why I was saying the whole thing about following Leviticus, if you so do, means you're less a christian, and more an ultra-orthodox jew.
BASICALLY what I'm saying is: If you're a christian, DROP THE OLD TESTAMENT. I'm not a huge fan of the bible one way or another but seriously the moment christians start quoting the old testament as justification to their opinions, another ten of my brain cells commit group-suicide together.
And for the ones that do not? Then you and me are likely to get along just fine.
Well I do quote the Old Testament when I am looking for historical references post 1000 BCE (before that, the historicity comes heavily into question given the lack of corroborating external sources), but that seems about it.
Since I am a Gentile and my ancestors were pagans, my people were never under the Old Covenant. I do know of those who are both Jewish and Christian (I mean actually both Jewish and Christian...not the people who just they are so because one parent was Jewish and another Christian), so they follow all the old customs that are still realistic to follow...aka animal sacrifice ended when there was no Temple I believe. They believe those changes only apply to Gentile Christians.
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.
