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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Why did Paul do it? For conscience sake? | Acts 21:23 | DocTrinsograce | 217967 | ||
Dear Humility, Had these things been done in order to achieve atonement, then they would have had a problem. Our righteousness before God is complete in Christ. However, as you have pointed out, the purpose was to eliminate an impediment or criticism of the Jews. When you are functioning within the context of another culture, you sometimes have to accommodate them so as to not bring such offense that they will not listen to you at all. For example, if a missionary family goes to an Islamic country, the women in the family must adjust their attire to comply with local mores. Clothing that might be perfectly chaste and acceptable to Americans, would cause a furor in an Islamic community. The women would not be changing their dress because they thought it would make them more modest. Rather, they would change their dress in order to minimize immediate objections to the message of the Gospel. In Him, Doc |
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2 | Why did Paul do it? For conscience sake? | Acts 21:23 | MJH | 218064 | ||
So James and Paul were bluffing? Lying? or doing a head fake? Luke doesn't say they are doing this. He leads us to believe that Paul followed the Law and even participated in the Temple sacrifices intentionally because he wanted to and believed it was honoring to God. To presume that Paul was buckling to pressure on such a vital issue when his whole Christian life up to this point was one of constant persecution; yet he never wavers; but now it was okay for him to make it appear as though he was following the Law and Temple system, but “wink wink,” we all know he was just trying to fool the Believing Jews? Is it possible that Paul understood the Temple and the purpose of ritual purification from contact with a dead body before offering a sacrifice to end a Nazirite vow (or really, start it over since he touched the dead guy a couple chapters back) more than we do? Maybe our understanding of what Jesus death and resurrection accomplished is slightly off when we assume the Temple ceased to have any purpose and the sacrifices ceased to have any purpose at that moment in time? That's why I ‘thhst’ your answer. Within the scope of the whole Acts narrative, your response makes Paul and James manipulators at best, and liars at worst. Neither are acceptable conclusions, and Luke tells this as if the whole event makes complete sense. MJH With all due respect intended. |
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3 | Why did Paul do it? For conscience sake? | Acts 21:23 | DocTrinsograce | 218065 | ||
Dear MJH, That legalism of yours is very dear to you indeed, son. I am happy to be the recipient of your hisses. Oh that some of my family would exchange their utterly failed self-righteousness for the righteousness of Christ. Still, my conscience is clear in Christ when I abide by the dietary laws of kashrut when I am with them. If the apostles were in error, then may I be found in the same error! "To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it." (1 Corinthians 9:20-23 NASB) I will never, ever understand the love of the chains of the Law by Judaizing gentiles, when those who were given the Law were utterly unable to bear it (Acts 15:10). In Him, Doc |
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