Wow, I remember back in the '70's someone wrote to Ann Landers regarding the proper way to hang toilet paper: With the end hanging on the outside of the roll or with the end hanging on the inside of the roll. That single letter prompted more letters to an advice column on a single subject ever and as far as I know there hasn't been any single subject that has prompted more since.
Except perhaps now.
The only thing is, how to hang toilet paper truly is a trivial matter.
I don't believe this is a trivial matter at all.
Earlier today I asked Fembot why she quoted Peter's response to the Lord in his vision regarding the unclean animals and yet didn't go on to the Lord's very next statement, "What the Lord has now cleansed, no longer consider unholy." And, I didn't mean my question to indicate that Fembot was being deceptive in her POV, but rather to bring up an issue. (Then I had to take off for the day, and didn't get around to amplifying my point. Until now.)
This is a truly important vision and it's ramifications are profound. There has been much discussion as to whether or not the vision was meant to signify what to eat or was it that the gentiles were now open to receive the Lord's blessings or both.
The truth is, that it was all that and more.
The very first theological heresy that the infant Church had to deal with was Judeaising. The Judeaisers were very religious Jews who were teaching that OK, the gentiles were now able to receive God's blessings, but only if they put themselves under the Law of Moses. Almost all of Romans, Hebrews and a good portion of the other epistles were written to teach the truth regarding this heresy. Indeed, a significant part of Paul's apostleship was to not only preach to the Gentiles, but convince them to ignore the Judeaisers who desired to put them under the Law.
Someone earlier on this thread mentioned that one of the reason why the vision took the shape that it did was that the Gentiles ate all these "unclean" animals. The animals were cleansed, as were the Gentiles who ate them. Jesus did, in fact, fulfill the Law. Therefore, what was once unclean is now clean.
The Law, with it's requirements to be circumcised, to eat only that which was clean, to observed certain days, times, and festivals, was all fulfilled. Christ's atoning work on the cross fulfilled the purpose of the Law by finally cleaning all of unholiness. The old covenant, the Law, has passed away.
I can say it no better than the writer to the Hebrews:
When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Hebrews 8:13
The question has been asked in various ways, "When did God say it was OK to eat pork."
Here is the answer:
Not eating pork was part of the Old Covenant. But that old covenant is finished, it is obsolete, it has been replaced.
I now submit a different question: "Under the new Covenant, is eating pork considered unclean?"
And the answer to that is NO. There are no dietary restrictions under the new covenant.
Under the new Covenant, it matters not what is placed into one's mouth. As has been repeated a number of times, our Lord pointed out in a very frank and blunt way, that what goes into the mouth is digested and then eliminated. Under the new Covenant, it's not what goes into the mouth that matters, but what comes out of it. It is not a Covenant of Laws that is superimposed upon one's person. It is...well, the Lord Himself tells us what the New Covenant is:
"For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be My people. And they shall NOT teach every one his fellow citizen, and every one his brother, saying 'Know that Lord' for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
The key difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is Pentecost, my friends. Pentecost means that under the New Covenant, each and every one of us has the Spirit of God dwelling within us. It is the Spirit who will convict us as to what is right and what is wrong. This is why it is true that if a person thinks that it is sin to eat pork, then for THAT person, it is. This is why we are to be so careful not to place ourselves as a stumbling block before our brother, because the Lord is doing a work within each of our hearts, dependent upon where each person is in their individual walk with God.
The reason why Judeaising is such an insidious heresy is that it seeks to separate the person from the Holy Spirit and place them under a predetermined list of do's and don'ts. It effectively negates Christ's finished work on the cross within the heart of the believer.
We can all share with one another our wisdom and our opinions of what is considered righteous and unrighteous under the New Covenant. But, we must not, must not seek to put back into place that which the Lord Himself has declared obsolete.
As far as issues of what to eat, what to drink, what days to worship on, what festivals to embrace, all these things we have freedom in Christ. Under the New Covenant, if the Spirit dwelling within one doesn't convict one regarding these non-essential things, then enjoy your freedom. Just don't let your freedom become a stumbling block to another, for the Spirit might convict your neighbor on something, for whatever reason. This is life under the new covenant.
