BibleForums Christian Message Board
Other Categories => Controversial Issues => Topic started by: Fenris on March 05, 2023, 09:22:53 PM
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A member who had a short tenure here presented an interesting thought without realizing it.
I mentioned the upcoming holiday of Purim and quoted form the Book of Esther
To recap:
Esther 9:
Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus , near and far, to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor. So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them.
and further
For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. But when the plot came to the king’s attention, he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back onto his own head, and that he and his sons should be impaled on poles. (Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, the Jews took it on themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews—nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants.
His response was that
"Jesus Christ triumphed over principalities, ( ordinances.) so no longer judgement exists in meat, or drink, or respect of a holyday, or of sabbath days, all of them revealed the way to Christ."
In other words, that we are no longer obligated to follow holidays because Jesus rendered the judgment for not keeping them irrelevant.
In a way he missed the point, but also in a way he said something profound.
(By the way, Jews don't keep the law to "avoid judgement", but because its terms of a covenant we made with God. But that's not relevant here.)
Judaism is both a religion and a nationality. And the bible reflects that. So for example, in Exodus 13 the bible tells us In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery... And so we celebrate the holiday of Passover.
Similarly we celebrate the holiday of Purim.
These are national holidays, in the same way that Americans celebrate Thanksgiving or Independance day.
New immigrants also celebrate these holidays even though their ancestors were not here at the time of the events in question, because they have adopted America as their home country. Similarly, converts to Judaism celebrate Purim and Passover, even though their ancestors were not there and did not take part in the events in question. Because they have adopted not just the religion but also the peoplehood.
Going back to the comments by the departed member, he is expressing some of the genius of Christianity. Becoming Jewish is hard; it means adopting the law, getting circumcised, and in our context here, breaking national ties. In the ancient world this was kind of a big deal (and I think it's kind of a big deal still.) By rendering the law irrelevant and allowing Christians to remain attached to their communities and peoples, it was enabled to be a mass religion. And by becoming a mass religion, it civilized the world by spreading the ideas of ethical monotheism.
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And here we goyim thought that the movie "The Purge" was something we can up with...
:o