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Posts Tagged ‘greece’

Question: Would animal sacrifice be a sin by modern Christian standards?

Before you answer, "that's the Old Testament rules written for only the Jews"...references to animal sacrifice appear in the New Testament, such as the parents of Jesus sacrificing two doves (Luke 2:24) and the Apostle Paul performing a Nazirite vow even after the death of Christ (Acts 21:23-26).

Christ is referred to by his apostles as "the Lamb of God," the one to whom all sacrifices pointed (Hebrews 10), in fulfillment of a, within the Christian context, lacking understanding of such substitution as expressed in Judaism. Some villages in Greece also sacrifice animals to Orthodox saints in a practice known as kourbània.

Answer: Only if they want to symbolically slap Jesus in the face...attempting to make his sacrifice null and void by such actions. The entire purpose behind animal sacrifice in the Mosaic Law was in order to foreshadow the greater sacrificial offering of Christ in behalf of sin (once for all time).

"WHEN CHRIST CAME AS A HIGH PRIEST...HE ENTERED, NO, NOT WITH THE BLOOD OF GOATS AND OF YOUNG BULLS, BUT WITH HIS OWN BLOOD, ONCE FOR ALL TIME into the holy place and obtained an everlasting deliverance [for us]...
SO THAT IS WHY HE IS A MEDIATOR OF A NEW COVENANT, in order that, because a death has occurred for [their] release by ransom from the transgressions under the former covenant, the ones who have been called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance."...

"Neither is it in order that he should offer himself often, as indeed the high priest enters into the holy place from year to year with blood not his own. Otherwise, he would have to suffer often from the founding of the world. But now he has manifested himself ONCE FOR ALL TIME...TO PUT SIN AWAY THROUGH THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF...THE CHRIST WAS OFFERED ONCE FOR ALL TIME TO BEAR THE SINS OF MANY"...
(Hebrews 9:11, 12, 15, 25-28)

"For since the Law has a shadow of the good things to come, but not the very substance of the things, [men] can never with the same sacrifices from year to year which they offer continually make those who approach perfect. Otherwise, would the [sacrifices] not have stopped being offered, because those rendering sacred service who had been cleansed once for all time would have no consciousness of sins anymore? To the contrary, by these sacrifices there is a reminding of sins from year to year, FOR IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND OF GOATS TO TAKE SINS AWAY. Hence when he comes into the world he says: “‘Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but you prepared a body for me. You did not approve of whole burnt offerings and sin [offering].’... HE DOES AWAY WITH WHAT IS FIRST THAT HE MAY ESTABLISH WHAT IS SECOND...WE HAVE BEEN SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE OFFERING OF THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST ONCE FOR ALL TIME."
(Hebrews 10:1-10)

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PS - In regard to Paul's vow, remember that some actions which were no longer *necessary* for salvation were still observed by some of the Christians (especially among the Jewish converts who were having a difficult time adjusting to certain things, such as the circumcision issue with the Gentiles).
Which is why the apostle Paul had Timothy circumcised although it wasn't necessary. But Paul wanted to use Timothy in missionary service, in territories where they would be in contact with many Jews (who were still unbelievers) and who viewed uncircumcised persons as dogs. So Paul circumcised him, not as a matter of faith or divine requirement, but only to prevent needless controversy and premature stumbling of Jews over an inconsequential matter. Which was in harmony with Paul’s statement: “To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews.” (1 Cor. 9:20)

Bible Actor Mac McConnell as Apostle Paul in Greece, part 2