ATONEMENT - Fast or Not #3

Fred Coulter - December 15, 1990

To observe or not observe. Or, let’s ask the question a little bit differently. What is it that we should observe? Now there are many strange mixes of religion and Bible, and superstition, and there are so many different brands of Christianity going around in the world today that it’s almost impossible to understand, for the average person, what is it that we should observe, and what is it that we shouldn’t observe. We have so many different variations of it all the way to a strict near Jewish type religions of sacred-namers, all the way down to the Protestants who believe that if you just open your heart and accept Jesus and just have good thoughts in your heart, that then you’re accepted of God.

Well, this was all magnified the other day in Tijuana, Mexico. There was a group of twelve people who died, five others are in various stages of coma or near death. And what happened was, they gathered in this two room house in Tijuana, and they were having a religious service. And suddenly they discovered that there were people dead and dying and falling on the floor. And at first they thought, well, maybe they were drinking some kind of poison laced punch or something like that, or ritual drink, and they all died because of it. Well they found out that that wasn’t the case. They found out that these twelve people died because of affixation. It was cold and they had a little internal butane heater going, and they shut up the whole house, and apparently it burned up all the oxygen and the people died because of that.

What they found out was this: that Federico Mexia, he was the leader of this little religious group, and he used Catholicism, superstition, and his own imagination. And such groups are common among rootless people, different religious scholars have said. So let me read to you out of today’s Los Angeles Times, an article on that.

“From descriptions of the nighttime ritual, and objects in the house, it appears that Federico Padres Mexia was not a part of an identifiable religious movement, according to the people familiar with the various spiritual traditions. Rather, he appeared to combine religious practices from Christianity and folk, or neo-pagan beliefs that might appeal to struggling people seeking to change their life. ‘Very often groups like this flourish in neighborhoods of rootless people’, a Lutheran pastor said. The group sounds like a one-man operation by a leader who has his own ideas.”

Well now this sounds rather deprecating, and rather - it’s bad for that kind of thing. And it is bad for this kind of thing, but also you have to go back and realize that Jesus started as a one-man leader, right? And He had a group that was different, right? However, at this time in history, we’re confronted with a different set of problems, and that is what should we observe, and what should we not observe. And I’m just using this as an example of how people take their own ideas, take their own imagination, take part of the Bible, part of paganism, part of witchcraft, mix it all together and now they have a formulated little religion on which they make their living and their existence. And this is what happened here.

“Police found a prayer book referring to the sixth seal, a phrase introducing the apocalyptic version of God’s judgment in the book of Revelation. The presence of the Biblical reference suggests the influence of evangelical religions, but the cardboard image of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, found within the circle of worshippers, is more in keeping with the pervasive Catholic culture of Mexico. And, neo-pagan techniques were introduced by the discovery of a rope with thirteen knots in it surrounding some bodies, and by reports that participants were afraid to leave the circle the rope created.”

So apparently they were all standing around in a circle, and here’s this rope, and there are thirteen knots in it. And of course that gets into witchcraft, and Satanism, and superstition.

“These things describe a group that was picking and choosing religious elements.”

And that’s the question today. To observe, or not observe. To pick and to choose. And that’s what they were doing here. But the picking and choosing went from the Bible, Catholicism, and paganism. And most of the religions south of the border of the United States, all the way down to the very end of South America, even the Catholic religions are a combination of Indian religions, witchcraft, superstition, and Catholicism. And so this is not unusual for this kind of situation to happen there. But it is very interesting for us to realize that much the same thing can happen to those who want to pick and choose from the Bible.

So let’s look into the Bible today and let’s ask some questions: why is Christianity… We’ll take and set aside all paganism, we’ll take and set aside the majority of Catholicism, and we will ask why is Christianity, in many cases, so confusing? And what is it that went wrong? And how come it came to be in this condition? Well, the reason it did is because people were picking and choosing. They were taking this part of the Bible and combining it with this part of the Bible, plus their own ideas intermixed, and lo and behold now you have a brand new denomination. And now you have a whole set of beliefs where you have a little group over here, a little group over there. For example: even within the church of God we have had recently those who believe in keeping the Sabbath, those who believe in keeping all of the holy days, those who believe in keeping some of the holy days, those who believe in keeping none of the holy days, those who believe that the Passover ceremony should be kept with bread and wine, or bread and water, or bread and grape juice. You have the problem of confusion should there be foot-washing or not foot-washing. You have the problem concerning the keeping of the Passover on which day - the 14^th and the 15^th . You have the problem of fast or not to fast on the Day of Atonement. And you have so many different ideas going around, that for us in the church, it becomes almost as confusing as this article that I just read for people in the world. What is it that we should keep, and what is it that we should do, and why do we know that we should do it this way, or that way?

Now recently there was a man who said that all sin under the Old Testament was merely just physical sin and had nothing to do with moral or spiritual sin. And of course we saw that that is completely incorrect. Totally erroneous. So now we have before us the Bible. And it is true that if you don’t put the Bible together properly you can create almost any kind of doctrine that you would want to create. For example: if you have 100% of the truth... Let’s just say ok, here’s the Bible. You have 100% of the truth. We can all agree on that. The Jews say, “We have 100% of the truth. We have the entire Old Testament.” The Catholics say, “We have 100% of the truth, plus we have added truth. We have the teachings of the fathers and tradition.” And the Protestants say, “We have 100% of the truth. We follow the New Testament.” And with the church of God we have the various shades of things that people in the church of God do and don’t do, and observe and don’t observe. So how are we going to pull back the shades and look at everything to see what is it that we should do. What is it that we shouldn’t do?

There are some people I know even in Idaho… There is a Church of God -7^th Day in Meridian. Twelve miles down the road is a Church of God - 7^th Day in Caldwell. And eight miles down the road there’s a Church of God in Nappa. The group in Meridian believes that it’s ok to eat unclean meat. The group in Caldwell believes that you should keep the holy days, and not eat unclean meat. And the group in Nappa, they believe that all you have to do is just to keep the Sabbath. And then there are those who believe that you ought to keep the holy days. And then it’s a question with Pentecost, is it on a Sunday or a Monday? Passover, is it on the 14^th or 15^th ? And all of these things enter in. And how is it that there is so much confusion in all of these different doctrines that come along? Well, we’re going to learn some things and basic principles today so we can understand how is it we can truly know what we should observe and what we should not observe. What is it that God requires of us?

Alright? Let’s begin in 2 Timothy 2, because we’ve gone here several times recently, but this is the place to begin. And here is something that we need to emphasize and realize and understand how we can begin to understand what it is that we should and should not do according to the New Testament, according to the Old Testament. In other words it gets down to another question. As a Christian, how much of the Old Testament are we required to observe? And if so, how do we differentiate what we should observe, and what we should not observe?

So let’s begin right here, 2 Timothy 2:15. And here Paul is writing to Timothy, a minister, and he says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God,…” So the first responsibility lies with the teacher. The first responsibility lies with the minister. Is he studying to show himself approved unto God? Is the minister dedicated to serving God with all his heart, and mind, and soul, and being, and is he willing to really be honest with the Word of God? Because as we’ve seen recently, there are some of those who take the Word of God and craftily, falsely put the truth together. Now that may sound like a contradiction, but if you have half the truth, do you have all the truth? No. Could you make a falsehood out of half of the truth? Yes, you could. Could you make a falsehood out of some of the things of the truth by wrongly putting it together? Yes, you could. Ok, so first of all the minister has to study to show himself approved unto God “…a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,…” So this tells us that the greater judgment is going to come on the teachers or ministers, “… rightly dividing the word of [God] truth.” Or, rightly cutting the Word of God. Rightly placing out the Word of God, which means then if you’re not studying to show yourself approved unto God, and if you’re not really seeking God’s way, then you could start cutting the Word of God wrongly. And that leads to difficulties and problems, as we will see.

Ok, let’s go over to 2 Timothy 3:15. “And that from a child thou [Timothy] hast known the holy scriptures,…” And this is the Word of God, basically the Old Testament, before the complete compilation of the New Testament. “…Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:15-17). Very broad statement covering every aspect of what needs to be done with the Word of God.

Now let’s go to 2 Peter 1, and we will see a little bit more concerning the Word of God. How that it is that which came from God. How that God inspired the prophets of old. How that God inspired Moses and all the writers of the Bible. And of course, the whole history of putting the Bible together is another whole topic in itself. We’re taking all of those as givens, ok?

Now let’s come down to 2 Peter 1:15. “Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” And then it says that, “…He received from God the Father honour and glory,…” (2 Peter 1:15-17). Now notice how all of the apostles always point back to God, how they always point back to Jesus Christ. And this becomes very important in understanding what we should observe and what we should not observe. And the first place that you deal with is in how do you understand the Bible?

Then he comes down here, and let’s come down to verse 20. “Knowing this first, that no prophecy [or that is, no speaking, no writing then, if we could put it that way] of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” So it has to be done in such a way that it agrees with the Bible. You can’t have the Bible in conflict one with another, even though on the surface it may appear that there is conflict. So then you have to be able to sort it out properly. But of no private interpretation. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy [Spirit] Ghost” (vs. 20-21). Then chapter two he gets into warning against false prophets.

Now we know, we know… Let’s go back to Isaiah 8, another way of putting the scriptures together. And we have some very good advice for us from the Word of God on how to understand what we should and should not observe, and this pertains more directly right here to the article that we just read about the combining of Catholicism, and witchcraft, and spiritism, and so forth. Isaiah 8:19, “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter;…” We’re getting into a lot of spiritism today. We’re getting into a lot of this quasi-witchcraft thing, like we just read about - the people standing in a circle, which is the sign of a coven, and then a rope with thirteen knots on it. And thirteen is always the number of Satanism. And then mix in a little Christianity so it sounds acceptable. Mix in a little spiritism so it sounds reasonable, ok? And they always say “…should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to [seek unto] the dead?” God says there’s one way to cut through all of this nonsense. “To the law and to the testimony:…” (Isa. 8:19-20). Now we could also say the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, because let’s go back up here to verse 16. Here’s a prophecy of the finishing of the Bible with the New Testament.

Verse 16, it says, “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples.” And this shows that God made it possible for us to have the Bible. He preserved it all the way down through the ages for us today. And so that’s what we look to. The testimony and the law. And putting it together rightly then brings us the understanding that we need to have.

Now let’s come down to verse 20 again. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” So it has to be that if you don’t find it in the Bible you don’t have to believe it, number 1. And if you find it in the Bible, then you have to make sure that you have the correct understanding. And that’s what’s all involved with this complicated difficulty that we have concerning the Old Testament and the New Testament. And then we have another Bible principle, that the Bible says, “…Here a little, and there a little, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, and line upon line” (Isa. 28:10, paraphrased). So you have to properly put it all together.

Now, let’s also understand something concerning the Word of God. Jesus said then, and it’s recorded three times in the Bible, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live by. That’s a very broad principle and statement.

Now let’s go to Deuteronomy 12. Here is a very basic principle that we need to understand in everything that we do. And, everything that we approach concerning the Bible. And, everything that we approach concerning the things in the New Testament, what is required and what is not required. Let’s pick it up here in Deuteronomy 12:30. “Take heed to thyself…” Now if you want a very interesting Bible study, just go through and see how many places it says “take heed”, “beware” of men, or yourself, or false prophets. Very interesting study indeed. And you will see that it’s no great phenomena what’s happening today. Jesus told us that there would be many false prophets. And Jesus told us that we would be bombarded by these things, so it’s no wonder we’re being bombarded almost continually by a lot of false doctrine, and a lot of false prophecy, and a lot of things that have an inner mixture of truth and scripture so that for some people, not really grounded in the Word of God, it sounds very plausible. And it sounds very convincing. And if you don’t know your Bible, and if you don’t study your Bible then you may get caught. See, because it’s each one of us, our responsibility to make sure that we know.

So it says, “Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them,…” That is the people of the land, which God was kicking out the heathen and putting in the children of Israel. “…After that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise” (vs. 30). Direct command. You are not to intermix any paganism and the truth of Gods Word. That was even standard in the Old Testament. That is something that for a Christian is a given. But the biggest, so called, Christian religion on the earth, Catholicism, has done precisely this. They have taken all the pagan practices, renamed them with Christian sounding names, and has said that this is Christianity. No, it’s not. It’s the antithesis of what God wants.

Verse 31, “Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.” Now notice verse 32. “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (vs. 31-32). Very clear statement. Now what does this tell us? No person is to add to or take from the Word of God.

Now what does this mean? It means exactly what it says. No person can, but the question remains, if things are changed then from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, which they have been, who is the one who’s authorized to make the change? God is the one Who’s authorized to make the change. He is the one Who has said what will and will not be.

Now to give you one example, let’s go to Matthew 5. There are people today who believe that you can divorce for any reason. There are people today who say that you can divorce for no reason. And it’s all because of their own ideas, and misreading scripture, and not wanting to let the Word of God tell the truth, what they need to do. Now let’s pick it up here in Matthew 5:31. This is just an example, ok? “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: but I say unto you,…” Jesus is changing something now. Jesus is reestablishing something the way that it should be. “…But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication [and, fornication is porneia, which is any sexual uncleanness], causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery” (Matt. 5:31-32). So what is this telling us? This is telling us there is a reason for divorce, which is any sexual uncleanness which violates that marriage by either the husband or the wife. The offended party can put away the other and it is a dissolved marriage which God has said that He will recognize as a loosed non-binding marriage because Jesus gave the grounds for it.

Now likewise when we come to the New Testament, what is it in the Old Testament that we should and should not observe? Especially in the line of the statement made by some saying that, all of the things in the Old Testament were merely physical laws. So you don’t have to fast on Atonement. You don’t have to put out unleavened bread during the days of Unleavened Bread. You don’t have to worry about eating unclean meats. And that all these were just physical things. So let’s tackle this and find out something, ok?

Let’s go to Matthew 7, and here’s a very basic… And the way you begin answering any scripture is you go to the very basics always, and you build step-by-step from there to bring the understanding. Now this applies to all of those who have said, “Look, we’re under grace and we don’t have to keep any law at all. Praise the Lord.” And there are those groups.

Ok, Matthew 7:21 says, “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that [is doing] doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name: and in Thy name have cast out [demons] devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart form Me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:21-23). So anything that causes sin has not been done away. Iniquity is sin. Lawlessness is sin. What does the New Testament tell us that sin is? Sin is the transgression of the law. That’s what it is. So we see from the New Testament, from the words of Christ, yes, we are to keep the commandments of God. The rich man came to Jesus and said, “Lord, what should I do that I may have eternal life?” And He said, If you will enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:16-17, paraphrased). We could go through in the New Testament and show in Revelation 14:12, here are they which have the testimony of Jesus and have the faith of Jesus, and keep His commandments. Here in Revelation 12:17, that keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. So there is going to be commandment keepers at the end. But which commandments? Then that gets down to a little more finely tuned argument.

Ok, let’s go to 1 Corinthians 2. This tells us another way that we have to put these things together, because many people have many ideas. Some people will be sitting around in a Bible study, and someone will say, “Well, I think. That’s not the way I view it.” You know, if God would be there, He would say who cares what you think. Really if it isn’t according to scripture, of what validity is it? Not everything that comes into your mind is necessarily truth. And not every idea that you have is necessarily doctrine. Because it has to be what? Rightly dividing the Word of God. And then you have this spiritual thing that is written here, too.

Let’s pick it up here in verse 9. “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Now we’re going to see that love has an awful lot to do with understanding. And as a matter of fact, that’s the very key thing. Unless you’re loving God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and being, and have faith in Him because He is God, and you’re seeking Him because He is God, you’re hope of ever really truly understanding the Bible in depth is not going to come across. It won’t happen because verse 10 tells us, “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit:…” (1 Cor. 2:9-10). So not only do you have to have the truth of God, which is God’s Word - Jesus said, “Your Word is truth.” The Psalms say the commandments of God are true. The Word of God is true from the beginning. We are to be sanctified by the truth.

And then we have here that God has got to reveal them by His Spirit, because it’s spiritually understood. “…For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” (vs. 10-11). That’s just carnal knowledge that people have. So if you just have carnal knowledge, you have an idea about what’s in the Bible. You know, if it doesn’t square with what the entire Bible says, who cares? But people can believe something so much that it becomes their pet doctrine. And that’s why, like this group down here in Tijuana, twelve of them died. Five of them are still in the hospital because of one man’s idea. That’s why the Bible, all the way through, says, “Beware of men.” “Take heed unto yourself.” It becomes very important. Otherwise it will become all muddled and confused.

It says, “…even so the things of God knoweth no man, but [by] the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (vs. 11-12). Ok, how are we going to discern what has been done, what is true, what is right, what should be done, what should not be done, how should it be done, and so forth?

Now let’s look into this a little bit further. Let’s add to this some other understanding, which I alluded to. Let’s go to John 14. And all of this is a build up for us to see how we need to approach the Word of God. How we need to approach putting it together. You know, for example the other night (and we’ll see here in just a minute one of the principles) I saw an ad on television, the new Red Lobster restaurant menu. And they’ve got all of these shrimp, and lobsters, and clams, and scallops, and mussels. And, I don’t know if they have barnacles there. I suppose some there’d be some people who would even eat barnacles. No telling. You know, there are still even cannibals on the earth, you know, so people will eat anything. But it just shows how confused that this world is. And if you go to the Word of God to try and justify what you are doing without knowing what the Word of God says, you’re going to end up in a mass of confusion.

Now here’s what Jesus said in John 14:15. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” Very powerful, but very simple little scripture. What are you seeking to understand the Bible for? That’s the question. Are you seeking to love God? Are you seeking to establish a doctrine that you think is right? Are you seeking to discover new truth? Or, are you seeking to love God? If you’re seeking to love God then you will keep His words.

Let’s come down here to verse 23. “…If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me” (vs. 23-24). Now these are the basic principles on beginning to understand what it is that we should observe, and what it is that we should not observe. And we will see why.

Let’s go to Hebrews 7. A lot of this is contained right in the book of Hebrews. Some people, unfortunately, go so far as to throw out all of the commandments of God, as the Protestants do. They try and retain some of them, but it’s awfully hard to throw out the Sabbath, and then come back and supposedly reclaim nine of the commandments. And it all hinges on this: which priesthood is the priesthood that we are following? If we are following Christ it is the priesthood of the order of Melchisedec. And, because under the Old Covenant God established the Levitical priesthood, then there had to be a change in the covenant, or the law, in order so that you can have the New Covenant. Now we see that given right here in Hebrews 7.

Hebrews 7:11, “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?” Now it’s referring directly to Jesus. He was not a Levite, He was not of the house of Aaron. He was of the tribe of Judah, as it says in verse 14, “For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of [the tribe of] Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood” (Heb. 7:11, 14). So that’s the whole key as to what we should observe, and not observe in the Old Testament. It is what priesthood we are under, what covenant we are under. We’re not under the Old Covenant with the Levitical priesthood, with all the ritual and animal sacrifice. But we are under the New Covenant, under the covenant of Jesus Christ who is a priest after the order of Melchisedec.

So because of that, God, it says here verse 12, “For the priesthood being changed [from the Levitical to the Melchisedec], there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” Now this creates a lot of confusion because the Protestants go there and say, “Halleluia, we don’t have to keep any of the law.” This is the change in the law of the priesthood. This is not a change in the laws of God, but a change in the law of the priesthood. Please keep that in mind.

Now we come to chapter 10, and we find something that is true. And it says here in verse 4, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” We know that. It has to be that the blood of Jesus Christ removes sin. We understand that. Now how does this affect us with the Old Testament? How then can we justify keeping the Sabbath and the holy days and all that sort of thing? And where then did God draw the line on what we should keep and what we should not keep? Remember that the key is which priesthood are you under? Are you under the Levitical priesthood, or are you under the Melchisedec priesthood with Christ, our High Priest? You’re under the Melchisedec priesthood with Christ, our High Priest.

Alright, from this then we learn that the rest of the book of Hebrews tells us that those things which had to do with the sacrifices and the priest laws - those are the things which are no longer observed. For several reasons. One - there’s no longer the temple. Two - God does not work through the Levitical priesthood. The question then becomes, what laws of the Old Testament then, apply to us? We can answer them this way - we find in the New Testament that all of the Ten Commandments are binding upon us. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” “If you enter into life, keep the commandments.” Ok? Therefore, a lot of people come to the knowledge that we ought to keep the Ten Commandments. However, they don’t go any further.

Let’s go back and let’s examine some of these things that we find in the Old Testament, what we should do and what we should not do. Before we do that though, let’s go to 1 Timothy 4, and we will get a principle right here concerning those lesser things. And let me just give you a summary of it as we start so you will know where we are going. All of those animal sacrifices have been replaced by God, by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We all understand that. God didn’t, when He changed it, and doing away with animal sacrifices, did not do away with the need for sacrifice. The need for sacrifice was still there - the sacrifice of Christ. And the keeping of the Ten Commandments, there is a need to keep those because those are the things that God says that we should and should not do. But what about some of those other laws that we have studied? How can we get a Bible principle to show us what is right?

1 Timothy 4. And we’ve covered this before, but let’s look at it from it’s entire perspective here. 1 Timothy 4:1, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines [or, teachings] of [demons] devils;…” And we’ve seen that. What I just read to you from the newspaper is a doctrine of demons. Combining things from different religions and witchcraft - that is a doctrine of demons. “…Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;…” (1 Tim. 4:1-2), means they are not capable then, of having their hearts pricked to repentance.