Acts 21:22-26

[Craig]

22"What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.
23"Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow;
24take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law.
25"But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication."
26Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.

Why did Paul take this vow and offer up sacrifices? Wouldn't this be spitting on the sacrifice of Christ? I can understand doing some sort of vow and showing you're not opposed to the Law...but the sacrificial system was fulfilled. I am scratching my head on this...help?

 

[Me Died Blue]

Good question.

 

[Jonathan]

That is a really interesting question... I wonder... maybe I am taking this out of context but what about this verse?

1Co 9:20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

Did he do this in an effort to win them over to Christ?

 

[pastorway]

Discussed previously in this thread:

http://www.puritanboard.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=176

Phillip

 

[Puritan Sailor]

He did it to clear his name so to speak. They were obviously worried that he was antinomian from distorted accounts of his work among the Gentiles. So he showed them that wasn't the case but that obedience to the law was necessary and that he wasn't stomping on the face of Moses. That's where I'll go so far. Taking vows I think had more meaning back then than today regarding ones character.

 

[Craig]

Just read the link to the old thread...

So would people be okay with their churches instituting animal sacrifice each Lord's Day to sanctify themselves from the world?

I am not sure I understand the relevance to Jewish piety if divorced from the fulfilled ritualistic law.