I was responding to your words;
"No, there is no commandment in the New Testament for believers to abstain from offering sacrifices."
This is simply not true in any context. "
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."
So did John the Baptist, and Zacharias, Simeon, Anna and the Wise men. But the Pharisees didn't. They were still promoting justification by these sacrificial "works of the Law". That is why Paul spent so much time addressing their refusal to separate the Priesthood which was Prophesied to change, from God's commandments and Judgments which are eternal. Just because both the eternal Laws of God, and the Temporary Covenant God made with Levi are given in the Torah, doesn't mean the Priesthood can't end without abolishing God's Commandments and Judgments.
i know there are religious men who don't believe God inspired the Bible, or is able to preserve HIS truth in the Holy Scriptures.
So we can have the discussion about the validity and truthfulness of the Scriptures another time. True or not, I am simply pointing out what it says for discussion. And the Holy scriptures clearly separate Levi, and the Covenant God gave to Levi on Israel's behalf, from the Covenant of Abraham God furthered on to Abraham's Children, AKA Children of Israel. "Which Covenant they broke". As Paul says; "It was ADDED (To God's Laws)
because of Transgression, (Of God's Laws)
Till the SEED should come. As Hebrews also points out.
Heb. 8:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
I never said it did any of this. But consider the implication of your religious philosophy here. Are you implying God didn't know Jesus would become His High Priest "After those days", when HE gave His Priesthood Covenant to Levi? And if HE did, then the "Order of Aaron" was Temporary to begin with. How is this not Biblical Truth?
I posted two scriptures, which are said to be inspired by the Christ, where God separated God's Laws, Statutes and Commandments, from the "ADDED" covenant HE made with Levi regarding sin offerings and sacrifices for atonement, found within the Levitical Priesthood. The Pharisees were not willing to acknowledge this separation because they had built their religion around, and created a religious business out of this Levitical Priesthood. If it became obsolete, as Prophesied, their entire religion, with their Temples and Shrines of Worship, and their preachers at the pulpit, and chief seats in their temples made with humans hands, and receiving Tithes and selling atonement animals would come crashing down. So instead of accepting the Scriptures, like John the Baptist, a true Levite Priest did, they worked to silence the Voice, just as they silenced the Prophets God sent before HIM.
Moses prophesied about the Christ, and commanded we should "listen to Him" when He comes. That's in the Torah. Jesus walked in all God's Commandments, including God's Sabbaths and is said to be sinless, which I believe. But HE never once dipped His Finger in the blood of a turtledove to sprinkle on the alter to forgive the sins, according to the "works of the law" of atonement, of those men HE cleansed. Why? Was it because HE was disobedient to the "Torah"? Or is it because you don't understand what the Torah taught, but Elizabeth and Zacharias, Simeon and Anna did?
The Old Testament "directly" describes a Separation between the Commandments and Judgments of God, and the Sacrificial "works of the Law" for transgression of the same Commandments and Judgments of God. This separation was ignored by the mainstream preachers of Jesus time, and it is rejected by the mainstream preachers of our time, as your post implies.
I simply want to make known the Scriptures which confirm this Separation, so that we don't make the same fatal error the mainstream preachers of Jesus' Time made.
I'm not sure I can agree as the Law and Prophets is completely full of Prophesies, which, by it's very definition, is for a future time. Over and over the Law and Prophets speak of the "latter days" and "After those days" and "when you come into the land", etc., etc. How can you say the Old Testament didn't teach it was written for future generations? In fact, the New Covenant of the God of the Bible is just one of many events that were "written" for the admonition of future generations. Paul is just confirming a truth that the entire Torah and the Prophets were written for us, at this time. Hard not to see this truth in the Old Testament where Paul found it.
Again, I know the popular religious philosophies of the religions of this land teach against observation of the Sabbath, uniting it as equal with the Temporary Covenant God made with Levi for the slaughtering of animals, and burning the fat, for atonement of sin.
I can find no such a comparison anywhere in either the Old or New Testaments. What I find is the universal practice of men who call the God of Abraham, Lord, Lord, rejecting God's Sabbaths, Polluting His Sabbaths, and defiling His Sabbaths. The reason behind the rejection or polluting changes from religion to religion, but the end result is always the same. Transgressing God's Commandments by religious traditions of the land.
What is it about this one Commandment that religious men hate so much. And not just now, but through out the history of the Bible. Personally I find this weekly Fast from the evils of this world an essential part of the "Way of the Lord". Truly Jesus was right when HE said God's Sabbath was "Made for man". As HE inspired Isaiah to write "For our sake's no doubt", or "for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come";
Is. 58:
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Who needs the bands of wickedness loosened, I know I do. Who needs the heavy burdens undone? I know I do. Who is oppressed on every side and need to break free from the Yoke and oppression of sin and deception? I do.
Who is hungry for the Word of God? I know I am. Who is naked and needs covered? I do Lord. Who needs to be honest with the man in the mirror? Surely I do.
Is. 58:
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Surely Jesus knew what HE was talking about when HE said God's Sabbath was "made for me (n)".
Shall we not trust Him, even if others don't??