Gods Sabbath

P AULS ’ S M ISTAKE

459

The fear of consequences

Consequences: • persecution • dispossessment • scattering

proclaimed the abolition of the ceremonial law

Paul

with that decision. The Spirit of God did not prompt this instruc tion; it was the fruit of cowardice. The leaders of the church in Jerusalem knew that by non-conformity to the ceremonial law, Christians would bring upon themselves the hatred of the Jews and expose themselves to persecution. The Sanhedrin was doing its utmost to hinder the progress of the gospel. Men were chosen by this body to follow up the apostles, especially Paul, and in ev ery possible way to oppose their work. Should the believers in Christ be condemned before the Sanhedrin as breakers of the law, they would suffer swift and severe punishment as apostates from the Jewish faith.” The Acts of the Apostles , 404.1. In Paul, the leaders saw the cause of all these troubles, for he boldly proclaimed the abolition of the ceremonial law and its re placement with the antitypical sacrifice and priestly ministry of Christ. No teaching would more certainly inflame the animosity of the Jews and initiate their ruthless attack upon the Christian church than this. Ignoring the fact that God, not Paul, was the One responsible for what was being proclaimed, they deter mined to compel the apostle to preach as they thought he should. It is true there was a definite problem, but instead of placing it entirely in God’s hands, they decided to handle the dif ficulty themselves, being confident that Jehovah would approve of their zeal to protect His church from the effects of what they imagined were Paul’s ill-advised activities. For this reason they devised the plan that they expected would give the Jews a different view of Paul’s position and teaching. By attending the temple and performing there a rite from the ceremonial law, Paul was to demonstrate that he did not really mean what he taught. This was supposed to pacify the multitudes and forestall the unleashing of persecution. But the people were not deceived by this hypocritical solution. There