Food and the Anti-Christ pt 4

Continuing in this super long 4 part series surrounding the subject of food, having already gone over Mark 7, Acts 10, and Romans 14, what is left to discuss is Colossians 2

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— ¹⁷ things which are a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

- Colossians 2

Again I can see how on the surface that passage alone could be interpreted as  saying that keeping God's a pointed times or following what he has said about food isn't really important to the believer now.

The curious thing about this passage is found in a few scriptures prior.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.



Is the Sabbath based on the tradition of man?
Genisis 2

² By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created ^[a]and made.



I don't think that is a man made tradition.
I think that one was all God.
I don't think the sabbath is based on the principles of the world either.
Exodus 20:8-11

 ⁸ “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.


I'm pretty sure that the world's mindset is to work every day. Gain as much money as you can. Do what you gotta do by your might and by your power to get the money. That is what I see in the world... but again, this is more about food.  Paul continued on in Colossians 2.

20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.


Ok, Paul is being specific here. He is talking about some man made teaching, a self made religion...   That is something contrary to Christ, based on the world

What is that do not handle do not taste do not touch business?
Was he rebuking the traditions of Man the same way Jesus did in Mark 7?
Where God has said that bread is clean, Some Pharisees were saying that the disciples weren't supposed to eat with unwashed hands.  This would make more sense than thinking that Paul is doing the things of the Anti-christ. Or that Paul is saying that God changed his mind to do things like the Anti-christ, or that Paul was teaching that Jesus was the Anti-christ.


Let no one judge you in regards to a sabbath day or new moon festival.

I'm not certain what Paul was saying in regard to that, but I know it wasn't an advocation of lawlessness.

Peter tells us in his writings that Paul is hard to understand and if we aren't careful when we read his letters, we are going to think that he is talking about not following the commands of God.   "Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.  He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position."


What do I think Paul was talking about in regards to keeping the sabbath or food or something?

I think he was talking to gentile believers catching flack for being gentiles keeping the commands of God. I think they were catching flack for not obeying traditions of men, and keeping the commands as best they could according to scripture... and not ceremonial hand washing.

I don't think it makes sense that he would say something like "don't practice these things, because this is a picture of what is to come in Christ"

I think it does make sense that he would be saying "Keep these how you see it in the scripture, not how man tells you, because Christ will some day show us how it is really done."

Nearing conclusion, Here are the words of the Savor, and here is a prophecy of Isaiah


Isaiah 66:22-24
22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth Which I make will endure before Me,” declares the LORD, “So your offspring and your name will endure. 23 “And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD. 24 “Then they will go forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.”

^ Gross...  the part with fire and worms. yuck.

Matthew 5:17-19

17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


Not abolish. Fulfill=  give full weight to or show properly. Don't teach people to break the commands of God. That .... that doesn't look comfortable.


I love you guys. This was a 4 part post on just food.

JUST FOOD!!!


May you walk in the grace of God and the fullness of His Spirit. May the light of his truth shine upon all hearts.  Amen.


Coming soon...  A post on something completely different.