Are Sacrifices Prohibited on this side of The Cross?

 [[Update April 10th 2018:I kind of regret making this post, you should probably just ignore it.]]



It is commonly assumed that they are, even among most Hebrew Roots or Torah observant Christians.  There is a lot of nuance to this issue I want to discus.  I firmly believe we’re not required to keep any part of The Torah.  But I do believe keeping aspects of it can be good and edifying, and maybe even earn rewards.  So it’s worth looking into this important part of The Torah.

The first thing commonly overlooked by Christians is that not all the Sacrifices in The Torah were for Atonement of Sins.

There are five standard types of sacrifices laid out in The Torah.  The special sacrifices that are part of Passover and Yom Kippur are separate from these, though attempts to categorize them within them are made.  The Red Heifer can also be viewed as distinct.  Those five types are.

The Grain Offering, the only type that doesn’t involving killing an animal.

The Peace Offering or Thanksgiving Offering.  

The Whole Burnt Offering, this one requires all the meat to be burnt and so none of it is eaten.

The Sin offering, for sins committed in ignorance.

The Trespass offering, for high handed sins but still not the most severe.

The first three are not defined as for Atonement in any way.  They are simply offerings made to God to show our devotion to God.  So an assumption that they're fulfilled by Jesus shed Blood would be difficult to hold up entirely.

The two that are for Atonement didn’t even cover everything, some could still only be paid for by the sinner’s own Blood hence Capital Punishment.  That’s why I made a point out of Capital Punishment being tied to the Sacrificial system.  The offerings that were for Atonement, like Capital Punishment, I’m inclined to think we probably shouldn’t do anymore in the Age of Grace.

The thing about Passover is it’s not strictly an Atonement offering either, it is an offering made for protection, the Blood on the Doorpost.  And part of keeping The Passover was eating the Passover.

Here is the thing about this issue I think is important.  It’s not a coincidence that what animals are deemed clean and unclean to eat, correlate to what are considered acceptable offerings.  Those who question the assumption that man didn’t have permission to eat meat before the Flood, base it on the Flood Account implying what are clean and unclean was already known, my response is that that was for the sacrifices made by Abel and Noah and no doubt many in-between.

Our permission to eat meat, derives from the sacrificial offerings, since for all but the Whole Burnt Offering the eating of the offered meat is part of the ritual.  It might be there was an age when we could do the former but not the latter, however being allowed the latter without the former is illogical.  Remember, the Priests and Levites lived solely off the meat of animals offered in Temple Sacrifices.  And I don’t think it was so different for the rest of the population, in a time when we didn’t have as much mass produced food products as we do now, and most lived off what they themselves killed.

When Isaiah 65-66 says there will be no sacrifices in the New Heaven and New Earth, it’s expressed in terms of killing animals at all being at that time a sin.  Thus we won’t be eating them either.

Romans 14 addresses a dispute that existed within the Church about eating meat.  Paul says we should let those who think it’s wrong to eat meat do what they feel is right.  But while making that point he implies they are wrong by calling them weak.  Throughout the New Testament we see we are allowed to eat meat, it’s just meat that was offered to Idols that is a potential issue.

Within the Torah Observant and Hebrew Roots movements, there is sometimes a separate from the usual argument against doing Sacrifices now, that it would be a Sin to do them without the Tabernacle/Temple or the Levitical Priesthood.  That even before The Cross that would have been a Sin.

The first problem with this is that no matter how Torah observant you are, you can’t be a Christian without accepting that the Levitical Priesthood is done away with and replaced by The Priesthood of All Believers.  And that now we are The Tabernacle/Temple of God, he no longer dwells in any earthly Tent or Building.  So we’re not bound to any specific location for anything, including the Pilgrimage festivals, now wherever two or more Believers gather is His House.  Even if you reject Paul those vital New Testament doctrines still stand, I’ve proven them independent of Paul when discussing them before.  In fact the Priesthood of all Believers is only directly taught by Paul in the book some think he didn’t write.

But even leaving that aside.  The Offerings limited to the Priesthood in The Torah were simply the specifically Levitical offerings.  The Passover for example is explicitly NOT a Levitical Sacrifice, each household kills their own Lamb.  

Capital Punishment wasn’t Levitical Either, that was carried out by the people.

Abel, Noah, and the Patriarchs performed offerings without needing a Priesthood.  Using stuff that predates the Levites you can write off of course.  

I’ve also seen it suggested that just cause Genesis doesn’t record these being done at a specific place, doesn’t mean God didn’t give one.  But with Abraham especially in Genesis 12 the language of the text gives Abraham the initiative in choosing each site.

Again, this goes back to our very permission to eat being tied to the offerings.  Part of the purpose of the Tabernacle/Temple offering was because the Priests and the Levites didn’t have their own land to produce their own means, so they lived off what was offered.  I think that Believers should maybe consider only eating what we dedicate to Yahuah, since we are eating his creation after all.

Offerings were commanded to be made at Ebal, even though the primary Tent of Meeting was at Shiloh (Torah only people might reject Shiloh ever being the site, but Shiloh is referred to as such in Genesis 49).  The primary thing the Torah ever specifically tied to the Tabernacle were the three Pilgrimage Festivals.  

Exodus 20:24 implies there is to be more then just one spot.

Leviticus 17:2-4 has been interpreted as a command that was really only for during the wandering, when they all lived in one camp anyway.  Deuteronomy 12:15, when they were preparing to enter the Land says you can kill and eat flesh in any town.  Judges 13:19-20 depicts a Sacrifice that was not at The Tabernacle.

People also confuse some verses about “High Places” as condemning any Sacrifices outside The Tabernacle.  God was condemning the use of Mountain Tops as the Canaanites used, and that’s why I do NOT believe Solomon’s Temple was at the top of a mountain, like where the Dome of the Rock is.

But regardless of these nuances of The Torah, under the New Testament we are all God’s Temple and Priests.