“We… are one bread…” (1 Cor. 10:17).
The Feasts of Passover on the 14th day of the first Biblical month, and the weeklong Feast of UNleavened Bread from the 15th day to the 21st day –with its two annual Sabbaths on the first and last day— these two Feasts are well known. As I write, it is the first high Sabbath of Unleavened Bread.
In most cases, Christians only honor these holy times as inefficacious relics and artifacts of a dead dispensation long past, now replaced by “the sacrifice of the Mass,” “Eucharist,” etc, or they honor them as allegories that offer us different lessons that can be applied to modern life.
In the spirit of the Sabbatarian Waldenses, who rejected all Feasts that are imposed with no Biblical sanction, I reject the idea of the “Mass” or “Eucharist” as a replacement or update of the Passover. I believe in keeping the Mosaic date of Passover; I reject Nicea’s apostasy from it. I also reject the Byzantine heresy that presumes to damn men to hell if they obey the Law that requires the Lord’s Last Passover be celebrated with unleavened bread. In short, I believe in keeping the Biblical Feasts the way the prophets, Christ, and the Apostles would have, as literally as possible.
However, in some sense, the literal material and temporal elements of the Feasts are the shadows and what we call spiritual types are most spiritually alive; and, just as a faith without works is dead on the grounds that a body without a soul is dead, likewise, the times and elements of the Holy Feasts are dead if they’re not accompanied by a literal reckoning and observance of their times and materials. That said, the Spirit the Law must take precedence over the letter of the Law. If the Spirit of the Law isn’t equitably applied then the letter of the Law may prove to cause more trouble than it solves.
Now, as to the spirit of the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread:
I. COMPANY
The word company is commonly understood to mean a collection, association, or union, of workers who work together to earn their daily bread.
Technically, the word company comes from a Latin compound: com (with) + panis (bread). It refers to those who eat bread together.
Bread is commonly understood as that which is necessary. When we pray for “daily bread,” we don’t only mean a wheat product. We mean the essentials of life. In this sense, men refer to money as bread since it is the necessary means of exchange in society.
Sadly, our political constitution has formed a national company made up of religiously diverse, contrary, adversarial, people. It has attempted to yoke together in one company both light and darkness, Belial and the Lord.
II. LEAVEN
As we see in 1 Cor. 10:17, Apostle Paul referred to Apostolic Judaism as he knew it, the Church, the totality of all believers, he refers to us as one loaf of bread. We all partake of each other’s gifts and abilities. We are one company with one ultimate means of salvation with one heaven to hope for; but we should so passionately hope for the next world that strive for its manifestation in this world, praying not just for “daily bread,” but for the kingdom to come and God’s will to be “done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10), and striving to that end. That kingdom is more than a matter of bread: it is a matter of “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom.14:17)
However, the children of light who find themselves yoked to darkness have a duty to illuminate or expell that darkness. Idolatry is the keynote of heathen darkness. In Hebrew, the word for idol means “nothing.” Idols are nothings. In a loaf of bread, leaven produces inflated pockets of nothingness, emptiness, spots void of life-giving substance. There is an idolatrous impulse in the heart of man that injects vanity into whatever it does.
Thr poor, weak, and unlearned, can be ignorant idolaters, with foolish folk customs, but their influence on the land rarely reaches as far as kings, presidents, governors, those in authority, or the standing constitution itself. The Good News is that God is willing to save both the wretches, royalty, and rulers of republics.
God saves men and nations by knowledged of the Truth; and if the widespread leaven of vanity is to be purged from a land, then it may be the case that God will use the king. If the so, the king will have to learn that there is one mediator between God and man. The intermediary between God and men is not the king, even if his scribes and priests tell him he is a demi-god. Christ is the only mediator between God and men.
III. PURGING OUT LEAVEN
Apostle Paul explicitly tells us Christ is our Passover and he tells us to keep the Passover with unleavened bread ( 1 Cor. 5:7,8), but he does so as a preacher should, and he interprets and applies the term “leaven” as sin, because that’s what it is in the context of Passover, contrary to the Byzantines who foolishly superimpose over Passover a parable that uses leaven in the opposite sense.
In the company of Rome, Nero was a knight of nothingness and vanity. He would not be reformed. He would not renounce the darkness for light. Apostle Paul knew it was his own duty to at least try to cast down the strength of the confidence of the demonic principalities that energized the ruling prince.
When persecuted by Jews, Apostle Paul appealed to Caesar. He was shackled to the very stronghold of imperial darkness. While there, Apostle Paul was empowered by his chains to freely evangelize the entire body guard of Nero (Phil. 1:13). Apostle Paul converted some of Nero’s body guard to Christ. We know this from his ending salutation in Philippians 4:22— “All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household.”
History tells us that Nero, like leaven, was purged from the loaf of the Roman company, by his own body guard when they abandoned him to his death in 68 AD, 4 years after Nero killed their brother Paul (Tacitus, Histories, 1.4–1.5).
Apostle Paul taught that legitimate authorities exist to terrorize evil doers (Rom. 13:3). It is evil for a leader or a constitution to spiritually reduce, or yoke a nation, to nothingness.
The intentional shedding of innocent blood is among the worst of evils. The Law of God (Numbers 35:19–21) teaches that the Avenger of Blood has a duty to execute such a murderer. Generally, the default Avenger of Blood was the nearest male relative.
Before, King David died, he passed on an instruction to Solomon. Some believe that the first 10 chapters of Proverbs were actually David’s instructions to Solomon, so that the wisdom of David would be the basis of Solomon’s unsurpassed wisdom. This is the what David said to Solomon from his death bed:
“Now you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.”
— 1 Kings 2:5–6.
If we equitably apply the spirit of these laws and this wisdom, then we conclude that the men who are nearest to trouble-makers amidst the company are most duty bound to purge them out.
May God be with your strivings for the glory of Christ!
NEW PURITAN 