PAUL’S PRECISION PART V
SUBSTANCE AND SHADOW

Greetings Watchers!

Well, we’re coming to the most exciting part of this adventure down the trail of Paul’s bull’s eye teaching on the “Rapture” to the first converts.

As we have seen, Paul is telling this end time story to the first Churches he is forming.  He began his second Missionary journey in c A. D. 49, and by A.D. 51 he is writing to address their concerns about his original teaching.  And because he had to do it in writing, he was being as precise as possible in relating to what he had already taught them.

Now, lets set the stage for this most important teaching.  The “Substance and Shadow” teaching to the Colossians.  We are in A.D. 61, and we find Paul, in Rome, under house arrest. This is ten years after the teaching to the Thessalonians, where he taught about the dead in Christ rising, and the gathering together, and what to watch for, to see when your redemption is at hand.

Epaphras, a leader in the Colossian Church, visits Paul while he’s a prisoner at Rome, to seek his Apostolic help in dealing with the Colossian heresy.  Paul takes an aggressive, warlike stance against their doctrinal error when he writes Colossians.

Part of the problem was that the Colossian Church had begun to mix in to their doctrine some Jewish legalism, a little Eastern mysticism, and Angel worship. They mixed in a little of this, a little of that, and before you could say Jackie Robinson, there was a full fledged heresy taking place, and threatening their Church’s existence.

Now, Paul had never been to Colossae, so he didn’t personally know these people.  The Church was founded at the time when Paul was founding the Church at Ephesus by Epaphras, who was a disciple of Paul’s.  Colossae lay about 100 miles to the east of Ephesus, and about 12 miles South of Laodicea.

Now, part of Paul’s aggressive stance against this misdirected doctrine was that Christ was the head of the universe and of the Church.  And that anything that came between them and that truth was against the faith.  Upon initiation into their cult you were given “secret knowledge” which was the means of attaining salvation.

The Jewish element was legalistic in nature, retained the Mosaic Law, imposed circumcision, followed dietary restrictions and calendar observation (the Sabbath and the feasts), and advocated asceticism (practice of strict self denial).

It’s in the meaning of what Paul says to them to debunk this Jewish element that has the most profound meaning to us today.

He’s telling them, beginning at 2:16 that the feasts of the Jews are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Here Paul is introducing to the Church, God’s principle of “Substance and Shadow”.

There are several things that are important about that statement, and lest we get confused, we have to take them one at a time.

First, he’s talking about the Sabbath day, which was Saturday.  Then he’s speaking of the feasts, of which there are seven, as being shadows of things to come for the Church, but the substance casting that shadow is the Messiah.

Lets take notice that Paul is not using the person Jesus in this example, but the role that Jesus fulfilled, the Messiah, or Christ.

WHAT’S IN A SHADOW?

First, what is a shadow?  A shadow is a silhouette of the substance casting it.  In this case we have two things casting shadows, or silhouettes of themselves.  The Sabbath and Feasts of the Jews, and the Messiah.

Now, what’s in a shadow?  Every element contained in the substance.  So that means that if you follow a shadow back to it’s source you will clearly see the substance that is casting that shadow.

Here is where Paul’s precision pays off in huge dividends.

He is telling us, now, today, from across the centuries, that if you examine the substance that is casting the shadow, you will see all of it’s elements.

Remember, these elements are meant for the Church.  Paul is clearly addressing the Church of Colossae, and we are still in that same Church today, so he is addressing us, because we have that shadow falling on us today, just as they did then.

These shadows that are being cast by the Sabbath and the Feasts of the Jews and the role of the Messiah, are bringing to us today the blessing that they contain.

They are the bridge from that time when they were fulfilled to us in this time.

But why do we need a bridge?  Simply because the fulfillment of these feasts brought the Messiah to the Jews, but they rejected Him.  So the bridge allows the fulfilled promises, that were made to the Jews, a way of reaching the Church in this time.

The shadow is simply a way of bringing those promises forward in time, through time, until we reach the end time.

The Church was grafted on to the tree of the root of Abraham.  We are to receive the blessings meant for the Jews in the Messiah.  So God cast them as shadows, to be followed back to their origin during the end days.  And when you do that, the message they unveil is clear and precise!  A perfect mechanism that would tell His story of His return in detail at the time when it was relevant.  Already written into his word, and led there by the Apostle that revealed the Church.

Now there are two problems at hand.  One is that the Jews don’t read the New Testament, so they are totally unaware of this Godly mechanism, and second the Christians don’t know anything about the Feasts of the Jews, because they don’t spend much time in the Old Testament.

As a result, nobody knows about this trail that is so clearly marked in Scripture.  After all, the instructions about the feasts of the Jews is given directly by God to Moses.  So it’s not like they are hidden.

But because the Jews don’t know they are shadows, and the Christians don’t know or understand their substance, the information lies dormant.  Not that the information is not there mind you, because it is, but is lies dormant.

So, our question is what’s in a shadow?  The answer lies in the meaning of the Sabbath, each of the Feasts of the Jews and the role of the Messiah.  Those are the substances that are casting the shadow of their meaning to the Jews, forward in time, that are being revealed to the Church, now in this time, when their understanding in respect to the end times has meaning and relevance.

This revelation is mandated by Scripture!  God put a seal on the prophecy of Daniel to be seen only in it’s time.  Then He said, that at the time, knowledge would be increased.  Daniel is all about time and place.  And with it’s unsealing, our knowledge about the events in this time on that place has increased by volumes.

The study of the Scripture we are presently undertaking is a trail that leads to so much new knowledge about the ancient end time scripture that it causes rejoicing in those who follow it and grasp it’s meaning, just as Paul taught it would to those first converts.

Paul had already taught everything that he knew to all of them about the end times as part and parcel to the teaching of the Church.  Here to the Colossians he’s divulging the mechanism by which the Church receives the blessings of God, meant for the Jews, as he swings them around from their new found misconception and mixing of Jewish legalism into the faith.

Don’t you think that they knew what the feast of the Jews were all about?  If they didn’t, don’t you think that Paul would have written in the explanation of such an important part of the re-teaching of their Christian principles?  The definition of a shadow, and what it’s contents are was also obvious to them, as it is to us.

My definition above is to establish exactly what we re talking about in this lesson, not that I thought you needed to be taught what a shadow is.  But, the explanation of what a shadow is in relation to this understanding is important.  Because it’s’ the mechanism that God is using to reach across time and bestow the Messiah to the Church, right on time!

Now I hope that explains the shadow portion of the mechanism.  Next we will examine the substance portion and how that automatically names the exact timing of the events.

But that’s next class.  I still haven’t heard from many of you about this series on Paul’s precision.  Just click on the link to send me a note and let me know you are there.  I have no other way of knowing if anyone is hearing this.   chn@chn-net.com  write me now – let me know if I have a class or not for this subject.  I’ve now heard from 19 people, and 4 of them unsubscribed!  Now, do you want me to continue or not?  I’ll teach it to the 15 that are left.  By God if you can take it, so can I.

I’ll be back for the next class after these words:

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Thank you and God bless.

Humbly,

Your brother in Christ
Brother Sal
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Click here to go to part VI of the this six part study