So, Sacrifices Were Done Away With?  The majority of all believers have been taught, and believe, that all sacrifices were done away by Y’shua (Jesus), that the archaic sacraficial system was used for the covering of sin but never for the forgiveness of sin. They think animal sacrifice could only cover sin until Messiah came to forgive sin, and once Messiah was crucified on the cross all sacrifices were done away with for all eternity. While it is true Y’shua became our sin offering for all eternity: "But when this priest (Y’shua) had offered for all time  one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of Yahweh (God)." (Hebrews 10:12) the sacrifice for sin was only one type of offering; there were many others. Furthermore, the New Testament never says that the sacraficial system was done away with, nor did it bring reproach to anyone for offering sacrifices. The disciples, Paul included, took issue with fellow Jews for believing the sacrificial system could offer salvation to the people. The problem was never with the sacrifical system of Yahweh’s Holy Torah but with man’s use and interpretation of them. The above verse is often used to rationalize the condemnation of sacrifices. Many believers quote the words "for all time one sacrifice for sins" to say it means all sacrifices are now forbidden because He came. However, what the verse is saying is He came one time, that covered everyone whoever lived or would ever live, He does not have to come back every few years to offer himself again. Once was sufficient! The sacrificial system was established in The Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and in order to understand their significance we need to understand a few things about The Torah. The Hebrew word Torah has been mistranslated into the English word "law," however the accurate translation would be "teaching." These are the teachings of Yahweh, not the law of Yahweh. Y’shua Himself said, "Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yod (the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet) or a stroke will pass from the Torah-not until everything that must happen has happened." (Matthew 5:17-18) Heaven and earth are still here. Therefore, the Torah must still be in effect. Now if Messiah said the Torah (and therefore its sacrificial system), was still in effect and He was our sacrifice for sin, do we have Scriptural evidence of sacrifices being made after Y’shua’s death? Yes we do -from the apostle Paul. Paul is, perhaps, the most misunderstood disciple. Many Christians believe that although Y’shua did not teach disobedience to The Torah, Paul did! This misconception is accepted because of a lack of knowledge concerning Paul’s Jewishness. Paul was a learned Jewish man. To view his writings through our western colored glasses is a mistake. As a true believer in the Jewish Messiah, Paul would never have contradicted his Savior! His Savior, Y’shua haMashiach (Jesus the Christ) would never have contradicted the Father! With that in mind let us look at the following verses. The Nazirite Vow Yahweh said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to Yahweh as a Nazirite, he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. As long as he is a Nazirite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. During the entire period of his vow of separation no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to Yahweh is over; he must let the hair of his head grow long.’     (Numbers 6:1-5) 'Now this is the law for the Nazirite when the period of his separation is over. He is to be brought to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. There he is to present his offerings to Yahweh: a year-old male lamb without a defect for a burnt offering, a year-old ewe lamb without a defect for a sin offering, a ram without a defect for a fellowship offering, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and a basket of bread made without yeast—cakes made of fine flour mixed with oil, and wafers spread with oil.’ ‘The priest is to present them before Yahweh and make the sin offering and the burnt offering. He is to present the basket of unleavened bread and is to sacrifice the ram as a fellowship offering to Yahweh, together with its grain offering and drink offering.’ 'Then at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Nazirite must shave off the hair that he dedicated. He is to take the hair and put it in the fire that is under the sacrifice of the fellowship offering.’ 'After the Nazirite has shaved off the hair of his dedication, the priest is to place in his hands a boiled shoulder of the ram, and a cake and a wafer from the basket, both made without yeast. The priest will then wave them before Yahweh as a wave offering; they are holy and belong to the priest, together with the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine.’ 'This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to Yahweh in accordance with his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford. He must fulfill the vow he has made, according to the law of the Nazirite.’" (Numbers 6:13-21) The above verses describe the required steps for a Nazirite vow. Notice the person’s hair could not be shaved or cut during this time (except in the case of defilement) but only after completion of the vow. (Samson was under the Nazirite vow from birth. [Judges 13]. Everyone knows what happened to him when his hair was cut.) The length of the vow could vary, but the hair on your head during this time belonged to Yahweh. Now let’s take a look at Paul. Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken. (Acts 18:18) He had his hair cut because of a vow he had taken. What kind of a vow? Paul was under a Nazirite vow and therefore had his hair cut at the end of the vow. Is that all he has to do? No, now he must go to the temple to offer sacrifices! When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the Torah. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality." The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them. (Acts 21:18-26) The first thing to notice is that the Jewish converts are zealous for the Torah. If the Torah had been done away with and became obsolete, why didn’t the disciples tell Paul they need help in dealing with this irrational Torah zealousness that had crept in among the new converts? Instead of being alarmed over this they appear to be boasting! This must mean their zealous attitude was considered a good thing. The next thing they discuss with Paul is the RUMOR being circulated that Paul teaches disobedience to the Torah. Many people still teach that Paul only kept the Torah when he was with the Jews, but when he was with the Gentiles he did whatever they did. Many believers hold Paul as an example of why they do not have to keep The Torah, after all, Paul didn’t. First, I would like to explain that if this were true then Paul was a hypocrite, or as we commonly say, he was two-faced. If he told Jews one thing and Gentiles another then he was telling one group a lie. There is only one truth, and that truth is not subject to with whom you associate. So what did Paul really say about the Torah What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:15) Do we, then, nullify the Torah by this faith? Not at all! (Romans 3:31) Paul is saying faith in Messiah did not nullify the Torah and that to be under grace is no excuse to sin. We are told in 1 John 3:4 that everyone who sins breaks the law and that sin is lawlessness. What is the law? The Torah is the law (See Lawlessness Study). Paul is not teaching people to break the Torah; therefore the rumors people were hearing concerning this were false! To prove these rumors are false James asked Paul to join four other men in their purification rites, paying their expenses as well as for himself, so they can all have their heads shaved. This is a Nazirite vow. We know this from the shaving of the heads. After they shave their heads what are they required to do? We know from Leviticus as well as the following verses that they have to take offerings to the temple. What type of offerings? The offerings that were required, by The Torah, at the end of a Nazirite vow! Paul was prepared to offer, for himself and the four other males, five male lambs for burnt offerings, five female lambs for sin offerings, and five rams for fellowship offerings. But, I thought sacrifices were done away with?! Not according to the New Testament. Paul took the Nazirite Vow of his own free will, knowing he would have to offer three sacrifices at the end of it. At the urging of James he was willing to pay for the sacrifices for four more men! If the sacrificial system had been done away with then why did Paul make his vow? If it was wrong to offer sacrifices after Messiah’s crucifixion then why did he and James think it was such a good idea for Paul to pay for these four men to offer sacrifices? Notice what he does not say: he never says Y’shua’s sacrifice did away with all other sacrifices! If it had, wouldn’t this be the logical time to say so? But he doesn’t, he agrees to do it. There were sacrifices in the Old Testament, there were sacrifices in the first century New Testament and there will be sacrifices in the Millennial Kingdom! The book of Ezekiel tells us about a coming temple, one that will stand during the thousand-year reign of Y’shua the Messiah. Yahweh had Ezekiel describe in detail what that temple would look like, and what it would be used for. In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and the guilt offerings were slaughtered. By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance to the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables. So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other- eight tables in all -on which the sacrifices were slaughtered. There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrificers. (Ezekiel 40:39-42) This is a future time! Yahweh plans on having sacrifices in His Millennial Kingdom. If in doubt, let’s look at a few more verses. After this, he brought me to the gate facing east. There I saw the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east. His voice was like the sound of rushing water, and the earth shone with His glory. The vision seemed like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city; also the visions were like the vision I had seen by the Kebar River; and I fell on my face. Yahweh’s glory entered the house through the gate facing east. (Ezekiel 41:1-4) This is talking about a future event, when Yahweh will once again dwell in His Temple among us! This is during the Millennial Kingdom. Now let’s read what the prince will offer during Yahweh’s Feast, Sabbaths and New Moons. Also, one sheep is to be taken from every flock of two hundred from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These will be used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the people, declares the Sovereign Lord. All the people of the land will participate in this special gift for the use of the prince in Israel. It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings at the festivals, the New Moons and the Sabbaths—at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel. This is what the Sovereign Lord Says: In the first month on the first day you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary. The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court. You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance; so you are to make atonement for the temple. In the first month on the fourteenth day you are to observe the Passover, a feast lasting seven days, during which you shall eat bread made without yeast. On that day the prince is to provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land. Every day during the seven days of the Feast he is to provide seven bulls and seven rams without defect as a burnt offering to Yahweh, and a male goat for a sin offering. He is to provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, along with a hin of oil for each ephah. During the seven days of the Feast, which begins in the seventh month on the fifteenth day, he is to make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings and oil. (Ezekiel 45:15-25) When Y’shua returns to reign, it is very clear we will keep His Sabbaths and Feasts and there will be sacrifices. Why, you might ask. All of the sacrifices of the Old Testament days pointed to Messiah and the sacrifice He would make. All of the sacrifices after, point back to Messiah and the sacrifice He did make. But why continue to sacrifice when Messiah paid for our sins. He was our sin sacrifice. Most people are under the false assumption that a person could not receive forgiveness for sins under the sacrificial system. But we see in The Torah that isn’t true. And do with this bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:20) He shall burn all the fat on the altar as he burned the fat of the fellowship offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the man's sin, and he will be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:26) He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:31) He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:35) The priest shall then offer the other as a burnt offering in the prescribed way and make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven. (Leviticus 5:10) With the ram of the guilt offering the priest is to make atonement for him before the LORD for the sin he has committed, and his sin will be forgiven. (Leviticus 19:22) If we are to believe the words on the page then we have to understand that forgiveness for sin was available during the Old Testament times. If this is accurate though, it would appear this is contradictory to the New Testament. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.   (Hebrews 10:4) Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. (Hebrews 10:11) How can the Old Testament say the sacrifices were for forgiveness of sin yet the New Testament say they couldn’t? As usual, when it seems that the Scriptures are contradicting themselves it is really our interpretation that is wrong. An example would be the word punch. If I were to ask for a definition of the word punch I might receive any one of four meanings. One might think I meant a fruit drink while another could be thinking of a physical blow. Someone might be thinking of punching up (fluffing) a pillow while someone else might think of something needing more punch (spicing up). Now if I told a friend I thought they needed more punch (spicing up) and they thought I meant punch (physical blow) I might be in trouble. If our interpretation is wrong then we must examine more verses to understand what the author of Hebrews is trying to tell us. For what the Torah could not do by itself, because it lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, Yahweh did by sending his own Son as a human being with a nature like our old sinful one [but without sin]. Yahweh did this in order to deal with sin, and in so doing he executed the punishment against sin in human nature so that the just requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us who do not run our lives according to what our old nature wants but according to what the Spirit wants. (Romans 8:3-4) We already know, according to Leviticus that Yahweh, through the Torah, provided forgiveness for sins. So the question then is, "What couldn’t the Torah do?" What type of sin could it not "do by itself?" The Torah lacked the power to deal with man’s fallen nature or sin nature. The Torah could never, and was never intended, to forgive our sin nature. Our sin nature condemned us to death, only Y’shua could save us from that death, because of our sin nature, and restore us. Not only does he forgive our sins but he forgives our sin nature. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to Yahweh, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death (our sin nature), so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:13-14) When He returns those of us who have asked for this forgiveness and restoration (those of us who have asked Y’shua to be our Lord and Savior) will be like Him, No Sin Nature! Dear friends, we are Yahweh’s children now; and it has not yet been made clear what we will become. We do know that when He appears, we will be like Him; because we will see him as He really is.              (1 John 3:2) For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.   (Hebrews 10:1) For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:14) We could never be called perfect with our sin nature. The blood of bulls and goats could never make us perfect because it could never deal with our sin nature. Only Y’shua could do that. How much difference it makes when we understand the different meanings of words. Let’s look at the verse below. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26) The phrase "do away with sin" has caused many a lively conversation. If He did away with sin, then how can I sin? If He did away with sin, then why do I need forgiveness? If there is no sin, then I can do no wrong. The problem we have encountered is with the translators, not with the Scriptures. There are several Greek words for sin, each one with a slightly different meaning. When the New Testament was translated into English they only used one word for all the different Greek words for sin. Even though the words for sin and their meanings may be similar the difference is enough to completely change the meaning of the sentence. The Greek word for sin (breaking Torah) is hamartema, Strong’s #265. Very close in spelling, but very different in meaning, is the Greek word hamartia (Strong’s #266). Hamartia is the word to describe our sin nature, or our fallen human nature. Hebrews 9:26 is very confusing unless I use the correct Greek form of the word sin, hamartia (sin nature). Then the above verse suddenly takes on a very clear meaning But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin nature by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:26) Whenever we ignore all the different meanings of a word and how they can be translated we are setting ourselves up for confusion. Which is exactly what happened with the above verses. The book of Hebrews was originally written in Hebrew then translated to Greek. Only when we compare Scripture to Scripture and look at the original wording can we begin to clarify some of these apparent contradictions. By comparing the Scriptures above we can see that although the Church no longer places any value on the Torah or its sacrificial system, Yahweh does not agree, especially if we understand that all sacrifices, past and future, point to the Messiah. As it was in the beginning so shall it be in the end.