.
Before proceeding, I must first apologize for dating the wrong month for Yom
Kippur 2023. It's actually in September rather than November.
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FAQ: Isn't Judaism equally as useful as Christianity for sinners seeking God's
forgiveness? Isn't that the whole purpose of Yom Kippur, a.k.a. the Day of
Atonement?
REPLY: Pinning one's hopes on the Day Of Atonement is futile. For one thing:
there's no one to perform the ritual seeing as how there is neither a Temple nor a
fully functioning Aaronic high priest on duty in Jerusalem at this time. In point of
fact, neither of those two essential elements of the Day of Atonement have been in
Jerusalem since 70 AD. But that's not the worst of it.
The original sacrificial system was effective-- to a point --for addressing the
peoples' actions, and for sanitizing their bodies, but totally ineffective for
addressing the people themselves, viz: their persons, the core of their being.
When Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, his perception of decency underwent a
radical change. Whereas before, he was comfortable seen undressed; afterwards he
was uncomfortable seen naked even by his wife.
The thing is: Adam's moral compass went awry, i.e. his conscience became
humanistic.
● Gen 3:22 . . And The Lord God said: The man has now become like one of us,
knowing good and evil.
In other words: Adam began looking to his own intuition for moral direction instead
of looking to his maker, viz: Adam became a tin God.
Point being: none of the Levitical system's rituals address the corruption inherent
within the human conscience that came about by means of the forbidden fruit
incident.
● Heb 9:13-14 . .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 Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to
death, so that we may serve the living God.
The Greek word translated "consciences" basically pertains to mental activity
especially as it pertains to moral perception. So we're not talking about outwardly
sinful behavior here. (cf. Rom 2:16 and Heb 4:12)
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