Thoughts on Leaven

 

As a young Christian I, like many was taught that leaven (yeast) in scripture always speaks of sin or corruption. To the student of Hermeneutics (The Study of Bible Interpretation) there is no alternative interpretation for passages that use the word leaven. All occurrences of the word leaven found in scripture have to be understood as sin or its equivalent. The basis for all of this is called the first law of Hermeneutics, which states: The first use of a symbol in scripture denotes future interpretation for that particular type or image.

Not to belabor the point, but in the feast of unleavened bread all leaven was to be removed from the midst of Israel, and so observant Jews would search their house and utterly purge their houses of even the smallest crumb of leavened bread.

Now if this search and removal of leaven stood by itself it could be understood to have a certain meaning and message, however this search for leaven leading up to the feast of unleavened bread was not a single event in a vacuum, it was actually part of something, it was part of the Passover. You might say it was the preparation of the hearts of the people for Passover.

Consider next the feast of Pentecost which took place just a few weeks later.  According to the Law of Moses leavened bread was commanded by God to be used as part of the feast.  The question begs to be asked if leaven is to be understood as sin or corruption in the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread, is then the use of leaven in Pentecost to be also understood as sin or corruption? Absolutely not. 

Further Jesus said the leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy. And in other verses Christ clearly uses leaven with meanings other than sin or hypocrisy. So in this small example we can clearly see that this figure of “Leaven” when it is used in scripture carries a variety of meanings as opposed a single meaning cast in stone.  

In further examining this rather recent theory of Bible interpretation (Hermeneutics,) we can clearly see that there are several flaws in this man-made concept.

First we need to be aware that there is not verse of scripture or passage of scripture that alludes to or even hints at there being a so-called “First Law of Hermeneutics or even Hermeneutics itself.” That is because this is a doctrine and tradition created by men, that only serves to blind and obscure the truth of God’s word by imposing an arbitrary interpretation of a particular word, phrase, parable, proverb, number, or color, based in its “supposed” first occurrence in scripture.

Next we might well consider that this type of interpretation is akin to adding to or removing from the word of God. In this particular case we are adding rules that do not exist in the word of God, in order to give us the unearned authority to filter and alter the word of God. Do we suppose in our height of arrogance that God is somehow unable to express what He means?   And that the living word would have instead appointed us as a class of scribes and Pharisees and lawyers to filter, divide and ultimately select the way we want to interpret His words for Him? 

The laws of Hermeneutics and other such man made laws regarding Bible interpretation; have been given more weight than God’s Holy Word itself. When we are taken in by this and other teachings and traditions of men; we are no longer capable of rightly dividing the word of truth. Instead of our being built on the firm foundation of Christ and the Apostles, our faith now rests instead on an ever-expanding web of man-made plumb lines that serve only to corrupt the building up of the body of Christ.

The question beg to be asked: Why would anyone make up something like this?

It is because Christ and the prophets spoke in parables, proverbs, and dark sayings that the carnal man see and see no hear and hear not lest at anything they should be converted

Matthew 13:13-15 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 

And so because the carnal fleshly self-appointed pastors, teachers, preachers, and evangelists that have been around ever since the Church fell from grace in the late second century, naturally these wolves in sheep clothing could not let their sheep know that as their spiritual guides they were blind, deaf, and naked –just like the Pharisees had been at the time of Christ.

So how do you get people to believe in a faith from one that no longer walks in faith? You preach other men’s words and beliefs rather then the words of Christ and the Apostles. You use traditions and words of venerated scholars, teachers, and preachers to interpret and temper the words of Christ and the Apostles, establishing a preponderance of thought that by virtue of fact that it has be taught generation upon generation by mainstream denominations.  And this is then held equal to or superior to the Bible –the raw and uninterrupted word.  You preach and teach the young to place their faith in doctrine and traditions of the Church or denomination rather than in the words of Moses the Prophets, Christ, and the Apostles.  And in a relatively short time you end up with a perverse powerless religion that has been leavened through and through with these corrupt doctrines and traditions of men.

To really understand the perniciousness of this corrupt process we need only to look at how our Federal Government works. One generation writes a law or creates a governmental agency or some benefit.  Once created these laws, agencies, and or benefits live on long after their original architects have returned to the earth.  They never go away instead the next generation of legislators desiring to make a name for themselves add, embroider and rewrite these laws agencies or benefits and so they grow in size and scope, and the next generation comes and goes and they continue to grow and this goes on and on.  So that after a few generations no one can remember what the original purpose of the law, agency or benefit was, and what originally was meant to help and bless instead brings instead enslavement and bondage.  

So likewise are the teachings and traditions of these dead believers. What may have been spoken or taught with the best of intentions, but they are the words of men and not God. But then others come along and take their words and reinterpret them and reframe them to mean things the author never meant or said. So that by the hands of others that seek to make a name for themselves the original writer ‘s words all to often becomes a beast of prey devouring and destroying believers faith  and becoming a stumbling block as it grows exponentially generation after generation. And even worse this beastly traditions and doctrines bring forth offspring that are generally are many times more ravenous and defiling than the corrupt pool from where they were birthed. So once more we can say what was once meant to help and bless instead brings abject enslavement and bondage.  

Now at least in our government our Congressmen and Senators know they are rewriting and reappropriating older legislation but in the Church it is not so.  Every generation in every Church and denomination arrogantly proclaims that they have the pure unadulterated truth of God as they march in lockstep to perdition.

Many in this hour would read what has been written thus far and would say: Not So. We have the Bible – that which is perfect and the early church did not. By virtue of all of the scholarly works that have been written in the last two hundred years, we know all truth. And we have the greatest teachers and preachers of the entire Church age to guide us.

So how are we different from the fallen early church?  We know that Christ and the prophets spoke in parables, proverbs, and dark sayings. Are we suggesting that with our commentaries, our books on manners and customs, our books on figures of speech and our lexicons, and concordances, that any carnal pastor, teacher, preacher, and evangelist of our day has at their disposal all the mysteries of the kingdom that God and Christ intentionally hid from the wise and prudent?

It is true as prophesied that in the last days knowledge shall increase. We could waste a lot of time discussing the explosion of knowledge in the world in books TV and on the Internet – but I think we should focus on what has happened in the Church in the last few decades.  

Like the Pharisees of old todays carnal pastors, teachers, and evangelists can not bear to let their followers know that they know only a fraction of what the fallen Church of Rome knew in  250-300 AD.

What do I mean by that?  They Church of Rome knew that they had lost the gifts of the Spirit. They knew that they had lost the office of Apostle and Prophet and in effect you could say that they knew they had lost the kingdom of Heaven. And I will add that at the time of their inception they knew their church history all too well and what they knew put the fear of God in their hearts.  (unlike them we don’t know church history, we don’t even know where the doctrines and traditions we hold so dear come from.) In less than 200 years they lost all that the early church had --  despite the fact that most of their teachers, preachers, and evangelists, could read actually Greek, they were well versed in the Jewish temple its offerings and feasts, their knowledge  the manners and customs of their age, and of the Hebrew people as well – all this did nothing for them and with all this they could not find their way back to the relationship that the early Church had with Christ and the Father..

There are those among us who arrogantly name to themselves Prophets and Apostles. These men are utter frauds. As much as the Latter rain revivalists proclaim that the office of Prophet was restored in 1948 – I can with clear conscience before God say it is not so. Where were these prophets when the Berlin wall fell, What prophet cried out a warning when President Reagan was shot? What prophet declared with names dates and places 9-11. What prophet declared that the y2k would have little impact.

It isn’t that I’m some fundamentalist flack that does not believe in the moving of the Spirit of God.  Far from it I began my walk in Spirit –filled house meetings in 1971-72 from their I began fellowshipping with a multitude of different denominations – only caring that those I fellowshipped with loved the Lord. The Lord greatly blessed me in those early days, after a while an Independent Assembly of God that had a non-Independent Assembly of God Pastor, This man’s wife was an evangelist with a distinct healing and deliverance ministry and she preached regularly when woman preachers were denied speaking in the assembly much less preaching and laying hands on people.  I then went to an independent Spirit-filled Bible Collage, and a few years later I Pastored a Spirit-filled Christian Fellowship in Lorton, Virginia.  Over the years I was introduced to people that had either appointed themselves or had been appointed by men to the office of Prophet. When I went to bible school the theory was advanced that with each revival step by step God was restoring the Church. That the Azusa street revival restored the gifts of the spirit to the church, and the office of evangelist. That the Latter Rain revival restored the office of Prophet and the so-called power gifts. A lot of time was put on end time companies the Elijah company, Sonship, and that the next revival would being in the office of apostle. Some people that I personally knew in bible school are rumored to called themselves apostles other churches have set in their own five-fold ministry – and these are people that I would have respected and believed when I was young (when I was 12-19 years old.) 

Except by the grace of God I confess to you that I myself would be preaching or teaching similar things today. God apprehended me two decades ago, He hemmed me in, separating me from all other believers for two long dark decades. I can not tell you that I went through that by my own strength, by my spiritual power, or by sheer will. I can not even tell you that I was righteous, and saw Christ through-out the entire ordeal and walked him in the spirit day to day.  Far from it I stumbled around blind, naked, and corrupt in body soul and spirit> I railed against those who I had decided that had caused this to befall me. I added sin to sin and if anything only deepened and lengthened the process. But the effect of all of this was that for two decades I was set in suspended animation while the church marched on at the bidding of its “gifted” blind leaders. The effect upon God releasing me from this burden was as if I had been suddenly propelled 20 years into the future. And as I walked into churches and fellowships and reestablished contact with men and woman that I had known twenties years earlier I became horrified by what I saw and heard from the mouth of believers and preachers of almost any given denomination. The corruption, the lines and boundaries that have been crossed things are breath taking.  What was considered twenty and thirty years ago abject sin and an abomination are now accepted in as vital parts of our faith and worship in virtually every quarter. I will that I am a sinful man, and that I am undeserving that God should even look upon me, yet He has drawn me into Himself. I confess there are many people far better than me in that God could speak to and reveal these things of which I speak but it seems that they have had their hearts hardened through the deceitfulness of riches. And in a time when everyone that can truly hear from God should be crying out on the wall the coming waste and destruction I tearfully say there are none. The shepherds and watchmen are destroyed and the church lives as if we are in a “never-ending party” that begins when one joins a church and this “party” will continue for all eternity after they get Raptured.       

At the core of all this is salvation without redemption, in other words there is no sanctification, no circumcision of the heart only a superficial outward change.

Christianity without Christ. Upon salvation we are told that that Christ is to become our personal friend and savior but after salvation we are directed to seek the pastor and the church in place of Christ. So that instead we become snared by their doctrines and their traditions.

An empty hollow Baptism of the Holy Spirit without any power or substance. All these three relate you can’t have one without the other two and the Church of this day the third beast in Daniel has none of the three. 

And yet we do no acknowledge any loss between us and the Church of the Apostles, We claim in this hour to possess all truth  yet our Greek reading is based upon dictionaries that were complied centuries after the “Koine Greek” language was long dead. Few among us understand the functions of the temple the sacrifices and the feasts of Israel because all that was lost when Israel ceased to be a nation in 90 AD.  Because we do not understand this we do not understand the foundation upon which Christ came and became the sacrifice for the sins of the world. On the matter of manners and customs we use books that were primarily written in the 1800’s to try to get insight on things that were done thousands of years ago.  And perhaps most damning of all we are in a state of complete denial that there is any importance to any church history that occurred between the pages of the New Testament and where we stand today, so therefore we are completely unable to judge the teaching and doctrines that we have in this day.

Corinthians 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

But because we have blinded ourselves and we refuse instruction, correction or, rebuke we shall be judged – judgment is coming down the pike like a 100,000 ton freight train and the church is a car stalled across the tracks of divine purpose. 

In other words the generation has become utterly detached from our roots. So how do we compensate for so great a lack in our day?   Unknowingly we learn lean heavily upon 1800 years of teachings and doctrines to fill in the vast gaps in of knowledge that we would appear in the eyes of those who we teach to be wise.  So we use commentaries, we go to books containing word studies, we go to books containing manners and customs idioms and we might even resort to reading one to two hundred year old sermons and viola! We have our answer and we have not lost face. 

When I was a child and a young Christian I worked for Futterman’s Stationary in Larchmont, New York. Mr. Futterman had retired a few years earlier and sold the business to Morris Hartmann . Morris Hartmann was a devout Jew and my boss, and in those days we would have nightly lively debates after the store closed.  Mr Hartmann spoke of Judaism in glowing terms as the inventors of rationalism. He spoke of the great Jewish rabbis Rashi, Mimomidees, and others and how they took the word of God and defined every word and phrase and how their teachings and traditions have made Judaism the vast repository of Rationalism and goodwill that it is today.  

If this man being a devout Jew knew with absolute certainty knew the source of his doctrine and teachings rabbis dating back before Christ and the Babylonian captivity, how is it that we who are born again, been baptized into the kingdom of God’s dear son, and filled with the Holy Spirit know nothing of where our doctrines and teachings come from?

How is it that do we not understand that we are the products of the doctrines and traditions of Menno Simons, Martin Luther and John Calvin, Charles and John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Charles Finney and DL Moody? These are the people who have defined the majority of what we believe and teach today, not Christ and the apostles.   

The why reason is the men took artistic license and with a few deft strokes redefined most of our major teachings by defining terms you change the meaning of scripture without having to rewrite the bible.

See these men of the cloth like their fathers before them the Pharisees; in order to be: “A workman worthy of his meat.” (Matthew 10:10) That is have the laity pour money and gifts into their corrupt hand, they needed to appear to be more righteous than their parishioners. How do they do so? Jesus described their actions and until now I have only been able to see the individual actions described but I have never been able to see the picture of these religious men. 

Matthew 6:1-6 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.  But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

They loved to be seen of men – seen acting holy and spiritual. They gave long and drawn our prayers so that all could see that nobody could pray like brother or sister so and so. They fasted in public or appeared to do so to show their badge of spirituality. They quoted manifold scriptures in Josephus we find that a requirement to be a Pharisee was to memorize the entire five books of Mosses which made these people walking scripture quoters. Further we find that they knew how to worship they knew all the good songs. The Pharisees also were good offering and tithe takers. So they had all the trappings of being Godly and saintly men but what did Jesus say of their practices They were hypocrites (actors that played the part of another) They prayed and fasted to be seen of men they worshipped God with their lips but their heart was far from God, they devoured widows houses (probably by demanding of them tithes and offerings.) we could add a lot more but this is enough.

In order to be a man of God what their church members expect of them is  that they be a person that they pray, that they fast, that they worship that they read the word, that they know scripture answers, and that they appear to be holy and seem to know more than them.

I heard a famous deceased Baptist preacher on the radio the other day quote Jesus saying except thou exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees thou shalt in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. His remark was that the Pharisees were very holy and righteous and that it would be in his estimation almost impossible for any of us to surpass them. 

I found this statement of his very instructive, it would seem to belay that he looked up to and had great respect for their form of Godliness. It would seem to belay that he and his peers felt a kinship with these white washed sepulchers full of dead men’s bones and all manner of rottenness. I at least would view this statement as a confession of longing for the doctrine and traditions of these men.

Recently we had a huge forest fire in Fairbanks, Alaska and as things went from bad to worse nether the City nor borough government did or said anything it was only when the city was filled with heavy smoke form dawn to dusk and a local radio station started broadcasting news of the fire and what was being done did the Borough and City kick into high gear. They were furious that this little radio station was putting out news without it having been run through them. And they brought all the force to bear they could against this radio station to silence it.  

Like they Pharisees they could hardly have a young upstart from Galilee, one that had not been initiated from their order speak directly to the people the words of God.  If they let it stand the people might by pass their religious order all together. Over the centuries this issue has come up time and again as denomination after denomination or church after church has gone after and killed its competition. In more recent centuries these orders and denominations have used slander and born false witness or some other underhanded thing to destroy the credibility of their accusers and competitors.            

Matthew 10:10  Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.

The disciples were worthy of their bread not because they used words of cunning craftiness, they were not worthy of their bread because they seduced their hearers into becoming their disciples – they were worthy of their bread because they were obedient, they let their followers to Christ alone and they spoke only that which they had seen and heard of Christ not any of the great Jewish rabbis Greek philosophers or the lessons they learned of life.

To the natural man Biblical Hermeneutics sounds real good, because with this single key now all scripture can be unlocked by the natural man.  This single key makes spiritual enlightenment and spiritual revelation obsolete. It eliminates any need for careful prayerful Bible study. So with our natural eyes we can now take an assembly line approach to scripture and literally just fill in the blanks. So at will now we turn on this assembly line of spiritual interpretation and let this mechanism pound away at the word of God.

At first we are real pleased with ourselves and proclaim the beast we’ve created to be a success, as the first few passages quickly fall into the pattern we have set. Then there are the near fits; scriptures in the Bible may refer indirectly to something else but its close enough.  And we smile and explain to our hearers, and ourselves that despite any minute differences -- this is what God really meant to say.

Then as we continue to plug along we come to real ill fitting verses where this interpretation appears to be in flat contradiction to the words and context.  To this we steel our hearers and ourselves and point to the success of this doctrine in its use with other verses, and explain that regardless of what we read it really has to be thus and so because of this tradition of men we are using or have created ourselves. That we need to take it by faith and God will somehow have to reveal it to us. When we do this we have just deceived our hearers, and ourselves. Unfortunately it never stops there. We have also opened the floodgates, and begun down the path of deception and grievous error. For by making selective interpretation of scriptures in one case  --it becomes easier to the same slip-shot method when you next find yourself in a pinch. It’s even worse with your hearers because they hold you in high esteem, they trust you like small children you can largely say and do no wrong.  So they fully accept your lies deceit and explanations without question. The seen is then planted in their hearts. You may later repent but the seed lives on in your hearers. They then receive insight from that seed and they find that they with even less knowledge than you can unsightly divide the word of truth and what they begin to do becomes even more corrupt.   

So you say: I don’t see what any of this has to do with me. I hold no such doctrine, why anyone can see as plain as the nose on their face that this idea is crazy.   

Now, if we are willing to point blank accept this doctrine we have slipped down a broad road of deception that will defile and corrupt.  Most believers thankfully would refrain from such an open pit as this, but these same people with open eyes willingly walk into the swamp of body of doctrine that was created over the last few hundred years using this false plumb line 

Certainly the first law of Hermeneutics or the use of Hermeneutics in and of itself is far from the worst destructive force at work in the body of Christ today.  This is not said to at all discount the words that were written above, instead it must be recognized that there are probably hundreds of pernicious teaching and doctrines at work in the body of Christ today. Many preachers of our day would ignorantly boast that this is a proof that God’s hand is with the body of Christ.

I would submit to you that this is a fulfillment of the of a prophecy in the book of Ezekiel that these false self-serving shepherds have allowed among their many abuses of the sacred office bestowed upon them to allow their sheep to become food for every ravenous beast of the field.

Ezekiel 34:1-6 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?  Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.  The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.   And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.   My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.

I confess to you I in times past I also had accepted teachings like the first law of Hermeneutics.  I became a Christian in much the same way as most everyone else.  Someone preached Christ to me and I over a period of a few months I came to the Lord. Even though I was between 13- 14 when I did turn my heart over to God, so much in my life and those around me changed.  I went to meetings were there were a lot of newly saved people just like myself.  I expect that everyone thought like I at the time, that their pastor, or teacher or preacher knew everything about God that there was to know.  I expect that everyone like myself thought that his or her Church was 100% right on in all that they taught. In those days we were newborn babes in Christ,  why would we have thought anything different? It was the healthy, natural thing to do. In saying this I want to mention that there is no fault finding or harm being laid to any one particular house meeting, church, or denomination.  I went to house meetings, Church prayer meetings bible studies and fellowshipped with a wide variety of believers. I was aware and amazed at the time that none of these groups would fellowship with one another. And I recall making remarks about that to these different groups but to no avail. Later I went to Bible school, and afterwards I tried my hand at pasturing.

It was not until some years later after the Lord had separated me unto himself that He began to open my eyes to the many things that had be said to me by other believers, pastors, teachers and evangelists, ministries that I had heard on tapes, and in books I had read. That my soul had been polluted and defiled by the traditions and teachings of men. Doctrines and teaching that had in fact been elevated to being equal or above scripture. Now none of this was done on the out and out instead it was done to help “Interpret passages of scripture we may not have understood or to blunt verses we might have been stumbled by.  

And sadly I report to you that after I had been taught all of these things I naturally according the power of the flesh within me then began to teach and preach some of these same doctrines and traditions of men to others. While I had whole-heartedly believed that all was well, and that I was serving the Lord with only his best intentions only in mind, instead it turned out that I was the water-boy in effect carrying the defiled corrupting messages of someone else.

This has been a painful revelation – but it has been a good revelation.  It is far better to be rebuked by God and repent before him than to hear nothing and to be let go on our merry way. There are aspects of this that are deeply troubling and fill my heart with woe.  I walk in the light or partial light that I have and I speak impart and teach to others, they hear what I say – as I continue to walk I discover something that I said and taught was not true or perhaps it was tainted or was something cooked up long ago by a man or denomination.  What happens is I walk free from this thing but the people I spoke to and taught preached or imparted these things to don’t. Many times they live on with the bondage or stumbling blocks that we taught them.  Sometimes we have the opportunity to correct that – but now that they have grown and are “discerning individuals” they may indeed out of their own blindness not accept the new light you have seen, or being so crippled and bound by the level of the doctrines and traditions of men that they have ingested that they cannot change.    

This is why there are grave warnings to those who would teach and preach the teachers and preachers essentially hold the keys of knowledge as did the Pharisees.  Pastors, preachers teachers and evangelists sit in the seat of Mosses as did the Pharisees in the time of Christ.    

I am writing this in attempt to try to help you, but if you are happy and content with your walk, if you believe that your pastor is the mouthpiece of God and that he speaks only  that which God has taught him, then I cannot help you.  It takes the Holy Spirit to remove the scales from our eyes. I takes divine revelation to realize that the Church that I go to and the people I fellowship with are somehow different than what I read of in the bible. And it takes the grace of God to discover that even though I am born again, baptized in water and the Holy Spirit and hungrily seeking the Lord that I am personally blind, deaf, naked, and wretched before God.  

Rules are very powerful tools and those who make the rules exert great control over those who obey these rules. Now if Christ of the Apostles would have suggested such a thing as hermeneutics, theology, or whatever then we would be on solid ground – but neither was taught by Moses, Christ or the apostles, and we can say with great certainty that neither Moses nor Christ nor the apostles understood such rules for interpreting scripture.

So what is leaven in scripture – it is a force that in minutes, hours, or days, can transform bread or wine yogurt or cheese. It has the ability to make cake and bread rise, it has the ability to turn juice into wine. So is leaven evil or sinister or sinister of itself? No. On the day of Pentecost the Ekklesia was leavened by the Holy Ghost was that evil? No.

Now we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the law of Moses and 

Exodus 12:15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

 For seven days Israel shall eat unleavened bread for one week out of 52 weeks in a year does this verse say leaven is evil? No. If on the eighth day if a man shall eat leavened bread shall he be cut off?  No. 358 days a year a man may eat leavened bread.

 Why was Israel to do this?

Exodus 12:14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.