So in the past week or so that I have not been on my blog, I had really been engulfed in the teachings of several Messianic Jewish ministries. It’s almost like I am driven to learn and understand more. As I listen to these various Rabbi’s, I find myself really pondering the Church, and it’s stance on Torah. From conversations that I have had with Christian associates, many of them are of the belief that the church and Israel are two separate entities. Well, they are in a way, but at the same time they really aren’t. What I mean is that, although Jew and Gentile are two clearly different people, yet are they one in Messiah. The term “Gentile”, in Hebrew is “Goy” (Goyim in the plural). The thing that many miss is that from the beginning, YHVH ‘s intention was for everyone to be one. His desire was to create a people that He could dwell in the midst of. However, due to sin, everything was changed. Scripture tells us that things had gotten so bad with mankind that Elohim had considered destroying EVERYTHING, but, “Noach found grace”! Before I go any further, I want to point out this, before there was a Moses, a Jacob, Issac or Abraham, or even a Jew for that matter, there was a Sabbath. Why do I point this out? Many Christians are of a mind that Sabbath is a “Jewish” thing. Not so! Scripture teaches us that in the very beginning, that Elohim rested on the seventh day, and hallowed it. Although Scripture does not emphasize Adam resting on the Sabbath, it can still be implied that due to the nature of their relationship Adam may have observed it. Cain and Abel were familiar with the concept of presenting offerings to Elohim, despite the fact that Scripture does not record Elohim telling them to do so. Enoch is another person that the book of Genesis speaks about, although briefly. Enoch was so perfect that Elohim “took him”. It is very possible that he too may have observed the Sabbath in addition to other things required by Elohim. Why am I even going there? I just want to make it plain that Sabbath observance predates Moses on Sinai. This being said, this false theology that Sabbath is a “Jewish” thing is out the window now.
Because man became utterly lost, and there were none within the 70 nations established (after the Tower of Babel fiasco), that walked according to His will, YHVH decided to create a nation, that would be a light to the “nations”. This brings me back to the word “Gentile”. In Hebrew, the word is “Goyim”, which really means “nations”. Enter Abram, the man in whom YHVH would cut a covenant with. It was Abram, or Abraham, the YHVH chose to make a nation from. This nation would be the light to the other nations. Believe it or not, there have been countless non-Jews (Goyim) that YHVH allowed to become grafted into his chosen people. In fact, during the time of the Exodus, Scripture records that it was a “mixed” multitude of people leaving Egypt. During this same time frame, YHVH told Moses that there would be “one Torah” for the Jew and the Goyim. One Torah, one standard, not two. Bare in mind, Israel was established as His light to the nations, to show them His ways and precepts. This being said, if Israel was the example, then what do we do with an example? We follow it as a pattern. If there is one Torah, then that implies these other nations learn from Israel and would ultimately follow their example as well. This is what many Christians mix up. However, there are several Messianic prophecies that point out that the nations would seek the Jews to learn from them. What are they seeking to learn from the Jews? Another Messianic prophecy points out they come to Jerusalem because they know that YHVH dwells there, and they want to inquire of His ways. My question is this, if they inquire of Him, based off of what we know of YHVH through the Scriptures, does it seem likely that He will teach them a different standard from Israel? If this is the case, then why call Israel a “light to the nations” if they are not setting a standard for the nations?
Within the church, there is an erroneous theology taught that there are two standards, one for the Jew and one for the Gentile. Although there are some things that refer strictly to Jews, the overall Torah is for all. Torah is YHVH ‘s standard for mankind. The changes came about within the first few centuries of the church. After the dispersion of the Jews, and the fall of Israel as a nation, Rome being the super power nation took over as the new home of so called “Christianity”. With the Gentiles now controlling the church, historic facts tell us that they gradually removed more and more of its “Jewishness” and replaced it with their own man made theology. Anti-semitism begin to grow to the extent that Jews were “demonized”. Several of Christianity’s most respected and most quoted “Church fathers” began to utterly slander the Jews, labeling them as “Christ killers” and devil worshippers. The overall consensus is that they killed the Messiah, and in doing so, they fell from grace with YHVH and are not longer in covenant relationship with Him. It only seemed right that if the Jews, as YHVH ‘s covenant people were out of covenant with Him, that the church must have replaced them. This is what became known as “Replacement Theology”. The idea of even sharing a celebration day with the Jews became repulsive. It is safe to say that the separation between the church and the Jews was a man made thing not a Elohim inspired thing, hence the churches holidays were offset from YHVH ‘s holy days. I find it interesting that although nowhere in Scripture do we see any of the feast days mentioned in the Bible being addressed as “Jewish feast days”, but rather “feast of YHVH, yet and still the church labeled them all as “Jewish feast days”. In doing so, it made it easier to blow these feast days off as non important. One of the biggest things that the Church fights against is the Sabbath of YHVH. They view the Sabbath as a day for the Jews, and further insist that Yeshua changed this day from the seventh day to the first day. It is interesting that there are scores of testimonies from various Catholic priest where they admit that not only was it them (the Catholic Church) that changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, but that there was NO Scripture whatsoever that alluded to this change being made. The further confess that this was done to assert the power of the Roman Catholic Church, and that in doing so, Christians are acknowledging this power in obedience to them. Despite all of this, the church today stands by Rome, unknowingly acknowledging this man made power to make this change as if it was Biblical.
For many Christians, Yeshua is believed to have done away with Torah, despite the fact that it was recorded in the gospels that He Himself clearly stated that He did NOT come to abolish Torah, but to fullfil it. Where the problem comes in is that our translation of the words abolish and fulfill are based on our english translation. In Hebrew thought, abolishing Torah was to “misquote it” or rather to wrongly translate it, and to fulfill it was to translate it in its proper context. From this standpoint, He is saying that he came to teach it in the way that it was meant to be taught. He further states that not a jot or tittle would pass away from Torah until all things were accomplished, as it related to the prophets. So, the question is, when were all things accomplished? Has heaven and earth passed away? Are we living in Yeshua’s Messianic Kingdom and unaware? If not, that Torah has NOT passed away. Not only that, but, YHVH made it clear that we are not to add to nor take away from Torah. In doing away with Torah, Yeshua has disobeyed YHVH in that He allegedly took away from Torah. Not only that, but He can not be the Messiah either because Messiah could NOT break Torah. All that to say, we really have to rethink our faith if indeed we are to believe that Yeshua ended Torah. Not only that, but as one Rabbi stated, if Yeshua taught that we are no longer to follow Torah, then all of the Apostles missed the memo, because they all taught Torah til the end. Paul, the one that is used to champion the belief that Torah ended at the cross not only followed Torah til the end, but he taught the gentiles to do the same. I find it funny that by the 4th century, Constantine forbade the Christians to “Judaize” on Sabbath. Christian refers to Messianic believers both Jew and non jew, and Judaizing is a jewish concept. In putting these terms together, it implies Messianic Judaism at work. This being the case, then this points to gentile believers being Torah observant as well as Jewish believers. We now see clearly that there just may have been gentile believers who observed Torah as far as 200 years passed the time of the apostles. My point in saying all of that is this, we have got to dig deeper than our english transliterations of Scripture to really understand our faith and what the Word really teaches. We cannot afford to allow Pastors and Teachers or other leaders in the church to teach us their theology, but instead must study for ourselves and have our own theology based on the word and not man. I am not downing anyone’s pastor but simply stating that this is “our” salvation and we cannot afford to let others unintentionally mislead us. As I used to tell an old friend, this is not a heaven or hell issue but it is a positional issue. Yeshua stated that those that taught others to not follow Torah would be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven and those who followed Torah and taught others to do the same would be great in the kingdom. The question now becomes, where do you want to be as it relates to the Kingdom, one of the least or one of the greatest? Blessings
