Ok, so it took me a while to find the time for this blog, but this was something I really felt the need to address. My motivation for this comes from various conversations that I have had with Christians. I am so not trying to come off sounding like I am bashing Christians with this blog. In fact, I want to make sure that it is clear that I myself was a Christian for a majority of my life. It is because of this, as well as being taught the same theology that many Christians get now, that I actually feel that I can address this topic intelligently. What I mean by this is that, since I was on the Christian side for so many years, and was pretty well versed in the Church’s doctrine, and then now being on this side of the spectrum as a Messianic Believer, and having decent knowledge of this doctrine as well, I can discern more clearly between truth and error. Not to make myself sound like a theologian, but at the same time I see it this way, that if I was a juror on a court case, and had heard both, the prosecution and the defense’s argument during the trial, even though I am not a judge, I am more than capable of being entrusted in making a decision whether the defendant is innocent or guilty because I was privy to both sides of the story. It is with this thought in mind that when I look at these two theologies I feel that even without a seminary background that I have an edge that most Christians don’t. A good example would be a situation I was in at my former Church that was actually the nail in the coffin for me, causing me to leave the Christian Church. We were at a mid week Bible study, and my Pastor was teaching on whether or not the “Feast Days” of YHVH were for us as Christians or not. His opening remark was that “there are many arguments for both sides, BUT, I’m going to tell you why they don’t apply to us”. In that statement, he crippled the congregation because he took away the right to examine both sides, allowing them to decide for themselves. For the next hour, he pulled Scripture after Scripture to prove his point. In some cases, he read Scriptures and then stopped a verse before a statement was written to disprove what he was trying to prove. Although I cannot speak for all Churches, I can say that from talking to believers from various Churches that it seems to be the same story across the board. This is why I felt the need to address this.
The “Switchback” theory, as I call it, is when the believer, or better yet the Church, holds the view that something that once applied in Scripture stopped at some point, totally missing them as “Christians”, only to restart in the Messianic Age when Yeshua reigns as King in Jerusalem. For Christians today, dating as far back as 1500 years ago, give or take, much of foundational doctrine of our faith has been deluded by the Church of Rome. Most people have never asked the question, “could we be wrong”? Allow me to answer that question with the following quote from Author, Radio Host, Teach, and Theologian, Dr Michael Brown, who said, “Anyone calling themselves a Protestant attests to the fact that for over 1500 years, the Church was wrong”. So what did Dr Brown mean? Well, around the 3rd or 4th century, the Church of Rome took control of Christianity, and completely dominated it. Within that time, the Hebrew roots, and all things Jewish were removed the faith, only to be rebranded into a new Non-Jewish religion. By the time of Martin Luther, the tyranny of Roman rule over the church had finally come to an end, as he posted his “95 Thesis” on the Cathedral door, addressing the heresy of the Church and how they had strayed far from the teachings of Scripture. This eventually led to the great Reformation, that ultimately separated Christianity from Catholicism. Unfortunately, after being there so many centuries, much of Roman theology had stayed with them. So lets address some of the teachings that originated in Rome that still exist in the Christian Church today. According to history, Constantine was the one responsible for changing the day of worship. Claiming to be Christian, but still holding on to his pagan practices, Constantine, made his famous edict Saturday would no longer be the day of worship, and that “all would worship on the venerable day of the Sun” (or SunDay). This statement implies that prior to this proclamation that all may have been observing the Sabbath until then. Not only that, but with the understanding that the Messianic believers were still Torah observant, so it is more than likely that they taught new converts to follow their example. If this were not the case, it would have been irrelevant for him to make this statement. Nonetheless, they continued to observe Sabbath, despite his edict, which caused quite a stir. This eventually led to persecution of the “Christians”. Jews began to be hated by all because whereas the Romans served multiple gods, they were monotheistic, and served only one God. For this reason, they became the scourge of the land. No one wanted anything to do with them. It had gotten so bad that they had hate for all things Jewish, and it was this that caused them to remove all traces of Jewishness out of “Christianity”. We are about to get deep now.
Time went on, and as it did, Saturday was no longer the Sabbath, but Sunday. The Feast Days were done away with also. Christianity was a “rebranded” faith with no traces of Jewishness to be seen. For over a thousand years, this was the new face of Christianity. Jews in the community would not be accepted until they agreed to denounce their own Jewishness, to no longer observe Sabbaths, Feast Days, or even name their kids Jewish names. The church begin to create it’s own holy days, such as Easter and Christmas, which ironically mirror the Feast Days. Whats funny is that many consider the Feast Days as a “Jewish” thing, despite the fact that Scripture calls them Feasts of YHVH. Getting back to the “Switchback” theory, since the foundation is laid now, lets talk about the Sabbath. We now know that it was Rome that changed the Sabbath, and for those still in disbelief, and think that a biblical Scripture proves this change, their are archived documents from the Roman Catholic Church that blatantly admits that “The Catholic Church” changed the Sabbath observance of its own accord, and that there is no Scripture no where saying this was to be done. They further said that by you observing Sunday over Saturday, that you are attesting to the fact that Rome has the power to do this. The end the statement by saying that if you want to go by the Scripture, then you should go to Church on Saturday instead. Lets talk about Prophets. Assuming that you as the reader are a believer in the Bible, I am sure we can agree that the Old Testament Prophets were on point in their prophecies, right? Among many of the known prophets, Isaiah stands out in the forefront. Reading the Book of Isaiah, we see that his prophecies were on point as it related to the Babylonian captivity, as well as the other things he touched on. I’m sure we can agree that his prophetic accuracy was dead on. We can also agree that the same way he addressed things as yet to come that did come, that those future things concerning the Messianic Reign will likewise come as well. With that in mind, as we think on this belief that Sabbath doesn’t apply to us as Christians, we will look at what the prophet says about this. In Isaiah 66:23 he prophecies that “it shall be”, meaning this is a future prophecy, “from Rosh Chodesh to Rosh Chodesh (new moon to new moon), and Sabbath to Sabbath, ALL flesh shall come to worship before Me”. Looking at this context, this is a perpetual command, meaning it has NO end. Rosh Chodesh, which is “a new moon”, signifies a “new month”, and in this, there is a special recognition before YHVH that is required. This is a monthly thing. The Sabbath is “weekly” and is also a special day unto YHVH. So in addition to being before Him monthly, there is also a weekly obligation as well. My question is this, seeing that He said ALL flesh, does that refer to the Jews only, or is it everyone? He did say ALL flesh. It’s cut and dry on that. So with this in mind, seeing this is a future prophecy, yet to be fulfilled, this can go down one of two ways. One, the “Switchback” theory is real, and YHVH did indeed institute these observances for the Jews only, and then exempted us as gentiles from it, only to switch back again in the end and require it for all flesh, or two, it has always applied, and is a perpetual thing for all of His people. I am not trying to make you believe like I believe, but to me it seems cut and dry. Scripture says the YHVH changes not. It also says that there is “One” Torah for the Jew and Gentile. One standard for all of us, not one for us and another for them. This separation thing came from us, not YHVH. If indeed we are His people, these things apply to us as well as them. There are also Messianic Age prophecies dealing with Feast Days as well. YHVH said that all who didn’t come before Him on certain Feast Days would NOT be given the latter rain. We now see Feast Day’s and Sabbath’s in the millennial reign of Yeshua. So again, are we to believe He started them for the Jews, exempted us and then in the end demanded that we partake along with the Jews? Does that really sound like the character of a never changing God? My last thought is this, with the dietary laws, we see that YHVH gave commands on what not to eat and what to eat. We as Gentile believers eat anything we can get our hands on whether clean or unclean. Understanding that the Jews always ate kosher, as did Yeshua, and all the Apostles, contrary to popular belief that they didn’t, when Yeshua comes to reign on Earth, and we are there with Him for one of the Feast Days, how many of you are gonna bring pork products or shellfish to the Feast and sit in His presence? I for one would love to see that. I assure you that He will still eat kosher at His return, and the idea of people eating unclean at home and then going before Him and now eating kosher, just doesn’t seem quite right either. Anyway, at this point, how many of you still hold on to the “Switchback” theory? Is it one standard for all or is it one for us and one for them? #Checkmate
