Rediscovering Yeshua’s Sermon Pt 1 – The Meaning of Fulfill

You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Deuteronomy 4:2

A few months ago, I had an opportunity to dialog with two men, one of whom is a pastor. We discussed the relationship between the Torah and the believer in regards to Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount, focusing on Matthew 5:17-20. The following statements are taken from that discussion:

Jesus fulfilled the purpose of the Law by obeying it perfectly and thus condemning us by it. That was the purpose of the Law, and it was fulfilled in Christ. So, Jesus didn't "abolish" it, He fulfilled it, and in so doing condemned us. His perfect obedience to the Law will forever stand as a testimony to His sinlessness and our sinFULness. So, it was not abolished, but fulfilled in Christ….The Law has fulfilled its purpose… As far as how my interpretation goes with verses 19 and 20: the ceremonial, judicial, and civil laws were fulfilled in Christ. They were the shadow of what was to come, which was Christ.

Jesus is referring to the Sermon on the Mount when he says, "these commandments" in Matthew 5:19. He is the life in us that keeps every one of those commandments and exceeds the righteousness of the law.

I believe these statements represent the common understanding of how believers today view the Torah. Is it true that the Torah has fulfilled its purpose with the coming of the Messiah and is no longer applicable to believers today? Is it merely His life in us that we are able to receive the status of exceeding the righteousness of the Pharisees to enter into the kingdom of Heaven? Let us take a closer look at this passage, starting with Matthew 5:17-18.

17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Torah until everything is accomplished. Matthew 5:17-18

It is clear that Yeshua’s purpose in coming was NOT to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. He further emphasizes this by repeating it twice. The word here for abolish is kataluo which means “to destroy,” “demolish,” and “do away with,” which was commonly used in reference to demolishing buildings (e.g. Matt 26:61) and overthrowing or replacing institutions and laws [1]. This abolishing is distinguished and contrasted with the word “fulfill”. Whatever the meaning of the word “fulfill” is, it cannot have the same meaning or impact as “abolish”. Unfortunately, this is exactly what most believers today suggest in their definition of this word. They suggest that by Yeshua “fulfilling” the Torah, believers are no longer obligated in keeping the Torah. As we have seen in the above statement, Yeshua didn’t just arbitrarily get rid of the Torah, but fulfilled it as in completing its purpose and function. Thus, as the argument goes, the Torah of Moses no longer serves as an instruction of living for the believer, which in the end, has the same impact and result as if He had abolished the Torah. This understanding however, does not add up for the following reasons: 1) it destroys or blurs the contrast between “abolish” and “fulfill” 2) it goes against Yeshua’s later statement that not even the smallest part of the Torah will pass away until heaven and earth disappear and everything is accomplished. Heaven and earth have certainly not passed away and not everything has been accomplished yet (e.g. Col 2:16-17, Heb 10:1). Therefore, it is safe to say that the words of the Torah have not disappeared from the lives of Yeshua’s followers.

What then does Yeshua mean when He said He came to fulfill the Torah and the Prophets? It is important to note that the verb “fulfill” is active and not passive which implies that it is something that He actively does. Also, perhaps looking at the parallelism between verses 17 and 19 with the words luo (i.e. break, annul; a root for kataluo - abolish) and poieo (i.e do, keep, practice) will give a proper meaning of “fulfill”:

In terms of opposites this would suggest that to “annul” the least of the commandments is to “not do” them and to “practice” them is to “do” them. Thus, to “practice” the commandments is to “fulfill” or do them properly. Messianic Rabbi, Dr. John Fischer, has found a fascinating historical meaning to these words:

As it turns out, "abolish" and "fulfill" are actually terms used at that time as part of scholarly debate and rabbinic discussion. A sage was accused of abolishing or canceling the Torah if he misinterpreted a passage, nullifying its intent. If he fulfilled it, he had properly interpreted Scripture so as to preserve and correctly explain its meaning. [2]

The following verses demonstrate this use of “fulfill” as performing the Torah properly:

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Torah. Romans 13:8

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the Torah of Messiah. Galatians 6:2

One would be hard pressed to imagine that these verses indicate that all one needs to do is to love his neighbor once and is no longer obligated to do so again for he has “fulfilled” the Torah. To fulfill the Torah is to keep the Torah and keep it the way it was intended. “Thus, Yeshua was asking His disciples to understand that one of His purposes in coming as the Messiah was to expound the Torah and the Prophets both by His words and (especially) His deeds. He came to explain how one could actually do the Torah, and what the purpose of doing the Torah was. He came to exegete the Torah and Prophets in their fullness, not in a different way, but in a full and complete way – perfectly, one might say.” [3]

Yeshua continues His sermon by referring to the least of the commandments, the righteousness of the Pharisees and the Kingdom of heaven.

19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

What exactly is Yeshua referring to by “least of these commandments”? Neither the Jews nor the Scriptures categorized the commandments in the Torah into categories (i.e. moral, civil, and ceremonial) as many believers like to do today. This artificial idea comes from a Greek mindset where this method of thinking is inclined to separate and categorize ideas. The Jews on the other hand viewed the Torah as a whole or as one singular commandment (cf. Rom 7:8-12). They distinguished the commandments, however, by raking the commandments in a hierarchical structure from light to heavy or least to greatest [4]. For example, life and justice are considered weightier commandments in the Torah than tithing. Therefore, according to Yeshua, if one wants to be considered great in the Kingdom, the lightest of commandments should not be overlooked but in fact be kept. This would imply then that He is not giving any new Laws or ideas here. He is stressing the importance of all of the commandments, even the least of them in the life of His followers. This fits with His previous statement that not the least part of the Torah should ever pass away.

What does it mean to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees? Just as the verb “fulfill” was active, the verb tense for “surpass” is not passive, but active. This refutes the belief that passively receiving the life and righteousness of Messiah is how one is to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. Clearly this means it is an action that believers are to perform. To “surpass” (perisseuo) means to “excel abundantly” or “to be present in abundance". The REB translation puts it best, “I tell you, unless you show yourselves far better then the scribes and Pharisees, you can never enter the kingdom of Heaven.” It is important to note that if members of the Kingdom are to show themselves “far better” then the Pharisees who considered the Torah as a rule of living, then this would indicate that the members of the Kingdom should do more then the Pharisees and not less. In other words, rather than doing less of the commandments (only keeping the “moral” commandments for example), believers should be keeping all of the Torah better than the Pharisees in order to surpass them. This idea can hardly fit with the understanding that for Yeshua to “fulfill” the Torah His followers are no longer responsible for keeping the Torah for how will one be able to surpass the Pharisees?

What then is the connection between the Pharisees and believers keeping the least of the commandments? The answer to this can be found by understanding the objections Yeshua had with the Pharisees [5]. According to Matthew 23, the Pharisees were especially good at keeping the least of the commandments (in this case tithing) but overlooked the heavier commandments of the Torah:

23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Torah: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Matthew 23:23-24

Mint, dill, and cummin were insignificant garden herbs that the Torah did not obligate them to tithe. However, since they were very strict in keeping the Torah, they went beyond what was required of them to assure their righteousness in fulfilling the commandment. It is important to note that Yeshua in no way discourages them from practicing this tithe (a lighter commandment) but tells them that they should observe it without neglecting the other heavier matters of the Torah. He continues to rebuke them for displaying their righteousness outwardly to men but not inwardly to God:

25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28 "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:25-28

Therefore, if one wants to be a follower of Yeshua and enter into the kingdom of heaven, they will have to do more than just merely keep the outward display of least of the commandments before men. To surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees cannot in any way eliminate the performance of Torah but to pursue all the commandments, both light and heavy, with a pure and whole heart towards God.

On a side note, there are those that may agree with this understanding of “fulfill” but may still object to applying the Torah to believers today. They claim that this sermon only applies to the Jewish audience Yeshua is speaking to and not to Gentiles or that this standard of living changed after the resurrection of Yeshua and the work of the Spirit at Pentecost. There are two major problems with this view point. First, this passage gives the condition of entering and not entering the Kingdom of Heaven which certainly applies to those after the resurrection. Second, this view would directly contradict the Great Commission Yeshua gave to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20:

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

Clearly this view does not hold any water.

In summery, Yeshua in no way came to do way with the Torah, He in fact came to keep it and teach it as it is properly intended. Not the smallest part of the Torah will ever pass away until everything in it is completed which has yet to happen. Whoever neglects the smallest of the commandments of the Torah and teaches others to do the same is will be considered smallest in the Kingdom. Whoever keeps the smallest commandments of the Torah and teach others to keep them will be considered great in the Kingdom. However, unless one’s pursuit of righteousness reaches beyond those that neglect the greater commandments by only performing outwardly the least of the commandments before men (the Pharisees), one cannot be part of the Kingdom. Yeshua in no way shape or form came to bring a new law, new religion, or new way of living. He neither came to fulfill some of the Torah so that His followers only needed to keep only certain commandments. He came to teach and to set an example of how one is to carry out the Torah of God as it was intended.

In Part 2 we will further study the rest of Yeshua’s sermon to refute the notion that His teachings were intended to be a “new standard” of living that replaced the “old standard”. I will do this by examining what he taught and how He taught in comparison to the Teachers of the Torah in His day.

Notes:
1 http://www.biblestudytools.net/Lexicons/NewTestamentGreek/
An example of this kataluo used in reference to overthrowing or replacing institutions and laws can be found in 2 Maccabees 2:22:
“And recovered the temple famous throughout the world and freed the city and restored the laws that were about to be abolished, while the Lord with great kindness became gracious to them.”
2 Jesus Through Jewish Eyes: A Rabbi Examines The Life And Teachings Of Jesus By Rabbi John Fischer
3 Tim Hegg Yeshua’s View of the Torah, Some Preliminary Questions & Answers pg 7
4 An example of this distinction of commandments is found in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate ‘Avoth, Ch 2.1 “Be as careful of keeping a light commandment as a heavy commandment because you do not know the reward given for the keeping of commandments”
5 It is important to remember that Yeshua did not condemn the Pharisees as a whole, but only those that were not acting in accordance with the Torah. It may have been that Yeshua was a Pharisee Himself. It is also important to realize that the rebukes in Matthew 23 to the Pharisees were not so uncommon in Judaism. There are examples in the Talmud of Rabbis saying similar or even worse criticisms to those of their own number, such as "sore spots" and "plagues" and "destroyers of the world" (Berakot 14b; Hagigah 14a; Sotah 3.4)

Creationism, The Council of Europe, and Ben Stein’s movie “Expelled” (Video)

“With me, the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind...?"
-Charles Darwin [1]



Youtube link

For more info on the upcoming movie go to http://www.expelledthemovie.com/

The following blog post from James White's website fits well what Ben Stein is talking about:

10/10/2007
James R. White
We saw just recently that the Council of Europe (part of the EU) put forward document 11375 (17/9/2007 -- in European date order, which makes more sense, in this case, than the standard US format) titled "The dangers of creationism in education." The document can be found here. There is no room for debate, no room for discussion or dispute, as the document begins with its summary, "Creationism in any of its forms, such as 'intelligent design', is not based on facts, does not use any scientific reasoning and its contents are definitely inappropriate for science classes." Well there you go! That settles it! Just as Rome attempted to silence criticism of its own misunderstandings centuries ago in Europe, no one seems to have learned a thing during the intervening centuries. While once it was religious bigotry that stifled the very ability of man to speak and debate and argue and disagree, now the secularist bigots have taken control, and they are just as intent upon stifling free speech and the expression of opposing viewpoints as ever their religious ancestors did. Dogmatically committed to Darwinism with a fervor of faith beyond almost anything known today in European "Christianity," the Secular Kingdom of Europe has firmly established its credentials as hating God's law, hating God's Word, and hating God's truth. You will love homosexuality, abortion, and everything else that eats at the soul of man, or you will be an outcast, and feel the brunt of the heel of the kingdom's boot. Of course, secularist Europe cannot withstand the onslaught of Islam, for the secularist is concerned only about himself or herself, and hence simply does not reproduce. So this monument to man's hatred of God will be washed away in short order by the natural reproduction rates of the immigrant Islamic populations, and the work of persecuting Christians, begun by the secularist regimes, will fall to those with far more experience in that field.

There are so many contradictions and absurdities in the Council of Europe document that it takes one's breath away. It is a monument to dogmatic secularistic fundamentalism. It does not even show a passing familiarity with the key issues in the debate, but, how could it? Darwinists do not want their theory debated. They want it obeyed. Period.

[1] The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin Including an Autobiographical Chapter, ed. Francis Darwin (London: John Murray, Albermarle Street, 1887), Volume 1, pp. 315-316.

What is so OLD about the old covenant?

“Apart from the Spirit of God, the Torah is only letters without life-giving power. But when the Spirit writes the Torah upon the heart, those same letters reveal Yeshua, and through faith bring life. The Spirit does not act independently of the letter. On the contrary, the Scriptures are His primary tool to birth the soul to life in Messiah.”
-Tim Hegg

In my last essay, I explained what was so “new” in the new covenant. The new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34 is not a new covenant because Israel’s responsibilities are new; but instead, because of God’s new promises, all of Israel will have a new and different response – faith and obedience. The newness isn’t in Israel’s responsibilities, but in her response. Thus, because her responsibilities are not new, but renewed in the heart, the covenant should be understood as a “renewed covenant”. This new covenant predicts a time when God will cause all of Israel to be: 1) gathered together as one nation 2) faithful to His covenant 3) forgiven through faith in Messiah and thus “all of Israel will be saved”. However, I briefly touched on the idea that individual believers in every generation can enter in as members of the new covenant by being first-fruits of the future harvest of Israel. Because this is the new covenant, one should ask, “What was the old covenant”? To answer this question, it is best to visit the parts of Scripture that speak about the old covenant. Remarkably, the phase “old covenant” is only found once in all of Scripture – 2 Corinthians 3:14. Let’s examine this chapter to find what exactly is so “old” about the old covenant.

Context of the letter of 2 Corinthians

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, his primary purpose for writing is to defend his ministry. Apparently, there were those at Corinth who had attacked and challenged his ministry and were questioning his credentials to be a qualified apostle. This was probably due to the fact that he was very successful in bringing Gentiles to faith in Messiah. It is in the third chapter of this letter that Paul compares the ministry of old covenant with his ministry of the new covenant.

2 Corinthians 3

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.

Those who were against Paul’s ministry may have been trying to discredit his ministry by claiming that he didn’t have letters of recommendation to validate his ministry. Here, Paul uses imagery of letters written on hearts rather than letters written with ink. The proof of his ministry is in the changed lives to whom he ministered. They went from idolatry to serve the one and true living God. Paul and his readers can be confident in the legitimacy of his ministry because of the Corinthians’ changed lives. Notice the connection when he is contrasting ink and the tablets of stone with the Spirit and tablets of human hearts. Ink is what man uses to write with, while the Spirit is what God uses to write with. The “tablets of stone” is where God wrote the Torah the first time at Mt. Sinai and “tablets of human hearts” is where God writes the Torah the second time in the renewed covenant.

5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as {coming} from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate {as} servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

What exactly does Paul mean by, “not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”? Is he saying that the Torah (letter) is opposed to the Spirit of life? Not at all! Remember the new covenant is the Spirit writing the Torah on the heart that produces obedience. What exactly then is the letter that kills? The letter is the Torah written externally on “tablets of stone” without being written internally on “tablets of hearts” by the Spirit of God. When a person attempts to keep Torah (write with ink) without the Spirit, it can only result in condemnation (kills), for without the Sprit, obedience is impossible (Romans 8:4-8). God is able to make Paul an adequate servant of the new covenant because it is God who writes on the heart.

7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading {as} it was [literally: being made ineffective], 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

Here Paul says that the ministry of death and condemnation are the letters written on stones. He is certainly referring to the Torah God gave to Moses on Mt Sinai, for the Ten Commandments (the summery of Torah) was written with the finger of God on stones. However, by emphasizing that the Torah were “letters engraved on stones,” Paul is not saying that the Torah itself is the ministry of death, but instead, the Torah written externally (only written on stone) is the ministry of death. The ministry that brings righteousness (and life) is the ministry of the Spirit (writing the Torah on the heart). The glory of the face of Moses is referring to the time when Moses’ face was radiant with glory (because he was speaking with the Lord) as he came off the mountain with the two (stone) tablets (Exodus 34:29-35). After Moses would speak to the people about everything the Lord had commanded, he would put a veil over his face to hide the light (or glory) on his face until he would enter the Lord’s presence. Some translations use the word “fading” to translate the Greek word katargeo, here in verse 7 (and in 11, 13 and 14), but this is a poor translation [1]. Katargeo means “to render ineffective,” “to annul,” “to do away with,” but it never means, “to pass or fade away” [2]. This is important to Paul’s point; it is because of the veil that was put over Moses face that this glory is made “ineffective”.

10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses {it.} 11 For if that which fades away [literally: being made ineffective] {was} with glory, much more that which remains {is} in glory.

Paul is continuing to use his rabbinic argument, “minor to major” (kal va-khomer) to teach that the ministry of righteousness surpasses the glory of the ministry of death. Why does the ministry of righteousness surpass the ministry of death? This is because, as we will see later, the glory in the ministry of the Spirit remains and is not hidden by a veil (unlike the glory on Moses’ face).

12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in {our} speech, 13 and {are} not like Moses, {who} used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end [or goal] of what was fading away [literally: being made ineffective].

Why does Paul have hope and uses great boldness of speech in verse 12? Because, unlike Moses’ ministry, his ministry does not hide the glory of the Torah with a veil in order to make the goal [3] of the Torah ineffective. What then is the goal and glory of the Torah? It is the Messiah Himself who is the image of God [4]. By Moses putting a veil over his face, we are to learn that the purpose and glory of the Torah, which is the Messiah, was made ineffective to Moses’ listeners and therefore his ministry was a ministry of condemnation.

14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed [literally: being done away with] in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Now we arrive to the phrase “old covenant” that is only found here in the Scriptures. What is being read that he calls the “old covenant”? It is the Torah given to Moses. He makes this connection in verse 15 when he said, “whenever Moses is read”. Someone might argue, “Well there you have it, you just admitted that the old covenant is the Torah and that it is a ministry of death, therefore we don’t need to keep Torah”. However, that would be an incorrect conclusion. In order to get a proper meaning of the phrase “old covenant”, it would be best to find out what it means in light of the point of Moses putting a veil over his face and its connection with “their minds were hardened”. It is important to see that verse 14 and verses 15 and 16 are saying the same thing but in different ways. Notice the parallel statements between vs. 14 and vs. 15-16:

Verse 14	Verses 15-16
“their minds were hardened…the same veil remains unlifted”	“a veil lies over their heart”
“until this very day”	“But to this day”
“at the reading of the old covenant”	“whenever Moses is read”
“because it is removed in Christ”	“whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away”

What can we conclude from this? The reading of the old covenant in verse 14 refers to reading the Torah with a veil and thus reading the Torah without seeing the glory of Messiah. The only time that the phrase “old covenant” is used in scripture is used in connection with reading the Torah (the letters) without Messiah (without the Spirit). Remember, Paul is contrasting the new covenant ministry is with the old covenant ministry. Paul described his new covenant ministry in verse 6 by writing: “[God] who also made us adequate {as} servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”. If the new covenant describes the covenant in which one has a renewed life empowered by the Spirit of God writing on the heart (i.e. regeneration), what is the old covenant? It must describe life in the covenant before the Spirit writes on the heart. That is, the old covenant describes the Torah being obeyed without Messiah and thus obeyed in one’s own strength (i.e. unregenerate person). This is why Paul uses the word “old” to describe the covenant in vs. 14. In all of his letters, Paul uses the word “old” primarily to mean the “old self,” that is, the life before faith in the Messiah. Here are a few examples in which he contrasts “old” and “new” [5]:

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

1 Corinthians 5:7-8 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.

Colossians 3:9-10 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

Notice that “old” doesn’t refer to one’s responsibilities or certain commandments in a past dispensation that no longer apply for believers today. Instead, “old” refers to the unregenerate one. It refers to one’s evil inclinations and disobedience. Similarly, the old covenant doesn’t describe a body of scriptures (Torah) that do not apply for believers. Paul himself teaches in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." There is no doubt that the Torah is included in this body of scripture [6]. The phrase “old covenant” instead describes the covenant made at Sinai the way God described it in Jeremiah 31:32 – “a covenant in which they broke.” That is, “old covenant” describes the old and disobedient response to the covenant made at Sinai [7]. Therefore, when one reads the Torah (the covenant made at Sinai) without the gift of faith, having the glory of Messiah hidden by the veil over one’s heart, the Torah functions as an “old covenant” to him. However, when one reads the same Torah with the gift of faith and with the veil removed having the glory of the Messiah shine forth, it is a “new covenant” to him.

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, {there} is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

What is this liberty that the Spirit brings? Some have said it is freedom from the Torah, which it no longer needs to be obeyed. However, that is not what the passage says. This liberty is freedom from the veil to see the glory of Messiah, thus being set free from the old man, sin, condemnation, and death. The believer is now free to love God with his heart and obey His commandments and the result – being transformed into the image of the Messiah from glory to glory.

4:1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, 2 but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
Paul continues his message about the ministries of death and life that he began in 2 Corinthians 2:15-3:1. Because he has received this ministry of life (the new covenant) by the mercy of God, he does not corrupt the word of God by using deceitfulness and craftiness to bring others to his ministry, unlike his accusers. The success of his ministry is measured not by man’s carnal judgment, but the clear presentation of the truth to man’s conscience in the site of God.

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The imagery of the veil has applied to Moses, to the glory, and to the Lord Messiah. Now it is applied to the Gospel. The unbelieving perish not as a result of Paul’s ministry, but because the god of this world blinds them from the light of the Gospel. Here, Paul plainly states that the light and the glory is in fact the Messiah.

5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Paul again emphasizes that he is only a servant and that it is not for his glory that he seeks to gain, but his master’s, Yeshua Messiah. It is God alone who has removed the darkness (old covenant) and caused the light of Messiah to shine in their hearts (new covenant). It is in beholding the face of Messiah unveiled that forgiveness, righteousness, and the glory of God can only be found.

Conclusion

So, what is so “old” about the old covenant? It’s the old nature and response to God and to His Covenant. It’s life without Messiah and God’s forgiveness. It’s the Torah written on stone and not on the heart. It’s the response of disobedience and faithlessness. It’s the punishment of condemnation and death. It’s to live life veiled without the glory and righteousness of Messiah. Therefore, the newness in the new covenant is the new nature and the response to God and His covenant. It’s life with Messiah and with God’s forgiveness. It’s the Torah written on the heart. It’s the response of obedience and faithfulness. It is the reward of righteousness and life. It’s to live life unveiled, beholding the glory of Messiah. “For the “old’ and “new” are not time-bound, they are faith-bound.”[8] It is in this way that every believer, both Jew and Gentile, in every generation becomes the first-fruits of the future harvest of Israel, when King Yeshua will rule over all His people in the Land under a united kingdom of God and all His people will know Him from the least to the greatest of them [9].

Notes
1 Nowhere in Exodus 34:29-35 is the idea that the glory of Moses’ face faded away.
2 Nowhere else in the Apostolic Writings is katargeo used to mean fading. Luke 13:7; Rom 3:3; 3:31; Rom. 4:14; Rom. 6:6; Rom. 7:2; Rom 7:6; 1 Cr. 1:28; 2:6; 6:13; 13:8, 10, 11; 15:24, 26; Gal. 3:17; 5:4, 11; Eph. 2:15; 2 Th. 2:8; 2 Ti. 1:10
3 Here the Greek word for "end" is telos and should be understood as goal, aim, or purpose as also seen in Romans 10:4. This is where we get the words "telephone" and "telegraph".
4 2 Corinthians 4:4; Romans 10:4
5 All other times Paul uses the term “old”: Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22-24
6 One should note that every usage of the term “scripture” used by Paul (and the other disciples) is always used to refer to the Hebrew Scriptures (Romans 4:3; 9:17; 10:11; 11:2, Galatians 3:8, 22; 4:30; 1 Timothy 5:18).
7 Moses also describes the “old covenant” in Deuteronomy 29:3-4; 31:16-18. Notice to connection with their disobedience and the LORD hiding His face (Glory).
8 Tim Hegg The Letter Writer: Paul’s background and Torah Perspective pg 252
9 Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:24-28; 37:21-28

A special thanks to my friend Ryan in his help in editing this essay

What is so NEW about the New Covenant?

“We are under the New Covenant, to keep the Law is to go back under the Old Covenant”

“Jesus included some of the commands from the Old Covenant in the New Covenant. That is a far cry from saying that we are still commanded to obey the whole Law of Moses.”

The above quotes were taken from arguments given to me from other believers as to why believers today should no longer obey the Torah (God’s Law or instructions). These quotes at one time also reflected my past attitude of Old Covenant vs. New Covenant. Whenever the subject of Old vs. New would come up, I had always just assumed this to be the case without ever questioning or examining this assumption. This was mainly due to the fact of how the Scriptures are divided into two sections (Old and New) and the popularity of this teaching in the Church today. In this essay I wish to examine the common presuppositions concerning the New Covenant to see if they match up with what the Scriptures actually teach. Does the New Covenant free believers from obeying the Torah? What are the responsibilities of those in the New Covenant? To whom does the New Covenant apply? When does the New Covenant begin? And most importantly, what is so “New” about the New Covenant?

What is and is not a Covenant?

Before plunging into the newness of the New Covenant, it is best to briefly revisit what is a covenant. A covenant is a legal agreement between two or more parties that includes a contract that defines the relationship between the associated parties. The contract specifies any privileges, terms, conditions, and responsibilities of the covenant relationship. An example of a covenant is a Jewish marriage. The covenant of marriage between husband and wife is that they will both love one anther and be faithful to one another. The contract that states the terms and conditions of the relationship of both the husband the wife is called a Ketubah. The Ketubah, for example, specifies that the husband is responsible to provide food, clothing and marital relations to his wife. The Ketubah is not the covenant itself but part of the covenant that defines the responsibilities in order to maintain the covenant relationship. In the same way, the Torah (God’s Law) is not the covenant of Moses. The Torah gives the terms and conditions of the covenant of Moses but is not the covenant itself. The covenant of Moses is found in Exodus 19:3-6 which basically says that if Israel obeys God’s Torah, then they will be a Holy nation unto Him (He will be their God, they will be His people). Moses then brings this covenant to the people in verses 7-8 and they accept this covenant. Then God proceeds to give Moses the Torah starting with the Ten Commandments in chapter 20. It is important to keep in mind that this is a covenant made with a nation, not with individuals.

Seeing that a covenant is a legal agreement, it should be mentioned that it is NOT a collection of the books of the Scriptures. The division of the Scriptures of “Old Testament” (testament a Latin term for covenant) and “New Testament” is a man made division and not a Biblical one. The Scriptures started with the Torah (books of Moses), then came the writings and the prophets and finally the Gospels and Apostolic writings. At what point did the Scriptures themselves become a covenant? The Scriptures contain covenants but are not the covenants themselves. From this point on the “Old Testament” will be referred to as the Hebrew Scriptures and the “New Testament” as the Greek Scriptures.

The Context of the New Covenant

The only place the phrase “New Covenant” is mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures is the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31. Let’s take a look at the context of this passage. The book of Jeremiah is about a prophet that was sent to the people of God (Judah) to proclaim to them that they have been unfaithful with the covenant they made with their God. As a result, they were to experience the curses of the covenant (Deu 28:15-68) and that God is sending a nation against them to destroy their city and lead them to exile from the land. However, in this book, Jeremiah gives the people hope of a time of restoration in the last days. In chapters 30-33 God expresses His love for His people and says that He will restore both Israel and Judah back to the land and will cause them to be a faithful nation so that He may bless them. This is the context in which Jeremiah is proclaiming the future “New Covenant” in chapter 31.

31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD,"I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

What is the New Covenant?

In verse 31 the Lord says He is going to make a New Covenant. It is interesting to find that the word “new” in Hebrew does not necessarily mean brand new as in never existed before. The word is chadash which could also mean “renew” as in Laminations 5:21, “Restore us to You, O LORD, that we may be restored; Renew our days as of old.” In the Septuagint and almost every place in the Greek Scriptures [1] that the phrase “new covenant” is used, the Greek word for “new” is kainos meaning “new” as in respect to quality (as in renewed) not time (brand new), which would be the Greek word neos. This means that the Apostles understood the New Covenant as a Renewed Covenant. It is really the same as the previous covenant, but being upgraded like upgrading previous existing software. Who, according to this verse, is this Renewed Covenant made with? It is with the “house of Israel and with the house of Judah”. (Notice it says nothing about the Gentiles, but more on that later). Remember that after King Solomon’s rule, the nation of Israel split into two kingdoms, Israel to the north and Judah to the south.

Verse 32 begins to compare the renewed covenant with the previous covenant made with their fathers, which is the Mosaic Covenant. God says that the renewed covenant will not be like the Mosaic Covenant in what way? The Mosaic Covenant is described as, “My covenant which they broke”. This is important to keep this in mind as God further describes the renewed covenant and its impact on the people. Also, notice that it says, “Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt”. It was with their fathers (the Jews) that came out of Egypt that He made the covenant with. Therefore it cannot be said that the receivers of the renewed covenant are a “new Israel”, the Church or any other kind of replacement people.

Next, verse 33 goes on to say, “‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the LORD”. What happened to the house of Judah? What is God trying to communicate by leaving out Judah? By leaving out Judah, God is describing the time when He will bring back His people to the land and once again the two nations (Israel and Judah) will be one nation reunited again. (Ezekiel also prophesies of this time of restoration in the giving of the Spirit in 36:22-32 and when the Messiah is to come (or return) to rule over the people in the Land in 37:15-28.) So, what are the responsibilities of God and the nation of Israel in this covenant? “I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Amazing, God is going to write His Torah on their hearts! Is this some “new” Torah that He is going to write? According to the text, it is not a new Torah. It is the same Torah He gave to Moses on the mountain. This means that the renewed covenant is characterized by His Torah. Someone might ask, “Then how is this any different than the Mosaic covenant if it is the same Torah?” It is different because in the Mosaic covenant the Torah was written on stone, but in the renewed covenant the Torah is written on the heart. In order to understand the significance of writing the Torah on the heart, one must first understand Hebrew concept of the function of the heart. To the Hebrew, the heart is were the moral decisions of right and wrong take place. It is the very conscience of a person. Thus, by writing the Torah on the heart, all of the decisions of a person are filtered through the Torah. “Thus, when Jeremiah promises a ‘new covenant’ with Israel in which the Torah is written on the heart, he prophesies that the nation as a whole would one day live out the righteousness of the Torah. Surely it was this thought that Paul had in mind as he looked forward to the time when ‘all Israel will be saved’.”[2] That is why He goes on to say, “…and I will be their God, and they shall be My people”. [3] That will be the first time in Israel’s history when not just a remnant is faithful and obedient to God’s covenant (Rom 11:5), but the nation as a whole and thus as a nation will receive the full benefits of the covenant promises.

The national revival of Israel in Jeremiah’s prophecy is further demonstrated in verse 34. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD”. What does it mean that all of Israel will “know” the Lord? Is this some theological knowledge about the Lord? The Hebrew word for “know” has a connotation of a unique relationship as in Genesis 4:1, “Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain”. The meaning of “to know” as a covenant relationship fits the context for He said previously “…I was a husband to them," declares the LORD”. Yeshua uses the word “know” in the same fashion, “And the I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matt 7:23) “Therefore, when we hear Jeremiah saying that no one will need to teach the nation of Israel, saying “know the Lord,” we should understand this to mean that no one will have to urge Israel to be loyal in a covenant sense to the Lord, for everyone will “know” Him, that is, be faithful to Him in covenant relationship, from the least to the greatest.”[4] By God writing the Torah upon the heart and thus causing Israel to be faithful to the covenant, God will be able to bless Israel with all of the blessings of the covenant (Deu 28:1-14).

When Israel as a nation is living out the Torah, she will certainly receive Yeshua as Messiah because the goal and aim of the Torah is to lead people to the Messiah.[5] That is why it says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more”. This will fulfill the words spoken by the angle to Joseph, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins."[6] This is what Yeshua meant at the Last Supper when He took the wine and declared, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood,” “which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins”.[7] Forgiveness of sins can only be found in the redemptive work of the Messiah.

Someone may be thinking, “If the new covenant concerns the nation of Israel in the future, are not we as believers’ part of the new covenant now?” Yes we are. This is possible because we have been made the first-fruits of the final harvest of Israel. God has certainly put is Torah in our hearts, has given us His Spirit, and has forgiven our sins. Therefore we have entered in as members of the new covenant.[8] There has always been in every generation a remnant chosen by grace that has been faithful to God. They have been members of the new covenant that have walked in the ways of God. However the fullness of the new covenant will come at a time when God will unite the house of Israel and Judah and will all be faithful to God and His Torah. The new covenant is simply a national expression of what each redeemed individual has experienced.

Conclusion

What have we learned by looking closely at Jeremiah 31? Let’s go back and try to answer the original questions from the beginning.

Does the New Covenant free believers from obeying the Torah?
No, it does not. The New covenant is actually characterized by the Torah when God writes it on the heart. It is this action that enables new covenant members to be obedient and faithful to God and His Torah.

What are the responsibilities of those in the New Covenant?
The only responsibly that is mentioned in the new covenant is God’s responsibility to place the Torah in the heart of His people. The responsibilities of man are still the same, to be faithful to the covenant by keeping the commandments of the Torah.

To whom does the New Covenant apply?
The primary focus of the New Covenant concerns the nation of Israel when God will reunite both the house of Israel and the house of Judah into one nation. However, all those that believe in the Messiah are able to enter in as first-fruits of the new covenant.

When does the New Covenant begin?
The fullness of the new covenant has not yet arrived, it is yet to happen. However, in every generation God has chosen a remnant to receive the benefits of the new covenant through faith. Therefore this covenant is not time bound. Abraham, Moses, David and others that lived before the death of Yeshua had the Torah written on the heart, had the Spirit of God, and had their sins forgiven just as those who have lived after His death. [9]

What is so “New” about the New Covenant?
The new covenant is the work of God by the Spirit that will cause the whole nation Israel, for the first time in History, to be faithful to the covenant made God at Mt Sinai by writing the Torah on the heart. The whole nation of Israel will receive Yeshua as Messiah and as a result, they will all have their sins forgiven. So, the newness of the new covenant is not a new Torah or a putting away of Torah, but it is a renewed heart and a renewed spirit in the nation of Israel.

Notes
1 The only exception to this is in Hebrews 12:24. I'm not sure at this time exactly why the author would use a different word for "new" here.
2 Tim Hegg The Letter Writer: Paul’s background and Torah Perspective pg 240
3 Jeremiah 24:7; 32:38; Ezekiel 11:20; 34:30; 37:23, 27; Zechariah 8:8
4 Tim Hegg The Letter Writer: Paul’s background and Torah Perspective pg 242
5 Galatians 3:24; Romans 10:4 Here the Greek word for “end” is telos and should be understood as goal, aim, or purpose. This is where we get the words “telephone” and “telegraph”.
6 Matthew 1:21
7 Luke 22:20; Matthew 26:28; cp. Mark 14:24
8 For a more thorough discussion on this, please read my next blog “What is so “Old” about the Old Covenant?”
9 One cannot have faith in God without the Spirit of God (Rom 8:14-17). Paul gives Abraham and David as examples of how one is justified by faith. Hebrews 11 gives plenty of examples of people living before Yeshua that lived by faith. David said that the Torah was written on his heart (Ps 40:8) and that he delighted in the Torah of God (Ps 119). This would have been impossible to do without the Spirit of God (Rom 8:5-9).

The History of Christianity’s journey away from Torah Pt. 3

“Restore us to You, O LORD, that we may be restored; Renew our days as of old.” Laminations 5:21

This will be the final post of D. Thomas Lancaster’s book Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus in his chapter called “Our Journey away from Torah”. For the sake of being honest and accurate, it was brought to my attention that in part 2 the Ignatius quote was taken not from Ignatius, but actually from a corruption of one of his letters, Pseudo-Ignatius. From what I can understand, in Ignatius’s letter to the Magnesians, he was not prohibiting other believers from keeping the Sabbath per se, just warning them not to do it in the same manner as the Jews that he knew of.

In part 2, Lancaster left off of how the Roman authority in the Middle Ages had a tight grip on the people by not allowing them to read the Scriptures for themselves and how the church was violent towards to Jewish people. In the last section we will see the influence the reformation and the Holocaust contributed to the Hebrew Roots movement.

OUR JOURNEY AWAY FROM TORAH

THE REFORMATION

Almost 500 years ago, the return form exile began. I want to take you back there for a moment. Imagine yourself in Germany, a German Christian, in the year 1517. When you attended church, you go in to a beautiful building with high stone spires and vaulted ceilings, stained glass and marble, candlelit masses, monks chanting in Latin, a priest to hear your confession, another priest to sing the mass, incense and votives, Mary, the baby Jesus, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Ann, and the Holy Father in Rome. The masses are inspiring. The architecture is captivating. The Liturgy is lofty, high and holy. We have come a long way from the simple, first-century sect of Judaism that proclaimed the man from Nazareth to be resurrected from the dead.

But there are some things amiss here. The mass proclaiming the mystery of Christ is beautiful – but you can’t understand a word of it, unless you have a university education and can speak Latin, which isn’t likely. The pictures of the Madonna, the Christ Child, Saint Peter and Saint Paul are as much of the Scripture as you are likely to really know because there is not Bible available for the common person. Bibles are all written in Latin, and the laity is forbidden to possess a copy.

When you go to the priest to say your confession, there is a charge. You are expected to pay for forgiveness. For and extra donation you can buy grace for dead relatives to release them from torment faster. Relief sculptures, mocking and ridiculing the Jewish people, are carved right into the architecture of the church. This is what you know about the Jews. Utter contempt and utter distain.

But listen to that pounding sound.

Outside the door, someone is standing on a ladder. He is nailing something to the door. It is the year 1517, the year Martin Luther, a disillusioned Augustine monk from the Black Monastery in Erfert, nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg.

If you take the time to read his Ninety-five Theses, it may surprise you to discover how benign it is. This is not a list of radical reforms that Luther sought to impose on the church. It is not a statement against the authority of the papacy or Rome, an indictment of images or the worship of saints. It does not call into question the theology of worshipping Mary as the mother of God. It is not very radical at all. It is continuous sustained argument against the selling of indulgences – that is, charging people for grace and forgiveness.

But it was enough. Someone had dared to question the authority of the church to impose its own man-made rituals and doctrines. Someone had dared to say, “Hey, wait a second. That’s not in the Bible. That’s not part of the original Christian Faith.”

Once that point had been made, there was no way to stop the inevitable. Thanks to Gutenberg, it was not long before Bibles were being printed in common languages so that anyone who wanted could read what was written. The average person could read and understand the stories in the Gospels, the words of the Master, the words of Paul, and the whole of the Scriptures. We call it the Protestant Reformation.

But did Luther go far enough? Clearly the myriad daughter denominations of the Protestant Reformation do not think so. Each subsequent Protestant movement has contributed its own set of further reforms. Ostensibly, each reform is an attempt to reach further back to the original first-century church of Yeshua and His disciples.

The effort to return to the first-century church is praiseworthy. It comes from a desire to conform our lives and congregations to the authority of the Word of God. The motives of these reformers were pure and good. Their methodology, however, has been flawed. An important piece of the puzzle is missing.

What the various Protestant reformers have failed to recognize about the first-century church is that she was Jewish. She was part of the first-century Judaism. Yeshua, the disciples, the first believers, the worship system, the Scriptures, the interpretation of the Scriptures, the teaching, the vernacular and even the very concepts of faith and grace, Messiah and God were all patently Jewish.

Any attempt at church reformation, any attempt to return to the original New Testament Church falls short as long as it refuses to acknowledge the essential Jewishness of our faith.

Why did the Protestant Reformation stop where it did? If it was really all about throwing out the umbilical church traditions that had tainted Christianity, why did it retain the Roman calendar and Roman theologies? Why do Protestant churches still call Sunday the Sabbath and eat ham on Easter instead of unleavened bread on Passover?

It seems that during Luther’s lifetime, hopes were high in the Jewish community that the Protestant Reformation would put a stop to Christian persecution of the Jewish People. In fact, the opposite happened. Martin Luther issued an encyclical called Against the Sabbath Keepers and another one called Against the Judaizers. In these papers, he admonished Protestant Christians for keeping Sabbath and adopting Jewish customs. In 1543, Luther published On the Jews and Their Lies, in which he advocated burning down synagogues in every town and forcing Jews to convert or die.

What was the reason for his rage against the Jewish community? Most scholars agree that he was disappointed that Jews did not embrace Protestant Christianity. He had hoped the Jews would share his excitement over stripping back Roman Catholic tradition. When they did not respond with mass conversions, he turned against them. But another part of his ire arose from things that were happening within his own movement. The Protestants were reading their Bibles and concluding that authentic, biblical Christianity was indeed Jewish.

They were returning to Jewish practices, returned to Torah, keeping Sabbath and festivals. The result was even more bitter persecution by the reformers to try and stop the ‘Judaization’ of the Protestant movement.

It is true. The Renaissance Age boasted a strong Hebrew Roots movement.

As early as 1538, just 21 years after the Wittenberg door incident, Oswald Dlaidt and Andreas Fischer launched a radical return to the Hebrew roots of the faith from within the Anabaptist church of Moravia. Fischer translated Jewish liturgy out of the Hebrew for use in services and even went so far as to write a Christian Siddur, essentially a translation of the Jewish prayer book. Once again believers were praying the ancient blessings before eating and offering thanks after meals and praying the basic prayers of the Jewish expression. It was against these Moravian Hebrew Rooters that Luther wrote Against the Sabbath Keepers, which condemned Sabbath observance as sinful. By means of stiff resistance from Luther and persecution from the later Protestant world, the Moravian Torah movement was stopped.

A reformer by the name of Paul Fagius gave a historical interpretation of the New Testament by explaining the Lord’s Supper in the context of Passover and the sayings of Yeshua in the context of rabbinic literature. Luther and his associates labeled him a Judaizer. For Luther and his followers, refuting the radical reformation became synonymous with rejecting Judaizers. The reformation was spinning out of control and, in some places, rapidly returning to Jewish form and practice.

Wherever the Bible was read without theological manipulation, believers were returning to Torah. In the end, however, the Protestants largely prevailed. The return to Torah was stifled. The Gospel would remain in exile. The time was not yet ripe. Several more centuries would pass before the momentum returned.

END OF THE EXILE

Form 1938 to 1945, the Jewish people endured a seven-year great tribulation, the culmination of the horrors of exile. The long years of persecution reached a demonic crescendo. Blackness. Utter despair. Ruin in the face of naked evil. Six million dead. Yet the people of Israel lived.

As the world emerged from the travails of World War II, stories of the Holocaust began to circulate. Slowly, the realization sank in. Christians all over the world began to understand what had happened. Theologians and churchmen were abashed to realize that their own religious prejudices and bigotry had contributed to the greatest human travesty of all time.

Though he was a self-proclaimed pagan, Hitler justified the genocide by pointing to Christian writings and Christian history. He even quoted Luther. “Whole libraries of books have been published which show how Hitler translated Luther’s ideas into action.”[11] Ashamed and mortified, Christian thinkers and theologians began to publicly swear off anti-Semitism. As part of that process, they reexamined old church theologies that had allowed for and even encouraged the historic brutalization of the Jewish people. Bible scholars began to reexamine the assumption that the church had replaced the Jewish people. They also reexamined the assumption that Jews are cursed by God and enemies of Christ. This process was the beginning of a renaissance in Christian thought and theology. A new breed of scholars emerged, willing to examine the organs of Christianity in light of Jewish sources. We are only now beginning to reap the harvest of post-Holocaust biblical research.

At the same time, two other remarkable events added momentum to the return to biblical Christianity. Sometime in late 1946 or early 1947, Muhammad edh-Dhib (“The Wolf”) and two of his cousins from the Ta’amirah Bedouin tribe were seeking a stray goat when they discovered the mouth to a cave near the Dead Sea. Throwing a stone into the cave, they heard the sound of breaking potter inside. They later returned to the cave and discovered several cay jars. Three of them contained ancient scrolls, including scrolls of the prophet Isaiah. At the time the boys did not understand the value of their find.

They had discovered what would come to be called the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls are an ancient library of biblical and Jewish religious literature dating from the day of the Apostles. They have revolutionized the way we understand first-century Judaism and the origins of Christianity.

In March of 1947, these Bedouin boys sold the scrolls of Kahil Iskander Shahin, a shoemaker in Bethlehem, presumably so that he might utilize the parchment in his trade. Kahil recognized that the documents were ancient and perhaps valuable. He sold four of them to mar Athanasius Samuel of St. Mark’s Monastery in Jerusalem. Professor Eleazar Sukenik of Hebrew University was allowed to see the scrolls and attempted to purchase them, but Mar Samuel did not want to sell the scrolls to the professor.

Sukenik disguised himself and made a secret trip to Arab Bethlehem to pay a visit to Kahil the shoemaker. On November 29, 1974, he purchased the remaining scrolls, one of which was a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Coincidentally, November 29, 1947, is the day the United Nations voted to partition Palestine and allow Israel statehood. On the same day, the ancient prophecies of Isaiah and the ancient land of Israel were retuned to Jewish hands. These two seemingly unrelated events have launched a revolution in the way we understand our faith and the way we understand the Bible.

The Jewish return to the land of Israel and the reestablishment of a Jewish state came as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. After those two events, it was no longer possible for Christians to dismiss the Jewish people. The ancient prophecies concerning Israel were coming true. Christian thinkers and theologians needed to reconsider the Israel question.

THE MONDERN JEWISH ROOTS MOVEMENT

The modern-day Jewish Roots movement is born out of an intersection of these things. The Holocaust, the formation of the State of Israel and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls all combined to spark a complete renaissance in the way the early Christianity is studied and understood. Through the work of Jewish Roots scholars, we are now able to read and understand the Gospel from its Jewish context for the first time since the days of the Apostles. The followers of Yeshua are returning to the ways of Torah. Believers are uncovering the original shape and form of the faith. It is a prophetic reawakening, coinciding with the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland.

The long exile of the Jewish people is at its end. In the same way, the long exile of the Gospel is at an end. Just as the Jewish people are returning to their native soil, we are returning the Gospel to its original matrix of the Torah of Moses.

More than three thousand years ago, Moses foresaw the time of restoration. “And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.” (Deuteronomy 30:8)

Works Cited
11 Weiner, Peter F., Martin Luther, Hitler’s Spiritual Ancestor, Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., London: New York: Melbourne: Sydney. Online version at www.tentmaker.org/books/MartinLuther-HitlersSpiritualAncestor.html#jews

The History of Christianity’s journey away from Torah Pt. 2

"As Christians, we are taught by our leaders to believe certain ideas and behave certain ways. We have a Bible, yes. But we are conditioned to read it with the lens handed to us by the Christian tradition to which we belong."
– Frank Viola Pagan Christianity Pg 26

In part 1 I posted the first half of a chapter in D. Thomas Lancaster’s Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus. There he mentioned how the Gospel was in exile along with the Jewish people being in exile from there Land. He then went on to say that the Apostles viewed their ministry as a sect within Judaism, not a separate religion. He finished with the history of the Jewish war and the ramifications it had on the Jews and Gentile believers. That was the beginning of the separation of the synagogue and the church. In part 2 he will take us to a brief history from the second century through the middle ages and how the Church grew further and further away from its Jewish roots.

OUR JOURNEY AWAY FROM TORAH

THE CHUCH FATHERS

We call the leaders of the generation of Gentile believers who lived through the Second Jewish Revolt the Church Fathers. They were godly men doing the best they could with the understanding they had. Unfortunately, their understanding of Torah was largely a misunderstanding. One of the Church Fathers, Ignatius, wrote an epistle to the congregations of Asia... He said to them,

Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness...But let every one of you keep the Sabbath in a spiritual manner...not in relaxation, not in eating things prepared the day before, not in finding delight in dancing and clapping which have no sense in them. [6]

What did he mean? Why did he have to prohibit second-century believers from keeping the Sabbath? He had to prohibit them because despite all the adversity, John's and Paul's congregations were still keeping the Sabbath.

In the same era, men like the author of the epistle of Barnabas arose. The epistle of Barnabas, is a known forgery that is alleged to be written by Barnabas, Paul’s traveling companion. It is actually a deeply misguided, anti-Semitic justification for replacement theology. The author of this pseudo-epistle describes the Jews as wretch men deluded by an evil angel (that is, the God of the Hebrews Scriptures) and abandoned by God. In the epistle of Barnabas, the laws of Torah are allegorized and Judaism is condemned.

It was in this era that we have the first record of Christians proselytizing Jews. There is a famous Christian-Jewish dialogue in the form of a polemic between a Hellenist Jew named Trypho and the Church Father Justin Martyr. It is a testament of how far the Roman believers had already divorced themselves from Judaism and even from the Scriptures. Justin Martyr explained to Trypho (and all the Jews) that the Torah was given to Jews as a punishment for their exceptional wickedness and because of God’s special hatred for the Jewish people. He said, “We, too, would observe your circumcision of the flesh, your Sabbath days and in a word all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you, namely, because of your sins and your hardness of heart.” Yet even Justin Martyr admitted that, in his day (153CE), there were believers who still practiced the laws of Torah, both Jewish and non-Jewish believers. These “weak-minded” brothers, he reluctantly conceded, were still saved, despite their foolish insistence on observing the laws of Moses.[7]

At the same time that men like Ignatius and Justin Martyr were holding their sway over the developing church, the believers saw the rise of the great heretic Marcion. He came sweeping through the church with his refined doctrine that the Jesus of the New Testament had had defeated and unseated the evil god of the Jews. Therefore, the Hebrew Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament) and any Jewish relics in the Christian faith needed to be expelled. He compiled the first version of the ‘New Testament.’ Marcion’s Bible consisted of portions of the book of Luke and ten of Paul’s epistles, which he edited to remove what he termed as “Jewish corruptions.” He discarded the rest of the books of the Apostles, as well as the entire Old Testament, on the basis of their Jewishness. Marcion’s anti-Jewish, anti-Torah version of Christianity caught on quickly. Though the Roman church denounced him as a heretic in 114CE, Marcionite churches, bishops and communities sprang up throughout the empire. Tertullian compared the Marcionites to “swarms of wasps building combs in imitation of the bees.”[8] He was wildly popular and stunningly influential, and his teachings remained deeply rooted–even after he was denounced for his heresies.

RESURRECTION SUNDAY

Meanwhile an annual remembrance of the resurrection of Messiah had emerged in Christian practice. It occurred every year on the Sunday that followed Passover. The Roman Christians called it Easter, an older name for a pagan Roman springtime festival. The Roman church ordered believers to quit reckoning Passover by the traditional Jewish method and to only keep this annual resurrection festival. It was a great controversy because the churches of Asia (the congregations of Paul and John) did not want to play ball with Roman authority. They wanted to keep Passover as they always had. But in the end the authority of Rome prevailed.

Part of the fallout of the controversy was that Sunday was elevated while all the biblical (i.e., Jewish) elements, festivals and days were eliminated. It became a Christian innovation to fast on the Sabbath and rejoice on Sunday as a weekly celebration of the annual Sunday resurrection festival. The Church began to celebrate Sunday as a weekly, mini-Roman, Easter.

CONSTANTINE AND NICEA

By the time Constantine converted to Christianity and declared it the official state religion, most of the Jewish elements were gone. Except for hold-out sects of Jewish believers like the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, the observance of Torah had been largely eliminated from the faith. Constantine made the divorce from Judaism final with the Council of Nicea (325 CE). His official policy regarding Torah observance is expressed in his words: “Let us have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish rabble.”[9] The decisions made at Nicea defined the course the church would take henceforth. Later church councils followed suit, and new legislations was introduced to forbid Christians from observing Torah. The Council of Antioch (341 CE) prohibited Christians from celebrating Passover with the Jews, while the Council of Laodicea (363 CE) forbade Christians from observing the biblical Sabbath. The edicts of these various councils make it clear that many believers were still, even in the fourth century, keeping Torah.

In the late fourth century, John Chrysostom delivered a series of sermons in Antioch against the Jews and against the Judaizers among the Christians. “Judaizer” is a term that the Church Fathers applied to anyone who practiced the laws of Torah. Chysostom’s sermons contained an abundance of hateful, anti-Jewish venom. He singled out the observance of Torah as a disease in Christianity.

What is this disease? The festivals of the pitiful and miserable Jews are soon to march upon us one after the other and in quick succession: the Feast of Trumpets, the Fest of Tabernacles, the fasts [i.e., the Day of Atonement]. There are many in our ranks who say they think as we do. Yet some of these are going to watch the festivals and others will join the Jews in keeping their feasts and observation their fasts. I wish to drive this perverse custom from the church right now…But now that the Jewish festivals are close by and at the very door, if I should fail to cure those who are sick with the Judaizing disease…[they] may partake in the Jews’ transgressions.”[10]

Chrysostom went on to denounce Christians who participated in the festivals, the Sabbath and the dietary laws. He rebuked them for attending the synagogue. In total, he delivered eight consecutive sermons on the subject, ample testimony that even in the fourth century many believers were still obedient to Torah. Yet in the end, the will of the Church Fathers prevailed, and the divorce between Christianity and the Torah of Moses was completed.

These things had been foreseen. The Master warned His disciples that, in the troubled times to come, “Many will fall away…False prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased…” (Matthew 24:10-12) Paul had warned the Ephesian elders that “after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among you your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:19-30) In writing to the Thessalonians, he warned them of an apostasy to come, an apostasy of Torahlessness: “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first…For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7)

As time went on, and the Dark Ages began, the Christian church turned violent toward the Jewish people. Synagogues and holy books were burned, whole communities were slaughtered. Jewish men and women were tortured – all in the name of Christ. The pages of church history are stained red with the spilled blood of the Jewish people.

The church tightened her grip on her own people by forbidding laity from possessing a copy of the Scriptures. The Holy Book was forbidden. A person caught with a coy of the Scriptures could be sentence to death. Like the Jewish people, the Gospel was truly in exile, lost among the nations.

A look ahead at the next installment:

• THE REFORMATION
• END OF THE EXILE
• THE MONDERN JEWISH ROOTS MOVEMENT
  

Works Cited
6 Pseudo-Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians
7 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 47. 8 Tertullian, Against Marcion, 4.5.
9 Eusebius, Life of Constantine, v. 3, c. 18-19.
10 Chrysostom, John, Against the Jews, Homily 1.5.

The History of Christianity’s journey away from Torah Pt. 1

“Christianity is merely a continuation of Judaism, not a replacement of it.”

The following is from a book I just recently read. It comes from the second chapter of a book written by D. Thomas Lancaster titled Restoration – Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus. I was originally going to write a similar essay on the History of Christianity, Judaism, and the Torah but he does a better job of telling it than I ever could. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is remotely interested in understanding the Torah from a Messianic perspective. I wish I would have read this book in my early studies of discovering the Jewish Roots of the faith; it would have made my journey much easier.

I broke up this chapter into several sections because of its length. It was too much for one post and I didn’t want it to discourage anyone from reading it because of its length. I hope and pray that you will read it in its entirety and perhaps begin to discover your Roots of the Faith.

OUR JOURNEY AWAY FROM TORAH

THE GOSPEL IN EXILE

The Jewish people have lived in exile since the age of the Apostles. So has the Gospel.

Like the Jewish people, the Gospel began in the land of Israel. Like the Jewish people, the Gospel spread out into every nation during times of great persecution. Like the Jewish people, the Gospel now resides among the nations of the Diaspora. It is as if the Gospel is in exile because, like the Jewish people, it has been removed from its context and disconnected from its point of origin. We Gentile Christians have in some ways misunderstood and misapplied the Gospel because we have been ignorant of the Jewish origin and Torah context of the Gospel.

These years of exile have been productive for both the Jewish people and the Gospel. Like the Jewish people in exile, the Gospel has flourished. Like the Jewish people in exile, it has entered every nation and every culture on the globe. Like the Jewish people in exile, the Gospel has impacted the entire world.

But the time in nigh for the exile to come to an end.

Moses foresaw a time of restoration. He foresaw a time when the people of Israel would return from exile and turn back to the commandments of God. “And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.” (Deuteronomy 30:8) One component of that restoration is certainly a return to the Gospel of Messiah. Now, at the culmination of the ages, Jews are returning to the land. They are returning to the Torah. In a similar way, they are retuning to the Gospel, and the Gospel itself is returning from exile. New Testament scholars are returning the Gospel to its Torah context and reconnecting it with its Jewish origins. Let me explain what I mean.

In the days of the Apostles, Christianity was not yet a separate religion from Judaism. An honest reading of the New Testament from a biblical-Jewish perspective makes it clear that the first-century church never thought of herself as separate and excluded from Judaism. Rather, she considered herself as part of the whole of Israel. She never imagined herself as replacing Judaism. She might have conceived of herself as a reform within Judaism, but not as a separate entity.

The writings of the Apostles assume the believers to be a sect within the larger religion of Judaism. Jesus was actually a Jewish teacher of Torah. His Hebrew name–that is, His real name–was Yeshua. He kept the Torah, taught the Torah, and lived by the Torah. He taught His disciples to keep the Torah in imitation of Him. He argued with the teacher of other sects of Judaism. He denounced the Sadducees, rebuked the Pharisees and brought correction to errant teachings, but he did not institute a new religion, nor did He cancel the Torah. Instead, He sought to bring restoration to the ancient faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He diligently sought after the lost sheep of Israel – those who had turned away from Torah. He affirmed the word of Moses and brought clarification regarding the proper observance of God’s Law. His followers, the Apostles and the believers, also remained within the parameters of normative, first-century Jewish expression. They met daily in the Temple. They congregated in synagogues. They proclaimed the Scriptures of Israel. They kept the biblical festivals, the Sabbaths, the dietary laws and the whole of Torah as best they were able.

When non-Jews began to enter the faith through the ministry of Paul of Tarsus, they too congregated in synagogues and embraced the standards of biblical Judaism. They understood themselves to be “grafted in”[1] to Israel and made citizens of the larger “commonwealth of Israel.”[2] They were allowed certain dispensations. Ritual conversion through circumcision was not required of them. Neither were they required to forsake their ethnic identity and ‘become Jewish.’ Yet their faith was the faith of Israel, placed in the Messiah of Israel, and they henceforth practiced the religion of Israel. But things were changing.

The inclusion of Gentiles in the big tent of Judaism was unpopular. Jewish authorities in local synagogues pressured the non-Jews to undergo formal conversion. So did many of the Jewish believers. In his epistles, Paul argued vociferously for the right of non-Jewish to be recognized as “fellow heirs’ with Israel. [3]

At the end of the book of Acts, we see a picture of the Yeshua movement still in the cradle of Judaism, still a sect within it. It is about the year 65 AD, Paul was a prisoner in the city of Rome and ministering to the believers there. Within two years, Paul went to meet the Master when Nero the Emperor had him beheaded. Nero began an open persecution against the believers, blaming them for the burning of Rome. A short time later, Peter too found martyrdom in Rome when Nero had him crucified. Nero then added to his infamy by launching a massive military campaign against the Jewish state. He sent the dreaded Tenth Legion, under the famous General Vespasian, to put down the revolt in Judea. Suddenly, Jews were regarded as enemies of the state.

After Nero died and Vespasian was made emperor, Vespasian’s son Titus carried on the war by bringing the Roman army against Jerusalem. Our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem heeded the words of the Master. He had forewarned them, saying:

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. (Luke 21:20-22)

The armies came and the believers fled. The Roman legions destroyed the city of Jerusalem and burned the Temple. The Jewish believers in Judea and Jerusalem either fled east across the Jordan River or were carried off into captivity and sold as slaves along with their countrymen. In one sense, the Gospel went into exile with them, scattered among the nations.

SEPARATING FROM JUDASIM

The Jewish War gave rise to the politics of anti-Semitism. Imagine a Gentile believer living in the Roman colony of Philippi, attending a Jewish worship service on the Jewish day of worship and keeping Jewish rituals when suddenly his nation goes to war with the Jews. Previously he might have been known simply as ‘Tony the Believer’ from Philippi. Subsequent to the revolt his neighbors began to refer to him as ‘Tony the Jew lover, enemy of the state’ from Philippi, or even just ‘Tony the Jew’.

Emperor Vespasian followed up the Jewish War by imposing a heavy, punitive annual tax upon all Jewish households in the empire. He determined Jewish households as those who worshipped after the Jewish manner. With the addition of the Fiscus Judaicus tax, Gentiles believers had financial, political and cultural incentives to distance themselves from Judaism.[4]

Shortly after the Jewish War and the destruction of Jerusalem, synagogues throughout the world introduced a new benediction in the daily liturgies that was actually a curse on believers in Yeshua and other heretics.[5] The synagogue authorities expelled worshippers who would not pray the curse. Thus the believers found themselves expelled from the Jewish assembly. The Master had foreseen this. He warned His disciples that “they will make you outcasts from the synagogue.” (John 16:2)

The Gentile pagans resented the non-Jews because they were essentially Jewish. The Jewish authorities resented them because they were believers. Excommunication from the synagogue was deeply offensive and created sharp animosity toward Jews (even among Jewish believers), who were already none too popular throughout the empire. What is worse, the expulsion left believers with no place to assemble on the Sabbath, or to assemble at all.

Years went by as the church, now largely dominated by Gentiles, struggled to identify herself. Heresies and persecutions plagued her throughout those formative years. Around the turn of the century, the new emperor, Domitian, the son of Vespasian, afraid of anther Jewish revolt, unleashed a series of new persecution against the believers – again because of their Jewish association…

Put yourself in the sandals of the average non-Jewish believer. On the one hand, the synagogue has thrown you and your family out because you are offensive to Judaism. On the other hand you are seeing your friends and family imprisoned, even tortured and killed, because they are being identified with the Jewish religion. You are guilty by association with a religion that doesn’t want you association with them.

THE SECOND CENTURY

By the time the second century began, anti-Jewish sentiment was so high in the church (especially the Roman church) that most non-Jews no longer wanted to be identified with Jews at all. The first-century believers were long dead and gone. A new generation had been raised to view Jews and even Jewishness as the antithesis of Christianity. It is not unlike the bitter hostility many Protestants hold for Catholics. It fills some deep psychological need to define oneself against something. Unfortunately, that ‘something’ is often one’s parents, which is what Catholics were to Protestants – and what Judaism was to Christianity.

Theologically, the church leaders decided that the Christian church had replaced the Jews as the true Israel of God. They decided that they were now the true people of God, and that Jews were consigned to damnation and everlasting cursedness from God.

The new generation (second century) was the generation that lived through the Second Jewish Revolt. In the third decade of the second century, the Jews of Judea revolted against Rome again, this time during the days of the pagan Emperor Hadrain. They banded together under the leadership of the rebel warrior Shimon Bar Kokba. Rabbi Akiva declared him to be messiah. All of Bar Kokba’s men were told that they must swear allegiance to his messiahship, even proving their allegiance by maiming themselves for him. Their refusal to declare Bar Kokba as the Messiah surely alienated the last Jewish believers among the Jews of Israel. It was the last break between the believers and Judaism.

Of course, Bar Koba was not the messiah. Rome quickly crushed his rebellion. Jerusalem was again destroyed, and the Jews again faced imperial persecution. The Talmud calls it the Age of the Great Persecution. In those days, Emperor Hadrain made laws declaring it illegal to keep the Sabbath, to ordain rabbis and to practice Judaism. Believers could be arrested for keeping the laws of Torah. Those who did were arrested and martyred along with the faithful among the Jewish people. Rome made no distinction between Jews and believers in the Jewish faith. To survive, it became necessary for believers to further disassociate from Judaism. Unfortunately, Paul’s compiled letters, when read outside their original context, provided ample justification for that disassociation. The emerging Christian movement read Paul’s arguments for the inclusion of Gentiles in the Kingdom backward to imply the exclusion of Torah.

A look ahead at the next installment:

• THE CHUCH FATHERS
• RESURRECTION SUNDAY
• CONSTANTINE AND NICEA
  
  Works Cited
  1 Romans 11:17
  2 Ephesians 1:12-13
  3 Ephesians 3:6
  4 O’Quinn, Chris “Fiscus Judaicus,” Bikurel Tzion, #72, p 28.
  5 b.Berachot 28b-29a.

My Journey from Christ to Messiah – Introduction to my discovery of the roots of the Faith

A lot of people have asked me and have probably wondered what is going on with my new myspace name “Living the Torah”. I hope this essay (and the ones following) will put any worries or rumors to rest.

The past year and a half I have discovered something that is ancient and something that has been lost that I didn’t realize was lost. What I discovered is something that I’ve been searching for ever since I became a believer and began studying the Scriptures. What I’ve discovered is the roots to my Faith. Before I describe exactly what that is, I want to give a brief summery of my journey to my discovery.

From the earliest of memories, Church has always has been a part of my life. However, from my early years to my teenage years, I was never really into Church. I thought of it as a time to wear nice clothes and play with my friends that I didn’t get to see during the week. From my point of view, the Bible was a book that had many interesting stories about Adam and Eve, Jesus, and other men. Outside the times that it was occasionally read to me before bed and trying to memorize a few verses at Sunday school to earn a few tickets to buy candy with, it was hardly ever thought about. Then one day, towards the end of my senior year of high school, I had a desire to learn about the Scriptures and my Faith. I didn’t know exactly where to start, so I figured the ‘New Testament’ was a good place to begin. I opened up to Matthew and started reading one Saturday morning. I also started to ask lots of questions about my faith and other religions with anyone that I thought might have the answers. Asking questions and entering into dialogue with others became one of the primary ways that I learned about my faith. I believed and still believe that one should not believe something unless one has a reason for it and is able to defend it. During those early times I had always wondered what it would have been like to live in the 1st century and to worship how they worshiped and to know what they knew. I always felt a disconnect between how I did “Church” and how the believers in the 1st century did “Church”.

After I graduated high school, I naturally went to college where my questions and dialogues only increased. There I was more exposed to other worldviews and my searching continued. While there, I went to various Christian campus groups, but nothing was really satisfying. I eventually met the “Campus Preacher” that was different than all the rest. He seemed to have the same appetite for searching for Truth as I did and so we quickly became friends. At that time I thought one of the major goals of the believer’s life was to get people “saved” for the kingdom. We preached on campus together for the next year or so.

We eventually left preaching after discovering the “Home Church Movement”. For those of you that may not know what home church is, it is a movement today that seeks to emulate how the 1st century believers met and worshiped. The movement emphasizes living a community life, meeting in homes, open participatory meetings (everyone shares), and being Christ centered. This of course was very attractive to me and I was very excited to be a part of it. Even with these important principles, however, my particular sect of “home church” had major downfalls. Its number one downfall was that it was very anti-religious and anti-Law. With their heavy emphasis in knowing, experiencing, and expressing Christ, they tended to shun almost anything that resembled “institutional” religion which included leadership (pastors, elders, etc), the study of Scriptures, and living out God’s Commandments. It was taught that one should not attempt to do God’s commandments (for that was going back to the “old” man, back to bondage) but to passively allow Christ to live His life in you. As a result, teaching of the Scriptures in the meetings was virtually non existent and its replacement was everyone sharing their subjective experience of Christ. Without a firm foundation and passion of the Word and righteous living, the home church lost its connection with the Head and eventually dissolved.

Following my three year experience with the home church, I was left in spiritual limbo as to how to pursue the Lord. I was left with a bad taste for “institutional” Church. I couldn’t get over all the good things that I learned from my home church experience (community life, experiencing Christ, etc.), but I knew something was missing and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. For the next three years I seemed to be in exile from God. I began to pursue a career, but that eventually fell through (to put it nicely). As I began to recover from that fall, I once again picked up the Scriptures as I first did and hoped God had a plan of how He wanted me to pursue Him.

In January 2006, the Lord presented me with a great gift, my wife Leilani. The circumstances of how I had met her seemed to have happened by accident (which is another story at a later time). Meeting her was the first step in discovering the roots to my faith. When we met, I was very much intrigued when she told me that she visited a Messianic Synagogue. This was something I had never heard of before and couldn’t possibly have imagined believers wanting to be associated with Jewish traditions and teachings, other than maybe wanting to celebrate Passover. When Leilani took me to her Messianic Synagogue, I was surprised in their expression of worship. They would have set prayers that they would pray together as a congregation (Hebrew and English). Also, in the middle of the liturgy, they would take a huge scroll of God’s Law (the Torah), out of what they called an arch, and process it throughout the congregation. This was fascinating to me but also confusing. Didn’t they know that we are in the New Convent, the age of “Grace”, and that we are no longer “under the Law” (Rom 6:15; Gal 4:4-5)? I quickly began to pursue the truth of this matter. Fortunately, I was able to dialogue with Leilani’s friends who were able to provide answers to my questions. As I fellowshipped with them and listened to their answers, I slowly began to see the light.

I wasn’t as easily persuaded of Messianic Judaism as I have been with other things in the past. I went back to all the books and tapes from the home church to go over the teachings regarding God’s Law and 1st century style of worship. I also pursued the best teachers and apologists that I could think of in mainstream Christianity, such as John Piper, James White, and John Macarthur, just to name a few. Unfortunately, they fell short to the answers that I was given. I realized that I and many believers today have, from church history, inherited this fundamental presupposition – being part of the New Covenant and under “Grace” somehow disregards or abolishes God’s commandments implying that our Lord came to do away with Judaism, start a new religion, and to establish a new way to be “saved”. I am quite convinced that if one would question these assumptions in the pursuit of the truth, one will find no support in history or in the Scriptures themselves. Christianity is merely a continuation of Judaism, not a replacement of it.

So what are the roots of my faith? It is simply this, to study and observe the instructions of righteous living (Torah) that God gave to His people through Moses which the Prophets, Gospels, and Apostolic Scriptures were founded upon. Rather than trying to passively allow Christ life to live through us, it is by the Torah that we are truly able to practically express and conform to the image of our Messiah both individually and corporately.

Just so there are not any misunderstandings or misconceptions, I do not believe in works based righteousness. Our justification before God is solely based on the Sacrifice of our Messiah that can only be obtained through Faith alone. He is the Eternal One that the Father sent into the world to be a ransom for many. The Torah is the instructions on how His redeemed people ought to walk in this world.

In the writings that follow, I hope to demonstrate this truth using both History and the Scriptures. The following list should give somewhat of an idea of my upcoming essays:

• Modern Christianity’s journey away from Torah
• What is so new about the New Covenant?
• What is so old about the Old Covenant?
• Judaism, discovering the life behind the Scriptures
• Is the Torah for Jews only or for the Gentiles too?
• Moral Law only or all the Law, which commandments should believers keep?
• Did not come to abolish but fulfill - Matthew 5:17-20
• Sermon on the Mount, a new Standard?
• What does it mean to be “Under the Law” and to be “Free in Christ”?
• Common Objections for keeping Torah – The Jerusalem Counsel Acts 15
• Common Objections for keeping Torah – Galatians 3
• Common Objections for keeping Torah – Divided wall in Eph 2:14-18
• Common Objections for keeping Torah – Col 2:16-23
• Did Jesus break the Sabbath?
• The Truth about Romans 14
• Responding to John MacArthur on believers keeping the Sabbath.
• Did God change His mind about Food? Heart vs. Stomach Mark 7:19
• Did God change His mind about Food? Peter’s vision Acts 10-11
• What about all the “strange” commandments?
• Is the Law for unbelievers only? 1 Timothy 1:8-11