In this video on the book of Romans, we discuss Paul’s view of the gospel, the Torah (the law of Moses) and the reunification of the nation of Israel.The material presented here is totally fresh and is from a Hebraic perspective and is likely totally different than anything you’ve heard on this subject to this point.
The following overview of Romans is a radical departure from what the mainstream church teaches. Read it and see if what follows doesn’t unite the truth of the Bible from beginning to end, instead of pitting one section of the Bible against the other, which is approach the church typically takes when presenting the teachings of Paul.
The Main Themes of Romans
This is perhaps the only book in the Bible that is organized systematically like a theological textbook from beginning to end with each point leading to the next. This is not how biblical books are typically arranged.
In this epistle, there are several main themes.
Paul’s Epistle to the Romans keeps Yeshua and the gospel message front and center, yet at the same time Paul weaves together the good news of Yeshua with that of the righteous lifestyle of Torah-obedience. Together, these two messages form a beautiful tapestry-like picture encompassing the message of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation — a message of the salvation of man resulting in his being reconciled to Elohim, and his becoming elevated to the spiritual status as a child of Elohim. This process occurs through man’s relationship with Yeshua the Messiah who is both the Written Torah incarnate.
Part 1 — Introduction: The Cornerstone of the Gospel Message
At the very beginning of his epistle, Paul carefully and boldly sets in place the cornerstone for what is to follow. He declares the preeminence of the gospel message and his submission to the lordship of Yeshua the Messiah and his unflinching mission to preach this truth.
Continue reading
Romans 14:14, Nothing is unclean in itself. In this verse, is the Apostle Paul declaring that there is no longer a distinction between clean and unclean foods, therefore making void the biblical dietary laws? Let’s analyze the contextual and linguistic aspects of this passage to see what Paul is really saying here.
The word unclean (koinos) in this verse can also mean “common,” and in three places in the Apostolic Scriptures the two words “common” and “unclean” are used side by side; q.v. Acts 10: 14, 28 and 11:8, which says, “But I said, Not so, Master: for nothing common [koinos] or unclean [akathartos] has at any time entered into my mouth. “From this example, we see that unclean in Romans 14 can also mean “common” as we find in Acts 11. The word for unclean in Acts 11:8 is an entirely different word; therefore, akathartos is a reference to unclean meat, as proscribed by the Torah. Koinos, on the other hand, cannot mean unclean meat in Romans 14, or else Acts 11:8 would be a superfluous and unexplainably redundant in using two words that mean exactly the same thing. The word koinos is used elsewhere in the Apostolic Scriptures not to mean “unclean,” as in “unclean meat,” but “unclean” as in unwashed hands (Mark 7:2), or “common,” as in something that is shared commonly among people (Acts 2:44; 4:32; Tit 1:4; Jude 3). Of the seven places this word is used in the Apostolic Scriptures it never means unclean meat.
In David Stern’s Jewish New Testament Commentary, on Romans 14 he states that Paul is not abrogating the biblical dietary laws. On verse 14, Stern states that Paul is referring to ritual purity, not whether something is unclean (nonkosher) meat or not. What is ritual purity? It is a reference to either how something was slaughtered, and whether it was bled properly, or whether the meat had previously been sacrificed to idols before being sold in the public meat markets—a common practice in that day in pagan cities.
Furthermore, Paul could not have been advocating eating swine, and other unclean meats, without making himself into a total hypocrite and liar, since in several places in the Book of Acts he strongly states (toward the end of his life) that he was a Torah-observant Jew and walked orderly and kept the Torah (Acts 21:20), and that he had not broken any of the Torah laws (Acts 25:16), which would have included the dietary laws contained in the Torah.
Let’s also keep an important point in mind when speaking of YHVH’s biblical dietary commands: When someone gets born again or regenerated spiritually their digestive system does not change. Eating unclean or biblically unkosher meat is, from a purely medical standpoint, deleterious to one’s health regardless of whether one is a believer in Yeshua or not.
Romans 9:13, Esau have I hated. Is Elohim hateful when the Scriptures reveal that he is love (1 John 4:8, 16)? A misunderstanding of the word hate from a biblical perspective may lead one to the wrong conclusion. The concept of hate has added nuances in Eastern culture that don’t exist from a Western viewpoint. Understanding this will help us to understand the nature of Elohim’s “hatred” for Esau in this verse as well in other NT passages where the term hatred seems too strong for our Western sensitivities.
Defining the Greek behind the word hate in this verse will clear up any misconceptions about the character of Elohim. In fact, it’s unfortunate that the translators have chosen to use the word hate here, since it calls into question the Elohim’s character, which is characterized as love. The word hated is the Greek word miseo meaning “to hate, persecute in hatred, abhor or despise, to show hostility toward or, by extension, to love one thing less (than something else).” Miseo basically means “having a relative preference for one thing over another” (see Strong’s, Thayers, Vine’s and TDNT). To these definitions, in the context of the Testimony of Yeshua, the TDNT sees miseo as taking on the added meaning of “disowning, renunciation and rejection.”
According to Strong’s Expanded Concordance and Vine’s, miseo can refer to “malicious and unjustifiable feelings towards others, whether towards the innocent or by mutual Continue reading
The following overview of Romans is a radical departure from what the mainstream church teaches. Read it and see if what I say doesn’t unite the truth of the Bible from beginning to end, instead of pitting one section of the Bible against the other, which is the approach the church typically takes when presenting the teachings of Paul.
The Main Themes of Romans
This is perhaps the only book in the Bible that is organized systematically like a theological textbook from beginning to end with each point leading to the next. This is not how biblical books are typically arranged.
In this epistle, there are several main themes.
Pre-eminently, Elohim is the Just Judge of the universe to whom all are accountable (both Jews and Gentiles). This concept alone is huge, since most humans don’t want to believe they’re accountable to anyone except their own egos.
The Torah is Elohim’s standard of righteousness by which he will judge the deeds of all men (both Jews and Gentiles) fairly. If people can accept the fact that there is a supreme Being to whom they’re accountable for their actions, then it’s a short next logical step to accept that such a Being (Elohim) has laws that man must follow if he’s not to run afoul of that Being.
Next, Paul counters a religious system that purported to explain who that Being was and what he required of sinful man. This was Judaism. The problem is that Judaism had perverted the truth of Elohim into a racially exclusive, legalistic, works-based salvational system. Paul attempts to correct this error, and restore this religion to its original truth.
Paul then presents the gospel message of salvation by grace through faith in Yeshua the Messiah is at the center of YHVH’s process to redeem sinful man.
Before Elohim, the Creator of the universe, there is no racial inequality between Jews and Gentiles. Elohim isn’t a racist. All are equal before him. All are sinners, and all need Yeshua.
Paul’s Epistle to the Romans keeps Yeshua and the gospel message front and center, yet at the same time Paul weaves together the good news of Yeshua with that of the righteous lifestyle of Torah-obedience. Together, these two messages form a beautiful tapestry-like picture encompassing the message of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation — a message of the salvation of man resulting in his being reconciled to Elohim, and his becoming elevated to the spiritual status as a child of Elohim. This process occurs through man’s relationship with Yeshua the Messiah who is both the Written Torah incarnate.
Part 1 — Introduction: The Cornerstone of the Gospel Message
At the very beginning of his epistle, Paul carefully and boldly sets in place the cornerstone for what is to follow. He declares the preeminence of the gospel message and his submission to the lordship of Yeshua the Messiah and his unflinching mission to preach this truth.
1:1–17, The theme of Yeshua and the gospel message are front and center.
Part 2 — Putting Man in His Place
In this section, Paul climbs into the seat of his spiritual bulldozer and begins leveling the playing field between opposing groups of people by putting man in his rightful place before Elohim, who is the Just Judge of the universe. He first attacks the godless heathen for Continue reading
Introduction
The Apostle Paul makes a very interesting, and often overlooked statement in Ephesians 2:12. For context we will quote the surrounding verses:
Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth [citizenship] of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without Elohim in the world: but now in Messiah Yeshua ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Messiah. (emphasis added)
Paul, talking to the redeemed believers in Ephesus, states that they had been (past tense) Gentiles (comprised of various ethnic or people groups) without Elohim and without hope, but now, through the work of Yeshua at the cross, provision had been made for these alienated people-groups to become citizens of the nation of Israel. Elsewhere Paul refers to these (former) Gentiles as now being Israelites and defines them as heirs to the promises YHVH made to Abraham and calls them “seed” or descendants of Abraham (Rom 4:15; 9:8, 11; Gal 3:7, 14, 29).
Paul further says that these same people had been aliens from YHVH’s “covenants of promise” and relates this to the “Gentile” believers at Ephesus. The same applies to all redeemed believers to this day. So what covenants of promise were these redeemed believers strangers to in times past, that is, prior to their conversion? Most in the church have been taught that the New Covenant is the only covenant that pertains to them, yet Paul spoke of covenants (plural) of promise. To what was he referring? The two main covenants of the Tanakh (the Old Testament) affecting the nation of Israel were the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic or Sinaitic Covenant. Additionally, Jeremiah prophetically speaks of a New (or Renewed) Covenant that YHVH would make with the two houses of Israel (Jer 31:31–33); that is, a refreshed version of a former (marital) covenantal agreement which, Israel broke with YHVH (verse 32). These are the three principal covenants that the Scriptures reveals affect YHVH’s people. Clearly, Paul is referencing these three covenants in Ephesians 2:12 (see the Jewish New Testament Commentary, by David Stern, p. 583).
Which of these three covenants forms the bedrock upon which the others are based, and Continue reading
The Main Themes of Romans
The is perhaps the only book in the Bible that is organized systematically like a theological textbook from beginning to end with each point leading to the next. This is not how biblical books are typically arranged.
In this letter, there are several main themes.
Pre-eminently, Elohim is the Just Judge of the universe to whom all are accountable (both Jews and Gentiles). This concept alone is huge, since most humans don’t want to believe they’re accountable to anyone except their own egos.
The Torah is Elohim’s standard of righteousness by which he will judge the deeds of all men (both Jews and Gentiles) fairly. If people can accept the fact that there is a supreme God to whom they’re accountable for their actions, then it’s a short next logical step to accept that such a God has laws that man must follow if he’s not to run afoul of that God.
Next, Paul counters a religious system that purported to explain who that God was and what he required of sinful man. This was Judaism. The problem is that Judaism had perverted the truth of Elohim into a racially exclusive, legalistic, works-based salvational system. Paul attempts to correct this error, and restore this religion to its original truth.
Paul then presents the gospel message of salvation by grace through faith in Yeshua the Messiah is at the center of YHVH’s process to redeem sinful man.
Before Elohim, the God of the universe, there is no racial inequality between Jews and Gentiles. Elohim isn’t a racist. All are equal before him. All are sinners, and all need Yeshua.
Paul’s Epistle to the Romans keeps Yeshua and the gospel message front and center, yet at the same time Paul weaves together the good news of Yeshua with that of the righteous lifestyle of Torah-obedience. Together, these two messages form a beautiful tapestry-like picture encompassing the message of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation — a message of the salvation of man resulting in his being reconciled to Elohim his becoming elevated to the spiritual status as a child of Elohim.
Part 1 — Introduction: The Cornerstone of the Gospel Message
At the very beginning of his epistle, Paul carefully and boldly sets in place the cornerstone for what is to follow. He declares the preeminence of the gospel message and his Continue reading