Divide-and-conquer the enemy is a well known and often used offensive military strategy. The enemy may be too large and powerful for a direct frontal assault, so the idea is to break up the enemy’s army or defenses into bite-sized pieces and then to conquer the enemy one smaller piece at a time. This same tactic is employed wittingly or unwittingly by those who don’t want to follow all of the Torah.

Perhaps you’ve seen this tactic used, but haven’t identified it for what it really is; it is a satanic method to undermine or to destroy the validity of the whole counsel of YHVH Elohim’s word. Why do I call it satanic? Because this is the same strategy Satan the serpent used at the tree of knowledge to undermine the clear instructions of Elohim to the first humans. Satan called Elohim’s word into question when he asked Adam and Eve, “Hath Elohim [really] said…?” He caused the first humans to question the word of Elohim, and then from this false narrative platform of doubt and unbelief, he launched his attack against the word of Elohim, and he lured Adam and Eve into committing humanity’s first sin. And, as the saying goes, the rest is history. All of the problems in the world from then till now can be traced back to this one incident.

From that time until now, rebellious and sin-prone men have been trying to find a way around obeying the clear words and instructions of Elohim. Man’s nefarious strategies and philosophies to accomplish this are endless. This human proclivity, however, can be explained by two terse verses in the Bible.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jer 17:9)

Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim; for it is not subject to the Torah-law of Elohim, nor indeed can be. (Rom 8:7)

For nearly 50 years I have been observing and studying this phenomenon to parse the Torah along artificial and ungodly lines. It’s nothing more than a carnal attempt by rebellious men to divide and conquer the Torah, so men can justify themselves in not having to obey it.  At one point in my spiritual journey, for a brief period of time—about six years—I even fell prey to this same false divide-and-conquer concept that mainstream Christianity has subscribed to for some 1900 years to diminish the validity of YHVH’s Torah-law. So I know this tactic well from personal experience. I had to repent of the sin of allowing myself to be duped into questioning the Creator and his Word.

First we must know the truth. What does the Word of Elohim really say? As a bank teller must know what real money looks like before they can identify counterfeit money, the same is true with the truth of the Bible. The righteous and dutiful disciple of Yeshua must know the Word of Elohim to be able to identify the counterfeit. This only occurs through personal and copious study. As such, one will discover that nowhere does the Bible divide the concept of the Torah into parts and pieces that can then be tossed out per human whim. True, the Scriptures divide the Torah into subsections (e.g. statutes, judgments, commandments and so forth), but they all form an indivisible unit and therefore stand and fall together. This is because the Torah contains the instructions, teachings and precepts of YHVH Elohim. They are a reflection of his very heart, mind, will and character. The Torah teaches men how to love Elohim with his all, and  his neighbor as himself. Therefore, to violate any part of the Torah is an unloving act, which the Bible identifies as sin. So which parts of the Torah do we dare toss out?

Moreover, Moses, David, the prophets, Yeshua and the apostles as well as the Jewish sages down through history all present the Torah as a unified, indivisible and immutable whole. For example, David in Psalm 119 extols the benefits and virtues of all aspects of the Torah.  There is no indication that parts of it were to be eventually abrogated, or that some aspects of it are inferior to others. It is, instead, presented as the complete and indivisible perfect Word of Elohim. Throughout the writings of the prophets, these men who had an ear to heaven and spoke what they heard from on high were constantly calling YHVH’s people back to the Torah from their state of backsliding and sin. They never were calling the people back to only this or that part of the Torah. Similarly, Yeshua states that not one yud or tag of the Torah would be done ways with, and that the saints would be judged and rewarded eternally by how well they followed the Torah. What did Yeshua tell Satan, the chief of liars and the first and chief sinner? That man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Elohim, not just part of it. So what part of the Torah did Moses not receive from Elohim? That’s right. It all come from Elohim—every word of it!  Yeshua even subdivided the Tanach into three parts: the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings. He never subdivided it into some parts to be kept and other parts to be tossed out. Never! The same is true with Paul, the sent one. In his epistle to the Romans, at numerous times, he refers to the Torah as an indivisible and inviolable unit. There is no hint of the demonic concept of calling it into question, much less of dividing and conquering the clear instructions of YHVH Elohim as laid out in his Torah-instructions! Even at the end of the Bible, in Yeshua’s revelation to John the apostle, obedience to the Torah commandments en toto are the identifying marks of the true end time saints. There we also find described the robes of righteousness the bride of Yeshua will be wearing at his coming, and defined who will be inside of and outside of the New Jerusalem. It is all based on Torah-obedience. What could be clearer?

Yet men, who are still listening to the lies of the serpent, never cease in their endeavors to divide and conquer the Torah-word of Elohim. Why is this? Human nature! Never forget this anytime that you hear someone says that this or that part of the word of Elohim is not for us today. Again, remember,

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jer 17:9)

Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim; for it is not subject to the Torah-law of Elohim, nor indeed can be. (Rom 8:7)

Here are several examples of how this divide-and-conquer system has manifested itself down through the ages in the mainstream church. It started with the so-called early church fathers of the ante-Nicene era. They hated the Jews and everything Jewish, so they invented a religion that replaced anything that appeared to be Jewish. Therefore, they tossed out the Sabbath, biblical feasts and the dietary laws that are clearly prescribed in the Bible and were practiced by Yeshua and his disciples. They then took their anti-semetic theology and cloaked it in philosophical terms forming false and unbiblical subdivisions of the Torah. One part they called the moral law and the other part they referred to as the ceremonial law. The first problem with this is that it’s a forced and unbiblical contrivance. The second problem is that, although Christians claim to follow the ten commandments, the Sabbath, which they toss out, predates the tabernacle’s ceremonial service. So they blew it on that one! This false dichotomy with its specious arguments has been passed on down to the modern mainstream church.

Then along come the Seventh Day Adventists who, to their credit, rediscovered the truth of the Sabbath and the biblical dietary laws, but reject the biblical feasts and, otherwise, follow the Roman Catholic Church in most of their main doctrines. They too have fallen into the false, demonic divide-and-conquer concept. They correctly acknowledge the fact that the Sabbath and dietary laws predate the ceremonial tabernacle service, but they resort to the false idea that the biblical feasts are part of the ceremonial law, and so toss those out. Again, the fatal flaw in this thinking is that the Bible never subdivides the Torah into moral and ceremonial laws. This is a man-made fabrication inspired by the devil! Remember what the lying Adversary told the first humans when he lured them into sin? “Hath Elohim [really] said…?” Or, “Does Elohim really mean what he says when he told you to do this or that?” Yep! It’s really that simple; it’s not difficult to see the evil source of all such arguments against YHVH’s Torah.

Now we come down to the so-called Messianic or Hebrew roots movement. Amazingly, the same thing is happening again. Some people are proffering concepts that divide and conquer the Torah, so that they don’t really have to follow all of the Torah. Again, why is this? Let’s be honest with ourselves and quit making excuses. It boils down to this:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jer 17:9)

Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim; for it is not subject to the Torah-law of Elohim, nor indeed can be. (Rom 8:7)

There are those who are now teaching that we don’t have to follow the Torah-laws of Moses after such and such a point in history. Some say that all the Torah commandments after Exodus 24 have been done away with, and others say after Exodus 32. I guess, for them, we can now decanonize the last part of the book of Exodus, and the entire books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Never mind  how the psalmist, the prophets, Yeshua and the apostles clearly believed otherwise!

Yes, the proponents of this new divide-and-conquer-the-Torah tactic have their scripture verses to validate their new-found truth, just the same as the mainstream Christians and Adventists do. And yes, you guessed it. Once again, the poor old Apostle Paul is made the fall guy to justify supposedly their arguments, as was the case in the first century and as even Peter admits, “as also in all [Paul’s] epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Pet 3:16).

In this latest divide-and-conquer scenario, even as the mainstream church has long quoted Galatians 3:19 as a prooftext to abrogate the Torah, so now these new pro-Torah, Torah-abrogaters (can anyone say oxymoron?) are claiming that Paul is teaching that certain parts of the Torah were added and in force only until Yeshua came. After that, I guess, it’s all right to engage in homosexuality and drunkenness, since these laws came after Exodus 24 or 32 depending on your train of thought. If this is what Paul and the apostles were teaching, then how is it that Paul decries drunkenness as a sinful work of the flesh in Galatians 5:19–21, and homosex as a sin in Romans 1:24–27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9–10. Remember, these are sinful acts that YHVH in the Torah forbad after Exodus 24 and 32. Selah! (Hang in there, and stay with me. I’ll explain what Galatians 3:19 is really say in just a moment.)

Moreover, some of these Torah-dividers are also teaching that only the three pilgrimage feasts (Unleavened Bread, Weeks and Tabernacles) are now necessary to observe, and not the remaining four biblical holidays (Passover, Trumpets, Atonement and the Eighth Day). If this is so, then why did Yeshua and Paul command us to keep Passover? Moreover, as I have demonstrated in numerous video and written teachings over the years, the seven biblical holidays not only correspond to the seven steps in YHVH’s plan of salvation, but the seven stations in the tabernacle as well as to the seven steps in the biblical wedding all of which relate to YHVH’s plan of redemption for mankind. The purpose of these steps are to teach man the process we all must go through to inherit eternal life. How is it then that four of these biblical feasts and their corresponding steps in YHVH’s of salvation are now irrelevant today? It makes no sense.

As you have probably figured out by now, I am strongly opposed to the concept that the Torah can be divided and conquered, so that its validity upon the redeemed believer’s life is some how diminished.

But, someone may ask, what about the Levitical system with its sacrifices and accompanying rites along with stringent penalties for violating the laws of the Torah? Glad you asked. My answer is, “Go read the book of Hebrews!” Those ordinances and institutions were temporary until the time of Yeshua the Messiah who fulfilled them. They were simply road signs that pointed to the Messiah. They were not the Torah in its fullness. Through Messiah, the Aaronic priesthood and atoning sacrifice of Yeshua, the Torah is more in force today than it was before. Moreover, the penalty of unrepented sin (i.e. violation of YHVH’s Torah-law) is still death now as it was then. Thankfully, Yeshua has taken upon himself all the penalties our for breaking every law that the Levitical code prescribes, and those who violate it today can repent and have the grace of Yeshua cover them. HalleluYah!

Now here’s my explanation of and commentary for Galatians 3:19 which states,

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

Galatians 3:19, It was added/sent again. This refers to the Torah in its codified form as given to the Israelites at Sinai, and to the sacrificial system that was imposed on the rebellious Israelites until the time of Yeshua’s death on the cross (see notes at Jer 7:22). Let me explain.

The Levitical priesthood (along with the elaborate tabernacle sacrificial system) was a temporary institution that YHVH added (Gal 3:19 cp. Jer 7:21–22) to the nation of Israel’s legal system because of the firstborn Israelites’ (who YHVH commissioned to be the priests of their families, Exod 19:22 cp. Exod 13:2, 11–16) failure to prevent Israel from worshipping the golden calf. In a general sense, YHVH didn’t give the Israelites the Torah at this time—the principles of which they and their forefathers already had been given (e.g. Gen 26:5), and which were in existence since the foundation of the earth. These eternal and inviolate principles had already been passed on down to successive generations by men like Enoch, Noah and the patriarchs. So what other law was added? At Mount Sinai, the eternal principles of the Torah were codified into an administrative legal system (with civil penalties including the institution of a sacrificial system as a penalty for sin, which the Bible calls this system “the law of Moses”) and it became the constitution of the nation of Israel, and YHVH also gave them the institution of the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system (Gal 3:19), which (along with the rest of the Torah) pointed them to their need for Yeshua (Gal 3:16, 24). An example of this would be the American Constitution, the principles of which the founding fathers gleaned from many sources (including the biblical Torah, the ancient Greeks, English common law, the English Magna Carta and the French philosophers), and they then combined them and added to them to make a legal code which now governs the United States (supposedly). A similar situation occurred with the law of Moses, except the source for it was the Word, will, heart and character of Elohim that had been passed on down as well as additional laws that were given to Moses pertaining to governing the nation of Israel.

The civil penalties that the law of Moses prescribes along with the sacrificial and Levitical systems were temporary institutions that pointed, like a schoolmaster, tutor or pedagogue (to use Paul’s analogy in the latter part of Galatians chapter four) to Yeshua the Messiah, and which were completely fulfilled by the Messiah as the writer of Hebrews goes on to explains in great detail (see Hebrews chapters 5–11).

The general principles of the Torah are inviolate and have never changed. This includes the ten commandments, the biblical feasts, the Sabbath, the dietary laws, and all the laws and principles that regulate moral behavior as well as tell us how to love Elohim with our total being and our neighbor as ourselves. These are the eternal principles of the Torah of which Yeshua said that not one jot or tittle would pass away, that we must obey (both letter and spirit), and that obedience to will determine the saint’s rewards in the kingdom of Elohim. Yeshua explains all these things in his landmark and pivotal teaching that history now refers to as the Sermon on the Mount (i.e. Matthew chapters five through seven). Read it, believe it and follow these principles as they lead and guide you into the kingdom of heaven through Yeshua the Messiah!