Category Archives: Weekly Scripture Readings

Allusions to Torah-Obedience in Second Thessalonians

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Connecting the Gospel to Its Pro-Torah Hebrew Roots 33399150

When I was taking a college level biblical Greek class a few years back, the Christian professor and I had a few discussions about the Torah. It was his belief that the epistles in the New Testament contained very few references to the Torah. In his mind, therefore, the Torah wasn’t a very prominent idea in the minds of the apostolic writers. I tried to enlighten him otherwise. While the epistles might not contain very many outright references to the Torah — especially direct commands to be obedient to the Torah’s standards of righteousness, the apostolic writers weave the fundamental concepts of the Torah through their writings and make countless allusions to the Torah as we shall see in the study below.

The Torah was just part of their spiritual and social fabric and background. It was their spiritual foundation, and to them Yeshua the Jewish, Torah-obedient Messiah, who was the Living Word of Elohim incarnate, was simply an extensions or expression of this basic idea of Torah truth and righteousness, and whose example they expected the saints to follow as his disciples.

2 Thess 1:3, Love. The Torah defines how a man is to love Elohim and his neighbor. Biblically speaking, is love merely an emotion, or is it something more? The Bible presents love as an action. Yeshua said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). This action involves obedience to YHVH’s Torah-commandments. Elsewhere, Yeshua sums up the Torah when he quotes the biblical shema, which states that the duty of man is to love YHVH with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength and one’s neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:28–31 cp. Deut 6:4 and Lev 19:18). The shema is a summation of the ten commandments the first four of which show us how to love YHVH, while the last six how to love our neighbor. These ten statements form the foundation or cornerstone of the entire Torah, which expand out of them.

2 Thess 1:5, Righteous judgments of Elohim. As the just judge of the universe, YHVH Yeshua will judge all men at his second coming based on his word — the Torah (Rev 19:11, 15 cp. Isa 11:3–5 and Ps 119:172). He will then offer rewards to his servants based on how well they followed his Torah or not (Matt 5:19).

2 Thess 1:8, Taking vengeance. See notes on 2 Thess 1:5.

2 Thess 1:6, Righteous thing. The Torah defines what the biblical standard of righteousness is (Ps 119:172).

2 Thess 1:8, Know Elohim. One can’t know Elohim without understanding his character Continue reading →

 

A False Prophet Vs. a Carnal Prophet

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Deuteronomy 13:1, If there arise a prophet. In the church not only is the term “prophet” carelessly thrown about, so is the term “false prophet” as applied to any God-fearing individual who simply “misses” hearing the word of Elohim correctly, but isn’t guilty of leading Elohim’s people astray spiritually into heathenism. For years, I had been using this term too broadly and generically (as many in the Christian church do) to apply to those who either prophecy presumptuously out of the dictates of their own heart, or who hear a word from Elohim but incorrectly interpret it or misapply it (as was the case with Nathan the Prophet who repented for telling David incorrectly that it was YHVH’s will for him to build the temple), as well as to those evil prophets who lead YHVH’s people away from the Word of Elohim and into paganism.

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The term “false prophet” is not to be found in the OT at all, and is only found several times in the NT and is applied to patently evil, satanic individuals. Therefore, it seems, based on the biblical evidence, that it is incorrect to apply this term to a godly individual who, let’s say, makes an accurate prophecy, but gets the dates wrong, or somehow gets something messed up in his attempt to hear YHVH. Although the term “false prophet” isn’t found in the OT, there are many warnings given against individuals who, through their false prophecies, lead YHVH’s people astray into idolatry or who don’t urge the people to repent and get back to YHVH’s straight paths of Torah-obedience, or who otherwise involved in ungodly activities (e.g., Deut 13:1–5; 18:20–22; Jer 23:9ff; 28:1ff; Ezek 13:2ff; Isa 28:7). The term “false prophet” doesn’t strictly apply to a godly person who isn’t leading YHVH’s people into apostasy.

Therefore, based on the biblical evidence, the godly person who “misses it,” so to speak, should be more correctly called a presumptuous prophet (Deut 18:22), or foolish prophet (Ezek 13:2) or a carnal prophet (i.e., who speak out of the flesh; Ezek 13:1). I can see no biblical precedence for calling such individuals “false prophets.

 

New Video: The Torah in First Thessalonians

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Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians shouts out a pro-Torah message! You find this hard to believe? Watch this video, and I’ll prove it to you.

 

New Video: Israel’s Seven Deadly Sins — A Warning for Us!

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The chldren of Israel committed seven deadly sins that prevented them from entering the Promised Land and condmned them to have to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. What are these seven sins, which still plague humans today and will keep us from entering the Promised Land of YHVH’s eternal kingdom?

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 8-17 through 8-23-14

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THIS WEEK’S SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

Parashat Re’eh — Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17 
Haftarah — Isaiah 54:11 –55:5
Prophets — Hosea 12:1 – 14:9; Joel 1:1 – 3:21; Amos 1:1–15
Writings — 1 Chronicles 10:1 – 16:43
Testimony — 2 Thessalonians 1:1 – 3:18; 1 Timothy 1:1 – 4:16

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link below.

The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day. One each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 8/17 through 8/23/14.

 

Allusions to Torah-Obedience in the First Thessalonians

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Connecting the Gospel to Its Pro-Torah Hebrew Roots

When I was taking a college level biblical Greek class a few years back, the Christian professor and I had a few discussions about the Torah. It was his belief that the epistles in the New Testament contained very few references to the Torah. In his mind, therefore, the Torah wasn’t a very prominent idea in the minds of the apostolic writers. I tried to enlighten him otherwise.

While the epistles might not contain very many outright references to the Torah — especially direct commands to be obedient to the Torah’s standards of righteousness, the apostolic writers weave the fundamental concepts of the Torah through their writings and make countless allusions to the Torah as we shall see in the study below. The Torah was just part of their spiritual and social fabric and background. It was their spiritual foundation, and to them Yeshua the Jewish, Torah-obedient Messiah, who was the Living Word of Elohim incarnate, was simply an extensions or expression of this basic idea of Torah truth and righteousness, and whose example they expected the saints to follow as his disciples.

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  • 1 Thess 1:3, Labor of love (Hard work, intense labor or toil of charitable/agape love, benevolence, good will). Biblically speaking, is love merely an emotion, or is it something more? The Bible presents love as an action. Yeshua said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). This action involves obedience to YHVH’s Torah-commandments. Elsewhere, Yeshua sums up the Torah when he quotes the biblical shema, which states that the duty of man is to love YHVH with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength and one’s neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:28–31 cp. Deut 6:4 and Lev 19:18). The shema is a summation of the ten commandments the first four of which show us how to love YHVH, while the last six how to love our neighbor. These ten statements form the foundation or cornerstone of the entire Torah, which expand out of them.
  • 1 Thess 1:9, Turn from idols … serve the living Elohim. The Tanakh (Old Testament) views idolatry as anything that takes one away from worshiping and serving YHVH by obeying his Torah commandments. The biblical prophets were continually warning the Israelites against following the idolatrous (Torahless) ways of the nations and urging YHVH’s people to repent of the sin of idolatry and to turn back to the Torah.

Continue reading →

 

Three Thousand Years in Three Verses

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Hosea 5:15–6:3, I will go and return to my place. This passage is a clear prophecy concerning the resurrection of the righteous dead of which Messiah Yeshua is the first to raise.

Verse two contains a Hebrew parallelism, which is a Hebraic literary device where the same thought is expressed differently back-to-back. The word revive is the Hebrew word chayah and is the basic Hebrew root verb meaning “to live or to have life.” The word raise up is the Hebrew word quwm meaning “to rise, arise, stand, stand up.” According to The TWOT, the basic meaning of this word “denotes rising up from a prostrate position (e.g. Josh 3:16).” YHVH is speaking here in the broader context of this passage concerning his Messianic role as the lion of Judah (Rev 5:5). After presenting himself as such to both houses of Israel (Ephraim [i.e., the Christians] and Judah [i.e., the Jews]) at his first coming, verse 14 states that Messiah would “go away … and none shall rescue him.”

Then in verse 15 we read that, “I [Messiah speaking] will go and return to my place till they [Ephraim and Judah] acknowledge their offense and seek my face ….” (This refers to Yeshua’s absence from the earth between his first and second comings.) What is their offense? Isaiah 8:14 states that that which offends both houses of Israel is “the stone of stumbling and … rock of offence.” Who is this Rock of offense? Verses 8 and 10b identifies it as Immanuel (El with us), which is one of the titles of the Messiah. The Christians have stumbled over Yeshua, the Written Torah-Word of Elohim made flesh, saying that the Torah-law has been done away with, while the Jews have stumbled over the Yeshua, the Living Torah, declaring that he can’t be the Messiah.

However, after two days (i.e., 2000 years) YHVH will revive us or resurrect the righteous dead of Ephraim and Judah or those who have been grafted into the olive tree (a metaphor for Israel, see Jer 11:16; Hos 14:6) or into the commonwealth of Israel through Messiah Yeshua (see Rom 11:16–26; Eph 2:11–19) the end of the age. This occurs on the third day, or in the third millennia from the time of Messiah’s first coming (or approximately in the year 6000 from the beginning of creation) when he will raise up (or resurrect) the righteous redeemed of Ephraim and Judah at his second coming.

As Messiah Yeshua raised from the dead on the third day becoming the first of the first fruits to raise from the dead (1 Cor 15:20, 23), even so, he will resurrect his saints at his second coming on the third day (or the third millennia after his “going away” after his first coming).  After that, he shall “go forth” and “shall come unto us” (i.e., the second coming) very much alive to lead his people during the Messianic Age (Millennium).