Category Archives: Torah-law

From the Mailbag: “Are the Hebrew Scriptures for the Jews only?”

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I just received this comment on one of our Hoshana Rabbah YouTube channel videos from a Jewish fellow:

It is interesting to see how Christians have interpreted the Hebrew scriptures. I think it’s great that you are interested in our faith, but adopting traditions that aren’t yours is not respectful. Talk to a rabbi, you might find new perspective.

Natan addressing the points one by one:

A) The Hebrew Scriptures including the Written Torah were given to ALL people starting with the children of Israel who YHVH commanded to take to all the nations of the world as per Deuteronomy/D’varim. That’s why Elohim placed Israel and Jerusalem at the center of the trade routes of the ancient world between three continents, so that they could be a light to the nations. Isaiah also talks about this as I’m sure you must know. So the Written Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy) is not just for the Jews who are primarily descended from one of 12 tribes—Judah. In fact, the Written Torah itself says that there was to be one Torah-law for the native born and the one and same Torah-law for the alien and/or sojourner. So the modern Jews DO NOT have exclusive rights over the Hebrew Scriptures. To say they do is unbiblical and a manifestation of ethnic or racial superiority, i.e. a form of racism. I reject racism in all of its permutations.
B) The Hebrew Scriptures IS NOT your faith only. My previous point addresses this. Now if by “your faith” you mean rabbinic Judaism, yes then I will concede to your point. You see, rabbinic Judaism is not strictly comprised of the Written Torah, but many, additional and even unbiblical traditions of the elders that are now found in the so-called Oral Torah or Talmud. You are welcome to your extra-biblical, second temple and post-second temple traditions. They are, for the most part, of little or no interest to me. I follow the Hebrew Scriptures of which the Written Torah is the cornerstone foundation.
C) As noted above, the Jews are primarily descended from the tribe of Judah as per Scripture and as per rabbinic tradition. There are still 11 other tribes out there that are scattered worldwide. Your own morning shacharis/t prayers call for the regathering of the tribes. The Hebrew Scriptures prophesy this to occur over and over again as well. Your own sages call this regathering of the tribes to the land of Israel “the final redemption,” and which is to occur at the end of the “Messianic Era” and which is part of the beginning of “the Messianic Age.” So how do know that the Christians who are taking an interest in the Hebrew Scriptures, which by the way is part of their Bible as well, aren’t some of those “lost” and returning tribes that the Hebrew Scriptures and your own Jewish sages predict will return to their spiritual heritage?
D) Talk to a Jewish rabbi? There is only one Rabbi (a word which in strict Hebrew means “my great one”), and that is Yeshua the Messiah whom the Christian call Jesus. All other “rabbis” though highly learned sages, with all due respect, are not rabbis by technical biblical definition. And frankly, the only perspective I care about is that of Scripture, and not that of some man or woman be they Christian, Jewish or any other faith. It is the Word of Elohim/God that will judge every human in the last days, not unbiblical man-made traditions as ancient or was widely accepted as they may be.

This has been a strong dose of medicine presented in a way you’ve likely never heard before. I pray that at least a point or two contained therein will cause you to ponder the truth-basis of your cherished religious position. In the mean time, I bless you and call you my brother as I am one your tribal brothers who is returning to the Hebraic roots of our faith even as Malachi prophesied would happen in the last days (Mal 4:3–6) and as your own Medieval Torah scholars predicted and observant Orthodox Jews pray every morning will happen. Therefore, you should rejoice that Bible prophecy is being fulfilled meaning Messiah’s coming is imminant rather than decry our videos for encouraging Christians to make teshuvah and come back to the Torah. Shalom aleichem!

 

Jewish and Christian Opposition to Moses’ Messianic Prophecy

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Deuteronomy 18:15, A prophet from your midst, like me, shall YHVH your Elohim raise up for you. 

Moses—A Prophetic Type of the Messiah

Obviously, Moses’ Deuteronomy 18 prophecy concerning the Messiah was fulfilled in the person of Yeshua. Who else in the history of the world could have fulfilled this prophecy? Despite this, the non-believing religious Jews, to their discredit, run around in philosophical circles attempting to prove that this verse does not apply to Yeshua. Similarly, the Christian church, in its own way, also disbelieves this prophecy. Let us examine some of the arguments attempting to circumvent the simple truth of this messianic prophecy.

For example, the Orthodox Jewish Torah translation The ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash in its commentary states, “Moses told the nation that just as he was one of them, so God would designate future prophets [plural] from among the people to bring them his word” (p. 1033, emphasis added). What is wrong with this statement? Is the verse quoted accurately? Moses said “prophet” singular, not “prophets” plural, as the commentary says. So in this manner, the Jewish commentators switch the focus off of one single prophet who would arise, and make it appear as if all the prophets recorded in the Scriptures helped to fulfill this prophecy. This is dishonest biblical interpretation.

On another note, does the “Jesus” of the mainstream church who, it is taught by many church leaders, broke the Sabbath and came to do away with the Torah-law of Moses fulfill this prophecy? Didn’t Moses say that the prophet would speak only the words that Elohim would give him (and the implication is that those words would not contradict what was given at Mount Sinai)? So did Yeshua come to do away with the Torah-law or not? (Read Matt 5:17–19.) In commissioning his disciples in Matthew 28:20, didn’t Yeshua tell them to do and to pass on to others all that he had commanded them? Didn’t Paul tell us to, “Follow me as I follow the Messiah” (1 Cor 11:1)? So how is it that so many people in the mainstream church believe otherwise about Messiah Yeshua and Paul relative to their teachings on the Torah-law? The point we are trying to make here is that the “Jesus” of the Sunday church who, it is taught, came to annul the Torah, does not fit the criteria of this prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15–19. Either the Torah is correct and the mainstream church is wrong or it is the other way around. We choose the former to be the truth, not the latter!

A prophet…like unto me. Let’s now study the parallels between Moses (Heb. Moshe) and Yeshua the Messiah (Heb. Machiach)to see how Yeshua perfectly fulfilled this prophecy.

Moses’ early life seems to foreshadow some details of Yeshua’s life and ministry. This really should not surprise us when we consider the words of the book of Hebrews (10:7 from Ps 40:7), which attributed to YHVH-Yeshua, who said, “The volume of the scroll was written of me.” Yeshua himself, when confronting the Pharisees in John 5:46, said “For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me.”

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Allusions to Torah-Obedience in the Book of Second 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.

Similar words studies as I have done in First Thessalonians can be done to any book of the Bible including every book of the Testimony of Yeshua or New Testament. The fundamental principles of YHVH’s Torah-instructions in righteousness can to be found throughout the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

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).

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Colossians 2—What was wiped out and nailed to the cross?

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Liar!

The mainstream church has lied to you about Colossians chapter two. How is this, you ask? Read on for the answer…

Colossians 2:14, Having wiped out. Here Paul mentions that Yeshua blotted out the handwritings of legal decrees that were against us when he died on the cross (Col 2:12–15). What was against us? It was the Torah law that specified that the sin of adultery carried the death penalty (Lev 20:10). For those who are washed in Yeshua’s redeeming blood and have been buried with him by water immersion or baptism (Col 2:12 cp. Rom 6:3–11), the devil, who is the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10), no longer has any legal basis against which to lay the charges of the sin of unfaithfulness against us before the Almighty (Col 2:15). Likely, there is a heavenly record of each man’s sins written in one of the books (which are in addition to the book of life) mentioned in Revelation 20:12. These books be opened at the last judgement and will be used to determine one’s eternal rewards based on one’s works of righteousness (v. 12). Some will be granted eternal life, while others will be destroyed in the lake of fire (v. 15). As mentioned, those who are under the blood of Yeshua and whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, there is no condemnation. 

In this passage, Paul may be alluding to the law of the jealous regarding an unfaithful woman (Num 5:11–31). In this case, the Torah instructs a man to bring his wife whom he suspects of adultery before the priests along with an offering of barley meal. What follows is one of the Torah’s more curious rituals. The priests, in front of the woman, sprinkle some dirt from the door of the tabernacle into an earthen vessel filled with holy water. Her head is uncovered, and she is then made to hold the barley meal, while she is put under oath and questioned about her alleged extramarital sexual activities. A curse is put on her if she has been unfaithful, and the curses are written in a book. The words are then scraped from the book and put into the water. The woman is then made to drink the bitter waters. If she is guilty, the curse takes effect causing her belly to swell and her thigh to rot. 

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Deuteronomy 12—Where to Worship, the Religion of the Wilderness, Beware of False Gods

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Deuteronomy 12:2ff, You shall utterly destroy. What are the present-day high placeswhere the world has placed its altars to its gods that as a called-out people and a set-apart nation YHVH is calling us to cast down and to destroy? Idols be they physical or material, emotional, and psychological in nature that form strongholds in our hearts and minds are things that hinder or prevent us from serving and obeying YHVH fully. What prevents you from keeping YHVH’s Sabbath and appointed times annual festivals (moedim)? What keeps you from prayer and intimate and set-apart times with him? What keeps you from hearing the voice of Yeshua and from loving him fully by keeping all of his commands? How about television, sports, your job and work schedule, family and peer pressure, fear, sinful habits and addictions, lust, greed, materialism and so on? What are you going to do about it?

Deuteronomy 12:3, You shall obliterate [destroy, put to death] their names [i.e. the names of pagan gods]. As The ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash points out, not only was Israel to remove the idols themselves, but they were not even to refer to them by their proper names (p. 1000). Rashi, the ancient Jewish sage, says that names of ridicule were to be coined for the pagan gods and used instead. He points out in his commentary on this verse that Jews would actually formulate derisive wordplay names based on the original names of the gods. For example, the pagan temple called, “the house of the crest” became “the house of the ditch” in that the words crest and ditch were similar in Hebrew. Or the idol “everyone’s eye” became “thorn in the eye.” A similar example of this occurred during the Second Jewish Revolt of A.D. 135. The leader of that revolt, Simon bar Kosiba, was given the name Simon bar Kochba (meaning “star”), but when his revolt failed at the hands of the Romans his detractors nicknamed him Simon bar Koziba meaning “Son of a Lie” (Rabbi Akiba’s Messiah, by Daniel Gruber, p. 165). Coming up with names of ridicule for pagan deities and concepts may seem like a silly child’s game to some, but could it not serve to indelibly imprint on the minds of YHVH’s people the seriousness of idolatry and idolatrous practices? Could this not be a means of guiding the younger generation away from the ways of evil and into the paths of righteousness? In following the Jewish interpretation on this Torah command, what are some present day “gods,” “goddesses” or modern-day idols that could use renaming?

Deuteronomy 12:5ff, Put his name. Where has YHVH chosen to place his name spiritually? Are you bringing your tithes and offerings to that place so that YHVH can bless you?

Honour YHVH with your substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase so that your barns be filled with plenty …(Prov 3:9–10)

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use it shall be measured to you again. (Luke 6:38)

“‘Will a man rob Elohim? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How have we robbed you?” In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation [of you!] Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,’ says YHVH of Hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast [its grapes,],’ says YHVH of hosts.” (Mal 3:8–11)

Giving (through tithes and offerings) is a spiritual, kingdom principle and a key to obtaining blessings and success.

Deuteronomy 12:5, Only at the place that YHVH will choose … to place his name there … shall you seek out his Presence [habitation] and come there.The word presence (as translated in The ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash) is the Hebrew word sheken (IFA) and as a verb means “to dwell or tabernacle,” and as a noun it means “dwelling, or tabernacle.” According to The TWOT, the verb is used 129 times in the Tanakh (OT) of which 43 times YHVH is the subject; that is, it describes where he dwells (e.g. on Mount Zion [Ps 74:2], among his people [Exod 25:8], or in Jerusalem [Zech 8:3]). On several occasions, it refers to his divine and glorious presence dwelling among his people (e.g. Exod 24:16; Ps 85:9). The word mishkan, which was the portable tabernacle, sanctuary or earthly dwelling place of the glorious presence of YHVH among his people, is derived from this word. What is YHVH saying in this verse? Namely, he is telling his people NOT to go just anywhere to worship him, but to go only where he has placed his name. How do we know where that is? It will be where his manifest glory and presence is to be found! Where you fellowship and worship him collectively with other believers is the manifest glory and presence of YHVH there to confirm that YHVH has placed his name there? If not, why not? Now let’s read Psalm 63:1–4,

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Christianity and Aleister Crowleyism

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The occultist and Satanist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)

Deuteronomy 10:4–5, Wrote on the tablets…put the tablets in the ark. If the two tablets are biblical symbols for the heart of man onto which YHVH Elohim writes his laws (see notes at Exod 34:1), then the ark of acacia wood which sites in the holy of holies (the earthly representation of Elohim’s throne room) into which the two tablets were deposited represents the human body and life which, ideally, should abide in the presence of Elohim guided by the Torah-Word of Elohim. Aaron’s rod that budded and the pot of manna, which the ark also contained, respectively represent the tree of life or tree-cross on which Yeshua gave his life as an atonement for our sin and Yeshua as the bread of life, which is a prophetic picture of the Word of Elohim that the saint must feed on in order to obtain eternal life.

Ten Commandments…down from the mountain. Moses received the Torah-instructions from out of the fiery presence of Elohim and brought them down from the mountain—a symbol of heaven. Elohim gave his Torah-law or instructions in righteousness to man to be deposited in the ark (a symbol of the human heart and mind). In light of these facts, it is unthinkable that Christian theologians came along many centuries latter and developed a philosophical system that, to one degree or another, relegated YHVH’s Torah-law—his instructions in righteousness—to past times and people, and subsequently declared to millions of Christians that the Torah was “done ways with,” “fulfilled,” “nailed to the cross” and was “against us,” and therefore is largely irrelevant and unnecessary to obey. The pride and hubris of such a belief is, frankly, astounding and clearly demonstrates to what degree the carnal mind of man will twist the Word of Elohim to devise his own religious system to fit his own will. 

This mainstream Christian belief system is totally in accordance with the lying words of the snake in the tree: “Has Elohim indeed said?” (Gen 3:1), and the rebellious deceitfulness and sinfulness of the unregenerate human heart (Jer 17:9; Rom 8:7).

Moreover, such a theological approach is akin to the occult social or spiritual philosophy developed in the early 1900s by the occultist and Satanist Aliester Crowley—dubbed at the time as “The wickedest man in the world” (1875-1947). Crowely dubbed his Torah-hating religious system Thelema where the mantra was, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” Crowley taught that “adherents of Thelema should seek out and follow their true path, i.e. find or determine their True Will” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema). 

How is the philosophy of Thelema any different than the one that the serpent seduced Adam and Eve at the tree of knowledge into believing when he questioned the Torah-Word and sovereign authority of the Creator of the universe? Now follow the bouncing ball. Christian theology that, to one degree or another, advocates the abrogation and irrelevance of YHVH’s Torah contains within it the same underlaying fundamental philosophical strains as the Satanic religious system that Crowley founded more than a century ago. In mainstream Christianity, “Do what thou wilt” means, in essence, that one has the freedom to pick and choose only those aspects Elohim’s Torah-law that one desires or wills to follow. Sadly, this belief system simply illustrates what two biblical authors wrote long ago about the inherent sinful and rebellious nature of man:

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

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim; for it is not subject to the Torah-law of Elohim, nor indeed can be. (Rom 8:5–7, emphasis added)

To wit, most Christians do not follow the Holy Bible, which declares that man shall live by every word the proceeds from the mouth of Elohim (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matt 4:4), Rather they follow the Holey Bible, the Swiss Cheese Version—a version with pages ripped out of it. Those pages contain the instructions of Elohim that they deem not necessary to obey.

I have a lot of Bibles in the Bible collection in my personal library. This is my least favorite one! — NL
 

Deuteronomy 11—Love and Obedience to YHVH Is Rewarded

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Deuteronomy 11:1, Love YHVH … and keep …his commandments.Compare this verse with what Yeshua said in John 14:15. When we understand that Yeshua is “YHVH your Elohim” does that not give us a new perspective about not only who Yeshua was/is, but his teachings in the Gospels? Does this shed new light on the issue when Paul said to “follow me as I follow the Messiah” (1 Cor 11:1)? What did Paul mean by this? Was Paul really pro-Torah?

Deuteronomy 11:8, That you may be strong.Obeying YHVH by keeping his Torah-commandments keep us strong. Strong is the Hebrew word chazaq meaning “to be strong, grow strong, to prevail, to be firm, be caught fast, be secure; to grow stout, grow rigid, to restore to strength, give strength, sustain, encourage, make bold, encourage, to repair, to withstand.”

Deuteronomy 11:13, If you will hearken. Stale versus fresh manna. In the Hebrew, this phrase literally reads, “If hearken, you will hearken….” Rashi (the Medieval Jewish Torah scholar) interprets the double usage of this verb to mean, “If [you] listen to the old, you will listen to the new” meaning that if one listens to what one has already learned by taking care to review and understand it, one will gain new insights or fresh insights into the Torah (The ArtScroll Sapirstein Edition Rashi—Devarim, p. 110; The ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash, p. 995). 

What does this teach us about studying YHVH’s Word consistently and regularly? YHVH gave the Israelites fresh (not stale) manna every day, even as he watered the land of Israel with the early (fall) and latter (spring) rains (a symbol for spiritual refreshment), so that the land would be fruitful without the need of man-made irrigation systems. Manna and rain both came from heaven and are used as figures of speech Hebraically to represent Torah-truth. 

Is your life being renewed regularly with fresh revelation and insights into the Word of YHVH, into his very heart and character? Does this not refresh, nourish and sustain the ground of your life, so that it yields an abundant spiritual crop of joy, shalom, intimacy with the Father and anointing? Is your life a place of fresh manna and constant rain, or a place of stale bread and drought? If so, what changes do you need to make in your life to change this situation?

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