Confronting the Lies About Paul—Galatians Explained from a Hebraic Perspective

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You have been lied to about Paul and his epistle to about the Book of Galatians!

An Important Question

When addressing the lies that the mainstream church has been dishing out like a load of dung against Paul and the Word of Elohim (i.e. Yeshua the Messiah, the Word of Elohim) since the time of the early church fathers, let us first ask an important question that has far-reaching implication including whether you can trust the Bible and whether you are saved or not. In the Epistle to the Galatians. It is this: Is Paul advocating the abrogation of the Torah-law as mainstream Christianity teaches or not?

This is the lens through which most Christians view Galatians. For example, the chapter subheadings in my NKJV Bible reveal the antitorah bias of mainstream Christianity. The heading above Galatians 2:11 reads, “No Return to the Law,” and the heading over Gal 3:10 reads, “ The Law Brings a Curse.” When Christians study their Bibles and encounter these subheadings that are written by men and not inspired by the Spirit, what are they to think? Most don’t questions the scholars who translate the Bible or the publishers sell the Bibles. Most readers will automatically thinks to themselves, “After all, these translators and publishers are Bible experts, they know more than I do, so who am I to question them?”

Interestingly, the same author of Galatians elsewhere admonishes us to, “Prove/test all things; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thess 5:21). This is the responsibility of each saint as he studies the word of Elohim. Therefore, it behooves us to have a touch of intellectual scepticism when studying the Scriptures to insure that we’re not unwittingly putting our faith in the traditions and doctrines of men by which the word of Elohim has been made of none-effect (Mark 7:9, 13), and that we haven’t inherited lies that have been passed on down to us from our spiritual fathers (Jer 16:19). Let us instead be like the righteous Bereans who “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

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Dear Natan: Can a Woman Lead a Congregation?

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This question was asked by Charity in the Philippines. I answered her briefly in the comments section of this blog, but below is a more thorough answer.

The Bible, both the Tanakh (OT) and the Testimony of Yeshua (NT), promote male leadership, eldership and priesthood as normative. However, there have been times when men were not available to fulfill the plans and purposes of Elohim, so he used woman. A most notable example was Deborah who was both a prophetess and a judge in Israel (although she was most likely the wife of Barak who was a military leader in Israel, which would have made her the co-leader of Israel with her husband). Huldah was a prophetess, a judge and a counselor to kings. 

The Testimony of Yeshua carries the idea of male leader into the church. In the apostolic era, the Head Leader, of course, was Yeshua himself, then there were his twelve male apostles, and then there were male elders over each congregation (1 Tim 3:1–7; Tit 1:5–9), and the head over each family was the husband and father (Eph 5:22–33). 

The apostolic writings also promote the idea of the priesthood of all believers (e.g. 1 Pet 2:9; Rev 1:6). When it comes to salvation and spiritual equality, in YHVH’s eyes there is neither male or female, Jew or Gentile. All are equal and one in Messiah (Rom 10:12; Gal 3:28; Col 3:11). 

However, the New Testament Scriptures record that the church was still led by male elders. Nevertheless, there are examples of husband and wife ministry teams. In Romans we see the husband and wife apostolic team of Andronicus and Junia (Rom 16:7). Another example of such a evangelistic-pastoral team was Aquila and Priscilla. They worked so closely together that sometimes Scripture mentions wife first, and sometimes the husband (Acts 18:2, 8, 26. Rom 16:3; 1 Cor 16:19; 2 Tim 4:19). 

One example of a likely woman pastor is Lydia who, apparently, led a church in her home (Acts 16:40). The Bible reveals that if there is no man to do fulfill YHVH purposes, he will raise up a woman to do it. The only caveat is that to follow a biblical authority structure, she needs to be under the authority of or accountable to a male elder in some way. Lydia would have been under the eldership of Paul who led her to Yeshua and baptized her (Acts 16:14).

If a woman is leading a congregation and she is married, she should be doing so in conjunction with her husband, with his blessing. If she is not, then she is out of order spiritually. If she’s not married, then she needs to be working in conjunction with male eldership.

 

Hoshana Rabbah Ministry Update July 2019

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This video is for those who feel a special spiritual connection with Natan Lawrence and Hoshana Rabbah ministry. Since I haven’t made any videos in a while, it may appear that we (my wife, Sandi, and I) have ceased our ministry activities. Au contraire! In this video, I briefly discuss our past and present ministry activities and our plans for the future. Thank you for watching and for your encouragement and support. BTW, I will continue to make videos as the Spirit of Elohim directs me to do so. Please stay tuned…

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 7-28 Through 8-3-19

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Parashat Matot-Masei — Numbers 30:2 (30:1)* – 36:13 
Haftarah — Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4
Prophets — Ezekiel 25:1 – 31:18
Writings — Ezra 9:1 – 10:44; Nehemiah 1:1 – 4:23
Testimony — 2 Corinthians 12:1 – 13:14; Galatians 1:1 – 5:26

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.

* Verse numbers in parenthesis refer to the verse number in Christian English Bibles when they differ from Hebrew Bibles or the Tanakh.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 7/28/19 through 8/3/19.

 

So You Want to Start a Hebraic Congregation?

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Over the years, many people around the world have asked for my advice about starting a Hebraic home fellowship or congregation. I tell them all the same thing: I learned to pastor through the school of hard knocks with guidance from no one, although I sough it to no avail. Sadly, I had no one to mentor me. As a result, I made a lot of mistakes and learned by trial and error. Therefore, I’m happy to advise people in any way I can, so that they don’t make the same mistakes that I made. That is the purpose of the following article.

My wife and I started and pastored a Hebraic congregation in 1998 that met in our home for more than two years. When we outgrew our home, we rented a church building for another 15 plus years until the fall of 2016. 

As a result of our experience, dozens of folks have asked my help in mentoring them in starting Hebraic fellowships. To date, I have put nothing in writing on this subject until now. Perhaps some of the questions and suggestions below will be of value to those people daring enough to start a fellowship.

A Word to Those Desiring to Start a Fellowship

Before giving instructions to Timothy about the qualifications for being an elder, Paul had this to say about those desiring to serve as leaders in the congregation of the saints:

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. (1 Tim 3:1)

Desiring to start a fellowship is not a bad thing—especially if the Spirit of Elohim is leading you to do it. If not, forget it. What’s not of YHVH will fail. If  the Spirit is directing you, and you’re not being led by the dictates of your own carnal heart, then there are some things you need to consider first before launching out.

Are You Willing to Pay the Price?

Before starting a fellowship, one must ask oneself some hard questions. One must first count the costs; it’s going to “cost” you more than you think. Are you willing to pay the price?, Yeshua taught his disciples.

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Spiritual Warfare 101…and Beyond!

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2 Corinthians 10:4, The weapons of our warfare…spiritual. 

A Redeemed Believers Authority Through Yeshua—The Biblical Concept of Spiritual Warfare

Is the concept of spiritual warfare a biblical one? Perhaps no scripture of the Bible states the fact that it is more clearly than 2 Corinthians 10:3–5. (Eph 6:10–18 would be a close second!)

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:(for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal [but, by implication are spiritual], but mighty through Elohim to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Elohim, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Messiah. (2 Cor 10:3–5, emphasis mine)

Obviously, Paul understood and taught that redeemed believers are in an ongoing spiritual battle against something or someone, but what and who? James reveals that there are three possible sources of conflict for the redeemed believer: the world, the flesh and the devil (Jas 3:15). The flesh (man’s sin nature) is the greatest enemy that the saint faces. Paul discusses his struggles we face with the carnal man in Romans 7. The world is also a formidable enemy of the redeemed righteous ones. In John 17, Yeshua tells his disciples that though they are in the world, they are not to be of the world (John 17:11,14). He then goes on to describe the conflicts they would have with the world because they are his disciples. Finally, in Ephesians six, Paul describes the spiritual combat the saints face with Satan and his cohorts (Eph 6:10–18). He is constantly seeking to destroy us (1 Pet 5:8), and to find opportunistic inroads into our lives to establish a spiritual beachhead (Eph 6:16; 1 Pet 5:8). It is this latter subject which we will discuss in the following study.

The foundation for waging effective spiritual warfare is to have a deep spiritual relationship with Yeshua — to be loving him by obeying is laws through him (Rom 7:25–26).

The Legal Basis for the Believer’s Spiritual Authority

(Taken from Destined for the Throne by Paul E. Billheimer, pp. 71–80 with additional comments by NL.)

Universal Jurisprudence. It is vitally important for every redeemed believer to know the fullness and extent of the victory over sin, death and the devil that Yeshua secured for us at the cross. To fully understand this, we must comprehend the legal basis for that victory. Elohim is an El (God) of total justice. He established the universe to be governed by a legal system. As Supreme Judge of the universe, he must follow the laws of justice he established that keep order in the universe.

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The Daughters of Zelophehad Help to Add to the Torah

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Numbers 27:1–11, The daughters of Zelophehad. A Torah Commentary For Our Times/ATCFOT (UHAC Press, NY, 1993) has an interesting discussion regarding the incident involving the daughters of Zelophehad (Num. 27:1–11) that may answer some questions that contemporary women have regarding the Torah’s view of women. “Modern commentator Jacob Milgrom contrasts ancient Israelite practices of inheritance with those of their neighbors.” He notes that the practice of equality of inheritance between sons and daughters was upheld in Egypt and Mesopotamia one thousand years before the codification of the Torah. Later on the Greeks can be added to this list of countries that practiced “equal rights.” Milgrom then asks, “In face of such ‘equality’ of treatment how then are we to explain the fact that the Bible gives women no inheritance rights except in the case where there are no sons?” Does the Torah seem to discriminate against women regarding the inheritance of land and property from the estates of their parents, he asks? (p. 80).

“Milgrom suggest that in contrast to ancient Israel’s neighbors…where ‘centralized urban societies’ already existed, the early Torah laws of the Israelites reflect a nomadic-clan structure. In such a society ‘the foremost goal of its legal system was the preservation of the clan.’ Equity between members of the tribe or family preserves peaceful relationships and strengthens cooperation between all person.” He goes on to say that this explains the justness of the pleas of the daughters of Zelophehad where the principle of upholding the clan is preserved. The Torah sees that the daughters receive their father’s inheritance and at the same time that the clan and father’s name are preserved. (ibid.)

This solution does not promote equal rights, as we know it today, with sons regarding inheritance. Both the Torah and Talmud teach that in most cases inheritance of property is from father to son and that women share the lot of their husbands and do not inherit from their fathers (ibid., quoting from JPS Commentary: Numbers, pp. 482–484).

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