TSIYON NEWS

From Eliyahu

Consider this:

Many of us were once taught in the Church that the Torah (Law of Moses) has been done away with for everyone who puts faith in Messiah and is "saved." We were also told this is the same for Jews and Gentiles alike, because, once saved, all are part of the new body, the Christian Church. Adopting this point of view is a lot like putting on a pair of Church-colored glasses. With these glasses on one tends to read the Scriptures of the New Testament with this Church-bias against the Torah. Yet, reading through Acts, there are many points that don't conform to that picture. For example, we learn that the early believers considered themselves Jews, and were considered Jews, even if errant Jews, by the Jewish community at large. As Jews, they kept the Torah. For example, James, the leader of the Assembly in Jerusalem said to Paul:

 

“You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Torah." Acts 21:20

 

Why were all the thousands of believers in Jerusalem identified as "Jews" who are "zealous for the Torah" if the Torah had been done away with? Note that James had proudly informed Paul of this love of Torah on the part of all the believers in Jerusalem. Surely, if James and the believers in Jerusalem were wrong about this, Paul would have corrected James about it, but Paul never did. Actually, Paul was a Jew "zealous for the Torah" also! This is what he said to a crowd of fellow-Jews in Jerusalem:

 

“I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the Torah of our fathers, being zealous for Elohim, even as you all are this day." Acts 22:3

 

This would have been the perfect opportunity for Paul to identify himself as a "Christian" - if that is how he saw himself and the movement he was a part of. Instead, he said "I am indeed a Jew." This is but one of many examples indicating flaws in Church theology on this topic. If the Church could be wrong about this, what else have they been wrong about? If we take off the Church-colored glasses and just see what is on the pages of Acts, what else will we find?

Actually, we will never find men like James and Paul identifying themselves as part of some Gentile group called "the Christian Church". They behaved like Israelites, observing the Law of Moses. For example, Paul attended synagogue every Sabbath, kept the feast days of YHWH, and even went beyond that, taking a nazarite vow. (1Cor 5:8, Acts 18:4, 18-19, Numbers 6:1-21)

 

If all of this is true then why do we find Paul seeming to make statements against the Torah, even doing away with it? Statements like this:

 

"..having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace" Ephesians 2:15 NKJV

 

Here, it is usually supposed that Paul is saying that Christ "abolished" the Torah. But what exactly is "the law of commandments contained in ordinances"? Here is the Greek word this is translated from:

 

dogma- G1378 - from G1380; an opinion, (a public) decree [NASEC]

 

Paul is talking about DOGMA! - not the Torah! Dogma refers to opinions and decrees of religion. Such opinions and decrees issue from man, not God. Yeshua often referred to such dogma as "traditions of men" and condemned them as making the commands of God of none effect. It is this dogma, commandments of men, that Yeshua voided by His death for us. By contrast, the Torah is the inspired foundational Scripture on which all the Scripture that follows rests. You can't throw out the foundation of your house and expect the rest of it to continue standing! ALL Scripture must be embraced as the Word of God. (Mark 7:7+8)