Our Faith and Practice - Questions and Answers
Our family is a "Torah Submissive" family, believing God's commands given in
His Torah are just as applicable to modern day believers in Messiah Yeshua
(Jesus Christ) as
they were to the children of Israel to whom they were originally given.
Some refer to this manner of practicing our faith as "Hebraic Christianity", "Apostolic Judiasim",
or "Messianic Christianity". We
believe that Yeshua is God's promised Messiah, and that salvation comes
only by faith in His substitutionary atonement through God's grace. Torah
submissiveness pertains to how one lives after accepting God's gift of salvation
(i.e., how we walk out our faith); it does not have anything to do with becoming
saved, or with earning or keeping one's salvation.
Presented below are several questions and answers about Torah submissiveness
that we hope will challenge and encourage you. What is the Torah? What is the significance of the name Yeshua? Why
did God choose it and send His angel Gabriel to instruct both Miryam and Yosef
to use that name? The name Yeshua means "God is Salvation". It is written in
Luke 2:30 that Shimon (Simeon) declared that his eyes had seen God’s salvation
when he held the baby Yeshua. Messiah Yeshua
here was clearly contrasting "abolishing" (i.e., to put an end to, finish, or
complete) with "fulfilling". Accordingly, His fulfillment cannot mean that
He put an end to, or cancelled, the Torah; therefore, the Torah must then still
be relevant for Believers today.
Yet, sadly, in its teaching that Messiah Yeshua "fulfilled" the Torah, the modern church disregards the Torah as if
Messiah Yeshua did indeed do away with it.
Theologians
often segregate the Torah into moral law, civil law, and ceremonial law. They
are then able to proceed by saying that the Gospels made the ceremonial and
civil laws obsolete, so that only the moral law remains valid through the new
dispensation of grace. Since categorizing the laws into these divisions is
arbitrary, nearly any law can be classified as civil or ceremonial - and since
as taught by the modern church the civil and ceremonial laws have been made
obsolete, nearly any part of Torah can then be declared as invalid. Following
this line of reasoning, nothing can be said to be absolutely right or wrong;
meaning that there can be no absolute truth. Everything becomes subject to
interpretation and dismissal as part of an obsolete body of civil or ceremonial
law. How does the popular "What Would Jesus Do?"
question relate to whether Believers should keep the Torah?
[Back to top] WWJD? was originally intended to serve as a
reminder to consider how Messiah Yeshua would act in a given situation, and then
act in a manner in which He would act. The assumption here is that Believers
today should do exactly what Messiah Yeshua did. Unfortunately much of the
original intent of this phrase was lost when it became popularized through
marketing efforts in the 1990's, and today "WWJD?" is often little more than a fashion
statement. However, in context of whether Believers should keep the Torah, "WWYD?"
("What Would Yeshua Do?"), or perhaps "WDYD?" ("What Did Yeshua Do?") is an
excellent question to ask if we agree that we should in all ways possible seek
to emulate Messiah Yeshua. We know that Messiah Yeshua was sinless (He had
to be in order to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins). We also know that sin
is transgression of the law (Torah). Therefore, Messiah Yeshua had
to perfectly follow the Torah in order to be sinless and therefore qualified as
the "lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world". For example, in the
Apostolic Scriptures we see that Messiah Yeshua:
Wore tzitzit (Num 15:38-39; Mark 5:24-34)
Why do you use the terms "Hebrew Scriptures" and "Apostolic
Scriptures" instead
of "Old Testament" and "New Testament", respectively?
Why do you call the Messiah "Yeshua" instead of "Jesus" or "Jesus
Christ"?
Isn't it true that we are no
longer under Law, but under grace, and therefore
do not have to keep the Law
(Torah)?
How does the popular "What Would Jesus Do?" question relate to
whether Believers
should keep the Torah?
If you hold that Believers today should follow the Torah,
do you sacrifice animals?
What is your position on keeping God's dietary instruction in the
Torah?
Why do you observe the Sabbath on Saturday instead of Sunday?
What is the Torah?
Torah is a Hebrew word meaning "teaching" or
"instruction". The Torah is a set of instructions given by God to Israel, which
according to Shaul (Paul)
includes non-Jewish Believers who have been grafted in by faith in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ)
(Rom 11:17-24). In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures), the Rabbis translated the word "Torah" into the Greek "nomos"
(even though that is not an accurate translation), which is translated "Law" in
English. In most Bibles today, "Torah" is usually translated as "Law" or
"Commandment". That is unfortunate because it tarnishes the real meaning of Torah.
God gave the Torah for moral instruction and
righteous living for all generations. It reveals His plan of redemption and
salvation which He has made available to all mankind.
Today, the
mere mention that one feels led to obey God’s commandments recorded
in the Torah causes many Believers to say, "Be careful, you are placing
yourself 'under the Law'!" They are quick to recite the classic Christian
cliché, "We are saved by grace; they (Jews who lived before the time of Messiah Yeshua) were saved by obeying the Law."
Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.
The Torah was originally given to the Children of
Israel at Mt. Sinai. The Children of Israel had been delivered from Egyptian bondage
by God’s grace and by trusting Him through the application of the blood of the Passover lamb upon
the doorposts and lintels of their homes. In other words, they were "saved" or
“delivered” by God's grace through faith - just like Avraham
(Abraham) was. They demonstrated their faith by taking action. Then God
gave His Torah (divine teachings or instructions) for them to follow so that
they would live a full life complete with all the blessings promised in
Deuteronomy 30. This is the process of sanctification: God's redeemed people
learning to be obedient to His teachings. These and subsequent
generations through the time of Messiah Yeshua's death did not earn salvation by
following the commands in the Torah; rather, they were
saved by God's grace through their faith in Him and His promise of Messiah, as
they were taught in the Torah. Torah, correctly understood, was not a
means toward salvation, but rather a guide to lead people to Messiah and
instruction for how God expects His redeemed people to live.
What is the Believer's relationship to the
Torah today? The Torah is our guide for how God expects us to live. Our
love for God should drive us to desire to live in obedience to His Torah. Justified by
faith in Messiah Yeshua and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are freed from the
hopelessness of striving to be righteous by our own efforts. Ezekiel put this perfectly when he
wrote that God will put His Spirit in us and cause us to walk in His
ordinances (Ezekiel 36:27). Messiah Yeshua also said that if we
love Him we should keep His commandments (His Torah) (see John 14:15).
Why do you use the terms "Hebrew Scriptures" and
"Apostolic Scriptures" instead of "Old Testament" and "New Testament",
respectively?
[Back to top]
We avoid using the terms "Old Testament" and "New Testament" because
they reinforce incorrect concepts. We use the terms "Hebrew Scriptures" and
"Apostolic Scriptures" to refer to these two portions of Scripture and to
indicate their respective origins.
The entire Scriptures from
Genesis to the Book of the Revelation are a continuum. The term “New”
implies something that replaces, or is better than, something that is "Old".
This is what many Believers believe concerning the New Testament; however, that
is not at all the case. The Torah has not changed. The New has
not replaced the Old. The Scriptures are a single, eternal document that reveals
God’s nature and plan of restoration for His creation. This plan is illuminated
to us as we read from Genesis to the Book of the Revelation.
Why do you call the Messiah "Yeshua" instead of
"Jesus" or "Jesus Christ"?
[Back to top]
The answer to this question is really quite simple - it is because
Yeshua is the name that His parents gave to Him (in
obedience to the angel Gabriel's instruction (Luke 1:31, Matt 1:21))! Yeshua the Messiah was born a Jew
into a Torah observant Jewish family in Israel. Miryam (Mary) and Yosef
(Joseph), His parents, followed the commandments of God as written in the Torah.
This is evident in the Apostolic Scriptures. Messiah Yeshua had a covenant of
circumcision and was redeemed as the first-born son in the Temple (Luke 2:21-24). So, of course He was given a name
that is Hebrew - Yeshua. That is His name. We
choose to honor Him by referring to Him by His given name, “Yeshua”, the name chosen for Him by God and delivered by the
angel Gabriel. In English, the name Yeshua is correctly translated “Joshua”.
The
English word “Jesus” is a transliteration of
"Iesous", which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Yeshua. Just
as today we refer to individuals by their given name rather than translating
foreign names into English, we choose to use Yeshua's correct Hebrew name.
Many people are also under an incorrect impression
that "Christ" is part of Messiah Yeshua's name. The English word "Christ" is a
transliteration of the Greek word "Christos", which is itself a translation of
the Hebrew word "Messiach", which means "Anointed One". "Messiah" is the English
transliteration of "Messiach", and is Yeshua's title, not His name.
Isn't it true that we are no longer under Law,
but under grace, and therefore do not have to keep the Law (Torah)?
[Back to top]
Many Believers in Messiah Yeshua today would
respond with an emphatic "Yes!" to this question. We agree that
our salvation comes only by God's grace through faith, and that works of
righteousness in keeping the Torah cannot merit salvation. However, we believe that the
Scriptures teach that the Torah has an important role in a Believer's life after
accepting God's salvation. Far from abandoning the Torah, or relegating it
to an inferior status, Messiah Yeshua called the people of His day - and us in
our day - to embrace the Torah as God's gracious revelation of His own holiness
and His instruction for our own righteous living.
Let's first define what
the Torah is. Simply put, the Torah is a set of life instructions that God has given
to His redeemed people. The Torah consists of commandments, statutes, precepts,
and ordinances that God has given us to observe, remember, and keep so all would
be well with us. These include observing the biblical seventh day Sabbath, God's
dietary instructions, and the keeping of God's Appointed Times (commonly
referred to as the "Feasts").
In John 14:15, Messiah Yeshua tells His disciples
"If you love me, keep my commandments." The key to understanding this verse is
to know what Messiah Yeshua means by His "commandments".
Messiah Yeshua
is talking to His followers; that is, those who have placed their trust in Him
as the promised Messiah so that they are a redeemed people. Through searching
the Hebrew Scriptures, and by faith, the illumination of Yeshua's identity as God manifested in the
flesh and the promised Messiah had been made known to them. Messiah Yeshua is admonishing
them to demonstrate their love through obedience by keeping His commandments.
What are His commandments? The Apostolic Scriptures ("New Testament") had not
been written, so clearly Messiah Yeshua was referring to His
commandments written in the Hebrew Scriptures ("Old
Testament"). In that day, the term
"commandments" in this context always was a reference to the Torah (the first
five books of the Hebrew Scriptures). Clearly Messiah Yeshua is calling His
followers to obey all that is written in God's Torah - God's commandments that were initially given to the children of Israel
on Mt. Sinai, and now to be kept by all Believers who desire to be obedient and pleasing
to God.
Messiah Yeshua is saying that if you love Him you will
demonstrate that love and it will be made evident by the observing, keeping, and
remembering the commands that He has given in the Torah.
In Matthew 5:17-19, Messiah Yeshua said "Think not
that I am come to destroy the Law ("Torah") or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach
men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven: but whosoever
shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of
Heaven."
Messiah Yeshua clearly stated that He did not come to do
away with the Torah; rather, He came to fulfill the Torah and the
Prophets.
There are three aspects in which Messiah Yeshua
fulfilled the Torah and the Prophets, none of which render the Torah
obsolete. First, He fulfilled the Torah by keeping all of the commands in the
Torah. If He had not, He would not have been "sinless"
and could not have been the perfect sacrifice for our sins; in other words, He
would not have qualified as the Messiah.
In this sense, His fulfillment of the Torah was an
affirmation of His Messiahship. Second, He fulfilled the Torah and the
Prophets in that His coming was exactly what the messianic symbolism in the
Torah pointed towards; and His coming also fulfilled all of the prophecies in
the Prophets that spoke of His coming. When we refer to
prophecy as having been "fulfilled", it does not mean that the prophecy no longer applies;
rather, it means that the event that the prophets spoke of has come to pass, but
that event does not render the original prophecy invalid.
In the same way, Messiah Yeshua is stating that His fulfillment of the Torah and
the Prophets did not put an end to the Torah; rather, His coming brought to pass all of the prophecies in the
Hebrew Scriptures that referred to His coming. Third, the word "fulfill"
here means to "confirm" or to "establish". Messiah Yeshua stated here that
He did not come to do away with the Torah; on the contrary, He said that He came
to confirm it, or to establish its relevance.
Messiah Yeshua taught in Matt
5:18 that as long as the sun, the moon and the stars held their courses in
the sky, as long as the world continues, neither the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet or
the smallest decorative stroke would disappear from the Torah or the Prophets
"until all was accomplished". The Torah will last.
But doesn't Rom 10:4 say that "Christ is the end
of the Law"? Yes, it does say that…in English. But we must remember this basic
premise: Scripture cannot contradict itself. So, the word "end" in
this verse must mean something
other than "conclusion". The Greek word here for end is "telos". But a
more proper translation of "telos" in this context is "goal" or "purpose." The
"goal" of the Torah is Messiah Yeshua. He is the end of Torah,
but not the ending. He is the goal of the Torah, but is not its
termination. The Torah defines what sin is and
points to Messiah Yeshua as the perfect sacrifice to cover our sin.
Take note of what Messiah Yeshua says next in
Matt 5:19. Any person who abandons the practice of keeping the
commandments in the Torah and teaches others to do the same, shall be least in the Kingdom of
Heaven. This is a stern warning to all Believers. Messiah Yeshua is saying that
although you will not lose your salvation if you choose not to follow
the Torah, you can severely affect your status in His Kingdom! Following God's
commands in His Torah is not an issue of salvation. The purpose of the Torah was
not to "save", but to teach the Believer how to walk in God's ways. Remember when the Children of Israel
were delivered from Egyptian bondage? They were already redeemed by the blood of the
lamb applied to the doorposts of their homes. They were brought into freedom at
Mt. Sinai when God gave them the Torah. The Torah was given
to a people who had already put their trust (faith) in God and were delivered
from bondage into freedom. What happened next? The Children of Israel needed to
be trained in holiness. In other words, the giving of the Torah was for the
purpose of sanctifying them as the people of God. This sanctification came
complete with the promise of a long and satisfying life (among other blessings)
to those who walk in obedience with a pure heart attitude. The same is true for Believers today. We
are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (Messiah Yeshua) applied to the doorposts
of our hearts. We receive the Torah, but this time written on our hearts. This
is the Renewed Covenant recorded in Jer 31:31-34
and Ezek 36:27.
Back to our question of obedience to God's
commandments (i.e., the Torah). Is it a matter of choice? The Scriptures clearly
teach that God does not change; since that is the case, then it must be that His
Torah does not change either. He is not a God of wrath in the Hebrew Scriptures
and a God of grace in the Apostolic Scriptures. He was, is, and always will be
full of grace but He also is God who judges righteously. He always was, always
is, and always will be full of mercy and grace.
While some claim that "the Law has been done
away with," the Scriptures do not declare this at all. The greatest commandment,
according to Messiah Yeshua, is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
soul, and strength (substance)." This commandment is found in Deut 6:4-6, and is quoted in
Matt 22:36-38.
According to Shaul's teaching in Gal 3:13, it is not "the Law" that has been done away
with; rather, it is the "curse of the Law". Since the Scripture teaches that the
"Law" only condemns law-breakers, why should any Believer in Messiah Yeshua, who
desires to follow Him, not submit to and desire to be obedient to God's Torah?
The children of Israel were presented with God's
Torah in the wilderness and responded by saying that all that they have heard
they will keep and do. At Mt. Sinai, as recorded in Ex 24:3 they said, "We
will obey every word that God has spoken". How much more for Believers in
Messiah Yeshua who have been born from above and
have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them? It is the same Torah. If we say that we
love God, we must keep His commandments (His Torah). Obedience is a product of
love, and is the evidence of our faith. With Messiah Yeshua's teaching of how we
should walk and the Holy Spirit empowering us we can keep God's Torah. It is
written on our hearts (Jer 31:31-34). We are to love God with all of our
hearts according to Deut 6:5. So it is the love and fear (reverence) of
God that motivates us to keep His commandments (His Torah).
This explanation is, however, flawed at its core. There are not three Torahs.
Num 15:16 states "There is to be one law (Torah) and one ordinance for you and
for the alien who sojourns with you." The Torah does not segregate laws into
moral, civil, and ceremonial laws. Any such division is artificial and
arbitrary. The laws that are ceremonial in nature are listed among
the moral and civil laws. The Torah is an indivisible whole that is in its
entirety applicable today.
So, the answer to the question is that we should keep all of the
commandments in God's Torah as a demonstration of our love for Him. As we
continue to study the Scriptures and grow in the fear and admonition of God may
the words of Psalm 119:1-2 come to pass in our lives: "How happy are those whose
way of life is blameless, who live by the Torah of God! How happy are those who
observe His instruction, who seek Him wholeheartedly!"
Yes, the Torah is for today. God's instructions are
the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Kept Passover (Lev 23:4-8; Matt 26:17-20)
