Okay, first of all, I want to make it perfectly clear what my intentions are to do in this article. What I'm going to do is present an article from the position of a Christian, and demonstrate where the argument ends up. What I am not trying to do is offend Christians. Christians, though I believe, well intentioned, have some issues within their theology. Nevertheless, it is not the fault of the doctrine, but rather the framework. It is not entirely a Christians' fault today that hellenization drives American culture. We shall look at this through a viewpoint that is honest and fair though, through the lenses of my former Christian position.
Let me begin. Most of the time, when I converse with Christians in the area of Apologetics, I often hear people go directly to the writings of Paul when discussing the Torah. (I know I have hammered this point to death, but for the sake of what I'm trying to explain, this is necessary to understand). The only person, and I"ll repeat this again, who is alleged by Christians to declare that we are not under the Torah any longer is Paul, the apostle Saul. It never fails that when I get on this subject his name is the ONLY one who pops up. We hear the dogmatic claims all the time. "Christ nailed half the Bible to the cross." But whom do they draw this based off of? Only Paul.
Well, lets interpret the Torah from the framework of Christians. To any Ebionites readers who might stumble upon this article, you should read my previous arguments on Paul. Readers of the blog should be familiar on my position by now. But I want to look at it through the dogmatic hyperliteral framework of what a Christian sees.
First of all, most Christians don't even observe what Paul talks about with the Torah. Usually they site Romans 6:14 "14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." Or they might look to Galatians 2:21 "21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"[a]
I mention these two verses first because from two Christian theologians, doctorates at that, have these two verses been mentioned to refute the Torah. But again, we're looking at an English interpretation. We're going to see some problems when looking at purely the English here.
Lets read further what Paul writes. Romans 7:7 "7What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."[a]" We can obviously tell that Paul that the Torah is not sin based off of this writing. This brings a problem when looking at the interpretation of Galatians 2:21 in the English context because the Torah does not provide righteousness anymore according to the grace message interpretation. But if thats the case, the only thing the Torah can provide is sin. But if the Torah is not sin, it must be something else. Well, Paul describes in Romans 7:12 "12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good." Now we cut to our first contradiction within the given context. The law is now described as righteous, but then not righteous.
This has led Christian theologians to a correct interpretation of scripture. That the context of "under the law" and "works of the law" must be referring to some other law. Some who have done their homework will declare rightfully so that this is discussing the Talmud. So what do Christians turn to as their saving grace when this happens. Have no fear, we have Ephesians 2:15 "15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace." A little cherry picking and we have resolved the problem of contradiction within scripture. Now I mention this because I have Christian Apologist minister friends who direct me to this verse when they are done talking about the context of the other scriptures. But theres a little problem with this. Let me lay out the framework. Romans 3:31 states "31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law." The most thorough argument I read from a Christian resource failed to actually do this though when pointing out Ephesians 2:15 to me. According to Paul, we have to go back and uphold the law. Alright, so lets see what the law says before jumping to the conclusion that Ephesians 2:15 in any way can contradict the scriptures. What does the Torah do for us that is very valuable in determining who to listen to or not? It identifies who a messenger of God is. Basically, by his own admission, we including himself, must uphold the Torah to be declared a messenger of God. This is defined in Deuteronomy 13. "1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. 5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he preached rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.
6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), 8 do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. 9 You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10 Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.
12 If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in 13 that wicked men have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods you have not known), 14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, 15 you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, [a] both its people and its livestock. 16 Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt. 17 None of those condemned things [b] shall be found in your hands, so that the LORD will turn from his fierce anger; he will show you mercy, have compassion on you, and increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your forefathers, 18 because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes." If Paul by his own admission is telling us that we are not required to obey the mitzvahs of the Lord our God...the simple conclusion can be reached that he is not a messenger of God. According to Apologists and Theologians from a hellenized Christian perspective, thats what is being declared. Remember when I said in a previous article its an all or nothing? Here is what I mean. Either Paul contradicts himself, or Paul teaches the Torah. When we go back to the Greek, we find it is the latter. FYI, when Christians preach this message to a Messianic Jew, the best their going to get from them is a convert to Ebionite, meaning a rejection of the writings of Paul. The ironic thing is that I don't know a single Christian who wants this to happen. But its as simple as that, its not an either/or fallacy. We reach the conclusion based on this information that Hellenized Christians do not understand Paul's writings (2 Peter 3:15-18). One must re-examine this, and preach this correctly to Jews if they are ever going to accept the message of their Jewish Messiah. We are therefore both under grace....but we are also under the Torah. Most often from Christian we hear about freedom in Christ. YES! We have freedom in Christ. Most people don't appreciate Ya'akov 2:12 (better unfortunately known as James 2:12) which states "12Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom." The Torah gives freedom. Imagine that. We are free to follow the Torah because of Yeshua's sacrifice......have we ever thought of that? Indeed that is the whole point. And the thing abolished, the only thing abolished was the death penalty by Yeshua, and the need for an earthly high priest. Why was this? Specifically, the point being made in Hebrews is since we don't need an earthly high priest, it necessarily follows that the judging will now be done by Yeshua. The death penalty is now operated by Yeshua. For those who choose to follow and be obedient to him, though we will still be judged according to what we do, and for those who accept the ultimate sin sacrifice of Yeshua and do not act in active rebellion (because this is the one thing that there has never been a sin sacrifice for), we will be in the clear. For those who continue to live in active rebellion of God's word, you will be punished severely. It runs as simple as this. So the death penalty...is kind of in effect, and kind of not. It will be instituted when Yeshua returns to Earth. There is no way that one can arrive to the conclusion that the Torah is no longer in effect nor the Old Covenant (the term utilized is "Renewed" Covenant according to the Bible). It has not been diminished in its power. It just needs to be better understood. The best way to explain the Bible is that grace existed during the time of the Tanakh (God as I have stated in previous articles, forgave the people according to the Torah, their sins when they provided sacrifices and acknowledged their sins), and it still exists today. Hence I have no problem co-oping Grace and Torah. And to those who think following the Torah is difficult, lets remember Deuteronomy 30:11-14 " 11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it." So it was then, and so it is even moreso today. All we have to do is study God's word and learn how to obey it.
What I really think is amazing is how we have arrived to this point of view about Paul without even acknowledging Matthew 5:17-18. The Torah hasn't been completely fulfilled yet, yet another problem for hellenism.
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