How many times am I going to continue to be running in to this?
The notion that Christians serve Satan is grounded in elitism and ignorance –
Christians keep the overwhelming majority of Torah that can be kept, did you know that? 58% cannot be kept without a standing temple, they keep 28% (out of the remaining 42%–so that puts mainstream Christians keeping 67% of what can be kept today) of the Law, and even your most die-hard Messianics ONLY KEEP 8% MORE (and no Messianic or Jew keeps quite the sizable portion of what could conceivably still be kept). They believe that the Bible is true. They believe that YHVH created the world and all that is in it. They believe that the Word of God (regardless of what name they use) became flesh, through a divine birth, lived a perfect life, died, was resurrected, and ascended to the Father. They take care of the weightier matters of Torah that many Messianics completely neglect while they are straining at gnats and clapping themselves on the back for keeping whatever “one true calendar” and “one true pronunciation” they have adopted. Christians care for the widows, orphans, poor, oppressed, sick. They build hospitals, orphanages, adopt special needs and abandoned children, picket abortion clinics, work to change corrupt laws, feed the homeless, work to end the sex trade, spread the gospel, and a whole bunch of other things while their detractors sit on Facebook doing nothing but slandering them for eating pork, not keeping Sabbath and the feasts–conducting their own “ministry” of posting internet memes and insulting remarks for the amusement of people who already agree with them. Well frankly, the overwhelming majority of Christians do what they do out of ignorance because they have been taught since childhood to equate the keeping of the law with falling from grace and not loving Messiah–and that should evoke our compassion and prayers and not our contempt. But what too many Messianics and Hebrew Roots do, as they sit at home and argue and bicker and insult while neglecting the weightier matters of righteousness and justice (which historically were always tied with caring for the “least of these”), just boils down to bad fruit. And I speak as a person who used to do just that but I praise YHVH that He slapped me down hard and changed my heart.
If Torah does not make us more compassionate, less prideful, less divisive and condemning, then we are not “keeping” it–we are looking at it as though it is a mirror and turning our faces away so as to forget what we look like (James 1:23). Like it or not, Christians are our brothers and sisters, in Covenant with YHVH through the blood of Yeshua/Jesus–no different than the Israelites of old. They may be wrong in some areas, but from what I have seen, there is plenty of self-deception and self-righteousness to go around and we are all in the thick of it. Torah didn’t change my heart sixteen years ago–my heavenly Father did, and then He compassionately opened my eyes to Torah when I wasn’t even looking for it. I am no better than any pork and shellfish-eating, Sunday-keeping, Christmas and Easter-observing person, and in fact, I am far worse than many of them. What I am is blessed with the revelation of Torah, which was delivered to me out of pure mercy and compassion when I wasn’t doing anything to deserve it–quite the contrary. I don’t accept Torah because I am more faithful or obedient, I accept it because it was revealed to me. And because of that, I am unable to wag a finger at anyone. It wasn’t my excellence that moved YHVH to bless me with a love of the constitution of His Kingdom, it was the attribute of His mercy poured out into my undeserving mess of a life. But I don’t serve a different God than I did as a Christian, I simply know better how to serve the God I already knew. But if I don’t put it into practice alongside the weightier matters of serving the poor, vulnerable, widowed, orphaned, oppressed, etc–then I am just fooling myself because I have allowed the greatest commandments to fall by the wayside while I just strive to go to all the right parties, stay home from work on the right days, and eat the right things. Yeah, not really all that impressive in comparison, right?
I cited this excellent study by Rabbi Doug Friedman in my book The Bridge, it should cause us all to take down our pride a few notches. <—-click to read
The sequel that just says no to the idea of the law being done away with–>Setting the Record Straight about the Spirit of the Law
Well said, and it needed to be said.
That is exactly how I feel and think, but I was not able to find such good words. Wonderful and I am grateful someone was given wisdom to express it like this.
Thanks for your thoughts on this. May I ask where your information that Christians keep 28% out of the keep able 42% of Torah, and that most Mesdianucs only keep 6% more. That leaves 8% that are keep able we aren’t keeping. What are these?
Did you read the linked article at the end? He goes through it in detail. For one example, we do not practice Levirate marriage – even though I am barren, if my husband dies I will not be going to my brother in law in order to bear him children. As there is no more inheritance in the Land, and therefore no need for my husband’s name to be carried on through the perpetuation of a Land grant, this law is not doable right now. Many laws are actually illegal to keep now – we do not stone witches, or people who break the sabbath, or those who practice idolatry.
Once again, thank you for this!
I am actually reading this on a morning where I poured my heart out to God about the divisiveness I felt between my Christian past and my newly discovered Hebrew roots. What I have seen in my short walk so far is that the fruit of the some in HR is no better than the fruit of the Christians whom some rail against every chance they get. I understand it, though. Many of us are still frustrated that we haven’t been taught all of it from the beginning, and we find so much joy in the fullness of His Word. Instead of acting in the joy we’ve found, we act in hostility for what was withheld from us for so long. But, of course, hostility is not a fruit of the spirit. I think, too, that many of us to whom Torah is revealed have our defenses up because we know that there is equal hostility from Christians towards God’s instructions. It’s a perfect storm. All this is to say, once again, thank you for your encouragement and instruction!!
God actually taught me a method to deflate some of that defensiveness last year. A loved one was over for the weekend and, being elderly, he was very alarmed at our keeping the Sabbath. He challenged us right as we were all going to the table – and I quietly asked, “Is it a sin to keep the Sabbath?” He had honestly never thought of it from that angle and he had to admit that it was not. If he had said yes, I would have gently asked him why Paul said in Romans that the Law is good and not sin. He knows his Bible, and that would have given him more pause. When he did realize it was not sin, we said that we might as well all enjoy ourselves and have a nice meal then. 🙂 Oftentimes, we fuel the fire by our reactions, we feel as though we have to defend ourselves when really, we just have to remind people that we aren’t sinning but just keeping a few more laws than they do and they should not see it as a threat or personal condemnation in any way.
I couldn’t agree more Tyler! What I’ve learned in this journey is to combine whatever “law” we’re obeying with the spiritual Truth of that law. So instead of others just seeing us doing this “dry command” I’ve learned to combine it with the joy and spiritual Truths and fruit of the Spirit. This causes others to become kinda suspicious when they see this joy flowing when we talk about what they were taught is a burden. I absolutely love this journey. Yeshua said the Father is looking for worshipers that worship in Spirit and Truth. So when we obey, we can do the command saturated with ALL the fruit of the Spirit. That draws people and make them very curious! They were taught how burdensome this is suppose to be and here we are revealing so much joy???
See, Greek thinking says its either law or relationship. But יהוה’s ways is relationship through obedience. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar (or something along those lines 🙂