I’m going to put up 10 questions and then the answers at the very end. DO NOT scroll to the bottom unless you want the answers. Try to answer first, then scroll. Leave a comment on how you did and what surprised you…
1. If Gentile converts don’t need the Torah, why were they instructed to learn it in Acts 15:21?
2. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, specifically instructs believers to ‘come out from their midst and be separate’ as well as ‘touch not the unclean thing.’ He says to ‘cleanse ourselves from defilement of flesh AND spirit.’ What specifically is he talking about?
3. What is the definition for how to love God?
4. Hosea 4:6 says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge…” What exactly is the knowledge they are lacking?
5. What, according to Scripture, is sin?
6. Rav Shaul/Paul teaches that Gentiles can be grafted in. Is this new or old teaching? If old, name examples…
7. In the Book of Revelation, the saints who persevere have two characteristics. Name them.
8. The Apostle Peter/Kefa, in his first epistle says, “…but you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation…” Where does he get this idea and what are the qualifications?
9. What was the name of the High Priest who oversaw the rebuilding of the Second Temple? Does it matter?
10. In the Book of Acts, Rav Shaul/Paul offers himself up to be stoned. Where and why?
Do not scroll down unless you want the answers!
_______________________________________________________
1. A pseudo trick question. In fact, Gentile believers need the Torah, contrary to much of what is taught in Christendom. The Torah, the five books of Moses and especially the Book of Deuteronomy, is a covenant between God and Israel. When we are grafted in, through the shed blood of Yeshua the Messiah, we become members of that covenant. The Torah is several things: 1. It defines HOW we love Yahweh God. 2. It defines what is sin. 3. The Torah is the rule book for the Millennial Kingdom. Much of this blog serves to reveal and defend the understanding that God’s instructions (Torah) are for all people, for all time. He doesn’t change and neither do His teachings (Torah).
Isaiah 2:1-5, echoed in multiple other passages, says,
The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established [a]as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
3 And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us [b]concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the [c]law [Torah] will go forth from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And He will judge between the nations,
And will [d]render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
2. Torah articulates things that defile and make believers ‘unclean.’ Leviticus 11, as one example, gives ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ foods instructions and the chapter wraps up by twice telling us to ‘be holy as I am holy.’ In other places we are commanded not to touch or do certain things that defile. When Paul is talking about defilement of flesh, he has these in mind, which proves the continued validity of these instructions in our day. Further, Isaiah 66:17, in a passage about the Day of Judgment, it says,
Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens,
[a]Following one in the center,
Who eat swine’s flesh, detestable things and mice,
Will come to an end altogether,” declares the Lord.
3. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.” “For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not My Torah.” Simply, the Torah is a covenantal document that defines how we are to love Yahweh and Yeshua. Obedience to Torah IS loving God. Disobeying Torah is treason against the King. Pretty simple.
4. Hosea 4:6 says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge…” What exactly is the knowledge they are lacking?
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being My priest.
Since you have forgotten the Torah of your God,
I also will forget your children.
Notice, ‘Torah’ is equated with ‘knowledge.’ In many other places, ‘Torah’ is equated with ‘wisdom’ and ‘understanding.’ You want to be wise? Understanding? Knowledgeable? Torah is the key.
5. Over and over in Scripture, iniquity/sin is defined as breaking the eternal covenant, or violating the Torah. I John 3:4 specifically says, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” The only law in place when John penned those words is the Torah, the everlasting covenant, renewed in Messiah’s blood. It is the ‘law’ that will be written on our hearts.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
6. OLD teaching… This article gives more details, but the short is this: Numbers 15:16 among other places says clearly, ‘there is to be ONE law and one ordinance for you and the alien who sojourns with you.’ Ruth is one clear example of grafting in. ‘Your people, my people; your God my God; (where) you go, I go; (where) you die, I die.’ Being ‘grafted in’ means we are joined to Israel, not them to us. See Ephesians 2. (Read the previous answer to see the ‘new’ covenant is with the House of Judah and the House of Israel. No mention of a covenant with Gentiles… here or anywhere else in Scripture.)
7. Revelation 14:12 says, “Here is the [a]perseverance of the [b]saints who keep the commandments of God and [c]their faith in Jesus.” No surprise. Revelation 12:17 says that those who are the enemies of the Beast are “…(those) who keep the commandments of God AND hold to the testimony of Yeshua.” Apparently, the Beast is not very worried about those who have the testimony of Yeshua but do not keep the commandments. That alone ought to scare to death those who are not fully committed to the Torah/Commandments of God.
8. Peter is not pulling these ideas out of thin air. Exodus 19:3-6 says,
Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. 5 Now then, IF you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant (means ‘keep My commandments’), THEN you shall be My [a]own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
Yahweh’s plan has ALWAYS been a ‘royal priesthood’ and a ‘holy nation.’ The blood of Messiah allows us into the covenant, THEN we have to learn to walk it out!
9. Hmmm… this is a fun little prophetic hint that points to the building of the Third Temple, prophesied in Ezekiel 40-48. Ezra 3:2 tells us his name was ‘Jeshua the son of Jozadak.’ The actual Hebrew, as translated in the Complete Jewish Bible, says, ‘Yeshua the son of Yotzadak.’ The meaning of the names? ‘Salvation’ or ‘Yahweh is salvation‘ the son of ‘Yahweh is righteous.’ Foreshadowing?? Significant?? You betcha!!!
10. Rav Shaul, in Acts 25:7-11, while offering a defense against false accusers, says, “If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die…” Seeming innocuous words until one understands the penalty for teaching against the Torah is death by stoning. Shaul is saying, I have kept the Torah and have NOT taught against it. We must choose one of two conclusions here: a) Rav Shaul/Paul NEVER taught against Torah as his modern day false accusers teach, or b) he was a liar willing to say anything to save his skin, in which case we can’t trust any of his writings. Hmmmm…
There is much more about Rav Shaul/Paul on this blog, but consider this pop quiz to challenge your Pauline knowledge…
Basically, Shaul did NOT teach against the Torah. He NEVER taught that it was abolished or done away with. Rather, as Peter/Kefa rightly states,
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of LAWLESS people and lose your own stability.
I pray this pop quiz has challenged you to dig deeper than the traditions of men… May you be blessed.
Shalom in Messiah Yeshua!
natsab 