A few days ago I published a piece titled ‘10 Paradigm-shifting New Testament Verses.’  It was a piece that generated more discussion than anything I have published to date on this blog.   Great discussion thread!!

Good!

Discussion and thinking are VERY important.  Most people simply accept what they are told by their parents and/or the pulpit and they never question the establishment.  Frankly, when we each stand before the Judge, He is not going to see if we adhered to what our parents or denomination believed.  He is going to judge by His standard,  Scripture, and we are each accountable for what we have in our hand, even if we choose not to study it.

Since we looked at NT verses, it is only fair to consider some ‘Old Testament’ paradigm-shifting verses.  The great challenge is that there are about five times as many verses to choose from, so whittling the list down to just ten is hard, but here goes.

I have written about a number of these verse at one point or another, so I would encourage following links if a particular topic piques your interest or challenges your paradigm.

1.  Isaiah 40:8 is an oft quoted verse, especially from the pulpit, but I really wonder if we stop and ponder the magnitude!!

The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.

‘The word of our God stands forever.’  Forever!

Doctrines and traditional theological understanding is quick declare parts of God’s Word are ‘done away with.’  That is really hard to square with ‘the word of our God stands forever.’  Yeshua told us that ‘not one jot or tittle would pass from the Law and the Prophets until heaven and earth pass away.’  Kinda sounds like, ‘the word of our God stands forever.’

But, there are entire denominations that declare certain parts of God’s eternal/everlasting Word to be ‘annulled’ or ‘abrogated.’  I’ve even heard pastors in those denominations read Scripture, then recite this verse before preaching from their text…

Hmmm…  Irony.  Wonder if they ever stop to think about what they say if they are preaching that some part of God’s Law is ‘done away with?’

The Word of our God says, ‘the word of our God stands forever.’  When we fully understand what that sentence says, it is paradigm-shifting.

2. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.  True…  but that is not the paradigm shifter.

The Apostle Paul had to remind his readers of this fact when establishing the importance of salvation by faith.  They fully understood the rest of the story.

Today, we are unfamiliar with the rest of the story, so here it is,

[Yahweh, speaking to Isaac] I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; ⁵ because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws (torah).”  Genesis 26:4-5

Because!  

Faith without words is dead!  Faith opens the door.  Faith lets us into the family. But, obedience then evidences that faith.  Lack of obedience equals NO faith.  Period!

Modern theology’s easy believism and endless free grace allowing the trampling of God’s commandments and expectations is down-right sickening.

Further, understanding that Abraham had and kept Torah is a real boggler.  Totally flies in the face of Christian theology that says, ‘Abraham just believed.’

because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws (torah).… Paradigm-shifter.

3. More than once, since beginning to keep more of my King’s commandments, I have had well-meaning Christians tell me that trying to keep the commands would lead to death and judgment…  That I had to ‘live by them’…  nevermind that they misquote Paul’s use of Torah and twist it to say exactly the opposite of what it says..

In fact, the Torah says that observing the commandments leads to righteousness and life!!

It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us.  Deuteronomy 6:25

Why wouldn’t we want to keep the torah?!  It is the definition of righteousness and God’s desire for how we are to live!

Today, Christendom loves to denigrate the Torah…  ‘set free from the Law’ they say…  But, Yahweh promises to bless those who are obedient.  Hmmm…

It will be righteousness for us…  Paradigm-shifting.

4. “God’s not interested in actions!  He’s interested in the heart!  Don’t you know anything?”

Yeah, Christendom seems to think that something changed at the cross and that the heart became more important….  Guess they never read,

Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!

Yep.  A circumcised heart is a Torah concept.  The Father’s desire has ALWAYS been a circumcised heart.  But, a circumcised heart will lead to obedience…  to “keep[ing] all My commandments…  forever.”

No surprise there if you know your Bible.  Ezekiel 37:24-28 (See: Defining ‘Heaven’)

So, ‘the Word of our God [that] stands forever’ says, ‘Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always…‘  

That’ll shake up the ‘law has been done away with’ paradigm.

5.  Be ye holy!  The Apostle Peter speaks of holiness and quotes a passage from the Torah.

Ever looked it up?  It’ll shift your paradigm!

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. ⁴⁵ For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.’  Lev. 11:44-45

While we all agree that holiness is a concept throughout Scripture, do we understand that Yahweh gives several specific marks or ‘works’ that lead to holiness?  The above quoted passage is one of them…  but we have to read the larger context…

Here is the Pete Rambo condensed version, since many will not take the time to read the whole passage,

Eat the clean animals.

DO NOT eat the unclean animals…  they are detestable!!

Be ye holy for I am holy.

Learn the difference in the clean and the unclean, between the edible and the detestable.  Leviticus 11

No where has Yahweh’s standard of holiness ever changed, nor has His definition of food ever changed.  Simply, swine were detestable then, they are now and will be on judgment day!

One aspect of holiness, according to the word of our God that stands forever is what we eat.  That thought is a wrench in the middle of lawless theology.  Paradigm shift!

6. Somehow the word ‘forever’ and ‘perpetual’ means nothing to Christendom.

Seriously!  Supposedly deep thinking theologians have WAY more trouble with ‘forever’ than third-graders!  Something about more degrees leading to less common sense…  I recall a graph of inverse proportion some where…

Put your ‘third-grader glasses on’ and read these verses and then we’ll have a test.  A piece of candy if you get the answer right!

It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.

It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations

True or False   The statute(s) referred to by these verses ended at the cross.

If you said ‘True,’ you are in the company of the Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Bunyan, and a billion Christians…  and you are wrong.  Period.

The verses all come from Leviticus 23.  This chapter details the ‘Feasts of the Lord,’ and we are told multiple times throughout the chapter that the feasts are perpetual statutes, throughout your generations, in all your dwellings….  That kinda sounds like, ‘til heaven and earth pass away…’  Yes?

Also, for those that like to argue that ‘the law only applies in the land,’ the phrase ‘in all your dwelling places’ puts the kibosh on that error.

Honestly, Scripture only requires about a third or fifth grade education to get the important parts.  It is the theologians doing mental gymnastics trying to find ways to justify lawlessness that cause trouble.

‘Forever’ and ‘perpetual’ mean forever.  Blindingly obvious…  I know.  But for some, this is paradigm-shifting!

7.  Since we are talking about ‘forever’ and ‘perpetual’ as well as ‘throughout your generations’ and ‘in all your dwellings…’  Here is another one that just rocks the whole Christendom theological world,

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹³ “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you….

So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ ¹⁷ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”  Exodus 31:12-13, 16-17

Oh, and ‘the word of our God that stands forever’ says that keeping the Sabbath is a sanctification issue.  Hmmm….  For MUCH more on the Sabbath issue, here is a paper my then 16 year old son wrote.  It bears studying.

For those who might focus on ‘sons of Israel,’ I would recommend re-reading Ephesians 2:12 until you understand what it means to be grafted in.

This particular topic is deeply challenging, but the truth will set you free.  Simply, the day of worship, designated in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned was the seventh day Sabbath.  Yeshua kept the seventh-day Sabbath.  No where are we ever commanded, or is it ever even implied that the day of worship was changed by God.

The Word says, “So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.”  Paradigm-shifting!

8. We’ve talked about the fact that the word of our God stands forever.  His word also says we are not to add or subtract from that word.  Interestingly, it says that in a particularly interesting place….

Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.  

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. ⁵ But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you. Deut. 12:32-13:1-5

Simply, Yeshua/Jesus nor Sha’ul/Paul had any desire or authority to change, add to or take away from the commandments of God.  Doing so would have been sin.

Both addressed the many traditions and oral law that was added by the rabbis, but neither ever overturned a single ‘jot or tittle’ from the Torah.  Study for yourself and find this to be true!  It will totally shift your paradigm!

9.  By now, many who read this post are a bit confused and scratching their heads…  Obviously, what you are seeing here is not what you’ve been taught from the pulpit.  I understand, I was in your shoes a couple years ago!

Let’s look at a couple more verses from the ‘word of our God [that] stands forever.’

The Torah of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
⁸ The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
⁹ The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.
¹⁰ They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹ Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;
In keeping them there is great reward.  Psalm 19:7-13

Or, the Pete Rambo condensed version is,

The Torah of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
In keeping them there is great reward. 

When did this verse (these verses) stop being true?  Isn’t this the word of our God that stands forever?

Ponder this thought deeply:

The Torah is perfect instruction in righteousness that leads to great reward!

That really shakes up the theology of Christendom as regards the Torah!  Here is a deeper look into this passage and its implications.  It shifts the ole paradigm.

10.  Read Psalm 119.  The whole thing.  Bask in the deep love and respect the author of the Psalm has for the commandments, the law, the precepts, the statutes, etc. for God’s Law.

Before my eyes were opened, this was one of the most difficult and boring passages of Scripture in the Bible.  Seriously.

After the Father opened my eyes to the great wonder of His majesty as revealed in His instructions (torah) for how to live righteously, this Psalm became a glorious source of joy!  I remember taking the time to highlight synonym of ‘law’ and ‘precepts’ etc.  I got out my concordance to identify and circle in another color every occurrence of the word ‘torah.’  I highlighted in still another color whole verses that held special revelation contrary to accepted Christian doctrine.

Here are a couple favorites…  verses so rich and deep that they are delicious on the tongue.  Candy for the mind…

How blessed are those whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the torah of the Lord.

So I will keep Your torah continually,
Forever and ever.
And I will walk at liberty,
For I seek Your precepts.

I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes
Forever, even to the end.  I hate those who are double-minded,
But I love Your torah.

The sum of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.

Those who love Your torah have great peace,
And nothing causes them to stumble.
 I hope for Your Yeshua, O Lord,
And do Your commandments.

I long for Your Yeshua, O Lord,
And Your torah is my delight.

Those and many others in this Psalm alone completely shatter any idea that the Torah is ‘done away with.’  Any doctrinal statement, pastor, teacher or church ‘father’ who teaches that the Law is done away with proves themselves to be utterly false.

Utterly false!

“So I will keep Your torah continually,
Forever and ever.
And I will walk at liberty,”

Paradigm shifter!

Do you really know the Word of the Lord?  Do you really understand what ‘forever’ means?

I would challenge you to take off the denominational glasses and get before Yahweh and open your heart.  Read His Word that stands forever and accept what it says without filtering through doctrinal statements.  Be willing to contend for truth!

If you have questions, please ask.

Shalom!