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The below is a challenge to some of the nonsense espoused by The Berean Call. While that ministry obviously has a "heart for God", we challenged their response to a reader's question about the Jewish feasts and the seventh-day Sabbath. Their reply to the reader below is the "typical Christian" response which always insists that Torah was abolished on the cross. When we contacted The Berean Call's Customer Service to discuss this issue, we were basically given the same "we're under grace" rhetoric that churches everywhere have assumed.
Question: You claim that Gentiles should not keep Jewish religious feasts because they have no meaning for anyone but Jews. Doesn't God call the festivals His festivals in Leviticus 23? The first feast of the Lord described in Leviticus 23 is the weekly Sabbath day. This is not listed as a Jewish custom, but one given by God to Israel and in turn to any Gentile who wanted to join himself to the Lord God of Israel....Should we not be keeping it today? After all, He gave nine other commands in the same breath and we all agree (except for Catholics [who ignore the prohibition against making images]) that they are binding upon us....Is it not inconsistent to teach that the Sabbath is Jewish, yet the other nine commandments are not...that the Sabbath command is altered, but the other nine are not...? Why is it that the church in nearly all its major denominations follows the Church of Rome in this custom of renouncing Sabbath worship and replacing it with Sunday observance?
The Berean Call's answer: We have dealt with this before, but it keeps coming up. That God's covenant was with Israel and not with Gentiles is declared repeatedly: "He [God] sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any [other] nation..." (Ps 147:19-20); "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law..." (Rom 2:14); "...my kinsmen according to the flesh:...Israelites; to whom pertaineth the...covenants, and the giving of the law" (Rom 9:3-4); "...ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh...aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise..." (Eph 2:11-12), etc., etc.
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The Messianic Response:
The reason this very important issue probably "keeps coming up" is because God is trying to show you that you are off the mark!
Before we begin to challenge The Berean Call's allegations, we would ask that you examine exactly what "Torah" is and isn't, in our article called Freedom from Works of Sinai Covenant! In that article you will learn the different connotations of the term "law" which can mean Brit (covenant) or Torah (teaching). In the article you will discover that the Brit has changed, but the Torah has not.....
Yes - God DID make His covenant with Israel. However: The Gentiles who attached themselves to Israel were required to keep the Torah, as are the grafted-in believers in Yeshua. Christian believers are grafted in to the Olive Tree because they are worshiping the Jewish Messiah who was completely Torah-observant and who came NOT to abolish, but to fulfill Torah (Hebrew: koom = establish/confirm) as outlined in Matthew 5:
Matthew 5: 17 Don't think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. 18 Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah - not until everything that must happen has happened. 19 So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot (words/commands) and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P'rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Has everything happened that must happen? Have heaven and earth passed away yet? If not, then we are supposed to be following Torah to the yud!
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The Berean Call's assertion, continued:
Yes, Gentiles have "the law written in their hearts" (Rom 2:15). That this is only what God had written in every conscience since the beginning, and not the covenants given to Israel at Mt. Sinai, is proved by the fact that human conscience is limited to the moral laws. No one has it written in his conscience to keep the sabbath, much less the numerous other ceremonial instructions of God's covenant with Israel. Their absence from the conscience of mankind is further evidence that the covenants for Israel, including the sabbath, were not given to Gentiles.
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The Messianic Response:
Question: Where did the "moral laws" originate? In the Torah! Since Christians have decided Torah has been abolished, HOW would they know right from wrong - let alone God's "do's" and "don'ts" contained in the 613 original commandments?
Since they have the "laws written on their hearts" - then WHY are they NOT keeping the seventh day Sabbath and the feasts? Why are they NOT automatically practicing kosher eating? Why are they celebrating the pagan holidays of Christmas and Easter?
Yeshua came to abolish man-made ideas; not God's original teaching and instruction - without which we would have NO blueprint for behavior! If there were no Torah, then Christians wouldn't have the "law written on their hearts" because they would have no idea as to what the laws were, to begin with. NOBODY automatically knows the Torah unless they have first been taught. This is why God said to teach it to our children:
Deuteronomy 6: 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
If Christians automatically had Torah "written on their hearts", they would automatically be drawn to keeping the Biblical feasts which are God's appointed times. Yeshua has so far only fulfilled the first four of the seven Biblical feasts! If God is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow, WHY would He suddenly want us to ignore them? God said His Torah would stand FOREVER (2 Chronicles 7:14-22).
If one is TRULY a child of God, why would they want to ignore His original teachings? Does it make sense to read only the the LAST half of a novel, when you haven't got a clue as to what the FIRST half says? One can't understand the "New Testament" unless one has thoroughly studied the "Old Testament".
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The Berean Call's assertion, continued:
Yes, in Old Testament times Gentiles could join Israel by acknowledging the Lord God of Israel and coming under the old covenant He had made with her, which included the obligation to keep the Law. But neither Israel nor anyone else could keep the Law. That is why God promised to make a new covenant (or testament) with Israel (Jer 31:31), bringing salvation to all mankind (Is 52:10), a covenant written "not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart" (2 Cor 3:3).
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The Messianic Response:
Yes, but did God EVER say in the Scriptures that the New Covenant He was promising (via Yeshua HaMashiach) would in any way NEGATE TORAH? NO! He promised a new Covenant; NOT a new Torah! Why would He negate our laws for Godly living? How hypocritical is it that Christians even bother with the Ten Commandments, since they're part of Torah - the first five books of Moses. Why do Christians TITHE, since it's an "OT" commandment (Leviticus 27:30)? Christians are picking and choosing what they want to believe of God's Word!
If Christians automatically have God's commandments "written on their hearts" (which must be the most hackneyed and abused phrase in the history of the Bible!) then please explain why so many "televangelists" have had to step down because they got caught at extra-marital affairs. Why is it that so many televangelists and other pastors are preaching EAR-TICKLING DOCTRINE that doesn't line up with the Bible - just because they want people in the pews so they can rake in those tithes? How come there are SO MANY Christian denominations? Why don't any of them follow what GOD actually said?
The answer is: Because they DON'T have Torah, and they don't have "the law written on their hearts"....
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The Berean Call's assertion, continued:
Christ is the "mediator of the new testament [covenant]" (Heb 9:15), which is made possible through His death in payment of sin. Under the old covenant, animal sacrifices were offered "which can never take away sins" (Heb 10:11). They were symbolic of Christ, the Lamb of God, whose sacrifice on the cross would put an end to sin and the Old Testament sacrifices: "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;...For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified...there is no more offering for sin" (Heb 10:12-18). If you are going to keep the sabbath, then you must offer the prescribed animal sacrifices as well. In fact, those have been done away in Christ, who was the fulfillment of it all.
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The Messianic Response:
We totally agree with the first part of that paragraph. But, we would urge the writers at the Berean Call to study the passage they provided above which says, in part: .... there is no more offering for sin". What does Yeshua's SIN offering have to do with the Sabbath? And what do the Sabbath and animal sacrifices have to do with each other? What does the SIN offering of Yeshua have to do with God's original teaching and instruction? God said:
Exodus 31: 13 "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you."
Exodus 31: 16 "Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'"
As we can see, the Sabbath is a sign of God, or His seal, representing His authority as Creator. If you, as a Christian believe in the Jewish Messiah who was totally Torah observant, what makes you think you don't have follow His example?
Many today insist that since we have God's Word "written on our hearts" (2 Cor. 3:3) they are exempt from being Torah-observant. They insist they are "are under grace and that the only commandments are to love the Lord with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself". However, this is not true, as Yeshua Himself said that He came not to abolish, but to fulfill (Matt. 5:17-20) which has been mistakenly misinterpreted as meaning "ended" or "done away with". God gave us a New Covenant via Yeshua who was our final SIN Sacrifice - which did not automatically replace Torah, God's teachings. Even the final book of the Bible, Revelation, tells us that God's people are those who bear witness to Yeshua AND obey God's commands (Rev. 12:17; Rev. 14:12). Those Scriptures don't say "or"; they both say "and".
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The Berean Call's assertion, continued:
Under the new covenant, Gentiles do not join the nation of Israel, but both Jews and Gentiles become new creations in Christ and are joined into a new entity, the church. Before the Cross, one was either a Jew or a Gentile. Now there are three classes: Jews, Gentiles and the church (1 Cor 10:32). Paul reminds the Ephesians, "For he [Christ] is our peace, who hath made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us...even the law of commandments...for to make in himself of twain [Jew and Gentile] one new man [a Christian]..." (Eph 2:14-15).
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The Messianic Response:
Firstly, 1 Cor. 10:32 does not say that there are suddenly three classes of people; it says not to squabble over, or offend the eating habits of the various groups for "the good of many, so that they may be saved".
Secondly, the writer of the above paragraph has completely contradicted himself. First, he says that one was either a Jew or a Gentile; then he goes on to suggest there are three classes of people - while at the same time using as "proof" Paul's writing that Christ's sacrifice has made us "one new man" in Christ! So which is it? Are we two, three, or one?
We have searched several Bible versions and could not find ONE that included in parenthesis the words the the above writer included (i.e., [a Christian])....Yeshua's disciples weren't "Christians", they were all Torah observant Messianic Jews, none of whom (including Paul!) EVER negated Torah!
David Chernoff at Adat Bnei HaMelech further explains:
According to the New Covenant Scriptures, this "middle wall of partition," spiritually speaking, has been broken down (Ephesians 2:14). We are all one in Him. In fact, according to Rabbi Shaul (Paul), Gentile believers have entered a Jewish faith (Romans 11:24), and have become spiritually circumcised and spiritually Jewish as they have accepted the Jewish Messiah.
Gentile believers are one with us because the spirit of God dwelling within a Jewish believer is the same Spirit within a Gentile believer. Our ethnicity, heritage and background may be different, but God has made us one in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:18; 4:1-6).
Gentile Christianity is the faith in Yeshua (Jesus) as expressed by Gentile followers of Him. Gentile Christianity today numbers over one billion people in the world, with innumerable denominations and doctrines, all centered around Yeshua as Savior. For most of the first century A.D. this faith in Yeshua was predominantly Jewish. As more and more Gentiles came into the Messianic Faith, However, some did not understand its Jewish roots and God's eternal covenant with Israel. A "de-Judaizing" process set in, a separation from the Jewish roots of the faith and from the Jewish people. This separation eventually led to the formation of a second wing of this faith in Yeshua composed of Gentile believers i.e. "Christianity."
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The Berean Call's assertion, continued:
We have not "renounc[ed] sabbath worship and replac[ed] it with Sunday observance." Saturday is still the sabbath, but it pertains to the old covenant and the old creation. That was the day God rested from His work of creating the universe. That old universe connected with the old covenant (testament) is doomed to be destroyed because of sin: "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise...all these things shall be dissolved...[but] we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pt 3:10-13).
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The Messianic Response:
And HOW does that debunk the original seventh-day Sabbath that God commanded? Please pay close attention to our emphasis in the Scripture below (in which YHWH repeats FOUR TIMES that anyone who chooses to accept and worship Him MUST do "exactly as" the Hebrews! How much clearer could it get, and WHEN did God Himself negate this? Also read Isaiah 56:1-8.
Numbers 15: 13 "'Everyone who is native-born must do these things in this way when he brings an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. 14 For the generations to come, whenever an alien or anyone else living among you presents an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, he must do exactly as you do. 15 The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: 16 The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.'"
Please re-read the above in case you missed it: Non-Jews/Hebrews are "aliens"/foreigners. God was very specific what what non-Jews/Hebrews were to do: The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come....It could not be any clearer.
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The Berean Call's assertion, continued:
The new universe will be inhabited only by those who have been made new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). There will be no more sabbath because there will be "no night there" (Rv 21:25) and thus neither passing of time nor counting of days as in the old creation. The lost, however, who are still under the curse of the law, having rejected Christ's payment for their sins, shall be "tormented day and night for ever and ever" (Rv 20:10).
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The Messianic Response:
The lost, however, who are still under the curse of the law, having rejected Christ's payment for their sins, shall be "tormented day and night for ever and ever".....
What???? God's Word is a CURSE? Shame on you! Since it is so clear that you have NO CLUE about Torah, what makes you think you have a right to call God's original teachings a curse! We would ask that you get on your knees, repent, and humble yourself - and then ask God to help you see His TRUTH.
An article at Yashanet called "Not Subject to the Law of God? explains:
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Attempting to gain salvation by following the Torah on your own without faith, and inevitably failing at some point, is the "curse of the Law" -- not the Torah itself.
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Moving onto the the rest of your assertion that there will be no need for the Sabbath in eternity, let's check to see what the Bible says!
God "rested" on the seventh day, not because HE needed rest, but to provide the example that WE would. He "rested" because He was done creating and could admire His work. Sometime thereafter He told us to keep the Sabbath Holy because it would be a SIGN between Him and His creation:
Ezekiel 20: 10 "So I took them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. 11 "I gave them My statutes and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live. 12 "Also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.
Now, pay CLOSE ATTENTION to this one:
Isaiah 66: 22 "As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the LORD, "so will your name and descendants endure. 23 From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD. 24 "And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind."
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The Berean Call's assertion, continued:
Sunday is the day Jesus Christ rose from the grave, "the firstborn from the dead" (Col 1:18). Those who have been born again and are thus new creatures in Christ meet on that day in His name. We are no longer under the old law "of ordinances that was against us,...[which Christ] took out of the way, nailing it to his cross" (Col 2:14); "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made [us] free from the law of sin and death" (Rom 8:2). Christians are held to a much higher standard than Israel had under the old covenant. The law of commandments required human effort and could never be kept; our new standard is the very life of Christ himself. And the only way that can be achieved is not through any human effort but in the power of the Holy Spirit and the risen Lord living His life in us.
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The Messianic Response:
So, when did God say to change the Sabbath to Sunday, just because Jesus gave His life on the cross?
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Perhaps it might interest you to discover that Yeshua was NOT resurrected on a Sunday morning as most Christians seem to think! We have Biblical proof that will surely leave you reeling....
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Col 2:14 - He wiped away the bill of charges against us. Because of the regulations, it stood as a testimony against us; but he removed it by nailing it to the execution-stake.
Did Rav Sha'ul (Paul) say the Law (Torah) was nailed to the cross? Not hardly!
He wiped away the documented opinions of men (bill of charges) against us and took them from our midst....
The Torah is holy, righteous and good. To suddenly have it "nailed to the cross" as The Berean Call would have us believe, suggests that the things of God were originally evil, something to be done away with. That is nothing short of blasphemy!
Please see Yashanet's Study on the Book of Romans which explains from the HEBREW mindset what Paul was actually talking about....
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