The Torah is the five books of Moses, of which Christians these days call the "Old Testament". Contained in the Torah is the Law of God (Law is a Greek term, in the Hebrew it is much more acurate to say Teachings or Commands of God). These are God's instructions to the people He called out of the nations to be His own people: the Israelites, called the Jews. Out of the Israelites came the messiah, Yeshua, or you may know Him by Jesus. The instructions God gave in the Torah are the plumbline for righteousness. And not just for the Jewish people, but for all those who put their trust in Jesus as well; and not just followers of Jesus, but also for the nations.
You might be asking....didn't Jesus do AWAY with the Law on the cross at Calvary? The answer is a definite: NO! Jesus did not do away with the law or teachings of God on the cross. He did away with the requirement of a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. In essence He, who was without sin, became a sacrifice for us so we could be forgiven and have a relationship with God. In fact, Jesus Himself said "Think not that I have come to destroy the Law and the prophets. I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). That word fulfill means to make full, to explain fully. And indeed Jesus did that in His day. The pharisees and sadducees-teachers of the Law- were teaching a form of Judaism which had gone so far away from the true meaning of Torah that it became a burden on the people and they could not worhsip God the way He wanted them to. It actually took the people away from their God. So Yeshua, Jesus, came to CORRECTLY INTERPRET the Law, the Torah. Jesus also said that not ONE JOT nor ONE TITTLE (comparable to our saying dotting of the eye and crossing of the t) would be destroyed unless the earth be destroyed. I would say that Jesus Himself took the Torah pretty seriously! Why don't most Christians today?
Well, there are a few contributing factors. Two of which are early anti-semitism and persecution against Jews (the first followers of Jesus were all Jews) in the early church and the second of which is Replacement Theology. In a nut shell, replacemet theology teaches that the gentile church has replaced Israel in all God's promises to them in the Old Testament, including the promise for land. While we gentile believers are grafted into the olive tree which is the common wealth of Israel, we DO NOT supercede them in the promises God made to them, nor has God taken away these promises from the descendants of Israel and given them to gentile followers of Yeshua. Such teaching has no basis in scripture. Yet the predominantly gentile church of our day persists in this teaching, whether directly or indirectly.
The result of this throughout church history has been catastrophic. The church has literally cut herself off from much of the depth and the richness of her faith due to pride and anti-semitism. Our early church fathers were vicious anti-semites. In fact, Hilter got much of his inspiration from their writings. I am talking majorly influential fathers, such as Martin Luther. You can look this up. It is fact. He called the Jews vermin and said they should be persecuted. Also, the influence of pagan practices infiltrated the early church and was legislated as church doctrine by the self-proclaimed head of the church- Constantine. These pagan influences have replaced the Biblical feasts and have become man's traditions which are falsely taught as biblical doctrine.
The result of the gentile church taking the gospel to the nations without any emphasis on God's law or His holiness, which is demonstrated throughout both Old and New Testaments, has resulted in an anemic church which does not preach the whole truth and is ineffectual in gaining true converts. It has failed to produce much lasting fruit in the kingdom of God and other than a remnant, the scriptures predict that many will fall away from the faith in the last days to follow the anti-christ instead of following Christ. It has also resulted in the wickedness of men increasing on the earth, the lack of basic respect for life, and the natural love of many waxing cold. Men will call what is good evil and what is evil good. We are indeed a wicked (twisted) generation.
In Matthew 24:12, Jesus says, "Because of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold". That word lawlessness correlates to the Hebrew term Torahlessness. Also wickedness. The rabbis have taught for years that in the last days before the Messiah comes (and as we believers know, when He comes again), man will move further and further away from Torah (God's Law). We see this to be true today. Lawlessness abounds. The love of many has grown cold. When parents can beat their children to death, spouses murder eachother over money and adultery, when breaking the seventh commandment is portrayed as glamorous every night on tv, when people are lovers of self rather than lovers of God and dispose of babies in the womb simply because it is not convenient for their lifestyle to be responsible for another human being. Indeed, we are in those days where Torahlessness has increased.
What can we do then? How about RETURNING (repenting) to God and His ways, how about allowing ourselves to return to the whole word of God and his ancient paths? How about repenting to Israel and the Jewish people for the vicious anti-semitism we inherited from man's doctrines and traditions? How about by being reconciled to the root of Israel and letting Yeshua Himself be our teacher and guide and the interpreter of His own Law, just as He did in His ministry on the earth? What have we got to lose? Pride? Selfish ambition? Sin? Judgement? All of which are the ways of God's enemies. It would do us good to lose these things. I would even say it is NECESSARY for us to lose these things. Let us not forget that it was Jesus who told His followers that if your right eye causes you to sin, gauge it out! For it would be better for you to enter into the kingdom of God (eternal life) with one eye, than to be thrown into hell with both eyes (Mark 9:47). Now Jesus said this to make a point and the point is this: we MUST repent of sin and lawlessness.
On the other hand, what have we got to gain by returning to God's ways? Cleansing, righteousness, fear of God, a much closer more intimate relationship with the Savior, a supernatural blessed existence that will spur Israel and the rest of humanity toward God with the right kind of holy jealousy, eternal life in Heaven never to be separated from God...and life from the dead?
We need to weigh the options closely and choose life. We need to remember that doing NOTHING is still a choice. Just as God set before the Israelites life and death and He told them to choose life; so we too stare this choice in the face. As individuals and as a nation. I would say that to make the right choice will ultimately be worth it.
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