What's It All About?
What Can We Do About It?
I think that part of the problem with “Christianity” today, in my estimation, is the way we do church. Most church people these days put on their Sunday best, show up, listen to the sermon and then as soon as that last stanza of “Just as I am” is finished reverberating off of the sanctuary walls and the pastor says “Amen,” we’re out the door and breaking all sorts of statutes to get to the all you can eat buffet at the Golden Corral before the seats are all taken and the lines start to form.
Is that what Christianity is all about? Sadly, many ancient astronaut theorists say yes!
IMHO, we need to get back to the basics. We need to get back to our roots! That’s why I’ve become an advocate for simple, organic, “house church” fellowships where you’re more than just a dues paying member of a private club. In this form of ekklesia, you’re actually family. In this format of “Church” everyone is welcomed like a brother or a sister and everyone gets to participate. Some may sing or play an instrument, some may provide hospitality, some may teach and others may mentor and some help serve, but nobody gets to just sit there like a bump on a log and vegetate their way through a gathering.
The other thing about house fellowships is everyone knows everybody else. We know their names, what they do, where they live, the names of their kids, their ages and what schools they go to, what grade their in and what sports they like or play. An organic house church actually becomes your extended “Spiritual” family and everyone loves one-another, encourages one-another and is there to help one-another through their struggles in life and in their walk with the Lord.
You see, I believe that after 2000 years of waiting for Yeshua’s return, our institutional churches have become as fouled up as the Pharisees, Sadducees and all the rest of the “Keepers of the Law” had become when Yeshua came the first time. They not only knew the law, they also knew all of the traditions they had added to the law and were holding all of the other people to account for in the process. They also knew all of the loopholes that allowed themselves to escape scrutiny. And just like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, we’ve become either too liberal or too legalistic in the process. We’ve either added to God’s Torah or God’s Word if you will and we’ve taken away from it and if memory serves me correctly, that’s NOT in our job description!
The other thing we’ve done, perhaps even worse than our Hebrew brethren and cistern before us, is falling away to follow other (little “g”) gods. There is so much in our Christianity that is actually pagan in origin and so one could argue that we deserve even harsher judgement than the Pharisees and Sadducees that preceded us. Judgement begins at the House of God and Lord knows we deserve it. So again, I think we need to get back to the basics, our roots of where “Christianity” was at the very beginning and so for the remainder of this little essay, I want to go over a few things for your consideration.
Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law and not to worship him in the same way the heathens worship their gods
You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
~ Deuteronomy 4:2 NASB 1995
“Do not worship the Lord your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods.
~ Deuteronomy 12:4 NASB 1995
So why is this important? Well, If we love God, we should obey him and perhaps more importantly, I believe that the main reason why the Pharisee’s and Sadducee’s had so much trouble with Yeshua at his firs coming was because of all the manmade traditions they added to and elevated in status equal to the instructions given to us in God’s Torah. If you think about it, I think one could argue that many of the miracles Yeshua performed was a refutation of these traditions. For example, the stone jars that Yeshua used in His first miracle, turning water into wine, was arguably a refutation of the traditional cleansing rituals that the Jews had added to the Torah.
How does this apply to us today? Well, I for would argue that we need to take a long hard look at a lot of the traditions that we “Christian’s” have added to “the faith” today that stand in contradiction to anything God commanded of us. For example, nowhere in the scriptures are we commanded to celebrate Yeshua’s birthday! The only thing he asked us to do in remembrance of him was to gather together and then break some bread and drink a little wine until he returns. Get together, have a meal, enjoy each other’s company and encourage one another and then remember me while you’re at it. What makes us think we’re exempt from His judging us the way He judged them when He returns?
If you’ll think about it and then do some research on it, you’ll find that most of these “Christmas” traditions we practice today are found nowhere in the scriptures. I think one could argue again that they come largely from pagan traditions and practices that were added in order to welcome pagan’s into the Roman Church and grow the tax base. I would argue the same regarding Easter. What do marshmallow bunnies and colored eggs have to do with his death, burial and resurrection? You could make the same argument of all these other supposedly “Christian” holidays like Lent, St. Patricks Day, St. Valentines Day and heaven help us, “All Hallows Evening” a.k.a. Halloween!
Now as it pertains to the matter of “Not taking away anything from God’s commandments, I for one, would argue that we, the Gentile believers in Yeshua, should be observing the Feasts of the Lord as found in the scriptures and not some pagan tradition added by our forefathers and a greedy church trying to grow its membership and expand its influence.
Maybe it’s just me but, I think we’re missing something here, something really big, something really important. At a minimum, I think that we should be following the feasts more closely on the calendar. And even if we don’t closely follow all of the Jewish traditions and practices that go with them, at a bare minimum, we should be taking some time to reflect on the meaning of each of these feasts. After all, the scriptures tell us that these are more than just mere traditions. These are “God’s Appointed times!” As such, we should take some time and deeply contemplate how they relate to our relationship with the Messiah. I think that alone would be a good start! Next, How about obeying the commandments.
The Greatest Commandment
One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.
~ Mark 12:28-34 NASB 1995
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
~ Matthew 22:36-40 NASB 1995
I heard this recently and it made a lot of sense to me so I’ll try my best to share it here with all of you. The Ten Commandments are simply a restatement of the Greatest Commandment(s) with a few of the details added in for clarification. For example, how does one love the Lord with all their heart, soul and strength? Well, at a minimum, I think observing Commandments 1 through 4 and arguably number 5 being a good start! With that in mind, how does one observe the second greatest commandment to love their neighbor as themselves. Clearly Commandments 5 through 10 fit that bill. Remember, Yeshua said (paraphrased for those of your who are sticklers to the King James English), if you really love me, you’ll keep my commandments! If we love God the Father, we’ll honor Him the way we honor our parents, the same way a child who truly loves “his/her” parents (sorry guys, only two genders), loves and obeys their own.
So what about all those other commandments that the Jews say we have to follow. Well, I say that if you’re talking about the 613 Mitzvot, yes they come from the Torah, but do they all apply to Gentile believers a.k.a. Christians? I’ll have more on that later, but for now I will add that I believe that a good number of them are there for clarification for anyone who had questions regarding the original 10. Face, it, God knows us better than we know ourselves and he knew right from the time he laid down the law with Moses and the Children of Israel in the wilderness that he was gonna get at least 613 “What If’s & What Abouts” so he had Moses add them for clarification. But what about all of the other traditions added in by talmudic Judaism? Lets just keep it simple. If they don’t jive with the Torah, you can cross all of them off your list. I’ll have more on the Mitzvot later in this essay, but for now, go ahead and give the Ten Commandments, as they properly read from the bible, a good look see.
The Ten Commandments
Then God spoke all these words, saying,
I “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me.
II “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
III “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
IV “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
V “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
VI “You shall not murder.
VII “You shall not commit adultery.
VIII “You shall not steal.
IX “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
X “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
~ Exodus 20:1-17 NASB 1995
As for the Ten Commandments, I’ll probably need to do a whole another essay on this alone, but if you are a member of Western Civilization, especially if you’re an American, I think Number II is a big one for you because whether you’re willing to admit it or not, you have all kinds of (little “g”) gods you’ll bow down and worship before you bend your knee to the Most High! These days we worship everything from the environment to equality, from “Prosperity” (Ooh, that one’s gonna leave a mark) to Politics, from sports to sexuality and everything else in between. Word to the wise, Repent!
The 613 “Mitzvot” – Commandments from the Torah
Now at the heart of Judaism, we have the 613 Mitzvot that God gave to the Jewish people in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Some of the Mitzvot are clear, explicit commands such as “thou shalt not murder,” others are more implicit such as “binding the law as a sign on your hand and your forehead, Deuteronomy 6:8.” Some overlap; for example, a positive commandment is to rest on the Sabbath and a negative commandment not to do work on the Sabbath. Consequentially, there is not 100% agreement on the precise list of the 613 but, there is complete agreement that there are 613 of them. Rather than go over all of them here, I’ll simply link them instead.
But, it should be noted that many of these Mitzvot cannot be observed today for various reasons. For example, a lot of them relate to sacrifices and offerings, which can only be made in the Temple, and the Temple does not exist today. Some of the laws relate to the theocratic state of Israel, its king, and its system of justice, and they cannot be observed because there is no theocratic state of Israel today. In addition, some laws do not apply to all people or places. For example, agricultural laws only apply within the state of Israel, and certain laws only apply to the “kohanim” or Levites. Of the 613 total, Hebrew Scholars have identified 77 positive mitzvot and 194 negative mitzvot which can be observed outside of Israel proper and many of these simply reiterate the Ten Commandments, but here’s the kicker, it would appear that many, if not all of the Mitzvot, are specific commandments for the descendants of “Yasharel” (Israel) alone!
So what’s a Gentile believer who want’s to follow Yeshua supposed to do? Well, fortunately for us, this question came up early in the 1st Century because there were some folks then who thought that the gentile believers in Yeshua had to follow the Torah and for all intents and purposes, become converts to Judaism too. Fortunately, the elders in Jerusalem, through much prayer and with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit came up with a solution.
The Letter from the Council in Jerusalem to Gentile Believers regarding the Judaizers
Then the apostles and elders together with the whole church in Jerusalem chose delegates, and they sent them to Antioch of Syria with Paul and Barnabas to report on this decision. The men chosen were two of the church leaders—Judas (also called Barsabbas) and Silas. This is the letter they took with them:
“This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem. It is written to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings!
“We understand that some men from here have troubled you and upset you with their teaching, but we did not send them! So we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question.
“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”
Acts 15:22-29 NASB 1995
So it would appear to me and from my understanding of the scriptures that God still has a purpose for the children of Yasharel, the True Vine, that is separate, to some extent, from the purposes he has in mind for gentiles like you and I who have been grafted in. He has NOT cast them off. We did NOT replace them as the Apple of God’s Eye. Rather, He has merely set them aside until His purposes for us are complete. We are like separate, but equal in the eyes of the Father with both believing Jews and Gentile followers who are to be His witnesses to a lost and dying world in these end times. I don’t know about you but, I believe it’s high time we started listening to and then more importantly, “obeying” the Holy Spirit!
Now with this information, I would surmise that any gentile believer who wants to follow Yeshua and to obey him should strive to honor and obey God by first jettisoning anything of pagan origin from your lives! Next, learn more about and observe, as the Spirit leads you to, the Feasts of the Lord (God’s appointed times). Do your best to observe and follow the Ten Commandments and finally, to follow the guidance that the council of elders in Jerusalem provided us in Acts 15. If we do that, we will do well!
Your thoughts and comments on this are appreciated.