Should Christians Keep the Torah? (Answering Objections) - David Wilber | Freedom Hill Community

all right so like I said we're going to continue our series on apologetics today last time we zeroed in on a particular aspect of our faiths as Christians and we explored the question should Christians keep the Torah and I presented a case from Scripture to show that we as Christians should keep it so today what we're going to do is we're going to kind of do a quick review of what we went over last time and then I'm going to go over a lot of the common objections that you would hear against that position so the title of my message is should Christians keep the Torah and it's part two which is answering objections so some of you might be asking what's the point of this why study apologetics why does Dave talk so much about apologetics and studying no having answers to objections well in 1st Peter 3:15 we get an answer to that question and Peter says but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord is holy always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and respect so we are always be prepared Peter says that we are to honor Christ as holy in our hearts and what's interesting about that is according to Peter a way to do that is by engaging in Polish in apologetics when we come prepared with an answer when we're able to address people's objections when we're able to help them understand the scriptures help them why they should believe in God help them understand why we can trust the Bible according to Peter that is a way in which we honor Christ in our hearts and also it is part of the Great Commission because what are we commissioned to do as disciples of Yeshua he says in Matthew 28 just prior to his ascension he says you are to go out and make disciples of all the nations teaching them everything that I commanded you to do so as we make disciples of all the nations well that is all the nations there are lots of people with lots of different backgrounds lots of different religious beliefs or no religious beliefs at all that make up all the nations and according to Yeshua as his disciples our Commission is to make disciples out of those nations and that requires us to know what we believe why we believe it and being able to answer objections with gentleness and respect you see it's not enough just to be a nice person it's not enough just to love people there are lots of very nice atheists out there that I know personally Mormons are some of the nicest people that I know they're the most loving and generous people that I know and yet they follow a false religion so we must be able to offer more than just being nice we should be nice that's important to love people and obviously it's the greatest commandment is to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves but we need to offer more than that we need to uphold the truth and we need to be able to know how to defend the truth okay so just to do a quick recap here Torah what is the Torah well as we discussed last time it is a Hebrew word that means instructions God's instructions it's often represented by the English word law it's contained in the first five books of the Bible and more specifically what we're dealing with today is that it's Commandments given through Moses so Exodus through Deuteronomy as God is giving Commandments to his people Israel and he's giving them through the prophet Moses who's writing them down who's telling the Israelites this is what God says to do that's what we're dealing with today okay and as we've discussed what do these Commandments include well these Commandments include mostly things that all Christians agree we should be keeping the Commandments in the Torah include Commandments like take care of the poor love your neighbor don't lie don't steal don't commit adultery and so forth now all Christians would agree that we should be keeping those parts of the Torah but it also contains Commandments that have been forgotten by many Christians today that I would submit such as rest on the seventh day that's the Sabbath or keep the biblical feast days like Passover and the feast of tabernacles Sukkot or don't eat unclean animals so those are Commandments that I think that we should be revisiting as Christians so the question is really more specifically this in addition to the parts of the Torah that every Christian believes we should be keeping should we also keep those other Commandments that I mentioned like the Sabbath feast days and dietary instructions and I think the answer to that question is yes I think this is a very important point to bring up because a lot of Christians might not even realize that they're already keeping a lot of the Torah just by affirming the teachings of Yeshua just by affirming Commandments like don't steal or don't commit adultery they're already affirming their belief that yes we should be keeping the Torah in that way so it's really not that much difference it's not that much more you have to go in order to affirm the other parts of the Torah that we're dealing with today all right so here are the reasons I gave last time for why we as Christians should keep the Torah number one there's no biblical basis for the position that some of God's laws were done away with in the Old Testament everybody agrees every pastor every theologian every layperson in Christianity agrees that in the Old Testament we all had to keep the Torah in the Old Testament everybody who followed the God of Israel they had to keep the Sabbath they had to keep the feast days they couldn't eat unclean animals alright so the question is has something changed after the Old Testament did something in the New Testament change God's command or standards and I don't think there is any indication in the New Testament that anything has changed and we'll be going through some of those most common scriptures today that are sometimes used to say that something has changed we talked about how you shouid Jesus he affirmed the validity and ongoing authority of the entire Torah in Matthew 5:17 through 20 so what does he say he says very directly very unambiguously he states his mission with regard to the Torah and he says I did not come to destroy the law or the prophets I came to fulfil them and then fulfilling them is further unpacked and further defined within the the other verses that follow that it is doing and teaching the commandments he says that not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until heaven and earth pass his way and all is accomplished which according to many theologians isn't until the eschaton isn't until the new heavens and the new earth in the future and he said that his disciples will be identified by their observance of the least of the commandments so it would be strange for him to be saying in that passage that pretty soon some of these Commandments are going to be done away with and then right after that say that by the way until heaven and earth pass away nothing will pass from the law and my disciples will be identified by their observance of the least of these commandments thirdly we talked about how the Apostles continued to do and teach the Torah including the Sabbath's these days and dietary instructions throughout the New Testament all throughout the book of Acts you see the the Apostles after the resurrection they were continuing to meet every seventh day on the Sabbath they were going to the synagogue's they were teaching the gospel to the Jewish people and the synagogues they were keeping the biblical feast days the feast of Shavuot Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples why were they gathered together they were gathered together to celebrate the feast day so there is no indication anywhere in the New Testament that anything about the lifestyle about their observance about how they obeyed God had changed since the Old Testament and finally we learned how the New Covenant according to scripture writes the Torah on our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit thus as Christians we walk according to the spirit which causes us to obey the Torah according to Romans 8 so one of the main you know we all believe that we enter into the New Covenant through the work of Yeshua well one of the major parts of the New Covenant according to jeremiah 31:33 is that it writes the torah on our hearts so how can the New Covenant write the Torah on our hearts and do away with it at the same time it doesn't make any sense so going forward we'll be looking at several passages in the New Testament like I said that are often used to say that we don't have to keep Commandments like the Sabbath's these days and dietary instructions anymore we're going to go through a lot of Scripture I hope that's okay with you guys I don't know why I always say that we're in church it should be okay with you guys if we go through a lot of Scripture wait a second we're in church we're not supposed to read the Bible but we're going to be going through a lot of passages so just bear with me I hope that you guys will be blessed as we go through it I hope that you will learn some new things hopefully my main objective really is is to teach you how to answer these objections so when people present these scriptures and they say this scripture says this I want it I want to be able to train you guys into how to be able to answer that and say no the scripture actually says something different so I'll be offering an interpretation of these passages in light of what we already established in the previous message on this topic so my view is essentially this if we read these passages and come to the conclusion that God's laws are done away with we're interpreting them wrong because everything else in the New Testament says the opposite everything else in the New Testament like we outlined in the previous message affirms the ongoing validity and authority of the Torah so there must be something else to these passages and that's what I'm going to be presenting today all right before we get started these are a couple of recommended books if we want to write them down or take a note on your phone if you don't have a smartphone text it to yourself but I highly recommend these books the first one is the New Testament validates Torah by Jay came the key and the second one is why we keep Torah 10 persistent questions by Tim hegh so if you're looking for scholarly resources on this information which I recommend getting into some of the the scholarly information those are two books that I would recommend starting with today what I'm going to be doing is really giving the cliff notes on each of these passages I'm not going to get too in-depth really each of these passages could be its own message so I'm really just going to give kind of a surface level way teaching you how you can answer each of these passages and you know most people that you're going to be talking to they're not going to be theologians they're not going to be scholars so you're not really going to need to know the the really in-depth answers according to the Greek language and things like that but I do recommend digging in deeper and like I said those books are a great place to start all right so the first place that we're going to begin is in the book of Galatians I'm not going to go through the whole book I'm just going to give a summary but this is something that is often presented right away as as an objection to the belief that we should be keeping Torah because it's often said that the book of Galatians seems to be speaking against keeping God's commandments so I'm going to give a quick summary here first of all the book of Galatians was written by Paul who's the Apostle Paul well we all know who Paul is but a major major aspect of who Paul is his character and his identity is that he's a Torah observant Jewish believer in Yeshua he a Jewish rabbi and all throughout the book of Acts as we went through last time he affirms the Torah throughout the New Testament he continues to keep the Sabbath he continues to keep the feast days he says I must get back to Jerusalem to observe the feast of Shavuot and he taught his Christians the Christians in the Church of Corinth he taught them how to observe Passover giving them information on how they are to observe it in first Corinthians chapter five so this is a guy who follows you schewe he's a Jewish believer and he observes Torah so I think that's a relevant piece of information as we look at this book that it was written by a person who affirms Torah so it'd be strange for for us to suggest that this book somehow teaches the opposite of what he affirms everywhere else in the Bible okay so what was the purpose of the Gaza or of the book of Galatians well according to chapter 1 verse 7 it was written for the purpose of defending the gospel from false teachers attempting to pervert the true message Paul says why are you turning away so quickly from the message that you've been taught so that is what he's dealing with he's dealing with false teachers that are coming in and who are influencing the Christians in Galatia perverting the gospel Paul says they're teaching another gospel okay and then according to chapter 2 verse 15 through 16 we learn how they're perverting the gospel what is there a different gospel that they're promoting false teachers were saying that salvation by grace through faith in Yeshua wasn't enough something more was needed so this is the issue that Paul is dealing with this is the same issue that's being dealt with in acts 15 according to acts 15 one you had a people from a certain sector Pharisees that came and they were teaching the Gentile believers you cannot be saved unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses and so they were adding something to the gospel they were saying unless you convert to Judaism through our formal four Mulla for conversion which culminates with the the ritual of circumcision you cannot be saved so that most the time when you see a circumcision in the New Testament by the way it is often used in a shorthand way to refer to the proselyte ritual that's just a side note but anytime you see circumcision it's often used in a way to refer to this entire ritual that was like a year long it was a formula that some Jewish believers taught that the Gentiles had to go through in order to formula formula formally convert to Judaism and therefore according to their view be saved okay so they were adding something to the Torah they were saying that you are saved by what you do you're not saved by grace through faith in Christ you are saved by what you do and that was the false gospel that Paul was dealing with Paul wasn't against the Torah itself he was against people misusing the Torah and forcing it to be something that God did not intend it to be Toro was never designed to save anyone God did not give the law to save anyone but that was how it was being misused and by these certain sectarian communities that Paul is addressing in the New Testament so he is addressing a misuse of the Torah not the Torah itself all right let's keep going here according to chapter 3 1 through 14 Paul says that anyone who relies on their own efforts for salvation are under a curse if you are trusting in your observance of the Torah for salvation you must be perfect but that is impossible we all sinned we all fall short outside of the sacrifice of Messiah if we try to earn salvation any other way if we try to earn salvation in any way by following any commandment or doing any ritual or anything we're not going to make it it's not going to work we're under a curse according to Paul and then in chapter 3 verses 21 through 29 one of the purposes of the Torah is to lead unbelievers to the seiyya once it has done that it no longer functions in that role so right here is where Paul he brings up the analogy about how the law is a guardian that leads people to Christ and now that we've been led to Christ we're no longer under the Guardian any more that is commonly interpreted by some people to be saying that the law is irrelevant now now that we have Christ the laws irrelevant but what Paul is dealing with is he's dealing with a certain role of the Torah one of the roles of the Torah is to teach us salvation by grace through faith one of the roles of the Torah is to lead unbelievers in Christ to Christ so once it has done that it no longer functions in that role but that's not the only role that the Torah functions in the Torah also functions in the role of being defining God's standards of holiness that we are to walk in as Christians does that make sense okay and then chapter 4 21 through 31 this is where Paul gives that really confusing analogy about you know comparing you know Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and all of that basically what he's saying here is that anyone who tries to gain salvation by obeying the Torah are going to Sinai is like Abraham trying to gain God's promise through his own effort with Hagar so that was sort of the meaning of what Paul is trying to teach through that analogy as he's saying you cannot rely on your own efforts for salvation or to attain God's promises that's like Abraham doing that with Hagar it's a free gift of God you have to receive it it's by grace through faith in Christ and then finally in Chapter five Paul again states the problem he says people were trying to be justified by the law so it was a misuse of the Torah not the Torah itself that Paul is dealing with this is an awesome quote that I found from a Christian theologian this is on his in one of his books he says Paul seems to have fun have functioned as a second Moses not only in providing of only see illogical interpretation of God's saving actions in Christ but also reminding his readers that salvation comes by grace alone in Romans and Galatians his argumentation addresses those who would pervert the law a narrow legalistic interpretation of Hebrew Torah into a means of salvation rather than treating it as a response to salvation as Moses perceived it while on the surface Paul's responses to this heresy often appear to contradict Moses these statements should be interpreted in context and as rhetorical responses to his opponents in his own disposition toward the law he was in perfect step with Moses obedience to the law was not a means for gaining salvation but a willing and grateful response to salvation already received and that's from dr. Daniel block in his book the Gospel according to Moses and so basically it all makes sense it's all consistent throughout the New Testament if we interpret Galatians any other way then there are contradictions between what Paul teaches and Galatians and the way he lives his life and what he teaches throughout the book of Acts and in Corinthians and things like that so so when we interpret his his teachings in context it can't possibly be teaching that the Torah is done away with or irrelevant to Christians makes sense okay so I wanted to quickly go through that since like I said Galatians gets brought up a lot when we're dealing with this topic the rest of the passages that we're going to be looking at today are dealing with the specific parts of the Torah that I mentioned the Sabbath these days and dietary instructions because like I already said several times now it's really only those parts of the Torah that some Christians don't believe we should be keeping they believe in keeping all the other parts but it's those parts that I think that we should revisit all right so the next objection we're going to deal with goes something like this the disciples broke the Sabbath in Matthew 12 and Yeshua condoned their actions therefore the Sabbath was fading away and it's not that important anymore in the New Testament so what are they talking about Matthew 12 1 through 2 it says this at that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath his disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat but when the Pharisee saw it they said to him look your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath so from whose perspective were the disciples breaking the Sabbath it was from the Pharisees perspective in this passage all right so here's how you can address this objection first of all this is what you can say first of all Yeshua affirmed the validity of the Sabbath as part of the Torah in Matthew 5 so why would he condone his disciples breaking the Sabbath just a few chapters after he affirmed it secondly this dispute was not about whether or not to keep the Sabbath it was all about how to keep the Sabbath Yeshua's disciples were breaking the Sabbath only according to the Pharisees interpretation so why should we accept their interpretation why do we assume that their accusation is valid the Bible never prohibits plucking heads of grain on the Sabbath so what Yeshua did here is he basically said I disagree with your interpretation Pharisees he said he said that his disciples are innocent of wrongdoing in verse 7 and he rebuked the Pharisees for complete completely missing the point of the Sabbath in their strict interpretations he says you you have all of these strict interpretations of how this should be followed and yet you're completely missing the point of the entire commandment and you accuse my disciples of doing wrong and yet you break Commandments all over the place you'll see that a lot in Yeshua's interactions with the Pharisees as him calling out their hypocrisy especially when they're critical of his disciples Yeshua's like yeah you have no grounds to be critical whatsoever since you are breaking the weightier Commandments you're breaking actual Commandments and you're being critical of my disciples who are just breaking your traditions or who just have a different interpretation of how this commandment should be applied so you'll see that a lot as we continue going forward here's another objection in mark 719 Yeshua made unclean animals clean and rebuked the Pharisees for keeping God's dietary instructions is that what happens alright let's read the passage mark 7 18 through 19 says do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled thus he declared all foods clean all right so let's go ahead and read through this chapter really quick to kind of establish the context because I admit that if you single that verse out if you single those couple verses out and you just read them without any regard for the surrounding context it certainly seems to say that you should did away with the unclean animal laws but is that what is actually going on here well according to the beginning of the chapter we get a little bit more insight into what this dispute is actually about starting in verse 1 it says now when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly holding to the tradition of the elders all right so here's the context of this dispute between Yeshua and the Pharisees it was over ritual hand washing according to these Pharisees if you ate food even if it was clean food even if it was bread or whatever if you ate food with unwashed hands the food you eat defiles you that was their perspective ok that feud was rendered unclean because they ate it with unwashed hands that was their view now I want to point out that this passage doesn't say anything about Yeshua's disciples munching porkchops it doesn't say anything about Yeshua relaxing on a rock putting you know shrimp in his mouth and it doesn't say that so why do we assume something about this passage that isn't there why are we in why are we importing our own ideas into this passage we just need to read the passage for what it says and we'll get the right interpretation okay if if the Pharisees were accusing issue and the disciples of eating unclean animals they would have mentioned it but they didn't they mentioned the dispute was regarding a pharisaical tradition ritual hand-washing all right let's keep going verses four through five and when they came from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash and there are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches and the Pharisees and the scribes asked him why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands so again we see the context here it's all about eating with defiled hands eating without obeying the tradition of the elders to wash your hands before you eat for six through eight and he said to them well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship Me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men all right and as we go further in this passage like I said earlier content Yeshua rebukes the Pharisees this is one of the places where he rebukes the Pharisees saying you're going to be critical of my disciples but here you are you hypocrites you're breaking the commandments he goes on to talk about how through their traditions they actually find loopholes through their traditions to get out of obeying the commandment to honor your father and mother he's saying you're going to criticize us when you break the command honor your father and mother and you make void the commandment of God through your traditions so he talks about how they're not even a call their hypocrisy saying how they don't even obey God so the nerve of them to even think about criticizing the disciples over an issue that's not even in the scriptures there is there's nothing in the scriptures that says you have to wash your hands before you eat or else the food you eat becomes unclean all right so let's skip ahead a little bit in verses 15 through 18 it says there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him but those things that come out of a person are what defile him and when he had entered the house and left the people his disciples asked him about the parable and he said to him then are you also without understanding do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him again what is the context here talking about eating food with defiled hands according to the Pharisees okay since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled thus he declared all foods clean and he said what comes out of a person is what defiles him for from within out of the heart of man come evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality Envy slander pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile a person so in other words what you shoe is saying here is that sin is what defiles us exactly the the reason he's rebuking the Pharisees here sin is what defiles us here you are you're focusing you're criticizing us for not obeying these traditions when here you are you're the ones that are actually defiled because you're the ones that are actually breaking the commandments and sinning so when we read this in context Yeshua was simply declaring all food clean what was the definition of food to a first century Jew the definition of food to a first century Jew was clean animals they didn't have they didn't consider unclean animals food so the issue was that all food is clean whether or not you ritually wash your hands before eating it that that is what is meant by the phrase and thus he declared all food clean and this is further substantiated when we read the parallel account in Matthew and the synoptic Gospels you often have parallel accounts of the same story going on so this is what how Matthew records this event he says but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and this defiles a person for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false witness slander these are what to file a person but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone again the issue all goes back to whether or not they obeyed this hand-washing ritual of the of the elders makes sense all right let's keep going here is another objection Peter's vision in acts 10 proves that God abolished the dietary laws Peter's vision and acts 10 proves that God abolished the dietary laws this is a passage you won't really see this being brought up in scholarly circles very often but in popular culture as you deal with these these types of discussions with people you'll you'll find that in popular circles this gets brought up a lot but let's go ahead and read the passage and see what the objection is here starting in verse 9 the next day as they were on their journey and approaching the city Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray and he became hungry and wanted something to eat but while they were preparing it he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened in something like a great sheet descending being let down by its four corners upon the earth in it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air and there came a voice to him rise Peter kill and eat but Peter said by no means Lord for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean and the voice came to him again a second time saying what God has made clean do not call common this happened three times and the theme was taken up at once to heaven all right so again if you single out those verses it years you know I would admit that if those were the only verses in that chapter there if that if that was all it said I would admit that it definitely seems to say that God is abolishing his dietary laws right there and he's actually saying commanding Peter to break those Commandments saying rise Peter kill and eat these unclean animals so here's how you can answer this objection first it's worth pointing out that Peter refused when God told him in the vision to kill and eat he said no why did he say no because he was a Torah observant Jewish follower of Yeshua so it didn't make sense to him that God would all of a sudden show up out of nowhere randomly for no reason and say oh by the way Peter go ahead and eat clean unclean animals now that doesn't that just is completely random when you read the entire story in context and you see what's happening why on earth would God choose that time randomly to just come out of nowhere and say by the way don't worry about my dietary laws anymore so there's something more going on here and the passage goes on to say that Peter did not understand the meaning of the vision and this is this is a big point right here in acts 10 17 it says now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean behold the men who were sent by Cornelius having met inquiry for having made inquiry for Simon's house stood at the gate so it says the Peter was confused by the vision now it's often said that this passage is obvious proof that God allows us to eat unclean animals they'll say Dave right there it's obvious God tells them to go kill and eat unclean animals well if it was so obvious then why didn't it Peter understand it if the vision is so obvious about God disregarding his dietary laws why didn't Peter get it right off the bat it says he was confused and said he was inwardly perplexed so maybe I would like to submit that maybe God wasn't telling Peter that it's now okay to eat pigs rats and vultures maybe he was trying to teach Peter something deeper and that deeper message was what Peter was confused about this is a quote by dr. Robert W wall in his commentary on Acts he says Peters failure to get his vision is not the result of a hardened resistance or a spiritual Abdul's II but reflects the sheer difficulty of deciphering the symbols of God's message so basically what he's saying here is Peter wasn't just some stubborn legalist he wasn't just some idiot RI or holding on to these old commandments that God said were done away with no he was honestly having a hard time understanding the symbols of the message he was having a hard time understanding God what are you trying to teach me through this okay so here is my interpretation of this passage for your consideration many Bible commentators understand that God was using symbolism here in order to make a point the overall message did not apply to the symbols God used in the vision but rather to what the symbols represented in this case the unclean flesh common animals in the vision symbolized Gentiles the point is that God wanted Peter to take the gospel to the Gentiles okay so it was a symbolic message God was using symbolism to teach him a deeper message and that is made all the more clear as we keep going in acts 10 19 through 20 it says and while Peter was pondering the vision the spear said to him behold three men are looking for you rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation for I have sent them so Peter went with the men sent by Cornelius who was Cornelius Cornelius was a Gentile so what's going on here is that God was trying to arrange this meeting between Peter and Cornelius and so that's why God gave the vision and he was teaching Peter that he is to go and share the both with Cornelius so when they arrived at Cornelius's home Peter finally understands the vision and this is the key to understanding acts 10 right here in this verse acts 10:28 says and he said to them you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean I should not call any person common or unclean so Peter remembered God's vision and he said that God showed him something What did he say God showed him did God show him that we need to start serving ham sandwiches atone eggs no no what he said what he said God showed him through the vision was that he is not to consider Gentiles unclean because God calls him calls them clean so before just for some little historical context here before Peters vision he thought the gospel was only for Jews and that's why he was influenced the reason for that is he was influenced by very anti Gentile attitude that has existed among many of the Jews in the first century but this attitude of course was unbiblical God has always desired a relationship with Gentiles and he allowed Gentiles to come and follow him God never called Gentiles unclean or common mended so that's why he told God told Peter what God has made clean do not call common so there's no need to come up with our own interpretation of Peters vision there's no need to try to figure out what it means Peter already gives us the interpretation it was all about Gentiles that had nothing to do with God doing away with his dietary laws alright next objection Colossians 2:16 2:17 says that anyone who teaches obedience to the Sabbath feasts and dietary instructions is a judgmental legalist this is what it says in Colossians 2:16 through 17 therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath these are a shadow of things to come but the substance belongs to Christ right there it says David here you are getting up on on Shabbat teaching that we all need to be keeping these Commandments when Paul tells you not to judge anyone about those things why are you teaching us to keep the commandments why are you judging me about those things when Paul says not to do it okay so first of all we need to determine who Paul is talking about here who are these judgmental people that are judging the collaging believers in this passage well we need to look at the context and we get a clue if we look in verse 8 Colossians 2:8 says see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ coordinating human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ ok so here's how you can answer this number 1 these false teachers are judging according to their human tradition so where in Scripture does it say that the Sabbath feasts and dietary laws are human traditions nowhere in the Bible are the Sabbath and feast days and dietary instructions called human traditions so that's the first mistake number 2 it says that their teachings are in opposition to Christ but as we already established 7 times now Christ affirms be ongoing Authority and validity of the Torah so if their teachings are in opposition to Christ then it can't be affirmative towards keeping God's commandments make sense all right so there's something more going on here this is a quote from Tim Hague he's a Bible commentator he has this he has this interpretation of this passage he says the point is that the false teachers are judging the collaging believers in regards to their ha ha in observing the Torah Commandments relating to food drinks festivals New Moon's and the Sabbath what is Holocaust Hoggett Hanukkah sorry halaqa is a Hebrew word which means the way in which you walk it is the interpretation and application of the commandments so lots of different sects of Judaism had different halaqah they had different ways in which they would approach Commandments and teach how you are to observe them so he's saying that these believers are these false teachers were judging the collaging believers with regard to their way in interpreting these Commandments the false teachers are telling the Colossians that unless they observe the commandments and strict adherence to their particular halaqa they are not actually keeping the commandments at all and will therefore fall under the judgment of God so Paul is not saying that the Sabbath and feast days are abolished and that you shouldn't teach them or that if you do teach them you shouldn't judge people he is telling the Colossians believers not to let these false teachers judge them on the basis of their human tradition so it wasn't that these false teachers were just teaching that you should keep these Commandments no they were teaching a very strict interpretation on how you are to keep the commandments and they were judging the Colossians believers from that basis does that make sense ok so it was nothing to do with the commandments themselves it was again all about differences in understanding how to keep the commandments here's another objection romans 14 teaches that we are free to ignore the Sabbath and the dietary laws let's read romans 14:5 one man considers one day more sacred than another another man considers every day alike each one should be fully convinced in his own mind so again if you take this one verse out of context I can understand how someone can make a case from this verse that you're free to observe the Sabbath any day you like or not at all I can understand that interpretation but we need to read it in context we need to understand what Paul is dealing with here specifically or else we're going to come up with the wrong conclusion many Christians assume they assume that Paul was talking about the Sabbath here but the Sabbath is never mentioned anywhere in the book of Romans so there's so since the text is unclear on the type of day that's being addressed in this passage it's not necessary to conclude that he's referring to the Sabbath since it's unclear there's there's no basis for making that assumption and especially when the entire context is dealing with people's opinions regarding disputable matters as we read in Romans 14 1 it says as for the one who is we can face welcome him but not to quarrel over opinions so there is the entire context right here Paul is dealing with people fighting over different opinions so we're in Sabbath our sorry we're in Scripture is the Sabbath regarded as merely a matter of opinion the Sabbath is not merely a matter of opinion it is a commandment was the guy that had to was the guy that was stoned to death in numbers 15 for breaking the Sabbath was he just not fully convinced in his own mind obviously the Sabbath is much more than in a matter of opinion it's not a matter of opinion it's a commandment of God so if Paul is dealing with opinions here we it's not necessary for us to think that he is dealing with the Sabbath here now some scholars have suggested that Paul was referring to a dispute over special fast days on the Jewish calendar Paul was saying not to let anyone judge you what regarding whether or not you fast on certain days or which days you fast on and I tend to lean towards that interpretation because the very next verse connects that verse we just read with eating it says he who eats does so for the Lord and he who eats not for the Lord he eats not so he seems to be connecting the verse talking about be fully convinced in your mind about which days you observe it's connected to eating in the next verse so that's why some scholars have suggested that it's dealing with days on which you are too fast and differences of opinion regarding that we can't be completely clear because it doesn't say but I think a good case could be made looking at the context there I definitely don't think it's good support for saying that we're free to ignore the Sabbath all right in Romans 14 14 it says I know and then persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself but it is unclean for anyone who sinks unclean right there Dave it seems to be saying that there is nothing unclean according to Paul but again we need to read it in context again Romans 14 1 through 2 it's all about opinions as for the one who is weak in faith welcomed him but not to quarrel over opinions one person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables so this isn't a dispute over clean and unclean animals it's a dispute over whether you're allowed to eat meat or whether you should only eat vegetables that's what the context says so the division here the debate was between strict vegetarians and believers who thought it was permissible to eat meat so sit called unclean though why does God use the verbage unclean it's because some believers in Rome believed that meat that was purchased from the marketplace was to be considered unclean even if the meat came from a clean animal permitted by the Torah so Paul's point here is that you are not to let your personal convictions and standards that are not explicitly outlined in the Torah be a cause of division in the body makes sense so it was unclean from the perspective that it was purchased from the marketplace but but it didn't have anything to do with unclean animals according to the Bible it's just that some people had added restrictions they had added personal convictions and they considered even clean meat to be unclean if it was purchased from the marketplace make sense here's the last objection it's found in Galatians 4 8 through 11 this is sometimes brought up not very often but since we're going through these I thought I would address it here formally when you do not know God you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods but now that you have come to know God or rather to be known by God how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more you observe days and months and seasons and years I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain so right there David seems to be saying that if you keep the Sabbath's in the feast days and you observe these days in these seasons you are becoming enslaved and Paul is discouraging that well for this passage again it's important to understand a little bit of historical context here first of all the Jews weren't the only people who observed days and seasons you have people that were involved in pagan cults pagan idolatry that had their own fast days they had their own Sabbath's they had their own seasons and holidays that they celebrated so what Paul is addressing here is those types of days because who is he who is his audience here who is his audience and Galatians his audience makes up primarily former pagan idol worshipers who were coming out of these pagan cults and had their own times and seasons and that is why he says in verse 8 that they were enslaved to these things when they did not know God he saying do not turn back to these things when you did not know God so if they did not know God before how can he be referring to the Sabbath and feast days if they weren't even observing those things to begin with when they did not know God so he's referring to their former life of pagan idolatry he's saying do not go back to your former life in pagan idolatry and here's another quote from Tim Hague on his Galatians commentary just to substantiate this here he says this interpretation that Paul is referring to pagan days months seasons and years fits best with the lame which he uses in which he speaks of the Gentiles as turning back again to the weak and worthless elements he has already identified their past as that of idolatry to use the term turn back again for those whose former life was one of idolatry helps us identify that to which they were tempted to turn so it wasn't the Sabbath and feast days that they were turning to because they didn't observe those things in their former days it was their life of idolatry their life of pagan cult ik worship that they were tempted to turn back to and that's what Paul is warning them against so those are all the objections that I could think to go through specifically dealing with the Sabbath feast days and dietary instructions since those are really the main point of contention when it comes to whether or not we should keep Torah and I believe I covered all of them so I hope that this message was helpful in helping you see that there really is no biblical support for the beliefs that Christians should keep Torah anymore I mean even though it was the mainstream position of the Christian Church since around the 2nd century onward even though it's the the mainstream position within the church today even the majority is not always right and I think that we need to revisit these things and we need to go back through these scriptures and and if we are Protestants right you know and our rallying cry is sola scriptura by scripture alone we establish our doctrine we need to get back to what scripture says and I hope that I showed you through these last couple messages that there really is no nothing in Scripture that that would support the idea that God's laws have changed or that some of them are done away with anyway I think we have time really quick to maybe take a couple of questions if any of you guys have any and I'd be happy to to give you my perspective sure now that that's that's a good point what he said for those for those of you online is that in Deuteronomy there's actually a commandment given where God says you are not not to be found among you those who are observer of times and clearly he's referring to pagan cult ik worship there that the pagans and idol worshipers that had their own times and seasons that they observed so that that just goes back to the interpretation I gave on Galatians for the specific times and seasons that were being addressed any other questions before we wrap up were you guys blessed by these messages amen well I'm really glad I hope that it's helpful to you just as as CliffsNotes like I said just to give you the basic response if you didn't know them already the basic responses that you can give to these these questions that a lot of people have and I hope they're helpful to you in having a response to those who ask you about the hope within you you know that we often apply that verse to just answering objections of atheists or answering objections that come from people of false religions but I think that it can be applied here to this particular aspect of our faith as Christians our Christian brothers have a lot of questions about what we're doing and I think that there is life that there's that there's blessing in observing these Commandments and I think that we need to be prepared to be able to explain why we do what we do why it's biblical why blessing comes from it and that God may be glorified and that his people may be blessed on then alright what you guys pray with me awesome your father just come before you and thank you for your word thank you that that when we study we show ourselves to prove that when we rightly divide the word of truth God that your word is clear that when we put forth the effort when we really dig in deep when we take the time to to to study God you don't hide anything from us you don't keep anything from us you you make your ways known the things that are important to you God you make them known to us and all we need to do is read and study and we thank you for that father because we desire to know your ways what as what is important to you God should be important to us and that's why we do this that's why we went through the study father that's why we we went through these passages because we want to know what's important to you it's not it's not to prove ourselves right God it's not to win some kind of debate or anything like that it's to honor you father honor Christ the Lord as Holy in our hearts always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks about the hope that's within us father it's about honoring you and we love you God we pray that you are honored in our lives as we move on from here as we engage in discussion as we live out your ways before the world as as your Bible says father that um that we are to let our light shine and that people will see our good works and they will praise our father who is in heaven so as we seek to not just learn about your ways not just study your ways not learn just how to defend your ways God but actually live your ways father that people will see the blessing that comes from a life led by spirit and truth a life led by your word God and I just pray for the nation's God that that they would see the light that comes forth from the body of Christ the body of Messiah working together following your ways and exalting you and your son issue his name amen all right god bless you guys I'll bless you and then we will get out of here you have a wreck aha at annihilation raha yeah err adonai Panov olijavi who NECA he saw at an IP novel aha via Simla hashalom the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you though the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and may he grant you his peace the Shem if she washed HaMashiach star ha Shalom be sure the massage principle on that hello everyone Pastor David here I hope you enjoyed the message this week if you would like to see more messages please go to freedom Hills YouTube page and join there subscribe there and you will see an assortment of teachings devotionals all kinds of great media that will help you and your family to do this thing called life to live it in his ways and in his truth also if these messages have blessed you and you would like to partner with us you can go to our website and you will see the links where you can actually donate to help us get this word out to everyone so I hope you have a wonderful week and we'll see you next weekend [Music]

Channel: Freedom Hill Community

Views: 4,564

Rating: 4.7922077 out of 5

Keywords: Freedom Hill Community, Jewish Roots, David Wilber, Torah, Christians, Should Christians Keep the Torah, Yeshua, Law of Moses, Sabbath, Feast Days, Torah Debate, Francis Chan, Passover, First Fruits, Sukkot, Messianic, God and the Problem of Suffering, 5 Reasons Christians Should Keep the Torah

Id: a_WqXC3tbig

Length: 58min 47sec (3527 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2017