We wanted to share with you the lesson we watched this past Sabbath in our Assembly. Our teacher is Tom Bradford, of Torah Class….The complete video of his lecture is below his cool graphics here…. 🙂
Our teacher begins with…
“We’ll conclude Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount today, which we have spent 17 lessons studying because of its incomparable value, and we’ll also open the door into Matthew chapter 8. But first let’s take a look back on the all-important (and not just a little bit scary) topic from last week about what Yeshua meant by what He said in Chapter 7 verses 22 and 23.
“CJB Matthew 7:22-23 22 On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’
“The phrase of our focus is “workers of lawlessness”. The bottom line is that after a thorough study of this term last week, the conclusion is that the term “lawlessness” can only indicate one thing: “Torah-lessness” or “The Law of Moses-lessness”. It is the Greek word anomia being translated that most literally means “without law”. We even find Paul using this same term (many years after Yeshua’s time on earth) to describe the anti-Christ.
“Working backwards from Paul, we have to ask ourselves a basic question: is the anti-Christ called the “Man of Lawlessness” because he thumbs his nose at societal civil and criminal laws? If so, according to which set of human laws is he rebelling? International law? American law? European Union law? Sharia law? My question is somewhat rhetorical in that the answer is obvious: it can be none of these manmade law codes. The anti-Christ is called such because He is by nature against (he is anti) God. The only laws that God validates are the ones that He has laid down for mankind: the biblical Law of Moses; the anti-Christ wants none of that. So it is that in Jesus’s statement in verse 23 that “workers of lawlessness” is a term describing all those who deny and/or disobey God’s commandments; the Torah, The Law. Remember: there was no such thing as a New Testament in Yeshua’s day and such a thing wouldn’t exist for nearly 2 more centuries after His death and resurrection. So neither Christ nor Paul could in any way be referring to the supposed New Testament laws that replace the Old Testament laws.”
TOM BRADFORD
Tom is the founder and Senior teacher. In addition to his business degree, he was an Egyptology and Archeology major at university. He has studied with learned rabbis in Israel and with Christian academics. His specialties are in-depth exegesis of the Old Testament and Bible history. https://www.torahclass.com
We hope you will check Tom out and see for yourself how much you can glean from a study of the whole Bible! Let us know what you think!
Until next time,
Gene and LaVada
