The following was received from a friend of ours.\u00a0 It is something I wanted to share here on “LaVada’s Blog.”\u00a0 She sent this out a few weeks ago…\u00a0 we can identify with her story!\u00a0 –LaVada<\/p>\n
\n\nA Letter to My Friends and Family<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
A re-post from February 18, 2014 at 7:10am<\/span><\/div>\nAlmost three years ago, our family went through an amazing change that I want to share with you.\u00a0 June 2011, we were watching an online religious conference and I heard the voice of the LORD challenge me, \u201cPlease tell me where in scripture it says you can eat pork.\u201d\u00a0 I was kind of shocked, it absolutely was out of nowhere.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n
I went to my Bible and started pulling out the verses I used to justify it, and studied them in context and I was very upset to find that they had nothing to do with eating pork at all, that I had been taking them out of context all my life.\u00a0 And, I was further shocked to find that one of the verses was not even in any manuscript anywhere, but was added by translators (the parenthetical statement in Mark 7:19).\u00a0 I found out that the word food<\/span> was defined in the Bible in Leviticus 11, and that anything anywhere in scripture that was called food<\/span> fell within those guidelines, nothing else qualified.\u00a0 Acts 10 wasn\u2019t about eating unclean at all, we found out, but about two rabbinical laws (not found in the Torah) \u2013 the first being that any clean animal that touched an unclean animal was unfit for eating.\u00a0 \u201cPeter rise and eat\u201d meant it was okay to eat the clean animals even though they were in contact with unclean animals; and, the second being the first century belief that any gentile who had not undergone full conversion to rabbinic Judaism [meaning they submit to the traditions of the elders, like ritual hand washing, the washing of couches, and the very restrictive laws they made for the Sabbath \u2013 found today recorded in the Talmud] was unclean, if they were not keeping Torah, and common, if they were keeping Torah but had not yet submitted to the Rabbis.\u00a0According to Rabbinical law<\/span>, Peter could not come in contact with gentiles who had not converted to Judaism, and he certainly could not eat with them or go into their houses.\u00a0 If I had read to the end of the chapter, I would have seen that his vision was about people<\/span>, not about eating things that the Bible says are not food, but I believed what I had always been taught.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
We were very shocked, but we gave up all our pork and Mark and the boys gave up all seafood that did not have fins and scales.\u00a0 Three weeks later, I noticed that I had not had a single asthma attack, I also noticed that my fingers didn\u2019t hurt anymore and they had started to untwist, and my blood pressure was normal \u2013 I found that out when I finally went in to renew my Lisinopril prescription that I had let lapse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
At this point, we had to figure out what was going on, and we were in for more shocks.\u00a0 We found that the early church, the church that worked miracles and raised people from the dead \u2013 kept Saturday Sabbath, and that the church did not change that until ordered to by Rome centuries later.\u00a0 None of the early disciples of Yeshua (Jesus\u2019 real name, untranslated to English) would have ever worshiped on Sunday and none of them did \u2013 we know this from the writings of the church fathers and from other historical writings.\u00a0 We read what the Bible said about Sabbath and decided that in order to follow Yeshua, we needed to do what He did \u2013 because as He said, \u201cMy doctrine is not my own, but Him that sent Me.\u201d\u00a0 John 7:16.\u00a0In fact, in reading the only scriptures that the apostles ever had, the old Testament, we found out how incredibly important Sabbath is to God, that it is an affirmation that we believe He created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh, and that it is also an affirmation of our belief that Messiah will return after 6,000 years of human rule upon this earth and reign for 1,000 years, when He will give us rest from our labors.<\/span><\/p>\n
The next change we made was to keep the Feasts in Leviticus 23, just like our Savior and His disciples always did, including Paul. \u00a0In fact, He was in Jerusalem for the Feast (we see from Acts 20:6 that the Passover had just been kept and they were heading to Jerusalem for Shavuot, or Pentecost) when this came up in Acts 21…<\/span><\/p>\n
18\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>And the\u00a0day<\/i>\u00a0following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.\u00a019\u00a0<\/b>And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.\u00a020\u00a0<\/b>And when they heard\u00a0it<\/i>, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are ALL ZEALOUS FOR THE LAW:\u00a021\u00a0<\/b>and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise\u00a0their<\/i>\u00a0children, neither to walk after the customs.\u00a022\u00a0<\/b>What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.\u00a023\u00a0<\/b>Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;\u00a024\u00a0<\/b>them take, and purify thyself with them,and be at charges with them, that they may shave\u00a0their<\/i>\u00a0heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but\u00a0that<\/i>\u00a0thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
\n<\/span><\/p>\nI don\u2019t know how I didn\u2019t see it for so many years of Bible reading, but I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Paul didn\u2019t teach the Gentiles not<\/span> to follow the law, he didn\u2019t teach people not to have their sons circumcised (in fact he himself had Timothy circumcised in Acts 16:3).\u00a0 And Paul himself kept the law. \u00a0Otherwise, James would have been telling Paul to lie about what he was doing.<\/span><\/p>\n
So we traded Christmas for Sukkot, the true birth of Messiah during the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a shadow picture for Him coming to reign for a thousand years.\u00a0 When we keep that feast, we are making a declaration that we believe He was, is and is to come.\u00a0 We keep Yom Kippur, which is a declaration that we believe that Yeshua is the salvation of the nation of Israel as a whole, that \u201call Israel shall be saved.\u201d\u00a0 We keep Yom Teruah, the day of Trumpets, which occurs on \u201cthe day and hour that no man knows\u201d at the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon during the biblical month of Tishri.\u00a0 We traded Pentecost for Shavuot, the prophetic shadow picture of the spirit being poured out on the assembly, as we see in the book of Acts, \u00a0just as the law was given at Mt Sinai to the assembly, which according to Stephen was the true birth of the church (Acts 7:38).\u00a0 We also traded Easter for Passover, the shadow picture of Messiah coming to die to restore us to right standing with God, in order to obey Him when He said, \u201cfrom now on, do this in remembrance of Me.\u201d\u00a0 We traded Resurrection Sunday for First Fruits, the feast which served as a shadow of Messiah rising up out of the earth and ascending to be presented as a holy offering to God.\u00a0 In Leviticus 23, these are called the Feasts of the LORD, and were to be celebrated by His people Israel forever, not just the Jews, but all those who are in covenant with Him.\u00a0Just like at Mt Sinai, the descendants of Jacob plus the mixed multitude who came out of Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n
We learned from I John 3:4 that sin is defined as transgression of the law.\u00a0 I John 1:10 says that if we claim we do not sin we are liars, so sin still exists, and that was written long after the death of the other apostles, including Paul.\u00a0 I read what Peter said about Paul in 2 Peter 3 \u2013 that his writings were hard to understand and easily twisted.\u00a0 And I began to see that Peter was right because the more I understood what everyone besides Paul was saying, the more I realized that the only way I could justify what I had been doing was with Paul\u2019s writings.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t use Yeshua, Moses, John, Peter or any of the others to back up any of the doctrines I was taught \u2013I had to ignore Yeshua almost entirely, or take Him out of context.\u00a0 I decided that Yeshua, and not Paul, died for me, so I had to give the weight to what Yeshua said first and foremost.\u00a0 He said this,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
Matthew 5:17\u00a0 17\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to pleroo.\u00a018\u00a0<\/b>For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.\u00a019\u00a0<\/b>Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach\u00a0them<\/i>, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n
I studied and found that pleroo<\/em> did not mean fulfill as in ‘do away with.’\u00a0 It can mean many things, but never that.\u00a0 It means to confirm, complete, perform \u2013 and when Paul uses that word in Roman 15:19 \u2013 it means ‘fully preach.’\u00a0 Which is exactly what Yeshua did in the verses that follow.\u00a0Not only did He fully preach the law, he brought fuller meaning to it, making it more honest and removing the loopholes the Pharisees had added with their rabbinical rulings (extra laws).\u00a0He said right in the passage I quoted that whoever breaks even a small law and teaches others to do so will be least, but those who teach the law and keep it will be great.\u00a0 Why would He teach that about the Kingdom of Heaven if He was going to destroy the law?\u00a0 What He destroyed, was the debt of sin which we were condemned by.\u00a0 He took the penalty— but nowhere does it say that He kept the Father\u2019s commandments so that we don\u2019t have to. \u00a0As we can see around us, heaven and earth have not passed, and not all of the Bible has come to pass! He said, \u201cFollow Me.\u201d\u00a0<\/em> Indeed, how can we follow Him, if we do not live as He lived?<\/span><\/p>\n
I pray you are still reading, because I love you, and it is my greatest fear that no one will ever share this with you. \u00a0I love you so much that I am willing to have you never speak to me again just in the hopes that this will help you come closer to our God. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Yeshua had much to say about lawbreaking, and how serious it is.\u00a0 Right after warning about false prophets and their fruits, Yeshua said this in Matthew 7…<\/span><\/p>\n
21\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.22\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?\u00a023\u00a0<\/b>And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.<\/span><\/p>\n
It is not enough to confess Him as Lord, we have to do the will of His Father in Heaven in order to make Him Lord, and the will of His Father was given at Sinai \u2013 that we would be set apart from the rest of the world by obedience to His way of life, the laws given to Moses.\u00a0 These people in this passage were doing amazing works, but they were working iniquity, the Greek word ‘anomia,’ which means \u201clawlessness\u201d \u2013 they were living apart from the laws of God.\u00a0 There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile here, and as we said before, Paul was not teaching the gentiles not to keep Torah.\u00a0 The Acts 15 council decided that in order to enter in to the body of believers, Gentiles had to first commit to 4 changes in their lives, and then they could learn the rest of the Torah, Acts 15:21…<\/span><\/p>\n
21\u00a0<\/b>For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.<\/span><\/p>\n
What we were taught were that our only requirements were simply the minimum requirements to be able to enter into the synagogue \u2013 because those 4 requirements were about what happens in pagan temples \u2013 sex with cult prostitutes, blood drinking, animals strangled for sacrifice, and no association with idols.\u00a0From the beginning at Sinai, there has only been one law for Jew and Gentile \u2013 Exodus 12:49 (as well as many other references)…\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n
“One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.”<\/span><\/p>\n
As Paul said, there is no wall of division, the same standards always applied to everyone equally.\u00a0 Ephesians 2…<\/span><\/p>\n
11\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Wherefore remember, that ye\u00a0being<\/i>\u00a0IN TIME PAST Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision (not official converts to Judaism) by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands (those submitted to rabbinical Judaism);\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants (plural, meaning all former covenants still apply) of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition\u00a0between us;<\/i>\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>having abolished in his flesh the enmity,\u00a0even<\/i>\u00a0the law of commandments\u00a0contained<\/i>\u00a0in ordinances (rabbinical ordinances that kept Jews and Gentiles apart, and by definition, kept Gentiles from being able to come to the gospel); for to make in himself of twain one new man,\u00a0so\u00a0<\/i>making peace;\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.\u00a018\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.\u00a0 19\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints (of the nation of Israel, same exact standing), and of the household of God;\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner\u00a0stone;<\/i>\u00a021\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:\u00a022\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n
The word holy is not really understood by most people, but it means \u201cset apart\u201d \u2013 it means different, and the opposite of set apart is common.\u00a0 If we live like the world does in any way, it would be remarked what we have in common with them; but, we are supposed to be set apart, and how we are set apart is by striving to live as Messiah lived, and He was a Torah keeping Jewish Rabbi.\u00a0 In fact, if Yeshua had broken even one of the laws given by God to Moses on Mt Sinai, according to I John 3:4, He would have been a sinner and we would be dead in our sins<\/span>.\u00a0If He added to, or took away, from the law in any way, He would have broken Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32, and we would be dead in our sins.\u00a0 \u00a0What did our Savior say about Moses’ writings?<\/span><\/p>\n
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me:for he wrote of me.\u00a047\u00a0<\/b>But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?<\/span><\/p>\n
Yeshua says that if we do not believe Moses, we will not believe what He says… and we were taught not to believe Moses.\u00a0 We are taught that when God told Moses “forever” over and over and over again, that He really just means, for another 1200 years or so.\u00a0Moses prophesied the coming one of Israel; Moses was so beloved of God that He spoke to him face to face as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:11), so I believe with my whole heart that whatever Moses says is absolutely true.\u00a0 Moses said this in Deuteronomy 30 after speaking the law once more to the children of Israel before his death…<\/span><\/p>\n
11\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>For this commandment which I command thee this day, it\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0not hidden from thee, neither\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0it far off.\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>It\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Neither\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>But the word\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and IN THY HEART, That THOU MAYST DO IT.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
15\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>in that I command thee this day to LOVE the\u00a0Lord\u00a0thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the\u00a0Lord\u00a0thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.<\/span><\/p>\n
Verse 16 tells us how to love God, by walking in His ways, keeping his commandments, statutes and judgments.\u00a0He says it is not out of our reach, or impossible, that it is in our hearts.\u00a0There is no reference to any ceremonial laws<\/span>, in fact, you will never find that phrase anywhere in the Bible.\u00a0 Yeshua said this exact same thing in John 14:15…<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cIf you love Me, you will keep my commandments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
People say He was only referring to two of them, love God with all your heart, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5) and love your neighbor (Leviticus 19:18), but He said elsewhere that all of the other commandments are part and parcel with these, inseparable–<\/span><\/p>\n
Matthew 22:40 “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”<\/span><\/p>\n
We love God and make Him our God by living according to what He says is good and bad.\u00a0 Malachi 3:6… He never changes, not ever.\u00a0 Bad never becomes good and good never becomes bad, or it makes him a liar, like a man.\u00a0His word is eternal or conditional, true or false, life or death.
\n<\/span><\/p>\nOne closing thing, does Yeshua ever once say that the law has been done away with?\u00a0Ever?\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t He have said it?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t it take a \u201cthus saith the LORD\u201d to undo a \u201cThus saith the Lord?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 What did He say?\u00a0 What are His last words as recorded by Matthew?\u00a0 Matthew 28…<\/span><\/p>\n
18\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.\u00a019\u00a0<\/b>Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:\u00a020\u00a0<\/b>teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you<\/span><\/b>: and, lo, I am with you always,\u00a0even<\/i>\u00a0unto the end of the world. Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n
He just said that all power is given to Him in heaven and in earth, and He did not say \u201cYou are free from the law.\u201d\u00a0 He said, in a nutshell, what He had been saying all along, \u201cKeep my commandments and teach others to do the same.\u201d\u00a0 If He taught anything before His death that diminished the commandments, then He was a sinner and we are dead in our sins. If He had ever taught against the law, or broke it, they would not have needed false<\/span> witnesses at His trial. \u00a0Was he a sinner? May it never be!<\/span><\/p>\n
I pray my words are received with the love in which they are given, I know this is hard, but the last two and a half years have been so happy for us, we have the whole of scriptures, the eternal word of God, as a gift for all of us to teach us what is and is not acceptable to God.\u00a0We keep it because we love Him.\u00a0It is how He desires to be loved and worshiped, not only in spirit, but also in truth. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
We have not fallen from grace, we have found it at last! \u00a0Psalm 119:142…<\/span><\/p>\n
“Thy righteousness\u00a0is<\/i><\/b>\u00a0an everlasting righteousness, and\u00a0thy<\/b>\u00a0law<\/b>\u00a0is<\/i><\/b>\u00a0the\u00a0truth<\/b>.”<\/span><\/p>\n
Love, <\/span><\/p>\n
Tyler, Mark, Matthew and Andrew<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following was received from a friend of ours.\u00a0 It is something I wanted to share here on “LaVada’s Blog.”\u00a0 She sent this out a few weeks ago…\u00a0 we can identify with her story!\u00a0 –LaVada A Letter to My Friends … Continue reading