As much as I point out the “negatives” of the Messianic/Hebraic movement, I can’t imagine being any other way now. I truly am grateful to finally embrace all of the Bible as being written for me personally.
I don’t know everything or have all the answers. But I do know this —- for me, the Bible finally is in sync with itself. It’s no longer a smorgasbord from which I pick and choose for my personal application. It’s all personally applicable. Praise God.
It’s been fun monitoring the mind-shift within myself concerning the Torah issue. I had always given mental assent to the fact that the whole Bible was for the believer. But, the daily practical outworking of that wasn’t always very clear.
For example …
I believed I was grafted into Israel but … so what? What was I to do with that piece of knowledge? What did it mean? What bearing, if any, was it supposed to have on my personal daily life?
Let me ask this. What did Paul mean when he told believers in Romans they were grafted into Israel?
It can only mean one of two things: 1. Believers are Israelites who are to live Hebraically as defined in the whole of the Word of God. 2. Believers are the “new” Israel who are to live out the Christian commandments as defined in the New Testament.
Number 1 is the only option that enables Scripture to be consistent with itself.
Once a believer comes to this point of practical understanding (rather than just a theologically based understanding), a whole new dimension of the Scriptures open up. There isn’t the “Jew” section (OT) and the “Christian” section (NT). Believers are Israelites with one complete Book for everyone.
My present reading in Jeremiah has reinforced this way of thinking. I keep finding myself asking: If all of this isn’t for me, then how do I know what to pick out as personally applicable?
There are great verses in Jeremiah. Here’s one: 29:11 — For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Well sure, who wouldn’t want to claim that verse?
But what is one supposed to do with these verses in Jeremiah 31?
31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law [TORAH] in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Yes, this is partially being fulfilled since Yeshua’s first appearance. However, it must be accepted that this passage has future application to the time of Yeshua’s second coming when He dwells with His grafted-in people. Those people are saved “Jews” and “Gentiles: the house of Israel and the house of Judah all becoming one body, Israel.
And when He does come back He’s going to do what… reinstate what He came the first time to do away with — the Law?? Is that not confusing to anybody?
I could go on, but let me just end by saying …
I’m so glad I don’t have to do any more gymnastics or wrangling with Scripture to figure out what goes where and for whom. It’s all one complete unified consistent whole.
That’s why I’m …
Thankful To Be Hebraic