God's Holy food laws eternal or temporal?
Christendom - ecumenical type Christians who do not even take the Bible text seriously anymore or those who say we accept the Bible only to deny the commandments given by God in the Bible. Basically all the denominations.
We must take the Bible for what its worth and unfortunately one has to say that Christians take too many things for granted when it comes to believing God and not enough attention is paid to the detail of the text and it is no wonder that Muslims make a mockery out of the Christians because the Christians fail to read their Bibles correctly which in turn allows room for attack.
Many Christians need to be aware that by rejecting God's holy word (Torah, prophets and rest of the apostolic writings) they reject Him though not directly but indirectly and is this not what Satan wants? By saying that the Old Testament (When did God call Torah old?) is not for us and only the New Testament is for us they are essentially abrogating God's very words. Man’s attempt at self knowledge results in foolishness.
Our theology and the rock of our foundation is the Tenach (Torah plus prophets and Psalms) and the accepted Jewish canon (The Hebrew Bible) with the apostolic writings and the simple reason the Jewish people reject the New Testament is much to the chagrin of the Christians that The Jewish people see Christians in Idolatry for many reasons even though the apostolic writings (NT) clearly confirm and prove beyond a doubt what Yahushua/Jesus came to fulfill (To fill up not to remove) and can only be correctly interpreted in light of the Hebrew Bible without which the New Testament writings would be meaningless. The only problem is that Christians dissect the Hebrew Bible away and are left dangling with a text that has no meaning outside of the Tenach (39 books of the Hebrew Bible) or if you want to divide it 22 plus 22 or Hebrew way 24 plus 27.
1. The Jewish people think that the Christians worship a man i.e. Yahushua (Jesus) as God therefore that to them in itself is idolatry.
2. They see Christians eating unclean foods therefore find it hard to comprehend which God Christians are following since Christians claim to follow God who prohibits strongly from the consumption of unclean foods and He very clearly sets out in black and white what foods we are to consume and what not (Lev 11), yet Christians refuse to obey that law by writing it off as old or for The Jewish people only. Unfortunately masses of Christians are duped by old Roman Catholic dogma to remove Torah and alas are still living in ignoramus land.
3. The Jewish people see Christians celebrating pagan feasts such as Christmas and Ishtar (Easter) when we should be observing the Biblical feasts that a few of us do hold to strongly. Some of us actually get persecuted not by Jewish people or Muslims but by Christendom for obeying the correct Biblical feasts since we reject the mainstream pagan idolatry of Christmas and Ishtar (Easter). To them we are foolish but to God we are His special treasure (Exo 19:5).
4. Some Christians even eat blood in the form of raw steaks even though blood is forbidden to be consumed and its consumed in other forms such as some vitamins such as blood supplements which are made from blood of animals.
Each of these topics deserves it own article, I have touched on Christmas in our December 2005 Newsletter but in this particular article we will deal with kosher laws as evidenced by the Bible rather than rabbinic Judaism.
Paul wrote;
Romans 11:14 If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh [Jewish people] and save some of them.
How would Paul provoke The Jewish people to jealousy with a pork chop in his hand and save some of them while dancing around with Peter the Apostle holding mistletoe on his head while Mary of Magda is trying to kiss him and singing O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how lovely are your branches? What a crude picture this would be of Yahushua’s culture and yet this is far from the truth. By this way Paul or anyone else today would never provoke any Jewish person to jealousy while even entertaining the thought of eating unclean foods. A Jewish person or in fact even a Muslim would see these people as unclean and to stay away from them. The reason Muslims do not integrate well in communities today other than with Muslim communities where they live the reasons are the obvious. They feel since the locals eat unclean foods such as pork/crabs/lobsters and are unclean as a result they would rather not enter those peoples homes or allow them to come into theirs and make them unclean, and this is a major barrier for Muslims in the West mixing with the local population because the Muslim men/women have to pray five times a day then surely how can they consider themselves ritually pure if they would be touching unclean food or people remembering that the Muslims keep a large subset of Torah dietary laws. Some Muslims even keep a separate set of dishes for a non-Muslim guest.
The same problem applies with the Jewish people as they too pray three times a day and would not want to come into contact with people who are unclean and traditionally the Western races are seen as unclean due to their lifestyle habits. There is no point in us blaming the Muslims for being backward at least to some extent they keep the dietary laws so they would be correct in their outlook to avoid pork. They do things that the Christian world should be doing e.g. the right of Circumcision but Christendom makes such a big deal out of everything but God’s covenants are still active and eternal. A Christian has to be taught the difference between eternal and temporal. Sadly many British schools with their top ranked education have not been able to teach people that fulfill does not mean abandon!!!
This covenant of circumcision was established with Abraham, not the Jewish people specifically and Abraham was not Jewish. It is quite obligatory on all who believe in the God of Abraham yet the Christian would argue do I need it for my salvation? The answer is no but it is a required act for obedience sake never-the-less because you need it simply because God established it, how about that. Is that good enough? Maybe not for the unconcerned Christians who want to harp on about grace while forgetting Adam as created because of grace. Science tells us that tests studies done in Africa show that those males who have been circumcised in Africa are 65% less prone to develop AIDS. Wow, did God know this or is science beginning to realize things hidden for centuries, maybe the Torah is right about this after all. We cannot say the Muslims or the Jewish people are evil for doing this. They found that the Muslim males in Africa who were circumcised were at least two thirds less likely to contract AIDS yet many Christian males were more prone to the virus due to the non-circumcision issue alone. If you wish to know why circumcision is important please visit http://www.abrahamic-faith.com website and read the articles in frequently asked questions about circumcision.
To get back to the point Paul would never entertain what many Christians entertain today because Paul was an observant Kosher Jewish man and a Pharisee, esteemed Rabbi for you. The same principle applies to the Christians today, neither can we provoke the Jewish people to jealousy unless we do what God ordained for us and that is to be set-apart people and to follow His Holy laws better than the Jewish people did and only then can we provoke the Jewish people to jealousy and this is the point that Paul was trying to drive home in the letter to the Romans and his other writings. Hello world, the letter was to the Romans, yep those big bad Romans were gentiles with a mixture of Jewish Christians who Paul was reinforcing the point home that the Torah is holy (Romans 7:12) and not abrogated.
How many gentile believers today really try to follow the Biblical precepts to make the Jewish people jealous? Not only do we have their Messiah but we obey the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the way He intended? Unfortunately very few of us meet the basic standards of God's law yet we all want to proclaim the European Jesus and as far as the Jewish world and Muslim world are concerned neither would have it then we wonder why aren't the Jewish people and Muslims coming to faith. Look at yourself that is why!!!
The arguments against God's holy food laws goes something like this. European Jesus made everything clean, European Jesus kept the law for us, He kept the Sabbath for us so we do not have to do it and on and on it goes.
If such is the case then Yahushua's own words end the argument for those who think they can have their pie and eat it too.
Matthew 23:1-3 Then Yahushua spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, (2) saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. (3) "Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
There you have it all you Torah breakers out there who proclaim God is your God, yes and that is exactly what Yahushua calls you Torah breakers or lawless... He Himself said do what the Pharisees tell you to observe that observe which they tell you in Moses' seat. What were the Pharisees saying, go eat those chunky pork chops, go eat shellfish, then go in the Temple and worship and be happy. Not in a million years!!! A Jewish person would not let an unclean animal near him let alone eat it as the question of ritual purity during Temple times was of crucial importance on how to present yourself to God. Even today the Jewish people keep the kosher laws, you do not see them arguing over it but you see Christians bickering over it like somehow the laws are only spiritual. Mostly the Christian makes God to say something He never said even if we accept this argument, I have not found one Christian who can defend his non-kosher arguments scripturally and I have had this discussion with the most knowledgeable to the least knowledgeable.
What I have found is some of them have the desire to follow God but their pastors tell them the laws are done away with so to keep the status quo they stay silent but they forget on the day of judgment it is their rewards on the line not the pastors though the pastor will suffer loss of his works and maybe more. If one thing we ex-Muslims have learnt is this that we follow God with more zeal obeying Him and His laws and we do not call our mighty savior a liar by disobeying Him.
Matthew 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
How can Yahushua tell us that the Pharisees are hypocrites and yet tell us to do what they say when they sit in Moses' seat? This is easy, in the synagogues there was a seat referred to as Moses' seat and when the Pharisees would recite weekly Torah portions (Prasha) thus Yahushua said observe what they tell you but when the same Pharisees after reading the Torah portions would add on a thousand traditions and it was these traditions that Yahushua was against just like Paul did the same later. Almost like Christ-mass and Ish-tar are a tradition of the Roman Catholic church not the Bible.
Let us look at some of the other things that Christians use to circumvent God's holy laws.
Mark 7:17-19 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18"Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? (19) For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
Context is very important and here most people take this verse completely out of context as the issue at hand is about washing of hands that we can read in Mark chapter 7:1-3 where the Pharisees and the scribes had a tradition to wash their hands before eating of food but since the disciples were not following this tradition they were criticized heavily for it. You can see this described in verse three "holding the tradition of the elders". Next, many people do not realize that the words "in saying this, Yahushua (Jesus) declared all foods clean", actually do not exist in the text but are inserted by anti-Torah/anti nomian Christians for good measure to mislead others. Why would Torah obedient Jewish people even be discussing the eating of swine? This is not the context and no need for such arguments when they are already fully understood.
Mark 7:1-3 Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. (2) Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. (3) For the Pharisees and all The Jewish people do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.
Why would you want to argue this verse out when it is not even talking about the Kosher laws?
Acts 10:15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.’’
The Jewish people saw gentiles as unclean people and why wouldn't they since the gentiles were involved in all sorts of pagan idolatry, eating of unclean foods worship to false Gods thus The Jewish people who wanted to live a pious life and be respectful to God's holy laws and remember they had to attend the Temple and they could not attend the Temple being in a state of ceremonial uncleanness because by the touching of unclean foods would render the person ceremonially unclean until evening (Leviticus 22:6) and if a person had eaten unclean food then touching that person would render you unclean also. Here God gives instruction to Peter not to call gentile people unclean so the issue was never about eating unclean meats but about gentiles being unclean or not. God wanted the gospel message to be taken to the gentiles so He showed Peter that he could go to the centurion's house and meet with him. Remember The Jewish people did not even want to enter a gentile home for fear of becoming unclean and this likewise is the problem of an observant Muslim who does think around similar lines. Hence why many Christians living unclean lives have been unsuccessful to reach Muslims.
Was the centurion unclean?
Acts 10:2 A devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.
The clue lies in the words of Acts 10:2 that this was a God fearing and devout man that would mean this person actually feared not a roman God but the God of The Jewish people God and he was most likely already not eating unclean food as the text tells us he was very reverent that the very word would entail him being observant of foods also. You may not like this but one does not come without the other as that is the norm.
Acts 10:22 And they said, "Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of The Jewish people, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you.''
Notice in the text he feared God, he had a good reputation amongst The Jewish people. Now most people just don't get it, they think this person was eating unclean like the rest of the Romans and so God sent Peter to go and baptize him yet this is an impossible reading of the text. Acts 10:35 talks about people in every nation working righteousness and that involved giving up things setting yourself apart for the Elohim of Israel and certainly Cornelius was a man who had done just that. The very reason Peter was reluctant to go was the fact that even entering a gentile home knowing that what gentile people had in their home and were eating unclean animals like I said earlier would render the Jewish person ceremonially unclean. Peter also feared his contemporaries what they would say. Why do you think a Muslim does not like inviting foreigners into his home, its simple they also know that the people around them eat unclean food and so they would rather keep these people out of their homes even though the Muslims do not adhere to all the clean/unclean laws but they have a large variety of laws from the Torah that they do follow. I can tell you that a Muslim no matter how unobservant still hates the sight of pork and it is very difficult for the Muslim to work alongside gentiles in cookery places especially when these meats are present.
Romans 14:1-3 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. (2) For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. (3) Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
The issue here was not clean verses unclean but vegetarianism verses meats that were acceptable. Some people had decided to go vegetarian considering it was very difficult to tell if meat that was acceptable i.e. sheep/goat from the market was offered to the idols first or not, rather then take risk they wanted to avoid it altogether.
Colossians 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.
The issue here was simply that in the first century Judaism Pharisees were fasting at least one day a week to look righteous and so they were saying that if you do not then you cannot be righteous. Paul would not be judging God's holy Sabbaths as there was no question about these. In fact the word for "man" is not just any man but pagans who would judge you for meat or drink and so Paul admonishes that do not worry what the gentiles, think of what the believers are doing i.e. keeping the Sabbath holy, obeying and observing the new moon and eating Kashrut.
1 Timothy 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving."
Christians jump to the conclusion that we can eat anything. The absurdity of this argument is that we should accept dog, cat and snake equally with thanksgiving but this is not what was being said so God does not leave us in the dark, the answer in fact lies in the next verse.
1 Timothy 4:5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Which foods did God sanctify to be taken with thanksgiving? You can find the acceptable ones in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, these are the ones that are sanctified or set-apart. Christians want to believe that God is holy, He will not allow sin in His sight but He would not mind His followers relishing in things He forbids, right? How ridiculous.
1 Timothy 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats [broma], which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
Ask yourself today who is asking to refrain from these things? Meats that are to be taken with thanksgiving e.g. Hindus don't want people to eat beef yet God qualified beef as good meat. There are many other cults which want you to remain vegetarian or drop meats from your diet that God did not forbid yet this all flies in the face of what our creator wanted and really it is Satan's attempt to distort God's holy laws by deceiving individual people. However the Greek word "broma" here could well mean food which is to be eaten and not necessary for animal meats.
1 Corinthian 10:25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience' sake;
We must remember that the concern or context of this verse is not unclean meat verses clean but ones sacrificed to idols verses not sacrificed to idols 1 Corinthians 10:18, secondly most Christians who perhaps did not look into the early 1st century culture did not grasp this verse will jump to a conclusion automatically that this is regarding meat when it regards something greater. Remember the Jewish people would never need to have a debate on food whether the kosher laws are for them anymore or not as these are clearly explained in Leviticus 11 so why argue over set doctrine? Would you sit in with a Chinese and eat snakes fried without asking questions?
The context of 1 Corinthians 10 is not a discussion whether the Jewish diet is right or wrong but the context is adultery and idolatry mixing with others so the context is not breaking Torah but how to walk right. Paul starts with a discourse on Israel and its ways then coming out up to verse 14 says don’t do likewise else we would likely face the same results in other words Christians cannot escape judgment for living idolatrous lives.
Paul is using proof texts by admonishing the people from Deuteronomy 32-16-17.
Deuteronomy 32:16-17 They made him jealous with their foreign elohim and angered him with their detestable idols.(17) They sacrificed to demons, which are not elohim— Gods they had not known, elohim that recently appeared, elohim your fathers did not fear.
He continues the discourse about idols and idolatry and no mention is made that he is arguing against the prescribed practices of clean foods but he has taken examples from Torah to show how Israel was in Idolatry in the wilderness that these people also were falling into the same camp if not careful.
He is arguing idol worship and what is behind idols (1 Cor 10:20) and then 1 Cor 10:28 makes it clear the argument is still with food offered to idols and that is the whole discussion point.
1 Corinthian 10:27 If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
Now lets do some testing and if a host sets before you a fried snake are you going to eat it with thanksgiving asking no question? How about a skewed rat, what if it is a human being, are you still going to eat and give thanks? Or did you not know that People in different parts of the world do eat these things, so where do we stop? This is how absurd the argument is for eating anything under the sun, we must learn to be faithful and believe and trust God that is what faith (aymuna) is about. If I went to a Muslim home he would never set before me pork yet the Christian is so insensitive that if a Jewish person goes to his home he puts pork before him, you can learn how ignoramus some Christians are in this regard for example such as conferences for Israel where pork is served on the menu yet many Jewish speakers are invited who simply do not eat unclean. In 1 Corinthian 10:27 it is easy to understand that in context it refers to knowing what is right from wrong and unfortunately here the Christian need to learn a big lesson from their counterparts The Jewish people.
The Jewish people are right
The black plague was one such incident blamed on The Jewish people in Europe when many Europeans became ill and blamed the Jewish people because the Jewish people did not acquire the diseases due to the clean Torah food laws they were practicing but the reality is that The Jewish people faithfully kept the food laws thus avoiding many illnesses so once again proving that following God's laws has many benefits. Queen Elizabeth I moved her court to Windsor castle to avoid the disease and made it lawful to hang Londoners coming her way.
The fat is God’s
Leviticus 3:4 `the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove;
3450 years ago God instructed Moses that they were not to consume fat. Did God know that fat is bad for us? Well the one who created us knows what is good and what is bad for us better than we do, today we talk about high cholesterol levels yet God knew these things and revealed for us to avoid them. Marvelous or what, great.
Leviticus 3:17 `This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall eat neither fat nor blood.' ''
Where ever the word perpetual is used it is the usually the word Ha' Olam. It means the commandments were made with the twelve tribes of Israel and so should be kept with all later generations.
The Jewish people do not argue like Christians do today about obsolete or not obsolete but faithfully obey God in these matters. The Muslims are very similar in that they also stick to the laws enshrined in the Qur'an but why wouldn't they since they are both cousins and act similarly but poor Christendom argues over everything and make an issue over nothing, why not just believe God and leave the rest to Him to decide. Remember Abraham believed God and was credited righteousness, here is GRACE for those spiritually blind to see this in Christendom.
Are you willing to believe God or simply argue?
If this article has made you realize your error then repent and obey God our savior. On the other hand if you think that you know better than the author writing this article and you want to challenge him to a debate or discussion then you are most welcome and we will bring your debate/discussion live on the Yesumasih radio for the world to hear. You can contact us on shimoun63@yahoo.com and a suitable arrangement will be made for you to air your views or alternatively you may not want to go in front of the world and remain in a closet in which case you can just debate it out with me by e-mail.
Be blessed in God revealed in Yahushua.
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Simon Altaf was chosen by God for the special End-Times prophetic calling. A lone voice in the wilderness, one taught by God (Ps 119:120-121), a Messianic Rabbi and a writer. He is an ex-Muslim, called out of Islam to rejoin His people after his long exile.
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