by Harry BuererChristianity as we know it didn’t exist during the ministry of Jesus and his apostles. It came about during the late first and second century when the pressure of the Fiscus Judaicus, the Roman tax on Jews, motivated non-Jews who believed in Jesus to distance themselves from Judaism. Nevertheless, Christianity gets some important things right, particularly the importance of faith in Jesus and his sacrificial death as payment for our sins.
While Christianity has correctly identified the Messiah of Israel, the issues where it has historically struggled are with the People of Israel and the Faith of Israel. It has not typically recognized Jews as co-religionists with it. It has commonly downplayed the grafting into the Jewish olive tree that Paul discusses in Romans 11. And it often doesn’t portray Jesus the way the New Testament presents him, as a practitioner and teacher of Judaism and Torah observance.
If you have a background in traditional Christianity and you want to move toward biblical faith and practicing the life that God commanded for his followers, good for you. A key is to learn to see the New Testament from a Jewish perspective. Don’t necessarily leave your church home, at least not right away. But if you can find a Messianic congregation to worship with, that could be a big help in developing a Jewish perspective on Jesus. Some Messianic congregations, however, seem to exist for the sole purpose of converting Jews to Christianity. This is not good nor appropriate. You will do much better if you can find such a congregation that exists for the purpose of helping you to live and worship in a God-pleasing way, following God’s instructions throughout the Bible.
If you can’t easily find such a congregation to worship with, another avenue is to find a weekday Torah Club meeting. First Fruits of Zion (ffoz.org) sponsors Torah Clubs all over the world, and that is a great opportunity to interact with others who are trying to become disciples of Jesus in a biblical way.
Acts 15 seems to give a model for non-Jews to move from a Gentile lifestyle to one that follows God’s Torah. There seem to be two elements to this model. Start following Torah little by little, a few issues at a time. And also, be getting regular training in how to expand your obedience to God.
An easy way to begin is to read older posts in this blog. Clicking on the menu item “Chronology” will give you links to all the posts since this blog was started. That will give you a chance to internalize the concepts involved.
A good place to start your Torah observance is with the Sabbath. This command was important enough for God to include it in the ten that he spoke from Mt. Sinai in Exodus 20. And yet most Christians have ignored the Sabbath that God gave, the seventh day of the week, and have treated the first day of the week as something special. Even if you keep attending your Sunday church, you can start treating the Sabbath day as holy. From sundown on Friday evening until sundown on Saturday, avoid working your job or business if possible. Avoid doing regular tasks and use it as a day of rest. Reading the Bible or other spiritual material, or doing things for relaxation are appropriate.
The biblical festivals may be something that you haven’t given much thought to in the past. Begin by just being aware of when they occur on the calendar, the festivals of Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles), as well as Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. As you learn more about them, you can start observing them in appropriate ways, either alone or with your group. The minor holidays of Purim and Hanukkah, although not commanded by God, are appropriate to observe as well.
A good thing to take note of is the list of things that God commanded his people to avoid eating. You can find this information in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. If you want to study further on this issue, a good book to read is “Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?” by Hope Egan.
To learn continually more about following God’s commands, read the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) regularly. The five books of Moses give the basic history and instructions for how to live. The prophets are important to read to see the future that God has planned for Israel and his Gentile followers. I recommend reading the New Testament from a translation like David Stern’s “Jewish New Testament”. Traditional translations often have a lot of Christian assumptions built in. Reading Paul’s epistles is tricky, since most of Christianity has misunderstood parts of them for centuries. The author of II Peter points out that Paul’s epistles are hard to understand, and that people have distorted them and been carried away by the error of lawless men. That is exactly what has happened with many interpreters. Recently Mark Nanos, a Jewish scholar, has pioneered understanding Paul within Judaism. I recommend reading anything by Mark Nanos, especially “The Mystery of Romans”.
For further education, you can do online study with courses at the college level. Two sources I would recommend for this are Torah Resource Institute (torahresource.com) and Israel Bible Center (israelbiblecenter.com). Both of these organizations offer a lot of fine training in biblical backgrounds.
Wherever you are on your pilgrimage, the important thing is to love God and want to please him. Take a step or two in the right direction and he will continue to lead you as you walk with him.