Introduction To The Teaching

Amen. Thank you, brother Luke. It’s great to be back with you all after a week off. Why am I doing this lesson? So, here’s the thing, guys. When you look at the content of the game show questions, then you know those of you who are in the way have pretty much already a pretty good grip on those answers because you’ve studied them, because you’re obeying them, because you know them. those questions. The game show was primarily for the people that we’re reaching out to.

They weren’t so much for us. And so I’m saying that because the game show videos especially, those should be the ones that you’re sending to your Christian family members or your Christian friends and say, “Hey, watch this. What do you think about this?” to plant seeds. Now, some of those people are going to outright reject everything that I say, and that’s okay. But if you can just use them to plant a seed, then you’re doing a good thing. Uh someone else down the line and water that seed one way or another and then it begins to grow as the father gives it growth. But use these things because they they really are evangelistic in nature.

And today’s lesson is kind of a cherry on top type of lesson as I’m dealing with still Christian church doctrines and how they fall short uh of of actual biblical truth. This would be another one that you might share with your your Christian brothers, friends, sisters, you know, whoever. We have to use these things not just to build ourselves up, right? Because that’s what teaching does. Teaching strengthens the body. Teaching nourishes the body, but it it can also be evangelistic. And we have to use these tools in in that way as as best we can.

So that’s why I’m 2 minutes doing this lesson to answer you straight forward. I’m doing this lesson because this is in my humble opinion the most destructive doctrine in the Christian church. because at its core, it is a doctrine that rejects Torah. And so, you really could put every antinomeian doctrine that the Christian church has under the category of this doctrine. So, let’s get into it so we can see what’s what. The first couple of slides, maybe the first three or four slides are going to be informative and then in the end, the the last few slides, we’re going to start looking at some scripture. So

The Christ Plus Nothing Myth

Christ plus nothing. First of all, David, Tim, have you heard this? Have you heard this phrase? Yeah, this is very, very common, very popular doctrine for solo feed of people and warrior mindset. Um, they’re just they actually won’t even hear anything else. Yeah, David. 3 minutes Yeah. No, I’ll be honest.

I haven’t heard the the specific terminology, but of course being part of, you know, the denominational church for we called ourselves non-denominational for decades, uh I I totally understand what we’re talking about here. All they’re saying is all we need is Christ, nothing else. Yeah. The phrase Christ plus nothing is a relatively modern slogan, but the theological concept behind it has deep historical roots. The expression is commonly used to summarize the Protestant doctrine that salvation is received by faith in Christ alone which it is apart from any human works which it is. The exact wording is not found in scripture. Historically the development looks something like this.

In the first century the primary controversy was not whether believers should obey God but whether Gentiles had to become Jews through circumcision and procelite conversion in order to enter the covenant community. This is the issue Paul addresses in Galatians, Romans, Acts 15. Paul argues that justification comes through faith in Messiah, not through works of the law, not through obedience to the law. A phrase that has been terribly misunderstood and constantly taken out of context. John Calvin further systematized this doctrine together with the uh other reformers. He emphasized faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, scripture alone, the glory of God alone and these became known as this thing called the five solas. You may have heard the term solura which means scripture only.

Uh so this is what this is the five solas the five only. It gained widespread use in 20th century evangelicalism, particularly through dispensationalism, revivalism, and the free grace theology. Teachers increasingly summarize the gospel with expressions such as Christ plus nothing, faith alone. Nothing you do contributes to salvation. You could add nothing to the finished work of Christ. Now, having read all of that, you might look at that and go, “Well, that’s not too bad.” And at face value, it really isn’t that bad. But there’s more.

The slogan is often intended to combat legalism. However, it has historically been expanded beyond its original purpose. Instead of teaching that salvation cannot be earned, it’s presented to mean, and here’s where we get into trouble. Christ plus obedience is legalism. We dealt with that headon some months ago when we looked at what legalism actually is as opposed to what the church has turned it out to be. So Christ plus obedience is legalism. Christ plus Torah is heresy.

That’s what I was accused of in my old congregation. I was considered a heretic because I wanted to introduce obedience to Torah in my life. Christ plus disciplehip is works righteousness. I’ve dealt with that for 35 years. Being in a church that uh disciplehip is one of its core doctrines. We often found ourselves fighting against other believers who didn’t think that was a thing. Christ plus repentance is unnecessary and Christ plus perseverance is optional.

So all of these things are an amalgamation of the Christ plus nothing doctrine. But the big one is that right there. The big one is Christ plus Torah is heresy amongst those more prominent teachers that teach this doctrine. So is it heresy? One of the defining characteristics of modern

Is Christ Plus Torah Heresy

evangelical theology is the belief that any attempt to obey the commandments of the Old Testament after coming to Messiah is an effort to add to Christ. That first sentence right there could really sum up this entire lesson. So let’s read it again. One of the defining characteristics of modern evangelical theology, who does that include? Well, just about every Christ professing denomination is the belief that any attempt to obey the commandments of the Old Testament after coming to Messiah is an effort to add to Christ. According to this view, Christ’s finished work has rendered the law obsolete for believers, making continued Torah observance not an expression of faithfulness, but a denial of the sufficiency of his sacrifice. How in the world did we get there?

This assumption has become so widespread that many Christians never stop to ask whether it’s actually what the scriptures teach. And there’s three basic positions with Christ plus Torah doctrine that I want to go over very 8 minutes briefly. Number one is obedience to the Torah after coming to Christ is an attempt to add to Christ. As we just said, this is the strongest view and it is common among dispensationalists and many reformed teachers. They argue that once Christ has fulfilled the law, returning to Torah observance is tantamount to, you may have heard me say in recent interviews or in recent videos, um, the

Common Theological Misconceptions

lunacy of somebody in the Christian church, and I I don’t mean to sound harsh when I use that word, but it it is it’s it feels like lunacy to me when someone in the Christian church can get all excited about a New Test Testament command and you can just pick whichever one you want. I often use the command to go and make disciples. That’s a New Testament command. That’s the great commission from Matthew 28. They can get all excited about that command and say, “Yes, we have to do this. Let’s let’s do this.” And we did. Me and my old church did for our our whole life.

While at the same time, if you say you want to obey an Old Testament command, say like Sabbath or something else, all of a sudden that’s heresy. And it just it’s lunacy to me how a person can get their A in their heart, B in their doctrine, and C in their whole denominational belief system. Both commands come from the same God. So, how is obeying one of his commands a blessing and the other heresy? I want you viewer, listener, somebody shared this lesson with you. I want you to think about that and I want you to think if that sounds logical, throw away the theology for a moment. Throw away the opinions for a moment and just answer the question from a logical perspective, a logical point of view.

How can we look at a New Testament command and say, “Yes, amen.” while at the same time looking at an Old Testament command and cry heresy. It just doesn’t make sense. Here are some of the more popular teachers in in our day today. Some of them have passed. May they rest in peace. Uh but I just wanted to kind of show you, give you a visual from some of the things that they’ve actually said. This is John MacArthur.

If you put yourself under the Mosaic law, you have abandoned the freedom that is in Christ. What does that statement say, David? Being under the Mosaic law is a burden, is a shackle, is limiting, and you’ve lo lost your freedom that has been granted to you through following Christ. Jim, yeah, I was just going to say that this whole mindset of this whole misinterpretation of Galatians and this whole under for for justification, they they think because people don’t understand the law, they think that we are putting ourselves under a justification scenario versus a sanctification and just and then there like you hit on in the lesson a few weeks ago about freedom in Christ. Why now that Christ saved me, I can do whatever I want. And so there’s two major major misinterpretations of of this. So um that’s what I was thinking on this show.

Yeah. So let me ask you this question of you of you two guys. According to John MacArthur, what does freedom in Christ mean? Freedom to do freedom from the law. Right. Right. Freedom from the law.

According to John MacArthur, freedom in Christ means freedom from the law. And that is the predominant lie not only in history. I think it’s part of the strong delusion that Paul talks about, but it’s also the most common belief in the Christian church that freedom in Christ means freedom from the laws of Yah. And that’s shocking. 12 minutes Charles Ryrie, some of you may have a Ryrie Bible or Ryrie Bible in your collection. I think I do back there from years ago. Christ fulfilled the law. The believer is under the law of Christ. returning to Moses confuses the what [laughter] the dispensations.

So what do we what can we tell about this person’s belief and his teaching from that statement? Well, first and foremost to him the law of Christ is somehow different from the law of Yah. And that’s another very popular belief in the Christian church. One that we have spent a great deal refuting biblically in this channel in our lessons. No, the law of Christ is not different from the law of the father. They are the same. Yeshua came and only spoke his words.

And he is on record of saying that many, many times. And the second thing is it confuses the dispensations. Dispensationalism. The father works differently at this period than he does in that period. That’s basically what dispensationalism is. He changed his ways for this era of humanity’s existence to this era of humanity’s existence. They’re completely different.

Hence, his claim to return to the law is to confuse those two dispensations. John Piper, a very famous, I think he’s still living evangelist teacher in the Christian church, the law of Moses has been fulfilled in Jesus. We are not under the law of Moses. We are under the law of Christ. Same thing, right? In John Piper’s dispensational view, Yeshua’s laws are completely different from the father’s laws. And that just simply is not biblical.

Not in any way, stretch, or form. Thomas Schreiner, I don’t know too much about this fella, but he says the Mosaic Covenant no longer governs believers. And I would say that that is probably the second most common teaching in the Christian church. That’s what I grew up hearing in my circles and not just from my former affiliation, but the congregations that I was a part of in my youth before the 35 years in my old church. And this is where we get the whole idea that we shouldn’t really pay too much attention to the Old Testament. It’s beliefs like this that have kept the Christian church in a state of ignorance uh regarding the truths of the Old Testament. It’s why I always say they are Old Testament illiterate because of this.

If it no longer governs believers, why study it? Humans have a hard enough time already to be consistent in their studying of the New Testament. Just human nature to be consistent and disciplined in our reading, in our study. You throw on the Old Testament, oh my goodness, that’s that’s undoable. That’s unthinkable. And that’s why the Christian church has such a um poultry understanding of the broader teachings of the text. So the Christ plusno doctrine is often aimed directly at believers who embrace Torah obedience.

Categorizing Biblical Obedience

Some of you may have been following the Solberg debates that seem to pop up all over the place. Who’s he debated now? He’s debated Wilbur. He’s debated uh Hamp and I know a couple of others. And when you listen to him talk, this is what you basically hear. This Christ plusno thing is targeted to those who embrace Torah. I don’t see Solberg arguing against anybody else.

Do you? I I don’t. The accusation is that if you trust in Yeshua for salvation, but also keep the Sabbath, observe the biblical feasts, eat according to scripture, or obey the commandments given through Moses, then you are somehow adding to the finished work of Messiah. And that’s what we’re going to break down today. And we’re going to see that the entire Bible not only doesn’t teach Christ plus nothing, it teaches the exact opposite. Yeah, I just wanted to say also with respect to this whole idea going back to the theme scripture that was a foundational scripture in the congregation or the denomination that we were part of. You know, you mentioned Matthew 28:18, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, name fathers and the holy spirit.

So that part everybody was really on board and that’s what they put in the practice. 17 minutes But then conveniently, even though they quoted it all the time, conveniently just neglected to emphasize verse 20 that says, “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded.” Right? And in in Christ’s mind, it goes together. yet in their mind, you know, and they were able to, you know, separate that and dismiss that, saying, well, your Christ did not command to obey the Sabbath, for example, or things of that nature, you know, in parallel to what you mentioned earlier about the law of Christ, right? So, uh it’s it’s kind of building their doctrines on portions of scriptures taken out of context or not providing the whole scripture. Indeed. Yes. Thank you, David. So the second most essential position on this issue in the Christian church, obedience is necessary.

I think most people in the Christian church would agree to that to some degree, but not specifically obedience to the Torah. This view affirms that believers are expected to obey God, but it separates new covenant obedience from the commandments given in the Torah. It generally holds that Christians are obligated only to commands repeated. There it is, David. Only to commands repeated or reaffirmed in the New Testament. While the Mosaic law as a covenantal system is no longer binding. And that’s what David just said.

If it’s not specifically reinstated or repeated or reaffirmed in the New Testament, it’s not binding. First of all, that hermeneutic is not a smart one. uh just from an exogetical perspective, it’s just not smart. And yet they have embraced it. The idiocy, and again I use that word lightly, please don’t think I’m being judgmental. The idiocy of that perspective is that there are a lot of things not reaffirmed in the New Testament from the law. And yet they don’t make any claims about that. I don’t know, say like something like beastiality is not specifically reaffirmed in the New Testament.

Does that mean it’s okay? So, no. This is not a safe interpretational tool or model for us to use when it came to the New Testament. Why? Well, for this reason. The reason you don’t see everything reaffirmed in the New Testament is because as far as the people are concerned, they didn’t need to be. They knew the law. the best they could.

Now, they had a bunch of stuff mixed in there with Judaism that Yeshua tried had to un unt unt untwist in his ministry, but they there was no need for them to categorize uh testaments into two halves, if you will. So, this position creates a category of obedience. There’s the word that scripture never creates. It affirms that believers must obey Yahovah while simultaneously rejecting the very commandments he gave to define what obedience is. And isn’t that crazy? This position number two affirms that we have to obey while at the same time rejecting the very words that define what obedience is. Again, this thing that we all call the New Testament is not a New Testament at all.

Everything in the last third of the Bible is built on the first twothirds. Yeshua, Paul, James, John consistently speak of Yahovah’s commandments using categories already established in the Torah. That’s what I just said. The biblical question is not whether believers should obey, but where scripture authorizes the believer to quote redefine Yahovah’s commandments apart from the Torah. And that’s what we have done in the Christian church. We have tried to redefine his teachings apart from the Old Testament, apart from Torah. I can’t tell you it’s probably 30 years before it dawned on me that the sins in Galatians 5 all have their origin in Torah.

And to a lot of people, hearing that sin is defined as lawlessness according to the Apostle John completely confuses them because they’re not accustomed to having the Old Testament define anything in their faith. I hope you’re following along with me here. Then number three, an individual may personally honor the Torah, and here’s the kicker, but may not teach that disregarding its commandments constitutes sin. And this personally happened to me. I was told as I was learning these things while still a member of the church, hey, if you want to obey Sabbath, that’s fine. But you can’t tell anybody that not to obey Sabbath is sin. Why?

Because it is, isn’t it? Isn’t that what John says? 1 John 3:45. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is breaking the law. Is the Sabbath a law? Yeah. It’s the fourth commandment.

So, am I saying it’s sin? Or is John saying it’s sin? John’s saying it’s sin, but you’re not supposed to do it. You can’t tell them that it’s sin. You can’t share that definition of sin. Why? Because it violates their doctrine.

It violates their worldview. Right. Any thoughts from David and Tim on this? No, absolutely. I’ve definitely encountered that when I was sharing things that I was learning, things that, you know, that we were putting into practice. Sabbath, food laws, feasts, etc. I was sharing this with excitement as something that was good, right?

And you know, I’ve had people that would hear me and say, “You really have to be careful on how you phrase that because it makes some other people uncomfortable or it makes them question their faith or or things of that nature.” Now, obviously, I never want to put anybody in that kind of a situation and I do have to be careful with how I deliver my message. So I then had to do this and and again with good reason. I had to refine the way I communicated these things and I I basically said this is what I have come to believe. This is what I have put into practice based on my study. Right? So making it more personal as opposed to people feeling judged or accused. Right?

Which is a good thing. But definitely have been in that situation where don’t even talk about those things. And this is someone someone made that reference when I was teaching and I was sharing a devotional in my own home in my own home. They were trying to control the messaging of what I was 24 minutes sharing with people that happened to be in my home. And isn’t that crazy because David and I and Tim as well come from a church that is known for not beating around the bush when it comes to quote unquote their truth. We have a long list of very forceful leadership who is unapologetic about laying out the truth, but not a truth that isn’t their truth. And so what David just described is the fact that he as and me have to tiptoe around these things to protect them somehow.

And I just think that’s hypocritical personally. Tim, any thoughts on that? Yeah. I mean, I was labeled by a close friend in the Christian church. I was accused to my face as being legalistic. And I actually had to study out what legalism was. So, I was grateful for that.

And I was like, “Look, man, you don’t even know what legalism is. This is not legalism.” I think there’s a spirit in the Christian churches where if you’re not talking about love and I just want to love and worship God and want to connect emotionally to God. And as soon as you start talking about anything convictionoriented, there really is a push back or can be a push back from some people, it’ll rile their spirits up. And I just follow the God’s law. You get a really great deep conviction. There’s a lot of freedom that happens. I sense that what David was saying, the freedom in Christ really is following the law.

And now I my conscience is clear. I’m joyous. But they don’t really understand that because if you only focus on I just want to feel close to Jesus and worship music kind of my and I forgive me for embellishing but that really is what I’ve encountered a lot but I just wanted to say that if we really obey it the conviction happens and you actually get the desired outcome. Yeah. So, an individual believer may personally observe or honor practices found in Torah, such as the Sabbath, dietary laws, or biblical feast days, provided that he regards them as matters of personal conviction. However, he may not teach that these commandments remain binding upon believers, nor may he characterize their violation as sin. Once Torah observance is presented as an obligation rather than an option, proponents of this view generally regarded as placing believers back under the Mosaic law and they kick you out.

And so I know just from speaking with many of you, this happened to you. It’s happened to a lot of people because they will not tolerate a whole Bible approach to their faith. And then there’s this which I think is so ironic.

Christian Wokeism And Relativism

Christian wokeism. What is wokeism in our modern-day culture? How would you define being woke? I would define it by saying that there are people who want to control the narrative. There are people who want to redefine the narrative. And in doing so, there’s certain things you can’t say. There’s certain ways that you have to address certain people.

You have to use the right pronouns. And if you don’t, you’re somehow wrong or stupid or bigoted. You’ve you’ve all heard these things. That’s what it means to be woke in our society. Well, I call this Christian wokeism because what we’re talking about here is nothing less than Christian moral relativism. You are free to obey Yahovah personally, but you must never suggest that someone who chooses otherwise is actually disobeying Yah. In other words, obedience is tolerated only as a personal preference.

And isn’t that where the whole world is going right now? You want to identify as a man and you’re actually a woman, fine. You want to identify as a woman and you’re a man, fine. you you want to identify as anything that you want to identify is is fine. Just don’t challenge my identification. And that’s why this is Christian wokeism. Obedience is tolerated only as a personal preference, never as an objective standard of right and wrong. Right and wrong have gone out the window in our society.

And unfortunately, largely, I’m not going to throw a blanket statement here, but largely this mentality of not knowing right and wrong has infiltrated the church. I’ve heard brothers very close to me talk about how they see it in their churches, the churches that I used to be a part of. And why don’t they know how to define right from wrong? Well, because they’ve disregarded the standard of right and wrong, which is the Torah. And when you disregard the standard of what defines absolute truth, then you will tolerate any competing truth that comes along. And the churches have done this. I wrote about this in my book in my chapter called Progressive Christianity.

It’s happening everywhere. But scripture does not reduce Yahovah’s commandments to matters of individual preference. If Yahovah has commanded something, man does not possess the authority to redefine obedience as optional or disobedience as morally neutral. It’s really important to me that some of you see this. And even as I’m teaching this, I have you in mind. I’m seeing your faces. And I’m sure that the people listening to this live here in our Zoom call are doing the same thing.

They have some of the same people in mind. And it’s those people that we want so desperately to see these things. Okay. Now, let me make a statement here because I want you to understand me completely. To be clear, to be absolutely clear for those of you who are listening, who may not know me as a teacher or know this group, when it

The Biblical Basis For Growth

comes to the crossing over moment, that moment when an individual places their faith in Christ, that moment of salvation, if you will, it truly is Christ plus nothing. You need nothing to come to faith in Christ. You don’t have to be pre-obedient to anything in Torah to have faith in Christ. You have to jump through no hoops, as I commonly put it in my teaching. This is what Acts 15 is all about. The apostles rejecting this notion that people had to pre-obey or become something first before they could be saved. No.

In that sense, and only in that sense, Christ plus nothing is absolutely true. But what I think the Christian church has missed and I missed for 35 years is that Christ is only the beginning. That’s the starting point. And what happens afterward is of paramount importance. 1 Peter 2, he says, “As newborn babes.” What does that mean? Are they babies? No. They’re new to the faith.

They’re new to their understanding of who Christ was. And by the way, who was he talking to? When you go back and look at the beginning of Peter’s letters, it specifically says he’s talking to the 10 tribes in diaspora who have been in the wind for more than 500 years. who are now being called back as a result of the reconciliation that happened at the cross that allowed them to come back. And they are little bit by little bit. They haven’t yet, even today still not come back, but back then they were. There was trickles of people in the 10 tribes that were coming back as a result of the apostles teaching and their evangelism. So he’s talking to these 10 tribe members who were divorced and cast into the nations.

They’re coming back and they’re putting their faith in this Messiah. And he says, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may what? Grow.” So in Eer’s mind and in biblical teaching, Christ is the starting point. So even in this first verse, we see Christ plus Christ at the beginning and then desiring the pure milk of the word. And when you do that, it teaches you to repent. It teaches you to change. It teaches you to grow.

Second Peter 3, grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah. What were they referencing? This is a great question to ask. When Peter says, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Yeshua.” He could not have meant read the New Testament and learn more about him, could he? In the way a believer might understand that statement today. Why couldn’t he? Because there was no such thing, [laughter] right?

There was no such thing as the New Testament. So when he’s telling them, “Desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow.” What word is he referencing? He’s referencing the Tanakh, the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament. Grow in the grace and knowledge of Yeshua. How? Like Yeshua said, everything in the Hebrew Bible points to him. Yes, this is crazy.

Peter wrote his letters around the same time as the earliest typo there. Peter wrote his letters around the same time as the earliest gospels were being written. His listeners did not have copies of anything in the New Testament to learn and grow in their knowledge of Yeshua as Peter says. So, how did they do that? How did they grow in their knowledge of Yeshua? The law and the prophets. Yeah, they had the scriptures meaning what we call the Old Testament.

Yeshua himself established this method of learning about him in the course of his ministry. How? John five. You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these the scriptures are they which testify of me. Right? John five again. For if you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

Where did Moses write about Yeshua? Deuteronomy 18:15 and elsewhere. Well, yes, directly. The prophet that was to come, no doubt. But Moses’s entire ministry was typology of Yeshua. All of it. Eyes to see, ears to hear.

You would see these things. And they did. This is what Peter was telling them. You got to go back and learn about Yeshua. How? In Moses, in the scriptures, Luke 24. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he who’s he? 36 minutes This is Yeshua.

Expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Christian, if you don’t see Yeshua in your Old Testament, oh, how much are you missing? If you don’t see Yeshua in the Old Testament, you are living on milk and not the pure milk that Peter’s talking about, the baby milk that Paul talks about when you should be having meat. The entire Old Testament speaks of the things that concern Yeshua, but you don’t know them because you’ve been told not to read it. and thus your understanding of your own New Testament is weak. Luke 24 again, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning me. This is how these newborn babes were going to learn, grow in the grace and the knowledge of their Lord Yeshua by going back and looking into the text that they grew up with and rediscovering him. I think it goes without saying that very few people understood the Torah that they held to as teaching them about the coming Messiah.

I think they were probably largely blinded to it until Yeshua died. And once Yeshua died, the scriptures tell us here in Luke 24 that he would go on to open their eyes to understand these things that were actually written about him. You Christian have the ability of retroactive knowledge. I guess that’s the best way to put it. You already know in part who Yeshua is. So, it would be much easier for you to go back and discover these ancient truths if you would but would put in the time, if you would put in the work, if you would but allow your bubble to crack a little bit and see these things.

Revelation Through Hebrew Scripture

Make a couple of comments here. So, one example to that obviously is, you know, we have it in the day of Pentecost where everything that was happening over there and Peter all of a sudden has this revelation. Oh, this is exactly what prophet Joel was prophesying about, right? And he makes that direct connection, right? So, that’s an example of of what you were talking about over there, that these people actually knew the Tanakh. They knew the Torah and the and the writings and the and the and the prophets. But what was missing, and this is one of the points here, is there is an element of revelation, right?

And we see that in Luke 24, you talked about the road to Emmas, right? Our paradigm of faith is driven by everything that we have been taught, right? As well as our own personal study. But I think there’s an element here also of revelation. And just like in the road to Emmas, you had these two disciples walking along the road. Jesus reveals himself to them and then he has to explain to them like you just said, everything that they knew in the Hebrew Bible actually was about him. He kind of opened their eyes.

That’s something that happened to me as well, right? I had this moment of, oh, I can start seeing these things in a different way. And that requires, as I said, revelation. That revelation may come through different ways. It may become through this YouTube video may become a turning point for for someone, right? I want to encourage people to have that heart to pray in in Psalm 119:18. Open my eyes that I may see the wondrous things from your law.

Right? We need that revelation. And we need to be open to the fact that there are things that we don’t understand yet and ask God to reveal those things to you. Right? That’s number one. The second thing they want to caution on is that sometimes what I see is that people go to the other extreme and now they start looking for Yeshua in everything in the Old Testament and they start inferring and building almost new doctrine. You know, trying to somehow quote unquote force Yeshua into a particular scripture when to my understanding maybe it doesn’t apply.

Now, I’m open to the fact that maybe something has been revealed to them that is not clear to me yet, and that’s fine. But I do tend to see many times people will start to take scripture and then somehow infuse Yeshua into it. So, I think we have to be careful with that. And that goes back to some of the recent studies you said about it’s almost like adding to the Torah when it doesn’t explicitly say that. It’s inferring things that are not really in the text. Yep. Amen.

Thank you, David. Uh, okay. So, what do these things tell us? Okay. Well, speaking of these newborn babes, again, they were learning about Yeshua through the prism of the Hebrew scriptures. And as an exercise, as a young believer, even before I embraced the Old Testament as authoritative for my life, one of the things that I did was I started trying to, how should I put this? Someone once told me that if you can’t bring someone to faith through your knowledge of the Old Testament, then you don’t know as you think you should know.

And there’s some truth to that, right? because all these people were coming to faith in Yeshua with nothing more than their Old Testament. And that’s an important thing here that we should consider as we’re looking at this. These newborn babes were learning about Yeshua only through the prism of the Hebrew scriptures. So what is the implication there? And this is important. It means they were not first learning a theology about Yeshua and then using that theology to reinterpret the Hebrew scriptures. They already possessed the Hebrew scriptures.

And those scriptures supplied the truth through which they understood who Yeshua was, what he taught, and what his death accomplished and what his resurrection meant. And again, this is where I think we as previous Christians, the Christian church at large has not done. What they actually did was they created their theology about Yeshua and then tried to reinterpret the Hebrew scriptures through that instead of allowing the Hebrew scriptures to create their theology. I hope that’s making sense. Hebrew scriptures provided the vocabulary for understanding Yeshua’s death. Terms like sacrifice, blood, atonement, Passover, lamb, covenant, priesthood, redemption, forgiveness didn’t originate with the apostles. They didn’t just come up with this stuff.

All these things were already established in the Torah and the prophets, which you reject. Do you see the problem here that I’m trying to present to your eyes? Not in a judgmental way. I come from you 35 years in your circles as do most of us in this room. So this isn’t judgmental. I’m not judging you. I’m not standing in judgment of you trying to show you these things in a very direct way so as to not let my words be misunderstood.

Another way to see it is just to think that if the Hebrew Bible, if the Torah is abolished, then all these terms no longer apply. But all these terms are the foundation for our faith, our foundation for our hope. So there’s this, you know, this kind of in misalignment if you will, right? Or contradiction. Yep. Indeed. That’s why when John says, “Behold the lamb of Yahovah takes away the sins of the world.” That whole statement, that introduction to Yeshua, [laughter] that John gave on the shores of the Jordan River is meaningless apart from the Hebrew scriptures, right?

The scriptures explain the lamb long before John identifies Yeshua as that lamb. So, you take away the Old Testament. Let’s just for sake of argument say there is no Old Testament in your worldview. You’ve removed it. Your Bible only has and believe it or not, I’ve seen these Matthew through Revelation. That’s your Bible. If that’s your Bible, then this statement right here makes means nothing.

How would you even come to the conclusion of what this means without it? He who has eyes to see. Matthew 7.

Building On The Rock Of Obedience

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who has built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine, does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. Rain descended, floods came, winds blew, but on that house it fell, and great was its fall. Take note of where we are in the text. Those of you who know your Bibles. Yeah.

Talks about the law breakers. Matthew 7, right? Is it any wonder that this verse about rock and sand comes 46 minutes directly after verse 23 where Yeshua dismisses the lawless. Of course, in your Bibles, it says evildoers. Mhm. where it should say lawlessness. No, it should be no surprise to us that this verse about building on a rock or building on sand comes directly after Yeshua dismisses those who claimed faith in him but were lawless. And it says therefore, right, which you always say, why is it therefore?

That’s right. Christian church loves to quote this verse declaring that Jesus is the rock. We even had a song in my old church that Jesus was the rock. And is there argument that he’s a rock? Yes. But in this verse, is that true? Is Jesus the rock in this verse?

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them grammatically, exoggetically, the antecedent to the word rock is this. Whoever hears these words of mine and does them, that’s the rock. Rock represents hearing Yeshua’s words and doing them. And I don’t know about you, but that sounds like Christ plus something to me, doesn’t it? Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them sand. So then ask yourself the question, how are you building? Yeshua just got done dismissing the lawless.

Why? because they rejected his Torah. And then he goes on to say that if you do this, you’re building on sand. And what happens to those who build on the sand? It says, “Great was the fall. How do we know how to define that fall?” From verse 23, when Yeshua dismisses them, you and I, none of us wants to hear those words. I never knew you. Away from me, you workers of lawlessness.

None of us, I don’t care in what church you belong to. None of us wants to hear those words. So it it behooves us to understand to whom they were spoken and why they were spoken to those people who rejected who willingly willfully rejected his ways, his laws, his Torah. That’s building on sand. Matthew 7:21. Not everyone who comes to me and says, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will, that’s Christ plus, not Christ plus nothing. So, real quickly here, we’re zeroing in our end of our lesson.

What I wanted to do is kind of show you the difference between Christ plus and Christ plus nothing biblically. Because every author in the New Testament taught Christ plus every one of them. Colossians 1, that you may be filled. This is under Christ plus. Now remember the category that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That’s plus. That you may walk worthy.

Well, walking worthy means you’re doing something. You’re obeying something. You’re following something. You walk worthy of the master, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of Yahovah. James 2. And by the way, I thought I’d share this. Do you know that back in the day, during the days of the canon being finalized as to what our Bible will be or not be, so to speak, the book of James was almost thrown out.

Did you know that, David? Did you know that? Tim, did you know that? Yeah. Yeah. 50 minutes There’s a James riled up a lot of people. It was almost not included. Why?

Because James talks a lot about the plus. And even back then, this whole idea of Christ plus nothing was in its infancy stages. And James comes along and he starts talking about the plus. Thus also faith by itself alone, Christ alone. If it does not have works, obedience. Obedience to what? The only Bible they had is dead.

How many people in the Christian world does this single verse define? I I will be the first to admit it defined me for a long time. I thought I was being obedient because I obeyed things like Matthew 28, but I was blinded to how just how much I was not obedient. I think this verse, I’m going to go out on a limb here. I think this single verse here defines the bulk of the Christian churches because they’re taking that word works and they’re letting the New Testament define it when they didn’t have the New Testament back then. It’s dead. Do you see that?

Faith was working together. That’s the harmony of law and grace. The faith that was working together with works and by works, faith was made perfect. It’s an amazing verse. But it’s Christ plus. Again, James, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works, faith without obedience is dead. Also, John 14:15, we know this one.

If you love me, keep my commandments. Christ plus, who’s talking here? Yeshua. We all want to say we love him. 52 minutes We all, as Tim said earlier, want to sing about him and have all these emotions about him and want to thank him so much for all these wonderful things he did on the cross to free me from the law. No. Keep my commandments. Whose commandments?

Are his commandments different than the father’s? No. No. He doesn’t exactly what the father says there. Yes. He only says exactly what the father says. Yes.

John 14:21, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, plus it is he who loves me.” And I love verses like this. We’re going to see another one like it here in a moment. Because he takes away the mystery. People always ask about what it means to love God as if it’s some type of mystery that they have to discover when he’s already told you. You keep the commandments, but that’s the one that loves me. He’s very practical, our Lord, which I’m very grateful for. Very clear.

Very clear. Let’s look at Christ plus nothing. Ed. Yes, sir.

Scriptural Evidence For Torah

I also just if I can, First John is so filled with this. I ask people, “Do you want to know for sure if you’re right with God?” It says it right there. 1 John 2:3. By this, we will know that we are in him if we obey his commands. And it says, “If you don’t, you’re flat out a liar.” And you’re lie to yourself, not just Yahovah and your hearers. But I just wanted to say that. It’s just super definitive right there. Yeah.

And and unfortunately people when you quote them, this is scripture, this is the Bible, they feel judged and they’re offended by it. Mhm. Very. Yeah. Yeah. We know the drill. Hebrews 5.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again this thing called the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk. This is the verse I referenced later. And I said Paul even though it’s Hebrews, but I think it’s Paul that wrote Hebrews. But that’s just my opinion. You’ve come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he’s a babe.

Solid food belongs to those who are full age. That is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. But let’s look at this word, the first principles of the oracles of God. That’s a sentence that may confuse a lot of people, right? What are the first principles of the oracles of God? How could we know what the first principles of the oracles of God are? If you’re a Christian, well, by reading your Bible in Romans 3, Paul says, “Israel was entrusted with the oracles of God.” What was Israel entrusted with?

Ten Commandments, the law. [laughter] Yes. This was part of my game show last week. Who was the law given to? Only Israel. Yeah, it was given to Israel. Yes, the sojourers and the strangers that were within their gates. Yes, for sure.

But no other nation was given his law except for Israel. These are the oracles of God. And here the author of Hebrews is telling you that you ought to be teachers right now, but you need to learn again these things. We see the teaching of the law everywhere in the New Testament. You just got to know how to identify it in verses like this. James 1, be doers of the word. Which word?

Again, I don’t mean to be kicking a dead horse. The only word they had was the Old Testament. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. But he who looks into the 56 minutes perfect law of liberty and continues in it. This one will be blessed in what he does. Two things I want to point out about this verse. I love brother James.

I think James and I probably would have been best friends because I live in my mind I live in a world of absolutes. I don’t like gray areas in my personal My wife’s over here laughing at me because she knows it to be true. And when I read James, I think James is the same exact way. He doesn’t live in the gray area. He’s a man of absolutes. And I love that about him because he just lays it out. And he says, “If you’re not going to be doer of the word, the Old Testament, the only word they had, you are deceiving yourselves.” Again, another verse.

How many people in the Christian world would that apply to? But then the second thing is this. He looks into the perfect law of liberty. And you know where my mind went for 35 years, David Tim, when I read perfect law of liberty. Freedom in Christ. Freedom in Christ, baby. [laughter] I did as so many other people do. But you have to remember these men weren’t just making things up.

Everything they taught had one source. What was the source? The Tanakh, the Old Testament. David, so shall I keep your law continually. I will walk at liberty. Do you think James just pulled that word liberty out of his head? No.

James understood that the law is liberty. A lesson that we just taught a couple of weeks ago, right? He understood this. And he who looks into that perfect law of liberty and continues in it, this one will be blessed in what he does. Do you want to Christian? Do you want to know the reason why you don’t get the blessings that you so desperately pray for? This is why.

How? How can I know that? Well, because I I was you and I can’t tell you the number of times I prayed for certain things that just seemed to elude me because I wasn’t doing this, which is going to be addressed in a much more direct way here in a moment that I want you to understand. Titus 1, they profess to know Yahovah, but in their works, their disobedience or the lack thereof, in their nothingness, they deny him. They profess to know him. But because they have Christ plus nothing, they actually deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. Yikes.

And then this Revelation 12, the dragon was enraged with the woman. Who was the woman? The Israel of Yah. Where is she? Well, this is esquetology. Remember, what does the woman do in Matthew 24? When the beast makes himself known, she flees to the desert.

She flees to the mountains. The dragon was enraged with the woman and he pursued her. And he went to make war with her offspring. who do what? Keep the commandments of Yah. And that word in your English Bible is God, not Yah. Those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Yeshua, they have both. Christ plus, not Christ plus nothing.

The plus you are rejecting is the very word of Yahovah. Isaiah let’s go through these really quickly. Isaiah 5:24. 1 hour Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be rotten and their blossom will ascend like dust because they have rejected the law of Yahovah of Hosts and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. And that’s I think one of the things that kind of bothers me the most about many people in the Christian church today. It’s not just that they don’t want to read it or they’ve been taught not to read it. They actually despise it. A very close friend of mine, teacher in my congregation, a wellrespected teacher, use the words, and I quote, “This Torah business, this Torah jazz or something like that and waved his hand as if to dismiss it.

He despises the Torah or the idea of keeping it.” Does that apply to him as it applied to Israel in Isaiah’s day? If God doesn’t change, it does. And I’m pretty sure the Bible says God doesn’t change somewhere. Malachi 3, Amos 2. For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment because they have despised the law of Yah and have not kept his commandments. Their lies led them astray. Lies which their fathers followed.

What does Jeremiah say? The day will come when Gentiles will come to Israel and say, “Surely our fathers inherited lies and unprofitable things, worthless things.” Yeah. Isaiah 24:5, “The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants because they have transgressed the laws.” Changed the ordinance. So they not only violated the laws, they changed them. Right? Have we done that in the Christian church? You meet on what day your worship is when?

On Sunday. Why? because you changed the ordinance. Does this apply to you? Yes. Some people say no. It’s just for Israel. But all in Romans 3, do we then make void the law because of our faith, because of our freedom?

No. We uphold the law. But many of us are making void the law. What does making void the law mean? You make it of no value. And that’s exactly what the Christian church has done. Please see this.

Argue with me if you will in the comments. I don’t care. But I want you to see this teaching so you have no question about what I’m trying to show you. And again, the verse that brother Snow just mentioned, by this we know that we love the children of Yahovah and we love Yahovah and keep his commandments. That word in your English translations is God, not Jesus. We know when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of Yahovah that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.

I don’t know Christian how you can read that verse and come away with anything else but you try. But you can’t you can’t look at 1 John 5 23 and come away with anything else than the plain reading of scripture that we need to keep his commandments. That’s Christ plus not for our salvation of course. I hate that I have to keep making that disclaimer, but I do. Proverbs 28, one who turns his ear away from hearing the law. That word is Torah in the Hebrew. Even his prayer is an abomination.

Yikes. That verse needs to scare us. There are entire Christian denominations in the world who fully expect Yahovah to listen to and answer their prayers while at the same time refusing to listen to him and his instructions. This is why their prayers are an abomination. Do you see the irony in that statement? They want the answered prayers. They expect the answered prayers while at the same time refusing his instructions.

Yeah. Yes. And there there there is a distinction to be made that I appreciate my wife bringing up. I’m not talking about people who didn’t know. There are many people who don’t know about the importance of Torah who will someday learn it and repent like me, like you. I’m not talking about those people. I’m talking about the people who deliberately turn their ear away from hearing the law, who reject it.

It’s a different kind of people. Let’s finish because I’m going long. Closing thoughts.

Closing Thoughts And Community

Throughout scripture, the question has never been whether we are saved by the grace of God. The question has always been, “What does a life transformed by that grace look like?” From Genesis to Revelation, the answer is the same. Faith produces obedience. Love keeps his commandments. Knowing the Messiah results in walking as he walked. The message of scripture is not not in any way, shape, or form Christ plus nothing. It is Christ who changes everything.

He did not save us so we could remain in rebellion. He saved us so that we might become a people who love him, follow him, and delight in his ways. If your doctrine requires you to explain away obedience, redefine sin, or dismiss the commandments of God, it’s not the doctrine that needs defending. It’s the doctrine that needs to be abandoned. Yeshua did not come to free us from our father’s ways. He came to free us from our sin so that we could finally walk in them. That’s my thoughts, guys.

Thank you for listening. David, Tim, your insights today were awesome. Amazing. Appreciate that. Want to get your two cents. Want to get your rebuttals, your rebukes if I think I need them. I am always open to those.

As you know, Sister Daria, we sitting there waiting patiently. You are up first, dear. Go ahead. Hello. Um, I just want to say wonderful, wonderful teaching. I love Torah. I want to say that when I came back to God after 13 years wondering uh turning him my back to on him and when I came back on 2024, one of the things I I was reading in the Bible after those years uh was in the New Testament that in the last days there will be a lot of you know deception and false prophets, false teachers And I was praying, Lord, please uh lead me to the truth.

Show me the truth. I don’t want to uh be deceived. Um and as a as an answer to my prayer, he led me to Torah. [laughter] Um so that was excellent. And as you were today mentioning the verse uh at uh in um revelation where the dragon was after those who are keeping the the Torah and then there is Britain and the testimony of Yeshua and I didn’t know for a long time what the testimony is. Now then I I was uh listening to a wonderful teaching of Ed Eddie Chami and he’s teaching about that and he says that the testimony of Yeshua is actually Torah itself. That’s the testimony of Yeshua. So that just what I wanted to say that yes Torah is the foundation our faith and I am very grateful for Yeshua that he has opened my eyes and he opened your eyes as well and I pray that many people who are now just living the the way they are living like I was living for more than 30 years before be be uh but before I uh turn my back on on Yeshua.

Yes. Uh the I I the other thing I want to say that after I came to to Torah then I started to mature. So I am glad that because of that I not don’t need I am not on milk anymore and I am just now like uh really maturing in him and this is just mind-blowing what being obedient what it does with our character and with our soul. So I want to praise God and I just say hallelujah. Thank you father. I love you. Amen.

Thank you Daria. Awesome sharing. I appreciate that. Okay, looks like Melanie’s up next. Melanie. Okay, I’m just going to put myself out here a little bit and I This is a question, too. But but I know um when I first started, you know, when I started studying, I would kind of look at the connecting verses.

So, you know, like if you’re looking in the New Testament, it’s connecting to something in the Old Testament. And so, I would I was writing stuff down. And that’s that’s kind of how I got there, like in the beginning, just going back and forth. Um, but when I started to read, you know, Genesis and Exodus is pretty easy. When you start getting into Leviticus and all that, it’s really confusing. And so, just going back and trying to understand the the concept of of where they were and what was going on, like the history of Israel helped me a lot. But but I found too that and this is the part I’m kind of putting myself out there with.

Um the hard time like when I finally came to the father and then you have the father and the son there was kind of a time when I thought I was leaving Jesus. You know what I’m saying? Um like not putting him in his proper place. You know because it felt like when you go back to the when when you’re leading back to the Torah, you start to understand the father. And I think I think it’s in Matthew where it talks about the son reveals the father and the father reveals the son. I’m probably not saying the verse correctly, but the point is that that you come to faith in in the Messiah and then he leads your heart back to God. And so so in that there’s kind of a struggle, a push and pull where you got to figure out where where to kind of land.

And it for a while I felt like I was like leaving Christ. Does that make sense? Yep. And so I had to struggle with that. And even still sometimes I I you know I ask the father make sure I want to make sure I’m not doing something wrong because there’s a balance there that you kind of have to to put them in a certain place. And even though I believe that that Jesus and the father are one, you have to come to a realization what that means. And sometimes it it’s a struggle I guess kind of like whenever um Jacob was struggling and then his name is you know he says you’re no longer going to be Jacob but you’ll be Israel.

And so anyways that that was just my thought. Well amen. Thank you. Maybe you could elaborate a little bit on that. Yeah, I understand that. You know, for sure people who are uh like us who come from the Christian backgrounds that we come from, we we have uh and this is going to sound weird, but we’ve almost idolized Yeshua um in and put him above the father. I think that’s very common.

And so when you change your direction and you go back to the Old Testament in your flesh, you can feel this tension. uh but like you said when you realize that there is no tension there that the father and the son are one then the tension disappears uh you [clears throat] know I think the tension exists when in your mind you have two deities and you and you don’t you have one and so I think that I think that helps a lot of people but thank you Jim you’re up my my own experience in coming to this talk has been one where I have not felt any more saved as a result of having this awakening. Would you agree with that? Uh I would agree with the feeling part. Yeah, there is no I I I I kind of shy away from people who want to feel something differently. But you can definitely see the difference. Yeah. Let me let me put this maybe out to the uh uh chat, you know, signify by a thumbs up with the emo emojis.

Does anyone in the chat sense that they became saved as a result of coming to Torah from Christianity? Would anybody express that with a thumbs up in the chat? Okay. Oh, okay. Somebody somebody actually does feel or sense that they went from the domain of death into the kingdom of light as a result of my okay to to whoever just chatted that out. Um I think your experience is well obviously unique in terms of the perspective of everybody in the room and it’s mine as well. um I didn’t sense that I was coming to faith in Messiah for the first time as a result of entering or or trying to Okay. 1 hour, 14 minutes Um that being said, I think part of this is uh directed towards Ron Wooten. I’ve been sort of reading his chats as we’ve gone through this. um that my stance of coming to Torah has been um enlisting according to Matthew 5:17-19 enlisting not to be least in the kingdom of heaven but to start marching towards um greater reward greater status in the eternal state.

Um, so maybe that might help help Ron with you and your wife in the discussions. I’m not I didn’t get saved as a result. I in terms of my own perception. However, Ed, you’ve said many things or or or brought forward many scriptures that would tend to nullify the faith of the Christian because of their lack of obedience and outright rejection of Torah, which I, you know, you can connect, you can connect the dots. Rejection of Torah is rejection of Yeshua Messiah because he is the word made flesh. So there’s there’s like a discussion here that I think needs to we need to meditate upon what actually took place when we had our eyes opened to the ancient path. And so this is something we all kind of need to to to come into a a place of understanding within our own lives.

And maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I did get saved when when I started coming into a fuller understanding um in my opening salvo. My opening salvo when approaching Sunday Easter Christmas Christians is um in my opinion the worldwide expression of faith in Yeshua Messiah should look more like Judaism than Catholicism. And I don’t care if you’re Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant. We all express ourselves as a community, as a worldwide community of faith. we all express as Catholic. It’s the Catholics. It’s that original universal church, you know, the Constantinian church that said, “We’re done with the Jewish stuff.” Out of that ancient root for Sunday, Easter, Christmas, comes every expression of the religion that we now call Christianity.

And one faith, one Lord, one baptism should not look like two religions. It should look like faith in a Jewish guy. Now, okay, all that for your consideration. I’m sorry. I I I have so much to say about this. Um, you know, I’ve been walking this for 12 I don’t even know how many years now, but um yeah, Ed, this is a big topic. This is huge.

This is like central to, you know, what faith should look like in in the terminal generation. 1 hour, 17 minutes Um, but one of the things that we’re fond of saying on our side of the aisle, um, you know, is God never changes. You know, the Torah never changes. Yet, Hebrews 7:14 says that something did change. When the priesthood changed, there had to be a change in the law. And I think this is my biggest hang-up when addressing this issue of um talking to to Sunday Easter believers um is that we’re we we’re fond of saying that we keep the Torah, but it’s impossible. We can’t keep the Torah. We we can’t go up for the foot festivals.

You know, we there’s no temple. The ceremonial process is broken. Um, I would appreciate your thoughts, Ed, and maybe um David and Tim, uh, to it’s like how do we how do we deal with obvious changes in the Torah when we’re the ones who are saying there is no change to the law and I’ll I’ll withdraw from from the conversation. Well, thank you, brother Jim. I appreciate that. As always, you got very uh deep, insightful questions and comments. I would I would respond in in saying just this.

Although I completely and wholeheartedly understand what you’re saying as um describing the difference between Catholicism and Judaism. It should look more like Judaism. Um Judaism is the Christian is Judaism is to Jews what Catholicism is to Christians, early Christians. Judaism in and of itself is a deviation from the ancient path. Right? The the faith of the Old Testament was not Judaism. And that’s a common misunderstanding amongst a lot of people.

I was asked just last weekend by a person that I was talking to that I was very close to for many years said, “Ed, you lean towards more of the Judaism stuff, right?” And I’m like, “No, who told you that?” [laughter] Right? No, I I don’t. But I do understand your question. I did a lesson um some months ago, I don’t think you were with us yet, Jim, called uh called the awakening. Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t, I can’t remember where we kind of discussed some of these things. So, I would encourage you to go back and look at that. But yes, if you want to get more into your questions, I will put that on the list for sure.

Christina, you’re up next. I can write myself out of a glad trash bag double knotted, but I can’t speak myself out of a ripped paper bag. So, I’m going to try and simplify this for you people. I’m not really good at witnessing because I’m not a good speaker on the spot. So, what I like to do is I I I try to um throw questions so that if they ask me questions, then I can come up with the answer. But if they challenge me, I freeze. So, one of the things I I kind 1 hour, 20 minutes of sort of learned when I was coming into Torah, and I don’t know if this is oversimplified, but I really think I heard the Holy Spirit say, if it’s not in the Old Testament, that’s not it’s not in the New Testament.

Period. And that’s kind of like one of the things I try to tell people. If you if it’s not in there, it’s not in there. And if you think it’s in there, you’re reading it wrong. That’s my simplistic way of absolutely true, sister. Thank you. I appreciate that insight and yes, I would agree with you.

Uh, brother Cordon, you’re up next. Shalom, everyone. I’m so very grateful for all the answers and everything of that nature. Ed, you always blow me away with the lessons you do in all circumstances. My question is more or less um so like in your old congregation, my congregation and even Tim Snow, I just wanted to get your thoughts as far as making disciples 1 hour, 21 minutes because I think one of the things is, you know, is we get hammered on the spot like, well, have you shared your faith? Have you done this? Have you done that?

And it’s always been one of those things when it’s basically come down to like, well, you know, uh you’re you’re struggling with your sin because you haven’t shared your faith. You haven’t done this because you haven’t shared your faith. And um since I’ve come to a deeper knowledge of the Torah, I want to teach the Torah to people. I try to share on Facebook. I try to talk about it often. But still at the same time I’m also still concerned about a person coming to Yeshua and coming to a deeper knowledge. But sometimes I kind of struggle with the fact of just doing it by myself.

Wanted to get your thoughts about it since you’ve come to a deeper dynamic of Torah and that type of thing. And this could be for both you as well as Tim Snow because I know the dynamics there. So just want to get your thoughts. Thanks again. Yeah. Thanks brother. Um yeah see here’s the challenge.

You are unique amongst us in that you are a Torah follower. You are a believer in Christ, but you also are still um in a Christian church that you meet with and engage with every every day, every week. And so, in one sense, you you are submitting yourself to their uh and I don’t mean this in a negative way. I’m just trying to uh articulate. Um so in one sense you’re still submitting yourself to their um New Testament religion and that’s basically what Christianity is. Uh Christianity is basically a a religion with the New Testament as their Bible. And so everything that they do is through that prism and all the questions of accountability come up from that source and that source alone, right?

How do you how do you work with that? Well, I think personally I think you’re doing a masterful job uh just from the things that you and I have talked about in in recent weeks, months, and years. You know, you’re kind of you’re kind in and one and I mean this light-heartedly, but you’re kind of living in in the enemy camp. [laughter] That’s true. And and and so the fact that they’ve allowed you to teach about Shabbat from the pulpit, no less, that’s huge. And so I think, you know, you just have to live amongst them like Daniel living in Babylon. Sure. Live amongst them and do your best to live out your life the best you can.

Teach whenever you have the opportunity and and let the father work out the rest. That would be my only thoughts on this. Okay. So Travis, you’re up next. Shalom everybody. I hope this thing’s on. Yes, it is.

Well, thank you, Ed. Um, so I thank you for this teaching and thank you for bringing us all together. Um, so this 1 hour, 24 minutes this teaching kind of goes into some of the things that I’ve been battling recently in my own life, trying to witness to other family members and it’s not going so well. Um, [laughter] and I I’ve tried to share some of your videos with them and things like that. And um, what I’m running into, I get uh responses like, “Well, you just don’t have enough faith in your heart to understand the word. That’s why you can’t see it correctly.” And then the the last one, and it was striking, and it kind of put things into perspective, uh, was, “Well, you’re teaching a different gospel in the name of Christ.” Yes. And that made so much sense because it’s that’s what we’re fighting.

And [clears throat] it’s it’s so sad. It’s such a difficult fight, too. Um cuz Satan has strongholds carried for thousands of years. And we’re up against that. And I know that we’re going to receive some help. We know that. And we already are.

Um, but one gospel leads to righteous works that bear good fruit by the Holy Spirit, and the other leads to a framework of selective adherence that bears the fruit of the flesh and what people think is right. And so, you know, I heard Jim talking and he was talking about, well, what does faith supposed to look like in appearance? And I want to answer that for Jim. Please be very careful, brother, of what may look good. Even Yeshua came in lowly clothes. Be careful of what is almost true, brother. And I say that to all brothers and sisters.

And that takes us to the parable of the virgins. All had faith. Only half made it. And that’s that’s all I got today. Thank you, bro. I appreciate that. What what you had was awesome and very informative.

Thank you. I appreciate your involvement here. Uh let’s see. James is up next. Brother James, hey, Shabbat shalom. Happy Sabbath to everyone. Good to be back.

Uh I’ve been off for a while because of time difference, right? I stay in Lagos, Nigeria, so I guess you all will understand, but I’ve been following up with the recordings, right? Wow. I’m so very happy to hear the topic of today. I joined in quite late but I think I I got the whole picture and I have so much to say but of course I can’t say it all because of time and let me just um okay let me start from the back. Let me try to also contribute a bit to answer the question of the previous brother. I think that’s brother Cordin or something right?

Uh the guy who was concerned about the church he’s in right now. I sincerely empathize with you because I used to be that way. I was excommunicated from my church. Actually, I used to be one of the leaders in the church. I was excommunicated from my church here in Nigeria uh for similar reasons and of course many other reasons that has to do with manipulation from the pastor and stuff like that. But anyway, what I’ll say is this. I would use my experience to just encourage you brother.

And what I’ll say is this that uh be there as the light as brother Ed said, right? I currently have a Bible study group on WhatsApp here. I’ve had the Bible study group now for like five years. And right now, since I came into uh Torah like three years ago, thereabouts, I’ve been trying to warm them up to the consciousness of keeping God’s commandments. And what I did for them was I started to um take them through the testimony of the Hebrew scriptures and and I’m like, “Okay, let’s see what everybody that came before Paul the Apostle had to say about the law of God.” And what I did to start with was to go through the entire book of Deuteronomy with these people from chapter 1 to chapter 34. The entire book of Deuteronomy. I wasn’t going to skip one verse.

And why I did that was to prove to them that the law of God was never to put the people of God into bondage. It makes no sense for God to redeem his people from Egypt, from the house of bondage, he calls it, Exodus 20, and then put them into another bondage. And I was trying to prove to them without a shadow of doubt that Deuteronomy has nothing to do with God putting his people in bondage. It was for their good. And God expected them to keep those commandments from a place of loving him back, right? Not from a place of slavery or stuff like that, right? So, and that has really helped many of them.

When we went through the entire book of Deuteronomy, I told them that if you find one verse that uh conotes uh an idea of God putting his people into slavery, please point it out and I’m going to agree with you. [laughter] And by the power of God, I’m so glad we were able to go through everything and we couldn’t find one verse where God’s law was to put anybody in bondage. Right? It was so powerful. And from there, I took them through almost like 60 different passages in the Hebrew scriptures, the prophets especially, where the prophets, Psalm 119 was a big one, where they spoke continually about the beauty of God’s law. And I mean, brother Ed uh spoke a bit about that uh this evening also evening here. Sorry. Yeah.

So um about evangelism also what I want to say is um Yeshua said something in uh Luke 23. He said um thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and for him to rise on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached in his name to all nations. So this is the message of evangelism. We’re not preaching quote and unquote Torah observance to unbelievers. What we are preaching to them is repentance and forgiveness of sins. Yeah. Repentance from sin.

We need to make them know what sin is. Yes, that’s true. But you see, going into details of the Torah would not help the unbeliever. I I strongly believe because when God was going to redeem his people from Egypt, he didn’t give them the law back in Egypt, right? He just told them a few things they could do to make them trust him enough. And then when they were rescued to the other side, then he gave them the full counsel of his will. So I think we can also follow that template in our evangelism, right?

Because I know with the passion of coming into Torah, there’s this um uh enthusiasm to want to quickly, you know, introduce the unbeliever to Torah and stuff like that. Right? Now, let me use this to link um this entire talk to my comment about today’s lesson. Usually the the disciplehip method I follow because I do a lot of evangelism also here. The disciplehip I follow is to preach the gospel right as Jesus Christ commanded to the unbelievers right forgiveness of sins in his name. Now when they are in baptized you know filled with the Holy Spirit and all of that some of them do need deliverance. You need to be conscious of that.

The apostles did it right? So sometimes you find out people who need demons to be cast out of them and we do all of that. Now after that I usually follow the template given in Hebrews 6 right the first principles of the oracles of God as brother Ed said tonight repentance from dead works faith towards God doctrine of baptisms or immersions right laying on of hands resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment so I usually take these new disciples through these first oracles of God and I don’t use new testament only in fact I choose to base most of the studies on the old testament scriptures Right? I tried to always put myself in the shoes of the early disciples. What if I never had any letter from Paul? What if I had what if I never had any gospel from John, Mark, Luke, Matthew? Right?

All I had was the Tanakh. That’s what I’m going to use. So, I start from there and then I graduate. I I move gradually into the New Testament writings. I try to push Paul’s letters a bit back to the end. I I mean I don’t mean anything bad by doing that but I try to push it back a bit just for them to have a good foundational understanding before we get to Paul’s letters right so I just thought I chip that in then lastly about tonight’s lesson I’m so glad because the concept of faith has been misunderstood in fact in Nigeria some time ago we had this um conference it was a very big conference here and the theme of the conference was Jesus plus nothing it happened recently so when I saw the topic of today’s business. I like wow what a coincidence right was Jesus plus nothing and you had these very big pastors these very big clergy people you know Pentecostal folks coming around and there Jesus plus nothing the noise was very much and I’m like no where does it say Jesus plus nothing right and we see that the only [laughter] you know the reformers solar scripturas solar fidelities faith alone grace alone in Christ alone all these alone alone statements they mislead people.

What do you mean by Christ alone in faith alone, grace alone? What’s that? The only place I find faith alone in the Bible is where the Bible says faith alone cannot help you in James, right? And the word faith in the Greek also is a little misleading, right? In the Greek, it’s more like just conviction, right? But in the Hebrew, it’s an action word. It actually means faithfulness or being trustworthy, being steadfast, right?

So if we understand these things, the Bible becomes simpler to understand. I think I’ll just stop right here. Thank you so much. Amen, brother. Thank you. I appreciate that. Very insightful.

I really do am grateful for your thoughts and comments. And it’s good to see you back. Okay. So, uh, Paul and Lori and David, you have about a minute each before we got to cut this thing off. So, go in jump in there, Paul and Lori. Okay. It’s just me, Lori, and uh, it’s going to be real quick.

I was raised in a uh in mainstream Christianity and uh which taught basically um believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Well, um that to me and to the the majority of the people that I u grew up with and communed with whatever for many many years um that just meant believe that he lived, died, and rose again and that was it. That’s believing in Jesus Christ until I discovered that we have to believe in what he lived which was the word. So that’s just me. It’s it’s not just a simple believe in his life, death, and resurrection. That’s where it begins. That’s it.

Amen, Lori. Brief and powerful, sister. Appreciate that. Okay, David, close us out. You have about a minute. All right. Um so thanks again obviously like always a great a great lesson.

Um, I just wanted to put a word of caution out there, a word of discernment, and that is this, that this lesson, like many other lessons, some people may get very excited about the facts like, “Thank you, Ed. Here, you gave me a list of all the scriptures that I need to stand up and rebut anybody who says anything other than what the truth is.” Right? And you g you gave us the scriptures. I’m a firm believer that, you know, we should use scripture. Jesus used scripture against Satan. Use the scripture. Let the scripture speaks for itself.

All that, however, is we have to do this with be discerning about it, right? Our goal is to be effective in reaching out to people, right? We want to invite additional conversation. We want people to want to learn more and want to find out more, right? Don’t be like I did. And actually, not too long ago, right? I should have known better, but I I’m going to give this as an example.

Uh I had someone reach out to me from our previous congregation. They were doing a series on Old Testament starting from Genesis. And someone reached out to me. He was, you know, putting this thing together. And he says, “Hey, take a look at this on YouTube. We’re starting in Genesis. I’m, you know, hopefully you’ll find this helpful.” And and I and this is my text.

And I reply back by text and I said, “Amen, brother. I’m so excited that you guys are finally getting around to uh the Old Testament.” And then I use scripture, right? And I say 1 John 2:4, “He who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.” [laughter] Drop the mic. Needless to say, I never heard from this person again. Right? So all that so all that to say is we need to kind of follow Colossians 4:6. It says this, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Right?

We have to be very careful in how we respond. It’s okay to have zeal and excitement about what we’re learning about the Torah and everything, but also know your audience, understand where they’re at, and ultimately your goal is to invite further conversation. Like in Acts 15, right? It wasn’t the end of the journey by following these four commandments that were supposed to continue to learn. But if you shut the door down through something that you said, that’s not going to happen, right? So, just want to put that out there. Amen.

Amen. David, very wise uh final words. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Guys, we got to cut this off. We’ve had a wonderful time back together. I knew it was going to go a little long.

That’s okay cuz I missed you all and I’m sure you missed each other. So, I pray you have a fantastic rest of your Shabbat look and and a fantastic rest of your weekend as always. Looking forward to seeing you guys in the short form videos coming up this week. I still don’t know what in the world to do. If you have ideas, please, please, please email me because I need your ideas. But I love you all. Shabbat shalom.

Have a great day. Shalom. Shabbat shalom. Shalom. Shalom. [clears throat] Shalom. Shalom. Oh, to all people.

Shalom. Shalom. Shalom. Shalom everyone. Shalom. Shalom. Love you guys.