What do you think the biggest challenges are regarding today’s Messianic Believers and the Torah?
There are a number of well-known, ongoing challenges present in the broad Messianic movement regarding the Torah, such as the debate regarding non-Jewish Believers keeping the Torah, as well as issues regarding the integration of Jewish tradition and Rabbinic materials into halachah. Yet, there are some other issues—which might be a bit more important—which scarcely receive any of our collective attention. These include:
- The specific degree of changes which have been inaugurated by the sacrifice of Yeshua the Messiah for human sin, in the post-resurrection era: What was nailed to the cross/execution-stake (Colossians 2:14)? What does it mean that a “change of law” (Hebrews 7:12, NASU) has taken place? How does a responsible Bible reader balance post-resurrection era changes directly caused by the Messiah’s work, with the Messiah’s own insistence that the Torah is not to be abolished (Matthew 5:17-19)?
- Properly considering the Ancient Near Eastern background of the Pentateuch: While the Torah is to be regarded as valid instruction which informs the lifestyle and character of God’s people, it cannot be ignored that it was originally given to the Ancient Israelites. There are aspects of the Torah which were given to those who operated within a different level of technology and economy than those of today. How do we respect the original intention of many time-sensitive Torah instructions, and derive principles from them for modern-day living?
Concurrent with some of this is the frightening spectre that as we steadily approach the return of the Messiah—not only will there be an increasing need for God’s faithful to be following His Instruction (Revelation 12:17; 14:12)—but there will need to be an increasing knowledge on the part of His people to be aware of the coming apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:3). While there are aspects of this apostasy which will surely involve a steady erosion of Biblical ethics and morality, and people disregarding foundational instructions like the Ten Commandments—how much of this apostasy will be spearheaded by more and more people treating the Holy Scriptures as myths and fairy tales? How much of the coming apostasy will be related to reliability and historicity issues pertaining to the Biblical record, and will even be coupled with scientific criticisms against the Bible? These are issues, which while certainly dominating much of today’s evangelical Protestant apologetics, are things which too many of today’s Messianic people avoid.
