Jesus’ ministry: a methodical transition from Torah Law to Holy Spirit obedience…
Though Jesus was born under the Law Covenant and Jesus fulfilled that Law in perfection for our redemption, Jesus incrementally moved His ministry from one of Law/Torah to one of the production of divine “fruit” via the Holy Spirit by which all law is fulfilled; this is something that Torah could not accomplish.
Jesus condensed the 613 Mosaic laws down to two-greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37-40) and Jesus’ ministry methodically progressed toward the initiation of the New Covenant established in His blood (Luke 22:20); Messiah strategically moved from “keep my Commandments” (John 14:15) to “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” (John 15:8)
Finally, Jesus taught how one should discern authentic teachers of the word from false teachers and in doing so, Jesus provided the impetus or sign by which honorable teachers would be identified contrasted with false teachers: “So then, you will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:20) Again, another reference by Jesus to divine fruit and its applicability in the New Covenant.
We see that Messiah’s ministry, having begun under the Law Covenant, slowly and methodically transitioned into a ministry that emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling within Him and the strategic method of producing obedience in His disciples, then and now, through the production of divine fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) via the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) who is a promised Guarantor of redemption in the New Covenant established in the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:13-14; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:27; Hebrews 8:10).
The subtle dangers of Torah worship in the New Covenant,
Law will never be “abolished” as law is present to define the behavior of evil men (1 Timothy 1:9) and law; both codified and spiritual, provide a context for divine and secular responses to same which mandates due process for order and peace. Law will be relevant in the “New Jerusalem” as free will there is extant by necessity.
Where you err, Ben, is your inordinate obsession’s with Torah and Hebrew Roots fanaticism not understanding that grace and faith have replaced Torah’s letters in the New Covenant.
You cling to the old hoping to receive the benefits of the NEW and my concern is that you’re trusting in Law + Faith to redeem you from sin and ingratiate yourself with Elohim in righteousness. Problem is, Ben, if you’re depending on Torah to supplement faith in Jesus, you ultimately lose both in heresy and your religion is foul and defined as a cult. Please be careful.
If you’re celebrating law in Torah because you are a traditionalist and love the order and pomp of Torah, the days, feasts, celebrations, celebrated in the Law Covenant, that’s OK…just understand that eternal life is not something that is earned through your work and obedience to Torah, but that life with Jesus is manifest solely by trusting, believing, in Jesus as your Messiah acknowledging that Jesus has done the work for you and you’re receiving the gift of forgiveness and eternal life solely by grace (unmerited favor). You have told me prior that you understand grace and faith as priority but your obsessive posts concerning Torah, the Old Covenant, keeping laws and commandments, belays your testimony of trust, belief, in Yeshua as essential.
Is evil more of a problem for Theists or Atheists?
Evil, for those redeemed by faith in Messiah and the conscience arbitrated by the indwelling Holy Spirit, is not a problem as the Spirit’s discernment and wisdom allows the redeemed to readily identify evil, even in its most subtle forms, and take precautions to stymie said evil’s effects in their life. Another very relevant bulwark to compromise with evil in the life of the redeemed in Jesus is the Holy Spirit’s gifts of joy, contentment, peace, assurance; these divine promises permit the Christian to see beyond temporary trials and tribulations knowing that our Creator has our back and irrespective of the World’s demonic agenda, the Christian is secure, eternally.
The atheist is likened to a sheep led to the slaughter, their discernment and wisdom is stymied by the sin-nature that has no dependable barriers other than fear or shame and these bulwarks are limited and made impotent by unnatural desires, pride, arrogance, narcissism…ultimately a life of turmoil, stress, often addiction, due diminishing returns resulting from inordinate desires that can never be satiated.
My personal experience during 31-years with the Houston Police Department,
I personally experienced the sissified, sexual perversion, WOKE-impotent, DEI-Affirmative Action, reduction in psychological and physiological standards for law enforcement during my 31-year tenure with the Houston Police Department. When I joined the HPD Academy in 1979, HPD was a hard-charging, law enforcement agency; when suspects were stopped for questioning, they shook, they trembled, with fear of the Houston PD’s reputation concerning strict law enforcement protocol. The moral, ethical, physical, requirements for employment with the Houston PD in the 1970’s were so stringent that for every occupied chair in my academy class, there were 19 rejected applicants. My preemployment interviews, my polygraph, focused on moral and ethical behavior, my 4-6 month background investigation was intense and thorough. Today, homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals’, misdemeanor offenders, are hired, celebrated, placed in positions of authority; A shameful mockery of honorable law enforcement. Today, the immoral, the mentally and spiritually ill, don a badge and weapon and patrol the streets of Houston void the moral discernment to differentiate the absurdity and godlessness of same-sex intercourse from that of Biblically ordained intercourse. This is a spiritual and mental illness in authority over the citizens of Houston.
Beginning in 1983 with the pacifist, liberal, Houston Administration of Mayor Kathy Whitmire and Police Chief Lee P. Brown, Houston’s PD began its WOKE downward spiral into liberalism, pacifism, IAD overzealousness – liability oriented, sexually perverse, reverse discriminatory, impotency. Over the subsequent decades, I brokenheartedly watched as my HPD became a bastion of compromised, sexually perverse/Trans-LGBTQAI++, Affirmative Action-DEI, cesspool where enduring the unacceptable status quo for retirement benefits replaced a love for the job and passion for policing.
During my later years in enforcement, I was actually “ordered” to stop enforcing the law; I was told to stop proactive enforcement and investigations; I was ordered to stop accumulating overtime working misdemeanor and felony cases; I was basically ordered to run my calls-for-service, look the other way en route to the station at end of shift, turn my patrol vehicle in on-time…STOP the overtime for investigations initiated during my shift, go home…keep my mouth shut. I was NOT aware that as I fought tooth-and-nail to STOP the narcissistic motor vehicle NOISE bullies, the pathetic biker sissies and auto, truck, thugs who were audibly abusing the citizens within my area of responsibility; as I was fighting tooth and nail to track and locate theft, felony assault and warrant suspects that I was simultaneously working for, supervised by, compromised, weak, pacifist, liability oriented, supervision.
The Houston PD had “progressively” become something I no longer respected, something I was ashamed of. My stance against HPD’s compromise with LGBTQAI++; HPD’s Affirmative Action polices – my participation in a lawsuit over reverse discrimination in promotion policies; lowered hiring standards to attract those who did NOT belong in law enforcement; HPD placing lesbians in positions of authority over me in two different assignments; HPD accepting transsexual mental illness into the ranks as a supervisor; HPD’s compromise with societal thugs who openly and brazenly abuse Houston’s citizenry and siding with the thugs while stymieing my efforts to enforce the law; my voiced adversity to these moral failures ran afoul of Houston’s morally compromised, perverse, anti-policing, liability oriented, overzealous IAD, Administration – I was no longer wanted…I no longer “fit in” to the WOKE Houston PD; the writing was on the wall…it was past time for me to go as I would NOT be allowed to perform the duties I took a solemn oath to perform!
Hebrew Roots; A passion for Torah Observance in the New Covenant? A concern, a warning, a better way…
Torah Law is of no relevance concerning obedience in the New Covenant. Torah could not provide righteousness or obedience for Jacob’s children nor could same provide guidance and obedience for the Apostles as they discussed the inclusion of the Gentile in the New Covenant as per Acts 15. Though Moses was read in the Synagogues, the law was discussed with pure intent yet subjectivity, relevance, situational relevance, were always at the forefront because the human conscience not only abhors authority but the conscience void the Spirit inevitably seeks obfuscation and rationalization. Letters don’t work in Judeo-Christian ethics, these letters don’t work in secular jurisprudence…the conscience absent the Spirit as an Arbiter is the obstacle.
A better way to approach Biblical obedience…. The New Covenant…
Torah, Letters, could never adequately tame the sin-nature but Elohim enacted a New and LIVING WAY for His redeemed to walk in righteousness; this, through His indwelling Spirit that arbitrates the conscience of the “new creation” the “new man” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and the focus of the New Covenant is on the Spirit and on divine fruit……it is this fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) that fulfills the obedient intent of every statute in Torah, every commandment of Jesus in the Decalogue and the two-greatest Commandments (John 15:8).
Hebrew Roots? A concern, a warning…
I suppose you are affiliated with the “Hebrew Roots” movement? Yes? Ben, if you desire to honor Torah and days, diets, clothing restrictions, feasts, you are perfectly welcomed to do so in the New Covenant…that can be an honorable thing, honoring Torah and traditions, there is NOTHING wrong or sinful with same UNLESS YOU ARE HONORING TORAH FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE. If you are honoring Torah in order to ingratiate yourself with Jesus and supplement His sufficiency to save you by faith, you are NOT redeemed, you remain in your sin, you are seeking death in Hell. Do you understand that?
What if our omnipotent Holy Spirit, the Logistical overseer of the creation narrative (Genesis 1:2), actually ordained and inspired every word of the Canon of Scripture before us today? What if we simply humbled ourselves and believed the Scriptures with a heart that was dedicated to an omnipotent Creator who created the Universe, this Earth, our complex genome, and we simply believed by faith that He is able to provide us with the words He desires we have so that we can know Him personally; love Him intimately; live with Him eternally? Would such faith in our omnipotent Creator and His abilities nullify the relevance of councils of men, religions, denominations, sects, cults?
Concerning the futile endeavors of science to explain Creation, the Spiritual Realm, Hebrews 11:3; John 18:36
“By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:3 (NASB)
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” John 18:36 (NASB)
I personally believe that the prevailing theological explanation for creation by ex nihilo (out of nothing) to be inaccurate. Jesus, our Creator (Genesis 1; John 1; Hebrews 1; Colossians 1-2) was delegated authority by the Father (John 3:35; Hebrews 1) to take elements from the unseen Spiritual Realm and fashion same into matter, atoms, that can be apprehended by a life form fashioned specifically to interact within a Realm constrained by Time, physics.
These things are beyond scientific analysis or explanation due the truism that our cognition is limited by scientific methodology…we are limited by that which we can apprehend, analyze, test, repeat, test, verify…the Spiritual Realm is like looking “though a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12); that is, our spirit within us testifies to something more, something beyond what our senses reveal in this atrophying environment but yet apprehending same is fleeting yet nagging. We know intuitively but verification is beyond our reach in this flesh.
Science will NEVER define origin of the genome or matter, the atom, that which holds all things together yet the Holy Spirit identifies the One who solidifies the atom into a tangible element for the Glory of Elohim’s purposes in this current war of righteousness v. evil; specifically, Jesus. Until we are free from this body, this tent of atrophy, as it is finally torn down by death; then, and only then, will we see Him in His reality…the Eternal.
Israel, the Great Commission, failure, redemption?
Though it is theologically accurate to claim that Israel was to be the recipient of New Covenant promise; though it is true that Messiah came ONLY to the children of Jacob to proselytize them with the Gospel; though it is true that Jacob’s children were foreordained to be a blessing to all the Earth as they were commissioned to take the Gospel to every Nation, every Tongue, and thereby bless the Earth with Elohim’s offer of Grace through Messiah, Israel FAILED as they rejected Messiah; Israel failed as they rejected the Gospel by clinging to Torah/Law/Self-righteousness; therefore, the Gospel and the New Covenant were taken from Israel and given to the Gentile until such time the “fullness of the Gentiles have come in” (Romans 11:25); that is, the New Covenant will remain in the custody of the Gentile Nations until such time the number of Gentiles to be redeemed by the Gospel has reached fruition; then, an anointed 144,000 Jewish Witnesses (Revelation 7) will proselytize a “remnant” of Israel’s children during the war that prefaces Messiah’s 2nd-Advent, this Jewish remnant will be witness to the 2nd-Advent of Messiah as He returns to Mount Olivette and they will believe and receive their Messiah, they will enter the Millennial Kingdom and serve Yeshua there for 1000-years. ONLY A MERE REMNANT OF ISRAEL’S CHILDREN WILL BE PRESENT IN ETERNITY IN THE NEW JERUSALEM; THIS, DUE UNBELIEF IN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 9:27-29; Isaiah 10:20-23).
It is the Spiritual Realm interacting with the Physical Realm…these things will increase in frequency as that Day approaches. Jesus’ Kingdom is NOT of the Realm of the Physical/Time/Space/Matter…what our scientists are amazed by have existed before the World was created.
Also, in Hebrews 11:3, the Holy Spirit teaches that matter, Time, space, the Physical reality of our Universe, was “made” out of that which is NOT visible; in other words, what we see and interact with finds its origin in a Realm that is not visible to those encapsulated within a body of matter, flesh, allowing same to interact physically and intimately with the Physical Realm.
“By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:3 (NASB)
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 