Top 10 Reasons why Christians should know Torah
Know Torah = Know Yeshua
We do new converts to Christianity a disservice when we hand them a Gospel of John and the Book of Psalms.
The book of Hebrews says in Heb 10 v 7 – Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Hebrews is quoting Ps 40 v7 – Then I say, “Look! I come! What is written in the scroll pertains to me.”
Which scroll was He referring to in light of there being No New Testament yet?
Yeshua made every effort to validate His ministry and His Messiahship from the Jewish Torah. His talk on the Road to Emmaus appears to be a thorough survey of the Jewish Scriptures. His uniquely Jewish mission was to fulfill Jewish roles and customs …..like Kinsman Redeemer, Passover Lamb, High Priest, Atonement, Line of Judah, Son of Joseph and Son of David are terms only explained in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Attempts to de-Judaize the bible are not new. Early Christian Fathers tried to separate themselves from their Jewish Roots and the early 12 Jewish disciples of Messiah.
- Hilary of Poitiers (AD 291-371) wrote: “Jews are a perverse people accursed by God forever.”
- Gregory of Nyssa (died AD 394), Bishop of Cappadocia: “the Jews are a brood of vipers, haters of goodness…”
- Jerome (AD 347-407) describes the Jews as “… serpents, wearing the image of Judas, their psalms and prayers are the brayings of donkeys.”
Hitler’s plan was to gradually ‘Nazify’ the church beginning with a theological center he set up in 1939 called ‘The Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life’. Walter Grundmann was appointed as its academic director and wrote in 1941, ‘The Bible must become Jew-free and the German people must see that the Jews are the mortal enemy who threatens their very existence’.
In the 1940 edition of the Nazi bible, the following words can be found: “The Evangelical Jesus can only become the savior of our German people, because it does not incarnate the ideas of Judaism, but fights against them mercilessly’. Referring to the rewritten bible in a memorandum to the institute in Eisenach, Hitler wrote ‘The book will have to serve the fight against the immortal Jewish enemy!
When you see who does not want you to read and Study Torah…That should tell you something! Please let that strengthen your resolve to find the Jewish Yeshua on very page of the volume written about Him. That volume starts with the Torah.
- Yeshua can be found there!
John 1:45 Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the Torah, and the Prophets, wrote: Yeshua of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
- How can you know the answer if you never knew the question?
- They only recognized Yeshua as the Messiah because they knew the Torah.
- The Torah is where the hidden treasure is found!
- So we can properly understand who Yeshua is!
Luke 24:27 Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Yeshua began with Moses and so should we. How can we claim to know Yeshua if we know nothing of His family, His culture or His country?
- So we can believe Yeshua is the Messiah!
John 5:46,47 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writing, how will you believe my words?”
If you throw out the Torah and claim it is irrelevant you have no validation for your belief in Yeshua. It is not a matter of Moses versus Jesus it is belief in that what Moses says proves your belief in Messiah!
- Torah sets your heart on fire!
Luke 24:32 They said one to another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”
There were no Gideon Bibles back then. All they had was the Tanakh. (Hebrew Old Testament) God says His Word is like a fire. Our hearts will burn when we allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the truths of the Torah to us.
- Torah, as the beginning, is the Key to prophetic understanding!
Isaiah 46:9,10 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure;
The Bible says it is to God’s Glory that he conceals matters and it is to our honor to search them out. You will never fully understand Revelation if you don’t understand Genesis and the Torah. They are bookends of one story.
- So we can know the promises to the family we are grafted into!
Romans 9:4,5 Who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Messiah as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
There are not two trees, one Jewish and one Christian. We are grafted into one tree and the early “church” fathers are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You are saved by the same faith that Abraham was saved by. Gen 15 v 6 And Abram believed the LORD and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.
- Torah comes from the breath of God and is His Word!
2 Timothy 3:16,17 Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Again there was no New Testament when this was written. The Torah equips us for every good work. The early church proved all their doctrines from the only scriptures they had –The Torah.
- Torah brings us liberty!
Psalms 119:43-48 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in your judgments. So shall I keep your law continually forever and ever? And I will walk at liberty: for I seek your precepts. I will speak of your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in your commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up to your commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in your statutes.
Only when we know our boundaries do we have true liberty as well as safety for everyone.
- Torah reveals God’s heart and is what makes our lives go well!
Deuteronomy 5:29 O that there was such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!
God is the same yesterday, today and forever! God would never say that Torah is good, now Torah is bad, and now Torah is good again. The Torah is God’s instruction. His instruction is always for our good, as He loves us!
- Torah prevents us from being deceived and reveals false prophets!
Deuteronomy 13:1-5 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them; You shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proves you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and join him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he has spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust you out of the way which the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. So shall you put the evil away from the middle of you?
Any person who believes the Torah is done away with is a false prophet. There are many modern day “prophets” going around claiming to hear from God. Just ask them if the Torah is done away with?.
If they say, yes, Run for your lives!