Christians & Torah: A Christian Understanding of Messianic Judaism

  The Meaning of Yom Teruah

Acts 10: Peter’s Vision Now we come to the second most quoted passage by those who teach and believe that the dietary laws are no longer in force. They say Peter’s vision is clear – God told him he could now eat anything he wanted to. Did He really? And if Jesus had declared that we could eat anything we wanted in Mark 7, why do we find Peter years later still eating ‘kosher’? The events of Acts 10 took place some ten years after the death and resurrection of Messiah. How did Peter still not know he could eat anything, whether clean or unclean? Is that why God gave him this vision – to reinforce the fact that there was no longer a distinction between clean and unclean animals for food? It has been assumed for generations that the sheet lowered in Peter’s vision contained all manner of ‘unclean animals’. Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 prohibited God’s people from eating certain animals, which were designated ‘unclean’ and therefore not fit for human consumption. So this passag...

  Jesus Declared all food clean – or did He? “But surely,” I hear you say, “Jesus declared all foods clean, so that settles the matter”. Well, I thought so too – until, that is, I looked into it much more closely. The favourite verse and the one most often quoted to say the dietary laws are abolished, is in Mark 7v19:                “Thus He declared all foods clean” And they take this as proof positive that the food laws are obsolete. Mark 7 and Matthew 15 Let us therefore, turn to Mark 7v1-23 and the parallel passage, Matthew 15v1-20 and examine them a little more closely. As Scripture interprets Scripture, it is helpful to look at both passages and indeed any other passages that might throw some light on this issue. These two passages give an account of the same event, with some slight differences, which gives us a greater understanding of what is being said here. Ritual cleanliness and hand wash...

  Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Council Let’s now examine some of the passages that Christians use to say ‘No, Christians do not have to avoid certain foods any longer.’ There are several such passages, the most popular of which are, in Biblical order: Mark 7 Acts 10 Acts 15 Romans 14 Colossians 2 1 Timothy 4 Firstly, let’s jump to Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Council, because that is where the leaders of the early church spelled out what Gentile converts needed to believe and do or not do, initially. Many use this passage (vv1-21) to say that there are only four laws for Christians to follow and therefore all the rest (with perhaps the exception of the Ten Commandments) have been abolished, including the food laws. Peter and Barnabas had been having great success in preaching the gospel among the Gentiles, many of whom had come to faith in the Jewish Messiah (let’s not forget here that Jesus was a Jew, not a European). They had been in Antioch and some believing Jews had come fro...

Introduction I was going to continue this blog with a discussion of what Messianic Judaism is all about and how or whether God's law as given in the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible, also known as the books of Moses) applies to Christians today. However, in the last week or so, I have been engaged (albeit briefly) in conversation about the food laws and so this might be an opportune moment to address that issue. The Garden of Eden The first mention of ‘food’ in the Bible is in Genesis 1v29: “Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” (NIV) The King James version says: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is  upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which  is  the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. ” And this is where some people begin to get confused – the word ‘meat...