Yom Teruah

 



The Meaning of Yom Teruah


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The Jerusalem Council: Should Christians Follow the Dietary Laws? [Part 2]

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  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...
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Rise up, Peter, kill and eat: Should Christians Follow the Dietary Laws? [Part 4]

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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Peter’s Vision Now we come to the second most quoted passage by those who teach and believe that the dietary laws are no longer in force.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...
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Introduction: Should Christians Follow the Dietary Laws? [Part 1]

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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...
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