Subject: Understanding the Book of Galations
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 01:53:13 +0000
From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Reply-To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: Heather Montalbano
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Re: Celebrating the Festivals
>
>How do you people deal with the book of Galatians? Paul seems quite
>clear that faith is the issue and not works of the law.
>
>From Eddie:
**************
Heather,
In all honesty, Christians need to start reading the bible in
CONTEXT. We shouldn't make the mistake of making a "religious
doctrine" out of one verse ignoring the rest of scripture which is
needed to understand the context of each scripture. Christians do an
outstanding job of being able to quote selected verses (usually from the
writings of Rav Sha'ul / Apostle Paul) and reading these verses from
our Western Protestant 20th century dispensational law .vs. grace
mindset and view everthing through the eyes of salvation.
Salvation should NOT be the goal of the Christian. The goal
should be salvation AND righteous and holy living. Salvation brings
justification but holy and righteous living brings sanctification
after we are justified. Justification saves us but sanctification brings
us closer to God. Justification comes by the grace of God through
faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). Sanctification are the "good works" that we
are ordained by God to walk after we are justified (Ephesians 2:10).
Every Jewish blessing begins with these words:
"Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe who has
SANCTIFIED us (not justified us) by your commandments ..."
Before God married the house of Jacob (Exodus 19:3) at Mount Sinai
(Jeremiah 2:1-3), he asked them to be sanctified (Exodus 19:10, 14).
Yeshua / Jesus is coming back for a SANCTIFIED ( and not only a
justified) Bride (Ephesians 5:26-27).
NOW are the days of preparation for the Bride of Messiah because
SOON He is coming back for His Bride. Preparation is sanctification
and sanctification is holy living. The word sanctify in Hebrew is the
word "qadash" which is the Strong's word (6942) which means to be
"ceremonially clean, pure or holy". I explain these concepts in great
detail in my book, "Who is the Bride of Christ?".
When reading the book of Galations we also forget to understand
the ALL scripture is inspired by God (both OT and NT) as is written
in II Timothy 3:16:
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in
righteousnesss"
It should be pointed out that when this verse was written
"all scripture" ONLY referred to the OT as the NT was NOT yet
accepted as scripture and canonized.
So, the book of Galations needs be read in the context of the
issues to the church in Galatia AND in the context of the rest of
God's written Word.
The ENTIRETY of God's Word is ETERNAL. Some of it is not
"old" and other parts of it "new". IF you understand God's
covenant with Abraham (Chapter 13 of my book, "Who is the Bride of
Christ?"), you will understand that the OT and the NT is ONE
CONTINUOUS book.
In I Peter 1:24-25, it it written:
"For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But
the WORD OF THE LORD, endureth FOREVER. And this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you"
I Peter 1:24-25 is quoted from Isaiah 40:3, 6-8 as it is
written:
"The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way
of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God ...
the voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
the grass withers the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever"
Isaiah 40:3, 6-8 is the "Elijah" message which was spoken
by John the Baptist. In Matthew 3:1-3, it is written:
"In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of
Judea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
For this is he that was spoken of the prophet Isaiah, saying, The
voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the
Lord, make his paths straight"
In Luke 1:13, 16-17, it is written:
"But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is
heard: and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt
call his name John ... and many of the children of Israel shall he
turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the SPIRIT
and POWER of ELIJAH, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children, and the disobedience to the wisdom of the just; to make
ready a people prepared for the Lord"
It has always been a traditional Jewish teaching that
before Messiah would come that Elijah would come first. John the
Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah. Jesus was asked about
this same question in Matthew 17:10-13 it is written:
"And his disciples asked him, saying, why then say the scribes that
Elijah must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah
truly SHALL first come (future) , and RESTORE all things (which to a
Jewish mind means 'return back to the observing of Torah'. But I say
unto you, That Elijah is come already, and they knew him not ... then
the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist"
The "Elijah message" to come (prior to the 2nd coming of the
Messiah) is found in Malachi 4:4-6 as it is written:
"REMEMBER ye the TORAH of Moses my servant, which I commanded
unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold,
I will send you, Elijah the prophet BEFORE the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their
fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse"
The "Elijah message" is a message to 'return back to
Torah'. So, what does this have to do with the book of Galations?
The Bible is quite clear as I have just shown that the
end-time Elijah message is 'return to Torah'. Therefore, Paul, a
Torah observant Jew himself and who also took a Nazarite vow to
prove it in Acts 21:17-26, could NOT be possibly teaching that Torah
observance was no longer necessary. So what what the issue in the
book of Galations? It was the same issue as in Acts 15. In Acts 15:1
it is written:
"And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren, and
said, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses (keep all
the Torah), ye cannot be saved"
There were those in Galatia who advocated that salvation
came by FAITH AND WORKS. This is OBVIOUS from Galations 2:16
as it is written:
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law (by our
own human merit), but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, and not by the works of the law (by our own human merit): for
by the works of the law (salvation by our own human merit) shall no
flesh be justified (saved)"
Another problem with most Christians when reading the book of
Galations and other selected passages from the writings of Paul in
the Epistles is that when they hear the word TORAH / LAW and
anything to do with Torah observance, they IMMEDIATELY get out
and put on their "religious hats" and start thinking about salvation.
You speak about law and the Christian minds shifts into "salvation"
mode. You say TORAH/LAW and Christians immediately begin to
think, "but we are not saved by keeping the law". This is TRUE.
This is TRUE. This is TRUE. This is TRUE. Case closed !!!! Now,
can we continue talking about the Torah in the life of the believer?
Can we take off our "religious hats" now?
Furthermore, we need to talk about what the word TORAH means and
what the word YESHUA / Jesus means. This will help us to think
Biblically.
TORAH means INSTRUCTION.
YESHUA means SALVATION
If I want SALVATION then that is YESHUA. If I want the
INSTRUCTION of God on how we should live my lives (after we are
saved) to please him then this is TORAH / instruction.
In addition, we NEED to understand that:
TORAH and WORD OF GOD are SYNONYMOUS. I have made
various posts to explain this concept in the past.
So, we need to read the book of Galations with all of these truths of
the word of God as our foundation for reading and interpreting the
word of Sha'ul / Paul and not from a 20th century Protestant, Western,
dispensational law .vs. grace mindset which came only after
Christianity departed from it's Hebraic Roots.
>
> " O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey
the
>truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified
>among you? This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the
>works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having
begun
>in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Gal 3:1-3
>
This only says that salvation does not come by keeping the
law but by faith in Jesus as Messiah. The "flesh" is not the Torah.
The flesh is BREAKING the Torah and doing what WE want to do. In
I John 3:4 it is written:
"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth the law: for sin is the
transgression of the law"
If Yeshua/Jesus or Paul advocated that the Torah is no
longer valid today, then we could not sin because sin is defined as
breaking the Torah of God. However, if you sinned today, you broke
the Torah of God.
In Galations 3:3, Yeshua/Jesus came to redeem us from the
CURSE of the law. Most Christians don't realize that the "curse of
the law" came by BREAKING the Torah. The curse is NOT for
KEEPING the Torah. In Deuteronomy 28:15 it is written:
"But it shall come to pass, if you will NOT hearken unto the voice of
the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments and his
statutes which I command thee this day: that all these CURSES shall
come upon thee, and overtake thee"
So the curse was for breaking the Torah. The blessing came
by keeping it. In Deuteronomy 28:1-2 it is written:
"And it shall come to pass, if you SHALL hearken diligently unto the
voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments
which I command thee this day ... all these BLESSINGS shall come on
thee, and overtake thee ..."
>
> "And this I say, that the covenant ( to Abraham), that was confirmed
>before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years
>after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
For
>if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it
>Abraham by promise." Gal 3:17-18
>
I talked about these verse in length in yesterday's
post. I showed that the Torah was NOT first given at Mount Sinai but
that Abraham kept the Torah of God and the tree of life in the Garden
of Eden represented keeping and obeying the Torah/Word of God. Also,
I talked about the fact that the PROMISE that God made to Abraham was
not being saved but that "in thee shall all nations be blessed"
(Galations 3:8).
>
> "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid
>for you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain." Gal 4:10-11
>
Once again, this is NOT the only verse in the Bible. The
Bible is very clear that the festivals are ETERNAL and will be
observed during the Messianic Age and then for all eternity as I also
have explained in earlier posts. MOST Christians don't understand
that the Biblical Festivals were given by God to teach about the 1st
and 2nd coming of Yeshua/Jesus and our personal relationship with
God. I explain this in great detail in my book, "The Seven Festivals
of the Messiah".
Furthermore, Paul was reempasizing that the keeping of "days,
months, and times and years" does not save you. However, Paul in
fact, kept the Biblical Festivals. In Acts 20:16, it is written:
"For Paul had determined to sail to Ephasus, because he would not
spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him,
to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost"
In I Corinthians 16:8 it is written:
"But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost"
Paul wouldn't tell the Galations to not keep the Biblical Festivals
if he himself kept them!
You see if we didn't put on our "religious hats" when reading
Galations 4:10 about observing "days, months and times and years".
with an anti-Torah, salvation minded bias, we could interpret this to
mean that Paul was telling Christians not to observe "times" like
Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Years etc and "days" like
Sunday. But, we don't read the text this way. We read it after
putting on our salvation minded, anti-Torah, 20th century Protestant
Western, dispensational law .vs. grace theology. I understand this
because I was taught the same thing in the churches I attended for
over 20 years.
>
>
> "Whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."
> Gal 5:4
>
This is correct because justification (salvation)
comes by grace through faith and not by keeping the law (Ephesians
2:8-9).
>
> There are also many other scriptures that speak of this issue.
>How do you get around them? Thank you, Heather
>
By differentiating whether the text is talking about
salvation or holy living after we are saved.
I hope that this helps to answer your questions because these
questions are very typical of the mindset of the average Christian
believer.
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