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4. What about Paul’s teachings?

We live in a day when most Christians do not keep the particulars of Torah (such as Sabbath, festivals, dietary laws, etc.). Therefore, when we read Paul’s letters, his arguments often seem to be anti-Jewish and anti-Torah—and in line with modern Christianity. But Paul did not live in our day. He never knew modern Christianity or even the Christianity of the second-century Church Fathers. In Paul’s day, gentile believers became part of the larger Jewish community.

The seventh-day Sabbath was still the regular day of worship. It was not until over 300 years later that Constantine officially forced a change in the worship day of "Christianity" to Sunday, (or sun god worship day) in honor of his pagan goddess (Mithra) whom he continued to worship throughout his life even though he claimed Christianity as a new unifying religion for his kingdom. [Constantine’s beliefs were clearly more politically motivated than spiritual]

Up to that time, the believers of “The Way” were still meeting in community groups or what is called in the Greek, ekklesia, (Strong’s G1577) which at that time that word was a generic term used to describe “a gathering of people.” Click Here for further explanation on the meaning and origin of the word ekklesia or “church.”  


Ekklesia is translated "church" in our modern Bibles even though modern readers will often miss the fact that it did not develop the modern meaning that is attached to the English word "church" today until hundreds of years later. These community groups when connected with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (including the New Testament early believers) were also called synagogues, as this term did not become connected with a building or our modern use of the term until many, many, many years later as well.

We also note an important assumption of the disciples at the Acts Council regarding what to do with all these new gentile believers coming to faith in the Messiah of Israel, for they say, “For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath” (Acts 15:21). Clearly, the new gentiles coming to faith were assumed to be integrating into the local communities, attending the synagogue services and hearing the “Bible/Tanakh” read each week such that they would learn the Word of God and grow in their faith walk as the Holy Spirit wrote that Torah on their hearts.

The Apostle Paul found himself in a long-term argument with other Jewish believers over the position of non-Jews in the kingdom of God, and therefore also, within the local synagogue. His opponents asserted that before a Gentile could be "saved," he must first be “circumcised” (which in Paul’s day this meant, or was short hand for, being ritually converted to Judaism to gain the status of a Jew).  The previous doctrine was that only Israel is saved; therefore, you had to be a part of Israel to “be saved.”  Thus the act of ritual conversion was developed by men, but God never mandated such a ritual for salvation.  Instead, the Gospel of God taught, from the very beginning, that “the righteous shall live by faith,” (Hab 2:4/Rom 1:1-3,17).


Romans 1:1-3, 17, “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which He promised beforehand, through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures (i.e. the Tanakh), concerning His Son . . .for in it (i.e. The Gospel of God that he just explained in his entire intro of chapter 1) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written (in the Gospel of God), “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”


The idea that Gentiles would be forced to “convert” FOR SALVATION, would also mean that gentiles would be placed under the authority of the local (often non-believing in Jesus) rabbi and forced to keep their commandments which included many of the Oral commandments of the sages that Jesus clearly noted had become in many cases a "heavy burden" that added to or took away from God’s Torah (something forbidden by the Torah in the first place).

While keeping God’s commandments is a natural byproduct of a life of faith, the issue of “status” or even the appearance of “status” as the precursor for salvation was something Paul fought hard to combat in the same way Martin Luther years later fought this same false theology (and started the Reformation).  This same false theology of “status” had again manifest before the Reformation as requiring “church membership” (i.e. status as a Roman Catholic church member) as a precursor for “salvation” in the days of Martin Luther; only the status issue had changed from being Jewish status to gaining Roman Catholic status.  This same “status lie” is still present in the world, but appears in less obvious forms today.


The entire debate among the Acts Council in Acts 15 only makes sense if they are arguing about keeping the commandments of God FOR SALVATION, rather than AS A RESULT OF SALVATION.  To argue that the Acts Council is saying Gentiles don’t have to keep Torah to stop sinning would require that the four mandates given at the conclusion of the Acts Council  ARE REQUIRED “FOR” Salvation, and THAT CAN’T BE! Otherwise you are “adding to” salvation.


Clearly  the Acts Council was over the issue of what is REQUIRED FOR SALVATION, and the outcome of that discussion was that the Tanakh or Holy Scriptures of that time as well as the confession of Paul and Barnabas and their experiencing it first hand, was that SALVATION COMES BY FAITH ALONE.  But, because of the fact that you now had religious Pharisees worshiping alongside previously pagan gentiles that know very little about how God desires believers to live (and what is or is not sin), the Council decided to require four elements of newly converted Gentiles.  This DOES NOT MEAN they were “saved” because they kept these four things, nor were these four items give for such a reason!  These were simply given to facilitate fellowship between the learned and the unlearned in a tight knit community.


Upon observing these four elements, this would demonstrate the sincerity of the new gentile covert’s faith to the religious but believing Pharisees, and still not become “too heavy a burden” for these new converts who were going to have enough to deal with coming out of paganism as it was.  The Holy Spirit, it was assumed, would take it from there, and these new believers would hear the Torah read each week and begin to change and stop sinning in additional areas of their lives over time, on their own, according to the power they received from the Holy Spirit (just as is the case for us today).


For Paul, it was redundant (and an offense to Christ) for a Gentile believer to become circumcised as part of a man made ritual conversion to Judaism. It was offensive to Christ because it implied that faith in Him was not adequate to secure a position in the covenant with Israel, and was like applying for an office you already held. It was also a denial of the Gospel of faith, which Paul says Moses also preached. Paul said, “If you let yourselves be circumcised [that is, undergo a formal conversion into Judaism as a necessary component of your salvation], Messiah will be of no value to you at all” (Galatians 5:2).


Messiah would become of no value to the covert because the convert has opted to accomplish his participation in Israel (and thus salvation) through his own physical efforts, not via faith. To Paul, this is going backward, not forward in Christ. It is trying to earn your salvation by submitting to authorities of men for acceptance by them, when such a submission to their authority denies the true authority of Christ and the true and only method of salvation, which is a sincere faith in the Messiah of Israel.  MEN CANNOT BE THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR OTHER MEN!  True obedience can only come out of a heart of faith, therefore, obedience to the Torah can only be true obedience when one starts with faith and is then empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk according to God’s directives.


In Galatians, Paul responded to his opponents’ teaching by forbidding the Galatians to convert to become Jewish (i.e. Be circumcised in a conversion ritual) to gain new status as a Jew for salvation.


In the case of Gentiles with some Jewish heritage such as Timothy, however, Paul did not hesitate to circumcise him because it could not give the appearance of or imply a “conversion.” In fact, he personally oversaw Timothy’s circumcision. Gentiles like Titus or the Galatians, Paul encouraged to remain uncircumcised, so long as circumcision was or could be seen as or misunderstood as their ticket into the Kingdom.  Today, if men are just physically circumcised at birth, this does not automatically give them the “status” as a Jew, nor would a gentile who felt let by the Holy Spirit (if he was not previously circumcised in the flesh) to have himself circumcised by a doctor, would also not automatically give him the status of a Jew.  Therefore, we have to understand Paul’s logic and teaching in light of the circumstances of his day.  But, if someone today thought that they could “be saved” by converting to Judaism, I would say, that would violate the Word of God, and gentiles today should avoid ritual conversion to Judaism today, not simply because of the idea of gaining Jewish status, but more importantly because in today’s world, that gentile would have to specifically deny Yeshua as Messiah to do so.  This was not the case in Paul’s day necessarily, but it is certainly the case today.  So anyone converting to Judaism today would be doing what Paul warned against in Galatians 5:2, and Messiah would no longer be of value to them, and they would be considered choosing to have no faith and choosing to reject the Messiah.


Now, I’ve had a Jewish friend of my mom’s, who saw that I kept the Feasts and did not eat pork etc., even though she knew I also believed in Yeshua as Messiah and did not observe rabbinic Judaism nor had I ever converted to become “Jewish,” (i.e. Gain the status of a Jew) say to her, “So how do you feel now that your daughter is Jewish?”  Now, this woman’s impression was that only Jewish people would obey Torah (how sad this is as a witness against the Christians for their lack of understanding and living God’s truth!).  So in this sense, we can appear to the secular world to “be Jewish” even when we do not keep rabbinic Judaism, but the point is, that this is a different situation than what I’ve discussed above.  And in this case, I’m proud that my life’s witness to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile, is that I can do my best to uphold the commandments of God in the manner our Master taught, but still love Yeshua as my Messiah, and I can do both of these things with power and joy and in total freedom.  That’s the witness the “church” needs today, first to the Jew then the the Gentile.

Ultimately, when people who have no true knowledge of the Torah read Paul outside of his historic and cultural context, they often if not always misunderstand Paul completely. If Peter said Paul was difficult to understand, how much less do the unlearned misquote Paul.


When we forget that Paul was arguing against requiring Gentiles to be circumcised in order to merit salvation, we assume that he was arguing against keeping Torah altogether. But in reality, the only thing Paul was arguing against was that keeping the Torah and circumcision rituals in particular could not be regarded as prerequisites for salvation.  


Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  

But while salvation is by faith, once faith comes, the only decision faith can make is to obey God’s commandments.  The only difference is that a believer now gains the ability to do so.  What was formerly impossible for man is now possible with God.

You only have two choices as a believer.  To obey a command and walk in righteousness, or to continue to walk in your flesh and disobey a command, which we know is to remain in bondage.  If Christ set you free, you are free indeed.  So choose freedom, i.e. keep Torah.