Are Gentile Christians "required" to walk in Torah?

Search

Skip to content

Are Gentile Christians "required" to walk in Torah?

Details: Category: Torah Perspectives; Published on Saturday, 13 February 2010 17:00

Lets first consider a couple different questions. Note: this is the pattern of thinking that every Christian must come to grips with if he/she is going to be consistent and intellectually honest with their own beliefs. However, the following are not necessarily the beliefs of the author.

If the Torah is Light and Yeshua/Jesus is Light (as Christians and Messianic Jews/Ephraimites espouse), this must mean mean Yeshua/Jesus was/is the Living Torah, the Living Light (according to this belief), or there must be different types of Light.

If a Christian despises Torah in his/her heart, does he/she also despise the Light? And if he/she despises the Light, does he/she also ultimately despise Yeshua/Jesus?

James 4:12a "There is one Lawgiver and Judge, who is able to save and to
destroy."

Proverbs 6:23 "For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching [Torah] is
light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life"

John 8:12 Therefore יהושע spoke to them again, saying, "I am the
light of the world. He who FOLLOWS Me shall by no means walk in
darkness, but possess the light of life.

Notice that Yeshua did NOT say "He who BELIEVES Me". He says "He who FOLLOWS Me". This implies walking and action.

Lets rephrase the original question: Should Gentile Christians be "required" to walk in the Light?

No matter how a Christian or Messianic theologian interprets the Book of Acts, we still have to come to terms with what the Torah is. Is the Torah light or is it darkness? Where should a follower of the teacher Yeshua walk? Should one of his followers walk in darkness or should they be encouraged to walk in Light?

Issues of "individual salvation" aside... lets just assume we're not dealing with that specific subject, however dubious it may be.

Walking in Lawlessness or Torahlessness is walking in darkness

Of course, we must depend on the Ruakh or Spirit of Torah (the Spirit of Light, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of the Creator, all the SAME Spirit), to help us and guide us in our walk, but that walk will inevitably go down the PathWAY of Torah because that is the Way of Wisdom.

Proverbs 4:11 "I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths."

Isaiah 42:16 "And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."

Actually, many Christians are led down this Path (presumably by the Spirit) without realizing they are walking in Torah. Yet, certain aspects of Torah "seem" more overtly Jewish to the Christian mind, so those aspects are foolishly avoided or despised as legalism. There are indeed non-Torah Jewish commandments to avoid, but that is a subject covered else where. We must study the Written Torah to know the differences between man-made commandments and Yah-made commandments.

The Dragon and the Woman: Yet another critical question

Why is the Dragon of Revelation so enraged at the remnant of the Woman's seed?

Revelation 12:17 "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to fight with the remnant of her seed, those guarding the commands of Elohim and possessing the witness of יהושע Messiah."

The remnant of her seed are guarding the commands or guarding the LIGHT! They are also possessing the witness (or example) of Yeshua, who walked in the Light of Torah. Why does this enrage the dragon? The dragon hates the Light, and thus, hates Torah. But will the dragon be enraged with Christians if they aren't guarding the commands and witness of Yeshua?

Conclusion

Of course there are national/constitutional aspects to the Written Torah that are not or cannot or are difficult to be applied to an individual living outside the ancient or modern nation of Israel (e.g., such as making the three festival pilgrimages to Jerusalem).

Even if you're an Israeli citizen, the nation today is setup in such a way (democratic, secular, and socialist) that even it is "seemingly" unable to observe all Torah (e.g., the Shmittah/Sabbath land rest, Altar offerings, etc). Although the modern Jewish nation should and could make the Torah their national constitution, setting up wise/understanding judges to rule on difficult matters, but many Israelis would likely feverishly resist and/or revolt against that process (hence the need for the Anointed Rightious King, the BRANCH of David to come).

Concluding the Conclusion

The aforementioned difficult realities should not lead us to despise or forbid ourselves (or others) from walking in what Torah Light is available for us to walk in today (resting on shabbat, abstaining from unclean foods and idolatry, and many other examples).

If a Gentile Christian wishes to be a follower of Yeshua, he/she is 'required' to walk or follow him everywhere he went... and he went down the path of Torah. This should be a very basic and simple concept to digest. Thus, don't allow lawless Church shepherds to convince you to walk outside of the Light. YES, you may have liberty in Yeshua, but does that mean you have liberty to walk continually in darkness?

A babe is certainly allowed to make a mess of things, and he/she is given liberty to do so to some degree, but eventually... the babe grows up and is expected to poop on the toilet and not throw food across the dinner table.

Shalom,
Hanok ben-Isaak

P.S. I avoided the topic of who is a 'Gentile' on purpose. That is a topic much of this website is dedicated to answering. Trying to cover it in this short article would only complicate the primary question at hand. Even if one is a non-Israelite Gentile, the question posed above would still apply.

P.P.S. Remember, many of the things in the natural parallel the spiritual or even overlap it. Consider then the numerous diseases that ravage the human body (rickets, cancer, flu) when it is deficient in Vitamin D3... something that is naturally produced in our skin when in contact with... you GOT IT... sun LIGHT!!!! Hence, living in darkness for long periods of time can mean death. Even living in darkness for short periods can mean death. For example, if we consider how many people would die if vehicles took to the roads at night without head-LIGHTS!!!!!

Related: