Blinded to the Gospel?

I need your help. Recently, someone wrote this “defense” for their reasons they reject the notion of submitting to Torah, along with a few burning accusations, which I think are completely inaccurate, and actually a reversal of what I perceive. How would you gently respond to this?

The whole understanding of scripture Old and New is more based on the Holy Spirit. All the Apostles recognized what had been inspired by the Holy Spirit to be scripture and on the same level as all other scripture. When Jesus speaks a rhema word to us it is still from Jesus and equal to all other revelation from Jesus. The difference that we will have is our point of reference. The Jews had the old testament but because of the rebellion of the Jews and the grace of God for the Gentiles, God blinded the hearts of the Jews so that even though they had the Old Testament that foretold of the Gospel of God through His son Jesus, they didn’t even recognize Jesus when He stood right in front of them. The Jews were blinded for a reason and there will come a time when their blindness will be removed.

[People who live according to the Torah], however, willfully blinded themselves to the Gospel taught in the New Testament. Christ revealed many new things in the New Testament that can not be understood by containing it in the box of the Old Testament. (Read the parable of the new and old wine skin) These new things were a building towards where God is and moving away from where man was. The OT was God taking Himself and putting Himself on man’s level. Coming to dwell on earth and having man worship God in a physical way. The NT is God moving things closer to where He is and having man worship in spirit and truth. Remember Jesus saying that a time is coming and now is when man will neither worship here nor there but in spirit and truth. Moving things to a spiritual level is why you really can eat anything. Jesus himself says that nothing entering a man corrupts him but what comes out of the heart corrupts the man. Now this teaching doesn’t blend with the OT thought because in the OT it was physical so God had purity on a physical level. Now it is on a spiritual level. Does that mean all of the OT is cancelled out? – no. Does this mean Christians don’t obey the commandments of God – no way. For God wrote His law on our hearts. He tells us that. The concept that is different is very much contained in the life of Paul. He was a Jew, a very zealous Jew that killed the Christians because of the Law. Did he finally come to the realization that the Christians were right and he was wrong by studying the law more? No. By studying the law more he persecuted the Christians even more. It wasn’t until Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and revealed the new covenant to Paul that he was forever changed. This new covenant is covered in Jeremiah 31 and again in Hebrews 8. The new covenant comes into place because the Jews broke the old covenant and God turned away from them. If [this group of Torah-observant people] turns from the new covenant and places themselves back under the old covenant then you won’t be able to understand the mystery revealed in Jesus Christ. Mainly because it just won’t fit. What I saw in the old testament jews was pride, arrogance and anger when Jesus and the apostles tried to reason with them concerning the new covenant. Ironically that is the same thing I saw in [these people]…isn’t that incredible.

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3 thoughts on “Blinded to the Gospel?”

  1. Yes, this man is right, I have seen pride in myself. God is dealing with me this very week and showing me the truth of Micah 6:8. But, I would also say that I did not blind myself to come under Torah obedience, rather I know that God lifted a veil off of my eyes. He showed me my arrogance in saying that I was above obedience to His will. Torah obedience has become a blessing and it opens up so many other realities of God to me.

    I see in this mans ideas some gnosticsm in that spiritual things are “other worldly” and you need a special knowledge to attain that connection. We also need to put the Scriptures into their cultural, geographical, linguistic, and historical context before we can interpret them into our modern day context.

    I would be very wary of a rhema word being on the same Scriptural level as any other Scriptural level.

    I hope that helps somewhat.

  2. [People who live according to the Torah], however, willfully blinded themselves to the Gospel taught in the New Testament.

    I would point out the fact that Yeshua (Jesus) as well as Paul made it clear that those who rejected him did NOT live according to the Torah:

    Jhn 7:19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keep the law? Why go ye about to kill me?

    Gal 6:13 For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.

    Christ revealed many new things in the New Testament that can not be understood by containing it in the box of the Old Testament.

    Understanding and believing the “OT” is necessary before understanding the revelations Yeshua gave:

    Jhn 5:46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

    It may be good to point out that in Hebrew thought, believing requires doing.

    (Read the parable of the new and old wine skin)

    I would share with this person Daniel Lancaster’s article about the wineskins that is on his Beth Immanuel website. (I believe it is also in his book “King of the Jews”. )

    What I saw in the old testament jews was pride, arrogance and anger when Jesus and the apostles tried to reason with them concerning the new covenant.

    The apostles only used the “OT” to reason with anybody. They weren’t proud & arrogant because of Torah observance. Following Torah is what brings about meekness, kindness & humbleness.

  3. Darren,
    I have heard your plea for help and offer the following thoughts to aide you in formulating your response to your friend. Keep in mind that these are more like streaming thoughts than reasoned well- formed rebuttals. I’m leaving that part up to you! Since I love lists, let me provide you with 10 areas– in the order they appeared– that I saw that needed to be addressed:
    1. The Physical/Spiritual
    Yeshua’s discourse in Matt 5 light to heavy increases stringency of law, doesn’t spiritualize. Logic of Adultery and Murder is it now OK to sleep with another person, just as long as we aren’t lusting in heart? Ok to commit murder as long as we don’t hate are brother? Is it OK to defile our bodies as long as our spirits are focused on spiritual things? The food issue, obviously not read in context, but even so, didn’t God create us with physical bodies that require physical food, while at the same time giving us spiritual souls? The one does not negate the other. Pray in the spirit all you want, but the body still has to eat! If God is not concerned about physical, then why send Yeshua in the flesh to live a life of physical interactions, to suffer physically, to resurrect physically and promise to return in the flesh to rule from a physical throne in a physical place called Israel? If God’s new plan is only concerned with physical, then why not just zap us out of here when we come to know him? Why leave us here in this physical life?
    This leads me to point number two
    2. God doesn’t change! That means His character, His covenants, His promises, His word.
    3. If Yeshua’s teaching didn’t “blend with the OT” then He must be a false prophet according to Deut 13. Yeshua states clearly in John 5 that He doesn’t do or say anything but what the Father instructs, and that will blend with OT b/c see point number 2.
    4. What are God’s commandments now written on our hearts? Are they new, or is it just a new location, see again point number2.
    5. Friend needs to reexamine NC in Jeremiah. Who is NC made with? What is different about this NC from the previous one? Has the NC stipulations all come about? No, they haven’t. So obviously God’s work in this area is not complete. Just as God did not instantly fulfill all the previous covenants, there is still more to come in this regard. Examples: Edenic covenant– speaks of seed of a woman crushing satan. Fulfilled? In part, but not all yet. Abrahamic covenant—it was long time before given a son, a longer time to get the land, and even longer time for the Messiah, and all that work is not yet complete. Davidic covenant—the promise of a never ending lineage upon the throne, still not completed yet.
    6. If Paul taught contrary to Torah, then see point number 3.
    7. Look at punishment God promised the Jews if they disobeyed covenant. This is why Temple destroyed & the Diaspora happened, not b/c rejection of Yeshua. God didn’t turn away; He merely followed through on His Word. He didn’t change His mind and ditch plan A and pick up with plan B. Again, see point number 2.
    8. The OC/NC and “going back under” issue. Explain how all covenants are connected and depend on previous ones remaining intact.
    9. What is the “mystery revealed in Jesus”? Paul explains this mystery as the inclusion of the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel and becoming heirs to the covenants. Mystery doesn’t imply something cosmic/mystical/supernatural/secret society. Yeshua is not some surreal being that magically arrived on the scene shrouded in a veiled and limited expression of God, only to be fully revealed to those who conjure up the right emotional state or level of consciousness or make a spiritual connection through paths made only to a few. He’s didn’t come as some new age guru revealing a new utopian religion offering spiritual nirvana. Yeshua came as the son of God, doing and saying only the will of the Father. And the will of God hasn’t, didn’t and doesn’t change. Can I say it again? God does not change! Look at Yeshua’s words. He makes it plain what His purpose in coming to this physical earth was. Everyone can know what that purpose was. He doesn’t say He came to do away with the Law (Matt 5:17). He doesn’t say He came to move how God operates from the physical to the spiritual. He doesn’t say He came to start a new religion. He doesn’t say He came to reveal new paths and ways of loving God(John 14 &15, 1 John 2, 3, & 5). He says He came to seek the lost sheep of the House of Israel and to gather sheep from a different sheepfold (Matt 10 & 15, John 10).
    10. Seeing arrogance and pride on the part of the Jewish people is true, but let’s not be unaware of the log in our own eye while pointing out this speck of the past. Our American culture is one of the most prideful on earth! And let’s not forget the pride and arrogance of the past was based upon the notion that they could go about life their own way, apart from obeying the will of God. They must have thought “surely God doesn’t mind if we tweak His worship style to fit our culture better. Surely God doesn’t mind if we omit some of these bothersome commandments and just hit the big ones. Surely God doesn’t mind if I marry this pagan and go to church with her and her family. I really love her, and isn’t that the spirit of the Law—to love?” We know from history where this line of reasoning led the people—straight into idolatry! Worshipping a god formed in their own image. They forgot that God doesn’t change Himself, so they changed their perception of Him. So I have to say to your friend that he is only pursuing the doctrines of men who, since God doesn’t change His mind, want to change it for Him! To me that is beyond arrogant and prideful, THAT’S INCREDIBLE!

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