Traditions of Men vs. The Gospel of Yeshua (Jesus)

The following was originally written as a private response to a personal email to me posing questions about the proper place of the law in our Christian lives. Since I have received similar questions from other individuals, I thought it would be appropriate to post it as a blog. I have modified it for the purpose of protecting the identity of the person it was originally written to.

As a Torah (law) keeping Christian, I have received many sometimes borderline hostile responses from otherwise well meaning Christians, to my assertion that the law is not rendered invalid, "fulfilled" by Jesus, or as some put it, done away with by Jesus. (1) In other words, they contend that He fulfilled it, so now we are no longer obligated to keep it. Yet in the same breath, these same individuals will assert that all the moral laws contained in the Torah are still valid and intact. In other words, they tend to pick and choose based on some interpretation of certain New Testament scriptures. Where in scripture is a distinction drawn between the moral laws and the so called ritual worship laws? Where did God the Father or Yeshua the Messiah ever make such a distinction? It is my contention that the Bible is the unified Word of God, the inspired writings of the old Testament Prophets and Apostles of Yeshua (Jesus). Being a unified book, we should figuratively rip out the blank page between the New Testament and the Old Testament and treat it as a truly unified book.

I have a great deal of trouble with “traditions of men” when they interfere with or are put in place of the Torah of God. I find that this is the primary cause of concern of Jesus throughout the Gospel accounts where He is dealing with the Scribes and Pharisees. When we read the teachings of Rabbi Shaul (Paul the Apostle), we look at them through a lens of man made doctrines and traditions that has become the modern Christian church. We say to ourselves that these words of the Apostles must line up with the established doctrines and teachings. But we have the cart before horse. The doctrines and teachings of the Church must line up with the scriptures!

There is one key area with which we can agree that we have common ground. That being that salvation is only by the grace of God through the Messiah Jesus/Yeshua. Salvation cannot be earned by following the “Law of Moses” or any “traditions of man”. I have never advocated that any person is “required” to follow the law in order to achieve salvation. It may surprise most Christians to know that the Jewish people also have always understood that salvation is a gift from God and not something to be gained through “works”.

In the story of the exodus we have a picture of this concept. The Children of Israel were slaves, in bondage and under a heavy burden in a land not their own in Egypt. The LORD sent Moses, a type of Messiah, to bring them out of this bondage and to take them to the land that was promised to them some ten generations earlier through Abraham. It has always been the desire of God to dwell with man here on the earth. This is quite clear from the creation story in Genesis.

Redemption from their bondage and slavery from Egypt was needed, just as we, today need redemption from our slavery and bondage to sin. A pathway was given and the Children of Israel were to choose life or death. A spotless lamb was to be slain and the blood placed on the door posts and lintels of their homes. This was a free will choice between life on one hand, and death on the other. It is the same choice we face today. We can choose life by accepting the sacrifice of the Lamb that God provided (ie: Jesus/Yeshua) and live, or we can choose to remain in sin and die.

Redemption came to those who chose life and obeyed and accepted the sacrifice of the lamb. This redemption was a free gift from God. They did not have to follow a complicated formula of laws and rules to receive this redemption. All that was necessary was the acceptance of the sacrifice of the lamb. This simple act set them free!

They then began their journey to the Promised Land, but first they had to cross the Red Sea. This was their “baptism”, the event where they left their sin behind. You know the story, they passed through on dry ground, several million of them, the mixed multitude and all their possessions. They were hotly pursued by the Egyptian army who foolishly tried to follow them through the parted waters. The Egyptian army, were all drowned. These Egyptians had not accepted the lamb and thus their disobedience was their death.

The Children of Israel then met the LORD at Mt. Sinai where they received a new covenant. They received a contract from God. That is what a covenant is, a contract between two parties. This new covenant at Mt. Sinai, was given only AFTER redemption from Egypt through the “blood of a lamb”. It was given AFTER their baptism through the Red Sea and the destruction of the remains of the Egyptian army!

Now God has always desired to dwell with man. We are made for fellowship with God and for no other purpose. But man is sinful by nature because of disobedience. God is just the opposite. He is righteous and holy and what is sinful can not remain in His presence. So this new covenant at Mt. Sinai is both a revelation of God the Father and an answer to the question of how we should live in the presence of God so that we may dwell with Him.

Redemption comes first as a free gift through the sacrifice of a lamb, then comes a public declaration, a baptism, where we leave our sins behind, drowned in the water. We then open up His word, the Bible, and study to show ourselves approved. We begin our journey to the “Promised Land” to dwell with God and conform our lives to His will. To be holy because He is holy. The exodus story is a perfect picture of how to build a relationship with God. We clearly see that it is all His doing. It is His redemption plan, not our own “works” that save us.

Those of us in the so called “Messianic” movement are often misunderstood on this point. First off, I do not like the term “Messianic”, because it is just that, “messy”. You will find doctrines all over the map just as you will among mainstream Christian denominations as well as among the Jewish people. I prefer to use “Hebrew Roots” although that too can become “messy” because of misperceptions. I am in pursuit of the “Original Church”; an historic, cultural, and doctrinal understanding of Messiah from a strictly Biblical perspective dating back to the beginnings of creation through to the time of Jesus’ first coming. I do not agree with many of the people on my Facebook friends list or with some of their comments that they may leave on my blog posts. I don’t delete them unless they wonder off topic or become personal attacks, etc. But I encourage discussion, and the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.

It is difficult enough to understand language and culture here in the United States with the wide ranging political disagreements over constitutional issues. The constitution was written a little over 200 years ago and we argue over what the words really mean and what the “intentions” of the founding fathers were. Now we are trying to do this with the scriptures which are 2000 to 4000 years old and from a vastly different culture and language! Our interpretation, and hence, translation of scripture is skewed by our own prejudices, traditions, and perceptions. It is not an easy task to strip these things away and get to the original intentions and thoughts of the writers of the scriptures.

We must put ourselves in the “mind of the author” in order to clearly understand the scripture. Without first doing this, we are left open to interpretations never intended by the writers. We see something that appears to be obvious in our Bible, but our perception is skewed due to our failure to understand the historic, cultural and linguistic context in which it was written.

Let me give you an example outside scripture. There was a 16th century mathematician and astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus. He created quite the controversy in his time by proposing that the old view of the universe as being earth centered was in error. We now accept the concept of a heliocentric universe without question, but in his day, this was a revolution in the field of science and a heresy in the Church. People could just look up in the sky and see for themselves that everything revolved around the earth. Scientist, mathematicians and philosophers affirmed it and Church doctrines demanded it. There was just one little problem, called the planets. They seemed to wander. They would speed up, slow down and appear to move backwards against the sky at irregular intervals.

The mathematicians and astronomers had a cosmological system and they knew it to be true. They had proofs and observation going back to ancient times. All they had to do was find the answer for the small, insignificant wandering planets. They developed a new theory called homocentric spheres, spheres within spheres, having a common center, the earth. They proposed epicycles and deferents, an orbit around a point on another orbit. They developed the idea of eccentrics, orbits with displaced centers. These were tremendous mathematical inventions and served to preserve the earth centered universe that must be true because we can all just look up in the sky and there it is. But the mathematical solutions preserved a false cosmology and in so doing, prevented people from seeing the real universe as it actually existed.

There were little bits of data left behind that could not be explained, but were the key to showing the fallacy of the entire system. This data was ignored by science and religion because it challenged the “system” and no one dared challenges the system! It was the system itself that provided the means by which all scientific and theological information was processed and interpreted.

Now for the paradigm shift. There are a people on the earth who have been labeled as “wanderers”, planetai in the Greek, from which we get the English word “planet”. These people are the Jews. Following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE and the later Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, the Jewish people were forced out of their land for the next 2000 years.

The Church, over the centuries, has made the term “the Wandering Jew” a reproach. John Chrysostom, the 4th and 5th century Arch Bishop of Constantinople wrote: “The Jews say that they hope to see their city restored! No, they are mistaken. The Temple will never rise again, nor will the Jews return to their former polity… He whom you crucified did afterwards pull down your city, scatter your people, and disperse your nation throughout the whole world.” (2) Talk about blatant anti-Semitism, and from a revered Church Father. He obviously hadn’t read Ezekiel. From chapter 44 on, Ezekiel speaks of the millennial reign of the Messiah where the Temple is there in the city, and Messiah rules from Jerusalem! The return of the Jewish people to the Promised Land is the single most overtly prophesied event in the Bible and we are seeing the beginnings of its fulfillment in our time!

Historical Christianity has theologically defined itself in opposition to, and in separation from, the Jewish people since the 2nd century. As a theological system, Christianity is based upon a Divine rejection of the Jewish people and therefore any Jewish theology. It is crafted in replacement of Israel. It has produced a history stretching back through the centuries and has grown from that definition. This is the great error in perception that exists today. And like the time of Copernicus, there will be a required complete shift in perception and understanding in order for us to see the real “Biblical universe”.

For nearly 2000 years, Christianity has constructed the religious equivalent of epicycles, deferents, and eccentrics, but they have only served to obscure the real problem. For all their ingenuity and manipulation of data over the centuries, the theologians have only obscured the question. It is the system itself that is in error. No amount of theological manipulation of the data will change that. The system will still be wrong. Jerusalem and the Jewish people are, as the Bible shows, the center of Gods purpose in the earth, the center of his dealings with all the people of the earth.

There is no Jesus without Israel. Or, more to the point, there is no such thing as a Messiah without Israel. He lived in this world as a part of Israel; He gave His life as a part of Israel; and He will return as a part of Israel! By definition, Messiah is the King of Israel, representing, defending, and ruling over His people who are the Priests to the Nations of the earth. His life is in His people, and the life of His people are in Him.

This conceptual shift must take place, and we are seeing its beginnings. The Jewish people are returning to their land just as the Prophets said they would. They are also beginning to understand the Messiah in ways we, from our error filled Christian understanding can not possibly fathom. When we on the Christian side of the equation, realize that the Kingdom of God is centered on the Messiah as the King of Israel, centered on His identity as a JEWISH King, then and only then will the universe make complete sense and all the “planets” will cease to wander.

Before we can discuss specific points in scripture, we must approach them from the same point of view. We will just be going around in circles until we come to the understanding that Jesus was a Jew in every sense of the word. He was born a Jew, raised as a Jew, educated as a Jew, taught his disciples as a Jew, was crucified and resurrected as the Jewish Messiah. And He will return as the Jewish Messiah to reign from Jerusalem just as the Prophets have written so long ago!

We must look at scripture in its historic, cultural and linguistic context or we are doomed to the fate of errant theology built upon misperceptions, misunderstandings, misinterpretations and mistranslations. We will just plane “mis” it. I choose to follow the Torah (Law) of God, not to achieve salvation, but because I am saved by His grace and I want to draw near to Him!


שלום ברוך
Shalom and be blessed
Dan Cathcart

(The example of Copernicus was taken from Daniel Gruber’s book titled “The Separation of Church and Faith” published in 2005 by Elijah Publishing. www.Elijahnet.org.)

(1) See my previous blog post titled “How Did Yeshua “Fulfill” the Law (Torah)?” on this blog site.

(2) John Chrysostom, Homilies against the Jews, c.137-407 in Williams, A. Lukyn, Adversus Judaeos: A Bird’s Eye View of Christian Apologiae until the Renaissance, Cambridge U. Press, London, 1935, p.134