Here's the deal, Dave.
There are multiple ways to view the same passage. We
see this with the life of Yosef/Joseph as it relates to the life of Messiah.
Genesis Chapter 5 relates to the goal and work of the Messiah. Yeshua can be
seen in the Tabernacle. This is only a few examples of how a person can
interpret Scripture. It does not do away with the Plain Sense interpretation,
but it is just as valid. The last email from you showed a strange inability to
see beyond one interpretation of Scripture... a talent you've shown in the past
which is why I find this so peculiar. I am speaking specifically of an
interpretation given of Ephesians 2:19-22 (notice I said AN interpretation, not
the sole interpretation).
There are two passages I would like to show you. Both
of these relate to the Law and to the Spirit.
"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." (Ezekiel 36:25-27) **statues and ordinances is another way of saying Torah... just like the Law and the Prophets means the Old Testament in Matt 5.**"Behold, days are coming," declares YHVH, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares YHVH. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares YHVH, "I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know YHVH,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares YHVH, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
According to Jeremiah 31, what must a person do to have
YHVH their God? His Law must be written on their hearts. How is this done? When
YHVH blesses us with the presence of the Holy Spirit within our lives. If you
have the Holy Spirit you will have the Torah written on our hearts and we
will walk in them, not figure out ways to circumnavigate them or choose to
"spiritualize" its words so we can be a people of words and not deeds (James
1:22).
To say that obedience to the Law is legalism and
doesn't show the working of the Spirit is shallow thinking. The Depths of YHVH
are too deep for us to fathom. Now I know I may be accused of quoting Scripture
like Satan when he quoted Scripture to Yeshua, but that's the conviction of the
Holy Spirit working and being misconstrued as the enemy's attack. Again,
dangerously shallow thinking.
By the way, have you ever seen the parallelism in James
2:26?
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Body and faith are paralleled while spirit and works
are as well. Intriguing, isn't it?
You quoted "Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a
yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ we shall be saved, even as they." (Acts 15:10-11) Now look at Verse one
and five to find out what YOKE they're talking about. It's not Torah observance
It's LEGALISM to the core. As Glenn would say, "Salvation plus anything is of
the devil."
Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea and began
teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of
Moses, you cannot be saved." (Acts 15:1)
In verse five the Pharisees take the idea from verse
one and run with it. Please take notice, all you Pharisee haters, that it's only
SOME of the Pharisees who believed who were saying this. These unfortunate SOME
forgot a simple Torah fact... Abraham believed and it was accredited to him as
righteousness.
But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses." (Acts 15:5)
Your statement of "As we know, the decision of
the apostles and elders and the whole church at Jerusalem was that Gentiles
were not expected to keep the Torah" is a false supposition from a false
premise. Abandon the idea.
