This week, instead of a normal blog post, I thought I would create a YouTube video that explains a little more why I started to keep Old Testament laws, such as dietary laws, biblical holidays, and sabbath.
The audio for this was originally recorded in 2009 as part of a series of health classes I taught online. I tell a little of my testimony, and I share some of the Scripture verses that were influential in changing my mind.
Now don’t think for a moment that this change happened immediately! Honestly, it was a change in mindset that took several years, and I carefully studied Scripture and read many books (both for and against) to be sure that I wasn’t falling into false doctrine.
This video doesn’t address any of the objections against Christians keeping Old Testament laws, and I realize that may be frustrating for you. My husband and I have started writing about some of these objections at our Who Is Israel website, but it’s a very large project that always seems to be on the back burner to other things — like working, homeschooling, and getting meals on the table. 🙂
In the meantime, I can recommend some of the following websites and books if you’d like to study more:
Since I’ve been blogging through most of these years, you can read much of my own journey and thinking right here. A good category to start in might be “God’s Law.” It would probably be interesting to browse through several years of posts and watch as I studied and learned things, sharing them here with my readers. (You’ll see dates next to each post. I’ve been writing here since 2005.)
Finally, I want to mention a very important point. As I share in this video, I started by opening my Bible and reading it! I took many notes in my journal, and I wrote long lists of questions and arguments. I strongly recommend that you start there as well. God’s Word is your authority — not my words, nor the words of any other author or website. My intent wasn’t to “learn about my Hebrew roots” or to convert to Messianic Judaism. My only purpose was to find out what the Scriptures say — and then obey it.
“Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep (guard) the commands of YHWH your God that I give you” (Deuteronomy 4:2).
Only after I had completely read my Bible through did I start reading other books! Seriously! (How else would I know if the books and websites I read were consistent with Scripture?) Obviously, this is not something you can finish in a few days or weeks.
Your striving to learn more of and keep God’s Word is such an encouragement to me. I was so discouraged when Days of Praise devotional said in their 7/28/13 devotional that the sabbath was just one day a week you choose as a day of rest and thinking about God. It may be wise to start including “seventh day sabbath” instead of just saying “sabbath”, so many have “changed” God’s sabbath to suit themselves. Just look up “seventh” and “sabbath” in an online concordance and you’ll see that God’s sabbath is the 7th Day, from creation week, centuries before Moses received God’s 10 Commandments. Praise to the LORD! The Almighty! The King of Creation! O my soul, praise Him! for He is thy help & salvation!
Jennifer,
This reminds me of Is 24:5. It talk about how the whole world has changed the ordinance and broken the everlasting covenant.
Trace
Thank you for this Anne, it is a beautiful example of how we should be willing to seek God only in His Word, through prayer and His Spirit, and ask Him to lead us into all truth. When He opens His treausres up to us in His Word like that, we will never be the same. His Word is ALIVE!
Blessings!
Interesting, but if you think that obeying certain practices of the law including the dietary requirements are meritorious, pleasing to God or earning brownie points towards salvation; then you have a problem.
I was wondering what your opinion on these few scriptures are…
Jesus said “ Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
Mark 7:18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,
19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”
Matt 22:37. Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and great commandment.39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
1 Cor 1028 But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake; for “the earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness.”
29 “Conscience,” I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience? 30 But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks?31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
32 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,
P.S. in regards to the Tetragrammaton, we have lost the vowel signs in the scriptures to correctly pronounce God’s Title/Name, Yahweh is at best a good guess. And I quote “It is probably safe to say that among English-speaking Christians, few if any are really comfortable with “Yahweh” in their Bible versions. There is no popular support for using this rendering of the Tetragrammaton in prayer and liturgy, despite all the interest that scholars have taken in it. The continued use of “the Lord” cannot really be objected to on theological grounds, because the precedent was established in the Church by the apostles themselves, and we cannot say that the apostles did this because of a “superstition.” We ought to assume that there is a good reason for it.”
Every blessing in Christ and keep on the path.
Mark
I apologize for my long response, but I wanted to answer your questions. (I am Anne’s husband Kraig.)
You wrote:
>> Interesting, but if you think that obeying certain practices of the law including the dietary requirements are meritorious, pleasing to God or earning brownie points towards salvation; then you have a problem.
They don’t earn brownie points or merit toward salvation. They do however grant blessings, joy, happiness, peace, love, compassion, pleasure from my Heavenly Father. When speaking of my earthly father, I could do nothing of myself to be part of His family. I was born into it through the actions of him and my mother. However, he did have rules and commands that I was to follow. When I did them, I earned blessings. And when I did not, I earned punishment or curses. Now, these rules and commands were not to do me evil or wrong, but were there to protect me, to care for me, to show me His love and to keep me safe. I loved pleasing my Father because I knew how much he loved me. Therefore, I did my best to follow his rules and laws because I loved him.
Hebrews states that our Heavenly Father is vastly more wonderful and loving than our earthly fathers. The author of Hebrews states that since we “fear” the consequences of our earthly fathers for disobeying them, should we not “fear” our Heavenly Father so much more (Heb. 12)?
Based upon your statement above, I was wondering about your thoughts on what the writer of Hebrews is saying when he writes, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.” Heb. 12:14-17
You wrote:
>> I was wondering what your opinion on these few scriptures are…
Jesus said “ Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
And Yeshua continued by saying in vs. 18-19, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
By fulfillment He did not say do away with. That would be like Him saying, “Do not think that I came to destroy the law, but I came to destroy the law.” Fulfillment is precisely what He came to do…and did. He came to be the perfect, law abiding, Torah observant human, so that He could become our perfect sacrifice and mediator between God and man. If He had failed in one command, just as James states, He would have failed in them all and would be no different than any other man…He could not have been our Heavenly High Priest (See Heb. 4-5; James 2:10). What He did say was that the Law spoke of Him just as Paul states in Rom. 3:20-26. Also, fulfillment means that the Messiah is the ultimate expression of God’s love for His creation. 1 John 4:10 reads, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Paul also states in Romans 13:10, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.” Love is the fulfillment of the law, and therefore as the ultimate expression of God’s love for us, Jesus was the fulfillment of the law.
Paul also writes in Romans about the fact that the Gentiles who do not have the Law, do right by doing the “things in the law” (see Rom. 2: 14).
You wrote:
>> Mark 7:18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”
This entire dialogue has nothing to do with the Law/Torah. In v. 5, the Pharisees ask, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat bread with unwashed hands?” First, “tradition of the elders” is speaking of man-made traditions, not the Torah. If you were to study the Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament), you would not find this command anywhere. See vs. 7-8 for further clarification. The man-made tradition states that if a Jew did not do a ritual washing before eating, then he would be defiling the meal. Here is an article on the subject:
—
Hand Washing – Jewish custom now normally associated with meals started with Temple purity.
By Rabbi Louis Jacobs, Reprinted from The Jewish Religion: A Companion, published by Oxford University Press.
In Temple times there were elaborate rules in connection with ritual impurity. If a person had been rendered impure through having come into contact, say, with a dead rodent, he contaminated sacred food such as the tithe given to the priests, which must then not be eaten. The way in which contamination of this kind could be removed was through immersion in a ritual bath.
But the sages imposed in certain circumstances the minor form of contamination known as “hand contamination” in which only the hands, not the whole body, was contaminated and for this to be removed total immersion was not required, only the ritual washing of the hands. Since there was a good deal of priests’ tithe in ancient Palestine which could easily come into contact with the hands, the sages eventually ordained that the hands of every Jew, not only the hands of a priest, must be washed ritually before meals.
Not a Matter of Hygiene
It has to be appreciated that this ritual washing of the hands has nothing to do with physical cleanliness. On hygienic grounds, the hands are obviously to be clean of dirt before food is eaten. Even when the hands are physically clean they are still required to be ritually washed. Although the original reason for washing the hands no longer applies, since there is no sacred food to be eaten, the ritual was continued on the grounds that the ideal of holiness demands a special, ritualistic washing of the hands. The act of washing the hands in this sense is seen as the introduction of the holiness ideal into the mundane life of the Jew. This ritual washing is only required before a meal at which bread is eaten.
Procedure and Practice
The procedure is to pour water out from a cup or glass first twice over the right hand and then twice over the left hand–care being taken that the unwashed hands do not touch the water used for the washing. The hands are then dried with a towel before partaking of the meal. A benediction is recited over the washing of the hands: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with Thy commandments and has commanded us concerning the washing of the hands.” The reference to the command has to be understood in the context that rabbinic ordinances are also commanded by God. Observant Jews are very strict in this matter of washing the hands before meals. The Talmud also refers to washing the hands after meals but here the reason given is that people used to eat with their hands and a certain salt added to food in those days might cause injury to the eyes if it came into contact with them. The French authorities in the Middle Ages argued that this hygienic reason no longer obtains, since this kind of salt is no longer used. Many observant Jews follow this line of thinking and do not wash the hands after the meal, not as a ritual in any event. But many authorities introduce the holiness motif here as well, although no benediction is recited over mayyim aharonim, “afterwards water.” For those who observe it, the procedure is simply to pour a little water out of a cup or glass over the fingers of the two hands. There is a further ritual washing of the hands on rising from sleep. This is a later innovation for which two reasons are given. One is that during sleep an unclean spirit rests on the body. This departs on waking, except for a residue left on the fingernails and to remove this, the hands have to be washed. The second reason (perhaps introduced as a rationalization) is that a Jew, a member of the “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:5), must, when he rises from his bed to serve his Maker, follow the practice of the priests in the Temple who would wash their hands from the hand-basin (Exodus 30:17-21). The procedure for this washing of the hands is to pour the water first on the right hand and then the left and to repeat this three times. Some of the more scrupulous have a cup of water and a basin at the bedside so as to wash the hands immediately on waking. Following the first reason, they will pour out the “nail water” (neggel wasser in Yiddish) and not allow it to come into contact with food or drink. Many pious Jews also carry out the ritual of washing the hands before performing any religious act, especially before prayer. It is also the custom to perform the ritual of washing the hands on returning from the graveside after a burial.
—
Jesus was not stating that you can eat anything you want including unclean animals. Or do you believe he was entering a home of a Pharisee to explain to the fellow Jewish people there that if was now okay to roast and eat a pig with a side order of Galilean crawfish because this was back on the menu since my birth. Remember that a high priest at the temple where he went to be dedicated would have been unable to do anything in the temple if he had even touched the carcass of these animals, and if he ate them was to be cut off from Israel. Also, remember that the whole Maccabean revolt of the Hasmoneans against the Greek Seleucid empire was because of the desecration of the Temple and the altar by the sacrificing of a pig. If Yeshua is stating that it was now okay to eat pig, it would like saying that a priest was not being holy by refusing to be near a pig and therefore he would have been fine entering the Most Holy Place after just chowing down on a pulled pork sandwiches with a side of crawdads and grits with an appetizer of shrimp cocktail. After all, Yeshua did away with the Torah, right? God’s Old Testament commands weren’t important, necessary, or required for holiness. We have Jesus now. But Paul writes in Titus 2:11-15, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.” He redeemed us from every lawless deed (actions that are against God’s Law) sot that we could go right back to doing them, right? If we say on one hand that these are God’s Laws/His Torah we can’t turn around and say that these “lawless deeds” mentioned here are not the same. He was not telling Titus that now that these people have Jesus, they can do whatever they want, eat whatever they want, wear whatever they want, say whatever they want. He also wasn’t just talking about not being sexually immoral or not going to church on Sunday. He was telling Titus that they are to SUBMIT themselves to the ONE TRUE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE and deny their fleshly lusts which included not only being nice to others and not kicking orphans as they walk by them on the street, but totally changing their lifestyle, eating habits, sexual habits, marriage habits, clothing habits, speech habits, etc. and bringing them under the subjection of the Torah which was read in the synagogue every Sabbath. This way they would learn not to be lazy, gluttons, given to much wine, gossips, thieves, with their lives under control, showing love to one another and compassion to those in need.
Peter also writes in 1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” This is a quote form the Torah speaking about how we, as believers in Yeshua, are not to screw things up like the Israelites did in the wilderness. Instead of continuously turning from YHVH’s Torah, we are to instead embrace it because, although we were formerly Gentiles, we are not longer such. WE ARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD!!!! A holy NATION….OF PRIESTS!! As Eph. 2:10 says, We are to be “zealous of doing GOOD WORKS WHICH GOD hath BEFORE ORDAINED that we (former Gentiles) should WALK IN THEM.” Verse 11 adds, “Remember, you that ONCE WERE Gentiles in the flesh…aliens to commonwealth of (citizenship in) Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise (v. 12…have been brought near (v. 13)…has made us one with the Circumcision (Jews)(v. 14), has broken down the law of commandments contained in ordinances (the oral/man-made, rabbinic code that stated if someone wanted to be part of God’s people he had to become a full-fledged Jew with circumcision, baptism, doing all the traditions of the rabbis, in order to be saved), creating one new man (v. 15)…reconciling them both to God in one body (not two) (v. 16). Now…no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens (in Israel, see v. 12) with the saints (Godly Israelites) and members of God’s Household (v. 19)…being fitted TOGETHER, into a HOLY TEMPLE (which is ruled and governed by God’s Torah because it is what puts down the parameters of holiness, especially in the temple) in the Lord (Master/Messiah) (v. 21,22).
You wrote:
>> Matt 22:37. Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and great commandment.39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
First, the man was not asking Yeshua to tell him what the new commandments were going to be. He was asking him what was the most important basic principle of the Torah. These two commands are directly out of the Torah (see Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18). There is a long history of prophets and others paraphrasing the Torah like this to address the sins or needs of their audience. (see the following summarizations of the Torah before Yeshua’s – Ps. 15, Is. 33:15-16, Micah 6:8, Is. 66:1, Amos 5:4, Hab. 2:4).
You wrote:
>> 1 Cor 10:28 But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake; for “the earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness.” 29 “Conscience,” I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience? 30 But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks?31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,
First, Paul states in v. 14 that we are to flee idolatry. Second, he is speaking about the “Lord’s Supper” as seen in v. 16. V. 20 states that meat is offered to demons. V. 21 states that we cannot eat of food offered to God and food offered to demons. Basically, don’t go asking the meat market butchers if Paul here states that you may eat meat offered to you by an unbeliever in order to show love to that person. Here is a question for you. Is Paul saying it is okay to eat meat offered to idols? Verse 23 states, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.” There is a parallel verse found in 1 Cor. 6:12. If we take 10:23 and this verse to mean that Paul is stating things that were formerly unlawful are now lawful, then we must conclude that here he is stating to the Corinthians that it is now lawful for him to be a fornicator, idolater, adulterer, homosexual, drunkard, extortioner, etc. These are the things he is mentioning in context, and at the end of the context he concludes with the statement that “all things are lawful for me.”
Paul is writing to a group of believers who are accustomed to eating meat offered to idols. Many of these upon becoming believers, so connected meat with idolatry that they became vegetarians, therefore abstaining from meat. Others however, did not have this connection in their minds and would eat meat, even around those who struggled with it as weaker brothers. 1 Corinthians 8 addresses this before chapter 10 does, “So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food (meat offered to idols) they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol (it hasn’t been offered to idols, but because it is meat, they THINK it has), and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled (just seeing the meat being it makes them see all that was involved with their idolatry, including the sexual immorality, that went with the eating of the meal to the gods in the temple). But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do (here Paul is speaking about eating meat, not meat offered to idols, but meat in general). Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Cor. 8:4-9) Paul is explaining love like Yeshua was doing in Matt. 22:37 and how love is the basic principle of how we are to live. Meat in and of itself does not bring us closer to God or further away. However, if it is offered to idols, it most certainly does separate us from God because it is having communion with demons. Unfortunately, because Paul is speaking to former pagans/gentiles, who have practiced things against Torah like offering meat to idols and eating of it, they relate meat eating to the idols. This is probably because the common person didn’t eat a ton of meat. When they did, it was probably a sacrifice to the “gods” in the temple, in order to bring favor from the “gods.” Therefore, meat became synonymous with worship of the gods. When they became believers, this religious rite was so ingrained in them that they could not eat any meat whatsoever without thinking of the correlating reasons for why the meat was eaten (that of being an offering to the false idols). Therefore, Paul here wants those who may never have stepped foot in a pagan temple (such as devout Jewish believers) to be careful in eating meat around these who struggle. They should be willing to not eat meat around a fellow believer if it could cause them to stumble and fall such as is stated in v. 10, “For if anyone with a weak conscience who have this knowledge of eating in an idol’s temple, sees you (eating meat), won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols?” Paul concludes chapter 8 in v. 13 with, “Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.” This is not speaking about meat offered to idols, but meat in general, because just the plain sight of meat was causing the weaker brother to fall into sin. Therefore, Paul, according to the basic principle of the Torah, love, was willing to forego meat completely rather than have a fellow believer fall into sin. Back in chapter 10, Paul states that the people of Israel, when they partake of the offering (they eat the sacrifices), are participating in the altar (see v. 18). They participate in the thanksgiving of the altar because they eat a portion of the sacrifice as stated in the Torah as a blessing and thanksgiving to God. Paul then relates how the pagans do the same thing because they think that the idol gave them their food and blessed them as, YHVH the one true God, does for us. In v. 19 he then adds, “Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?” His answer in v. 20 is that it is not anything (of any value), because they offer it to demons, not to “a god.” Does this mean that Paul is stating it is okay to eat meat offered to idols? Well what do verses 20-22 state? Or what about v. 28?
Here is an excerpt from Intervarsity Press Bible Background Commentary for 1 Cor. 10:24-25:
1Co_10:24-25. Whatever meat was left over from sacrifices was taken to the meat market in the large agora in Corinth (not far from where Paul had once worked—Act_18:3). Not all meat in this market had been offered to idols, but some of it had. In comparatively large cities, Jewish people were often allowed to have their own markets so they could avoid such food. In other cities, they would ask about the source of the meat. But Jewish teachers considered inadvertent sins “light”; thus Paul can trust that the scrupulous will be satisfied with “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” Because most people could not afford to buy meat, subsisting instead on fish and grain, Paul here addresses the well-to-do in the congregation.
You wrote:
>> P.S. in regards to the Tetragrammaton, we have lost the vowel signs in the scriptures to correctly pronounce God’s Title/Name, Yahweh is at best a good guess. And I quote “It is probably safe to say that among English-speaking Christians, few if any are really comfortable with “Yahweh” in their Bible versions. There is no popular support for using this rendering of the Tetragrammaton in prayer and liturgy, despite all the interest that scholars have taken in it. The continued use of “the Lord” cannot really be objected to on theological grounds, because the precedent was established in the Church by the apostles themselves, and we cannot say that the apostles did this because of a “superstition.” We ought to assume that there is a good reason for it.”
Mark, the term “Lord” in the New Testament is almost exclusively used for Yeshua and is to be translated “master” as in master and disciple or master and slave. What are we to be to Yeshua? That’s right, we are to be slaves to Him or His disciples. That is why it is “the Lord Jesus Christ” or “Jesus Christ our Lord.” What this is saying is “the master, Yeshua the Messiah” or, “Yeshua the Messiah, our Master.” Christ is a translation from Hebrew to Greek of the word Mashiach or Messiah which means “anointed one.” This is important to understand because of the extravagant amount of prophecies in the Old Testament that deal with the Messiah which are required to be fulfilled by the Messiah. We do not object in any serious or argumentative fashion, but choose to use our Father’s name intentionally to remind us of His desire to be called by His name. It is not some silly pet peeve of ours but our Heavenly Father’s desire to have us call Him by His name. By the way, there is becoming more and more evidence because of further recent scholarship and archaeological evidence that more and more of the New Testament was not written in Greek originally, but Hebrew. If you are interested, you can research this yourself. It is very interesting. Your view about “no popular support for using this rendering of the Tetragrammaton in prayer and liturgy” is quite accurate. This has a strong background in the view of Judaism that the name of YHVH is so sacred that not only can it not be pronounced, but even all names/words used for God cannot even be spelled out anywhere except the Torah scroll. This is why if you go to a Jewish website and read very far you will likely see God spelled like this, “G_d.” There is a growing movement which we are a part of that is seeking to use our Father’s name more often in the way He desires it to be used. Yes, there is a great deal of contention about the name in this movement and its proper use. We do not get overly sensitive about which way it is stated or if you use other names for God. We desire to bring our minds back to who He is often and the name He chose for Himself, because we believe he doesn’t just do things randomly but has a purpose and wants to to do as He commands us as a loving father to His children.
Here is a link to a video you can watch about the name of the Father in a presentation by a well-known scholar and Hebrew translator, Nehemiah Gordon, on the subject. It explains how the belief that the vowel marking of the Tetragrammaton are unknown is actually false. I hope you will take the time to watch it as it is very insightful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah3k1dhR-ag.
Blessings,
Kraig
I had a long comment typed
Out but lost it when I went to make sure I had
The correct scripture reference.
So I’ll keep simple. Just found your site. So excited about so much I see. The Holy Spirit at work as He leads me into all truth, but I’m confused about your response (we’ll really Kraig’s response regarding unclean meat- specifically the pig. What about Acts 10:9-20. I thought God said not to call any animal He created unclean because Peter didn’t want to eat anything unclean. Maybe I’m misunderstanding scripture. Would you please consider and help me understand. Blessings on n Christ! And thank you for your efforts.
I’m so glad you’re here, April, and I’m sorry your comment was lost. That’s the worst. Here is a blog post I have written about Peter’s vision of the sheet with all the animals in it. I hope it helps!