As a matter of technical obedience to the Word of God, I agree. Nowhere does Torah specifically mandate "a holy convocation" on the Sabbath as it does, for example, Yom Kippur. The command for the Sabbath, rather, is to set it apart from the rest of the week and rest. Within that command it is certainly appropriate and right to follow our Lord's example and set the Sabbath apart by gathering to worship and learn from God's Word on that day (Luke 4:16), but it's no more wrong to gather to worship on Sunday than it is to gather and worship on Wednesday. Heck, one of the discussions at Beth HaMashiach is whether to start a "Resurrection Day" service.
So the issue is not principally about which day we should set to gather together--though doubtless our conclusions on the real issue will have an impact on our attitudes there--but about whether God has ever annuled or changed the command to set apart and rest the 24 hours between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday. He has not.
The dietary laws are not part of the Ten Commandments. Yet we are also told that we should observe these commands as well.
I can't speak for everyone here, but personally I don't believe that the dietary laws are manditory for Gentiles living outside of the Land. God gave Noah all the animals to eat, not just the clean ones, and a Jew was permitted to sell meat from an animal that had been accidentally slain to a Gentile stranger.
However, I also believe that God giving "looser" dietary standards for the Gentiles was a mercy born out of His foreknowledge that not everyone would have kosher meat to eat. There are many parts of the world where pig is the best food animal available, and it would be putting people's health at risk to forbid them from it.
Therefore, I conclude that it is good for a person who has the luxury of choosing what meats to eat to choose to keep kosher out of a love for and desire to be like our Lord Yeshua in every way, but not required. I also believe that it's better to not serve pork and shellfish at church functions as a show of respect for any Jews, believers or not, who may be present. But as a matter of private practice, since the Torah itself is ambiguous about the requirement for Gentiles to keep kosher and the NT even more so, I consider that a matter of private conscience.
And before you get hung up on "a matter of private conscience" and argue that I've just made the Bible a matter of private interpretation, consider this: Not all sacrifices were required. A person could choose to make a peace offering as a sign of love and gratitude to the Lord (Lev. 3), and it was good to do so, but there was no requirement to. A person could choose to take a Nazrite oath, and it was good to do so, but there was no requirement to. Therefore, there have always been commands which are required at all times ("Thou shalt not murder"), and commands that are "optional," a matter strictly between the worshipper and God.
Now we have moved from the Ten Commandments to saying all (or some) 613 laws are in full effect.
That is correct:
Think not that I am come to destroy the Torah, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil (lit. 'make full'; idiomatically, 'make full by interpreting properly'). For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one yod (the smallest letter) or one tittle (the least penstroke) shall in no wise pass from the Torah till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Mat. 5:17-19)Now, Hebrews 7:12 speaks of a "change" in the Torah, but this is a mistranslation: "For the priesthood being transfered/moved (metatithemenes), there is made of necessity a transferrance (metathesis) also of the Torah." The same root words, with different tenses, are used in Heb. 11:15 to describe Enoch's translation into Heaven without death. Therefore, the author is not refering to the wholesale switchover of one Torah for another, as has been often wrongly read into him, but of the transferrance of the office of the High Priest from Levi to Judah, and from the earthly Temple to the true Temple in heaven.Do we then make void the Torah through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish (uphold, keep) the Torah. (Rom. 3:31)
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. . . For I delight in the law of God after the inward man . . . (Rom. 7:12, 22)
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Torah; for sin is the transgression of the Torah. (1 Jn. 3:4)
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the Torah, but under grace? God forbid. (Rom. 6:15)
This is made clear by the succeeding verses:
For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchizedek there ariseth another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. (7:13-16)So then, it may be argued that those of the 613 commandments which specifically have to with offering sacrifices have not been annulled, but have been "transferred" from being fulfilled in an earthly temple to being fulfilled by our great High Priest before the Father's throne, as every sin we commit is paid for on the sacrificial Cross.
However, as a matter of our day-to-day walk with God, this actually affects the commands which directly affect you and I very little, since we would not be personally performing the sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem anyway. Moreover, the sacrificial laws in the Torah explain how to atone for sin, ultimately pointing to the Messiah, but all the rest of the commands tell us how not to sin. And that includes the "ceremonial" commands like wearing tzitzit (tassels with blue threads) or observing God's Appointed Times.
Are people saying that all Christians are required to follow these as well? If it is just "whatever God lays upon your heart" then what is the discussion for?
I believe that Christians should follow all of the commands of God. "What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the Torah, but under grace? God forbid." However, I also recognize honest differences in opinion about what those are and allow the Spirit room to work in shaping a person's walk. But since the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit, I point you first and foremost to the Scriptures to know God's commands, and then leave it up to the Spirit to convict you where you fall short, just as He convicts me.
If you wish to go on record as saying this is part of the Law, then, as the progression shows all 613 laws are in full effect. If this is true then it is a very serious matter for those who do not follow these laws are willfully (or out of ignorance) breaking God's commandments.
Tell me, Harley, is not murdering, stealing, or committing adultery part of the Law? Is the command against idolatry? Homosexuality? The occult? If you wish to go on record as saying these are part of the Law, then, as the progression shows all 613 laws are in full effect. If this is true then it is a very serious matter for those who do not follow these laws are willfully (or out of ignorance) breaking God's commandments.
Furthermore, those Messianic Jews who don't follow all 613 Laws are willfully breaking them unless they have some sort of Biblical justification (it better be good) for not following them.
I agree 100%, and this is why I counsel grace; if we who believe that the 613 are still in effect so often fall short of keeping them (and we do), and must therefore depend solely upon the grace of God for our salvation, how can we then turn around and fail to show that same grace to those of our brothers and sisters in the Messiah who are in honest error about which commands are still in effect?
This creates a dilemma. Are the Messianic Jews prepared to tell the rest of us we are willfully breaking God's Laws? Isn't this legalism?
TC just came in here telling us that we were willfully breaking God's New Testament laws. Isn't that legalism?
However, I also believe that God giving "looser" dietary standards for the Gentiles
was a mercy born out of His foreknowledge that not everyone would have kosher meat to eat.
There are many parts of the world where pig is the best food animal available,
and it would be putting people's health at risk to forbid them from it.
Therefore, I conclude that it is good for a person who has the luxury of choosing
what meats to eat to choose to keep kosher out of a love for and desire to be like
our Lord Yeshua in every way, but not required. I also believe that it's better to not
serve pork and shellfish at church functions as a show of respect for any Jews,
believers or not, who may be present. But as a matter of private practice,
since the Torah itself is ambiguous about the requirement for Gentiles to keep kosher
and the NT even more so, I consider that a matter of private conscience.
Guidance can be gained as to what is Rabbinical or not by reviewingPlease don't confuse the folks about Kosher which is rabbinical
b'shem Y'shua
and not scriptural and dietary standards which are in the Torah.
the Karaites, who strictly keep the Tanach and not the rabbinical traditions.
It does matter. And scripture does say that a holy convocation is to be held on the sabbath:
Lev 23:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
Lev 23:3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
As far as worshipping on other days, certainly one can worship God on any day, but the sabbath is a mark, a reminder, a token, and a separate covenant that God HAS established with his children, the children of Israel:
Exo 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
God sanctified, set aside, specific days that he expects his worshipers to convene on. Convening on days AT THE EXPENSE of God's days at the best shows ignorance of God's instructions and at the worst blatant disregard and disobedience of God's instructions.
This might seem a little harsh, but those who purport to teach and expound on what exactly God wants are held to a pretty high standard. God does things, and wrote down things, for a reason. He knows that once human thought and reasoning begin to interpret an issue then corruption certainly follows.
In the case of the sabbath and his holy days, God left specific, written instuctions. Yet man in his wisdom has decided that they don't mean anything. There's something wrong with that and anyone who advocates and teaches something different should be called out on it.