KosherForGentiles

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Kosher & Circumcision For Gentiles?

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The following assumes that you are familiar with this discussion on both sides of the coin, and so familiar with the Scriptures spoken of, and is to {hopefully} draw a right conclusion....

When the sheet descended from Heaven, Peter came to know it was to tell him NOT to call any Gentile unclean. How was that gleaned from what was on it? - Because the description of the "creeping things, etc..." was a visual of the command to Noah allowing all those things to be eaten {food}. The Jews therefore were NOT to call any Gentile unclean because they didn't keep Kosher, as they were keeping the command given to them in Genesis. The specific Torah commands were given concerning Kosher {what is non-food} to the Jews to make a distinction between Israel and the Nations/Gentiles. Telling the Gentiles they "must" keep Kosher, would be as telling the "wild"-olive branches that they must first become "natural-branches" before they can become grafted in. This is invalid for the same reason that Scripture tells us the "Jews" are saved by their "already-having" faith, and the Gentiles by their "acquired" faith {if you look up the Greek words in that passage}.

{Some} Gentile Believers look at the "sheet" today and try and tell the Jews that they don't have to keep Kosher; Jewish Believers {some} are still viewing Gentiles as unclean because they don't keep Kosher! But... Peter never ate, calling those things "unclean", and the Gentiles received the Good-News because HaShem showed him NOT to call the Gentiles unclean because they DIDN'T keep Kosher. So... maybe no one has learned anything in the last 2000 years?!

On the other hand... since Acts brings out that the "wild-branches" who are grafted into the "tree" will hear Torah taught everywhere - just as the "wild" takes on the characteristics of the "natural" {rather than the tree taking on the branches character}, so by way of LIBERTY, but NOT injunction: the wild can, as they are led of Ruach HaKodesh, keep Kosher - and it is a thing to be encouraged, and even healthy too, but NEVER something to lay as a charge against them when they don't!

So then!... The liberty is in that you CAN {as led of Ruach HaKodesh} keep Kosher, but the liberty is not that you don't keep Kosher - for that was already given to you from HaShem to Noah in Genesis in the first place.

If one remains in the state they were before coming into Covenant with Yeshua Messiah, only difference being that they've gained entry - then what will the reward be?... Wood, hay, and stubble. - But one might say then: How is it a liberty if I do something that I wasn't required to do before? - Ask yourself: Is it not a liberty for those who were once strangers from the Covenants of promise and aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, to now, as led of Ruach HaKodesh, hear the Voice of YHVH and be able to walk in His instructions? Yochanan/John declares that the Commandments/Mitzvout of Elohim are not grievous. The Temple Mitzvout were hard to bear - but they have vanished away into the Heavens and are kept for us by our High Priest Yeshua Messiah. Do the Moral Commands bother you then? - They are part of the fabric of the universe, and are spoken to mankind by the knowledge of good and evil from the tree, as well as from the <T>orah of the conscious, and also to Believers by the leading of Ruach HaKodesh. The Judaic Injunctions bother you then? - But they are not grievous {where is the grief in placing a Mezuzah on your door to remind you of the Command to Love YHVH with all your heart mind and strength?} - and they bring a blessing. But to remain in the condition you were in when called, and not go on in the path of good Mitzvout/Works that Sha'ul/Paul says is given for us in Yeshua Messiah is not in any way a "liberty" I should think!

How many new Believers have said: "What can I get away with and still be saved?" - Brethern! - It should not be so! - What have you been taught that led to this lifestyle that casts away the Word of Elohim?! - Rather, our hearts cry should be: Yertsay YHVH - The will of YHVH - what pleases Him be done in my life!

...However: what is NOT required for their inclusion into the natural from the wild, can NOT now become suddenly a source of rebuke AFTER their inclusion - and thusly: based upon the commands given to Noah {and shown 3 times as confirmation to Kefa/Peter}, we must then conclude, as did the Jewish Believers in the first century....

Acts 15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that WE TROUBLE THEM NOT, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:

PART 2
{I'd suggest you read this entire article before deciding it's conclusions}
Circumcision -or- Circumspection?!

I believe that if one would say that the Gentile Body of Messiah SHOULD or MUST become circumcised, - rather than proclaiming a person "MAY" do so: ONLY IF LED OF RUACH HaKODESH OF YHVH ELOHIM - that they would then be in error and contrary to Scripture and in danger of violating doctrine.

First, let me say, that in these regards I do not care what wisdom of man has to say. And while I do believe that Elohim YHVH gave the Messianic Beit Din to the Body of Messiah in dogmatic/disputable matters, - that particular authority stops at the doors of the Messianic-&-Heavenly Sanhedrin in doctrinal matters. And that disputing the Peshetta/Peshat [plain meaning] of Scripture to come to some conclusion that is contrary to It is not just worthless, but harmful - [excepting for Elohim's mercy to us in these matters when perhaps done in zeal but ignorance, but this is no excuse].

As far as anything that is already defined by the Peshetta of Scripture: I don't care what anyone has to say dogmatically or doctrinally that is contrary to It, (even including myself as if in anything it may be that it only comes from me), or even what an angel from Heaven has to say in these things if contrary - regardless of how skillful their arguments may be - I only care what the Word of Elohim YHVH plainly has to say in these regards. And I assure you - don't heed what I say unless you first be the Berean and prayerfully consider if I'm led of Elohim YHVH by Ruach HaKodesh in these matters.

One of the biggest problem that the Body of Messiah, the Rabbinic community, and now the Messianic community has had in the last almost 2000 years is in destroying the Peshat/Peshetta/plain-meaning of Scripture by their analogies and dogmatic interpretations of principles that are not only NOT "disputable" - but are clearly defined and already established in Scripture.

From the "korban", to "transubstantiation", to the "Ephraim" dilemma -- all things are brought into confusion instead of Shalom; both disputable and not-disputable matters, both in dogma and in doctrine, in things of temporal importance, and in things of eternal importance - as the enemy attempts to cause stumbling blocks, and bring illusion and imagination - unholy smoke not from HaShem; - trying to cloud our eyes from seeing with Spiritual sight the True Vision from YHVH from His Word.

How then could these things again arise that have been discussed so at length and clearly set in Scripture? - First of all: even Kefa/Peter was carried away in error - an Emissary/Apostle who walked in the very Presence of Yeshua Messiah - concerning this matter. And since haSatan discovered there was "grace" given to mankind - he has tried to ply Grace against Torah, and Torah against Grace. Deceiving each generation with a slightly different slant, depending on where they were and how they were seeking to come into the maturity of the Good News of Yeshua Messiah and escape this dichotomy - of which there was never really in reality any variance in these two doctrines that are fact in Scripture - but it became as if there were so by illusion from the enemy. Then how did these things come again almost 2,000 years later to this generation? - mainly because of our viewing 1700 + years of abuse of many in the Gentile Churches against the Torah of YHVH, we have rightly repudiated such contrariness to Scripture; - but let's not now in our zeal against those who'd cast aside Scripture, build again those things that were already removed, which have a hedge against such things already in place by the Emissaries/Apostles before us to keep us from any violation of Torah in these matters.

One will say: but doesn't Scripture say that he who violates the least of the Mitzvout/Commandments is called least in the Kingdom of Heaven?, this is true, - but their premise[s] who would teach based upon this and other arguments that ALL SHOULD/MUST BECOME CIRCUMCISED is based upon ignorance of the Scriptures. - For those who will argue that all the foreigners and sojourners, even the slaves taken in war, amongst the Children of Israel in Eretz-Israel during the Theocracy who were "circumcised" were necessarily Jews, have entertained a premise that is not borne out by Scripture Itself. How can I say this with any authority, - because of those same circumcised "foreigners and sojourners" amongst the children of Israel there was permitted by Mitzvout of the Torah things that were NOT permitted to the Jews in the Torah. - And Torah, which cannot be broken, will not allow for those who are truly Ger-Tzaddik, or Proselytes to Judaism, to be called any longer Foreigners; nor will It allow for two sets of Mitzvout - as if one set was for those who are now truly Jews by becoming Proselytes, and the other set calling for a distinction setting them apart from those who were born Jewish, - as no distinction remains.

All all "Jews" then? I believe Elohim would not give an illustration that is based upon falsehood, and so based upon this premise then, we see that the "grafted" branches, AFTER they are grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel, are still called: "grafted" - and NOT natural. And the Emissaries/Apostles call Believers both Gentile and Jewish Believers, and that in the same Epistle. - But if Torah is observed, and they are now "Proselytes" and so Jews - then it is a violation of Torah to even bring up the fact that they are Gentile, and since Scripture cannot be broken, then something else is obviously the reality here. How else are the Gentile's/Nations to bring their glory into Jerusalem in the end of the age, if all are Jews? So: is their calling any less than the natural branches then? - NO!, - for Scripture tells us that there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free; but yet we see that Scripture gives and defines instructions to both the Jew and the Gentile Believers, to both the man and female Believers, and even to the bond and free Believers. What then?, - one is the seed of Avram by faith, and the other is the seed of Avraham by descent and they are shown as specifically being given a role even as the natural descendents in the end times of the mercy of Elohim YHVH yet to come specifically on natural Israel, - And yet BOTH branches are of Israel. But I am here defending the faith of Abel, and of Seth, of Enoch who walked with Elohim, and of Methuselah, and Noach/Noah, and of Jethro, and even of Melektzedek. Read prayerfully the Scriptures that deal with circumcision again in the New Covenant - and read those without the commentary of men, and yertsay YHVH, may you come to the understanding of Elohim YHVH's will apart from the voice of man, b'Shem Yeshua HaMashiach, Amaine.

{I won't deal here with the rabbinic observation in Talmud of the "proselytes of the gate" - those people of the Goyim that were Torah observant, but not circumcised}

But if all the above is so, isn't the next question then: Well... isn't there then a exclusion permitted for the Ger-Tzaddik? And to that I'd say - Yes! That is where I depart company with the many who forbid circumcision period, - as in their attempting to avoid one problem, they'd put a stumbling block in the path of those who are truly led of HaShem to become circumcised. While it is true that the ONLY [for the most part] example we have of anyone being circumcised in the New Covenant era - both in Scripture, early Church history, [and along with considering the rabbinic halachah discouraging the Ger-Tzaddik], is Timothy - yet we DO have him as an example. What can we say of this then? - that as led of The Holy Spirit ONLY, this IS permitted. Ruth and Avraham are also our examples of this, they wholly heard from Elohim YHVH, and through love and faith had the inner-man/cup cleansed. But this is not only NOT the state of the majority of the Church of Ladeocia today, - it is sadly the small minority that is fully living in this state.

Yet then we also have Titus for an example, - a writer of Scripture, and companion of the Emissaries/Apostles, but one who was wholly NOT convinced of Elohim YHVH to become circumcised. So then it could be likened to the Mitzvout instruction that - it is better to remain single then to marry; but the Talmidim/Disciples when questioning Yeshua Messiah in this were told concerning It that it is only for those to whom it is given. In the same way that Sha'ul/Paul expressed it: it is good to marry but better to remain single [sic]. So then if this same Instruction would be proclaimed out of season to those single or to those married as being a "given", yet contrary to how each one has been given their gift of HaShem, -[as in: "all should marry, or: "all should remain single"]- it is more than just the problem of trying to put a "doctrine in a box", but rather of putting a stumbling block before their walk and in the way of their hearing from HaShem -- for this Mitzvout (marriage/single) is kept only by the way of a direct leading of YHVH, and not by any constraint or injunction through mankind [as is differing however with the Moral Mitzvout, where we indeed may constrain and command and enforce the Injunctions].

Then considering all the above....

For one to say to the Gentile Believer: you "SHOULD/MUST" become circumcised, rather than you "MAY BECOME CIRCUMCISED - and that ONLY if you are LED of Ruach HaKodesh of Elohim YHVH" - would become a stumbling block to those many who may not have yet cleansed the inside of the cup - those same ones who'd then mistake this outward act of circumcision as the resolve of their recently discovered, but still unresolved issue[s] and sin, - since having been [falsely] taught before that they can continue in Yeshua Messiah yet all the while discarding Torah as a worthless thing, - (which is really only a false-doctrine for an appeasing of sin rather than a removal, so as to promise them freedom from sin - but in reality giving them only a band-aid-type "freedom" from their conscious, and so provide an excuse to just continue on in their original state as gentiles [to one degree or another] - the same state they were in when they were living in violation of the Torah [even if now to a lesser degree] before they were in Messiah Yeshua, [but may Elohim forbid this to continue!]) And so they then hold that the taking of this action [outward circumcision] as a simplistic "fix" for the uncleansed and uncircumcised state of their inner man. And so it becomes as a carrot before a donkey, and forever, (short of the Grace of HaShem), trying but of themselves to cleanse their own selves, while making every effort to cleanse their inner man from their outer man, but not listening, or worse unable to listen, to the Ruach - because of their gaze being fixed on their own effort; -- instead of just letting The Davar/Word of YHVH Elohim in Yeshua Messiah cleanse the inner-man from wall to wall from the inside by Grace through Faith. - For Tanakh says, even for circumcised Israel: the just shall live by faith. - For we have been taken from being the servants of the Torah when being under It as our Schoolmaster - to a position of establishing and cherishing the Torah, even as guards over It in Elohim YHVH by Messiah Yeshua. - [But not all have this revelation, especially those who'd disregard the Torah!]

And it would also become a stumbling-block set before those who are NOT led in this direction by Messiah, yet they are those who are still rich in faith - as was Titus. A stumbling-block as though they were being told they yet suffer a lack, from something that man has set before them as unaccomplished, or that something had not yet been obtained by them of all things that are offered to them, - when they may have indeed obtained to the full measure of the Mature-man, and even superceded us in their obtaining! - For it is the yielding of a man's heart to YHVH that is the true measure of the man in His eyes, and not the number of things they obtain in the service of YHVH, [as Mary & Martha respectively had to their credit]. But if we do this then we would become as guilty as those in certain Messianic positions of authority - those who say that the Gentiles are not worthy to be in any leadership in the Body of Messiah, or that they still lack something in their walk in Messiah Yeshua. And though they say they are lacking: - yet I am speaking of those who don't lack - of those who have embraced ALL the Words of YHVH Elohim, and seek only His will, - to those then we'd [wrongly] be adding something yet to be obtained, [as if there were a lack], to their grace from Above, and so be seen as setting something yet to come, [as though not obtained], before their ability to hear themselves the Voice of YHVH Elohim in Yeshua Messiah - Who abides already in their heart.

As it would have been wrong for someone to command/constrain Avram to become circumcised before Avram heard from YHVH on this matter, - so it would also have been wrong for someone to command/restrain Avram not to become circumcised after hearing from YHVH on this matter!

Finally then...

Listen to Ruach HaKodesh! Hear The Voice of YHVH Elohim in Yeshua Messiah! For it is He alone who will speak, as He did to Avram, to any and all men in this matter.