Going Backwards

Recently a Christian friend found out of my Messianic Jewish (Netzari) beliefs and his response was something like "you are going backwards". He, coming from a replacement theological school of thought, erroneously thinks that Judaism was done away with and Paul's writings teach a "new" anti-Torah, Faith and Grace only religion. I have mulled over his response for a while and it came to me today what the problem is. People with his belief system, don't understand what "Repent" truly means. It means to turn around and go back. Go back to what? Go back to Torah. Without Torah, aka our Heavenly Father's Instructions, we can't know how he wants us to live in righteousness. We are not made righteous by walking in Torah, our righteousness only comes from our Savior Yeshua the Messiah. HIS Instructions are given to show us what HE calls sin and allows us to "obey" him. Obedience is part of "belief". John 3:16, 36. In James 2:19, it says that the demons believe and tremble. Why, because they do not Love Yahweh, shown by their dis-obedience. They tremble because they know their end will be eternal death because of their sin. If dis-obedient christians could only see that they have the same end as the demons unless they repent or "obey" by turning around from sin and observe Torah. Matthew 7:21-23; 1 John 3:4. (Note that the word "iniquity" or lawlessness in Greek is "Anomia" which means "no Torah"). If we read all of the examples of Abraham's faith, we see that there was works or obedience combined with his faith. Read Genesis 26:5, it is undeniable that Abraham walked in Torah long before it was given to Moshe at Horeb. Here are a few things to ponder. No where in the writings of Paul does he ever call himself a Christian. He does however call himself a Pharisee and a Jew.(Acts 21:39; 23:6) He says that he is of the sect called "the Way". (Acts 24:14. This was a term coined for those who were of Jewish decent and believed in Yeshua as the Promised Messiah. There is a Scripture trail, that when followed with a 1st century, Jewish/Hebrew/Aramaic line of thinking will challenge those that say the "Law" was done away with at the Cross.(see previous blogs).. This "anti-nomian" teaching happens primarily because people mis-translate Paul's writings. In the writings concerning Paul and by Paul, why did he continue to keep walking in the ways of Torah, if he meant to instruct his readers against the Torah? He kept the 7th day Sabbath, the Appointed Feast days (Lev. 23) and took Nazarite vows as well as offering animal sacrifice 30 years after Yeshua went back to Heaven. (Acts 18:18;21:26) One of the most important things to realize is that the B'rit Chadasha aka the "New" Covenant is our Father's Torah written on our heart. So, those that are truly Born from Above will want to walk in His ways out of Love, not because of fear or force. John 14:15,21; 1 John 5:2-3. Maranatha, John