{"id":764,"date":"2025-12-09T11:53:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/?p=764"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:55:12","slug":"jesus-and-hisunshakeable-connection-to-the-jewish-scriptures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/2025\/12\/09\/jesus-and-hisunshakeable-connection-to-the-jewish-scriptures\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus and His Unshakeable Connection to The Jewish Scriptures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cAnd the Word was made flesh<\/u>, and dwelt among us…\u201d <\/em><\/strong>(John 1:14, KJV).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn the one hand he strengthened the Torah<\/u> of Moses majestically…and not one<\/u> of our Sages spoke out more emphatically concerning the immutability of the Torah.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> (25 prominent rabbis from Israel and abroad, Israel Today, January 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus gave the Torah<\/strong> (what Christians call the \u201cOld\u201d Testament) more power when He proclaimed that not even the smallest letter would pass away until its purpose is complete. \u201c…verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled\u201d <\/em>(Matthew 5:18).<\/strong> Jesus also said whoever tries to weaken even one of the smallest commandments (in the \u201cOld\u201d Testament) will be the least-esteemed and regarded as small in the Kingdom (Matthew 5:19)<\/strong>. Have Christians perhaps misread and maybe even mischaracterized His relationship with the Hebrew Scriptures? If the Torah is dead and no longer applicable then why did Jesus stand up and teach it and why does He, as King, read it to the nations as prophesied in Isaiah 2:3? The Church continues to lay aside the very commandments which God said, \u201c…would never pass away\u201d <\/em>(Matthew 24:35)<\/strong>.The conclusion of the matter is that the controversy Jesus had with His religious friends was to \u201cshow how best to observe the Law, but none, it is argued, about whether to observe it<\/em>…Jesus was a staunch defender of the Torah against what He perceived to be threats to it from the Pharisees.\u201d(Jewish Gospels, Rabbi Daniel Boyarin).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word \u201cimmutability\u201d used by the rabbis in the above quote shows that God is unchanging in His Character, Will, and Covenant Promises from Genesis to Malachi. Also, what is written from Matthew to Revelation\u2013is \u201cwritten.\u201d  If every Bible in the world were destroyed, it would not change God\u2019s Everlasting Words. Sadly, there is a famine of the Word in many churches. \u201cBehold, the days are coming,\u201d says the Lord GOD, \u201cThat I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD\u201d <\/em>(Amos 8:11).<\/strong> Sermons filled with the \u201cmeat\u201d of God\u2019s Word are rare from today\u2019s pulpits and often leave the sheep hungry when they depart. The Torah was always in the Heart of Jesus. If one throws out the Torah, they are throwing the Lord\u2019s Words away as He was and is the \u201cLiving Torah.\u201d<\/em> It was the basis for His answers, and His questions to others. The New Testament is built firmly upon the \u201cOld\u201d Testament.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus will Deliver the Torah<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While attending church camp in my youth, we would hear the early morning bugle, indicating it was time to rise and pledge allegiance to the American flag and then attend prayer services. May this message bear the sound of allegiance to God\u2019s Words and present a call to arms to read the whole Counsel of God<\/strong>. If Jesus loved the Torah so much, if He taught only from the Hebrew Scriptures at the time, He was alive on earth, and if Jesus was and is the \u201cLiving Torah\u201d made flesh, then why have Christians been taught to ignore it? It\u2019s time to blow the bugle and wake everyone up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read recently of a Christian speaking to his neighbor. \u201cMy priest told me the Old Testament is no longer relevant, and, as Christians, we only need to read the New Testament. So I don\u2019t base anything on the Old Testament.\u201d With hardly a thought, the Old Testament was dismissed as ancient and outdated information. (Story from Friends of Israel, www.foi.org). How sad but this is just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of icebergs, they are usually a small part of a much bigger problem period. A famous ship (the Titanic) once sank because it ignored an iceberg. The \u201cChurch\u201d has hit an iceberg when it comes to its \u201cmissing link\u201d<\/em> (Israel) and the ignorance of the Torah is shocking to our Jewish friends who are surprised at how little Christians know about God\u2019s Words from the whole<\/em> Bible! They find it difficult to believe that Christians would read only the New Testament and leave out the foundation upon which it stands. It is easy to see Christians have been \u201cprogrammed\u201d by Church Fathers who believed in Replacement Theology. The end result is a generation of Christians who have been taught to forsake the Hebrew Scriptures, fear the mention of it, or worse yet, freeze when they hear the word \u201cTorah!\u201d If only in their minds, they have thrown it into the dust bin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time is running out. How can anyone\u2019s lamps be burning if they snuff out the Torah? Torah will always live on as the basis of the teachings of Jesus because of His Jewish background. When the Coming Kingdom is established on earth, it will be Jesus who will deliver \u201cthe Law\u201d from Zion to the world. Jesus, as King and Messiah, will speak the words of His Father to the nations. \u201cAnd many people will go and…He will teach us His Ways…Torah will go forth from Zion and the Word of Adonai from Jerusalem\u201d <\/em>(Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2-3).<\/strong> If Christians forsake Torah now, will it not sound strange coming from the lips of Messiah?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jewish baby Yeshua (Jesus) that was born, arrived to a Jewish world and into the home of an observant Orthodox couple (Yosef and Miriam), a\/k\/a Joseph and Mary in Christianity, who lived by the Torah in His childhood home. Most Christians today get as nervous as a cat on hot bricks and work themselves up into a state of extreme nervous worry about being drawn \u201cunder the Law.\u201d Immediately they think \u201cbondage.\u201d We are living in days similar to the days of Noah. The people of Noah\u2019s day were into every wicked way there was\u2014including genetic alterations. God\u2019s creation is again being manipulated through AI (artificial intelligence) and God\u2019s Holy Word is being ignored. The planet on which we live is heading towards a \u201cno boundaries for anyone\u2013live as you please\u201d world where lawlessness abounds. \u201cAnd because lawlessness is increased, most people\u2019s love will grow cold…\u201d <\/em>(Matthew 24:12)<\/strong>. Mankind was never meant to live without rules and guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is termed the \u201cOld\u201d Testament teaches us what is \u201cclean and unclean\u201d and \u201choly\u201d and \u201cdefiled.\u201d Paul reminds us that \u201cWhatever things were written before were written for our learning\u201d <\/em>(Romans 15:4)<\/strong>. Some Christians forget that \u201call Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness\u201d<\/em><\/strong> (2 Timothy 3:16)<\/strong>.  The Hebrew Psalmist clearly states \u201cThe teaching of HaShem<\/em><\/strong> (the Lord) is perfect…making the eyes light up\u201d <\/em>(Psalm 19:8).<\/em><\/strong> Where were we ever taught the deception that we don\u2019t have to study the entire Bible\u2014but only the \u201cNew\u201d Testament?  There is absolutely no evidence anywhere to prove that Jesus ever put an end to the Jewish Scriptures…as I said at the beginning, He gave it more power by His Words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord\u2019s main contention in the New Testament was with the religious and how they interpreted God\u2019s Word from their own traditions and commentaries. He did not question the Torah. He questioned men. Those who had added to God\u2019s Words and the way in which they defined it. Christianity has also added to God\u2019s Word through creeds, dogmas and extra-Biblical traditions. We must be very careful to follow God\u2019s Word as God gave it and as it was written down on the Scrolls of ancient history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus did not come to fulfill the New Testament, He came to fulfill the Torah. (There was no New Testament at the time.) Jesus kept the Law perfectly for us, and paid the debt we owed. He can never be separated from His Father\u2019s Words in the Scrolls. Torah and the New Testament, connect in wonderful ways and confirm one another beautifully as all Scripture leads to the Father\u2014the ultimate One True and Almighty God\u2014and Jesus is our High Priest before God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Jewish Scriptures show that Paul was still Torah observant some 25 years after his revelation of the Messiah, shouldn\u2019t it cause Christians to rethink the traditions of Church fathers who preached against the Torah? Jesus reminds us, \u201cIn everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the Law and the Prophets\u201d <\/em>(Matthew 7:12).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Didache: Teachings of<\/strong> the Apostles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toby Janicki creates an indispensable scholarly resource for believers in Jesus in his book \u201cThe Way of Life,\u201d<\/em> the rediscovered teachings of the twelve Jewish apostles to the Gentiles called the Didache. Jewish believers in Jesus maintain that neither Yeshua nor His first followers envisioned a separate and distinct faith movement outside of, or disconnected from, the Judaism of Jesus. They never started a new religion, but rather, understood themselves as a sect within the Jewish community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faithful to the Torah, the early Jewish believers were loyal to Yeshua the Nazarene and proclaimed His message of repentance and the Coming Kingdom announced by the prophets. From the Didache, we learn that the early believing community had visiting teachers, and it asserts that those who supported and upheld the Torah \u201cshould be received as from the Lord.\u201d Noel Rabinowitz, Ph.D., Professor of Biblical Studies, Israel Study Center suggests,  \u201cIt will make some cringe to suggest that the early church (ekklesia)<\/em> embraced Torah obedience as the benchmark of ethical behavior.\u201d But today we look at truth, and not that which we\u2019ve been taught by clerics and church forefathers in the past who had no revelation at all about their Hebraic foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Kingdom to come on earth, religion will not rule. The King will reign and deliver the Holy Scriptures as His Father wants it them to be delivered. It will \u201cgo forth\u201d to the nations, and He alone will deliver it\u2013not rabbis, not scribes, not pastors\u2014as the King of all Kings tabernacles among mankind. Won\u2019t it be wonderful to spend an eternity learning the height, width, breadth and length of the love of God found in His Everlasting Words and to learn to cherish those Words? Let\u2019s remember it was God\u2019s Word in the Jewish Scriptures that resurrected a nearly dead nation when all hope was lost! The words came alive and brought the People of Israel back to life! <\/em><\/strong> Church in the nations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do we really want to throw those Eternal Words of God \u201cin the dust bin\u201d or continue to disregard them because we are afraid of \u201ccoming under the law?\u201d We need to rid our people of this fear. Granted, Israel still cannot see Jesus; however, let us not in arrogance and spiritual pride continue to feel that they are spiritually dead, for they are far from it. Along with the return to Israel has come a deep searching of understanding God and His Words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Scripture is Divinely Inspired<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a previous issue of For Zion Sake,<\/em> I wrote about Paul always calling for his Torah Scrolls (on parchments in ancient times) when he was on his journeys. (You can view that issue by visiting the CFI website).* He let everyone know that he could not do without them! \u201cBring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come\u2014and the books, especially the parchment\u201d<\/em> (2 Timothy 4:13). <\/em><\/strong>If this be the case for Paul, then how can the Church ignore 77% of the Bible? There are 283 direct quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures in the New Testament. In the American Standard Version of the Bible, the words \u201cIt is written\u201d appears 913 times\u2013the Revised Standard Version 924 times and in Young\u2019s Literal Translation 971 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must always remember that \u201cMan shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God\u201d<\/em> (Matthew 4:4).<\/strong>Jesus said, \u201cWhat I teach is not mine, but belongs to Him that sent me\u201d <\/em>(John 7:16).<\/strong> While the Torah itself cannot make one perfect before God, our High Priest modified it but did not abolish it; therefore, its principles, ethic and moral codes, what is \u201cclean and unclean\u201d stand as unchangeable according to the Master.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know of someone who might be thirsty for living water but will not read the \u201cOld\u201d Testament? Why not begin to pray that the whole counsel of God might open up as it happened to the disciples of Jesus while walking on the dusty roads of Israel as recorded in Luke 24:15-32<\/strong>. For many, once we took a sip from the wells of Jacob, the very words Our Lord Jesus drank from daily and lived out, only made us become more thirsty to study deeper both the Torah along with the New Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I agree with the rabbis\u2014no one has ever spoken about the ageless and permanent immutability of the Old Testament like Jesus.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharon Sanders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jesus gave the Torah (what Christians call the \u201cOld\u201d Testament) more power when He proclaimed that not even the smallest letter would pass away until its purpose is complete. \u201c…verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled\u201d (Matthew 5:18). Jesus also said whoever tries to weaken even one of the smallest commandments (in the \u201cOld\u201d Testament)
\nwill be the least-esteemed and regarded as small in the Kingdom (Matthew 5:19).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"zakra_page_container_layout":"customizer","zakra_page_sidebar_layout":"customizer","zakra_remove_content_margin":false,"zakra_sidebar":"customizer","zakra_transparent_header":"customizer","zakra_logo":0,"zakra_main_header_style":"default","zakra_menu_item_color":"","zakra_menu_item_hover_color":"","zakra_menu_item_active_color":"","zakra_menu_active_style":"","zakra_page_header":true,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharon-sanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":918,"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions\/918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfri.eu\/heartbeatforisrael\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}