Four Easy Ways to Misunderstand Rabbi Shaul (Paul)

I am not certain whether there is another topic with more contention than "what Paul meant when he said ...". In my own studies and from listening to those wiser than myself I have discovered four ways in which one can misunderstand Paul (Shaul).

1. The first way is very simple ... all you have to do is be Jewish. This is not a racist or derisive comment. Sure Shaul was Jewish and a Rabbi who studied at the feet of Gamliel (the grandson of one of the most famous Torah-teachers of all time .. Hillel) but even according to Kefa (Peter) his letters are difficult to understand (Peter was also Jewish). Shaul was tasked with a very difficult job ... teach the Messianic Gentiles that they are chosen. Chosen? Yes, Chosen! This does not seem like it would take a genius like Shaul just to tell some people who were compelled by the Holy Spirit to believe in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) that God had chosen them. Even if this is true how does this create a misunderstanding on the part of the people who were already Chosen by God? The previously Chosen people of God had already been through over 2000 years of training on how to feel Chosen and Rabbi Shaul had to start from scratch with these Romans and Greeks. When Shaul told the Romans not to start cutting on their flesh in order to make God like them he was not telling them not to circumcise their sons and they understood what he was telling them. Unfortunately, some of the previously Chosen people read the letter to the Romans and thought that Shaul was creating some sort of new religion out of Judaism. In Fact, the rumor spread quickly and when Shaul came to Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot (Pentecost)in Acts 21 he was informed of these rumors and told that he should show everyone that these accusations were false ... here is the text:

"When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them."

This was Shaul's golden moment. If the rumors were true and he was telling people to forget the Law of Moshe (Moses) then all he had to do was say "hey, these aren't just rumors guys ... this is really what I am teaching now and I don't care if you like it or not". Shaul did not, in fact, say this. He did go to the temple to do what the leaders in Jerusalem suggested in order to squelch the rumors.

Shaul's methods of teaching "chosen-ness" to the Gentiles was most distressing and almost incomprehensible to the people who were already Chosen. Maybe they wanted the Gentiles to complete all 613 mitzvot in one day while Shaul was telling them to take one day at a time. The leaders in Jerusalem understood this teaching and wrote a letter telling the Gentiles about four things that they could start out with and then they could pick the rest up over time ... here is the text in Acts 15:

"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."

" For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath" (verse 21) seems almost out of place without the understanding that they are merely giving the Gentile believers a starting point with these four "rules" and they fully expecting them to go to the synagogue every Sabbath and learn more week after week about the Torah and the commands of God.

2. The second way to misunderstand Shaul is to live in any time period other than the one in which Shaul's letters were written. I think that covers just about everyone. There is no way we can fully understand everything in Shaul's letters without living during the time they were written and seeing the full correspondence from both parties. Remember that these are letters (someone's mail). You cannot just read one side of two people's correspondence and fully understand both sides of the conversation. He was speaking to specific groups of people about very specific events and occurrences in their communities and we can only speculate within the parameters of the other scriptures as to what he meant. If we had lived in those communities during Shaul's time we of course would have spoken the Greek of that time or Hebrew (or both) and we would fully understand Shaul. One thing is certain ... if we think that he was telling us that the Torah "ended" with Jesus (Yeshua) (Romans 10:4) then we have to completely remove the words of the Messiah himself in Matthew 5:17-20 from the Bible ... here is the text:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter[yud], not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Torah until everything is accomplished. Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the Torah-teachers, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

3. The third way to misunderstand Shaul is to listen to incorrect doctrine. The early church fathers like Constantine and even Martin Luther all spoke against the usage of the Torah citing the misunderstood words of Shaul as proof that one should not keep the Shabbat, not keep the laws of Kashrut (kosher), not keep the feasts and New Moon celebrations. Shaul does say not to let anyone judge you for these things (Colossians) but couldn't it just as easily be argued that he said don't let anyone judge you for keeping the Shabbat or for not eating pork? The text, I'm sure, was very clear to the group to whom he was writing. If we look at these verses in light of the words of Yeshua in Matthew 5 we must conclude that Shaul is not undermining the words of the Messiah and we must be misunderstanding him because of incorrect doctrine. In fact, Shaul warned us again and again not to be carried away with every wind of doctrine.

4. The fourth way to misunderstand Shaul is simply to want to misunderstand him. Why would anyone want to misunderstand him? Well, isn't is easier to go along with the world and work on the Sabbath and celebrate Easter instead of Passover and to ignore the offering to the pastor on Rosh Hodesh than to risk the chance that you might be ridiculed (even by your Christian brothers) for resting on Shabbat or for wearing the Tzitzit that is required for all men who follow YHVH. I recently read a book that a friend of mine had written about the doctrines of the Church of Christ and he actually stated as a reason for not following the Torah that it was obviously too inconvenient to travel to Jerusalem 3 times a year to take part in the feasts. He, of course missed that fact that God never said you had to go to Jerusalem he said you must go to the place that he will choose. [Deuteronomy 16:16
Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed]. Of course everyone on the planet will have to travel to Jerusalem during the New Kingdom period once a year on the Feast of Tabernacles according to Zechariah 14:

"Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain. If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The LORD will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the LORD's house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD Almighty."

We quote John and say Jesus is the Word. We quote the writer of Hebrews and say the Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. We quote Malachi and say The Lord does not change but we CHOOSE to ignore the commands that say "This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live." John said "if we love God then we keep his commands" ... what commands? Are there commands of God that John was excluding? If there are we cannot gather it from the text. How many commands are there? Ten? Even if there were only Ten most Christians CHOOSE to ignore the fourth command to "remember the Sabbath and keep it holy". There are actually 613 mitzvot (commands, ordinances, precepts, etc.) and all are relevant today even to followers of Yeshua HaMachiach (Jesus the Messiah).

You must rid yourselves of the doctrinal error that the Bible is a book of stories and historical references and that some things only apply to Jews and some things only apply to Christians. The Bible is God's blueprint for humanity (ALL humanity). Yes, certain sacrificial commands are kept for us spiritually through Yeshua but the rest are still in the natural. If most Jews CHOOSE to reject Yeshua as the Messiah that does not mean that God is finished with them. Shaul warned us not to think that the wild branches are better than the natural ones.

Please do not misunderstand me and think that I am advocating conversion to Judaism. If you think this then you are still thinking that the Bible is two separate books. We do not have to convert ... we were grafted in to the Chosen olive tree.