NETZARIM YISRAELI EMUNAH

- NAZARENE ISRAELI FAITH -

                              GALATIANS CHAPTER 5       

                                  BY RABBI SIMON ALTAF

(REPRINTED BY KIND PERMISSION)

 By Rabbi Simon Altaf

Copyright© 23rd February 2010 Abrahamic-Faith Ministries International 

Excerpts can be used from this study without modification for study
or reprinting purposes with the set condition that as long as
reference is given back to the author and this study.

Terms:

AFNHSS – Abrahamic-Faith Nazarene Hebraic Study Scriptures

Yahushua – Common title in the west is Jesus, the real name is
Yahushua. Torah – First five books of the Bible written by Moses

YHWH – The sacred four letter name of G-d

GALATIONS CHAPTER 5

In order to decipher this letter (Galatians) and this particular chapter a few things need to be understood. First, Paulos commonly known as Paul was a Rabbi in the first century and a Pharisee; The title of Rabbi and Pharisee is usually synonymous at least for our purpose of study. A Rabbi in the first century would not teach to disobey Gd’s law because everything a person did in the first century would be judged by the laws in the Torah by the Jerusalem Sanhedrin.

Anyone who did not obey the law of G-d would be seen as an evildoer and this is why many Romans, at least for the Jews in Israel, fell in the camp of evildoers, gentiles and dogs because this was the designation given to gentiles. They were considered unclean, filthy and outside the Covenants and ways of G-d. This letter is not written to a church called Galatians or place name even but the Hebrew word Galut means dispersion so this letter is written to the dispersed ones and these were understood in Rabbinic Judaism as the Ten Northern tribes of Israel who were part settled in Asia Minor which is today’s Turkey. Rabbi Paulos knew this truth well.

 This letter`s composition (Galatians) is considered to be from around 46 CE to 54 CE depending on various theories of north and south of Galatia however I would like to add that the letter is to the dispersion of the Ten lost tribes of Israel which Rabbi Paulos saw as coming back home to the faith through Messiah Yahushua who has repaired the breach.

 If Rabbi Paulos was found to be preaching against the law of G-d that would land him in serious trouble with the Temple authorities and the Jerusalem council who would want to maintain control in the dispersion, and the function of the synagogues was to link back to the Temple in Jerusalem. Note, because of various incorrect accusations he did land in trouble with the Jerusalem Beit Din (House of Judgment) and hence we see the council in Acts 15 issuing various directives for gentiles joining Israel or for returning back to the Olive tree being Israel.

 We need to understand Rabbi Paulos was not in a modern church setting but in a synagogue setting. Israel did not make churches but made synagogues, while most are quite happy to know that Rabbi Paulos was writing to some church out in the north this is not the case. Once you start changing words and start to apply your 21st century surrounding it is then that everything starts becoming blurred and you start to lose the real issues at hand.

What is also not understood is that Rabbi Paulos was trying to correct these messianic synagogues to conform to the required halacha (way of living) and not setting a new law as many have wrongly concluded.

Unfortunately modern Christianity has already concluded that the law of G-d has been abrogated and they are now a law unto themselves, while the law of G-d states that it is everlasting and irrevocable.

1 Chr 16:17 (KJV) "And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,"

Covenants can only be everlasting if the law remains but many Christians lack this understanding. For them the law is abrogated but then how can a Covenant be everlasting? Christianity needs to resolve this problem that they have created for themselves. The problem with most Christian denominations is that they pick and choose what suits them and most of them walk contrary to G-d and His ways. By walking contrary to G-d and not obeying His commandments, and also serving other gods in such things as Easter, Lent, Christmas and other Christian unclean days, which are festivals of false gods foreign to YHWH and at the same time saying"I have peace"is a self created deception.

 Deut 29:19 (KJV) "And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst":

 Many today that walk in such things will neither have the blessings of G-d in their life nor the peace that comes with the shed blood of our Master Yahushua since they are still committing sins and have put under their feet the sacrifice committed on the Mount of Olives. They will also forfeit the 1000 years of reign that is yet to come, by their actions, as they will lose their first resurrection.

Heb 10:26 (KJV) "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins",

How could King David proclaim keeping the law/Torah forever and ever if it was going to be abrogated later at the death of the Messiah? Note King David will be raised in the millennium and will be keeping the law of G-d. Indeed King David was right that He and others like him will be obeying and guarding the law forever and ever.

 Psalm 119:44 (KJV) "So shall I keep Your law continually, Forever and ever"

 So the premise is always going to be that the Torah/law of G-d is eternal and this is the basis Rabbi Paulos is working from.

 We will attempt to piece together Rabbi Paulos’ letter (Galatians) especially chapter 5 so we can understand what is going on. If some of you are living in societies that are worshipping other deities then you may get some understanding of what is going on as Rabbi Paulos had to deal with a highly pagan society with people worshipping other deities. Also he had to deal with syncretism, where common names and common practices were being applied to the ways of Yahuweh, but Rabbi Paulos had to correct people not to mix and match worship practices that came from the heathen culture surrounding Turkey. Turkey housed the largest Temple of Diana and the Temple of Zeus so one can imagine the enormous influence these had on the people and how the people’s psyche was formulated.

 One can only understand this if he lives in a strongly anti- Christian society such as Saudi Arabia where the majority of the people worship in mosques, there is a pilgrimage place for the hajj in Mecca and imagine the Christians living in Mecca and how they would have to hide and conduct their worship sessions quietly and they cannot freely speak about the Bible or preach else one could be imprisoned by the mutawa (religious police).

So technically the place where the Temple of Diana and Zeus stood were places of pilgrimage and anyone who spoke out against these deities could potentially be in real danger. This is the situation Rabbi Paulos finds himself in amongst the people of Galut (dispersion) where he has to deal with a lot of these kinds of issues or how to conduct the business of G-d with equity without putting people out.

 As we begin to look at this letter we will piece together the missing pieces to understand what it is that Rabbi Paulos is trying to explain.

 We start from the last verse in the letter of Galatians chapter 4:

 Galut’yah 4:31 (AFNHSS) "So then, my Yah’sar’elite brothers, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free".

 We are starting from chapter 4 because this is where the debate started where Rabbi Paulos is preaching to the dispersed ones and explaining concepts and terms. Rabbi Paulos says this to mean do not have anything to do with any man that brings you under bondage but instead live in the FREEDOM offered by Yahushua the Son and the Torah of Moses. This has another name which is LIFE both physical and eternal.

So in order to understand this term we need to understand who are the children of the bondwoman and children of the free womaN

 a. Children of the bondwoman

b. Children of the FREE (Implied Woman)

Its quite clear that in order to be in bondage or a child of the bondwoman one cannot be free to serve G-d and since one of the primary functions of the law of G-d is to free people the opposite of not obeying and guarding the law of G-d, which was primarily given through Moses would mean you are in bondage

 The disciples of Yahushua in the book of Jacob called this the following;

 James 1:25 (KJV) "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty…"

 The perfect law of freedom is Torah and King David echoed the same words a thousand years earlier from Jacob’s time.

 Psalm 119:45 (KJV) "And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts."

 Another way to read this verse is `G-d’s way of life sets me free because I walk in His ways`.

Therefore the bondwoman is to be in slavery of the world and to reject G-d’s laws. Unfortunately many churches have already made that choice while G-d sets before us an open road to choose Life (Both Physical and eternal) through the Messiah to obey His Torah/law.

 Now that I have explained who the bondwoman is it should be abundantly clear who the free woman is? This is the congregation of the righteous spoken of in Psalm 1:5.

 Psalm 1:5 (KJV) "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous."

 This is important to explain that anytime we reject G-d and His laws we end up in captivity and that captivity does not always has to be physical, it can be spiritual nature serving another master such as the devil and without even knowing about it.

 When Israel was in Egypt they were slaves to Pharaoh and had to serve him in hard bondage. They were certainly not free in any sense of the word. They had no way to serve G-d properly so G-d had to act for them and free them. This is when G-d told them to observe the feast of Passover.

 They were then freed and went out to serve G-d. Passover is also called the FEAST OF REDEMPTION and FREEDOM.

 Now with this understanding in mind we can tackle chapter 5 of Galatians and start to understand each individual point behind the words without glossing over the text.

 Galatians 5:1 (KJV) "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage".

 Now the reason I explained a little about the Passover is because at that time Israel was in bondage or bondage to the bondwoman (Egypt) and slavery to the world as Egypt was a type of the world and its human laws.

 Galut’yah 5:1 (AFNHSS) "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Messiah has made us free, and be not subject again with the yoke of slavery." 1

 We have already examined the word liberty but let us examine it here a little more at the spiritual level.

 The Greek word for `liberty` is Strong’s G1657 `el-yoo-ther-ee'-ah`, which can basically mean “freedom.”

 Let us look at the Hebrew word under the hood and see if this connects anywhere spiritually and allows us more insight to the term. The two Hebrew words we will look at are Strong’s H1865 .. `Daror` , which is used for the Jubilee and actually takes us back to the year of the Jubilee, when all the captives were set free and the Hebrew word Strong’s H7342 `Rakhov,` which means broad, large, wide, and for direction.

 If we now take the last letter of `Daror`, which is the Hebrew letter resh ר and the last letter of `Rakhov`, which is the Hebrew beth ב we end up with the Hebrew word Rab or Rav רב which means GREAT, MASTER, Prince, Mighty amongst a few terms. All terms which apply to our Master Adon Yahushua. This on a spiritual plain connects us back to Yahushua the G-d of Israel revealed in the flesh THE GREAT Rabbi of Israel the greater Moses and the greater Solomon. So Rabbi Paulos is saying to obey the G-d of Israel, which is Yahushua and live free by His Torah and be totally free and not just an illusion of living free as in some countries but really still being under bondage!

 We can also see Rabbi Paulos using the word “liberty” which when connected back to the Jubilee reveals the Messiah as the one who came on the Jubilee to free us from sin and death (Isa 61:1 and Luke 4:18) is referencing these texts to show us that the Messiah has indeed freed us from sin and death permanently and now we are in the law of G-d since no king rules without a code or rule of law otherwise you can picture a lawless king. In fact Rabbi Paulos is clear we are to be responsible to the law of G-d and be steadfast in order to remain in freedom.

 Now let us identify the yoke of slavery. Whenever Rabbi Paulos addresses these cryptic terms one can be sure he is referencing the Torah of Moses versus the world’s law/torah or yoke of slavery which many have taken upon themselves, the so called humanists of this world. Let’s examine the wording in the book of Leviticus.

 Jeremiah 2:20 (NKJV) "For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, `I will not transgress,' when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down, playing the harlot."

 G-d had broken the yoke of Israel of “slavery” but they still committed sins against G-d. The yoke was the slavery of the world rather than submission to G-d, which was required in order to remain free in the House of the Master.

 When Israel was in bondage they were in the yoke of slavery so G-d brought them out and then declared the following.

Levit. 26:13 (KJV) "I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright."

The term that is used in the book of Leviticus is ‘Bands of your Yoke” or Staves or fetters of your slavery. G-d is iterating our responsibility towards his instructions, the law of G-d through Messiah who is the personal living Torah that we are responsible creatures and for us to stand tall we must stand in His rule of law and avoid man’s law and its pitfalls. The Hebrew words `vaolaych etchem kom' meyoot` means`made you walk straight or upright` as it is used in Leviticus 26:13.

A slave was not free to walk straight or upright but a freed man was able to walk straight. Since the Messiah has done the tikkun olam (repairing of the breach) of the worlds therefore we can walk erect and straight but there is a responsibility on our parts to uphold G-d’s instruction known as the Pentateuch or Torah. As long as we possess and walk with G-d’s law in our hands we cannot be slave to the devil but when we reject the law of G-d we are no longer walking in freedom.

The Hebrew term `Kom ‘meyoot` the word that means `we are emancipated and can now stand tall`, is only used once in the Tanach (Old Testament) and we need to be careful not to misread Rabbi Paulos’ letters else instead of freedom we could be in bondage as many others under the wrong authority. This indicates that there is responsibility attached to our freedom and it’s not just to roam around and `do whatever we like` kind of ideology that is and has been preached in places of worship.

 We are given choices which need to be made wisely. The other Hebrew words for freedom are `Yahroot` and `Akhravoot,` which also means responsibility for our lives. In all honesty there can be no genuine freedom if we do not have rules to show us how we are to live in our day to day lives. G-d gave us these instructions and we have to decide wisely how to be part of His kingdom community.

 After throwing away our “yoke of slavery” as Rabbi Paulos tells us we now have two choices according to Jewish tradition in which Rabbi Paulos was brought up and he accepted them all and never rejected them contrary to popular opinion. The ones mentioned in the Jewish tradition are `Ol Malchut Shamayim` (The Yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom) and `Ol Malchut Ha Maitzvot`(The Yoke of the Commandments). We must take these upon ourselves.

 Our rejection of these and G-d’s Covenantal terms will put us under the curse of the Torah in which the law of G-d tells us this fact in Leviticus 26:36.

 Lev 26:15, 36 (KJV) "And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth."

 The Hebrew phrase `Kol aleh nidaf aleh radaf` meaning “the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them.” This means when we reject the law of G-d and we are living outside of Israel in the Galut (dispersion), to whom this letter is addressed so take note that this letter is to all the dispersed ones in all ages, not just those in Turkey in the past, that then we shall hear a leaf fall and feel really frightened because we have rejected the G-d of Israel and his kingdom rule. This is happening to many Christian communities in Pakistan, India, Africa because they have ignorantly rejected the rule of G-d because of bad leaders.

 The sages of the Mishnah and Talmud said the following “kabalat ol malchut shamayim,” the `receiving of the Yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom` and is not about “I will take it on when I feel comfortable and remove it when I do not feel comfortable.” Likewise today many in Christendom have chosen easy options and to live in worldly ways rejecting and abrogating the law of G-d and putting themselves in the captivity.

 Rabbi Paulos is taking us back to the Shma Israel (Deut 6:4) by this (for more look up See Berachot 13a) in order for us to understand our responsibility.

The yoke that the Messiah offered was the same yoke of the Kingdom. Many only do lip service to Yahushua while rejecting His yoke in ignorance of church traditions that were totally anti-Jewish and anti-Bible.

Matt 11:29 (KJV) "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest (Shalom) unto your souls."

 Remember the leaf analogy above, you can only find Shalom, the complete rest, salvation, freedom, security, peace even during times of conflict if you take His yoke `His Torah` which was hand delivered to Moses.

 Ask yourself today have you done this and if not then why not? Is your life in peace and if not then could this be your central problem?

Have you rejected the 7th day Sabbath because your church said no to it? Have you rejected other principle laws of hygiene and food such as what is clean to eat and what is unclean such as pork and shellfish? Rabbi Paulos actually drives home some deep points but I doubt many out there have understood even half of his message and instead arrogantly use his writings to abrogate the law of G-d. How can this be?

 Galatians 5:2 (KJV) "Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing."

 Galut’yah 5:2 (AFNHSS) "Behold, I Rabbi Paulos (Sha’ul) say to ye, that if you be circumcised, Messiah shall profit ye nothing."

As we continue to read with understanding that we must uphold the law, the rule of law delivered by Moses and rubber stamped by Yahushua/Jesus of Nazareth then is Rabbi Paulos now telling us that we should not circumcise and if we do circumcise then we will have no benefit? This is how many old and modern churches in the world have read this verse and decided to use Rabbi Paulos as judge and jury to reject the law of G-d!!! What a travesty? If they did that then they have fallen into what I described earlier in the “yoke of slavery.” So what is Rabbi Paulos a circumcised Jew telling us? Is he telling us that what is good for the goose is not good for the gander? If it was good for Rabbi Paulos who never left his Faith then how can he now teach against it? Yet Rabbi Paulos himself declares in Galatians 5:11 that it is good to be circumcised, which means what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

 The misunderstanding largely arose because of ignorance of first century customs of how people lived and behaved under the various rabbinic authorities because the church severed itself from Israel and put all the Jews down as unsaved and repressive. There were many groups of Judaisms in the first century assemblies but there was no church. Indeed there were various synagogues and the believers went to the synagogues where the Orthodox Jews taught Torah, while most of the believers were Jewish and had no problem proclaiming the law of G-d and even circumcising physically.

 Rabbi Paulos’ problem was not with circumcision removing of the foreskin but with using circumcision as a tool to say that you are saved and only a member of G-d’s club if you circumcise in a certain way according to some of the Pharisees. The term had come to be known as hatafat dam brit (drawing of a drop of blood) and peri’ah (removing the membrane) meant a lot more than just removal of a bit of skin. You would have had to do this with each new group that you joined as they rejected the circumcision that you had received previously and then you would have to obey all their rules else you could not be a member of their so called club.

However Rabbi Paulos objected to this theology of the first century where a certain group of Jews demanded that new converts coming in must circumcise in this particular fashion and then obey their legal rulings (Note the problem was not with the way of circumcising the flesh and is still done this way by a mohel, a Jewish Rabbi expert in the art of circumcision). Some men who had come down from Jerusalem and had said unless this is done with immediate effect we will not proclaim that these gentile converts have been saved and are a part of the community of G-d. In other words they would still see them as gentiles and outside the body of Israel. That would have caused a lot of problems as they would not be welcomed in many synagogues of the land.

Acts 15:1 (KJV) `And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved".`

 The `manner of Moses`, was a shorthand idiom for doing circumcision according to the oral Torah to make you a full Ger- Tzadik (see footnote Acts 10:22 in the AF Bible) before you could call yourself a full proselyte in Judaism and this particular group of the Pharisees obviously adhered to the full and immediate Ger- Tzadik status, they did not believe in going the minimum first, which was called Ger-Toshav (G-d fearer), which would mean keeping the seven Noachide laws established by the Rabbis for converts for at least one year before you become Ger-Tzadik.

 The procedure of Ger-Toshav would not require immediate circumcision until a year later after having understood the seven annual feasts and other terms in the Torah of Moses which was being taught in synagogues on the weekly Sabbaths. To Rabbi Paulos at least these people were still saved and part of the community no doubt but were not at the point of circumcision, and Baptism according to the Ger-Tzadik formula could wait hence the reason why this dissension arose. The Pharisees that came up from Judea wanted to see the process of Ger-Toshav bypassed entirely to full Ger-Tzadik for these gentile converts before the believing Pharisees would agree that these would now be part of the community of Israel.

 The dispute was not about whether to circumcise as many in Christendom misapply this text completely. Circumcision would have been done anyway but it was about what rules apply now and how to behave as all male believers had to be circumcised anyway as the gentiles could not enter the Temple if they were not circumcised.

It was accepted by Rabbi Paulos that circumcision was/is an eternal commandment in the Torah but this group from Jerusalem said they wanted things to progress very quickly before the new converts completed the Ger-Toshav formula. Rabbi Paulos knew this would be problematic as the halacha (Way of living) set by some teachers would cause problems for others and wanted the new converts to wait, understand and then circumcise using the 1st century Ger-Toshav (G-d fearer) formula, which would still make them part of the community of believers and therefore the physical act of circumcision would come later

Rabbi Paulos used the argument that since circumcision was given to Abraham after he was saved this means no man needs circumcision to be saved but by faith alone. A lot of people are still confused about this and think that the Torah saved Jews by works of the flesh but the reality is that it never has stated this explicitly because salvation in the Torah was always by faith and then later to demonstrate your obedience to the G-d of Israel to show your faithfulness you had to obey Torah.

Some even think that the Torah was saving people by some sacrifice in the Tabernacle but once again this is incorrectly taught in many churches because there was no sacrifice for intentional sin and never has been.

 If there has never been a sacrifice for intentional sin then how could any Jew ever be saved by a sacrifice or human work? Ask your Pastor to explain this one

Intentional and unintentional sin:

Many people think that there was a particular offering for intentional sin but the Torah does not prescribe an individual offering for intentional sin. You might ask what about the feast of Yom Kippur. This offering would cover for the corporate guilt of the whole community of Israel yearly both intentional and unintentional sins but there was only one problem with it like any other sacrifice that it was not automatically accepted. For Israel to know if this was accepted or not they would have to tie a scarlet string to the horns of the altar and then wait and see if that turned white. If that did not turn white they thought that God had rejected the sin offering. In other words salvation was always by grace and never by works. The tying of a string has nothing to do with a Torah ordinance but the Jewish people took this for atonement from Isaiah 1:18 and the inference in it.

It is recorded in the Mishnah that the scarlet did not turn white for a whole forty years after Yahushua’s death and resurrection. Why would it since Yahushua was the sacrificial lamb once and for all times. This string did not turn white but that does not mean YHWH has decided to now change His laws or that He rejected His covenant people. What this means is that the Messiah the one door of Israel was now to cover the whole 12 tribes of Israel including present day and future day Judah who were obeying Torah. Since Torah equals Messiah therefore Messiah equals Torah. The Jewish people were from that time forward to remain in spiritual blindness until the return of the Messiah but this does not mean as many Christians think that the Jews are no longer saved and are going to the lake of sulphur

 Pastors usually take this out of context by denying the Torah of Moses and telling people that you do not have to be circumcised. This is not true, Rabbi Paulos is not saying do not get circumcised but circumcision had come to mean different things in the 1st century which could be to obey some of the branches of the Pharisees and Sadducean established laws such as takanot (fences), gezerot (prohibitions), minhagim (Various customs established by the rulers in the Temple) etc. Some of these stated gentile people to be circumcised immediately, without any understanding of the Torah and to start to follow all the customs and commandments of the elders so in affect a person was circumcising for the wrong reasons and this would indeed be a problematic. Rabbi Paulos here tells people in effect `do not circumcise for the wrong reasons`, first the heart needed to be circumcised as stated in Deuteronomy 10:16, and then after the believers acquired understanding, they could circumcise and become a Ger-Tzadik, a righteous convert. That is all Rabbi Paulos was trying to say. They needed to become a Ger-Toshav (G-d fearer) first. (See footnotes in Acts chapter 10:22 in the Abrahamic-Faith Bible to understand more about this).

If we look at Romans 5:1 Rabbi Paulos argues to be made righteous by faith alone and not by works of men and this is not something new that Rabbi Paulos came up with because this was always the case before the Messiah came.

When we look at the life of the patriarchs, we are shown in the Torah that Abraham was justified by faith alone in Gen 15:16, while circumcision was indeed given as a Covenant in Genesis 17:10 later. This is when Abraham received and became circumcised who was already saved by faith alone (Gal 3:6) and then he took his son Ishmael and circumcised him at thirteen and also circumcised his male servants including Isaac upon his birth. Therefore circumcision is indeed a very important covenantal command to be done after we are saved and certainly not to be ignored.

Those of your who have misinterpreted the letters of Rabbi Paulos and decided not to circumcise your sons or yourself if you are male then you have put yourself under the curse of the Torah that Rabbi Paulos spoke about in Gal 3:10. Biblically rules specify that each doctrine is validated by two witnesses therefore even if you interpreted this letter incorrectly that is just one witness now where is your second witness? You will not find Matthew, Mark, Luke or John ever saying any such things therefore this puts you and anyone else on very dangerous grounds because now you are under the curse until you start to obey the Torah. The curse is not removed by the blood of the Messiah because the blood of Messiah is for the removal of sin tied to the covenant in Deut 29 and certainly not for the removal of curses as incorrectly believed.

Deut 27:26 (KJV) "Cursed be he that confirmeth (Obeys) not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen."

Now if I was in your place I would examine all the curses written in Deut 27 and Deut 28 and see if they apply to you and or are affecting you because if they are, then you need to repent of your sins and start obeying Torah and only then will the curses lift off.

Also without being circumcised one cannot eat the Passover meal as it is forbidden for uncircumcised men and is a sin to do so otherwise and I believe this is what was compelling the Pharisees in Acts 15 and Galatians 5:2 to force gentiles to circumcise quickly as they could not allow them to enter the feasts and celebrate them due to table fellowship issues.

One table fellowship issue would be that if the gentiles do not eat kosher food then how can we fellowship with them or allow to sit on the same table with us and eat because they would be considered unclean. This then caused some Pharisaical groups to impose strict injunctions against gentiles joining the ranks. While the School of Hillel on the other hand had agreed that gentiles who come in should not be forced to start doing everything immediately and this is in affect the ruling that Rabbi Paulos vouched for. We see that the Acts 15 rulings actually comply with this and are taken out of the Torah pages from the book of Leviticus.

We need to take note that if people do not circumcise after their salvation they will not be allowed to enter the 3rd Temple as it is a halakhik (Way of conduct) requirement by G-d. I can assure you that nobody will be laughing when you are rejected the entry into the Temple and you will not be circumcised by magic either as it has to be done by a doctor or Rabbi and you better certain that doctors and Rabbis will still be around when you need to circumcise in the millennium. It must be done for baby boys on the 8th day after their birth, and for men who come to salvation they must do it one year after their conversion else they are breaking the Abrahamic Covenant and are thus living in disobedience. Christians cannot be in the Abrahamic Covenant, while living without being circumcised as this is a Covenant requirement and not a salvation issue. Circumcision is one of the seals out of the two seals of Yahuweh.

Galatians 5:3 (KJV) "And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law."

Galut’yah 5:3 (AFNHSS) "For I testify again to each man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole Torah".

When Jewish babies are circumcised they are not given a choice to make a confession first but are automatically in the Covenant given to father Abraham and then the boys in Jewish homes are usually trained to study and understand Torah. When they are thirteen years old then a `bar - mitzvah` (Son of the commandments) is done in which the boys demonstrate the reading of certain Torah passages (For girls it`s bat mitzvah) by memory and then they also take the oath to uphold all the Torah and the Rabbi blesses them and then a celebration takes place welcoming the lad into the new family of G-d.

However, on the other hand when a gentile comes to faith he has not gone through this process of brit-milah (circumcision) as a baby and neither has any understanding of Torah or makes any such oaths as a baby but what some Jewish groups in the first century did was to ask the man who was being saved to immediately go through a mikvah (baptism) and to renounce all his former ungodly practices and to make a full confession to uphold the law/Torah of G-d as a proselyte in full force immediately.

These Pharisees insisted to put you through a practice known as Hatafat dam brit and Peri’ah and if you did not do this and immediately submit to their legal rulings you would not be saved according to their elders, however Rabbi Paulos argued for faith in the Messiah and observance of the written Torah without a complicated formula of legal rulings to be followed immediately as the new converts in Rabbi Paulos opinion were not ready. If you were already circumcised then these Pharisees made you to recircumcise as they said your circumcision with the previous group is not valid hence the term hatafat dam brit means to draw a drop of blood and not simply removing of the foreskin even though it may have been removed already.

This meant that the gentile proselyte had to adhere to the instructions of G-d as fully incumbent from day one, which was a very difficult for a convert into messianic Judaism which is what Christianity really was. This was demanded by some Pharisees as we see in Acts 15:1. The term circumcision was not so much the physical cutting of the foreskin but how to convert a gentile into Judaism with all the other legal rulings to be applicable under rabbinic supervision. So circumcision is not what most think here but was a loaded term to mean how one converts into Judaism.

It may come as a surprise to some of you but Rabbi Paulos at one time belonged the militant followers of the House of Shammai for a short period of time who later advocated to kill him (Acts 9:24) but he was a permanent member of the school of Hillel and agreed with their halacha (Way of living) so this is why we can see that in Galatians 5:3 that what in affect he is saying is that some prushim and soferim (Pharisees and scribes of the Torah) had said that after circumcision you must keep all our halacha not necessarily the Torah of Moses and that is all Rabbi Paulos is iterating. He is not saying it can save you or not save you but saying you are bound to it all if you follow these groups but you are already a member of the household of G-d so why do you want to lose your status through works of rabbinic law of man.

The problem was not that a proselyte could not circumcise physically but the issue was when should he circumcise and if he was to follow the various groups that were trying to remove the faith element then they would accept the gentile convert to perform a myriad of other commandments not found in the written Torah in order to remain a part of their community that the influencers were suggesting for membership, while Rabbi Paulos was arguing against it. The school of Shammai were so strict with gentiles that they said no gentile can be saved, while the school of Hillel had agreed that as long as the gentile coming in keeps the minimum he can still have a place in the world to come.

Therefore the formula that Rabbi Paulos was working on was the lenient one where a gentile was given one year to learn the faith, he did not need to be circumcised in the first year, he did not immediately have to give up pork, crabs and shellfish but after one year when he went through the circumcision then he would make the confession to uphold all the Torah and give up on the unclean foods stated in the Torah of Moses.

One must understand Rabbi Paulos is not arguing for it not to be done at all which is something the church has adopted without understanding this crucial point because if such was the case then why did Rabbi Paulos circumcise Timothy with his own hands (Acts 16:3)? Was Timothy not in Messiah? Indeed he was so the argument that to circumcise is wrong after accepting the Messiah is both ill founded and misguided by the present church.

When you circumcised, in effect you were swearing to uphold all the Torah so Rabbi Paulos is not wrong, when we reach the level of circumcision of the flesh which is the second seal of our faith we must uphold all the written Torah of Moses and not add or remove any commandments. In effect there are many benefits in being circumcised such as sixty-five percent less chance of acquiring aids and being protected from many sexual diseases however this is to complete all righteousness and must be done as stated earlier to be part of the Abrahamic Covenant.

Galatians 5:4 (KJV). "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."

Is the Rabbi saying that you do not need to be circumcised now because if you do then you are estranged from the Messiah? Many take this passage and misapply it believing exactly this and then refuse to circumcise males. This is because they have not understood the full grasp of the passage.

The King James Version is not very clear here at telling us what law Rabbi Paulos is talking about however here is a more accurate translation from the Abrahamic-faith bible.

Galut’yah 5:4 (AFNHSS) "Messiah is become of no effect to you, whosoever of you is justified by the human law; you are fallen from favour."

 In order to understand what the Rabbi is saying we have to delve a little deeper into the first century culture and practice and then apply due diligence to acquire real understanding.

This only applied to those people who were trying to attain their salvation by keeping commandments alone set by the Pharisees and Sadducees. Salvation is always by unmerited favour known as grace and not by works of men.

In order to understand this passage further we really must seek to understand the human law and what its works were since the works of Torah were never said to be bad.

Rom 2:13 (KJV) "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified."

If we believe that Rabbi Paulos is telling us not to keep the Torah at all then how come he is telling us to keep it in Romans 2:13? He indeed is saying that those just listening to the Torah are not made righteous but instead those that are acting on it. This is because one demonstrates his salvation through his works or works of Torah.

How do we now understand this as it seems to contradict the people who teach that you should not do any Torah works? This is because grace always had come through Torah and even the Messiah came from the pages of the Torah so grace was revealed from everlasting to everlasting. Let me show you that the Messiah who is the physical picture of grace, which came out of the pages of the Torah.

John 5:45-46 (KJV) "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me."

Now what did Moses write? He wrote the first five books known as the Torah therefore this is clear testimony from the Messiah’s mouth that He is in the Torah of Moses.

However, right now we still have to resolve the conflict between Galatians 5:4 and Romans 2:13.

So is the Torah good or not? Does the Torah gives us grace? If the Messiah was in the written Torah and is the living Torah then should we obey the very law that He was given by the Father in heaven or should we be fools to deny it? If we deny it then are we not then going to end up at some point in committing sins and not knowing how to measure ourselves?

These are all good questions therefore everything really hinges on what was the Rabbi saying in Galatians 5:4, for the term justified by law or human law to be more precise. Let us use Rabbi Paulos to know that this is indeed what he meant.

This is the key passage to know this truth where most people just gloss over this. How can you be judged by the Torah/law of Moses if it has been removed and set aside or worse still abrogated?

Rom 2:12 (KJV) "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law";

The truth is that it is not (set aside). As I said earlier Torah is grace but the Rabbi was speaking about works that came out of human teachers wanting to justify people so let us look at this.

Gal 2:16 (KJV) "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."

Rom 3:27 (KJV) "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay: but by the law of faith"

Now we know that the Law of Moses known as the Torah is good, holy and great to obey so the key term that we have to understand is what is the meaning behind the word “works of the law?” For this we have to delve into 1st century customs and understanding of such things.

 "The Pharisees, emerged as a distinct group about 160 BCE (160 years before Christ). They sought to bring ritual practices on analogies from the ritual of the Temple into the home. They held that G-d had given an oral tradition to Moses which was handed down along with the written law; this was denied by the Sadducees. When the rabbis came to write the history of Jewish law in accordance with the conception of Oral Law they put it thus:

 "Moses received the Law from Sinai and committed it to Joshua,....

and Joshua to the Elders,....

and the Elders to the Prophets.......

 The Prophets committed it to the men of the Great Synagogue (in Ezra's time AFTER the return from Babylon)....

Simeon the Just was of the remnants of the Great Synagogue.....

Antigonus of Sokho received the Law from Simeon the Just.

From there five "pairs" of authorities are said each to have "received the law" from their predecessors, thus linking the Great Synagogue (viewed as the Elders who came back from exile with Ezra) with the rabbinic schools whose disputes dominate tannaitic literature. (that is Jewish law after the destruction of the temple).

"The five pairs are (and it ends up with the fourth pair): Shemaiah and Avtaylon (period of Herod the Great) and (5) Hillel and Shammai".

Therefore, it should be apparent that there were different branches of Judaism just like there are today. They all discussed and debated on how to obey G-d and live their lives. The purists known as the Essenes moved out near to the Dead Sea and separated themselves completely wanting nothing to do with any of the other Jewish sects, while the other sects heavily debated the Torah, its laws and how best to keep them. This is what had come to be known as Torah Sheb-al peh or the Oral Torah. Rabbi Paulos writes much about it. So this is what Rabbi Paulos was actually arguing against as the `Works of the Torah` or known as `Ma’aseh ha Torah`. Not all oral Torah is bad but it is how you look at it that counts. Much of it is actually very good and allows us to understand and instruct believers on the way of G-d.

Unfortunately in Christendom due to traditionalist error and anti- Semitism which was rife in the middle ages all Jewish law that included the Torah of Moses and the oral Torah which is the interpretation of it was seen to be bad and nothing to do with Christianity. Some Christian authors wrote and vilified the Jews especially the renaissance such as the German theologian Luther who advocated burning their synagogues and burning their books. By the way the books were no other than the Tanach commonly and erroneously known as the `Old Testament` in Christendom and also the Talmud which is full of quotes from the Jewish bible.

By calling it the `Old Testament` somehow it gives the feeling it is outdated and not useful and you will see some churches with bill boards that say New Testament Church. So in order to understand Rabbi Paulos he was effectively not denying or saying that the Oral Torah is bad or evil but simply saying that it does not bring out our salvation and to be honest no Jewish Rabbi in his right mind will say that it does either. Unfortunately due to much ignorance in the Western and Eastern Churches believing that Jewish people believe that Torah works brings salvation but the truth is that no Jewish man believes this.

However in the 1st century there were some groups that totally cut off others such as the Essenes and they held to very right wing beliefs and other ones saying that unless you keep the whole law or law of Moses which had come to be known as midrashikly idiomatic expression to mean all the precepts that were devised by the Rabbis and there were thousands of commandments known as fences.

All these thousands of laws to explain laws that are in the Torah. However Rabbi Paulos wrote effectively saying no you do not need to obey the thousands of laws to obtain salvation. In theory this is what the passage is saying in Galatians 5:4. One must understand that for instance the Sabbath has 39 prohibitions devised by the Rabbis in the Oral Torah and if one was to break one of these related to work then that person was seen to be breaking the whole Sabbath as the Rabbis stipulated it. Therefore one can understand that if you have five groups of Judaism and each has its own laws of Sabbath observance then who is right and who is wrong, how do you decide?

Effectively this is what the debate centered on and this is why we see certain of the brothers who came from Judea in Acts 15:1 wanting immediate circumcision without going through the process of Ger-Toshav or Ger-Tzadik.

The usage of Rabbi Paulos for “works of the law” therefore is not just an abstract term but it points to works that were demanded by the various rabbinic schools. Therefore Rabbi Paulos was not taking about the written Torah in Galatians 5:4 and how to keep it but about rabbinic works or human works that some influencers demanded had to be kept in order to be part of G-d’s chosen people.

1. Planting

2. Plowing

3. Reaping

4. Binding sheaves

5. Threshing

6. Winnowing

7. Selecting

8. Grinding

9. Sifting …

The 39 Sabbath categories can be found at this link to get an idea of what I am saying:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activities prohibited on Shabbat

A famous Rabbi in the 18th century had this to say about Rabbi Yahushua and Rabbi Paulos. (2) Rabbi Jacob Emden – “Therefore you must realize – and accept the truth from him who speaks it – that we see clearly here that the Nazarene and his Apostles did not wish to destroy the Torah from Israel, G-d forbid…” (Rabbi Jacob Emden, `Seder Olam Tabbah Vezuta` (1757)

Concerning the Apostle Paul who was well known in the Jerusalem culture as Rabbi Shaul from Tarshish, Rabbi Emden accepted freely Paul’s testimony that he was the student Pharisee in training with the Pharisee School of Hillel. Paul’s rabbinic master and mentor was Rabbi Gamaliel the Elder, the grandson of Hillel the Elder. We see the implications of the Apostle Paul in his relationship with his young disciple, Timothy. The fact was apparent that Apostle Paul throughout all of his teachings and writings truly lived his life as an observant Jew.

Galatians 5:5 (KJV) "For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. "

In simple terms we are told that our hope of resurrection of the righteous dead is through faith by the written Torah of Moses and the term Spirit here is not what most commentators make out to be like it’s the Holy Spirit. The term spirit here is for the spirit of Torah or the Torah of Moses.

The two terms in the passage are:

• Spirit

• Righteousness

Spirit - The spirit is the act by which we read, understand and then obey the Torah. Let us say that we do not have the Torah then would we have the spirit? The answer is No. So when it says “through the spirit”, in effect Rabbi Paulos is saying through the understanding of the Torah we wait. Note: there are many types of Spirits one being the divine Holy Spirit, the Ruach of Yahuweh.

Neh 9:20 (KJV) "Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst."

The good spirit to instruct the Israelites was not the Holy Spirit but the Torah of Moses otherwise one would think the spirit was there one minute when they were obeying and left the next when they started to disobey Yahuweh and then people can blame the spirit’s departure to the disobedience that followed.

Righteousness - How could we be waiting for righteousness if we already have it? This is talking about those who will be resurrected in the age to come hence the term `righteousness` conveys far more than just a term for simple salvation.

Galatians 5:6 (KJV) "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love."

Nobody comes to faith in Messiah through circumcision or uncircumcision , unless he has put faith in the death and resurrection of Messiah through true love and submitted to the Messiah. The term love was first described in the Torah so Rabbi Paulos is taking us back to the written Torah.

We will look at the two terms “faith” and “love”. The Hebrew word Ahav means love and Amunah for faith which takes us to the (SHEMA) creed in Deut 6:4.

Ahav - אהב

For “love” the Aleph symbolizes Abbah Yahuweh and His Son Yahushua and the Beth the very house that Abbah is building through His Son.

If we remove the middle letter Heh we end up with the Hebrew word Av for the Father who is the source of all the love in the world and He is the source of everything in the universe.

1+5+2 = 8 The number 8 symbolizes new beginnings and the number for the Messiah and is the number for the feast of Tabernacles the great day Shemini Atzeret yet to be fulfilled in the future when all the nations of the world will go to Israel to celebrate the feast Zec 14:16.

LOVE without TRUTH is meaningless and we have plenty of this in the world.

The word Shema in Hebrew is composed of three characters see below. שׁמע

The word for faith really takes us back to the Shema, which has three Hebrew characters Shin + Beth +Ayin.

When we do the Gematria of the Hebrew letters we arrive at the following:

Shin – 300

Mem – 40

Ayin - 70

Total = 410

If we add the Gematria of the Hebrew word Mishkan for the holy sanctuary we also arrive at a total of 410, which is as follows:

Mem - 40

Shin - 300

Kaf - 20

Nun - 50

Total = 410

So what does this tell us? It tells us two things one that all of Israel worshipped in the Mishkan and Rabbi Paulos had gone out as the Apostle to the Gentiles to bring the gentiles back into the fold of Israel so that one day we all can worship the G-d of Israel together in the yet to be built sanctuary in Jerusalem so mystically it points us forwards to the worship in the Temple.

It also tells us that the `Shema` the word `to hear` has the middle letter mem, which can stand for a “degree” that some of us hear more from Yahuweh and others hear less to different degrees. If we remove the last letter of the Shema being the Ayin we are left with the Hebrew root Shem which means “name.” The name of Yahuweh or Yahushua once again some of us know this more and others less remember the middle letter for degree or in the sefirah “wisdom”, some of us have more wisdom but others less. It’s all about degrees my friends.

Shem also means honour, prestige, authority, and character, alongside other meanings beside this. Yahuweh wants to put honour on those who He chooses to use for His glory, some of us to a degree more and some to a less degree.

In the sefirah we arrive at these.

Shin - understanding

Mem - wisdom

Ayin - knowledge

 Wisdom and understanding:

Job 28:12-13, 22 (AFNHSS) "But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man knows not the price of it; neither is it found in the land of the living.

(22) Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame of it with our ears."

Guess what? Where is the report of wisdom and understanding heard? In the lower pits of hell and where the destroyer is going aka Abbadon. The metaphor for destruction and death is Satan who is taking people with him to the depths of hell.

Job 28:28 (AFNHSS) "And to man he said, Behold, the fear of the Master, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

The “fear” of God is “wisdom” and to depart from “evil” is understanding. How do you do that? God declares His name in the Torah and His instructions also so that if you keep them you can achieve both wisdom and understanding and be called a wise people because it only comes from the mouth of God and Torah has come from the mouth of God.

Didn’t Paul say that the letter of Torah kills while the spirit gives
life that means we are in grace after the coming of Messiah?

Second Corinthians 3:6 (AFNHSS) "Who also has made us able worthy servants of the Renewed Covenant; not of the letter, but of the Ruach (Spirit): for the letter kills, but the Ruach (Spirit) gives life."

What we see here is determined by ancient rabbinic meanings of the passage. I can assure you it does not mean the Torah is done away and any pastor who teaches this really should not be a Pastor and should go back and re-study scripture and spend time in Israel with a good learned orthodox Rabbi.

The Letter kills so speaking mystically and with an ancient rabbinic understanding the Right side is the side of Judgment and strength, which means this would be the side of G-d that would kill if a person is guilty of sin. The left side is the side of mercy and grace and would give life. This should demonstrate since G-d or the Son of G-d has always been there then so has mercy and judgment.

The two sides left and right have to be united or balanced and are balanced by what we term the “soul of Torah” the Middle also known by ancient Rabbi’s as the middle-pillar a term that is given to mean the Tzadik One or the Righteous One who we know to be the Messiah of Israel Yahushua commonly known as Jesus of Nazareth.

So now we should understand what Rabbi Sha’ul a Pharisee was speaking about. The RIGHT side kills and the LEFT side saves so the two are balanced by the Son Yahushua who gives us eternal life because He holds the keys to the Malchut (kingdom).

So the good Rabbi was saying in Gal 5:6 that while you all argue over how to circumcise and how to obey your rules there is a lot more at stake. He was essentially saying that all the understanding, wisdom and knowledge of the cosmos are with the Messiah so pay attention. The Messiah has been revealed to men, remember Shema (faith) meaning some can hear his voice and others cannot so Rabbi Paulos had gone out as an emissary to reach the people. He was saying essentially He is the mishkan (Sanctuary) in picture or allegory and we must all one day come under Him to worship Him as the living embodied Torah.

Galatians 5:7 (KJV) "You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?"

The term “the truth” was an idiomatic expression in the 1st century to obey the written Torah opposed to what many Pharisees had been teaching, which was causing confusion and contradictions.

So what was Rabbi Paulos really trying to communicate to all of us?

Galatians 5:8 (KJV) "This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you".

In effect (he) is saying that the persuasion to remove oneself from the truth of the written Mosaic Torah is not from G-d but from men. The real definition of legalism is to remove yourself from G-d’s law into man’s law meaning put yourself into the yoke of slavery or humanism as many are doing this today. Did you know that today there is a branch of Jews that call themselves humanists Jews in the US? They do not believe in G-d.

Galatians 5:9 (KJV) "A little leaven leavens the whole lump".

Typically if you add a little leaven into the mixture of dough the whole will become leavened given enough time meaning you are getting into sinful and wrong behavior, don’t do it.

Galatians 5:10 (KJV) "I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is."

The mind of Messiah requires us to believe and obey the Torah as even the Messiah said “if you love me obey my commandments (John 14:15). Anything less than that is not the mind of the Messiah. The term “he” is the person who was saying that you have to circumcise in a particular way (hatafat dam brit) and then submit to the rules of their leaders.

Galatians 5:11 (KJV) "And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased."

The Rabbi is saying, "brothers if I still preach the act of proselytism according to some of the Pharisaic rules then why do they persecute me?" ... Because he preached circumcision according to Abraham and not the present school of thought. This means then if the present scribes and Pharisees way is valid to believe and receive eternal life through the myriads of Pharisaical commandments then why was it necessary for Yahushua to be hung on a tree? In other words Rabbi Paulos is saying that I preach the written Torah but they do not, and are only acting in the interests of their masters who are offended by the stake of the Messiah.

They want to follow status quo even if they are wrong, while Rabbi Paulos argued that he had left that method to the original one of Moses, which was better to keep things simple. Many Christians also do not want to rumble in the jungle because of status quo. They do not leave their errant doctrines because they do not want to offend their Pastors or Bishops, while quite happily offending G-d.

Galatians 5:12 (KJV) "I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!"

According to the Torah those who did not believe and act on the written words in the Torah would have been cut off and that is what Rabbi Paulos is saying that `I wish` meaning he is almost issuing the threat of a conditional curse that if you do not then this could happen.

Galatians 5:13 (KJV) "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

See my explanation of the term liberty above. "You have been called into freedom through Moses’s Torah now fully explained and revealed in the Messiah so do not put yourself back into bondage and slavery of the world or slavery to the ideas of some men who are perverting the truth of Moses. Do not justify yourself through the flesh because salvation was always by faith. You are now in the community of Israel and you do not need to do a myriad of works to be part of the community as you have been told by some other people."

Galatians 5:14 (KJV) "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.''

All the written Torah is fulfilled by loving your neighbor because the love in you shows that the Spirit dwells in you and if you do not love your neighbour then obviously something is wrong. Rabbi Paulos encourages to fulfill the Torah by demonstrating love in our lives to others all round us. This is an indicative factor in knowing if we have the Spirit of G-d or Satan. Those who continually hate others do not have the spirit of G-d, and one prime example is radical Muslims today.

Galatians 5:15 "But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!"

To bite and devour are terms found in the Torah for rebelliousness and unwanted hatred as some people had engaged in this. This was one of the chief causes for destruction of the second Temple. Wanton hatred. This brings us in affect to the law of affects of sowing and reaping, what you sow you will indeed reap.

Galatians 5:16 (KJV) "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

To walk in the spirit is to obey the Torah of Moses, which demonstrates our obedience and the lust of the flesh on the other hand is a term that shows our rebelliousness to Yahuweh.

Galatians 5:17 (KJV) "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish."

The flesh and spirit (Truth of Torah) are at odds with each other, beware that you do not get caught up in the arguments of fleshly observances and totally ignore the written Torah and its requirements on how one should live. Flesh here is a term to mean do not subjugate yourself to rabbinic law that contradicts established halacha (way of life) of the prophets and sages of old.

Galatians 5:18 (KJV) "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."

The `Spirit` here is the term for the Torah of YHWH and to be guided into this while to be under the law means to subjugate yourself under rabbinic law that simply contradicts YHWH’s commands or to be under human law generally what I can only term as humanistic law that we are all good and we all go to a nice place when we die. Note such is not the case, those who live without Torah will be judged by the Torah and the judgment will be eternal condemnation.

Galatians 5:19 (KJV) "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness,"

All the deeds mentioned here such as whoring, uncleanness were things that the gentiles were into. He is warning to stay away from them. One thing the gentiles did was male and female temple prostitution in order to gain their salvation in pagan temples and he warns against such a practice. Today we see adultery rife in our society, is Rabbi Paulos telling us something new or old? Those without Torah in our society will die without Torah, meaning they will receive judgment to be put in the lake of fire. Millions of pounds of salary or earning £100,000 a week will not help at that time for foolish human behavior that hurts other people.

Galatians 5:20 (KJV) "idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,"

Rabbi Paulos reveals all the works of flesh which the people were into and these are certainly marked under Torah as rebellious works of men counted as sinful.

Galatians 5:21 (KJV) "envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of G-d."

These works will exclude people from the kingdom of G-d, see Rev 22:15.

Galatians 5:22 (KJV) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 (KJV) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."

When one is obedient to the written Law of Moses then G-d bestows blessings upon us and also gives us peace through His written words now personified in the Messiah who had come. He also mentions nine fruits pointing us back to the Hebrew word Chanukah which means dedication of our lives back to Yahuweh.

Against gentleness and self control no Torah commandment restricts these practices.

Galatians 5:24 (KJV) "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

Those who have accepted the Messiah have also accepted the law that he came to demonstrate and fulfill namely the Torah of Moses and such have subdued their passions and desires to be in line with what G-d’s desires.

Galatians 5:25 (KJV) "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

The `spirit` here is not the Holy Spirit but the Torah, ultimately from the mouth of the L-rd or His voice. If we act under this then we are compelled to do good works of the Torah. This means we must submit to the L-rd.

Galatians 5:26 (KJV) "Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

If we behave badly and say to each other I know more than you or I am better than you then we end up in fleshly arguments and this is to be avoided at all costs. So keep in mind in order to understand Rabbi Paulos you need to be trained in the art of first century mindset.

Second Peter 3:16 (AFNHSS) "As also in all his (Rabbi Paulos’s) letters, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to understand, which they that are undiscipled and unstable pervert, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction."

Conclusion

So in conclusion you can see that Rabbi Paulos paints a very interesting picture of the synagogues in the dispersion how they were starting to be influenced by incorrect teachings and started to drift away from Torah truth. Without understanding all the symbols and idiomatic expressions used in the first century it’s unlikely anyone can arrive at a safe interpretation of this and the other letters of Rabbi Paulos.

 1. The FREEDOM or LIBERTY that Rabbi Paulos offered was to obey the instructions written down by Moses and avoid the thousands of customs, commandments which had become a yoke of slavery.

2.
http://www.biblesearchers.com/yahshua/beithillel/falk.shtml

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