{"id":16930,"date":"2008-12-02T20:24:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-03T02:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=16930"},"modified":"2019-12-19T20:30:05","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T02:30:05","slug":"can-you-help-me-with-some-arguments-from-a-messianic-jew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-help-me-with-some-arguments-from-a-messianic-jew\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you help me with some arguments from a Messianic Jew?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

I have a friend who was a Christian and recently left the Church of Christ to join a group of people who call themselves Messianic Jews.\u00a0 My friend, and many other people, were told by the person who they call the rabbi of that group that everyone in that group that their last names appeared on a computer database that indicates their ancestors were Jewish. This “rabbi,” by the way, is not Jewish because he was a Christian Baptist before all this. So now my friend and many others who were previously Christians joined this synagogue and they follow the teachings of the Law of Moses.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. My friend tells me that if I don’t observe the Sabbath I am not obeying with the Ten Commandments and that the Ten Commandments are still in force and that the Sabbath was part of the Ten Commandments.<\/li>\n
  2. She also tells me that Sunday worship was invented and established by Constantine and the Catholic Church and that it is false teaching.<\/li>\n
  3. She also tells me that eating pork meat and bloody meat (rarely cooked steaks and cow’s liver steaks) is a sin because Paul told the people in Galatians that they didn’t need to follow the Judaizer, but they needed to abstain from blood, which includes the eating of animal organ meats such as the cow’s liver.<\/li>\n
  4. She also tells me that the name Jesus Christ is a pagan name given by the Greek Catholic Church and that the real name of God is the Hebrew name Jahweh and that Jesus’ name is Yeshua Messiah.\u00a0 Where is she right and where is she wrong according to the Bible?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Looking forward to your reply.<\/p>\n\t

    Answer:<\/h2>\n

    “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:3-4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    It appears that Judaizing teachers are making a come back. I’ve run across several and so far each sound scholarly and sophisticated, but when you check their statements you find that they are spouting nothing but gibberish.<\/p>\n

    The Sabbath<\/h3>\n

    There are numerous articles on this web site regarding the end of the Ten Commandments, including the Sabbath law. Except for the Sabbath law, the other nine commandments are found as part of the new covenant established by Christ. See\u00a0Observing the Sabbath<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Why We Don’t Follow the Old Testament<\/a>\u00a0as starters.<\/p>\n

    Constantine<\/h3>\n

    The Constantine argument is popular among Sabbath-keepers, but it is actually one of those urban myths. It isn’t based on historical facts. See “You only worship on Sunday because Constantine changed the day of worship<\/a>” for all the details.<\/p>\n

    Eating Pork<\/h3>\n

    The argument against eating pork is inconsistent as presented. Pork wasn’t forbidden to the Jews because blood was in the meat. It was forbidden because pigs were unclean animals. See “Uncleanness<\/a>” for more details. The problem is that the laws of uncleanness were not repeated in the New Testament. Instead, we are specifically told that all meats are now considered clean. “And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.)<\/em>” (Mark 7:18-19). Paul repeated the point as well. “For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer<\/em>” (I Timothy 4:4-5).<\/p>\n

    Eating Rare Meats<\/h3>\n

    The law for not eating blood is part of the covenant that God made with Noah on behalf of mankind. “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood<\/em>” (Genesis 9:3-4). Though the Law of Moses has come to an end, this particular covenant remains in effect and was repeated in the New Testament.<\/p>\n

    Under Moses’ law, it was explained further how this term of Noah’s covenant was to be kept: “Whatever man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust; or it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off’<\/em>” (Leviticus 17:13-14). There is one occasion when Saul’s rash vow left his men so hungry that they ate butchered meat without allowing time for the blood to drain from the animals (I Samuel 14:31-33).<\/p>\n

    The New Testament gives essentially the same command by stating that Christians are “to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood<\/em>” (Acts 15:20). Butchering a strangled animal would leave its blood within it.<\/p>\n

    But what has not been proven is that organ meats and meats cooked to the rare stage are included in this law against eating blood. I know of no statement that certain parts were forbidden, beyond blood itself. So long as the animal was properly butchered, there appears to be no other restriction. To add additional restrictions would require proving it from the Scriptures.<\/p>\n

    The Name of Jesus<\/h3>\n

    The pronunciation of names is addressed in “Why should YHWH be pronounced correctly and not Yeshua?<\/a>” Since the New Testament existed long before the Catholic Church, the claim that it created the Greek name for Jesus Christ is obviously false. To claim that Jesus’ name in Greek is of pagan origin is to claim that the entire New Testament, which was originally written in Greek, came from pagans instead of the Holy Spirit as has been clearly proven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Question: I have a friend who was a Christian and recently left the Church of Christ to join a group of people who call themselves Messianic Jews.\u00a0 My friend, and many other people, were told by the person who they call the rabbi of that group that everyone in that group that their last names…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[768,240,73,851,348],"class_list":["post-16930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-blood","tag-diet","tag-jesus","tag-messianic-judaism","tag-sabbath"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25576,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-son-started-worshiping-on-saturdays-with-a-group-on-the-internet-is-he-in-a-cult\/","url_meta":{"origin":16930,"position":0},"title":"My son started worshiping on Saturdays with a group on the Internet. Is he in a cult?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My son was raised in the church. He recently started \"keeping the Sabbath,\" and is taking my three grandsons to a motel where they have a private church -- just the four of them. They study the word with a group on the Internet! 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They believe that Christians are still supposed to be in obedience to these laws, including the law\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/11\/resting-300x130.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":86813,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/observing-the-sabbath-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":16930,"position":3},"title":"Observing the Sabbath (Sermon)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Corinthians 3:1-11 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A well-known, active group is the Seventh-Day Adventist \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hold an odd mixture of beliefs: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They won\u2019t accept medical treatment, relying solely on prayer instead; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They believe in modern-day prophecy, making many wild claims that never seem to come true; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36005,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-jewish-hebrew-or-gentile\/","url_meta":{"origin":16930,"position":4},"title":"Am I Jewish, Hebrew, or Gentile?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Am I Jewish, Hebrew, or a Gentile? My mother was a German Christian. Her grandparents immigrated and were from Germany. What is known is that my father the son of his mother, who was the daughter of her mother, who was the daughter of her father, an Orthodox German\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19287,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-all-churches-of-christ-teach-that-the-ten-commandments-were-nailed-to-the-cross\/","url_meta":{"origin":16930,"position":5},"title":"Do all churches of Christ teach that the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I\u00a0stumbled upon\u00a0the La Vista Church of Christ web site in the course of searching for an answer to the question, \"Were the Ten Commandments Nailed to the Cross?\"\u00a0\u00a0Simply stated,\u00a0your answer\u00a0is \"Yes,\" and I\u00a0fully agree with every single comment\u00a0I found on your web site regarding\u00a0the answer to this question -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}