James Tissot
The Lord’s controversy with the House of Israel as proclaimed by the Prophet Hosea includes this charge:
I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing. (Hosea 8:12 NKJV)
What does He mean by this? Very simply that the wise and powerful things the Lord explained in His Torah (Law) are things that His people chose to disregard. Do His people still disregard His Torah? Yes, and no. There are many things from YHVH’s Torah which His people follow, and other things which they consider no longer applicable in one way or another.
But who are God’s people? Let us consider for a moment that they are both Jews and Christians, people who claim allegiance to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For centuries they have progressed down separate paths, clinging to what they each consider the fullness of the revelation of God. Sadly, the things He has revealed to Christians are things that Jews consider abominable, and the things He has revealed to Jews are things Christians consider a burden. How else are we to understand the Jewish rejection of Yeshua of Nazareth as Messiah, and the Christian rejection of the Torah which Yeshua proclaimed and taught by example? It is a sad state of affairs when God’s people refuse even to talk with one another about the great things He has revealed to each so that all may be healed and strengthened.
This is something Tim Hegg addresses in his article, “It is Often Said, “Two Thousand Years of Christianity Cannot be Wrong!'” This article first appeared on Torah Resource in 2006, and is contained in a series of booklets entitled It is Often Said, which is available from the Torah Resource online store at:
http://store.torahresource.com/It_Is_Often_Said_Full_Set_p/iios480.htm.
Messianic Publications republished the article in 2011, and it is published again here by permission.
Tim’s focus is on the Christian objections to Torah. As you will see, the Christian position for most of the history of the church has been far more accepting of the greater part of Torah than is commonly supposed. In other words, the Torah of God is not such a strange thing after all once one understands what His Torah actually is.
THE BARKING FOX 