Why We Keep Torah: Ten Persistent Questions – Book

The Ten Questions:

1. Didn’t Yeshua Declare All Foods Clean?
2. If We Are to Keep Torah, What About Animal Sacrifice?
3. If Yeshua and His Apostles Changed the Sabbath to Sunday, Doesn’t That Prove the Torah has Been Replaced?
4. “Doesn’t Paul Dismiss the Torah’s Laws about Food, Festivals, New Moons, and Sabbath in Colossians 2?”
5. In Peter’s vision (Acts 10), didn’t God make it clear that there was no longer any need to keep the food laws of the Torah?
6. Paul makes it clear that we are “not under the Law.” Doesn’t that mean that we no longer are required to obey the Torah?
7. If Paul abolished the commandment of circumcision, doesn’t that prove that the Law has been abolished?
8. Didn’t the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) make it clear that the Torah was only for Jewish people?
9. Wasn’t the Law given to condemn sinners and not as a guide for living righteously? (1 Tim 1:8; Gal 3:19)
10. Didn’t God abolish the ceremonial and civil parts of the Law, requiring of us only the moral laws?

Why We Keep Torah is a perfect resource for anyone in the Torah community. Whether you’re new to Torah observance or have been following God’s commands for many years, this book is a foundational resource.
Tim Hegg brings clarity to ten of the most common objections to believers in Yeshua keeping the Torah.
The first objection addressed is “Didn’t Yeshua Declare All Foods Clean in Mark 7:19?” When the biblical food laws are discussed, the most common verse to be brought up is Mark 7:19 which states that Yeshua “declared all foods clean.” This verse has been seen by mainstream Christians as the nail in the coffin of keeping a biblically clean diet. However, shows that there is something else going on. This verse is approached by first understanding the context it is given in, understanding the historical background to the scene that is set, and then focusing on Yeshua’s response. Tim then moves to a study on Yeshua’s teaching on food and finally a look at this Greek grammar that is often overlooked by Christian teachers. Tim leaves no stone unturned when looking at this passage and shows that not only is the view that Yeshua declared all foods acceptable to eat, but this was not the interpretation of the passage from earlier Christians.

The second question addressed is, “If we are to keep the Torah, what about animal sacrifices?” This question is one that many believe contradicts a pro-Torah perspective and brings a significant amount of confusion even among those who have followed Torah for quite some time. Tim’s teaching on this subject brings much-needed clarity as he begins by diving into animal sacrifices in the Torah and what they accomplished before Yeshua died on the cross. Answering this question is the key to understanding the sacrificial system in general and how it relates to the Work of our Lord on the cross. After looking at what animal sacrifices accomplished before the temple fell, Tim then brings this understanding into our modern time to understand how the sacrificial system should be viewed by Torah observant believers today and how this works within the theology of the cross.

The third question Tim addresses looks at the biblical Sabbath and asks, “If the Yeshua and the Apostles changed the Sabbath to Sunday, doesn’t that prove the Torah has been replaced?” Tim begins by looking at what the Scriptures say about the Sabbath. After this short survey, Tim moves to the question of whether Yeshua broke the Sabbath why did He allow His disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath, and why did He heal on the Sabbath? After addressing these issues, Tim turns to Paul and his teaching on the Sabbath by looking at passages like Romans 14. Finally, a look at what some of the Church fathers taught and if they had the authority to change or erase the Sabbath.

The fourth question Tim addresses is “Doesn’t Paul Dismiss the Torah’s Laws about Food, Festivals, New Moons, and Sabbath in Colossians 2?” This passage is a go-to passage for many who oppose believers keeping the Torah. Tim starts by giving the reader a background of the book of Colossians and then outlines the entire epistle. This leads to a more detailed look at chapter 2 where he walks verse by verse through the chapter to understand exactly what Paul is teaching in this passage. Tim’s extensive look at this passage is concluded when he states,
“Far from being a teaching of Paul that the Torah and its commandments have been set aside, the epistle of Colossians reinforces the need to walk in Yeshua by the same faith through which He is received (2:6–7), a faith characterized by obedience to God’s commandments. What Paul was combating in the epistle is not teachers who were encouraging the Colossians to keep Torah, but false teachers who were trying to draw the Colossians into their own, man-made religion, a religion that diminished the unique person and work of Yeshua, and elevated an outward asceticism without having the power for true holiness.”

The fifth question Tim addresses is, “In Peter’s vision (Acts 10), didn’t God make it clear that there was no longer any need to keep the food laws of the Torah?” Like all the passages that are looked at in this book, Acts 10 is almost always referenced when discussing Torah observance for believers. Tim begins by looking at the context of Peter’s vision as it falls within the book of Acts and the command to take the Gospel to the nations. The discussion then moves to the command itself to “kill and eat.” This phrase takes on new light when viewed from a historical and grammatical context as Tim points out. Finally, Tim looks at Peter’s interpretation of the vision that is given in the text.

The sixth question Tim answers is, “Paul makes it clear that we are ‘not under the Law.’ Doesn’t that mean that we no longer are required to obey the Torah?” Focusing on Romans 6:14, Tim begins by walking through this passage line by line to understand exactly what Paul is saying. Tim then moves to 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 and looks at the structure of the passage before looking at the famous passage where Paul states that he has become all things to all men. Tim brings amazing clarity to this difficult passage before moving to Galatians 3:23, 4:4-5, 21, and 5:18. This overview of Galatians is a micro-teaching from Tim’s full commentary on the book of Galatians and might be thought of as a pocket guide to this difficult passage.

The seventh question Tim looks at is, “If Paul abolished the commandment of circumcision, doesn’t that prove that the Law has been abolished?” Circumcision is another issue that opponents of a pronomian (pro-law) theology bring up. If the Torah is still in effect, then how can circumcision be done away with? Once again, Tim begins by framing the entire argument and looking at famous Christian teachings on this subject. Tim briefly touches on Colossians 2:11 but quickly moves to Timothy as a test case. Then Tim moves to Gentile, circumcision, and Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. Also included is a wonderful exposition on the meaning of circumcision and what this command means in the first place. Tim’s teaching on this subject is a breath of fresh air bringing clarity to a very difficult subject.

The eighth question Tim responds to is, “Didn’t the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) make it clear that the Torah was only for Jewish people?” This passage has been notoriously difficult for a slew of reasons. Many within the mainstream Christian Church have taken this chapter to say that God has done away with the Mosaic law, but this translation has found problems even for evangelical scholars. Tim frames the argument and looks at exactly what is being debated at the Jerusalem Council. Tim then moves to the idea put forward by some that the Torah itself is the “Yoke that no one can bear.” This moves to a study of Yeshua’s teaching of both Yoke and Burden. Tim then moves to an extensive look at the four requirements that are given by the council. Hegg concludes that the four requirements are laws that four people coming out of paganism would ensure they were not continuing to participate in idolatry. Once these laws were established the Gentiles would be able to learn the rest of the Laws of God through attendance at the synagogue (Acts 15:21).

The ninth question Tim addresses is, “Wasn’t the Law given to condemn sinners and not as a guide for living righteously? (1 Tim 1:8; Gal 3:19)” Tim starts by framing the question and then looks at historical interpretations of these passages from famous Christian theologians throughout the ages. As is his normal style, Tim looks at the context of the passage and frames it within the first-century Jewish worldview. This allows us as students of the Bible to understand exactly where Paul is coming from and gives us the ability to see these passages from a context that we haven’t seen them in before.

In the final common objection posed to Torah observant believers, Tim answers the question, “Didn’t God abolish the ceremonial and civil parts of the Law, requiring of us only the moral laws?” The view that the Torah is broken up into these categories is the majority view of Christian teachers and scholars today. Tim begins by looking at this view through historical writings, then frames the argument so the reader can better understand the history and teachings of this theology. Tim then looks at the unity of the Torah and shows why these categories simply do not work but are man-made boxes to justify the rejection of laws like the Sabbath, dietary laws, and biblical festivals. Tim then looks at the teaching of Yeshua and the disciples about the Torah and how they did not teach in such categories.

This book is a treasure trove of clarity and biblical foundations for the truth of God’s Word. It is founded on solid scholarship that considers the history and grammar of the Scriptures, while at the same time bringing large concepts down to a level that anyone can grasp them. Tim can help students of the Word better understand difficult passages from a Hebraic background and gives answers to the ten most common objections that are posed to Torah observant Christians.