Becoming Biblical Bereans
We do things a little differently over here, but it's not as crazy as you might think . . .
“I see your banner says you write ‘Torah-Observant Christian Fiction,’ and I have to ask, what does ‘Torah-observant Christian’ mean?”
This was a question I got while on a call with some fellow freelancers recently. The question was cued by my video-call backdrop, which is also my LinkedIn banner, and really sums up my entire brand in one image. The backdrop in question shows the two sides of my business: on the lower left, my professional services; on the upper right, my personal work as an author.
A Torah-observant Christian author (whatever that means).
The question was unexpected, but I was happy to explain. The short answer is that Torah-observant Christianity is exactly what it sounds like: Christians who observe the Torah. First-Century Christianity.
Still confused? I understand. I was too, at first.
Keep reading: I’ll break it down for you.
But before we get too tangled up in the middle of the story, let’s look back in time to the first-century believers, their lives and beliefs, as written in the Acts and Letters of the Apostles.
Meanwhile, Back in Berea . . .
So, way back in the first century, there was this church at Berea. If you don’t know where Berea was, it was right over there next to present-day Thessaloniki in Greece. It’s called Verea today. Now, the folks in this congregation were really, really good at vetting their teachers (at least compared to the Thessalonians).
They were so good they became a meme—er, I mean, an idiom. Ever heard an exhortation to “be a Berean”? The Bereans became a Christian idiom for verifying teachings with scripture instead of believing any old doctrine taught. The Bereans famously fact-checked Paul the Apostle when he visited and preached to them about Christ. Here’s what Luke said about them:
“As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea. On arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. The people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Consequently, many of them believed, including a number of the prominent Greek women as well as men.”
They “examined the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” What scriptures, you ask?
The premessianic scriptures, which we call the Old Testament now. Everything Paul taught about Christ should be able to be confirmed through the Old Testament scriptures.
Everything.
The Bereans set an example for us to follow of checking all doctrine to the scriptures—to all of the scriptures, but especially the law, prophets, and psalms, as these are what Jesus came to fulfill and are the measuring rod of veracity for the New Testament scriptures.
Of course, in the next verse from the above quote (Acts 17:13), the Jews of Thessalonica came to Berea and drove the apostles out of there too. I have to wonder if this byplay between Berea and Thessalonica is why Paul reminded the Thessalonians specifically to “test all things, hold fast that which is good.”
“Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.”
I also find this mention of prophecies interesting because of another verse, this one from the Old Testament:
“Indeed, the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing His counsel to His servants the prophets.”
In case we needed any further proof that the New Testament can be fully confirmed by the Old, Amos makes it crystal clear that everything God does is always foretold by the prophets, which means that everything in the New Testament was prophesied in advance . . . doctrine included.
So, with that as our foundation, let’s dig into scripture. Let’s be Bereans.
Birth of a New Religion or Maturing of an Old?
Christianity, A ‘New’ Religious Order
If you were asked when Christianity began, what would be your answer? Well, it started with Jesus Christ, you might say. Isn’t that what Christian means—follower of Christ?
Be more specific.
When did Christianity begin?
Common answers from many believers include that it began at the cross (John 19:30), in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:44-45), or with Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:6-9). Some might also say the Christian church began around 70 A.D. when the Jewish Temple was destroyed. Others would point out that the believers were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26).
The catch with any of these answers is that they all have an interesting assumption inbuilt: that something old was being replaced. That mankind had come to the end of an era. But had we?
Yes and no.
Generally what Christians think of when they are talking about this division of time is the concept that Israel and the Gentile church are separate, something triggered by Messiah’s arrival on earth . . . or more specifically, his departure from earth. With this view, you are basically left with two options: either the Church replaced Israel or the two coexist as separate entities (potentially even with different routes to salvation). This idea is based on verses like this one👇
“By saying, a new covenant, He has declared that the first is old. And what is old and aging is about to disappear.”
And this one . . . 👇
“Therefore, don't let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is the Messiah.”
And this one too . . .👇
“For if what was fading away was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.”
It seems obvious what those mean, right? Add to that the fact that Gentiles were joining the fold like never before in the first century, Jews were livid about this soi-disant “Messiah” that taught against their traditions, “blasphemed God,” and had the audacity to resurrect, and then you have the sudden mention of the “Church” all over the New Testament scriptures . . . it definitely gives the impression at first glance that the Jews and their covenant had been replaced by a freer, more inclusive covenant religion called Christianity.
But wait, there’s more!
There’s another side to this coin: according to scripture, God will never entirely reject Israel.
“Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God; but I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.’” These are the statutes, ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.”
Ever.
“I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.” But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”
When the Israelites first made their covenant with God, they were warned that if they ever broke that covenant they would be cut off from Israel. Of course, Paul brings this up in Romans 11 when he talks about the Gentiles’ relationship to Israel. We know that the Israelites were given chance after chance to return and still rejected God over and over . . . and over again. It was pretty bad. Yet he kept giving them those chances to return. In fact, at one point in Jeremiah he says that unless the creation itself ceases to function according to its assigned order, Israel will never cease to be a nation before him; and again, unless mankind can fully search out the heavens and earth, he will never cast them off.
“Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name, says: “If these ordinances depart from before me,” says Yahweh, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.” Yahweh says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” says Yahweh.”
Since we know Messiah is the only door to eternal life, this begs the question . . . what if Christians aren’t so separate from Israel after all?
What if we’re grafted into the same covenant? What if . . . what if we Gentiles were given the same promises and called to abide by the same law?
Just, what if. Think of it as a hypothetical question: if God called you to 1( wear tassels, 2( eat only clean foods, 3( rest one day a week, you would do it, right? God calls us to do lots of things we don’t understand, that may even sound outlandish to us, and yet we do our best to follow through, knowing that he has our back when we (inevitably) mess up and that everything he tells us to do has a purpose, even when we don’t understand what that purpose is.
I can hear some of you now, saying, “Okay, but Abby, he didn’t tell us to do any of that.”
Maybe he never told us not to.
Think about it: if we’re grafted into Israel, then either the ancient covenant itself has disappeared (which . . . it can’t; just look up the words ‘perpetual,” “everlasting,” and “forever” in your bible) or the “terms and conditions” still apply no matter who signs the contract (Gentiles included). The law already existed, he didn’t need to give it a second time.
Now, I would say the applicability of the Torah is directly confirmed in the New Testament, but even if it isn’t, we would need more than a lack of repetition to uphold a claim that it’s obsolete.
“Alright, Abby, what about those verses you shared earlier about the law being a shadow and growing old?”
Great question; let’s do a quick overview now, and I’ll dig into those passages more thoroughly in future articles (this one is already TL;DR). There are, as you may imagine, many verses that are used to argue against Gentile Christians keeping the Mosaic law. I’m not going into all of them today. This is just the tip of the iceberg; if you want more, you can subscribe to get future articles delivered straight to your inbox, challenging your faith and hopefully inspiring you to be a Berean and a soldier for Christ in every aspect of your life. 😁
Of the three passages I quoted as potentially separating the church from Israel, the short of them is that the first (Hebrews 8:13) is contextually talking about the Levitical system not the entire Mosaic law (and doesn’t mean the Levitical system is obsolete either, there’s more specific context to that passage, but anyway . . .); the second passage (Colossians 2:16-17) is contextually an admonishment against the commands of men and for the commands of God; and the third passage (2 Corinthians 3:11) straight up calls the law glorious, so no matter what is meant contextually by “fading away” (and I’ll break it down another time) it certainly can’t mean the law was a failed system that needed to be replaced.
Were the First Century believers keeping the law?
Read James 2 and get back to me on that. 😉
The short answer is yes. Keep reading . . . 👇
“When in Rome . . .”
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
. . . Or don’t.
Christians are built different; we don’t do things like the world does. Or at least we shouldn’t. Sure, we screw up sometimes, but conformity to the world is not our modus operandum as believers.
Why? Because we were called to be separate (2 Corinthians 6:17); holy (1 Peter 1:15-16); even perfect (Matthew 5:48). We are instructed to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6), emulate those who imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1; Hebrews 13:7), and told that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4, Romans 8:7-8).
Enmity.
Let that one sink in for a minute.
This is one of those points in scripture that always makes me want to straighten up my spiritual posture, stand at attention, and salute. 🫡
Like anyone, I fail at something in my walk with God every single day. We do our best, but there are days that we are far closer to friendship with the world than obedience to God. But what exactly defines that line? How do we know whether we are in alignment with God’s righteousness or with the sinful pleasures that tempt us into the enemy’s camp?
Well, he tells us how.
The opposite of enmity with God is obedience to his law (again, look at Romans 8:7-8). Obedience is the measuring rod of righteousness.
. . . And before anyone gets worked up into a tizzy, I am not preaching works-based salvation. That literally never existed in scripture; it isn’t the Torah, it isn’t the Gospel, it isn’t even the apostles’ personal opinion. Going back to David, Joshua, Moses, Abraham, Noah, and Adam, salvation was always by the grace of God through faith, that’s why all of those guys have a place in the Hebrews “Hall of Faith” (Hebrews 11).
But faith functions so closely in conjunction with our works that it’s positively impossible to separate the two. You can’t have one without the other. That’s just how it is.
And God’s instructions for doing good works are how we know we’re on the right side of history . . . and eternity.
Remember: It wasn’t those who heard and believed the truth that were founded on the rock, it was those who heard and obeyed.
“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. And its collapse was great! ”
In Conclusione
I think I’m going to give up apologizing for long articles. They seem to be my specialty. 😅 I maxed out the Substack email length limit with this one though.
This topic is so complex, so deep, and so hotly debated, that tackling it in a single article is impossible. If you’ve read this far, and you don’t already agree with me, congratulations! I either made a very positive impression or a very negative one. I’m curious which.
If you found this article fascinating, thought-provoking, informative . . . or infuriating . . . I wouldn’t complain about an algorithm boost from a like and getting to read your thoughts in the comments! I encourage debate here but don’t go getting nasty or you’ll be muted. Respect is key, even if you disagree. 😊
If you enjoyed reading this, please subscribe and share it with your friends!
In case you missed them, I already discussed being separate and the relationship between faith and works in two different articles (linked here and here).
Until next time,
Blessings!
—Abigail
Psst! Have you heard about my other publications? You should check them out! When I’m not posting here, I am usually posting over there. 😜
This took me the whole day to read 🤪😂 but well tied in with your previous article! (I hope more people take the time to read! I think this article is well done and could help people understand if they take the time and read it.)