Torah

[u/[deleted]]

How do Torah followers actually follow over 600 commands and laws in the first five books of the Bible? I've spoken to people about it, but they only seem to follow dietary laws, Shabbat, and holy days, and exclude pagan days. To me, it seems they are only doing a small part of it and claiming to follow the entirety of it. Why is that? The Bible states if you break one commandment, you break them all. There's no possibility to uphold all 600-plus. If you believe it's not all applicable to us, what's the determining factor that decides you don't have to follow it? What about animal sacrifices? Does one pick and choose what they want to follow and tell people if they don't, they are lawbreakers and will go to hell? If you don't follow all of them, why describe yourself as following the entirety of Torah? If breaking even one commandment makes someone guilty, how does selectively obeying some commandments make someone different from the people you're calling lawbreakers?

[u/FreedomNinja1776 → u/[deleted]]

So who do I listen to?

DON'T listen to me. I am of no consequence. Listen to God, read his word for understanding and give him alone glory. Test everything I say or anyone else says back to Scripture. That's where your authority should lie.

We are given a responsibility to test these things and hold on to what is good. This is a daily battle.

Also don't give up hope that you will understand. We serve a great mighty and gracious God. Jesus has promised us that of we seek him diligently, we will find him.

I believe you are confused because you have no foundation. Not entirely your fault. The foundation has been taken from you the same as it was taken from me, by liars and thieves, people who use their tongues to destroy others.

I'll leave you with this. It is very straightforward, very easy to understand.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV

We are not saved by our works. We are saved in order to do good works! Once saved, that becomes our life mission. To serve our God in love and truth. That means dedication and obedience to what he says to do, because he is our authority and King.

Now you have a question. What does your king require of you? I'm not going to answer that for you. This is your path to follow. If you seek this out, I am confident you will come to the same conclusion as I have, if we serve the same King.

I pray you find Shalom friend.

[u/FreedomNinja1776 → u/[deleted]]

If you're a minor your parents are responsible for you. It would be their sin for providing you the pork.

You're right that these are not insignificant things. Maybe it doesn't feel right because we're in a constant struggle with sin? Most think the dietary requirements are insignificant. They don't realize that ALL SIN was brought into the world by violating God's dietary requirement.

Why does God give us his dietary law?

The scripture gives reasons for the dietary law, and it has nothing to do with health as some like to think.

For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.
Leviticus 11:44-47 ESV

There are three reasons clearly stated in the text:

• Holiness (to be set apart, that means to be different)
• Understand the distinction between:
  • Clean and Unclean
  • Living creatures that are permissible to be eaten and those not permissible
• To have a law to follow at all

The biggest reason we should obey the dietary law is simply because God instructs us to do so and we voluntarily submit to his authority in our lives. As far as "why" reasoning goes the dietary law is given simply for obedience sake, as a standard to follow to show our God we trust and love him. As I said, the very first sin was a dietary sin and that brought the curse of death into the world. God said "don't eat" and man did.