Appropriation

To appropriate something is to take something belonging to another tradition or people and claim, use, or redefine it as one's own, particularly without proper acknowledgement of its origins.

It is interesting how when I share that I follow the Mosaic law (God’s law), Christianity will tell me that I’m appropriating Judaism. Christianity will defend Judaism... yet reject it.

How I see it, today’s Christianity is the one that has appropriated Judaism. It took the faith of Israel, and over time developed doctrines and practices that separated it from the Torah-observant Judaism it emerged from. It claimed the scriptures, Messiah, covenants, apostles, and promises of Israel but taught that God's Torah had been abolished. Scripture says all nations will flow to the Jews/Israelites and that the Jews/Israelites will be a light to them, teaching them His Torah. However, Christians say that Jews must convert to Christianity to be saved. I was so sad recently seeing some Christians joke to a new Jewish to Christian convert that "now he can eat pork." Seriously?

Throughout Old Testament scripture, it is clear that the Most High invited all into His assembly of chosen people as long as they were willing to put their faith in His salvation and conform THEIR ways to His, and His ways have been set on a firm foundation from the beginning. Yeshua didn’t create a new religion outside of this. He brought fulfillment to an ancient one. THAT is the faith I’ve chosen to conform myself to. No altering. No appropriation.

Ecclesiastes 12:13,14 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this applies to every man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with all that is hidden, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.

Throughout Jewish history, various Jewish figures have been regarded by many Jews as possible or actual messianic claimants, such as Athronges, a shepherd who led a revolt in Judea around 4–2 BC, Menahem ben Judah, a first-century Jewish revolutionary, or Simon bar Kokhba, or Serene of Syria, or Yudghan of Hamadan, or David Alrui, or Nissim ben Abraham, and the list goes on and on. It’s up to each of us to choose who we believe the Messiah was based on prophecy from the Law and the Prophets. But what is not up to us is to change or disregard the very foundation that the Messianic prophecy was built on - the Law and the Prophets.

I spoke to a few Jewish people in person not too long ago, and they were perplexed that I kept the Torah AND believed in Yeshua. It was a contradiction to them because of what they hear Christians teach. They said something like, “But doesn’t Yeshua teach against the law?” I briefly explained that later Christian interpretation came to understand Yeshua's words as abolishing the Torah, even though Yeshua explicitly said the opposite. This separation from Jewish practice was already developing in the centuries before Constantine, but it became increasingly institutionalized as Christianity gained imperial power under Constantine and his successors. Later, Catholic Christianity further entrenched many of these distinctions, and Protestantism inherited much of that theological framework. I wish I’d had a Bible on hand to show these ladies the verse where Yeshua says He did not come to abolish the law, but unfortunately I didn’t. They were intrigued by this perspective, though, as they’d never heard of it before.

I can’t help but feel so disappointed over the damage we’ve done through Christianity by teaching that you have to forsake Judaism (keeping the Torah) to be saved, when in the apostles’ time, everyone who believed was coming INTO the fold of Israel - not into a new faith. I've seen some Jewish people who are uncomfortable with non-Jews or "goyim" keeping Torah, but others are more concerned with whether someone is actually taking the Scriptures seriously. It is not appropriating to follow the Law if you are fully conforming to the ancient faith of Israel as described in the Law and the Prophets. This is the promise made to Abraham:

Genesis 22:18 And in your Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed My voice.

Isaiah 2:2–3 It will come to pass in the last days that the mountain of Adonai’s House will stand firm as head of the mountains and will be exalted above the hills. So all nations will flow to it. Then many peoples will go and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Adonai, to the House of the God of Jacob! Then He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For Torah will go forth from Zion and the word of Adonai from Jerusalem.

Isaiah 42:6,7 “I, Adonai, called You in righteousness, I will take hold of Your hand, I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, by opening blind eyes, bringing prisoners out of the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house."

Isaiah 49:6 So He says, “It is too trifling a thing that You should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved ones of Israel. So I will give You as a light for the nations, that You should be My salvation to the end of the earth.”

Isaiah 60:1–3 Arise, shine, for your light has come! The glory of Adonai has risen on you. For behold, darkness covers the earth, and deep darkness the peoples. But Adonai will arise upon you, and His glory will appear over you. Nations will come to your light, kings to the brilliance of your rising.

Zechariah 8:23: Thus says YHWH of hosts: "In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

If you are a Christian who's reading this, please do not become arrogant towards the branch that you are grafted into (Romans 11:11-24). We weren't called to convert Jews to Christianity. Bringing salvation was actually their prerogative from the beginning, and we are going to see a huge resurgence of belief in the unbelieving Jews as the age draws to an end.

John 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Many Christians claim they are the new Israel, but whatever language we use for our identity, Scripture does not present covenant faithfulness as optional. His law stands forever. An old covenant does not mean an abolished covenant. How can you be Israel while disregarding Israel's foundation?

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Psalms 119:142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is the truth.

Psalms 119:160 The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Matthew 5:17 (ERV) [Yeshua:] "Don't think that I have come to destroy the Law of Moses or the teaching of the prophets. I have come not to destroy their teachings but to give full meaning to them. I assure you that nothing will disappear from the law until heaven and earth are gone. The law will not lose even the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter until it has all been done.

- The Pondering Painter