REPLY TO
TIM CHAFFEY.

Key Points

• The Law of Moses is not solely Jewish and it is misleading to frame it as such. The Torah is as much Jewish as it belongs to the Levites, Benjaminites, Gadites, and the rest of the tribes. We must abandon our unfounded and misguided understanding that the Torah—which includes the Appointed Times and Feasts, Holy Sabbath established at Creation, and the rest of the perfect instruction—is "Jewish." It was given to all Israel to be observed forever (Deuteronomy 13:16). Apostle Paul, and the whole of Scripture echoes that there is one Law for Jew and Gentile—and that Gentiles who become believers are grafted into Israel (Romans 11:11-31). There is no such thing as a Gentile-believer, as believers are grafted into covenant with יהוה to be considered native Israel (Numbers 15:16, Romans 10:12).

  • One who continues to believe and teach that the Law of Moses is Jewish consequently teaches themselves that it is irrelevant. They will never realize that the Law of Moses is the very image of our Creator and His son our Messiah. The Law of Moses is not solely Jewish but instead belongs to all who wish to be children of יהוה and strive to walk in the image He created them to be. Since the beginning, there has been only one Law—one set of instructions for all those who wish to be children of יהוה (Exodus 12:49, Numbers 15:16).

• The Torah is the Law of YHVH (2 Kings 10:41, Psalm 19:7). The Law of Moses is the revealed image of our Creator and His perfect Son. Believers must strive to walk in the image of our Messiah if they desire to heed the instruction of the Apostles. Are they not our teachers who echo the truth of Scripture in order to guide us when we are but babes to the truth?

• Be reminded of what the definition of sin is: sin is lawlessness. Sin is the breaking of the Law of Moses.

  • Did the definition of sin change? What about being altered at or after the cross? Impossible! Sin is the opposite of the image and ways of יהוה, which cannot and will not ever change (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8).

    • That is the gravity of the awesomeness of our Elohim—he never changes and his plan and promises are firm!

    • There is not one single piece of scripture that redefines sin or proposes that the definition of sin is altered. Sin is the breaking of the Law of Moses. Sin is living contrary to the Law of יהוה.

    • If one continues to live in sin, continuing to break the Law given by יהוה through Moses, that person is living contrary to יהוה. Thus, they are living contrary to the sinless image they were created in (Leviticus 26:27-28). And they are living contrary to Yeshua our Messiah!

  • Should believers continue in sin so that grace may abound?

    • What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Romans 6:1-2 ESV

    • Sin still is and always will be lawlessness—the breaking of the Law of Moses.

• Yeshua directly commanded his people to keep the Torah in Matthew 23:1-5.

  • Then Yeshua said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long... Matthew 23:1-5 ESV

    • Yeshua is literally commanding the crowd and his disciples—commanding everyone—to keep the Torah. When the Pharisees and scribes sit on Moses’ seat, reading from his authority and reading from the Torah, "do what they say.” But when they move from Moses’ seat and authority, do not do what they do because they themselves do not keep the Law of Moses. They preach the Law of Moses—which was read regularly to the congregations on Shabbat—but do not practice it themselves. Instead, they keep their man-made traditions and the oral law of the Pharisees(Talmud). The Talmud is the yoke and burden hard to bear. Not the Torah. The Torah cannot be the burden hard to bear because our Creator himself says that it is not difficult (Deuteronomy 30:11).

    • This is an explicit command from our Messiah Yeshua himself that we are to keep the Law of Moses. We are to observe the authority and instructions given by יהוה through Moses.

• Remember, יהוה began to give all His instructions from His own mouth, but the people shuddered in tremendous fear begging Moses to instead speak on His behalf (Exodus 20:18-21). Every single command that came from the mouth of Moses is directly from our perfect Creator. Again, one must turn from foolishness and remember that the Law of Moses is from the very mouth of our Creator for all who desire to be called His children.

• To imply that the Torah instructs one to build an ark, even when you recognize that the command was specifically given to Noah, is like calling Yeshua a sinner because he did not build an ark. It may be the silliest and most foolish argument to attempt to discredit the HRM and those who strive to keep Torah under the grace and salvation of Messiah. It’s borderline blasphemy as it indirectly calls Yeshua a sinner if it were to be true.

• Many fail to discredit the HRM by saying they pick and choose which Torah to keep and which not to keep. This is folly. One example, as mentioned in your article, is the many commands that require a Levitical Priesthood in order to properly adhere to those commands. The fact that they require Levitical Priests to lawfully administer them means that when one abstains from attempting to keep those commands, they are actually keeping those instructions honorably. For instance, if one attempted to offer a sacrifice with their congregation, they would be violating the Torah because the Levitical Priesthood themselves must administer sacrifices specifically at the Temple. This would be the same if someone attempted to offer their own sacrifice when the Levitical Priesthood was established. Unfortunately, the problem in this perspective is rooted in the misunderstanding that the Law of Moses is too difficult to keep. One’s presuppositions hinder them from realizing that one actually keeps the Law of Moses by abstaining when they do not have all the required means to carry it out. This perspective ignores that part of the commands which include Levitical requirements are actually a connected condition of those commands and must be obeyed as a unit.

• It is blasphemy to say that the Law of Moses is too difficult to keep, as our Heavenly Father said that it is not too difficult and that we can do it. John echoes this and gives instruction that keeping the Law of Moses—as the fruit of one’s belief and salvation—is actually how we show love to our heavenly Father.

  • “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. Deuteronomy 30:11-14 ESV

  • For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3 ESV

• Your misinterpretation of Genesis 9:3 forgets that the author of Genesis was most likely Moses—which makes a clear connection to other pieces of the Torah. You know, besides the fact that Genesis is a part of Torah. That of which we must all read and determine which commands apply to each of us. Some only apply to women, some only to men. Some only apply to the Levitical Priesthood, and some apply to all. Surely if יהוה believed that a whole nation can learn and obey all his instructions, each of us can read and keep them ourselves when a tangible copy is so readily available. Remember, He said they are not too difficult (Deuteronomy 30:11).

  • “HRM proponents have argued that since the Flood account distinguishes between clean and unclean animals (Genesis 7:8), then it follows that God was simply telling Noah that he could now eat clean animals; thus it is just like the Levitical restrictions. A problem with this claim is that Genesis 9:3 makes no mention of the distinction between clean and unclean animals, so they are reading such an idea into the text rather than getting it from the text. In fact, the text specifically states twice that man was now permitted to eat “every” moving thing, and it mentions no restrictions.” - Tim Chaffey

    • Your assessment defies logic as you’re literally stating that one could eat vultures, poisonous tree frogs, and other “moving things” that would kill them.

    • The error is in the neglect that the Scripture clearly states that restrictions were made just as the instructions were given concerning which plants were permitted as food. There were instructions as to which plants were deemed food just as יהוה no doubt gave instructions on which animals were food. Hence, the author provides such definition later in the Torah (Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14). Otherwise, Noah too could eat Poison Ivy, Water Hemlock, Deadly Nightshade, and so on, all of which would be harmful or deadly. This was not an explicit command to Noah that he could eat anything—both plant or animal—that’s ludicrous. Is our Elohim one of confusion? No way!

      • Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Genesis 9:3

    • Your perspective blasphemes the very image of our unchanging Creator and proliferates an idea that He changes, which contradicts his revealed image (Malachi 3:6). Remember, the Law of Moses is the image of our Creator.

    • The breadcrumbs are in the Scriptures if one desires to find them, begging the Father to give them eyes to see and ears to hear.

      • Where is the Scripture that instructs Cain and Able on acceptable sacrifices? There are none. Can one just assume they went by their own ideas to present sacrifices pleasing to Elohim? Of course not. They are the same sacrificial instructions recorded in Leviticus. Cain’s sacrifice was not pleasing because he offered the wrong type for that specific instance.

• What is repentance in the eyes of Messiah?

  • It was the gospel he constantly preached:

    • Now after John was arrested, Yeshua came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14-16

    • When Yeshua sent out his disciples, he sent them with the message of repentance (Mark 7:12).

    • Repentance from what? From all sin—all lawlessness. Yeshua links the same repentance of those who listened to Jonah at Nineveh (Luke 11:29-32). This is immediately followed with instruction for one to bear light and remove the darkness—Yeshua literally saying have no part dark (Luke 11:33-36)! Light is the image of יהוה, which we know is the Law of Moses, and darkness always represents sin.

    • Everywhere you look our Messiah was proclaiming a repentance from sin which only means to turn back to the Law and image of God.

    • Yeshua calls believers to “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). The fruit must resemble Yeshua’s image, the Father’s image, and be pleasing to Him.

• The shadow that you reject belongs to Messiah. The shadow of things to come connects to the substance which is Messiah. Think about it this way: If our Messiah was walking directly towards the Father, who is the Light, the Messiah’s shadow would cast directly behind him. Those who recognize that the only way they can come to the Father is through Messiah will be clinging to his shadow as they walk directly behind him—not straying to the right or to the left. Anyone who belittles, disregards, or dismisses the shadow of Messiah forgets that it is connected to the substance which is Messiah himself. They stray off the narrow path. Believers who truly walk in the footsteps of Messiah will be walking directly in his shadow. Again, when they stumble along the way, Yeshua advocates for them. This allows them to dust themselves off and continue towards the Father as they walk like Messiah. Don’t forsake his shadow. If you get rid of our Messiah’s shadow you lose his substance. 

There are so many more areas of misunderstanding in your article that could be highlighted and realigned correctly to Scripture. But there is an abundance of excellent resources and ministries that detail all your misinterpretations with a solid foundation in Scripture. Just as I will encourage others to read your article and test it, I highly encourage the same people to go out and test the various teachings of the Hebrew Roots Movement. No doubt will such a process sharpen iron and grow one in their knowledge of the faith. One should study and consider both sides of the coin, testing each to Scripture, only holding on to what is true. I would also encourage you to rethink your positions in light of the most important reality that I’ve mentioned: The Law of Moses is the Law of Elohim—the perfect image and ways of our Creator and our Messiah. Please, do not harden your heart but ask the Father to give you eyes to see and ears to hear.