There is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Just a few years after the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, Believers were dealing with the assertion that you must become a Jew first, before you can become a Christian. Peter, James and other elders of the Church dealt with this in Acts chapter fifteen.

They rebuked those who said one must be circumcised first in order to be a Believer in the Lord Jesus. They stated that they gave no such commandment. (Acts 15:24) They declared that no additional burden should be added for non-Jewish Believers beyond not eating meat sacrificed to idols, abstaining from blood, things strangled and fornication. (Acts 15:28-29)

The announcement from the Lord of His New Covenant was given to the Prophet Jeremiah, some five-hundred years before the time of the Lord Jesus. The Lord said that He would make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. He declared that this new covenant would be different from the one He made with them when He led them out of Egypt, the Mosaic Covenant. Which covenant, the Lord stated, they did not keep anyway. (Jeremiah 31:31-32)

Please observe that this covenant was with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. The Lord did not even mention non-Israelite people. Praise the Lord, we non-Jewish people were added to the New Covenant later, by the blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus.

There is a movement today that says you must learn Hebrew and study the Torah. There is nothing wrong with either of these, but they have elevated Hebrew and the Torah above the wonderful Gospel of the Lord Jesus.

In fact, you are required to refer to Jesus as Yeshua or Yehoshua, or Yahushu’a and the LORD must be referred to as Yahweh or Yahu’weh. This is reminiscent of the requirement of Muslims to only pray to Allah in Arabic. The LORD knows our hearts and He knows that we are praying to Him no matter what language we use or how we pronounce His name.

In fact, the Lord Jesus instructed us to address the LORD as Father! (Matthew 6:9) What a blessing to have such a relationship with the Most High God, the God of Creation.

Some in this movement, known variously as the Sacred Name or Hebrew Roots movement also try to diminish the writings of the Apostle Paul. And no wonder because Paul wrote much of the New Testament which includes the Letter to the Galatians, which denounces those that said you must become a Jew first to become a Christian.

Paul wrote that Jesus is the end of the Law of Moses. (Romans 10:4) The Law was a school-master, but we are no longer under the school-master, but are children of God through faith in the Lord Jesus. (Galatians 3:24-26)

We are no longer required to follow the Law, which is impossible because we cannot offer sacrifices at the Temple, or any other of the 613 laws found in the Old Testament. James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, stated that if you fail to keep one point of the Law, you are guilty of all the Law. (James 2:10) Praise the LORD for the grace He shows us through the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus!

The understanding of the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (the Pentateuch or the Torah) are fundamental to understanding the entire Bible and the LORD’s plan shown therein. But:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” – Second Timothy 3:16