Holiness:
I want to post about our survival as a people-the Aposttolic church so I decided to include the note on the Talmud because it supports our position on holiness in this present day. The Torah is the Jewish name for the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible. The Talmud is the collection of commentary from Jewish Rabbis on the Torah. Why would this be important to us as Gentiles? My answer is it provides such a beautiful example of how to survive in a world that does not understand us as Apostolics. To live in our world, which views us as outdated and eccentric, is becoming more difficult as society drifts farther and farther from the principals of the Bible. The Jew has survived in every century, in every culture, and in every continent. The Jewish life is as strong today as it was 2000 years ago. As Apostolics, we need to adopt some of the same principles to insure we do not lose our identity. The five books of Moses can be written out in about 350 pages. The Talmud now takes up 523 books in 22 volumes. As the Jew was scuttled from empire to empire, the need arose for a protection from the blows without and the pressure from within. The Talmud has provided that. The Talmud has become the home of the Jew no matter where he lives in the world. The Talmud has single handedly provided the survival of the Jewish person. As Apostolics, it appears to me that we are in danger of losing our heritage of holiness. More and more I see whole churches assimilated into our worlds culture and mores. We need holiness and separation more than ever before. The way we dress and live must not die with this generation. As simple as it may seem, our standards are what will keep us separated from the world. Simple things like sleeve length, and the distinction of dress between male and female, are critical to the survival of the Apostolic heritage. It provides us with the cold concrete of protection from the blows that come from without. In the Talmud, there are many issues that may seem insignificant. But upon inspection the Talmud provided the Jew with answers to the baffling questions of life. The Talmud has done more to preserve the Jewish way of life than any other factor. This oral law that has been discussed over the centuries has kept the Jewish people uniquely Jewish. It is my hope that our holiness standards will keep us Apostolic in a world that has lost all sense of direction. The Rabbis have haggled over every phase of Jewish life. They have argued over every word and comma. In the process of mulling all this over, they created a mandate for survival in a hostile world. When the world attacked, the Talmud was there to soften the blow and stiffen the will. Other ancient cultures have faded from the earth, but the Jew has survived. Can we learn a lesson from them? The authors of the Talmud seemed to think that no issue was too small to discuss. They would debate for months whether a person could wear a false tooth on the Sabbath. A tailor could not take his needle in his hand just before the Sabbath because he might forget and go out with it. You could have candy in your mouth as long as it was put in your mouth before the Sabbath began. They discussed for nine years one statement in the law; “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.” From this one issue came the whole idea of Kosher food and food that was not Kosher. Our first response might be, that is foolish and insignificant. But never forget it is the small things that have kept them as a people. They have survived. We need to appreciate the “small” things if we are going to preserve this Apostolic way of life. Our standards of dress are important to our survival. Our standards of what we watch and what entertainment we allow is important to our future. Our survival depends on the small things. I will be the first to admit that the Rabbis went to extremes to preserve the Jewish way of life. However, it is beyond argument that the Jew has survived while other people have been assimilated and have vanished from the stage of time. Our survival as a distinct people depends on the small things. We must maintain our holiness and our standards of life. When they become unimportant, you can write the epitaph of the Apostolic movement.
Expository Series
First Pentecostal Church of Puget Sound
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