Q. Is it necessary when someone becomes a believer to immediately follow the Torah? If they don’t are they in sin?

A. The answer to your question is in the question. How can you become a believer without repentance, and then the question is repentance from what. A person must realize he is a sinner so he has to know what sin is. The Scriptures say that by the Torah comes the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3.20). In other words if a person doesn’t know the Torah how will he know what sin is. In 1 Jn. 3.4 it says that sin is the transgression of the Torah. Unless one realizes what sin is, he cannot truly repent. In many congregations a person believes that Yeshua is the Messiah but is taught that the Torah has been done away with. So, in reality he is not taught to turn away from sin (through the Torah comes the knowledge of sin), but to keep doing it. They are taught pagan concepts and festivals, they eat creatures forbidden by the Torah and not fit for human consumption and the list goes on and on. Now, you aren’t saved by observing the Torah and the Torah tells you that, nobody ever was and it is not a Bible doctrine. The Torah is our instruction manual from the Lord on how to live. It tells us how to love the Lord and our neighbor. How can you truly say you trust the Lord, then mistrust what He said. There is not one Scripture that says we are not to obey the commandments as given in the Torah, and as they apply to each of us. On the other hand, we are all familiar with the theology taught to most new believers that when you believe in Yeshua you don’t have to keep the commandments because they have been done away with. That never made much sense to me. Preachers will quote the Torah about sin and repentance, and then once they have you walking down the aisle, they tell you are free from the Law, then tell you the opposite again if you get out of line. They rebuke presidents for adultery, but don’t keep the Sabbath. Why is the Sabbath done away with for them, but adultery isn’t for presidents? If the Law has been done away with, how do you know what sin is. There is not one preacher who really believes that the Law has been done away with and they deceive many. Go commit adultery or steal and see what they say. What they really believe is “some of the Law” has been away with, and there is no Scripture to back that theology up so they are in error again. A new convert gets confused very quickly. He is told to read the scriptures, then is told don’t believe them, that “doesn’t apply anymore.” When you really examine this theology you will see the commandments that look too “Jewish” are the ones they tell you not to observe. In reality, there are no “Jewish” commandments, they are God’s. So, in answer to your question, how can a person really turn to God unless he hears the truth, and someone is sent to them with the truth. I believe Paul said the same thing in Rom 10.12-15. Much of the “gospel” preached today is not the gospel of Yeshua, Paul and the Apostles. But the Lord is not stopped by false teachers, that is why a new believer should find a place that believes that Yeshua is the Messiah and teaches the commandments (Rev. 12.17).