If the Apostle Paul was Torah observant as you say, why do his writings say otherwise? Part 2

This week we are going to continue with the teaching that the Apostle Paul taught the Torah and not some new theology. Remember that the only Scriptures Paul and all the writers of the New Testament used was the Tanak. Paul affirmed the whole Law in 1 Tim1.8; Rom 2.13; Rom 3.29-31, 7.12-22; 1 Cor 7.19. There never was a distinction between the Moral and Ceremonial Law as some say. It is never used in all of the Bible. The whole Torah was considered as one set of instructions that applied to Jews and Gentiles. The Torah was used by Paul as a textbook for teaching all believers (Acts 17. 2-4, 17.11; 1 Tim 4.13; 2 Tim 3.15; Rom 15.4). There was no New Testament Scriptures for Paul to use, in fact the term "new" testament for the Gospels and epistles is not even a biblical name for them. The epistles were Torah commentaries for the life of a believer in Yeshua. Paul never taught that any part of the Torah was irrelevant ( 2 Tim 3.16-17, Acts 26.22-23). The New Testament contains examples where Paul taught the Gentiles to follow certain laws found in the Torah (Acts 16.4) and to follow the elders in Jerusalem who were all Torah observant Jews (Acts 15.29). The "yoke" Peter was talking about in Acts 15 was not the Torah because it was never considered "unbearable" (Deut 30.11-14). This yoke was the layers and layers of oral tradition and religious practice accumulated over the centuries of Rabbinic theology. Yeshua's yoke was easy (Mt 11.29-30) and we know He was Torah observant and wanted believers to follow Him. The Torah was considered a delight (Psa 119). It maintained unity in the congregations, which is the reason why there are so many Christian denominations today. They don't follow the Torah and do whatever seems right in their own eyes. We know the Corinthians celebrated Passover with Paul because he used he used the concepts of Passover to teach life lessons (1 Cor 5.6-8). 2 Cor 6.16 through 7.1 infers that they had to have learned about what contaminates the body and spirit and how to purify themselves. In Eph. 2.11-22, 3.6 and Col 3.11-12 Paul teaches that Gentiles are united with Jewish believers as fellow citizens of Israel. He also uses Jer. 11.16 as a metaphor of the olive tree to explain that the Gentiles were grafted in (Rom 11.17-18,24). People who believe that the Torah is only for Jews have failed to realize that Paul said that believers cannot separate from the Jews without pruning themselves from the olive tree ( Rom 10.11; Gal 3.28-29). When writing to the Thessalonians Paul told them to imitate the "ekklesia" or congregations in Judea and we know they were set up like synagogues otherwise they would not have been permitted to exist. The concept of the New Covenant is not a new teaching beginning with Yeshua and the apostles but found in Jer 31.31-34. In this New Covenant, God said that He will write the Torah on the heart. The circumcision of the heart is found in the Tanak (Deut 10.16, 30.6; Jer 4.4, 9.26; Ezek 44.7-9) and it is where the term "born again" derives. To have a circumcised heart means to live or be born again. Yeshua taught that the Law would not be changed until heaven and earth passed away (Mt 5.17-19). He also did not give his disciples a separate "curriculum" for Gentiles (Mt 28.19-20). Paul taught the Gentiles to observe and obey the Parts of the Torah that applied to them. There is not one verse in the New Testament that says that God expects believers to NOT follow the Torah. So, instead of having a clear "Thus saith the Lord" that the Lord has changed His mind, many teachers just assume that God's guidelines (Torah) were old and have used that assumption as the foundation for interpreting New Testament passages, thus developing a "replacement theology" over the centuries. What people need to do is to lay aside all preconceived assumptions and study the New Testament in the context of Paul being a Torah observant Jew. Once you see it from that point of view you will find that the passages used to say otherwise will be faulty. Next week we will continue with this all important teaching and give some examples of those passages that people use to support their view that the Law has been done away with and show you that when you understand what Paul taught you will see how flimsy those interpretations are.