What if we can find verses in scripture to build an idea, a concept, or doctrine?
Should we do it?
Yes, of course we can do it, but should we?
Is It A Good Idea?
That all depends!

Does the idea, concept, or doctrine align with the whole of scripture?
Does it align with the voice of Yahweh (God)?
Does it align with the voice of Yeshua Messiah (Jesus)?

Yahweh tells us to not alter His instructions, His Torah, His Law.
Deuteronomy 4:2
“You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”

Deuteronomy 12:32
³² “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

Yahweh (God) says His law brings life and blessings:
Deuteronomy 30
¹⁵ “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply…”

Yeshua Messiah (Jesus) tells us that He did not come to abolish the law, and that not a single pen stroke of it will change until heaven and earth pass away.
Matthew 5
¹⁷ “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

Yahweh (God) tells us how He will know if we love Him:
Deuteronomy 13
“…for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.”

Yeshua Messiah tells us this about the commandments:
John 14:15
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

I could go on and on and on, but these are enough examples.
There are many more if you’d like to look for them.
Both Yahweh (God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and Yeshua Messiah (Jesus, our Savior) tell us the commandments are forever, that we should not alter it, that it will never change, and that it brings life and blessing.  But most importantly, both God and Jesus tell us They will know we love Them if we keep the commandments.

And yet, we’ve been taught for many generations that the Law is done away with.
Literally billions of people have lived their lives believing this, even though it is the exact opposite of what God and Jesus tell us.

Jeremiah the prophet even warns of this outcome:
Jer 16:19-20
¹⁹ O Lord, my strength and my fortress,
My refuge in the day of affliction,
The Gentiles shall come to You
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
²⁰ Will a man make gods for himself,
Which are not gods?

Seriously!! A man chosen by God thousands of years ago foretold of this tragedy.
So why do people do it?
Billions of people?

I Googled the phrase “Proof the law is done away with” and got 740,000,000 results in less than a second.
So, yeah, lots of people are talking about this idea, pushing this idea, and publishing this idea.
Why do they think this, if God and Jesus say the opposite?
I clicked on the very first search result and found this “evidence” for the premise the law is done away with, and this is what I found by the first author of this concept:

Here are 37 scriptures that prove that Christians are not under the law!
Acts
The law is an unbearable yoke. (Acts 15:10)

Romans
The law reveals sin but cannot fix it. (Romans 3:20)
If the law worked then faith would be irrelevant. (Romans 4:14)
The law brings wrath upon those who follow it. (Romans 4:15)
The purpose of the law was to increase sin. (Romans 5:20)
Christians are not under the law. (Romans 6:14)
Christians have been delivered from the law. (Romans 7:1-6)
The law is good, perfect and holy but cannot help you be good, perfect or holy. (Romans 7:7-12)
The law which promises life only brings death through sin. (Romans 7:10)
The law makes you sinful beyond measure. (Romans 7:13)
The law is weak. (Romans 8:2-3)

1 Corinthians
The strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56)

2 Corinthians
The law is a ministry of death. (2 Corinthians 3:7)
The law is a ministry of condemnation. (2 Corinthians 3:9)
The law has no glory at all in comparison with the New Covenant. (2 Corinthians 3:10)
The law is fading away. (2 Corinthians 3:11)
Anywhere the law is preached it produces a mind-hardening and a heart-hardening veil. (2 Corinthians 3:14-15)

Galatians
The law justifies nobody. (Galatians 2:16)
Christians are dead to the law. (Galatians 2:19)
The law frustrates grace. (Galatians 2:21)
To go back to the law after embracing faith is “stupid”. (Galatians 3:1)
The law curses all who practice it and fail to do it perfectly. (Galatians 3:10)
The law has nothing to do with faith. (Galatians 3:11-12)
The law was a curse that Christ redeemed us from. (Galatians 3:13)
The law functioned in God’s purpose as a temporary covenant from Moses till John the Baptist announced Christ. (Galatians 3:16 & 19, also see… Matthew 11:12-13, Luke 16:16)
If the law worked God would have used it to save us. (Galatians 3:21)
The law was our prison. (Galatians 3:23)
The law makes you a slave like Hagar. (Galatians 4:24)

Ephesians
Christ has abolished the law which was a wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:15)

Philippians
Paul considered everything the law gained him as “skybalon” which is Greek for “poop”. (Philippians 3:4-8)

1 Timothy
The law is only good if used in the right context. (1 Timothy 1:8) (see next verse for the context)
It was made for the unrighteous but not for the righteous. (1 Timothy 1:9-10)

Hebrews
The law is weak, useless and makes nothing perfect. (Hebrews 7:18-19)
God has found fault with it and created a better covenant, enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:7-8)
It is obsolete, growing old and ready to vanish. (Hebrews 8:13)
It is only a shadow of good things to come and will never make someone perfect. (Hebrews 10:1)

If we believe the words of Yahweh (God) and the words of Yeshua Messiah (Jesus) then we know the law is not done away with, and They want us to observe/keep/honor/remember/obey the law.
Not for legalistic reasons, but because God’s instructions will bring us life and blessing.  It is what is best for us.
It is like reading the owner’s manual for a complicated machine.
Operate it correctly and all is good.
Operate it incorrectly and bad things happen.

That leaves about 739,999,999 more “resources” to review, but I’ll leave you to it.
I’ve already heard what my Creator said, and I’m good with that.  I don’t need to research the things men say…

Here is the question, though:
Can these countless men be correct?
They quoted scripture to establish their belief that the law is done away with.
Here is the short answer:
If you are able to create a premise/idea/doctrine by using scripture — BUT — the premise/idea/doctrine requires you to ignore what God said, or ignore what Jesus said, then it is not a good premise/idea/doctrine.
Even if it is founded upon ‘scripture’ it is a bad idea if it causes you to depart from God or Jesus and the things They have said.

Here is an even shorter answer:
Know the Voice of God.
Know the Voice of Jesus.
Do not depart from what they say.

It does not matter how much sense someone seems to make.
It does not even matter if someone performs miracles or predicts the future and it comes true; reject what they say if it departs from the things God or Jesus said.
Is this my idea?
Nope.
It is what God warns us about.
It is what Jesus warns us about.

Deuteronomy 13:1-6
“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. ⁵ But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.

If someone says anything that causes you to depart from what God said, then that person is to be put to death. That is what would happen in a Covenant nation of people living under the instructions of Yahweh.

What did Jesus say?
Matthew 7:21-23
²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Jesus says only those who do the will of the Father will be in the Kingdom of Heaven.  What is the will of the Father?  His instructions, His commands, His law.
Jesus goes on to say people who think they serve Him are not included.
We are not talking about non-believers here. We are not talking about atheists.
We are talking about people who call Jesus Lord.
We are talking about people who literally were able to perform miracles in His name, and yet, what does He tell them?
“I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

Jesus also said this:
John 10:27-28
²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸ And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”

WE HAVE TO KNOW THE THINGS JESUS SAID.
WE HAVE TO KNOW HIS VOICE.

We are not to depart from the words of God or the words of Messiah – EVER!!
It does not matter what verses you can find that may seem to say otherwise.
Going back to the list above of 37 verses someone compiled to prove the law is done away with…
Most of these verses are from the writings of Paul.
Are we warned not to deviate from the word of God because of the things Paul wrote?
Yes!!!!
Double Yes!!
Triple Yes!!!
2Peter 3:14-17
¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; ¹⁵ and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, ¹⁶ as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

We are warned to not use Paul’s writings to create false doctrine.
If we do, what is the result?
Our destruction!!
So, in other words, this is serious.

Men and women will tell us the law is a burden and a curse, but what does God Himself say about it?
Deuteronomy 30
¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹³ Nor 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?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

There are countless more scriptures we could look at, and this study could be ten times this long.
But if you consider your ‘possible destruction’ a serious matter, I recommend you do more research on the topic.
Learn all the things Yahweh said (direct quotes of God) and learn all the things Yeshua Messiah said (direct quotes of Jesus).
Build your doctrine from the things They said.
No one is a higher authority than them.
No matter what.

So, does this mean that Paul is a false prophet?
No, it does not.
Paul was called by Jesus to serve Him. He was struck blind on the road to Damascus, quite the dramatic way to get his attention.
He was humbled, then he was restored, and he became an apostle.
(The other apostles voted in Mathias, and we never hear another word about him. Jesus chose Paul to replace Judas Iscariot).

If Paul sounds like he is saying the law is done away with, then how is it possible he is not a false prophet deserving death, if God and Jesus said the opposite about the law?

1. Sometimes Paul is speaking of the man made traditions of the Pharisees when he refers to ‘the law’ in a negative manner.
Jesus did exactly the same thing (quoting Isaiah):
Matthew 15 (words of Jesus, referring to the Pharisees)
⁸ ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
⁹ And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

2. Paul also speaks of the teaching of the Pharisees and speaks negatively about it.
Some ‘think’ he is speaking of the Old Testament Law, but he is not. Refer back to the warning Peter gave in 2Peter 3.  He said unstable and untaught people will twist Paul’s writings, along with the rest of the scriptures.
Why?
Because they do not know the scriptures nor understand Paul’s writings.
If God says His law is forever, and for all people (both native born Hebrew and the strangers among them), then we CANNOT believe Paul is saying the law is done away with.
It is a simple choice.
I follow God my Creator, Yahweh, Yahuah, Yehova, Adonia, Elohim
Or
I follow Paul, another man who speaks against the things God said.
Which do you choose?

3. Paul also speaks against the idea that we are saved by keeping the law.
Yes, he is correct in this, but it does not mean we should not keep the law.
He is defining the purpose of the law, not saying we should ignore it.

Paul was an apostle, chosen by Jesus.
He is not a false prophet.
But…  His writings can be hard to understand if we do not know and believe the Voice of God and the Voice of Jesus.

Is any of this making sense? I hope and pray so!!
Do not disregard the things God or Jesus said in favor of ideas made up by men that oppose Their Voices, even if men can quote scripture to explain their idea.

So far, this article is dealing with the premises of the mainstream Christian doctrine.
But this same idea/concept/doctrine is creeping into Torah community as well.
A teacher named Matthew Nolan has a ministry called Torah to the Tribes.
He teaches that Yahweh’s instructions are separated into two documents:
1. The Book of the Covenant
2. The Book of the Law

He says the Book of the Covenant is comprised of Genesis 1:1 to Exodus 24:11, and that the Book of the Law is comprised of Exodus 24:12 to Joshua 1:8.
He teaches that the Book of the Covenant is still in effect, and applies to us today.
He says the Book of the Law was given only for the rebellious first generation of the Exodus out of Egypt, and is now obsolete.
He can string together a number of scriptures to prove his point, and his presentation sounds logical.

But is it a good idea to believe him, if his idea/concept/doctrine opposes the things that Yahweh said?
Absolutely not.

I’ll save all the details of scripture that debunks this idea for my next blog post.
But very quickly, here are two examples that debunk his idea:

Numbers 15
³⁷ Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁸ “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. ³⁹ And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, ⁴⁰ and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. ⁴¹ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”

With regard to tassles/tzitzits, God says they are “throughout their generations.”
This means forever.
This detail completely debunks Matthew Nolan’s teaching that the Book of the Law was temporary and only for one generation.

Deuteronomy 30 speaks of the restoration of the house of Israel in today’s time, after they were exiled/scattered among all the nations of the earth.
This is spoken directly to end time people, not the generation of the Exodus:

The Blessing of Returning to God
1 “Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you ^[a]call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, ² and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, ³ that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. ⁴ If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. ⁵ Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. ⁶ And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
⁷ “Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸ And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. ⁹ The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, ¹⁰ if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Yahweh specifically says that we are to obey His voice, keeping His commandments and statutes in His “Book of the Law” — not the Book of the Covenant.

There is much more to study and quote to debunk this idea, but here is the gist of it:

If someone in the Torah community strings together some scriptures to say the Book of the Law is done away with — do not listen to them. It is a bad idea!
They are drawing you away from the things that Yahweh said.
It is the exact same scenario as mainstream Christians using direct quotes out of the scriptures to “prove” the law is done away with.

Both are a test.
Yahweh (God) is testing us to see if we know His voice, and to see if we love Him (review Deuteronomy 13:3-4 again to see this test).

Please do not fail your test given by the Creator of all things because you are listening to men instead of His voice.