First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

MOSHIACH'S LETTER THROUGH THE SHLIACH SHA'UL TO THE BRIT CHADASHA KEHILLAH IN GALATIA

The Brit Chadasha kehillot mentioned by Luke in Acts 13 and 14

lie within the Roman province of Galatia. If Shliach Sha'ul wrote

his letter to the Galatians from Antioch, Syria around 48/49

subsequent to his first emissary of Moshiach's shlichut journey

and just prior to the Jerusalem Council to resolve the Judaizing

question, then this letter is Rav Sha'ul's first epistle and the

following synchronization between Acts and Galatians is possible:

Gal. 1:18-24 - Acts 9:23-30; II Cor. 11:32 (ca.C.E.35/36); Gal.

2:1-10 = Acts 11:30; 12:25 (C.E. 46)

The reason, according to this chronology, that the extremely

relevant Jerusalem Council decisions of Acts 15 are not mentioned

in Rav Sha'ul's letter to the Galatians is that the Jerusalem

Council has not yet convened when Rav Sha'ul's letter was

written.

Beginning with Acts 13:14 we read of certain peoples that Shliach

Sha'ul and Barnabus reached out to in 47-48 C.E. in what is now

modern Turkey. Then in Acts 15:1 we hear of certain Pharisees who

were travelling around from Jerusalem and teaching that there was

no salvation from Gehinnom without circumcision. Now Shliach

Sha'ul was a Pharisee. He knew all about a legalistic religion

based on merit and the notion that religious ritual and good

works could lead one to salvation. Also he knew that to accept

the burden of circumcision meant to take on the obligation of all

the ceremonial and legal commands of Moses (Gal. 5:3).

But on the road to Damascus, Shliach Sha'ul had received a

different kind of circumcision. The downward pull of his old

nature had been cut free and a living Law, Yehoshua the Word of

G-d, had written himself on the tablets of Rav Sha'ul's heart by

the Spirit of G-d. Now it was no longer the old, stoney-hearted,

unregenerate Pharisee Saul who lives but the risen Moshiach

Yehoshua who lives and reigns in Shliach Sha'ul (on the new

creation, see Gal. 6:l4-l5; II Cor.3:18; 4:16; 5:17; 13:5). The

Shliach had seen on the Damascus Road that the dead letter of the

old legalistic religion could never create new spiritual life in

him as Ha'Av had done through the risen Moshiach and the Ruach

Hakodesh (see the formula for G-d as HaAv, HaBen, and HaRuach

HaKodesh in II Cor. 13:13; cf. Mt. 28:19). Only the living Word

Yehoshua the Moshiach could make Shliach Sha'ul into a new

creation. Therefore, the proud legalist was now dead, and, as a

new creation rabbi, could never preach mere legalisms again (Gal.

5:11) again. Now Shliach Sha'ul must preach only the Moshiach

alive and able to forgive our sins and give us new spiritual life

by his death and resurrection in our place.

The message of Galatians clarifies the authentic Besuras Hageulah

of the Moshiach. The ceremonies and specific legal rules G-d

imposed on the Jews during the era of Law under Moses were never

intended to eclipse the new Torah (teaching) meant to go into

effect when the Moshiach came. The purpose of the Law of Moses

was to be a pointer to sin and to the righteous way of Abraham:

faith. The Law was not meant to distract the Jewish people from

the teaching of the Moshiach when he came and ushered in the era

of the Spirit, when all nations, not just the Jewish nation, were

to be made students (disciples) of his Torah, his Messianic

teaching. Those who had ears to hear Deuteronomy 18:18-19, Isaiah

42:4, and Jeremiah 31:31-34 could understand this. Shliach

Sha'ul knew these Scripture: as a trained rabbi, but he had to be

regenerated to understand them (I Cor. 2:14). When he was filled

with the Holy Spirit and became a prophet, he was not ignorant of

the signs of the times or of the proper interpretation of the

Word of G-d. A new era had begun and the teaching of the

Moshiach through his Shluchim must not take a back seat to the

Law of Moses. If that happened, whatever

eclipsed the true Besuras Hageulah, whatever ceremonies or

religious rules were thrust forward to take preeminence over the

Moshiach's message, whatever teachings might be set forth in

competition to the Besuras Hageulah, would be the legalisms and

teachings of a different Besuras Hageulah and would therefore be

accursed, even if offered by an angel from heaven (1:8), even

Gabriel himself. (Muslims should take note here.).

Therefore, when certain Jewish legalists visited the Galatian

congregations and taught these Gentiles that they had to get

themselves circumcised and keep Jewish observances and rules to

be saved, this poisonous heresy demanded the strongest possible

antidote. Shliach Sha'ulis shocked, he writes, that they are so

quickly changing to another Besuras Hageulah, which isn't a

Besuras Hageulah at all and there will be hell to pay for its

perpetrators (1:6-10).

In 1:11-2:10 Shliach Sha'ul declares that G-d himself gave him

the true Besuras Hageulah of Chesed; no man gave this message to

him. Shliach Sha'ul persecuted the early preachers of Yehoshua

until the risen Moshiach, the death-conquering Word of G-d,

stopped Rav Sha'ul and gave him the true Besuras Hageulah to

preach, which the other Shluchim in Jerusalem approved as

correct.

So if anyone claims to be a prophet and wants to preach the

Besuras Hageulah, he ought to recognize that what Shliach Sha'ul

is telling the Galatians is from the L-rd. Unless he recognizes

this, his preaching should not be recognized (I Cor. 14:37-38).

The Shluchim in the early days had divided up the Shlichut under

the leading of Adonoi. Shliach Kefa and Yochanan and Ya'akov

agreed to preach to the Jews. Shliach Sha'ul and Barnabus agreed

to leave Israel and go to the Gentiles all over the world, and to

send an offering for the poor Messianic Jewish believers in the

Holy Land. However, since fellowship with Gentiles was thought to

be defiling to a Jew, Shliach Kefa was afraid of getting the

Jewish believers in Moshiach Yehoshua angry, so when he came to

Antioch in Syria, Shliach Sha'ul had to rebuke him for

withdrawing from table fellowship with his Gentile brothers in

the L-rd. Shliach Sha'ul tells this story (2:11-14) to prove that

his own status as a Shliach was in no way inferior to Shliach

Kefa's. The Galatians had better listen to him then and have

nothing to do with the Judaizing false prophets who have come to

them preaching a different Besuras Hageulah and apparently

disparaging Rav Sha'ul's credentials as a Shliach. What is the

true Besuras Hageulah? Can a man put his faith in keeping the

religious laws of any prophet, Moses or whomever, and be forgiven

and regarded as right with G-d? Or will G-d credit us as being

righteous if we forsake salvation through law-keeping and put our

faith in Moshiach Yehoshua the Moshiach?

Shliach Sha'ul explains the Besuras Hageulah in the first person

in Romans 7. But here it is also helpful. Moshiach Yehoshua

took the penalty of the law when he died for my sin, and since

G-d sees me as dead with Moshiach Yehoshua (law does not apply to

dead men) and alive in his new life of righteousness, I am free.

To try to keep laws to be saved would mean the Moshiach died for

nothing. In that case I would no longer be free but under the

law's condemnation. (See 2:17-21 and 3:10-14).

Stop being foolish, Shliach Sha'ul is saying! New life in the

Ruach Hakodesh and miracles do not come by endless legalisms but

by having faith (3:1-5)! Look at Abraham. The Law was not given

to Moses until 430 years after Abraham. And Law requires works,

but Abraham hadn't done any when G-d looked at his faith and

regarded him as righteous. Moshiach Yehoshua took the covenant

curse of the law's reprisal against us law-breakers, so if we

refuse to receive his mercy to us and try to save ourselves by

keeping laws, we will not succeed but the curse against us will,

and by our lack of faith we will condemn ourselves.

To paraphrase Galatians for Muslims: Don't have the nature of

Ishmael, the son of a slave woman! Don't be an unspiritual slave

of endless legalisms, like many orthodox Jews and Muslims. Be

free like new creation Muslims and like your father Abraham!

Any rudimentary notion in the world that keeps us under its

worldly sway is what Moshiach Yehoshua came to free us from. We

were called to freedom and good works prompted by faith working

through love (Gal. 5:6) and prompted by the presence of the Ruach

Hakodesh in our lives. Therefore, put to death your old life

without Moshiach Yehoshua at its center so you will really belong

to the L-rd. Don't use your freedom as an excuse to sin. If you

are truly guided by the Ruach Hakodesh, you will not live in the

wicked lusts of your old life. See 5:19-21 and the warning at the

end of 5:21. Pray every day as you meditate on G-d's Word for

the Ruach Hakodesh to cultivate the nine fruits of the Spirit in

your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. In Muslim lands, it is

only self-interest that makes some teachers try to get New

Creation Muslims to change the true Besuras Hageulah to a false

one. Some messianic Muslims, wanting to escape persecution

(6:12), try to force a false Besuras Hageulah on the ignorant.

But those who have died to the world know better. They know that

the only thing that matters is becoming a new creation (see

6:12-16).

Notice your obligation to your teacher (6:6).

We are not living under the epoch of Law but Chesed (Ro. 6:14)

because the law was not made for the righteous but for adulterers

(I Tim. 1:9). Yet we are not free from G-d's law but are under

Moshiach's law (I Cor. 9:21). We must put our old nature to

death. However, Moshiach's law is not dead. Today we have lawless

"scribes and Pharisees" in the Brit Chadasha kehillah who do not

obey Moshiach's radical laws. Moshiach Yehoshua says, "If you

even look with lust at a woman you are an adulterer," and

Moshiach Yehoshua says to the woman who has divorced the husband

of her youth, "Let her remain unmarried (I Cor.7:11)." But the

lawless "scribes and Pharisees" in the Brit Chadasha kehillah

look at the divorcee with lustful eyes and tell her to marry as

often as she likes. Lawless disciples should re-read Matthew

7:23--the word there is not "evildoers" or ye that work iniquity"

but "workers of lawlessness".

The Jews who were zealous for the Torah's Jewish lifestyle (not

as a way of salvation upstaging Moshiach Yehoshua) in Acts 21:20

are not rebuked by Shliach Sha'ul. Rav Sha'ul lived as an

observant Jew and the Jewish community of Messianic believer: in

Jerusalem lived this way as well. Not only that, Shliach Sha'ul

put himself as if he were under the epoch of law in order to win

those who were under the law (I Cor. 9:20). Shliach Sha'ul is not

fighting the Jewish lifestyle of Torah observance in his letter

to the Galatians. Shliach Sha'ul himself lived this lifestyle.

Shliach Sha'ul is not talking about of Moshiach's shlichut

identification with observant Jews. Shliach Sha'ul is fighting a

false Besuras Hageulah of salvation through endless Jewish

legalisms and works-righteousness merit that upstages the way of

faith that Abraham took, which is also the way of faith in the

death and Techiyas HaMesim of Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua

(Gen 15:6; Hab.2:4).

The role of Shliach is not well understood today. Galatians 2:9

says there are people set apart with a gift and calling to go to

a particular culture or country or ethnic or language group and

start a congregation (I Cor. 4:15) or ministry-training school

(Acts 19:9-10) among an unreached people. The passage in II Cor.

8:23 shows that these emissaries were not always eye-witnesses of

the resurrection of the Moshiach. See also Rom. 16:7; I Cor.

12:28; Eph. 2:20. Therefore, there are shluchim today.

A Kiruv outreach minister may assist in planting a congregation.

But a shliach does the work of an outreach minister among the

people where G-d has gifted him or her linguistically or

culturally to raise up a new congregation with its own native

spiritual leaders, teachers, prophets, and kiruv outreach

workers. The shliach is first on the scene and starts with

nothing but a vision and a resolution to start a prayer meeting

or a Bible study or a witnessing campaign or an outreach meeting

or some pioneer effort that will result in people taking the

Moshiach's tevilah and being incorporated into the new house Brit

Chadasha kehillah or body of believers. The shliach starts with

absolutely nothing--he or she does not build on anyone else's

foundation. The gift is that of a pioneer with a certain

adaptability of personality and a supernatural love for people

whose culture or color of skin or language is different. This man

(extremely Jewish) named Shliach Sha'ul loved these Greeks and

won great numbers to the L-rd. constantly going where no Brit

Chadasha kehillah existed among the Greeks and starting them from

nothing. Do you have the vision of a shliach to start a new

congregation in virgin territory? Are you a shliach?

One of the problems in American Brit Chadasha kehillot is that

everybody is too enamored with an American "melting pot" model of

the Brit Chadasha kehillah. The Brit Chadasha Scriptures are much

more socially realistic than that. People do not "melt" into a

pot. People are different. The Greeks in Corinth had a

drastically different culture than the Jews in Jerusalem. If the

Corinthian Brit Chadasha kehillah were simply imported to Israel

or the Jerusalem Brit Chadasha kehillah imported to Corinth

neither Brit Chadasha kehillah would grow. Shliach Sha'ul had a

different gift than Ya'akov. Shliach Sha'ul could relate to

Greeks better than Ya'akov could. Shliach Sha'ul did not win many

Jews to the L-rd. Ya'akov did. Most Followers of our Moshiach in

America don't see these nuances when they read Acts 21:20 or

Galatians 2:9. Most people do not understand that the Shluchim

were cultural

specialists. Shliach Sha'ul became like the Greeks to win the

Greeks and Paul started Hellenistic Greek Brit Chadasha kehillot.

Ya'akov became like the Jews to win the Jews and started

Messianic Jewish synagogues. Shliach Sha'ul did not see thousands

of Jews won into his Hellenistic Greek Brit Chadasha kehillot,

but Ya'akov did see thousands of Jews won into his Messianic

synagogues (see Acts 21:20). Now there were Jews like Aquilla and

Priscilla in Rav Sha'ul's Greek Brit Chadasha kehillot and there

were Greeks like Titus in Ya'akov's Messianic synagogue, so these

congregations were integrated and not segregated. However, the

style of the cultural flavor of the congregations in Corinth and

Jerusalem were not the same, and the Brit Chadasha kehillot were

culturally attuned to be more successful in one place than the

other.

Look at Gal. 6:15-16. Replacement theology is wrong when it

thinks that uncircumcision is anything. "Dual Covenant" liberals

are wrong when it thinks that circumcision is anything. Both are

wrong because a new creation is everything, even when national

Israel comes to salvation. Whoever separates from this teaching

will forfeit his crown and his citizenship in the Israel of G-d.

("Dual Covenant" theologians maintain that Jewish people do not

need to believe in Moshiach Yehoshua to be saved. They maintain

that Jewish people can be saved through another covenant, G-d's

promise to Abraham. Such liberals resent the Besuras Hageulah

being preached to Israel.) It is true that G-d warns the nations

that he will punish them if their anti-Semitism causes them to

curse and persecute the Jewish people. So true followers of the

Moshiach should always bless the Jewish people and pray for their

salvation. However, there is nothing more anti-Semitic than

refusing to tell a dying people the way of escape from eternal

destruction.

If "Israel after the flesh" does not receive the second

circumcision (the new birth of regeneration), they are children

of Hagar (Gal. 4:21f), those who say they are Jews and are not

(Rev. 2:9). Without the new birth, they are not the Israel of

G-d (Gal. 6:16), because not all Israel (who are descended from

Israel) is (eschatological redeemed) Israel (Rom. 9:6). How are

we going to provoke them to jealousy to get saved if you tell

them they already have an operative, saving, covenantal

relationship with the G-d of Israel and already have an

unconditional land lease to live in safety in Israel. Study

Jeremiah's book again. This is not his Besuras Hageulah. The

covenant was with Abraham and his seed (singular), which is

Moshiach, and whoever does not love the L-rd Yehoshua is

accursed. It is true that whoever tries to take the Promised

Land away from the Jewish people is also cursed by the Law and

the prophets, although, in Scripture, these same accursed

Babylonians etc are also the instruments of G-d to expel the Jews

from their land if the Jews continue in unbelief (but see Zech.

1:15). The L-rd is the owner of the land and the Jewish

expulsions and returns in Scripture are G-d's way of preaching to

the nations what's in store for them (expulsion from the presence

of G-d into hell) if they continue in unbelief like this blind

nation) Israel. On the other hand, the G-d who promises the

resurrection of the dead is to be believed precisely because he

is the G-d who has resurrected Israel from her national grave.

He guards her and curses her enemies and leads her according to

his purposes even in her blindness and unbelief. The Brit

Chadasha kehillah must not arrogantly steal her promises or her

status or her prerogatives, nor must she take a condescending or

hateful or proud attitude toward Israel (Rom. 11:18-20).

In the same way that Dispensationalism can lead to an inadequate

view of the Brit Chadasha kehillah, Covenant Theology can lead to

an in adequate view of national Israel. By separating the "Brit

Chadasha kehillah" from being in any sense part of "Israel," the

Dispensationalists make the same kind of unscriptural distinction

that Covenant theologians make when they equate "the Brit

Chadasha kehillah" and "Israel." Romans 11, as it is interpreted

in terms consistent with Rav Sha'ul's other writings, shows that

both the "Brit Chadasha kehillah" (or the true remnant from the

Jews and the Gentiles of the world) and also natural "Israel"

(genealogical "seed" of Abraham) must be grafted by faith into

ideal "Israel" (the Jerusalem above, the Israel of G-d, as

opposed to the Israel after the flesh--I Cor. 10:18). Not all

(natural) "Israel" is (ideal) "Israel", but the redeemed remnant

on earth (from the Jews and the Gentiles of the world) is the

true circumcision (Phil. 3:3). An ideal term for Israel may be

found in Isaiah 44:2, where the word (Yeshurun) is an honorific

title in contrast to Jacob whose name means deceiver/

overreacher. "The Upright One" is not the deceiver, it is a

nation of Israelites who are without deceit (Yochanan 1:47).

Shliach Sha'ul uses the word for olive tree (found in Jer. 11:16

and Hos. 14:6) for the symbol of Ideal Israel in Rom. 11:17.

Shliach Sha'ul did not make the collection journey just as an

individual Jew paying his respects to the Fatherland. Shliach

Sha'ul was reporting to the Sanhedrin-substitute, the council of

Zion's Zekenim of (pre-70 C.E. Holocaust) Brit Chadasha Judaism.

Shliach Sha'ul made this reporting lest he had run in vain,

because salvation is "of the Jews" and of Zion. As far as Gal.

4:10 is concerned, a word needs to be said about Shabbos

observance. There were Messianic jews in Rome who observed the

Shabbos and there were Gentiles who did not, and Shliach Sha'ul

does not denigrate the Shabbos or forbid Messianic services on

that day (see Romans 14:5). Although the Shabbos commandments are

not imposed on Gentiles by Shliach Sha'ul, the Brit Chadasha

Scriptures records services on both Motzei Shabbos and Yom Rishon

(Acts 20:7) on the Gentile field of ministry. Acts 20:7 records a

Motza'ei-Shabbat service. Motzei-Shabbos means "departure of the

Shabbos" and is the period beginning with sunset following the

Shabbos and extending to midnight. Since the Bible defines a day

from sundown to sundown (Gen. 1:5; Lev. 23:32) this is the end of

the Shabbos and the beginning of Yom Rishon, Yom HaAdon. This

means that Acts 20:7 shows the Brit Chadasha kehillah on the

Gentile field meeting on both Shabbos and Yom HaAdon. Rav

Sha'ul's normal routine, wherever he went, would have been to

have preached the Besuras Hageulah in a synagogue in the context

of a Shabbos Hebrew service, so Shliach Sha'ul himself observed

Shabbos and made it a day of Jewish ministry, even while he was

winning new believers and founding a Brit Chadasha kehillah. We

must also remember that Rav Sha'ul's Besuras Hageulah to the

Gentiles could not be effective in actual practice if his

commission as a shliach had not been acknowledged by a

law-observant Messianic Jewish remnant in Zion. The law of the

Moshiach (the Besuras Hageulah--I Cor. 9:21) did not originate

with Shliach Sha'ul; the law of the Moshiach had gone forth from

Zion, from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3; 42:4).

When Shliach Sha'ul submitted his message to the Shliach in

Jerusalem, they authorized him to continue his emphasis of a

circumcision-free message to Gentiles. However, there was no

such emphasis in the Besuras Hageulah that was preached in

Jerusalem to Jews who were already circumcised and were planning

on circumcising their eight-day-old male babies. Acts 21:20

proves that the Jerusalem form of pristine Brit Chadasha Judaism

(which is the canonical pattern for Jews) did not follow a

Besuras Hageulah which apostatized from the Sinai Covenant and

its mitzvot. Shliach Sha'ul himself observes the law by

preaching the Besuras Hageulah on Shabbos as a rabbi every week

when he is not in prison.

Gal. 4:8-10 is not an attack on Judaism (this was the religion of

the Shluchim) but on an abberant form of the saving message of

the Shluchim that tries to convince Gentiles that the Moshiach is

not enough to save them, because they must also depend on their

own legalistic works in order to be saved, especially the work of

circumcision. Shliach Sha'ul preached that a new creation, not a

new culture or a new legalism, is needed to turn around a sinner

bound for the destruction of G-d's judgment.

The message of Galatians is this warning: preach the true new

creation Besuras Hageulah or be accursed by G-d.

The stoixeia tou kosmou (4:3,9) are the elementary, rudimentary

principles or spirits (Col. 2:8) behind false religion (religion

not grounded in the inerrant new creation faith of the Kitvei

Hakodesh and the Brit Chadasha Scriptures).