December 2027

Traditions – Do They Matter?

(Excerpt from Restoring the Father's Teachings, pp. 52-53)

REALITY CHECK:

MANMADE TRADITIONS REPLACED TRUTH

Tradition: A Doctrine Believed to Have Divine Authority Though Not in the Scriptures.

JEWISH TRADITION REPLACED TRUTH

The Jewish people received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. They were given the exalted honor of safeguarding and revealing the Eternal Father's Teachings and Instructions to the nations.

In failing to obey the Torah commandments they were taken into captivity. After they returned from Babylon, the religious rulers divided into sects of the Pharisees and

Sadducees, each believing and teaching a different interpretation of Torah. They were well aware that their violation of Torah, especially ignoring the Shemitah years, had caused their captivity. As a consequence, each Sect promulgated their unique understandings and

beliefs.

The Sadducees revered the written word/Torah, not wanting to add to or detract from it, but they did not believe in a spiritual world or the resurrection. On the other hand, the

Pharisees did believe in a spiritual world. They also believed in the Torah/Teachings, but considered the written commandments fluid, open to interpretation based on changing culture. In response to their fear of being in captivity again, the Pharisees began to add small requirements to the commandments called "fences," which they hoped would prevent minor violations.

Their view of the oral traditions also differed from the Sadducees; they prized the takanot and ma'asim, i.e., legal enactments and decisions which set precedents for their rulings. These takanot and ma'asim eventually grew in number and detail so that by the time

Yeshua arrived, they had become very tedious, to maintain strict obedience. Yeshua corrected both Sects. He called the "fences" burdensome, saying they kept people from entering the Kingdom. Some of their takanot and ma'asim actually required doing actions contrary to Torah. One example is found in Mark 7 when Yeshua rebuked the Pharisees for ignoring the Torah requirement to care for aging parents by saying that money was 'Corban,' for Temple service.

CHRISTIAN TRADITION REPLACED TRUTH

Why do you break the commandment of ADONAI for the sake of your tradition? Mt 15:3

As restrictive as Jewish traditions became, they were no less erroneous and extra-biblical than manmade traditions and paganism seeded in Christianity by the Early Gentile Church Fathers after the death of the Jewish Apostles. By late first century, Ignatius (35-107 C.E.) of Antioch taught major errors and contradictions to the Torah. He condemned the keeping of Passover, writing, "If anyone celebrates the Passover along with the Jews, or receives the emblems of their feast, he is a partaker with those who killed the Lord and His apostles."1

Andrew Roth identifies Ignatius as the originator of the Sabbath/Sun-day change.

The authority of changing the Seventh Day Shabbat to the Sun-Day is clearly that of Ignatius!"2 The Didache (80-90 C.E.) supports Roth's findings. It is recorded, "We find the Christian Sunday already substituted for the Jewish Sabbath as a date of assembly, ... called the Lord's Day in Revelation 1:10."3 These traditions are but a few practiced in

Christianity. We see that traditions of the Church became more important than obedience to our Father's Word.

Avi Ben Mordechai, Jewish believer, scholar and author, encourages Christians to take a reality check. He states, "For Christians, it is taught, with no embarrassment, that the

Mosaic Law [Torah] has been done away with, and with the coming of "Jesus" and the "New Testament," it is now a thing of the past. Not only does this teaching break more than one commandment of the written Law [Torah] of Moses, but it also elevates many of the

collective traditions of men, saying (or implying) that they are commandments of "God." This includes worship of "God" on Sunday, celebrating festivals like Easter and Christmas,

partaking in traditional Christmas and Easter dinners that include ham as the main course,

... posting pictures of "Jesus" on a wall, wearing a cross of Jesus with or without a Jesus icon attached to it, lighting candles for the dead ....

"If traditions within the framework of the New Testament belief: 1) break a commandment of the written Torah or 2) are cultural traditions of men passed off as commandments from the Eternal Father, then we need to re-evaluate the practice or practices according to the written Hebrew Bible and jettison what is false. If this means an individual or cultural

custom or tradition has to be removed because it will stumble us in our walk of truth, then so be it." 4

CONCLUSION

Yeshua admonished leaders, You leave the commandment of ADONAI and hold to the tradition of men. You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of ADONAI in order to establish your tradition! Mk 7:8-9

The Eternal One foresaw this human tendency and Moses warned, Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. Deut 4:2, 12:32

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, ADONAI will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, ADONAI will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book, Rev 22:18-19

1 Epistle to the Philippians, Ch. 14

2 Aramaic English New Testament

3 Fr. Edward Flannery, The Anguish of the Jews, p. 34

4 Avi Ben Mordecai, Galatians, p. x, xi

With such solemn warnings to guide us, we should examine every belief, doctrine, and practice with prayerful searching of Scripture, beginning with Moses and the Prophets and Yeshua as the Chief Cornerstone.