Messianic Movement, Hebrew Roots, Torah Observance, whatever you want to call it, whether you ascribe to the theology or not, we can not deny that this is something that is sweeping through the body of Christ at an amazing rate. But is there a reason for this to happen now and at no other time in history? Why now? I think this may just be quite clearly laid out in scripture!
Now, to set a foundation for this we need to see what Lawlessness IS before we can see it happening. 1 John 3:4 says, Everyone who keeps sinning is violating Torah — indeed, sin is violation of Torah. Indeed as another translation puts it, sin is a transgression of the Law. It is the very definition, to disband the Law of God is to disband all sin from even being possible. Romans 7:12-14 says, So the Torah is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good. Then did something good become for me the source of death? Heaven forbid! Rather, it was sin working death in me through something good, so that sin might be clearly exposed as sin, so that sin through the commandment might come to be experienced as sinful beyond measure. For we know that the Torah is of the Spirit; but as for me, I am bound to the old nature, sold to sin as a slave. Even 2 Corinthians 6:14 draws the point to a head saying, Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness? So we can see how lawlessness is defined, as breaking the Law of God, walking without it, and we can see that is something we are not to associate with! How we define that Law I have explained in my piece on Categorizing the Laws of Yahweh.
Yet, something has happened in the church body in general over the last two thousand years. How we view the law has been polluted, teaching it as a burden and unobtainable when Matthew 11:30 says, For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, John 14:21 says, Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him, in Psalms 119 the entire chapter is to how amazing the Law is and Ezekiel 36:27 even says, I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them. So if the whole purpose of the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit, is to help us to obey these great laws why has the modern church, by and large, left so many of them behind? Why have we slipped into a level of lawlessness and decided that it was Okay?
2 Thessalonians 2:5-8 may put this into perspective. Saying, Don’t you remember that when I was still with you, I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, so that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For already this separating from Torah is at work secretly, but it will be secretly only until he who is restraining is out of the way. 8 Then the one who embodies separation from Torah will be revealed, the one whom the Lord Yeshua will slay with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the glory of his coming. That's right, separating the Torah is a work of the Anti-Christ. Now we can agree that whoever this man is not identified at this time, and was certainly not physically active at the time this was written. But even without being physically present his work had begun. How much more would be today, so long after this was written? How much more had this teaching of lawlessness slither into sound doctrine? It's been a secret, kept to so few and hidden from millions of believers through the last two thousand years. This passage tells us that this will only begin to dissipate as the Anti-Christ rises!
Mark 13:22 says, There will appear false Messiahs and false prophets performing signs and wonders for the purpose, if possible, of misleading the chosen. Repeated in Matthew 24:24, For there will appear false Messiahs and false prophets performing great miracles — amazing things! — so as to fool even the chosen, if possible. Romans 16:18 goes on to say, For men like these are not serving our Lord the Messiah but their own belly; by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the innocent. Which is why it is so vitally important to follow the advice in Colossians 2:8, Watch out, so that no one will take you captive by means of philosophy and empty deceit, following human tradition which accords with the elemental spirits of the world but does not accord with the Messiah. and 2 Timothy 2:15, Do all you can to present yourself to God as someone worthy of his approval, as a worker with no need to be ashamed, because he deals straightforwardly with the Word of the Truth.
How easy the modern church has made it for false teachers. They fill the shelves at Christian Book stores. They gain high ratings on television. They speak at our conferences and lead our youth. When 2 Thessalonians 2:5-8 outlays that the teaching of lawlessness is no less than that of the Anti-Christ how much stronger would that work be now when the church is the weakest it has ever been, generally speaking? We see the rise of Hyper Grace, Prosperity Gospel and others. To which 2 Timothy 4:3 says, For the time is coming when people will not have patience for sound teaching, but will cater to their passions and gather around themselves teachers who say whatever their ears itch to hear.
So what then is happening now? With this rise in knowledge of scripture and growth in the community of Yeshua to the Torah? We can find that again in 2 Thessalonian 2, this time verse 3, Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until after the Apostasy has come and the man who separates himself from Torah has been revealed, the one destined for doom. We can work past this deceit now, some always have worked against the teaching of lawlessness. The secret work however will no longer be secret when we know tho the Anti-Christ is. It will be secret still to many, all those he has deceived, but to the one watchful and studied in scripture it will be stunningly clear.
Many theologians and many before them have watched for the signs of the end, the signs that Christ will return soon. Even many secularists are beginning to think that something big is going to happen soon, something is going to drastically change! And yes, "every generation has said that", but eventually someone is going to be right and when you look objectively at eschatological scripture and the events around us at no other time have things lined up the way they do now. At no other time was Israel, as a nation, so ready to be invaded by Gog and Magog (the Middle East and Russia). At no other time have the teachings of lawlessness been stronger, with not only the catholic abolishment of many laws but the rise of Hyper Grace and "it's not a sin if I'm not convicted". At no other time was the precipice of world wide persecution of believers so ready and edging closer.
This can only lead to one conclusion with this clear and drastic rise in Torah Observance across all denominations in the modern church, all around the world. We are waking up, preparing for the battle of our lives. Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not wish to be a fear monger. I do not wish to cause strife, after all we told 365 times in scripture not to worry, and we're told many more not to fear. Yahweh has it all under control, and according to the end of the Bible we win! But we can not use this security and shalom to grow lackluster and lukewarm. With the rise in sound doctrine, with the shaking off of the lawlessness that is the work of the Anti-Christ, he is rising soon. Very soon. So we need to be ready. Put on the armor of Yah, study your scripture, be obedient to his Law, and go out there and be a tool for the Ruach Hakodesh to bring in the harvest.
