On another post I mentioned an amazing comment that was made by a Messianic Pastor that said that the priestly caste from the Levites accepted Yahushua as Messiah in great numbers and in urgency following his first advent on earth. The reasons for this was that they were dealing with the shadow pictures and allusions of Messiah on a daily basis in the Temple worship system which is of course derived for the most part from Torah. It goes without saying that the abandonement by the Levites from traditional Judaism hastened the consolidation of power by the pharisees (the Rabbis). Does anybody have anything to say about this? Is there any historical record or scriptural record of this alleged phenomenon?

Having dug into the Torah a bit more than the average "christian," I'm not the least bit surprised that the Levites in the Apostolic age would have "gotten it." As for the priests, that very fact is recorded in Acts 6:7... "and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith." If you're willing to look at the Torah as Yahweh's plan for our salvation, something more significant than a mere list of rules, the Messiah's presence is everywhere you look. Perhaps this new generation of Levites will figure it out again.

All of this goes a long way toward explaining why the rabbis under Akiba went to such great lengths to usurp the Levitical authority of the Levites and priests. Have you guys ever read Daniel Gruber's book Rabbi Akiba's Messiah? It's a fascinating, terrifying historical account of how this great tragedy was perpetrated. A "must read."

kp

Mark,
As kp said;



I think most of us here have the concept of what the Torah really says about Messiah and the Rabbi's list of self fulfilling qualifiers pretty much down pat. People came to faith in Messiah because of what the Tanakh said. Honestly, I didn't really come believe in and trust the Messiah until I understood the Tanakh. I would worry about "new testament" churches more than I would Yahudim who place their trust in Messiah and strive to walk in the upright ways of Yahuweh out of love, gratitude, and understanding precisely because of the Tanakh. Are we any of us Rabbinics or Rabbis that you should worry about us...even as we discuss Rabbinic perversion?

Shalom Aleichem

Hi Mark,

Welcome to the forum, and thank you for your concern.

I would just like to clarify that 'focus on the Torah' WILL lead us down the path of YHWH, as long as we remember that the idea is not to become slaves to what is written there, rather to let it guide us through the chaos that is the world without YHWH.

The modern Levites are NOT focusing on the Torah - that is the whole problem - they are focusing on the RABBINICAL INTERPRETATION of the Torah, which is entirely man-made and usually contrary to Torah.

I would hope that the more you find out and get to know YHWH, the more you will feel the need to refer to the Torah, for it will be written on your heart. Yahashua was a Torah scholar, most of what he says comes from Torah or the Tanakh (the Old Testament).

This all sounds a bit funky, or it did to me at first, but then I actually read the Tanakh for myself, and I found that many things that I had been taught by my church (2 times a week for seven years) were evasive of the truth, or just left out all together.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

hehehe that made me giggle