Is the Torah for Today - Part 1

This week's TorahBytes message that was posted yesterday deals with a practical life principle addressed by the Torah. Dealing with such issues (which in this case related to personal property) raises the more general subject of how should New Covenant believers apply the Torah to our lives today.

There are several viewpoints, which I will list here. In future posts I will discuss these further and try to provide what I believe is the biblical perspective. This may not be an complete list, but it provides a general overview of various approaches to the Torah.

The All or Nothing Approach. This Approach sees the Torah as a whole. Either you seek to follow it all or you have to disregard it all together.

The Slice and Dice Method. This approach picks and chooses certain principles to accept and others to reject based on what the individual deems relevant to our day. Culture (or our understanding of culture) becomes the filter through which we apply Scriptural principles to our lives.

Old Means Old. This is an understanding whereby the Old Covenant is Old in the sense of completely finished with . There may be some lessons found in the Torah, but they are lessons similar to that which we may learn from history. There is no direct application to today.

The Spiritualization Approach. This view tends to see the whole Torah as relevant to all believers, but takes many of God's directives and spiritualizes them, usually in an attempt to find Yeshua and his salvation in them.

Categorization Approach. This is the view that there are clearly defined categories or law found in the Torah. This is usually described as Moral, Civil, and Ceremonial. The adherents of this view normally see the civil as no longer in effect and the ceremonial as fulfilled in Yeshua and thus is no longer applicable, while the moral is eternal.

The Eternal Torah. Proponents of this view assert that since God said it then, it still is in effect today and that's that.

Obviously my understanding includes some sort of application of Torah to today or else I would not have written what I did about property rights. But how we view the Torah's current relevancy is very important so that we follow God today in the way he truly desires, rather than create our own fabricated religion. More to come.