(Q): The Body of Messiah is made up of Jew and Gentile being one in Messiah. Could you explain a little bit on that?

(A): Yes, Messiah Himself said, when He spoke about being The Good Shepherd, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold.” That is to say, not Israelites born and bred. Then He said, “them also I must bring… and there will be one flock and one Shepherd.” We are all united in one common faith; we are members of one body of believers, whether Jew or Gentile

(Q): In the last two thousand years, so-called Christians have done many bad things to Jews. Can you explain how this is possible when Yeshua says that we should love our neighbour?

(A): Alas, that is only too true that the Christian Church, so-called, throughout the centuries, even from the days of the so-called ‘Church Fathers’ have been guilty, at least the vast majority of them, of showing antagonism, hatred and discrimination against the Jewish people. And that is because most of the people in what is called the Church today, are not Christians. They are only Christian in name, and therefore they do what unbelievers always do – pick on a scapegoat.

(Q): Could you define ‘Covenant’ please?

(A): ‘Covenant’ means agreement with terms and with conditions. It means that there are two parties to the agreement. There are terms and stipulations, and usually in Covenant, each party has its obligations. That’s basically the meaning of ‘Covenant.’ In the Scriptures, Covenant was sealed by sacrifice.

(Q): How does ‘Covenant’ relate to Israel?

(A): Covenant relates to Israel because GOD Himself unilaterally called them to be His people and proposed to them that He would be their GOD and they should be His people on certain conditions.

(Q): ‘Covenant.’ Does it relate to the Body of Messiah?

(A): Covenant also refers to the Body of Messiah. There is one great difference in the Covenant made with the Body of Messiah, and that is that GOD undertakes to fulfil all the conditions that He demands. That is the amazing thing – that what GOD requires, He supplies. For example, in the book of Ezekiel, GOD tells His people, “…make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” And then, when GOD speaks about redeeming His people Israel from their sins, He says, I will provide them with a new heart and a new spirit. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you… and cause you to walk in My statutes…”

(Q): Is there a distinction with Covenant in relation to Israel and the Body of Messiah or individual believers?

(A): There is a distinction between Covenant with Israel and with the Body of Messiah. When GOD made a Covenant with Israel, it was a Covenant of works – do and live; disobey and die. When GOD made a Covenant with the Body of Messiah, His requirements were changed. It was a Covenant of grace. In that New Covenant which GOD speaks about, in Jeremiah 31. GOD says, “I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” And later on, that Covenant is repeated in the Brit Chadasha as applying to all who join GOD’s people in faith in Messiah. And the terms are changed now. GOD says I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more. What was penalty under Law is now mercy under Grace.

(Q): You mention these terms ‘Law’ and ‘Grace.’ Could you explain how they work throughout Scripture?

(A): Law has many meanings in Scripture. It means rule, teaching, and various other connotations. Grace speaks about GOD’s undeserved favour. Law tells us we must measure up to a certain standard if we would have GOD’s favour. Grace tells us GOD bestows His favour upon us when we were not only undeserving but ill deserving, and in that Grace, He has bestowed freely terms and offers of Salvation to all who would come as they are, with all their guilt and with all their shame, in all their helplessness, in all their emptiness. That is Grace.

(Q): Could you explain how Messiah shed His blood from the foundation of the world and relate this to the salvation of Adam?

(A): Yes, Messiah shed His blood from the foundation of the world. That scripture means that already from the foundation of the world, it had been decreed by GOD, that Messiah should be the substitute, the sacrifice, the sin bearer of His people. And it was first demonstrated to Adam when GOD made skins of coats and clothed Adam with those skins. That animal had to die in order to surrender its coat as a covering for a guilty man called Adam. And Adam learned then and there that salvation was through the shed blood of an innocent substitute. That was the only way our sins could be covered.

(Q): Could you relate this Salvation also to Noah?

(A): Noah learned about this Salvation through the way GOD brought him through the flood. The flood was meant to be the instrument of GOD’s judgement on a sinful world. Noah learned that by taking refuge in the ark, he could be spared from that judgement even though it was falling all around him.

(Q): Could you relate this Salvation to Abraham?

(A): Abraham recognized this Salvation in the near sacrifice of his son Isaac. He learned there that GOD would do what he, Abraham had very nearly had to do, and that is, to surrender his own son to the knife.

(Q): Could you relate this Salvation also to David?

(A): Yes, David knew that he was saved by grace alone. He says in one of the Psalms: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute iniquity.” It’s not a question of not having iniquity, but rather, iniquity not being imputed to the guilty soul. This is what David understood by the salvation of GOD, and he knew very well how it came about. In the Psalms especially, he writes about Messiah as this great sin bearer of His people, particularly Psalm 22, where he speaks in the name of Messiah, “They pierced My hands and My feet.”

(Q): Why do we use the term ‘the times of the Gentiles?’ Could you explain what that means?

(A): “The times of the Gentiles” refers to the time of the captivity of Israel when Israel was taken captive to Babylon. That’s when “the times of the Gentiles” began. That’s how it’s understood by many Jewish Christian scholars today. “The times of the Gentiles” are still continuing today and they will continue until the return of the Messiah. What it refers to is that now GOD is beginning to move among the Gentiles and to do a work amongst the nations of the world that will continue. It is a work of Salvation and of Redemption, by which the nations of the world are brought in to all the mercies and the blessings that GOD first promised to Israel, but later on through the prophets, which He promised to extend to all the nations. GOD says to the Messiah, I have chosen You to be “…a covenant to the people…” and “…a light to the Gentiles that You should be My Salvation to the ends of the earth.” That’s what is happening today.

(Q): Do you believe Yeshua will come back soon?

(A): Personally, I do believe Yeshua will come back soon. He gave us signs by which we could discern the approach of His return. And one of the signs was that the world would get worse, that believers would get scarce, that “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” That in other words, Jerusalem will revert to Jewish sovereignty, and this we have seen quite recently, in 1967 in the six-day war as it is called.

(Q): Are there other things that we should expect, as Yeshua’s return gets closer?

(A): Yes, there are other things that we should expect as Messiah’s return comes near – Phenomena in nature, nature out of control, earthquakes, famines, floods, pestilences. The Lord Yeshua said these would be signs of His coming. Signs in heaven above and on the earth beneath. These are all meant to alert us that He is not very far behind.

(Q): How should a person prepare for His return?

(A): The best way we can prepare for the return of the Messiah, is to make sure that He is our friend, that we have made our peace with Him, so that when He comes, He receives us to Himself as members of His people.

(Q): If a Gentile believer in Yeshua (Jesus) accepts Shabbat as the seventh day and observes the 613 commandments in the Talmud, can he be considered Jewish legally according to the accepted Law of Moses under the tradition of rabbinic teaching concept?

(A): This is where the Law of Moses and the traditional rabbinic concepts vary. Moses teaches that Gentiles who keep all GOD’s commands or who seek to do so are accepted by GOD, but they do not lose their identity. They continue to be what they were nationally and physically. According to the laws of the rabbis, a Gentile who does the same thing goes through a conversion process by which he becomes what is called a son of Abraham, and that is a term to say that he is now regarded as a Jew. Unfortunately, in practice it doesn’t always work this way, and what is officially proclaimed is not really believed by many of the Jewish race.

(Q): Is there any difference between a traditional Jew who fervently believes in the GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob under the Law the GOD of Abraham had given to Moses and a practicing Messianic Jewish believer in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth?

(A): There is one basic crucial difference between a traditional Jew who seeks to obey all the Scriptures of Moses and that of a Messianic Jew. The traditional Jew holds it as a point of honour not to believe in Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, whereas the Messianic Jew holds it as a point of honour that he does believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah.

(Q): Surely, one of us is in contempt. If so, who?

(A): One of us is in contempt, that’s for sure, and it is the one who has not got living faith in the true Messiah. This is the one that is mistaken. This is the difference between true faith and works.