The Mark of the Faithful Remnant

There has been a significant movement among believers in the past several decades to rediscover and reclaim that which could be called the neglected elements of the Torah.

      This movement is especially obvious among Messianic Jewish believers in Yeshua, but it is by no means limited to Jewish believers. Because so many non-Jewish believers are now involved in this movement, some people prefer to use terms like “the Messianic Faith” or “the Messianic Movement” rather than “Messianic Judaism” or “the Messianic Jewish Movement” - not to exclude Messianic Jews, but to more accurately describe a movement that now consists of more non-Jews than Jews. In recent years the term “Hebrew Roots Movement” has become popular. 

Regardless of which terminology is used to describe this movement, it is an awakening and a phenomenon that is continuing to grow. Even Mainstream Christians are taking note of it and responding to it. Much of the response is unfavorable, but at least Christians are taking note of it. Every sincere believer should prayerfully consider what is happening.

When comparing the Messianic Faith with Mainstream Christianity, an observer will notice four distinct practices emerging in the Messianic Movement that differentiate it from Mainstream Christianity. The four differences can be summarized and categorized as follows:

MESSIANIC FAITH

1. Honors the seventh day (Saturday) as the Biblical Sabbath for rest and worship.

2. Celebrates the Biblical holy days of Leviticus 23.

3. Follows Biblical dietary laws.

4. Practices miscellaneous laws that could be called “the least of the commandments” (fringes, beards, mezuzahs, etc.)

MAINSTREAM CHRISTIANITY

1. Uses Sunday morning as a time of worship.

2. Celebrates holidays that are adaptations of pagan holidays.

3. Ignores Biblical dietary laws.

4. Ignores miscellaneous commandments and labels them as “just for the Jews.”

Some believers think that this dichotomous arrangement is what God intends for His people. But does our heavenly Father really want a paganized “Gentile Church” that meets on Sundays, celebrates Christmas and Easter, and has church-sponsored hog roasts, while a “Jewish Church” keeps the Sabbath, celebrates Biblical holy days, and eats a kosher diet? If Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Yeshua are to be one body in practice, and not just in theory, the above arrangement will not do.

What is the significance of these polar opposites of Sabbath versus Sunday, Biblical holy days versus Christianized pagan holidays, Biblical dietary laws versus no dietary laws, doing the least of the commandments versus not doing them? We can gain some insight into these four areas by examining one of Ezekiel’s visions.

Ezekiel was one of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The glory of God had departed from the Temple. In Ezekiel chapter 8, the Spirit brought the prophet “in the visions of God to Jerusalem” and showed him Israel’s sins that had caused God’s glory to depart. These sins were in four categories.

In the vision, Ezekiel was first told to look toward the north gate of the inner court of the Temple, where he beheld an “image of jealousy.” The Lord then said to him, “Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from My sanctuary? But turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.” Greater abominations were coming, but even this first abomination, which we could call “the least of the abominations,” was enough to cause the glory of God to begin its departure.

Secondly, Ezekiel was told to dig into a hole in the wall at the entrance of the Temple court. Ezekiel dug until he came to a door. When he went through the door, he saw “creeping things and abominable beasts” portrayed on the walls, and seventy of the elders of Israel standing before them. God again told him, “Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.”

The third abomination that Ezekiel saw was “women weeping for Tammuz” at the north gate of the Temple. Weeping for Tammuz was a custom associated with a pagan holiday. Every year, pagans mourned and fasted forty days for the pagan god Tammuz, in preparation for the spring festival and its perverse fertility rites. Again God said to Ezekiel, “Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.”

The fourth and final abomination that Ezekiel saw was “about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun towards the east.”

So the four abominations were: an image that provoked to jealousy, unclean animals, women participating in a pagan holiday ritual, and men worshipping the sun. The correlation between these four abominations and the four areas of Torah that are re-emerging in the Messianic Movement is quite striking. Let’s consider the correlation.

The first abomination Ezekiel saw was “the least of the abominations.” Mainstream Christianity ignores “the least of the commandments,” while the Messianic Faith is reclaiming the least of the commandments.

The second abomination Ezekiel saw was the leaders of Israel standing with unclean animals. The leaders of Mainstream Christianity teach that unclean animals may be eaten by God’s people, while the Messianic Faith teaches that God’s people should obey God’s dietary laws.

The third abomination that Ezekiel saw was women participating in a pagan festival at the Temple. In Mainstream Christian churches, Christians celebrate religious holidays that have their origin in pagan idolatry, while Messianic believers celebrate the holy days that God commanded in the Bible.

The final and the worst of the four abominations was that of Israel’s spiritual leaders turning their backs on God’s sanctuary and worshipping the sun. The spiritual leaders of Mainstream Christianity turned their backs on God’s sanctuary in time, the seventh-day Sabbath, and replaced it with the observance of Sunday, the day which pagans devoted to the sun god. Now Messianic leaders are calling on God’s people to turn around and start honoring God’s Sabbath.

According to an article in Biblical Archeology Review, the reason Christian leaders changed the Sabbath to Sunday was three-fold: 1) to “show contempt for the Jews”; 2) to “avoid appearing to observe the Sabbath with the Jews”; 3) to make Christianity more appealing to the pagan masses, who were already using the first day of the week (“Sun-day”) to honor the sun god. (See Samuele Bacchiocchi, “How It Came About: From Saturday to Sunday,” BAR, Sept./Oct. 1978, 32-39.)

Of course Christians today do not go to church on Sundays to worship the sun god, nor observe Lent and Easter to worship Tammuz. But when we learn about the reasons that Mainstream Christianity turned its back on God’s Sabbath and holy days, we should then turn our backs on the observance of Sun-god day and pagan holidays, and return to the Biblical Sabbath and Biblical holy days. In like manner, we should also return to keeping the dietary laws and the least of the commandments.

Ezekiel’s vision of the four abominations was immediately followed by a vision of the slaying that took place in Jerusalem as a result of these abominations. But before the slaying began, Yahweh told an angelic being with a writer’s inkhorn, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” Other angels with swords were told to follow and slay all who did not have the mark of protection, beginning at God’s sanctuary.

There are similar passages in Revelation about God’s faithful remnant receiving a mark of protection upon their foreheads before God’s final judgment falls on the earth. (See Revelation 7:3, 9:4, 14:1, 22:4.)

God’s mark of protection is not some physical mark like a tattoo. What is the “mark”? In Ezekiel 9:4, the Hebrew word translated “mark” is tav, which can mean a mark, a sign, or a signature. According to the Gesenius Hebrew Lexicon, tav can also mean “a cross,” and is in fact translated “cross” in the New Jerusalem Bible. For followers of Yeshua/Jesus, this aspect of the mark of God’s protection should be obvious. To have the mark, a person must have faith in the One who died on a cross.

But I see a second aspect of this mark in light of the four abominations that Ezekiel saw, and the four corresponding elements of Torah that are re-emerging in the Messianic Movement. Tav is also the name of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and corresponds to our English letter “T.”

In the context of Ezekiel’s vision, what Hebrew word could the letter tav stand for? Among Bible students, probably the best-known Hebrew word beginning with tav (or “T” in English) is the word Torah. The idea that the faithful remnant in Jerusalem would be marked with a tav for Torah makes sense in light of the fact that the abominations that they were grieving over were simply the abandonment of certain elements of the Torah.

So by viewing the tav as both “a cross” and as the initial letter of Torah, we can see that God’s faithful remnant today is characterized by two things: faith in the One who died on a cross, and the keeping of God’s Torah.

We also see the faithful remnant in Revelation marked with these same two characteristics, as it is written:  “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua” (Rev. 14:12).

We see it again in Revelation 12:17:  “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Yeshua Messiah.”

We know Satan hates Jews. Even though they have not put their trust in Yeshua as their Messiah, they have preserved the Torah. Satan also hates Christians. Even though they have not honored the Sabbath, holy days, dietary laws, and other miscellaneous commandments, they have preserved the testimony of Yeshua. Satan is troubled by the Jews because they keep Torah, and he is troubled by Christians because they have kept the testimony of Yeshua. People who decide to do both things - put their faith in Yeshua and keep the commandments - are double trouble for the Devil. These are the remnant who greatly anger the Adversary. Those who have the tav - both the Torah and the Cross - will be targets for the rage of the Enemy. So be prepared, but do not fear. We shall overcome!

| DB