Bat Zion in Duncanville, a Dallas suburb, attracts hundreds and hundreds of people in their yearly Passover service. They are also a watered-down, compromised Messianic congregation that encourages participants and congregants to go out to eat at restaurants after their Sabbath services. It is watered-down and compromised because the Torah (“instruction”) manual says we are not to work, nor buy nor sell on the Sabbath day. There are loopholes and exceptions to this: nurses/doctors/police officers/firemen/military all work to “save lives” and that is a noble line of employment, Sabbath or no Sabbath. So, Yahweh is going to look at “doing good” on the Sabbath as not a yoke of bondage, but a mark of someone who is dedicated to fulfilling the spirit of the Torah.

Going out to Chili’s or other restaurants on the Sabbath, before dark, is not. That’s not to say I haven’t broken those commandments. I’m guilty of breaking the Sabbath laws too. It’s a sign to the entire world that we are “set apart” (holy means “set apart”) and called by Yahweh and through his son Yeshua to keep his commandments. How much of an example (again, guilty of doing this in the past myself) is it to the world — or to our own Messianic, Torah-observant “movement” — when we’re at shopping malls, sporting events, or restaurants on the Sabbath Day? It could also have to do with the fact that sinister organizations — while their intentions may in fact be noble — have a “co-opt” strategy (think: Jews for Jesus) to appear Messianic on the surface, but after a bit, “it’s okay to keep Christmas, or Easter, or eat pork, etc.” This is a tactic of a very real enemy who wants to divide and conquer Yahweh’s chosen people. How else do you describe the Noahide Laws, those man-made un-biblical rules that Gentiles are not to keep the Sabbath or Holy Days? Or the rabbi-created calendars, instead of following what Moses taught (i.e., Rosh HaShanah is set by the sighting of the new moon, not the sighting of what rabbis from generations have pre-set dates upon), what about that? It’s a watered-down, Churchianity Lite Mixed with Messianic Decorations that comprises Bat Zion.

Leaders of these flocks — and the Southern Baptist Convention and the Assemblies of God also have faux Messianic congregations and synagogues in well-intentioned but vain attempts at yanking the rug out from under Jewish believers into coming into the Churchianity fold — have a duty to teach correctly, and allowing your congregation members to eat pork (as Baruch HaShem in Dallas has done, for example), or go out to eat after Sabbath services is not only a slap in the face to the true Torah commandments of Yeshua himself, but it is a false teaching, being perpetuated by false teachers. Luckily, we are under grace, so any commandments we break are easily forgiven by the shed blood of our Messiah. However, just like many rabbis in Israel that definitely know who Yeshua is and won’t tell their congregations about him for fear of losing their numbers, money or prestige, they will stand accountable for what they taught — or allowed — and what they did not.

Bat Zion allowing its members to go out to eat on Shabbat after the services is no different than a Sunday Churchianity practice of going out to eat on the “Christian Sabbath.” (no such thing as a “Christian Sabbath.”) It’s not just incorrect to allow or teach it, it is a false teaching, making, by definition, Bat Zion part of a false system no different than the Rome-decreed movement that many people are now coming out from. (aside: the Seventh Day Sabbath is from Friday night to Saturday night; Genesis teaches how to set Yahweh’s calendar, days, nights, etc.)

So, what is the solution? Read the Torah and what it says. Does it allow going out to eat, buying and selling on Saturday afternoons? No, it doesn’t, because even if believers were being bought the things, others have to work to provide it (again, there are exceptions, like doing good on the Sabbath.) These are not bondage requirements. The Sabbath was set apart, and the people chosen to keep it are to be lights and lamps to the rest of the world. This column was designed and written with the intent of being a light inside the growing Messianic movement.

Joey G. Dauben
Publisher
The Ellis County Observer

Baruch HaShem (literally: “Bless the Name”) is the largest Messianic synagogue in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, if not the largest in Texas. I’ve never been to Baruch HaShem and here’s the reason why: many, if not Baruch HaShem corporately, do “not take issue” with Gentiles eating pork or other unclean meats. This was spoken to me by many individuals both in the congregation and those who left after several visits. This would be a watered down, compromised, partition wall theologically. When Gentiles (myself included) are grafted in by faith through Yeshua into the kahal, we are to observe and keep the commandments. We are to keep the Holy Days and feasts — many times, you will read this as “the Jewish Holy Days,” or the “Jewish Sabbath.” It’s not Jewish-anything. The Torah was given for the native and foreigner both. (plus, Jews are from one of 12 tribes. There are 11 more tribes. The vernacular of the media is simply to make “Jews” include all of the descendants. It’s semantics, but accurately, there are no “Jewish” Holy Days in the Torah, because Yahweh gave them to all believers.) If you believe upon Yahweh and his son Yeshua’s sacrifice, ascension and his atonement grace, then you are then beholden to the contract: keeping the commandments. One of those commandments is Leviticus 11′s refraining from unclean meats.

Don’t think for a second that new believers into the Messianic faith (from a Jewish background or a Churchianity/Gentile background) are suddenly, overnight changed into their new role. It does take time, several years maybe to finally get rid of Christmas or Easter or Sunday observance. There are always individual cases. I just know that it took me about three years to go completely kosher (or kashrut) after being called out of Churchianity. The instruction manual we call the Torah also goes for the food laws. I really don’t like the word “laws.” Torah means instruction. It is Yahweh’s instruction manual that gives us the provisions for food, the seven Holy Days, the weekly Sabbath, etc.
However, with such a large congregation, the leaders have a moral responsibility to teach the Torah and the New Testament to all believers, not just the “Jews,” but to Gentiles as well. To “not take issue” with Gentiles eating pork is like saying Christians coming out of Churchianity and into the Messianic fold can and should observe only the Noahide Laws. Might as well, right? Or, separately, forget what the Torah says, let’s just keep the Holy Day calendar as prescribed by rabbis. Like Rosh HaShanah is set by the sighting of the new moon (as Moses taught in the Torah), many congregations in “mainstream Messianic” movements subscribe to the rabbinical view that says, “forget what the Torah says, we’ll keep pre-set dates for the Holy Days.” That’s missing the mark. Those of the Torah persuasion know what “missing the mark” and “hitting the mark” mean.

By giving credence to a viewpoint that Gentiles no longer have to keep the food laws, or at least the Messianic leaders at Baruch HaShem (or any other congregation that does this) who do, that is woefully inadequate. It’s a cop-out. It’s watered down. It’s a compromise. It’s more importantly, a false teaching.

Joey G. Dauben
Publisher
The Ellis County Observer
publisher@elliscountyo.com

The goal of The Israel Observer is to be an unapologetic Messianic media outlet, while also educating readers and Believers on the politics, the decisions and the Holy Days, for Jews and GENTILES alike. We are commanded, as believers, to keep the Holy Days (they’re Yahweh’s Holy Days, not “Jewish” Holy Days), to keep Sabbath, to keep kosher.

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