”...I worship the God of our fathers…
I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets…” Acts 24:14 NIV

Chuck Cohen was once on a plane heading for Dallas Texas, in order to speak at a conference about Israel. The Lord said to him, “When you finish teaching, someone will come up and ask you where you studied, what seminary you went to, and what books you have read to be able to see the Scriptures in the way that you see them. Here is what you are to tell them.”

After Chuck’s first session, a young man did approach him, and asked those very questions. Chuck replied, “You’re the one God told me about. Here is what He said my answer should be: I read the Bible from the beginning!”

Too many believers think their Bible starts with Matthew. They may give lip service to the fact that the Old Testament is also part of the Word of God, but if they really believed it was still valid for today, the major deception called “Replacement Theology” would not be running rampant in far too many Churches. Also, more believers would not be taken in by the deceptions that have flooded the Church since she officially cut herself off from anything “Jewish”.

Many believers have been taught to interpret the Old Testament through the eyes of the New. However, after Yeshua revealed Himself to Chuck, who is Jewish, Chuck interpreted the New Testament through the eyes of the Tanach (the Old Testament). He needed to be sure that what he now believed about the Messiah of Israel lined up with the Scriptures of Israel.

When we first realized that we were interpreting the New Testament through the eyes of the Tanach, we thought maybe we were wrong. After all, the “vast majority” [at least 51% on last count], of Christians do it differently. But then we realised that what we were doing was exactly what Yeshua, His disciples, Paul and the first century Body of Messiah was doing. They had no choice – all they had was the Tanach to prove that what they were saying was of God.

We are not New testament believers – we are Bible believers. Our Bible starts at Genesis and continues to the last word in the book of Revelation. Because of this, our theological stance is also holistic.

Yes, we certainly recognize the truth of progressive revelation. Often, what God reveals as the Scriptures continue, especially in the New Testament, throws more light on what is in the Tanach. But it never conflicts with what has gone before. God does not change. He never decides that plan “A” won’t work, therefore He changes to plan “B” in midstream, so to speak. The Lord is omnipotent. He certainly knew in advance what Adam and Eve would do before He created them. And the same goes for Moses, Pharaoh, Peter, you and me.

The New testament does clarify certain things for us. Chuck saw a wonderful example of this recently sitting in a park outside our home. He was looking at the shade cast by a tree. As the sun shone brighter and brighter, the shadow of the tree became far more defined, to the point where he could actually trace the outlines of individual leaves.

Some of the Old Testament, especially that which deals with the rituals and feasts contained in the Law, is a shadow of the good things to come (??Col 2:16-17??; Heb 8:5, 10:1). But when Messiah Yeshua appears and finishes what His Father assigned to Him, that does not do away with the shadows – in fact, it makes them clearer, more understandable and of more benefit to us.

Our desire is that you too will become a “Bible” believer and have such deep roots in the Word of God that the various winds of doctrine blowing through the Church in these last days will not be able to make you stumble.

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Psa 1:1-6 NIV