My daughter who is a nurse has told me about research that shows a link between pork, the parasites and its eggs causing arthritis. Shell fish contain cholesterol, eating animal fat causing other problems. I am Jewish, and more and more I see G’d's wisdom in what “foods” He told us to avoid. They are simply not good for our bodies. Of course gentile believers can eat as they please, but I think that science supports G’d's instruction.

Obviously, there’s no law that says Gentiles must eat foods that are unclean for Israel. I just wonder if the Scriptures really say that animals which are unclean as food for Israel are unclean for all people, and therefore displeasing to God.

Just food for thought!

You’re correct—no covenants (since Noah) were given to Gentiles, however, through the blood of Messiah, Gentile believers are brought near to the covenants of promise (which seems to be the Abrahamic and New Covenants), becoming sharers in the promises—co-heirs and co-members with the remnant of Israel not within the commonwealth of Israel, but in the Body, that is, the Household of God.

To generally address your apparent application of Torah, I would suggest that you are basing it on a faulty assumption: that the Body of Messiah has replaced the nation of Israel. Perhaps you did not intend to purport this view, nevertheless, it must be the case for you, otherwise, you would not be able to imply that whatever was mandated by Torah for the nation is Israel is necessarily incumbent upon Gentile believers in Yeshua.

Be that as it may, if you are truly sojourning (as a modern “ger”) with a Messianic Jewish community–as you mentioned in your comment–then it seems as if you are taking up another’s (imagined) offense. As a sojourner, I encourage you to fully take upon yourself the yoke of Torah that is commensurate with those whom you are “in the midst of” (bearing in mind, of course, the fundamental inability to truly “keep” Torah in Diaspora, without a functioning sacrificial system, etc). However, if sojourning with Israel like Caleb, Rahab or Ruth is not your heart, and you feel that Torah-keeping is an obligation for all believers in Yeshua simply by virtue of being in Messiah, then I would take issue with that perspective.

I would also take issue with the idea that it is insufficient to be “only a child of God and a seed of Abraham and not a child of Israel,” because it was for the Gentile that Adonai called forth Abraham–and therefore Israel (and ultimately, sent Yeshua)–in the first place (Ge.12:1-3). Surely, the purpose of making and setting apart Israel was to restore the nations to Adonai — not to transform the nations into Israel and resettle every single believer onto a tiny plot of land in the middle east!

Gentile believers who are not sojourning with Messianic Jews certainly ought not to disparage the teachings of Torah. On the contrary, they should see the covenantal instructions of Torah not as something to ignore, but neither something to which they are required to obligate themselves. Rather, instead of seeing the covenant of Torah given to Israel as something to appropriate for themselves without regard for Israel as a people — or something to trample on as if it were not the Word of God — they should see Torah as a rich resource for all disciples of Messiah, “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for setting aright, for instruction that is in righteousness.” (2Ti.3:16) It is in this way that “when Gentiles who do not have the [written] Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the [written] Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them…” (Romans 2:14-15, NAS)

The Torah was not meant to be applied individualistically, but communally — and not not just communally, but for a specific people: Israel. The Body of Messiah in general has an incomplete faith without an understanding of Torah — it’s message and purpose — yet nowhere in Scripture does belief in Yeshua require adherence to the covenantal requirements placed upon the physical descendants of Israel. The Gentile believer — no matter how sincere — cannot keep a covenant that God never made with him. Rather, the covenants were made with Israel, and the Gentile believer partakes of the covenantal promises as a co-member — not of Israel — but of the household of God. (Ep. 2)

As a slave to Messiah, Debi, you are as “free” to violate the Torah that is written on all our hearts, as much as you are “free” to live your life focused on yourself, imagining that you are wholeheartedly following Yeshua. Just don’t confuse individualistic, diaspora, rabbinic “Torah-keeping” with being holy and pleasing to God.

Be that as it may, I don’t believe Scripture obligates all Gentile believers to define food the same way that Israel does. For Gentiles within the context of a Jewish community (such as a Messianic Jewish community) I think Gentiles share the same obligation with their Messianic Jewish counterparts. This is because they have assimilated into the Jewish people (e.g. Caleb, Rahab, Ruth) and become like the native-born Jew. Outside that community, however, within the greater Body of Messiah (the “Church”), there is no such obligation. This applies to all aspects of Torah which were designed to distinguish Israel from the nations. The unity between Jew and Gentile does not take place within the nation of Israel (for the nation of Israel presently exists partially without [non-Messianic Jews] and partially within [Messianic Jews] the Body of Messiah), but within the Body of Messiah, or the Household of God (Ep. 2).

To sum up: Torah’s definition of food applies to Jews (and the Gentiles who sojourn with them in their Messianic Jewish communities). Gentile believers in the larger Body of Messiah are not obligated to define food in the same manner.