The Coming of Grace (Fair Use)
Misunderstanding the Intent of the Torah
A Fundamental Armstrongist Mistake
By Scout
When I was a teen, I became aware of Jews and Judaism. And one of the first things I learned about Jews is that they did not believe in an afterlife. That was not quite accurate. But this was the view among some midwestern Protestants. According to an article in the Jerusalem Post newspaper more than half the Jews in the United States believe there is no heaven or hell. The same article states, “…with the exception of some kabbalistic texts, there is virtually no mention or description whatsoever of heaven in the Tanach (Bible).” So, it is no wonder that the afterlife does not get much air time in Judaism.
In fact, the book of the Bible that some scholars believe was most likely written by Moses, the Book of Deuteronomy, offers no promises concerning a salvation that involves life eternal. The Torah was never presented as a pathway to a heavenly salvation. It was offered as the way that the descendants of Israel could live an earthly life of blessing. Leviticus 18:5 states, “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.” It’s all about living by the laws while you’re alive on this earth. You might have noticed that many of the laws are earthbound. They involve the seventh day, which food you should eat, what is clean and unclean, how you should treat your slaves – concerns that are not likely to exist in heaven.
So, it is odd that someone would conclude that the Torah is the pathway to eternal life. But someone did. And I have no idea how it happened. The Pharisees during the time of Christ came to believe somehow that there was a resurrection. The Sadducees, the priestly caste, the people whom one would believe to be closest to the scripture, did not believe in a resurrection. And the Pharisees stirred up some dust in the early Christian church over this. Those Pharisees who professed belief in Christ began to push the idea that circumcision and Torah observance were required for salvation.
Fast forward to the Twentieth Century. Herbert Armstrong, Herman Hoeh and Rod Meredith concluded that Torah observance, which did not contain any kind of promise of a wonderful world tomorrow, was a requirement for salvation. Meredith wrote, “Paul shows right here that God’s law is not abolished — that it is "written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart" (II Cor. 3:3). God's laws — His commandments, statutes and judgments — are to be in our hearts — we are to live them by the power of God's Spirit.” (Rod Meredith in “Is Obedience to God Required for Salvation?”) Hoeh observed that the “statutes and laws magnify the Ten Commandments.” So, the Torah is just as binding as the Decalogue in Armstrongist doctrine. In doing this, they were recruiting the Torah to do something that it was never intended to do – be a pathway to salvation as defined by Jesus.
There is a revealing contrast in John 1:17. John wrote, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” And it is grace that leads to salvation as we know from Ephesians 2. Paul wrote in Galatians 5, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” The Armstrong-Hoeh-Meredith model of using the Torah to secure salvation is like trying to use a wet noodle as a crowbar.