What a Facebook debate exposes about adding to the Word in the Torah community
If you’ve ever asked a Christian to show you where Yehovah commanded a tradition they’ve been taught to defend, you already know the question I’m about to ask. Where did He say it? I want you to ask that same question the next time somebody in a Torah group tells you what you have to do to be set apart.
I’m seeing a trend in the Torah community that ought to concern anyone who takes biblical obedience seriously. Somebody comes to a conclusion, finds a verse they can stretch far enough to cover it, and starts teaching it as though Yehovah Himself said it. Sometimes they skip the verse altogether and just call the claim “scriptural.” Then a new believer comes along, eager to obey, and takes that person at their word. Before long, they’re repeating a rule they’ve never actually read in Scripture – because it never existed there.
How many times have we challenged Christians for twisting Scripture to defend worldly traditions? We tell them to back up a few verses, keep reading, and see whether the Bible actually says what they’ve always been told it says. Good. But you need to do that when the person teaching wears tzitzit, keeps Sabbath, and uses the name Yehovah, too. And if I tell you Yehovah requires something, ask me to show you where He said it. I answer to the same Word.
Deuteronomy 4:2 says, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it.” Read the rest of the verse. Yehovah ties that instruction to keeping His commandments. Deuteronomy 12:32 repeats it. And Proverbs 30:6 tells you what’s at stake when you put words in His mouth. “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
That brings me to a series of posts in a Sabbath-keeping group that are flooding out into their timelines which means they wind up in front of a lot of people. In these posts, the OP calls chicken a “scripturally unclean bird” and tells people, “you shouldn’t be eating them or their eggs.”
There’s a lot to unpack here, but I want to lead with what I feel is the most serious aspect of all this. That claim is a prohibition being taught in Yehovah’s name. It cannot be supported in the Word of Yehovah, yet they do it in His name.
That is a violation of the third Commandment. And it’s a serious offense.
If you’re going to put that on somebody’s conscience, open the Bible and show them where He said it. Pulling a few scattered verses together and manufacturing criteria that don’t appear anywhere in Scripture is exactly what you’d call out if somebody did it to defend a worldly tradition.
Where Did Yehovah Give That Rule?
There are several posts about this, so I’ll give you the highlights. And of course I’ll give you my answers. Would you expect anything less? And yes, before you ask, I keep the food laws. I study the Word and stick to the Word as it is written. That’s exactly why I take issue with this.
I’ll post these claims exactly as they were written.
“Scripturally, every bird listed as UNCLEAN is a carnivore or scavenger.”
Even if you could establish that for every bird on the list, you’d still have to show where Yehovah says every bird that eats meat or scavenges is unclean. Back up to Leviticus 11:9 and read through verse 19. When Yehovah addresses fish, He tells you to look for fins and scales. Keep reading. When He addresses birds, He names the kinds He forbids. Where does He tell you to classify a bird by what it eats? The OP says chickens “fit every single criteria of a scriptural abomination.” All right. Put your finger on the words where Yehovah gives those criteria.
Then turn to Exodus 16:13. Yehovah provided quail for the Israelites in the wilderness. Quail eat insects as well as plant food. They’re omnivores, just like chickens. Yehovah gave the Israelites quail to eat! Would He give them something that violated His own laws?
Try That Rule on Deer and Fish
“They eat poop, parasites, blood, meat, their own eggs, and their own babies.”
Well, let’s look at this line of logic.
White-tailed deer have been documented eating live songbird nestlings. They’re also natural hosts for parasites, including meningeal worms and giant liver flukes.
Now open your Bible to Deuteronomy 14 and read verses 4 and 5. There’s deer, right there among the animals Yehovah permits for food. If eating live prey or carrying parasites makes an animal unclean, what are you going to do with the deer Yehovah said you could eat?
The OP also says, “we don’t eat cannibals.” Bluegill have been reported eating their own eggs, and they still have the fins and scales Yehovah requires in Leviticus 11:9. Does that turn your stomach? Fine. You can put down your fork. Where did Yehovah give you the authority to write your reaction into His food laws?
Scripture plainly says that Yehovah is not a liar. Don’t try to make Him into one.
A Land-Shrimp in One Post and a Feathered Serpent in Another
The OP says “human engineering” is responsible for the modern chicken. In another post, the OP brings in mythology, compares the way a chicken strikes at prey to the way a viper strikes, and concludes, “I believe it is very wise not to eat a feathered serpent!”
So which forbidden kind are you claiming it belongs to? Where did Yehovah say that selective breeding changes an animal’s biblical classification? Where did He say that the way an animal strikes at prey makes it unclean? You can spend all day telling me what a chicken reminds you of. You still owe the reader a scriptural basis for calling it unclean.
Then Speak for Your Household
“The Qodesh Ruach (Set-Apart Spirit aka Holy Spirit) directed us to stop eating eggs.”
The commenter who posted this had a list of reasons, none of which would make eggs biblically unclean.
So, OK, you’ve told us what you believe the Holy Spirit directed your family to do. You’ve shared someone’s experience with migraines, raised concerns about parasites, and brought up the use of eggs in vaccine manufacturing. You can tell somebody why there’s no chicken on your dinner table. When you tell them there’d better be none on theirs because Yehovah forbids it, you need to show them where He said so. If you can’t, you’re out of order.
This is what makes me angry. Picture somebody who’s just started keeping Sabbath and learning the food laws. They’re standing in the grocery store trying to figure out what to bring home for dinner. They remember your post and put the eggs back because you told them those eggs were “scripturally unclean.” Now they’re going to explain to their family that Yehovah forbids something they’ve never seen Him forbid. They trusted you to show them how to obey Him, and you taught them that it’s OK to put His name on a rule they came up with themselves – because they are following your example. That lesson will follow them long after they’ve forgotten what you said about chickens.
You’ve put yourself in Yehovah’s place. You gave somebody a rule of your own, put His name on it, and expected them to obey it as His Word. That’s why I brought up the third Commandment before we ever got to the quail.
The next time somebody tells you, “Yehovah forbids this,” open your Bible. Back up a few verses and keep reading. Ask the person to show you the words that establish what they’re teaching. Do it even when you like the teacher, even when you’ve shared their posts before, and especially when what they’re saying sounds like something you’d already be inclined to believe.
And if you’re the one teaching it, study it before you put it on somebody else’s conscience. Deuteronomy 4:2 applies to you while you’re teaching Leviticus 11. If the only place your reader can find the prohibition is in your Facebook post, take it out of your teaching.
