G-d Never Forsakes the Torah
Moshe Ben-Chaim
Christianity attempts to proliferate the lie that G-d forsook His original Torah, replacing it with a “new covenant”. They claim this covenant is “Christianity”, which now supplants Judaism as G-d’s “newly selected” religion. This claim is not supported by the text at all. However, Christianity attempts to support their claim, quoting Jeremiah 31:30. But I will quote the entire context from 31:26-35. The glaring contradiction to Christianity’s very claims makes you wonder how anyone could accept Christianity’s positions. Let us review the actual text:
“Behold the days are coming - the
word of G-d - when I shall sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah, the
seed of man and the seed of animal. And it shall be that just as I was diligent
concerning them, to uproot, to smash, to destroy, to annihilate and to bring
evil, so will I be diligent to concerning them to build and to plant - the word
of G-d. In those days it will no longer be said, ‘The fathers ate sour grapes,
but the teeth of the sons are set on edge.’ Rather, every man will die for his
own sin, and the man who eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on
edge. Behold, days are coming – the word of G-d – when I will seal a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the
covenant that I sealed with their forefathers on the day I took hold of their
hand to take them out of the land of Egypt, for they abrogated My covenant,
although I became their Master – the word of G-d. For this is the covenant that
I shall seal with the house of Israel after those days – the word of G-d – I
will place My Torah within them and I will write it onto their heart; I will be
a G-d for them and they will be a people for Me. They will no longer teach –
each man his fellow, each man his brother – saying ‘Know G-d’. For all of them
will know Me, from their smallest to their greatest – the word of G-d – when I
will forgive their iniquity and will no longer recall their sin. Thus said G-d,
‘Who gives the sun as light by day and the laws of the moon and the stars as a
light by night; Who agitates the sea so that its waves roar; G-d, master of
Legions is His name. If these laws could be removed from before Me, - the word
of G-d – so could the seed of Israel cease from being a people before Me
forever.”
G-d says that just as the laws governing the luminaries and the ocean will never cease, so too the people of Israel will never cease from being a people from before G-d. It could not be clearer: G-d will never abandon Israel. What is more startling is that G-d openly says, “…I will place My Torah within them and I will write it onto their heart.” The Torah is clearly never abandoned by G-d. This “new covenant” that the Christians imagine to be Christianity, is in fact the original Torah, as G-d says:
“For this is the covenant
that I shall seal with the house of Israel after those days – the word of G-d –
I will place My Torah within them and I will write it onto their heart;
I will be a G-d for them and they will be a people for Me. They will no longer
teach – each man his fellow, each man his brother – saying ‘Know G-d’. For all
of them will know Me, from their smallest to their greatest – the word of G-d.”
G-d said, “for they abrogated My covenant”, i.e., the Jews forsook G-d. G-d therefore promises a reestablishment of His providence over the Jews. This is the meaning of a “new covenant”. And with this new covenant, G-d will never again be removed from the thoughts of the Jews – they will never again abrogate their relationship with G-d. In the prior generation, the Jews abandoned G-d. What G-d will now do in the future is guarantee that the Torah and G-d are never lost from the Jews. This is the “new covenant”. To suggest it refers to Christianity is overtly foolish, and displays Christianity as illiterate.
Furthermore, the Torah again says as follows (Isaiah, 59:21):
“And as for Me, this is My covenant
with them, said G-d, My spirit which is upon you and My words that I have
placed in your mouth will not be withdrawn from your mouth, nor from the mouth
of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring, said G-d,
from this moment and forever.”
What is the word that was already “placed in your mouth”? Christianity suggests Isaiah prophesied for the future about Jesus. However, this cannot be, as Isaiah is clearly referring to the past. G-d clearly refers to the “word” that will never be lost forever, as that which is already “placed in your mouth”, past tense. Thus, G-d declares that the word, which He already placed in the mouth of the Jews – the Torah – will never be withdrawn. End of story. G-d will never replace the Torah. Isaiah’s “new covenant” refers to something in the past, and not in the future. G-d’s word in the past is clearly the Torah given at Mount Sinai. Review G-d’s words, “For this is the covenant that I shall seal with the house of Israel after those days – the word of G-d – I will place My Torah within them and I will write it onto their heart”.
(Parenthetically, quoting this section as their “proof” for Christianity is shooting itself in the foot, for in this very section we read, “every man will die for his own sin”. This portion denies their doctrine that Jesus can die for others, although he did not sin!)
Isaiah teaches the opposite of what Christianity claims: G-d openly attests that he will never forsake the Torah or the Jewish people.