Fair enough. I will answer your questions and this will also be the last time that I post on this.

the issue in Acts 15 is SALVATION: Acts15:1 “And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren, and said, ‘Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.”
These believing pharisees…who followed the Messiah…still had the pharisaic trappings that led them to equate OBEDIENCE to commands with SALVATION. This is the reason the Jerusalem Council was convened: to get the DOCTRINE OF SALVATION right.
The conclusion of the matter: SALVATION IS BY FAITH ALONE.
AFTER salvation comes OBEDIENCE.

You state: “The Old Covenant is changed in that no more sacrifices are needed.”

The Old Testament makes NO provision for willful, defiant sin. NONE. The only sacrifice that has EVER saved men is the LAMB OF GOD SACRIFICE, who first appears in Gen 3:21. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”
This sacrifice..is God’s Lamb.. not the lamb that an ordinary person brought to the temple or tabernacle for SINS OF IGNORANCE. There is no provision in the Book of Leviticus for WILLFUL DEFIANT SIN. The penalty for willful defiant sin IS DEATH.
The HOLINESS of the Messiah is due to the fact that He NEVER SINNED, ie He never broke ONE of His Father’s commands, b/c SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW.
1john 3:4″Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Therefore HOLINESS is still established the same way: To sin=unholy
To not sin=HOLY.
rom 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”

As far as food is concerned…your comments about Japenese eating habits…I would like for you to show me the evidence, data, statistics, that you have about your assertion that “the unclean food eating Japenese outlive kosher-eating Jews. The facts are there. You are clearly ignoring them to support your position.” Honestly, I never have given any thought to your argument about the culinary habits of the average Japanese person. Bottom line …whatever the evidence is…and proboly there is …. Yahweh says what is food, and not everything is food. Everyone has their own list of what is kosher to them…say if someone sets a bowl of bleach in front of you and said , Eat up! You would decline, saying, ‘That isn’t food’. Likewise the Most High has a list of things that ARE food….and a list of things that ARE NOT FOOD. I said many die prematurely b/c they don’t follow the dietary laws…that doesn’t mean all, and those that don’t are the recipients of G-d’s grace. The FIRST commandment..had to do with food law…and we couldn’t even keep that ONE. The tree of the knowlege of good and evil you shall not eat. G-d says don’t eat …so we do. Same with (pork, crab, etc.)

Dan, I am surprised at you to be honest. I expected more from you regarding scripture and not your opinions, of which you have posted very little scripture and mostly your opinions. You state “It makes no sense for God to use an illustration or vision that isn’t true in all points.” Who says so…you. Acts 10:28 “And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. ”
NOWHERE does Peter SUGGEST that this vision referred to what was FOOD and what was NOT food.
I would encourage you to go to Abba and ask Him what is the truth regarding this passage of scripture. Don’t go to calvin, tozier, spurgeon, but ask the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) to give you understanding, this is very easy to see.

No one HAS TO OBEY HIM! Only those that love Him obey him anyways.
Jn 14:15 IF you love me, keep my commandments.
According to the Apostle John…if we go around saying, I love the Messiah! but we don’t keep His commandments…we are liars.
1Jn 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

If Yeshua broke any commandments and taught His followers to do so, HE IS NOT THE MESSIAH. Deu 13:1-4.

Approximately 1/3 of the book of Acts is the apostles and disciples counterring the FALSE charges that they were changing the laws: people continue to this day to BELIEVE the FALSE CHARGES against them.
Acts 6:13 and set up FALSE WITNESSES, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Acts 6:14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.

They were FALSE WITNESSES then…Do you want to CONTINUE the false charges?

The church has lost it’s identity. It is time for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear ….to return to their Hebraic heritage. The enemy has stolen alot from the people of Yahweh. To be a hebrew means to ‘cross over’. I would encourage everyone to leave egypt (the church system with all of its man made traditions and pagan festivals…ie christmas , easter ect..) and return to the ancient paths. The ways of Yahweh. To wear the wedding ring of the Lord ( the *sign* of the sabbath in hebrew means wedding ring) is to honor the sabbath by resting on that day and making it a delight.
These are not my rules these are HIs. He makes them, we are called to obey them

That is all I wll say, and I have enjoyed this *midrash*( discussing the scriptures in hebrew) with you.

Shalom my friend

You are avoiding the issue raised in Acts 15. What is the meaning of the “unbearable yoke” in v10? By context, it can be nothing else except circumcision. Therefore, the Old Covenant has been changed.

The Old Covenant is also changed in that the Holy Spirit now resides inside believers.

The Old Covenant is changed in that no more sacrifices are needed.

The Old Covenant has been changed in that holiness is not by rituals, but by putting on Christ.

All those are changes.

As for Adam, if you contend that Adam was killing and eating animal flesh before the fall, you have to change a lot of theology to make that work. You’re also ignoring Gen. 9:3.

You also never refuted my refutation of your claim that those who eat “unclean” foods die earlier. Like I said, the Japanese eat more “unclean” food, by far, than any other group of people on the planet. They also have the greatest longevity. Again, your contention simply does not hold up, not even from simple facts. Please tell me how your assertion that those who eat unclean foods die earlier than those who do not can possibly be true when the unclean-food-eating Japanese outlive kosher-eating Jews. The facts are there. You’re clearly ignoring them to support your position. This doesn’t help the credibility of your position.

Regarding Peter’s vision, it makes no sense for God to use an illustration or vision that isn’t true in all points. If He hasn’t made all things Peter saw in his vision clean, then your contention must mean that God is not telling Peter (and us) the truth. He, in fact, DID make those things clean.

Adventists, who are annihilationists, try the same squirm tactic when trying to explain away Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus gives us a clear depiction of punishment and the suffering of the damned, but Adventists say, “It’s only a parable.” The problem is that all the supporting facts around any of Jesus’ parables are true. He doesn’t use illustrations that can’t possibly happen. To use an illustration that is ultimately not possible would be misleading. Same goes for God’s pronouncement in Peter’s vision. God calls those things clean in the vision and that vision extends to the Gentiles AND the items that Peter saw in his vision, not to one and not the other. The fact that Peter was startled by what God was saying only further backs me up.

As to entering the restored Temple, Jesus bought my admission with His blood, not by the blood of red heifers. And by the way, WE are the Temple, the New Jerusalem. We are the very stones that comprise it, so your interpretation is not following spiritual realities.

If you fail in keeping one part of the Law, you fail in keeping all of it. Christ kept it for us. This is freedom. It is the freedom not to circumcise our sons on the eighth day, to not have to do ceremonial washings after sex or after menstruation. If you want to keep all that, then I can’t stop you. But I think you’re mistaken.

That’s the last I have to say on this.

And by the way, my church is experiencing a number of God-initiated miracles lately without practicing every last law in the Torah.

“so that the Jews would have no quibble with him:”

Not sure whata quibble is, but am assuming you mean qwarrel. So what yer saying is that Paul was a hypocrite….a man-pleaser…and a scaredy kat. You are also suggesting that timothy allowed his peepee to get whacked to further paul’s hypocrisy. i think NOT

“Adam was given only vegetables to eat”

There is no record of *only vegetables* to eat…as for Noah….why then did he take both clean and unclean animals on the ark? Notice that he only took TWO of the unclean…had he eaten them, the species would have been wiped out.

“The New Covenant started with Jesus’ death and resurrection, not with His birth.”

Wasn’t the noachic covenant a little bit NEWER than adamic? Or are you referring to NEW ….as in refreshed, which is what the word NEW means refreshed, in both greek and hebrew. not new *fresh out the box*, —greek kainos.
The NEW covenant is NEW…refreshed…because it is consecrated with the blood of Messiah, rather than the blood of animals. But according to Paul…in 2 Corinthians 3 ..the only difference between the NEW covenant and the OLD covenant is the heart of the one reading it.

As for Peter: by the confession of his OWN mouth, up til the time of the vision of the sheet…He had *never eaten anything common or unclean*. Also, by the confession of his own mouth the teaching of the VISION was that he was to call no MAN unclean.
It is funny…how people take a VISION…and say it changed real things…but take real things, like the commandments, and turn them into *spiritual, not real things*.

“God changed His covenant with Man”.

This one is easy: Mal 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
If G-d changed..then WE would have been consumed long ago and there wouldn’t be a Jew left on the face of the earth.

“The unclean was no longer considered unclean”

There is not ONE Scripture reference that says that the Messiah’s death on the tree turned pig into food, the holy into the profane or the profane into the holy. NOT ONE.
The death of the Messiah was NOT a magic trick, tho it appears to have been in some people’s minds.

“If you’ve ever touched the face of a dead loved one, did you perform the ceremonial cleansing ritual after that?”

If there was a tabernacle or a Temple standing today in Jerusalem, just HOW does one approach it? This is a HUGE question, as we will be seeing a Temple there again. And you WILL NOT enter the Place called *Heaven on Earth* except in the way that the Most High has commanded. You will not just do it *yer way*. To enter into the presence of G-d on earth, you will follow the protocol HE has established, including the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer.

“If you want to keep the Torah, then I can’t stop you. But you’re detracting from Christ’s finished work by trying to add something to what He accomplished”

The command reads..Deu 4:2 “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you”

I am not ADDING to His Commands …I am trying to HONOR them. However..my friend, you have erased them altogether.
Yeshua said, “If you love me keep My Commandments.” Pretty simple…those who love Him, keep them…those who love themselves, don’t.

So I go back to the original question….why does the church not see alot of miracles, healings, ect…it is not b/c of a lack of faith, but a lack of obedience. The church can keep on keeping on with the same ole man made stuff of “we’re in a different dispensation now” and stay powerless. As I heard Dr. Phil say “How’s that workin for ya?” (and I don’t watch him, but I agree with that logic).

It is time for the body of Messiah to go back and cling to their roots, so that their days will be long, and that they will prosper in whatever they do.

Shalom