Torah Times Messianic Ministry

Luke 16:16

How is the House of Israel supposed to respond to this text?

The translators and the theologians, our modern scribes and Pharisees, say that the age of Law spanned from Moses to John the Baptist and that the age of grace began with Jesus. But both the translation and the theology are false teachings.

First, the theology is false. There was forgiveness of sins before Messiah Yeshua came:

We also have this witness:

Are forgiveness and mercy "grace?" Well, if they are not, then when the same words are used by Yeshua and his emissaries after John the Baptist, we would have to doubt them. Because if those words do not mean what they say in the Torah, then how can the same words be trusted to mean what they say in the new age?"

So the theology is false. Just in passing here, the translation "make an atonement" is incorrect in Lev. 4:20. It means "to declare to be a purging," and also in Exodus 20:6, "unto thousands" should be "unto the thousandth generation," as is made plain by parallel texts. But I will not go into these matters here, because it is beside the point. Just know this: the translators and theologians have corrupted the Scripture in many places through their many reinterpretations. They are the scribes and Pharisees.

The correct translation of Luke 16:16 is as follows:

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To repair this text, I have to supply the word "prophesied" based on Matthew 11:13, and the reading in Codex Bezae for this text. There is also another Greek text with the deleted word preserved, and well as some Latin texts. Also, verbal texts in Greek and Hebrew often have an implied pronoun usually "it." The corruption of Israel by money was predicted in both the Torah and the Prophets. When the blessing came upon Israel, Israel's heart turned to their treasure, and Israel forgot the Most High. And the shepherds traded sheep for money. This is what the immediate context in Luke 16 is about!

The correct theology can now be explained. It is evident from the differing contexts in Matthew 11 and Luke 16 that this phrase was an oft repeated trope. The Law and Prophets prophesied [it]. Or the Law and Prophets predicted [it]. The saying would be applied to whatever thing that had been prophesied was seen to be coming true in the context of each usage. What did the Law and Prophets predict until John the Baptist?

The Prophets, and the Law, predicted the coming of Messiah. When Messiah came, the prediction came true. But they did not just predict that Messiah would come up until John! They also predicted that great conflict with evil would happen when Messiah came.

To understand this point, we have to consider that there are two comings of Messiah, a first and a second, and that there are two comings of Eliyahu, the first representing the spirit of Eliyahu and the second being Eliyahu himself. Both times, Eliyahu is the last prophet before the coming of the Messiah. So the Torah and Prophets are predicting the ultimate spiritual and physical war. The war began at the first coming of Messiah with the war over the souls of mankind, and the war will end at the second coming with the resurrection of the righteous. When Messiah came, the spiritual war began, which was only a prediction before then, and so again, when Messiah has put down all opposition, what was only a prediction up through the two witnesses will become the reality.

So then, instead of an age of law and an age of grace, we have an age of prediction, and an age of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is near, and this is the age in which one should be cleansed of their sin, and accept the writing of the Torah upon their heart, because the day of judgment is coming.

Now, in the immediate context of Luke, what is Messiah referring to that was prophesied? He is referring to the predictions about the corruption of the religious leadership of Israel, whom John called a brood of vipers and warned of the coming judgment. They were lovers of money. They were sheep traffickers. They were false shepherds. Scripture both preaches on this theme and predicts the conflict between them and the coming Messiah, who will be the One Shepherd. Messiah's enemies are assaulting and warring against the kingdom of heaven from within and from without.

And so it is at this day. The Law and Prophets until Eliyahu predict. After Eliyahu is finished. Messiah will stand up and deliver Israel. And those false shepherds who teach that grace and law are separate ages, if they do not repent, are going to find themselves thrown out of the kingdom.

From Messiah's plenty, we have received grace on top of grace because the Torah was given through Moses. The present age of grace follows upon the former age of grace. All grace and all faithfulness come to be through Messiah Yeshua.

What about the curses in the Torah? At the present time, there is a season of grace for Israel until the promised seed comes. When the Messiah comes the second time, he will bring judgment with him, and the evil will be removed from Israel. For the judgment is announced to be by the Messiah, and it will be through his holy messengers, the angels, who shall remove the wicked from his kingdom. He is the mediator between the Most High and men, being both the Almighty Son and the Son of man. It is he who will cleanse the evil from Israel.

In that day Messiah will have made new the covenant of old, and his law will be written on everyone's heart.