The Torah Club (FFOZ) materials that explain salvation through the lens of Hasidic Judaism

There is much that we, as disciples of Jesus gathered together in the Church can learn from both ancient and modern Judaism.  The scriptures themselves contain many of these truths and lessons, but when and where other sources connected to Judaism contain Truth, we should not allow pride or prejudice to stand in the way of embracing it.  To an extent, this same principle applies to every other philosophy and religion on the basis of the general revelation that the Apostle Paul describes in Romans 1.  Truth is Truth even when those who hold it have only a small piece of the whole.  With respect to Judaism there is an added layer because the descendants of Abraham were chosen by God to be his covenantal people and given ongoing insight through special revelation from the time of Moses through the time of their greatest prophet, Jesus of Nazareth.  It is useful, then, for Christians to consider Truth when it is found in the Talmud (for example), for many of its rabbinic sources were men of faith looking forward to the Messiah (Hebrews 11).  Given that these oral traditions were not codified until the 4th century (Jerusalem Talmud) or the 5th century (Babylonian Talmud), the influence of the editors/compilers who rejected Jesus as the Messiah is also to be expected.  Nevertheless, texts like these retain some value for the Christian study of the Hebrew Scriptures in particular, offering us insights into how the text was interpreted in ancient times by the Jewish people.  

All this is what the First Fruits of Zion purports to be doing, and if this was all there was to it, I'd be supportive of their work as it would mirror my own educational efforts with respect to the original authors and audience of God's Word.  But that's not where it ends.

When utilizing sources from those who do not believe in Jesus, if they are those who believed in the God of Abraham, as is the case here, or those who did not, like the Greek philosophers that have influenced Church history, it is necessary that we proceed with caution especially when the topic at hand relates to the message of the Gospel.

For example, what the Talmud says about Isaiah 53 is of interest to the Church {For a useful discussion: Isaiah 53: The Forbidden Chapter - by R.L. Solberg} but ultimately this prophecy is about Jesus of Nazareth and those voices within Judaism which point in a different direction (that Israel itself is the Suffering Servant) have historical but not theological authority for Christians.  Let us treat these voices within Judaism, both ancient and modern, with respect and dignity, but they have no authority over those who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Which brings us to this example from the Torah Club lesson The Beginning of Wisdom #16 published in 2022 by FFOZ.  It is of historic significance for the Church to understand how various voices within the diverse opinions that constitute Judaism through the centuries have discussed the issue of salvation.  This is a worthwhile topic of study.  What did they believe that mankind needed to be saved from?  What did they think God's role in this salvation was and what was the role of human beings?  What is the role of faith, works, and grace in their view?  Answers to these questions have value and are worthy of study by Christian writers, theologians, and teachers.  But at the same time, we must recognize that if the source we're studying doesn't accept Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, neither the foundation nor the conclusions offered by that source can have any theological authority for followers of Jesus.

If Jesus isn't the heart and soul of your explanation of God's offer of salvation to humanity, what you have to say at best is helpful so that I might properly share the Gospel with those who believe as you do, but at worst your ideas are, to use Paul's term, a "stumbling block."  Again, this is true whether that source comes from Judaism, Greek Philosophy, Islam, Rationalism, Hinduism, or any other.  As Acts 4:12 makes abundantly clear, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

So when FFOZ shares one of the ways in which Hasidic Judaism (they spell it Chasidic) defines the cause of the human condition and God's response to it, it has historic value, but it cannot be presented by any orthodox understanding of Christianity as divine Truth.  On page 10, Daniel Lancaster prefaces this forthcoming tale of the preexistent soul's journey by saying, "Its an incredible journey."  On page 11, there is an attempt to connect this idea of the preexistent human soul to the Gospel message of repentance, Christ's atonement, faith, and forgiveness, which is a good thing, but the yeast has already been mixed in with the dough.  If FFOZ wanted to present this material as something to take note of, but not something it expects Torah Club members to believe, they would need to say so loud and clear, but they fail in this particular case and reinforce that failure by using the study questions #2 and #3 (see picture above) to reinforce the teaching that they took from Paul Philip Levertoff whom they say borrowed the ideas from Hasidic Judaism.  This is not a one-off bit of sloppiness where admiration for an early Messianic Jewish leader got the better of Lancaster who has taught over and over again in this series that he believes that accepting that our souls existed in paradise with God before we were born is a foundational teaching, one that has come up in roughly every other lesson, each time with a stamp of approval.

And this ultimately is the danger of not exercising discernment about the sources that are trusted to teach Christians about theology.  It isn't that FFOZ doesn't teach the Truth at all, at times they sound like an evangelical organization, but this Truth is always mixed with a wide variety of errors that were condemned by the Early Church (such as Subordinationism and Modalism), or as is the case here, come from modern Jewish mysticism.  The resulting mish-mash is something that neither Judaism nor Christianity can stomach as it attempts to shoe-horn Jesus into categories and concepts that were made by those who rejected Jesus as Messiah, all the while telling Gentile Christians who don't know better that this is the "authentic" and "original" belief of those who first followed Jesus.  The end result isn't pretty.

Torah Club lesson #8 leans into the mysticism of Kabbalah

Note the terms: World of Concealment and World of Truth

Note Lancaster's description of demons and angels contending over the souls of the dead

One of the things that jumps out if you read The Beginning of Wisdom Torah Club series one after another (as I've done in order to point out the concrete examples of extra-biblical and unorthodox teachings they contain) is how much Daniel Lancaster relies upon the Wisdom of Solomon.  The Wisdom of Solomon was likely written by someone in the Alexandrian Jewish community in the generations leading up to the birth of Jesus, and it was subsequently included in the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures known as the Septuagint (or LXX).  As a text, it contains ideas derived both from Jewish thought and Greek Platonic philosophy, which isn't surprising given that Alexandria was a renowned center of Greek philosophical thought for centuries.  In addition to this influence, which is something the Early Church would have been very familiar with, for it both embraced Greek philosophy on some matters, and contended against it in others {Gnostic Dualism being the most famous antagonist}, Lancaster also weaves into the Torah Club materials medieval Jewish mysticism in the form of Kabbalah.

Now, I'll be the first to tell you that Jewish medieval mysticism is not a topic that has ever been on my list of things that I need to study as a disciple of Jesus, then again, neither has Islamic Sufism or the various forms of mysticism that have operated under the guise of Christianity.  The idea that the path to divine knowledge is through mystical experience is foreign to those of us who embrace the Reformation's proclamation of Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone).  Why?  Because it cannot be replicated, it cannot be evaluated, and it cannot be questioned.  If someone tells you they had a mystical experience where God told them that the human soul is protected from demons trying to take it to hell after death by an angelic force {as Lancaster does in this Torah Club lesson}, what is the rebuttal?  Mystical knowledge is, by definition, only available to those who experience it, and at the same time due to its dream-like nature, open to broad interpretation.

In this case Daniel Lancaster is teaching that the "insights" of Jewish mysticism are in fact true, more than that, that these ideas can be used as the rubric that explains holy scripture.  Therein lies the growing danger, "because the Jewish mystics say so" is not any safer a path to follow for a disciple of Jesus than, "because the Christian mystics say so."  In the end, God's Word has never required mystical experience to be understood.  Whenever people, well meaning or otherwise, have tried to impose upon it allegorical interpretation or mystical knowledge, the results have been to take those who listen to them away from the plain meaning of the text.  If the plain meaning of the text, that available to the educated and uneducated alike, to the novice as well as to the veteran, was what this path desired, there would be no need for arbitrary allegorical or mystical insights.  Where does it stop?  If the "sages" that Lancaster likes to cite (but never seems to actually quote) deny the resurrection of Jesus, is that out-of-bounds?  Is that a bride-too-far, or are these supposed wise men to be followed wherever they lead?  We've already seen a willingness from Lancaster and FFOZ to abandon the Trinity because it doesn't fit their new "gospel," is there reason to believe that any of the truths that our ancestors in the faith were willing to die for aren't also up for grabs?

In case you are wondering, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, someone who has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and given the new birth of the Holy Spirit, NOTHING can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8), so there is a zero percent chance that demonic forces would need to be thwarted by angels to allow your soul to ascend to heaven.  That's utter nonsense because Jesus has already conquered sin and death, therefore the spiritual forces of evil do not contend with Jesus, they flee from him.

Note: This entire premise of Lancaster is once again built upon the assumption of a pre-existent human soul, an idea repeated as if it were fact in this Torah Club lesson as well, and an idea that was condemned as heresy at the Second Council of Constantinople AD 553.