Abusing Sources: Immanuel Schochet on Galatians

Counter-missionaries are a slippery bunch, often willing to quote Scriptures out of context in hopes that you will not call their bluff. Immanuel Schochet in his debate against Michael Brown is guilty of a particularly grievous form of source abuse. He argues from Galatians that:

The New Testament goes so far as saying that Jews have nothing to gain from accepting Jesus. "If you are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. I bear witness to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law." Galatians chapter 5. So if you have the misfortune that at eight days old you are circumcised, forget about Jesus. He is not going to help you anyway.

Schochet is making it sound like Paul hates his own people! The idea that Paul is condemning anyone who has been circumcised seems really odd, since Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians:

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Messiah. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Messiah Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Messiah and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Messiah, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
(Phippians 3:3-11)

Even stranger is that Paul circumcised Timothy as an adult.

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
(Acts 16:3)

Interesting aside that this passage implies that Jewish ancestry is inherited through the father, not the mother. So we have to ask: what exactly is Paul saying in Galatians 5, where he states:

For freedom Messiah has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Messiah will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Messiah, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Messiah Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
(Galatians 5:1-6)

So what exactly is Paul saying in this passage? The letter is addressed to a gentile congregation in an area in Modern day Turkey. In chapter 1, Paul quickly cuts to the heart of the problem. The circumcision party, also known as the Judaizers believed that all believers in Jesus had to do more than repent and put their faith and trust in Jesus. These Judaizers believed that in order to be saved and have a share in the world to come, the follower of Jesus had to follow the laws of Moses. Paul did not merely tell the people of Galatia that accepting the Judaizer view made life unnecessarily difficult, Paul said that Judaizers were unsaved unbelievers.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Messiah and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Messiah. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
(Galatians 1:6-9)

Notice how Paul continually emphasizes faith as the means of salvation. What he does not say in this letter, is that observances such as baptism and confession are necessary for salvation, and that the problem with the Judaizers is that they demand the wrong observances. Instead, Paul emphasizes that salvation comes through repentance and trust, and if your view of salvation demands observances, then you do not really have faith, and are an unsaved unbeliever.

Paul then further shows the distinction between Gentiles and Jews. The Judaizers were so powerful in Galatia, that they even managed to intimidate Peter.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
(Galatians 2:11-14)

Paul then continues by emphasizing that salvation comes through faith, and not through works.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus the Messiah, so we also have believed in Messiah Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Messiah and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
(Galatians 2:15-16)

This is important to note. No one is ever justified by the law. Now when we read Galatians 5, the thrust of Paul's letter should become obvious.

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Messiah will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Messiah, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Since we have already established that the law does not justify, this means that anyone who cooperated with the Judaizers and their "faith plus" view of salvation is, in fact, damned.

This is an issue that I have not only with Sacramentalist denominations of Christianity, but also "Torah Observant" denominations of Messianic Judaism. I do not mind that groups desire to follow different lifestyles, but once those observances become necessary to earn a share in the world to come, then those groups do not have a saving faith.

In fact, when we look at the promises given to Israel for observing the Torah, we notice that this is a covenant between God and a theocratic nation. The rewards do not mention life after death, or anything about heaven and hell. Instead, the rewards and punishments are earthly and material. So let's not pretend that New Testament theology alters that of the Tanakh. Observance of the Torah never brought about salvation, but since day one, salvation was always a function of repentance and trust.

Furthermore, it really throws into question the trustworthiness of counter-missionaries like Immanuel Schochet. Why would he so deliberately misquote Galatians in debate? Did he think no one would call him on it? Why are you playing with my Bible, Dr. Schochet? Why are you messing with the word of God? And if you do, do you think I want to have anything to do with what you are trying to sell me? When someone is resorting to this kind of deception, I get out of there as soon as possible. I leave skid marks!