Torahism Answering Hebrew Roots and Other Movements

Okay, round two. Name something that's not boring. Laundry? Ooh, a book club. Computer solitaire, huh? Ah, sorry, we were looking for Chumba Casino. That's right. ChumbaCasino .com has over a hundred casino-style games.

Join today and play for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. ChumbaCasino .com.

Welcome to The Wrap Report and the New Topic on Torahism

Welcome to The Wrap Report with Andrew Rappaport, where we provide biblical interpretations and applications. This is the Ministry of Striving for Eternity and the Christian Podcast Community. For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

Well, welcome back to another Wrap Report. I am your host, Andrew Rappaport, and just glad that you are with us. The reality is we do these podcasts because we care that you get a good biblical education on all things, and today's episode may be something new for many of you.

For others of you, you're going to be saying, I've been wanting a resource that covers this topic. We're not going to tell you what the topic is, of course, just yet, but this is going to be, for some of you, a very new topic, and so I'm going to ask that what I want you to do is to slow it down.

For those of you who are like me and play all podcasts at triple speed, you may need to slow this one down because you're going to probably hear some things that are new, and you're going to need to process that and think about that.

So, you're going to want to maybe re-listen to this one, because I think there's going to be a lot of information that will be new for folks, and they're going to need to assimilate this. Now, if you listened to the last episode, I hope you did, that was a powerful testimony that we had from Jeffrey Rice.

If you listened to it, you already understand that, but here was a guy who was kidnapped at a young age, at 11 years old, robbed at gunpoint at, I think he said 12 years old, gang member at 14, ends up leading the gangs, and now what does he do for a living?

He rebinds Bibles with really nice soft leather. If you didn't listen to that one, you'll want to go back and listen to that. That was a powerful testimony. He shared some things that he has not shared publicly, and so that was something for many of us who love fine Bibles, I've gotten some Bibles from Jeffrey, and it was something that you'd want to listen to.

Defining Hebrew Roots, Black Hebrew Israelites, and Torahism

Now, what we're going to talk about today is the fact that there are different groups of people who fall into a camp, and it's really hard to define this camp. Maybe you've heard of terms like Hebrew Roots Movement.

You've heard, if you listen to this podcast, you've heard Black Hebrew Israelites before. They kind of fall into this same camp. You'll hear different language, and it's really hard to pinpoint what is it that all these groups kind of have in common, because there really hasn't been a book written on these things.

I've been asked, many of you who know my background, because I'm from a Jewish background, I get asked constantly about the issue of Hebrew Roots. I get asked constantly, is there a resource that we could turn to, that we could go to, we could look at, that will help us?

I have a friend that's being pulled into this. Well, I've got news for you. Now, there is. So I want to welcome to the airwaves R .L. Sahlberg, and his book, Torahism, and we're going to need to define that, but it's called Torahism, Are Christians Required to Keep the Law of Moses?

So, Robert, welcome to The Wrap Report. Thanks, Andrew. Appreciate it. So, I've got to let folks know that when you had someone contact me about your book, I looked at the title and the subtitle, and I shared this with you privately, but I immediately went, oh, okay, this is going to be a book promoting living under the law.

And so I immediately assumed that, and I said, okay, I may end up being a little bit critical, and I think the email I sent to both you and I guess his secretary, whoever was it that contacted me.

Yeah, that was Carly from Williamson College Press.

Yeah, so I was like, just to let you know, I'll read it. I may be a little bit more critical. I'm from a Jewish background, so I do have some knowledge in this area. And you responded with, well, I'm definitely going to be interested in your take on this.

Oh, I know. Actually, when you said that, I really piqued my interest because I was trying so hard to make sure I was stating positions correctly, and as we'll get into, there's that nuance between full-on Judaism and then this kind of halfway position of Torahism, and I wanted to make sure, you know, iron sharpens iron.

So I was really glad to have someone with your background take a look at it.

Now, so before we get into, because I do want to talk about what is Torahism, but first, for folks to get to know you, can you just give a little bit about your background, and then how did this come about for you?

I know in the introduction of the book you explained that, so I'm a little bit familiar, but for the audience, you're a new voice for them. Just tell a little bit about yourself.

Sure, yeah, I'm based in Nashville. I do a lot of writing. This is actually my first published book, but I'm, you know, a theologian. I do some speaking, some teaching at my local church. I'm currently getting a master's degree in theological studies after about two decades of self-directed study.

And what else? I'm a recovering professional musician. Used to make my living doing that. Now music is just a really big part of my ministry, what we're doing. My wife's a singer as well. And I've really been captured by all of these different types of, I guess for lack of a better word, heretical movements that I just keep creeping into church, creeping into teachings.

You know, the obviously big ones we all see, the prosperity gospel and that sort of thing. But as I've gotten interested and started learning more over the last several years, I really just felt a strong passion and a burden to, I don't want to say defend God because he sure doesn't need defending and I'm not able to do that, but in the public arena to stand up and present a reasonable, logical defense for the Christian faith and why it's true and why it's real and why some of these slightly off-target approaches that seem like, oh, well, let's all just let each other believe what we believe, it's all good, how they actually have some really dangerous aspects to them.

I'm talking about things that risk our salvation. That's where this book came from. I actually have, it was a year and a half ago, I had some friends that were posting, and I think we all see them, I'm sure you do as well, but there's these memes about, oh, Christmas is pagan and that kind of stuff.

I have a lot of friends that believe differently than me then, so I wasn't necessarily alarmed, and then I went, wait a second, that guy's a Christian. I was friends with him when I lived back up in Minnesota where I'm from.

Why would he be posting that? That's really strange. And so I kind of dug in. I thought, all right, I'll bite. Why would a Christian say that Christmas is pagan? And that's kind of how I stepped into this other world of Torism that I wasn't aware of, but yeah, you're right, it's part of the many-branching tree that Hebrew Roots Movement is part of.

And so the problem I had, which you sort of alluded to, was there is no monolithic synod or anything that represents these people groups, this belief system, I should say. So what do I call this? Because not everybody's a Torahist or a Hebrew Roots Movement person, so I asked my friend, I call him Bob in the book, but I asked, Bob, what do you call yourself then if you're not a Christian?

He said, I'm just a believer, which, you know, that's kind of a meaningless thing to say. So as I began digging in and I kind of began sort of aggregating common beliefs, I realized it all revolves around the Torah.

So that's kind of where I kind of coined the phrase Torahism, which is this kind of belief that faithful followers of Jesus, and I don't even know if they'll call them Christians, but faithful followers of Jesus are supposed to be living under the law that God gave to Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai is kind of their point.

So what are the entailments of that? Again, that doesn't sound bad. The first thing I thought was, oh, that's really cool. I would love to go to a Seder. You know, I'd love to experience the Jewish roots of my faith.

But as I dug in, I realized it's more than that. So they're talking about, you know, obviously observing the Saturday Sabbath, but also the kosher dietary restrictions, keeping the biblical feasts, etc.

Which all, again, I'm okay with that as long as we're exploring. It's a Messianic Jewish position, which is a beautiful thing. But they started saying things like, and by the way, Jesus was human. He was not divine.

And so when you worship Jesus, you're committing idolatry. And because he was not divine, there's no such thing as the Trinity. That was a Roman corruption introduced in the 3rd century. And all of a sudden, whoa, we're into scary land.

Messianic Judaism, Hebrew Roots, and the Problem of Pride

Yeah, and this is the thing that I think we should let folks understand. This is, as you said, it's not a monolithic system. This is what makes it hard. Because they don't have, here's a book that says what we believe.

And therefore, you have to talk to many different people I think that, I introduce you to a friend of mine, Volcab Malone, who took on a similar task like you, but in the Black Hebrew Roots movement, which has a lot of similarities.

There's a lot of overlap there. Yeah, there is, yeah. It's not a monolithic group. There's a bunch of fractured groups, but they have some teachings they all hold to, and then others that could be extreme.

The extreme of saying, yes, Jesus is God, to no, he was never God. There's some that will reject the entire New Testament. So you have the same thing in what you're calling Torahism. This is a new term.

It's not like people can go search this and find this. This is a term you've created or invented for the purpose of giving a label to something that's hard to pinpoint. The one thing that they all have in common is the Torah, is the Law of Moses.

And therefore, because of that, you've created this term.

And I also want to mention that that term is not in any way intended to be derogatory. So calling someone a Torahist is like calling them a Jew or a Muslim or a Christian. It simply describes their belief system.

Because when I started using that term, I noticed some of my friends who I had been interacting with were like, dude, don't call me names. You know? So I had to explain that there's just no simple way to sum up your belief system.

So I'm mentioning that as your belief system. And of course, they're like, well, it sounds like terrorist. No, that's not it. So I made a really big point in the book of mentioning that that is not at all derogatory.

And as I point out in the book, there's a lot of things to respect about the folks who are going through this faith journey. And I point that out. I'm not trying to set up any straw man arguments where they got things right and I think are very spot on with scripture.

I point that out. And where they taught me a few things, I point that out as well. That's great. I love that. So it's a big point in my book. I refer to it several times. My fight is not with people. It's with ideas.

So I love to keep the conversation there. I love a good, robust debate, but I want to make sure we're loving our brothers and sisters.

Historically, I've observed over my lifetime this progression. Started off, as you mentioned, with the Messianic Jewish movement. People would always ask me, are you a Messianic Jew? No, I'm a Christian who happens to be Jewish.

It's hard for people to understand because so many Christians have made a big deal about Jewish people that get saved. They'll say, are you a completed Jew? No, I'm a Christian like everybody else. Are you a Messianic Jew?

The Messianic Jewish movement is very often very charismatic. It's very feeling-based, emotional-based. I remember years and years ago when I used to work at Lucent Technologies when Bell Labs got spun off and we went to Lucent.

I remember a security guard that went to a synagogue for worship. She was a Gentile. She was so excited. I came to work one day, I said hello to her, and she's telling me about this festival that she was celebrating at synagogue.

She's explaining this thing to me, and I'm like, I've never heard of this before. She's like, no, no, no, this is what Jews worship. I'm like, no. I've never heard of this holiday. I've never heard of anything like this.

She literally looks at me and says, you're just jealous because I'm more Jewish than you. I noticed something at that point. There was a pride she had in following the rituals. I'm like, let me see. Born of the tribe of Levi, Bar Mitzvahed at 12 years old, and you're more Jewish than me.

10 years of Hebrew school. I'm like, how in your world are you more Jewish than me? That is the mindset. I then started seeing that it started morphing from that into Hebrew roots and these other fractions.

What I noticed with it is with a lot of people, it starts off as an interest. They're interested in Judaism. They're interested in the festivals. They're interested in they just have a fascination with Judaism.

Do you have a problem with that? I think that part's beautiful. I think that is helpful. It's helpful to understand. This is the one thing when I travel and preach and a lot of people say that they thank me because I do bring in to the sermons when necessary the culture of Judaism because there are times that that is going to be helpful to understanding the text of Scripture.

There's a lot of people who they just don't do that. They don't take the time for that. Or they don't understand some of the background. That is helpful. The rabbinic Judaism that we have today is what the Pharisees taught.

It hasn't changed in 2000 years. When we look at it that's different than Old Testament Judaism. That's the thing. What most of these people go to is rabbinic Judaism. Here's what I end up noticing though is it starts with I want to get into festivals.

I want to enjoy learning about them. It'll quickly go to from there what I end up seeing is it goes from wanting to be involved in the festivals to wanting to worship on Saturday because that's what people would do.

They say it's more quote authentic. It starts as that but as you point out in your book then there's others who will say well you have to because this is what the Sabbath was. We'll get some scripture that would disagree with that.

What I end up seeing is I've noticed this trend and what I've seen in it is a lot of times there becomes a spiritual pride that some not all have. For some it's an interest in going back to the roots of Christianity.

For others I think what I notice is a pride I know something you don't know. I have something you don't have. There's also.

Tied in with that the sense of works that they feel like they can because they can keep certain rules that pride kind of creeps up. It's almost like they're looking for that. Half of me thinks that part of it could be the sort of warmed over theology that we get, the pop theology that happens in a lot of churches today.

Not all of them but where they start going hold on that feels a little squishy. I want something solid I can put my hands on. So having these specific lists of works and laws and mitzvot they can keep that all of a sudden makes them feel like oh this is becoming real to me.

I think that's where a little bit of the deception creeps in. Because they tend to identify their spirituality with the tied to the Jewish rituals and things like that. Right. Go ahead.

I was just going to say it's interesting if you get into deep into the Old Testament seeing it from the revelation of Jesus and they accept Jesus they think he was a human messiah. But if you look at that you suddenly see how all of those old festivals and feasts and everything are actually, they were pointing forward to Jesus.

So it becomes a little bit crazy that they're almost leaving the new beautiful gift we have in the new covenant in Christ to go back to the old way which was merely a shadow of Christ.

Galatians, Colossians, and the New Covenant Fulfillment of the Law

And this is the thing that's always frustrated me with folks that do this because we can read the entire book of Galatians right? It's all about not putting yourself under the law that what we see people doing in this movement is exactly what was happening in Paul's day but a little different in the sense most of the people that are involved in Hebrew roots are Gentiles.

A Gentile is someone who's not Jewish. And so you know in Paul's day you had Jewish people who were saying oh you have these Gentiles coming into what we believe but they gotta keep all the laws that we always had to keep.

So in that sense it's a little different but you have Paul writing in Colossians 2, 16 therefore let no one pass judgment on you in question of food or drink or with regard to festival or a new moon or a sabbath.

The shadows there are a shadow of things to come but a substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on the worship of angels going into detail about visions puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind.

So you see in there he's giving he's giving to us some details of what we have.

In this movement I think. Right yeah absolutely. It's hard to understand how they could. I mean like you mentioned Galatians. Galatians 3 where Paul talks about the law was our guardian until Christ came you know.

Now the faith has come we're no longer under a guardian. He clearly says that. The whole book of Hebrews right it's about we're under a better covenant a superior high priest a superior temple. I mean it's so clear that the law and even I mean I have a lot of discussions about.

I think it's Hebrew 8 .13 where it talks about how the old covenant is outdated and becoming obsolete now that the new covenant has arrived. And the author of Hebrews also makes this comparison that says you know when there's a new priesthood which Jesus was under the not under the Levitical priesthood which was required by the law of Moses but he was a priest in the in the order of Melchizedek so and obviously Jesus was from the tribe of Judah so the point is we have a new priest.

With a new priest comes a new law.

And what I think that for folks what I at this point what I just want folks to understand. If you're just having an interest in Judaism and want to learn festivals that's not a bad thing. Robert and I are both agreeing that's good to understand the background of the scriptures but when people start to want to put themselves under the law again this is where we start getting into what Paul says in Galatians chapter 1 another gospel.

Right. Yeah exactly. And also it's talked about in Acts 15 the Jerusalem council. Remember the Judaizers at that point got in a big argument with Paul and Barnabas. They have to keep the law of Moses and they have to be circumcised.

And the I have a whole chapter on this the outcome of that council which was not only Paul and Barnabas James was there Peter was there and it even says the Holy Spirit attested to it that they are not required.

Gentiles who come to believe in Jesus are not required to keep the law of Moses. They're not required to get circumcised. They just gave them four restrictions. So how is it possible that we are supposed to still be under the law when the Holy Spirit and the apostles clearly said we aren't anymore?

Yeah. That's a big point of contention with the Torahists.

That I've spoken with. So let's get into the arguments that they'd be making and try because a lot of your book goes into trying to answer the arguments they make. And so after this break what I want to do is go through some of the arguments they make that you lay out in your book.

And by the way folks the book is called Torahism by R .L. Saaberg. You can get it at torahismbook .com. That's the site for it. So after this break we want to go through this book and dig into this a bit more.

Ephesians chapter 4 verse 25. Therefore laying aside falsehood speak truth each one of you with his neighbor for we are members of one another for his name's sake.

Falsehood, Truth, and the First Arguments from Torahism

What's up everybody. I'm Jamal Bandy the host of the prescribed truth podcast where I seek to distribute the truth that the doctor prescribes to the church and the world today. The Lord graciously brought me out of a cult in 2010 saved me in 2013 and in 2017 prescribed truth began.

My mission has been to spread the truth of God's word while refuting dangerous lies affecting most churches and the culture at large from a biblical and reformed perspective. Join me on Sundays at 6 p .m. Eastern time for the live recording of the podcast on YouTube and download the audio version wherever podcasts can be found including the Christian podcast community.

If you would like to know more about prescribed truth please visit my website at prescribedtruth .com and remember this world is full of errors but the only thing that the doctor prescribes is truth.

Blessings. Ding dong Jehovah's witnesses ding dong Mormons. Christian. Are you ready to defend the faith when false religions ring your doorbell. Do you know what your Muslim and Jewish friends believe.

You will if you get Andrew Rappaport's book. What do they believe. When we witness to people we need to present the truth but it is very wise to know what they believe and you will get Andrew Rappaport's book at whatdotheybelieve .com.

Alright so welcome back we are with.

R .L. Sahlberg on the book that he has written called Torahism. Torahism again is really this idea it's a new term that he's created. It's an idea of those people who are putting themselves back under the law and this is would encapsulate some of the Messianic Jewish movement, Hebrew Roots movement, even some of the Black Hebrew Israelites that would fit under this and each of them have a variety of differences but just like within Black Hebrew Israelites though they have a wide range of differences there are some things that you find that there's similarities.

Robert what I want to do with you now is go through some of these similarities that the arguments they kind of all make that would put them into this camp and let's we won't have time to go through all of them.

That's why they should go and buy the book right. But let's go through some of the highlights of them and break down what the issues are. Let's start with the claims of the Torah right because your book lays it out as you're examining the claims so you examine the claims of the Torah which are the first five books Torah can have multiple meanings but referring to them as the first five books of Moses but then claims about the commandments, historical claims, claims about God so let's go through those let's start with the claims they make about Torah within this movement.

Sure.

Yeah so the common beliefs would be that you know Moshe, Moses said the Torah is eternal it will never change. No one can ever add to it or take away from its commandments. These are all true. But what they say is that furthermore there's nothing in the Bible that says we are no longer under the law of Moses.

And this is the other thing we may need to get into the nuance of they frequently interchange the two ideas of the law of Moses and the Torah. So to your point one of the first things I do the first chapter is called what is the Torah.

So let's get clear on that one of the things I learned is how differently that term is used. So the way I use Torah in the book and I'll use it here while we're discussing it. Torah means the first five books of the Bible.

The law of Moses specifically means the laws that God gave to Israel as part of the Sinai covenant. So those are. I say that because it's important to realize the Torah is inspired Scripture and we are under its authority.

You know we can't change that I don't try to deny that at all but the law of Moses and the Mosaic covenant is the actual core of of the discussion with the Torahist. So they're saying things like you know hey the reason Christians don't keep the Mosaic law today is that their theology was corrupted in the early centuries of the faith right.

So they have this idea of historical corruption. And that now the theory goes now that we're much more literate as people and we have much more easy access to Scriptures. People's eyes are being open today and they're suddenly realizing what the Bible really says.

And it says that you know the Torah. I guess that when they say that they're meaning the law of Moses is for all nations and it is for it is for all it is forever you know. So all of its commandments will be required forever.

And you know I don't know how much you want to get into. But as you know since the temple fell there's a ton of commandments they can't even fulfill right now. So the commandments about the sacrifices the liturgical priesthood etc.

But their thought is all of that comes back 100 as soon as the new temple gets built in Jerusalem.

For folks that don't know there's actually a little bit more than 10 commandments. There's 613 commandments in those first five books of Moses and you'd be required to keep them all. Now we think of the 10 commandments in Judaism.

We'd speak of the commandments for the Gentiles which only would be those last six. We're called the noetic commandments. Those are to the Gentiles. It's those last six of the 10 commandments. That's what they would say that Gentiles would have to keep.

But one of the things I really liked is you and I talked and as I was working through the book I really appreciate something that you had said there and I want to make sure that folks listening that you pick this up.

What you did Robert was to examine what they believe to not discredit them to not misrepresent them. This is essential. This is what I did in my book. What do they believe. I wanted to make sure that I'm accurate in explaining what it is they believe.

And this is an important thing that not enough people do. So I want to highlight that first off but it's also important and you did this in the very first chapter. And we're dealing with these kind of arguments against them because the first two chapters really are trying to define the terminology.

And I should point out for folks you're using terminology in the book and sometimes here referring to Jesus as Yeshua this is out of respect to the people who are in this movement who would think that you have to use a Hebrew name for someone that was given probably a Greek name.

So you know that's exactly right. I tried to be. I tried to use a lot of Jewish terminology. It's what you'll encounter. This book is intended to be a resource for if you're talking to people and again it's not about insulting any person it's about correcting the ideas that are wrong.

And so if we want to call him Yeshua his Hebrew name or Jesus it doesn't matter we're talking about the same person the Mashiach or the Messiah. So I used a lot of that intentionally and throughout the book.

So the book kind of is a little bit of an extended conversation. So I include lots and lots of actual quotes from my friends who believe this Torahism approach because I did not want to misrepresent their position.

So I say literally this is what they say. And I actually ran it by many of them to say do I have this right. Is this what you think.

Before I put it in the book and one of the things is that for folks to understand is that you kind of have to take it from what they say because there isn't anything.

Written down on this there's very few there's no luminaries in this area that you would look to and there are also no large scale academic quality books. There's a bunch of little free ebooks on Amazon kind of thing and a bunch of websites and a bunch of podcasts.

But yeah you're right but there's no one that.

Stands up as an authority. This is what we all hold to and that makes it hard. And that's why I think the first thing you did in answering these claims was give definitions. And this is important because if we don't have the right terms then we could be talking past each other if our terminology is different and you take the time to explain what you mean by the terms that you end up using.

Now they end up trying to say well you know the law is not really abolished we should be keeping it. How do we respond to that.

Yeah that's a popular one and specifically the idea from Matthew 5 .17 do not think I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. So that's a big verse that you'll hear if you're talking with someone of this belief system I mean that's exhibit A really a lot of times they'll even start there.

So what's interesting about this is. A they're right that Jesus didn't come to abolish the law. I mean it's pretty clear from Matthew 17. But the question then becomes what does it mean to fulfill the law.

And so at that point I don't know if we want to get into it here but there's the idea of the biblical covenants you know the conditional and unconditional covenants etc. So the point I'm making here is that when Jesus says I have come to fulfill the law what does that look like.

That means that he came to be the sacrifice the once and for all sacrifice that the law was pointing to that all the animal sacrifices and all that blood in the Old Testament that was required of Israel was pointing to the blood of Christ the unblemished lamb of God.

I mean that's what John calls him. It's so clear when you follow that trajectory through the Bible that Jesus this is the new covenant in my blood he says so when we say he came to fulfill the law what we mean is he fulfilled he came to complete the law is the right way to take that.

So in other words the law wasn't done away with it was brought to fruition brought to completion in Jesus he carried out what the law demanded. And in doing that this is what's really interesting is that in doing that he became the final sacrifice.

This is clearly what the New Testament teaches right. So why then if we bring back the temple this is a question I'll often ask to them if we bring back the temple are we bringing back animal sacrifices at that time.

And they'll say yes we're bringing it all back. And as a matter of fact I reached out to some Jewish groups that I'm friends with and they said yeah we believe everything comes back not a problem if you're from a Jewish perspective that's logically coherent.

But if you are a Torahist who happens to believe that the temple's coming back and the sacrifices are coming back and at the same time you believe Jesus died for your sins what was the point of him dying if now we have to have animal sacrifices for our sins again you know what I mean?

That is the exact point.

That Paul makes in Galatians chapter 2 verses 20 -21 that the law if you can be saved by the law then Christ's death is in vain. Exactly. Yeah. So let's throw this out. Because I want to throw this out there.

Because this is an argument you make in the book that to be honest you made an argument that I haven't heard anyone else but me make. So whenever I see someone makes an argument I'm just like oh yeah ok I'm not alone in this thinking ok good that sounds like I won't be alone either.

Acts chapter 10. Peter has a vision. Oh yes. This is commonly brought up. They'll say ok. It says he has this vision of the animals. And yeah you know for folks who may not remember the account Peter's up there.

He's about to be sent to the Gentiles. Before he knows that he's praying. He hears the voice of God say rise Peter kill and eat. And Peter says by no means for I've never eaten anything common or unclean.

This is verse 15. Now and the voice came to him again a second time what God made clean. Do not call common. And then right after this. Because it says in verse 17 while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean.

Behold men came to him sent by Cornelius having inquiry from Simon's house stood at the gate. They're calling him to go to Gentiles. So the direct reference to this vision is going to Gentiles. Now this vision is often brought up because they're saying that this is a reference to him going to Gentiles.

It had nothing to do with food and yeah they say the food is merely used symbolically in that vision to represent the acceptance of the.

Gentiles right now we can agree with that right. Yeah okay but you make a point. What is that vision. I mean does it talk to the issue of food.

Well yeah I mean the point that I'm making is that yes he could have used that as an allegory but God wouldn't use a false allegory. So he would not tell Peter to eat. So in the vision the sheet comes down and it's all those animals you're not supposed to kill and eat.