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FFOZ Blogs

Timely updates, teaching, videos and inside information about what's happening at First Fruits, written by staff members and guest contributors.

God-Fearers: Raising Swine

In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explores the topics introduced in the book as well as answer some frequently asked questions. Last month Chabad posted an answer to a question about Jewish people raising pigs. Obviously, the Torah forbids the Jewish people from consuming the flesh of pigs, but from Chabad’s perspective it is permissible for Gentile to consume swine....
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God-Fearers: To Kippah or Not to Kippah?

In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explores the topics introduced in the book as well as answer some frequently asked questions. I often get asked questions about Gentiles wearing kippahs. Since God-Fearers advocates the biblical distinction between Jews and Gentiles, people wonder if non-Jews should cover their heads—or is that a distinctly Jewish practice? This is a huge topic and...
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God-Fearers: The Amidah, the Ingathering of the Exiles, and the Nations

In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explores the topics introduced in the book as well as answer some frequently asked questions. In my book God-Fearers, I point out the importance of set time prayer for the early believing community. While it would go without saying that Jewish disciples would continue to pray set time prayers as they had before coming...
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God-Fearers: Separated to Do

In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explores the topics introduced in the book as well as answer some frequently asked questions. In the first chapter of my book, God-Fearers, I sought to define the term Gentile (goy) and show that it is not a derogatory term as some have supposed. After all, Genesis uses it to describe both Abraham’s offspring—“I...
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God-Fearers: Job the God-Fearer

Last week we held our annual Shavuot conference in Hudson, Wisconsin. The event was hosted by Beth Immanuel and our staff agrees it was one of the best if not the best Shavuot conference we have ever had. The topic this year was “Gifts of the Spirit,” and for four solid days, the First Fruits of Zion teaching team along with special guest Rabbi Dr. Carl Kinbar attempted to present...
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Introduction to Messianic Judaism: Its Ecclesial Context and Biblical Foundations

Messianic Judaism is the most exciting movement of our time. Its rebirth in the 1900s was, in a very real sense, a restoration of something that had been lost for over a thousand years—a functional Jewish body of believers in Jesus that continues to identify with Judaism and with the Jewish people. An ever-growing body of scholarship testifies that the early Jerusalem church likewise maintained a self-identity within Judaism and...
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God-Fearers: Shavuot for All Nations

With Shavuot just around the corner, I thought I would post some material about Shavuot from my book God-Fearers. The New Testament highlights the festival of Shavuot as the time of the outpouring of God’s Spirit in Acts 2, but another reference to the festival in Acts 20 gives us evidence of Gentile believers celebrating this important Torah festival: For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he...
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