Great Grandma’s Cookies

In colonial America, there was a mother who had a wonderful recipe for chocolate chip cookies which she made with love. She baked her cookies lovingly in the oven of a wood burning stove, which had to be watched carefully. She made the cookies with fresh ingredients such as eggs from her chickens, milk and butter from her own cow, and with flour made from wheat grown on her family's farm. The sugar, however, she had to purchase when she made trips to the city a few times a year. Once her daughter was old enough, she began to teach her daughter how to make the cookies, following the recipe each time step by step. When her daughter got married and moved into a home along with other wedding gifts, she gave her a copy of the recipe so that she could also pass it down to her children. The mother told her daughter that as long as she kept the recipe the same, the cookies would always turn out delicious. 

Her daughter’s family moved out of the farming community and into a small town. Because she no longer lived on a farm when she made her cookies, instead of milking her own cow’s milk, churning her own butter, and using wheat she raised herself, she would purchase the ingredients at the general store. She used the same ingredients as her mother but instead of them being from her farm, the ingredients were all store bought including the sugar. So she no longer had to make several trips a year to the city in order to be able to bake her chocolate cookies. She kept the recipe the same but the ingredients were no longer farm fresh. The cookies looked the same but the taste was just a little different. 

As the woman’s daughter had children of her own, she also taught her daughter to make her grandmother's famous chocolate chip cookies. Just as her mother gave the recipe to her as a wedding gift she also gave the recipe to her daughter. With the same encouragement, as long as she kept the recipe the same, the cookies would always turn out delicious. 

The original woman’s granddaughter continued to bake cookies by following her grandmother’s recipe, only now she lived in a city and baked with a gas oven instead of a wood burning stove. Like her mother, she purchased the ingredients, but instead of a general store in her town, she bought them from a grocery store in her city. The granddaughter was so thankful that she could easily purchase the ingredients and that her oven, being gas burning, was so consistent in temperature that she didn’t have to stand in the kitchen watching the cookies bake to keep them from burning. The cookies still looked the same, but because they used store bought ingredients and a gas oven, they tasted a little different from her grandma’s.

The granddaughter also had a daughter who baked her grandmother’s recipe and who taught her daughter how to bake the cookies. The great-granddaughter also lived in the city and was able to purchase ingredients in the store as her mother did. However, her grocery store was much more modern and had so many more ingredient choices. So when she made her cookies, she decided to exchange raisins for chocolate chips. She later passed the original recipe down to her daughter along with the ingredient changes that she made. Her daughter then decided that oatmeal would be better than flour with the raisins so she exchanged oatmeal for the flour when she made her cookies. She then passed the original recipe on to her daughter along with the ingredient changes to her daughter who decided that she liked brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts better than raisins so she exchanged brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts for raisins when she baked her cookies. 

As the recipe traveled through each generation it remained a cookie; however it no longer was the cookie it started out as in the original recipe. So much had been changed that it would be ridiculous for you to assert that the last generation’s cookie was still a chocolate chip cookie.

You may be wondering why I am writing about cookie recipes. I wrote the above because it is a good example of what happened in the years between the original Jewish followers of Yeshua we read about in the New Testament in the first century and the Church in the early fourth century. 

Like the cookie above, that after changing or completely eliminating so many of the practices of Yeshua, Peter, James, Paul and thousands of other disciples who we read about in the New Testament, it would be ridiculous to assert that 300 years later the Church is still following the original teachings of the Apostles. The fact that all four cookie bakers were in one lineage is absolutely irrelevant to whether the last cookie was the same as the first cookie.

When looking at the Modern Messianic Movement, there are those that claim that because the modern expression of Messianic Judaism is only 70-100 years old, that Messianic Judaism has no claim to biblical accuracy or any real connection to the Apostles. This assertion is incorrect for several reasons. The first is that while the modern movement is only 70-100 years old, we don't claim to have existed as an organized body throughout all of those years, although there have always been Jewish believers in Yeshua which held to at least some Judaic practices. Our claim as a restoration movement is that we simply found the original recipe and are attempting to follow it to the best of our ability. We can read the examples provided in the New Testament as to how the first believers lived out their faith and we desire to walk as closely to their example as possible. In other words, we simply want to bake the same “chocolate chip cookies” as our ancestors did before the methods and recipe changes were made. You may ask why this is so important to Messianic Believers, after all, a cookie is a cookie isn’t it? The answer is simply because of verses such as Deuteronomy 4:1-2:

1“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and possess the land that Adonai the God of your fathers is giving you. 2 You must not add to the word that I am commanding you or take away from it—in order to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am commanding you.

And Revelation 22:18-19:

18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his share in the Tree of Life and the Holy City, which are written in this book.

So the real question becomes: Are the cookies you're baking the original Chocolate Chip recipe or has your recipe been changed over the years?