Responding to Anonymous' Questions About Conversion

A recent Anonymous asked a TON of really good questions.  Don't know if I'll get through them all but here goes:

QUESTION 1:  "When a gentile comes to faith in Jesus, is he or she obligated to keep the whole law of Moses?"

First, let's understand the background.  A Jew is obligated to Torat Moshe because of his ancestors at Sinai who said "na'aseh v'nishma".  Yeshua was obligated to Torah because of His ancestors.  Gentiles are obligated to Torah because Yeshua becomes their ancestor (Heavenly Father).

But let's look at Exodus 24:7 to see how the Israelites became obligated to Torah.  "..kola asher diber adonai na'aseh v'nishma."  Notice the order in which they respond, "all that G-d has spoken, we will do and we will understand."  They didn't understand right away.

G-d doesn't expect these incoming gentiles to know all of the Torah right away but He does expect them to accept that His instructions are binding and He wants them to make a commitment to studying in order that they understand.  A new citizen must pledge to abide by the law, to do it, even if he doesn't know or understand all of the law.

Now let's see if the premise that a convert is still a convert even if no one explained the Torah to him, if this premise is confirmed by the Rabbis:

Maimonides in Hilchot Issurei Biah, Halachah 13:17 says "When a court did not check a [potential] converts background and did not inform him of the mitzvot and the punishment for [the failure to observe] the mitzvot and he circumcised himself and immersed in the presence of three ordinary people, he is [still] a convert."

So we see that Rambam essentially agrees with me.  It's possible to convert through normative processes (e.g immersion, or as Rambam would say, circumcision + immersion) EVEN IF one does not know or understand all the mitzvot at the outset.

QUESTION 2:

"If a gentile has the status of a convert as a believer in Jesus, will his or her next generation be considered Jewish?"

No.  "Jewish" refers to the tribal identity of Judah and also to proselytes to that tribe.  A gentile who converts through Yeshua has not gone through the normative procedures for joining Judah.  He is, however, an Israelite because his Father is Yeshua.

QUESTION 3:

"When is this moment that a gentile is obligated to the law of Moses?"

When one accepts to follow Yeshua and all of His teachings.

QUESTION 4:

"At what point could Paul start bringing his gentile believers past the court of the gentiles?"

I wasn't aware that he did.  I'm aware that he was accused of this but I'm not aware that it did in fact happen.  Perhaps you could elaborate?

QUESTION 5:

"Would this new gentile believer receive the death penalty for breaking the Sabbath or would they say you are a gentile, you have not gone through the proper conversion process, why is your case even being heard?"

To answer this question, one would have to be familiar with first century Sanhedrin case law pertaining to Sabbath-breaking and one would need more facts about the gentile in question.