FCC Admin, Author at First Century Christianity

It’s Not Too Late

What can a prostitute teach us about the Kingdom of God?

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What can a prostitute teach us about the Kingdom of God?

If you’re just picking up a bible for the first time or you are just now considering Christianity, you might wonder why to follow a Messianic ministry instead of mainstream Christianity or some other faith. Well, there are many answers to why and I’m going to give you three easy ones. The first is a question: Where do you want to spend eternity? Saving our own hides is not a bad motivator for deciding to learn the truth. Christianity has a lot of fanciful notions about the afterlife and how to get there, but if you follow this ministry, you will get a much better understanding of the events that are coming, what you are supposed to be doing, and what that afterlife really looks like. Hint, it’s not floating around on clouds.

The second is another question: How is your life now? Are you at peace with your neighbors? Do you have anxiety about the future? Are you stressed? Are you questioning how to respond to situations that make you uncomfortable in this fallen world? The bible defines morality. It establishes boundaries and lets us know how to love God and how to love our neighbor. A great many of the values our society used to hold dear, values our country has strayed from, come straight from the Bible. The concept of having a justice system that treats everyone the same regardless of status or wealth is from the Torah, for instance. The concept of building safe buildings is from the Torah. The concepts of manslaughter and how to make people whole after an injury are also from the Torah. These are the more subtle things. The definition of marriage and sexual sins are also defined in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, which are things our nation needs badly today. The Bible also speaks of running our houses well, financially, and otherwise. If we follow these and other tenets of the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, we will have a better and more peaceful life today.

The third point I want to hit on is dealing with our own sins and shortcomings. Of course, everybody wants to make it into the afterlife and have a good life today. But how do you deal with the day-to-day ups and downs? How do you make it right when you offend or do someone wrong? And how do you deal with the guilt for the problems you have created with bad behavior, which the Bible calls sin? When you accept Yeshua as the Messiah, Jesus as the Christ, you realize that He bore our iniquities. He absorbed them, yes even in advance. He provides a way out of the depression and guilt we incur for being the fallen humans that we are.

This brings me to why we study the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The theme of redemption is not established in the New Testament, it’s displayed in the New Testament through the sacrifice of Yeshua. Redemption, forgiveness, and having a way out of the messes we’ve created begins in Genesis at the fall where Yahweh makes garments to cover the shame of Adam and Eve. Then these things are built upon throughout the Old Testament, culminating in the ultimate sacrifice Yeshua, the Son of God, whose death pays the penalty for the sins of all who accept Him as the Messiah.

A great example of the Gospel in the Old Testament in Joshua 2 where the Israelites send spies to the land of Canaan before the invasion. These guys do their spying and end up hiding out at a prostitute’s house who lives on the wall in Jericho. The Israelites were to destroy everything and everyone when they invaded Canaan. Some find this to be problematic, but these people were destroyed because of their sins and their sinful culture. Jericho was an enormous walled city that was scheduled to be destroyed. Rahab is the name of this prostitute who hides the spies. This is the beginning of the Gospel story because she decides to welcome the children of God and she makes a choice to ally with them. She says that she’s heard of the mighty deeds of Yahweh and knows He is the real God. She makes the spies swear to spare her and her family at the invasion, which they do, and the family is saved miraculously.

The word gospel means “The Good News” and, by extension, The Good News of the Kingdom of God. Israel was coming into Canaan to establish the Kingdom of God. Rahab realizes this and wants in. She allies with the people of God and is miraculously saved in the turmoil.

Rahab wants to save her family from the tribulation as well. Don’t we all want to save our family from the wrath to come? And there’s something else, she likely doesn’t want to be a harlot anymore. She wants to leave that life behind. The destruction of her world provides for that. She lived on the wall, which hints that she didn’t actually want to be there. It hints at her yearning for a new life, looking for a way out. Somebody who wants to be in that city lives in the middle of it, but she lives on the edge.

This is the same as us. We have to live in this fallen world but we don’t have to like it. We yearn to be in a peaceful and righteous world. And we long to leave our sins and bad pasts behind.

How long do you think it was between Rahab helping the spies and her redemption? From Jericho to the Jordan river is about 10 miles, not that far. But for two million people, it probably took a couple weeks to get there. They had to cross the Jordan, circumcise themselves, recover, and keep Passover. So it took a little bit of time. Rahab had to trust the spies to keep their word. She had to watch as Israel’s huge army march right up to Jericho and then march in a circle for 6 days. Was she scared? Probably. Did she worry about the spies keeping their bargain? Probably. But this is analogous to faith, which is unseen. We have to have faith that Yeshua died for our sins and is holding up His end of the bargain. As the world gets crazier, more violent, and more sinful, we have to be strong in our faith that we, too, will be saved in the midst of the chaos. We also know our world is ultimately going to be destroyed and we will need to keep our faith until the end, through tribulation the world has never seen. And everybody in Jericho was destroyed except a sinner and her family, saved in the storm.

You see, the Kingdom of God is coming. If you want to be in it, it’s not too late. But it will be at some point. Don’t put it off. And if you want to have a more peaceful life with a strong sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, then read your Bible from cover to cover. And then join us as we wait patiently for the return of the Messiah, who is bringing the Kingdom of God, where we will experience true peace. Would you like to know something else that’s very interesting? Rahab the harlot is in the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah. In Joshua 6 at verse 25, it says that Rahab and her family remained in Israel “to this day” after they were saved. They joined the family of God, just like we do when we are baptized. And with her being in Yeshua’s line, that means not only can we relate to Rahab, we are related to her, too.

Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge

How the generation with the most access to information in history can be destroyed for lack of knowledge what that has to do with organic sea salt, encyclopedias, and a chance encounter with a Rabbi.

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Slide 2 Listen to the word of YHVH, you sons of Israel, Because YHVH has a case against the inhabitants of the land, For there is no faithfulness, nor loyalty, Nor knowledge of God in the land. There is oath-taking, denial, murder, stealing, and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the animals of the field and the birds of the sky, And even the fish of the sea disappear. Yet let no one find fault, and let no one rebuke; For your people are like those who contend with a priest. So you will stumble by day, And the prophet also will stumble with you by night; And I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children. (Hos 4:1-6)

I’ve often wondered how modern society could ever get to a place where we have a lack of knowledge. These verses have likely been fulfilled at least once before, but we read them as prophetic, also looking forward to an end time scenario where lawlessness abounds. We certainly have lawlessness in abundance, but we appear to have more knowledge than we know what to do with. Today, I’m going to talk about how our society is actually lacking knowledge even though we appear to have more knowledge than ever before in recorded history.

Slide 3

Rabbi on the plane story with Josephus Finish later.

The knowledge here is primarily talking about the Torah, that YHVH was upset about Israel not keeping the commandments. Included is one who contends with a priest. That’s really what I’m going to talk about, specifically but also broadly.

There is an anomaly that has been brewing for about a decade where people are having no respect at all for learned people. Not just learned people when it comes to the bible, but people who are authorities on even secular topics.

Slide 4

This picture is where I started thinking about this problem. And the problem is immense because this advertisement works. This ad would not work thirty years ago because people were better educated. I’m going to ask a question here and pause for a second. What’s the problem with this labeling?

Salt cannot be organic. We learn this in middle school. This is the most basic of science. Right after we learn the difference between solids, gasses, and liquids, we learn about the periodic table of the elements. Salt is sodium, or a few other elements, which just exist as minerals. They cannot be organic. Organic material comes from organisms, like a tomatoes or grass. It’s something that grows. Salt is a mineral, it has to be mined. In the case of the ocean, the water needs to be boiled off or the salt filtered out somehow. My point is that everybody knew that thirty years ago. It was foundational teaching in our country and society. So people would think a label like this would have been a joke or something.

Slide 5 Scientific method

The Scientific Method was also something we learned in junior high.

Make an observation.

Ask a question.

Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation.

Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.

Test the prediction.

Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions.

This was taught to us young so we could have a standardized template for understanding and testing things as we continued in school. You see something that makes you curious and wonder why or how, then you come up with an answer, test the answer, analyze the results, and continue until you find your answer.

This is how a lot of us came to the knowledge of the truth of scripture. We made the observation that our old churches were teaching things that didn’t line up with the bible. We tested that with the bible, and realized the errors. Then we searched out where the false doctrines came from and realized we had been worshiping like pagans.

The first layer of concern here is that this came from our education. We were equipped from an early age to question things and make changes if we found answers. This was the foundation of American education, know things, have a system to test them, and learn more stuff, and help progress society. That doesn’t seem to be the case today. What we’re seeing are people testing traditional Christianity, sure, but then they’re coming up with more absurd ideas than the ones we left. It’s maddening.

Slide 6

Another layer of concern here is that we believed what we read, which is not necessarily the case today. There are two problems simultaneously on this front – folks don’t know how to evaluate a source, meaning what to trust, and due to the internet, sensationalism has been beating accuracy for 20 years. It’s a bit of a mess, much like the stuff to the left of my bookcase. This bookshelf has my parents’ encyclopedias on it. These were my childhood reference materials. We understood that when we looked something up in these books, it was true. Publishers would not let errors be put into their encyclopedias and these books even contain the truth about Christmas. We could trust the entries in the encyclopedias and use them as references in our later papers and such. It was also considered a luxury or special to have these so that one could be informed about the world. The top set was written in 1967 and the bottom set in 1983. Interesting note, the 1983 date was ONLY in Roman numerals, so praise Yahweh I learned that in grade school, too!

This is a concern today because people are challenging the actual bibles, and worse, they are challenging the Strongs numbering and the dictionaries! Don’t get me wrong, the more you learn the more you will understand that the Bibles got better over time. If you want one that’s readable and literal, the NASB is my preferred. But the traditional bibles like the KJV are not that bad and I still look things up in them. I am not saying that we can’t test all things and adjust accordingly, but what’s happening in our movement today is to distrust everything and then make up your own replacement, particularly when it comes to the Hebrew language.

This brings me back to the Rabbi on the plane story from the beginning of today’s message. At that point in time, I was pretty mature in my faith but still learning at a rapid pace and apt to just rule stuff out that sounded ridiculous. But I trusted the information in Josephus. Even though I disagreed with the author, I could trust that the information was reasonably accurate. I was looking for a sense of 1^st century Judea by reading it and the doctrinal things I learned along the way were just icing on the cake. Beyond this, I trusted the Rabbi as a legitimate authority. Here’s a man who presumably rejects Yeshua as the Messiah but is a professor of religious studies at a university and an ordained Rabbit. I found it exciting and an honor to be able to converse with such a person and ask him Biblical questions. The story sticks in my mind because of the opportunity to learn but also the opportunity to teach. Imagine how he felt that a Christian was not just interested in his faith, but one who respects it and understands Christianity is built on the Torah. This was a moment in time where our societal foundations worked as they were meant to. We have to learn from people with whom we disagree and respect their intellect and studies so they can do the same and we all grow as people while progressing civilization. What is happening today is the absolute opposite. We have a population that is increasingly ignorant of our founding, ignorant of science and methodology, and motivated more about self than either serving God or serving the greater good of civilization.

Slide 7

Guy who rejected Yeshua the word. Yod shin vav ayin is not salvation. That somehow the Jews changed that word so it wouldn’t reflect on the Messiah. Absolutely ridiculous. But how do you have a conversation when someone is so wrong but convinced they are so right? We all were able to leave Babylon because of the education and societal norms our nation used to cherish. A basic education, a bible, good reference material, and a respect for educated people or those with solid expertise, couple with the Holy Spirit, brought us to the knowledge of the truth. Unfortunately, the same paradigm today, where someone questions the Sunday system doctrines, tends to be leading people to worse outcomes, not better. And it’s making our way, Yahweh’s intended form of belief and worship, a laughingstock.

Our culture, our very foundations, simply aren’t there anymore. Without the common, trusted foundation, how can we function as a society? Are we even still considered a society without these basic elements? How can we even have a conversation about things that are wrong, in religion or otherwise, and how to fix it if our nation doesn’t have this common education anymore. Hence, we are destroyed from a lack of knowledge while swimming in a sea of information.

You Can’t Tell Me What to Do!

We in the west are conditioned to be convinced of everything. We have no concept of authority, let alone the authority we will be under in the kingdom of Yahweh. Are you willing to shed your liberty for salvation or are you in the “You can’t tell me what to do!” camp?

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US society is based on individual liberty. Without a lengthy civics lesson, that I would need to refresh on anyhow, this nation was founded as a clean break from the feudal systems of Europe and residents of this new country became citizens instead of subjects. It’s not the first time in History that this happened. Rome had citizens and not subjects, for instance. In general, a citizen has a say in how they are governed while a subject does not. A subject is someone who is ruled by a monarch, where the only sovereign individual in that government/country would be the king and all others subjected to his rule. The residents of western countries that retained their monarchies while adopting parliamentarian democracies have mostly become citizens because their monarchies have either restrained themselves or have become ceremonial offices. Becoming a citizen of the United States culminates in swearing an oath to our constitution, a document that was ratified by the people as an agreed foundation of governance. In a pure monarchy, becoming a subject would be to swear allegiance to a crown and the wearer of that crown. Britain is the country we most relate to in this regard and you can see that even though they use the word citizen in their oath of citizenship, the reality is that those become British citizens literally become subjects. For reference Citizenship ceremonies: guidance notes (English and Welsh) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and B BC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Are we subjects or citizens?

I’m bringing this up to discuss a practical and a theological point of view. In our faith, we are looking forward to being in the Kingdom of Yahweh, where we will be subjects. Being raised in the United States, or most anywhere in the west, we largely have no idea how to be ruled. In fact, we are conditioned from birth to not be ruled and that we can ultimately do whatever we wish. We are raised that we must be convinced of everything. This is by design. Our country elects representatives who represent either a set population of a state or entire states, who then have to be convinced to pass laws and spend money. We lobby our representatives to support or oppose issues. So this idea of being convinced of things is foundational to our upbringing. Our president is the commander in chief of the military, but we are not supposed to go to war without the consent of Congress. In history and in the bible, kings were the leaders of the militaries, and they answered to nobody but God. I refer you to King David being a brutal military commander and his heirs were expected to be the same. Hence why the disciples were so ready to take up arms for Yeshua, being He is the Son of David as well as the Son of Yahweh.

With the only possible exception I can think of being those who have served in the military, we find ourselves in a place where we are almost completely ignorant of how to be subjects. We’re supposed to have some reverence for the elected offices, not necessarily the people who hold them, but with the advent of social media, we don’t even do that anymore. We’ve arrived at a place where not only do we not respect offices, but we also often believe the opposite of what a person in authority says just because we figure they are all either wrong, lying, or both.

Slide 2 “And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Mat 24:10-14)

We are in a very strange place today because of a lack of authority, or rather, a lack of respect for authority. Just ten years ago, could you imagine there being even one drag show at an elementary school, let alone a controversy about this being appropriate? Could you ever imagine men pretending to be women so they could win trophies in women’s sports and even force young ladies to allow these men into their locker rooms? We even have men who protect others from violent criminals being arrested and the violent criminals being protected by the law. This present state of lawlessness has come about because we don’t have anybody willing to say “no”. This has gotten to the point where states are making drugs legal that are federally illegal and nobody is willing to say “no” or, gasp, change the federal law. Brothers and sisters, for most of my time in this walk I was told that the Sabbath was the commandment of lawlessness. That the Sunday keepers purposely breaking that one commandment was the sign of lawlessness. That is because for most of our lives, for most of the last 1500 years, the other 9 commandments were a given. Today, most recoil at the word commandment at all, because Jesus set us free, don’t you know, so nobody can tell us what to do!

Last week, the Torah portion brought us to a pretty obscure passage for most believers that I really like to use to illustrate the problem we have with authority. Check it out.

Slide 3 YHVH spoke further to Moses, saying, “Make yourself two trumpets of silver, you shall make them of hammered work; and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and breaking camp. Now when both are blown, all the congregation shall meet you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. But if only one is blown, then the leaders, the heads of the divisions of Israel, shall meet you. And when you blow an alarm, the camps that are pitched on the east side shall set out. Then when you sound an alarm the second time, the camps that are pitched on the south side shall set out; an alarm is to be sounded for them to break camp. When convening the assembly, however, you shall blow the trumpets without sounding an alarm. The sons of Aaron, moreover, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; and this shall be a permanent statute for you throughout your generations. And when you go to war in your land against the enemy who attacks you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, so that you will be thought of by YHVH your Elohim, and be saved from your enemies. Also on the day of your joy and at your appointed feasts, and on the first days of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be as a reminder of you before your Elohim. I am YHVH your Elohim.” (Num 10:1-10)

Chatsoserah not shofrot. These are very special metallic trumpets. Only two people could blow them and then their descendants. This is part of the kingdom/authority stuff I’m talking about today. The trumpeters were the trumpeters, and nobody else’s lips would ever touch those special trumpets. Ever. Shofrot are animal horns that all of us can have. They are common, not holy, but could be used for holy purposes. YHVH took the Levites to be set apart and gave them sets of specific tasks, to the point of specific descendants doing very specific tasks. That’s how a kingdom works. They were subjects and YHVH was the King. Only the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest could say when these trumpets were blown and for what purpose. If they were blown to move out, out they moved. If they were blown for a new moon, it was the new moon. What somebody in the camp thought about a sliver or whatnot meant nothing. The Kohen Gadol determined the new moon and that was that. These metallic trumpets were a reminder of who was in charge and that was YHVH. By respecting the Levitical priesthood, the people were showing reverence and respect to Yahweh who set that system up.

Guess what? We’re going back to something like this when Yeshua returns.

Slide 4 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1Co 15:50-52)

The last trumpet is something we have likely never heard in our lifetimes, but I bet you it’s something made of a metal we have never seen before. Paul is telling us the kingdom of God begins with the sound of a trumpet. From Revelation, it seems there will be a series of trumpet blasts leading up to it. When these sounds happen, will we be ready? Will we be ready to submit to our king, Yeshua, who is coming back with legions of angels? Are we going to submit to His rule and be ready to serve however He commands? Because that’s how it works in a kingdom. There will be one last choice for us, which will be very similar to this one:

Slide 5 “Now, therefore, fear YHVH and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve YHVH. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve YHVH, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve YHVH.” (Jos 24:14-15)

Joshua is using monarchy language here. Serving Yahweh as the King of the Universe that He is. He is Melech ha olam, but also Melech ha ba, which is the world to come. He is asking the people if they will put away their gods and submit to Yahweh. The choice at the return of Yeshua will be similar, but with worse consequences for failure.

The sound of Yeshua’s return will begin with the blast of a Trumpet. Will that be a welcome sound to us or will it bring terror?

How will we know if it’s really Him or some imposter? Through study and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Ruach Ha Kodesh.

The real Messiah is coming back and will usher in a 1000 year reign of Torah with Him ruling from Jerusalem. And mankind will have one last chance to say “you can’t tell me what to do”. For most of us, the time to choose is right now. To become a subject in the kingdom of Yahweh, you have to submit to Him and acknowledge that He, and His Son, can indeed tell you what to do. And you’re going to do it. And you learn what they want us to do by reading their Word, the Bible, from cover to cover.

Putting this off this submission until the end is the worst decision a person could make. Those who choose “you can’t tell me what to do” will not like the consequences. But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh and His Son, Yeshua.

Pray for Babylon

Exploring the different applications of the word “Babylon”, speculation about the end time Babylon, and how we are to come out of her today.

Audio only below. Audio with slides above.

Slide 2 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven with an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation, tribe, language, and people; and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth, and sea and springs of waters.” And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”(Rev 14:6-8)

When I got into the faith once delivered, there was no doubt the end time Babylon was the Roman Catholic Church. This was universally accepted as fitting the verses in the book of Revelation. We can be quite certain John wasn’t talking about literal Babylon in the book of Revelation. That was a real place in those days, in Persia, and Peter wrote to the believers there. These believers would be Jews who did not come back from the exile hundreds of years prior that the apostles went and preached Yeshua to. Babylon at that time was not powerful enough to do much except hope Rome didn’t decide to expand that far. There’s no way John was talking about contemporary Babylon in the book of Revelation.

For hundreds of years people have been convinced the Roman Catholic Church was the Babylon of Revelation because it fit, to a degree, if you were a protestant. It came out of the Roman empire and continues the pagan practices that Rome brought into Christianity to this day. It is still the largest Christian denomination, practicing pagan rituals in plain sight, but it’s a shadow of what it was before the reformation. In fact, it’s a shadow of what it was just 50 years ago. In the US, it doesn’t even enforce its own doctrines.

Scripture can have different levels of meaning beyond the literal. The word Babylon is a great example of this. After the flood, the people tried to make a tower so tall that Yahweh would not be able to drown everyone again. That’s a pretty interesting psyche there. You can have the tower to survive the flood, but what will you eat? Oh, and I’m sure the people building that tower all thought they would be allowed on it if it should ever rain again, not just their leaders. 😊 The world had one language at that time so Yahweh confused the languages and scattered the people to effectively set technology and cooperation back due to their actions. Then He called the place Babylon, which means confusion. He confused their languages. The word Babylon, from inception, had more than one meaning – a place, and confusion.

It has come to have more meanings. When there’s a system or government that thinks it is out of reach of the Most High, just like those at the tower of Babylon, you have Babylon. Another usage is the mixing of religious practices, which is technically called synctretism, and is biblically called harlotry, can also be associated with Babylon. The Persian Empire, headquartered in literal Babylon, purposely mixed up religious practices and cultures in order to dilute any individual culture and to assimilate everyone. When they took Jerusalem captive, their intention was to do this to the Jews. The Greeks tried the same thing after the return from Babylon. And the Romans tried the same exact thing in AD 70. In all these schemes, the evil invaders want to erase the faith of Yahweh from the earth and replace it with polytheism, idolatry, and even satanism. When Rome converted to Christianity, this is what the priests did. They blended in the pagan practices all over the world into Christianity which is why the statue of Apollo in Rome is called Peter, the birthday of Mithra is now called Christmas, the worship of the pagan goddess Diana aka Astarte is now called Easter, polytheism is now called the Trinity, and the worship of a woman and child is associated with Mary. These practices are also associated with Babylon because the word means confusion and these mixed up systems are a mess of confusion.

In Revelation, if John was talking about a literal place being Babylon in his day in the book of Revelation, it was very likely literal Rome. That was the city that ruled the known world and was the seat of all uncleanness. The world’s economy depended on Rome and when it fell, it absolutely did throw the world into economic chaos. No longer could ships sail their cargoes unimpeded pretty much wherever they wanted to go, if they just had that Roman flag on their masts.

Slide 3 “This is what Yahweh of armies, the Elohim of Israel, says to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. ‘Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may give birth to sons and daughters; and grow in numbers there and do not decrease. ‘Seek the prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to YHVH in its behalf; for in its prosperity will be your prosperity.’” (Jer 29:4-7)

Here’s the part about praying for Babylon but it’s phrased as seeking the prosperity of the city where they were sent.

Jeremiah is being quite literal here. I’ve gone back in time to talk about the captivity in Babylon to show a point. Judea had been sacked, Jerusalem is in ruins, and the Jews were largely carried off to literal Babylon. They were carried off by their enemies and became exiles and even captives in a far off land. They could have looked at this predicament as an opportunity to launch a guerilla warfare campaign or resist some other way, but Yahweh, through Jeremiah, said “no, you’re there for a reason and you will come out in due time. Make lives for yourselves.” The Jews were allowed to retain their identity in Babylon, with some even becoming government officials. In fact, Yahweh used the power of the Babylonian government to restore and rebuild Judea through Nehemiah and Ezra. Their mission for the time in Babylon was to exist, procreate, and make lives for themselves. They were not to try and escape, make their own Torah compounds, or try to overthrow the government that took them captive, but to understand their predicament was part of a much large plan Yahweh had for them.

How do we apply this principle today? The Babylon in Revelation is something that we understand exists in the end of days. The context of Revelation pretty much requires this to be something future, even though it has past applications. We can spend a lot of time speculating on this, as many have done in the past. Today, it doesn’t look like mainstream Christianity in any form has the power to be something like this Babylon. The Roman Catholic Church is a shadow of its former self and its adherents completely ignore the tenets of their faith without consequence. Almost all the Catholic politicians who go on television with ashes on their forehead after Ash Wednesday are in favor of abortion, a reprehensible practice that is against Catholicism, and nothing happens to them. So we can know that the Catholic church is effectively neutered in the public square. This is in stark contrast to days of old when kings had to ask the Pope’s permission to invade countries and such. Articles have been written that we live in a post-Christian world because the rest of Christianity has sadly diminished in influence to the point of being just another lobbying group here in the US. In Europe it sounds even worse. This is sad and a topic for another day but it’s hard to imagine Babylon being a religious authority in a world that has shunned religion almost wholesale.

In my view, the end time Babylon system probably has something to do with government. In our system of government, the government is supposed to represent the people. The present national government does not. Our state governments often do represent the people and some states are pushing back hard against the debauchery. Our little congregation is a 501c3 so we cannot endorse specific candidates, but we absolutely can lobby for issues. Freedom of religion, assembly, education, against abortion, and other issues are founded in religious institutions. The right to an education is rooted in the ability for people to understand the bible, which is derived from our nation’s protestant Christian founding. The right to be born seems God-given and not even need defending. But our national government is almost completely out of control and constrained by pretty much nothing at this point. It’s corrupt and justice is not equally meted out. People have different rules based on their political affiliation and station in life, which is most ironic because this country was founded to crush such systems. Here, though, we still can have a voice and can still matter. We can unite with other Christians to support issues and traditional values, if we so choose. This is not a requirement by any means.

There’s another place the Babylonian system can be, or be part of, today. Corporations and the economy are rife with Babylonian, and even hedonistic, practices. Large companies and athletic organizations operate in almost instant concert to push satanic and abominable practices in our faces. This is apart from government and happening at breakneck speed. These companies are literally evangelizing for the Adversary now. Target’s recent abominable issue where they put children’s swimsuits in their stores for “trans kids” is just disgusting and the designer of this is an avowed Satanist. What happened with the LA Dodgers having trans men show up as nuns and be honored is disgusting and dismaying. The phrase “Sodom and Gomorrah” is actually trending on Twitter, which is quite remarkable when we realize how far removed we are from being the Christian nation we used to be. In this realm we have a voice because we can choose where to shop, but the choices to get stuff from minimally non-political companies are getting scarce.

When the Jews were carried off to literal Babylon, they knew it would be exactly 70 years until they were restored. The end-time Babylon is a rather global power that survives until the return of the Messiah. Is there some time marker for this? I think so.

Slide 4 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; (Rom 11:25)

This is kind of an obscure verse where Paul uses the phrase “the fullness of the gentiles”. Paul writes this to the congregation at Rome which comprised both those Jewish by birth and the gentiles who were grafted in. He’s writing to articulate a balance and this bit comes right after he says that gentile believers in Messiah are grafted in, we are part of the commonwealth of Israel through the blood of Yeshua. Paul goes on:

Slide 5 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:2)

We who are grafted in have a mission to be in the world but not conformed to it. The hope for us today is that regular people are waking up because of the Babylonian debauchery that we are being soaked in. People have had it and maybe that’s the fullness of the gentiles, when people have had it to the point that they repent and return, or turn, to Yahweh and His Son. And we need to be here to help them as this happens. So let’s pray for as many as possible to wake up and depart from Babylon. Shalom.

Pride and Pentecost

There’s a huge miracle that happened at Pentecost aka Shavuot in Acts 2 that is directly related to salvation but seldom noticed.

Audio only below

Talk about the new theme of the month of June is just around the corner. What do we think of pride? Do we think that’s a good thing?

Slide 2 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, “DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,” also said, “DO NOT COMMIT MURDER.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. (Jas 2:8-13)

It’s my philosophy that there are two sins that almost all other sins stem from. Keep in mind that there is doctrine and then there is philosophy. Doctrine is teaching and a set of beliefs based on scripture. If we were to say there are two laws from which the rest emanate from a doctrinal point of view, the two would be the Shema and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Yeshua literally says this so that settles that. Hence, a settled doctrine. Philosophy is a little bit of a different angle. Your philosophy in life is based on your knowledge, experience, and emotions. A philosophy is something of how you view the world, so it changes throughout life.

Philosophically, we can approach things from many different angles and will very likely arrive at the same truths. This is why many of the commandments are common among almost all societies. Philosophically, one can figure out that adultery, murder, and theft are bad. Doctrinally, though, it’s a different story.

Anyhow, after a rambling start, my philosophy is the two sins that drive most of the rest are coveting and pride. Coveting, the lusting after your neighbor’s stuff, is the most often talked about of these two. This is the point of the 10 commandments where the people lost it. “You mean we can’t even THINK about doing these things, Yahweh? We can’t take it anymore. Talk to us through Moses”. Coveting is the root of a ton of sins, most famously Cain and Able. The coveting led Cain to murder his brother. Coveting also got Eve as she longed for something she was not supposed to have. King David’s adultery – yep, coveting his buddy’s wife. Coveting is a really difficult thing to overcome and we all have it to one degree or another. And, doctrinally, this is the literal 10^th commandment.

But pride, that one is really tough. The word pride has a couple of definitions, not all of which are bad. Taking pride in your work, like admiring a well-built fence or a well-made meal, is not a sin. It’s not a sin to set a goal, achieve it, and then be proud of it. Taking pride when your children or sports team does something well is also not a sin. But pride when used in the vein of haughtiness or arrogance, that’s the one that really gets people. That’s the one that causes people to do things they wouldn’t or shouldn’t really do.

Slide 3 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is he that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today YHVH has accomplished deliverance in Israel.” (1Sa 11:12-13)

King Saul started out very humble. When he met Samuel and was told wonderful things, his reaction was to say his tribe, Benjamin, was the least in the land and his family was the least in that tribe. But Samuel delivered the Word of God, that Saul would be Yahweh’s anointed. Saul even hid in the baggage when they were seeking a king in the assembly but was brought forth and made king. After his first battle here on the board, he did not act haughty at all. He could have had his early detractors put to death, but he chose to allow the deeds of the day to stand on their own. Humility is on display here – the people are ready to do whatever he says and he doesn’t take the bait. He gives credit to YHVH for the victory as well.

Slide 4 Now he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, “Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of YHVH.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.” Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of YHVH your God, which He commanded you, for now YHVH would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

(1Sa 13:8-13)

King Saul is one of the biggest examples of letting pride take over and driving him to do things he really should not have done. Look at the bold verses. It became about him, not about Yahweh and not about the nation he was anointed to serve. He took his anointing as Israel’s first king to mean that he could do anything. He ignored Samuel and decided that he could just do whatever he felt moved to do. He let his pride drive him to insane jealousy over David, chasing him like a madman all over the kingdom. And he ultimately felt the loss of his power so hard that he turned to witchcraft, breaking his own order, to try to call up Samuel to get a glimpse of what he had back.

Slide 5 “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Adonai YHVH, “You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you. (Eze 28:12-17)

Most of us understand these verses to be speaking of Satan. Much like Saul, Satan was a magnificent specimen of a creature and anointed immensely. Satan’s own pride brought him down and the earth will deal with the ramifications of his sin until the end of days. The parallels between here and Saul are simply remarkable, aren’t they?

Slide 6 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman); and they said, “Has YHVH indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And YHVH heard it. (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.) (Num 12:1-3)

The opposite of pride is humility. The understanding that even though you just did something good, and you enjoy it, you don’t let it go to your head. Humility is one of the best traits a human can have. When a successful businessman can still relate to the guys in the shop or on the assembly line, we all feel good. There was even a successful TV show called “Undercover Boss” where corporate executives went undercover to become line workers in their own companies. It was touching and one of the best products the TV industry has put out in a long time. The executives humbled themselves in secret to experience being an employee in their own firms. They often changed policies and increased wages based on the experiences. Their willingness to humble themselves made for touching TV but also positively impacted many employees.

Back to the bible, when the Jews were allowed to come back from Babylon, Nehemiah declined to eat the governor’s portion because the people had to work instead of growing food and cattle. Nehemiah was the legitimate leader of Israel and could have stayed “in the boardroom”. He not only refused to eat well and have servants, he also worked on the rebuilding himself. The nation and history are blessed by his humble example. Moses was the most humble man on earth until Yeshua. This is one reason Moses was anointed to lead the people for so long – that he would not get that pride and blow it. When Moses did blow it, it appears to be out of frustration, not out of pride or covetousness (remember, I said most sins come from pride or covetousness. Rage is another source). You can see here in this passage that Aaron and Miriam did get a little proud and haughty. “Moses ain’t the only one YHVH speaks through…” And they got smacked down for it.

Slide 7 It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1Ti 3:1-7)

Paul even makes it a point to clarify the traits of a man to lead an assembly. These traits combine to make someone not haughty, prideful, or conceited. In fact, the word “conceited” there could actually be “lifted up” if you look at the concordance. Yeshua and Moses are our examples for leaders. That’s a tough place to be because it’s not possible to attain to such a standard. Perhaps we could attain it for a while, but to sustain it seems far off. Yet we try. The reality of our faith is that we strive for a standard that only Yeshua attained and He mediates on our behalf. Those who lead and/or teach need more intercession because our sins can be multiplied and spread through our teaching, or we can harm the Gospel by being bad examples. Some will consider you arrogant if you are intelligent, some will consider you prideful if you can speak well, and there really isn’t much one can do to change those minds. However, a life of humble servitude – showing up, taking responsibility, arranging things, and seeing to the sick and infirm will show your true heart.

This gets to a point that will make sense why I’m talking about this on Shavuot here in a moment. Doctrinal humility. Being able to understand the Bible and biblical history to the point of crafting doctrine is a big avenue for pride to kick in. It’s a strange cycle we live in. We come out of mainstream Christianity because their doctrines are clearly wrong. Along the way, we study like crazy, first trying to prove what we’ve been taught all along right and then, when that doesn’t pan out, we try to get to every scintilla of truth possible in the scriptures (and some even go beyond). Then many make their own doctrines and end up creating perhaps a more accurate system, but a system nonetheless with errors and end up in a similar place to where we started.

We can see the power of doctrinal pride with the way they questioned Yeshua all the time. He challenged many of their established and cherished doctrines. That’s one reason they didn’t care for Him. It was a challenge to their doctrines and their authority, which oftentimes becomes a challenge to pride. Well, there were a few miracles that came out of Shavuot in the first century. Let’s look at one that’s very appropriate to today’s message:

Slide 8 “This Yeshua God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET. Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Messiah—this Yeshua whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” (Act 2:32-37)

Did you catch that? They called Peter and the gang “Brethren”. They immediately left the land of

“us vs. them” and humbled themselves. They could have very well stayed stubborn and prideful,

but this time they repented, acknowledging their guilt, and the pride was gone. They were literally able to publicly admit they killed an innocent man. And this lasted. The apostles, through the power of the Holy Spirit, were able to preach the knowledge of the Son of God throughout the known world and it was received by people who were taught and trained to reject that information. They also were able to get people to stop their pagan religions and convert to Christianity – true first century Christianity. One miracle of that day of Pentecost in the first century was that finally some were able to get past their pride. And by doing so, have been granted eternal life.

What’s New in the New Testament?

The doctrines necessary for salvation that are only found in the New Testament.

Audio only below

We spend a lot of time in our walk explaining how the Old Testament is more than relevant to our faith and worship, it’s the foundation. We know that salvation requires both the faith of Yeshua and keeping the Torah and that this was what the faith looked like until the second century AD. So this is what we talk about, because it’s what sets us apart from the rest of the believers in Yeshua. Bluntly, we spend most of our time pointing out how much of the Old Testament continues to be important and that the first century believers really didn’t change how or when they worshiped all that much.

Today we’re taking a different track. I’m going to talk about what is actually new in the New Testament. Today is day 49 in the count for Shavuot. Tomorrow is Shavuot, which is the beginning of something new. Folks who believe like us often minimize or even refute the new things in the New Testament, mainly to discredit the Sunday worshipers. They try to say there is nothing new in the New Testament at all. This is because our brothers and sisters in the Sunday churches have misused the scriptures to create a religion that is not scriptural. Because of the misuse, some go too far in refuting bad doctrine and come up with some new bad doctrine of their own. So let’s get started and take a look at some key doctrines that are indeed unique to the New Testament.

Slide 2 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. (Mar 1:4-5)

This is kind of shocking. John the Baptist was preaching something entirely new, that one could be forgiven through immersion. This is not to be found in the Torah. The immersion in the Torah was after a period of uncleanness, one would wash with water to become both literally and figuratively clean. That became a doctrine called mikvah. The word mikvah in this usage means a collection of water in its literal sense. In another usage, it can mean hope or abiding. So context is key. But in the context of a gathering of water, mikvah became a doctrine. That doctrine turned into pools of water that were managed by Rabbis where people would complete the cleansing cycles listed in Torah and some others. These pools have been useful in archeology to finding ancient synagogues. It’s wonderful to see evidence of people keeping Torah all throughout the known world in history, but the mikveh pools they were never intended or considered to be forgiveness baths.

While washing with water is a mitzvot, a commandment, and the mikvah a doctrine that sprung up from that is kind of cool, washing with water to be forgiven sins was totally new. And John was also circumventing the Rabbinic guardians of the pools. He was going straight into the water and preaching that people publicly confess their sins and be immersed for forgiveness. This a totally new to the NT and, interestingly enough, the people were rather accepting of the practice.

Slide 3 Now when all the people were baptized, Yeshua was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Ruach ha Kodesh descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” (Luk 3:21-22)

There are two things here that are new to the New Testament. The first is the Ruach descending on someone like a dove.

Slide 4 Then YHVH came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed it upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again. But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all YHVH’s people were prophets, that YHVH would put His Ruach upon them!” (Num 11:25-29)

The Ruach came off Moses to the 70 elders in the wilderness. And it was visible and known. But what happened with Yeshua was something very new and very visible. His anointing came directly from Yahweh and in public. The Ruach came down visibly and then Yahweh called Him His Son for all the people to hear.

In Exodus, YHVH came down in a pillar of fire and spoke to all the people the ten commandments. The people knew Moses was their leader because of the plagues. Moses had a long life before he became the leader of Israel. Yeshua started His ministry with a public anointing, which was also different. In the Exodus, YHVH did have to do some big things at times to tell the people to listen to Moses, here we only have the one time.

The last part of the verse is also a sod level prophecy. It’s a prophecy that nobody realized until Shavuot after Yeshua was resurrected. And is now just partially fulfilled. In Acts 2, which we talk about tomorrow, the Ruach did indeed come down directly on the Apostles. And then they had the ability to pass it to others through the laying on of hands. That was very new to the New Testament. Ezekiel 37:14 says that all of Yahweh’s people at the first resurrection will have His Ruach. After Pentecost, we see a foreshadowing of that in this time.

Slide 5 Now when all the people were baptized, Yeshua was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Ruach ha Kodesh descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” (Luk 3:21-22)

The second part of this verse that’s new to the New Testament is the identity of Yeshua as Yahweh’s Son. This is absolutely new to the New Testament and the dividing line for salvation.

Slide 6 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” (Isa 42:1)

Yahweh’s Son is alluded to in the Tanakh. Moses prophesies about one like Him being raised up from among the people. Psalm 2 talks directly about the Son. Peter knew the Messiah was the Son of Yahweh apparently from Psalm 2 but it was also revealed to him by Yahweh. They didn’t grasp what this really meant until after He was resurrected, but that Yahweh has a real, literal, Son that came and walked among us is new to the New Testament. And is the most important thing for us to know.

Slide 7 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. (1Jn 5:11-12)

This is the dividing line. And we must have the Son of God to have life. While the Son was alluded to in the Tanakh, it was not known how important He was until He lived, died, was resurrected, and then told us.

Slide 8 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. (Eph 2:11-13)

Our being grafted in is new. Without the New Testament, we don’t make any sense at all. Sure, the Tanakh talks about the nations coming to Jerusalem and all nations praising Yahweh, but we are something different than what I see pictured in the Tanakh. What I see there is the period of time that hasn’t come yet, when the millennial kingdom is established and everyone comes to worship. We are called out of seemingly nowhere and grafted into Israel. We become fellow heirs of the promise. We become citizens of the commonwealth of Israel and are used directly by Yahweh to call others. Calling people from the nations, making us holy, and using us to spread the Gospel is new to the New Testament. And we are being called now so that after the resurrection we can be used to fulfill those future prophesies.

Slide 9 For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah the first fruits, after that those who are Messiah’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. (1Co 15:22-24)

The resurrection being literal and the order of resurrections is new. Ezekiel 37 and 38 read literal to me but I have always known of the resurrection. Some may have thought it to be metaphorical, some clearly didn’t believe in it at all. There are only hints of the afterlife in the Torah, hints that we all see since we all have been raised after Yeshua’s resurrection. The New Testament reveals so much more. 1 Cor 15 is the pattern for the rest of this age. Yeshua was resurrected, next come the saints at his coming – the first resurrection, then comes the second resurrection which is judgment time and the end of this age. Our ability to attain to the better resurrection through the blood of the Messiah is revealed through the New Testament only, and the pattern of there being two resurrections 1000 years apart, is also exclusive to the New Testament.

Explaining the Greatest Commandment

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. (Mat 22:36-38)

Audio only below

Yeshua is quoting the Shema here. Let me explain this while also explaining how Jews communicated in the first century. The chapters and verses were added over a thousand years after the close of scripture. Having a printed bible prior to Gutenberg’s press was out of reach for almost all people. Starting from the return from Babylon, Jewish culture was founded each on man learning the Torah to the point of memorizing it in synagogue school. The intent of this education was to prevent another captivity. And the way they cited passages was to just quote the leading verse of a passage. Yeshua is not just saying this one sentence is the greatest commandment. He is referencing what is called the Shema, which means “hear”, because that’s the first word of the commandment. “Hear oh Israel, Yahweh is our Elohim, Yahweh is echad. You shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The entire text is at Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 but is also the entire chapter.

Many of us have adopted the practice of using the Shema as a daily or twice-daily prayer. As we have realized that Christianity started in the synagogues and was meant to be the next step in the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob instead of a replacement for that faith, we have realized that those who accept Yeshua as the Messiah are expected, even required, to keep the commandments. A great reminder of keeping those commandments is to, well, use them and memorize them, like by memorizing the Shema, using it as a prayer, and also doing what it says!

Did you know there is a little controversy with the text of the Shema that the Messiah cites above? Surprise, surprise, surprise, there’s controversy over something that ought to be black and white. The Hebrew Shema is slightly different than the Shema from the LXX, the Greek translation of the Hebrew bible that was made about 150 years before Yeshua. This was the bible of the synagogues in the first century and the reference of those who wrote the New Testament. I’ll post both and see if you can spot the difference.

Slide 2 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” (Deu 6:5-6 NASB Hebrew to English)

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and all thy strength. And these words, all that I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart and in thy soul.” (Deu 6:5-6 Brenton Hebrew to Greek to English)

Do you see a difference? Beyond the old time English rendering of the Brenton, there is a difference that some see as significant. That difference is the insertion of the word mind instead of heart in the Hebrew rendering. Thinking from the mind is a Greek concept. The Torah almost always uses the heart when it’s talking about where ideas come from. For an example, you can look at Genesis 6:5 where Yahweh wipes out mankind because all the thoughts of men were evil continually. Those thoughts come from the heart in that verse, not from the mind.

From our 21^st century perspective, the difference between the heart and the mind is the juxtaposition of emotion versus logic. Greek thinking is heavily logical and linear while Hebrew is more of an eastern philosophy that’s not so black and white, thus thoughts being intertwined with emotions. So how do we reconcile these concepts? Is the commandment based on emotion or is it based on thought and reason?

Slide 3 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”(Mar 12:28-31)

This incident is recorded in Matthew, Luke, and Mark. And in all three places, Yeshua used both the heart and the mind in his reference of the Shema as the greatest commandment. What do we learn from this? The first is that there’s no way the law has been done away with. Imagine for a moment if that were true. That would mean it would be OK to not love Yahweh. When doctrines are proposed and entertained, we must take them to their logical conclusions. Saying the law is done away with erases the two greatest commandments because they are both from the Torah. Loving your neighbor as yourself is from Leviticus 19:18. When people propose such ludicrous doctrines as the law being done away with, I just don’t think they have thought it through. Because if that’s true, we don’t need to love God or our neighbor. Do you know what that looks like? It looks like now. It looks like violent anarchy. It looks like our news or social media feeds. It looks like the days of Noah and the days of Lot.

But the deeper meaning here is that Yeshua used both mind and heart in his rendering of the Shema. This means both things are true. Loving Yahweh with minds is the logic side of things. The Torah makes sense. The earth was created. Words mean things. Words do not mean other things. Loving Yahweh with our minds is an appeal to our God-given ability to reason. This separates us from the animal kingdom. We have the ability to study and learn anything, but if we love God, we start and finish with His Word, which forms our ability to reason and drives us to make logical decisions that are founded in righteousness. On the other hand, if we emotionally love God will all we’ve got, then we will just do what He says and think about it later. Being so emotionally invested in God enables people to do things that aren’t rational, like change jobs to keep Torah or even become martyrs.

There are a couple practical applications to these concepts. When Satan tempted Eve in the garden, what did he do? He appealed to her emotions. And that nudge drove her over the edge. Had she loved God with all her heart, she would not have loved the fruit more. If she had loved God with all her mind, she would have just not eaten it because God said so. The second example I want to use is the execution of Yeshua. Here we have this wonderful Rabbi that Yahweh works miracles through that nobody has seen before. He harmed nobody. He helped thousands. He knew the Torah better than anyone ever. He was a servant to the extreme. He entered Jerusalem and they cheered and cheered. Just a couple days later, they murdered Him. This makes no sense both from a heart perspective and a mind perspective. They killed the man who could do all those wonderful things and never asked anything in return. That’s illogical to the max. Pontius Pilate was the representative of logic. He said he found no guilt in Him. But they still killed Him. They also showed they did not love Yahweh because of all the commandments they broke to kill Him. They were incited into an emotional rage, where they had the opportunity to be merciful to the innocent, but they chose to murder the innocent and let a guilty man free.

So the explanation is thus: Love Yahweh with your heart and your mind. Love Him so much that it overrides your emotions when needed or your logic when needed. Keep His commandments, speak of them when you lay down and rise up. Teach them to your children. Make them as what you think about, what you love, and what you do. Then you will be following the greatest commandment.

First Century Christianity

What did the early Christian faith look like, what were their beliefs, and how are we supposed to be worshiping today?

Audio only below

There a point where believers, for whatever reason, get a feeling that mainstream Christianity isn’t quite lining up with scripture and decide to read the bible for themselves from Genesis to Revelation. This is also true of people who have never been believers and decide to do the same thing, just read the Bible. It makes a lot of sense for people to be searching for God and truth today because western society, which is founded heavily on the Christian faith, appears to be on the brink of crumbling. It’s an unfortunate reality that people don’t tend to look for God in good times, but that there are no unbelievers in fox holes (meaning during wartime or hard times people turn to God). For whatever reason a person decides to investigate the faith, they often come to some conclusions that they were not looking for. Many of the key doctrines of mainstream Christianity simply aren’t biblical. I’m not talking about loving your neighbor, being charitable, or any of the basic behaviors, I’m talking about the form of worship. I went down this path over twenty years ago and was astonished to discover the things I was taught to hold dear were derived from non-biblical religions. In fact, they come from religions that the bible condemns and instructs believers to have nothing in common with. When I learned of the pagan origins of mainstream Christian practices, I had to make a choice. The big sin Israel was smote for, repeatedly, was worshiping false gods or blending the true worship with false god worship. Once this happens to a person, that person realizes they must change. In many cases, mine included, we start chopping the false, pagan stuff out of our lives because the Bible commands this over and over. So we chop. And we chop.

At some point, though, we need to find the way to worship. Getting rid of paganism and huge doctrinal errors is great, but can leave one with, well, nothing. I had to learn what the early church really looked like and what practices they had for worship so we could add back in after we cleared the deck of the pagan stuff. That’s the beginning of this ministry. What did First Century Christianity look like and how did they worship? The answers are shocking to mainstream Christians, but pretty easy to realize once you think about it. In fact, if you’ve been in church or read the New Testament at all, once you see how they worshiped, you’ll realize you knew it all along. Just by simply reading the bible the picture becomes clear and easy to see. Over these past 20 some odd years, the picture that became clear to me in the beginning is even clearer now that I know a lot more of the details. So I’m sharing with the world.

Theologically, we are in the same place today as the world was after the fall of the second temple. This would be 70 AD. Follow with me now, this will make sense. Christianity departed from the faith once delivered starting at the end of the first century and into the second. This is when the pagan stuff started to be mixed in. In the 4^th century, the corrupted Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. That gave birth to the Catholic church which had a split with the eastern church, then we had the reformation which has resulted in a lot of strange beliefs. All that said, though, we are effectively in the same place with respect to the faith once delivered to the saints as the first century believers after the temple fell. Sure, world history has progressed, kingdoms have risen and fallen, great things have been invented, and awful things have occurred, but there hasn’t been a significant progression in the faith once delivered since the close of scripture, aside from billions of people learning some form of Christianity. The next stop in the plan of salvation is the return of the Messiah, which is exactly where the first century Christians were. So what I am trying to say is that our faith and worship should look as much like it did when the knowledge of the Messiah went forth from Zion. The time period we need to focus on for how to worship and believe is recorded in the New Testament, mostly between Yeshua’s ascension and the close of scripture. We do not have any scripture written after the fall of the temple, as the oldest New Testament books or letters were written in the 60s AD and the temple came down in 70 AD.

Acts 2 is where we see an enormous change. The New Testament contains quite a bit of progression on the path of salvation, meaning explaining the past, fulfilling significant prophecy, and showing us hints at what is to come. Acts 2 is where I want to start the focus of this message. Mainstream Christianity absolutely recognizes Pentecost Sunday as a huge event but misses a lot of stuff that’s going on there. First is they don’t realize that the Day of Pentecost is actually an ancient holiday. They think the apostles were randomly together the day they got the Holy Spirit and that the day was then called Pentecost. But there’s a lot more than meets the eye here because the day of Pentecost is from the Torah. It’s a commanded Sabbath from Leviticus 23. The apostles were together on the day of Pentecost because they were still keeping the Torah. This is hard to fathom if Yeshua had told them the law was done away with after Yahweh resurrected Him.

Slide 2 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. [Luk 24:27 NASB95]

Brothers and sisters, this is a significant verse. And, yes, I may overuse the word “significant” and its synonyms today because I’m talking about the easy to see verses that have caused hundreds of thousands of us to change to a biblical form of worship away from how we were taught in mainstream Christianity. After the resurrection, the Messiah, the Son of God, explained everything beginning with Moses and all the prophets. In order for us to understand the Messiah and the New Testament scriptures, we have to understand Moses and the prophets. I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s absurd to say the law was done away with at the cross when the law defines the Messiah and identifies Yeshua as that Messiah.

So understand they were still keeping the Torah by having a holy convocation, aka church, on the day of Pentecost after Yeshua explained everything to them. This means he did NOT tell them to stop keeping Torah! Pentecost which is also known as Shavuot (both meaning count 50, one from Greek, the other from Hebrew) is a day from Torah that is exactly 50 days from the offering of first fruits. Yeshua was resurrected as the first fruits of the dead as Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:20, which means He was resurrected on that annual observance. Exactly fifty days later is another holy day where the priests would offer leavened bread as the first fruit offering and the nation would have a sabbath. This is a big piece of information that mainstream Christianity misses, and even teaches against. The holy days of Leviticus 23 are prophetic, they continued to be kept by the early church, they show a fulfillment of some prophecy, and allude to more to come. These days are very often dismissed as meaningless rituals, which is blasphemy, but they have deeper meanings including prophetic meanings. They aren’t just days to observe, but they show us the pattern for the plan of salvation. And the first Christians, who were Jews, and those who converted, kept these days the rest of their lives. In fact, we have evidence from the church councils that Christians continued to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days for hundreds of years after the close of scripture, stopping only by force and law.

Let’s get to Acts 2 because it gets even better. There is so much there that we miss because mainstream Christianity is conditioned to look at scripture with the wrong foundation. So let me show you a bit more:

Slide 3 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” [Act 2:6-11 NASB95]

Folks normally look at Acts 2 to focus on the Spirit coming down and the miracle of speaking in tongues. Well, the miracle is really hearing in tongues here, but why are all these people there? Have you ever wondered? Were these international believers in the God of Abraham just randomly present at that moment in time? No! They were there because Pentecost is an ancient pilgrimage festival from the Torah. There are three holy days in Leviticus 23 which are pilgrimage festivals. Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). The nation of Israel was meant to stay within its borders and go to the tent of meeting or the temple three times a year. The Jews were scattered after the first destruction of Israel/Judea. Nehemiah and Ezra returned, but many stayed wherever they were in the world. The synagogue system began around the time of the rebuilding of the temple, which is referred to as the second temple era. The Pentecost in Acts 2 is roughly 500 years after the synagogue system began, which is where Jews and proselytes all over the world were worshiping and learning. These people would then make Aliyah, i.e., pilgrimage, to Jerusalem during their lives.

Every single person present when Peter and the apostles received the Holy Spirit were there on purpose. Because Yahweh wanted them there. And He wanted them to witness the miracle and then hear it in their own languages so they could take that information back to their home synagogues and spread the word. The gospel went forth from Zion in Acts 2 through active Jewish believers returning to their homes.

Slide 4 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to [the] courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” [Mat 10:16-18 NASB95]

Brothers and sisters, we’re taught that the law was done away with and that Christianity is some new religion that breaks from the Old Testament, but that’s hogwash. The Messiah told the apostles they would be scourged in the synagogues during His ministry. He told them to go to the synagogues to spread the news of His first coming. See, these are easy to see scriptures that you already knew!

Slide 5 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. [Act 19:6-8 NASB95]

Those synagogues were all over the known world, so that people who knew the Old Testament and knew to expect the Messiah would be prime to hear the gospel and understand it. Having their own faithful return from Jerusalem to tell them of the Messiah and of the miracles of Acts 2 is how Yahweh spread the knowledge of the Messiah to the known world. I wonder how many of those who returned to their homes were baptized and then baptized others? For curiosity, do a search on the word synagogue in the book of Acts in your electronic bibles and see how often Paul was in one preaching about Yeshua. It’s pretty often! In this case, he preached for three entire months!

Slide 6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear [them] in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our [own] tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” [Act 2:6-11 NASB95]

I’ve put Acts 2:6-11 back on the screen. A big change in mindset from what almost all Christians are taught is that the first converts were almost exclusively Jews who attended synagogues all over the known world. We’re talking about ten years of time before the gentiles start converting in significant numbers. When it is written that thousands were baptized in a day early in Acts, they were Jews and those converting to Judaism. These Jews and proselytes stayed Jews the rest of their lives. The difference was that they accepted Yeshua as the Messiah and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. In the New Testament, the term Jew refers to anybody who followed Torah and were from any of the tribes or converts. Something to keep in mind when studying is that language is not static, meaning words can change over time. Those who kept Torah after the temple was rebuilt gradually became known as Jews all over the earth. The book of 2 Maccabees, an apocryphal book written to tell Jews how Judea purged the Greeks from its land, uses the word in that context as does the entire New Testament.

Slide 7 “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” [Act 15:19-21 NASB95]

How often have we read this and just thought the four things were kind of random and all that the gentile converts would ever have to do? I know that’s what I used to think. And then I studied Torah and discovered all four of those instructions are from the book of Leviticus. Yes, deep within the Torah.

Leviticus 17: 12 prohibits eating blood. Leviticus 17:15 prohibits eating things that that just die, which added with verse 12 would cover everything that died without being bled (strangled), Lev 18 defines fornication, Lev 19 and others talk about idolatry. The apostles are telling the gentiles that are converting that they must start by obeying a few Torah principles. But the next line is the one I like to focus on. Moses is read in the synagogue on Shabbat. Why is that line there? Because the gentile converts are keeping the Sabbath and going to the synagogues all over the world. They were hearing about Yeshua and either were already attending synagogue or they were starting, where they would hear the Torah read each week and then learn to follow the commandments! The Jews had a huge problem with in influx of gentiles in their synagogues, which is the crux of the problem for the Jerusalem council. What to do with all those gentiles keeping Shabbat? This letter didn’t make the gentiles convert because they would hear Torah, learn in the synagogue, and then make that decision later, if at all.

Slide 8 5 “For we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. … 14 “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; [Act 24:5, 14 NASB95]

If Christianity broke off from Judaism to become a new religion at Acts 2, or anywhere in the New Testament, why would the Jews care what Paul did decades later with the Gentiles? My friends, as strange as this may sound, Christianity started in the synagogues and stayed there a long time. Paul was a pest to Jews throughout the world because The Way, or the sect of the Nazarenes, was considered a sect of the Jews. The book of Acts was written in the 60s AD, somewhere around 30 years after the ascension of Yeshua. Our faith was still considered part of the Jews to both the Jews and the Romans! Paul still believed everything in accordance with the law and the prophets. So what does this mean for us? The recipe is clear and on the screen. We follow the law and the prophets and the new testament.

Slide 9 So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua. [Rev 12:17 NASB95]

The rest of her children are those who keep Yahweh’s commandments while also holding to Yeshua’s testimony. This is the same message that we see throughout the New Testament and Paul’s missionary work. To worship and believe as the first century Christians, we are to keep the Sabbath, study Moses, avoid the four things in Acts 15, but then as we study Moses we start changing. We keep the Holy Days of Leviticus 23. We stop eating unclean food and adopt Yahweh’s diet from Leviticus 11. We cease any forms of worship or beliefs that come from paganism. Sunday, Easter, Christmas, the Trinity, praying to dead people, any form of astrology, anything connected to idolatry has to go. And we copy Yeshua in his application and teachings on the Torah. We need to be loving and patient, trying to help everyone we can come to the knowledge of the truth.

For more messages on early Christianity, please visit firstcenturychristianity.net. Thanks so much for listening and may Yahweh bless you and keep you, in the Name of His Son, Yeshua.

Everybody is Wrong… Except Me

The third stage of coming out of Babylon results in a period where you think you’re the only one in the world who can see the truth. That’s not the case, and this message is intended to let you know you’re not alone. I also include some tips for avoiding some doctrinal pitfalls on your walk.

Everybody is wrong… except me.

There are stages to coming out of Babylon. Well, we can call them stages, but it is different for everyone. The first is simply hearing the call. Whether you’ve been in a Christian denomination your whole life and realize some grievous error or you decide to pick up a bible the first time and start seeing that mainstream Christianity doesn’t line up to the WORD, just getting on the path is the first step.

The second step is normally pretty long. Years long. For those on this path, it’s generally about four years of independent study. It’s not like step one ends, and step two begins, mind you. This step is indistinguishable from step 1. You started, and now you’re going to finish. But you don’t even know what finished looks like. We start with reading the bible from cover to cover, any translation will do (NASB is preferred), and then you realize you’ve been at it for a long time. You seek out other translations and start to use Strong’s numbers or other translations. For me, I spent a lot of time trying to prove the false doctrines to be true. I did not want my family to be so wrong. I did not want the majority of mankind to have steered so wrong. So I studied and studied, trying desperately to find some magic verse or philosophy to effectively all of what I had just learned about the bible and the faith once delivered. Toward the end of stage two, folks often become like the title of today’s message. Everybody is wrong but me. And we think we’ve lost our minds. There are enormous denominations that have taught millions, if not billions, of people things completely contrary to the bible and only we seem to see it. And we see it so clearly that we start trying to convince others, which very seldom works.

Then we enter a period where we look for fellowship. Surely there have to be others out there like me. Surely others have figured this all out, too. And with the fellowship comes new teachings. When I came to this, the internet was a pretty new thing, and finding fellowship or other resources was difficult. I started my path somewhere around 1999 or 2000. The internet was a lot more pure back then. Having a website or an online presence was much more difficult; almost all of it was in print, not podcasts and videos. The benefit of that was that there weren’t so many crazy doctrines out there. We had to spend time learning, and that time often meant reading actual books, not listening to videos from who knows who. Today, it’s a complete deluge of information. And there are a lot of strange teachings out there that have taken on a life of their own. It’s surreal because we all got into this looking for the truth, and it’s quite possible to end up in a worse state than when we started by adopting strange teachings because the speaker used Hebrew words once in a while. So here’s a little guide to navigating stage three – looking for fellowship and using online resources:

The first thing is that to get here, you have to have read the bible cover to cover at least once. You’ve probably done it a couple of times and know a lot more than most ministers by this stage. The Ruach ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit, brought you through, so keep trusting the Spirit and you know knowledge. If you hear something odd, or something that seems contrary to the Bible, then it probably warrants investigation.

There are a number of buckets that doctrine belongs in. The amount of things in these buckets changes over time. Let’s name the buckets:

Truth or Fact – these are the things that are 100% established by the Bible and aren’t going to change. The commandments go here. The state of the dead and resurrections go here. That Yeshua is the Messiah and Yahweh is the Father go here. These are concrete, proven, indisputable things.

The “I think” bucket. You’re going to have some ideas you believe but can’t prove. Everybody does. Even Paul wrote that he gave his opinion a time or two. Just be sure when you talk about these things that you label them as “I think” not “thus saith Yahweh”. A red flag warning is if you hear someone teaching something you know can’t be proven as fact. Be willing to challenge folks and ask how they got to those points.

The “people say” bucket. These are points where there are settled opinions but they could go either way. You probably have a strong opinion on them and have settled into your belief system, but you still acknowledge the other side’s stance. Being able to do this is the sign of a mature believer, by the way. When to start the count for Shavuot falls into this bucket.

The “I don’t know” bucket. You have to have one of these. If your minister never says, “I don’t know,” that’s a red flag warning. Frankly, there are things in scripture that may never make sense. It could be a translation issue, or we lack some piece of information that the original authors had. You’re “I don’t know” bucket will probably change over time. Mine has gotten smaller and bigger.

When I was combing through things in online forums back in the day, I was flooded by doctrines. These were the doctrines of traditional Christianity. Things like pacifism, apostolic succession, once saved, always saved, pan millennialism, and the like. I came up with an ad hoc system to sift through these things that I called “extreme fundamentalism.” Remember how I said you had to have gotten through the Bible at least once to get this far? Well, I had been through at least twice when I decided to venture out into the world, so I had a pretty good handle on what was biblical and what wasn’t. What I didn’t have was a ton of time to study each doctrine out so I implemented my homemade system to see if something was worth my time. For something to pass the test, it had to not contradict the main themes of the Bible. That’s the fundamental part. It had to jive with what the bible said or I moved on to step two. Step two was to take the concept to its logical conclusion, the extreme position, and see if it still made sense and didn’t contradict the Bible. So when people told me that the Sabbath was done away with, well, it wasn’t. The Bible never says this, and the commandments can’t change. So that was out. Then, if someone told me that apostolic succession was required, meaning each preacher in the NT had to be able to trace their authority back to Peter, well, that made no sense in the extreme because it would nullify the power of the Holy Spirit.

Today, though, people coming to the truth have a far harder path navigating doctrines than 20 years ago. Frankly, it’s the wild west out there. The internet is a double-edged sword and that puts good teaching on the same footing as bad. In fact, the bad tends to be intriguing and different, so the bad gets more attention than the boring truth. So here are a couple of things that I will offer up so you don’t waste your time, but they are big in our movement:

Paleo-Hebrew is a waste of time. I’ve spent more time on this than I care to admit. This is the pictographic Hebrew that is the precursor to the Ivri script. A brief lesson, the Hebrew script used today is called the Ashuri script. It’s very, very old, dating to the fall of the first temple. If you look at Strong’s, this is the script you will see today. The one before that, which was in use in the first century as well, is the Ivri script. There is no Torah written in this but fragments from Qumran. The one before that was hieroglyphics or pictograms. These pictograms represented sounds. Some will take the pictograms and make entire stories up about what words mean based on 21st-century characteristics of the images pictured. These stories will have nothing to do with the actual context of the word. While Hebrew characters definitely do trace back to pictograms, there is no value at all in trying to glean some biblical meaning by taking words apart. You are best to leave the words in context and also to understand real Hebrew and the meanings of the words.

Gematria is neat when it works but also not much benefit. Hebrew letters each have a numeric value. So one adds up the value of each letter of a word and tries to find an association. Perhaps another word has the same sum, or you come up with a biblical number like 40, 7, or 8, and you can make some association. There isn’t a rule for what goes where here, so it’s just interesting and nifty when you see something, but it’s not something one should spend time on. You’re better off reading the words in context and trying to understand the real Hebrew meanings of words.

Chiastic structures are really fun when you see them, but also not a lot of value unless you’re in your second or third decade of study. Chiastic structures are when a verse is kind of a hinge point, and the next verse up matches the verse below, then the second one up matches or associates with the second one below. These are real things, and the pattern is all over the Tanakh (old testament), but again they are just nifty. It’s best to just read the words in context trying to understand the real Hebrew meanings.

White fire and black fire is just silly. This is the idea that the spaces on a Torah scroll have meaning. It goes further than that, but there are actual people out there trying to glean information from the part of the paper that has no ink in it. I kid you not.

The canon of scripture, the Apocrypha, and the pseudepigrapha works. You may be wondering what I just said, which is actually good. The canon of scripture is the 66 book bible. That’s your absolute foundation. And that’s plenty of information for a lifetime of study. But some want to add to those 66 books, which is what the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha books are. Apocrypha means

These are some examples of doctrines or concepts that would be easy to get caught in and taken down bad paths. Trust me, been there, done that. These things can be more than a nuisance and time waster. They can be used to put bad doctrine into play, so you need to be careful where you spend your time and what you mentally consume.

The last thing I want to touch on is using extra-biblical resources. And by this, I mean scholars. One of the things in the “I don’t know” bucket is why there appear to be thousands of people out there who know more about the bible than most people ever will, who know the truth and the true meanings of words, and who write that truth down for us, but will never actually follow what the Bible says. Alas, these folks exist, and they have made commentaries for us. And dictionaries. And concordances. So we use them. Both from the Jewish side and the Christian side. Because it’s impossible to start from scratch and if you’ve read the Bible, it’s pretty easy to see when these folks are out to lunch. So feel free to use the resources and build on other folks’ knowledge. Just understand that they are human beings, not inspired scripture.

People who know the truth and don’t do it but are scholars… have to use them.

Lawlessness

Those who teach that the law ended at the cross have no standing to complain about where society is today.

Audio only below

Those who teach that the law ended at the cross have no standing to complain about where society is today.

In Joshua 9 we have a very unique situation. The Israelites have entered the land and have had some success demolishing the inhabitants. A group of people called the Gibeonites who inhabit the land appear to know that Israel is going to destroy everything in Canaan. So they set Israel up to let them continue living in the land. They make a huge ordeal of pretending to be from very far away, their emissaries shower Israel with praise, and ask for a covenant. Israel failed to consult with Yahweh and made the covenant. Three days later they discover the deception.

Slide 2 Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim. The sons of Israel did not strike them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by YHVH the Elohim of Israel. And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders. But all the leaders said to the whole congregation, “We have sworn to them by YHVH, the Elohim of Israel, and now we cannot touch them.” (Jos 9:17-19)

Even though they were commanded to destroy the inhabitants of the land and even though the covenant was clearly fraudulent, they had to honor it. Why? Because they swore an oath to their Elohim. That cuts two ways: they have to honor their oath to Yahweh because He’s Yahweh and if they swear falsely to Him, then their goose is cooked. They also have to honor it or the word of the nation means nothing. If they didn’t honor that covenant then they would not be able to make any agreements because they would be seen as untrustworthy and also to not even take their own God seriously.

Did you know this is a two way street?

Slide 3 “For I, YHVH, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Mal 3:6)

Do you know what this means? I mean REALLY know what this means? It means He’s made a covenant with Israel and He will not go back on it. He can’t. Because if He did, then we would not know what to believe.

Slide 4 On that day YHVH made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: (Gen 15:18)

Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, YHVH appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Elohim Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.” Abram fell on his face, and Elohim talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be Elohim to you and to your descendants after you. (Gen 17:1-7)

“Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” (Exo 32:12-13)

The foundation of order is honor. To have order it starts with honor. If two people come to an agreement and seal that agreement, however that’s accomplished, then both have to honor the agreement. Today, if someone makes a fraudulent agreement you can get out of it. Why? Because that’s the order of our society. We have clauses that if either side withholds meaningful information, called concealing, then the contract is void.

Yahweh promised to make Israel a great nation and to make Abraham the father of many nations. This is why He brought them out of Egypt. Moses appears to be talking back to Yahweh here but it’s a lesson for us all. The Israelites were told 40-ish days prior not to make idols or worship false gods and they sinned. Yahweh is infuriated. All the plagues, all the plundering, all the fleeing, the miracle of the Red Sea, all brought to nothing in a manner of days. But Moses says “remember your promise”. You said it, so it has to become true. Moses also says if you destroy them you will damage your reputation with the world. To put plainly, if He destroyed them after all that work in Egypt, who would follow Him?

The pagan gods were fickle, selfish, greedy, and, well, human. They were depicted as being effectively super-human beings with powers, not like Yahweh who is not human at all. He’s something else that we don’t understand. He speaks to us in human terms to relate to us and let us understand Him as much as possible, but we can’t comprehend an omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal being because we are none of those things. Their followers didn’t know what they wanted because they were myths, or worse, demons. So they had to guess. Our Elohim, Yahweh, the true Elohim, is different. He says and He does. His words are true. He is referred to as a rock because rocks don’t change. Because if He changed, then we would not know what to believe.

Slide 5 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. (2Th 2:7-12)

Today we are together on LDUB because we’re following the Torah. We’re doing the best we can to obey here in the 21^st century because we believe the Bible is God’s Word and His appointed times matter, as does all of his Torah. But mainstream Christianity teaches that the law was nailed to the cross. They particularly teach that these appointed times are null and void, which makes no sense as we see the first century church having adopted the days. Paul specifically told the church at Corinth to keep this very feast.

What happens when lawlessness and dishonor rule the day? The idea of “the law being nailed to the cross”. Mainstream Christianity has taught lawlessness for hundreds of years. How is society going to be able to identify lawlessness if it’s citizens are taught that lawlessness is biblical? The pagan gods were fickle, but at least they were gods. Today, western society is making it up. Each day is another abomination. It’s pure chaos. And it has been a slippery slope. Decades ago it was “why do you care what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home?” Today, we have drag queen story hour at the public library. It’s disgusting. Decades ago it was that girls had to be allowed in the boy scouts. Today, boys can claim to be girls and be admitted to the girls locker room and are actually participating in female athletics! Those Christians who taught the law was nailed to the cross have absolutely nothing to complain about. Because this is the natural result of their ridiculous doctrines.

Freedom requires boundaries. In order to have peace, we have to have order. We have to have a set of expectations and limitations that society agrees upon. This doesn’t even need to be a set of Christian of biblical tenets. Egypt had order and had peace. So did Greece. So did Rome. Within their borders, they had a set of laws and punishments for breaking those laws. They had rewards for obeying the laws. Societies need boundaries in order for there to be any sort of peace. Now, it becomes very un-peaceful in dictatorial societies when you stray from the path, so I am not endorsing these lifestyles. Not at all. The way Yahweh set it up was for the people to agree and follow, not for there to be a dictatorial society. Yahweh set up a simple set of commandments, the people cried, then He finished with Moses on the mountain. While the people obeyed. Then He added the laws about the priesthood, to keep them on the straight and narrow. Then Israel fell away over and over. But they never descended to the depravity we have today. And they knew the path back because righteousness was defined and had not changed. As far as individuals go, we are in the process of surpassing Sodom and Gomorrah. We are on the fast track to Genesis 6, where the thoughts of men were evil continually. All because we have discarded the basic principles of God and nature.

But remember, I set this up with national sins. With the Israelites having to honor their covenant even though it was made in deceit. Well, we’ve broken those rules as well. To the point that our oldest ally, France, is moving away from us. The French president, who was one of our best friends just four years ago, has openly indicated he can’t trust us. Because our government is ran by dishonorable people. When we abandoned our allies in Afghanistan, we told the world they can’t trust us anymore. That abrupt withdrawal, where we abandoned the airport before we even got our own citizens out, and left all of our military hardware behind, showed the world that our word means nothing. Other allies who depend on us for their existence have betrayed us this week with intelligence. Our inability to keep secret classified information makes it impossible for other nations to share their intel with us. And within this dump of classified information was evidence of us spying on our own allies. Our nation’s leaders are more concerned with men being able to shower with girls than they are of our common defense and standing in the world. We have become a nation of complete lawlessness from the top down. For more than two centuries this nation was the bedrock, and that was because we were a force for good. In two short years that has completely collapsed. No boundaries, nothing to cling to.

Slide 6 “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Mat 24:11-14)

Our movement has focused on the Sabbath as the mark of the beast for over 150 years. That was because it was the commandment that set us apart from the rest of Christianity. Those who preached lawlessness still clung to the other 9 commandments, even though that was a ridiculous position. But they continued to preach their lawlessness and adopted worse and worse practices that I won’t even speak of. Instead of being the anchor for truth, Christianity gave into society’s increasing depravity until we have arrived at the place where we are now. Brothers and sisters, it was an error to focus on one commandment when the scriptures were talking about total lawlessness all the time.

Author: FCC Admin

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