Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of Yahweh and their faith in Yeshua. (Revelation 14:12)
Audio and video messages
Spreading the bad news.
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When and how you worship identifies which God you serve.
Video with slides from Rumble below.
Audio only from Spotify below.
When and how you worship identifies which God you serve.
When we think of the first three commandments we almost always think about false gods being idols. But what if worshiping false gods didn’t just involve what your worship but when? Unfortunately, most of Christianity worships a false god and breaks the first three commandments without even knowing it. But please bear with me because if you really want to be a part of the family of the true God Yahweh, when you worship is the actual sign. It’s about behavior as well as idols.
I spend a lot of time pitching the positive side of keeping Torah. You know, the benefits of following the entire bible and how the whole faith, from Genesis to Revelation, makes sense. This is in the vein of the Shema, which Yeshua said is the greatest commandment -to love YHVH your Elohim, the LORD your God, with all your heart, you soul, and your might. If you love YHVH, you will do what He says. And when you do what He says, the bible and our ultimate destiny become much easier to understand. But there’s a flip side to this walk:
Slide 2 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. (1Pe 2:17)
Slide 2 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecc 12:13-14)
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The list goes on and on. And it’s hard to bring this side of the faith up because we are all sinners. But we must be moving in a positive direction, towards Yahweh, and sometimes the consequences of our actions need to be addressed to bring about the necessary change. Yeshua said the greatest commandment is to love Yahweh with all your heart and second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Loving Yahweh with all our hearts is displayed by simply doing what he said to do and not doing what He said not to do. Obedience and emulation are the best forms of worship. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. If you saw your neighbor doing something that could hurt them, you are obliged to warn them if you love them.
So why is it so important for us to worship on the right day of the week?
Slide 3 YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am YHVH who sanctifies you. ‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to YHVH; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. ‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days YHVH made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God. (Exo 31:12-18)
One of the biggest signs of God’s people, if not the biggest, is when and how we worship. One objection to this is that we’re not the sons of Israel so it doesn’t apply. Au contraire, my friends. Those who accept Yeshua as the Messiah and are baptized become adopted children of Abraham and heirs according to the promise. The NC was made with Israel and Judah. The path to salvation is inextricably tied to being part of the family of God. If you worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He has told us how to do this. And the 7th day Sabbath is a chief way of doing this.
Also in the passage above it says “sabbaths” in the plural. Leviticus 23 defines all of Yahweh’s sabbaths. The weekly being at the top and then we have annual observances, most of which are also sabbaths. I’ve spoken in detail in the past how these observances identify Yahweh’s people. The few times that Israel did what they were supposed to do by following Torah, one could imagine watching the nation from a helicopter view. Every Friday and sunset all motion would stop. All the kids would be in their houses, the streets empty and everything peaceful. On Saturday, you’d see people congregating to have their fellowships on Shabbat. In the days of synagogues, you would see people literally going to church on Shabbat. Then they’d go home and at sunset, you’d see some activity, but for the rest of the week you’d see normal hustle and bustle. Commerce, ranching, farming, and the like. Then on the annual sabbaths, you’d see the entire nation just come to a stop just like on the weekly sabbath. How is this a sign? Because it’s a culture. All the surrounding nations would know how to identify the Israelites by what days they observed. This is the true faith, not one of crosses or statues, but one of routine observances. Our behavior defines which God we serve.
Having a sign and a means to identify oneself as a believer is important. The flip side of having a sign is that it gives the adversary an avenue for attack.
Slide 4 ‘As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. ‘He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. (Dan 7:24-25)
Satan wants to be worshiped. That also means he doesn’t want us worshiping Yahweh. In fact, Satan wants to actually be the ruler of the universe. So his playbook is to change the Torah, hence the change in times and law. The Torah establishes time in the book of Genesis. An evening and a morning is a day. The seventh day of creation, which is the seventh day each week, is the Sabbath. It’s the day Yahweh rested from His works and then we follow His example by doing the same. Remember, the fourth commandment even references the creation.
The cold reality of the situation is that the switch from Sabbath to Sunday isn’t just some switch in when to meet up for church, it’s a switch in gods. Friday sunset to Saturday sunset is the mark of Yahweh. So what god is served by keeping Sunday? You’ve go it, a sun god.
Pagan religions from antiquity worship the sun, s-u-n, the helium plasma ball at the center of our solar system. People, either ignorant of Yahweh or being influenced by Satan, realized that life and light go hand in hand. The sun brings warmth and plants grow when we have sunlight and warmth. When the sun went away, which we now know it stays still and earth’s tilted orbit makes it seem like it is moving when it’s us, it got cold and things died. When it “came back”, it got warm and things came back to life. So people decided that sun, s-u-n, was a god, the giver of life. Then they added in the planets and all sorts of other things to worship, which is idolatry. Over time, these other things got days and observances because it’s hard wired into mankind to want to have religious observances. Deis solis is the day of the sun and is Sunday on our calendars. The false gods had observance times because they are copies of the true God’s worship system.
When Christianity went forth from Zion, it started in the synagogues with Jews who accepted Yeshua as the Messiah. This continued for a long time. When gentiles began to convert, they joined with the Jews at synagogue. They gave up their pagan practices and adopted the worship of the True God, Yahweh, through His Son, Yeshua. This is why the council of Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15, includes “for Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath”. The converts had already stopped worshiping on the false days, were attending synagogue on Shabbat, and were expected to keep doing that to hear Moses, i.e., the Torah, every week and learn the ways of Yahweh. So understand, that first century faith was one of people accepting Yeshua as Messiah, Jesus as the Christ, and then breaking with their pagan ways. They stopped worshiping false gods and switched to the true and did it by changing when and how they worshiped.
Unfortunately, Christianity grew apart from the synagogue and keeping the Torah as it moved west. Over time it became acceptable to blend the pagan practices into Christianity. This culminated in councils of bishops who had come to loathe Jews and the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Christianity grew into somewhat of a new religion, being an amalgamation of NT scripture, some OT scripture, legends, myths, and the observances of pagan religions. Sunday, Christmas, and Easter are all pagan celebrations that were brought into Christianity and ultimately subverted it. We have evidence of this in the councils of Nicea and Laodicea, where at the council of Laodicea they were forbidding keeping the Sabbath and mandating people read the Gospels on that same day. This is because, in AD 364, Christians were still reading Torah on Shabbat as the disciples expected them to do in Acts 15. Council of Laodicea – 364 AD – The Sabbath Sentinel
It’s remarkable to not that the same sin which got Israel smote repeatedly, mixing in false god worship with the true (syncretism), has become the foundation for Christianity. Most of the world’s Christians think that Sunday is the Sabbath and that we’re supposed to observe Christmas and Easter. All three of these things actually give homage to false gods and we really need to not do them. If you want the brutal truth about Christmas, please check out my post Are You Worshiping False Gods? – First Century Christianity where you can hear perhaps the most famous minister of our time admit live on TV that Christmas and all its observances are 100% pagan.
Brothers and sisters, if you’re hearing this info for the first time, it’s time to make a change. The change is hard. Yeshua said plainly that He didn’t come to bring peace but a sword. It was not a literal sword, but a sharp division between doing what is right and following Him and His Father versus going the other way. When I learned this information, I spent a ton of time trying to disprove it. But I had to come to the reality that Friday sunset to Saturday set is the Sabbath, the real 4th commandment. And keeping any other day like that is honoring a false god while cheating on the True God. How and when we worship matters.
Informing our view of scripture and prophecy through the Feast of Dedication.
Video with slides below via Rumble
Audio only via Spotify below
Today’s message is about how important Hanukkah is to the faith once delivered to the saints even though the majority of beliers don’t understand this remembrance at all.
The word chanukkah is spelled a few different ways in English because the first letter is not an English letter. This word is pronounced like you are clearing your throat. Regardless of how it is pronounced or represented in English, the word is very important. It means dedication and, in context, the dedication of the temple. This is the word used in Torah when talking about dedicating and consecrating the Levitical service. This festival is not part of Yahweh’s appointed times outlined in Leviticus 23, but it was definitely part of Jewish life in the first century. Yeshua was at the temple for the Feast of Dedication recorded at John 10:22 and they asked Him if He was the Christ, meaning Messiah, specifically at that time. For those of us who have studied Chanukkah, this banter has quite a lot more meaning and none of it has to do with miraculous oil.
If you want to know the official story on Chanukkah, please read the 1st book of Maccabees. It’s available at the link that follows or in any version of the LXX Brenton Septuagint Translation Maccabees I 1 (ebible.org)
The books of Maccabees aren’t considered scripture, which is why they are not included in our 66 book bibles. They used to be in family bibles in a special section called “the Apocrypha” which means “these books are important to the faith but are not considered to be inspired”. They and a couple other books that aren’t in our bibles are in the LXX because they were considered important enough to be preserved by the Rabbis who made that first translation of the Hebrew bible into Greek about 120 years before Yeshua. 1 and 2 Maccabees are very true recordings of history and they chronicle why there came to be a Feast of Dedication.
The absurdly abridged true version of Chanukkah is that it’s the observance of the temple being cleansed and re-dedicated after the Greeks defiled it under Antiochus Epiphanes. When the Greeks took over Judea, many Jews joined Greece even to the point of un-circumcising themselves. The Greeks burned the Torah scrolls and did horrible things to children who were circumcised and their mothers. The Greeks wanted to erase the faith of Abraham from the face of the earth and bring their blended pagan worship to Judea. A small band of true believers fought back against this and prevailed over much time. Their leader was called Judas Maccabeus, meaning Judah the Hammer, because he was successful in defeating the impossible-to-defeat Greeks. The Greeks defiled the Temple with the abomination of desolation and did other horrific things. The Maccabee family pushed Greece out of Judea which allowed for the Temple and Levitical service to be restored and all the paganism to be eradicated from the Holy Land. Once the Temple was restored, the menorah was lit to show the people everything was back the way it was supposed to be and they celebrated by having an 8 day festival in winter like Sukkot. There is no record of a miracle of oil in the books of the Maccabees, the Festival is 8 days long because it mirrored Sukkot.
Now that you have an absurdly abridged version of Chanukkah, let me explain what they were really asking Yeshua in John 10. They were asking Him if He was a messiah like Judas Maccabeus. They were asking if He was going to lead a rebellion against Rome and restore Judea like the Maccabees did prior. And He didn’t really answer their question.
Now we come to the Matthew 24 connection. Matthew 24 is where most of Christianity looks to read about Yeshua speaking of His return, which is often equated erroneously with the end of days. The end of days is 1000 years after His return, but that’s a story for another today. Today, let’s address Matthew 24 where the banter starts with Yeshua’s disciples marveling at the Temple.
Slide 2 Yeshua left the temple area and was going on His way when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. But He responded and said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” (Mat 24:1-2)
In an earlier message I spoke about how the destruction of the temple, but really the destruction of all Judea, in AD70 proves Yeshua to be the Messiah. These verses are that reference. In reality, Yeshua’s response at Matthew 24:2 should be in all caps, signifying it’s a call back to an Old Testament prophecy.
Slide 3 “Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.” (Dan 9:26-27 NASB)
This is how the NASB reads for this prophecy. The NASB is based on the Masoretic text, the Hebrew Bible that from about 1000 AD. It is a good thing for us to use a Tanakh, or Old Testament, based on Hebrew, because it preserves (or restores) how these words should be represented. And you can see in the English here that the temple is going to come down and that’s associated with “abominations”. Now let’s take a look at how the LXX represents this. The LXX is a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures from about 120 years before Yeshua. I referenced it earlier when I recommended everybody read 1 and 2 Maccabees. This translation was made before Yeshua and since the New Testament was written in Greek, and based off of the LXX, oftentimes our NT references match the LXX better. Check this out.
Slide 4 And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him: and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming: they shall be cut off with a flood, and to the end of the war which is rapidly completed he shall appoint the city to desolations. And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering shall be taken away: and on the temple shall be the abomination of desolations; and at the end of time an end shall be put to the desolation. (Dan 9:26-27 Brenton LXX)
Doesn’t this sound a whole lot more like Matthew 24 than the Hebrew translation? I think so. The reason I wanted to show this to you is because of the phrase “abomination of desolations” and that the Temple and all Judea were going to be destroyed. You can see very clearly that this abomination had already happened once and is going to happen again. And the reason Matthew 24:2 should be in all caps, showing it’s a reference to the Tanakh (the OT), is because Daniel prophesied the destruction of the second temple and all Judea being associated with the Messiah.
Slide 5 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Yeshua answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will mislead many people.” (Mat 24:3-5)
There’s a separation in my bible between verse 2 and 3 that was put there by the NASB translators. It’s not supposed to be there. What did the false messiahs say in the first century? They said the Rome was going to be purged and the temple restored at that time. This was what the people wanted and why they asked Yeshua if He was the Messiah at the Feast of Dedication – they believed erroneously the next Messiah would RESTORE Judea even though the Bible said that the DESTRUCTION of Judea was associated with the coming of the Messiah.
Slide 6 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.” (Mat 24:15-20)
He goes on further in Matthew 24 to talk about wars and rumors of wars and then He gets to this. Almost all of Christianity doesn’t know that the abomination of desolation has already happened. Twice. I implore you all to read 1 Maccabees and then you will understand that He was quoting it here. He was telling them to reference Daniel 9 and 1 Maccabees to understand the future prophetic proof of Him being the Messiah was that the temple was going to be defiled again as it had been before, but that next time, which was in AD 70, was going to lead to a complete destruction of Judea. 1 Maccabees talks in great detail about not going back and a slaughter the revolutionaries endured on the Sabbath after they rebelled against the Greeks. He was telling them that not only was He not there to restore Judea but that the next step in the plan of Salvation after His death and resurrection was going to be the destruction of the Temple. Those who came to understand this knew to leave Jerusalem when Hadrian’s army approached in AD70 and flee to the mountains. Those who didn’t, well, it didn’t go well for them. See The Temple and the Messiah – First Century Christianity for details.
So what do we do with Chanukkah, the Feast of Dedication? Brothers and sisters, we need to understand it and let it inform our view of the first century faith. We also need to understand it to inform our view of future events. The Feast of Dedication happened as a remembrance of the Jews getting rid of paganism and restoring Judea to proper worship and governance. This is a foreshadowing of the entire world getting the same treatment. We look forward to Judea being cleansed of its sins and the true, never defiled temple coming down from heaven when the Messiah returns. We look forward to a time when we will live in a world with a proper religion and governance, with Yeshua as our King and Yahweh as our God. My family lights a 7 candle menorah during Chanukkah to remember the rededication of the temple and looking forward to the eradication of all the sin and paganism we are surrounded by. This is just a tradition we have and not a commandment since Chanukkah is not a commanded festival in the Torah. But Yeshua did observe it and John recorded it, so we should do something for it. And the most important thing we can do for it is to read about it. Shalom.
This message explains the logo of the corner of a tallit against the blue sky. This was the first logo when we decided to use this site and it represents the fringe of Yeshua’s cloak mentioned at Matthew 9:20 and other places. Wearing a blue tassels for fringes, in Hebrew tzit-tzit or tzit-tziyot, is the only commanded article of clothing for a believer. It comes from Numbers 15:38 and is tool to help one remember to keep the Torah aka commandments. This logo was replaced with the Tree of Life logo in November of 2023.
Audio only below
For those who desire proof Jesus is the Messiah, the destruction of the second temple provides ample. The leaders in Judea at the time of Christ were looking for someone to free them from the Roman occupation. They were looking for a messiah like Judas Maccabeus, who led the successful revolt against the Greeks. The Maccabees were successful in repelling the pagans and restoring Judea. The leaders in the time of Yeshua, aka Jesus, were looking for the same thing. This is why the disciples were constantly ready to fight for Him, because they could not comprehend a different outcome.
The prophecy of the ultimate Messiah, Jesus aka Yeshua, given by Daniel, included the phrase “desolations are determined”. This mean that the true Messiah was quoting Daniel when He foretold the destruction of the temple at Matthew 24 and other places. In fact, this phrase is why they ultimately killed Him, defying even the prophecy they sought to be fulfilled.
Fully understanding the fall of the Temple and the events that led to it helps us to understand our faith better. This message identifies the four key factions in the first century working to remove Rome and their idiosyncracies. This knowledge helps us to build confidence in who Jesus aka Yeshua really was. This detailed message about the fall of the second Temple ties in relevant scriptures to Daniel 9 and provides proof Jesus is the Messiah. I recommend watching this one because the notes below are pretty rough.
Giving thanks to Yahweh is a very biblical concept. Let’s enjoy this day of unity!
Video with slides below via Rumble.
Audio only via Spotify.
Slide 2 Give thanks to YHVH for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of gods, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. (Psa 136:1-3)
Give thanks to YHVH, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the Elohim he elohim, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to Adonai ha adonim, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. (Psa 136:1-3)
Hodu YHVH kit tov, ki l’olam chasdo. Give thanks to YHVH for He is good, his love is everlasting.
The thanksgiving holiday is uniquely North American. It is a remembrance of God preserving early European settlers on this continent after a terrible winter. They survived terrible primitive conditions, cold, disease, lack of food, and the like until the following year or years, with the help of Massasoit’s native American tribe, they were able to raise enough crops to preserve themselves and begin to grow. The held a feast in autumn to give thanks to the Creator of the universe for allowing them to live and then thrive. They feasted on turkey and deer for several days. Indeed, clean foods for a festival to honor God.
Slide 3 “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless YHVH your Elohim for the good land which He has given you.” (Deu 8:10)
Having a national day for us to give thanks to Yahweh is a very good thing. This celebration does not pretend to be a holy day, but a day of gratitude. It’s a blessing for us because we can celebrate with our families without any religious tension at all. The Torah commands us to give thanks when we have eaten and are satisfied. Even I forget to do this because our society blesses the meal before we eat, but let’s remember to do it at the right time this year. Or before and after. Giving thanks on an annual basis is also a good thing.
My family and church family have had a pretty rough year, if we were to think of times being rough. We’ve lost many loved ones, even a couple of the brethren. We lost one of our beloved dogs, a sister in Messiah named Edna who died at a good old age, a sister in our congregation lost her husband and then she herself passed exactly a month later to the day. And my own mother died at a good old age. Through all this I give thanks to Yahweh that we were all together to suffer these losses. I give thanks that I could be there for people and that they could be there for me. I give thanks that we were able to afford the time and travel necessary to attend to all these things, and more. I give thanks that my children are healthy and growing up well and becoming good citizens along the way. I give thanks for our little fellowship that shares openly and supports each other. I give thanks for the larger brethren, the WI feast site, and all of our friends, because having a larger group of like-minded brethren out there is very comforting.
Slide 4 Click
I hope you all find blessings in this American tradition and find many things to be thankful for. One thing we all must be thankful for is that Yahweh gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. It’s a blessing in this life when Yahweh brings us through trials, but we know that’s not always going to be the case. But whatever happens in this life, we have the opportunity to enter eternal life with Yahweh and His Son. Hodu YHVH ki tov, ki l’olam chasdo. Give thanks to Yahweh for He is good, his love is everlasting.
Why are we such suckers?
Video with slides below through Rumble.
Audio only via Spotify below.
Cult Followings
Why are we such suckers?
My car selling story
FTX currency – young man with immense disposable wealth, no flags from agencies, people taking the money gladly
Elizabeth Holmes – young college dropout shows up with technology that exceeds science fiction with no peer review papers, gets billions in financing.
Church leaders, pundits and political figures that tell us what we want to hear and then we fall for them to the point that we can’t see their blatant flaws.
Why does this keep happening? Same as the garden – the serpent deceives.
But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. (1Th 5:21-22)
This isn’t just for religious stuff. We have to be diligent in all things, brothers and sisters. Deception is very strong and very alluring. What we think isn’t spiritual always ends up being spiritual. Elizabeth Holmes defrauded immense people and caused others to have physical harm with faulty medical tests. Friedman defrauded financial houses and caused people’s pensions and 401ks to get decimated. Religious cult leaders enrich themselves and abuse authority given to them by their followers. Political leaders who don’t have ethics or a conscience don’t care if they harm the universe as long as they get re-elected. All of these things are incredibly sinful with devastating consequences.
In the end times, there will be false prophets who perform miracles to get people to follow them. At the present time, we as a society keep following false prophets without the miracles. Think about that for a while.
If you found out you were accidentally worshiping false gods, would you make a change?
Video with slides below from Rumble.
Audio only below via Spotify.
Pat Robertson admitting Christmas is pagan on live TV below.
If you found out you were accidentally worshiping false gods, would you make a change?
Christianity universally accepts the Ten Commandments as foundational. These were the ten words spoken by Elohim (Yahweh) directly to the people at Mount Sinai, they were written in stone, placed in the ark, and are the bedrock of a civilized and faithful society that fears the true God. The first four commandments show us how Yahweh wants to be worshiped and specifically does not want to be worshiped. Let’s take a look at the first three:
For those who may be hearing me for the first time, I use the Hebrew Names for God (Yahweh) and Jesus (Yeshua) while also using the Hebrew word for God, which is Elohim. It’s more precise and I find it to be more respectful but I also use the traditional words so people don’t get lost in translation.
So what action could we possibly be doing that breaks these commandments? Have you ever thought about it? While we cherish the 10 commandments, we normally only focus on the last 5 of them. But these are the top 3, and Yahweh led off with the most important commandments, if they could be ranked. He even includes that He’s a jealous God, meaning that He’s not inclined for us to share our devotion with another.
To be blunt, the celebration of Christmas breaks all three of these commandments. I know that sounds almost blasphemous to many Christians, but it’s the reality. Christians have been coming to this truth for decades and we used to have to direct everyone to the Encyclopedia or a couple books like The Two Babylons or Too Long in the Sun to show that Christmas is actually a pagan holiday. But a couple years ago Pat Robertson, the famous Southern Baptist Minister, actually let the cat out of the bag in a TV interview and affirmed the truth, that Christmas is a pagan holiday. If you go to firstcenturychristianty.net, the website for this ministry and where this podcast is posted, his video will be embedded below this one so you can watch it for yourself. And let there no longer be any doubt, this holiday has nothing to do with the actual birth of the Son of God or of the true worship of Yahweh.
So I’m going to work from the bottom up on how Christmas breaks the commandments. You see, when somebody tells us “Christmas is pagan” and then we look it up and discover it’s true, we have to make a change. Classically trained theologians and ministers, like Pat Robertson, know that December 25 and it’s observances are pagan but they don’t tell their congregations. That, brothers and sisters, is taking God’s Name in vain. Taking His Name in vain means to misrepresent Him. Teaching that this religious observance is somehow scriptural or sanctioned by Yahweh is lying about scripture, which breaks the third commandment cleanly. Watch that Pat Robertson video and realize how cavalierly he is breaking the third commandment. Shamelessly. And all those ministers out there who know the truth are doing the same thing.
The second commandment is broken through idolatry. I’m sorry, but dragging evergreen trees into our houses, setting them up in a place of prominence, and placing gifts under them as if they are the providers, is idolatry. The evergreen tree was used in pagan religions as a symbol of life during winter, when everything else dies off. Jeremiah 10 actually mocks this practice, even to the detail of decorating the wood with silver and gold, which is what tinsel does. Jeremiah 10 is referencing idolatry more like statues, but the description is so similar to what is done with a Christmas tree that it’s uncanny. The idolatry goes even further with all the ornaments, elves, and a false god called Santa who’s made out to be all knowing and the judge of all the living. I could go on, but you all get the drift.
The first commandment is broken by the entire practice of mixing pagan worship practices with Christianity. This is THE sin Israel kept getting smote for over and over. It’s completely prohibited to have any false god stuff in the sight of the true God, Yahweh. Making up our own holidays in the name of God would be bad enough, but Christmas is almost completely adopted from pagan sun-worshiping religions of antiquity. The twelve days of Christmas come directly from Roman polytheism, the yule log is pagan, the timing is pagan as it is celebrated when the sun looks to be far off and returning for another year to give life. And the date of December 25 has nothing to do with the God of the Bible at all.
Yeshua, our Messiah, told us to do something very specific to remember Him. And we know exactly when that is. The night before Passover every year, we are to get together to remember His sacrifice by washing each other’s feet and having bread and wine. He literally said to do that in memory of Him. His birth is pretty hard to deduce from the scriptures. One has to look at when John the Baptist was conceived and then born and then add six months. We generally come up to Yeshua being born in the fall. If we were to observe His birth, it would have been recorded specifically and the date would have been on the Hebrew calendar, not the Roman calendar. But it’s not.
So, brothers and sisters, I encourage you to listen to Pat Robertson tell us the truth about Christmas and then share in my shock when he and the hostess of the show say it’s OK. It’s not OK. It’s contrary to the commandments and the very sin that Israel was guilty of many, many times. And this year, take it to heart. Be convicted and stop this practice today.
Antisemitism makes no sense from either a practical or a religious perspective.
In Matthew 23: 6-11, Yeshua said to call no man “teacher”, among other things. Was He being literal here? Are we really prohibited from having teachers and leaders?
Video with slides below. Courtesy of Rumble
Audio only below. Courtesy of Spotify
A common misconception that comes up with those of us who have come out of mainstream Christianity, and very often with those who have been in oppressive ministries like the former WCG, is to reject ministers, preachers, and leadership altogether. I see this a lot among my brothers and I entertained a variation of this for quite a few years myself. I’ll explain at the end how I realized my own error.
Slide 2 “And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the seats of honor in the synagogues, and personal greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi by the people. But as for you, do not be called Rabbi; for only One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. And do not call anyone on earth your father; for only One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called leaders; for only One is your Leader, that is, Messiah. But the greatest of you shall be your servant.” (Mat 23:6-11)
I know what you’re saying. “But Chris, it says right there not to call anyone a rabbi or a teacher or a leader. You’re all washed up.” Except He also says not to call anyone your father but we know that can’t be true because we have to call our parents mother and father.
Here’s an earlier version of a message I gave at Sukkot this year on reading the Bible. How to Read the Bible – First Century Christianity Part of that message addresses taking the bible too literally. I’m no fan of titles or hierarchal leadership systems in church settings, but the reality here is that Yeshua is not being completely literal here. We have to read through the entire passage to understand what He’s getting at. He is making sure His disciples know they are to be servants and not lords over the people because they were about to become some of the most influential leaders and teachers in history. He was telling them to be like Moses – servant leaders – and to explicitly NOT be like the haughty religious leaders of their day.
So it sounds like I’m contradicting scripture here, so I guess I better get to the proof texts.
The only person in the NT to be called Rabbi, meaning the literal word Rabbi, is Yeshua. But the other word for teacher is G1320 Didaskos (different from Rabbi) but is when He says not to be any teachers, He uses this word. The reason we know He’s not being literal is because this exact word used later to describe teachers in the Church of God.
Slide 3 And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Messiah; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Messiah. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Messiah, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Eph 4:11-16)
For the record, the word for teachers here is the same word that Yeshua said to not call anyone. And this is but one of many passages I could use to show teachers and leaders in the first century church. Clearly He didn’t mean for there to be no teachers. That would be preposterous because His disciples, which are the equivalent of talmidim and mean students, became Apostles and then went off to teach the world about the Son of God. This passage defines a lot of leadership roles in the NT assembly. What are the reasons for these leaders? To build unity, protect against false teachings, increase knowledge in the Son of God, and allow for the body to grow in love. Yeshua was not railing against having leadership and teachers, He was railing against the widespread misuse of these offices. The proper usage of these offices is to build each other up in love, not try to tear people down and spread division. In fact, these offices exist to deal with the miscreants who bring division and strange teachings.
Earlier I mentioned I would let you know how I realized my error in rejecting leadership. This story is two-fold. The first reason is the brutal reality that it just doesn’t work. Somebody has to take the lead if anything is going to get done. We only get to have assemblies because peopl step up to lead them. We only get to have Sukkot sites because people step up to do the work to host them. I was in an assembly for many years that “had no leader” but in practice they had one, everybody knew who it was, and if he hadn’t taken the lead to organize and get the basic stuff done, it would not have happened. When we went off on our own, I became the same guy. I was constantly eschewing official leadership but it made doing stuff very difficult because I technically did not have the authority to spend the group’s money or sign contracts. And then I realized there’s nothing wrong accepting the gifts Yahweh has given us. In fact NOT using them risks committing the unpardonable sin! The fact that people misused authority in the past is not a reason to reject it. It’s a reason to not abuse it and use it properly.
The passage above says these gifts and offices are for the equipping of the saints. I like to give the message about how to read scripture when I go to sukkot to fulfill this mission. That message let’s people know some simple things that will help the bible become a lot clearer. At Sukkot, I also demonstrated software to teach us how to read Hebrew and how to get the Masoretic Text on our computers. Why? Because it took me 20 years to get to the maturity of the faith and I want it to take less time for you. I want to empower you to get to the knowledge of the truth on your own time and in your own way. I trust the Ruach ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth. You may be interested in different topics that I have ever been interested in, so if I can help you to get on that path quicker and more accurately, then I believe I have used my gifts well.
My example for this are the men who trained me to speak and teach. They were secure enough in their faith to let me learn while doing and I want to keep that tradition going. Because that’s the maturity of the faith.