Tag: Apologetics

Apologetics are messages related to the basics of Christianity as practiced by the first century Christians.

Worship Matters

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.

Holy Days for Christians

The first century Christians did not observe Sunday, Christmas, or Easter. Whether gentile convert or a Jew who accepted Messiah, they continued to worship as commanded by the Torah. This message shows that Christians should never have stopped that practice and the blessings for those of us who have returned to the observances of the first Christians.

Video with slides above via Rumble. Audio only below via First Century Christianity | Podcast on Spotify.

Tisha B’Av happened August 6 this year. The 9th day of the 5th month. This is not a commanded observance but is a very important date in Judaism and Christianity. There is a list of bad things said to have happened on the 9th of Av on the Hebrew calendar. Some are a stretch. But two things appear to be quite literal, the destruction of both Temples happening, or starting to happen, on or about this date. This is significant for a lot of reasons but having both temples come down on the same calendar date is a big sign that YHVH meant those things happen. The second temple coming down was prophesied by Yeshua. That’s also super significant because it’s another proof of His Messiahship. The down side to this, of course, is the suffering and the time it took for the destruction to be complete.

I bring this up because cultures are formed around events and observances. The Torah establishes what a day is, what a week is, what a month is, what a year is, sabbatical years, and jubilees. The Torah is very much intertwined with times and observances. The culture of this world has observances, too. They are sometimes secular in nature, like sporting events or the signing of key documents, and they are religious in nature. The religious ones are pretty much imposters of the real Holy Days of the Bible. It’s August 27 and can you believe there was a Christmas tree display in Costco yesterday? None of us keep Christmas, but this is absurd to start thinking about it this far out. What’s not absurd to think about are Yahweh’s fall observances, which start a little less than a month from now. Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, begins sundown on Sunday, September 25th this year. September 26 is the day to take off work, the High Sabbath. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins the night of October 4 and runs through sundown on October 5. We do no work and eat or drink nothing for those 24 hours. Then Sukkot comes on October 10 – October 17, with the 10th and 17th being High Days.

One of the core beliefs we share is to observe the holy days of Leviticus 23. The early church continued to obey Torah and those who were grafted in from the nations in the first century adopted God’s ways. There are a couple of key points to prove this in the New Testament:

Slide 2 When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them, (Act 27:9)

This is when Paul was being taken to Rome as a prisoner. This is perhaps 20 years after Yeshua ascended. The fast is Yom Kippur and the author of Acts is using this day to say “it’s fall and the seas are now rough.” The day of Atonement mentioned so casually this late in scripture is solid evidence for its continued observance for the early Messianics.

Slide 3 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. (Act 20:16)

Same theme as above but the day is mentioned by name this time. Well, it’s Greek name.  Pentecost means “count 50” and this is the day that is 50 days from the brining in of the first fruits around Passover time. It’s also the day that Yeshua sent the Ruach to the apostles in Acts 2. Paul is trying to be in Jerusalem for Shavuot, a pilgrimage festival. The context again shows solid evidence the day was known and observed by the early believers. Keep in mind the book of Acts was written about 20 years after Yeshua ascended so if they decided to stop keeping the law, it’s weird behavior for the day of Pentecost to be mentioned at all, let alone showing Paul trying to observe it in the holy land.

Slide 4 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1Co 5:7-8)

Just to make sure we cover all the bases, Paul is instructing the church at Corinth to keep the festivals. These would be gentiles and Jews alike and he is writing as if they are fluent in the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So let there be no doubt that they continued to observe the festivals, and the commandments, long after Yeshua ascended. It was expected the faith would be observed like this forevermore. In fact, we have evidence the faith did continue like this until the early 400s as the councils had to mandate believers to stop observing the Sabbath and even reading the Torah Portions. So this wraps up the apologetic on the early church keeping the holy days.

Slide 5 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Messiah, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua. For all of you who were baptized into Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:24-29)

But I bring it up because of Tish B’Av and how we need to keep the right mindset. Our Messiah was Jewish. He lived as a Jew, attending synagogue, and kept the commandments. That doesn’t mean we have to become Jews or follow the Rabbis, particularly the stuff that came after, but it means we should be mindful, respectful, and somewhat knowledgeable about Judaism, particularly how it was followed in the first century.

Slide 6 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. (Rom 11:1)

But Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.” (Act 21:39)

But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!” (Act 23:6)

These verses are up so we can see that not only were the first believers grafted in to the family of God but those who were already of the family did not have to change. By change, I mean cast aside the Torah and their ancestry, which is what mainstream Christianity teaches. They teach that a new religion was born 2000 years ago, while we know the faith is a continuance of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I watched the movie Risen on a couple plane rides. It was very good until the end when the movie makers showed the Apostles cease being Jews and become something else. That’s just not true. The New Testament doesn’t show God turning His back on the Jews and switching to random gentiles, it shows Jews accepting Messiah and continuing to keep the commandments and gentiles accepting the Messiah and starting to keep the commandments. So while we aren’t to convert to Judaism, we still learn from them and their writings because, for at least 150 years, the Messianic movement was actually a sect of Judaism until it was forced out for a couple reasons.

So with all this said, let’s take a quick look at the Fall Holy Days of Leviticus 23 because they are coming up.

Slide 7 Again YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ‘You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to YHVH.'” (Lev 23:23-25)

In English, this is called the Day of Trumpets. That doesn’t do it justice. In Hebrew it’s called Yom Teruah, which does include Trumpets but also shouting, noise, etc. We have a conflict here with Judaism because they call this “new year’s” when it is the first day of the SEVENTH month. But we also learn something from Judaism about this day that Yeshua cited:

Slide 8 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Mat 24:36)

Judaism has referred to the first day of the 7th month as “the day no man knows” since before Yeshua. Yeshua was hinting His audience that the end, or His Return, or some hugely significant event coming in the future will occur on the Yom Teruah.

Slide 9 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1Th 4:16-18)

And Paul tells us also that Yeshua will return on Yom Teruah, revealing the hint from Yeshua, and that this day is also when the first resurrection will occur. So, you see, keeping the Holy Days isn’t just a commandment, it isn’t just an expectation of the original believers, many of which were already keeping the commandments because they were Jews, but it’s also looking forward to the return of the Messiah!

Slide 10 YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to YHVH. “You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before YHVH your God. “If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. “As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. “You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. “It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.” (Lev 23:26-32)

Now comes the Fast. This day has enormous Messianic meaning. But the crux is to do nothing – no eating, no drinking, no work, nada for 24 hours from sunset to sunset. That’s what we do today. Back in Temple and tabernacle days, the people did nothing except for a couple of the Kohen. The High Priest made atonement for the people. This was the day that the sins of the people were transferred, ceremonially and perhaps literally, to the goats or the curtain. And the High Priest did it for all.

Slide 11 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. (Heb 9:6-7)

Again, today is just an overview, but the crux of the matter is that Yeshua bore our transgressions. The Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, was a type, Yeshua is the fulfillment. When He died, the curtain was torn in two. And the book of Hebrews goes on in great detail what this day means.

So for us to fast on this day, to observe it the best we can, is to honor our Messiah’s death which paid the price for sins. And those were sins committed in ignorance, which gives us a marvelous hope for all mankind who have committed sins in ignorance, which is everyone.

Slide 12 Again YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to YHVH. ‘On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. ‘For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to YHVH. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to YHVH; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work. (Lev 23:33-36)

Now we get to Sukkot! The Feast of Tabernacles. Or the season of our joy! So after we have the day that foreshadows Yeshua’s return, then we have the day of somber fasting that is for the sins committed in ignorance (among other things), we have an 8 day festival. We analogize this one to representing the 1000 years, but the Sabbath does that to. We also equate the 8th day as the sign of completion and a gateway between the impure and the holy. The 8th day of sukkot is thought to be representative of the bridge between the end of this era and the beginning of eternity, where we enter the olam ha ba. It’s also thought to be judgment day or the second resurrection. For today, Sukkot is a time for us all to fellowship together in peace and harmony, most often at a resort or camping, with just our fellow believers. Scripturally it represents the time the Hebrews were in the wilderness, living in sukkahs, and is a remembrance of that. Which can also relate to how our lives here are temporal, where we live for just a short time, and then at the resurrection are given permanent immortal bodies. But whatever the meanings turn out to be, the feast is just fine as it is!

Slide 13 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 conclusion, though, is to fear God and keep His commandments. For in so doing, we will show ourselves approved and faithful when Messiah returns. Keeping the commandments are not burdensome, as I hope the message today shows. They are a privilege for us to know and do. They are healthy for us. They enhance our lives today. And they show our faith in Yahweh and His Son, Yeshua, while we await Yeshua’s return.