Friends Don’t Let Friends Ignore Scripture

 Come to me, all of you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to carry and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28–30 (LEB)

Yeshua spoke to the people in parables so that those interested would take time to ponder and understand the message. Many times the parables flew over everyone’s head and they were not fully understood. The parable of the wedding celebration is an interesting story that I have not heard spoken about very much.

Matthew 22:1–7 (LEB)

22 And continuing, Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man—a king—who gave a wedding celebration for his son. ³ And he sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the wedding celebration, and they did not want to come. ⁴ Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding celebration!” ’ ⁵ But they paid no attention and went away—this one to his own field, that one to his business. ⁶ And the others, seizing his slaves, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ And the king was angry and sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Anyone who has read the Old Testament can probably see this is talking about Israel, who continually ignored Yahuah and mistreated or killed the prophets that He sent to them. Both the House of Israel and the House of Judah were destroyed and dispersed with only a remnant of Judah coming back from Babylon. Yahuah then sent His servants out to the highways and byways to open the invitation to everyone, which is bringing the good news, or gospel, to the nations so that they can come near to God now.

Matthew 22:8–10 (LEB)

⁸ Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding celebration is ready, but those who had been invited were not worthy. ⁹ Therefore, go out to the places where the roads exit the city and invite to the wedding celebration as many people as you find.’ ¹⁰ And those slaves went out into the roads and gathered everyone whom they found, both evil and good, and the wedding celebration was filled with dinner guests.

The original guests were scattered due to their disobedience. This is corporate disobedience and punishment. When we read to the end, there is one of the new found guests who does not have a wedding garment. This can be anything from disobedience for not wearing the provided wedding garment to being found naked at the resurrection.

Matthew 22:11–14 (LEB)

¹¹ But when the king came in to see the dinner guests, he saw a man there not dressed in wedding clothes. ¹² And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here, not having wedding clothes?’ But he could say nothing. ¹³ Then the king said to the servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’ ¹⁴ For many are called but few are chosen.”

This idea about being excited, as the king was to have his friends come to his son’s wedding, is quite a sad story when analyzed. Imagine having an exciting event that you can’t wait to tell your family and friends about, only to be ignored and belittled even to the point that the people beat your servants. Yeshua was trying to tell Jerusalem that they would be destroyed for their actions. They were destroyed in 70 CE, and have never fully recovered.

When I began to really study scripture and follow the church into the first five centuries, it became clear to me how much influence from foreign gods and philosophy became introduced into Christianity. I realized that sometime during the apostle’s lifetime the church left the truth of scripture for myths and abandoned the instructions of God. Paul prophesies this in the book of Acts to the Ephesians.

Acts 20:25–31 (LEB)

²⁵ “And now behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about proclaiming the kingdom, will see my face no more. ²⁶ Therefore I testify to you on this very day that I am guiltless of the blood of all of you, ²⁷ for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the whole purpose of God. ²⁸ Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he obtained through the blood of his own Son. ²⁹ I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. ³⁰ And from among you yourselves men will arise, speaking perversions of the truth in order to draw away the disciples after them. ³¹ Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears.

A few years later we see church father Ignatius fulfilling prophecy with his letter to the Ephesians.

CHAPTER VI.–HAVE RESPECT TO THE BISHOP AS TO CHRIST HIMSELF.

Now the more any one sees the bishop keeping silence, the more ought he to revere him. For we ought to receive every one whom the Master of the house sends to be over His household, as we would do Him that sent him. It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would upon the Lord Himself. And indeed Onesimus himself greatly commends your good order in God, that ye all live according to the truth, and that no sect has any dwelling-place among you. Nor, indeed, do ye hearken to any one rather than to Jesus Christ speaking in truth.

Early on, church fathers began to depart from the truth elevating “bishops” to the level of God. There are two versions of the letter Ignatius wrote to the Magnesians. Which one is accurate is anyone’s guess, but they leave two different impressions. The first version of the letter would make one believe Ignatius was eliminating the Sabbath and changing it to the “Lord’s Day”.

If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death — whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master — how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, being come, raised them from the dead.

The first version of this letter causes Ignatius to be in the false prophet category as per Deuteronomy 13. The second version is a little better, but still adding and taking away from God’s word. It appears that Ignatius wants us to “keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law“, and “And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival“. I am simply pointing out the fork in the road very early in Christianity.

If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death — whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master — how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, being come, raised them from the dead.
If, then, those who were conversant with the ancient Scriptures came to newness of hope, expecting the coming of Christ, as the Lord teaches us when He says, “If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me;” and again, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad; for before Abraham was, I am;” how shall we be able to live without Him? The prophets were His servants, and foresaw Him by the Spirit, and waited for Him as their Teacher, and expected Him as their Lord and Saviour, saying, “He will come and save us.” Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for “he that does not work, let him not eat.” For say the [holy] oracles, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.” But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days of the week. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, “To the end, for the eighth day,” on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ, whom the children of perdition, the enemies of the Saviour, deny, “whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things,” who are “lovers of pleasure, and not lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” These make merchandise of Christ, corrupting His word, and giving up Jesus to sale: they are corrupters of women, and covetous of other men’s possessions, swallowing up wealth insatiably; from whom may ye be delivered by the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Yahuah makes it clear the Sabbath is very important, and Yeshua shows us the way it is to be kept. This idea of the “Lord’s Day” is no where in scripture, so I cannot say where it came from other than tradition. Observing the first day as a festival to the Lord does not sound like a bad idea, but all one has to do is read about Jeroboam to see how badly it can turn out. After the “Lord’s Day”, the church continued to make feast days and festivals the same as the nations around them, supposedly to honor Yahuah. The problem is this is the very thing Yahuah said not to do and is the sin of Jeroboam. The point is that these early church fathers started introducing ideas that Yeshua, the apostles and certainly the Torah and prophets never mentioned. This is a huge red flag.

Once I saw the departure happening from the truth in ancient literature, I realized that Christianity has morphed into something that was never intended. Now it is common for Christians to believe the instructions of God, Torah, were a curse that was nailed to the cross. This is absurdity. Even Ignatius is telling us to use the Sabbath to study the law! “But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law“.

I began to share some of these discoveries with Christian friends and family thinking they would be at least interested in what I was learning. Once I realized that the Creator’s instructions were for our benefit, all the meaning that I had glossed over in scripture my whole life began to come alive. Things like the Sabbath being still important and looking at how Yeshua taught the “Old Testament” and how it applies in our life. However, I feel like the King whose friends and family were not interested and had other things to do. Even now, when we have completely changed direction and left the antinomian environment of the “church”, there does not appear to be a spark of interest in finding out why someone who was heavily involved in Christian churches for many, many years would leave and start a home church reading Torah portions on the Sabbath. Even the Jehovah’s Witnesses are not interested when I talk about following the instructions of Yahuah.

Deuteronomy 13:1–4 (LEB)

“If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,’ ³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self. ⁴ You shall go after Yahweh your God, and him you shall revere, and his commandment you shall keep, and to his voice you shall listen, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.

When we were attending organized religious institutions, I never really found your average Christian that was very interested in scripture. It was more about church attendance and church events than the things of God. Many say the best cure for Christianity is to start reading the Bible, maybe this is true. The Apostle John shows us how the church was taking a wild turn in his day. There were leaders who wanted nothing to do with the apostle.

3 John 9–11 (LEB)

⁹ I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who wants to be first among them, does not acknowledge us. ¹⁰ Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to the deeds he is doing, disparaging us with evil words. And not being content with these, he does not receive the brothers himself, and he hinders those wanting to do so and throws them out of the church. ¹¹ Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.

These blog posts are a good outlet for me and I appreciate everyone who reads them, comments and looks for discussion. The world of social media has given me some new friends and can be compared to the highways and byways. There certainly is a diversity of beliefs in the Christian world on social media. However, it is amazing, and a confirmation to me, to see people from all walks of Christianity, who actually take the time to study scripture, independently come to the same conclusions as I have. There is quite a movement among believers to come back to God and follow His instructions rather than the traditions of men.

Matthew 11:28–30 (LEB)

²⁸ Come to me, all of you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke on you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to carry and my burden is light.”

Our flesh cannot keep the law of God, but through the Spirit we are able to and should. We were bound to the penalty of the law through sin, “Romans 7:6 (LEB) But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to that by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter of the law. Paul explained how to keep the law very well for anyone who takes time to understand the law.

Romans 7:11–12 (LEB)

¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Peter warns us that those who do not do their homework will be lead away by lawless people teaching Paul. This is the absolute truth, and the apathy for the things of God among Christians today is stunning. This is how Christians can believe the Holy instructions of the Creator are evil and had to be “nailed to the cross”. It is shameful that this is taught and more people do not call out this heresy. It is a cancer that is rotting away Christianity.

2 Peter 3:14–17 (LEB)

¹⁴ Therefore, dear friends, because you are waiting for these things, make every effort to be found at peace, spotless and unblemished in him. ¹⁵ And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom that was given to him, ¹⁶ as he does also in all his letters, speaking in them about these things, in which there are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, as they also do the rest of the scriptures. ¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, because you know this beforehand, guard yourselves so that you do not lose your own safe position because you have been led away by the error of lawless persons.¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Yahuah is going to bring justice to this earth, and those who hate His instructions will not fare very well. It doesn’t matter if you attend some form of organized religion, or think you are doing great things. The scales will be balanced. The god that is often preached about today is not Yahuah of the Bible. The god that says we no longer need to be concerned about commandments is a myth and deception created by man’s desire to do its own will and ignore the “everlasting covenant”.

Isaiah 24:1–6 (LEB)

24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste and is about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants. ² And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the female slave, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends. ³ The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, ⁵ and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth, and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn, and few men are left.

The “everlasting covenant” is the language used with Noah, and throughout scripture talking of those who keep the covenant, or do what He says.

Genesis 9:16–17 (LEB)

¹⁶ The bow shall be in the clouds, and I will see it, so as to remember the everlasting covenant between God and between every living creature, with all flesh that is upon the earth.” ¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am establishing between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”

Are you keeping the everlasting covenant that Yeshua preached, or do you have a covenant with an imaginary god that says the covenant was “nailed to the cross”? Yeshua started His ministry by quoting Isaiah 61. There are two sides to every covenant and a covenant is an agreement between two parties, not just one party promising to do or not do something.

Isaiah 61:8–11 (LEB)

⁸ For I, Yahweh, love justice, hate robbery and injustice, and I will faithfully give their reward, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. ⁹ And their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples. All those who see them shall recognize them, that they are descendants whom Yahweh has blessed. ¹⁰ I will rejoice greatly in Yahweh; my being shall shout in exultation in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns himself with a head wrap like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewelry. ¹¹ For as the earth produces its sprout, and as a garden makes its plants sprout, so the Lord Yahweh will make righteousness sprout, and praise before all the nations.

The yoke is easy and the burden is light, meaning there is still a yoke and burden; however, don’t let religion make it hard and burdensome. There are at least two ways to look at every scripture in the New Testament. If a person tries to understand the New Testament without studying the Torah, Prophets and Writings, that person will be led astray to lawlessness very easily. Just take a look around and see for yourself. Repent and believe the gospel!

Photo by Matt C on Unsplash

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