Recalculating Our Direction: The New Reformation

“For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”

Hebrews 6:7-8

During the reformation of the church that started with Martin Luther in 1517, one of the sayings that developed was, “sola scriptura”. This is the belief that scripture is the sole authority over doctrine, not the traditions handed down by the authority of Rome, any organization or manmade entity. Many brave men and women were able to break away from the grips of Rome; however, many were tortured, burned at the stake and otherwise murdered for breaking with church tradition and dogma. This reformation movement was eventually infiltrated by corrupt men, and although making great strides, never truly broke from the power of the Roman church and government. The Protestant movement eventually started doing the very same torturous things to Catholics and commandment keepers once government became involved. What started as the Protestant movement, never left the protesting stage.

Over the course of the last ten years, many people have decided they need to take a different path than the “protesting catholic” theology of Baptist, Pentecostal and other various denominations. There are too many teachings and practices that are contrary to scripture. People are starting to hold the truth of scripture higher than the church traditions handed down to us by both well meaning and in some cases, corrupt men. The fact that people are coming to this realization worldwide is prophecy unfolding before our eyes.

Jer 16:19 O Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our ancestors have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.

Below are five of the major problems that Christians are becoming aware of causing them to change their practices and understanding . Many of these issues are discussed at length in my other blog posts. This refreshed belief system holds that the church, or the congregation of believers, called the ekklesia in the New Testament, started at Mount Horeb with Yahweh giving the Ten Commandments in an audible voice to all twelve tribes of Israel. Stephen clearly speaks to this in his speech recorded in the book of Acts.

Act 7:37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Act 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.

The following is a short list of major discrepancies found between scripture and common practice.

1. Wrong day

Throughout scripture, the Sabbath is a very important day to Yahweh. The mark of the believer is one who keeps the Sabbath. We believe it is the seventh day of the week, as our Saviour kept it, and it was wrongfully changed to “the venerable day of the sun” by the Roman church when paganism began to be blended with Christianity. This pagan blending was also combined through tradition, adopted by church fathers due to the animosity between Jews and Christians that developed in the early Greek and Roman churches. There is no scriptural authority that changed the day of rest established by Yahweh himself at creation. Many people have claimed that Sabbath keeping is life changing. My family agrees and recommends the practice to anyone who wants to draw closer to God with greater understanding and blessings. It truly is a delight.

Exo 31:16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

“Foreigners who join themselves to the LORD”, is the same as Paul’s “grafted in” language in Roman’s 11. Our God is the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel); therefore, we should do what this particular God, who’s name is יהוה, pronounced Yahweh or Yahuah, (four vowel sounds), wants us to do.

Isa 56:4 For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,
Isa 56:5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
Isa 56:6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—
Isa 56:7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
Isa 56:8 The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

“Foreigners that join themselves to the LORD” is referring to those of us who claim Yahweh is their God. As Paul states in Ephesians 2:19: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”.

The Roman Canon that the church still follows:

Canon XXIX.Christians must not a by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ. Notes. Ancient Epitome of Canon XXIX.A Christian shall not stop work on the Sabbath, but on the Lord’s Day. Balsamon.Here the Fathers order that no one of the faithful shall stop work on the Sabbath as do the Jews, but that they should honour the Lord’s Day, on account of the Lord’s resurrection, and that on that day they should abstain from manual labour and go to church. But thus abstaining from work on Sunday they do not lay down as a necessity, but they add, “if they can.” For if through need or any other necessity any one worked on the Lord’s day this was not reckoned against him.

The Sabbath is one of the most important days discussed in the Bible, yet Rome changed the day, and cursed anyone who followed Yahweh’s special day. The fact that the Roman government made a law to change the Sabbath shows that many Christians at that time were still keeping the Sabbath on the biblically ordained day. Otherwise, it would have been a non-issue.

2. Wrong holidays

Nowhere in the Bible will you find anything about Christmas, “Christ’s Mass”, Easter (except a mistranslation for Pesach in Acts in the King James Version of the Bible), Halloween or any other traditional feast day of the church unless you study the gods of the nations living around Israel in the Old Testament, the Norse gods or the gods of the Greeks and Romans. Yahweh gave His people special days and feasts to observe forever.

Lev 23:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.

These are the feasts and Sabbaths of Passover, First Fruits, Unleavend Bread, Shavuot, Trumpets, Atonement, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret. The weekly Sabbath is also in this list. The church rejects these days that Yahweh calls his appointed times.

From an early church father, John Chrysostom:

(5) What is this disease? The festivals of the pitiful and miserable Jews are soon to march upon us one after the other and in quick succession: the feast of Trumpets, the feast of Tabernacles, the fasts. There are many in our ranks who say they think as we do. Yet some of these are going to watch the festivals and others will join the Jews in keeping their feasts and observing their fasts. I wish to drive this perverse custom from the Church right now. My homilies against the Anomians can be put off to another time, and the postponement would cause no harm. But now that the Jewish festivals are close by and at the very door, if I should fail to cure those who are sick with the Judaizing disease. I am afraid that, because of their ill-suited association and deep ignorance, some Christians may partake in the Jews’ transgressions; once they have done so, I fear my homilies on these transgressions will be in vain. For if they hear no word from me today, they will then join the Jews in their fasts; once they have committed this sin it will be useless for me to apply the remedy.

In the fourth and fifth centuries, Christians were still celebrating the feast days of Yahweh, much to John Chrysostom’s dismay. The Roman Emperor, Constantine, wrote a letter to the bishops who could not attend the council of Nice in 325 AD changing the date of the Passover, a point of contention between the Eastern and Western churches.

When the question relative to the sacred festival of Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day; for what could be more beautiful and more desirable, than to see this festival, through which we receive the hope of immortality, celebrated by all with one accord, and in the same manner? It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom [the calculation] of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. In rejecting their custom, 113 we may transmit to our des-cendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter, which we have observed from the time of the Saviour’s Passion to the present day [according to the day of the week]. We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Saviour has shown us another way; our worship follows a more legitimate and more convenient course (the order of the days of the week); and consequently, in unanimously adopting this mode, we desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews, for it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast.

Yahweh tells us not to use the symbols of other nations’ gods, yet we use eggs from fertility goddesses, obelisks, fir trees, and fir cones which are all fertility or phallus symbols of other gods. The church uses them for the worship of “God”, on the feast days of the gods, in the name of worshipping “God” or Jesus, even though Yahweh says not to do such deeds. They even put these symbols on the altar where they pray to the living God.

Deu 12:29 “When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,
Deu 12:30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’
Deu 12:31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.

This is not an Old Testament command “done away with” because Jesus prophesies to the churches in Revelation about those who follow the practices of Balaam and Jezebel. The church today does this very thing with the same gods of Balak and the Northern kingdom, also promoted by Jezebel and Ahab. They are destined for tribulation because of these practices, according to Jesus.

Rev 2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Rev 2:19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
Rev 2:20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
Rev 2:21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
Rev 2:22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
Rev 2:23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

Sexual immorality spoken of here is whoring with other gods. It is a main theme in the Old Testament. If Jesus states He will give to each according to their works, what works is He speaking of? It is not works that we make up, such as how often we go to a church building, hear a sermon, name a pew after one of our relatives, or anything else of our own imagination.

3. Wrong name

The name of the Creator has been blotted out by words such as LORD and God which disguises and hides the Creator God, Yahweh. Here is how these verses in Exodus are rendered in most translations:

Exo 3:13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
Exo 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Exo 3:15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

God didn’t say His name is “the LORD”. “LORD” is a substitution for His name put there by translators because in Judaism, one is not allowed to say the name. Their substitution of choice is Ha’shem, which simply means “the name” in Hebrew. A more honest translation gives us the name of the Father. In most Bibles, this name, יהוה, is substituted over 6000 times. Many ancient transcripts of the scriptures, whether in Hebrew or Greek, used the Paleo Hebrew font for the name of God, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.

Exo 3:13 But Moses said to God, “Look, if I go to the Israelites and I say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I say to them?”
Exo 3:14 And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘I am sent me to you.'”
Exo 3:15 And God said again to Moses, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my remembrance from generation to generation.’

How can we call on His name if we don’t know it, talk about it or say it? Name also means fame, reputation and identity, so we are not simply getting caught up with the four letters of the Tetragrammaton.

Psa 9:9 And Yahweh will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of distress.
Psa 9:10 And those who know your name will trust in you, for you do not forsake those who seek you, O Yahweh.

4. Wrong identity

There is not a people group Israel and another people group “the church”. There is only one Israel of God. Dispensationalism theology crept into the church in the late 1800’s and has spread broadly to give us many false beliefs.

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
One in Christ
Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
Eph 2:15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
Eph 2:16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Eph 2:17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Eph 2:18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Eph 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

If we follow Yahweh through faith in Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yeshua, meaning salvation, we are grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel. We do not replace Israel, nor do we have a different prophetic path than Israel. Believing the “church” is some separate entity, with a different path than who the “church” believes is Israel, is a form of replacement theology.

Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are descendants of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.

5. Wrong Messiah

There are many versions of Jesus today. The Jesus of the Bible kept the commandments as did His followers. Keeping the commandments is what defines followers of Yahweh. Jesus was one with the father, and we need to be one with Jesus.

Mat 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Mat 5:18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Mat 5:19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

John also tells us to follow the commandments.

1Jn 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
1Jn 2:2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1Jn 2:3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
1Jn 2:4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
1Jn 2:5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:
1Jn 2:6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Paul also:

1Co 7:19 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

Finally, our call to endurance until the end:

Rev 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

If people keep a different special day of the week, different holy days and feast days, have a different identity, and do not follow the commandments of Yahweh, then it sounds like it is a god other than Yahweh, the Creator God of the Bible, that is being worshipped. We were warned about this:

Deu 13:1 “If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder,
Deu 13:2 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,’
Deu 13:3 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.
Deu 13:4 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.

This is serious business with eternal consequences. I do not want to go against Yahweh, even if pastors and teachers say it is not important to do what Yahweh said to do any more, or it was for someone else. It is much like the serpent asking Eve, “did God really say?” Paul tells us the same thing:

2Co 11:3 But I am afraid lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be led astray from the sincerity and the purity of devotion to Christ.
2Co 11:4 For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we have not proclaimed, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you put up with it well enough!

2Co 11:13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14 And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.

There is a movement worldwide where people are abandoning the traditions of men, presented in the church, and are starting to follow the commandments of Yahweh. This is prophetic.

Deu 4:27 And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you.
Deu 4:28 And you will there serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell.
Deu 4:29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 4:30 In your distress when all these things have found you in the latter days, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice.

This is a modern reformation that we are witnessing. Unfortunately, the first reformation never made a clean break from Rome, and all of the pagan traditions and false beliefs slowly have worked their way back in to the point where there are over 40,000 denominations derived from one book. Along with all these belief systems, there are as many different versions of Jesus and God.

The people that are leaving mainline denominations are not in any way leaving the faith. Once a person sees error and continues in that error, that person will be held accountable. No one wants to be in that group.

1Pe 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
1Pe 1:15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
1Pe 1:16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1Pe 1:17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
1Pe 1:18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
1Pe 1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Peter was talking to those who were “in exile”, the Northern kingdom, the so called lost ten tribes or the House of Israel, who were cut off from Yahweh for whoring after other gods and rejecting the commandments of Yahweh. Jesus made a way for them to come back to covenant, along with the rest of the nations they mingled with. This is the theme of the book of Hosea. We do not want to be guilty of the same sins that Yahweh divorced and exiled the House of Israel for committing . They continually broke the commandments of Yahweh.

There are home fellowships starting in many places along with long distance Zoom and Skype meetings with people from all over the world. It is amazing to see the Creator draw His people back to His Word. My family started practicing home church during the pandemic and have not looked back. We are looking forward to a time when there will be more like-minded believers to fellowship with locally.