Left Behind

The words “left behind” have different meanings to different audiences. To some, it was an act by the US Congress to help school children, to others, it brings to mind the Tim LaHaye fictional depiction of what many still believe the “rapture” of the church will look like, based on his Left Behind movie and book series. There is another group of people getting left behind, whose numbers are increasingly growing. These are people which can no longer tolerate the direction modern Christianity is heading, or in many cases, where it has been for decades.

2Ti 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

As mega churches are exposed for their fraud, prosperity preachers fleece their flock, giving a false doctrine and false hope in return, many are walking away. There are others in more traditional churches watching leadership and laity become more apostate everyday, and they are turning to studying scripture for themselves. The problem with people reading the Bible for themselves is that it exposes all of the discrepancies of man made doctrines with the actual Word of God. Pastors and leadership are not prepared to answer hard questions, in a lot of cases, simply because there are no logical answers. The doctrine is simply wrong.

For example, I know of a person who had legitimate questions about the Sabbath. This was a person in a leadership role in a church. The first couple times he asked his pastor, he mostly was brushed off. Finally, after a third attempt, the Pastor yelled at him not to ask about the Sabbath again. So, it created another one “left behind”, leaving the institutional church to find a home study group to get some answers. Twenty years later this person has a large following, meeting weekly on the Sabbath, teaching scripture.

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.
Jer 16:20 Can a human make for himself gods? Yet they are not gods!”
Jer 16:21 “Therefore look, I am about to let them know, this time I am going to let them know my power and my might, and they will know that my name is Yahweh.”

It is my understanding that pastors are bound by contract in many cases not to even discuss certain topics. They will ignore, steer away or get angry when off limit topics are brought forward. Many church denominations are set up much like secret societies where the upper tier keeps the esoteric knowledge and the lower tier, the laity, only get the exoteric knowledge. If a church official were to tell someone in the laity what he may really think about any given topic, their job as pastor, presbyter or bishop may be at stake.

A topic that often makes people open their eyes to error in the church are the church festivals that coincide with the same festivals celebrated in witchcraft, using all the same symbols of trees, lights, logs, eggs, rabbits, pumpkins, pine cones, berries and greenery. A person would have to have their head buried in the sand not to realize they are taking part in thousand-year old festivals that Yahweh said not to do. It is willful ignorance, or cognitive dissonance in many cases.

Deu 12:29 “When Yahweh your God has cut off the nations whom you are about to go to, to dispossess them before you, and you have dispossessed them, and you live in their land,
Deu 12:30 take care so that you are not ensnared into imitating them after their being destroyed from before you, and so that you not enquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods, and thus I myself want to do also.’
Deu 12:31 You must not do so toward Yahweh your God, because of every detestable thing they have done for their gods Yahweh hates, for even their sons and their daughters they would burn in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 All of the things that I am commanding you, you must diligently observe; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.”

Where God never changes, I thought this was a slam dunk scripture passage in Deuteronomy explaining not to use the same symbols or days as done in ancient mythology. These were all the same gods whom Christians are celebrating today; Baal, Nimrod, Molech, Astarte, who became, Mithras, Saturn, Ishtar, and Woden, the Queen of heaven, and Santa. All these gods are packaged in modern secular holidays and the church celebrates them all in the name of Jesus. This is exactly what Yeshua (Jesus) said would happen. John 5:43, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him”. By celebrating all these other gods in the name of Jesus, the name Jesus has become a catch all for the pagan deities. It is fitting that Jesus is not even a real name, but a Germanic, Greek representation of Yeshua or Yahushua. This is not even a topic of discussion that is allowed in most churches.

The typical response from church people is that we no longer have to do what the Old Testament says, that was for someone else, “That’s not why I celebrate them”, or “God knows my heart”. However, there are many scriptures in the New Testament that speak against these festivals. They are scriptures rarely discussed for obvious reasons.

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful more than anything else, and it is disastrous. Who can understand it?
Jer 17:10 I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart, and give to each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his deeds.

The very first instruction to the new believers coming into the faith from all the pagan religions is to get rid of their pagan symbols and practices of foreign gods. This is what “abstain from things polluted by idols” or “meat polluted by idols” means. The church should not be blending the holy, set apart things of Yah with deities from other nations. This is serious business, serious enough to be a deal breaker once a person realizes the gravity of the situation. There is also the implication that these new believers would be learning about what Moses taught every Sabbath. Once they understood the milk, they could handle the meatier things of Yahweh. Most never did the very first commandments the Jerusalem council gave them to do.

Act 15:19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,
Act 15:20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

Yahweh gave us His special days to celebrate. The Sabbath is a weekly festival the church could be celebrating by sharing songs, scripture prayer and food with each other.

There are many people being left behind by institutional Christianity, which follows man, not Yeshua, that there are organic Sabbath meetings taking place in every corner of the world by people interested in following Yeshua, and “walking as He walked”. This is how the early church operated when the institutional religion of the day rejected Yeshua.

Act 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Act 2:43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
Act 2:44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
Act 2:45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
Act 2:46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
Act 2:47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Early on they were meeting together in homes and at the temple, devoting themselves to the teachings of the apostles. Just as home meetings that are not sanctioned by the church are “illegal” in most churches today, these early believers would soon feel the wrath of the synagogues.

Act 8:3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Stephen pointed out how the church wrongly paid homage to all the foreign deities, and they were so enraged they stoned him.

Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
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:
Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Act 7:40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Act 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Act 7:42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
Act 7:43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

There are many people who have left institutionalized religion who view the current day, 40,000 denominations, as prophecy in the book of Revelation. I am not saying I agree or disagree with this interpretation, just pointing out that it is prevalent among people leaving organized religion.

Rev 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,
Rev 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
Rev 17:3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.
Rev 17:5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.

The theory is that the whore, who is the mother of harlots, is the universal church that came out of fourth century Rome, who is the mother of all the 40-50,000 denominations that now exist. Yahweh often compared His people to a whore and eventually divorced the House of Israel for their whoredom with other gods. It is clear that there is a plethora of foreign gods in the church system today. If you do not believe that, just try suggesting removing a Christmas tree from an altar at Christmas time at your local church. People have an unnatural bond with these symbols that can be understood better considering Paul associates them with demons. The Christmas tree is an ancient symbol that has been modernized to fit the “Christmas tree Jesus” model of religion. It is a form of the Asherah pole, or groves in the Old Testament, and it is a phallic symbol, just like the obelisk. If true research is done, this is undeniable. A person can spend five minutes on the internet to find something that supports what they already believe, but that is not research. Do not be deceived. This is extremely important.

1Co 10:14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
1Co 10:15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.
1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
1Co 10:17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
1Co 10:18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
1Co 10:19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
1Co 10:20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
1Co 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
1Co 10:22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

The root of the “left behind” Christians does not come from Christmas trees or Sabbath keeping. These are simply examples of the result of discovering that the Ten Commandments are still relevant for believers today. Once a person realizes what the Ten Commandments, or words, are really about, the Old Testament instruction on how to follow them, and then the instruction Yeshua gave to follow them, a person can no longer go along with blatant attacks on their integrity.

For example, the first words are as follows:

Deu 5:4 Face to face Yahweh spoke with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire.
Deu 5:5 I was standing between Yahweh and you at that time to report to you the word of Yahweh, for you were afraid because of the presence of the fire, and so you did not go up the mountain. He said,
Deu 5:6 ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
Deu 5:7 There shall not be for you other gods besides me.
Deu 5:8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a divine image of any type of form that is in the heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
Deu 5:9 ‘You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, punishing the guilt of fathers upon their children and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those hating me,
Deu 5:10 but showing loyal love to thousands of those who love me and of those who keep my commandments.

In chapter six of Deuteronomy, more detail is given.

Deu 6:13 “You shall fear Yahweh your God, and you shall serve him, and by his name you shall swear.
Deu 6:14 You shall not go after other gods from the gods of the peoples who are all around you,
Deu 6:15 for Yahweh your God is a jealous god in your midst, so that the anger of Yahweh your God would be kindled, and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.
Deu 6:16 You shall not put Yahweh your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.
Deu 6:17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and his legal provisions and his rules that he has commanded you.

Yeshua, commonly referred to as Jesus, quotes Deuteronomy six when asked about the greatest commandment.

Mat 22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
Mat 22:37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.

We do not get to define how to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. Yahweh, the name of the “Lord God”, tells us what he loves and hates in scripture, The writers of the New Testament assume you have read and understood the milk of the Old Testament. These Old Testament scriptures are what they were teaching. I believe the writers of the gospels didn’t write a word for word manuscript of the exact dialogue of people. It is unlikely Matthew was sitting there taking short hand notes of all the conversations. It is the teachings that they learned and later recorded. Deuteronomy six is something that the audience of Yeshua was very familiar with because they recited it multiple times a day.

Deu 6:4 “Hear, Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is unique.
Deu 6:5 And you shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might.
Deu 6:6 And these words that I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.
Deu 6:7 And you shall recite them to your children, and you shall talk about them at the time of your living in your house and at the time of your going on the road and at the time of your lying down and at the time of your rising up.
Deu 6:8 And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as an emblem between your eyes.
Deu 6:9 And you shall write them on the doorframe of your house and on your gates.
Deu 6:10 “And then it will happen that when Yahweh your God will bring you to the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to you large and fine cities that you did not build,
Deu 6:11 and houses full of all sorts of good things that you did not fill, and hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant, and you have eaten your fill,
Deu 6:12 then take care for yourself, so that you do not forget Yahweh, who brought you out from the land of Egypt from the house of slavery.

Just as loving God with all your heart relates to purging symbols of the ancient deities from your life, keeping the Sabbath is not just a new fad for rebellious church goers to start to embrace. These are Yahweh’s commands for His people to follow. When we come to the Father through faith in Yeshua, we are to align with Him, not make Him align with our beliefs.

Deu 5:12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day to make it holy, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you.

Yeshua, speaking of the Sabbath:

Mat 12:7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

“Lord” of the sabbath comes from Strong’s G2962. It is also the word the Greek translation of the Old Testament uses to replace the name Yahweh.

G2962
κύριος
kurios
Thayer Definition:
1) he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord
1a) the possessor and disposer of a thing
1a1) the owner; one who has control of the person, the master
1a2) in the state: the sovereign, prince, chief, the Roman emperor
1b) is a title of honour expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master
1c) this title is given to: God, the Messiah

Jesus is basically saying that He invented the Sabbath, and should know what He can or cannot do. In no way did this ever nullify the Sabbath.

People will argue that Paul later said not to regard one day over the other due to the following passage in Romans, and that this nullifies the fourth commandment. If this is truly what Paul meant, why is Sunday, the venerable day of the sun, regarded so highly by Christianity? After all, everyday is regarded the same now according to this understanding of Paul’s letter to the Romans. That should mean that pastors who want to change their church gatherings to the Sabbath day should be embraced, not forced to give up their credentials.

Rom 14:2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
Rom 14:3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
Rom 14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
Rom 14:6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

Paul was not talking about Sabbath’s or unclean animals being used for food. The audience would already understand Pauls’s position on those things. There were apparently arguments about which days one should fast and whether a person should eat meat.

The covenant was made with Heaven and Earth as the witnesses.

Deu 30:19 I invoke as a witness against you today the heaven and the earth: life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring,
Deu 30:20 by loving Yahweh your God by listening to his voice and by clinging to him, for he is your life and the length of your days in order for you to live on the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them.”

Yeshua enforces the heaven and Earth witnesses by proclaiming that not one jot or tittle will change in the law until heaven and Earth pass away.

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.

When does heaven and Earth pass away and when will all be accomplished? It is clearly marked in scripture at the end of the Millennium, when death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

This is the new Covenant in full. Everyone present will know Yah because He is there among His people.

Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

These are examples of things that make it hard to carry on in institutionalized religion once a person learns about what the Word of the living God actually says. It is okay to get “left behind” from this “Christmas tree Jesus” system, and soon there will be many more places to gather on the Sabbath and exhort one another with scripture and song in every corner of the Earth.