How is the theology of Dispensationalism related to the country of Israel? Dispensational theology teaches that God has a separate path for an ethnic or national group of people, and they will have a different path or purpose than regular believers in the Messiah. This belief system takes on many forms, but it is where many people derive the idea that no one should ever question the 2025 country called Israel in Western Asia, and this country, Israel, should be supported one hundred percent of the time in order “not to be cursed” and to be “blessed.”

From the gospelcoalition.org:

Dispensationalism asserts that ethnic/national Israel remains significant in God’s purposes and will be so in the future. In addition to saving a remnant of believing Israel in this age, God will save and restore ethnic/national Israel as a whole in the future. 

The ideas of dispensationalism are similar to the first-century teachings of Marcion. He believed there were two gods, one for the “Jews” and a new one for “Christians.” The idea that the “Jews” are going to take a different path than the followers of the Messiah gives us two paths of salvation and two gods. Thinking that God would handcuff followers of the Messiah and actually curse them for pointing out atrocities that any country commits, because God supposedly has a different plan for them, is ludicrous.

Anyone that follows this blog knows that I think dispensationalism theology is a great deception. There are other systems of theology, such as replacement theology, covenant theology, and commonwealth of Israel theology. Replacement theology teaches that the “Church” replaced ethnic Israel and takes on the things promised to them. They believe the “Church” became a “spiritual Israel.” Covenant theology teaches that there are different covenants that apply to people and is part of Reformed theology and Calvinism. Commonwealth theology (COI) teaches that the wall of hostility has been broken down between those of the nations and the commonwealth of Israel. This concept is named from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In this translation, “citizen of Israel” is used instead of “commonwealth of Israel.” Paul was not talking about citizenship of the 2025 country of Israel. He would not be allowed to be a modern Israeli citizen based on the laws of return.

Ephesians 2:11–16 (LEB): ¹¹ Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, the so-called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, ¹² that you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, not having hope, and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ.¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, ¹⁵ invalidating the law of commandments in ordinances, in order that he might create the two in himself into one new man, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmity in himself.

Paul puts forth the message that there is “one new man” in the Messiah. People from the nations are able to be brought back to the family of God. Branches of the family that were broken off are able to be grafted back into the cultivated olive tree of Israel. However, to understand what we are talking about when we say “family of God” or “Israel,” we will have to look at the whole story of Israel (not the country in 2025), Abraham’s calling, their meeting God at Mount Horeb, the dividing of the kingdom, the ten tribes being dispersed for unbelief and divorced from God, etc. This is too much to go through here, but the following is a link to one of my earlier posts that tries to explain our place in the new covenant and our identity: Lost Identity and the New Covenant.

As far as the 2025 country of Israel is concerned, it looks to me like that nation is comprised of those identifying as Jews who have moved to the historical holy land of the Bible. In order to return and become a citizen there, it is interesting to note that it is not open to Jews who have converted to a religion other than Judaism. Yet they will grant citizenship to secular Jews and atheist Jews. I must conclude that these are not followers of Yeshua the Messiah and could be what Paul calls “natural branches that have been broken off.”

Romans 11:17–23 (LEB): ¹⁷ Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although you were a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a sharer of the root of the olive tree’s richness, ¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you boast against them, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ Then you will say, “Branches were broken off in order that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Well said! They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand firm because of faith. Do not think arrogant thoughts, but be afraid. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. ²² See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity upon those who have fallen, but upon you the kindness of God—if you continue in his kindness, for otherwise you also will be cut off. ²³ And those also, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God is able to graft them in again.

If we go with the dispensational theology view that we have to bless the 2025 country of Israel in order that we are not cursed, then that means the people who are Israeli citizens are a more special type of “Jew” than Jews living anywhere else. The government of Israel claims to be the country for all the Jews in the world (except Jews who have converted to Christianity). This means that the country of Israel claims to represent the views of a Jew who is an American citizen and has no intentions of ever living in the country of Israel. Does that mean Jews that were born and raised as citizens of other countries believe that Israel represents their beliefs? Absolutely not, and some directly oppose Israel’s actions and resent the fact that Israel is projecting these actions on Jews that have nothing to do with the actions of Israel. Are Israeli citizens following the Messiah and grafted back into the cultivated olive tree? Of course not! The thought of this does not enter their minds. This is why the country of Israel has no bearing on Christianity, other than it being that region of the world that contains the holy land of the Bible.

Galatians 3:26–29 (LEB): ²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷ for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 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. ²⁹ And if you are Christ’s, then you are descendants of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.

The importance of the Jewish people is still immense. They preserved the Torah and kept the “oracles of God” as Paul stated. They did this for 3300 years- some years with a kingdom, some years under captivity-all before there was a country called Israel.

The country of Israel being created in 1948 is important to dispensational theology’s eschatology. The politicians in the British parliament who pushed the notion of creating Israel thought the idea was beneficial to their belief system and that they were fulfilling prophecy. Their wishes did not prevail at first. A brief history from The Office of the Historian.

Although the United States supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favored the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had assured the Arabs in 1945 that the United States would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in that region. The British, who held a colonial mandate for Palestine until May 1948, opposed both the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine as well as unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region. Great Britain wanted to preserve good relations with the Arabs to protect its vital political and economic interests in Palestine.

Soon after President Truman took office, he appointed several experts to study the Palestinian issue. In the summer of 1946, Truman established a special cabinet committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Henry F. Grady, an Assistant Secretary of State, who entered into negotiations with a parallel British committee to discuss the future of Palestine. In May 1946, Truman announced his approval of a recommendation to admit 100,000 displaced persons into Palestine and in October publicly declared his support for the creation of a Jewish state. Throughout 1947, the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine examined the Palestinian question and recommended the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. On November 29, 1947 the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948 when the British mandate was scheduled to end. Under the resolution, the area of religious significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain a corpus separatum under international control administered by the United Nations.

Britain and the United States have been shaping policy in the holy land since World War I, and it is purely political. This is why there has been nothing but bloodshed, turmoil and debauchery since 1948. It has nothing to do with the God of Abraham or Messiah Yeshua. There are many resources to research that explain how we have arrived at the geopolitical state we find ourselves in Western Asia today, This has nothing to do with the faith.

More importantly, Yeshua is going to return, and it looks like he will return to the holy land according to scripture. What will we find there at that time? Will the wars, oppression and lawlessness persist?

Matthew 24:4–14 (LEB) ⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you! ⁵ For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will deceive many. ⁶ And you are going to hear about wars and rumors of wars. See to it that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹ “Then they will hand you over to persecution and will kill you, and you will be hated by all the nations because of my name. ¹⁰ And then many will be led into sin and will betray one another and will hate one another, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many, ¹² and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end—this person will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

The prime minister of Israel believes that he is fulfilling prophecy and fighting the Gog and Magog war according to quotes in Israeli newspapers. My opinion is that Ezekiel 38 is talking about the Millennial Kingdom, and it is the same war we find in Revelation when the adversary is released after the thousand-year reign of the Messiah.

Revelation 20:7–9 (LEB): ⁷ And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and he will go out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to assemble them for battle, whose number is like the sand of the sea. ⁹ And they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the fortified camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

Compare this to Ezekiel 38 where Gog and Magog attack a peaceful people living on a land that was formerly uninhabitable, or ruined.

Ezekiel 38:10–12 (LEB): ¹⁰ “ ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “And then on that day, things will come up on your mind, and you will devise evil plans. ¹¹ And you will say, ‘I will go up against a land of open country; I will come to the people being at rest in safety, all of them dwelling without a wall and crossbars and without doors, ¹² to loot loot, and to plunder plunder, to assail inhabited ruins and a people gathered together from various peoples and who are acquiring livestock and goods and dwelling at the center of the world.

In the modern country of Israel, the building code requires safe rooms (mamad) in residences to protect against direct hits from missiles, shrapnel, and airborne threats. This sounds like “walls, crossbars and doors” to me. The current country of Israel cannot be part of the Gog and Magog prophecy. If this is the same landmass spoken about in Ezekiel, then it will unfortunately become “ruined” before the peaceful people in Ezekiel 38 will be living there; ” “to assail inhabited ruins and a people gathered together“.

In conclusion, do not be distracted by politics and the different narratives used to manipulate the masses. Keep God’s commandment’s, love God, love your neighbor, test the prophets and spirits, and keep the faith of Yeshua!

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Jesus had some of his harshest criticism for the Pharisees. Does this mean that he hated them? Often, Christians are labeled “Pharisees” for following the commandments of God in the Torah; however, the Pharisees placed their ancient traditions above the righteous commandments in His Torah, much like Judaism does today.

From the Jewish Virtual Library:

Of the various factions that emerged under Hasmonean rule, three are of particular interest: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes.

The most important of the three were the Pharisees because they are the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. Their main distinguishing characteristic was a belief in an Oral Law that God gave to Moses at Sinai along with the Torah. The Torah, or Written Law, was akin to the U.S. Constitution in the sense that it set down a series of laws that were open to interpretation. The Pharisees believed that God also gave Moses the knowledge of what these laws meant and how they should be applied. This oral tradition was codified and written down roughly three centuries later in what is known as the Talmud.

Jesus’s English name is Joshua, and in Hebrew, it is Yeshua. Yeshua delivered some sharp criticisms of the Pharisees’ political and religious views. Yet the Pharisees had no guns, bombs, or political support from other nations because they were subservient to the Roman Empire. Their religious views consisted of strict adherence to rules that were added to the Torah, and they placed heavy burdens on people in the name of the Creator.

Matthew 23:1–4 (LEB): 23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, ² saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses. ³ Therefore do and observe everything that they tell you, but do not do as they do, for they tell others to do something and do not do it themselves. ⁴ And they tie up heavy burdens and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing with their finger to move them.

When the Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses, they were reading the Torah. Yeshua made a distinction that we should do and observe what they said in this capacity. They were reading the instructions of the Father from His Torah. Many hoped that Yeshua would be the one to take the kingdom back by force from the Roman Empire. Even His disciples were thinking in this capacity. It was the idea, similar to today, that God was going to intervene and “take back the land,” “drive out the enemies,” etc. Yeshua said that His kingdom was not of this world.

John 18:36 (LEB): ³⁶ Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.”

The Elohim of Israel is not a respecter of persons. If one acts in a manner contrary to His commands, there will be consequences. Both Moses and David experienced this because Yahweh is just. If He picked favorites, then He would not be the righteous Creator that He is. Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, and David’s son with Bathsheba died shortly after being born. Paul reinforces this idea that there is no partiality with the Father.

Romans 2:5–11 (LEB): ⁵ But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who will reward each one according to his works: ⁷ to those who, by perseverance in good work, seek glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, ⁸ but to those who act from selfish ambition and who disobey the truth, but who obey unrighteousness, wrath and anger. ⁹ There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, of the Jew first and of the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and to the Greek. ¹¹ For there is no partiality with God.

Everyone who does evil things like stealing, murdering, oppressing the foreigner-they all will be subject to affliction and distress. Who wants to be that person when we are rewarded for works? What kind of reward does one get for doing evil in the eyes of Elohim? Yeshua prophesied to the Pharisees that they would continue to persecute, murder and crucify prophets, wisemen and scribes. It sounds like they are going to be in some major trouble with the Creator.

Matthew 23:29–35 (LEB): ²⁹ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, ³⁰ and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the blood of the prophets!’ ³¹ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets! ³² And you—fill up the measure of your fathers! ³³ Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How will you escape from the condemnation to hell? ³⁴ For this reason, behold, I am sending to you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and will pursue from town to town, ³⁵ so that upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel up to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

What are we to make of all the good things that Elohim promised to Israel if He is going to have these scribes and Pharisees bear the guilt of the righteous blood all the way back to Abel? Hint: Matthew 5:5 (LEB) Blessed are the meek, because they will inherit the earth.

Hosea 14:4–9 (LEB):⁴ I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely because my anger has turned back from them. ⁵ I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily plant, and he will strike his roots like the trees of Lebanon. ⁶ His new plant shoots will spread out; his splendor will be like the olive tree, and his scent like the trees of Lebanon. ⁷ They will again dwell in my shadow; they will grow grain and they will blossom like the plant vine; his fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. ⁸ O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? I myself have answered and looked after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress; your fruit comes from me. ⁹ Who is wise that he can understand these things? Who is discerning that he knows them? The ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; but transgressors stumble in them.

Ephraim was cut off and could not return due to his rejection of the Father’s instructions. He represents the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Through Messiah Yeshua, there is a way for everyone to be brought back to the Father as one new man. In this way, the promises are kept to His people; Ephraim can return, having mingled with the whole world, making the world part of Ephraim. This is the good news. It is the story of the prodigal son, and it happened 2000 years ago. The promises given to Israel were extended to those formerly cut off. An added bonus is resurrection from the dead and eternal life. We are going to experience these promises with the Messiah for eternity. There are no other people of Elohim than those brought back through the Messiah and grafted into the cultivated olive tree.

Ephesians 2:11–22 (LEB): ¹¹ Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, the so-called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, ¹² that you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, not having hope, and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, ¹⁵ invalidating the law of commandments in ordinances, in order that he might create the two in himself into one new man, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmity in himself. ¹⁷ And coming, he proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to the ones who were near, ¹⁸ because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ Consequently, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are built up together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Those far away (the nations) and those near (the Jews) both have peace and access in one Spirit to the Father through the Messiah. If we see people killing, murdering, stealing and lying then we can confidently say they have not been grafted back, or never have been part of the olive tree. They are not meek nor hungering for righteousness. They must repent of their evil deeds and be grafted into the kingdom through the Messiah.

Romans 11:17–24 (LEB): ¹⁷ Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although you were a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a sharer of the root of the olive tree’s richness, ¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you boast against them, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ Then you will say, “Branches were broken off in order that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Well said! They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand firm because of faith. Do not think arrogant thoughts, but be afraid. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. ²² See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity upon those who have fallen, but upon you the kindness of God—if you continue in his kindness, for otherwise you also will be cut off. ²³ And those also, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴ For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

It is easier for a natural branch to be grafted back into the olive tree. There are millions of Jews who sincerely want the “resurrected King David” to return and have the world sit under the authority of the Father through the Messiah. However, currently, they reject Yeshua as this Messiah.

Zechariah 12:10 (LEB): ¹⁰ “ ‘I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn over him, as one wails over an only child, and they will grieve bitterly over him as one grieves bitterly over a firstborn.

Likewise, there are millions in the “Church” who are sincerely waiting for a sabbath-breaking, pork-eating, born on the sun god’s birthday “Jesus” figure to whisk them away in a rapture, yet they reject the very instructions that the real “Jesus,” Yeshua, taught. They are not that much different from the Jews who reject Yeshua as the Messiah. The Christians present a Messiah that the Jews cannot accept because the Messiah would not be a Torah breaker. Both cannot see Messiah Yeshua in Spirit and Truth. The Jews, however, are the ones who were entrusted with all the things pertaining to the Creator to deliver to the world.

Romans 3:1–4 (LEB): 3 Therefore, what is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the use of circumcision? ² Much in every way. For first, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. ³ What is the result if some refused to believe? Their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? ⁴ May it never be! But let God be true but every human being a liar, just as it is written,

“In order that you may be justified in your words, and may prevail when you are judged.”

What will become of all the sincere people, such as the Jews and Christians, who earnestly seek the Father but deny Messiah Yeshua or, in the case of Christians, deny his teachings of obedience? It is not something we can know, but there are these words of Yeshua that need to be considered:

Matthew 7:21–23 (LEB): ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many miracles in your name?’ ²³ And then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’

There are also both secular Jews and Christians that are not sincere about the things of the Father at all. They are out there doing all manner of evil. Then there are Muslim’s murdering Jews and Christian’s, Christians and Jews murdering and oppressing Muslims and Arabs etc. The point is that a life following the Messiah is not about any of that. All we need to do is seek the Father by doing His instructions and we have the hope of the resurrection and eternal life through Messiah Yeshua.

Revelation 14:12–13 (LEB): ¹² Here is the patient endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith in Jesus. ¹³ And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ”“Yes,” says the Spirit, “in order that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow after them.”

A confusing theological system arose in the 19th century called dispensationalism. It claims that there are two categories of “God’s people” that are now in the “age of grace.” This “age of grace” started somewhere in the book of Acts, although there is a big disagreement about where among the dispensationalists. This system claims that Christians will be removed from the earth in a secret rapture of the “church” (how to define “church,” we do not know) and the “Jews” will be left for the time of “Jacob’s trouble” and will face off with the Antichrist, resuming the prophetic timeline with “Israel.” This is essentially a twisted form of replacement theology because the “church” is separated and given better treatment than “the Jews.” It presents a new God with new traditions for one group and an old God with old “laws” for the other group. We have already shown that we are one people through the Messiah.

Deuteronomy 32:16–18 (LEB): ¹⁶ They made him jealous with strange gods; with detestable things they provoked him. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom they had not known, new gods who came from recent times; their ancestors had not known them. ¹⁸ The rock who bore you, you neglected, and you forgot God, the one giving you birth.

Dispensational theology also has a hard time with definitions. They cannot accurately define terms like Israel, Church, Christian, or Jew. For example, is a Jew a religion or an ethnicity? If it is an ethnicity, then why are there Jews of all ethnicities and races all over the world? Is Israel just people from the tribes of Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, or all twelve tribes that were at Mount Horeb? Or is it a nation-state in Western Asia created by United Nations Resolution 181 in 1947? If it is all twelve tribes, how did the people who were exiled from the Northern Kingdom get back? They were cut off from God. If they (according to dispensationalists) are back because of belief in the Messiah, then why are they not part of the secret rapture?

Concerning Christianity, which of the 50,000 denominations of Christianity will be part of the “rapture”? Are Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses part of Christianity? If we read Christian cult books, then it is a hard “no.” In Christianity, one must believe in the Trinity. There are three persons wrapped up in one God, or something to that effect. That is, unless you are part of the “Jesus Only” sect where Jesus is the whole Godhead. Dispensational theology also supports the philosophy of Zionism, which is all about land worship and an earthly kingdom through force, void of anything the Elohim of Israel has instructed.

Dispensationalists will reject Revelation 12 as being relevant to them because in their system of religion they have been raptured and this statement would be for the Jews “left behind” to follow the “Jewish commandments” and have faith in Jesus.

It is all very confusing and deceptive because the enemy always wants to find a way to get people not to do what the Father wants them to do. Religion is a great way to accomplish this. Everyone is fighting each other and thinking they are right. How do we know what is right? How do we know whom to believe?

Isaiah 8:19–22 (ESV): ¹⁹ And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. ²¹ They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. ²² And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

There are some truths we must accept to have understanding. We must put everything to the test of the Torah and prophets and view it through Messiah Yeshua’s teachings. For example, to determine if something is right or wrong, did the Father command us to do it or not do it? Did Yeshua talk about or exemplify it, and what did the writers of the New Testament show us? The Sabbath is a good example. Yeshua and his followers kept the Sabbath; Yeshua said he was the Lord of the Sabbath; Paul kept the Sabbath; Isaiah talks about salvation for foreigners who keep the Sabbath, and future events prophesied in scripture involve keeping the Sabbath. Therefore, I must conclude anyone teaching that the Sabbath is not for us is teaching a doctrine from a “new god of recent times.”

Likewise, if I see a person, group of people or a nation, killing, oppressing the poor, stealing or lying, I must assume they also represent a “new god of recent times”. Most importantly we must be sure to be “the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.

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Having been raised in evangelical denominations in the United States, I became accustomed to hearing a sermon about giving to the church about twice a year. It was often joked about to lighten the atmosphere, but like any organization, there has to be an income source for funding salaries, building costs, and the like. These are just some thoughts I have had on this subject over the years.

The cornerstone scripture used in every money-raising sermon comes from Malachi. I am sure every person who has attended an evangelical church for any length of time has been introduced to these verses in the Old Testament:

Malachi 3:8–10 (LEB): ⁸ Will a human dare to rob God? Yet you are robbing me! And you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In the tithes and the contributions! ⁹ You are being cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you! ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse, so that there will be food in my house, and test me please in this,” says Yahweh of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour forth for you an overflowing blessing.

These verses work well to compel congregants in the twenty-first century to give more money to the church, and that they have been “robbing God” by not maximizing their giving. The rest of the book of Malachi is completely ignored because it would not be applicable to a church that does not believe that the instructions of God are still relevant today. I encourage everyone to read the entire book of Malachi, but here is a summary of these “robbing God” verses.

The God of Israel was angry with the Israelites for bringing maimed and sick animals for their offerings. They were saying that they were choosing the best animals for God, but in the end, sneaking in the lame and diseased ones to the temple. The offerings were consumed by the priests for their food, so this was not only a disservice to God, but it could also have put the health of the priests at risk.

Malachi 1:13–2:2 (LEB): ¹³ And you say, ‘Look! This is a weariness,’ and you sniff with disdain at it,” says Yahweh of hosts. “And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the one that is sick—this you bring as the offering! Should I accept it from your hand?” says Yahweh. ¹⁴ “Cursed is the one who cheats, who has in his flock a male and vows it, but instead sacrifices a blemished one to the Lord! For I am a great king,” says Yahweh of hosts, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”

The validity of the Levite priesthood is described along with some Messianic prophecies about God’s messenger coming before Him. The whole theme of the book of Malachi discusses how both the priests and Israelites have gone astray and that Yahweh is going to come and destroy all the evildoers. This is hardly a book about the modern-day church and tithing that enables them to make the parking lot larger or the building fund bigger.

Malachi 4:1–4 (LEB): “For look! The day is about to come, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says Yahweh of hosts. “It will not leave behind for them root or branch. ² But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like fattened calves. ³ You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am going to act,” says Yahweh of hosts.⁴ “Remember the instruction of my servant Moses, which I commanded him at Horeb to all Israel, the rules and regulations.

These verses are never discussed alongside the earlier verses talking about “robbing God.” We rob both God and ourselves when we ignore His instructions and treat them with disdain. The one reminder given here is to “remember the instruction of my servant Moses.” This is directed to a future generation, such as ours. We are still to remember the instructions of Moses in light of “the day about to come,” when the evildoers will become stubble.

The irony is that modern-day churches, which use these verses from Malachi, are using them incorrectly. It is impossible to bring a tithe to a Levitical priestly system that has no temple. However, we can remember the instructions of Moses, which emphasized resting on the Sabbath and eating only the animals intended for food. These are very unpopular ideas in the modern church, yet they are drawing their tithing logic from the same source.

We get a glimpse of giving in the early church from a church leader named Tertullian in one of his letters to the Roman emperor, explaining the Christian attributes of that period.

The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase, but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are, as it were, piety’s deposit fund. For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God’s Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us.

Tertullian describes the money collected, “to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; “.

I commend churches that still use their congregants’ money this way. I suspect they are few and far between. I believe most of the money given goes to heating buildings that are empty ninety-five percent of the time and plowing parking lots to be used by the staff throughout the week and the congregation only on Sunday mornings. This is hardly a good use of money that is supposed to help the widows, orphans, and those who have suffered shipwreck. I have not yet discussed the thousands of dollars that have gone to private jets, theme parks, and large mansions for television evangelists. I have all their books from my parents’ donations, and they were mostly wrong about all the predictions of the future, and wrong about the lawless gospel they preach. It seems the whole model of the church has gone astray many years ago. We ignore the instructions given to Moses by the God we supposedly worship and at the same time use these instructions to manipulate people to give a considerable amount of money to unbiblical things. We should be able to ask for a refund to redirect the money to the people God told us to help.

There are examples in the New Testament of giving and following the instructions given to Moses by God.

Mark 12:38–40 (LEB): ³⁸ And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like walking around in long robes and greetings in the marketplaces ³⁹ and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets, ⁴⁰ who devour the houses of widows and pray lengthy prayers for the sake of appearance. These will receive more severe condemnation!”

In the book of Revelation, we are given a similar warning. There were people in the churches putting a stumbling block in front of Christians, as Balaam did to the Israelites, causing them to worship false gods with the festivals of Balak. We still see the syncretism today. He also warned of the Nicolaitans, who were likely similar to the Pharisees lording over the people. I suspect we do not know much about the Nicolaitans because it would point a finger at the people controlling Christianity for hundreds of years.

Revelation 2:14–16 (LEB): ¹⁴ But I have a few things against you: that you have there those who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. ¹⁵ So likewise you also have those who hold fast to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Therefore repent! But if you do not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword from my mouth.

In the two letters to the Corinthian Church, Paul is petitioning the congregation for a special collection he is gathering for those in Jerusalem who have fallen on hard times. The Macedonians gave generously toward this cause, as did the Corinthians. There was likely famine and persecution for the believers in Jerusalem.

2 Corinthians 9:6–15 (LEB): ⁶ Now the point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷ Each one should give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or from compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to cause all grace to abound to you, so that in everything at all times, because you have enough of everything, you may overflow in every good work. ⁹ Just as it is written,

“He scattered widely, he gave to the poor;

his righteousness remains forever.”

¹⁰ Now the one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed, and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow, ¹¹ being made rich in every way for all generosity, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God, ¹² because the service of this ministry is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but also is overflowing through many expressions of thanksgiving to God. ¹³ Through the proven character of this service they will glorify God because of the submission of your confession to the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your participation toward them and toward everyone, ¹⁴ and they are longing for you in their prayers for you, because of the surpassing grace of God to you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

An indulgence became money donated to the church to help reduce the temporal punishment for sin. In Protestantism, this has turned into a lawless gospel where one comes with a ten-percent offering and is told they do not have to keep any of God’s instructions (except for the misused verses discussed earlier in Malachi). All their sins, past, present, and future are “nailed to the cross.”

Romans 6:15 (LEB): ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

John tells us how to define sin. Sin is now a religiously charged word that is better defined as not following the instructions of God. These are the instructions that He promised would bring life to those who did them and curses to those who do not. Is that not apparent today?

1 John 3:4 (LEB): ⁴ Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology tells us the religious meaning of the Greek word translated “lawlessness”:

The legal, ethical and religious meanings of nomos are inseparable in antiquity, for all goods were believed to come from the gods, who upheld order in the universe and in relations between men. Hence, the universal conviction, found throughout history, that law is linked to the divine—an idea which has persisted subconsciously even in periods when the purely human aspects of law have been emphasized (see below). The close interrelationship between the worship of the gods, the customs of the time and one’s duty to the state was expressed in the charge levelled at Socrates, namely that he failed to reverence the gods officially worshipped (nomizein) by the city, or at least that he did not worship them as everyone else did.

There is no doubt that John was referring to “the law of the divine” when he uses the word lawlessness for the definition of sin. This was not the law of the gods of the Greek polytheistic religion, but the one true God, who created the universe and gave His divine law to Moses and the ancient Israelites. John is telling us that ignoring the instructions of God is sin.

I believe that the modern church, as a whole, is mostly beyond saving at this point. We need to go back to meeting house to house to develop a community of believers that sheds all the expenses of buildings, staff, gimmicks, and frivolous spending. Also, we need to look at the Word of God in its entirety and act upon it.

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There are so many people today that enjoy pointing out other people’s life choices without ever self reflecting on their own. The old saying is when one points a finger, three fingers are pointing back. When it comes to the instructions God gave us, through ancient Israel and Moses, it is serious business.

The instructions of God have been framed by the modern church as outdated, irrelevant “law” that no one is able to keep, and the reason Jesus had to come and save us from his genocidal father god. This is completely false and a first century heresy called Marcionism. It is framed a little differently in modern theology, but essentially it is the same message.

Actually, Jesus came to offer the same benefits to the world as were offered to ancient Israel. Due to the dispersion of the Northern kingdom, the world became the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” that can now come back similarly to the prodigal son in the parable Jesus told about the younger and older brother. This was referring to Ephraim and Judah.

There are issues that have divided churches since the first century. The Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic church due to the King of England wanting to get a divorce. This is why the king is still the head of the Anglican Church and why there is an Episcopal Church in the United States. Just as the English wanted to separate from Rome over marriage, the American “rebels” wanted to separate due to the Revolutionary War. The Anglican church became the Episcopalian Church in the United States.

Slavery was a church divider in nineteenth century America, and today it is same-sex marriage that divides churches. There is always that one show stopper that people will not tolerate and cut ties with their fellow church members. What if I said this was all pointless?

Today, church leaders have made convenient boxes for Old Testament sins. There are “moral laws” and “ceremonial laws” now so we can pick and choose our sins depending on what category they are found in. No where in scripture do we find these distinctions. Other leaders, such as mega-church pastor Andy Stanley, say to “unhitch” from the Old Testament all together.

John 12:47–50 (LEB): ⁴⁷ And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I will not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸ The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has one who judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. ⁴⁹ For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So the things that I say, just as the Father said to me, thus I say.”

Jesus said, “His commandment is eternal life,” referring to the Father. Jesus only said what the Father said to him. We have a lot of what the Father said through His Word. He told us what would bring blessings and curses, what was an abomination, meaning what defiles a person, and God never says that later on in the future we will call some of these things moral law and others ceremonial law. He does talk about future gods that will try to make His commands void.

Deuteronomy 28:64 (LEB): ⁶⁴ And Yahweh shall scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth up to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods that you have not known nor your ancestors, gods of wood and stone.

The instructions we cannot follow today are the ones involving the Holy land, the temple, and the Levitical priestly system because those things do not currently exist. We could argue that the land is still Holy, but it certainly is not a safe space, and it seemingly is being governed by rogue actors not at all reflecting the love of the God they claim to represent.

The reason why I claim all this fighting over the definition of sin is irrelevant because most everyone involved is missing the whole point. The same group of people that will fight against same-sex marriage will serve bacon at their Easter sunrise service, or tell us that the Sabbath day is no longer important to God, or that it has changed to a different day. The same God that said ” a man should not lay with another man” also said the pig was not food. Both will abominate a person, meaning it will defile the person. I do not really know what that means, but personally, I am choosing to not be defiled in the eyes of my God. I won’t tell anyone else what to do other than point out the warnings.

These instructions from God are just that: instructions. God showed us through ancient Israel and Moses how to have a successful life on the earth He created. Do these things and don’t do these other things, etc., and you will have life. It is the blessings and curses of Leviticus chapter 26.

Leviticus 26:1–2 (LEB): 26 “ ‘You shall not make for yourselves idols and divine images, and you shall not raise up stone pillars for yourselves, and you shall not put a sculptured stone in your land in order to worship before it, because I am Yahweh your God. ² “ ‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and you shall revere my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.

Do what He says! Don’t make excuses over one thing and not the other. Or, don’t do what He says. That is an option too. I can respect someone who does not believe any of this or has a completely different religion. However, let’s not point out one thing we don’t like as sin, then make a framework of religion that condones the things we want to do that are sometimes worse than the things we are condemning.

A grossly overlooked book in Christian churches is the book of Isaiah. We like the part about “by his stripes we are healed” or “we shall mount up like eagles”, but what about Isaiah chapter sixty-six? This is a post Messianic world, and I do not know where Christians picture themselves in this world. It hasn’t happened yet, and dispensationalism theology is a lie.

Isaiah 66:15–17 (LEB): ¹⁵ For look! Yahweh will come in fire, and his chariots like the storm wind, to give back his anger in wrath, and his rebuke in flames of fire. ¹⁶ For Yahweh enters into judgment on all flesh with fire and his sword, and those slain by Yahweh shall be many. ¹⁷ Those who sanctify themselves and those who cleanse themselves to go into the gardens after the one in the middle, eating the flesh of swine and detestable things and rodents together shall come to an end!” declares Yahweh.

Those “eating the flesh of swine and detestable things and rodents shall come to an end”. This is talking about the second coming of Jesus. It sounds like a church picnic where people are eating barbequed hotdogs (more than likely, a mixture of swine and rodent meat). There is no “rapture” to allow an escape. The rapture is your payment or indulgence for the tithes you pay to hear ear tickling messages that say something similar to this:

Jeremiah 23:16 (LEB): ¹⁶ Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “You must not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you with visions of their mind, They do not speak from the mouth of Yahweh. ¹⁷ They are continually saying to those who disregard the word of Yahweh, ‘Peace it will be to you,’ and to each one who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’

Jeremiah is speaking to the modern church because this is exactly what they are doing. They pick and choose their sins and frame a theology that reinforces it. Please remember this the next time you are pointing fingers at the things God gets extremely mad about such as profaning the Sabbaths, idolatry with gods of other cultures and religions along with eating swine. The future example is His destruction of those “in the gardens with the one in the middle and eating the flesh of swine and rodents”.

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