And if in spite of these things you do not listen to me, then I will continue to discipline you seven times for your sins. And I will break the pride of your strength; and I will make your heaven like iron and your land like copper. And your strength shall be consumed in vain; and your land shall not give its produce, and the land’s trees shall not give their fruit.

 (Leviticus 26:18–20, LEB)

I asked AI to write a short dialogue using the language of “Christianese.” This is where Christians string together Christian clichés like I string together banjo licks to improvise a song. In this AI dialogue, it flows and makes sense. In reality, we often get a string of clichés that leave us scratching our heads. The funny thing is AI knew what I meant and was able to produce this.

Setting: The foyer of a trendy, modern church. Brother Brad (wearing a permanent smile and a vest) bumps into Sister Sarah (holding an iced latte and a Bible journal).

Brad: “Sarah! Brother! What a absolute blessing to run into you. I was just telling the guys in my accountability group that I’ve been feeling so gravely burdened to ** fellowship** with you. How are you doing life?”

Sarah: “Oh, Brad, honestly? The enemy has been working overtime this week. It’s just been a massive spiritual attack on my peace. But I’m just trying to lean into this season of waiting and trust in God’s perfect timing.”

Brad: “Amen, preach. I hear that. You just have to remember that when He closes a door, He opens a window. Have you sought the Lord about it?”

Sarah: “Oh, continuously. The Holy Spirit really put it on my heart to just stand still. I felt so convicted about trying to control things myself. I just need to let godly people pour into me right now.”

Brad: “Wow. That is so beautiful, so profound. You are just so anointed, Sarah. Truly blessed and highly favored

. I’m actually praying a hedge of protection over your mindset right now.”

Sarah: “Thank you, Brad. I can literally feel the peace passing all understanding. By the way, are you coming to the bonfire tonight? It’s going to be some really intentional fellowship.”

Brad: “Man, I want to, but the Lord hasn’t given me a peace about it yet. I’m still waiting for a clear release from my current obligations. I’ll have to fleece the Lord on that one tonight.”

Sarah: “Totally understand. We have to guard our hearts and our calendars. Well, I’ll let you go, but I’m just so glad we could walk alongside each other in this moment!”

Brad: “Likewise! Go victoriously, Sister. Love on your family for me!”

Why do Christians talk like this with each other? I never understood this. Someone in a church setting asks a question, and the response is “amen” instead of “sure” or “yes,” like it would be in any other setting. The clichés have changed over the 50-plus years I have been around it. For example, we do not hear as many people say “praise the Lord” to show celebratory excitement about something as we did in the 80s. I think I still have the button Jim Bakker’s PTL show gave away (for a small donation) in 1977.

The so-called Hebrew Roots or Messianic movement does this too, but they use transliterated Hebrew words mixed in as their lingo. Some call this “Hebrish”, combining Hebrew words in English conversations. I guess it is just human nature to do this sort of thing. I am not condemning it obviously because I do it too. Words like Elohim, Shalom, Yeshua and Shabbat are the best representation of the Hebrew God, peace, Jesus and the sabbath. I am just pointing it out, and that this sort of thing sounds foreign to anyone not familiar with the lingo. It’s a way to differentiate your respective sect I guess.

The real problem I have personally is that a common theme in Christianity is the heaviness, discontentment, and the endless string of problems—“trials and tribulations”—that so many Christians experience, and I know the solution to make life so much better for them. However, no one is interested. I am not promising gleeful bliss, but contentment and a path forward out of the precarious situations life has delivered. It is simply to get into a rhythm of life that is in line with the instructions God gave us to successfully live on Earth and please Him. He used ancient Israel to deliver them and Jesus to explain how to use them properly.

19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ appointed for you—Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You will listen to him in everything that he says to you.  (Acts 3:19–22, LEB)

Every church I ever attended, and there were many over 50 years and in two countries, had so much strife and dislike between congregants, leadership, and the combination of the two groups. Sometimes I was part of it, and sometimes I observed it, until one day I realized that we must be doing it wrong. I wasted 45 years of my life spiritually and thousands of dollars that could have helped feed hungry people or bought coats for children instead of “spreading the gospel.” For the most part, we were not “spreading the gospel” any more than the Clinton Foundation was building orphanages in Haiti.

165 Great peace is for those who love your law, and they do not have a cause for stumbling. 166 I hope for your salvation, O Yahweh, and do your commands.  (Psalm 119:165–166, LEB)

I found out that loving God’s law is life-changing. Not in a hyper-spiritual, feel-good way that wanes over time. It is a practical life lesson journey where one can enter into a different mode of living. It is the life Christianity promises but does not deliver. But how can that be? Paul said we are free from the law and it was nailed to the cross ! You have been deceived, and your blessing has been stolen ! Paul never said that. People say he said it, then read out-of-context verses to prove it.

10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15  (Romans 7:10–15, ESV)

“The law is spiritual” is a true statement. So when God tells Moses that something will defile a person, why do we not believe it? If the law is spiritual like Paul claims, then what if the defilement is spiritual? These are the things that cause many of the problems Christians face. It is the blessings and the curses of Leviticus 26. If you follow my instructions, you will receive blessings, and if you don’t, you will receive curses. It is so simple, yet people “Paul” it all away, listening to the deceptions about their God’s instructions from people who are repeating hundreds of years of church tradition.

I can say all of this from experience, yet it falls on deaf ears. Christians typically don’t believe me, not even enough to celebrate one feast or sit down on one Sabbath just to see if it may be true. Stop eating things that the Creator of all things specifically says will defile you if you eat them. Do it for six months like a fad diet. It will change your life. Rest on the sabbath for a few weeks. Do it even if you don’t think there is time.

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  (John 14:15–17, ESV)

The Spirit of truth is a real thing, but it comes from keeping His commandments. There is also a spirit of deceit. Are your prayers an abomination?

One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination (Proverbs 28:9, NKJV)

This sounds so harsh, but another word used for abomination is “defiled.” So, are your prayers defiled? Are you defiled from eating things God said will defile you, and is it causing your prayers to be defiled or ineffective? Does your ground feel like copper and heaven feel like iron? The path out of this is simple, but you have been “pauled” and cannot see past the deceit holding you back.

And then every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths.

Zechariah 14:16 (LEB)

Many Christians have no knowledge of the week long festival the Creator gave to His people to enjoy called Sukkot. However, most celebrate the holidays on the calendar of the sun god. So how did Christians switch from celebrating festivals ordained by Yahuah to festivals of the gods of this Earth? It is a 3500 year old prophecy.

Deuteronomy 4:25–28 (LEB) ²⁵ “When you have had children and grandchildren and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger, ²⁶ I call to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; you will not live long on it, but you will be completely destroyed. 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. 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.

Compare the two sets of holidays. One shows the holidays of all of the sun god religions of the nations where Christianity gets its holy days, and the other shows the Biblical holy days.

Sukkot is a week long festival of the Creator that He shared with the Israelites through Moses. It is the harvest festival of God with specific instructions. Like all the feasts and festivals, without a temple and priests, there are many aspects of the instructions we cannot complete. However, it can be a remembrance of what God has done and point to the future that God has in store for His people.

Leviticus 23:1–2 (LEB) 23 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘The festivals of Yahweh that you shall proclaim are holy assemblies; these are my appointed times.

Take note that the Creator refers to the Feasts as His festivals and appointed times, and not the feasts and festivals of the Jews, as Christians call them today. Christianity separated themselves from God’s special days listed in Leviticus 23 early on, mostly due to the antisemitism of the Church leadership and the ingrained paganism of the new converts. There were Christians well into the 5th and 6th centuries still celebrating these days and they were persecuted for doing so. Paul encouraged believers in Colossae not to worry about people who judged them for keeping God’s Sabbaths and feasts.

Colossians 2:16–17 (LEB) ¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you with reference to eating or drinking or participation in a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath, ¹⁷ which are a shadow of what is to come, but the reality is Christ.

Many Christians today have been programed to think Paul is saying not to keep Sabbaths and Feasts of God by these words in his letter to the Colossians. Believers in Colossae were surrounded by pagans celebrating the days of the “elemental spirits” of the world. The root of this Greek word, “stochion” was talking about fairies, elves and Santa Claus, otherwise known as, demons.

Colossians 2:20 (LEB) ²⁰ If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world?

1 Corinthians 10:19–22 (LEB) ¹⁹ Therefore, what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰ No, but that the things which they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers with demons. ²¹ You are not able to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You are not able to share the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²² Or are we attempting to provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he is, are we?

Paul would never refer to the word of God, or the special days of God, as elemental spirits. Melding God’s days with the worldly festivals and gods was exactly how the Northern kingdom, the House of Israel, was cut off.

Jeremiah 3:6–9 (LEB) ⁶ Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, “Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted herself there. ⁷ And I thought, ‘After her doing all these things to me she will return,’ but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸ And I saw that for this very reason, that on account of apostate Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted herself also. ⁹ And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree.

Israel gets rejected by God for “committing adultery with stone and tree”, and Christianity thinks it is a good idea to fabricate their own holy days where they place the same trees used by the pagans on their altars and in their homes. Not to mention, the use of stone pillars at their religious sites. Typically, these same people will reject the holy days provided by the Creator through Moses and Israel. The symbolism one uses exposes the gods being worshipped.

Leviticus 23:33–36 (LEB) ³³ Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁴ “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, this shall be the Feast of Booths for seven days for Yahweh. ³⁵ On the first day there shall be a holy assembly; you must not do any regular work. ³⁶ For seven days you must present an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day it shall be a holy assembly for you, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh; it is a celebration; you must not do any regular work.

During Sukkot, all of the men were required to travel to Jerusalem for the feast and people would make temporary shelters to live in to remind them that they lived in tents when they left Egypt. It is a remembrance of the mighty works of God in the Exodus where He gathered His people out of Egypt.

Leviticus 23:39–44 (LEB) ³⁹ “ ‘Surely on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, at your gathering the land’s produce, you shall hold Yahweh’s festival for seven days; on the first day there shall be a rest period and on the eighth day a rest period. ⁴⁰ And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the first fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees and branches of a leafy tree and of a brook’s poplar trees, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days. ⁴¹ And you must hold it as a festival for Yahweh for seven days in the year; it shall be a lasting statute throughout your generations; in the seventh month you must hold it. ⁴² You must live in the booths for seven days; all the natives in Israel must live in the booths, ⁴³ so that your generations shall know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them from the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.’ ” ⁴⁴ Thus Moses announced to the Israelites Yahweh’s appointed times.

When God’s people returned to the land from seventy years of captivity in Babylon, they read from Moses’s writings, and some heard this for the first time.

Nehemiah 8:13–18 (LEB) ¹³ On the second day the heads of the families of all the people, the priests, and the Levites gathered together to Ezra the scribe to study the words of the law. ¹⁴ They found written in the law, which Yahweh had commanded by the hand of Moses, that the Israelites should live in booths during the festival of the seventh month, ¹⁵ and that they should proclaim and give voice in all of their cities in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill and bring olive tree branches, olive oil wood branches, myrtle shrub branches, palm tree branches, and other leafy tree branches to make booths, as it is written.” ¹⁶ So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of the house of God, in the public square of the Water Gate, and in the public square of the Gate of Ephraim. ¹⁷ And all of the assembly of those who returned from captivity made booths and lived in the booths because the Israelites had not done it from the days of Jeshua son of Nun until that day. And there was very great joy. ¹⁸ And he read from the scroll of the law of God day by day from the first day up to the last day. They celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day there was an assembly according to the rule.

Forever is a very long time, and even though Christianity chooses to celebrate feasts of other gods now, it will not always be this way. Many Christians are leaving the Babylonian, Roman roots of Christianity and are returning to the word of God, trying the best they can to do what He says we should do. This is also prophecy from 3500 years ago, repeated by many of the prophets.

Deuteronomy 4:29–31 (LEB) 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. 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. ³¹ For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.

During the Millennium kingdom we will be celebrating the Feast of Booths. Why wouldn’t people who are striving to be in this kingdom now want to learn now about these things that they will be doing?

Zechariah 14:12–21 (LEB) ¹² And this will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples that fight against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are standing on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. ¹³ And then on that day a great panic from Yahweh will fall on them, and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of another. ¹⁴ And Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—gold and silver, and garments in great abundance. ¹⁵ Like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, and the donkey, and every kind of animal in those camps.

¹⁶ And then every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths. ¹⁷ And then whoever of the clans of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, it will not rain on them. ¹⁸ And if the clan of Egypt will not go up and come in, on them will be that plague Yahweh inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. ¹⁹ This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

²⁰ On that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to Yahweh.” And the cooking pots in the house of Yahweh will be holy like the sacrificial basins before the altar. ²¹ And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of hosts, and all those who sacrifice will come and will take from them, and will cook in them, and there will be no longer a trader in the house of Yahweh of hosts on that day.

It sounds like even after Yahuah establishes His kingdom on this Earth there will be people still not on board with His Feasts. I wonder if they will still be celebrating the feast of other gods? The people that do not celebrate the Feast of Booths in this kingdom will be punished with drought and plagues, yet we often pray this prayer:

Matthew 6:9–10 (LEB) “Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be treated as holy. ¹⁰ May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Learn about Sukkot and leave behind the gods of this world. With Israel still dispersed in the nations, no priests or temple, we will have to wait to be able to celebrate properly; however, that does not give us reason to ignore the feasts and turn to feasts of other gods today.

Featured photo by Maja Petric on Unsplash.

 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,  “Surely the Day of Atonement is on the tenth day of the seventh month; it shall be a holy assembly for you, and you shall deny yourselves, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh.  And you must not do any regular work on this very same day, because it is the Day of Atonement to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God 

(Leviticus 23:26–28, LEB)

This evening marks the beginning of the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, which is one of the special days that God has designated. It is a holy day mentioned in the Bible that God commands us to observe. If we are considered part of the family of this same God, why would we not follow His instructions?

The actual command for the day is to have a complete Sabbath and deny ourselves. When one looks at the Hebrew word used, it means to humble, humiliate, deny, and afflict oneself. There are different ways we can do this.

In the religion of Judaism, the tradition is to have a daylong fast. They must have been practicing this tradition all the way back to the prophet Isaiah’s time because it was addressed in his writings.

³ ‘Why do we fast, and you do not see it? We humiliate our soul, and you do not notice it?’ Look! You find delight on the day of your fast, and you oppress all your workers! ⁴ Look! You fast to quarrel and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist. You shall not fast as you do today, to make your voice heard on the height. ⁵ Is the fast I choose like this, a day for humankind to humiliate himself? To bow his head like a reed, and make his bed on sackcloth and ashes; you call this a fast and a day of pleasure to Yahweh?

⁶ Is this not the fast I choose: to release the bonds of injustice, to untie the ropes of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and tear every yoke to pieces? ⁷ Is it not to break your bread for the hungry? You must bring home the poor, the homeless. When you see the naked, you must cover him, and you must not hide yourself from your relatives.  (Isaiah 58:3–7, LEB)

It sounds like in Isaiah’s time they were using the tradition of fasting on Yom Kippur as a checkbox to say they followed what God said to do. All the while God was looking for much more.

There is also a tradition I have heard of where people deny themselves by finding a homeless camp and offering to buy food and supplies that they may need.

However you spend the day, make it one of self-reflection and thankfulness, and always be mindful of others and helping those with a need.

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash

 The sound of battle is in the land,
and great destruction.
 How the blacksmith’s hammer of all the earth is cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become as a horror among the nations!

Jeremiah 50:22–23 (LEB)

We are witnessing wars today between the Zionists, Muslims, and, with respect to Iran, Persians. Also, as of a few days ago, Ansar Allah has been reclaiming land from Saudi Arabia, cutting off their last oil pipeline lifeline since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia is part of the Sunni sect of Islam, while many of the others are Shiite Muslims. Israel is trying to expand its borders for the so-called “Greater Israel” project in places such as Lebanon, the West Bank, and Syria, and is now threatening Türkiye. There seems to be a chaotic type of holy war happening everywhere.

When one pulls away all the propaganda, it really is about people wanting control of their own resources and rejecting foreign powers’ 150 year old control between the British and US empires. We are seeing a revolution where the east is expelling the west’s occupation and monetary control. It is also expanding to the entire global south as countries start selling their US bonds and trading with other currencies.

One would think that the stance of the U.S. would come from a purely economic or secular viewpoint. Yet, in light of Vice President Vance’s latest statements, it appears as though he is framing it as an end-times situation, making any student of John Hagee’s school of evangelical dispensationalism and Zionism very proud.

Link to USA Today article and video (click here)

Vice President Vance believes he is “doing God’s work” and says if it ushers in the “end times,” so be it. He also believes the Antichrist could be walking the earth today.

The Apostle John told us the spirit of Antichrist was around in the first century.

²⁰ And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. ²¹ I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because every lie is not of the truth. ²² Who is the liar except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This person is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. (1 John 2:20–22, LEB)

Vice President Vance said that his childhood Bible was a John Hagee edition, so we are dealing with a Zionist, dispensational belief system where the country of Israel, which was formed by UN Resolution 181 in 1948, is the subject of Genesis 12. This is the place where God tells Abraham He will bless those who bless this country of Israel and curse those who curse this country of Israel. Except it does not say that at all. It is only what people say it says, and not many will do their own research.

12 And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your relatives, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing. ³ And I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse. And all families of the earth will be blessed in you.”  (Genesis 12:1–3, LEB)

God is specifically referring to Abraham here, and if we want to expand it to his children, then it would include most of Western Asia, because Ishmael and Esau are also descendants of Abraham. The cornerstone verse of the dispensationalists falls apart with little scrutiny.

If we look closer at the last line of the passage, “And all families of the earth will be blessed in you,” the “you” is singular in the original text. This is completely lost in the English translations. Similarly, in later verses, the word “seed” is singular. The King James Version of the Bible captures this distinction.

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee (Genesis 17:7, KJV 1900)

This is not a unique perspective. The Apostle Paul points this out in his letter to the Galations.

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.  (Galatians 3:16, KJV 1900)

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:28–29, KJV 1900)

We are Abraham’s seed through the Messiah, not by genetics or where we live. Does this diminish the importance of the Jewish people? Absolutely not.

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? (Romans 3:1–3, LEB)

Does it reduce the importance of a secular government of a country that is attacking and bombing all of its neighbors? Probably.

In light of this, who are the most radical state leaders? The Sunnis, Shiites, Ayatollahs, Zionists, or evangelical Christian Zionists? It’s a bit of a toss-up, but currently, the U.S. and Israel are doing the most damage to innocent people. I say damage because if I use the real words to describe what has happened to journalists, schoolchildren, hospitals, etc., the platform I use to write this does not accept it, and the spell check function will not even work. There are still many true journalists putting their lives on the line to report the atrocities that are happening, but their work is often shadow-banned or banned altogether. Many are harassed, have their equipment confiscated, or are even living in exile from their own country’s government. This is in the so-called democracies of the West. Would someone go through all of this just to tell a lie? There are people who want to get the information out to the apathetic, sleeping masses.

Speaking of apathy, the majority of the population will turn a blind eye to the mass murder of 100,000 people, bombings of schools and hospitals. They even bombed a synagogue in Iran because they didn’t follow the narrative of the Zionist cause. However, suddenly diesel prices go past six dollars a gallon and people are scraping Trump stickers off of their trucks and wondering what happened. What a self-absorbed generation we live in.

Side note: Below is the message I get if I try to spell check the above paragraph with the embedded AI of this platform. I wonder which words are problematic? I have tried changing letters to asterisks and removing certain words to see what was acceptable. I found that it is actually the content that the AI algorithm does not accept. We are not supposed to question the masters of our part of civilization.

If this is the end times as Vice President Vance alludes to, then there are some bits of instructions for how Abraham’s seed should navigate these times.

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. (Revelation 13:10, KJV 1900)

Don’t kill people and don’t take them into captivity. Many people have been “taken into captivity” through sanctions. I recently saw a statistic that there have been 125,000 million deaths since 1970 that can be directly traced to US sanctions in the world. That is right up there with Mao and Stalin statistics.

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:17, KJV 1900)

Keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony of Jesus, which includes putting the sword away and not oppressing people, is the way to successfully navigate this world at any time.

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

 Here is the patient endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith in Jesus.

Revelation 14:12 (LEB)

My social media feeds are inundated with groups and pages claiming things such as “if you aren’t using the King James Bible you’re going to hell” or that it is a sin to observe the Sabbaths and eat only the animals the Creator God called food. The cause of this, of course, is that I interact with these types of posts so the gods of the algorithms keep directing this foolishness my way.

Most people who argue for eating everything will use Acts 10 or Romans 14. Acts 10 is about God extending the kingdom to the nations, and no one comes away from Peter’s vision thinking they can eat animals God determined were not food. Romans 14 is about opinions, and no one ever viewed God’s instructions as a matter of opinion, most certainly not Paul.

Romans 14:1–3 (LEB): 14 Now receive the one who is weak in faith, but not for quarrels about opinions. ² One believes he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats must not despise the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, because God has accepted him.

This is clearly referring to people not eating meat and only eating vegetables. It is not about eating animals not meant for food.

Leviticus 11:44–47 (LEB): ⁴⁴ because I am Yahweh your God, and you must keep yourselves sanctified, so that you shall be holy, because I am holy. And you must not make yourselves unclean with any swarmer that moves along on the land, ⁴⁵ because I am Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be for you as God. Thus you shall be holy, because I am holy. ⁴⁶ “ ‘This is the regulation of the animals and the birds and all living creatures that move along in the water and concerning all the creatures that swarm on the land, ⁴⁷ to distinguish between the unclean and the clean and between the animal that is to be eaten and the animal that must not be eaten.’ ”

Peter links the line “Be holy because I am holy” to the way we should live as believers. Christians don’t understand it because they have been deceived into thinking the instructions about how to be holy are for someone else. They invent a list of things to strive for to make them holy, ignoring how God designed the world. Then their bodies become full of parasites from unclean animals that are not meant for food. It is just like ignoring the Sabbaths. Christians are sick and tired in a lot of cases, and they do not realize the enemy is robbing them of the blessings of being holy because they are listening to the lies being told to them. Peter is pointing us back to the quote in Leviticus.

1 Peter 1:14–16 (LEB): ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former desires you used to conform to in your ignorance, ¹⁵ but as the one who called you is holy, you yourselves be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ for it is written, “You will be holy, because I am holy.” 

A meme that started popping up in social media 10-15 years ago was about a prophecy in a supposed letter Albert Pike sent describing three world wars. Albert Pike was a Confederate general in the Civil War, a 32nd degree Scottish Freemason, Luciferian and Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction from 1859 to 1891. He wrote a book called Morals and Dogma, and it is all about Freemason beliefs.

Here are excerpts of the supposed letter he wrote around 1871 describing three up-and-coming world wars. I researched this as much as possible, and I think I found the letter that alluded to some of the so-called prophecies, but not spelled out as it is in the summary of the letter I found circulating 10-15 years ago.

Recently, I started thinking about this differently. Even if someone wrote this letter recently and claimed Albert Pike wrote it, it is still describing what WWIII looks like, and it gives some insight into how it will end. Here is how the letter describes WWIII. Remember, This was supposedly written in 1871.

The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the “agentur” of the “Illuminati” between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other.

Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion… We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil.

Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view.

This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”

I chalked this up to some kind of silly conspiracy for a long time, then I thought what if someone more recently is using Albert Pike to tell us what is on the agenda from the people who run the world? So far the WWIII part seems quite accurate, and even if this letter was only conjured up 10-15 years ago, it is accurately describing 2026.

We have a war between Zionist interests and the entire Shiite Muslim world appearing to be about the control of resources. It looks like there will be enough destruction to crash the world economy and get us to “constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion… “ very easily. This could happen by this fall the way the U.S. is flailing and has no ability for diplomacy. Why would we provoke Iran to destroy all of the infrastructure that gives us the products we need for medicine and agriculture? Diesel fuel, fertilizer and Helium come from this section of the world. There will likely be wide spread famine due to this.

Iran tells the U.S. and their Zionist partner Isreal, “if you bomb our energy and electrical infrastructure, then we will do likewise to the countries helping you”. Iran has proven it can, yet the U.S. continues to push Iran to doing this. It seems like it is by design “in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other”.

How does this relate to the animals God called food and the insistence of Christians that God changed His mind? It’s simple: Christians have been so deceived that they eat animals that give them parasites, which often leave them sick and on many medications. They say the Sabbath is no longer applicable and remain overworked and tired. Once the dispensational theology prophecies that promote Zionism, a third temple, and a rapture fail, then “the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view”.

Revelation 13:11–14 (LEB): ¹¹ And I saw another beast coming up from the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he was speaking like a dragon. ¹² And he exercises all the authority of the first beast on behalf of him, and he causes the earth and those who live in it to worship the first beast whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ And he performs great signs, so that he even causes fire from heaven to come down to the earth before people. ¹⁴ And he deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that it has been granted to him to perform on behalf of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who has the wound of the sword and yet lived.

The key to avoiding the deception, being “without compass or direction” is to seek God and learn who He really is following His instructions how to live on this earth.

Revelation 14:12 (LEB): ¹² Here is the patient endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith in Jesus.

Even Luciferians know following the commandments of God is the only way to avoid deception. That is why organized religion has fought so hard against things such as the dietary instructions and Sabbaths. It is all connected!

And not for a single day, either in the Temple court or in private homes, did they stop teaching and proclaiming the Good News that Yeshua is the Messiah.

Acts 5:42 (CJB)

It is clear for all to see that the church building has been elevated to the very essence of Christianity in many cases, and it may have been like this for a very long time. How often have we heard, “if we can just get them to come to church, then their lives will change”? Is this really what a relationship with God is all about?

Several years ago, I counted nearly 20 churches in a 30-mile radius of my home. That is twenty heating bills, twenty pastors’ salaries, twenty buildings to repair, parking lots to plow, lawns to mow, etc. Many of these churches had parsonages or rectories. Let’s be conservative and say each one of these churches costs $50,000 a year to operate. That is half a million dollars a year, and we know it is probably double that. How many real-life changing conversions do we see for $1M? Imagine if that money were put into feeding, clothing, and housing people in need. What about the widows and orphans?

Where is the unity of all of the congregants? These are folks who worship on the same day, supposedly to the same God, Messiah, and Holy Spirit. Yet somehow they are all divided on points of doctrine, ways to worship, and other lines in the sand that have accumulated over hundreds of years.

In my example, we could build one church to service all twenty of these congregations, and there would be enough money left over to do some serious outreach. It doesn’t work this way, however, because, if we are truthful, many of these people will never speak to each other, never mind meet in church together.

The church building becomes a necessity to band together a small group of isolated people with similar beliefs. This is why there is so much hand-wringing if there are things such as road conditions that might cause people to stay home. People will pride themselves on never missing a Sunday service like it is a badge of honor, thinking that they are somehow more “saved” than the person who was too sick to come or afraid to drive in a snowstorm. If someone misses a Sunday service, they may not come back the following Sunday; then, after the third missed Sunday, they will be backslidden so much that they will turn their back on God, lost forever. This is the attitude often found in the various sects of Christianity across North America in my experiences.

Then there is this idea that if the church were closed on some snowy Sunday morning, that could be the time when some poor lost soul happens to show up only to find the church locked. As if God set him up so his only chance of salvation was dashed by a locked church door on a snowy Sunday morning.

This is not a sign of a healthy “body of Christ.” We are all supposed to be knit together by one Spirit of truth, studying the scriptures daily. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews was lamenting that the believers could not understand the more complex aspects of God. What would be said to the average churchgoer today?

Hebrews 5:11-6:3: ¹¹ Concerning this we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. ¹² For indeed, although you ought to be teachers by this time, you have need of someone to teach you again the beginning elements of the oracles of God, and you have need of milk, not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes of milk is unacquainted with the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have trained their faculties for the distinguishing of both good and evil. 6Therefore, leaving behind the elementary message about Christ, let us move on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God, ² teaching about baptisms and laying on of hands, and resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. ³ And this we will do, if God permits.

The milk is the “beginning oracles of God.” This is the instruction God gave us to practice a righteous life. These are the commandments and examples found all throughout scripture. The Torah, the examples of Israel turning its back on God and getting destroyed in the prophets’ writings, building one’s house on sand and all the parables, the Messiah saying, “Get out of here, I never knew you who practiced lawlessness,” watching others recline with Abraham and Isaac, but you being locked outside, etc.. Over and over the scriptures tell us how to live and how to receive the Spirit of truth. This is the Holy Spirit. At some point, we should all reach the level of maturity where we “ought to be teachers.” Instead, we do not understand or accept the milk!

1 John 2:24–27 (LEB): ²⁴ As for you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is the promise which he himself promised us: eternal life. ²⁶ These things I have written to you concerning the ones who are trying to deceive you.

²⁷ And as for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not have need that anyone teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you reside in him.

Similarly to the writer of Hebrews, John writes, “And as for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not have need that anyone teach you.” He is not telling us to separate ourselves from other believers, but that we can know the truth so well individually that we should not have to be taught. This is not a subjective truth that follows “our conscience” where we get to determine sin and lifestyle choices by “how it feels to me”. This is having the Spirit of truth sent by the Messiah so that we can understand his teachings and apply them in our life. He promises it to us and John expects his readers to have it.

John 14:15–17 (LEB): ¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, in order that he may be with you forever—¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because it does not see him or know him. You know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.

This is like an if-then-else statement in programming:

If (love Messiah) on then

If (keep commandments) on then

(Spirit of truth) on Else

(Spirit of truth) off.

End If

People will truly gain the Spirit of Truth when they strip all of the man-made doctrine away, all of the “isms,” and realize that one should keep the commandments given to us as milk in the Bible. At this point, it creates a group of people who essentially believe similarly and will want to spend time together sharing life, deepening their understanding of God, and fellowshipping together. This is the “church,” which is the word used for ekklesia in Greek and qahal in Hebrew.

ἐκκλησία
ekklēsia, n.c., assembly; assembly of the citizens regularly summoned. 97× +NT +AF

Hebrew Alignment
קָהָל—contingent, assembly; convocation, congregation (64): Dt 9:10; 18:16; 23:1, 3, 8; 31:30; Josh 9:8; Jdg 20:2; 21:5, 8; 1 Kgdms 17:47; 3 Kgdms 8:14, 22, 55, 65; 1 Ch 13:2, 4; 28:8; 29:1, 10, 20; 2 Ch 1:3, 5; 6:3, 12, 13; 7:8; 20:5, 14; 23:3; 28:14; 29:23, 28, 31, 32; 30:2, 4, 13, 17, 23, 24, 25; Esd B 2:64; 10:1, 8, 12; 15:13; 17:66; 18:2, 17; 23:1; Job 30:28; Ps 21:23, 26; 25:5; 34:18; 39:10; 88:6; 106:32; 149:1; Pr 5:14; Lam 1:10; Joe 2:16; Mic 2:5
מַקְהֵל—assembly, congregation (2): Ps 25:12; 67:27

The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

People are realizing this and coming away from standard congregations to meet in homes and rented buildings. Sometimes a mainline church will rent their building to a Sabbath-observing group on a Saturday. People are finding each other with the help of online fellowship finders and social media groups.

How do we reverse hundreds of years of lackadaisical churchianity, man-made traditions, and all the “isms”? When I say “isms,” I am referring to sects like Calvinism, Arminianism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Antinomianism, Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, Dispensationalism, Cessationism, Christian nationalism, Zionism, and the list goes on. I believe that we should follow the model of the early church that met in homes. There came a time that they were no longer welcome in the synagogues. As the home is outgrown, then some people move to another home. Building lasting relationships in each home fellowship instead of rushing out the door Sunday after the last hymn is sung. This is where we would learn to depend on each other and learn from each other. Everyone would be responsible to “study to show themselves approved.”

There could be elders and servers just as in the early church and very low overhead. Money could be raised to help people in the community rather than pay a large heating bill for a handful of people to gather a couple of times a week. We will probably arrive here through necessity in the coming years as these congregations can no longer afford to keep the lights on. Perhaps we should be ahead of the curve!

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

But an hour is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for indeed the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the ones who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:23–24 (LEB)

Yeshua makes a clear distinction of people groups at the start of his ministry. It is very obvious in the beginning that he is only interested in reaching “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Who is he talking about here? Why does he seem to move on from this mission as time goes by? It’s all very interesting. For example, is the lost sheep of the house of Israel the northern kingdom that was scattered into the nations after the Assyrians conquered it around 722 BCE? They were divorced and cut off from the kingdom and became part of the nations, so then they were not even part of Israel at that point. There were three tribes left somewhat intact during Yeshua’s ministry: Benjamin, Levi, and Judah. Were these the first target audience?

We have a clue in the next interaction talking about the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” There is a Canaanite woman approaching Yeshua, and he specifically tells her that she is not part of his current program. Yet in the end, he grants her request due to her “great faith.”

Matthew 15:21–28 (LEB): ²¹ And departing from there, Jesus went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² And behold, a Canaanite woman from that district came and cried out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!” ²³ But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came up and asked him, saying, “Send her away, because she is crying out after us!” ²⁴ But he answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵ But she came and knelt down before him, saying, “Lord, help me!” ²⁶ And he answered and said, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs!” ²⁷ So she said, “Yes, Lord, for even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” ²⁸ Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you want.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.

A Canaanite woman from Tyre was not someone connected to the twelve tribes. Israel and Judah are both compared to lost sheep by the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was discussing both houses being lost sheep, even though it was 130 years after the northern kingdom of Israel fell. Like countless other passages, these speak of Israel and Judah reuniting.

Jeremiah 50:3–6 (LEB): ³ For a nation will come up against her from the north. It will make her land as a horror, and an inhabitant will not be in her. From humans to animals they all will wander off. They will go away. ⁴ In those days and in that time,’ ” declares Yahweh, “the people of Israel will come, they and the people of Judah together. Weeping as they go, they will go, and Yahweh their God they will seek. ⁵ They will ask the way to Zion, turning their faces there. They will come and join themselves to Yahweh by an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten. ⁶ My people have become lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They led them away to the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone, they have forgotten their resting place.

On one hand, Jerimiah’s reference to both houses along with the parable of the prodigal son make me believe Yeshua’s lost sheep are a combination of both houses, with the house of Israel being used in that context to refer to all of Israel, or Jacob’s sons. In the parable of the prodigal son, Yeshua presents an a metaphor of the two houses: Ephraim (representing the northern kingdom) and Judah. Ephraim is the younger brother who left the farm and squandered his inheritance living like those in the nations, while Judah was the older brother who stayed.

Luke 15:27–32 (LEB): ²⁷ And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has gotten him back healthy.’ ²⁸ But he became angry and did not want to go in. So his father came out and began to implore him. ²⁹ But he answered and said to his father, ‘Behold, so many years I have served you, and have never disobeyed your command! And you never gave me a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends! ³⁰ But when this son of yours returned—who has consumed your assets with prostitutes—you killed the fattened calf for him!’ ³¹ But he said to him, ‘Child, you are always with me, and everything I have belongs to you. ³² But it was necessary to celebrate and to rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead, and is alive, and was lost, and is found!’ ”

This is the good news that the younger brother could return after being cut off, and Judah was not receptive to the message. This was both prophetic and applied directly to the time it was spoken. As far as I know, neither Christianity or Judaism uphold this idea about Ephraim returning through the work of Yeshua. Any rabbi I have heard refers to “Jews” as anyone that was at Mount Horeb when they sealed the covenant with God, completely ignoring the plight of the northern kingdom. Christians mostly think this parable is literally talking about their lost son in 2026, giving them hope that he will turn to God in the end.

In one way, this prophecy has been fulfilled because Yeshua did bring together the two houses into the kingdom. Part of me wants to ignore anything else. The kingdom of God is here now for those who receive it, and inside the kingdom there is not any animosity between Judah and Ephraim. We are all saved through Yeshua, and Ephraim was able to seed the entire world, in effect making the nations a melting pot of the house of Israel. Another part of me thinks this will only be achieved at the resurrection in the Millennium kingdom. Currently, neither those practicing Christianity nor Judaism acknowledge the overwhelming amount of scripture dedicated to Israel being divided and scattered and that the Messiah will be the one to bring them back into the family.

Isaiah 11:11–13 (LEB): ¹¹ And this shall happen on that day: The Lord will again extend his hand a second time to acquire the remnant of his people that is left, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea, ¹² and he will raise a signal for the nations. And he will gather the outcasts of Israel, and he will gather the scattered ones of Judah together from the four corners of the earth. ¹³ And the jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and the enemies of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be an enemy of Ephraim.

Matthew 24:30–31 (LEB): ³⁰ And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect together from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other end of it.

Yeshua went to the lost sheep of the house of Israel only to be met with complete resistance. He continually saw his message rejected by the people he was seeking.

Matthew 10:5–8 (LEB): ⁵ Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them saying, “Do not go on the road to the Gentiles, and do not enter into a city of the Samaritans, ⁶ but go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷ And as you are going, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’ ⁸ Heal those who are sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, expel demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Here Yeshua specifically says to avoid the cities of the Samaritans. It is hard to disconnect the Samaritans from the northern kingdom. They are those of the ten tribes that did not leave the north and intermingled with the people that resettled the north. They kept a lot of the traditions of Israel.

The context shows Samar(e)itēs to be a geographical, and thus indirectly an ethnological term, but at the same time to be a religious group designation (cf. Ioudaios, Jew). The ethnological identity of the Samaritans is a point of dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans. The anti-Samaritan polemic of Judaism assumes a total deportation of the population of the northern kingdom; hence the equation of the Samaritans with the Cutheans. But the religious community centred on Shechem, or Mount Gerizim, until today sees itself as a confessional denomination within Israel, standing ethnologically in unbroken continuity particularly with the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. It draws a distinction between the admittedly mixed populace of the territory of Samaria and the worshippers of the Yahweh-cult of Shechem, and accepted the designation “Samaritan” only with hesitation as a term originally used only by outsiders.

K. Haacker, “Samaritan, Samaria,” in New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 450.

At this point, I lean towards Yeshua referring to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as the people practicing Judaism, trying to stay true to their Creator God and the Torah, even though they had been led astray by worthless shepherds. These were the first group of people Yeshua and the apostles targeted in the early days of his ministry. Once these people continually rejected the message, the rest of the plan unfolded.

Matthew 10:14–15 (LEB): ¹⁴ And whoever does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you are going out of that house or that town. ¹⁵ Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town!

Matthew 11:20–24 (LEB): ²⁰ Then he began to reproach the towns in which the majority of his miracles had been done, because they did not repent: ²¹ “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²² Nevertheless I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and for Sidon on the day of judgment than for you! ²³ And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until today. ²⁴ Nevertheless I tell you that it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you!”

Yeshua followed the script. He went to the supposed family of his Father of his time with a reset from their religious mistakes. Yeshua preached justice and mercy rather than sacrifice. He was rejected by his people and then went to part B of the plan that was prophesied beforehand.

Isaiah 49:6 (LEB): ⁶ And he says, “It is trivial for you to be a servant for me, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will give you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the end of the earth.”

I want to make it clear that I am in no way promoting replacement theology. This is the belief system where “the Church” replaced Israel and received the promises. We would have a hard time defining “the Church” today with the plethora of sects and denominations, all with different belief systems. The Church will always be Israel and the foreigners who sojourn with Israel. Paul told us that the message would go first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.

Romans 1:16–17 (LEB): ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ For the righteousness of God is revealed in it from faith to faith, just as it is written, “But the one who is righteous by faith will live.”

Yeshua started preaching about a shift in the kingdom through the parables. He talked about the vineyard owner giving away the vineyard to someone else and the wedding where no one invited would come. The message is clear now and was clear to many to whom he was speaking.

Matthew 23:37–38 (LEB): ³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How many times I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her young together under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ Behold, your house has been left to you desolate!

Matthew 21:33–46 (LEB): ³³ “Listen to another parable: There was a man—a master of a house—who planted a vineyard, and put a fence around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower, and leased it to tenant farmers, and went on a journey. ³⁴ And when the season of fruit drew near, he sent his slaves to the tenant farmers to collect his fruit. ³⁵ And the tenant farmers seized his slaves, one of whom they beat, and one of whom they killed, and one of whom they stoned. ³⁶ Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first ones, and they did the same thing to them. ³⁷ So finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance!’ ³⁹ And they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰ Now when the master of the vineyard arrives, what will he do to those tenant farmers?” ⁴¹ They said to him, “He will destroy those evil men completely and lease the vineyard to other tenant farmers who will give him the fruits in their season.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures,‘The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the cornerstone. This came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ⁴³ For this reason, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and will be given to a people who produce its fruits. ⁴⁴ And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls—it will crush him!” ⁴⁵ And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them, ⁴⁶ and although they wanted to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds, because they looked upon him as a prophet.

Yeshua spells it out here. “43 For this reason, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and will be given to a people who produce its fruits”. What else can we conclude? The one who falls on the cornerstone will be crushed by it and not be in the kingdom. In other words, without Yeshua, their religion and heritage meant nothing at that point concerning the kingdom of God.

Matthew 22:2–14 (LEB): ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man—a king—who gave a wedding celebration for his son. ³ And he sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the wedding celebration, and they did not want to come. ⁴ Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding celebration!” ’ ⁵ But they paid no attention and went away—this one to his own field, that one to his business. ⁶ And the others, seizing his slaves, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ And the king was angry and sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸ Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding celebration is ready, but those who had been invited were not worthy. ⁹ Therefore, go out to the places where the roads exit the city and invite to the wedding celebration as many people as you find.’ ¹⁰ And those slaves went out into the roads and gathered everyone whom they found, both evil and good, and the wedding celebration was filled with dinner guests. ¹¹ But when the king came in to see the dinner guests, he saw a man there not dressed in wedding clothes. ¹² And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here, not having wedding clothes?’ But he could say nothing. ¹³ Then the king said to the servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’ ¹⁴ For many are called but few are chosen.”

Yeshua’s message is clear once again. The original guests ignored the Master’s invitation and eventually ended up killing the messengers. The master destroyed their city and the ones who killed the messengers. He then invited regular people to the feast. Even then, the one without a wedding garment was kicked out. This rules out universalism theology where every one is included in the kingdom. God is looking for those worshipping in “spirit and truth” which can only happen through His instructions. How privileged are those from the nations to receive an invitation to the wedding!

The apostle Paul understood. The elect received the message and the rest were hardened. It is the same today. The whole of scripture is about how the people chosen by God would not submit, there was always a remnant that did, and because of their sin against God it would cause the whole world to have the ability to join the family of God, otherwise known as the Israel of God.

Romans 11:7–11 (LEB): ⁷ What then? What Israel was searching for, this it did not obtain. But the elect obtained it, and the rest were hardened, ⁸ just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, until this very day.” ⁹ And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a cause for stumbling and a retribution to them; ¹⁰ let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and cause their backs to bend continually.” ¹¹ I say then, they did not stumble so that they fell, did they? May it never be! But by their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy.

All the way back to Moses, around 1400 BCE, we see the plan laid out and prophesied. The people reject the rock or cornerstone, do all manner of evil, and God provokes them with “a people that are not a people.” It is quite a story to be part of as the “people that are not a people.” It is a great blessing.

Deuteronomy 32:18–21 (LEB): ¹⁸ The rock who bore you, you neglected, and you forgot God, the one giving you birth. ¹⁹ Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. ²⁰ So he said, ‘I will hide my face from them; I will see what will be their end, for they are a generation of perversity, children in whom there is no faithfulness. ²¹ They annoyed me with what is not a god; they provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those not a people, with a foolish nation I will provoke them.

What does this mean in 2026? The temple was destroyed in 70 CE and the rest of the tribes were scattered throughout the world. Does this mean we are simply waiting for the regathering, the resurrection and the Millennium? Yeshua reworked his kingdom to include all of those who will follow him through faith. He renewed the covenant and it became one not of genetics or Torah keeping by the letter of the law, but of those who want to be part of the kingdom by circumcising their heart. The kingdom of God is now in this broken world and later with a glorious future.

John 4:23–24 (LEB): ²³ But an hour is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for indeed the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit, and the ones who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Yeshua said that the Father is looking for true worshippers. It’s not about taking back land by earthly might or destroying anyone that may not agree with one’s religion. It is about worshipping God in spirit and truth. This is how to build greater Israel. The people that are doing this are the kingdom of God, both Jew and Gentile, Judah and Ephraim. The ones that are not worshipping in spirit and truth are not part of the kingdom. John spells this out for us.

1 John 2:22–23 (CJB): ²² Who is a liar at all, if not the person who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah? Such a person is an anti-Messiah—he is denying the Father and the Son. ²³ Everyone who denies the Son is also without the Father, but the person who acknowledges the Son has the Father as well.

So what can we say? Put away land worship and denying Yeshua and worship the Father in spirit and truth keeping the commands of God and the faith of Yeshua!

Photo by Ariana Prestes on Unsplash

Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hands?
Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?
Who established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know!

Proverbs 30:4 (CJB)

There are many gods in the world, and people use the title “God” to describe their deity. Often, people from different religions, sects, or cults do not distinguish one god from another, so everyone can be in harmony pretending they are talking about the same god. The United States dollar bill is a good example of this. (I promise I will not talk about the Illuminati.)

The Latin phrases on the top and bottom of the pyramid say, “He favors our undertakings” and “a new world order.” Maybe that’s why people are talking so much today about a “new world order,” meaning it’s replacing the old “new world order.” Regardless, the god on the dollar bill does not appear to have anything to do with the Creator God in the Hebrew Bible or Christian Bible.

The only place we find the word “God” describing a god in the Hebrew scriptures is the Hebrew word spelled Gimmel Dalet, or GD. The vowel is an “ah” sound. Gimmel Dalet is also used for the tribe of Gad, which should not be confused with it.

Isaiah 65:11 (CJB): ¹¹  “But as for you who abandon Adonai, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, a god of luck, and fill bowls of mixed wine for Meni, a god of destiny—

Gad, or GD, is the god of fortune and luck. Perhaps this is the god of the dollar bill. The Elohim of Abraham and Creator of the universe defines Himself to His prophets who wrote it all down so we could understand the nature of the Creator God. As soon as a “god” deviates from any attribute of the Creator God (Elohim), then it is a different god. Elohim achrim, means “god of others”.

Deuteronomy 13:1–4 (LEB): “If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,’ ³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self. ⁴ You shall go after Yahweh your God, and him you shall revere, and his commandment you shall keep, and to his voice you shall listen, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.

The Hebrew word for the Creator is “Elohim.” His name is YHWH, meaning, “he exists.” This is different from the title “God” that Christians use. Are they talking about the same god? Not really. Elohim is very adamant about the importance of His people keeping the Sabbath, but Christians do not keep the Sabbath and, in many cases, are vehemently opposed to the Sabbath. This is one example.

Christians will say Jesus did away with the Sabbath, even though we have no scripture either from the prophets of old or in the New Testament that the Sabbath is irrelevant after the cross. It is quite the opposite. This makes us ask, is Jesus God? Can Jesus eliminate one of Elohim’s commands from creation like the Sabbath command?

The short answer is no, Jesus, his name being Yeshua in Hebrew, the Son of God and Messiah, would never do such a thing. Yeshua said he and the Father were one, in agreement, alignment, and the same. Many take this to mean Yeshua was the Father, but there are many scriptures that make that very unlikely.

John 4:24–26 (LEB): ²⁴ God is spirit, and the ones who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ); “whenever that one comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.

Yeshua tells the woman God is spirit and he is the Messiah. We know that the Father is a spirit and has no form. He specifically told us not to worship any form of a man or woman or fish or animal.

Deuteronomy 4:12–18 (LEB): ¹² And Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard a sound of words, but you did not see a form—only a voice. ¹³ And he declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he charged you to observe, and he wrote them on the two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ And Yahweh charged me at that time to teach you rules and regulations for your observation of them in the land that you are about to cross into to take possession of it. ¹⁵ “So you must be very careful for yourselves, because you did not see any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ so that you do not ruin yourselves and make for yourselves a divine image in a form of any image, a replica of male or female, ¹⁷ a replica of any animal that is upon the earth, a replica of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that is in the water below the earth.

Yeshua said he was “one with the Father”. From these few verses, Christians have derived the eternal security doctrine and trinity doctrine, but they rely on English words when it was written in Greek using Hebrew thought.

John 10:27–30 (LEB): ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish forever, and no one will seize them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can seize them from the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

The word “one” here is describing unity and agreement. We can see this in other places where Yeshua talks about only doing what he sees his Father doing and only saying what he hears his Father saying. The point is that Yeshua is not going to do something different, such as deleting the Sabbath, whether one believes Yeshua is the Messiah or some how the Father and the Messiah at the same time in some trinity configuration. Yeshua, speaking of his Father, said, “He is greater than all” in the above passage of scripture. Does “all” include Yeshua?

The Complete Jewish Bible renders Yeshua’s two greatest commandments in such a way to understand the word “one” in a Hebrew sense (echad). Yeshua us quoting Deuteronomy chapter 6 and Leviticus chapter 19.

Mark 12:29–31 (CJB)

²⁹ Yeshua answered, “The most important is,

‘Sh’ma Yisra’el, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, O Isra’el, the Lord our God, the Lord is one], ³⁰ and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your understanding and with all your strength.’

³¹ The second is this:

‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no other mitzvah greater than these.”

It is important to understand who God and Yeshua are and the nuances between them. Being “one” does not have to mean they are the exact same entity. Yeshua was sent by Elohim for a specific purpose. That is to take on the sins of His people as a final high priest figure. The Levitical priest system was fashioned after what Elohim showed Moses. There is an ark of the covenant in heaven that will be revealed at the end. The earthly copy may be destroyed or missing, but the original still exists.

Revelation 11:19 (LEB): ¹⁹ And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were lightnings and sounds and thunders and an earthquake and large hail.

Do you think the Ark of the Covenant described here is empty, or are the Ten Commandments inside, meaning they are still relevant at the second coming of Yeshua? This is why it is important to know Elohim, who He is and who His Son is.