“For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 3:13

Once I researched what it is to be a deacon, I was surprised to learn the “office of a deacon” was never an office. It appears tradition has transliterated a Greek word into a position of power in various church denominations. Was this the original intention of the “office”? The opening quote is from the King James translation of the Bible. The English Standard Version has a more honest translation:

1Ti 3:13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

In the English Standard Version, instead of office of the deacon, the word is simply “deacon”. What exactly is a deacon though? Where does the word come from? The Smith Bible defines the word as this:

“Deacon. The office described by this title appears, in the New Testament, as the correlative of bishop. See Bishop. The two are mentioned together in Phm 1:1; 1Ti 3:2; 1Ti 3:8. Its original meaning implied a helper, an assistant. The bishops were the “elders,” the deacons were the young active men, of the church. The narrative of Acts 6 is commonly referred to as giving an account of the institution of this office.
The apostles, in order to meet the complaints of the Hellenistic Jews that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, call on the body of believers to choose seven men “full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom,” whom they “may appoint over this business.” It may be questioned, however, whether the seven were not appointed to higher functions than those of the deacons of the New Testament.”

Where does this term “office of the deacon” originate? The short answer is that it was invented by the translators to reflect the traditions of the church. Here is the passage with the Strong’s Numbers:

1Ti 3:13 For G1063  they that have used the office of a deacon G1247  well G2573  purchase G4046  to themselves G1438  a good G2570  degree, G898  and G2532  great G4183  boldness G3954  in G1722  the faith G4102  which G3588  is in G1722  Christ G5547  Jesus. G2424

Deacon is used for Strong’s G1247, and the words “office of“ are not there in the Greek, and do not appear to have any merit in the first century context. Let’s look at Strong’s G1247:

G1247
διακονέω
diakoneō
Thayer Definition:
1) to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon
1a) to minister to one, render ministering offices to
1a1) to be served, ministered unto
1b) to wait at a table and offer food and drink to the guests
1b1) of women preparing food
1c) to minister, i.e. supply food and necessities of life
1c1) to relieve one’s necessities (e.g. by collecting alms), to provide take care of, distribute, the things necessary to sustain life
1c2) to take care of the poor and the sick, who administer the office of a deacon
1c3) in Christian churches to serve as deacons
1d) to minister
1d1) to attend to anything, that may serve another’s interests
1d2) to minister a thing to one, to serve one or by supplying any thing

The word deacon comes from daikoneo, and appears to be the origin of the English word, deacon. It is easy to find how this word daikoneo, and its various forms that are used in the New Testament. It is usually used as a verb for ministering and serving. In this example, we see women were daikoneo. or “deaconing”:

Mat 27:55 And G1161  many G4183  women G1135  were G2258  there G1563  beholding G2334  afar off, G575 G3113  which G3748  followed G190  Jesus G2424  from G575  Galilee, G1056  ministering G1247  unto him: G846

The modern meaning of the word seems to be a reference to this scene in the acts of the apostles:

Act 6:2 Then G1161  the G3588  twelve G1427  called G4341  the G3588  multitude G4128  of the G3588  disciples G3101  unto them, and said, G2036  It is G2076  not G3756  reason G701  that we G2248  should leave G2641  the G3588  word G3056  of God, G2316  and serve G1247 tables. G5132
Act 6:3 Wherefore, G3767  brethren, G80  look ye out G1980  among G1537  you G5216  seven G2033  men G435  of honest report, G3140  full G4134  of the Holy G40  Ghost G4151  and G2532  wisdom, G4678  whom G3739  we may appoint G2525  over G1909  this G5026  business. G5532

So there was a group who were prayed over that were given the duty to serve tables in this example. If we look at Timothy 3:8, we get another form of the word, Strong’s G1249.

1Ti 3:8 Likewise G5615  must the deacons G1249 be grave, G4586  not G3361  doubletongued, G1351  not G3361  given G4337  to much G4183  wine, G3631  not G3361  greedy of filthy lucre; G146
1Ti 3:9 Holding G2192  the G3588  mystery G3466  of the G3588  faith G4102  in G1722  a pure G2513  conscience. G4893

G1249
διάκονος
diakonos
Thayer Definition:
1) one who executes the commands of another, especially of a master, a servant, attendant, minister
1a) the servant of a king
1b) a deacon, one who, by virtue of the office assigned to him by the church, cares for the poor and has charge of and distributes the money collected for their use
1c) a waiter, one who serves food and drink
Part of Speech: noun masculine or feminine

Is Paul speaking of something different in verse 8 than he was in verse 13? Even in 1b of the definition it uses the word “deacon” when that word would not have existed at the time daikonos was being used in Greek. This word daikonos is present when Paul is speaking about Phebe, a sister who is a servant of the church in his letter to the Romans. Why is the same Greek word translated to servant in the case of Phebe, and translated to a new word, deacon, in the letter to Timothy?

Rom 16:1 ( G1161 ) I commend G4921  unto you G5213  Phebe G5402  our G2257  sister, G79  which is G5607 a servant G1249 of the G3588  church G1577  which G3588  is at G1722  Cenchrea: G2747

In the English Standard Version it looks like this:

Rom 16:1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,
Rom 16:2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.

I don’t have the luxury of being educated in the Greek language to know the difference between daikonos and daikoneo, but it appears Paul is using them in a similar context in his letter to Timothy. Let’s look at the whole passage of scripture concerning the qualifications of a deacon, servant, minister, or attendant of the congregation: This is from the English Standard Version:

1Ti 3:8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.
1Ti 3:9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
1Ti 3:10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
1Ti 3:11 Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.
1Ti 3:12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.
1Ti 3:13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

Why are these two Greek words used many times throughout scripture for attendant, servant, ministering and serving, yet only three or four times translated to the made-up English word “deacon” or diaconus in Latin? Could it be that the tradition of men has made this title deacon into more than it was intended to be? It is just a question. Is there enough evidence to lock women out of serving and attending in the congregation? Does any congregation actually do that, or is it just the official title of “deacon” that some congregations do not allow women to hold? All of these are valid questions. After all, what is a deacon in terms of the entire New Testament, but an attendant or servant of the church? One who ministers the basic needs to the widows, orphans hungry and destitute? Maybe today, deacons only pass out communion once a month? More importantly, what are the qualifications to serve the congregation according to Paul?

• Must be dignified, meaning honorable and honest
• No double talk, meaning not saying one thing to one person and something else to another
• Not addicted to much wine
• Not greedy for dishonest gain
• Only have one wife
• Hold the mystery of the faith with clear conscience

Should this list not be relevant of anyone who is serious about serving Yahweh? What is Paul referring to when he says “mystery of faith”?

I am not trying to diminish the “office of the deacon”. This is merely an attempt to show how tradition pushes meaning onto the text that may not necessarily be there. For example, in the book The Baptist Deacon by Robert Naylor, on page 23, the author states that in the bible it says, “a deacon must not be given to much wine” then he goes on to say that this actually means a deacon must completely abstain from drinking any alcohol. As much as someone may wish that is what the text says, it does not say that. Here is some history of un-fermented wine from Wikipedia:

Thomas Bramwell Welch (December 31, 1825 – December 29, 1903) was a British–American Methodist minister and dentist. He pioneered the use of pasteurization as a means of preventing the fermentation of grape juice. He persuaded local churches to adopt this non-alcoholic wine substitute for use in Holy Communion, calling it “Dr. Welch’s Unfermented Wine.”

If a deacon could be addicted to too much wine, that implies this beverage he is speaking about is alcoholic. Has anyone ever been addicted to too much grape juice? What would be the down side to that from Paul’s perspective? Another example of pushing doctrine on a text happened at a funeral I attended. The person performing the funeral service read the following words of the Apostle Paul:

1Th 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
1Th 4:14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
1Th 4:15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

He went on to explain that Paul actually meant the souls of the dead were already in heaven with Jesus. As much as that is the narrative of many doctrines, it’s not in this section of scripture, and in my opinion, hard to make a case for in scripture at all. It is having a learned belief system first, then imposing that belief system on the scriptures. There are many examples of this, and it is one of the reasons there are over 40,000 denominations in Christianity.

Looking at this situation where the word deacon is actually just a word to describe someone in the congregation that serves, ministers or attends to work that needs to be carried out, it should be fair to conclude that anyone who serves in this type of capacity in the congregation or “church” should be the type of person who Paul describes in Timothy 3:8-13. The list of attributes Paul gives for a servant of the body of Christ is very similar to the words of Jesus on how to obtain eternal life in these passages:

Mat 19:16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
Mat 19:17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
Mat 19:18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,
Mat 19:19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Can we assume Jesus referred to all the commandments here or just the ones listed? If it is just the ones listed we would have to say Jesus was implying Yahweh was no longer concerned with idolatry, sabbath keeping, graven images, coveting, and using His name in a worthless manner.

Therefore, we could conclude that anyone who serves in any capacity should follow the guidelines for being a servant in the church outlined by Paul in his first letter to Timothy. Who would that exclude? It would exclude those who are not “tested and proven blameless”, something similar to the new converts described at the first council. James, whose real name is Jacob, said the following:

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

Gentiles, or people from the nations, would not necessarily be familiar with the commands Yahweh gave to Moses, so they gave them a place to start, Torah commands that the people of the nations of that day would be deeply steeped in breaking, such as: temple prostitution, idol worship, and drinking blood from their temple sacrifices. As they met on the sabbath, being new converts, they would continually learn the ways of Yahweh in the synagogue, eventually becoming “tested and blameless” and able to serve in the congregation of believers. These first steps for believers are found in the Torah. First, the instruction not to eat blood:

Lev 17:14 Indeed, the life of all flesh, its blood, is in its life, so I said to the Israelites, ‘You may not eat the blood of any flesh, because the life of all flesh is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.’

Sexual immorality as defined by Yahweh, told to Moses:

Lev 18:1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 18:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘I am Yahweh your God.
Lev 18:3 You must not carry out the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you lived, and you must not carry out the practices of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you; and you must not follow their statutes.
Lev 18:4 You must carry out my regulations, and you must observe my statutes by following them; I am Yahweh your God.
Lev 18:5 And you shall observe my statutes and my regulations by which the person doing them shall live; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:6 “‘None of you shall approach anyone who is his close relative to expose nakedness; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:7 You must not expose your father’s nakedness or your mother’s nakedness—she is your mother; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:8 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s wife—it is your father’s nakedness.
Lev 18:9 As for your sister’s nakedness, whether your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad, you must not expose their nakedness.
Lev 18:10 As for the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, you must not expose their nakedness, because they are your nakedness.
Lev 18:11 As for the nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, she is your sister, a relative of your father; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:12 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
Lev 18:13 You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.
Lev 18:14 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not have sex with his wife—she is your aunt.
Lev 18:15 You must not expose your daughter-in-law’s nakedness; she is your son’s wife; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:16 You must not expose the nakedness of your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness.
Lev 18:17 You must not expose the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, or her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter; you must not take her as wife to expose her nakedness; they are close relatives—that is wickedness.
Lev 18:18 And you must not take as wife a woman with her sister, to be a rival-wife, to expose her nakedness before her during her life.
Lev 18:19 “‘And you must not have sex with a woman to expose her nakedness during her menstrual uncleanness.
Lev 18:20 And you must not have sex with your fellow citizen’s wife, becoming unclean with her.
Lev 18:21 “‘And you shall not give any of your offspring in order to sacrifice them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:22 And you shall not lie with a male as lying with a woman; that is a detestable thing.
Lev 18:23 And you shall not have sexual relations with any animal, becoming unclean with it; and a woman shall not stand before an animal to copulate with it—that is a perversion.
Lev 18:24 “‘You must not make yourself unclean in any of these things, because the nations whom I am driving out from your presence were made unclean by all of these.
Lev 18:25 So the land became unclean, and I have brought the punishment of its guilt upon it, and the land has vomited out its inhabitants.
Lev 18:26 But you (neither the native nor the alien who is dwelling in your midst) shall keep my statutes and my regulations, and you shall not practice any of these detestable things
Lev 18:27 (because the people of the land, who were before you, did all these detestable things, so the land became unclean),
Lev 18:28 so that the land will not vomit you out when you make it unclean just as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
Lev 18:29 Indeed, anyone who does any of these detestable things, even those persons who do so shall be cut off from the midst of their people.
Lev 18:30 Thus you shall keep my obligation to not do any of the statutes regarding the detestable things that they did before you, so that you will not make yourselves unclean by them; I am Yahweh your God.'”

Finally, these new converts were given the command about idolatry. To this day, believers struggle with these verses by still using the symbols that other religions worshiped their gods with to worship Yahweh.

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

The other group of people Paul is excluding from serving or ministering in the church are those who blatantly are in opposition to being “blameless and tested”. If someone spends years in the congregation of believers and still does not qualify for Paul’s requirements of servants or “deacons”, it must mean they are double tongued, adulterous, greedy or covetous, alcoholics who do not hold to the faith of Jesus. This is a group of people who refuse to study and learn the ways of Yahweh, or are in opposition to his ways. Jesus explains:

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

Here Jesus states our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. These Pharisees did not worship in spirit and truth. They added commandments and stipulations to the commandments of Yahweh, following the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law. They looked good on the outside but were like “whitewashed tombs” on the inside.

Mat 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Strive to meet the qualifications of “the office of a deacon” even if you are never actually a “deacon”. It simply means that you are loving Yahweh and loving your neighbor, as the two greatest commandments state.

Feature photo credit Emma Vail

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

I remember sitting on the living room floor and my father telling my mom that we needed to start attending church. I was about 5 years old. My mother was raised Roman Catholic so that was the only option for her. We attended a Catholic Church for several years after that, where my father was confirmed and I received first communion. My father did a lot of work in the church and I remember the priest dropping off a 1/2 gallon of Canadian Club whiskey as a gift of appreciation for my father. He didn’t really drink, so that sat around for a long time, and I think we ended up giving it to my uncle. My father had grown up involved in the Pentecostal church, so we eventually started attending an Assembly of God church. My mother was studying and learning about God. Growing up in the Roman Catholic Church in the 1940’s, she was not encouraged to read the Bible by the church. A turning point happened for her one night when she asked God if she should quit smoking, and immediately our dog got sprayed by a skunk. My mother took that as a yes, and went from 2-3 packs a day to never smoking again in her life. My father was returning to a path he had started on, and for my mother it was all new.

There was a big effort by my parents to be involved in the churches we attended. They provided the music for two and my father was a deacon in one. There always seemed to be conflict and division in theses churches we attended. Usually there was a building project in every church that didn’t end well. I remember in one church, people were remortgaging their homes to build a bigger church, when the church we had was not what you would call overflowing into the streets. At another church, the building project was a large gymnasium. There was a catered roast beef supper at a fancy hall that we attended. My parents had no idea that they were going to a fund raiser or that there was someone planted at each table to put the pressure on members to give to the building project. They were not just looking for an extra hundred bucks either. The pastor there built the gym and eventually ended up going to jail for mishandling funds, among other things.

I moved away and started attending church in my new country. I married and had children. My wife and I were always involved in a church to some capacity. It seemed to mirror the experiences my parents had. Although we were involved with many good people, there always seemed to be conflict and decisiveness. At times, I was caught up in the drama and took part in it. Eventually I tried to remove myself from all the conflict so I could see if it existed without my help. It was still there, and plentiful. Many church people were lying, abusive, manipulative and deceitful, and I am talking about leadership. I always knew that this was not the way Christians should act, and I always knew the Creator was not like this, nor did He condone it. Many times we would hear, “don’t ever expect to find a perfect church” and “church is for sick people”. Neither myself or my parents were ever looking for a perfect church, we just were looking for a church where people acted at least as good as the non-church people in our life did.

After a few years there was one or more crises in my life, and I was ready to abandon religion all together. Even though I always knew the Creator God was real and interacted with me on a personal level, I found no help from church leadership, actually hindrance. Only friends, some family, and the Creator were there for me. To be fair, most probably did not know I was somewhat unstable. The Creator caused me to study like I never had before and started showing me things through His word. I read volumes of books from Christian writers who were alive in the first five centuries, and I started realizing why we have come to the place we are at in the contemporary church. Call it a conspiracy or prophecy, the result is the same. So in a sense, I did finally abandon religion, but never Yahweh, the Creator, or his son Jesus, also called Yeshua, or Yahusha depending on the language preference. There really isn’t a translation for the Father’s name, nor a positively known pronunciation. It is simply יהוה in the Hebrew Scriptures. I use Yahweh because it is widely accepted and I believe Yahuah is also a good representation. The terms Lord and God are so generic, when using them they have to be defined now- like what God are you talking about? Are you talking about the Creator spoken of in scripture, or a new lawless god? Perhaps he is the god of the light or Kabbalah, possibly from the mystery religions or the lodge?

The first impression that was made on me was by the works of Eusebius. The events he recorded in the fourth century were incredible. The martyrs of the believers, stories of Polycarp and James in the early church that I had never heard before. Augustine also wrote volumes and delved into philosophy, but there were many lost truths about the Old Testament writings that he brings out in Confessions and The City of God. The letters of Augustine are enlightening as well, especially where he keeps asking Jerome questions. They show the transition of the early church from the ways Jesus and the apostles taught, to a political, pagan, war machine. Cyprian was a third century African Bishop that had many writings as to what was happening around his area concerning the church that are also great to read. My view of Christianity changed over a couple years to the point where I would not even read anything from Christian authors that was written after the 18th century. I am still very selective.

It was the writings of the early fathers that really made me interested in the twelve tribes of Israel, all the Old Testement prophecies and how they would unfold. These writings make some contemporary sources seem like kindergarten material. With the help of these commentaries the scripture came a live more than ever before. I had to read the Bible over and over, and finally I realized that the Old Testament was not about Jews or the modern day state of Israel. They may play a part, but the prophecies are much bigger. I realized that Israel, that is the descendants of Jacob, were abandoned by Yahweh for disobedience, but He promises to regather them in the future and all the peoples that they have mixed with. Once I started understanding Deuteronomy and the books of Kings, I realized Christianity today has gone down the same road Israel did before Yahweh divorced and scattered them. They use symbols of other gods to worship Him, and ignore His commandments against Idolatry, sexual immorality, witchcraft and sorcery. It started down this path in the first century. They tried to correct things during the reformation, but were unsuccessful.

The next phase of my personal reformation was learning about the feast days of Yahweh. Those are the festivals that are supposedly for “the Jews”. That is a lie. Those days are for us, today. They are His special days. We have traded them for holy days of the nations starting in the third century and say we are celebrating them in the name of God or Jesus. This is the same thing as Aaron did with the golden calf event and Jeroboam also did with his idols and holidays. It is clear as it can be if your eyes are open. The same symbols and calendar days are celebrated for these demonic deities, principalities and rulers.

It was at this point in my life I started looking at what other people were doing, how they were leaving the mega churches in droves to be “Torah pursuant”. I am still looking at this and think it is prophetic, even though there are aspects of this movement that can lead a person into Kabbalah, Judaism or teachings of the Talmud. I guess it is no different than the church leading a person into idolatry, witchcraft or new age theosophy.

Once I realized the commandments were still relevant, and started paying more attention, things started to come together. The Sabbaths and the feasts are very good. We have celebrated Passover two years now and are still learning. I also realized that many people in the whole world are being brought to this understanding. There are no leaders of the movement, no constitutions or bylaws, only people coming to a similar understanding as I did. The statement of faith is the Word. I am glad that I was not looking at these things in the beginning, because then I would question if it was just a fad or something real. It’s as if a whole group of people woke up one day at the same time. Well maybe they did.

The following prophecy has not happened in full yet. The entire House of Israel was scattered, and mixed into the nations, completely lost genetically.

Deu 30:1 “And then when all of these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse that I have set before you and you call them to mind among the nations there where Yahweh your God has scattered you,
Deu 30:2 and you return to Yahweh and you listen to his voice according to all that I am commanding you today, both you and your children, with all your heart and with all your inner self,
Deu 30:3 and Yahweh your God will restore your fortunes, and he will have compassion upon you, and he will again gather you together from all the peoples where Yahweh your God scattered you there.
Deu 30:4 “Even if you are outcasts at the end of the heavens, even from there Yahweh your God shall gather you, and from there he shall bring you back.
Deu 30:5 And Yahweh your God will bring you to the land that your ancestors had taken possession of, and he will make you successful, and he will make you more numerous than your ancestors.
Deu 30:6 “And Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your inner self so that you may live.
Deu 30:7 And Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, on those who harassed you.
Deu 30:8 And you will again listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you will do all his commandments that I am commanding you today.
Deu 30:9 And Yahweh your God will make you prosperous in all your undertakings, and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground abundantly, for Yahweh will again rejoice over you, just as he rejoiced over your ancestors.
Deu 30:10 He will do this if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God by keeping his commandment and his statutes written in the scroll of this law and if you return to Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your inner self.

The prophet Jeremiah speaks of a time when people will realize they have inherited nothing but lies and idolatry.

Jer 16:14 Therefore look, days are coming,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and it will no longer be said, “As Yahweh lives, who led up the Israelites from the land of Egypt,”
Jer 16:15 but only “As Yahweh lives, who led up the Israelites from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them,” for I will bring them back to their ground that I gave to their ancestors.
Jer 16:16 Look, I am sending for many fishermen,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and they will fish them out, and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and from the clefts of the cliffs.
Jer 16:17 For my eyes are on all their ways, they are not hidden from before me, and their iniquity is not concealed from before my eyes.
Jer 16:18 And I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin because of their profaning my land with the dead bodies of their abhorrences, and with their abominations they have filled up my inheritance.'”
Jer 16:19 O Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our ancestors have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.
Jer 16:20 Can a human make for himself gods? Yet they are not gods!”
Jer 16:21 “Therefore look, I am about to let them know, this time I am going to let them know my power and my might, and they will know that my name is Yahweh.”

We know this is a future event because it will be so great that people will no longer talk about the exodus from Egypt. We are still talking about that. There is also a prophecy that Ezekiel had where Yahweh told him to lie on his side, a day for every year God was going to curse the House of Israel.

Eze 4:4 And you, lie down on your left side, and you must put the guilt of the house of Israel on it. You will carry their guilt the number of days that you will lie on it.
Eze 4:5 And I will give to you the years of their guilt according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days, and you must bear the guilt of the house of Israel.
Eze 4:6 When you have completed these, then you must lie a second time on your right side; and you must bear the guilt of the house of Judah forty days, a day for each year, a day for each year I give it to you.

The House of Israel was given a sentence of 390 years where the House of Judah was given 40 years. The House of Israel was the northern kingdom and they never came back to Yahweh and dispersed into the nations. Yahweh indicates if they would not repent the curse would be multiplied by sevenfold.

Lev 26:14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,
Lev 26:15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,
Lev 26:16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Lev 26:17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.
Lev 26:18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins,
Lev 26:19 and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

The House of Israel’s curse told to Ezekiel was 390 years. The theory is that because they never returned to obeying Yahweh, the 390 years has to be multiplied by seven due to Leviticus 26:18. Assyria captured the Northern kingdom around 722 BC, so add 390 x 7 and you land in the year 2008. The curse shown to Ezekiel ended roughly in 2008. It was in that time frame that people started coming back to following the commandments of Yahweh. I received the call and many others did also. Now the movement is growing. It has been mainly organic in the sense that it is happening all over the world, even though it does not carry a popular message.

Jer 3:6 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.
Jer 3:7 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.
Jer 3:8 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.
Jer 3:9 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.
Jer 3:10 Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares Yahweh.
Jer 3:11 Then Yahweh said to me, “Apostate Israel has proved herself more upright than treacherous Judah.
Jer 3:12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, apostate Israel,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will not cause my anger to fall on you. For I am loyal,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will not be angry forever.
Jer 3:13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ declares Yahweh.”
Jer 3:14 “Return, apostate children,” declares Yahweh. “For I am your master, and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you to Zion.
Jer 3:15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart and they will feed you knowledge and insight.
Jer 3:16 And it will be when you have multiplied and become fruitful in the land in those days,” declares Yahweh, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of Yahweh.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again.
Jer 3:17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of Yahweh,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem, and they will no longer go after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
Jer 3:18 In those days the house of Judah will walk along with the house of Israel and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave as an inheritance to your ancestors.
Jer 3:19 Then I thought, ‘How I would set you among the children, and I would give you a land of desire, an inheritance of the glory of the hosts of nations.’ And I thought, ‘You would call me, “My father,” and you would not turn back from behind me.’
Jer 3:20 However, as a wife departs treacherously from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel,” declares Yahweh.
Jer 3:21 “A voice is heard on the barren heights, the weeping of the pleas for mercy of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.
Jer 3:22 Return, O apostate children, I will heal your backsliding. ‘Look, we come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.
Jer 3:23 Surely, an illusion comes from the hills, the turmoil on the mountains. Surely, in Yahweh our God is the salvation of Israel.
Jer 3:24 But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our ancestors from our youth, their flocks, and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.
Jer 3:25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. For against Yahweh our God we have sinned, we and our ancestors, from our youth and until this day. and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.’

At a time leaders like Andy Stanley are saying we need to “unhitch” ourselves from the Old Testament; however, I am saying it is actually quite the opposite, The secret to living to the fullest is actually doing what Yahweh said to do. The scriptures are twisted by men to allow men to follow their own lusts and imaginations. Take a look around, look close in the churches; How is it working out? I am a “measure by results” type of person, and things are pitiful in my opinion. You are a spiritual descendant of Abraham through Jesus the Messiah. That means all these scriptures about gathering, obedience and someday living in the land, apply to you.

Rom 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Rom 9:4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.
Rom 9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Rom 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
Rom 9:7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

Here is a picture of a fake Jesus:

I would not attend this church. Putting a man-made decree as a stipulation to be a follower of Jesus, even if this is in jest, is offensive. We don’t make an image of the real Jesus, but this is what is said by the real Jesus:

Mat 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
Mat 7:23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Here is another one:

If you want to wear a mask, or require others to, that’s one thing, but don’t tie it to scripture as if this new fad somehow defines a person‘s salvation.

Having spent a lifetime in organized religion, “being in God’s will” or “what is God’s will in my life?” were popular subjects. How can someone be in God’s will and break His commandments? It seems simple, but that was never presented as a possibility. What has the will of the father always been but to follow the commandments and do what He said to do? If you are wondering what God’s will is for your life, start with His commandments and the details will work themselves out. After all, what else matters?

Mat 19:16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
Mat 19:17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
Mat 19:18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,
Mat 19:19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Mat 19:20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”
Mat 19:21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Jesus knew that this young man didn’t keep the commandments. In a fragment of the gospel of the Hebrews, preserved in the writings of Jerome, there is another line in the story.  “But the rich man began to scratch his head, and it pleased him not. And the Lord said unto him: How sayest though: I have kept the law and the prophets? For it is written in the law: Though shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and lo, many of thy brethren, sons of Abraham, are clad in filth, dying for hunger, and thine house is full of many good things, and nought at all goeth out of it unto them.“

Here is another interesting picture. Is it out of ignorance, plain deception, or a devious conspiracy? I don’t know, but it is poor imagery. The Washington monument is the highest obelisk in the world. It is a phallic symbol relating to sun worship. The people who put this monument in Washington knew what it is and the god it represents. A fun fact is that it’s base is 55.5 feet (666 inches) square and its height is 555 feet (6660 inches). Put a cross atop of an obelisk and there is your typical church steeple.

Yahweh hates Ashera poles and obelisks. Israel was divorced for harlotry with other gods and the church has carried on the tradition. These are part of Babylonian mystery religions. In this picture, thousands of Christians are gathered under the obelisk to pray to whom? Yahweh hates stone pillars. Do these folks think Yahweh recently started liking stone pillars?

Deu 16:21 You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah pole beside the altar of Yahweh your God that you make for yourselves.
Deu 16:22 And you shall not set up for yourselves a stone pillar, a thing that Yahweh your God hates.

Pro 28:9 If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

Is this what the Apostle John was seeing when he wrote down the visions in Revelation?

Rev 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;
Rev 18:5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Jeremiah has a warning as well:

Jer 51:44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer flow to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen.
Jer 51:45 “Go out of the midst of her, my people! Let every one save his life from the fierce anger of the LORD!
Jer 51:46 Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful at the report heard in the land, when a report comes in one year and afterward a report in another year, and violence is in the land, and ruler is against ruler.
Jer 51:47 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

This is where I have arrived in my life. It is amazing to me that while I was wrestling with Yahweh, thousands of other people in the world were coming to some of the same truths. I appreciate the people who have liked my blogs and my Facebook page. I have had people contact me from as far away as West Africa and India to encourage me.

I named the blog Hear the Matter from Proverbs 18:13, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame”. I write the things I write to challenge the reader to search these matters out for themselves. There are very few in my life who have any interest concerning these things, but I find some people to converse with, with the aid of the internet. Do not rely on other people to do the hard work. My experience is that people have been taught not to question so called church authority, and they accept everything that is said to them from leadership, yet Paul says:

Php 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
Php 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

And John…

1Jn 2:26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
1Jn 2:27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Below is a link to a map that people who have returned to Yahuah have added their names to from the “ four corners of the Earth”

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1VwhwTcggPdBn_Fc-t2HcWZCVYuA&hl=en%20&ll=12.016549181497941%2C54.25217793364277&z=1

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14-15

What does it mean to repent? It’s an unpopular message, yet it seems to be a key requirement that Jesus and the apostles often emphasize. What is the gospel that we are to believe in? Neither repentance nor the gospel are solely New Testament concepts. Yahweh speaks through the prophet Ezekiel in these scriptures:

Eze 18:23 Have I delight by any means in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord Yahweh, and not at his turning from his way, so that he lives?
Eze 18:24 And when the righteous turns from his righteousness, so that he does injustice, and does all of the detestable things that the wicked do, then will he live because of all of his righteousness that he did? Those things will not be remembered because of his infidelity that he displayed, and because of his sin that he committed. Through them he shall die.
Eze 18:25 “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ Listen, now, house of Israel, is my way not fair? Is it not your ways that are not fair?
Eze 18:26 When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and he does injustice, then he will die because of them; because of his injustice that he did he will die!
Eze 18:27 And when the wicked turns from his wickedness that he did and he does justice and righteousness, he will preserve his life.
Eze 18:28 And if he sees and he returns from all of his transgressions that he did, surely he will live; he will not die!
Eze 18:29 And yet they, the house of Israel, say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ Are not my ways fair, house of Israel? Are not your ways unfair?
Eze 18:30 “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways,” declares the Lord Yahweh. “Repent and turn around from all of your transgression, and it will not be as a stumbling block of iniquity to you.
Eze 18:31 Throw away from yourselves all of your transgressions that you committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and new spirit, and so why will you die, house of Israel?

Verse 24 throws cold water on the once saved, always saved theology, much like the writer of Hebrews does:

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,
Heb 6:5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
Heb 6:6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
Heb 6:7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.
Heb 6:8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
Heb 6:9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.
Heb 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

These are some hard topics, especially since they are not discussed often. Today, it is all about being tolerant and inclusive. However, is that what Jesus preached? The ones preaching tolerance today are often quite intolerant of anything that opposes their world view. Paul warns of these people in his letter to Timothy:

2Ti 3:1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
2Ti 3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
2Ti 3:5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
2Ti 3:6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,
2Ti 3:7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Jesus tells His audience to repent or perish. He never indicated that if a person was a “good person” they need not repent, or that their sin would not count against them. We can be forgiven only when we repent. Psalms 14 says, “There is not one who does good; there is not even one.”

Luk 13:1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
Luk 13:3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

There is no other record concerning these events Jesus was speaking about; however, it is clear that these people who had died in unfortunate circumstances where no worse offenders than anyone else. Anyone that does not repent “will likewise perish”. It is interesting to note that Jesus uses the word perish numerous times throughout scripture, and does not always equate that to being in a place of torment forever. Jesus tells His audience to repent or perish. Yahweh has always wanted this. It was the purpose of the prophet Jonah’s trip to Nineveh.

Jon 3:3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an extraordinarily great city—a journey of three days across.
Jon 3:4 And Jonah began to go into the city a journey of one day, and he cried out and said, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be demolished!”
Jon 3:5 And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least important.
Jon 3:6 And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and removed his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Jon 3:7 And he had a proclamation made, and said, “In Nineveh, by a decree of the king and his nobles: “No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything! They must not eat, and they must not drink water!
Jon 3:8 And the human beings and the animals must be covered with sackcloth! And they must call forcefully to God, and each must turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
Jon 3:9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind and turn from his blazing anger so that we will not perish.”
Jon 3:10 And God saw their deeds—that they turned from their evil ways—and God changed his mind about the evil that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

How do we repent? Peter tells us in the book of Acts.

Act 2:36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Act 2:37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Act 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Act 2:39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Peter is addressing “all” the house of Israel. This is all twelve tribes which include Judah, the “Jews”, the other eleven tribes scattered throughout the whole world, and all that are far off. This is the gospel. There is a path for those previously cut off, divorced from Yahweh and “not His people”, or the nations. Everyone knew what Peter was speaking about and it was truly “good news”. Paul says the same thing in his letter to the Ephesians:

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” When we repent for the forgiveness of our sins, how can we define sin other than the transgression of Yahweh’s law? In doing so we get the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is in a sense, Jesus in spirit. First, we can see Paul defines sin as breaking the law of Yahweh. The law of Yahweh defines sin.

Rom 7:7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.

John also defines sin:

1Jn 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
1Jn 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
1Jn 3:6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
1Jn 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
1Jn 3:8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
1Jn 3:9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
1Jn 3:10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

These words of John go against the current narrative that says we shouldn’t follow the law of Yahweh and that we can’t do it, so don’t try. John also says this:

1Jn 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
1Jn 2:2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1Jn 2:3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
1Jn 2:4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
1Jn 2:5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:
1Jn 2:6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
1Jn 2:7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
1Jn 2:8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Paul can be confusing, and right here John is also confusing. On one hand, John says that no one who abides in Him, Yahweh God, keeps on sinning, but on the other hand, if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. There is a difference between practicing sin and committing a sin. Practicing sin, or lawlessness, would mean a person has no regard for Yahweh’s instructions or does not believe these instructions are relevant, where practicing righteousness would mean a person was studying, learning and doing the ways of Yahweh. Notice John says he is not giving a new commandment, but an old commandment known from the beginning. What commandments did we have in the beginning if not the ones Yahweh gave to the twelve tribes? When we repent and receive the Spirit of Truth from Jesus, then we are empowered to practice righteousness. If we don’t repent, as Jesus said, we will perish. Why do I say the Spirit comes from Jesus? Let’s look at the following:

Joh 20:21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
Joh 20:22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Joh 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

So the Spirit is sent by Jesus, from the Father. Jesus also says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:20. How is He with us but through the Spirit? Paul addresses the people at Athens about repentance in the following passages:

Act 17:29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
Act 17:30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
Act 17:31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

For those who say we cannot practice righteousness by keeping the commandments, why do you contradict Yahweh, creator of the universe? He tells us it is not too hard:

Deu 30:11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.
Deu 30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’
Deu 30:13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’
Deu 30:14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

Again, repent. From what? Practicing lawlessness. Why? Yahweh has a fixed day in which He will judge everyone. Please see my blog post The Great Day of Yahuah for more on this subject.

Isa 1:27 Zion will be redeemed by justice, and those of her who repent, by righteousness.
Isa 1:28 But the destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake Yahweh will perish.

In Isaiah we see this word perish again. What does it mean? It is Strong’s H3615, and it means to be ended, vanish, destroyed and exterminated. There is no mention about eternal torment in fire, for that reason we will look at this subject closer later.

H3615
כּלה
kâlâh
BDB Definition:
1) to accomplish, cease, consume, determine, end, fail, finish, be complete, be accomplished, be ended, be at an end, be finished, be spent
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to be complete, be at an end
1a2) to be completed, be finished
1a3) to be accomplished, be fulfilled
1a4) to be determined, be plotted (bad sense)
1a5) to be spent, be used up
1a6) to waste away, be exhausted, fail
1a7) to come to an end, vanish, perish, be destroyed
1b) (Piel)
1b1) to complete, bring to an end, finish
1b2) to complete (a period of time)
1b3) to finish (doing a thing)
1b4) to make an end, end
1b5) to accomplish, fulfil, bring to pass
1b6) to accomplish, determine (in thought)
1b7) to put an end to, cause to cease
1b8) to cause to fail, exhaust, use up, spend
1b9) to destroy, exterminate
1c) (Pual) to be finished, be ended, be completed

How have we arrived at the place where there is no longer talk of repentance or practicing righteousness? Jesus did not come for the well, but the sick.

Mat 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Mat 9:12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Mat 9:13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Is Jesus no longer an effective physician? Why do there continue to be so many who call themselves Christians which are not healed in their spirit? It is from the lack of repentance and not practicing righteousness, which results in not having the Spirit of Truth to guide them. It is our duty to tell people to repent and the good news is that there is now a path through Jesus for eternal life. We quote John 3:16, but what about 3:20 and 21?

Joh 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Joh 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Joh 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Joh 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Joh 3:20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Joh 3:21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Those who are well need to sound the alarm!

Zec 11:17 “Woe, my worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May a sword fall on his arm and on his right eye! May his arm wither completely and his right eye be utterly blinded!”

Jer 14:13 Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh, look, the prophets are saying to them, ‘You will not see the sword, and famine will not be yours, but reliable peace I will give to you in this place.'”
Jer 14:14 And Yahweh said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them, and I have not commanded them, and I have not spoken to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, and a divination, worthless, and the deceitfulness of their minds.”
Jer 14:15 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophecy in my name though I have not sent them, yet they are saying, “Sword and famine will not be in this land.””By the sword and by the famine those prophets will perish.

Our ancestors have inherited lies! They have been tricked into worshipping the idols of the nations on the feast days of demons! They have been told not to follow the instructions of Yahweh. They have mixed the good news of the gospel with philosophy and theosophy.

Jer 16:19 O Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our ancestors have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.
Jer 16:20 Can a human make for himself gods? Yet they are not gods!”
Jer 16:21 “Therefore look, I am about to let them know, this time I am going to let them know my power and my might, and they will know that my name is Yahweh.”

One of the purposes of this blog site is to help identify some of the lies Jeremiah was prophesying about. People are starting to wake up to many of the lies we have inherited. Once a person sees it, it cannot be unseen, and we are compelled to call the lies out. Practice righteousness, not lawlessness.

Act 3:19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out,
Act 3:20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ appointed for you—Jesus,
Act 3:21 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.

The word lawlessness comes from the Greek word anomos, Strong’s G459.

G459
ἄνομος
anomos
Thayer Definition:
1) destitute of (the Mosaic) law
1a) of the Gentiles
2) departing from the law, a violator of the law, lawless, wicked

Rev 22:11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
Rev 22:12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
Rev 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Rev 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
Rev 22:15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Rev 22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

What is it to perish compared to be in eternal flames? Jesus throws the beast and the false prophet in the eternal flames when he comes back, yet the rest were slain by the sword of His mouth having their flesh eaten by birds.

Rev 19:19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
Rev 19:20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
Rev 19:21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

We also see that anyone who takes the mark of the beast or worships the beast will be thrown into the lake of fire having no rest forever and ever.

Rev 14:9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,
Rev 14:10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
Rev 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

After the thousand year millennium, the devil is released for a time and then thrown into the eternal fire.

Rev 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

So far, we see only the beast, the false prophet, the humans who took the mark of the beast, and the devil who deceived everyone in the eternal flames being tormented forever. Finally, there is the judgement day , also spoken of by the prophet Daniel, where all the dead are raised and brought before the righteousness judge.

Rev 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Rev 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Rev 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Can something be called a second death if the person lives forever being tormented in the flames? This is speculation, but I believe that the people who take the mark of the beast will be caused to be immortal in a way that Yahweh does not approve, much like the nephalim, who unnaturally became immortal as the illegitimate children of fallen angels and humans. Every other mortal that gets thrown in the fire will perish in the flames, because they have not received eternal life from repentance, or become immortal by the beast’s mark. However, repent and practice righteousness and you will not need to worry about perishing or burning forever. This is the hope we have and the good news.

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Rev 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Rev 21:5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Rev 21:6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
Rev 21:7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Rev 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.” Matthew 22:11-12

An overlooked prophecy by Zechariah which, I referenced in my last blog post, What is Church, has an impact on the salvation Yahweh provides for the people of the Earth. Part of the problem that caused me to overlook these passages was not knowing the given name of the son of God. If the little boy, Jesus, was walking along with his parents and some one yelled, “Hey Jesus”, he would not have turned his head. Similarly, his parents would not have answered to Mr. and Mrs. Christ. In previous blogs I have explained how Jesus is a name that is the result of several merging languages. Christ simply means anointed one, which is similar to messiah. In Greek, the son of God’s name is Iesous, which comes from Yahusha in Hebrew. Yahusha translates to Joshua in English. For what ever reason, in the book of Zechariah, Yahusha is translated to Joshua in most English translations. In the Greek Septuagint, it is translated as Iesous, the same Iesous that is used in the New Testament Greek manuscripts for the son of God. It is much more confusing than it should be, and no one ever seems to take the time to explain it. Here is the passage we are referring to:

Zec 3:1 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh; and Satan was standing on his right to accuse him.
Zec 3:2 But Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebukes you, O Satan! Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you! Is this not a stick snatched from the fire?”
Zec 3:3 And Joshua was clothed in filthy garments and was standing before the angel.
Zec 3:4 And he answered and said to the ones standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And he said to him, “See, I have taken away your guilt from you, and will clothe you with rich garments.”
Zec 3:5 And I said, “Let them put a clean headband on his head.” And they put a clean headband on his head, and they clothed him with garments. And the angel of Yahweh was standing by.
Zec 3:6 And the angel of Yahweh assured Joshua, saying,
Zec 3:7 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my requirements, then you will judge my house, and you will also guard my courtyards, and I will give to you passageways among these that are standing here.
Zec 3:8 Listen, please, O Joshua the high priest, you and your companions that are sitting before you. For the men are a sign that, look, I am going to bring my servant the Branch.
Zec 3:9 For consider, the stone that I set before Joshua, on one stone are seven eyes. Look, I am going to engrave an inscription on it,’ declares Yahweh of hosts, ‘and I will remove the guilt of that land in a single day.
Zec 3:10 On that day,’ declares Yahweh of hosts, ‘you will invite one another under the vine and under the fig tree.'”

Compare to Brenton’s English Septuagint translation:

Zec 3:1 And the Lord shewed me Jesus the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and the Devil stood on his right hand to resist him.
Zec 3:2 And the Lords said to the Devil,
Zec 3:3 The Lord rebuke thee, O Devil, even the Lord that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: behold! is not this as a brand plucked from the fire?
Zec 3:4 Now Jesus was clothed in filthy raiment, and stood before the angel.
Zec 3:5 And the Lord answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy raiment from him: and he said to him, Behold, I have taken away thine iniquities: and clothe ye him with a long robe,
Zec 3:6 and place a pure mitre upon his head. So they placed a pure mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments: and the angel of the Lord stood by.
Zec 3:7 And the angel of the Lord testified to Jesus, saying,
Zec 3:8 Thus saith the Lord Almighty; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and take heed to my charges, then shalt thou judge my house: and if thou wilt diligently keep my court, then will I give thee men to walk in the midst of these that stand here.
Zec 3:9 Hear now, Jesus the high priest, thou, and thy neighbours that are sitting before thee: for they are diviners, for, behold, I bring forth my servant The Branch.
Zec 3:10 For as for the stone which I have set before the face of Jesus, on the one stone are seven eyes: behold, I am digging a trench, saith the Lord Almighty, and I will search out all the iniquity of that land in one day.
Zec 3:11 In that day, saith the Lord Almighty, ye shall call together every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree.

Jesus, being the high priest and king in the order of Melchizedek, is key to understanding the replacement of the Levitical priest system. This is part of the new covenant. The writer of Hebrews explains:

Heb 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Heb 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Heb 5:1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Heb 5:2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
Heb 5:3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.
Heb 5:4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
Heb 5:5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”;
Heb 5:6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
Heb 5:7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Heb 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
Heb 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,
Heb 5:10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Heb 7:11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?
Heb 7:12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.
Heb 7:13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.
Heb 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
Heb 7:15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek,
Heb 7:16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.
Heb 7:17 For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
Heb 7:18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness
Heb 7:19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

The verses the writer of Hebrews referenced are from the Psalms. Melchizedek is a title meaning king and priest, just as the person Abraham met after the war of nine kings. Here are the scriptures below:

Gen 14:17 After his return from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the Valley of the King).
Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. (He was the priest of God Most High).
Gen 14:19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth.
Gen 14:20 And blessed be God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave to him a tenth of everything.

Psa 110:1 Of David. A psalm. A declaration of Yahweh to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Psa 110:2 Yahweh will send out your mighty scepter from Zion; rule in the midst of your enemies.
Psa 110:3 Your people will volunteer in the day of your power. In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, you will have the dew of your youth.
Psa 110:4 Yahweh has sworn and he will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedek.”
Psa 110:5 O Lord, at your right hand he will shatter kings in the day of his anger.
Psa 110:6 He will judge among the nations; he will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the rulers of many countries.
Psa 110:7 He will drink from the stream by the road; therefore he will lift up his head.

The filthy garments are removed, and new garments are given while the guilt of the nation is removed in one day. Zechariah 3:9, “and I will remove the guilt of that land in a single day”. Jesus took away the guilt and traded in His filthy garments, soiled by the sins of all the people in the world, not His own, for clean, new ones. We see imagery in other places in scripture talking about garments:

Mat 22:1 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,
Mat 22:2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son,
Mat 22:3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
Mat 22:4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’
Mat 22:5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,
Mat 22:6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
Mat 22:7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
Mat 22:8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
Mat 22:9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’
Mat 22:10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Mat 22:11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
Mat 22:12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

What is the wedding garment, and how do we get one? We will be going to a wedding with the King. Could this be what Jesus is referring to with his parable? At the marriage supper of the lamb, the fine linen of the garments are “the righteous deeds of the saints”. There are more references that lead to this same conclusion.

Rev 19:6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Rev 19:7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
Rev 19:8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Rev 19:9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

There is a correlation between conquering, having white garments, and not soiling or defiling them. We see this concept in the wording of the letter Jesus told John to write to the church of Sardis.

Rev 3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Rev 3:2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
Rev 3:3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
Rev 3:4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
Rev 3:5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Rev 3:6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

What does this word that translates to white mean in the Greek? It is Strong’s G3022 and appears to mean more than just a color.

G3022
λευκός
leukos
Thayer Definition:
1) light, bright, brilliant
1a) brilliant from whiteness, (dazzling) white
1a1) of the garments of angels, and of those exalted to the splendour of the heavenly state
1a2) shining or white garments worn on festive or state occasions
1a3) of white garments as the sign of innocence and purity of the soul
1b) dead white
1b1) of the whitening colour of ripening grain

In these verses below we are shown how to obtain a white robe, that is by washing them in the blood of the lamb.

Rev 7:9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
Rev 7:10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Rev 7:11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
Rev 7:12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Rev 7:13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”
Rev 7:14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev 7:15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
Rev 7:16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.
Rev 7:17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

The lamb, Jesus, is the only one worthy to take away sins, therefore releasing those who wash their robes from the grips of the grave.

Rev 5:8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Rev 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Rev 5:10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Rev 22:11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
Rev 22:12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
Rev 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Rev 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
Rev 22:15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Rev 22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

According to these scriptures, the ones who wash their robes have the right to the tree of life. Earlier, we saw that we wash the robes in the blood of the lamb. If we look at the ones that are “outside”, “dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood”, the language in all these passages is pretty clear. We have to wash our garments in the blood of the lamb, who was killed to take away the sins of the world, much like the vision Zechariah showed of Jesus shedding the sins of the world with the imagery of receiving new garments. We have to wash our garments in the same blood. But look, with all these verses doesn’t it appear that once we have clean garments, washed in the blood, we have to keep them clean? Jesus says he is going to purge his kingdom of law-breakers. Which laws are these people breaking? Speed limits on highways? The law of gravity? I am suggesting it is not any earthly laws, but the laws of Yahweh God.

Mat 13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
Mat 13:42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

What do the garments we will get represent? Could they not be our resurrected body ‘shining like the sun’ ? How can we attend the wedding feast in our old garments which are soiled? Once we wash in the blood we will receive something better, which means in a sense, we have already received our new bodies and we need to keep them clean. Maybe it is the inner man that is renewed first, and after the resurrection we will get our “white robes” or angelic bodies, and the transition will be complete.

1Co 15:50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
1Co 15:51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
1Co 15:55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
1Co 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
1Co 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

This is what Jesus is talking about in the following passages of scripture, we were dead but come alive spiritually, just like we will resurrect from the dead physically. One hour is now, where the dead raise spiritually, and the other one coming where the dead raise physically.

Joh 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Joh 5:25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
Joh 5:26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
Joh 5:27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Joh 5:28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice
Joh 5:29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Keep in mind though, we still have to die, just as Jesus did, spending three days and three nights in the grave. Unless of course, we are alive at His coming.

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

When Jesus was dead for three days and three nights, there was not any non-material part of him, such as a ghost, that ascended to heaven, while his body was lying in the ground. When he rose, He rose with his resurrected body, a complete unit. We will do the same. That is the miracle of conquering death and the grave. If everyone has a non-material part that goes to heaven when they die, or to the place of punishment, that becomes problematic to scripture. How can one be sent to the place of judgement, before the judgement? Jesus asked Mary not to touch him because He had not ascended to the Father.

Joh 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Joh 3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

Unfortunately, Christianity has been blended with mythology and philosophy to the point where Christians actually think there is a character like Poseidon in the underworld waiting with his trident for the non-material soul of a dead “bad” person to arrive. Similarly, the “good” person’s non-material part of their body goes to a good place, in the Christian sense, “heaven”. This is all Greek influenced thinking by folks like Plato. It’s not found in the bible. Here is what an early church father, Irenæus, had to say about the subject from Against All Heresies ,Book 5, Chapter 31 sometime in the second century:

1. Since, again, some who are reckoned among the orthodox go beyond the pre-arranged plan for the exaltation of the just, and are ignorant of the methods by which they are disciplined beforehand for incorruption, they thus entertain heretical opinions. For the heretics, despising the handiwork of God, and not admitting the salvation of their flesh, while they also treat the promise of God contemptuously, and pass beyond God altogether in the sentiments they form, affirm that immediately upon their death they shall pass above the heavens and the Demiurge, and go to the Mother (Achamoth) or to that Father whom they have feigned. Those persons, therefore, who disallow a resurrection affecting the whole man (universam reprobant resurrectionem), and as far as in them lies remove it from the midst [of the Christian scheme], how can they be wondered at, if again they know nothing as to the plan of the resurrection? For they do not choose to understand, that if these things are as they say, the Lord Himself, in whom they profess to believe, did not rise again upon the third day; but immediately upon His expiring on the cross, undoubtedly departed on high, leaving His body to the earth. But the case was, that for three days He dwelt in the place where the dead were, as the prophet says concerning Him: “And the Lord remembered His dead saints who slept formerly in the land of sepulture; and He descended to them, to rescue and save them.” And the Lord Himself says, “As Jonas remained three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth.” (Mat 12:40) Then also the apostle says, “But when He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?” (Eph 4:9) This, too, David says when prophesying of Him, “And thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell;” (Psa 86:13) and on His rising again the third day, He said to Mary, who was the first to see and to worship Him, “Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to the disciples, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and unto your Father.” (Joh 20:17)

There are objections to this, but it is too lengthy of a subject for this blog post. I believe dead is dead and that is why the promise of the resurrection is so important. Due to the blending of mythology, there is not a mainstream Christian teaching that can be found on the resurrection of the dead. Note the following passages of scripture:

Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Act 2:29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Act 2:30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne,
Act 2:31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death. Without the resurrection we would simply die and rot away because of sin. However, with the resurrection comes eternal life or the judgement.

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The writer of Hebrews laments the fact that the recipients of his letter do not yet understand the elementary principles of the faith, which includes the resurrection of the dead. Why are we the same today, with nearly no mention of the resurrection?

Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

The resurrection is where we will receive the white garments. We must wash our garments with the blood of Jesus and not soil them. We don’t want to be found naked as Paul states. This following passage contains the verse, which the whole concept of a non-material part of us goes to heaven when we die, appears to be derived from. It is the famous “absent from the body, present with the Lord” verse. It sounds viable misquoted and out of context, but let’s look at what Paul is saying in complete context, keeping in mind all that he has written.

2Co 5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
2Co 5:3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
2Co 5:4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
2Co 5:5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
2Co 5:6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
2Co 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
2Co 5:8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
2Co 5:9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Paul states we are in an earthly tent and there is a heavenly home waiting for us in eternity. He is comparing our corruptible body or garment with the incorruptible garment we will receive, and that the Spirit is a guarantee. Yet, he also says we don’t want to be found naked! That is, without either the earthly tent or heavenly body. There is no time that we will be naked, in a non-material state, when meeting Jesus. Also, the key verse that is misquoted is verse 5:8, “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord”. Of course we would rather be clothed with our heavenly body than in our earthly tent; however, we will have to wait for the resurrection. If the dead know nothing, as the verse in Ecclesiastes states, then the transition from our last breath on Earth to our heavenly body will seem instantaneous, even if we are in the grave for hundreds of years.

Mat 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
Mat 25:32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
Mat 25:33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Mat 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
Mat 25:36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
Mat 25:37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
Mat 25:38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
Mat 25:39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
Mat 25:40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Mat 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Mat 25:42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
Mat 25:43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Mat 25:44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
Mat 25:45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
Mat 25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Make sure you have your wedding garment and it is unsoiled. No one wants to be found without a wedding garment when Jesus comes.

“If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.” Revelation 13:10

During the past two millennia, the church or the word church, has taken on many meanings. From observation, it seems the word church has grown legs and walked away with itself, often times taking with it the people of Yahweh God. The purpose of this blog post is to explore what this word church is about. We will start with Stephen’s speech in the Acts of the Apostles where he refers to the church being present with Moses at Mount Sinai, or sometimes called Horeb.

Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the *wilderness forty years.
Act 7:37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Act 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

The word translated to church here is Strong’s G1577

G1577
ἐκκλησία
ekklēsia
Thayer Definition:
1) a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly
1a) an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating
1b) the assembly of the Israelites
1c) any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance, tumultuously
1d) in a Christian sense
1d1) an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting
1d2) a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order’s sake
1d3) those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body
1d4) the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth
1d5) the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven

I started with this verse, quoting from the King James Version of the Bible because it translates Strong’s G1577 to church. Other versions, such as the English Standard Version, use the word congregation for this verse in Acts, yet use church for translating Strong’s G1577 in other verses. I am pointing this out only to show the interpreter’s bias. If the assembly of the twelve tribes is referred to as the church, then it becomes problematic for dispensational doctrine. Dispensationalism is a belief system that was started in the late 19th century which makes the church have a capital C and separates it from the Israel of God. Paul is quite clear that with Yahweh God there is no separation of Yahweh’s people. Note the following two scripture passages:

Gal 3:24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,
Gal 3:26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Gal 6:14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Gal 6:15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
Gal 6:16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

If we remove dispensationalism and the idea that somehow the “Church” is a separate entity from the Israel of God, or Israel in general, then we create a huge problem for people who are looking for a pre-tribulation rapture of the “Church”. We must realize that there never has been any covenant made with anything that is called the church. The new covenant was made with the House of Israel and the House of Judea. The writer of Hebrews shows this by quoting Jeremiah in the letter to the Hebrews.

Heb 8:6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
Heb 8:8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
Heb 8:9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Heb 8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Churches today are made up of many sects that have taken parts of scripture and focused on certain aspects of Christianity. This is church, but not necessarily the ekklesia we find Stephen talking about in Acts. I have been part of a few denominations: Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Baptist. Pentecostal and Baptist denominations can be broken down into many sects that believe certain things unique from each other, but for this purpose I am lumping them all together. As a Baptist Deacon, I was given a book which was to show the way to be a Baptist Deacon, and after reading it, I realized I shouldn’t even be a Baptist Deacon at all. It states “A Baptist deacon and pastor must be absolutely dedicated to the will of the congregation. A deacon must believe this is true and right”. Also, “They [church member or deacon] believe putting a New Testament in the hands of a saved person and asking him to read with an eye single to the kind of church that is described in its pages will lead him to become a Baptist”. I think a pastor or deacon should be dedicated to the will of God, not the congregation, and I do not believe any church denomination best represents the New Testament church currently, although I know that there are many individual people in the world who do. A new term that has come to be, which is churchianity, describes much of the things we are seeing, much like what Paul warned Timothy about.

2Ti 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
2Ti 3:13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
2Ti 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
2Ti 3:15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Most of the churches I have been involved with subscribe to dispensationalism; however, until I studied for myself, I didn’t even know that was what was being taught, or that word existed. I am not sure if that is unique to me, or it is the case for everyone, because very few people in the churches I have been a part of discuss much about such topics, or for that matter, much about any beliefs they may have. I am very thankful for those who do study and discuss! I never could understand scripture in the confines of the “church” and Israel. It would seem very little scripture applies to the “church” other than describing a particular gathering. Then there are these words of Jesus in the following verse that don’t make sense if the church is its own entity.

Mat 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Who does James address his letter to? It’s not the church.

Jas 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Maybe the confusion comes from using the word church to describe the collection or gathering of people who are part of the Israel of God, grafted in to the cultivated olive tree. James uses a description of where the people in these gatherings come from, the dispersed tribes who were grafted back in being the spiritual descendants of Abraham and those who sojourn with them.

Several years ago, after watching a series on the end times, rapture and tribulation by David Jeremiah, I realized what was being taught could not be reconciled with all of scripture. There were so many scriptures that derailed this teaching, I could no longer follow the paradigm. So, a teaching by Dr. David Jeremiah, that was teaching straight dispensationalism doctrine, is the very thing that made me realize the whole narrative does not work. That narrative being there is an entity called the church that has a different destiny from Israel, sometimes referred to as “the Jews”. As I stated earlier, without the dispensational teaching of C.I. Scofield and John Darby, the pre-tribulation rapture theory falls flat on its face as well. When carried out to the end, this system’s only logical conclusion is that there are two Gods, Yahweh and Jesus, and one is the redeemer of Israel and the other is redeemer of the “church”. Another way to put it is that there would have to be two brides, the church and Israel. This is a teaching similar to the teaching of the first century heretic, Marcion.

Moses spoke of Jesus, just as Stephen stated in Acts:

Deu 18:13 You must be blameless before Yahweh your God.
Deu 18:14 For these nations that you are about to dispossess listen to interpreters of signs and to diviners, but Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do the same.
Deu 18:15 “Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your countrymen, and to him you shall listen.
Deu 18:16 This is according to all that you asked from Yahweh your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘I do not want again to hear the voice of Yahweh my God, and I do not want to see again this great fire, so that I may not die!’
Deu 18:17 And Yahweh said to me, ‘They are right in what they have said.
Deu 18:18 I will raise up a prophet for them from among their countrymen like you, and I will place my words into his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him.
Deu 18:19 And then the man that will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will hold accountable.

It was not until I realized that I was grafted into the Israel of God, through Jesus, as the spiritual child of Abraham, that the once obscure scriptures came alive. With a manmade system of dispensationalism these scriptures are taken away and hidden from the believer in Christ. Many scriptures that are intended for a follower of Jesus are put off to be for someone else. “You must do what God says to do…wait…not that, that is for someone else. You must do what I say God says to do. That’s better.” Another enlightenment is knowing God has a name, יהוה, typically shown as Yahweh or Yahuah, that was translated to the substitution LORD over 6000 times in the English translations of the Bible. Jesus’ name also is a linguistic creation from the Greek name Iesous, used for Joshua. The following is an example of scripture that exemplifies this, hidden from the person that doesn’t know Joshua is the English equivalent of Iesous, in Hebrew Yahshua, or what came to be the name Jesus. The prophet Zechariah is shown the future high priest, Joshua, who is Jesus.

Zec 3:6 And the angel of Yahweh assured Joshua, saying,
Zec 3:7 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my requirements, then you will judge my house, and you will also guard my courtyards, and I will give to you passageways among these that are standing here.
Zec 3:8 Listen, please, O Joshua the high priest, you and your companions that are sitting before you. For the men are a sign that, look, I am going to bring my servant the Branch.
Zec 3:9 For consider, the stone that I set before Joshua, on one stone are seven eyes. Look, I am going to engrave an inscription on it,’ declares Yahweh of hosts, ‘and I will remove the guilt of that land in a single day.
Zec 3:10 On that day,’ declares Yahweh of hosts, ‘you will invite one another under the vine and under the fig tree.'”

Yahweh was showing Zachariah who was going to remove the guilt of the land in one day. It was through Joshua, the Branch. It is through Joshua, or the Germanic, Greek transliteration of Iesous, namely Jesus, that allows us to be grafted into the cultivated tree. Is this not what Yahweh told Moses?

It is through the Branch we can be grafted into the cultivated olive tree.

Rom 11:13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry
Rom 11:14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.
Rom 11:15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
Rom 11:16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Rom 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,
Rom 11:18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
Rom 11:19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
Rom 11:20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.
Rom 11:21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
Rom 11:22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.
Rom 11:23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.
Rom 11:24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

We need to get weened off of the milk and move on to solid food so we can teach others. This idea of renting a fire suit by saying a prayer and paying a tithe is not going to pay off in the end. Especially if my hunch is correct, that we are not going to be whisked out of the world before any tribulation comes, where the tribulation will be only for the tribe of Judea, Judaens or some earthly ethnic group that is not “the church”. The writer of Hebrews is distraught at the lack of study concerning his audience of believers.

Heb 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
Heb 5:13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

1Co 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
1Co 2:16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1Co 3:1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
1Co 3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

Jew, Greek or any other tribe must be grafted into the cultivated tree through Jesus, making one people of God, who is the Israel of God. Jesus had to die to reconcile Yahweh’s divorce from Israel, stated in Jeremiah, being the perfect sacrificial lamb to take away the sin of the world, conquering the law of sin and death.

Jer 3:6 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.
Jer 3:7 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.
Jer 3:8 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.
Jer 3:9 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.
Jer 3:10 Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares Yahweh.
Jer 3:11 Then Yahweh said to me, “Apostate Israel has proved herself more upright than treacherous Judah.
Jer 3:12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, apostate Israel,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will not cause my anger to fall on you. For I am loyal,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will not be angry forever.

The Law of Yahweh states that once divorced, a husband cannot return to his wife. According to this, Israel could not come back to Yahweh to be reconciled. It is what Paul speaks of below that is often missed. We also don’t need a written code because it will be in our hearts and minds. If a federal law states not to rob a bank, is that the only thing preventing you from bank robbery, or is “do not steal” written in your heart so you will not think of doing it? If the answer is that you would never consider robbing a bank, then the law has no affect. Do you keep Yahweh’s sabbaths because the written code says to, or because you know in your heart you are honouring Him and simply cherish the day? If it is the latter, the law has no affect.

Rom 7:1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?
Rom 7:2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
Rom 7:3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
Rom 7:4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
Rom 7:5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
Rom 7:6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Israel was divorced by Yahweh for adultery with all of its foreign gods and practices. By Yahweh’s own law, Israel could never come back. Israel was scattered among the nations and mixed to where there was no more Israel. Yahweh always had a plan to bring the House of Israel back, along with all the nations which they were dispersed into, despite the law that stated He could not. In one case this plan was revealed to Ezekiel.

Eze 37:15 And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Eze 37:16 “And you, son of man, take for yourself a piece of wood, and write on it, ‘For Judah and for the Israelites his associates,’ and take another piece of wood, and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the piece of wood of Ephraim and all of the house of Israel his associates.’
Eze 37:17 And join them one to the other with respect to you as one piece of wood, so that they may become one in your hand.
Eze 37:18 When your people say to you, saying, ‘Will you not inform us as to what these actions mean for you?’
Eze 37:19 Then speak to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Look! I am taking the piece of wood for Joseph that is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel its associates, and I will put them on it, the piece of wood of Judah, and I will make them into one piece of wood, so that they be one in my hand.'”
Eze 37:20 And the pieces of wood on which you wrote will be in your hand before their eyes.
Eze 37:21 And speak to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Look! I am taking the Israelites from among the nations to which they went, and I will gather them from everywhere, and I will bring them to their own soil.
Eze 37:22 And I will make them into one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and they will all have one king as their king, and they will not again be two nations and will not again divide into two kingdoms again.
Eze 37:23 And they will not defile themselves again with their idols and with vile idols and with all of their transgressions, and I will save them from all of their apostasy by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them and they will be for me as a people and I, I will be for them as God.
Eze 37:24 “‘”And my servant David will be king over them, and one shepherd will be for all of them, and in my regulations they will go, and my statutes they will observe, and they will do them.
Eze 37:25 And they will dwell on the land that I gave to my servant, to Jacob, in which your ancestors dwelled, and they will dwell on it, they and their children and the children of their children forever, and my servant David will be a leader for them forever.
Eze 37:26 And I will make with them a covenant of peace; an everlasting covenant it will be with them. And I will establish them, and I will cause them to increase, and I will put my sanctuary in the midst of them forever.
Eze 37:27 And my tabernacle will be with them, and I will be for them as God, and they will be to me as a nation.
Eze 37:28 And the nations will know that I, Yahweh, am consecrating Israel when my sanctuary is in the midst of them forever.”‘”

Yahweh God uses the stick or wood analogy through Ezekiel. The Hebrew word translated to wood also could be tree, which would be consistent with the other tree analogies in scripture. Does being grafted into the cultivated tree, saved from the penalty of the law, give us the license to purposely break the law of God? Peter says no, as well as the writer of Hebrews, consistent with Ezekiel 37:24; “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.” All these scriptures are speaking to the child of God, whether grafted in, or a natural branch, this very day. His servant David in this verse is referring to the Branch, from the root of Jesse, who is Jesus.

2Pe 2:20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
2Pe 2:21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
2Pe 2:22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Both the verses in 2nd Peter above and Hebrews below nullify John Calvin’s eternal security idea, that is the “p” for preservation in T.U.L.I.P. Both passages speak of someone who once “escaped the defilement of the world” or “ have once been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift”, and turned back “ from the holy commandment delivered to them”.

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,
Heb 6:5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
Heb 6:6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
Heb 6:7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.
Heb 6:8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

The contemporary church seems to be more about the particular denomination, its unique beliefs, and buildings with their windows and doors. It is often stated “if we could only get that person to come to church” as if the act of going to a particular church building would ever change anyone’s heart. Frankly, it means nothing. People go to church for years and never have a relationship with Christ. They fool themselves by fulfilling the obligation of showing up for service, dropping some money in the plate, then getting back to their real life at 12 noon. There is no desire to live a life pleasing to Yahweh or to even discuss how that might be done. Instead of trying to fill churches, we should be making disciples, showing people the truth and way. Start with yourself and “study to show thyself approved”. Unfortunately, bringing people to church may not accomplish this, even if they lay their clothes out Saturday night and pre-plan breakfast for Sunday morning to ensure arriving to church on time. How does the real ekklesia meet?

Mat 18:18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Mat 18:19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
Mat 18:20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

We are not to forsake the gathering, especially in these times we live in. Gathering together with believers does not have to happen inside of organized religion. In fact, as the apostasy continues, I predict that we are near the end of the era of the ekklesia meeting in church buildings. The writer of Hebrews states, “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Heb 10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
Heb 10:13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
Heb 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Heb 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
Heb 10:16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”
Heb 10:17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Heb 10:18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Heb 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
Heb 10:21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
Heb 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Heb 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Heb 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Heb 10:26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Heb 10:28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Heb 10:29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
Heb 10:30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

What day is drawing near? The day of Yahweh. Please see my blog, The Great Day of Yahuah.

Hebrews 10:26-27; “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” What can this mean but to keep the commandments? Paul tells us whom we should be gathering with. It is not those of the brethren or “church” who practice lawlessness.

1Co 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1Co 5:8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1Co 5:9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—
1Co 5:10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
1Co 5:11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
1Co 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
1Co 5:13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

The fact that there is only one people of Yahweh means that if you are one of them, than these verses apply to you:

Rev 13:4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
Rev 13:5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.
Rev 13:6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,
Rev 13:8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
Rev 13:9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
Rev 13:10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Rev 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
Rev 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

I recommend finding a group of people to gather with, especially during these times when gathering is hard to do. I am searching for people who want to meet and study the Word of God together, celebrate His feasts and learn His ways, leaving the commandments of men behind.

“Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you, so that it will be good for you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you.” Deuteronomy 5:16

The fifth commandment that Yahweh gave the twelve tribes at Mount Horeb, in an audible voice, stated they should honour their father and mother. The writer of Deuteronomy restates all the events that took place, and everything Yahweh commanded.

Deu 5:1 And then Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the rules and the regulations that I am speaking in your ears today, and you shall learn them, and you must observe them diligently.
Deu 5:2 Yahweh our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
Deu 5:3 It was not with our ancestors that Yahweh made this covenant, but with these of us who are here alive today.
Deu 5:4 Face to face Yahweh spoke with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire.
Deu 5:5 I was standing between Yahweh and you at that time to report to you the word of Yahweh, for you were afraid because of the presence of the fire, and so you did not go up the mountain. He said,
Deu 5:6 ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh spoke to all twelve tribes at Mount Horeb:

Deu 5:7 There shall not be for you other gods besides me.
Deu 5:8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a divine image of any type of form that is in the heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
Deu 5:9 ‘You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, punishing the guilt of fathers upon their children and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those hating me,
Deu 5:10 but showing loyal love to thousands of those who love me and of those who keep my commandments.
Deu 5:11 ‘You shall not take up the name of Yahweh your God for a worthless purpose, for Yahweh will not leave unpunished anyone who uses his name for a worthless purpose.
Deu 5:12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day to make it holy, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you.
Deu 5:13 Six days you shall work, and you shall do all of your work,
Deu 5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Yahweh your God; you shall not do any work, or your son, or your daughter, or your slave, or your slave woman, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your domestic animals, or your resident alien who is in your towns, so that your slave and your slave woman may rest as you rest.
Deu 5:15 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore, Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath.
Deu 5:16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you, so that it will be good for you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you.
Deu 5:17 ‘You shall not murder.
Deu 5:18 ‘And you shall not commit adultery.
Deu 5:19 ‘And you shall not steal.
Deu 5:20 ‘And you shall not falsely bear evidence against your neighbor.
Deu 5:21 ‘And you shall not covet the wife of your neighbor, and you shall not crave the house of your neighbor, his field or his slave or his slave woman or his ox and his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

The writer of Deuteronomy is thought to be Moses; however, his death is recorded at the end of the book. In my mind, that is a clue there were other contributors. After Yahweh’s giving of the Ten Commandments, he finishes with these words:

Deu 5:22 “These words Yahweh spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire and the very thick cloud with a loud voice, and he did not add anything, and then he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
Deu 5:23 And then when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, and as the mountain was burning with fire, and and all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me,
Deu 5:24 you said, ‘Look, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire; this day we have seen that God can speak with a human being, yet he remains alive.
Deu 5:25 And so then why shall we die, for this great fire will consume us if we continue to hear the voice of Yahweh our God any longer, and so we shall die?
Deu 5:26 For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire as we have heard it and remained alive?
Deu 5:27 You go near and hear everything that Yahweh our God will say; and then you tell us all that Yahweh our God tells you, and we will listen, and we will do it.’
Deu 5:28 “And Yahweh heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me, and Yahweh said to me, ‘I have heard the sound of the words of this people that they have spoken to you; they are right with respect to all that they have spoken.
Deu 5:29 If only they had such a mind’; that is, to fear me and to keep all my commandments at all times, so that it will go well for them and for their children forever.
Deu 5:30 Go! Say to them, “Return to your tents.”
Deu 5:31 But you stand here with me, and let me tell you all of the commandments and the rules and the regulations that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving to them to take possession of it.’
Deu 5:32 “So you must be careful to do just as Yahweh your God commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left.

Yahweh told Moses to send the people back to their tents and He would teach to him the rest of the commandments, rules and regulations for living a successful life. The commandment we are focusing on for the purpose of this blog is that of honouring our mother and father.

Yahweh said to honour our mother and father individually, and did not just say to honour them as parents collectively . There are many ways to keep the wording in such a way that groups the mother and father together that were not used. That implies that we should honour them individually and not just as a unit. Yahweh knows there are many unfortunate situations that separate a mother and father, but He gave no indication any situation should change honouring both the mother and father.

Jesus discusses this commandment when pointing out the error of the Pharisees.

Mat 15:1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
Mat 15:2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”
Mat 15:3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Mat 15:4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
Mat 15:5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”
Mat 15:6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
Mat 15:7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
Mat 15:8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mat 15:9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Many believe that Jesus was angry at the Pharisees for adhering to Yahweh’s commandments, when he was actually mad that they added to them or changed them to suit themselves. Jesus was addressing the fact that the Pharisees had changed the commandment to being able to abandon what help a person should be to their parents if they “give it to God”. It is wrong to think that people who want to keep Yahweh’s commands are being like the Pharisees. It is quite the opposite. The people who add to and change Yahweh’s commands are acting like the Pharisees, and “made void the word of God” plus “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”. In the verses above, Jesus reminds them of the commands in the Torah to what must happen to those who revile their mother or father.

Exo 21:15 “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Exo 21:17 “Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

The civil law that the twelve tribes maintained, was given by Yahweh, and it seems harsh. It is not what we observe today in the kingdom of this world. However, it is still the law of God and likely the law that will be used when Yahweh’s kingdom comes.

Isa 2:1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
Isa 2:2 And it shall happen in the future of the days the mountain of the house of Yahweh shall be established; it will be among the highest of the mountains, and it shall be raised from the hills. All of the nations shall travel to him;
Isa 2:3 many peoples shall come. And they shall say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, and may he teach us part of his ways, and let us walk in his paths.” For instruction shall go out from Zion, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
Isa 2:4 He shall judge between the nations and he shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. A nation shall not lift up a sword against a nation, and they shall not learn war again.
Isa 2:5 House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Yahweh.

Another observation which can be made is that there are no conditions for this commandment. Honour your father, unless he did this terrible deed or that evil thing, or honour your mother, only if she was the ideal mother, are words no where to be found in Yahweh’s instructions. Yet there are some harsh conditions placed on the children’s behaviour.

Deu 21:18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not listen to the voice of his father and to the voice of his mother, and they discipline him, and he does not obey them,
Deu 21:19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him, and they shall bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his town,
Deu 21:20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us, and he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
Deu 21:21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones and let him die; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all of Israel will hear, and they will fear.

Lev 19:1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 19:2 “Speak to all the community of the Israelites, and say to them, ‘You must be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.
Lev 19:3 Each of you must revere your mother and your father, and you must keep my Sabbaths; I am Yahweh your God.

Today we are not going to stone our children, but there is a righteous judge to whom everyone will give an account of their deeds at the end of this age. This judge is also the same one who gave Moses the harshest of punishment for rebellious children.

Rev 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Rev 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Rev 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Rev 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Rev 21:5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Rev 21:6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
Rev 21:7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Rev 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

In these verses from the book of Revelation, there are some very clear things to happen in the future. “The one who conquers will have this heritage”. What are we to conquer? What is it not to conquer? It sounds like the people with the attributes in verse 21:8 definitely did not conquer. Where do these definitions for things such as sexual immorality, sorcery, idolatry and liars come from other than the instructions Yahweh gave to Moses? While we are debating whether or not Jesus would have worn a mask, we neglect His warning to the Pharisees.

Mat 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Mat 23:24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
Mat 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Mat 23:26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Mat 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

There is doctrine today teaching that the words of Jesus are not for the people of the modern church but for the “Jews”. I have seen the arguments on Twitter. It is nothing more than the teachings of the first century heretic, Marcion, to imply the Apostle Paul was teaching a different gospel than Jesus.

Here are a few verses from Yahweh’s instruction to live a blessed life you may have not heard lately:

Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or one who practices divination, or an interpreter of signs, or an augur, or sorcerer,
Deu 18:11 or one who casts magic spells, or one who consults a spirit of the dead, or spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead.
Deu 18:12 For everyone doing these things is detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God is driving them out from before you.
Deu 18:13 You must be blameless before Yahweh your God.
Deu 18:14 For these nations that you are about to dispossess listen to interpreters of signs and to diviners, but Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do the same.

Deu 12:2 You must completely demolish all of the places there where they served their gods, that is, the nations whom you are about to dispossess, on the high mountains, and on the hills and under each leafy green tree.
Deu 12:3 And you shall break down their altars, and you shall smash their stone pillars, and their Asherah poles you must burn with fire, and the images of their gods you shall hew down, and you shall blot out their names from that place.
Deu 12:4 You shall not worship Yahweh your God like this.

Deu 25:13 “There shall not be for your use in your bag two kinds of stone weights, a large one and a small one.
Deu 25:14 There shall not be in your house for your use two kinds of measures.
Deu 25:15 Rather a full and honest weight shall be for your use; there shall be for you a full and honest measure, so that your days on the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you may be long.
Deu 25:16 For detestable to Yahweh your God is everyone who is doing such things, everyone who is acting dishonestly.

Lev 18:1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 18:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘I am Yahweh your God.
Lev 18:3 You must not carry out the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you lived, and you must not carry out the practices of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you; and you must not follow their statutes.
Lev 18:4 You must carry out my regulations, and you must observe my statutes by following them; I am Yahweh your God.
Lev 18:5 And you shall observe my statutes and my regulations by which the person doing them shall live; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:6 “‘None of you shall approach anyone who is his close relative to expose nakedness; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:7 You must not expose your father’s nakedness or your mother’s nakedness—she is your mother; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:8 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s wife—it is your father’s nakedness.
Lev 18:9 As for your sister’s nakedness, whether your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad, you must not expose their nakedness.
Lev 18:10 As for the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, you must not expose their nakedness, because they are your nakedness.
Lev 18:11 As for the nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, she is your sister, a relative of your father; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:12 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
Lev 18:13 You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.
Lev 18:14 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not have sex with his wife—she is your aunt.
Lev 18:15 You must not expose your daughter-in-law’s nakedness; she is your son’s wife; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:16 You must not expose the nakedness of your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness.
Lev 18:17 You must not expose the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, or her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter; you must not take her as wife to expose her nakedness; they are close relatives—that is wickedness.
Lev 18:18 And you must not take as wife a woman with her sister, to be a rival-wife, to expose her nakedness before her during her life.
Lev 18:19 “‘And you must not have sex with a woman to expose her nakedness during her menstrual uncleanness.
Lev 18:20 And you must not have sex with your fellow citizen’s wife, becoming unclean with her.
Lev 18:21 “‘And you shall not give any of your offspring in order to sacrifice them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:22 And you shall not lie with a male as lying with a woman; that is a detestable thing.
Lev 18:23 And you shall not have sexual relations with any animal, becoming unclean with it; and a woman shall not stand before an animal to copulate with it—that is a perversion.
Lev 18:24 “‘You must not make yourself unclean in any of these things, because the nations whom I am driving out from your presence were made unclean by all of these.
Lev 18:25 So the land became unclean, and I have brought the punishment of its guilt upon it, and the land has vomited out its inhabitants.

Honouring your mother and your father, without exception, is part of conquering. It takes endurance to conquer and the Holy Spirit of Truth, through Jesus the Messiah, abiding in your heart and mind. Scripture answers scripture. What is the voice of Yahweh other than the living Word in the flesh, Jesus, otherwise known as Iesous (Greek), Yahusha (Hebrew), or Joshua (English). We are also shown what it is to conquer in the book of Revelation as it is in Exodus:

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

Exo 19:5 And now if you will carefully listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will be a treasured possession for me out of all the peoples, for all the earth is mine,
Exo 19:6 but you, you will belong to me as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”

Featured image taken in St. Andrews New Brunswick.

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

The children of Israel became ensnared in a trap of idolatry. Even though they were warned over and over, they could not resist the lure of foreign gods. It could be that these gods were not really all that foreign. The people of the nations all had similar rituals from the mystery religions, and the tribes of Israel came out from Egypt where they also had similar religious systems. Also, there must have been some appeal to the foreign religions around them. Perhaps they were fun, exciting and enticing.

Deu 13:6 “If your brother, the son of your mother or your son or your daughter or your wife whom you embrace or your intimate friend in secrecy says, ‘Let us go and let us serve other gods!’ gods that you and your ancestors have not known,
Deu 13:7 from among the gods of the people who are around you, those near you or those far from you, from one end of the earth and up to the other end of the earth,
Deu 13:8 you must not give in to him, and you shall not listen to him, and your eye shall not take pity on him, and you shall not have compassion, and you shall not cover up for him.

In the book of Revelation, there a warning to the church not to hold to the teaching of Balaam. This is a warning for then and now.

Rev 2:12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: “This is what the one who has the sharp double-edged sword says:
Rev 2:13 ‘I know where you live, where the throne of Satan is. And you hold fast to my name and did not deny your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan lives.
Rev 2:14 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.
Rev 2:15 So likewise you also have those who hold fast to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Rev 2:16 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.

Balaam was instrumental with the luring of Israel to the religion of the Moabites, who worshipped Chemosh, Astarte and Molech. Their religion involved poles and pillars, human sacrifice, temple prostitution and fertility rituals. The following is from the Smith Bible Dictionary:

Che’mosh. (subduer). The national deity of the Moabites. Num 21:29; Jer 48:7; Jer 48:13; Jer 48:46. In Jdg 11:24. He also appears as the god of the Ammonites. Solomon introduced, and Josiah abolished, the worship of Chemosh at Jerusalem. 1Ki 11:7; 2Ki 23:13. Also identified with Baal-peor, Baalzebub, Mars and Saturn.

Num 25:1 When Israel dwelled in Shittim, the people began to prostitute themselves with the daughters of Moab.
Num 25:2 And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and worshiped their gods.
Num 25:3 So Israel was joined together to Baal Peor, and Yahweh became angry with Israel.
Num 25:4 Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and kill them before the sun, so the fierce anger of Yahweh will turn from Israel.”

Chemosh or Baal-Peor, the Moabite deity, was associated with Saturn, the Roman equivalent deity. They were the same god with the same attributes, but were called different names by different people. This enables us to follow the steps of Yahweh’s people into Christianity, involving themselves with the same gods and practices. Saturn was celebrated at the winter solstice during the Saturnalia festival. Tertullian, an early church father from the third century, addressed the celebration of the Saturnalia and all its festivities and decorations.

Tertullian On Idolatry Chapter 14 from The Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 3.

But the same apostle elsewhere bids us take care to please all: “As I,” he says, “please all by all means.” (1Co 10:32-33) No doubt he used to please them by celebrating the Saturnalia and New-year’s day! [Was it so] or was it by moderation and patience? by gravity, by kindness, by integrity? In like manner, when he is saying, “I have become all things to all, that I may gain all,” (1Co 9:22) does he mean “to idolaters an idolater? “to heathens a heathen?” “to the worldly worldly?” But albeit he does not prohibit us from having our conversation with idolaters and adulterers, and the other criminals, saying, “Otherwise ye would go out from the world,” (1Co 5:10) of course he does not so slacken those reins of conversation that, since it is necessary for us both to live and to mingle with sinners, we may be able to sin with them too. Where there is the intercourse of life, which the apostle concedes, there is sinning, which no one permits. To live with heathens is lawful, to die with them is not. Let us live with all; let us be glad with them, out of community of nature, not of superstition. We are peers in soul, not in discipline; fellow-possessors of the world, not of error. But if we have no right of communion in matters of this kind with strangers, how far more wicked to celebrate them among brethren! Who can maintain or defend this? The Holy Spirit upbraids the Jews with their holy-days. “Your Sabbaths, and new moons, and ceremonies,” says He, “My soul hateth.” (Isa 1:14, etc.) By us, to whom Sabbaths are strange, and the new moons and festivals formerly beloved by God, the Saturnalia and New-year’s and Midwinter’s festivals and Matronalia are frequented – presents come and go – New-year’s gifts – games join their noise – banquets join their din! Oh better fidelity of the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself! Not the Lord’s day, not Pentecost, even it they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Christians. We are not apprehensive lest we seem to be heathens!

By the time of Tertullian, through Roman and anti-Semitic teachings, Christians had abandoned Yahweh’s feasts and festivals and were slowly adopting the holy days of the nations. We can deduce this by the fact that Jesus, the Apostles and the New Testament church met on he Sabbath, celebrated Yahweh’s feast days and were completely silent when it came to practicing the sun god holidays. Tertullian quotes Isaiah chapter one for justification not to keep the Sabbath or festivals, but is that really what Yahweh wanted? Does Yahweh really no longer love His festivals? Read the entire chapter, or the entire Old Testament, and it will become clear that Yahweh was tired of bull sacrifices, celebrations of holy days and festivities, while the people were committing grave sins such as idolatry, murder, and child sacrifice. Yahweh also said, “Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become to me like a burden, I am not able to bear them”. Could it be they had added to Yahweh’s feast days? All Yahweh wanted was obedience. Also, it is absurd to suggest Yahweh intended for Christians to trade His feasts and festivals for those of the nations and their foreign gods.

Isa 1:2 Hear, heavens, and listen, earth, for Yahweh has spoken: “I reared children and I brought them up, but they rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3 An ox knows its owner and a donkey the manger of its master. Israel does not know; my people do not understand.
Isa 1:4 Ah, sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken Yahweh; they have despised the holy one of Israel. They are estranged and gone backward.
Isa 1:5 Why do you want to be beaten again? You continue in rebellion. The whole of the head is sick, and the whole of the heart is faint.
Isa 1:6 From the sole of the foot and up to the head there is no health in it; bruise and sore and bleeding wound have not been cleansed, and they have not been bound up and not softened with the oil.
Isa 1:7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; As for your land, aliens are devouring it in your presence, and it is desolate, like devastation by foreigners.
Isa 1:8 And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a shelter in a cucumber field, like a city that is besieged.
Isa 1:9 If Yahweh of hosts had not left us survivors, we would have been as few as Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10 Hear the word of Yahweh, rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, people of Gomorrah!
Isa 1:11 What is the abundance of your sacrifices to me? says Yahweh. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened animals and I do not delight in the blood of bulls and ram-lambs and goats.
Isa 1:12 When you come to appear before me, who asked for this from your hand: you trampling my courts?
Isa 1:13 You must not continue to bring offerings of futility, incense—it is an abomination to me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of a convocation—I cannot endure iniquity with solemn assembly.
Isa 1:14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become to me like a burden, I am not able to bear them.
Isa 1:15 And when you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not be listening. Your hands are full of blood.
Isa 1:16 Wash! Make yourselves clean! Remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes! Cease to do evil!
Isa 1:17 Learn to do good! Seek justice! Rescue the oppressed! Defend the orphan! Plead for the widow!
Isa 1:18 “Come now, and let us argue,” says Yahweh. “Even though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white like snow; even though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
Isa 1:19 If you are willing and you are obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
Isa 1:20 But if you refuse and you rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”

When Yahweh declares the festival days He specifically calls them His days.

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

Yahweh said He can’t bare the iniquity that they were bringing with them. Isaiah 1:13, You must not continue to bring offerings of futility, incense—it is an abomination to me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of a convocation—I cannot endure iniquity with solemn assembly.

Also, those who do not listen to His instruction will not have their prayers heard. Instruction here is translated from Strong’s H8451 for torah.

Pro 28:9  He who turns his ear from listening to instruction, even his prayer is an abomination. 

H8451

תֹּרָה    תּוֹרָה

tôrâh    tôrâh

to-raw’, to-raw’

From H3384; a precept or statute, especially the Decalogue or Pentateuch: – law.

During Tertullian‘s time they had already abandoned Yahweh’s feast days, with the exception of Pentecost, yet they had not fully embraced the blending of the holy days and gods of other nations into Christianity. Here Tertullian talks of decorating with greenery during the Saturnalia, which has transitioned into the Christian holy day of Christmas. All the religions of the world that still celebrate the winter solstice and spring equinox know that Rome forced Christianity on those days, like ramming a square peg into a round hole. These folks bite their tongues and hold back their animosity, while Christians ignorantly celebrate on these ancient religions’ holy days, with their symbols of eggs, trees, lights and logs, trying to convince everyone these days and symbols are about God and his son Jesus. However, there is no biblical evidence for celebrating these days that belong to foreign gods, only evidence that should prevent Christians from celebrating these days. Tertullian continues talking about decorating with greenery.

But “let your works shine,” saith He; (Mat 5:16) but now all our shops and gates shine! You will now-a-days find more doors of heathens without lamps and laurel-wreaths than of Christians. What does the case seem to be with regard to that species (of ceremony) also? If it is an idol’s honour, without doubt an idol’s honour is idolatry. If it is for a man’s sake, let us again consider that all idolatry is for man’s sake; let us again consider that all idolatry is a worship done to men, since it is generally agreed even among their worshippers that aforetime the gods themselves of the nations were men; and so it makes no difference whether that superstitious homage be rendered to men of a former age or of this. Idolatry is condemned, not on account of the persons which are set up for worship, but on account of those its observances, which pertain to demons.

“Then,” do you say, “the lamps before my doors, and the laurels on my posts are an honour to God?” They are there of course, not because they are an honour to God, but to him who is honour in God’s stead by ceremonial observances of that kind, so far as is manifest, saving the religious performance, which is in secret appertaining to demons. For we ought to be sure if there are any whose notice it escapes through ignorance of this world’s literature, that there are among the Romans even gods of entrances; Cardea (Hinge-goddess), called after hinges, and Forculus (Door-god) after doors, and Limentinus (Threshold-god) after the threshold, and Janus himself (Gate-god) after the gate: and of course we know that, though names be empty and reigned, yet, when they are drawn down into superstition, demons and every unclean spirit seize them for themselves, through the bond of consecration. Otherwise demons have no name individually, but they there find a name where they find also a token.

Tertullian argues that even though it is said these symbols of foreign gods are placed in honor of Yahweh, they really are not. They are ultimately honoring the gods they belong to and demons. I am simply presenting overlooked information from an early church father here, which shows the mindset of Christianity in the third century and their slowly drifting back to these foreign religions. Tertullian was arguing that Christians shouldn’t be using symbols that other nations use to celebrate their gods, specifically the ones Christians still use today. Tertullian lost the argument. To quote occultist Aleister Crowley, “Do what thou wilt.”.

Phallic symbolism is a large part of the nations’ religions. It accompanies the fertility goddesses worship along with the use of eggs in the springtime. The legends of Nimrod and Osiris are similar and all through the worlds’ religions or mythologies there are sun gods who die a terrible death, one where their reproductive body parts cannot be found. The wife goddess then makes a representation, such as an obelisk, and somehow gets impregnated by the rays of the sun. The son that is born, December 21-25, depending on the calendar used, is supposed to be the original husband sun god resurrected. All these religions with different gods and similar mythologies come from Babylon under the rule of Nimrod and Semiramis. They continued the worship of the host of heaven and study of mystery religions after Noah’s flood. This is a huge topic, and I have only scratched the surface of studying it myself. However, I have seen enough to understand the great sin that Israel continually committed with these nations’ gods and that through Egypt, Greece and Rome, these same symbols and gods, although having new names, have come right along into Christianity with their symbolism and mysteries. Once a person sees it, it cannot be unseen. It is a difficult, lonely situation to find oneself. This is an unfortunate joke played on Christianity to adopt all of these symbols, mostly unknowingly, by those in the exoteric realm.

• 

• 

• 

• 

The symbolism in these pictures is not accidental like the church window in the feature picture of this blog may have been. These Gothic style windows in older churches are designed after the obelisk, to put it nicely. The three obelisks in the above pictures are located at power centers of the world, Rome, Washington and London. Why are symbols of Horus and Isis so prevalent, even at the center of the Roman church? There is so much symbolism in these pictures that it would take too much to cover it all here. The obelisk and other phallic symbols of foreign gods found their way all through church architecture. If anyone thinks we are just covering history, take a look into modern phallic worship in Wicca and New Age religions. It never went anywhere simply because Christians are ignorant of these systems of religion and symbols.

Joh 4:19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
Joh 4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
Joh 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Joh 4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Joh 4:25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
Joh 4:26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Yahweh is seeking people to worship him in spirit and truth, not with mystery religion symbols.

The obelisk is a form of the Ashera pole. The Ashera pole was a pole or sacred tree that the twelve tribes of Israel were always trying to put in Yahweh’s temple. It is the same symbolism as the obelisk. I am hoping everyone reading this can figure out what these symbols all represent without me having to get too graphic. The warning is clear in these verses below from Deuteronomy. Has Yahweh changed, now embracing the Asherah tree and stone pillar? I seriously doubt it.

Deu 16:21 You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah pole beside the altar of Yahweh your God that you make for yourselves.
Deu 16:22 And you shall not set up for yourselves a stone pillar, a thing that Yahweh your God hates.

Fertility rites are all part of these mystery religions still practiced today under different names. Christians unknowingly follow suit, and do not seem to care.

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

Syncretism is the blending of different religions and mythologies. This is a practice that has been happening for thousands of years, and Christianity blended with the same gods and goddesses as Israel, to the point where the pagan practices are inseparable today. As of late Christianity is blending more into new age and spirituality. Syncretism is a clever word, yet Yahweh calls it idolatry, sorcery and witchcraft.

From the website readthespirit.com:

Symbols of eggs and rabbits illustrate the Pagan and Wiccan holiday of Ostara, known also for the goddess of spring by the same name. Ostara, or Eostre, is the ancient goddess of spring and dawn who presides over fertility, conception and pollination. Symbols of eggs and rabbits represent the fertility of springtime, and in centuries past, these symbols were often used in fertility rituals. The next full moon, also called Ostara, is known as a time of increased births.

Here is the definition of the word Easter from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:

ēs´tẽr (πάσχα, páscha, from Aramaic פסחא, paṣḥā’ and Hebrew פסח, peṣaḥ, the Passover festival): The English word comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre or Estera, a Teutonic goddess to whom sacrifice was offered in April, so the name was transferred to the paschal feast. The word does not properly occur in Scripture, although the King James Version has it in Act 12:4 where it stands for Passover, as it is rightly rendered in the Revised Version (British and American). There is no trace of Easter celebration in the New Testament, though some would see an intimation of it in 1Co 5:7. The Jewish Christians in the early church continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true paschal lamb, and this naturally passed over into a commemoration of the death and resurrection of our Lord, or an Easter feast.

It is interesting to note that a standard Easter feast traditionally contains ham. This is a clue that it is not a feast of Yahweh. Can you imagine eating pork to celebrate the death and resurrection of Yahweh incarnate? The pork tradition on Easter comes from the Tammuz mythology. He was another version of the sun god religion who was killed by a wild boar. Ham was eaten at the spring festival in his honour. The pig was the animal of choice for sacrificing to these various gods. Yahweh tells us which animals are for food and which ones are not:

Lev 11:7 and the pig, because it has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof but it does not chew cud—it is unclean for you.
Lev 11:8 You must not eat from their meat, and you must not touch their dead body—they are unclean for you.

Swine seems to be especially offensive to Yahweh. It could be that all these nations made the swine a sacred animal to their gods.

Isa 65:2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;
Isa 65:3 a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks;
Isa 65:4 who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
Isa 65:5 who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.
Isa 65:6 Behold, it is written before me: “I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their lap
Isa 65:7 both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together, says the LORD; because they made offerings on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, I will measure into their lap payment for their former deeds.”

King Antiochus had a pig sacrificed to Zeus in Yahweh’s temple during the winter solstice at the time of the Maccabees.

1Ma 1:41 Moreover king Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people,
1Ma 1:42 And every one should leave his laws: so all the heathen agreed according to the commandment of the king.
1Ma 1:43 Yea, many also of the Israelites consented to his religion, and sacrificed unto idols, and profaned the sabbath.
1Ma 1:44 For the king had sent letters by messengers unto Jerusalem and the cities of Juda that they should follow the strange laws of the land,
1Ma 1:45 And forbid burnt offerings, and sacrifice, and drink offerings, in the temple; and that they should profane the sabbaths and festival days:
1Ma 1:46 And pollute the sanctuary and holy people:
1Ma 1:47 Set up altars, and groves, and chapels of idols, and sacrifice swine’s flesh, and unclean beasts:
1Ma 1:48 That they should also leave their children uncircumcised, and make their souls abominable with all manner of uncleanness and profanation:
1Ma 1:49 To the end they might forget the law, and change all the ordinances.
1Ma 1:50 And whosoever would not do according to the commandment of the king, he said, he should die.

A quick calendar search will put the 25th of Casleu right at the time of the winter solstice, (December 24th-January 2) in 168 BC, when this sacrifice of swine took place on the altar of Yahweh in His temple. It’s amazing that the whole world still celebrates at this time. The transition from honouring Zeus, to Saturn during Saturnalia, and then to the fictional date for the birthday of Jesus, is both very interesting and disturbing.

1Ma 1:54 Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Juda on every side;
1Ma 1:55 And burnt incense at the doors of their houses, and in the streets.
1Ma 1:56 And when they had rent in pieces the books of the law which they found, they burnt them with fire.
1Ma 1:57 And whosoever was found with any the book of the testament, or if any committed to the law, the king’s commandment was, that they should put him to death.
1Ma 1:58 Thus did they by their authority unto the Israelites every month, to as many as were found in the cities.
1Ma 1:59 Now the five and twentieth day of the month they did sacrifice upon the idol altar, which was upon the altar of God.

The information below is taken from https://draugablikk.com. The wild boar was also sacrificed during the winter solstice in Scandinavian countries. It is all honoring the same gods by different names at the same Sabbats. Christianity assigning the birth of Jesus to this time with the same celebrations does not sanctify it. There are two calendars, Yahweh’s and the other one.

“The midwinter festivities of ancient Europe are often called Yule or Yuletide. Ritual celebrations were important and essential components in old times, especially in the Norse cultures because of the long dark winters in Scandinavia and Finland. The Norsemen held great feasts to venerate their ancestors, swear oaths, for fertility, and to celebrate seasonal shifts in nature.

Towards the end of the year, Vikings in western Scandinavia (and Varangians in the east) welcomed the new year through great feasting. These Yuletide celebrations hailed from a distant past, perhaps further back than the Bronze Age, and had thus been a recurring tradition since long before the Viking Age.

Interestingly, the midwinter festivities of pagan Europe lasted for twelve days. It is from this tradition we have the modern twelve days of Christmas. In other words, the rituals of our pagan ancestors still live on in parts of northern Europe, especially in Scandinavia, Iceland, and Finland.

One Yuletide ritual involved sacrificing a wild boar, described as the “sónargǫltr” in the Icelandic literature. As part of the ceremony, oaths were sworn on the sacrificed boar’s bristles (a tradition that is not entirely out of fashion, if one considers contemporary New Year’s resolutions.) Food was scarce in the winter months, and through the sacrifice of the sónargǫltr, it was hoped the seeds to be sown in any man’s farmstead’s field would provide a rich and fruitful harvest.”

Now let’s look at Samhain. This festival was turned into All Saints’s day and Halloween many years ago. It is a Celtic tradition, but we see similar traditions in other parts of the world. In North America the church celebrates trunk or treat in honour of Samhain. Here is the Encyclopedia Britannica explanation of Samhain:

Samhain, (Celtic: “End of Summer”)also spelled Samain, in ancient Celtic religion, one of the most important and sinister calendar festivals of the year. At Samhain, held on November 1, the world of the gods was believed to be made visible to humankind, and the gods played many tricks on their mortal worshippers; it was a time fraught with danger, charged with fear, and full of supernatural episodes. Sacrifices and propitiations of every kind were thought to be vital, for without them the Celts believed they could not prevail over the perils of the season or counteract the activities of the deities. Samhain was an important precursor to Halloween.

The Celts, who many say were originally Chaldeans, would carve a head out of a turnip much like in North America where a pumpkin is used. The roots of this practice are pretty dark. Jacob’s wife Rachael stole a similar type of idol from her father, a Chaldean. It wasn’t a vegetable though, it was the real thing as the book of Jasher records.

And Rachel stole her father’s images, and she took them and she concealed them upon the camel upon which she sat, and she went on. And this is the manner of the images; in taking a man who is the firstborn and slaying him and taking the hair off his head, and taking salt and salting the head and anointing it in oil, then taking a small tablet of copper or a tablet of gold and writing the name upon it, and placing the tablet under his tongue, and taking the head with the tablet under the tongue and putting it in the house, and lighting up lights before it and bowing down to it. And at the time when they bow down to it, it speaks to them in all matters that they ask of it, through the power of the name which is written in it. And some make them in the figures of men, of gold and silver, and go to them in times known to them, and the figures receive the influence of the stars, and tell them future things, and in this manner were the images which Rachel stole from her father. And Rachel stole these images which were her father’s, in order that Lavan might not know through them where Ya`aqov had gone. YASHAR (JASHER) 31:40-44 את CEPHER

Human sacrifice was common thousands of years ago, and it still goes on today in some places. The trunk or treaters in the church parking lot may not have their enemy’s first born shrunken head as an idle, but it is all related to the same Sabbat of Samhain. Why would Christians celebrate these holy days of foreign gods when they could be celebrating Yahweh’s holy days?

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

These foreign gods’ feasts and festivals are still fun and enticing for the people of Yahweh today. Why is it that the entire world embraces all of these Sabbats which Christianity also embraces? Is it that the entire world has converted to Christianity on those particular days, or has Christianity simply taken these traditions from other religions and mythologies? It’s a little of both, or syncretism, and things have evolved from ancient times. Whether we are talking about Tammuz, Isis, Astarte, Eostre, Thor and his flying goats and chariot, Saturn, Woden, human sacrifice or temple prostitution, Yahweh hates it all and anything that reminds him of it.

Hos 4:1 Hear the word of Yahweh, O children of Israel, for Yahweh has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or loyalty, there is no knowledge of God in the land.
Hos 4:2 Swearing and lying, murdering and stealing, and adultery break out, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Hos 4:3 Therefore the land mourns, and all those living in it languish with the animals of the field, and the birds of the heaven, and even the fish of the sea are being swept away.
Hos 4:4 Yet, let no one contend, and let no one accuse, for with you, O priest, is my contention.
Hos 4:5 You will stumble by day, and the priest also will stumble with you at night. And I will destroy your mother;
Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from acting as a priest for me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
Hos 4:7 When they became many, their sin increased against me; they changed their glory into shame.
Hos 4:8 They feed on the sin of my people, they are greedy for their iniquity.
Hos 4:9 And it will be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways, and I will requite them for their deeds.
Hos 4:10 They will eat and not be satisfied; they will play the whore and not multiply, because they have forsaken Yahweh to devote themselves to
Hos 4:11 whoredom. Wine and new wine take away the understanding.
Hos 4:12 My people, consult their wooden idols, and their divining rod gives them oracles; because a spirit of whoredom led them astray, and they played the whore from under their God.
Hos 4:13 On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice, and on the hills they make offerings, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and all your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
Hos 4:14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; because they go aside with whores, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes, a people that does not understand comes to ruin.
Hos 4:15 Even though you, O Israel, are playing the whore, do not let Judah become guilty; do not enter Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven; and do not swear, “As Yahweh lives!”
Hos 4:16 Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.
Hos 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
Hos 4:18 When their drinking has ended, they surely indulge in sexual orgies. They love lewdness more than their glory.
Hos 4:19 A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they will be ashamed because of their altars.

Paul gave a warning to the Galatians not to return to their heathen ways, observing the holy days of their gods that they did before they knew Yahweh. Should we not take the same warning? I know that some try to say this is referring to the Galatians celebrating Yahweh’s feast days, but how can this be the case? People that never celebrated Yahweh’s feast cannot return to something they never did. Also, would Paul refer to Yahweh’s instructions or Torah as weak and worthless? Absolutely not!

Gal 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
Gal 4:9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Gal 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years!
Gal 4:11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

I suggest studying mythology, not just an internet search, but real books and research. There are places on line to read real books, but many will read a blog like mine, where I can say anything, and take it as truth, if it comforts them. After researching the gods of the nations and where they are today, read the two books of King’s in the Bible. If you are able to see the connections between Israel and the “church”, along with the myths of all the gods of antiquity, you will also see how their sabbats and holy days are the same as those celebrated by the “church”. The modern day church has adopted many of the symbols and traditions of the nations’ gods that Yahweh said He hates.

“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 2 Peter 3:14-17

There are many references to the law in the Apostle Paul’s letters to the various churches in the New Testament, but does every reference to the law refer to the law of God given to Moses and the twelve tribes at Mount Horeb? It is not possible to think that and for there to be any coherency in Paul’s writings. All of Paul’s writings should be looked at through the lenses of Peter’s warning in the opening scripture.

For starters, what is God’s law? The word law is Strong’s H8451, pronounced “torah” in Hebrew. It is simply the instruction Yahweh gave his people to live and prosper. It is more often translated as the word law, which makes it seem like a list of rites and rules in a negative connotation. This is instruction from the Creator, who knows everything about this world. Most do not view the law of gravity as an evil thing to which we are in bondage to. It is simply cause and effect. Therefore, if someone walks off a high place, that person will fall to the ground, and depending on how high it was, that person will likely die. I am suggesting God’s law or instruction is just like the law of gravity. It was not established to remove enjoyment from life, but to enhance life. Yahweh knows what makes living on Earth sustainable and enjoyable. So why all the confusion?

H8451
תּרה / תּורה
tôrâh
BDB Definition:
1) law, direction, instruction
1a) instruction, direction (human or divine)
1a1) body of prophetic teaching
1a2) instruction in Messianic age
1a3) body of priestly direction or instruction
1a4) body of legal directives
1b) law
1b1) law of the burnt offering
1b2) of special law, codes of law
1c) custom, manner
1d) the Deuteronomic or Mosaic Law

There have always been rebellious entities whose goals are to separate mankind from Yahweh. One might say that these principalities are jealous of the relationship Yahweh wants to have with his creation. The first example occurred when there was only one instruction: don’t eat the fruit on that specific tree.

Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
Gen 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
Gen 3:3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Gen 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
Gen 3:5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The question: Did God really say…….? Did he really mean rest on the seventh day? Did he really say not to eat certain creatures, like bats and pigs, because they are unclean? Certainly we must know better today, after all, we have refrigeration and science.

It started in the beginning and spiraled into the present situation. Now, concerning Paul’s writings, we will look at the various laws that Paul speaks of, and see that much like James and John, who emphasized that faith is exhibited by works, Paul was teaching that works cannot justify and save a person, or prove one’s faith. Both are true. When a person is justified by their faith, they will want to be obedient to the deliverer of that justification. Let’s establish that Paul carried out God’s instructions and thought God’s law was a good thing.

Act 21:18 On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19 After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
Act 21:20 And when they heard it, they glorified God. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law,
Act 21:21 and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.
Act 21:22 What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.
Act 21:23 Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow;
Act 21:24 take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.

Much like today, people in the Apostles’ day thought Paul was teaching against the law of God. The leadership had Paul take what was likely a Nazarite vow to prove to the people that he also lived in observance of the law. With Acts 24:4 in mind, one has two choices: either the Apostles of Jesus Christ were deceitful, and lived one way pretending to live another, or they observed the law of God. Taking all of scripture into account, it is easy for me to believe they observed the law of God. Otherwise, the whole system is corrupt and does not make any sense.

Rom 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
Rom 3:22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Rom 3:24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Rom 3:25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Rom 3:26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Rom 3:27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Rom 3:28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Rom 3:29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
Rom 3:30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
Rom 3:31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Paul explains himself in his letter to the Roman’s very well. It can become confusing if we start reading with the preconceived notion that Paul is advocating to intentionally practice breaking God’s law. That is why Peter gave the warning that people would twist Paul’s words to justify lawlessness, or the breaking of God’s law. We uphold the law by our faith. Notice Paul mentions more than one law also. This becomes important when reading all of Paul’s letters. When Paul speaks of the law, one must determine which law he is referencing by context. It is not always the law of God. In the verses above he mentions the law of faith and the law of works. Let’s look at some verses that speak of other laws Paul deals with.

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
Rom 8:4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Rom 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

In these verses Paul speaks of the law of the Spirit of life and the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” The law of sin and death cannot be the law of God. It is the result of breaking the law of God, and without the law of the Spirit through Jesus, everyone is guilty of breaking the law of God, thus bound by the law of sin and death. Also, in verse seven, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot”. If the fleshly mind is hostile to God because it does not submit to the law of God, then those in the Spirit would submit to the law of God, therefore not being hostile to God. I don’t know how else to read that. This law of God that Paul speaks of is not some new thing.

Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
Rom 7:23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Rom 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Rom 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

A person cannot delight in something that brings bondage and death. Paul’s letter to the church in Rome is a good foundation to understand what Paul has to say in his other letters. One of the problems we have understanding Paul’s letters is that we are not often given the context to the things Paul is writing about. Another issue that Paul faced was the Pharisaical system that ran Judaism. They had many laws and commandments that added to the law of God, which in itself, broke the instructions Yahweh gave to Moses and the twelve tribes.

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

Jesus also taught against adding to the law of God. He called these added rules or instructions commandments of men. It doesn’t sound like Jesus was impressed with the Pharisees rejecting the commandments of God and replacing them with the commandments of men.

Mar 7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mar 7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Mar 7:8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
Mar 7:9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

How many rules do we have in churches today that are beyond the law of God? The Roman church under Constantine and later councils added many laws, called canons, as well as many feast days, which involved other deities at their roots, at the same time rejecting Yahweh’s instructions. They demonized anyone who still followed Yahweh’s instructions and called them Judiazers. Jesus said:

Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Mat 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Do not let yourself be burdened by the doctrines of men and reject the instruction of Yahweh. Psalms 119:165 , “Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.”

Carrying on with the writings of Paul, his letter to the Galatians is often used to argue that we can live a lawless life as Christians. Beside the fact that a person has to reject most of scripture to believe that, just a basic understanding that Paul wasn’t teaching a new and different doctrine should be enough. Also, there was no New Testament when Paul wrote his letters. He argued everything from the only scripture he had, which we call the Old Testament today. Paul tells us that all scripture “is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work”.

2Ti 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
2Ti 3:13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
2Ti 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
2Ti 3:15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Gal 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Gal 5:2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
Gal 5:3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
Gal 5:4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
Gal 5:5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
Gal 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Gal 5:7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
Gal 5:8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Gal 5:10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
Gal 5:11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.
Gal 5:12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
Gal 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Gal 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Gal 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Gal 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
Gal 5:21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he is addressing a few different issues, one being a group that said circumcision was necessary for salvation. The best line to summarize what he means is the following, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law”. There is no salvation in keeping the law. However, the long list of works of the flesh Paul gives are things that the law instructs us not to do. If we are living in the Spirit, we won’t do them by nature. Does that mean we should embrace witchcraft in the church? Of course not, but many churches unknowingly do. If we do sin, which is defined by Yahweh’s instructions, we can now ask for forgiveness, and are not under the law of sin and death. Ideally, we would be in a place in the Spirit where we would not go against Yahweh’s instruction by nature. The writer of Hebrews, quoting Jeremiah, tells us Yahweh will write his laws in our hearts and put them into our minds. Which laws? The same laws he gave at Mount Horeb.

Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

In Deuteronomy, Yahweh predicts there will be a time in the future that the children of Israel will return to him after being scattered. This prophecy was at least partly fulfilled at the time of Jesus, whereby Jesus, the Messiah, made a way for Israel to return to Him. Yahweh states, “And you will again listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you will do all his commandments that I am commanding you today”. This is referring to us, now.

Deu 30:1 “And then when all of these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse that I have set before you and you call them to mind among the nations there where Yahweh your God has scattered you,
Deu 30:2 and you return to Yahweh and you listen to his voice according to all that I am commanding you today, both you and your children, with all your heart and with all your inner self,
Deu 30:3 and Yahweh your God will restore your fortunes, and he will have compassion upon you, and he will again gather you together from all the peoples where Yahweh your God scattered you there.
Deu 30:4 “Even if you are outcasts at the end of the heavens, even from there Yahweh your God shall gather you, and from there he shall bring you back.
Deu 30:5 And Yahweh your God will bring you to the land that your ancestors had taken possession of, and he will make you successful, and he will make you more numerous than your ancestors.
Deu 30:6 “And Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your inner self so that you may live.
Deu 30:7 And Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, on those who harassed you.

Is Paul advocating lawlessness? Absolutely not. We are to strive for righteousness, which appears to be the opposite of lawlessness.

Rom 6:15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Rom 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
Rom 6:18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Rom 6:19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
Rom 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Rom 6:21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul knows that the standard of teaching and righteousness is defined in Yahweh’s instructions.

Rom 7:10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
Rom 7:11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Rom 7:12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

So what are we to do? Taking all scripture in to account, forsaking the commandments of men, I am compelled in my heart to be obedient to Yahweh’s instructions. Not for salvation, or justification, but out of love for the One who provides a means of salvation, and in order to show proper love to my neighbours.

Rom 7:7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

Jesus explains it quite simply:

Mat 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Mat 5:18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Mat 5:19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Also, who are these who did many mighty works in the name of Jesus whom Jesus doesn’t know because they were workers of lawlessness? Who wants to be one of them? They must have thought they were doing something good for God, but clearly they were not.

Mat 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
Mat 7:23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Does this mean every instruction or command given is applicable for everyone today? No. For example, there is no longer a Levitical priest system or sacrificial system. The book of Hebrews addresses that.

Heb 7:11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?
Heb 7:12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.
Heb 7:13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.
Heb 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
Heb 7:15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek,
Heb 7:16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.
Heb 7:17 For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
Heb 7:18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness
Heb 7:19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.
Heb 7:20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath,
Heb 7:21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’”
Heb 7:22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
Heb 7:23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,
Heb 7:24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.
Heb 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Heb 7:26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Heb 7:27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
Heb 7:28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

We can still offer a sacrifice, but it comes from the bulls, calves or fruits of our lips.

Heb 13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

There is too much evidence for me to listen to these false teachers who are teaching against the instructions of Yahweh, saying those instructions are for someone else, or “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”. Which commandments are you choosing to break or ignore? Are you teaching others to do the same?

Feature picture taken by Emma Vail somewhere in New Brunswick, Canada.