There are many sects of Christianity in today’s world. Christianity started with a sect of people practicing first century Judaism who believed a man from Nazareth was the messiah whom the Jewish people were waiting for to come as prophesied in their writings. Many of the Jewish leaders rejected this idea because the man from Nazareth, Jesus, challenged their interpretation of the scriptures.

Jesus’ real name is Yeshua, or Joshua in English. This is a very basic fact even though many Christians today will mock the name Yeshua or Yahushua in the same way the Jewish leaders mocked Yeshua in person. Many first century Jews did however believe that Yeshua was the promised Messiah, and this is well documented in the gospel accounts.

Luke 1:31 (LEB): ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in the womb and will give birth to a son, and you will call his name Jesus.

Ἰησοῦς, Jesus, the Greek form of Joshua, and the human name of our Saviour (see χριστός). Alexander Souter, A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917), 115.

The English letter “J” is used for the Hebrew letter “yud” in most cases. The “yud” is more of an “ee” sound. The Greek name was “Iesous”, pronounced “ee ey soos”, so I am unsure when the “J” sound was introduced to the name. It was likely after the 1611 King James version of the Bible.

We are told in the letter to the Hebrews, probably written by Paul or Barnabas, that faith is the hope for something not seen. The very first example given in Hebrews chapter eleven is that through faith we believe that God created the worlds through His word. We also know that God’s spoken word is Jesus in the flesh.

Hebrews 11:3 (LEB): ³ By faith we understand the worlds were created by the word of God, in order that what is seen did not come into existence from what is visible.

Speaking of Moses, this chapter gives us more examples of faith:

Hebrews 11:28–30 (LEB): ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, in order that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. ²⁹ By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land; the Egyptians, when they made the attempt, were drowned. ³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been marched around for seven days.

It takes a lot of faith to cross the Red Sea in the way that Moses did. Many of us do not have a problem having faith to believe that the Elohim of Israel created the “worlds”, which are this earth and the entire universe. Why do we stop there? For example, The One who created the universe also told us which animals were for food and which ones were not to be eaten. Yet many do not have the faith to believe this is true.

Leviticus 11:1–3 (LEB): 11 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, ² “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘These are the animals that you may eat from all the animals that are on the land: ³ Any among the animals that has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof and that chews cud, such you may eat.

Another example is the Sabbath day. The Creator made a day to rest at the time of creation and told His people to also rest on that day. Other than the myriads of people saying “don’t rest on the Sabbath”, it should take very little faith to take the Father at His word and simply rest on that weekly day. We have had 1500 years of church leadership telling us not to rest on the Sabbath and the reasons they give could be convincing without faith in the living God and His Word. Some will say that the command was never restated in the New Testament writings, yet everyone was found keeping the Sabbath in the New Testament. Is this not a perfect example of leading by example? Jesus even told us he was the lord or master of the Sabbath, which should point to its significance.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 (LEB): ¹² ‘Observe the Sabbath day to make it holy, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall work, and you shall do all of your work, 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. 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.

There are also doctrines in the church that say that the Sabbath and list of animals for food were ceremonial laws and that in the New Testament church we are only to be concerned with so called “moral laws”. However, there is no place in scripture that makes this differentiation. As a result of all of the manmade interference, it now takes a lot of faith to eat what God calls food and to rest on the Sabbath; that is until one steps out and starts doing it and reaping the benefits.

So how do we understand faith? Moses needed faith to part and cross the Red Sea when an army was chasing him and today we need faith for simple milk-like doctrine such as resting on the Sabbath. The answer is understanding the covenants and the role Jesus plays in renewing the eternal covenant.

Moses had all of Israel and the mixed multitude make a covenant on Mount Horeb where God spoke to everyone there that day in an audible voice. They all said “we will” and blood was sprinkled on them to seal the covenant. Israel soon broke the covenant and it had to be renewed at Moab. Moses knew that the children of the Israelites would eventually break the covenants and He told them about God sending Jesus who would be a “prophet like him”.

Deuteronomy 18:15–19 (LEB): 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. 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!’ ¹⁷ And Yahweh said to me, ‘They are right in what they have said. 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. ¹⁹ And then the man that will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will hold accountable.

Just as Moses spoke God’s instructions to the Israelites, this future “prophet” would be the one that will speak to the people, and we must listen to what he says because the Father said he “placed His words in his mouth”.

I am not making this up, or trying to invent a new connection, yet I am guessing this is going to be the first time hearing this for many Christians. First, Jesus tells us Moses spoke of him.

John 5:45–47 (LEB): ⁴⁵ Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father! The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope! ⁴⁶ For if you had believed Moses, you would believe me, for that one wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe that one’s writings, how will you believe my words?”

Peter specifically told us that these versus in Deuteronomy were speaking about Jesus.

Acts 3:19–24 (LEB): ¹⁹ Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ appointed for you—Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times. ²² Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You will listen to him in everything that he says to you. ²³ And it will be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed utterly from the people.’ ²⁴ And indeed, all the prophets from Samuel and all those who followed him have spoken about and proclaimed these days.

Therefore, just as the people at Mount Horeb heard the voice of God and were afraid, we are to listen to the instruction of Jesus, who is called Yeshua in Hebrew. This is the same message the writer of Hebrews was trying to convey. Jesus renewed the covenant with his own blood. We must meet Jesus outside the camp. These are metaphors to show us how to live without the temple. Moses and the temple were the shadows of the Messiah and the heavenly temple. This does not mean the instructions of God, known as Torah, were changed.

Hebrews 13:12–16 (LEB): ¹² Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, in order that he might sanctify the people by his own blood. ¹³ So we must go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. ¹⁴ For here we do not have a permanent city, but we seek the city that is to come. ¹⁵ Therefore through him let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. ¹⁶ And do not neglect doing good and generosity, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Hebrews chapters 12 and 13 explain how to keep the law without a temple, that is being outside the camp. Jesus is now the one officiating the eternal covenant from heaven. This eternal covenant has the same stipulations as the covenant at mount Horeb.

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LEB): ²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with every good thing to do his will, carrying out in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.

The eternal covenant is what is pleasing to the Father and He will equip us to do His will and what is pleasing to Him (the instructions of the eternal covenant) with the help of Yeshua. The prophet Malachi connected the covenant at Horeb with Yeshua.

Malachi 4:4–6 (LEB): ⁴ “Remember the instruction of my servant Moses, which I commanded him at Horeb to all Israel, the rules and regulations. ⁵ Look! I am going to send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh! ⁶ And he will bring back the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and the hearts of the sons to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with a ban.”

It takes faith to do the things that are pleasing to the Father, especially when those in the church are telling us to do the opposite of what pleases the Father. He sent Yeshua to renew (or make new) the eternal covenant that had been broken so many times in the past. This is the world’s last chance to get it right. Through the scattering of Israel into the nations for breaking the covenant, it became possible for the whole world to be part of the renewed covenant with Yeshua’s blood. When he comes back, “it will be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed utterly from the people”. This is a huge opportunity for the whole world to be saved from destruction for disobedience.

Isaiah 24:1–6 (LEB): 24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste and is about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants. ² And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the female slave, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends. ³ The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, ⁵ and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth, and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn, and few men are left.

The kingdom of God is not dependent on land on this Earth. It is wherever Yeshua determines it is at his coming. We can be part of the kingdom of God by meeting Yeshua outside the gate so to speak, then doing what he says. He tells us he only says what he hears his father saying. We have a large book called the Bible with pages and pages of what the Father said, along with examples from Yeshua on how to apply it.

John 18:35–36 (LEB): ³⁵ Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your people and the chief priests handed you over to me! What have you done?” ³⁶ Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.”

When the events of Isaiah unfold, and the wrath of God is poured out because “they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant“, the world is going to see that the eternal covenant still contains the commandments of God. Moses delivered them to the Israelites and Yeshua delivers them to the whole world, including the descendants of the Israelites.

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

Moses was a mediator for the Israelites and now through their disobedience the whole world benefits. In order to honor the promises given to Israel, God has extended them to the world with Yeshua as the mediator. Just as the Israelites were to listen to Moses, the whole world must listen to Yeshua, and his message was the same as the message of Moses on a much larger scale. No more shadows of the heavenly tabernacle, that is the tabernacle in the wilderness. We have the heavenly tabernacle with the heavenly priest and salvation of God!

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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It is that time of year again where we constantly need to be reminded that “Jesus is the real reason for the season”, or of the “real” meaning of the “Christmas tree” (it allegedly points to Jesus) and other such things. One would think these meanings would be self-evident after 2000 years of Christian history. If Jesus is the “reason for the season”, everyone should already know, and most of the population would not be interested.

For example, Passover and Hanukkah are generally known by most people to involve holy days which the Jews celebrate; Ramadan is a holy month in Islam; Diwali is an Indian holiday, and so on. No one truly cares about these religious days unless they are involved in the respective religion, and one does not usually hear from these religions on their holy days because they are busy celebrating.

With the December holidays, we have a wildly popular festive holiday all over the world with a relatively small amount of people popping up proclaiming, “Jesus is the reason for the season!”, when the majority of the population, a) know he is not the reason for the season, b) are indifferent about it, or c) only care about the presents, lights, trees and festivities. Many secular Jews, Muslims, Atheists, and people from other religions all celebrate Christmas. How can this be? What possesses an atheist to partake in gift giving, Christmas trees and other festivities if they do not believe in God? Why would someone celebrate the birthday of Jesus who does not believe he existed, doesn’t care, or may actually hate Christianity? The answer is that most people know it is not really the birthday of Jesus, don’t care that some people assign it to the birthday of their god, and are participating in holiday rituals that have existed in different cultures for the last 3500 years.

If we look at different religions around the world, we find December 25th is a significant date. Many gods of different religions were born on December 25th. The one thing they have in common is that they were usually some type of sun god. The tree is part of the festival not because it points to Jesus, but because it is the symbol that goes with the sun god and his female counter part. The fir tree is a phallic symbol that dates back to Nimrod and Asherah. Most of the props and rituals of the winter solstice holidays are related to fertility, sex and the renewal of life.

Deuteronomy 16:21 (LEB): ²¹ You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah pole beside the altar of Yahweh your God that you make for yourselves.

אֲשֵׁרָה, אֲשֵׁירָה n.pr.f. Ashera a. a Canaanitish goddess of fortune & happiness. b. a symbol of this goddess, a sacred tree or pole set up near an altar. Pl. אֲשֵׁרוֹת a. the goddess. b. sacred trees or poles.

Richard Whitaker et al., The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament: From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles Briggs, Based on the Lexicon of Wilhelm Gesenius (Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1906).

The sacred trees are very important throughout history, and the Creator said not to put them by His altar. There is no question that the “Christmas” tree is fashioned after the trees in ancient sun god worship. “Christmas” is simply its own version of sun god worship with the demigod “Iesous” at the center. I only say this because the real Creator of the universe and His son would have nothing to do with a festival that blends all of the traditions of the sun gods and goddesses of antiquity, therefore there must be a different god at the center of the December 25th holiday. The stress, consumerism, depression, coveting and hardships from overspending all point to Jesus (Yeshua) not being the reason for the season.

Deuteronomy 7:5 (LEB): ⁵ But this is what you must do to them: you shall break down their altars, and their stone pillars you shall smash, and their Asherah poles you shall hew down, and you shall burn their idols with fire.

The use of these symbols from other gods and religions to honor Jesus actually makes Christianity look dumb on the world stage, and the God of Israel told His people to have nothing to do with them. Jesus, called Yeshua by his followers, told us he only did what he saw the Father doing and only said what he heard the Father saying. The Father said that he does not change. So why do Christians think they can assign all of these symbols from other gods to Yeshua? Where are these things talked about in the Bible? Here are some places:

Jeremiah 10:2 (LEB): ² Thus says Yahweh: “You must not learn the way of the nations, and you must not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens, for the nations are dismayed by them.

1 Corinthians 10:21–22 (LEB): ²¹ You are not able to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You are not able to share the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²² Or are we attempting to provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he is, are we?

Matthew 24:3–5 (LEB): ³ And as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came up to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” ⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you! ⁵ For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will deceive many.

The whole Bible is written against the Church assigning the one true God to festivals and symbols of other gods. The holy days of the Creator were shared with the Israelites through Moses from God. These are not simply holy days of the “Jews”. They are the holy days that are important to the Father. It is through the error of dispensationalism theology that these get cast aside and replaced with holy days of other gods saying “we are not under the law” as if knowing and celebrating the holy days given to us by the Father is some type of punishment. We bring curses on ourselves by rejecting His days and choosing the days of the nations.

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

Yahweh says, “these are my appointed times” and does not mention anything about them belonging only to the Jews. These are His festivals and they were shared to the world through Israel. When I say “through Israel”, I don’t mean the secular country that is in western Asia in 2024. I am speaking about those who were at Mount Horeb, the Israelites and the mixed multitude. Paul tells us how the Jews were the vehicle used to deliver the “oracles of God”.

Romans 3:1–2 (LEB): 3 Therefore, what is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the use of circumcision? ² Much in every way. For first, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

The days on the left are the festivals of the nations celebrated for thousands of years and include modern day Easter (after the goddess Eostre or Ostara), Christmas (Yule), Samhain (all saints day and Halloween), Litha ( St. John the Baptist day). There is also May day with the May “pole” complete with streamers. It is all disgusting when one researches the meanings of all of the days that are involved in sun worship.

The days on the right are the “appointed times” of the Creator, found in Leviticus chapter 23 (except Hanukkah). These are the days Yeshua celebrated, as did the early church, until corruption creeped in. Paul warned of this corruption speaking to the elders at the church in Ephesus.

Acts 20:29–30 (LEB): ²⁹ I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. ³⁰ And from among you yourselves men will arise, speaking perversions of the truth in order to draw away the disciples after them.

This means that perversions of the truth started to manifest themselves as early as 57 CE. Some accounts say that this corruption involved blending practices of the mystery religions. Based on how things are today in the Church this makes complete sense.

Dispensationalism theology teaches that Peter was only talking to the “Jews” in Acts Chapter three. This is deception to draw people away from the Father and the obligation to do what Yeshua said to do. We must be grafted into the family of God and do what He told us to do. This does not mean the religion of Talmudic Judaism. This means we follow the commandments as Jesus taught, not man made traditions by any religion.

Acts 3:19–26 (LEB): ¹⁹ Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ appointed for you—Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times. ²² Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You will listen to him in everything that he says to you. ²³ And it will be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed utterly from the people.’ ²⁴ And indeed, all the prophets from Samuel and all those who followed him have spoken about and proclaimed these days. ²⁵ You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God ordained with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed.’ ²⁶ God, after he had raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning each of you back from your wickedness!”

God hates idolatry and using things from other peoples’ gods supposedly to worship Him. Take Messiah Yeshua out of the Christmas sun god worship and learn to worship in spirit and truth! Truth contains no fairy tales, imaginary characters, myths or legends.

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Yeshua, commonly known as Jesus in English, told His followers some hard things that caused many to walk away. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood would seem like a weird thing to hear from a speaker. Many just didn’t stick around long enough to understand.

John 6:60–66 (LEB): ⁶⁰ Thus many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This saying is hard! Who can understand it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, because he knew within himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Does this cause you to be offended? ⁶² Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? ⁶³ The Spirit is the one who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) ⁶⁵ And he said, “Because of this I said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by the Father.” ⁶⁶ For this reason many of his disciples drew back and were not walking with him any longer.

Drinking Messiah’s blood and eating His flesh is a spiritual matter. He is the Word of Yahweh and manna from Heaven. His blood is that of the new covenant, or the refreshing of the covenant as Peter tells us.

Acts 3:19–21 (LEB): ¹⁹ Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ appointed for you—Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times.

Many think that we are fully engaged in the new covenant right now. When the author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah concerning the new covenant, it makes me wonder if we are not fully there yet. Are we perhaps in a process? It is clear that His laws are not written on the majority of people’s hearts today. Most Christians hate God’s laws by their actions and words, so how could these same laws be written on their hearts?

Hebrews 8:6–13 (LEB): ⁶ But now he has attained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted upon better promises. ⁷ For if that first covenant had been faultless, occasion would not have been sought for a second. ⁸ For in finding fault with them he says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ⁹ not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took hold of them by my hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will decree with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I am putting my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they will be my people. ¹¹ And they will not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹² For I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings, and I will not remember their sins any longer.” ¹³ In calling it new, he has declared the former to be old. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is near to disappearing.

The old covenant is growing old and ready to disappear. Hebrews 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”. Do we still have to teach your neighbors about the Lord? Does everyone know Him? It does not appear to be so. We are in the refreshing as Peter told us. Once the Messiah comes back and establishes His kingdom, all of His laws will be written on our hearts and everyone will clearly know who He is.

Revelation 3:2–3 (LEB):² Be on the alert and strengthen the remaining things that are about to die, for I have not found your works completed before my God. ³ Therefore remember how you have received and heard, and observe it, and repent. If therefore you are not on the alert, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come against you.

If eating His flesh and drinking His blood is spiritual, not literal, then what does that say for eating meat sacrificed to idols? Would that not be equally spiritual?

1 Corinthians 10:13–22 (LEB): ¹³ Temptation has not come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will also make a way out together with the temptation, so that you may be able to endure it.¹⁴ Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵ I am speaking as to sensible people; you judge what I am saying. ¹⁶ The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share from the one bread. ¹⁸ Consider Israel according to the flesh: are not the ones who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? ¹⁹ Therefore, what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰ No, but that the things which they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers with demons. ²¹ You are not able to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You are not able to share the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²² Or are we attempting to provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he is, are we?

Paul knew that the pagan deities were place holders for demons. All of their symbology is polluted by demons. Therefore, to abstain from things polluted by idols was one of the first commandments new converts were shown.

Acts 15:19–21 (LEB): ¹⁹ Therefore I conclude we should not cause difficulty for those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, ²⁰ but we should write a letter to them to abstain from the pollution of idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. ²¹ For Moses has those who proclaim him in every city from ancient generations, because he* is read aloud in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

We know that the gentiles, or non-Jews, concerned themselves with the signs in heaven, such as the winter solstice and waiting for the spring equinox. Many cultures brought fir trees and evergreens into their house as a sign of fertility.

Jeremiah 10:1–4 (LEB): Hear the word that Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel. ² Thus says Yahweh: “You must not learn the way of the nations, and you must not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens, for the nations are dismayed by them. ³ For the statutes of the peoples are vanity, for it is a tree cut down from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with the tool. ⁴ He decorates it with silver and gold, they strengthen it with nails and hammers, so that it does not stagger.

The fir trees will even rejoice once Babylon is defeated. Imagine trees rejoicing because no one is cutting them down for idolatrous purposes any more.

Isaiah 14:3–8 (KJV 1900): ³ And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, ⁴ That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! ⁵  The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. ⁶  He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, He that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. ⁷  The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. ⁸  Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

“Meat sacrificed to idols” is not limited to eating actual meat that was sacrificed in first century temples of Diana or Zeus. These ancient deities are still with us today in our customs and traditions. Christians, without question, use the symbology of these ancient deities, sometimes boasting about their usage, in their special holy days handed down through tradition. Yet Paul told us in the first century to specifically not do this, repeating the commandment given to Moses from the One whom we as Christians claim to be worshipping.

Deuteronomy 12:29–32 (LEB): 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, 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.’ 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. 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.”

Paul tells us we are “sharers with demons” and God told Moses to absolutely not use symbols or traditions from other cultures to serve Him. Despite these warnings, Christianity uses all of the traditions and symbols they can find to bring into the supposed worship of God. The question becomes ” which God are you worshipping?”. If the one true God of Israel says not to use these items to worship Him, then we can assume He does not count these traditions and symbols as worship towards Him at the very least (vain worship), and the worst case scenario is that He abhors it and turns His back on people that practice these things in His name? Paul simply says it is partaking at the table with demons.

Many Christians will use the excuse that they are “not under the law” to justify the use of symbols of Nordic witchcraft to the god Odin, or the sun worship of the god Mithras. Which god is being worshipped in all of these traditions? Law or no law, the Creator of the Universe weighed in on His thoughts of these practices. Do we want to temp God and use grace as a cover? It is a dangerous road to be walking.

The result of syncretizing the symbols, traditions or “meat” of gods of other’s is described in Revelation. One has to understand the sins of Jezebel and Ahab, and Balak and Balaam to fully see the repercussions of partaking at the table with demons. Often Christians will wonder why they are having a hard time in life without even considering which gods they are paying homage to and that they open the door to demons.

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

These words should be troubling to the “no commandment”, or antinomian crowd. “Repent or else”, “throwing people in a sick bed”, “killing their children with deadly diseases” and “I will give to each one of you according to your deeds”, seems to contradict the hyper grace message of the modern church. It sounds more like the curses for disobedience listed in Leviticus chapter twenty-six. If we are observant, this is exactly what is happening and it is caused by ignoring God’s covenant.

Revelation 2:20–23 (LEB): ²⁰ But I have against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, the one who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ And I have given her time in order to repent, and she did not want to repent from her sexual immorality. ²² Behold, I am throwing her into a sickbed and those who committed adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent from her deeds. ²³ And I will kill her children with deadly disease, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

Balaam showed Balaak that he could defeat Israel by luring them into their fertility rituals and therefore cursing themselves. Jezebel used Ahab to promote Baal worship. Baal is still being worshipped today in Christianity. The “law” that Christians despise has nothing to do with any of this other than it told us not to do it. Even if the antinomian doctrine were true, it would still be hard to justify using symbols and traditions of other gods in the worship of the one true Elohim of Israel in light of all these scriptures.

Paul also warns the Galatians not to turn back to their former pagan practices. The Galatians were caught between a sect of Jews that insisted on circumcision to be saved, and a government that mandated the celebration of the festivals of the gods of their culture. Christians today try to make these verses about celebrating the Sabbath and God’s feast days, but that really is nonsense when we consider the whole of scripture.

Galatians 4:8–11 (LEB): ⁸ But at that time when you did not know God, you were enslaved to the things which by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now, because you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ¹⁰ You carefully observe days and months and seasons and years. ¹¹ I am afraid for you, lest perhaps I have labored for you in vain!

The best way to understand these things is to learn the nature of God by studying His words. There is work involved to learn enough history to understand what is actually being told to us in the scriptures. When Jesus came, he told us he only said what he heard the Father say and only did what he saw the Father doing. Jesus had no new agenda to change anything, only to free us from the curse of death we inherited from breaking God’s laws. Should we continue breaking God’s laws, which is sinning, simply because Jesus freed us from the curse of breaking the law? Romans 6:16 (LEB): ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whomever you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to whomever you obey, whether sin, leading to death, or obedience, leading to righteousness?

Photo by Alison Dueck on Unsplash

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