He came to his own things, and his own people did not receive him. But as many as received him—to those who believe in his name—he gave to them authority to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a husband, but of God.

John 1:11–13 (LEB)

Two words that almost define the entire Christian consciousness are the words “believe” and “confess”. Both of these words have lead believers into thinking that speaking words and somehow “believing” in their minds is all that the Creator requires of them. After all, Jesus did all the hard work and now we just need to “believe” in Jesus like a child believes in the tooth fairy.

Yeshua, the Hebrew name of “Jesus”, which translates to Joshua in English, made it possible for us to come back to covenant with the Father and Creator God. Yeshua is the seed of Abraham that will bless the whole world. Without Yeshua there is no way for people to come to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Romans 3:21–31 (LEB): 21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified about by the law and the prophets—22 that is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God made publicly available as the mercy seat through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness, because of the passing over of previously committed sins, 26 in the forbearance of God, for the demonstration of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just and the one who justifies the person by faith in Jesus.
27 Therefore, where is boasting? It has been excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we consider a person to be justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, also of the Gentiles, 30 since God is one, who will justify those who are circumcised by faith and those who are uncircumcised through faith. 31 Therefore, do we nullify the law through faith? May it never be! But we uphold the law.

It is all about believing. Also, “Therefore, do we nullify the law through faith? May it never be! But we uphold the law.” So we uphold the law by, “through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe“. This word believe seems to be very important. However, the letter to the Romans was not written in English. translators have used the word “believe” to translate a Greek word. The Greek word is “pisteuo”.

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology delves into this Greek word translated “believe” and gives us a better idea of the historical meaning.

With reference to people, pisteuō means to obey (Soph., OT, 625). The pass. means to enjoy trust (Xen., Anab., 7, 6, 33). The adj. pistos means trusting (Theognis, 283), trustworthy (Hom., Il., 2, 124). to piston means dependability or the faithfulness of those bound through an agreement (Aesch., Ag., 651; Xen., Anab., 2, 4, 7). The vb. pistoō has the meaning of binding someone or oneself to be faithful (Soph., OC, 650). In the pass. it means to be sure, to trust (Hom., Od., 21, 217 f.). The pistis word-group has a special colouring, where it refers to believing doxa (opinion). In such a case dependability is limited (cf. Plato, Phd., 107b).

O. Michel, “Πίστις,” ed. Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 594.

With this word “pisteuo”, we see the essence of the word has to do with trust and obedience. “Binding oneself to an agreement”.

The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that was translated around the second century BCE. It is a translation that was common in the first century CE. We can learn how words were translated from Hebrew to Greek from this translation. It is reverse engineering through the work of people in the second century BCE, or formally, “before Christ”. This is called the Hebrew alignment of a Greek word.

The first Hebrew word that aligns with “pisteuo” is “Aman”. We see the essence of the meaning of this word is trustworthy, confirmed, reliable and trust to do a thing.

I. [אָמַן] vb. confirm, support — Qal 1. as vb. support, nourish. 2. as subst. foster-father. 3. foster-mother, nurse. 4. pillars, supporters of the door. Niph. 1. carried by a nurse. 2. made firm, sure, lasting. 3. confirmed, established, sure. 4. verified, confirmed. 5. reliable, faithful, trusty. Hiph. 1. stand firm. 2. trust, believe: (a) abs.; (b) with ל of person, trust to, believe; ל of thing; (c) with ב of person, trust in, believe in; with ב of thing; (d) with כִּי trust or believe that; (e) so with infin. (sq. ל); also trust to do a thing, almost = allow.

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).

We often see people post on social media, “I did a thing” along with a picture of a new car, or perhaps a wedding photo indicating they “did something” special or out of the ordinary. Another Hebrew word that aligns with “pisteuo”, which is translated to the English word “believe”, is “Shema”.

שָׁמַע vb. hear — Qal 1. subj. pers. hum. (vel rei personif.): a. hear (perceive by ear), acc. rei, esp. קוֹל, (ים)דבר, etc.; acc. חָכְמָה i.e. wise sayings; any utterance or sound + (obj. om.) (cl. temp.); c. ב; c. obj. cl., כִּי; sq. orat. rect. b. acc. pers. + מְדַבֵּר hear one speaking; acc. pers. only. c. c. לֵאמֹר only, hear say = hear it said; + עַל pers. concerning; אֶל pers. id. d. hear of, concerning: (1) acc. rei; (2) less oft. acc. pers., אֶל pers., pers. om.; c. ב pers. hear exultantly of their fate. e. hear, abs., = have power to hear (c. בְּקוֹל); in si.; c. neg. of idols; fig. (spiritual power). f. hear with attention, interest, listen to; oft. abs. + (neg.) pay no attention. g. understand (language). h. specif. of hearing a (judicial) case; acc. om. בֵּין pers., of ˊי‍; c. מִשְׁפָּט. i. c. acc. pers. in polite address, hear us (me)! j. listen, give heed, abs.; hear + do; = consent, agree, grant request; c. ל pers. k. c. אֶל pers. + listen to, yield to, עַל pers.; אֶל־דִּבְרֵי etc., עַל־דִּבְרֵי etc.; very rarely acc. rei. l. לְקוֹל ˊשׁ‍ = id., obey. m. very oft., בְּקוֹל ˊשׁ‍ = obey, + ˊבְּקוֹל י‍ ˊשׁ‍ (ˊי‍’s word, etc.). n. obey, c. acc. (ים)דבר; acc. pers. o. abs. be obedient (esp. to ˊי‍). 2. ˊי‍ (God) subj.:

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).

Both the words “believe” and “confess” convey the meaning of being in covenant and being faithful to someone. Does confessing that Jesus is Lord simply mean stating this when asked? This is something that the demons are capable of doing, so there must be something more to set apart those who claim to follow Yeshua.

Romans 10:6–10 (LEB): 6 But the righteousness from faith speaks like this: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim), 9 that if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation.

Paul is quoting Deuteronomy here. Many will look past, “For with the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness” and dumb down the word “confess” to mean to simply state a fact.

Deuteronomy 30:10–16 (LEB): 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.
11 “For this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too wonderful for you, and it is not too far from you. 12 It is not in the heavens so that you might say, ‘Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us and cause us to hear it, so that we may do it?’ 13 And it is not beyond the sea, so that you might say, ‘Who will cross for us to the other side of the sea and take it for us and cause us to hear it, so that we may do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it. 15 “See, I am setting before you today life and prosperity and death and disaster; 16 what I am commanding you today is to love Yahweh your God by going in his ways and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his regulations, and then you will live, and you will become numerous, and Yahweh your God will bless you in the land where you are going.

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology gives us a great first century definition of the Greek word “homologeo”, used for the English word “confess”.

ὁμολογέω G3933 (homologeō), promise, confess, declare, praise; ἐξομολογέω G2018 (exomologeō), promise, confess, praise; ὁμολογία G3934 (homologia), confession.

CL homologeō (Soph. onwards) and homologia (Hdt. onwards) are compounds of homos, the same, similar, and legō, say, or logos, word, speech. Hence homologeō means to say the same, i.e. agree in one’s statements, and homologia means agreement, consent.
The legal connotation is dominant. A man agrees with another’s statement, concedes or confesses something (e.g. his guilt before a judge), agrees to something (e.g. another’s wish) and so promises. This agreement expresses itself in an act of commitment, promise, or confession in a court or legal contract.
The religious use of the words is probably derived primarily from their use in the language of treaties and the law-courts. The man who binds himself by an oath (homologeō) enters into a treaty relationship with the deity. This concept was then transferred from the solemn confession of wrong-doing before a court of law to the confession of sin to the deity. These concepts were used especially in the oriental cults, as may be seen from Lydian and Phrygian expiatory inscriptions. In modern Gk. the concept has come to mean sacramental confession to a priest: exomologeomai, I make my confession; exomologeō, I hear a confession.

D. Fürst, “Confess,” ed. Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 344.

It should not be a surprise that being in covenant with God is the result of believing and confessing Yeshua. He is the way to the Father. The idea that believing and confessing is only lip service, defined by a church denomination, or from our imagination, is problematic.

Matthew 26:26–28 (LEB): 26 Now while they were eating Jesus took bread and, after giving thanks, he broke it, and giving it to the disciples, he said, “Take, eat, this is my body.” 27 And after taking the cup and giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

What is the new covenant promised through the prophet Jeremiah and delivered by Yeshua? It is only for the house of Israel and the house of Judah, so one must learn what that means. In this new covenant delivered by Yeshua, God will write His laws on our hearts. This sounds like the verses in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 30:4–8 (LEB): 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. 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.
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. 7 And Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, on those who harassed you. 8 And you will again listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you will do all his commandments that I am commanding you today.

For the New Testament only crowd, we are taught this in the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 8:8–10 (LEB): 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.

Does anyone believe God has a new set of laws that He will put in people’s minds and hearts? It is apparent that the answer is “yes” based on the total disregard of God’s laws that exists in the Church today. There is only one set of laws. God gave them through Moses and Israel. He sent Yeshua to do a reset and get the people back on track, and at the same time make it clear that the whole world could be part of the covenant if they repent and “believe”.

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 and with every unrighteous deception against those who are perishing, in place of which they did not accept the love of the truth, so that they would be saved. And because of this, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie,  in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but delighted in unrighteousness.

2 Thessalonians 2:10–12 (LEB)

There are many people who claim to believe everything written in the Bible, but do they really? Many people have never read the entire Bible, yet make these claims of faith in every written word. Then we must also ask, is scripture limited to the sixty-six books given to us by the 1647 Westminster Confessions? This was a group of seventeenth century theologians and politicians trying to appease different political and religious sects. What about such books as first and second Esdras, Baruch, Wisdom of Solomon and Maccabees? These writings were all removed in 1647 by the Westminster Confessions.

2 Timothy 3:12–17 (LEB): ¹² And indeed, all those who want to live in a godly manner in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³ But evil people and imposters will progress to the worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ But you continue in the things which you have learned and are convinced of, because you know from whom you learned them, ¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known the holy writings that are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ in order that the person of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Paul didn’t have the New Testament scriptures when he wrote this, all he had was what we call the Old Testament, which included many of the omitted books I mentioned. Let’s look and see if we can say we believe everything written in scripture without the “ya but” clause.

Ezekiel 33:12–16 (LEB): ¹² “So you, son of man, say to your people that the righteousness of the righteous shall not save him in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked will not cause him to stumble on the day of his returning from his wickedness; and the righteous will not be able to live by it on the day when he returns to his sin. ¹³ When I say to the righteous, ‘Certainly he will live,’ and he trusted in his righteousness, and he turns and he does injustice, all of his righteousness will not be remembered, and because of his injustice that he did, because of it he will die. ¹⁴ And when I say to the wicked, ‘Certainly you will die,’ but he returns from his sin and he does justice and righteousness— ¹⁵ for example, the wicked returns a pledge for a loan, he restores stolen property, he goes in the statutes of life so as not to do injustice—certainly he will live; he will not die. ¹⁶ All of his sins that he committed, they will not be remembered against him, and he did justice and righteousness; certainly he will live.

In these verses the Creator is telling us someone can undo the righteousness they have done by doing injustice, and someone can undo their unrighteousness by repenting and making things right. All of a person’s righteousness will be forgotten when they do injustice. This sounds similar to what the writer of Hebrews tells us:

Hebrews 10:26–29 (LEB): ²⁶ For if we keep on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment do you think the person will be considered worthy of who treats with disdain the Son of God and who considers ordinary the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy and who insults the Spirit of grace?

In other words, simply saying a prayer and returning to a life of sin does not mean one will be saved on the day of vengeance. One verse that I like to point out which is extremely hard for many people to believe is Genesis 1:1.

Genesis 1:1 (LEB): 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth—

Some good verses about our weather are also found in Genesis. We can have faith that we will be able to grow our crops and enjoy the seasons until the end.

Genesis 8:21–22 (LEB): ²²As long as the earth endures, seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.

If those of us wanting to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can be deceived, then from where would this deception appear? Would we be deceived by someone who does not regard the things of God at all? Perhaps, but a solidly grounded believer would have to be deceived slowly and also be lead to believe they are following what the true God says, or what the true God of their particular denomination says to do. In other words, deception, for the most part, has to come from a place that is viewed as the authority on scripture and God.

2 Corinthians 11:13–15 (LEB): ¹³ For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. ¹⁵ Therefore it is not a great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

Large amounts of deception have to come from within the “Church”. Some will say I am deceived because I believe we need to be obedient to what the Father commanded us. The definition of deception is to believe a lie, and if scripture is truth and Yeshua is truth, would the lie not be acting contrary to both? Yeshua points us to the Father’s words being truth.

John 17:16–19 (LEB): ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth—your word is truth. ¹⁸ Just as you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for them I sanctify myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in the truth.

Deuteronomy 8:1–3 (LEB): “All of the commandments that I am commanding you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and multiply, and you may go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors. ² And you shall remember all of the way that Yahweh your God led you during these forty years in the desert in order to humble you and to test you to know what is in your heart, whether you would diligently keep his commandments or not. ³ And he humbled you and let you go hungry, and then he fed you with that which you did not know nor did your ancestors know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone but by all that goes out of the mouth of Yahweh humankind shall live.

The commandments of God are what we are to live by, not be “saved” by. One of the greatest deceptions is that if one obeys the commandments of God then they are trying to earn their salvation. It is such a wide spread lie, and most people happily believe this even though scripture is completely against them. Deception is making up a new way to interpret scripture, such as dispensationalism, and insisting all scripture must be read through these lenses. Deception is saying that “Jesus freed us from God’s commandments”, or “Did God really say that?”. It is not a new concept and is actually a way for God to test how much people love Him. It is much easier to believe the lie.

Genesis 3:1–5 (LEB): 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God indeed say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, ³ but from the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’.” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that on the day you both eat from it, then your eyes will be opened and you both shall be like gods, knowing good and evil.”

“You shall not surely die“, now fill in the blank. “Did God really say not to ____?”, or “Did God really say to ____?”. Why was the serpent in the garden if not to test creation? These tests are everywhere.

Galatians 3:1–3 (LEB): 3 O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as having been crucified? ² I want only to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? ³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now trying to be made complete by the flesh?

Deceivers disguised as angels of light use the writings of Paul to justify lawlessness or the idea that we no longer have to be obedient to the Father. Is this God giving people a way out of being obedient so they can feel good about themselves in doing so? If Paul teaches against the commandments of God, why does Peter warn us that people will use Paul’s teachings to justify lawlessness?

2 Peter 3:14–17 (LEB): ¹⁴ Therefore, dear friends, because you are waiting for these things, make every effort to be found at peace, spotless and unblemished in him. ¹⁵ And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom that was given to him, ¹⁶ as he does also in all his letters, speaking in them about these things, in which there are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, as they also do the rest of the scriptures. ¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, because you know this beforehand, guard yourselves so that you do not lose your own safe position because you have been led away by the error of lawless persons.

Peter told us what was going to happen, and it has. Unstable people distort the words of Paul into the error of lawlessness. What did Paul say about himself?

Acts 24:14–16 (LEB): ¹⁴ But I do confess this to you, that according to the Way (which they call a sect), so I worship the God of our fathers, believing all things that are in accordance with the law and that are written in the prophets, ¹⁵ having a hope in God which these men also themselves await: that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. ¹⁶ For this reason also I myself always do my best to have a clear conscience toward God and people.

There are those who will say that God’s commandments are only for the Jews and Paul was writing to gentiles who do not have to regard the commandments of God. This follows the deception of dispensationalism, which was fashioned in the likeness of the teachings of the heretic Marcion. Marcion taught there was a difference between the God of the Jews and the God of Jesus. Jesus supposedly came from a higher positioned God than the Creator God of the Jews in Marcion’s belief system. Dispensationalism is essentially the same teachings except it is packaged slightly different. It is all deception and talking about it probably is making people mad at this moment. Why? No one wants to think they have been tricked into believing lies, but it is prophesied throughout scripture that this will happen.

Luke 21:7–8 (LEB): ⁷ And they asked him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things happen, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” ⁸ And he said, Watch out that you are not deceived! For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them!

Paul tells us that there are those who do not love the truth so God sends them a delusion and they will believe a lie. Those who do not believe the truth will delight in unrighteousness. If we use math, we can deduce that truth equals righteousness and the lie equates to unrighteousness. The only way to define these terms is with scripture.

2 Thessalonians 2:10–12 (LEB): ¹⁰ and with every unrighteous deception against those who are perishing, in place of which they did not accept the love of the truth, so that they would be saved. ¹¹ And because of this, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, ¹² in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but delighted in unrighteousness.

Here are a few scriptures to help us understand righteousness:

Deuteronomy 6:24–25 (LEB): ²⁴ And so Yahweh commanded us to observe all of these rules and to revere Yahweh our God for our benefit all the days that we live, as it is today. ²⁵ And it shall be righteousness for us if we diligently observe and do all of this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.’

Psalm 19:9–10 (LEB): ⁹ The fear of Yahweh is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of Yahweh are true; they are righteous altogether, ¹⁰ more desirable than gold, even much fine gold; and sweeter than honey, even honey in the comb.

Psalm 119:7 (LEB): ⁷ I will give you thanks with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous laws.

1 Peter 4:17–18 (LEB): ¹⁷ For it is the time for the judgment to begin out from the household of God. But if it begins out from us first, what will be the outcome for those who are disobedient to the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And if the righteous are saved with difficulty, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

Revelation 22:10–12 (LEB): ¹⁰ And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near! ¹¹ The one who does evil, let him do evil still, and the defiled, let him be defiled still, and the righteous, let him practice righteousness still, and the holy, let him be holy still.” ¹² “Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to repay each one according to what his deeds are!

There are at least forty thousand denominations that have come in the name of “Jesus”, all teaching slightly different doctrines. Everyone of them will say to abandon things that God told us to do. Study the scripture for yourself and do not be deceived!

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And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unclean hands?”
So he said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far, far away from me.
And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

Mark 7:5–7 (LEB)

We applaud Jesus when He upbraids the Pharisees for doing various acts that made Him very angry. Why do we not realize we have followed the footsteps of the Pharisees today? What did the Pharisees do that was so bad? Modern Christianity will likely say “they made people follow that outdated Mosaic law“; but did they really?

Matthew 23:1–9 (LEB): 23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses. 3 Therefore do and observe everything that they tell you, but do not do as they do, for they tell others to do something and do not do it themselves. 4 And they tie up heavy burdens and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing with their finger to move them. 5 And they do all their deeds in order to be seen by people, for they make their phylacteries broad and make their tassels long. 6 And they love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and the greetings in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people. 8 But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ because one is your teacher, and you are all brothers, 9 And do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your heavenly Father.

Jesus, or Yeshua in His native tongue, told us to do what the Pharisees tell us. What? What does that mean? When they sat in the seat of Moses they read the Torah; therefore, giving us instructions to live by. They also had many traditions they added to the word of God and they taught people that it was necessary to follow all these traditions. Yeshua told us to do what they said when they sat on the seat of Moses reading the Torah, but not to do it the way they did. He then specifically told us not to call any man “father” or “Rabbi”. Why do messianic believers call their leaders “Rabbi” and some Christian faiths call their priests “father”? These are traditions that were happening in front of Yeshua that are carried on today. He specifically said not to do it!

Acts 3:19–23 (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.’

There are many traditions that we have today which render the commandments of God useless. Many denominations believe that church tradition is to be taken at a higher regard than the word of God and they use verses from Paul’s instructions to Timothy to make their case. Not many Christians think about this, they only accept what they are told believing they will not be held responsible for their own actions so long as they show up for church services every Sunday.

Mark 7:8–13 (LEB): 8 Abandoning the commandment of God, you hold fast to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You splendidly ignore the commandment of God so that you can keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother must certainly die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or to his mother, “Whatever benefit you would have received from me is corban” (that is, a gift to God), 12 you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down, and you do many similar things such as this.”

Yeshua is using the example of a tradition they must have had in first century Judaism where the person would give the resources needed to take care of their elderly parents to the temple, thus releasing them from the commandment “honor your mother and father”. Yeshua picked one of the ten commandments, written by the finger of God and given to the people, to use as an example of them making the commandment void by their actions. Can we think of another one of the ten commandments that has been made void by the tradition of men teaching their own ideas as doctrine?

Hebrews 4:6–13 (LEB): ⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter into it, and the ones to whom the good news was proclaimed previously did not enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he ordains a certain day, today, speaking by David after so long a time, just as had been said before, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” ⁸ For if Joshua had caused them to rest, he would not have spoken about another day after these things. ⁹ Consequently a sabbath rest remains for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered into his rest has also himself rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. ¹¹ Therefore, let us make every effort to enter into that rest, in order that no one may fall in the same pattern of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the reflections and thoughts of the heart. ¹³ And no creature is hidden in the sight of him, but all things are naked and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we must give our account.

The writer of Hebrews is quoting Psalms chapter ninety-five which is discussing the time when the Israelites put God to the test by being disobedient at Massah. Their punishment was that they would not enter the promised land. These verses in Hebrews and Psalms have been used to teach people we no longer have to be concerned with the commandment to rest on the Sabbath. How can verses talking about punishment for disobedience and giving an account to God for our actions be so successfully used to teach people to be disobedient? ^” Consequently a sabbath rest remains for the people of God.” It is a trick of the enemy to rob us of the Sabbath blessing and there are many accomplices to this crime.

Psalm 95:7–11 (LEB): 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today if you will hear his voice: 8 “Do not harden your heart as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your ancestors tried me. They put me to the test, even though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation, and said, ‘They are a people whose heart wanders. And my ways they do not know.’ 11 Therefore I swore in my anger, ‘They shall surely not enter into my rest.’ ”

Ignoring the Sabbath and honoring Sunday instead is an example of “You splendidly ignore the commandment of God so that you can keep your tradition“, and it shows we still don’t know the Creator’s ways. No where is scripture did anyone ever say the Sabbath day was no longer a commandment or unimportant. Even if first century Christians met on the first day of the week, it does not mean they were replacing the Sabbath with a new day. Many of the references to “first day of the week” are translated wrong by inserting the word “day” when it is not in the text. In some cases it should be translated as “first Sabbath”, meaning the first Sabbath after Passover in the counting of the fifty days to Pentecost. The Sabbath is a very important day that has been made void by the traditions of men.

Another tradition, which I recently wrote about in a blog post, is hiding the name of the Father God, Yod Heh Waw Heh, Yahweh or Yahuah. The name has been hidden and substituted with titles such as “LORD”, “Hashem” (the name) and “Adonai”, and anyone trying to declare the name is belittled, ridiculed and labeled a “sacred namer”.

Psalm 22:22–23 (LEB): ²² I will tell your name to my brothers; inside the assembly I will praise you. ²³ You who revere Yahweh, praise him! Glorify him, all you seed of Jacob, and be in awe of him, all you seed of Israel

Exodus 3:16 (LEB): ¹⁶ Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, “I have carefully attended to you and what has been done to you in Egypt.”

Something else I will call tradition is keeping the Sabbath Friday night. Even though this is the practice in Judaism, there is no place that commands us to start keeping the Sabbath on the sixth evening. The Day of Atonement is the only Sabbath that we are told to start on the evening of the night prior, which should be a clue that it was not done every Sabbath.

Leviticus 23:32 (LEB): ³² It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall deny yourselves on the ninth day of the month in the evening—from evening to evening you must observe your extraordinary Sabbath.”

If the evening of the ninth day is still the ninth day, then how can it be the next day? I am not saying starting the Sabbath on the evening of the sixth day is a bad thing to do, it is just not part of the commandment. Nehemiah closed the gates to the city after dark before the Sabbath as part of his Sabbath reform when people were coming in to the city and selling on the actual Sabbath day.

Nehemiah 13:18–19 (LEB): ¹⁸ Did not your ancestors do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city too? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!” ¹⁹ So when it became dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors be shut and said that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I appointed some of my young men over the gates to prevent any goods being brought in on the day of the Sabbath.

When God gave the Israelites manna they were to gather twice as much on the sixth day so they would not have to gather on the seventh day.

Exodus 16:23–30 (LEB):²³ And he said to them, “This is what Yahweh has said. Tomorrow is a rest period, a holy Sabbath for Yahweh. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Put aside all the surplus for yourselves for safekeeping until the morning.” ²⁴ And they put it aside until the morning, as Moses had commanded, and it did not make a stench, and not a maggot was in it. ²⁵ And Moses said, “Eat it today, because today is a Sabbath for Yahweh. Today you will not find it in the field. ²⁶ Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, it will not be present on it.” ²⁷ And on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they did not find any. ²⁸ And Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep my commands and my laws? ²⁹ See, because Yahweh has given to you the Sabbath, therefore he is giving to you on the sixth day bread for two days. Stay, each in his location; let no one go from his place on the seventh day.” ³⁰ And the people rested on the seventh day.

It is a contentious subject, but it is clear in these verses in Exodus that it was the seventh day that they rested, not the evening of the sixth day. That is a tradition. I am not saying it is a bad tradition, it is just a tradition.

One of the most heinous traditions of men, that has become wide spread in these last days, is the tradition of forsaking all the commandments of God for a new lawless religion. This is the tradition that says to “believe in Jesus” yet does not require repentance or a change in lifestyle. It is a tradition of “other gods” where people simply “believe what they believe”.

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

Teaching that Christians do not have to do what the Father commanded is the worst case of making the commandments of God void through the traditions of men. The Father told us that He would test us to see if we really loved Him by sending boatloads of people to tell us to do things contrary to His ways. Of course they come as priests, pastors and Godly leaders because why would anyone supposedly walking as Jesus walked listen to someone who did not regard God? Yet these leaders telling people to forsake God’s ways for their traditions are not regarding God at all. “Come to church on ‘the Lord’s day’, give us your tithe, say this prayer and be saved”, they say.

Jeremiah 23:16–22 (LEB): ¹⁶ Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “You must not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you with visions of their mind, They do not speak from the mouth of Yahweh. ¹⁷ They are continually saying to those who disregard the word of Yahweh, ‘Peace it will be to you,’ and to each one who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’ ¹⁸ For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he has seen and heard his word? Who has listened attentively to his word and heard it? ¹⁹ Look, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth in wrath, even a whirling tempest. It will whirl upon the head of the wicked. ²⁰ The anger of Yahweh will not turn back until his doing and until his keeping the plans of his mind. In latter days you will look closely at it with understanding. ²¹ I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. ²² But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have caused them to turn from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.

This is serious business. Do not be deluded by someone saying, “‘Peace it will be to you,’ and to each one who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’ ” because these warnings are all through the scriptures. Once a person sees this, it cannot be unseen and people must be told. These are the people Yeshua will tell to depart and go to the outer darkness. They are building on sand by forsaking the commandments of the Rock.

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

Not all traditions are bad. It is when they are being forced on people as commandments of God that make them burdensome. Moreover, when traditions take priority over God’s commandments then the situation must change. We don’t want to be guilty of usurping the commandments of God for our man-made traditions.

Featured photo was provided by Emma Vail Photography.

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But the things which God foretold through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he has fulfilled in this way. Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ appointed for you—Jesus,

Acts 3:18–20 (LEB)

There were twelve tribes at the base of the Mount of Horeb the day Yahuah, in an audible voice, gave them the ten commandments. Scripture says, “and he added no more”. He also gave Moses more detailed instructions, which the people agreed to in a marriage type of covenant with the Creator, Yahuah, who is represented by the four Hebrew letters Yod, Heh, Waw, Heh.

Exodus 24:4–8 (LEB): ⁴ And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and he rose early in the morning, and he built an altar at the base of the mountain and set up twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ And he sent young men from the Israelites, and they offered burnt offerings, and they sacrificed sacrifices as fellowship offerings to Yahweh using bulls. ⁶ And Moses took half of the blood, and he put it in bowls, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ And he took the scroll of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen.” ⁸ And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and he said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Moses read all the words he had written down which the Father gave him, along with the ten commandments given in an audible voice, and read them to the people; “and they said, ‘All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen‘”. There were also non-Israelites among the tribes that came out of Egypt. This entire group of people entered into a marriage type covenant with the Creator.

Exodus 12:49 (LEB): ⁴⁹ One law will be for the native and for the alien who is dwelling in your midst.”

Numbers 15:15–16 (LEB): ¹⁵ For the assembly, there will be one decree for you and for the alien who dwells among you; it is an eternal decree for all your generations. You as well as the alien will be before Yahweh. ¹⁶ There will be one law and one stipulation for you and for the alien dwelling among you.’ ”

It was much later in history that it became illegal for a Jew to interact with an alien. We see Peter witnessing the reset the Father did through the Messiah to return to the stipulations of the original covenant. This was the refreshing spoken about by Isaiah and again by Peter in Acts chapter three. The verses that most people in Christianity use to justify eating unclean animals were actually talking about people. God was doing something miraculous and Christians use it to justify eating a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.

Acts 10:25–29 (LEB): ²⁵ So it happened that when Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and worshiped him. ²⁶ But Peter helped him up, saying, “Get up! I myself am also a man!” ²⁷ And as he conversed with him, he went in and found many people gathered. ²⁸ And he said to them, “You know that it is forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or to approach a foreigner. And to me God has shown that I should call no man common or unclean. ²⁹ Therefore—and without raising any objection—I came when I was sent for. So I ask for what reason you sent for me.”

What is the “fullness of the gentiles” spoken about by Paul? “Gentile” is simply a word that comes from Latin that means people from the nations. I do not claim to know what the “fullness of the gentiles” means, but I want to discuss this subject and look at some possibilities.

Romans 11:25–27 (LEB): ²⁵ For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you will not be wise in your own sight, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, “The deliverer will come out of Zion; he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. ²⁷ And this is the covenant from me with them when I take away their sins.”

Judah and Benjamin were the only tribes represented by the time of the first century. There were some Levites as well. This statement is not supported by everyone because there are different views about the identity of the Jews when discussing the twelve tribes. Today, it is common for people to believe that there are Jews and non-Jews or “gentiles”. This is true in a sense because it is how the world has been shaped politically. The “Jews” are the people from the nation state of Israel in the Middle East, or who practice the religion of Judaism. This is our geopolitical reality today. In this sense, the “fullness of the gentiles” may mean anyone who is not a “Jew”, becoming a Jew inwardly as Paul describes in Romans. Romans 2:29 (LEB): ²⁹ But the Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter, whose praise is not from people but from God. There is; however, more to discuss.

There were twelve tribes that entered the covenant at Mount Horeb, not two or three. Where are the people representing the tribes of Asher, Ruben, Simeon, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Joseph, Zebulon, and Naphtali? Some will claim all these tribes make up the people called “Jews” today, or they were all represented on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. I disagree with these arguments because there is so much scripture to lead us in other directions.

Deuteronomy 4:25–31 (LEB): ²⁵ “When you have had children and grandchildren and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger, ²⁶ I call to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; you will not live long on it, but you will be completely destroyed. ²⁷ And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you. ²⁸ And you will there serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell. ²⁹ But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ In your distress when all these things have found you in the latter days, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice. ³¹ For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.

During the reign of king Solomon, God took part of the kingdom away from Solomon because he had turned to idolatry to please his hundreds of foreign wives. Solomon retained the southern kingdom of Judah which mostly contained the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi. The other tribes were in the northern kingdom which as a whole, is referred to the house of Israel, Ephraim or Joseph. Sometimes we see all the tribes of Israel referred to as the house of Jacob. It is important to know that God changed Jacob’s name to Israel.

Genesis 32:26–28 (LEB): ²⁶ Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.” But he answered, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ Then he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” ²⁸ And he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Genesis 35:10 (LEB): ¹⁰ And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” Then his name was called Israel.

It may not be clear why Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel” while reading these words in English. The Hebrew word spelled Shin, Resh, Heh is the verb meaning to struggle. “El” means “God”. The “Yod” in Hebrew represented by the “I” in English is a prefix meaning “He”. This is where we get “he struggled with God”. Israel means “he struggled with God”. Looking at it prophetically, it does not have to be just past tense because in Hebrew, this is in the imperfect tense, meaning it is an action that has not been completed. These are just thoughts I have based on my limited knowledge of the language.

The northern kingdom completely forsook the Creator and the covenant made on Mount Horeb after the kingdom was divided. They went after strange gods and were eventually conquered by Assyria in 722 BCE. They were taken away and scattered to the four corners of the earth. They never came back to be a people again, assimilating into other nations. This prophecy was given by Moses much earlier.

Deuteronomy 32:16–21 (LEB): ¹⁶ They made him jealous with strange gods; with detestable things they provoked him. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom they had not known, new gods who came from recent times; their ancestors had not known them. ¹⁸ The rock who bore you, you neglected, and you forgot God, the one giving you birth. ¹⁹ Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. ²⁰ So he said, ‘I will hide my face from them; I will see what will be their end, for they are a generation of perversity, children in whom there is no faithfulness. ²¹ They annoyed me with what is not a god; they provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those not a people, with a foolish nation I will provoke them.

Who is this foolish nation by whom Yahuah is going to provoke Israel? When it says Israel, are we talking about simply “the Jews” that exist today, who are technically the only identifiable remnant of Israel that currently exists? By the dispersion that happened to Israel, scattering them into the nations for thousands of years, is it possible that the entire world has been seeded and the gentiles are now the house of Israel by default? A remnant of the southern kingdom, Judah, was able to return to the land and this is recorded in the book of Ezra.

Ezra 1:2–7 (LEB): ² “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: Yahweh, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. And he himself has appointed me to build a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³ Whoever among you who is from all of his people, may his God be with him and may he go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and may he build the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴ And let every survivor, from wherever he resides be assisted by the men of that place with silver and gold, with possessions and domestic animals, and with the freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.” ⁵ So the heads of the families for Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites—to all whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and build the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem. ⁶ And all of their neighbors helped them with objects of silver, gold, possessions, domestic animals, and with valuable gifts—besides all of the freewill offering. ⁷ And Cyrus the king brought out the objects of the house of Yahweh that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.

“So the heads of the families for Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites—to all whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and build the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem.” Here we are told the three tribes that went back to Jerusalem to rebuild. There is no mention of the other tribes because they were not involved. They had assimilated into Assyria hundreds of years earlier. Also, not everyone returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. All of these Israelites lost their identity, but we get some information concerning all the tribes in the book of Hosea.

Hosea 1:10–11 (LEB): ¹⁰ The number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea that cannot be measured or counted; and in the place where it is said to them, “You are not my people,” it will be said to them, “Children of the living God.” ¹¹ Then the children of Judah and Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one head; and they will take possession of the land, for great is the day of Jezreel.

Jezreel has a meaning of “place”, but just as “Israel” means “he struggled with God” Jazreel seems to have more meaning than simply “place”. The root of Jazreel is “zera” and it means seed and offspring. Learning some basics in Hebrew and looking at these words in lexicons and software, such as Logos, can give us so much more insight than settling for what one translator gives us. Perhaps Jazreel does mean “place”, but the context is more conducive to it referring to seed and offspring.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul quotes the verses preceding these found in Hosea. I do not see a point in history where Judah and Israel came together as one people having one leader to date.

Romans 9:25–26 (LEB): ²⁵ As he also says in Hosea, “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and those who were not loved, ‘Loved.’ ²⁶ And it will be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

There are places all through scripture that discuss an event that has not happened concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. There has not been a house of Israel since it was captured in 722 BCE. The event where they are officially reunited with one leader will be a great time.

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

Yeshua made it possible for people who were formerly “cut off”, due to sin, to repent and return to the covenant. Does the fullness of the gentiles refer to the time when this stops happening? As the world turns against God’s ways more than ever before could we see the fullness of the gentiles in our lifetime? In an earlier blog post, Understanding the Law of Christ (link here), I shared an article where a church was having a “drag me to church” event. At this event, a drag queen was entertaining the congregation of this church. We see churches everywhere spiraling into complete apostasy and disregard for God’s ways. What started out as some idolatry and rebellion to God’s commandments has turned into possibly being the full number of the gentiles coming in. Perhaps this is the “foolish nation” that God is provoking others with to return to the commandments? Traditionally being “provoked by a foolish nation” was supposedly the “church” being so holy and prosperous they would provoke the “Jews” to want to accept Jesus and be saved. That narrative is falling off of the edge of the cliff when we see “drag me to church” events, not to mention the years of antisemitism the “church” practiced. I certainly have been provoked by the “church” to return to the bedrock of the Creator’s instructions for living a blessed life.

I believe once the “fullness of the gentiles” event happens we will see the resurrection and coming of the Messiah Yeshua. He will unite all of Israel. My theory currently is that by dispersing the twelve tribes into the world, the entire world was seeded, thus extending the promise of the covenant to the entire world. Yeshua made a way to reconcile people previously cut off by sin to come back into the eternal covenant. This is how the world was blessed by the seed of Abraham. Those who will repent and covenant with (confess) Yeshua will be part of this number. There will be those from Judah and Israel.

Revelation 22:12–15 (LEB): ¹² “Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to repay each one according to what his deeds are! ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” ¹⁴ Blessed are the ones who wash their robes, so that their authority will be over the tree of life and they may enter into the city through the gates. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral people and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and who practices falsehood.

While many in the church are looking for a so-called secret rapture of the church, I am watching the church degrade to a point of no return with their prideful disregard of the commandments of God and His eternal covenant. I am waiting for Yeshua to return and physically establish His kingdom on earth.

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 And he said, “Because I am with you, and this will be the sign for you that I myself have sent you: When you bring the people out from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.” But Moses said to God, “Look, if I go to the Israelites and I say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘I am sent me to you.’ ”15 And God said again to Moses, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my remembrance from generation to generation.’

Exodus 3:12–15 (LEB)

A controversy that has arisen, due to the phenomenon of many people returning to the word of God and believing that it still applies to our life today, is the subject of God’s name. People are realizing that the Creator has a name and it has been obfuscated for at least the last two thousand years.

Christians have been given the substitution of “LORD” for what is called the tetragrammaton. The tetragrammaton is the Greek term coined for the name God gave Moses at the burning bush incident to tell the people when they ask, “What is His name?”. In the religion of Judaism, it is forbidden to try to pronounce the name. Many of those in the messianic community have also carried this tradition into their faith. They are given the substitution of “Hashem”, which means “the name” and “Adonai” which means “Lord”. Both Christianity and Judaism use substitutions for the name spelled “Yud Heh Waw Heh”, in the Hebrew language. This is the name that the Creator told Moses to tell the people, and that it was His name forever.

Exodus 3:14 (LEB)

¹⁴ And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘I am sent me to you.’ ”

If we look at the phrase “I am that I am”, it uses the first person imperfect tense with the verb “to exist”. “eheyeh asher eheyeh”. The letter “Aleph” is used for the first person “I exist”. Then God tells Moses to use the third person imperfect with a “Yud” in front of the verb “to exist”. This is where we get “Yud Heh Waw Heh”. Some places in scripture only use “Yah” or “Yud Heh” when referring to the Creator.

Psalm 150:1–6 (LEB): 150 Praise Yah. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament. ² Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to the abundance of his greatness. ³ Praise him with blast of horn; praise him with harp and lyre. ⁴ Praise him with tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flute. ⁵ Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with clashing cymbals. ⁶ Every breathing thing, let it praise Yah. Praise Yah.

There are people obsessed with belittling other people who want to know the name of God by calling them “sacred namers”. On the other hand, there are people who insist the name of God must be pronounced a certain way. I have heard the argument that there are no vowel points for the name of the Creator, so that is why we cannot know how to pronounce the name. Where did this vowel pointing system come from? It was created in the tenth century by Masorite scribes so as to not lose the pronunciation of the language. Therefore, before the tenth century, there were no vowel points anywhere. Does this mean none of the words could be pronounced? Of course not! Do we know the proper way to pronounce the tetragrammaton today? Thanks to the substitutions and obfuscation of the name, unfortunately we do not. Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, tells us in The War of the Jews, that the name was pronounced with four vowel sounds. This could be something like “ee ah oo ah”, or similar to the pronunciation of the state of Iowa. If we look at the state of Hawaii, we notice that reading right to left it is, “Ii a wa ah”. I find this all very interesting that the name of the Creator could have been brought to North America by Israelites “scattered to the four corners of the earth”. There is evidence to suggest this scattering is found in some of the First Nations tribes.

Are we to think that the Creator really told Moses His name was “Yud Heh Waw Heh” forever, but not to ever pronounce it? Did the Creator tell Moses to use “Hashem” instead? Is this not adding to the Torah? All through scripture we are told to proclaim, praise and remember the name of God. Would it not be easier to do this if we were allowed to say the name instead of all of the substitutions?

Exodus 3:15 (LEB): ¹⁵ And God said again to Moses, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my remembrance from generation to generation.’

Let’s compare this to the Complete Jewish Bible version.

Exodus 3:15 (CJB): ¹⁵ God said further to Moshe, “Say this to the people of Isra’el: ‘Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai], the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after generation.

Did God spell His name to Moses, or plainly say it? This is just a question to consider. Here is how the English Standard version translates the verses:

Exodus 3:15 (ESV): ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

This version of the Bible doesn’t even indicate there is a name. It only gives us titles like “Lord”. Yet, He tells us to “ponder His name”

Malachi 3:16–18 (LEB): ¹⁶ Then those who revered Yahweh spoke with one another. And Yahweh listened attentively and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written before him of those who revere Yahweh and ponder his name. ¹⁷ “They will be mine,” says Yahweh of hosts, “on the day that I am acting, my treasured possession. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. ¹⁸ You will return and see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.

I realize that “name” in Hebrew means fame and reputation as well as what someone is called. There is also a big difference between “Hashem” and “LORD”. Hashem still wants His people to keep His commandments and the LORD does not require this because they were supposedly “nailed to the cross” in modern Christianity. It all gets very confusing if one does not search the scriptures faithfully.

Isaiah 12:2–4 (LEB): ² Look! God is my salvation; I will trust, and I will not be afraid, for my strength and might is Yah, Yahweh; and he has become salvation for me.” ³ And you will draw water from the wells of salvation in joy. ⁴ And you will say on that day, “Give thanks to Yahweh; all on his name. Make his deeds known among the peoples; bring to remembrance that his name is exalted.

One of the pronunciations that is probably not correct is “Jehovah”. There is no “J” sound in the Hebrew language and the modern “Vav” was pronounced as a “Waw” in ancient Hebrew. The name “Jehovah” was derived from a misunderstanding of English translators. Sometimes the vowel points for “Adonia” are placed under the letters “Yud Heh Waw Heh” and they took this to be the pronunciation of the name.

Yeshua told us that He comes in the name of His Father and that He declared His name.

John 17:6–8 (LEB): ⁶ “I have revealed your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they understand that all the things that you have given me are from you, ⁸ because the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they received them and know truly that I have come from you, and they have believed that you have sent me.

John 5:43 (LEB): ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me. If another should come in his own name, you would accept that one!

We also see Yeshua making the religious leaders of His day very angry. Did He say “Eheyeh” when He declared “before Abraham was I am”?

John 8:58–59 (LEB): ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am!” ⁵⁹ Then they picked up stones in order to throw them at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple courts.

There are many places in scripture that discuss the name of the Creator and its importance. No one should be disparaging anyone for wanting to learn and understand the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Likewise, no one should claim to know the correct pronunciation of the name and ridicule someone who either doesn’t know or thinks differently. Lastly, people who believe strongly that the name should not be pronounced need also to be treated with respect.

Featured photo was provided by Emma Vail Photography.

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 As many as I love, I reprove and discipline. Be zealous, therefore, and repent!

Revelation 3:19 (LEB)

What must one do to be saved? Most of us were taught to say a prayer and “ask Jesus into our heart”. Where is this method found in the Bible? Did we see altar calls in the New Testament? Did we even see churches with altars?

Revelation 3:20 (LEB): ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, indeed I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.

Yeshua tells us that He stands at the door and knocks and that it is up to us to open the door. I heard this verse quoted many times throughout my life, yet not often in context.

Revelation 3:19–22 (LEB): ¹⁹ As many as I love, I reprove and discipline. Be zealous, therefore, and repent! ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, indeed I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. ²¹ The one who conquers, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also have conquered and have sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”

Yeshua reproves, disciplines and tells us to repent. It is important to note that this message was to the “church” and not to the Jews, as some say the message of Yeshua in the gospels concerning repentance, was only for the Jews and not the church. I say “concerning repentance” because there is only one thing to repent from, and that is living contrary to the law of God.

Matthew 5:18–20 (LEB): ¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one tiny letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all takes place. ¹⁹ Therefore whoever abolishes one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever keeps them and teaches them, this person will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I say to you that unless your righteousness greatly surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Some will say, “I am fine with being least in the kingdom”. However, my answer to that statement is good luck with that attitude! We do not know what being “the least in the kingdom” will mean. What if it means being shut out?

Luke 13:22–29 (LEB): ²² And he was going throughout towns and villages, teaching and making his journey toward Jerusalem. ²³ And someone said to him, “Lord, are there only a few who are saved?” And he said to them, ²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able to, ²⁵ when once the master of the house has gotten up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ And he will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from!’ ²⁶ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets!’ ²⁷ And he will reply, saying to you, ‘I do not know where you are from! Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ ²⁸ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves thrown outside! ²⁹ And they will come from east and west, and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.

The door is narrow that Yeshua describes. In this scene, Yeshua describes people going to see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, likely with some of their loved ones, and then be “thrown outside”. Is this being least in the kingdom? Yeshua doesn’t say these people are thrown into the lake of fire, so what is their eternal destiny? What is this place of weeping and gnashing of teeth? What if being least in the kingdom is worse than this, as we see in Isaiah?

Isaiah 66:23–24 (LEB): ²³ And this shall happen: From new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come to bow in worship before me,” says Yahweh. ²⁴ “And they shall go out and look at the corpses of the people who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

These verses in Isaiah are speaking about the future kingdom. Who are these people that rebelled against God? Perhaps rebelling against God is treating His ways and instructions with a causal regard? “I said the sinners prayer and asked Jesus in my heart, I don’t need to be concerned with the commandments of God. That was all for the Jews anyway”. This is the attitude of many believers. Where do these ideas come from? It certainly is not from scripture.

Matthew 18:7–9 (LEB): ⁷ Woe to the world because of causes for stumbling, for it is a necessity that causes for stumbling come; nevertheless, woe to the person through whom the cause for stumbling comes. ⁸ And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you! It is better for you to enter into life crippled or lame than, having two hands or two feet, to be thrown into the eternal fire! ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it from you! It is better for you to enter into life one-eyed than, having two eyes, to be thrown into fiery hell!

Are people who tell us we can disregard God’s laws guilty of causing people to stumble as in, “woe to the person through whom the cause for stumbling comes“? I certainly do not want to be that person.

Mark 9:42–48 (LEB): ⁴² “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it is better for him if instead a large millstone is placed around his neck and he is thrown into the sea. ⁴³ And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than, having two hands, to go into hell—into the unquenchable fire! ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life lame than, having two feet, to be thrown into hell! ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.’

Sin is living contrary to God’s instructions and being proud of it! Yeshua tells us it is better to go through life without body parts than to go where the “worm does not die”. Isaiah told us, people in the Kingdom were going to see this. Is the thought of being “least in the kingdom” as appealing now? “At least I’ll be in the kingdom” must be very offensive to the Father. He sent His son to die so we could be with Him and we are going to show our gratitude by striving to be “the least”. We live in the foolish generation.

Where did the current model of salvation and the sinners prayer originate? Frank Viola and George Barna wrote a book called Pagan Christianity?, and catalogue the modern traditions of the church along with their historical origins. It is a well written book with many references to original sources. In chapter three, this book gives us the origin of modern day altar calls: “D.L. Moody (1837-1899) was the first to ask those who wanted to be saved to stand up from their seats and be led in a ‘sinner’s prayer’. Fifty years later, Billy Graham introduced the practice of asking the audience to bow their heads and close their eyes, ‘with no one looking around’, and ask them to raise their hands in response to the salvation message.”

Did we see any of these methods in the first century church? There are none recorded. It is all man-made rhetoric. I dislike gimmicks when it comes to the kingdom of God. People will either be drawn to God or they will not. There is not much sense with pretending. I am not implying that we cannot have meaningful relationships with people that will influence their lives and lead them to God. I am saying gimmicks to draw people to church with the mindset of “if we can just get them to come to church” do not produce results. The early church model was repentance and baptism to show that one has entered a covenant with Yeshua. Repenting from sin means we leave the life of sin behind. This means we cannot live deliberately contrary to God’s word.

1 John 2:1–6 (LEB): 2 My little children, I am writing these things to you in order that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one, ² and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. ³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ The one who says “I have come to know him,” and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this person. ⁵ But whoever keeps his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. ⁶ The one who says that he resides in him ought also to walk just as that one walked.

“Confessing Jesus” involves agreeing with what He said and walking as He walked. Yeshua followed the Father’s commandments perfectly. This should be our goal in life. We should immerse ourselves in the word and try our hardest to be like Yeshua. It is by the Spirit of God that He sent us that enables us to this type of lifestyle. Contrast this with the message mega-pastor Andy Stanley recently gave to see how far we have come from the word of God in the following video clip on Twitter. The Christian Post also has an article about this at the following link: Andy Stanley, Christian Post.

What on earth… let this be a lesson. Much evil can be done against you, others and your church under the banner of evangelism. pic.twitter.com/EArWfpTc7r

— pagemasta (@AdamPage85) January 23, 2023

“I know the ‘clobber verses’ and I know 1 Corinthians 6, and I know Leviticus and I know Romans 1, so interesting to talk about all that stuff”, proclaims Stanley. Casual disregard of the instructions of God, as demonstrated in this type of attitude such as, “so interesting to talk about all that stuff”, as if it is unimportant, is scary for me to witness. It is especially concerning considering the sphere of influence Stanley possesses.

God shows us His character through Israel and the Torah. God does not change, so if He told Israel how He felt about anyone disregarding the commandments of God then He still feels the same about anyone doing the same things today. Yeshua did not change the character of God, He possesses the same character as the Father.

Mark 7:6–8 (LEB): ⁶ So he said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far, far away from me. ⁷ And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ⁸ Abandoning the commandment of God, you hold fast to the tradition of men.”

Ignoring, mocking or disregarding the commandments of God is serious business. Both the Father and Yeshua speak strongly against doing this.

Leviticus 26:14–18 (LEB): ¹⁴ “ ‘But if you do not listen to me and you do not carry out all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you reject my statutes and if your inner self abhors my regulations, to not carry out all my commands by your breaking my covenant, ¹⁶ I in turn will do this to you: then I will summon onto you horror, the wasting disease, and the fever that wastes eyes and that drains away life; and you shall sow your seed in vain, and your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷ And I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated before your enemies; and your haters shall rule over you, and you shall flee away, but there shall not be anybody who is pursuing you.

Repent from a life of an attitude of sin, get baptized and be in covenant with Yeshua. Walk as He walked, not as the apostate, 2023 church tells us to walk! No one wants to be deceived and found locked out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth or be “an abhorrence to all flesh”.

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 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her; in order that he might sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; in order that he might present to himself the church glorious, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she may be holy and blameless.

Ephesians 5:25–27 (LEB)

I shared an article on our Facebook page recently about an Assembly of God pastor who found the truth about the Sabbath and the Feasts of God. This pastor felt that the Father was telling him that He wanted the pastor to really know Him. Imagine the Creator of the Universe speaking to a man who had six years of Bible school, and is an ordained pastor in the Assembly of God denomination, telling him that He wanted this man to know Him. I encourage everyone to watch this video and see the interview in this following link.

I am not a pastor or a teacher, but I am compelled to speak about these things. It helps me to see that the Father is reaching out to other people with the same message and people are responding. In this pastor’s case, his association allowed him to change his Sunday services to the Sabbath and start teaching the feasts. This is amazing because typically the churches are not on board with breaking tradition to follow scripture.

When Peter and the other Apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin for teaching what Yeshua had shown them, one of the members of the council came to their defense.

Acts 5:38–39 (LEB): ³⁸ And now I tell you, keep away from these men, and leave them alone, because if this plan or this matter is from people, it will be overthrown. ³⁹ But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest you even be found fighting against God.” So they were persuaded by him.

I must therefore ask the question to everyone who reads my blog posts: Do you know God? I am not speaking about knowing what the churches teach about God, our opinions about God and theology, or what traditions one might be following. I mean do you know God and what His heart and mind are about?

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

The Assembly of God pastor in this video had something about him that made the Creator want to call him out. I thought I knew God, but I didn’t. I knew a God that had been fabricated by religion and my own thoughts. I don’t know why some people are impressed by God with these things, but I am thankful that I also had a similar experience as this pastor and now must tell people. It is happening more, and people react in different ways. Some people are angered and lash out. I understand why this happens because it is hard to hear that we have inherited many lies in the church. We have been duped and bamboozled by the enemy to accept lies as doctrine. It’s not all wrong, but as Paul states, a little leaven affects the whole lump. However, the best reaction is to turn anger into determination, and turn to the scriptures to see “if these things are so”. This is where God will show Himself.

Acts 17:10–12 (LEB): ¹⁰ Now the brothers sent away both Paul and Silas at once, during the night, to Berea. They went into the synagogue of the Jews when they arrived. ¹¹ Now these were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica. They accepted the message with all eagerness, examining the scriptures every day to see if these things were so. ¹² Therefore many of them believed, and not a few of the prominent Greek women and men.

The unfortunate reaction is to block one’s ears. Many choose this path without daily checking the scriptures or praying. “I believe what I believe” they declare, without knowing God.

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.

What happens when we have a “yeah whatever” attitude towards God? It returns on our own head. If we refuse to seek and listen to God, He will refuse to listen to us. This is how the kingdom of God works.

Leviticus 26:40–45 (LEB): ⁴⁰ “ ‘But when they confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors in their infidelity that they displayed against me, and moreover that they went against me in hostility— ⁴¹ I myself also went against them in hostility, and I brought them into the land of their enemies—or if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their guilt, ⁴² I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³ And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves must pay for their guilt, simply because they rejected my regulations, and their inner self abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴ And in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them, and I will not abhor them to destroy them, to break my covenant with them, because I am Yahweh their God. ⁴⁵ And I will remember the first covenant for them—whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am Yahweh.’ ”

The main theme of the Bible is repentance. God’s people continually get it wrong, God gets angry, the people repent and they are restored. We have almost two thousand years of heading down the wrong path. It is time to make a serious correction. This was tried during the Protestant reformation, but they held on to tradition. Anytime the Creator God makes a move, the enemy comes and tries to mimic and derail it. It is clear this has happened again looking back over the last 500 years.

The church, known for its inquisitions, crusades and indulgences, has become spotted and wrinkled. Imagine how people that understand what the crusades were about feel when a Christian “crusade” comes to their city today. The Billy Graham crusades picked a very poor name for their services. Reading about the atrocities that the church conducted from 500 to 1500 CE sheds light on the reformation movement and its importance. Unfortunately, the same spirit that murdered thousands of people in the name of “God” throughout the reign of the church in Rome also took hold of the reformation movement at one point. They also murdered people and the movement turned to deception and antinomianism, robbing them in the spirit too. Paul is used to draw people away from the instructions of God. However, Paul explained the spiritual aspect of the law versus the carnal man’s flesh that is always working against the law if we do not live in the Spirit.

Romans 7:21–25 (LEB): ²¹ Consequently, I find the principle with me, the one who wants to do good, that evil is present with me. ²² For I joyfully agree with the law of God in my inner person, ²³ but I observe another law in my members, at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that exists in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with my mind am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.

Yeshua frees us from this battle where our flesh wages against the ways of the Creator. We can then do “good”. The only definition of “good” comes from doing what the Father told us to do, most importantly, justice, mercy and love. However, do not neglect the smaller instructions. Faithfulness in the small things of God yields better results in the larger areas.

Matthew 23:23–24 (LEB): ²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you pay a tenth of mint and dill and cumin, and neglect the more important matters of the law—justice and mercy and faithfulness! It was necessary to do these things while not neglecting those. ²⁴ Blind guides who filter out a gnat and swallow a camel!

Luke 11:42–44 (LEB): ⁴² “But woe to you, Pharisees, because you pay a tenth of mint and rue and every garden herb, and neglect justice and love for God! But it was necessary to do these things without neglecting those things also. ⁴³ Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love the best seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces! ⁴⁴ Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, and the people who walk over them do not know it!

Love for God is doing what He said to do. Knowing what He said to do is how we know God’s character. It corrects the misconstrued personality of God that we are told about. Once a person understands the hatred the Creator has towards false gods and their symbols, it is easy to have the same passion against these things. It is also easier to identify them. The commandment says literally, “no have you other gods in front of my face”, in Exodus 20:3, spoken in an audible voice to all twelve tribes at Mount Horeb. There are many “other gods” that are flaunted in front of God’s face today in Christianity, but most do not recognize them. This is one of the reasons God reached out to this Assembly of God pastor and said, “I want you to know me”.

Featured photo was provided by Emma Vail Photography.

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And the dragon was angry at the woman, and went away to fight against the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and who hold to the testimony about Jesus.

Revelation 12:17 (LEB)

There are many views in Christianity on the afterlife and eschatology. The two most common views I am familiar with are firstly, the idea that when a person dies, some part of that person, likely non-material, ascends to be with Jesus in heaven with their deceased friends and family. If they didn’t “believe in”, or “accept” Jesus, they will be doomed to a place called hell with the devil. Secondly, another view is that there is going to be a secret rapture of the church in the immediate future. After this secret rapture of the church, a figure called the “antichrist” is going to rise and Old Testament prophecy will resume. There will be the time of Jacob’s trouble where the nation of Israel will allegedly face off against the antichrist, while the Christian church watches from an ethereal place in heaven. These ideas are not the exact theologies of any particular group, but they are what I see as the perception of many Christians.

When I speak of dispensationalism theology, I am sure there are many who were like me and do not know much about the theology, such as where it came from and what it teaches. It has been so embedded into Christianity over the last one hundred years, that it has become Christianity in the churches I have been involved with, in two different countries, Canada and the USA. The following is from theopedia.com concerning the theology of dispensationalism:

Dispensationalism is a theological system that teaches biblical history is best understood in light of a number of successive administrations of God’s dealings with mankind, which it calls “dispensations.” It maintains fundamental distinctions between God’s plans for national Israel and for the New Testament Church, and emphasizes prophecy of the end-times and a pre-tribulation rapture of the church prior to Christ’s Second Coming. Its beginnings are usually associated with the Plymouth Brethren movement in the UK and the teachings of John Nelson Darby.

Dispensationalism maintains:

1. a fundamental distinction between Israel and the church, i.e. there are two peoples of God with two different destinies, earthly Israel and the spiritual church,
2. a fundamental distinction between the Law and Grace, i.e. they are mutually exclusive ideas,
3. the view that the New Testament church is a parenthesis in God’s plan which was not foreseen by the Old Testament, and
4. a distinction between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ, i.e. the rapture of the church at Christ’s coming “in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17) precedes the “official” second coming (to the earth) by 7 years of tribulation.

The feedback I get from speaking against dispensational theology comes from people who understand it very well, not from people like me, who believed it, but didn’t know what it was called, or that it was even a system of theology. These people get very angry, but never systematically explain why they are so adamant about this belief system, or why they would call me a heretic for exposing it. The name calling and three letter abbreviations and emojis on social media indicate a spirit of antichrist to me, not someone that is spreading any type of good news. Why is there such an attachment to this theology? Some of the verses that people use to support this belief system are the following:

Ephesians 3:1–6 (KJV 1900): For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, ² If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: ³ How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, ⁴ Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) ⁵ Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; ⁶ That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

In the King James version of the Bible, it gives us the term “dispensation of grace”, so do we need any more evidence than this to accept everything dispensational theology teaches? The answer is an emphatic “yes”. There are so many Bible translations at our finger tips today that we can look to for other meanings of these verses. Here are these verses in the New International version of the Bible, a very popular Bible version.

Ephesians 3:1–3 (NIV): 3 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—² Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, ³ that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.

The word for “dispensation” and “administration” are translated from Strong’s G3873, οἰκονομία (oikonomia). This has nothing to do with different “dispensations” of history where God dealt with different groups in different ways. The following definition is from the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology:

οἰκονομία G3873 (oikonomia), management, office; οἰκονόμος G3874 (oikonomos), steward; οἰκονομέω G3872 (oikonomeō), manage, administer, plan.

CL oikonomia, attested from Xen. and Plato on, denoted primarily the management of a household, but was soon extended to the administration of the state (the title of one of Xen.’s books), and finally was used for every kind of activity which results from the holding of an office.

Some Christians hate the New International Version of the Bible. The Greek word is the same “οἰκονομία”; however, in the King James version of the Bible and in the New International Version of the Bible.

Paul is telling us that he was given the insight as to how the people of the nations could be included in the family of God. He calls them “fellow heirs”, not a separate entity called the “church”. Paul was also given the ability to bring this good news to these same people. The people of the nations are called gentiles. Paul understood scripture and knew this good news is all through the Old Testament. He explains how it is possible in many of his letters, yet it is generally misunderstood. Ephesians chapter three has nothing to do with modern dispensational theology.

Romans 9:23–26 (LEB): ²³ And he did so in order that he could make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory, ²⁴ us whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As he also says in Hosea, “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and those who were not loved, ‘Loved.’ ²⁶ And it will be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

All of scripture points to the house of Israel being cut off for the sin of idolatry and fornication, seeding the nations, then returning to the Father like the prodigal son. Moses told us about this in the Torah.

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

Dispensational theology gives our current, so-called dispensation, the ability to ignore the laws of God. After all, we are in the “age of grace” now. Following the commandments of God is supposedly over for the believer after the cross. However, the prophets never prophesied about a time in the future where a new people of God would rise up and not have to be obedient to God. They did; however, predict this sequence of events in many places. Here are two places where the prophets told us about our lawlessness.

Isaiah 5:20–21 (LEB): ²⁰ Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil, those who put darkness for light and light for darkness, those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! ²¹ Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes and have understanding in their view!

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

Putting these type of verses in a different “dispensation” is a clever way for the enemy to trick the current age of believers into thinking these verses are talking about someone else. The explanation is given earlier in the letter to the Ephesians. The dividing wall, dogma, and the things written against the house of Israel and nations, in which they assimilated, was removed by Yeshua. Inclusion into the family of God was extended to everyone through the scattering of Israel into the nations and the mission of Yeshua. The older brother, Judah, was not happy about this, just as in the parable of the prodigal son. The younger brother, Ephraim, was able to come back as a son, and not just a servant. This is why the new covenant is with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. There are no gentiles in the family of God. If someone thinks they are still a gentile, then they have not been adopted by God. Gentiles are outsiders, from the nations.

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

 “That you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, not having hope, and without God in the world” means that we are no longer strangers to the covenants of promise and we are grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. The church absolutely did not replace Israel, but those who come through Yeshua can be included in the commonwealth of Israel sharing in their promises and covenants. Do not rebuild the wall. Scripture opens up, and we can clearly see where we belong in prophecy, once we have this understanding. Modern day dispensational theology eschatology evaporates with this understanding. This will be important to know as times draw to the end. Just as the verses of the prophets still apply today, the verses in Revelation, supposedly in a dispensation after the church, are applicable to us. I am hoping people can see that the Creator would not set things up so that only one group of people in all of history can ignore His instructions. We are told that from the cross to the “rapture of the church”, God’s commandments do not apply, but they apply to everyone else before and afterward. Isn’t it convenient that the “rapture of the church” is always just in front of us, and we can continue ignoring God’s instructions according to this belief system? Yet we are told to “get ready” for the return of Yeshua at any moment. What better way to be ready for the return of Yeshua than to be found being obedient to his instructions?

Revelation 12:17–18 (LEB): ¹⁷ And the dragon was angry at the woman, and went away to fight against the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and who hold to the testimony about Jesus.

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

This last verse talks about resting from our labors when we are dead. The Bible tells us those that die in Yeshua will sleep in Sheol. This is the grave. It is very unlikely that a non-material part of us goes to heaven to see our predeceased relative’s ghosts. This comes from Egyptian mythology and Greek philosophy, not the Bible. The Bible predicts a resurrection of the dead when Yeshua returns. The only rapture will be that of the people who are alive when Yeshua returns and will be transformed as the dead are raised and transformed into their new bodies. The timing of this event is also clear throughout scripture as being at the second coming of the Messiah.

Luke 12:42–46 (LEB): ⁴² And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful wise manager whom the master will put in charge over his servants to give them their food allowance at the right time? ⁴³ Blessed is that slave whom his master will find so doing when he comes back. ⁴⁴ Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁵ But if that slave should say to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time to return,’ and he begins to beat the male slaves and the female slaves and to eat and drink and get drunk, ⁴⁶ the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in two and assign his place with the unbelievers.

Be found doing what pleases the Master when Yeshua comes. Repent and believe the gospel!

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But be doers of the message and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, because if anyone is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this one is like someone staring at his own face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James 1:22–25 (LEB)

Psalms chapter 119 is divided into twenty-two paragraphs, each assigned a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This is a great lesson because it shows the order of the Hebrew alphabet, along with the letters, dating back to the time of King David around 885 BCE. There are many portions of scripture that have this pattern, where the paragraphs correspond to the meanings of the letters in order. Psalms 119 tells us how to live in liberty, and it is not what one would expect if they listened to modern theologians. The letter that is the heading of this portion of scripture is the vav, also pronounced “waw”.

Psalm 119:41–48 (KJV 1900)

VAU.

⁴¹  Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, Even thy salvation, according to thy word. ⁴²  So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: For I trust in thy word. ⁴³  And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; For I have hoped in thy judgments. ⁴⁴  So shall I keep thy law continually For ever and ever. ⁴⁵  And I will walk at liberty: For I seek thy precepts. ⁴⁶  I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, And will not be ashamed. ⁴⁷  And I will delight myself in thy commandments, Which I have loved. ⁴⁸  My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; And I will meditate in thy statutes.

How can the writer of the Holy Spirit inspired book of Psalms “keep thy law continually for ever and ever” and “walk at liberty”? Are we not told today by super evangelists, pastors and teachers that “keeping thy law continually” is burdensome and the opposite of being liberated? King David must have been confused and didn’t realize that no one could keep the law and have freedom at the same time. Perhaps he was in a different dispensation and the Creator’s laws and instructions worked differently for David than for us? That is what we are lead to believe in the twenty-first century by dispensationlists. What if the Torah of God is as good as David thought it was, and as liberating even today? Scripture tells us there will be people that deceive everyone into thinking evil is good and good is evil. That is not only happening in the world, but also within Christianity. One would have to live in a cave, or be entirely deceived not to see that this is happening. The deception goes back to the first century.

Acts 20:27–31 (LEB): ²⁷ for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the whole purpose of God. ²⁸ Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he obtained through the blood of his own Son. 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. ³¹ Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears.

This idea that the instructions of the Creator are burdensome, and in some cases, sin, is the biggest trick the adversary has played on the church. The church preaches this deception, winning converts to a lawless gospel that has no future. At the very least, it will cause hardship throughout the life of the believer, sickness and demonic oppression, and the worst case scenario is weeping and gnashing of teeth when meeting Yeshua face to face.

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

Yeshua faced this problem of deception and negation of the commandments from the religious leaders of His day. They hated Yeshua for exposing their bad theology to the people. Imagine telling a pastor or priest today that their converts are twice as much a son of hell then they are? They deceived people with made up doctrines that make the commandments of God void. Maybe without this deception, the convert would have found the truth. Lies and deception concerning God’s commandments cause people to enter into a delusion. Maybe this is why Paul tells us the law is spiritual. Yeshua told the religious leaders of His day that they were creating converts that were worse than themselves. Are we not still witnessing this today in Christianity?

Matthew 23:15 (LEB): ¹⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you travel around the sea and the dry land to make one convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are!

How can God’s instructions, or Torah, give us liberty? One way this happens is that one is freed from the dogma and man-made rules presented as doctrine. This happens in both Christianity and Judaism. Yeshua constantly corrected the religious leaders in the first century. Christianity has only adopted a different set of rules depending on which one of the thousands of denominations one belongs.

Another way to achieve liberty through obedience to the father is by not fighting the Holy Spirit of grace’s conviction. If one listens to the Spirit, these things will tug at one’s spirit and heart. The choices are to sear the conscience with a hot iron, or be attentive to the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us we can walk in the Spirit, or walk in the flesh. Through walking in the Spirit, listening to the Spirit’s voice, we can please God and do what He has said to do. This is all possible through the Messiah’s atonement. However, before the Messiah ever went to the cross, people were still able to “keep the perfect law of liberty”. The difference being, there was no true atonement when someone failed, and everyone fails or sins.

Luke 1:5–6 (LEB): ⁵ It happened that in the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest, Zechariah by name, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶ And they were both righteous in the sight of God, living blamelessly in all the commandments and regulations of the Lord.

The parents of John the Baptist “were both righteous in the sight of God, living blamelessly in all the commandments“, but they were not perfect. Look what happens.

Luke 1:18–20 (LEB): ¹⁸ And Zechariah said to the angel, “By what will I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years!” ¹⁹ And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. ²⁰ And behold, you will be silent and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

James also speaks of the law of liberty in his letter to the church. The letter is to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, which Stephen labeled as the church, in Acts chapter seven.

James 1:19–25 (LEB): ¹⁹ Understand this, my dear brothers: every person must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, ²⁰ for human anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore, putting aside all moral uncleanness and wicked excess, welcome with humility the implanted message which is able to save your souls. ²² But be doers of the message and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, ²³ because if anyone is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this one is like someone staring at his own face in a mirror, ²⁴ for he looks at himself and goes away and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts, this one will be blessed in what he does.

The only perfect law is the law of God, or His Torah. James understood the only scripture he had in the first century. This was before the wolves came with their lawless doctrine. This was before the Walt Disney gospel of dispensationalism, which tells us God made a mistake and our dispensation of time is the only one that God’s law or instructions do not apply.

Psalm 19:7–11 (LEB): ⁷ The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving life. The testimony of Yahweh is firm, making wise the simple. ⁸ The precepts of Yahweh are right, making the heart rejoice. The command of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. ⁹ The fear of Yahweh is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of Yahweh are true; they are righteous altogether, ¹⁰ more desirable than gold, even much fine gold; and sweeter than honey, even honey in the comb. ¹¹ Moreover, your servant is warned by them; in keeping them is great reward.

Paul understood the perfect law of liberty.

Romans 2:13 (LEB): ¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous.

Romans 7:12 (LEB): ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Just as there are people today who claim keeping the commandments of God is not necessary, there were people in Paul’s and James’ time claiming it was the only way to be justified before God. Paul tells us that justification comes through faith in God and not the law. The law defines sin for us, it does not save us. However, if we are lead by the Spirit we should not be found sinning, which is defined by the law. People use Paul’s message to justify sin, or say certain parts of God’s law are no longer sin. This is how we have so many branches of Christianity. All of the law defines sin. It is that simple. It is not just the laws certain people call “moral” or “ceremonial”. Many laws in the Torah are no longer possible to do without the temple and the Levite priest system. That system is not gone by accident. Yeshua ended the sacrificial system, or at least paused it until the Millennial kingdom.

1 Timothy 1:8–11 (LEB): ⁸ But we know that the law is good, if anyone makes use of it lawfully, ⁹ knowing this, that the law is not given for a righteous person but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and totally worldly, for the one who kills his father and the one who kills his mother, for murderers, ¹⁰ sexually immoral people, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching, ¹¹ according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God that I was entrusted with.

The rebellious person will say “I can do whatever I want now”, or “the Sabbath is any day I choose, or not important at all”, when the law of God says otherwise. One cannot uphold the law as Paul did, and at the same time tell his followers to break the law. How many of God’s laws does a person have to intentionally ignore or proudly say “they don’t apply to me” to hear the Savior say, “Depart from me you worker of lawlessness.”? I guess we will have to wait to find out. The prophet Daniel told us the Messiah would end sacrificial law.

Daniel 9:24–27 (LEB): ²⁴ “Seventy weeks is decreed for your people and for your holy city, to put an end to the transgression and to seal up sin and to make atonement for guilt and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint the most holy place. ²⁵ And you must know and you must understand that from the time of the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem until an anointed one—a leader—will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and will be built with streets and a moat, but in a time of oppression.

²⁶ “And after the sixty and two weeks an anointed one shall be cut off, and he shall have nothing, and the people of the coming leader will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will be with the flood and on to the end there shall be war; these desolations are determined. ²⁷ And he will make a strong covenant with the many for one week, but in half of the week he will let cease sacrifice and offering and in its place a desolating abomination comes even until the determined complete destruction is poured out on the desolator.”

In these verses there is the anointed one, cut off in the middle of the week, in other words, Yeshua nailed to the cross. There are the people of the coming leader, still the anointed one, who made a strong covenant with the many, for one week with the bread and the wine. His death and shedding of blood made the sacrifice and offerings unnecessary. In it’s place, a desolating abomination comes until determined complete destruction.

John 6:54–55 (LEB): ⁵⁴ The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

I know that some of these verses are used to describe the antichrist in dispensationalism theology. We have to insert over 2000 years arbitrarily within the 70 weeks for this. The weeks match sequentially much better with history, if we view the seventy weeks literally as weeks of years.

Does one submit to the Spirit of grace and walk in the perfect law of liberty, or does one stiffen their neck and walk in the flesh continually sinning before God? Everyone must make this choice. The decision has eternal consequences. Do we believe Messiah Yeshua or the imaginations flowing out of men’s minds?

Matthew 5:17–19 (LEB): ¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one tiny letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all takes place. ¹⁹ Therefore whoever abolishes one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever keeps them and teaches them, this person will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

I want to be called great in the kingdom, walk in the Spirit and possess the Spirit of truth promised to those who keep the commandments.

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

Repent and believe the gospel! Walk in the law of liberty and be a doer of His word not simply a hearer.

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