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.

Matthew 5:20 (LEB)

One of the errors Christians believe is that the Pharisees were constantly being upbraided by Jesus for being a stickler on the keeping of the law of Moses. As if Jesus was continually saying “relax guys, we don’t need to keep the law of God that strictly”. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Matthew 5:17–20 (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. 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.

The Christian narrative says, “see the Pharisees kept the law and it didn’t save them”, or “Jesus continually broke the law”. Unfortunately, people are left with this impression for several reasons. Poor teaching, lack of personal study and curiosity of the things of God, laziness and perhaps the hopes that Jesus did break the law and people like me, who are saying to uphold the commandments, are completely wrong. Keeping the law will not save anyone; however, the issue here is that the religious leadership was doing a terrible job of keeping God’s law, or the instructions for living a pleasing life to God He gave the world through Israel.

Mark 7:1–8 (LEB)

7 And the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered to him. ² And they saw that some of his disciples were eating their bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands ritually, thus holding fast to the traditions of the elders. ⁴ And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions which they have received and hold fast to—for example, the washing of cups and pitchers and bronze kettles and dining couches.) ⁵ 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?” 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.”

It is unlikely one will ever hear this explained from a church pulpit, or at least I never have. Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew, was being ridiculed for not ritually washing his hands before eating. The Pharisees also had rules about washing pots, cups and kettles. There is nothing in the commandments of God that require any of these things. These were Jewish traditions. There are volumes of rules the Pharisees adhered to that did not come from God. This is very much like the thousands of church denominations today with all of their various traditions.

Matthew 12:9–14 (LEB)

⁹ And going on from there he came into their synagogue. ¹⁰ And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand, and they asked him, saying, “Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath?” in order that they could accuse him. ¹¹ But he said to them, “What man will there be among you who will have one sheep and if this one fell into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹² Then to what degree is a man worth more than a sheep? So then, it is permitted to do good on the Sabbath.”

¹³ Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand,” and he stretched it out, and it was restored as healthy as the other one. ¹⁴ But the Pharisees went out and plotted against him in order that they could destroy him.

Yeshua was trying to teach the proper way to keep the Sabbath. Healing was permitted just as saving a life, child birth and circumcision, if the required eighth day after child birth happened to fall on a Sabbath. By the time of the first century, there were many additional laws attached to the original commandments God gave through Moses.

Nehemiah 13:16–19 (LEB)

¹⁶ Tyrian men who lived in Jerusalem brought fish and every kind of merchandise and sold it on the Sabbath to the descendants of Judah and in Jerusalem. ¹⁷ So I quarreled with the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the day of the Sabbath? 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.

After the exiles returned to the land, Nehemiah was very disturbed to see commerce on the Sabbath day. He knew this was one of the reasons they were exiled in the first place. He ordered the gates shut at dark before the Sabbath and they couldn’t be opened until after the Sabbath. If “at dark” was before the Sabbath, doesn’t that imply the Sabbath actually starts at dawn? In other words, is this where we get the tradition of starting the Sabbath on the night before? The only Sabbath that starts the day before in the Torah is Yom Kippur and it specifically says so.

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.”

It is a special Sabbath that starts the evening of the ninth day. The actual day is the tenth day of the month. This year it started the evening of October 4th by some calendars. Why would there be a need to tell people to start this day the evening of the day before if the day started at sundown? The answer is there wouldn’t be.

Many traditions had crept in causing heavy burdens on the people. The actual commands of God are not that hard. How hard is it to have one day a week to rest from one’s work? It should be a blessing. Surely one day a week we can cease from commerce and enjoy God’s creation!

Matthew 11:28–30 (LEB)

²⁸ Come to me, all of you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke on you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to carry and my burden is light.”

Yahuah told us through Moses not to change His commands by adding or taking away anything. Deuteronomy 12:32 (LEB), “All of the things that I am commanding you, you must diligently observe; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.” How can anyone then heap on rules and regulations that were never given by God, or negate instructions God told us to do? The answer is they cannot. This is what Yeshua tried to get across to them.

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.”

“Making void the word of God by traditions”: this sounds similar to changing the Sabbath from the seventh day to the day of the sun, Sunday. We get another clue as to how our righteousness can exceed the Pharisees from Yeshua in Matthew chapter twenty-three.

Matthew 23:1–6 (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.

When the Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses they read the scriptures, but their lives do not reflect it. How can people not see that Yeshua was saying to do everything Moses said to do? The Pharisees did not do what Moses said even though they sat in his authority. Yeshua never negated the instructions of God, he only clarified how we should keep them. Many Christians claim it is wrong to do what God said in his instructions, but there is only evidence of Yeshua upholding these instructions and clarifying the error of man’s traditions being taught as commands of God. Our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees if we just do what He said! Our own righteousness comes from rules we make up and keep where God’s righteousness are the instructions He gave us to keep.

One example of this that comes to mind is the contentious subject of alcohol. Many Christian denominations allow alcohol consumption, while many forbid it. Consuming alcohol does not make a person a drunkard, but all drunkards consume alcohol. This mentality would forbid all sexual relations for fear of someone being sexually immoral. That would quickly bring the end of the human race. The Torah permits alcohol consumption, so forbidding it is adding to the law of God.

Deuteronomy 14:22–26 (LEB)

²² “Certainly you must give a tithe of all the yield of your seed, which comes forth from your field year after year. ²³ And you shall eat before Yahweh your God in the place that he will choose to make to dwell his name there the tithe of your grain, your wine and your olive oil and the firstling of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to revere Yahweh your God always. ²⁴ But if the distance is too great for you, so that you are not able to transport it, because the place that Yahweh your God will choose to set his name there, it is too far from you, when Yahweh your God will bless you, ²⁵ then in that case you may exchange for money, and you shall take the money to your hand and go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose. ²⁶ You may spend the money for anything that you desire, for oxen or for sheep or for wine or for strong drink or for anything that you desire, and you shall eat it there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

That is a different way than a tithe is viewed today. The point is that just as the Pharisees made up rules, churches today make up rules and shame everyone into following their rules and preferences citing them as commandments from God. The only commandments that matter are from the words He gave us. Anything else is simply someone imposing their preferences on us.

Psalm 119:142–144 (LEB)

¹⁴² Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth. ¹⁴³ Trouble and anguish have found me; your commands delight me. ¹⁴⁴ The righteousness of your testimonies is forever; give me understanding that I may live.

Thankfully, Yeshua promised He would send the Spirit to help us understand and keep God’s commandments. We are able to be in His righteousness by the help of the Spirit of grace.

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LEB)

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

The writer of Hebrews gives us a lot of understanding in the conclusion of his letter. ²⁰ Now may the God of peace [the Father, Yahuah], who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus[ the son, Yeshua], the great shepherd of the sheep[Messiah’s identity], by the blood of the eternal covenant [covenant between God and His people], ²¹ equip you with every good thing to do his will[His commandments and instructions], carrying out in us what is pleasing before him[His commandments and instructions] through Jesus Christ[by way of His Spirit].

This eternal covenant spoken about did not come out of thin air to the writer of Hebrews. Isaiah also spoke about the eternal covenant. This is the covenant Yeshua ratified with his blood instead of the blood of bulls. It is a refreshing of the covenant of Israel that they broke. Through Yeshua, everyone can now be part of it; however, there are terms.

Isaiah 24:4–6 (LEB)

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.

1 John 5:18–21 (LEB)

¹⁸ We know that everyone who is fathered by God does not sin, but the one fathered by God, he protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. ¹⁹ We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. ²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, in order that we may know the one who is true, and we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life. ²¹ Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Everything Yeshua does points to us being able to be one with the Father just as he is. Being one with the Father has to be in line with His instructions, otherwise we will have to throw three quarters or more of the Bible away. It is by His spirit we can live by His word.

John 14:23–26 (LEB)

²³ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and will take up residence with him. ²⁴ The one who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. ²⁵ These things I have spoken to you while residing with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name—that one will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything that I said to you.

I don’t know how it could be any clearer. The Pharisees heaped rules and burdens on people God never did, then did not do what God actually said to do. This is why our righteousness can exceed theirs. It is the righteousness of God we have when we do what God said to do by His Spirit through Yeshua. He gave us His instructions through Moses, the prophets and His son; then He gave us His Spirit by His son to reside in us. All we need to do is what He said. Self righteousness is when we make up our own rules. Do not call people who try to uphold the laws of God Pharisees. It is the people that place their traditions and preferences in place of the laws of God and tell us to do them instead of the commands of God that are acting in the same manner as the Pharisees. Repent and believe the gospel!

Featured photo by shraga kopstein on Unsplash.

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Therefore is the law opposed to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, certainly righteousness would have been from the law. But the scripture imprisoned all under sin, in order that the promise could be given by faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.

Galatians 3:21–22 (LEB)

We all have a unique belief system developed from books we have read, sermons we have heard, education and our experiences. It all plays a role in our personal theology. Even a person that has never darkened a door of a church has a theology. It may be that there is no God and everyone goes back to dust for eternity. How do we know if our theology is true? What if we stripped away everything we have heard about what is in the Bible, church tradition and our own understandings? If a person never was told what to think about God or the Bible, what would the scriptures speak on their own?

Genesis 1:1 (LEB)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth—

If one was unfamiliar with scripture, the first question might be “Who or what is this ‘God’ that the author is claiming created everything?” The online etymological dictionary has this to say about the origins of the word “God”:

god (n.)

also God; Old English god “supreme being, deity; the Christian God; image of a god; godlike person,” from Proto-Germanic *guthan (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch god, Old High German got, German Gott, Old Norse guð, Gothic guþ), which is of uncertain origin; perhaps from PIE *ghut- “that which is invoked” (source also of Old Church Slavonic zovo “to call,” Sanskrit huta- “invoked,” an epithet of Indra), from root *gheu(e)- “to call, invoke.” The notion could be “divine entity summoned to a sacrifice.”

As a person reads on in the Bible “God” defines himself, and as it turns out His name is not “God”; that is a title given to many deities. The Creator of heaven and Earth is unique.

Exodus 3:11–16 (LEB)

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out from Egypt?” ¹² 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.” ¹³ 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?” 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.’ ”

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.’ 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.”

The Israelites were a family that the Creator pulled out of the Earth’s population to be set apart and unique from the other tribes and nations of the world. He gave their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob special promises for their future generations. One might say the Israelites are “the family of God”. However, this “God” tells us His name is Yahweh. Except “Yahweh” really is not His name because that is an English representation of four Hebrew letters: yod-hay-vav-hay; יהוה. Josephus, a first century historian, tells us the name is pronounced as four vowel sounds. The meaning of those four letters is “he will cause it to exist, or make it happen”. That is a little different than, “I am that I am”, ah h’yah asher ah h’yah: אהיה אשׁר אהיה. Yahweh is third person where h’yah is first person. If we change what He identifies Himself to simply “God”, then it changes everything and may not even be the same deity.

Moses was a prophet and leader, Yah, short for Yahweh or Yahuah, appointed to lead Israel out of Egypt. They found themselves as slaves there through a series of events. This is where the Creator pulls His people together and gives them the secrets to the universe. Fifteen hundred years later, one of the descendants of the Israelites, Stephen, confirms this idea.

Acts 7:37–39 (LEB)

³⁷ “This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ ³⁸ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and who with our fathers received living oracles to give to us, ³⁹ to whom our fathers were not willing to become obedient, but rejected him and turned back in their hearts to Egypt

Yah’s family had an advantage over the rest of the people of the world. They knew how to live in such a way to be in harmony with nature, the Creator and each other. From a mountain in modern day Saudi Arabia, Yah shared the most important instructions to the family of Israel. The ten words, which are called commandments by theologians now.

Exodus 20:1–21 (LEB)

20 And God spoke all these words, saying, ² “I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves. ³ “There shall be for you no other gods before me. ⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a divine image with any form that is in the heavens above or that is in the earth below or that is in the water below the earth. ⁵ You will not bow down to them, and you will not serve them, because I am Yahweh your God, a jealous God, punishing the guilt of the parents on the children on the third and on the fourth generations of those hating me, ⁶ and showing loyal love to thousands of generations of those loving me and of those keeping my commandments. ⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh your God, because Yahweh will not leave unpunished anyone who misuses his name. ⁸ “Remember the day of the Sabbath, to consecrate it. ⁹ Six days you will work, and you will do all your work. ¹⁰ But the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God; you will not do any work—you or your son or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your animal, or your alien who is in your gates—¹¹ because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore Yahweh blessed the seventh day and consecrated it. ¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days can be long on the land that Yahweh your God is giving you. ¹³ “You shall not murder. ¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁵ “You shall not steal. ¹⁶ “You shall not testify against your neighbor with a false witness. ¹⁷ “You shall not covet the house of your neighbor; you will not covet the wife of your neighbor or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor’s.” ¹⁸ And all the people were seeing the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the ram’s horn and the mountain smoking, and the people saw, and they trembled, and they stood at a distance. ¹⁹ And they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will listen, but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” ²⁰ And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that his fear will be before you so that you do not sin.” ²¹ And the people stood at a distance, and Moses approached the very thick cloud where God was.

As we saw Stephen in the book of Acts speaking earlier, Acts 7:38-39 (LEB), “³⁸ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and who with our fathers received living oracles to give to us, ³⁹ to whom our fathers were not willing to become obedient, but rejected him and turned back in their hearts to Egypt“. They heard these ten great sayings from the Creator Himself, yet still did not do them. Imagine the advantage they would have had if they had of listened. Yah was still faithful to this family and told them He would send someone to explain things that was not as scary as the All Mighty, Creator of the Universe.

Deuteronomy 18:15–19 (LEB)

¹⁵ “Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your countrymen, and to him you shall listen. ¹⁶ This is according to all that you asked from Yahweh your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘I do not want again to hear_⌋ the voice of Yahweh my God, and I do not want to see again this great fire, so that I may not die!’ ¹⁷ And Yahweh said to me, ‘They are right in what they have said. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet for them from among their countrymen like you, and I will place my words into his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him. ¹⁹ And then the man that will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will hold accountable.

We see this “prophet” spoken about all through the Bible going forward. He is the anointed messenger, the redeemer of the family of Israel, and by extension the whole world. One of the promises Yah gave to Abraham was that through him the whole world would be blessed.

Genesis 18:17–19 (LEB)

¹⁷ Then Yahweh said, “Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do? ¹⁸ Abraham will surely become a great and strong nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed on account of him. ¹⁹ For I have chosen him, that he will command his children and his household after him that they will keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice, so that Yahweh may bring upon Abraham that which he said to him.”

The world will be blessed through Abraham because his descendant, the anointed one, will repair the damage caused by people continually not doing the instructions of the Creator.

Malachi 4:4–6 (LEB)

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

The “prophet like Moses”, Anointed one, or Messiah, came approximately 1500 years after Moses brought the family out of Egypt.

Luke 2:8–14 (LEB)

⁸ And there were shepherds in the same region, living out of doors and keeping watch, guarding over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord stood near them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring good news to you of great joy which will be for all the people: ¹¹ that today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. ¹² And this will be the sign for you: you will find the baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom he is pleased!”

This Messiah, or “Christ” will bring “on earth peace among people with whom he is pleased“. I recently saw someone on Twitter say that they do not have a Messiah, the Jews have a Messiah. In this person’s world, Jesus Christ stands on his own, separate from all we discussed in this blog post thus far. This person obviously does not know that Christ comes from the Greek, Christos, which means anointed one, the same as Messiah. As we are reading through the Bible we have come to the “big reveal”. The “prophet like Moses” has arrived. What does he do and say?

Luke 4:16 (LEB)

¹⁶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and according to his custom he entered into the synagogue on the day of the Sabbath and stood up to read.

The Complete Jewish Bible translates it this way:

Luke 4:16 (CJB)

¹⁶ Now when he went to Natzeret, where he had been brought up, on Shabbat he went to the synagogue as usual. He stood up to read

We see the Christ going to the synagogue on the Sabbath day as usual. This makes sense in light of one of the instructions of the Creator: Exodus 20:8 (CJB), “Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God.”

Jesus, Joshua in English and Yeshua in Hebrew, became a Jewish rabbi and taught his disciples the things of Yah, the Creator. They soon understood that they were not following just any rabbi.

Matthew 16:13–17 (LEB)

¹³ Now when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ And they said, Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Let’s briefly analyze the word “Christ”

Χριστός G5986 (Christos), Christ; χρίω G5987 (chriō), spread, (in biblical Gk.) anoint; Μεσσίας G3549 (Messias), Messiah. Christ is derived via the Lat. Christus from the Gk. Christos, which in the LXX and the NT is the Gk. equivalent of the Aram. mešîḥā’. This in turn corresponds to the Heb. māšîaḥ and denotes someone who has been ceremonially anointed for an office K. H. Rengstorf, “Χριστός,” ed. Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 334.

This Messiah that the Creator promised to send to His family echoed everything that was taught to them by Moses. By this time in history, the family had been through so much due to disobedience that the majority of the family had lost its identity and were scattered into the nations. There where only a few tribes of Israel represented during the time Yeshua walked the Earth. Even they had distorted the words of Yah.

John 12:44–50 (LEB)

⁴⁴ But Jesus cried out and said, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me, ⁴⁵ and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me. ⁴⁶ I have come as a light into the world, in order that everyone who believes in me will not remain in the darkness. ⁴⁷ And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I will not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸ The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has one who judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. ⁴⁹ For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So the things that I say, just as the Father said to me, thus I say.”

These few verses sum up everything we need to know about what the Messiah taught.

1. The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me
2. the one who sees me sees the one who sent me
3. I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
4. The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has one who judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
5. For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak.
6. I know that his commandment is eternal life
7. So the things that I say, just as the Father said to me, thus I say.

It doesn’t look like the Messiah has any different message than the family received through Moses. Yeshua says “his commandment is eternal life” and he didn’t come to judge because that will be done by his word on the last day. Messiah’s current mission was to save the world, then judge at a later date.

Acts 1:6–11 (LEB)

⁶ So when they had come together, they began asking him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ But he said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest part of the earth.” ⁹ And after he had said these things, while they were watching, he was taken up, and a cloud received him from their sight. ¹⁰ And as they were staring into the sky while he was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood by them ¹¹ who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand there looking into the sky? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven like this will come back in the same way you saw him departing into heaven!”

How does all of this relate to the average person living in the twenty first century? Yeshua told us all how to have eternal life. Remember, “I know that his commandment is eternal life“?

John 3:16–21 (CJB)

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved. ¹⁸ Those who trust in him are not judged; those who do not trust have been judged already, in that they have not trusted in the one who is God’s only and unique Son.

¹⁹ “Now this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness rather than the light. Why? Because their actions were wicked. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil things hates the light and avoids it, so that his actions won’t be exposed. ²¹ But everyone who does what is true comes to the light, so that all may see that his actions are accomplished through God.”

One of the huge misconceptions that Christians have is that Yeshua simply replaced the sacrificial system with his one sacrifice. This is only partly true. Paul gets really excited talking about the inadequacy of the law and people completely miss his excitement. The sacrificial offering system only reconciled unintentional sin! There were no offerings for sacrifice to get forgiveness for intentional, high handed sin. Once someone broke the “Ten Commandments” they were cut off forever according to the law. Yeshua’s sacrifice took care of this problem. Anyone that knew the law understood this. The gospel is cheapened today through ignorance where people think they can keep deliberately sinning and simply ask for forgiveness continually. Some simply ignore the commandments thinking they no longer apply. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Sin is still defined as breaking the commandments of God. Thankfully, there is forgiveness for every sin through Yeshua. However, heed the warning given in Hebrews against blasphemy of the Spirit of grace, that is the holy Spirit:

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?

We are told not to do what is evil, but to do what is true. What is true then? Remember, “I know that his commandment is eternal life“. It is not a mystery. Yeshua told us the Creator’s words are truth. Once one knows the truth and does the truth, they are trusting in Yeshua because that is what he said to do.

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^{Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world! The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”}

John 8:12 (LEB)

Remember the old chorus we used to sing in church, To Be Like Jesus? “All I ask is to be like him” is the last line, and it is one of those songs that would have been sung five or six times in a row. What does it mean when we say we want to be more like Jesus?

First, we should get his name correct. It is Yeshua in Hebrew, or Joshua, if properly translated from Hebrew to English. The name “Jesus” has been around approximately 400 years. It used to be Iesus in old English. Somebody thought it needed a “J” once the “J” was added to the English language. Iesous was the Greek name for Joshua.

Luke 4:14 1611 KJV

¶ And Iesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

Let’s look at the life of Jesus to see what we need to do to fulfill the words of the song and be “more like him”. First, we see he had a habit of going to the synagogue on the seventh day Sabbath, and he participated in the service by reading scripture.

Luke 4:16–17 (LEB)

¹⁶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and according to his custom he entered into the synagogue on the day of the Sabbath and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll he found the place where it was written

Jesus, or Yeshua, was very angry at people selling doves in the temple. This was several days before the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover and these doves were being sold for people to give as offerings at the temple. The money changers were taking advantage of the people because these offerings were needed.

Leviticus 1:14–15 (LEB)

¹⁴ “ ‘But if his offering for Yahweh is a burnt offering from the birds, then he must present his offering from the turtledoves or from the young doves. ¹⁵ The priest will present it at the altar and must wring off its head and turn it into smoke on the altar, and its blood will be drained out on the wall of the altar.

Yeshua gave them a strong rebuke. If we want to be more like Yeshua we need to rebuke leadership that takes advantage of the people in the name of providing a service for God.

Matthew 21:12–13 (CJB)

¹² Yeshua entered the Temple grounds and drove out those who were doing business there, both the merchants and their customers. He upset the desks of the money-changers and knocked over the benches of those who were selling pigeons. ¹³ He said to them, “It has been written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it into a den of robbers!”

Peter warns that this will continue to happen to the people of God, and it clearly is still happening today.

2 Peter 2:1–3 (LEB)

2 But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. ³ And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Yeshua also was very defensive when the religious leaders of his day mishandled the word of God. These leaders were placing their traditions higher than the commandments of God. To be like Yeshua, we must guard the commandments of God passionately, and reject commandments invented by men that are being passed off as doctrine.

Mark 7:5–9 (LEB)

⁵ 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?” 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.” ⁹ And he said to them, “You splendidly ignore the commandment of God so that you can keep your tradition.

Another trait that we see that Yeshua has is that he continually quotes verses from the Old Testament. He seems to know scripture very well and uses it while making a point. He used scripture to overcome the adversary when tempted.

Matthew 4:1–11 (LEB)

4 Then Jesus was led up into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil, ² and after he had fasted forty days and forty nights, then he was hungry. ³ And the tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order that these stones become bread.” ⁴ But he answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’ ”

Deuteronomy 8:2–3 (LEB) 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.

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the highest point of the temple ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down! For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will lift you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”  Jesus said to him, “On the other hand it is written, ‘You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Deuteronomy 6:16–17 (LEB) ¹⁶ You shall not put Yahweh your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. ¹⁷ You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and his legal provisions and his rules that he has commanded you.

⁸ Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, ⁹ and he said to him, “I will give to you all these things, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan, for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’ ” ¹¹ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and began ministering to him.

Deuteronomy 6:13–15 (LEB) ¹³ “You shall fear Yahweh your God, and you shall serve him, and by his name you shall swear. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods from the gods of the peoples who are all around you, ¹⁵ for Yahweh your God is a jealous god in your midst, so that the anger of Yahweh your God would be kindled, and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.

Even the devil can quote scripture. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down! For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will lift you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”. This is why we need to study all scripture, so we know when someone is trying to lead us astray by quoting scripture verses that sound legitimate, but in light of all scripture, are being twisted.

Yeshua also celebrated the biblical feast days of God. Many people label these feast as Jewish, but that is simply because the Jews are the only ones still keeping them. They were meant for all of God’s people, and if we want to be “more like Jesus” we would need this to be on our list.

We see Yeshua coming down to Jerusalem for the Feast of Sukkot, also called Tabernacles and Booths.

John 7:2–10 (CJB)

² But the festival of Sukkot in Y’hudah was near; ³ so his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go into Y’hudah, so that your talmidim can see the miracles you do; ⁴ for no one who wants to become known acts in secret. If you’re doing these things, show yourself to the world!” ⁵ (His brothers spoke this way because they had not put their trust in him.) ⁶ Yeshua said to them, “My time has not yet come; but for you, any time is right. ⁷ The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me, because I keep telling it how wicked its ways are. ⁸ You, go on up to the festival; as for me, I am not going up to this festival now, because the right time for me has not yet come.” ⁹ Having said this, he stayed on in the Galil. ¹⁰ But after his brothers had gone up to the festival, he too went up, not publicly but in secret.

The Complete Jewish Bible does a better job of translating what most versions render “the feast of the Jews”. With those versions it is as if John, the author, and Yeshua were not Jewish. Here is how it is translated in other translations of the Bible:

John 7:2–10 (LEB)

² Now the feast of the Jews—the feast of Tabernacles—was near. ³ So his brothers said to him, “Depart from here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also can see your works that you are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret and yet he himself desires to be publicly recognized. If you are doing these things, reveal yourself to the world!” ⁵ (For not even his brothers believed in him.) ⁶ So Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it, that its deeds are evil. ⁸ You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, because my time is not yet completed. ⁹ And when he had said these things, he remained in Galilee. ¹⁰ But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not openly, but (as it were) in secret.

On the last day of the Feast, Yeshua was still there in Jerusalem celebrating. He was paralleling this day with himself. Instead of praying for rain, He was telling them to come to him for living water. Learning the intricacies of the feasts will help one understand much of the events in the gospels.

John 7:37–39 (LEB)

³⁷ Now on the last day of the feast—the great day—Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let him drink, ³⁸ the one who believes in me. Just as the scripture said, ‘Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.’ ” ³⁹ (Now he said this concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

The next day, we find Yeshua back at the temple for Shemini Atzeret. Where he declares that he is the light of the world.

John 8:1–2 (LEB)

8 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² Now early in the morning he came again to the temple courts. And all the people were coming, and he sat down and began to teach them.

John 8:12 (LEB)

¹² Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world! The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Yeshua also came to Jerusalem to celebrate Hanukkah. This was not a biblical commanded feast, but a national celebration of the dedication of the temple after the Greeks had defiled it in 168 BCE. The Jewish people were becoming Hellenized by the Greeks and were losing their identity. The Greek leader, Antiochus Epiphanes, made laws forbidding keeping God’s commandments, burned torah scrolls and he actually defiled the temple of God by sacrificing a pig on the alter at the time of the winter solstice celebration. A priest of God in a small community outside Jerusalem, Mattathias, would not sacrifice to idols and started a revolt by killing the Greek commander ordering the sacrifice in his community. His son, Judah, lead the revolt, eventually regaining control of the temple. The temple had to be cleansed and dedicated back to Yahweh after the defilement of the pig sacrifice. Hanukkah is simply the celebration of the dedication of the temple. Without Hanukkah there would be no temple, no linage of David and no Messiah.

It is no coincidence that it is celebrated in close proximity to Christmas time. This celebration time of the winter solstice was borrowed from the people who desecrated the temple with the pig sacrifice to Zeus (Ba’al) , and converted falsely to the birthday of Jesus. It went from the birthday of the sun, or son of Ba’al, to supposedly the birthday of the son of Yahweh.

John 10:22–24 (CJB)

²² Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter, ²³ and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo’s Colonnade. ²⁴ So the Judeans surrounded him and said to him, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us publicly!”

Yeshua also kept the feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread.

John 2:23–25 (LEB)

²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name because they saw his signs which he was doing. ²⁴ But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people, ²⁵ and because he did not need anyone to testify about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Yeshua resurrected from the dead. This is our hope, for if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Paul says we are most pitiable.

Mark 16:1–7 (LEB)

16 And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome purchased fragrant spices so that they could go and anoint him. ² And very early in the morning on the first day of the week they came to the tomb after the sun had risen. ³ And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” ⁴ And when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away (for it was very large). ⁵ And as they were going into the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. ⁶ But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He has been raised, he is not here! See the place where they laid him! ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.”

1 Corinthians 15:17–19 (LEB)

¹⁷ But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is empty; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ And as a further result, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If we have put our hope in Christ in this life only, we are of all people most pitiable.

The list goes on and on; however, one more thing we could do to be like Yeshua is be obedient to the Father. He only said what he heard his father say and only did what he saw his father doing. That should be easy for us because we have everything He said recorded in the Old Testament, so we can study the ways of the Creator and do what He said to do.

John 12:49–50 (LEB)

⁴⁹ For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So the things that I say, just as the Father said to me, thus I say.”

Something we do not see Yeshua doing is taking part in the pagan celebrations, such as Saturnalia. This is the festival that would later be converted into the celebration of the birth of Christ by the Roman church, much like the Greeks celebrated when they desecrated the temple in 168 BCE. One would think this would be mentioned somewhere in scripture in a positive light if we were supposed to convert the holy days of the god Saturn (Ba’al), from ancient times, into the celebration of the birth of Yeshua. The irony is overwhelming once examined. Saturn, Zeus, Jupiter and Ba’al are essentially all the same entity with different myths from different cultures. These celebrations have nothing to do with Yeshua, the Messiah.

Ezekiel 22:26–28 (LEB)

²⁶ Its priests treat my law violently, and they profane my holy objects; they do not distinguish between a holy object and what is unholy, or between the clean and the unclean. They do not teach the difference, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and so I am profaned in the midst of them. ²⁷ Its officials are like wolves tearing prey in its midst, to pour out blood, to destroy people, to make dishonest gain. ²⁸ And for them its prophets plaster whitewash; they are seeing falseness and are practicing divination for them by lying, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh,’ and Yahweh has not spoken.

In conclusion, to “be more like Jesus” is to hold religious leaders accountable, keep and guard the commandments of God, celebrate the Biblical feasts, frequently quote the scriptures, and say and do the things the Father says and does.

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Therefore, what is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the use of circumcision? Much in every way. For first, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

Romans 3:1–2 (LEB)

Erasing history is not a new phenomenon, and there is a considerable amount of history erasing happening in real time today. Our building architecture is full of people’s names and statutes of supposedly good people who influenced our present time. All of a sudden, moderns realized that these people were living the same as everyone else around them, and even though they did some great things, their monuments must be torn down and names erased from history.

John 8:3–7 (LEB)

³ Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And standing her in their midst, ⁴ they said to him, testing him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery! ⁵ Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” ⁶ (Now they were saying this to test him, so that they would have an occasion to bring charges against him.) But Jesus, bending down, began to write with his finger on the ground, taking no notice. ⁷ And when they persisted in asking him, straightening up he said to them, “The one of you without sin, let him throw the first stone at her!”

I am certainly not trying to cast stones here, but it is important to understand history, especially when it comes to our theology. My blog posts are centered around abandoning the traditions of men and returning to the things of God. Unfortunately, Christianity views the things of God as the things of the “Jews” because God used the Jews to deliver salvation to the world through Jesus Christ. We must remember that Jesus was a Jew, from the tribe of Judah, with the name Yeshua H’mashiach. Christ is simply a transliteration of a Greek word that means Messiah, or anointed one. If one hates the Jews and their ways, they hate the Messiah. Jesus did not come to Earth to create a new religion called Christianity. Yet we see early on that this was the mentality of early church fathers.

“For if we are still practicing Judaism, we admit that we have not received God’s favor…it is wrong to talk about Jesus Christ and live like Jews. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity.” Ignatius Bishop of Antioch (98-117A.D.) Epistle to the Magnesians

Once the gentile believers took over the church, the wall that was torn down by Messiah slowly built back up. The reason Christianity does not observe the Creator’s feast days, Sabbaths and even commandments, has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with antisemitism. Justin Martyr is a second century “church father”, and this is what he records in his Dialogue with Trypho:

“We too, would observe your circumcision of the flesh, your Sabbath days, and in a word, all you festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you, namely, because of your sins and the hardness of heart.

 The custom of circumcising the flesh, handed down from Abraham, was given to you as a distinguishing mark, to set you off from other nations and from us Christians. The purpose of this was that you and only you might suffer the afflictions that are now justly yours; that only your land be desolated, and you cities ruined by fire, that the fruits of your land be eaten by strangers before your very eyes; that not one of you be permitted to enter your city of Jerusalem. Your circumcision of the flesh is the only mark by which you can certainly be distinguished from other men…as I stated before it was by reason of your sins and the sins of your fathers that, among other precepts, God imposed upon you the observance of the sabbath as a mark.” Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (Between 138A.D. and 161 A.D.)

These words should make any Christian concerned. I have quoted Justin Martyr to make points in the past myself, but in light of these remarks, I would be hesitant to do so in the future. I read Dialogue with Trypho a number of years ago and glossed right over these statements. It is offensive to me now to think this man was using the Sabbath in such a derogatory manner. The Sabbath is not a mark of just Jews, but all the tribes and those grafted in through the Messiah. The Sabbath predated Israel and is ordained by God.

Origen was another church father responsible for much of the doctrine in Christianity today. This is what he has to say regarding the Jewish people:

“We may thus assert in utter confidence that the Jews will not return to their earlier situation, for they have committed the most abominable of crimes, in forming this conspiracy against the Savior of the human race…hence the city where Jesus suffered was necessarily destroyed, the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people was called by God to the blessed election.” Origen of Alexandria (185-254 A.D.)

This statement by Origen is pure replacement theology, and makes the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a liar. A more modern version of replacement theology is dispensational theology. This is the system used by Baptists, Pentecostals and other evangelical denominations where Israel still gets some of its promises here on Earth, but the church gets all the “spiritual” blessings with Jesus in heaven. This is what God actually told us in scripture:

Hebrews 8:8–12 (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. ¹¹ And they will not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹² For I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings, and I will not remember their sins any longer.”

The new covenant is with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. There is nothing about the church there, and it is not because the church got raptured before these verses apply. That is simply a trick of the devil on people who refuse to read for themselves, truly seek God, or unknowingly rely on these men who hated Jews so much that they created a different religion and made a “Jesus” their God.

John Chrysostom (344-407 A.D.), one of the of church fathers, known as “The Golden Mouthed”, a missionary preacher famous for his sermons and homilies, has this to say about the Jews:

“The synagogue is worse than a brothel…it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts…the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults…the refuge of brigands and dabauchees, and the cavern of devils. It is a criminal assembly of Jews…a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ… a house worse than a drinking shop…a den of thieves, a house of ill fame, a dwelling of iniquity, the refuge of devils, a gulf and a abyss of perdition.”…”I would say the same things about their souls… As for me, I hate the synagogue…I hate the Jews for the same reason.” The Roots of Christian Anti-Semitism by Malcolm Hay

St. Augustine (c. 354-430 A.D.), responsible for much of the church doctrine, is someone whose material I have studied quite a bit. Even at that time I noticed his writing would often burst out with obvious hatred for the Jewish people. This example is from his book called Confessions, 12.14:

“How hateful to me are the enemies of your Scripture! How I wish that you would slay them (the Jews) with your two-edged sword, so that there should be none to oppose your word! Gladly would I have them die to themselves and live to you!“

There are many more examples of the hatred of the Jews among early church leaders and so-called fathers. I am highlighting this to show how Christianity moved away from the teachings of Yeshua, a Jewish Rabbi, and his Apostles and could never go back. This is why someone like me is given the silent treatment when trying to tell my Christian friends and family to examine their belief system and compare it to what the Bible says. It is easier to ignore and silence a person then it is to defend things about the faith that really are not defensible. The adversary, which is called “satan” in the Hebrew language, has deluded people into thinking the things of God are “Jewish” and not to be even considered by a Christian.

Martin Luther played a large role in the protestant reformation. This is where many of the splinters of denominations come from today. It was simply people arguing about doctrine and creating their own “way”. One thing they can all agree on is not to have anything to do with the way of “those detestable Jews”.

Martin Luther (1543); On The Jews and Their Lies:

What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us and we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we can not tolerate them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy. In this way we cannot quench the inextinguishable fire of divine rage nor convert the Jews. We must prayerfully and reverentially practice a merciful severity. Perhaps we may save a few from the fire and flames [of hell]. We must not seek vengeance. They are surely being punished a thousand times more than we might wish them. Let me give you my honest advice.

First, their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it. And this ought to be done for the honor of God and of Christianity in order that God may see that we are Christians, and that we have not wittingly tolerated or approved of such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of His Son and His Christians.

Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed. For they perpetrate the same things there that they do in their synagogues. For this reason they ought to be put under one roof or in a stable, like gypsies, in order that they may realize that they are not masters in our land, as they boast, but miserable captives, as they complain of incessantly before God with bitter wailing.

Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer-books and Talmuds in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught.

Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more…

Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews. For they have no business in the rural districts since they are not nobles, nor officials, nor merchants, nor the like. Let them stay at home…If you princes and nobles do not close the road legally to such exploiters, then some troop ought to ride against them, for they will learn from this pamphlet what the Jews are and how to handle them and that they ought not to be protected. You ought not, you cannot protect them, unless in the eyes of God you want to share all their abomination…

To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden – the Jews…

Let the government deal with them in this respect, as I have suggested. But whether the government acts or not, let everyone at least be guided by his own conscience and form for himself a definition or image of a Jew. When you lay eyes on or think of a Jew you must say to yourself: Alas, that mouth which I there behold has cursed and execrated and maligned every Saturday my dear Lord Jesus Christ, who has redeemed me with his precious blood; in addition, it prayed and pleaded before God that I, my wife and children, and all Christians might be stabbed to death and perish miserably. And he himself would gladly do this if he were able, in order to appropriate our goods…

Such a desperate, thoroughly evil, poisonous, and devilish lot are these Jews, who for these fourteen hundred years have been and still are our plague, our pestilence, and our misfortune.

Translated by Martin H. Bertram, “On The Jews and Their Lies, Luther’s Works, Volume 47”; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971.

Martin Luther 1543; Of The Unknowable Name and The Generations of Christ

But your [God’s] judgment is right, justus es Dominie. Yes, so shall Jews, but no one else be punished, who held your word and miracles in contempt and ridiculed, insulted and damned it for such a long time without interruption, so that they will not fall, like other humans, heathens and all the others, into sin and death, not up in Hell, nor in the middle of Hell but in the pit of Hell, as one cannot fall deeper…

Even if they were punished in the most gruesome manner that the streets ran with their blood, that their dead would be counted, not in the hundred thousands, but in the millions, as happened under Vespasian in Jerusalem and for evil under Hadrian, still they must insist on being right even if after these 1,500 years they were in misery another 1,500 years, still God must be a liar and they must be correct. In sum, they are the devil’s children, damned to Hell…

The Jews too got what they deserved. They had been called and elected to be God’s mouth as Jeremiah says…Open your mouth wide and I will fill it; they however, kept tightly closed their muzzles, eyes, ears, nose, whole heart and all senses, so he polluted and squirted them so full that it oozes from them in all places and devil’s filth comes from them.

Yes, that tastes good to them, into their hearts, they smack their lips like swine. That is how they want it. Call more: ‘Crucify him, crucify him.’ Scream more: ‘His blood come upon us and our children.’ (Matthew 27:25) I mean it came and found you…

Perhaps, one of the merciful Saints among us Christians may think I am behaving too crude and disdainfully against the poor, miserable Jews in that I deal with them so sarcastically and insulting. But, good God, I am much too mild in insulting such devils…

Finally, the father of Calvinism, John Calvin. I never spent much time studying the doctrine of election that he puts forth, so I really cannot comment much on it. Here is John Calvin’s opinion of the Jews:

“Their [the Jews] rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone.“

Excerpt from “Ad Quaelstiones et Objecta Juaei Cuiusdam Responsio,” by John Calvin; The Jew in Christian Theology, Gerhard Falk, McFarland and Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC and London, 1931.

History does not happen by accident. We see the ingrained hatred of Jews in Christianity. One has to wonder if this new religion has anything to do with the religion of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua and the Apostle Sha’ul, also called Pa’al, or Paul today. Paul was a Pharisaic Jew responsible for writing much of the New Testament, and this is what he had to say in defense of 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.

Paul also taught us where believers in Yeshua from the nations (non-Jews), fit in. It is only by the grace of God that we can be grafted into the natural olive tree of Israel.

Romans 11:13–21 (LEB)

¹³ Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Therefore, inasmuch as I am apostle to the Gentiles, I promote my ministry, ¹⁴ if somehow I may provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean except life from the dead? ¹⁶ Now if the first fruits are holy, so also is the whole batch of dough, and if the root is holy, so also are the branches.

¹⁷ Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although you were a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a sharer of the root of the olive tree’s richness, ¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you boast against them, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ Then you will say, “Branches were broken off in order that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Well said! They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand firm because of faith. Do not think arrogant thoughts, but be afraid. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

It is clear that modern Christianity has antisemitism built within its framework, and likely the reason Christians will get so angry if dietary instructions, Sabbaths or feast days are brought up. No, those are not simply things of the “detestable Jews”, they are the instructions of God. Examine yourselves, as I will examine myself continually. Repent and believe the gospel!

Featured photo by Wim van ‘t Einde on Unsplash.

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

Zechariah 14:16 (LEB)

Most Christians have no knowledge of the week long festival the Creator gave to His people to enjoy called Sukkot. However, most celebrate the worldly festival of Saturnalia every year for the god Mithra, Saturn and Odin. Creating a myth about the timing of the birth of Jesus to coincide with the sun worshiper’s festivals does not sanctify the days. So how did Christians switch from celebrating festivals ordained by Yahuah to festivals of the gods of this Earth? It is a valid question that everyone who celebrates the time of Saturnalia, renamed Christmas by the Catholic church, should find an answer. Essentially it is a 3500 year old prophecy.

Deuteronomy 4:25–28 (LEB)

²⁵ “When you have had children and grandchildren and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger, ²⁶ I call to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; you will not live long on it, but you will be completely destroyed. ²⁷ And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you. ²⁸ And you will there serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell.

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

Leviticus 23:1–2 (LEB)

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

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

Colossians 2:16–17 (LEB)

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

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

Colossians 2:20 (LEB)

²⁰ If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world?

1 Corinthians 10:19–22 (LEB)

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

Paul would never refer to the word of God, or the special days of God, as elemental spirits. Someone who thinks that has been duped by the enemy! Melding God’s days with the worldly festivals and gods was exactly how the Northern kingdom, the House of Israel, was cut off.

Jeremiah 3:6–9 (LEB)

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

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

Leviticus 23:33–36 (LEB)

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

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

Leviticus 23:39–44 (LEB)

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

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

Nehemiah 8:13–18 (LEB)

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

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

Deuteronomy 4:29–31 (LEB)

²⁹ But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ In your distress when all these things have found you in the latter days, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice. ³¹ For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.

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

Zechariah 14:12–21 (LEB)

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

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

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

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

Matthew 6:9–10 (LEB)

“Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be treated as holy. ¹⁰ May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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

Featured photo by Maja Petric on Unsplash.

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

Isaiah 58:6–7 (LEB)

Yom Kippur starts the evening of October 4th this year and ends the evening of October 5th. A Christian that does not regard this day should really ask themselves “why not?”. Both Judaism and Christianity have their traditions, and Yom Kippur is typically thought of as a “Jewish” holy day; however, it is actually a day commanded by the Father for His people to keep. If one claims to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Yahuah, then why wouldn’t they regard His special days?

Leviticus 23:26–32 (LEB)

²⁶ Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷ “Surely the Day of Atonement is on the tenth day of the seventh month; it shall be a holy assembly for you, and you shall deny yourselves, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh. ²⁸ And you must not do any regular work on this very same day, because it is the Day of Atonement to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God. ²⁹ If there is any person who does not deny himself on this very same day, then he shall be cut off from his people. ³⁰ As for any person who does any work on this very same day, I will exterminate that person from the midst of his people. ³¹ You must not do any work; it is a lasting statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 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.”

The oracles of God were handed down to us through Moses and Israel. The gospel has always been that the whole world would be blessed through Abraham’s seed. We know now that this is the Messiah who accomplished this. The oracles of God did not change because of anything Jesus may have done. Anything Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yeshua, did was in perfect agreement with the word given to us through Israel from God, yet Christianity made up their own laws and special days using the special days, traditions and symbols of other gods. Yahuah told us specifically not to do this very thing.

Deuteronomy 12:28–32 (LEB)

²⁸ Be careful to obey all these things that I am commanding you, so that it will go well for you and for your children after you forever, because then you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God. ²⁹ “When Yahweh your God has cut off the nations whom you are about to go to, to dispossess them before you, and you have dispossessed them, and you live in their land, ³⁰ take care so that you are not ensnared into imitating them after their being destroyed from before you, and so that you not enquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods, and thus I myself want to do also.’ ³¹ You must not do so toward Yahweh your God, because of every detestable thing they have done for their gods Yahweh hates, for even their sons and their daughters they would burn in the fire to their gods. ³² All of the things that I am commanding you, you must diligently observe; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.”

The church leadership in Jerusalem made this Torah command one of the first, most important commands to regard for new converts coming from the pagan religions.

Acts 15:19–21 (LEB)

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

The intention here was for the new converts to have a starting point. They will learn the entire instructions of God given to Moses eventually “because he is read aloud in the synagogues on every Sabbath”. The intention was that the gentiles would start to observe the Sabbath and learn the words God gave to Moses. Pollution of idols still means do not blend the holy things of God with pagan deities and symbols. These things include evergreen trees, pine cones, mistletoe, holly, eggs and rabbits. These are things that are used to worship other gods and should not be included in the worship of Yahuah. He gives us His own symbols that we can use to honor Him on the days He told us to celebrate. We don’t need to change His days or make up new ones that mirror the pagan holy days and their traditions.

In the religion of Judaism, it is a custom to fast on Yom Kippur. I do not know all of these customs, and how people in that religion observe the day, but I can read the command in Leviticus and it tells us it is a Sabbath and we are to afflict or deny ourselves. The word for afflict or deny is where the fasting tradition comes from. The trappings with this thought process is that one could symbolically fast and put the day in without actually grasping the meaning of the day. The word for deny is “anah” in Hebrew.

Fasting is a way to deny one’s self, but it is not in the meaning of the word. It is a day of solemn reflection. God explains the day through the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 58:3–10 (LEB)

³ ‘Why do we fast, and you do not see it? We humiliate our soul, and you do not notice it?’ Look! You find delight on the day of your fast, and you oppress all your workers! ⁴ Look! You fast to quarrel and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist. You shall not fast as you do today, to make your voice heard on the height. ⁵ Is the fast I choose like this, a day for humankind to humiliate himself? To bow his head like a reed, and make his bed on sackcloth and ashes; you call this a fast and a day of pleasure to Yahweh? ⁶ Is this not the fast I choose: to release the bonds of injustice, to untie the ropes of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and tear every yoke to pieces? ⁷ Is it not to break your bread for the hungry? You must bring home the poor, the homeless. When you see the naked, you must cover him, and you must not hide yourself from your relatives. ⁸ Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall grow quickly. And your salvation shall go before you; the glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard. ⁹ Then you shall call, and Yahweh himself will answer. You shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am!’ If you remove from among you the yoke, the finger-pointing and evil speech, ¹⁰ if you offer your soul to the hungry, and you satisfy the appetite of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be like noon.

In other words, don’t be a big jerk all of the time then think a fast on Yom Kippur is going to fix everything. I know of people who go to homeless camps on Yom Kippur and ask the people there what they need, then go buy it and bring it to them. One could say that is breaking the Sabbath, but the words in Isaiah, along with our Messiah seem to point in this direction rather than fasting while “oppressing your workers, quarreling, having strife and striking with a wicked fist”.

Yom Kippur also has prophetic implications. Many think this is symbolic of the future judgement day. The ten days between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur are sometimes referred to as the “days of awe”. The seventh and last trumpet will sound on Yom Teruah and the “day of the Lord” will actually be this time leading up to Yom Kippur.

Revelation 11:15–19 (LEB)

¹⁵ And the seventh angel blew the trumpet, and there was a loud voice in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” ¹⁶ And the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God fell down on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷ saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God All-Powerful, the one who is and the one who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. ¹⁸ And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and to give their reward to your slaves the prophets and to the saints and to the ones who fear your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” ¹⁹ And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were lightnings and sounds and thunders and an earthquake and large hail.

The book of Revelation will be closed to anyone who does not study the words of the prophets. This is why there is so much confusion and millions, if not billions, of dollars in book sales on the subject. Obadiah speaks of the day:

Obadiah 15–18 (LEB)

¹⁵ “For the day of Yahweh is near against all the nations! Just as you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return on your own head. ¹⁶ For just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and they will slurp, and they will be as if they had never been. ¹⁷ But on Mount Zion there will be an escape, and it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will take possession of their dispossessors. ¹⁸ And the house of Jacob will be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; and they will set them on fire and will consume them. And there will not be a survivor for the house of Esau,” for Yahweh has spoken.

God’s wrath will happen to the world,  “But on Mount Zion there will be an escape“. Use this Yom Kippur as a day to reflect on your life. Are you obedient to the eternal covenant? When the ark of the covenant appears in the heavenly temple, will you be able to be at peace? It is through the holy Spirit of grace that we are enabled to please the Father, thanks to Yeshua the Messiah. Grace is divine influence of the heart. This is where His laws are written on our hearts. The laws are not “old Jewish laws”, they are the laws of God that He shared with the world through Israel.

Ezekiel 36:24–27 (LEB)

²⁴ “ ‘And I will take you from the nations, and I will gather you from all of the lands, and I will bring you to your land. ²⁵ And I will sprinkle on you pure water, and you will be clean from all of your uncleanness, and I will cleanse you from all of your idols. ²⁶ And I will give a new heart to you, and a new spirit I will give into your inner parts, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give to you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will give my spirit into your inner parts, and I will make it so that you will go in my rules, and my regulations you will remember, and you will do them.

Learn the ways of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Repent and flee from idolatry!

Featured photo is by BAILEY MAHON on Unsplash.

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Yom Kippur starts the evening of October 4th this year and ends October 5th. A Christian that does not regard this day should really ask themselves “why not?”. Both Judaism and Christianity have their traditions, and Yom Kippur is typically thought of as a “Jewish” holy day; however it is actually a day commanded by the Father for His people to keep. Whether one regards this day or not helps identify the god they serve or do not serve

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You stiff-necked people and uncircumcised in hearts and in your ears! You constantly resist the Holy Spirit!

Acts 7:51

Anytime subjects such as the Sabbaths or dietary instructions present themselves, the average Christian will sharply reply, “that is the old covenant” or “I am saved by grace and not under the law”. It is as if the Creator made these terrible “laws” for His favourite people, Israel, then required His son to come and die to release His people from these horrible “laws”. How ridiculous does that sound? It is actually a form of Marcionism and what most Christians believe, unfortunately.

Marcion was a second century heretic that taught that Jesus came from a different god than the creator God, Yahuah. The creator god was a mean god who went rogue and the good god had to come as a phantom (in the body of a man) to release the people from this demiurge. Marcion is attributed to labeling the Bible into the New Testament and Old Testament. Much of Marcion’s theology found its way into mainstream Christianity and remains today.

Why does the Christian church get so defensive when claiming to “be saved by grace and not under the law”? What are they scared of? They may have to stop eating swine’s flesh? Wouldn’t that be better for their health? Is there a correlation between following the instructions, or Torah, of the Creator, which were given to Israel to share with the whole world, and a healthy life?

Isaiah 42:5–7 (LEB)

⁵ Thus says the God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it. ⁶ “I am Yahweh; I have called you in righteousness, and I have grasped your hand and watched over you; and I have given you as a covenant of the people, as a light of the nations, ⁷ to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoner out from the dungeon, those who sit in darkness from the house of imprisonment.

Yahuah’s instructions are the lamp that lights our path.

Psalm 119:103–105 (LEB)

¹⁰³ How smooth are your words to my palate, more than honey in my mouth. ¹⁰⁴ From your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. ¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

The Creator of the universe has given us the instructions to live a blessed life through His chosen people, Israel, and Christians view it as an evil thing. This is not a Biblical mindset and it is deception from the enemy to rob people of the blessings built into the fabric of the universe by God.

Acts 7:51–53 (LEB)

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people and uncircumcised in hearts and in your ears! You constantly resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so also do you! ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand about the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, ⁵³ you who received the law by directions of angels and have not observed it!”

Yahuah gave Moses His instructions to share with the people. The “old covenant” is that Israel swore to do them at Mount Horeb. The covenant was sealed with the blood of bulls. The instructions of God were not the covenant, or “old law”. They were the instructions that Israel agreed to. They broke the covenant by not doing the instructions of God. God made covenants with their children who also broke them. The instructions of God are not limited to a covenant with any group of people, they are eternal.

Psalm 119:1–16 (LEB)

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of Yahweh. ² Blessed are those who keep his testimonies; they seek him with a whole heart. ³ They also do no wrong; they walk in his ways. ⁴ You have commanded your precepts, that we should keep them diligently. ⁵ Oh that my ways were steadfast, to keep your statutes! ⁶ Then I would not be ashamed when I look to all your commands. ⁷ I will give you thanks with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous laws. ⁸ I will heed your statutes; do not utterly forsake me. ⁹ How can a young man keep his way pure? By taking heed according to your word. ¹⁰ With my whole heart I have sought you; do not let me stray from your commands. ¹¹ In my heart I have hidden your word, so that I may not sin against you. ¹² Blessed are you, O Yahweh. Teach me your statutes. ¹³ With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth. ¹⁴ In the way of your testimonies I have rejoiced as I would over all riches. ¹⁵ I will meditate on your precepts and look at your ways. ¹⁶ I will take delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Are these words of David no longer true? Putting the laws or instructions of God in a negative light has ruined the church. There is so much confusion with the false teachings of dispensationalism and lawlessness. What laws or instructions do Christians think God said he would write on our hearts? The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah:

Hebrews 8:10 (LEB)

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.

The instructions, “laws”, or “torah”, were shared by God to Israel for them to have a better life. The word “torah” means instructions as well as civil law.

תּוֹרָה n.f. direction, instruction, law — 1. instruction: a. human: of a mother; of a father; of sages; of a poet; תּוֹרָת חֶסֶד kind instruction (of a wise wife). b. divine; through his servants. c. a body of prophetic (or sometimes perh. priestly) teaching; in the heart; myriads of precepts. d. instruction in Messianic age. e. a body of priestly direction or instruction relating to sacred things. 2. law (prop. direction): viz. a. of special laws, sg. of Feast of Maṣṣoth, sabbath; of direction given by priests in partic. case; of statutes of priest’s code; pl. תּוֹרוֹת laws; (of decisions in civil cases given by Moses); the laws of the new temple; those laws in which men should walk. b. of codes of law, (1) התּוֹרָה as written in the code of the covenant; (2) the law of the Deuteronomic code. (3) the law of the Priest’s code. 3. custom, manner: תּוֹרַת הָאָדָם the manner of man, not of God, i.e. deal with me as man with man.

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).

If we seek after the instruction of God we are promised blessings. Why wouldn’t a Christian want to partake in this? I see Christians fighting with nature all of the time and once did it myself. It is the enemy robbing them of their blessing. Will people who continually walk in disobedience to God’s instructions still be saved? I cannot answer that, but I can say I experienced both the blessings and the curses and would prefer the blessings while walking on this Earth.

Deuteronomy 28:1–13 (LEB)

“And it will happen that if you indeed listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to diligently observe all his commandments that I am commanding you today, then Yahweh your God will set you above all the nations of the earth. ² And all of these blessings shall come upon you, and they shall have an effect on you if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God: ³ “You will be blessed in the city, and you will be blessed in the field. ⁴ “Blessed will be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your livestock, the calf of your cattle and the lambs of your flock. ⁵ “Blessed will be your basket and your kneading trough.⁶ “Blessed will you be when you come in and blessed will you be when you go out. ⁷ “Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; on one road they shall come out against you, but on seven roads they shall flee before you. ⁸ Yahweh will command concerning you the blessing to be in your barns and in all your endeavors; and he will bless you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you. ⁹ Yahweh will establish you for himself as a holy people as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and you walk in his ways. ¹⁰ And all of the peoples of the earth shall see that by the name of Yahweh you are called, and they shall fear you. ¹¹ And Yahweh will make you successful and prosperous, in the fruit of your womb and on the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors to give to you. ¹² Yahweh shall open for you his rich storehouse, even the heavens, to give the rain for your land in its time and to bless all of the work of your hand, and you will lend to many nations; you will not borrow from them. ¹³ And Yahweh shall make you as head and not the tail, and you shall be only at the top of the nations, and you shall not be at the bottom, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you today and diligently observe them.

Why wouldn’t Christians want to partake in these blessings? From observation, I know that most Christians do not experience these blessings. Why not try following the instructions God gave through Israel that He said He would write on our hearts? Writing them on our hearts is not a magical process. It means in the new covenant, with new people, He would give us His spirit to enable us to do these things. If we reject the Spirit of grace He gave to us and willfully ignore His instructions, can we expect anything different than the promised curses?

Deuteronomy 28:15–46 (LEB)

¹⁵ “ And then if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God by diligently observing all of his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, then all of these curses shall come upon you, and they shall overtake you: ¹⁶ “You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field. ¹⁷ “Your basket shall be cursed and your kneading trough. ¹⁸ “The fruit of your womb shall be cursed and the fruit of your ground, the calves of your cattle and the lambs of your flock. ¹⁹ “You shall be cursed when you come in, and you shall be cursed when you go out.

²⁰ “Yahweh will send upon you the curse, the panic, and the threat in everything that you undertake, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly because of the evil of your deeds in that you have forsaken me. ²¹ Yahweh will cause the plague to cling to you until it consumes you from the land that you are going to, to take possession of it. ²² Yahweh will afflict you with the wasting diseases and with the fever and with the inflammation and with the scorching heat and with the sword and with the blight and with the mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish. ²³ And your heavens that are over your heads shall be like bronze, and the earth that is under you shall be like iron. ²⁴ Yahweh will change the rain of your land to fine dust and to sand; from the heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.

²⁵ “Yahweh shall cause you to be defeated _⌊before_⌋ your enemies; on one road you shall go against them, but you will flee on seven roads before them, and you shall become a thing of horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ And your dead bodies shall be as food for all of the birds of the heaven and to the animals of the earth, and there shall not be anyone to frighten them away.

²⁷ “Yahweh shall afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scurvy and with the skin rash that cannot be healed. ²⁸ Yahweh shall afflict you with madness and with blindness and with confusion of heart. ²⁹ And you shall be groping at noon just as the blind person gropes in the dark, and you shall not succeed in finding your way, and you shall only be abused and robbed all the time, and there will not be anyone who will rescue you. ³⁰ You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall sleep with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not live in it; a vineyard you shall plant, but you shall not enjoy it. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat it; your donkey shall be stolen right before you, and it shall not be returned to you; your sheep and your goats shall be given to your enemies, and there shall not be anyone who rescues you. ³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to other people, and you will be looking on longingly for them all day, but you will be powerless to do anything. ³³ A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. ³⁴ You shall become mad because of what your eyes shall see. ³⁵ Yahweh shall strike you with grievous boils on the knees and on the upper thighs from which you will not be able to be healed, from the sole of your foot and up to your crown. ³⁶ Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors have not known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there.

³⁸ “You shall carry out much seed to the field, but you shall gather little produce, for the locust shall devour it. ³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress them, but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it. ⁴⁰ There shall be olive trees for you in all of your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself, for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. ⁴² The cricket shall take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground. ⁴³ The alien that is in your midst shall ascend over you, higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, but you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵ “And all of these curses shall come over you, and they shall pursue you, and they shall overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, by observing his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they shall be among you as a sign and as a wonder and among your offspring forever.

Many of us are unknowingly descendants of the twelve tribes due to the dispersion or scattering of Israel throughout the nations. At the very least, if we follow Yahuah, we are spiritual children of Israel. “And they shall be among you as a sign and as a wonder and among your offspring forever” . From observations, I know many Christians are living with some of these curses on a daily basis. Is it because of their stiff necked, hardened heart? Why not try keeping the sabbaths of the Creator, and following some of His other instructions just to try out the theory? Is your heart too hard? This is for the here and now, not for just a group of people that lived 3500 years ago.

Deuteronomy 4:27–31 (LEB)

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.

James wrote to this same group of people:

James 1:1 (LEB)

1 James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Greetings!

As did Peter:

1 Peter 1:1–2 (LEB)

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen who are residing temporarily in the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Yeshua, called Jesus by the Christian church, knew how important the instruction of His Father was and told us.

Matthew 19:16–17 (LEB)

¹⁶ And behold, someone came up to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do so that I will have eternal life?” ¹⁷ And he said to him, “Why are you asking me about what is good? There is one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments!”

John 12:49–50 (LEB)

⁴⁹ For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So the things that I say, just as the Father said to me, thus I say.”

Yeshua is the living word of God in flesh. That means Yeshua is the instruction or torah of God. He is the lamp that lights our feet, the way and the truth just as the instruction of God is these things. They are the same.

Do you just regurgitate what you have been told by religious leaders and doctrine? Do you go silent when presented with something that challenges what you have been told all your life? If one really knows what they believe it should be easy discussing it with someone else. Learn your identity. Repent and follow God’s instructions to live a blessed life! Psalm 119:165 (LEB) “Great peace is for those who love your law, and they do not have a cause for stumbling”.

Featured photo by Jamie Templeton on Unsplash.

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The Feast of Trumpets
 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you must have a rest period, a remembrance of the trumpet blast, a holy assembly. You must not do any regular work, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh.’ ”

Leviticus 23:23–25 (LEB)

Tomorrow is Yom Teruah which is the Feast of Trumpets. The command for this fall feast day is to simply blow trumpets or more appropriately, the ram’s horn shofar, don’t do any regular work and make a joyful noise. It is the only feast day that has very little assigned to it, and many believe it has prophetic implications.

Numbers 29:1 (LEB)

29:1 “ ‘On the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you will have a holy convocation; you will not do any regular work. It will be a day for you of blowing trumpets.

The word in Numbers 29:1 translated as “blowing trumpets” is Teruah.

We can see that it is also a day of shouts of joy, being joyful and sounding the alarm.

Joel 2:1–2 (LEB)

2 Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming —it is indeed near. ² A day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness,like the dawn spreads on the mountains, a great and strong army! There has been nothing like it from old, and after it nothing will be again for generations to come.

Scripture is consistent with the “Day of the LORD” involving trumpet blowing. The serpent will be dealt a final death blow.

Isaiah 27:1 (LEB)

27 On that day, Yahweh will punish with his cruel, great and strong sword Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will kill the sea monster that is in the sea.

Isaiah 27:12–13 (LEB)

¹² And this shall happen: on that day, Yahweh will thresh from the floodwaters of the Euphrates to the wadi of Egypt, and as for you, you will be gathered one by one, sons of Israel. ¹³ And this shall happen: on that day, a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria will come, and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt, and they will bow down to Yahweh on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Zephaniah 1:14–18 (LEB)

¹⁴ The great day of Yahweh draws near; it is near and coming very swiftly. The sound of the day of Yahweh is bitterness; there, a warrior cries out! ¹⁵ That day will be a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of disaster and ruination, a day of darkness and deep gloom, a day of clouds and thick clouds, ¹⁶ a day of trumpet and trumpet blast against the fortified cities and against the high corner towers.¹⁷ And I will bring distress to all humankind, and they shall walk about like the blind, for they sinned against Yahweh; their blood shall be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung. ¹⁸ Moreover, their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the wrath of Yahweh. And in the fire of his zeal, the whole land shall be consumed, for a terrifying end he shall make for all the inhabitants of the land.

Even Yeshua echoes the prophets speaking about the day with a loud trumpet call and gathering his people. It will be a good day for those who fear the Creator, but for the rest of humanity it will not be a good day. There will be no atheists on that day.

Matthew 24:30–31 (LEB)

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

Yeshua, transliterated to Jesus, was thought to be born during the fall feasts. His English name is Joshua. “Jesus” comes from the the Greek form of Iesous. There was no letter “J” in Hebrew or Greek, and the first letter of his name in Hebrew corresponds with the letter “Y” in the English alphabet, not “J”.

Ἰησοῦς
Iēsous, n.p., Joshua. 280× +NT +AF

Hebrew Alignment
יְהוֹשׁוּעַ—Joshua

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

Paul continues with the concept of serious things happening at the blowing of the trumpet. In his first letter to the Corinthians he speaks of the resurrection happening at the last trumpet.

1 Corinthians 15:52–53 (LEB)

⁵² in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For it is necessary for this perishable body to put on incorruptibility, and this mortal body to put on immortality.

Paul tells the Thessalonians the same thing.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 (LEB)

¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who remain, will be snatched away at the same time together with them in the clouds for a meeting with the Lord in the air, and thus we will be together with the Lord always.

We are told about the last trumpet in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 11:15–19 (LEB)

¹⁵ And the seventh angel blew the trumpet, and there was a loud voice in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” ¹⁶ And the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God fell down on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷ saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God All-Powerful, the one who is and the one who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. ¹⁸ And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and to give their reward to your slaves the prophets and to the saints and to the ones who fear your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” ¹⁹ And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were lightnings and sounds and thunders and an earthquake and large hail.

It is interesting that we see the ark of the covenant appearing in the heavenly temple on this day. The significance of the ark of the covenant being shown at this time is that is where the tablets with the Ten Commandments were held in the earthly copy of the ark. I am sure God’s copy of the covenant is right there in the heavenly ark of the covenant and it is what He will use to judge the world. Have a restful Sabbath tomorrow and make some joyful noises. Repent and believe the gospel!

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

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LEB)

What is the eternal covenant which is spoken about by the writer of Hebrews and the prophet Isaiah? In Isaiah, the people of the world have broken this covenant causing the Creator to come out of His place to destroy them. It may be a good idea to learn about this everlasting covenant.

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.

Israel was pulled from out of the nations to be a special people. The Creator gave Israel all of His laws, ordinances and statues showing how to live a successful life pleasing to Him. They were going to be a nation that other nations admired and would want to be like because of the secrets of the universe that they possessed.

Deuteronomy 4:6–8 (LEB)

⁶ And you must observe them diligently, for that is your wisdom and your insight before the eyes of the people, who will hear all of these rules, and they will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.’ ⁷ For what great nation has for it a god near to it as Yahweh our God, whenever we call upon him? ⁸ And what other great nation has for it just rules and regulations just like this whole law that I am setting before you today?

Christians call God’s laws a “ministry of death”, which shows the deception that has been handed down and the willful ignorance that exists today. Israel was to be a light to the nations and share all of God’s goodness with the nations of the world. This has been accomplished through the Messiah.

Isaiah 49:6 (LEB)

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

The eternal covenant was with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but it was about much more than just acquiring land. We see the language of every instruction the Creator gave through Moses and how it would be forever. Forever isn’t just an age as dispensational theology claims. We are not conveniently in the “age of grace” now able to disregard everything Yahuah said was forever.

Deuteronomy 5:29 (LEB)

²⁹ If only they had such a mind’; that is, to fear me and to keep all my commandments at all times, so that it will go well for them and for their children forever.

Exodus 31:16–17 (LEB)

¹⁶ The Israelites will pay attention to the Sabbath in order to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations as a lasting covenant. ¹⁷ It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever, because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he ceased and recovered.”

The Sabbath is a sign that is forever and part of the eternal covenant. For those who say “that was just for the Jews”, or ancient Israelites, that lie is put to rest in Isaiah.

Isaiah 56:6–7 (LEB)

⁶ And the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to serve him and to love the name of Yahweh, to become his servants, every one who keeps the Sabbath, so as not to profane it, and those who keep hold of my covenant, ⁷ I will bring them to my holy mountain; I will make them merry in my house of prayer. their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,”

God knew from the beginning that Israel would break the covenant and He would scatter them for disobedience. The good news or “gospel” is that they would return, and through the process the whole world would be able to enter the covenant with Yahuah. This is what we call the “new” covenant in which the process was enabled by Yeshua (Jesus). This is where God writes His laws on our hearts.

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LEB)

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

Yeshua enables us to covenant with the Father and keep the terms of the covenant. There are terms to the covenant. They are the same terms Yahuah has always presented. When speaking of the coming of John the immerser and Messiah, the prophet Malachi makes this point.

Malachi 4:1–6 (LEB)

“For look! The day is about to come, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says Yahweh of hosts. “It will not leave behind for them root or branch. ² But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like fattened calves. ³ You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am going to act,” says Yahweh of hosts.

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

“The arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble” is talking about those who do not revere the name of Yahuah and ignore all of His righteous instructions. This is the eternal covenant. The good news is we can all be a part of it now and it is not limited to the physical descendants of Israel. Grace is what enables us to be a part and please the Father. Grace is not a license to ignore the terms of the covenant. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology speaks about how the word “grace” is used in the book of Acts.

(b) In Acts, grace is that power which flows from God or from the exalted Christ, and accompanies the activity of the apostles giving success to their mission (Acts 6:8; 11:23; 14:26; 15:40; 18:27). It appears in “the word of grace” which is identical with the → gospel (13:43; 20:24). The Lord himself confirms it (14:3). It is that which enables men to believe (18:27).

H. H.-Esser, “Grace, Spiritual Gifts,” ed. Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 119.

I believe this captures the essence of the role of grace in regards to the eternal or “new” covenant. Grace is the divine influence on the heart, the spirit of grace, which enables us to please the Father. Do not insult the spirit of grace. This is similar to “blaspheming the Holy Spirit”.

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?

Sin is the transgression of the law. The law was given to the world through Israel. The Messiah enabled the entire world to be eligible to be in covenant with the God of Israel and Creator of the universe through his high priestly sacrifice on the heavenly tabernacle altar. It is not that hard when one removes the lies that “the law has been done away with” or “that is for the Jews” the enemy has been telling the church for hundreds of years.

1 John 2:3–6 (LEB)

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.

1 John 3:4–10 (LEB)

⁴ Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that that one was revealed in order that he might take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶ Everyone who resides in him does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you: the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as that one is righteous. ⁸ The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this reason the Son of God was revealed: in order to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Everyone who is fathered by God does not practice sin, because his seed resides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God. ¹⁰ By this the children of God and the children of the devil are evident: everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, namely, the one who does not love his brother.

Sadly, most people in the world reject the Messiah, what he said and the eternal covenant. Even Christians unknowingly reject the Messiah by creating new laws, rejecting His laws, making new holy days shared with pagan deities, a new special day of the week , a new name “LORD” and a new people group. They call Yahuah’s righteous instructions a “ministry of death” and a curse, when this same Word came in the flesh as Messiah Yeshua. What is the Word of God if it is not His holy words given through Israel? Yeshua made the comparison.

John 14:6 (LEB)

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Psalm 119:142 (LEB)

¹⁴² Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth.

Psalm 119:151 (LEB)

¹⁵¹ You are near, O Yahweh, and all your commands are truth.

Psalm 119:29–32 (LEB)

²⁹ Remove from me the deceptive way, and graciously give me your law. ³⁰ I have chosen the faithful way; I have set your ordinances before me. ³¹ I cling to your testimonies; O Yahweh, do not let me be put to shame. ³² I will run the way of your commands, for you will enlarge my heart.

Psalm 19:7 (LEB)

⁷ The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving life. The testimony of Yahweh is firm, making wise the simple.

With all of the deceptions injected into the gospel, it is hard to see that Yeshua is the same light, truth, life and way of the commands and laws of Yahuah. Anyone who desires truth and seeks Yahuah with all of their heart will be able to see clearly. Sadly, many are happy where they are spiritually and content to live as they are told every Sunday morning without ever searching these matters out for themself. Repent and believe the gospel! John 17:17 (LEB), “Sanctify them in the truth—your word is truth”.

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And he also told them a parable: “Surely a blind person cannot lead the blind, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?

Luke 6:39 (LEB)

Many Christians believe in a pretribulation rapture happening before a seven year period called the “tribulation” where the “church” is taken off the Earth before the so-called antichrist is revealed. In this belief system the “restrainer”, spoken about in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, is assigned to the Holy Spirit and is removed from the Earth with the church. The Jews are then left with the remaining population to endure the reign of the antichrist and the prophecies of the Old Testament now pick up again after they were paused during the “age of grace” between the cross and the rapture of the church.

I am not going to necessarily argue against this theology because it causes many believers to be driven into a defensive mindset at the very least, all the way to immediate rage. Rather, I would like to objectively look at where this belief system originated. The following is from the Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

Clearly Paul is describing a majestic coming, a coming to rule and not as at Christ’s first coming, a coming to serve. He goes on to speak of living believers as caught up to meet the coming Lord in the air. Traditionally this has been understood to mean that Paul is speaking of the end of this life as we know it and the ushering in of the final state of affairs.
But some Christians have seen in the words a secret rapture (“rapture” is from the Latin raptus, “seized,” “carried off”), wherein believers are caught up secretly out of this life and taken to be with the Lord while earthly life goes on without them for the rest of the human race. Pretribulationists hold that there follows a period of tribulation for those remaining on earth (Matt. 24), which will last for a thousand years (Rev. 20:5). Midtribulationists think that the church will experience three and a half years of the tribulation before being raptured (citing Dan. 7:25, etc.). Posttribulationists hold that the church will remain on earth throughout the tribulation and that the return of Christ is after that. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that some have been far too confident in the way they interpret some difficult scriptural passages. That Christ will return at the end of the age, bringing “those who have fallen asleep in him” (1 Thess. 4:14) and that living believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air is clearly taught (1 Thess. 4:17). So is the fact that all this will be public and open, for the Lord will come “with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God” (1 Thess. 4:16). But we must exercise care in the way we go beyond these words and in our attempts to relate them to other scriptural passages. Whichever way we interpret the difficult passages we must bear in mind Jesus’ exhortation to his followers to watch (Matt. 24:42).

Leon L. Morris, “Second Coming of Christ,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, electronic ed., Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 721.

The futurist eschatology is ascribed to an arm of the Catholic church to counter the protestant reformation. Under traditional theology, the pope and Catholic church were looking similar to the antichrist and beast system to the reformers, and the church needed a way to deflect this negative image that was spreading rapidly.

Francisco Ribera was a Jesuit priest that proposed the futurist view that most evangelicals believe today. It was rejected by reformers, but through John Nelson Darby and C.I. Scofield, it spread like wild fire through the twentieth century in America. This is in part due to the Scofield Reference Bible. Scofield inserted these futurist views into the commentary notes of his study Bible that were used by evangelical seminaries throughout the United States. The Dallas Theological Seminary, who produced teachers such as David Jeremiah and Hal Lindsey, was one of the leading seminaries to put forth the dispensational and futurism theologies.

In most cases, evangelical Christians are blindly lead into this view as the only way to interpret scripture when considering end times, even though it is a relatively new way to view scripture. It feeds well into the politics of the United States with the nation state of Israel, because many people are waiting for a third temple to be built in Israel due to these futuristic interpretations. Evangelist John Hagee has used the futurist view of end times prophecy to unite evangelicals with the politics of the United States and Israel. This may be all with good intentions, but one should know the source ultimately comes from a Jesuit priest and a lawyer turned theologian, namely C.I. Scofield.

These views of the pretribulation rapture, seven year tribulation with the antichrist rising in the middle of the seven years, come from an interpretation of Daniel that inserts a gap of over two thousand years between verses 25 and 27 of Daniel chapter nine.

Daniel 9:25–27 (LEB)

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.”

Verse 25 is clearly talking about the Messiah, or anointed one, who came in a time of oppression, that is the oppression of the Roman Empire. However, with the futurist and dispensational view, verse 27 switches and is now talking about the antichrist figure over two thousand years after the Messiah in verse 25. This is a poor way to interpret scripture. Verse 27 traditionally was still talking about the Messiah who made a strong covenant and ended the sacrifice in the temple. A few years later in 70AD the temple was completely destroyed.

The “time, times and half a time” is used with the three and a half year time line. There is a lot of ambiguity in these translations. First, an example of the “time, times and half a time” in the English Standard Version translation of the Bible.

Daniel 12:5–8 (ESV)

⁵ Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. ⁶ And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” ⁷ And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished.

In the Lexham English translation these words are translated to “appointed time, appointed times and half an appointed time”.

Daniel 12:5–8 (LEB)

⁵ Then I looked, I myself, Daniel, and look, there were two others standing: one on this bank of the stream and one on the other. ⁶ Then he said to the man who was clothed in linen who was above the water of the stream, “How long until the end of the wonders?” ⁷ And I heard the man who was clothed in linen who was above the water of the stream, and he raised his right hand and his left hand to heaven and he swore by the one who lives forever that an appointed time, appointed times, and half an appointed time would pass when the shattering of the power of the holy people would be completed; then all these things will be accomplished.

What Hebrew, or in the case of Daniel, Aramaic words, are we getting these English words that the futuristic, dispensational view of end times events are founded upon? It is Strong’s H4150:

H4150
מועדה / מעד / מועד
mô‛êd / mô‛êd / mô‛âdâh
BDB Definition:
1) appointed place, appointed time, meeting
1a) appointed time
1a1) appointed time (general)
1a2) sacred season, set feast, appointed season
1b) appointed meeting
1c) appointed place
1d) appointed sign or signal
1e) tent of meeting

The “half” in “half a time” is Strong’s H2677:

H2677
חצי
chêtsı̂y
BDB Definition:
1) half
1a) half
1b) middle

The point is that these scriptures have been manipulated a certain way to create the futurist, dispensational view of the end times. Someone as creative as John Nelson Darby could easily manipulate these scriptures into another story. Much of Christianity has been lead into believing Walt Disney style theology, unfortunately. There have been also millions of dollars of book sales making modern “prophets” quite wealthy. This alone should send out red flags to true students of the scriptures.

What does the Bible say about prophesying in the name of the Creator and making merchandise of people? It is actually prophecy itself.

2 Peter 2:1–3 (LEB)

2 But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. ³ And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Exploiting sincere people by selling them books with “the answer” to biblical prophecy or cheap trinkets for donations is certainly what happens in many ministries. I do not believe the Creator needs gimmicks, and there will be a price for all of this. Playing on people’s emotions regarding end times is also a trait of many ministries. People are convinced the Bible backs their views of a rapture, whatever that may be, without studying the whole matter, and possibly never reading and studying for themselves.

Jeremiah 23:16–18 (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?

Is this not the teaching we have today? “Disregard the words of Yahweh” is the same as saying “those are the old laws of the Jews, we are in the age of grace and need not be concerned about them”. “Calamity will not come to you” is similar to saying everyone who is breaking all the commandments in the church is going to be whisked away in the nick of time to some ethereal place on the rapture bus and the Jews will be left behind to deal with the antichrist in the time of Jacob’s trouble. The rapture bus is looking like it could have a few flat tires according to scripture.

Amos 5:18–24 (LEB)

¹⁸ Alas, those who desire the day of Yahweh, why is this for you the day of Yahweh? It will be darkness and not light! ¹⁹ It will be as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him; or he went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a snake bit him. ²⁰ Is not the day of Yahweh darkness and not light, and pitch dark with no brightness in it? ²¹ “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your assemblies. ²² Yes, even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, and I will not look at the fellowship offerings of your fattened animals. ²³ Remove from me the noise of your songs, and I do not want to hear the melody of your harps! ²⁴ But let justice roll on like the water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Desiring the day of Yahweh is exactly what the church is doing today. Yahweh goes on to say He hates your festivals and has no delight in your assemblies. Could this be speaking to the church today about all the false festivals they celebrate neglecting the commands of God for their traditions of pagan deities? Israel did the same thing the church is doing. They mixed up their religion with gods of others. He calls your worship band rock and roll concerts noise and does not want to hear the melody of your harps. It is a terrible situation. He destroyed Israel for the same things the church does today.

Study the scriptures for yourself using the entire Bible. Revelation quotes the Old Testament many times. Without studying the Old Testament it is impossible to understand the New Testament. This is the way Christianity has become a new religion, seemingly with a different God than the God of the Old Testament.

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