What Name Does God Say to Use for Him?

There are so many titles and names that we read throughout the Bible for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But which of these is the “real” name? The arguments for one of any number of them goes on and on and on.

But God tells us how HE wants to be known, and, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why so many people ignore that.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

After Moses asked what name should he use when the people ask who sent him, God gave a name we call the Tetragrammaton, which is composed of three Hebrew letters, the Yud, Heh, and Vav, and it looks like this:

יהוה

Now, Hebrew is a language that doesn’t have vowels, so no one can really know how those 4 letters are to be pronounced. In Judaism, we use the word “Adonai”, which means “Lord”, to represent God. Sometime in the past, the vowels for Adonai were placed under the letters of the Tetragrammaton, and so when we have yud-heh-vav-heh with the sounds of ah, o, and ah under them, we get Yahovah, or Jehovah.

Is that the one and only correct way to pronounce those letters? Maybe; all we can state with certainty is that it is a pronunciation we made up.

In Exodus 3:13, we read:

God said to Moshe, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I am/will be what I am/will be],” and added, “Here is what to say to the people of Isra’el: ‘Ehyeh has sent me to you.’”

So here, God says that we are to call him “I am”.

In Exodus 3:14-15, we read:

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

Now God says we are to call him the God of our fathers, the God of Avraham, etc. , and that is how he is to be known throughout our generations!

In Isaiah 51:15, God said:

For I am Adonai your God, who stirs up the sea, who makes its waves roar — Adonai-Tzva’ot is my name.
(Lord of Hosts)

Oy! Now he wants to be called Adonai Tzva’ot!

So, even God doesn’t know what to call himself, since he has told us no less than three different ways to refer to him.

C’mon…make up your mind, already!

And that wasn’t enough for us! We had to go and make up even more names for him, such as El Shaddai (God Almighty), El Elyon (God on High), Jehovah Jira (God who Provides), and these are just some examples. If you do an Internet search, there are some 100+ names used to identify God.

But are any of these really a “name”? To me, they are more of a title or description than some unique identifier, such as Steven or Harry, or Elizabeth, or Mary.

Why do we even have names? Isn’t it to identify someone as different from someone else? I mean, if we were all called “Steven” (I picked that name because I am most comfortable with it) , and someone yelled, “Hey, Steven!”, wouldn’t everybody look? How would any of us know which “Steven” the person was calling to?

So, in human society, we need to have a name which may have meaning in our native tongue, but is specifically designed to identify us as separate and unique from anyone else like us, i.e., human.

But God isn’t human, and there is no other like him, so he doesn’t really need a name, does he? Yet we still have to be able to have some way to refer to him, so since we don’t really know how to pronounce Y-H-V-H, we use titles, such as God (which isn’t a name, it is a description), or Adonai (Lord), or Yah (God), or El Elyon (God on high), or…well, you get the idea.

So, nu? To all you “Holy Namers” out there who insist that if we don’t use the name for God that you believe is the one and only correct name for him, consider that God- you know who I mean, that guy who created the universe, who flooded the earth, who brought the Jewish people out from Egyptian slavery, who gave the world the 10 Commandments, who did all those miraculous things throughout history, and who sent Yeshua, the Messiah so that we all can be saved from our sins (still with me?)- never gave us just one name or title by which to call him.

And if you ask me, because God identifies himself in different ways, using different titles, then it seems very clear to me that if we use those same names he uses, he won’t have a problem with it.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Wearing Tzitzit Benefits Everyone

The last story in the Book of Numbers is about a man who was caught collecting sticks on the Shabbat. After Moses consulted God, the verdict was that the man must be stoned to death for violating the command about not working on the Shabbat.

But what God said next shows that he wants to help us protect ourselves from being punished.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

God had given us the commandment to honor the Sabbath (Exodus 20), and one important way was not to do any ordinary work on that day. Well, this guy went out to collect sticks, which was ordinary work, and even worse than that, he probably was going to use them to start a fire, which is another violation of the Shabbat (Exodus 35:3).

Now, this seems to be the first recorded event of someone violating the Shabbat, and so his punishment was pretty harsh- he was to be stoned to death.

And he was.

But, as Paul Harvey used to say, “Now, for the rest of the story…”

In Numbers 15:37-41, God commands us to make tzitzit, those strings that hang down from all four corners of our garments.

The idea is that when we wear these, it will remind us to obey all of God’s commandments.

That makes sense, but then again, who walks around looking at their waist?

Yes, I have to see them when I put them on each morning (the garment that has these on them that is worn under the shirt is called a Katan), but who remembers everything you do in the morning as you are going through your day?

The Tzitzit are really there for you to be a reminder to everyone else you meet, because they are the ones who see your tzitzit all the time. And, when you are a constant reminder to your neighbor that they must remember to obey God, then you are actually showing them love, because you are helping them to avoid sinning, which leads to eternal damnation.

So, nu? Did you ever think of tzitzit in this way? Or that by being a constant reminder to people how to obey God, through speech and actions, that you might be saving their eternal soul?

That’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? When you obey God, not only are you helping yourself, but you are an example to others that might just motivate them to be more obedient, and thereby saving their soul!

But I am not talking about being obedient to a religion- no! I am talking about being obedient to God, and the only way to obey God is to do as he says, right? Well, there is only one place in the entire Bible where we are told, exactly and undeniably, what God wants us to do because he tells Moses to instruct us in that way, and that is in the Torah.

POP! (That’s the sound of Christian “the law is done away with” bubbles being burst).

Wearing tzitzit is a commandment, in and of itself, but many Jews do not do that, myself included (I am ashamed to say). Mostly just the Orthodox and Chasidic are obedient to this commandment. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be living tzitzit, in how we treat each other and show our obedience to God’s Torah in many other ways.

So, whether you wear tzitzit or not, always be a reminder to others how to obey God’s commandments, and not those of some religion, especially if that religion tells you the Torah is only for Jews. Yeshua (Jesus) lived in 100% accordance with the Torah, 100% of the time, so if you want to follow in the footsteps of the Messiah, and DWJD, then you have no option other than to read and know the Torah so that you can live the way it tells us to live, as best as you can.

Trying our best to be Torah observant is as good as we humans will ever get to be, and thanks to Yeshua’s sacrifice for us, when we fail we have his blood to wash away our sin.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot, and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I Should be Proud, But I’m Ashamed

I would like to share a personal experience with you, one that I confess I am a bit ashamed of, yet I also am proud that I did the right thing, eventually.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The backstory starts with us receiving a large tax refund, as well as some other “found” money from an insurance account. Considering this financial blessing, and taking into account the hurricane season will begin in June, and that I am getting just too darn old to be putting some 13 large, plywood shutters up on every window (which I have done no less than 6 or 7 times in the past 12 years), we decided to use this financial windfall to replace the original, 40-year-old metal windows with Category 5 hurricane proof windows.

Which are REALLY expensive! But I’ll never have to put up shutters, again.

OK, I’m almost there… this past Friday we decided on a company and the sales rep asked if he could finalize the paperwork the next day, and I immediately said yes, that would be fine. I knew the next day was Shabbat, but I allowed my desire to get this project started to override my desire to be Torah obedient.

And the moment I said it was OK to do the paperwork on Shabbat, the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) slapped me upside my head and said, “Hey! It’s Shabbat, duh!”.

And this is why I feel ashamed- I ignored the Spirit’s guidance. Why? Because my fleshly desire to do this overrode my spiritual desire to be obedient.

But that wasn’t all that I did to be ashamed of!

No, still trying to justify my buying something on Shabbat, I tried to come up with some loophole, some biblically acceptable justification to allow me to do the paperwork. Even though no actual cash would be exchanging hands, I would be putting a deposit down using a charge card, and that is buying.

One excuse I tried was telling myself that Yeshua said to “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no” (Matthew 5:37), and so even though it would be violating the Shabbat, I was telling myself that I agreed to let him come, so I can’t go back on my word.

That didn’t work, really, because I knew that the real “yes” was buying the replacement windows, and to simply reset the paperwork date was not going against my word.

Then I tried to ask God to forgive me because I am sorry (I really did feel repentant that I agreed so quickly) but I am going to go ahead with this, anyway. However, that just didn’t sit right with me because I know that God can’t really forgive someone for purposefully sinning, especially when it would be very easy to just avoid it by resetting the date.

That night was a sleepless night, and I decided to call the man early in the morning and reset the date to Monday. And when I made that decision, I felt proud that I overcame my flesh.

And it worked out well because when I texted him to reset it, he said that he was really busy that day, anyway, and resetting the date would be good for him.

So, here I am, ashamed to have ignored the Holy Spirit just to buy something because I wanted to. And when I did obey the Torah by resetting the date, that made me feel a little proud of myself.

I later realized that I just lived out one of the parables that Yeshua told! In Matthew 21:28–32, he told us of the two sons. The one son immediately said he would do as his father asked, but never did, and the other son initially refused to do as his father asked, but later obeyed (that was me).

The message from all this is not about me, or what I did, but about how we can be disobedient and still remain right in God’s eyes if we repent of that sin and then do as we should have done, from the start.

Righteousness is not easy for us; it goes against our most basic instinct, which is the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination). It is only when we listen to the Yetzer Tov (Good Inclination), which motivates us to be obedient to God, that we can do what is right in God’s eyes.

So, if you find yourself doing wrong, don’t just let it go because you’ve been told that God will forgive you so long as you believe that Yeshua died for your sins. Personally, I don’t think God will forgive someone who is not repentant, and to use Yeshua’s sacrifice as some sort of absolution for you when you know you are sinning is not going to get you anywhere.

No amount of “Our Father’s” or “Hail Mary’s” is going to help an unrepentant sinner.

So listen to that still, small voice in your head the moment it speaks to you. You know, if the Holy Spirit took form, I think it would look just like Jiminy Cricket, because we are all like Pinocchio. He wanted to be a real boy, and we want to be a real Tzaddik (righteous person), but like the little, wooden boy who let his personal desires cause his nose to grow, we also have to watch out that our noses don’t grow, as well.

And being Jewish, I don’t need my nose to be any bigger than it already is.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

When is Not Enough Already Too Much?

God expects us to share the blessings he provides for us with those who have less. And the good news is that God never runs out of blessings.

But can we reach a point where giving to someone or some group becomes less like helping and more like enabling?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Let me start off by saying that it is a mitzvah (good deed) to give to the poor. But, when you share your blessings with others, you also need to be aware of whether you are helping them, or being taken advantage of.

And when doing Tzedakah (charity) with people who live in third world countries, how can we tell if their needs are legitimate or not?

It’s a hard call.

For nearly 7 years, I have been involved with a Ugandan based messianic synagogue and a school for orphaned children, and one or two individuals who live in different parts of Africa. I have sent more than just a little amount of money to help them with building and school supplies, as well as to pay individual medical expenses and even send money just to help feed their families.

I was very careful to check, as best as I could, on whether or not they were legitimate; I checked web pages, required copies of paid receipts, pictures of the buildings and school students that I have supported, and asked for addresses where they live, which I verified using the Google Earth app.

And I believe my friends are all legitimate.

But this year I have pretty much cut them all off, except for one which is a school for orphans; I send them just $15 a month (in Kampala, Uganda, that goes a long way.)

But this isn’t about my tzedakah- it’s about yours.

Are you giving to foreign peoples or groups? If they are a charity, have you investigated the percentage of donations that is used to meet their mission statement? Ordinarily, if 75% or better from every dollar goes to meeting their mission statement, they are considered legitimate.

Now here’s the really important question: are your donations actually improving their life, or just helping them remain where they are? In other words, are you supporting their growth to independence, or just enabling their desire to have others give them what they need?

This is, again, a tough call. I had to use “tough love” more than once to tell people who were always starving or always sick or always in need of something that they will have to learn to depend on themselves.

I often think that I shouldn’t worry that I am retired on a fixed income, because God will always be able to send me more blessings. But then I think, if I give away all my money, expecting God to cover my tuchas, is that faith or testing? These blessings are a gift from God, and isn’t it incumbent on me to use these blessings wisely, and not just throw them away?

As I said, it’s a tough call, but I believe that if all I am doing is not really helping anyone get anywhere, just helping them today, maybe I need to share these blessings in a different place.

Yeshua said we will always have the poor among us (Matthew 26:11), and I believe that God wants it that way so we have the opportunity to share the blessings he gives us. But we can’t save the world, and we can’t save someone who lives in a country with a corrupt government, little or no opportunity for growth or work, and where disease is rampant and medical help is expensive. That’s no excuse for not helping, but when you are giving money and it goes as quickly as you give it, how much are you helping, really? Yes, you get them from today to tomorrow, and I know the prayer says, “Give us today our daily bread”, but I have to believe that at some point, it is better to stop feeding people fish because if they can’t or won’t learn how to fish for themselves, the fish you give can be more useful somewhere else.

So, I still help now and then, but I am not adopting someone or becoming their ATM whenever they need something, even it that need is legitimate. If I can give to a group of people instead of an individual, isn’t that a better use of my tzedakah?

Each one of us must decide how best to do tzedakah, and I am not saying not to help an individual or a group, even if all your money does is get them from today to tomorrow. What I am saying is that we should help the poor, but use discernment and be make the tough decisions. It always feels wonderful to give to those who are in need and who appreciate what we do, but at some point we need to decide if we are using the blessings God gives us in the best way possible.

Thank you for being here, and please share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers, After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Does God Still Talk to Us When We are Sleeping?

The other night I was sleeping soundly (which is unusual for me) and I woke up at exactly 12:12. For some reason, I thought that was important, as if God was telling me to give a message about 12:12.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

So, I looked at every book in the Torah, for what was said at Chapter 12, verse 12, and you know what I found?

Nothing that seemed to be important enough on its own to be a message.

But I didn’t give up- I went to Psalms, Proverbs, and then started to go through the other books in the Tanakh, and in the New Covenant, as well.

Still, I wasn’t really finding anything that struck me.

Then I came to 2 Chronicles 12:12, and this is what I saw (CJB):

After he humbled himself, the anger of Adonai turned away from him, so that he did not altogether destroy him; moreover, some good things were found in Y’hudah.

I have often stated that taking one verse or sentence out of context is the best way to misinterpret something, so let’s understand what this statement is about: God was going to punish Rechav’am, the son of Shlomo (Solomon), for all the sins he committed. He sent the prophet Sh’may’ah to warn Rechav’am that he was going to have Pharoah Shishak attack Y’hudah. The King and the leaders of Y’hudah all humbled themselves, and God took this into account, not destroying everything, but still sending Shishak to attack. He took the valuables from the palace and the temple, including the gold shields that Shlomo had made. Rechav’am replaced them with bronze shields.

When I read this, I felt that it was important for everyone to know that when they humble themselves before God, even after living a life of sin, God will take that into account when he punishes you. The important part of this is that you WILL suffer for your sins, here on earth, because God is faithful to punish those who reject his instructions (in the Torah), but he is also merciful in that he doesn’t punish as seriously as our sins deserve. And it is also important to note that God still found good in Y’hudah; I am interpreting that as meaning despite how evil the society you live in has acted, deserving punishment, God still will see what goodness is there. Which I believe means that even if you are in the midst of evil, so long as you remain faithful to God, you might have to be collateral damage during the punishment that will take place, but God knows you are doing what is right.

Remember: God isn’t as concerned with what happens to you while you are alive as he is with where you will be in the afterlife.

Okay, okay, I know this message isn’t a great revelation, or some new interpretation that will bring thousands into obedience, but I believe it is just what someone out there, somewhere, needs to hear right now, and I trust that God will somehow get this message to them.

I suppose I am answering the question I posed in the title of this message- yes, God does still talk to us in our sleep. And sometimes just as we wake up, and if we trust that what feels important probably is (because the Ruach haKodesh- the Holy Spirit- that indwells is telling us this is important), then we should act on it.

No, I didn’t get up and write this message- I mean, c’mon? It was midnight and I was still tired. But what I did was to make a calendar entry on my phone, then and there, to remind me about 12:12.

And now I have completed doing what I believe God wanted me to do, which is to write a message about this single verse in the Bible; again, not because it is a powerful revelation, and not because it is anything new or has a meaning no one else ever got from it, but simply because it must be important to someone out there to hear it.

If you believe you are that someone, I would appreciate a quick comment to just confirm that. Not that I need any proof to justify or confirm my faith in God, but it is always nice to hear something I did helped someone.

And let me be clear about this, and please do not take it as false modesty, because I believe it with all my heart: whenever I do something really good, it is God working through me, and when I totally screw-up, then I can take full credit.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers, because after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

What if Jesus Really Did Away with the Law?

I have (way too often) heard Christians tell me that Jesus did away with the law, and to be honest, I doubt if any of them really understand the implication of what they are saying.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Most Christians, if you ask them what the “law” is that Jesus did away with, will say it is the Torah. If you ask them what laws are in the Torah, you will most likely get a blank stare. Then, maybe they will say kosher laws.

Okay, what else?

Uh….

Right. Most every Christian I have talked to who goes along with the ridiculous idea that Jesus did away with the law have no freakin’ idea what they are saying; they are just parroting what they have been told.

What is “parroting?” Consider a parrot- it can be taught to repeat words and phrases, and if properly cued, it sounds as if the bird knows what it is saying, but it actually has no understanding of the meaning.

Let’s examine what it would mean if Jesus “did away with the Law”, which would be the entire Torah. And yes- it would have to be the entire Torah, not just a law here or there, this commandment but not that one.

Let’s start with Exodus 20, when God gave Moses the Big 10. If Jesus did away with the law, then God isn’t the only god, and we can worship whomever or whatever we please, in whichever order we want to. We don’t have to celebrate the Sabbath day (which Christianity has already done by changing it to Sunday), we can curse out our parents, we can covet, commit adultery, we can…well, you get the point, right?

And what about the many other laws in the Torah? There are laws regarding health care, interpersonal relationships (especially sexual ones), a penal code for different types of crimes, just to name a few.

So nu? None of that matters or is important now, right? After all, Jesus did away with the law.

What about what Yeshua’s bro, Jimmy, said in his letter, specifically James 2:10? He said,

For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all.

So, the excuse that I have heard from many Christians, which is that only the ceremonial laws are done away with, but the moral laws are still effective, clearly goes against the Bible because Jimmy says break one, you break them all!

And, for that matter, who says which laws are moral and which aren’t?

I’ll give you my answer to that question (and being Jewish, I’ll ask a question to answer a question): Do you believe that God is a moral being? If you say “yes” (and you had better say yes), then whatever he says must be moral, right?

Well, the Torah is composed of God saying how he wants us to worship him, and how he wants us to treat each other; therefore, since everything God says is moral, everything in the Torah is moral, even if some want to define parts of it as merely “ceremonial”.

It boils down to this, people… if Yeshua did away with the law, it would be tantamount to rejecting his father’s authority and rulership, which would be rebellion. The only being we know who always been in rebellion against God is Satan.

I don’t know about you, but I do not believe that Yeshua is Satan. In fact, as I recall, we are told that when Satan offered the world to Yeshua, he rejected it and told Satan to bugger off.

I often say, “I am sorry to burst your bubble“, but really- I’m not. Bursting bubbles is one of the things this ministry is devoted to doing. Jesus never did away with the law, never did away with any part of it, and lived 100% of his life in 100% obedience to the law. The only way- the ONLY way- to follow in Yeshua’s footsteps (which is what “good” Christians are supposed to do) is to be as Torah observant as you can.

And that means the entire Torah- celebrate as commanded in Leviticus 23, eat only what is allowed in Leviticus 11, and make sure you don’t do any of the sexually banned activities in Leviticus 18. That’s not all, but it is a good start. In fact, obeying the Torah a bit at a time as you convert to a Torah-observant lifestyle is exactly what Shaul (Paul) was teaching the (mostly) Gentile congregations he formed. Sadly, when the Jewish leadership of this new sect of Judaism died off, the Gentile leadership redirected it into the man-made religion we have today, which (as this message is all about) rejects God’s Torah.

Consider this- John said Yeshua was the living Torah, Yeshua said rejecting him is rejecting the one who sent him, so if we reject the Torah we are rejecting Yeshua, and that means we are rejecting God.

POP! (There goes your bubble.)

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

No More Arguments About Who Should Obey the Torah

One of the most prevalent (and incorrect) teachings within Christianity is that the Torah is just for the Jews, and Christians don’t need to follow it because they have the blood of Jesus.

Well, even Christians believe that the prophets of the Tanakh spoke God’s word, so let’s see what God told one of the major prophets, Isaiah, regarding the Torah and the Goyim (nations).

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Let’s go right to Isaiah 2:2-3, when God gave Isaiah a view into the far future, the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) (CJB):

In the acharit-hayamim the mountain of Adonai’s house will be established as the most important mountain. It will be regarded more highly than the other hills, and all the Goyim will stream there.
Many peoples will go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Adonai, to the house of the God of Ya‘akov! He will teach us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Tziyon will go forth Torah, the word of Adonai from Yerushalayim.

Wow! So what God is telling Isaiah is that at the end of days, all the nations (meaning the Gentiles) will want to go to Jerusalem to learn God’s ways, which are outlined and defined in the Torah.

I wonder how the many leaders of the many Christian religions that have developed over the past two millennia all missed that?

They have taught Torah is just for Jews, but God says- clearly!- that the Gentiles will come streaming to Israel, desiring to go to to the temple mount, so that they can learn how to be obedient to the Torah!

Nu! what more is there to say? The next thing I say might be the shortest, but most powerful, message I have ever given:

God says everyone will, eventually, be Torah observant.

So, to you who have been misled by humans teaching to ignore what God said, telling you that you don’t really need to obey the Torah, I suggest you choose to believe God and ignore what men have said.

Oh, and one more thing… I think it is also pretty safe to assume that anyone who refuses to climb the mountain will not be saved. I have said this often (and will continue to repeat it):

I believe that when we face God on Judgement Day, and we all WILL face him, and you say, “I just did what they told me to do.”, I can’t speak for God, but I think he will say something to the effect of,

“I understand you only did what they told you to do, but it is what I say that counts!”

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey!- after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem,!

Important or Just Nice-to-Know?

Right off the bat, let’s get one thing absolutely clear: I am all for learning as much from the Bible as one can.

However, what I am concerned with is when people spend so much effort on things that are not really that important, and end up obsessing over something that (I fear) will move their attention away from what is important.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

So, what am I talking about? Lets’ start with the name we use for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as the name we use for his Messiah. The “Holy Namers”, as they are called, spend so much time arguing over pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, which no one can absolutely know how to pronounce it because we don’t know which vowels are used. And when this argument gets heated, godly people act in a worldly way, insulting and debasing each other over what? name? a pronunciation?

Hey, correct me if I am wrong, but we are saved by faith, not pronunciation!

And those really lost people who say praying to Jesus is praying to a horse, or that because Ba’al means “lord” we pray to him when we pray to the Lord. It only shows that they don’t know the difference between a definition and a homonym. Yes, Ba’al means “lord”, but so does Adonai and so does the actual word, “lord”- but when I am praying to Adonai, I am NOT praying to Ba’al!

How stupid does someone have to be to equate those two names!

And what about the fact that God knows our hearts and minds? Do you really think that he doesn’t know who you mean when you are using “Lord” or “Adonai” or “God”?

And don’t even get me started on Eschatology! First of all, Yeshua said that no one is to know when, and that even he doesn’t have Need to Know. Yet so many times I see people trying to guess when it will happen, and arguing over Pre- or Mid- or Post-tribulation! Hey, get real, people! What does it matter? Will knowing when it happens save you from anything? Is God going to say to his angels, “Hey, look- those people who know when they will be taken up get first choice of seating.” ?

I don’t think so!

Another thing that isn’t related to salvation at all is understanding the visions that are referenced in the Bible. Now, some are important to know-for example, in Acts 10 we need to realize that the vision had nothing at all to do with the laws of Kashrut (Kosher), but rather was to let Kefa (Peter) understand that salvation was for the Gentiles, as well.

But what about the measurements of the sanctuary given to Moses in Exodus? There is nothing wrong with knowing how it looked, but I have seen postings arguing that it was a round building, like a Yurt, and not a rectangular tent.

So what? First off, the description mentions corners, which I have never seen on a circle. But more important, what does this have to do with faith? Or understanding God’s instructions for righteous living? Will I be more “saved” if I know the Tent of Meeting was actually the Yurt of Meeting?

Okay, I have a few more examples, but I will leave it at this: You need to know the Bible very well so you will be able to recognize false teachings and not be led astray. My concern is when people want to know every little bit of minutia, which can only lead you away from keeping with the basics, which are:
1. There is only one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his Messiah is Yeshua. Whether we use God, Lord, HaShem, Adonai, Yehovah, Yehusha, or any other pronunciation for him, when we pray, no matter which name or title we use, he knows who we mean. And the same goes for Yeshua!

2. We are saved by faith: faithfully believing that God exists and is trustworthy to save (as well as punish), that Yeshua is the Messiah he promised to send and that Yeshua’s sacrifice is the only means by which we can be forgiven of our sins, which is the only way we can be allowed into God’s presence for eternity.

3. God gave everyone the instructions for how to worship him and how to treat each other, and (like it or not) they are in the Torah. What any religion says that goes against the Torah is a false teaching, and represents a rejection of God. And if you reject God, you reject his son, the Messiah, and that means you cannot be truly “saved”. So, for example, it’s okay to celebrate man-made holidays, but not at the exclusion of the Holy Days God commanded us to celebrate in Leviticus 23.

Look, I believe we all should learn as much as we can from the Bible, read and study it daily, but don’t get so involved in non-salvation issues that you can’t see the forest for the trees. My “Acid Test” question when any topic is discussed is this: “How does this affect my salvation?” If the answer is, “It doesn’t”, then it is just a nice-to-know thing, and not worth putting any real effort into learning.

Remember that Moses said what we need to know is simple, so keep to the KISS Rule- Keep It Simple, Schlemiel!

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey! After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Free Will or Predestination: Which One Makes Sense?

There are many religions in the world: some believe in Free Will and others in Predestination; the difference being you have a choice where to spend eternity, or you don’t.

It seems to me that if you don’t have a choice, then why try?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The best-known Christian religions that teach predestination are Lutheranism and Calvinism. There are others, but let’s stick with Judeo-Christian religions, OK?

Judaism may show up as one of those who teach predestination, if you ask Google, but that isn’t so. A long time ago I heard how Judaism actually works with both predestination and free will.

In Judaism, we see God as the captain of a ship, heading towards eternal joy, and it makes stops along the way at different ports. At each port, anyone can come aboard or debark, and on the trip there may be detours, but one way or another, the ship WILL make it to its final destination. Those who stay on board will be expected to follow the rules, and those who don’t want to follow the rules will be put off.

The thing I don’t get with predestination is that if God is willing to forgive us, then how can there be no options? God gave us a system by which we can be forgiven, in the Torah, and when that system was no longer available (with the destruction of the temple), God still made forgiveness available through Yeshua, the Messiah.

If our eternal future is already decided, then why give us the Torah, which is God’s User Manual for Righteous Living? Why would we need any sort of instruction if our future is already written in stone?

But, on the other hand, if we have free will, i.e., the opportunity to choose where we will spend eternity, then having a set of rules (i.e., the Torah) to lead us to salvation makes sense.

Predestination means no matter what I do, I am either saved or damned. But God told us how to act towards him and towards each other, and how to be forgiven when we mess up.

Do you see my point? If I have no choice, then it doesn’t matter what I do- I am either doomed or saved. As such, I can do whatever the heck I want to, and it won’t make a difference. I can sin till the cows come home, or I can be as faithful as Abraham, but it won’t make any difference.

Given the innate sinfulness of humans, to preach predestination is like giving us a license to sin without any repercussions because, well…it’s already decided, and no matter what I do, or don’t do, it don’t make no never mind!

You know, predestination seems to me to be the antithesis of worship, simply because a religion has rules, but predestination implies the rules don’t matter because your eternal future is a done deal.

On the other hand, free will gives us the option to choose where we will spend eternity, and that is the main reason I started this ministry- it is my “calling” to teach people what they need to know in order to make an informed decision about where they will spend eternity.

So, if you have been raised being told that you have no options, I would ask you to consider why God gave us rules if it doesn’t make any difference?

Yes, there are verses in the Bible that indicate we don’t have a choice, such as when God told Jeremiah he was chosen when still in the womb, yet we are told how to be forgiven. If our future is set, what use is forgiveness?

In any event, already saved or already damned, in Deuteronomy 28 God promises blessings to those who obey him, so you have nothing to lose and blessings to gain by doing as God said to do in the Torah.

Look, it all boils down to this: doing what God says you should do will result in blessings here on earth, so whether you believe you have a choice or not, it just makes sense to obey God while you are alive.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers, Hey, after all- you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Why Should I Repent if I’m Already Saved?

Recently I have been teaching about the lies and misrepresentations of being automatically “saved”, so I thought I would do a little more on why it is important to be aware of what we do, every day.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

I was somewhat motivated to review this topic by someone’s response to my recent post, saying that because I said OSAS is a lie (and I really don’t think they understood it, at all), I was not spiritual, not saved, and worshiping a false God.

Wow! Well, in case that person who, by the way, didn’t even show their face on their avatar, is still reading or watching my videos, let me try this, again.

When someone believes that there is nothing they have to do after professing faith in Yeshua, believing that they are now saved from the eternal consequences of their sins no matter what happens, then they WILL eventually begin to lose respect for that salvation, take it for granted, and eventually stop repenting.

How can I make such a profound statement? Easy- I read the Bible and I know human history!

We can see throughout the Tanakh that as soon as the Israelites got comfy-cozy, they began to do exactly what God told Moses they would do in Deuteronomy 31. And after Yeshua went back to God, and the Jewish leadership of the movement he began died out, with only Gentiles now leading the people, what was then being called Christianity morphed further and further away from Judaism, and they made the same mistakes we made, only they made even worse ones!

They rejected God’s Torah, and instead of properly representing Yeshua, they formed their own “savior” (they don’t even use the term “Messiah”!), created their own holidays (rejecting the ones God said to celebrate), their own ceremonies, rites, and even their own Sabbath day.

So, with all that history to go by, I am positive that when someone thinks they are saved, forever, and that it can’t be lost, they will become totally devoid of any concern when they sin, and that is equivalent to being unrepentant. And, on top of that, since they believe they are automatically forgiven, they won’t be repentant, which has to result in them not even asking for forgiveness!

Geeze! Even the Roman Catholics know enough to ask for forgiveness, although they are not going to have any success by asking a man to forgive them instead of God.

And, again, from what I read about God in the Torah, I strongly doubt that he will forgive a sinner (which we all are) who doesn’t recognize their sin, repent, or ask forgiveness.

Sadly, that is the condition the vast majority of Christians are in, without even knowing it.

So, if you think that I am not really saved, or that I worship a false God, or that I can’t be “born again” because I think that we can throw our salvation away by sinning without being repentant, well… I suppose we will both have to wait until we are in front of God at Judgement Day, and then we’ll find out who gets the nice place and who doesn’t.

To the rest of you, thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!