Author: Steven R. Bruck
Just Who is the Messiah?
Is Yeshua the Messiah? Is Jesus the Messiah? Is either one of them God?
Or are we still looking for the Messiah, the one God promised to send throughout the Tanakh?
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
The answer will change, depending on how you were raised, or which religion you listen to, or what you choose to believe despite how you were raised or which religion you listen to.
Me? I was raised as a Reform Jew, and like almost every Jew being raised by Jews (although, to be honest, my parents were not very “religious”, at all), I was taught that Jesus (growing up Jewish, I never heard the name “Yeshua” used, ever) was born a Jew but created a new religion called Christianity which hates Jews, so he was a traitor to his religion and his people. And he was definitely NOT the Messiah- we are still waiting.
Thank God that even though it took 40 years, I was introduced to Christians who did not ignore my Jewish beliefs, and showed me who Yeshua was, and is- the Jewish Messiah sent to the Jewish people, through whom all people can be saved.
Since then, I have learned that the early Jewish Believers did as always, but as more and more Gentiles were recruited, so to speak, by Shaul (Paul) and other missionaries, the Jewishness of the movement, as well as that of Yeshua, himself, was swiftly removed. By the 2nd century CE, instead of these believers following the Jewish way of life, as Yeshua did, they had a new guy, somebody named Jesus Christ, who was their Savior. The religion named after him, Christianity, is based almost totally on the letters that Shaul wrote, a Pharisee who accepted Yeshua as the Messiah God promised, but who has been completely rebranded as someone who converted to Christianity when he had a vision of Jesus.
Since that time, his letters have been misused, misinterpreted, and mutated into polemics against people following the lifestyle and form of worship that Yeshua did all his life, and they have become the foundation for most of the tenets of modern Christianity.
So, who is Yeshua? He is the Jewish Messiah.
Who is Jesus Christ? He is the blond-haired, blue-eyed Christian savior who has sent his people to convert everyone they meet to Christianity. And as for Jews, the ones who killed Jesus, well- if they won’t renounce their religion and accept Jesus, then they should be killed.
Of course, you can torture them for a while; you know, just to give them a chance to change their mind.
How can I say such a terrible thing? I say it based on history- the Crusades, the Inquisition, Martin Luther, even the Nazi’s, whose belt buckles said “Gott mit uns”, which means “God is with us”.
Now, let’s talk about whether or not either Yeshua or Jesus is God.
Actually, let’s not- it doesn’t really matter as far as salvation through the Messiah is concerned, so choose what you want to believe. However, let me mention this: if you choose to believe that either Yeshua or Jesus is also God, himself, and you also believe (as most Christian religions teach) that Jesus did away with the Torah, then you will need to decide on one or the other of the following:
- If Jesus is God and he did away with the Torah, that means he changes his mind about how to worship him, so he could also change his mind about how to be saved, and if so, then how can you trust his promise of salvation?
- If Jesus is God and, as we have been told, he never changes his mind or goes back on his word, then if you have been ignoring the commandments regarding lifestyle and worship (which includes holidays) he gave in the Torah, you have not been following God, but men, and you have been sinning.
Not very pleasant alternatives, are they?
What to do? If I may suggest, you can re-evaluate your belief system by comparing it to what God says in the Torah, read the rest of the Tanakh, AND the entire New Covenant. And when you read the letters from Paul, do so fresh- as if you do not know what they mean. Compare them to what Paul learned about the Torah as a Pharisee, how he lived his life (sorry, but he never converted to anything- he was a Jewish Pharisee his entire life), and why he wrote those letters.
If you do that, I believe you might come to see that he was not writing the words he heard from God, but giving managerial directives to the congregations (there were no “churches” during Paul’s lifetime) he formed who were having either interpersonal issues or problems with maintaining faithfulness.
Let’s finish up with my answers to my own questions:
Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah God promised to send (please-don’t be childishly prideful about the correct pronunciation of his name- we are saved by faith in who he is, not by how we pronounce his name).
Jesus, as portrayed by Christianity, is not the one God sent. In fact, the name “Jesus Christ” a Latin translation of a Greek transliteration of the name “Yeshua” with the title “haMaschiach”.
(If you want the whole story about how that came to be, you can find it in the Introduction to “The Complete Jewish Bible”.)
The Messiah may be God, he may not be God- for me, it doesn’t matter: he didn’t come to the world in order to replace God but to be God’s messenger, and to sacrifice his life so that many can be saved. That is what we know from the Bible, and anything else is conjecture. Period.
One last answer- are we still looking for the Messiah, the one God promised to send? Well, yes…and no.
My Jewish brethren, for the most part, are still waiting because they reject Jesus as the Messiah and have never even learned about Yeshua. They don’t know the Messiah God sent, and they really don’t know why to reject Yeshua- they do so because they have been told to do so.
Christians, who believe Jesus is their Savior, aren’t waiting, but they believe only because they have been told to believe. In truth, they do not know the real Messiah God sent, either.
So, what should you do? I never tell anyone what to believe or what to do, but if I may make a suggestion? Read the Bible from Genesis through Revelation, and look for what is said in the New Covenant that matches what is said in the Old Covenant, because God really doesn’t change: he doesn’t go back on his word and he has never said his Torah is invalid, and- just for the record- neither did the guy we read about in the Gospels. And when you read the Epistles, as I said earlier, try to do so without already knowing what they mean.
If you can do that, honestly and with a truly open mind, using Circles of Context and Hermeneutics (if you aren’t familiar with those terms, you can learn about them here: Interpreting the Bible), I believe you will be surprised at how you have been spiritually misled by those who you have trusted.
They didn’t do it on purpose, though, so don’t be mad at them- they were just teaching what they were taught.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages, buy my books, especially my newest book (click here for a trailer), subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please make sure you read and click that you agree to the rules).
And remember- I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and an early Shabbat Shalom!
Oh- and an early Hanukkah Sameach, too!
Video for Just Who is the Messiah?
Does God Know the Future or Create It?
This might be one of the shortest messages I have ever done, and it isn’t so much as a revelation, as a “Duh!” statement.
If you prefer to watch a video, short as it may be, I will make one for you, so click on this link: Watch the (short) video.
So, how often do we read or hear that God knows what will happen in the future? After all, aren’t there (at least) 12 prophets in the Bible who tell us all that will happen, not just in the immediate future, but in the distant future, as well?
And hasn’t every, single thing that God has told the prophets to warn the people about come to be?
So, is this because the future is something that God can see, so he tells us what will happen?
Or, is it simply because God is both eternal and omnipotent, so whatever he says will happen does happen because he makes it happen?
If you ask me, it’s because he makes the future happen the way he wants it to happen
(Everyone together go: “Duh!“)
God doesn’t have to see the future: God has a plan and he makes whatever he wants to happen happen because, well, because he can.
However, I believe there is a level of flexibility: when he chooses someone to do something, because he gave us all Free Will, we can refuse to do as God has asked of us.
Think of Yonah, who first tried to escape God’s calling for him to go to Nineveh. Now, in this case, God was pretty adamant that it be Yonah, but how many others has God called that have not heeded his calling? We will never know because they never made it into the Bible, and we won’t hear about them on CNN or Fox news, either.
God will allow us to make our own way in the world, and he can do whatever he wants to do, in order to get us to go the way he wants us to go. But, still and all, I do not believe God will actually force us to do his will-we have to accept it.
If Yonah had not been responsible enough to tell the men to throw him overboard, maybe God would have let them all live, or had them all shipwrecked…who knows? I believe that if Yonah had continued to refuse to obey God, then God would have just sent someone else. God’s plan, which is the future to us, will always be accomplished, and that is simply because God makes the future happen the way he wants it to.
So, if someone asks me can God see the future, I will say “No. He doesn’t see the future, he makes it, which is why he knows what will happen.”
It’s that simple.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook page called “Just God’s Word” (please make sure you agree to the rules).
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Video for Does God Know the Future or Create It?
Maybe Learning Visually is the Problem
Would you believe me if I told you that when I was working as a salesman, one of the most important training lessons I ever had was about how people learn?
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
It’s true! People learn in one of three ways: through seeing (visual), through hearing (aural), and through touching (tactile). The percentage of people who learn these ways is as follows:
Visual learners – 65%
Aural earners- 30%
Tactile learners- 5%
I was (if I do say so myself) a very good salesman, closing in one call 35-40% of the time, and one of the reasons for that success was that I would discover by talking with the people which way they learned, and then take that approach with them when going through my “pitch”.
For example, since most people learn visually, I used what we call the “Talking Pad”. This simply means that whatever I said I also wrote down on a writing tablet for them to see. I became so good at writing upside-down, my penmanship was actually better that way!
If I found that they were better at listening, I would talk a little slower, and if they seemed to be that rare type who learned best by touching, I would use samples a lot and allow them to hold the material.
I also used terminology that fit their learning system: for visual, I would use terms such as “Can you see what I mean”; for aural, “Can you hear what I am saying”; and for tactile “Doesn’t this have a good feel to you?”
Yes, sales is all about psychology: one saying in sales is that you don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle.
So, nu? What does this have to do with God, or religion or spiritual things?
Everything!
Everything you know about God and messiah and the Bible has to be told to people, and whether they believe you or not, it is something you need to present to them in a way that they can understand you. Missionary work is sales- like it or not, that is what it is.
Shaul, that nice tent-making Pharisee from Tarsus, was an excellent salesman. He gave his customers what they wanted to hear, in a way they could accept it.
And what is really incongruent about missionary work is that we are selling something that everyone wants (eternal peace and joy), and we tell them it is absolutely free, yet so few are interested in getting it.
The problem with most people being visual learners is that it is so easy to paint a picture that they love, and they won’t go beyond learning what they see.
Pictures of people in heaven, pictures all over social media of Yeshua holding his arms open to you when you die, angels with wings protecting children, and so many other goody-goody, rose-colored glasses sort of pictorials of heaven and eternity.
YUCK! It is all wrong- we don’t go to heaven, our loved ones do not come to meet us when we die, and Yeshua is not standing at the pearly gates waiting to welcome you with open arms.
But 65% of the people seeing these pictures accept them as they are, and they do not go any further than that.
What we need to do to help people come to know God and accept Yeshua is to be able to teach using the way people learn, which means, first and foremost, asking questions. Too many people sell the steak, in other words, they talk on and on about what they know and how important this is for you to believe, otherwise you go to hell.
Sorry, but that won’t help anyone. All it will do is get those who are weak and easily scared to agree with you. But those types will accept what you say, then as soon as you leave, they will accept what the next fear-monger sells them.
The thing for believers who want to help people know God and messiah to do is to learn how the person you are talking to learns, and then approach them that way. It is always good to have some tracts with you, since most of the people will learn by reading, and also a prepared “spiel” that gives them the very basics for those who learn by listening.
When approaching those who learn by touch, well, that is a hard thing to overcome when talking about a spirit, so use terms that appeal to tactile things, like how it feels when you are touched by God, how being saved is like being hugged, and how knowing God is like having a warm blanket around you on a cold night.
We must overcome the pretty pictures all over the world in order for people to know the truth about God, messiah Yeshua, and salvation.
In fact, that is why I write a message then make a video, so that between the reading , watching, and hearing, I hit 95% of the people where they learn.
Maybe that’s why God said not to make any images of anything in the sky, on the earth, or in the water: he knew how easy it is for people to be taught lies and to twist his truth with pretty pictures that mislead people.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please make sure you read and agree to the rules).
And remember that I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Video for Maybe Learning Visually is the Problem
Sometimes We Could Use Some Spiritual Remodeling
My house was built in 1989, and Donna and I have been here for almost 10 years. The master bathroom has a walk-in shower, and we recently noted that the back wall is a little bit wobbly.
Oy! That’s not good.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
Consequently, we are getting an entirely new shower. The Demo Team was in here yesterday, and when they took off the tiles and wall we found not just a little water damage, but a lot of water damage, as well as some mold (not the bad kind).
So, nu? What does this have to do with God, the Messiah, or anything spiritual?
I’m glad you asked.
I have had some experience with home remodeling, from both the sales and construction end, and have found that when people remodel their homes they often find things they never knew were there because they were hidden behind something we believed was correct.
On a spiritual level, when we test our beliefs against the Bible, often people find that what they thought was a belief system built upon a strong biblical foundation isn’t always as well-founded as they thought.
I have many congregants in this ministry who were brought up with traditional Christian teachings who, at some point in their life, decided to test those beliefs because they were exposed to a different way of looking at them.
After verifying what they had been told their whole life against the Bible, they tore down the wall, exposed the foundation, and found that they needed some serious remodeling done.
I often say that it is necessary to read the Bible, especially the Epistles in the New Covenant, with a open mind; what I mean by that is to read those passages as if you never read or heard them before.
When you read the Bible without already knowing what it is about, you will be surprised how much mold and water damage you may find hidden behind your current understanding.
You see, when we are brought up being taught this letter means this, and that verse means that, we become conditioned, and eventually we think what we have been taught is the truth. We believe it, not because we came to that conclusion on our own, but because we have been TOLD to believe it by people we trust!
What I am talking about is religion.
God has no religion; God has rules for how to worship him and treat each other. Men created religion so that they can have power over other men.
So, I challenge you all to remodel your belief system: test it out against the Bible by reading the Bible. Find your favorite verses in the Bible and read everything that comes before them, and after them, to see if what you have been told they mean works when taken (correctly) in context with the entire thought, and the entire chapter, and the entire book.
If you are interested, I have written an entire teaching series on how to properly interpret the Bible, so click here and you can go through it.
There are a couple of books about Jewish people coming to accept Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah, which goes against everything that Jews (such as I) are brought up believing. In these books, the one who didn’t want to believe was challenged to use the Bible to prove that Yeshua was NOT the Messiah.
Guess what happened?
That’s right! When using the Bible to show Yeshua was not the Messiah, that person actually got to know what the Bible said and came to the conclusion that Yeshua is the Messiah.
So, here’s what I want you to do: IF you have been taught that the Mosaic law is just for Jews, or that Jesus did away with the law, or that as a Christian all you have to do is be a good person (I’ll give you a hint for this- check out Mark 10:18) and love each other and you get to go to heaven, or that you get to go to heaven, at all, or anything that indicates the Torah is not valid for you as a Christian…then I challenge you to prove any of that to be true by finding where that is said in the Bible.
But, you have to use the entire Bible- from Genesis through Revelation- or you are cheating.
This ministry is never, ever going to tell you what you have to believe, but only what I believe and why; it is your responsibility to choose what you will believe.
My responsibility is to make sure that you have what you need to make an informed decision about where you will spend eternity, because that is the bottom line, my friend.
Let me end with why this is so very, very important a challenge for you to take: if what you know is God’s truth, then it will stand up to any test, but if not, you had better make sure that what you think you know is what God says it is.
I can’t speak for the Big Guy in the Sky, but I believe that when you come before God, which we all will have to do, and tell him that you did what you did because that is what they told you to do, he might say something like this:
“I understand, my child, you did what they told you to do, but it’s what I say that counts.“
Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel, share these messages with everyone you know, join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please make sure that you click to agree to the rules), and buy my books.
And remember that I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Video for Sometimes We Could Use Some Spiritual Remodeling
When the Covenants End
There have been many times I have heard people tell me that because of Yeshua, the covenants God made with Israel do not apply to those who believe in Yeshua and follow him. Some even go as far as to say that Yeshua did away with the “law”.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
I have also heard many Christians tell me they were told that the only requirements for a believer in Christ to follow are the 4 commands from the Elders that they sent in a letter to the churches throughout the Middle East (Acts 15:23-30).
Before we go any further, let’s get something straight right off the bat: there were no churches in the First Century. There were congregations, called Kihilot, composed of believing Jews and gentiles, and many of those congregations were mostly, if not completely, made up only of gentiles who had been practicing pagan religions but were being taught how to convert to the proper worship of Adonai, the God of the Jews.
God made a total of 5 covenants, and the newer covenant included and built upon the prior one. These covenants are known as:
- The Noahdic Covenant
- The Abrahamic Covenant
- The Mosaic Covenant (this is generally referred to as the Torah, or the Mosaic Law)
- The Davidic Covenant
- The New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31)
Each covenant was made between God and mankind.
You may be thinking that these covenants, because they are all in the Tanakh (the “Jewish Bible”) are only between God and the Jews because God made these with the Jewish people.
BUT…God decreed the Jewish people were to be his nation of priests (Exodus 19:6), and as priests they would not be administering to themselves, but to the goyim (nations), i.e. the world.
The Jews are God’s chosen people- chosen to be his priests to the world to teach everyone how to attain eternal life through obedience to God’s instructions. When the world, starting with us Jews, continually failed to do as God said, he sent the Messiah- again, through the Jews to the world- so that when they did t’shuvah (repentance), through Messiah Yeshua’s sacrifice they could find forgiveness.
So, let’s forget about Christian teachings that the covenants are at an end, and see what God says about that.
In Jeremiah 33:17-22, God tells us exactly when his covenant with the Jewish people (which, as I have already shown, is his covenant with the world) will end (CJB):
For this is what Adonai says: “There will never be cut off from David a man to occupy the throne of the house of Isra’el. Nor will there ever be cut off from the cohanim who are L’vi’im a man before me to offer burnt offerings, burn grain offerings and offer sacrifices every day.” This word of Adonai came to Yirmeyahu: “Here is what Adonai says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that daytime and nighttime no longer come when they are supposed to, then my covenant with my servant David also can be broken, so that he will not have a descendant to reign from his throne or L’vi’im who are cohanim to minister to me. To the degree that the armies of heaven are past counting and the sand by the sea past measuring,
I will increase the descendants of my servant David and the L’vi’im ministering to me.’”
And Yeshua tells us, in Matthew 5:18 the following about the laws he followed and taught:
Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah — not until everything that must happen has happened.
And there is one more place, in Revelation 21:5, where we are told exactly when the covenants end.
In the vision of the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) that was given to John while exiled on the island of Patmos, God reveals that after he has destroyed nearly the entire earth, the Enemy has been conquered and all those sentenced to suffer the second death have been sent there, this is what will happen:
Then the One sitting on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new!” ”
So, you can choose to believe what religion tells you about God and his promises, the covenants, etc. being done away with, although, God tells us when that will happen and, for the record, it hasn’t happened yet.
You can accept that Christianity is telling you to worship Jesus instead of God and pray to graven images of human beings that are dead, and that’s all OK to do because it isn’t idolatry, despite what God says in the 2nd Commandment and in the Torah that Necromancy (talking with the dead) is a sin.
You can buy into Replacement Theology, which says God has rejected the Jews, and is calling God a liar because in the Bible, many, many times God says he will never reject the Jewish people.
Yeah, he has punished us, and he has destroyed many, but he always promises to leave a remnant and to return us to the land, where we will live in peace, forever.
If you want to, you can ignore every law and commandment God ever gave and think if you are just a good person, believe in Jesus, and love others you will go to heaven. But, consider this: In Mark 10:18, Yeshua said no one is good except God, every demon in hell believes in Jesus, and every demon in hell loves each other, so do you think they go to heaven? Besides that, the Bible never says any of us go to heaven.
Think about what your religion has told you, and compare it to what God says in the Bible, then choose who to believe.
As for me and my house, we choose to follow the Lord.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to this ministry on both my website and YouTube channel, buy my books and share them with others, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please be sure to read the rules and click on the “I Agree” button).
And remember- I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for this week, so Happy Thanksgiving to you all, l’hitraot and Baruch Ha Shem!