In Matthew 7:15, Yeshua (Jesus) says, “Beware of the false prophets! They come to you wearing sheep’s clothing, but underneath they are hungry wolves!”

This warning is stated throughout the Bible, often by Shaul (Paul), mainly as a warning against false teachings. Yet, because so much of Christianity is based on Shaul’s letters and rejects most of God’s commandments, I sometimes wonder if Shaul was a sheep or a wolf?

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Shaul is a very confusing fellow: he is at once a Pharisee, boasting about his Jewish heritage and training, and he always taught in the synagogues before going to the Gentiles. On the other hand, he also said so many things that appear to be against the Torah, such as regarding food and circumcision (two often repeated issues), one has to wonder where his loyalties really lie.

For the most part, Christian holidays, tenets, canon and ceremonies do not come from the Torah, but are rebranded pagan holidays and man-made traditions. And, because so much of Christianity is based on what Shaul wrote in the letters to his congregations, which were having issues of faith and interpersonal relationship problems, I have come to wonder if the Gentiles were misled by Shaul to form a new religion that goes against God. Is it possible that one of the most world-shattering events in Christianity- Shaul’s revelation of Messiah Yeshua- was really Satan pretending to be Yeshua?

You know, that wouldn’t be something the Prince of Lies wouldn’t do. And, because at that time many of the paganist Gentiles were learning the proper worship of God, sending someone like Shaul to confuse and misdirect them would be a smart thing to do.

After all, look at how successfully his letters have been used to misdirect millions to reject God’s Torah!

Of course, this thought borders on blasphemy, doesn’t it? And the last thing I would ever want to do is insult the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit), but we are told to be as wise as serpents, which (to me) means not to avoid questioning anything or anyone who does anything, in any way, to redirect us from obedience to God’s instructions in the Torah.

So, after thinking it over, and asking for guidance from above, I have come to the conclusion that Shaul was, indeed, called by Yeshua to bring the Good News of salvation through Yeshua to all peoples, Jews and Gentiles, alike. BUT…although Shaul was not a wolf, he made it possible for the wolves to easily infiltrate and control the congregations he formed.

And they didn’t start to redirect the sheep away from God’s instructions, which Shaul was trying to get them to learn (at a pace they could handle), until well after Shaul and most every other Jewish disciple and leader of what was (initially) a Jewish sect, was dead and gone.

By the end of the First Century, Jews accepting Yeshua as their Messiah was tapering off, and more and more Gentiles were coming into this sect, and some were wolves who decided that, for both political and (in my opinion) personal reasons, redirected the people into a more casual worship. This new religion they created rejected many of the rules and regulations God gave to us through Moses, and redefined salvation from accepting Yeshua as their Messiah and living a Torah-observant lifestyle to a new religion whose only requirements are to believe in Jesus and love each other.

They turned Yeshua’s teachings from a God-fearing Torah observant lifestyle into a “come-as-you-are” party.

Remember that Shaul told the Corinthians he would be whatever he had to be in order to get the Good News out to people (1 Corinthians 9:20). We see this in his Epistles, each one directed to a specific congregation, addressing their specific problems. This ended up with what was said to one congregation may have been stated differently to another, adding to the confusion his letters usually caused (see 2 Peter 3:16), creating the opportunity for his letters to be misused by the wolves in sheep’s clothing, hiding in his congregations and secretly working for Satan.

Shaul was not the wolf in sheep’s clothing, but in his zeal to get the Good News out to everyone and by “playing to his audience”, he wasn’t consistent. And that inconsistency left the gate open for the wolves to infiltrate and eventually lead his flock away from Yeshua and towards destruction.

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

Two of the traditional Christian tenets are that when one professes faith in Yeshua (Jesus) as the son of God, they become an adopted child of Abraham, and the other is that as Gentiles, they are not required to obey the Torah, which is only for Jews.

But if they are now adopted children of Abraham, and the “blood” children of Abraham have to obey the Torah, doesn’t that beg the question: “Do the adopted children get to have different rules in the same household?”

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In his letter to the Galatians, Shaul (Paul) said that when someone belongs to Messiah they are children of Abraham. The direct descendants of Abraham, who are Jews, are required to obey the Torah, so shouldn’t those adopted into our father’s family also have to obey the same rules we do?

Let’s take a hypothetical example: say you are a parent of three children, born to you and your spouse. You raise them to be God-fearing and self-sufficient, as any good parent should. You have rules on how they should treat people, rules for living as a family, and rules for worshiping as a family; these children represent the Jews who first came to accept Yeshua as the Messiah.

Next, you can’t have any more children but because you love kids, you adopt three more kids, all around the same age as your own. Do they get to live a different lifestyle? Do they get to worship differently from the rest of the family? Do they get to refuse the food served at dinnertime to eat what they want to eat? When the family enjoys a day of rest, do they get to change that to a different day? These adopted children would be the Gentiles that came to faith in Messiah sometime around the middle to the end of the First Century, after the main population of Jews who would accept Yeshua began to taper off, and the movement began to mutate to a new religion.

My answer to how these adopted children should be treated would be the same as what happened to these neophyte believing Gentiles making this paradigm shift from paganism to Judaism, which is what they were doing- at least, initially.

The way these newly adopted children should be treated within the family is to be given some leeway, as they were not raised the same way the natural children were. They need an opportunity to learn the rules, slowly, at a pace they can handle, and not be forced to do everything the natural born children have been doing because that would result in one day waking up, and finding the adopted children have run away.

So, you start them off with basic rules they can handle, such as make their bed each morning, help set the table, take out the garbage, and go to worship as a family. As they gain experience in the family, they will learn from watching their siblings all the other rules.

Does this sound like something from the Bible? Well, it is- you can find it in Acts Chapter 15, verses 19-23, when Ya’akov (James) suggested just giving the new Gentile believers a few rules to start with, so as not to place any obstacles in their way. He also says they will eventually learn the entire Torah because it is read at every Shabbat service, demonstrating that the Elders expected these Gentiles to be attending Shabbat worship services with their (now) adopted family, the Jews.

So, what do we have? This hypothetical is really more of an analogy to represent the truth of being an adopted child of Abraham- you are NOT free from the rules of the natural born children, but you are allowed to assimilate into the family at a pace you can handle.

The problem those early believing Gentiles had, which Shaul ran into throughout his ministry, was the legalistic pressure to be completely assimilated immediately into Judaism. His answer was the same that Ya’akov and the Elders agreed with, which is what we did with our hypothetical family- teach them slowly, step-by-step, so they can assimilate easily, and not be scared off.

Here’s what I mean by being scared off: you go to a Pagan worshipper, and explain how they can have eternal joy and blessings on earth by faithfully accepting that there is only one God, and Yeshua is the Messiah and his son.

“OK, that sounds good. What else do I have to do?”
“You must confess your sins and ask forgiveness through Yeshua’s sacrifice, then live a righteous life, giving up the hedonism that you have been doing.”
“Well, I guess for eternal joy I can do that. Anything else?”
“Uh, there is one other, little thing you have to do right away.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“You have to let us cut off the top of your penis.”
(total silence)
“That’s it! So, whaddaya say?”
“Um, right, well… Oh gee! Look at the sundial- I didn’t realize it was this late, and I have an important appointment to go to. How about I get back to you later?”

You can see that an all-at-once conversion from paganism to Torah obedience would not work in many cases with the men, while it would probably be easier for the women to accept.

Here’s the point of today’s message: if you are adopted into a family, you are expected to follow the rules of that family; maybe not all at once, but eventually. However, what Christianity has done was to reject the father who adopted them and create a new family on their own. They ran away from the loving parents who adopted them (that would be God and Yeshua), and taught their new family to reject all that their adopted parents had been trying to teach them.

If you ask me, that’s no way to thank someone who accepted you into their family.

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

If you go to almost any Bible, and turn to Acts Chapter 9, you will find a caption that says something to the effect of, “Paul converts on the road to Damascus.”

The problem with that caption is that it is a total lie!

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Christianity has based nearly every tenet and canon on misunderstanding and misusing the letters that Shaul (Paul’s real name) wrote, which were to congregations composed mostly of Gentiles who wanted to be part of this movement that promised eternal joy after they die if they simply accept that this Jewish guy named Yeshua is the son of that Jewish God, Adonai, and that when they do that they can be forgiven of their sins.

I would think one of the first obstacles Shaul had to face is that pagans don’t have sins because what they do is OK with their gods; after all, their gods did it, all the time! Once Shaul could get these Gentiles who wanted something better to listen to him, then he had a starting point.

Most Bibles will lead you to believe that these early Christians (even though that wasn’t a term of affection, at that time) were all Gentiles, the movement accepting Yeshua as the Messiah was initially only Jews. The thousands who were fed, the thousands who accepted him as Messiah at that first Shavuot (Pentecost) after his crucifixion were all Jews, who (for the record) never converted to anything but remained Jews living a Torah-observant lifestyle!

After all, he said he came only for the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24), and the spreading of his “Good News” didn’t reach Gentiles until a while after he was raised into heaven.

The fact is that until after Yeshua was taken up into heaven, Gentiles were not a significant part of the movement of those Jews who accepted the Messiahship (is that a word?) of Yeshua.

Now, when Shaul was riding to Damascus to persecute the believing Jews, and he got knocked off his high horse (literally, as well as figuratively), he did not convert to a different religion. What happened is simply that he changed his belief regarding Yeshua as the Messiah. That was the only thing that changed, and despite how many people call him a Christian saint or use his letters as justification for ignoring the Torah, Shaul was a Torah-observant Pharisee his entire life and never taught against the Torah.

Prove it, you say? I don’t have to prove it because Shaul, himself, says so!

Let’s take a look at Acts 24:14, where Shaul was making a defense to the Roman governor when he was accused of desecrating the Temple and teaching against the Torah:

But this I do admit to you: I worship the God of our fathers in accordance with the Way (which they call a sect). I continue to believe everything that accords with the Torah and everything written in the Prophets. And I continue to have a hope in God – which they too accept – that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

His admission that he worshipped God in accordance with the “Way” simply meant that he accepted Yeshua was the Messiah God promised to send- there was no church, there was no Christian canon, the New Covenant wasn’t even written yet, and the majority of followers of Yeshua were still Torah-observant Jews.

It wasn’t until near the end of Shaul’s missionary work, sometime around 65 AD, that the number of Gentiles now being called Christians outnumbered the remaining Jews accepting Yeshua as the Messiah.

By the end of the First Century, what started as a Jewish movement had mutated into a totally different religion.

If you ask me, and even if you don’t (because this is my ministry and I’ll say what I believe), the main reason that Christianity has become so completely different from its Judaic roots is because the Gentiles who became the leaders of the movement after all the original, Jewish apostles and shamashim (Hebrew for leaders) died off, decided that all this Jewish stuff would get them in trouble with Rome. You see, there were three rebellions by the Jews in Judea against Roman occupation and rule (the third and last was in 70-73 AD, when the second temple was destroyed), and if these previously “safe” Gentiles now associated with the Jewish population, they were afraid they would also get on Rome’s “Hit List”. So, they changed things around to separate themselves from the Jews, starting with changing the day of the Sabbath, eventually misinterpreting Shaul’s letters to indicate following the Torah was wrong.

Of course, the way Shaul wrote, misinterpreting his stuff was easy.

But, to get back on track, Shaul was a Torah-observant Jew all his life, never converting to anything, especially not what we know today as Christianity. He continually taught how to be Torah observant, but required this conversion from paganism to Judaism to take place only a few steps at a time (which the Elders in Jerusalem agreed with- read Acts 15:21).

His arguments against circumcision and other Jewish forms of worship were never meant to tell these neophyte believers to ignore the Torah, only that they must not succumb to the legalism being forced on them (legalism meaning to obey the Torah as a means of earning salvation). He really never had any issues with Gentiles getting circumcised, so long as the reason was to be faithful to the Torah, and not just to be “correct”.

There are many other places in the Epistles that Shaul wrote that justify the fact he never converted to any other religion, and never stopped being a Torah-observant Jew. The truth is that if Christians want to live and worship as Yeshua (Jesus) did, then they need to get familiar with what God said to do (in the Torah) regarding how to worship him and how to treat each other, because that’s really the way Yeshua lived.

Thank you for being here; don’t forget to subscribe and share these messages. That’s it for today, so… l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Okay, okay, I know…everyone calls Yeshua (Jesus) the Savior, but what does the “savior” do?

When we define a savior, Yeshua doesn’t completely fill the bill.

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A savior is someone who saves others, mostly used when describing keeping someone from danger or from losing their life.

In the case of Yeshua, he allegedly saves us from the second death, the condemnation to Sheol (hell) as the punishment for our sinful life. But I say we need a better understanding of “being saved” in a spiritual sense.

Let’s start by clearing this very important issue up, once and for all- God forgives sins, not Yeshua.

Yes, Yeshua was given authority to do that on the earth (Matthew 9:6), but once his role as the sacrificial lamb of God was completed, he was resurrected and is now sitting at the right hand of God, where he serves not as forgiver of sin but as our Intercessor with God.

Think about this: an Intercessor is someone who is intervenes on the behalf of someone else. As such, the intercessor has no power to do anything, other than act in a way to help the one he is interceding for. Since Yeshua is our intercessor (Hebrews 7:25), then he- by definition- is not the one who forgives our sins. Indeed, when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, he will then stand between us and God, interceding on our behalf to allow us to enter into God’s presence.

When we accept Yeshua as the Messiah (not as God!), and ask forgiveness FROM GOD by means of the innocent blood Yeshua shed for us (in place of bringing an animal to the temple, which no longer existed after 73 AD), we can be forgiven of our sins.

First off, we need to understand that by having our sins forgiven we won’t go to Sheol when judged at Judgement Day; and that is what it means to be “saved”.

Got it, so far? Good- let’s continue…

Yeshua’s sacrifice created the shedding of innocent blood, and when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, we can ask forgiveness of sin by means of that shed blood. You could say, in a way, that Yeshua saves us because he provided the means for our forgiveness, but in reality, he only provided the way to be saved.

Ultimately, it is God who forgives our sins, and THAT is what saves us.

I would also like to point out that Mashiach, the Hebrew word for Messiah, means “anointed one”. Yeshua (which means “salvation of God”) was anointed by God (at his baptism by Yochanan) to be the Messiah God promised to send. The role of the Messiah was to live a sinless life and die to provide the innocent blood necessary for the forgiveness of sin (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22). And, when we faithfully accept that Yeshua is the Messiah, we are able to call upon that blood when asking God to forgive us, which is the way we are saved.

So, it isn’t technically correct to call Yeshua the savior because he isn’t the one who forgives our sins, which is the way we are saved. Yeshua is the Messiah, God is our savior because not only did he provide the Messiah (the only way to be forgiven of sin after the temple was destroyed), but God is the ONLY one who forgives our sins, saving us from Sheol.

Look at it this way: a certain medicine can save your life from a disease, but is it the medicine that is the real savior, or the one who created the medicine? We may say “This medicine saved my life”, but it is that the one who created the medicine who is the real savior.

By the way, one little thing I would like to point out about the use of the word “savior”- it is a Christian term rebranding Jesus in order to further separate him from his Jewish role as the anointed one of God. Interpreting “Maschiach” as “Savior” has become standardized, but not because it is correct, only because for centuries that is what people have been told it means. Just another traditional Christian lie about who and what the real Messiah is.

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