Where Yeshua Fits Into Forgiveness of Sin

When we read the Bible, we know that God is a loving, compassionate, and forgiving God. We also know that he promises to punish the guilty, guilty being anyone who purposefully rejects and ignores God’s instructions.

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“So when I disobey God, does that make me a guilty person, deserving of punishment?”

Yes, it does.

“But, but, but…wait a minute! I am a Believer: I accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as my savior, so I can’t be guilty because he forgives my sins.”

Well, actually, no- that’s not accurate. Only God forgives sins; yes, Yeshua did say that he was authorized when he walked the earth to forgive sins, but that was only to prove he was (and still is) the Messiah. Believing in Yeshua as the Messiah does not automatically cleanse you of sin.

“So, then my religious leaders lied to me?”

Yes, and no, because they were only telling you what they had been told.

Why do you think Yeshua had to die? It was so that by his sacrifice we could be forgiven by God, in accordance with the sacrificial system God defined in Leviticus. Yeshua replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, that’s all. We still need to confess our sins, repent of them, and ask God to forgive us in Yeshua’s name, i.e. by means of his sacrifice on our behalf.

“OK, so when I sin, I am guilty, and still need to confess, repent, and ask God to forgive me, which he will do because I have accepted Yeshua as my Messiah and ask forgiveness by means of his sacrifice. Is that right?”

Now you have it!

Sin is something no one can escape or completely overcome, even if the sins we commit are accidental. Before Yeshua, when the temple existed, we could sacrifice there to be forgiven, but only there- God commanded a sacrifice had to be made only where he placed his name (Exodus 20:24). When the temple was utterly destroyed (around 70 CE) there was no place we could go to be forgiven. This is where Yeshua’s sacrifice comes into play: as the Messiah, God’s anointed, his sacrifice replaced the animal sacrifice that had to be made at the temple. Yeshua’s sacrifice is acceptable to God anywhere, anytime, for all time.

“So what about the Jews? I know the Messianic Jews have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah, but what all the other Jews?”

Yes, that’s a problem. The mainstream Jewish population rejects Yeshua as the Messiah God promised to send because, for no other reason, they have been taught to reject him. It’s not really that much different than with most Christians, who have been taught they can reject the Torah commandments.

Jews aren’t the only ones left out of salvation by rejecting Yeshua; many, many Christians who believe they are saved are not because they have been taught to reject God’s commandments, or that they do not have to confess and repent of their sins because they are automatically saved by believing in Jesus.

It seems they don’t realize that believing Jesus is the Messiah isn’t enough. C’mon, people! Every demon in hell believes Jesus is the Messiah!

The sacrificial system requires confession of sin (once you have been made aware of it), repentance (you have to feel bad about having committed that sin), and the shedding of innocent blood to cleanse the sin (Hebrews 9:22.) When the temple existed, that is where the sacrifice had to be performed. As I explained, Yeshua’s sacrifice replaced the animal sacrifice and, as the Messiah, his sacrifice is acceptable anywhere, anytime.

After the destruction of the temple, in accordance with the Torah (do you hear this, my Jewish brothers and sisters?) forgiveness of sin can only be accomplished through Yeshua, the Messiah.

The teachings of Yeshua are, of course, also very important, and what he taught was exclusively from and about the Torah laws. He did not change or replace a single stroke of the pen, but what he did do was to explain the spiritual meaning of the laws, which is called the Remes.

Before Yeshua, the Pharisees only taught the plain language or literal meaning of the law, which is called the P’shat. In other words, the Pharisees taught performance-based salvation: do exactly what the law says to do and that is all you need. Yeshua taught the deeper, spiritual understanding of the law: just doing the right thing wasn’t enough, you had to feel it in your heart!

Just like God said in Jeremiah 31:33, the New Covenant will be written on our hearts.

The Torah teaches us what we must know to do, and Yeshua taught us what we must feel in our hearts. The Torah says do not kill, Yeshua says do not even hate; the Torah says do not commit adultery, Yeshua says do not even lust with your eyes.

Can you see? Yeshua didn’t just teach us what the Torah says, but what the Torah means!

This is why Yeshua came the first time: to teach us more than just what to do, but how to feel, and to replace the need to bring an animal to the temple for forgiveness.

The next time Yeshua comes will be to complete God’s plan for the redemption of his people, all those who have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah and been faithfully obedient (as best as we can) to God’s instructions in the Torah.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel, like my FaceBook page, and join my discussion group called Just God’s Word.

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

I have written 4 books regarding God, religion, prayer, and (most recently) debunking the traditional lies about Yeshua that both Judaism and Christianity have proliferated over the millennia, so please consider getting these for yourself. They are available on Amazon Books or use the links on my website.

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

Having a Dry Spell

You know, when I started this ministry about 7 years ago, I used to blog every morning and I never seemed to run out of something to say.

If you prefer to watch a video of me with nothing to say, click on this link: Watch the video.

After a while, I was finding that somewhat difficult. So, before I got to the point where I burned myself out just to write every day, I decided to blog only on Tuesday and Thursday, with Friday’s message being based on that Shabbat’s Torah reading.

When I was working, for many years I had a long commute by car and found it an excellent time for prayer. I sort of got in the habit of praying in the car, and I still do even though being retired I am in the car just for 20 minutes or so, two days a week when going to play golf. I ride my bicycle about three times a week and during those times, while praying, I often go off on a tangent, and that is when I get most of my inspiration for these messages.

Well, as today’s title suggests, lately I have been in a dry spell. I have nothing for today. Even my daily Bible readings aren’t providing me anything; I am in the book of Psalms, and generally, although I love the wonderful worship of David’s writings, I don’t get a lot of inspiration from them.

Maybe I can write about how faithful David was; even when in the midst of terrible tsouris (Yiddish for bad luck, difficulty, or troubles), he always relied on God for his salvation.

Of course, we can always rely on God for salvation, whether it be from human problems or on a more eternal basis, which is where the Messiah, Yeshua, fits in.

I don’t know? Maybe I need a dry spell? It is nice just to talk with you all, and tell you how much I appreciate you being subscribers to either my website or YouTube channel, or (better yet!) to both. I do, occasionally, like to share my personal life with you and hope that you don’t mind.

I am not a really “holy” person (ask anyone who knows me) and I believe that to know me as just another rather ordinary guy is helpful to anyone who may think too highly of me (if anyone does) just because I have written books and have this ministry. I am somewhat proud that there are over 165 members of this ministry, but since this is on the Internet, that is really a very low number. I mean, truth to tell, some video of a dog chasing a squirrel will get over a million views, so what I do is almost statistically irrelevant.

Believe me, I am not anything great. And whatever I do that is worthwhile, honestly, it is not from me but from God working through me. Really, I mean this! This is not some false humility- I am being realistic because I know what thoughts and feelings I have, and they are VERY human. When I do or say something that is edifying or spiritually mature, helping others to know God better, that is from God, not from me.

I have said this many times and will continue to say it:

When I do something really good, that is God working through me; when I totally screw something up, then I can take full credit.

And when I have nothing to say, no message of spiritual edification, no wisdom to dispense, when I can only say I have “Nuttin’, Honey!”, I can still always offer this: my thanks to God for all that he has done for me.

He has blessed me in so many ways, so many times, even before I knew him, and this ministry is such a blessing to me, I can’t even begin to tell you.
My calling, if you will, is to teach. I do not have the compassion or patience to be a Rabbi- trust me on that- but teaching is the gift God has given me, which has been confirmed to me by many people, much more spiritually mature than I will ever be.

And that is why I write books, and why I constantly blog, and why even when running dry, I will say something because what is more important than anything is that the ones who I can reach learn what God wants from them.

Religion was not something God ever intended: God tells us what he wants from us, clearly, in the Torah and that is for everyone to know. He first gave it to the Jews to learn, so that they could teach it to the world. Yeshua taught us the Torah- the Pharisees had only taught the plain language meaning. Yeshua taught us the deeper spiritual meaning, but it was always the Torah, God’s only instructions to the world.

People created different religions because they wanted to tell us what they think God wants.

And for those who have been taught by their religion that Yeshua (Jesus) did away with the Torah, well…do you really think that the obedient son of God would tell anyone to disobey his father?

Would the Messiah, who God sent to lead us back into communion with him by providing the means for forgiveness (which couldn’t be given after the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed) say that forgiveness comes from rejecting what God said to do?

Have you ever thought, religion aside, if it really makes any sense at all that we can receive forgiveness by ignoring God’s instructions?

Hey, whaddya know? I found a message, after all!

I think I’ll stop now because what I just said needs some time to sink in.

Thank you for being there and please help this ministry to continue to grow.

L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Cautious or Afraid?

We are living in pretty scary times, aren’t we?

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There is social upheaval, the political polarization of American’s, crime in the cities, college students destroying our historical monuments, financial problems, businesses going under, and let’s not forget the pandemic.

With all this going on, anyone would be justified in being cautious, right? But when does being cautious turn into being afraid?

When do we go from being aware of our surroundings to being scared of every shadow?

When does “I’m coming down with a cold” become “Oh no! I think I have Covid!”

I know someone with a 10-year-old child, and this kid told his mother he had the sniffles. What did she do? She whisked him off to a Covid testing station! The kid said he had a runny nose- no fever, no aches, no headache, nothing that indicated he had anything but maybe a slight cold, but WHAM! Straight to the Covid testing center.

And he didn’t have Covid.

I had a slightly sore throat when I came back from a long weekend in New York City, and no other symptoms, and in a few days I was better. I didn’t run off and get tested, but I did watch for any other symptoms to appear. I wasn’t afraid, I was cautious- my wife and I didn’t kiss until I felt better. A few days after I felt better, my wife developed a cough, but no other symptoms. She was told by people at an animal hospital where she volunteers, that there is a “cough” going around. Are we going to get her tested? No. Why not? Because that is not necessary. If she develops a fever and other symptoms, then we will, but it is already getting better. In the meantime, we don’t get to kiss each other, which I hate.

We are being cautious, but we are not scared.

Do I wear a mask in the car when I am alone? Duh! Of course not, but I see so many that do. And when someone tells me it is probably because they forgot they had it on, I just roll my eyes. I have worn the stupid mask for hours when I was forced to do so because I was traveling by air and I can guarantee that NO ONE finds these masks comfortable. No one forgets they are wearing it. Everyone, absolutely everyone I have talked to who has had to wear a mask for hours at a time hates doing it.

The people who wear a mask while driving alone are afraid.

The people who test themselves or someone else at the first sign of any problem are afraid.

The people who insist they can’t go anywhere or see family members who may not be vaccinated are afraid.

And please don’t tell me they are concerned for the health of others, because that doesn’t really make sense- people who are truly at risk will protect themselves and not depend on others to do so.
When you know you are at risk, you make sure you are cautious, or even afraid, and in those cases, I don’t really blame them for being a little more than just cautious. If I had COPD, diabetes, or was a member of a high-risk group, I would trust in God but still make sure I was safe.

The Bible tells us the difference between being cautious and being afraid:

Isaiah 41:10; Lamentations 3:57; Matthew 10:28 (this is a major source of strength); 2 Timothy 1:7; Hebrews 13:6; Psalm 23:4 (you should have already thought of this one); Psalm 27:1; …and there are more.

Cautious is wearing the right kind of mask. If you believe wearing a mask will prevent the spread of Covid and is necessary, then don’t wear some fashion mask with a face on it or some banner, and especially not one of those gaiters, which are totally useless as any kind of protection. Wear a mask that is OSHA certified, or an N95 (that you change after every 4-6 hours of use), or the mask made by Sonovia Tech, an Israeli company that guarantees their mask will kill the Covid (and Delta variant) germs completely for a full year (it is washable and reusable.)

If you are cautious, you are being smart; if you are afraid, you are being faithless.

I am not saying you should open a kissing booth in the middle of a leper colony and expect God to protect you. We are told, after all, not to test the Lord, our God, but we can be certain that he is watching out for us.

The fact is that 97% of those who have been infected with the Covid-19 virus have survived, and there have been few (if any) long-term problems from it. The vast majority of those in the 3% that died already had pre-existing conditions that rendered their immune systems weak. They could have died from the regular flu or even a bad cold.

The vaccine is proving itself to be a short-term bandage, and nothing more since so many people that have been vaccinated are getting sick 6 or more months after they received their shots. Now they tell us we are supposed to get a booster?

When I was in Sales, I learned of something called a “Loss Leader”- you take a hit on the profit from selling something because that product will need a constant upgrade, which costs money. The real profit is not in selling the product, but in the constant need to refurnish what the product needs to operate. I believe these booster shots are just that.

Someone has to pay for the constant research and production of the vaccines, and since the only money the government has is yours, guess who will be paying for it? Expect increased taxes, increased insurance premiums, and increased costs of health care.

But, this isn’t about the actual pandemic issue, it is about your reaction to it- are you being cautious or scared?

God is always here to protect us and help us, and frankly, if he decides I should get sick and die, what have I lost? Doesn’t Shaul (Paul) tell us that if he dies, he considers that gain because he gets to be with God? (Philippians 1:21)

Personally, I have no problem with getting to be in God’s presence for all eternity sooner than I expected to be. Hey- if I gotta go, I gotta go, and frankly, the sooner the better. It’s getting to be a real drag here on earth.

Not that I wish to die, but I have no fear of it because I have faith in God. I am cautious, usually, but I am not afraid to go around maskless, or to be with family and friends, or to refuse to get a booster shot. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe Covid is real or can be deadly (heck- driving your car can be deadly), but I am not afraid of it and I would rather spend my time enjoying my life than being afraid of death.

You need to ask yourself how much of what gives you pleasure in life is being lost to fear of getting Covid, or of crime, or of having to (maybe) take a vaccine that is beginning to show itself to be as deadly to a select part of the population as the disease!

You need to ask yourself “Am I cautious, or am I afraid?” Because, if you honestly admit that you are afraid, then you need to work on strengthening your faith.

Thank you for being there and please subscribe, check out the entire website (especially my books- I just finished my 4th book which debunks the many traditional lies about the Messiah), and please share these messages with everyone you know.

I also have a Facebook discussion group called Just God’s Word you can join.

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

Plugging My Books

I hope you don’t mind, but today I am going to take a total break from spiritual messages, even from a socially relevant message, and instead talk about something that is no more than pure, unadulterated self-interest.

If you prefer to watch me pitch my books in a video, click on this link:
Watch the spiel.

Well, maybe not all self-interest, since the books I have written over the past years are designed to spread not just God’s word, but who God is and what he wants from us, without the impurity of religion polluting the waters of life with their own man-made rites, holidays, rituals, and anti-Torah propaganda.

The first book I wrote is called “Back to Basics: God’s Word vs. Religion”.

This book discusses the differences between what God said we should do in the Torah and how religion (both Judaism and Christianity) has changed what God said to do, to what the religion wants to do. The book covers topics such as Kosher, celibacy, Holy Days or holidays, Tanakh or Talmud, and other topics where religion has added to or taken away from what God said in the Torah. It is an easy read, and the people who have given me feedback have found it interesting, to say the least; except for one rabbi who told me, “Well, you’re no Hemingway.”

The next book I wrote is called, “Prayer…What it Is and How It Works”.

The title is pretty much self-explanatory. I discuss the different ways people pray, the value of prayer, and what we can expect from it. Again, it is an easy read.

My third book is called “Parashot Drashim” and is subtitled “Commentary on the Weekly Torah Readings for Both Jews and Gentiles”.

For those of you who may not know this, the Torah is separated into 54 sections, called parashot, and these sections are read every Shabbat, sometimes with two parashot being read at the same time. It is all designed so that when we come to the eighth day after Shavuot, which is called Simchat Torah (Joy of Torah), every synagogue in the world is on the last lines of Deuteronomy and we all turn the Torah back to Genesis in order to start reading it all over again.

This book is my thickest book to date and is a compilation of the different parashot teachings I have been doing for over 7 years. I have combined, condensed, and edited the Shabbat teachings I have written and designed each one to show Jews and Christians who Yeshua really is and what he really taught. This book is not just a commentary, but also can be used for Bible studies.

My most recent book, just published a month ago, is called “The Good News About the Messiah for Jews“, and is subtitled “Debunking the Traditional Lies About the Jewish Messiah“.

Even though this is directed to my Jewish brothers and sisters, it is also valuable to Gentiles because many of the Christians I have known don’t know who Yeshua really is any better than Jews do.

I feel that this book is the culmination of all I have learned in the past 25 or so years of being a Messianic Jew and a student of the Bible- that is, the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation. I attack many of the lies that have been spread throughout both Judaism and Christianity, lies such as Jesus doing away with the Torah, believing in Jesus means you have to be a Christian, all sins are forgiven automatically (the “Once Saved, Always Saved” lie), that Paul converted to Christianity and other lies that have been promulgated by both Jews and Christians which have totally turned Jews away from their Messiah and Christians away from God. This book will change someone’s life, somewhere- maybe even yours?

All of my books are available on Amazon, in both paperback and Kindle format. I kept the pricing low so that they are affordable for everyone, even though I would like to get something for all the work I put into each one of them (after all, a worker is entitled to his wages, right?), but I don’t expect to see any of them on the Bestseller List anytime soon.

Who knows? Maybe Oprah will find one and then I’ll be set for life!

Nah! Not likely, but if even one of these books can help someone come closer to God, then it is all worthwhile.

So, nu? Why not try one or all of these books? I don’t have a bibliography in any of them because I only use the Bible as my source document, and reference where I get each and every verse I use to teach about God and his Messiah. After all, if the Bible isn’t a good enough source document, what else could be?

Thank you for letting me blow my own horn, as the expression goes, and even if you feel this isn’t an appropriate thing to do, please don’t let that stand in the way of you reading these books. I really do believe I was led by the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in writing these and guarantee that even if you disagree with what I write, you will find these books interesting and educational. Maybe even a little entertaining.

God bless you and thank you for subscribing.

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

How Do We Show Humility When We Feel Offended?

Recently on my Facebook page (my personal page, not my ministry page), I posted something that while receiving confirmation from some, was offensive to others.

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

I never intended to insult or offend anyone, and never even thought that anyone would feel that way since I was talking about how I feel.

Now, having learned something from that experience, I want to make sure I make this disclaimer: to those who may be reading this and recognize themselves, please do not take this as a chiding or insult or even meant to be about you, personally- it was the nature of your response which made me realize something about offending statements and humility, which is the other side of the coin from pridefulness. So, instead of feeling offended, again, please take this message as nothing more than what I think I have learned about myself.

So, what happened? I wrote how I don’t like hearing something that everyone is saying today, which reminds me of the movie “Demolition Man.” If you haven’t seen that movie, it is about a future despotic government run by a megalomaniac who is forcing people to live to his standards of social interaction. One of the things that they do is, upon greeting each other, say “Be well, Steven Bruck” and there is no physical contact allowed.

It is “Be well” saying hello and “Be well” saying goodbye, and so sickeningly sweet it makes you want to puke. What really gets my goat is that in the movie you can see that they say it without genuine feeling but as a conditioned response, which is the result of the government telling them how they should be.

My complaint was that I have been hearing people say “Be safe” whenever someone says they are going somewhere, as well as all over the TV and radio. This is, to me, just like what I see in the movie: we say it because we think we mean it, but in truth, we are being conditioned by the powers-that-be to create an environment where everyone is constantly forced to remember that there is a disease on the loose.

As I said in my post, I do appreciate it when people care about me and stated that I feel the term “Be safe” has become so passé that I prefer “Have a good time” or “Safe travels”, which is general enough to show concern for me without telling me to be safe (as if I wouldn’t be.)

After some of my friends told me they felt insulted or offended and told me they really mean it when they say that, I thought about my response to this greeting. Was I being prideful in saying how much I hated hearing that because I felt insulted and coerced into acting a certain way? Or were they being prideful in reacting insulted and defending the statement, as if this was directed at them, personally? I mean, I was talking about how I feel when people (not anyone in particular) tell me to be safe, so why would they take offense or feel the need to defend the statement?

I think the lesson for all of us here is to be willing to listen to what people say without personalizing it. Of course, the way we relate to the world is to take the words and actions of others and pass them through our own experience, so it is pretty much impossible to not feel something when someone does or says something that “hits home”, so to speak.

And that is where, I believe, we either react with humility or pridefulness. Humility will remind us that it is their issue, their feelings, and their experience that is the subject, and not ours. If someone is speaking in general, yes, what they say may get us a little hot under the collar if they are speaking to something near and dear to our heart, but unless they are looking right at me and/or pointing to me, I have to remain humble and remember that the person is talking about themself, and not about me.

Today, our nation is polarized on almost everything: from politics to history to race to religion to what to have for dinner. Being able to remain humble and overcome our own feelings is so important to remain spiritually pure. It is a sin to be prideful, and that means not just in what we say but also in how we accept what others are saying.

Here is why I believe the world has become too self-centered: everyone wants us to speak to them compassionately and be careful how we say something, but no one is trying to listen compassionately. It is all about how what you say affects me, and no one seems to want to try to slow down when they hear something offensive or insulting, and think “Why would someone say something like that?” Maybe that person is in pain? Maybe that person has been told a lie? Maybe that person is upset about something totally different than what they are saying?

Or maybe that person is a major A-hole? The best way to answer these questions is to remain humble and overcome our initial prideful feelings when something someone says affects us, emotionally.

In the case where we are being insulted, directly, we can still remain humble in simply ignoring that person, which to me is the most insulting thing anyone can do to someone else. Better yet, we should ask them, “Why are you saying this to me?” showing compassionate listening by giving them a chance to explain. It may be a misunderstanding that can be resolved so that the end result isn’t two people angry with each other, but two people coming to an understanding and remaining on good terms with each other.

Doesn’t that sound more like the way Yeshua would act?

So, if anyone is feeling insulted, put upon, offended, or just put out by this message, I do apologize and hope that you will see this isn’t about YOU, but about all of us, me included, and how we should be just as careful listening to someone as when we speak to someone.

Yeshua had the advantage of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) letting him know what people really thought, but we don’t, so please listen with compassion and humility; and when something you hear bothers you, personally, step back a moment and ask yourself, “Is this about me or about them?”

If you can do that, then you are showing true humility, compassion, and love for others. And, if you ask me, that is the best way to be safe.

Thank you for being here. If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe here and on my YouTube channel, and check out my books when you are on the website. My newest book is called “The Good News About the Messiah for Jews, Debunking the Traditional Lies About the Jewish Messiah”.

And remember, I always welcome your comments.

So, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

I Never Can Stress Forgiveness Enough

I am going to surprise you today- this is probably going to be one of the shortest and most direct messages I have ever delivered, so hold on to your hats ’cause this ride is going to be fast!

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

Forgiveness is something that is absolutely necessary for any Believer to give to anyone who has sinned against them. Period.

If you feel you are “just not ready to forgive them”, then if you die before you do forgive them, don’t be surprised if you are told “I am just not ready to forgive you” because Yeshua warns us in Matthew 6:14:


For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;  but if you do not forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will not forgive yours.

That’s not an idle warning, and it isn’t something that you can avoid just because you “believe in Jesus”.

We are not commanded to ask for forgiveness, although we are told that we should do so to anyone we think we have sinned against before leaving our sacrifice or gift at the altar (Matthew 5:24); but, here in Matthew 6:14-15, we are told in no uncertain way that we must forgive if we want to be forgiven.

Not only does forgiving others ensure our ability to be forgiven, but it is the ONLY way to be rid of the pain we feel when we are harmed, physically or emotionally.

And remember that when we sin, it is always against God (Psalm 51): even when someone does you a terrible injustice, that sin is first and foremost against God- you come next in line. And the forgiveness of that sin against God is always and exclusively between the sinner and God; your forgiveness of the sin has nothing, whatsoever, to do with that person’s relationship with God. They need to make it right with God themself.

The important thing to remember is that your forgiveness of the person who sinned against you has everything to do with YOUR relationship with God. You cannot influence the forgiveness of the sinner with God, but you can ensure your forgiveness from God by forgiving them.

When we forgive others, it doesn’t make them right with God- it makes us right with God!

So forgive others, whether you feel like it or not, and do so genuinely. Yeah, I know it is hard to do, but here are the two things you need to remember that will help you overcome your flesh:
1. If you don’t forgive, you will not be forgiven; and
2. Forgiving others is the only way to be rid of the pain.

Do you get it now? Forgiveness does nothing for the other person, but it does everything that matters for you. In a way, forgiving others is not just godly, it is selfish, so be a little selfish because, in this one situation, it is a good type of selfishness.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages out, subscribe to my webpage, YouTube channel, and join my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word”.

My newest book, “The Good News About the Messiah for Jews, Debunking the Traditional Lies About the Jewish Messiah” is available through my website or Amazon, in paperback and Kindle format.

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

The Three Trinities

Most everyone is familiar with the Christian idea of the Trinity, composed of the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.

But there is a trinity within Judaism, as well: the trinity I am thinking of is the relationship between God, Israel, and the Messiah.

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

Christianity concentrates on the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the son, with the Holy Spirit being given to each individual who accepts Yeshua as their Messiah so that they can join that relationship. In Judaism, God doesn’t see the individual as much as he sees all individuals, collectively as one nation, Israel. The Messiah’s role in this relationship is as God’s High Priest to the nation, bringing them back into communion with God by re-establishing the kingdom of David, rebuilding the temple and thereby bringing back the sacrificial system so we can be forgiven of our sins, in accordance with the Torah.

The main difference between the Christian trinity and the Jewish trinity is how the relationship with God is formed: Christians see their relationship as a personal one with the Messiah, through whom they have a relationship with God. Judaism sees itself as having a national relationship with God where the Messiah serves everyone as High Priest and King.

The one thing they have in common is that they are both looking at this from a human-to-God order, meaning that even though God sends the Messiah, our relationship is from humans through the Messiah to God.

I see a third trinity, one which is not us to God, but from God’s down to us.

And this trinity doesn’t include the Messiah or the Holy Spirit, but simply God and humanity.

In Genesis 22:18, God told Abraham that the entire world would be blessed by his descendants. A couple of hundred years later (in Exodus 19:6), God gives his Torah to Moses (this is the ONLY place in the entire Bible where God dictates, directly, how he wants us to worship him and how to treat each other) and he tells Moses to teach it to the Israelites because they will be his (God’s) nation of priests.

So far, we have seen two parts of the trinity: God will bless the world through Abraham, and through Moses gives us his instructions on how to act and charges the nation of Israel to learn them and teach them to the world. Now for the third part.

In Deuteronomy 28, God promises the Israelites (and, consequently, the world) all the blessings they will receive when they follow the instructions in the Torah.

So, God chooses a man through whom all the world will be blessed, then gives that man’s descendants (the bringer of the blessings) the instructions for how to receive those blessings, charging them to be priests to the world. Finally, God tells us exactly what those blessings will be when we do as he says.

This, to me, is the ultimate trinity: (1) God’s promise to bless the world, (2) he gives his instructions to his chosen people to bring to the world, and (3) through obedience to those instructions we receive the blessings.

This is a little complicated, so let’s go over it one last time:

Christians see a trinity of God to Messiah to people, with the Holy Spirit acting as a means to communicate what God wants us to do. Jews see God and the nation of Israel, with the Messiah acting as an intermediary to bring that nation back into communion with God.

I see a trinity where God chooses a man whose descendants become a nation of priests to bring God’s instructions to the world in order for everyone who obeys them to be blessed.

The problem with my proposed trinity is that it never worked out that way, which is why God had to send the Messiah. He sent him first to the Jews to get them back on board, then allowed him to go to the rest of the world. After all, Yeshua (Jesus) is a descendant of Abraham and one of the Nation of Israel, which is who God promised would bless the world. Yeshua is the epitome of the Cohen HaGadol, the High Priest, to both Israel and the world; and what better blessings could there ever be than the one God sent with his Messiah- eternal peace and joy?

Three trinities, three different forms of relationship between God and humanity, and none of them able to be accomplished until God sent Messiah Yeshua. But, when all is said and done, all three result in the same end product: communion with God and eternal joy and peace.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel and check out the books I have written (I just finished my 4th book, which debunks the traditional lies about Yeshua) and “Like” my Messianic Moment Facebook page. I also have a Facebook discussion group called Just God’s Word which anyone can join.

And one more thing: I always welcome comments, even if you disagree.

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

My Beef With Christianity

Lately, I have had a few Christian Facebook friends chide me, so to speak (and nicely, too, which I appreciate) about my somewhat bigoted attitude towards Christianity and Christians.

Let me set the record straight- I am not against Christians, I am against Christianity.

It is sort of like the adage “Hate the sin but love the sinner.”

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The one thing that has kept both Jews and Gentiles from knowing God and his Messiah, and has led millions wishing to worship God correctly down the path of destruction, has been Christianity.

The Jewish people have always tried to follow the Torah, which is the ONLY place throughout the entire Bible (that means Genesis through Revelation) where God, himself, tells us exactly what he wants us to do.

The Pharisees in the First Century taught the literal meaning, called the P’shat, and never went beyond that, using their influence and political power to rule over the Jews and creating many man-made rituals and rules (known today as Halacha) which have added much to the Torah’s requirements. In truth, this was a sinful thing to do because God told us, no less than twice, not to add or take away from anything in the Torah (Deut. 4:2 and 12:32).

Yeshua taught us the same things that the Pharisees did, but he deepened our knowledge of the laws by teaching the spiritual meaning, the Remes, through the use of Drashim (parables, or stories that have a moral lesson).

But that wasn’t the worse thing the Pharisees did: what was really terrible was the way they used their influence to steer people away from accepting Yeshua as the Messiah; they did this because as the Messiah, Yeshua would have replaced them as the social authority.

The letters Shaul (Paul) wrote only added to the confusion, and what happened was that by the end of the First Century, Yeshua was rebranded as a Gentile Savior, with many rules and rituals that had been created by men, such as changing the Sabbath day and rejecting much of what the Torah said.

By the time Constantine added his two shekels, what Yeshua taught was totally lost and a new religion, Christianity, was established.

But that isn’t the reason that Jews still reject him, today. Jews have, throughout the past two millennia, rejected Jesus as the Messiah because we have been taught that he created Christianity, and Christianity rejects the Torah and most everything that is Jewish.

And that has not just kept God’s chosen people, the ones the Messiah came for, from being able to know their Messiah but also millions upon millions of Gentiles who have been taught all the wrong things about the Jewish Messiah, now having been transformed (or should I say mutated) into a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryian godhead who forces people to convert to worshiping him (not God) and even proclaims itself as the only “true” religion.

There are even some sects of Christianity that proclaim the Jews have been rejected by God and that they, the Born Again Christians, are now the chosen people of God (this is called Replacement Theology).

Modern Christianity is not what Yeshua taught, and it is the major reason that Jews cannot be expected to accept their own Messiah, and Gentiles are rejecting God’s instructions.

This is my beef with Christianity.

I have nothing against Christians, and I know that all Christians are not the same, just as all Jews are not the same. I am Jewish, always have been and never will be anything else, but unlike most Jews, I know that Yeshua is the Messiah and I still live a Jewish life and worship as a Jew, in accordance with the way God said to in the Torah. I am the exception within Judaism.

I know many Christians who are the exception within Christianity; they know their Jewish Messiah and do not reject the Torah. Many live a Jewish lifestyle, many still observe the Christian holidays, and many demonstrate a sort of blending of the two.

My beef is with Christianity and the false teachings that it has promulgated over the centuries, which really has very little, if anything, to do with what Messiah Yeshua taught, and which, consequently, has prevented both Jews and Gentiles from knowing the real Messiah.

And if you profess to believe in God and that Yeshua (Jesus) is his Messiah, frankly speaking, you should have the same beef!

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, subscribe to my website and my YouTube channel, and please remember that I always welcome your comments.

And check out my newest book, The Good News About the Messiah for Jews, Debunking the Traditional Lies About the Jewish Messiah. It is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format, and you can get it easily by using the link on my website.

I’m done for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Are You Only Preaching to the Choir?

Before we start, I wanted to let you know I have published my 4th book, “The Good News About the Messiah for Jews”, Debunking the Traditional Lies About the Jewish Messiah. It is not just for Jews, of course, but for both Jews and Christians who have been told many wrong things about Yeshua (Jesus) over the millennia, and this book will speak to who he really is and what he really taught. I like all the books I have written, of course, but I think this one is my best work. It is available in paperback and Kindle format, and you can order it through Amazon or use the link on my website.

OK, let’s get to today’s message…

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Over the years I have had this ministry, which is going on 8 years now, I have very often heard feedback from people that when I talk about being called “Christ killer” they say they have been raised Christian and never heard anyone say that. I have also had Born Again Christians tell me things that I knew were subtly anti-Semitic, but they believed they were telling me just what Jesus had preached.

My wife was raised Catholic (I won’t even start on the historic treatment of Jews by Catholicism) and when I asked her if she knew anyone who called her Jewish friends “Christ killer”, she said she never heard them do that. My next question was whether or not, having spent 12 years going to Catholic school, she even knew any Jews growing up, and she said she didn’t. So, naturally, she never knew Gentiles used that derogatory accusation.

She, along with many other Gentiles I have known over my lifetime, has always been cocooned within her own religion. She hung around with Catholics and when she started working, she was with mostly Gentiles. I was one of the very first Jews she actually got to know well, so I tell her she has always had a heart for the Jewish people because the first Jew she really got to know, she married.

If you have not been exposed to the bigotry of the Christian world against Jews, or for that matter, the bigotry of Judaism against Christianity, consider yourself blessed, but at the same time somewhat naive or cocooned. Many Christians I know who do accept that the Torah is still valid and want to be closer to their Jewish roots are oblivious to the way Christianity has treated Jews, not just with physical atrocities such as the Crusades and the Inquisition but through misinterpretations of the Gospels and (especially) the letters Shaul (Paul) wrote.

I have been accused, nicely, of having the “wrong spirit” and thinking that all Christians follow the pagan influences still found within many Christian religions. And who do I get this from? The ones who have been taught the correct worship of God and have been raised in (for lack of a better term) a pro-Torah environment.

These God-fearing Gentiles who worship God more in line with the way he said to instead of what traditional Christianity has taught, accuse me of bigotry against Christians, which isn’t far from the truth.

I confess that I do not like Christianity, but that doesn’t mean I hate Christians. I hate sin but love the sinner, so in the same way, I understand most- actually the vast majority- of Christians have no idea at all about what is in the Bible or what Yeshua taught. All they know is what they were told.

And I feel the same way about Judaism: the Reform Jews reject much of what the Torah says, the Conservative Jews have Kosher homes but eat out at Bob Evans Restaurants, and the Orthodox treat the Talmud as scripture!

The main thing that Judaism and Christianity have in common, besides a belief in God, is that they both lie about who Jesus is and what he taught.

If you think what I have been saying is a bunch of fertilizer, then you must be one of those cocooned types, who has never really been exposed to the true darkness in the world and seen the animosity between Christians and Jews. Please believe me- it IS there!

And so what do we do about it? Well, for me, this ministry is what I am doing about it. I am trying to get the truth about who Yeshua was and what he taught. Most of all, I would love to be able to get Jews to know that modern Christianity has almost nothing to do with what Yeshua taught or what Shaul (Paul) meant when he wrote his letters. This ministry is devoted to giving all people the data they need to be able to make an informed decision about where they will spend eternity: the way we live now will decide where we go then.

That is why I almost never quote from an extra-biblical source, always using the Bible as my justification. And I do not take things out of context but do my best to be hermeneutically correct and biblically sound in my opinions. I trust the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) that I felt going into my body all those years ago to guide me.

And I am still wrong sometimes, so when I ask people for feedback I really mean it. I will always keep an open mind, but never change my faithful understanding or reject my desire to do as God said we should do, and the only place he did that was in the Torah.

God has no religion, just his instructions to all of us on how to worship him and treat each other. The Jewish people received these instructions first, but not exclusively: God told Moses to teach the people the Torah and that the Israelites will be his (God’s) nation of priests to the world (Exodus 19:6). Obviously, that means God intended the Jews to teach everyone else the Torah so that we could all do as God says.

Religion has rejected God’s ways and created its own ways- and I include Judaism- which is why there are so many different ways to worship God, so many different rituals and rites, and so many different rules about diet, holidays, and lifestyle.

It’s up to you to find out what the real world is like, how Judaism and Christianity have treated each other over the millennia, and take off the rose-colored glasses. The real world is an ignorant and evil place, and there are so many lies that have been floating around for millennia that we, those who know God, Yeshua, and recognize the validity of God’s instructions in the Torah, must be able to deal with this and teach these poor ignorant souls the truth so they have a chance for redemption.

Remember this: God told his prophets that if they did not tell the people what God says, then the people’s blood is on the prophet’s head. However, if he tells them what God says and they still reject him, then their blood is on their own head and the prophet is guiltless. I don’t know about you, but given the choice of being popular and guilty, or unpopular and guiltless, I choose unpopular.

One last thing: telling people the truth does NOT mean insulting them! When you tell the truth, you do not have the right to accuse anyone of being spiritually weak, evil, paganistic, or any other sort of attack against them as a person- that is wrong and a sin! You can attack their beliefs, you can attack their misunderstanding, but you can never attack them.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. Subscribe here and on my YouTube channel, as well, and please let me know if you like or dislike what I say. Hey, if you feel I am wrong don’t hesitate to tell me why. It’s always nice to know someone takes the time to respond.

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

Will God Supersede Free Will?

I have always thought that God gave us free will and would never do anything to abrogate our right to make our own decisions. But, reading through the Tanakh- especially the books of the prophets- I wonder if I am wrong about that.

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For instance, in Joel 3 God says that in the End Days he will pour out his Spirit on all people, even their slaves.

In Numbers 11, when Moses appoints the 70 Elders to help him in judging for the people, God pours his Spirit on the Elders.

When God chose Shaul as king, he poured his Spirit on him; not just once, but twice during his kingship (hence the old saying, “Is Shaul a prophet, too?”)

In Ezekiel 36, God says he will replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh.

I am sure there are other passages we could review, but these are enough to make me wonder if God will supersede the right to make our own decisions, which he gave us in the first place?

We are told that God is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow, and that because he is the holiest of holies he will never go against his word or change his mind about what is right or wrong. So, if that is true, can we trust him to stay the course with regards to free will after he tells us that there will be times he will overrule our own choices?

You know, I don’t really have an answer for that. I am not so sure now. I mean, I trust God to always know and do what is best for me, so if he does force me to think or act a certain way, which pouring out his Spirit or changing my heart will do, is that OK?

I can’t answer for anyone else, but my feeling is that whatever God wants to do for me or to me is OK with me. I trust that whatever he does it is always for my good because he tells me that he wants me to live (Ezekiel 18:23), so even if he seems to abrogate my right to make my own choices, it is for my own good.

This is weird for me. I have always said free will is for us to have and God will not change it, and that is my strongest argument against Predestination. And now, well…I still do not believe that everyone is predestined to heaven or hell, but if God says he is going to give us a new heart, that’s hard to believe without also accepting this is predetermined.

So, how can this be reconciled? How can we have free will and still be given a new heart, with God’s Spirit being forced upon us?

Give me a sec, here….hmmm….maybe, yes, you sure? Hmm…yes, I think that’s good. OK, here we go!

The one thing I was missing in this argument was that what God gives to us, we can refuse to keep. It’s called Apostasy. God can replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh, but we can always plaster over it. God can pour his Spirit on us, but we can always refuse to listen to it.

Free will still exists within us; even though God can cause his Spirit to indwell and change our heart, we can still refuse to work with what he gives us.

Look at Adam and Eve- there was no sin in them, but when given the chance, they took to sin like a duck to water. If they could do that, so can we. We are all born with iniquity (the desire to sin) in our very DNA. God said he would give us a new spirit and a new heart, but the DNA is not changing. Iniquity was found even in the most perfect of angels, Beelzebub, and if he could turn to sin, so can we.

And in 1 Samuel, after Shmuel anointed Shaul we are told that God gave him a new heart then and there! Yet, later we see how Shaul rejected God’s instructions and ended up sinning against God. So Shaul’s new heart and spirit didn’t last. How can that be? It must be that Shaul was still able to make his own decisions!

God will do whatever he thinks is best for you; even his punishments are delivered with mercy, designed not to be punitive but to bring you back onto the path of righteousness. It is up to you, up to me, up to each and every one of us to decide if we will do what is right.

When we do wrong, God will try to gently lead us with his staff; and if that doesn’t work, he will take the rod to our heads. And if that still doesn’t work, we will be on our own. The decision to remain faithful or to sin has, is, and always will be our own choice!

In Joel 3-4, God’s pouring of his Spirit will happen before the great Day of Adonai. So, he will do this to all humanity and THEN judge, telling us that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, so it must be that God will do these things without taking away our right to choose.

God will make himself known through this pouring out of his Spirit and changing of our hearts, but it will not supersede free will. It will be his last-ditch effort to help us save ourselves. Because God says that after he pours out his Spirit all who call on his name will be saved, we can imply there is the opportunity to not call on his name. If we didn’t have a choice, no one would have to call on his name, right? But, since we are given the chance to call on his name, we still have a choice.

Well, I am glad that I figured this one out because, I have to tell you, I was a little worried there when I started this message.

In case I lost you, sooner or later God will pour out his Spirit on everyone and give us a heart of flesh to replace the stony one that is there, but even after that, we will still have the chance to choose to call on his name or not.

We all have the right to decide whether to reject or accept God, and because he wants everyone to choose life, he will go as far as to give a new heart and pour out his Spirit on each and every one of us, but that will NOT supersede our free-will ability to refuse him.

No one knows when the Day of Adonai will come and the Bible tells us we can expect to see a worldwide spiritual awakening before it comes, but why wait? I think the best thing to do if you haven’t done it yet, is to accept God and his Messiah, Yeshua, and do it now!

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, subscribe on my website and my Youtube channel, buy my books, and let me know what you think of these messages. I really appreciate feedback, even if you disagree. Hey! You might be right, and if you can help me better understand God we will both be blessed.

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