If you go to a book store, to the Religion section, and look for a Bible, you will see many different versions. A quick Google search shows no less than 35 different versions of the Bible.

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Even more confusing is the fact that all these different versions have been translated into hundreds of different languages, each with its own challenge to express the proper meaning and not have it lost in translation, resulting in the situation where now we have so many different versions of the Bible in the world that it is impossible to find two different versions that match, exactly.

In fact, from what I understand about copyright laws, there is a limitation on how many verses can be written exactly the same (somewhere around 500) without written permission from the author, and they cannot be presented as an entire work.

In other words, it is illegal (at least here in the USA) to have two different versions of the Bible that are exactly the same.

So, nu? If the Complete Jewish Bible says one thing, and the New International Version says another thing, and the King James Version says something completely different, which one is correct?

I could give examples of these differences, but that would take more time than is necessary, so if you don’t believe there are significant differences, just use whichever search engine you like (Google, Bing, Mozilla, Yahoo, for example) and do a search for a few of your favorite verses, then compare the “hits” you get. I am sure you will be amazed at how different some of them are.

For me, there is one version I would never recommend, and those are the ones that call themselves extended language versions. The reason is that they are “filling in the gaps”, so to speak, of what is written that may be difficult to comprehend, or they just add a lot of words to try to make some things easier to understand. We are told, very plainly, in Deuteronomy (more than once, in fact) that we should not add to or remove any words from the book, so (in my opinion) by God’s command these extended language versions are just not the place where you want to get your information from.

So, again, who do we believe? How we can trust what we are told is “God’s Word” when the word, itself, is so different?

My belief is that we can trust what we read, no matter which version we read it from, so long as we read it trusting not in written words in a book, but in God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to give us the true understanding of what God is telling us.

And my belief is founded in what Isaiah heard God say, which was that God’s word will never return void (Isaiah 55:11)!

So, when people argue the Bible is untrustworthy because it has so many differences between different versions, or that the Zachariah mentioned in Luke is not the same Zachariah mentioned in Matthew or any other number of apparent discrepancies within the Bible and between Bibles, my reply is that human error will be found in anything humans do, but God can overcome human error.

The way God does this is through his Holy Spirit in those who have accepted it, and USE it when reading the Bible. Yes, we can have the Holy Spirit but ignore it, if we choose to, and often (too often!) I have heard people say things that aren’t from the Bible, but from their own flesh, yet they use the Bible to justify what they want.

I am sure you have run into this, as well- someone who clearly has decided what they want the Bible to mean, then pull passages and verses out of context in order to prove their point.

You usually cannot argue effectively with these people because they are the living example of the old saying “I have already made up my mind- don’t confuse me with facts.”

The most important thing about the Bible is that it tells us how to worship God and how God wants us to treat each other. God doesn’t have any religion, just his instructions to us; and when I say “us”, I don’t mean just Jews, I mean everyone. God told Moses that the Israelites would be his nation of priests (Exodus 19:6), which means priests to the world, and as such the instructions God gave to the Jewish people through Moses are meant to be taught to the world. That is why he told Abraham, long before the Torah was given, that his descendants would be a blessing to the world.

Let’s face it, salvation is the goal we all want, and every Bible ever written will have one thing that will always be understood to have the same meaning: Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. In other words, it is through faith, and faith alone, that we can be saved.

The problems start after this, usually with the confusion about faith and works, but that’s for a different message.

The Bible is not God- it is a book about God. And since it is written by humans, it will have faults. The most dependable word of God is the Torah, and I mean a Hebrew Torah because of all the painstaking steps that are employed when copying one Torah to another; for example, did you know that when the Sofer (Scribe) copies one new Torah from another, one of the tests they use to ensure accuracy is that every single letter is counted to make sure nothing is missing?

Read the Bible, read whichever version you find easiest to understand, but never read it without first praying to God to give you HIS understanding of what the words are supposed to mean. Remember that Yeshua didn’t teach just the P’shat, which means the literal meaning of the words, but he taught the Remes, which is the deeper, spiritual meaning of the words, so don’t let different words or what seem to be discrepancies confuse you.

Know what God wants you to learn from his word by praying for guidance by, and listening to, the Ruach HaKodesh, which God will help you hear when you ask him to do so.

Thank you for being here, please subscribe and check out the entire website. And don’t be shy about making comments- I always welcome discussion.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

(I am at the dealership this morning getting work done on my car so there will be no video for today’s message. )

I am going to be talking to you, but about me.

I have this problem with food: I don’t eat “bad”, really, and I don’t have a weight problem, but I do like to eat and I am heavier than I should be. The real problem is that when I overeat, I enjoy that feeling more than when I eat the correct portion and do what I know to be right.

So what, right? I mean, there are a lot worse sins to commit than a little food indulgence. And you’re right, but the question I want to drash about for today’s message is why, at any level, does it seem to be that when we do what is wrong it “feels” better than the sense of accomplishment we get when we do what is right?

Now, maybe I am making an improper assumption because I believe that everyone reading this has had a similar experience. Maybe I am not the case, but the exception, when I confess that more times than not, when I do what is not right (to some degree) I get more emotional and/or physical satisfaction than when I do the right thing.

This isn’t always the case. I carry MRE’s (ready to eat meals, the ones used by the military) in my car so when I am at a stop light and there is a (supposedly) homeless person there, I offer them a meal. I feel really good when I do that, both emotionally and spiritually.

On the other hand, when I overeat I know I have done something wrong because I haven’t shown the proper self-control, which we will all need to have when the End Days come. I need to be able to control my emotional desires, and when I eat to a point past full, well into satiety, I know I really shouldn’t have.

But, Oy! That feeling of a full stomach is, well, pardon the expression…heavenly.

There are also times I get angry and channel my Marine Corps vocabulary, and even though I know I shouldn’t do that, it just feels so good to let it out.

Do you also have similar experiences? Do you also do things that make you feel good but you know are wrong?

I suppose that’s why throughout the Tanakh we are told that no one is good and all sin. Iniquity was found even in the most beautiful of angels (yes, I am talking about the Father of all Lies, that old devil, himself, HaSatan.) And, for the record, iniquity isn’t sin- it is the desire to sin.

God told Cain that sin crouches at his door and he must master it, so is there an extra large portion of french fries in the kitchen with my name on them? If I eat the giant hoagie instead of the medium sized one, is that sinful? Not necessarily, but lack of self-control is the foundation upon which sin is built.

So what is the answer? It is simple: when we realize and accept that feeling good when you do wrong is the natural order of things, that understanding of why we do it will help us to develop the level of self-control which will eventually allow us to overcome sin. Never all of it, but a little more, each day.

We are sinners from the moment we exit the womb, and only with the help of God through his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) can we overcome sin. If you are going to say that sin was overcome with the sacrifice of the Messiah, Yeshua, you are wrong. His sacrifice did not overcome sin- it gave us the opportunity to be forgiven of the sin we commit. The only one who can overcome sin is you. We are totally responsible for what we do and say, and therefor we are the ones who must develop the self-control to keep ourselves from doing that which we know to be wrong.

Any thing that is not right in the eyes of the Lord is something that will, probably, feel good in our flesh.

The good news is that even if it feels good in your flesh, when it feels bad in your spirit, you are on the right track. You need to work on that spiritual feeling, and remind yourself (as I do, constantly) that it is better to feel spiritually good than it is to feel physically satisfied. The physical is only for the here and now, which is nothing more than a mist, and is over faster than the blink of an eye, but that spiritual feel-good feeling will last throughout eternity.

So, as we are told in the Bible (Hebrews 12:2), we must keep our eyes on Yeshua, meaning to maintain an attitude of righteousness and run the good race. That means, in plain language, even if it feels better to do wrong, it is still wrong and we must call upon the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to overcome the innate desire to do what feels good but is not good to do.

I pray for forgiveness every day, in Yeshua’s name (of course!), and also for the strength to see and conquer sin before I do it. I confess it doesn’t always work out that way, but as I said, so long as we feel, in our spirit, that we need to do better, then we are walking the proper path, and we ARE keeping our eyes on Yeshua. Do not let the Enemy fool you into thinking that it is a waste, and what feels good must be good- that is the lie that leads to death.

The truth is that what feels good in the body is more likely bad for the spirit, and when we realize this and take it to heart, we will improve.

As I often say, and will end with today:

We can never be sinless, but we can always sin less.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, check out my books, and I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

In the last couple of decades, our government has declared that it supports child sacrifice, which we call abortion, something that God not only says he hates but something that never even entered his mind (Lev. 18:21; Deut. 18:10; Jer. 7:31, just to name a few places where God said that.)

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In the last couple of decades, our government declared that the 10 Commandments have no place in our judicial system.

In the last couple of decades, our government has made it legal and supports the growing homosexual movement, which includes transgender operations. What is worse is that now there are members of the government, including a candidate for the Presidency, who openly state they will support a pre-pubescent child’s desire to have a transgender operation performed!

In the last couple of decades, our government has declared that God has no place in our school system.

Today, some of our state governors are supporting rioting, looting and murder within their cities, even releasing from jail those who have committed these crimes but imprisoning people who are trying to make a living by giving haircuts. And all the while trying to reduce their police force, which can only result in less protection for their citizens, the very people who elected them, trusting that their leaders would protect them.

Currently, using a virus scare as an excuse, we aren’t even allowed to go to our house of worship to honor God.

Homosexuality, child sacrifice, sexual deviancy, and anarchy are not just being condoned, but supported and funded by the government.

We, the United States of America, have removed God from our country.

So the question is: how much longer will God allow this?

We know from reading the Bible that God is a patient and compassionate God, understanding our weaknesses and he is not just willing to forgive, but God desires to do so (Ezekiel 18.) Because of his great compassion, when evil controls his people (as it is doing today) he doesn’t allow it because he can’t do anything about it, he allows it to continue so we have a chance to repent before he does something about it.

He allowed the Northern kingdom (Shomron, also called Israel) to be sinful from the moment it was formed under Yarovam, the son of N’vat, for many generations until he finally had to act.

He allowed the Southern Kingdom, called Judea, to sin until the sins of King Manasseh were too great to ignore anymore, his rulership being so evil and sinful that God could no longer hold back his punishment (2 Kings 21:1-18.)

So, again, I ask (in light of all that America has done in the past 60 years or so): is God still with us? I believe this upcoming election will provide the answer.

I do not like having politics in my messages, as those of you who are followers will attest, but right now it isn’t really politics anymore: for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, we are in the battle between godly and satanic.

We have on one hand a president who has been a friend to Israel, tried to keep God in his speeches, tried to protect his people from foreign influences and attacks, and tried to help his people have a better life by giving them the opportunity to become self-reliant.

On the other hand, we have a political party that has done nothing but tried to stop the president from doing these things; a party that endorses child sacrifice, homosexuality, transgenderism, has removed God from our courts and schools, denies us to right to worship together, and is offering as our leaders, those who represent America, a man who has been in office for 47 years and done nothing, and a woman who has slept her way to power and openly declared that anyone who doesn’t vote for her, when she wins will be punished.

If this ain’t God verse Satan, I don’t know what is.

That is why I believe this election is going to be a watermark in American history. Not just because of the polarization we have within our country, but because it will place in power either a godly agenda, or a satanic agenda.

If the Democrats win, that will be the sign (for me) that this country is in the same place that Judea was after the kingship of Manasseh: there will be no more time for repentance.

You may say “But God never runs out of patience!”, and you’re right, he has unlimited patience, but his patience doesn’t overrule his holiness and his holiness demands that he make good on his promises. And God has promised, first to Abraham, then the other Patriarchs, to David, Solomon, and the rest of the kings he appointed over his people, that if they reject him, he will reject them.

And God always keeps his promises.

The US of A has rejected God for a while now, and this election will show us whether or not we have finally crossed the line and passed the point of no return, which is when repentence is no longer available and all that is left is judgment.

I am voting for what I believe is right in God’s eyes, as I always have. In past elections, where I didn’t see either side as godly, I abstained, which is a vote in and of itself: it is a vote for neither. If you don’t like Trump or Biden, then I would ask you to please abstain. I believe it is better to not vote than to vote for evil, for if you do then you have sinned on two levels: you have supported evil, which is a rejection of God, and if you vote for Biden just to not vote for Trump, you have hated in your heart, which is murder.

It’s also childishly spiteful and an insult to those who have fought and died so you can choose who to vote for.

I am anxious, in every meaning of that word, to see what happens in the next few weeks, because this election will tell us if we still have a chance for survival, or if we are in the same boat with Manasseh.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know, check out my books, and when you vote, please don’t vote for or against a person but vote for an agenda; hopefully, one that is right in God’s eyes.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Tonight begins Sukkot, the third pilgrimage festival and the last High Holy Day for this year.

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The traditional reading on the first day of Sukkot is Zachariah 14:1-21. This passage talks of a terrible future, when the whole world comes against Jerusalem. Even Judah will fight against the Holy City! At that time there won’t be night or day, and there will be a terrible plague sent by God against all those who come against Jerusalem. At the end of it all, whoever survives will go to Jerusalem for the festival of Sukkot, and anyone refusing to come will not receive rain.

Wow! Talk about your scary End Times prophecy!

We could say that much of what is supposed to happen is already happening. The whole world, pretty much, is against Israel, even within the United States, despite the current administration’s support. And what about that prophecy of Judah coming against Jerusalem? How could anyone think that a tribe of Israel would fight against their own Holy City?

Yet that is happening, today. There are many Jewish members of the Democratic Party who support their party, which has constantly come out against Jerusalem and Israel. There are Congress members, such as Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and even Bernie Sanders (a JEW!) who have been very vocal about their hatred of Israel and Jews.

These people also support abortion up to the 9th month, which should be, in anyone’s book, murder. Remember what God said about child sacrifice? Think about it!

Sukkot is a joyous festival, memorializing how God took care of his people while they traveled in the desert for some 40 years, which is why we build and (should) live in a Sukkah for the entire week. Most people today who do build a Sukkah will eat one or more meals in it and often allow the children to sleep in it.

On the 8th day, the day after Sukkot is over, we celebrate Simchat Torah (Joy of Torah), also called Shemini Atzeret (the 8th Day) which is the end of the annual reading cycle of the Torah. During the service, we read the last few lines of Deuteronomy, then as the people dance and sing, the Torah is (carefully) rolled back to the very beginning, and we read the first line or two of Genesis. This is also a joyful celebration because we get to read the Torah, all over again.

And let me tell you, if you want to get forearms that look like Popeye’s, you can by rolling back a Torah scroll!

God has always taken care of those who fear (meaning worship) him. Even when we fail to do as God wants, which the Israelites did SO many times, he is not just willing to forgive us, but actually desires to do so. God wants so much to do good for us that he is just waiting for us to ask for forgiveness so he can be in communion with us, and we with him. And he wants us all to have eternal life, which he tells us in Ezekiel 18:23.

But there is still this prophecy from Zachariah. We are in for some pretty terrible times ahead. Maybe we are already in it, maybe we are just starting to get into it, or maybe what is happening today is just more of the same and we are nowhere near it. It doesn’t really matter because you need to be ready for it, NOW. I mean you need to know God and his Messiah, Yeshua. I mean you need to get your spiritual life in order and make sure that in the physical world you do, and support those who do, godly things and not those who work against God’s commandments.

I almost never talk politics in my messages, but this upcoming election is more than just politics. In my opinion, as a life-long student of history, it is as important as the 1864 election, and America is just as polarized as the people were back then. We aren’t just voting for a person, we are voting for a set of morals, an agenda of protecting Americans against invaders, or protecting the invaders. We are choosing an administration that wants to help Americans pull themselves up, even though it means taking away certain government support, or an administration that wants to give Americans everything they need and, thereby, subjugate them to a form of financial slavery by enabling them to stay on welfare instead of becoming financially self-supporting. It means choosing an administration that is supporting Israel or one that hates Israel.

It means the difference between an administration that wants to protect children or one that supports sacrificing children to Molech.

You must decide for yourselves, and I only ask that whichever decision you make, whether it be about a President or about God, please don’t make your decision based solely on your emotions. Research both sides of the story, listen to people, and read the Bible to see what is right and what is wrong, then you can make a decision based on information, not on emotion.

Please decide as if your life will depend on it, because in both this world and the world to come, it will!

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, check out my books and share these messages with everyone you know, even people you don’t like.

Until next time, Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!