The world needs scientific proof in order to believe in anything. As such, to consider if God is alive or not, especially for those atheists or agnostics in the crowd, we need to look at what science identifies as being “alive”.

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

For the purposes of this discussion, let’s work with what Google Ai describes as being alive:

“In science, being alive isn’t defined by one single trait but by a collection of characteristics, including being cellular, organized, metabolizing energy, maintaining homeostasis (stable internal state), growing, responding to stimuli, reproducing, and evolving over time, essentially a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution. While non-living things might show one or two of these, only living organisms display all of them as an integrated system. “

First off, let’s ignore the non-biblical element that Google states as part of being alive, specifically the reference to “Darwinian evolution”, and just redefine that as being able to evolve.

For the world to believe something is alive, it must meet all the above requirements. So, nu? Does God meet those requirements for life?

God never changes so he certainly meets the requirement for maintaining homeostasis, and he also is very organized (I mean, he created everything to work in harmony: that represents an A-level of organization), and he definitely responds to stimuli, such as prayers and sin.

But he isn’t growing; in fact, he can’t grow because he is omnipresent, and as such is already everywhere at once, so growth is impossible because he is already as large as everything that exists.

He is not cellular because he is spirit, and as such also does not qualify under the idea that he metabolizes energy because he IS energy!

And he is the one and only God; as such, he does not reproduce because… he is the one and only (sound familiar), and since he never changes, he cannot evolve.

So, there you have it- according to science, God is not alive.

Back in the 1960’s, there was actually a Christian movement stating that God is dead (yes, this was radical but still and all, Christian), proposing that traditional belief in a transcendent God was obsolete in a secular world, urging Christians to find meaning through human action and secular life. This was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s phrase “God is dead,” and championed by theologians like Thomas J. J. Altizer and William Hamilton. 

But if God is dead, then he must of, at one point, been alive and being God, since we know that God is omnipotent, he can’t die. So to be dead, he had to be alive, and if God was alive, being God, he couldn’t die.

So what is it: is he alive or is he dead, or was he ever really anything?

The answer to all this is simple: God is not alive or dead because he is not flesh, he is an eternal spirit.

One of the conditions for life was metabolizing energy, but God is energy. His existence is beyond the confines of physics or science, which are the only way mortal beings (that’s you and me) can understand their surroundings.

God is not alive or dead, he just IS!

In Exodus 3:14, God tells Moses exactly what I just said when he describes himself:

“God said to Moshe, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” (I am what I am) and added, “Here is what to say to the people of Isra’el: ‘Ehyeh [I Am] has sent me to you…’

God is not alive and he is not dead: as he states, he IS.

In Hebrew we say: הָיָה (hayah), הוֹוֶה (hoveh) ויִהְיֶה (v’yihyeh) (he is, he was, and he always will be).

This is why it is so difficult for human beings to understand him, or to believe in him because he does not fit into anything we can understand. That is also why we continually try to reduce him to something we can understand, reducing his omnipotence, his authority, and even interpreting from the Bible what we want him to be saying, instead of taking what he says for what it is.

That is why there are so many different religions all professing to worship the one, unchanging God- we have continually tried to pigeon-hole him into what we want him to be instead of accepting him for who and what he is- beyond human understanding and above our rules for existence.

Only those who faithfully accept that we cannot understand God will be able to believe in his existence, and thereby find joy in obedience to his Torah.

Now, that doesn’t mean people who are zealous for their own religion can’t ever find joy, but what they think is joy in obedience to God is really a joy in obedience to their religion (which more often than not is in opposition to God). They are misled by their devotion to a religion instead of devotion to God because they don’t really know what God says to do (in the Torah), and as such their ignorantly joyful rejection of God will turn to sorrow when they meet him at Judgement Day.

And that is truly sad, and a disaster for everyone who thinks they are saved, but can’t really be saved because they follow a religion and not God.

But that is for another discussion.

So, if anyone asks if God exists, you can say he does but not on the same plane of existence we humans are on. He can interact with us, and we can interact with him, but only at his discretion.

God is not alive or dead, he just IS. That is hard to wrap our mortal heads around, that is what it is: accept that fact and you will be on the right track.

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

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

There are some 613 commandments in the Torah, and according to the brother of the Messiah, Yacov (James 2:10), to violate even just one of them is the same as having violated the entire Torah.

But in modern times, are all the Torah commandments still relevant?

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

The answer is that every commandment in the Torah is still valid, still relevant, and still required by every single person who professes to worship the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

And yes, that means you Born-Again Christians, as well!

However, what we need to consider is also that these commandments were written thousands of years ago, and to a people who were just learning how to live after some 400 years of having no options at all, as to what they can or can’t do.

Consequently, the Torah was written to identify right from wrong to a people who were a new-born nation. But what about now? We are some 3500 years older, so is every commandment still valid, especially considering we live in countries that have a constitution and their own penal code and civil laws?

For example, the Torah says a child who curses his parents should be stoned to death, but if Junior tells Daddy to get lost, and Dad stones him to death in view of the entire neighborhood, I don’t think the judge at his trial will let him go free because the Torah said what he did was acceptable.

So, do we take the punishments in the Torah literally, and potentially spend our lives in jail for obeying God, or do we “adjust” those punishments to fit into the modern world?

We also have to understand the purpose behind those commandments: for example, the “eye for an eye” commandment has been considered by the Rabbis to be a figurative statement and not to be taken literally. The idea is that the punishment should fit the crime, so stealing bread may get be punished with time in jail or making restitution, while murder will have a much more severe punishment, possibly death.

I couldn’t find anything that states absolutely how the Torah is redefined with regards to whatever society the Jewish people are living in at any given time. What I did find is that the Torah text is considered to be unchanging, but what can be flexible is the interpretation of those laws and regulations with regard to how they are applied, and that is found in the Talmud (also known as the “Oral Law”).

The Talmud is a very old and important book, composed of two main sections , the Gemara and the Mishna. The Mishna was the first compilation of rabbinic commentary on how to obey the laws in the Torah, and the Gemara came later to explain how to apply the Mishna.

Another way to define the difference between the two is that the Mishnah is the foundational text of Jewish law, a concise compilation of rabbinic legal discussions, while the Gemara is the extensive commentary, analysis, and debate on the Mishnah.

Together they form the Talmud (there are two versions, the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud); the earliest version of the Mishna dates back to around 200 CE, and the combined texts, forming the complete Talmud, was finalized sometime between the 5th and 6th Centuries CE.

Studying the Talmud is something that Jewish children begin almost as soon as they are old enough to understand it, around 7-8 years of age. And it is good that they start that young, because the Talmud has 2,711 double sided pages, and to learn 1 page a day (using the Daf Yomi cycle), it takes over seven years to complete.

The Talmud codifies Halakha (The Way to Walk), which is where we go when we have a question regarding how to apply the Torah. Halakha is an essential part of Orthodox and Chasidic Judaism, and in many ways Halakah is considered as important as scripture by Orthodox Jews.

So, the Torah text never changes, and the Talmud text never changes, but the interpretation of those texts does change, adjusted to whatever society and times the people are living in.

That’s a hard thing to wrap one’s head around: what the Torah says is absolutely the word of God, and the Talmud reconciles Torah laws to man-made laws through how those Torah commands are interpreted.

In other words, what God says is absolutely true and to violate any of his laws is to violate the entire Torah, yet we can obey what some Rabbi’s say in applying those laws and God will be OK with that.

I’m sorry, but that sounds like a cop-out to me.

On the other hand, we can’t really kill someone for sleeping with our spouse and get away with it just because the Torah says that is what we are supposed to do.

I wish I had an absolute answer, but I don’t.

I guess it comes down to this: we need to know the Torah so we can’t be taught false doctrine, and we need to know the Torah so we can understand who God is and how he wants us to worship him and treat each other. And we need to do our best to obey God’s word within the laws of the land we live in.

If adultery is against the law where we live, and the courts require the death penalty, then that is fine and in accordance with the Torah. But, if where we live finds adultery not to be a violation of any civil laws, then we have to live within those laws.

Maybe we could interpret the Torah to mean what must be killed is the marriage, and not the person who ruined it by committing adultery?

I know that sounds a little silly, but we are in unknown territory here, caught between obeying a law first created in a society that had no real system of jurisprudence and modern society, with a very defined system of jurisprudence.

I believe that God recognizes man-made laws, and as long as they are in relation to his laws, even if some of those Torah laws have to be “toned down” a bit (i.e., divorce instead of death), I think God will be okay with that.

From what I know of God, he is more interested in understanding and living with in the spirit (Remes) of his law, which is what Yeshua was teaching us.

I think it comes down to the punishment should fit the crime, and the interpretation of what punishment fits, well… that will be based on what the Torah says, what Halakha says, and what the society in which we live says.

It will be up to us to reconcile those three as best as we can, staying within the spirit of the Torah and the literal laws of the society.

I have to figure that would be OK with God, otherwise someone in total obedience to the Torah might end up spending their life in jail.

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

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

In his second letter written to believers, Kefa (Peter) warned against something that I believe the early Gentile leaders (of what was becoming Christianity) failed to listen to.   

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

So, nu?  What was this warning? It was given near the very end of the letter, in Chapter 3, verse 16.

Kefa was talking about how what may seem like God not taking any action to bring about the Day of Judgment, really was God being patient and giving those who are sinning the chance to repent, but he reminds them that the day will come swiftly and without any warning. Therefore, they should be ready by always acting faithfully and leading godly lives, as Kefa’s good friend, Shaul (Paul) has written to them.

Now, here we come to the warning, and verse 16 goes like this (CJB):

Indeed, he speaks about these things in all his letters. They contain some things that are hard to understand, things which the uninstructed and unstable distort, to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Christianity has pretty much done exactly what Kefa said they shouldn’t do, using Shaul’s letters as a foundation for teaching to ignore the Torah, which was never his intention.
What they have done is exactly the wrong thing- they have ignored most of the Torah and justified that by misusing Shaul’s letters (especially Romans) to teach the Torah is not necessary for Gentiles.

More than that, Christianity teaches that Yeshua lived the Torah perfectly as an example to all of us, then did away with it.

I know, I know…when you think about it, how can anyone believe that makes any sense, at all? I mean, if Yeshua was showing us all how to live Torah correctly, why bother if he was going to do away with it?  

That’s like going to school to learn how to repair something that no longer exists or is in use anywhere.

But, I digress… 

If you are fair-minded and open to hearing something different than what you have been taught, I think as you review the tenets and foundations of Christianity you will realize that it isn’t based on anything other than what Shaul wrote, with some occasional reference to the 10 Commandments.

Basically, they say Christians do not have to follow the law of Moses but the Law of Christ (for the record, the Laws of Moses aren’t really his laws but the laws of God, Almighty: Moses only wrote them down).  

Okay, well, then… what is Christ’s law?

The only time Yeshua proclaimed the importance of following a law is when he said the two most important laws are to love the Lord and to love each other (Matthew 22:37-40). 

Well, those aren’t really his laws because God said to love each other in Leviticus 19:18, and the Torah says to love the Lord in Deuteronomy 6:5. So, really, the only “Law of Christ” is not his law, but God’s law.

This is one example of the many ways that Christianity misused Shaul’s letters, ignoring Kefa’s warning, in that the so-called “Law of Christ” is actually the Torah- the very thing they say to ignore!

My experience with most Christians, whether born-again or of the more standard variety (traditional Catholics, Protestants, Episcopalians, etc.) is that almost to a fault, when we talk about the Trinity, or holidays, or what God wants from us, or names for God, they all quote either from John’s Gospel (which I have often shown to be a false gospel) or the letters Shaul wrote.  

Now, Shaul did use many quotes from the Tanakh, which is the only real scripture in any of his letters, but he never came right out and said, “God told me to tell you… (whatever)”.

The only place in the entire Bible where we read that God dictates, directly, how the people must live or worship is in the Torah.

So, Shaul never did get any direct instructions from God, or Yeshua for that matter, except maybe that Yeshua told him to go to Damascus and find a man named Ananias.

The letters Shaul wrote are not God-breathed scripture.

When you read them, without already knowing what they are supposed to mean, you can see that they are merely managerial directives to congregations of Gentile believers who were having issues of faith and inter-personal relationship problems. And, in almost every letter, he had to address the pressure they were put under by the Jewish believers to make total conversion (specifically B’rit Milah/Circumcision) instead of learning how to live a Torah observant life step-by-step, which is what Saul was doing with them.

He knew that if these hedonistic pagans had to give it all up at once, the paradigm shift in lifestyle would be so great as to cause many to fall away before they had a chance to be saved.

So, what Christianity has done is to misuse Shaul’s letters, even though Kefa warned them, to eventually create a new religion that is anti-Torah.

And if something is anti-Torah, it is anti-God.  

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

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

I recently posted about Christmas (this lesson is NOT about Christmas, so don’t even start on that) and a response I received from many people made me realize that there seems to be confusion about something in the Book of Deuteronomy.

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

The verse that I was referred to by many people when I was talking about that holiday whose name shall not be spoken is Deuteronomy 4:2, which states (CJB):

In order to obey the mitzvot of Adonai your God which I am giving you, do not add to what I am saying, and do not subtract from it.
(For those who may not be familiar with Hebrew, “mitzvot“, as used here, means “commandments”)

I also checked no less than 5 other versions of the Bible, and in all cases, what was not to be added to or taken away from were God’s “commandments“.

I interpret that as saying what are not to be changed are the commandments, such as the Kosher laws in Leviticus 11, or the Holy Days in Leviticus 23, or any of the commandments that are throughout the Torah.

In other words, what is in the Torah is what we must do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do more.

For instance, what about the holidays (meaning man-made celebrations) that have become part and parcel of worship over the centuries?

I’m talking about Simchat Torah (Joy of Torah) celebrated after Sukkot on the eighth day , or Purim (this holiday was never commanded by God to be celebrated), or Hanukkah (this one’s not even in the Bible, except for the Apocrypha, and only the Catholics use that), or even that holiday whose name shall not be spoken.

This brought me to the question of today’s message: is the Torah the only form of worship we are allowed, essentially restricting our opportunity to thank God, or is the Torah just the foundation, the starting point, the least we must do when we wish to worship God?

According to those who refuse to worship that holiday, validating their position by quoting Deut. 4:2, what they are saying is that any holiday not specifically mentioned in the Torah is a sin.

Besides that, they are also saying that nearly every Orthodox and Chasidic Jew, not to mention any other sects who follow Halacha, are also sinning because if you want to know what adding to a commandment is like, then research all the rules and restrictions that Halacha has! Oy!

Look, people, I can’t see God restricting our ability to demonstrate our love and appreciation for all he is and all he has done, and IS doing, by saying the only way we can celebrate him is by those 7 specific days, and only in those specific ways.

I mean, really? Does that make any sense to you?

I think that commandment in Deuteronomy was meant specifically to identify the least we should do with regard to worshiping God. It is a foundation for us to build on, not the entire structure within which we cannot go outside of.

How can honoring God ever be wrong? How can wanting to celebrate the wonderful things he has done for us be sinful?

How could anyone think that if we created a new holiday to celebrate God or to honor his Messiah that God would reject that as sinful? And if we think we are doing right by celebrating what God has done (which includes sending us his Messiah), how many millions of faithful believers in God and Messiah Yeshua will be punished at Judgement Day?

I don’t know about you, but to me it is a really frightening thought that creating celebrations to thank God for all he has done will send us to hell!

Sorry, but that just can not be!

I believe from all that I have read about God in the Bible that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will not reject ANY form of worship or ANY celebration that is created by people with the intention to be thankful and/or give worship to him for what he does.

And that includes ANYTHING he does, has done, or even plans to do. If a man-made holiday has been created as a form of worship, thanks, or dedication to God, I can’t see God rejecting that just because it isn’t specified in the Torah.

No, people, I am confident in saying that the Torah is only the foundation for proper worship, and any celebration we create designed to give thanks to God that doesn’t change an existing commandment is not only acceptable to God, but appreciated.

Thank you for being here and please remember to “like” and comment on these messages so that they get more Internet exposure, and share them with everyone you know, even non-believers, Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

What is a “gospel”? According to a few different dictionary definitions I looked up, it is anything from the revelation of Christ to the first 4 books of the New Covenant, to just being a good story. I have also heard people use the word “gospel” as referring to something completely trustworthy.

But when we consider the Gospels, those first 4 books in the New Covenant, are they really totally trustworthy?

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

Now, before anyone starts to accuse me of blasphemy, let’s remember that the truth is tough enough to take a little testing. In fact, if we aren’t willing to test what we consider to be the truth, we are setting ourselves up to believe in a lie.

The gospels are considered to be the factual account of the life and ministry of Yeshua (Jesus), and the books were (supposedly) eye-witness accounts of the teachings and events during Yeshua’s ministry on the earth, written by his disciples named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

But are they really eye-witness accounts? The answer is… NO, they are not all eye-witnessed accounts of the life and ministry of Yeshua.

I did a “Google search” asking about the writers of the gospels, and was somewhat surprised (but not really, since I always thought this was the case) that modern scholars consider the books were written anonymously and attributed to the names of his disciples in order to lend authority to the books.

Matthew and John are stated in both Luke and Mark to be one of the 12 men Yeshua chose to be in his “inner circle”, but Mark and Luke weren’t given that privilege.

When you research the gospels, you will see that Matthew is considered to be the most “Jewish” of the gospels, which means that if his is the most Jewish, then one of them has to be the least Jewish. In my opinion, that is the gospel of John, which I won’t go into here but I believe was written by a Gentile Christian and is a false gospel, one designed to make Jesus appear more Christian than Jewish.

From what I could find, Mark was an assistant to Peter and Luke a travelling companion of Paul, but neither of those two are verifiably eye-witnesses to the many things we read about in their gospel.

In fact, we are told by Luke at the very beginning of his gospel that he did not witness any of the events he is writing about but has collected stories which have been handed down over the years.

In other words, everything in the gospel of Luke is not an eye-witnessed account, but rather something between third party hearsay and gossip.

In my book, “Back to Basics: God’s Word vs. Religion”, I start the Introduction with this question:

Have you ever told a funny story at a party, later have it circulate back to you, only then to hear it transformed into something almost unrecognizable from the story you told?

My point is that an account that has been repeated and repeated by many different people is not reliable. And the gospels were written by people who heard it from people who heard it from people who…well, no one will ever know how many times these stories have been circulated, will they? And although there are many commonalities within the gospels, such as the parables and miraculous events, the question remains:
“How can we trust what we read in the gospels as being legitimately what Yeshua said or did?”

I do believe that because of the similarities within the gospels, we can consider the telling of the parables and most events that are repeated in all four of these books to be reliable enough to be accepted as accurate.

And the minute differences that exist are only to be expected because these are not eye-witnessed accounts. Heck, ask any investigator and they will confirm that if 6 people see the exact same event at the exact same time, you will get 6 different stories, so imagine how much difference there might be when people relate what they heard but might not have ever seen.

So, what does this mean to readers of the gospels who want to know who Yeshua is and what he taught? If these gospels are actually just a collection of hearsay, having many similarities but, still and all, just stories handed down, what can we believe? Where does that leave us?

It leaves us with this: it is up to each and every one of us to become very familiar with all four gospels so that we can see what is similar and thereby probably trustworthy, and what is not similar to the other gospels. That which is unique is something we might want to doubt its validity.

Remember, there was a significant separation between the Jewish followers of Yeshua and the Gentile followers who didn’t really start to join this Jewish sect until after Yeshua was already at God’s right hand. By the end of that first century, most of the Jewish disciples and followers were dead, and what had been a Jewish sect was now mutating into a Gentile religion that rejected most of what the Torah said and replaced God’s Holy Days and instructions for righteous living with totally different holidays and canon.

The gospels were written sometime between 70 and 100 AD, some 30+ years after Yeshua had risen to heaven, so what he said and did had been handed down, orally, for decades. Not to mention that these are written by people, not dictated by God or even close to being considered God-breathed scripture.

The truth is that God doesn’t even speak anywhere in the entire New Covenant, except at the immersion of Yeshua and at the transfiguration when Yeshua is on the mountain and visited by Moses and Elijah, and all he says then is that Yeshua is his son.

You may ask, am I saying to ignore the gospels, that they are unreliable, or that they should be rejected?

No, not rejected, but not accepted as the gospel truth (pun intended).

When we read the gospels, we need to do so with the understanding that these are handed-down stories about a man and what he taught others regarding the Torah and God. You should always take what you read with a grain of salt, as they say, and even though I do believe that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, and that the miraculous events described as being done by Yeshua did happen, I am somewhat suspect of the significant differences I find in different gospels, most of which I find between the gospel of John and the other three gospels.

And, for the record, many scholars agree that John’s gospel is significantly different from the other three, which I have already written about a few times so you can search my website if you are interested in learning more about that.

Read the gospels, accept what you will but don’t be afraid to question what sounds “off”. Even though faith is believing in what can’t be proven, that is no excuse to be lazy and just accept everything you hear.

I will end today’s message the same way I started: the truth is tough enough to be tested, and if you aren’t willing to test what you are told then you will never know if you are being led down the wrong path.

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

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot, Baruch HaShem, and since tomorrow night is Erev Yom Kippur, may you have an easy fast.

The saying “Saved by faith” has been around since Shaul made it popular way back when, and even today people keep saying, “We are saved by faith!”

But faith in what?

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

The answer is really simple, but there is more than just one thing to be faithful to.

First of all, you have to understand that faith means choosing to believe in something that you can never really prove. Proof is the antithesis of faith because if something can be proven, then you have it as a fact and there is no need for faith. I can tell you that there is plenty of proof that God exists, but it is all just as easily dismissed as coincidence or science.

People who want to disprove God’s existence explain things scientifically, but what they fail to catch on to is that God created science and is not restrained by it.

So, to start with, when it comes to being saved by faith you must first faithfully believe in God. DUH! Without faith in God, you have nowhere else to go except to live your life knowing that there is no one behind you, no one caring about you, and no one you can truly, absolutely have faith in except another human being.

And given how human beings are, that is one in the loss column before you even start to play the game.

Next you have to have faith that what God says he will do will be done. Period.

The next thing is to faithfully believe that Yeshua IS the Messiah God said he would send. The reason this is essential for salvation is because there is no temple, and without the temple we cannot bring a sacrifice to be forgiven, and without forgiveness of sin there can be no salvation.

No one stained with sin will ever be allowed into God’s presence, so the way we are saved is through being forgiven. The shedding of innocent blood is the means by which we receive forgiveness, but it is forgiveness alone that saves us.

To receive forgiveness under God’s Torah, we had to shed innocent blood (Hebrews 9:22), and that had to be at the place God put his name (Deuteronomy 12:11), which was the temple in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 12:5).

No temple, no forgiveness, no salvation no matter how faithfully you try to obey Torah (and I say “try to obey” because no one can be 100% Torah obedient 100% of the time).

This is where Yeshua comes into the salvation picture- his sacrifice, as the Messiah, replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, so through faith that God does what he says, faith that Yeshua is the Messiah and faithfully believing that as the Messiah, Yeshua’s sacrifice is a once-and-for-all sacrifice for everyone, you can receive the forgiveness that will save you.

And lets’ set the record straight right now: the once-and-for-all sacrifice doesn’t mean that all sins are automatically forgiven… NO! It means that every time we sin, we can find forgiveness when asking God to forgive us by means Yeshua’s shed blood. And you DO need to ask forgiveness for every single solitary sin you commit for the rest of your life.

And don’t think for a second that all you need to do is to ask. Without real t’shuvah (repentance), without feeling guilty and ashamed for having sinned, God will not forgive you.

God is not stupid or ever fooled- he knows your heart and what you are thinking, so without true repentance, you are no better off than a faithless person.

Oh, I almost forgot- faith in God is demonstrated by obedience to God, and not some religion. Don’t take my word for it: that’s what the brother of Yeshua said in James 2.

And, just in case you missed it the first time, the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us what he wants us to do is in those first five books, called the Torah. If your religion tells you, in any way, that you don’t need to follow the Torah, then you can never prove your faith by works, so your faith will be dead.

You can be the nicest person on the earth, give to the poor, go to church or synagogue every Shabbat, love everyone, and be as good a person as any human being can be BUT… if you reject anything in the Torah, such as reject celebrating the Holy Days God said to celebrate, reject God’s laws of Kashrut (Kosher) by eating whatever you want to, have intimate relations when you are not supposed to, or with someone you shouldn’t, or violate any of the other rules in the Torah, all that “good’ stuff you do will not help you.

Oh, yeah, and here’s the biggie!- according to the Messiah, as he tells us in Matthew 6:14-15, if you do not forgive those who sin against you, God will not forgive your sins against him, and (here’s another kick in the pants)… every sin you commit is against God.

So, there you have it, saved by faith means:

1. Faithfully believing (that means without needing proof) that God exists and is 1,000% trustworthy to do as he says he will.
2. Faithfully accepting that Yeshua is the Messiah.
3. Faithfully believing his sacrifice was an acceptable sacrifice.
4. Faithfully believing that because of his shed blood you can receive forgiveness of sin.

Salvation is what we are able to receive only when we are totally cleansed of sin, which is why it is so imperative that each and every day you ask God to forgive you, even if you don’t think you sinned.

Better to be covered than cursed.

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

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

One of the main religious issues that causes disruption, as well as distraction, is the idea of the Trinity: is God separate from Yeshua or are they the same entity, in different forms.

As far as salvation is concerned, the question of Trinity or Unity is irrelevant because Yeshua MUST be the Messiah, and not God, for the plan of salvation to work.

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

The plan from the start was that God would send a Messiah to make it possible for us to overcome our sins and be able to commune with God, which is only possible after we have been cleansed of sin. Now, with the destruction of the temple in 73 AD, because the Torah required a sin sacrifice at that temple, and no where else, without a Messiah we could never be forgiven.

When Yeshua sacrificed himself, it was the means for us to be forgiven in that his sacrifice- as the Messiah- replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem. That is why he said the only way to the father is through him ( John 14:6) because the temple was no longer available.

The Messiah serves as a substitution for the sacrificial animal, and only God can forgive sins. Oh, yeah, I know what you’re going to say, “Yeshua said he can forgive sins”, and you’re right, he did say that. BUT… that was only while on the earth (look it up in Matthew 9:6). Once his role as the substitutionary sacrifice was completed, and he was raised into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, sin forgiveness reverted back to God, and God, alone.

Yeshua, as Messiah, is an intercessor, not an interceptor. We worship God, we pray to God, and we thank God for forgiving us because only God can forgive sins.

Yeshua provides the way to come before God so we can ask for forgiveness, by means of the blood sacrifice performed on our behalf by God’s Messiah.

If Yeshua is God, then why refer to him? Why pray in his name? Why have anything at all to do with him? If he is God, what sense is there in going to God to ask God to refer to himself when we ask God for forgiveness?

Yeshua always referred to God as his father, and never made the literal claim stating that he is God in the flesh (that was what some guy wrote in the beginning of the Gospel of John, and Yeshua never said that about himself).

Here’s something else to consider… how do we know Yeshua is the Messiah? The answer is that he fulfilled nearly every prophecy about him, all of which are in the Tanakh (the Old Covenant, aka the “Jewish” Bible). Some of those prophecies are still to be fulfilled, and that will happen when he returns- not as God, but as the Messiah. So, if Yeshua is God, then the prophecies about the Messiah would indicate that he will be God, but here’s the kicker- not one prophecy about the Messiah in the entire Tanakh indicates that he will be God.

Aright, here we go again: I know, I know, you are going to say, “What about Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 9:6, where it says he will be called “Mighty God”? That verse doesn’t say he IS God, only that he will be called “Mighty God”. That is more of a warning about the creation of the Trinity than it is about confirming the Messiah is God.

(In the description is a link to a message I just did about this misleading verse).

The fact is that there is not one, single reference to the Messiah in the Tanakh, which is the definitive source for knowing how to identify the Messiah, that indicates he is actually God.

Not one.

A man whose name was Tertullian, sometime around the middle of the second century, is the first one to use the term “trinity” when referring to Yeshua, and that is where this whole idea came from. The Gospel of John is the most often quoted source for any validation of Yeshua’s divinity, and that gospel is recognized to be so very different from the other three that it is suspect.

Personally, I totally reject the entire gospel of John, and even more than that, not only do I believe it is not a valid gospel, but I don’t even think it was written by a Jew! But, I digress…

God’s plan of salvation is simple: if you are stained with sin, you cannot enter into God’s presence. The way to be “saved”, i.e., to be in God’s presence, is to be cleansed of sin. This was done through the sacrificial system, with the blood of an innocent thing (lamb or goat) being spilled to atone for the sin of a person; the animal’s life served as a substitution for the person’s life (the life of a thing is in its blood-Leviticus 17:11) .

In Deuteronomy 12:11, God states that the only place a sacrifice can be made is where he places his name. Initially, this was at the Tent of Meeting (where the Ark was kept), and later at the temple in Jerusalem. That place has never changed.

With the destruction of the temple in 73 AD, there was no way that, in accordance with the Torah, anyone could be saved. Ah, but, that is where the plan for a Messiah now comes into play. The Messiah is a human being born from the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), making him the Son of God (literally, not just spiritually), who would be the only human being able to live in complete accord with the Torah, 100% of the time, and as such be an acceptable sacrifice for sin.

This is essential! The Messiah has to be human to be an acceptable sin sacrifice! He has to be able to sin, otherwise his sinless life is just a cheat. There is no value in being sinless if you can’t sin, to begin with, which would be true if Yeshua was God. That is why Isaiah, in Isaiah 53, tells us that the Messiah was 100% human, that he knew illnesses and was as susceptible to sin as anyone else.

You’ve got to understand this: lambs are born sinless, but not humans, so for a human being to be sinless takes self-discipline, humility, and faithful obedience to God. An animal can’t be faithful but a human can, so for a human being, i.e., the Messiah, to be an acceptable sacrifice, he must have the ability to sin.

God can’t sin. That’s right, Folks- if you believe Yeshua is God, then your salvation can’t be real because God can’t sin, he can’t die, he can’t be a sacrifice, and God can’t forgive himself because he can’t sin, in the first place.

If Yeshua is God, that turns the entire sacrificial system upside down, and renders it impotent!

Faithful acceptance of Yeshua as the Messiah is the only way we can be saved- we are not saved by believing Yeshua is God, but by believing he is the Messiah God created and sent to the earth to provide a means for us to receive forgiveness of sin.

Like it or not, Yeshua HAS to be the 100% human Messiah, created by God through Miryam and not God in the flesh, in order to fulfill the prophecies about the Messiah and to be an acceptable sacrifice; otherwise, God’s plan of salvation can’t work.

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

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

One of the most well-known prophecies in the Tanakh (everything in the Bible before Matthew) regarding the Messiah to come is Isaiah 9:5-6, where we are told that the Messiah will be called (among other things) the Almighty God.

But does that mean the Messiah will be God, or just that he will be called God?

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

There are many, MANY versions of the Bible, and most of them are interpreted by Christians. There are a number of Jewish interpretations, of course, so let’s see where some are the same, and some are different when we look at Isaiah 9:5-6 (remember that not all Bible interpretations have the exact same numbering.)

The JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (1999) says: “He has been named ‘The Mighty God is planning grace*; The Eternal Father, a peaceful ruler...”

( * It references Isaiah 25:1, where another prophecy
mentions how God has planned graciousness of old.)

The Sefaria (a non-profit digital library of Hebrew texts) interprets it this way: “He has been named ‘The Mighty God is planning grace; The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler'”.

The KJV says: “~ and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

The NIV says: “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The Complete Jewish Bible says: “Pele-Yo‘etz El Gibbor
Avi-‘Ad Sar-Shalom [Wonder of a Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace]”

And let’s look at one more Jewish version, Chabad’s Complete Jewish Tanakh: “~ the wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name, ‘the prince of peace’.”

(This one seems to be describing God, and that God will call the Messiah the “Prince of Peace”.)

So… who is correct?

Every Christian version I looked at (and I looked at more than just the ones here) said he would be called some version of “Almighty God”, and I even saw that in some of the Jewish versions.

But as you see, some other Jewish versions do not call him mighty God, but show that the mighty God calls him the Prince of Peace.

Interesting, isn’t it? The more Orthodox Jewish interpretations do not indicate Messiah will be God, while most every other version, some Jewish and all the Christian ones, indicate that Messiah will be God.

But wait a minute! Does it say he will be God, or does it say he will be called God?

You know, there’s quite a difference between what one is called, and what one is. Think of all the things you have been called throughout your lifetime, and ask yourself if what you have been called is always really what you are.

During my lifetime the things people have called me isn’t really what I am…. well, maybe some of the things, but not all of them!

Remember how Yeshua said that he would be like the snake in the desert (John 3:14)? And remember that the snake set up by Moses in Numbers 21:9, to represent God’s salvation from the snake bites, was later worshipped as a god and called Nehushtan (2 Kings 18)?

Well, I believe Yeshua’s prophecy wasn’t just about how he would die (being raised on a stake), but also how he would later be worshipped as a god; actually, as the one and only God. He knew that people would replace worship of the one, true God, his father, with him: praying to him, asking him for forgiveness, and basically replacing his father with him, something Yeshua would never have even thought of doing.

I believe this passage from Isaiah has been misunderstood, and now is being used as a justification for the Trinitarian belief that God (the father) and Yeshua (the Messiah) are the same entity.

As I said earlier, there is a BIG difference between what someone is called, and what they are. I am inclined to go along with the more Orthodox Jewish interpretation that indicates the Messiah will be called, BY GOD, the “Prince of Peace.” That the authority placed on his shoulders will be from God, and not self-generated (which, if Messiah is God, would have to be the case).

In Matthew 22:45, Yeshua disarms the Pharisees trying to trick him by asking them why, in Psalm 110:1, does David call his son (meaning the Messiah) “Lord”? Yeshua points out that if the Messiah is David’s son, how can he be David’s Lord? Similarly, if Yeshua is the almighty God, how can he be a prince?

I wonder how, after all these centuries, no one has noticed this obvious disparity? If the Messiah is the almighty God, then how can he be a prince of anything? Wouldn’t he, as God, have to be the Lord of Peace? Or the King of Peace? Whatever, if he was the almighty God, he certainly wouldn’t be just a Prince of Peace, would he?

This is why I go along with the Orthodox Jewish interpretation that indicates when the Messiah is born, he will be a counsellor, he will be a prince of peace, and his authority and rulership will come from God, but he will not be God.

I also believe that the interpretations saying the Messiah will be called almighty God are based on Christian Trinitarianism, and the Jewish Bible versions that also say “almighty God” are wrong, as well.

To finalize, it is imperative to accept that what someone is called is not what they are. Yeshua said we can tell who people are by their fruits, so, nu … what fruits did Yeshua demonstrate? Well, when I read the Gospels, it appears to me that his fruits were always giving his father, God, the credit for everything, and he never called himself the almighty God.

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

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

I am sure we all know someone who has complained about God because of some tsouris (troubles) they have had in their life, saying that God didn’t do what he should have done, or why did he do what he did.

But is it God who failed to be the way he is supposed to be, or was it their expectation of who God is that was wrong?

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

Christianity teaches that God is forgiving and holy and compassionate, and that is also how he is described in the Tanakh. And he really is like that.

But he is more than that- he is also the Holy One of Israel who is judge, jury, and executioner of those who disobey his rules. He is compassionate and understands our weaknesses, but unless we are humble, contrite, and accept Yeshua as our Messiah, faithfully believing that through his sacrifice we are able to receive forgiveness of sins, we are not going to see that side of God.

Humans are prideful, and as such, we don’t like the idea that God is all-powerful and the ultimate authority. We want to compartmentalize him into a God who forgives us, whose divine powers are there to help us, and who always loves us. As such, he will forgive us anything and we don’t really have to do much, other than love each other and say we believe Yeshua is the Messiah.

Judaism has learned it ain’t that easy- we know that the instructions God gave us in the Torah are not just for us, but for everyone, and we also know that as much as God loves us and really wants to forgive us (Ezekiel 18:23), he is too holy to ignore his own rules.

Deuteronomy 28 is at once the most wonderful and frightening chapter in the entire Bible. That is where God promises a plethora of wonderful blessings for those who obey his Torah, then he goes on to tell us all the terrible and horrible curses that will befall us if we refuse to obey his Torah. It is known as the “Blessings and Curses” chapter.

Christianity teaches the opposite, in that they say love each other and “believe in Jesus” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean) and you will be saved. It rejects nearly every commandment, law, regulation, ordinance, Holy Day, and lifestyle that God says we should live.
Talk about unreasonable expectations, if you go by what most Christian religions teach, rejecting God, his commandments, and even replacing him with his son, they make salvation look like a “Come-As-You-Are” party!

In the Torah, God is pretty clear on what we can expect from him, and what he expects from us.

It seems to me that people reject God because they have lost a loved one, or because they prayed for something they didn’t get, or because they grew up forced to be in a religion that they didn’t like. They become angry, and because of the wrong expectations they were taught about what to expect from God, instead of realizing their expectations were wrong, they project that anger directly against God, blaming him for not being what they wanted him to be.

My experience with people who blame and/or reject God because they have suffered losses or had prayers go unanswered do so because they do not consider that what they expected from God was wrong, to begin with.

Our human pridefulness cannot accept the ultimate and unquestionable authority of God. It kills us that he can do whatever the heck he wants to, and that not only do we do not have the need to know, but he doesn’t have to explain anything to us!

And I believe that is why so many people reject God; they just can’t handle the fact that he doesn’t have to be the way they want him to be.

And that is a shame, because until someone has the emotional maturity to be humble before God (and yes- you need to be emotionally mature to be humble) and to read the Torah so they can know who he is and what he expects from them, they will never have the correct expectation of who and what God is.

And whether we are talking about God or just life in general, when your expectations are unreasonable you will never be satisfied.

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

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

One of the biggest arguments within Christianity is the idea of the Trinity, meaning that God, Yeshua (Jesus), and the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) are all really the same entity, in different forms.

It is a very hotly argued topic, but my question is this:

With regard to how we are saved, does it really matter if Yeshua is God or not?

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

I know that there are a lot of people right now who are screaming, “Of course it does!”

OK, why? Are we saved by believing that Yeshua is God? Is there anywhere in the Gospels or the writings of Shaul (Paul) that states if we do not believe Yeshua and God are the exact same entity, we can’t be saved? Doesn’t Shaul write about how important it is to faithfully believe that Yeshua is the Messiah?

Look, I don’t believe Yeshua is God simply because it doesn’t make sense, spiritually or biblically. There are some 130 messianic passages in the Tanakh, yet not one of them indicates that the Messiah is going to be God.

Every single person who ever existed was created through the joining of a human male with a human female, with three exceptions: Adam, Eve, and Yeshua. And because of Adam’s major screwup, we are all born with a sinful nature (called the Yetzer Hara), also referred to as Original Sin, which traditionally has been passed down from Adam; original sin is transmitted through the father.

But Yeshua’s father was not human, and was not sinful- in fact, he was (and is) the holiest of all holies that has, does, or ever will exist. Yeshua had to be 100% human so that he could live a human life and know human temptations. But as the messiah, he also needed to be imbued with the Holy Spirit, which is the inheritance he received from that divine conception. It was his humanity filled completely with Holy Spirit that empowered him to overcome sin. And because he was able to live a sinless life he was an acceptable sacrifice for others- which was the ultimate the goal of the Messiah’s first coming.

He was born of flesh and spirit, but even though his conception was divine, he was not divine. What was divine was the Ruach HaKodesh that lived within him, just as we who accept Yeshua and have asked for this gift from God, have the Ruach HaKodesh inside us.

Do you believe you have the indwelling Holy Spirit? Does that make you God?

But let’s get back to this salvation thing: if I believe Yeshua is God, am I more “saved” than someone who doesn’t believe that? What if he is God, and I believe he is not, does that mean I can’t be saved?

Even if I believe he is the Messiah?

If I believe Yeshua is the Messiah and believe I can receive forgiveness of my sins by means of the shedding of his innocent blood, but I don’t believe he is God, am I doomed to damnation?
Everything I read in the Bible states that faith is how we are saved, but it must be a faith that motivates us to obey God and reject sin.

But nothing says we have to believe that Yeshua is God to be saved.

Let’s wrap this up: I will never tell anyone what they must believe, so believe what you choose to, but I believe that Yeshua is not God, and more than that, I believe it doesn’t matter whether he is or not when it comes to salvation because we are not saved by the belief that Yeshua is God, but by faithfully believing he is the Messiah God promised to send. And that he died for our sins, and because he was sinless he was resurrected, proving he was an acceptable sacrifice.
And that he now sits at the right hand of his Father, the one and only God, interceding for us.
You know, when you think about it, if he is God, why would God intercede with himself?
Like I said, I don’t believe that Yeshua’s being God or not has any effect on how we are saved, but since it causes so much division within the body of the Messiah, doesn’t it make sense that we all just concentrate on Yeshua’s role as the Messiah, and let God remain God?

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

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