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!

First of all, we need to remember that when Yeshua (Jesus) walked the earth, the only “word of God” that existed then was the Torah.

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

Do you really understand what the New Covenant is? I’ll give you a hint… it isn’t found anywhere in the New Covenant writings.

Here is the new covenant that God made with Israel, which Yeshua also made available to the Gentiles, and it is in Jeremiah 31:31-33 (CJB):

Here, the days are coming,” says Adonai, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Y’hudah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to them,” says Adonai. “For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Isra’el after those days,” says Adonai: “I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, ‘Know Adonai’; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickednesses and remember their sins no more.”

That is quite a covenant, wouldn’t you agree? It also happens to be the last covenant God made with us and I believe that is because it is the last one we will ever need.

In essence, God is saying that the Torah will be more than just a document we read, it will become a physical part of us, like blood or an organ, something that is an integral part of our very existence.

And that is what Yeshua brought to us- when he says in Matthew 5:17 that he fulfilled the law, he was teaching us the Torah’s spiritual meaning, the very “heart” of the Torah, and so that when we accepted him, and received through his name the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit), we were having the Torah written on our hearts.

In other words, what Yeshua really fulfilled was not just a proper interpretation of the Torah, but he fulfilled the new covenant God gave to us through Jeremiah.

And as Shaul (Paul) points out in Romans, it was to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.

But then, the problems began: the main population of the Jewish people, having been coerced and threatened with excommunication by the power elite of Jerusalem, rejected Yeshua as the Messiah.

Later, after all the Jewish leaders of this new sect within Judaism died off, the movement was led by Gentiles who then rejected the Torah and created their own religion in order to not be targeted by the Romans, who were dealing with a Jewish rebellion.

Of course, that only worked to get the Jewish power elite coming against them. Later on, after the Romans destroyed the temple and killed thousands of Jews in their final battle, these Gentile believers thought they would be OK.

NOT!

Surprise! Now Rome came after them because the one thing Rome hated more than rebellion was some new religion being formed within their controlled territory.

So, what we have now, two millennia later, are Jews who stick to Torah obedience as God directed us to, and Christians, who profess to worship God, who say they follow in the footsteps of Yeshua, but reject nearly every single law, ordinance, regulation, and commandment God gave, which Yeshua obeyed perfectly, in order to follow man-made regulations, ceremonies, holidays, and tenets.

You know, within Judaism there are 5 different sects (6, if you count Messianic Judaism), but the one thing that is constant in all is that the Torah is the ultimate user Manual for Righteousness. From the Ultra-Orthodox (Chasidic) all the way down to the Reconstructionists, we go from extreme Torah observers to a humanistic viewpoint, but we all are trying to be Torah-obedient, in one way or another.

But Christianity, well, Christianity has a lot more than just 5 or 6 sects.

According to Google, there are as many as 45,000 different religions or sects that fall within the term “Christian”.

Forty-five thousand!

Now, as I recall, that nice Jewish tent-maker from Tarsus, in his letter to the Corinthians, said that God is not a god of confusion, but of peace.

You know what? If you ask me, when a religion has as its root tenet that it worships God and follows in the footsteps of Yeshua, but has some 45,000 different ways to do that, well… I am sorry, but I’ve gotta say that is one confused religion!

Hey, Folks- it’s easy! Really! God made the Jews his nation of priests to the world (Ex. 19:6), then he gave us the Torah, then he sent us the Messiah to teach us the true, spiritual meaning of the Torah, then the disciples of the Messiah brought the Torah (being God’s priests to the world) to the Goyim, which is Hebrew for the nations.

Simply stated, God gave Jews the Torah for us to learn so we could bring it to everyone else in the world.

Then the Goyim screwed it all up by rejecting the Torah, making up their own religions, and forcing us Jews to either convert or be tortured and killed.

Talk about killing the messenger!

So, what should you do? My suggestion is simple: read the entire Bible (that means start at Genesis and go through to Revelation) and then pray on it, asking God to guide you to HIS truth.

And let me offer this thought: when you stand before God at Judgement Day (which we all will have to do), and God asks why you didn’t do any of the things he said you should do, I guess that you will answer saying that you did what they told you to do because you thought they knew what they were talking about. I can’t speak for God, but I think he might say something to this effect…

“I know you only did what they told you to do, but it is what I say that counts.”

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!

It starts with the creation of everything. Human beings are created, and God gives us the gift of Free Will, because his love for us is such that he will allow us to choose where we spend eternity.

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God wants us to love him freely and without being forced to, but free will is a two-edged sword: if we choose to obey God from love for him, we will live, but if we choose to reject God from love for ourselves, we will die.

Happily for us, God is not just willing to forgive us, but he truly desires to do so (Ez. 18:23), and so he provides a means for us to be forgiven.

But not yet.

God eventually chooses Abraham, and promises that through his descendants the entire world will be blessed.

But first he needed to protect us. You see, Levi and Rueben had placed the entire Jewish population at risk by slaughtering an entire town in retribution for the prince raping their sister, Dinah, so God had the entire family go to Egypt.

(Yeah, I know I am skipping some events, but the main message remains valid.)

After a time, the family grows into a nation, and then God shows himself to the nation through the miraculous events he causes, freeing his people from slavery and bringing them into the desert.

Now we come to the main point of today’s message: God’s plan for the Jews and the rest of the world.

1. He tells Moses to separate the Levites, who will serve God for the House of Israel (Num. 3:10-12; Num. 8:5-22).
2. God tells Moses that the House of Israel will be his (meaning God’s) nation of priests to the world (Ex. 19:6). They have to be priests to the world because the Levites are already priests to Israel, and all that is left to priest to….is the rest of the world. Duh!
3. God gives this nation of priests the Big Ten (Ex. 20), and over time, through Moses the entire Torah to learn so that they can teach it to the world.
4. God promises, in Deut. 28, that if we obey his Torah we will be blessed, so it works like this: God gives us Jews the Torah promising if we obey it, we will be blessed, then he tells the Jews to bring it to the world, so the world can be blessed, as well, fulfilling the promise he made to Abraham.
5. He sends the Messiah, Yeshua, so that when the sacrificial system is not available (after the destruction of the temple) there will still be a means for his people, as well as all people, to receive the forgiveness he wants us to have, so long as we faithfully accept his Messiah and continue to obey God’s Torah, just as Messiah Yeshua did.
   

My purpose is to do the best I can to teach others how religions are misleading us, and the only way to truly worship God correctly is the way God said to do it!

Again…DUH!

When the Messiah returns, I believe there will be a third temple, and the sacrificial system will be reinstituted, but not for sin- Yeshua took care of that one. There are many other sacrifices to be made, such as the wholly burnt sacrifice (demonstrating our total devotion to God), the Thanksgiving sacrifice, the daily sacrifices, the Rosh Hodesh and Holy Day sacrifices, not to mention any voluntary sacrifices people wish to make.

Well, that’s the plan, Folks! It is laid out clearly throughout the Bible, and despite what Christianity has taught, this plan is confirmed by Yeshua and the teachings within the New Covenant writings.

I think many of you already kinda knew this is what God’s plan was, from the start, but have become complacent and happy to use your religion as an excuse for taking the easy way out. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but salvation is not a Come-As-You-Are Party. It is free for the asking, and once given no one can take it away from you.

But you can throw it away by not following God’s User Manual for Righteousness, colloquially known as the Torah.

As I said from the start, you were given Free Will to decide where you will spend eternity: please decide wisely.

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!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know- Shaul says in Ephesians 2:8 that no one is saved by works, it is a gift from God and not from works.

But when explains what he means, he doesn’t trash the Torah.

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First off, you need to know this: to properly understand the Bible, you cannot take a sentence or a few words from here and there, but must always use the tool called “Circles of Context”. That means you interpret the words in the sentence using the culturally accepted meaning of those words, at the time they were being written. Then, you review the sentence within the paragraph, the paragraph within the letter, and take into consideration who wrote the letter, to whom, and for what reason.

Now, Ephesians was written to the people living in…(wait for it)… Ephesus. We know from reading all the Epistles that Ephesus was a constant problem for the young believing congregations there, who faced pressure from without, and from within. So, the main reason Shaul wrote to them was to get them back on track, and the way to do that was to reignite their passionate faith in Yeshua, while also reducing the pressure they felt from the Legalists, who throughout Asia were telling these neophyte, Gentile believers they had to undergo circumcision or they wouldn’t really be saved.

What Shaul goes on to say, after saying that salvation is not from works, is that it is from faith so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:9). He was pointing out that it is through Messiah Yeshua, and only through Yeshua, that these Gentiles were now able to be included in receiving salvation, previously only available to the Jews.

But he doesn’t trash the Torah, he is reinitiating faith in Yeshua, which is the beginning of obedience to Torah.

When James suggested those 4 initial requirements for new believers to obey right away (Acts 15), he said that the Gentiles would eventually learn the law of Moses (i.e., Torah obedience) as they continued to attend Shabbat services.

You know, I’m glad that James never lived to see what happened with his suggestion, because by the end of the first century the (now) Gentile leadership of what had been a Jewish movement changed their Sabbath day, and never studied the Torah. In fact, they have rejected it to this very day.

Nowhere in the entire New Covenant does any apostle or disciple who knew and worked with Messiah Yeshua deny the value or worth of the Torah, or tell people that obedience to the Torah is wrong. No one ever said that works are useless. Never!

Most of the Epistles were directed at maintaining faith in God and Yeshua; all they said was that they cannot depend on works, alone, to gain salvation.

The Torah is God’s User Manual for Righteousness, and you have to ask yourself this question: if the Torah isn’t what God wants us to do, then why give it to us?

I’ll tell you why: just before he gave us the Torah, God told Moses that he chose the Jewish people to be his nation of priests (Ex. 19:6). Now, when someone becomes a priest, he learns how to worship God, right? He has to know the proper prayers, rites, rituals, celebrations, and history; in other words, he needs to know pretty much everything that God expects of people so that he can teach others what God wants from them.

Because God chose us to be his priests, then gave us the Torah, I think it is obvious that God wanted us to learn the Torah so that as his priests, we would bring Torah to the world.

Despite what your religion may have told you, the Torah IS the way God wants EVERYONE to live!

This is the absolute truth about the Torah: if anyone lives in 100% obedience to the Torah, 100% of the time, they will be righteous in God’s eyes, and as such they will be resurrected to eternal life in God’s presence. Like the title of today’s message says, Yes!- obedience to the Torah WILL save you!

How can I say that when Christianity has been saying for two millennia that you can’t be saved by the Torah? Easily! You see, it has already been done, and the guy who did it was raised up to heaven.

I think you know who that guy is.

The problem we humans have, and the only reason people say you can’t be saved by the Torah, is because our sinful nature doesn’t allow us to be 100% obedient, 100% of the time. That is why God sent the Messiah- so when we screw up, as we all do, we have a means to be forgiven.

I know this message is something that would make most any Christian think, “Nah! That can’t be- everyone I ever heard, loved, trusted, or knew has told me that all I need to do is to believe in Jesus and love others, and I go to heaven.” Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?

Well, sinners love others, and every demon in Hell believes Jesus is the Messiah, so nu? do you think they are saved?

No?

Then maybe you haven’t been told the whole story. Maybe, just maybe, you need to follow some rules about how to worship God and how to treat each other that your religion hasn’t filled you in on.

And you know what? That’s why God gave us the Torah, because it tells us how HE wants us to do those things. And if you have faith in Yeshua, and trust that what God says is always for your benefit, then that faith and trust should motivate you to obey what God says you should do.

Hey, look…I’m not here to tell you what to believe or what you must do, that’s up to you. All I am saying is that you can choose to obey what a religion says to do, which is probably going to involve rejecting God, or you can choose to reject what a religion says to do, and obey God.

When you think about it, that choice is pretty much a no-brainer, isn’t it?

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 most divisive topics within Christianity today is the idea of the Trinity: God, Yeshua, and the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) not being three separate and unique entities, but rather they are all God, only in three different identities.

But, when it comes down to it, as far as our salvation goes, does it really matter if they are three unique entities, or three versions of the same personage?

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

Let’s begin to answer this question with the truth about the origin of the Trinity…

SPOILER ALERT!!! It didn’t come from the Bible.

The idea of a triune nature of God, i.e., God, son, and spirit all being the same entity, was introduced into Christianity by a man named Tertullian. This man lived from 145-220 A.D., and stated in his treatise, “On the Flesh of Christ”. He said that two beings are God, the Father and the Son, and, with the addition of the Holy Spirit, even three.

So, we begin by recognizing that the idea of the Trinity is not a biblical fact; in fact, it is not biblical, at all, but only one guy’s opinion.

I am always surprised that Christians never seem to see the hypocrisy of their own teachings! Christians are supposed to be monotheistic, right? One God, and just one God, the only true God, right? But if you say there are really three gods- God, the Father, Yeshua, God the son, and the Holy Spirit being God indwelling, then any way you look at it- that’s three gods, and more than just one God is polytheism, not monotheism.

And if you are going to start quoting the ridiculous double-talk from the Gospels of John, that doesn’t substantiate the Trinity, either. When John begins the supposed diatribe of Yeshua, saying “If you knew him, you would know me, but you don’t know him so you don’t know me, but I know him and he knows me…yadda-yadda-yadda”- this is NOT Yeshua claiming to be God.

Do you believe we are all “one” in the body of Messiah? If so, does that make us THE Messiah? If you are one with Yeshua, does that mean you ARE Yeshua?

Of course not! And when Yeshua tells us “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), he already stated (John 5:19) that he does only what the Father tells him to do, and says only what the Father tells him to say, So, since he is only doing and saying what God tells him to say, when we see him perform miracles or hear him teach, we are seeing God through him. Not that he is God, but that he is acting as God, with God’s approval and with the power of God given to him through the Holy Spirit.

What about the prophets that came before him, and the Apostles after him, all doing the same miraculous things Yeshua did…are they God? The Prophets spoke directly from God, and they performed works and miracles empowered by God, just as Yeshua claimed. They, too, just like Yeshua, spoke only what God told them to say, and did only what God told them to do, so…are they God?

I don’t think so, do you?

OK, so we have established that the Trinity isn’t substantiated by anything in the Bible, and speaking on behalf of God and doing what God tells and empowers you to do, doesn’t make you God.

So, nu… let’s get back to the original question: is the Trinity necessary for salvation?

The answer is: NO!

Why is it “No”? Because we are not saved by faith that Yeshua is God; we are saved by faith that Yeshua is the Messiah. We are saved by faithfully believing his death was accepted as a sin sacrifice, that he was resurrected, and that his shed blood replaces the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem in order to ask for forgiveness of sin.

If something doesn’t lead you towards salvation, it is leading you away from it!

This is how we receive salvation: faithfully believing that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, that his sacrifice is now the only means by which we can ask God for forgiveness (which is the only way we can enter into God’s presence), and that he will return to bring God’s peace to the earth for all eternity.

One other thing: since Judaism is based on the idea that God is one, God alone, and that when someone says God is three, that is a major turnoff for Jews. They cannot accept a Trinity, which means they will not be able to accept Yeshua as the Messiah.

Tertullian was a Gentile whose writings weren’t very “Jew-friendly”; in fact, he wrote several polemics against Judaism, calling it heresy, which is why I believe the idea of the Trinity was just another way of separating what had become Christianity from Judaism.

Whether Yeshua and God, and let’s not forget the Holy Spirit, are one entity or three separate entities, is NOT necessary for, or even a part of, receiving salvation.

So, to conclude… if you find yourself in a discussion of Trinity vs. Unity, just leave. All it will do is cause more dissension within the ranks, and we have enough of that, already.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, believer or not. 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!

Sadly, for millennia Christians who, I believe, truly want to serve and worship God, have been told they don’t have to follow the Torah.

They’ve been taught that Yeshua did away with the law, or that they only need to be faithful to be saved, or as Gentiles they only have to follow the 4 requirements in Acts 15, or they only have to follow the moral laws, not the ceremonial ones, or that they don’t have to do anything more than just “call on the name of the Lord” to be saved.

“Hey, I just Whatsapp’d God- am I saved now?”

Truth be told, none of those things are correct.

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

I am Jewish, born and raised from Jewish parents, taught in a reform Jewish synagogue, and when I was in my mid-40’s, I accepted that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send, but I did not convert to anything or become a Christian (which my Jewish brothers and sisters would claim I am if I “believe in Jesus”).

What happened was that I did not become a Born-Again Christian, but rather, a Born-Anew Jew! Which is just what happened to the tens of thousands of Jews who were living during the ministry of Yeshua and who accepted him as the Messiah.

So, as a Jew, it is hard for me to understand why Christianity insists that it’s followers should live and act as Yeshua did, but- in the same breath- tells them to reject everything that he did, which was to obey every instruction for worship and treating each other that his father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, told us all to do in the Torah.

Don’t get ahead of me! I am not going to defend the Torah today, and this lesson is not to be an apologetic for the Torah. All I am going to do is ask why anyone who believes that God exists would not want to obey the Torah.

What is the Torah? It is God’s User Manual for righteous living.

And despite the way James stated it, it is not an all or nothing thing: it is a guide, as Shaul said, a guardian, and as such we do our best to do what it says to do.

But, since no human being is capable of living righteously- at least, not all the time- God gave us the sacrificial system in the Torah so we could be forgiven when we screw-up, which he knew we would do. That’s why he gave us the sacrificial system! DUH! Then he sent Yeshua to act as a permanent sacrifice for sin, replacing the need to bring an animal to be sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem, which was the Torah command for any sacrifice to be accepted.

So, you can see how Yeshua’s sacrifice came in REALLY handy, especially after the temple was destroyed! Yeshua did not do away with the sacrificial system; all he did was to replace the need to sacrifice an animal at the temple, so now through Yeshua we can receive forgiveness anytime, anywhere.

The truth is, most Christians don’t have any idea what the Torah is, and that includes most Jews, as well! You think it is a bunch of laws, such as what is kosher and the 10 Commandments, and you are right- those laws are in there, but there is so much more to it.

Did you know that the Torah is a historical narrative, one that is being validated more and more by archaeological discoveries?

Did you know that the Torah defines a set of proper business ethics (Deut. 25)?

Did you know it has a form of a health code (Lev. 11; 14; 15)?

Did you know the Torah defines acceptable interpersonal relationships, i.e., which are proper and which are sinful? (Lev.18)?

Did you know the Torah has a penal code that stipulates the type and degree of punishment for any number of crimes, from capital crimes like murder, to torts, to misdemeanors such as loss or destruction of someone else’s property in your possession? (Lev. 24)

Did you know that the Torah is a Ketuba (marriage certificate) between a people and God, through the covenants God made with us?

BTW… the covenants God made have always been inclusive of the previous covenants: no covenant ever did away with any previous covenant.

And here’s a good reason why anyone and everyone should obey…did you know that in Deuteronomy 28, God promises to totally bless anyone who obeys his Torah?

We can’t ever earn salvation, but we can earn blessings, and who can bless better than God? Really! Why wouldn’t anyone who believes in God, who believes God is trustworthy to do as he says, not want to receive blessings?

So, again, I ask: What’s so terrible about obeying the Torah?

Christianity makes it sound like if you obey the Torah, you are disqualified from salvation. How stupid is that? Why would God punish anyone for doing what he said he wants us to do?

Can you tell me why Christianity has this thing for the Torah? Why does it insist that if you obey the Torah you can’t really be saved? All I ever hear is that doing all that “Jewish” stuff means you aren’t really saved because you are “under the law”?

Fools! False teachers! Without the law, there can be no salvation because the lawless are to be punished. Being “under the law” doesn’t mean being obedient to the Torah, it means being legalistic, which is a performance-based system for salvation.

Performing activities in order to earn salvation will not work, and demonstrates faith in works and not faith in God.

Here’s a really hard word to accept, but is undeniable: anyone who can be 100% obedient to 100% of the Torah, 100% of the time, will be saved! How can I say that?

I can say that because Yeshua was risen from the grave! He was a sinless lamb, which means he was 100% obedient to the Torah, and being sinless he was saved from death, and now sits at the right hand of God. He wasn’t resurrected because he was the Messiah, it is because he was the Messiah that he was able to be sinless, which is why he was resurrected.

So, let’s review: the Torah is a history book, it tells us what perversities we are to avoid in our relationship with others, it defines fair business practices, it has a penal code, it has a health code, it acts as a constitution for a nation, it tells us how God wants us to worship him, and more than anything else it defines what sin is, and how to be forgiven when we sin.

Once again, the Torah is not just a bunch of laws, it is God’s GPS, directing us how to live a righteous life.

Don’t you agree that true faith in, and love for God will generate in us a real desire to please him? And doesn’t it make sense that if we do what God said he wants us to do, that he will be pleased?

Being obedient to the Torah is not disqualification from salvation, it is simply living as God said to live, and as Yeshua lived, and when you do you get blessed out the ying-yang!

So, nu? If it demonstrates the truth of your faith and gets you tons of blessings, to boot!…what’s so terrible about obeying the Torah?

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even those non-believers. 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!