I think we all know which commandments Yeshua said are the most important, right? Isn’t it from Matthew 22:37-40?

Well, if that is so, then why does he give a totally different set of commandments in three separate gospels when asked what does someone have to do to be saved?

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Let’s start in Matthew 22, when Yeshua is asked which is the most important commandment of all? He replies (CJB):

‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ This is the greatest and most important mitzvah.  And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’ All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot.”

So here Yeshua is telling us that to love God and each other is paramount. Now, traditional Christian teaching tells us that this is all we need to do. Love God and love each other, the message of Christ is to love- and that’s it! Nothing else is required. Love God, love each other, and you’re in!

They interpret this verse to mean these are the only two commandments we need to do.

But that’s not right, is it? Yeshua never said these are the only commandments, just that they are the most important ones. And, when he added that all the others pivot on these two, that means he expects that we will follow all the other commandments BECAUSE we love God and each other.

But if these are the most important, then why did he tell the rich man who asked what he needed to do to enter God’s kingdom (Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:17, and Luke 18:19) something different?

In all three Gospels, Yeshua’s answer to the man includes these commandments:

Don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t give false witness, honor your mother and father, (this additional one was only in Matthew) and love your neighbor as yourself.

So, nu? If Yeshua said that to love God and each other are the most important commandments, which all the others will pivot on, why tell the rich man something different? In fact, these commandments are straight from the Big Ten, whereas the ones Yeshua said were most important were from the Torah, but not listed in the Big Ten.

Hmmm…now we have to ask ourselves “What do we do?” Which are the commandments we are to really need to strive to obey?

It seems that we should love God, then love each other, then come the Big Ten. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

But wait a minute! Didn’t James say if we break one commandment, we break them all (James 2:10)? So, even loving God, loving each other, and obeying the ones Yeshua quoted from the Big Ten isn’t enough?

Shaul (Paul) tells the Romans that no one can be saved by the law (Romans 3:23), which he knew from his vast knowledge of the Tanakh, for there are numerous places where we are told, over and over by different people that everyone sins, and no one is without sin.

I mean, there are some 613 commandments in the Torah! We can’t do the ones involving the temple service, which is about 1/3 of them, and some are just for women and some just for men, some just for the Cohen Hagadol (High Priest), which leaves less than a hundred or so for us simple folk.

Oy! That’s still a lot to do, so once again we ask, “What do we do?”

There is no longer a temple in Jerusalem where we can be forgiven under the sacrificial system, which (according to the Torah) was the only place we could bring our sacrifice to receive forgiveness (thank God for sending Yeshua, who replaced that requirement, making forgiveness available to everyone, everywhere, at any time.)

The answer, I suppose, is that we do the best we can to obey all the commandments that God gave in the Torah that apply to us. You see, the Torah is the only place in the entire Bible (this includes the New Covenant) where God tells us what he wants us to do. We can be secure in the knowledge that if we accept Yeshua as the Messiah God promised to send, repent of the sins we commit and ask forgiveness by means of Yeshua’s blood, which was shed for us, then we can be forgiven of that sin.

Yeshua only repeats what God said, and Shaul only wrote to Gentiles what they needed to do initially, expecting (as did the Elders who wrote the letter in Acts 15) that the Gentiles would learn the rest of what God wants them to do as they grew more knowledgeable in the Word and more spiritually mature.

Christianity has taught the opposite of what Yeshua and Shaul taught; Yeshua and Shaul taught the people to obey God, but Christianity has taught the people to ignore what God said and, instead, follow the tenets, rituals, and holidays that men have created.

It is up to you to decide what you will do: you can either worship God by obeying his commandments as best as you can, knowing he will forgive you (through Yeshua) when you screw up, or worship a Christian rebranding of the true Messiah, kneeling before graven images, praying to people instead of God, and ignoring nearly everything God told about how he wanted you to live, choosing to obey man-made tenets, celebrate man-made holidays, and perform man-made rituals.

Your choice, but if you ask me, I will have to say it is probably safer to do as God says then to do as people say.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry continue to grow. Subscribe to my website (while you’re there please buy my books), also to my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (but make sure you agree to the rules to be let in).

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

Do you know that there is not one place, anywhere, in the entire Tanakh where the Messiah is referred to as either “The Lamb of God” or “The Passover Lamb”?

Do you know that the Passover lamb is not a sin sacrifice?

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Do you know that according to the Torah, a goat is required as sin sacrifice?

We are told that Yeshua is the “Lamb of God” and that his sacrifice is what takes away our sin, but those statements are contradictory! Only a goat was acceptable as a sin sacrifice, and Yeshua’s sacrifice was a sin sacrifice, so how can he be a lamb?

And to make it even more confusing, I don’t think you will find the Messiah referred to as a goat, anywhere in the Bible, so… is Yeshua a lamb or a goat?

The answer is: he is both.

The Torah, in Leviticus 1-7, stipulates there are 5 different forms of sacrifices: burnt, grain, peace, sin, and trespass (different Bible versions may have different names).

According to Leviticus 4, where the sin sacrifice rules are given, sins of the high priest require the offering of a young, unblemished bull; sins of the leaders require the offering of an unblemished male goat, and the sins of members of the Israelite community required a female goat as an offering.

Now, there is an exception, where an individual can bring a lamb as their sacrifice for sin, but that is only in the case of an individual- sins of the leaders and sins of the community must be a bull or a goat.

Yeshua’s sacrifice was not for himself, but for all people, so according to God’s rules, he could not be the “Lamb of God”.

The answer to this conundrum is that his sacrifice was not just for sin, but actually is both the sin sacrifice and the Thanksgiving sacrifice.

The way the sacrificial system worked is that you start with a sin sacrifice, which cleanses you of the stain of sin and makes it possible for you to come into God’s presence, then you offer a wholly burnt sacrifice, which represents your commitment to wholly following God, and finally you offer the Thanksgiving sacrifice which reestablishes your communion with God, and in his presence you eat part of that sacrifice (which is how we know that the Passover sacrifice is a Thanksgiving sacrifice- it is the only one where the one bringing the animal gets to share of the meat of that animal).

When Yeshua died, he was the goat (sin sacrifice) and the lamb (thanksgiving sacrifice) because it allowed us to receive forgiveness of sin, and once forgiven we could come into communion with God.

We won’t see the complete fulfillment of this dual sacrifice until the End Days arrive.

In the meantime, Yeshua never referred to himself as God’s lamb, did he? And no messianic prophecy in the Tanakh referred to the Messiah as a lamb.

TIME OUT: If you are thinking of Isaiah 53, where he prophesied that the Messiah would be led like a lamb to slaughter, that is not saying the Messiah is the “Lamb of God”. It is a merely a reference to how he remained silent: it was John who misused it to identify Yeshua as the “Lamb of God”.

In fact, my research shows that the only person in the entire Bible to refer to Yeshua as the “Lamb of God” is the Apostle John.

Now, as far as I am concerned, if all the prophets and all the other Apostles, and every other reference to God’s Messiah never call him the “Lamb of God”, but just this one guy does, well…then that’s just his thing, and certainly not hermeneutically, historically, reasonably, or in any other way validated by the Bible.

If Yeshua’s sacrifice was ONLY for sin, he would then have to be called “The Yom Kippur Goat”, or maybe the “Goat of God”, but not the Passover Lamb. However, because his sacrifice takes away our sins, we are able to come into the presence of the Lord and commune with him, which was done through the Thanksgiving sacrifice- the same one that we do on Passover- so Yeshua certainly is similar to a lamb.

The blood of the Passover sacrifice saved us from death by marking us as God’s people, and the blood of the sin sacrifice saves us from death by taking away our sin. The sacrificial system had our sin taken away (goat sacrifice) so that we could then come back into communion with God (thanksgiving sacrifice).

What Yeshua did was to accomplish both of these sacrifices at the same time, but in the opposite order.

Why this way? I don’t know! But I can say this- I am grateful for what he did, no matter in which order he decided to do it.

He may be referred to as the Lamb of God, but if you ask me, he is the G.O.A.T.

(If you’re not familiar with that acronym, it means Greatest Of All Time).

Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to my ministry on my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (but please make sure you agree to the rules, or I can’t let you in).

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Chag Pesach Sameach!

If you ask almost any Jewish person what Jesus changed, they will tell you he changed the laws of Moses. The reason they will say that is because Jews are taught Jesus was Jewish but rebelled against Judaism and created Christianity.

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If you are wondering why I didn’t use the name Yeshua, it’s because Jews don’t know that name any more than most Christians do.

So, what did Yeshua change?

He changed our understanding of the Torah, and that is all.

(To better understand the terms I am about to use, please “Google” this word: PaRDeS)

Yeshua taught the Remes, the deeper, spiritual understanding of God’s words and laws. There is no better example of this than his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), where he tells us we have heard the P’shat (plain language understanding), then teaches the Remes.

Here’s two examples: he said we have been told to not murder, but then teaches us that we shouldn’t even hate in our hearts. He also said we have been told not to commit adultery, but then teaches we shouldn’t even lust with our eyes.

You see, the Pharisees had been teaching only the “physical” application of the mitzvot (laws), but Yeshua taught us the underlying meaning of the physical application.

The Pharisees taught the people what not to do, but Yeshua changed that by teaching the people what not to feel.

If you don’t feel hatred, you won’t want to murder; if you don’t feel lust, you won’t commit adultery.

There was never even a hint of Yeshua teaching anything other than what his Father had already told us we should do.

Christianity, as we know it today, has rules for worship, holidays, and the lifestyle people should follow which are the creations of men; men who misinterpreted the letters from Shaul (Paul).

These men misdirected the Gentiles who were being converted to a godly, Torah-observant lifestyle to a man-made, Torah-rejecting religion.

Yeshua lived 100% Torah observant-if he hadn’t, he would not have been an acceptable sacrifice. DUH!

And if he had taught to reject any part of the Torah, he would have been in rebellion against God and, as such, definitely not an acceptable sacrifice.

Do you get it? If Yeshua had done or taught anything other than to live a Torah-observant life, we would have no means of salvation because Yeshua would have been in rebellion against God and as such, could not be the real messiah.

Here’s the way I see it- anyone who teaches to live and worship other than the way God said we should, in the Torah, is working for the Enemy and is an Anti-Christ. Maybe not THE Anti-Christ, but certainly a type of one.

That’s all there is to it, people- Yeshua never taught or said anything against following the Torah, so it’s up to you to decide what you will do: choose to obey God’s mitzvot regarding lifestyle and worship or choose to obey a religion created by men which rejects almost everything God said.

And while you’re thinking it over, you might want to remember that God has said to reject his laws is to reject him, then glance through 1 and 2 Kings to see what God has done to those who have rejected him.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to this ministry on my website and my YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (but PLEASE- make sure you click that you agree to the rules, or I can’t let you in).

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

How many times have you heard that a Believer should follow the commands of Yeshua (Jesus)?

My question is this: when did he ever command anyone to do anything?

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The fact is that Yeshua NEVER commanded anyone to do anything that wasn’t already a commandment from his father, God.

If you search Google for commandments Yeshua made, it will tell you that he made two- to love the Lord and to love each other. Or, you will get a “hit” for when he told his disciples to love one another.

But those were already given by God in the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, respect.).

This is just one example of how Christianity has replaced God with Jesus, making him into an idol who is interfering in our relationship with God instead of interceding for us.

They don’t even refer to him as a messiah but as a savior- just one more way they implicitly identify him as God, which is done in order to separate Jesus from anything Jewish, which only serves to keep Jews from wanting to hear anything about him.

What am I talking about? Don’t Jews view the messiah as a savior?

Not really. We refer to the messiah (as you can see in the Gospel of Matthew more than any other gospel) as king more than as a savior. When you ask a Jew about who his savior is, he (or she) will most likely say God.

Throughout the Tanakh, God is referred to as our savior. Even when Mary prayed (Luke 1:46-49), she referred to God as her savior.

This will help you to understand why we view the messiah as our king and not as our savior: the traditional Jewish expectation of the messiah is that he will rebuild the temple and reinstitute the Levitical service, being both king and Cohen HaGadol (High Priest), and with the temple and Levitical service back in force we will thereby be able to receive forgiveness through the sacrificial system. I have written an entire teaching series about this, and if you want to study it, click here.

Christianity has done everything it can over the millennia to totally separate itself from its Jewish roots, and by referring to Jesus (never using his real name, Yeshua) as their savior instead of God, praying to saints, making graven images all over their churches, saying human beings can forgive sin, and the worst of all is the idea of the Trinity, which makes Jesus equal with God, the very idea of which is an anathema to Jews.

So, nu? No wonder Jews don’t want to hear anything about Jesus: to Jews, he is more of a Gentile idol than as the messiah God promised to send to us.

I am Jewish by blood on both sides for generations- I never converted to Christianity when I accepted Yeshua as my messiah- and to tell you the truth, I am more “Jewish” now than before. Because of this, I can easily see the anti-Jewish messages that Christianity has created in their tenets, dogma, ceremonies, and history (ever hear of the Inquisition? the Crusades?) which most Christians cannot.

And saying to follow the commands of Jesus is just one more example of Christianity trying to keep Jews away from their own messiah.

I usually keep my plugs for my books to the end of these messages, but I really want to tell you that the book I am most proud of is my recent one, and if you want to know more about how Christianity has proliferated lies about the Jewish messiah, click here to get this book.

So, let’s end today’s message with this: next time someone mentions the commands of Jesus, set them straight (nicely, of course) by saying that he never gave a command, he only repeated the ones that God gave in the Torah.

Therefore, if you really, really want to obey Jesus and follow in his footsteps, take a walk through the Torah.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry continue to grow. Subscribe, click for notifications, buy my books (I know I already said that, but it never hurts to say it again) and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please agree to the rules or I can’t let you join).

And I always welcome your comments.

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

That’s a good question- why should we celebrate Yom Kippur when we have already been saved by the blood of Yeshua the Messiah?

Well, the obvious answer is…because God said we should. Duh!

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

Christianity has taught that salvation is something akin to a “Come as you are” party- all you have to do is believe in Jesus (whatever that is supposed to mean), love your neighbor (again- what’s that mean?) and be a good person (even Yeshua refused to be called “good”, so how can we be good?).

Do all that and you get to go to heaven.

However, the Bible doesn’t even confirm we go to heaven, since Revelation tells us we will be on the new Earth.

So, with all that Christianity has told us that we need to do, which the Bible doesn’t really confirm, if you want to do what pleases God then it makes sense the best thing to do is go back to the beginning and start all over again, correctly, by learning what God said he wants us to do, and then doing that.

And when you get to Leviticus Chapter 23, you will see that God demands we afflict our souls (generally believed to mean fasting) on the 10th of Tishri, which is from sundown to sundown.

Yes, it’s true, because of Yeshua’s sacrifice we can have our sins forgiven, which is (after all) what being “saved” means- we are saved from the eternal consequences of the sins we commit. Otherwise, come Judgement Day, we will be told we cannot be in God’s presence throughout eternity.

Whatever hell is, whether it is a hot place with little demons stabbing you in the tuchas with pitchforks, or a cold and dark place where people gnash their teeth, or having to sit in the US Senate during a filibuster, the bottom line is that hell is not the place you want to spend eternity.

Of course, Christianity has gone out of the way to reject every single one of God’s Holy Days, and replace them with man-made holidays that are pagan rituals rebranded to celebrate Yeshua instead of the pagan gods they originally were about.

And you now what? That’s OK, as far as I am concerned, because when something is recreated in a way that honors God or his Messiah, I figure that is acceptable. After all, weren’t we all sinners deserving of death?

Yet, when we accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as our Messiah, confessed and repented of our sins asking forgiveness by means of Yeshua’s sacrifice, weren’t we recreated as new beings?

Even though we are essentially the same person, physically, we are spiritually a new creation, right?

And, as a new creation, what we were before is no longer held against us. So, why not apply that same forgiveness and acceptance to holidays that used to be sinful, but are now recreated to be honoring God and Messiah?

But, then again, that’s a different message, so let’s get back to Yom Kippur.

I fast during this Holy Day (I define a Holy Day as one commanded by God, whereas a holiday is a man-made ceremony) and I read my machzor (special prayer book for the High Holy Day celebrations), I pray and I reflect.

I am not associated with any synagogue right now, so I do this on my own.

In case you didn’t know, Yom Kippur is not a pilgrimage celebration, so no one has to be in synagogue. Only Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot require us to be in a holy convocation at the place where God put his name. Of course, no one can go there now because the temple Solomon built is no longer there, and that is the last place God put his name.

To be honest, I do watch TV during the day while I am afflicting my soul. And let me tell you this, here and now- there is no greater affliction than watching TV while fasting because every other stinkin’ commercial is about food!

So, as always, I won’t tell you what you should do, and I can’t speak for God (Job’s friends learned how much God doesn’t like that), but I believe it is safe to say that God would much rather you do what he says than what some Pope or Rabbi or Minister tells you to do.

Fast, or don’t fast- it’s up to you. But if you decide not to fast, remember that one day you will have to explain to God why you rejected his commandment.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry continue to grow. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

Oh, yes, I almost forgot to wish you the traditional Yom Kippur greeting…may you have an easy fast.

You may be thinking:

“What does Steve mean? Isaac was the son of Abraham, and Absalom was the son of David, but Yeshua is the son of God, right? So, nu? What’s the story?”

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

Here’s the story, and I expect it will have one of three responses:

1. Some will adamantly reject what I say in defense of their religion;
2. Some will agree whole-heartedly; and
3. Most (hopefully) will read this carefully and think it over for themselves, researching the Bible to verify my statements.

So, why am I comparing Yeshua to these two sons of famous Jewish leaders?

Because they both represent a type of son, and Yeshua represents each type, although in the case of Absalom, Christians do not even realize the association that traditional Christian teachings have created, to the detriment of Yeshua’s name.

Let’s start with Isaac.

He wasn’t some pre-teen boy when he followed Abraham to Mount Moriah. In truth, most biblical scholars agree that he was probably in his late 20s to early 30s at that time. And, even though he was full grown and more than capable of defending himself and preventing Abraham from harming him, he was totally obedient to his father’s wishes, yes- even unto death!

There can be no doubt that Isaac already suspected something when he asked Abraham where the sacrificial animal was as they approached the mountain alone, and by the time Abie was bringing the rope over and said something to the effect of, “Please lay down on this rock”, I figure Isaac knew what was what.

Yet, he was the obedient son.

Yeshua was the obedient son, also, even to the point of death. God didn’t tie him to a rock, but when he was approaching Jerusalem, Yeshua knew what was to happen. It is also pretty certain that when he was on the mountain with Moses and Elijah, he was getting a pep talk from the guys, helping him to psyche himself up for what was to come.

OK- that’s simple enough, right? Isaac obeyed his father’s wishes to the point of death, and Yeshua did the same.

Now for Absalom: by the by, if you don’t recall all about Absalom, before you go any further please open your Bible and read 2nd Samuel, Chapters 15 to 20.

Absalom was not an obedient son, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he was a subversive, traitorous and disobedient son who first tried to undermine his father’s popularity by placing himself in a position where he told the people they would get justice and fair treatment from him, implying they couldn’t count on it from his father.

Then, after forming a rather large number of followers, he then rebelled against his father, the King, and took over the kingdom, causing David to flee for his very life.

So how can I even think Yeshua was anything like Absalom?

Personally, I don’t think Yeshua was anything like Absalom, but Christianity does.

The traditional Christian teaching is that Yeshua did away with the law, i.e. the Torah, which is God’s instructions to ALL people regarding how to worship him and how to treat each other. It is not just for Jews- never was, isn’t now, and God never intended it ever should be.

Actually, the Torah is the ONLY place, throughout the entire Bible, where God, himself, tells us what we must do. He commands that no one should ever add to or take away from any of his instructions to us, and there is not one place, anywhere, throughout all the letters and gospels in the New Covenant where God says anything against his Torah.

In fact, God doesn’t even speak in the New Covenant, except at the transfiguration on the mountain where he tells the two Disciples that Yeshua is his son, and to listen to him.

So, if the law was done away with by Yeshua, that means he rebelled against his father’s laws and undermined the followers of God by turning them to worship him, not God, telling them that all they have to do is believe in him (whatever the heck that means) to be saved.

In other words, Christian doctrine has rebranded Yeshua from the obedient son (Isaac) to the rebellious son (Absalom), who stole his father’s kingdom in order that people would worship him.

Wrong, you say? Yeshua never rebelled? Christianity never said Jesus was a traitor to God?

Let me ask you something…how many people do you know who pray to Jesus? Or, worse yet, to Mary, or Joseph, or any number of saints, instead of praying to God?

And how many people do you know who thank Jesus for the blessings they receive? Isn’t Jesus an Intercessor? Doesn’t that mean he doesn’t answer prayers but, instead, brings them before his father?

Sorry to burst bubbles, but Jesus doesn’t answer prayers or hand out blessings- as the Messiah, he is the one who implores his father to do so.

And now here’s the ultimate rebellion: many, if not most, of the Christian religions say that Jesus IS God, and if that ain’t a case of the son taking over the kingdom of the father, well…I don’t know! What else could it be!

So, there you have it!

Yeshua can’t be both an Isaac and an Absalom, so you need to decide for yourself which he is: is Yeshua the obedient son who does as his father says, or is he the rebellious son who rejects his father’s authority so people will follow him as he takes over the kingdom?

And understand this- whatever you decide, that decision will likely have eternal consequences!

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website (while there howzabout buying my books?) and my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And remember: I always welcome your comments.

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

Without doubt, one of the most horrendous acts against the Jewish people was the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 73 AD.

You see, God commanded that no sacrifice can be made except where he places his name (Deuteronomy 12:10-14). At first, that was the Tent of Meeting Moses built in the desert, then it was at Gilgal, then Shiloh, and finally the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem.

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

Without the temple, there could be no sacrifice, which meant there could be no forgiveness of sin.

Oy gevalt! Now what?

How could God have been so cruel, to allow the Romans to destroy the very place he put his name, the only place his chosen people could find forgiveness of sin? It was like God not only punished the Jews, but condemned them to hell!

It was spiritual genocide!

Or…was it?

Did you know that one of the traditional Yom Kippur activities was to tie a scarlet ribbon on the head of the goat chosen to be the sin sacrifice, and that ribbon would miraculously turn white to show that God accepted the sacrifice and forgave us our sins?

In the Talmud, Tractate Yoma 39b, it tells us that 40 years before the destruction of the temple, the ribbon no longer turned white, indicating that the sacrifice would not be accepted.

We who are believers in Yeshua (Jesus) find this to be clear evidence of God’s verification that Yeshua, who was crucified and resurrected about 40 years before the destruction of the temple, was, indeed, the Messiah God promised to send.

However, “mainstream” Judaism refutes this as indicating that Yeshua was the final atonement for sin; instead, they present the argument that it was the sinfulness of the First Century Jews that prevented God from accepting their sacrifice, which was the result of centuries of spiritual decline, starting from the death of the High Priest Shimon ha Tzadik (Simeon the Just, who lived during the Second Temple period).

Frankly, whether or not the ribbon thing was gradual and haphazard over centuries, as is argued by non-believing Jews, or all at once, it doesn’t really matter to me because I have stated, many times, that faith is not something that needs proof; in fact, proof is the antithesis of faith.

That being said, the destruction of the temple is certainly indisputable evidence to the fact that God allowed something to prevent people from atoning for their sins, and since God tells us (in Ezekiel 18:23) that he takes no pleasure in anyone dying because of their sins, the question remains:

If God doesn’t want anyone to die in their sins, then why allow the only place we can be forgiven to be destroyed?

My answer is that God allowed the destruction of his temple because he loves us, and that love was so great he gave his only begotten son to allow us to be forgiven of our sins without the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem.

Back then, the Middle East was where the Jewish people lived. No one was more than a few days travel to the temple, but by the middle of the First Century the world had gotten much bigger, and today Jews are widespread across the globe. For us to make the trip to Jerusalem every time we need to sacrifice would be tremendously difficult.

You know, I could even make an argument that for God to force us to travel to Jerusalem today to be forgiven of sin would be more than unusually difficult, it would be downright unjust.

That is why I believe God allowed the temple to be destroyed, so that we Jews would have no option for salvation other than to reconsider the truth about who and what Yeshua is.

Accepting Yeshua as the Messiah means being able to be forgiven of sin, anywhere and anytime, while rejecting him means being in a canoe in the rapids heading towards a waterfall without a paddle.

And not just that, but there is a big hole in the canoe, as well.

Can you now see why I say God allowed the temple to be destroyed because he loves us? God destroyed the temple so that we would have no choice but to accept his Messiah, Yeshua, and thereby be saved from ourselves.

What a shame that so many of my Jewish brothers and sisters are still stubbornly refusing to do that.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and my YouTube channel; buy the books I have written and then share them with people you know who have been lied to about God by their respective religion.

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

The 10 Commandments were given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, also called Mount Horeb. These commandments, which are often referred to as “The 10 Words” are the keystone for every religion that falls under the general title of Jewish or Christian.

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So, if God gave these 10 commandments to everyone who worships him, why is it that within Christianity, when they list the 10 Commandments, the first commandment that God gave is missing?

“What do you mean, Steve? The first commandment is there, and it says that you shall have no other gods before me.”

You’re right, that is what it says, but that isn’t the first commandment!

I did an Internet search for “What are the 10 Commandments” and this is what I got on the first “hit”, which are the first 2 commandments:

I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me. You shall not make to thyself any graven thing; nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. You shall not adore them nor serve them.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

In fact, I went through the first 10 or so results and not even one of them- NOT ONE! – had the first commandment listed.

So, what is this missing, mysterious first commandment? Am I telling you that it isn’t “Thou shall have no other gods before me?”

Yes- that is EXACTLY what I am saying!

Here is the listing of the first commandment, directly from the Torah, which is what God told Moses to write down (Exodus 20):

After searching far and wide on the Internet, I finally found this when asking for the Hebrew commandment from the Torah.

The first commandment that God gave to Moses is NOT about having any other gods before him- that is in the second commandment. The first commandment, the very first thing that God, himself, thought to be the most important thing to learn is that he is the LORD, our God, who brought us out of slavery!

So why is it that Christianity, which is supposed to be worshipping the same God Jews worship, have not just rejected, but totally erased from God’s commandments the first one he gave, and replaced it by splitting the second commandment into two different ones?

The probable answer, if you ask me, is that by the end of the First Century the original Messianic Jews who accepted Yeshua as their Messiah had died off, and the number of Gentiles accepting Yeshua (at that time being called Jesus) overwhelmed the Jews within this movement, which was being transformed into a totally new religion.

You see, because of the political issues the Jewish population was having with Rome, these new Gentile Believers did not want to be associated with the Jews. As Roman citizens (supposedly) worshipping the Roman gods, they were safe; however, worshipping as the Jews did meant they would probably be considered by Rome as Jews, and that put them in a tenuous position.

So, the Gentile leaders of what was now called Christianity started to change their form of worship, beginning with celebrating the Shabbat on Sunday (which was a Roman day of celebration) and rejecting most of the Jewish lifestyle, such as kosher laws and the Holy Days. Later on, by the time Constantine got involved, Christianity became a totally different religion.

Knowing the history, we can understand why these Christians wanted to seem separate from the Jewish population, and the best way to do that was to remove any reference to being God’s chosen people. By removing the first commandment and replacing it with the first part of the second commandment, they completely disassociated themselves from the God of the Jews.

Later, when they decided that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit were really all the same entity, they could justify worshiping Jesus as God without violating their first commandment.

The result is that today, Christians have no relationship at all to the God of the Jews and within most of the different Christian religions, they have replaced Adonai completely with Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but from what I have read in the Gospels about Yeshua (Jesus’ real name) and his devotion to his father, I would guess that what modern Christianity has done probably doesn’t go over very well with Yeshua, and especially not with God.

I can’t speak for either of them, but I am pretty sure that God doesn’t like the idea that men changed his commandments, and I’ll also bet the farm that Yeshua is teed-off that men have replaced worship of his father with worship of him.

I have often seen or heard Christians saying that when a Gentile accepts Jesus as their Messiah, they are now a spiritual son or daughter of Abraham, yet in the very same breath they reject the God of Abraham by rejecting his Torah worshiping Jesus.

Worse than that, if you can get any worse, they profess to follow the 10 Commandments but have deleted the first commandment, which is the one that tells us who is our God!

How can anyone say they worship God by deleting the commandment that tells us who he is?

That’s a question I really can’t answer.

Oh, yes, we know that they didn’t want to be associated with Jews, but that doesn’t excuse removing one of his 10 commandments.

In Matthew 7:21-23, Yeshua says that many who call him “Lord” will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. More than that, Yeshua will say he never knew them! How can that be?

Well, maybe it’s because they erased a commandment God gave, replaced God’s Holy Days with man-made holidays, and worship him instead of his father?

Maybe Yeshua will reject those who are totally obedient to whichever sect of Christianity they follow because by doing so they reject nearly everything God said to do?

Maybe God will reject Jews obedient to the Torah but who have rejected Yeshua as their Messiah?

It’s not my call who God will accept or reject; but, based on what God tells us in the Torah, on what Yeshua taught, on how mainstream Judaism has taught us to reject Yeshua, and how Christianity has rejected God’s commandment and (within many Christian religions) even replaced him with his son, well…I believe it safe to say that those things ain’t gonna please either God or Yeshua.

And when the Acharit HaYamim (the End Days) are upon us and we find ourselves in front of God on his Throne of Judgment, when we say “But, Lord, that is what they told me I should do!”, I believe he will say something to the effect of:

“I understand that is what they told you to do, but it is what I say that counts!”

When we come before God for judgment, and Yeshua is standing to the right of God, he will either say “This one is mine, Father” or “I never knew you.”

So, you can choose to follow the religion of men, or you can choose to obey God, and that decision will determine which one of those statements you will hear.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe to my website, my YouTube channel, and on Facebook “Like’ my page and join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And while you are on the website, explore the website- there are some nice pictures and teaching series that I am sure you will find interesting. And buy the books I have written- if you like what you get here, you will like my books, as well.

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

If you look on the Internet for an answer to this question, you will find many different viewpoints. I have often read that the other three gospels are synoptic, while John’s is spiritual; this seems to be the main explanation for the significant differences between John and the other three gospels. .

But is that really an explanation?

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One person said that we need to look at the audience, and I think that is somewhat on the right track, in that John is written so differently, with a subtle anti-Semitic tone to it, that I do not believe it was written by the Apostle John, at all. And neither do I believe it was written to Jews.

In fact, I don’t even think it was written by a Jew!

“WHOA!! Hold your horses, Steve! How can you even think that?”

I’ll tell you why.

Here are some of the differences I noted in John that do not appear in the other gospels, are exactly the opposite of the other three, or appear (to me, being a Jew) to not have been written by a Jewish person at that time:

• When talking to the Pharisees, Yeshua often uses the term “your Torah”. Now, for a Jewish person living then, which is no different than for a Jewish person living now, we do not say “your Torah” when discussing the Torah. We say “the Torah” or just, “Torah”. By emphasizing that the Torah is “theirs”, Yeshua implies that it is not his. Now, if John starts out by saying the Word became flesh, and we have to assume the Word is the Torah (since there was no other “Word” then), how can the living Torah separate himself from the written Torah? The sense one gets from this dichotomy is that Yeshua is teaching something different than the Torah, which is wrong. By using the term “your Torah”, the writer is separating Yeshua from the Torah. No Jewish disciple of Yeshua would ever state or even imply that Yeshua taught anything other than what is in the Torah.

• The writer often refers to the people who were against Yeshua as “the Judeans”. Sometimes we read the writer differentiate the Judeans from the Jerusalemites, but overall the implication is that all Jews were against Yeshua. Of course, this is not true, and not implied in the other gospels, which indicate that it was the Pharisees and Scribes (also called Torah teachers) who were the main impetus behind having Yeshua arrested. They were also the ones who threatened the people with excommunication if they followed him. This subtle anti-Semitic tone leads one to believe that all the Jews rejected Yeshua, when the truth is that thousands accepted him.

• One of my major complaints about the gospel of John is that of all the New Covenant writings, this gospel is the only one with any indication that Yeshua is God. Whether you are a Unitarian or a Trinitarian, the fact remains that nowhere else in the entire New Covenant does Yeshua even imply he is God; yet, in just this gospel, his language is so overly spiritual, way too metaphorical, and containing confusing double-talk that leads one to think Yeshua says he is God. For example, there are many instances where Yeshua says something to the effect of he knows the Father and the Father knows him, and if they knew the Father they would know him, but they don’t know the Father, so they don’t know him, but he and the Father are one, so when they reject him they reject the Father, who will reject them because…yadda…yadda…yadda! Too much metaphorical mishigas! Throughout history, these types of statements (which we find only in John) have been used to justify that God and Yeshua are one and the same entity. This is one of the major reasons that Jews cannot accept Yeshua as their Messiah– we Jews have one God, and just one God, and he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised to send a Messiah to bring us back into communion with God, gather us back to our homeland, Israel, and re-establish the Temple service. The Messiah, for Jews, is a man with supernatural powers that come from God, but he is not God, himself. The gospel of John is written in such a way as to make it impossible for any Jew to accept Yeshua, and no Jewish disciple of Yeshua would ever write anything like that.

• Thomas says “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28) when he sees Yeshua after being resurrected. This is not stated in any of the other three gospels.

• Yeshua gives his disciples the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh by breathing it on them (John 20:22). This happens when he is with them after his resurrection. According to the other three gospels, not only does this not happen, but the complete opposite thing- Yeshua tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit, which will come from God. And in Acts Chapter 2, we are told that the Ruach didn’t come upon the disciples until they were celebrating Shavuot, which was some 50 days after Pesach (Passover).

• In the other three gospels, Yeshua never clearly states he is the Messiah or the son of God, referring to himself instead as the “Son of Man”. But in John’s gospel, he claims to be the son of God and the Messiah a number of times (John 4:25; 10:36; 18:36).

• In the other three gospels, Yeshua refuses to help anyone other than the lost tribes of Israel, but in John 4:25 he not only tells the Samaritan woman at the well that he is the Messiah, but stays for two days teaching the people in Samaria!

• The only gospel that mentions the Apostles going to the grave is Luke, and he says only Kefa (Peter) went. In John’s gospel, it says John and Peter went, and that he got there before Peter (when the writer of John refers to the “talmid that Yeshua loved”, this is a clear reference to John).
  
• Finally, we have to remember one of the most important and necessary tools to use in biblical exegesis, which is hermeneutics, and when we review the gospel of John hermeneutically to the other three gospels, the many differences between John’s gospel and the other three MUST indicate that the gospel of John is – at the very least- questionable with regards to its accuracy and trustworthiness.
  
  

In fact, the Complete Jewish Bible even points out that many biblical scholars believe one part of this gospel, John 7:53 – 8:11, wasn’t even written by John but possibly by a talmid (student) of his. I say, if the scholars believe that part of this gospel was written by someone else, why stop there?

I think the gospel of John wasn’t written by John, or even by a Jew, because everything about it screams traditional Christian anti-Torah teaching to me!

I don’t think it should even be in the New Covenant.

If it is so wrong, why is it there? I believe it is there because by the time the New Covenant was being canonized, the Christian religion had mutated into a totally anti-Torah religion and the Gentiles putting this “Bible” together needed something to really support their doctrines. The gospel of John does this very well, what with the many references to Yeshua saying that he and God are the same, to “your Torah”, to “the Judeans”, filled with overly spiritual and metaphorically intense sentences designed to confuse the masses, and with a writing style that is so very different from the other Jewish writings that it would appeal to those who are easily fooled into thinking that something sounding spiritual must be true.

I realize that many Christians swear by the gospel of John, and consider it to be the best of the four gospels. When I was first learning about Yeshua, a very spiritually mature Christian I worked with helped me to come to salvation through Messiah Yeshua. However, of all he did to help me, the one thing he did that was not helpful, at all, was to tell me that I should begin my introduction to the New Covenant by reading John’s gospel.

Today, if I wanted to help a Jewish brother or sister know their Messiah, I would direct them to Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews, James, and Revelation. I would tell them not to even look at any other writings until they were sure they knew what Yeshua was teaching and only after I was able to prepare them for the true meaning of the Epistles.

And I would tell them to ignore the gospel of John, altogether.

What I am about to say might stun and possibly offend or upset many Christians, but I fully believe the gospel of John was written by someone who was not Jewish, and whose aim in writing it was to support Christian separation from Judaism.

Christianity seems to just brush off the significant differences between John’s gospel and the other gospels, and ignores the fact that these differences are not just “off” a little, but are totally in opposition to what we read in the other gospels and in the book of Acts.

I’m sorry, but I can’t ignore this! John’s gospel is not trustworthy and I believe it should be ignored, completely, because it is not the true representation of Yeshua’s ministry, but rather a propaganda gospel designed to direct Gentiles away from the Torah, and Jews away from their Messiah.

If any of you now want to leave my ministry or block me, that is your decision, and I am sorry to see you go, but I calls ’em as I sees ’em, and this one is so very clear to me I cannot hold back, any more.

The truth is what sets us free, and more often than not, gaining that freedom can be so uncomfortable as to be painful.

Thank you for being here, and especially now if you’ve decided to stay. Please share these messages, subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

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