Tag: catholic

What I Did During My Summer Vacation

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I am back from a week in Ireland, having been on a bus with 27 other family members driving nearly 1,000 miles in 6 days, staying at 5 different hotels and spending a total of 16 hours on planes. OY!

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

As we traveled, we saw so many farms, green pastures, and even the mountains (of which there are many) are green. There are cows and sheep, and the occasional horse; the amount of peaceful scenery is enough to lower your blood pressure.

Yet, underneath this bucolic scene is a roiling cauldron of hatred and distrust, left over from the bad feelings of what our guide called the “Troubled Times”, which was when the Northern Irelanders (Protestants) and the Republic of Ireland people (Catholics) were at war with each other.

And it was a war- in fact, it has been officially declared as a war.

Our guide, Murt, was from the Republic of Ireland and a Catholic, yet he was fair in his narrative of the atrocities that both sides caused.

The issue was not originally a religious one but was, in fact, a political separation. The English had taken possession of lands that had Irish living on them, and when that happened British landowners made the Irish people slaves forcing them to pay taxes, which paid the tax the landowners had to pay to the Crown. This tax was based on how many people were living on the land, so when things got tough, such as during times of famine, the Landowners would evict the people and destroy the houses so that they didn’t have to pay tax on them. In the meanwhile, with no house, land or source of income, the people being evicted would starve to death.

The religious issue came about because the British (Landowners) had separated from the Church of Rome while the indigenous Irish (tenant farmers) had not. The British were Protestant and the Irish were Catholic. This resulted in the Irish population being split into the Loyalists (Protestant Irish) and the Catholic Irish.

In other words, the real problem was the geopolitical separation of land-owners and tenant farmers but it was hidden under the guise of religious persecution by Protestants against Catholics. Everyone knew that it was really British rule in Ireland that was the root of this evil, but the thing that people focused on was Protestant against Catholic.

When I thought about this, I realized that the End Times will be the same thing, but the other way around.

In Ireland, politics was the cause but religion was what people focused on. In the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) the Enemy of God will be fighting a religious battle but will have people focus on the politics. I believe the Antichrist will rise from the political turmoil that we are seeing today, persecution and (civil) lawlessness will give him (or maybe, her?) the fodder on which to build a political platform, selling the idea that peace will come about when the world comes together under a single government that has a single economy. The political focus will be created to hide the true, underlying issue- not one religion or another, but the worship of God or the worship of Satan.

Ireland’s history may be a good example of what we should expect to happen in the world. Politics has already become more like a religion than a form of government, in that people are separated in such a hateful, unjustified way that they are at odds with each other and it is currently bordering on becoming physical. I see Americans spending more time trying to prove someone did something wrong in the past than they are trying to focus on improving the future; I see Europe divided and being taken over by extremists; I see people worldwide losing the ability to communicate face-to-face and becoming so dependent on technology that they will be easily transformed into a bunch of robots, walking aimlessly about with their faces in their phones and not seeing where they are heading (physically or spiritually.)

We are a people composed of individuals in an emotional cocoon which actually separates us from everyone around us. Without Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, or the media, people don’t know how to just talk with each other anymore.

In today’s, world, people are not connected to each other unless that connection is through the airwaves, through our TV, the radio, newscasts, or the Internet.

Do you remember what Shaul (Paul) called the Son of Perdition? He is called the Prince of the Air!

One last thing for today: do you recall what Yeshua said about a house divided against itself? America today is a house divided, Europe today (with the Brexit debate) is a house divided, and the only “house” not divided in the world is found within the despotic Communist countries. Islam is quickly taking over the free countries in Europe and had already infiltrated our American way of life and government.

The religious war prophesied in Revelation is already here but it hasn’t reared its ugly head yet. It is crouching in the shadows, and when it strikes out it will not be identified as a religious war but as a political war; I believe that politics is the sea from which the Antichrist will arise.

The battle is (and always has been) spiritual but it will appear to be political, and now that you know this you need to be alert. Don’t be fooled by political upheavals because it is really the Enemy who is behind them. Stay focused on God, strengthen your faith and prepare for battle by reading the Bible, especially Ephesians 6:10-17.

Thank you for being here, and please don’t forget to subscribe.

Also, I desperately need your help to send Bible materials to poor, rural Ugandans who follow this ministry and are asking for help to be more Torah observant. Check out my Gofundme campaign for them using the link below:

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I look forward to the next time we get together, and until then….L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Another Catholic Church Scandal

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No video today, and some of you may even have noticed this isn’t my usual day for posting. I had to write this because of what I read this morning in the paper. 

In the Florida Today paper there is a Catholic Priest who has been relieved of his flock pending investigation of sexual abuse when he was in a Pennsylvania diocese. 

It isn’t the sexual abuse I find disturbing, which it is, but the story about the way the visiting Priest addressed the congregation about it. 

Copying from what the paper reported, here is part of the Priest’s message:

“Our Mother (Mary) teaches us to pray in moments of desperation…in moments of need. “

He also said:

“Our Lady is a lady of hope…(God) will never abandon us, he’s never going to abandon this church…Mary help us, we are so lost…”

I read this and sighed because they are so lost.  Will God abandon those who have abandoned him? The Bible teaches us that when we reject God he will allow us to be on our own.  Did this priest pray to God for help? No, he didn’t. Did he pray to Jesus for help? No, he didn’t. Did he pray to someone that has no divinity, no authority, and who (in fact) Yeshua disowned before he died? 

YES- he did!! 

“Oh, wait a minute, Steve! When did Yeshua ever disown his own mother?” 

John tells us this happened in his Gospel, Chapter 19 verses 25-27:

“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,”  and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”  (NIV)

Essentially, Yeshua separated himself from the last “human family” he had before becoming the sacrificial lamb for all humanity. 

So when this priest said they are lost, he was more correct than he knows. There is absolutely no place at all in the Bible where Mary teaches anyone, anything. He says “Our Lady is a lady of hope..”; what happened to Jesus? And where is God all this time? Is there more hope for us in Mary than in Yeshua or God? In fact, when he called out to Mary to help them, he showed anyone who knows the Bible just how lost they really are- the epitome of the blind leading the blind. He was blindly calling for spiritual help to someone who can’t help them, ignoring the only One who can help them! Then, in the same breath, he says that One (God) will never abandon them, even though they clearly have abandoned him by praying to a human being.

And the congregation was (typically) blindly following. The paper says the message was well received by many, giving them hope. Hope in what? Where do they place their hope? In Mary? 

What about Psalm 33:20-22? We are told:

We put our hope in the Lord.
    He is our help and our shield.
 In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name.
 Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,
    for our hope is in you alone.

Don’t they read the Psalms in the Catholic church? Aren’t the priests trained in the entire Bible? 

Let’s go to the New Covenant…doesn’t Yeshua tell us the ONLY way to the Father is through the son?

How can the Catholic church leadership have missed all of this?

I am not saying this just to pick on the Catholic Church, although I have to say they do make it very easy to do so. No! I am trying to get them to open their eyes. They say they want to know why they have had such T’souris in the past 10 or more years? Well, I think it started much earlier than the past few years or decades. I started when they rejected God and Yeshua (except through lip service during the Mass) and began praying to their Saints, who are nothing more than people. It began when they filled their sanctuaries with graven images, knelt before them, and prayed to them. This is idolatry and unacceptable to God. They abandoned the path that Yeshua told them to walk, which is the same path along on which the Disciples led the Gentiles who accepted Messiah in the First Century. 

Instead, the modern church is following the ways of Constantine and subtle forms of pagan worship he introduced into the Canon he established at the Council of Nicene in the Third Century, which is the foundation for the modern Catholic church, as well as most of Christianity. 

As we come closer to the End Days, we see many Christians beginning to recognize the veil that has been pulled over their eyes, and they are beginning to know Yeshua for who he really is. And in doing so they want to learn and follow Torah, which is what he taught. They are rejecting the Constantinian doctrines and coming back to the style of worship that God commanded of us all.

I pray this continues so that as the Christians come to know their Messiah for who he really is, then the Jews will see that Christianity is becoming more like what it was when it started, i.e. Torah honoring people who have faithfully accepted Yeshua as the Messiah God promised to the world; to the Jew first, then to the nations. Perhaps when my Jewish brothers and sisters can see Gentiles who are praying to and worshiping God (alone) and honoring Torah, they will (finally) become jealous for their own Messiah. 

Pray for the Catholic church; but more importantly, pray for those 1.2 Billion or so Catholics throughout the world who are being led down the path to Sheol. Pray that their eyes open and their ears unclog so their hearts can become wise, and they can be saved before it is too late. 

Man oh man, do they ever need it! 

Parashah Ki Tesa (when you take) Exodus 30:11 – 34

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Wow! This parashah is really full of such wonderful stuff: the formula for the incense, God giving the Torah to Moshe (twice, in fact), the sin of the Golden Calf, the sacrificial attitude of Moses, refusing to allow God to make a nation from himself so that the people survive (even asking God to blot him out with the people), Moses also begging God to travel with the people or leave them where they were, and finally we are told of the Divine attributes of God (in Judaism called the Imitation of God), which God, Himself, calls out as He passes by Moses.

With all of that, what shall I talk about today? None of it. I want to talk about something that is in-between the lines, something mentioned in the Chumash commentary but not mentioned directly in the Tanach.

What I am referring to is that when Moses left to go up the mountain to meet with the Lord, he left two people in charge (Exodus 24:14): Aaron and Hur. Aaron from the tribe of Levi and Hur from the tribe of Judah, yet when the story of the Golden Calf begins we only hear about Aaron. The Chumash explains the traditional belief is that Hur resisted the people’s wishes for an idol and was put to death by them. Seeing this, Aaron decided he better build the idol.

The Chumash states that Aaron’s deeds were not correct, but the “spin” they give is that he was stalling, hoping for Moses to come back in time to stop this. Another explanation is that Aaron was a man of peace, so seeing resistance as futile and fearing division within the tribes, he acquiesced to the demands of the people.

Really? So because Aaron was a man of peace, he ignored (in truth failed to perform) his duty as the Cohen HaGadol (High Priest) and rejected the commandments God gave the people so that they wouldn’t fight among themselves? Sounds more to me like Aaron was interested in saving his own skin. Clearly, the idea of being a martyr did not appeal to him, whereas Hur became the first martyr in the bible.

Sidebar: it is usually taught that Stephan was the the first martyr mentioned in the bible , but when you consider the (Merriam-Webster) definition of the word:

A person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion.

when we talk about the first martyr mentioned in the bible, it seems Hur should hold that distinction.

Here is what I see- Moses, representing God’s ideal government of both religious (prophet) and civil (king) authority in one position (which is what we will have under the rule of Messiah), goes to commune with the King of kings, and leaves two people in charge. One whose authority is religious (Aaron, from the tribe of the priesthood) and one whose authority is civil (Hur, from the tribe of Judah: remember that Judah will hold the scepter until Messiah/Shiloh comes, which was the blessing that Israel gave on his deathbed in Genesis 49:10.) This is a precursor of the times at the end of the Prophets, when a king was requested who would rule separately from the Prophets (1 Samuel 10), setting the standard of separation of church and state that still exists today.

The authority of the prophets comes directly from God, and the authority of the king comes from the people. Oh, yes, we read how God told the prophets who they should anoint, but we see later that the kings set themselves up more often than a prophet did. And today the political power of nearly every single nation is from human choice, not Divine announcement.

I believe that the bible shows us (starting in this parashah) that civil authority is what the people prefer, and yet the best authority is the one God grants. Whenever we listen to humans instead of God, we reject God and fall into sin, and when the religious authority succumbs to the civil (as Aaron did), all hell breaks loose. We see this happen throughout the bible, and yet we never seem to learn. Even today we still have rejected God- He has been taken out of our courts, out of our schools, and replaced with political correctness under a one world court called the United Nations.

The ideal government God designed is the one that the enemy of God, the Son of Perdition, will establish. That is why, I believe, it will be so powerful and will only fall to the Divine intervention of God. The prophet-king government, a Theocracy, is what God wants on earth. We had it under Moses, and the first time we tried to break it up (in this parashah) we see that the government failed to function.

For you and I what this means is that we need to decide who we will follow- God or Man? Yeshua (Jesus) tells us to give unto Caesar what is his, so we pay our taxes (correctly!) and obey the laws of the country and municipality. But what we see from our religious leaders today is coming more and more under a civil dictate than what God says: in both Jewish and Gentile places of worship we see not just allowing some members to remain members even after professing they are homosexual, but support of that lifestyle as acceptable. We see churches and synagogues presenting their position for or against candidates for office. I agree we should support those politicians that are god-fearing, but we are supposed to accept that God is in charge and He will put in authority whomever He chooses- our political choices should be secret. After all, isn’t the right to a secret ballot one of the most important rights we have fought for? If we have shed blood so that we can vote for someone in secret, why then do we go around violating that secrecy by announcing who we will vote for and (even worse!) demanding to know from others who they will vote for?

We are just so wrong in everything we do, yet we continue to do wrong even in the face of history and seeing, over and over and over….and over…how when we reject God’s path we walk into a pile of manure.

OY!!

Until we have that perfect, Divine government under Messiah, we will have to work within the political system we have. Historically, every attempt at returning to the Mosaic government has failed: the leaders of these attempts are called Dictators and Despots. That’s not the government God wants. So what we have to do is remember that we are to respect the government authority, and follow our leaders as long as they are following God’s design.

One day you may have to face that ultimate challenge, which is (essentially) to take the mark of the devil or refuse it; when that day comes, we all need to be ready to give our mortal life so that we can retain our immortal soul.

Tradition or Torah?

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Besides being fed up with their faithlessness and ignorance, Yeshua’s (Jesus) biggest complaint when He was ministering to the people was that they gave more importance to the Rabbinic traditions then they did to God’s word. It is clear throughout the Gospels how He felt, accusing the Pharisees of hypocrisy, and adding more to what God required (Matthew 23.)

We have known of Yeshua’s request to do what God has said we should do (and to beware of hypocrisy) for centuries, and after all these centuries what have we learned?

Nothing. In fact, back then it was just Jews following Yeshua and Jews not following Yeshua, but today we have so many different religions (all man-made) with so many different laws and canons and requirements and traditions that not only have we not learned, but we have exponentially made it worse!

Jews that didn’t want to follow Yeshua made it hard for the ones that did, then Rome made it worse, so the followers began to separate themselves from the Jews, which led to ignoring some of the Torah. Then they wanted to separate further, and the Council of Nicene developed their own religion, changing the Sabbath, creating their own holidays, and developing Canon, laws, commandments and rituals (all man-made) that took precedence over the Festivals of the Lord that God told us we should celebrate (Leviticus 23.) What they did was to totally ignore God’s commandments, just as Jeroboam did when God gave him the 10 Tribes of the Northern Kingdom (1 Kings 12:2.)

So Christians became Catholics, became Eastern Orthodox and Western Orthodox, became Lutherans, became Protestants, became, became, became, became….until today there are dozens of different Christian denominations; adding to the ones I mentioned above, there are Unitarians, 7th Day Adventists, Latter Day Saints, Methodists, Amish, Mennonites, AME, Baptists (Southern and others), Christian Scientists, Quakers, and the list goes on and on.

Let’s not forget the Jews: Chasidic (different groups within this), Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic (yes, my Jewish readers, Messianic Judaism IS a sect of Judaism:Messianic Jews are not Christians.)

If everyone is worshiping the same God, then how can there be all these different ways of worshiping?  All agree this is the same God, the God that doesn’t change. So, if He doesn’t change, and He told us how to worship Him when he gave the teachings to Moses (which describe how we are to worship and provides penal and moral codes we are to live by), then how can there be so many different ways to live and worship? The Torah is a constitution, but unlike a political constitution which can be amended, God’s constitution is never to be amended. He told us that in Deuteronomy 4:2.

I got on this “kick” by reading Dear Abby, where she was asked by someone who’s Grandmother believed all children need to be baptized, and another granddaughter had a baby that was not being baptized. The writer asked if it would be OK to baptize the baby in secret just so the Grandmother feels better.  Good for Abby!- she told them no way. But here is what “gets” me about this- where did anyone ever get the idea that God would send an infant to hell because it wasn’t baptized? I know that Yeshua said we must all be reborn of spirit and water, but when we read about John (Yochanan) baptizing in the Jordan, it was adults who were coming. There is nothing in the bible that even implies children were there, let alone infants. To even imply God would send an innocent infant or child to hell because some Priest or Minister didn’t have someone else promise that the kid would be raised in that religion (remember- God has no religion, so that promise can’t really mean anything to God) is nothing short of ridiculous! Maybe even blasphemous. The only one who gains anything from the baptism ceremony is the church/priest. From what I have seen, $40 is the recommended “donation”, but then again, you have the textile industry (you need to buy the baby a Baptism dress), the card company, the food industry (“Come back to our place for refreshments afterwards”), and who knows who else makes money from this ceremony?

Baptism, as it is done in the church today, is absolutely wrong. The truth about the Jewish ceremony called Tevilah, which is the baptism Yochanan did in the Jordan, is a ceremony that represents an outward expression of an inner, spiritual cleansing.  It is something that one decides to do, and an infant cannot make that decision for itself. And, since this represents a communion and relationship between the baptized and the Lord, obviously no one else can make that decision for them.

To bring it all together, I believe the traditions that people have created in order to worship God in their own way only pollutes the true spiritual meaning of worship. God told us how to act, to worship, and to treat each other, His laws and regulations are not too hard to follow, they are not too difficult to understand, and they are not to be messed with.

If you really think that God is going to send an infant to hell because it hasn’t had someone pour water on it, you don’t understand anything about God. And because the infant hasn’t made it’s own decision to be baptized, the entire ceremony is really just pouring water on the kid.

I have nothing against traditions- they help to bind us, to remind us, and to keep us acting in a proper manner. It is a comfort zone, of a kind, and when the traditions we form are in keeping with and complementing God’s commandments, they are useful, practical and can be a blessing. But when they take on more importance than what God said to do, and we follow traditions that don’t complement but compete with God’s commandments, then we are blaspheming. We are ignoring God and idolizing ourselves and expanding our own importance.

The tagline for my ministry (this blog) is designed to honor God and get you on the right path: “God has no religion.” God has given us what He wants us to do- no more, no less. And when we add to it or subtract from it, we are telling God that what He says isn’t good enough.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to face God and tell Him He didn’t get it right.

It’s Between You and God

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Comeuppance. What a great word…”comeuppance.”  They say that all people who cheat others or do bad things will, one day, receive their “comeuppance.” It is usually defined as just deserts with the intimation that the person receiving their comeuppance was evil, but it is really just getting what one deserves. Good or bad, we all will have our own comeuppance.

God tells us, in Proverbs, that we should not return evil for evil and that He shall repay. We should wait upon the Lord.

After all, He is the Judge. Yeshua will rule the world, some or many of those who follow Him will be judges in their own right, answering to Yeshua, who answers only to God. God is the Ultimate Judge.

When it comes down to it, what we do, say, and how we live will be judged by God and so everything about your life is, ultimately and finally, between you and God. We all will face our own comeuppance, whether it’s a good one or a bad one.

Have you ever wondered if Gandhi was “saved” because he was such a holy man, even though his holiness was not that defined by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Is Mother Teresa in heaven? I think that many Catholics who are devout Catholics will be gravely disappointed, the same as many devout Jews will be when they come to their comeuppance.

God tells us what He wants from us, and He is pretty easy to understand. This past Shabbat we started the book of Vayikra (Leviticus), which tells us what we are to eat, how we are to act with each other (in intimate relationships) and what the Priestly duties are. It discusses the sacrifices and, even though we cannot sacrifice (because the Temple no longer stands), we should be familiar with the process because we can still make sacrifices today. Not sheep or goats or bulls, but personal sacrifices that are the ones God really wants- to do T’Shuvah, to obey His laws and ordinances, to love each other (even though this one is really hard at times.) How many times does God tell us, through the Psalms and the Prophets, that He doesn’t care for the blood of bulls and lambs but that He wants obedience?

Yeshua said if we love Him we will obey Him; He loved His father and obeyed Him, so it follows that we should obey what God said if we want to be like Yeshua. In fact, if you really want to know the answer to “WWJD” read the Torah, because that’s what Jesus did. Always.

Only God really sees the heart, and he sees us not as we see each other. God told Sh’muel (Samuel) that people see the outer image of a human but God sees their heart- that is how He picked David to be king. And even after David was anointed, it took years, with David running for his life, hiding with his enemies to be protected from his own father-in-law, living in caves like an animal. And he did that for years, then he ruled for 7 years from a small town until he ruled in Yerushalayim. It took many years from when he was first anointed as king until he came to his comeuppance, and all that time his mind was set on what his relationship was with God. He really did know how to wait upon the Lord. He certainly provides a good lesson for all of us.

We are all called to serve God, and we can choose to serve God or serve the Enemy. There is nothing in between, no abstainers in the Kingdom of Heaven, and no gray area. It’s God’s way or the Hell-way. Sorry: that’s the truth about it.

And because it is about you and God, let no one even try to tell you what to believe. However, we who believe that God exists, that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah and that all I say above is true, at least owe it to everyone else to ask them to seriously think about their eternal future. I am not much of a missionary, but I do have a gift for teaching. Maybe that’s why I was such a good salesman, but in any event, I will always talk to people, tell them what I believe and why I believe it, and if they are willing to listen or discuss it, I will inform them about the Good News and how to enter the Kingdom of God. If they disagree I will respect their right to do so, because it is between them and God. The best I can do is tell them what is right for me and why; if it seems right for them, all the better, but they have to decide. You can’t scare someone into believing and you can’t ram God down their throat. The best you may get is a temporary change of heart, but it is seed on rocky soil and will not last. Many of the sales I made were cancelled and the cancellation form was in the office before I even got the contract there. Many times people will renege on their agreements or get “buyers remorse”; it’s expected and happens in all things. Once someone realizes what sacrifices they have to make to follow the Lord they start to talk themselves out of it. That’s why it has to be their decision, made with the full understanding of the sacrifices they will be making, but also reminded of the rewards they can get.

God holds each of us accountable for our actions and decisions, and whether someone else tells us what to believe or not, it is going to be accounted to us as our decision. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. He chose to believe.

What do you believe? What do those you care about believe? And what are you doing to help them understand what their decision, or lack of decision, is going to result in when they will have their comeuppance?

Teaching is a Double-Edged Sword

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I believe, and have had it confirmed by others, that God has given me a gift for teaching. My mother was a teacher, so I learned some of how it’s done while still in the womb. Her sister was also in teaching, as a Vice-Principal. My older sister is a teacher with specific skills for handling troubled children. You could say the defective gene for teaching is in my system, but I like to think that God gave me the gift, also.

Here’s the problem: when you take on the responsibility of teaching, whether it be teaching Math or the Bible, you are shaping someone’s life. If you don’t mold that person correctly you could send them to hell in a handbasket.

The Bible is pretty specific about this: check out these verses:

Proverbs 22:6       Yacov (James) 3:1-2    Luke 6:40 (this one demands we teach by example)

2 Timothy 2:15     Mattitayu (Matthew) 5:19    Nehemiah 8:8      Romans 2:21

There are other verses, but from these you can get the idea that there is great power in teaching. The power to mold and shape someone, which is the same power to turn them aside from the truth and lead them to wrongful decisions. There is the power to save, and the power to destroy.

In the world today there are many teachings, both right and wrong. There are teachings that tell us somethings are bad and there are teachings that tell us the same, exact things are not bad.  The Catholic church says priests are not to get married, but the other Christian religions and the Torah teach that the Kohanim (Priests) are allowed to marry (but there are restrictions on the type of woman they are allowed to marry.) Another teaching is that being kosher is only for Jews, but Yeshua was kosher and we are told to be like Yeshua, to “Do what Jesus would have done”, so why is it taught that we don’t have to keep kosher? If you read my book you will learn more on how this idea that kosher laws are done away with is wrong.

The world teaches you to look out only for yourself and the Bible teaches us to care for others as much as ourselves. The world teaches to live for today and the Bible teaches us to live for Eternity.

So many different things, and all seemingly opposing each other. For those of us who want to teach about God’s way and to lead others to the salvation that Yeshua made possible, we have to work against the world and all the teachings therein. Then, we have to work against all the wrongful teachings that the Christian world has proliferated: Yeshua did away with Torah, Torah is just for Jews, Jews are Christ-killers and because they rejected Jesus God has rejected them so the Christians are the new Chosen People (this is called Replacement Theology), the church leadership shouldn’t get married, or (at the other end) the church leaders can be homosexual. Eat anything you want but you can’t drink alcoholic beverages or dance, and there are hundreds of other teachings, each religion with it’s own ideas, and all claiming this is God’s way.

God has no religion, only commandments. They’re all in the Torah- there is nothing “new” in the New Covenant writings. Get with the program , people!

Then there’s the big one, which I think will send more people to hell than anything else we are being told: if you’re a good person you get to go to heaven. That is a lie from the pit of Sheol (hell) and even Yeshua says He is not good, only His father in heaven is good. So, then, who can be good if only God is good?

What we are being taught is a roadmap, a sort of spiritual GPS, and it is sending us somewhere… but to where?

Here’s is a lesson I offer that is true: we are all sinners. No one is good, no one is worthy, and no one has a snowballs’ chance in Heck of being saved without Yeshua HaMashiach. Simple, straight-forward, Biblically sound, and awesome to realize. Scary actually.

If you want to teach about God, make sure you read the verses I quoted above, and don’t forget this: Yeshua said those who sin and teach others to sin will be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. The good news is that you may be teaching wrong things and still be saved, as this verse implies, and the bad news is I don’t think you will hear Yeshua say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Not if you teach others to sin. Here’s the really bad news: how will you feel if you are in Heaven and people you taught did not make it because of your teachings? Through all eternity you will know they are suffering because of you.

To teach God’s word means you need to live God’s word, and I am the biggest failure of all in doing this. I am teaching do what I say (actually, what God says) and not what I do. Truthfully, we all do this, teach what we can’t do, since we are all sinners without hope of redemption on our own, so no one is going to live a perfect life. That was done already, and we only needed it for the one time. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, because we can sin less.

Here is another lesson you can count on as being true: we will never be able to say we don’t sin at all, but we can always sin less than we do now.

If you want to teach, think about it. You don’t know what you are getting into. If you have the gift, use it, but if you aren’t sure then ask those who are faithful and spiritually mature. Trust their judgement and, more than anything, ask God what He wants you to do. Ask Him to show you what gift(s) He has given you, and work with those. There is nothing more satisfying than doing good for the Lord, and if my gift was toilet cleaning, I would clean the toilets so well that no one would even want to use them, for fear of making them dirty again.

Of course, I am glad that’s not my gifting, but my point is this: whatever God leads you to do, do it well. Do what we are told to do in Colossians 3:23 (I am really breaking my rules about not giving exact locations today, aren’t I?) and you will always feel a sense of fulfillment from your work.

I love doing what I do…this blog, writing my book (c’mon, already- buy it!) and being able to give the message at my place of worship, now and then. And I always, always, always  hold myself up to the Word of God, making sure everything I say and teach about is able to be found in the Bible. I also tell everyone, including you, to test me and verify whatever I say is in the Bible to really be there.

I once read you shouldn’t believe everything you read, but then I didn’t know what to do!

Be careful when you teach because the ones you are teaching are depending on you to guide them to the truth and to their salvation. Don’t let them down.

Was Peter really the first pope?

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The Pope is supposed to be God’s representative on the Earth, and (also supposedly) infallible. And, as I understand it, this is from Matthew 16:18-19. This is where Yeshua tells Kefa (that would be Jesus and Peter) that he (Kefa) is the rock on which the “church” will be built, and whatever Kefa looses on Earth will be loosed in Heaven, and whatever Kefa binds on Earth will be bound in heaven.

It sounds like Yeshua was turning over the ministry, and more than that, giving Kefa even more authority than Yeshua had, Himself.

I have researched this passage  (briefly, I confess) and have gotten mostly the same results. It seems the general consensus is Yeshua was not telling Kefa that he will be in charge. Neither does the statement about things being loosed and bound mean that whatever decisions Kefa makes will be acknowledged and allowed in heaven. Actually, it is quite the opposite.  What the Greek meaning is, based on the way Greek is interpreted and the proper use of past and future tenses, is that Kefa is to make decisions that are based on what has already been bound or loosed in heaven, and that he is to continue those programs here on Earth.

Think about it, hermeneutically: Yeshua said that He couldn’t do anything that His Father in heaven did not approve, Yeshua did not change any of the laws in Torah, Yeshua said that when we pray we should ask that we be forgiven on Earth as it is in heaven, and there is nothing , anywhere, in the entire New Covenant writings that indicates, even hints at, the fact that Kefa was the sole authority for the Messianic Congregations.

And infallible? Didn’t Shaul set Kefa straight about treating Gentiles and Jews differently in Galatians?

Not to pick on the Catholic Church, although they do make it very easy to do so, but c’mon, Guys? There is no way, when interpreting the Greek correctly and looking at Yeshua’s ministry and all that He taught, and especially when you look at His relationship with the Father, that you can justify Yeshua giving Kefa all that authority, and especially the forgiveness of sin. Yeshua said that He, the Son of Man, had been given the authority to forgive sins, but he never, not even once, said that His Disciples could. He gave them authority over the demons and powers to cure diseases. In the NIV version it says, “…he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”

Nothing there about forgiving sins.

Who came up with this “pope” idea, anyway? I have read that Leo I is generally accepted as the one who organized the Petrine Doctrine. I don’t think it really matters whose idea it was, so far as which human being decided there should be a single authority figure within the Catholic church. What matters is that Yeshua did NOT make that decision, so it should not be done.

According to the Word of God, there is one Cohen HaGadol, or High Priest, and that person is to be a direct descendant of Aaron. The Tanakh tells us that the Mashiach (Messiah) will be a priest forever, as Melchizedek. One high priest, once and forever: that seems to be a clear statement that the Messiah will be the last high priest. If the Catholic church is to be built upon the teachings of Jesus, shouldn’t it respect, obey and and work within the parameters of what Jesus taught? If Jesus said He was the only way to the Father, why does the church pray to the saints? If God said not to have any graven images, of anything or anyone, why do Catholic churches look like an art museum devoted to statues? And if Yeshua said to Kefa that what he loosed or bound is to be what is loosed or bound in heaven, why did that get “turned-around” to make it seem that the ruler of Jesus’s church on Earth has the authority to make decisions that God has to obey? Isn’t God in charge?

If you are Catholic and you say you believe Jesus is your Saviour, you better start to bone up on what your Saviour taught. Get off the “just do as I tell you” wagon and start to find out the truth. Read the Bible, the WHOLE Bible, and get to know who the Messiah really is, from the guy who sent Him here. You won’t find that in the New Covenant because that story is about when He came. You need to find out who the Messiah is supposed to be and what He is supposed to do in the Tanakh. The B’rit Chadashah (New Covenant) relates that Yeshua was foretold about in the Torah and the Tanakh- it doesn’t go into detail. When you read the second volume of a two-volume story, the second volume is the continuation of the first one. You need to read the first one, first, to understand what the second one is about. I don’t know any Catholic (and I have known a few) that even thinks the “Jewish Bible” is important. Oh, yeah- a few may know what the Torah is, or heard of it, but they have been taught the same gibberish that the Jews have been taught- Jesus created a new religion.

That is a lie from the pit of he…well, actually it isn’t a lie from Hell. It originated right here on Earth. It originated by men, but the real idea came from Ha Satan. The separation of the believing Jews from the non-believing Jews in the first through third centuries is the greatest (in my opinion) counter-attack the Enemy has made. Yeshua won the battle, the war is over and all we have been doing for the past 2 Millennia is the mop-up work.  But the Enemy gained back a lot of ground by separating people from God through wrong teachings. It was a strong counter-attack, although it won’t win the war. That’s done and over. He loses, in the end.

As they say, the Kingdom of God has arrived, it just isn’t here, yet. In the meantime, be aware, keep alert, and for your soul’s sake, get your head on straight! Even those who are faithful, who know the proper teachings of Yeshua, who know the word of God and who are ready to serve the Lord as He said we should, will be turned in the end days. The Manual tells us- indeed, warns us- that most will be turned from the faith in the last days. Not some, not a few, not maybe a handful or two, but most. That means significantly more than half.

I will go out on a limb and say that there are many who already have been turned from the true faith. There are many today who think they are serving God but are serving the Enemy, instead. Those who have been taught wrong teachings, and teach them to others, are cursed by their own ignorance and laziness. That’s what I said- laziness! They refuse to learn on their own, to make the effort to know the truth as God wants them to know it, and prefer to just sit around and be told what to believe.

The Pope is not infallible, and he is not Divinely decreed to be the leader of the Church. Nothing against the Pope, himself, but it’s just not what Yeshua wanted. It is a religious thing, created by someone, not by God or by Yeshua. And the Church is full of heresy: they teach and promote idolatry by making their people pray to saints instead of God, they defile the house of God by filling it with graven images, they defile the altar by burying their dead under it and defile the sanctuary by bringing their dead right into it. Read the Tanakh- how did the ancient peoples of God desecrate the holy places of the pagans? They laid the bones of the dead on the altars. God has stated, clearly, that if you touch a dead person you become unclean, and anything associated with the dead is unclean. Yet in a church they carry their dead right up to the altar, bury them underneath it, and surround the house of God with the dead (ever see a church that didn’t have a cemetery right next to it?)

This may seem like an anti-Catholic rant, but it isn’t a hateful attack on the Catholic church. It is a warning. It is a man crying out in the digital desert- make straight your paths! Many Gentiles (not to mention the majority of the Jews, too-don’t even get me started on that!) may already be beyond hope, and those that honor the ways that dishonor God will be drawn down to Sheol with their leaders. It isn’t a good scenario, and I am sorrowful for these poor, lost sheep that have leaders who,they themselves, are so lost and mired in religion that they have all this knowledge, yet they don’t even know what they are doing.  I believe the vast majority of the priests and leaders of the Catholic church are God-fearing, wonderful people who have devoted their lives to serving the Lord. It’s just that they are blinded by centuries of man-made religious ideals and rules and traditions that have them walking straight to the Enemy’s doorstep and bowing down to him to take the mark, all the time thinking they are serving God.

The blind are leading the blind and they will all fall into a hole. I am not happy about that, and I don’ think God is happy about it, either.

GOD HAS NO RELIGION!! How many times do I have to say that? It’s just His rules, that’s all we need. For everyones sake, can’t we just follow those rules? The answer is NO! That’s why God sent Yeshua…because we can’t follow the simple rules He gave us. So nu? What do we do? We make up more rules, and then more rules about the rules, until the rules are ruling us and God has been shoved over to the sidelines.

OY!!  To paraphrase Shakespeare, “What fools we mortals be!”

Look, if you feel insulted, sorry, but it’s for your own good. The Prophets of old were never popular, and I am not writing this, today or any day, to be popular. I am writing this to save souls, to bring people closer to God, and to teach them to seek out the Lord, personally. Don’t take my word for it- take His! Read His word, let the Ruach guide you, and if you haven’t accepted Yeshua/Jesus as your Messiah because you want to, go to a Proctologist and get your head out of the place it’s in now and back on your shoulders because time’s running out!  Don’t think that just because someone who is in a position of religious authority tells you you are saved that you are. The only human who can save you is yourself- you need to ask God for forgiveness, to accept from God His gift of Grace made possible through the sacrificial death of Yeshua the Messiah, and do T’Shuvah in your heart so you can accept, because you want to ask for it, the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) to guide you from now on. You need to be ready to change “for the God.” You don’t need to change overnight, you don’t need to be a “Holy” person like in the Old Covenant, you just need to become holier than you are now. You need to walk in the pathway God tells you, you need to do what God says to do and not just what people tell you He says you should do. And you won’t know what that is until you read His Manual for Salvation.

Get ready for the end, Brothers and Sisters, ’cause it’s a-comin soon. Don’t be left out in the cold.