Tag: messianic jews

Two Taboos Too Many

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What are the two taboos? Never discuss religion and politics, right? That’s what we are told, and it’s good advice.

The reason I say they are two too many is because when God created everything, His original plan was that there would be only one, non-taboo discussion: Him. The governmental system in the garden was God, the religion was God. That was it. A perfectly run, perfect example of Theocracy.

The de-evolution of this perfect government started with the invention of other gods (man-made, of course) which is what religion has become.

God has no religion. Gee…where have I heard that before?

Then the gods were not enough, so the system split into gods (religion) and human rulership, aka kings (politics), which further devolved the governmental system into the two taboos of today.

We will eventually get back to the perfect Theocracy that God intended, but that will have to wait until Yeshua returns and the Apocalypse is completed.

As the world falls deeper and deeper into revolution, disruption and civil disorder, helped by human intervention with the destruction of our ecosystem and habitats, I can only smile. Not that I enjoy the tsouris, but that I look forward to His return. And I know that won’t happen until things look their worst.

I hope anyone reading this, who is not absolutely sure where you will be after God drops the other shoe, will read some of the older entries in this ministry blog. Go to Category and (especially if you are Jewish) read some of the Jews and Jesus posts, then the Messianic 101 posts. I think that should give you some level of comfort when thinking about who Yeshua, the real Messiah of Israel is (vice that Aryan-looking guy with the blond hair, blue eyes and whose kingdom has been hell-bent on killing the Jews), and help you to understand how things got so separated.

I recommend that we stick to the two taboos, for the time being, and wait until they are one again. Then we won’t need to talk about politics and religion because, well…they won’t exist anymore. It will be just God.

I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait.

How Did The Kingdom of God Split?

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The Kingdom of God was preached to us by Yeshua. Even if you don’t believe He was/is the Messiah God promised, He did preach about God’s kingdom. He never created a new religion.

So if Yeshua was Jewish, preached about Jewish law and customs, stuck totally to what the Torah tells us (there wasn’t any other scripture then: Duh!!) and never created or spawned a new religion, why is it that we have Judaism and Christianity today?

Shouldn’t we just have Jews that don’t believe He was Messiah and Jews that do? We have Hasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic Jews; if you look close, you would think the difference between the Orthodox and Reform Jews is enough to be two totally different religions.

Within Christianity you have Catholics (Eastern and Western), Protestants, Methodists, AME, Amish, Episcopalians, Baptists (Southern and others), Lutherans, et.al. ad infinitum.

But if the Jews all follow the Torah, and the Christians all follow Jesus, how can there be so many different types? With such divergent beliefs?

The answer is because these religions, all of them, are not from God. They are from mankind. They are the improper and sinful (yes, sinful and blasphemous, actually) creations of people who think they know more than God.

God has no religion. He told us how to worship Him and how to get along with each other. His laws, rulings, regulations and commandments are for everyone who chooses Him as their God. He separates the Levite only, to behave differently in some respects, because they were chosen by God to minister to Him so they have to be a little bit more “holy” in their lifestyles. Other than the Levites, everyone lives the same rules all the time, and they live them the same way.

When Yeshua taught, He taught what was in the Torah. Nothing more, nothing less. Why His teachings were so influential is because He taught not traditions and rules above what God wanted, but he interpreted and explained the existing rules with a depth of understanding that no one else could have. He is the living Torah, and He was there when the laws were given to Moshe. He was there from the beginning, and He could not possibly teach anything different than what is in Torah because He IS Torah!  Yochanan (John) tells us in the very first line of his Gospel that the Word became flesh. If Yeshua taught anything other than what is in the Torah, or even implied that we should do something different, he was teaching against Himself. He said that a house divided against itself cannot stand- how much more so if someone teaches that what He is saying and stands for is wrong?

What happened is this: in Yeshua’s time there were two types of people: Jews and pagans.  Next, we had Jews who rejected Yeshua as their Messiah (more for political reasons than any other), Jews who accepted Him as their Messiah (news flash!: they both lived and worshipped the same way), Gentiles and pagans (if you will allow, I will use the term Gentile here to identify a person who is not born Jewish but is in the process of converting to a Jewish lifestyle.) It stayed that way for the next 200 years or so, with more and more pagans accepting Yeshua and, thereby, becoming Gentiles (as I am using the term.)

Here’s a revelation: at the beginning of what we (today) call “Christianity”, if you were a pagan and accepted Yeshua as your Messiah, you were converting to Judaism. Paul did NOT convert to Christianity, the “Elders of the Church” were not Christians (haven’t you ever wondered why the Bible calls that chapter in Acts, “Paul’s Conversion” but it never relates the term “conversion” to any of the other disciples?), and the fact is there never was a “church” in Jerusalem at that time. There was no “church”- there were only temples. Some were pagan and some were Jewish. It’s only in recent times that the word “Temple” is understood to be a Jewish place of worship. The same is true for the word “Synagogue”. The definition of that Greek word is not a Jewish place of worship, but a gathering, or grouping. Again, only the modern cultural meaning of “Synagogue” is a Jewish place of worship.

Back to the lesson. So, we have the “mainstream” Jews, the Messianic Jews (which includes the converting Gentiles) and the pagans. That’s it. Since there were so many more pagans than Jews, it is obvious the number of Gentiles would grow faster than the number of Jews as Messianic Judaism grew.

Now we come to Rome during the time of Constantine. Please allow me to simplify the whole Council of Nicene thing to this: Constantine made being a Believer in Yeshua acceptable and popular. However, the “mainstream” Jews had ostracized themselves from Rome (a couple of rebellions will tend to do that) so the followers of the Christ (as He was just starting to be referred to at that time)  were on the A list and the non-followers of the Christ were lower than whale poop, so far as the Roman government was concerned. It is only natural (not acceptable, but natural) that the Gentiles would shy away from the more obvious “Jewish” religious practices to stay below the radar, so to speak. The Elders of the Messianic movement did not require these Gentiles to do a full and complete conversion to the Judaic practices, so there was a growing difference in the worship practices between the Messianic Gentiles, the Messianic Jews and the Jews that did not accept Yeshua. This continued to grow until the difference became a span, then a chasm, then (ultimately) a spiritual and religious schism that has only grown over the past two millennia. And the driving force behind this were the traditions and rules that people created.

Thanks be to God that His will will be done, and we can see this today as the “Church” is beginning to recognize their roots in Judaism, that they do not need to convert to Judaism to be saved, and that they need to support and help the Jewish people to know and accept their own Messiah so that He will return (read Matthew and you will see why I say this.) The influx of Jews returning to the Land is being supported today by many Christian groups, and the Messianic Jewish movement is, from my experience, still composed more of Gentiles returning to the ways God said we should live than Jews who already live that way.

The “Church” is also just beginning to realize that Jews who accept Yeshua do not have to convert to Christianity in order to be saved. There is still Replacement Theology, there is still an ungodly amount of anti-Semitic teaching in the Christian world, and there is still an ungodly amount of anti-Messianic teaching in the Jewish world. But we are making tremendous progress towards overcoming that.

When all is said and done, the Tribulation is over, the Enemy is in the Lake of Fire, the new world and the new Jerusalem have settled, all the Christians that will be there will be amazed when they are expected to live as Jews. Not as Jews live today, because the Torah is so often ignored in lieu of Talmudic Halakha (how to walk; regulations), but live as God said we should live- in His Torah. The Torah will be the only guide, the only law, the only way. That which the Christian world (for the most part) has been teaching is done away with will be the only thing there is. Read Jeremiah 31:31 if you want to know why I say this.

What does this all boil down to? It boils down to this: if you expect to be in the Olam Haba (the world to come), you’d better get comfortable living as the Torah says you should. It’ll make things much easier on you.

Parashah Shmot (These are the names) Exodus 1 – 6:1

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Who doesn’t know the story of the first chapters of this book? The Hebrews multiplied under the kindness of Pharaoh, but after Joseph died and another Pharaoh took over , the people were enslaved. They suffered 400 years until God sent a Saviour, Moshe (Moses) who, himself, had become an outcast and pariah in the eyes of Pharaoh. Moses sees God’s presence at the burning bush and, despite trying to get out of it, he is sent to Egypt to bring the people out of bondage and lead them to the Promised Land.

Here is the Messiah that the Judeans of the First Century were expecting. Here is the Messiah that the Jewish people of today, I believe, still expect.

Not a spiritual saviour, but a political one.

Isn’t that why so many people did not accept Yeshua when He was ministering to them during the three years or so that He wandered about Judea and the surrounding areas, preaching the Good News of salvation? They wanted someone like Barabbas, or Bar-Kochba, or even Ronald Reagan. They wanted someone who would get rid of the Romans and reestablish the Jewish State as a separate and independent country. They wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger to tell the Romans, “Go avay, and don’t be bach!”

But that’s not what they got. They got a quiet, unassuming man who had no social standing, wealth, or political power. No wide circle of Facebook friends, no You Tube video that went viral, pretty much nothing of any worth to anyone of the world. Just as Isaiah said, a man “…of no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.”

What kind of Messiah are you looking for? It’s easy, thanks to 20-20 hindsight, to recognize Yeshua’s messianic authority and now, after some 2,000 years, to know He is the Messiah God promised. Still, what kind of Messiah are you looking for? Should he be loving and forgiving? Should he be accepting of you as you are, giving you whatever you ask for just because you are a “good” person? Should he save you from your sins and guarantee you a place in heaven, no matter what, so long as you just ask for it?

That’s not who Yeshua is, and it’s not what He does. Yes, He is the Messiah who died for your sins, but that doesn’t mean salvation is a “come as you are” party. You need to do T’Shuvah, to turn, to repent, and to mean it! And you need to show that repentance in real, tangible terms. That means you have to change how you live.

He is loving and compassionate, as well as understanding. He is also the Son of God and He will stand by your side at Judgement Day, so long as you are truly repentant and have shown the fruits of your repentance. In the Torah, in Leviticus, when God is outlining the laws about bringing the different types of sacrifices, one of the regulations is that no matter what, we should never come before the Lord empty handed. And every sacrifice, whether it be animal, grain or oil, must have salt.  The covenant between man and God is called a “covenant of salt”; we should never come before the Lord empty handed or without salt.

When we come before Him at Judgement, the salt we bring is our repentance, and what we present before Him are the first fruits of our salvation: the good works we have done after accepting Yeshua as our Messiah.

Read the parables about the fruit tree in the garden, the servants who were given talents, the wedding lamp holders who had no oil, and the wedding guest who did not have the proper clothing…all these represent the fact that we are invited but we need to do more than just show up. We need to have both salt and something to present to the Lord.

God has done all He needs to do with regards to a political Messiah. That card has been played. And the spiritual Messiah is also face-up on the table. Now we need to show our hold card, we need to show the fruit of salvation and the salt of our covenant so when we are “called” we will have a strong hand. The world deals us a lousy hand, but God is able to turn the cards to our advantage. We need to work at it, we need to look to God for salvation, to Yeshua (Jesus) for intercession, and to the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) for constant guidance.

All that we need to save us from our sin is here. God’s work is done, Yeshua’s work is done, and the Rauch’s’ work is being done in each of us. Now it’s our turn. Salvation is free, but you need to work at it. You don’t need to work for it, but you do need to work at it. It can’t be taken away, but we can throw it away. Read those parables I told you about, and understand- God has done His part, it’s up to each of us now to complete His work in the world by completing His work in ourselves.

Some people want a Messiah who is enabling and forgiving, even if you don’t change your ways; who will do what you want just because you ask him; and who promises you total salvation no matter what you do for the rest of your life. Some people want a Messiah that will intercede for them; who will become their advocate at Judgement Day; who will guide them and provide salvation for them; and who will be honest and fair in telling them what they need to do in order to be saved and remain saved.

These are two kinds of Messiahs people are being told about: the one who doesn’t care what you do and the one who requires you to change.

The question is: What kind of Messiah are you looking for?

Where do you go for answers?

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When we are alive, we have questions. Some are easily answered, like a child asking their parents about things they see. Or, like a student asking the teacher to clarify a point about the lesson. Or like the questions I deal with every day as an IT support person. I remind people that “Google is our friend”, but they are usually too lazy to try to answer their own questions.

My life experience has shown me that people, in general, are too lazy to answer their own questions. They are especially stuck for an answer when the issue is not about something physical, like how to reset security on a browser window or how to take out a stain from a silk blouse, but is deeper and more metaphysical or spiritual. Like, “Who am I?”  “What is the meaning of life?”  “Does God exist?”  “Why did my loved one have to die?”  “How do I handle someone doing me harm?”  “How do I answer someone who I don’t like when they ask me to a party?”  “How do I deal with suffering?”

And where do they go?

They go to Miss Manners, they Ask Amy, they write to Dear Abby, they read their Zodiac, now they go to Google! They go almost anywhere else but the best source for answering all our questions, the Bible.

This is a really short and simple Drash today. It is so simple I almost feel guilty about not going on and on, but more often than not, the simple way is the best way.

If you are unsure about your situation in life, about God, about suffering in the world (yours or anyone else’s) and especially about whether or not Jesus (Yeshua) is the real Messiah, you need to go to the Manual. The ultimate, absolute Manual for Life and Afterlife called Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

That’s the place to go. What is really sad and often the case is that even the people who do believe in God, whether or not they accept Yeshua as the Messiah, will go somewhere other than the Bible. They go to their religious leaders, and that’s not really bad because they are, after all, teachers of God’s word and people we should go to for instruction. However, as I say in my book (you should buy it and read it) our leaders are just as much traditionalists as their leaders were, and with all due respect to their training and devotion, we should, each one of us, go to God, first. God first, then if we are still confused, let God work through someone we trust and know. God often intercedes by using other people that He sends into our life.

So, go to the source. Go to the one who has the answers to all your questions, even the questions you don’t know you have yet. If you need an answer, ask God.

Don’t be lazy, don’t be stupid sheep following blindly, and don’t be convinced that just because someone has some degree they really know what they are talking about. They might, but the bottom line is this: you are going to have to answer for what you do and say. God will not buy that you were just following orders: that didn’t hold water at Nuremberg,  and it won’t hold water at the Throne of Judgement, either.

You are responsible for yourself, so take charge of your afterlife and get the answers from the one who knows them: His name is God.

Reply to my post from yesterday

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Thank you, John, for your interest and comments. I am replying here because I think the points you brought up are so important that I need to make sure they get a separate posting and not be hidden in a comment thread.

For those that didn’t see John’s comments, go to the post for yesterday, November 10, and scroll down.

Here is my answer to your counterpoints (good ones, and well made):

Your comments are the very reason I tell people to read the Bible for themselves- you point out that Yeshua did, indeed, give the authority (or so it seems) to the Disciples (except Thomas) to remit or forgive sins in John 20:19-24.I forgot about that part, and stand corrected. At least, in that there is a reference indicating authority over sins. I’m not quite ready to agree that this is absolutely for every “priest” to have. There is no reference that this authority was transferable. Your comment that it was thereby conferred to their successors is not specifically confirmed in the Bible. I learned a long time ago that when reading or interpreting the Bible one cannot make an argument from nothing. If Yeshua did give authority over forgiveness of sins to these men, He did not say it was transferable. If you would, please verify if there is anything else in the writings, either in the Gospels or the letters that follow, that specifically mentions these Elders transferring the authority over forgiveness of sins.

I read a few commentaries about this verse, and I have some questions. One is if Yeshua gave authority to forgive sins, and the same authority to not forgive sins, then is He saying that there are sins that can’t be forgiven? He did say that blaspheming the Ruach HaKodesh is an unforgivable sin, but if say, Kefa (Peter) said someone was going to die in their sin, does that mean there are sins that the Grace of God cannot overcome? Isn’t that against what Shaul (Paul) says? Doesn’t he say (I believe this is in Romans) that as sin increases so too does Grace? Can a man state that a sin will not be forgiven, and then God has to abide by that? I agree that Yeshua did give more authority to the Disciples at that time than He did when He sent them out, but I don’t necessarily agree that they were allowed to forgive or to convict the sins of others. I believe (maybe only because I choose to) that what Yeshua was saying was that these men had the authority to identify sins, to hold people responsible for the sins they committed and accuse them of such, and to lead people to forgiveness when they ask for it, by praying to God for them. Hermeneutically,this makes sense since God often has asked others to pray on behalf of sinners. Abraham for Abimelech and Job for his friends, just to mention a couple of examples. I believe that is what Yeshua meant. No commentary, no “true” interpretation, just me, Steve, saying what I believe. No one has to agree.
Next: I am Messianic- thank you for noticing. I also believe that Yeshua was/is God in the flesh, but He was 100% human when He walked the Earth for those 30+ years. He was also 100% human when He died- if God dies, then raises Himself, big deal, right? I mean, after all- God can’t die. Something else God can’t do- He can’t sin or be associated with sin. But Yeshua took on the sin of the world, so how could He be God and take on sin? He had to be human.

Another question: did Yeshua come to Earth and do what He did to replace God? If you worship Yeshua as God, or even just pray to Yeshua for forgiveness, then you place Him between you and God. That’s the definition of idolatry, isn’t it? To have something that is between us and God?

Thirdly, Yeshua is the Messiah, yes? As such, His role (if you will) is to be the ultimate High Priest, in the manner of Melchizedek, forever. As High Priest, He intercedes between us and God. Not replacing God or coming between us by superseding God’s position, but interceding. The purpose for His “birth”, life, death and resurrection is to be the Messiah, and to rule the Earth. If we continue to worship Him as God, we are rejecting the whole reason He came to Earth, aren’t we? Unless you can show me the new Temple, the New Earth, and Messiah ruling the world from Jerusalem, His role is still the Messiah. When the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) have come and gone and we are all resurrected and the Enemy is in the Lake of Fire with all his pals, then, and only then, will we see what is what and who will be whom. For now, I still see Yeshua/Jesus as the Messiah, the Saviour of the World, God’s son and God in the flesh but not the one, true, and only God. Dad is still Dad, and the Son is still the Son.

The Trinity exists and it is a Trinity- three in one, yes; three the same, yes; but three. I think the best example of this impossible to understand idea is ice in boiling water. You have a solid, a liquid and a gas- all three exactly the same at the atomic level, but in different forms physically. All three the exact same thing, but each one performing a different function. Ice to cool, water to slake thirst and cleanse, steam to heat up and provide power. All three the same exact thing, all three different in form and function. The function of Messiah, His “job”, if you will, was to bring the Good News of God’s salvation to the world and provide the means for everyone to be reconciled to God through the blood of His perfect sacrifice. After that His job is to intercede for us, to be our High Priest. Finally, His last position will be to rule the world. After the final battle, when all is done and we are all in the presence of God, well…I don’t know what Yeshua will do then. I don’t know what will happen to the Holy Spirit. Will they return to God? Once we are all perfect beings, will we need the Spirit or Yeshua? Will the ice and steam return to the Living Water and be one, again? Was it ever just One? Heck- I don’t know! The Bible doesn’t really help here, does it? John says there was the Word, and the Word became flesh. That implies a physiological change of existence. Something non-physical became physical, so can we assume or expect that when the plan of salvation is complete that things will go back to what they were? Again- I don’t know. Frankly, if I am there, I don’t care what happens. I’ll be there, and (for me) that’s all that matters.

One more final note, my new friend in the Lord: you say that Catholics don’t pray to statues. I have read some of the prayers that are directed to saints, and heard people pray TO Saint Peter, or pray TO Mother Mary. It makes no sense at all to “remember” a Saint when you are praying for something for yourself. And if the Saints don’t have special powers or authority, why is there an entire menu of things to pray for, each with it’s own Saint? Pray to Joseph for healing, pray to Mary to intercede with Yeshua, Pray to St. Jude for this, pray to St. Paul for that…c’mon, face it. Catholic people pray to the Saints.

The prayers of the saints, as mentioned in Revelations, is not the saints carrying the prayers of people to God- the context of that verse is that the saints (those who have died for Messiah and God- not the ones some Pope declared as a Saint) are sending God their own prayers. That’s why they ask, “How much longer?” Their prayers are for themselves. Yeshua said the only way to the Father is through the Son. “Only” doesn’t mean “only me, but you can also get to me through these others.” It means “only me.” Das ist alles! Nothing else, no interpretation, no malarkey about praying to others doesn’t affect the unique mediatorship of Christ (I saw that on a Catholic Answers web page.) Really? Praying to someone else doesn’t affect Yeshua’s unique position as the only path to God? How can something be unique if it is not singularly available? If I can pray to a saint, that does interfere with my prayer to Yeshua or to God. It is another level, an additional plea to another person.  I understand this is a doctrine of your faith, but it seems to be in direct conflict with what Yeshua said. I guess Jews could never make good Catholics: why pray retail to second-level saints when we can pray wholesale, right to God? It just don’t make sense! No-how, no-way.

God wants to hear our prayers, and He wants us to turn to Him for help. Not ourselves, not someone else, but to Him. That is clear throughout the Tanakh and the New Covenant. God is in charge, and He is the one to go to. Yeshua said when we look at Him we see the Father because He was the reflection of God’s holiness. Just as the Talmud says when we look in the Torah it should be a mirror in which we see ourselves. It is not literal, it is metaphoric. When Jeremiah told us about God’s New Covenant in 31:31 he was telling us that the Torah will be in our minds and written on our hearts- in other words, we will be living Torah, just as Yeshua. That’s why John said the Word became flesh- it is in keeping with Jewish thought about the Torah being a mirror.
One more, last, final note: you mention Paul writing about how no one is without sin. Not to pick on you, directly, but that is representative of the anti-Semitic attitude the Catholic church has had since day one! Paul did NOT say those things- he was quoting from David, Elijah and other prophets of the Old Covenant. That is the Catholic “uber-holy” mindset- they give all credit for God’s word to the New Covenant and are so adamant about not having any relationship or reference to the Jewish roots of Christianity that they plagiarize the word of God and associate all that he said in the Tanakh to being solely from the New Covenant. I don’t hate Catholics, but I have very little respect for the way the Catholic church has treated the Jewish people, and the very root of their “religion”. Yeshua said he won’t come back until Jerusalem (the Jewish people) say He is welcomed (I am paraphrasing) and Shaul confirms that by stating He won’t return until the full compliment of the Gentiles are brought into the kingdom, making the Jewish people jealous for their Messiah (implying the influx of Believing, or Messianic, Jews). The Catholic church is way, way behind a lot of the rest of Christianity in that they don’t want to recognize their Jewish roots. It is still as it has been: the Catholic church doesn’t want anything to do with the Jewish people, and they just don’t want Jews around, apparently. Convert them all to Catholicism, the only “true” religion. Until they get that rid of that ridiculous attitude, they are going to be unpleasantly surprised when the stuff hits the fan.