I want to mention before I start that even though I have always had an English translation of the LXX (Septuagint), I haven’t ever read it through. So I thought that after going through my Complete Jewish Bible (for the umpteenth time) I would try the LXX.
Man-oh-Manischewitz, is it ever different! The verbiage and spelling of words and places is so different from the other Tanakh’s I have. I thought I might try to read the original, but to tell the truth, it is all Greek to me.
OK, let’s get to today’s message…
I always write about how far away Christianity has wandered from worshiping God the way he told us to do it (in the Torah), and there is a story- true or not, I don’t know- that demonstrates just what I mean.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
The story goes like this… sometime in the middle of the 13th Century, as the Pope (allegedly Innocent IV) showed Thomas Aquinas a room filled with church gold and treasure, the Pope remarked that the Church could no longer say,
“Silver and gold have I none”
(referencing Peter in Acts 3:6).
Thomas Aquinas replied,
“True, holy Father, but neither can the Church say, ‘Rise up and walk'”
The reason the prophets in the Tanakh and Yeshua, as well as his disciples after him, could perform those miraculous wonders was because God had given them the power to do so through his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). The Ruach is God’s cable connection to us humans so we can know what he wants us to do, and which also empowers us to do it.
Now, for a little IT lesson, coming from a retired IT professional (yeah, that’s me!), the signal strength sent through a cable disintegrates quickly as the length of cable it travels increases. That is why often we use a repeater, a device that boosts the signal strength along a long cable to ensure the recipient gets all of the message intact.
Now, getting back to the Ruach, as we get further away from the proper worship of God, our ability to perform actions or hear his messages clearly via his Ruach connection to us becomes weaker and weaker.
Until, finally, as the Church in Thomas Aquinas’s time had become, it was no longer able to perform miracles because it had gotten too far “downstream” from God.
Now, of course, since God is always everywhere, we can’t really get far away from him, physically, but we certainly can leave him way behind us, spiritually.
And that is what I keep trying to get my Gentile brothers and sisters who accept Yeshua as the Messiah to realize. They constantly stick like glue to Church rhetoric about how Gentiles are treated differently by God, that the son of God came to earth to tell us it is OK to reject everything his father said to do, and even to the point where some say Jews have been rejected by God and Christians are now the chosen people.
Well, from what I read in the Bible, God constantly says he will never reject the Jews. And Yeshua never said anything about the Torah being over; in fact, he specifically states (Matthew 5:17) that he did not come to change anything, and that NOTHING! in the Torah will change until all things come to pass.
And all things means after the Apocalypse: after the Enemy is finally defeated, after the new earth and new Jerusalem are lowered from heaven, and after Yeshua is sitting on the throne.
So, unless you can show me all those things are here today, everyone- Jew and Gentile- who say they believe in God and say they believe Yeshua is the Messiah, and say they believe through Yeshua’s sacrifice we can receive forgiveness… well, they all need to follow the Torah if they want to be able to have the strongest signal strength from God’s Ruach HaKodesh.
Every mitzvot (law) you obey in the Torah acts like a repeater of God’s Ruach, and not only that, but God promises everyone- again, Jew and Gentile- who obeys his Torah that he will bless them (Deuteronomy 28).
And this is something else I will never understand: why would anyone who believes and trusts in God’s word NOT want to receive blessings which God promises to give them?
I mean, really? Is having lobster bisque and porkchops more important to you than receiving blessings from God?
I can’t imagine rejecting blessings from God for some food I like, but from what I see and read most Christians are like Esau- giving up something really valuable for a lousy bowl of stew.
Thank you for being here and please comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!