Author: Steven R. Bruck

Let’s Talk Trinity

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Get your fishing rod because I am about to open a can of worms. Hopefully I can do this without insulting or degrading anyone’s beliefs, which may or may not agree with mine.

Since this is my blog, I get to say what I want. Please do not hesitate to comment if you feel there is something you want to add- the comment field is below the blog entry, so just scroll on down and write away! Be aware that I am not going to confirm what I believe with verses from the bible as you can look them all up on your own. I am not doing this because I am lazy, but as a means to force you, the reader, to confirm what I say for yourself. One of the reasons so many people have so many wrong ideas is because they are too lazy to confirm what they are told by looking it up in the bible. This is what Yeshua called the blind leading the blind, and He tells us what happens to them: they both fall into a hole.

Ready? OK, then, here we go…

I believe that Yeshua was originally eternal and divine, equatable to, if not actually the same entity, as God the Father (hereafter to be referred to simply as God.) I am not sure if there was a Trinity before human existence, and after humans were created and living on the earth I believe Yeshua did visit the earth and interact with humans, but as a divine being in human form. I also believe that God would occasionally send His spirit (as a form of supernatural empowering) to humans as it fit His purposes, but that Spirit was not indwelling- power by the Spirit was given to the person, and when the action God wanted was completed, He took His spirit back again.

Once God decided it was time for Yeshua to go to earth and perform His duty as Messiah, in order that Yeshua be subject to temptation, illness, all the weaknesses of human nature, and be able to die, Yeshua had to voluntarily strip off His divinity so that He could take on a mantle of flesh. Consequently, He was born 100% human to a human woman, and lived a totally human existence except for the fact that being fathered by God’s Holy Spirit, Yeshua was born without the stain of Original Sin upon Him. Other than that, He was a human being. His power and authority was not of His own, but that which was given to Him by God through the Holy Spirit. He confirms this often enough throughout the Gospels, telling us that He does only what God tells Him to do, and says only what God tells Him to say. He also said that those following Him would perform the same, and even greater miracles, which leaves us with the question how can humans do more than God? As such, Yeshua on earth was a mirror image of God in the flesh. When Yeshua said He and the Father are one, He meant that being an exact human representation of God’s actions and thoughts, they were essentially the same. Not the exact same; since Yeshua did and said only what God told Him to do and say, He was the prefect representation of God in the flesh, but He was not God, Himself.

Yeshua, being totally human, allows Himself to be killed. When He was dead, he had no ability to do anything. God resurrected Him, in the same body that He died with. We know this because we read in the Gospel of John that Thomas put his hand in the hole in Yeshua’s chest and his fingers through the holes in Yeshua’s feet and hands. A new, resurrected body wouldn’t come with holes in it, would it?  Therefore, Yeshua is still in a physical form, but having been resurrected by God He is again eternal, but still separate.

Every letter Shaul writes to the Messianic Communities he founded starts with greetings from God and the Messiah, Yeshua. From God, and the son, the Messiah, Yeshua- Shaul knew that God and Yeshua were separate and different entities. In the Gospels, as I mentioned above, Yeshua told us He and the Father are One because Yeshua is doing and saying only that which God tells Him to do and say. The book of Hebrews also identifies Yeshua as a totally separate entity from God. Acts tells us when Stephen was just about to die, he saw Yeshua sitting at the right hand of God; at His trial Yeshua told the Cohen Gadol that He would be sitting at the right hand of God. We have heard that someone may be so angry that they are said to be “beside themselves”, but that doesn’t really happen, so if Yeshua, the Apostles, Stephen, and all the other writers of the B’rit Chadasha ( New Covenant) state that Yeshua is a separate entity from God, and they refer to the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) in the same manner, then from the point of Yeshua’s birth up to the present day, Yeshua is eternal, but not totally divine because He is still acting as Cohen Gadol for all humanity; He is sitting at the right hand of God but He is not God.  He cannot be God: if He is God then there is no High Priest, if he is God then He is not a Cohen Gadol to be compared with Melchizedek. That would mean the Messianic prophecies about Him are untrue, or that He isn’t really the Messiah God promised in the Tanakh.

But, He IS the Messiah God promised in the Tanakh, and He IS a Cohen Gadol to be compared with Melchizedek, and He IS our Intercessor who sits at the right hand of God. He is not to be worshiped in lieu of God, although He is our Lord (meaning that He has authority over us- Yeshua is our Lord, but not the LORD) and as such He is worthy of worship on His own merits. He is the one who carries our prayers to God, but He is not the one we should be praying to. Yeshua told us that in order to receive from prayer we needed to pray IN HIS NAME- that doesn’t mean pray to Yeshua, it means pray to God while invoking Yeshua’s name as the authority by which we present our prayer. We could say that His name serves to confirm our prayer, His name grants us access to the Holy of Holies, and that His name (as Shaul says) gives us the authority to march right up to the throne of God and present our petition directly to Him.

Lastly, Yeshua will return to earth as the conquering King; He will rule the entire earth until the Adversary is released and the final battle is completed. Then, and only then, will things change. The Torah will be written on our hearts, there will be a new earth and a new Jerusalem, where spirit and physical form are on the same plane of existence, and then…well, who knows? Will Yeshua then leave the right hand of God and be reabsorbed (for lack of a better word) into the Father? Will the Holy Spirit also disappear as a separate entity? Will the Trinity that has to exist at this time for God’s plan to be fulfilled no longer be needed once that plan is complete?

I don’t know, and I don’t believe anyone can be absolutely positive about what will happen once everything we know will happen has happened.

I will finish with this: maybe Yeshua is God, maybe He is not God, and maybe He is something totally different. Maybe the Holy Spirit is in the same boat. I am humble enough to confess that I really don’t know: for those that I hear tell me they are absolutely sure, well, maybe they need more humility or maybe God has singled them out with this knowledge. Generally, what I hear from people who want to express their belief as absolutely correct is that they have “received this knowledge from the Ruach HaKodesh.”  Maybe they have been blessed to have God grant them this special knowledge, maybe they are just saying that so we have to believe them. For me, it doesn’t matter.

The one thing I feel confident we all can agree on is this: as long as we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, constantly repent of our sins and ask forgiveness through the sacrificial death of Yeshua, and trusting in God faithfully try to be what He said He wants us to be, then this whole Trinity “thing” won’t matter as far as our salvation is concerned. Our salvation comes through confessing our sins before God and faithfully believing Yeshua is the Messiah whose sacrificial death enables us to receive forgiveness of sin. Our salvation is not based on whether Yeshua is God or is separate from God; salvation is based on faithfully believing Yeshua did exist, He did sacrifice His life, He did rise from the dead and He is still working on our behalf to help us be cleansed of our sins so we can be resurrected through Him and live eternal lives in God’s presence.

What we all should do is stay focused on what affects our salvation, and not let impotent discussion pull us off-course from that destination.

Parashah Chukkat (Regulations) Numbers 19-22

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This parashah starts with the regulations about the Red Heifer ashes being used to cleanse people defiled by contact with a dead body. We then find ourselves in the 40th year of the desert travels, with Miriam dying, leaving Israel with no water (we will come back to this soon.) Aaron and Moses are told by God to strike the rock to give water, but in his anger Moses strikes it twice, and claims that he and Aaron are the ones giving them water (Numbers 20:10):

He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?

This statement made God angry because they did not give the proper credit to God and make Him holy in the sight of the people, and their punishment was severe- Moses and Aaron were prohibited from entering the land of Canaan.

The rest of this parashah tells us of the death of Aaron, describes the sin of rebellion that caused God to send snakes against the people, and the successful military battles of the people against Arad (this battle is out of place, chronologically, as it had preceded the battle referred to in Numbers 14:40-45), ending with their conquering Og, the King of Bashan and Sichon, the king of Heshbon and taking all their lands (which later were the lands in which Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh settled.)

As I have complained about so many times…where do I start? There is just so much in this one parashah to talk about. But I did promise to come back to the point about there being no more water after Miriam died, so let’s start there.

Miriam is considered to be one of the three good leaders of Israel and Jewish legend says that due to her merit, the rock which brought forth water accompanied Israel as long as she lived. Reference to this rock is made by Shaul in 1 Corinthians, 10:3-4:

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was the Messiah.

This is confusing: Jewish legend has it that Miriam was the Rock that produced the water, and here a well-trained, knowledgeable Pharisee is saying that it wasn’t Miriam, but Yeshua who was the Rock travelling with Israel through the desert. The bible isn’t supposed to contradict itself, so what do we make of this seeming contradiction? I looked this up in the Jewish New Testament Commentary, by Dr, Daniel Stern: he related many of the different ways the term “Rock” has been used to describe God and Messiah, both in scripture and in songs, but in the end he confessed he didn’t know why Shaul (Paul) used it this way in his letter. Maybe we will never know what was in Shaul’s mind at the time, just like I don’t think we will ever know what he meant when he wrote about the “Israel of God” at the end of Galatians, either.

But we can say that this is not a biblical contradiction because Miriam being the Rock is not specifically stated in Torah- it is just a legend. And Shaul referring to the Rock as Messiah is nothing more than a descriptive analogy which doesn’t contradict any specific event in Torah.

This issue does present us with a midrash from today’s parashah: do we always need to understand what we read in the bible? The commentary in the Chumash states that the ordinance regarding the Red Heifer is so mysterious that even King Solomon was unable to fathom it’s meaning. In Jewish history, Johanan ben Zakkai told his students, “…but the law concerning the Red Heifer is a decree of the All-holy, Whose reasons for issuing that decree it behoves not mortals to question.”  In other words, God said it is to be that way and that’s all we mere mortals need to know.

And that is, in my opinion, the main reason people reject God and create their own religions: we want to know why. We HAVE to know why! It is a compulsion, and I believe that it is based on the desire for power. As they say, knowledge is power, and people want to be more powerful than the next guy, so if I understand God better than you I am above you, more powerful than you, and deserve to lead you.  Selfish, self-centered, egotistical behavior…all innately human. The good news is that this need to know why drives us to scientific investigation and, thereby, is the root cause of the discovery of useful and wonderful inventions, as well as all the medical and technological advancements we have made over the centuries.

On the other hand, that alone may be reason to question if needing to know the “why” of everything is actually a good thing. Technology has taken us over, medical advancements have cured diseases but the cost of discovery is so high no one can afford the cure! We know how to read the human genome, and how to use stem cell technology, but the more we learn about our genetic make-up, the closer we come to thinking we are like God because we are able to heal, and even create life. That is NOT a good attitude to have.

Maybe we should try to be more humble, less inquisitive and more accepting of God’s omniscience so we can be more obedient? Isn’t it time to redirect our footsteps from the path of discovery to the ways of worship?

I think we should, but I  don’t see it ever happening. Human nature is inquisitive, curious, and we all want to be self-determining. We want to be in charge, we want to know what it is all about, and we want to have control over our lives. It is the reason we were thrown out of Eden; it is the reason we sinned with the Golden Calf; it is what killed Dathan, Abiram and Korach; it has been the bane of humanity and the foundation of sin since humanity was created. And I don’t think it is going to end until humanity ends in the Acharit HaYamim (End Days.) Once we are no longer shackled with this mantle of sinful flesh and are resurrected into our eternal, spiritual bodies will we be able to enjoy and find peace in being humble and obedient to God, constantly worshiping Him. Humility and obedience is just not part of our DNA, and no amount of Recombinant DNA, cloning, stem cell technology or biological research will ever put it there.

We need to work at being humble and accepting what God said to do as simply something we should do. To paraphrase from the great poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

Ours not to reason why; ours but to do and live!

So do what God says (that’s the stuff in the Torah, in case you weren’t sure) and do so without asking why, without kvetching about it, and without trying to figure out what it all means.  Really- understanding what God means won’t get you any more “saved” than the next person, and a Gnostic search for meaning just might end up pulling you further from your salvation than bringing you closer to it.

Salvation: It’s In the Can!

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Are you familiar with the expression, “It’s in the can!”? It’s a Hollywood term which refers to a movie that has had all the scenes shot, been edited and is in a canister ready for shipment to theaters to be released. It is completed but as yet unseen.

Salvation was accomplished long before humans even existed- after all, God is eternal, His plan of salvation was formed before Adam was, He showed Abraham the story board, He gave the script to Moses, Yeshua came to earth to act out the part of Messiah, and with Yeshua’s resurrection it was completed.

All religions that have sprung up over the past Two Millennia have been trying to create their own sequel to God’s epic, but when the time comes, God’s version will be the only one that is on the screen.

The only thing left to do now is wait for the release, which will happen when God is ready to show it. It will be in every theater, on every TV, streaming live and showing on all smart phones at the same time, all across the world.

For those of us who have accepted Yeshua as our Messiah, we have been given the right to a special preview.  Through reading the bible and having the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) show us things that are invisible to non-Believers, we know what will happen. We have been shown a “trailer” of the entire story, and we know (pretty much) who the bad guy is (although we don’t know who is playing that part), we know who the hero is, and we also are aware there will be many innocents that get in the way of their terrific, destructive battle. I think there will still be some surprises; for instance, no one really knows what the heck Revelations is about and what exactly will happen.  Still and all, even though we know all this, we will be memorized as we watch it unfold.

I have often heard people say that the Kingdom of God has arrived, it just isn’t here yet. Same, too, for salvation: it’s in the can, but hasn’t been released to the public.

As for me, I have already ordered my tickets and have a confirmed seat. I just need to make sure when the theater opens and the show starts that I have oil in my lamp and fruit to bring the theater owner.

To Torah, or Not to Torah: OY! What a Question!

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I don’t know where to start on this one, or where it may end. I could probably write a book about this (hmmmm??), but I want to keep it simple, so here I go…

As I have said often, eating ham will not send me to Sheol (the Hebrew word for Hell), and not eating ham will not guarantee me a place in heaven. My sins are forgiven by the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua, so the Torah, which tells me what is a sin and what isn’t a sin (Shaul says in the book of Romans that the Torah actually created sin, in that it defined it) helps me to act in ways that please God, but no longer really keeps me from death because my sins have been, and will continually be, forgiven through Yeshua. Therefore, there is an argument that can be made that it is no longer absolutely necessary to keep the Torah.

BUT…just because we can make an argument doesn’t mean that the argument we make is valid.

The Torah is composed of many things: it has historical information, it has constitutional regulations, it establishes a system of societal laws and statutes that include torts resolution and a penal code, it outlines a health code, it is a marriage certificate between Jews and God, and it also outlines the procedures for how we are supposed to worship God. These laws, statutes, and regulations are commandments, not suggestions- they are direct and absolute requirements.

The justification (this term means, specifically, being forgiven of our sins) we receive through the sacrificial system defined in the Torah is no different that the justification we receive through the sacrifice of Yeshua. The process is still the same: sin, recognize and accept your sin, do T’shuvah (repentance), present your sacrifice to God and God will accept the blood of the innocent sacrifice (remember that the life is in the blood) as a substitution for your lifeblood. That is the process outlined in Torah, and never, ever did anyone think or say that because we could always sacrifice to be forgiven that the Torah isn’t that important. Never has any Jew ever thought that.

Yeshua’s sacrifice did not do away with the sacrificial system, He only replaced the part where we have to bring the sacrifice to the Temple in Jerusalem. Everything else is the same- we sin, we own up to our sin, we repent, we sacrifice (this is the part Yeshua has provided for us) and then we ask God to forgive us by means of substituting the sacrifice’s blood for our own.

So where did someone come up with the idea that because Yeshua’s sacrifice is the only sacrifice we need that we can now do away with Torah? God never said that we could do away with Torah, and Yeshua never said we could do away with Torah, and Shaul (Paul) never said we should do away with Torah. The sacrificial system that provides salvation from sin is no different after Yeshua than it was before Him- it’s just that Yeshua is the substitute we can use instead of bringing a lamb or pigeon to the Temple. No difference otherwise, so what was valid as the way to live before Yeshua came, died and was resurrected, is still valid as the way to live

Oh wait a minute!! Shaul certainly sounded like Torah wasn’t important. I believe that this is where the ‘No Need For Torah” idea started, as a misinterpretation of Shaul’s letters to (mostly) Gentile communities of Believers (there were no churches as we know them today in the First Century.) Shaul never once thought that Torah was unimportant, and he lived it as best as any human could his entire lifetime.  Despite what humans have entitled “Paul converts on the road to Damascus” that you read as the chapter title to Acts 9, Shaul never converted to anything.  When you read his letters you see he did, in fact, go to synagogues.  he did talk to Jews, but he made it his main ministry to go to the Gentiles. He established Gentile filled Messianic communities, and what he taught was what is in Torah. The misinterpretation is rooted in the fact that his main argument was never against observance of the Torah, it was against observance of the P’shat, the literal meaning of the words, in order to achieve salvation. Shaul was not against Torah, he was against the teaching that a legalistic observance would save one’s soul. That was what the Pharisees and most of the Jewish training and understanding of the Torah was at that time- if you do what it says in the Torah, just going through the motions (so to speak) then you can be saved. In fact, if we could perform all the laws and commandments in the Torah (as Yeshua did) then we would be saved: through perfect performance we can find salvation in Torah alone.

The problem is we can’t perform Torah perfectly, so to observe Torah as the means of our salvation, is a lost cause. That is the message Shaul was relating to the Gentiles who were under stress from their old life (to remain pagans) and also from their new life, from Jews who wanted them to do everything in the Torah because if they didn’t they couldn’t be saved.

This is the same drek I get today as a Messianic Jew: Christians who have been taught Torah isn’t needed now that they have Jesus tell me if I still live as a Jew I am not really saved because I am not “under the blood”, and Jews tell me if I believe in Jesus (their understanding is that I must have converted to Christianity) then I am not a Jew anymore. Both of these teachings are absolutely wrong- as a Jewish man who believes Yeshua is my Messiah, the one God promised my people since the beginning, then I am not a Christian, and I am more than just a Jew- I am a completed Jew, in that I have come full circle, from innocence in Eden to sinfulness in the world to Messianic forgiveness through Messiah, and thereby able to commune with God, again and forever more.

So, nu? What do we have? What we have is what we were given from the start- the Torah. The Torah is how God tells us to live, and defines right from wrong, righteousness from sinfulness, and provides the means by which we can be absolved of our sins in order to come into the presence of God. Yeshua is the Messiah God sent so that we can still find forgiveness after the Temple, which is where the Torah said we had to ask for forgiveness, was destroyed. No Temple, no forgiveness, but Yeshua took care of that by becoming the Temple, Himself,and providing the innocent blood (His own blood) for us. So, Torah is still valid, Torah is still necessary, and Torah is still God’s commandment to us all.

We should all try to follow Torah: not in order to be saved, but because it is what God tells us to do. We will receive blessings for obedience and we will not be blessed if we don’t (Deuteronomy 28.)  If we ignore Torah, we are ignoring God- like it or not, that is the truth. Do we need Torah to be saved- no. Do we need to obey Torah to be saved- no. Should we try to obey Torah, anyway- yes, absolutely. Why? Because it is what God tells us to do.

If God tells you do to something, what other reason do you need to do it?

Parashah Korach (Korach) Numbers 16-18

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Korach was a Levite, a member of that family which was granted the responsibility to attend to the Sanctuary items. This was an honorable position. However, he wasn’t satisfied with that and wanted to possess the position that Aaron and his sons were given, that of the Cohen, the High Priest who was allowed to enter and service inside the Sanctuary. He organized men and formed a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, which was to be brought before God.

Korach was not alone in this rebellion. Dathan and Abiram, leaders of the tribe of Reuben, also convinced men, leaders within the entire community, to rebel against Moses’s authority.

Moses and Aaron faced these 250 men and had them bring their censors with incense before the Tent of Meeting. God would have destroyed the entire assembly (i.e., all the people) but Moses stood in the way of God’s anger (as he had done before) and convinced God to only punish the leaders and not everyone. Korach, Dathan, Abiram, with their entire families and possessions, were literally swallowed up by the ground under their feet in the full sight of the entire community. Then at the same time, fire broke out from the Tent of Meeting and engulfed the 250 rebels, fire pans and all, leaving only melted fire pans and ashes.

The people were absolutely terrified, but the next morning they got up, and continued to rebel, calling Moses and Aaron killers of Adonai’s people. In God’s righteous anger at this continual rebellious attitude, He sent a plague out that killed 14,700 people. Now the entire community was so terrified of the Tent of Meeting, which is where these events took place, that they cried anyone who even came near the Tent of Meeting would die.

God commanded that the tribal leader’s staffs, 12 in all (Aaron’s staff representing Levi) be gathered , identified and placed in the Tent of Meeting. He said that the staff of the one He chooses to be His priest would have buds the next morning, and that morning Aaron’s staff not only had buds, but blossomed and had grown ripe almonds.

Having established that God picks His priests, and that God decides who is in charge, He reaffirmed the position of the Cohen HaGadol (High Priest), the Cohanim and the Levites with regards to their positions, their payments from the tithes and offerings, and that they are not to possess lands as an inheritance because God is their inheritance.

As I often say, there is so much here to work with. What I feel led to discuss, which “popped” into my head as I was reviewing this parashah, is how God continually states that the people should do this or do that or not do these things in order that they don’t die. That sounds OK in and of itself- don’t do anything that will cause you to die. But then I thought, “Hey, wait a minute! God is saying don’t do this so you don’t die, but He is the one killing them! What’s up with that?”

The punishment God sends among the people is certainly one that would put fear and terror in anyone’s heart, yet He says at the same time He is killing thousands of people that He doesn’t want them to die. Doesn’t this seem to be a contradiction? It seems to be, but it isn’t: God is holy, and just, and He keeps His word. He is also, during these 40 years in the desert, weeding out the tares.

This rebellion occurs after the defeat of the Israelites trying to enter Canaan after God told them they would remain in the desert for 40 years. They rebelled against God by not entering the land, then they rebelled against God by trying to enter when He said not to, and now they are rebelling against God and blaming Moses for not keeping God’s promise to bring them into the land. Uh, people- you were right there, Moses was all set to bring you in, and you refused to go. It wasn’t Moses’  fault you’re not in the land, it’s yours!

Rebellion after rebellion after rebellion, carping , crying, whining, complaining: that’s all these people did, all the time. No wonder Moses was so upset, and no wonder God was so fed up with them. God did what He needed to do, and not because He was pissed off (although He was) but because He is holy, righteous and fair, and their actions demanded that He do something about it.

OK, so what am I trying to say here? God is a loving, compassionate and forgiving God, but He is also God- holy, above everyone and everything, and He is our Judge. When He gives a command, He expects us to follow it, and as such when we refuse He is obligated by His own holiness to punish us. That is why, even as He is destroying the guilty, He is warning us not to continue to force Him to do this. It is almost like we actually have some power over God: even though His heart is full of compassion, love and forgiveness, when we rebel, reject, blaspheme and turn our backs on God, we force Him to take action for the sake of His name. That is why God seems to be a destructive, punitive God in the Old Covenant, whereas the New Covenant makes Him out to be all about love and forgiveness and nicey-nicey stuff.   He is all nicey-nicey when we are obedient, and He is all about love and compassionate forgiveness when we are repentant and ask for forgiveness.

On the other hand, when we are obstinate, rebellious and blatantly reject God, then He is Judge, Jury and Executioner. And once He has made up His mind, there is no court of appeals because His decision is final.

This is one of those things that confuses people because they want to make God act the way they want Him to act, and don’t respect His authority or recognize that He is so far above us that whatever we think is right or good or fair, it has no hold on Him.

The point to take home today is this: God is loving, compassionate and just, but He is also holy, and for the sake of His name He will enforce His commandments when people are obstinately rebellious and flaunt His authority. So stay on His good side, OK?

Who Dumped Who First?

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Remember back in the Old Days when we were first leaning about relationships between boys and girls? We would be attracted to each other, fall hopelessly in love, and within a few weeks or so one would dump the other for a different beau.  The argument always came down to, “Who dumped who first?”

When Yeshua (Jesus) started His ministry, announcing the Good News to the Jewish people, many Gentiles began to believe in God’s plan of salvation. They accepted Yeshua, along with (probably) hundreds of thousands of Jewish people throughout the Middle East and Asia at that time, as the Messiah of God. As such, they began to live the lifestyle that Yeshua preached, which was a Jewish lifestyle. Yeshua was a Jew, and followed the commandments in the Torah, as Jews are expected to do. Despite what many Christian churches try to tell you, He died being a Jew, and when He was resurrected He was still a Jew. His Disciples were Jews and lived according to Torah, as did Shaul (Paul), which he confirms in his letters to the (what was really) Messianic communities he began. The Gentiles that were accepting and following Yeshua’s teachings were given 4 immediate changes to their (prior) Pagan behavior (Acts 15) , which was only the starting point for them. James said that they would learn the words of Moses in the synagogue every Shabbat, which clearly indicates it was expected of these converts to Judaism that they would, eventually, follow the lifestyle outlined in the Torah just as Yeshua, His Disciples and the early Jewish followers of Yeshua did.

But that’s not what happened. What happened was a combination of misunderstanding of many of Shaul’s letters (no real surprise there- he wrote like a Pharisee, which he was, meaning his logic and statements were drawn out and somewhat convoluted), geopolitical activities that made being Jewish in a Roman controlled land dangerous, and human’s trying to enforce their will on people who didn’t know any better (I am referring to the early “church” elders.) The “Judaizers” , as they are called, that Shaul talks about in Galatians were trying to get the new converts to accept circumcision as a necessary part of salvation. Shaul blasted them for that, and much of what he wrote seems to say the Torah is not important, but instead the Spirit is how one should be led in his or her worship of God. That is, of course, correct, but he didn’t mean to ignore the Torah. Shaul was saying to let the Spirit lead you to obey the Torah, but not to gain salvation through obedience; what Shaul meant was that we should be led to be obedient to God as a thankful and loving expression of faithfulness.

As things got politically worse for the Jews, those Gentiles becoming Jewish decided that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to embrace Torah as much as the Jews, since they were being targeted by Rome. So they stepped away from total observance of, or even trying to observe, Torah.

In other words, the Gentiles that were now worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (instead of the Roman gods) decided that they were going to worship their own way, and break from traditional Judaism.

In other words, the Gentile Believers dumped the Jews.

As time went on, the (now called) Christians began to separate even further from their roots; their leaders changed the Sabbath day, created their own holidays, canonized the writings of the Jewish Disciples without a single Jew on their Council, and even started to denounce living a Jewish lifestyle, announcing officially that if you were living a Jewish lifestyle you couldn’t be “saved.”

Today, the separation between Christian worship of God and Jewish worship of God is so different it is almost at opposite ends of the pole. Thank the Lord that the proper Spirit, the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) of God is beginning to lead Christians back to Him and to the proper worship of Him. The Messianic Christian and Hebraic Roots movements are making headway in the Christian world. People are beginning, in these End Days, to know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as He wants them to know Him. More and more churches are supporting Israel and wanting to observe Torah for the correct reasons.

The correct way to observe Torah is not as a means to gain justification, and not as a means to prove ones worthiness for salvation, but because that is what God said we should do. Through observing Torah we will earn blessings (Deuteronomy 28), but more than that, God has given us the Torah so that we can have life eternal; the life we gain through Torah is not gained by performing the actions correctly (what Shaul calls “legalistic” observance) but because of our heartfelt desire to please God and  the simple fact that observing the Torah demonstrates by our actions our thankful and loving faithfulness.

That is what Christianity lost when it dumped the Jewishness of it’s worship. It cut itself off from the very root that feeds it. In  my not-humble-enough opinion, the main reason there are so many different Christian religions is because they have no root, no foundation upon which to settle themselves. They are, as Yeshua warned, a house on sand, being shifted and blown in all directions because they are not solidly rooted on the Rock of God’s Word.

Until Christianity comes back to the root, it will forever waiver, change and grow further away from God. Judaism is not a religion, it is a way of life; it is not a set of rituals and rites so much as it is the form of worship God commanded. Christianity thinks it is grafted onto the Tree of Life, but it has mutated itself so much that it is no longer even the same species.

I pray that the Prodigal Son returns soon.

Religion is Why People Don’t Believe in God

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You heard me correctly. Religion, which is defined by Webster as “An organized system of beliefs, rites and celebrations centered on a supernatural being power;” should be the means by which people come to trust and believe in God. And when religion does what it is supposed to do, i.e. bring people into a proper relationship with God through observance to His commandments and performance of the rites He requires, it works as it should.

So why do I say religion is the reason people reject God? Because we see, every day, and we hear, from many people, how their upbringing in a religion (I include all religions) has turned them off to God. In many cases, they reject not just the religion, but the power behind the religion, which they wrongly assume to be God.

That is where religion fails those who follow it, and also fails to serve God’s plan of salvation, and it happens in every religion because God has no religion! God gave us His rules for living, for worship and for interpersonal relationships. He told us how to work with each other, how to love and care for each other, and how to worship Him. He even sent His son, Yeshua ha Maschiach, to show us exactly what He meant, and (ultimately) to pay the price for our inability to do as God told us we must. Despite that, we still have different religions in the world today, all creations of men who have wanted to worship God their own way.

Even Judaism, which was given the Torah to show everyone how God wants us to be, has changed the rules; we have created Halakha (the Way to Walk, found in the Talmud, a man-made set of rules) and now have 6 different sects of Judaism: Chasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic.

Those people who have created different religions “sell” their religion by approaching people who are fed up with the current religion, and offer more “appealing” rites, rituals and promises. Even as far back as just after Yeshua was resurrected and ascended into the heavens, the Elders of the Messianic Community (there was no “church” in the First Century) reduced the immediate observance requirements for Gentile converts to Judaism (that is what was required when a pagan began to trust in and follow Yeshua/Jesus) to just 4 requirements (Acts 15); these were not the only expected changes in behavior but just what was needed to be done immediately after converting. When you read the entire chapter you will see that James confirmed the words of Moses would be heard by these new converts every Shabbat in the temples. That means that the requirements under the Torah were still expected to be observed, but just not all at once. This was done so that the pagans converting to a totally different religion than the one they had grown up with would not find the process so difficult that they would just give up.

And that is how all the different religions came to be- by appealing to those who found what they were doing too cumbersome, or spiritually unfulfilling. That could be the fault of the leaders, the rites that were created, or both, but it still resulted in those people rejecting the religion, and in some cases, also rejecting the god behind that religion.

I don’t need to justify that statement with surveys or formal studies because my reasoning comes from plain old common sense: when you don’t like something you are required to do, and you are offered something more attractive and enjoyable, then you go with your feelings: that’s human nature. Each new religion has taken from it’s parent and changed what needed to be done to present itself as more fulfilling, spiritually, mentally and physically. And each time a new religion is “spun-off” from the original, it changes the way they worship God and treat each other.

God, on the other hand, never changes, and therefor what He said He wants us to do never changes, either.

Finally, religion is seen as representing God, isn’t it? I mean, if I am a member of a religion, and that religion tells me I worship this way, I act this way and I believe this way, then I can only conclude that is what the god of that religion has ordered. After all, when Popes, Rabbis, Ministerial Councils- whatever religious authority is in charge- tells us these are the canon, and these are the holidays, and these are the prayers, etc. that we use when we worship God, it is not because they say ,”This is what I want you to do.”; they say it is because that is how God wants us to be.  It’s all God’s fault. So, understandably enough, when someone rejects their religion, they reject the god that religion has told them is behind all these rules and regulations. And if I go so far as to reject the validity of what a religion is telling me, obviously I must reject as valid (or existing) the god behind that religion.

I am using the small ‘g’ for God is some cases because I believe that so many religions have gone so far astray from what the true God has told us to do that their god is not the God, and as such doesn’t deserve to have the word capitalized.

Strong words… I know; strong sentiment and a truly viral accusation…I know that, too. But do you really think I am wrong when I say that religion is the reason people (end up) not believing in God?

One day, when Messiah returns and all people will do as we are told in Isaiah 45:23, then all people will be worshiping God as God said we should. There will be no more religion to confuse and cause people to reject God because there will be just the one Messiah ruling the world, and we will all know the One God and worship Him correctly, together.

Parashah Shelach Lecha (send for yourself) Numbers 13-15

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The children of Israel have been in the desert for more than 2 years, and they are now just outside the Promised Land. Moses is set to enter and take possession, but the people suggest he send spies to reconnoiter the land before they go in. Moses agrees and 12 leading men, one from each tribe, are chosen. They stay in the land for 40 days, then return with a report about how wonderful the land is. However, they then say they saw the Nephalim (a race of giants) and the people living there are fierce with well protected cities, so their report turns to a sorrowful cry of certain defeat. Only Caleb (from Judah) and Joshua (from Ephraim) are ready and willing to attack.

God hears this rebellion and is ready to strike them all down. He says He will make a nation from Moses’s seed (this isn’t the first time this was His desire) but Moses intercedes (again) and God relents destroying them (although He does kill the 10 spies that spread the bad report by a plague.) However, their sin doesn’t go unpunished. God tells them that since they cried their children would be taken as slaves and they would rather die in the desert, God says they will, indeed, die in the desert. They will be wandering for 40 years (one year in the desert for each day they spent in the land), and their children who they said would be slaves will be conquerors. Hearing this dismal decree, the people follow one bad idea with a worse one: they decide to attack, even though Moses says God will not be with them- God has decided this generation will not enter the land,  and true to form, they reject His word (again) and attack. But they are attacking without Moses, Aaron, the Ark, and most importantly, without God, so they get their tuchas’ beaten. Beaten so badly, in fact, that it takes an entire generation to build up enough men of fighting age to be able to attack their enemies.

The last chapter seems out of place, as God is telling Moses what the people should do once they are in the land, but it is not really out of place when you consider that despite the judgment against them, God reminds them that they will be entering the land; not this generation but the next one, and when they do they need to honor and thank God with the sacrifices He is telling them about now. It is an instruction that confirms God’s promise that Israel will, eventually, be in the land.

This parashah is an easy one for me to talk about. The lesson is abundantly clear: what God says to do, we should do, and what God says not to do, we shouldn’t do.

There is, of course, a lot more in here for us to learn about: God’s forgiveness in the midst of His terrible anger, God’s promises will be fulfilled despite what we want, how Moses is humble and his love for his people is overwhelming, even turning the heart of God to forgiveness from His righteous anger. All of this is important stuff, and good fodder for a sermon. But not today.

God has His plans, we have Free Will so we can choose to obey or disobey Him. When we obey what He has planned for us, miracles happen. When we choose to disobey Him, we royally screw ourselves up. And why do we do that? I mean, why do we turn from God? In the bible we see that during the past two years He’d shown the Israelites that He could provide food from heaven, water from rocks, He protected them from their enemies and kept them healthy and secure in one of the the worst climates in the world! Yet, still, they didn’t trust that He could help them overcome their enemies in the land He promised to give them. Oy!  And don’t we do the same thing, today?

We need to realize that we are in control of ourselves, but God is in control of everything, so He is the one to trust. We get used to good things, we get enured to miracles, we get puffed-up in ourselves and ungrateful if something wonderful is done for us more than once or twice. Basically, we learn to expect goodness and, as the old saying goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”

That’s why, in Numbers 14:11, God says to Moses:

And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

God asks why the people despise Him- He was feeling unwanted, hated and treated with contempt. And you know what? He was right. That’s exactly how they treated Him.

The question you might be asking now is how could they have done that? How could they be that way?

But that is the wrong question to be asking: the question we all should be asking is, “How many times have I done this?”

Yes…how many times have I, you, we treated God with contempt? Don’t we treat Him contemptuously when we refuse to do as He says? Don’t we show contempt for God when we show contempt for His commandments? And worse than individuals doing this, how many religions do this as dogma? How many Christian churches have taught the Old Covenant is not for them? How many times have you heard someone say the Torah was completed in Jesus so it is no longer valid because we are now under the Blood of Christ? If that was true, if Jesus really did overrule His Father’s commandments with His death, then that means Jesus also showed contempt for His own Father, and preached repealing the commandments of God!

That doesn’t sound very “Christ-like”, does it?

We need to remind ourselves, every minute of every day, how wonderful God’s treatment of us is, how many blessings He pours down on us (most, if not all, we don’t deserve) and how miraculous events occur every day. When we fail to do this, we fail to be as thankful as we should be, and that leads, inexorably, to showing contempt for God.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want God to think, even for a nano-second, that I don’t appreciate everything He has done, is doing and has planned for me.

Many people I’ve met have been taught that because Jesus died for their sins they are going to heaven, so they live their life without regard for Torah, for the bible, or for anyone else. They have been taught they are “saved” because Jesus “accomplished it all on the Cross.” And they never spend even one minute of their time getting to know God or Jesus on their own. So, by choosing to believe what they have been told as Prima Facie fact, they are demonstrating contempt for God because they have rejected His commandments, and that rejection means the blood of Messiah, which was shed for them, is being trampled into the dirt.

Here’s the tough question you need to ask yourself: am I doing this, too?

Give the Gift of Giving

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Messiah did so much for us, didn’t He? He exchanged His royal robe of divinity to put on a stinking mantle of flesh; He left the idyllic heavens to come to a cursed earth; He lived a life of trouble (Isaiah 53) and knew all the strife, emotional pain and physical wants of a human being; and, finally, He submitted to indescribable pain and torture just to be nailed to a tree. All of that in order that we unworthy sinners may have a chance to escape eternal damnation, which we all deserve, anyway.

Yeshua (Jesus) is certainly one man who knew all about giving to others, because He did all that with no expectation of getting anything back. He gave all He had and it brings Him great joy to see us receive it.

We are told in Acts 20:35 that Yeshua said it is better to give than to receive, but when we receive something do we do so in a way that blesses the giver? What I mean is this: using myself as an example, I used to feel very guilty and obligated when anyone would do something nice for me, or give me something. That is a worldly viewpoint- give and then expect to get back. When we invite someone to a party, do we do so because we enjoy their company or because we expect they will invite us to their next party? When we give a gift at a party to the host (birthday, baby shower, etc.) do we do so with the expectation that they will give something back to us at our next event?

If so, then we are not giving, we are investing. We are spending our money and hoping to receive back something worth as much or more. How many times have you heard people complain that they give nice things to someone but get less than what they gave back when it’s their turn to receive? Hopefully you haven’t, which means you hang out with the right crowd, but I know there are people like that out there.

Yeshua tells us that when we are asked for something we should give, freely and without expectation of reward or return (Matthew 5:40-42):

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

When I give something to someone, such as treat them to dinner, or give them a gift, I do so without wanting anything in return. That said, I do expect a nice “Thank you”, of course, but even if that is not given, it doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to give because I wanted to give. And when I give something, I do not want the recipient to feel obligated to return the favor. I want them to receive as happily as I give.

That is the giving the gift of giving- to let someone give to you freely and wholeheartedly without worrying that you will feel obligated by receiving it.

Yeshua gave all, we give (most of the time) what we can, and sometimes we give a lot (if you have kids you know what I mean), and when we do so without any expectation of return and without wanting anything back, giving only to please the receiver of our gift, then we are giving correctly.

Subsequently, if you feel really good inside when you give to someone, let the person who gives to you feel the same way. When you are given a gift, don’t refuse it, don’t say, “Oh- you shouldn’t have!” or indicate in any way that you feel obligated to return the favor or are concerned by receiving the gift. Accept it with great joy (even if it is one that you can’t bear to own) and thank the person.

You may ask me, “Steve- I understand what you are saying but what if the person giving me the gift expects something in return, like most people do?” Well, my answer is give them something, if you want to because you want to give it. Do not give them something as an obligation or because they expect something back- if they don’t give for ‘giving’s sake’ then that is their problem. Those who give to receive will learn fast enough that you are a giver without expectation of return, and a receiver without obligation to give something back.

I have found most of the time when you give to people without expectation of return, they sense it; it all depends on your attitude. I will tell people I treat or to whom I give a nice gift to please do not feel any obligation to return the favor because my joy comes from seeing them enjoying the gift.

This is what the bible says:

Proverbs 11:24-27- One person is generous and yet grows more wealthy, but another withholds more than he should and comes to poverty. A generous person will be enriched, and the one who provides water for others will himself be satisfied

Proverbs 23:6-8- Do not eat the food of a stingy person, do not crave his delicacies; for he is like someone calculating the cost in his mind. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you; you will vomit up the little bit you have eaten, and will have wasted your pleasant words.

2 Corinthians 9:7-10- You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.

Therefore, when you receive something from someone, whether its a gift, money, time, possession, love, whatever it is: do so without concern about returning it or feeling obligated. Appreciate their giving and bless them in allowing them to feel the wonderful joy of giving.

If you receive happily and thankfully, you will have given them the gift of giving.

 

When Did We Stop Respecting the Authorities?

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Have you noticed the shift in attitude over the past decades with regard to those in authority?  Protests against police, vehement anti-President, as well as anti-(past) President activities, nasty and accusatory postings all over social media, and (let’s not forget) the proliferation of Fake News.

The Media, the President, those in a position of legal authority over us…for many years now society has shown less and less respect for them.

And, I am sorry to say, all of this is (probably) for a good reason: Watergate, Iran-Contra Affair, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski, Hillary Clinton and classified material misuse, police shootings that are questionable over much of the country (not just in the south anymore), President Obama and …well, a whole lot of things with him, President Trump ‘s firing of James Comey, and (how can we forget?) his Tweets. Given all that, how can anyone really trust anybody who is in a position of authority?

Our leaders have let us down. They have shown us they cannot be trusted, and when our leaders shows themselves unworthy of the position of trust we gave them, then what do we do?

My answer is: read Romans 13:1-2:

Everyone is to obey the governing authorities. For there is no authority that is not from God, and the existing authorities have been placed where they are by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities is resisting what God has instituted; and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

 

So, nu? What am I leading up to here? What I am saying is this: we need to stop beating a dead horse. Forget about things that are over and done with and concentrate on the here and now, with our sights set on the future. Maybe Mrs. Clinton did wrong on purpose and tried to cover it up (like a politician trying to cover up a mistake should surprise us?); maybe President Obama (he is still to be referred to that way, as a sign of respect; if not for the person, than for the position that person was elected to) did lie about his religious affiliation, or his birthplace or whatever; so what if President Trump speaks his mind without ever considering how his words will affect others? The truth is, like it or not, it’s all happening because God is running the show. When we consider what prophecy tells us is going to happen, doesn’t it all start to make sense?

The upheaval against authority, the growing lack of any real moral compass in our government and businesses, the attacks against Israel by the world (specifically the UN)…all of this has to happen before the return of Messiah. God is in charge, God is directing these events in order to fulfill His plan. And as Shaul pointed out nearly 2,000 years ago, if you are trying to stop what God has put in place, then not only are you resisting God, but (as Yeshua told Shaul) you are just “kicking against the goads.”

Later in Romans Shaul goes on to tell us that so long as we do what is right, then even the worst tyrant will not bother us. If we owe taxes, pay them; if we owe someone money, pay them; if we owe respect, give respect. What we are to do is to do what we know is right in God’s eyes, without coming against those in authority whom God has placed there.

In other words, trust God to sort it all out. Let the non-Believers gripe and groan and make a stink, and when they throw manure at our leaders, make sure you are out of the line of fire. Don’t let the revolts and reprisals of the world affect (or maybe I should say, infect) you.  Things are going to get worse, and we need to stay focused on prophecy (so we know what will come next) and maintain trusting expectation of Messiah’s return.

The world is driving with the pedal to the metal while looking in the rear-view mirror; you don’t need to be a prophet to know how that will end up. You and I need to keep our eyes on the prize: we need to understand what is really happening by not using our physical eyes, but seeing events in the world through the eyes of the Ruach haKodesh, the Holy Spirit, because that way we will see the real powers behind the events. Yeshua told us things of the world cannot know things of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14), so since we have the Spirit indwelling we should concentrate on spiritual things.

I am not preaching apathy, but I am preaching acceptance. If things get so bad there will be revolution, then keep apart from it as best you can. We should see the problem, but not become a part of it.

What we need to do is show the world the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit, the confidence that is ours (because we know where we will be), and the patience to trust, and wait, on the Lord.