Author: Steven R. Bruck
Paul, The Patron Saint of Guilt Trips
How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a lightbulb?
“That’s OK, you go and have fun, I’ll be fine sitting here in the dark, all alone with no one around to help me. I don’t mind, so long as you are happy.”
Did you like that joke? It is representative of what we call a Guilt Trip.
Those of you who read my messages know that I have a lot of issues with the Epistles from Shaul (Paul); not so much with what he says, but how what he says has been so badly – I will even go as far as to say sinfully!- misinterpreted and misused in order to turn Gentile Believers away from the Torah.
And this is the first time I will point out another issue I have with Shaul’s letters, but one that helps me to prove, once and for all, that he was Jewish, to a fault.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
Shaul was an expert with regards to laying a guilt trip on his congregations.
Let’s start with Corinthians Chapter 9. He tells about how it is biblically correct for those spreading the good news to receive payment, but not him! He has never received payment and won’t because he wants to do it for free, as the Messiah has told him he should.
Bragging? Not really, it’s more like
Look at me! I am not taking what is owed to me, even though I know you
want to give it to me.
which could easily make the people feel guilty if they don’t do something for him. Subtle, but effective in getting them to perform tzedakah (charity) for others, not so much because they want to, but in order to feel better about themselves because it will make Shaul feel better.
He follows up this guilt trip in his second letter, in Chapter 8, where he tells them about how Macedonia was so poor yet they gave generously, and he is sure that the Corinthians will do even better.
And if that wasn’t enough, he really pours it on in Chapter 9, when he says he hopes that, after telling everyone how wonderful the Corinthians are, that he won’t be embarrassed by them if they don’t give more than the Macedonians did.
Do what you want to do, and don’t worry if you make me look like a liar.
But those Corinthians aren’t the only ones he lays a guilt trip on.
In his letter to the Philippians, the second chapter is about the problems they are having working together in the congregation. So, he tells them how he will feel so much better, and it will bring him such joy, by knowing that what he has taught them will be demonstrated by their getting along with each other.
In other words, if you guys don’t start working together, you’ll make me feel like I failed, and then I’ll feel terrible!
In Chapter 4 of this letter he tells them how wonderful it was that in the past they wanted to help, but poor them- they couldn’t. However, if they could help now (by sending what he needs) that would be a real blessing to him, but it’s OK if they don’t- he can get along alright. He has learned to be happy without food or clothing, or even when in jail…
It’s OK, I’ll just sit here in this cold, damp cell with no clothes or food; I know
you would help if you could.
The really big guilt trip I see in all his letters is the one to Philemon! He tells Philemon how well Phil’s escaped slave, Onesimus, has been to him and that he is now sending him back (which is what the law required), and that he is asking Phil to be nice to Onesimus and accept him back without punishment.
THEN, after asking this “favor” he says that he won’t mention, of course, that Philemon owes him his very life.
You don’t have to do anything I ask of you, but you do owe me your life,
which I won’t mention because I know you will do more than what I ask.
GUILT! GUILT! GUILT!
And in general, throughout his letters, he constantly asks the people to do as he says in order not to embarrass him in front of the other congregations, because he has boasted about them so much.
And he constantly talks of his trials and tribulations, all on their account, which is fine because he does it voluntarily; but, the underlying guilt trip is that he is suffering for them, so they should do as he asks.
He does tell them about the rewards of living righteous lives, but there is always that subtle guilt trip that they should do this also for his sake because of all he has done for them.
Look, there is a lot of good stuff in the Epistles Shaul wrote, but that good stuff has to be filtered out from the guilt trips he lays on them.
So, if there is any meaningful value to my message today, it is this: when reading the Bible, you need to remember that it is written by people, and except for the Torah parts where Moses is writing exactly what God told him to write, or the Prophets prophesizing what God told them to say, everything else was written by human beings who had their own way of saying things and their own personalities which could never be removed completely from their writings.
Just reading the Bible isn’t good enough. Oh, sure, you can always count on the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, to guide your understanding, but you still need to take some level of control.
Read the Bible with an open mind, learn the cultural and historical usage of the words and phrases in there so you understand what you are reading the same way that the ones who wrote it meant it. Never take any one or two verses by themselves, but always work within Circles of Context: the sentence within the paragraph, the paragraph within the letter, and who wrote the letter, to whom, and why.
Always be critical of what you read: there is no conflict between faithfully believing what is in the Bible is true and testing it. The truth can stand up to critical analysis, and the truth in the Bible will be clear enough, even when you test it.
Being critical and fairly testing what is in the Bible isn’t a bad thing, but always maintain steadfast and unwavering faith that God is God, that Yeshua is the Messiah who was raised from the dead for our sakes, and that the promises of God are absolutely trustworthy.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both this website ministry and my YouTube channel. Share these messages to help this ministry continue to grow, and buy my books to read and then share with others.
On second thought, just tell others how much you like the books and let them buy their own.
Join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word’ (please read and agree to the rules) and remember that I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Video for Paul, The Patron Saint of Guilt Trips
How Do We Reconcile All Who Call Won’t Be Forgiven?
Oy vey! What a terrible way to start a motivational and edifying message. How can I possibly say that all who call on the name of the Lord won’t be saved when the prophet Joel tells us we will be saved (Joel 2:32)?
And if what Joel said isn’t enough, Shaul (Paul) said it, too in Romans 10:13!
Oh, wait a minute… actually, all Shaul was doing was quoting Joel.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
In fact, just about everything Shaul said to his Gentile congregants was not originated by him; he was teaching them what God said through the Prophets and what God commanded in the Torah.
In order to know why I am saying that all who call on God’s name will not be saved, despite what Joel said, we first need to make sure we all understand what was assumed when Joel said that.
That assumption is that the ones calling on God’s name would also be obedient to his Torah.
Joel was speaking to Jews who had turned away from Torah observance, and as such, his message was to return to obedience, and then they would be saved when they called on his name.
(God’s name, of course, not Joel’s.)
The truth is the one thing that separates people from God more than anything else is… religion.
That’s right, I said religion separates us from God. How? By violating one of the most important commandments God gave us in the Torah! In Deuteronomy 4:2, he has Moses tell the people (CJB):
In order to obey the mitzvot of Adonai your God which I am giving you, do not add to what I am saying, and do not subtract from it.
Show me a religion, any religion (and that includes Judaism) which hasn’t added to or taken away from the Torah.
So, nu? What have you got for me? Nothing? No religion, anywhere, is exclusively Torah-only? Not even the Chasidic Jews, the most Orthodox of all?
No- they are more observant to the Talmud than the Torah!
What about the Jehovah’s Witnesses? They certainly understand not all who call on his name will be saved because they believe there are only 144,000 who are already chosen? But, they also do so many things that are not in the Torah, and don’t do so many things that are in the Torah.
Hozabout the Born-Again Christians? Oh, wait- their religious holidays were created by Constantine and they observe Pauline doctrine (which is based on misunderstanding almost everything he taught), but they don’t celebrate the Holy Days God gave us in the Torah and they don’t observe the rules for eating and worship that God demanded of us.
And some Christians, the Replacement Theologists, believe they are now God’s Chosen people, claiming that he has rejected all the Jews because they rejected Yeshua as their Messiah. They say this, despite God’s constant forgiveness of the Jewish people throughout the Bible and his constant confirmation that the Jewish people will ALWAYS be his chosen people.
Judaism is, undoubtedly, the one religion that is closest to what God has told us to do because our religion is founded in the Torah, but (as I said earlier) within Judaism we have added much to what God told us to do, which is called Halacha (the Walk). Halacha is based on the Torah, but the rules are rabbinic interpretations of how to obey the Torah.
For example, there are the stringent kosher rules, such as different plates for meat and dairy, or rules for observing the Sabbath, such as how far you are allowed to walk on Saturday.
Christianity has, for the most part, done whatever the Pope, or Martin Luther, or the World Council of Churches, or John Knox (Presbyterian), or John Wesley (Methodism), or Richard Allen (African Methodist Episcopal Church), or any other founder of a Christian denomination (of which there are many) has told them to do, all of which have different ways of NOT doing what God said to do in the Torah.
That is why so many people who call on the name of the Lord will not be saved because they aren’t doing what God told them to do.
And Yeshua, himself, confirms what I am saying in Matthew 7:21-23 when he says (CJB):
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’ Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness! ‘”
Notice, please, that he says only those who “….do what my Father in heaven wants…” will enter the kingdom of heaven, i.e., be saved.
What Yeshua is saying, quite plainly, is that only those who call on God’s name and obey the Torah will be saved.
Sorry, Christians and Jews who obey people instead of God, but this isn’t my idea- it’s what the Messiah says, and he is just saying what his father, Adonai, already said.
There is one other thing to remember- when you call on the name, it isn’t Yeshua you should be calling to for forgiveness, it is God, the father you need to dial up. Yeshua made forgiveness possible by his sacrificial death, but he isn’t the one forgiving you- he is our Intercessor. An intercessor is not the final decision maker, he is our representative to the final decision maker.
Yeshua sits at the right hand of God, not in place of him.
There you have it! Calling on the name of the Lord is not enough- you need to also be obedient to God. Not to Constantine, not to Paul or John Wesley, or the Pope, or Menachem Schneerson (Chabad), but to G-O-D!
And the only place throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, where God tells you what he wants you to do, is in the Torah.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel. Like my Facebook page, join my Facebook group “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules) and buy my books, as well.
Oh, yes, I almost forgot- share these messages with everyone you know, and remember that I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Video for How Do We Reconcile All Who Call Won’t Be Forgiven
Parashah Tazria 2022 (When she conceives) Leviticus 12 – 13
We now begin to move from the laws of kashrut to the laws of cleanliness. These two chapters cover the topic of cleanliness for a woman after giving birth, and for tzara’at, or leprosy (actually, it could also mean some other form of skin disease or mold).
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
Without going into the details, women become unclean, ceremonially, after giving birth by means of the bodily secretions that occur as a result of the birth. There were two different times periods she had to wait before she was to make a sacrifice to be cleansed, depending on whether she gave birth to a boy or to a girl.
The rules for tzara’at are also very detailed: first the person goes to the Cohen for an inspection, cleans himself, is then separated from the camp for a week, and after the 7 days goes back for inspection. These rules also apply to any clothing that has tzara’at (except the clothing is locked away).
If the boils or sores do not go away, that person is unclean and remains separated, outside the main camp until such time, if any, the sores disappear. If the clothing doesn’t appear to be cleaned of the disease, it is burned.
If the sores do disappear, the process of inspection, waiting period, and re-inspection happen all over again. This time, if the Cohen determines the disease is gone, the person cleans him/herself, performs the sacrifice, and then is allowed back into the society.
There are two main arguments for these regulations: the hygienic and the levitical.
The hygienic argument is that these rules were given by God in order to maintain the general health of the population, keeping people from becoming infectious and possibly creating a plague.
I can understand God wanting to prevent someone causing a plague; reading the Tanakh, it seems to me that plagues are one of God’s favorite punishments, and I don’t blame him for not wanting to share that with some mere human.
The levitical argument is that the rules and regulations about cleanliness are religious in nature, dealing more with spiritual defilement than physical sickness. Those who were unclean were forbidden from entering the Sanctuary because their physical uncleanliness would also represent their spiritual uncleanliness, which would defile the Sanctuary.
God is very clear throughout the Torah that only those who were clean could come into his presence.
Now, these two apparently opposing arguments are, in fact, not exclusive but inclusive. Being infected with a contagious disease is a really good reason to be separated from the population, and as such, not allowed into the Sanctuary where people are gathered in prayer. And even when cleansed of the physical disease, the sacrifice is required to bring that person back into spiritual communion with God after having been physically separated from God’s presence (in the Sanctuary).
So what does it come down to? If I am muddy, I am dirty, but does that make me unclean according to the Torah?
No, it doesn’t, but you should clean up before going to Shul, that’s for sure!
The clean and unclean regulations did not apply so much to everyday living, but to being allowed into the Sanctuary. They were designed not just to help maintain a healthy population, but to also prevent any defilement of the holy things.
Holiness means to be separated: the holy is separated from the common, and in the same manner, the (spiritually) unclean is separated from the (spiritually) clean.
God tells us what he considers to be clean and unclean, and if we do not want to be separated from God, then we need to understand the difference and how to be cleansed when we become unclean.
Through Yeshua, the need to bring an animal to the Sanctuary to present as a sacrifice is no longer necessary, but we still need to obey the laws. So, if you have a bodily secretion, wash yourself and change your clothes, then in the evening (which for Jews is the next day) you will be clean and can go to the Temple. However, if you are a woman and in your time of Nidah (menstrual cycle), technically, you should not go to your house of worship until after the cycle is completed and you bathe, in accordance with the rules in this parashah.
NOTE: The bath that men and women take in order to become ceremonially clean is called the Mikvah. The baptism, which is not a ceremonial cleansing but a physical representation of a spiritual change, is called a T’villa. Yochanon the Immerser (John the Baptist) had people undergo a T’villa, not a Mikvah.
Do you know why Orthodox men will not shake hands with a woman or take something from her hand? It’s because they do not know if she is in her time of Nidah. It is not a form of abasement or disrespect, it is simply self-protection because if she is “unclean”, then touching her or taking something from her will transmit her uncleanliness to them.
Whether or not you obey these rules is up to you, just as it is with anything God says we should do in the Torah. But if you decide to ignore them, remember this: God didn’t give us the Torah so we could ignore it, or pick-and-choose what we wanted to do, and Yeshua never told anyone to ignore anything his father said to do.
God gave us commandments to live by. In Deuteronomy 28, he promises to bless us when we obey, and that we will be cursed when we disobey: just a little something to think about next time someone tells you that you don’t have to do any of that “Jewish” stuff.
Thank you for being here, and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word (please make sure you read and agree to the rules).
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!
Video for Parashah Tazria 2022
The Free Gift of Salvation Isn’t Really Free
Most of the time when I am talking about Yeshua or God or what is in the Bible, I always give you the reference so you can see, for yourself, that it really is in the Bible.
I’m not gonna do that, today; if you don’t believe what I say, or if it sounds familiar but you’re not sure, I challenge you to find it.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
Churches, Messianic Synagogues, and Hebraic Roots houses of worship tell people that the salvation we receive through the sacrificial death of Messiah Yeshua is not able to be purchased and we can never earn it, yet it is priceless beyond compare… and do you know what the best part of it is?
It is FREE!
But is it, really?
Yeshua told his talmudim (Hebrew for students, or in this case, disciples) that they would be tortured and killed for following him. So, in their case, their free gift of salvation will cost them something- their health, their livelihood, even their life!
And it did.
Yeshua also told the man that wanted to follow him that the fox has its hole and the birds have their nest, but the Son of Man doesn’t have a rock on which to lay his head.
Yeshua told the rich man to give away all that he owned, then to come and follow Yeshua.
Hey, I don’t know about you, but this free salvation is starting to sound awfully costly! You may end up losing not just financial assets, but suffering abuse of your body and maybe even the loss of your life.
I know of many people who have paid a very terrible price for receiving this “free” gift, in that they have been ostracized by their family and friends.
Salvation being free doesn’t mean it won’t cost us something, it simply means we cannot buy or earn it.
If you wanted to buy it, does anyone really think God has a bank account somewhere so he can cash the check?
And you cannot earn it; well, wait a minute…that’s not really true.
If anyone, anywhere, could ever live their life completely in accordance with the Torah by never sinning, and die in that condition of perfect obedience to God’s instructions, then they would, literally, earn their salvation because the Torah is what God tells us we need to do in order to be righteous in his eyes. And to obey the Torah completely, you need to have both faith and actions that demonstrate that faith (faith and works, remember?)
God gave the Torah to the Jews to learn and obey, the reason being that once they knew it they would be his nation of priests (yes, there is a Bible verse where God tells Moses that is what we Jews are to be), and as such be an example of righteousness so that they could then teach the rest of the world to follow their example.
That would then fulfill the promise God made to Abraham that his descendants will be a blessing to the Gentiles.
But here’s the catch…no one can live a sinless life.
If someone could, then there would be three people in heaven: God, Yeshua, and that one idiot who ruined it for the rest of us.
And because no one can be totally obedient to the Torah, God sent Yeshua, the Messiah, to make it possible for us to receive the salvation that we could never earn.
So asking for salvation costs nothing, and receiving salvation costs nothing, but living “saved” by obeying God’s word (in the Torah) is very costly.
So why would I accept so much tsouris during my life?
The answer is there are two lives we all have: the first one is here on earth in the flesh, and the second one is a spiritual existence either in God’s presence, joyful and serene throughout eternity, or out of God’s presence, in the dark and cold where people moan and gnash their teeth.
The reason we are in this plane of existence is to choose where we will spend eternity; for me, I choose to accept Yeshua as my Messiah now, with all the suffering that might go with it, in order to have eternal peace and joy in God’s presence later.
You know what? Instead of asking people “What’s in your wallet?”, they should be asking “Where do you want to spend eternity?”
Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to all my sites (website, YouTube, and Facebook group called “Just God’s Word”), and buy my books. Honest: if you like what you get here, you will like my books.
Oh, yes, one more thing: I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for today so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Video for The Free Gift of Salvation Isn’t Really Free
Why Salvation Has No Value to Most People
For me, the most valuable asset I own is my guaranteed ticket to salvation.
But, for most people, salvation is something they just can’t fathom or understand, and as such it has no real value to them.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
Now, you may be thinking, “C’mon, Steve- everyone knows about heaven.” and you would be right in saying that, but heaven and salvation are not the same thing.
Heaven for most everyone is a place where everyone is happy, but the truth is that heaven is where God and the angels live- not people. When the Acharit haYamim (End Days) are ended, those who are saved live on the new earth, not in heaven.
Salvation, on the other hand, is not a place- it is a condition. Salvation is that state of being (what we call “saved”) where you have the opportunity to be cleansed of the sins you commit by means of your having accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as the messiah God promised to send, believing that he was raised from the dead as a substitutionary sacrifice for all people, Jew and Gentile, alike.
Salvation has no Hollywood presence, unlike all those movies showing heaven. Salvation has no substance, no visible attributes- you can’t see it, you can’t touch it, you can’t smell it.
Salvation is the promise God gave to his chosen people, a promise to cleanse them of their sins when they sacrifice to him to ask forgiveness of their sins against him, coming before him with a repentant attitude, a broken heart, and a contrite spirit.
And remember: every sin is first and foremost a sin against God; King David knew that, and said so in Psalm 51.
To those who have no faith and reject God, salvation has no value.
And don’t think I am only talking about Atheists or people of religions that are not based on the Judeo-Christian Bible. No! The most pitiful people I know are those who reject God while believing they are worshiping him!
A religion doesn’t teach only God says, it teaches whatever the founder of that religion thinks God says.
Even Judaism- which should be the “purest” of all religions because it is based on what God says in the Torah- is not innocent, either. Halacha rules (Halacha means “the walk”) are all rabbinical regulations, rites, and requirements that are man-made. These include separate plates for meat and dairy, restricting how far one can walk on the Shabbat, searching for hametz (leavened products) in the house the day before the Pesach (Passover) Seder, etc. They are found mostly in the Talmud.
Some of these Halacha rules are the man-made traditions that Yeshua talked about which he said were wrong because they overruled God’s word. Now, it wasn’t every man-made tradition that Yeshua decried, only those that took precedence over God’s laws.
Most Christian religions teach, in one way or another to ignore the Torah. Many teach that Jesus did away with the law, and by doing so set their congregants on the path of destruction because they are rejecting God while thinking they are doing what pleases him!
When we do not do as God says we should, that is not a small thing because we either do as God says, or we don’t, and God is very clear that refusing to do as he says is rejecting him.
Period; shut the door; das ist alles!
Salvation is the most valuable thing that exists. However, for most of the people in the world, it has no value because they do not really think on the spiritual (eternal) level. Even many of those who are “saved” do not understand that the things of this world are not valuable because they do not last.
Value is a fleeting thing: today your stocks are worth a million dollars, then the market crashes and now they are worth nothing. In the 12 years I was on Wall Street, during the 80’s and early 90’s, I knew people with million dollar plus brokerage accounts who, overnight, ended up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and this was AFTER their entire portfolio had been sold to meet margin call when the market crashed.
Value is temporary, value is fleeting, value is based on supply and demand, but salvation is priceless and its value never decreases.
It is a shame that so many people devalue the most valuable thing in the universe- the ability to be forgiven by means of the sacrifice Yeshua made for us. It is especially painful to me when I think of my fellow Jews who have been taught to reject Yeshua.
That’s right- most Jews I have ever known (which used to include me) have no idea of who Yeshua is, what he taught and how he lived. That’s because they have been told by their family, friends, Rabbi, and nearly every other Jew they know that Jesus created Christianity, which hates and kills Jews. And their Gentile friends also think Jesus created Christianity.
Guess what? Yeshua didn’t create Christianity: men and women- mere human beings- created all the different forms of Christian religions that exist today.
I pray that salvation has value to you because you know what God wants from you, which is in the Torah. Don’t be concerned that you have to do everything thing in the Torah perfectly, because you can’t- that’s why we need a Messiah. Duh!
But if you do not try to do what God said you should do, well…that’s different, and I’d be concerned if I were you.
Yeshua taught us to obey the Torah, not just to perform the literal meaning of the laws but to understand the deeper, spiritual meaning. When we do that we will have the Torah written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33), and that is when salvation will have its full, never-decreasing value to you.
We have a choice to either value or devalue salvation, so nu? What’s its value to you?
Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know, and buy my books from my website.
And I always welcome your comments, which you can make here or on my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word”.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!