Author: Steven R. Bruck

Does the Real Messiah Reject God?

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I’ll bet you are thinking, “Now, what kind of a stupid question is that? How can the Messiah, the son of God, the servant of God, the savior of the world, possibly reject God?”

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Frankly, I don’t see how that is possible, but, then again, Christianity has been teaching that for millennia.

“What do you mean, Steve? When did Christianity teach that the Messiah rejected God?”

When it told people that the Torah is no longer valid or necessary for salvation.

“But, wait a minute…isn’t legalism wrong? Isn’t it true that we are saved by faith? “

Yes, we are saved by faith, but only the right kind of faith.

“Huh?”

Faith is, in its basic form, the result of a choice we each make to believe in something. When it comes to Yeshua (Jesus) and God, Christianity pretty much says believe that God exists and that Jesus is the Messiah and you can be saved. But that isn’t the kind of faith that will save you, because, even as we are told in the Bible, Satan and every demon in hell believes that God exists and that Jesus is his Messiah. Not only are they not saved, but they have already been thrown out of heaven and doomed to eternal damnation.

So what good is their faithful belief in God and Yeshua?

And as for Torah observance, that isn’t going to do you any good, either, not if you depend on performance being able to save you. No one can be in total accordance with the Torah, ever. That is why we need a Messiah, DUH!

And if you say you have faithful obedience to the Torah, if your faith is not heartfelt and internal, such as with David, then your obedience will also be useless. Saul sacrificed to God but for the wrong reasons and it cost him his kingship, and through the Prophets, God told us, more than once, that he doesn’t care about our going through the motions- he wants us to be obedient because we want to be obedient to demonstrate our love and respect for him.

So how does this come together to be the right kind of faith?

First, we must understand that belief in God and Yeshua as the Messiah is not the guarantee of salvation, it is just the beginning of being saved.

Second, we have to understand the difference between legalism and Torah observance: legalism is the belief in performance-based salvation, meaning that salvation comes only through the performance of everything that is written in the Torah. Torah observance can be faith-based salvation when that observance is the result of wanting to obey the Torah as the means of showing God we respect and trust him, and because when you love someone you want to do what pleases them.

So, we know legalism is useless, faith has to be more than accepting the existence of God and Messiah, and that Torah observance is not wrong so long as it is based on wanting to please God.

And now, we learn from James the final part of this lesson about correct faith (James 2:14-17):

What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, and someone says to him, “Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!” without giving him what he needs, what good does it do? Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.

The “actions” James talks about are what we call mitzvot, which means both “laws” and “good deeds”, and what deeds are better than those that God tells us to perform, which (by the way) are also laws?

So, let’s make certain we are all on the same page: legalism is performance-based salvation and useless while faith-based salvation (which is how we are saved) must be more than just accepting the truth that God is God and Yeshua is the Messiah. And, the way we demonstrate this proper faith is through doing good works, which is the same as obeying what is in the Torah.

Yeshua the Messiah clearly did many good works, and he also told us that he only does and says what his father in heaven tells him to do and say, meaning that he obeyed everything in the Torah.

So, back to the original question: does the real Messiah reject God?

Of course not, and this is how we know Yeshua is the real Messiah, or better yet, how we can know who is NOT the real Messiah.

Now, here comes the kicker, Folks: the “Jesus” that Christianity presents as the Messiah, the one who says love is all you need and who teaches that the Torah is no longer necessary, is NOT THE REAL MESSIAH!

I know that because when you teach to reject the Torah, you are teaching to reject God. And this wrongful teaching, which has been taught throughout the millennia, telling people that ANY Torah observance is legalism and thereby useless to them, is how this false Messiah has gotten people to sin while thinking they are actually being saved.

The Torah has the only direct-from-God instructions on how to worship him and treat each other, and he tells us that is all we need to know. It defines sin and tells us the rewards we receive for obedience and the consequences of disobedience (Deuteronomy 28).

Yeshua lived in perfect accordance with the Torah because he was the only one who could, and because of his perfect obedience he was able to receive salvation, and as such, become the sin sacrifice for everyone. His Torah observance was not from trying to earn salvation, but from being trustfully and lovingly obedient to his father.

That is the type of Torah observance I try to maintain, and constantly fail to do. Thank God for Yeshua! Without him, none of us would have any chance of being saved from ourselves. Being obedient to God is what God requires of us: not just for salvation but also to receive blessings, which we CAN earn!

Here is all you need to know to be saved: salvation must be based on faith, and that faith must be the correct kind of faith, the one that results in wanting to do good works, which is (here we are again!) those things that God tells us to do in the Torah.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone, and check out my website and the books I have written.

And please remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week- I have new sliding glass doors being installed all day tomorrow so I will be skipping my usual Friday Torah parashah message.

Until next week, then…l’hitraot, Baruch HaShem and an early Shabbat Shalom!

Oy Vey!! I almost forgot to say Chag Sameach because tomorrow is Purim! I am taking my first try at making hamantashen today, so wish me luck!

Shalom.

Different Religion: Same Mistakes

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I have always been so disappointed when I think about all the different Judeo-Christian religious doctrines.

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Don’t we have only one God, one God who is the same today, as he was yesterday, and will never change throughout eternity?

Didn’t this one God give us just one set of rules and send only one Messiah?

You say “Yes”? Then why are there scores of different religions, each one professing to worship this one unchanging God, but they all have different ways to do that, with different rites, ceremonies, holidays, and traditions?

I am Jewish, born and raised, and what is even cooler is that I recently found out that I have the genetic marker of the Levite! But I was raised Reform, and when I was a child I recall some Orthodox Jew calling me a “Goy.”

The Hebrew word “Goyim” means “nations”, as in everyone else except the Jewish people, and the term “Goy” has come to be a derogatory expletive within Judaism for any Gentile.

And when I was a child, my Catholic friends, well…they accused me of killing God.

Judaism isn’t really, in my opinion, a religion as much as it is a lifestyle. God gave us, through Moses, instructions on how to worship him and how to treat each other, and God also gave us a mandate, which is to be a nation of priests to the world (Genesis 19:6), which means that we are to teach everyone else how to live in accordance with God’s instructions. And despite having these instructions written down, we failed to comply with them, over and over.

Let’s review just some of the mistakes that we Jews made since receiving the Torah:

  • We created an idol (the Golden Calf);
  • We failed to obey the Sabbath rule regarding resting of the land (which is why we had to spend 70 years in Babylon);
  • We rejected God’s authority through his prophets and demanded a king;
  • Our rabbis have added many difficult traditions to the relatively simple rules God gave us in the Torah by creating Halacha (the Walk) in the Talmud; and
  • We have rejected Yeshua as the Messiah (this was a BIG mistake!)

These are just a few of the main ones. So, if you were creating your own religion from Judaism (since that was the original and only religion that worshiped Adonai, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), wouldn’t you avoid all those mistakes, mistakes which the Tanakh had identified and which you could see, over the centuries before Messiah came, resulted in disaster and destruction for the Jews?

Don’t you think that someone creating their own religion would do everything they could not to make those same boo-boos?

Apparently not.

Let’s look at Christianity (this includes all forms of it):

  • They created an idol: just walk into any church and see a graven image on a cross, or statues of saints all over that people bow and pray to;
  • They created holidays that God never gave us, which by itself may not be so bad, but they totally ignore the ones God commanded us to observe;
  • They not only changed the day we observe the Sabbath, but they totally changed the rules about how to observe it;
  • They reject most of God’s instructions which he gave in the Torah;
  • They created their own king and call him the Pope; and
  • They rebranded the Messiah as an ex-Jew who negated his father’s laws and created his own religion, in which he is God!

WOW! I mean, really? Just make up whatever rules you want to, ignore the ones you don’t like, and keep only what you don’t mind doing. Label some commandments ceremonial and therefore, unimportant, even though God told us to do them! Wouldn’t that imply it is important to him?

And, in my opinion, what is worse of all is that traditional Christianity ignores most of what truly came directly from God (the Torah and the books of the Prophets) and teaches almost exclusively a misinterpretation of the letters from a man who wasn’t receiving what he wrote from God, but was micro-managing congregations of Gentiles learning to be Jewish.

That’s right- I am talking about the Epistles of Paul. Everything he wrote was to congregations of Gentiles that he formed, who were learning how to live a “Jewish” lifestyle instead of the pagan lifestyle they had lived, previously. What he wrote was not a direct commandment from God, like what Moses and the prophets received, but letters to micro-manage the internal, interpersonal problems that his congregations were facing.

Paul never taught to ignore the Torah: he was teaching how to obey it, but little-by-little, line-by-line, precept-by-precept.

If that sounds vaguely familiar, you can find it in Isaiah 28:10 when he was chiding the Israelites about how they were ignoring and disobeying God and how they had to learn like children.

As we can now see, the Christian religions, as well as within the different sects of Judaism (we’re still making mistakes!), have all made their own sets of rules, ceremonies, rites, and holidays that are different from what God commanded us to do. So, nu? What do we do now?

The obvious answer is to get back on the program. But that will never happen, I am sorry to say, simply because we have been doing this for so long that the people are comfortable with what they have learned and refuse to change. Humans, in general, hate change; if you don’t believe that, at your workplace try to institute a different procedure- any procedure- and see how willing people are to do it.

No, these tares have already been growing with the wheat for so long that there’s nothing left to do now but wait for the harvest (Matthew 13).

The good news is that until the harvest comes, those tares have a chance to become wheat!

This is what I believe (in a nutshell): the Torah is still valid, Yeshua is the Messiah God promised and through our repentance and by means of Yeshua’s sacrifice, we can be forgiven of our sins.

I am not preaching performance-based salvation (you might know it as “legalism”) but faith-based salvation, remembering that in James 2:14 we are told faith without works (meaning obedience to the Torah) is dead. No one can be sinless, but we all can sin less by not trusting only in our religious leaders but verifying what they tell us by reading the Bible and asking the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to guide us in our understanding of what God wants from us.

God has wonderful blessings for us, but we won’t get them by making up our own rules, so STOP making the same mistakes we have all, always made and get with the program GOD laid out for you.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Parashah Teruma 2021 (Offering) Exodus 25 – 27:19

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From this point on, the remaining chapters of Exodus deal exclusively with the construction and dedication of the Tent of Meeting, also called the Tabernacle.

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The details that are specified throughout these chapters are extensive and very exacting. The number of cubits for each area of the tabernacle, from the section we call the Holy of Holies (where the Ark of the Covenant was placed) to the outer courts and the surrounding area, is very exact, as are the types of metal and weight of the materials for the various articles that are to be used in the service of the Lord.

The message here for us is…well, I’m not sure. There are a number of places in the Torah, as well as within the writings of some of the Prophets, where exacting detail of a structure are found, and sometimes, I confess, I wonder why so much attention is paid to such minutia. I am sure there is a purpose for it, and now that I think about it, maybe I have a reasonable explanation:

God gave Moses such exacting detail in order to test the dedication and obedience of the people.

The reason I think this is the explanation is that when we get to the end of the book, in Exodus 39:43 we are told that they did it all, just as they were told to. This leads me to believe that listing every single exacting detail of every single item associated with the Tabernacle was how God tested the people. He wanted to see if they would obey, would be willing to do the hard work without complaint, and how willing they were to donate, or maybe I should say give away, the goods and valuables they had attained from the Egyptians.

I am sure that living their entire lives as slaves, after they had looted Egypt and received jewels, fine linens, expensive skins, etc. they might not have wanted to give them up. But the requirements for the tabernacle were gold, silver, fine linen, precious jewels, colored threads, and expensive woods, just to name a few. Having these wonderful articles for the first time, maybe, ever, and then being asked to give them away for the Tabernacle’s use, is quite a request and called for some real dedication.

If we were asked to give up something valuable that we had just attained in order to further God’s work, how willing would we be to do that? It is easy to say, “Sure, I’d give something to God if I had a lot to give.” but that doesn’t count. Remember how in Mark 12:41-43 Yeshua told how the rich gave their tithes, which they could easily afford, but the poor widow gave all she had? And that because of her dedication, she would be remembered?

Many years ago, I received an inheritance that at the time, to me, was significant, and I am somewhat proud to say I tithed it correctly. I also have to confess that there was somewhat of a trust issue, meaning I wanted to make sure the monies I gave to my synagogue were being used correctly for the furthering of God’s work. Fortunately, I was on the Council at the time so was able to make sure those funds were used in God’s name, but I can understand how someone without that ability to verify where the money goes to might think twice about making a large donation to any house of worship, or charity.

I think when giving to a charity, no matter how wonderful their sales pitch is, one should first find out how the monies are utilized.

For instance, as a veteran, I am open to giving to Veteran charities, such as one I often see advertised on TV (to be fair I won’t give the name), but when I checked them out this is what I discovered: In 2016 only 54% of all monies went to the program, the rest to administrative and marketing expenses. In 2018, that went up to 64%, and here’s a surprise: the CEO makes $280,000 per year.

And when I checked that out, according to the charity watchdogs, that CEO’s salary is NOT unusual!

Now, if we look at another charity, one we all know but shall remain un-named (I will say it is really popular around Halloween), they spend 88.9% of the money received on their charity programs, the rest going to administrative and marketing expenses.

In general, a charity is expected to spend 15% or less on administrative and marketing expenses. So, when you give to a charitable organization, make sure that what you are giving is going where you expect it to go.

The Israelites knew where all they gave went because they got to see it, and in fact, worked with it.

Charity is something that we are commanded to partake in since the Torah often tells us to care for the orphan and the widow, and that is NOT tithing- that is charitable giving. We are also told that God loves a cheerful giver, yet be wise and use discernment when you give.

The Israelites gave so willingly that Moses had to tell them to stop contributing (Exodus 36:5), and that is how I believe, God wants us to be- cheerfully willing to share the blessings he has given to us with others.

And here’s the really good news: God never runs out of blessings so there is no way you can ever give away more than what God can resupply to you.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe, and I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

There’s No Unity in Babel

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In the Book of Genesis, Chapter 11 we read about the Tower of Babel, and how God said that because they had just one language and all the people were unified, they would be able to accomplish anything. In order to stop them from building the tower which was, in reality, an edifice to self-righteousness, God broke their unity by confusing them with different languages and scattered them all over the earth.

Subsequently, war and inter-personal animosity became world-wide.

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The level of animosity we have in the USA today is at an all-time high. Racial, religious, and political intolerance is rampant, exacerbated by technology which allows anyone to say anything they want to on the Internet. The real problem is that humans, for the most part, when hearing something told to them over and over, no matter how absurd it may be, will eventually accept it as truth.

And once they do, they won’t easily change their minds.

Add to this the innate iniquity (desire to sin) that we all have, as well as the self-indulgent society we have all been indoctrinated into, and you have a recipe for… well, for what we have today: disunity on a national scale.

Today we are hearing a lot about unity. And I believe it is a bunch of political rhetoric, meaning that it sounds nice but the reality is that it won’t ever come to be because there is an essential part of the formula for unity that is missing, from the top down, and has been absent for many years now.

That essential ingredient, that foundation, that keystone to unity is: compassion.

Today everyone wants you to talk to them with compassion for their feelings, but no one wants to make the effort to listen with compassion; no one wants to consider, if they are upset by what you say, that maybe you are feeling bad or having troubles! Hell, no- you said something I don’t like and therefore YOU are wrong!

In my many years in the corporate world, I have seen how filing a complaint with Human Resources (which used to be called Personnel, but they aren’t personable anymore) means that the first one to complain wins. No longer do we get together and try to work out our differences to form a closer relationship, no! Nowadays, you complain about me and I am wrong. Period; end of story; don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

There can never be unity without compassion. As I stated above, and which is confirmed many times in the Bible, humans are selfish, stiff-necked, and self-absorbed beings who want only to sin. The only way we can overcome sin is by following the way God tells us to worship, live, and treat each other. That is possible only because when we accept God and his Messiah, we are given the gift of the Ruach haKodesh (the Holy Spirit) which doesn’t force us to do anything but gently teaches and guides us to do what is right.

Compassion is not something we can demand: it is something we must earn, like trust, by first showing we have it for others. Then they will return it. Think of compassion as a beneficial disease, one that can be contagious, but yet it remains a rare disease.

I have no answer for how to create unity in the world, let alone just trying to get it started here in the US. We are really in trouble, and personally, I believe we are being judged by God for our sinfulness over the past 70 years (reminds me of the exile we read about in Jeremiah.) Ever since 1950, we have become more and more sexually perverse, more and more individually centered, and less and less nationalistic, to the point where today the government supports murdering children, sexual perversity, and has kicked God out of our society, schools, and courtrooms.

The best thing I can think to do is persevere and try to show compassion in how I deal with everyone, especially within the religious discussion groups I am a member of. It is so sad to see within many different groups, groups of so-called believers in God and Messiah, the animosity, intolerance, and lack of compassion they have for each other.

I mean, really? If those who believe in God and Messiah can’t demonstrate self-restraint, tolerance, and compassion for each other, then what chance does the world have?

I know all about not having compassion because I don’t have any. I can never be a Rabbi because I really don’t like people, and have little compassion for them. I especially have no patience for fools, but I try. That is the best I can do, and by trying, even if by accident, I will show compassion and that is (at least) something.

The problem is so few in the world today are even willing to try. People forget the old adage that when you point your finger at someone, there are 3 fingers pointing back to you. As Yeshua said, first remove the log from your own eye before telling your brother (or sister) to remove the splinter from theirs.

So, try being more compassionate in how you talk and even more importantly, how you listen to people. If someone is saying really nasty things, even as your blood pressure rises, control yourself and think about the times that you said mean things you didn’t mean but said because you were hurting. Mean people are always people in pain, and if we can remember that and deal with them compassionately, well, you will be surprised at how quickly they can turn around and return your goodwill.

Proverbs tells us many times that we should treat those who mistreat us with compassion and how a gentle word will turn away anger.

If only people would do that, but they don’t, so it is up to us, the ones who worship God, accept Messiah Yeshua and have received the Holy Spirit, to show them how.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to my YouTube channel and the website ministry, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

How Ya’ Doin’?

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I don’t have anything on my calendar to talk about today so I thought I would just check-in with you and ask how you are doing with all the mishigas in the world today.

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Oh, how are we doing? Well, thanks for asking: Donna and I are doing very well. We each have schedules that we enjoy. Donna volunteers twice a week at a local animal hospital specifically for native wildlife and is also on their committees for fund-raising and educational activities.

I post to this ministry three times a week, golf twice a week (weather permitting- it has been unusually wet this winter) and ride my bicycle three times a week. I also like to work-out once a week at Cocoa Beach Aerial Adventure, which is a sort of obstacle course in the air. If you’re interested, here is a link to a YouTube of me doing one of the courses: Steve playing Tarzan.

But how are YOU doing? With the polarization of Americans at an all-time high, animosity at an all-time high, and unity at an all-time low, not to mention the hyper-hyping of this pandemic, most everyone is ready to pop about 30 Prozac a day!

Oy! What a mess!

If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed and miss being able to get together with friends and family or travel, I have often posted how I believe that those who are concerned for their health should take whatever precautions they need to, but not force it on anyone else. Our governments, both federal and state, have taken charge of our lives and forced people to “be considerate”, i.e. wear masks and stop socializing in order to stem the spread of COVID, but really? Has it worked?

It’s been a year and the numbers climb every time we open up a little, so it seems clear, at least to me, that whatever we are doing is not stopping anything, it is just delaying it. Now with an “approved” vaccine, maybe once enough people have been vaccinated (and no, I have no intention of taking it) we will be able to get back to a normal life.

Of course, given the current level of racial tensions in America, not to mention how the recent election has been used to “justify” domestic terrorism (which is also at an all-time high), I can’t help but think that as badly as the economy has suffered due to the way the pandemic was handled, we haven’t hit bottom, yet.

I think there is still another shoe to drop.

So, nu? Where am I going with all this? Frankly, nowhere: I am rambling on and hoping that something will pop into my head, or maybe into your head and you will make a comment that can help us feel better.

I know that God is in charge, and I know, also, from having been “in charge” for most of my professional career, that being in charge doesn’t always mean running the show. Sometimes being in charge means allowing things to progress on their own, and then straightening it all out later.

I believe that the physical things we are suffering with now – racial tensions, political polarization, disunity, and rampant animosity- are just the outer covering for what is really happening, which is the spiritual judgment that is falling on this country. We have sinned against God for so long, in so many ways, that we are now going to feel his wrath. His justified and well-deserved wrath.

So how are ya doin? Are you financially OK? Are you in good health? Are you still working? Well, if you are OK with all of these things, thank God for that. But, still and all, you better buckle up, Baby, because the ride is just starting!

When you know what is coming, you can be better prepared for it, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually. If you are not a godly person, well what the heck are doing here? I mean, it’s great that you are, and hopefully, you will listen and repent. And if you are already a godly person, which is why you are here, then steel yourself, gird on that armor of God (Ephesians 6) and watch your “6” because when the stuff hits the fan, you won’t know your friends from your enemies.

We are just beginning to feel the birth pains of what is still to come. I don’t know if this is the final judgment, the Acharit HaYamim (End Days), or just a judgment on the USA for having rejected God, but it is here and you can’t avoid it. So, as I said, buckle up and try to last out the ride.

Remember that perseverance builds faith, and we can all use more faith, so look to the end and try not to let the current situation get you down. God is, ultimately, in charge and even though others think they are running the show, they aren’t and HE is!

And God will never abandon those who love him.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages (yes, even this one) with everyone you know, and I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!