Category: A Drash to Start the Day

Is Christianity Wrong?

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Before we can determine if Christianity is wrong, we should identify what the words “Christianity” and “wrong” represent.

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I looked at a few definitions of Christianity on the Internet, and this one seems to be the most relevant and most often used:
Christianity is a religion based on the life, teachings, and death of Jesus Christ, who is believed to be the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

As for the word, “wrong”, again going to the Internet I found this definition on the Mirriam-Webster site:

The state of being mistaken or incorrect or not according to truth or facts. 

Now that we have identified what these terms mean, let’s state that, for the purpose of our discussion, Christianity is the religion based on the teachings and life of Christ, who we will call Yeshua (since that is his real name), and being wrong means not being in accordance or agreement with the facts.

So, let’s take a look at what Yeshua taught, since that is what Christianity is supposed to be based on.

The best place to get a good idea of what Yeshua taught is found in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). He taught the people from the Torah but didn’t teach how the Pharisees had been teaching; rather, he taught us the Remes of the laws God gave through Moses.

In Judaism, we use an exegesis tool, called PaRDeS, to properly interpret and understand God’s word. The P stands for P’shat, or plain language meaning, such as “Thou shalt not kill”. The R stands for Remes, which is a deeper, more spiritual understanding of the P’shat, such as if we so much as hate in our heart, we have killed. The D stands for Drash, which is a story with a moral ending, such as the many parables Yeshua gave, and the S stands for Sud, which is a sort of deep, mystical understanding of the word.

Yeshua often used a drash (parable) to teach the Remes of the laws God gave us in the Torah. He never taught to ignore any of his father’s commandments; in fact, in Matthew 22: 37-40, Yeshua stated that to love God and to love each other are the two most important commandments, and then he added that all the law and what the prophets taught are based on those two commandments. He never said these were the ONLY laws: just that they were the ones that all the rest were based on, indicating clearly that all the laws in the Torah are important and necessary, and these two were the foundation for the rest. He also stated in Matthew 5:17 that he did not come to change anything, specifically stating that not even a stroke from the Torah will be changed until all things have come to pass, meaning (obviously) not his death, but the Acharit HaYamim (End Days), also known as Judgement Day.

Yeshua never taught anything other than what his father said to do in the Torah.

But what does Christianity teach? One lesson from Christianity is that they are not under the Laws of Moses (which are really God’s laws, not Moses’) but they are only under the Law of Christ. Well, as we see, the “law of Christ” is the law of Moses, so that teaching is not in accordance with the facts; as such, based on the definition of “wrong”, Christianity is wrong.

This isn’t the only wrong, anti-Torah teaching or practice of Christianity. They bury their dead under the altar or on the church property, which (according to God) makes their church unclean and thereby unacceptable as a place to commune with him; they have rejected the Holy Days God said to celebrate, instead making up their own; instead of loving their neighbors, they have practiced torturing and/or killing Jews by the millions over the past two millennia to force them to reject the way God said to live, and there are many other Christian practices and teachings that go totally against what God said he wanted us to do.

And, as we’ve shown above, the things that Christianity has rejected are the very same things Yeshua taught.

I am sorry to be so straight-forward about this, but when we look at how God said he wants us to worship him and treat each other, what Holy Days he demands we observe, his rules on what is clean and unclean (not just physically, like food, but within interpersonal relationships, as well), and that Yeshua taught us the deeper, spiritual meaning of these laws while telling us he was not here to change any of them, the only conclusion any fair-minded and informed person can come to is that Christianity is wrong.

God has no religion: not Judaism, not Catholicism, not Episcopalian, Protestant, Baptist, etc., etc., etc. But, if we go by what God said he wants us to do, we have to conclude that Judaism is the closest to what God wants, even though Judaism isn’t exactly correct, either, what with so many different sects within it, and the different rules and requirements that are not in the Torah called Halacha.

The only “right” religion is no religion, and the only “right” way to worship God and treat each other is the way that God said, which he outlined clearly for all people in those first 5 books.

The truth is the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us how to live and worship is in those first 5 books: everything after Deuteronomy is just commentary. And, as far as the New Covenant is concerned, the only useable parts of that are the Gospels (but not John’s Gospel), Acts, and Revelation. Nearly two-thirds of the New Covenant are the Epistles, and they are not scripture (but they do quote from scripture), and they are not God-ordained or God-breathed (there is nothing in any of them that says “God told me to say…”), but in truth, they are nothing more than managerial directives to the (mostly) Gentile, neophyte believers throughout the Middle East and Asia who were losing their faith and being misdirected from the path of salvation.

Christianity is a man-made religion based on man-made rules and, for the most part, rejects almost everything God said to do; it couldn’t be more wrong.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and let me wish you an early Shabbat Shalom!

Do You Tithe?

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According to the Tanakh, every tenth animal under the hook is to be holy for Adonai (Lev. 27:30), yet many Christian religions say that tithing is not required anymore.

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But if tithing isn’t required, how do we explain what God told the people through the prophet Malachi (Malachi 3:8), when he said:

Can a person rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tenths and voluntary contributions. A curse is on you, on your whole nation, because you rob me.  Bring the whole tenth into the storehouse, so that there will be food in my house, and put me to the test,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“See if I won’t open for you the floodgates of heaven and pour out for you a blessing far beyond your needs.

Do you recall that we are told we should not test, the Lord, our God? God told us this in Deuteronomy 6:16, and Yeshua quoted it to Satan in Luke 4:12. But now, here is the Lord, himself, saying in this case it is acceptable to test him! The only way we are allowed to test God is to tithe, which will result in receiving even more blessings than ever has before.

So, I ask you: Why would anyone NOT tithe when it results in multiple blessings? Do you really think that the Lord can’t give you back much more than the equivalent of a measly 10% of what you earn?

I don’t attend any specific house of worship, so I could, if I wanted to, simply excuse myself from tithing… but that would be a cop-out. Yet, I don’t have any synagogue or church to financially support, so what can I do?

What I do is give to organizations that do God’s work, such as Ezra International, Bridges for peace, Lwatama Messianic Synagogue (they’re in Uganda), I support a Christian student in Sierra Leone, I have MRI’s in my car and give them to the homeless people on the street corners when I am stopped at a red light, and I give of my time to do this ministry, for which I do not ever ask for, or accept, monies.

Am I giving 10%, or less, or more? I don’t know, but it’s probably a little less than 10% of my total income, or should the tithing come out of our net income, or maybe not until after bills are paid, or just whatever disposable income we have?

That has been a conundrum for many. After all, we are told not to harvest the edges of our fields or go back and re-harvest the vines or trees, so that the poor can glean (Lev. 23:22). If we don’t harvest those foods, are they part of our produce? I mean, we grew them, but we never had them for ourselves. In modern times, we get paid a gross salary, but before we ever touch the money at least 10% is already taken out (often more than that) for FICA and state and local taxes, which we do not get back, totally. So, if we never receive the money, is that subject to the tithe?

I have no answer for you- you have to decide what you will tithe and from which income. Or you may decide to accept the Christian teaching that many Christian religions give, which is that tithing is no longer necessary. Their reasoning? Tithing is in the Torah, and Christians do not have to obey the Torah because Christians are not under the law of Moses, they are under the law of Christ.

That statement confuses the heck out of me! Yeshua (Jesus) was a Jewish man, and he was the Messiah who lived a sinless life, which means- undeniably- that he was Torah observant his entire lifetime. So, if Christians say they only have to live the same way Yeshua did, who lived in total accordance with the Torah, how can they, in the same breath, say they don’t have to live in accordance with the Torah?

Get real, people! You can’t say you follow Yeshua when you live and worship in a manner that he never lived, and would never allow any of his followers to live?

I am sorry to destroy your fantasy, but nowhere in the New Covenant does Yeshua, or any of his disciples, say that the law of Moses is done away with. The ones who created that lie were the Gentile leaders of this previously Jewish movement who, by the end of the First Century, decided to separate themselves from their Jewish roots to avoid trouble with the Romans.

The lies that have been promulgated throughout the past two millennia are now so ingrained into Christianity, that only a few Christians are beginning to wake up to the fact that Yeshua was a Jew, lived as a Jew, and taught us to follow his father’s laws. The term “law of Moses” is misleading because Moses never made any laws- he took dictation directly from God.

Look- if the CEO’s secretary takes dictation, in which the CEO makes up new requirements for the employees, when the letter is distributed do the employees say that it’s the secretary’s idea?

Whether or not you tithe, and in whichever way you decide to tithe, it is always going to be between you and God. In truth, everything we all do is always between us and God, no matter what your religious leaders tell you. Even when King David committed horrible sins against both Bat-Sheba and her hubby, Uriah, he knew that his sin was against God, and God, alone (Psalm 51).

So, nu! You and God talk it over, and decide if, and/or how, you will tithe. But let me give you this one piece of advice- I don’t recommend telling God that his laws are not relevant to you because some human beings a few thousand years ago decided that Gentiles do not have to worship God the way God said to.

I just can’t see that going over very well with the Almighty.

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

Heaven is a Lie

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I was just watching the movie “Ghost” with Donna the other night, and at the end of the movie, when his girlfriend sees him as he goes up into the lights where all the people come to greet him, I thought to myself:

“What a bunch of hooey!”

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Heaven exists, alright, but that is where God and the (aptly named) heavenly beings live. But not us: not now, not then, not never.

When we read the prophetic parts of the Bible that talk about the Acharit haYamim, the End Days, and what happens after this life, we aren’t walking around on the clouds in heaven, earning our wings (did you hear a bell ring?) and playing lyres.

No. When we die, we sleep, and then we come to judgement; and, if we have accepted Yeshua as our Messiah, through his sacrifice we have the opportunity to be forgiven of the sins we have committed throughout our life, and as such, get to be in God’s presence, forever.

That is, assuming we have constantly asked for forgiveness (by means of Yeshua’s sacrifice) and done our very best to be obedient to God’s instructions for righteousness. Which, for the record, are not found in the New Covenant, or even in the books after Deuteronomy- the instructions God gave us for how he wants us to worship him and how to treat each other are found in only one place in the entire Bibel, and that is in the Torah (the first 5 books).

According to Revelation, after the Apocalypse is over, the Enemy and his minions are all swimming in the Lake of Fire, and the new earth has been created, that is where we will be. We will be able to worship in the temple, the Messiah will rule, and God’s spirit will be with us, providing eternal light.

Religion has, amongst its many other lies, misled people into thinking that when we die, we go to heaven, where all our loved ones (already there waiting for us) will meet us, and we will be forever happy. It is a very pleasant image, but it is unsubstantiated by what the Bible tells us.

What it is, in reality, is a marketing plan to get people to join that religion.

Judaism is not innocent of this, either. In fact, within Judaic mythology there are 7 levels of heaven! (Talmud Tractate Chagigah 12 b)

So, the next time you get all teary-eyed thinking of how wonderful it will be to see all your loved ones when you die and go to heaven, take a deep breath and get a hold of yourself, because that ain’t gonna happen.

What you need to do is realize that odds are those who you keep telling yourself are watching over you from heaven are not in heaven, they’re sleeping, and maybe they won’t even get to be on the nice side of that chasm Yeshua talked about in his drash regarding Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31).

It is not a happy thought, but the truth is that the road to salvation is a narrow one, and the gate is hard to get through. Most everyone we have known and loved, especially those who have been misled by Christian-generated lies about not having to obey the Torah, are probably going to need a gallon of SPF 50,000 lotion instead of waiting in line to be fitted for a pair of wings.

I am not saying this to be cruel or to upset you, but if you continue to believe in a lie that leads you away from proper worship, it is necessary to use the rod instead of the hook, because your religion has already hooked you.

That old adage, “There must be a heaven because it’s hell here on earth!” is true, but no one goes to heaven after they die. At least, that’s what the Bible says, so you get to choose who to believe: your man-made religious fantasies or what we are told in the Bible.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Misplaced Faith is a Slow Acting Poison

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In ancient Rome, before forensic medicine, when someone wanted to “take out” somebody, and I don’t mean go on a dinner date, they would poison them with a slow-acting poison, putting just a little at a time in their food, so that the person would think they were getting sick and eventually die, never knowing they were murdered.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

I am telling you this because what is worse than a physical poisoning is a spiritual one.

After all, this mortal existence is but a fleeting moment in time, whereas eternity goes on and on, forever, and that is the life we want to share in. Anyone who claims to worship God must be looking forward to eternity, not in the hot seat, but with God in Paradise. As such, what could be worse than to slowly, unknowingly, find yourself being spiritually poisoned, leading you not on the pathway to paradise, but the road to perdition?

And that is exactly what almost every religion is doing, especially the Christian ones.

There can be no denying that the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us how to worship him and how to treat each other is found in the first five books, called the Torah. Nowhere else, from Joshua through Revelation, does God, himself, say what to do with regards to worship.

He does talk to prophets, but that is only to tell them to get the people back on track with proper worship.

He did send Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah , but -again- that was to teach the deeper, spiritual meaning of what he has already told us to do, and (even more important than that) to provide a way for people to find forgiveness of sin, because God knew that soon enough the temple would be destroyed and, without the place where God put his name, no sin sacrifice would be acceptable, except the one that Yeshua made.

Christianity has taught, in so many different ways, that the instructions God gave to us so we could know righteousness from sinfulness are not relevant to Christians. As such, God-fearing Gentiles who are members of any one of the multitudes of Christian religions, are being led astray; they are slowly being poisoned- spiritually- by those who are teaching them how to reject God, all the while telling them this is good for their souls.

So, nu? What is someone to do if they don’t know they are being poisoned?

My answer is that they need to cook their own meals; what I mean by that is they need to read the Bible, forget what they have been told it means, ignore their religious training, and determine for themselves what God wants from them.

And I am not just talking about Christianity: in Judaism, we have also added many requirements, called Halacha, which are not God commanded but man-made doctrines that add to God’s commandments, which he specifically said we shouldn’t do (more than once).

Fortunately, God is able to heal any disease, and if you are concerned that you may be subject to spiritual poisoning (and if you aren’t concerned, I respectfully submit that you might already too sick to know) then start today to read your Bible, beginning at Genesis and going all the way through to Revelation. See, for yourself, how God describes himself, what he says we are to do, how he has treated people who worship him correctly and those who don’t.

Consider how he told Abraham the world would be blessed by his progeny, which led to the Messiah, and that God told Moses (Ex. 19:6) the Jews would be God’s kingdom of priests, then immediately after that gave us the Torah (Ex. 20), so that as priests for God, we could take God’s instructions for righteousness and bring it to the world.

Here is your first anti-poisoning treatment: the Torah is not just for Jews! It was given to the Jews to bring to everyone else.

Please consider continuing to treat yourself to more truth only from the Bible, and not by a man-made religion.

God has no religion, only his instructions for how to worship him
and how to treat each other.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, to help this ministry continue to grow.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch Ha Shem!

Being a Blessing Can Be a Two-Edged Sword

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God told Abraham that the world will be blessed by his descendants (Genesis 22:18), and that has come to be, just as God said it would.

But that blessing has also painted a big, red target on our backs throughout the millennia.

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The success of Isaac caused him to be asked to leave his home by the ruling king (Genesis 26:16), and when we were in Egypt our success there led to our enslavement for 400 years. Later, during the Inquisition, when we had a large population in Spain and the Spanish colonies, Queen Isabella was jealous of the financial strength we had (besides the standard amount of anti-Semitism that has always been around) and had us either ejected from the countries that Spain controlled, or tortured (and often killed) unless we accepted Christianity (giving birth to the Hispanic Jews called “Conversos”).

I don’t need to tell you about Hitler, who saw the Jews as a threat to his control since we had such influence in both business and banking. And look at what is happening today- the success of the Jewish nation of Israel has caused a new increase in the hatred of the Jewish state (which, by definition, means hatred of the Jews, since Jews and Israel are inseparable), even here in America!

The world has definitely been blessed by Jews- did you know that nearly 22% of all Nobel prizes have gone to Jews? Yet, we represent only .2% of the global population, which is only 2 out of every 1000 people in the world! And let’s not forget about music, literature, and comedy: Jews been entertaining people for centuries. Some of the more recent names you may know are Natalie Portman, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Bob Dylan, Leonard Nimoy, Seth Rogan, Paul Newman, Daniel Radcliff, Adam Sandler, Alan King, George Burns, and Jack Benny.

And in music we have Sammy Davis, Jr., Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copeland, George Gershwin, Vladimir Horowitz, Felix Mendelssohn, and I haven’t even started to name scientists: there’s Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, or philosophy (Spinoza), or psychiatry (Freud), or literature (Elie Wiesel, Arthur Miller) or journalism (remember the Watergate scandal- a Jewish reporter named Bernstein broke that story). Even in graphic arts, there’s Stan Lee, not to forget Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, who created Superman, and then there’s… well, you get the picture, right? The list goes on and on and on.

All this success, yet we are still hated and persecuted and despised all over the world. Why is that? Is the world really that unappreciative?

I don’t think it’s a matter of appreciation, or respect, but simply that those who don’t have or can’t do hate those that have and who can do. God made us his representatives, literally his kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6) to the world, and as such when you are standing on the top of the mountain, you are a big target for those at the bottom who want to be at the top.

I know that this sounds very egocentric and self-absorbed, so please do not think that I believe we Jews are any better than anyone else. In fact, we have shown the world, throughout our history, we are probably the worst. We have shown everyone how to sin, how to reject God, and how to be rebellious and childish. But ya wanna know what the saddest thing about all that is? It’s that instead of learning from our many, many mistakes, the world has chosen to not just imitate them, but has done even worse!

Whereas we know what God said we are to do, but we often haven’t, Christianity simply says, “Hey, we don’t have to!”

I am willing to wager that many of you reading this have also experienced what it is like to be a success, or popular, or been at the top of the class, so to speak, and found that suddenly you are secretly not liked by some who say they are your friends, or outright hated by others, whether because of jealousy or just a sense that when you do something they want to do, but can’t, they project their feelings of frustration onto you.

For whatever reason, being successful in this world means that you will be hated and rejected by many.

As I have said from the start, being blessed is a two-edged sword, so be careful in whatever you do, because you will need to tread softly and watch where you step as you climb that ladder to success.

Thank you for being here; that’s it for this week so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Your Comfort Zone is Really Your Coffin

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Being comfortable is not a bad thing. In fact, it is something that we all strive for in our life- we want to be comfortable in our homes, in our jobs, with our friends and family, and financially, as well.

But when you get so comfortable with life that you don’t feel a need to learn anything else, you’re in trouble.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

I know so many people who are totally fine with not knowing the Bible, or what Yeshua really taught, or why their religion is steering them down the road to perdition instead of putting them on the pathway to salvation. And when I try to explain it to them, I get the hand.

Sometimes it isn’t the whole hand, just a single finger.

That is what I call being in your comfort zone to the point where it isn’t really comfortable, it just feels that way; sadly, you won’t come to realize just how uncomfortable you really are until the time comes when it will be too late for you to do anything about it.

When I was working, the majority of my career was in a position of management, and when I heard someone tell me that “This is how we’ve always done it.”, I would reply that that alone is reason enough for me to revue it, and most likely, change the way we’re doing it.

Why would I do that? Because I know from experience that when something has been done for so long that the only reason people give for why they do it that way is because they’ve always done it that way. Well, that isn’t really a comfort zone, that is what we call stagnation.

So, you learned about the Bible in church, or synagogue, or maybe you went through Catholic school or attended Hebrew school (after public school), and now that you are an adult, you don’t need to do that anymore. You believe in God, you know (or don’t yet accept) that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send, and that is all you need.

Or maybe you are one of those Believers who buy into the lie that the Torah is only for Jews, and all you have to do is “believe in Jesus” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean) and love people, and you’re golden.

Well, sorry to say, that is not going to get you where you think you are going to.

I am not going to try to convince anyone that your religion has misled you or that you need to convert or change your lifestyle, or anything else other than this: all I want to say today is PLEASE don’t trust what you think you know and keep learning. Read the Bible and don’t automatically accept anything you are told- not even by me- and check out everything you have ever been told about Yeshua, salvation, and God’s instructions in the Torah.

Your spiritual comfort zone is going to kill you, so never settle for comfortable when it comes to God. Always keep learning and being open to what others say, but- and this is VERY important- verify it all against what you read in the Bible, and I am not talking about letters written by men (although they have much wisdom and can be edifying), but instead verify what you hear against the commandments and instructions that come directly from God.

And the only place you will find those is in those first 5 books, called the Torah.

I completely believe that when you have to face God, I don’t think he will care one little bit about what someone told you because it is what HE says that counts.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with your entire contact list. That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch Ha Shem!

The Torah is Our Map to Righteousness

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Sadly, most Christian religions (and there are certainly enough of them!) have taught their followers that the Torah is just for Jews, and that it is made up of laws and requirements that they, as followers of Jesus, don’t have to obey.

They seem to totally ignore the fact that Jesus followed the Torah, and that the Torah is so much more than just laws and commandments.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The Torah contains history, wisdom, social mores, a code of justice and a penal system, it contains programs for ensuring the health of the community, and yes- commandments and laws that are not man-made, as with almost every Christian canon, but instead come directly from God.

And, sorry to burst bubbles, but they aren’t just for Jews, they are for everyone.

If a Christian wants to truly follow in the footsteps of Yeshua (that’s Jesus’ REAL name), doing what he did the way he did it, then they have no option but to follow what is written in the Torah because that is how he worshipped, how he lived, the festivals and Holy Days he celebrated, and what he taught all those who accepted him as their Messiah to do, as well.

In Genesis 28:14, God tells Abraham that the whole world will be blessed by his descendants, then later (in Exodus 19:6) God tells Moses that he has chosen the children of Israel (i.e., Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish people) to be God’s kingdom of priests, and as such, they are to learn the Torah and then bring it to the rest of the world. The final part of God’s plan was to have Yeshua, the Messiah, come from God’s kingdom of priests, and teach the deeper, spiritual meaning of the Torah to all people, Jew and Gentile, making it possible for all to be saved (by obedience to God’s true word) through Yeshua’s sacrifice, which replaced the need to bring an animal sacrifice to the temple.

In short, God chose Abraham to be the father of a nation of Torah-observant priests, who will bring God’s true word (meaning not a man-made religion), given through Moses to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles (ooh- does that sound familiar?) through his Messiah, Yeshua, who’s sacrificial death made receiving forgiveness possible after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

The Torah has God’s instructions for how we all are to worship him, and how we all are to treat each other, and anyone who says that this map to righteousness is not for everyone is leading people down the path to destruction.

If your religion tells you that following the Messiah’s teachings means that what God says to do doesn’t relate to you, well, I guess their Messiah must be a different one from the one God sent. I mean, really? Would a Messiah sent by God tell people to reject God?

Think about that.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot, and (an early) Shabat Shalom!

What’s More Important for Salvation than Yeshua? Repentance

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I know, I know- you have always been told that Yeshua (Jesus) is your Savior, and if you call on his name, you will be saved, your sins will be forgiven, you will be cleansed, yadda-yadda-yadda.

Well, it takes a lot more than that.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Did you ever think that every demon in hell knows Yeshua? In fact, they have seen him, but do you think that they are saved? I don’t.

This is a very short and simple, but maybe hard to hear word, that I want to share with you-

Yeshua ain’t enough!

God will not forgive an unrepentant sinner, and I do not believe that Yeshua will intercede for someone who continually sins and expects that they will be automatically forgiven just because they believe (and they really do!) that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send.

You may disagree, especially if you are one of those who have been misled into accepting that lie from the pit of Sheol that is known as OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved).

But the truth is, as seen throughout the Tanach, just going through the motions without repentance is useless.

In the New Covenant, the writer of Hebrews tells us (Hebrews 10:26-30):

For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will consume the enemies. Someone who disregards the Torah of Moshe is put to death without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. Think how much worse will be the punishment deserved by someone who has trampled underfoot the Son of God; who has treated as something common the blood of the covenant which made him holy; and who has insulted the Spirit, giver of God’s grace.

Here’s the thing: God is not stupid. He knows your heart, he knows what you are thinking, and if you say you are sorry, but you really aren’t, he will know. And he will not forgive you if you really aren’t sorry that you sinned.

And you know what? You’ll probably piss off Yeshua, as well, because after all he went through just so that you are able to ask God to forgive your sins, here you are without any real feelings of remorse or repentance.

So, when it comes down to it, accepting that Yeshua is your Messiah is not as important as being honestly, heartfully, and genuinely repentant for having committed a sin.

Oh, don’t get me wrong- you definitely need to accept Yeshua as your Messiah because without him, your chances of being cleansed of your sin haven’t got much of a chance.

That doesn’t mean you are out of the race, no- I believe (and you can disagree) that God can do whatever he wants to, and if someone doesn’t really think Yeshua is the Messiah, but they try to live in accordance with God’s Torah as best they can (which is the most any of us are capable of doing), and they know they sinned, and they are truly repentant, and they sincerely ask God to forgive them, well, I think he just might. Even without Yeshua, even without the temple, even without a sacrifice.

Why would he do that? Because I believe, reading in the Tanakh how God describes himself, that he is our loving, compassionate, merciful, and understanding Savior, and if he feels that someone is genuinely sorry for sinning, and he feels that person deserves to be forgiven, then I believe- temple sacrifice or not, Yeshua’s sacrifice or not, that God will forgive them!

I could be wrong, and so I always suggest it is best to accept Yeshua as your Messiah, and to be truly repentant when you screw up, and to honestly confess it, and ask forgiveness of God, each and every time. I ask forgiveness every morning, even if I don’t think I did anything wrong, because I know myself, and that means that I probably did do something wrong.

And you probably did something wrong, also.

Okay, that’s it for today, so have a blessed day, l’hitraot, and Baruch HaShem!

God’s Accounting System is LIFO

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For those of you who are wondering, “What the heck is a LIFO?”, it is an accounting system for calculating the cost of goods being sold to determine the profit margin. Last In, First Out (LIFO) means that you calculate your profit based on how much it cost to produce the most recently manufactured products.

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IMPORTANT: My website was destroyed by a hacker a while ago and I lost my subscriber list, so even if you have subscribed in the past, please do so again.

We all know that God keeps a record of our lives, what we did that was righteous, and what did that was not so righteous. And when we come before him at Judgement Day, he reviews all of our activities. Normally, this should scare the bejeezus out of everyone, but those of us who have accepted Yeshua as our Messiah, and tried to live our lives as he did (which, for the record, is not a “Christian’ life, but a Jewish one) have him there as our advocate, and before we stand in front of the Lord, his blood will be sprinkled on us and cleanse us of all sin.

Or something like that.

But another thing that we have going for us is that when God calculates our sins vs. our mitzvot (in this usage, meaning good works), he counts the most recent activities first.

How do I know this? Because he said this is what he does, and told us about it through the prophet Ezekiel.

Just look at Ezekiel 18: the entire chapter is devoted to God explaining that he will no longer make parents suffer for their children’s sins, or children suffer for their parent’s sins. But more than that, he says that no matter how sinful someone had been in the past, if they do t’shuvah (turn from sin) then their sins will be forgotten, and their righteous acts will be how they are judged. And, if the opposite happens, where a righteous person begins to sin, his righteous acts will be ignored, and he will be judged on what he has been doing recently.

So, you see, God uses LIFO- no matter how sinful you have been, if you accept Yeshua as your Messiah, confess your sins and ask forgiveness by means of Yeshua’s blood, then you will be cleansed, and so long as from that point forward, you live as obedient (as you can) to the way God said to live in the Torah (and not what some man-made religion tells you), then all that you had done before will be as far from you as the East is from the West.

That’s all there is to it: your sins are not to be inherited by your children, neither will their acts of Tzedakah (charity) be credited to you: you will be judged solely on your own life, and so will everyone else.

Thank you, again, for being here and please remember to re-subscribe, and share these messages. That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and an early, Shabbat Shalom!

When Does Trusting Turn to Testing?

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In the Bible, we are told three very important things about our relationship with God: one is that we must not test the Lord, our God (Deuteronomy 6:16), we must trust the Lord, our God (Proverbs 3:5), and that we are to walk in faith, as Abraham did (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Yet, I believe there is a fine line between asking God for something and maintaining your faith whether or not you get it, or asking God for something and basing your faith on whether or not you get it.

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In the Gospels of Mark (11) and John (16) we are told that whatever we pray for in Yeshua’s name, we will receive. One significant difference is that in John, we are told that we will receive it from God, but in Mark we are told that if we trust we will receive it, and it will be ours.

They sound like the same thing, but they aren’t: John says what we ask for we will receive, but in Mark, there is the element of doubt that may prevent our receiving that thing we prayed for. Now, both of these statements are to have come directly from Yeshua, so why the difference? Well, the difference is because no two people can give the exact same witness unless they rehearse it.

The point I want to make is that when we pray for something, whether or not we receive it, our faith should be based on our choice to believe and not what happens after we pray. There is the not-so-obvious element in prayer that if our prayers are not for the right things, then God will not answer them, or his answer will be “No!”, whether we pray in Yeshua’s name or not. Our prayers have to be within God’s will, right?

At what point do our expectations for an answer change from trusting that God will do as we ask, or expecting God to do it, and if he doesn’t, allowing our faith to be weakened?

How many times have we known or heard of people who have lost faith because a loved one died, after praying that they survive? Or losing faith because what they asked for they haven’t received?

The truth is, as far as I see it, that they didn’t really trust in God, they were testing him!

They may have prayed for healing or for strength or maybe for protection, but in their heart, they were thinking, “I am supposed to trust in God, and I am asking in Yeshua’s name, so I should get this. If I don’t, then maybe God doesn’t really exist, or maybe Yeshua lied.”

We need to be faithful, and that means whether or not our prayers are answered as we want them to be answered. I believe God always hears our prayers, and he chooses when to answer them, and in which way, and his way is always the best way for us, whether or not we agree. He may say “Yes, here you are” or he may say “Yes, OK, but not just yet”, or “Yes, OK, but not it’s not going to be what you expected”, or he may just say “Nope- not gonna happen.”

Our trust in God should not be based on the belief that he will answer our prayers as we asked because we are weak and self-centered, and our prayers will reflect that more often than we care to admit. If our trust is based on receiving answers to prayers, we aren’t really trusting in God, we are testing him: I don’t think that will work out well.

Our trust in God should be that he knows best what is best for us, and when we pray, whether we receive the answer we asked for or not, we must continue to faithfully believe God knows what he is doing.

So, nu! Next time you pray, think about this: while your prayers are being heard, your heart is being evaluated to see if you are trustfully going to accept whatever answer God gives you, or you are basing your faith on whether or not he does as you asked.

Thank you for being here. Don’t forget to check out my newest book, “Not the Holy Bible: Learn the Bible Without Having to Read It” – you can get it through Amazon or use the link on my website.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and let me wish you (an early) Shabbat Shalom!