You may be thinking:

“What does Steve mean? Isaac was the son of Abraham, and Absalom was the son of David, but Yeshua is the son of God, right? So, nu? What’s the story?”

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Here’s the story, and I expect it will have one of three responses:

1. Some will adamantly reject what I say in defense of their religion;
2. Some will agree whole-heartedly; and
3. Most (hopefully) will read this carefully and think it over for themselves, researching the Bible to verify my statements.

So, why am I comparing Yeshua to these two sons of famous Jewish leaders?

Because they both represent a type of son, and Yeshua represents each type, although in the case of Absalom, Christians do not even realize the association that traditional Christian teachings have created, to the detriment of Yeshua’s name.

Let’s start with Isaac.

He wasn’t some pre-teen boy when he followed Abraham to Mount Moriah. In truth, most biblical scholars agree that he was probably in his late 20s to early 30s at that time. And, even though he was full grown and more than capable of defending himself and preventing Abraham from harming him, he was totally obedient to his father’s wishes, yes- even unto death!

There can be no doubt that Isaac already suspected something when he asked Abraham where the sacrificial animal was as they approached the mountain alone, and by the time Abie was bringing the rope over and said something to the effect of, “Please lay down on this rock”, I figure Isaac knew what was what.

Yet, he was the obedient son.

Yeshua was the obedient son, also, even to the point of death. God didn’t tie him to a rock, but when he was approaching Jerusalem, Yeshua knew what was to happen. It is also pretty certain that when he was on the mountain with Moses and Elijah, he was getting a pep talk from the guys, helping him to psyche himself up for what was to come.

OK- that’s simple enough, right? Isaac obeyed his father’s wishes to the point of death, and Yeshua did the same.

Now for Absalom: by the by, if you don’t recall all about Absalom, before you go any further please open your Bible and read 2nd Samuel, Chapters 15 to 20.

Absalom was not an obedient son, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he was a subversive, traitorous and disobedient son who first tried to undermine his father’s popularity by placing himself in a position where he told the people they would get justice and fair treatment from him, implying they couldn’t count on it from his father.

Then, after forming a rather large number of followers, he then rebelled against his father, the King, and took over the kingdom, causing David to flee for his very life.

So how can I even think Yeshua was anything like Absalom?

Personally, I don’t think Yeshua was anything like Absalom, but Christianity does.

The traditional Christian teaching is that Yeshua did away with the law, i.e. the Torah, which is God’s instructions to ALL people regarding how to worship him and how to treat each other. It is not just for Jews- never was, isn’t now, and God never intended it ever should be.

Actually, the Torah is the ONLY place, throughout the entire Bible, where God, himself, tells us what we must do. He commands that no one should ever add to or take away from any of his instructions to us, and there is not one place, anywhere, throughout all the letters and gospels in the New Covenant where God says anything against his Torah.

In fact, God doesn’t even speak in the New Covenant, except at the transfiguration on the mountain where he tells the two Disciples that Yeshua is his son, and to listen to him.

So, if the law was done away with by Yeshua, that means he rebelled against his father’s laws and undermined the followers of God by turning them to worship him, not God, telling them that all they have to do is believe in him (whatever the heck that means) to be saved.

In other words, Christian doctrine has rebranded Yeshua from the obedient son (Isaac) to the rebellious son (Absalom), who stole his father’s kingdom in order that people would worship him.

Wrong, you say? Yeshua never rebelled? Christianity never said Jesus was a traitor to God?

Let me ask you something…how many people do you know who pray to Jesus? Or, worse yet, to Mary, or Joseph, or any number of saints, instead of praying to God?

And how many people do you know who thank Jesus for the blessings they receive? Isn’t Jesus an Intercessor? Doesn’t that mean he doesn’t answer prayers but, instead, brings them before his father?

Sorry to burst bubbles, but Jesus doesn’t answer prayers or hand out blessings- as the Messiah, he is the one who implores his father to do so.

And now here’s the ultimate rebellion: many, if not most, of the Christian religions say that Jesus IS God, and if that ain’t a case of the son taking over the kingdom of the father, well…I don’t know! What else could it be!

So, there you have it!

Yeshua can’t be both an Isaac and an Absalom, so you need to decide for yourself which he is: is Yeshua the obedient son who does as his father says, or is he the rebellious son who rejects his father’s authority so people will follow him as he takes over the kingdom?

And understand this- whatever you decide, that decision will likely have eternal consequences!

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website (while there howzabout buying my books?) and my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

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

Without doubt, one of the most horrendous acts against the Jewish people was the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 73 AD.

You see, God commanded that no sacrifice can be made except where he places his name (Deuteronomy 12:10-14). At first, that was the Tent of Meeting Moses built in the desert, then it was at Gilgal, then Shiloh, and finally the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem.

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Without the temple, there could be no sacrifice, which meant there could be no forgiveness of sin.

Oy gevalt! Now what?

How could God have been so cruel, to allow the Romans to destroy the very place he put his name, the only place his chosen people could find forgiveness of sin? It was like God not only punished the Jews, but condemned them to hell!

It was spiritual genocide!

Or…was it?

Did you know that one of the traditional Yom Kippur activities was to tie a scarlet ribbon on the head of the goat chosen to be the sin sacrifice, and that ribbon would miraculously turn white to show that God accepted the sacrifice and forgave us our sins?

In the Talmud, Tractate Yoma 39b, it tells us that 40 years before the destruction of the temple, the ribbon no longer turned white, indicating that the sacrifice would not be accepted.

We who are believers in Yeshua (Jesus) find this to be clear evidence of God’s verification that Yeshua, who was crucified and resurrected about 40 years before the destruction of the temple, was, indeed, the Messiah God promised to send.

However, “mainstream” Judaism refutes this as indicating that Yeshua was the final atonement for sin; instead, they present the argument that it was the sinfulness of the First Century Jews that prevented God from accepting their sacrifice, which was the result of centuries of spiritual decline, starting from the death of the High Priest Shimon ha Tzadik (Simeon the Just, who lived during the Second Temple period).

Frankly, whether or not the ribbon thing was gradual and haphazard over centuries, as is argued by non-believing Jews, or all at once, it doesn’t really matter to me because I have stated, many times, that faith is not something that needs proof; in fact, proof is the antithesis of faith.

That being said, the destruction of the temple is certainly indisputable evidence to the fact that God allowed something to prevent people from atoning for their sins, and since God tells us (in Ezekiel 18:23) that he takes no pleasure in anyone dying because of their sins, the question remains:

If God doesn’t want anyone to die in their sins, then why allow the only place we can be forgiven to be destroyed?

My answer is that God allowed the destruction of his temple because he loves us, and that love was so great he gave his only begotten son to allow us to be forgiven of our sins without the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem.

Back then, the Middle East was where the Jewish people lived. No one was more than a few days travel to the temple, but by the middle of the First Century the world had gotten much bigger, and today Jews are widespread across the globe. For us to make the trip to Jerusalem every time we need to sacrifice would be tremendously difficult.

You know, I could even make an argument that for God to force us to travel to Jerusalem today to be forgiven of sin would be more than unusually difficult, it would be downright unjust.

That is why I believe God allowed the temple to be destroyed, so that we Jews would have no option for salvation other than to reconsider the truth about who and what Yeshua is.

Accepting Yeshua as the Messiah means being able to be forgiven of sin, anywhere and anytime, while rejecting him means being in a canoe in the rapids heading towards a waterfall without a paddle.

And not just that, but there is a big hole in the canoe, as well.

Can you now see why I say God allowed the temple to be destroyed because he loves us? God destroyed the temple so that we would have no choice but to accept his Messiah, Yeshua, and thereby be saved from ourselves.

What a shame that so many of my Jewish brothers and sisters are still stubbornly refusing to do that.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and my YouTube channel; buy the books I have written and then share them with people you know who have been lied to about God by their respective religion.

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

The 10 Commandments were given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, also called Mount Horeb. These commandments, which are often referred to as “The 10 Words” are the keystone for every religion that falls under the general title of Jewish or Christian.

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So, if God gave these 10 commandments to everyone who worships him, why is it that within Christianity, when they list the 10 Commandments, the first commandment that God gave is missing?

“What do you mean, Steve? The first commandment is there, and it says that you shall have no other gods before me.”

You’re right, that is what it says, but that isn’t the first commandment!

I did an Internet search for “What are the 10 Commandments” and this is what I got on the first “hit”, which are the first 2 commandments:

I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me. You shall not make to thyself any graven thing; nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. You shall not adore them nor serve them.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

In fact, I went through the first 10 or so results and not even one of them- NOT ONE! – had the first commandment listed.

So, what is this missing, mysterious first commandment? Am I telling you that it isn’t “Thou shall have no other gods before me?”

Yes- that is EXACTLY what I am saying!

Here is the listing of the first commandment, directly from the Torah, which is what God told Moses to write down (Exodus 20):

After searching far and wide on the Internet, I finally found this when asking for the Hebrew commandment from the Torah.

The first commandment that God gave to Moses is NOT about having any other gods before him- that is in the second commandment. The first commandment, the very first thing that God, himself, thought to be the most important thing to learn is that he is the LORD, our God, who brought us out of slavery!

So why is it that Christianity, which is supposed to be worshipping the same God Jews worship, have not just rejected, but totally erased from God’s commandments the first one he gave, and replaced it by splitting the second commandment into two different ones?

The probable answer, if you ask me, is that by the end of the First Century the original Messianic Jews who accepted Yeshua as their Messiah had died off, and the number of Gentiles accepting Yeshua (at that time being called Jesus) overwhelmed the Jews within this movement, which was being transformed into a totally new religion.

You see, because of the political issues the Jewish population was having with Rome, these new Gentile Believers did not want to be associated with the Jews. As Roman citizens (supposedly) worshipping the Roman gods, they were safe; however, worshipping as the Jews did meant they would probably be considered by Rome as Jews, and that put them in a tenuous position.

So, the Gentile leaders of what was now called Christianity started to change their form of worship, beginning with celebrating the Shabbat on Sunday (which was a Roman day of celebration) and rejecting most of the Jewish lifestyle, such as kosher laws and the Holy Days. Later on, by the time Constantine got involved, Christianity became a totally different religion.

Knowing the history, we can understand why these Christians wanted to seem separate from the Jewish population, and the best way to do that was to remove any reference to being God’s chosen people. By removing the first commandment and replacing it with the first part of the second commandment, they completely disassociated themselves from the God of the Jews.

Later, when they decided that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit were really all the same entity, they could justify worshiping Jesus as God without violating their first commandment.

The result is that today, Christians have no relationship at all to the God of the Jews and within most of the different Christian religions, they have replaced Adonai completely with Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but from what I have read in the Gospels about Yeshua (Jesus’ real name) and his devotion to his father, I would guess that what modern Christianity has done probably doesn’t go over very well with Yeshua, and especially not with God.

I can’t speak for either of them, but I am pretty sure that God doesn’t like the idea that men changed his commandments, and I’ll also bet the farm that Yeshua is teed-off that men have replaced worship of his father with worship of him.

I have often seen or heard Christians saying that when a Gentile accepts Jesus as their Messiah, they are now a spiritual son or daughter of Abraham, yet in the very same breath they reject the God of Abraham by rejecting his Torah worshiping Jesus.

Worse than that, if you can get any worse, they profess to follow the 10 Commandments but have deleted the first commandment, which is the one that tells us who is our God!

How can anyone say they worship God by deleting the commandment that tells us who he is?

That’s a question I really can’t answer.

Oh, yes, we know that they didn’t want to be associated with Jews, but that doesn’t excuse removing one of his 10 commandments.

In Matthew 7:21-23, Yeshua says that many who call him “Lord” will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. More than that, Yeshua will say he never knew them! How can that be?

Well, maybe it’s because they erased a commandment God gave, replaced God’s Holy Days with man-made holidays, and worship him instead of his father?

Maybe Yeshua will reject those who are totally obedient to whichever sect of Christianity they follow because by doing so they reject nearly everything God said to do?

Maybe God will reject Jews obedient to the Torah but who have rejected Yeshua as their Messiah?

It’s not my call who God will accept or reject; but, based on what God tells us in the Torah, on what Yeshua taught, on how mainstream Judaism has taught us to reject Yeshua, and how Christianity has rejected God’s commandment and (within many Christian religions) even replaced him with his son, well…I believe it safe to say that those things ain’t gonna please either God or Yeshua.

And when the Acharit HaYamim (the End Days) are upon us and we find ourselves in front of God on his Throne of Judgment, when we say “But, Lord, that is what they told me I should do!”, I believe he will say something to the effect of:

“I understand that is what they told you to do, but it is what I say that counts!”

When we come before God for judgment, and Yeshua is standing to the right of God, he will either say “This one is mine, Father” or “I never knew you.”

So, you can choose to follow the religion of men, or you can choose to obey God, and that decision will determine which one of those statements you will hear.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe to my website, my YouTube channel, and on Facebook “Like’ my page and join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And while you are on the website, explore the website- there are some nice pictures and teaching series that I am sure you will find interesting. And buy the books I have written- if you like what you get here, you will like my books, as well.

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

If you look on the Internet for an answer to this question, you will find many different viewpoints. I have often read that the other three gospels are synoptic, while John’s is spiritual; this seems to be the main explanation for the significant differences between John and the other three gospels. .

But is that really an explanation?

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One person said that we need to look at the audience, and I think that is somewhat on the right track, in that John is written so differently, with a subtle anti-Semitic tone to it, that I do not believe it was written by the Apostle John, at all. And neither do I believe it was written to Jews.

In fact, I don’t even think it was written by a Jew!

“WHOA!! Hold your horses, Steve! How can you even think that?”

I’ll tell you why.

Here are some of the differences I noted in John that do not appear in the other gospels, are exactly the opposite of the other three, or appear (to me, being a Jew) to not have been written by a Jewish person at that time:

• When talking to the Pharisees, Yeshua often uses the term “your Torah”. Now, for a Jewish person living then, which is no different than for a Jewish person living now, we do not say “your Torah” when discussing the Torah. We say “the Torah” or just, “Torah”. By emphasizing that the Torah is “theirs”, Yeshua implies that it is not his. Now, if John starts out by saying the Word became flesh, and we have to assume the Word is the Torah (since there was no other “Word” then), how can the living Torah separate himself from the written Torah? The sense one gets from this dichotomy is that Yeshua is teaching something different than the Torah, which is wrong. By using the term “your Torah”, the writer is separating Yeshua from the Torah. No Jewish disciple of Yeshua would ever state or even imply that Yeshua taught anything other than what is in the Torah.

• The writer often refers to the people who were against Yeshua as “the Judeans”. Sometimes we read the writer differentiate the Judeans from the Jerusalemites, but overall the implication is that all Jews were against Yeshua. Of course, this is not true, and not implied in the other gospels, which indicate that it was the Pharisees and Scribes (also called Torah teachers) who were the main impetus behind having Yeshua arrested. They were also the ones who threatened the people with excommunication if they followed him. This subtle anti-Semitic tone leads one to believe that all the Jews rejected Yeshua, when the truth is that thousands accepted him.

• One of my major complaints about the gospel of John is that of all the New Covenant writings, this gospel is the only one with any indication that Yeshua is God. Whether you are a Unitarian or a Trinitarian, the fact remains that nowhere else in the entire New Covenant does Yeshua even imply he is God; yet, in just this gospel, his language is so overly spiritual, way too metaphorical, and containing confusing double-talk that leads one to think Yeshua says he is God. For example, there are many instances where Yeshua says something to the effect of he knows the Father and the Father knows him, and if they knew the Father they would know him, but they don’t know the Father, so they don’t know him, but he and the Father are one, so when they reject him they reject the Father, who will reject them because…yadda…yadda…yadda! Too much metaphorical mishigas! Throughout history, these types of statements (which we find only in John) have been used to justify that God and Yeshua are one and the same entity. This is one of the major reasons that Jews cannot accept Yeshua as their Messiah– we Jews have one God, and just one God, and he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised to send a Messiah to bring us back into communion with God, gather us back to our homeland, Israel, and re-establish the Temple service. The Messiah, for Jews, is a man with supernatural powers that come from God, but he is not God, himself. The gospel of John is written in such a way as to make it impossible for any Jew to accept Yeshua, and no Jewish disciple of Yeshua would ever write anything like that.

• Thomas says “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28) when he sees Yeshua after being resurrected. This is not stated in any of the other three gospels.

• Yeshua gives his disciples the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh by breathing it on them (John 20:22). This happens when he is with them after his resurrection. According to the other three gospels, not only does this not happen, but the complete opposite thing- Yeshua tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit, which will come from God. And in Acts Chapter 2, we are told that the Ruach didn’t come upon the disciples until they were celebrating Shavuot, which was some 50 days after Pesach (Passover).

• In the other three gospels, Yeshua never clearly states he is the Messiah or the son of God, referring to himself instead as the “Son of Man”. But in John’s gospel, he claims to be the son of God and the Messiah a number of times (John 4:25; 10:36; 18:36).

• In the other three gospels, Yeshua refuses to help anyone other than the lost tribes of Israel, but in John 4:25 he not only tells the Samaritan woman at the well that he is the Messiah, but stays for two days teaching the people in Samaria!

• The only gospel that mentions the Apostles going to the grave is Luke, and he says only Kefa (Peter) went. In John’s gospel, it says John and Peter went, and that he got there before Peter (when the writer of John refers to the “talmid that Yeshua loved”, this is a clear reference to John).
  
• Finally, we have to remember one of the most important and necessary tools to use in biblical exegesis, which is hermeneutics, and when we review the gospel of John hermeneutically to the other three gospels, the many differences between John’s gospel and the other three MUST indicate that the gospel of John is – at the very least- questionable with regards to its accuracy and trustworthiness.
  
  

In fact, the Complete Jewish Bible even points out that many biblical scholars believe one part of this gospel, John 7:53 – 8:11, wasn’t even written by John but possibly by a talmid (student) of his. I say, if the scholars believe that part of this gospel was written by someone else, why stop there?

I think the gospel of John wasn’t written by John, or even by a Jew, because everything about it screams traditional Christian anti-Torah teaching to me!

I don’t think it should even be in the New Covenant.

If it is so wrong, why is it there? I believe it is there because by the time the New Covenant was being canonized, the Christian religion had mutated into a totally anti-Torah religion and the Gentiles putting this “Bible” together needed something to really support their doctrines. The gospel of John does this very well, what with the many references to Yeshua saying that he and God are the same, to “your Torah”, to “the Judeans”, filled with overly spiritual and metaphorically intense sentences designed to confuse the masses, and with a writing style that is so very different from the other Jewish writings that it would appeal to those who are easily fooled into thinking that something sounding spiritual must be true.

I realize that many Christians swear by the gospel of John, and consider it to be the best of the four gospels. When I was first learning about Yeshua, a very spiritually mature Christian I worked with helped me to come to salvation through Messiah Yeshua. However, of all he did to help me, the one thing he did that was not helpful, at all, was to tell me that I should begin my introduction to the New Covenant by reading John’s gospel.

Today, if I wanted to help a Jewish brother or sister know their Messiah, I would direct them to Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews, James, and Revelation. I would tell them not to even look at any other writings until they were sure they knew what Yeshua was teaching and only after I was able to prepare them for the true meaning of the Epistles.

And I would tell them to ignore the gospel of John, altogether.

What I am about to say might stun and possibly offend or upset many Christians, but I fully believe the gospel of John was written by someone who was not Jewish, and whose aim in writing it was to support Christian separation from Judaism.

Christianity seems to just brush off the significant differences between John’s gospel and the other gospels, and ignores the fact that these differences are not just “off” a little, but are totally in opposition to what we read in the other gospels and in the book of Acts.

I’m sorry, but I can’t ignore this! John’s gospel is not trustworthy and I believe it should be ignored, completely, because it is not the true representation of Yeshua’s ministry, but rather a propaganda gospel designed to direct Gentiles away from the Torah, and Jews away from their Messiah.

If any of you now want to leave my ministry or block me, that is your decision, and I am sorry to see you go, but I calls ’em as I sees ’em, and this one is so very clear to me I cannot hold back, any more.

The truth is what sets us free, and more often than not, gaining that freedom can be so uncomfortable as to be painful.

Thank you for being here, and especially now if you’ve decided to stay. Please share these messages, subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, as Yeshua was lifted up to heaven, he told his disciples to go and make disciples of everyone.

This is known to many as “The Great Commission”, and Yeshua was, essentially, telling his talmudim (students, or in this case, disciples) that they should begin missionary work in order to grow the ministry that Yeshua started.

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

It is a shame that the ministry of Yeshua eventually became perverted and has mutated into modern Christianity, which has nothing at all to do with what Yeshua taught, but that’s a different message.

The issue I want to talk with you about today is when we are trying to spread the Good News of the Messiah to people (especially to Jews) and unquestionably run into those who refuse to accept what we say as true, when do we stop trying to convince them?

When people refuse to listen to you, that’s OK- if everyone became a Believer, who would Yeshua have to fight against in the End Days, right?

Many times people who are trying to spread the gospel will find it hard to convince some who argue, often vehemently, against Yeshua being the Messiah or that there even is a God.

So what do we do when we run into a brick wall? How do we convince someone they are wrong and we are right? How do we get the truth out to those who refuse to listen?

The answer is: we don’t, we can’t, and we need to know when to stop.

While he was still alive Yeshua sent his disciples out into the world to preach and told them to be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves (Matthew 10:16).

But even before that bit of advice, he told them when they need to stop. He said (in Matthew 10:14) when any town they are in refuses to accept what they say, to leave that place and shake the dust off their sandals as a warning to those people.

We learn from Yeshua that we cannot force people to accept Yeshua; as for me, when someone doesn’t want to hear what I have to say about Yeshua, God or the Bible, I am more than happy to leave them alone.

God gave us all Free Will to make our own decisions about how we will live, which includes what we do, what we say, and what we believe. Faith is not something we come to because of proving, scientifically, that God exists and that Yeshua is the Messiah. Truth be told, proof is the antithesis of faith because faith MUST be a choice based on belief and not on irrefutable evidence!

People who chose not to have faith in either God or Yeshua as the Messiah have the right to make that choice, and we are not to force or coerce them into changing their minds.

You may ask if we cannot provide irrefutable evidence, which for Believers is the Bible, then how do we fulfill the challenge of making disciples?

We do it by being examples of what God wants us to be, and as we obey God’s commandments we will be blessed (Deuteronomy 28), which will be evident to others.

We read how the people that lived around Abraham recognized God was with him by the number of blessings he received. We also see this with Isaac, when Abimelech made a treaty with him (Genesis 26:28). And when we read of Joseph, we are told that he prospered, even though he was a slave and (later) a prisoner because people recognized that God was with him.

When we are obedient we are “with” God, God will be with us, and that will be evident to people. That is, for me, the greatest missionary work we can perform- to be an example.

Now, back to what to do when we run into a brick wall.

When someone argues against you, the first thing to do is to ask them questions that they cannot answer, which are specifically designed to use what they say to show them their statements make no sense. Doing this takes more than just a good knowledge of the Bible: you need to know the objections people generally give you (most objections are the same) and already have questions prepared that show them the “holes” in their logic.

You need to ask questions and not give answers because in a discussion the one who is asking questions is the one controlling the discussion.

The questions must be in a logical order to make them realize, on their own, that what they are saying doesn’t make sense, and the way to do that is to have them hear themselves not know the answers- which they should know- if what they are saying is correct.

I know what I just said sounds like a bunch of double-talk, and I could give you many examples of what I mean, but I won’t because whatever ministry you have, it has to be your ministry. I am sorry, but the way I minister to people cannot be the way you do, and vice-versa.

Remember that Yeshua told his talmudim, which goes for us, too, that when they need to say something to trust the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) to give them what they need to say. I recommend that as the best way to go, but there’s nothing wrong with having prepared questions and answers, either.

We should trust in God, but that doesn’t mean leaving it entirely up to him.

Here is how you know when to stop: if you find yourself getting frustrated, that is pride trying to take over, and your signal that it is time for you to stop.

Or, when the person you are talking to begins to get frustrated and starts to attack you, verbally (hopefully, that’s as far as the attack goes), that is another signal it is time for you to stop.

We should do whatever we can to help people know the truth, but we need to know when it is time to shake the dust off our sandals, and that time is when either side of the discussion goes from passionate to frustrated.

Leaving someone in a state of frustrated anger because you tried to ram the truth down their throat not only damages your attempt to teach them but makes it exponentially harder for the next person God sends to them.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. If you haven’t already subscribed, please do so on both my website and YouTube channel (they are different lists), and while on my website check out my books.

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

Lately, I have had a few Christian Facebook friends chide me, so to speak (and nicely, too, which I appreciate) about my somewhat bigoted attitude towards Christianity and Christians.

Let me set the record straight- I am not against Christians, I am against Christianity.

It is sort of like the adage “Hate the sin but love the sinner.”

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The one thing that has kept both Jews and Gentiles from knowing God and his Messiah, and has led millions wishing to worship God correctly down the path of destruction, has been Christianity.

The Jewish people have always tried to follow the Torah, which is the ONLY place throughout the entire Bible (that means Genesis through Revelation) where God, himself, tells us exactly what he wants us to do.

The Pharisees in the First Century taught the literal meaning, called the P’shat, and never went beyond that, using their influence and political power to rule over the Jews and creating many man-made rituals and rules (known today as Halacha) which have added much to the Torah’s requirements. In truth, this was a sinful thing to do because God told us, no less than twice, not to add or take away from anything in the Torah (Deut. 4:2 and 12:32).

Yeshua taught us the same things that the Pharisees did, but he deepened our knowledge of the laws by teaching the spiritual meaning, the Remes, through the use of Drashim (parables, or stories that have a moral lesson).

But that wasn’t the worse thing the Pharisees did: what was really terrible was the way they used their influence to steer people away from accepting Yeshua as the Messiah; they did this because as the Messiah, Yeshua would have replaced them as the social authority.

The letters Shaul (Paul) wrote only added to the confusion, and what happened was that by the end of the First Century, Yeshua was rebranded as a Gentile Savior, with many rules and rituals that had been created by men, such as changing the Sabbath day and rejecting much of what the Torah said.

By the time Constantine added his two shekels, what Yeshua taught was totally lost and a new religion, Christianity, was established.

But that isn’t the reason that Jews still reject him, today. Jews have, throughout the past two millennia, rejected Jesus as the Messiah because we have been taught that he created Christianity, and Christianity rejects the Torah and most everything that is Jewish.

And that has not just kept God’s chosen people, the ones the Messiah came for, from being able to know their Messiah but also millions upon millions of Gentiles who have been taught all the wrong things about the Jewish Messiah, now having been transformed (or should I say mutated) into a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryian godhead who forces people to convert to worshiping him (not God) and even proclaims itself as the only “true” religion.

There are even some sects of Christianity that proclaim the Jews have been rejected by God and that they, the Born Again Christians, are now the chosen people of God (this is called Replacement Theology).

Modern Christianity is not what Yeshua taught, and it is the major reason that Jews cannot be expected to accept their own Messiah, and Gentiles are rejecting God’s instructions.

This is my beef with Christianity.

I have nothing against Christians, and I know that all Christians are not the same, just as all Jews are not the same. I am Jewish, always have been and never will be anything else, but unlike most Jews, I know that Yeshua is the Messiah and I still live a Jewish life and worship as a Jew, in accordance with the way God said to in the Torah. I am the exception within Judaism.

I know many Christians who are the exception within Christianity; they know their Jewish Messiah and do not reject the Torah. Many live a Jewish lifestyle, many still observe the Christian holidays, and many demonstrate a sort of blending of the two.

My beef is with Christianity and the false teachings that it has promulgated over the centuries, which really has very little, if anything, to do with what Messiah Yeshua taught, and which, consequently, has prevented both Jews and Gentiles from knowing the real Messiah.

And if you profess to believe in God and that Yeshua (Jesus) is his Messiah, frankly speaking, you should have the same beef!

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

And check out my newest book, The Good News About the Messiah for Jews, Debunking the Traditional Lies About the Jewish Messiah. It is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format, and you can get it easily by using the link on my website.

I’m done for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

I have written about Jews and Christians many times, almost always, but only now and then specifying things that we have in common. I usually spend most of my time pointing out all the things we do NOT have in common, and why it shouldn’t be that way.

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But today I want to point out something we have in common, something other than the obvious things, such as we both believe in God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We both, for the most part, believe in the existence of Yeshua (Jesus), although where Christianity has accepted him as the Messiah God promised to send, mainstream Judaism has rejected him as such.

Now, here is the one thing that both Jews and Christians have in common, which is not a good thing:

Both Jews and Christians say that if you want to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, you can’t be Jewish anymore.

Now isn’t that amazing? And totally disappointing.

You see, most Christians have been taught that following the instructions in the Torah, which are often referred to as the Mosaic law, is something that Jews are required to do because they are still subject to the Torah, and that is because they have rejected Jesus. But Christians, because they accept Jesus, are under Grace and not under the law, which is what Paul said in his letter to the Romans .

What Paul was talking about was the teaching of the Pharisees, which was a performance-based salvation; in other words, the Jews were being taught that they had to perform righteously in order to be “saved.” Paul constantly reminded them that it isn’t performance, but faith which allows us to be seen as righteous, preaching a faith-based salvation.

But here’s the kicker: faith doesn’t mean disobedience. Paul often states this, saying that Grace trumps sin, but it isn’t a license to sin. And James also states that faith without works is dead, meaning faith encourages and motivates us to obey.

So, nu? Obey what? There are no commandments issued by God anywhere in the New Covenant writings. All of God’s instructions are in the Torah.

Yeshua said if we love him we will obey his commandments, so what are they? In truth, Yeshua gave no commandments, other than to love one another, because that is how people will know we are his talmudim (John 13:34); but, in reality, that wasn’t new: Yeshua was rephrasing Leviticus 19:18, which says love your neighbor as yourself.

So what Christianity has taught is lawlessness. Shaul (Paul) teaches in his letter to the Romans that the Torah created sin by identifying what is right and what is wrong. So, if you don’t have to obey the Torah, then you are by definition, sinning. And when we add to this another Christian teaching called “Once Saved, Always Saved”, not only are you sinning but you don’t even have to repent!

What about the Jewish side of this? Do they agree that when a Jew accepts Jesus they are free from obedience to the Torah? Not really: what Jews will tell you is that any Jew who accepts Yeshua as their Messiah is now a Christian! According to mainstream Judaism, no Jew who believes Yeshua is the Messiah is Jewish anymore. It doesn’t matter if they obey the Torah, go to shul on Shabbat, observe the Moedim of God, or do any other “Jewish” thing: as far as Jews are concerned, if you believe in Jesus you aren’t a Jew anymore.

You can be born Jewish and convert to any other non-Christian religion, and you will still be considered a Jew, just a Jew who is a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Hindu, but if you accept Jesus you aren’t a Jew.

How meshuggah is that?

The sad part of this, which is not just sad but destroys people’s chances of truly being saved, is that both sides are absolutely, 1000% WRONG!

Anyone who believes that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send is, by definition, grafted into the Chosen people of God (Romans 11), who are, have been, and always will be…the Jews. No Christian who says he or she believes in Jesus is absolved of obedience to God, for God, himself, has said over and over throughout the Bible that anyone who joins with the Jewish people is to receive the same treatment under the law as the native-born. That means to be protected by it, as well as obligated to obey it.

As for the Jews who accept Yeshua, they are just as obligated to obey God now as they ever were, because accepting Yeshua as their Messiah completes them as a Jewish person: not only do they have God, and his Torah, but the Messiah, as well.

Yeshua said in Matthew 5:17 that he did not come to change the law and that nothing in the Torah will change until all things have come to pass. That means A-L-L things: Yeshua’s return, the Tribulation, the new heaven and earth, the temple lowered from heaven, the dead in Messiah risen, Satan and his demons in the lake of fire, etc., etc., etc.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any of these things here now.

Both sides agree believing in Yeshua as the Messiah means you can’t be a Jew anymore, and, according to what God, Yeshua, and even that little Jewish Pharisee tent-maker from Tarsus all say, both sides couldn’t be more wrong.

In fact, the most Jewish thing any Jew can do is to accept Yeshua as their Messiah, and Christians shouldn’t do as the “Church” teaches, but as Yeshua actually did, which was to live a Torah-observant life, motivated to obey Torah by his faith in, and love for, the Lord God.

It is clear from the Bible that to obey God’s instructions (which are in the Torah) is to accept him, and to refuse to do as God says is to reject him- there is no middle ground here. In the Gospels, Yeshua said he does and says only what God tells him to do and say, so Yeshua obeyed God by living in perfect accordance with the Torah; otherwise, he would not have been an acceptable sacrifice, So, nu! To live as Yeshua lived, to follow in his footsteps, to live up to the WWJD on those bracelets people wear, is to obey God’s instructions in the Torah.

And we don’t obey Torah because we want to attain salvation by works, but because of our faithful loving obedience to our father in heaven, who only wants what is best for us. Obedience to the Torah is not how we are saved, but faith in God and Yeshua is meaningful and real only if you do as they say.

Not as Paul says, or as your Priest says, or as your Minister says, or as your Rabbi quoting from the Talmud says, but as God says.

Jews and Christians have to realize that accepting Yeshua as your Messiah doesn’t mean you are free from Torah, or that you are not Jewish, but that you are grafted onto the Tree of Life that God provided, and that tree’s roots are the Torah.

Thank you for being here and please LIKE, share and subscribe here and on my YouTube channel, as well. And remember that I always welcome your comments.

If you aren’t aware of it, I also have a Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (the avatar is a picture of the Torah), so please check that out and join in.

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

In the Gospel of Mark (2:21-22), Yeshua teaches the following:

No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old coat; if he does, the new patch tears away from the old cloth and leaves a worse hole. And no one puts new wine in old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine is for freshly prepared wineskins.

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The traditional Christian interpretation of this lesson is that Yeshua meant the old laws were no longer valid for those who follow him. In other words, they use this to justify sinning against God by ignoring what he said in the Torah.

Christianity has maintained that what Yeshua taught was the new wine, and those who accept Yeshua as the Messiah and follow his teachings, are the new wineskins. As such, what is in the Torah is the old wine and only valid for the old wineskins, i.e., the Jews.

Does this make sense? I mean, Yeshua is the Son of God, the Messiah, and throughout all the Gospels, especially in John, he constantly tells us he does and says only what his father in heaven tells him to do and say. He even prayed at the rock in the garden just before his crucifixion, confirming with God that HIS will be done, not Yeshua’s.

So, given that his entire time on earth was spent doing what God told him, does it seem likely that what he would have taught was to rebel against God? Did the Son of God tell those who accepted him as the Messiah that he did not come to reunite them with God (which is what the Messiah is to do), but instead to separate them from God by rejecting his commandments and follow a new set of laws, laws that Yeshua created?

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem right to me, at all!

What Yeshua taught was what is in the Torah, but instead of teaching just the plain language of the law (called the P’shat), he taught us the deeper, more spiritual understanding (called the Remes.) Haven’t you ever wondered why there are so many references in the Gospels about how people said no one has ever taught like Yeshua did? That’s because no one ever had- the Pharisees and Sadducees only taught the basic meaning of the law: do not murder, do not commit adultery, etc. But Yeshua taught us the spiritual understanding of the law: do not even hate in your heart, do not so much as lust with your eyes.

Using the biblical exegesis system called Circles of Context, let’s look at what was happening just before Yeshua talked about new wine and new wineskins.

This chapter in Mark begins with the Pharisees asking why Yeshua was saying he could forgive sins. Next, they asked why he ate with sinners and tax collectors. They then asked why his disciples didn’t fast as the Pharisee’s disciples did.

What do all these questions have in common? They are referencing rabbinical traditions that are not specified in, or have anything to do with the Torah.

I believe these traditions are what Yeshua was talking about when he talked of “old wine.” And the new wine is not different mitzvot from the Torah, but the spiritual understanding of the existing mitzvot!

The new wineskins are people that have not been so indoctrinated into the old wine that they can no longer accept the new understanding Yeshua was teaching.

Now, here is a sad and ironic reality: Christians who believe that Yeshua’s “new wine” is that all you need is to love each other and be a good person are now the old wine in old wineskins, refusing to accept that Yeshua did NOT do away with the Torah, but confirmed it!

More and more Christians who are seeking the real Messiah, the one who taught God’s word and never rebelled against the Torah, are the new wineskins who want to accept the new wine Yeshua taught, way back then.

During Yeshua’s ministry on the earth, the new wine was the spiritual understanding of the Torah, and NEVER anything against obedience to God’s commandments in the Torah. The new wineskins are his Disciples and all those Jews and Gentiles who followed him, still obedient to Torah.

Today, the new wine Yeshua taught is still new because early Christian leadership denounced the Torah- they rejected the new wine and watered it down with their own traditions, ruining the purity of Yeshua’s wine by blending it with old pagan traditions, holidays, and watering down (if not totally rejecting) anything dealing with the Torah, other than the 10 Commandments.

And they have even rejected and ignored some of those!

So, here is my understanding of the passage in Mark 2:21-22: the old wine is the rabbinic traditions that over-ruled God’s word or added to it, and the old wineskins, already stretched to their maximum, are those who rigidly maintain those traditions, unwilling to change or even listen to new ideas. The new wine is the Remes of the mitzvot, the spiritual understanding of the Torah, and those who overcame their desire to adhere to those man-made traditions and accepted the new wine Yeshua taught became new wineskins.

Today there are two old wines: the Christian old wine that Yeshua did away with the law, and the Jewish old wine that Yeshua is not the Messiah.

I used to be an old Jewish wineskin, but became a new wineskin about 25 years ago when I accepted Yeshua as my Messiah; I never converted from Judaism and, in truth, am now more “Jewish” than I ever was before.

So, nu? Which wine do you drink?

Thank you for being here and please subscribe here and on my YouTube channel, and share these messages with everyone. I also would love it if you would check out my books (on my website) and remember- I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, and probably for the week because my wife, Donna, is getting a shoulder replacement today (your prayers for a successful operation and speedy recovery are humbly requested) and I will be really busy from Thursday on preparing for the Pesach Seder, since she will not be able to help with the cooking or the preparation of the house.

That’s it for now…l’hitraot and (an early) Pesach Chag Sameach!

In the beginning, there was God. Then he created the Earth and placed mankind in charge of it, and mankind screwed everything up to the point where God had to send the Flood. After the Flood, God chose a man, Abraham, to become the progenitor of a people God would make his own special people.

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Later on, God grew Abraham’s descendants from a family to a nation. Then, in order to train his chosen people how to become a nation of priests to the world (Ex. 19:6), he gave them instructions to teach them how to worship him and how to treat each other. This was the Torah, which if someone could live their lives in total and perfect accordance with all the 613 different “laws” that God gave, they would be righteous in God’s eyes.

But, as Shakespeare would say, “There’s the rub”: no one can live their life in perfect accordance with the Torah. For us sinful humans, it just ain’t gonna happen.

So, in order to ensure that God’s plan for his creation to be with him throughout eternity succeeds, he provided for us that which we could not provide for ourselves: a Savior, the Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus) who became the substitutionary sin sacrifice by voluntarily giving his physical life so that we could attain spiritual salvation.

Our part in this is to accept him as our Messiah and try to live as God said we should.

Yeshua was, and still is, the Messiah God promised to send, which he promised as far back as when he was talking to Abraham. When Yeshua sacrificed his life, he didn’t do away with the sacrificial system, he just substituted himself for the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem. We still need to accept that we sin, repent in our hearts and ask forgiveness from God for each and every sin we commit; it is thanks to Yeshua that we don’t have to bring a sacrifice to the temple because as the Messiah, God’s savior to mankind, is it possible through Yeshua’s one-time sacrifice that everyone’s sins can be forgiven each time they ask for forgiveness.

Let’s review… God gave the Torah so that we could know what he wants from us, and because we always failed to meet all those requirements, God sent the Messiah to provide us the chance to be saved from ourselves.

Guess what happened next? After all that God did for us, someone threw a monkey wrench into the engine, and that was the Enemy; HaSatan, that old snake. When he realized that he lost the battle for people’s souls, he confused people about Yeshua’s message. The way he did that was as more and more Gentiles came to know God’s Grace through the Messiah, he created confusion and misinterpretation within the newly formed congregations of Gentiles who didn’t understand the Torah.

He sent agents of distraction into these neophytes to Judaism to confuse them so much that they ended up rejecting the very principles of salvation that Yeshua taught, which were from the Torah. The end product of this demonic counter-attack is what we see today: so many different Christian religions and sects that reject almost all of God’s commandments.

Yeshua talked against the man-made traditions of the Pharisees that were given precedence over God’s commandments, and yet Christianity is composed of nothing BUT man-made traditions, holidays, rites, rituals, and laws. They have rejected God’s commandments regarding food (Leviticus 11); they reject all 7 festivals that God said we must observe (Leviticus 23), which does include the Sabbath because they changed the date; they bury their dead under the very altar of God; they fill their houses of worship with statues and pictures of human beings before whom they prostrate themselves and pray to; they have rebranded the Torah observant Jewish Messiah into some Blue-eyed, blonde-haired Aryian who created his own religion which rejects the Torah and hates Jews, and they teach and do many other things that the Torah tells us are an abomination to the Lord, God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the father of the Messiah!

Another example is that today there are many Christian churches that not only condone homosexuality, but support it: some are even anointing as pastors and ministers people who are openly gay.

Now, this is not a homophobic thing with me, so any gay person reading this, please pull in your reins: all I am stating is that the Torah clearly says homosexuality is a sin and as such, no church or synagogue that professes to worship and obey God should be accepting of homosexuality. That’s all. Just like they shouldn’t accept as leaders adulterers, murderers, or anyone else who openly rejects God’s commands and rules.

Let’s get back on topic: don’t think I am excluding the Jews because I am Jewish- far be it for me to do that! When we place more emphasis and importance on Talmudic regulations than on God’s commandments, that is just as bad as rejecting God’s commands. For instance, the regulations within Judaism against eating meat and dairy together; did you know that the Ashkenazi Jews have different regulations than the Sephardic Jews about this? And why? Because one group likes milk with their after-dinner drink and another doesn’t, so they have different times for how long you have to wait after eating meat before you can have dairy. The entirety of Halacha is based on the idea of “putting fences around the law” to prevent us from accidentally trespassing the law, which in and of itself isn’t such a bad idea, but it has become so cumbersome that now the fences are more important than what they surround!

God chose a people to bring his instructions to the world, and he blessed the world through those people, the greatest blessing of all was to have his Messiah come from those people to bring the salvation that God had for them to everyone.

The Enemy of God stepped in and messed things up, and for the most part, people have gone along with the “easy salvation” that the Enemy created and those poor, misguided and delusional souls will be sorely surprised when they come before God.

I suggest you make sure you know what God wants from you, based on what he says, because despite what anyone tells you, it is what he says that counts.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to this ministry (I never ask for money, but if you want to buy my books that is fine with me), and I always welcome your comments.

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