Okay, okay, I know…everyone calls Yeshua (Jesus) the Savior, but what does the “savior” do?

When we define a savior, Yeshua doesn’t completely fill the bill.

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A savior is someone who saves others, mostly used when describing keeping someone from danger or from losing their life.

In the case of Yeshua, he allegedly saves us from the second death, the condemnation to Sheol (hell) as the punishment for our sinful life. But I say we need a better understanding of “being saved” in a spiritual sense.

Let’s start by clearing this very important issue up, once and for all- God forgives sins, not Yeshua.

Yes, Yeshua was given authority to do that on the earth (Matthew 9:6), but once his role as the sacrificial lamb of God was completed, he was resurrected and is now sitting at the right hand of God, where he serves not as forgiver of sin but as our Intercessor with God.

Think about this: an Intercessor is someone who is intervenes on the behalf of someone else. As such, the intercessor has no power to do anything, other than act in a way to help the one he is interceding for. Since Yeshua is our intercessor (Hebrews 7:25), then he- by definition- is not the one who forgives our sins. Indeed, when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, he will then stand between us and God, interceding on our behalf to allow us to enter into God’s presence.

When we accept Yeshua as the Messiah (not as God!), and ask forgiveness FROM GOD by means of the innocent blood Yeshua shed for us (in place of bringing an animal to the temple, which no longer existed after 73 AD), we can be forgiven of our sins.

First off, we need to understand that by having our sins forgiven we won’t go to Sheol when judged at Judgement Day; and that is what it means to be “saved”.

Got it, so far? Good- let’s continue…

Yeshua’s sacrifice created the shedding of innocent blood, and when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, we can ask forgiveness of sin by means of that shed blood. You could say, in a way, that Yeshua saves us because he provided the means for our forgiveness, but in reality, he only provided the way to be saved.

Ultimately, it is God who forgives our sins, and THAT is what saves us.

I would also like to point out that Mashiach, the Hebrew word for Messiah, means “anointed one”. Yeshua (which means “salvation of God”) was anointed by God (at his baptism by Yochanan) to be the Messiah God promised to send. The role of the Messiah was to live a sinless life and die to provide the innocent blood necessary for the forgiveness of sin (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22). And, when we faithfully accept that Yeshua is the Messiah, we are able to call upon that blood when asking God to forgive us, which is the way we are saved.

So, it isn’t technically correct to call Yeshua the savior because he isn’t the one who forgives our sins, which is the way we are saved. Yeshua is the Messiah, God is our savior because not only did he provide the Messiah (the only way to be forgiven of sin after the temple was destroyed), but God is the ONLY one who forgives our sins, saving us from Sheol.

Look at it this way: a certain medicine can save your life from a disease, but is it the medicine that is the real savior, or the one who created the medicine? We may say “This medicine saved my life”, but it is that the one who created the medicine who is the real savior.

By the way, one little thing I would like to point out about the use of the word “savior”- it is a Christian term rebranding Jesus in order to further separate him from his Jewish role as the anointed one of God. Interpreting “Maschiach” as “Savior” has become standardized, but not because it is correct, only because for centuries that is what people have been told it means. Just another traditional Christian lie about who and what the real Messiah is.

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

Is anyone still there? I figured the title alone would get many, if not most, Christians to skip this.

I am a Jewish man who also believes that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, but despite what my Jewish brothers and sisters would say, and most Christians, as well, I am NOT a Christian!

I was raised in a reform Jewish household, and never really cared much for the traditions, especially when praying from a Siddur (prayer book) because I could never accept that if I was to pray to God that I had to use someone else’s words. When I was in my early 40’s, I came to realize the truth about Yeshua- not the Jesus I was raised to reject- and since then (which has been over a quarter of a century) I have read the entire Bible (Genesis through Revelation) many, many times.

Being raised Jewish, I have a unique view of the Gospels and the Epistles, since I was never indoctrinated to already “know” what they mean. I can read them with a totally fresh, unobstructed (by traditional teachings I was raised to believe) view, and as such see them in a way most Christians don’t, and sometimes refuse to.

When I was first seeking the truth about this guy Jesus, the one place most Christians told me to start with was the Gospel of John; now, after having read it so often, in different versions of the Bible, that is the one book I would tell new believers, especially Jews seeking the truth about their Messiah, to avoid at all costs!

Still with me? Good- now I will tell you why I reject John’s gospel.

But first, a little history: it is considered to have been written between 80-95 A.D., although some say it might have been earlier. Although traditional Christian teaching is that it was written by John the disciple and eyewitness to the life of Yeshua (Jesus), many scholars over the centuries have doubted this, and disagreed about who the real author is. The main reason for this is the significant difference between John’s gospel and the other three, as well as the difference in the writing style between John’s Gospel and Revelation, supposedly written by the same man.

Some of these differences are that nearly 90% of what occurs in John cannot be found in the other gospels, what the other gospels call “miracles” John describes as “signs”, and John is less concerned with Yeshua’s teachings and parables, concentrating instead on his relationship with God.

Now, let me tell you what I find to be so “wrong” with this gospel.

It fails the test for hermeneutics. That means that what Yeshua does and says in John is different from the other gospels. For example, in the other three he tells his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah (Matthew 16:20) and prevents the exorcised demons from telling people who he is. Yet, in John, he openly and often claims to be the Messiah, such as when he talks to the woman at the well.

In the other three gospels, he refers to himself as the Son of Man, but in John he constantly refers to himself as the Son of God.

What really gets me is how he separates himself from the Jewish people and from the Torah!

How? By constantly referring to the people as “the Jews” or “the Judeans” and to the Torah as “their” Torah (or law, in many versions). If you are Jewish, as I am, when talking about other Jews, you would never call them “the Jews”- you’d refer to them as “the people”. And the Torah is never “their” Torah, it is “the” Torah, or “our” Torah. In John 8:7, 10:34, and 15:25, just as a few examples, Yeshua uses “The Jews” or “their Torah”, which indicates he considers himself separate from Jews and Torah.

Now let’s put these things in perspective.

The end of the First Century was a turning point for the new believers in Yeshua; there was constant battle between Rome and Jerusalem, and this contributed to the gentile believers thinking it wasn’t such a good idea to be associated with the Jewish population. My research shows that it was at the end of the First Century, right around the time this gospel was written, that the (now mostly) gentile leadership of this Jewish sect was changing things around to avoid the Roman authorities, because even though there was opposition (strong opposition) from the Jewish “power elite”, by the latter part of the First Century the Jews had their hands full fighting off Roman rule (The Jewish-Roman Wars lasted from 66 AD to 135 AD).

At that time, with most (if not all) of the original disciples dead or martyred, and most of the Jews who accepted Yeshua that we read about in the other three gospels also dead or dying, what was originally a Jewish movement to accept Yeshua as the Messiah was now being morphed into a totally new religion, which rejected the Jewish roots that it came from.

Around 98 A.D., the Sabbath was changed to Sunday by Ignatius of Antioch; also, there was less concern for learning the Torah as the gentile leaders of this new religion were interpreting Shaul’s (Paul) letters in a way that led them away from Torah, despite the fact that the Elders in Jerusalem expected these neophyte believers to be learning the Torah (Acts 15:19-21).

I believe that the Gospel of John was not written by a Jewish person! I believe it was written by a gentile believer in Jesus (no longer being called Yeshua) who wrote exclusively to the gentile believers to show them how Jesus considered himself separate from the Jewish population and from the Torah, in order to more easily assimilate them into the new religion this sect was becoming.

Also, John’s long-winded and convoluted speeches by Jesus about his relationship with God is nothing but confusing (when you see me you see him, but you don’t see him because you don’t see me, but I know him and if you knew me you would know him, but because you don’t accept me you don’t accept him, yadda, yadda, yadda….), and allows for the introduction of the Trinity.

In my opinion, John’s gospel is anything but “gospel”; rather, it is propaganda designed to help indoctrinate gentile believers into what was being formed as a new religion, and to keep Jews from wanting to join.

One sure way to keep more Jews from joining was the subtle intimation that Jesus is God, himself, which is (even today) a major turn-off to Jews, who believe that God is a singular and totally unique entity. And the way Shaul’s letters, which were trying to get these new gentile believers to become Torah observant a little at a time, were misinterpreted and twisted to be polemics against the Torah, when they were actually apologetics for the Torah.

Let’s put it all together…the Gospel of John was written right at the time the Jewish sect of believers in Yeshua was growing with many more gentiles than Jews, and those gentile leaders wanted to get away from the “Jewishness” of this movement to avoid trouble with Rome (which later proved not to be such a good idea.) Add to this the misuse of the Epistles written by Shaul, and we can see clearly that this gospel was designed to distance Jesus from the Jews, from the Torah, and remove any lingering semblance of Judaism from this emerging religion called Christianity.

If it was up to me, the New Covenant would have the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the books of Acts, James, and Hebrews, and Revelation. All the rest just misdirects people from who Yeshua really is, and what he really taught.

Anyone still here? If you are, then maybe I made some sense to some of you. I doubt many, if any, are in total agreement with me, but if even some of this made sense, then I hope you will continue to study and keep an open mind. I never tell anyone what to believe, only what I believe, and why I believe it, and if that leads someone to a new understanding or even just to question what they have been told, then I feel I have succeeded.

The truth will always stand up to questioning, and if after reading this you think you might question what you have already believed about John’s gospel, then please continue to question it. You never know what you may find out, and when you pray to God to lead your search for the truth, I know he won’t ever mislead you.

I know, I know… the Jews rejected Jesus, which is why only Christians are saved.

But did the Jews really reject him? And are the Christians really saved?

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Let’s think about this for a minute: we read in Matthew 15:24 that Yeshua (Jesus) is telling the woman at the well that he has come only for the lost sheep of Israel, i.e., the Jews. We read in all 4 Gospels how there were five thousand fed and at another time, four thousand fed. But those weren’t Christians, they were Jews. Yeshua went to the Jews, and when you read in the Gospels about the thousands upon thousands of people who followed him, who listened to him, who were healed by him, guess what?

They were all JEWS!

Not one Gentile ever got saved by Yeshua- that all happened well after Pentecost, which (again) was where thousands of Jews were saved.

So, all this drek you have heard about how all the Jews rejected Jesus is just that- drek! (Yiddish for garbage)

But what about the Gentiles who accepted him as the Messiah and were being converted to a Jewish way of life, which is what they were undergoing! They were learning about how Yeshua lived and what he preached, which was only and totally from the Torah.

This is another misleading traditional Christian teaching: Gentiles who accepted Jesus didn’t need to follow the Torah, but only to follow Jesus. Well, that is just ridiculous considering that Jesus lived a Torah-perfect life. If he hadn’t, then he would not have been the sinless lamb of God, and as such, his sacrificial death could not be accepted. But…this topic is for a different lesson.

By the end of the First Century, less than 70 years after Yeshua’s death and resurrection, when most of the original Jewish followers had died out and this new movement within Judaism had grown full of Gentiles, things changed.

First, the Shabbat was changed- by the now Gentile leadership- to Sunday. Then, the initial four requirements for new Believers that had been suggested by James (Acts 15) were taught to be the only things Gentile Believers had to do, despite the fact that James said they would be learning the Laws of Moses as they attended Shabbat services (Acts 15:21).

Next, Kashrut (Kosher laws) were ignored, then the Holy Days commanded to be observed in Leviticus 23 were ignored, and this once-messianic Jewish movement had now been mutated into a new religion, with its own tenets, holidays, and ceremonies. In fact, some of these traditional activities, such as burying their dead under the altar, go directly against the Torah and end up contaminating the entire church!

And what about relics? Oy!

Touching a dead body rendered one ceremonially unclean- you had to wash yourself and your clothes and wait until after dark before you could enter the synagogue area. Yet, Catholicism encourages wearing a relic or having one in your house.

Yeshua lived according to the Torah; for example, he told those he healed to go to the Cohen and be confirmed as healed, according to what the Torah required. This is irrefutable evidence that Yeshua obeyed, and taught others to obey, the Torah!

But where are any Torah requirements, of which Yeshua obeyed and taught others to obey, being observed in Christianity today, other than the 10 Commandments?

The Holy Days are ignored, most of what God decreed to be sinful in Leviticus 11 is ignored, and the traditional observances (such as Hanukkah) are also ignored; and, worse than that, God’s commanded Holy Days have been replaced with man-made holidays that are little more than rebranded pagan rituals.

And speaking of the 10 Commandments, Christians have changed most of the first commandment by removing what God said about how he saved us from slavery and splitting the second commandment into both the first and second. Don’t believe me? Well, check out what Google tells you is the first commandment and then see what God gave to Moses in Exodus 20.

So, reading the Gospels we see that thousands upon thousands of Jews accepted Yeshua, and it was only the “Power Elite” in Jerusalem that wanted him out of the way because he threatened their power and position. But Christianity today has become a totally different religion and way of life from the way Yeshua lived, worshipped, and taught others to do!

The only conclusion is that Christians have rejected Yeshua completely, and replaced him with their own, man-made Savior (they don’t even call him a Messiah anymore) called Jesus Christ, who not only rejected what his father told people to do, but has killed his father’s chosen people over the past two Millennia for not rejecting what God said we should do and converting to this man-made religion.

So, if you consider yourself a God-fearing man or woman, but you have followed Christian teachings all your life, I suggest you stop listening to what they tell you and pay attention to what God says.

I warn you, although I won’t speak for God, I am pretty sure when you meet him (as we all will) at Judgement Day, he will not like it when you say you did as men told you to do, even though God told you what he wanted you to do.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to subscribe and share these messages. That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

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!

Of course, Yeshua (Jesus) is called the Passover Lamb, but that isn’t really the full description what his sacrifice provided. In fact, his sacrifice not only served to provide the means for us to be forgiven of our sins, but consequently, also allows us to commune with the Almighty.

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Did you know that for Passover, the sacrifice doesn’t have to be a lamb? In Exodus 12:3, God tells Moses that on the 10th day of the month, each family is to choose a lamb or a kid from the flock. Now, we normally associate the Passover sacrifice as being a lamb, but here- clearly- it could also be a goat, although we normally associate a goat sacrifice for Yom Kippur, even though in Leviticus 23, we are only told to bring an offering by fire. However, before that (Leviticus 16) God tells us about how to perform a sin sacrifice, where he then outlines the two goats to be used. But these are to be goats- no option. And after Passover, when the festival of First Fruits comes, there we sacrifice a lamb- again, no option.

There was a general system for offerings: first, you would bring the offering for your sin, which cleansed you of that stain of guilt, then you would offer a wholly burnt offering, which represented your recommitment to obedience to God. Lastly, there would be a Friendship, or Thanksgiving offering, which is the one (and ONLY one) where you would share of the meat of that offering, eating it right there in a holy place. That represented your ability to commune with God, now that you are free of sin. The three phases of the sacrificial system are: forgiveness, commitment, and then communion.

Yeshua’s sacrifice provided for both forgiveness and communion, fulfilling both the Passover sacrifice and the Yom Kippur sacrifice, all at one time. With the destruction of the temple in 73 A.D., soon after Yeshua’s job as Messiah on earth was completed, the only means of receiving forgiveness and communing with God was through accepting Yeshua as your Messiah.

In the next life, after the Apocalypse is over and the new heaven and new earth are here, I believe that the sacrificial system will begin again, only this time we will not need to sacrifice for forgiveness. The sacrifices we will be making will be for cleansing, friendship, and the completion of vows (as defined in Leviticus).

If you are wondering to yourself, “How can it be possible for Yeshua to be both a Yom Kippur sacrifice and a Passover sacrifice at the same time?”, my answer is…. hey, I don’t know! Look, he’s the Messiah, sent by God, and God can do whatever the heck he wants to, in whichever order he wants to do it. All I know is that Yeshua’s sacrifice makes it possible to be forgiven of sin, which then makes it possible to commune with God (remember- God can’t abide sin in his presence), and you know what else? That is all I need to know.

Thank you, again, for being here and enjoy this Festival of Unleavened Bread. One of my favorite snacks during this week is to spread softened butter on a piece of matza (if you don’t soften it first, the matza will probably break) then lightly sprinkle salt on it. It is so simple, and it is soooo good!

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

From a biblical viewpoint, “fear of the Lord” doesn’t mean that we are afraid of him, rather that we worship him. But when we do that, are we doing it because we want to, or because we are afraid of what someone else may think if we don’t?

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Have you ever seen those old movies, where the priest challenges someone to come to church that Sunday, or they will read their name in the Mass? It always seems cute and somewhat comical, but it isn’t cute, or comical- it is wrong!

I am Jewish and I believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send. Because I am still living a Jewish lifestyle and worshipping as a Jewish man, many Christians have accused me of being “under the Law” (and these people have absolutely NO idea of what they are saying) and, as such, not really saved.

On the other side, Jews I know tell me that because I “Believe in Jesus” (another term thrown around too loosely, with most people having no idea what it means) I must be a Christian and am not a Jew anymore.

It is always both amazing, and sad, to see how much ignorance there is in the world, especially among people who profess to worship God and know their Bible.

God knows the heart, and even though I have recently been told that this is just an excuse for people to do as they want to (which has an element of truth to it), God does know who we are praying to, and whether or not we really repent when we ask forgiveness.

The question you must ask yourself is when you do as you think you should, with regard to worship and how you treat others, are you doing it to please God, or to please your Rabbi, Priest, Minister, or whatever? This is not an answer you should just throw out there- you really need to think about it.

There are forms of worship, such a whole week without leavened products (my wife, Donna, often has to remind me not to eat something that I, simply by habit, will start to put into my mouth) that I find difficult to do, and I will confess that sometimes I do something just because I know I should. And that isn’t a good reason for doing anything because it is like legalism- doing something just to do it, going through the motions. God has been clear to us, through the prophets, that a sacrifice means nothing to him if done just to do it, without a sincere and broken heart.

Oops- there’s that “knowing the heart” thing, again.

So, the next time you go to services, or fast, or pray, or celebrate a Holy Day (meaning God ordained, found in Lev. 23), or a holiday (meaning a man-made celebration), please consider WHY you are doing it, and if it isn’t fully because you want to please God, but rather because you are afraid of what someone might think, then I would say don’t do it- something done as a lie is worse than something not done, honestly.

And if you find yourself not doing things you used to do to be “religious”, then rethink your relationship with God because if you do not observe God’s commandments, which are found ONLY in the Torah (remember- those are the things Yeshua did and taught others to do), then your heart and mind are not in the right place.

It would be a good idea to square those things away as soon as possible because the way the world is going, well… it doesn’t look like there is going to be such a long wait for that Day of Judgement.

Thank you, again, for being here: that’s it for this week so L’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I know this sounds a little off; I mean, of course I accept God for who he is. What else can I do? He is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and the Almighty. Who else would I think he is?

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God tells us who he is throughout the Bible, specifically in the Tanakh (the “Jewish Bible”). In the New Covenant writings, we do not hear a lot of who God is, but mostly of who Yeshua is, and in many Christian religions (and, believe me, there are enough of them!) they consider Yeshua, the Messiah, and God, the Father, to be one and the same entity.

But we ain’t goin’ there, Homies!

The reasoning behind why I am asking if you accept God for who he is comes from the many times I have been exposed to people who tell me what God wants, and why he wants that, but their belief is so far from what God says in the Bible that I have to wonder if we are talking about the same God.

I have heard people tell me that God is a compassionate, forgiving, and loving father, all of which is true, but they say that just before they tell me he will forgive their sins, without any mention of repentance or confession. They believe that just because God loves them as they are, and they believe in Yeshua (whatever that is supposed to mean) that they will be forgiven of any sins they commit. They do not understand, or more likely, refuse to accept, that even though God loves them, he is also holy and keeps his word, so if you sin, continue to sin, do not confess or repent of your sins, his love will not save you from damnation.

I believe the proof of God’s love is found in one place more than any other- that is in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, specifically Ezekiel 18:23, where God says:

Do I take any pleasure at all in having the wicked person die?” asks Adonai Elohim. “Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?

God is saying that not only is he willing to forgive the sinner, but he greatly desires to forgive us!

But wait a minute! That doesn’t say it all, because before this he says something that sounds very different, and that is Ezekiel 18: 20-24 where he first tells us:

“The person who sins is the one that will die — a son is not to bear his father’s guilt with him, nor is the father to bear his son’s guilt with him; but the righteousness of the righteous will be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked will be his own. However, if the wicked person repents of all the sins he committed, keeps my laws and does what is lawful and right; then he will certainly live, he will not die. None of the transgressions he has committed will be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done, he will live. On the other hand, when the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness by acting in accordance with all the disgusting practices that the wicked person does, will he live? None of the righteous deeds he has done will be remembered; for the trespasses and sins he has committed, he will die.“

So, here is God telling us who he is: he wants to forgive his children, whom he loves, but he is also God and will punish the sinner, meaning those who sin without confessing and repenting of their sin.

There are other ways people, even those who profess to worship God, do not accept who he is by rejecting his Holy Days, making excuses for rejecting his laws of kashrut (Kosher), and still expecting that he wil be OK with all that because his son told us we could.

How can anyone think that the son of God, the one he sent, would teach to reject what his father said to do?

Maybe because some believe Yeshua to be God, they make the excuse that he changed his mind after he was resurrected, by himself, even though he was dead, which God can’t be, which …. HUH? The more I follow that line of thinking, the less sense it makes.

That’s another one we ain’t touching today with a 10-foot pole!

There are other examples of how people pigeon-hole or compartmentalize God by convincing themselves that what they really want to do is OK with God. That is why, as I started this message, I asked if YOU really accept God for who he is?

If you are still not sure what I mean, then ask God, yourself, to show you who he is. Read the Torah- I think when you have a good understanding of what God wants us to do, then you will see that he is telling us who he is- he Lord, a holy and perfect spiritual entity who is also very emotional, loving his creation totally but because he is holy, he wants us to be holy, as well, because if we aren’t we cannot ever commune with him. He is in a sort of Catch-22 that he, himself, created when he gave us Free Will, which is a two-sided sword: free will allows us to choose to be righteous so we can live forever in God’s presence, and it also allows us to reject God and condemn ourselves to eternal damnation. And no matter which we choose, God has to stand aside and allow us to do what we will because he is holy and 1000% trustworthy, which means he will forgive us as he said he will- when we do what we have to do receive that forgiveness.

And for the same reason he will forgive us, he will punish us when we do not do as he said we should.

That seems to me to be the one thing most people do not accept about God.

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

What could I possibly do that would, in any way, ever lessen the importance of, or cheapen, the powerful name of the Messiah, Yeshua?
Maybe that happens when we use it so often and so automatically that it carries no weight, anymore?

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

We were told that when we pray, if we pray in Yeshua’s name, then our prayers will be answered (John 14:13). But what happens if we constantly, blindly, and routinely say “In the name of Yeshua” over and over again, after every single thing we pray for? Doesn’t that become more rote than heartfelt?

Do you pray in his name all the time, for whatever reason, for whatever you want, whether or not it even is something you need? I have heard people give thanks to God and then do so in the name of the Messiah: what’s with that? If we are giving thanks to God, we are not asking for anything, right? So why use the power and majesty of Yeshua’s name just to say “Thanks”?

The name of the Messiah is powerful, but it’s not the word we use (Yeshua or Jesus) that has power: it is the renown and reputation of the one who that word identifies!

I try to be very careful, or I should say respectful, when asking in Yeshua’s name. There are many times I ask God for simple things, such as s good night’s sleep, or good weather because I have plans for outside activities, or other, miniscule and unimportant things. When I do that, I usually do not ask in Yeshua’s name because (and this is just how I feel) I don’t want to misuse the power of that name for “silly” things. If it rains when I wanted to go for a bike ride, well, then, I ride my bike on another day. God’s will is more important than my puny desire for nice weather, and if it rains then someone, somewhere, probably needed it more than I needed to have sore muscles the next day.

What I am saying is that the name of the Messiah carries power, and power should be respected and used sparingly. We have enough examples in the Bible to teach us that when we worship without the proper attitude God will not accept it; I believe that using the name of the Messiah in prayer all the time, routinely, mindlessly, and unfaithfully will have no meaning to God.

In fact, I think to use Yeshua’s name when asking for everything and anything is insulting to the awesomeness of his name.

Should we ask for all things all the time using a name that has such power and majesty, or do we use that name sparingly, carefully, and respectfully, only when asking for what we truly need for ourselves or someone else?

What do you think?

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

When someone wants to justify the Christian-born theological belief that Yeshua and God are one and the same entity, they can only find that justification in the Gospel of John, and mostly only in John 10:30, where he says he and the Father are one.

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

But what about everything before that? He talks of how he was empowered by God, how he, Yeshua, is a good shepherd, how he, Yeshua, does as God tells him to do, and how he, Yeshua, is the gate; and throughout the gospel he states that he only does and says what God has told him to do and say.

In all the Gospels (except for that one, FIGURATIVE statement in John 10:30), Yeshua continually identifies himself as one who is separate from God, who will sit at God’s right hand, and who only does and says what God tells him to do and say, which is why he made (again, only found in John’s Gospel) the figurative statement that when we see him, we see God. What he meant was that because he only does and says what God tells him to do and say, he is an IMAGE of God on Earth.

Not the same entity but acting as if that entity was physically there.

Now we come to Eve. How was she created? Supernaturally from a man. Adam was the first man, in Hebrew, “Ish“, and when she was created, Adam said that she was from man, so he called her “Isha” (Genesis 2:23).

When Adam first saw Eve (no, I won’t share any of the many jokes about this event), he said that she was “bone from his bone and flesh from his flesh“. In fact, in Genesis 2:24 (CJB), the Bible says:

“This is why a man is to leave his father and mother and stick with his wife, and they are to be one flesh.”

So even though the Bible says they are to be one flesh, Eve was never considered to be Adam.

So, too, when God caused Miryam to give birth to Yeshua, he was supernaturally created, born out of a woman but from God, yet he was separate from God because God is entirely of spirit and Yeshua was entirely human.

Just as Eve was from Adam, but not Adam, so, too, Yeshua was from God, but not God.

Clearly the statement that when a man and a woman are married, they are to be one flesh is meant to be spiritually as one; in the real world, they are still totally separate entities (just ask anyone who is married!). So, too, is the relationship between God and Yeshua: they are one in spirit, but physically they were two totally separate entities, and have always remained so.

We also see that the similarity between Eve and Yeshua continues into the End Times.

When punishing the snake for causing Eve to sin (Genesis 3:14-15), God says that there will be animosity between the snake and the woman, and between “his descendant and her descendant.”

Notice, please, that the word “descendant” is singular, not plural. In the other versions I have looked at, they use the word “offspring” or “seed”, but in all cases I saw, the word used was in the singular.

This clearly shows- at least, to me- that God was defining the relationship between mankind and HaSatan: Satan would constantly be at our heels, causing us to fall and his descendant is the Anti-Christ, and Yeshua, the descendant of Eve, would crush his head, i.e., destroy him.

The argument over Trinity or Unity will never stop because it has become so ingrained in so many Christian religions that it will never go away, and we will not have an absolute answer until the End Days (Acharit HaYamim) come.

Until then, we must remember that we are not saved by faithfully believing Yeshua is God, but by faithfully believing that Yeshua is the Messiah sent by God. His role is to be an Intercessor, a shepherd, a representative from God who is the one and only Messiah. And through his sacrifice enables us to be forgiven of sin, thereby able to come into the presence of God, Almighty.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (but make sure you agree to the rules, or you won’t be able to post anything), and if you like what you get here, you will definitely like my (very affordably priced) books, available from my website and Amazon, in both paperback and Kindle formats.

And remember that I always welcome your comments, although it may take a day or two before I can get to them.

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