Category: Messianic 101

Are You Praying or Just Trying to Sound Prayerful?

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Prayer is such an essential part of our relationship with God. Unlike using Facebook or Messenger, which are really very impersonal forms of communications, having as much intimacy as a corporate memo, prayer is a very intimate sharing.

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

When we pray, most of the time we are sharing more with God than he is sharing with us, but he always listens and he does answer. That answer is not always what we expect or when we want it, and sometimes it’s just “Nope- no gonna happen“, but he always answers.

The trick is being open enough to recognize the answer when it comes.

I have heard people go on and on and on…and on when they pray, and they even stop often. When they do, it’s almost comical because you can see their faces contort because they are trying to figure out what to say next.

If you ask me (and even if you don’t), that ain’t praying: it’s trying to sound prayerful, and I will also go as far as to say it is probably meant more to impress those listening than to impress God.

I think if you ask someone well-versed in the Bible what they consider the most beautiful prayer, they might say 1 Kings 8:22-53, which is the prayer Solomon made at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. It is quite beautiful and I believe the, if not one of the, longest prayers I have read in the Bible.

But for me, the most beautiful prayer in the entire Bible is in Exodus 12:13, when Moses prayed for his sister, Miryam, to be healed from God’s punishment, when he gave her tzara’at (leprosy) after she and Aaron spoke up against Moses.

And what was his prayer?

“Oh God, please heal her!”

Why do I believe that is the most beautiful prayer?…because it comes directly from his heart. It is simple, direct, and heartfelt to the point where just reading what he says you can feel his pain and anguish at the fate of his sister.

He doesn’t run on, he doesn’t repeat “Father God” fifteen hundred times, and he doesn’t search for something to say that sounds very “King James-ish.”

You know, I am pretty sure that Yeshua would agree with me because when he was asked how we should pray, he gave us not just a simple and short prayer (in Matthew 6:9-13), but what is the template for all prayer:

1. Start off recognizing God’s authority and omniscience
2. Ask just for what you need
3. Ask to be guided in the proper way to live, and
4. Finish with thanking God and (again) recognizing who he is.

Let’s not forget that Yeshua warned against babbling on and on like the pagans do, so the next time you are praying and find yourself thinking of what to say, my recommendation is that you have already said too much, so just shut it down there.

Don’t misunderstand me- if you are praying long and hard, but it comes directly from your heart, maybe even with some tears, that is okay. In fact, that is great!

But if you are repeating the same things over and over, and find yourself trying to find more words, or feel there should be more to say, you need to stop.

We are told that God already knows what we want and what we need, so you might ask,
“If God already knows my heart and mind, and what I need, why do I have to pray to him and ask for it?”

My answer is that God wants us to pray to him because when it comes from the heart, prayer creates a strong bond of intimacy, which is something that God desires to have with everyone.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believer. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, and I will be off all next week (Donna and I are going on a cruise), so until then, l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

How Trustworthy Are the Gospels, Really?

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What is a “gospel”? According to a few different dictionary definitions I looked up, it is anything from the revelation of Christ to the first 4 books of the New Covenant, to just being a good story. I have also heard people use the word “gospel” as referring to something completely trustworthy.

But when we consider the Gospels, those first 4 books in the New Covenant, are they really totally trustworthy?

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

Now, before anyone starts to accuse me of blasphemy, let’s remember that the truth is tough enough to take a little testing. In fact, if we aren’t willing to test what we consider to be the truth, we are setting ourselves up to believe in a lie.

The gospels are considered to be the factual account of the life and ministry of Yeshua (Jesus), and the books were (supposedly) eye-witness accounts of the teachings and events during Yeshua’s ministry on the earth, written by his disciples named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

But are they really eye-witness accounts? The answer is… NO, they are not all eye-witnessed accounts of the life and ministry of Yeshua.

I did a “Google search” asking about the writers of the gospels, and was somewhat surprised (but not really, since I always thought this was the case) that modern scholars consider the books were written anonymously and attributed to the names of his disciples in order to lend authority to the books.

Matthew and John are stated in both Luke and Mark to be one of the 12 men Yeshua chose to be in his “inner circle”, but Mark and Luke weren’t given that privilege.

When you research the gospels, you will see that Matthew is considered to be the most “Jewish” of the gospels, which means that if his is the most Jewish, then one of them has to be the least Jewish. In my opinion, that is the gospel of John, which I won’t go into here but I believe was written by a Gentile Christian and is a false gospel, one designed to make Jesus appear more Christian than Jewish.

From what I could find, Mark was an assistant to Peter and Luke a travelling companion of Paul, but neither of those two are verifiably eye-witnesses to the many things we read about in their gospel.

In fact, we are told by Luke at the very beginning of his gospel that he did not witness any of the events he is writing about but has collected stories which have been handed down over the years.

In other words, everything in the gospel of Luke is not an eye-witnessed account, but rather something between third party hearsay and gossip.

In my book, “Back to Basics: God’s Word vs. Religion”, I start the Introduction with this question:

Have you ever told a funny story at a party, later have it circulate back to you, only then to hear it transformed into something almost unrecognizable from the story you told?

My point is that an account that has been repeated and repeated by many different people is not reliable. And the gospels were written by people who heard it from people who heard it from people who…well, no one will ever know how many times these stories have been circulated, will they? And although there are many commonalities within the gospels, such as the parables and miraculous events, the question remains:
“How can we trust what we read in the gospels as being legitimately what Yeshua said or did?”

I do believe that because of the similarities within the gospels, we can consider the telling of the parables and most events that are repeated in all four of these books to be reliable enough to be accepted as accurate.

And the minute differences that exist are only to be expected because these are not eye-witnessed accounts. Heck, ask any investigator and they will confirm that if 6 people see the exact same event at the exact same time, you will get 6 different stories, so imagine how much difference there might be when people relate what they heard but might not have ever seen.

So, what does this mean to readers of the gospels who want to know who Yeshua is and what he taught? If these gospels are actually just a collection of hearsay, having many similarities but, still and all, just stories handed down, what can we believe? Where does that leave us?

It leaves us with this: it is up to each and every one of us to become very familiar with all four gospels so that we can see what is similar and thereby probably trustworthy, and what is not similar to the other gospels. That which is unique is something we might want to doubt its validity.

Remember, there was a significant separation between the Jewish followers of Yeshua and the Gentile followers who didn’t really start to join this Jewish sect until after Yeshua was already at God’s right hand. By the end of that first century, most of the Jewish disciples and followers were dead, and what had been a Jewish sect was now mutating into a Gentile religion that rejected most of what the Torah said and replaced God’s Holy Days and instructions for righteous living with totally different holidays and canon.

The gospels were written sometime between 70 and 100 AD, some 30+ years after Yeshua had risen to heaven, so what he said and did had been handed down, orally, for decades. Not to mention that these are written by people, not dictated by God or even close to being considered God-breathed scripture.

The truth is that God doesn’t even speak anywhere in the entire New Covenant, except at the immersion of Yeshua and at the transfiguration when Yeshua is on the mountain and visited by Moses and Elijah, and all he says then is that Yeshua is his son.

You may ask, am I saying to ignore the gospels, that they are unreliable, or that they should be rejected?

No, not rejected, but not accepted as the gospel truth (pun intended).

When we read the gospels, we need to do so with the understanding that these are handed-down stories about a man and what he taught others regarding the Torah and God. You should always take what you read with a grain of salt, as they say, and even though I do believe that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, and that the miraculous events described as being done by Yeshua did happen, I am somewhat suspect of the significant differences I find in different gospels, most of which I find between the gospel of John and the other three gospels.

And, for the record, many scholars agree that John’s gospel is significantly different from the other three, which I have already written about a few times so you can search my website if you are interested in learning more about that.

Read the gospels, accept what you will but don’t be afraid to question what sounds “off”. Even though faith is believing in what can’t be proven, that is no excuse to be lazy and just accept everything you hear.

I will end today’s message the same way I started: the truth is tough enough to be tested, and if you aren’t willing to test what you are told then you will never know if you are being led down the wrong path.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot, Baruch HaShem, and since tomorrow night is Erev Yom Kippur, may you have an easy fast.

If We Can’t Trust God to Punish, We Can’t Trust God to Reward

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Do you know anyone whose kids are real brats? Undisciplined, disrespectful of anyone else, and noisy?

Have you also noticed how the parents of those kids are so loving and understanding, never punishing them or even telling them they are acting badly?

Now, how many people do you know who say that God is like those parents: loving, forgiving, and compassionate, never cruel or punishing?

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

God is loving, is compassionate, is exceptionally understanding, and remarkably forgiving. In fact, he not only is willing to forgive us when we repent, he desires to forgive us. He even says so in Ezekiel 18:23!

So, because God is loving, compassionate, and forgiving, he also will kick your tuchas if you continue to do wrong without repentance.

Too many people don’t know what Proverbs really says about punishing a child; they think it says if you spare the rod you spoil the child.

WRONG!

Proverbs 13:24 says:

Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

and Proverbs 22:15 says:

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.

and, finally, what I consider to be the most important one is Proverbs 23:13-14, which says:

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.
 Punish them with the rod and save them from death.

Note how discipline is designed not to hurt the child, but to save it, essentially, from itself. And sparing the rod doesn’t just spoil your child, it condemns your child to death!

We have to remember that God doesn’t concern himself with mortality: when he says life or death, he is talking about your eternal condition. An undisciplined child will not only have trouble during its lifetime, but it will likely end up in hell, forever.

And whose fault is that? It’s the fault of the parents!

This is why truly loving and compassionate parents will discipline their child, but in the way that God disciplines us. No, I don’t mean to rain fire and brimstone on them (well, maybe…. no, I’m kidding), but to punish without anger, without yelling, and with mercy.

I don’t think corporal punishment always works, but as a last resort it may be necessary: some people just naturally refuse to listen until the consequences of ignoring what people tell them are painful.

What this is all leading up to is the truth about God and punishment: God will punish us not just because he is angry with us (which he probably is), and not because we have done wrong (which we did to make him angry), but because he loves us and he wants us to be with him forever.

I know it is so much nicer to believe God forgives us no matter what, and that is probably why someone came up with that silly idea of OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved), claiming that sins are automatically forgiven once you accept Yeshua as your Messiah. And not just the sins you’ve already committed, but the ones you will commit for the rest of your life.

How biblically ignorant to even think that could be true.

And I understand that we would much prefer a God who forgives us so long as we say, “Oops, sorry ’bout that, Chief !”

But God will punish us when we do wrong without confession, or even worse without repentance.

Many Christian teachings state that their God (you know, the different one who sent Yeshua, not that mean guy from the Jewish Bible) is loving and forgiving and all anyone needs do is believe in Jesus (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean) and love their neighbor and they will be forgiven and go to heaven. They say that punishment is the old way, but with Jesus it is all just loving forgiveness.

Of course, anyone who knows the Bible and has a reasonably good understanding of who God is, knows that is a lie from the very pit of Sheol! As the title of this message says, if we cannot trust God to punish the sinners, then we cannot trust God to reward the righteous.

God has to punish those who constantly do wrong without repentance because he said he would. If he doesn’t, then he lied, and as such can’t be trusted to keep his word about rewarding those who obey him.

In other words, if you have been taught that the God of the New Covenant is different from the Old, that he is only loving and forgiving instead of cruel and punishing, then you are worshiping the wrong God and on the wrong path.

God is holy and cannot lie, and when he says in the Old Covenant that he will punish the sinner, he will do that to any believer in Yeshua who sins continually without confession or repentance.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and no such thing as forgiveness without confession, repentance, and ASKING for forgiveness.

The God of the Old Covenant is the same God of the New Covenant, and the only reason he seems less punishing in the New is because the people are now established in the land, and the storyline is about Yeshua.

If you really think the “God of the New Covenant” isn’t one to punish harshly, ask Ananias and Sapphira. Oh, wait a minute, you can’t ask them because they were killed off in an instant for lying to the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit).

Yeah, sorry to burst your “I’m Okay” bubble, but it’s the same God, and if you screw up enough, you will get the same punishment he gave to people in the Tanakh.

Don’t think for a second that because you have accepted Yeshua as your Messiah that you do not have to be concerned with sinning or punishment, or that your salvation is guaranteed.

You may be saved at this time, but it is how you act for the rest of your life (and hopefully your parents taught you how to act) that will guarantee your salvation.

Or lead to your destruction.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

How to Understand Echad in the Shema

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First off, before we do anything else, let me wish you all a very joyous New Year.

However, to put it in perspective, let me also remind you that Rosh HaShanah is a man-made holiday; this is not a biblical new year. At some time in the past, the Rabbis of old decided to change this from Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets), a memorial Holy Day, to celebrating a new year.

What we should be doing at this time is not celebrating but becoming more introspective. We are to review our actions over the past year and confess just how far we fell short of what God wanted us to be. Part of this introspective activity is to also reflect on who we have, or may have, sinned against in the past year and go to them to ask for forgiveness.

These are the Ten Days of Awe, and we should be preparing ourselves, both emotionally and spiritually, for Yom Kippur.

Okay, now let’s get to today’s lesson.

The Shema is the watchword of the Judaic faith, and is the foundation of Monotheism.

The last word, “echad“, is usually interpreted as “one”, but I believe there is a better way to interpret it.

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

In the Hebrew language, he word echad is primarily understood as “one”, as in “ish ehcad” (one man). And this is how we generally translate the Shema:

“Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad” 
“Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one”. 

But echad also has a secondary usage, which can be interpreted as “alone” or “only”.

In that case, we would be saying, “The Lord is our God, the Lord, alone.”

Now, to me, that’s a BIG difference because all gods are one, when you think about it. Even in the Hindu religion, where they have some hundreds of gods, each one of their gods is a singularity.

Every god is “one”, isn’t it?

But when we say that Adonai is our God, Adonai alone aren’t we making a definitive statement that – for us- there is only one God… Adonai!

Yeah, many others have their god or gods, but we have only Adonai. He, alone, is our God.

Again, it may not make a lot of difference to many people, but to me it is such a stronger and more definitive statement of monotheism than just saying that our God is one.

I have been in different synagogues where most use echad as “one”, but there are some who are using echad as “alone”.

So, today we have a simple lesson about the use of a word in the most important prayer in Judaism, and how it can be understood in a different way.

Either way, whether you say “one” or “alone”, the Shema is the foundation stone of our monotheistic faith.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

What Not to Have Faith In

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Last time we were together I spoke about what we need to have faith in, and now we need to understand the other side of that argument- which faith is useless, maybe even deadly.

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

I am going to tell you the first, and most important thing NOT to have any faith in, and this will probably shock you- have no faith in a religion.

And yes, that includes Judaism, although if you have to faithfully believe anything, Judaism is the closest thing to what God said to do. Yet, even within Judaism, there are so many Talmudic things which are not in the Torah (or even go against the Torah) that you need to watch out for.

Within Christianity, well…there is one unchanging God, yet there are some 64,000 (Yes, THOUSAND!) Christian religions, all claiming that they are the one, correct way to worship God!

So, how can that be?

Overall, having faith in any religion that tells you the law was done away with by the son of God is misplaced faith.

Think about it: sin is breaking the law of God, right? And God gave us the Torah which identifies what sin is (Romans 5:13), so if there is no longer any Torah then there is no longer any sin, right? I mean, how can you break the law if there is no law?

And (here’s the real kicker!) if there is no law, then there is no sin, so there is no need for a Messiah anymore- he doesn’t have to return. With no law there is no sin, so everyone goes to heaven and there can’t be an Apocalypse because it would be wrong of God to punish people for sinning if there is no sin.

Bottom line?- if Yeshua did away with the law then everything in the New Covenant about the End Days is wrong.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t put any faith in that statement.

Another thing not to put any faith in is a human being because, as I said the last time, humans are innately sinful, selfish, and self-absorbed.

And we are easily fooled, so even someone who thinks they are doing what is right can be led to reject God and bring others along with them on that path to destruction.

Here’s a good example of how easily we can be fooled into doing something hurtful: you know those posts that say something very compassionate and then challenge you to copy and paste it if you feel the same way? Or maybe you see a post or saying on Facebook that you love, sent to you by someone you know, so you copy and paste it then send it to everyone you know because it is such a wonderful, compassionate statement.

Well, that is how many viruses are spread. You see, in HTML (the language of the Internet) a series of coded statements, including an executable (which runs a program) can be hidden within a paragraph of text. All the person has to do is codify that section of writing as (0,0) and it will not be visible to the reader, but it will be there, all the same, and the computer will recognize it, and perform it.

Faith in what you see on the Internet is just plain ignorant and foolish, and that means ANYTHING you see on the Internet whether it be news, posts, quotations from famous people or whatever. There are no rules of validation or requirement to be true for anything on the Internet.

Another reason not to place your faith in a religion is because God has no religion: he only has his rules for how to worship him and how to treat each other. That isn’t a religion, it is a lifestyle.

Men created religion so they could have power over other men, so the more faithfully you follow a religion the more you are putting your faith in people, and we just went over why that is foolish and leads you to the path of destruction.

Now, I do not want you to think I am suggesting that you never follow any religion. I am trying to say that you should not blindly put your faith in any religion. What you need to do is read the Bible and be aware of what God says so that you can tell when a religion is going in the wrong direction.

You will find the only place where God says what he wants us to do is in the Torah- everywhere else when he speaks (as he does to his prophets) he is not giving any new instructions; what he is doing is to warn the people to get back on track with the original instructions.

And the only time God speaks in the entire New Covenant is when he tells us Yeshua is his son, whom he loves and we should listen to him.

So, put no faith in people or in a religion, and here’s another hard to accept statement: do not put faith in your version of the Bible.

You see, there are literally thousands of versions in hundreds of different languages, and every single version of the Bible is subject to the interpreter’s personal understanding of the original language, the correct cultural usage of the words and terms when the Bible book was written, and personal bias.

So, where are we? Put no faith in a human being and except for the commandments and laws found in the Torah, which were dictated to Moses by God, everything else in the Bible was written by humans, and we know about them.

I know, I know, if what I am saying is true then we can’t put our faith in anything, right? It seems that way, but there is one thing you can absolutely have faith in, and that is God and his Ruach haKodesh, his Holy Spirit, which will guide you to see God’s truth, no matter which version of the Bible you are reading.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Saved by Faith, but Faith in What?

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The saying “Saved by faith” has been around since Shaul made it popular way back when, and even today people keep saying, “We are saved by faith!”

But faith in what?

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

The answer is really simple, but there is more than just one thing to be faithful to.

First of all, you have to understand that faith means choosing to believe in something that you can never really prove. Proof is the antithesis of faith because if something can be proven, then you have it as a fact and there is no need for faith. I can tell you that there is plenty of proof that God exists, but it is all just as easily dismissed as coincidence or science.

People who want to disprove God’s existence explain things scientifically, but what they fail to catch on to is that God created science and is not restrained by it.

So, to start with, when it comes to being saved by faith you must first faithfully believe in God. DUH! Without faith in God, you have nowhere else to go except to live your life knowing that there is no one behind you, no one caring about you, and no one you can truly, absolutely have faith in except another human being.

And given how human beings are, that is one in the loss column before you even start to play the game.

Next you have to have faith that what God says he will do will be done. Period.

The next thing is to faithfully believe that Yeshua IS the Messiah God said he would send. The reason this is essential for salvation is because there is no temple, and without the temple we cannot bring a sacrifice to be forgiven, and without forgiveness of sin there can be no salvation.

No one stained with sin will ever be allowed into God’s presence, so the way we are saved is through being forgiven. The shedding of innocent blood is the means by which we receive forgiveness, but it is forgiveness alone that saves us.

To receive forgiveness under God’s Torah, we had to shed innocent blood (Hebrews 9:22), and that had to be at the place God put his name (Deuteronomy 12:11), which was the temple in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 12:5).

No temple, no forgiveness, no salvation no matter how faithfully you try to obey Torah (and I say “try to obey” because no one can be 100% Torah obedient 100% of the time).

This is where Yeshua comes into the salvation picture- his sacrifice, as the Messiah, replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, so through faith that God does what he says, faith that Yeshua is the Messiah and faithfully believing that as the Messiah, Yeshua’s sacrifice is a once-and-for-all sacrifice for everyone, you can receive the forgiveness that will save you.

And lets’ set the record straight right now: the once-and-for-all sacrifice doesn’t mean that all sins are automatically forgiven… NO! It means that every time we sin, we can find forgiveness when asking God to forgive us by means Yeshua’s shed blood. And you DO need to ask forgiveness for every single solitary sin you commit for the rest of your life.

And don’t think for a second that all you need to do is to ask. Without real t’shuvah (repentance), without feeling guilty and ashamed for having sinned, God will not forgive you.

God is not stupid or ever fooled- he knows your heart and what you are thinking, so without true repentance, you are no better off than a faithless person.

Oh, I almost forgot- faith in God is demonstrated by obedience to God, and not some religion. Don’t take my word for it: that’s what the brother of Yeshua said in James 2.

And, just in case you missed it the first time, the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us what he wants us to do is in those first five books, called the Torah. If your religion tells you, in any way, that you don’t need to follow the Torah, then you can never prove your faith by works, so your faith will be dead.

You can be the nicest person on the earth, give to the poor, go to church or synagogue every Shabbat, love everyone, and be as good a person as any human being can be BUT… if you reject anything in the Torah, such as reject celebrating the Holy Days God said to celebrate, reject God’s laws of Kashrut (Kosher) by eating whatever you want to, have intimate relations when you are not supposed to, or with someone you shouldn’t, or violate any of the other rules in the Torah, all that “good’ stuff you do will not help you.

Oh, yeah, and here’s the biggie!- according to the Messiah, as he tells us in Matthew 6:14-15, if you do not forgive those who sin against you, God will not forgive your sins against him, and (here’s another kick in the pants)… every sin you commit is against God.

So, there you have it, saved by faith means:

  1. Faithfully believing (that means without needing proof) that God exists and is 1,000% trustworthy to do as he says he will.
  2. Faithfully accepting that Yeshua is the Messiah.
  3. Faithfully believing his sacrifice was an acceptable sacrifice.
  4. Faithfully believing that because of his shed blood you can receive forgiveness of sin.

Salvation is what we are able to receive only when we are totally cleansed of sin, which is why it is so imperative that each and every day you ask God to forgive you, even if you don’t think you sinned.

Better to be covered than cursed.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Yeshua and God Must Be Separate Beings for Salvation to Work

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One of the main religious issues that causes disruption, as well as distraction, is the idea of the Trinity: is God separate from Yeshua or are they the same entity, in different forms.

As far as salvation is concerned, the question of Trinity or Unity is irrelevant because Yeshua MUST be the Messiah, and not God, for the plan of salvation to work.

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

The plan from the start was that God would send a Messiah to make it possible for us to overcome our sins and be able to commune with God, which is only possible after we have been cleansed of sin. Now, with the destruction of the temple in 73 AD, because the Torah required a sin sacrifice at that temple, and no where else, without a Messiah we could never be forgiven.

When Yeshua sacrificed himself, it was the means for us to be forgiven in that his sacrifice- as the Messiah- replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem. That is why he said the only way to the father is through him ( John 14:6) because the temple was no longer available.

The Messiah serves as a substitution for the sacrificial animal, and only God can forgive sins. Oh, yeah, I know what you’re going to say, “Yeshua said he can forgive sins”, and you’re right, he did say that. BUT… that was only while on the earth (look it up in Matthew 9:6). Once his role as the substitutionary sacrifice was completed, and he was raised into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, sin forgiveness reverted back to God, and God, alone.

Yeshua, as Messiah, is an intercessor, not an interceptor. We worship God, we pray to God, and we thank God for forgiving us because only God can forgive sins.

Yeshua provides the way to come before God so we can ask for forgiveness, by means of the blood sacrifice performed on our behalf by God’s Messiah.

If Yeshua is God, then why refer to him? Why pray in his name? Why have anything at all to do with him? If he is God, what sense is there in going to God to ask God to refer to himself when we ask God for forgiveness?

Yeshua always referred to God as his father, and never made the literal claim stating that he is God in the flesh (that was what some guy wrote in the beginning of the Gospel of John, and Yeshua never said that about himself).

Here’s something else to consider… how do we know Yeshua is the Messiah? The answer is that he fulfilled nearly every prophecy about him, all of which are in the Tanakh (the Old Covenant, aka the “Jewish” Bible). Some of those prophecies are still to be fulfilled, and that will happen when he returns- not as God, but as the Messiah. So, if Yeshua is God, then the prophecies about the Messiah would indicate that he will be God, but here’s the kicker- not one prophecy about the Messiah in the entire Tanakh indicates that he will be God.

Aright, here we go again: I know, I know, you are going to say, “What about Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 9:6, where it says he will be called “Mighty God”? That verse doesn’t say he IS God, only that he will be called “Mighty God”. That is more of a warning about the creation of the Trinity than it is about confirming the Messiah is God.

(In the description is a link to a message I just did about this misleading verse).

The fact is that there is not one, single reference to the Messiah in the Tanakh, which is the definitive source for knowing how to identify the Messiah, that indicates he is actually God.

Not one.

A man whose name was Tertullian, sometime around the middle of the second century, is the first one to use the term “trinity” when referring to Yeshua, and that is where this whole idea came from. The Gospel of John is the most often quoted source for any validation of Yeshua’s divinity, and that gospel is recognized to be so very different from the other three that it is suspect.

Personally, I totally reject the entire gospel of John, and even more than that, not only do I believe it is not a valid gospel, but I don’t even think it was written by a Jew! But, I digress…

God’s plan of salvation is simple: if you are stained with sin, you cannot enter into God’s presence. The way to be “saved”, i.e., to be in God’s presence, is to be cleansed of sin. This was done through the sacrificial system, with the blood of an innocent thing (lamb or goat) being spilled to atone for the sin of a person; the animal’s life served as a substitution for the person’s life (the life of a thing is in its blood-Leviticus 17:11) .

In Deuteronomy 12:11, God states that the only place a sacrifice can be made is where he places his name. Initially, this was at the Tent of Meeting (where the Ark was kept), and later at the temple in Jerusalem. That place has never changed.

With the destruction of the temple in 73 AD, there was no way that, in accordance with the Torah, anyone could be saved. Ah, but, that is where the plan for a Messiah now comes into play. The Messiah is a human being born from the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), making him the Son of God (literally, not just spiritually), who would be the only human being able to live in complete accord with the Torah, 100% of the time, and as such be an acceptable sacrifice for sin.

This is essential! The Messiah has to be human to be an acceptable sin sacrifice! He has to be able to sin, otherwise his sinless life is just a cheat. There is no value in being sinless if you can’t sin, to begin with, which would be true if Yeshua was God. That is why Isaiah, in Isaiah 53, tells us that the Messiah was 100% human, that he knew illnesses and was as susceptible to sin as anyone else.

You’ve got to understand this: lambs are born sinless, but not humans, so for a human being to be sinless takes self-discipline, humility, and faithful obedience to God. An animal can’t be faithful but a human can, so for a human being, i.e., the Messiah, to be an acceptable sacrifice, he must have the ability to sin.

God can’t sin. That’s right, Folks- if you believe Yeshua is God, then your salvation can’t be real because God can’t sin, he can’t die, he can’t be a sacrifice, and God can’t forgive himself because he can’t sin, in the first place.

If Yeshua is God, that turns the entire sacrificial system upside down, and renders it impotent!

Faithful acceptance of Yeshua as the Messiah is the only way we can be saved- we are not saved by believing Yeshua is God, but by believing he is the Messiah God created and sent to the earth to provide a means for us to receive forgiveness of sin.

Like it or not, Yeshua HAS to be the 100% human Messiah, created by God through Miryam and not God in the flesh, in order to fulfill the prophecies about the Messiah and to be an acceptable sacrifice; otherwise, God’s plan of salvation can’t work.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Yeshua and the Snake

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In John’s Gospel, Yeshua says that he will be lifted up like the snake in the desert. Many consider this to be a prophetic statement about how he will die, but I believe it means more than that.

I believe he is saying he will become an idol, replacing his father as God.

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

I suppose we should start by reviewing the snake incident.

In Numbers 21, after the people kvetched (again!) about something, God sent poisonous snakes to bite and kill them as punishment. The people repented, and asked to be saved, so God had Moses make a brass serpent and place it high on a pole. When someone was bitten, they only had to look towards the snake and they would not die.

(You know, there is an entire message in that one sentence, how people sinned and would not die but still suffered the consequences of their sin, i.e., they still got bitten! But that is for another time; actually, I just recalled I already did a message on that one, and I’ll put a link to it in the Description.)

Now, what happened to that snake is not mentioned again until centuries later, in 2 Kings 18, when we learn that this snake, which originally was designed to represent God’s salvation from death (by snakebite) was now being worshipped as an idol, a god in and of itself, and it was being called Nehushtan (“Nachash” is Hebrew for snake). King Hezekiah had it destroyed.

Now let’s see why Yeshua chose that event to tell us what will happen to him.

Yeshua was placed on a stake for all to see, and he tells us that those who see him there and believe in him will be saved. Just like those who saw the bronze serpent on a pole and believed in God would be saved.

Prophecy fulfilled, right? Not quite.

The snake was later turned into a god, and what the “Church” has done is the same thing with Yeshua, changing what he is (the Messiah FROM God) into God, himself!

Christians constantly pray to Yeshua instead of to God, they ask Yeshua for forgiveness, when God is the only one who can forgive, and they thank Yeshua for blessings in their life when those blessings come from God!

Let’s get something straight: While Yeshua did say he had authority to forgive sins (Matthew 9:6), he specifies that he has this authority on the earth. This is also in two other gospels, and the reason he says that is to prove he is coming from God, NOT that he is God, and since he is no longer on the earth, the sin forgiveness thing has reverted back to Daddy.

The prophecy Yeshua made was a dual-prophecy: first, a soon-to-occur prophecy that Yeshua would be raised on a stake and secondly, as a future prophecy that he would be worshipped and replace God.

Exactly what happened with the snake.

So, if you find yourself praying to Yeshua, stop it- pray to God.

If something wonderful happens in your life, don’t thank Jesus- thank God.

And next time someone tells you that it is all about Yeshua, remind them (as you are being reminded, now) that for Yeshua, it was ALWAYS only and totally about his father in heaven.

Hey, look- if Yeshua said it is all about his father, and that his father forgives, and that his father blesses, and that he only did and said what his father told him to do and say (that’s in John), then who are you or I to say anything different?

Yeshua always referred to himself as separate from God, identifying as the Son of God, and he always considered himself subservient to God, so how do you think he feels when people worship him instead of his Father?

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Does Isaiah 9:5-6 Really Say The Messiah Will Be Almighty God?

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One of the most well-known prophecies in the Tanakh (everything in the Bible before Matthew) regarding the Messiah to come is Isaiah 9:5-6, where we are told that the Messiah will be called (among other things) the Almighty God.

But does that mean the Messiah will be God, or just that he will be called God?

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

There are many, MANY versions of the Bible, and most of them are interpreted by Christians. There are a number of Jewish interpretations, of course, so let’s see where some are the same, and some are different when we look at Isaiah 9:5-6 (remember that not all Bible interpretations have the exact same numbering.)

The JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (1999) says: “He has been named ‘The Mighty God is planning grace*; The Eternal Father, a peaceful ruler...”

( * It references Isaiah 25:1, where another prophecy
mentions how God has planned graciousness of old.)

The Sefaria (a non-profit digital library of Hebrew texts) interprets it this way: “He has been named ‘The Mighty God is planning grace; The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler'”.

The KJV says: “~ and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

The NIV says: “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The Complete Jewish Bible says: “Pele-Yo‘etz El Gibbor
Avi-‘Ad Sar-Shalom [Wonder of a Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace]”

And let’s look at one more Jewish version, Chabad’s Complete Jewish Tanakh: “~ the wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name, ‘the prince of peace’.”

(This one seems to be describing God, and that God will call the Messiah the “Prince of Peace”.)

So… who is correct?

Every Christian version I looked at (and I looked at more than just the ones here) said he would be called some version of “Almighty God”, and I even saw that in some of the Jewish versions.

But as you see, some other Jewish versions do not call him mighty God, but show that the mighty God calls him the Prince of Peace.

Interesting, isn’t it? The more Orthodox Jewish interpretations do not indicate Messiah will be God, while most every other version, some Jewish and all the Christian ones, indicate that Messiah will be God.

But wait a minute! Does it say he will be God, or does it say he will be called God?

You know, there’s quite a difference between what one is called, and what one is. Think of all the things you have been called throughout your lifetime, and ask yourself if what you have been called is always really what you are.

During my lifetime the things people have called me isn’t really what I am…. well, maybe some of the things, but not all of them!

Remember how Yeshua said that he would be like the snake in the desert (John 3:14)? And remember that the snake set up by Moses in Numbers 21:9, to represent God’s salvation from the snake bites, was later worshipped as a god and called Nehushtan (2 Kings 18)?

Well, I believe Yeshua’s prophecy wasn’t just about how he would die (being raised on a stake), but also how he would later be worshipped as a god; actually, as the one and only God. He knew that people would replace worship of the one, true God, his father, with him: praying to him, asking him for forgiveness, and basically replacing his father with him, something Yeshua would never have even thought of doing.

I believe this passage from Isaiah has been misunderstood, and now is being used as a justification for the Trinitarian belief that God (the father) and Yeshua (the Messiah) are the same entity.

As I said earlier, there is a BIG difference between what someone is called, and what they are. I am inclined to go along with the more Orthodox Jewish interpretation that indicates the Messiah will be called, BY GOD, the “Prince of Peace.” That the authority placed on his shoulders will be from God, and not self-generated (which, if Messiah is God, would have to be the case).

In Matthew 22:45, Yeshua disarms the Pharisees trying to trick him by asking them why, in Psalm 110:1, does David call his son (meaning the Messiah) “Lord”? Yeshua points out that if the Messiah is David’s son, how can he be David’s Lord? Similarly, if Yeshua is the almighty God, how can he be a prince?

I wonder how, after all these centuries, no one has noticed this obvious disparity? If the Messiah is the almighty God, then how can he be a prince of anything? Wouldn’t he, as God, have to be the Lord of Peace? Or the King of Peace? Whatever, if he was the almighty God, he certainly wouldn’t be just a Prince of Peace, would he?

This is why I go along with the Orthodox Jewish interpretation that indicates when the Messiah is born, he will be a counsellor, he will be a prince of peace, and his authority and rulership will come from God, but he will not be God.

I also believe that the interpretations saying the Messiah will be called almighty God are based on Christian Trinitarianism, and the Jewish Bible versions that also say “almighty God” are wrong, as well.

To finalize, it is imperative to accept that what someone is called is not what they are. Yeshua said we can tell who people are by their fruits, so, nu … what fruits did Yeshua demonstrate? Well, when I read the Gospels, it appears to me that his fruits were always giving his father, God, the credit for everything, and he never called himself the almighty God.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Salvation: Same in Old, Same in New

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I believe if you ask most Believers what is the main difference between the Tanakh (the “Jewish” Bible) and the New Covenant regarding salvation, they will say the old way was through works, and the new way is only through faith.

Well, they would be right, but for the wrong reasons.

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

In the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation, the only thing that saves us is faith. But faith in what?

Christians will say faith in Jesus, but what the heck does that mean? Faith that he existed? Faith that he was immaculately conceived? Faith that he is the Messiah God promised to send? Faith that he was resurrected? Faith that he did what the Gospels tell us he did?

My answer is faithfully believing that he was the son of God through divine conception, that he was (and still is) the Messiah God promised to send, that his death was accepted as a once-and-for-all sin sacrifice (proven by his resurrection), and that through his sacrifice we can ask God to forgive our sins any time, any where, because his sacrifice replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem.

Which has proven to be really convenient since the temple was destroyed nearly 2000 years ago.

My answer also includes that the way we demonstrate that faith is to obey the Torah, which is what Yeshua did throughout his lifetime, and what we must do if we truly want to follow in his footsteps and live as he did.

And doesn’t Christianity state that is an essential part of being Christian? Yet, sadly, they say “Do as Jesus did” while teaching to do everything except what Jesus did!

TIME OUT: When I said Yeshua’s sacrifice was a once-and-for-all event, I did not mean that all sins are automatically forgiven, which some Christian religions teach. No! I mean that when he sacrificed himself, it replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, which the Torah required for any sacrifice. We still have to fulfill every step of the sacrificial system for sin: we have to be accountable (confession), we have to be remorseful (repentance), we have to have the shedding of innocent blood as our substitution (that’s the part Yeshua took care of), and we have to do T’shuvah (turn from sin) as we go forward.

Throughout the Tanakh the means of salvation was obedience to the Torah, mainly because the Messiah hadn’t come yet. But the requirement for salvation was still faith-based.

God said that sacrifices and offerings mean nothing without obedience; read 1 Samuel 15:22, or Isaiah 1:11-14 or Jeremiah 7:21-23, or Psalm 51:16-17… they all say that obedience is more important than sacrifices or offerings, meaning that just going through the motions is useless without obedience, meaning faithfulness!

Going through the motions is obeying, isn’t it? So how can God say obeying means nothing without obedience? It’s because when he says “obedience”, he means faithful obedience, i.e., obeying from faith that what God says is righteous and correct.

Truth be told, Yeshua proved that someone CAN be saved by obedience to the Torah because he was 100% obedient, and after he died he was resurrected to eternal life in God’s presence. The “fly in the ointment” is that we humans are born sinful and not filled with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) as Yeshua was. As such, we don’t have a chance of being 100% Torah observant, 100% of the time as he was.

That’s why God planned for a Messiah right from the get-go.

The New Covenant is all about faith in Yeshua, but the problem is that most Christian faith is misplaced. Some believe Yeshua is God, some believe he is the son of God but that he forgives sin, and some even pray to dead people. Most Christian religions, whether Trinitarian or not, have gotten to the point where they pray to Yeshua instead of to God, effectively replacing God with Yeshua.

That is changing Yeshua from an obedient son (like Isaac was) into a rebellious, throne-stealing son (like Absalom was.)

How can we find salvation through a Messiah who teaches to ignore God? If Yeshua taught to ignore the Torah, he committed treason against the King (God) and was a sinner. And we know sinners don’t get to be in God’s presence.

And those who follow sinners are the blind being led by the blind, and both will fall into a hole. That hole goes all the way down to Sheol.

So, both the Old and New Covenants teach we are saved by faith:

  • Non-believing Jews faithfully obey the Torah (well, at least as best as they can) while faithfully waiting for the Messiah
  • Messianic Jews (like me) faithfully accept Yeshua IS the Messiah God promised to send, and we also faithfully obey God’s Torah (again, as best as we can)
  • Most every Christian religion teaches that they need to only have faith in Jesus (again, whatever the heck that is supposed to mean) and to love each other. The BIG mistake they make it that they totally ignore doing as God said to do, as Yeshua did throughout his lifetime, and which is the only acceptable proof that their faith is genuine.

Bottom line? Faith is not just one or the other, Jesus or Torah, law or lawlessness, but it is both sides of the same coin: one side is faithfully believing Yeshua is the Messiah and the other side is proving that faith through obeying God’s instructions (in the Torah).

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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