Category: Messianic 101

It Was Never Either Faith or Works

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Too often I have heard people say that all they need to be saved is faith in Christ, but then James said that faith without works is dead.
They say Jesus did away with the law, but if that is true, doesn’t that lead to the conclusion that through Jesus, there is only lawlessness?

So what IS the relationship between faith and works?

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

Faith is believing, simple as that. So, when someone says that they believe in Yeshua what do they mean?

My experience is that nearly everyone who says that has no idea what they mean, and can’t come up with any better explanation than that they believe he is the Messiah.

So what? Every demon in hell, and the guy in the red suit with the pitchfork also believe he is the messiah, so are they saved? Do they go to heaven?

I don’t think so!

Faith is believing without proof (Hebrews 11:1), but true faith cannot be invisible. As James said, true faithfulness in the belief Yeshua is the Messiah means you must also faithfully believe in God, and that means also faithfully believing that God is in charge, the ultimate authority in the Universe.

With me so far?

So, if God is the ultimate authority, and we believe that, then why does Christianity base all its tenets and laws on what Shaul (Paul), a human being, says?

The only answer is that they never really had faith in God, but rather placed their faith in a human being because (this is what I believe!) what he said was easier to do than what God said.

And people are still that lazy, today, which is proven by how many people come against my messages of Torah obedience being for everyone who professes to believe in God, as being wrong.

If you truly believe that God is in charge, and the ultimate authority, and that he loves his children, then you have to accept that he gave us the Torah (first to the Jews to learn, then as his nation of priests- see Ex. 19:6– to bring to the Goyim/Nations) for our own good.

The Torah is where God, himself, directly instructs us how he wants us to worship him and how he wants us to treat each other. Have you ever considered how Christianity can say it is God-fearing and God-ordained, when it has, for millennia, taught to ignore the Torah, God’s own instructions?

It’s really very simple, but very hard for Gentiles to accept- faith and works cannot be exclusive but must be inclusive. Works without faith is legalism; it is a performance-based salvation and, as such, will never be successful.

On the other hand, faith without any demonstration of that faith, is just so many words, and I learned this truth long ago: people don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do.

Jimmy had it right all along: if you are truly faithful to God, and truly faithfully believe Yeshua is the Messiah and that he taught us the true, spiritual meaning of the Torah, then you MUST be obedient to the Torah as the demonstration of your professed faith.

You can make up all the excuses that Christianity has taught its followers for millennia, but I tell you- absolutely- that when you come to face God at Judgement Day (which we will ALL have to do), and tell him that you did everything those men at your church told you to do, I won’t speak for God, but I am sure he will reply with something to this effect:

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

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

Why I Reject the Gospel of John

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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.

What Does Being Saved Really Mean?

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There are many statements about salvation, one of the best-known being “All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:32)

And in the New Covenant, we are told that all who believe in Jesus will be saved (Romans 10:9)

But what is being “saved”?

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

Before I tell you what I believe being “saved” means, let’s go over what is doesn’t mean:

1. It doesn’t mean all your sins from now on are automatically forgiven (this is called OSAS- Once Saved, Always Saved). If you do not repent of a sin, honestly repent, and ask for forgiveness, it won’t be forgiven.
2. It doesn’t mean that you (and those you love, too!) will not suffer the consequences of your sins committed on earth; being saved is not a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
3. It doesn’t mean that you can never lose your salvation. True, no one can take it away from you, but we all have to realize we can backslide, and even reject the free gift of salvation through continuing to sin without repentance.

So, now, what I believe being saved means is simply this: when you accept that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send, and that he taught to obey the Torah as a result of faithfully trusting in God and wanting to do as God says out of love for him and not as a means of legalistically obeying the Torah (which means trying to earn salvation), at Judgement Day Yeshua will be there for you, to identify you as one of his sheep, and through his righteousness you will be able to live in God’s presence for all eternity.

God’s actual “new covenant” is not in the New Covenant writings, also called the Christian Bible. No- it is found in the Tanakh (“Jewish” Bible) in Jeremiah 31:31, where God says he will make a new covenant, not like the old one, because this time he will write his Torah on our hearts.

And to have that done you need to understand more than just what the Torah says, you need to understand what it MEANS! That is what Yeshua taught us- the deeper, spiritual understanding of the Torah God gave to the world.

And this can be best found in Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount, where he tells us it isn’t enough to not kill, we must not hate in our hearts. Also, it isn’t enough to just not commit adultery, we mustn’t so much as lust with our eyes.

You see? These are not just legalistic (ooh, there’s that word, again!) actions, performed as rote acts of righteousness, but they are heart-felt emotions! We do not do what God says is wrong because we are not like that, it is no longer a part of our make-up because our hearts have his Torah written on them.

This is what Yeshua brought to us; this is the real new covenant, the real means of being saved.

So, get to know the Torah (if you don’t, already) and take it upon your heart. Make it something you don’t just know, but something you breathe with every breath, see when you close your eyes, speak of when you walk by the way, and take with you when you arise and when you lie down.

If you have the Torah on your heart, which I believe is only possible when you accept Yeshua as the Messiah, and thereby will apply them to your life, repenting when you sin and always asking God for forgiveness and strength to be better, you will be truly “saved”.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages and subscribe to this ministry.

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

The Jews Didn’t Reject Their Messiah, the Christians Did.

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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?

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

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!

Mark 2:21 is About Attitude, Not Obedience

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If you are wondering where I have been for the past two weeks, Donna and I were vacationing in Ireland. We had a great time, and later I will post a video of our travels you can watch from my website. You will find it under the Picture Album tab.

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

Before we start, let’s take a look at the passage I am talking about:

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

I have often heard the Christian interpretation of this passage to indicate that Yeshua was teaching that the Torah was no longer applicable to his disciples or followers, because he was giving them something new.

And, to a degree, they are right: Yeshua was teaching his listeners something new… but it wasn’t a new religion rejecting obedience to Torah, it was a new attitude towards how to obey the Torah!

You see, throughout the Gospels, one recurring theme that Yeshua taught was how the Pharisees only taught the P’shat, i.e., the plain language meaning of the laws in the Torah. Yeshua taught the Remes, the deeper, spiritual meaning of those laws, which is truly what the “new covenant” is all about (read Jeremiah 31:31– THAT is the new covenant!)

What Yeshua was talking about was not the Torah, but the attitude we are to have regarding the Torah. We are not just to do it, rote, like some automaton just going through the motions, but we are to live it in our soul, in our heart, in our very essence: we are to BE Torah!

In order for that to happen, the people had to change their understanding of what the Torah really means, and to change their attitude towards God, towards obedience, and especially towards the teachings of the Pharisees.

If they liked what Yeshua taught but continued to live and worship as the Pharisees taught (especially regarding their demands to obey their man-made requirements), then they were like the new patch on old cloth, the new patch being Yeshua’s teachings about the spiritual meaning, but the old cloth being the Pharisaical teachings which left no room for expansion of understanding.

In simpler terms, hearing Yeshua’s deeper understanding of the Torah, but still doing as the Pharisees say will not allow them to expand (stretch) their spiritual being to be more in line with God’s new covenant. That means trying to incorporate Yeshua’s teachings (a new patch) but living the way the Pharisees say to (the old cloth, which can’t stretch), something will have to give. And, sadly, as the parable of the Sower tells us, it will likely be the new teachings.

Therefore, if you have been taught that to follow Yeshua (Jesus) you need to ignore the Torah, you have been taught incorrectly: at least, according to what Yeshua taught.

Salvation is more than just Torah obedience, and it is more than just faith in God and accepting Yeshua as the Messiah- it is loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind (does that sound familiar?); and, when you do that, the Torah will be written on your heart, and you will be a new patch on new cloth, and new wine in new wineskins.

Thank you for being here, and that’s it for this week. Until next time, l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

God’s Grace is Not His Forgiveness

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We read and hear about God’s Grace all the time; it may describe an action from God, it can also describe a prayer said before a meal, but it is not forgiveness.

When we read or hear about “God’s Grace”, it is usually associated with forgiveness, which leads to salvation, but the God’s grace is not really a thing, like the Holy Spirit, which we can feel and have living inside of us.

Grace is not God’s forgiveness; it is his willingness to forgive.

I know, I know… what the heck is that supposed to mean?

Alright, you know that when we sin, we separate ourselves from God’s presence. Every sin, no matter what it is or who we sinned against, is – first and foremost- against God. King David knew this when, after sinning against Bat-Sheba, Uriah, and even Yoab, he said his sin was against God, and God alone (Psalm 51).

Now, being separated from God’s presence and deserving of nothing but punishment, as per God’s rules, we need to be forgiven in order to once again be with God. And, for that to happen, God gave us the sacrificial system (Leviticus 1-7), and later (actually, much later) he sent to the world his Messiah, Yeshua, to replace that part of the sacrificial system dependent on the temple in Jerusalem which, after 73 A.D., wasn’t there anymore.

The sacrificial system is the example of God’s grace; without that system, there would be no way for us to be forgiven. Likewise, the sacrifice Yeshua made replaced the need for an animal sacrifice at the temple, which was (at that time) the only place we could make a sin sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12).

We also see an example of God’s grace in Ezekiel 18:23, where he tells us he doesn’t desire anyone to die, but rather that they turn from their sin, and live.

Can you see, now, that God’s grace is not a thing, but his willingness to forgive us? More than his willingness, it is his desire to forgive us, even when we sin against him, so long as we are truly repentant.

Yeah, being truly repentant is a big part of receiving forgiveness. If you aren’t really upset that you sinned against God (remember- every sin is against God), then it isn’t likely that God will forgive you, grace notwithstanding, because God isn’t stupid. If you sin and don’t care that you sinned, you won’t be forgiven.

Get real, people! God wants to forgive us, but he won’t forgive an unrepentant sinner, and you can’t fool God!

So, nu! I hope this message has helped those who have always thought God’s Grace is his forgiveness, to now know better. Forgiveness is based on confession (which means that you recognize you did sin), repentance (feeling remorse for having sinned), and sacrifice (now available through Messiah Yeshua).

God defined the sacrificial system because he knew that we wouldn’t be able to overcome sin on our own, and his grace, which comes from his desire to be in communion with us, is why he created that system of forgiveness.

Thank you for being here; that’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

The Sins of the Leaders Fall on the People

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Throughout the Bible, we see that the way the kings of Israel and Judea (Northern and Southern kingdoms, respectively) worshipped was forced upon the people, and when the kings did what was right in God’s eyes, they were all blessed; but, when the kings did what was wrong in God’s eyes, everyone suffered- even the people who were not doing evil.

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

In the Northern Kingdom of Israel, also called Shomron, their kings never did anything that was righteous, from the first king, Jeroboam (who was anointed by God!) to the last king, Hoshea, who rebelled against the king of Assyria, resulting in the final destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the distribution of the people into the Diaspora.

In the Southern Kingdom, we had good and bad kings, usually skipping a generation, until the kings got so bad (with Manasseh being the worst) that they, too, were conquered and sent into exile in Babylon.

I believe the term “collateral damage” accurately identifies those righteous people, living under unrighteous leadership, who are forced to suffer because of the sins of their leaders. We see this often throughout the Bible, but more than that, it has been a part of world history, even to this very day.

I do not want to make this ministry a political platform, but when we see the unrighteous and sinful- yes, sinful- ways our leaders are acting and the laws they pass, I can’t help but recall the biblical events that are absolutely the same.

The unrighteous leaders would remove any altars to the one, true God and erect altars of the pagan gods in their place, forcing the people to worship them.

Here in America, today, we have removed any reference to God from our schools and replaced it with drag queens read stories to kindergarten children.

We have honored and encouraged homosexuality by assigning a special day to celebrate it, and now even passing laws that allow children to choose a different gender, even when they haven’t yet reached puberty, which they need to go through to know what it is like to be the gender they were born with.

The government financially supports abortions, making murder legal (so long as the living being is still in the womb). Have you ever asked yourself, how long will it be before they allow the next step, which would be to immediately euthanize a baby the parents decided wasn’t as healthy, or the right gender, or whatever they want it to be?

America’s leadership is helping to financially and militarily support, through the gifts of millions of dollars and billions of dollars of top secret, military equipment, the enemies of Israel. What did God say about that? Wasn’t it something to the effect of “Treat my chosen people well and I’ll bless you, but screw with them and I will mess you up… bad!”? (Genesis 12:3, and yes, God said it differently than my paraphrasing.)

Our economy is worsening at a frightening rate, and there is no confidence in our leadership to control it; the crime rate in many of our major cities is climbing, yet the government of those cities, which is mostly of the current political party in the White House, is allowing those criminals to go free.

And what about the invasion of our country by anarchists, who are here to destroy the morale and safety of American citizens? They are being housed and given health care by the government, while veterans who have risked their lives to protect Americans, live on the streets!

America is, I believe, in the same situation where Judea was after Manasseh was king, when God told the people, through Jeremiah, that the end was coming, and their best bet was to work within the punishment they deserve.

Thomas Jefferson is credited with saying:

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Sadly, I don’t believe that as bad as things are today, which isn’t really that much worse than they have been in America’s past, that we will ever see a revolution here in America. And as far as a civil war, well, I don’t see a military civil war happening here, but we are in a sort of social civil war; it appears to me that we are politically at polar opposition with each other, but what is really sad is that it is not based on political views, per se’, but on how people feel about Donald Trump!

How did we digress so far as to have the country so emotionally at odds with each other, divided because of one man’s personality?

You know, it isn’t really about that man; it is because we have become a godless and sinful country where people are more interested in the personality of their leaders than their abilities and competence in caring for and protecting American citizens.

We aren’t voting for someone, we are voting against someone, and when the choice of leadership for a country comes down to choosing the lesser of two evils, that country is in big trouble!

My political platforming is over, and the message is this: when your leaders are sinful, God will punish everyone under that leadership. The obvious answer is for the righteous people to get together and remove those leaders, and in America the only way to do that is through the elective process, which is also corrupted. And, as a life-long student of American history, you can believe me when I tell you that this isn’t a recent thing, either.

So, what do we do? My suggestion is one of two things: leave the country or, what I would rather suggest, make sure that you are right with God because that is the only way you can be sure that after the tsouris is over, whether or not you survive it alive, you will be with God when you die.

I know that isn’t very comforting, but how can I give you a pleasant future when history shows us that all who have done as our leaders are doing, have suffered greatly?

Bad news, but necessary to hear, so please share this message! Otherwise, while we are still doing OK, let me say that’s it for this week, l’hitraot, and as much as possible, please have a pleasant and restful Shabbat this weekend.

Is Christianity Wrong?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do You Tithe?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Being a Blessing Can Be a Two-Edged Sword

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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