Blog Posts

Who Has the Greater Faith Atheists or Believers

3/3/2015

This is a blog written by our brother Arman Wiggins from Hawaii. I enjoyed it tremendously. I know you will as well.

Why is it important what a person believes? The importance lies in the fact that human beings will act in accordance with what they truly believe. Those actions have consequences, both for the person who acts and for others who are affected by someone else’s actions.

Faith, defined as belief in the absence proof, is common to all human beings. Who will go drive on the road if they believe that other drivers will not stay on their own side of the road? We have faith that they will, even though we have no other basis for this other than past experiences. Head-on collisions show us that at least some of the time that faith is misplaced.

Because neither the existence nor the non-existence of YHWH can be proven using methods available to human beings, any belief one way or the other is based on faith. Whose belief takes the greater leap of faith – the atheist or the believer?

In physics there are some natural laws which are foundational. Those that seem to have the greatest bearing upon the above question are: Conservation of mass; conservation of energy; and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Conservation of mass says that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Conservation of energy says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. And the Second Law of Thermodynamics says that all things tend to equilibrium. This is thought of in terms of heat or energy and also in terms of order and chaos. Such that that which is warmer will dissipate its heat into surrounding cooler areas, over time, until all are at the same temperature. Or order will become disordered, over time, to the extent required to match the surrounding chaos.

Believers believe that God spoke all of creation into existence as stated in Genesis chapter 1 and

John 1:1-3. Atheists must believe that creation sprang into existence of its own accord out of nothing (a violation of Conservation of mass and energy laws). Or they believe that the universe has always existed without beginning or end which would appear to be a violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics since there is no way to explain its operation in our universe if that were true. In other words our universe could not be “winding down” as we see that it is doing if there were not a beginning (higher state of heat/order) and an end (lower state of heat/order). Some atheists have attempted to get around this by theorizing that the universe is not a closed system but can receive or discharge energy and matter to other places outside our universe. If one believes this it must be taken on faith since it can neither be proved nor disproved.

The scriptures tell us that God exists outside of time. Isaiah 46:10, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, “My counsel shall stand, and all My pleasure will I do.” 2 Peter 3:8, “But, beloved, let not this one thing be hidden from you, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. John

8:58, “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you: Before Abraham came into being, I AM!’”

Revelations 1:8, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Psalm 90:2, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever, Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” Psalm 102:25-28, “I say: 'O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, Thou whose years endure throughout all generations. Of old Thou didst lay the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but

Thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall pass away. But Thou art the selfsame, and Thy years shall have no end.’”

In conclusion, we can say that a God who is the Creator of the Universe and exists outside and beyond its constraints satisfies the natural laws that we observe and can explain existence without violating any natural laws. The existence of a Creator God is consistent with the natural laws of the universe. The atheist, in order to maintain his atheism, must believe things that are in violation of natural physical laws or admit that he doesn’t know how things came into being. If he admits to ignorance on this subject, it would seem to preclude his making any argument at all about origins of the Universe.

The foregoing does not prove the existence of a Creator God. But it does imply that of all the explanations we have for the existence of the universe, a Creator God is the most plausible. Still, the only way we can come to Him is through faith. And interestingly that is all He requires of us for our salvation. Romans 10:9-11, “Because if you confess the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame."

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Antisemitism is alive and well

2/7/2015

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In 2008 the Lausanne Conference on Jewish Evangelism was hosted in Boston, MA. Sha’ar helped to host this conference by providing support with our sound system, a sound engineer, and transportation. I also spoke on two subjects; the first being on “Creative evangelism” and the second entitled, “A perspective on the Arab and Israeli conflict”.

Foolishly, I was under the assumption that this group was in unity concerning the right of Israel to exist as an autonomous Jewish state. I was so wrong. After my presentation I was pretty much vilified by a very large contingency in that conference. I was branded as a hater. For the rest of the conference I was ignored by most of the attendees. The silence directed towards me was deafening.

After the conference I was even approached by a very prominent leader in Jewish ministries and told that if I wanted to be taken seriously in Jewish ministry I needed to tone down my rhetoric.

I categorically rejected their evaluation of my presentation. After reading an article this week from the Lausanne Conference and their stance on Israel and the Jews, I decided to write a critique and repost my initial presentation.

They say that they want to evangelize Jews for the Gospel’s sake. Yet they speak of Israel as being an apartheid state. What does the conference want to do, turn Jews into self-hating Israel rejecting Christians after their own image? I not only wholeheartedly reject that but I will continue to publically preach against it. The “Church” has forgotten its place as the adopted children and continues as it has done throughout history to try and usurp the natural-born sons.

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands--

Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without YHVH in the world.

Eph 2:13 But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.

Eph 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,

What don’t they get about passages like this? The Gentiles have been brought in to the

Commonwealth of Israel. We, who are Jewish believers, are what they have been grafted into.

The “Christian” church does not replace or usurp the natural-born children; they come along side of them. But as history has shown us, so many of them have done exactly what Rom. 11 has warned them not to do.

Rom 11:18 do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.

Feel free to read the rest of Rom. 11 for the rest of the context.

The Lausanne Conference is a clear example of this boasting. Here are a few quotes from the Lausanne Conference and the article.

“The one Church that God has called into being in Christ is drawn from every nation, tribe, people, and language, with the result that no single ethnic identity can claim to be ‘God’s chosen people.’ God’s election of Old Testament Israel was for the sake of the eventual creation of this multi-national community of God’s people … We strongly affirm, therefore, that while there are multiple ethnicities within the one church by God’s clear intention, no single ethnic group holds privileged place in God’s economy of salvation or God’s eschatological purpose. Thus, we strongly believe that the separate and privileged place given to the modern Israeli state, in certain forms of dispensationalism or Christian Zionism, should be challenged.”

This was a statement prepared by the Theology Working Group in connection with Lausanne III.

From the website “Breaking Israel News” in an article called “Leading Evangelical Organization Calls on Christian Zionists to Repent for Supporting Israel”.

One of the world’s leading Christian Evangelical organizations is targeting Christian support for the State of Israel in what it calls a sinful practice, Israel Hayom first reported.

“The Lausanne Movement has decried Christian Zionism in the past and its newest anti-Israel campaign is not new.

“For over 60 years, many Evangelicals have clung to a very narrow theological narrative that weds Christian theology with a political ideology known as Zionism,” wrote Steve Haas, vice presidents of World Vision US, in the latest issue of Lausanne Global Analysis.

Haas compared Christian Zionists to Spanish inquisitors, Crusaders, supporters of apartheid South Africa, and other historical atrocities.

As a whole, the Lausanne movement has developed a negative obsession with Israel over the last several years. Senior leaders within Lausanne espouse the idea that Israel, the Jewish state, is the chief persecutor of Christians and other peoples in the Middle East.”

www.breakingisraelnews.com/28765/leading-evangelical-movement-calls-on-christian-zionists-to-repent-for-supporting-israel-biblical-zionism/#kQjcU04XtvsmrmVt.99

The Lausanne conference has gone the way of many in the “Church” who not only speak against Israel, but speak on behalf of the illegitimate Palestinian cause. These so-called Palestinians believe that they are the ancient indigenous people who originally inhabited the land. They also believe they have what is known as the right of return, the right to come back to Israel and claim their “ancient land”.

This why I wrote the article – to combat this historically and Biblically incorrect premise. So here is the original article and presentation I gave at the 2008 conference. You be the judge.

A PERSPECTIVE ON THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

Henry Morse

The withdrawal in the Gaza and soon to be the West Bank has captured world attention and various opinions from every different political and religious angle. The problem I find in most of these opinions is that few of them are based on Biblical or historical facts. Though many people present themselves as authorities few really speak with any sense of accuracy that can be verified. I would like to approach this issue from the historical aspect and then the Biblical basis for my argument.

The accepted premise among many is that the Palestinians should have the right to govern themselves in the land that they have occupied for centuries. They present themselves as the ancient people who have been in the land from the beginning and are now under occupation by the Zionist oppressors. Very few know this but there are no such people historically, ethnically or otherwise known as Palestinians. The word Palestine came into existence when in 132 AD, after putting down the second Jewish revolt, the Emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem into a Roman city naming it after his family name, Aelia Capitolonia. He also changed the name of Judea, Samaria and Galilee to "Syria Palestina". This ascribed to the land a name connected to Israel's archenemies the Philistines. Both of these acts were done to erase the connection of Israel and Jerusalem from the Jewish people. This name has stuck with the land from that time hence. It has since been anglicized into the name Palestine. The Philistines no longer exist as a people. I dare any Arab to trace his ancestry back to the Philistines. I was under the impression that they traced their line back to Abraham through Ishmael. They can't have it both ways. They are either children of Abraham or Philistines. Please understand that I am giving you information that can be backed up in any local library.

Concerning the issue of there being an ancient people named Palestinians who have occupied the land for centuries, this is just a bold faced lie. All one must do is look at the historical record of the region by various writers and historians. One said writer "Mark Twain" reported in his Journal during his visit to "Palestine" in 1867:

It is a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds - a silent mournful expanse. We never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil had almost deserted the country. (The Innocents Abroad).

The report of the Palestine Royal Commission quotes an account of the Coastal Plain 1913:

The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and carts. no orange groves, orchards or vineyards were to be seen until one reaches Yavne village. Houses were all of mud. Schools did not exist. The western part, towards the sea was almost a desert. The villages in this area were few and thinly populated. many villages were deserted by their inhabitants.

The French author Voltaire described "Palestine" as, "a hopeless, dreary place."

These writers must have been reporting on the state of the barren land and the poor oppressed "Palestinian" indigenous people under the oppression of the Zionist occupiers. HELLO! The period of time between 1516 and 1917 was under the rule of the Moslems. This was known as the Turkish rule. During this 400 year rule the land was sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and widely neglected. This was the case, because when the Jews were thrown out of Israel under Hadrian's rule, the land was neglected for the next 2000 years until 1918 when, under British rule, Lord Balfour declared that Israel should be a home land for the Jews. It was at that time when Jews returned to the land they made the desert bloom.

Isa 51:3 For Jehovah shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

It wasn't until the Jews came back to their homeland and made it habitable, cultivated the land and brought industry and infrastructure to Israel that the so called "ancient Palestinians" wanted anything to do with this land. The word "Palestinian" that we use to describe these people today before 1919 referred to any one who lived in the land at that time, this was Jews and Arabs. After 1919 "Palestine" was considered that portion of land in the Middle East that was designated for the Jewish people as a homeland. This homeland included what we know today as Jordan east of the river and Israel west of the river. The Jewish presence in Israel has been for 3000 years. Islam has only been in in existence since approximately 600 AD. The Palestinian Arabs as we know them today have only been around since the time Jews started coming back to their land in the late 1800s and early 1900s under the leadership of Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism.

Modern "Palestine" was created by the League of Nations. There were no preexisting people known as Palestinians. There were the Jews and the few left over nomads that were unfortunate enough to be stuck there during the Turkish rule which lasted from 1517 to 1917.

When Jews stated moving back to the Land in the 1880s they purchased land from absentee Arab landlords who lived in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut. The price paid for this land was at an exorbitant rate of $1000.00 an acre. The land at the time was either malaria infested swamps or barren deserts. In contrast rich black soil in Iowa was selling for $110.00 an acre that same year, as stated by the U.S. Dept of Agriculture.

What we need to keep in mind is that the entire Near East was carved up by the nations that were in control at various and sundry times. Countries were made and dissolved as a result of the political needs of the ruling powers. This certainly was the case when in 1948 the land that was promised to Israel was whittled down to 17.5 % of the original land promised to them when "Palestine" was designated as their homeland. In 1946 Jordan was created and the land Known as Palestine was now artificially reassigned to mean the land west of the Jordan River. This is illustrated in the diagram above. Where was world outcry then when the poor Palestinian Jews were loosing their land to the imperialistic Arab Muslims?

On May 14th 1948, when Israel was declared a nation by the UN, it shrunk even more when the West bank and Gaza Strip were declared a separate Palestinian State. Each time Israel was being carved up the Jews accepted the land that was given them. Each time the Arabs got more land they demanded more. In 1949 King Hussein, who is a Saudi Arabian, ignored the UN partition and annexed the west bank to Jordan. May I remind you that Jordan was in the original boundaries of land that was promised to Israel as a homeland in 1919 under the British Mandate. Why is it that promises to Israel mean nothing and can be broken at a whim without world outcry? Why is it that Muslim/Arabs can make demands that are not reasonable and get away with it while committing terrorist activities all in the name of the Palestinian cause, a cause that they have invented?

So where did all of the Palestinians come from? We must remember that the land was barren until the Jews came back and reclaimed it. The Jews are presently 1/10 of 1 percent of the worlds population. We are just not that large of a people group. There are approximately 1 billion Muslims. When the land became livable again, after the Jews repopulated, the Turks and then the British restricted Jewish immigration to the land even during WWII. Yet, to appease the Arabs they allowed unrestricted immigration from the neighboring Arab countries. This is information that is found in the 1939 British White Paper. You can find out about this I am sure at any Library.

I find it rather odd that the "Palestinians" continue to make demands that are not reasonable, practical, Biblical or historically defended. Yet, the world and some in the church continue, in their ignorance, to cow tow to them. This is all done in the name of the poor oppressed people who just want to have their own land, a land that does not belong to them, but nonetheless their own land. I find it also odd that when they were offered the very same land they are demanding now during the UN partition in 1948 they refused it. My question to them would be, what is their motivation? Do they really want the land or are they more interested in the destruction of the Jews.

Don't the Jews have the right to have a land of their own? They are a people who have struggled under every form of persecution known to man for more than 2000 years. The world still wants to do everything in their power to keep them from that small little strip of land about the size of New Jersey. The Muslims have enough land collectively to make up a country the size of the USA including Alaska and Hawaii and 1/3 of Canada. Don't they have enough land to absorb these "Palestinians"?

Since its modern inception Israel has had to fight for its very existence. During WWII 1/3 of all Jews were wiped off the face of this planet. They have constantly been on the defensive for their very survival as a people. In the year 1941 the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini met with Adolph Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joachim Von Ribbentrop to convince them to extend their Jewish annihilation program to the Middle East. The Mufti was the most authoritative spokesman for the Arab world in his day. Given the repeated history of their enemies can you blame them for not trusting the Arabs word?

The day after Israel's independence, May 14th 1948, every bordering Arab nation sent troops to join with the Jordanian forces in a war of aggression against this fledgling state. They descended upon the "Zionist imperialists" to "Push them into the sea" They were outnumbered by 100 to 1. Israel, which had virtually no heavy artillery, no tanks, and only four decrepit airplanes, had to defend itself against Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq! That's 600,000 Jews against 45 million Arabs, while the United Nations did nothing. After a series of attacks, counter-attacks, and truces, the war ended on January 7, 1949.

It just does not make sense for this nation, fighting for its existence, to wage a war of aggression against the entire Arab world. Just 3 years prior WWII ended with as I said above 1/3 of all world Jewry destroyed. This would have been a suicide wish.

I clipped this from a pro-Palestinian web site. This is their impression of the events that lead up to the war on May 15th 1948. Here is their address for you to read it yourself:

<http://thewebfairy.com/nerdcities/Palestine/conquest-timeline.htm>

May 15, 1948 "The armies of the Arab states enter the civil war. The State of Israel is proclaimed, and more importantly the British wash their hands of Palestine. The Arab states cannot ignore the massacres of Palestinians and the outright theft of all their property. They put together an army of about 20,000 and enter the war in support of their brethren, in an attempt to resist this brutal invasion of Arab land. Unfortunately, the Jews had between 40,000 and 60,000 well equipped fighters and the outcome was never in doubt unless the Arab states committed more troops and resources. Note that the Arab states could not support their brethren directly before May 15, 1948, or they would have ended up fighting the British (although some irregulars from these countries had joined the local Palestinian fighters").

This is an outright lie. The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha said, on May 15th 1948, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous Massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades." Does this sound like the statement of a defender or an aggressor? Do the poor oppressed "Palestinians" sound like they felt like the "outcome was never in doubt" Do they sound defeated?

Can anyone deny the right of existence for a people group? This is what the Jew has had to endure. All they have ever wanted is to raise their families and survive as a people. The historical record backs up the fact that they were willing to do this alongside of their Arab neighbors. The quote below should reveal to you of the sentiment of the Jews at the time of their independence. "Accordingly we, the members of the National Council met together in solemn assembly today and by virtue of the natural and historic right of the Jewish people and with the support of the resolution of the General of the United Nations, hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine to be called Israel... "We offer peace and amity to all neighboring states and their peoples and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all... "With trust in the Rock of Israel, we set our hands to this declaration at this session of the Provisional State Council in the city of Tel Aviv on Sabbath Eve, 5th Iyar 5708, 14th day of May 1948."

No religious Moslem nation in the world has Jews in any governmental position. Israel has Arabs in their Knesset and Senate. The Jews have from the beginning had to be on the defensive for their very survival. Their only other option is to die. The history of the Arab nations is set in stone. They have always wanted nothing less than the destruction of every Jew on the face of the planet. Where is the world outcry for the sake of the Jew?

I have yet to see an Israeli Strap on a bomb and blow himself up with his enemies including innocent women, children and fellow Jews. Does this seem like a logical way to solve the Middle East conflict? Why am I am I unable to see the logic in these actions? Why do so many people in the world refuse to also see it the way it really is? I do have an answer for any one who is willing to listen. It is logical, Biblical and historically sound.

The nation of Israel as we know it was created by God. Before Abraham there were no Jews. He is the father of the nation. The children of Israel are not a race they are a family. They are the children of Abraham. These children were promised a land and a special job description. This is found in Genesis 12:1-3.

Gen 12:1 And Jehovah said to Abram, Go out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house into a land that I will show you. Gen 12:2 And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. Gen 12:3 And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.

God has promised blessings to the world if they would bless Israel. This is also found in many scriptural references throughout the word of God, Here are just a few of those references, Gen 22:18, Is 42:5-8, 43:9-12, 49:6.

The most important blessing that the world would receive in their relationship to Israel would be relationship with God and salvation. Islam, which is only approximately 1400 years old, has since its beginning tried to usurp Israel from its place in God's plan. Islam teaches that the promised seed does not come from Abraham's son Isaac but that Ishmael the illegitimate son of Sarah's handmaiden is the promised seed.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

In the Qur'an, Ishmael is known as the first-born son of Abraham from his second wife Hagar and an appointed Prophet of God (also mentioned in the Bible). Islamic tradition holds that Abraham married Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. As a result Ishmael was the first legitimate son of Abraham. Islam asserts that he was the one nearly sacrificed, not Isaac (or Ishaq in the Qur'an). Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God is celebrated by Muslims every year as Eid ul-Adha.

Islamic tradition holds that Ishmael and Hagar were sent to the deserts of Arabia on the orders of God (Allah). The Bible claims that Sarah, after the birth of Isaac, sent Hagar and Ishmael away. He and his mother settled in Mecca (or "Makkah") and were without water. The frantic running of his mother in pursuit of water led to a miraculous spring appearing from the ground (from God) known as the Zamzam Well. Ishmael then helped his father, Abraham, build the House of God, or the Kaaba, in Mecca.

The scripture teaches the very opposite. In Gen. 22:15-18 it reads:

And the Angel of Jehovah called to Abraham out of the heavens the second time, and said, I have sworn by Myself, says Jehovah; because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only one; that in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And your Seed shall possess the gate of His enemies. And in your Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

That son was Isaac, not Ishmael.

Gen 17:21 But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time in the next year.

Gen 21:10 And she said to Abraham, Cast out this slave woman and her son. For the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son, with Isaac.

Gen 22:2 And He said, Take now your son, your only one, Isaac, whom you love. And go into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will name to you.

The way that Islam obtains its legitimacy is to de-legitimize Israel and change its history. This is called replacement theology. They seem to have a problem with verifying the facts. This they have done for 1400 years. They continue to do it with their modern history. It's time that thinking people are willing stand up and say, "Just the facts ma'am, just the facts".

If we in America keep insisting that Israel give up the land, I am fearful for the out-come. Some people, including some spiritual leaders, are saying our recent catastrophes are as a result of our sin. I don't have a revelation from God, but this wouldn't be too far fetched. Neither would it be inconsistent with God's character. After all He is a judge. He judged Israel in their sin. What makes the USA think we are exempt from God's judgment? We have thrown God out of our society. Why would we expect His protection, when we have told Him we want nothing to do with Him? Whether or not it is the Lord's judgment, or just God being a gentleman and doing what we asked, He is still in control. And there is one thing I know; He will not tolerate people messing with His people or His Land.

2 Sa 7:22-24 says:

Therefore You are great, O Jehovah God. For there is none like You, neither is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And what one nation in the earth is like Your people, like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to Himself, and to make Him a name, and to do for You great things and terrible, for Your land, before Your people, whom You redeemed to You from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? For You have confirmed to Yourself Your people Israel to be a people to You forever. And You, Jehovah, have become their God.

2 Ch 7:19-20 says:

But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and if you shall go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck them up by the roots out of My land which I have given them. And this house which I have sanctified for My name, I will cast out of My sight, and I will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.

Joe 2:17-19 says:

Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Have pity on Your people, O Jehovah, and give not Your inheritance to shame, for a proverb among those of the nations. Why should they say among the people, Where is their God? Joe 2:18 Then Jehovah will be jealous for His land and pity His people. Joe 2:19 Yes, Jehovah will answer and say to His people, Behold, I will send you grain, and wine, and oil, and you shall be satisfied with it. And I will no more make you a curse among the nations.

I could be wrong, but it seems rather curious to me that the Lord takes so much pride in His land and in His people. If this is good enough for Him then it should be good enough for the Church.

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I often wonder

1/14/2015

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Before you endeavor to read this blog, I would like to say that in no way, shape, or form am I judging anyone’s individual salvation. I leave that up to the Lord. I am, however, judging the fruit of the “Church”. After all, the Scripture says…

1Co 5:9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;

1Co 5:10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

1Co 5:11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one.

1Co 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?

This judgment is based on the actions or fruit of those who call themselves

believers. We must be people of discernment. It seems to me that over the

centuries, there has enough information out there based on the actions of the

“Church” to implicate this institution in some pretty serious infractions against the

Biblical standard. Our job is to identify the infractions and make the corrections.

I often wonder, if the first century believers ever came back to life, would they look at the state of the “Church” today and think to themselves, yup, just what I thought it would look like. I mean, with the estimated 38,000 denominations and all of their varied doctrinal distinctives, did they imagine the “Church” becoming a splintered and fractured community of congregations thinking each of them were an oasis unto themselves?

It is not like these are small issues relating to liturgy or polity. Every group that has sprung up has done so because they believe that they are the vicars of the new or improved truth.

Calvinists make their distinction from all other groups because they believe in predestination; Catholics put their trust in the Catholic Church and the Pope as the final authority; Pentecostals emphasis the gifts and charismata of the believer.

Here is a partial list of the different “Christian” groups out there. Each has its own distinctive. There are enough alone in this very incomplete and partial list to make your head spin.

Presbyterians; Episcopals; Anglicans; independents; Charismatics; Hyper faith; Prosperity teachers; Quakers; Mormons; Jehovah witnesses; Mennonites; Lutherans; Assemblies of God; Four Square; Seventh Day Adventists; Congregationalist; African Methodist Episcopal; Salvation Army; Church of God; Church of Christ; Vineyard; Calvary Chapel; Reformed Churches; Advent Christian; Greek Orthodox; Russian Orthodox; Coptic; Christian Science; Plymouth Brethren.

As far as I could count there were at least 95 different distinct Baptist groups, each having some doctrine that differed from the rest. This is not counting the sub-Baptist groups under each category. Mind you some of the differences among them were smaller than others; but nonetheless, there were differences. Is this the way the Lord intended His body of believers to look? It would seem not according to His Word.

John 17:

6“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7“Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; 8for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. 9“I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; 10and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11“I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.

And again in vs 20…

20“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Their Future Glory

22“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

It seems pretty clear to me that the desire of the Lord was that the believers be in unity so that His name would be glorified. I could be wrong, but 38,000 denominations is just a bit indicative of a slight break in unity. There is nothing more conclusive of the fact that the “Church” is dysfunctional than this.

Shouldn’t it be our goal as believers in Yeshua to live lives that mirror the original believers? How will we do that? Wouldn’t it be beneficial to understand all about the life of those first believers by knowing their history, culture, language, and idioms? I know one thing: I have never been able to speak Ebonics with any degree of success. So please don’t send me out to an inner city neighborhood expecting me to know the culture or expressions. They are all interconnected. This is the same way we should be approaching the Scriptures.

No one in their right mind could think that you could read a 2,000-year-old middle eastern document applying to it a 21st century westernized understanding of the world. This would be an anthropological nightmare. No scholar would accept this standard in trying to decipher an ancient text. So why are we trying to bring this standard of interpretation to the Scriptures?

These were Jewish men who wrote a Jewish document in the Hebrew language to a world 2,000 years ago. The English language is full of abstract thought. The Hebrew language does not use abstracts. The ancient Hebrew language is very utilitarian. They were an agrarian culture. They made a subsistence living. They spoke from their life’s experience. There is no comparison to modern day western language or culture. So how do “Christian Scholars” get away with this new standard of interpretation? A standard that has led us to this fractured representation of the “Church”. It is very simple to answer. I call it the de-judafication of the Gospel.

Once “Christianity” became a separate religious entity apart from its Jewish roots, it changed into something unrecognizable. Therefore, it was easy for it to also split into many factions each with its own distinctive slant. Everyone wants to be the chosen people with the revelation of the Lord, but no one wants to suffer as the Jews have. I just can’t imagine that anyone with an ounce of brains could look at what the “Church” has become in all of its divisions and claim that this was the plan of the Lord.

Let’s look at something very practical. We can’t even understand the fullness of the Scripture without looking at simple words and their meaning in the original Hebrew. In Gen 1:26 we see that the Lord creates man in His own image, and then in vs 27 He creates male and female in His image. Is there a contradiction here? Who was created in the Lord’s image, males or females?

Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

Gen 1:27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Here is the problem, the word used for man in the Hebrew is Adam. Adam in the Hebrew

Means…

adam (9a); from an unused word; man, mankind: - any man (2), anyone (4), anyone’s (1), being *(1), common sort *(1), human (19), infantry (1), low degree *(1), low *(1), man (363), man’s (20), man *(1), mankind (9), men (104), men of low degree *(1), men’s (3), men *(4), mortal (1), one (3), people (1), person (5), person *(1), persons (3), population (1), someone (1).

In this context the Lord is speaking about mankind not man as in gender. In vs 27 he uses the word Zakar, this speaking of gender.

zakar (271b); from H2142; male: - boy (2), intimately *(3), male (56), males (19), man (4).

The word for female used is Neqebah, again, this is in reference to gender.

neqebah (666c); from H5344a; a female: - female (20), woman (1), women (1).

So what we have in the Hebrew more accurately is that the Lord created mankind in His image. Male and female together, as a complex unit, they make up mankind when they are joined as one. This represents the image of the Lord.

Gen 2:24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

In their joining together they complete the image of the Lord. The word that is used for “God” is Elohim. Elohim is a complex plural noun. The He, singular, is an Elohim, Complex plural. So to review, Elohim created Mankind, male and female to come together as one. Their complex union completes the image of the Lord they were created in. You can’t get this understanding in the limited English culture or language. You can only fully understand how this works by examining Hebrew thought.

Put the Jewish context back into the Gospel and you have the original intent of the author.

As a result of not knowing this Jewish context there are “Churches” who now accept homosexuality as a legitimate alternative lifestyle. How is this acceptable, that so called “Christians” have come to the conclusion that the behavior that contradicts the very creation narrative has been so easily perverted by some “churches” who still claim to represent the Lord. Can’t anyone see the conflict with this scenario?

With all due respect, I do believe that the Apostles and Prophets would tear out their hair if they ever came back to the earth and saw this kind of behavior.

There are so many aberrant doctrines out there that have nothing to do with the Scriptures, it is a wonder how people cannot logically see how far they have come from the Biblical standard.

There are “Churches” who now celebrate what is called “Chrislam”. This is a combination of pseudo “Christian” and Islamic doctrines. Both the Koran and the Bible are in the pews. Both texts are read in the service. This religious combination makes a toxic mixture which serves no one but its adherents. It seems to work until the time when it bites them all in the tush. Islam will eventually rear up its ugly head and do what is does best, kill anyone who does not submit. Those fools who think they can combine their faiths into one are self deluded and believe that they can reinvent the Biblical faith to suite their whim. One of its supporters is Rick Warren, the author of the “Purpose driven Life”.

Yeshua said in regards to His exclusive claims…

Joh 14:5 Thomas *said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?"

Joh 14:6 Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Joh 14:7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."

Why have so many left the Hebrew Biblical standard? Simple, it is a Satanic plot to change the Scriptural mandate. Do away with Israel, the Jews, and the Jewish Messiah, and the Gospel can morph into anything, including Chrislam. Now that Israel is divorced from the Gospel in the eyes of many in the “Church”, Satan can even replace Israel with the Palestinians as the true indigenous people of the land. Some are now claiming that “Jesus” was a Palestinian.

From the Jerusalem Post 12/29/14

Just as he does every December, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, along with other PA officials, made the Christmastime claim that Jesus Christ was a Palestinian, rather than a Judean.

Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Supreme Shari'ah Judge and Mahmoud Abbas' Adviser on Religious and Islamic Affairs joined the conversation, expressing the close ties between Palestine and the birth of Jesus Christ.

"Christmas is also a Palestinian holiday, because Jesus, peace be upon him, was Palestinian. He was born in Palestine; lived and was sent [as prophet] to Palestine,” Al-Habbash said. “Therefore, Christmas has a special Palestinian flavor.'"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rev. Dr. Naim Stifan Ateek (Arabic: نعيم عتيق‎, Na’īm ’Ateeq) (born in the Palestinian village of Beisan in 1937) is a Palestinian priest in the Anglican Church and founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.[1][2] He has been an active leader in the shaping of the Palestinian liberation theology. He was the first to articulate a Palestinian theology of liberation in his book, Justice, and only Justice, a Palestinian Theology of Liberation, published by Orbis in 1989, and based on his dissertation for his degree in theology.[3] The book laid the foundation of a theology that addresses the conflict over Palestine and explores the political as well as the religious, biblical, and theological dimensions. A former Canon of St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem,

The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (also known simply as Sabeel), headquartered in Jerusalem, describes itself as "an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians", which "encourages Christians from around the world to work for justice and to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people".[6]

Will the madness ever end?

How can the “Church” sing “where is He that is born the King of the Jews” and then deny that Yeshua is the King of the Jews and not the King of the Palestinians? I am sorry to say as it has been in the past, it will continue to be. For centuries the Church has denied the Biblical Jewish roots of the faith, and as we draw near to the end it is going to get worse.

The Scripture commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, not Al Quds. (the Arabic name of Jerusalem).

Psa 122:1 A Song of Ascents, of David. I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."

Psa 122:2 Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem,

Psa 122:3 Jerusalem, that is built as a city that is compact together;

Psa 122:4 To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the LORD-- An ordinance for Israel-- To give thanks to the name of the LORD.

Psa 122:5 For there thrones were set for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

Psa 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you.

Psa 122:7 "May peace be within your walls, And prosperity within your palaces."

Psa 122:8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, "May peace be within you."

Psa 122:9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

The early “Church” fathers were wildly anti-semitic. They had no problems at all making their sentiment known.

From the Website www.yashanet.com/library/fathers.htm

Ignatius Bishop of Antioch (98-117A.D.) – Epistle to the Magnesians

For if we are still practicing Judaism, we admit that we have not received God’s favor…it is wrong to talk about Jesus Christ and live like Jews. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity.

"Epistle of Barnabas" Chapter 4vs 6-7 (between 130A.D. and 138 A.D.)

Take heed to yourselves and be not like some piling up your sins and saying that the covenant is theirs as well as ours. It is ours, but they lost it completely just after Moses received it.

Justin Martyr - Dialogue with Trypho (Between 138A.D. and 161 A.D.)

We too, would observe your circumcision of the flesh, your Sabbath days, and in a word, all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you, namely, because of your sins and the hardness of heart.

Origen of Alexandria (185-254 A.D.) – An ecclesiastical writer and teacher who contributed to the early formation of Christian doctrines.

We may thus assert in utter confidence that the Jews will not return to their earlier situation, for they have committed the most abominable of crimes, in forming this conspiracy against the Savior of the human race…hence the city where Jesus suffered was necessarily destroyed, the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people was called by God to the blessed election.

John Chrysostom (344-407 A.D.) – One of the "greatest" of church fathers, known as "The Golden Mouthed." A missionary preacher famous for his sermons and addresses.

The synagogue is worse than a brothel…it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts…the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults…the refuge of brigands and debaucheries, and the cavern of devils. It is a criminal assembly of Jews…a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ… a house worse than a drinking shop…a den of thieves, a house of ill fame, a dwelling of iniquity, the refuge of devils, a gulf and a abyss of perdition."…"I would say the same things about their souls… As for me, I hate the synagogue…I hate the Jews for the same reason.

St. Augustine (c. 354-430 A.D.), Confessions, 12.14

How hateful to me are the enemies of your Scripture! How I wish that you would slay them (the Jews) with your two-edged sword, so that there should be none to oppose your word! Gladly would I have them die to themselves and live to you!

Peter the Venerable – known as "the meekest of men, a model of Christian charity"

Yes, you Jews. I say, do I address you; you, who till this very day, deny the Son of God. How long, poor wretches, will ye not believe the truth? Truly I doubt whether a Jew can be really human… I lead out from its den a monstrous animal, and show it as a laughing stock in the amphitheater of the world, in the sight of all the people. I bring thee forward, thou Jew, thou brute beast, in the sight of all men.

The founders of the protestant “Church” were also guilty of serious anti Jewish sentiment.

Martin Luther in His Article the “Jews and their Lies”

“Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them.”

“Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury. Thus they live from day to day, together with wife and child, by theft and robbery, as arch-thieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security.

However, they have not acquired a perfect mastery of the art of lying; they lie so clumsily and ineptly that anyone who is just a little observant can easily detect it. But for us Christians they stand as a terrifying example of God's wrath.”

Here is a true example of “Christian” love. What a testimony he had to the very people Yeshua chose from among all the nations.

“Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a noble, precious jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?”

Deu 7:6 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Deu 7:7 "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

Deu 7:8 but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

I wonder if Mr. Luther ever read this passage?

Then we have John Calvin another theological shining light in the “Christian” world.

Their [the Jews] rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone.

Excerpt from "Ad Quaelstiones et Objecta Juaei Cuiusdam Responsio," by John Calvin; The Jew in Christian Theology, Gerhard Falk, McFarland and Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC and London, 1931.

Why in the world would I want to trust anything they say theologically when they couldn’t even get the fundamentals right? How can I trust historical “Christianity” when they refuse to embrace the roots of their faith in neither word nor deed?

Rom 11:1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Rom 11:2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

Rom 11:11 I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.

Rom 11:12 Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!

Rom 11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

Rom 11:25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation--that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;

This seems pretty clear to me: Don’t boast against the natural branches (Israel) lest you be cut off. Time and space does not permit me to write the entire history of anti- Semitism. Feel free to Google it yourself. Do it on a day when you have some spare time. The entire history of anti-Semitism has been perpetuated by the “Church”. What would make me want to trust this institution especially when this behavior still persists today and gets worse as we approach the end time?

The Catholic Church in their document Lumin Gentium declares that Islam believes in the same “God” that they do. Islam does nothing but threaten the existence of the Jews.

From Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, article 16:

“But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohamedans, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind.”

John Paul II, however, endorsed this "one God" approach on more than a single occasion, reiterating: “We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection.”

In the Hadith, the writings of Mohammed, it says…

"Judgment Day will come only when the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, until the Jew hides behind the tree and the stone, and the tree and the stone say: ‘Oh Muslim, Oh servant of Allah , there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him’

Again time and space do not permit this article to record all of the anti-Semitic statements in the Koran or Hadiths, but feel free to Google them for yourself. They are out there and easy to find. Is this the same Islam that believes in the same “God” as the Catholic Church?

The point I am trying to make is that you cannot hate the Jewish People and love the Jewish Messiah. You cannot claim to believe in the King of the Jews and divorce His message from His History, culture, language, idioms, and celebrations. The dejudification of the Gospel has been the factor that has contributed to the fractured nature of the “Church”. As long as “Christians” in the “Church” continue to deny their place as the adopted children, they will continue in some way, shape, or form try and usurp the natural-born children. Anti-Semitism has been its downfall. It will continue to do so because it has been prophesied.

As I said in this article in the first paragraph, I am not judging any individual’s salvation. I am, however, judging the church’s history.

I pray that in this little article I might change a few minds so that they would come back to the roots of their faith and abandon the foolishness that has passed itself off as a representation of the King of the Jews and His message of salvation.

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands--

Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without YHVH in the world.

Eph 2:13 But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah.

Eph 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,

Eph 2:15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,

Eph 2:16 and might reconcile them both in one body to YHVH through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

Eph 2:17 AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR;

Feel free to come back anytime to your inheritance. Comments are welcome.

Shalom uvracha b’Yeshua Rabbi Henry

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Spiritual Bluff and Bluster

12/30/2014

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Everyone wants to be a mouthpiece for the Lord, but few are willing to just simply speak His Word as it is written. Today people look at the role of the prophet in the same way that the secular world looks at the celebrity. But scripturally speaking, the role of the prophet is not one that should be viewed lightly. More times than not the prophet was reviled, castigated, and vilified, just as it was in the case of Elijah.

1Ki 19:1 Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

1Ki 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time."

1Ki 19:3 And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

1Ki 19:4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."

1Ki 19:5 He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, "Arise, eat."

1Ki 19:6 Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

1Ki 19:7 The angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you."

1Ki 19:8 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

1Ki 19:9 Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

1Ki 19:10 He said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

1Ki 19:11 So He said, "Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

1Ki 19:12 After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.

1Ki 19:13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

1Ki 19:14 Then he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

I wonder; if the treatment of the so-called modern prophets today was the same as it was in the days of Elijah, would we have this upsurge in people who want to speak for the Lord? There are self-proclaimed prophets everywhere and most of them make a pretty good living at it.

Here is a list of modern day prophets.

http://www.elijahlist.com/links.html

There is even a school to learn from. http://propheticministries.org/school/school.htm

Just pay $19.95 plus shipping and handling and get the complete CD set.

I don’t think they had a list like this during the days of Isaiah, Elijah, or Daniel. It’s so good to know that the prophets are out there and all I need to do is find them on the internet.

Check out some posts of those “prophets”; their words were not exactly what I believe reflects the typical Biblical model. I don’t know these people, I have never met them, and I am not judging them. I am judging their words. I am obligated by Scripture to test the spirits and see if they are from the Lord.

1Jo 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from the Lord, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

The Father says:
“The enemy has targeted some of you since birth because he knew I had a call on your life. Since birth, you have been attacked, oppressed, rejected, despised, silenced, and wounded. THIS DAY, I AM REVERSING ALL THE ENEMY HAS DONE TO YOU. I AM RESTORING ALL THAT WAS STOLEN. FOR YOU ARE CHERISHED IN MY SIGHT AND GREATLY VALUED. AND I WILL DISPLAY MY LOVINGKINDESS IN YOUR LIFE FOR ALL TO SEE. YOU WILL BE LIFTED UP, AND MY GOODNESS AND MERCY WILL BE WITH YOU AND FOLLOW YOU ALL THE DAYS OF YOUR LIFE, AND YOU WILL REJOICE IN MY GOODNESS. THE DAYS OF YOUR SORROW ARE OVER. THE DAYS OF YOUR REJOICING ARE HERE." - Jeffrey Stewart

From THE PORTLAND SESSIONS: SCHOOL OF PROPHECY

"God is measuring us for a blessing. He wants to move you into fullness because that is the only measure that He is comfortable with: Fullness! You choose the depth that you want to travel in, but He wants you in over your head!"

Now these might seem to be rather harmless and encouraging messages. What harm can something like this cause? The problem is that these “prophetic utterances” were so generic that they could apply to anyone or no one. What if the one reading this applies it to him or herself and that person loses someone dear to them. How about if they end up in the hospital? Does that mean that the Lord does not cherish them? Have they lost His loving-kindness? After all the “prophets” did declare that the “Father said”. These “prophets” presume an awful lot of authority in the life of their readers in the name of the Father. This is dangerous ground to tread on, and I for one don’t want to be on that road.

This year my wife had a brain tumor. This was not fun for anyone in my family, especially my wife. Did we lose the Lord’s favor and blessing? Not at all! We grew like tempered steel. I have no idea why this happened. I do, however, know the result was that we all grew in our faith as a result.

I am not in any way, shape, or form denying the blessing of the Lord in this blog. I am just not going to buttonhole the Lord and demand that I alone know what’s best when it comes to the Lord’s will. I don’t know what blessings lay in store as He sees fit to distribute them in any fashion He chooses, even if I don’t like the way he distributes those blessings.

We are taught in the Scriptures to be content in all circumstances.

Phi 4:11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

Phi 4:12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Would this “prophet’s” message serve Rav Shaul well?

These types of “Kingdom now” messages are rampant. It is a very popular thing to say. This kind of message will not usually bring opposition. Who wants to hear a message of doom and gloom anyway? But when you are claiming to be a mouthpiece for the Lord, you had better make sure that what is being said is consistent with His Word.

If you want the job of a prophet you had better be willing to take the lumps of the prophet. If you don’t like what the prophet has to say, then it is the Lord you are bucking against not the prophet. One thing is certain; if you speak on behalf of the Lord it better be on behalf of the Lord.

Num 12:1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman);

Num 12:2 and they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?" And the LORD heard it.

Num 12:3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)

Num 12:4 Suddenly the LORD said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, "You three come out to the tent of meeting." So the three of them came out.

Num 12:5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward,

Num 12:6 He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.

Num 12:7 "Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;

Num 12:8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?"

Num 12:9 So the anger of the LORD burned against them and He departed.

Num 12:10 But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.

Num 12:11 Then Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned.

Num 12:12 "Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother's womb!"

Num 12:13 Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "O God, heal her, I pray!"

Num 12:14 But the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again."

Num 12:15 So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

People need to understand that the role of the prophet is a very serious and frightful role. It should only be desired by those who are willing to run entire length of the field set before them. If the message does not line up with the Word at first glance, then we should dismiss it right out of the gate. Don’t be deceived by false prophets who peddle a message of peace and prosperity in a day when calamity looms around the corner.

Jer 8:6 "I have listened and heard, They have spoken what is not right; No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turned to his course, Like a horse charging into the battle.

Jer 8:7 "Even the stork in the sky Knows her seasons; And the turtledove and the swift and the thrush Observe the time of their migration; But My people do not know The ordinance of the LORD.

Jer 8:8 "How can you say, 'We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us'? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie.

Jer 8:9 "The wise men are put to shame, They are dismayed and caught; Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, And what kind of wisdom do they have?

Jer 8:10 "Therefore I will give their wives to others, Their fields to new owners; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is greedy for gain; From the prophet even to the priest Everyone practices deceit.

Jer 8:11 "They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, Peace, peace,' But there is no peace.

Jer 8:12 "Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They certainly were not ashamed, And they did not know how to blush; Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down," Says the LORD.

It is easy to preach and prophecy in bluff and bluster; but it is OH so difficult to preach from the Word and declare “thus saith the Lord”. Everyone wants to hear that only good things are coming their way. Unfortunately, the only time this will happen is when Yeshua reigns from Jerusalem during His millennial reign. Apart from that, life is fragile and unpredictable. Yet we who serve the Lord still endure in spite of and through all circumstances as Rav Shaul (Paul) instructed us in Phil 4. If we are not teaching people to be faithful and endure, then we are doing them a serious injustice. We better make sure that if we dare say we speak on behalf of the Lord, it is through His Word alone and not our desire to be received in the role a prophet because of the acclaim it brings to us. We are called to preach His Word even when it is not popular or positive.

Luk 6:26 "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

This is the true nature of prophecy

2Ti 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2Ti 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

2Ti 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

2Ti 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

2Ti 3:6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,

2Ti 3:7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

2Ti 2:1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

2Ti 2:2 The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

2Ti 2:3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

2Ti 2:12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;

1Ti 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

What I hear in these passages is that we are to endure, be faithful, and persevere. Why are our modern “prophets” not speaking these words of prophecy? I’ll tell you why: they are not popular. I just don’t hear a lot of “everything’s coming up roses” from the prophets in the Scriptures. Most of the time prophets were rebuking a disobedient people and reminding them to turn back to the Lord. They certainly weren’t getting acclaim, riches, and winning popular opinion.

1Ti 6:6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

1Ti 6:7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.

1Ti 6:8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

1Ti 6:9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

1Ti 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1Ti 6:11 But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

1Ti 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1Ti 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,

1Ti 6:14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1Ti 6:15 which He will bring about at the proper time--He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

1Ti 6:16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

1Ti 6:17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

1Ti 6:18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,

1Ti 6:19 storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

1Ti 6:20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge"--

1Ti 6:21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.

Let the modern day “prophets” speak words that are sure, true, and tested by time. Not words that are popular, speculative, or presumptive.

In the Word the blessings of the Lord are always predicated by the requirement to keep His Word and to be faithful to obeying Him.

Deu 28:1 "Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

Deu 28:2 "All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God:

In the immediate context the Lord is speaking to the children of Israel as they are getting ready to enter the Promised Land. The commandments of the Lord are the ones given by Moses in the Torah. Now if the “Church” wants to be blessed and claim this kind of passage as their own, they must also do as Israel was commanded and obey His commands. Yet for so many they look at the commands as being abrogated and replaced. So they refuse to see the full context of the passage. They want the blessings but not the obedience. The modern “prophets” preach that they are hearing from the Lord, yet they refuse to obey two thirds of the Word, the Torah.

Num 15:14 'If an alien sojourns with you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he wishes to make an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the LORD, just as you do so he shall do.

Num 15:15 'As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before the LORD.

Num 15:16 'There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you.'"

Num 15:17 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

In this passage the Lord through Moses addresses the subject of Gentiles who have joined themselves to Israel.

Those Gentiles who have come to the Messiah of Israel have joined themselves by adoption to Israel. They have come alongside of the natural children, they have not replaced them. So it is time for the adopted children to act like they belong to the family. It is not appropriate for an adopted child to come into a home and change the dynamic of the house. They are to be a part of the already established family. Those who call themselves “prophets” refuse to preach the fullness of the already written instructions given by the Father; therefore, they are invalidated by that one fact. Let them preach and teach that which has already been established and written before they set out on their own with words of “prophecy”. You can’t say you speak for the Lord when you won’t read and speak what He already gave us.

Mat:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

Mat 5:18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Mat 5:19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

The instructions given to us by our Messiah is that the Torah (instructions) that the Father gave us were not annulled. Therefore, if you want the blessings that these so called “prophets” are speaking of, they might want to instruct people to keep His whole Word, not just one third of it.

In one last closing thought you might want to check out one of the last sermons of David

Wilkerson. This is a word for the Church to hear today. I don’t count too many people as prophets, but if there was one in our modern times, it would be him. It would do you well to hear the words of this true PROPHET.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGMG_PVaJoI

The full sermon can be heard here if you have the stomach to hear from a real prophet. It might shake you a bit and that would good. It did me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYizi9TZAQ

May the Lord bless you and fulfill you with His calling and will for your life, no matter what that might be.

Shalom uvracha b’Yeshua

Rabbi Henry

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Ferguson Mo and a whole lot more

12/11/2014

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I have been very carefully watching the events that have transpired over the Ferguson, MO and Staten Island, NY crisis during the past month or so. I have tried not to get involved in the dialogue because it seemed so fruitless – everyone’s opinions and emotions flying every which way but loose. People have already come to their conclusions, whether they know the facts or not. Looting in Ferguson has gotten out of control. There are protests in major cities all over the country. So I asked myself, “What can I add to the madness of this dialogue?” People put their fingers in their ears when they don’t want to hear another side. Al Sharpten has made his presence known mouthing off at every chance he gets. Now, to make it worse, I am going to add my two-cents worth. Will the madness ever end?

I have no intention of commenting to the point of who is to blame. I simply don’t know all the facts. I was not there. I only have heard what is on the news. It is not that I don’t have an opinion; I have just decided to keep it to myself. The point I want to address is the response of the masses.

It is pretty obvious that to most rational people, the looting and race baiting is the wrong response and adds nothing to the situation. I have heard all the arguments. I have watched all of the riots. The carnage brought to their communities is nothing less than a crime in itself. Then to make it worse President Obama and Eric Holder refuse to allow the State to handle its own problems. I wonder how much time either one of them has spent in Ferguson, MO?

There are many who want to compare the recent events to the Civil Rights movement. The black community blames the entire situation on racism. The white community says it has nothing to do with racism. All I see is that no one has addressed the systemic problem; that is, the breakdown of society from every angle.

No one in their right mind would deny the civil injustices enacted upon the black community throughout the history of this nation. No one can ignore the need for the Civil Rights movement during the 60s. But what is happening today is not the same as the Civil Rights movement. Civil disobedience is needed in many situations to bring attention to unjust social circumstances. But…rioting, looting, violence, and burning down community businesses is not a legitimate response. All this does is to perpetuate the stereo typical behavior that is being complained about by the black community.

There have been many people groups in the history of the world that have been oppressed and treated unfairly. The Jews were slaves as far back as Egypt. They have been persecuted and murdered throughout the world for centuries. In their entire struggle throughout their history, we do not see that the Jews, as a people group, have ever received or asked for reparations or entitlements. History does not record a time when the Jews rioted and looted their own communities in protest against unfair treatment. That kind of behavior smacks of insanity.

As a child I experienced prejudicial treatment from Catholics and black people for being Jewish. I was called a “Christ killer”. I have been beaten up a number of times for being Jewish. Does that make every Catholic or black person suspect? Should I have rioted or started looting because of the unfair behavior I received? If race relations are tense, it is not because Whites are plotting against Blacks; it is because of the poor, stereo-typical behavior enacted by those who are thoughtlessly destroying their own communities.

These are some statistics from the American Free press. Nearly 50% of all black males will be arrested by the age of 23. “African American youth represent 32% of all weapons related arrests [and] were arrested for aggravated assault at a rate nearly three times that of Whites. Similar statistics were released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the “Uniform Crime Reports.” They determined, “In the year 2008, black youths, who make up 16% of the youth population, accounted for 52% of juvenile violent crime arrests, including 58% for homicide and 67% for robbery.” By contrast, the only categories where white youths surpassed blacks were in liquor law violations and driving under the influence.

Is this as a result of white oppression? Is there a plot against black people? Has anyone looked at world events lately? Jewish people are being killed and violated all over the world. Campuses protest Israel. Major “Christian” denominations have divested form Israel. Muslim countries swear that they will wipe the Jews from the face of the earth. Synagogues are being bombed. Jews are stabbed in their own places of worship. They are oppressed by the world and then accused of being the oppressor when they defend themselves. Where is the outrage? Why aren’t my people protesting, shutting down highways, looting stores and throwing stones at the police. It might be because they are too busy trying to survive and prosper as a people group. Hey, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If this behavior is acceptable for the Black community, then it should also be acceptable for every oppressed people group. After all, the Jews are truly a minority in every sense of the word. According to Wikipedia, the world's core Jewish population in early 2013 was estimated at 13.9 million people (around 0.2% of the world population).

During the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, when the black community finally made the decision to fight against the injustices enacted against them, they did it with dignity. They fought systematically using wisdom and restraint. They were an example to the whole world. The kind of behavior that has been exhibited in modern times by the black community has been atrocious. It has been stated that the greatest revenge is your success. This is a message that needs to be preached to every black youth. Instead of rioting and protesting, maybe they could invest all of this energy into programs for the re-education of the next generation. It would be so much more constructive if they spent their time redeeming their youth and rescuing them from this ghetto culture which has done nothing but destroy an entire generation of our black youth. I say get your revenge against those who you say have oppressed you and succeed. Stop blaming the world for your problems and rise to the task of creating a successful community. Who cares what others say or think about you? We Jews certainly don’t.

One of the reasons there has been such a disparity in our black neighborhoods is because of the destruction of the family. Over 70% of all black children are born out of wedlock. According to CNN anchor Don Lemon (a black commentator) "Black people," Lemon said, "if you really want to fix the problem, there are just five things that you should think about doing."

The No. 1 item on that list -- "and probably the most important," he said -- had to do with out-of-wedlock births.

2011 Census Bureau, data compiled by Kids Count, is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The group defined "children in single-parent families" as kids under 18 who live with their own single parent; it includes children living with a parent and a cohabiting adult, but it does not include children living with married step-parents.

“Estimates for the percentage of African-American children growing up in single-parent households are slightly lower, at 67 percent.”

It makes no difference what you think, the destruction of the community happens when the family structure breaks down. This can be clearly seen. The family is the backbone of society. When the family structure breaks down, society breaks down.

As a result of this breakdown the father figure, who leads his children in teaching his sons how to be a strong honorable man, is absent. Daughters do not have a healthy example of what a faithful man should look like; therefore, they fall prey to men who are nothing more than exploiters and thugs.

Ghetto culture is not an accurate example of black culture. Ghetto culture is an example of the family breakdown, abandonment of responsibility, and abdication of a segment of our society to fulfill their responsibility to rise up the next generation ready to handle life.

Scripture states it best.

Pro 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Deu 6:6 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
Deu 6:7 "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

The real issue we are dealing with in the black community is that simple Biblical precepts that used to be a major part of black identity have been totally abandoned. Families were strong then. There used to be a time when the black community embraced that identity. They celebrated it in the “Negro” spirituals. The majority of these hymns identified with Israel and their oppression. What you did not see, however, was a black community asking for entitlements or expecting a handout. Their determination to pick themselves up and move beyond their oppression was admirable, and it was the formula that finally led to the Civil Rights movement of the 60s.

It is time for the black community to be a little bit more introspective and ask the tough questions. I believe the greatest oppression that has happened to black people since the time of slavery has been entitlements. It has kept them dependant on handouts. It has not allowed them to rise to their full potential. I blame the whites and the blacks for this. It is about time that the black man has his revenge against the years of oppression that has befallen them. Let them rise to their success just like every other oppressed people group and find revenge through their success. Man’s injustice against man has been and continues to be felt in society.

The one thing I do know, however; as long as some act like animals pouncing upon road kill, they will continue to perpetuate the stereo-typical perceptions.

Pro 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

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Rabbi Henry's last "Christmas" blog for ever and ever and ever.

12/4/2014

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I think I have made a decision that this will be my last Christmas ramblings. I have given it much thought and have come to realize that I might just be doing the very thing that I have been complaining about. My complaint has been that every year it is the same old story. We are inundated in the news, churches, and our communities with the subject, “The war on Christmas”. People are so busy fighting the war either for or against “Christmas” that they have forgotten what the real war is about. They are so busy fighting on this one battle field that the more important battle fields get ignored. Therefore, they open up a front in the war that never is won. Even if it is won – so what? What gets accomplished by winning the right to say Merry Christmas in the public square? Who really wins if we get the schools to change the name back to “Christmas vacation” instead of holiday vacation? How is society benefitted by changing the “festival of trees” back to “Community Christmas party”?

Has anyone’s life been changed to worship the Lord? Have babies been saved from being aborted? Have young men and women been delivered from drugs or crime? Have families been reunited? Have the fatherless, widows, or orphaned been comforted? Have the homeless been fed and lifted out of despair? The list goes on.

I am afraid I have also been complicit in the same behavior. I can’t say my opinion has changed on the matter; but that being said, I have written more than enough to prove my point. There is a plethora of information out there to show the pagan roots of “Christmas”. So what am I going to say to change your mind on the subject? NOTHING! You will study the Word and come to this conclusion on your own through your own study or you won’t.

In the mean time we are living in a period that is so dangerous and precarious, that when the wave of persecution hits this nation and the world, neither you nor I will have time to even think about this subject. Then the real issues of the Gospel will be preached and all the peripherals will fall by the wayside.

2Ti 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2Ti 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

2Ti 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

2Ti 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

2Ti 3:6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,

2Ti 3:7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

2Pe 3:1 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,

2Pe 3:2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

2Pe 3:3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,

2Pe 3:4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."

I believe that as we get closer to the end this will be a moot issue. No one will be worried about defending something that is as ridiculous as this. The true believers will be busy trying not to lose their heads while remaining faithful to the Lord. So, as I said, this will be my last “Christmas” rambling. But that being said, it does not mean that I am giving up my right to teach what the Word says about being faithful to His appointed times and seasons, Lev 23, Is 66, Zech 14, etc.

So take heart, I am done. Feel free to do what you want. You will get no protest from me. But I still choose to refrain.

May you have a blessed Chanukah season. Remember if it was not for Chanukah there would not have been an Israel for the Messiah to have entered into. The basic theme of every Holy-day is they tried to kill us the Lord saved us let’s eat. That the Lord preserved Israel so Messiah Yeshua could be born is a good reason to celebrate. Our job is to do it according to His prescription.

Shalom uvracha b’Yeshua

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The Trinity?

11/30/2014

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This is not an easy subject to broach and to many it is sacred. Most people hold on to the traditions they have been taught, whether or not they are able to articulate or understand them. But in this article I would like to challenge your preconceived notions and traditions and replace them with a more Bibliocentric understanding. The subject I would like to examine is the one called the trinity.

Before I write anything let me first say that I believe that Yeshua the Messiah is one with the Father. So do not let the rest of this paper confuse you. And please, if at all possible, don’t read anything into it that is not here. The issue I want to address is how we look at the Trinity.
First let me address the history of the term.

From the website www.religionfacts.com/christianity/beliefs/trinity.htm

The early “church” father Tertullian (c. 155-230), who wrote in Latin, is believed to have first used the term “trinity” to describe the God of the Bible.

The doctrine of the trinity was first thoroughly and formally articulated in the fourth century in response to perceived distortions of biblical teaching on the subject, but the fundamental beliefs of the doctrine can be seen from the first century. While no systematic presentation of the doctrine can be found in the New Testament, Christians argue that it can be shown that the Bible teaches that the Father is God, the Son, Jesus Christ, is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, all the while affirming that there is but one God.

Hints of Trinitarian beliefs can also be seen in the teachings of extra-biblical writers as early as the end of the first century. However, the fullest early expression of the concept came with Tertullian, the Latin theologian who wrote in the early third century. Tertullian coined the words "Trinity" and "person" and explained that the Bible taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were "one in essence - not one in Person."

About a century later, in 325, the Council of Nicea set out to officially define the relationship of the Son to the Father, in response to the controversial teachings of Arius. Led by bishop Athanasius, the council affirmed the doctrine of the Trinity as orthodoxy and condemned Arius' teaching that Christ was the first creation of God. The creed adopted by the council described Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father."

Nicea did not end the controversy, however. Debate over how the creed (especially the phrase "one substance") ought to be interpreted continued to rage for decades. One group advocated the doctrine that Christ was a "similar substance" (homoiousios) as the Father. But for the most part, the issue of the Trinity was settled at Nicea and, by the fifth century, never again became a focus of serious controversy.

Now there are a number of problems with this definition which I will address. First of all Yeshua (Jesus) cannot be God because no one is God. The word God is ambiguous at best; it comes from a Germanic pagan root. It shouldn’t mean anything to us because the Lord’s name is not “God”. This word “God” is used to describe many, and sometimes any, diety. Then it is used as a proper name for YHVH. It can’t be both. It is either His name or it is not. NOT! He gave us His name in Exodus 3.

Exo 3:13 Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"
Exo 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
Exo 3:15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.”

(IAM WHO I AM) haw-yaw' ash-er' haw-yaw'
OT:1961 hayah (haw-yaw); a primitive root [compare OT:1933]; to exist, (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary.)

OT:834 'aher (ash-er'); a primitive relative pronoun (of every gender and number); who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc. (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary.)

Exodus 3:14 The Septuagint: Egoo eimi ho Oon. Greek: Egoo (NT:1455) eimi (NT:1491) ho (NT:3543) Oon (NT:5541), "I am He who exists." It is in the present indicative active form of the verb “to be,” meaning, what is true of His being before is true of Him today, that He has no change from eternity past to eternity future.

You see His name and titles mean something. They describe His character, glory, eternal nature and power. He uses His name and titles to communicate this to man. To call Him “God” not only muddies the equation, but it confuses our very perception of who the Lord is. He is the YHVH often pronounced Yehova. His name means “I am who I will be”. Also translated “who was and is and is to come”.

So we must conclude that calling Him by name and understanding its true
meaning will bring clarity and greater devotion. We need to use the terms He gave us. This is no different than use of the term Trinity which, in their attempt to define the Lord, is derived from men and not from the Lord. The term breeds confusion and can’t be understood or defined. Yet it is continually debated.

The cults say that “Christians believe in three gods. The “Christians” say they only believe in one God in three persons. Then they call Jesus (Yeshua) god, the Spirit god and the father god. I’m confused just saying it. The problem is that their vocabulary is wrong. If Christians would use the Biblical Hebrew words that were given to them by the Lord and then define them correctly, the Lord would not need to be redefined by men, just declared. The Lord uses perfectly good and more than adequate words to proclaim who He is, YHVH, Elohim, Echad. When these words are translated properly and used in their proper context, they truly show His character and nature perfectly. There is less need to redefine. We are set free from our incessant need to box the Lord into a neat little package. We are now free to just declare what He has said about Himself, whether we understand the fullness of it or not. Do we think Moses fully understood everything about the Lord when He told him His name. We don’t see Moses trying to codify a definition of the great I Am That I Am. The miracle of the burning bush, the 10 plagues, the parting of the Red Sea and more seemed to suffice enough for Moses to take the Lord at His word.

If we see that He uses words like Elohim – which is plural – to describe himself, then we already have it built into our vocabulary that there is something complex about His nature. This is a much better place to start from than using an ambiguous and much debated word like the Trinity which demands an explanation that does nothing but confuse even the greatest scholar.

The Lord is not looking to be defined; He is looking to be declared! Our job is to declare Him according to His own terms. So this is our task, to look for the truth at all cost even if it costs us our traditions or the things we thought we knew.

Just like use of the Word “God” causes confusion and ambiguity, the word
“Trinity” does the same. It is non-definable because it is man-made. This word can be used by many different people to mean many different things. So the best solution would be to use Biblical terms to define them and let the definitions stand.

The book of John offers us a perfectly good definition of who Yeshua is. I believe this passage in John is the best way to understand the relationship that the Son has with the father.

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
Joh 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
Joh 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

In this passage we see a more than acceptable declaration of who Yeshua
is. He is the Word of the Lord who created all things in the beginning. Gen 1 declares that the Lord created all things through His spoken word. It seems to me that John 1 is actually a short commentary on Gen 1 applying the identity of the Word to Yeshua.

This not only makes perfect sense, but it is the only real way to understand the relationship of Yeshua to the Father. If Yeshua is the Word of Elohim, then we should ask ourselves what is it that makes the relationship Yeshua to the Father comparable to being His Word?

We see that in Luke 6:45 it says…

45“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills
his heart.

In Mat 23 the writer takes this thought a little further.

33“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. 35“The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. 36“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. 37“For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Both passages declare that “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” Words here are declared to come forth from the very being of the person as a reflection of his or her heart. We also can see this in real life from evil men like Hitler, Stalin, Hiro Hito, etc. These men through their words killed millions. Words have power and are dismissed way too easily. They are thrown out randomly.

James 3:

2For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. 3Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 5So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.
See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

Who can deny the power of words? Who would deny that they reflect our very innermost core of who we are?

This is why John calls Yeshua the Word of the Lord. His Word is one with Him and reflects His nature in the same way that our words do for us. This can be seen as said above in real life and is also metaphor for the relationship Yeshua has with the Father. His Word can also be separate from Him in the same way our word is separate from us.

If our word goes out in audio form or on the written page it has now become separate yet still reflects the very nature of who we are. Hitler used his words to kill millions. The influence of his words can still be felt today in the neo Nazis. His words reflected his evil nature.

It is easy to see that the Lord used real life situations to show how our words are one with us yet separate simultaneously. Our job is to use His words to declare who He is without convoluting the issue with our feeble attempts to redefine Him. The Lord does not fit in our box. He has given us all we need to teach, preach, declare and make Him known to the world. We just have to be careful not to get in the way.

Revelation 5 and 7 have very interesting ways of declaring the relationship between the Son and the Father.

Revelation 5
The Book with Seven Seals
1I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. 2And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?” 3And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. 4Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; 5and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”
6And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. 7And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. 8When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Angels Exalt the Lamb
10 “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Revelation 7:
13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15“For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. 16“They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; 17for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Rev 5:6 uses the English word between the Greek word that is used and defined is…

mesos
Thayer Definition:
1) middle
2) the midst
3) in the midst of, amongst

Rev 7:17 uses the English word center for the same Greek word.

So what must I conclude?

1. The Lord is sitting on the throne and the Lamb proceeds out the midst or center of the throne.
2. The elders fell down before the Lamb and presented to Him the prayers of the saints.
3. The Angels and the 4 Elders worship the one who sits on the throne and the Lamb.
4. the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and Elohim will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
5. Not once are they defined just declared.
6. The oneness of their relationship is beyond man’s comprehension.
7. No one calls them a Trinty.

I want to emphasize that I am not attacking the concept of the Father, Yeshua and the Spirit as One. All I am trying to do is challenge how we look at it. We can either use the terms and words the Lord has given us to proclaim who He is, or we can invent words and definitions that no one can fully articulate or describe. I am advocating for the idea that the Lord is not to be explained just proclaimed. If we are willing to do that, then we are admitting His transcendent nature and His immeasurable characteristics.

Do you think that John the revelator was lacking in Rev 5 and 7 because he didn’t put his own spin on this scene in Heaven at the throne of the Lord? Why do we feel the need to add to the Word with our own words? Why do we have to define the indefinable? Isn’t it enough that the Lord gave us so many wonderful prophesies to confirm His Word? Aren’t His miracles throughout the centuries adequate? What else can man do with His own stupid logic to make the Lord seem more palatable? I know let’s define him with our own indefinable words. Hey I got one, let’s call Him a Trinity. Ya, then we can explain it by describing the Lord as water, ice and steam. Or maybe we can use the egg as our analogy by using the shell, yoke and white. Boy that’s better than the Word could ever do, NOT!

Something that escapes most “Christians” is the fact that, for centuries pagan religions all over the world have had Trinitarian gods.

Within the Hindu religion there is Brahman. Brahman is considered to be the only one and true god. From Brahman all other manifestations arise and are just faces, much akin to the idea of emanationism. Brahman is one god in three persons. These persons are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Together, these make Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer.

"The ancient Babylonians recognized the doctrine of a trinity, or three persons in one god -as appears from a composite god with three heads forming part of their mythology, and the use of the equilateral triangle, also, as an emblem of such trinity in unity" (Thomas Dennis Rock, The Mystical Woman and the Cities of the Nations, 1867, pp. 22-23).

"In the Fourth Century B.C. in Greece, Aristotle wrote: 'All things are three, and thrice is all: and let us use this number in the worship of the gods; for, as the Pythagoreans say, everything and all things are bounded by threes, for the end, the middle and the beginning have this number in everything, and these compose the number of the Trinity'" (Arthur Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, 1928, pp. 197-198).

"The Egyptian Hymn to Amun decreed that 'No god came into being before him (Amun)' and that 'All gods are three: Amun, Re and Ptah, and there is no second to them. Hidden is his name as Amon, he is Re in face, and his body is Ptah.' . . . This is a statement of trinity, the three chief gods of Egypt subsumed into one of them, Amon. Clearly, the concept of organic unity within plurality got an extraordinary boost with this formulation. Theologically, in a crude form it came strikingly close to the later Christian form of plural Trinitarian monotheism" (Simson Najovits, Egypt, Trunk of the Tree, Vol. 2, 2004, pp. 83-84).

Many other areas had their own divine trinities. In Greece they were Zeus, Poseidon and Adonis. The Phoenicians worshipped Ulomus, Ulosuros and Eliun. Rome worshipped Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. In Germanic nations they were called Wodan, Thor and Fricco. Regarding the Celts, one source states, "The ancient heathen deities of the pagan Irish[,] Criosan, Biosena, and Seeva, or Sheeva, are doubtless the Creeshna [Krishna], Veeshnu [Vishnu], [or the all-inclusive] Brahma, and Seeva [Shiva], of the Hindoos" (Thomas Maurice, The History of Hindostan, Vol. 2, 1798, p. 171).

Pagan religions have, by the hand of Satan, tried to replicate and then pollute the King of Kings and Lord of Lords since day one. Then they forced their polluted definition of who they say the Lord is on us. The only difference is that these pagan civilizations don’t exist as the same people groups. The Jews have outlived them all showing that YHVH and His Messiah Yeshua, by the power of the Spirit, have kept their word to this very day to declare His faithfulness to all generations.

To summarize – He, YHVH, is an Elohim (complex) and they are Echad (one in complex unity), just as our word is one yet separate from us. I don't fully understand it, but I see it graphically illustrated in real life. This sets me free from the obligation of defining Him, especially when it comes to defining Him in ways that parallel pagan religions. The Lord already defined Himself. He even gave us a vocabulary that spells out Who He is. Yet, we resist using it. We feel the need to make up words that we think are better. The word Trinity and its convoluted definition is not found in the Scriptures anywhere. Instead we should keep it Scriptural and get rid of our man-made traditions.

Why don’t we just let the word speak for itself? He is YHVH, He is Elohim, they are echad (one). Good enough for me, how about you.

Shalom uvracha b'Yeshua Rabbi Henry

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The Popes endorsement of the Homosexual agenda

10/16/2014

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For those of you who have not heard yet, on Monday 10/13/14 the Pope, with a group of 200 Bishops, made a statement that “homosexuals had gifts and qualities to offer" and asked if Catholicism could accept gays and recognize positive aspects of same-sex couples. “VATICAN CITY (Reuters). The article also stated that “the Church should challenge itself to find "a fraternal space" for homosexuals without compromising Catholic doctrine on family and matrimony.”

The document called "Relatio" said that “Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home,"

"Are our communities capable of proving that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?"

All I can respond with is that this is bunch of theological double speak.

Since then, there has apparently been a partial retraction after a blowback from conservative Catholic groups.

What I would like to know is this: Was the Pope speaking ex-cathedra or was he making an encyclical statement? The Catholic Church says that the Pope speaks with all authority of the Lord in regards to doctrine. So does this mean the Lord changes His mind when it comes to Biblical doctrine?

The definition of ex-cathedra:

ex ca·the·dra

with the full authority of office (especially of the pope's infallibility as defined in Roman Catholic doctrine).

"for an encyclical to be infallible the pope must speak ex cathedra"

Yet the Scripture says…

Lev 18:22 'You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.

It seems pretty clear to me in the English that the Lord forbids this behavior. But just to make it clear let’s see what it says in the Hebrew.

שׁכב

shâkab shaw-kab' Lie.

A primitive root; to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose): - X at all, cast down, ([over-]) lay (self) (down), (make to) lie (down, down to sleep, still, with), lodge, ravish, take rest, sleep, stay.

תּעבה תּועבה

tô‛êbah tô‛êbah to-ay-baw', to-ay-baw' abomination.

Feminine active participle of H8581; properly something disgusting (morally), that is, (as noun) an abhorrence; especially idolatry or (concretely) an idol: - abominable (custom, thing), abomination.

So if I understand it properly, it could not be just sleeping that he is talking about because I just don’t see anywhere else in the Scripture that sleeping is an abomination. So it must be that this verse is referencing sexual behavior.

If we look into the Brit Hadasha (New Covenant Scriptures), it says about this behavior:

Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

Rom 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Rom 1:26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,

Rom 1:27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

Rom 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,

Again it is pretty clear that this is speaking about immoral sexual acts committed by men and women in the area of unnatural sexual perversion, in other words homosexual behavior.

I just don’t get it. With all of their talk about family values, how in the world could the Pope even entertain this idea? I am sorry to announce that this is just another example of the “Catholic Church” taking authority that has not been given to them. In doing so they feel the right to change the Word of the Lord with a lot of religious double speak. Make no mistake – they will be judged for their blasphemy. Their audacity is amazing and anyone who supports this will be judged by the Lord with them.

I would like to pose one more question for your consideration. With the priest sex abuse scandal that has ripped through the “Catholic Church” in our modern times, is this just another cover up to excuse that behavior? Hmmmm, I wonder. Remember this is not a new phenomenon. This behavior has been part of “Catholic” culture for centuries.

You may say that what I am espousing is hate speech. But to not tell them the truth is worse. I do not hate homosexuals. I just hate what they espouse. Even worse than that, I hate that they try and find a way to make it seem like the Lord endorses their sinful behavior. Last but not least they are the best evangelists for their sinful lifestyle. This recent attempt by the “Catholic Church” to legitimize this behavior is just another attempt by the Gay lobby to infiltrate every area of society. Use wisdom and don’t be fooled by Satan’s hand in this to destroy mankind and bring the Lord’s judgment on this wicked world.

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Rosh Hashanah 2014

9/26/2014

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Tonight is erev Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah), the evening that begins this Holy day for Jewish people all over the world. Churches all over the world will not only ignore this Biblical Holy day, but most of them don’t even know it is happening. The accepted premise concerning these Holy days is that “we the church have been set free from the burden of the law. We are not obligated to keep or even recognize these events.” They are looked upon as a burden to observe and something that was imposed upon the children of Israel to keep them out of trouble. Most people who call themselves Christians do not believe these Holy Days apply to us anymore. The question that has to be asked is, are these Biblical Holy days still relevant for us today? What is the obligation of the believer in the Messiah today in regards to these Biblical memorials?

I do believe that the “Church” has for all too long taken that which is Biblical and replaced it with that which has been contrived and just plain false (i.e. Christmas/ Easter). The “Church” totally ignores all of the memorials that were set up by the Lord to show his great acts of salvation past present and future. To ignore Yom Teruah is to say to the Lord “thanks for the memorials that were set up to remind us of how much You love us, but no thanks. We would rather make up things as we go along”.

One of the things that the “Church” lacks is knowledge of the prophetic. This is why they are, for the most part, unable to defend their faith apart from cliché and Christian verbiage. Every Holy day was given by the Lord to prophesy the Messiah’s first and second coming. If we believe the entire word of the Lord revolves around Yeshua’s appearing, then why would we dismiss so quickly the meaning of these Holy days to the pile of make-do keep-busy events meant only for the Jewish people.

Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah) very specifically does this in a way that clearly shows the second coming of the Messiah. Time does not permit me to write everything that is proclaimed about this Holy day. So this is only an introduction to wet your whistle. I hope and pray you will do more study on your own. If you blow this off thinking that I am Judaizing, then it is to your loss. I am at least doing my job and provoking you to study the Word more seriously. So here goes.

As a side note I am not making this an issue of salvation. I repeat this is not an issue of salvation. Nothing stated in this short blog is said as a judgment of anyone’s salvation. DID YOU HEAR THAT? Good now we can continue with the blog.

This is what the Scripture says about the Holy day.

Num 29:1 'Now in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall also have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. It will be to you a day for blowing trumpets.

Lev 23:23 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Lev 23:24 "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

Lev 23:25 'You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.'"

Lev 23:26 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Lev 23:27 "On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the LORD.

Lev 23:28 "You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the LORD your YHVH.

Lev 23:29 "If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people.

Lev 23:30 "As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.

Lev 23:31 "You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

So this is what we know of this Holy day according to the Scriptures:

1.         It is to be celebrated on the 1st of the 7th month, Tishri.

2.          We are to do no work.

3.          We are to have a holy convocation.

4.         Present an offering by fire.

5.         This is to be observed perpetually in all of our dwellings.

6.          We are to sound trumpets as a reminder.

A reminder of what though? In order to determine that, we first must know what trumpets were used for in the Scripture?

The reasons and meaning of Blowing the Shofar

1.               Symbol of Israel’s re-gathering Is 27:12-13

Isa 27:12 In that day the LORD will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel.

Isa 27:13 It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

2.                  Resurrection of the dead. Ez:37:9.

Eze 37:9 Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord YHVH, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life."'"

3.         The Torah was given with the sound of the Shofar, Ex 19:19.

Exo 19:19 When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the Lord answered him with thunder.

4.         Israel Conquered Jericho At the Shofar blast, Josh 6:20.

Jos 6:20 So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.

5.         Men were called to war upon hearing the Shofar, Judges 3:27 Sam 20:1

Jdg 3:27 It came about when he had arrived, that he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was in front of them.

Jdg 3:28 He said to them, "Pursue them, for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands." So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross.

6.         It was blown at the start of the Year of Jubilee, Lev 25:9.

Lev 25:8 'You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years.

Lev 25:9 'You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.

Lev 25:10 'You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.

7.         The Messiah will come at the sound of the Shofar, Zech 9:14.

Zec 9:14 Then the LORD will appear over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning; And the Lord YHVH will blow the trumpet, And will march in the storm winds of the south.

1Thess 4

13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, even so YHVH will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Yeshua. 15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of YHVH, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. 17Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1Cor 15

51Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57but thanks be to YHVH, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua Ha Mashiach.

These are but a few examples of the usage of the Trumpet of the Lord. The one that stands out most of all is that the trumpet will sound at the coronation of our King Messiah when He returns. My point simply is this: We don’t have this terminology arising in the New Covenant out of the thin air. The New Covenant writers were very well aware of these passages from the Tenach (First/Old Testament). Their theology was shaped from these passages. The Lord builds upon His prophetic foundation.

If this day is called a day of remembrance and a day of repentance in preparation of the Lord’s judgment, then it seems fitting and right that it should also be the day that reminds us of the coming of the Lord in His final judgment.

We don’t ignore the prophetic display of these appointed times now that the New Covenant is here. We support the New Covenant by celebrating the events that were given as reminders. There is a very backward theology that has developed for centuries that says now that the Messiah has come all we need to observe is that which is written in the New Covenant. That logic though is warped. We must be reminded where we have come from to truly appreciate where we are.

This is why it so important to celebrate these Holy Days. They remind us that what we believe is legitimate. We confirm the surety of a foundation of a building to determine if it is stable and safe to live in. Once the house is built we don’t tear out the foundation, do we?

Yom Teruah is one of those foundational commemorations that helps us know that, as the Lord was announced with the blowing of the trumpet in the past, so shall His second coming also be announced.

Why wouldn’t we want to rehearse His coming in this way? In Yom Teruah we have been given a formal opportunity to be reminded every year. Don’t we think that Yeshua is worthy of this time? Leviticus 23 calls His Holy days “appointed times and seasons”. That is because these were appointments that could only be fulfilled by the Messiah Himself. Yeshua kept all of the Prophetic appointments in His first appearance. Yom Teruah reminds us that He will be faithful to keep His end time appointments as well.

There is much more to be learned from this day, but if I am able to convince you that it is still valid for New Covenant believers, then I have completed my task. From there we can pick up the conversation.

May the Lord bless you as you are reminded that the last great trumpet blast will sound at His coming. I pray that this Yom Teruah you might even consider going somewhere to hear the Shofar sound so that you will be stirred to remembrance and anticipation of His soon and imminent return. If you are able feel free to join us this Friday at 7:30 PM and Saturday at 4:00 PM. LaShana Tova Tikatavu. May your name be inscribed in the book of life for a good year.

Shalom uvracha b’Yeshua

Rabbi Henry

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Where and who is the voice of moderate Islam?

9/11/2014

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As we commemorate the 9/11 tragedy, I submit this little blog for your consideration.

Where and who is the voice of moderate Islam? Who are those legendary architects of the moderate movement? What is the definition of Moderate Islam? How does this supposed moderate Islamic faith compare doctrinally to the Koran? Does history support the premise? Has Islam acted moderately throughout history? Is their moderate voice loud enough to be heard? Can they shape Islamists’ behavior today? Let’s look at history, which is usually a pretty good guide when it comes to judging past behavior. Keep these questions in mind while we review.

The Ottoman Turkish Empire was founded by the Turkoman tribal leader named Osman in 1209 AD and lasted until 1922 AD. It was one of the most powerful empires in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries; it spanned more than 600 years; it was replaced by the Turkish Republic and various successor states in southeastern Europe and the Middle East. At its height the empire included most of southeastern Europe to the gates of Vienna, including modern Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, Romania Greece, and Ukraine; Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt; North Africa as far west as Algeria; and most of the Arabian Peninsula. (The above information was taken from Britannica.com and paraphrased by me).

Do we see here any hint of world conquering Imperialism in the Islamic Ottoman Turkish Empire? By the way, they conquered by marching into these countries throwing flowers and flashing the peace sign to the inhabitants, until the people realized they just had to submit to the religion of peace.

From the U.S. Dept. of State office of the Historian

Barbary Wars, 1801–1805 and 1815–1816

The Barbary States were a collection of North African states, many of which practiced state-supported piracy in order to exact tribute from weaker Atlantic powers. Morocco was an independent kingdom, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli owed a loose allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. The United States fought two separate wars with Tripoli (1801–1805) and Algiers (1815–1816), although at other times it preferred to pay tribute to obtain the release of captives held in the Barbary States.

Oh, did I point out that these were Muslim countries? (As a side note, these also were nice pirates – kind of like Captain Jack Sparrow or maybe even the Veggie Tales pirates.)

In 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson met with Arab diplomats from Tunisia, who were conducting terror raids and piracy against American ships (Barbary Pirates). Writing to John Jay, Thomas Jefferson described what he saw as the main issue and the reason why they were attacking Americans who had done them no harm. The following quote is from Thomas Jefferson....

“We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their pretensions to make war upon a nation who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. THE AMBASSADOR ANSWERED US THAT IT WAS FOUNDED ON THE LAWS OF THEIR PROPHET, THAT IT WAS WRITTEN IN THEIR KORAN, THAT ALL NATIONS WHO SHOULD NOT HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED THEIR AUTHORITY WERE SINNERS, THAT IT WAS THEIR RIGHT AND DUTY TO MAKE WAR UPON THEM WHEREVER THEY COULD BE FOUND, AND TO MAKE SLAVES OF ALL THEY COULD TAKE AS PRISONERS, AND THAT EVERY MUSSELMAN (MUSLIM) WHO SHOULD BE SLAIN IN BATTLE WAS SURE TO GO TO PARADISE"

In a small blog sent to me by Robert Leblanc, he recounts some very prominent events that have happened in modern history.

1. In 1968 Robert Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim males.

3. In 1972 a Pan Am 747 was hijacked and eventually diverted to Cairo, where a fuse was lit on final approach, it was blown up shortly after landing, by Muslim males.

4. In 1973 a Pan Am 707 was destroyed in Rome, with 33 people killed, when it was attacked with grenades by Muslim males.

5. In 1979 the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim males.

6. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim males.

7. In 1983 the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim males.

8. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70-year-old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim males.

9. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim males.

10. In 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim males.

11. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim males.

12. In 1998 the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim males.

13. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers, and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim males.

14. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim males.

15. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by – you guessed it – a Muslim male.

16. In the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing four innocent people, including a child, were killed, and 264 injured by Muslim males.

In the words of the most prominent leadership in Islam.

July 2000

“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not take place until you will fight the Jews and kill them”

Dr. Ahmed Yousuf Abu Halabiyah, member of the Palestinian Sharia [Islamic religious law] Rulings Council, and Rector of Advanced Studies, the Islamic University, PA TV, July 28, 2000

September 2004

“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice!”

Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, Head of Association for Memorizing the Quran, PA Ministry of Endowments & Religious Affairs, PA TV, September 10, 2004

January 2005

“…and the rock and the tree will say: Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!”

Dr. Hassan Khater, founder of Al Quds Encyclopedia

PA TV, January 10, 2005

Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem

“Allah described them [Jews] in His Book, characterized by conceit, pride, arrogance, rampage, disloyalty and treachery… deceit and cunning…”

PA TV, November 1, 2002

Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris

“Every time Muhammad came back from his raids, he would find treachery and betrayal by the Jews of Medina, since treachery and betrayal are two character traits of the Jews’ nature... that their descendants inherited from their ancestors until today."

PA TV, June 4, 2004

Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem

“The Jews are Jews, and we are forbidden to forget their character traits even for a moment, even for a blink of an eye.”

PA TV, December 6, 2002

Academic Authorities

A PA psychologist explains on PA TV that the Jewish infant “nurses hatred”:

Psychologist Khader Abas

“Very important factors influenced the Jewish personality, among them: The religious-legend idea, this is foremost, and children’s upbringing. From the moment the child is born, he nurses hatred against others, nurses seclusion, nurses superiority…”

PA TV, April 14, 2002

Dr. Muhammad Abu Daf

“I truly do not see the state of the Israeli society as a state of confusion, but rather a natural result of an education that was maintained by fundamentalist Jewish upbringing to violence, hostility and racism... The sayings of the leaders of the Hebrew state, and the actions of the soldiers are a natural behavior, acquired by the Jewish upbringing... Thus distorting the figure of the Arabs and Muslims, the Jewish child nurses hatred with [mother’s] milk ... we want a generation that recognizes and understands the structure of the Jewish personality.”

PA TV, October 12, 2003

Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi,

“These Jews who angered Allah and whom He cursed through the Prophets...”

PA TV, September 21, 2001

Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem

“Praise unto Allah, Who cursed our enemies; curse upon curse up to Judgment Day. And He has cursed them as well through the words of His prophets and emissaries...”

PA TV, November 1, 2002

Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris

“Praise Allah, Who cursed the non-believers among the People of the Book...”

PA TV, June 4, 2004

Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem

“... for which Allah transformed them to monkeys and pigs...“

PA TV, November 1, 2002

Dr. Mahmoud Mustafah Najem

“Praise be to Allah, who has cursed [the Jews], the brothers of monkeys and pigs.”

PA TV, December 6, 2002

Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi

“We are waging this cruel war with the brothers of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons of Zion.”

PA TV, September 12, 2004

Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi (again speaking about the Jews)

“For Allah was angry and called them once monkeys, pigs and donkeys…”

PA TV, March 30, 2001

Where is the voice of the moderates protesting? Why haven’t we seen them throughout history? Why isn’t it loud enough to make a difference? Why aren’t they able to change the direction of this violent despicable behavior? This is not a modern phenomenon. It is the history of Islam. There is no moderate voice of Islam. There is only Islam and they have shown who they are from the beginning.

If Islam is a religion of peace then I am perplexed as to why so many wars were and are fought in the name of Islam. I am amazed how they have been allowed to redefine the vocabulary and fool so many people into thinking that peace is achieved by avoiding conflict with Islam, “the religion of peace”. As long as we don’t insult them by declaring the truth of their actions they won’t attack us. Then we can have peace. But just be careful not to insult the religion of peace or they will kill you.

So the next time someone says true Islam is moderate and is a religion of “peace” ask them, What “piece”?

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