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
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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