In yesterday’s post, I cited Acts 21, but was off by one chapter.  Acts 20:7 was the verse I had in mind.  In THAT verse, we read,

“And at the beginning of the week, when we assembled to break bread, Pavlos declared to them, and because he was going to leave the next day, he prolonged his speech until midnight.”

And from that ONE verse, many people ‘think’ the early, Jewish believers met on ‘sun-day’ morning to ‘have church’.  Why?  Because later translators ADDED a word to the English texts, to support the already imposed false doctrine [teaching] that our early JEWISH believers turned away from the Sabbath, despised it, and chose a new day on which to worship G-d.

While I am very passionate for Shabbat, because of the great BLESSING it was to my family IMMEDIATELY when we started observing it, in spite of the fact that for all our lives, my wife and I were taught it was a BURDEN, this post is not about Shabbat.  It is about the infectious virus that is plaguing the world. LIES.  They are SO EASY to believe, when EVERYONE is doing it.

Perhaps my wrong citation yesterday was because this week’s portion of scheduled reading from the Brit Khadasha [NT] is in Ma’asei HaShlikhim, “Acts” 21.  In that portion, There are SO MANY TRUE FACTS [I realize that is redundant] that readers today, including highly educated ‘theologians’ and ‘scholars’, IGNORE.  And worse, they PERPETUATE the LIES that these passages overturn!  As I read the readings this morning, these things worked on my nerve, because theologians of yore now remind me of the FB and other social media ‘fact checkers’ who simply want THEIR ‘interpretation’ of the ‘facts’ to be received as ‘truth’, apart from scrutiny, and at all costs.  Especially the high cost of the death of honesty.  And they willingly LIE in order to achieve their objective.  In the case of the theologians, that objective may simply be to maintain the religious  status quo, whereas today’s ‘opinion imposers’ masquerading as guardians of ‘facts’ have the objective of establishing a new status quo.

But, it is not the originators of the lies that bother me.  Liars lie.  It is what they do.  And they are very good at it at times.  It is the mob that follows the liars blindly into their lies that greatly disappoints me today.  My wife and I love stories of justice, where the truth comes out, and the oppressed eventually win.  We are enjoying such a story last night, and while we were watching the intrigue, where people from every side in the convoluted story were lying and deceiving, vying for control, I realized how very naive and trusting I am at times.  But, back to what frustrates me most about these types of ‘lies’: those who BELIEVE them!  Do you realize how many Germans ‘believed’ in the ‘goodness’ of Hitler, including German Jews who would NOT leave, like a very small number of their kinsmen who ‘saw through’ it all did when the drumbeat of Jewish persecution started?  There are so many people today who do not even believe the holocaust happened, in spite of mountains of evidence to the contrary.

I could go on.  But, I want to get to the matter at hand.  The LIES that people today believe in spite of MOUNTAINS of evidence to the contrary.  As I read this morning, the sensation surfaced when I got to this passage:

²⁰And when they heard it, they glorified Elohim and said to Pavlos, “Our brother, see how many thousands there are in Y’hudah who are believers, and they are all zealous for the Torah: ²¹but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Yehudim who are among the Goyim to forsake the Torah of Moshe, stating that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to follow after the customs of the Torah.  ²²Now, therefore, they have heard that you have come here.  ²³Do, therefore, what we tell you. We have four men who have vowed to purify themselves; ²⁴take them and go purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; then everyone will know that what has been said against you is a lie, and that you yourself uphold the Torah and obey it.  ²⁵As for the believers amongst the Goyim, we have written that they should abstain from the things sacrificed to idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood.”  ²⁶Then Pavlos took the men and on the next day he was purified with them, and he entered into the Heikhal, informing them how to complete the days of purification until the gift of every one of them was offered.

The first lie that people today believe that is overturned in this passage in the bold above.  The lie today is that the Jewish believers in Messiah in the first century TURNED AWAY From the Torah, the same Torah that is the foundation of the Word of G-d, the WORD that manifested in Yeshua.  For nearly 1800 years the lie has gone out that the Jewish believers simply abandoned their faith AND their customs, throwing  away their whole ‘religion’ to follow Yeshua down a non-Jewish path bereft of any obedience to the commands of G-d.  Whereas, our text tells us that there were MANY THOUSANDS of JEWS who TRUSTED in Yeshua AND were ‘zealous for the Torah’.

The next LIE that most EVERYONE in the christian community today STILL believes is that Sha’ul, whom they call Paul because they THINK Yeshua changed his name, which is also a lie, [perhaps I’ll explain why that is a lie in a post script below?] turned away from ALL JEWISH TEACHINGS because he was called to be the Shali’akh to the gentiles.  THAT IS A BIG FAT LIE.  And that very lie is contested in our text!:

“but they [The Jewish believers who are ALL zealous for the Torah] have been informed about you that you teach all the Yehudim who are among the Goyim to forsake the Torah of Moshe, stating that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to follow after the customs of the Torah.”

What I LOVE about this passage is that in this case the Z’kenim, the ELDERS, did NOT believe the lie!  They had NO REASON not to follow the mob and believe the lie!  Wisdom seems to be what prevented them from believing the lie!  Love for Sha’ul?  Perhaps.  But,  they didn’t know him real well, but they could ‘see’ the work of G-d, hear his testimony and true confession, and observe the presence of Messiah in his life.  They needed nothing more NOT to believe the LIE that was spoken against him.  What is not so obvious here is that it was other ‘leaders’/’elders’ that were foisting the LIE on the people!  It wasn’t satanists!  Or democrats [maybe they were 😉 ].   But today, MANY THOUSANDS, no MILLIONS, believe the LIE that Sha’ul STOPPED observing Torah and taught others to do the same!

The impact of yesterday’s citation follows.  Sha’ul, in the previous chapter, stayed in Troas for seven days.  At the beginning of the next week, we learn that on that ‘day’, the day they assembled TO BREAK BREAD, which is what Havdalah is in the Jewish CUSTOM of closing out Shabbat, we see that Sha’ul was going to leave Troas the next day, ‘sun-day’.  This is customary!  Jewish people did not go on long journeys starting on Shabbat!

In our text this week, however, we see further that Sha’ul not only kept the Torah, but even went into the Temple TO MAKE A SACRIFICE!  Oy!  A believer in Yeshua, who trusts in the blood of Messiah, went into the Temple OF THE JEWS [G-d’s Temple] to make a BLOOD SACRIFICE?  Sacrilege! Blasphemy!  The reason the modern Messianic community is reading this portion this week is because our Torah portion for the week is called “Naso”, from BaMidbar [Numbers], where the details of a Nazarite vow are given to us.

The following is the very tricky passage that the four men in Acts 21 had to adhere to when the time of their vow was over.  These four men mentioned above had each become a Nazir, and chosen a period of time to be just as consecrated before G-d as the Kohen Gadol was.  Note one thing.  THESE WERE BRETHREN!  These four men TRUSTED IN MESSIAH.  They were JEWISH.  KEEPING TORAH.  And Sha’ul joined them in the last days of their vow, and since he was TRAINED in the Torah and in the Temple practices, HE guided them in HOW to complete the final days and rites of their vow, because the rules were complex:

¹³And this is the instruction of the Nazir, when the days of his consecration are fulfilled: he shall bring it unto the door of the Ohel Mo’ed; ¹⁴and he shall present his offering unto  יהוה , one he-lamb of the first year without blemish for an Olah, and one ewe-lamb of the first year without blemish for a Khatat, and one ram without blemish for Sh’lamim, ¹⁵and a basket of Matzot, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and their Minkhah, and their Nesekh. ¹⁶And the kohen shall bring them before  יהוה , and shall offer his Khatat, and his Olah. ¹⁷And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of Sh’lamim unto  יהוה , with the basket of Matzot; the kohen shall offer also the Minkhah thereof, and the Nesekh thereof. ¹⁸And the Nazir shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the Ohel Mo’ed, and shall take the hair of his consecrated head, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of Sh’lamim. ¹⁹And the kohen shall take the shoulder of the ram when it is sodden, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazir, after he has shaven his consecrated head. ²⁰And the kohen shall wave them for a Tenufah before  יהוה  ; this is kodesh for the kohen, together with the breast of waving and the thigh of heaving; and after that the Nazir may drink wine. ²¹This is the instruction of the Nazir who vows, and of his offering unto  יהוה  for his Nazir, beside that for which his means suffice; according to his vow which he vows, so he must do after the instruction of his Nazir’.”

But wait, Yeshua is our final sacrifice!  HOW can these men, these Jewish believers in Messiah, go into that dirty Jewish temple and offer a BLOOD SACRIFICE, they must be being LEGALISTIC and under the ‘weight of the Torah’!!!!  LIE!  They were NOT trusting in the Khatat [sin offering] they brought for SALVATION.  They took a vow of their OWN FREE WILL in order to be ‘purified’ before G-d.  They followed the instructions of Torah in order to complete the vow, because IT IS FITTING TO DO, it is what G-d TOLD them to do.  And “Paul”, this Jew-turned-gentile Pharisee Rabbi TOOK THE VOW WITH THEM and walked them through the final rites.  After he’d been preaching Yeshua for YEARS!

There are SO MANY lies about the Bible, that the Bible says are lies, that MOST people still believe TODAY.  “The Sabbath doesn’t matter”; “Jesus is my Sabbath”; “There were giants in the promised land”, “Paul abrogated the Torah”, “Jesus broke the Sabbath, so we can”, and on and on.  “Jesus changed his name to Paul”.  Let’s just go over that last one.  The ONLY thing the SCRIPTURES say about why the text first calls him Sha’ul [Saul] and THEN calls him Pavlos [Paul], is: “WHO WAS ALSO CALLED PAVLOS”.  NOWHERE does the writing say that Yeshua changed his name!  What is TRUE, what is FACT, is that unlike some of the other “Shlikhim”, Sha’ul was born in a ROMAN city, OUTSIDE the land of Israel.  Because he lived in a Roman city that spoke GREEK, his parents ‘also called him’ Pavlos/Paul, so that he would fit in a bit.  Our Jewish people today, here in America, STILL DO THIS!  Today, a Jewish boy receives his English name on his birth certificate, and at his Brit Milah [circumcision] eight days later receives his HEBREW name.  Might that be one reason Yeshua chose Sha’ul to be the ‘sent one’ to the nations?  He understood both Jewish and Greek CULTURE, AND both languages of those two dichotomous cultures.

This brings me to the NEXT lie that is overturned in this chapter!

“The apostles and all Jews in Israel in the first century spoke GREEK.”

LIE!

³⁵And when Pavlos reached the stairs, the soldiers carried him because of the violence of the people, ³⁶for a great many people followed after, crying out and saying, “Away with him!”  ³⁷And as Pavlos was about to be led into headquarters, he said to the chief captain, “May I speak to you?” The captain said, “Can you speak Greek?  ³⁸Are you not that one from Mitzrayim who some time ago created disturbances and led out into the desert four thousand malefactors?”  ³⁹But Pavlos said, “I am a Y’hudi of Tarsus in Cilicia, born a citizen of a well-known city; I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”  ⁴⁰And when he had given him permission, Pavlos stood on the stairs and beckoned with his hand to them. And when they were quiet he spoke to them in the Hebrew language and said to them:

Oy!  He’s in Jerusalem.  He’s arrested and tried in the Temple!  The captain of the Roman army spoke Greek. [Israel was in the eastern side of the Roman empire, and many of the centurions assigned there spoke Greek and NOT latin.]  The captain seems to be SURPRISED that Sha’ul spoke greek!  At the least, he had to ASK this Jew if he spoke greek!  Sha’ul did!  Why?  NOT because it was the lingua franca, but because HE GREW UP IN A GREEK-SPEAKING CITY until he came of age and moved to Jerusalem to study Torah under a famous Jew named Gamli’el.  Notice how Sha’ul addressed the JEWS:  IN HEBREW!  Which means that the Hebrew language was the lingua franca of Israel, and NOT the other way around.  THAT is a LIE.  To what end?  To make the Bible a gentile book, rob it of everything Jewish, and support years and years of religious deceit and trickery, namely, that the scriptures of the sent ones were ALL written in Greek originally.  Lie.  And that they turned away from all things Jewish, not the least of which is the Shabbat of  יהוה  that even Yeshua observed.

The people who accused Sha’ul of abrogating Torah took a tiny sliver of truth, that Trophemus was with him, and accused Sha’ul of bringing a gentile in the Jewish Temple, which would have been a violation of Torah.  That one little piece of ‘evidence’ is all MOST people needed in order to believe a LIE.  Thank G-d for the elders who followed Torah and trusted in Yeshua.

The whole world gets 10 Pinnochios from me.  We live among a pack of liars, and a mob that will believe anything.

 

Context is as much a part of biblical interpretation as is reading the plain meaning.  All of us are x-cons in regard to our being convicted of the crime of breaking His Torah, which is what sin is:  “He who sins breaks the Torah, for sin IS the breaking of Torah.”  1 John 3:4

Our believing brothers, who LOVE Messiah, have to confront their violation of the Sabbath, and they often return to the vomit of  self-righteous religious leaders to do so.

Many people get offended when a believer who keeps the Sabbath simply says they keep the Sabbath.  They get very ‘animated’, “NO ONE CAN KEEP ALL THOSE LAWS!”  And yesterday, they just said, “I can do all things through Christ…”  but today, that verse is only applied to playing sports or earning money!  The context is actually better suited to the latter, as Sha’ul was talking about his ability to endure the hardship of poverty, even though he knew what it was like to be wealthy.  Going in THAT direction financially was the point; NOT getting rich.  “Getting poor”.  But it is seldom cited or used for those purposes today, but instead glamorized for the prosperity gospel.

Many today glamorize the scriptures in regard to why they ‘choose‘ NOT to observe His Sabbath.

They insist that the passage in Kolosim [Colossians] 2 concerning new moons and sabbaths was Sha’ul’s denigrating the keeping of them, abrogating them [khodesh and Shabbat] and all the Torah.

“Let no one therefore create a disturbance among you about eating and drinking, or about the distinctions of feast days, the beginning of the khadashim and of Sabbaths. These are shadows of things to come; but HaGuf, it is Mashi’akh. Let no man, by pretense of sincerity, doom you so that you worship Malakhim [messengers, ‘angels’]; for he is bold about the things he has not seen, and foolishly he is proud of his intellectual powers; that very person does not uphold the Head by whom the whole Body is constructed and stands, with the joints and members, and grows through the discipline of Elohim. Therefore, if you have died with Mashi’akh and are apart from the principles of the world, why then should you be doomed as though living in the world? Do not touch; do not taste; do not follow; for these things are customs which are changeable and they are the commandments and doctrines of men. And it appears there is some word of wisdom in these things when presented by the humble person in reverence for Elohim, provided they disregard the things of the flesh, not those things which are honorable, but only those things which satisfy the pleasure of the flesh.”

And, to further establish context, let’s look at the prior passage:

“And you, who once were dead in your sins [sin IS breaking Torah] and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has granted to live with Him, and He has forgiven you all your sins; and by His mitzvot He cancelled the written record of our sins, which stood against us; and He took it [the written record of our sins] out of the way, nailing it [the written record of our sins] to His stake; and by putting off His mortal body, He exposed the powers of evil, and through His nature put them openly to shame.”

To firmly establish context, let’s remember a few things.  Sha’ul is writing to Gentiles of the first century.  Not one ‘church’ as we know it existed, but the believers met in SYNAGOGUES and homes, ON THE SABBATH.  Find ONE place in scripture where a Gentile believer in Yeshua worshipped G-d on Sunday, and you’ve got me.  It CANNOT be done.  And let me pre-empt you: Acts 20:7 is NOT the ‘first day of the week’.  Look closely, if you have a good bible: ‘day’ is in italics, because it is NOT in the greek.  It says, ‘at the beginning of the week’.  A Jewish man’s beginning of the week is SATURDAY NIGHT.  It was the END of Sabbath!  AND, Sha’ul had CHOSEN NOT to travel on that day, but to wait to travel the NEXT day.  Further, the ‘gathering’ they had was a Havdalah service, saying goodbye to the Sabbath!  Lighting ‘lapidot’, celebratory lamps for “Motza’ei Shabbat”.  This was a VERY Jewish ‘celebration,’ that happens on the end of Sabbath, and is the ‘beginning of the week’, the ‘first of the week’, its ‘start”.

Second, we MUST consider historical context here.  Kolosse was a city that ALREADY had a pagan cult that mixed doctrines of greek philosophy and paganism with Judaism!  BEFORE the ‘B’sorah’ [good news of Messiah] arrived there.  The new believers there had to contend with forbidden foods [pagans were vegans/vegetarians], worship of the archangel Michael [the Jewish part of their mixed worship], and ‘how to determine the sabbaths and the months’, NOT the keeping of them itself, because they were MIXING the Jewish method of SETTING feasts with the PAGAN method!  He wanted them to learn from G-d!  And NOT from MAN.  THAT is what Sha’ul is addressing in Kolosse with his letter.  There were JEWS in Kolosse who were WRONG, before the gospel got there.  THAT is what Sha’ul is dealing with!  He wanted them to learn from G-d!

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you might be filled with the knowledge of the will of Elohim in all wisdom and in all spiritual understanding, that you might live a righteous life, please Elohim with all good works, and bring forth good fruits and grow in the knowledge of Elohim…” [Kol 1]

There is only ONE source for the knowledge of Elohim: SCRIPTURE!  And Sha’ul certainly would bow to SCRIPTURE and NOT presume to change it.  There is also NOT ONE PLACE where Sha’ul can be seen worshipping G-d on sunday, but around 80+ places where he can be seen worshipping Him on Shabbat.  He taught SCRIPTURE.  And SCRIPTURE never ONCE says to move the Sabbath or profane it, but in fact has MANY mandates NOT to do so.  Whom do you follow?

Sha’ul makes this perfectly clear, AFTER he tells them not to be troubled by those who confuse them concerning determining WHEN the Sabbath is.  There were those who wanted to follow a LUNAR Sabbath, and not the SEVENTH DAY of the week, which the Temple still kept at the time, and ALL Jews did, including EVERY ‘apostle’ and recorded, biblical believer.  There were already those who wanted to MOVE it to the first day of the week, due to their anti-semitism, although no evidence of that is seen in Kolosse.  It seems the issue there was merely the PAGAN CULT of Judeo-pagan worship.  THEIR customs and traditions were the issues! “Therefore, if you have died with Mashi’akh and are apart from the principles of the world, why then should you be doomed as though living in the world? Do not touch; do not taste; do not follow; for these things are customs which are changeable and they are the commandments and doctrines of men.”  Are you REALLY going to tell G-d on Judgement Day that His Sabbath was MANMADE?  REALLY?

“And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day, Elohim finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work, which Elohim, in creating, had made.”

Imitating the very CREATOR of the universe is a WORLDLY PRINCIPLE?  REALLY? Are you SURE that on Judgment Day you want to hunt THAT dog?

Again, Sha’ul is addressing Kolosse in THEIR ‘traditions’. “Let no one therefore create a disturbance among you about eating and drinking, or about the distinctions of feast days, the beginning of the khadashim [months] and of Sabbaths. These are shadows of things to come; but HaGuf, it is Mashi’akh. Let no man, by pretense of sincerity, doom you so that you worship Malakhim [messengers, ‘angels’]; for he is bold about the things he has not seen, and foolishly he is proud of his intellectual powers…” Pagan cults are vegans, and did not eat or touch meat on FRIDAY [some catholics still do this].  Pagans determine the START of the month between the last crescent and the new one.  Pagans do not keep HIS SABBATH; Constantine, a life-long pagan and founder of catholicism, MOVED the Sabbath from SATURDAY, the SEVENTH DAY of the Bible, to the ‘day of sol invictus’, the day of worshipping the in-conquerable sun, the god of Constantine until a week before he died.  In mixing pagan faith with Judaism, BEFORE the gospel got to Kolosse, they were arguing over the BEGINNINGS or ‘setting’ the new moon and Sabbath, but they WERE keeping them!  “These ARE SHADOWS of things to come!”  This is exactly why we teach ALL the ‘set times’, because they are IMAGES of the return of Messiah!  They will help people NOT to choose the lying Messiah that is about to deceive even the elect, if they do not have the knowledge of GOD!

Many ‘sincere’ OR ‘pretentious’ men deceive people today!  Sincere people who have been deceived by pretentious people perpetuate the lies of the pretentious, who enter into religion in order to control people, placate their conscience, or other reasons.  Sincere people are being deceived by sincere people, even though Sha’ul warned us NOT to be deceived by the PRINCIPLES OF THE WORLD, sincere OR pretentious.  I can assure you, the Sabbath is STRAIGHT FROM HEAVEN!  These pretentious people are PROUD of their intellectual powers, the way they REASON AWAY the PLAIN meaning of scripture, and lead millions into error. Look what Sha’ul told Kolosse: “for these [pagan rites mixed with some truth] things are customs which are changeable and they are the commandments and doctrines of men.”  Again, are you telling me the Sabbath came from MAN?  Further, the sincere ones turn around and teach the error in sincerity:  “And it appears there is some word of wisdom in these things when presented by the humble person in reverence for Elohim…”  There are TRUE, sincere, HUMBLE people perpetuating these errors!  Misinterpreting scripture because they trusted the person[s] who taught them!  Breaking the Sabbath satisfies the flesh.  It is difficult to change one’s whole life, and to be so different from the masses, not going to football games on fri night and sat, not going out dancing, taking in the sites of the world, gratifying the sinful nature…it is difficult to ask one’s boss for a day off, knowing the ‘reason’ is not very strong [even though the constitution protects the right to worship on Saturday].  And, it is FAR more difficult to do when so many well-meaning, sincere people perpetuate the custom of MEN [MAN moved the sabbath. HIS sabbath is immovable], and denigrate the ones who want to do it the way G-d Himself did.  And SO did Yeshua.  And SO did Sha’ul.

These sincere people say things like, “Jesus is my Sabbath”.  Well, if you mean, He is my comfort/rest [the idea behind Sabbath] you’d be partly right.  It’s sincere.  Are you going to say “Jesus is my faithfulness to my wife,” and justify committing adultery?  I hope not.  But that is the very principle by which many sincere people operate. But, Yeshua Himself KEPT the Sabbath.  WWJD?  “And He came to Natzrat, where he had been brought up; and He entered the Beit K’nesset [Synagogue] on Yom HaShabbat, as was His custom…”  WWPD? Paul followed Mashi’akh: “You, then, should imitate me, even as I also imitate Mashi’akh. Now I praise you, my brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the customs as I delivered them to you.” [1 Kor 11:1-2] Sha’ul/Paul, in this message to another gentile congregation, told them that He follows/imitates Messiah Yeshua, and then turns right around and tells them to keep the ‘customs’.  This translation came from the Aramaic, but, for the sake of Gentiles, let’s use the greek.  “Paradosis” is the word for ‘customs’ here, and that is a greek word that Jews used to speak of the JEWISH LAWS.  Sha’ul was a follower of Yeshua, taught the JEWISH CUSTOMS, and KEPT THEM HIMSELF.  Again, show me ONE place where HE worshipped G-d on sunday, and I’ll be with you in church on Sunday.  It CANNOT BE DONE.  Shaul also twice told those of Thessaloniki to follow the Jewish customs as HE TAUGHT THEM.

And no, it is NOT ‘judgmental’ simply to state that scriptures teach us to keep the Sabbath.  Where is ‘judgment’ in that? By stating merely a desire to obey the scriptures rather than men, we are ‘judgmental’?  Count us judgmental, then: “Then Shimon Kefa with the rest of the Shlikhim answered, saying to them, “We must obey Elohim rather than men.”  Perhaps, just perhaps you ‘feel’ judged because it is the very WORD OF ELOHIM speaking!  And your soul KNOWS it to be right, and you feel the guilt of breaking HIS WORD?  Is that not at all possible?  Just so the reader knows, it is not our place to judge, and we do not sit in the seat of the scornful.  But, our DELIGHT is in HIS TORAH [Ps 1], and in HIS WILL.  The ONLY way to know the will of G-d is through HIS WORD.

Let’s look at the original congregation of Jews, and what they told the Gentile believers, who were being LIED to by FALSE/FAKE ‘believers’: [Acts 15:1-2, Gal 2:4] Ya’akov, Yeshua’s own brother, settled the issue about what to do with Gentiles IN THE SYNAGOGUES [that assemble on Shabbat]:

“The works of Elohim are known from the very beginning. Because of this, I say do not trouble those who turn to Elohim from among the Goyim [gentiles]. But let us send word to them that they abstain from defilement by sacrifices to idols, and from fornication, and from creatures strangled, and from blood. For Moshe [a pseudonym for the Torah], since early generations, has those who declare him in the Beit K’nessets in every city who read him [The Torah of Moshe, Genesis-Deuteronomy] on every Yom Shabbat.” [Acts 15]

Ya’akov [James] laid the ‘burden’ on the Gentiles of about SIX CHAPTERS of the Torah: Lev 18-19 defining many different acts of fornication, Lev 11 and Deut 14 defining foods that should not be eaten [road-kill being one], Lev 17 prohibiting imbibing blood, and several that show us many forms of idolatry, Ex 20 being probably the best citation.  This is HARDLY a departure from scripture.  Especially when he then references the TORAH and the SYNAGOGUE and SHABBAT!  Can you not see that the GENTILES were LEARNING the TORAH in the SYNAGOGUE on SHABBAT!?  The ‘burden’ about which Kefa spoke previously was NOT the Torah!  The Torah is NOT a burden!  The burden is SIN, and in that context, the sin was of Jewish people ADDING TO THE TORAH and teaching MEN’S DOCTRINES INSTEAD of TRUTH!  This is the very same thing those who deny Shabbat are doing.

Moving the Sabbath is the very same premise.  It obliterates what GOD SAID AND DID, what YESHUA SAID AND DID, and even what beloved Paul SAID AND DID.

MUST you keep the Sabbath, ‘to be saved’?  NO!!!  And no good Jewish believer in Messiah will EVER say that, or he violates SCRIPTURE.  But, the SAVED should follow the SAVIOR.  HE said ‘If you love me, you will keep my mitzvot.’  We do what He did and taught out of an expression of LOVE for HIM and to show the TRUE Messiah to this dark world.  THAT is the purpose of a believer and all his actions, including keeping the Sabbath.

“Beware, lest any man mislead you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the teaching of men, after the principles of the world, and not after Mashi’akh.”  The Sabbath is SO MUCH a principle of Heaven that G-d Himself kept it, and gave the Sabbath to ALL of MANKIND in the very beginning; and we will be observing it with Messiah when He returns to rule on earth! [Ez 46:1-3, Is 66:23] You sure you wanna call it manmade and ignore it now?

 

“The Torah of Messiah” is our YouTube site for a ‘yeshiva’, a place to learn…

We’d be honored to have you subscribe and join us in studying His Word….

The Torah of Messiah!

 

Just a little explanation of our motivation:

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qF1Ti4CQq7fObMMDAUZPQ

 

That should have been “Lot”.

Judgey people will run with that!  But, the scriptures call Lot a Tzadik.  A Tzadik is a “Just One”.  “Just” in the sense of ‘having been justified’.  The Messiah was prophesied to be “HaTzadik”, “THE Just One,” and His ‘justification’ was given after He bore all OUR sins on the tree.  Lot, on the other hand, was not ‘justified’ by his works; he was not considered a Tzadik because of his acts of tzedaka.  He was considered a Tzadik through emunah: believing trust in  יהוה .  G-d is consistent and fair; he ‘justified’ Avraham because of TRUST.  The same is true of everyone whom we find in the roll of Heaven.

I have learned that my ‘justification’ is ONLY because of ONE THING: I believe and confess that Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of G-d, is risen from the dead, and that He bore the punishment for my sins.  I declare it!  I would shout it every day!  I crave to share it with others, that they may know this great wonder: G-d loves us BEFORE we love Him!  Even in our sin.  He loves us when others do not!  He knows us better than we know ourselves, and certainly better than judgey people know us.  In that sense, I am a Lot!  Because most people know Lot’s faults, but do not ‘know’ that He is a Tzadik!

“… and [He, G-d,] delivered Lot HaTzadik, mortified by the filthy conduct of those without Torah; ⁸for while that Tzadik dwelt among them, in seeing and hearing their deeds against Torah, his righteous soul was vexed from day to day…” [Kefa Bet/2 Peter 2]

I have been made right before G-d by trust in His Son Yeshua.  I strive to live a life worthy of being called ‘a just [ified] one’, but the world, the flesh, and the adversary make that all the more difficult every day.  Just like Lot, I have my imperfections and failures.  But, G-d saved him!  And he is counted in the Roll of Faith in Ivrim [Hebrews] chapter 11, as part of a great ‘cloud’ of witnesses of our faith!  There are only three men in the scriptures who do not have blemishes on their record: No’akh, Dani’el, and Iyov [Noah, Daniel, and Job].  EVERY OTHER ‘GREAT MAN’ of scripture has a blemish on his record: Avraham committed adultery, Yitz’khak deceived; Ya’akov deceived [and more], Moshe murdered a man, David had a man killed and committed adultery….but of these three men, there were no such acts to record in the record of their lives.  Were they ‘perfect’ like Messiah?  NO!  But, even though they lived clean lives, they could not save a soul on their own!

³“Ben Adam, when a land sins against Me by trespassing grievously, and I stretch out My hand upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast; ¹⁴though these three men, No’akh, Dani’el, and Iyov were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, says Adonai  יהוה . If¹⁵ I cause evil beasts to pass through the land, and they bereave it, and it becomes desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the beasts; ¹⁶though these three men were in it, as I live, says Adonai  יהוה , they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. ¹⁷Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, ‘Let the sword go through the land, so that I cut off from it man and beast; ¹⁸though these three men were in it, as I live, says Adonai  יהוה , they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. ¹⁹Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; ²⁰though No’akh, Dani’el, and Iyov, were in it, as I live, says Adonai  יהוה , they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” [Yekhezkel/Ezekiel 14]

Faith, trust in the message of Messiah, is the ONLY thing that sets one right before G-d, that expunges the record of sin.  And, after having that done, like Lot, we yet remain in this dark and fallen world.  And ever more, every day, there is vexation because of what is going on around us.  And this year everyone should have 20/20 vision as to what is going on, but so many are utterly blind.

I lost some of my best friends back in 2007/08 because I insisted that BKO was a deceitful communist and would ruin the country.  He was not permitted to do so overtly and utterly destroy the US, but was able instead to work in subterfuge after the fact.  I insisted back in 2016 that HE was at the top of this ‘Russia’ accusation, this obviously rigged, false narrative.  Understand, I was never a big Trump fan, and still have some things about him that give me pause, but I also never just wrote him off.  But, when this whole collusion thing came out, it was OBVIOUS to me that BKO was the mastermind.  So, I am vexed that someone somewhere with some kind of authority did not PUSH an investigation.  ALL of congress equivocates over ‘justice’, using it only when it serves their narrative, their purpose.  No one today seems to have the will to hold the ‘elite’ accountable for their grievous offenses, offenses for which, if any ONE of us did HALF of what they did, we’d be under lock and key before the bread rises.

It vexes me that in this country, which was founded on scriptural principles by people who believed in The Creator, that most people, including most of those who SAY they believe in the Creator, yet deny the CREATION and the flood, and accept a very well orchestrated LIE, that we created ourselves.  It vexes me that we kill so many babies as a country, and no one cares.  We all sit and watch as millions of babies are SLAUGHTERED, on a daily basis they are murdered for the convenience of sex.  It vexes me that we ‘tolerate’ adultery, so much so that we do not recognize it at times when it is in plain sight. [self included]  We are ‘entertained’ by adulterers, and many look to these fools for moral guidance.  It vexes me that depravity is glamorized in society, and that we think baiting young children into depravity with video games and movies is ‘okay’.  It vexes me that we treat homosexuals as ‘man and wife,’ as if G-d no longer looks on that as an anomaly, as error, but somehow approves of it, even in His congregations.  It vexes me that the community of faith points ONLY to THAT sin as sin, and tolerates all other ‘abominations’, to include eating abominable foods and foods offered to other gods, even though the ‘New Testament’ tells us not to!  It vexes me that politicians of every ilk lie with such straight faces.  It vexes me that major media outlets lie every single day, blatantly pushing an agenda rather that simply reporting ‘new facts’, serving themselves and their wicked desires rather than serving the people information that is true.  It vexes me that social media outlets censor our free speech EVERY SINGLE DAY, thinking THEY are the arbiters of truth and of the American forum, and that only THEY know what information is best for us to consume, and we just sit back and allow them to run our minds and hearts with contentment.  Our politicians, our ‘representatives’, have been put on notice about it, and have done NOTHING.  It vexes me that the believing community denies the simple truth of His Sabbath, and His Holy Days, in spite of the very COMMON knowledge that His Sabbath, [not the ‘jewish sabbath’] is the SEVENTH day of the week, and NOT the first, and that scriptural gymnastics have to be used to justify worshipping Him on the venerable day of the sun, with the pagans.  But, what vexes me most right now is that so many people are so willing to just sit by and watch the country implode due to a cold.  We are allowing doctors and tech-nerds to scare us into just watching our country fall before our eyes.  We are allowing the media largely to cover up the fact that the last president committed TREASON against us.  Politicians are soft-shoeing around that, and seem absolutely spineless, whereas our forefathers would have already hanged him for treason.  The media is barely reporting anything about the most capital offense ever committed against the American people, while brainwashing society into thinking a virus barely more harsh than the flue, which we face every single year, is worthy of our fear such that we allow politicians to shut down our businesses and leisure sites/activities without even so much as a WTF?  ONE person, a WOMAN, has stood up and said ENOUGH.

So, I’m a Lot.  I am vexed.  I have a great level of comfort, especially since the grand deception of COVID came out, because I also know that TIME IS SHORT, and that so many people, ESPECIALLY believers, are going to get caught off guard.  I am vexed because even declaring His Name and Truth is seen as a joke, as laughable, and people today just don’t seem to want to hear any truth.  But, I rejoice, because my Master said to do so ‘when you see all these things,’ because I know that the resurrection is near, according to Him.

So, why don’t I get all ‘bent out of shape,’ start a protest, proclaim a call to arms, create a revolt?  Because I must be about my FATHER’s business.  I am a citizen of His Kingdom FIRST, and I care not about the affairs of man.  Mankind is blind and lost.  And especially now.  Yekhezkel said it best [above], and I add Avraham’s message to the rich man who neglected Elazar his whole life, and found himself in She’ol:

‘If they will not hear Moshe and the Nevi’im, even if a man rises from the dead, they will not believe in Him.’”

Today, people do not ‘hear’ Moshe, and so they cannot hear Messiah Yeshua Himself.  They think they ‘believe’, but they persist in ‘tolerating’ their own sins: believing in evolution and denying the creation, moving His holy days, all of them, approving of and participating in adultery, fornication, and perversion, lying and deceiving, and being deceived. etc etc.  Yeshua instructs us “Do NOT be deceived,” and yet so many have allowed themselves to be deceived, of SO MUCH these days.  That is what vexes me.  Yet, I still will declare that Yeshua is the Son of G-d, and requires that those who ‘say’ the trust in Him repent [turn] and no longer do those things.  Even though we know we will stumble, yet we turn, and strive, and live according to HIS WORD.  I will yet declare that HE IS COMING VERY SOON to take unto Himself a bride, and so few are ready.  That is my preoccupation: preparing myself, and any one else who truly has oil.  I am a Lot.  May I be counted worthy to escape, as was he.

 

Join me on “The Torah of Messiah” channel at https://www.facebook.com/historah for an exciting study!

“Come lawdy, go lawdy, and come back again, lawdy!”  From “The Jeffersons.”

I do not pretend to stand in the office of a Navi [Prophet].  In fact, I’m not certain I would want to, because the Nevi’im of old suffered at the hands of people who thought they were righteous.  O, wait.  So have I.  Ad nauseam.  Nevertheless, I am not at all arrogant enough to think myself equal to those great men.  But, nineteen years ago, when my children were about 10 and 7 years old, we had our evening dinner on 09/10, I did my usual time on the piano playing worship music, and then at probably around 8:00 p.m. I sat them down at my feet and read the scriptures to them.  I had an ‘urge’ to compel them to consider the times.  People were known to criticize me [ad nauseam] for trying to prepare my children for things to come.  That urge somehow led me to 2 Tim 3 that night:

¹Know this, that in the Akharit HaYamim [last days] disastrous times will come.  ²And men shall be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, proud, conceited, blasphemers, disobedient to their own people, ungrateful, wicked, ³false accusers, addicts to lust, brutal, haters of good things, ⁴traitors, hasty, boasters, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of Elohim; ⁵having a shade of the fear of Elohim, but far from the power of Elohim; from such turn away. “

As soon as I finished reading aloud the above paragraph, my daughter immediately asked “What does ‘brutal’ mean?”  And my answer was immediate: “It means killing for no reason.”  I began to explain to my children that we were living in those times, and that was nineteen years ago.  I remember telling them, “We are there now, and it is just going to get worse”.  I had remembered that night having a conversation about seven years before in which a ‘believer’ said that I was too ‘alarmist’ in my world view. What amuses me now is that a ‘herald’ of truth in the scriptures is, by nature, an alarmist!  “Sound the alarm on His Har Kodesh! [Holy hill]”.  I told my children, “If you were running into the hiway in front of a truck, would it suffice to whisper at you?  To cajole you?  Or would it be best if I shout?”  The answer was obvious, even to my children.  The next morning, my children were in school, and I was down at a customer site when the news broke that the twin towers had fallen; I watched the replay, and muttered, “We’re going to war.”  A woman laughed and said it was an accident, and that no one would do that on purpose.  My children had confidence that day, understanding better what was going on, while others were terrified.

Fast forward 19 years, to just before Covid-19.  I observed last fall that Gates was doing a ‘practice run’ pandemic.  I observed protests going on in China.  I observed Harvard professors working in Wuhan.  In the meantime, I ‘discover’ finally the timing of the last Yovel of Israel.  Right around that time the small rumor of another virus coming out of China emerged.  I told my wife, “They want to shut down the protests.”  Those protests indeed immediately stopped, and no one even questioned it.  The virus begins to make it into the states, and around the same time, Harvard bio-chemists are arrested in Boston for their dealings with Wuhan, China, and no one even thinks to look closer.  I start to see the looming threat, and I am beginning to fill with joy, knowing that a paradigm shift is coming, and that I’m seeing the convergence of many of the ‘signs of the times.’  My wife and I took a long-awaited vacation, and when we returned, my employer pulled the trigger on sending us home.  Knowing better than to rock the boat, I decided simply to enjoy the opportunity to work at home.  But, around that time I posted a blog that posited the notion that this was a manmade virus [Gates owns the patent], instigated by China with the help of Harvard democrats [Bill Gates, the bio-chemists, et al].  I didn’t know the political affiliation of those arrested, but I told my wife that 99% of Harvard professors are liberal, hard-left democrats.  I believed at that time that China and one of our political parties were conspiring together for their common purposes: shut down protests in China, and weaken the U.S. economy [China for their desire for world conquest, which most people think nothing of, and democrats for their desire to destroy Trump and right-leaning America at all costs, forcing socialism on us].  Melly and I have also observed other ‘secrets’ of the left from our home over the years, and we do NOT read any conspiracy sites or follow any ‘alternate’ news!  We simply watch network news, and ‘sense’ the evil behind people, simply ‘knowing’ things that others are just now coming to know.  That Obama is a criminal fraud, and has orchestrated what others are calling ‘spy-gate’.  That Flynn was framed.  That Clinton was colluding with Russia and trying to undermine Trump’s bid for the presidency [among all the many other evils of that couple that are somehow overlooked], and then his presidency.  That Ford was falsely accusing Kavinaugh from the start, with so-called ‘experts’ saying ‘she really did endure something’. P’shaa!  That Biden is an offensive creep with darkness in his past, and a thief who robs the American people.  That Comey is lying to America, and abused the power given to him by the nation he claimed to ‘serve’.  And on and on.

¹Know this, that in the Akharit HaYamim [last days] disastrous times will come.  ²And men shall be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, proud, conceited, blasphemers, disobedient to their own people, ungrateful, wicked, ³false accusers, addicts to lust, brutal, haters of good things, ⁴traitors, hasty, boasters, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of Elohim; ⁵having a shade of the fear of Elohim, but far from the power of Elohim; from such turn away. “

I do NOT believe that all of this Wuhan nonsense is the onset of the ‘mark of the beast’ in our very near future.  I do not believe that the U.S. even plays a minor role in that, with the exception perhaps of creating the technology for the ‘beast’.  I know who the ‘beast’ is, and he is not an American.  In fact, I believe that the U.S. and much of our side of the earth will at his arising be suffering from some cataclysmic event before his mark is mandated.  That event may be a cosmic accident or a manmade disaster.  It doesn’t matter which.  But, I do believe that the symptoms we are observing now, about which we read so clearly in Sha’ul’s letter to Timoteus, are indicative that “Et Ketz” is upon us.  Et Ketz [The end of time] is the last portion of “Akharit HaYamim”, the last days.  Dani’El HaNavi set aside “Et Ketz” for the latter end, and Yokhanan HaShaliakh, Yeshua’s best friend on earth, ‘revealed’ it to us.  And the world psyche is indeed being prepared to accept that ‘mark’.  More importantly, they are being prepared in mind and soul to accept THE LIE, that a man IS GOD.  That is what we are seeing: the spiritual hypnotism of the whole world, being lulled into a dependence on government, so that this ‘beast’ can indeed arise in one hour.

I follow a very narrow road: The Torah of Messiah.  It is very difficult.  As such, I see ‘prophecy’ starting and founded in THAT book [Genesis-Deuteronomy].  I see in that book the “Menorah of Time”, the seven-segmented clock of God, the timeline of prophecy.  I cannot un-see that roadmap.  Others who ‘prophesy’ and interpret the prophecies, who do not follow His Way fully, are seeing far less than they need to see in understanding the Hitgalut [Revelation].  Those who study Daniel’s prophecies without knowing Torah are seeing far less than they need to see to fully understand.

הַלּוֹמְדוֹת בְּכָל עֵת וּלְעוֹלָם אֵינָן יְכוֹלוֹת לְהַגִּיעַ לִידִיעַת הָאֱמֶת

“ever striving to learn, and never able to come to the knowledge of HaEmet…”

One could interpret that verse [in 2 Tim 3, just after the previous passage cited] more literally and say, “They will study all the time, but never be able to know The Truth“.

I do NOT pretend to ‘know fully,’ or to understand completely what is about to happen, nor to have some special gift of prophecy.  In fact, I fully admit that I could be wrong.  But, my issue is, I cannot ‘unsee’  how very intricately G-d wove His appointed times around Yeshua and His Ministry the first time, and as such, I KNOW that the finishing of all things MUST be woven around those remaining appointed times.  That is why Mashi’akh HaSheker [the false Messiah, whose spirit has been in the world since ancient days] will CHANGE HIS APPOINTED TIMES for the people, by law [that spirit did that 1700 years ago: see post script]; to keep people from seeing and understanding ‘end things’, making ‘scoffers’ out of most who profess to believe.

What I do KNOW with CONFIDENCE is this:

• G-d sent His Son.
• He foreshadowed His ministry in the Sabbath, and the seven yearly feasts.
• Yeshua died on Pesakh as the Pesakh Lamb.
• Yeshua was buried on Matzot.
• Yeshua was in the grave until Bikkurim began and He rose from the dead as the First Omer on Sat night, the beginning of the first day of the week, being presented in Heaven that first day of the week, returning to visit His Talmidim on many occasions, for six weeks.
• Yeshua ascended, and seven days later, when the seventh Sabbath of Shavu’ot had been counted, He sent the Ru’akh, the “Ko’akh” [ power ] of the Ru’akh [wind/spirit/breath] on the 50th day, called “Shavu’ot”, ‘filling’ them [the theme of Shavu’ot].

We have NOT had a prophetic fulfillment of Messianic importance since, except the ministry of Yeshua laid out in Yesha-Yahu 61:1-2a, as He declared at the beginning of His ministry in 27 AD, and that was left in the hands of His followers:

¹“[The] Ru’akh of Adonai  יהוה  is upon me; because  יהוה  has anointed me to bring good tidings unto the humble; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the eyes that are bound; ²to proclaim the year of the good pleasure of  יהוה ….

At this point, we are and remain on the middle branch of that seven-segmented clock, number 4, in the ‘summer’ without feasts, awaiting the very next feast.  This is why Yeshua ‘left us hanging’, not reading that second part of verse two:

“and the day of vengeance of our Elohim.”

That ‘day’ begins with a shout:

• Yom Teruah [Rosh HaShannah] is the LAST SHOFAR [ram’s horn ‘trumpet’] of Elohim, the SHOUT from above, and it will awaken the dead.
• Yom Kippur is the day Yeshua will return to the earth
• Sukkot is the feast of ingathering, and we will abide with Him for 1,000 years.  The ‘eighth day’ of Sukkot is actually Sh’mini Atzeret, “The Eighth Great Festivity”, and foreshadows infinity, living with Elohim, seeing Him face to face, in a NEW heaven and a new earth, a new universe.

These things I know with absolute confidence.  They are more solid than any truth man can observe with his eyes.  Even though to most they sound like folly, as ridiculous as Marvel and DC.  But these are absolutes, and will happen, and of that, I have NO DOUBT.  And I do know that these events are ever closer to us, and that what the world is living in right now is symptomatic of it all beginning, very, very soon.

And I know that MOST of the world is oblivious to them.  And, much of the believing world is ambivalent about it, caring not when it happens.  The theme I have seen, and taught on Shabbat of late, is that we as believers are SUPPOSED to LOOK for it, PRAY for it, anticipate it, and be EXCITED about it, without fear!  And without the arrogance of ‘assuming’ we are ready, as most do.

The ‘good news’ is STILL the good news [b’sorah/gospel], but today, it comes with bad news for those who are rejecting it or turning from it: TIME IS SHORT.

וְכַאֲשֶׁר יַתְחִילוּ אֵלֶּה לִהְיוֹת, הִתְעוֹדְדוּ וְהָרִימוּ רָאשֵׁיכֶם, כִּי קָרְבָה יְשׁוּעַתְכֶם

“But when you see these things coming to pass, have courage and lift up your heads, because your Salvation is at hand.”