Is It Time for Pentecost?

          Most Pentecostal Christians can tell you that the day of Pentecost is the day Yeshua (Jesus) baptized his disciples with the Holy Spirit, and this is true. Beyond that however, the amount of ignorance and misinformation in the Christian community is really quite shocking. And a quick Google search is certainly not going to clear things up – I actually checked this out myself, comparing the information I found (on Wikipedia, for example) with what the scriptures actually tell us and I kept saying, ‘That’s wrong… That’s wrong… That’s wrong.’ And it didn’t take long before I had to stop and get back to writing this blog, so that at least a few people might have the right information.

            So first, I’ll go over the most basic stuff, the what and the when of it. The day of Pentecost occurred 50 days after Yeshua’s resurrection, not his death. That is 50 days after (and including) the Day of Firstfruits, not Passover. (Many Christians nowadays calculate when Pentecost will occur starting at Passover, all too easily forgetting that Yeshua did not die and resurrect on the same day).

The name, Pentecost, comes from the Greek word for ‘fiftieth,’ which is reasonable I suppose. But most people, including devout Pentecostals, are completely ignorant of the fact that this day was appointed by the Almighty a long time ago: In Leviticus Chapter 23, Yehovah lays it all out…

1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.

3  Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

4  These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.

5  In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover.

6  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

7  In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

8  But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

9  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

10  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:

11  And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

12  And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD…

14  And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

15  And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:

16  Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.

And in Deuteronomy Chapter 16…

9  Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.

10  And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:

Since the Israelites were not to partake of any of the new fruit or grain of the land until the offering on the Day of Firstfruits, we start the count of 7 weeks from that day and it puts us at what came to be called Pentecost. This day was called the Feast of Weeks, and the Almighty Himself had named it thus (about 1400 years before Yeshua was born).

Now, I am compelled to tell you that the number seven is a very important number in the Holy Scriptures (the seven days in a week, the seven-fold spirit of God, every seven days was a sabbath day, every seven years was a sabbath year, there were seven churches in the book of Revelation, there are six things God hates and seven are an abomination in Proverbs 6:16), and that the word (in Hebrew) for ‘7’ is the same word for ‘week.’ As such, the Hebrew name Shavuot can be interpreted either as Feast of Weeks or Feast of Sevens; both are correct.

The number seven itself is a number that signifies fullness, completeness, and perfection. And the Feast of Sevens is connected to very integral parts of God’s perfect plan; for instance, it was on this day that God formally made a covenant with a nation, Israel, and gave those His Ten Commandments (He actually shouted them down to the people from atop Mt Sinai). It was also on this day the Holy Spirit (the power of the renewed Covenant) was poured out abundantly on Yeshua’s disciples.

But, in my opinion, the most interesting and faith-inspiring meaning hidden in this Holy Day is the complete fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel to the prophet, Daniel: the famous 70 weeks prophecy from Daniel Chapter 9…

22  And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

23  At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

24  Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

25  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

26  And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

27  And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

            I won’t go into every word here (there is a lot) but I will cover the chronological sequence of events starting at the beginning:

            Seven weeks + Sixty-two weeks (verse 25)

In the year 457 BC, the Persian king Artaxerxes sent Ezra with other Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild (and also to re-teach the law of God) (Ezra 7:7-9). After 49 years (seven sevens), most of the construction was complete and the city was a fully functioning center of commerce. 27 AD, John the Baptizer proclaims, ‘Behold the Lamb of Yehovah, which takes away the sin of the world!’ This is the first time, since his birth, Yeshua is revealed to any sizable group of people as the Messiah. And this day is, in fact, EXACTLY four hundred and eighty-three years since Artaxerxes sent Ezra back to Jerusalem. That’s sixty-nine (7+62) sevens.

            Sixty-two weeks (verse 26)

            Part 1 of the Seventy weeks (verse 24)

This began with Yeshua’s baptism in water, then his forty-day fast, and temptation in the wilderness. When he returned from his temptation is when John proclaimed, ‘Behold!’ This time-span ended the week before his crucifixion. And we are talking literal weeks in this part of the prophecy. Also note that Yeshua told John that this was a righteous thing for him to be baptized in water, and that he came to ‘bring in everlasting righteousness’ (Dan. 9:24).

            One week (verse 27)

            Part 2 of the Seventy weeks (verse 24)

The CLV actually says ‘at half’ of the week, literally speaking that would be Wednesday, which is accurate and correct. This is the day and week Yeshua was crucified, the perfect Lamb of God, thus causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease.

            The it-goes-without-saying seven weeks

            Part 3 of the Seventy weeks (verse 24)

There are seven weeks of prophecy remaining to be fulfilled after the week of Yeshua’s crucifixion. These are the same seven weeks counted every year starting with the Day of Firstfruits and concluding with the Feast of Weeks! Pentecost!

            Putting it all together, it should be plain that Yehovah made this day a VERY important day, several hundreds of years even before Daniel, well over a millennium before Yeshua was born. And this day directly links the giving of the Ten Commandments (the perfect law of God) with the gift of the Holy Spirit baptism (the power to live above sin). Yes, thanks to Yeshua, we can have it all!

One addendum before I finish: I know many people have been indoctrinated with the idea that Yeshua’s ministry was 3 ½ years long, and so may not be inclined to believe a much shorter time frame of seventy weeks. Other than the fact that the Bible’s prophecies wouldn’t make sense if that were true, I also offer the words of the Messiah himself: he said the following in his home town’s synagogue shortly after the Feast of Weeks… from Luke Chapter 4

18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears…

 He that hath an ear, let him hear…

The Passover of Yehovah

            Today, I thought I’d talk about Passover, especially since it happens to fall on my birthday this year, April 21^st. (Please note that I won’t be mentioning any pagan holidays, even if it is that time of year.)

Passover is the first Holy Day (holiday) of the biblical calendar, and this year (2019) it begins at sundown on April 20^th, continuing until sundown on April 21^st. Immediately followed by the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Day of First-fruits, and, of course, the Feast of Weeks, Passover is the first of the Spring Feasts of Yehovah.

Like all other Feasts commanded by the God of Israel, Passover has both symbolic and prophetic meaning, but it is also a memorial of events that took place even before the Israelites received the Torah of God through Moses at Mt. Sinai.

When Moses had been sent by God to liberate Yehovah’s people from slavery in Egypt, the last plague God sent was death, a death which would strike down the first-born of every family both Egyptian and Hebrew. However, Yehovah is the savior, and He gave the Hebrews a way to escape this death: simply take the blood of a lamb, use a hyssop branch to apply the blood to the lintel and doorposts of the entryways into the house, and while eating the meat of the slain lamb that night, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, death would simply PASS OVER the house, leaving the people inside the house safe and untouched.

This last plague God sent to Egypt finally convinced the Pharaoh to allow the Hebrews safe passage out of Egypt. Thus began their journey to Mt. Sinai where they received the commandments of Yehovah and entered into a blood covenant with Him, a covenant which they soon broke, before they even left the mountain to continue their journey.

During these events, God set a pattern in place, not just for prophecy: the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, slain to pay the penalty of Israel breaking their blood covenant agreement with the Almighty at Mt. Sinai. This abstract ritual, of applying the lamb’s blood to the door of your house to save you from death, has deeper spiritual meaning that still applies to us today.

It begins with the first and most obvious step. Since the wages of sin is death, and we don’t want death; God is trying to save us from death, so we need to be free from sin. So Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, who had never sinned, willingly died an acceptable sacrifice to forgive the world of its sin. However, just because we may have forgiveness of sins, doesn’t mean we won’t continue to sin and thus continue to be bound for death. This leads us to the next step.

We need to use the blood of the Lamb. But what is the blood… spiritually speaking? And how do we apply it in our lives… and apply it to what?

First I’ll explain the blood of the Lamb. Jesus’ blood, he said, ‘this is the renewed covenant in my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’ (Mat. 26:28) And in the book of Acts, chapter 2, and verse 33, ‘he (Jesus) has shed forth this, which you now see and hear.’

“Incidentally” this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, on the day of the Feast of Weeks, coincides with the anniversary of when the blood covenant was made between Israel and the Almighty at Mt. Sinai (remember what I said about God setting up a pattern), and on this day God Himself gave the first commandments (the Big Ten) directly to the people, shouting down to them from atop the mountain.

Another good NT verse to put in here would be Heb. 9:14, ‘How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works (that being sin) to serve the living God?’

To put it in simple English, the blood of the Lamb is the power we receive through the Holy Spirit to overcome sin. But what is sin, then?

1 John 3:4, ‘Whosoever commits sin is also transgressing the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.’ But not just any law: the law of God. And the law of God has been given to us by His prophets, so we need only read the scriptures. In fact, when Yehovah told Moses about the coming of the prophet (Jesus), He told him that he would be like Moses, in that God would speak directly to him the laws and instructions (torah literally means instruction) for the people to hear and obey.

Now a point of clarification would be appropriate, I believe. For many people associate the laws God gave through Moses with the Jews, which is actually a very common error, and one that makes it difficult to properly understand the scriptures. I’ll elaborate.

Most people use the word ‘Jew’ as if it’s synonymous with words like ‘Israelite’ or ‘Hebrew.’ But ‘Jew’ has only two historically correct meanings. The first to come into existence is ‘someone from Judea.’ Are you aware that the term ‘Jew’ is not used in scripture until the later chapters of the Kings and Chronicles? This is when the ten northern tribes of Israel were broken up and scattered amongst the gentiles in and around the region of the Galilee. The two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin, came together to form Judea, and from then on a person from Judea was referred to simply as a Jew.

That right there means that whoever came before that time (Kings David, Solomon, and Saul, and Prophets Samuel, Nathan, and even Moses) were not Jews, because Judea, and therefore Jews, did not yet exist.

The second correct definition refers to those who practice the man-made religion of the Jews, nowadays called Judaism. I know many people think that the religious Jews throughout history follow the Torah of Moses, but that is a steaming pile of a horse manure. In truth, the religious Jews made up their own torah to replace the one the Israelites originally received through Moses.

In the days of Jesus, this man-made religion had already taken hold in Judea, and thus many times in the New Testament the word ‘Jew’ is used in the religious sense, not the geographical one. We must examine the context to know for sure. A good example of this is John chapter 1, in which the author tells us about ‘Jews’ coming to John the Baptist to ask him some questions, but later on in the same chapter, John (the author) clarifies this statement by calling them Pharisees.

Pharisees were the ‘Judaists’ of that era, but only going by a different name. They still had their Rabbis and their synagogues, and their false teachings. And of course since none of this came from God, Jesus was adamantly against it, which is actually quite amusing if you think about it, since Jesus taught in their synagogues: that would be like a Protestant coming to preach in a Catholic church (hilarious in my opinion). And also, considering these things, the testimony of Stephen in the 7^th chapter of Acts makes a lot more sense.

So the law, getting back to the main topic here, is what we are living by if we’re not sinning, but living righteously in the eyes of Yehovah. In fact, there are scriptures which speak quite plainly to this fact: Gal. 4:4-5, ‘But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.’ And Gal. 3:24, ‘Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’

Now, I’m sure many people already have rebuttals surfacing in their minds, but please consider the following: Jesus himself said that he came to fulfill the law, not to destroy it. And he provides an excellent example of how to follow the law, the New Testament way.

Consider the following passage in John 8:3-11,’And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

The Pharisees were correct in that according to the law of Moses, this adulteress should be put to death. But Jesus, having come to save, not to condemn, knew that her continuing in sin would lead to her death eventually, unless she was given grace from God to escape her sin and its consequence. From the very last line of the passage it’s obvious that Jesus knew she was a sinner, but he was willing to pardon her past sin and give her the simple instruction to sin no more.

In this and other examples, Jesus shows that the law is never nullified but also that the law by itself can make nothing perfect. This is why the power of the Holy Spirit, the power to overcome sin, is so precious: it helps us to actually live by the standards God has put before us in His Word. The Holy Spirit has been in operation for us since creation and it has never stopped working. However, the gift of being filled to overflowing with the Spirit had yet to come. But of course Jesus knew this gift was coming soon.

This takes us to the next step in the pattern: applying the ‘blood’ to the lintel and doorposts of our house. I’ve already touched on the lintel and doorposts actually: what we need to apply the power of the Holy Spirit to in our lives, the commandments and instructions God has given us for how we ought to live.

You may ask, ‘How does the lintel and doorposts symbolize the laws of God?’ It’s actually not that complex: the door is the thing we must pass through in order to get inside the house (you may call this house the house of God, the household of faith, or something like that). And we could say that specifically the lintel represents the laws themselves while the doorposts represent the prophets, which isn’t much of a stretch since it is by the prophets we receive the instructions from God in the first place, and so the law (the lintel) rests on the prophets (the two doorposts) with the blood of the lamb needing to be applied to each part. Of course, you could have the two sides/posts without the lintel above connected to the roof, but that just gives you a gate, prophets and ministers in the Bible often being depicted as gates notwithstanding.

Remember what Jesus said, ‘You should not infer that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.’ (I used the concordant literal version there) Why would we infer that Jesus came to do away with these things? As I’ve already pointed out, Jesus didn’t exactly live by the words of the law or the prophets in a way that the people were expecting.

So if that all checks out (I know some people will still be inclined to disagree with me about the laws part of it all, but I want to get through this whole Passover thing), then the next thing we need, to make us safe inside God’s household of faith, is the required method to apply the blood.

A hyssop plant, most people wouldn’t know, grows in a fairly basic fractal pattern, the image of the cross, repeating from the root to the tip of the stem (even the flowers grow closely alongside the leaves at these ‘cross’ sections). And if dipped in blood and then struck onto a flat surface, it would leave that same pattern of the cross behind. This makes it pretty obvious that the cross is what we need to apply the spiritual blood of Christ.

So what is the cross, spiritually speaking? Of course we know how a cross works in a natural sense. Jesus suffered, bled, and died the death of his natural body on one. But that did show more details in the pattern we must follow on a spiritual level. The Bible tells us to ‘crucify the flesh’ and ‘mortify the deeds of the body.’ This is more spiritual talk about things God requires of us if we want to have eternal life in Him.

Even in Stephen’s testimony/sermon he talks about how we need to be circumcised in our hearts, as in having the flesh (the carnality of life) removed from our hearts. The key to accomplishing this is in the mind, the way we think about things. The Bible says in Rom. 8:1-8, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.’

And in 1 Pet. 4:1-2 it says, ‘Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he who is suffering in the flesh has ceased from sin; that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh in human desires, but in the will of God.’

These passages of scripture make it pretty clear that we need to be of the mind that is subject to God and His law, the mind which allows for us to suffer in the flesh, but not in a bad way, in the way that we instead live in God’s will rather than striving for those things that only satisfy our own human desires. We need to deny our own carnal mind and instead put on the mind of Christ, and then we can follow the same strait way in which Jesus walked. It’s as he said in Luke 9:23, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross daily, and follow me.’ There he shows the same pattern: deny yourself, pick up your cross, and then you can follow Jesus. And, of course, where is Jesus, safe and sound inside God’s house.

So here is the pattern revealed so far: we need to take the sin-overcoming power of the Holy Spirit, use the mind of Christ (be subject to God in all things) to use that power to live by God’s law as well as the words of His prophets, and then we may enter through that portal into the household of faith where we will be safe from death.

One final element of the Passover remains: the meal, the food (yes, I saved the best for last). It is a meal of the lamb itself (the meat, not the blood), and also unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It’s conceivable that with all these ingredients they could have made some sort of sandwich wrap, but they most likely didn’t. But the meal, just like the other aspects of Passover, has spiritual significance as well.

Food, spiritually speaking, is whatever we might feed our inner man with: scriptures and doctrine, songs and hymns, corrections and reproofs, prayer and fellowship. In the case of this meal, unleavened bread is Biblical teaching/doctrine that is without bias or hypocrisy (1 Cor. 5:8), bitter herbs are things more difficult to swallow but that truly strengthen the inner man (i.e. correction and reproof), and the lamb brings to mind the verse (Psalm 34:8) that says, ‘taste and see that the Lord is good,’ for the Lamb (Jesus) is tender and sweet and… juicy and… would probably go well with horserad- ok, now I’m hungry and getting off topic. The point is, these are all good things we’ll need to partake of, as part of our escape from the clutches of death.

And so I think that’s it. If you think I might have missed something or if something requires more clarification, anything at all, feel free to leave comments and questions.

As for myself, I will celebrate the Spring Feasts of Yehovah as well as I am able. And I hope everyone has a happy long weekend. God bless you!

The Restored Covenant

          Shalom, peace, unto you. I may say some things in this particular post that shock you. This is because Jesus is not only my Savior and Lord, but also my example and he liked shocking people (and frankly, he still does). Here is where I will show you how I am trying to get back to the faith which was once delivered to the saints, the church that Yeshua (that’s Jesus’ Hebrew name) built. And I hope you find something here that will edify you and help you obtain a closer walk with the Messiah as well.

          This all started with a sermon which my pastor preached a little while ago. It wasn’t an original message but it was the first time I heard it personally. It was about obedience unto righteousness, unto holiness, unto eternal life. It had to percolate for a while in my brain but I came to appreciate its significance.

          It starts with obedience, doing (or at least trying to do) what God wants and has commanded us to do. If you don’t have a spirit of obedience, then the rest of this will do you no good because that’s step one. That leads to righteousness.

          Righteousness is not about having the right spirit so much as it is about doing the right thing; righteousness really means doing that which is right. Of course, the writers of the New Testament do clarify that we need God’s righteousness, not our own righteousness. That means doing what is right according to God, not according to men. Even the apostle Paul (an excellent example of the Jews) spoke of his own righteousness, that it was like filthy rags (and not to gross anybody out, but the original terminology used there was ‘menstrual rags’… disgusting!).

          But how do we know what is right according to God? That requires an education, obviously. And we need to make sure we are being educated according to the Word of God, the Scriptures. The Bible itself needs to be understood as a whole, or in its entirety. What you read in the Old Testament will help you understand the New, and vise versa. My advice: never stop studying the Word of God, and never take the Word of God for granted. Also do not twist, or reinterpret, the Scriptures to make them fit your way that you want to do things or what you want to believe; you should always, always, ALWAYS change what you are doing and what you believe to line up with the Word of Yehovah (that’s the Heavenly Father’s name in Hebrew).  Anything else and you slip back into your own icky righteousness which will get you nowhere.

          At this point I think it’s appropriate to point out that neither of these two things, obedience and righteousness, can be accomplished without the help of Yehovah. The sacrifice that Jesus (or Yeshua) paid on the cross (the ultimate act of mercy) allowed us access to the same spirit that empowered him and helped him to be perfectly obedient to his Father. Yeshua also said that the spirit of truth would lead and guide us into all the truth; that same Holy Spirit which manifested at Pentecost, which is that same spirit of obedience (see the connection?). This is why we can say that by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. Iniquity simply means lawlessness (in this case, being without the law of God). This brings us to holiness.

          Holiness simply means cleansed, sanctified, set apart, and even devoted. When we allow the Holy Spirit to work fully within us, this is what we become. The spirit of obedience is something you have, you use it to do righteousness, and (because we are defined not by our thoughts or feelings, but by what we do) we become Holiness unto the Lord. ‘Holiness unto the Lord’ is the title literally worn by the priests who serve God in the tabernacle or in the temple. We, as Christians, are called to be priests and even kings under Yeshua haMashiach, Jesus (the)Messiah.

And when this is what we are (when we have overcome the depraved elements of the world), God blesses us with eternal life.

          Simple, right? No? Well don’t worry; I’m not quite done here.

          I want to say more about God’s commandments vs. the commandments of men. God’s doctrine and the doctrines produced by the cerebral contusions of human beings.

          It is a recurring instruction in the Bible: after God gives people His commandments, His instructions (Torah), His truth, His knowledge, and His revelation, He then says do not add anything or subtract anything, do not alter one jot or one tittle, and just don’t touch it. And as such it is a recurring theme in the Bible, what happens to the people who break this simple instruction.

          The very first example of this is in the Garden of Eden. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is thought by many to be a bad tree, because the consequence of eating its fruit or even touching it is death. But Yehovah created this tree like all trees and other plants throughout the world, and He called them good. The reason this tree is good is not hard to grasp (if you’re willing to ditch your Traditions cap for a moment to put on a working Thinking cap) because paradise is, logically and practically speaking, utterly impossible without there being some sort of rule set, or guidelines, or knowledge, concerning what is good and what is not good, what is right and what is wrong, what you should do and what you should not do. It also makes sense that if you should mess, in any way, with such things, you no longer are enjoying the perfect paradise of God.

I know there are people out there who say they take the Scriptures ‘literally’ and so they think Adam and Eve ate an actual piece of fruit like an apple or a quince, but such people are really taking the Scriptures ‘moronically’ because the Bible literally says ‘Tree of Knowledge.’ Since when does knowledge grow on fruit trees? This is obviously a poetic device, probably used because it doesn’t matter what they literally or technically did with that Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. What matters is that they disobeyed Yehovah! And as such, could no longer enjoy the paradise God had made for them.

There have been many instances throughout history wherein humankind does not only break the rules or commandments of God but also invents new laws in their place. The most horrendous example of this is God’s own chosen people, the Jews. The Jews may say that, historically, God’s gotten a kick out of punishing them, and they’ll often conveniently forget to mention that they broke many of his most important laws, the punishment for which He made very clear.

In the Law of Moses (which didn’t really come from Moses, it came through Moses from God) Yehovah tells his people explicitly that they are not to add or subtract anything from the Torah (which literally means instruction). And the Jewish elders and Rabbis have taken out a lot. They’ve also added a great deal, so much in fact that it became quite burdensome for the people who followed them. God also told Moses that one day He would send another prophet, the Messiah, which we must shemah (a Hebrew word which means both to hear and to obey). Jesus gave his disciples many instructions in regards to the law and righteous living, never adding to or subtracting from the Torah. One thing he is especially noted for in the Gospel accounts is breaking the asinine religious rules and customs of the scribes and Pharisees who did not follow the Torah or Law of Moses, but who followed laws of their own invention.

Before I go further regarding the New Testament which Yeshua brought us, I should explain what happened at the very beginning, before the Israelites even became a true nation, and before God had them wander through the wilderness for four decades. At Mount Sinai, Yehovah made a blood covenant with the Hebrews, which they agreed to even before they knew what the commandments were and before they had the Ten Commandments engraved on the stone tablets. God spoke unto the Hebrews and gave them his law (at least, some of it), and afterwards Moses went up to receive the Ten Commandments. While he was still on the mountain, Israel broke the covenant they had made with the Almighty. They had made a golden calf and worshipped it, ruining the covenant which Yehovah made with them; they could no longer be the example to the world God wanted them to be.

This is why Yeshua had to die; the only way to restore a blood covenant (which this was and still is) was for either the offending party (all of Israel except for Moses’ family) to die or for one who had never transgressed the Torah, never broke that covenant, to die in their place. Jesus fulfilled this function. He also counteracted the original sin in the Garden; where by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so then by one man’s obedience many were made (and are still being made) righteous. Jesus said, of his blood that would be shed for many, this is the renewing of the covenant.

‘What are you talking about?’ is what you might be thinking right now. In truth, the words ‘new testament’ never appear in the New Testament except for one place where it’s an inaccurate translation, in the gospel of Matthew.

I’ve recently come into possession of the better translation of the gospel of Matthew, which is the basis for the Corrected King James Version of the Bible. An older more credible Hebrew manuscript for this gospel was recently found and translated directly into English and is what’s used to ‘correct’ the KJV.

Don’t get me wrong though; I don’t mind calling it the New Testament, because it is a new testament. Just don’t get confused; many people hear or read the words ‘New Testament’ and think ‘New Covenant,’ but there’s an important difference. ‘Covenant’ refers to an agreement that’s been made, similar to the word ‘pact.’ ‘Testament’ comes from the same root as ‘testimony,’ a Latin word, which I won’t try to pronounce or transliterate, that means ‘to bear witness.’ In this case the Scriptures bear witness of a renewed or restored covenant, an operation and fulfillment of God’s perfect will in the New Testament, while the Old Testament bears witness to the wretched life one has living under the broken covenant.

So now you might be wondering about the Law of Moses (at least I hope you are) since we, God’s people, are under the same covenant we read about in the Torah.

Remember what Jesus said: ‘Do not think that I have come to destroy the Torah, or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Truth I say to you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Torah till all be fulfilled. Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments in the Torah, and shall teach men to do so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven! But, whoever shall do and teach them, the same will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’

If you read this scripture with the spirit to be obedient, there is little doubt what Yeshua is saying. But if you need more clarification I suggest that you read the verses which come immediately before and after because context is a beautiful thing: ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven… (Mat. 5:17-19)… For I say to you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.’

I know, some people read the words of Jesus, ‘Do not think,’ and stop there, but there is no period there; you need to read the rest of it.

Remember that Jesus also said, ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me. I am gentle and undemanding. You will find rest for your soul because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’

Taking the yoke of Jesus upon ourselves means learning to live as he did, fulfilling the Torah. But the good news is that it’s not a heavy burden, though there are some men who teach otherwise. I’ve recently taken to rereading the Torah myself to learn it in greater depth and so far have found it to be pretty easy (in my opinion, ‘Thou shall not eat bacon,’ is the least of God’s commandments that I have to obey, but I’m still alive).

Another scripture, a very important one, from the gospel of Matthew properly translated is Mat.23:1-3 which reads, ‘After inspecting the treasury, Yeshua addressed the multitude and all of his disciples (who were present in the temple court) for the last time saying, “the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat (they purport to have Moses’ authority). Therefore, whatsoever he (Moses) commands you to observe, that observe and do – but do not follow the laws and works of the Pharisees – for they say (they follow Moses) but do not do (what Moses says to do).’

This illustrates quite plainly I think, that Jesus does not want us to follow man-made religious systems and that he does want us to follow all of God’s commandments which he gave through Moses.

One final argument I can see semi-intelligent people make against this is the debate which occurred in the early church regarding what they called ‘the circumcision,’ a debate which concluded with the decision that states Gentiles don’t have to become Jews before they become Christians, and ergo do not have to go through all the Jewish rigamarole such as getting circumcised. But many foolishly extend that to mean that all the laws of Moses except those that Yeshua taught his disciples were done away with.

What many don’t realize when they say such things is that the covenant of circumcision and the blood covenant made at Mt. Sinai are not the same thing. They are in fact barely related to each other – they wouldn’t be at all related if they involved different people or a different land.

Fortunately, the covenant of circumcision is ridiculously easy to understand. Yehovah promised Abraham that his family would inherit the ‘promised land’ and the sign of that covenant would be one borne in the bodies of the males of Abraham’s family. Others outside of Abraham’s family who wished to join in this covenant were allowed to do so. In fact, during the Exodus out of Egypt, there were some Egyptians who went with the Hebrews and they all had to get circumcised to get a share in that promised land. Gentiles today even, can get a share of the land of Israel, if they enter into that covenant with circumcision, because God’s promises are everlasting; the Bible even goes so far as to say He honors His Word above His name. That’s cool, if you’re interested in a piece of prime real estate, but it’s optional.

The apostle Paul states clearly, ‘He is not a (true) Jew, who is one outwardly… But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (or in the word), whose praise is not of men, but of God.’

This spiritual circumcision is not optional for the true people of God who will be given a spiritual inheritance, the ‘promised land’ of the kingdom of heaven.

Lastly, I want to share with you the last words and final witness of one who was a great biblical example of being a true Jew and Christian: Stephen, the first martyr.

Acts 6:7-7:60

6:7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. 8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. 9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. 10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. 11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. 12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, 13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: 14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. 15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

7:1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so? 2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. 4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. 5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. 6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. 7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place. 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. 9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, 10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. 13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. 14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. 15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, 16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. 17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. 19 The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.

20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months: 21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. 22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. 23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: 25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. 26 And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? 27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday? 29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.

30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, 32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. 33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. 34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. 35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. 36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. 38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: 39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? 43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. 44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. 45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; 46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built him an house. 48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, 49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

50 Hath not my hand made all these things? 51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. 52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: 53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. 54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

          That’s a little long, I know, but the reason Stephen was brought before this ‘Jewish’ council, as well as what the false witnesses said about him and his response are all very important.

          I think that is enough for now. I hope you found something good amidst all my words. Yehovah bless you.

The Judgment of Jesus

This topic has been weighing on my heart for a little while and I do think it’s important. Many people may not agree with me; some religious types may even get upset with me should they read this, but I don’t care. I’m just going to tell you what I think, and why, based on the scriptures of the Bible. You don’t have to agree with me, just know where I stand on this topic: judging.

Now, I should clarify first what I mean by the word, ‘judge.’ Many people feel put upon and unfairly treated when someone calls them on the carpet for something they’re doing wrong. ‘Don’t judge me,’ they’ll say, ‘the Bible says you’re not supposed to judge!’ Many people who claim the Bible in such a way don’t even read it. They have just heard the smallest snippets of scripture such as, ‘judge not lest you be judged.’

But the Bible does teach about how we ought to judge things and people, not in a critical or self-righteous way, but according to the teachings of Christ. A lot of self-proclaimed Christians don’t even know what Christ taught, which makes them a living contradiction. In those cases where we actually need to judge something (hopefully those cases are few) we need to lean on the teachings of Christ which can be found in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) of the Bible as well as the various epistles written by his disciples, so that we may judge properly according to what pleases God.

And let me clarify concerning criticism. Being critical of people is a form a judging. People who are familiar with the context of ‘judge not lest you be judged’ are well aware of this and I’ll explain it more later on.

One of the main things to keep in mind (possibly THE main thing) aside from ‘learn what Christ taught,’ to be able to judge as a proper Christian should, is ‘don’t be a hypocrite.’ There were many examples of hypocrisy in Jesus’ day, most of them were called Pharisees. Jesus railed on them more than once for being hypocrites, and he warned his disciples against the ‘leaven’ of the Pharisees, which is a reference to their doctrine (or at least some part of it) which was hypocrisy.

The Pharisees (as well as the Sadducees) were hypocrites in that they burdened the people under them with all the laws, traditions, customs, and standards of Judaism while they themselves were lazy and ungrateful (those two tend to go together) putting forth less effort and suffering less for the sake of the law than the people they had rule over. No wonder Jesus called them a generation of vipers (remember that serpents are not generally spoken of kindly in the Bible). The Pharisees often took the laws of Moses, which were burdensome enough as they were, and added even more to them, creating oppression for the Jewish people. They also came up with traditions and customs which contradicted Moses’ Law and served no one but the Pharisees themselves. And as if that weren’t enough, Moses himself had to create laws for the Jews (not just the Pharisees) the only reason for which was, as Jesus put it, ‘because your hearts were hard.’ Aw, man… that’s bad.

And even after Jesus taught a new law, one that would suffice for those who kept tender hearts before the Lord, there were people (more Jews) who not only wanted the Christians of the early church to follow the teachings of Christ, but also all of the Jewish laws, customs, traditions, etc. which they had been taught to follow their whole lives. This of course was what they whined about after they started sharing the gospel of Jesus with the Gentiles (the non-Jewish) and they never really stopped causing trouble for it either.

Paul and the other ministers discussed this matter and concluded that following the old laws of Moses was not needed to fulfill the teachings of Christ and so the Gentiles of the Christian church were not compelled to do so.

Today, however, I can see that many churches, professing to be Christian, do not follow this pattern; they take the teachings of Christ, often misusing them, misunderstanding them, and sometimes just missing them altogether, before adding a bunch of traditions, standards, customs, rituals, etc. which they say a member of their church must follow or else be ostracized from the group. This, as unfortunate as it is, seems to be a constant with the nature of mankind: unless you do things my/our way, you can’t be a part of us.

Of course, Jesus said things very similar, but his way is a perfect way that leads to eternal life and happiness. Others may try to make a similar claim about their groups and about their methods and about their doctrines, but Jesus is truly the only way, because his is the way that comes straight from God Himself.

In the world, as we see it today, especially in America, we see people trying to win moral and social arguments based on liberalism vs. conservatism, or even try to find a balance between the two, whether it be in politics, or the church, or some other area of life. The truth is, however, that you can miss God just as easily on either side or both sides. You can also get a hold of God on either or both sides. God is the point; He sent His only-begotten son, Jesus, to show us the way to find Him.

When we don’t get God, we get something else. If we miss God on the side of liberalism, we allow earthly and wicked worldliness into our lives and into our hearts; and if we miss God on the side of conservatism, we’ll still usher in that same worldliness, only now it’ll dress itself up with religiosity and self-righteousness.

The point is that we should want God, and God does not want His people to be worldly. Truly, God’s people are full of love, meek, godly, righteous, pure, and clean in their hearts.

Of course, many churches, even the truly good ones, may have certain standards and even certain rituals. Good people know how to use such things to guard their hearts against sin.

For example: a good approach to drinking may be to not drink anything ever, because that way you can’t possibly get drunk.

Being so irresponsible that you actually allow yourself to get drunk is a sin; it says so in the Bible in a number of places (read it yourself) however the teachings of Christ never say that you can’t have any alcohol at all. Drink without getting drunk (a ‘know your limit, drink within it’ kind of a thing).

Now a bad example: so many people in religion today boycott alcohol with such a militant and proud attitude, that they actually will teach their standard against alcohol as if it were a doctrine of Christ himself, that if you drink alcohol, you actually have sinned (which isn’t Biblical) and you can’t be a part of the Body of Christ (which is absurd; Jesus won’t refuse you if you occasionally have a glass of wine or a beer).

Such standards should be encouraged, absolutely, to help people stay away from sin. But even without them, if you follow the teachings of Christ found in the Gospels and the epistles of the apostles, you will not sin.

The best way, of course, to know if someone’s stance and standard against sin is Biblical (and Christian), is to read the Bible and learn the teachings of Christ for yourself.

Nowhere does Jesus say you can never ever drink, and nowhere does Jesus teach that God is actually impressed when you are dressed to the nines for Sunday service (I guess it’s better than you showing up in your underwear or PJs, but somehow I’m not worried).

Jesus does teach to help the needy and give to the poor, Jesus does say that you need to practice forgiveness or else God won’t forgive you (Does that mean you have to forgive all those annoying religious pinheads who say that you have to do such and such which are not in the teachings of Christ? YES), and Jesus does teach quite a bit actually about moral living before you even read as far as the epistles.

One key thing I’ll give you here is the knowledge that God’s concern is with your heart. If you can’t, with a clean conscience, go to church without dressing up first, then get dressed up. But, for Christ’s sake (and I mean that literally), don’t impose such things of YOUR faith onto others. It will very likely engender bitterness, angst, hatred, and dispassion for God and his saints and that poison in their hearts will be on YOUR head.

If you are genuinely concerned for others’ salvation, don’t look at the petty things they do and the habits they have that don’t mean anything in the light of the faith we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at their behavior; those who are truly ‘presenting their bodies a living sacrifice unto God’ won’t be able to hide the fact of it. They worship with their hands raised (hands are hard to fake) and their voice actually making noise (again, this is hard to fake), they are able to discuss the Bible because they’ve actually been reading it, they receive answers to prayer because they’ve actually been praying, they are able to be happy even in the most miserable circumstances because their joy does not come from the things of this world but from the Lord. Let it be known, ‘God is not mocked’ and such ‘a city’ that is ‘set on the hill’ of the salvation we have in Jesus Christ ‘cannot be hid’. Selah.

Now, I feel that I must admonish you, whoever may be reading this: do not be critical of people, even if they are completely insane. Look at the scripture which Matthew wrote of Jesus’ teaching: Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge a man, you, yourself, shall be judged: and with what measure you measure a man, it shall be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1-2)

That scripture is talking about criticism, an expansion, you might say, on what Jesus taught earlier: forgive or God won’t forgive you. And Jesus is comparing measurement to judgment. Why is he doing that? Because you can’t get to heaven on the coattails of someone else faith; it’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of deal. We all have our own faith and our own standards, in case you didn’t notice, but these are for ourselves, not for others. If you look at others through the filter of your personal standards, you will become critical of them, because they won’t fit your measurements of faith. Maybe you have a standard against alcohol, or smoking, or men having beards, or whatever other petty thing that doesn’t really matter to God, who looks at people’s hearts, but is really just a superficial thing. Don’t assume other people have to measure up to your standards.

If it helps, just change the wording slightly. Instead of measure, say… ridiculousness. If you get ridiculous in the way you judge others, then God in similar fashion will hold you to a ridiculous standard when your day of judgment comes.

For example: you might judge another person for drinking a single glass of wine, because if you drink too much wine, you might get drunk, and that’s very bad. God, in similar fashion, may judge you for let’s say… eating all the candy, because all that sugar is unhealthy, and may even lead to diabetes, and that would be very bad because your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and it is a principle of Christ that you be sober-minded i.e. responsible, which that isn’t.

You see it’s ridiculous, yes? But people will amaze you by their capacity for ridiculousness. I, as in my own personal standard, want to be as nice, and as patient, and as forgiving as I possibly can be, because when the day of judgment comes, I want God to judge me in similar fashion.

Lastly, I feel I should remind you; this hypocrisy can be quite divisive, causing unneeded separation between people. Although Jesus did say that he and his teachings would come between people, when he said, ‘blessed are you, when men shall hate you, and persecute you, and shall falsely say all manner of evil against you, for my sake,’ he was referring only to HIS sake and HIS word. He was not talking about the trouble you may get yourself into just for being a religious pinhead or self-righteous moron. That, you should try to avoid.

Remember also that God does hate certain things, and one of the principle things He hates is that which sows discord (creates separation) among the brethren. Proverbs 6:19

If any person says that you have to follow a certain tradition or standard which is not based in the principles of Jesus’ doctrine, otherwise you can have no part in their church or their fellowship, leave that person and that church and find one whose identity is hid in Christ, one whose message is never one of pride (come unto me; I am the best) or one obsessed with superficial tradition (come unto me when you’re properly dressed) but always based in the powerful redeeming love of Jesus Christ (come unto me and I’ll give you rest), and find a church whose attitude towards people is one of inclusivity (whosever will, may come) and not one of exclusivity (whosoever will look and act just like us, may stay).

Now I imagine that there will be two basic groups of people who may end up reading this: the liberal people who deeply want to thank me for expressing my Biblical views against the oppressive tyranny of religious nut-jobs and the conservative people who are seriously offended by what I have to say as it goes against so many of their ‘traditions’ and ‘teachings’ and such.

To the liberals I say, ‘you’re welcome, but seriously… GET A LIFE!’ It does you no good to live in such a way that you’re stuck waiting for some guy like me to come along with a Biblical viewpoint that validates your ‘precious feelings.’ Go and search out Jesus, the one who can really satisfy.

To the conservatives I say, ‘someone had to say it, if not me, then someone else. And you need to take another look in the mirror.’ The Bible calls itself (or the scriptures) a mirror, one that we can look into and use to cleanse our hearts of sin. So ask yourselves: What does God see when he looks into my heart? Have I let my heart become hard towards Him? What more can I learn from the scriptures about such things?

As for the more well-adjusted outliers here, ‘I’m glad you came!’

It is my hope and my aim that I can actually help sincere people find more enrichment for their lives in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Until next time, God bless!