Truth: a few thoughts.

PS 119: 142  Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy Torah is truth.

Human based truth can change, however the truth of God’s Word is unchanging.  Can the truth of God’s Word be made more or less true?

When Paul says, in 2 Timothy 3,

16  Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, “

Is some Scripture more profitable than  other?  When he wrote that, he wasn’t talking about any of the ‘ new’ testament….  What Scripture was he talking about for training in righteousness?

25  And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

Is Deuteronomy, or the Torah less true than the Gospels or Pauline letters?

How about this: can one ‘truth’ in God’s Word abolish or overide another without an explicit declaration of such?  As an example, Continue reading

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A few more ‘Memra’ verses in this portion….

Yesterday, I posted a Scripture image from my YouVersion account demonstrating an example of the use of ‘Memra’ from Deuteronomy.  We have argued on this blog before for the presence of Yeshua in the Torah, one example of which is the ‘Memra.’  Read up on that to better understand the next few verses.

NOTE: Deuteronomy 26:17 also has an alef-Tav as this image demonstrates....

NOTE: Deuteronomy 26:17 also has an Alef-Tav as this image demonstrates….

Certainly, Yeshua, the Memra, stood on Mt. Sinai!

Well, here are a few more ‘Memra’ verses from this portion that are fascinating and again compel us to ask, “When Yeshua (Jesus) says, ‘If you love me, then keep my commandments,’ what are his commandments?”  (Answer to the question at the end of the post…)

Picking up with yesterday’s verses, these almost have a story line as they are interspersed through Deuteronomy 26-28,

Deu. 26:16 “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 You have today declared the Memra de Yeya to be your God, and that Continue reading

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In the beginning was the … Memra!

Maybe you’ve never heard this, but John’s use of ‘the Word’ (John 1:1ff) is not original.  Authoritative Aramaic translations of the Torah done by the rabbis, some 150+ years before Yeshua, used ‘Memra’ or ‘Memra de Yeya’ (Word, or Word of the Lord) about 100 times in the Torah to describe manifestations of Yehovah.  John just had the audacity to say that they were right and Yeshua is the Memra!

The Rabbis had that part right.  Ever heard that from the pulpit?

image

http://bible.com/59/deu.26.17.ESV

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Steve King’s Double Dog Dare!

image

http://bible.com/100/psa.119.17-18.NASB

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God doesn’t like the smell of cr@p!!

Years ago when I was in sales, I walked up to a scheduled appointment at a very nice looking condominium. As I knocked on the door my expectations were very high

Not in my living room!!

Not in my living room!!

(this was a ‘hot lead’) until the door opened.  The putrid aroma that flew out of the home nearly bowled me over. It reeked.

Being in difficult financial straits, I chose to proceed inside to meet with the occupant and found a reasonably nice home, well decorated and pretty.  The glaring problem was the dozens of piles of dog poo and pee stains all over the carpet.  Seriously.  A hazmat suit and breathing apparatus would not have been enough.  The place needed a four alarm fire.

I didn’t vomit, but I didn’t make the sale either.  I got out as quickly as I could and immediately went home for a shower.

There are three verses in Deuteronomy 23 that directly relate to this and hold some serious thoughts for us. Let’s read, Continue reading

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Shabbat Shalom!

image

http://bible.com/59/isa.58.13-14.ESV

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What’s for dinner?

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http://bible.com/59/lev.11.13-19.ESV

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Blood moons, Paradigm-shifts and Prophesy…

Here are multiple recent items that I have see that I want to share…

First, an email today from the authors of the Lost in Translation Series,

Hi Everyone,Just a glance at the September 2015 calendar should send a few shivers down your spine:

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13
solar eclipse
Solar Eclipse
14
Feast of Trumpets
15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23
Yom Kippur
24 25 26
27
blood moon
Super Blood Moon
28
Sukkot
1st Day
29
Sukkot
2nd Day
30
Sukkot
3rd Day
     

Many things are converging and climaxing in 2015 – too many for coincidence to be at play here. YHWH says the moon and the stars are for signs and mo’ed – appointments (Gen. 1:14), and He’s got His fingerprints all over these signs in 2015. In the history of the world there has NEVER BEEN a super blood moon on the Sukkot following a shemitah year (the sabbatical year which occurs every seven years).

What is a super blood moon? A blood moon is a total lunar eclipse. But the blood moon on Sept. 27, 2015 isn’t just any blood moon – it’s a super blood moon.

Continue reading

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Does this verse still apply?

image

http://bible.com/100/lev.23.14.NASB

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Christendom and the Sin of Jeroboam

On occasion, friend and fellow Messianic, Tzefanyah ben Yochanan, has visions that are prophetic in nature.  This morning my email had a detailed vision that he had yesterday, and it triggered some thoughts.  Here is the majority of that email,

Today @ 8 AM Eastern time Yom Rishon (Sunday) August 23 I had a vision. I was standing and talking to hundreds of people. As I spoke I began to share that it is time to bury the hatchet of all the doctrines that divide us. I began to share that there are many gray areas in scripture, but we have taken those areas and made doctrines out of them and used them to declare ourselves having a truth that everyone needs that I have a corner on. I shared how when we do that we create separation between each other. We as the people of Yosef are still walking in the sin of Jeroboam to this very day. We are erecting golden golden-calf2calves and altars to ourselves and we have made these doctrines as mighty ones. After I finished sharing that bold message to these hundreds of people my whole body began to shake and my knees began to buckle. I was weeping profusely and I fell prostrate upon the ground and with a loud cry came forth, “Oh King of Yisrael bring us home!!!” As I lay there yelling out and profusely weeping, the hundreds of people in that place began to do the same. We were all identifying the sin of Jeroboam in our lives. The hundreds in that place were now all prostrate on the floor crying out in unison with weeping and travail, “Oh King of Yisrael bring us home!!” My body was quaking and I was weeping throughout the vision and then at the end was a sense of calm assurance, tranquility, that He heard our cry.

All of us in that room knew heaven touched earth in that place. We all knew it was time to prepare for our journey. He heard us and was taking us home.

What particularly struck me was that in recent days, I have again been thinking of the sin of Jeroboam.  While this is a topic we have discussed before, I think it is something we need to revisit, particularly in light of Tzefanyah’s vision.

Most of Christendom does not know or realize that the way the faith is currently practiced is not the way it has always been.  Indeed, very little has changed in the last 1500 or so years, but a great deal changed between about 150 CE and 500 CE.  Even a cursory reading of the book of Acts reveals Continue reading

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Israel Today: “COMMENTARY: Are We Witnessing the Conclusion to Story of the Prodigal Son?”

Another very interesting article just crossed my desk, thank you Mike!!

Here is an interesting short article from Israel Today delving into the story of the Prodigal Son and what we are seeing happen today between Jews and Messianic believers…  (The article refers to them as Christian, but the comments section articulates the differences.)

150823_prodigalIf you recall, when Yeshua (Jesus) ended his famous parable (Luke 15), the older brother was still having a hissy-fit. And the father, who had organized a wonderful homecoming celebration for his younger brother “who was lost and has been found,” was desperately trying to talk him into joining the party. But the older boy was having none of it. He couldn’t understand how his father could have a party for that worthless, no-good brother of his when he had served so faithfully and nobody had ever thrown him a party.

And that’s where Yeshua left us. Wondering if the older son would ever understand and receive his father’s unconditional love. Or if the two brothers would ever reconcile.

Well, after 2000 years, we may be watching the conclusion to this parable unfold before our eyes. And it seems headed for a happy ending. Of course, what happened to the angry older brother in the interim, sad to say, was pretty devastating. In fact, he ended up in the same pitiful homeless situation his younger brother had experienced. I know that because the parable was clearly a prophecy about to be fulfilled. And hindsight tells the tale.

The older brother surely represents the Jews. And Yeshua was revealing how his own brethren would react when Father God began to bring Gentiles (the Prodigal) into the house. They’d go ballistic. Why? Because the Jews, who had been dutifully following God’s commandments, believed righteousness was the reward for their diligence. Seeing un-kosher Gentiles, who didn’t know Moses from Adam, claiming they’d been forgiven and declared righteous through faith in Yeshua pushed them right over the edge.

History records how the older brother’s hardened heart soon drove him from the Father’s estate. And how the brothers’ relationship went from bad to worse. In fact, there was a complete role reversal. The Prodigal (now called “Christian”) began to consider himself the favorite son and persecuted his older brother, driving him further away from knowing his Father’s love.

Continue reading

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Why did Jesus (Yeshua) come?

Like most who are raised in Christendom, I grew up believing that Jesus came to ‘save His people from their sins.’  And, I was only partly right!  Indeed, personal redemption is necessary for the Messiah’s mission, but it is not the primary focus of His prophesied ministry.

In recent weeks I have had the urge to go back and reread the Gospels with a new lens, that of Yeshua (Jesus) as the image

Restorer of the Tent of David.

Acts 1:6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

Over and over, the prophets foretold of a coming King who will sit on the throne of David and regather Israel, all 13 tribes, from the four corners of the earth.  That King will teach Torah and make Israel into a great and glorious kingdom that will bless the earth and proclaim the wonders of Yehovah!

Perhaps, the single most dramatic and specific prophecy is
Continue reading

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Does ‘truth’ change?

Multiple points made in yesterday’s post about professor Daniel I. Block’s essay have been running through my head.  The major one is one I’ve pondered before but am again relishing. 

image

Simply, the truth recorded in Torah has not and cannot change.  When יהיה said to keep His feasts forever (4x in Lev. 23), that is unchanging truth.  When יהיה said to keep the seventh-day Sabbath forever (Ex. 31:16-17), that is unchanging truth.  It can’t change, else He is a liar, and He cannot lie (Titus 1:2).
Therefore, if someone tells you these have changed, that person is lying. Period.  (Now, they may be doing so in ignorance as I once was, but it is still lying.)  Gently correct them with this thought: Does (or, can) God lie?  Concerning the Torah, He says it is truth and everlasting righteousness.

http://bible.com/100/psa.119.142.NASB

Shabbat Shalom!!

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James Block touring Southeast!!

You may remember from my reports of the First Bney Yosef Congress that we especially enjoyed the music ministry of James Block and his wife Liz. Well, he is coming to the southeastern US in September!!  (And, even if you are in some other part of the world, you can be blessed by his gift of setting Psalms to music…) Continue reading

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“Stop the Press! Mainline Christian Scholars Beginning to Promote the Torah of Moses “

Following is the beginning of a terrific article by friend and fellow blogger, Peter Vest, about Wheaton College Professor of Old Testament, Daniel I. Block’s essay entitled “Preaching Old Testament Law to New Testament Christians.”


 

Stop the Press! Mainline Christian Scholars Beginning to Promote the Torah of Moses

“I am keenly aware that in proposing [that the Torah of Moses is valid for Christians] I have guaranteed for myself a limited hearing,” Daniel I. Block, opening line from his essay entitled “Preaching Old Testament Law to New Testament Christians” found in the book “The Gospel According to Moses: Theological and Ethical Reflections on the Book of Deuteronomy”

What follows are my notes on Daniel I. Block’s essay entitled “Preaching Old Testament Law to New Testament Christians.”  I just read this today and was astounded that a Christian would be promoting the Torah of Moses to fellow Christians.  And not just any Christian but he happens to be a professor of the Old Testament at Wheaton College.  Friends, this is G-d at work in Christendom, changing it into something new.  Enjoy:

Block claims to have figured out why Christians believe the Torah is not relevant.  They think it’s a bunch of boring rituals made obsolete by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, laws that are hopelessly out of date and inapplicable to modern times, unduly harsh laws that are grossly inferior to the “law of love” announced by Jesus, encrypted in an antiquated literary form that would be impossible to understand in our modern age, and representing a view of G-d that is objectionable to modern sensitivities.

But, he says, these misconceptions about the law arise from fundamental ideological and theological prejudices against Old Testament law.  He first traces these prejudices to the 2nd century heretic Marcion proclaimed a radical discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments, Israel and the Church, the G-d of the Old Testament and the G-d of the New.  Then he identifies three current streams of prejudice:  the antipathy resulting from the Lutherian law-gospel contrast, the dispensational idea that the church age with its dispensation of grace is fundamentally different from the Israel age with its dispensation of law, and, finally, the New Covenant Theology rooted in Reformed Theolgoy which says that Mosaic Covenant ended when Christ instituted the New Covenant.

Continue reading

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