Category Archives: Biblical Law and Torah Studies

Sabbaticals and Jubilees Part 2

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Sabbaticals and Jubilees Part 2

In order to have a proper understanding of a particular doctrine, it is many times necessary to look at most if not all of the Scriptures that apply to the subject.  Yahweh’s Word does not contradict itself.  Therefore, the answer to the question, “When does the Sabbatical begin and end?” should be clear to us if we allow the Scriptures to speak for themselves.

The story of Joseph in Egypt and his interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream in Genesis 41 alludes to the Sabbatical cycle of seven.  However, the first mention of the Sabbatical commandment is found in Exodus 23:10.  “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove”  (All Scriptures are from the NKJV).

Regarding the observance of the Sabbatical cycle and specifically the Sabbatical year, verse 10 shows that the first commanded action to be taken is to sow the land.  The second commanded action was to gather in the land’s produce.  The only information we are given about the Sabbatical cycle is that it begins with sowing and ends with gathering in the produce.

The climate of the Holy Land is such that there are only two seasons, wet and dry.  The wet season begins in the Fall and ends in the Spring.  The dry season begins in the Spring and lasts until the Fall.  The expression “former and latter rains” refers to the first rain in the Fall which must take place before the barley, wheat and other crops could be planted, and the latter rain refers to the last rain in the Spring.

“Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in Yahweh your Elohim; For He has given you the former rain faithfully,

And He will cause the rain to come down for you – the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month” (Joel 2:23).

Because there are only two seasons, the Holy Land’s agricultural seasons are different from what we are used to in the U.S.  For instance, in the Spring following the wheat harvest there are no crops planted.  This is because it is the dry season; there is not enough moisture to sustain any kind of crop.  For the most part, the only things that are grown are garden vegetables and herbs.  These are watered by hand.

During the dry season a farmer would spend most of his time with his flocks and herds and harvesting any early fruit crops.  He would patiently wait until the Fall of the year for the major harvesting of the olives and grapes.  That process would begin after Feast of Tabernacles and would last until sometime before the rainy season began.  The grapes were either dried to preserve them or they were sent to the winepress and turned into grape juice and wine. The olives were either preserved in salt water or they were sent to the olive press and turned into olive oil.

Prophetically speaking, the gathering of the clusters of grapes (i.e. people at the end of the age) and then casting them into the great winepress of the wrath of Yahweh, takes place at the end of the age of man after the seventh angel sounds his trumpet.

Figuratively, the following passages show that the Sabbatical ends in the Fall, and that that is the time when Yahshua returns and the time when Yahweh’s final judgment takes place. “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Sovereign and His Messiah and He shall reign forever and ever!’”  (Revelation 11:15)

“Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, ‘Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.’  So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.  Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.  And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, ‘Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.’  So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of Yahweh.  And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.” (Revelation 14:14-20)

These events will not take place in the Spring, but rather in the Fall.  Therefore, the cycles of seven and the Sabbatical year would begin and end in the Fall and not the Spring.

This is contrary to the Sacred year, which begins in the spring.  “Now Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ‘This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you”  (Exodus 12:1-2).

If the Sabbatical year coincided with the Sacred year, the Israelites would not have sown seed in the Fall.  Why would they sow seed that would bring forth crops that could not be harvested? By beginning the Sabbatical in Abib you would have to add the six months prior because you could not sow crops.  There would be no point in sowing in the Fall, and then because the crops in the fields were obviously not volunteer (that which grows up of itself) you could not harvest any of the crops.

There would be no point in sowing in the Fall if you begin the Sabbatical in the Spring.  Beginning the Sabbatical with Abib would add six months extra to the Sabbatical year.  The Sabbatical must begin with not sowing and then not gathering produce (crops planted).  The only way that this is possible is if the Sabbatical begins in the Fall and not the Spring.

The aspect of first sowing and then gathering is the basis for the Sabbatical cycles.  This is clearly seen in Leviticus 25:2-5.  “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to Yahweh.  Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit;  but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to Yahweh. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.  What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.’”

The Sabbatical year, like the weekly Sabbath, is the culmination of cycles of seven.  In the case of the weekly Sabbath, we are dealing with days that begin at sundown.  Preparations to keep the Sabbath begin on Sunday and end on Friday.  Preparations to keep the Sabbatical begin the first year of the cycle, and end in the sixth year.  That cycle begins with sowing, and ends with gathering or reaping the harvest.

 

The Second Coming of Yahshua.

One of the most important reasons for beginning the Sabbatical in the Fall and not in the Spring is because the Sabbatical years (and  Jubilee years) foreshadow Yahshua’s Second Coming. Each of Yahweh’s Feast days has special prophetic significance, and the Feast of Trumpets is no exception; in fact it is the next feast day to have its prophetic fulfillment. Consider Colossians 2:16-17.  “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Messiah.”

Yahshua applied the fulfillment of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years to Himself as the one who will proclaim a release for the captive, liberty to the oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh.

“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of Yahweh is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;  To proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh.’ Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’”  (Luke 4:16-21).

We know that Yahweh’s Holy Days individually represent fulfillment of important aspects of the plan of salvation.

For instance, Passover depicts deliverance from sin and a blood covering from the Lamb of Yahweh, Yahshua the Messiah.  The Feast of Weeks represents the Matan Torah and the gift of the Holy Spirit along with obedience to Yahweh’s Covenant.

Yom Teruah represents the sounding of the last trumpet and the second coming of our Savior.  The Day of Atonement points toward the Marriage Supper of the Lamb described in Revelation 19.  Feast of Tabernacles is a type of Yahweh’s Kingdom on this earth.  And the Last Great Day points toward the time when Yahweh’s throne is established  on the earth.

To say that the Sabbatical year begins in the Spring (Abib) does not support the teaching of Yahshua’s second coming.  The scriptures are very clear on the fact that Yahshua has fulfilled the first half of a Sabbatical cycle.  And it is shown that He was cut off in the middle of that cycle of seven.

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week. He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.

And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate” (Dan. 9:26-27).

The events depicted here will take place near the end of the final Sabbatical and Jubilee cycles, at the close of the age.  Yahshua will not return in the middle of a Sabbatical because He has already completed half of a Sabbatical cycle.  Instead, He will return at the end when the Last Trumpet sounds.  That being said, the Sabbatical cycle must begin in the fall and not in the Spring.

Consider the following passages which relate to the return of Yahshua.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other”  (Matthew 24:29-31).

“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of Yahweh and of His Messiah and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11:15).

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.  He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of Yahweh.  And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.  Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty Yahweh.  And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:  KING OF KINGS AND RULER OF RULERS”  (Revelation 19:11-16).

 

Sabbatical Year and Gezer Calendar

One of the oldest known Hebrew documents is the Gezer Calendar (see image below).  It was written in the time of David or Solomon (1,000 BCE), some 400 years before the Jews were taken into Babylonian captivity (586 BCE).  This ancient document describes the agricultural year for the land of Israel, and it begins that annual cycle in the Fall and not the Spring.

Leviticus 25 explains that the Sabbatical year begins by NOT sowing your field or pruning your vineyard.  Consider Leviticus 25:3-12,

“Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to Yahweh. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.  What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.  And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land — all its produce shall be for food.  ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.  That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine.  For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.’”

How could the Israelites have been influenced by the Babylonian calendar, as some claim, when that calendar didn’t even exist when this document was in use?

The Gezer Calendar proves that the Sabbatical begins in the Fall.

Leviticus 25 makes it very clear that the Sabbatical follows the seven year cycle which begins and ends in the Fall of each year.  It always mentions sowing your field first and then pruning your vineyard.  Sowing in the Land of Israel always takes place in the Fall after the Feast of Tabernacles. The pruning of the vineyard takes place at the end of the Sabbatical just prior to the sowing of grain in the Fall.

 

Rewriting the New Testament

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Over time myths and legends can be accepted as truth even if they lack a basis in fact. One of these legends says that George Washington threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River, even though silver dollars did not exist at the time and the Potomac was a mile wide.

Paul Revere was supposed to have ridden from Boston to Lexington crying, “The British are coming,” even though at that time most residents of Massachusetts considered themselves British.

Many religious convictions are awash in myths that grew and flourished over the centuries and yet are nowhere in the Word. Knowing how fables involving George Washington and Paul Revere became generally accepted in the course of only a couple hundred years, imagine how facts can be skewed after a couple thousand years when it comes to the Scriptures.

Have you ever wondered why the typical paintings of a Hebrew Messiah show an individual having western European features of a narrow nose, blue eyes and long, golden hair? Illustrations in some Bibles depict ancient Israelites of the Middle East sporting Renaissance garb 1500 miles away and 1500 years into the future.

Ancient tradition and foreign beliefs have seriously altered the way the Bible is portrayed and understood today. Perceptions sometimes stray so far from the truth that for the sake of accuracy we must stop and take a serious look at what we have been told or believe. Debunking traditional error is a key part of the work of Yahweh’s Restoration Ministry.

Coming down this path are many doctrinal disparities that were shaped by cultures and practices of people who came later. As a result, truth suffered substantially. Blinded by faulty teachings, many today don’t adhere to the truth even when it’s pointed out clearly and plainly.

The Bible as a Hebraic Book
Most of society looks at the Bible through Western filters, rather than in the light of its native Hebraic language and culture. This problem has proved so stealthy and persistent through the millennia that most will never question traditional notions. And they also don’t realize what is at risk. Until you understand that the New Testament is an extension of the Old, with only a few key revisions, you will never grasp it properly.

Let’s dispel the first issue we raised regarding the Savior. The Messiah Yahshua (being a Jew with a Hebrew Name) never had His portrait done by an artist or sculptor. Even if some were lurking around Galilee He never would have posed for them. With Him it was never about vanity.

No one today knows what He looked like. Scripture doesn’t offer any description, except to indicate that He was average in appearance without long, blond locks, 1Corinthians 11:14, Ezekiel 44:20. With His beard, Isaiah 50:6, He looked so much like any other Hebrew of His day that He could pass through a crowd of Jews unrecognized.

If the Bible had provided a description of His appearance, many would create and worship His image rather than concentrate on what He said and did. But they do that anyway.

Many also do it in another way, focusing entirely on His person and overlooking His primary teachings about a coming Kingdom and the part the called-out can have in it.

Our Savior was certainly no frail European, but a rugged Hebrew craftsman who worked with wood and stone. Being that His mother was Jewish, he had the typical dark, curly Mid-Eastern hair and features that reflected years of hard work and ministry carried out in the hot sun of the Middle East.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Anomalies concerning the simplest biblical facts underscore the work of the Adversary to derail both a correct understanding of Bible truth as well as the proper worship that would naturally flow from it.

To understand the harm in misconstruing both testaments, we first must be open to their thousands of connections.

The Western world looks at the Bible through Western eyes. In actuality, the Bible is a book about Middle Eastern peoples known as Israel and their Hebrew beliefs in an Almighty Creator named Yahweh. This fact applies to the New Testament as well as the Old and is basic to realizing what happened in the first several hundred years of the New Testament.

The fact is, the New Testament body of believers was still Hebraic in thinking and behavior. They had inherited a “Jewish” Messiah and it was their own Hebraic roots that the early church would seek to suppress any way they could. Almost from the beginning the emerging universal church became entrenched in Greco-Roman trappings.

From Hebrew to Greek
To disconnect their worship from its Israelite moorings, another “Sabbath” day was created. Biblical holy days, which were seen as Old Testament obligations meant only for ancient Israel, were replaced by celebrations that would become predominately secular over time.

Passover, the memorial of Yahshua’s death, was morphed into Easter, a brand new celebration for His resurrection. But the Roman church had zero authority from the Scriptures to create a resurrection observance.

New Testament writings of Hebrew men like Matthew, Mark, Paul, and Peter were given a different spin to support an array of new doctrines, some of which reflected the teachings of Greek philosophers. Even their Hebrew names were Grecianized in an obvious makeover.

Paul was given a Westernized face-lift to advocate no-law disobedience in his letters. Peter’s experience was misinterpreted in Acts 10 to say swine and shellfish had been cleansed and were now edible.

Apostolic writings were ripped from their Israelite framework and force-fitted into Greco-Roman mindsets. Over time a vast gulf would develop between original biblical truth and modern beliefs. The pivotal question becomes: Is the New Testament a Hebrew book, a Greek work, a Latin volume, or a hopeless mixture? And does it make any difference for True Worship?
Even Bible students with a basic under-standing of Scripture know that Hebrew is the language of the Old Testament manuscripts. It’s the language found in the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Bible texts in existence.

The common belief is that the New Testament was originally written in Greek simply because Greek is the language of the oldest available manuscripts of the New Testament. By the same reasoning, however, the Greek text also was the oldest available text of the Old Testament until the Dead Sea Scrolls, written in Hebrew, were discovered in 1947. More evidence is coming to light that the New Testament was first composed in Hebrew as well, consistent with being written by Hebrews.

In the minds of reformers the New Testament included Jews who were in the process of switching from their Israelite faith to Grecianized-Romanized beliefs and language.
Along with that was a common belief that Paul, the major New Testament writer, was a Hellenist Jew from Tarsus who wrote his letters specifically to Greek-speaking assemblies in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean region ostensibly to convince them to switch to a new faith.

This has worked to the advantage of those who want to keep the Old and New testaments separated and not viewed as a single continuum of truth.

As we read Philippians 3:5, which is part of Paul’s autobiography, let us ask ourselves whether slicing the New Testament away from the Old is proper or just another tactic of the Adversary to derail correct understanding and worship.

Paul writes of himself, “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews: as touching the law, a Pharisee.” Paul’s expression, “an Hebrew of Hebrews” is a Hebrew idiom that means a Hebrew through and through – in thinking, language, and lifestyle.

Paul, whose actual name was the Hebrew Shaul (the KJV also calls him Saul), was in fact a complete Hebrew. As for his politics, Paul was a Pharisee, a prominent sect of Judaism. Paul also grew up in Jerusalem, which was the center of Pharisaic Judaism.

At this point you might be saying, yes I realize that Paul may have been a Hebrew, but he was educating various Greek-speaking churches through the Greek language.

In reality Scripture reveals that Paul’s letters or epistles were written to various groups of the Jewish dispersion. Each group or assembly he founded contained a core of Jews along with others, including gentiles and Hellenists or Jews who spoke Greek. The Hebrews among them would transmit the biblical message from Paul’s letters to others in their circle.

Note what one authority writes: “ …we must not forget that Christianity grew out of Judaism … The Pauline epistles were letters written by Paul to small [Messianic] congregations in Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. These early believers were mostly Jews of the dispersion, men and women of Hebrew origin … The Epistles were translated into Greek for the use of converts who spoke Greek” (The Holy Bible from the Peshitta, by George Lamsa).

Just as teachings became Grecianized and Romanized, so were facilities. Greek gods were worshiped by the Greeks in Greek temples. These temples were later re-purposed into Christian churches. Many of the old Roman basilicas, which were public buildings in ancient Rome, were also appropriated for use as churches beginning in the 4th century. The circle of Greek and Roman influence was complete.

Paul Sustains Sabbath Obedience
An example of how the Apostle Paul ministered first to the Hebrew-speaking Jewish element wherever he went is found in Acts 17. Here Paul and Silas come to Thessalonica where there is a synagogue of the Jews. In verse 2 we read: “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.”

Why did he go specifically to the synagogue, on three consecutive Sabbaths no less, if he was not interested in teaching the Jews the truth of the Savior?

Paul was a Jew and as a Jew he kept and taught seventh-day worship as well as Yahweh’s seven annual Feast days. He continued doing so even after being instructed and trained by the resurrected Messiah, showing us that nothing there changed with the death of the Savior. The law was still in effect.
Another instance is his letter to the assembly at the Greek city of Corinth in 1Corinthians 10. There Paul talks about “our fathers” who were in the Exodus from Egypt, meaning their Israelite forefathers. Repeatedly we find that Paul went to the synagogue on the Sabbath where both Jews and Gentiles were worshiping. And he never told them to stop doing so. He never explained about any resurrection switch that made Sunday the new day to worship. Both Jew and Gentile still kept the true Sabbath.
Also critical to our understanding is the question, which books did Paul teach from? The only books in existence at the time were what were known as the Scriptures, the Old Testament.
This is highly significant because it is the Apostle Paul who is a preeminent transmitter of the New Testament, after the Savior Himself, of course. He taught from the Old Testament in his letters. The Old Testament was a Hebrew collection of books about Hebrew people, not Greeks or Romans, but Israelites and their faith, which included almost the same covenant we are to make with Yahweh.
Notice what he said in Acts 24:14: “But this I confess unto you that after the way which they call heresy (a sect or party), so worship I the Elohim of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.” The word “heresy” here refers to men following their own tenets.

By continuing to teach from the Old Testament as a foundation for their New Testament worship, Paul made some people very uncomfortable. Some even went so far as to call his ministry a heresy or in the vernacular, a cult, for teaching from the Law and prophets, which was another way of saying the Old Testament Scriptures.

In addition, Paul included in his ministry and writings what he had learned from the resurrected Messiah Yahshua. Obviously Paul saw no contradiction with combining fundamental Old Testament truth with what Yahshua had revealed for the New Testament worshiper.

Yahshua Himself said in Matthew 5:17 that He did not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill, or live out the Old Testament Scriptures in obedience to His Father.

But Paul had critics coming at him from the other side too. In Acts 24:5 he is being accused by the religious establishment of being a ringleader of the “sect” of the Nazarenes or the followers of the Savior of Nazareth. So he was getting it from both angles: those who thought the Old Testament was obsolete, and those who could not bear to hear about the New Testament Savior Yahshua.

Clearly, Paul harmonized Old and New testament doctrines in his writings. Being that he was directed to do so by the risen Savior, his approach is proper for us today. In fact, this is what Paul had told the young Timothy in 2Timothy 3:16-17. “ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of Yahweh and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of Yahweh may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

“All Scripture” refers here specifically to the Old Testament and only later would include the New Testament once the New Testament was written.

How did it happen that two major but divergent world religions exist, with one supposedly based on the Old Testament and the other ostensibly founded on the New Testament?

If the Old and New testaments teach the same basic truths, why the dichotomy? Is the Bible designed as two separate books, revealing one way of faithful obedience for Hebrews and a different way of simple faith for today’s believer?

Not a Divine Misstep
One fact is crystal clear: Yahweh said in Malachi 3:6 that He doesn’t change. His design for salvation is the same from the beginning. Through command and through His writers, Yahweh instructed His people to obey Him.

Yet, many continue to believe that Yahweh’s laws must have been given to Israel by mistake, an error committed by the Father that Yahshua corrected by purging our lives of Yahweh’s statutes in this age of grace.

Hebrews chapter 11 tells us about law-observant Hebrew patriarchs who will be in the coming Kingdom because of their faithful obedience. So why will Yahweh specifically reward them for their faithfulness to His laws if obedience is unnecessary and irrelevant for salvation?

If Paul in the New Testament were teaching a Grecianized faith, why did he quote from a Hebrew Old Testament? Why did he use lessons about Old Testament Israelites (for example, 1Cor. 10) if today’s worship is under an entirely different system based on faith alone?

In truth, none of the apostles had ever heard of the terms “Old Testament” and “New Testament.” The first use of the term New Testament is by the theologian Tertullian more than a century after the death of the apostles.

The simple truth is that Paul upheld Old Testament obedience. He wrote: “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not: yea, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31).

The Messiah Taught the Law
Something is clearly amiss if we believe that the New Testament teaches a whole new system of faith and conduct disconnected from the Old. Yahshua Himself upheld and even amplified the necessity to obey His Father Yahweh.

Read Matthew 5:17 to the end of the chapter. In that passage He starts out with, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.”

Yahshua Himself taught from the Old Testament. He quoted the law books, or Torah, some 60 times. There are nearly 700 individual citations from the books of the Old Testament found in the New. If you include references to the Old Testament as well as quotations of it in the New, the number would be over 4,000, according to The Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

The Messiah Yahshua in John 10:35 says Scripture cannot be broken. And yet for 2,000 years persistent efforts have been made to break the New Testament away from the Old Testament. Claiming that the New Testament was written in Greek has had the effect of disconnecting it from its foundational Hebraic roots.

New Testament Is Hebrew Based
An abundance of internal evidence points clearly to the unavoidable conclusion that the New Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language and was translated into Greek only later.
This fact alone provides the essential tie that binds Israelite worship in the Old Testament with the faith of spiritual Israel of the New Testament.

Paul says in Romans 11 that the believer today is grafted into that same Israelite Covenant promise given in the Old Testament. He wrote in Romans 11:25, “For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits: that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved.” Paul writes that both believing Israelite and believing gentile will receive the reward of salvation, confirming the continuity of the testaments. Now let’s look at the text itself.

Survivals from the Hebrew Originals
If the New Testament writings were originally Greek, then we could reasonably expect to find an occasional Greek word surviving in English from the Greek original.
Instead we find many Hebrew words and expressions in the New Testament that have survived into the English. That’s because the Greek had no word to convey certain Hebrew words and expressions when the Hebrew New Testament text was translated into the Greek and from there into English.

For example, we find in the King James New Testament and other versions the purely Hebrew-Aramaic word “Abba” (which means dearest father); “Messiah” (anointed one); “Sabbath” (repose, desist from exertion); “Eli, eli lama sabachthani” (my El, my El, why have you forsaken me?); “talitha cumi” (meaning maid arise); “mammon” (riches), and “hosanna” (savior we beseech).

If we were translating a book from German to English, would we throw some Russian words into our English translation? Russian words would survive our English version only if the original were translated from Russian. So finding Hebrew words and expressions in supposed Greek manuscripts is powerful evidence that the original was not Greek at all but Hebrew.

Also scattered through the New Testament we find many Hebrew (and Aramaic) idioms, which are expressions that cannot be translated accurately in the Greek so they were left virtually untranslated. They make perfect sense in Hebrew, but not in Greek or in English, for that matter.

Such expressions include: “If your eye is evil” (Matt. 6:23); “let the dead bury the dead” (Matt. 8:22); and “you shall heap coals of fire on his head” (Rom. 12:20).
Many other examples show clear evidence in the text itself that the New Testament was originally a Hebrew work that only later was translated into Greek.

When Yahshua returns, His feet will not touch down on Mount Olympus in Greece, or on one of the seven hills of Rome, but on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. He is coming to redeem Israel and those who are faithful to the same covenant that Israel accepted.

We read in Zechariah 14:4: “And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave [split] in the midst thereof.”
Notice what Paul wrote about the believers of the New Testament Assembly. “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yahshua the Messiah being the chief corner stone,” Ephesians 2:20.

He mentions both apostles and prophets as establishing the foundation of the New Testament Assembly. We know that the apostles are those who lived in the New Testament era and were with the Messiah Yahshua, but who are the prophets?

Simply defined, “prophets” is a general term used for the Old Testament proponents of Truth. In Luke 16:29 Yahshua the Messiah in His parable implored us to listen to Moses (the law) and the prophets. Interestingly, both are in the Old Testament.

By citing only a few of these facts, and there are many more we could list, we can see a clear harmony between both Old and New testaments.

Sabbaticals and Jubilees Part 1

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The Mysterious and Intriguing Sabbaticals and Jubilees, Land Rest and Personal Freedom Part 1

One teaching of the Scriptures has been ignored and neglected today more than any other. Can you guess what it is? You’re probably thinking: It’s Yahweh’s Feast days. It’s the seventh-day Sabbath. It’s got to be the sacred Name.

Believe it or not, there is still a biblical truth that is more overlooked than those. The biblical teaching that has been more abandoned by churchianity than all of these is the sabbaticals. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years are the most disregarded of all Yahweh’s special, appointed times even by Sabbath keepers.

And yet, both biblical history and prophecy hang profoundly on these principal times that Yahweh gave us.

The law of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years is one of the more mysterious and intriguing in Scripture. It is like discovering a key that opens up a door to an exciting treasure room.

Most who observe the Bible’s weekly Sabbath are aware that Yahweh gave His Sabbath observances as a special sign to His people. Annual Sabbaths and extra-annual Sabbaths are very important to our Heavenly Father. Key events occurred at those times as well, likely even the coming return of Yahshua.

The Hebrew root for Sabbath (shabath)—Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance No. 7673—means “cessation” or rest. Yahweh’s Sabbaths are a periodic rest, which allow us to draw closer to Him, Ezekiel 20:12. “Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh that sanctify them.”

Sabbaths Are the Sign
Observing His Sabbaths is the obligation of the True Worshiper, a commitment shared with other observers who are sealed in His sacred Name Yahweh by the Holy Spirit. Each weekly Sabbath reminds us that Yahweh set aside the seventh day that we might recall His great creative power as well as the redemption we have through His Son Yahshua.

Fifty-two times a year we take a day away from our weekly activities to join the Body of Messiah to revive and strengthen our faith. It is also when we grow the most spiritually as we commune with Yahweh.

Not only is the seventh day of the week holy and special to our Heavenly Father, but He also gave special Sabbaths every seven years, Leviticus 23. Important events of history and prophecy are tied up in these specially sanctioned years. Yet, the Israelites abandoned the keeping of the sabbatical years and in the process missed out on critical aspects of Yahweh’s prophetic plan.

Deuteronomy 5:15 is the restating of the Fourth Commandment and it gives us additional insights into the broader concept of “Sabbath.” “And you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your Elohim brought you out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Yahweh your Elohim commanded you to keep the sabbath day.”

Why does He bring in the issue of slavery in conjunction with the Sabbath? Because there is a connection to another Sabbath, the 50th year Jubilee, a year of release of slavery and servitude.

Captivity for Disobedience
After wandering in the wilderness 40 years, Israel finally crossed over the Jordan and somewhat conquered the land Yahweh had promised. They had not been thorough in driving out the enemy, however, leaving pockets of heathen culture that proved to be Israel’s downfall when Yahweh allowed them to be conquered by foreign powers, Deuteronomy 7.

The northern ten tribes, often referred to as Ephraim because they were the dominant tribe, were taken captive to the area of present-day northern Iraq by the Assyrians and subsequently moved north and west over the Caucasus Mountains (hence the name “Caucasian”). This occurred in the seventh century BCE.

The southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were allowed to remain in the land and had the advantage of seeing from a distance the wrath of Yahweh on their 10-tribed Ephraim brethren who were taken captive. Judah was also guilty of ignoring Yahweh’s laws despite the warnings of Elohim’s messengers:

“And Yahweh Elohim of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of Elohim, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, till there was no remedy” (2Chron. 36:15-16).

Shrugging off the plight of the northern ten tribes, Judah and Benjamin behaved even worse, according to Jeremiah 3:8. About a hundred years later the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, along with many of the priests, were taken captive to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar. Only a few farmers and poor folk were left in the land of Israel. This was all because of their refusal to obey Yahweh by rejecting His laws, particularly the land Sabbaths.

“And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years” (2Chron. 36:20-21).

‘Holy Land’ Takes a Rest
So long as Israel was captive in Babylon, the Promised Land lay idle and desolate to fulfill the neglected 70 Sabbatical cycles, accumulating 490 years. Yahweh’s laws demanded that the land lie idle for a year every seven years. “For thus says Yahweh, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place” (Jer. 29:10).

In addition, every seventh Sabbatical year was followed by the Jubilee year. The word “Jubilee” is derived in the Bible from the Hebrew yob-ale, which means “ram, ram’s horn; jubilee year.” The ram’s horn announced the beginning of the Jubilee year. Whenever a trumpet was used to signal an event, in this case the shofar trumpet, it announced something very significant was about to happen.

Yahshua said He will return with the great sound of a trumpet, Matthew 24:31. Is the trumpet sound announcing the Sabbatical-Jubilee and the return of Yahshua just coincidence?

Notice Leviticus 25:9, “Then shall you cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.”

Keeping the Sabbatical years of land rest bestowed the designation “Holy Land” to Judea. Israel learned that the Sabbatical-Jubilee was holy both to the land and to Yahweh.

The question for us is, does Yahweh still expect His laws, statutes, and judgments to be observed in our day and age? Does He change His expectations according to the culture or the age, or does the Bible say that He is Yahweh who changes not? Malachi 3:6 confirms that we worship a changeless Mighty One. Obedience has not been reduced, let alone abandoned.

Sabbaticals Are Part of the Covenant
The earliest Bible reference concerning the Sabbatical-Jubilee cycle is found in Exodus 21:2-6, dealing with the release of the slave. Exodus 23:10-12 relates to the land’s rest. Thus, the Sabbatical-Jubilee was part of the Covenant established with Moses in Exodus 24:1-8.

Following the seventh Sabbatical year (or every 49 years) the sounding of the trumpet on the Day of Atonement of the fiftieth year heralded the beginning of the Jubilee.

Atonement itself falls on the tenth day of the month and is a very solemn time, the holiest day of the year. The harvest is in, and early rains soften the earth to allow plowing and seeding for the next crop. But in the Sabbatical year the land is at rest. Both the 49th and 50th years were times of rest for the land.

Most every Israelite would observe at least one Jubilee year in a normal lifespan of 70 years. If a person observed his first Jubilee in his teen years, then he might enjoy another before his normal lifespan ended. It was a special occasion anticipated by the entire, rejoicing nation.

As we will see, the Jubilee has prophetic implications in Yahweh’s dealings with mankind. We are given insight into the grand finale of Yahweh’s redemption of the earth as He establishes the Kingdom under the Messiah.

The Link to Yahshua’s Return
The Sabbatical cycle in certain instances influenced Israel’s daily living. The right of an heiress to marry was restricted so that the law of the Jubilee could be preserved, Numbers 36:4-7. Naboth refused to sell his vineyard so that it would remain an inheritance for his family, 1Kings 21:14.

The Jubilee will be kept in the Millennium as shown by Ezekiel 46:17, where the king is reminded that any property given to a servant reverts to the original owner (the king) at the time of the Jubilee.

Yahshua as our King will take control once again of this earth as its original owner. Yahshua’s return on a Jubilee would be consistent with the purposes of the Jubilee and Millennium.
Other references to the Jubilee are found in Nehemiah 5:1-19; Isaiah 5:7-10; 37:30, and 61:1-2.

The Sabbatical year, we learn from Leviticus 25:4, occurs every seventh year— a Sabbath of rest both of the land and to Yahweh. The fields are not to be sown nor the vines pruned. No crops are to be planted; the vineyards must not be harvested. The produce of the land and vineyard could be eaten, but not stored or preserved. All debts among Israelites were canceled.

After seven of these Sabbatical years (or 49 years), the next year, the fiftieth, is the Jubilee. The following points differentiate the Sabbath year from the Jubilee, which occur back-to-back every 49 and 50 years. The Jubilee year is an intensification of the Sabbatical year.

Sabbatical
• Land and vineyards rest, no planting or harvesting
• All voluntary foods can be eaten, but not stored
• Servants receive freedom and debts are canceled

Jubilee
• Land and vineyards rest
• Land reverts to the original owner (as in Yahshua’s return to reclaim earth)
• All Israelite slaves freed. Debts forgiven

The fiftieth year is eagerly anticipated as a time of joy and merriment. Landowners had to give up the lands they had once cultivated, which reverted to the original owner(s). This kept the lands under original ownership.

Idyllic simplicity returned to soften the distinction of rank.

Debts were forgiven, and those having lost their property through accident or poor management were rejuvenated as opportunities brought by the restoration awaited them.
Slaves were redeemed and freed. The Sabbatical-Jubilee years might be called the great “leveler” of Israelite society. Through them everyone was equal before Yahweh as neither the rich nor the poor cultivated his field.

But What About Today?
Living under industrialization and a far more complicated financial system, the laws of Yahweh became lightly esteemed by modern society. Today’s fiscal demands of industry, manufacturing, commerce, and banking are not appeased by fallowed farmland.

Canceling of a borrower’s debts is unheard of. How can the entrepreneur grow and expand if he is required to return legally purchased property every fiftieth year?

These are but a few questions asked today. The farmer has more freedom to apply Yahweh’s laws to his life than most who work for a regular wage. However, the increasingly heavy burdens laid upon him by lenders, plus the pressures inherent in today’s economies, challenge the farmer’s very survival and are detrimental to his obedience to the laws of Yahweh.

The Jubilee is known as the year of liberty. Leviticus 25:12 explains that it is a holy year to Israel. It was because of the Jubilees that the Promised Land came to be known as the Holy Land. However, there is some question whether Israel faithfully kept both the Sabbatical and Jubilee years.

Atonement and the Sabbatical
On the tenth day of the seventh month Israel celebrated the Day of Atonement. The Jubilee was a year-long sabbatical that came after 49 years. The Jubilee began on the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 25:9-10. The count toward the next sabbatical also begins on the Jubilee. Just as the weekly seventh day ends at sunset and the first day begins immediately that same sunset, the first Sabbatical ends when the Jubilee’s fiftieth year starts on Atonement, in the seventh month, Deuteronomy 31:10.

The very land was holy to Yahweh and was referred to as the Holy Land. During that year the Book of Deuteronomy was read to the people. The Sabbatical year marked the canceling of all indebtedness. This emphasized the righteousness that was required by Yahweh. On this day the sins of the nation were confessed, which is the first requisite to establish righteousness.

Confession is an opening of the heart, which leads to forgiveness and restoration to Yahweh. Through fasting and keeping the Day of Atonement, Yahweh’s people are reminded of His righteousness and His forgiveness as they accept His grand plan for the forgiveness of sin.

Israel’s sins were brought before them every time they gave a sin offering. But the Day of Atonement was a special day that impressed upon the mind and heart of every Israelite that this day was devoted to a deep introspection of his life.

The Day of Atonement was the only day of the year when the High Priest was permitted to enter the Tabernacle’s Holy of Holies, which was the nearest approach to Yahweh possible through the blood offering. The Day of Atonement pictured the forgiveness of Israel’s sins and the nation’s getting right with Yahweh. Known as Yom Kippur, it was the “day of covering” of their sins, pointing to the true Lamb of Yahweh’s coming to take away the sins of the world, and not just cover them.

Slaves and Land Released
Following the seventh Sabbatical year came the year of the Jubilee, which occurred every fiftieth year (or after the succession of seven Sabbatical years). It has been called the outer circle of the great Sabbatical system, which comprises the Sabbatical year, the Sabbatical month and the Sabbath day.

Just as in the Sabbatical year, the Jubilee also was a time of keeping the land uncultivated. The distinctive mark of the Jubilee year was the liberation of all slaves of Hebrew blood. The blowing of the trumpet on the Day of Atonement also released every bondman.

The Jubilee year was different from the Sabbatical in that the land was restored to the original owners. All land that had been assigned to a family was again returned to that family. This required that the tribal and family registers be carefully kept so that the rights of the people should be protected. It is partly from such records that we know that Yahshua descended from the tribe of Judah.

Jewish writers contend that the Jubilee was observed up to the time of the fall of Judah in the year 586 BCE. References are found in Isaiah 5:7-10; 61:1-2; Ezekiel 7:12-13 and 46:16-18.

Yahshua and Year of Our Release
A number of Bible scholars point out that Israel was delivered from both the Babylonian and Egyptian captivity at the time of the Jubilee. The pattern for us as believers in the Messiah is that He is the one who sets us free.

The bondage of Israel was cruel, enforced servitude. Yahshua frees us from the bondage and shackles of sin. “If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed,” John 8:36. This key purpose of the Sabbaticals and Jubilees dovetails with Yahshua’s purpose of coming to earth, even up to the timing of His return.

How ancient Israel must have thrilled to the sound of the trumpet on the Day of Atonement announcing their actual release from slavery. Of how much greater joy will it be when the trumpet announces Yahshua’s return to this earth. All tears will be dried, and the brokenhearted comforted. The meek and the poor in spirit will be exalted and the thirsty and hungry filled.

The first trumpet is blown on the first day of the seventh month, which is the new moon day. Then follows the blowing of the second trumpet on the Day of Atonement, heralding Yahweh’s release, redemption, and deliverance.

Hebrews 4:1-11 summarizes the Sabbaths Yahweh has given us to remember His great plan of redemption of mankind. We are told that there remains a Sabbath of rest for the people of Yahweh (Heb. 4:9 — “rest” is the Greek sabbatismos, meaning a Sabbath keeping).

There is the weekly Sabbath which is set aside for the people of Yahweh. Also there is the Sabbatical rest for the land around Jerusalem. Finally, the rest and redemption for the elect people of Yahweh who will reign with Yahshua when He returns to set up the Messianic Kingdom:

“Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of Elohim and of Messiah, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Rev. 20:6).

But not all will attain that rest because of unfaithfulness. The faithful will have rest from their enemies, no drought, sickness, sin or hindrances to happiness.

Counting the Jubilee
A long-standing debate is how to compute the Jubilee year — in segments of 49 or 50 years. The Jubilee year is the year following the seventh Sabbatical year. It is the 50th year, but not the year coming after 50 years. It is the year following 49 years.

From the beginning of one Jubilee year to the beginning of the next Jubilee is 49 years. The 7 times 7 years of Sabbatical cycles may not be broken any more than can the 7 times 7 weeks in computing Pentecost. Furthermore, the 50th year is also year one in the count toward the next Sabbatical year 7 years later.

To prove that the Jubilee immediately follows the Sabbatical year, note the prophecy of Isaiah:

“And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall eat this year such as grows of itself: and the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow, reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof” (Isa. 37:30).

“This year” refers to the Sabbatical year. The “second year” refers to the Jubilee year, and the “third year” one can sow grain and reap and plant vineyards. The day after Atonement, which ends the Sabbatical-Jubilee year, farmers can again plow the ground for planting wheat and barley that fall.

Our Savior’s Return
If the Sabbatical-Jubilee cycle was important to Israel, then it is all the more important to us looking for the return of the Messiah. A central key is in Yahshua’s quoting of Isaiah 61:1-2:

“The Spirit of Yahweh Elohim is upon me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh” (Luke 4:18).

Yahshua stopped in the middle of verse 2, where Bible scholars contend He was now calling people out of the world to become His followers. The “acceptable year” is understood to refer to the beginning of the Sabbatical year. He came to preach the Good News to the meek and humble, those whose hearts were open and teachable.

With those of kindred mind He would build His Assembly. He would now choose those who would become the nucleus of His body of believers, the “ekklesia,” the assembly. He told Peter this group of “called-out ones,” would never die out, but would always exist on this earth, Matthew 16:18.

Just as the Savior was cut off in the middle of the week and died on a Wednesday, so He left unsaid the rest of Isaiah 61:2 which tells of the vengeance yet to come. Note the latter part of this verse: “And the day of vengeance of our Elohim; to comfort all that mourn.”

He comes with anger and vengeance for the wicked, but comfort and help to those who revere Yahweh’s Name and are submissive to Him. This ties in with Revelation’s prophecy:

“And the nations were angry, and your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward unto your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your Name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth” (Rev. 11:18). See also Luke 20:16; 2Thes. 1:8; 2:8; Heb. 10:27.

The Sabbatical-Jubilee cycle pictures the grand finale of the believer’s earthly sojourn. It represents the fulfillment of the promise made to the redeemed which will be done when He returns in the day of vengeance.

Although we are not sure exactly when His return will be, it will likely be on a Feast day within a Sabbatical or Jubilee year. That is the most appropriate time, the appointed time. Daniel 11 says the end shall be at the appointed time, that is, a moed or Feast. None of the Feasts of the seventh scriptural month have been fulfilled as far as we know.

Can We Pinpoint the Jubilees?
Studies to determine the secular dates of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years rest heavily on the Savior’s beginning ministry, which appears to be 27-28 CE.

The Jews were so determined to keep all of Yahweh’s law after their return from the Babylonian captivity that allegedly they believed that there was no reason to keep the Jubilee years, as they would not have reason to sell themselves into slavery or be redeemed. Therefore, records of these years are sparse.

An interesting discovery is that the Gregorian calendar years on which the Sabbatical cycle falls are evenly divisible by 7. The year 2023 is evenly divisible by seven, meaning that this fall begins the Sabbatical which runs through 2023 of next year.

What About This Year?
No planting or harvesting of crops is to be done after Atonement, 2022, until the fall Atonement of 2023.

Certainly a study of this neglected cycle will bring many obscure Bible truths to our attention and make the Bible become clearer as we draw nearer to our Heavenly Father and His beloved Son who make it all possible.

Key to Puzzling Passages
The Sabbatical years solve a puzzling statement Yahshua made in John 4. While traveling with His disciples to Galilee, He struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman. He said in v. 35: “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

Clearly this was a Sabbatical year when Yahshua began His ministry, 28 CE. It was also in May-June when grain harvests occur. But the Sabbatical didn’t end for four more months when harvesting could begin again.

This explains the four additional months of waiting for the harvest that Yahshua talked about.

Proof of Sabbaticals
Ben Zion Wacholder of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, a scholar on the Sabbaticals, wrote several books on the subject of the Sabbaticals and Jubilees: The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the Second Temple and the Early Rabbinic Period (1973), The Timing of Messianic Movements and the Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles (1975), and The Calendar of Sabbath Years during the Second Temple Era: A Response (1983).

Wacholder’s proposed set of Sabbatical years are offset by one year later than Benedict Zuckerman’s set of years, which is the other popular timing. Wacholder had access to legal documents from the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt that were not available to Zuckermann.

Only within the last 50 years has it become possible through archaeological discoveries, etc., to determine with an almost certainly what the exact Sabbatical years’ sequence was and is.

Two brilliant historical studies by Prof. Wacholder have solved the riddle of when the Sabbatical years occurred in ancient times, and when they are observed today.

The following historical events reveal the Sabbatical year sequence, with the year 2022-2023 being one of them:

• The recital of Deuteronomy 7:15 by Agrippa I in a post-Sabbatical year, making the Sabbatical year 41/42.
• A note of indebtedness from Wadi Murabba’at in 2nd year of Nero, 55/56 CE, indicating 55/56 as a Sabbatical year.
• Rental contracts of Simon bar Kosiba indicating 132/133 as a Sabbatical year.
• Three fourth- and fifth-century tombstones near Sodom indicating 433/434 and 440/441 CE were Sabbatical years.
(When farmers are keeping Sabbaticals by letting their fields rest, they are free to do building projects. And so…)
• CE 41–CE 42: King Agrippa I started building the expansive third wall around the northern parts of Jerusalem.
• CE 62–CE 63: Agrippa II started to rebuild Caesarea Philippi.
And then there are key historical events that hinge on Sabbath years:
• CE 69–CE 70: Destruction of Jerusalem in the latter part (motsae, “going-out”) of the Sabbatical year 69/70.
• CE 132–CE 133: Bar Kokhba revolt of the Jews against the Romans.

In part 2 we will further show the proper timing of the Sabbaticals both anciently and today.

Passover Day

Redemption Starts at Passover

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This article was written in 2014, so the dates stated in this article are from that year!

Many believe that our Creator Yahweh’s plan of redemption was finished when Yahshua was impaled on Passover day. They assume that His death marked the end of the old Jewish system, including the laws of the Old Testament.

His ascension and the Feast of Pentecost of Acts 2 also allegedly marked the start of a new faith called Christianity, which replaced Israel as the chosen of Yahweh. Consistent with this notion is the belief that Christianity has little use for the Old Testament or its commanded observances.

The facts tell a far different story, which show that the church lost its way early on.

The truth is, Yahshua as the Passover Lamb holds the key role in a continuation of Yahweh’s design for His human creation.

Passover: The Plan Begins

The Passover is the first of the annual observances of Yahweh and is the starting point for the rest of Yahweh’s design for salvation.

Granted, the original hopes that Yahweh had of an exclusive, special people who would follow and worship Him, had now changed. Because of Israel’s continual rebellion, Yahweh opened up His calling to all who would repent and turn to Him. Not only is Israel still included in His plan, but they are still central to it. Romans 9:27 says a remnant of Israel shall be saved.

When we look at the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread that follows, we see a progression – and not an end – of a salvation plan that was established at creation itself.

Passover is a memorial of an actual event that occurred long ago in Egypt. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread that follows also foreshadow events to occur later in the New Testament and into our own future. What Yahshua did by becoming the Passover Lamb was realized only in part. He spoke of another fulfillment of Passover yet to come. He said just as He was taking Passover with His disciples that He would keep it anew in His Father’s Kingdom, Matthew 26:29.

We see the importance of this special observance throughout history. From ancient days to the Kingdom, the Passover is key to Yahweh’s blueprint for the salvation of His creation and the establishment of a coming Kingdom on earth.

When in chapter 12 of Exodus as one Egyptian firstborn died after another, Yahweh was sending a clear message to all of mankind. It was to the firstborn that twice the family inheritance was given, which was known as the birthright. With the death of the firstborn, Yahweh demonstrated a salvational fact that those not covered by the blood of the lamb will have no life – meaning no inheritance in His Kingdom.

The other lesson we learn is that we can be covered by that blood only if we follow Yahweh’s instructions explicitly. If anyone in Israel had not done exactly as Yahweh commanded by putting the lamb’s blood on all sides of the doorpost then he would have faced the same consequences as the Egyptians. Yahweh had to see the blood of protection at each home, Exodus 12:23. The entire door frame had to have a blood covering, symbolic of His people’s being completely surrounded by the blood of the Lamb.

A Calling Out

Without the blood of Messiah covering for our sins, we face everlasting death. Rather than having little meaning for us today, the Passover and Feast have much more serious implications. The immediate physical consequences that came anciently for disobedience translate today into serious spiritual ramifications if we are not in total compliance.

Looking back in history, we see that Yahweh began a recalling of His people at the Passover, ultimately to take them out of Egypt and unto Himself through their worship and devotion.

He does the same today in the New Covenant observance of the Passover. It is an annual memorial and lesson for all who would be His elect to come clean and not get involved in the sin of the world. The world can easily enslave us, just as Israel was enslaved in Egypt for repeatedly refusing to obey their Heavenly Father.

Passover was an opportunity to re-dedicate their lives to Him, to turn back to Him again in truth.

The Passover was also Yahweh’s judgment on the false religion of Egypt, and figuratively on the false religions of the world. Lest we think that this is just an ancient judgment on ancient people, think again. In today’s world the Passover is a lesson in True Worship as well.

Certain Plagues Are Coming Back!

The Passover, which gets its name from the passing over of the death angel, was the last of 10 plagues unleashed on Egypt and the finishing stroke that finally freed Israel.
Note that each plague was directed against a certain deity worshiped by the pagan Egyptians (see Ex. 9:14-16 and chapters 7-11):
1) River to blood (against Hapi, spirit of the Nile, who had life-giving waters)
2) Frogs (Hekah, frog-headed deity who symbolized fertility)
3) Lice (against the earth deity Geb)
4) Flies (Beelzebub, lord of the flies)
5) Murrain or disease on the cattle (against Apis, the bull deity, and Hathor, a cow deity)
6) Boils (ashes from the altar of Typhon, to whom human sacrifices were offered)
7) Hail (against Isis and Osiris, the deities of crops, v. 25, and Nut, female deity of the sky)
8) Locusts (Seth, deity of storms and chaos)
9) Darkness (RaAmon, the sun god)
10) Firstborn (because Pharaoh him-self was worshiped as a god, his own son and heir to the throne would die).

In Revelation 6 we learn that some of the same plagues that Egypt suffered will be unleashed on earth in the last days.

With the opening of the third seal we see famine and disease; famine because of the locusts and disease from the murrain. Next is darkness. Then devastating hail will also fall, Revelation 8:7; a third of the seas will become blood, v. 8, followed by a plague of locusts, 9:3.

Just as Israel was protected from the latter plagues but felt the effects of the initial ones, so Yahweh’s people who obey Him now and faithfully keep His appointed days will be protected after the first several plagues are unleashed (Rev. 7:3). They will be sealed in their foreheads and safeguarded through Yahweh’s Name, Revelation 9:4 and 14:1.

Yahweh will even have two witnesses testify of Him (11:7), just as He did in the persons of Moses and Aaron who witnessed against the Kingdom of Egypt.

A Crucial Matter

To keep the Passover is a deadly serious matter. Many think of Yahweh not as a Heavenly Father but as a kindly old grandfather who puts up with spoiled children who disobey Him. Not so.
Yahweh punished even believers in the New Testament with sickness and death for observing Passover carelessly, 1Corinthians 11:27-31.

This year the Passover will be observed on the night of the 13th of April, which is the 14th day of Abib, the first biblical month.

The Jews keep it a day later, on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, thus making Passover a High Day.

John 18:28 shows that in Yahshua’s day, after Yahshua had observed the Passover and was arrested around midnight, the Jews still hadn’t kept it.

But from John 13:27-30, among many other passages, we see that the Passover is a memorial. It is not a High Day where no buying or selling or work may be done. Therefore the Passover is called the preparation day, a preparation for the Feast that follows, John 19:14, 31. One could not do any preparation work if it were a High Day, nor would it be called a preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread if it also fell on the first day of the Feast.

Exodus 12:19-20 is a warning against anyone who would not take the Feast of Unleavened Bread seriously enough to avoid eating leavening. “Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.”

Remove Offensive Leaven

Each time we participate in the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we undergo a renewal with Yahweh. Our obedience to these commanded times resonates with Him and carries untold blessings. No other observances of the world do that. That is why it is necessary to keep these annual set times and forget the empty holidays.

Most important of all, He calls them “My feasts.” They honor Him. And they are central to the redemption of His people.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a time to rededicate our lives to the Father as we recount the sacrifice of His Son, and remove leaven from our lives in the seven-day Feast that follows Passover.
“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to Elohim, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living Elohim?”

Suppose you took a survey and simply asked, “What is leavening?” More women than men would probably know, by virture of their experience in the kitchen. Most who know would probably answer, yeast. But yeast is only one substance that we are to refrain from having or consuming during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Other leavening agents include cream of tartar, baking powder, baking soda, and calcium phosphate. Any chemical that causes a puffing up of a cereal grain would be classified as leavening. (See p. 19 for more.)

Of course, it is what leavening symbolizes that is important for the Truth seeker.

Leavening in the Scriptures pictures hypocrisy, false teachings, and wickedness. When leaven is removed, the evils that it represents are symbolically removed as well. Yahweh’s people are called “peculiar” in Titus 2:14 (KJV): “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

This verse speaks directly of Yahshua’s sacrifice at Passover and what it does to renew our dedication to Him. “Peculiar” means a people who are His possession. Additionally, if you are not seen as “peculiar” by the world around you, then you need to reassess your walk with Yahshua.

Yahweh’s people should be an exceptional beacon of righteousness to those around them. And the further this world sinks into darkness, the more your light should stand out as a witness.

Losing A Sense of Sin

Yahweh’s people should be vastly dif-ferent from the world and distinct from churchianity. Churchianity sets its standards and values mostly by public opinion, just as the world does. If the masses don’t like a certain stand the church may take on a moral issue, today’s church will water it down to be less offensive and more inclusive.

But Truth doesn’t change with the times. If you harbor sin in your life, the Word will offend you because it opposes sin in its many manifestations.

Today’s appalling lack of right Biblical counsel from those who are supposed to represent the Word is throwing the floodgates wide open to self-destruction. If more who claim to teach the Bible had the backbone to speak out against sin, the less we would find sin acceptable today. Look back only 50 years to see the difference in the culture when the Word was preached with authority and less compromise.

Come the judgment, Yahshua isn’t going to take a public opinion survey to determine the worthiness of an individual. His standards are right and true forever. And if we don’t meet them, we face His judgment. We answer to the supreme Judge and no one else. He doesn’t come down to our level, we rise up to His.

Society’s moral collapse is an example of Biblical leavening. It permeates every-thing and works slowly to induce change. Spiritually, it is corruption of the heart.

When we were in grade school science we learned of the various changes to substances. The simplest was physical, like water to ice or steam. A physical change leaves the molecular structure intact. Then there are chemical changes that change the very nature of the substance.

Leavening induces a chemical change. It symbolizes changes that alter our spiritual constitution.

To be constantly exposed to the leaven of hypocrisy, false teachings and wickedness of the world will eventually create a dynamic spiritual change in a person not unlike the substance change brought on by leavening.

The lesson of the Feast of Unleavened Bread makes us aware that we live among influences that can alter our behavior and the way we live if we are not careful. To be unaware of leaven is to be unaware of the Satanic influences that can destroy us spiritually.

You can’t continually be bombarded daily by trash and not get any on you. You may even come to accept it as normal. That is what we see today. People are not recognizing sin for what it is.
The evil of the 1960s was in its iconoclasm. At no other time in history have so many bedrock traditions and societal authority come under such attack and held up to ridicule.

The fallout today is an unending stream of perversion and iniquity that is force-fed families through many powerful conduits. Each year the Evil One pushes more limits and tramples more moral barriers until what would never have been tolerated even 10 years ago is now acceptable.

The masses are preconditioned and, like leavening, their thinking and behavior have been permeated with corruption.
No wonder Yahshua asked that when He returns, would He find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8.

Return to the Source of Truth

Many are searching for meaning in all the wrong places.

It is a testimony to Yahweh’s power that at the beginning of our world’s intense moral decay that Yahweh was calling believers to begin a restoration of the truth of His Name and Sabbaths. It is during a time of great decline that Yahweh is raising up a people who would stand for His truth and challenge not just the corruptions of the pop culture but also years of false teachings.

Yahweh tells us here is the way, now walk in it. But most will accept anything so long as it isn’t the Truth. People thirst for the latest dead-end craze. But to go back to the foundation of all teachings for life itself, the Old Testament? Not on your life!

For 2,000 years churchianity has been ignoring the Bible’s true teachings, that were first established with ancient Israel, in favor of empty traditions mixed with ancient mystery worship.

Discover the real thing. Forget hollow traditions of man. Learn the teachings that Yahshua and His disciples taught from the Old Testament and gain insight you never had before. When you do, the Bible will finally start to make sense.

For more info on the Passover and Passover Day check out our 2020 LIVE Passover service.

Here is another great article on the Passover and Passover Day: Passover and Salvation.

For more great articles be sure to check out our articles page.

The Two Greatest Laws

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When Yahshua was asked by a scribe what commandment was foremost, He replied, “The first of all the commandments is, hear, O Israel: Yahweh our Elohim is one master: And you shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).

Yahweh tells us that if we keep His commandments we love Him. As for those who do not keep his commandments the love of the father is not in them. “But whoso keeps his word, in him is the love of Yahweh perfected: hereby know we that we are in him,” 1John 2:5. “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

The same message is found in John 14:21-24, John 15:9-10, 1John 3:24, and 1John 5:3. Many other verses show that through obedience to Yahweh’s Word, we are showing Yahweh that we love Him.

Yahshua said that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. We can see that same commandment given by Moses in Leviticus 19:18, “But you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am Yahweh.”

What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? It means to love and treat the people we come into contact with as we would want to be treated ourselves.

“If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well” (James 2:8 ).

The follower of Yahweh will love and respect those around him, including his enemies. “For if you love them that love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans so? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5: 46-48).

By loving your neighbor you are fulfilling the law (Rom. 13:8-10). Yahshua also tells us that there is no greater love than to give the ultimate sacrifice: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” John 15:13.

Yahshua demonstrated this by giving his own life so that we would have an atonement for our sins and could appear before him without blemish: “As the Father knows me, even so know I the father: and lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15).

The Messiah told us to love our enemies and pray for them. “You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy: but I say to you. love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you” (Matt. 5:43-44).

We as Yahweh’s True Believers should always keep our faith in Yahshua the Messiah, and look past one another’s faults, including those of our adversaries. We should strive for the perfection that Yahweh wants.

Keep in mind that when we were caught up in the sins of this world, we were Yahweh’s enemies. Through the love Yahweh showed us by giving us His only son, and allowing us an atonement for our sins, we try to show the same love to our enemies.

Paul reminds Timothy that we cannot allow ourselves to be caught up in this world. Our hearts and treasure must always be focused upon Yahweh, while being a bright and shining light to this world.

“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise Elohim our savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever” (Jude 24-25).

Let us love one another from the heart and allow Yahweh’s spirit to grow within each one of us. May we remember that with the right heart we are already keeping Yahweh’s commandments. May we keep the faith of our only Savior and appear before His throne unblemished in preparing for the Kingdom.

Rightly Dividing

Rightly Dividing vs. Wrongly Subtracting

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How dedicated are you in your walk? In a world of compromises, many are willing to compromise the Word and their future by selling out to this shallow, transitory world.

Yahweh is a Mighty One of detail and He expects nothing short of total compliance. To demonstrate, consider the specifics He instructed for the design of the High Priest’s robe, down to its smallest embellishment. Consider the intricate design in the structure and furnishing of the tabernacle and temple. Note how He commanded the Ark of the Covenant to be transported, and even killed a man who unwittingly touched it.

Both the priest, temple, and ark were central to His worship and reveal the strictness Yahweh expects in His devotion.
When Yahshua said in Matthew 5:18 that not one yod or tittle would pass from Yahweh’s commands, He was conveying to us that compliance to even the smallest part of Yahweh’s mandate is a must.

Is Halfway Okay?
Let’s face facts. Humans are naturally lazy. We cut corners and do just enough to get by. We like to water down clear commands to make them more palatable, change worship to our liking – which is to be more like the world – and to bring in simpler substitutes to get around demanding requirements. That has been the well-walked path of churchianity all through the centuries.

Human nature consistently proves that once you crack open the door, the floodgates of compromise are not far behind. If you allow the camel to work its nose under the tent flap you will soon have a thousand pounds of dromedary in your lap.

The question is, how much devotion does Yahweh expect of His worshipers? If going halfway is okay with Him, then we can go halfway. If not, then our duty is to learn exactly what He wants. He is the One in charge. He decides our eternal future.

Why would we NOT want to be zealous in the way we honor Him? Yahweh is clear that he hates halfhearted, indifferent effort.
“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth,” Revelation 3:16. He’ll reject anyone having a permissive attitude who accepts half-truths and compromise in their worship.

Not one of Yahweh’s inspired writers presented any part of Yahweh’s worship as optional. Yahweh never allows multiple choices when it comes to our worship and obedience. There is only one way to follow Him – and everything must go that way. Paul wrote, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Master, one faith, one baptism,” Ephesians 4:4-5.

In His wisdom, knowing clearly the nature of people, Yahshua pronounced that the way is narrow. That means it is exacting and restrictive. Because of it, few would find and maintain the Truth.

Attention to detail in faith and obedience reveals the heart and strength of personal resolve. In Matthew 5:19 Yahshua said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Does that mean practicing and teaching commandment breaking will still allow a place in the Kingdom, but only as a doorkeeper?

The Twenty Century New Testament in combination with Moffatt’s translation reads in verse 19 that such a person will be “least esteemed in the realm of heaven.” In other words, the commandment breaking, no-law advocate will have zero respect or honor among the heavenly hosts, which includes Yahweh and Yahshua.

Our salvation hinges on true understanding of the Bible and what is expected of us. Whether we walk in Truth depends on a correct grasp of that Truth as well as our resolve to follow it.

In 2Thessalonians 5:21 Paul wrote, “Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good.” Paul also told Timothy, “Study to show yourself approved unto Elohim, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth,” 2Timothy 2:15.
That doesn’t mean running to the minister with every Bible question. It means studying it out yourself to learn the Truth.

One Path, Not Many
We cannot afford to be flippant or careless with the Scriptures. The Word, Paul said, is given for proper doctrine, correction, and instruction in righteous living, 2Timothy 3:16. It speaks to the ultimate goal of salvation. Why should Yahweh give us specific instruction about life and worship if we’re just going to toss it all out and follow our own plan?

Many Bible students approach the Word in a piecemeal way, yanking verses or parts of verses from their context and completely changing the meaning. Others ignore passages that don’t agree with their beliefs.

Paul told Timothy: “Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine [proper teachings]; continue in them: for in doing this you shall save both yourself, and them that hear you,” 1Timothy 4:16.

For a variety of reasons some passages create difficulty in understanding. Doctrinal problems result when care is not taken to rightly divide the Word. Along with impure motives, rebellion led churchianity to purge from their teachings the law and obedience, including observance of the Sabbath and Feast days.

Our culture suffers profoundly from ignorance of the Scriptures. Clerics steeped in man-made tradition only compound the problem. In Job 38:2 Yahweh asks rhetorically of Job as well as us in our day, “Who [is] this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”

Simply put, Yahweh asks who are these teachers who teach when they don’t know the truth themselves, and only make matters worse?

Not even a small percentage of churchgoers is aware of 2Timothy 2:15 and its command for individual study. The mandate is for each to “rightly divide the word of truth.” This phrase derives from the Greek orthotomeo. The Expository Dictionary says it does not mean dividing Scripture from Scripture, but teaching Scripture accurately.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge says the reference “is not to dividing up Scripture into dispensations, and applying to ourselves only what is allegedly valid for this dispensation…The emphasis is not upon ‘right division’ (which in the practice of some is ‘wrong subtraction,’ but on correct interpretation)” p. 1432.

Another verse addressing proper discernment of teachings is Philippians 1:10, where, after Paul encourages us to abound in knowledge and in all judgment, he says, “That you may approve the things that are excellent…” “Are excellent” should have been rendered, set apart that which is better from what is not (Restoration Study Bible note).

Every teaching must harmonize with the Word. When it doesn’t the result is the error the church has promoted for the past 2,000 years.

If the Roman Church had eradicated unorthodox beliefs and practices instead of blending error with truth, churchianity would be completely different today. There would not be this stark contrast between what the apostles and Yahshua taught and practiced with today’s tangled mishmash of doctrines.

How then can we read Yahweh’s Word and know that we are properly understanding it? How can we make right interpretations? How should we go about rightly dividing the Word and testing doctrines that differ?

Bible study is serious business. Study of the Word should be systematic. It takes discipline and dedication to do it properly.
To get off on the right foot, start with good study Bibles like the Companion and Restoration Study Bible. Your understanding will increase exponentially when you dig down to the foundational languages of the text, which these Bibles do.

When you compare other parallel or contrasting verses, as typically provided in a good study Bible like the RSB, you get a more complete understanding.

Some Bible Study Basics
Both the Old and New testaments were written in Hebrew. That’s clear for several reasons, not the least of which is that most every writer writes in his native language, which for the writers of both testaments was Hebrew.

These were not Greeks or Greek-speaking Jews living in Galilee in the first century. They were native, blue-collar Jews who spoke Hebrew, the language of the nation. Even Paul who was a native Benjaminite-Jew wrote to Hebrew-speaking Jews in various assemblies of the dispersion.

Yet only Greek manuscripts of the New Testament survive today, of which there are some 5,400, not to mention thousands of Latin versions and other languages like Syriac, Coptic and Armenian.

Most of the existing manuscripts derive from the Middle Ages, from the 7th century onward. Of all the thousands of Greek manuscripts, no two are exactly alike. Some scholars put the differences at 200,000, others at 300,000, meaning there are more differences in manuscripts than there are words in the entire New Testament.

Realize also that the manuscripts were all hand written (which is what “manu-script” means). Sometimes scribes left out words, lines or even entire pages, especially when two lines ended with the same words. It didn’t help that they didn’t use paragraph divisions, lower case letters, or punctuation.

Complicating the process was the lack of spacing between words. Words were all run together in the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts.

Sometimes translators with insufficient understanding would introduce mistakes when they thought they were fixing a factual or doctrinal error.

Some of their changes are not critical but others are. For instance, the oldest and best manuscripts of John don’t have the story of the woman taken in adultery, where Yahshua says, “He that is without sin cast the first stone.” Think about that – if only sinless people could inflict such punishment, then the Old Testament law of stoning would not exist.
This account does not appear in any manuscript until the 12th century.

The passage of 1John 5:7-8 is the only one in the entire Bible appearing to teach a trinity of father son and Holy Spirit. The passage, however, is missing in all except one of the 5,400 Greek manuscripts in existence, and then it doesn’t occur until after the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

Ironically, sometimes the more difficult a passage reads the more faithful is to the original translation when scribes didn’t try so hard to manipulate the text.

Error from Ignorance
All of this is to say that trying to understand Yahweh’s Word through a cloudy filter thousands of years old, and through several languages besides, can at times be like trying to create a gourmet meal in the kitchen of a storm-tossed ship. Simplistic explanations are not always sufficient.

This is just one more case for the importance of the Old Testament as the anchor for New Testament teachings. Sometimes it is the only authority we have to ascertain the truth of a New Testament passage.

Yahshua taught the Old Testament, often referred to it, and urged His followers to read it and follow its teachings. In a question about the fate of wives in the resurrection, the Sadducees in Matthew 22 tried to trip Yahshua up. He told them, “You do err, not knowing the Scriptures.”

He went to the foundation of Truth, the Old Testament, known as the Scriptures.

Modern clerics would rather Yahshua have said, “But soon when I die and am resurrected I will have put to rest that obsolete Old Testament and given you freedom to live as you wish. Rest assured that no matter how you conduct your life you will still be saved. So hang on a few decades longer until a fellow named Paul writes a new Bible that will free you from the need to obey the statutes Yahweh gave for salvation.”

If the Old Testament is defunct, then why did Yahshua quote the Old Testament to prove who He was? Why did Yahshua refer to the Old Testament as proof of His Messiahship? Why did Yahshua instruct in his sermons to live by every word that comes from Yahweh? Why did Yahshua take so much time and effort expounding the teachings of the Old Testament?

The Old Testament Scriptures are the foundation of Yahweh’s Word. They testify to His existence, His purpose, and the plan for Yahshua’s coming to this earth. They cannot be subtracted from the Bible without destroying the message, meaning, and design of the entire Word.

613 Laws

What about the 613 Laws?

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What about the 613 Laws?
Many embrace Jewish traditions more than Scripture. They observe purely Jewish holidays like Hanukkah and Purim and neglect the commanded seven annual Holy Days of Leviticus 23. Incidentally, the word Purim is Persian and means “lots,” as in casting lots. The ancient practice worked like a horoscope, where the heathen cast lots to divine the future each day.

Following Jewish practices often leads to renouncing the New Testament and along with it, Yahshua the Messiah.

At the other end of the spectrum are critics of obedience as practiced in the New Testament. “So do you keep all 613 laws?” they typically ask in a “gotcha” attempt intended to entrap. Let’s take an overview of what the Jews contend are the 613 laws of the Old Testament.

Granted, we observe the vast majority of Yahweh’s commands in the way He intended. But there are some commands that clearly could only apply to the time of ancient Israel.

For instance, a statute in Deuteronomy 22:8 says to make a low wall about 3 feet tall around your roof. That law makes sense for safety on flat roofs in Israel because families used their roofs as living spaces. But it makes no practical sense for most homes today in America.

Following are more of the 613 laws we today cannot comply with because of their nature: Leviticus 25:34 says Levites are to redeem their homes in their Levitical towns; their houses are redeemable but the land surrounding them is not. To keep this law we need first to find out where any remaining Levites are today, where their fields are and where their cities are. If we can’t determine that then we fail in this law.

Deuteronomy 12:2-3 directs Israel to destroy their idolatry and its appurtenances. Anyone care to go through retail stores in December and take a hammer to all the Santa figures and cut down all the Xmas trees?

Exodus 22:18 targets witchcraft with a mandate not to allow a witch to live. What would happen if we took this law into our own hands vigilante style?

Then there are all the laws pertaining to the high priest and the conducting of temple worship. Being we are not under the Levitical priesthood, these laws are unobservable today. Hebrews 5:6 tells us, “As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

Anyone with a physical defect shall not serve in the sanctuary, Leviticus 21:17. There is no sanctuary or priesthood even existing now.

We get ourselves into a real predicament if we attempt to keep the sacrificial laws today because sacrifices are owned by Yahshua’s power as our High Priest in the Melchisedec order. His sacrifice covered all sacrifices for sin. We best not offer animal sacrifices if we value our salvation as there is no complete removal of sin under the old system of animal sacrifices.

Those 613 laws (a number not found in Scripture but only in Talmudic tradition) were also the constitution of Israel. Those statutes were necessary for running a righteous, theocratic government under Yahweh. They include laws on how a ruler should conduct himself as well as statutes governing political interactions with other nations. They regulated court proceedings and judgments, punishing of criminals, citizen behavior, social interactions, and worship.

Many of these statutes are not in our power to comply with because we live under a Roman system, a government of man, which has assumed some of Yahweh’s prerogatives. The Bible was Israel’s constitution and it will be again in the millennial Kingdom.

Now, biblical laws dealing with Yahweh’s worship, social relations, and morality are for everyone. Many crossover categories. The following is a quick breakdown of major divisions of biblical law and some examples of each.

Governmental Law
The king must not have too many wives and horses, Deut. 17:16,17
The king must not have too much silver and gold, Deut. 17:17
Regulations of houses in walled cities, Lev. 25:29
How can such statutes apply to us?

Judicial Law
Appoint impartial judges, Deut. 1:17 and16:18
A judicial court must not execute anyone on the testimony of a single witness, Deut.17:6; Num. 35:30
Anyone who knows the evidence must testify in a court case, Lev. 5:1
Punish the false witness exactly as he sought to punish the accused, Deut. 19:19
How can these laws apply to us in a court system that’s not ours?

Moral Law (regulates relationships with fellow man, Ex. 20:12-17; Matt. 22:37-39)
Don’t bear a grudge, Lev. 19:18
Don’t wrong any one in speech, Lev. 25:17
Don’t curse father or mother. Ex. 21:17
Keep your word and your promises, Deut. 23:23
Don’t take revenge, Lev. 19:18
Don’t be superstitious, Lev. 19:26
Keep the Ten Commandments, Ex. 20
These laws are for everyone in any age.

Spiritual Law
Observe the Ten Commandments, Ex. 20; Deut. 5
Keep the Feasts and Sabbath, Lev. 23
Eat only clean foods, Lev. 11
Observe the sabbaticals and jubilees, Lev. 25
Yahweh no longer wants animal sacrifices (Hebrews 10:5)
Animal sacrifices did not remove sin. (Hebrews 10:11). They simply pointed to the Messiah who was to die as the Lamb of Elohim who would take away the sin of the world.
Crossover laws: Don’t allow anyone practicing witchcraft to live (Ex. 22:17)
Slay the inhabitants of a city that has become idolatrous and burn that city (Deut. 13:16-17)
Man’s statutes do not change perpetual spiritual laws such as sodomite marriages.

Civil Law
Order of inheritance, Num. 27:8
Help a brother with his fallen beast of burden, Deut. 22:4
Don’t overcharge or underpay for an item, Lev. 25:14
Don’t charge a believer interest, Deut. 23:19-20
Houses sold within a walled city may be redeemed within a year, Lev. 25:29

Yahshua Our Standard
Yahshua is our guide when it comes to obedience, as He provided the proper example of how to live the precepts of His Father Yahweh. Being sinless, Yahshua was faithful to the Old Testament commandments, including the weekly Sabbath and Feasts, Hebrews 4:15, 1Peter 2:22.
The Saints at the end of the Bible are defined as those who “keep the commandments of Yahweh, and the faith of Yahshua,” Revelation 14:12. They have both Yahshua and the law. Obedience to the commandments as well as fidelity to the same standard of living shown by Yahshua come as a unit. Those who do Yahweh’s commandments are called blessed, and they will have right to Yahshua’s coming Kingdom, Revelation 22:14

We pray that this Article on the 613 laws was a blessing to you, we encourage you to check out some of our other articles and visit our Youtube channel!

Bible is real facts

The Bible’s Amazing Continuity

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The big problem in the traditional move to retire the law is the concept of grace.

Here is a challenge. If we can find grace operating in the Old Testament, side by side with the law, then would you agree that grace doesn’t replace the need to obey? You would realize that grace is an important part of obedience that is taught in the Old Testament (first covenant).

Everyone knows that the Old Testament is a collection of books that teach lots of law, obedience to that law, and punishment for breaking it. So if we find grace in the Old Testament operating alongside the law, then there are no contradictions between the two concepts. Grace could not supplant the law.

And if we should also be able to find both law and grace in the New Testament, then there should be no contradictions anywhere in the understanding that law and grace go together. True enough, we can find both law and grace in the New as well.  They operate side by side in both testaments.

Take a look at Exodus 34:6-7. The setting here is Moses on Sinai about to receive the law: “And Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

The accompaniment of grace even while giving the law was a fulfilled promise of Yahweh in verse 19 of the previous chapter.

Obedient Noah and Abraham Found Grace

Back in Genesis 6:8 we see the same with Noah, as Yahweh treats him with grace: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Yahweh.” Noah was also a law-keeping individual, Genesis 6:9, and that is a key element in why Yahweh chose him to preserve the human race. You don’t walk with Yahweh by being disobedient. Adam and Eve learned the hard way that disobedience literally gets you nowhere.

What about Abraham, the father of the righteous? Genesis 26:5 tells us that Abraham “obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

This tells us not only that the law was in effect long before Moses and Mt. Sinai, but also that Abraham knew he had to obey Yahweh through Yahweh’s statutes and commands. That was a given as part of the covenant. No argument or discussion. Yahweh’s covenants are unilateral and non-negotiable. The Old Covenant centered on obedience. Read about it in Hebrews 8. As you read it, notice that very little actually changes between Old and New Covenants. In fact, a prominent characteristic is that the Covenant is dearer to our hearts. We live obedience closer out of an inner desire.

Was Abraham, then, living outside of grace by being obedient? Absolutely not. Titus 2:12 tells us that grace actually teaches obedience. Although Jude 4 says people like to turn grace into disobedience, Paul tells us in Romans 6:1-2 that disobedience stops at the acceptance of grace. So grace doesn’t negate obedience, it initiates obedience.

If all it takes is belief and faith to be worthy in Yahweh’s eyes, then why was Abraham, a man experienced in Yahweh’s grace as Noah was, still obedient to Yahweh’s commandments, statutes and laws? Because faith without obedience is a contradiction.

We show our faith by our obedience. We prove to Yahweh that we have faith and love for Him by doing what He commands us to do.  What kind of faith do we show if we walk all over everything He tells us to do, and treat with contempt what is sacred to Him? Obviously, no faith at all!

In perfect harmony with this truth James tells us that faith without works is dead, 2:17-22.

Paul in His Obedience Was Under Grace

Did Paul say he was under grace? He did, 1Corinthians 15:10. Was he still obedient to the law? Yes, he was, Acts 21:24; 24:14. Did Paul tell us the law was abolished in his day? No, he said just the opposite. He said all men are under the law as long as they live,Romans 7:1.

Later Paul said the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, as we obey, Romans 8:4-7. We fulfill the law by being observant to it. If I fulfill my obligation to pay you what I owe you, it means I give you your money. If I fulfill my duty it means I do all my duty. If Yahshua fulfilled the law as it says He did in Matthew 5:17, then he observed it completely.

He even says in the next verse that nothing will pass from the law until heaven and earth vanish. Fulfill cannot mean abolish. He couldn’t have expressed a stronger image of the laws immutability. So long as the universe is here and the earth keeps spinning, then the law is here and in force as well. A world without law is anarchy, just as a world whose laws are not obeyed.

Yet, in total contradiction to all of these plain facts it is constantly hammered into today’s nominal worshiper that Yahshua came to destroy the law! Even back in His own day He was accused of destroying the law. He plainly and clearly answered the accusation by saying don’t even think it, Matthew 5:17. And obviously that was because they didn’t understand what He performed under the New Covenant to change only the administrative aspects of the law, as in the fleshly priesthood and animal sacrifices.

Yahweh’s Law Always in Effect

Circumcision is now of the heart. But is that anything new? Read Deuteronomy 30:6-8. Even after circumcision of the heart Israel was expected to obey all His commandments. Nothing was changed there.

The same misunderstanding has been ongoing for 2,000 years. Even when Yahshua denied from His own lips the accusation of destroying the law, people still don’t believe Him. “The law was nailed to the cross” has almost become a mantra of the uninformed or misguided.

Faith, grace, and obedience all live together in perfect harmony in the Scriptures. They are never mutually exclusive anywhere.

Yahweh Always Had Mercy

What about mercy? Is it only a New Testament concept? Is the Old Testament nothing but a bloody book of war and vengeance? Is Yahweh a vengeful Elohim who has no mercy for anyone who steps out of line?

In Psalm 85:7 the psalmist asks Yahweh to show His mercy. Then in a beautiful statement in verse 10, he says, “Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

The Hebrew language is filled with word pictures and is highly poetic. It is not the technical language Greek is, but a language of artistry and vivid imagery. One reason so many have problems with the writings of Paul and others in the New Testament is because those letters and writings come to us filtered through Greek from the original Hebrew, and Greek doesn’t do well trying to render poetic language in its characteristically more technical way.

Mercy and truth go together. In Psalm 147:11we read, “Yahweh takes pleasure in them that fear Him, in those who hope in Hismercy.” In Micah 6:8 Yahweh tells us to do justly and to love mercy. Why, if He is a merciless Elohim, does he tell us to love mercy? In Hosea 4:1 Yahweh has a problem with the people because there is no truth or mercy among them. He says it again inHosea 12:6: telling us to keep mercy and judgment.

People ask why does Yahweh allow suffering? If He were a loving and merciful Father, He wouldn’t do that. But if we were all obedient, there would be no suffering. Suffering and death are a result of sin, Romans 5:12; 7:5; Galatians 5:19-21; Mark 7:21-23. And if Yahweh didn’t have mercy then just one sin, committed by one person one time…and it would all be over for all of us. He has taken his hands off this world and is allowing us to come within an inch of destroying both it and ourselves through sin.

But you see, sin is repugnant to Yahweh. It is our own fault that we find ourselves suffering when that was never supposed to happen in Yahweh’s plan. It may not be politically correct to bear the consequences of our own failings, but it is Scripturally correct (Isa. 59:1-2).

Do you want Him to answer your prayers? Stop sinning. Turn in obedience. He says turn to me and I will turn to you. When He calls, it is up to you to answer. The next step is entirely yours. He is not going to save you in spite of yourself.

The Truth About Acts 15

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A first-century lesson to new converts who had a background in pagan religion clears up a common misunderstanding today about Acts 15 and obedience.

The activity and success of the Apostles was creating in­creasing interest among the Gentiles. The pressure by the Sadducees and especially the Pharisees had stifled the conversion of Jews to the Savior.

Now the pertinent question con­fronting the Antioch Assembly, which Paul and Barnabas were to help answer, was how necessary is circumcision for the Gentiles? The Jewish leadership said it was mandatory. “And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren, and said, Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1).

Missionaries of the Assembly at Antioch, however, had accepted uncircumcised Gentile believers into their ranks. Be­cause the issue was raised, Paul and Barnabas, along with some others, were sent by the Assembly to Jerusalem to see what should be required of the Gentiles coming into the Assembly.

Jerusalem‘s Influence

In Acts 8: 14, the Jerusalem apostles had sent Peter and John to help the brethren in Samaria with their question concerning baptism of Gentiles. A later Jerusalem meeting recorded in Acts 21:18 was to clear suspicions of Paul. Jerusalem was looked upon as the spiri­tual center for the scattered assemblies. Now they were to recommend a course of action in dealing with Gentile converts.

Peter said there is no difference among peoples in Yahweh’s eyes: “And Elohim which knows the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as He did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8-9).

Peter emphasizes that Yahweh gave the Holy Spirit to both Samaritans and Romans, that everyone potentially can be saved by the grace of Yahshua. The nagging question remained: Why then was circumcision required for any man to enter the Temple? (Ezek. 44:7).

One issue was already clear. Yahshua is now our High Priest and we are not required to of­fer animal sacrifices in the Temple. We can approach Yahweh directly anywhere, any time, once we accept‘ Yahshua. He explained this to the woman at the well: “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. Yahweh is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).

Animal Sacrifices and Physical Circumcision

Upon hearing of the matter of circumcision of Gentiles, both Paul and Barnabas recalled their experiences of miracles and the wonderful things that had taken place among the Gentiles who gladly accepted their message. James the brother of Yahshua then summarized the decision of the Apostles: “Simeon [Peter] has declared how Yahweh at the first did visit the Gen­tiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written” (Acts 15:14-15).

James goes to some length to show that Yahweh’s purpose is to reveal Himself to the Gentiles, to take from them a group of people for His Name. Not to save the world now, but to take out a nucleus of chosen faithful from both Israel and the Gentiles. These will become the kings and priests to rule in the Kingdom, Revela­tion 1:6. The salvation of the world comes later, Revelation 20:6.

“After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after Yahweh, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my Name is called, says Yahweh,who does all these things” (Acts 15:16-17).

James emphasizes that Yahweh is now calling out a special people. The called-out ones today are of the Melchizedek priesthood under Mes­siah. Animal sacrifices and circumci­sion are not required of us, for this “residue of men” will be baptized into His Name,and called by His Name. Circumcision has a deeper meaning already explained in the Old Testament as being humble and of a willing heart: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deut. 10: 16). We are to love Yahweh with all our heart and be obedient to Him in all things. He will soften the heart of our offspring and lead them to obedience:

“And Yahweh your Elohim will cir­cumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deut. 30:6).

Circumcise the Heart

The New Testament teaches that cir­cumcision is not a great concern for the people of Yahweh. Our goal should be obedience to Yahweh and to His Commandments, His way of life: Paul wrote, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of Yahweh” is what is important (l Cor. 7: 19). When a person is baptized into the body of Messiah,he or she stands before Yahweh as sinless. All sins are washed away, and we are jus­tified in Yahweh’s eyes, washed clean of our past.

Henceforth we can go directly to Yahweh in prayer and have our sins for­given. We are now a new creature, a son or daughter of the Most High Elohim. Baptism is a cleansing, and with repentance is referred to as the circumcision made without hands. “In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah” (Col. 2: 11).

James then goes on to caution the brethren not to make things difficult for the new Gentile converts by expecting them to keep the sacrificial laws and be circumcised. When one is converted to Yahweh‘s truth and follows it, then one is circumcised in heart. That is what Yahweh wants!

Remove Practices of Heathenism

His next suggestion was that a letter be written to all the Gentiles with the fol­lowing message: “But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the syna­gogues every sabbath day” (Acts 15:20-21).

This letter to the Gentiles has four special prohibitions mentioned: 1) have nothing to do with idols, 2) no fornica­tion, 3) eat no strangled animal, 4) drink no blood. Why these four? Simply because these customs of the Gentiles played prominently in their former worship. They had before worshiped idols and dealt with temple prostitutes. They of­ten ate strangled animals in order to eat the life-blood of that animal. They also drank blood from an ani­mal, assuming to transfer to themselves the strength that was in the blood of a bull or goat.

The Gentiles were to avoid these four habitual practices immediately. Then, James says, they will in time learn the rest of Yahweh’s truth be­cause when they attend the synagogues or assemblies every Sabbath, the other laws will be preached and ex­plained to them.

James‘ summary of the proposed action pleased the apostles and elders along with the entire assembly. They decided to send theirselected men to Antioch with the following letter: “The apostles and elders, your brother, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syriaand Cilicia:Greetings, We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your mindsby what they said. So we all agree to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul- men who have risked their livesfor the name of our Sovereign Yahshua the Messiah. Therefore, we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are toabstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell” (NIV, Acts 15:23-29).

A Starting Point

This letter does not specifically include the point that each Sabbath the laws of Yahweh would be taught by reading of the Torah each week in the synagogue. But from verse 21 we learn that such is the intent. A removal of offend­ing practices was the starting point, while more truth would be revealed once these abominations were elimi­nated. Silas, Paul, and Barnabas stayed in Antioch for some time teaching the people more of Yahweh‘s truths.

Paul and Silas later went on to Derbe and Lystra where Paul met young Timothy. They continued to de­liver the letter warning thegentiles to desist from idol worship, from drink­ing blood, eating strangled meat, and from sexual immorality. They were also expected to observe the Sabbath each week and join in worship with the assembly.

“And as they went through the cit­ies, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the assemblies established in the faith, and increased in number daily” (Acts 16:4-5). In Acts 21 Paul was commended for his activities among the Gentiles. The elders glorified Yahweh over the thou­sands among the Jews that believed. However, there was gossip that Paul was teaching the Jews who were among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after their cus­toms.

To convince the people of his integ­rity, Paul was advised to purify himself with four other men who had a vow. Paul then could dispel any doubting, while the truth would be shown that Paul was orderly, keeping the law, verses 21-24.

Words Added to the Text

Verses 25–26 are quoted below to show that translators have added the capitalized words that are not in the text of Acts 21. Carnal man strives hard to do away with the law and set aside obedi­ence, calling it bondage. But Paul kept the law and taught us to keep it as well.

“As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written [and] con­cluded THAT THEY OBSERVE NO SUCH THING, SAVE ONLYthat they keep themselves from [things] of­fered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication. Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them en­tered into the temple, to signify the ac­complishment of the days of purifica­tion, until that an offering should be offered for everyone of them” (Acts 21:25-26, boldface words not in the text, omitted by newerversions).

To recap, Acts 15 is the account of the Jerusalem meeting of the Elders in deciding how to deal with Gentiles who become a part of the assembly. There were four pagan customs they were to refrain from participating in as they began their walk with the Savior.

They were also expected to meet with brethren on the Sabbath where they would have Moses taught and the Torah expounded to them. Note that the Gentiles were to be taught from the Old Testament, the teachings of Moses. Perhaps some day we can join the great throng Yahweh is preparing and teach and help others in the Kingdom. We read of this prophecy in Isaiah:“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of Yahweh‘s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exaltedabove the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people–shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word ofYahweh from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2:2–4).

Paul answers those who would return to physical circumcision, “For in Yahshua the Messiah neither circumci­sion avails any thing, nor uncircum­cision; but faith which works by love” (Gal. 5: 6). May his words be a guide to all who would miss the spirit of the law whilekeeping the letter.

by Donald R. Mansager

obedience to the torah and law grace

The Spiritual Side of Obedience

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The sincere Truth seeker knows that there is a powerful, spiritual dimension to existence than what is immediately evident, and that his life must reflect special goals as a follower of the Father and His Son.

Most live out their allotted time on earth focused entirely on the natural. With no greater purpose or desire than to indulge in the here and now. The singular goal of the vast majority of humanity is increasingly more wealth and gusto. They love its riches, its prestige, its enjoyments — striving daily for what the culture offers and what it stands for and glorifies. But when their days are done, all that they worked and sweated for ultimately becomes the property of someone else.  Even the memory of them soon fades away, Ecclesiastes 9:5. Life is a terrible thing to waste.

Yahweh is giving His called-out ones the opportunity of the ages – to join Him and His Son in His coming, everlasting kingdom.

Our choice is either to put all our efforts and aspirations into only a few decades worth of this earthly life, or prepare one day to leave the superficiality and temporal nature of this existence and join our Heavenly Father and His Son in an awesome and endless kingdom rulership, enjoying rewards far exceeding our finite comprehension. “But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which Elohim has prepared for them that love him,” 1Corinthians 2:9.

Natural Man Is Self-satisfied

Temporal gains are all that most people want from their priceless gift of life. They live their threescore and ten years for themselves.The average person has an innate rebelliousness at the mere mention of obeying the One who made him.  The common belief built on centuries of misteaching is that heavenly rewards will be granted anyway, regardless how one lives. From Genesis through Revelation the Bible says the exact opposite.  People will be judged by and rewarded based on how they live. John wrote inRevelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

They reveal that they are in essence a deity unto themselves.  As one celebrity quipped about her infant, “My baby is my religion.”This is what Romans 8:7 describes as the carnal mind: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim for it is not subject to the law ofElohim, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7). Paul also wrote, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of Elohim; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of Elohim. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of Elohim: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,”1Corinthians 2:12 and 14.

The unconverted individual can no more un­derstand Yahweh than a squirrel in the forest. Like the squirrel, his whole shallow ex­istence consists in what he can see, feel, taste, and, enjoy.

In Galatians 6:7-8 Yahweh gives us a choice. He says it is up to each one of us which existence will be ours. “Be not deceived; Yahweh is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” The beauty of Yahweh’s grace is that we can have whichever we wish: a short-lived physical life of disobedience, with its temporary everything filled with emptiness, or a far superior, infinitely greater and exciting and rewarding spiritual existence serving the Father Yahweh now and for eternity.

No Thanks to the Gnostics

Immortality comes only from Yahweh, He alone has it. Timothy 6:16 says of Him, “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see.” Immortality is not something we innately have. Theprevailing teach­ing is that every person has a resident immortal soul that waits to be re­leased at death to fly away to its heav­enly reward.

No wonder most people aren‘t really concerned with how they live their lives. No wonder they don‘t care if they don’t have His Name right, don’t honor­ the Sabbath, and generally disobey Him. No wonder He is not resident deep within their hearts: They think they have no need for Him! They think they will live forever automatically!

The immortality notion is rooted in teachings of the pagan Gnostics, who also believed that humans have innate immortality.Gnosticism taught that the physical universe was a terrible mistake of Yahweh, and that man originally lived in the spirit realm. We now wait for death so that we can be released back to where we should have been all along – living as immortals in a spirit world.

Their twisted immortality beliefs form the basis of the modern view about the hereafter: everyone goes immediately to heaven upon death. This false idea is endlessly repeated in traditional sermons and funeral eulogies. It is the original satanic lie. It is the very heresy that Satan himself first foisted on humanity!

The Adversary said, “You shall not surely die, Eve. For Yahweh knows that when you eat this forbidden fruit, you will be a Mighty One yourself. So do it for YOU!” (Have you ever wondered why Eve didn’t stop to ask, “Why would Yahweh place within easy reach a temptation that if accepted would make Adam and me as powerful, omniscient, and immortal as He?”)

The immortal soul teaching has been the most potent and influential lie ever put into words. It has done untold damage against the truth, and millions have been deceived by it.

What makes this belief so sinister is that, still believing Satan, the vast majority of this world do not really think they need Yahweh — they are told they are already immortal and will have everlasting life no matter how they choose to live. This belief helps explain today’s law-less attitudes and behavior.

Spiritually Ignorant

Our culture has lost sight of who created and now energizes the universe. Of course, through the teaching of evolution many believe that the universe created and drives itself! Evolution is an ingenious plot of Ha Satan to eliminate the Creator from man’s consciousness.

Many scientists by study­ing astronomy, physics, chemistry, mathematics, electricity, and other dis­ciplines, believe they have answers to all that exists. In fact, all they really have are a few answers to questions about the physi­cal universe. They have not even begun to understand the far greater spiritual realm. All man’s wisdom is foolishness, Paul writes in Romans 1:22. We cannot even comprehend our own brains, let alone use those brains to figure out how we got here and where we are going from here.

Almighty Yahweh answers man’s folly in Isaiah 44:24-25: “Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, and he that formed you from the womb, I am Yahweh that makes all things; that stretches forth the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself; That frustrates the to­kens of the liars, and makes diviners mad; that turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish.”

Yahweh is the Mighty One of na­ture as well as the ruler over spiritual things. He is the last word. He is THE authority and the final recourse.

From His Creator man learns about moral­ity. There is nothing really moral or im­moral about the behavior of a dog or a monkey or a fish. They act only as their brains were prewired to act. They live in a purely physical universe and behave strictly according to how they were designed.

But Yahweh says that He created man in His own image. And when He created humankind He brought the spiritual world in touch with the physical. Along with the physical laws that govern this earth we have spiritual laws – moral, ethical laws and stan­dards of right and wrong. And then He also gives us a choice. We have the prerogative to choose to follow our Creator or to reject Him in our lives. The first leads to rewards that cannot be imagined, the second results in everlasting death.

Yahweh Defines Morality

Now we can answer the question about what makes right, right … and wrong, wrong. What is it about the nature of sin that makes it “sinful” and evil?

The often-quoted Greek philoso­phers in all their vaunted human wisdom certainly didn’t know, beyond realizing that right and wrong carry their own consequences.

The answer they could not arrive at is Yahweh. Yahweh and He alone is the standard that creates right and wrong in both physical and spiritual universes. Moral right and wrong on this earth are determined by Yahweh’s own character. Without Yahweh, right and wrong would have no meaning. Right and wrong emanate from the spiritual – where Yahweh dwells – not from the natural, physical world. Be­cause man is physical first (not spiritual first, as the Gnostics taught), he must be taught right and wrong, good and evil. These are spiritual principles that don’t come naturally to humans.

There is no moral “right” and “wrong” about the way nature oper­ates. If a tree falls and kills a squirrel, there is nothing morally right and wrong about it. But if I strike my neighbor, I have broken a spiritual law and am deserving of punishment. Why? Because Yahweh and only Yahweh has defined such an act as wrong and He brings this understanding to man through His laws.

It is Yahweh who brings morality to our lives. If I steal from my neighbor I have broken Yahweh’s spiritual-moral law.

Yahweh’s Laws Express Himself

Claiming that Yahweh‘s laws as given in the Covenant are unnecessary is to denigrate Yahweh Himself. Yahweh’s character is the measure of righteous­ness. And His laws are the expression of Yahweh’s own moral attributes. Therefore, to reject His laws is to reject what makes Yahweh who He is. His laws are His standard for behavior. No wonder the Evil One would like to destroy Yahweh’s laws through erroneous doctrines like salvation through faith alone.

The pompous academic will say, “How do you know what is right and wrong? How do you know what is truth? Truth is relative. Your truth may not be the same for everyone.”

Reject Yahweh and you WON’T not know what truth is. Live with an unchanged car­nal nature and you will be ignorant of proper,spiritual things and, even worse, harbor enmity for Yahweh. This is why lawless individuals have a natural hatred for the Bible and the religious individuals who follow it. Go to any secular college and you will find an abundance of those who harbor a nautral dislike for Bible-based religion.

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim: for it is not subject to the law of Elohim, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7).

The prophet Isaiah confirms the ba­sic nature of unrepentant man: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isa. 64:6).

Isaiah just described us in our natu­ral element. If we want to stay natural, that is how Yahweh will see us. The result of that kind of life is destruction, be­cause it will limit us only to the natural existence of a finite, physical world.

The only way we can have a chance at that spiritual world where life never ends is to become like Yahweh in mind and heart and behavior. In other words, to be­come spiritual. That is precisely what His laws accomplish in us because at their root His laws are spiritual.Paul wrote: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14).

Why He Did Not Lower the Bar

In 1Peter 1: 16 we read, “Because it is written, Be holy; for I am holy” (quoted from Lev. 11:44). “Holy” means set apart: set apart from the physical, from the worldly, from sin and its corruption.

Why, since all men have sinned by violating Yahweh’s laws, did Yahweh not just change or do away with his laws to conform to the lives of men and save them all? Instead of trying to change man, why not just lower the standards? After all, no one is able to live up to them anyway, many believe.

Why can’t the great Lawgiver just abolish sin by doing away with His laws? After all, Yahweh is supreme, isn’t He? The answer goes to the heart of who Yahweh Himself is.

Yahweh‘s moral, spiritual laws are not the result of His own whim. He didn’t sit down one day and say, “Let’s see, I‘ll make murder wrong, and steal­ing a sin, and lying wrong and cheating bad…” He didn’t do that and couldn’t do that and still retain His own identity.

Yahweh’s laws are a reflection of Yahweh Himself–His very character and His nature. To change His laws would be to change Him. And that is impossible. Yahweh is unchangeable, as He Him­self said. “For I [am] Yahweh, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed,” Malachi 3:6. Sin is con­trary not only to the work of Yahweh, but also to the very nature of Yahweh. His holiness requires that sin result in death. Yahweh is life. Sin is death.

That is the way things are, by virtue of the way Yahweh made us and our world. It won‘t change one thing to argue about it. Saying the law has been done away doesn’t make it so. Resistance is futile. Yahweh himself says man’s rebellious ways and thinking are destined to be destroyed. And He commands us to obey Him.  “Let no man deceive you with vain words [words spoken against the truth]: for because of these things comes the wrath of Elohim upon the children of disobedience [lawlessness]” (Eph. 5:6).

Yahweh cannot tolerate sin – which is the breaking of His laws. Sin goes against everything that makes Him what He is. Therefore,sin is enmity, ­hatred of Yahweh, and is His de­spised enemy.

This isn‘t an arbitrary development. The universe is built on this principle. When Yahweh put man on this earth, He also introduced His spiritual law as part of this creation. He told Adam and Eve what was right and what was wrong.

Yahweh must either condemn sin or violate His own being. The penalty of every sin that has been committed or will ever be committed must be paid. We ei­ther pay it with our own blood or we rely on Yahshua‘s. If we want to overcome sin, then, we must accept Yahshua’s blood for our past sins and then come in line with His law – His very nature – from that point for­ward. It‘s just thatclear and simple.

If Yahshua did away with the law, then He did away with sin itself and we no longer need a Savior. Notice: “Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (lJohn 3:4).

Notice What Happens...

Coming into line with Yahweh‘s laws creates harmony and happiness in our lives! No wonder we read, “Wherefore the law is holy,and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7:12).

When we observe Yahweh‘s laws we should feel great, knowing that Yahweh accepts us as one like Himself. When we rebe­l, we’remiserable and fearful. It’s axiomatic that when we move away from Yahweh we become subject to evil influences. Those who hate the Bible are in their hearts miserable.

What better proof that His laws are right and good and perfect and acceptable and nec­essary!

by Elder Alan Mansager