Thus saith the LORD of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.
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Christian, what are you going to say to G-d of Israel when your god Jesus doesn’t return?
Worshiper of Jesus, Christian/Messianic, what are you going to say when you stand before G-d after the false man-god Jesus whom you worship and to whom you pray doesn’t appear? What are you going to say to your Maker when you knew all along (and I am merely reminding you here now) that worshiping anyone or anything other than Him is a grave sin and betrayal? How will you justify your worship of a mortal creature to whom billions bow their knees? Will you deny that you knew that He has warned you that He was neither a man nor a son of man (Numbers 23:19), that He had no visible form and that He can’t be compared to anything He created? Will you try to defend yourself that you only followed your leaders or will you admit to G-d your sin of idolatry? Will you appeal to the polished literary character from the pages of your New Testament? Will you tell G-d that Jesus paid for your sins by his blood when He explicitly warned that He doesn’t approve of human sacrifices (Leviticus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 12:31) and that no man can punished for the sins of another (Ezekiel 18:20)? Will you point to the [Greek] Testament in your defense and claim it to be the “word of G-d”? Will you claim that you have put your faith in Jesus, Paul, apostles, the church scribes, church fathers, pastors and evangelists? Will you attempt to boldly walk into the Holy of Holies as the author of Hebrews exhorts you to do (Hebrews 10:19) and demand to be allowed in since you placed your trust in a “son of man”, despite the fact that G-d has told us in Numbers 23:19 not to do just that? What will come out of your mouth? Do you know?
The Bible already knows what you are going to say. Indeed, it gives us a glimpse of your very words and it tells us in the Jewish scriptures, the writings that you call “the Old Testament”, the words all of the nations will utter before the G-d of Israel in the end of days:
“To you (Hashem) shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!” (Jeremiah 16:19-20)
Today, however, the choice is still yours. Today, you can still either choose to continue worshiping Jesus as you god, to proclaim him as your “lord and savior” or you can choose to discard your idolatry and turn to the living G-d of Israel and Him alone. Make no mistake – you DO have a choice whom you will serve – if a man Jesus whom Christianity has deified to seat him on G-d’s throne is your ba’al (Hebrew word for “lord”), serve him. But if the G-d of Israel is the L-rd, then you know what you need to do. If you choose idolatry over the Living G-d of Israel, do not think that there is safety in the great numbers among the nations that Christianity and other religions can boast. As G-d said:
“Before Him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by Him as worthless and less than nothing. To whom, then, will you compare G-d? What image will you compare him to?” (Isaiah 40:17-18)
A reposting of Uri Yosef’s THE "LAST AND FINAL SACRIFICE" TAKES THE TEN-COUNT after a Christian apologist made
this comment recently. May it be a light to anyone seeking the G-d of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob.
“The reason Jews as a
whole haven't embraced Jesus Christ as Messiah is partly because of hard
hearts, and partly because Jesus came to die for our sins. It was foreseen by
God the Father that He would be rejected, per Isaiah 53 - which Jews have NEVER
been able to "explain" - which then paved the way for His
once-for-all sacrifice for sin.”
A KNOCK-OUT PUNCH:THE "LAST AND FINAL SACRIFICE" TAKES THE TEN-COUNT
Professor Uri Yosef
I. INTRODUCTION
Christian missionaries claim that those who do not accept Jesus as their lord and
savior, which includes the Jewish people, are doomed to burn in “hell” because
they cannot have their sins forgiven by God. This claim is rationalized with the
allegation that, in Biblical times, the only way to bring about the remission of sins
was via the blood of a certain animal. This animal had to be brought to the priest
to be slaughtered at the altar in the Sanctuary, first while in the portable
Sanctuary and later in the Temple, as a sacrificial offering. According to this
claim, since there has been no Temple standing in Jerusalem since the year 70
C.E., valid sacrificial offerings can no longer be made and, therefore, the only
way for Jews to have their sins forgiven is through the blood shed by Jesus in his
"sacrificial" death on the cross. In other words, the claim is that the blood of
Jesus, who was allegedly sacrificed by God (the "Father") as a demonstration of
his great love for mankind,
has once and for all removed the stain of “Original
Sin" from those who follow Jesus (the "Son"). This act of love by God allegedly
made Jesus the "last and final sacrifice" forever.
There are two main aspects to the claim that Jesus was "the last and final
sacrifice". The first concerns the suitability of Jesus and his death as a sacrificial
offering for the remission of sins. The second aspect, which was investigated in
another essay, concerns the need for blood in the atonement process.
This essay examines the suitability of Jesus and the manner in which he died as
a sacrificial offering for the remission of sins.
II. THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE VERSUS THE SPECIFICATIONS IN THE HEBREW BIBLE
The process for testing this claim by Christian missionaries consists of
contrasting the requirements concerning sacrificial offerings, as specified in the
Hebrew Bible, against the accounts in the New Testament that describe the
death of Jesus on the cross as a sacrificial offering. As part of this analysis, it is
important to bear in mind the following two conditions that existed during the life
of Jesus, at the time of his death, and for several decades following his death:
The Second Temple was still standing in Jerusalem
The Hebrew Bible was the Scripture in force
The salient issue to be addressed, and answered, is:
According to the requirements set forth in the Hebrew Bible, was Jesus a valid sacrificial
offering, and was his death by crucifixion an acceptable process, for remission of sins?
The analytical phase of the testing process identifies ten elements for which the
respective accounts in the New Testament are compared with the specifications
provided in the Hebrew Bible, primarily in the Torah.
One
According to the accounts in the New Testament, Jesus was crucified by
Roman soldiers:
John 19:18,23(KJV) – (18) Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either
side one, and Jesus in the midst.
(23) Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made
four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam,
woven from the top throughout. [See also Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:33.]
According to the Levitical Law of Sacrifice in the Torah, the animal brought as
a sin sacrifice had to be slaughtered by the person who offered it:
Leviticus 4:27-29 - (27) And if any one person from among the common people sins
unwittingly, by performing one of the commandments of the Lord which may not be
done, and incurs guilt; (28) Or if his sin, which he has committed, is made known to
him, then he shall bring his sacrifice, an unblemished female goat, for his sin which he
has sinned. (29) And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and he
shall slaughter the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.
Two
According to the Levitical Law of Sacrifice in the Torah, some of the blood of
the (sin) sacrifice had to be rubbed by the priest with his finger on the horns of
the altar in the Temple, and the rest had to be poured out at the base of the
sacrificial altar. The fat of the sacrifice had to be removed and burnt:
Leviticus 4:30-31 - (30) And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and
put [it] upon the horns of the altar [used] for the burnt offering; and [then] he shall
pour out all of [the rest of] its blood at the base of the altar. (31) And he shall remove
all of its fat, as was removed the fat from the sacrificial peace offerings; and the priest
shall burn it upon the altar for a pleasant fragrance to the Lord; and [thus] shall the
priest make an atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.
The New Testament is silent on what was done with the blood of Jesus and
with the fat of his body.
Three
According to the accounts in the New Testament, Jesus was beaten,
whipped, and dragged on the ground before being crucified:
Matthew 26:67(KJV) - Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others
smote him with the palms of their hands, [See also Mark 14:65; Luke 22:63; John 18:22.]
Matthew 27:26,30-31(KJV) – (26)Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he
had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
(30) And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. (31) And
after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own
raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. [See also Mark 15:15-20; John 19:1-3.]
According to the Torah, a sacrificial animal had to be without any physical
defects or blemishes:
Deuteronomy 17:1 - You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that
has in it a blemish or any bad thing, for that is an abomination to the Lord, your God.
Sidebar Note: As a born Jew, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day following
his birth, a ritual that leaves a scar (Genesis 17:10-13; the “sign of the covenant”).
The circumcision of Jesus is mentioned in the New Testament (Luke 2:21), yet Paul
refers to circumcision as being tantamount to mutilation (Galatians 5:11-12;
Philippians 3:2).
Four
According to the New Testament, Jesus was "the Lamb of God" whose bones
may not be broken [a reference to the Paschal Lamb of Exodus 12:46 and
Numbers 9:12]:
John 1:29(KJV) – The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
John 19:36(KJV) - For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A
bone of him shall not be broken.
According to the Torah, the Paschal Lamb was not offered for the removal of
sins. Rather, it was a festive, or commemorative, offering. Yom Kippur (the
Day of Atonement) would have been a more appropriate time for a sin
offering:
Numbers 29:11 - One young male goat for a sin offering, beside the sin offering of
atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and its meal offering, and their drink
offerings. [Yom Kippur – Individual sin offering]
Leviticus 16:15 - He shall then slaughter the he goat of the people's sin offering and
bring its blood inside the dividing curtain, and he shall do with its blood as he did with
the blood of the bull and sprinkle it upon the cover of the ark, and before the cover of
the ark. [Yom Kippur – Communal sin offering]
Five
According to the Torah, the Paschal Lamb had to be slaughtered and its
blood used to place markings on the side-posts and lintels of the entrances to
the dwelling. Moreover, the meat had to be roasted and eaten, and whatever
was not consumed by the time the Israelites were to leave their homes, had
to be burnt and destroyed:
Exodus 12:6-10 - (6) And you shall keep it under watch until the fourteenth day of this
month; and the entire congregation of the community of Israel shall slaughter it at
dusk. (7) And they shall take [some] of its blood, and place it on the two doorposts and
on the lintel, on the houses in which they will eat it. (8) And they shall eat the meat in
that night, roasted over fire, and [with] unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall
eat it. (9) You shall not eat from it raw, nor boiled in water; but roasted over fire, its
head with its legs, and with its inner parts. (10) And you shall not leave any of it until
morning; and that which left over until the morning you shall burn in the fire.
According to the accounts in the New Testament this was not done with
Jesus after his death. In fact, Jesus was buried.
Matthew 27:57-60(KJV) – (57) When the even was come, there came a rich man of
Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple: (58) He went to
Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be
delivered. (59) And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen
cloth, (60) And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he
rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. [See also Mark 15:42-46;
Luke 23:50-53; John 19:38-42.]
Six
According to the New Testament, the death of Jesus was a sacrificial offering
that expiated the sins of mankind for all times:
Hebrews 10:10,18(KJV) – (10) By the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
(18) Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. [See also
Romans 6:10; Hebrews 9:12.]
According to the Torah, the Passover (sin) sacrifice, a male-goat, had to be
offered on an individual (per household) basis, not as a communal offering:
Numbers 28:22 - And one young male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for
you.
Seven
According to the New Testament, the death and blood of Jesus took care of
(almost) all sins:
Hebrews 9:22(KJV) – And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and
without shedding of blood is no remission.
According to the Levitical Law of Sacrifice in the Torah, the sacrificial sin
offering brought atonement only for unintentional sins, except as noted in
Leviticus 5:1-6, 20-26[Leviticus 5:1-6, 6:1-7 in Christian Bibles]:
Numbers 15:27-31 - (27) And if a person sins inadvertently, then he shall offer a female
goat in its first year as a sin offering. (28) And the priest shall atone for the erring
person who sinned inadvertently before the Lord in order to make atonement on his
behalf; and it shall be forgiven him. (29) For the native born of the children of Israel
and the stranger who resides among them, one law shall apply to him who sins
inadvertently. (30) And the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is a
native born or a stranger, that person blasphemes the Lord; and that person shall be
cut off from among his people. (31) Because he has scorned the word of the Lord, and
has violated his commandment; that person shall surely be cut off, for his iniquity is
upon him.
Eight
According to the New Testament, the death of Jesus brought about the
remission of sins yet uncommitted, and of sins of those yet to be born:
Hebrews 10:18(KJV) – Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sin.
According to the Levitical Law of Sacrifice in the Torah, sacrifices could bring
atonement only for sins committed prior to the offering of the sacrifice. No
sacrifice was provided for the atonement of sins committed after the sacrifice
was offered and, thus, no sacrifice can bring atonement for sins of people
born after it was offered. This includes both טּאתָחַ (haTAT)], a sin offering,
described in Leviticus 4:1-5:13, and שׁםָאָ (aSHAM), a guilt offering,
described in Leviticus 5:14-26. Had there been, among the listed sacrifices,
even one kind of sin or guilt offering that could bring atonement for future
sins, the person who would have offered that particular sacrifice would not
have had to do so again for the rest of his life. Moreover, Yom Kippur (the
Day of Atonement), which is ordained by the Torah as an annual Holy Day
(Leviticus 16:29-34), would have had to be celebrated by the Israelites only
the very first time after the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, had they used one
of those "super" sacrificial offerings that could atone for sins of the future.
The claim by the author of Hebrews, that there are no more sin offerings
required following the death of Jesus, is false for other reasons as well:
The Second Temple stood in Jerusalem for nearly 40 years following the death of
Jesus, during which time literally thousands of animals were offered as sacrifices
of all sorts, including sin and guilt offerings, as prescribed by the Torah.
The Hebrew Bible contains prophecies about the building of the Third Temple in
the messianic era, and of the resumption of the sacrificial system at that time. All
the types of sacrificial offerings described in the Hebrew Bible will be made on the
sacrificial altar [חַ בֵּזְמִ (mizBE'ah)] in the Temple, including both the טּאתָחַ and
שׁםָאָ sacrificial offerings. In other words, the sacrificial system, which has been
in a state of suspension since the year 70 C.E., when the Romans destroyed the
Second Temple, will be completely restored in the messianic era:
Ezekiel 43:21-22 - And you shall take the bull of the sin offering, and he [the priest]
shall burn it at the edge of the Temple, outside the Sanctuary. (22) And on the
second day you shall offer an unblemished he-goat for a sin offering, and they [the
priests] shall purify the altar as they purified it with the bull. [See also: Isaiah 56:7;
“So do you think that those who reject Jesus are supernaturally blinded – how about those who accept him? How did their eyes “get opened”? And how about people who accept Jesus – but then come to the recognition that they were hoodwinked – and leave him – what “blinded” them?”
Isaiah 2:22
Many Christians have a difficult time understanding why it is that Jews view their faith in Jesus as idolatrous. Christians assert that Jesus is “one and the same” as the God of Israel. How could veneration of Jesus be considered idolatry?
It may come as a surprise to some Christians if they were to realize that many Jews have a difficult time understanding Christians. After everything is said and done, Christianity is pointing to a man, and calling him “god”. What else is there to discuss?
This article is written in an effort to help Christians see things from a Jewish perspective.
Imagine the following scenario.
The Messianic era is here. God is revealed to all mankind. Every human being clearly sees that the One Creator of heaven and earth is the only true power. Everyone understands that every facet of existence is just an expression of His will and His love. All the nations recognize that every bit of adoration that the human heart can generate belongs only to the Almighty God who called the universe into existence.
And Jesus is not there. The man from Nazareth is nowhere to be seen.
What will the Christian then feel about the relationship he shared with this man? How will they view all the adoration that they were persuaded to pour out towards that individual?
The fact that you could imagine this scenario, should tell you that Jesus is NOT one and the same with the Creator of heaven and earth. The fact that this scenario is hypothetically possible should help you separate between Jesus on the one hand and the God of Israel on the other.
This scenario is not just a hypothetical possibility. If you believe those God fearing Jews whose words are immortalized in the Jewish Scriptures, you will realize that this scenario was at the heart of their vision for the future.
I will provide a list of Scriptural references for you to study. Please bear in mind that when these words were originally written, no one had heard of Jesus. When the Jewish prophets penned their words, the concept: “trinity” – was not yet invented. Please realize that for a Jew who would have read these words before the advent of Christianity, the words “God”, “Lord”, and “Almighty” would mean one thing and one thing only – The One Creator of heaven and earth.
A) Nowhere in the Tanach does it say to believe in mashiach “or else”
B) Nowhere in the Tanach does it say that mashiach will be a hybrid god-man.
C) Nowhere in the Tanach does it say that mashiach will fulfill the law and replace it with a law of messiah.
D) Nowhere in Tanach does it say the mashiach will sacrifice himself for the sins of the world for all time.
E) Nowhere in Tanach does it say that a human sacrifice is permitted.
F) Nowhere in Tanach does it say that human vicarious atonement is permitted.
G) Nowhere in Tanach does it say that it is permissable to crown king mashiach prior to his fulfillment of ALL the messianic duties.
H) Nowhere in Tanach does it ever say that G-d has three personages or “Triune”
Had G-d chose to teach such things, He would have EXPLICTLY and plainly said so. Just as He explictly gave us details on what is a kosher animal, how to sacrifice an animal, matters of family purity etc…When Hashem gave the law at Sinai, he was silent on all matters that Christians claim, such as G-d’s nature, form and the personage of messiah.
Hashem isnt going to then, 1500 years into the future say, I told you could do the law (Deut 30) but you CANT! I told you I was alone….but I’m NOT! I actually have a son….and he is Me! and even though I told you NOT to sacrifice your sons and daughters, like the baal worhsipers….I am going to sacrifice my human son….who is really me.
I will kill him (myself) on a wooden stick by suffocation. He will not be required to be slaughtered per the Torah, his blood not sprinkled on the altar, his fat not burned and in fact, he will be placed in a tomb, alone and I will raise him (myself)…even though I never taught you any of this…you must accept it or be thrown into the pits of hell.
These are obviously BIG, HUGE concepts that had they been part of Hashems revelation to mankind, would have been given at Sinai. Otherwise, as Christians have done, they have made G-d a liar (G-d forbid) who decieves His people and who changes the paradigm midstream.
This is not the G-d of the Tanach. The Christian paradigm in the god of Rome….everyone of the new aspects of the Gospel can be found in Grecco-Roman paganism but NOT in Jewish doctrine.
Eating a god-man’s flesh and drinking his blood…pagan.
A hybrid god-man….pagan.
A virgin birth….pagan.
A resurrected savior…pagan.
Miracles by the god-man…pagan.
Only through eisegesis can you shoe-horn this paganism into the Tanach." ~
The Jewish elders in the city of Rome were once asked by a heathen, "If your God is displeased with idols, why does He not destroy them?" The answer was, "Because among the worshiped objects are also the sun, the moon, and the stars, which are necessary for the world. Should God destroy the world on account of the fools that worship those celestial bodies?" " But," rejoined the questioner, "why then does your God not destroy those worshiped objects which are not absolutely needed for the existence of the world?" And the elders replied, "This would merely confirm the heathen the more in their false belief that the sun, the moon, and the stars must be worshiped as deities, since they can not be destroyed"
Are You Making Christianity an Idol? 6 Questions to Help You Find Out.
by Matt Johnson
I am standing in front of a church congregation with a microphone in-hand. The pastor had asked me to give a short testimony about when I came to the church and what was going on in my life at the time. Here’s, essentially, what I said:
I came to the church during a confusing time in my life. I was struggling with theological and philosophical ideas and there were some people in the church who understood my questions and helped straighten me out.
Recollections of Idolatry
Fast forward about five years. I am on a stroll with my wife through a park on a sunny spring day. Out of nowhere I get a revelation. That little speech in front of the church all those years ago was idolatry.
The backstory to that mini-testimony is that a couple years prior, I’d come out of a rebellious, sinful time of my life. I’d gotten “straightened out” but I had never truly faced my sin before my savior. Instead, I’d accepted the counterfeit of deep theological study. I’d fallen for the subtle lie that knowledge of good Christian theology served as my justification.
All I’d done was exchange the truth for a lie and served created things for the Creator God (Rm. 1:25). I’d taken a good gift from God and used it for my own purposes of looking good in front of others. If I were to infuse some truth serum into that speech, it would sound a little more like this, “Hi, I am guilt-ridden over some past sin but I’ve pridefully never really faced the fact that my sin is treason against God. So rather than call it sin, I’ll just say I’ve been trying to crack a ‘theological problem’ so you’ll think I’m smart.”
Even good Christian theology can become an idol. When Christian belief is information detached from the substance of Jesus’ objective work on the cross for sinners, it becomes idolatry. Like it or not, you and I are guilty of it. How so?
1. Do you live for the approval of others in the church? 2. Do you stew over your spiritual performance and personal holiness more than you steep in what God has already accomplished for you in Jesus? 3. Are you prideful about your biblical knowledge? 4. Do you love to debate finer points of theology with others and get angry when you’re challenged by your views? 5. Are you feeling burnt out and joyless in your service to those in the church? 6. Are you uncomfortable with suffering people and find you’re quick to recite Bible verses as a way to avoid awkward, personal engagement?
If you answered "yes" to any of these, there is a good chance you have taken God’s good gifts and used them for your own selfish purpose.
You have used God to make yourself look good through your service, your knowledge, and personal growth. This form of idolatry is hard to detect because the “fruit bearing” looks good to everyone else.
Let's face facts though; it's idolatry.
Religion is a golden calf
The clearest picture of idolatry in the Bible is the Exodus 32narrative on the golden calf.
This narrative isn’t simply a message that pagans, perverts, and addicts need to hear; it's also for religious folk like you and me.
When God looked down from the mountain and found his people had crafted the Golden Calf, he wasn’t simply witnessing immoral living. He saw a people he had redeemed that had taken his good gifts and used them against him. While it's not explicitly stated in the text, the gold the Israelites used to make the calf was intended for God’s purposes. Later in the narrative we see the leftover gold is used for the building of the tabernacle. Just think about that for a minute. The Israelites used God's gift for their own selfish purposes.
In creating the golden calf, the people had committed high treason. Even though the true God had always proven himself faithful, they just couldn’t wait. They needed a God that met them on their terms, a God of their choosing that they could define and control. We’re so quick to judge those primitive, control-addicted Israelites. What we miss in those people are you and me.
Hi My Name's Joe Christian and I'm a religious addict
Religion is control addiction. In the appendix to Redemption, Mike Wilkerson comments on a lecture given by David Powlison at the 2008 CCEF conference titled, The Addict in Us All. Religious addiction has a least two components: impression management and escape from sin.
“Religiosity is about the show, the 'impression management,' and the trappings of religion, but not its faith and certainly not its God. Like any other addiction, religiosity serves as an escape from reality. Are youdevastated by the loss of a loved one? 'God is sovereign,' blurts the stoic religious addict, like a knee reflex, and by this he means, 'Don’t feel it; don’t think about it; just detach yourself from it. Since God is sovereign, why should you bother?'
The religious addict escapes the reality of his own sin too....he justifies himself by the doing of and associating with religious stuff: serving, reading, teaching, praying, and church-going, along with adopting the lingo, aesthetic tastes, and moral lifestyle typical of other religious people. These are his “sacrifices” to gain his god’s favor and retain his righteous standing. But he is as deceived and rebellious as the Israelites imitating orthodoxy through idolatry.”
Religion is about control amidst brokenness
Religion is God-talk we use for our own controlling purposes. We use his word as a defense mechanism against him and other people. It’s a kind of excuse-making for God as if we’re smart enough to know what he’s up to when life is difficult. Its time to face the pain of a broken world without our pre-packaged religious answers. To gloss over our pain and suffering or someone else’s through religiosity is inhumane.
We love the story of the cross as a get-me-out-of-hell free card. But nobody wants to face the cross when it’s time to put sin to death, extend love to others in crisis, or come to terms with the brokenness of our world. The problem is, like the Pharisees, we prefer our safe religion over the death of our selfish spiritual aspirations.
Graced pharisees called out of slavery
The word Pharisee is synonymous with hypocrite. Many Christians don’t know when they are being hypocritical. Identifying our need to appear religious by spiritual performance or being a Bible know-it-all is difficult because doing religion seems like the right thing to do. It feels good to us and looks good to others, but our religion offends God.
If this is all true, if you and I are religious addicts and idolaters, we have a big problem on our hands. God’s anger against us is justified in the same way his anger was justified when the Israelites made the golden calf. Now is the time for repentance.
The good news is when we confess, he is faithful to forgive: 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Fortunately, many of the Hebrews were spared for Moses' sake. We too are spared for Jesus' sake. He is the greater intercessor. Not only does he intercede on our behalf and forgive us our sin, he restores and sustains us. Reaching back to Exodus 17, 1 Corinthians 10:4 says the Israelites "drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ."
God has called us out of slavery. We are his treasured possession.
While we are faithless, he has remained faithful. Our idols are wrought with the unholy sacrifice of his good gifts. We have crawled up into God’s lap only to slap him. But thanks be to God, rather than punish us, he graces us. And his grace is big enough even for Pharisees like Paul, and like you, and like me.
He leads us out, he leads us through, he atones for sin, and he leads us home.
Matt Johnson is a pastor at Mars Hill Church and publication manager for Re:lit and Resurgence. He also serves as a leader in Mars Hill's Redemption groups. Throughout the 90s and the early part of the decade, Matt was a traveling musician. Matt met his wife, Rose, at Mars Hill in '97 and they served in music ministry together for over 10 years. In recent years Matt has written music criticism for Paste Magazine, Three Imaginary Girls, Seattle Sound, and Bandoppler. Matt and Rose got married in 2001 and they have two young daughters.
"He leads us out, he leads us through, he atones for sin, and he leads us home"
The Nicene dogma of "the blood atonement" causes many to question and even reject the clear word of Torah! Some even claim that the Torah of HaShem has been "nailed to the cross" and made irrelevant! However the books of the B'rit Hadashah (New Testament) also disprove this common heresy. As authentic Messianic Jews this is very important to understand.
The Bible Clarifies Everything:
Deuteronomy 24:16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers:every man shall be put to death for his own sin. source:
4:40 Rabbi Gutman Lock explains Torah, why Christianity and Mainstream 'Messianic Christianity' are missing this truth.
There
is no Biblical warrant, precedent, nor precept for remembrance of the
day of Christ's birth as a day of special religious celebration. This
is not to say that we shouldn't remember Christ's birth and its
significance, but for religious commemorations or celebrations, we
must have Biblical command or precedent! The fact of the matter is
this -- the early church did not celebrate Christ's birth, but such
celebration only came into the church with the "Christianization"
of pagan rites as Catholicism was made the state religion by
Constantine in the fourth century A.D. Since the Word of God does not
support the tradition of Christmas, a Christian's conscience ought
not and must not be bound.
The following outline describes the
origin of Christmas (with its associated pagan customs, symbols, and
terminology), details the Scriptural support against celebrating
Christmas, attempts to show that celebrating Christmas violates the
spirit of every one of the ten commandments, attempts to demonstrate
that celebrating Christmas does not fall in the realm of Christian
liberty, and attempts to debunk eight of the major rationalizations
Christians put forth for celebrating Christmas.
2.
Nativity Scenes (tainted with paganism) -- Nearly every form of pagan
worship descended from the Babylonian mysteries, which focus
attention on the "mother-goddess" and the birth of her
child. This was adapted to "Mary-Jesus" worship, which then
easily accommodated the multitude of pagans "converted" to
Christianity inside Constantine's Roman Catholic Church. If anyone
were to erect statues (i.e., images) of Mary and Joseph by
themselves, many within Protestant circles would cry "Idolatry!"
But at Xmas time, an image of a little baby is placed with the images
of Mary and Joseph, and it's called a "nativity scene."
Somehow, the baby-idol "sanctifies" the scene, and it is no
longer considered idolatry! (cf. Exo. 20:4-5a; 32:1-5a; 9-10a).
Worshiper of Jesus, Christian/Messianic, what are you going to say when you stand before G-d after the false man-god Jesus whom you worship and to whom you pray doesn’t appear? What are you going to say to your Maker when you knew all along (and I am merely reminding you here now) that worshiping anyone or anything other than Him is a grave sin and betrayal? How will you justify your worship of a mortal creature to whom billions bow their knees? Will you deny that you knew that He has warned you that He was neither a man nor a son of man (Numbers 23:19), that He had no visible form and that He can’t be compared to anything He created? Will you try to defend yourself that you only followed your leaders or will you admit to G-d your sin of idolatry? Will you appeal to the polished literary character from the pages of your New Testament? Will you tell G-d that Jesus paid for your sins by his blood when He explicitly warned that He doesn’t approve of human sacrifices (Leviticus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 12:31) and that no man can punished for the sins of another (Ezekiel 18:20)? Will you point to the [Greek] Testament in your defense and claim it to be the “word of G-d”? Will you claim that you have put your faith in Jesus, Paul, apostles, the church scribes, church fathers, pastors and evangelists? Will you attempt to boldly walk into the Holy of Holies as the author of Hebrews exhorts you to do (Hebrews 10:19) and demand to be allowed in since you placed your trust in a “son of man”, despite the fact that G-d has told us in Numbers 23:19 not to do just that? What will come out of your mouth? Do you know?
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