Picture a world where darkness abounds. Where the men of the world seek their own glory and praise. {shouldn’t be much of a stretch} We see today the kings of the earth fighting over the things of the earth. [money, power, fame] And they use fear and control to make mini soldiers of the common people. Hence the vast understanding of the terminology “There’s a Karen.”
The religious world, was and IS, no different. The fragmentation of the denominations has many princes all seeking the kingship. Likewise the laity have ‘docked their boats’ on one (or more) theosophy linked to man rather than linked to YHVH. That statement may fall flat on many ears while others take exception to it. Jesus tells us we will “know them by their fruit.” So what is their fruit?
A local ‘mega’ church proudly displays the following on their website: “We will hold the Bible above us as our authority while striving to help everyone know and apply it.“ While I wholeheartedly agree with that statement… is it true?
Matthew 4:23 “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.“
A second witness comes in John 18:20 ‘Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.”‘
This may seem rather simplistic to the average “Joe”, but, let me ask you; When would a Hebrew attend synagogue? Has it changed or adapted over the years? A quick review and the answer is a resounding NO. Congregational worship has, since the dawn of time, always been on the 7th day. Perfectly named for its duty to mankind, Shabbat or the Sabbath, meaning rest.
A verse often misinterpreted by those adhering to replacement theology is:
Mark 2:27-28 (ESV) “And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man* is lord** even of the Sabbath.”
The ‘Son of Man’ is none other than Yeshua Messiah and the word LORD [the ESV version does not even capitalize the first letter to show it as a descriptive noun?] is defined as ‘supreme in authority, the one in control.’
So…. back to our mega church. What day and time are they having their gathering? All 5 locations meet at 9 or 11am on Sunday. Why? Again did YHVH change ANYTHING? Malachi 3:6 states plainly and Hebrews 7:21 affirms “For I the Lord do not change“.
Before we get much deeper in the Sabbath context, as it is not the main point, this is an example of the much larger issue. Do the people of God actually listen to God? He says in Exodus 31:16, Leviticus 16:31 and Leviticus 24:8 the Sabbath is “a covenant forever.”
A quick peek inside Websters Dictionary says that forever means: “for all future time; for always.”
This begs the question…. how much fruit resides within their tree?
Is it the first or the second?
Hold that thought as we press onward.
The mega church website and weekly bulletin both claim; “Everyone is welcome at ______, regardless of whether or not you believe everything we believe. In fact, you can belong before you believe!” Now I ask you…. is that Biblical?
Matthew 15:24 He (Yeshua) answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Wow, that seems a little narrow minded compared to the mega church, yes or no? I am willing to say no. Why? Breaking down the statement provides us with a better picture of what Messiah is saying.
- G3624 οἶκος oikos (oi’-kos) n. (by implication) a family
- G2474 Ἰσραήλ Israel (yiy-sra-el’) n/p. the adopted name of Jacob, including his descendants. yiy-sra means ‘the righteous people’/-el means ‘of God’
The congregational worship was by design for the righteous family members (natural and adopted) of God.
In the 1980’s there was a TV commercial for a credit card that claimed “membership has it privileges.” They may well have gotten that idea from this example. Yeshua states more than once this idea of delivering an all important message to His Eternal Family. This always happens in full view of all the other people(s) of the world, the Goyim, or Gentiles.
Matthew 10:5-7 (KJV) “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
From the text we can see that the command is, for those in the know, to GO!
For many years hearing people exclaim “there’s no way I am going in there with a bunch of hypocrites” has me wondering why? The vast majority of Christians are self professed as not being perfect. I am no different and neither are you. So how exactly are we to witness to this generation. A life lived. The following verse is preached continually among the churches today:
1 Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
How exactly do we do peculiar without hypocrisy? Might I suggest following the totality of the Scriptures? Titus 2:14 lays it out perfectly: “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity (sins), and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.“
What?? Works??!! …. yes folks works. Before your blood pressure spikes, read that sentence carefully. Yeshua gave himself first, and most importantly, freely gave himself. [Gal 1:4, 1 Tim 2:6, Eph 5:25] So…. with that in mind… Salvation by grace through faith is first and foremost. What are the works then?
I will ask the computer savvy to look at this statement… if/then statements in programming are of utmost importance!
Exodus 19:5 “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:”
Deuteronomy 26:18 “And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments. And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken.”
The works that James speaks about are the commandments of YHVH. One must put intentional effort into the observance of YHVH’s righteous rulings, one cannot be uneducated or oblivious to them. Living His word makes a person look different because they act different than others.
How many church folk have heard non-church folk say… “I don’t need a church to be a good person.” That number is certainly in the hundreds of thousands, if not, probably in the millions! Can you argue the position? Maybe so, but, does the good guy mentality suddenly become righteousness because the person is now an attendee of a church? Unfortunately that answer is a very loud NO!
Even before the capture of Jerusalem by Rome in the first century BCE the faith delivered to the saints was under attack. We will see one of the primary reasons Yeshua came to earth was to renew the original covenant. In His own words: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17
The word ‘fulfill’ is the Greek word G4137 πληρόω pleroo (plee-ro’-ō) v. fully preach, perfect, supply. Did you catch that? Yeshua came to fully preach the Law of God! And despite the prevailing thought among evangelical circles, Paul taught the same thing!
Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
The word Paul uses here in the Greek is G2476 ἵστημι histemi (hiy’-stee-miy) v. stand, abide, hold up, covenant, advise, ordain.
This topic has been covered in great detail in the line by line study of Romans and Galatians on this website.
https://bereanbreadcrumbs.com/2018/02/23/an-introduction-to-romans/
https://bereanbreadcrumbs.com/2020/03/29/galatians-16-18-digging-deep/
The topic of ‘Creeping In and Selling Out’ begins in the Garden with the “beguiled” Eve. Then at the Tower of Babel it is solidified. This is the story of Nimrod and the tower with definitions from the Concordance.
8 And Cush begat Nimrod (we shall rebel): he began to be a mighty one in the earth. (The words state that Nimrod ‘began’ H2490 חָלַל chalal (chaw-lal’) v. (properly) to bore. to begin (as if by an “opening wedge”). To defile. (This indicates that there was a process by which Nimrod could traverse the natural and become a Nephilim.)
9 He was a mighty hunter (eager to take prey and set snares) before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.
10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel (to confuse or mix), and Erech (to lengthen, prolong or live with), and Accad (to subtly strengthen), and Calneh (fortress of Anu), in the land of Shinar.
11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh (abode of Ninus, fish goddess), and the city Rehoboth (avenue or path), and Calah (completion and strength), (Asshur is simply the Assyrian name for Nimrod; Nimrod being a Babylonian name.)
12 And Resen (bridle control) between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
Where does it all begin? The fight between good and evil? Consider this: Anu, the Sumerian god known as “Lord of the Constellations, Spirits and Demons” [i.e. Satan] was said to have fathered more than 50 different gods and goddesses of the ancient world. These ancient names of Enlil, Naama, Ishtar and so on, would become the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and Romans. Zeus, Apollos, Diana are all the exact same demons.
Nimrod and his wife Sameramis are known by each of the 70 different languages just by a different name. So reading this back, right to left as the Hebrews write, we can see it was Nimrods goal to:
Bridle or control mankind completely with his path to the home and fortress of Anu by subtly strengthening a prolonged mixing or confusion of religion.
The story doesn’t end with Nimrod by any means. The people groups that split at the Tower of babel took their newly mixed religion and confused languages to the four corners of the earth. Although these religious factions seem to have very different belief systems they in fact have the same basic deity formations with polytheism as the main theme.
We can read throughout the books of the prophets how the House of Israel would incorporate these various religious systems with the commandments of YHVH with the subsequent result being punishments, curses and captivity.
Deuteronomy 11:26-28 “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.”
In the same way as Nimrod, the Chief Priests and Pharisees were in the business of religion and false piety. The entirety of the book of Hebrews is Paul describing the perversion of leadership by these men who were charged, by YHVH, with protecting the instructions.
John 2:14-15 “In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.”
In this verse we cannot come to a complete conclusion as to the proprietors of this commerce, but, it is safe to say that the Chief Priests and Pharisees either condoned the practice or may have actually been controlling it. In either case this is one of but many occurrences of Yeshua denouncing the actions of the leadership. It is in this frame of mind the leaders devise a plan to retaliate for their lost commerce.
Matthew 26:59 “Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus” Mark records this event as well and follows it up with “and they found none.“
Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
This is a great place to ask the world; What is sin? I can only imagine the myriad of answers that are coming to your mind. Probably the same ones I have heard for years. Most of them boil down to “being bad” or “breaking the law.” With the second one ringing truer than the person giving the reply may know, many replies are based on the mans laws and not God’s law, when in fact it is God’s law we should be talking about.
1 John 3:4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresses also the Torah: for sin is the transgression of the Torah.
Once Yeshua had exampled the Torah, in living it out perfectly, it didnt take long for the ‘good ole boys’ to get back in the game.
Luke 22:3-4 tells us, “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.”
Paul talks about the same issue happening during his lifetime and while the images of the life of Yeshua were still fresh in the minds of the people. The goal of ‘Team Pharisee’ was to regain control of the masses and their wallets.
Galatians 2:4 “And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:”
Jude goes on to explain the motivation for these detractors to the faith… the influence of the demonic spirits still roaming the earth from the fall of Lucifer and the angels.
Jude 1:4 “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Likewise not more than a decade had passed since the death of John and the Roman Empire was already dissecting and reconstructing the faith. These men are held in high regard by the organized corporate churches (501c3) and are their reference points on matters of theology despite the so-called ‘reformation’.
Quoting from the various “Councils” propagated by the Byzantine Bishops [leaders of the Roman cult of Mythrias] these men effectively introduced pagan beliefs and practices into the people they conquered, to include the Hebrews, also know as Christianity.
With more than 1500 years of strong-arm control over ‘church’ activity and the militant hold on the scriptures the Roman Catholic Church created the “new norm” for religious practices.
“The Pope is not simply the representative of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, he is Jesus Christ Himself, under the veil of the flesh.” (Evangelical Christendom, January 1, 1895, pg. 15, published in London by J. S. Phillips)
“The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.” (Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, Chapter XXVII, p. 218, “Cities Petrus Bertanous)
“It is error to believe that Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.” (Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section III, Indifferentism, Latitudinarianism, #15)
“The Pope is of great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws… The Pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth.” (Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Ribliotheca, Papa, art. 2, translated)
It is time for YOU to investigate the foundations of YOUR faith!
Is it rooted in the lies that have crept in by the people that are sold out to Satan, or, is it rooted in the faith that was delivered to the saints, by God himself, in the form of Yeshua the Messiah?
Berean Breadcrumbs 
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