Announcements and Message Of The Week (Below)
Message of the week
26 July 2007
| Double Sin, Double Comfort |
They sinned doubly, as it says, "Jerusalem has sinned a sin." And they were stricken doubly, as it says, "She has received double for her sins." And she will be comforted doubly, as it says, "Be comforted, be comforted, my people." (Yalkut Eichah 1118)
This Midrash (teaching of the sages of Israel) can be understood in light of the comments of Ibn Ezra and Sforno on the concluding verses of our parsha:
"When your son will ask you in the future - What are the testimonies and statues and judgments, which God our God has commanded you? - and you shall tell your son we were slaves unto Pharaoh in Egypt, and God took us out of Egypt with a strong hand ... and God commanded us to do all these statutes for our good all the days, to give us life as this day" (Deut. 6:20-24).
Ibn Ezra explains that the son's question is not what the mitzvot are, but why we were given a yoke different than all other peoples. The Torah's answer is that we must have trust that the mitzvot are for our own good, because God saved us from slavery by taking us out of Egypt. Sforno elaborates that while the benefit of mitzvot is predominantly in the World to Come, they also bring us life in this world.
God introduces Himself at the beginning of the Ten Commandments as the God Who took us out of Egypt, and not as the God Who created heaven and earth. This reminds us that just as the redemption from Egypt was for our benefit, so too, the mitzvot are for our good, and not for God's sake. Though, as the Sages say, mitzvot were not given to us to enjoy, but rather as a yoke around our necks; the purpose of that yoke is, in the final analysis, our good.
The Haggadah attributes the Torah's question here to the wise son. The answer given to him in the Haggadah is that we do not eat after the Korban Pesach is all that is in our mouths at the moment of redemption. In the end, it is the benefit from mitzvot, such as eating the Korban Pesach, that remains with us.
FROM BEGINNING TO END
The Torah begins with God's loving kindness - His clothing Adam and Eve - and ends with His loving kindness - burying Moses. The entire foundation of Torah is chesed - God's total giving to those who serve Him. The Torah is, in its entirety, an expression of God's desire to do good for us. It is not an imposition on our life, but rather a framework within to earn eternal reward for our own good.
Delving deeper, Torah begins with the kindness of covering man's humiliation, his physical body. It gives us the means to utilize that body in God's service and thereby purify and elevate it. Moses was the culmination of this process of elevation to being God-like. He transformed his physical body into something so holy that only God could bury it and put it away until the resurrection of the dead. That is the very essence of Torah - to remove the shame of pure physicality by elevating the physical to Godliness.
When one sins, he actually commits a double crime: the first is rebellion against God; the second against himself in his disregard of the benefit from the mitzvah. Hence the punishment is also double. Not only does God punish him for his rebellion, just as a parent punishes a child to discipline him and guide him back to the right path. He also robs himself of the great benefit God so much desired to bestow upon him.
Consequently the comfort will also be double. The ultimate benefit will finally be realized, and, in addition, we will understand that the punishment itself was for our own good to prevent us from losing our eternal reward.
This article can also be read at: http://www.aish.com/torahportion/outlooksandinsights/Double_Sin3_Double_Comfort.asp
Author Biography:
Rabbi Zev Leff received ordination from the Telshe Yeshiva, then served as a congregational rabbi in Miami Beach for 11 years. In the 1980s he moved to Israel, where he serves as rabbi of Moshav Matitiyahu. Online at www.rabbileff.net
11 July 2007
Messianic Judaism for Dummies!
According to Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia, "Messianic Judaism is a religious sect whose congregants comprise both Jews and Gentiles who believe that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they call Yeshua, is both their Savior and the resurrected Jewish Messiah. While Messianic Jews practice their faith in a way that they consider to be authentically Torah-observant and culturally Jewish, Jews, Jewish denominations, and most Christians do not consider Messianic Judaism to be a form of Judaism. Messianic Jews are not considered Jewish under the State of Israel's Law of Return."
This is, for better or worse, a fairly accurate definition of Messianic Judaism. We do believe that the day is coming when Messianic Judaism will be accepted by the larger Jewish community, hopefully within a decade.
To see the complete article click: here
28 June 2007
The TRUE Great Commission was to make disciples of all nations.
The disciples and apostles of Y’shua were to teach Torah, the laws and the commandments of Elohim to the nations in the context of salvation by grace through faith in the Jewish Messiah Y’shua! Instead of that The Church has been preaching another “gospel” divorced from the Hebrew foundations of faith and filled with Replacement Theology and Anti Semitism! We have one choice and that is to fulfill the original Great Commission quickly! Much of what has been preached has to be undone.
As the Church in many nations repents from Replacement Theology and is restored back to the original Gospel made in Zion with Jewish Roots and makes restitution to actively bless Israel, many nations will make a sharp shift towards becoming Sheep Nations.
By Bishop Dominiquae Bierman
15 June 2007
Should believers keep the Law (Torah)?
Eternal life is Messiah Yeshua and it's by faith in Him that eternal life comes to us, not by the 'works of the Law'.
Paul rightly comes against this deceitful illusion in Galatians (and Romans), when he asks who bewitched them, to rely on the Law for justification (Gal. 3:1; 5:4). But he is not coming against the Law as God's standard and guideline as to what is pure and holy, and what is sin (Rom. 3:31; 7:7, 12, 14; 1st Cor. 7:19, etc.).
'Works of the Law' is a phrase that means one is basing their salvation on performance of the Commandments, and therefore, not trusting in Yeshua even if they say they believe in Him. It is a perverse understanding as no where in Scripture does God equate eternal life with the keeping of His Commandments.
The two phrases overlap and a person who walks in one will be in the other also. If one is using the performance of the Commandments to try and obtain salvation ('works of the Law'), they will necessarily be placing themselves 'under the Law' and be righteously condemned by God's Law. They have not relied on what God has done for them in Messiah Yeshua, but on themselves. And no flesh will be justified before God.
We are to keep the 'Law', not for justification (salvation), we are already justified by Messiah (Rom. 3:24, 28). We are not 'under the Law' because we are dead to self, and we are not doing the 'works of the Law' for salvation because Yeshua has delivered us from the Kingdom of Satan by His death and resurrection (not by the doing of any Commandments).
We keep the Law because this is the Will of God for all His people, both Jew and Gentile, who love Messiah Yeshua (Matt. 5:17-19; Rom. 3:31; Rev. 14:12, etc.). We keep the Law because it is God's definition of the first two Commandments: how to love Him, and how to love our neighbor. And Yeshua said, 'On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 22:40).
Read the full teaching by clicking here
04 June 2007
K.P. Yohannan recently wrote an excellent book called The Road to Reality - Coming Home to Jesus From An Unreal World in which he, as a 'gentile' Christian author and the chairman of Gospel for Asia, takes a behind the scenes view at the snowballing decline of contemporary Christianity over the years. His alarming conclusions include the fact that that modern or contemporary Christianity has become a false religion in a modern world and is little more than a headless corpse. He further maintains that we are following false shepherds and are being ravaged by deceived men who spread half-gospels and lead millions astray with false teachings, as per 2 Peter 2:1,14,17. (Quotes and paraphrased based on pages 26, 32, 38)
Does this sound too radical? Look at what is going on around you.
Did you know that The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was inducted as a druid in a centuries-old Celtic ceremony in 2002? He represents an estimated 70 million Anglican Christians worldwide. See the story reported by the BBC here . To quote further from the BBC : ''Dr Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Wales, said that he had been "saddened" by the misrepresentations about the ceremony, which sparked concern about pagan links. "Some people have reached the wrong conclusion about the ceremony," he said. "If people had actually looked at the words of the hymns and text used they would have seen a very Christian service." This is bizarre- one cannot be a druid and a Christian at the same time simply because druids believe in many Gods and they also believe in reincarnation.
And that 's not all. In another article on the BBC it appears that The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams also advocates homosexuality. To quote the BBC again: ''For over 20 years Rowan Williams, a noted theologian, academic and author, has eloquently advocated that Christianity and homosexuality should be viewed as wholly consistent with each other''. See the story online by clicking: here.
Can 70 million contemporary Anglican Christians be wrong?
27 May 2007
The Georgia Guildstones – America’s Stonehenge?
Written on these large stones are the Occult version of the 10 commandments and call for a mass extermination of the human ''herd'' as part of a One World Order / Global Governance Masonic elitist initiative.
The one World Order people or the Global Governance crowd as they are now known, also want to replace 'faith' with 'tempered reason' - a kind of humanistic thought and logic. They contend that modern man does not need God, given enough time with his considerable intellect and with the advances made in science man can solve all his own problems himself. In doing so he will prove to himself that he is a god! This is their New Age angle.
The underlying 'logic' employed is as simple as it perverted. People cause global warming, pollution and every other kind of ill so if you reduce the population you immediately minimise the negative impact that they will have on the earth / planet. This is not some kind of christian conspiracy theory - the secular public are amoung the most vocal about opposing this.
There was a time when freedom of religion was guaranteed in the West. This is fast changing throughout Europe and in the US. The recent overturning of the Religious Hatred Bill in the Uk was a close call whereby if this bill had gone through, for one thing, the evangelising of non Christians could have become illegal seeing as the bible message of sin and repentance would be deemed to be ''hate speech'' by Muslims and other minority religious groups. The next time this bill is presented (even in another form) it may yet go through seeing as it has strong European support and it is also supported by radicals within Muslim community. On the other side the more radical militant Moselm community have been campaigning for Sharia Law to come into force in Britain which could actually operate alongside British Law. If these things go ahead, its possible that anyone converting a Muslim to Christianity could conceivably be beheaded under Sharia Law somethime in the near future. Sound like science fiction, does'nt it?
The Church has long been fighting a number of other important battles and contemporary issues for some time. Abortion, Communism, Evolution, Feminism, Homosexuality, Modernism, Situational Ethics and the like are real issues have been with us for many years and many 'awake' Christians have understood the issues and have endeavoured to fight the good fight of faith on these fronts. The family, marriage and the authority of the bible as the Word of God are still being undermined today, not just intellectually but politically and financially by sinister government and secular educational influences and forces worldwide. The battle is not yet won. We need to wise up and realise that the battle rages even more fiercely today than ever before. Evil is manifesting in a blatant manner and the rising tide of moral filth is threatening our whole way of life. The saints are weakening to the 'Borg like' collective message: ''resistance is futile, you will be assimilated''. (With apologies to any fans of the science fiction TV series, Star Trek Voyager)
The threats made by the One World people are not imaginary, they are real. They have the finance, the political power, the technology and the political will to succeed at their mission at any cost. We need to be honest and recognise that the end game has moved up a level whilst we were not looking. What we are not up on we are down on as someone has said. The satanicly inspired Masonic elitists are bold and brazen about their intentions, they are not even subtil about it as the Georgia Guildstones portray.
Comparatively few people took Hitler seriously when he published Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in the 1930's. He declared that he would kill the Jews whom he blamed for Germany's financial, political and social woes. When he was elected to power by the Catholic majority he made good on his threats and 6,000,000 Jews died and so did many homosexuals, political opponents and social undersireables. Nobody was terribly bothered at the time about this human catastrophe mainly because they were not homosexuals or Jews.
The following story was relayed to me from the friend of a friend now living in Israel.
A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War Two owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.
"Very few people were true Nazis" he said, "but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories."
Adolf Hitler of course died died but that same spirit of bigotry and hatred lives on and we see it manifesting even more blatantly today. This time its not just the Jews or other social undesireables that are being threatened, there is a target for culling 90-95% of what is to them the not so great human 'herd'. That would be most of us.
It's convinient to have a Christian theology that incorporates a belief in the Rapture because then we believers don't need to contend with this issue. We will be gone by then! But the rapture is not a new theology, people have beleved it in its various forms for hundreds of years - even in 1930-40 when Hitler was on the rampage. The protestant community in Germany at that time were very anti-semetic along with most of Germany and much of Europe, as is still is the case today. These christians believed in the rapture too which is perhaps also why they did little or nothing to oppose Hitler or to help the happless Jew. What for - they were after all Gods special people and at worst were 'heaven bound'. However, instead of being raptured they had to live through what must have looked like the end of the world as WW2 killed over 25 million lives and starvation, destruction and disease set in over much of Eurpose.
What of us today? Are we ready for what lies ahead or are we just awaiting an escape - a rapture?
Note that before God delivered Israel from Egypy to take them to the promised land ( a kind of rapture) He first sent 10 plagues on the nation. These plages correspond directly to the plagues and judgements in the book of Revelation. Israel were affected by the first batch but were delivered from the rest but they in short lived through it all and all the while Pharoach grew more and more evil and demanded more and more work for less and less. Pharoah never relented opposing Israel (God's firstborn) until the very end.
What if there is a post tribulation rapture and not a pre tribulation rapture when Jesus returns to the earth bodily? Will we be ready, will we endure to the end as He said? If we will not be here for the tribulation then why did He emphasize the necessity for us to endure in order to be saved?
Mat 10:17-22 (ALT Analytical-Literal Translation)
Mat 10:17 "But be watching out [for] [or, be aware of] the people, for they will hand you* over to local councils [or, courts], and they will scourge you* in their synagogues,
Mat 10:18 and you* will be brought before governors [or, rulers] and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations.
Mat 10:19 "But whenever they are handing you* over, you* shall not be anxious how or what you* should speak, for it shall be given to you* in that hour what you* will speak;
Mat 10:20 for _you*_ are not the ones speaking, _but_ the Spirit of your* Father [is] the One speaking in you*.
Mat 10:21 "But brother will betray brother to death, and a father [his] child; and children will rebel against parents and will put them to death.
Mat 10:22 "And you* will be hated by all because of My name, but the one having endured to [the] end, this [one] will be saved.
24 May 2007
The Apostle Paul used a term 'the holy scriptures' in 2 Timothy 3:15 as synonomous with the Torah of Moses and to explain to us that its the holy scriptures that are profitable in that they are able to make us wise as to the salvation or deliverance that comes through faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
Its strange to us that many Christians are still taught that the Torah (the holy scriptures) are not profitable to the New Testament believer. Paul saw no conflict between that what had been revealed to him and the Torah which had been revealed to Moses. If he had, the implications would have been unthinkable.
In Paul's time there simply was no 'New Testament', this came some 300 years later - all Jesus and the Apostles had was the Tenak or Hebrew bible which consists of the the Torah, Writings, the Prophets. When Jesus said ''it is written'' and withstood satan's temptations in the wilderness He was quoting from holy scripture as found in the Torah of Moses. (Exodus 34:14) He did not rely on His being the Messiah for victory, if He had we would never have victory over Satan because we are not Messiah. Satan knew that his only chance was to get the Son to either question Who He was or to question the Torah or somehow break the Torah.
Paul said that the Holy Scriptures were able to make us wise. Everyone wants to be wise, right? Here is an example as to how a working knowledge of the Torah can make us wise today or ''wise us up'' to the enemy's age old tactics against us. Satan still wants us to question the validity of the Torah, its relevance and teachings or otherwise to break the Torah because then he has the advantage. An early example of this is the account of Balaam who was a false prophet even though his prophetic words about the comming Messiah came to pass. Balaam is in hell even though he once knew God and spoke accurately by His Spirit he turned Israel against the Torah and they corrupted themselves.
Balaam could not curse Israel or breech her protection - until he councelled Balak to entice Israel to break the Torah in the matter of Peor. At Peor by worshipping Baalpeor, the god of the Moabites and Midianites they transgressed the commandment of God, which forbid them having and worshipping any other gods besides him, and is a sin highly offensive to him, being greatly derogatory to his honour and glory. After Israel sinned against the Torah a plague broke out and 24,000 people died in judgement. (John Gills Exposition of the Entire Bible.)
An example from our day is that most Christians believe that the definative true sign of a true prophet is that his or her prophecies come to pass. This belief is widely held as 'wisdom' and is seldom questioned though it is not true or wise. Rather, its more a case whereby the wisom of men is actually foolishness in God's eyes and here's why.
The Torah of Moses was widely held as the most important component of the scriptures because any prophet that contradicted it was to be considered by definition, a false prophet - even if his prophecy came to pass and even if he worked signs and wonders to back up his new revelations. (Deut.13v1-11) The real sign then, of a true prophet is that he will never stray from nor contradict the scriptures, specifically the Torah of Moses. This is the test that Adonai gave to Israel so that they'd always know. This is also the main reason why Jews today don't accept Jesus is the Messiah - He has been portrayed as one who has done away with the Torah so that His followers no longer need to keep it. To a Jew this is exactly what Moses warned them against and so to accept a non Torah observant Jesus is 'unwise' and they have holy scripture to back them up. What would you say to someone who said that Jesus fulfulled or did away with the Torah and that New Testament Christians today do not have to obey the Torah anymore? The truly wise thing to do, is to ...?
The Pharisees and Saducees knew this precept to be true and this is why they tried to find evidence that Yeshua broke or did not meticulously keep the Torah so that they could accuse Him as a breaker of Torah and brand Him as a a false prophet and a deceiver - by implication a sinner, just like them. On a deeper level they were diligently investigating the Lamb of God to ensure that it (He) was free of blemish or any defect that would render it (Him) unsuitable as a perfect sacrifice at Passover. It was through the Torah that Yeshua knew Adonai's times and seasons of deliverance and also how to live righteously and without blame day by day before the Father in order to fulfill His ministry as the perfect sacrifice for sin. We see that the Torah equiped Yeshua for ministry for 3.5 years and for that great and final task in consumating our salvation as typified by the Feast of Passover in the Torah.
It was Yeshua's adherance to all of the Torah that gave Him such understanding and wisdom over His enemies stratergies and the enduring testimony that He was and is that true Prophet like unto Moses but with Whom they could find no fault. (Luke 23:14) The Torah is what so well equiped and qualified Yeshua for His final ministry on earth as Adonai's perfect and blameless sacrifice. Its the scriptures (in essence the Torah) that is inspired or God breathed and is that which alone can make us wise; Torah is profitable; Torah is given for teaching about righteousness or right living; Torah is the scriptures that uniquely are able to fully equip the man of God even today for every good and beneficial work. Jesus Himself said that the scriptures cannot be broken (John 10:35) and this statement to Messianic believers now includes the New Covenant or Apostolic scriptures.
There is a unity and a harmony within all of Adonai's Words that is seldom appreciated today which is why we all need a solid foundation in the Torah as holy scripture. Without a foundation in the Torah we will be easy pickings for false prophets with 'new revelations' and who can even perform lying signs and wonders as ''proof'' to an unwise people of their authenticity - whilst all the while, inwardly, they are really wild and ravenous wolves that will not spare the flock!
Matthew 7:15 (WNT) "Beware of the false teachers--men who come to you in sheep's fleeces, but beneath that disguise they are ravenous wolves''.
22 May 2007
Here is a List of top twenty major Messianic prophecies
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Isaiah 49:1-7
Isaiah 42:1-9
Isaiah 50:4-10
Psalm 118:22-23
Psalm 22:1-31
Psalm 16:7-11
Psalm 110:1-6
Micah 5:2
Isaiah 7:14
Isaiah 9:6-7
Psalm 2:1-12
Isaiah 11:1-10
Daniel 9:24-27
Malachi 3:1-6
Genesis 49:10
Zechariah 9:9
Zechariah 12:10-13:1
Daniel 7:13-14
Jeremiah 31:31-34
21 May 2007
With thanks to Karin we have found a site for you that greatly explains why we need to learn to think Hebraicly - as the scriptures command us to. (Phil 2:5) It is also our contention that modern Christian teaching filters Scripture through Greek or Hellenistic glasses, which leads to misconceptions. Check this great site out by clicking: here
20 May 2007
- ''...And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey'' : The Margin renders it, ‘Is accounted mad.’The Septuagint (The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament) renderes this verse as , ‘They took away the mind from understanding;’ or, ‘They substituted opinion in the place of knowledge.’ (Thompson’s Translation.)
If we paraphrase verse 15 based on the commentary above along with the various shades of meaning contained within the Greek and Hebrew text this verse could also very well be saying: '' This is a time when the truth is hard to find because error is so prevalent and those that do find truth are considered mad [or even deceived] when they that depart from error and try to declare that restored truth to others. This is all because men have fundamentally given up on truth and in its place they have subtly substituted and elevated their own human opinions instead.''
We live in a time when the true knowledge of God has been replaced by men's opinion and that opinion is put forward to people masquerading as the true knowledge of God. Lets give an example.
Scripturally, to really know Him is to Fear Him, Proverbs 1:7 and many others declare that this quality is the A-B-C of God's revelation to man. If you do not fear Him then you have not yet learned to know Him yet for to Fear Him is more than mere ''respect'' Even the demons tremble at His name which means that they have a deeper appreciation for Who they have to deal with than most people today do. The Fear of the Lord is a spiritual experience not an intellectual concept - in that it's strange to many people today it testifies that we still don't know Him. Many would still try argue that we are NOT to fear God, we are simply to enjoy Him. Yet Jesus said that we are to fear God, He Who is Greater than all, Who alone has the power to cast both soul and body into Gehenna - which in essence was a spiritual garbage dump where garbage was disposed of by way of fire in the ancient world. [Matthew 10:28] The way to get on the spiritual junk heap is to think that as you have received His grace in Jesus so now you can do whatever you feel good about and you can disregard His commands by way of a theological sleight of hand and dismiss His Torah with impunity.
Paul, the greatest apostle to the gentiles, said that he was mindful that even he could become a castaway if he broke the rules whilst competing in his race. Paul testified that he had received so much grace that even the hidden mysteries of God were revealed to him, things kept hidden in God through the ages. (Ephesians 3:1-5) He had received not just grace but abundant grace but he still never thought that he was safe and home free until his race was finished and that he had obtained a testimony that he had kept to the rules for to break the rules is to be disqualified and set aside. (1 Corinthians 9v24-27).
Solomon, the wisest man in the world before Jesus (Yeshua) argued at the end of his rich and full life that man should fear God and keep His commandments because this is the summary of man's whole duty before God. [Ecclesiastes 12:13] We show that we Fear God by keeping all His comamndments, laws, judgements and precepts. Judge for yourself if you and your teachers are wiser than Solomon and perhaps wiser than even Yeshua, the Master Rabbi? Shall we Fear the Lord or not?
A result of the deception of our times is that most people today no longer Fear the Lord and think that they can disobey His Commandments because it is the opinion of the learned and the clergy many times that we are under grace and since God 'knows your heart', there is nothing to fear. Yet in the book of Revelations Jesus decares 7 x that ''I know your works'' not that ''I know your heart''.
In conclusion we say that when the truth e.g. of the Fear of the Lord, is finally proclaimed it is so foreign to people that it really looks like error. Our God is still a consuming fire - Jesus did not come to put the fire out but to get you out of the real danger of that fire! [Hebrews 12:29]
It is fearsome to fall into the hands of the living Elohim. (Hebrews 10: 31 The Scriptures '98+)
We all need to be careful to avoid a romantic infatuation with the concepts of 'Truth' whereby we suppose that just because Truth is so beautiful and so liberating we will be able to instantly recognise it when we see it and it will be love at first sight. Not so. We must first seek the truth at any cost and then trust God that whenever we hear it or see it (or fall over it) that we have the courage, honesty and discernment to recognise it for what it is and not mistake it for error even if it looks strange at first.
19 May 2007
You can sing all you want to but worship is more than a song.
To hear this probing song from Ross King called, "Clear the Stage" off the album "And All The Decorations, Too", just click here
11 May 2007
It was only after the Council of Nicea in a.d. 325 which was headed by Constantine that the idea was popularised whereby the Jewish believers were officially rejected by the Christians as being despicable creatures not fit to live beause 'they' had cruicified their Messiah. Martin Luther also picked up this theme later on during the Reformation and its been a sentiment that has plagued Catholic and Protestant alike since then. Is'nt it time to get free?
This kind of religious bigotry makes no sense because it was ADONAI HIMSELF that delivered His son to death. Just like Abraham had led his son to Mt. Moriah to be a sacrifice and who carried the wood on his back so too did Adonai lead His Son to Golgotha on the same Mt. Moriah over 1,000 years later and Who further carried His own wood (cross) on His back so as to become the final sacrifice. This time there was no angel speaking from heaven to stop the proceedings but He could have summoned a legion of angels to save Himself at any time, which He did not do because He was a 100% willing sacrifice. Further, if He had saved Himself from death - He could never have saved you or me from sin and death. We can't cut this both ways...
This is how it came about that anti-semitism became rooted first in the Catholic Church and then depite all the positive changes brought on by the Reformation in the 1600's it became established in the Protestant Churches as well. Martin Luther is hailed as a hero and in that he put his life on the line to teach us about justification by faith, that he was. However, it is largely unknown despite literary evidence that Luther later became a fierce anti-Semite because the Jews distrusted him and would not readily believe his message and accept his Jesus who also hated the Jews. In the 1930's Adolf Hitler quoted from Luther and vowed to finish what he had started and so the Holocaust was proposed as the final solution to 'the Jewish problem' as Luther had called it. Without the votes of Catholic and Protestant alike Adolf Hitler would not have gained the support he needed for public office in the first place. During a time in jail Hitler had publicised his fierce animosity towards the Jewish people in his book, Mein Kamph. The Holocaust was simply a matter of Hitler doing what he publically said he would do in his book if he were elected to office and in claiming the approval of Luther he was greatly assisted in winning the vote.
The compacency of the Christian community in the Holocaust is also a matter of historical record abreviated only by a sparce number of people (not all of the religious) who endangered themselves to help the Jews from coming into the clutches of the murderous Nazi's. In short, Medieval Christianity as well as contemporary and modern Christianity for the most part, has ramained 'faithful' to its anti-Semetic legacy for well over 1,800 years to this present day. Anti-Semitism throughout Europe today, is reported to be at its highest level since the 1940's.
Many if not most Christians today are therefore either hostile to Israel or as is more politically correct these days, are simply quite indifferent to the Jewish people - (unless they are into evangelising them) beause they have never repented from Replacement Theology. Indifference (what we have not done for Israel and the Jewish people) is in the scriptures just as much a sin as was the Holocaust and the events that followed it.
Its vital for us to repent of the decisions made by the Council of Nicea and be set free from Jeudophobia (the fear if things Jewish like the Sabbath); Anti-Semitism ( hating, being opposed or indifferent to the plight of the Jews and Zionism) and Replacement Theology (believing that the 'gentile' Christians have replaced Israel / the Jews as God's chosen people as a consequence for killing the Messiah.)
We need to show discernment and love, serve and pray for Israel for His sake for He will come and make His Throne in Jerusalem not London, New York or Mecca! He has decreed that it is through Israel and for His Own sake that His name will be glorified amoung the nations as per Ezekiel 36:16!
"But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain." Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship Yahveh with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled.” Psalms 2:6,10-12
“For Yahveh’s indignation is against all the nations, and His wrath against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to slaughter. For Yahveh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. For Yahveh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion”. Isaiah 34:2,8
"For behold, in those days and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land.” Joel 3:1,2
“O Elohim, do not remain quiet; Do not be silent and, O Elohim, do not be still. For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, "Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more." For they have conspired together with one mind; against You they make a covenant.” Psalms 83:1-5
“At that time they will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of Yahveh' and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of Yahveh; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart.”
Jeremiah 3:17
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent. And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Isaiah 62:1,7
- Ed.
08 May 2007
''It is time for us to be honest and say we are out of wine. It is time to stop calling water wine and settling for quenched thirst when God wants us to have so much more. It is time for the House of God-men and women, the young and the old-to embrace the One with power to turn water into wine rather than arguing with each other about why the wine is out. We need to involve Him by simply being honest: "Jesus, we are out of wine!" and as servants we all need to be told, "Whatever He tells you to do... do it."
(Lisa Bevere, The Messenger International , e-mail update, May 2007)