Category Archives: Current Events

Current trends and social commentary

Shavuot — What, Why and When?

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On May 27, 2012, we will be celebrating the biblical feast of Shavuot (aka Pentecost and the Feast of Weeks) as did the ancient Israelites, and the Book of Acts believers, and Paul (Lev 23:15–22, Acts 2:1; 20:16).

What is Shavuot All About?

In the roughly 49 days between Passover (Pesach) and the Feast of Weeks (Chag haShavuot), a momentous spiritual dynamic occurs. This period of time is comprised of forty-nine days or seven days of seven weeks, which is seven times seven—the biblical number for complete or full perfection. Add one day and you arrive at Pentecost. Fifty is the biblical picture of jubilee picturing redemption from the enslavement to this world.

Historically, the children of Israel were redeemed from their sins by the blood of the lamb on the first Passover in Egypt. At this time, YHVH betrothed himself to Israel (Exod 6:7). YHVH then led them out of Egypt into the wilderness, and on Shavuot he married them at Sinai (Exod 24 cp. Ezek 16:8; Jer 2:2; 31:32). At the same time, YHVH gave them his Torah, which was their ketubah or marriage vows.

Shavuot is a picture of the bride of Yeshua the Messiah coming into full maturity spiritually and coming to marriageable age. She has gone from being a spiritual child and slave in Egypt to becoming the fully mature spiritual bride and queen of the King of the universe.

At the time of Yeshua, he betrothed himself to both houses of Israel on Passover. Then, on Pentecost, he then sent his Spirit, the Comforter, as a seal of this covenant. He hasn’t married this bride (that’s you and me) yet — something that occurs at his second coming. In the mean time, he has placed her in a 2000-years-long wilderness to get ready for him — to fall in love with him (to love him by keeping his Torah commands; John 14:15) by receiving his Torah into their hearts.

In the end times, he’s going to bring his bride (the saints) out of the wilderness of Babylon (called the Second Exodus), and they will repent of their Torahless ways. We are now getting ready for this day. Understanding the prophecies of the Bible that speak of these end-time events, and understanding who the principal players are (the two houses of Israel) is the key to insure that we’re ready for our Messiah — that we’ll be wise and not foolish virgins who have our lamps full of oil (the Torah and Spirit of Elohim).

Shavuot, along with Passover (Pesach) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) are three times each year when YHVH commands his people to gather together to celebrate before him (Exod 23:14–17).

You can fulfill this command and move forward into your spiritual destiny by joining with your fellow redeemed Israelites from the greater Portland, Oregon
 area at Shavuot NW in Canby, Oregon on May 27, 2012.
 

Celebrate Shavuot / Pentecost With Us!

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YOU ARE INVITED!

Memorial Day weekend (May 25–27) this year also happens to be the biblical Feast of Weeks, Shavuot or Pentecost—one of YHVH’s commanded festivals (Lev 23:15–22, Acts 2:1; 20:16). 

You are invited to join us in Canby, Oregon (just south of Portland) for this weekend-long event. For details and registration, go to http://shavuotnw.org/.

 

Conservative Jewish Clergy Ordaining Homosexuals

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I just read this news piece from Ha’aretz News in Israel and wanted to pass it on. This development illustrates the moral and spiritual slide going on in even the most unlikely places.

Israeli Conservative Movement Approves Ordination of Gay Rabbis

’A very important development in Jewish law,’ says President of the Israeli Conservative Movement Rabbinical Assembly.

By Revital Blumenfeld and Yair EttingerTags: Jewish World Jewish Diaspora

Israel’s Masorti (Conservative) Movement decided to approve the ordination of homosexual rabbis, in a dramatic vote on Thursday.

The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, affiliated with the movement, will admit gay and lesbian students for training as spiritual leaders as of the upcoming school year.

gay marriage, gay wedding A Conservative rabbi marries a same-sex couple in the U.S.
Photo by: Courtesy of Gregg Drinkwater / Forward

In doing so the Israeli Conservative Movement is joining the American branch of the movement, whose rabbinical seminaries have been admitting gay students for some years.

The question whether or not to ordain gay and lesbian rabbis has been rattling the Conservative Movement in Israel and the U.S. for the past decade. Unlike the Reform movement that took to the question with ease, deciding firmly on the acceptance of gay rabbis. The Conservative Movement, whose rabbis see themselves bound to Jewish law, has been caught up in heated debate over the subject.

Years of discussion led to two contradictory religious rulings in 2006, one requiring the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis and another banning any such act. The two rabbinical seminaries affiliated with the movement in the U.S. move the ruling allowing the ordination, while the seminaries in Jerusalem and Buenos Aires adopted the ban on ordination. The issue nearly caused a rift in the movement.

To continue reading this story: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/israeli-conservative-movement-approves-ordination-of-gay-rabbis-1.425491

 

When Did Easter Originate?

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When Did the Early Christians First Celebrate a Day Commemorating the Resurrection?

In A History of Christianity, vol. 1, Kenneth Scott Latourette states that notice of Easter as a festival occurs in the middle of the second century, but that festivals commemorating the resurrection of Messiah were presumably observed by at least some Christians from much earlier times (p. 137). Philip Schaff also attributes the beginning of the Easter festival to the middle of the second century (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2, p. 207). He states that the Christian Passover naturally grew out of the Jewish Passover, as “The Lord’s Day” (Sunday) grew out of the Sabbath. “It is based on the view that Christ crucified and risen is the centre of faith. The Jewish Christians would very naturally from the beginning continue to celebrate the legal Passover, but in the light of its fulfillment by the sacrifice of Christ, and would dwell chiefly on the aspect of the crucifixion. The Gentile Christians, for whom the Jewish Passover had no meaning except through reflection on the cross, would chiefly celebrate the Lord’s resurrection as they did on every Sunday of the week.” He notes that the early Christians commemorated the entire period between the death and resurrection of Yeshua with vigils, fasting, special devotions, meetings culminating in a resurrection feast celebrating the whole work of redemption. The feast of the resurrection gradually became the most prominent aspect of the Christian Passover (Easter celebration), but the crucifixion continued to be celebrated on Good Friday” (Ibid., pp. 207–208).

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The Evidences of Baal Worship in America

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This is a fascinating five-part video series (about an hour in length total) of Glenn Beck interviewing Orthodox Jewish leader Daniel Lapin on the rise of Baal worship in America. Lapin defines Baal worship as found in the Bible, and succinctly and graphically relates it to modern trends in America’s spiritual and moral decline as evidenced in our pop culture since the 1950s up to the current “Occupy Movement.” He shows how Judeo-Christian values with the Torah as the foundation are the antidote to this problem, and that only a return to a Biblio-centric paradigm will save this nation from certain ruin.

I showed this entire video to my family this Shabbat.

Thank you Dr. Joe for telling us about this!

Please watch it, and share your comments on this blog.

Glenn Beck and Daniel Lapin discuss the worship of Baal, Part 1 of 5

 

From Messy Antics to The Dance of Lovers

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Alone in a Dark, Strange House

Have you ever found yourself groping and stumbling around in a totally dark, strange house without a light? Many people who have left the Christian church with some vague notion of returning to the Hebrew roots of their faith find themselves in such a house. Welcome to the house of the Messianic /Hebrew Roots Movement!

Many of us have been there asking ourselves questions like: Where are we? Where are we going? What’s next? Who’s out there? Am I alone?

Shifting from a Christian paradigm and lifestyle to that of the Hebrew/Jewish roots of the Christian faith as modelled by the early believers in the Book of Acts and Apostolic Epistles isn’t an easy one. Perhaps knowing the transition zones or spiritual growth stages we all go through might be like someone handing you a flashlight in that dark house.

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