Category Archives: Scripture

Scripture Studies

Does “Jewish Fables” = the Torah?

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Titus 1:14, Jewish fables. Many people in the mainstream church are content to dismiss the Torah merely as Jewish fables having little or no relevance to Christians. Yet, the same preachers will passionately promote Christmas trees, Santa Claus and Easter bunnies. So what’s wrong with this picture? 

Moreover, many Bible teachers in the mainstream church teach that this verse refers to the Torah. They use it in attempting to prove that the commandments of the Torah are no longer valid for believers. Is this correct? In reality, Paul can’t be referring to the Torah here without contradicting himself elsewhere. In numerous places, he strongly upholds and defends obedience to the Torah (Rom 3:31; 7:7, 12, 14; 13:8–10; 1 Cor 7:19; 9:21; Gal 3:10; 6:2; 2 Tim 6:14; Tit 2:14) and even claims to follow it himself (Acts 21:24; 24:1425:8; 28:17; 1 Cor 9:21). He must be talking about the Jewish traditions of men, which Yeshua said in Matthew 15:3–9 and Mark 7:7–9 make of non-effect the word of Elohim. 

In fact, this is exactly what Paul is referring to here in this verse when he says “Jewish fables and commandments of men.” This is not a reference to the Torah the commandments which, in truth, came from YHVH Elohim and not from men. In the same verse, Paul contrasts these commandments of men with “the truth” from which men have turned away. 

So what is this truth that Paul references here? Since Bible defines its own terms, we must look to it for the definition of the word truth. Elohim is the source of truth (Deut 32:4 cp. Pss 86:11; 89:14; 117:2), he is truth (Ps 25:10; 31:5; 33:4), and his Torah is truth (Ps 119:142, 151). 

Truth is the opposite of a fable. One example of a Jewish fable and a commandment of men would be the idea that one can’t be saved unless they’re first circumcised (Acts 15:15:1, 5), which was the subject of the Acts 15 council. Paul vehemently fought this Jewish fable, and the whole Book of Galatians, for example, largely deals with this issue. If Paul had meant the Torah when mentioning “Jewish fables” then this makes Paul into a schizophrenic liar (since he promotes and lauds the Torah and claims to follow it elsewhere), while elsewhere he views the Torah as irrelevant and not necessary to be obeyed. Were Paul against the Torah, this would put Paul at odds with Yeshua who upheld the Torah (Matt 5:17–19) and with himself when he said to imitate Yeshua the Torah-keeper as he himself did (1 Cor 11:1). 

From this brief discussion, it should be obvious to a logical minded person that Paul doesn’t have the Torah in view when he mentions fables in this verse.

 

Laws and more laws—What is the point of it all?

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Deuteronomy 21–25

This section of the Torah (Deut 21:10–25:19) contains 72 commandments, which is more than in any other Torah portion. In this passage there are rules pertaining to all aspects of human relations showing that the “Torah deals with the real world. It does not present a world where all people get along with one another or rush to take care of one another’s property. Instead, it ‘takes into account the grim reality that people do not achieve the desired observance of “you shall not hate others in your heart”’” (A Torah Commentary For Our Times, vol. 3, p. 150). In studying this portion, one can easily miss the point of a particular command if one views it strictly in its pashat (most literal) meaning. For these commands to have relevance in our day, one must view them as principles that have a broad range of application. The specific examples Torah gives are merely representative of one of but many life situations to which the principle behind the example could apply. Keeping this in mind, this Torah portion will give you much to ponder pertaining to your day-to-day walk (or halakhah).

In these chapters we see a plethora of laws concerning many seemingly small details regarding human life. Many people in the church have the tendency to broadly sweep away these commandments with such dismissive cliches as, “We’re now under grace …” or “We’re not under the law anymore …..” But please observe how many of the civil laws of our nation regulating actions between various members of society are based upon YHVH’s laws found in the Torah. As many of us make our way back to a more biblically-based lifestyle and orientation, we begin to see that (a) YHVH cares about the details of our lives and (b) these laws, while sometimes hard to understand, are for our own well-being and blessing. Do you still nurse a “pick and choose” or “have it your own way” mentality with regard to YHVH’s biblical commandments choosing to follow the ones you want and making excuses why you can’t (or don’t want to) follow the rest? By doing so, what blessings are you depriving yourself of, and how are you hindering your love relationship with YHVH?

Some of the laws in these chapters may be hard to observe nowadays. With others, due to our church background, we may have the tendency to spiritualize them away, thus, in essence, rendering them of non‑effect in our lives and thereby placing ourselves above YHVH’s Torah-law and thus becoming a law unto ourselves. Is this not humanism: every man doing what is right in his own eyes instead of obeying YHVH whatever the cost? Who is the Master of your life? You or YHVH? 

How do you view laws about women wearing men-type clothing, wearing fringes on the corners of your garments, mixed certain types of fibers in clothing, lending without interest, caring for the widows and orphans, personal hygiene, family purity laws (e.g. men not having sexual relations with their wives during their monthly cycles), removing blood from all meat before eating it, men wearing beards, faithfully tithing, following the biblical dietary laws, and observing YHVH’s Sabbaths (weekly and annual), etc.? These are lifestyle-changing laws, many of which go contrary to the mores of our society. 

Are we not called to be a kadosh, set-apart, special and peculiar (i.e. treasured) people before YHVH? What progress are you making to bring your life into conformity to his standards of righteousness?

 

Blog Scripture Reading Schedule for 8-19 Through 8-25-18

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THIS WEEK’S SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

Parashat Ki Tetze — Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19
Haftarah — Isaiah 54:1-10
Prophets — Amos 2:1 – 8:14
Writings — 1 Chronicles 23:1 – 29:30
Testimony — 2 Timothy 4; Titus 1, 2, 3; Philemon; Hebrews 1:1 – 2:18

Our annual Scripture Reading Schedule for 2017-2018 is available to download and print.

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link below.

The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day: one each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 8/19/18 through 8/25/18.

 

Abortion and Worshipping the Demon-God Moloch

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Deuteronomy 18:10, One who causes his son or daughter to pass through the fire. This was done in honor of the Canaanite deity Moloch (see Lev 18:21 and 20:1–6). The name moloch in Hebrew means “king” with the root of the word meaning “to rule or reign.” Child sacrifice (the ancient form of modern abortion/infanticide), though a pagan practice that
YHVH abhorred, was practiced by both houses or kingdoms of Israel as they drifted into syncretism with the heathen cultures around them (see 1 Kgs 11:7; 2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6; 23:10,13; Jer 7:31; 19:5; Ezek 16:20; 23:37). Baal appears to be a synonym of Molach (see Jer 19:5 and the Ency. Britan. eleventh edit., vol. 18, p. 676). The dead bodies of sacrificed children were thrown into the garbage dump of the Valley of Hinnom or Tophet just below the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Jer 7:31; 19:5–6). Apparently, the children were not burned alive, but were slain (by knife) like any other sacrifice before being thrown into the fire and then into the garbage dump (Ibid.). The ancients sacrificed their children to appease their bloodthirsty gods of prosperity, sensuality and fertility (The Story of Civilization, vol. 1, by Will Durant, pp. 66–67, 297). 

What can we learn from these random pieces of information concerning the ancient practice of child sacrifice? It was done in honor of their deity; in other words, their idol was the king that ruled their lives. What is the chief deity in modern America and most everywhere else in the world? Money and wealth? Sex and pleasure? Fun and entertainment? In ancient times, children were killed by a knife, thrown into the fire and then into the garbage dump. Today, what happens in America? Parents abort Continue reading →

 

Shame on the Mainstream Media: Stop the Lies and Slander!

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How much of what we say would not be said if we had to establish every word in the mouth of two or three witnesses as the Torah-word of Elohim and Yeshua commanded?

Consider this: How much of what the mainstream media pawns off as news is actually lies, hearsay and gossip?

As an academically trained journalist who studied at two university journalism schools and wrote for a major daily big city newspaper and several smaller newspapers while in my teens and twenties, I am appalled at what passes as news reporting today in the mainstream media! This is NOT what we were taught in J-school.

The lives and reputations of many people and organizations are being destroyed because some self-seeking and profiteering “journalist” or “news” organization is trying to make a name for themselves and a buck. Period. Reporting the news is no longer about truth, much less righteousness. That’s one reason I didn’t pursue a career in journalism. It was bad 35 years ago, and it’s even worse today.

As a published author and trained journalist, I say shame on most of the unrighteous upper level journalists and news reporters today who have sold their souls to the world, the flesh and the devil to make a buck and a name for themselves with no thought of whose lives they ruin in the process.

At the very least, have you never heard of the golden rule? 

[Yeshua/Jesus said,] Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. (Matt 7:12)

Moreover, didn’t your mother teach you that if you have nothing good to say about someone, don’t say anything at all? “Ah, but it’s news…” you say as if that would justify your sinful and criminal behavior. Well, then consider this:

Be not deceived; Elohim is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Gal 6:7–8)

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matt 12:36)

Now consider this:

Deuteronomy 17:6 (and 19:15), By the testimony of two or three witnesses. One could not be accused of a crime without the testimony of two or three eyewitnesses. This admonition is repeated in the Testimony of Yeshua:

But if he will not hear you, then take with you one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. (Matt 18:16)

This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. (2 Cor 13:1)

Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. (1 Tim 5:19)

He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. (Heb 10:28)

Most gossip and slander would stop if this commandment were followed, and thus much division and strife within the congregation of believers. How many times have you repeated hearsay and gossip without checking the source? Even if you know it to be true, is it beneficial and righteous to repeat it to others? One Jewish sage goes so far as to say that Messiah has not come back because of all the gossip and slander of the people of Israel. Perhaps. At the very least, the Spirit of Elohim is greatly grieved, our intimacy with Elohim is diminished, and our marriages, families, friendships and congregations are fractured, hurt or destroyed because we speak things that should not be uttered.

How often do we accuse, slander and gossip about other people through use of the “evil tongue” (lashon hara) without going through proper channels and following proper biblical protocols to resolve interpersonal conflicts as Yeshua instructed in Matthew 18? How often do we attack others and spread our evil reports and accusations about others when we were not even eyewitnesses to what occurred or were not involved in the matter? How often do we attack YHVH’s leaders and accuse them of evil when there are no other witnesses (1 Tim 5:19)? YHVH hates those who sow discord among brethren and lying false witnesses, and calls this practice an abomination (Prov 6:16–17, 19). So let’s all be careful with our mouths!

 

The Anti-Torah, Demonic Origins of Obelisks, Steeples and the Christmas Tree

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Deuteronomy 16:22, You shall not erect for yourselves a pillar [Heb. matstsebah], which YHVH your Elohim hates. The word pillar literally means “stand (upright), be set (over), establish.” One of the derivatives of this word is pillar or standing image. Such pillars were erected for pagan religious purposes (see The TWOT). C.J. Koster in his book The Final Restoration (reprinted as Come Out of Her My People) cites historical evidence for relating these pillars to the Egyptian and Babylonian obelisk, which was connected to sun worship (see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk) and the phallic symbol (also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallic_architecture). He states that these pillars were commonly erected at the entrances to pagan temples (also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk) as fertility symbols in honor of the sun deity (Koster. p. 79). 

Even an Egyptian obelisk of this sort sits in the very center of the Catholic Church’s St. Peter’s Square in Rome, and it is traditional for obelisk-shaped steeples to be found on many Christian churches to this day in the form of a steeple (ibid., p. 81). Richard Rives in his book, Too Long In the Sun, makes the same connection between the Egyptian obelisk, Canaanite standing pillars and the Christian church steeple (p. 136). 

What is the point here? YHVH commanded Israel to destroy these pagan symbols and to have nothing to do with them. They were abominations that would defile YHVH’s set-apart people. Have his people heeded his command? Many of these remnants of ancient pagan cultic practices remain in both the Protestant and Catholic churches to this day (Easter/Ishtar, Christmas/Saturnalia, the Christmas tree/Tammuz tree, the Christmas wreath/a pagan fertility symbol, Lent, Easter eggs and rabbits, and the list goes on and on). Does YHVH’s command to his people of the end times to come out of spiritual Babylon (see Rev 18:4) now take on a new meaning to you?

Pillar. The pillars the Canaanites erected to worship their gods were actually phallic symbols commemorating the incursion of the demon gods (sons of Elohim) when they had sex with the daughters of men to create their Nephilim or demigod children in the pre and post flood world (see Gen 6:2–6). 

The Canaanites were not the only indigenous ancient people to have such a tradition of the gods mating with humans to create supernatural offspring. So did the Yoruba tribes of West Africa as well as the native peoples of Madagascar, Polynesia, New Zealand, along with the Hopi, Acoma, Arihara and Apache of North America, along with Celtic, Japanese, East Indians, Australians and Scandinavians. “Trees were employed…as facilitators, or places of meeting/joining of the gods of heaven with Mother Earth, while their branches reach out to Father Sky, of the gods of heaven…[T]rees form a bridge between heaven and earth and are a symbol of regrowth (reincarnation)…Because trees can live for hundreds and hundreds of years, their extraordinary life span represents  the immortality of the gods and the immortal spirit given to the original Nephilim. The World Tree is also the Tree of the Knowledge of both good and evil, for knowledge in pantheistic culture holds the key to immortality and reincarnation” (The Genesis 6 Conspiracy, p. 122, by Gary Wayne). “A Judeo-Christian, then, should be wary of the Christmas tree, for the immortal evergreen represents the meeting place of the gods and Mother Earth and the creation of Nephilim” (ibid., p. 123).

The act of the fallen angelic sons of Elohim mating with the daughters of men (Gen 6:2–4) and the results thereof literally turned the pre-flood world upside down resulting in YHVH’s most severe judgments against these evil-doers and those who followed them. The phallus to this day is the object that represents this act of rebellion and represents the unlawful sexual union between heaven and earth that created demons. Peter and Jude refer to this in their epistles (2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6).

 

Does prayer a make unclean meats kosher?

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1 Timothy 4:3–5, Foods. Many take this passage to mean that simple “prayer over the food” sanctifies nonkosher food. Were we to take this logic to its illogical conclusion, then we might suppose that prayer over skunk meat, certain poisonous types of frogs, snakes and salamanders as well as poisonous mushrooms would make them edible. Of course, this is ridiculous. Is this really what Paul, the orthodox Jewish Torah scholar, is teaching? Once again, understanding Scripture in its context is essential to obtaining its proper interpretation. These verses read:

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which Elohim has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of Elohim is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of Elohim and prayer. (emphasis added)

What does this passage really say? Does it say that the meat we eat is sanctified (i.e. set aside for special use) only through the act of prayer?

In verse five Paul teaches that the meat we eat is sanctified through prayer and the Word of Elohim. When Paul wrote this letter to Timothy there was no Testimony of Yeshua or New Testament—only the Tanakh  or Old Testament. Where in the Tanakh do we find which meats YHVH has set aside or sanctified for man as edible? Leviticus chapter eleven, of course. Furthermore, in verse three above Paul talks about “them which believe and know the truth.” How does Scripture define truth? Yeshua defined truth as the Word of Elohim (namely the Hebrew Scriptures, which is all that existed at that time) (John 17:7). The Tanakh define truth as the Torah-law of YHVH (which contain YHVH’s biblical kosher laws pertaining to clean and unclean meats; see Ps 119:142 and 151). 

So when examined in its proper context this passage in 2 Timothy in no way teaches that it is scripturally permissible for believers to indulge in unclean meats. On the contrary, this passage in fact validates the biblical kosher laws as outlined in the Torah and shows clearly, if we let Scripture speak for itself and define its own terms instead of reading into it our own meanings, that the biblical dietary laws are for believers today.