Revelation 1:10, The Lord’s Day. This verse is one of the cliche biblical passages that mainstream church scholars use to “prove” Sunday’s replacement of the Sabbath. The problem with this position is that there’s no clear scriptural proof that the apostles ever changed the Sabbath to Sunday. What’s more, to view this passage as referring to Sunday is to take a phrase the early church fathers used as a euphemism for Sunday when pushing for Sunday in place of Sabbath observance and to retroactively apply this meaning to John’s use of the phrase. Frankly, it is biased and dishonest scholarship to take the phrase “the Lord’s day” with its second century colloquial meaning and then to back-apply this meaning to John’s use of the phrase when there’s no reason to believe this was John’s intended meaning.
Alternatively, the phrase, “the Lord’s day, can be a reference to the biblical term “the day of the Lord’s wrath” when YHVH, in the end times, will judge the nations for their wickedness. This is a point that several biblical scholars have made (see From Sabbath to Sunday, by Samuele Bacchiochi, p. 111; E. W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible footnote on Rev 1:10; The Jewish New Testament Commentary on this verse, p. 791, by David Sterns).
There is actually more scriptural proof that the phrase “the day of the Lord” is a reference to the seventh day Sabbath than to the first the week. In Isaiah 58:13, the prophet YHVH refers to the Sabbath as “my holy day…the holy day of the Lord.” So conceivably, it could have been on the Sabbath day itself that John received his vision on the island of Patmos about that great and terrible day of YHVH’s wrath that is to come on the earth just prior to the Messiah’s second coming.
Many in the mainstream church have been led to believe that the Torah or law of Moses is the ministry of death and the letter that kills, and now that we’re under grace, we are free from haveing to obey the letter of the law as 2 Corinthians 3:7–17 would seem to suggest. Is this a correct understanding of these verses? What is the truth? This video explains this difficult Bible passage.
Yesterday I quit work early, jumped in my truck and headed to a nearby mountain river for my annual fall feast days mikveh (ritual immersion). I like to do a ritual cleansing immersion, pray, repent and prepare my heart just before the upcoming fall biblical feasts. I like to do it in the spring, as well, just before Passover, but the river water is too icy cold around here at that time of the year! In can even be snowing.
While there, YHVH gave me my second teaching that I will be presenting on Yom Teruah this coming week. Of course, I will post the study notes and video on this blog. It’s on the subject of the resurrection of the dead. With all the bad news going on in the world, the Ruach prompted me to give a message on a subject that will hopefully encourage YHVH’s people and inspire great hope and joy in them during these dark times in which we are living.
I wish I could have shared my mikveh experience with you, but hopefully the photo, at least, will bless you.
You might consider finding a mikveh spot where the water is clean and pure to do your own ritual cleansing. This is what John the Baptist (aka Yochanon the Immerser) was doing at the Jordan River to help prepare the people for the the Messiah’s coming. We’re living in the times of John the Baptist again as we’re preparing for Yeshua our Bridegroom’s coming.
Hebrews 7:12, Priesthood being changed…a change also of the law [Torah]. The Greek words for being changed and a change are respectively metatithemi (a verb) and metathesis (a noun). The root of the noun is the verb, which means“to transpose, to transfer, to go or pass over, to fall away or desert from one person or thing to another.” Many people interpret this verse to mean that YHVH’s Torah-law was changed (i.e., invalidated or annulled) by the new covenant, but is this what the author is saying here?
Before going further in our discussion, let’s lay out some basic truths of the Scriptures.
YHVH doesn’t change (Mal 3:6; Heb 13:8; Jas 1:17). The word torah [in English, translated as law] means “instructions, principles, teachings” and came directly from YHVH to his people. The Torah teaches men how to love YHVH and love one’s fellow man. It is YHVH’s instructions in righteousness and reflects his very character and nature. Who YHVH is doesn’t change.
It is a sin (a violation of the Torah) to change the Torah (Deut 4:2; 12:32).
So in this light, what is this verse really saying? It declares that the priesthood was changed. The Levitical priesthood that was temporarily and parenthetically inserted into the Melchizedek priesthood (both priesthoods are revealed in the Torah, see Exod 19:2, 4 cp. 28:1; 32:29). In the former priesthood, a father acted as the priest over his family interceding for them before Elohim via sacrifices and offerings (Gen 8:20; 12:7,8; 13:18; 22:9; 26:25; 33:20; 35:1, 3, 7; Exod 17:15; Job 1:5). In the latter priesthood, YHVH Continue reading →
Deuteronomy 29:16–19, Emboldened to sin. As we pass through the spiritual wilderness of the world around us (verse 16) on our way to the Promised Land, how easy is it to justify our personal rebellion, our sinful habits, our lustful and materialistic thoughts on the basis of such rationalizations as, “Everyone around me is doing it,” or, “It feels like it’s okay to do,” or, “If it feels good, do it,” or “YHVH’s laws don’t apply to me … that was for the people back then, not for us today,” or, “That’s not what the church I belong to teaches,” or, “Surely YHVH doesn’t expect us to keep his commandments … they’re too hard to do … we can’t really do all that stuff today,” or, “We’re under grace today … that stuff has been done away … Jesus fulfilled it … nailed it to the cross,” etc. Do these statements square with YHVH’s words of truth? Do what you believe and practice square with his Word? Is YHVH looking for our excuses or our obedience? What did Yeshua say would be an identifying mark of those who would love him? (Read John 14:15.)
Sulfur balls Natan picked up in his trip to Israel near the area of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah.
When one is emboldened to sin, the judgments of YHVH will fall if not immediately, then in the future. One way or another, it will happen. Eventually all unrepentant rebels will burn in the lake of fire. It’s the law of cause and effect, and our eternal fate all depends on the choices we make in this life here and now vis-a-vis Elohim and his commandments.
The modern-day area around the Dead Sea where Sodom and Gomorrah is once believed to have been located is stark testimony to YHVH’s warnings to those who continue in their sins, refuse to repent and fail to submit to YHVH’s Torah laws.
Deuteronomy 29:23, Whole land is brimstone. The area just west of the Dead Sea where ancient Sodom and Gomorrah likely were is to this day a barren wasteland of gypsum containing little or no vegetation, and, in places, is covered in sulfur balls (brimstone) that one can still pick up. This region is an enduring testimony to the severity of YHVH’s judgments against men’s sin, which speaking loudly to us even now in harsh and warning tones.
The area around what many believe to the location of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah.
Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis (right) told Decision magazine Wednesday: “If the Word of God isn’t worth fighting for, I don’t know anything that is.”
UPDATE: Shortly after this article was published, Kim Davis was found in contempt of court by a federal judge and taken into custody.
Davis’ attorney issued a statement that said, in part:
“Kim Davis is being treated as a criminal because she cannot violate her conscience. While she may be behind bars for now, Kim Davis is a free woman. Her conscience remains unshackled.
“… And the tragedy is that there are simple ways to accommodate her convictions. Just remove her name from the marriage licenses. That’s all she has asked from the beginning. … This is not the kind of America the Founders envisioned or that most Americans want.”
Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis talked to Decision magazine on Wednesday. A more comprehensive story will appear in the October edition of the magazine.
No amount of threats against her life or her job, no edicts from the U.S. Supreme Court or the governor, could sway Kim Davis to compromise God’s truth.
She is so overwhelmed by His grace, so captivated by His love, so surrendered to His will that she can’t fathom caving to the ways and pressures of this world—regardless of the consequences.
“I cannot be separated from what I believe,” she said. “I have to love the Lord with my whole heart, mind, body and soul—with every ounce of strength and might that I have in me. It’s every breath we take and every beat of our heart.”
Davis, the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk of court, has been at the center of a national firestorm in recent months over her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses even though she received court orders to do so.
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Her voice cracked and she wept at times during an interview this week with Decision as she discussed her willingness to face dire consequences if necessary in order to remain faithful to her Lord, which could also include being impeached from office and being arrested.
“I have weighed the cost,” she said. “It’s definitely no place that I thought I would ever find myself, and it is definitely out of my comfort zone. I’m a very private person. For this to be everywhere [in the news] is just overwhelming at times.
“But it is through God and His grace and strength that I stand, that I can have a smile on my face.”
Because of the Bible’s clear teaching that marriage is the sacred union of one man and one woman, Davis prayerfully decided that she could not permit issuance to gay and lesbian couples since the licenses would bear her name.
“Those licenses leave my office through my authority,” she said. “I cannot be party to that. I just can’t. … If the Word of God isn’t worth fighting for, I don’t know anything that is.”
Her attorney, Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, has asked the courts and Gov. Steve Beshear to change licensing procedures to accommodate Davis’ convictions and those of others with similar beliefs. Staver suggested several options, including removing the clerk’s name from all marriage licenses, making the state capitol the processing center for licenses and switching to an online application process.
Davis also tried to take pre-emptive measures to avoid the predicament immediately after taking office as clerk in January, writing state legislators in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in June.
“I urged and beseeched them to get legislation on the floor while we still had time to protect clerks who had religions objections to same-sex marriage,” she said. “I got only one response, and nothing happened.”
Some critics have suggested that Davis should resign her elected position, but she has no intention of doing so, partly because she ran for the office last year after 27 years as deputy clerk only because she sensed the Lord calling her to do so.
Her deep devotion to Christ is rooted in the love and grace she received at her conversion more than four years ago, which she said followed years of “living in a pit of sin that I had created with my very own hands.”
She was divorced three times and gave birth to twins conceived out of wedlock.
Her life changed in 2011 when she attended a Sunday evening church service in honor of her mother-in-law, who had died that morning.
“The pastor preached out of Galatians, and it really stirred my heart,” Davis said. “I repented right there on the altar, just fell on my knees and face and cried.”
Davis now prays regularly for the salvation and protection of the same-sex couples who have assailed her and says she believes there is eternal significance in remaining firm in her stance.
“For me, this is a Heaven or Hell issue because [of] someone else who maybe doesn’t know the Lord and is still searching,” she said. “This is real, and this is true.”
Though she has been under intense attack and pressure, she claims a peace and trust in God that surpasses human understanding.
“We serve a living God who is alive and on the throne,” she said. “He knows exactly where I am, and I know that His hand is upon me and upon His people. He is in full control.”
