Tag Archives: The Cross

The menorah, not the cross should be the Christian symbol

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Numbers 8:2, The menorah. The phrase toward the face of the menorah is an interesting one. The Jewish sages teach that the three wicks on the right and the three on the left were all directed toward the menorah’s central stem, thus concentrating light toward the center. The menorah symbolized that YHVH is the Source of all light (The ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash, p. 775). What are the connotations of this for a believer in Yeshua? How did Yeshua describe himself? (See John 8:12; 9:5.) Moreover, what did he mean when he said that “I am the vine and you are the branches?” (John 15:5) What does this mean and how is this pointing to a type of human menorah? Now relate this to the seven Messianic assemblies of Revelation 2 and 3 being likened to menorahs (Rev 1:13, 20). Is Yeshua the center of all that we do? Do we place all of our focus on him? Can we say, as the Apostle Paul did, that “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28)? Does the power of his resurrected life and anointing flow through you even as oil was in the menorah and sap flows through a tree to its branches?

Redeemed Israelites Are That Menorah

The Scriptures plainly states that Yeshua and his body of followers are likened to a tree of which the seven-branched menorah that adorned the mishkan (tabernacle) in the wilderness as well as the sanctuary of Solomon’s Temple is a picture. Furthermore, remember what Yeshua said in John 15:5? “I am the vine and you are the branches …” This is a perfect picture of the menorah, which has a central trunk with six (the number representing man) branches growing out of the trunk. Remember what Yeshua said in Matthew 5:14–15, that his followers were to be lights upon a lampstand on a hill for all the world to see—a clear allusion in the mind of anyone in Yeshua’s audience to the temple’s menorah (which was upon the Temple Mount like a light on a hill).

Additionally, when a redeemed believer in and follower of Yeshua is in a sacred state of worshipping his Master and Savior, he will often lift his arms heavenward. Not only is this the universal sign of surrender (in this case to one’s Heavenly Master), but when we lift our hands our bodies are actually forming a human menorah. By doing this, in worship we are acting out what we are—a lampstand to the world radiating forth the good news of the truth and love of Yeshua.

In fact, The Scriptures shows us that the menorah, and not the cross, is the symbol of Yeshua’s spiritual body of believers. We see this in Revelation 1:12, 20 and 2:1 where the seven congregations are symbolized as a seven-branched menorah! The menorah here is the symbol of the congregation of redeemed believers.

Though the cross is representative of the redemptive work Yeshua accomplished on our behalf, it is not the symbol of the body of believers, commonly called the “church,” but the menorah is! Furthermore, in Jewish thought, the menorah is analogous to an olive tree (the ancient temple menorah was constructed of hollow tubes of solid gold filled with olive oil that burned when lit), to which the Apostle Paul makes reference in Romans 11, as representing the tree of life (which ultimately represents Yeshua) into which all must be grafted if they are to be part the spiritual body of Yeshua and have his eternal life.

 

A Cross on a Cross…

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Numbers 2:1–34 (especially note verse 1, 9, 16, 24, 31), The Israelite encampment around the tabernacle. On the east side were Judah, Issachar and Zebulun; on the south side were Reuben, Simeon and Gad; on the west side were Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin; and on the north side were Dan, Asher and Naphtali. According to the numbers of the fighting men given in Numbers 2, we see that the encampment of Israelites around the tabernacle formed a perfect Paleo-Hebrew letter tav, which looks like our small letter “t” or the cross. The Levites camped around the tabernacle forming a protective perimeter between the Israelites and the tabernacle itself (Num 1:53). (See diagram below.)

There is no doubt that our Redeemer was crucified on a wooden cross. The apostolic writers make reference to the cross 18 times in the Testimony of Yeshua in reference to both the torture instrument upon which Messiah was brutally murdered and later as a metaphor or word picture of the glorious redemptive work that Messiah accomplished there.

Some redeemed believers, sadly, have rejected the cross symbol because of its clear pagan connotations. It has been used as a pagan symbol of sun worship for millennia. Despite its dubious reputation, and long before it was co-opted by the pagans, the cross was significant in the ancient Paleo-Hebrew script—the language in which YHVH wrote the ten commandments. Paleo-Hebrew is the precursor to the modern square script, which was introduced into the Hebrew language by Nehemiah the scribe, and the letter , tav was a pictographic symbol resembling a cross . We see this same cross symbol or mark (literally, the Paleo-Hebrew tav)mentioned in Ezekiel 9:4. There, in the prophet’s vision, YHVH instructs one of the angels to place mark or a tav on the foreheads of those men who sigh and over all the abominations done in Jerusalem. This same symbol was used earlier in the history of America when illiterates were allowed to sign legal documents by marking a cross on the signature line. 

Other occurrences of the Paleo-Hebrew letter tav are to be found when Jacob, while prophetically praying over Ephraim and Manasseh, crossed his arms making this very symbol (Gen 48:14). Likewise, on Passover eve YHVH commanded the Israelites to smear the blood of the lamb on the overhead crosspiece (lintel) and two side posts of their doors. The blood on the lintel would have dripped down onto the threshold of the door. This would have been the perfect configuration of the bloody spots left by Yeshua’s head, hands and feet on his cross of crucifixion. Finally, in the Tabernacle of Moses and later in Solomon’s Temple, the layout of the seven furnishings form a perfect cross-pattern.

Indeed, the cross is not something to shun or reject, for it is a symbol of redemption, ownership and covenant pertaining to those who have been saved or redeemed by Yeshua. 

 

What type of cross was Yeshua crucified on?

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John 20:25, Nails. The Greek word for nail here is in its plural form. The plurality of the word nails is corroborated by the fact that all the major English translation of the NT including both the Alexandrian or Byzantine family of  Greek NT texts contain the Greek word helon (nails, plural) as opposed to helos (nail, singular). This is the case in the Aramaic NT as well (see the translations of Ethridge and Murdock, for example). 

Moreover, William Mounce whose Koine Greek grammar book is used in the majority of seminaries in the U.S. in his Greek and English Interlinear NT designates this word as being in the genitive case, plural form and masculine gender.

What is the point here? This verse proves that Yeshua was crucified on a standard t-shaped cross, not on an upright stake minus its cross arm. Had he been crucified on the latter torture instrument, only one nail would have been used to secure his hands to the one post, not more than one nail as this text indicates—something which would have been required on the traditional t-shaped cross.

Some folks will argue that Yeshua was crucified on an upright stake or post. It is true the the Roman execution stake or cross took many forms of which the t-shaped cross was but one. It is also true that the the Paleo-Hebrew letter tav looks like our small letter t, and, according to some experts, pictographically signifies “the sign of the covenant.” It is also true that the Torah reveals that the furnishings in the Tabernacle of Moses were laid out in the form of a cross, and that the children of Israel were camped around the tabernacle in the form of a cross. We could go on, for there are other examples of the Paleo-Hebrew letter tav mentioned in the Scriptures including the mark that the angel placed on the foreheads  of those saints who signed and cried for the abominations done in Israel in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek 9:4). This mark would save those righteous people from the punishing destruction that Elohim had declared over Jerusalem.

It is also true that the t-shaped cross symbol was usurped by the pagan, devil and sun worshiping heathens in their religious rituals. Scripture reveals that Satan is the great counterfeiter, for he takes that  which is good and perverts it in an attempt to deceive the unlearned and naive. With this in mind, let us not toss out the wheat of truth for the chaff of error of Satan’s perversions.

Whether you believe that Yeshua was crucified on a t-shaped cross, an upright stake or some other instrument of execution, in the big picture it doesn’t really matter.  On this blog, we try to present facts. Whether one agrees with them or not is up to the person, and we refuse to argue about it. The bottom line is that we must believe that Yeshua died for our sins, or we’re all spiritually lost and stand condemned before the Righteous Judge of the universe, and we have no hope of future life. It is our faith in Yeshua the Messiah’s death, burial and resurrection that saves us, not the instrument on which he was crucified.

Have you made that spiritual transaction with your Creator and Savior?

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Joh 3:17  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Joh 3:18  “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Joh 5:24  “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2Co 5:10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Rom 10:5  For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “THE MAN WHO DOES THOSE THINGS SHALL LIVE BY THEM.”

Rom 10:6  But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above)

Rom 10:7  or, ” ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

Rom 10:8  But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

Rom 10:9  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Rom 10:10  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Rom 10:11  For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES ON HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME.”

Rom 10:12  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.

Rom 10:13  For “WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED.”

 

 

Satanic, God-Hating Secular Humanists Intent on Destroying America

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Many Antichrist secular humanists are not content on living and let live. Such individuals hate personal freedom (for others) and hate Elohim. They are rabidly attempting to enforce their brand of mind and thought control through fascistic means by getting the government to remove the liberties and freedom of those with whom they disagree. They want to destroy everything that helped to make this country great. If these God-haters succeed, their hands will be dripping with the “blood” of this nation (along with their infanticidal abortionist comrades whose hands are dripping literal blood). They will  have helped  this nation to commit spiritual, national hari-kari or suicide. Satan is laughing gleefully!

 

YHVH Elohim, bring confusion into the camp of the enemy. Break their teeth and scatter them. May the fear of Elohim come upon them and a spirit of repentance. May the name of your glorious Son, Yeshua the Messiah, be exalted over this nation, and empower and embolden the righteous to stand up against the evil-doers for the glory of YHVH Elohim and the expansion of your kingdom. Amein.

From the Associated Press at https://www.apnews.com/cb5d73cde81c4b83b67aa9814116abb7

High court deciding fate of cross-shaped Maryland memorial

By JESSICA GRESKO2 hours ago
Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, speaks near the 40′ Maryland Peace Cross dedicated to World War I soldiers on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019 in Bladensburg, Md. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

BLADENSBURG, Md. (AP) — Steven C. Lowe says he has always thought that a 40-foot-tall (12-meter-tall) concrete cross that stands on a large, grassy highway median near his home was odd.

For years, he says, he didn’t know that the cross in Bladensburg, Maryland, is a war memorial. A plaque on the cross’ base lists the names of 49 area residents who died in World War I, but it isn’t easily read from the road and getting to the monument requires dashing across traffic. Lowe said he felt the cross implied that the city where it stands favored Christians over others.

“It certainly made me raise my eyebrows,” said Lowe, 68, who is retired from the telecommunications industry.

In 2014, Lowe, two other area residents and the District of Columbia-based American Humanist Association, a group that includes atheists and agnostics, sued to challenge the cross. They argue that the cross’ location on public land violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which prohibits the government from favoring one religion over others. The group lost the first round in court, but in 2017 an appeals court ruled the cross unconstitutional. Now, the cross’ supporters are asking the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling in a case the justices will hear Wednesday.

The memorial’s supporters would seem to have a good shot based on the court’s decision to take the case and the court’s more conservative makeup, seen as more likely to uphold such displays. Plus, even liberal Justice Stephen Breyer voted in a 2005 case to uphold a Ten Commandments display on public property.

Backers of the nearly 100-year-old cross, also called the “Peace Cross,” say if the justices rule against them it could threaten hundreds of monuments nationwide. Opponents, for their part, say few memorials are truly similar. They argue the cross should be moved to private property or modified into a nonreligious monument such as a slab or obelisk, a suggestion backers say would be desecration.

Arguing for the cross at the high court are The American Legion, which raised money for the cross and completed it in 1925, and officials with the state of Maryland, which took over managing the site in 1960. They have the support of the Trump administration and 30 states.

Supporters say the cross is a fixture of Bladensburg, Maryland, just about 5 miles from the Supreme Court. Traffic reporters use it as a reference point in radio reports. Residents give directions that refer to it.

Maryland officials argue that the cross doesn’t violate the Constitution because it has a secular purpose and meaning, honoring veterans, in an area where several other memorials to veterans stand. On the other side, the American Humanist Association says that using a cross as a war memorial doesn’t make the cross secular; it makes the war memorial Christian.

Similar monuments have met with a mixed fate at the high court. On the same day in 2005, for example, the court upheld a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol while striking down Ten Commandments displays in Kentucky courthouses. Justice Breyer, whose vote made the difference in the outcome in both cases, said the history of the courthouse displays demonstrated a government effort to promote religion while the Texas display had a primarily nonreligious purpose.

The American Legion, represented by lawyers with the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, says that a test the court announced in 1971 for use in such cases, which asks whether the government’s action has a secular purpose, advances or inhibits religion or fosters “an excessive government entanglement with religion,” has proved unworkable. They say that question the justices should be asking is whether the government’s action is coercive, which they say the cross is not. The court doesn’t have to rule that broadly, however, to side with the monument’s supporters.

The monument’s backers say they just want the cross left alone. Speaking recently at an American Legion post near the cross, member Stan Shaw said modifying the cross would be “a slap in a veteran’s face.” As for the suggestion the monument should be moved, Mike Moore, another member, said he’s “not sure how one could do it.” Add that to the fact that the monument is cracking and repair work has been on hold.

Relatives of the men whose names are on the cross have also asked the court to let it stand where it is. Mary Ann LaQuay, whose uncle Thomas Fenwick’s name is on the cross, says it’s a way for her to remember her uncle, who caught pneumonia and died while fighting in France. His grave is in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, but LaQuay, 80, says she feels “like the cross represents his memorial.”

Those challenging the cross say they want to make clear that they aren’t against veterans or veterans memorials. Fred Edwords, a longtime official with the American Humanist Association, says they just don’t think it’s right to leave the impression that only Christian soldiers are being celebrated.

Lowe, who lives near the cross in the District of Columbia, said some people have asked him: Why not just leave the cross alone?

“I think it was a violation of the Constitution when it was built,” he said. “The fact that it is old doesn’t make it right. It’s an old wrong.”

 

The Bronze Altar and the Cross

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As we continue our tour of the Tabernacle of Moses, the Torah takes us next to the bronze altar of sacrifice just inside the tabernacle’s door. Everything occurring in the tabernacle revolved around this altar—EVERYTHING!

This fact is highly significant, since this altar points to the “altar” of the cross on which Yeshua the Messiah died for our sins. This is one truth that the mainstream church has gotten wonderfully right: the cross and what happened there is the central point of the gospel message.

One cannot read the writings of the apostles and fail to see this unless one is sadly spiritually naive and spiritually blind!

Exodus 27:1–8, An altar. As we continue our tour of the Tabernacle of Moses, the Torah takes us next to the bronze altar of sacrifice just inside the tabernacle’s door. Everything occurring in the tabernacle revolved around this altar—EVERYTHING! This fact is highly significant, since this altar points to the “altar” of the cross on which Yeshua the Messiah died for our sins. This is one truth that the mainstream church has gotten wonderfully right: the cross and what happened there is the central point of the gospel message. One cannot read the writings of the apostles and fail to see this unless one is sadly spiritually naive and spiritually blind! 

Just inside the door of the tabernacle was the altar of sacrifice. It was made of acacia wood overlaid with bronze, which is a prophetic picture of Yeshua the Messiah bearing the judgment for men’s sins on the cross. The blood of the sacrifice was poured out on the ground at the base of the altar symbolically picturing Yeshua shedding his blood at the cross. Two lambs were offered at the altar morning and evening (Exod 29:38–42). This pictures our need to come humbly before our Father in heaven morning and evening in prayerful devotion as living sacrifices to confess our sins, to praise and thank him for saving us from the penalty of our sins, which is death (Ps 51:16–17; Heb 13:15; 1 John 1:7–9; Rom 6:23).

The Altar of Sacrifice in More Details. Upon understanding that the Person and work of Yeshua is the way into spiritual life, light and truth, one must also recognize that one’s sin liability keeps one from a having personal relationship with one’s Creator. The broken fellowship with our Father in heaven due to our uncleanness because of our sin is the reason for this. For one to have a relationship with a sinless, perfect, totally set-apart or holy Elohim,the sin problem has to be dealt with. Sin must be atoned for along with the resulting guilt, shame and penalty (i.e. death) that sin brings. In the Tabernacle of Moses, the liability and effect of sin is dealt with at the altar of the red heifer outside the gate of the tabernacle, which represents the work of Yeshua at the cross (Heb 13:10–13). There one Continue reading →

 

A t-Shaped Cross Vs. an I-Shaped Cross Discussed

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Matthew 27:40, The cross. Stauros, the Koine Greek word for cross, like most words in all languages, has several meanings. To arrive at the true meaning of a word, we can’t just look at the first meaning in a list of dictionary definitions or choose the meaning that best suits our personal biases or theologies.

Too determine which dictionary definition of a word best applies to a particular word in a literary situation, we must consider all the meanings of a word and then look at the context of the literature in which the word is found, and then choose the meaning that best fits.

Even then, well meaning people will have differences of opinions on this (e.g. The Companion Bible, by E.W. Bullinger, appendix 162). This is the dilemma that scholars who translate literary documents from one language to another face. This is the case with the Koine Greek word, cross, which is found in the NT some 32 times.

Stauros literally refers to “an upright, pointed stake used for fencing or in the construction of a stockade.” It can also refer to a torture instrument, or a cross on which the Roman’s executed criminals. A stauros came in several basic forms: a vertical upright, pointed stake, or an upright stake with a crossbeam resembling our capital letter “T” or our small Continue reading →

 

The Science of the Crucifixion

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Matthew 27:35, Crucified him. 

By Cahleen Shrier, Ph.D. (originally posted at http://www.apu.edu/articles/15657/)

Each year, Cahleen Shrier, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biology and Chemistry [at Azuza Pacific University in California], presents a special lecture on the science of Christ’s crucifixion. She details the physiological processes a typical crucified victim underwent and teaches her students to see Christ’s death on the cross with new understanding. The exact events in this scenario may not have happened in Jesus’ specific case, but the account is based on historical documentation of crucifixion procedures used during that time period. Please be aware that the following is of a realistic and graphic nature.

It is important to understand from the beginning that Jesus would have been in excellent physical condition. As a carpenter by trade, He participated in physical labor. In addition, He spent much of His ministry traveling on foot across the countryside. His stamina and strength were, most likely, very well developed. With that in mind, it is clear just how much He suffered: If this torture could break a man in such good shape, it must have been a horrific experience.

Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:37-42, Luke 22:39-44

After the Passover celebration, Jesus takes His disciples to Gethsemene to pray. During His anxious prayer about the events to come, Jesus sweats drops of blood. There is a rare medical condition called hemohedrosis, during which the capillary blood vessels that feed Continue reading →