Legalism and the Apostle Paul

If you are a Bible-believing Christian who loves Jesus, keeps His commandments, and teaches others to keep His commandments, you’ve probably been called a “legalist.”

Those who levy this charge against you, truly believe that the apostle Paul would do the same.

The argument goes something like this: If you think you have an obligation to obey God, you have a works-based salvation. You can’t earn your salvation, so you can’t lose it no matter how much you disobey God. Believing and teaching that you must obey God is legalism.

This is an astonishing charge, since part of the great commission is teaching others to obey Jesus’ commands! (Matt. 28:19-20)

It is assumed by many people that the Apostle Paul equated careful, love-motivated obedience to God’s law with legalism, but this is simply not true. Where Paul taught that “the law” has no bearing on salvation, he was not referring to loving adherence to God’s commands, but to the keeping of the Pharisaic traditions that Jesus blasted as “the doctrines and commandments of men”. (Matt. 15:9)

Paul taught repentance and faith to every person (Acts 20:21). A person who repents (God’s first requirement) is a person who turns away from known lawbreaking (sin) and submits to the law of God, indeed has the law of God written on his heart. Without this heart change from rebellion to submissive obedience, there is no salvation possible. When Paul taught repentance, he was essentially teaching transgressors to return to obedience to God.

Where Paul asks, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Gal. 3:2) he is reminding the Galatians that they were not saved by attending to Jewish initiation rituals and ceremonies, but by receiving the Word of God with real faith (the kind of faith that is not a hearer only, but a doer of the Word–James 1:22).

Paul had to spend considerable time refuting the troublesome Judaizers, who confused new Gentile converts by teaching them that unless they became good Jews–following all of the man-made traditions of  Judaism–they could not be saved.

The truth is that Paul himself would be considered a legalist by many today, if only they would pay close attention to all that he wrote!

Unfortunately, many teachers today wrench some of his statements from their context, while ignoring others, in order to uphold their false, sin-excusing doctrines. Apparently men were already twisting Paul’s teachings to their own destruction in Peter’s time. Peter warned of this while he also acknowledged that some of Paul’s writings could be hard to understand (2 Pet. 3:16). However, there can be no doubt that Paul taught Christians to obey God’s law, which is the same law summed up by Jesus as love to God and love to neighbor, upon which all the law and prophets hang (Matt. 22:37-40). This simply put means that loving God and loving neighbor is the entire focus of all the law and prophets. We are supposed to receive instruction as to how to love God and to love our neighbor.

Notice that Paul taught that ritual circumcision has no bearing on salvation, while obedience to God’s commands is extremely important.
Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. (I Cor. 7:19)

Please examine these important teachings by Paul:




Noting the highlighted portions of the previous verses, it should be clear that Paul taught people they must obey their parents, must not have any gods before the Lord (idolatry), must not covet, must not lie, must not steal, must not murder, must not take the Lord’s name in vain (blasphemy), and must not commit adultery (among other things). Paul has here upheld 8 of the 10 commandments, and has clearly stated that some of these sins will exclude one from the kingdom of God! Here is the ninth:

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. (I Cor. 16:22)

Is Paul not teaching that we must LOVE the Lord our God (the first commandment) or be cursed?

But the Decalogue has ten commandments.
We must not forget the Sabbath commandment. Did Paul do and teach seventh-day Sabbath observance?  (Matt. 5:19)


Paul, indeed kept the seventh-day Sabbath along with a multitude of believers assembling together to hear the word of God. The passages in Romans and Colossians, so often taken out of context, do not even deal with the idea of whether a NT believer should remember the Sabbath day or not. Paul is here encouraging NT believers to have their conscience unto God as their only judge and to throw off the yoke of man’s religious condemnation.

Paul taught men to search the scriptures. Where might Paul expect his audience to go to be “persuaded in his own mind”? Certainly not to the ever-shifting opinions of men!

Act 17:11  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

The only word of truth Paul ever referred to was the law and the prophets. He surely knew that he himself would also be judged of God according to Isaiah 8:20.

Rom. 2:6-11 God, who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and
immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the
truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God.

Truly, the law of God was written on Paul’s heart, and he taught others to obey God. His problem was with “legalists”, those who wrongfully insisted that in order to turn to God, one must convert to orthodox religious customs. His contention was never with those who obeyed God’s law from the heart! In short, Paul was in complete agreement with Peter and the other apostles who testified that it is better to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Rom. 6:16

What? Obedience leads to righteousness? Indeed it does, and here Paul agrees with John, who wrote that only those who DO RIGHT are considered righteous! (I Jn. 3:7) Paul also wrote the following:

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Rom. 8:13

That’s a big IF, friends. According to Paul, you have to mortify the deeds of your body by the power of the Spirit if you want to retain spiritual life. And Paul lived what he preached–he kept his own body under subjection lest after preaching to others he himself should be a castaway (I Cor. 9:27).

One last, very important passage by Paul:

What did Paul say would happen to those who do not OBEY truth?–They will have indignation, wrath, tribulation and anguish! What did Paul say one must do to receive eternal life?–Patiently continue in well-doing (doing what is right or LAWFUL according to God’s standards!)

It truly is amazing that anyone would believe or teach that lawlessness is permissible in the Kingdom of God. To be part of this kingdom, one must faithfully serve its King!! Remember dear friends, the testimony of the One who was crucified on our behalf:

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Mat 7:21 

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his
kingdom ALL THINGS THAT OFFEND, AND ALL THEM WHICH DO INIQUITY;and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 13:41-42)
                                                                                  God bless you!

What is up with all the “Jewish” stuff?

   It is a question that many want to ask but are not quite sure if they can. To the average “Christian” on-looker, people who believe in Jesus as the Messiah are supposed to be freed from all that “old Jewish stuff”. So why would a person raised on catfish, shrimp, honey ham, and Sunday school, in the Bible belt no less, suddenly come to believe that things like a biblically kosher diet and 7th day Sabbath observance are the “current” and enduring will of God? Have they been “judaized” or what? Who and where are the “judaizers” that got to them? If I ask them questions, could I get “judaized”? It sounds like some kind of hypnosis procedure when put like this, I know. I chuckle to myself because the fact is that we as believers have been trained like Pavlovian dogs to react with superstition and fear to certain key words and phrases as if we could suddenly lose control of our mental faculties and be led away from “mainstream orthodoxy” at any moment. But think about it. Isn’t the “mainstream” also called the “broadway” in the scriptures? Doesn’t Satan want you to stay on the “broadway” with the mainstream masses? So who would it actually be that would encourage you to search for the “narrow way”? Just how blind is your belief system? We are taught to place all of our trust in things that we are not trained or encouraged to understand. At the same time, we have been trained or rather indoctrinated to distrust and devalue our own ability to think for ourselves especially when it comes to the scriptures. This has occurred through subtlety over many generations. We have been seduced into believing that the Word of God is something to be spoon fed to us with coddling reassurances of salvation by people, however well-meaning, who take our money in exchange for this service. This is why the majorities of “Christians” do not know their Bibles and cannot hold a real conversation about biblical subjects.        We are instructed by the so-called “shepherds of the flock” to depend  upon “theologically” trained or experienced others to lead us in the way everlasting. We truly have a lot of faith in the 30 minute weekend sermon     and the widely popular televangelists, Christian  radio broadcasters and book sellers to equip us to find and remain steadfast on the “straight and narrow way”.  However, these shepherds fail to inform us that what we are fed in these venues is more often “psychology” based upon “theology” than it is the “Bread of Life”, the pure Word of God. Theology is a type of Greek philosophy predating the “Christian” era and was not an influence among the Hebrews until they began assimilating into the Greek culture. It refers to man’s intellectual analysis of the Divine nature of God. In fact any word which ends in –ology is of Greek origin and refers to a field of study that is primarily based upon man’s assumptions. Religious “theology” is a completely Greek notion springing from the intellectual speculations of men. It is not the product of scriptural “doctrine” meaning that God never in His Word directed men to use this pagan intellectualism to instruct His flock. You will not find any biblical instruction directing men to employ their imagination in discernment of the divine nature of the Godhead. Our Father time and again warned us against it saying by the mouth of many witnesses that man’s imagination is wicked and the wise will not walk according to it.  In fact, “feed my sheep” was the phrase Jesus used to say “teach my word”. Our Father and His Son consistently reiterate their own ability to speak for themselves about themselves and to prove the Word of truth in covenant relationship with the believer. We are also warned about the deceivers in our midst. Theologies of men only serve to indoctrinate people with the traditionally inherited imaginative notions about God rather than training us UP in the instruction and doctrine that God has provided in His Word. His Word alone has transformation power for living unto Him. His Word is a sword which makes a clean and clear division between light and darkness so that those who trust in His Word, should not ever walk in darkness nor be  deceived by men. The reason that there is neither discipleship training in the churches nor training in the study of the scriptures themselves is because, at some point, the sound doctrine of the Word of God took a back seat to maintaining the latest theological evolution of the day. Theology is all you      get in the churches today, which is a form of brain-washing when you look objectively at it. The laity, the “sheep”, have come to truly believe that the development and practice of theology is rooted in the scriptures, when in fact, the scriptures are just the tool that is manipulated to conform to and support the many different theological assumptions that have evoloved over the course of church history. The scriptures merely serve as a veil and as the focal point for the sheep who are willing to follow religious theological developments blindly. Some of today’s most popular theological assumptions are less than 150 years old and can be traced exactly to who, where, and when they developed. The Bible has been reduced from being the Rock and foundation to little more than a reference tool to account for the theological positions laid out by the clergy of every division of Christianity. That is why there are so many different positions, yet only one book. This prevents the common church-goer from ever trusting themselves to understand and apply biblical doctrine because according to the theologians, it cannot be applied at face value. There must always be this dependence upon private denominational interpretation. How often does the “laity” respond to a face value presentation of the biblical text by saying, “I’ll have to ask my pastor about that”. The concept that the scriptures are only clearly understood when filtered through the application of Greek theology is just not true. The Bible is your Father’s Word. Your Father wants you to fully understand the road that will bring you unto Him. It is sad that believers often feel so empty after the Sunday go-to-meeting ritual is over because they leave the “service” with no more biblical instruction than they came with. Their particular box of theology has, however, been confirmed and  reinforced yet again as the “right box” to be in. And so they will return for another round of the same reinforcement the next time.               If everyone could learn from the Teacher directly, the clergy/laity system would fall apart and the people would be set free to minister to one another as fellow citizens of the commonwealth of Israel. The function of the      body of Messiah would be restored with Him alone as the Head. The body would then understand why it is written, “Lean not on your own under-standing, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path”. Often the pastors of religious groups are little more than strangers to most of the people, maintaining a comfortable distance from the unlearned masses of the “laity”. Often, the relationships are kept impersonal between the assembled attendants as well. The Hebraic familial kinship that should be present in an assembly calling itself the “Israel of God ” is rarely seen. The true Head, Christ, is very personally connected to His body and desires His body to be intimately interactive with each other. This connection and  interaction directed by Him, submitting yourself under His yoke, allowing Him to change your heart and complete His work in your inner most being can have but one result. You will walk as He walked and love like He loved. You as His body should not then do anything contrary to the will of Him as the Head. Using this analogy, if your physical body began to behave differently than your brain told it to, you would instantly know there was something awfully wrong and desire to correct it. What has happened over the centuries and through the dark ages is that the rightful Head of the body, the Messiah of Israel, has been cunningly replaced by a Greco-Roman catholic “Church system” and its esteemed gentile “clergy”. Christ’s body, once referred to as the “church” or the “called out ones”, has fallen into the trap of the Pharisees that Yahshua and  Paul so adamantly warned us against. The average believer no longer defines himself as “the church” in which  Yahshua dwells. Rather he believes he must “go to” the “house of the Lord” when he IS the “the house of the Lord”. He no longer feels the importance of living to do the will of Him who called him out of bondage to stand before His presence and to hear His voice. Some do not even realize that they are supposed to be “the called out ones”. We have been so deprived of scriptural  equipment that many do not know what we are called out for. We are called out or set apart as His bride, to enter into the covenant agreement of mutual faithfulness in marriage to Him alone as was the instruction of the Good      Shepherd. Due to this ignorance concerning the covenant relationship, many are instead adulterously trying to maintain appearances of religion before men. This is what the Pharisees were about, establishing their own righteousness in total ignorance of the righteousness of God. (Rom.10:3)           The energizing Spirit and Life of the body is in His Word.(Ps.119:172) Jesus said “My words are Spirit and they are Life”.(John 6:63) It is not surprising that a body that is deprived of the personal nourishment of the bread of Life and the water of the Word, has no gumption, no fire, no zeal for His instruction in truth and has turned its attention towards men pleasing. It is no different than the Pharisaic religious system of Judaism which has always told its converts that “if you will submit to our religious protocol and do what we say, then you will receive our approval and thereby you may consider yourself okay with the Big Guy upstairs. Never mind about what He has said about doctrines and commandments of men. Whatever you read about that, you must filter through theological interpretations.” Men will always be glad to tell you what to think about YHWH’s written Word. It doesn’t matter whether you follow the Pharisees or Pastor Bob or Father Antonio, the end result is the same, you are not following scripture, the Word made flesh in Messiah. Anything that men teach must, if you are wise  like a Berean, be put to the test of lining up with the whole counsel of God, as Paul taught us to “Prove (test) all things”.         From the first century on the enemy has sent his wolves to devise religious forms that devour the sheep. Satan doesn’t care which lies you believe as long as you’re kept far from the truth. Truth is by definition fixed and immovable. Religious forms appear to put forth different “versions” of  so-called truth. This ought to be a clue to us that something is amiss. The first century model was seen at Pentecost when the disciples were “all in one accord”. When all are in submission to the Father and His Spirit revealed in His Word, no one thinks himself to be greater than another, but sees the      potential for each individual to be empowered by the same manifested Spirit of YHWH in truth. Men, who seek spiritual allegiance for themselves or for their particular theology, corrupt the ability for the common person to access the freedom that the Father has revealed by His Word in His Son.        When you look closely at history, anyone can see plainly that today’s Protestantism is just a lighter outgrowth of Catholicism. Systematized religion has always been one of the three-fold tools of government power. There have always been the political, economic and religious aspects which work together to control the populous of any nation, mind, body, and spirit. The religious institutions insist upon submission to the political power no matter how vile and the political arm in turn rewards the religious leadership for this function. Today we see this in the tax exempt 501C3 corporate filing rules that dictate to religious “shepherds” and organizations what they can and cannot do and say. Likewise, the economic power and stability of world empires have, throughout history, been inextricably determined by the religious systems in place, through the practice of the religious customs, festivals and financial support structuring. Rome devised Catholicism as a means to reign in the people’s singular devotion to the God of Israel and to stealthily reestablish the customs, festivals and priesthood of the more  merchandising and pantheistic pagan system that had worked so well prior to the influence of the teachings of the Hebrew Messiah or “King of the Jews”. The God of Abraham teaches an economic and political system that, if left unchallenged, would have eventually lead to the demise of the empire under Roman control. In order to reintroduce the more favorable pagan and  “universal” religious practices among the gentiles after two centuries of unsuccessful attempts to destroy this Hebraic authority through persecutions, Roman Catholicism was devised. It successfully reinvented the figure of the Hebrew Messiah to mix nicely with the pagan world practices and festivals. It simultaneously and through the usage of Greek theology, familiar to the the dominant gentile culture, managed by the fourth century to easily divorce      Jesus/Yahshua from Israelite history and His Hebrew identity. Many today have a western caricature image of Jesus made more like a gentile Greek than the One who was prophesied from Genesis to Malachi to be King of Israel. Rather than being “Judaized” by the Pharisaic religion, the believing world was inevitably “Catholicized” by the Greco-Roman gentile religion, which is the same animal with a different skin. Again, Satan doesn’t care which lies you believe as long a you’re kept far from the truth. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you FREE. Judaism was about bondage and oppression and murderous retribution to those who would not submit. Catholicism bore the same fruit. They grew from the same seed and have the same root. Neither are founded upon the Rock of scripture.         The truth that Messiah revealed and magnified is that you have no need that any man teach you, if the Spirit of truth abides in you, as that same Spirit teaches you, you will abide in Him according to 1Jn. 2:27. YHWH has given abundant warning over and over about grievous wolves among the sheep that intentionally turn the truth of God into a lie. Now, I’m not saying there aren’t well-meaning preachers on some of those elevated platforms, but even well-meaning people are capable of being deceived by the traditions  they inherited. One of those inherited lies is that the greatest among you should stand on the elevated platform used by Greek philosophers in first century paganism and administer traditional spiritual programming at a safe distance from the “unlearned” masses. Jesus taught the very opposite saying  the greatest among you will be everyone’s humble servant. He also said not to lord ourselves over one another like the “gentiles”do, which means “heathens”, by the way. See Mark 10:42-45.           We are to test all things according to His Word. Did Jesus teach Catholicism? Protestantism? Denominationalism? Did He practice Judaism? No! He taught the Truth and walked in it! He magnified the truth for the world to see so that they too could be FREE to serve the Father as He served      the Father. At no time do we see Messiah submitting Himself to the authority of men until the time came to be offered up. Even then His submission was to the Father’s will and not to the will of man. Truth is only what the Father says it is and therefore cannot become an “ISM” of man.         Jesus did not teach American Christianity. He did not speak King James English. He never presented salvation as being an instantaneous moment of decision and prayer. He would blister the walls with His words in this  Laodicean generation. See Rev. 3:14-22. We need to know our Savior by listening to Him instruct us. He was a Hebrew of the tribe of Judah, descended from David who was the King over all Israel before the nation was divided and scattered because of idolatry. His mission was to regather the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to make one new fold out of all who would hear His doctrine. Jesus had a history rooted in the Word of YHWH, His Father, whose doctrine He preached. The religion that he rebuked was not pagan heathenism, but Judaism for the expressed reason that Judaism was associating itself with the Mighty One of Israel. The Bible says that the name of YHWH was blasphemed among the gentile “heathens” because of the Pharisees false representation of the one true Father and what He requires  of His people. Israel was called out to be a light to the gentiles. Instead they (the religious Jews occupying Judea in the first century) made gentile  converts twice the sons of hell (the destroyer) as themselves in order to hold onto their Roman appointed religious offices maintained through the compromised symbiotic relationship between the state and the administration of the man-made religious “system” of Judaism. For the last two thousand years, Roman paganism has been guilty of the same sin as the Pharisees in associating itself with the character and authority of the God of Israel while climbing into bed with governments and holding man-made religious forms higher than the Word of Elohim. Judgment will always begin with the people of God. He is beginning the work of calling out those who have an ear to hear His voice and believe it. See Rev.18:2-4.              We all know that Catholicism did not and does not represent the character of the Most High, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob any better than Judaism has done, yet we have somehow come to accept her mixed and mingled offshoots as true to the faith once delivered to the saints. History would beg to differ. The Scriptures emphatically testify to the contrary. Protestantism says God only wants you to go to church for an hour on Sunday at the least, pay tithes of money to the preacher and the building fund, obey all the laws of man, but certainly not all the laws of God, be a generally good person by the general standards of those around you, and all will go well with you, you’re saved after all, AMEN. Does this sound like a summary of the Bible to you? Does this sound like the dynamic life-giving faith of Him who parted the Red Sea and judged the earth all at once when the fountains of the deep burst open? I shudder to think that I once sat there believing that there was nothing more to life in Messiah than going to church and putting on airs with people who had never darkened my doorstep and probably would never know my full name. This never looked like the close brotherly love that seemed to knit believers together under persecution in the  Bible. It seems to me that being joint-heirs with Christ is supposed to involve suffering with Him against the enmity that is in the world. See Rom.8:17 and 2Tim.3:12. I can’t see how anyone could ever be persecuted for what little is required by the shepherds of today’s religious system. There appears to be little significant enmity between this religious structure and the world. Christians are no longer easily distinguished from the unbelievers. The cultures have blended until it seems everything is a peculiar shade of grey. This is obviously not the fruit of the good tree.         I don’t know about you, but I consider myself a Hebrew because I have “crossed over” to the faith of Abraham, the first Hebrew. I am grafted into the commonwealth of Israel by adoption. I am one with the olive tree that was planted by YHWH’s mighty hand and nourished by its root, the word of the covenant of salvation which has always been available to the gentile      world through the YHWH’s proposal to the “overcomer” called Israel. See the stories of Rahab and Ruth, Esther 8:17 and Rom.2:29. My Messiah was born a Jew and He and His Father spoke Hebrew and understood the meaning of words as defined within the concrete, agriculturally rooted Hebrew language structure. The only Words of God that anyone knew in the first century were those of the Hebrew scrolls which had three categories, the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Law is also called the Pentateuch, for the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy. The Prophets are obviously comprised of the books that bear the prophets’ names. The Writings are all the wisdom writings along with the books which record Israel’s history and interactions with the gentile nations. I say all that to say, that there is no way to come to an accurate comprehension of  the “new covenant”, Jesus’ words or anyone’s words in the N.T. if you don’t first read and understand the beginning of the book as it is written for our understanding.(Rom. 15:4, Prov.16:23) Believing otherwise is like believing you can solve a puzzle knowing full well you’re missing 100 pieces or watching the last quarter of a movie and saying you can comprehend the  whole plot or saying you can give a correct answer to a math equation with only numbers and no symbols. You get the idea. Yet, the conquering theologians beginning at Rome have been doing this for two thousand years. The incredible thing we must admit is that the masses of religious people have literally approved of this illogical nonsense for as long as its been sold to them.          There is a prophecy in Jeremiah 16:19 which says,” O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.” I know that the prophets say that knowledge will increase in the last days, that there will be a global famine of hearing YHWH’s Word, that people will not endure sound doctrine, that scoffers will abound, and that the Spirit of Elijah will return before the great and terrible day of YHWH, etc, etc. These all seem to be      happening simultaneously today, in our day. The Spirit of Elijah is the Spirit which says, “Repent, return to your first love, be wise, don’t say He will delay in coming, get your lamp AND your oil.” Now the has come when the true worshippers will worship in Spirit and in Truth and by this they will be separated from the chaff. The lamp is His Word of Instruction. The oil is the Spirit which breathes life into the Word. The two must be together in order to give Light to your path. It is so important to know the scriptures, to learn of who the Bridegroom is according to His Word. Knowledge is increasing today because we need to know many things. Our Father desires to equip His children to stand in the evil day. (Eph. 6:13)        So what does any of this long diatribe have to do with all that “Jewish stuff”? To give an answer, it is important that you test your Greek  “theology” in the lamplight of YHWH’s Word. You will find that what gentile “theologians” have abolished as Jewish “stuff”, is really the instruction of “our Father”. It is His “stuff”. Judaism is a man-made religion that violates the law of YHWH. That is why Paul called it “bondage” and “disobedience to the truth”. Jesus prayed for the truth to sanctify His disciples saying to the Father, “Thy Word is truth”. The Jews nor Judaism have ever had exclusive rights to God’s marriage covenant. This is another Catholic fallacy.        Without going too deeply into a history lesson, just understand this and check out Israelite history. YHWH’s word is synonymous with a perpetual decree, law, His righteousness, His commandments. Psalm 119 demonstrates that these words are definitely interchangeable in terms of meaning. God’s Word, decree, or Law is what keeps the sea from going past its borders. It is what causes the sun to rise and set. He is the author of the Laws of Physics. If you can change or annul the law of gravity, then it isn’t an actual LAW. His word had gone forth from the very beginning by His “spoken” voice, though not written down until Israel tempted Him in the wilderness at Mt. Sinai. Adam knew it, Cain and Abel knew it, so did Noah and Abraham. It      was offered to a “mixed multitude” after the Exodus, not just biological Israelites, but all 12 tribes and the strangers or “gentiles” that were among them. The Law only took on written form because the people refused to HEAR the voice of their Redeemer. They asked to be allowed to listen to natural men instead and YHWH gave them what they asked for to teach them many lessons about oppression and freedom and disobedience and faithfulness. After Solomon corrupted himself, the nation of Israel was divided, ten tribes to the north and Judah (Jews) and Benjamin to the south. By the time Yahshua/Jesus arrived, the tribe of Judah had developed a man-made religion through the Babylonian exile and now perpetuated it throughout Judea and the Roman world. Many of the scattered Israelites still lived around Judea, in Samaria, Galatia, and parts of Asia. The woman at the  well, for example knew that Jacob was her ancestor too. The Jews looked upon these divorced Israelite “gentiles” as dogs. Messiah even made this  apparent in a statement He made to one of them. The point is that all Jews are Israelites by birth, but all Israelites are NOT JEWS. That is one of those missing puzzle pieces. Spiritual Israel is another subject altogether. And the covenant at Mt. Sinai was offered to multitudes of people who were not Israelites at all, whether of Judah or otherwise.        It is my very biblical position and faith that YHWH is smarter than I am and smarter than the most learned seminary student. His Spirit quickens anyone’s understanding that He chooses. Humility on the part of the recipient helps. His sheep hear His voice and a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him. His sheep cleave to Him for their LIFE. So to sum it all up, the commandments aren’t “Jewish stuff”. They’re “Maker of heaven and earth stuff” and “every Word of God stuff”. Don’t trust in the theology of men! God’s ways are NEVER bondage. They are freedom to walk in the light and not be overcome by darkness. If you obey the law to not run a red light, does that make for liberty or oppression? You wouldn’t call this restriction bondage? All of YHWH’s ways are to preserve and protect LIFE.      They are higher than our ways because He can see from the highest vantage point what calamity would occur if His decrees were not established forever. You don’t have to know initially why the law is there, you just have to have faith enough in His Word to walk in it. He will not lie to you. As you walk, He reveals His love for you and teaches you how His word allows you to remain free of the snares of idolatry that are in the world. That’s all. It really is that simple. He will teach you line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, if you come to Him as a little child, humble and ready to listen. His grace is sufficient for you as you learn to walk in His righteousness according as it is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH.” See Deut. 8:3 and Matt. 4:4.

A Bit of My Testimony Written To A Facebook Friend

Shabbat Shalom! Michael,

 
I don't spend a lot of time on facebook. I have four homeschooled children, a part-time job, etc to keep me plenty busy. I so wanted to reply to your message. It is always a blessing to meet another sojourner. Your testimony demonstrates your faith. This life is a trial as you said. I, like you, have set my eyes on passing with flying colors or at least a B+.:) if I can help it. You spoke of "truth". That is the very thing that I prayed to  receive. In fact, it's all that really matters. It is all that has lasting worth. I wanted "truth" more than anything. I nearly traded everything for it too! My awakening came beginning about five years ago. I was pregnant with my last child and only daughter. During the weeks following the sonogram that told us we would have a GIRL, my husband had a dream that the enemy was going to try to take her from us. I put it out of my mind and asked that he not talk about it. Later on during a regular prenatal checkup, I casually refused a simple yet nausiating glucose screening and was promptly told that if I didn't want to do as I was told, I needn't plan on having my baby with that doctor or any other doctor in that hospital.

    I was 32 weeks pregnant! This ultimatum took me by complete surprise and I wasn't about to surrender myself and my child to these people who could care less about discussing my opinions or values concerning our health.

  In my spirit, I heard YHVH ask a profound, yet simple question of me. He said, "Who do you trust?" Well, my honest answer was that I trusted Him. I proceeded to search out and locate an underground midwife. I couldn't understand why all of this had happened, but I knew that for whatever reason, I was more afraid of having this child in the hospital than I was of having her with no one but God at my side if need be.

    As I walked each day before she was to be born, I asked the Father why after having three healthy children in the hospital, was I now being led into what seemed to everyone around me as an extreme situation. Again, I was assured in my spirit that I would know why when she was born. My midwife lived an hour away. I called her after my second strong contraction at around 2:30 am when my husband came home from work. I could never have anticipated the speed of my labor based upon my previous three births. The midwife barely arrived in time to catch my only daughter who was born within one hour from the time of my first contraction.

   In the weeks prior to her birth, I had taken a crash course in the differences between hospital vs. home birth. What I found out, truly awakened my ability to question the construct of our whole society. I know, without a shadow of a doubt that YHVH preserved her life that morning. Had we even made it to the hospital (a 45 minute drive) that morning, she would have been rushed to ICU, placed on a respirator,  given a blood transfusion and any other intervention that would have allowed them to say they had done all that they could. She did not breath immediately at birth. The waters were dark with meconium. She came so fast, she must have been in shock.

  The midwife gave her CPR and was visibly unnerved. She handed her to me. With a shaky voice, she said, "Talk to your baby." While everyone attending seemed frightened, I had a perfect peace I cannot describe. I simply held her and spoke her name, saying "Emma, all is well, all is well." She pinked up, chirped a bit as if to say," What's the big deal, I'm here aren't I?" She weighed nine lbs. six oz. The biggest of all! The people at church seemed to shun my talking of it as the miraculous event that it was. Little did I know, I would not be in "church" much longer and that I would find that most of them were not at all my spiritual family anyway.

  The next thing to hit me square between the eyes was a local pirate radio station broadcast about the Trade Center attacks. Oh my! That information knocked me off my feet, caused 18 months of insomnia, with my rear planted in a chair in front of the computer trying to disprove this crazy but convincing conspiracy theory. I prayed for truth, right? The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The truth is we have an enemy that roams about seeking whom he may devour through deceptions if not by our own rebellion.

  He doesn't appear as dark and sinister, he appears as the expert, as the trusted institutions and governing administrations of this world system. His methods are polished and appear as necessary. I didn't really understand the wickedness in high places concept before coming face to face with TRUTH. It has a way of defining lies as well. It divides houses, as you know well. It pierces the heart and brings our convictions and what we love to the surface. It transforms those people, who will let it, into peculiar people.

  I figure we are like watchmen on the wall for those who are not yet awake to the world around them. My husband and I tried to talk about the things we were finding with our pastor. he ignored us for six months before finally claiming the "rapture" would happen before anything bad happened here in America and that we needed to come back to church and be quiet.

   I had already discovered the origins of the "rapture" theory and knew that no generation before has been exempt from tribulations of all sorts. America is no different. The "Left Behind" idea was only 150 years old and I'd better not count on it.

   My husband and I became political activists for a couple of long years, meeting so many amazing, educated and bold people. I never knew people existed who were so passionate about truth before. Yet, for me, so much in the political arena is rigged and financially out of reach that I soon realized this is not the way to overcome evil.

   I had been searching the scriptures for some time with my mother's Strong's concordance. But when I discovered E-sword.....everything began to come into focus. What took 2 hours to discover with a Strong's book and one-word searches, I could accomplish in 15 minutes with whole phrases. Wow!
 
  My husband was already a history buff and I had begun to dig into the history of Protestantism and the Catholic influences on our faith. E-sword could answer questions as fast as we could ask them.The sign of the covenant came first into my practice. But my husband wasn't exactly keeping pace with me on the spiritual revelations I was having and the conclusions I was coming to. He grew up in our small town and I think he wasn't sure how he could live here with such radically different beliefs about literally everything that everyone else held as "normal". I felt almost like he blamed me somehow for where we were in our understanding at that time. It was disturbing to look around and have absolutely no one to validate your thoughts or to relate to what was happening as our paradigm shifted quite completely.

   YHVH began giving us like-minded friends to fill the void we didn't think could be filled in our rural Alabama town. One family was only a 5 minute drive from our house and two more families were within 20 miles. That is another story of a miracle. All because I bought a dairy goat from a lady who was a good listener. She lived 40 miles away and knew a family that lived 100 miles from her who knew my brother and sister in Yeshua who live over the hill from me. I had never heard the word "messianic" before and don't necessarily adhere to the labeling now, but these were my people, lovers of truth. They were right on time! I was about to be tested again.


    My husband and I had constant contentions and strife over his relationship with alcohol for all of our 15 year marriage. As I turned more and more to the Word for instruction, he dove deeper into the bottle. All my years of trying to earn, then beg, then demand his sobriety and love finally disintegrated into something that I could no longer control. I finally let go of him and any hope of restoration of what was lost. As I gave him up and packed up, he put himself into a 6 month faith-based treatment facility leaving us penniless and on our own. Amazingly YHVH provided in ways that I never could have foreseen. He lined up work for a 12 year stay at home mom within the first week that paid over $1000. His provision multiplied over the course of those months. We should have lost everything, but five months later, our finances were stable. Rusty returned home sober, with a job, with a solid desire for the will of God in his life, and has now been sober for two long years. Everyday that is still a miraculous event. He is daily astounding me with the wisdom and calming assurance that he has acquired from YHVH to care for his family, traits that were not there at all for 15 years that I've known him.

  I, like you, desire to do the will of Him who has called me out of darkness and into his marvelous light. I just want you to be encouraged today and to know that you have a friend indeed down here in Alabama. Your 'Getting Started' page on your blog is just the sort of thing that is needed for those who are diligently seeking the Elohim of Israel from all the nations where they have been scattered. I will promote it. I have started my own blog more as a place to write and to store my writing. I work on the computer and run a household, so I currently only have one article on there. I have more  than that I have written but haven't had time to upload it yet. Please visit and share your thoughts. http://www.awakeoisrael.blogspot.com

  I love Sabbath for the rest and refreshment of true fellowship. It is my delight to have made your acquaintance,dear brother. I am reading a book right now that you may find interesting. It is by Jacques Ellul, a French professor of history and sociology and an expertise in Roman law,born in 1912, also author of some 40 books. This one is a later work entitled "The Subversion of Christianity",published in 1985 just before the American messianic "movement" really began. It fascinates me when I find others who see so many of the same things I can see and I am so less educated than they. That is YHVH's doing and it is marvelous in my eyes.

Talk to you soon, I hope,

                  Sunny

How well do you know your Scriptures?

  I was 32 years old before I realized that going to church does not automatically verse you in biblical knowledge. Denominational (meaning 'divisional') doctrines of men, yes, but not the pure Word of God as revealed by the Spirit and Truth. What manifested this to me was the moment I began to see the problem with denominational-ism and the way that men go about cherry picking passages of scripture to proof text their own religious dogma to the point that they are unable to give an honest studied answer to genuine biblical questions to those seeking to resolve a seeming contradiction. The point of questioning religious theology or dogma is the point at which a truth seeking person will most likely get the right foot of dis-fellowship. The "church" in the denominational framework cannot reconcile its own doctrines with the Word of God and is too religiously puffed up to admit it and repent. That is why the Revelation says to "Come out of Her My People". And so I did.

  I came out and took up the Word of the Creator of the Universe and began to sit at His feet with my questions. The first one was "What is Truth?" Jesus said he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. What is Truth? Is it one, is it absolute, is it constant throughout all time? Does it evolve? Can it change according to the will of man? That was all I started with. I was so determined with tears and at all cost to know this one thing for a certainty. I knew if I could identify truth and it were unshakably constant, then it would be my Rock to build upon and I could put forth all my heart's effort to search for it. I could then pocket every piece of it like a gemstone knowing full well that no matter what falsehood I encountered in this life, I would not be deluded or deceived because I had the genuine article to check it by right inside my pocket. 

    I thank my sweet mother for giving me her Strong's Concordance and giving me the example of a child-like spirit.She was so real with her heavenly Father. She fell upon that Rock with all her shortcomings, and was broken. You see, I realize today, that brokenness is what we need in this life much more than self-esteem. It was the fruit produced by the last Great Revival that swept through America in the 1800s.Until we are broken, we cannot be made new. Just read Matthew 21:44. In context, this seems to point to the means by which we ourselves can become fruitful. Like the ground needs to be broken for seeds to germinate and produce. I want to be bearing fruit for the kingdom. It is vanity to think that I deserve worldly esteem or that I should seek the comfort of my flesh. I owe it to the One who purchased my life to serve Him no matter what it costs me here. I recognize I am not promised any glory in this world, only life and peace and rest for my soul. (See Matt. 11:29, Rom. 8:6) In plain language, Jesus explained to us that we would encounter suffering for His name (His true character) which must be unarguably founded upon truth. (See John 15:19 and Luke 6:22)  That said, I want to share what the Scriptures reveal about "Truth". 

   I remembered having read before in the Gospels where Jesus was praying to our Father for His disciples and also all those who would come to believe in future generations. He said "Sanctify them with thy truth, thy Word is truth". (John 17:17)  Well now, there was something to go on. I then remembered that song I had sung for years in church, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path". That would make sense for "Truth" to be synonymous with God's Word. Truth is what lights the path before our feet. I got my Strong's to work to see if the song was from Scripture and lo and behold it was. I was shocked to find it located in the heart of the most unread Psalm of David, Psalm 119. It appeared to me that to David, God's Word was a term used interchangeably as a reference to the law and the testimony of God. So now here I am, first I wanted to specifically find the meaning of truth and now it appears I do not know specifically how to define what is the Word of God. It is true that the more we learn, the more we realize we don't know.

    My next step was to find out if the word "truth" is mentioned in Psalm 119 at all. Lo and behold :) sure nuff! Psalm 119:142 says "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is TRUTH." Huh???  In all my Christian experience, I had never heard this. I had heard the LAW denigrated and said to be "done away" with. The law was always presented as something we don't need to know about because it is irrelevant to our salvation in Jesus. I was confused. Jesus obviously knows what He is talking about when He asked our Father to sanctify us by His truth. My search continued to bring more questions than answers at this point. What does it mean to be sanctified? And does that at all have any relevance to the law of God which I had never studied? 

   Well, as this is my first blog of many to come, I will cut to the chase here. And I hope you will come again to visit and to read more about my quest for truth and my awakening as I am able to share it in detail with those who are searching. 

   This is the best conclusion I can give for what I have discovered. It is a travesty that the Bible is divided into two parts and then to add insult to injury, those parts have been labeled "OLD" and "NEW". This is a product of the Roman Empire and linear Greek thinking. It would have been less injurious if the one had been  labeled "The Hebrew Scriptures" and the other, although ridiculously inaccurate, simply "The Gentile Scriptures". After all that is the way we have been taught to see the Bible. Judaism claims to believe the law and the prophets but denies the testimony that Messiah has come --- that's "Old". Christianity claims to believe that the Lion of Judah has come but can't tell a Jew why because they deny the relevancy of the law and the prophets ----that's "New".  What my search has revealed to me is that the Bible is ONE book, not two, that there is ONE God, not two, and that both Jew and Gentile are ONE in Messiah, partaking of the richness of the olive tree, Israel, restored in Messiah Yeshua aka Jesus the Christ. Thankfully, I am not the only one seeing this today though it felt like I was at the time the veil was lifted from my eyes.

    The thought occurred to me one day that there is no way to interpret Jesus' words outside of the context of Hebrew scriptural definitions because there was no "new" or different or gentile scriptures when He referred to the Word of God.They would not be a written reference point for anyone to use for nearly two hundred more years. Not only that, but the prophets testify that God does not lie and that if any man speaks not according to the law and the testimony, there is no light in him. (see Num. 23:19 , Isa. 8:20) That ought to strike us as odd. God wouldn't say something so plainly like that and then send us His own Son and all of the apostles and teachers only to contradict Him. In fact, he promises that He won't do anything unless He tells us first by the mouth of His prophets. Jesus said that prophecy is given so that when we see those things come to pass, we might believe. It is the strongest evidence upon which our faith must stand or fall. Either the God of Creation is outside of time and can tell us the end from the beginning or He changes and we cannot be sure of Him or His actions or His knowledge for our lives. In order to say we have faith in Him, we must believe wholeheartedly that His Word is invariable. For me, world history proves it without a shadow of doubt.I can trust Him to lead me in the straight and narrow way.

       Having studied and compared both divisions of the Bible in context for about five years now, I have discovered many little-known and amazing things written in the Hebrew Scriptures concerning the "gentiles" and innumerable evidences of God's faithfulness to the Hebrews written in the "Gentile Scriptures". So why the disconnect? Why are there so many religious factions? I believe they are a fulfillment of prophecy as it is written beginning in Deut. chapter 29. But now the time has come for the promised regathering of what was scattered.The two sheep folds are being made into one NEW fold. But the factions must be broken before a new thing can be made.  As access to knowledge increases in these last days, we are seeing God's children beginning to seek to distinguish truth from lies and to resolve scriptural difficulties that were once only the domain of the learned priest. As it is written in the Proverbs, "Buy the truth and sell it not, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. A prophecy is also coming to fruition that foretells of  the day of affliction when the gentiles shall come unto Yahweh of Hosts and say " Our fathers inherited lies and vanity and things that do not profit." (See Jer. 16:19) 

       The "old" and "new" testaments fit together like a hand and a glove. But the Hebrew Scripture is the hand and not the other way around. We have been taught to read our Bibles backwards, often forming our own definitions for words where ever they are not supplied inside our  "new" testament frame of reference. But when your encyclopedic dictionary is the Hebrew Scriptures, as it was for the Bereans who received praise from Paul, you will find light shining on the pages of the "new" testament like you never would have thought possible. The glove (N.T.) must never deny the hand (O.T.) or it will collapse for lack of substance. With that analogy in your mind, the "New" testament must conform itself entirely to the shape and depth of the Hebrew Scriptures or God must be accused of lying. We as believers must not deny the truthfulness of His promises. We must learn what the law and the prophets say and be washed by the water of the Word as it is revealed to us through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. We must cast off the notion that the law is SIN. God said the law is TRUTH. We must learn the scriptural definition of sin. (See 1Jn. 3:4, Ps. 32:1) Whoever defines the words interprets the text. 

    I will finish this up by sharing a couple passages of prophecy that really caused me to become detached from looking to church pastors for answers. I wonder how many of them have never read these. There is a good reason why Jesus often asked the religious men of His day, "Have you not read???" Several times in the N.T. it stated that the Pharisees did not know the scriptures. That was the problem with their theology. It is no different today. Too many of our so-called leaders are "dumb dogs", loving filthy lucre more than truth. There is an interesting prophecy concerning Jesus that I found and that you will never hear read in the pulpits of 95% or more of Christian churches. It is this."The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable." (See Isa. 42) You will not find anything to the contrary in prophecy. (See Isa. 42) Then in Isaiah 56:6-8  God gives promises to the strangers or the "gentiles" who take hold of the covenant and keep the Sabbath. If God's Word is not synonymous with His Testimonies penned by His chosen Prophets, His Law/ Instructions, His Way or cycles of righteousness, and His Truth as Yeshua expounded upon them and gave us His example, then the Bible is without any other definition, plain and simple. I welcome comments and questions on the subject so long as everyone understands that the body needs collaborators in the search for TRUTH.