Things the "Church" Doesn't Want You to Know

Introduction

            I have written about 38 books and published 18 of them this year online at a site that allows such things absolutely free if one is able to format them to the site's standards. It took me a while to figure out that site's parameters, but it was worth every second of my time to learn that. Out of all the things YHWH (pagan translation "God") has placed on my heart to write about, I firmly believe this one is the most crucial to communicate to the millions who have been or are going to be taken down the long road to eternal damnation, many of whom are loved ones and relatives of my beloved wife and me. I met my beloved helpmate just after I began following Yeshua, at one of the millions of pagan shrines called churches by today's liberal and conservative followers of Jesus (not Yeshua). I guess I had best clarify some very basic things before I proceed any further. For nearly all of the 40 plus years I have claimed that I am a follower of Yeshua,  though I called Him Jesus. I also called YHWH, the creator of the universe, God. I did not observe Shabbat, the only biblical day of rest ever observed by true followers of Yeshua ha'Meshiach (in liberal "Christian' circles aka Jesus Christ). I had an extremely difficult time in every single "church" (used hereafter to refer to the post-modern shrines and their members) my wife and I attended. I could never understand why that was so. I could not grasp the level of ineptitude and ignorance of scripture held by all but one of the pastors of those unholy temples for the 40 years we visited.  We even joined a few and I served as pastor, elder, interim pastor, teacher, associate pastor, youth pastor, and host in many of them.

            Inevitably, after a few months of being in leadership, I was unable to continue with the lies, deceptions, and pilfering of funds and fleecing of the flock I presumed was YHWH's flock. I had my most recent falling out with the pastor and elders of a Southern Baptist group in the community where I live. Once I discovered he was fleecing the flock of thousands of dollars each year and that he downloaded all of his sermons from the internet, I challenged him, first privately, and then publicly. To my utter dismay and surprise, the flock I thought was sheep could not have cared less. I left that church and spent the next two years studying the word of YHWH more intensely than I already had for the past 38 years.

            Praise YHWH for that, because in the past two years I have come to some rather startling and spiritually revolutionary ideas for me at last, most of which I had already considered and passed over in the years prior to this last falling out with the traditional church. I have no excuse for ignoring them, but my reason is simple. I was unable to find anyone in this known world who agreed with my thinking on the two or three issues with which I was being confronted by YHWH, so I thought I was imagining things. I have always believed if any insights I think I am getting from YHWH have no support from anyone else on this entire planet, they are suspect. Satan and his minions are extremely clever and I have made sure not to allow myself to become enraptured with truths that appear to only be considered that by me. While I confess and know full well YHWH does not need any approval of any man to be right, I tremble at the thought He would reveal something to me that He has not revealed to any other living human being on planet earth.

            Well, as I have already hinted, in the past two years, as I have exchanged ideas and insights with friends in the social media, I have discovered there are great multitudes around the world who have received the very same insights. Therefore, because I have an audience here in my community and in the social circles where I function, I thought it important that I share these eternal truths from YHWH's word that possibly my loved ones and relatives might read and thus come out of the false church, referred to in Revelation 17 as "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF WHORES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." I will be dealing with five topics in this study: 1. the seven Feasts of the Covenant; 2. Shabbat; 3. the biblical diet; 4. New Moon Shabbats; 5. the Sacred Names for divinity. Thus, there will only be five chapters to the study, but there will be many sub topics that I will have to cover to explain each of those five. I have researched and written already on all of these topics, but I have not put them together in one study. To re-iterate, I believe it is absolutely crucial that I do so now, because I fear great multitudes are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire and brimstone for their failure to understand and observe those things that are not optional for any true follower of Messiah. I beseech anyone who is reading this to spend hours and, if necessary months, checking anything I claim with scripture.  I do not expect anyone to accept without question anything I write, much less the five topics that are so diametrically opposed to all the contemporary, traditional, post-modern pastors of today's churches are teaching.

            I am suggesting that all of the main stream pastors, of which John MacArthur, J. Vernon McGee (now deceased), Allistair Begg, Todd Friel, R.W. Glenn, Chuck Swindoll, all of the Lynchburg Baptist group, and the great multitudes of conservative, evangelical, bible thumping, preachers, most of whom I have listened to for decades, are at best failing to preach some of the most basic and essential doctrines of scripture. At worst they are deliberately attempting to deceive people into believing things that are simply not true. It is likely because they all got their training at theological institutions that would have been just as useful if they had been institutions for the mentally insane, that they preach only those things they learned at those institutions. One has to ask himself, why, if that is true,  did those institutions fail to deal accurately with the historical and biblical evidence. I will take two chapters to deal with the two major reasons that occurred. Yeshua made several things absolutely clear in one statement, "Yeshua said to his talmidim, 'It is impossible that snares will not be set. But woe to the person who sets them! ² It would be to his advantage that he have a millstone hung around his neck and he be thrown into the sea, rather than that he ensnare one of these little ones.'" (Luke 17:1-2) 

            First, there will be many snares set. They won't come accidentally. Satan and his minions are fast at work setting trap after trap and they are rather easily catching the unsuspecting, ignorant, unlearned, unfaithful to study, goats running frantically around from one false prophet to the next, seeking to hear something to soothe their weary souls. Second, the person whom Satan uses to deceive the masses is in deep doodoo. And I don't mean to be flippant about those people's plight. It seems to me there are three different kinds of teachers I think scripture addresses: 1. Those who know well they are deceiving the goats; 2. those who have failed to do their homework, and are thus unwittingly deceiving the goats and some of the sheep. The thousands of seminary graduates from the overwhelming majority of mainstream seminaries fit into this group; and 3. those who are the faithful and true slaves of YHWH who are being diligent to study to show themselves approved and accurately teaching the word of YHWH. An easy way to recognize those in the first two groups is that they seldom suggest they might be wrong. They frequently make statements they simply cannot prove in scripture, but they claim are true because they came to the conclusions after years of study and prayer. Most of the mainstream pastors to whom I have listened for decades use that tack. And it seems the longer they are preaching, the more likely they are to begin faltering toward the end of their ministries. It seems they run out of things to razzle and dazzle their congregations, so they seem to have a need to find truths no one just studying diligently can find. Finally, we learn from Luke's account of Yeshua's warning, the one who purposely sets those snares would have been better off had he not been born.

            Beloved, if such truth doesn't make you tremble in your boots, you really do have cause to wander if you are one of Messiah's sheep, most especially if you are one who claims to be a teacher of His inspired word. I refuse to allow anyone to consider me an expert on any biblical topic. Jokingly I suggest an "ex" is a has been, and a "spert" is a little drip. Thus an "expert" has been a little drip. All kidding aside, it is treading on shaky ground to call anyone an expert on anything. There are those who have spent more time than I on many subjects, thus they know better than I do what they are talking about. That said, everyone still has more they can learn about any topic they choose to pursue. Few, if any, are unable to find anyone on the planet who does not know more than they do on a particular topic. The best I can say for myself is that I do not attempt to write on a topic until I come to the point that I believe I have sufficient knowledge about it that I can assist my brothers and sisters understand it better than they already do. And I don't bother to write about things that have no eternal significance to them. For over 40 years I have been faithful to write only on topics that have either been completely ignored by most of those claiming to be followers of Messiah, or they have been so perverted in mainstream teaching I feel the need to address them. Peruse my list of books at the end of this study and you will understand what I mean.

            I trust this introduction has whet your appetite to learn more. I pray YHWH will open the eyes of your soul and enable you to grasp and learn how to apply the truths about which you will be reading to your own life. And, most of all, I pray the many loved ones and relatives with which I have come into contact over the past 40 plus years of following Yeshua will follow His admonition as found in Revelation 18:4, "Then I heard another voice out of heaven say: 'My people, come out of her! so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not be infected by her plagues, . . .'"   Upon reading the above to my beloved helpmate of 40 plus years, she advised me of what I already knew. Most who read the first couple of paragraphs will not care to read further. I know if YHWH has not already been whispering in your soul that the church or churches you have been attending are doing something wrong that you simply can't continue to be part of, you will not be interested in reading anything I write. My writings are directed at the sheep and those who are yet to become sheep. Goats will not want to hear much of the truths their churches have refused to address for the entire time they have been participating in them. And if you don't understand the relationship between the sheep and goats, you really do need to read this study thoroughly and possibly many times (Matt. 25:31-46).

 

Chapter 1
Reason Number One (Revelation 2-3)

            In five of the seven Messianic Congregations (aka churches)  of Revelation 2 and 3 we discover Yeshua promised to remove them from being assemblies. In the chapter where I address the second reason for the problem of unbiblical teaching, I will explain why I do not choose to call any of them "churches." The historical evidence of this is clearly shown in the fact that the place where they all functioned was what we now call Turkey (we call that part of the world the near east). It is an entirely Muslim nation that claims to allow the freedom of religion, but clearly does not. Most likely none of the original seven churches continue to function today literally, but the two churches that are praised for their faithfulness are functioning and have always existed somewhere in some place in the world. The churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia remained faithful and true. I have not visited Turkey personally, so quite possibly those two do continue to exist today in that region. The fact is that the religious group of true followers of Messiah all but ceased to exist in that entire region. So, the natural question is, "What are the historical events that caused this to occur?"

            One does not have to be a historical buff or genius to get historical information with current technology. All he has to do is "Google" the topic and dozens of sites written by people who know their stuff have written will pop up. One must be careful, of course, because there are some sites that are pure bunk, but if one picks and chooses and reads articles written by several people, he can be sure he has accurate information. Upon doing the research I recommended above, you can easily learn that when the Emperor Nero acquired the office of Emperor to Rome, he had visions of a city without many of the areas he believed were not worthy of his empire. He had them set on fire and burned them to the ground, intending to rebuild them to suit his taste. When his legislature confronted him about his dastardly and un approved deed, he denied his involvement and blamed the followers of Messiah. At that time most called them followers of "The Way." As far as I am able to discover, the places and group meetings were called Messianic Assemblies, not churches. This move, of course, caused a lot of hubbub and discontent among those groups who were borderline followers of Messiah to begin with. They began denying they had anything to do with Jews because, of course, as anyone with any knowledge of scripture knows, the Messiah was a Jew and all of the initial followers of "The Way" were Jews.

            During that time, another movement began which was started to help take the focus off of the differences between churches and other pagan religions. All mainstream congregations began claiming the Messiah resurrected on the first day of the week, which of course is categorically false, and thus began meeting on that day, supposedly in honor of His resurrection. This hoax about the day Messiah resurrected has been perpetrated for nearly 2,000 years. It is based on the premise that His empty tomb was not discovered until the morning of the first day of the week. Thus, the natural conclusion is that He resurrected on that day. Of course, such reasoning is only bested by its supporters demonstrating their complete inability to think at a level above kindergarten. There is compelling evidence that the Shabbat referred to in the gospels was a hi-Shabbat, meaning it was the first day of Unleavened Bread, which could well have been the fourth day of that week (coinciding with our Wednesday). It is the only possible timetable that would have made Yeshua's statement that, "just like Yonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth" (buried/Matt.12:40) true. No one with a measurable IQ would try to convince anyone else that 36 hours is the equivalent of three days and three nights. But voila! Virtually all of mainstream Christianity has been preaching that very heresy for nearly 2000 years.

            The undeniable fact is that the hundreds of mainstream and not so mainstream denominations in existence today, which indeed includes those which claim to be independent, follow the same lame reasoning and teach the same unbiblical doctrines as the rest. Only one that I am aware of today, and it just happens to be less than two miles from our home in Montana, makes any attempt whatsoever to follow, without exception, the entire teaching of the Torah and the rest of scripture's teaching on things like the actual Hebrew names of the triune divinity and Shabbat. I'm aware of the Seventh Day Adventist movement, but it has got so many doctrinal problems the fact it observes Shabbat is overshadowed by its multitudinous heretical teachings. that acknowledged, even that denomination near me, in my humble opinion, falls far short of some critical issues like the autonomy of the local congregation, women's ordination to teach and lead churches, and the need to seek the gift of tongues as a sign of being baptized in the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). While I disagree vehemently and unwaveringly with those three doctrinal issues, I think they pale in significance when compared to the doctrine of Shabbat, celebration of biblical holy days, eating clean or unclean foods, and incorrectly addressing divinity with pagan names.

            I realize that to most, especially anyone who has not taken any time to pray about those four issues, my reasoning may seem insane. Please allow me to explain. I have only recently, in the last six or so months, been seeking a thorough understanding of those to issues. I never considered them of doctrinal importance or of eternal significance. After leaving the last mainstream church in December of 2010, I began my intense study of scripture, seeking a better understanding of why I was so at odds with mainstream Christianity. That journey has led me to the most intense and meaningful two years of study in scripture I have experienced than the previous 38 years. I began an intense study of Leviticus and the Feasts of the Lord. I also began the same intense study of biblical covenants. I discovered and began understanding scripture that had, up to this time escaped me for significance and meaning. The two issues I mentioned at the beginning of this study were the sacred names of the Creator and celebration of the seventh day Shabbat and the High Shabbats as celebrated on the days of the Feasts and New Moons. All of mainstream Christianity ignores them. I myself, believed for that 38 years, because of the teaching about such things that is going on in mainstream churches across this land, that Shabbat was legitimately moved to the first day of the week, as already explained, because that was the day Yeshua was raised from the grave. Of course, I never realized there is compelling evidence that is simply not true. And even after reading the biblical instruction about the feasts literally hundreds of times, having never studied them intently, I had no idea how they could and should be celebrated today.

            The motive for ignoring everything in scripture that is Jewish seems clear. It was a calculated, and quite successful attempt to depart from the original purpose, calling, and function of Messianic Assemblies throughout the Roman Empire. It has been so successful that literally millions, who may well be sheep, have been methodically deceived into complacency and impotence. I urge you, yea I plead with you, if you believe there is one shred of a chance what I am writing in this study might be spot on, to do your own research, get on your knees before YHWH, pray until you are totally exhausted or until you see clearly to get yourself out of BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF WHORES.

 Chapter 2
Reason Number Two

            What I am about to disclose to my readers is a truth that will challenge the biblically ignorant and completely turn off those who have just enough knowledge of scriptures to be dangerous. I consider the biblically ignorant, who know they fit into that category are those most likely to be pleasantly surprised to learn that today's post-modern churches are happy hunting grounds for demons of hell. The leaders of those post-modern shrines are, for the most part, thoroughly indoctrinated into the denominational gospel they are proclaiming. Beloved, if anyone suggests all you have to do is make an altar call and ask Jesus into your heart to be saved, beat feet out the door as fast as your feet will carry you. There is not sinner's prayer in scripture (unless you mean that everyone praying is a sinner).  Nowhere in scripture is it even remotely suggested we need to invite Jesus into our heart. To be sure, there is ample figurative language that tells us YHWH will change our heart from a heart of stone, softened to receive the knowledge of the truth. The heart is also figuratively used to refer to that part of us that responds to spiritual prompting.

            The infamous use of Revelation 3:20, a verse directed at, arguably the most seriously unbiblical church of the seven, was directed to the church at Laodicea, and has zilch to do with inviting anyone into your heart. We are told in scripture there are least six biblical things that must occur for one to be saved:
1. there has to be repentance and be immersion in the name of Yeshua (Luke 3: ; Matt. 3: ; Matthew 28:18-20; and Acts 2:38; 2); there must be a bringing forth fruit in keeping with repentance (ditto Luke  and Matthew);  3. one must believe the gospel (Mark 1:15); 4 & 5. One must confess Yeshua as Adonai and believe YHWH raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9); 6. One must take up his/her stake (or cross) daily and follow Messiah (Luke 9:23). Only when one does these things does scripture teach that ten theological events have/or will occur: 1 & 2. the event means the one doing these things has been divinely elected and predestined (Ephesians 1: 3-6); 3. he has been effectually called (Matt. 22:14); 
4. the individual's soul is regenerated (Titus 3:5);  5. the individual is granted faith and the ability to understand and repent (Acts 2:38); 6. the individual is definitively sanctified (Eph. 2:8-8, II Cor. 5:17); 7. he is adopted into the house of YHWH (Rom. 2:28-29); 8. he is justified (Romans 3:24); 9. progressively sanctified (a fancy way to refer to the maturing process); 10. and finally, instantly glorified, though he will not personally experience that glorification until he dies physically and receives his glorified body upon the return of Yeshua (Rom. 8:17, 30).  

            Though it is not necessary to understand these theological truths, they are an inseparable part of true salvation. They are all part of YHWH's incredible plan for those He has foreknown as part of His eternal flock. When I think back to my own conversion to following Yeshua, I vividly remember they were all part of my thinking, though I had no idea, from a theological perspective, what they were or that they had occurred. Like the twelve Ephesian men in Acts 19 who began speaking in tongues the moment YHWH regenerated their hearts, the elements were all present though at that moment they weren't spoken or revealed openly. There is no fire insurance gospel as so many post-modern preachers proclaim today. One cannot accept Yeshua as Savior today and make Him Lord at some time in the future. And beloved, that is why so many fail to comprehend that those who are actually part of the true flock of Messiah do not "backslide" for months or years on end and then miraculously return to the fold. First of all, there is no term that even remotely resembles the definition of "backslide" in New Covenant scripture and there are only two in all of the Old Covenant. And, within their context are not in any way connected to the concept as so many see it today. One was a reference to Israel as the backsliding nation that rejected the Torah Jer. 49:4 and the other in the Proverbs referred to the backslider who will have his fill of his own ways (Prov. 14:14).

            There are, to be sure, many who will fake it, act as if they are part of the flock, attend festivities, try to become an important part of a local "church," and even become bonafide, card carrying, cemetery gradiating (misspellings intentional), Jesus promoting goats, masquerading as sheep, fleecing the local church, and just generally stinking up the terrain around themselves.  One of the cleverest hoaxes played in the post-modern "church" is the suggestion that it began meeting on the first day of the week in honor of the day Yeshua resurrected. It is based on the presumption that if His grave was discovered empty on that day, He must have resurrected on that day. Of course, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to debunk that theory. It is also based on two poorly translated verses: Acts 20:7 reads in the NASB, "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight . . ." The literal rendering of that verse goes something like this, "in yet one of the Shabbats, having gathered the learners to break bread, Sha'ul spoke with them . . ."

            The other verse used to convince Shabbat keeping followers to change the day they rested is found in I Corinthians 16:2, which is badly translated to render, "on the first day of every week . . ." It actually says,  "according to one of the Shabbats, each of you be laying aside . . . " So, my beloved readers and those of you who are actually trying to get to the bottom of this mess, those brilliant translators, who rendered the Greek text into English even perverted that text so that it would lend support to their desire to blend in with pagans around them who were worshipping their "sun' god on SUNday.

            There is compelling evidence that Yeshua was actually crucified on the fourth day (our Wednesday) of the week and resurrected just before dusk on the seventh day as would be expected. Only that scenario fits into the prophecy Yeshua made about his own death and resurrection. Remember, He said He would be in the tomb, "Just as Noach was in the belly of the sea monster three days and three nights." No amount of extrapolation can turn 36 hours into three days and three nights. The problem with post-modern thinking is that acknowledging His resurrected occurred on the evening of the seventh day  means there is no basis for celebrating that resurrection on the first day of the week. Voila! The lie is exposed!

            Once we have exposed the nearly 2,000 year old hoax, we can move on to the biblical mandates instructing us to observe the five holy days (besides Shabbat) prescribed in the Torah.    Since Yeshua was crucified on Passover, lets begin with that one.

Chapter 3
Passover (aka The Feast of Unleavened Bread)

            Approximately 3,456 years ago the Hebrews left Egypt after 430 years of slavery under the ruthless rule of the Egyptian Pharaohs. Led by the humblest man on the planet Moshe Levi, they walked through the Sea of Reeds (aka Red Sea) on dry ground. Before they left, they celebrated the first Passover demanded by YHWH, which would later be united with a seven day feast called The Feast of Unleavened Bread. The two names came from two rituals they were commanded to observe: eating a sacrificial lamb to begin the feast on the eve of their departure; and, eating only unleavened bread for the following seven days. The sacrificial lamb, of course, was a figurative prophecy about the coming lamb of YHWH Who would be sacrificed on the anniversary of that event some 1,400 years later on a hill called Golgotha. The unleavened bread represented the sinless state of the Messiah of Yisra'el, who would be the only one in all of the history of mankind acceptable to the Father as a vicarious provision for the sins of all mankind. In Exodus 12 we read,

¹YHWH spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Egypt; he said, ² “You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you. ³ Speak to all the assembly of Yisra’el and say, ‘On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb or kid for his family, one per household — ⁴ except that if the household is too small for a whole lamb or kid, then he and his next-door neighbor should share one, dividing it in proportion to the number of people eating it. ⁵ Your animal must be without defect, a male in its first year, and you may choose it from either the sheep or the goats.

⁶ “‘You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and then the entire assembly of the community of Yisra’el will slaughter it at dusk. ⁷ They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame at the entrance of the house in which they eat it. ⁸ That night, they are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire; they are to eat it with matzah and maror. ⁹ Don’t eat it raw or boiled, but roasted in the fire, with its head, the lower parts of its legs and its inner organs. ¹⁰ Let nothing of it remain till morning; if any of it does remain, burn it up completely.

¹¹ “‘Here is how you are to eat it: with your belt fastened, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand; and you are to eat it hurriedly. It is Adonai’s Pesach [Passover]. ¹² For that night, I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals; and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt; I am YHWH. ¹³ The blood will serve you as a sign marking the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over you — when I strike the land of Egypt, the death blow will not strike you."

In my humble opinion, the tragedy of tragedies is that the overwhelming majority of New Covenant followers of Messiah have and maybe never will experience a Passover Seder. Until recently, I had only experienced one, and that was because I wanted to re-enact the holy day as it is prescribed in scripture. Of course, there is a lot left to the imagination for a Goy (Gentile graftee) who has zero cultural understanding of Hebrew method of celebrating that holy day. The biblical instruction, though not necessarily vague, is not filled with specific instructions. Having been part of dozens of traditional post-modern churches over a 38 year period, I spent all of my holidays inadvertently promoting pagan unholy days. And the kicker is that I, of all people should not have so easily led astray. I began an intense reading program instantly upon being regenerated. I began studying a minimum of 25 chapters of scripture a day, enabling me to read the bible from cover to cover over 300 times in the past forty years. It's quite a culture shock to me that I only recently (in the past two or so years) have come to realize just how deeply seeded the pagan rituals today's churches are following are.

            And, of course, that is easily traced to the movement to institutionalize YHWH and the gospel message in the form of bible colleges and seminaries. I won't take the time or space here to expose the multitudinous heresies those institutions of lesser learning are perpetuating. I have done so numerous times in most of the books I have already written. I will only point out that YHWH never ordained such foolishness, and He is under no obligation to acknowledge the many millions of "so-called," ordained pastors and teachers those institutions have graduated over the centuries. The total ineptitude I have observed from one after another of the youngsters being sent into the field to lead a "church' would be hilarious were it not so tragic. For me, the sting of such knowledge is greatly magnified in the knowledge that my own father, mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends we nearly all part of such foolishness.

            In review, there are several things Passover and The Feast of Unleavened Bread mean to us: 1. it symbolizes the delivery by YHWH of His chosen people from bondage to sin. 2. In symbolizes that the act was attended by a sacrifice of a lamb (Yeshua is the Lamb of YHWH), the placing of blood from that lamb over the doorpost of the homes of the Hebrews, identified them and separated them clearly delineated them from the Egyptians; 3. the seven days of eating unleavened bread represents the holiness of YHWH (seven is the number of perfection) and the sinless body of Messiah. He told His disciples at the last supper, "This is my body which is given for you." Critical to the entire point here is that the Hebrews were told to stop all ordinary work, go to Yerushalayim, and celebrate these holidays together as a nation. We, here in these United States of America have failed miserably regarding that part of the instruction.