What Christians miss from their church services and spiritual life

Supposed that someone said this to you:

"There is a place where they have dope in gallon buckets, have 32 foot long joints, and trip out every 12 hours with a lot of these joints! Sometimes the joints are rolled up into one big coil!"

Do you want to go find that place?

What did you think I was talking about? What came to your mind?

What I was talking about was terms used in the well drilling industry!

If you misunderstood what I said in English, then imagine how you could misunderstand an ancient language and culture, such as the language and culture of the Bible.

When we talk about the Bible and its meanings, we have to gain a better understanding of a distant people who thought in much different ways than you or I do in this modern, western world.


BUT WHY SHOULD WE LOOK AT THIS ISSUE?
Many centuries of massive persecutions and slaughters of Jews by Christians and their leaders can be traced back to major misunderstandings on part of the early church leaders from gentile and pagan background and even those who followed in later centuries. Even the Nazis used some of the Church's teachings, especially of Martin Luther, in their literature and practices against the Jews. Most of Christianity has taught that the Jews were cut off from the Lord and that Christianity is the "New Israel," the total replacement of the Jews for all promises and the Lord's intentions. There is also the "Christ-killer" accusation against the Jews, which is contradicted by some Christian writings.


ROOTS AND BRANCHES:
But in the Christian book of Romans, the 11th chapter, there is a deep discussion about roots and branches. In Romans we see that only SOME of the branches were cut off, NOT ALL. Also, the Root existed before the Christians came along, and remains intact as did a number of the branches that existed before Christianity. Some people say that the Root is only the expectation in the past that people had in looking forward to Jesus. But a look at scripture shows that there are other references by Him to a "root", which is not exactly what these Christian think. This has implications that most Christians cannot accept.

It is critical that if true Biblical knowledge understanding is to be known by Christians, people from traditional Christian backgrounds must come to a deeper understanding of the original Biblical culture and word meanings. After all, back in the early 1970s there were over 4,000 Christian denominations, groups, sections, divisions, segments, etc., and now by some recent accountings there are over 7000. Why so many differences? Who is right?

When we look at the Christian books, such as the Gospels, we find some interesting statements. In Matthew 23:1-3, Jesus, nearing the end of his life on earth, tells his disciples to do what the scribes and Pharisees tell them to do.

“Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.”

He didn't like hypocrisies, but He did like their teachings still, which is contrary to most Christian teachings. We even find that several of Jesus' teachings match up not only closely to the Pharisees' teachings that were recorded in writing and still available today, but some are just about word-for-word matched up to each other (not only in English, but very much in Biblical Hebrew).


WHY IS THIS SO SIGNIFICANT?
Church leaders have taught that these Pharisees and scribes were bad, mistaken, evil, children of the Devil, etc. But Jesus, nearing the end of his life on earth, tells his disciples to do what appears to be the opposite of what the Church says.

In another occurrence found in modern versions of Acts 26:14, Paul recounts his experience on the road to Damascus. He states that the heavenly voice spoke to him in the Hebrew language.


AND WHY IS THIS SO SIGNIFICANT?
The Church traditionally has taught that the language of Jesus was Aramaic or Greek or even Latin. Pastors, ministers, and priests have traditionally learned Koine Greek as part of their training and perhaps Aramaic, but rarely true Biblical Hebrew.

So what does it matter?

Greek is a western culture and language while Biblical Hebrew is an Eastern, Oriental culture. Greek and other Western languages tend to be very specific in the words and their meanings. Eastern languages are broader, often with a spectrum of meanings and expressions.


ARCHAEOLOGY:
Recent archaeology discoveries in Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt have shown that the common language of the Jews in Biblical times was more often Hebrew than other languages. Aramaic was used frequently, and there were some Aramaic words used in the everyday language of the Jews, just as we have Spanish and French words in our language. But the main language and thought was Hebrew. This difference is pointed out in 2 Kings 18:26, for example.

I remember when my stepfather was in a pastoral college in the Midwest. At this time, a number of these archaeological discoveries were being made in the early 1970s. The college teachers and leaders could not believe what they heard, and declared that their church had the right answers, since they really had the Holy Spirit. There was no real consideration of the value of archaeological sciences to Biblical understanding at that time.

Let's look at how this applies to Biblical and interfaith understandings.


CREATION:
The Biblical Hebrew word for day is "Yom," which is translated 53 different ways into English. Often the Semitic peoples could use "Yom" to describe one day within a complete time period, such as the reign of a king. So which meaning is the correct one to use in translating Genesis chapters 1 and 2? Remember that the solar sun and moon are not created until the fourth day, so how can there be evening and morning without the solar sun?

Even the English name of "Genesis" is misleading. Chapter 1, first verse, starts out with the Hebrew word "Beresheet" that literally means: "At first" or "When something started," but not necessarily THE absolute first time. Genesis may be a creation activity that occurred after some prior creation cycles. Also, a review of how the Semitic people tracked time is rather complex and not well understood by most pastors, priests, teachers, and theologians.


HEAVEN:
One commonly used word in Biblical Hebrew for "Heaven" is HaShamayim, which literally means, "The Waters are there." What is the real meaning of a place like that? I will let you ponder that, but now maybe you can see some deeper meaning to the Jewish practices of ritual immersion in water, the Mikveh. An official oversaw the people who walked in and out of the immersion Mikveh baths. Christians refer to this practice with the word "Baptism." Recently the archaeologists found many Mikveh at the Temple Mount, which would explain how the early Christian disciples baptized 3000 people at once in the book of Acts.

Another issue is that "heaven" was substituted for the name of the Lord, since it was considered respectful to not explicitly blurt out His name like that. Thus the Kingdom of Heaven is an equivalent way of saying the Kingdom of the Holy One and His present-day rulership over people who submit to Him in this world. For Christians, the kingdom of Heaven has been the place you go to after you die.


LET'S LOOK AT THE WORD "LIFE":
There are both the single Biblical Hebrew words "Hai" and the plural word "Hayim" (think of the expression "Lechaim" in drinking toasts). So in the book of Psalms, in the few places where it talks about eternal or everlasting life (as we see it in English), the word is frequently in the plural use. Examples are in Psalms 21:4 where the king (as a singular person) asking the Lord for life, Psalm 34:12, and Psalm 16:11 where the Hebrew word for "life" is originally plural. What does it mean to receive eternal "lives"? In Biblical Hebrew, this refers to the many forms of life that the Lord has created and also to the many different ways that He interacts with humans to bring His benefits to them.


A "BAD" TRANSLATION:
In Exodus 15, we read where Moses and the congregation "sing" a song. But in Biblical Hebrew, the English word "sung" is in the Biblical Hebrew future tense. Western Bible translators did not know how to handle this, and left it in the past tense for English. But the people of the Second Temple time saw this as a Midrashic hinting to the resurrection of the body in the Messianic times. Guess how Jesus' disciples and also Paul had some ideas about the resurrection?


AN UNUSUAL PHRASE CROPS UP IN A CHRISTIAN BOOK:
In Matthew 11, there is a verse where it states that the "Kingdom of God suffers violence." Recently scholars in America and Israel have reviewed the Hebrews' use of the Greek language when the Hebrews translated Biblical Hebrew books into Greek for recent converts. These scholars found that this should not be "violence," but more in terms of a "shaking" or "great moving." This verse in Matthew is a hinting based on Micah 2, verses 12 and 13, about the Messiah and the Breaker who proceeds the Messiah. In this reference, the sheep are penned up in a corral, usually in a cave with a rock fence. The Breaker comes to break down the fence and the Son of David (the Messiah) leads the sheep out. There is a lot of commotion and noise and the sheep jump throughout the break in the rock fence.


SPITTING IN THE EYE:
We read in the gospels where Jesus uses spit to heal a person. Back at those times, the Hebrews taught that the spittle of the firstborn son in a family had healing powers. This is derived from Hebrew words, and takes some time to detail out.


COVENANTS:
Then there are covenants, but what are these? Covenants (B'rit, b'ritim) are the bondings between two or more people or groups, with blood shedding marking the new common bond, such as marriage or peace treaties. In fact, the word for covenant, B'rit, literally means cutting. This cutting was usually in the flesh of the covenant partners, but sometimes an animal was substituted or used in addition.

Usually there was a lot of time spent preparing these agreements, working out the details of how the parties would share their strengths with each other, how each one received benefits, how they would defend each other and also what would happen if one of the parties violated the covenant. There are actually several covenants that the Lord made with the Hebrew people, with more than one covenant made at Mount Sinai. Even today the Arabs continue these covenant practices, such as the Palestinian Covenant to destroy Israel.


ATONEMENTS:
Atonements (kippur, Yom Kippur) are part of covenants whereby two or more parties or entities come into personal agreements and become a new entity. Atonement can be rephrased as "At One Ment." Marriage is such a practice by which a man and a woman become "at one" with each other. Atonements were the ways of bonding persons or groups together for common good and making a new group. When these atonements are set up, then the parties or persons are said to have "died" to their previous status and are now "birthed" into a new covenant and position ("born again").

Usually Christians associate atonement with sin, but in the case of a marriage atonement, did the man and woman sin really bad before they had the marriage atonement? Hopefully not. So atonements have a much broader and richer meaning in Biblical Hebrew than what most people think today. Christians commonly point to the "old testament" sacrifices as the previous means for atonements and forgiveness of sins. I will address this issue towards the end of this review.


TESTAMENTS - WHICH ONE IS THE REAL "OLD" ONE:
The King James Bible word "testament" is another way of saying the modern word of "covenant". In the Christian Bibles, the books from Genesis to Malachi are referred to as the "old testament." But of the many covenant agreements (i.e., "testaments"), which one is really the "old" one and which of the others remain to this day? Christians point out to the time that the B'nei Israel (children of Israel) were at the foot of Har (mount) Sinai and Moshe made one of the covenants with them.

But what do we do with the other covenant agreements that the Lord made with people long before Moshe was ever around, and even the other covenants make with Israel? For example, what about the covenants that the Lord made with the Patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'acov (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)? See Exodus 2:24 and 6:4-5. What about the covenant that the Lord made with Noah after the Flood that still applied to all humans?

What about the covenants that the Eternal One made with other individuals, such as David (2 Chronicles 7:18)? What about the covenant He made with "day and night" in Jeremiah 33:20 and 25? What about the covenants that the Eternal One made with the B'nei Israel at other times during the Exodus events, as listed in Exodus 24:6-8 and a subsequent covenant made in Exodus 34:10, and then covenants listed in Numbers 25:12-13, Deuteronomy 7:9, and Leviticus 26:9? What about the later covenants that He mentions in places like Jeremiah and other prophetic books?

Which one of these is the "old" covenant (or testament)? The principles of the messianic kingdom (Malkut Mashiach) and of the messianic covenant are more easily understood when one sees these many other covenants and how the people of the second Temple times viewed the fruition of these covenants for the Malkut Mashiach.


IS IT A NEW COVENANT, OR A RENEWED AND EXPANDED:
One primary word for "new" in Biblical Hebrew is "hadash", which can mean both brand new or else renewed and expanded upon from previous things. So when Jesus and the epistle writers speak of the new covenant, which meaning are they using?


RIGHT HAND VERSUS LEFT HAND:
These ancient people used the Left hand for going to the restroom and cleanup. It is a sign of uncleanness and judgment. The Right hand is where marks of covenant cutting are made and was a reminder of the covenant oaths and provisions of blessing and vengeance. To this day the Orthodox Jews have the wedding rings on the index finger of the right finger. In the ancient times, a "ring" was cut into the flesh of the right index finger, and then the marriage partners joined hands at the index fingers to make a "common blood" of the new married life.


THE MANY HEBREW NAMES OF GOD:
There are over 160 different Hebrew names for the Creator. Some of these are masculine words and others are feminine words. For example, El Shaddai in Genesis and other books is a construct of a male word, El ("mighty one"), and a female root word, Shad, with "dai" added on. Shad literally means a breasted person, such as a mother. But just as a mother is protective and also stronger than the child she bears, even so the Eternal One is protective and stronger than His children. But without proper understanding of these different names and manifestations, it is easy to get into the pagan way of viewing the Eternal One. For Christians though, there are only three "persons”. There are also several places in the Christian scriptures where non-trinitarian statements and blessings are used:

Romans 1:7 1 Corinthians 1:3
2 Corinthians 1:3 Galatians 3:1
Ephesians 1:2 and 3, 5:20, and 6:23
Philippian 1:2 Colossians 1:2 and 3, 3:17
1 John 2:3 Titus 1:1 and 4, 2:13 Jude 2 and 21


BUT HOW CAN 160 NAMES FIT INTO THE CHRISTIAN TRINITY?
They don't. According to records not well publicized, the early Christians before the Nicene Council originally did not have a Trinitarian doctrine. This can be confirmed in the Book of Acts where no baptisms occur with the name of the Trinity - only in the name of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, or of Jesus. And don't expect your pastor, minister or priest to willingly address those issues. Christians often point to the "Us" of Genesis 1, but somehow skip over the intriguing interactions between the Eternal One and the various spirits in I Kings 22. Here the Eternal One asks for inputs from the spirits on how to achieve a goal. The issue of the nature and names of the Lord is one of the major dividers between Jews and Christians.

Also another note that there is no "J" sound in the original Biblical languages, so the names "Jehovah" and "Jesus" something of a misnomer. Jesus' name was originally Yeshua (Hebrew for "salvation" found in many Bible verses), the third most common name given to male babies during the second Temple times. So Jesus (Yeshua) did not exactly have such a unique name that it was the only one around and no other male had that name also.

Also note that in the centuries following Jesus' and the apostles' time, there were recorded the lives of several other men with the name of Yeshua, some of whom had very bad behaviors. In the centuries following the total destruction of Jerusalem and the removal of Jews by Hadrian from the Land of Israel, there were some bad men with this name recorded in Jewish writings. The Church leaders assumed that these men only referred to Yeshua Ha'Natzareti (Jesus of Nazareth), and used this to justify killing and persecuting Jews. This lie and canard continues to this very day.


IS IT THE SPIRIT OR THE FINGER OR THE HAND OF GOD?
In Luke 11:20, there is the incident of Jesus casting out demons. We also see the same occurrence in Matthew 12:28. In these references on the same occurrence, Jesus in one place says it's the "finger" of the Lord that's casting the demons out, and yet in the other place he says it's the "spirit" of the Lord that's doing the same thing. How can the Spirit of the Lord also be the Finger of the Lord and the Hand of the Lord ? We also see this parallel between the Spirit and the hand / fingers of the Lord in Isaiah 11:15 and Ezekiel 8:3. See also Psalm 44:3, Exodus 31:18, and Jeremiah 16:21. Also note that the word "spirit" usually comes from the Biblical word "ruach", which has been translated also into wind, breath, and other English words.

But is the third person of the trinity supposed to also be the finger of the Lord or the hand of the Lord? How does that fit into the Trinitarian thinking? And what about the ties of the Lord's names to pagan practices?


WHAT IS RIGHTEOUSNESS AND CHARITY:
In Biblical Hebrew, this is the word "Tzedakah." Tzedakah is very hard to translate into one English word. Tzedakah are those things that people bound by covenants were required to do to help out, support and defend their covenant partners. The correct way that husband and wife and their families interacted and supported each other was Tzedakah. It is also what a community should do in terms of both criminal justice and helping out those who are truly poor.

But, of course, how can our righteousness, tzedakah, compare to what the Creator can do?


HOLINESS:
We think we know what it is, but what you don't see in English is this: In a verse in Leviticus, the Lord tells the people to be holy, just as He is holy. But in the Biblical Hebrew, the words for holy are spelled differently. The word for the Lord being holy is spelled with full vowel letters. The word for the people being holy is spelled with a shortened "O" vowel, a short mark. The Eternal One's holiness, Kedushah, is full and complete. Our holiness is on a lower level from His.

We must still do our actions in the way we were destined to perform. We can only do so much, and that was the way it was designed to be. But we must also know what the targets are! Some Christians seem to harp on the fact that humans can never meet His holiness. In the Biblical Hebrew language, it was never set up that way!


KIDS:
Even before the time of the Second Temple and of Christianity, Jewish parents taught their kids the Biblical books at an early age. Kids at the age of 5 started memorizing the book of Leviticus (Vayikra). This was the book of purity. Kids were thought to be pure, since their parents had a covenant of holiness and purity with the Lord.

Christianity has taught that we are born so much in sin that there is no purity in kids. Jews knew that the power to sin (yetzer hora) was resident in young kids, but that the sins and their accountabilities did not activate at an early age in Jewish children under the Biblical covenants. Also, kids did not take responsibility for their own until the age of thirteen for boys (the age of a Bar Mitzvah) and twelve for girls (Bat Mitzvah). Note that the Christian "confirmation" practices had their roots in the Jewish Bar Mitzvah practices. Also read Paul's description of the "yetzer hora" and the "yetzer tov" (inclination to do good) in the book of Romans, which Christians don't realize is really an exposition of Hebrew / Jewish knowledge at that time.


SALVATION:
For most Christians, this is "fire insurance" to make sure you don't go to hell after you die. But if you take Strong's Concordance (a Christian book) and look up the words "Save," "Saved," "Saving," and "Salvation" in the Christian "old testament," you find that these words are used in the context of the here-and-now. In the Biblical Hebrew mind, salvation was a covenant benefit for deliverance from evils and from your enemies, whether physical or spiritual. Even healing from sicknesses and diseases was a part of the Lord's salvation, the Children's Bread. More on this later.

There are places in the Bible where there are many Salvations (and what most Christians are purposely not taught by their pastors, priests, and teachers).  Biblical Hebrew is like other languages in the Mediterranean, such as the "Romance" languages of Spanish, French, Italian, etc., where there are "masculine" and "feminine" nouns and verbs. In Bible, the primary word for "salvation" and "saving" and "save" is the root word of "Yeshua" in Biblical Hebrew, which is a feminine word, believe it or not. But so is the word for "city" which is "Ir" and other words that we might not associate with "feminine" things, such as strength, etc. There are many places in the original Hebrew language where yeshua is also in the PLURAL, but the English translators made it a singular word. 2 Sh'muel (Samuel) 22:51 is a good example of where the original Biblical Hebrew (Yeshuot, yeshuat) is the plural. There are other cases. So what does it mean to get the "salvations" of the Eternal One into your life????


REPENTANCE:
In Hebrew, repentance is Teshuvah that has the deeper meaning of "turning around." Many Christians often think that repentance concentrates on seeking an apology. There is the emphasis on the feelings. But in the Hebrew mind, Teshuvah goes way beyond that. The changes must be real and effective. More on repentance later.


HINTINGS IN MIDRASH:
Often there are hintings in Biblical Hebrew literature where a verse takes a word or phrase from a previous writing and builds up on it. We can see this practice even in the Christian books. An example is in Ezekiel 36, in which the Lord talks about the leaders and people of Israel in terms of sheep and goats. The way that some animals butt into each other is the way that the people act. In the Christian Gospels, there is the parable of the sheep and goats. Guess where this parable came from?


PREVIOUS PAIN IN THE SIDE:
Another hinting is related to the Christian verses on Paul's "thorn in the flesh." But is there a previous place in Biblical Hebrew from which Paul could have gotten this type of speech? Yes, and it is in Judges 2:1-3. And when we follow the history of Israel afterwards, we find there are ways "out" of this pain in the side, such as in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and other references. What is hinted in Paul's writing is a pointing back to this history and to the ways that Israel overcame these issues and gained victory. Paul's statement was never meant to be a complete resignation to a sadistic and demeaning deity, as some Christians have painted Paul's situation.


"CHRIST-KILLER" CHARGE AGAINST THE JEWS:
Throughout most of Christianity's existence, there has been the trashy "Christ-killer" accusation against the Jews, which is contradicted by some Christian writings. In the book of Acts, chapter 4, verses 27 and 28, the early believers go through a list of those involved in the crucifixion. They list both Pilate, then Herod, and then they list the GENTILES before even mentioning the Jews. Now just why are the Gentiles part of "killing Christ", but NO Christians go around and persecute Gentiles using this type of accusation, the way that Christianity has done to the Jewish people?


PRAYER AND PRAISE - HOW MANY TIMES A DAY?
In Psalm 119:164, it talks about praising Him seven times a day. Praise in other Biblical references is associated with both prayers and sacrifices. So how many times should a believer be praying to Him each day? And think about the five times that Muslims pray each day. How about if every believer prayed seven times instead?


GARMENTS OF A HOLY NATION:
In I Peter 2:9 there is a reference to being "chosen generation, a royal priesthood". But there is an additional Biblical practice done even to this day by the Jews that provides a better insight into this, and that Christians miss out on. Look at Numbers 15:, starting at verse 37. There, the Lord tells the B'nei Israel to put on fringes ("tzitzit" in Biblical Hebrew on their garments. These fringes can be seen on the prayer shawls (tallit) that are worn by Jews during prayer times and worship services.


Ancient Near East by royalty wore fringes on their clothes as a status symbol, in a similar way to what the Native Americans use bird feathers for in indicating social rank. Archaeologists have found stone reliefs showing Semitic kings and royal members (other parts of Near East) wearing fringes on the edges of their garments. Thus, there is a strong and good tie between being His royal family members here on earth and also prayers / worship. The fringes reminded people of not only being His children, but also the need to follow His directions.

Fringes were also put onto a small undergarment shirt, the "tallit katan", a small tallit. It was like a regular undershirt, but had smaller fringes at the ends, where the undershirt met the person's waist. Back in Biblical times, the larger overgarments also had fringes on them, so a Hebrew man could have two or more sets of fringes on him.

The larger fringed garment was used by a groom to "cover over" his bridge and take her in under his "wings". Nowadays, the tallit garment is used as a chuppah cover at Jewish weddings to show the covering of the woman by the husband (now you know some more meanings of a woman's "cover" by her husband in the Epistles).

The fringed garments or shawls would have two sets of 13 knots at the corner of each side, adding up to 26 for the complete side of a garment, the Hebrew numeric value of the Lord's primary name, YHVH. In addition back then, a blue thread was woven into the white fringes at the corners of each garment.

This also shows what the woman in Matthew 9:20-22 was touching, as she saw the garment's edge with the fringes and the blue thread, a reminder of the sacred name combined with the blue that the Hebrews saw in Exodus 24:10.

Without knowing the Hebraic / Semitic background of things, Christians miss out a lot of Biblical meanings. See these web sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallit
http://www.talit.com/
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/110306/jewish/Tallit-and-Tzitzit.htm


FAITH:
For most Christians and even secular people, the word "faith" often is viewed as a creed that one must spout out, a religious mindset, or something mysterious and ethereal that cannot be completely defined. But in Biblical Hebrew, the English word "faith" is what translators give for the Hebrew "emunah". Emunah means the persistence, stick-to-it-ness, faithfulness, actions, etc., which are based on His Word, even if the "right feelings" are not there. Emunah is also the faithfulness that a married couple will exhibit towards each other through thick and thin, good and hard times. It is based on real and established principles and directions. That is why Christians really need to get themselves into the Word and just what His covenants and promises and directions are about.


KNOWING THE LORD:
Christians often think that “knowing the Lord” means making a confession of faith, doing religious things that a Christian is supposed to be doing, etc. But in Jeremiah 22:16 it says that one of the ways to “know the Lord’ is to judge the causes of the poor. See also the verse before that.


LUCKY 13 AND LOVELY 13:
Biblical Hebrew does not have number characters such as we do. The Hebrew alphabet takes up the counting system in that each letter also represents a numerical value. A good example is one of the Hebrew words for love, "Ahava", which has a numerical value of 13. Twice this value is 26. What is so significant about that? The numerical value of one of the Lord's primary names, YHVH - the Christians' Jehovah, is 26. The lesson here is that true love (value of 13) from the Lord only has true form when it flows both ways, especially from us to Him. The Jewish people also taught that true love between husband and wife only occurs when both have a true love for Him that then allows them to truly love each other. And on a side note, 13 is a "good" number for Jewish people, in contrast to the Europeans and Christian societies.


PRAYERS FOR OUR NEEDS AND BIBLICAL VOWS:
Some people have said that no prayers should ever be for things we need in this live, and that the Lord isn't going to honor our words on something like that. Just how then can we explain how He honored these vows made in the past, as found in these sections of book of Psalms, chapters 50:14-15, 116:18, 22:25-26, and 76:11-12, and how Ananias and Sapphira were held accountable for their words in Acts chapter 5?

How can we explain this example of sacrifice with prayers that resulted in good answers? Judges 20:26-28 shows how when sacrifices were offered at times of prayer that the Lord answered the children of Israel favorably after two times previously they had prayed and got answers from the Lord, but were still defeated. Verses 18 and 23 were the two previous times that they prayed and got answers, but they still got defeated. In verse 26, they prayed, fasted, and offered both burnt offerings (for sins) and peace offerings (for "shalom"). The Shalom offerings were not for sins, but for the Lord to draw close to them and grant them a favorable answer so that they would have peace (shalom) after the battle. This is just one example of how offerings with prayers do make a difference in how the Lord answers us.

As a side note, one Biblical Hebrew word for a miracle is "nes", which means a banner that is lifted up for victory, usually in warfare. But even sickness was seen as an "enemy" against which war was waged by the people through prayer and offerings to the Lord.


ADVERSARIAL SATAN WORD IN BIBLE APPLIED TO THE LORD:
Strange how in the original Biblical language from which we get the King James Bible that there are a couple of places where the Lord is described as a "satan" against certain things. "Satan" is a Biblical Hebrew / Semitic word for an "adversary" or enemy (see Lamentations 2:4, Isaiah 63:10, Exodus 23:22, and 1 Kings chapter 22). It is used also of people who are just plain generic types of adversaries, although ha'satan, THE adversary, was the name given in the Bible to what Christians call the devil.

The early Church Fathers adopted the Greek god / deity of Pan, the god of destruction, to apply to what they thought was Satan as one person / entity. Destruction to the Greeks was especially associated with things like childbirth, which had a very high rate of stillborn births back then. Now you know why we have a devil with goat horns and features (takeover of Pan).

In the gospels, the Greek words that have been translated as "sons of the devil" really should have been "ben belial", a term from the book of Judges and other places. It means a "son of Bel", a pagan deity, and was a term to mean a person directed into worthless directions and activities. Unfortunately, the term "sons of the devil" has been used for many centuries to justify killing and persecuting Jews in Europe and now in America.


NOT SUFFERING QUITE LIKE JOB:
So many Christians say that their problems in life are because they are suffering like Job. But a good look at the ancient Biblical Semitic practices will show those claims probably are not true for them; rather a realization of a verse from Galatians.

In the Semitic practices of creating covenants, the covenant partners would expound on their strengths that they were bringing to the new relationship, peace treaty, or marriage. The strengths from each partner would be pledged to support the other partner or partners during times of trouble or for resolving issues. Later on as time went by, the covenant partners would met and often rehearse their strengths that they had initially pledged to each other, and also any new strengths that were available. This reminder would also be recited by the hurting or wounded partner to get the other covenant partner to help him/her during the troubles or attacks of the enemies.

So what the Eternal One is doing in Job chapters 38-41 is really a Semitic covenant-strengths reminder from Him to Job. He is trying to get Job to think about all the things that He can do for Job, so that Job can remember the covenant promises and evoke those promises. There are several places in the Scriptures where the Eternal One reminds His people to remember the promises and even to prod Him into fulfilling those promises (or even direct Him as to what to do, as in Isaiah 45:11).

What a lot of Christians really are going through is Galatians 6:7 being revealed in their lives. See also Proverbs 22:8, Obadiah 15, Malachi 3:8-12, Jeremiah 6:19 and 31:30, Hosea 10:12-13, and Isaiah 32:8. If these Christians were getting their noses into the written Word and talking to the Eternal One about those promises and acting on His directions a lot more, they might see their lives turned around to the blessings that He promised in Deuteronomy 28 and in Romans 15:4 and 11:17.


THANK THE LORD FOR ALL "THINGS" OR FOR ALL "WORDS"
Christians often use Ephesians 5:20 as a direction to thank the Lord for everything, including physical problems and even sinning. But this interpretation does not look into the words very well. The word "for" in Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries is ???? (hooper), which can be translated as “over”, that is, (with the genitive case) of place, above, beyond, inside of it, etc. The word for "things' is ???? (pas). Going back to the Biblical Hebrew background that Paul grew up in, a primary Hebrew word for "thing" is "Devar", which is also used for "word". In fact, one of the books of the Torah is Devarim (Deuteronomy). Devar is also used for "bee" and for "matters" (another way of saying "things).

Given the fact that Ephesians 5:19 just talked about psalms and hymns and songs, could it be that Paul was referring to the "words" that are spoken out in these psalms and hymns and songs, and it is those "things" (devarim) for which believers need to thank the Lord for? There are places in the Psalms and other Hebrew books that have similar thoughts.

So believers need to thank the Lord for all the Word that He has for us and that we can sing back to Him, instead of this being a fatalistic outlook on life!


HEALING FROM DEITIES VERSUS HEALING FROM THE LORD:
The pool of Bethsaida (Bet Hesda) in John chapter 5 even had some pagan worship going on during Yeshua's (Jesus') time, where some Greek invaders of Judea had this pool as a place for Apollo. There was supposedly a visitation of Apollo on an annual basis. This "angel" was in contrast to how the Lord wanted to heal people at the time of their need, not just once a year. Also, this spring was originally a place of cleaning of the sacrificial sheep for the Temple altar. So when Yeshua visits this place, He's asking the guy if he's going to go the Lord's way and get himself cleansed just like the sheep were for the Lord's service or go the way of the local pagans and depend on the mercies of these pagan spirits and ways. Some references on the Bet Hesda pool:

http://www.netours.com/jrs/2003/Anne-Bethesda.htm
http://holyland-pictures.com/category/jerusalem/bet-hesda/
http://dqhall59.com/bethesda.htm
http://www.digbible.org/tour/bethesda.html
http://wordbytes.org/holyland/pilgrim131.htm
http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/1631/thennowbethesda.html
http://www.bethesda.med.navy.mil/visitor/pride_of_place/pop_committee/pool/pool.htm
http://www.bible-history.com/jerusalem/firstcenturyjerusalem_pool_of_bethesda.html


GIVING THE DEVIL HIS DUE -- NOT:
A lot of Christians talk about how the devil is beating them down and all the things that the devil is doing. But how can that be when Colossians 2:15 says that Elohim (usually "God" in English) has disarmed every one of those principalities and powers, and also triumphed over them? Why can witches send out spirits against people, even Christians, as many of us saw in northern New Mexico? And how is it that a disarmed devil is running around (I Peter 5:8)?

Maybe it's because they don't understand that they truly have much more control over what comes into their lives than what they have been told in traditional sermons or Christian programs. Moshe (Moses) tells the Israelites that they have a choice each day - blessing or curse - that is based on His covenants, as seen in Deuteronomy 7:7-8 30:14-15, and also upon the interactions each person has with both Him and other people. There are numerous scriptures showing judgment comes for mistreating an innocent person, the stranger in the land, and especially His anointed and gifted people.

Maybe they also don't fully understand the messianic redemption ("geula HaMashiach" in Biblical Hebrew). After all, Yeshua said in John 14:12 that the messianic believers ("minim") would do even greater things than He did. Part of the messianic kingdom authority is given in places like Luke 10:19, Ephesians 2:6, and others. And anyone listening to the traditional church sermons would not have heard much about getting the same things that the Messiah did (Romans 8:17).

Maybe it's because they don't know about or get into that much of His Word. Hosea 4:4 says that His people are destroyed for not just a lack of knowledge, but also because they have rejected it and really paying attention to Him. How many Christians are just sitting on their blessed assets and only listening to a preacher drone on while during the weekday they never crack open the Bible? Also Hosea 9:1-9 show what happens when His people get caught up in the ways of the world and don't pay attention to Him and to the whole Word that He has for them.

Maybe it's they don't understand how critical their daily relationship and walk is, and that living the "average" life without getting plugged into the Word and Power is a great way to slowly but surely get deceptions sent against a person. I Kings 22 shows how spirits were sent against the evil and unrepentant king Ahab, and this is also seen in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, Luke 89:12, Isaiah 66:4 and 65:11-12.


CONGREGATIONS:
Speaking of people, the Congregations of the Second Temple were structured much differently than what we see in churches today. They were divided into groups, with usually a single president or ringleader. This person "shepherded" the groups into a unified flow, but was not the pastor, priest or even rabbi of today. This leader or sheepherder answered to the congregation and could be replaced if required. The groups of people were common everyday people who did the activities that most pastors and priests do today. There were the elders who directed the overall affairs of the congregation. Then there were those learned people who taught the Bible and prepared sermons. My step-father's work load as a pastor was overwhelming while the congregation just sat in their seats.

Charity was also handled by a dedicated group of people who made sure that charity, gathered at the beit kenesset (which is "synagogue" in English) in a private place, was distributed correctly. Imagine if the PTL people in the 1980s had done things like that. Also, the only real separation back then was for the issue of "Niddah", the time of a woman's menstrual period. Only in recent centuries were women segragated in Orthodox congregations, and that was both Niddah purposes and to prevent flirting during the services.


SHAMEFUL FOR A WOMAN TO SPEAK (WAS BAD ON HUSBAND):
First Corinthians 14:34-35 appears in English to be a harsh condemnation against women and a prohibition against women preachers. But is that really what Paul really meant in light of the Biblical knowledge and culture of his time? There is an explanation from the Biblical practices of the congregations of believers ("minim") that gives a much better understanding of this, and brings a better view of women.

In Exodus 23:17 and Deuteronomy 16:16, all the men are supposed to show up three times a year for certain festivals before the Lord in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). In other verses, we see that the whole nation was commanded to celebrate these festivals also (children, women). The women could come to the Yerushalayim at these three times, but they did not have this commandment imposed on them like the men did.

And why is that?

Think about the other commandments specifically direct at the men, such as the males being circumcised. The women didn't have to go through that commandment, which made the teachers in the Temple times to think about the special spiritual position that a woman really had. It appeared that the man had to do more special things than just what the general population had to, especially the women.

We also find directed responsibilities that men had to fulfill as in Deuteronomy 22:28-30 for single women and Deuteronomy 21:15-17 for when there was more than one wife. In places like Ruth 1:9, Ruth 3:1, and I Timothy there is the concept of the husband providing security to the home, while Proverbs 31 shows how a woman could be a businesswoman and still be a virtuous woman.

Thus the conclusion was reached that because the man had several other directed commandments to do, he was in reality "catching up" to the spiritual level of the woman, that the Biblical woman was more in line with the ways of the Eternal One than the male. The male had to do this with special attendance to the convocations of the Lord, special practices, etc., which also included being "pushed" into leadership position and being the facilitator / mentor for the family.

A man might be thought of as the priest of the family, but was the function of a Kohen (priest) in Biblical times? A kohen in the Semitic areas was a "negotiator" of covenants and would bring the covenant parties together for certain purposes. In Biblical times, the man was expected to lead by example in worship at the home, charity giving by the family, home prayers, Bible readings, etc. This was how the man not only would draw the family towards the Lord, but he could catch up to the woman. In the congregations, the Torah (books of Moses) and other Bible books would be read through on a regular basis. Bible readings and services would occur daily, even outside the Temple in the congregations. Given the fact that Bible readings occurred in the home in addition to the congregation, a woman would have ample opportunity to learn about the Bible during the year. She would be involved in the studies at home, and would not have to bother asking lots of questions of her husband right in front of everyone during the services.

Thus if the husband was negligent of his household duties and did not much to enliven the home spiritual life, it would be shameful for a woman to speak loudly during services to ask questions of him. And now you can see the shame of a woman speaking in the Corinthian congregation -- it would publicly show how the husband was faltering and not doing his Biblical duties. It would show how far behind he was and how negligent he really was.

There is archaeological evidence that women served in the Temple activities, especially wives of Temple priests after the death of their husbands. There were cases documented when the husband was supposed to have fulfilled some specific function, such as incense burning, cleaning the altar. There is also evidence that women served in congregational leadership. It is a sad fact that a number of Church Fathers came from pagan spiritual backgrounds in which the woman was viewed as the evil force of the universe, the way of destruction, the source of all seductions, etc. There was nothing good in a woman in these teachings.

So now you know why the Church turned the shame completely onto the woman and disregarded the spiritual responsibility of the husband at home. After all, the new Christian priests now functioned as everything that the believers needed, with nothing done in the home. The cathedral replaced the home functions, while the spiritual needs still abounded.


EARLY CHRISTIANITY'S WAR AGAINST WOMEN
There were a large number of early church Fathers who brought in pagan and Gnostic ideas about women that were not good. Tertullian was an early Church Father leader in the teachings of how "bad" they thought women were:
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian27.html

Notice how he writes that each woman has to bear the "sin" of Eve every day and that only the woman is seen as "You are the devil's gateway: ", and that "The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too." This is very similar to a few Mediterranean pagan and Gnostic ideas by men on the role of women in the universe.


FORGIVING AN "ENEMY":
In Biblical Hebrew, there are five (5) words that the translators translated into the English words "enemy" or "enemies". Here is a list of the Biblical Hebrew words for the English word "enemy": Tzar, Oyev, Koohm, Sahneh, Tzarah

So which one of these is the proper one to correlate with the words "enemy" and "enemies" of Jesus' words in the Gospels? There is also the Hebrew word for "adversary", which is "sa'tan". Ha'Satan is the great adversary "Satan" which Christians usually portray. But these five words for "enemy" could be at different levels and types than an "adversary."

One of the ways that an "enemy" was defined in Jesus' time was that he / she was a person close to you with whom you had an argument and had not spoken to for the past three days because of the argument. This could be a nearby neighbor or a family relation. In the case of a family member, though, if they were very evil and unrepentant and then split off from the family, they were no longer "close" since they were considered to have "died" to the family members and his / her relationships with them. Remember the parable of the son in Luke who deserted his father and ended up feeding the pigs? It's only upon complete teshuvah (repentance or really "turn completely around") that the son was considered "alive" again.

But for those attacking armies who were enormous "enemies" to a nation, there were the Biblical commandments for self-defense. These "enemies" are different from your neighbors with whom you had an argument recently. There are statements that Jesus makes which line up with this also (such as Luke 19:27).

There are three primary Biblical Hebrew words for the English "forgive," each having its own particular psychological aspect and viewpoint of activities. So which one is the Biblical Hebrew word that Jesus used when he said that we are supposed to "forgive" our enemies?

And why do so many churches and Christians not practice what is written in Matthew 18:15-17? Why have some denominations and many preachers denounced the principles of government given in Romans chapter 13?

Is it possible to do as is directed in the books of Moses, not bear a grudge against a close neighbor, not go beat up the person yourself, and YET still pursue legal justice though the means of the government (as given by the Bible in Romans 13 and other Biblical places)? So many preachers and ministers harp on the need to "forgive," but so few ever tell their members to do what is written in these sections regarding social justice for the oppressed. Why?

Back in the time of the early Christian believers, there was the “beit din” (house of judgment ) directed by those who were well-trained, knowledgeable, and mature to lead a court. An individual congregation could even have a beit din court by those qualified to do so. We see evidence of this in some of Paul's epistles.
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Ancient_and_Medieval_History/539_BCE-632_CE/Palestine_Under_Roman_Rule/Jewish_courts.shtml?HSAM

But the courts of the gentile people (Greek, Roman) often were under the controls of the pagan temples. When these courts were not under the pagan temple controls, they certainly did not follow the Biblical principles for justice, since anti-Semitism, hatred of the Jews, and anti-Bible tendencies were rampant even in many places in the times of the Christians. It's no wonder Paul and other Christian writers told their followers NOT to go to the secular courts of those times. But here in America, our history reveals that the courts were initially based on the Biblical principles. Why didn't the Christians then see this?


GOD'S FORGIVENESS:
Let me address one of the most divisive issues between Christian and Jews. When you look at the early Church Fathers, you find that so many of them came from pagan philosophies and religions that painted different pictures of the physical world than what the Bible truly says. If you were one of the early Church Fathers who were raised in the neo-pagan / Gnostic philosophies most of their lives, and then converted to Christianity, you would view the sacred writings with those non-Biblical filters. Let me point out some details.

In the minds of many of Early Church Fathers, the physical world was evil and the soul was waiting to be "redeemed" into the realm of the "spirit." In other words, the only real goal of the Believer was to wait until he or she died and could go to Heaven. To show you what these Fathers believed, some of them stated that the "Original Sin" was sex and not just eating from the Tree of Knowledge! Around the time of the Nicene Council and Creed, the early Church forbade sexual relations, even between married husbands and wives. They said that sex was so evil that the Holy Spirit had to leave during marital intimacy. What a contradiction of Hebrews 13:4. And of course, that prohibition did not last long!

But even worse than that is how they viewed the true intentions of the soul and spirit, and the relationship between Heavenly things and this physical world. As mentioned, when you see the physical world as completely evil and something from which to escape, salvation only becomes an escape mechanism and your religion becomes a religion of death. You are just waiting it out down here so that eventually you can die and go to your home in Heaven.

The soul was viewed through the neo-pagan / Gnostic "glasses" in which the soul was forced to come into a physical body and be purged through lots of trials and other bad things to be worthy to go to the spiritual realm, separate totally from the physical realm. The soul could not have any bad feelings in, so that is why the Church Fathers concentrated on forgiving people and not on Biblical justice, such as in Matthew 18:15-17. A woman who gets raped and beaten MUST forgive the perpetrator and NEVER take the guy to court, if her soul was to reach "salvation" from the neo-pagan / Gnostic viewpoints.

But as pointed out earlier, a look at the "salvation" words in the Concordance gives a more comprehensive and down-to-this-earth viewpoint to salvation. One of the covenant benefits to having a real covenant with the Eternal One is the promise of having a place to go to after you die and step into the fullness of eternity. Even King David knows that he has a good place to go to after death in 2 Samuel 12:23, and this was before most of the Messianic prophecies of Daniel and other places. Most Christians argue that animal sacrifices were required in the "old testament" or else a person could not expect to ever be forgiven. Let me point out some things that most Christians don't even think of normally.

Think about some important Bible books: Daniel, Ezekiel and Esther. At what time were they supposedly written? Remember when the first Temple was destroyed and the Judeans were exiled to Babylon? These people had both the Temple and its altar destroyed. If you read Daniel, you find him praying, but you don't find him going down to the local sacrificial altar in Babylon. When you read the books of Moses (Torah), people were not supposed to be setting up their own altars in any old place that they wanted to (and the Lord did not command). Also think about these Biblical books (Daniel, Ezekiel and Esther) being written in pagan lands without animal sacrifices and blood atonements on altars approved by the Lord. How could this be?

And then there were the people who lived before the Temple was ever build or before the Tabernacle was built during the Exodus. Think about the Children of Israel in their enslavement in Egypt. They were under heavy work loads and schedules, and the schedules got even tighter in Exodus. Now, how were they supposed to offer animal sacrifices for sins if they are feverishly slaving under the constant watch of the Egyptian taskmasters? There were many people who lived long before there were the "legal" requirements for the various animal and grain sacrifices in the books of Moses.

The point is that animal sacrifices were part of the ancient peoples' practices (not just Jewish), but the Eternal One had ways of compassionately dealing with these people and their sins in ways that most Christians ignore. Look at the prophet Jonah and how the Gentile people of Nineveh repented in sackcloth. These Gentile people were not required by the Eternal One to come to the altar in Jerusalem and offer animal sacrifices for their sins. There are also various versus in the Scriptures that talk about the Lord providing atonement for them on His own, cleansing His people, washing them clean, etc. Go and look through the prophetic books. While Christians state that it is because of the Messiah that these promises have any reality, Christians must look at places like in I Corinthians 10:4. Why?

Here we see that the writer points to the Exodus time and states that the "rock" that followed the Israelites was the Messiah. But when you read the actual book of Exodus and those books afterwards, you do not find a place that states what I Corinthians says. What you see in this Christian reference is a repeat of a Midrash teaching people knew in Paul's time. What does this mean though? These ancient Jewish people were able to receive spiritual and physical benefits of their Covenants even though they didn't know everything. They didn't have to know everything, just as we don't. They just had to take the Eternal One at His word. Christians must also realize that these principles are still in effect, since His word is eternal.


PERSONAL WORKS VERSUS TEMPLE WORKS:
Back in the time of Paul and Jesus, the Biblical Hebrew word "Avodot" was the word for the English word "works." Avodot (singular avodah) was primarily used for the activities done by the Levi'im (Levites) and Kohanim (priests). The messianic kingdom ("malchkut Mashiach") was known to be something that would be above what the Temple activities were, and not dependent upon the ritual activities that the Levi'im and Kohanim did. But the gentiles converts to Christianity came from the neo-pagan / Gnostic backgrounds that taught through their special "knowledge" of the universe and through some rituals that they would become "elevated" spiritually and in some circles of belief would become demigods or exalted spirits on the level of deities. Christians point to scriptures that say a person is not "saved" by works, but Christians really miss what was intended by the epistle writers.

As a side note, the book of James was originally named the book of Jacob (Ya'acov), but to honor the English king, King James, it was renamed. And back when the Church Fathers were finalizing what books would be in the Christian Bible, they almost excluded this book. Many of the Church Leaders didn't like its emphasis on having to do anything as a believer and felt it was too "Jewish" for their tastes. Politics and anti-Semitism have tampered with the Biblical books occasionally.

It is "interesting" to see that in Philippians 2:12, Paul says that we are to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Given the past paragraphs on the differences in what "salvation" is perceived to be, perhaps now Christians can understand more clearly what was meant by that verse.


THE ROOT BEFORE ROMANS 11:
Previously I mentioned that most Christians believe the "root" of Romans 11 to only be the messianic expectations that people had before Jesus came. But there are some problems with this, as there were people belonging to the Lord who lived before the messianic prophecies of Daniel and the Psalms. Think about Noah being called a righteous man, long before Abraham existed, and the prophecies of Moses and prophets exists. Also, there are scriptures in which He points the people to remember the root / sources from which they came. Look at Isaiah 27:6 and 37:31, 2 Kings 19:30, Proverbs 12:3 and 12, and Jeremiah 12:2. The "root" is much more than some legalistic Christology. And if the Law is a “tutor” as Christians use Galatians chapter 4, then why aren’t Christians reading and listening to what the “tutor” has to say?


PIGS NOT REALLY A GOOD FOOD TO EAT:
Christians today think that Jesus and the book of Acts allowed for anyone to eat pork. But Christians don't realize that pigs in Biblical times were used as *vacuum cleaners* on the battlefields by the ancient empires. Pigs would eat up the human carcasses, and then the pagans would take those pigs and offer them in sacrificial meals to the pagan deities. The idea was that the pigs consumed the energies and spiritual powers of the defeated humans and that by eating the pigs in the sacrifices, the conquerors would gain that spiritual strength from the pig and from the deities that came into the sacrificed pigs. The Easter ham meal was adopted from pagan European customs and made into a sacrificial meal for a springtime festival which matched up with the holiday made by the Church Fathers.

I remember as a kid seeing dead horses and other animals fed to pig herds in Illinois and Kansas. Even today there are occurrences in other countries where pigs feast on human corpses, and then the pork is sold on the international market (to come to your dinner table). There are many commercial products that use pork materials in their processing. See this about corpses fed to pigs in Europe:
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=348732006 (yum, yum???)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/3709238.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,442934,00.html

Animals that were kosher in general still could become unclean (not kosher) through several problems in the animal, such as certain defects or when the kosher animal had died before the kosher slaughter. Look at the mad cow disease that makes beef inedible. In the Torah there are additional issues to address before consuming a kosher animal. Those additional items are the things that can make for a bunch of "unclean" animals, as seen in Peter's vision of the sheet coming down. The Jewish people who truly followed the Eternal One's ways were considered to be like kosher animals, acceptable for sacrifices and the communion with the Eternal One.

Why is that view so important?

There were many non-Jewish people who were being drawn away from the many deities of paganism to the Holy One of the Hebrews and the Bible. These were "fearers of the Lord" who were living a basic faith in Him, but had not gone further to the level of the Jews, that is, they had not gone through complete conversion like Ruth did in the day of the Judges. They were considered to be something of a "kosher" being (like a kosher animal), but still had some things that needed to be dealt with before they were on the higher level the way that a completely kosher animal would be. Noah was considered to be a "God-fearer", but he never got into the level that the Jewish people got, simply because He had not revealed those things to humans yet. But Noah as still called a "righteous" man.

In the culture of the messianic communities and of the second Temple, Peter's vision in Acts was showing that these not-completely kosher people were to be brought into the messianic kingdom. It also hinted that the Lord would complete the processes of making them "kosher" as a people in the Malkut Mashiach (messianic kingdom).

Some reference sites:
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/15930/%26%2365279%3BKosher_Meat_And_Mad-Cow_Disease.html
http://www.aish.com/passlaw/passlawdefault/What_Makes_It_Kosher$.asp

Also, have you noticed that there is no seafood mentioned in Acts 10:12 and 11:6? That's because seafood, even clean fish, were not offered on the Biblical altar at all. And just as some insight into the seafood, crabs are the sea equivalents to spiders, shrimp are the sea equivalents to cockroaches, and the other shellfish are just as bad, eating decayed flesh that fall to the water's bottom. Just go to the coast of the Pacific Northwest and you might find crabs devouring a dead animal on the seashore.



A CULTURE OF WILD ACTIVITIES:
Have you ever noticed that Jewish festivals and marriages are more "vocal" and active than their counterparts in traditional Christianity? What's going on here? In the 10th and 19th chapters of I Samuel, we read about some rather strange occurrences that occur when the Holy Spirit comes upon people during their worship times, even in the field areas. To most people today, it comes across that people are going wild in very strange ways. For the ancient peoples though, when they had deep and personal encounters with the deity (or deities), very ecstatic activities would often occur with the people, with even prophecies occurring. It was a time of deep intimacy, equivalent to the intimacies between husband and wife. We see this in the rock graphics left around 4000 years ago by Indo-Europeans who came to western China and left rock pictures of people under the influences of the deities.

For most of Christianity's existence, Europeans and Americans have been taught that spirituality is so remote from this physical world and that true spirituality is through silent contemplation. This is based on the split mentality between the physical and spiritual worlds that the gentile converts brought into early Christianity in its development.


STAR GODS / DEITIES OF ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST PAGANS
The star deities of the ancient Middle East were mostly tied to the characteristics of the planets (Mercury through Saturn). A very common planet made into deities was Venus. Its appearance above the horizon during its nine month cycle made a five-pointed figure (pentagram) at its high points of its orbit on one part of the day, such as evening times, and then another nine-month cycle during morning times. The timing of nine months reminded them of the time of human pregnancy, which started from something very small and brought forth human life. Thus Venus was the deity of spiritual power for making things happen from seemingly nothing when male and female deities came together. The ancient Mesopotanians and Babylonians made clay pots with pentagrams on them, and these items (and worship practice) make their ways around the ancient world. Venus was the "shining one" as often the brightest planet moving around, and another ancient word for Venus was "lutzefer" or Lucifer.

http://www.mikecrowson.co.uk/pentagram.html
http://www.penton.co.za/archive/the_mystery_of_the_pentagram.htm
http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/commentaries/Pattern.html
http://www.hyperflight.com/venus-five-pointed-star.htm
http://www.calendersign.com/en/pl_venus.php
http://www.calendersign.com/en/aa_lucifersrock.php

Why is this important?

During the Middle Ages, the Church was at all-time highs of anti-Semitism, and many Church leaders and writers soon associated the star deities mentioned in the Bible with the Jews. The Church took Acts 7:42-43 and Amos 5:25-26 to apply to Jews for all ages and that any Hebrew teaching was to be viewed as occultism and teachings of Satan. With this reasoning, many Church Leaders led many European cities, rulers and church congregations to kill and persecute Jews in massive numbers, way into the millions. The problem is that these associations continue to this very day, not only among the neo-Nazis, but also within many groups claiming to be Bible-based and the "true" believers or Christians. And these bad associations were also made with a Jewish symbol that has been around for many centuries.

Also note that one of the Biblical names for the Lord is "El" (El Elyon, etc.). El was the name of a primary deity of the Canaanite pagans, who believed that the Mighty or Supreme One was a male figure made into an idol, in a parallel to the Ba'al male deity of the Amorites and other pagan tribes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_(god)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal

The name Ba'al (Baal) means a husband and also a master in Biblical Hebrew. There are places in Biblical Hebrew where the Eternal One is referred to as the Master (Ba'al) of something, such as the Master of the breakthrough given by David. The pagans near Israel believed that a supreme spirit ruled over cities and also in the sky (like the Father Sky of the Native Americans). The city would be "married" to this supreme spirit, which was visualized in an idol form and put into a temple. But there would be individual masters (Ba'al) over each city, and somewhere was a greater deity. Even among Native Americans (with whom I have interacted with) talk about one Supreme Being so awesome and so remote that no humans can really interact with Him, but only the lower deities and animal spirits.


HEBREW STAR WITH FACES OF SON AND FATHER:
Given the 160 plus names of the Eternal One in the Biblical Hebrew scriptures, there were attempts many centuries ago by the Jews to group these names together. These types of groupings go all the way back to the time of the Disciples. One of the most common groupings was to put these names into 10 primary characteristics of the Lord. A further grouping was make into two major groups, or "faces". This condensing of the names brought the "face" of the father to look at the "face" of the son. And now you know what makes the Star of David from the many names of the Lord. This further grouping often got Jews in the Middle Ages studying this deep knowledge to even convert to Christianity.


PENTECOST - LONG BEFORE THE BOOK OF ACTS:
Most people have not been taught this by their pastors or ministers or priests. But there are early occurrences in the Bible where people do some very strange things that are similar to those on the day of Pentecost (Hebrew "Shavu'ot"). Take a look at 1 Samuel chapters 10 and 19, and see where during times of open worship, there are some very "unusual" happenings that the prophets and several other people experience out in the field. These occurrences of prophesying and other manifestations of the Spirit even occurred outside of the worship areas of the Tabernacle (beit hamikdash -- house of the Presence). Also there is another outpouring of the Spirit in Numbers 11:26-29 and in some of the prophetic books.

The concluding point is that the gifts of the Spirit and the "unusual" manifestations of the Spirit were NEVER just for some select apostles, but for all people open to the Lord and are willing to "let loose". These experiences as seen in 1 Samuel show that the Pentecostal-type of activities were to be part of the spiritual life of the believers, not just for a select few enshrined in some mystic church memory. This type of joy and experience could also be experienced by worshippers in the Temple times, such as during Sukkot, the feast of Tabernacles, the festival of messianic expectations.


HAVING THE RIGHT NAME?
Most Christians state that in order to be "saved", one has to make a confession of "Jesus". But remember how there are no "J" sounds in the Biblical languages? And when one looks at the names of Jesus that were in the original writings, we find that it was I?sous in Koine Greek and Yeshua in Biblical Hebrew. See this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possessive_of_Jesus#Jesus.27_or_Jesus.27s

Also see how the name of Christ has changed over the centuries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ

See how the word "God" derived from European names other than Koine Greek "Theos":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God#Etymology_and_usage

And see deities with names similar sounding to "God", such as Norse "Goði"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_names_of_Odin

Even our weekdays are named after European pagan deities:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Christian_traditions_of_the_Low_Countries#Deities

So is it possible that if Christians don't call on the correct original name, are they calling on the right messiah? This may sound foolish and nit picky, but this is a counterpoint to the legalistic demands placed by traditional, fundamental evangelicals who damn Jews for their Biblical Hebrew customs. Note that Jesus' Hebrew name (yeshua) occurs many times in the "Tanach" (Genesis to Malachi) and is associated with deliverances from present-day enemies, restoration of Israel, healings and miracles, and other manifestations of His saving power in the here-and-now. Did the Israelites back in the time of the Patriarchs, Moses, King David, and later on have to know all the details that the Biblical Hebrew word, yeshua, was what Christians associate with Jesus? No, given the changes in His name over the centuries by Bible translators and Church authorities / leaders.


ANOTHER JESUS IN THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE
If you look up in a King James Version or most other versions, in the Christian epistle of Colossians chapter 4, verse 11, it mentions a man by the name of "Jesus" who is also called Justin among those of the "circumcision".

This is just another proof that the name "Jesus" (or Yeshua in Hebrew) was a more common name that Jewish couples gave to male babies during the Second Temple times, just as Americans give names like Mike or Dan or Tom or Bob so often. Yeshua was taken from many places in the Hebrew scriptures, especially in the book of Psalms.


CIRCUMCISION NOT REQUIRED FOR ETERNAL LIFE:
Now I will address a controversial topic between Christians and Jews – circumcision. In the past, many Christians have used the Bible commandment to circumcise male babies on the eighth day as a method of accusation against the Jews. Some of these arguments include the following:

1) Jewish people use circumcision to keep gentiles from the blessings of the Lord and only let circumcised Jews get those blessings.

2) Circumcision is just a way for the Jews to think they are superior to those who aren't Jews.

3) Circumcision is a way that Jews make marital relations as a burden or a bizarre situation (or many other accusations used against the Jews).

A major misunderstanding is that circumcision was require for people in Biblical times to have their share in the world to come (Olam Haba), or what Christians refer to as “going to heaven” after a person died. Nothing could be farther from the truth and what the Bible really says. A good look at some sections of the Bible will show why:

1) The circumcision covenant started with Avraham (and before the Mosaic Law was given). But many righteous people lived and died before Avraham. Think about (Noach) Noah who was called a righteous man, but did not have to get circumcised. Think about Enoch who was taken up by the Lord, but never required to be circumcised.

2) Even after the covenant with Avraham and the covenants with the B'nei Israel, many other gentiles interacted with the Eternal One without having to be circumcised to be forgiven of sins. Remember in the book of Yonah (Jonah) how the people of Ninevah only had to repent where they were at. They did not even have to go to Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) and offer sacrifices. And yet the Eternal One spared them of destructions. And there are many other examples in the Tanack (Bible).

So what was circumcision for then? A look at its Hebrew words will help out. There are two words – “brit milah”. See my previous Note on how “brit” means cutting, and that when two or more parties (individuals or groups) made a covenant with each other, they would make a cut mark on themselves (often on a designated finger or area on a hand). In future times, they would show their covenant marks on their hands or fingers to each other and remind each of the promises and provisions, especially when defense from enemies was needed.

So how does this relate to circumcision, since it is not for the forgiveness of sins? It served a different purpose related to the relationship between husband and wife. It also relates to the children that would be conceived by the special interactions and sharing in the marriage. Look at Yeshayahu (Isaiah) chapter 8, verse 3. Just as in other types of covenants that the special interactions between the covenant partners would bring new activities, resources , directions and results under the umbrella of the specific covenant, even so Brit Milah would bring children under a covenant of holiness that the Hebrew husband and wife were living in and under which they operated in other areas of their lives. Unlike most of Christian teachings over the centuries that taught that even marital relations were “sinful”, sexual interactions were viewed by Jewish people as a blessing from the Eternal One and to be operated and lived in the Biblical ways of holiness. And with the husband and wife living in kedushah (holiness) as directed by the Eternal one, the children would be born in the holiness of that covenant. And while the yetzer ra'ah (inclination to do evil) would manifest in the child later on, the Jewish people did not see the children as being outside of the Lord's covenant and protection (i.e., totally sinful).

So circumcision deals with the family relations, nation building, and the holiness of the family and the marital relationship. It was not required to make sure you would go to heaven after you died, whether before the time of the Christian gospels or thereafter. Christians point to Galatians 5:3, saying that anyone who gets circumcised (no matter why, even for medical reasons) has to keep the whole Torah. Again here is a place where Christians fail to understand what Paul is talking about, and that is the conversion processes to the Biblical Hebrew faith and the people of Israel. This conversion process would include also going through a mikveh washing (i.e., a "bath") in a walk-in and walk-out structure. Archaeologists have found many mikveh basins on the Temple mount that people walked into to ritually cleanse themselves. So Galatians 5:3 addressed how gentiles (goyim) might think that they would have to go through a complete conversion process that included circumcision as part of a series of activities to get the benefits of the messianic kingdom and the gifts of the Spirit that Jewish people had access to (see I Samuel chapters 10 and 19) for examples of movings and manifestations of the Spirit.

Now the World Health Organization has found some medical benefits of circumcision, but that is not really the Bible's intentions on circumcision.


GENTILES HAVING THEIR PART IN THE WORLD TO COME (HEAVEN):
There have been the accusations that the Jews withheld the Lord's goodness and things from the gentiles. Even a cursory look at many scriptures, like Psalms 96 through 99, talk about the gentiles and the whole earth worshipping the Lord. Also, remember previously about the Midrash teaching on the Exodus that Paul used in I Corinthians chapter 10, the Midrash about the "rock" that followed the Israelites? Also remember how it was pointed out that the Hebrews enjoyed the benefits without knowing all of the details that were then revealed centuries later? Think about them having those benefits given to them and they did not have all of the revelations about what was going on, those revelations that came later on. This is just one of many Biblical instances in which people did not have full revelations and knowledge about things, but they interacted with the Eternal One and received benefits as they followed Him.

Now, let's look at some other verses. Look at 2 Chronicles 16:9, where it says that the eyes of the Lord are running to and fro throughout the whole earth (not just in Israel or in churches). And why? He wants to show Himself strong on behalf of anyone on the earth whose heart is perfect toward Him.

See a parallel in the Eyes of the Lord going about all of the earth in Tzechariyahu (Zechariah) 4:10, which also says that there are the eyes of the LORD, going to and fro throughout the whole earth. And there are other things about the Eyes of the Lord in Tehillim (Psalms) 33:18-19 and 34:15-160.

Notice that it says throughout the whole earth, not just where the Hebrews are. This is all-encompassing where the Lord has been since antiquity and still is actively seeking people all over the world, even if they haven't had a Bible or a missionary or a Christian come and talk to them. Throughout the Bible there were other cultures, such as Nineveh, Egypt, Assyria, and others, that had interactions with the Eternal One. Even non-Hebrews had their prayers answered by Him, even though they didn't offer sacrifices, and they probably didn't know anything about the Hebrew scriptures / writings.

Look at Tzephaniyahu (Zephaniah) 2:3 where it says all the meek of the earth are to seek out the LORD. They are to also seek out righteousness and meekness. Remember Jonah and how he preached to Nineveh?

Notice that it says "meek of the earth", not just the Hebrews. This is also all-encompassing whereby anybody on the face of the earth can search for and seek after the one true Eternal One, the Supreme One, and He will encounter them, give them His mercy and forgiveness, and answer their prayers. They don't have to know the English name "Jesus" or that there is even an anointed one (messiah) before He will reveal something about Himself to them. I remember missionaries telling stories there at my step-dad's pastoral college about going to previously unknown peoples and sometimes finding where these people sought out the Lord and had great encounters with Him, even without a Bible or anyone telling the scriptures. In some cases, some of the tribes encountered said that they were going to be told about a Savior, but they didn't have all the details before the missionaries arrived.

Also look at Acts 10:35 where it says that the goyim (gentiles) are accepted by the Lord just by simple faith in Him and by doing what He wants them to do ("trust and obey"). There is no big thing about having to make some standardized confession or knowing the exact right words or correct English names in the Bible, but gentiles just turning their hearts to the one true Lord (the One who rewards those who diligently seek Him) and not to all of the other spirits that they imagine control individual parts of the world. These gentiles just need to interact with Him, ask for forgiveness, and live out the basic life of obedience to the simple directions of living that He has for all humans, even if they are isolated from Christians, radio/TV, or Bibles so that they cannot have made a theologically-correct confession of "Jesus". And given the fact that Jesus' name in Hebrew means to deliver a person in the here-and-now, can we think that the Lord will disregard someone just because they don't say the English word "Jesus", a word that originally was something quite different as it evolved from Biblical Hebrew Yeshua to Koine Greek “Iesous” to the modern Anglo-Germanic word Jesus?


CONCLUSION:
I could go on presenting the different ways Christians differs not only from the Jews, but also from the true Biblical Hebrew / Semitic language and meanings. But I can only encourage you to start a long, but bountiful journey of looking into a rich culture upon which the Bible can truly be understood. In presenting these differences, I do not want to be harsh against Christians, but harsh against blatant ignorance and arrogance and against the resulting persecutions and slaughters of many innocent people over the centuries.

Just as recent archaeological discoveries and cultural studies have shown that the Ten Lost Tribes from the northern part of Israel are still around in Central and Southern Asia, so too must Christians review things from a deeper perspective of the Biblical language and culture. It does no good to remain in the centuries-long road under the directions and influences of the Mediterranean neo-pagan / Gnostic / influences that the gentile Church leaders brought into the body of Christians and made them into autocratic beliefs and theologies.

If you don't know where you came from, just how can you ever know to where you are going?

NOTE: By the way, I wrote these words all by myself.  There was a basic set of ideas and words that I wrote back in 1988, and have refined those words over time -- the author of this post.  NOTE: I Catherine as the author wrote all of these words on my own, most of which I wrote previously for other public reviews, letters to editors, and other public blogs in the past.  There are NO copyrights by the author on the words in this post.  FALSE accusers will be dealt with by my Lawyers.