We are not under the law. Of course not! Because if we are in Him who is above the law (Yahushuah), then we are above the Law with Him. However, the law serves as a pillar under our feet, as one of the pillars of support of the Temple that we are and not to trample it, as most Christians still do.
In Acts 21:18-26 it appears very clearly that at the advice of his fellow apostles, Paul submitted to bear witness before all the world that he too lived and obeyed the laws of Moses. When Jacob and the elders asked him to shave his head with the other 4 men as a sign of their respect for the Commandments, Paul did not resist them and did this in silence.
Concerning the “contradictions” of the apostle Paul
In the following article, I would like to discuss the writings of the Apostle Paul (Rav Saul) regarding the law from a Jewish perspective. We will get an overview of the role of the law in the times of Grace, after the sacrifice of Yahushua HaMashiah, concerning Jews and non-Jews, mainly through the epistle to the Romans. It is important to bring the matter back to the original thought, since the letter is addressed to the Hellenized Jewish and non-Jewish congregation living in Rome and written by a Jewish man who believed in Yahushua, but never denied his identity. All that Paul wrote was inspired by Ruach HaKodesh/the Holy Spirit of Elohim.
It is important to state that for Jews living in Rome at the time, the law differed from the Law initially disclosed by Moses and this, for two reasons:
On the one hand, the original Commandments were not yet completely separated and purified from the added human Pharisaical laws of Babylonia, and on the other hand, the original Laws contained in the Torah were also interpreted and applied according to the Pharisaical way of thinking they’ve learned from their birth. This pharisaic way of thinking happens at the intellectual level rather than coming from the heart.
In the epistle to the Romans, Paul does absolutely not go against the Commandments of Elohim, but:
he opposes the Pahrisaic laws that the Jews added to the original Law of Elohim
IN ADDITION
he is working on the restoration of the Commandments of Elhohim which the Roman spirit of Hellenism had already begun to twist and mix with paganism.
Keeping these additional laws according to the letter led to self-righteousness, which Yahushua fought against. This self-righteousness attributes an effect of self-salvation to the observance of the law in itself. This way of thinking pushes to the background the personal relationship with Elohim, the one which stems from faith and love coming from within. Being a Pharisee of course does not imply being faithful to all the commandments, but rather placing the observance of them before the need to directly listening to the voice of Yahuwah. Someone is a Pharisee because he does not keep the law by faith, to honor Elohim whom he loves, but because he expects rewards from him in a kind of spiritual business relationship.
Paul fought against these additional laws, which do not come from faith, which are not kept because we do it with joy, not under compulsion, but because we love Elohim. When experiencing a restored relationship with Yahuwah, man feels more free than ever, for the Law is there to protect his life and restore the order in his relationship with Elohim and with his neighbour. Paul struggles against the spirit of law-keeping through coercion, through fear of a rebuking god. Paul wants to restore the living Law that flows from our inner faith and love for Elohim.
Moreover, Paul was fighting so that the law would not be in the first place in people’s mind. From the Sacrifice on the cross, the order has changed and had been inverted. The law is no longer our pedagogue until the Messiah, but all the contrary: the Ruach of the Messiah teaches us the Law from the moment we are born again in Him. We first meet Yeshua, then He reveals who He is by showing how He fulfills the Commandments and the Prophecies that are the Word of Elohim, those that became Flesh in Him.
Thus history shifts and it is no longer the Law that teaches us the Messiah, but it is the Messiah who teaches us the Law after having obtained Grace and gone through the baptism of Water and of Fire.
Paul also struggles with older brothers who tried to teach decrees that are not yet concerning spiritually newborn disciples. He who has just come out of the water and been born again does not need Moses YET! The 7 Laws of Noah, the rudimentary and universal basic rules received after the Flood for all Humankind, are more than enough for them and for the moment. Moses is a heavier food and the children still need milk. With this, Paul did not nullify or destroy Moses neither the Commandments received through him, but Paul is putting everything at its right place. Although it is not expressed, it is still clear that he considers that the commandments of Moses are naturally still valid, but that everyone should deal with what is appropriate for their age.
Paul was working in order to restore these distortions, because the apostolic work is above all a work of Reformation.
This is how the essence of Yahushua HaMashiah can be understood. What does it mean that He fulfills the Law? When I place myself under the domination of the Messiah and I am reborn in Yahushua by immersion in water and then by the baptism of fire, then I no longer live, but He lives in me. At this moment, He does not exempt me from the Law, but on the contrary He applies it and puts it into force. From that moment on, I keep the law because it is no longer written on tablets of stone, but is engraved on the flesh of my heart through the baptism of fire and the dwelling in me of Ruach HaKodesh.
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their Elohim.
Ezekiel 11:19-20
It is exactly this prophecy that was fulfilled on Shavuot, at Pentecost. When the two tables of stone transformed into two tongues of fire which came to be engraved in the hearts of the disciples following which, they began to speak in tongues.
Do not forget that Jewry, until this day, is celebrating the gift of the 10 Commandments on this precise day of Shavuot/Pentecost.
But now, let’s look at the verses about the laws in Romans:
1.What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of Elohim. Romans 3:1-2
From this part, the word “Word” is immediately highlighted as the Word of Elohim which was entrusted to the people of Israel. When we talk about the 10 commandments, these are the 10 fundamental laws which have 613 or rather 700 further extensions and which can all be summed up in the 2 Great Commandments of Love (Love of Elohim and Neighbor). (The Mitzvoth actually number 650 to 700, the rabbis not having listed them all). The Word is one of the synonyms for the law, but as a whole it covers the entire Old Testament including all the Prophecies, but a very important and significant part of which are the Commandments. This is also how John begins the story of the coming of Yahushua HaMashiah:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1…14
John immediately begins by describing the very essence of Yahushua. He himself was the Word, in other words, he was the Law. What else could the Word have meant but the word of Elohim, which He gave to his people on Mount Sinai? What was this declared word if not the law and the prophets? The prophets who were precisely sent to pronounce judgments because of the transgression of the Law and whose main work was to restore the Commandments by announcing the wrath coming upon the People due to their transgression.
2. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in Elohim‘s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. Romans 3:20
How can we know what sin is except by the law? And how does grace work if we are unable to recognize sin? How does one know that he needs Grace if we do not recognize the state of sin in which we were born? The Law teaches this to us, so that we can recognize our need for the Messiah! Is Grace then possible without the Law? Not at all, because if we cancel the law, Grace becomes automatically useless as well!
Here, also, Paul’s word is addressed primarily to the Jews who were looking for their justification by the simple observance of the law, and not to people of other nations who did not care about the law, because they did not yet know it. The Law must be promulgated to the Nations in due time so that they will understand what the work of Redemption is. The Jews on their side must be freed from the additional laws and from the distortions that soiled the original laws through the assimilation.
3. It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of Elohim, in whom he believed—the Elohim who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Romans 4:13-18
Where law is abolished, anarchy reigns. Is that why so many people reject the Commandments in order to wash their hands like Pilate and say we have nothing to do with them? Is that why Paul wrote these lines? I do not think so. Here, also, the emphasis is on the need to know the law, because from this flows the recognition of sin, which implies the need for and acceptance of the redemptive work of the Messiah. Without law there is no judgment, without judgment there would be no need for mercy! Without the law, the execution of my old man could not happen and I would never fully become a new creation. (See: Death penalty (where LIFE begins)
Those who are descendants of Abraham by the Spirit— the Body of Messiah—must demonstrate the same level of obedience and faith. Abraham was obedient, so he was also righteous. Why was he righteous? Because he observed the laws known until then. Why did he keep them? Not out of constraint, with no expectation of any good in return, but out of gratitude, with joy, because he loved Elohim with all his heart. The Messiah already largely lived in him, even before His coming into the visible world. A great part of the law was already alive in him when Yahuwah had not yet given them to Moses.
4. Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of the Messiah, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for Elohim. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was if it wouldn’t have been through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. Romans 7:1-13
In this passage, it appears clearly that the Law must be kept and known. But from Christ, it is not us anymore, but the Spirit of the Messiah living in us who manages its functioning. Elohim made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of Elohim. 2Corinthians 5:21
Again, we can read from Paul that in order to expose sin, the Law that became flesh, Yahushua became sin, so that Grace could take effect. Does this mean that Elohim declared His Son guilty? Certainly not, but his great grace is shown in this: that He placed upon the only one who has always been innocent all the consequences, the judgment we all deserve according to the Law.
Law/Sin/Judgment/Mercy are all inseparable concepts since the fall of Adam and Eve
5. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. Romans 7:15-21
Paul opposes here two kinds of laws. The laws of Elohim, and the anti-law (the laws of the antichrist), which comes from our carnal desires. Moreover, here Paul is not talking about his actual personal state of mind, but he speaks as an universal human beeing to make people not yet born again or still weak in their faith, to make them understand the porcess of sin in the world.The Law, the Messiah, the Ruach HaKodesh was living and ruling in Paul. He was free from sin and did not struggle with anything from the moment he was born again.
6. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Yahushua HaMashiah, because through Yahushua HaMashiah the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, Elohim did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to Elohim; it does not submit to Elohim’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please Elohim. Romans 8:1-8
Only the law of Elohim can protect us against the law of sin. But because of the flesh, Man is unable to keep them on his own. This is why it is necessary that they be engraved no longer on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, immediately in the hearts of men, so that they can act instinctively according to the law. This is what it means to be born again in the Messiah. Even if I commit a sin, I recognize it immediately without anyone telling me or looking for the exact article in the scriptures, because the Holy Spirit who lives in me immediately points it out to me, He holds me back and judges me so that I realize that I have still something to settle. This is how Sanctification works. Without an inner connection to the Messiah and without being born again, the Law itself leads to self-righteousness and remains vain. However, when I find myself under the reign of the Messiah, the Law comes to life within me and I begin to apply it instinctively and without any difficulty or feeling of constraint. My old man is no longer there to try to stop me, to make me love sin rather than holiness. This is what the following verses are about:
7. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Yahushua HaMashiah our Lord. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Yahushua HaMashiah were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 5:20-6:4
It is difficult to understand with human thought what happened through the sacrifice of the Lamb. In the Jewish congregation of the time, Paul often used the following formulas: “What shall we say then…” then he continues: “…far from it-by no means…“. From the moment of Messiah’s ascension to the throne, orders come into effect that can be easily misinterpreted even by Jews. “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law, etc.” This often repeated turn also leads to the conclusion that
there is certainly a change, but that there is still no essential change, but rather that something old and imperfect has become perfect and fulfilled.
The law does not save, but the law that became flesh does indeed save. It is difficult even for an initiated person to understand the highest thoughts and works of Elohim, and the enemy takes maximum advantage of this human weakness: “What is the Law for, look, even Paul speaks against it …“. Again Satan takes biblical verses out of context in order to distort the truth based on partial truths.
On the other hand, he cancels in a very sneaky way the order of the laws concerning the purity and the sacrifices of the Temple explaining that even the Jews of today no longer respect them since there is no more Temple, so what do you expected from Christians with these laws?
But let’s just take a little look to these laws and see how they are still valid in the Body of the Messiah.
8. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 2Thessalonians 2:3
Each law, in addition to its physical content, also has a spiritual meaning. The laws concerning sacrifices are just as valid as the others. However, the Lamb of Elohim after having shed his Blood once and for all, our sacrifices are carried out to another level and the animals are replaced by other goods which belong to us. Such is the dedication of our own lives, our families, our work, our own person and all that is ours. It is no longer the goats, lambs or other animals that we sacrifice, because this type of physical sacrifice has been made once and for all by Yahushua. But according to the pattern of this unique sacrifice, what kind of sacrifices are we able to make in spirit so that our visible lives should be in harmony with the Messiah who dwells in us?
Today’s Jews no longer sacrifice animals either! Why ? Because the Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed. There is no sacrifice until the third is built. But I remind you that this third Temple has been rebuilt for a long time, and it is none other than the Body of Messiah, which was built in three days. This Temple is no longer made of stone, nor of any visible physical matter, but of Spirit. Therefore, the sacrifice must also take place at the level of the Spirit. These long written laws provide the answer to how everything should work. There is only one High Priest, Yahushua, not according to the order of Aaron, but according to that of Melchizedek, and all of us who are born again in Him are the Levites. So all the laws concerning the Cohens and the Levites are valid concerning Yahushua and us, his disciples.
The ‘do not touch the dead’ type of law, for example, doesn’t mean that I can’t even bury my parents if they die, because I can’t touch the dead, but it does mean that I have to stand away from these spirits and from the people who carry them. Let us not be in communion with them, lest they contaminate us. But let’s be close to them so that we can preach to them the One that can bring them Life. Let us also stay away from dead actions that do not move us forward.
Another question is which laws apply only to the Jewish people and which apply to all people. Here I would like to deal only with the validity of the Laws as a whole and in the context of the Time of Mercy. The rest could possibly be the subject of another lesson.
9. Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from Elohim. Romans 2:25-29
A recurring theme, who is to be considered as Jewish? Is there a spiritual Israel? And why keep our Jewish identity if we believe and are already in the Messiah? There is no difference between Greek and Jew? In short, let us not confuse the standard used in judging everyone, regardless of their origins and gender, with the earthly task and calling that Elohim has given to different peoples and different genders, and which naturally are very different from one another. In short, let us not confuse the standard used in the judgment of each person regardless of their origins with the earthly task and call that Elohim gave to the different peoples and which do indeed differ from each other. But a pagan who has become a member of the People of Elohim, who is reborn in the Messiah, can indeed be a great judgment for the Jew who has strayed from Elohim by the testimony of his life, as to how the relationship with Yahuwah must be lived.
Such a born-again non-Jew will thus be considered more circumcised than a rebellious Jew who is only circumcised under his underpants.
This purely physical form of circumcision is vain in itself.But this does not imply that anyone non-jewish suddently becomes a real and genuine Jew.
No one should deprive the Israelites of the promises, roles and tasks and the identity that Elohim has given us for a long time so that we accomplish it in the visible world. Because some tasks fall to us and no one else is capable of fulfilling them.
10. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Yahushua HaMashiah. Galatians 3:28
In this blind liberal-leftist world in which we live today, where people who dare to assert that there is even a noticeable difference between a man and a woman will soon be thrown into prison, it is more and more difficult for Christians, who are increasingly linked to the World, to make them understand that there is indeed a difference not only between men and women, but also between Jews and Greeks. Elohim loves us equally and no difference in His love and judgment will be made once we are in the Messiah. However, our callings remain different and distinct from each other, although we have to do it together just like a married couple: precisely as a man and a woman should do together. Our callings are completing and reinforcing each other.
And if anyone still misinterprets this sentence of Paul, I invite such a person, if he is a man, to get women’s clothes and a wig, to put them on, to apply rouge to lips, then to go to church next Sunday to attend worship dressed like that. Especially if it is the pastor or other minister. In this case let him also try to imitate a woman’s voice and preach to his disciples in this way. Then, when he returns home after his brothers stared at him in dismay, let him write his impressions and experience in the comments section at the bottom of this page because I would be very curious of how he had lived such an experience. And after that, let him especially go and think about when and how he will again take up and teach anything that comes from the pen of the apostle Paul?
I recommend this particularly to all those people who, out of hatred or even love of the Jews, identify themselves so much with us that they end up declaring themselves Jewish in mind, heart or whatsoever. The apostle Peter warns against the arbitrary use of his companion’s hardly understandable words, as this can have serious consequences. It is better to live such a humiliating experience of transvestite in the middle of the assembly, than to have one day to render an account before Yahuwah for the nonsense that one could have said while referring to Paul.
The Jewish people is not rejected. It continues to serve as an example to other peoples, even if it is not yet in the Messiah.
Before a prophecy happens to anyone, it will first be fulfilled in the visible world on the Jewish people, as a kind of prototype, as the main test, like a mannequin in a window. (The Shoa is an example of this). This is what it means to be a chosen or a prophetic people, chosen and set apart by Elohim for eternity for a different and a special task. This also applies to the messianic age, even when the great part of the people persists in not recognizing the Messiah in Yahushua.
The law of circumcision also applies only to Jews, including those who are in the Messiah, since one must continue to wear the physical and visible sign of the old Covenant while having circumcision of the heart in addition as a sign of Grace, of the same Covenant that had been revived by the Messiah.
However, our circumcision in Messiah can only be like that of Theophilus, so that we can serve our people. The sign of the perfect and final Covenant is through Water and Fire. Our physical circumcision only serves to open the doors to the traditional members of our people so that we can bring the Gospel back to them.
This task is ours alone and is eternal. But if we become unfaithful to Elohim, then a non-Jew circumcised in heart can humiliate a circumcised in flesh by being more righteous than him. At the final count, in our judgment, however, we will enjoy no advantage because of our Jewishness. In fact, we’ll be in a worse situation than the others having always been the eldest compared to them. The more we have been entrusted with, the more we will be held to account. This is why no one should be jealous! In spirit, one can be a descendant of Abraham by faith, like the people of Elohim by the Messiah, but spiritual Israel does not exist.
Israel and Judah, are the first wifes of Elohim and the eldest. They are not to be mixed up with its younger sister: Ephraim which is the next Bride of Elohim. As incredible as it may seem, in the prophecies, when Judah is mentioned, it applies that we are referring to Judah! And the same way, when we hear about Israel, well, it is quite simply question of Israel – all the members of the 10 lost tribes whose gathering is still in progress. In the prophecies, the other nations are referred to by the name: Ephraim. Let’s never mix the three and confuse them, because you will miss the point and be blinded in your prophetic vision.
11. In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one Elohim. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed Elohim, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called Elohim’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. James 2:17-26
What kind of actions is James talking about here? Where can the works come from? Of our human will, of well-intentioned humanism, of our desire to please the others? When Abraham believed and acted accordingly, did he not obey the word of Elohim and his Commandments which he had known up to that time? (Since Abraham lived before Moses, he could not have known all of the revealed Law, yet there were laws he knew even in his uncircumcised state centuries before Moses.) Works are nothing but the observance of the Law, their acceptance and obedience. How could I act if I don’t know the law? Without the law, there are no possible good actions.
Faith without deeds is dead. That is to say that faith is dead without the law, and grace is meaningless without it!
Anyone who thinks it is possible to act well outside the Will, Word and Law of Elohim is mistaking!
In conclusion, I would like to end this teaching not with the words of Paul, but from our Lord Yahushua HaMashiah himself:
12. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:18-20
As I have written before in another teaching, Paul spoke in many ways, because he was speaking to very different people in terms of state and spiritual maturity. In Yahushua’s days no one had yet been born in the Spirit, for the Ruach HaKodesh had not yet been sent to fill the disciples at least not so widely.
And if we don’t understand Paul, let’s stick to Yahushua’s words. Let us always and mainly base ourselves on what Yahushua says, because Paul is not the messiah. However, through Paul, the Messiah spoke in a way that many do not/cannot/ or even do not want to understand since the are not willing to grow. Above all, Paul must not become a cornerstone over whom many stumble to their own ruin, as the apostle Peter said concerning his colleague who is many times indeed very hard to understand. (2 Peter 3:15-16)
Concerning the “contradictions” of the apostle Paul
When we analyze the apostle Paul’s relationship to the Commandments of Elohim, it is worth starting from the words spoken by another apostle who from the outset drew our attention to the problem of the erroneous interpretation that the people make from the statements of his colleague. Let us therefore read what Peter tells us concerning Paul in his second epistle in chapter 2 verses 15 to 16:
Bear in mind that our Yahuwah’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that Elohim gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2Peter 3:15-16
Chaos reigns in the Church due to certain statements of Paul that are indeed very difficult to interpret. This is what we will try to remedy with these two following teachings.
If we really want to be honest, everyone may have noticed at least once in their life that Paul seems to be in total contradiction, both with the Old Testament, with Yahushua’s statements, and even with his own.
However, we must agree on one fundamental truth:
There is NO and CANNOT be any contradiction
in those writings which were inspired by the Holy Spirit of Elohim and preserved by the same Spirit during the processes which men commonly call canonization.
From now on, we must no longer run away from what seems difficult to us, even withdraw what is good then to sweep the rest under the carpet. We should rather ask persistently that Ruach HaKodesh enlighten us and give us the answers to these cardinal questions.
Jews and Christians agree on one essential thing concerning the character of Paul. According to both parties:
Paul is the one who “canceled” the Law.
This is considered sacrilege in the eyes of the Jews and an ultimate blessing for the Greeks.
On one side – the Jews – considers it a scandal that someone should claim that the law is no longer an aim to be achieved and that the main task of man is not to keep it. On the other side, the Nations which were originally outlaws when they did not yet know Yahushua HaMashiah, always seek to benefit only from the positive sides of the Alliances and neglect what seems to them to be difficult or unpleasant.
Paul stood between these two extremist and erroneous perceptions of what our relationship with Elohim should be. It is in this state of spiritual middle ground that we should all be like Paul. He warned that we refrain from following the spirit of the Pharisees who bet everything on the Law and the works that flow from it, so as not to trample the sacrifice of the Lamb of Elohim.
At the time when most of the first disciples were newly converted Jews straight out of traditional Judaism, the detachment and purification from Babylonian Judaism had not yet been fully accomplished. It was not yet entirely clear to them what the difference was between the laws added by the “Babylonian wises” and those disclosed to Moses by Yahuwah himself.
But the problem is far from being that simple. Because the original Commandments can also be approached in two different manners. The original Law can be interpreted Pharisaically and not spiritually. When we obey the Father’s Word in order to obtain retribution and avoid punishment, we do so only out of self-love. But we can also obey our Father’s will out of love for Him without expecting any reward from Him, but just “to please Him”. It is this form of obedience that comes from pure and unconditional love that is the right path. It is when his perfect Son lives in our hearts and directs us from within which is the sign that the Commandments have been engraved and fulfilled within us.
The first attitude is self-righteous, that is to say formal, on the basis of mutual concessions, as in a contract between two business partners. Not by faith and heart, but by reason, not by love of Yahuwah, but by fear of him, as we can mainly see it today in religions like Islam where believers are scared to death of their god who they are serving as slaves rather than sons.
We are all to be sons of Elohim through the Ruach HaKodesh, when the Spirit of the Son Yahushua fills up our hearts to rule from within.
Thus the Messiah applies the Law in us, without we having to make the effort to respect it. It simply starts to work by itself inside of us, as if by instinct.
Paul therefore attacks both false Judaism, which is fundamentally human, but he also goes against this kind fulfillment of the original Law which is based on the effort of man wanting to perfect himself. This human effort is futile and harmful. Both condition lead to death.
Why does Paul contradict Yahushua? “We are no longer under the law” vs. “Not a iota will pass from the law…”?
Let’s start from a fundamental principle that we must apply in all circumstances:
If there is a contradiction between the words of Yeshua and those of any other character in the Bible, the standard is ALWAYS what Yahushua says.
If we don’t understand, let’s not cling to what is most sympathetic to us or what theologians have put in our heads over the centuries. Until we are wise and spiritually mature enough to understand Paul’s words which are indeed often very difficult to understand, we must hold very firmly and exclusively to the word of Yahushua and act accordingly, for no evil can result from this.
Then, when we reach the level of maturity and sufficient obedience, we realize that ultimately
Paul never contradicted Yahushua
The big difference between them was that unlike Yahushua’s message, Paul’s message was primarily aimed to people who were already born again and were of very different spiritualages and states. Yahushua was in a “simpler” situation one might say, since everyone was on the same spiritual level and no one had yet been born again and received the Holy Spirit.
Law begets death
The law is a dangerous weapon like a knife. With it you can kill, mutilate and injure if it is considered as a simple letter, but it can also be used to feed, to cut tumors and gangrene, even to defend oneself, in a word to maintain and preserve Life, if it is lived in the Spirit.
The letter kills and the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:6
And if you do not learn from the Father how to use it, you will harm yourself and others. And if you reject it out of fear or cowardness, the law itself is ultimately going to judge you.
The Law/Commandments is the Word, and the Word became flesh. He who does not die as an old man and does not rise again as a new creation in Yeshua, in the Word, in the Living Law, will be overtaken by the judgment of Yahushua at his return.
The question of the weak
The root of the all that seems contradictory in what Paul says, is the concept of weakness. He puts all laws and commandments of Elohim to the background for the weak, for those who are still children in spirit so that we do not burden them with things that do not yet concern them. The subjects which concern the elder ones must not be treated in the ears of the youngests so that no false custom, dogma and other tradition comes to veil the heart of the children. If they would forced themselves to do things instead of letting the Messiah shape them from within, it would only lead them away from the Spirit of the Messiah.
Because the law of LIFE and LOVE prevails over all others.
If a law has been re-established in us and which is not yet in our neighbour, let us avoid teaching them to obey it, because instead of leading them forward on the path of sanctification, we would put them again under the curse of the law again. Thus their relation to the law would be reduce to the letter, to formalities, to self-righteousness, in a word, to religiosity. We would make them Pharisees again and not disciples capable of discerning by themselves through the Spirit of what they should think and act in a given situation and a given moment in their journey. They would end up obeying the decrees in the hope of obtaining more rewards and blessings and would miss the conduct of the Ruach HaKodesh who in turn would end up momentarily withdrawing from them for lack of submission to Him.
The commandments have been fulfilled in me when I no longer obey them by constraint, but rather instinctively, without thinking about it and even by deeply desiring to fulfill them and not even being able to imagine doing otherwise.
It is good to be able to resist temptation. But if the problem is not solved at the level of the spirit and we obey the will of Elohim only at the cost of internal struggles, sooner or later big problems will arise in our spiritual life. What I still have to resist when I am already born again is a sin from which I am not free yet. It is therefore necessary to get rid of it, to clean it so that the power of the Messiah does not stop progressing in me. This mechanism is nothing more than the
PROCESS OF SANCTIFICATION
Sin is the root of all disorder and all hindrances. Only the law can expose sin. And Yahushua can free us from sin by applying the Commandments. Because He is High Priest who executes judgment against sin in our hearts – on the level of our minds and spirit.
We are the Temples of His Spirit and He ministers in us as the High Priest according to the order of Melkishedek and according to all the Commandments concerning the High Priests which have long since been disclosed in the Torah. Instead of calves, heifers, goats and other animals, he burns our remaining sins through the execution of the Law at the spiritual level.
This process can manifest itself at the level of our relations with our environment in the visible world: relations die, others revive or arise; links are broken, others strengthened; hostile people suddenly change their attitude towards us; our living conditions stabilize or even improve; etc. But I am thinking here above all of the internal problems of our person which, like obstacles, prevent us from moving forward.
At the root of all sin is the breaking of a law. In the long run this involves death if we do not detach ourselves from sin, but can also beget life if the Spirit of Messiah frees us from it. It is by letting Yahushua apply the sentence against sin that is in me that he frees me from it at the same time. So it is He, Yahushua, who takes the place of sin in my heart so that His Law will henceforth be applied in and through me. I will thus obey the order given, because it is living inside of me and acts by itself, without effort, like breath that gives life.
As we have discussed in several other writings, the Law, as we read in the 10 Words, or Commandments, are promises, they were not written in the imperative mode in the original Hebrew, but in the future tense: ( if He lives in us and we live in Him), then we will not steal, kill, cheat, fornicate…, because we will no longer want to. This is when we start to understand what Yeshua said that even thinking about sin is sin in itself and that is the level where He wants to free us from it.
The weak need milk. He needs to experience and see Grace, to hear the Gospel, to experience deliverance, healing, so that his faith is strengthened. Then he will gradually begin to hunger for more and more solid food. In addition to the 5 fundamental laws that Paul lists for us in Acts 15:29 (drinking of blood, drowning animals, fornication, etc.) that everyone must apply from the start, sooner or later
you must have the curiosity to learn what the Word contains including the commandments found in the 5 books of Moses.
If we want to know the essence of the Messiah more and more in depth, then we must let this process begin.
And while masses of teachers preach the denial of the law, still greater masses of believers are deprived of this curiosity and the ability to go in search of solid food by themselves, not through teachers, but independently, as spiritual adults, through the direct guidance and teaching of the Ruach HaKodesh. When, according to the promise, we no longer teach one another (Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrew 8:11).
We all have to reach this level of spiritual maturity thus letting the Ruach HaKodesh fulfilling this promise in us and stop teaching our own sipirtual children when they also become adults like us. Just as in the case of a physical family. We are not the same parents for our adult children than we were when they were children. Once they grow up, we must at best standing before them as witnesses and examples.
Let us therefore not forbid anyone to eat rabbit or pig, to celebrate Sunday and Christmas, or to give foreign names to the Eternal, as long as these people do it with a pure heart and that they are still immature in spirit, for we would offend them. Because if they would listened to us and returned to the originals, to what is holy, but it is not Ruach HaKodesh who restores these questions in their hearts and at the appropriate time, but me and at the level of their intellect, then I would have worked in vain.
Because it is possible to be saved even by drowning in pork, if the Savior catches us in time and we say yes to him. No one should try to force or accuse anyone who, out of purity of heart, does not yet comply with a decree that has already become important and natural for us.
But if you are no longer part of the weaks, because you are already an adult or at least mature enough to move on to more serious things, then stop playing the child and pretending not to be concerned with all the Word of Elohim. Because if you keep shying away and refusing to know and obey the law, you’ll end up in big trouble.
From a certain age, we can also be beaten with sticks if we continue our childishness.
In our ministry, we are not to play little christs judging the weak, but to present the merciful Yahushua to them. Because the time for the return of the Messiah who judges has not yet arrived. The time of Grace is still going on, but although the Law remains eternal and valid. Anyone who preaches otherwise is preaching a foreign gospel. The fact is that the Law is applied by Ruach HaKodesh in the life of each individual, according to their spiritual age.
Returning to Torah is an act of suicide in itself. But not coming back to it is just as suicidal. Returning to the Old Testament by bypassing Shavuot/Pentecost leads to death. We have to understand that the Torah must be engraved in us in the mind and the heart through Ruach HaKodesh, and then we begin to realize with our consciousness how does works in practice, everything that had been written down in the Torah long ago.
We mustn’t teach the crude law to our younger brothers but rather show them the way to walk with the Ruach HaKodesh who can fix the living Commandments in their hearts.
Then when we are convinced that they are also being led by Ruach HaKodesh direclty from within, we can begin to witness how He has restored the Commandments within ourselves.
Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.” Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of Yahuwah, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.” He then brought me into the inner court of the house of Yahuwah, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of Yahuwah and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the Sun in the east. He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse my anger?Ezekiel 8:13-17
In addition to our previous articles, where we have already discussed the spiritual problems and the corrupt roots of Christmas, I would like to summarize in a little more detail what is the historical and pagan context of this holiday. See also the article: The prohibition of the “sacred tree”.
In the best of cases, Christian pastors teach their flocks that they must rely on their own conscience and that everyone must judge their relationship to this feast for themselves. In a somewhat loose way like Pilate: “I wash my hands of it, let everyone do as they see fit and in accordance with what the Spirit allows them to do.” Based on what is described here below, I now specifically encourage those who are in the Spirit and who have been filled with the Holy Spirit at some time to trust not their conscience, but their stomach, regarding how they will now position themselves in relation to this celebration which is frankly dark and demonic.
The perpetuation of this feast was one of the key stages in the Christianization of the pagan world and at the same time in the paganization of Christianity. By safeguarding and at the same time by Christianizing the greatest pagan festival, the ruling power of the time succeeded in a “master” trick, thus ensuring that the peoples did not rebel against the new religion adopted by the Emperor Constantine. The main tool in the greatest attack ever perpetrated against the Body of Messiah by the foundation of the Roman church is as usual: mixture or assimilation.
Winter Solstice Celebration
The gradual return of light from the shortest and therefore darkest day of the year was considered a very great event among all the peoples of antiquity. From here, light begins to take over darkness.
The symbol seems really conducive to the celebration of the birth of Yeshua, the Savior of the world, the advent of the Light of the world coming on earth. We can say that the situation lends itself perfectly to the mixture of the two.
However, the Holy Scriptures do not state exactly when Yeshua was born, and most importantly, Elohim never gave instructions for anyone’s birthdays to be celebrated, including his own. It is not known why this subject is so taboo for Elohim and according to the original Jewish traditions, but it is so, like it or not. (undoubtedly in order to avoid self-idolatry by avoiding celebrating oneself).
Adding anything to the commandments as well as to the feasts is a problem in itself, but the situation is aggravated by the fact that
the day of the celebration of the vilest spirits was appointed to commemorate the birth of the Most Holy,
and what is more, by having preserved all the range of the original pagan symbols which are attached to it.
The real and deep root of this holiday is none other than people’s instinctive desire to cheer themselves up during such a dark period. Who has never been amazed by the kiosks and other urban decorations visible during the end-of-year celebrations? This is a truly heart-warming sight, we have to admit!
But before anyone makes the mistake of explaining their relationship to this feast by saying that Elohim purifies everything and that we have freedom in the Messiah to do whatever we want, let us instead reflect on the reasons why we are still stuck into this feast which obviously has long since turned into a real capitalist and consumer orgy.
We’re silent about the hidden side of Christmas, because we are eventually afraid of suffering more rejection from the world and from other Christians who are up to their necks in it? Perhaps for diplomatic reasons do we wish to preserve a good understanding and especially not to spoil a holiday which after all is still mainly celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus? Are we tired of always standing out thus we refrain ourselves from attacking a feast for fear of going against the Messiah and being accused of blasphemy? The question is exactly the same as in the case of the change from Shabbat to Sunday. See the article: Saturday / Sunday
Christmas: the feast of the Sun and other deities
Let’s see the main examples of foreign deities that have been celebrated at the end of December since the dawn of time:
Nimrod / Tammuz
Nimrod means: he will rebel. Nimrod, who was also called deer, claimed to be the Sun god. All sorts of orgies and parties seasoned with human sacrifices were organized in his honor, the “climax” of which was the sacrifice of children at the stake, from which, incidentally, the symbol of the Yule log comes.
Nimrod married his own mother Semiramis, to whom their son Tammuz was born on December 25. According to popular lore, Tammuz is the reincarnation of Nimrod, who eventually died in a forest where a pine tree grew from the remains of his body. In commemoration of his death, people went to meditate every December 25 at the foot of this fir tree where Tammuz brought them all kinds of gifts from the hereafter.
Nimrod and Tammuz are often depicted in arts as children sitting on the knees of their mother, Semiramis. It is directly from here that the representation of the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus comes.
Saturn
He was also celebrated on December 25. Here human sacrifices have been replaced by gladiatorial fights which outcome was often fatal. The Saturnalia lasted a whole month during which people indulged in drinking parties and various orgies. During this period, another holiday, the Juvenalia specifically celebrated youth, children and fertility. Meanwhile, the roman upper and ruling class was worshiping Mithras – the Persian sun god.
Saturn was often depicted with a scythe and a celestial chariot. Here, the draft animals were not reindeers as in the case of Santa Claus, but a giant snakes. Saturn, the Roman Chronos, was the principality who, according to mythology, devoured his own son to avoid him from eventually usurping his throne when becoming an adult. This is none other than
the symbol of Satan wanting to destroy humans as soon as possible in order to avoid them taking his and his demons’ places they left empty in Heavens before these ones find their path back to the Father through the Messiah Yeshua
The spirit of Saturn is directly related to Santa Claus (and Saint Nicholas) and still worshiped through him till today.
Other foreign deities
We could go on making a long list of all the names of foreign spirits which the various pagans associated with light and Sun and which are thus celebrated to this day during the month of December. Here, I will only mention a few from the best known examples:
Re/Ra/Oziris, Mithras, Helios/Dionysos, Sol Invictus, Lucia, …
The Roman attack on the Church, the real one, to which I often refer, when Constantine the Great, in his effort to assimilate everything, by mixing and thus by falsifying the original, here just incorporated the celebration of the anniversary of Yeshua in the greatest feast celebrated worldwide by all peoples.
Puritan American Christians banned the celebration of Christmas until the middle of the 19th century. The Reformation has already settled this question once in the past. Later, due to marketing and capitalist interests, the feast was restored in order to push the masses into consumption. This affected the Christian communities, which began to feel a kind of lack during this coldest period.
Do you still sacrifice your children to Moloch?
Millions of people trick their children into believing that there is a nice old man with a white beard and dressed in red clothes who distributes sweets and gifts as a reward to the children according to whether they have been good or not. They are brought before the image of an old “wise man” with a paternal face to whom they can write and even pray to in order to win his clemency. What happens in such a case, at the spiritual level?
What kind of idol do people get their own children used to?
Wouldn’t these practices be a way of teaching them how to make idols from an early age?
In addition,
what image does the child have of Elohim,
if he is encouraged so early to ask some spiritual authority for all kinds of nice gifts after playing the nice boy or girl in order to obtain a reward? Isn’t this what we call religiosity, self-righteousness or pharisaism? Earn your salvation based on your deeds?
Are we surprised that there are so many believers who still see the Savior as an idol, a “little” Jesus who distributes gifts that is to say blessings and money in the context of current adult Christian?
By getting our children used to this kind of idolatry, we are simply misleading them and developing in them a false image of Elohim and Yahushua. Wouldn’t this process just be
the sacrifice by fire of the spirit of our children on the altar of Moloch?!
As I mentioned in my other article on the prohibition of child sacrifice, every compromise with the world is a kind of spiritual sacrifice, the spiritual burning of our children, which can have serious repercussions on their adult life and their relationship with Elohim. See Do not follow the World
Notice the reaction of almost every small child when they are first placed on the lap of a man dressed as Santa Claus. They cry and scream in terror, many parents don’t even understand why. They think it’s because it’s an eccentrically dressed stranger. After a few years, the child grows up and gets used to the phenomenon, thus ending up crying. But what the children feel at first, in my opinion, is rather the foreign spirit that hides behind this masquerade and the spiritual sacrifice in which they do not want to take part and even less to be the victims. Sometimes we really have the impression that these poor little ones feel the unbearable heat of the flames trying to burn them from the inside.
May the Spirit of Yahuwah / Ruach HaKodesh break and cancel all spiritual curses that arise from these forced encounters in the lives of all humans who had to take part in this type of seance during their childhood!
More than 500 years after the start of the Reformation, today, as we are on the threshold of the last 7 years, we still have to persuade a large part of Christianity on the reasons to abandon the celebration of Christmas and other circuses of the kind. And while the antichrist prepares to strengthen his alliance with all the nations of the world, you do still go on preparing yourself for this kind of spiritual binge as a disciple of Jesus! (Cop 28, Abu-Dhabi – 2023 November 30 – December 12)
Does the question still arise?
May those who have no children not be deceived. Those who celebrate alone or with their partner, parents or friends do nothing more than worship Satan without even suspecting it. Whether atheists or believers, the situation is the same.
The enemy doesn’t care if you believe in him or not, Christmas remains his unholy holiday in any case.
The acceptance of such a circus strongly impacts the spiritual state of people who submit to it or who do not warn of its dangers. In the case of Christians, this kind of festivities strongly affects their personal relationship with the Savior and the Father and distort even further the already altered image they often have of Elohim.
Yahushua has no intention of purifying anything that is unclean and rotten. The soiled roots must be dug up, cut off and thrown into the fire. Unclean spirits act even when we don’t believe and think about them. We activate them and empower them by letting them act. But as in all things, the time of ignorance is tolerated by Yahuwah. However, after the recognition of a problem, when a new imposture is unmasked, we can easily slip into a state of conscious rebellion if we do not purify ourselves of it. This kind of conscious rebellion will sooner or later lead to dramatic consequences.
And if someone would find my words a little bit to harsh, I recommend that person to go on reading chapters 8 and 9 of the book of Ezekiel.
Let’s be wise and use these false feasts for the benefit of Yahushua
Christmas is only good for one thing:
to minister to unbelievers who no longer commemorate the birth and existence of Yahushua except on this cursed day.
We have the opportunity to commemorate the birth of our Savior Yahushua HaMashiah and all other events related to Him at any time. The holidays, whether true or false, are an opportunity for us to bear witness to the Savior that many do not yet know, or only in this rudimentary form. Because religious holidays, original or not, are the occasions when even non-believers question a lot of things concerning Life and thus have their hearts more open and better prepared to receive the Gospel.
Christmas can thus be the occasion to bear witness to the Messiah so that the following year it is no longer celebrated, because the person will also have entered the Heavenly Sanctuary: the Body of the Messiah, where the Feasts of the Eternal do also become Eternal.
In the preceding two articles, we delved into two of Satan’s primary tools aimed at thwarting Elohim’s plan. Overtaking and pushing to extremes are maneuvers serving the same purpose — none other than wasting our time. When Satan perceives an inability to divert the chosen ones from the right path, he endeavors to guide them into dead ends and detours, intending to steal time, energy, and induce infertility. These tactics hinder us from fulfilling our calling, and our spiritual growth is significantly impeded as a result.
Our previous two topics, OVERTAKING and PULLING TO THE EXTREMES, essentially both serve to RESTRAIN us.
The line of Cain against that of Seth, Ishmael against Isaac, and Esau against Jacob—all serve as repelling forces of the enemy with the aim of overthrowing the Plan of Elohim.
When Satan deceives believers into embracing EXTREMISMS and human dogmas emerge from certain truths, degrading the spiritual restoration into a false self-righteous effort, he once again impedes our progress. In some cases, he even brings us to a complete halt on the path of sanctification for the entire Body of Christ.
It is precisely these recurring stops or blockages that inspire many to persevere and continue the true race on the Narrow Path, ensuring that the torch of the Messiah is never extinguished.
Retention forces
Indeed, besides overtaking and pushing to extremes, there are additional factors that can impede our progress in ministry. These factors manifest when attempts are made to hold us back from moving forward.
Some individuals hinder our progress by clinging to our clothes or our ministry,
metaphorically representing an attempt to tether or anchor us, preventing us from moving forward freely.
When we waste our time evangelizing people who have no intention of submitting to Yeshua and turn away from their sins, but just wish to pour out their misery on us and are only looking for someone to listen to them and above all to support them in what they think is to be true. In such cases of apparent unwillingness to change and accept the only solution to their problems is to send them to a psychologist, for this type of mental health ministry is not the purview of Yahushua’s followers.
We encounter one of the earliest examples of this mechanism in the life of Abram when his nephew Lot clung directly to him after his call to come out from among his people. Nowhere do we read that Yahuwah allowed or even asked Abram to take anyone with him except his own men and cattle. You can learn more about Lot and Abraham in the article in the paragraph titled Lot the righteous.
Lot endangered Abram, his people, wealth, inheritance, and time, putting them all at great peril. Before separating from his uncle, Lot’s men even became a source of conflicts with those of Abraham.
This phenomenon does not only steal our time and energy but can easily lead to remorse, especially if we lack spiritual maturity. Due to a lack of spiritual vision, we engage in discussions and get entangled in the vain details of the lives of people who show no inclination to progress humbly toward the Messiah. Instead, they assail us with their miseries, and after a while, we find ourselves at a loss for what to say or advise them. This can lead to self-accusation for not measuring up and feeling to have failed in the call we received from our Master.
During street evangelism, it’s not uncommon to encounter situations where some individuals exceed the limits of patience and love towards our neighbors. There comes a point when another principle takes effect: the one of stepping forward and shaking the dust off our feet. Some may waste their time listening to people’s life stories and engaging in futile discussions about private details instead of emphasizing the global and final solution—REPENTANCE, followed by WATER and FIRE baptism.
In many cases, false humanism intertwines with the love of Christ. This is particularly true in the case of women. They are very inclined to stop and engage in lengthy conversations, squandering precious minutes with individuals who show little interest in Christ. Often, these individuals are seeking money or agreement with their theories on life and “God.” We must not allow those with no intention of embracing the path of submission to rob us of our time and energy. Meanwhile, those who would be open to the gospel pass by without the opportunity to connect with us because we are dealing with the wrong person. It is crucial for us to quickly discern who the people of peace are, those whose hearts are prepared to hear and receive the Gospel, so that we may focus our efforts accordingly.
Similar to Abraham’s situation, we often find ourselves overwhelmed by the presence of individuals who obstruct and have no intention of progressing. It is our responsibility to look ahead, recognize, and focus on those who have the potential to truly become disciples like us.
Let us refrain from being entangled in these unnecessary false ministries and learn to disengage from them promptly, enabling us to redirect our efforts towards the genuine ones.
Just as a rescuer would not grab the clothing of a suicidal person wishing to jump out of a window, fearing the risk of being dragged down in his fall. We also must recognize that someone who is closed to the gospel is like a suicidal person. It’s often better to let them go in time.
Maintaining in a state of spiritual childhood
A prevalent hindrance in Christianity that significantly hinders the progress of many disciples is when individuals consciously or unconsciously remain under the authority of their spiritual fathers. It is huge problem when Christians continue to rely on the teachings of the same person or persons for years, even when they themselves should have become teachers for their own spiritual children long ago. This pattern reveals a significant problem. Constant dependence on others prevents individuals from stepping into roles as servants or fathers to others. Many churches and assemblies, often unintentionally, operate on a model resembling to Catholicism, where a handful of pastors endlessly teach hundreds or even thousands of people. Thus the little “vaticans” are still formed with their little “popes” surrounded by their “little altar boys”.
I discuss this subject in more details and draw attention to the solution to this scourge in several of my articles: e.g. The Acts of the Disciples
Other examples of BRAKES
The list of spiritual hindrances that impede our progress in ministry, sanctification, and on the Narrow Path could be extensive. In this article, I’ve introduced some of the most common ones I’ve encountered in recent years.
I encourage all readers to share in the comments the challenges that have broken or are still breaking them in their own lives as disciples. By doing so, we can collectively dismantle various schemes and support each other in evolving at the right pace on our paths of sanctification.
Let’s continue the discussion in the comments below.
In the previous article, we saw that the enemy can hinder our progress on the Narrow Path by using the tool of falsification and overtaking in order to prevent the fulfillment of the true events/blessings of Yahuwah.
He is thus able to hinder or even thwart our race towards the goal with an additional strategy which is none other than to
DEVIATE our trajectory to the right or left in order to push us to the EXTREMITIES
It is through the process of the Reformation that we can once again observe the functioning and the harmful consequences of this demonic work.
Dualism and Cold War
One of Satan’s best tools to deceive mankind is undoubtedly DUALISM. He divides and then create animosity between the parties. With each step that mankind makes in history, he offers two camps: The one of INSUFFICIENCY and The one of EXAGGERATION. Communism vs. Capitalism, Left vs. Right, Anarchists vs. Fascists, etc. History has showed us lots of them.
Beginning with ROME, several great empires of the world have succeeded in preserving their power on the basis of this principle which is: “DIVIDE AND RULE”.
When the time comes for the restoration of a TRUTH that arises in the hearts of certain believers and Satan sees that he cannot prevent its fulfillment, he sometimes also chooses the tactic of letting things happen and not of getting ahead of them. He stops for a moment and allow things to go on their way. He let people get out of churches causing divisions so that the renewed believers can start their own new movements and churches.
Then, using the run-up force of these renewed christians approaching the middle path, he suddenly comes up from behind and gives them a good kick in the back in order to swing them into the other extreme so that they would not remain spiritually balanced.
Because when a split occurs, accusations, exclusion, disputes, cursing, damnations and even physical persecutions often begin. In any case, those who want to be renewed are designated as heretics, rebels against “God” and are damned by those who remain in the previous spiritual state. These accusations greatly wound and weaken those who desire nothing more than to pursue the path of sanctification in obedience to the Spirit of the Messiah.
It is precisely these wounds that the enemy uses to reintroduce human domination instead of the exclusive guidance of the Holy Spirit, thus creating a mixed spirituality among the freshly reformed ones.
The wound is transformed into hatred, then hatred breeds war, then from the war arise a constant need to justify oneself. This self-justification throws a human veil over what was originally coming from the Spirit. Thus the new reforms become dogmas which are managed by human wills and no longer by the action of the Spirit of Elohim. Moreover, little by little we begin to grant those reforms a disproportionate importance and sometimes even making them a conditions for Salvation.
Reforms become dogmas, dogmas become conditions of Salvation.
Here come into play all kinds of excess and all sorts of unbiblical Christian phenomena and functionings. This condition affects the members of the communities from which these renewed believers come, thus acting as a confirmation that they were right after all. This freezes them even more in their state of spiritual deficiency which also adds to the extremism of the other camps in a never ending whirl. The differences become more and more extensive and virulent, generating a spiritual chasm that goes on increasing like an infernal spiral.
External witnesses seeing this situation, non-believers, often have no choice but to side with one side or the other and take part in the fighting. Or, what happens more often is that they simply choose to stay in the world because they see that something went really wrong in the Christian world. This is how we prevent many people from repenting and converting to Yahushua HaMashiah.
Some examples of these dualistic extremisms:
Without further comment or explanation, let’s examine some of these extremes. The list is not complete, and for better illustration, it does not contain exclusively Christian tendencies and camps.
Perhaps this will help many people in determining where they stand in relation to the only right and middle path – which is Yahushua HaMashiah – and where it is worth stopping, perhaps turning back or moving on – always bearing in mind that even the truth is distorted by the enemy.
Since the spiritual state of a person is too complex to be considered and analyzed in two dimensions, we must pay attention to the fact that we can be affected in several categories at the same time, so that we can deviate from the steady state of the Holy Spirit to more directions.
Overheated Charismatics /Anti-Charismatics
Gospel of Prosperity / Gospel of Austerity
Tongues Speakers / Prophetizers
Fans of Jews / Anti-Semites
Rightists / Leftists
Republicans / Democrates
Legalists / Antinomists (libertarians)
Doctrine of the stern and ruthless “God” / Doctrine of the ever-loving and all-forgiving “God”
Those making witchcraft from the Last Supper / Those reducing It to a mere symbol
Sabbatists / Sunday Christians
It must be said that the devil always hides in half-truths. So, most of the time,
the opposing camps clash on the basis of all biblical, but apparently contradictory truths
The best tool for generating these disputes are those of Paul’s statements that are seemingly contradictory and often difficult to interpret. These are the favorite Bible verses of the enemy that he is using in order to divide the Body of Messiah.
The solution is not to nullify the arguments of one side for the benefit of the other, but both parties must recognize that something is wrong with them as well and accept it in humility in order to settle the problem before Yahuwah, in Yahushua HaMashiah. We must take what is true from one another and leave all our false doctrines. This is how a convergence can begin, not by accepting the differences, but by being freed from human excesses by being put back under the full guidance of the Spirit of the Messiah.
Because even ecumenism is such a false overtaking, which instead of working on true unity, where, cleansed of all impurity, we find ourselves in one Holy Spirit, does nothing other than mix everything in order to dilute and finally dissolve the truth.
Today, symbolically, I am posting this article on November 11. May there finally be an Armistice Day also in the Body of the Messiah.
On the great chessboard of the History of Salvation, unlike a common game of chess, we already know in advance the outcome and the winner of the game. Even if the enemy knows that he will end up losing, the challenge for him is to involve as many pawns as possible in his loss. If he can’t win, his only objective remains to cause as much damage as possible and to ensure that as few people as possible participate in the King’s victory.
Our goal as followers of Yeshua is to stay alive on the chessboard and help our fellow pawns to remain on the board with us till the end of the game.
In the next three articles I would like to describe and expose some of the basic tools/tricks that the enemy uses to deceive us, so that even if he fails to take the deceived souls with him in every case, that he may at least hinder their functioning and effectiveness during the fight. By functioning, I mean when the fulfillment of a believer’s ministry is hindered by something, thus unable to fully serve his fellow man because some foreign teaching, phenomenon or spirit interferes in his life, vision and heart.
There are several tools of deception. We will examine three of them, which are important because they are rarely treated, despite being the most dangerous and effective weapons in the hands of the enemy.
OVERTAKING
One of the oldest diversionary phenomena and tools used by the enemy is to anticipate and imitate the plan of Elohim. We may often encounter this phenomenon or strategy in our own discipleship journey, when the enemy offers us blessings, situations, or people that appear to be from Elohim, but which actually sooner or later turn out to be mere counterfeits with no other purpose than to divert our attention and replace the real ones that Elohim has in store for us. Like falsified shadows of the real ones to come.
1 – Descendant of Seth / Descendant of Cain
After Cain killed his brother Abel, the line of Elohim was interrupted for a time until Seth was sent to replace him.
In Cain’s genealogy, we can observe the names of individuals who are very similar or almost identical to those who appear later in the line of Seth. These people were born well in advance and moreover almost in the same order. Cain himself preceeded Seth’s grandson Cainan. As Seth was much younger than Cain, his descendants were also born a few years “late” compared to their false foreshadowings.
A separate study could be devoted to the meanings of these different names – given that their roots and the Hebrew letters which compose them are very close – as well as to the reasons which may well have pushed the enemies to want to expropriate these names and the spiritual function that these characters must have fulfilled. But here, we will limit ourselves for the moment only to drawing attention to this diabolical stratagem.
2 – ISAAC and ISHMAEL
We have also seen instances where, due to disbelief in the promises of Elohim, people take action, come up with ideas, and then implement them thus seriously interfering with the original plan. In this way, the enemy operates on people’s unbelief to push them to anticipate Yahuwah’s plan and thus give Satan the right to interfere in the will of Elohim.
This is how Ishmael was born before Isaac who is until this day the source of a multitude of very deep problems for the chosen people. Indeed, Sarah and Abraham, not having had enough faith to believe in the fact that they themselves would have a child at such an advanced age, chose to turn to a surrogate mother in the person of Hagar.
Later we see the same human intervention that preceded and thus cancelled Yahuwah’s final act of deliverance, when Jacob and Rebecca, having panicked, reclaimed the blessing of the firstborn by deceiving the old Isaac.
3 – Birth of Jacob / Birth of Esau
As I explain in more detail in another article, Esau, as the envoy of the enemy, used his physical superiority over Jacob, the envoy of Elohim, already in the womb of their mother when he took Jacob’s place at the exit. The reason for the fight between the two children in Rebecca’s womb was the following: Esau had to go out first at all costs in order to expropriate the birthright of Jacob.
Yahuwah has an order, a law, which was already in force then, even in the pre-Mosaic period, according to which the inheritance of the family (both spiritual and material) mainly goes to the first born.
Satan always acts against Yahuwah by force and power.
Esau was predestined to appropriate the inheritance of Elohim in the visible world, so that he could rightfully claim before the people what Yahuwah originally intended for Jacob. Because we know from a later prophet that “I loved Jacob, I hated Esau” – Malachi 1:2-3
Thus, we understand better why Jacob grabbed his brother’s ankle when they were born, in order to signal to the outside world: “We will fix that later, my friend!”.
4 – Reform / Sect
During the process of the Reformation of the Church, similar attacks occurred on several occasions.
This is what happens when the enemy knows that the time has come for some reformation to take place. This is the case, for example, when the time comes to give up with all the pagan names of foreign deities – such as got/god/gad/gudan, theos/dios/deus/dieu/zeus/iesus/jesus, ishten/ishtar, etc., that are widely used to name the Almighty – and restore His original names Yahuwah/Yahushua/Yeshua and the title of Elohim through the ministry of the legitimate people inspired by Ruach HaKodesh/the Holy Spirit. Then sudently Satan comes and throws a grenade into the pile to blow it all up. This is the true identity of the sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses who pretend to restore the name of the Eternal, but at the same time try to destroy the image and the divine essence of the Messiah by reducing him to the rank of a “mere” archangel. They restore something essential and destroy an even greater one. Jehova, by the way, not really being the original name, but a masoretic Judaic distortion intended to ensure that the true name is not pronounced even inadvertently during the reading of the Torah.
Likewise, when he hinders the restoration of Shabbat/Saturday with denominations that mix this truth with several obviously false teachings.
These sects have no other purpose than to discredit the reforms in the eyes of believers of pure faith and intention in order to taint the truth with apparent and unacceptable lies so that most of the people will refuse the whole. Thus the rejection is made all along the line and the process of the reform is obstructed.
This is howReforms are taken out of the hands of the legitimate believers appointed by Elohim to carry out the restauration. They are taken away by the enemy and given to false prophets and church founders. These demonic puppets are contaminating the truth with false doctrines so that a large part of the Body of the Messiah would be disgusted with everything, even with what is true, with a view to hindering them on the path to sanctification.
It should be mentioned that we must not allow ourselves to fall into the error of not daring to say certain things out of our mouths, by fear of being identified as part of any of these false sects. This kind of attitude is a compromise with the enemy, a cowardly behavior wishing to avoid any conflict. If we discover a truth that had been stolen by the enemy and remain silent, we are consciously allowing the devil to hold the truth captive.
For satan, being the father of lies, always bases his lies on truths that he distorts in order to appropriate them by presenting them in a different and modified way: “Did Elohim really say: ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Remember his first recorded appearance and sentence in the visible world, when He started from a truth, but exaggerated it by resorting to the tool of generalization replacing the word ‘That tree’ by ‘Any tree’.
4.1 Luther/other reformers
Maybe this will shock a lot of people, but in my opinion, Luther himself was such a preliminary false pawn on the chessboard, who was perhaps deployed before Calvin so that the enemy can start the counter-reformation right away through Martin L himself. Many know that Luther, in addition to his problems with demonic possessions, “re-Catholicized” several points that he himself had reformed a few years earlier. And if anyone is shocked by the statement that Luther was under demonic influence, I invite him to read his pamphlets on the Jewish People which tell a lot about the spiritual state of the man. There, you will find all kinds of spirits there, but certainly not the Spirit of Christ!
The recognition of the demonic spirit is not a condemnation, but a diagnosis, an indispensable condition for any possibility of healing. None of us today is going to heal him afterwards, only Yahuwah knows if he finally got healed, where he is, what he arranged, in time or not, it’s not up to us to decide or debate the question. However, since this unhealthy state of mind persisted throughout his career, its corrupting and destructive effects are still noticeable today. Thus, it would be highly useful to examine to what extent the otherwise clearly persistent Catholic roots in modern Protestant Christianity still stem from him. Although Luther was the first to oppose the concept of the institutional church, contemporary “renewed” Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity is still built on the model of the institutional church established by the roman catholics. He was furthermore the first in the history of the Reformation to draw attention to the absurdity of infant baptism, but towards the end of his career he revoked this reform on his own without any pressure from the Roman church or the emperor.
5 – The return of the Messiah – the coming of the Antichrist
The main and ultimate deception of this kind, will be when satan will appear in the form of the antichrist, in order to deceive humanity including part of Christianity, which awaits the return of the Messiah. He will do signs and wonders throughout the world, bringing down fire from the sky, and by some very convincing theological false teachings, he will also be able to deceive many even among the chosen ones. Many will believe that the Messiah finally had to return in a human body once again and not in the Spirit – in a Glorified body – according to the promise:
Yeshua HaMashiah will return the same way he went into heaven
It is also timely to deal with this latest deception and draw the attention of believers, because there are many signs that the false prophet and especially the antichrist himself are not simply and already in the world but we can also know their identity with great precision. Indeed, they are both in the visible world and are already very active for many years. The 7 years covenant is to be reinforced next month from the end of november to the beginning of december 2023 in Abu Dhabi.
What does all this teach us today?
For us, it is worth paying attention to this ancient evil strategy, because our fellow human beings often try to position themselves in this way and appropriate what is ours. We often experience during our journey of discipleship that false opportunities are offered to us, wrong doors are being opened in front of us which may appear to be the right ones. Those who have already faced the problem and managed to recognize the deception and not fall into the trap can testify to the great blessing that followed. However, for this we must ask for one of the most important fruit that can be given to us by the Holy Spirit.
The gift of discerning of spirits
And not only that of the spirits, but also of their diversionary strategies so that they can no longer deceive us.
In our country, too, there are such precursor servants and ministries claiming the title of Messianic Jews. They appeared earlier and preach ideas similar to ours in many aspects. They led many people on the right path but meanwhile did also began to administer their poison little by little, shrewdly and imperceptibly. All this until they end up publicly denying the blood of the Messiah, his sacrifice on the cross as well as any explanation concerning the reality of any concept of the Holy Trinity.
This Holy Trinity which naturally does not make three persons of the single Elohim, but which means that Elohim although being ONE, appears to us in three forms having very distinct roles as Father, Son and Ruach HaKodesh. See the article and the video: Holy Trinity or Triple Holiness?on the website and youtube.
We must be aware that the next steps of reformation/restoration must be sought and taken until the Final Reform is accomplished by Yeshua HaMashiah himself when He returns to begin His 1000 year reign here on earth.
We also should keep in mind that Reformation is nothing but a return to the original form of discipleship, as it first appeared in Jerusalem in Jewish circles at Shavuot (Pentecost) as described in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.
Going back to Jewish roots also carries great dangers. When Jewish teachers who believe in Yeshua are also tempted to fall into the poison of rabbinical judaism. This same poison that veiled the eyes of most of the Jews so that they could not recognize their Messiah in Yeshua till today. Then, mixed with this poison and defiled, they go and teach their Jewish and non-Jewish brethren. We have seen that this kind of evil mechanism often leads to the outright denial of the Messiah.
So let’s not get overtaken. And if it should happen anyway, let us dare to take up the message that is ours and reform what has been defiled beforehand by preaching it again and again, until it is purified by the grace of the Messiah so that it can be restored for good.
