Posted in Atonement • Balance • Church • Daily Living • Identity • Idolatry • Israel • Jews • Judaism • New Covenant • Repentance • Righteousness

Generalizing

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I just read an article by a person who noted that “generalizing” with the words Judaism or Christianity might cause significant problems. The writer didn’t specify the problems, but I can imagine what they are. There is always someone who objects to the characterization that goes along with the general label.

For instance, “men are pigs” is a pretty severe generalization, and I would have to object to an extreme label like this without context. However, there are times when men act like pigs. I told my daughter as she was growing up that men are pigs and boys were piglets because they (generally) only wanted to get into a female’s pants. I was trying to teach her to be wary of the boy who claimed he loved her but (generally) didn’t really. In general, it’s true that many men (or boys) use tactics that generally are intended simply to get into a woman’s pants. If you doubt me, ask some women. I’m sure they’ll have lots of stories on guys who generally wanted nothing more than to hit and run.

I agree that generalizing can be viewed inaccurately. Just because something is generally true doesn’t mean it is true for everyone or everything. There are lots of Christians and lots of Jews who do not behave or think according to generalizations made about them. For instance, not all Christians reject God’s Laws. Some of them at least are just going by the teachings they have heard. All Jews do not drive hard bargains, nor do they all reject the Christ.

However, when a majority of time or a majority of instances something is true then a generalization can be accurate. Generally we need to include some context. For instance, most people who call themselves Christian reject God’s Laws in one form or another. Christians, again in general, have rejected the New Covenant while claiming to follow it. These things are  true, even if general. Most Jews are non-practicing or nearly so as far as Judaism goes.

What we really need to do is stay away from absolutes, such as in saying that all Christians are hypocrites or all Jews are Christ killers. Absolutely we are sinners, and we need a payment that absolutely cleanses us from all sin. So there are some absolutes, but we need caution when applying them.

Does God generalize? I think so. He does it both in judgment and in forgiveness. For instance, Israel many times chose idolatry over God. But God didn’t judge immediately. In His grace He gave them time to repent. Not all Israel was into idolatry, even at the worst of times. So there were times He waited for the general majority to repent. In the meantime there was always a remnant who  followed Him. Nevertheless, when judgment fell it fell on the whole nation. Sodom and Gomorrah could have been saved, if 10 righteous people were found.

Generally, God’s forgiveness is available to all. But some refuse the gift of the blood of the Christ as payment for sin. Generally, those who do will find themselves in a place that was generally created for fallen angels. We can take care of our sin, in general, by accepting the sacrifice of Jesus. I hope that people do.

 

Shalom

Bruce

Posted in Adoption • Animal sacrifice • Authority • Bible • Blessing • Book publishing • Church • Clean & Unclean • Comfort • Daily Living • Diet • Division • Dogma • Faith • Fear • Feast and Festivals • Feast of Tabernacles • Feast of Trumpets • Gentiles • God • Gospel • Grace • Hermeneutics • Holy Spirit • Humility • Hypocrisy • Identity • Idolatry • Israel • Jesus • Jews • Judaism • Judgment • Law • Love • Manna Reading Schedule • Messianic Movement • Modesty • Name • Natural Man • New Covenant • New Testament • Old Covenant • Old Testament • Orthodox • Paganism • Passover • Paul Teachings • Pentecost • Prayer • Promise The • Prophecy • Relevance • Repentance • Reward • Righteousness • Sabbath • Salvation • Second death • Sex • Shofars • Sukkot • Temple • Theology • Tradition • Translational Bias • Trumpets • Whole Bible Christianity • Whole Bible Christianity book • Works • Worship • Yom Kippur

Audiobook for Whole Bible Christianity Available

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It took a while, but an Audiobook version of our book Whole Bible Christianity is now available. It’s about 15 and a half hours, narrated by Bruce. You can get it free if you sign up for a trial membership at Audible.com. You get a free audiobook when you first sign up for the service. After the first month it costs $15.00 per month but you get one free book per month too.

If you click this link to view the print version, then click on the Free with your Audible Trial button and stay with Audible for two months, not only do you get two free audiobooks (for $15.00 the second month) but we get a $50.00 bonus! You can exchange any audiobook you decide is not for you, and your credit for one free book rolls over to the next month if you don’t use it. Even if you cancel membership after a while you can keep all your audiobooks.

What a great deal! Whole Bible Christianity, Blessings Pressed Down and Overflowing audiobook for free, a bonus to us, and you get more free audiobooks.

There’s also the print version of the book, and Kindle version for a pretty low cost. The Kindle and audiobook versions do not have the Scripture Index with almost 1,500 entries from every book in the Bible, and the audiobook doesn’t have the footnotes, but still you can listen on the way to work and back or read on a Kindle at your leisure. Get all three and get it all.

Shalom

Bruce

Posted in Authority • Balance • Blessing • Book publishing • Church • Comfort • Cults • Daily Living • Judaism • Judgment • Law • Love • Manna Reading Schedule • Messianic Movement • New Covenant • New Testament • Old Covenant • Old Testament • Paul Teachings • Promise The • Reading • Reward • Theology • Whole Bible Christianity • Whole Bible Christianity book • Worship

Whole Bible Christianity, The Book

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Our book Whole Bible Christianity has finally been published! It is on Amazon at this link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0997501413/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1DQVER67Q2HMX&coliid=I1RPTLB6JQO1FI

There is a Look Inside feature, you can flip between the front and back cover, and it is only $19.50. If you would prefer, we will have the entire text on a web page when we update our website so you can read it online.

The book has about 800 direct quotes from the Word, around 1,500 entries in the Scripture Index, and is about 340 pages. One of the many uses of the book is as a handbook for whole Bible Christians everywhere who need a reference to help counter attacks against a whole Bible lifestyle. Chapter 7 deals with a bunch of the objections to following God’s living oracles, and chapter 8 has a list of blessings from doing what Jesus says.

Let us know what you think, and make sure to post a review on Amazon if you would be so kind.

Shalom
Bruce

Posted in Continuity & Discontinuity • Gentiles • Hermeneutics • Jews • Judaism • Law • Marriage • Paul Teachings

A Whole Bible, Paul’s Teachings: Stepmother, Passover, Circumcision

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We are now up to 87 videos on our Youtube channel and over 1,000 views (total) covering nine chapters of our book Whole Bible Christianity and a few other topics. Yay! We’re working on the tenth chapter scripts now, which will be longer than just what is in the book and include more helpful biblical information on application of the Word to daily living. In the meantime, take a look at this video we are highlighting today.

Usually we hear that Paul converted to Christianity, except there was no Christianity such as we know it today in his time. He was a model of a Law-following Jew. He never stopped abiding in His Messiah’s Word. He taught the Law, filled with the Spirit and love, as it was intended – a lifestyle and discipleship method. See our video Whole Bible Objections: Paul Says It’s Okay, Can’t Do, It’s A Curse. Many of his teachings have been sliced and diced and taught differently. But when we just read the Word, we can see he held to the ancient, unified message of the Father and Jesus.

Paul doesn’t make up any new commandment for stepmoms in 1 Corinthians 5:1-2. He certainly doesn’t cherry-pick nor does he apply only the law he chooses. Not only does he say that the Corinthians should be following this Law, he implies it is a natural fact everyone (even the non-believing Gentiles) knows. In other words, God’s people should at least have the sense God gave a pagan. He also gives the punishment for the sin outlined in Torah – “purge the evil from among you.” (Deuteronomy 13:5, 17:7, 12, 21:21, 22:21). Later, it looks like they were “obedient in all things” (2 Corinthians 2:1-11) although they didn’t stone the guy with the stepmom wife because we don’t have the power of capital punishment. Our alternative is from Matthew 18 – confront for repentance and cast out if we have to.

In 1 Corinthians 11:23-34 it is obvious that the meal is the Passover (verse 23 “the night (our Lord) was betrayed”). The misnamed “Lord’s Supper” is in reality the Passover before His crucifixion (Matthew 17:7; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:8, 15). It is not communion. This is a problem for those who insist on separating the Law into civil, ceremonial, and moral sections. The Passover is clearly ceremonial in their view. But the Corinthians (and probably the rest of the “church”) are celebrating the feast. The reason we don’t spot this is because it is taught wrongly that they are celebrating some sort of “communion” ceremony.

The issue with circumcision is the same as other places, which is that circumcision doesn’t save anyone. Never has, never will. Becoming a Jew or following some Laws does not save a person and never has. A person follows the Laws because they are saved. In other words, a person following God by faith is justified. Circumcision is a sign after the fact (as in Genesis 17).

Keep three things firmly in mind as you are reading Paul’s writings. One is that he doesn’t downgrade or speak negatively about God’s Law. Ever. But like his Messiah he’s not so fond of man’s laws. Two is that the Law was never meant to save anyone. Law was added as a guidepost because of transgressions increasing (see our video A Whole Faith: Continuous through Generations). Israel was “saved” first then given instruction on living a saved life. Three is that the word “law” can mean any law including natural law, Roman law, God’s Law, man’s traditions especially Jewish ones, and physical laws. Law is improperly thought of as a legal relationship to earn merit which can be traded for salvation.

If you don’t like the Law and have been trained to reject it, then Paul’s writings will look anti-Law. However, if you have a heart of flesh with His Law written on it, then Paul’s writings are easy to understand and completely fit in with the rest of Scripture.

Shalom,
Bruce

Posted in Atonement • Authority • Balance • Church • Gentiles • Gospel • Grace • Israel • Jews • Judaism • Law • Love • New Covenant • Old Covenant • Paul Teachings • Righteousness • Sabbath • Tradition • Translational Bias • Worship

Freedom from Sabbath Keeping

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Hey All,

Just spent a few days writing a new article which is a point-by-point response to an article by Ray Comfort that he titled Freedom From Sabbath Keeping. It took a while, because the article is filled with a lot of, shall we say, less than biblical information.

Ray is a good guy as far as I know, and has a lot of good teaching. I have quoted from him, and use some of his material in my conversations with atheists. However, there are a number of areas where he falls short of biblical truth, and a bunch of them are in this article. So I went through it and inserted my comments directly into his text. I included Bible verses and commentary all with a whole Bible perspective. You’ll find a nicely organized selection of responses to what are also typical Christian arguments against observing the Sabbath. Why people would reject a day off from God is beyond me, but they do. So this article should help you with standard Christian objections to observing the whole of the Word, not just the Sabbath.

An excerpt from Point by Point through the Ray Comfort article Freedom from Sabbath Keeping. His words are in red, my comments are in square brackets and in blue (on the web page they are just in a different font).

Let’s briefly look at their arguments. First, nowhere does the Fourth Commandment say that we are to “worship” on the Sabbath Day. [True. Worship was every day. The act of resting on the Sabbath is worship. Worship has taken on an inadequate meaning in the intervening centuries, and it used to be that worship included sacrifices. But worship has always been obedience at its root.] It commands that we rest on that day: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). [Notice that he does not answer the issue he raises: why does the church not “rest” on the Sabbath?] Sabbath-keepers worship on the Saturday. [No. Sabbath keepers might MEET on Saturday, but worship is obedience and for every day.] Do they know where the word “Saturday” comes from? It’s from the Latin word “Saturnus–Saturn + Old English dæg day.” Obviously Saturday is from the pagan day of worship of the planet Saturn (astrology). [In spite of the attempt at sarcasm, I can agree here. However, Saturday is also the seventh day, and therefore the Sabbath. The name of the day is not important. But the Sabbath is.

And another excerpt.

The Scriptures tell us that at one point, the Apostles especially gathered to discuss the attitude of the Christian to the Law of Moses. [This is biblically incorrect. The council in Acts 15 met mainly to discuss salvation by circumcision (verse 1). This was proved to be wrong. Salvation was coming to Gentiles without circumcision and by grace through faith just as Abraham and JUST AS THE JEWS (who had the Law). Verse 5 also asks a question about following the Law, which was answered in verse 21 (Moses is read in the synagogue every Sabbath.) This meant 1) Moses is read. 2) Moses is read in the synagogue where all believers met at the time. 3) They met every Sabbath.] Acts 15:10-11, 24-29 was God’s opportunity to make His will clear to His children. [Biblically incorrect. God had been making His will clear to His children for a long, long time.] All He had to do to save millions from damnation was say, “Remember to keep the Sabbath holy,” and millions of Christ-centered, God-loving, Bible-believing Christians would have gladly kept it. [Not so. He already said many times to remember the Sabbath, and just about as many times was ignored. He is still being ignored today as is evidenced by this article by Ray. Many Christians do not want to obey God’s commands. Mostly because we do not want an objective, absolute standard. We want to give ourselves permission to sin.

Enjoy the article.
Shalom,
Bruce

Posted in Continuity & Discontinuity • Judaism • Law • Love • Relevance • Sabbath

A Whole Bible: The Acts 15 Council

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A favorite tool for part Bible Christians to hammer God’s Law back into insignificance is Acts 15. It is claimed that this council met to eliminate the Law once and for all. We have a choice: we can listen to the rhetoric, or we can read it to see what God really says. Wow, what a concept, huh?

If the Law was eliminated, then why give us four laws right from The Law? And if only the “moral” laws were passed through, then why give us three laws that are ceremonial and a fourth that could be related to ceremonial? Why does James say that Moses is taught in the synagogues every Sabbath, showing that the Law is still going to be taught, that it is going to be taught on the Sabbath, and it will be taught in synagogues?

Nothing about the modern teaching makes any biblical sense. What does make sense is our video that discusses the actual contents of Acts 15 and the biblical context. Instead of eliminating the Law, the Acts 15 council unquestionably reaffirms and establishes it.

Shalom
Bruce

Posted in Authority • Balance • Daily Living • Hypocrisy • Israel • Jesus • Jews • Judaism • Judgment • Law

The Testing of Jesus

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At the stoning of the woman caught in adultery, did Jesus teach that the Law was gone, or did He criticize because the Law was not followed? Did Jesus eliminate the Law as popular church teaching suggests, or did He disapprove of the mishandling of God’s living oracles? I think in each question it is the latter. When Jesus was tested, He stayed with the Law while His opponents stuck with their own interpretations and traditions. His opponents were wrong in nearly every case.

Jesus never tells us that “we all sin” so none of us can judge. What He tells us is that to judge properly we need to stay within the whole of His Law. The people testing Jesus wanted permission to sin. They wanted certification for their self-appointed authority. But they didn’t want God’s Law. See the video for more details.

Shalom
Bruce

Posted in Faith • Judaism • Messianic Movement • Tradition

Distractions, Part One

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Just about the time you think you’ve found the missing pieces to connecting with God through a complete and whole Bible, all kinds of distractions are thrown at you to slow you down. I found the pure light of the source, and so many are out with their wet blankets trying to cover it up again. Maybe it’s just man’s natural perversity. Show him a narrow gate and a hard way to life and he has to go to work on the gate to make it wider and easier. Distractions turn into detours into the wide, easy way. Below is a partial list of some of these distractions.

 

Judaism. Judaism is the collection of rulings and interpretations by rabbis of the Bible, also known as the oral law. It is assumed by many that somehow Judaism is a superior belief system to every other. This is a popular but not biblical view. In real life Judaism is no better or worse than other belief systems. There are good things about it, and bad things. I see Judaism in the Word described as hard hearted, idolatrous, disobedient, flint headed, and so on. Just because someone is Jewish or follows Judaism does not make them any more right than any other pagan.

 

Hebrew only. This is a belief that somehow Hebrew is a holier and more pure language than any other. Since the New Testament manuscripts are written mostly in Greek, and these people think Jesus and the apostles spoke and wrote only in Hebrew, they conclude the New Testament is a translation from a lost, imaginary Hebrew original and therefore suspicious. If we just had this Hebrew original, goes the thinking, then we would have a better understanding of the New Testament. In the meantime, the Greek manuscripts are sniffed at as if they were something that dogs dragged in. Literally.

 

Hebrew is a nice language. However, it’s just a language. It is no holier or more meaningful than any other. Language is not the problem with obedience to God. Israel had tablets written by the finger of God and still didn’t follow them. All through history Israel is marked largely by disobedience, though they had the “holy” language of Hebrew. Obviously the language has nothing to do with abiding in God’s Word.

 

Two houses. This one is a little hard to follow but I’ll try to simplify. When Israel (the northern 10 tribes) was taken into captivity by Assyria, they were scattered then intermarried and migrated up through what we know as Europe today. Over the centuries they lost their identity, and according to the theory there is no specific record of their return to Israel. The southern tribe of Judah (actually Judah and Benjamin) from where we get the name “Jew” kept their identity even though they went into captivity about 150 years later. According to two house people there are specific records of the return of the Jews to the Land (and it is assumed it was only the southern tribes). In Ezekiel 37 God says these two sticks will be reunited one day.

 

Two house theology has hijacked this prophecy. Believers in this distraction think that Gentiles who want to return to a whole Bible including Torah (first five books of the Bible) in their walk with God must be (somehow) descended from the ten tribes lost in Europe (or thereabouts). They think it is their job to reunite themselves to modern day Jews (bring the “two sticks” of Ezekiel 37 back together). So they try to be as “Jewish” as possible. Never mind that God said He would do it (nowhere are disciples told to do it), and that no one can tell which tribe they are from now (so there is just one stick). Followers of God are supposed to make disciples, not repair sticks.

 

Distractions pop up like squirrels at a picnic (think the Disney move “Up”) and all they’re doing is detouring from the narrow way of returning to the whole Bible. Not worth it, people. Read the Word, abide in it, and stay on the path.

 

End of part one. Next up, Bible Codes, ID forms and the mark of the Beast, two Laws, and two bodies.

Posted in Judaism • Temple • Whole Bible Christianity book

Temple Not Destroyed Part Two

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You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. (Haggai 1:9–10, ESV)

 

One of the side effects of claiming that “the old Mosaic economy of sacred priests, sacred buildings, sacred rituals, and sacred objects has been forever destroyed by the cross of Jesus Christ” (as Frank Viola says in the book pagan Christianity) is that we ignore His house while “each of us busies himself with his own house.” We should be embarrassed that we have no Temple. We make money offerings at huge stadiums built for stupid sporting events having some slight benefit for the body but nothing for the soul. Mega-churches haul in millions of dollars and spend them on campuses and monuments to pride like huge meeting halls or TV ministries. Comfortable theater seating for thousands and huge TV’s for seeing the star or pastor are used for preaching a false gospel of freedom in Christ which then gives license to ignore God’s Word.

 

God’s house in the meantime is dust. We hide behind the claim of not knowing where to build, but we put no resources into finding the site. Many churches are “divesting” themselves of investment in Israel when we should be putting everything we’ve got there. Some cheesy pagan temple for a hateful and unjust moon god stops us in our tracks from tearing the unclean thing down and building God’s house. A temple will be built once again (according to Ezekiel) but shame on us that we put more effort into our own comfortable houses and none into His. Shame on us.

 

There were times when the Temple fell out of use. Other times it didn’t get a lot of respect, and was defiled by idols and idol worship. After a long while of this kind of treatment God’s glory finally departed according to Ezekiel. Yet standing or not, filled with idols or neglected God has never stopped trying to get people into His “house.”

 

The Temple is a picture of the heart of a nation as well as the heart of an individual. As the heart of the nation it reminds us of lost intimacy with Him and how quickly we forget or take for granted all that He is and has. Though the copy was destroyed the picture still stands as an example of heartless lip service and false belief that the mere presence of an object grants protection from lawlessness. As the heart of the individual the copy of God’s abode shows us the glorious possibilities if we embrace His presence and take Him into our hearts as we did (somewhat briefly) with the freshly completed building built by Solomon.

 

From the book Whole Bible Christianity chapter 5 What About the Temple?

Posted in Authority • Hypocrisy • Judaism • Law • Whole Bible Christianity book

Moses’ Seat

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Our sixth guideline is to follow leaders only as they lead from the Word. When inquiring about the validity of the Law in a believer’s life, sooner or later this Scripture will pop up.

 

1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, 2saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. (Matthew 23:1-3 NASB95)

 

On the surface, it looks like we should do everything the scribes and Pharisees say. But let’s look closer. Notice that the leaders “seated themselves.” This I think is a clear indication of usurping God’s authority. There’s no provision for Pharisees or Sadducees in the Law. Even if we could classify them under the term “elders,” Jesus says they’re hypocrites.

 

Jesus is teaching us to follow the leaders only as long as they follow Moses (the written Law). Deuteronomy 18:9 (NASB95) says not to imitate the “detestable things” of the nations. Paul says “imitate me as I imitate Christ” in 1 Corinthians 11:1 and “imitate God” in Ephesians 5:1. John says something similar.

 

Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. (3 John 11, ESV)

 

Why just the written Law, and not the oral? Because the written is the only standard that we can verify came from God. Some claim the oral law came directly from Moses, but there’s no evidence of this in the record. Plus, we can tell what comes from the Father because it glorifies the Father. If it doesn’t glorify God (and much of the Talmud and church tradition does not) then it’s from men and not from God. This claim is one of those power grabs from the Bible that some religious leaders do.

 

Many times in Israel’s past, the leaders led into idolatry and many horrible practices. Is Jesus saying we are required to follow leaders when they lead off the path? Emphatically not. When they take a left turn, we should keep on going straight. The church is routinely leading away from the Word now too; all we have to do is look at the results. We shouldn’t be blindly following those leaders either.

 

As long as the teaching fits in the framework and on the foundation that Moses laid down (Genesis through Deuteronomy) then we should follow. All other books that were added to the Bible had to pass this muster, and so should every other teaching that claims to be God’s. When a teacher departs from the Word, true believers should depart from the teacher.

 

From the book Whole Bible Christianity chapter 9 Follow Leaders Only as They Follow the Word