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.