Q. Why did Yeshua thank the Father for hiding certain things from the wise and intelligent and revealing them to babes.

A.You referring to several verses in the New
Testament. One is in Matt. 13. 10-23 and another can
be found in Luke 10. 21-24. Basically what he is
saying is that earthly intelligence, bible knowledge
and degrees are not what is required to know Him or to
understand His word. It's all God's work and His
Spirit reveals these things to whoever He wills. But
the things concerning the Kingdom of God must be
received with child-like hearts (babes) prepared by
God beforehand. That is why in the account in Matthew
Yeshua goes into the parable of the sower. The seed
falls on bad ground and does not bear fruit. It can
only take root on good ground. Now, good ground is
ground already worked and prepared by the farmer to
receive the seed. It's the same with the Word of God.
The Lord prepares the heart to receive the truth so it
can bear fruit. Many today say they believe in the
Lord but they do not believe that the Torah is for
today, keep pagan-rooted festivals, eat pork and break
the Sabbath because they think it has been done away
with and believe a "replacement theology." But the
heart of the matter is that the Lord has never
revealed these things to them through the Holy Spirit
(Luke 10.22; Matt 13.11)), and they should be very
concerned about that. The parables and the verses you
are referring to are very clear about this. So, we are
not to rejoice over the fact that we have this
knowledge or power and others don't, but we are to
rejoice over the fact that our names are recorded in
heaven and God through His mercy has chosen to open
our ears and eyes spiritually and reveal them to us
(Matt 13.16) and to the others it has not been granted
(Matt 13.10-13). All of it is God's work and that is
why Yeshua rejoices. In fact, if you look up the word
for "rejoice" in Luke 10.21 it means "to jump for
joy." That's how excited he gets over it.

Q. Your articles seem to answer a lot of questions from people who have at least some Bible knowledge. How do you approach unbelievers who are -

-inquisitive?
A.I approach it with this thought. I use the book of
Nehemiah as an example. Nehemiah was sent to rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem after they were destroyed. The
people had turned from following the Torah and God
allowed the enemy to come in and destroy what the
people where putting their trust in(their walls) and
they were then led into captivity. An unbeliever is
like a city whose walls have been torn down by
unbelief. Nehemiah went in and didn't say anything at
first but surveyed the city to assess the true extent
of the damage. After he had seen what needed to be
done, he then set about to rebuild. That is what I do
at first. I look at the person to get an idea of the
damage done, which is always unbelief at the root. If
he doesn't know the Lord I start there and then lead
him to the Torah, which is the the foundation of the
faith and all the other Scriptures (2Tim 3.16-17). A
good, solid wall needs a good, solid foundation.
Spiritually, he needs to know what has caused the
damage in the first place and that is sin and
transgression of the Law(Torah) is sin (1Jn 3.4).
Nehemiah got the people to turn to God in order not to
repeat the same errors and that is what needs to be
done with an unbeliever. Once he turns to God, he
needs to have the Torah as a foundation to build his
spiritual "walls" again. Many are taught today that
the Torah has been done away with but that is a lie of
the enemy who does not want the walls built again
because he can't get ar rhe person anymore. Deception
and accusations won't work anymore. Nehemiah ran into
the same problem. Once they started to rebuild,
Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites,
Ashdodites heard about it and they became very angry
(Neh 4.7-8). The breaches in the walls were being
repaired and they tried to stop it. It's the same
today. Once you start working with an unbeliever and
show him how to rebuild his walls and repair the
breaches, the spiritual Sanballats and Tobiahs will
become angry and try to hinder the work by saying that
"the Law has been done away with", "the Law is
bondage", "God never told you to rebuild your walls
like that" and so on. So, you have to work with one
hand and have a spiritual weapon in the other until
they give up. So, I try to discern what the damage to
a person (city/walls) is and then lead them to the
Lord and then help them rebuild their walls brick by
brick, or scripture by scripture. It is long, hard,
tedious work and it is not acomplished without the
power of Spirit of God (Zech 4.6-9).

Q. Does the Book of Galatians teach that the Law has been done away with?

A. The book does not teach that the Torah has been done away with. It deals with a specific issue that was hotly debated in the first century and that issue was whether a Gentile who believed in Yeshua should be ritually circumcised, or become Jewish, to be saved. We see the issue debated in Acts 15 and it was decided that they did not have to be ritually circumcised. It comes up again in Galatians. So, we need to look at this issue to understand what Paul is saying and it is complicated but then again very simple to understand. In the first century a system of works righteousness was being taught. This system developed after the Babylonian captivity and was another debated issue (Rom 9.30-10.3) often illustrated by contrasting the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. The Pharisees in particular did not often agree on this issue and once they became believers in Yeshua their theology came with them and that is the issue in Acts 15.. There was the teaching that a Gentile had to become Jewish to be saved and they entered into that change of status by circumcision. There are two types of circumcision. One is called Abrahamic this is done if you are a descendant of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob and it was a sign that the Messiah would come through that lineage. Gentiles were not a part of this because the Messiah was not going to descend through them. There are reasons for Gentile circumcision but that involved eating the Passover and being a part of the household, but Abrahamic circumcision did not apply to Gentiles. The other type is called “ritual circumcision” and this a part of the oral law, not the written Torah of God. This view said that a Gentile must undergo circumcision to be saved. In the Jewish mind, when one talks about circumcising a Gentile it means “to become Jewish.” So there were two types of circumcisions in the first century, one was biblical and the other rabbinical. When Yeshua gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28. 19-20 to “go and make disciples of the Gentiles and teach them all the things I have commanded you” it was in the mind of the apostles that the Gentiles had to become Jewish and ritual circumcision was a part of that. The Lord straightened out that theology in Acts 10-11 with the conversion of the Roman centurion Cornelius before he was circumcised. Peter tells the others and they changed their view on this. But the issue did not go away all at once and the Galatians, about 21 years after Yeshua , were being told by certain Jewish believers that they had to get a ritual circumcision (become Jewish) to be saved and Paul writes this letter stating that they did not. Ritual circumcision is a man-made law and Paul is saying that if they gave into obeying man-made laws then the grace of God is of no value because man-made works has entered the picture. When Paul says that if they receive man-made , ritual circumcision then they must keep the “whole law.” Now keep this in mind when Paul uses the term “whole law” he is not only talking the written commandments but also about the oral tradition passed down by the rabbi’s and 95% of the “whole law” was man-made, rabbinical oral law. What Paul is teaching in Galatians is you do not follow man-made laws if they contradict written Scripture. Scripture does not teach that a Gentile must be circumcised to be saved therefore the law is invalid. But, he is not teaching that the Law of God found in the Scriptures has been done away with because Paul himself kept the Torah. In Acts 21 Paul was coming out of a Nazarite vow (see Numbers 6) and was coming to Jerusalem to keep the feast of Shavuot (Lev 23) and to offer the animal sacrifices required in Numbers 6 and give alms (Acts 24.17). James tells Paul that there is a rumor that Paul is telling the Jews among the nations to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children. Paul says that this is untrue, which means he IS telling them to follow Moses and he IS telling them to circumcise their children. So, in order to prove that these things are not true he agrees to pay for the animal sacrifices required for four other believers in Yeshua who are also coming out of a Nazarite vow (Acts 21.22-26). Now, I bring up this account because this was nearly 30 years after Yeshua and after he wrote Galatians. Now let this sink in. If the law has been done away with, why is Paul keeping the Nazarite vow in Numbers 6 , keeping a biblical festival and offering animal sacrifices in the Temple? He also says in Acts 24.14 that he had done nothing in violation of the Torah and he obeyed it. Paul’s own testimony about himself and illustrated by his life is that he obeyed the Torah and taught it to others (1Cor 11.1-2). He had Timothy circumcised in Acts 16.1-3 because his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek and it had not been done. That is the Abrahamic circumcision that Paul practiced. In Galatians 2.3 Titus was not compelled to be ritually circumcised (become Jewish) because he was a Gentile and ritual circumcision was a man-made law and didn’t apply to him because he had already received the grace of God and was a believer. That is a perfect illustration of the difference between Abrahamic circumcision (Timothy) and ritual circumcision (Titus). So, Galatians is not teaching that the Law, commandments, the Torah, the instruction of God has been done away with but it says that you cannot do anything to improve on the grace of God already received by obeying man-made rabbinical oral law. Once a believer has righteousness from God as a free gift and the Holy Spirit has circumcised the heart he follows, keeps, obeys the Torah as a way of life because that is the law written on his heart( Deut. 30.6; Jer. 31.31-34) and in doing so learns about Messiah (Rom 10.4; Luke 24.27; John 5.39-47), prophecy and the things to come (Col 2.16-17). This “way” is illustrated by the life of Paul and all the writers of the New Testament who were Torah observant believers. Many have misunderstood Galatians as a “spiritual Magna Carta” but that is not true. I will close with a quote from Peter himself when he says that Paul in his letters “speaks of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and the unstable distort as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” Paul cannot be obeying the Torah in his own life and then write any book that says the law has been done away with. That would make Paul a liar and that is exactly what people say if they use the writings of Paul to teach that the law has been done away with. The only way that could be taught is to distort what he said and that is what Peter is saying and that is why Galatians is so misunderstood. I would not entertain the thought or even listen to any so-called teacher of the Scriptures who tells you the Law has been done away with. Paul says himself in 1 Cor 7.17-19 that a man was to remain in the condition he was called. If you were called circumcised (Jewish) then don’t seek to be uncircumcised ( by under- going a surgery to reverse it called an Epispasm for instance). If you were called uncircumcised (Gentile) don’t seek to be circumcised (become Jewish). Circumcision is nothing and un-circumcision is nothing but the only thing that matters is the keeping of the commandments of God (as they apply). I hope this helps.

Last week we did an article on the real truth of Chanukah.

 This week we are going to take a brief look at Christmas. There is volumes on this subject, but if you have the Internet look up "Christmas", "Mithraism" "Constantine" and follow these out and you will see that Christmas is a pagan festival with Biblical names instead of the pagan ones. There is nothing truthful about the whole thing. The first "christ-mass" was celebrated in 311 A.D. Nothing was done about the birth of Messiah for three huindred years. The Jewishness of the faith was outnumberred by gentiles who had little regard for the Torah or Israel. The so called "church fathers" became that way because their doctrine agreed with Constantine's pagan Christianity. Mithraism was the worship of the sun as a divinity. His name was Mithra. It was the religion of Constantine until he died. He was the high priest of the Mithraic mysteries. He came to power in 310 A.D. and declared December 25 as the birth of 'Jesus", merely replacing it with Mithra. December 25 was Mithra's "birthday", having much to do with the winter solstice as anything. People were already used to that date , so he renamed it. Biblical festivals, sabbath and commandments were outlawed and replacement theology christianity was well established now. There is nothing biblical about Christmas and there never was. Christmas tree 's are just another name for the Asherah"s that were used as female sexual images, and these are also forbidden in Jer 10.1-5. I know.people will say "we don't do that anymore, these things don't symbolize that anymore" but a rose by any other name is still a rose. Do your own research on these things and you will see if G-d favors it or not. The same reasons why people don't celebrate Halloween are the same reasons why a believer in the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Yeshua as His Messiah would never participate in something so overtly pagan in origin. If one believes in Yeshua, you will want to stay away from things that are not true. But, many just profess with their mouths but not with their hearts and actions. There are scriptures alluding to this winter festival in Isaiah and the context is the second coming of Messiah. And in those verses the L-rd says that those who celebrate it have forsaken G-d, and the festivities are like vomit. The truth about Christmas is not hidden under a basket somewhere, it is out in the open for anyone to see. I like this time of year because it allows me to stand against it and tell people the truth. But, people don't want to listen, but they will not ever be able to say nobody ever told them. Yeshua was probably, based on Luke 1, conceived at Chanukah and born during the feast of Sukkot in the fall, around Sept-Oct. History says Herod died in September ,4 BC, and we know Yeshua was born by then. The December birth is pure Mithraism from Constantine. Again, if you want to walk in truth you cannot celebrate Christmas. It is pagan in origin, instituted by pagans and perpetuated by people who don't believe. Do the research if you really want to know. If you don't, you better not look. You won't like what you see. You might be convinced and have to change, and afterall, that would be just too hard. You might have to stand up to your wife or children. Your mommy might get mad at you and your friends may not like you. It doesn't matter to you that G-d might be offended, it isn't easy and it's too hard to change. So, sit there and have a nice Christmas. The L-rd will discuss it with you soon, maybe next year.

Q. Is global warming for real and is it mentioned in the Bible?

A. No, it is not mentioned and there is no such thing as global warming as it is being sold to the public today. After the Flood God said in Genesis 8.22 that He would not destroy the earth again with a curse and “while the earth remains seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” The earth goes through cycles and some are warmer and colder at times but the variation is not going to affect mankind. What it comes down to is you either believe God or man. This global warming myth is just another example of the Hippie generation and nature worship, with capitalism and religion being the root of all evil. Politicians stick their finger in the air and use these issues for personal gain. Back in the 1970’s they were saying the earth was entering into another ice age and that had people worried and politicians jumped on that and got elected. There is nothing new under the sun.

Q. In Matthew 27.9 he quotes a passage from Zechariah 11.12 but says it from the prophet Jeremiah. Is this a contradiction?

A. This is not a contradiction, this is an example of block logic. In Hebrew thought the Scriptures are divided into three categories which we have talked about before. The Torah or “teaching” is the first five books of Moses, although Torah would include all Scripture because it is the teaching of God, but for this question it is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy specifically. The second part is called the Nevi’im or “prophets” and the third part is called the Ketivim, or “writings”. Put all three words together and you have what is called the Tanak for the Old Testament. The prophets are divided further into early and latter prophets and major and minor prophets. Jeremiah is considered an early, major prophet while Zechariah is considered a later, minor prophet. So, a passage from Zechariah , a later/minor prophet might justly be cited but under the name of Jeremiah, a early/major prophet. The practice is seen in other places as well. The Hebrew names of the Books of Moses are B’reshit (in the beginning), Shemot (names), Vayikra (called), B’Midbar (in the wilderness) and Devarim (words). These names come from the first verse of each book and it calls to memory the content of the book. Rabbi’s would often quote the first verse of a particular passage and the students would know where he was quoting from and why. Yeshua did it on the cross when he quotes the first verse of Psalm 22. There are other examples of this in the New Testament. In Luke 24.44 Yeshua uses these three divisions when he refers his listeners to the Torah, the Prophets and Psalms because they speak of Him and that what was spoken must be fulfilled, or given meaning. Psalms is substituted for the Ketuvim (writings) because the Ketuvim begins with Psalms and this was another name for the Ketuvim or “writings.” In Matthew 23.35 there is another passage that is often misunderstood. It says that the righteous blood from Abel to Zechariah ben Berechiah will fall upon that generation. But 2 Chron24.20.22 says it is Zechariah ben Jehoida. But this can easily be explained. Jehoida means “praise the Lord” and Berechiah means “bless the Lord” and is basically the same name. Abel was the first righteous one slain in the Tanach and Zechariah ben Berechiah (Jehoida) was the last and Yeshua uses them as “bookends” if you will for all the righteous slain in the Tanach. There are other examples of this but I hope this answers your question.