Q. What does Mark 9.49 mean where it says that everyone will be salted with fire?

A.To understand this verse we have to put it into context first, and then it will be clearer. Starting in Mk 9.39-48, the Lord is talking about what will happen to those who reject Him. They will go to the Lake of Fire (Rev 20.10) “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” quoting Isa 66.24. Their “worm” is a Hebrew idiom meaning their “conscience” and how it will “gnaw” way at them, tormenting and filling them with anguish. In v 49 however the Lord transitions to His own, true believers. “Everyone” refers to “every follower of mine” and the “fire” with which they must endure refers to ”fiery trials” which “season” them (to be salted) because “the servant is not above his master” and the Lord went through the very same thing. This “salting” refers back to Lev 2.13 where it says the Minchah or bread offering must be salted with salt when on the altar (the fire). This refers to the fact that the Messiah, that bread from heaven (Jn 6.58), is the one whose sacrifice is for eternity and it cleanses and preserves us to everlasting life (Jn 6.27). Salt is a preservative, it speaks of eternity and table fellowship. It also was used in cleansing (Ezek 16.4) and also denotes suffering. Salt also prevents fermentation and it was used on the ramp of the altar in the Temple when there was ice so that the priests would not slip, so it refers to being “sure –footed.” The “salt of the covenant” referred to in Lev 2.13 is referring to the perpetuity of the covenant God made at Mt Sinai, which also included the Brit Chadashah, or “new covenant” ( Num 18.19; Deut 29.1 thru 30.11; Jer 31.31,Luke 22.20).

Now, back to our verses in Mark 9.49-50. Every follower will have fiery trials to go through (1Pet 1.7) and to be an acceptable sacrifice and well pleasing to the Lord we must be salted. Matt 5.13 says that we are the “salt of the earth” and Mk 9.50 says that “salt is good”. So what is this salt? In Col 4.6 it says that our speech should be “salted with salt” so that we may know how to sincerely respond to each person. In 1 Pet 3.15-16 it goes a little deeper in that we are to sanctify, or set apart, the Lord in our hearts and to be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks us to give an account for the hope that is within us, yet with gentleness and reverence (salt) and to keep a good conscience (salt) so that in the thing in which you are slandered (fire) , those who revile (the fire) your good behavior (salt) in Christ may be put to shame. So when it refers to salt being good in Mk 9.50 it is referring to how we react under trials (fire) and the situation is “good” as long as we have left others with a good “taste” in their mouths in that they can’t say we spoke or acted untruthfully or unbecomingly. In other words, the salt is that preserving, ceaseless, purifying, honest, friendly speech and how we communicate with people and that should be a positive witness and example to an unbeliever. This “salt” will help remove the “fermentation” of sin in their lives and through our words they can have an accurate picture and may come to know the real Lord and Savior. But if the salt becomes un-flavorful, or does not accomplish the above, what good is it. The verse then concludes with the statement that we should have “salt in yourselves” which means we should retain those valuable and good qualities that will make us a blessing to one another and to all around us and thus, as v 50 says, “be at peace with one another”, the result of the flavorful, good salt.

Q. What does it mean in Rom 3.25 where it says that God “passed over” the sins previously committed?

A. To understand this, we have to see that all of this was decided upon before the world was. It was decided what Yeshua was going to do and what the Father was going to do. In Rom 3.25 it says that God displayed what Yeshua did on the cross in a public manner, as a mercy seat. The word mercy seat is the Hebrew “kipporet” (to cover over, atonement)and it is referring to the lid on the ark of the covenant where the blood was placed on Yom Kippur. The Greek word for “kipporet” is “hilasterion” and this word has the same root as the word “hilarious.” So, God is “hilariously” satisfied with Yeshua’s sacrifice and through his blood grace is bursting forth (Acts 14.16, 17.30). Now, we know that sin demanded death. We read in Gen 2.17 that the Lord said “for in the day that you eat (of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) you shall surely die.” In Hebrew it says “in dying (spiritually) you shall die (physically).” But, that isn’t exactly what happened. There were many who died physically but had faith and did not die in the sense of being forever separated from God. There were many righteous ones before the cross that God kept “safe” from eternal damnation after their death because they had faith. The Father had confidence, faith , in what Yeshua would do. There was much at stake. He knew that if he did not go through with the cross, many would have no chance for salvation because God meant what he said, and if there was no blood, then we all were lost based on Gen 2.17. They were waiting for their salvation in a place called Abraham’s Bosom. Yeshua had to vindicate the Father in what he said in Gen 2.17. Yeshua had to finish his work. Satan, on the other hand, lived up to his name as the accuser because he continually accused God of lying when he said ”in dying you shall die” because there were many who were “saved” from the second death by faith before the cross. So he accused God of having no integrity and lying. Well, Yeshua dies and is resurrected and his blood is the proof that God was righteous in letting death “pass over” the sins previously committed and forever silencing Satan’s accusations against God and us for all time. Yeshua is the “kipporet” before God that he “looks through” on our behalf.

Q. I have heard that Ezekiel 1 describes a UFO. Is that true?

A. Ezekiel chapter one is a very interesting chapter and it uses what is called “apocalyptic” ( to reveal) language. That’s why the Book of Revelation is also called “The Apocalypse” because it uses a style of language known in Hebrew thought as “apocalyptic.” To understand this chapter there are few things that have to be understood. This chapter has nothing to do with flying saucers and here is why.  This vision is known as the “merkavah” (chariot) or in other words the “Ma’aseh Merkavah” or “the work or account of the Chariot.”  The term “chariots of fire “ (merkavah mophtim) comes from this. A “chariot” is the means (vehicle) by which God’s glory is displayed in creation.  Angels, Israel or something else that could be considered Gods “chariot.”  What Ezekiel saw in this vision was the angelic realm that “supported” the throne of God. There are two classes of angels here called “ophanim and cherubim” and they work as messengers, carrying out his will. This brings us to something that needs to be understood. There are five elements in the physical world and they are time, light, mass, space and energy.  The spiritual world has the same thing. There is spiritual time, light, mass, space and energy. This vision is saying that God’s presence ,or Shekinah, would no longer find its place among so degraded a people and it would be confined in the heaven (See Ezekiel 10.1-22; 11.22-25). We see later that Ezekiel saw the presence leave (spiritual movement)the Holy of Holies, then the Temple, then the city and finally into the heavenly realm at the Mt of Olives because judgment was coming and the Temple and city were going to be destroyed.  Interestingly enough, after the resurrection, the Lord left the Temple, the city and ascended into heaven at the same place before the city was again destroyed by the Romans. Here is an important concept. Spiritual movement does not relate to a measurable distance as in physical movement. “Near” means “similar to” and “far” means “opposite”  or “different.”  Spiritual time can be the holy days or prayer time, things like that. Spiritual light is the cause or will of God. Spiritual mass are the agents that carry out God’s will. Spiritual space can be heaven, the Temple, Israel, a home or any place set apart for the Lord. Spiritual energy, therefore,  is the result or effect of the spiritual mass on mankind or creation. So, the vision of the Merkavah in Ezekiel 1 shows a heavenly (spiritual space) “chariot” which is really four angelic beasts called Cherubim. These angels (spiritual mass) are carrying out God’s will. This purpose of God is also called being “in the spirit” or ”under the control” of the spirit, but no mention is made of what exactly the purpose was at that point. But what we have is an example of the relationship between spiritual light (will of God) with spiritual mass (the angels carrying out that will) and the resulting spiritual energy (effect of the actions) upon man and creation. Ezekiel 43.1-5  has the account of the presence of God returning into the Temple.  Now, why is Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel 10 and Ezekiel 43 important to understand in the right way? Because these portions of scripture were read in the Temple and synagogues on the feast of Pentecost and it prepared  the people for what was about to happen 50 days after the resurrection of the Lord and it was the setting for what happened in Acts 2.1-13 with the coming of the Lord’s presence (Spirit) into another Temple, the believer. All the five spiritual elements were in action. There is so much more to get into concerning this but I hope this at least gives you an idea about what the Lord is trying to communicate in these chapters and also will dispel any notions you may have that these chapters have anything to do with UFO’s or flying saucers.

Q. If people believe that Yeshua is God, why don’t they leave out a letter like they do when they write “Lord” and God?”

A. I can’t answer that question for them, but I can give some reasons why this possibly could happen. There came a time, especially by the first century, that people were discouraged from saying the name of God found in the Hebrew letters “yod, hey, vav, hey”(or signified in English by YHVH). A man-made tradition developed that said people were to avoid saying the name. So, they would say “heaven” instead of “God” and use other things to avoid saying the name. Scrolls that had the name of God in them could not be thrown away because they felt that this violated the 3rd commandment also. These scrolls would then be stored in a place called a “genizah” and left there. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a perfect example of this. Used or otherwise unusable scrolls were stored in these caves and when the Romans were coming, those living in Qumran hid their manuscripts there because they could not take all them with them, and they thought that they may be coming back again.  Whatever they were thinking, they stored the scrolls in those caves which were considered “genizahs” because those particular scrolls contained God’s name in them. When the scrolls were discovered in 1947 and after, they found fragments of every Old Testament book except Esther because the book of Esther did not contain the name of God (YHVH), so they did not need to store Esther scrolls away. But, how to pronounce the name was known and that name (YHVH) was pronounced in the Temple, especially on Yom Kippur and there is debate as to whether everyone submitted to the ban on saying it in the first century or not, but the true pronunciation was known to the people. After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple the true pronunciation of the name was lost to most because the services were stopped and the people killed, enslaved or scattered. The rabbis discouraged its usage and that is what has been passed down today, but it wasn’t always that way.  As far as today,here are some sages and rabbi’s that know the true pronunciation and it will be said again when Temple services begin, but that is another story. So another tradition arose, and you will see it in many Orthodox Jewish publications in English  that said that whenever the word “Lord” and “God” came up you left a letter out  in remembrance of the commandment not to desecrate the name of God. So Lord would look like L-rd and so on. Technically, Lord and God are not his names but are titles, but I think you get the picture. Now, I want say this before I answer the question. Many reading this will say that the Jewish and in particular the Qumran traditions and others like them were silly, but had they not taken this as serious as they did, we would not have the manuscripts and scrolls we have today. Many genizahs have been found all over the world in Jewish communities and there have been many valuable scrolls found there and translated. God has his way of preserving his word. And in the same way, say what you want about the Catholic Church, but it was the monks who were cloistered away during the times of the barbarian hordes and tremendous political  and social upheaval, copying the scriptures, that have allowed us to have the Bibles that we have today. I wish that believers had a tenth of the love of the word of God that those people had.

With that as a back-round, let me try and answer the question. When one honors the name of God and does not use it in vain or in a profane way, he does honor  Yeshua because he is God. On the other hand, Yeshua is the name that was given him at birth, it is his human name. He did not have that name from all eternity, it shows that he is human and had to be human otherwise he could not be our Goel, or “kinsman” redeemer. To be a “kinsman” he  had to be human. If he wasn’t human, there is no redemption. So, just because you leave out a letter in Lord or God and not in Yeshua doesn’t mean that you don’t believe that Yeshua was God, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But it is his human name, he was the same flesh as we are, the second Adam and it is by his blood that man and creation was redeemed. But, keep in mind that to leave a letter out of Lord and God is just a man-made tradition and if that is what you want to do to honor the Lord, that’s fine but there are others who don’t and that’s fine, too. When the Scriptures are not specific about a particular action, we need to let others have room and not get judgmental either way. But we should be consistent in what we do and not do things just because we see others do it. We should be able to explain why we do what we do, and all of that should be to bring glory to the Lord.

Q. I have some friends that do not believe in the Trinity or they say that the Father and the Son are God but not the Holy Spirit. Part 2

This week I want to continue with the question that was raised about the Holy Spirit and whether He is God or just a “force” or “power.” The Father ,the Son and the Holy Spirit are divine and unique beings, coequal and co-eternal. The Lord has chosen to reveal this doctrine carefully and gradually. It is a guarded revelation due to our limitations. Wrong ideas have produced heresies and threatened the faith at times. There are many examples of this concept. For instance the mind is made up of the intellect, emotions and conscience. In nature, a tree has branches, a root and a trunk. In fact the tree has been used in scripture to illustrate the union of the Lord with his people as one entity. An egg has whites, yolk and shell. Light is one, yet has distinct colors. Time is past, present and future and to the Lord there is no distinction, He transcends it. Space has length, breadth, height. Matter has the atom with its parts, and so on. I think you get the idea. In other words, the Lord has put within nature examples of His essence to illustrate it for us. Titles for the Lord like “elohim” (gods, judges) is a collective title and plural. YHVH ( made up of the Hebrew letters “yod, heh, vav, heh “) is singular, but it can be used for the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit individually. The Father (Deut 32.6), the Son (Rom 8.14) and the Holy Spirit (Jn 3.1-8) represent their individual roles for us in order to help us understand the relationship and functions of the three divine beings. These roles should not be pushed beyond their clear and intended “relationships.” For instance, “son” does not mean subordinate in essence to the Father. The “spirit” is not an inanimate wind or force. Father is a position of authority, the Son is the intercessor and the Holy Spirit is a comforter, or helper. These terms are used to help us understand the Lord and what their roles are in relation to the redemption and should not be pushed beyond that. I hope this helps you reconcile your question somewhat. Remember, there are certain things we will never understand fully in this life and trying to explain the essence of the Godhead is one of them, but the Bible is very clear about what the Lord says about Himself and this should always be where we find out the answers to our questions. This, of course, is only my opinion on the subject but I hope it helps.

Q. I have some friends that do not believe in the Trinity or they say that the Father and the Son are God but not the Holy Spirit, who is just a source of power. Is there any scripture that proves that the Holy Spirit is God?

A. There are many verses that prove it but let’s start with Acts 5.3. Of course the story is about Ananias and Sapphira and how they lied about some land that they gave. Peter says to Ananias in verse 3 “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit.” Now, you can’t lie to a “force” or be baptized in the name of a “force” (Mt 28.19). The Holy Spirit can be grieved (Eph 4.30) and he speaks (Acts 13.2). He intercedes for us (Rom 8.26). He is called God in the next verse(Acts 5.4). There is a concept in the Bible called the “overlapping of Deity” in that the Father is associated with the Son in deified terms. Many epistles talk about grace and mercy coming from the Father and the Son ( Phil 1.2, Eph 1.2).  Then the Son is associated with the Holy Spirit (Jn 16.7-15)  So, if A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C.  The Father is a God of truth (Isa 65.16), so is the Son (Jn 14.6) and so is the Holy Spirit (1 Jn 5.7). He is included when the Lord says “us” and “our” (Gen 1.26). All three are mentioned in Isa 48.16. God is one in essence (being), distinct in persons and not a multi-faceted manifestation of one person, as the “Oneness” movement teaches and many denominations. The Father is unique (Dan 7.13),  the Son is unique (Psa 40.7-8) and the Holy Spirit is unique (Rom 8.26). They possess a full, equal share of the status of deity (Mt 28.19-20, Gen 1.26, 2 Cor 13.14). All three are uniquely revealed as God. For example, the Father (Deut 4.35), the Son (Titus 2.13) and the Holy Spirit (Acts 5.4, 1 Jn 5.7). The Holy Spirit has the same nature or composition of essence of the other two in that He is infinite, spirit, immeasurable, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. The character traits of essence of the Holy Spirit are the same as the other two also in that He is perfect, good, holy, truthful, sovereign ,loving, righteous and just. The Bible clearly teaches that the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, that the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. Next week I will continue this thought and hopefully give some insight into your question on this very important subject.

Q. Jer 19.6 mentions a place called “Tophet” or the valley of Ben-hinnom. Where is this and what does it mean?

A. This is a very prophetic place in Jerusalem and it plays a very significant role in the Tribulation and the judgment that follows. The word “tophet” means “spitting” and it is a burial place of the ashes of the children killed in the worship of Molech. The place is at the south end of Jerusalem and at the base of the Hebrew letter “Shin” where the three valleys meet. It was a valley known for idolatry and it will be the place where idolatry will be judged. The Hinnom valley is on the west of Jerusalem and it winds around the southern end of Jerusalem. Now, “valley of Hinnom” in Hebrew is “gay Hinnom” and it is where the word “Gehenna” comes from. This word became synonymous with “hell” because it was the opposite of heaven, or paradise and it was also called the “valley of the shadow of death” for obvious reasons. It was also known as the “valley of Jehoshaphat” in the book of Joel. After the idolatry stopped and the images and carnage ended, this area became a burial place for unbelievers, who were not buried with Jewish believers. This is a picture of the judgment that falls on people who have rejected the Lord (Rev 19.21, Ezek 32.2, 17-34, Rev 14.14,Isa 14.9-22, Joel 3.9-16. Lk 19.27, Mt 24. 29-31, Jer 7.27-34, Lk 17 33.37). This place was associated with Ba’al and considered unclean (Jer 32.35). In the first century it was the garbage dump of the city of Jerusalem and the smoke of the trash burning was constant and the Lord used it as an example of Hell in several of his teachings. It is not possible to give an in-depth teaching on this but this area was the setting for the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man found in Lk 16 and in Matt 25 with the judgment of the sheep and goats. He says to the righteous on his right to enter into the kingdom. The holiest site of earth was the Temple. Then he sends the wicked on his left into “eternal fire” (tophet) and their bodies are thrown into Tophet or the valley of Hinnom for all mankind to see (Isa 66.23-24) and  considered the most cursed place on earth. If the righteous are on his right (the Temple) and the wicked to his left (valley of Tophet) then Yeshua is sitting on the Mount of Olives during this judgment. Also, Yeshua’s betrayal was directly related to this area in one of the most ironical stories of the Bible. We know that Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver for his work, and after he repented for what he had done, he threw the money into the Temple. Judas hung himself and the priests took the money and bought a burial place south of the city, in the valley of Hinnom (gehenna) and called it “akeldama” which means field of blood (Acts 1.19). It was cheap land and it was a place where the poor, the transient and those considered “cursed” were buried. Later, this field came up for sale and the family of Annas and Caiphas bought it. Recent excavations have found their actual tombs in the valley of Tophet. The two High Priests who presided over the murder of the Messiah were buried in Tophet, the most cursed place on earth. So, this area has a very dark history and symbolic but it is also prophetic and it will play a role in the future and is directly related to the judgment of the nations.