The Days of the “Fiery Test” is Coming!
As I mentioned yesterday in my blog, we are nearing the end of “the last days,” days that Shi’mon Petros (Peter) calls “times of restitution (restoration) of all things,” and we are about to enter “the time of Jacob’s Trouble,” “the Tribulation,” “the fiery test that will come upon all flesh,” and so it is critical that we determine how we are going to live our life. We cannot continue to flounder back and forth, but we need to determine to live in obedience to God, regardless of the price it may cost us.
We Cannot Depend on RELIGIONS!
We cannot depend on our religions to get us through these dark days ahead. We are being deceived by them. For example, Christianity teaches us that “it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.” That’s a cute saying, but the majority of what we are taught in Christianity is, in fact, RELIGION. RELIGION, in its essence, is human beings substituting their own thoughts, beliefs, feelings, or practices for God’s word, the Bible. It is not RELIGION we need, but God and His Kingdom.
God’s Kingdom is NOT a RELIGION!
The problem is that we have turned God’s Kingdom into a RELIGION. We do not see God as a literal King ruling and reigning a literal Kingdom, but we see Him as a belief that we can either accept or dismiss. Therefore, if we do not obey God, we do not see that as an act of rebellion against the Kingdom, we simply say, “Well, I do not believe that.” You see, RELIGION takes God off of the throne of our lives, and it puts us on the throne of our own life instead. The Kingdom is having God on the throne of our lives – not us. This is the real difference between the two.
RELIGION – A DECEPTION?
RELIGION is a facade, a masquerade, a deception, a false path that makes people believe that if they follow whatever their RELIGION says that they will “go to heaven” when they die, but it is not our culture or our RELIGION that makes that determination – God does. He is King of His Kingdom, and if we do not do what He commands for us to enter His Kingdom, we will not get in, regardless of how “good” or “nice” of a person we are.
For example, Christianity teaches people that all they have to do is go down to the altar, say “the sinner’s prayer,” and when they die, they will automatically go to heaven. This is a deception. By admitting that they are a sinner and asking the Yeshua (Jesus) into their life to be their Lord and Savior, they have taken the first step, but they have not made the whole journey yet, just the first step. This is what RELIGION says.
The Narrow Way vs. The Broad Way
The Rebbe Yeshua (Jesus) says that we must not only enter by the “narrow gate” (Yeshua), but we also must walk down “the narrow way,” “the way of Torah PLUS the Spirit” that “leads to life,” or we will end up going to live one of the paths that comprise and make up “the broad way,” “the way of the flesh,” that “leads to death and destruction.” Most people do not realize that the various RELIGIONS are not part of “the road to life,” but instead, they are part of “the way that leads to death and destruction.” It is not RELIGION that we need – but God and His Kingdom.
A Belief in God is NOT RELIGION!
But I can imagine someone saying, “But a belief in God is automatically a RELIGION,” but this is not true. For example, there are four WORLD RELIGIONS – Theraveda Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, and Confucianism – and these four WORLD RELIGIONS do not have a God or gods in them at all. For example, Theraveda Buddhism and Jainism seek to have an experience called “Enlightenment” (which is not God or gods); in fact, it is an abomination in Jainism to believe in a personal God or Creator. Also, Taoism and Confucianism seek to experience an impersonal natural force, called the Tao. The Taoists believe believe they can experience this natural force in nature; whereas, Confucianism believes that they can experience this same natural force in families, social groups, society, and even in government. Consequently, the belief that “All RELIGIONS lead to God” is not at all true, as this demonstrates. Also, if something can be a RELIGION without it having a belief in God in it, then logically, a belief in God does not automatically make something a RELIGION. Again, we do not need RELIGION – but God and His Kingdom.
We have turned God’s Kingdom into a RELIGION
The problem is that we – Rabbinic Jews and Christians – have turned God and His Kingdom into two WORLD RELIGIONS, Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. God did not have any interest in beginning a RELIGION – much less TWO WORLD RELIGIONS. His focus and heart was to establish His Kingdom here on earth. It is not to get us into heaven for eternity, and this is easy to prove, since all you have to do is to read the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21-22. For example, in Revelation 21, we read,
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed awayl and there was no more sea. And I John (Heb. Yochanan) saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said unto me, “Write: for these words are true and faithful.” (Revelation 21: 1-5)
God’s Ultimate GOAL:
Here we can see that God’s ultimate goal is to live with us in the new Jerusalem on earth for all of eternity – not in heaven. Am I saying that we do not go to heaven when we die? No, I am saying that for those people who faithfully obey God and serve the Kingdom, heaven is a temporary pit stop, it is not, however, our “eternal home,” as Christians teach.
We NEED to PURGE OURSELVES from ALL RELIGIONS!
Christians need to purge their beliefs of all of the RELIGION that they have been taught, and they need to go back to a Kingdom heart and mind set. For example, Christianity fails to properly interpret and understand the New Testament because they continuously remove it from its original contexts; Kingdom, the Hebrew Scriptures, and Second Temple Judaism. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Kingdom of God was still seen as a literal Kingdom, not a religion, but by the Second Temple period, the RELIGIOUS LEADERS, beginning with Ezra, had spent several hundred years in molding and shaping Israel into a RELIGIOUS STATE.
We NEED a KINGDOM HEART AND MIND!
The Rebbe Yeshua (Jesus) came to direct Israel back to a Kingdom heart and mind set, like they had before the Babylonian exile, and this is why the RELIGIOUS leaders wanted Him dead. His Kingdom concept would have removed all their power and authority that they had obtained for themselves. And to this day, RELIGION and the Kingdom are still in conflict with one another. In an online interview with Dr. Myles Munroe and Benny Hinn, Dr. Munroe said that the largest enemy that the Kingdom has is RELIGION, because RELIGION is continually searching for the smallest crack or crevice to sneak into and substitute itself for the Kingdom. This is the continual goal of RELIGION – not to lead us to God, but to substitute itself for the Kingdom and the Words of God.
EXAMPLES OF RELIGION IN CHRISTIANITY
Mainstream Christianity claims that the people in the “Old Testament” were “saved” by the law; however, the people were never “saved” by the Law at any time. This teaching is a deceptive lie told to us. For example, in the footnote for Exodus 20:1-17, in The Apologetics Bible, states,
God and Moses perceived obedience to the laws, not as a way or precondition to salvation, but as the grateful response of those who had already BEEN SAVED. God did not reveal the law to the Israelites in Egypt and then tell them that as soon as they had measured up to this standard He would rescue them [This would have taught salvation by the Law]. On the contrary, BY GRACE ALONE, THROUGH FAITH they crossed the Red Sea to freedom. All that was required was belief in God’s promise that He would hold up the walls of water on either side and see them safely through the other shore.
The Decalogue begins, not with the first commandment, but with a preamble: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery” (Ex. 20:2; Dt. 5: 6). Obedience to the Decalogue or any other law has NEVER BEEN INTENDED AS THE WAY OF SALVATION BUT AS THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO SALVATION ALREADY RECEIVED. (115)
Here we can see that Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) was NOT teaching us things that the Written Torah, the Law of God – the first five books of the Bible – didn’t, but he taught us exactly what the Written Torah itself teaches. Consequently, the alleged conflict between “the Law” and “grace” is a teaching of RELIGION, not Kingdom.
So can we find RELIGION in Christianity? Yes, in a number of different places. For example,
- The alleged conflict between “law and grace.”
- They believe that all they have to do is “love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength,” and “love one another,” but the Rebbe Yeshua (Jesus) said this, NOT to replace the Laws of God given to Mosheh (Moses) on Mt. Sinai, but to SUMMARIZE them. A summary does not REPLACE what it is summarizing, but it is revealing how an individual views what they are summarizing. The Rebbe Yeshua (Jesus) viewed God’s laws and commandments being about love; is that how we are taught to view God’s laws and commandments in Christianity? No, it isn’t.
- We are taught to worship on Sundays – and not to worship on Saturday, the 7th day as God has commanded.
- We are taught to observe Christmas, Lent, and Easter – and not to worship the biblical feast days at all.
- We are taught that we can eat whatever we choose to – and we are told to ignore God’s commandments about what we are to eat and not to eat.
- We are taught in God’s Word that we are not to commit adultery or fornication, yet these sexual sins are committed by many people in the church today.
- We are taught in God’s Word that we are not to steal, lie, or to covet what belongs to others, yet these sins are also widely committed within Christianity.
The Dichotomy of the Two Ways
As we can see by these few examples, RELIGION is widely taught in Christianity since they have substituted these man-made teachings for God’s Word. Why would they do this? Let’s go back and explore the dichotomy that Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) sets up for us in Romans 8:
Walking According to the FLESH |
Walking According to the SPIRIT |
|
|
| 2. This mind set is DEATH. | 2. This mind set is LIFE AND PEACE. |
| 3. A Mind set on the FLESH is hostile towards
God. |
3. |
| 4. A mind set on the FLESH does not subject
itself to the LAW OF GOD, for it is not even able to do so. |
4. |
| 5. They cannot please God. | 5. |
This is the dichotomy that Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) sets up for us, but he does not complete it for us; instead, he expects us as readers of God’s Word to complete the dichotomy, and to learn from it. Christians tells us that they “sin every day” and that they “cannot help but do so,” and by them telling us that, they are claiming that their “minds are set on the FLESH” and NOT on “THE SPIRIT.” And therefore, because of that, Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) tells us that “THEY CANNOT PLEASE GOD.”
If we complete the dichotomy, we discover that “those whose mind is set on the SPIRIT is in union with God,” and that “those who can please God” are those whose “mind set is on the SPIRIT AND is subject to THE LAW OF GOD, for it is not able to do anything else.” God’s Word is NOT DIVIDED, but He wants us to walk in obedience to the LAW OF GOD and to walk after the SPIRIT. It is NOT as Christianity teaches that the SPIRIT has REPLACED THE LAW at all. Thus, although Christianity teaches us about Yeshua (Jesus), I must wonder:
- Are we preaching the Bible as an actual Kingdom, or have we made it into another RELIGION?
- Are we preaching the “The biblical, Jewish Messiah, the Rebbe Yeshua (Jesus), or are we teaching “another Jesus,” “another Spirit,” or even “another gospel” (2 Corinthians 11:4)?
The phrase “works of the law” found in Romans and Galatians, Christianity erroneously teaches that it refers to the commandments given in the first five books of the Bible, but this is not true at all. Again, because they do not understand Second Temple Judaism and the Oral Law, they misinterpret these passages, as well as some of the references within the book of Acts, and some other passages as well.
This is why we must study the Scriptures for ourselves. We should not be completely dependent on the RELIGIOUS LEADERS to tell us what the Bible says. Because RELIGIONS will always deceive us, and they will lead us to being in the mass group that we see described in the Sermon on the Mount:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” (Matthew 7:21-22)
Think about this. What group of people will call Yeshua (Jesus) “Lord, Lord”? This will not be unbelievers, but those who say they are “believers” or “Christians.’ Also, who is it that are “prophesying” in “Jesus’ name,” or are “casting out demons” “in Jesus’ name, or even “performing many miracles” in “Jesus’ name”? These things are not being done by those who are unbelievers, but by people who claim to be “Christians” or “believers.” Now read the Rebbe Yeshua‘s (Jesus’) response to them:
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you: Depart from Me, you who practice Lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:23)
The Rebbe Yeshua (Jesus) tells them “I never knew you” and to “Depart from Me,” why? He accused them of “practicing lawlessness.” This is the English translation of the Greek word anomia [G458]. This Greek word means “without the Law,” or “to live and act as if the Law of God did not exist.” Is it not mainstream Christianity who teaches people that “the Law of God” has “ended at the cross,” or “is not for them”? Are they not the people who would fit this description?
Don’t blindly follow RELIGION. Study the Bible as God’s KINGDOM MANUAL. Seek God as your King, and His Written Torah and Living Torah (Yeshua) as your standard and way of life, and you will be walking the narrow way to the life and peace.
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