HASHEM, the Holy God of Israel, sent two distinct Israeli Jews to announce a Pro-Torah, Pro-Israel message to the whole House of Israel: the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel.  This is the message that was first proclaimed by the Levite and Nazarite prophet, Yochanan (John) the Immerser, more commonly known in Christian circles as “John the Baptist” or “John the Baptizer,” who laid the beginning foundation of the message and prepared the way for the second distinct Israeli Jew – the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth.  For example, in Mattityahu (Matthew) 3, we read,

It was during those days that Yochanan the Immerser arrived in the desert of Y’hudah (Judah) and began proclaiming the message, “Turn from your sins to God (Repent), for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” [Mattityahu (Matthew) 3:1-2, CJB]

And then almost eight months later, the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua began to announce after Yochanan the Immerser had been arrested and placed in prison by King Herod,

From that time on, Yeshua began proclaiming, “Turn from your sins to God (Repent), for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” [Mattityahu (Matthew) 4:17, CJB]

Here we can see that both Yochanan and Yeshua proclaimed and taught the same exact message!  According to the footnote given in Mattityahu (Matthew) 3, the word “Heaven” is capitalized because it is used as an evasive synonym for God’s holy sacred name.

The word heaven is used as a pious avoidance of the Divine Name (YHVH).  Here “Heaven” is capitalized when referring to God, while “heaven” refers to the sky or paradise. (Footnote, Mattityahu/Matthew 3:2, CJB; p. 1386)

However, if we compare this same moment in Mark’s account with Mattityahu’s (Matthew’s) account, we see some interesting distinctions:

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:14-15, KJV)

Now if we compare this translation in the King James Version to the more modern translation in the New American Standard Bible, we see some distinctions:

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching THE GOSPEL OF GOD, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and THE KINGDOM OF GOD is at hand; repent and believe IN THE GOSPEL.” (Mark 1:14-15, NASB)

Now if we compare these two versions, the message that Yeshua was preaching was “the gospel of the kingdom of God” in the KJV; whereas, it is “the gospel of God” in the NASB.  The newer translations have removed “of the kingdom” from their translations.  These modern translators believe that whenever the phrase “the kingdom of God” is used, it is a pious way for Jews to evade the sacred name of God, and there are times when this is true, such as Matthew 6:33, but this is not always the case.  But as we can see, the focus of his message is “the kingdom of heaven” in Matthew, but “the kingdom of God” in Mark, as well as the rest of the “New Testament.”

The Three Meanings of “The Kingdom of God”

Christians believe that the phrase “the kingdom of God” refers to God’s active rule and reign over the spiritual realm, including the spiritual life of human beings.  However, when it comes to the phrase “kingdom of heaven,” Christians are divided.  Some Christians believe that the phrase “kingdom of heaven” specifically refers to the future Messianic Kingdom, or what Christians call the “Millennial Kingdom.”  However, the best explanation I have found for the phrase “the kingdom of God” is made by Rabbi Solomon Schechter, who was the architect of American Conservative Judaism, the founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, and the President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in his book, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, originally published in 1909.  In his book, he writes that there are two aspects to “the kingdom of God:” “the invisible kingdom and the visible kingdom.”

He defines “the invisible kingdom” as “mainly spiritual, expressive of a certain attitude of mind, and possessing a more individual character.” He then later says,

Communion with God by means of prayer through the removal of all intruding elements between man and his Maker, and through the implicit acceptance of God’s unity as well as an unconditional surrender of mind and heart to his holy will, which the love of God expressed in the Shema implies, this is what is understood by the receiving of the kingdom of God. (66-67)

On the other hand, there is also “the visible kingdom,” and he has also broken this down into two aspects: “the Visible Kingdom (Universal)” and “the Visible Kingdom (National).”  The Universal aspect of the Kingdom was the physical universe, the stars, planets, asteroids, as well as the earth, the resources, plants, animals and people of the earth.  All of this is a part of this aspect of the kingdom.  However, he says that the National aspect of the Kingdom of God –

  …is accordingly often so closely connected with the redemption of Israel from the exile, the advent of the Messiah, and the restoration of the Temple to be inseparable from it.  This is the national aspect.  (96)

The Gospel – “The National Aspect of the Kingdom of God”?

And this national aspect of “the kingdom of God” is what the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua had in mind when he and his disciples went around Israel proclaiming, “the good news of the kingdom of God.” However, when he and his disciples were announcing “the good news of the kingdom,” the Jews were already living in the land, so he did not need to argue for them to have a homeland, and the Temple was still standing and fully operational, so there was no need to argue for the restoration of the Temple.  The “good news of the Kingdom of God” was instead announcing that God was beginning the redemption (Heb. Ge’ulah) and the Restoration of Israel,” meaning that the descendants of all twelve tribes of Jacob would be restored back into intimate relationship with God and then with another as they were reformulated back into the United Kingdom of Israel as it had been under King David, but now under King David’s greater son, the Messiah, as taught within the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms. This message is what the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples called “the gospel” or “the good news.”

It is critical today that we understand the message that HASHEM gave to Yochanan (John) the Immerser, the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples to announce and teach, because we have reached a critical moment in history when the ancient Kingdoms of Israel – the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah – now need to come together to re-formulate the One Kingdom, One Community, One People, and One Family – in preparation for the return of God and His chosen Anointed-Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth, for the long promised Messianic Kingdom.

Did the whole House of Israel Hear the Good News Message?

No, they didn’t.  Why?  Because the vast majority of the Jewish people – 98% of them – did not live in the land of Israel, so the vast majority of Jews never met or heard the Rebbe Yeshua or most of his eighty-two (82) disciples (the Twelve and the Seventy, Luke 10:1), and this does not even count the descendants of the northern ten tribes who comprised the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  The descendants of the northern ten tribes were taken back as exiles into Assyria, and then they were taken over by Babylon, and then the Greek empire, and then the Roman empire.  They ended up being given more and more room for their descendants to move and to migrant, and there is really no idea into how many countries or among how many peoples of this world the northern ten tribes assimilated themselves into and joined.

This is why the Rebbe Yeshua sent his disciples out into the nations after he was resurrected by HASHEM, so that they could continue to take the message to the rest of the whole House of Israel who were scattered throughout the nations of the world.  It was not to start a whole new religion, such as Christianity, but to let the descendants of the two kingdoms and their converts that HASHEM was beginning THE PROCESS of the Redemption and Restoration of Israel, and how they could become a part of the movement (“The Kingdom Restoration Movement”).

The Addition

It was during the time when this message was being announced in Israel, when during the Passover, the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua was arrested, tried, and then killed by crucifixion by the Roman military stationed at Jerusalem.  When this happened, the disciples were devastated.  They thought the mission of announcing the Redemption and Restoration of the United Kingdom of Israel was over, but then three days later, HASHEM raised the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua back to life, and they discovered that his death and resurrection actually opened the way so that the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel could happen. For example, in Acts 1, we read,

…all that Yeshua began to do and teach – up to the day He was taken up, after He had given orders by the Ruach HaKodesh [Holy Spirit] to the emissaries He had chosen.  To them He showed Himself to be alive after His suffering through many CONVINCING PROOFS, appearing to them 40 days and speaking about THE KINGDOM OF GOD….So when they gathered together, they asked Him, “Lord, are You RESTORING THE KINGDOM TO ISRAEL at this time?” (Acts 1:1b-3, 6, TLV; emphasis added)

God did not expect the Rebbe Yeshua’s disciples to accept that He had raised the Rebbe Yeshua back to life by “faith” (as many Americans define this word today), but the Rebbe Yeshua gave them many “convincing proofs” that he was actually alive again and not a ghost.  But also notice after speaking to them about “the kingdom of God for 40 days,” what was the question his disciples had for him, “Lord, will you RESTORE THE KINGDOM TO ISRAEL at this time?”  Every Christian minister I have ever heard discuss this passage has always criticized the disciples as not understanding the Rebbe Yeshua yet, but I am convinced the disciples understood him fine.  It was not the concept they were wondering about, but it was the timing!  The understood the phrase “the kingdom of God” just as Rabbi Schechter explained as referring to “the national aspect of the Kingdom of God,” i.e., the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and Restoration of Israel.

It was after this that HASHEM took him into the heavens, and the Rebbe Yeshua’s disciples ADDED his life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection as a different part to their message.  This ADDED part was NOT “the good news” (trans. “gospel”), but it was to explain “the how” and “why” HASHEM, the holy God, was able to begin THE PROCESS of “the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel.”

The word “Christian”

It needs to be said that during the life and ministry of the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua, the word “Christian” did not exist.  In fact, the word “Christian” did not exist for the first twenty (20) years of his movement.  In fact, the word “Christian” did not come into existence UNTIL Acts 11,

…and the disciples were FIRST called Christians in Antioch. (Acts 11:26, NKJV)

Antioch was a city in ancient Syria, or modern-day Turkey; consequently, this word did not begin in the country of Israel at all – but in the foreign country of Syria/Turkey.  And this verse does not say that the disciples began to call themselves “Christians,” but the unbelievers living in and around Antioch, Syria (Turkey), are the ones who started to call them “Christians” as a mocking taunt to insult and humiliate these new Syrian/Turkish believers for forsaking the beliefs, values, and traditions of their own people to believe in this “new Jewish Messiah” and to identify themselves with another people and nation, Israel.  This word also appears in Acts 26:28 and in I Peter 4:16. In I Peter 4, Shi’mon Kefa (Peter) wrote,

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.  Yet if any of you suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this behalf.  For the time that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?  (I Peter 4: 15-17, NASB)

If the word “Christian” meant what it means today, “A person who follows or adheres to Christianity,” then why would they have felt “ashamed”?  Obviously, it did not begin merely being a term to identify one according to a particular religious system as it does today.  This word actually only appears three times in the “New Testament,” and it has the same meaning in all three occurrences (Acts 11:26; 26:28; I Peter 4:16).  Therefore, for people to call the “New Testament” a “Christian” text is historically, religiously, and even biblically wrong.  The hands that wrote it were Jewish, and it, like the whole Bible, should be identified as the “Jewish Bible.”

A Pharisee’s Prophecy

However, after the second-generation Beyt Hillel Pharisee, Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul), completed his third missionary journal to spread the “good news of the kingdom” (aka, “the gospel”), he stopped by Miletus on his way to Jerusalem to observe the feast of Shavuot (“Weeks”/Pentecost).  He sent a messenger to the city of Ephesus to gather the congregational leaders in and around there.  When they arrived in Miletus, Rav Sha’ul (Paul), not only gave them his final farewell, but he also repeated again a prophetic warning:

For I know this, that after my departure [death] shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space ot three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. (Acts 20: 29-31, KJV)

Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) does not say, “I think,…” “I feel,…” or “I believe,…,” but “I know,” which indicates certainty that something was going to happen.  And what he is certain about is that there was coming changes to the congregations that he had worked so hard to establish, and these changes broke his heart.  He saw these changes coming from two directions: outside and inside.  Those coming in from the outside who compared to “grievous wolves,” and this could come in two possible forms:

  1.  These “wolves” would come in and kill “the flock,” or the people there in the congregation, which certainly happened.
  2.  These “wolves” who were coming in did not keep or observe the commandments of God, which He gave to Israel via Mosheh (Moses) beginning at Mt Sinai and continuing on until the end of the Exodus.  This also happened, since in the writings of the Prophets, “wolves” are associated with people who are disobedient to the commandments that God given to Israel via Mosheh (Moses).

The other change is coming from the inside of the congregations through its leadership.  Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) said that “of (or from) your own selves,” i.e., from the leadership “shall men arise,” who will speak “perverse things” “to draw away disciples after them.” What does he mean by “perverse things”? The word “perverse” is the English translation of the Greek word diestrammena (G1294), which means,

to distort, i.e. (figurative) misinterpret, or (moral) corrupt: – perverse (-rt), turn away. (“New Testament Dictionary” 1239).

Men would arise from among the leaders who would distort and twist the Scriptures by misinterpreting them, and we see this beginning to happen two years after Rav Sha’ul Paulus’ (Paul’s) martyrdom in Rome, when according to tradition, he was beheaded under the ruler Nero Caesar in 68 C.E., and it has continued to happen until this day.

The Destruction of Jerusalem & Holy Temple

Two years after the death of Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul), a great national tragedy happened which changed the character and face of Second Temple Judaism: the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple in 70 C.E.  It changed all of the various expressions of Judaism, and only two sects have managed to survive: the Pharisees and the N’tzarim (“Nazarenes”; see Acts 24:5), who called themselves “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22).  I am convinced “the Way” was short for “the Way of the LORD,” which is a phrase scattered throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (Gen. 18:19; Jdg. 2:22; 2 Sam. 22:22; 2 Kings 21:22; Prov. 10:29; Isa. 40:3; Jer. 5:4-5; Ezek. 18:25, 29; 33:17, 20), and I am convinced they used it to indicate how central the Hebrew Scriptures were to their identity and to their lifestyle as a movement.

According to Chaim Potok’s book, Wanderings: Chaim Potok’s History of the Jews (New York: Fawcet Crest, 1978), it took the Romans six months to accomplish this destruction, from March 70 C.E. to September 70 C.E.  And after the city was captured, Potok records,

[General] Titus ordered all the surviving population taken captive.  The city was leveled house by house.  Titus returned to Rome and was given a triumph – a victory procession accorded a Roman commander who had slain more than five thousand enemy soldiers and brought back booty and captives who would become slaves or augment the reservoir of victims for the games.  Judaea capta read the exultant inscriptions on the coins minted by Rome to celebrate the victory.

The last stronghold, Masada, the towering plateau on the edge of the Dead Sea, fell in 73 C.E.  Its defenders – almost a thousand men, women, and children – chose to commit suicide rather than to fall into Roman hands.  Two women and five children survived.  The rebellion was crushed.  Jerusalem lay silent beneath the long deadly night, her ruins guarded by the Tenth Legion.  The Jewish state came to an end.  The Sanhedrin was abolished.  The high priesthood ceased to exist.  The Sadducean party disappeared. (294)

The Changes Begin

It was shortly after hearing about this destruction that some of the Gentile believers, who were being called “Christians,” as a mocking taunt and humiliation, wrongly believed that God had turned His back on Israel and the Jewish people, and they began to wrongly believe that they were now the “New Israel,” the “New People of God.” They believed that they would now receive all of God’s blessings, and the Jewish people who were left would receive nothing but His curses.  This belief has become known as “Supersessionism” or “Replacement Theology,” but these believers continued to hold out that the restoration could still happen with the return of the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua before the last disciple, Yochanan (John) died.  Yochanan (John) even discusses this myth at the end of his Gospel.  He records an interaction between the Rebbe Yeshua and Shi’mon Kefa (Peter).  After the Rebbe Yeshua indicates the type of death that Shi’mon Kefa (Peter) would die, Shi’mon Kefa (Peter) looks back and seeing Yochanan (John) says, “Lord, what about this man?”  The Rebbe Yeshua then says,

“If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?  You follow Me.” Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Yeshua did not say to him that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” [Yochanan (John) 21: 21-23]

The Change from “Political” to “Spiritual”

However, when Yochanan did die in Ephesus in 100 C.E., the “Christians” believed that they must have misunderstood “the kingdom of God,” and so they changed the nature of the Kingdom from being about a political Kingdom to a “spiritual Kingdom,” and then they began to spiritualize everything within the Scriptures.  From that day until now, Christians have believed the “the kingdom of God” to be a “spiritual kingdom.”

Replacement Theology Adds New Forms

To reaffirm their new belief that “the church” had replaced Israel and “the Christians” had replaced the Jewish people, they also taught that the “New Testament” (representing the church and Christians) had “replaced,” “annulled,” “did away with,” “brought an end to,” “superseded,” and even “fulfilled” the “Old Testament” (representing Israel and the Jewish people), so that it was no longer needed for Christians to observe any of the commandments or traditions of Israel and the Jews.  The Christians believed by showing what good Roman citizens they were, they would not be persecuted by Rome with the Jewish people anymore.  Therefore, the Christians sought to separate themselves from Israel and the Jewish people, as much as possible.  This is why they also sought to replace the biblical “feast days” with other holy days, such as with “Easter” (2nd century, C.E.) and “Christmas” (4th century, C.E.).

Also, since Yochanan had died, there was, therefore, no longer a need any more to announce and teach “the gospel of Yeshua,” i.e., the redemption and restoration of Israel, so they replaced it with the added part of the message, “the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua” for the forgiveness of sins – a gospel ABOUT Yeshua, and Christians have been preaching and teaching this message ever since.

The Birth of Christianity

And it was in this pool of misinterpretations and distortions that Christianity as a distinct, separate religion was born shortly after Yochanan (John) had died in 100 C.E.  This is reaffirmed by the writings of Ignatius, the first bishop of Antioch, in his letter, “To the Milesians” (98-117 C.E.), when he wrote,

For if we CONTINUE to live in accordance with Judaism, we admit that we have not received grace. (Ignatius, “To the Milesians” 8: 2; trans. Lightfoot, Harmer & Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers, 2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Baker House, 1989)

And then later on in that same letter, he writes,

Therefore, having become his disciples, let us LEARN TO LIVE IN ACCORDANCE WITH CHRISTIANITY…It is utterly absurd to profess Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism.  For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity, in which “every tongue” believed and “was brought together” to God. (Ignatius, “To the Milesians” 10: 1b, 3; trans. Lightfoot, Harmer & Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers, 2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Baker House, 1989)

Because Christianity as a distinct, separate religion did not exist until after Yochanan (John) had died in Ephesus, I am convinced this was written sometime between 104-117 C.E., giving a few years for the Gentile (non-Jewish) believers time to formulate themselves into their own syncretic religion, where they could mix their new beliefs with those of their own culture, as Christianity continues to do to this day.

But as we can see in his apostolic letter, Ignatius is writing his letter to the other Gentile (non-Jewish) believers there in the Milesian congregation, and he is trying to convince them to quit “living in accordance to Judaism” and to begin “living in accordance” with the new religion of “Christianity.”  He then ends his appeal by arguing that since Christianity came later in time than Judaism, “Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity,” even though the majority of those in Judaism did not believe in Christianity; in fact, the Rebbe Yeshua and all of his disciples, including Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) continued to live their lives as zealous Torah-observant Second-Temple Jews.  In fact, if the words “Orthodox” or “Ultra-Orthodox” had existed then, the Rebbe Yeshua, his family, and his disciples would have all been called “Orthodox” or “Ultra-Orthodox Jews,” as indicated in the book of Acts.  They never once confessed that they had ever stopped being and living as Second-Temple Jews to become “Christians.” Thus, his argument about Judaism believing in Christianity is, in fact, invalid, or “false.”

I am not writing this to attack Christianity, but I am only sharing with you what I discovered through my in-depth research of what happened in the first 150 years of the history of the Rebbe Yeshua’s movement, and how the Rebbe Yeshua’s message given to him by HASHEM, the Holy God of Israel, was replaced by a message about Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins, even if it is not “the good news” (aka, “the gospel”) message that HASHEM had given to the Rebbe Yeshua, nor was it the message that the Rebbe Yeshua taught to his disciples that they were to teach, nor was it the message that the Rebbe Yeshua prophesied would be taught in the last days.

And this GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. [Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:14]

I am always hearing Christians saying that they believe these are “the last days” and that we are nearing “the end,” so why is it that they are also not preaching the “Gospel (Good News) of the Kingdom,” the redemption and restoration of Israel, as the Rebbe Yeshua prophesied?

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