283 Lets unmask the influene of Greek

Let us unmask the influence of the Greek-mindset on Churchianity and their followers.

How did Churchianity go wrong in its interpretation of the Scriptures resulting in the severing of the true faith from its Hebraic roots? What is the difference between Greek thought and Hebraic thought? How has it affected our thinking and our interpretation of the Scriptures? Hopefully this will assist in answering this dilemma from the Scriptures and sources of historical importance. To commence with we read Rav Shaul’s instruction to Timothy in this respect from 2 Timothy 3: 14 & 15, saying: “You however, continues in the things you have learned and became convinced of, knowing from who you have learned them; (15) and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which in in Messiah Yahshua.”

Rav Shaul also admonished Timothy to entrust the words he had learned to men who were competent to teach Torah in 2 Timothy 2: 2, saying: ‘And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.’This admonition is purely a rabbinical practice to pass the teachings you have learned from your teacher, to your personal students who will be able to use it with wisdom. To this end the school of Hillel taught, ‘One ought to teach every man, for there were many sinners in Israel who were drawn to the study of Torah, and from them descended righteous, pious and worthy folk.’Rav Shaul fully aware that Yahshua already came still gave Timothy the instruction to teach future generations. This means Timothy, like Rav Shaul’s students would teach them from the Hebraic mind-set about the Torah and the fathers in the faith. However, over the past 2000 years Churchianity left the original Israelite Olive Tree and cut itself off from the Semitic culture that was prevalent in the congregation of Yahshua from the beginning. Believers in Yahshua as the Messiah became more and more Hellenized and were led away by strange teachings, via Greek thought, as witnessed by Rav Shaul’s teaching in the first part of Hebrews 13: 9, saying:‘Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings.’’When Israel were scattered into the world because of idolatry, they started following a new religion birthed out of the Greek thought and culture. It became a separate religion about a false messiah who came to do away with Torah. Rav Shaul warned about this very thing in amongst other:

Galatians 1: 8, saying:‘But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed’and
2 Timothy 4: 1, saying:‘I solemnly charge you in the presence of Elohim and of Messiah Yahshua, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom.’

There are three main areas that need immediate correction in order for the Body to return to the true faith once delivered to the set-apart ones.

Firstly, we must view ourselves in terms of total unity or ECHAD. Greek thinking is dualistic in nature and comes from Greek philosophers like Plato; he believed in a duality of worlds, namely, the material and immaterial, spiritual world. Plato believed that the human soul had its origins in the heavens and therefore longed to return to that celestial realm called “heaven”. The human soul needed to be released from the body to be truly free. The two – body and soul could never be reconciled in a total unit once again; the soul is viewed as set-apart while the body or material was corrupted and incapable of being reconciled to the purity of the soul. The body was viewed as a prison for the soul, salvation could not be experienced until death, at which time the soul escaped the body and flies away to heaven to live a life of bliss free from this evil and corrupt world. However, the Greek influence not only influenced early believers in Messiah in Ephraim, but also filtered into the congregationthrough the Greek/Hellenistic Jews that came to believe in Yahshua as the Messiah, as witnessed in Acts 6: 1, as follows: ‘Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.’ Hellenists were Jews who spoke and lived culturally as Greeks, whose opposition to Torah actually helped some ‘church fathers’ believe in this dualistic thought of the Greeks. We read accordingly from The Jewish Encyclopedia Vol. 1 page 631, “The Gnostic Marcion (who taught in Rome around 150 CE) whose dualism unlike that of the other Gnostics, is not the cause, but the result, of his pronounced antinomianism from the strong Pauline antithesis: Law and Gospel, wrath and grace, works and faith, flesh and spirit, sin and righteousness, death and life; and these opposites seem irreconcilable, he arrives at the dualistic doctrine of the just and angry (Elohim) of the OT, and the (Elohim) of the Gospels who is only love and mercy. The influence exerted by antinomianism on the conduct and life proves to be of a two-fold nature; while Marcion and Tatian were led by it to extreme Asceticism, with the Gnostic it resulted in libertine practices. Especially notorious in this regard were the Nicolaitans” (Note: the Nicolaitans is mentioned in Revelation 2: 15, in this way: “Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” Marcion was heavily influenced by the dualistic thinking of Plato and Gnosticism. He believed the world was created by an evil Demiurge (a term the Gnostic borrowed from Platonism) who was a ‘god’ of battle and demanded bloody sacrifices of animals to satisfy his anger. Marcion believed this ‘god’ was revealed in the pages of the Tanach as an inferior book and an antithesis of the “New Testament”. He insisted the “New” revealed the true ‘god’ in the “Christ” and was a god of love and mercy. Marcion exalted the writings of ‘Paul’ and held that ‘Christians’ were free from the law. He believed that the ‘church’ was wrong in trying to combine ‘Christianity’ and Judaism. He became the archenemy of the ‘Jews Elohim –YHVH!’ His doctrines are alive and well today in the Neo-Marcionism of the ‘church’. We therefore see how this dualism brought about the concept we know today as the ‘Old Testament’ and he “New Testament’ as two different covenants or books that are difficult to reconcile.

However, very few people realize that the ‘Renewed Covenant’ was in the Torah all along and because of this oversight, they do not understand the writings of Rav Shaul. Few people are aware that there are in fact two Mosaic Covenants given in Torah. We all know that the first covenant officiated by Moses was made at Mount Sinai. But where was the second or Renewed Covenant made? The second covenant officiated by Moses was made with the children of the nation of Israel who died during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, as punishment for their unbelief (or a lack of faith) to enter the Promised Land, forty years later. The second covenant was made at Mount Nebo in the land of Moab and is recorded in Deuteronomy, before the death of Moses, as witnessed in Deuteronomy 1: 1 – 3, as follows:‘These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab.(2) It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. (3) And it came about in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that YHVH had commanded him to give to them.’We read further from Deuteronomy 29: 1 ‘These are the words of the covenant which YHVH commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb.’ It is important to notice that the covenant made at Moab was made besides the one made at Horeb. Jeremiah spoke about the first covenant in Jeremiah 11 where he relates Elohim’s instruction to him in verses 2 - 4, saying: “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judahand to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; (3) and say to them, ‘Thus says YHVH, the Elohim of Israel, “Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant (4) which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your Elohim,’”’ Jeremiah was speaking about the curse mentioned in Deuteronomy 27: 26, that was upon those who fail to obey the covenant given at Mount Sinai. Later Jeremiah prophesied that this curse would come upon the house of Judah in the form of seventy years of captivity, saying in Jeremiah 25: 8, 9, 11 & 12: “Therefore thus says YHVH of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, (9) behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares YHVH, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them a horror, and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. (11) And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (12) Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares YHVH, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.’” Continuing in Jeremiah 26: 6 & 7, Jeremiah said: “Then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse to all the nations of the earth. (7) And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of YHVH.” Even so Jeremiah also prophesied to the house of Judah that they will return to their land after 70 years, saying in Jeremiah 29: 10, ‘For thus says YHVH, “When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.”’

When comparing the covenant made in Moab with the new covenant spoken about in Jeremiah 31, we are aware that the covenant YHVH made with the children of Israel at Moab was besides the one He made with them at Horeb. The one in Jeremiah 31: 32 reads: ‘not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.’ Continuing with the covenant made at Moab, we read from Deuteronomy 30: 2, 6, ‘And you return to YHVH your Elohim and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons. (6) Moreover YHVH your Elohim will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.’ This agrees with the 1st part of Jeremiah 31: 33 and the 2ndpart of Jeremiah 32: 40, in this way: ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares YHVH, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it.” (32: 40) ‘And I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.’ The wording in Deuteronomy 29: 13, ‘In order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your Elohim, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’ agrees with the last part of Jeremiah 31: 33, as follows: ‘And I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.’ Back in Deuteronomy 30: 3 & 4, we read: “Then YHVH your Elohim will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where YHVH your Elohim has scattered you. (4) If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there YHVH your Elohim will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.” This agrees with Jeremiah 32: 37, as follows: “Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety.”

We see from these comparisons that the covenant made at Moab is the same as the New (or Renewed) Covenant spoken about in Jeremiah 31. This tells us that the covenant made at Mount Sinai was superseded by the one made at Moab. We also seethat the New Covenant spoken about in Jeremiah 31, will be different from the one made with ancient Israel at Mount Sinai. But, will it be different from the one made at Moab. One of the sages of Israel (Ramban: Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman) sees the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant made at Moab as taking place in the days of the Messiah. That is when mankind will return to the way they were before Adam’s fall. We read accordingly from Romans 5: 14 – 19, as follows: ‘Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (15) But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of Elohim and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Yahshua Messiah, abound to the many. (16) And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. (17) For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Yahshua Messiah. (18)So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. (19) For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.’ Ramban identifies the covenant made at Moab with the Renewed Covenant. It is important to note that even though we are commanded in Deuteronomy to obey amongst other the Ten Commandments (Chapter 5), the kosher food laws (Chapter 14), the Feast Days of Elohim (Chapter 16), to listen to the Levites in office (Chapter 17) and a prophet from among our countrymen like Moses, namely Yahshua Messiah (Chapter 18), there is no mention made of the sacrificial laws. Here in the second covenantwe see why our Jewish Brothers keep the Passover in the evening of the 15th of Aviv[1] (even though the original Passover was kept during the evening of the 14th of Aviv) and rightly so, since, by so doing they sacrificed their lambs, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of the 14th of Aviv, the exact time when Messiah died on the cross, as the Lamb of Elohim, who takes away the sins of the world.

Nevertheless, we as Nazarene Israelites keep the Passover as a memorial of Messiah’s death, according to first Corinthians 11: 23 – 25, where Rav Shaul wrote: ‘For I received from the Master that which I also delivered to you, that the Master Yahshua in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; (24) and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (25) In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”’ Now armed with this understanding let’s compare what we have discussed so far with Rav Shaul’s discussion about the New Covenant in the books of Romans and Hebrews. Commencing in Romans 2: 27 – 29 Rav Shaul differentiates those ‘with the circumcision of the heart by the spirit’ with those who were circumcised ‘in the flesh’ (by the letter only). We’ve seen that ‘the circumcision of the heart’ is a part of the covenant made at Moab, as witnessed in Deuteronomy 30: 6, as follows: “Moreover YHVH your Elohim will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.’. Rav Shaul is contrasting this with the covenant made at Mount Sinai, which is ‘in the flesh’ and ‘by the letter’ (only). In Romans 10: 4 - 8 he contrasts the ‘righteousness which is based on Torah’ (verse 5) which he typifies by quoting from Leviticus 18: 5 with the ‘righteousness that is by faith’ (verses 6 – 8), which he again typifies by quoting from the covenant at Moab in Deuteronomy 30: 11 – 14, as follows: “For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. (12) It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ (13) Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ (14) But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.”

We read accordingly from Romans 10: 6 – 8, ‘But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Messiah down), (7) or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Messiah up from the dead).” (8) But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” –that is, the word of faith which we are preaching.’ Rav Shaul continues by saying that this same covenant is ‘the word of faith which we are preaching.’ So we see that Rav Shaul identifies the covenant made at Moab, with the New Covenant of Messiah, by which we are saved, saying in verses 9 – 13, ‘That if you confess with your mouth Yahshua as Master, and believe in your heart that Elohim raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; (10) for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (11) For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” (12) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Master is Master of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; (13) for “WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF YHVH WILL BE SAVED.”’ With Abraham the blood covenant was established for all generations. At Mount Sinai it was expanded to make sure all Israel walked in the blood covenant even when seeing Elohim’s visible manifestation and was renewed again before entering the Promised Land when it was passed on to the children of those who died in the wilderness. Yahshua is busy writing this same renewed covenant into the heart of those lost sheep of the house of Israel being called out of the churches of the world, but will only complete doing so when He returns one day in the near future to marry His bride consisting of both houses of Israel once again.

According to Deuteronomy 30: 10 – 15 the covenant renewal is now up to us, meaning that Torah is not in heaven where we cannot obtain it, nor is it beyond the sea where we need to find it to observe it. No, it is established and available to each one of us in the book of Deuteronomy meaning ‘words’. All we from the house of Israel have to do is to access it and return to Elohim in repentance, as Hosea wrote in Hosea 14: 1 & 2, saying: ‘Return, O Israel, to YHVH your Elohim, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. (2) Take words (the Renewed Covenant given in Deuteronomy transliterated in Hebrew as ‘Devarim’ meaning ‘words’) with you and return to YHVH. Say to Him, ‘Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.’ Deuteronomy 30: 12 & 13 is in essence saying that there can be no new revelation outside of Torah and the exposition of Torah by Yahshua (in Matthew 5, 6 & 7) as He and Moses taught it on earth! Deuteronomy 30: 14 teaches that the words of the covenant are in our minds and hearts because it is established and we as believers should not search for new revelations outside the boundaries of Torah. That is real repentance – repenting from things we swallowed as truth, taught by the church, including perceptions of others based on unreliable literature and emotions that are not established with Torah that is being renewed by the living Torah, Yahshua. Torah was not meant to stay or be searched for in the heavens, or to be followed by those removed from a normal earthly existence. It was given to human beings who live right here on earth. The Torah does not demand that believers act in an unnatural manner, to live as abstainers in isolation in order to sanctify themselves whilst living within this world. The Torah is designed to make our lives pleasant and to bring health and happiness into our lives. Indeed the Torah is a Torah of life for those who live on the face of the earth and those who find it here need not go to heaven to obtain it. Because Torah was not meant to stay in heaven in order to be consistent, YHVH had to send His word to earth, because Torah revelation and the covenant renewal are for us who live on earth. Therefore the man who wants covenant renewal will live and do Torah as Yahshua did. Since Torah abides with us on earth, there is no need to pull Yahshua down from heaven again, or up from Sheol again, since the Torah and the Spirit to perform Torah remains in us, the Temple of Elohim on earth (as Rav Shaul explained in Romans 10: 5 – 10). As we walk in this manner we will discover that the written and living Torah never contradicted each other and thus their revelations are written anew within our hearts and minds daily, to be completed when Messiah returns.

The book of Hebrews has a number of references to the two covenants. In Hebrews 8: 1 & 2 the Author (whom many Bible scholars believe to be Rav Shaul) begins by saying: ‘Now the main point in what has been said (in Hebrews 7 regarding the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek, where the administration of how Israel used to deal with sin, has been changed in that when Messiah became the sacrifice for sin, once for all, and the Sacrificial Law that came 430 years after Abraham {as per Galatians 3: 17 – 19} has been revoked) is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, (2) a minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Master pitched, not man.” Continuing in verses 6 & 7 we read: “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. (7) For if that first covenant (the one made at Mount Sinai) had been faultless, there would not have been no occasion sought for a second (the one made at Moab).” In verse 8 Rav Shaul tells us that the fault with the first covenant was with the people who did not enter the Promised Land because of unbelief {also discussed in Hebrews 3: 19}). Next he quotes from Jeremiah 31: 31 – 34 in verse 8 to the first part of verse 11 of Hebrews 8 and compares ‘the first covenant’ with ‘the second’ in Hebrews 8: 6, 7, 13; 9: 1, 15; 10: 9, pointing out that the first covenant differed from the second. Whilst the first covenant had been ratified by the blood of bulls, the second was ultimately ratified by the blood of Yahshua our Messiah. The Torah was not ‘changed’ by the second covenant made at Moab, but it was renewed with better promises. It is clear therefore the ‘second’ covenant spoken about in Hebrews is in fact thecovenant made at Moab. It was not made with the Israelites, who failed to enter the Promised Land because of disbelief, but with their children and even though it still contained curses, it also contained blessings. The truth that the ‘second’ covenant of Hebrews is the covenant made at Moab is further reinforced by the fact that Rav Shaul draws a direct relationship in Hebrews 3: 7 – 4: 10 between the ‘rest’ we hope to enter into and the entry of the children of those who died in the wilderness, who failed to enter the Promised Land at the end of forty years after making the second covenant at Moab.

Returning to the areas we as returnees from the lost sheep of the house of Israel have to correct to return to the true faith once delivered to the saints, we need to be aware that Hebraic thought has the understanding that the ‘soul’ is the ‘being’ or person. People are viewed as a unity, as Rav Shaul confirmed in 1 Thessalonians 5: 23, saying: ‘Now may the Elohim of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Master Yahshua Messiah.’ (YHVH)’s plan is to have the whole person as one unity preserved until Messiah comes to rule the world, one day soon. In the resurrection we will be made whole with complete redemption for the entire man. Only after the spirit which combined with the Set-apart Spirit of Elohim comes back into the resurrected body will the soul (or life) be rekindled as witnessed in Romans 8: 11, as follows: ‘But if the Spirit of Him who raised Yahshua from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Messiah Yahshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.’ Yahshua always spoke of healing of the body as making a person whole (examples being Matthew 9: 21 – 22; Matthew 14: 36; 15: 28 and 31).The Greek word‘SOZO’used in these examples means‘to save, deliver, make whole, or preserve’. Divine healing is a flash forward to a small foretaste of the resurrection. As part of the soul (Nephesh), the body die and sleep until the spirit makes it alive again in total redemption of the person as is confirmed in Ezekiel 18: 4, in this way: “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.”The soul and body does not possess immortality until the resurrection as Rav Shaul explained in 1 Corinthians 15: 53 & 54, saying: “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. (54) But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY.” A person is not a soul that inhabits a body; the soul stands for the person himself. In Hebrew a ‘living being’ is transliterated as ‘Nephesh Chayah’. Man’s soul is the vitality of his life, never a separate part. The Hebrew word transliterated as ’Neshamah’ means the spirit in man and refers to man’s ability to think, make decisions and talk, as Job witnessed in Job 32: 8, saying: “But it is spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.”

Also note that the Hebrew idiom ‘to know or Yadah YHVH’ is not about having intellectual knowledge about Him. Rather it means to experience the real presence of YHVH through His acts of compassion, love and mercy (transliterated as ‘Chesed”) in this life upon the earth. It is a knowing by experience, just as a husband and wife should know one another by intimate contact and becoming truly one. To the Hebrew mind true spirituality is not turn inward, but it meant to be empowered by (YHVH)’s Set-apart Spirit to serve Him and our neighbor through the Torah by loving YHVH and our neighbor as ourselves. Every aspect of life should be set-apart to YHVH; work and worship should both be an expression of our life before YHVH. We should live in this world and yet use all of creation in the instructive manner in which YHVH has given His Torah, as Rav Shaul wrote in Colossians 3: 23, saying: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for YHVH rather than for men.”The truth is reflected in the Hebrew blessing found in the Siddur (a Hebrew prayer book), where we Bless YHVH not things as Churchianity teach their followers to do. If we only use things ordained by YHVH in His word, it is already blessed. YHVH alone is worthy to be blessed and we should start all prayer thanking Elohim by the words: ‘Bless YHVH Elohim, the King of the universe who has created …..’ Whatever, YHVH declared clean is already clean and conversely, whatever He declared unfit for human consumption cannot be cleansed by anyone. We as Israel should learn from Judah to experience the very presence of Elohim and the quickening power of His Set-apart Spirit right here on earth in our daily activities, as we live out His Torah through good deeds. This brings us to belief or faith. To the average believer ‘faith’ is a mental activity with no action attach to it, but the Hebraic concept of faith involves action, as Rav Yaa’cov,Messiah’s half-brother attest in James 2: 20 – 26, saying: ‘But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? (21) Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? (22) You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; (23) and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED ELOHIM, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of Elohim. (24) You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone. (25) And in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? (26)For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.’In the Hebraic mindset faith means to have confidence or trust in YHVH and His word. A person who belief and was committed to YHVH could venture into the unknown in full assurance that He will deliver what He promised and is always there! It requires action by stepping into tomorrow knowing that YHVH will be there. A person without faith in YHVH will cling to past fears, thinking YHVH cannot save. This happened to the ancient Israelites who died in the wilderness because of unbelief, as witnessed in Hebrews 11: 6, as follows: ‘And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to Elohim must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.’True belief is a leap of action rather than a leap of thought. Faith confronts the things that are wrong in this world and transforms our lives to prepare us for the age to come.

Finally the whole idea of Churchianitythat they are required to saveeach and every personindividually issimply not scriptural. The Hebrew word transliterated as ‘Adam’ certainly means the first man, but it also means mankind as a whole. The Torah was given to all twelve tribes of Israel. We are all of the same family (transliterated as ‘Mispochah’).It does not only mean our immediate family, but the entire nation of Israelites. It is for this reason that Rav Shaul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6: 17 & 18, saying: “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says Adonai’ “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; and I will welcome you. (18) “And I will be father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says Adonai Almighty.’The Hebrew words people and congregation (transliterated as ‘Am’ and‘Kehillah’), emphasize accountability and togetherness as a community of believers. The commonwealth of Israel is identified as the body or bride of Messiah in Ephesians 2: 17 – 19, in this way: ‘AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; (18) for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. (19) So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Elohim’s household.’ A second witness comes from Jeremiah 31: 31 – 33, as follows: ‘“Behold, days are coming’, declares YHVH, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, (32) not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares YHVH. (33) ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares YHVH, I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.’” Each one of us who received a portion of the Set-apart Spirit are part of the body of Messiah as Rav Shaul wrote in Ephesians 1: 13 & 14, saying:‘In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Set-apart Spirit of promise, (14) who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of Elohim’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.’ We should therefore seek out each other’s best interests, considering others better than ourselves. As a community we should be living, loving, learning, worshipping and praying together. Israel is only as strong as the sum of the members of its body and the great restoration of all Israel through Messiah will be national restoration that will come through individuals laboring in a community to bring about the return of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

We therefore need to forsake the Greek Platonic dualism of the church, which resulted in the misapplication and misinterpretation of Elohim’s word, but more specifically the letters that Rav Shaul wrote to the Israelites scattered into the world, as Rav Kepha warned in 2 Peter 3: 13 -16, saying:‘But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (14) Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, (15) and regard the patience of our Master to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Shaul according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, (16) as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.’ It is only by renewing of the mind to Torah based thinking that we are able to return to Elohim as Rav Shaul told the congregation in Rome in Romans 12: 1 & 2, saying: ‘I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Elohim, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to Elohim, which is your spiritual service of worship. (2) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of Elohim is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.’ Let all of us who have been deceived by the Greek - mindset of Churchianity come before our heavenly Father as Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 16: 19, saying: ‘O YHVH, my strength and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress, to Thee the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, futility and things of no profit.”Think about it!

[1]According to Deuteronomy 16: 1, we are commanded to: ‘Observe the month of Abib (Aviv) and celebrate the Passover to YHVH your Elohim, for in the month of Abib YHVH your Elohim brought you out of Egypt by night.’ Yes, the ancient Israelites left Egypt on the 15th of Abib, the evening after the original Passover on the 14th of Abib.