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OK. Now for your last question. Is Yahshua YHWH? As I stated before, according to Devarim 4:35, "YHWH hu haElohim; ein od milbado." Meaning "YHWH, He is THE Elohim; nothing exists apart from Him." This is at least two statements. YHWH is THE Elohim. There is none equal to Him, there is none like Him.
The second statement is "ein od milbado." Get out your Strong's. Ein = to be nothing, to not exist. Od = continuance, repeatedly. Milbado = alone, divided, solitary.
So the statement is "Nothing continues to exist when divided from YHWH." So all things only exist by YHWH's will. This is creation. So what about Yahshua? Does He or has He ever existed apart from YHWH's will? Of course not. So is Yahshua the Creator or a part of creation? If Yahshua were apart from YHWH would He exist?
And remember the hallmark of the faith, "Shema Yisrael, YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH echad." YHWH echad. Echad means "first." YHWH is first. He was, is and will always be first. Nothing came before Him and nothing came at the same time as Him, everything came later. So did Yahshua come, or become, at the same time as YHWH?
OK, that was my exercise in Greek reasoning for those who prefer logic. I know that's how some of the rabbis do it, but it is still philosophical reasoning. That doesn't mean it is wrong, just that it is Greek, and, therefore, not the best approach to the Hebrew Scriptures.
Now let's look at it from a Hebraic perspective, because that is the best approach. To do this we will need more than one sentence and so we will go to Devarim (Deuteronomy) 13. I prefer Torah for foundational issues. I'm not interested in the Zohar, or the Talmud, or the teaching of the "church" fathers when the Torah itself is the ultimate witness. Yes Yisrael, even the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) must be grounded in the Tanakh (Old Testament) (Isa.8:20), and I am willing to go a step farther and say even the rest of Tanakh must be grounded in Torah, the five books of Moshe. I am also willing to say that all of the Tanakh IS grounded in Torah. Why build a house with an unsure foundation when we can build upon the rock of Torah?
I am not going to talk about the "nature" of YHWH or Yahshua, nor the validity of prophecies and of whom they speak. I am not going to discuss "only begotten sons" or New Testament errors or the absolute perfection of the New Testament. I don't care what a Greek translation from Hebrew says, nor am I going to argue over dubious interpretations of Aramaic Peshitta. You can find plenty of teachings and opinions on every angle of these things elsewhere. Rather, I am going to take the simple approach. I will begin with this question, "How would a Torah observant Yisraelite in the time of Moshe or David or Yahshua understand things?"
Deut 13:1-5
1 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 "and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other elohim'-- which you have not known--' and let us serve them,'
3 "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for YHWH your Elohim is testing you to know whether you love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 "You shall walk after YHWH your Elohim and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
5 "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which YHWH your Elohim commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
"Let us go after other elohim which you (Yisrael) have not known." The Hebrew word translated as "know" is yada, and it means "to know intimately." It is the word used here:
Gen 4:1
1 Now Adam knew (yada) Chava his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from YHWH."
And mind you, this person encouraging Yisrael to go after elohim which they had not known itimately is not just somebody talking. This person has prophesied a sign or wonder that has come to pass. This person is known among you as he/she "arises" among you. This is the Hebrew word "qum" which means "exalted." An exalted prophet is PROVING you should walk in this way. But the Torah presents us with a greater litmus test: has Yisrael known this elohim? This is the test. Will we follow the proofs of the prophet or will we love YHWH with all our heart and with all our soul? Will we follow the miracle or will we follow YHWH's word?
Now let's consider Yahshua in light of this. I will forego the arguments about his essence, and just ask, "How did he appear to those around him when he walked the earth?" Did he not appear as a man? When Miriam held him at His birth, did he not appear to be a human child? When he amazed the scholars at the Temple, did He not appear to be a twelve-year-old boy? When the Romans nailed him to the tree and the blood poured from his body, did he not appear to be a human victim? Did he not appear as a man?
And what of his mission? Was he there to be an elohim? What did He say?
John 4:34
34 Yahshua said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work.
John 5:30
30 "I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
He came as a messenger of YHWH's judgment. Notice that he says, "I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me." He is contrasting his own will with the will of the Father. Does this not indicate that Yahshua's will, if not in submission to YHWH, would be different than YHWH's will? Of course he was in submission to YHWH's will, but the very fact that he saw a contrast is striking! He himself contrasts his will, the temptations of a man, with that of the One who sent him.
So, He appears as a man seeking, teaching, and living the will of YHWH. Yisrael had known this before. They had seen Moshe, David, and Eliyahu, to name a few. Of course, some did a better job than others, and none up to this point had done the job perfectly, but Yahshua did. But Yisrael had seen those doing and seeking the will of YHWH before. Yisrael had seen miracle feedings and raisings from the dead. The prophets did both.
I Kings 17:17-24
17 Now it occurred after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him.
18 So she said to Elijah, "What have I to do with you, O man of Elohim? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?"
19 And he said to her, "Give me your son." So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.
20 Then he cried out to YHWH and said, "O YHWH my Elohim, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?"
21 And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to YHWH and said, "O YHWH my Elohim, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him."
22 Then YHWH heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives!"
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now by this I know that you are a man of Elohim, and that the word of YHWH in your mouth is the truth."
II Ki 4:42-44
42 Then a man came from Baal Shalisha, and brought the man of Elohim bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain in his knapsack. And he said, "Give it to the people, so that they may eat."
43 But his servant said, "What? Shall I set this before one hundred men?" He said again, "Give it to the people, that they may eat; for thus says YHWH: 'They shall eat and have some left over.'"
44 So he set it before them; and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of YHWH.
These were great signs and they both taught people to follow and serve YHWH and they were both performed by the word of YHWH through men. Eventually Eliyah and Elisha died. And their students continued their job. Yahshua, after doing greater versions of these same signs, died and was raised up by YHWH. And His students continued His job of teaching people to serve YHWH. But down the road a few years things changed and now folks were beginning to say Yahshua was Elohim, the equivalent, and in some teachings, the better of YHWH.
Now we have a problem, because THIS Yisrael has never known intimately. We had neighbors that worshipped man-elohim. Nimrod kicked it all off and is still worshipped by many names to this day, including the name Jesus. Many nations, including Egypt and Babylon and Assyria considered their human kings to be elohim, but never Yisrael. Our leaders, those calling us to Torah were never worshipped as elohim. Moshe was not seen as YHWH. David was not worshipped as YHWH. But now Yahshua was being presented as such.
Yisrael was expecting a Mashiakh, not a new elohim or even a new "manifestation" of its Eternal One. Yahshua never claimed to be an elohim, yet some said, "Behold these signs and miracles, and because of them enter into the worship of a god-man and cast the Torah of YHWH aside." This elohim we did not know. The unlearned twisted the words, the events and the facts in order to promote lawlessness and the institution of pagan practice among those who would follow after Yahshua.
The "anti-missionaries" steal sheep because we teach a man as elohim, an elohim that Yisrael has never known. Isn't it enough that Yahshua is Mashiakh, the firstborn of YHWH from the grave? Isn't it enough that He is the seed of the woman come to crush the serpent's head, to redeem Yisrael and that He will be ruler of Unified Yisrael and the entire earth? We see all this in the Torah and the Neviim, but not a god-man. This is an elohim that we have not known. No miracle and no sign can change this. IT IS A TEST!
Deut 13:4
You shall walk after YHWH your Elohim and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
THIS is what Yahshua taught.
Deut 13:5
5 "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which YHWH your Elohim commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
We are responsible to stand up for the truth and put away the one teaching these things!
Deut 13:6-18
6 "If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other elohim,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers,
7 "of the elohim of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth,
8 "you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him;
9 "but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
10 "And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
11 "So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.
12 "If you hear someone in one of your cities, which YHWH your Elohim gives you to dwell in, saying,
13 'Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other elohim" '--which you have not known--
14 "then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you,
15 "you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword-- utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.
16 "And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for YHWH your Elohim; and it shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
17 "So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that YHWH may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers,
18 "because you have listened to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of YHWH your Elohim.
Now some of us have burned many of the accursed things, yet continue to hold on to this last vestige of Catholicism. We have burned the pagan high days and the pagan sabbath and the pagan calendar and the pagan diet and the pagan words, yet we hold onto a concept of Yahshua which Yisrael has never known, His students never knew, even Yahshua Himself never knew. They saw Him as a man on a mission (Acts 1:6). He saw Himself as a man on a mission. It is time for Yisrael to get rid our pagan concepts of Yahshua HaMashiakh too.
Too long we have done what is right in our eyes, or in the eyes of Constantine or the Pope or the pastor or the denomination, or the bully with a website. Now is the time to do what is right in the eyes of YHWH. Have no elohim before His face. It is a test.
More about Yahshua
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