The Christian Journey Out Of Babylon

Page 7

Is There Any Struggle Between Torah and the Grace of YHWH?

For many centuries now Christendom has been throwing the classical baby with the water. Christians believe that Yeshua was the Messiah of Israel and that he was sacrificed as the Appointed and Anointed Lamb of YHWH. They believe that this Sacrifice took place in order to redeem mankind from the penalty of all human sins. The problem is that, due to accepting the tenets of Paul's syncretism, they have a fuzzy idea — if any at all — that such a Sacrifice must have taken place according to the Requirements of Torah. Ignoring the very clear words of Yeshua, stated in Mattithyahu 5:18, in reference to the constant validity of Torah until Heaven and earth pass away, Christians think that being Yeshua's the Ultimate Sacrifice the Validity and Mission of Torah is over. For them, after Yeshua, Torah does not mean anything anymore due to the fact that, unconsciously, the words of Paul have much more merit and weight for them than Yeshua's. The subtlety deceptive and intentionally confusing words of Paul are the dark lens through which they look at everything — not only at the words of Yeshua and even YHWH, but anything else. But looking at things through a dark lens always darkens and distorts everything. Again, the fruits of this are all too clear in history for avery one to see — and by the fruits we not only can know people, but doctrines too.

According to Paul the Grace of the Almighty totally excludes the need for Torah, because for him Torah was just a heavy load, which is impossible to be carried by a human being — i.e. something that was not only unnecessary to obediently abide by, but lethal if faithfully observed! Opposing even what Yeshua explicitly said that Acts of Faith are necessary for Salvation, Paul squarely contradicted him — and Christians accept such a crass error, and even love to delirium this ravenous wolf in sheep's clothing!

Matthew (Mattithyahu) 19:16-17
¹⁶ And someone came to Him and said, "Rabbi, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain Eternal Life?" ¹⁷ And he said to him, "Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into Life, keep the Commandments!

Matthew (Mattithyahu) 7:13-27
¹³ Enter through the Narrow Gate, because the Gate is wide and the Way is broad that leads to Destruction, and there are many who enter through it. ¹⁴ But, how narrow is the Gate, and the Way that leads to Life! And there are few who find it.
¹⁵ Watch out for the false prophets — those who come to you in the cloak of a sheep, but within are vicious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruits you will recognize them. Are thorns gathered from a bunch of grapes, or thistles from fig trees?
¹⁷ So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the Fire. ²⁰ So, then, you will know them by their fruits. ²¹ Not everyone who says to me, "Master, Master" will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the Will of My Father who is in Heaven will enter.
²² Many will say to Me on that day, "Master, Master did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in your Name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?" ²³ And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from, me, you who practice Torahlessness."
²⁴ Therefore everyone who hears my Words and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears my Words and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.

Observe how Yeshua connects receiving Torah with Eternal Life which takes place entering through a narrow Gate, and obeying it once within the narrow Way. Of course, truly receiving Torah inserts you in the "club" of the most persecuted people in History, the Jewish people; it is the narrow Gate of the few set apart people of YHWH. Of course, at times it is not easy to obey it, like when you feel eating lobster and shrimp, or from a roasted pork, or when you need to work on Shabbath to ameliorate your finances. Then you realize that it is a narrow Way that leads to true Life. Observe how he goes form that point to denounce the vicious wolves cloaked in sheep's disguises. Why say that now? Because these ravenous wolves from Hell want to be taken as mere inoffensive sheep in order to lead the real ones after them away from Torah and Jerusalem toward Babylon and into their very voracious fangs! Observe how he calls people to put the attention not on the nice soothing words of deception, but on the results of their actions and words. (Replacement theology, other heresies, persecutions, crusades, inquisitions, pogroms and all kinds of divisions and hatred throughout history up to this day). Observe that he clearly paints the picture of Paul of Tarsus: prophesies, casting out of demons, performance of many miracles ... and all in the name Yeshua! Could the picture be any clearer? The disapproval of these wolves is harshly stated, as well as the warning to those who hear Yeshua admonishing not to follow such wolves because it is just like building a house upon their evil, "sandy" words which always may cause great damage to the beguiled follower.

Now, pay attention to the words of the greatest wolf of them all, and his anti-Torah theology.

Galatians 5:2
² Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive Circumcision, Messiah will be of no benefit to you.

Galatians 5:4
⁴ You have been severed from Messiah — you who are seeking to be justified by Torah. You have fallen from Grace!

Romans 4:5
⁵ But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Romans 10:4
⁴ Because Messiah is the END of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

First of all, Grace is the bestowing of a favor which its receptor does not deserve — sometimes we deserve exactly the opposite of what we receive from his Merciful Grace. If we are honest we have to recognize that in reality no human being deserves any favors from the King of Heaven because we cannot compare to Him in any way, and because even our best ways are too defective compared to His.

Isaiah 64:5
⁵ We have all become like an unclean thing; and all our virtues are like a filthy rag. We are all withering like leaves, and our iniquities carry us off like a wind.

So how can any anyone "fall from Grace" when we are always receiving favors that we do not deserve? Paul had an arrogant sense of entitlement which spilled over the board in such a expression of his.

On the other hand, Torah does not prevent the merciful Grace of YHWH, since Torah itself is an immeasurable Act of Grace of YHWH on behalf of his people. Did our fathers deserve to receive this set of divine Instructions or Teachings (Toratot) for our benefit? Certainly no. Do we deserve them now? Not at all. Torah in itself demonstrates the Love, the Mercy and the Grace of the Majesty of Heaven toward us. How, then, could the Grace of YHWH ever exclude Torah, or vice-versa? Who was this spiritual bum to come up with such heretical and blasphemous teaching that negates reality? Obviously, he dared to utter such heretic blasphemy with the chutzpa of Hell.

The fact that the evil "Apostle to the Gentiles," Paul of Tarsus, so viciously and persistently denied is that Mercy, Forgiveness and Grace permeate all the pages of Torah, because even when the sins of an individual or an entire generation is condemned in its pages, such condemnation is done for the preservation of the rest of the components of the society. Weeds are not uprooted out of hatred of them, but out of care for the crop.

This sordid mamzer ignored that a faith that only believes, but does not act upon a trust, is completely worthless and dead because it is a mere disobedient belief in the supernatural. True faith affects all aspects of our lives and being (our spirits, our minds, our emotions, our will) and therefore every word and action in our daily circumstances. Paul, the self-appointed teacher and prophet of a new Gentile and anti-Torah religion, did not understand any of these elemental things. He had no idea either of what true Faith was/is and how it relates to human righteousness. After all, the results of his heretic words and wicked actions prove that he had neither.

Paul And The Prophecy Of Habakkuk

Paul loved to deceptively mention Habakkuk 2:4; but only did it in a disjointed manner. But, first, let us see what the good prophet really said in context:

Habakkuk (Chabakuk) 2:2-5
² YHWH answered me and said: "Write the prophecy down. Inscribe it clearly on tablets, so that it can be read easily. ³ For there is yet a prophecy for an appointed time — a truthful witness for a time that will come. Even if it tarries, still wait for it because it will surely come, without delay.
⁴ Behold, his spirit within him is puffed up, not upright.
But the righteous man, for his faithfulness, will live. ⁵ How much less, then, shall the defiant go unpunished — the treacherous, arrogant man who has made his mouth as wide as Sheol, who is as  insatiable as death, who has harvested all the nations and gathered in all the peoples!"

If you pay careful attention to the text above, you can realize that the "truthful witness" mentioned in verse 3 is the prophecy itself, which is a "truthful witness" of who is immediately going to be prophesied against. A prophecy is a "truthful" Declaration from Elohim which witness some event ahead of time. The fact that here this Prophecy is called a "truthful witness" signifies how secure its fulfillment was to be, as well as that it was to be surely and truthfully used against the already denounced traitor yet to appear. Even if this "truthful witness" would tarry it would surely come, without delay at its appointed time. In other words, it would take a long time for this "witness" to be called to present its testimony on the Trial. But, in the future yet to come, the inevitable Word of the Almighty will give a "truthful" testimony against this evil false prophet — the greatest speaker of hellish things that humanity has ever had the misfortune to know.

Here it is necessary to remark that if you do not realize that the well-spoken-of "truthful witness" is the Prophecy itself, then the text inevitably will fall into a confusing contradiction. Confusion arises in those who do not recognize correctly the identity of this "truthful witness" because one moment Habakkuk talks positively about it, and immediately he refers very negatively to a certain prophesied-against someone who is described as being "not upright" and "puffed up" within him. So, both cannot be the same one; but being so close, they tend to merge into only one to untrained, distracted, gullible or fanatical eyes.

The highly evil person prophesied against in verses 4 and 5 is described not only as a "defiant", "treacherous" and "arrogant man," but one who would have a "mouth as wide as Sheol." This wicked person was going to "harvest all the nations" (Heb. 'goyim' = nations, peoples, Gentiles!) and would also "gathered in all the peoples" (Heb. 'goyim' = nations, people, Gentiles!). In other words, this arrogant traitor was going to defiantly gather in a harvest of many Gentiles with his deceptions from Hell.

Ah, but in the midst of this invective accusation, there is a contrasting and parenthetical change in the tone of this witnessing Prophecy. Suddenly, it is interjected that "the righteous man, for his faithfulness (Heb. 'emunah'), will live."

Observe that in Hebrew the word 'emunah' — translated as 'faith' in most Christian "Bibles" — is equivalent to the English terms 'faithfulness', 'fidelity' and 'steadfastness'. Here it might come to the surprise of most Christians learning that this Hebrew word never means faith as the intellectual acquiescence or mental acknowledgement of a certain belief, which is how it is commonly understood in the Christian world. The true meaning of 'emunah' always involves a personal constant effort leading to obedient action based upon what a person believes. Now, do not forget this: Habakkuk was a PRE-New Testament Jewish man who spoke regular Hebrew, as any normal Jew of his era did; he did not speak it as an ignorant Gentile thus using meanings and inflections foreign to it. Notwithstanding, Paul of Tarsus used a different word, a Greek one, 'pistis'. But 'pistis' happens not mean the same as the Hebrew word 'emunah'. Their difference is that 'pistis', reflecting the intellectualized Hellenistic mindset means: "the strong mental belief on the possible truth about something." Such a Greek meaning is a totally foreign concept to the Hebrew mind; and therefore it drastically changes the true meaning of what Habakkuk was saying!

If Paul understood the difference between 'emunah' and 'pistis', then he lied on purpose — and so all his teachings come under total disrepute. If, on the other hand, he did not know such a vital difference, then he was a mere ignorant whose teachings are completely worthless to be paid any attention. On the other hand, if he was both — i.e. he knew it, but he decided to ignore it — then he was a ferocious donkey not worth any attention whatsoever, much less any positive reception. At any rate, his malicious and deceptive writings have been proven to be an abomination and a desolation standing on the holy place that only belongs to Torah.

But, even more, who do you think that prophesied defiantly treacherous, arrogant man with a big mouth filled with words from Sheol came to be? Yes, you guessed it. It was none other than Paul of Tarsus himself!

Think about this: who did "harvest all the Gentiles"? Who did "gather in all the peoples"? Who had a "mouth as wide as Sheol"? Who in the first century of the Christian era was widely accused of having "his spirit within him puffed up," and of being "not upright"? Yes, there is only one possible answer to all these questions: Paul of Tarsus. The main apostle of Christianity was a man with an absolutely disgusting tendency not only toward puffed up arrogance, but for treacherous deception too. And he was so blinded by his own pride that he was unable to realize that he was using a portion of the very Prophecy that referred to him in such negative way to try and build his case! Or maybe, if he realized it, he used it to hide behind it, since sometimes the best way to hide something is to put it in plain view, right by ourselves. Be as it may, Paul used his own dooming Prophecy in Habakkuk as the basis to build the structure of his own false theology. Ah, the historical Ironies of the Almighty! Who could ever argue with Him?!

Paul of Tarsus was an evil prophet of the same sort of Bala'am. Both were arrogant and treacherous, and both pursued to destroy the people of Israel through deceiving spiritual deviations so as to provoke the people of YHWH to abandon their Elohim-ordained Torah Way to Jerusalem, for a much more easy and comfortable way to Babylon. Christians should note what it is said in the book of Apocalypses 2:14,

Revelation (Gilyanah) 2:14
¹⁴ But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Bala'am, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, teaching them to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.

First of all, allow me to clarify that in the Hebrew spiritual equation 'immorality' is not only those reprehensive acts which concern sex — as it is in Christianity which has been since its beginning, because of Paul's teachings, a sex-obsessed religion. In Israel any deviation from Torah is considered an 'immorality'. Of course, among many other sins, that includes the sin concerning sex when performed in an improper context not allowed by Torah. According to the Hebrew view — which is the Torah view — the worst forms of 'immorality' are 'hillul HaShem', or the blasphemy against HaShem, and the heresy of abandoning Torah. These two worst forms of 'immorality' Paul not only continually committed, but taught others to do.

The true manifest intention of Paul was to teach a new false and immoral "faith" which would be totally inoperative, thus defeating the Good Intent of YHWH with his Eternal Torah (the so-called 'Law of Moses'). This is the reason why James countered head on Paul in his letter by saying,

James (Ya'akov) 2:14-17
¹⁴ What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone would say to have "faith", but he would have no actions? Has that "faith" power to save him? ¹⁵ If a brother, or a sister, is naked and lacks the daily food, ¹⁶ and someone says to them, "Go away in peace, be warm, and be fed!" and would not give to them the necessities of their bodies, what is the benefit of it? ¹⁷ In the same way also, if the "faith" has no actions is dead in itself.

Immediately James, also countering the malefic misinterpretation and misapplication that Paul offers in reference to Habakkuk 2:4, said:

James (Ya'akov) 2:18-25
¹⁸ Now, someone will say that "You have "faith" ('pistis'), but I have actions. Prove to me your "faith" ('pistis') without actions; and I will prove to you — out of my actions! " my Faith ('Emunah')!
¹⁹ You believe that Elohim is one?! You do well! But the demons believe (have 'pistis') and shiver from fear. ²⁰ Now, do you wish to know, oh empty man, that "faith" apart from actions is worthless? ²¹ Was not our father Abraham proven righteous out of actions when he offered up his son Isaac (Yitzhak) upon the altar? ²² You see that Faith was working together with his actions, and out of the actions Faith was made complete. ²³ Then it was fulfilled the Scripture that is saying. "And Abraham had Faithfulness ('Emunah') in Elohim, and it was considered for him as righteousness. He was even called "a friend of Elohim!" ²⁴ So you see that out of actions a man is proven righteous, and not out of "faith" ('pistis') alone.
²⁵ And also in the same way Rehab, a prostitute, was she not proven righteous by receiving the sent ones and leading them out by another route?

And, as to not leave any doubt, then he repeats,

James (Ya'akov) 2:26
²⁶ Certainly, just as the body without spirit is dead, in the same manner faith ('pistis') apart from actions is dead.

Like Abraham, we all are to live by Faithfulness ('Emunah') in Obedient attitude in front of the Almighty. Even if what we believe is true is has no weight whatsoever in front of the Judge of Heaven if it is not validated by steadfast obedient actions. To think otherwise is to run too serious a risk of eternal doom. Of course, every one is absolutely free — at least for the time being — to believe whatever and live to his heart content.