Where Constitutional Truth & Spirit Unite
Published on Apr 18, 2019
This teaching brings the ever confusing and intimidating topic of the Biblical calendar down to size to help everyone gain a better understanding. This updated and expanded version not only details the simplicity of the Biblical calendar but also explains why there are various views of the calendar today. While we respect the multiple aspects of the calendar, this will show where and why we differ with them.
How we read and study matters, especially when it comes to law, whether civil or religious, and especially where it pertains to the Bible. If we have not been trained to read and study in context, all too often, we can find ourselves creating a whole new tradition or law out of thin air, a tradition or law that is not actually supported by what we had just read and studied, but one that is of the nature of an unsubstantiated ‘plausibility’.
Imagine yourself listening to a seminar or bible teaching, either live or recorded, and thinking to yourself, ‘that sounds plausible’ and as soon as the seminar/teaching is over you begin the task to prove what you just heard is really true. You go to your computer & search the internet for any and all available thesis on the matter and if need be, you go to your local library and seek out available books that may contain further evidence to support what you heard, and not stopping there, you might also purchase some books because you know they will aid you with other studies and these books would make great additions to your personal home library.
Now the anticipation really sets in, because if what you heard is really true you want to share it with others, so let the journey begin!
Having now in your possession the material to read & study, whether a book or a thesis, you begin with the oldest dated resources you have now acquired on the subject, so to catalogue the journey in chronological order in hopes that it will help our understanding. The first is a thesis with only four chapters and so we begin by reading the opening, then you read the synopsis & say, ‘hey, just by reading this opening you already know what the conclusion is and this thesis is then catalogued as supporting the ‘plausibility’. Next you take a quote from chapter one that is cited in the synopsis of chapter one and mark that as witness #1. Then after that is recorded, you go to the actual chapter, find the quote and mark that as witness #2, ‘Voila!’, you now have two witnesses that you have included in the research paper you are writing on the subject as being two separate witnesses.
I kid you not, this happens more often than you might think!
Does anyone see the folly in this type of research? If not, they should because this is the exact scenario by which the majority is deceived into running down the road of destruction and unrighteousness.
Also, this type of scenario is how ‘traditions’ are born and the more that follow the tradition, the harder it is for another to bring the actual facts of the subject out into the light of day, for ‘tradition’ is a great ‘undertaker’ whose creators and their followers go to great lengths to make sure that the truth that was buried stays buried, and more often than not, the burial was done in ignorance and not out of any sense of malice.
I have witnessed this many times. A person, say a professor, a church leader, a reporter, or even an elected official will quote from a Supreme Court ruling and announce, this is what the court ruled, when in truth, the actual ruling said the exact opposite and then what happens? The gullible public at large, because they are too busy to take the time to prove whether what they heard was true or not, they believe the falsehood. My favorite example of this is Brushaber v Union Pacific Railroad Co. 240 U.S. 1 (1916) which is one of the most egregious traditions born in the 20th century by an unsubstantiated ‘plausibility’ that came by way of many who parsed a sentence in Chief Justice White’s opinion to support their conclusion that the unsubstantiated ‘plausibility’, that was the reason the case came to be in the first place, was and is true. The quote they use is:
“….. the Sixteenth Amendment provides for a hitherto unknown power of taxation–that is, a power to levy an income tax which, although direct, should not be subject to the regulation of apportionment applicable to all other direct taxes.” [end quote]
However, the a main part of the context regarding the ruling of the court begins in the very next sentence of that opinion written by Chief Justice White that the entire court agreed with:
“And the far-reaching effect of this erroneous assumption will be made clear….”[end quote]
And so what happened in this case? The unsubstantiated ‘plausibility’ that the court ruled as an ‘erroneous assumption’ became tradition that is enforced to this day unless one is learned in the truth and knows how to legally apply it so that the earnings which Elohim provided them to be used for His purpose are actually used for His purpose rather than blindly handing over to Caesar what rightly belongs to Elohim.
This is also how it is with the Word of Elohim, the Holy Scriptures. Many take a parsing from here and a parsing from there, and, ‘Voila!’, they have just created a new tradition that has no actual foundation in His Word of Truth, His Holy Scriptures, and the more they get to believe and follow their new tradition the greater the name they make for themselves.
Take for example Exodus 12 verses 1 & 2..
And YHWH Elohim spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ‘this is the beginning of months for you, it is the first month of the year for you.’
There are no other instructions regarding the yearly calendar or how months are determined spoken at this time, His Word is utterly silent of any further details, so what does the context reveal to us?
#1: The matter was spoken to two people, i.e., two witnesses.
#2: Whatever month it was that YHWH Elohim spoke these words, it was a month on the Egyptian calendar that the Israelites were already familiar with.
#3: It was only the first month on the calendar that was at issue, correction only needed to be made as to which month on the calendar the Israelites were already practicing was the actual 1st month of His appointed calendar for the preservation of His appointed times on earth.
As to #1, it was commanded in Numbers 10:10 that the sons of Aaron were to blow the trumpet at the beginning of each month, and again, by the time this command is given, not a jot or tittle of instruction was given as to how one was to determine the beginning of the month.
Now as to #2, there is a plethora of research done on ancient Egyptian calendars & the most exhaustive source I have found on this subject is compiled in the book “Ancient Egyptian Science Volume II: Calendar, Clocks, and Astronomy“. In this book, which contains the research of several highly esteemed archaeological researchers on this subject, we read:
Like all ancient people, the ancient Egyptians used a lunar calendar, but unlike their neighbors they began their lunar month, not with the first appearance of the new crescent in the west at sunset but rather with the morning when the old crescent of the waning moon could no longer be seen just before sunrise in the east. Their lunar year divided naturally, following their seasons, … because 12 lunar months are on the average 11 days short of the natural year, a 13th or intercalary month was introduced so as to keep the seasons in place.
and later we read:
The first important bit of evidence was an inscription discovered and published by Brugsch first in 1862 and again in 1864. It can be translated as follows: “He (Khons, the God of the Moon) is conceived on the Feast of psdntyw (i.e., on the first day of the lunar month); he is born on the Feast of the Month (i.e., on the feast of the Second Day of the Month); he comes to maturity on the Feast of the Half-Month (i.e., on the Feast of the Full Moon or Fifteenth Day of the Month).” This seems quite good evidence that the Egyptians conceived that the first day of the month was the day of invisibility of the first crescent, that the second was the day of first visibility of the new crescent, and that the fifteenth day was the day of the full moon. And indeed Brugsch drew the conclusion that Parker was later to develop more fully, namely, that the month started with the first day of invisibility of the crescent, and the second day marked “the first visible apparition of the lunar disk”. He notes that a “host of religious texts” supports his interpretation of this passage.
This is what the Israelites were practicing, it was the monthly calendar they were familiar with and it is a monthly calendar that is supported by the pattern given to us in Genesis 1 which I will come back to later, for now let’s move on to point #3.
Next, looking at the evidence put forth by those who took a parsing from here and another from there and who magically made one witness become two, this sect of the lunar-solar waxing crescent calendar followers believe and teach what all the other nations surrounding Egypt were practicing, thereby, setting aside the context established in Exodus 12:1-2 for the sake of tradition. Here is the “lead teacher’s” ONLY explanation with a cited reference source that is in reference to Psalms 81:3 “Blow the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day“:
It is likely that kesah is related to the Aramaic word “Kista” and the Assyrian word “Kuseu” which mean “full moon” (see Brown-Drive-Briggs page 490b) [Hebrew, Aramaic, and Assyrian are all Semitic languages and often share common roots]. This fits perfectly with the description of Keseh as the day of the Hag since two of the three Pilgrimage-Feasts (Hag HaMazot and Hag HaSukkot) are on the 15th of the month, which is about the time of the full moon.
First of all, …it is likely? And second, …is related to the Aramaic? Is this how a traditional Hebrew scholar would speak when presenting their evidence? Not in any personal experiences I have had. They all are very concise and never propose their understanding with terms such as ‘likely’ or ‘may be related to’. The witness this supposed scholar presented is an outright and, might I add, purposeful effort in obfuscation!
So why the obfuscation? Because if he gave the Talmud Tractate number on the subject, he would soon be found to be lacking support for his unsubstantiated ‘plausibility’ of a waxing crescent moon as being the new moon. This is revealed in the rabbinic court’s ruling on Psalm 81:3, a Psalm which concerns the first day of the seventh month which is an annual appointed time of YHWH Elohim commonly called the Feast of Trumpets, or in Jewish circles, Rosh Hashanah.
“The first of Tishri is the New Year’s Day for ordinary years.” For what purpose is this rule? Answers R. Zera, to determine the equinoxes (and solstices); and this agrees with the opinion of R. Eliezer, who says that the world was created in Tishri; but R. Na’hman says (it is the new year) for divine judgment, as it is written [Deut. xi. 12]: “From the beginning of the year till the end of the year,” i.e., at the beginning of the year it is determined what shall be at the end of the year. But whence do we know that this means Tishri? It is written [Psalms, lxxxi. 3]: “Blow on the new moon the cornet at the time when it (the new moon) is hidden 1 on our solemn feast day.” What feast is it on which the moon is hidden? We can only say Rosh Hashana (New Year’s Day), and of this day it is written [ibid. v. 4]: “For it is a statute unto Israel, a judgment (day) for the God of Jacob.”
And so I contacted this supposed scholar of the Hebrew language and asked him a few direct questions that left no room for confusion and the first response I received was nothing but more obfuscation, so I replied back with additional questions based upon his first reply, questions that were direct & to the point, and along with those questions, I included a list of the resources I used to determine my understanding of Psalm 81:3 as it was applied before Psalm 81:3 was written, and according to all Hebrew sources on the matter, it is still taught as being the correct understanding today. As of this publishing, this supposed scholar of the Hebrew language has yet to respond to the authoritative witnesses, in the authoritative resources used by all renown Hebrew scholars, that I had shared in my e-mail to his initial reply. I had sent my initial e-mail on 4/22 at 11:42 am, he promptly responded at 11:57 am and I then replied back at 1:24pm and included this request: “I do not want to belabor this, I am just seeking further understanding from further resources you used to determine your understanding other than the BDB”. All I have heard since then is ‘crickets’.
Now on the other hand, one of his most admired students did make a stronger attempt, but alas, he was the one who magically made two witnesses appear from one original witness. He takes the following quote from the synopsis to Chapter 1 of the Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Rosh Hashanah and he cites the quote in the synopsis that is from the MISHNA as one witness and then uses the same quote in the actual chapter that is from the GEMARA that immediately follows the exact quote from the MISHNA, and is but a retelling of what the MISHNA had just said a couple of paragraphs prior, and then cites that as another witness. And as with the ‘lead teacher’, I had asked this student if he had read & studied chapter two of the Tractate Rosh Hashanah and his reply was that he could not recall at that time if he had read & studied it.
“It once happened that more than forty pair (of witnesses) were on the highway (to Jerusalem) and R. Aqiba detained them,”
Next this student of the supposed Hebrew scholar makes a bold statement about the ordinances for sighting the new moon yet he never cites the actual language of the Talmud tractate that tells us what those ordinances are.
A special court has been established to accept evidence concerning the sighting of the New Moon, as required by Jewish law.
One thing to keep in mind here is that the requirement to establish a ‘special new moon court’ is nowhere to be found in the Bible, this is a man-made Jewish religious law that was established out of another man-made Jewish religious law that treated these ‘new moon’ days as Sabbaths with all the burdensome rules and regulations they had placed on the weekly & annual Sabbath days. And so to make an exception, they devised even more laws that allowed for the witnesses to ‘break the Sabbath’ in order to bring their report to the ‘special new moon court’ who refused to move an inch, but stayed indoors, so as not to ‘break the Sabbath’ that they had created.
So what does the Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Rosh Hashanah say are the ordinances by which a witness’s testimony is considered valid or false, ordinances that both the ‘lead teacher’ and his students fail to include in their papers they have written on the subject? First we need to establish some facts regarding the cycles of the moon and when it is visible to the naked eye, both in its final waning stage and its first waxing stage. The only time the moon can be seen rising in the eastern sky just before sunrise is during the final qtr. phase of moon’s monthly cycle. Therefore, once the moon goes dark, it is not visible in the eastern sky just before sunrise during the first three qtr. phases of the next cycle of the moon because the moon always rises after the sun rises during these three phases. Another argument that the ‘lead teacher’ and his students use has to do with the sliver of the moon being seen in the morning and then again in the evening. They claim, as a supposed matter of fact, that anyone who claims they saw the moon at both times is a false witness, however, once again, they do not take into account, as the rabbis do in the Talmud, that during certain winter months when the daylight hours are very short, it is not unusual to see the final waning crescent of the moon both in the morning and then again in the evening. I have witnessed this myself many times.
Also, as we move on to read the ‘Jewish’ ordinances concerning what time of day the sightings were taking place, keep in mind that Jewish religious law is not written like the laws we are used to reading. They are written in the manner of a court transcript and in that transcript is where we find what was considered valid testimony and what was considered false testimony, i.e., ordinances.
GEMARA: We have learned in a Boraitha that R. Gamaliel said to the sages: “Thus it has been handed down to me from the house of my grandfather (Zamalill the elder) that sometimes the new moon appears elongated and sometimes diminished. R. Hyya saw the old moon yet on the morning of the twenty-ninth day, and threw clods of earth at it, saying: ‘We should consecrate thee in the evening, and thou art seen now? Go, hide thyself!'”
Said Rabbi to R. Hyya: “Go to Entob and consecrate the month and send back to me as a password 1 ‘David, the King of Israel, still lives.'”MISHNA: There was a large court in Jerusalem called Beth Ya’azeq, where all the witnesses met, and where they were examined by the Beth Din. Great feasts were made there for (the witnesses) in order to induce them to come frequently. At first they did not stir from there all day (on the Sabbath), 1 till R. Gamaliel, the elder, ordained that they might go two thousand ells on every side; and not only these (witnesses) but also a midwife, going to perform her professional duties, and those who go to assist others in case of conflagration, or against an attack of robbers, or in case of flood, or (of rescuing people) from the ruins (of a fallen building) are considered (for the time being) as inhabitants of that place, and may go (thence on the Sabbath) two thousand ells on every side. How were the witnesses examined? The first pair were examined first. The elder was introduced first, and they said to him: Tell us in what form thou sawest the moon; was it before or behind the sun? Was it to the north or the south (of the sun)? What was its elevation on the horizon? Towards which side was its inclination? What was the width of its disk? If he answered before the sun, his evidence was worthless. After this they introduced the younger (witness) and he was examined; if their testimony was found to agree, it was accepted as valid; the remaining pairs (of witnesses) were asked leading questions, not because their testimony was necessary, but only to prevent them departing, disappointed, and to induce them to come again often,
MISHNA: Formerly they received evidence as to the appearance of the new moon the whole (of the thirtieth) day. Once the witnesses were delayed in coming, and they disturbed the songs of the Levites. They then ordained that evidence should only be received until (the time of) the afternoon service, and if witnesses came after that time both that and the following day were consecrated. After the destruction of the Temple, R. Johanan b. Zakkai ordained that evidence (as to the appearance) of the new moon should be received all day.
GEMARA: What disturbance did they cause to the songs of the Levites? Said R. Zera to A’hbha, his son: Go and teach to them (the Mishna) thus: “They ordained that evidence as to the appearance of the new moon should not be received, only that there might be time during the day to offer the continual and the additional sacrifices and their drink offerings, and to chant the (daily) song without disturbing the order.”MISHNA: It happened once that two witnesses came and said: We saw the moon in the eastern part of the heavens in the morning, and in the western part in the evening. R. Jo’hanan b. Nouri declared them to be false witnesses; but when they came to Yamnia, Rabbon Gamaliel received their evidence as valid.
What we have learned from the ‘transcripts’ of the proceedings of the court is that in each instance, the witnesses were sent out to bring back testimony of the moon rising in the east during the final qtr. phase of the moon’s monthly cycle. Period!
Now as to the ‘Feast of the Fifteenth’, that was noted in the book “Ancient Egyptian Science Volume II, Calendars, Clocks, and Astronomy’, the same is with YHWH Elohim’s Appointed times of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread that begins at sunset immediately following the Passover sacrifice.
R. Na’hman said to certain sailors, “Ye who do not know the calendar take notice that when the moon still shines at dawn (it is full moon, and if it happens to be Nissan) destroy your leaven bread (for it is then the fourteenth day).”
It is plainly clear that if a person is waiting to witness the first sliver of the waxing new moon, the dates they keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles on are nearly always going to be at least a day or two after the full moon when it is now clearly visible to the naked eye that the moon is no longer full, but is growing old and losing its light. This also proves that what the ‘lead teacher’ claimed as truth is, in fact, not true at all.
…(Hag HaMazot and Hag HaSukkot) are on the 15th of the month, which is about the time of the full moon.
The truth of the Feasts that begin on the ‘fifteenth’ day of the first and seventh months was revealed to me many years ago when we had set up camp down at the river to remember and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall. At that time we were following tradition and we had gone down and set up the camper a few days in advance. It was on that first evening as I was taking the dog for a walk that I looked up and saw the full moon rising in the eastern sky and I thought to myself, this isn’t right. The Feast was to begin at the time of the full moon, not two days later!
And so why should this even be important to us today? The majority like to quote the Scripture that says, no man knows the day or the hour, and in doing so, they ignore the other Scriptures that say those in Messiah will not be caught as a thief in the night when Messiah returns because they are children of the light. Once one clears out all the clutter that was added to the following verses by translators, who didn’t understand the importance of the Appointed times of YHWH Elohim, nor did they remember or honor them, instead setting them aside for man-made religious traditions, they twisted what Paul had said to their own destruction, because, had they not added to Paul’s words and had simply stuck to what the Greek text actually says, they would have translated it as:
1Th 5:1-2 Now, brothers, as to the time, yea the Appointed time, you do not need to be written to. For you yourselves know very well that the day of יהוה comes as a thief in the night.
The context of these verses, as well as the context of all the surrounding text to these verses, clearly reveals that Paul is speaking of one specific day on Elohim’s Holy Appointed calendar, the day of YHWH Elohim that is described by Moses and the Prophets as the day that the moon gives no light. There is only one Appointed time when this occurs and that is the first day of the seventh month which is the Feast of Trumpets. According to Scripture, this day is “The Day of YHWH” which is often referred to by many as “The Day of the LORD”.
Remember the ten maidens in Matthew 25:1-13? They all knew of the Appointed time, however, not all had prepared themselves to stay put so to be sitting still and patiently waiting the Grooms arrival. Half of the maidens had to leave to go shopping because they showed up unprepared for the Groom’s arrival. They knew the approximate time the Groom would arrive, however, because of tradition, half of them failed to bring with them all that was needed because in their minds the arrival was still a day or two away, and since the others who were prepared did not bring any extra oil with them, the five foolish maidens set out on foot to go shopping and upon their return the door to the wedding Feast had already been opened & closed.
And this all brings us back to Genesis 1. It is written that in the beginning Elohim created (bara) the heavens and the earth which means everything existed, but Elohim had not yet prepared them, i.e., given light to them. All was dark including the sun & the moon. It was not until sometime after the 3rd day that Elohim prepared (asah) the sun and the moon and then after preparing them we are told that they are to be as signs (oth) in the heavens for days, for years & for His Appointed times (moed).
The Creator’s calendar began the counting of all time, days, days of months, and days of years from the first day that all was created (bara). The moon on the very first day, of the very first month, of the very first year of all creation, that day the moon gave no light, just as the ‘special new moon court’ testified it to be according to what is written in His Holy Scriptures, His Word of Truth. And this brings us to the 1260 days, aka, 3 1/2 years. Well, ask yourself, 3 1/2 years of what?
There is a weekly Sabbath every seven days, and then there are seven annual Sabbaths in His Appointed calendar, which annual Sabbath occurs in the ‘midst’ of those seven, i.e., in the middle? The Feast of Trumpets, the day & hour when no man is able to see those few minutes in time when the old light has faded and the new light begins, only YHWH Elohim in Heaven knows! Even King David understood the importance of witnessing the waning moon so to know when to hide from Saul who was seeking to kill him.
1Sa 20:5 And David said to Jonathan, “See, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I ought to sit with the sovereign to eat. But let me go, and I shall hide in the field until the third day at evening. … 18 So Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you shall be missed, because your seat shall be empty.
Both David and Jonathan knew it was not safe for David to go up to the Feast, or to come out of hiding until after the new moon had passed and his evidence that the new moon had passed was when David and Jonathan were able to visibly see the light of the moon growing in illumination and strength after the third day!
And this is why “Context, and the Calendar Matters” for all who claim to be children of Elohim, whether native or grafted in, and yes, as it is written both in the Old Testament and New Testament, some of those grafted in are the natural branches who remain broken off because they have yet to receive Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah! It was YHWH Elohim who placed a veil over their heart that they would not understand, and only when that veil is lifted through their belief that Yeshua (Jesus) is indeed their Messiah and confesses that belief with their mouth, is understanding then given. And so those of us who have been grafted in, we must be careful not to boast against the natural branches that were broken off lest, because of our arrogance, we find ourselves broken off as they were! But nowhere is it written that we are to set the unbelieving natural branches up as teachers and scholars over any assembly, in fact, Yeshua (Jesus) warns us to beware of those men and their teachings, because it is through their twisting of His Word of Truth, His Holy Scriptures, and then taking His Word of Truth out of context, that man is able to create all kinds of false doctrines and false calendar systems so to deceive the masses.
Pro 6:16-19 These six matters יהוה hates, And seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, A lying tongue, And hands shedding innocent blood, A heart devising wicked schemes, Feet quick to run to evil, A false witness breathing out lies, And one who causes strife among brothers.
Therefore, let us quit using this matter of the calendar to cause further strife. One person may prefer ‘tradition’ because they have not sufficiently studied the matter out, as we had done in the beginning of our walk in His Sabbath truth, while another who has studied the matter out has chosen to practice truth as Elohim spoke it, while also remaining in fellowship with those who prefer to practice tradition. No matter the choice, it is a personal choice that neither side should hold against the other.
The truth of the matter is, YHWH Elohim was and is perfectly capable of preserving His calendar as He established it in the beginning, even through the Pharaohs of Egypt through whom He preserved the Israelites until the time of their deliverance from Egypt, as opposed to one of the surrounding nations of Egypt who all began their calendars after the second or third day of the new moon, depending on when the first waxing crescent of the renewed moon was seen in the evening.
In conclusion, I leave with those who desire to continue to berate and cast out believers in Messiah, because they do not follow their unsubstantiated calendar ‘traditions’ and refuse to lie to others about their belief so to support the unsubstantiated ‘tradition’, these words of Messiah.
“For he who is not against us is for us” [Numbers 11:24-29; Mark 9:33-41; Luke 9:46-50]
The internet can be a very useful tool for researchers of any area of the US Constitution, however, it is also a source used by many useful idiots who, because they have gamed some sort of collegiate degree, they believe themselves to be the ultimate authority in textual interpretation of the US Constitution and its subsequent statutes at large. Take the website supremelaw.org for example. The website is owned by Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S. who’s website was created for the sole purpose of making a living by supposedly teaching constitutional law when in fact, it is nothing but a course in understanding Mr. Mitchell’s uneducated view of the US Constitution.
What lead me to Mr. Mitchell’s website was a search I was doing in regards to the Public Salary Tax Act of 1939 as it pertains to the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution. What Mr. Mitchell would have us believe is that the 14th Amendment changed the relationship & nature of citizenship in the 50 united States of America in that it transformed the ‘natural born citizens’ residing in any of the 50 states into ‘aliens’ for the purpose of taxation thereby alienating the creators from the creation. Mr. Mitchell would have us believe that the 14th Amendment created a whole new class of citizens, federal citizens of the District of Columbia and its territories, specifically for purposes of taxation all the while ignoring the fact that it was the representatives of the States united at that time under the US Constitution that ratified the 14th Amendment that made sure that the former slaves of any of the several states of the Union would, from thence forward, have the same legal standing as the free men of the Union. It changed nothing in regards to A1, S8, C4 “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, … “.
Also, Mr. Mitchell would have us believe that the term ‘United States’ as it appears in A1, S8, C4 of the US Constitution refers ONLY to the District of Columbia and the territories that the Federal Government has immediate “authority” over. This is an uneducated interpretation as the Congressional records of the Constitutional convention tell us that the term ‘United States’ as it appears in the US Constitution has several meanings and therefore it is the context of any given article or subsection of that article that dictates the proper meaning of the term used therein.
Therefore, it was not the authors of the 14th Amendment that changed the meaning of the term ‘United States’ as it pertains to citizenship, it is Mr. Mitchell’s ignorance of the rules of interpretation of law that enables the ignorant public at large to remain further ignorant and even more susceptible to their wrongful application of the law that leads them down the path of self inflicted harm because of their ignorance of the law, or their reliance on a person with big letters behind their names as if those big letters are a guarantee that that person actually has studied the actual statutes so to know the law such as Mr. Mitchell who admits to NOT reading the laws. From the very onset of his book, The Federal Zone, Mitchell admits that he has not gone to the actual statutes, but simply relied on treatises written by men or women of the same Constitutional ignorance as Mitchell because of course, they are supposed experts.
Well, let’s test Mr. Mitchell’s expertise.
In the book, The Federal Zone, Mitchell begins by touching upon the Supreme court case, Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. Mr. Mitchell’s contention is that it was not the fact that Brushaber was an investor that held stock in a federally held corporation located in the territory of Utah (Utah had not yet become a state of the union) that was the determining factor of the case. Mitchell would have us believe that it was Brushabers’ claim that he was a citizen of the State of New York and resident of the borough of Brooklyn, NY that gave rise to the reason that Brushaber lost the case. Mitchell would have us believe that by claiming to be a ‘citizen’, regardless of the place of residency, Brushaber was claiming to be a citizen of the federally owned District of Columbia because, according to Mitchell, 14th Amendment citizens are aliens of the ‘States of the Union’ and therefore, it was Brushaber’s use of the term ‘citizen’ in reference to himself that made him subject to taxation rather than his financial activity with the federal government that Brushaber engaged in that caused Brushaber to become subject to taxation under the 16th Amendment. This is legal chicanery at its worst and the cause of many fined and jailed citizens who follow such nonsense.
The whole premise of Mitchell’s website, as far as I can determine, is to create a following so to have the constitutionally legal 16th Amendment repealed and the constitutionally created IRS abolished. It is also Mitchell’s contention that Congress never passed any legislation creating the Department of Internal Revenue. As I stated above, Mitchell admits to not having actually read the statutes at large, therefore, how would he know that the statute of July 1, 1862 titled “An Act to provide Internal Revenue to support the Government and to pay Interest on the Public Debt” began by stating:
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the purpose of super-intending the collection of internal duties, stamp duties, licenses, or taxes imposed by this act, or which may be hereafter imposed, and of assessing the same, and office is hereby created in the Treasury Department to be called the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with an annual salary of four thousand dollars, who shall be charged, and is hereby charged, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, with preparing all the instructions, regulations, directions, forms, blanks, stamps, and licenses, and distributing the same, …”
Now to recap, Mitchell believes that the Department of Internal Revenue and its taxing authority was subsequent to the passing of the 14th Amendment when in fact, the statute that became the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was created by Congress four years after the establishment of the Department of Internal Revenue and a full four years after the Internal Revenue began collecting the constitutional taxes authorized by the US Constitution. What Mitchell has done is to erroneously put the cart before the horse because Mr. Mitchell was too lazy to do his own research, wholly relying on the constitutional ignorance of others like himself, thereby, not being of the educated mind of our founding fathers, many of whom never stepped one foot in a law school, Mr. Mitchell has ignored the fact that in order for the creation to do what the creators created it do, it would need a revenue system that would give it the means by which to do that which it was created to do.
And then there is Mitchell’s utter lack of understanding of exactly what an excise (duty) tax is, a tax on activity regardless of the person’s citizenship status.
Suffice to say, I can now, without a shadow of a doubt, conclude this review of supremelaw.org and its owner Paul Andrew Mitchell, by rendering my official opinion as an educated citizen of the United States of America and resident of one of the 50 States of that Union, that Mr. Paul Andrew Mitchell, regardless of the big letters he displays after his name from the empty degrees he holds, Mr. Paul Andrew Mitchell is NOT an expert on the US Constitution or the 14th & 16th Amendments to said Constitution and that no one should, for the purposes of educating themselves, entertain anything that is published at Mitchell’s website as a source of constitutional truth.
For those who are truly interested in becoming the type of educated citizen that the founding fathers as well as the drafters of the 14th & 16th Amendments were, begin by reading, The Fascinating Truth About The 16th Amendment followed by Bob’s Bicycles. This will give you the proper factual foundation that every truly educated citizen builds their constitutional education upon so to be able to apply the law as Congress, at the time of the adoption of the law, intended them to apply it.
Shalom
Pro 28:4 Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them. 5 Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely
I think we can all agree that most, if not all, of us began our journey with the Scriptures as they were written in English. The only exception that I will use is the name of our Messiah. Names are to transliterated not translated and therefore if the proper name can be found, it should be used and therefore since God defined the name of His Son as Yeshua, that is the name I will use. In the English text it is endered Joshua, Jehoshua or Jeshua, even in the New Testament. (see Heb 4:8 … same name translated as Jesus, but from the beginning has always been Joshua, Jehoshua or Jeshua so this begs the question, why change the appearance of His name since Joshua is the prophetic picture of our Deliverer at His coming)
Every Bible worth its weight contains a ‘cliff notes’ version of a Concordance and sadly the 1998 version of the Scriptures does not, therefore, the reason I still continue to use the KJV / NKJV alongside it. So all the Scripture references given here are from the NKJV. Also, explanatory notes are great but they are far from being useful in determining the meaning of many of the passages that are used by Christian doctrine that distorts the Gospel Message and the true purpose of the Word of God putting on flesh.
I have also found that constantly referring back to the Hebrew or the Greek when discussing Scripture with my family and friends to be a total turn off. They don’t want to deal with foreign languages; they only want to deal with what is in front of them, their English bibles. So shouldn’t we first, with love and compassion, be able to show them the discrepancies in English first before we even think to go off into foreign territory?
Now there is another English tool that we can use here in America and that is the first English dictionary written for America and adopted by the US Congress for use in Congress as well as all schools of learning, the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary. It is a great tool if one takes the time to use it along with the ‘cliff notes’ Concordance and is available for free at books.google.com. Take for example the word ‘repent’ which has been watered down by Christian doctrine. How did America’s founding fathers and early American preachers define this word?
“repent: to remember with sorrow [et. repair] Jer viii.”
So we see that repent means to be sorrowful of something that is in need of repair. And according to Mr. Webster and the American government, we need to read Jer 8 to understand what repent means. OK, let’s read Jer 8
Jer 8:1 “At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
Jer 8:2 They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth.
Jer 8:3 Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the LORD of hosts.
Jer 8:4 “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Will they fall and not rise? Will one turn away and not return?
Jer 8:5 Why has this people slidden back, Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit, They refuse to return.
Jer 8:6 I listened and heard, But they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his own course, As the horse rushes into the battle.
Jer 8:7 “Even the stork in the heavens Knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD.
Jer 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.
Jer 8:9 The wise men are ashamed, They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; So what wisdom do they have?
Jer 8:10 Therefore I will give their wives to others, And their fields to those who will inherit them; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is given to covetousness; From the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely.
Jer 8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.
Jer 8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; In the time of their punishment They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.
Jer 8:13 “I will surely consume them,” says the LORD. “No grapes shall be on the vine, Nor figs on the fig tree, And the leaf shall fade; And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ‘ “
Jer 8:14 “Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, And let us enter the fortified cities, And let us be silent there. For the LORD our God has put us to silence And given us water of gall to drink, Because we have sinned against the LORD.
Jer 8:15 “We looked for peace, but no good came; And for a time of health, and there was trouble!
Jer 8:16 The snorting of His horses was heard from Dan. The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His strong ones; For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it, The city and those who dwell in it.”
Jer 8:17 “For behold, I will send serpents among you, Vipers which cannot be charmed, And they shall bite you,” says the LORD.
Jer 8:18 I would comfort myself in sorrow; My heart is faint in me.
Jer 8:19 Listen! The voice, The cry of the daughter of My people— From a far country: “Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger With their carved images— With foreign idols?”
Jer 8:20 “The harvest is past, The summer is ended, And we are not saved!”
Jer 8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I am mourning; Astonishment has taken hold of me.
Jer 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery For the health of the daughter of my people?
Clearly the context of repent is to seek forgiveness in returning to the Law of God. In doing this, one turns their back on sin and moves forward by walking in His righteousness path rather than continuing to backslide away from the righteous path He laid out for us in His Law. And who does God blame for this backsliding? Everyone, even the prophet, the priest who continues to preach and teach falsehood as truth and especially the scribes who put His Word to pen, those who add to His words and take away from His words. So we must be careful when reading. If something is in italics, it is an addition and we must make sure that addition compliments what He says or if it changes the context of what He says so it seems to stand out on its own, not conforming to everything that is said around it.
Then there is the preacher or teacher who presumes to change the definition of a word. Take for instance the word ‘backslide’ used in Jer 8. I recently heard a local Baptist preacher say (and I am paraphrasing here for time and space), “I know the bible defines ‘backsliding’ as this, but I tell you it means this”. So now this preacher has just taken the authority away from our Creator to define His own words giving the impression that our Creator is not capable of giving us a proper definition of ‘backslide’ for today’s times. How arrogant and puffed up! To assume we know better than the Creator of our language, the English language! What did Webster have to say of ‘backslide(ing, er)’?
“to fall off, to apostatize, an apostate, one who neglects his vows of obedience and falls into sin, Jer v(5). 6
Let’s read it in context of what He says it to mean by backing up to Jer 5 verse 4.
Jer 5:4 Therefore I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; For they do not know the way of the LORD, The judgment of their God.
Jer 5:5 I will go to the great men and speak to them, For they have known the way of the LORD, The judgment of their God.” But these have altogether broken the yoke And burst the bonds.
Jer 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, A wolf of the deserts shall destroy them; A leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces, Because their transgressions are many; Their backslidings have increased.
We see this defined by Paul in Rm 8 when he alludes to the backslider as one who is carnally minded, one who doe snot seek the Law of God, but rather seeks to find God on his own terms and in his own way..
Rom 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
The ‘cliff notes’ version of the Concordance in my KJV refers us to Jer 3 and Prov 14 to understand what backslide (ing, er) means, so let’s test it.
Jer 3:19 “But I said: ‘How can I put you among the children And give you a pleasant land, A beautiful heritage of the hosts of nations?’ “And I said: ‘You shall call Me, “My Father,” And not turn away from Me.’
Jer 3:20 Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, So have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,” says the LORD.
Jer 3:21 A voice was heard on the desolate heights, Weeping and supplications of the children of Israel. For they have perverted their way; They have forgotten the LORD their God.
Jer 3:22 “Return, you backsliding children, And I will heal your backslidings.” “Indeed we do come to You, For You are the LORD our God.
Jer 3:23 Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, And from the multitude of mountains; Truly, in the LORD our God Is the salvation of Israel.
Jer 3:24 For shame has devoured The labor of our fathers from our youth— Their flocks and their herds, Their sons and their daughters.
Jer 3:25 We lie down in our shame, And our reproach covers us. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, We and our fathers, From our youth even to this day, And have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
Pro 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, But the folly of fools is deceit.
Pro 14:9 Fools mock at sin, But among the upright there is favor.
Pro 14:10 The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.
Pro 14:11 The house of the wicked will be overthrown, But the tent of the upright will flourish.
Pro 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Pro 14:13 Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, And the end of mirth may be grief.
Pro 14:14 The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above.
Pro 14:15 The simple believes every word, But the prudent considers well his steps.
Pro 14:16 A wise man fears and departs from evil, But a fool rages and is self-confident.
Now take notice of Prov 14:12 & 14, this is directly related to what Paul said in Rm 8. The one who God calls ‘good’ (wise) is one who is satisfied with the rules given from our Creator above. They see no need to add to or take away from His Word in order to build themselves up and create their own way to the Creator.
As Paul also states in his epistle to the Romans, not all are called for the same purpose, but all are members of the same body.
Rom 12:4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
Rom 12:5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
Rom 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us,
Therefore some are given to the study the Scriptures from a Hebrew or Greek perspective and others are given to the study from an English only perspective. I fully enjoy studying from all perspectives, but I understand that not all are called to do so and therefore, we must respect each ones individual calling in the body of Messiah and give our brethren and sisters in Messiah who are called to the study of His Scriptures from the English perspective their due respect as it does have its place in the body of Mashiach and His vision for the gathering of His lost sheep.
So as Paul and Peter called us to do, let us be prepared to give an answer, an answer in a language in which the one we are speaking to understands lest His words are brought to nothing but gibberish to the ones they are spoken to.
1Co 14:6 But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you unless I speak to you either by revelation, by knowledge, by prophesying, or by teaching?
1Co 14:7 Even things without life, whether flute or harp, when they make a sound, unless they make a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is piped or played?
1Co 14:8 For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?
1Co 14:9 So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.
1Pe 3:13 And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?
1Pe 3:14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “AND DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THEIR THREATS, NOR BE TROUBLED.”
1Pe 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
1Pe 3:16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
1Pe 3:17 For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
1Pe 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
1Pe 3:19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
1Pe 3:20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
And now that one has a foundational understanding of repentance in light of backsliding according to an American founding era father in our English language, let’s move this into the context of His feast days. While Christendom has replaced all but Pentecost with ones of her own, and since these words cannot be found in the ‘cliff notes’ Concordance but being such important times, one would think they should be included, what hath Mr. Webster to say of the Christian festivals of Easter and Christmas?
CHRIST’MAS, n. [Christ and mass. Sax Aiassn, a holy day or feast ; D. hersmis.] The festival of the christian church served annually on the 25th day of ,December, in memory of the birth of Christ, and celebrated by a particular church service. The festival includes twelve days.
E’ ASTER, n. [Sax. easter ; G. ostem ; supposed to be from Eostre, the goddess of love or Venus of the north, in honor of whom a festival was celebrated by our pagan ancestors, in April ; whence this month was called Eostermonath. Eoster is supposed by Beda and others to be the Astarte of the Sidonians. See Beda, Cluver, and the authorities cited by Cluver, and by Jamieson, under Paysyad.]
A festival of the christian church observed in commemoration of our Savior’s resurrection. It answers to the pascha or passover of the Hebrews, and most nations still give it this name, pascha, pask, paque.
Now considering that it was the false worship of God that continued to get Israel in trouble by continually replacing His instructions for worship of Him, with their own definition of worship, how does Mr. Webster define obedience to God?
DISOBE’DIENCE, n. [dis and obedience.] Neglect or refusal to obey ; violation of a command or prohibition ; the omission of that which is commanded to be done, the doing of that which is forbid ; breach of duty prescribed by authority. By one man*s disobedience, many were made sinners. Rom. v.
Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no Law.
So even Mr. Webster knew that without God’s Law, there is nothing to accuse one of even being a sinner, so God’s Law must therefore be active at all times and for all times for all peoples of the world as Mr. Webster shows us in his reference to Scripture in defining what defines sin is. So again Mr. Webster displays the need to let Scripture define what the words in Scripture mean, therefore since Mr. Webster does not reference Scripture in his definitions of Easter or Christmas, but rightly defines them as things that were added as a “REPLACMENT OF” and as an “ADDITION TO” what God had commanded, therefore these Christian days of celebration have no biblical foundation from which one can gleam the purpose of these times set aside for worship of the Creator by early Roman Christendom. Neither do they lead us to any Scriptural authority from God for enjoining them to His Name. And the fact that even Webster attaches Easter to pagan sun god worship should bring trembling to every American Christian who thinks to continue in the practice of such a tainted celebration that is so dearly beloved by pagan sun god worshipers to this very day!
But what of the Sabbath? Does Mr. Webster reference Scripture for either the seventh day or the first day?
SAB’BATH,n, [Heb, to cease, to rest] 1. the day which God appointed to be observed by the Jews as a day of rest from all secular labor or emplymens, and to be kept holy and consecrated to His service and worship. This was originally the seventh day of the week, the day on which God rested from the work of creation; and this day is still observed by the Jews and some Christians, as the sabbath. But the Christian church very early begun and still continue to observe the first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ on that day, by which the work of redemption was completed. Hence it is called the Lord’s day. The heathern nations in the north of Europe dedicated this day to the sun, and hence their Christian descendants continue to call the day Sunday. Nut in the United States, Christians have to a great extent disregarded the heathen name and adopted the Jewish name sabbath. 2. Intermission of pain or sorrow; time of rest. 3. The sabbatical year among the Israelites. Lev xxv.
Although Webster does not include Gen 2:1-4, he does direct us to it being the source and definition of the Sabbath. But much to our dismay, Webster while pointing us to Lev 25, he leaves out Lev 23 in regards to the 4th commandment (Ex 20:8-11). But what is revealing is the fact that Sunday has always been associated with pagan sun god worship, so to disregard the seventh day in lieu of the first day, one has replaced the meaning of the resurrection of Messiah, as a sign of restoration, with the worship of the created flesh who was resurrected. But of course one would have to believe that Yeshua did not fulfill the Jonah prophecy by raising before the first day of the week, on His Sabbath Day, but rather stayed in the grave longer than the time He was prophesied to be in the grave in order to bring forth a new command related to an eight day week as is promoted in Christian doctrine. The eighth day according to God’s Word is always in reference to the duration of time for a festival or the number of days after a child’s birth, his eighth day of life. But the eighth day is never used in the context of the counting of a period of time regarding the time set aside for a completed ‘week’ that God defined for us in Gen 1 -2:4 in determining the counting of time regarding days, weeks and years.
It is in Yeshua’s resurrection on the seventh day that the promise of the eternal Sabbath rest was fulfilled. Therefore, to change the seventh day Sabbath to any other day of the week changes the meaning of eternal sabbath rest as beginning on the seventh day as He gave it to us in the beginning. A change from the seventh day denies the fulfillment of the prophecy of His resurrection, thereby denying Him and replacing Him with some other false deity that is said to have risen on the first day of the week. Yeshua never commanded us to worship either He or the Father on the first day of the week and Yeshua never uttered a word to us to honor His upcoming resurrection with a separate day of worship called the ‘Lord’s day’ or the ‘Eighth day’. Quite the contrary, Yeshua stated this in regards to His return to gather us so that we may enter into the eternal Sabbath with Him,
Mat 24:20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
If the seventh day Sabbath was not to be continued, why does He tell us to pray we won’t have to take flight away from the adversary on the Sabbath as if He expected that we would still be honoring the Creator and His Word, by continuing to observe His 4th commandment regarding the seventh day of the week?
And what of the promise of Is 56?
1 Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil.” 3 Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the LORD Speak, saying, “The LORD has utterly separated me from His people” … 6 “Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him, And to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants— Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant— 7 Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Or the warnings of Ezekiel 20 and 22?
20:11 And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them.’ 12 Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. [see Ex 31:13-17]
22:26 Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
Or how about the reiterating of the covenant of promise in Zach 2?
10 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the LORD. 11 “Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.
No, we do not need to use foreign languages to restore the Gospel message of Yeshua the Messiah, we simply need to understand and use our own English language and everything past that is merely for our personal understanding for whatever further purpose He has called us to serve.
Shabbat Shalom! May your journey in, through and of His Word in our English language be blessed and fruitful!
John 1:3 tells us “all came to be through Him, and without Him not even one came to be that came to be”. In verse 4 we are told “in Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind”, therefore, the literal meaning of this passage is that His Word equals life for all mankind.
But now we must back up. Who created the Word? Who gave life to the Word?
Creation for we, the physical realm began ‘in the beginning’, in Genesis 1:1 but for the Father, creation began in His spiritual mind and thus the biography of mankind in the physical realm was born well before it came to be in the flesh. We see this kind of thing taking place in the physical realm daily. Let me explain.
An author writes a book and then some movie producer picks up on it and thinks to himself, ‘this would make a great movie’. And thus the 3-d version of the book is brought to life.
Now this begs the question? Who is the one who owns the original copyright of this book now turned into life, the author of the book or the movie producer who made it come to life? Do all royalties from the movie go to the producer or does the author still continue to own the original copyright and therefore reap royalties as long as the movie continues to sell?
Well sadly today, many authors sell out their right for a one time, looks good payment of money and then the movie producer is now at liberty to change, to take away or to add to the original text of the book. So is this also true of God’s Word? Did He sell His copyright to the Son so that the Son could bring life to all mankind in a way that seems right in the eyes of the Son? Two of the several witnesses in the New Testament testify to us as to whether or not this is true. John 10:18 “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to receive it again. This command I have received from My Father”. 1Co 6:20 “For you were bought with a price, therefore esteem Elohim in your body and in your spirit, which are of Elohim”.
So as it is here, it continues as we read and study the New Testament. We see that the Son did not take liberties with the Word of the Father, but remained faithful to the original Word that was born of the Spirit of the Father.
This process of an original author and then later a producer is not just manifest in books and movies; it is evident in every aspect of our daily lives in the products we use. There is an original concept born in the mind of an inventor, a patent is then procured for that product and then the minute details are then given to a manufacturer who brings that patent to life so to speak. And while the manufacturer reaps benefits from the original patented product, the original patent still belongs to the one who gave birth to the concept of the product and thus the manufacturer is constantly subject to the original owner as long as that product is being produced by the manufacturer.
Now the same holds true for manufactured products as does the book. The original can be sold for a price thereby forgoing any and all future royalties of said product for a one-time payment in full for the patent to the product.
In 1 Cor 15:28, Paul reveals to us that the original copyright of creation has always remained with the Father, “And when all are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself shall also be subject to Him who put all under Him, in order that Elohim be all in all”. The Son, the producer, was and is always subject to the original book and at no time was the Son given liberty to add to or to take away from the instructions given in the original copyrighted book. This is evidenced to Paul in the words of the Son in Mt 5:18 “For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done”.
And this copyright ownership was not revealed just at this one time during the Sermon on the Mount, but it was also reinforced when it was repeated to John in the closing of His book of life, Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the heaven saying, “See, the Booth of Elohim is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and Elohim Himself shall be with them and be their Elohim … 7 The one who overcomes shall inherit all this, and I shall be his Elohim and he shall be My son … 18 For I witness to everyone hearing the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, Elohim shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, Elohim shall take away his part from the Book of Life, and out of the set-apart city, which are written in this Book”.
Now notice the 2 distinct retributions, the former is punishment of suffering plagues and the latter speaks of those who diminishes His authority by diminishing His Word, he is the one who suffers eternal death. The one who says that this part or that part of His Book does not pertain to certain members of His creation should seriously, very seriously take heed these Words of His Book in Rev 22:19.
It matters not who speaks for the Father, the Son or we, the sons and daughters, the original copyright and its royalties have always remained with the Father and will always remain with the Father. Therefore, no one, no not one, not even the Son has ever had the liberty to make changes, to substitute one people for another, to release instructions when the Father had not released them, etc.
The Son, by the authority of the Father was granted the authority to shed His blood so to seal the New Covenant, therefore all royalties from that blood belong to the Father and what are the royalties? They are the lives of those who enter into the New Covenant with the Father through the Son by the authority of the Father given to the Son.
This is why we are told to ‘count the cost’. Are we willing to give, that is to subject our entire being to the Father according to the script of His Book that He revealed through the Son, the producer who has no authority to make even the tiniest of changes to the script or have we become partakers in the stealing of the script of His copyrighted Book by making changes to it that He did not authorize?
Who holds the royalties of your life? The true original owner who never relinquished those royalties or the one who first made himself manifest in the garden, the liar, the stealer of the copyrighted Book that originally belonged to the Father? As it was then, it still remains today, the lie continues …
“If you sin, if you do that which He told you not to do, you will not reeeally die”
There has been no greater lie told since the beginning of the production of His Book. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end, a world that really has no end as His Book truly has no end, but concludes with a revelation of the eternal life to come that was promised to mankind the day He breathed life into them, the life being His Word that put on flesh. He knows all the characters in the 2nd production to come but we do not, and that is why we must all ‘count the cost’ and then upon taking the oath, the confessing of the Son, we are legally bound to the terms of the original copyrighted Book, just as the Son was lest we one day find ourselves in front of Him hearing these words,
“Many shall say to Me in that day, ‘Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?’ And then I shall declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!’” [Mt 7:22-23]
So to reiterate the point, the Son’s blood was not a ‘one-time payment’ for all royalties on the original copyright of the Covenant so that we all now own the copyright thereby allowing us to go and do what is right in our own eyes. And to prove this we need only to revisit the words of Messiah in Mt 5:17 in their proper context of Mt 5:17-20.
Mat 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to complete. 18 For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done. 19 Whoever, then, breaks one of the least of these commands, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the reign of the heavens; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens. 20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the reign of the heavens.”
The Father in the Son, the Son in the Father and the Son in us therefore, the Father in us, as it has been from the beginning. The Son came to direct the production of His Father’s Book and therefore, there has been no breach of Covenant between the Father and the Son. And if we are true to the Word, then there should also be no evidence of any breach of Covenant between we and the Father, the possessor of the original Covenant. This Book of the Father is still in the stage of production, therefore the Covenant between the Father and the Son is still valid.
“Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness’ sake, because theirs is the reign of the heavens”
As long as there is breathe in us, His breathe, it is never too late to exit ‘stage left out in the cold’ and return to His ‘stage of righteousness’. This is the plea of the Son. He wants us all in His production of His Father’s Book of Creation, the Father’s Book of Life!
Virginia, you, as I were taught that we can only be saved through the Righteousness of Messiah. Throughout the ages children of God have been taught that we have no righteousness of our own and are totally covered under His. But is this Scriptural? Is this true? No it is not. In fact the truth is the exact opposite of what we were taught.
In Matthew 3:15 Messiah says “Permit it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fill all righteousness”. This means that John’s part in Messiah’s baptism was counted to John as righteousness.
Mat 21:32 “for John came to you in the way of righteousness…”
In Matthew 5:6 in the Sermon on the Mount Messiah says “blessed are those who thirst after righteousness” and then 4 verses later He tells us that in doing righteousness we will be persecuted and in that persecution for doing righteousness, we will be blessed.
Ok Virginia, I know, you are thinking, well Messiah is speaking to the Jews but do we really know for sure that they were all Jews, that they were all citizens of region of Judea which is the correct and proper definition for the word “Jew(s)” in the bible.
We can quickly understand who Messiah was speaking to by going to the book of Acts. In chapter 10 verses 34-35 we see Peter upholding Messiah’s righteousness teaching He gave during His Sermon on the Mount.
Act 10:34 And opening his mouth, Peter said, “Truly I see that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation, he who fears Him and does righteousness is accepted by Him.
You see Virginia, righteousness simply means doing what is right according to the instructions that the Word of God gave through Moses. (Mt 5:17-20, 22:37-40, 23:1-3) This is what it means to work out our own salvation. With all our heart, mind and strength we strive to do His instructions as He gave them, to do them to the best of our ability and not as a means of salvation but as evidence of our belief in Him that gave them to us to keep us safe and to bless us.
Act 7:37 “This is the Moses who said to the children of Israel, YHVH your God shall raise up for you a Prophet (Word of God) like me (Moses) from your brothers. Him (Word of God) you shall hear.’ 38 “This is he (Moses) who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the Messenger (Word of God) who spoke to him (Moses) on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the Living Words to give to us, 39 unto whom our fathers would not become obedient, but thrust away, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
Heb 4:2 For indeed the Gospel was brought to us as well as to them (at Mt Sinai), but the word which they heard did not profit them, not having been mixed with belief in those who heard it.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we saw His esteem, esteem as of an only brought-forth of the Father, complete in favour and truth.
Every parent understands that as a parent, they know what is best for their children and we being children of God, God knows what is best for us. When we say that we know better than God and turn to worship Him and live in society according to our own will and not His, we are acting like ungrateful and rebellious children. What happens when we disobey our parents of the flesh? We are disciplined. The same is for our Father in Heaven. When we disobey Him, we remove ourselves from His safety covering (His grace/favor) from which all blessings flow and in doing so we are left exposed to the curses of the world.
Heb 12:7 If you endure discipline, God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become sharers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Moreover, we indeed had fathers of our flesh disciplining us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they indeed disciplined us for a few days as seemed best to them, but He does it for our profit, so that we might share His apartness.
Now knowing and understanding that in the flesh we can never be perfect as Messiah was perfect, God from the beginning has revealed an additional Righteousness to come. A Righteousness that has now been fulfilled for all to come under, all that have gone before us and all that are to come, as God’s Word and His promises are outside of time. They speak to all generations as if all generations existed at the same time.
Rom 3:21 But now, apart from the Torah, a Righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Torah and the Prophets, 22 and the Righteousness of God is through belief in Yeshua Messiah to all and on all who believe.
Heb 11:1 And belief is the substance of what is expected, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by this the elders obtained witness. 3 By belief, we understand that the ages were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made of what is visible…8 By belief, Aḇraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he was about to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Rom 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Aḇraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness … Gen 15:6 And he believed in YHVH, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness. Gen 26:5 because Aḇraham obeyed My voice and guarded My Charge: My commands, My laws, and My Torah.
Who and what was it that Abraham believed and in that belief Abraham obeyed?
Gen 15:1 After these events the Word of YHVH came to Aḇram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Aḇram. I am your shield, your reward is exceedingly great.”
Belief in the Son is belief in His Word as the two are one in the same and through Messiah’s Righteousness and His shed blood, we now have security to know that as long as we strive to do that same righteousness that John the Baptist did by being obedient unto death, as long as we acknowledge our sin, ask forgiveness then go and do that sin no more, we too can reach the goal of eternal life just as His only begotten Son, the Living Word did.
1Jn 2:28 And now, little children, stay in Him, so that when He appears, we might have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone doing righteousness has been born of Him.
1Jn 3:7 Little children, let no one lead you astray. The one doing righteousness is righteous, even as Messiah is righteous… 10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Everyone not doing righteousness is not of God,
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible teaches us that there is righteousness for us to attain to. Not for salvation but as evidence thereof. We do what we believe because we believe in what we do. Salvation came in the form of the flesh to instruct and teach us the proper way to do righteousness in the flesh. He did not take it away for if He did then even His own Righteousness which we need in the end is also taken away. If that which defines what sin is according to God (the Father in whose Authority Messiah came in) is gone, then that leaves us in a pretty precarious state as then we have no need of a Messiah at all and everyone can continue to do what is right in their own eyes according to their own will rather than according to God’s will.
Yes Virginia, the Living Word was nailed to the cross, however, that Living Word then resurrected in all its Glory and Splendor as it was in the beginning so that it would forever shine forth throughout the entire world. Through resurrection, the Living Word defeated eternal death thereby obtaining eternal victory over the Adversary of the Living Word.
Know this then, if we are in the Light of the Living Word and He in us, then the Light of the Living Word and all His Righteousness reflects in all that we do because we believe and strive with all our heart, mind and strength, and in humble submission to the One who gave life to both we and His Living Word, if we do this just as the Living Word did while He was in the flesh that was according to what He was supposed to do according to the Father’s instructions, we too will achieve to the same righteousness as our forefathers did and in ‘That Day’ we all together will receive our own crown as Messiah did.
Heb 11:39 And having obtained witness through the belief, all these did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided what is better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
So Virginia, do not let anyone continue to deceive you. You do have your own righteousness in you and this righteousness is a gift, a blessing from God your Father and He is patiently waiting for you to un-wrap this gift, then share this gift from Him with the world.
As some may recall, from recent news, a “National Call to Prayer” for the economic crisis in our nation was held in Texas. I found it rather interesting that they chose Saturday as the day rather than having it held as a national event during Sunday worship services. Why Saturday & not on Sunday when the majority of all Christians worship? Well, this morning during my daily walk with God, the light bulb went off! Let me tell you about it.
One of my now all-time favorite movies is “The Blindside”. The message it sends is so powerful and speaks to so many subject matters that one cannot fully grasp its power in one sitting. The overtones of all the spiritual healing that Jesus taught through his works that are written in the New Testament are astounding. The overtones of His protection for His children cannot be escaped for ones who truly seek Him.
So where did the light come in for me?
The one scene that has stood out for me for some reason was towards the end. The dreadful term paper all students fear as it holds such great weight to their final reward. Do they pass or do they fail? And the choice of literature one chooses for that paper is as important as the paper itself. How do you write about something you do not know or understand? Is not understanding, the root of all knowledge? Let’s reflect on the understanding…
“Their’s is not to question why, their’s but to do & die”
What was Alfred Lord Tennyson really saying when he wrote the now famous “Charge of the Light Brigade”? What knowledge through understanding can we gleam about God from this famous poem?
“Their’s not to question why”
All our life we are told to question everything, especially authority. I agree to a certain extent as all things in life need to have boundaries that protect them. Those boundaries are put there for our protection and what happens when you cross over the boundaries of protection? You are exposed to all sorts of danger & evil. So what we really should have been taught is to question authority with discernment. Proper discernment regarding authority tells us that man is fallible but God is not. God never changes & neither does His Word. He set boundaries for His children for a good reason and one day He will tell us all about it.
Until then, with proper discernment, let’s go to the Gospels to discern the proper understanding of Matthew 5:17-20.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
I want to point out two key phrases in this passage: “Law & Prophets” and “to fulfill”.
“To fulfill”. . . Church authority, theology of man, has taught us that this means that through the crucifixion & resurrection, we are no longer bound to the 10 Commandments or Gods’ statutes & ordinances He spoke to His people through Moses & the Prophets. We are now saved by grace through faith alone. If we sin, all we have to do pray for forgiveness and then keep living our lives the way WE want to as the flesh is separate from the spirit. But is that so? When did circumcision of the heart first appear? Modern clergy & theologians tell us it began in the New Testament with Jesus but I beg to differ with them as God clearly spoke it through Moses in the desert before His children even entered the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 30:6 ~ And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Ezekiel 11:19 ~ Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh
This is the new covenant spoken by Paul in his letter to the gentile church at Corinth.
2 Corinthians 3: 4-6, 12-18 ~ And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. . . Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Paul is teaching that even though the veil remains for many of His children, God has lifted that veil for those who have entered into His faith; including those who had never heard the Word of God let alone read about it.
In God’s language, one of the roots words for fulfill is H7999 (shalom) שׁלם. Reading right to left we have the Hebrew letters sheen: fire, destroy (sh), lamed: strength, authority (l) and mem: chaos (m). Can you see the simplicity of God’s language? Does this word remind you of an oft spoken & sung word in the church? It should. To fulfill is to bring peace. SHALOM! Shalom is “The authority that destroys chaos!” Hebrew doesn’t have vowels thus those jots & tittles Jesus spoke of are what fills in the vowels so we know which Hebrew word He is speaking. Without those jots & tittles His spoken & written word gets all twisted & messed up. And who does that best? Man does!
For the discerned heart then, how do we get peace? Through RESTORATION. In Hebrew, God’s language spoken though Moses & the Prophets, to fulfill is to RESTORE! Not to abolish. Jesus said He came to RESTORE not abolish!
Now that we have that down, we need to understand what Jesus really spoke about the “Law & the Prophets”. Were those really His words? And why are they Capitalized?
In the Hebrew scroll of Matthew that the Greek NT was written from, Law & Prophets is written as one word, (Torah) תּורה. Again, reading right to left we have the tav: mark of as in mark of the covenant, seal as in covenant seal (t), the vav: nail that binds (in this case it is a silent connector), the reysh: head (r) and the Hey: behold, reveal (h). Sounded out we get the spoken word “TORAH”. In other words, what Jesus was saying is that “Behold, the New Covenant of I AM”. The reason “Law & Prophets” is capitalized is that it is “The Word”, the spoken & written eternal & forever covenant of God that Jesus came to instruct upon as man had messed it all up! God had it written down so it could be taught to all generations, from beginning to end and that is why the Five Books of Moses are called the “Torah”. They contain everything we need to know about our Messiah & our spiritual marriage covenant with God. These five books contain all of the “I shalls and I shall nots. Ask yourself, what happens when you break a marriage vow? Then ask yourself how could it be that He came to abolish that which He came to restore which is His everlasting covenant that binds He to us & us to He? Does a marriage counselor tell a couple that in order to sustain the marriage they must keep breaking their vows? Absolutely not! So where did the idea that Jesus came in order to break His Father’s everlasting covenant come from? Well, that is for another lesson and it is a very enlightening one at that. For now, let’s continue on by returning to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem.
“Their’s but to do & die”
Sounds fatal doesn’t it? Taken in a legalistic sense yes; but let’s look at it from a spiritual sense.
“Do”, to serve, to labor, to guard. What was the first commandment God gave to Adam? To do, he was to lovingly tend & guard the garden. He was to be the protector of the gates as not to let any weeds or chaos enter into it. But what happened? Adam fell asleep on the job so to speak and guess who snuck in, the snake who thrives on chaos. He, whose entire being depends on it. Chaos is what happens when we do not protect our hearts from its host. When we do not faithfully tend & guard in God’s Torah, chaos breaks out in our lives, both physically & mentally because we do not understand the awesomeness of His power as the head of the spiritual family. God is our commander, our leader, our protector & our salvation. Every house has rules in order that chaos does not break out and in God’s house there is no exemption. But like a responsible parent’s love, His guides us with tough love and with a gentile hand during the times we truly mess up.
In Hebrew, love is spelled רחם. Again, reading right to left we have the reysh, the head (r), the chet, the fence that protects (ch as in Bach) and the mem, the chaos (m). God tells us that love is “The head that protests the children from chaos”. Does a loving parent let their child run amuck causing chaos in the entire neighborhood as well as their own home or do they gently sit them down to instruct them, to guide them, which in turn protects them from their ignorance? When one loves their parents with their whole heart they strive to always please the parent.
“Die”, to go, walk, come. Where did we come from? Where are we walking? Where shall we go? These are all very important questions each one of us must answer. Jesus said in Mark 10, “take up your cross and follow me” and Psalms 85 tells us that His footsteps are our pathway. Wow, sounds like both action & direction as we see from the Hebrew definition of “die”. Mark 7 & Luke 13: Make straight my path, enter through the narrow gate, narrow is the gate and difficult is the path, wide is the gate & the path to destruction.
It is human instinct to take the path of least resistance, is it not? Well, since we are not talking of human flesh, we need to concentrate on whose spirit is leading us through the path of our life in the flesh. It is this path that leads us to where we will be going. Do we die to the chaos of the flesh that leads us down the broad path to the wide gate of destruction or do we die to the spirit of eternal life by lovingly tending & guarding His Word to make straight the path to the narrow gate in order that we do not miss it. If the world does not see Him in us, how are they to know He even exists? Some of the scribes and Pharisees had changed so much of God’s Word that a lot of people, including scribes and Pharisees didn’t even recognized Jesus as the Messiah while He walked with them in the flesh. Out of ignorance, they instead sought out destruction, the destruction of the Messiah that had come for them.
Matthew 5:20 ~ For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven
Jesus was talking about trustful & faithful obedience, not abundance of knowledge. The adding to & subtracting from God’s word by scribes & Pharisees had caused great chaos. Jesus considered them the lowest of the low. Jesus came as our light in order that we may understand; so that we would be a testimonial light to the future generations of the world after He ascended to be with His Father. He, Jesus, taught that that understanding comes from Moses, “have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?” (Mark 12)
1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, Footnote: Ex 19:5-9. 10 who once were not a people, but now the people of God; who had not obtained compassion, but now obtained compassion. … 21 For to this you were called, because Messiah also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps,1Footnote: 11 Cor. 11:1, 1 John 2:6. 22 who committed no sin,1 nor was deceit found in His mouth,”2 Footnotes: 1John 8:55, John 15:10, 2 Cor. 5:21, John 3:5. 2Isa.53:9.
Which leads me back to the question, why have a national call to prayer to plead to God to destroy chaos on Saturday and not on Sunday? Maybe because they thought they could more easily get God’s ear on His day of rest & worship rather the man-made one that was adopted from the chaos that first appeared in the Garden of Eden? The chaos that was at the foot of Mt Sinai when Moses first descended with God’s 10 Words that God, himself, spoke to the crowd for all to hear; the chaos that rejected God’s Sabbath for a day appointed by man and for man against the will and desire of Our Father in Heaven.
Well, I do not know what the outcome of the national prayer will be; however I do know how the poem ended. Alfred Lord Tennyson went on. . .
Into the valley of death rode the six hundred! . . . When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! . . . Honor the charge they made, Honor the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred.
The brigade feared not. They whole heartily honored and trusted their leader, never questioning his authority or commands. Now that’s FAITH! That’s Glory! That’s HONOR!
God is seeking hearts like that of the Six Hundred for His Brigade! Keep watch for the news of the new Saturday Sabbath study/worship coming soon.
As we come to the final days of Passover when we celebrate the Risen Christ and as I journey into a deeper study of the Christian faith, I find myself learning many eye opening truths that were never taught to me by my church leaders since youth. Truths that I did not teach my children & have not taught grandchildren because I failed to explore Christian doctrine outside of the church teachings.
For the 1st time in my life, I did not decorate for the Christmas season last December & for the 1st time, I am not decorating nor celebrating an Easter,”Estore”, season either. Why? Well, let’s start with the words of Martin Luther …
“The world at the present time is sagaciously discussing how to quell the controversy and strife over doctrine and faith, and how to effect a compromise between the Church and the Papacy. Let the learned, the wise, it is said, bishops, emperor and princes, arbitrate. Each side can easily yield something, and it is better to concede some things which can be construed according to individual interpretation, than that so much persecution, bloodshed, war, and terrible, endless dissension and destruction be permitted.
“Here is lack of understanding, for understanding proves by the Word that such patchwork is not according to God’s will, but that doctrine, faith and worship must be preserved pure and unadulterated; there must be no mingling with human nonsense, human opinions or wisdom.”
“Estore” is a sun goddess worshipped by the pagans during the spring equinox. Bunnies & eggs are her signs of the fertility of mother earth. So the questions begged to be answered are, why did the Roman Catholic Papacy use the name of a pagan god to define one of Christianity’s most important events? Why are Christians all over the globe today still celebrating this pagan event at home & in the Church when God rebuked these pagan religious traditions?
When Judeo-Christian monks worked mendaciously to gain followers by destroying pagan history and defaming the elder gods as demons, they had no weapons to deface the innocence of Eostre. Instead, they adopted her holiday and attempted to graft their values onto it. As the Judeo-Christians could offer nothing better, they simply claimed what existed as their own, changed the story slightly, and then tried to cover up and break people’s connection to the past.
“Ostara, Eostre seems therefore to have been a divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted to the resurrection-day of the christian’s God. – Jacob Grimm, “Teutonic Mythology”
2 Corinthians 6: 14-16 tells us …
“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
The resurrection is about baptism, the immersion into the waters, as a sign of renewel & rebirth of the life of Christ. The Bible no where speaks of bunnies & eggs. The Lord does tell us is that many will come, but few will enter His gates …
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”
When the Pilgrims first settled in American, these pagan customs were banned. These celebrations were deemed unlawful. The Christian Pilgrims had fled Europe for a land in which they could establish Christian communites based on the biblical teaching of Jesus Christ. They wished to shred every heresy & pagan doctrine forced upon them by the Roman Catholic Papacy & the English Church, who had become nothing more than Religious Political & Military entities, that ruled with an iron fist & who kept their people under oppression. In Constantine’s plight to rid the world of paganism, instead of banishing these pagan customs, the Church adopted them as Christian theocracy thinking that they could rid the world of them by giving these pagan customs a Christian definition. In 2 Corinthians 6: 17, we hear His command as to aligning the Church with pagan customs…
” Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord.”AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you”
Now, what does this say of modern Christianity when so-called Christians still cling to pagan traitiditions? It says that paganism is alive and well in the churches of all religions across the globe. The message it sends to me is that Christian churches must cling fast to pagan traditions in order to fill the pews so that they can keep their political & religious military alive. So that they can keep their monetary coffers filled to the brim.
If the Christian churches wished to truly celebrate Passover & Eternal Life through the resurrection of Christ, a more befitting celebration would be to usher in a season of global Baptism. A season of renewal & rebirth through cleansing. The washing away of the old so that one may arise with the new. Now, that’s a MESSAGE!
How glorious a sight would that be, to see thousands Baptized the same way they did during the times of Christ. This is what Passover & Pentecost is about. Isn’t it about time Christians start standing for the truth instead of continuing to partake in pagan customs? The Scriptures give us the rule in no uncertain terms in Acts 5: 29 …
‘We must obey God rather than men’
So, as you gather tomorrow with family & friends to celebrate, ask yourselves … what are you celebrating & how are you celebrating it?
Constitutionally Speaking 