Was Jesus God?

Exodus 20:2-7: "I am Yehowah thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants. `Thou hast no other Gods before Me. `Thou dost not make to thyself a graven image, or any likeness which is in the heavens above, or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth. Thou dost not bow thyself to them, nor serve them: for I, Yehowah thy God, am a zealous God, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on the third generation , and on the fourth, of those hating Me, and doing kindness to thousands, of those loving Me and keeping My commands. `Thou dost not take up the name of Yehowah thy God for a vain thing, for Jehovah acquitteth not him who taketh up His name for a vain thing."

The first three commandments. I grew up as a Seven Commandment Adventist, I say that because Adventists believe that the 4th commandment is the most important, and ignore the first three commandments, however, the 4th commandment is not the most important, it is in fact, the 4th most important commandment...

But I regress, first lets establish how many God's there are...

Deut 6:4 "`Hear, O Israel, Yehowah is Ehohim, Yahowah is one."

Not two, Not three, One.

Now, what are some of the characteristics of Yahowah?

Numbers 23:19: "God is not a man--and lieth, And a son of man--and repenteth! Hath He said--and doth He not do it ? And spoken--and doth He not confirm it?"

1 Samuel 15:29, CEV: "Besides, the eternal God of Israel isn't a human being. He doesn't tell lies or change his mind."

Hosea 11:9, CEV: "Israel, I won't lose my temper and destroy you again. I am the Holy God-- not merely some human, and I won't stay angry."

So, He is not a man, not a human, and not the son of man.

So, Yahowah is not human and He is only One. Not two, not three.

Also, we know that Yahowah cannot die (see Genesis 3:22, among others).

So, what do we know about Jesus?

1. He was human. (Matthew 1:16, among others)
2. He was the son of man. (Matthew 8:20, among others)
3. He died. (Matthew 27:50, among others)

Therefore, by all counts, Jesus is not God, and to worship him, is to be a pagan idolater, and is breaking the first two commandments.

I challenge you to study this and see if what I have quoted here is true.

An additional item I would suggest for study is the genealogy of Joseph in Matthew and Luke. There is a significant difference between the two, and between the genealogy recorded in the Tanach (Old Testament), also, I would point out that the genealogy of Joseph has absolutely no bearing on the genealogy of Jesus, as he was not the son of Joseph, and a son cannot get a genealogy by adoption (Numbers 34:14, Numbers 1:18-44, Leviticus 24:10), and since the genealogy of Mary is not recorded, there is absolutely no proof that Jesus was from the line of David, much less, even a Jew.

The New Testament vs The Tanach, Episode 1

I was not going to get into the subject of Tanach vs New Testament, but seeing as how the subject has been brought up, and there are some people who are interested in knowing why I have taken the position that I have, I will begin sending out a series of e-mails addressing specific aspects and proofs. I will also be posting them to my blog here.  I have spent some years studying the subject and coming to the point I am at now, I did not take the words of others at face value, but I have looked into the matter for myself to see what is the truth?  If you are really interested in examining the evidence to find the truth and setting aside your pre-conceived ideas, I wish you all the best.  Otherwise, if you are really not interested in finding the truth, and don't want to hear anything that might shake your pre-conceived ideas, then you may wish to stop reading now.

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Given the following:

Yahowah does not change  (Malachi 3:6)

The New Testament says that the Tanach (Old Testament) is not to be broken, (John 10:35)
and the source of authority for the New Testament is the Tanach, therefore, if the New Testament does not conform to the Tanach (Old Testament), it therefore has no authority.

Let us then examine what the New Testament says in relation to what the Tanach (Old Testament) says:

The New Testament:

Acts 16:30, 31: "and having brought them forth, said, `Sirs, what must I do--that I may be saved?'
 and they said, `Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved--thou and thy house;'"

The Tanach (Old Testament):

Isaiah 45:20-25  "Be gathered, and come in, Come nigh together, ye escaped of the nations, They have not known, Who are lifting up the wood of their graven image, And praying unto a god that saveth not. Declare ye, and bring near, Yea, they take counsel together, Who hath proclaimed this from of old? From that time hath declared it? Is it not I--Yehowah? And there is no other god besides Me, A God righteous and saving, there is none save Me. Turn to Me, and be saved, all ends of the earth, For I am God, and there is none else. By Myself I have sworn, Gone out from my mouth in righteousness hath a word, And it turneth not back, That to Me, bow doth every knee, every tongue swear. Only in Yehowah, said hath one, Have I righteousness and strength, Unto Him he cometh in, And ashamed are all those displeased with Him. In Yehowah are all the seed of Israel justified, And they boast themselves.'"

Isa 43:11-15  "I, even I, am Yahowah; and beside Me there is no saviour. I have declared, and I have saved, and I have announced, and there was no strange god among you; therefore ye are My witnesses, saith Yahowah, and I am God. Yea, since the day was, I am He, and there is none that can deliver out of My hand; I will work, and who can reverse it? Thus saith Yahowah, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their shouting. I am Yahowah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King."

Isa 45:17-25  "O Israel, that art saved by Yahowah with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith Yahowah that created the heavens, He is God; that formed the earth and made it, He established it, He created it not a waste, He formed it to be inhabited: I am Yahowah, and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I said not unto the seed of Jacob: 'Seek ye Me in vain'; I Yahowah speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations; they have no knowledge that carry the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Declare ye, and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together: Who hath announced this from ancient time, and declared it of old? Have not I Yahowah? And there is no God else beside Me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. By Myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from My mouth in righteousness, and shall not come back, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Only in Yahowah, shall one say of Me, is victory and strength; even to Him shall men come in confusion, all they that were incensed against Him. In Yahowah shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory."

Again, we have the New Testament saying:

Luk 24:46,47  "and he said to them--`Thus it hath been written, and thus it was behoving the Christ to suffer, and to rise out of the dead the third day, and reformation and remission of sins to be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem: "

Where is it written? (I've read the entire Tanach, and I haven't found it yet.)

Eph 1:6, 7  "to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He did make us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the remission of the trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, "

But the Tanach (Old Testament) says:

2 Chron 7:14  "if My people, upon whom My name is called, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

click here for more about the fact that a blood sacrifice is not required for sin.

The Documentary Hypothesis

The Documentary Hypothesis is something I have known about for some time as a phrase, although I have not previously been inclined to read anything on the subject, however it has recently been brought to my attention with the book "Who Wrote the Bible?" by Richard Elliott Friedman.

This week I have been reading this book to see if there is any validity to the arguments for multiple sources.  Reading this book as been an eye-opener to me.  That people would actually buy into this, is beyond me.  The author's of the Documentary Hypothesis don't believe Biblical history actually happened, they take a single story and document, split it up into four different documents, CHANGE IT so that they conflict with each other, and then they say that there was some mythical person long ago that took these mythical documents that they JUST CREATED, and did the exact opposite of what they just did to create a single harmonious document.

I have been told that the author's of the Document Hypothesis point out many contradictions in the text of the Torah, but as I have read about these contradictions, it has struck me that these contradictions don't exist in the Torah, they only exist in the mythical documents that they have created.  Documents that don't exist, never have existed, there is not evidence they have existed.  These atheists could not find a valid reason to do away with the Torah, so they created a set of "straw documents" they could tear apart to invalidate the Torah with.

That is my conclusion of the Documentary Hypothesis.

In short, total fabrication with no basis in reality.

Here is a link to a great article on the subject: Did Moses Write the Pentateuch?

The Karaites, etc.

Its been a while since I have posted here... it's not because I don't think of things to post, every once in a while -- while I am driving down the road for work -- I think of things that I would like to post... but then I never seem to have the time.  At any rate, as I have been studying the Torah it has been coming to my attention for some time now that the Karaites seem to be pretty much right on the truth...  and there seems to be a growing movement of people who are studying the Torah coming to the same conclusion. 

On an additional thought, there is this book out by A. J. Jacobs entitled "A Year of Living Biblically", while this is a fairly funny account of his trying to literally live by the Bible, I would say it is more like trying to live by the Talmud...  of coarse, he also includes the group of writings known as the New Testament in his quest for living.  Personally, I believe it is possible to live according to the Torah and the Tanach.  I am working towards that goal myself, and I believe that the Karaites pretty much achieve that goal... 

Anyway, that's all for now...

What is leavening in the Bible?

The subject has recently been raised as to what constitutes leavening (chametz) חמץ or seh-ore' (leaven) שׂאר according to the Biblical (tanak) definition.

We all agree that yeast is a leaven. But why is yeast a leaven? Well, if you look at the base definition of chametz, you will find that it has to do with fermentation, not with being a rising agent. This can also be seen with the word chometz חמץ, which is the Hebrew word for vinegar.

Now during the Passover, they were to be ready to move out at a moments notice, and the rising of bread with the fermentation process of yeast, was not a fast process, and it could also be argued that the fermentation represents sin, and so for these two reasons, the Israelites were told to only make unleavened bread (matzah).

So then, what about Baking Soda (and Baking Powder)? Well, Baking Soda, works by and completely different process (there is no fermentation involved) and it does so almost instantly, so by both of those attributes, it does not fall under chamatz or seh-ore'.

As an aside, to those of you who would point out that Baking Soda has aluminum in it, I would point out that you can get baking soda without aluminum, but I digress.

In any case, here is a link to a good article on the subject.

Religious inconsistancies in regular life

I came across this funny quote while browsing Slashdot:

We must believe that Unix is a part of Linux on faith alone. This is what we refer to as a "religious mystery," ala the Holy Trinity. Thus, to ask how can Unix and Linux be one in the same is equivalent to asking how the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit can be one, yet distinct. I, for one, need no other proof than the Divinely Inspired testimony of McBride, and anticipate the coming day of His own Passion.

This is referring to the testimony of Darl McBride in court that Linux is Unix System V, which of course everybody with a half competency in programming knows isn't true, and even the other honchos in SCO admitted in court wasn't true.

In any case I thought I would include it here because it makes a valid point about the doctrine of the Trinity. A doctrine that is nowhere in the Tanak, or even the New Testament, and yet millions of people believe it to be true, based on nothing other than the word of the Pope, or their Pastor.

A New Blog --- Whoo Hooo!

I came across a blog entitled The Atheist Jew and the article was lambasting Dr. Carl Baugh with a lot of name calling and taking small bits of what Dr. Baugh had said and adding false hoods to it and then calling it a bunch of nonsense -- the classic create a straw horse and tear it down. He offered no scientific backing for his claims against Dr. Baugh, and all of the comments in his blog supported his point of view. I posted a comment pointing out that name calling is the last resort of those who do not have any facts to back up their views, but the comments are moderated by the blogster and I doubt that my comment will ever see the light of day...

However, in the process I ended up creating this blog...

P.S. The article that started this is here...