A Jealous God?

Exodus 20:1-5 sets forth the first two commandments according to the earliest account. It says: "And Elohim spoke all these words saying, I am YHVH, your Elohim, which have brought you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other Elohim before my face. You shall not make yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for YHVH, your Elohim, am a jealous El, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."

YHVH tells us through the authors of the Torah that he is a jealous G-d 9 times. It is interesting that YHVH makes a point of telling us not to worship other g-ds, not because they do not exist, but because He is Jealous. One cannot be jealous without something to be jealous of. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that there are other Elohim. And yet, all of the Elohim are children of El, the Highest. When Moses gave the Torah, he believed in other G-ds. He believed in the G-ds of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and Cana'an and other people's g-ds. In fact, he did not claim that we should not believe in other gods. He merely said that we should not worship them. Deuteronomy 32:8-9 specifically admit that YHVH is the god of Jacob's people, and not any others.

The Pharisees claim that there is only one G-d. I do not disagree with them on that point. But, they claim that the only G-d is YHVH when neither he nor the Torah say that it is true. Rather, we are taught repeatedly that there are other G-ds and that the Highest G-d is El, his title being Elyon, the Highest. El is one. He is not five, seventy or any other number. But, he is not known either. Our only interface with him, according to Scripture, is YHVH in the form of Yeshua ha Meshiach. Is it wrong for people to worship other G-ds. The answer is no. If they are not the children of Jacob, they should worship their own g-ds and not YHVH. The one thing that is true from a scriptural point of view is that while YHVH is jealous, he does not deny the existence of other gods nor claim those who belong to other gods.

Yeshua was a xenophobe. He wanted to free Israel. He did not want to convert gentiles. Why? They had their own gods and he did not want to interfere with their worship. So where did we go wrong. How did we get to the place that there was only one Elohim and it was not El. Paul, as usual, did not understand Nasorean tradition or scriptural interpretation. He did not know that most Jews believed that there were other G-ds. He mistakenly thought that if one converted to Judaism, one affirmed not only that YHVH was your g-d but that there were no other g-ds. There is no evidence that Jews in the time of Yeshua ever thought such an idea.

Fortunately, the True G-d El is not jealous. He lets us believe in Allah, YHVH, Yeshua, Brahma, Vishnu, Krishna, Marduk, Isis, Horus, etc. without becoming alarmed. Why? One is not jealous of ones children, if they are they sane. El tries not to get involved in the interpersonal relationships of the Elohim. He appointed YHVH their King and expects that he will run the Universe well. Be not confused. El is G-d, there is no other. The others who call themselves G-ds are Elohim, the sons and daughters of El.

BEFORE THE GREAT WHITE THRONE

There is a song that like a few others of the same genre speaks so loudly to a person of faith that we find ourselves transformed by the words. David wrote the Psalms in this way. They were words that came from deep within a heart that was transformed by the light of the Holy Spirit. It is perhaps significant that the writer of the song that has captured my imagination is a Cohen, a priest of the People.

The song goes like this:

There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do ya?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah.

You say I took the Name in vain
I don't even know the Name
But if I did, well really, what's to ya?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah.

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

The song although it is about the failed mission of Yeshua, failed in the view of some at least, applies to all of us. Each of us will approach the Great White Throne with all our successes and all our failures. Any failures are total failures and none of us has a right to heaven, a right to bliss. Yet, Hallel, the Accuser, will claim that every indiscretion, every mistake, is sufficient to deny us bliss. Ultimately, we must stand before the Lord of Mercy who sits on the Great White Throne and listen to our crimes and failures. What can we say? What words can change the truth? The song gives us the answer: With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah.
Ultimately, the job of all of us is to meet life with the words: Praise You the Lord, Hallelujah. Don't quibble. Stand before that Throne knowing that we deserve whatever we get and simply say: Hallelujah.

Seafood vs. Marijuana, Man's Law vs. G-d's Law

As you know, this blog is dedicated to looking at the world situation from a higher place, a place that is removed from the emotions of the world and set clearly in Scripture. Tonight I wish to speak again about what I call popular and increasingly Evangelical Protestant morality and to compare that morality with the Torah, the only law given by G-d.

Before we start, I want to briefly talk about one of the largest misconstructions in the many false statements found in Pauline writings, because it provides the basis for much of this false morality. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from G-d, and that you are not your own?” 6:19. Now the passage is arguing against prostitution and seeks to convict the believers to avoid prostitutes and argues that a prostitute and person who has the Holy Spirit are incompatible and that believers should not have intercourse with prostitutes, not because it is wrong, but because it defiles or makes unclean the body which is owned by the Holy Spirit. However, in Ephesians, the Pauline writer says that the believer is only one of the many who are being built together into a temple. Ephesians 2:21-22. Likewise, in 1 Peter 2:4-5 we are told that we are living stones being built into a spiritual house. The result of looking more carefully at what Paul is saying is that the believer is not by himself a temple, but merely a stone which may be rough or perfect depending on his spiritual growth. Paul, like the writer of Ephesians and 1 Peter, agrees that we should avoid things that are bad for us, but he does not insist that the State forbid those things which are bad for us. His letter in 1 Corinthians was not a new law, but merely an explanation why believers should not do that which is temporally lawful, because it is spiritually bad for them.

With that said, the Torah tells us some foods which are lawful to ingest and some foods which are not lawful to ingest. Genesis 9 lays down some general laws that are applicable to all the children of Noach, which, of course, all of us are. G-d says: I give them all (meaning the living creatures) as I did the green plants. Genesis 9:3. Moses tells us that G-d forbade to the Hebrews these animals that came from the water: “But the various creatures that crawl or swim in the water, whether in the sea or in the rivers, all those that lack either fins or scales are loathsome for you and you shall treat them as loathsome. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their dead bodies you shall loathe.” Leviticus 11:10-11. Now, Jesus made these laws effective on Gentile believers when he said in Matthew 5:19-21 that the law was still effective and had not passed away.

The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach says: “G-d makes the earth yield healing herbs which the prudent man should not neglect; … he endows men with the knowledge to glory in his mighty works, through which the doctor eases pain and the druggist prepares his medicines…” Sirach 38:4,6-7. Marijuana comes from a green plant and has many medicinal qualities. Opium, heroin, and hashish come from a green flower and have long been used as pain killers. Cocaine comes from a plant many of us like very much, the coca plant, the source of chocolate. All of these plants are lawful to the believer. Using them and eating them is lawful. On the other hand, shrimp, lobster, crab, mussels, scallops, oysters, squid, and octopus are not lawful and are called loathsome and forbidden to man.

In our society, we have denied the civil rights of persons, we have incarcerated person, we have forbidden the sale of green plants, we have allowed warfare in our streets and neighborhoods and we have brought Mexico to civil war for the sake of interdicting something that is lawful under G-d’s Torah. At the same time, we wring our hands and cry foul against the destruction of the seafood industry in the Gulf of Mexico, an industry altogether loathsome to the Almighty. We want to break a mighty company and limit resources of this country rather than stop this unwholesome and loathsome industry. Evangelical morality makes marijuana illegal and shrimp legal. Evangelical morality makes the murder of babies legal, but the execution of criminals illegal. Evangelical morality seeks to impose its view of what is good against G-d’s view of what is good. From where I sit, high on my mountain, I shake my head and try to understand how G-d’s law is rejected and man’s law is adopted.

The eating of forbidden seafood desecrates the Temple of G-d much more than using cigarettes and marijuana. The eating of forbidden seafood is loathsome to G-d, but marijuana, cocaine, heroin, etc. are not.

Apostolic Succession

Roman society valued things with a long history. They liked antiques and antique philosophies. They wanted pedigree. Judaism had a pedigree. It stretched back long before there was a Rome and so Rome put up with the idiosyncracies of Judaism until 70 CE with the exception of plural marriage. Rome saw the sects of Judaism as one church, not 21 churches and so they did not make great distinctions between the sects based upon the distinctions that the sects made between themselves.

The Nasorean Movement as I have said before started between 168 BCE and 97 BCE. No one today can be sure as to when the Teacher of Righteousness began his exile and when he began to form a new philosophy within Judaism. However, by the time of Yeshua, three young men had been prepared to be the Three Pillars of the Nasorean movement; they were Yohannan (John) called the Baptist who was to be the High Priest, Yeshua bar Yotsef (Jesus) who was to be the King, and Ya'akov (James the Just) who was to be the Prophet. When Yohannan was executed, many of his disciples remained loyal to his teaching of strict asceticism and obedience to the Essene theology. Many more of his disciples came over to Yeshua who had discovered during his faith crisis that he was Melchizedek returned. Melchizedek was considered Divine and a Heavenly Being by the Essenes. The followers of Yohannan became the Mandaeans of today and even now they call there leadership, Nasoreans, but the followers of Yeshua coalesced around the apostles and especially the Apostle James Alphaeus called the Just One after Yeshua's death.

While the Apostles were alive, Paul and his heresy were not successful. The Apostolic tradition was Jewish with the addition of belief in Yeshua as the Meshiach. The idea of a succession was completely different for the early church, because when an Apostle began to travel and to spread the faith, another was appointed to sit on the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem. Eusebius records there names in his Ecclesiastical History as Richard Bauckham argues in his Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church. Thus, the Apostolic Succession took place during Ya'akov's 34 year reign, by replacing the Apostles who were now gone from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the source and center of the Nasorean movement and of the true faith.

After the destruction of Jerusalem and the removal of the church leadership to Pella, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria and even Byzantium began to have significance in establishing norms upon which the church would function. As James Tabor has said, with the destruction of Jerusalem, being a Jew fell into disfavor in Rome and gentile believers sought to separate themselves from any Jewish taint. One of the first things to go was the Sabbath. After making the initial decision to break with Judaism, in its form as the Nasorean sect, the Paulines created a doctrine which became known as supercessionism which said that the Pauline heresy superceded Judaism. The idea was contrary to the teachings of the Apostles and the stated teachings of Jesus. It even contradicted the later teachings of Paul in Romans 11. Nonetheless, this idea further separated the Apostolic Church that descended from Jerusalem and the apostles from the false and unJewish teachings of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria.

In the late second century, a Pauline theologian who lived in Africa, one of the most famous, Tertullian, became a follower of Montanus and Prisca and Priscilla, a prophet recognized by the Church and later anathemized when he started teaching that Prophets were superior to Bishops. The Didache had already settled this issue. Prophets are superior to Bishops. Tertullian considered that issue settled as well. The Church responded that the Bishops were the successors to the Apostles and that their succession was the only legitimate church. Tertullian responded in the following way: he wrote the Pope of Rome, who was his Patriarch, that the early bishops were in communion with Jerusalem and each other, an idea he called Communio. He said that the early Bishops also had traditio, for him that traditio or tradition was probably the teachings of Origen and eventually Arius. They certainly were not the teachings of the Apostles, for the Pauline Heresy had deviated too much from Judaism at that time to find the true Tradition of the Apostles. Lastly, and most tellingly, he argued that Peter and the Apostles had potestas or charismatic power. They could heal, teach with power, prophesy, perform miracles, raise the dead, and do the things that Yeshua had done. Montanus could do those things as well. Tertullian said that the Pope was wrong to support Montanus as he was well within the Apostolic tradition. From his writing, the ancient churches: the Nestorians, the Monophysites, the Orthodox, the Romans, the Anglicans, and the Lutherans derive the doctrine of Apostolic Succession.

While I do not deny that there is a valid Communio or Communion of the Bishops in these churches with the Apostles, I deny that they have either Tradition or Power and therefore while not denying the possibility of Apostolic Succession, I do deny that anyone has it today.

The Nasoreans would allow their Patriarch to be ordained by a Bishop within the Communion of the Apostles. As we have a Jewish tradition, consistent with the early Church in every way, we have Tradition already. As our Patriarch regularly heals the sick, casts out demons, and performs miraculous acts, and whereas, he has raised the dead and picked up the snakes, and multiplied objects, he has performed all the acts of Potestas or Power. We teach that our Patriarch if ordained would be the beginning of a new Apostolic Succession.

However, it would be unfair of us not to mention another form of succession, one which a particular church has, and to note that although that church lacks tradition, it does have a succession of importance. Likewise, there is another church, an ancient church, which maintains much of the ancient tradition and many of its bishops may have performed some acts of Power. It wish to mention without fully commenting on them. The first church was founded by a Prophet and in accordance with Ephesians 2 can claim that it rests upon the foundations of the Temple not made with hands in that its Prophet was ordained a Bishop and laid hands on the subsequent bishops of his Church. That church is called the Church of God in Christ. The other church likewise mainly composed of black people is Ethiopian Coptic Tahwedo Orthodox Church which maintains many of the Jewish traditions including the kosher rules.

To reiterate, I believe in Apostolic Succession. I deny that any bishop in the world has it. I propose a method to re-establish it.

One Nation Under G-d?

As I have demonstrated in the past, the G-d of Israel is YHVH, but He is not the True G-d. The True G-d is El who is Shaddai and Elyon, that is Almighty and the Highest. There are additional G-ds which the Scripture calls "foreign G-ds". Deuteronomy 32:12. Each nation listed in the Table of Nations (See Genesis 10) plus Israel have their own G-ds. So which of these G-ds is the one that our country is under?

This nation is a melting pot. There are people from all seventy of the ancient nations that live here. But the Highest G-d, El, is Lord of all the G-ds; he is the True G-d and it is under him that we live, under Him that we exist. Does he care about any nation or people? There is no evidence in Scripture for that claim.

So is there someone else that cares about us? In Psalm 82:1, it says that YHVH stands in the Assembly of the G-ds and makes judgment. Now, judgment is the prerogative of the King or Viceroy. Psalms 82:6 says that the Assembly is the composed of the Sons of El. So we can presume that the judgment is made in the name of El, by his viceroy or prime minister. The name of the King of Heaven, the Viceroy of G-d, is YHVH. So, He cares about us, not just his inheritance, the Jews, but about all of us, in the same way that the Queen of England cares about her people as well as her family.

The answer then to the question which G-d is the Nation under is all of them and which one is in charge, YHVH, for He is the King of Heaven. In fact, Psalm 24:1 denies the constant claim that the earth is Satan's domain. It says the earth is YHVH's and not just part of it, but all of it. So, the earth is YHVH's domain as he is King and he is the G-d that we are under.

Well then, is America a Christian nation? No. It is not. It is a nation under the protection of all the g-ds and especially of the G-d of Israel, YHVH. If you must say that this nation is under one G-d, which it is not, then you would have to say it was a Jewish nation, because it is under the Jewish G-d. America is therefore unique. It is inextricably connected to Israel. As goes the people of Israel, so goes America.

Are there foreign policy implications to this truth? Well, sort of. While there is no need to support the false secular state calling itself Israel, there is a need to support the Children of Israel who live there. They are being oppressed by the Children of Ishmael and Esau in an age old war. We must choose which side we are on in this war. If the so-called Palestinians, in reality, the Edomites, had demonstrated that they could control the borders, provide peace and security and respect human rights, we should support them. But, this is not true. The atheist and secular government of the so-called state of Israel has done a much better job of protecting the borders, providing peace and security and respect for human rights. At this time, our country should demonstrate the required prayfullness for Judah and Jerusalem by supporting Israel. The time may come when that is not true.

One Nation Under G-d -- that we are, but may be it should be ONE NATION UNDER ALL THE GODS.