A little something I sent out to my friends

[Robert]

I honestly believe that until a person learns the language, customs, culture and history of the Bible, they can have no clear understanding of Yahveh. Christians are adamant that the Bible teaches them that the LAW is legalism, bondage and works. They are completely convinced that we are no longer under the LAW, but under grace. But did you know that the phrase, “the curse of the law (Torah)” was used idiomatically in the Bible? The meaning is simple, those who violate the laws contained in the Torah are subject to the curses, i.e., the punishments laid out in the Torah. The phrase, “live by grace,” is also used idiomatically and means, “live by the laws contained in the Torah.” Since Christians don’t know this, they have created a whole new religious reality that is virtually impenetrable and the very thing that is supposed to give them freedom, instead binds them in the chains of hard Egyptian styled labor. The surprising thing is, they all think they are absolutely free . . .

The most common response I receive from people about learning the language etc. is, “God doesn’t expect us to learn all that, we have bills to pay, children to raise etc.” To which I must ask? On what are we to base this reaction? Doesn’t the Bible tell us to, “study to shew ourselves approved unto God? (2Tim 2:15)” To which the response is almost always, “I do study.” Now I know that in 99.9% of the cases, this is simply not true, but I never mention it, as no one likes to be called a liar. Still, lets say that a person actually spends eight hours a day, six or even seven days per week studying an English translation of the Bible; how will they ever know to look for, let alone find the idioms? How will they ever learn the customs, culture and history? I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in middle eastern history and I can tell you this, you don’t want to learn history from google or wikipedia. One other thing I’ve learned from these degrees is that, ALL history is revisionist history, it makes no difference who told the story.

It seems to me that everyone wants patients, and they want it right now. Everyone wants to be delivered of every problem they have right now, anything less is unacceptable. Christians expect God to change everything for the better, i.e., to their desired outcome and anything less stems from a lack of faith. How does the Christian experience differ from a fairytale if all we have to do is believe? Cinderella kept a good attitude, did everything asked of her without complaining and one day, her prayers where answered by her fairy sugar daddy, I mean fairy godmother. Do you see the insane connection here to the teaching about faith in the Church today? The idea that if we only believe we will be, healed, delivered and even saved is not Biblical, it is a fairytale, but the English Bible is so poorly translated that Christians actually believe this nonsense even with contradictions such as, “not the hearer (the one who just believes) but the doers of the LAW who will be saved (Rom 2:13).

Yeshua taught us that if we were not willing to drop everything, mother, father, sister, brother, children, work, possessions, and place Him first in our lives, we where not worthy of Him, yet we find every excuse in this world to go on living our lives as always, wondering why nothing ever changes. Wondering why we cannot conquer our unruly tongues, our emotional outburst, our depression, our loneliness, our confusion and disappointment. People in general, but especially Christians put on a show for all to see. They try to appear as though they have it, “all together,” and are unaffected by the cares of this world. The crazy thing is, we all do it, and we all believe that everyone else has it together except us. We keep it our little secret because we don’t want anyone to know that, we are somehow the only people on this planet that can’t get it together. Does this sound like godliness, or does it sound like bondage? I’m just saying . . .

The easiest way for the devil to keep Christians in bondage is to convince them that when everything goes well, they are in the will of God and when things go badly, they are out of the will of God. Christians actually believe that when they come to God, “ALL hell breaks loose.” People believe that they, of their own volition, decide to come to God and then He turns the devil loose on them. But John 6:44 tells us that we only have thoughts of getting closer to God when He draws us. Ask yourself this, “why does God draw us?” I believe it is because He knows that the attack is eminent and He is trying to be there for us, but instead of appreciating the fact that He pulled us to His chest before the storm, we spend all our time blaming Him for it.

The Bible teaches us that if men hated Yeshua, they will hate us (John 15:18). The Bible tells us that we will go through fiery trials (Pet 4:12), I could go on but I think what Christians need to know is that God never promised us a rose garden. That is to say, God never promised that He would get us out of our situations. Did you know that, “the Lord will make a way where there seemeth to be no way,” is not in the Bible? While God doesn’t offer to get us out of our situation, He does promise to walk through it with us if we will just follow His lead.

The devil hates us, he will try to destroy us even if we don’t believe God exists, just ask an atheist if they’ve ever had a hard time in life? The truth is simply this, with or without God, we are going to walk through the fire if we live long enough or are unfortunate enough to be born in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve discovered that it is better to go through the fire with God, than to go through it alone.

To those who would say, “what’s the point of living for God if He’s not going to give me money, fix my problems, heal my illness etc.? Why would I need Him in my life if He does nothing for me?” I would have to say this . . . Here in lies the fundamental problem with Christianity today. That is to say, selfishness and me-centric thinking is the bondage of this world and is just as prevalent in the Church as it is outside of it. As long as we are the center of our world, we will never recognize the love of God.

I can also tell you this, the love of God is found in its deepest, most spiritual form in the words of His law. There is no legalism in the Law, there is no bondage associated with it. God did not give us a law that couldn’t be followed, He is not a sadomasochistic monster. God gave us all a standard by which we could all live, i.e., the path/way by which we are to follow, what do we think Yeshua was speaking of in Mat 7:14?

The teaching that we are no longer under the law but under grace is true to the degree that the idiomatic phrase means that, “as long as we live by the Laws found in the Torah, we are not under the judgment (curse) but under the grace it gives us to live free from the bondage of the curse.” The teaching that we can sin as much as we want because we are covered by grace is damnable heresy (2Pet 2:1). If we are no longer under the law, from which law are we set free? Can we now kill, steal, murder? Is helping your neighbor get his ox out of the ditch actually legalism, or is it basic human kindness? You see, the law of God is nothing more than a path we follow, a path of human kindness and interaction that does no harm and rights every wrong. Why oh God why would anyone want to live in a place free of something like that? Its simple, rebellion.

1st John 3:4 says, “Everyone who commits sin transgresses (rebels/violates) the law (Torah): because sin is transgression (rebellion/violation) against the law (Torah).

The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), and while we all should know that not all sin leads to death (1John 5:17), we should also know that a lifestyle of sin will lead to eternal death. Keep in mind, that a lifestyle of sin is a lifestyle contrary to the Torah, while a lifestyle of grace is a lifestyle of living by the laws contained in God’s Torah.

I know that I say some things that are hard to hear. I realize that I teach things that go against everything most Christians have come to believe about God and the Bible. People come to me because they know there’s something more than what they’ve found in the Church, but they have a tendency to leave me the moment I say something against their long-held, widely accepted beliefs. But I assure you, I’m not preaching false doctrine, and while there can be no doubt that I don’t get everything correct; surely I’ve earned the benefit of the doubt? I would never lead anyone down a false road, not intentionally. But at some point Christians have got to ask themselves, “why isn’t Christianity working?” I’m not writing this to people who say there’s nothing wrong with the church, they are either liars or complete airheads. Instead, I’m writing this to those who see the hypocrisy and the decline of sound doctrine and just want to know the truth no matter what it is or where it takes them.

We can all go on with the status quo or we can embrace the path God gave us and live by His law. Of course, we are going to have to learn His law if we are to live by it. When the Bible speaks of Gods LAW being written on our hearts and minds, it is again an idiomatic phrase not meant to be taken literally. If the words of God’s law are nothing more than words to those who live by it, they will eventually be unfaithful to it and perhaps even walk away from it all together. If on the other hand, His words are written on our hearts, we will be faithful to follow them to the end. Here’s a practical example. Some people are not faithful to their spouses because the words of their marriage contract are nothing more than words. Others are faithful to their spouses because the words of their covenant is written on their hearts and minds.

I’ve come a very long way to say this . . .

We cannot and will not become more than conquerors until we submit ourselves to the absolute authority of God and live by the Law He gave us. We cannot and will not possess the ability to help others until we learn to help ourselves. We cannot and should not teach the Bible until we have mastered the language, thinking process, customs, culture and history of the Bible. I’ve laid out the Biblical/Scriptural reason for this belief in my messages, “Leadership qualifications 1 and 2” so I wont try and explain it here. I further believe that while God doesn’t get us out of anything, He is more than willing to go through it with us.

I was once a raging bully who took great pleasure in humiliating others, a know-it-all without an education. I put on a show of self-confidence and arrogance like no one else to hide my insecurities and feelings of inadequacy. A liar who believed himself to be honest, full of integrity and upright before all men. A person who judged others by their actions while judging myself by my intentions. A miserable shell of a man who could fly off in a cussing raging fit of insanity at the least provocation somehow always believing it to be justified. I didn’t attend church regularly, I didn’t live a godly life, yet I was convinced that I knew as much if not more about the Bible than my pastor and was of course going to heaven. While I felt that God was angry with, and punishing me for every little thing I did or didn’t do; I was still convinced that He would say, “WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, ENTER INTO THE JOYS OF YOUR LORD!”

It’s been a long, hard, almost unbearable journey from what I was to what I’m becoming. Each passing year has shed more and more of my anger, more and more of my selfishness, more and more . . . The point is, God didn’t take anything away from me, I’m in worse physical condition than I was when I gave my life to Him. I was rich (financially speaking) when I gave my life to Him and am now living on the brink of homelessness. But I wouldn't trade the small amount of peace I’ve found for one paycheck, one luxury car or a large house. I wouldn’t trade it for anything I had in my past, or anything this world has to give, not one thing. I still feel like I don’t study, pray or worship enough. I still don’t feel like I have the relationship I should have with Him, but I believe He’ll finish what He started in me. Peace wasn’t real in my life until some time after I started this journey. It is my hope that you are all on this same journey.

[A.W. Bowman]

Thanks Robert!

I guess that is why, after 35+ of study, I can only claim to be a 'serious student' of the word. One who shares some of what he thinks he has learned, yet is still not a qualified teacher. James 3:1 and 1 Timothy 1:7 (both in context), quickly come to mind.

Shalom Aleichem