GLOBAL  IMPACT  STUDIES

If you find the truth, will you believe it?

If any man desires to do God's will, he will have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from myself and on my own accord.  John 7:17 

Messianic Judaism – A Growing Deception

There is a growing belief among some conservative Christians that advanced spiritual light can be learned from the Jews. They believe in order to be holy and acceptable unto Yahuwah one must become as Hebrew as possible. This is a deception of Satan intended to divert our attention away from the all-important issues at stake in the closing days of Earth’s history.

Scripture records, “Thus saith Yahuwah of hosts . . . he that touches you, touches the apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:8). Based on this and similar texts many believe that if one becomes as Jewish as possible in life, dress, and practice, they will please Yahuwah.  Unfortunately, much of what they adopt are the man-made traditions of the Pharisees.

“With the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, the Sadducees disappeared altogether leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees.  Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition . . . Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future.” (“Pharisees,” The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume IX, [1901-1906 ed.] p. 666)

Those who turn to Jewish traditions to augment their spiritual lives, in actuality, are turning to Pharisaism.  Jewish scholars admit the fact that modern Judaism is Pharisaism.

“Pharisaism became Talmudism . . . [But] the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered. When the Jew . . . studies the Talmud, he is actually repeating the arguments used in the Palestinian academies . . . The spirit of the [Pharisee’s] doctrine has remained quick and vital.” (Louis Finkelstein, The Pharisees: The Sociological Background of Their Faith, Vol. 1, Forward to the first edition, p. XXI)

The Savior’s most cutting rebukes were directed at the Pharisees. He called them “blind guides” (Matt. 23:16), “fools and hypocrites” (Matt. 23:17), “serpents” (Matt. 23:33), and “a generation of vipers” (Matt. 23:33).  Calling out the Pharisees’ apostasy, Yahushua likened them to “whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27). Many sincere Christians today believe the Jews are still Yahuwah’s special people because they once were His people.  However, modern Judaism has no more saving merit than its ancient Pharisaic counterpart. Please see my study on Daniel 9:24-27, where Elohim gave His final ultimatum to the Jewish nation.

Those who look to the Jews for confirmation of light are taking man-made traditions and exalting them to the level of the Divine commands. Yahushua clearly warned of the end result for all who turned to Pharisaic traditions as truth. ”But woe to you, scribes, and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes, and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive the greater condemnation. Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte [convert], and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (Matt. 23:13-15).

Modern Judaism, which is nothing more than ancient Pharisaism, consists of thousands of man-made laws and traditions contained in the thirty-six volumes of the Talmud. Yahuwah says He hates the traditions which obscure the truth and beauty of His commandments, statutes, and judgments.

"O house of Israel . . . I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies.  Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them.  Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings . . . You also carried your tabernacle of Moloch and Chiun, your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves" (Amos 5:1, 22-23, 26, emphasis added).

See my study on the six-pointed star entitled The Mark of The Beast.

“Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.  Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not; and [then] come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” (Jer. 7:8-10).

Israel’s manner of nonobservance to Elohim’s commandments, statutes, and judgments had become so corrupted by man-made rules and traditions, even employing pagan practices, that they destroyed the spiritual essence of Yahuwah’s sacred feasts.  In their attempt to perfectly keep the divine law, the Pharisees added a host of additional rules and requirements and taught that implementing these would keep one free from sin. In words wrought with significance Yahushua denounced these added works of the Pharisees. “For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (Matt. 23:4).

Sincere people who are looking to the Jews do not know the practices they are adopting are founded upon man-made rules and traditions. They think they are rejecting the bad and going back to the Hebrew roots, but the roots do not extend beyond Babylon. Even in the early days of Christianity, there was a tendency among Jewish believers to place a high value on the beliefs, practices, and traditions of the conservative class known as the Pharisees.

To those who were drawn to these human traditions, Paul wrote: “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain . . . Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth . . . to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know Elohim but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work” (Tit. 1:10-11, 13-16, emphasis added).

This is a warning to those who look to the Jews as the repository of divine wisdom. By making the Jews the final authority on spiritual matters believers are led to reject the same truths the Jews have rejected. A prime example is the true Sabbath. Under heavy Roman persecution following the Council of Nicea in the fourth century AD, the Jews set aside the Biblical Sabbath when Hillel II, the last president of the Jewish council, was forced to set aside the Biblical Calendar given to Moses at the time of the Passover in Egypt.

Today, the Jews keep the seventh day of the Gregorian calendar, Saturday, as if it were Yahuwah’s true Sabbath Day. As a result, millions of sincere Christians assume Saturday is the Biblical Sabbath for no other reason than it is the day observed by the Jews. They believe the Jews would never worship on anything but the true Sabbath.  “Yahuwah hath caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest” (Lam. 2:6).  See the study entitled Biblical Calendar: Outlawed, on my website – Global Impact Studies. 

Thus the truth is rejected because people believe the Jews have light simply because they are Jewish. The Scriptures present a very different point of view. Not the Jews of ancient times, not the Jews of Messiah’s time, not the Jews of today keep correctly the divine law in the manner Yahuwah intended.

“Yet Yahuwah testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all of His prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn you from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent unto you by My servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in Yahuwah their Elohim. And they rejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; . . . And they left all the commandments of Yahuwah their Elohim, and made for them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal” (2 Kings 17:13-16, emphasis added).

Man-made traditions do not purify the soul. They merely serve to allow people to feel superior to those who do not hold to the same beliefs. The Creator’s commands are simple and straightforward. “The law of Yahuwah is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of Yahuwah is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of Yahuwah are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Yahuwah is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 19:7-8). 

Man-made rules and earthly traditions over-complicate the divine law adding confusion and false assurance. Two examples of this are “A Jew should and must make a false oath when the Goyim [Gentiles] ask if our books contain anything against them” (Szaaloth-The Book of Jore-Dia 17). “It is more wicked to question the words of the rabbis than those of the Torah” (Michna Sanhedryn 11:3).

If anyone reading this has read from the Talmud you know what it has to say about Yahushua and those who believe in Him. The Jews are always complaining about those who are anti-Semitic when they are anti-Christian. It was the Jews that killed many of the early converts to Christianity when it was in their power to do so.

Yahushua warned His followers about what the Jews would do to them, “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time is coming, that whosoever kills you will think that he does Elohim service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me” (John 16:2-3).

Paul feared the new believers would turn to the traditions, setting aside the simplicity of truth. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Messiah” (2 Cor. 11:3, emphasis added).  

Yahushua swept aside all the traditions of the Pharisees and clarified the comprehensive, yet selfless nature of the divine law. “Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him [Yahushua] a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher which is the great commandment in the law?’ Yahushua said to him, ‘You shall love Yahuwah your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.’ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:35-40).  “The simplicity that is in Messiah.”

Those who turn to the un-Biblical traditions found in Judaism point to all the promises made to Israel, forgetting that Yahuwah Elohim's promises were always given on condition of Israel’s obedience. Israel rejected Yahuwah when they demanded a king. “And Yahuwah said to Samuel, ‘Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me that I should not reign over them’” (1 Sam. 8:7).

Yahuwah bore long with them even after their rejection of Him, but divine love will not remain where it is not wanted; though it may linger long, divine love will sorrowfully bow to the wishes of the obdurate [stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action] heart.

A few days before Yahushua’s death, He mourned with a breaking heart, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kills the prophets, and stones them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, You shall not see Me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of Yahuwah” (Matt. 23:37-39). 

Those who killed Yahushua will be specially resurrected to see His return.  "Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen" (Rev. 1:7).

Paul’s warning to Judaizers nearly two thousand years ago is just as relevant today. Tragically, many Christians who seek to become Jewish begin to replace their vocabulary and even their names with Hebrew words often to the point that it is hard for others to understand them or to be edified by their testimonies or their prayers. There is nothing inherently wrong with learning Hebrew. To do so can be a great blessing and possibly deepen a person’s understanding of Scripture. However, it is when a person uses it in a lofty or vain fashion, not honoring Yahuwah or blessing others that the spirit of Pharisaism comes forth.

Many sincere believers today come under the deception of Christian Zionism. An alarming number of them are being moved to send money to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem not realizing the seventy-week prophecy in Daniel 9:24 was fulfilled in the year AD 34. Choosing to build a new earthly temple for sacrifices and oblations would be an utter abomination against the word of Yahuwah as in doing so engenders contempt toward this most important prophecy. The un-Biblical traditions of Judaism are attempting to supplant the divine inspiration of heaven.  When Yahushua was crucified, "He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease" (Dan. 9:27, emphasis added) forever!

“Then came to Yahushua scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, 'Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.'  But He answered and said unto them, 'Why do you also transgress the commandment of Elohim by your tradition?  For Elohim commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother: and, He that curses father or mother, let him die the death.  But you say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of Elohim of none effect by your tradition.  You hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draws nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me.  But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:1-9, emphasis added).

Modern Jews, as the ancient Pharisees, are not the ultimate authority on that which is pleasing to Yahuwah. Most are secular in mindset and do not rely on “the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yahushua” (Rom. 8:1-4) for their salvation (2 Thess. 2:13). 

Instead, they seek to establish their own means of attaining righteousness.  "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to Elohim for Israel is, that they might be saved.  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of Elohim, but not according to knowledge.  For they being ignorant of Elohim's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness [self-righteousness], have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of Elohim" (Rom. 10:1-3, emphasis added).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Messiah Yahushua, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yahushua [the indwelling of Elohim’s Spirit] hath made me free from the law of sin and death [our inherited, fallen, human nature].  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, Elohim sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1-4, emphasis added).

The promises that were available to the children of ancient Israel are available to spiritual Israel (Rom. 2:28-29) today. “For you are all the children of Yahuwah by faith in Messiah Yahushua. For as many of you as have been baptized into Messiah [not the Trinity] have put on Messiah. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Messiah Yahushua. And if you be Messiah’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal.  3:26-29).  See my study entitled Baptism Part 1.

Yahuwah invites those laboring under heavy Pharisaical burdens to turn to Him, and He will give them peace. “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden light” (Matt. 11:28-30, emphasis added).  He never indicated that we learn from the Jews.

Salvation is an amazing gift of divine grace, made available to us by incredible suffering, to which humanity will always owe a debt of gratitude. The Father, for the first time since He begot His Son, separated Himself from His only begotten Son, and the heart of His Son was crushed under the agonizing pain.

Those who honor their Redeemer are to honor Him in the beauty of holiness, unobstructed by non-Biblical doctrine. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of Elohim, and the faith of Yahushua” (Rev. 14:12). 

“Wherewith shall I come before Yahuwah, and bow myself before the high Elohim?  Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?  Will Yahuwah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Yahuwah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy Elohim” (Mic. 6:6-8). 

Too many people are satisfied with an external form of religion that never reaches the heart where the source of sin exists.  “For from within, out of the heart [the mind] of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:  all these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23). 

Most are content with a religion that deals only with externals, but the heart [the mind] of man must undergo a radical change in order to be fitted for heaven.  Only Yahuwah Elohim Almighty can give us a new heart of flesh in place of our heart of stone.  “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.  And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them” (Eze. 36:25-27, emphasis added).