From beginning to end, the whole Bible is about Jesus. This is true of the New Testament, which tells the story of Jesus’ coming to live with us. And it is true of the Hebrew (Old) Testament, written long before Jesus is born in Bethlehem.
The New Testament and the Hebrew (Old) Testament make up the whole Bible, and together they tell the story of God’s unconditional love for the world. That love comes into clearest focus in the coming of Jesus: through his prophesied birth, through his actual birth life and work, through death and resurrection.
Sometimes we think this fulfillment is only about those things in the story of Jesus which were predicted in the Hebrew Testament. But there is much more to it. Fulfillment is especially about words, events in the Old Testament finding a more profound meaning in our story of Jesus. We will go back to the beginning!
John 1:1-5, 12-14 Authorized (King James) Version
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
“In the beginning was…” is Deity’s statement of fact. “In the beginning…” are words pregnant with meaning that subordinate logic, philosophy, psychology, and science. “In the beginning…” is a concept that astounds both the religious thinker and confounds the secular theorist. It impacts both the believer’s mind and the atheist’s imaginings but, “In the beginning, was the WORD, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Before time and before space were created, before angelic voices chorused their harmonic, “holy, holy, holy”, in heavenly places, was ‘The Word’. Do we appreciate the beginning?
The Gospel of John is a portrait of Jesus Christ in the flesh, and his saving work. It focuses on the last three years of Jesus’s life and especially on his death and resurrection. Its purpose is clear in John 20:30-31 “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The book of John is written to try and help people come to know who God is, believe on Christ and have eternal life.
When John says, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name,” he meant that he was writing to awaken faith in unbelievers and sustain faith in believers — and in that way lead both to eternal life. And there may be no better book in the Bible to help you keep on trusting and treasuring Christ above all.
This portrait of Jesus is a written testimony by an eyewitness who was part of these infinitely important events. Five times in this Gospel we find the unusual words “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2, 7; 21:20). John wrote this book as his divinely inspired testimony and witness to the events of Jesus’s life, how John came to be changed and, today, what they mean for us.
John’s First Three Verses
Those words — “word of God”— bring us to the beginning words of John’s Gospel. John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
These are the verses we focus on today.
‘The Word’: Jesus
First, we focus on the term word. “In the beginning was the Word.” The most important thing to know about this Word is found in verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Word refers to Jesus Christ.
John knows what he’s about to write in his Gospels 21 chapters. He is going to tell us the story of what Jesus Christ did and what he taught. This is a divinely inspired book about the life and work of the man Jesus Christ — the man that John knew and saw and heard and touched with his hands (1John 1:1).
He had flesh and blood. He was not a ghost or an apparition appearing and vanishing. He ate and drank and got tired, and John knew him very closely. Jesus’s mother lived with John in the last part of her life (John 19:26).
Therefore, what John is doing in John 1:1-3 is telling us the most penultimate things about Jesus that he can. It took John more than three years to figure out the fullness of who Jesus was. But he does not want any of his readers to take more than three verses to find out what took him so long to know. He wants us today to have in our minds, fixed and clear, from the beginning of his Gospel, of the eternal majesty and deity and Creator rights of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
Christmas celebrates the incarnation of God… (the Word becoming human – flesh and blood)
…in the years of our Lord 2020 and 2021, however – on the human level – or the family level These have been “non-incarnation” Christmases (!)
… if incarnation means to take on flesh and blood – to show up in person …. well, not this year!
Instead of an incarnation Christmas we might call it a “virtual Christmas” …
Christmas on the screen – on smart phones, on face time… on Zoom… on Twitter… on Facebook Messenger… indeed it is Christmas on the screen!
The new and emerging reality threatening us is Family cannot come home (easily)… travel is being restricted. “It won’t be the same this Christmas…”
“this year will be different”
Maybe this coming year we can appreciate a little more of what God did to overcome the obstacles of “long, long distance” travel to visit our planet…
To visit the nations… to visit our families… to visit our “neighbors”… our “shut-ins”… visit our prisons… and hospitals… our street people… our refugee camps.
1 John 1:1-3 Authorized (King James) Version
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3 that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
MERRY INCARNATION 2021 (and beyond)!
How did God do this?
How did he pull it off?
Where did he get the idea?
I mean it’s unprecedented!!! Never been done before… never been done since… never will be done ever again!
Not that the original incarnation was a 33 year experiment… it wasn’t;
I mean the Son of God being eternally pre-existent – he always was. He is not a “creature” – by that I mean …he isn’t created.
But something happened in that stable in Bethlehem that continues even today – God took on human form – and he’s never discarded it!
Even now…Christ our Lord – risen from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, retains his full humanity.
Yes, the incarnation was for real – and it’s still real.
Because we are made in the image of God, we also have a desire to be physically present.
Nowadays, Church is in a similar situation (!) – it’s infinitely more convenient to stay home and watch worship online – but it can never be quite the full church experience – it’s virtual church – not incarnational church!
Think about it… no make-up… don’t shave… no dressing up… get a coffee anytime… no annoying people to tolerate… you can even mute the sermon, and no one will know (sort of …except God himself – God will know!) … now who wouldn’t prefer that!!!
Do not get me wrong here, I believe virtual church is a good thing for those who could not otherwise, for whatever reason not including ‘100% laziness’ get to a physical church building… but it’s more like an on-ramp… it’s not the highway!
It’s a good entry point – but it’s not flesh and blood community!
*** Christmas is about God going “all in” to reach humanity — God knew that we needed Him to “show-up” … to enter the human experience fully!
Watching from the throne room of heaven wasn’t going to reach us… he had already sent prophets aplenty…he had to “come down” … get into the dust and the flies… into a family… into a country… into a culture… into a language… into a tradition… into working with his hands… into fishing…and carpentry…so he did – in fact he came right into an occupied military state… no electricity… not one piece of “smart” technology… no internet! …No cars, RV’s … no refrigeration…
God Before Christmas/Incarnation: V. 1-4
Creation/new creation language
With God/ was God
All things were made by him…
Matthew 1:18-25Authorized (King James) Version
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife: 25 and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
God “broke into” the ages long silence of the darkness which overcame that world as that first couple had come to know it, being under Roman oppression.
But Philippians 2:6-8 tells us he emptied himself of the exercise of his divine attributes {“Kenosis”}’
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Quote:
“The incarnation was a historical and unrepeatable event with permanent benefits… Reigning at God’s right hand today is the man Christ Jesus, still human as well as divine, though now his humanity has been glorified. Having assumed our human nature, he has never discarded it, and he never will. …Reverend John Stott
Dear sisters and brothers,
On this Christmas Day, we have a text from the Gospel according to Saint John (John 1:1-14) for our reflection:
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.”
The search for the true meaning of Christmas is a recurring and ever changing one.
And yet, too often the answers we provide, even from the church pulpit, are more sentimentality, comfortable traditions than they are any deep reflection on the significance of the Incarnation for humanity.
It is not about the ‘spirit of giving’ or the ‘quest for global peace’, or the ‘importance of family’, or the beauty of a snow-decorated ‘silent night.’
Sure, we can immediately say that Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.
But…
Exactly, why is that fact so significant beyond the affirmation of a historical fact or a creedal confession?
How does or how should, the meaning of Christmas impact our lives on a daily basis as the people of God?
Perhaps for an answer, we need to return to the beginning biblical narratives, apart from all the traditions that we have heaped around them to make them more entertaining and more coherent to modern ways of thinking to make meaning of Christmas during the pandemic.
At the heart of the nativity narratives in both Matthew and Luke, is a simple, but too overlooked, uncommunicated fact: amid the struggle of a people who had longed for many years for God to act in the world in new ways, God came to be with them in a way that totally identified himself with us, as human beings.
Amidst the most unlikely of circumstances, to the most unlikely of people, God became human for the truest love, salvation of all people, and the entire world.
I personally also meditate the true meaning of Christmas is about possibility.
It is not the kind of possibility that comes from a confidence in our own skill, knowledge, ability, or a positive mental attitude.
It is a possibility that comes solely from the fact that God is the kind of God who comes into our own human existence to reveal himself and call us to himself.
It is a possibility which is so surprising at its birth we are caught unaware, and so are left with wonder at the simplicity of its expression in this infant child.
It is a possibility that is easily symbolized by a helpless infant that has nothing of its own by which to survive; but an infant that, because He is Immanuel (God with us, God within us), will surely, forever change the world and all humanity.
It is this same God who has promised to be with us, with His people, with the Church and with us individually, as we live, we love, as His people in the world.
It is not just a superficial, temporary hope defined by the bounds of our finite lives, as if it were wishful thinking that things will get better when they cannot.
It is hope incarnated into flesh, a hope that can be held in a mother’s arms, a hope that expresses a reality that will live beyond endings and death itself.
It is the genuine, undeniable hope, the 100% possibility, which springs forth from seemingly impossible, insignificant beginnings, infused with the power of God through the Son and Holy Spirit fully blossoming into a light to the nations.
It is this possibility, this Incarnate Word, this Almighty God that we celebrate at Christmas.
And we do celebrate with a confidence that a child who is the Son of God born not of our own desire for it, but for the purpose it has from the birth of a child over 2,021 years ago.
Once we understand the mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ among us, we celebrate with those who have nothing…rather than otherwise.
It is in the right spirit of the season that we try to discover what is real Christmas in our lives.
God had sent many prophets, priests, messengers and angels but people ignored them and He sent His only Son Jesus Christ.
It is given in every Christmas time.
Do we ever think of ‘why?’
The answer lies in your heart when we hear…whisper of Child Jesus in the manger.
“I come as an ordinary.
My parents are ordinary couple struggling for survival.
I was born in a manger.
I am not a food for animals.
I am the bread of life for all of you.”
Our God is the God of impossible.
He came to us.
He dwelt among us.
He gave us eternal life.
He lives in us as the Spirit as he was in the apostles.
He promised us that He is with us till the end of our age.
In this Christmas, let us not lose our hope.
In this Christmas, let us discern the new possibilities, so that we can make this world a beautiful place to live with love and forgiveness.
In this Christmas, let us realize that the true meaning of Christmas is also to be the presence of Jesus to others, who are in need of us, who are depressed, who are marginalized, who are treated badly and suppressed physically, spiritually and psychologically, who need our presence and our prayers in their sorrow and to continuously communicate and freely give the message of God’s love to ALL!
It is an invitation…for us to help our Incarnate Word to pitch his tent among these people identifying ourselves with them.
God’s Message of salvation was with him at creation. In fact, by nature, the one who was the Message was God himself. John wants us to know that Jesus, God’s Word and ultimate Message, was with God from the very beginning. The one who turns water to wine, feeds the 5000, and raises Lazarus didn’t make his human appearance on earth until he was born in Bethlehem, but he has always been there. He is God with us, as Matthew puts it (Matthew 1:23). He is God come to visit us as Luke tells us (Luke 7:16). He is the Son of God as Mark reminds (Mark 1:1). He is God’s ultimate and final Word (Hebrews 1:1-2)!
Let us make a difference.
Let us add the real meaning of coming of Jesus in our lives and others.
Finally, I firmly believe the Incarnation is a simple fact that amid the struggle of each one of us, who long for many days, weeks, months, and years for God to act in new ways in our struggling lives and in the pandemic darkened world, the Incarnate Word, comes to be with us in a way which totally identified himself with us, as human beings giving, communicating to us new hopes, possibilities.
Wish you a Happy INCARNATIONAL Christmas…
May the Incarnate Word dwell among us and in each one’s, heart radiating his unconditional incarnational love by our words and actions and deeds so that we may be another incarnate for our families, friends, communities and neighbors.
May the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen…
In the name of God. the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, let us pray,
Father in heaven, I worship and praise Your holy name for Your wonderful plan of salvation. Thank You for sending Jesus, the Word, Who was with the Father before the world began. He came to earth willingly, in human flesh, so that a sinner such as I may be redeemed by His precious blood. Praise Your name and praise Jesus, in Whose name I pray, Gloria! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! AMEN.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692).
Einstein’s theories of space and time compared to Niels Bohr’s innovations of a quantum particle atomic uncertainty principle. Now contrast this with the classic dispute between the viewpoints which perceives the Bible as a fixed history book vs. the idea of prophetic mussar, that mussar applies equally to all generations. Prophesy as mussar defines prophetic physics!
Jewish avoda zarah during the Middle Ages
The distinction between the Book of Commandments, published by the earliest Reshonim scholars to how modern scholarship understands Torah precedents, which establish Torah Common Law. The Books of Torah commandments made by Jewish scholars after Rav Ashi and Rav Ravina sealed the Talmud, beginning with a code published by Rabbi Saadia Gaon, and further developed by the B’hag and followed by the Rambam’s code of the commandments impacted and shaped lesser rabbinic authorities something like a ירידות הדורות “domino effect”.
Rabbi Saadia Gaon organized his theory of commandments something like the concentric cone made by water going down a tub drain. His theory prioritized the 10 commandments as the Av commandments. All other Torah commandments function as toldot/off spring\ commandments to the 10 commandments of Sinai.
The difficulty with this legal theory, the Talmud teaches that Israel in hysteria and panic following the revelation of the opening first two revelation Commandments at Sinai, that our forefathers thereafter, in fear of their lives, demanded from Moshe that he make aliya upon Sinai and receive the rest of the Torah.
Another apparent flaw in this early Gaonic commandment Biblical codification, the failure to identify T’NaCH prophesy “Commandments” as mussar. Mussar, by definition does not exist as some ossified or petrified fossils, turned unto stone box thinking or pigeon-holed classifications. The Written Torah like the Talmud exists, at least to some Talmudic and Reshonim opinions argue that both exist as highly edited texts. A dispute within the Talmud itself, concerning the authorship of the concluding verses of the Book of דברים\משנה תורה. It appears to me that Rabbi Yechuda Ha’Nasi favours the opinion that Moshe did not write the Book of דברים, but rather taught this Book baal peh/orally to Israel. That Rabbi Yechuda Ha’Nasi based his common law codification, the Mishneh, upon the Oral Torah משנה תורה Book דברים.
The later assimilated Books of Commandments codifications, published in the early Middle Ages, they all fundamentally erred. Their failure to grasp, that all T’NaCH prophets command mussar. That the vision of T’NaCH prophesy applies equally, across the board, to all generations of Israel. The division of the Talmud into two main branches: Halacha & Aggadita supports this thesis. That the sages both Tannaim and Amoraim viewed the T’NaCH prophets as teachers of mussar aggadita. Rather than physical historical predictions of future events, as the New Testament claims.
The rabbis of the early Middle Ages, like as do all g’lut generations of exiled Jewish refugee populations, who to the present-day dwell among foreign cultures and customs. That all generations of g’lut Jewry, by definition, struggle with foreign assimilation. Specifically, the assimilation wherein Goyim scholars view the T’NaCH Books as historical history rather than aggadic mussar. The New Testament promotes the narrative of a physical virgin birth Jesus, as opposed to an imaginary man mussar about a messiah.
The church views as utter heresy the idea that the Jesus gospel stories, restricted to only tell a glorified tale of a mystic mythical, fictional character. Such a possibility shatters the church ethical containment force, established early on, based upon their classic Creeds, Doctrines, and Dogmatism.
The early assimilated rabbinic authorities, influenced by how the church organized its ethical containment force religion, the power exerted by these foreign influences, they equally persuaded the Reshonim rabbis to write their rigid books of statute law Torah commandments. This statute law perversion divided the תרי”ג Commandments into a positive/negative statute code of Torah commandments.
All the later Reshon Books of Commandments, such as the ספר החינוך or how the Smag, a pro-Rambam Baali Tosafot scholar who attempted to organize Talmudic halachot around the order of the Rambam’s book of commandments. Both latter examples, highly influenced by the Rambam’s sefer ha’mitzvot, they failed to consider how aggadita interprets the T’NaCH as mussar. This tremendous error aroused the late 19th Century mussar movement lead by rabbi Israel Salanter.
Most essentially that mussar serves as the common denominator which connects the Torah commandments together with all the Books of the NaCH prophets! That mussar likewise merges together with the narrative stories of Talmudic aggadah and later Midrashic sources of scholarship as a unified whole mussar instruction. That mussar simply does not compare to a rigid shaped ice-cube tray, as expressed through Roman statute law.
This channeling of the Torah into rigid religious frames of reference, it appears to me, introduced: comparable to the error made by king Shlomo, and his decision to build a catholic like cathedral Temple. This gross error, it ignored the direct mussar by which the prophet Natan instructed king David not to build a house of Cedar. Shlomo, none the less chose to build the Temple rather than establish Federal Sanhedrin lateral common law courts across the States/Tribes of the Republic; the basis by which to rule the Republic through judicial justice as the Temple commanded by king David.
This decision triggered a ירידות הדורות domino effect, as seen by Ezra’s efforts to build a Temple, based upon the visions of Ezekiel.
Both this and that, they triggered a tremendous error, a ירידת הדורות upon the following generations, and most especially upon g’lut Jewry. The codification of the Torah into frozen brittle commandments effectively collapsed the vision of משנה תורה common law precedents! The latter makes a fundamental distinction between Torah precedents and Torah Common Law. All the commentaries made upon the classic halachic codifications learn by statute law rather than common law which learns the halachot of the Gemara as precedents to understand the k’vanna of a given Mishna.
The writings of the New Testament apostle Paul, its impact compares to the meteor that struck the Earth and caused the dinosaurs total extinction! Paul, as a self declared agent of God, he preached to the Goyim – the freedom of Goyim from under “the Law”. Paul qualifies as an anarchist revolutionary.
His religious rhetoric propaganda conveniently failed to validate the day and night distinction which separates Jewish Common Law from Roman Statute Law! All the later commentaries, as just previously mentioned above, written upon the halachic Reshon codifications, these assimilated rabbis, they too failed to make this distinct about absolutely fundamental separation between shabbat and chol … common law from statute law.
The early Middle Ages Books of Torah commandments prioritizes Commandments over Torah Oral Torah Book of דברים precedents. Therein they assimilate to the error viewpoint which perverts Torah commandments into Statute Laws. Based upon the assumption that Torah Commandments stand upon their own legs, totally independent from Oral Torah common law.
This error fails to learn Oral Torah legal precedents, created with a purpose to compare Oral Torah Book of דברים middot precedent to Written Torah sugiot, based upon shared פרדס middot – as taught through the kabbalah of Rabbi Akiva, with the intention to learn prophetic mussar interpretations of the k’vanna of legal Common Law halachot!
Assimilation to Goyim cultures and customs, Jewish rabbinic authorities erred and perverted the Torah into a Plato/Aristotle logic & statute law avoda zarah; a direct violation of the 2nd Sinai commandment. The Rambam, for example, failed to discern that monotheism violates the 2nd Sinai Commandment. He erroneously thought that praying to Allah did not violate the 1st Sinai commandment! As such his avoda zarah error duplicated Aaron’s translation of the Name of HaShem unto אלהים – the sin of the Golden Calf. Herein explains the Jewish g’lut for 2000+ years as a theory of history. A new theory of Mankind, based upon the realities of g’lut.
Dan Beliveau agothelordsroom.org writes: It appears that in essence your saying the Gentile written Bible is a lie. This is the 2nd time you have posted this. The difference is this time I’m leaving it up. I want people to see your view. Next time comment in plain English or not at all.
Hi Dan wrote in English. (A reference to: Jewish avoda zarah during the Middle Ages). The T’NaCH, an abreviation for Torah, Prophets and Holy Writings, the 3-divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures which the church mislabels as ‘old testament’. Yes in point of fact, do refer to the Xtian bible as totally corrupt. First: It duplicates the sin of the Golden Calf by translating the 1st Commandment Name, not a word, into other words, such as Lord for example.
It has so many errors of translations – across the board in all biblical translations. ברית, transliterated as brit, does not mean covenant. The first word of the Torah contains the words ברית אש. Transliterated to: brit fire. Brit, the Torah defines as alliance NOT covenant.
To cut a Torah “alliance” requires swearing a Torah oath. The NT and all old testament Xtian translations never bring the Name as found in the revelation of the Torah 1st Sinai commandment.
In the Creation story this Spirit Name – breathed into Adam making him a living man. This Spirit Name – not a word. Aaron the brother of Moshe, erred at the Golden Calf when he translated this Spirit Name into a word אלהים/Gods.
The sin of the Golden Calf serves as the basis by which the Torah defines avoda zarah. Avoda zarah/strange worship\ does not translate into “idolatry”. Why? The 2nd Sinai commandment, the negative commandment not to worship other Gods, obviously rejects the Muslim error known as Monotheism.
The plagues of Egypt judged the Gods of Egypt. The brit sworn at Gilgal in the days of the prophet Jehoshua, prior to the beginning of the wars by which Israel conquered the lands of Canaan. This Gilgal brit, recorded through the mitzva of Rashi order of tefillen (the 2 black boxes Jews strap upon our bodies), [Rashi a rabbi of the Middle Ages famous for writing commentaries upon the Torah, Talmud, and Midrashim], Jehoshua cut a sworn oath brit with the 1st Sinai commandment Name, that just as this Name warred against the Gods of Egypt, so too this Name would war against the Gods of Canaan.
This concept of calling upon this Name to precede acts of physical war, a reference found in the Song of Moshe which recounts the destruction of Par’o’s Army and chariots in the Sea of Reeds. This reference, found in the Book of Sh’mot, translated as Exodus in Xtian bible mistranslations, (Sh’mot: plural for Names) refers to the Spirit Name by the metaphor: Eish HaMilchamah. Meaning – “Man of War”. At Horev, following the Golden Calf, a set of pronouns revealed to Moshe which serve like unto the Spirit Name. This revelation of pronouns known as the revelation of the 13 tohor middot.
Avoda Zarah, the 2nd Sinai commandment, the Torah common law legal system learns by means of the Torah precedents located in the 5th Book of the Torah(/Oral Torah\משנה תורה) which means repetition of the Law. The Torah common law legal system employs mitzvot precedents, found in the 5th Book of the Torah, precedents to understand and interpret other sections of the Written Torah located in the other 4 Books of the Written Torah.
If you examine the closing of the Book of דברים, mistranslated unto Deuteronomy, this Book refers to Moshe in the 3rd person, Moshe did not write this closing Torah, at least to some opinions. The Talmud teaches that Moshe delivered over, this closing Book of the Torah “Baal Peh”. The translation of Baal Peh – Orally. Hence the term Torah sh’baal peh or Oral Torah. The church throughout its history denies the Oral Torah.
The confusion of the church authorities stems from the משנה/Mishna written by rabbi Yechuda Ha’Nassi, the last chief justice of the Great Sanhedrin court. His work, the Mishna, Jewish scholars refer to as the codification of the Oral Torah.
This obvious over implication of the 5th Book of Torah common law, rabbi Yechuda’s Mishna reflected through its Case/Rule organization of Great Sanhedrin judicial rulings written and codified prior to the Roman expulsion of the Jewish people from Judea. Rabbi’s Mishna written before & after three crushed Jewish revolts against Rome. The last of which occurred in Alexandria Egypt in 332. As a point of reference, the famous Xtian Nicene Council occurred in 325!
The Apostle Paul famously declares that the Goyim are not under the law. Paul a student of Rabban Gamliel, the previous Nassi of the Great Sanhedrin prior to Rabbi Yechuda. Paul could not have learned Torah judicial law totally oblivious that this legal system based itself upon common law principles of learning law by means of precedents.
Yet the Xtian writings of Paul obscures this most obvious distinction which separates Jewish common law from Roman statute law. Why did Paul consciously choose to blur the distinction between two completely different legal systems? (Something like the difference between statute law practiced in Germany and France contrasted by British common law.) This causes many Jews, me included, to conclude that Paul functioned as a concealed agent provocateur, sent by Rabban Gamliel to promote Civil War in Rome, as Yechuda Maccabee did by swearing alliance to a pretender King of the Syrian Greek empire in the war known as Hannukah, most recently remembered and celebrated.
When Jews light the Hannukah lights, we dedicate to only interpret the Written Torah by total reliance upon Oral Torah legal precedents. This Oral Torah logic, totally different than the logic system employed by the Syrian Greek empire. The latter stood upon the logic format developed by the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. The Jewish revolt against the Syrian Greek empire rejected the logic format of the ancient Greeks as a tool to interpret the Torah.
Another fundamental lie of the Xtian bible, the perversion of tohor and tumah mistranslated as clean and unclean. The term ‘chosen people’/’first born son’ refers to Israel as a ‘nation of priests’.
After the Golden Calf avoda zara, (which the Oral Torah defines as assimilation to pursue after and embrace how Goyim worship their Gods; which extends to copying and embracing the cultures and customs practiced by Goyim societies and/or intermarriage), the Tribe of Levi would supplant and replace the first-born sons of Israel as Cohenim, translated as priests. Hence this term chosen first-born, has much broader implications. The Talmud as a precedent, teaches that tefillah stands in the stead of korbanot. Often roughly translated as “Prayer stands in the place of sacrifices”. Tefillah dedicates tohor middot as revealed to Moshe at Horev following the golden calf. The description of the Name passing before Moshe and declaring a 13 set of attributes which Jews call middot.
Obviously, a person can hardly dedicate a tohor middah, if that person cannot distinctly discern and separate one tohor middah from the other tohor middot!
The Torah has 54 weekly portion divisions call Parshiot. The Sinai Name employs 4 letters. 4 X 13 = 52. The two Crowns of the Torah, the 2 Parshiot which teach the blessing/curse responsibility for accepting the oath brit Torah faith.
Jewish tefillah, also known as the Amidah, translated as standing prayer. To swear a Torah oath requires that a person stands before a Sefer Torah. Ideally Jews dedicate their tefillot tohor middot while standing before a Sefer Torah in a synagogue. Hence the common mistranslation of tefillah into the English word prayer, totally misses the intent of the action verb tefillah – the dedication of tohor “spirits” which influence how a Jew behaves with his fellow bnai brit people in the future.
The false biblical corruption of the key terms tohor and tumah as clean and unclean totally corrupts and perverts the dedication of the soul to defined tohor middot as opposed to and contrasted by tumah middot of future born behavior.
Tefillah, a matter of the heart. Rabbi Yechuda Ha’Nasi teaches the Oral Torah precedent of “you shall love the Name, with all your heart etc”, located in the 5th Book or Oral Torah. The Hebrew misspells heart as לבב. Heart correctly spelled לב. Rabbi Yechuda introduced a unique interpretation: that service to the Name לשמה, requires the dedication of both tohor and tumah middot which wrestle within the heart, something like as did Esau & Yaacov in Rivka’s womb.
The struggle between tohor and tumah middot defines all prophetic mussar. Mussar understood as a rebuke. The sages of the Talmud teach, that they lacked the wisdom to teach mussar!
Why? Any person can criticize another. But it takes special wisdom to plant mussar seeds within the heart of others and have those “seeds” spout as an original idea from within the person so rebuked by prophetic mussar! The church abomination failed to grasp such subtle distinctions; hence it defined the prophesy of T’NaCH prophets as predictions of the future! JeZeus fulfilled this or that biblical prophecy etc. This corruption totally perverts, on the order of homosexuality, prophetic mussar. So yes, most definitely say that like Santa Clause, “the Gentile written Bible is a lie”.
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