Jesus and the Sabbath Show Up on Joe Rogan Experience

This week, the world's most popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), hosted Christian apologist Wesley Huff. 

Wes is a historian, author, researcher, expert in Biblical manuscripts and early Christian writings, PhD candidate, and defender of the authenticity of the Gospel accounts. I've followed Wes' writings and videos for years, so I'm happy to see him get some major exposure on JRE.

Here's the full episode:

Why is this significant? Protestia explains that this episode is likely to be the furthest reaching gospel broadcast in history.

Huff’s message went out to Joe Rogan’s 14 million regular listeners. Even moderately popular episodes enjoy over 11 million downloads, and some far more. In a month’s time, Rogan’s downloads exceed 190 million in the course of a month (which is more than the number of Americans who watched the moon landing). It’s more than those who watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. It’s more than those who watched Nixon’s resignation speech. It’s more than those who watched the Chiefs beat the Eagles at ‘23 Super Bowl. It’s more than those watched the O.J. Simpson verdict. It’s more than those who watched JFK’s funeral, or the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

As an example of the podcast's influence, just before days before the 2024 election, President Trump appeared on JRE, and it resulted in a last minute bump towards Trump, leading to an election victory. 

These unscripted, long form conversations are powerful. The podcast has some 14 million listeners and avid followers from a variety of backgrounds and persuasions.

Wesley Huff appears on the podcast to talk about God and the truth of the Bible. He did a fantastic job of defending common objections to the historicity of Jesus, specifically his death and resurrection. Questions like, "How do we know Jesus really died when he was crucified?", "How do we know Jesus appeared to people alive after his crucifixion?", Wes handles it well and gives the evidence.

I want to zero in on a question where the Torah comes up and dive a bit deeper on it. (After all, friends, this is the Kineti blog!)

Wes argues in this clip that Jesus was against moralism:

"Jesus condemns moralism. If Jesus is nothing but a moral example, then you can save yourself, and you don't actually need a Savior."
- Wesley Huff on The Joe Rogan Podcast 🔥 👏

pic.twitter.com/bOj99XlXqy

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) January 7, 2025

Here's the interesting bits:

Huff: I actually think that Jesus condemns moralism. And ultimately what I see [Jordan] Peterson doing is looking at Jesus as a moral example. And if Jesus is nothing but a moral example, then you can save yourself and you don't need a Savior. I think Jesus would critique that, because Jesus is very against moralism.

Rogan: How do you define Jesus being against moralism? What do you mean by that?

Huff: Jesus looks at the religiosity of his day, with particular groups like... the Pharisees who are like lay scholars, and Sadducees who are professional priest scholars, and he's constantly critiquing the fact they have this hypocritical religiosity to them. They're constantly doing things like, uh, tithing their mint leaves to make sure they get all...this is where we get letter of the law vs. intention of the law. Jesus critiques them for that because he says, 'You're trying to do everything right, and you're missing the point.' One of the things he says is, if one of your donkeys falls in a ravine on the sabbath, do you pull it out? Or is that work? What's the point of the sabbath? 

Rogan: Hmmm.

Huff: Is it to not do any work? Like, is it to make sure you're not working too hard, because you might be breaking the sabbath? Or like, what is the point? And he says, the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. And there's this intention -- and this is the whole Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5 -- is he keeps saying, "You have heard it said, but I say..." and he's referring to the Mosaic Law. And it looks like he's critiquing the Mosaic Law, but he's not actually. He's getting back to the intention of the Law. So when he says, "You've heard it said, 'Do not commit murder', but I say to you anybody who harbors hate for their brother in their heart has committed murder." - what he's getting at is, what is the intention, what's the meaning of the Law that God gives to you?

This is really great and I applaud Wesley for telling millions of listeners God is real, the Bible is true, and giving evidence for Jesus' resurrection. I love that Wes explained that Jesus isn't critiquing the Law, he's getting to the purpose of the Law. This is a profound truth and many lay people in Christianity miss it.

Wes' comments on Jesus and the Law goes well with my recent teaching, The Law of Christ is the Law of Moses Kept in a Christlike Way. Jesus isn't critiquing "You shall not murder", he's saying that the true goal of that law was to prevent hatred in your heart, and that having hatred in your heart is actually breaking the Torah. Likewise for the law against committing adultery: its true aim was to prevent sexual immorality even in the mind and the heart; merely lusting after someone other than your spouse is actually breaking the Torah.

OK! But there's a wriggle here. I don't blame Huff for not addressing it, because the Rogan podcast audience is not ready for deep theology. But maybe you are, dear reader.

The wriggle is the sabbath and its true meaning.

Huff says, 

"One of the things [Jesus] says is, if your donkey falls in a ravine on the sabbath, do you pull it out? Or is that work? What's the point of the sabbath? Is it to not do any work? Like, is it to make sure you're not working too hard, because you might break the sabbath?"

Let's put these in a table to illuminate the issue:

Torah commandment	True meaning	True meaning aligns with plain meaning
Do not commit murder	Do not have hatred in your heart.	✅
Do not commit adultery.	Do not lust in your heart.	✅
Do not work on the sabbath; keep it holy.	❓	❓

See the issue? Huff states there's a true meaning behind the commandments in the Law. But note that the commandments' plain meaning cannot be cancelled by their true intention:

• No hatred in the heart doesn't mean we're now free to commit murder, of course.
• Likewise, no lust in the heart doesn't mean we're free to commit adultery.
• No work on the sabbath doesn't mean we're free to work on the sabbath or treat it like any other day.

That's the wriggle: Christianity largely does work on the sabbath and treats it like any other day.

If I'm being charitable, Christianity keeps the 1st day of the week, Sunday, as the new sabbath. That also contradicts the plain meaning of the commandment in Exodus 20:9-11. But even if we grant Sunday is the new sabbath and is considered holy by meeting with other Christians on the sabbath, work is still permitted on Sunday. There are notable exceptions, like Chik-Fil-A restaurants. But it's the exception that proves the rule. The Christian world, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox, works on the sabbath even if we move the sabbath to Sunday. This again cancels the plain meaning of the text.

And there's another mystery here. What is the true meaning, the real intention, of the law about resting on the sabbath and keeping it holy? Is there a true meaning, one deeper than the plain meaning?

Jesus doesn't explicitly give us one like he does for murder and adultery. 

He gives an example that saving the life of an animal on the sabbath is permissible. (Judaism's concept of pikuach nefesh.) He heals a man on the sabbath and tells us that it's permissible to do good on the sabbath. Jesus says the sabbath is made for man. Here are the prominent sayings of Jesus on the sabbath. Make good note of what is, and isn't, there:

Jesus' statement	Implied true meaning
"Which of you, with a son, or even an ox, falling into a well on the sabbath, will not immediately pull him out?"	Healing a person or saving their life is permissible on the sabbath.
"Haven’t you read in the Torah that on the sabbath the priests in the Temple break the sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the Temple is here."	A divine priority: Messiah is greater than the Temple, and the Temple is greater than sabbath. "Violating" lesser priorities in service to a higher priority is no violation at all.
"Therefore it is permitted to do good on the sabbath."	The sabbath is meant for good.
"The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."	Messiah created the sabbath. The creator of the sabbath has authority to say what is permissible on it.
"The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath."	The sabbath is intended for the benefit of humanity. The sabbath should be a joy and a delight, not a burden.

Is there deeper meaning to the sabbath commandments? Certainly. But I think these are a good start.

Notably missing from Jesus' sabbath statements are any claims that all work is permissible on the sabbath, or that the sabbath is done away with.

My conviction remains and is strengthened: Jesus did not wish his followers to do away with the sabbath. He wished to tell us that preserving life trumps not working on the sabbath. He wished to tell us that sabbath was created for us. He wished to tell us that doing good on the sabbath is permissible. But I'm convinced Jesus did not intend for a non-existent sabbath where anything is permissible.

Jesus' disciples should have a day of rest. It should be on the 7th day. You can do good works on it, and you can save someone's life on it. It should be a joy and not a burden; it was created for us. But it's a day of rest, not a day to work or catch up on your shopping. Christianity needs reform in this area.

My experience at church today, a friendly criticism of Pastor Troy Dobbs’ sermon on Jesus and the Sabbath

“There are some well-meaning people...who claim we should still worship on Saturday, and obey the dietary laws of the Old Testament. But what do we know as people of the New Covenant? We know that the Sabbath regulations were actually part of the group of regulations that Jesus removed by nailing them to the cross....don't let men's opinions dictate your behavior as you walk with Jesus Christ."

-Pastor Troy Dobbs,
Sermon at Grace Church, February 24, 2013

I just returned from a Sunday service at Grace Church in Eden Prairie, MN.

I attend there with my family because, even though I'm Messianic – part of a group of Jews & gentiles following Jesus and keeping God's commandments – it’s my wife’s home church and I believe it's important for families to worship God together. So I attend Grace Church in addition to helping run a Messianic sabbath congregation.

Pastor Troy Dobbs spoke on Matthew 12, where Jesus is accused of breaking the Sabbath. The pastor used it as an opportunity to say the Law (God’s commandments in the first 5 books of the Bible) no longer applies to disciples of Jesus.

Pastor Troy Dobbs - The danger of elevating tradition over Scripture

His 3 bullet points, his take-aways for the sermon?

• We are under grace, not law
• We are under Scripture, not men's traditions
• We are under Christ, because we don't want to become hypocrites.

I'd like to look at the text, consider Pastor Dobb's arguments, and suggest he's missing something -- something big! -- in his teaching. I'd also like to show that he at times uses logic that does not follow, logic that brings him to the erroneous conclusion that Jesus abolished the literal Sabbath and that his disciples don't have to keep it.

Here's the Matthew 12 text which Pastor Dobbs argued from:

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus."

Scriptures but not Law?

Dobbs thesis is "live under the Scriptures, not the traditions of man", but he then argues we should not live under the Law. This is an odd mental leap that I think he may not even realize he’s making.

He seems to conflate the traditions of man and the Law. This is easy to do for many Christians, because we see Jesus rebuking the Pharisees for their traditions around Law-keeping. It’s easy for people to confuse that rebuke as a rebuke of God’s Law itself. This may explain the leap from  Dobb’s stated thesis of “don’t elevate traditions of men over Scripture” to his implementation of “don’t follow the Law, it’s finished in Jesus.”

Is there not a Scriptural distinction between God's law and men's traditions? If there is, it was unclear from Dobbs' sermon, who conflated obeying God's rules with traditions of men.

He argues we are not under the Law, because we live in the age of grace ushered in by Jesus. This is a false dichotomy. It implies the Law was absent of grace, and that grace exists only in the New Testament. Grace appears more times in the Old Testament than the New Testament; the psalms are filled with songs of God’s grace, and neither Jesus nor the New Testament text calls its new era the “age of grace.”

Dobbs’ sermon could be summarized as 3 Unders and Free-Froms:

Under	Free From
grace	law
Scripture	traditions
Christ	hypocrites

Do you see a problem here? There is a false dichotomy created: he presents 2 opposing forces – grace and law – when they, in truth, are not opposing.

Or notice how we’re under Scripture, but not under the Law – a logically silly statement, because the Law comprises the first 5 books of the Scriptures and lays a foundation for the rest of the Bible.

And what a sad commentary on the state of our faith that we lump the Law – God’s Law – with hypocrites and overly-stringent human traditions.

The Sabbath is nailed to the cross

Dobbs asserts that Jesus nailed a "group of commandments, including the sabbath, to the cross", referencing Colossians 2, “let no man judge you…with regard to a sabbath day…which is a shadow of things to come, the reality found in Christ.” What Dobbs believes this passage is saying is, “The sabbath was a shadow of the reality in Christ, so you don’t have to keep the Sabbath as long as you follow Christ.”

This passage was aimed at the false doctrines of angel-worshippers (v. 18), and speaks to not letting humans judge you with regards to a Sabbath. It does not say the Sabbath is done away with. Dobbs wishes v. 14, “having cancelled the charge of our debts…nailing it to the cross”, to mean the sabbath is abolished, but again, the text does not say that.

Nor could it ever. How could Jesus nail one of God’s commandments – one of the famous 10 commandments, of all things! – to the cross, abolishing it? Why would the Messiah the Son of God abolish the commandments of His Father, whom Jesus was subservient to?

How could a just God, whom Dobbs acknowledges had punished Israel for breaking the Sabbath, retract and say,

“Ah, you know, never mind about all that Sabbath keeping stuff! Sorry for sending you into captivity for breaking that rule! Even though I had previously said it was an eternal sign between Me and My people, I hereby change My mind.”

As the Scripture itself points out, if anyone abolishes the Law, that person is disqualified as prophet and messiah; the Scripture says such a person is a false prophet and will be considered least in the kingdom of heaven.

You are under the Scripture, not under the law

Pastor Dobb’s top 2 take-away points are conflicting and present an unsustainable position. His points are (1) that we're not under law, and (2) that we're under Scripture. This is a non-sequitur, because the Law is Scripture.

Perhaps he means to say that we're under the parts of Scripture not fulfilled by Messiah’s arrival, but this is an unsustainable position. His own church, for example, just months ago led a political charge for a state constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Where does this Biblical mandate against homosexuality come from? The Law. Therefore, it's unsustainable and inconsistent to say, "The law about the sabbath was nailed to the cross (nullified), but the law about homosexuality remains in effect."

(In fact, this unsustainable position has been called out by the New Atheist movement in recent years, and this hypocrisy is a mocked by the unbelieving world. They’ll say, “You hate gay marriage, but you eat shrimp? You’re all hypocrites!”)

Avoiding what Jesus said about the Sabbath and the Law

Dobbs does not address Jesus' statement, "It is lawful to do good on the sabbath."

If I’m not mistaken, he read this passage with the whole Scripture, then never addresses it.

Why Pastor Dobbs didn't address this only he can answer, but I suspect it’s because the verse points to the reality Jesus didn't abolish the sabbath, only saying it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath, something the Law itself permits.

Logically, isn’t it painfully obvious that if Jesus abolished the Sabbath, he wouldn’t use the Law to justify healing on the Sabbath? Instead, he only says it’s lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

And notice how Jesus uses the term lawful. It means “in accordance with the Law.” Jesus says it’s in accordance with the Law to do good on the Sabbath. If Jesus was actually abolishing the Law, why is he talking about what’s lawful and what’s not?

The ugly Rule-Keepers

Dobbs cited Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17, “Don’t think I’ve come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.” But he avoids the following 3 verses,

“I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

By claiming Jesus abolished the law about resting on the sabbath day, he makes Jesus out to contradict himself.

Dobbs portrayed rule-keepers as loveless wretches who don't care for people. While this may have been true of certain Pharisees, it paints a negative stereotype of those -- especially Jews -- who have faithfully kept God's commandments. This has often led to anti-Semitism in Church history.

He talks about obedience as if it's a dirty word. But obeying God's rules is what God blesses us for (Deut 30). Pastor Dobbs acknowledges that Israel was punished for disobeying God's rules, but he seems to think obeying God's rules doesn't apply in the New Testament-era.

He mischaracterizes rule-keepers by saying, "Legalism is this: I'm gonna do this, and do this and do this to keep God loving me." As someone who follows Jesus and keeps the Torah, this is a gross mischaracterization. I keep the Law because I believe God is honored when we obey him. We obey him by following his rules, including his rules about sabbath, homosexuality, and yes, even diet.

More importantly still, notice what Jesus had to say about rule-keepers: “Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

When did obedience become such a negative idea in the Church? I believe it’s a response to the outward-only religious leaders of Jesus’ day, but it has fully warped in the opposite direction, producing an opposite abuse as great as the one Jesus was rebuking.

Sola scriptura

Pastor Dobbs says,

"You really need to make sure, today, that what you believe, and what you embrace, and what you live out, is actually from the Bible. 'Cause a lot of us are living out certain principles in our life; you'd...you'd better make sure they're actually from God's word, and not something you just grew up with in your little church of 40 people that got forced on you."

There is much irony in this statement.

Dobbs criticizes the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites. Why? Because he says, "They pretended to care about the Law, when really they only cared about their rendition, their addendums to the Law. They focused on the externals, but not the heart."

Is there not irony in Christian leaders calling other religious leaders hypocrites for not following the Law, when Christianity itself says the Law is abolished? How can Pastor Dobbs criticize the Pharisees for failure to keep the heart of the Law, when he is preaching that we don't have to keep the externals of the Law? It's reverse Phariseeism: the Pharisees kept only the externals while neglecting the internals, while Christians keep the internals but neglect the externals.

Dobbs rightfully points out the Pharisees were chiding Jesus for being a "rule-breaker, a Sabbath-breaker." What Dobbs left unanswered is, was this a legitimate criticism? Was Jesus really breaking the Law?

If the answer is yes, then we are saying the Messiah of Israel sinned against God’s Law, something God warned Israel that false prophets would do (Deut 13).

If the answer is no, Jesus did not break the Law, then the criticism should not be of the Law, but the faulty interpretation of the Law. And if the fault was the interpretation of the Law, and not the Law itself, then how can we say the Law, and the Sabbath, is abolished?

Dobbs encourages people to live under the Scriptures, not the traditions of men. He says,

"People who live under the Scriptures keep going back to the Scriptures, again, and again, and again. That's the safest way to make sure you're under the Scriptures. What do you do? I keep going back to it. [I'll ask] Where does it say that? I want to know where it says that. I want to know what chapter and verse. I want to know what the word says. I want to come back to the Bible."

Does Dobbs do this with the Sabbath? I propose he doesn't, because there is no chapter or verse that says, "The sabbath was nailed to the cross." The closest he can come is a verse about nailing to the cross the charges against us, and a following verse about not letting men judge us about the sabbath.

As for Jesus, he only says he is Lord of the Sabbath, and that it's lawful (e.g. in accordance with the law) to do good on the Sabbath. Why would Jesus say that if the law about the Sabbath was abolished?

Dobbs argues that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, then goes on to say Christians don't have to keep the law about the sabbath (that is, resting on the 7th day, Saturday.)

This is a non-sequitur: how is it that Christ is Lord of something he abolished?

If the US President proclaimed he was King of Traditional Marriage, but then he abolished Traditional Marriage, wouldn't we rightly conclude he's lost his mind?

So it is with Jesus: if he’s Lord of the Sabbath, then he strengthens it. Upholds it.

Thankfully, Dobbs argues the Sabbath isn't totally abolished, saying we should instead accept the principle of "work, rest, and worship". While this is indeed a good principle, it still cancels the thrust of the commandment: to sanctify (set apart, make holy) the 7th day.

Dobbs justifies this by saying, "Jesus is King every day [and] Jesus is King _of_ every day."

This is misleading, is a straw man argument, and cancels the 4th commandment.

It’s a straw man argument because no follower of Jesus says he is king only on the Sabbath. It's misleading because it implies that the Sabbath is not holy or set-apart. It implies Jesus might as well have said, "I'm the Lord of Tuesdays", which effectively cancels out the set-apart nature of God’s Sabbath and indeed the 4th commandment for humanity to sanctify the 7th day.

Conclusion

This is reason I argued last week that sending Messianic gentiles back to the church is a disastrous idea.

These classic Christian arguments can be persuasive, as it is hurtful to hear yourself described as an ugly rule-keeper who cares more about the rules than caring for people. Those who are young in the Messianic faith can be swayed by emotional arguments like this.

And when the congregation is shouting out “amen!” and lifting their hands in halleluyahs when the Pastor says you have freedom from the Law, the peer pressure to capitulate is overwhelming.

I really love Pastor Dobbs. His teachings are easy to understand and often inspirational. Goes back to the Scriptures for everything. I think Grace Church is blessed to have him.

I say in this instance, he should go back to the Scriptures to see if Jesus ever says the Sabbath is done away with.

I ask him to consider that since he acknowledges that the work-rest-worship weekly cycle is indeed important for us today, perhaps we ought to consider that God’s vision of that cycle – 6 days of work, with a 7th day of rest – is the proper one for us as Jesus’ disciples.

*Update* My wife reminds me I omitted an important piece of information in this post. Pastor Dobbs does acknowledge two useful things with regards to the Sabbath: that Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath, and that Sunday was brought in via Constantine’s Dei Solis decree in 321 AD. That’s great! I’m glad Pastor Dobbs acknowledges this.

It’s lawful to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children on Shabbat

It’s facepalm-worthy that I even have to say this. But we live in a crazy religious time, folks.

A Hebrew Roots friend organizes groups of Messianics and Hebrew Roots folks to take shifts at Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), a Christian organization that packages food and sends it to poor kids around the world.

It’s good work for the Lord.

On a recent shift, one Hebrew Roots man backed out of attending, citing the shift fell on the Sabbath:

It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath - Mat 12:12 – however, the context is rescuing someone that needed help and not going to look for opportunities to do good. We should be trying to set an example to other Christians on how we do keep the Sabbath.

My friend asked my advice on the matter.

I wrote my response first in a private email, but I’d like to amplify it here, to you, the fine Kineti blog readers, and articulate to you and convince you why it’s kosher to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children on Shabbat.

I think it's righteous for us to do good on Shabbat. I think it honors God even more than resting. Messiah explicitly ruled on this,

“If you have a sheep that falls in a pit on Shabbat, which of you won’t take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore, what is permitted on Shabbat is to do good.”

But the debated issue here is smaller in scope: is it permissible to seek out good works on Shabbat? I mean, couldn’t we volunteer another day?

The man’s answer: we should rest, and not go looking for opportunities for good works, on Shabbat. Otherwise, we might as well go around town this Saturday, and find some pit-trapped sheep, so to speak.

Should we avoid seeking good works on the Sabbath, and therefore, avoid Shabbat shifts at FMSC? And would this be a good witness to the Christian world? Here’s what I think:

1. The Scripture doesn't specify any limitation for good works on Shabbat. The Scripture doesn't not limit how or when good works can be done on Shabbat. This man is creating a limitation that the text doesn't explicitly set. If the doing-good-on-Shabbat is limited only to certain contexts, wouldn't Torah or Messiah have stated that limitation?
   
2. The premise that the Scriptures don’t support seeking out good works is unproven. His premise is that the Scriptures only allow for rescuing, emergency-type good works, and doesn’t allow for people seeking out good works on Shabbat. But this is not conclusive. One might argue, for example, that Messiah sought out good works on Shabbat when he healed people: there was no emergency then, he could have waited. But he didn’t, and still performed the good works right then on Shabbat.
   
3. Opting out of good works on Shabbat favors ritual observance over good works. Resting on Shabbat over helping people is favoring ritual observance over good works. I fundamentally disagree with this stance, because Scripture almost always favors the inverse: good works over ritual observance. For example, Messiah chided the religious teachers for tithing the mint and cumin while neglecting mercy and justice.  
   
4. The example set for the Christian world would be negative. The example he wishes to set is this: don't seek to help people because it’s Shabbat. I believe this is what Dr. Michael Brown calls "majoring on the minors" -- amplifying smaller matters and losing sight of the weightier matters. I believe this is a bad example to show to Christians. Wouldn't a better example be, "We honor God's Shabbat by helping feed starving kids"?
   
5. The example set for the unbelieving world would be negative. “Just look at those so-called ‘Messianics’”, I can hear a snide atheist say, “so caught up in their stupid beliefs, they can’t be bothered to help people that are dirt poor and starving. Why? Because it falls on a certain day of the week. Idiots! And this is why religion is bad…”
   
6. The premise focuses on minutia. The premise is this: doing good on Sabbath is lawful only within the context of rescuing, and not seeking out good works on Shabbat. Dear Lord! Isn’t it unhealthy for Messiah’s disciples to get caught up in the sticky muck of minutia within subjective interpretations where the Scripture remains silent? 
   
   Gosh. I'd rather err on the side of helping people.
   
   Or do we believe God will, on judgment day, ask, "You packed meals for starving African kids: On. My. Sabbath. How dare you!" Come on. It's more likely God would chide us for secluding ourselves in our homes, meticulously observing Sabbath rest while ignoring the poor.

The last point is a stickler among modern Messianic Jews and Hebrew Roots folks: minutia. It’s something worthy of addressing in a blog post by itself. We get caught up in minutia, and we’re worse off for it. When it happens, our faith becomes a complex set of elaborate rulings, we’re disconnected from the real world, and we look silly. “Hey, don’t eat that bread! It was cooked in an oven that may have been manufactured on Shabbat!”

That’s not what I signed up for, folks.

For these reasons, fine blog readers, I believe it’s righteous to volunteer at FMSC on Shabbat. I believe it honors God and sanctifies God’s Sabbath more than resting.

A broader principle can be derived from all this: it is good and right for Yeshua’s disciples to seek doing good on Shabbat. If you go around town on Shabbat, looking for the modern equivalent of sheep to raise from pits, you’re justified in doing so.

Thoughts?

And this is why the Messianic movement should not merely imitate Judaism

Amusing post over at Jewish Life & Learning: Is it discouraged or unacceptable for a gentile to keep the sabbath?

The accepted answer, with a boatload of up-votes from the Jewish community, states:

A non Jew is not allowed to keep Shabbos. Those that are in the process of converting make sure to do at least one thing on Shabbos that would normally not be allowed. For example they might carry something in their pocket.

משנה תורה לרמב"ם, ספר שופטים, הלכות מלכים ומלחמות, פרק י, יא - י"ב

Just to restate what's being said here, gentiles are not only forbidden to keep Shabbat, but even potential converts to Judaism must do some trivial thing, such as carrying something in their pocket, on Shabbat, in order to deliberately *break* Shabbat, so that he can successfully convert and become a Jew and observe Shabbat. (At which point, he would most certainly remove said item from his pocket!)

Oh boy.

For those who love Messiah, we know there’s a way that Judaism doesn’t yet see:

Messiah opened up to gentiles the covenants with the forefathers. He made gentiles sons of Abraham. He made gentiles first-class citizens in the commonwealth of Israel. He brought non-natural branches – the gentiles – and placed them alongside the natural branches – the Jewish people. Marvelous thing, really.

(Blessed are you, Lord, for bringing the millions of gentiles to yourself through Messiah’s sacrifice.)

This is a clear fork-in-the-road for those who wish our Messiah faith to be merely an emulation of Judaism. It’s not that the Messianic movement must discard Judaism. It’s that there are clear practical divergences here, divergences besides the deal-breaker that is Yeshua-as-divine-Messiah, Yeshua as Lord. The treatment of gentiles is such a divergence.

In the pre-Messiah days, barring a handful of proselytes and God-fearers, gentiles were without hope, without God, no relationship to Israel or the covenants. But after Messiah’s arrival, all that was turned on its head. (Thank you, Lord, for having mercy on the nations.)

Treatment of gentiles was to be different under Messiah’s reign. People with zero relation to Jacob are now family and first-class citizens and equal branches of the people of God, the commonwealth of Israel.

It shouldn’t surprise us, either. The prophets said as much.

• Isaiah parroted God’s command: gentiles will keep shabbat and be given a name better than even Jacob’s children.
  
• Zechariah speaks to a glorious time for Israel, when all the nations will come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feasts.
  
• Isaiah even spoke of a seeming impossibility: first, God shows up and his glory is on plain display for all to see. Then, he’ll bring gentiles from all the nations to serve in the Temple alongside Israel as if they were cohanim, the Levitical priests.

Can you even imagine that? It’s going to be a sight to see, guys. The Temple is going to be rebuilt, Messiah’s going to return, God’s glory will be laid bare, all nations are going to see the King in plain sight. I can’t wait. Let’s persevere until then.

7 year anniversary!

This weekend was my 7 year anniversary of marriage to my wife, Kristin.

This past year of marriage has seen some hardships. But we are working through them and getting stronger.

I spent the whole weekend with my wife; went out to 2 dinners, a scary amusement park, a movie, and even the opera!

The above picture was taken at a restaurant, Saturday night, while shabbat had not yet ended. A Messianic friend saw this and chided me for eating at a restaurant during shabbat.

Yes, I broke shabbat to celebrate my 7 year anniversary with my wife. I don’t regret doing so. Sometimes, there are things weightier than refraining from commerce on the sabbath. The health of my marriage is such a thing.

Kristin, I love you more than I did 7 years ago! You are my love forever, and I’ll keep you to the end if you’ll have me.

Sabbath Meditation

Marty Goetz - Benediction

Brothers and sisters, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Yeshua, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Just something in my mind this Shabbat, something to meditate on.

Shabbat shalom.

It is shabbat (and the end of Passover)…

This shabbat I’m the guy playing the music for our Bible study meet up. I love when I get to do this!

I picked out a few of my personal favs this week:

1. Lamb – Dancing in Jerusalem
2. Marty Goetz – Psalm 1
3. Lamb – Many Will See It
4. Israel’s Hope – I Want to Worship You
5. Barry & Batya Segal – Hodu L’Adonai

Some good classics that you can really worship the Lord to!

Also, as the week of Unleaved Bread comes to a close, for your enjoyment dear blog readers, here are some snapshots of our Passover seder we did last weekend. We rented a cabin for the day and had about 40-50 folks celebrating Passover with us:

 

We had lamb and the traditional Passover foods: charoset, bitter herbs, parsley, unleavened bread, some sneaked-in wine (thanks Wayne!). We had a Messiah-focused Passover service, and did some ministering and really worshipped the Lord in music and song to boot.

And thanks to Katie, Lydia, and all the folks that made this happen! Your efforts are greatly appreciated!

Hope you all had a fine Passover and Unleavened Bread week.
Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers!

Pick the Scripture

Both of the quotations below are from early believers in Messiah.

One of them greatly influenced the Roman Church and its Protestant offspring.

The other made it into Scripture.

Can you guess which is which?

1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world
   
   We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not obey his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
   
   Everyone who breaks the Law sins; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
   
   I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
   
   
2. Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, nor rejoice in days of idleness; for “he that does not work shall not eat."

   Let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days of the week. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, "To the end, for the eighth day."

   Be not deceived with strange doctrines, nor with old fables, which are unprofitable. For if we still live according to the Jewish law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace. For the divinest prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. On this account also they were persecuted, being inspired by His grace to fully convince the unbelieving that there is one God, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son, who is His eternal Word, not proceeding forth from silence, and who in all things pleased Him that sent Him.

   Be not deceived with strange doctrines, "nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies," and things in which the Jews boast. "Old things are passed away: all things have become new." For if we live according to the Jewish law, and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace.

   Therefore, having become His disciples, let us learn to live according to the principles of Christianity. For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, is not of God.

   It is absurd to profess Christ Jesus, and to Judaize. For Christianity did not embrace Judaism, but Judaism Christianity.

   It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ with the tongue, and to cherish in the mind a Judaism which has now come to an end. For where there is Christianity there cannot be Judaism. [^]

The first quote is from Scripture, in 1 John.

The second quote is from Magnesians, a letter written by Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, around the time of Paul’s death.

Ignatius’ detestable theology had a great impact on the early believers; his writings were a clear forerunner of the Roman Catholic Church’s own doctrines: Ignatius is the first to abolish God’s Sabbath, replacing it with man’s Sun-day. He was also the first to describe the Church as “katholikos” or universal, from which the Catholic Church derives its name.

Armed with these anti-Jewish theologies, the Roman Catholic Church proceeded to persecute Jews and abolish most every form of keeping God’s commandments in the Torah, replacing Passover with Easter, Sabbath with Sunday, to name a few, creating a very distinct religion apart from, and very bitter towards, the original faith in the God of Israel.

The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church still celebrate Ignatius and even have a special feast day dedicated to this man.

The Catholic Church’s offspring – Protestants and Evangelicals – have inherited much of this ugly theology. Perhaps this is why many gentile Christians today believe or sympathize with these terrible, anti-Jewish doctrines that have led to the deaths of thousands of Jews at the hands of Christians. It has also contributed to modern Christianity's foundation-less theology in which the forgiveness of sin is held high, but the obedience to God's commandments -- sin's adversary -- is largely ignored, leading to lawlessness and empty works.

RSVP: Shabbat in Jerusalem with the Lord

The time is coming when I will gather together all nations and languages.
They will come and see my glory, and I will give them a sign.
I will send some of their survivors to the nations of Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tuval, Greece and more distant coasts,
Where they've never heard of my fame or glory.

They will proclaim my glory in these nations;
and they will bring your family out from the gentiles as an offering to the Lord
On horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, on camels -
Bringing them to my holy mountain in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem),
Just as the people of Isra'el themselves bring their offerings in clean vessels to the house of Adonai.

I will also take cohanim (priests) and L'vi'im (Levites) from these," says the Master.

"For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making will continue in my presence," says the Master,

"So will your descendants and your name continue. "Every month on Rosh-Hodesh (new moon) and every week on Shabbat, everyone living will come to worship in my presence," says the Master.

-Isaiah 66

Every living thing will come and worship the Lord in Jerusalem each Shabbat. This includes gentiles!

Wow. What a profound prophecy. Preach it, Isaiah!

Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers. Looking forward to the shabbat when all of us go up to Jerusalem, worshiping the Lord, God of Yisra'el.

Shabbat Shleva

Meha Shamayim - Shabbat Shleva, Sabbath of Peace




Shabbat shalom, have a rest-filled Sabbath, fine blog readers.

Gentiles and the Sabbath

Here is what the Master says:

"Keep justice, do what's right; my saving power is near, my righteousness will soon be revealed."

There is joy and happiness -- blessing! -- for the person who does this, the one who takes hold of it, who keeps Shabbat and does not profane it, and keeps himself from evil.

A gentile joining Adonai should not say,

"Adonai will keep me separate from Israel."

Neither should the lowly eunuch say,

"I am only a dried-up tree."

Because here is what the Master says:

"I will give power to even the powerless eunuchs who keep my Shabbat, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant. In my house, they will be given an everlasting name, never to be removed."

And the gentiles who join themselves to Adonai to serve him, to love the name Yah, every one of them who keeps Shabbat and doesn't profane it, and hold fast to my covenant, I will bring them into my house on my holy mountain and make them happy and joyful; all they offer and sacrifice will be acceptable to me.

My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations and all peoples.

Adonai Elohim, the Master who gathers Israel's exiles, decrees it:

"I will gather others to them besides the ones already gathered."

-Isaiah 56

(Preach it, Isaiah! )

Joyful Sabbath

Perhaps my favorite vintage Messianic song from the 1970s: Lamb - Break Forth in Joy.mp3

Sing a happy song to the Lord
Halleluyah, hallelu
Make a joyful noise to the Lord
Halleluyah, hallelu

Break forth in joy
Halleluyah
Sing a mighty joyful song
To Yeshua
Sing his praises over an o'er again
Halleluyah, hallelu

Sometimes simple lyrics are the most profound.

Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers.

Gentile Christians Keeping the Feasts of the Lord

60 year old classic Christian, Mary Anne Clark, talks about how she -- a gentile Christian wife of an Anglican clergyman -- came to keep the Feasts of the Lord: Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, and others. Why did she start keeping them? What business does a gentile Christian have in keeping the "Jewish" feasts?

Q. What did your family think about your keeping these traditions, I mean, was it welcomed wholeheartedly, was it, kind of, did they think it was weird? How did they respond?

A. Not so much weird as "don't quite understand it". I think for extended family members, umm, it's probably considered a little weird. "I wonder what they're into now." [laughs] That kind of thing. Because even being a born-again, sold-out-for-the-Lord Christian is a little bit weird for some people. So now taken this level of trying to understand Jesus and His life, yeah, it is considered a little weird. I don't know that it's judged so much as it is cautioned.

Q. What do you mean by cautioned?

A. I think they're cautious, people are cautious because they don't want to be weird, they don't want to do things that are weird. They want to be your normal, average people. And so they don't want to take themselves in any way that would make them look weird.

But the truth is, once you get to understanding this [the Feasts of the Lord], it doesn't matter what people think because you get so much more of a level of richness about your Christian faith and your Christian walk that it's all worth it.

This is interview comes from the fine folks at Threads Media, who were kind enough to send me a free copy of their Feast leader kit: a pack of materials for small Christian groups wanting to learn about the Feasts of the Lord.

It contains a CD with Christian Feast-centered music and interviews with the Christians who keep the Feasts, a DVD of Messianic Rabbi Derek Leman and friends sharing a Sabbath meal together and talking about the tradition and what it means in their lives as Messiah-followers to keep the Feasts of the Lord.

It also contains Derek's new book, Feast: Finding Your Place at the Table of Tradition.

Questions like,

Why keep the Feasts of the Lord?

Why should gentiles keep "Jewish" feasts?

How in the world can a non-Jew living in this culture keep the Feasts? What am I supposed to do?

The materials in the Feast leader kit look at these questions from a gentile Christian perspective and answers them with personal experiences of other Christians. If you're a Christian who's even the least bit curious about the Feasts of the Lord, you owe it to yourself to discover more of the times the Lord appointed for His people: His set-apart Feasts.

Some time in the coming weeks, I'll be doing a little Q&A interview with Derek about his book and about the Feast kit. Do you fine blog readers have any tough questions for Derek? Skeptical questions about the Feasts? Maybe you've got a quote from Paul that just shuts down all this Jewish stuff? Or maybe you're curious about how to go about actually celebrating one of the Lord's Feasts?

Here's your chance to ask a Real Live Messianic Rabbi® your questions about the Feasts. Post them in the comments and I may use them in the interview.

Shalom.

Weekend thought

The Sabbath existed before the law of Moses came, and has existed from the beginning of the world. Especially the devout, who have preserved the true faith, have met together and called upon God on this day.

When servants have worked six days, they should have the seventh day free. God says without distinction, 'Remember that you observe the seventh day'…Concerning Sunday it is known that men have instituted it …It is clear however, that you should celebrate the seventh day.

Indeed, if [Chancellor of Wittenberg University] Carlstadt were to write further about the Sabbath, Sunday would have to give way, and the Sabbath -- that is to say, Saturday -- must be kept holy.

They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day, as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!"

-Excerpts from the first Protestant church fathers and theologians: Martin Luther, Andres Carlstadt, Philipp Melanchthon

The Protestants restored a number of truths that were lost prior in the sea of Catholicism, including grace by faith. It is truly a shame that despite the efforts of many early Protestants, the truth of Sabbath remained stifled by the Roman Church. The Protestant failure to restore this truth has resulted in modern Protestants and Evangelicals who still cling to this millenia-old, un-Scriptural institution of Roman Catholic theology.

Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers.

Upon This Disciple I'll Create My New Religion?

I've recently been debating with a Catholic man, Ariel, in the comments to Catholic Relevance.

Ariel is rather peculiar religious person, in that he went from a child under Catholicism, to agnosticism, to Evangelical Christianity, to Messianic Judaism, then back to Catholicism. (Wow!) He is now a chief contributor to IsraelCatholics.com.

In the little debate, Ariel points to us to his testimony and lays out the span of events that led him to believe that "Messianic Judaism is not biblical enough and [that] Catholicism really is truly Jewish and truly the faith of the Bible."

He further states,

"Messianic Judaism usually uncritically accepts the two pillars of Protestantism: sola scriptura (the Bible as sole source of authority) and sola fide (salvation by faith alone). Yet both of these doctrines are neither Jewish, neither biblical, nor genuinely Christian!"

Ariel and I debate these points and many others in the comments to Kineti Le'Tzion - Catholic Relevance. The points made are so important, however, I feel this debate deserves more visibility than dueling comments in a buried blog post!

To keep things reasonable short and concise, since so many of you [ahem, Gary] refuse to read long posts, I'm going to address only a single issue today:

Should we have a Pope?

Ariel states the Catholic position this way:

The fact that Jesus appointed Peter to be "the rock on which I will build my Church" is quite clear from the NT. See the wealth of other scriptures and quotes from the early church (way before Constantine!) in this presentation.

Ariel is referring to the following Scripture, Matthew's record of the gospel, ch. 16,

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

It is from this Scripture that Catholics claim the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Catholics claim Peter was the first Pope in a succession of popes leading up to the current Roman Catholic Church head:

While Catholics claim the Apostle Peter was the first Pope, the current Pope is Joseph Ratzinger, now called Pope Benedict XVI, a former Hitler Youth (though it's claimed he had no choice in the matter), is seen above wearing the Mitre (religious headgear), which some folks speculate is the pagan Dagon fish hat, although that is contested.

So, are the Catholics correct? Was Peter the first Pope? Did Jesus give authority to Peter to be the first Pope? Did Jesus authorize the creation of a church built on Peter in Rome?

Let's examine the evidence and come to a conclusion.

The first matter is the very Scripture itself. A few things strike me about this quotation:

• "You are Peter, and upon this rock..." - This is Greek word play. The Greek "Petras" means rock or stone, so it appears Jesus is playing a word game by saying "You are Petros, and upon this petras..."
  
  
• "I will build my church" - This translation and understanding is based on the faulty assumption that Jesus is starting a new religion. After all, we think of "church" as a big building with a steeple symbolizing organized religion, or perhaps a large religious organization itself like the Catholic Church. However, Jesus did not come to start a new religion, and this is evident in the fact that word "church" here is the very same Greek word "ekklesia", which means an assembly of people. Ekklesia is found elsewhere in the Bible -- even the Old Testament! -- but only in the New Testament is it translated in this way, perhaps intentionally as a way for the Church to validate its existence, sadly.
  
  
• "The gates of Hades will not overcome it" - I always get a kick out of this. Why would Jesus, a Torah-observant Jewish rabbi, talk about the pagan Greek god of the dead, Hades? Given that speaking the name of false gods is a sin according to Torah, if Jesus really did say this, he would not have been sinless - very consequential to Christian doctrine. Interesting! More on this in a moment.
  

So, what's the deal with all this? Is Jesus starting a new religion founded on Peter? Did Jesus break a Torah mitzvot by speaking the name of Greek god of the dead, thus sinning? The answer lies in the original text.

The book of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew, a document attested to by the early Church fathers Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Jerome, Papias, and Irenaeous. (Despite this evidence, some modern scholars debate Hebrew Matthew's existence.)

In any case, we no longer have the original Hebrew Matthew, it has since been lost. We do, however, have a Hebrew manuscript of what is believed to be the original Hebrew, in the form of a medieval document written by a Spanish Jewish physician, Shem Tov ben Isaac ben Shaprut. This Hebrew version of Matthew is dubbed Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew.

(It should be noted there is debate among scholars and Christians as to whether Shem Tov's Matthew is a manuscript from Hebrew or a translation from Latin or Greek. In the very least, there exists in Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew some rabbinic Judaic bias, such as writing Messiah's name blasphemously¹.)

I wanted to get my hands on this and see what the Hebrew Matthew had to say about Jesus building a church on Peter. 2 weeks ago, I did just that, and began studying Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew. Unsurprisingly, using the Hebrew names1, it reads much differently than the Greek:

[Y'shua] said to him, "Blessed are you, Shimon ben Yochanan, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. I say to you: you are a stone and I will build upon you my house of prayer. The gates of Gehenna will not prevail against you because I have given you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Now this is interesting. In the Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew, we see that no longer is Messiah saying he'll build a church, which implies Jesus is creating a new religion. He instead says he will build a house of prayer, which does not imply a new religion or anything foreign to the Jewish faith.

What did Messiah mean when he said he'd build a house of prayer, you ask? Is He talking about building the Catholic Church? No, it seems obvious what he meant: since Messiah later revealed to Peter that the gentiles are to be included in the faith of the God of Israel, Peter was the foundation of what became a massive gentile following of Jesus that we have today. That gentile following of Messiah is the house of prayer. It does not speak to one particular denomination, Catholic or otherwise. Thus, whether Peter visited Rome or founded a church there -- a debatable point Catholics and Protestants have argued over for centuries -- is irrelevant.

Another interesting bit about this Scripture is how the difficult problem of "Hades" goes away in the Hebrew. While Hades was a Greek god of the underworld, Gehenna was a real place outside Jerusalem that became essentially a garbage dump where fires were burned continuously to consume the refuse of the city. Canaanite pagans had previously sacrificed their children to their false god, Santa Clause Molech, in the valley of Gehenna, so there was also a dark evil associated with the place.

Another interesting bit is how the Hebrew says, "the gates of Gehenna will not prevail against you", as opposed to the Greek reading, "the gates of Hades will not prevail against it [the Church]". The Hebrew is saying Gehenna will not prevail against Peter, the Greek is saying the gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church.

Given this understanding, I see no Scriptural evidence supporting the idea of a Pope, who presumes himself to be Jesus Christ on earth, infallible. On the contrary, I see Scriptures that indicate such presumption to be haughty, if not blasphemous.

The final idea we need to address -- because this confronts both Catholic and Protestant Christianity head on -- is the idea that Jesus came to start a new religion.

Some Christians deny this, saying it is the Jews who created the new religion, or that true Christianity is not different than the original faith in the God of Israel.

But these same Christians betray themselves by saying the Torah is passed away, that Jesus' grace replaces God's Law, or that we safely ignore God's Law because Jesus "nailed it to the cross". Indeed, my father-in-law once said to me, paraphrasing here, "Judah, Israel doesn't matter anymore -- everything changed with Jesus."

Do you Christian folks who profess such things understand what you're saying?

• If Jesus did away with the Law, then he is a false prophet who would receive capital punishment for leading people away from God.
  
  
• If Jesus did away with the Law, he started a new religion in which the Law is relegated to the back seat, and the Jews would be correct in rejecting Him.
  
  
• If Jesus did away with the Law, or even diminished it in any way, he contradicted his own words and his own actions.
  
  
• If Jesus made less meaningful even the slightest commandment in Torah, he failed to fulfill the messianic prophecies in the Tenakh (Old Testament), thereby rendering his Messianic status a lie.
  
  
• If Jesus replaced Israel with the Church, then Jesus made God out to be a liar; for Jesus would be revoking something God promised to be irrevocable: the Torah will be an everlasting covenant between Himself and Israel.
  
  
• If Jesus "changed everything" such that Torah is diminished, then He did indeed create a new (false) religion, and a Protestant is merely a lesser, misled form of a Catholic, the highest form of follower in this new religion.
  

Let me spell it out in plain words for you: by claiming Jesus somehow diminished the Law, you are unwittingly stating that Jesus is both a false messiah and a false prophet.

Stop with your foolish claims that Jesus somehow diminished the Torah, you're leading people astray.

Greek Jesus vs Hebrew Yeshua

Let's be frank. If the Greek peacenik adonis Iesous Kristo started a new religion, where we're supposed to have big Churches with steeples, celebrate these new holidays called Easter, Christmas, Lent, and Ash Wednesday, Sunday mass, and all the paraphernalia associated with a new religion, then the Catholic Church is right, and we should all convert to Catholicism.

On the other hand, if the Torah-observant, Jewish rabbi Yeshua HaMoshiach didn't start a new religion, then we need to clean up the mess that was created not 100 years after his death, which culminated in the creation of an official state religion in 325 CE, when the Roman Emperor Constantine declared himself the 'Holy' Roman Emperor and Sol Invictus (invincible sun god) and formalized what is today the Roman Catholic Church, complete with its Sun-day based worship.

So, who do you believe in? The Greek Iesous Kristo? Or the Hebrew Yeshua HaMoshiach? They are not one and the same; one is a perversion of the other. Which is it?

Our English Jesus Christ descends from the Greek understanding of Him, not the Hebrew understanding. We have a Greek mindset in these things -- it's no wonder Jews find Jesus so foreign and repugnant! He's tainted with Greek, pagan undertones in all we say about Him, everything from the western 'Christian' holidays, to his supposed diminishing of Torah, to the very halo we paint around His head.

We need to return to the teachings of this Jewish Messiah -- Sabbath, the Feasts of the Lord, Torah -- and get away from the man-made, Hellenized bastardization of these things that we have now in the Roman Catholic Church and its Protestant offspring.

Do we need a Pope to govern The Church? When one realizes the church in its current form is a religious invention of men, the answer becomes clear. What we do need is a return to our being Israel -- a holy, set apart people for God, different from the world -- grafted in not by race, but by belief in the God of Israel who gave Messiah so that both Jews and gentiles can be clean.




1. Shem Tov, himself a devout Jew being persecuted by the church, unfortunately substituted Yeshua's name in the Hebrew Matthew text with the shorter acronym YSH'W, which is a Hebrew acronym that meant to slam Jesus. The acronym's full form is Yemach Shemo Vezichro (literally meaning 'May his name and memory be obliterated'). It is an ancient rabbinic word play on Jesus' Hebrew name Yeshua, and Shem Tov used this shameful name in his manuscript of Hebrew Matthew.

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Now playing: Steve McConnell - Ki T'Hilati Attah
via FoxyTunes

Forgive Me Father, For I Have Sinned: A Catholic Confession on Sabbath

God knew what he was doing when he made for us a Sabbath: a day of rest for humanity. A break from the daily grind. A time to have some rest and peace -- true shalom -- with God.

The concept of Sabbath is a very old one in Judaism and Christianity. In the first book of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, in the first few chapters, God lays in place the foundations for an eternal, everlasting holiday made by God himself:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

When God revealed his ways to us, he gave us the command explicitly, repeated several times:

Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

--

Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out.

--

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

--

The seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.

--

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Does Sabbath matter to Christians anymore?

When I tell Christians of the wonderful rest I receive from God every Sabbath -- the special time I can spend in shalom with God, taking a break from the world and spending time resting and worshipping God -- I'm often retorted with a Pauline quip accusing me of being under the Law, not under grace, and a legalist. Ouch!

But what does Scripture really say? Well, the Hebrew Scriptures are quite clear on this, as you can see from the above quotes. The Hebrew Scriptures are part of the Christian bible, however, not all Christians follow Hebrew Scripture. So how about the Christian-specific part of the Christian bible -- the New Testament, the apostolic writings? What does Messiah have to say on the Sabbath?

The answer is that Messiah tells us that the Sabbath was created *for* us,

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"

He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Master of the Sabbath."

If Sabbath was created for us, why are we ignoring it now? If Messiah is the Master of the Sabbath, why do we ignore Sabbath?

In the New Testament, the writer of the Christian book of Hebrews speaks of the relevance of Sabbath,

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

His work has been finished since the creation of the world. He has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."

In the New Testament, Paul also tells us not to let anyone judge us in regards to keeping the Sabbath or any of the festivals:

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

Paul was undoubtedly hitting the same stifling religious spirit of the Pharisees, who rebuked Messiah because he had healed and picked grain to eat on Sabbath.

If Hebrews tells us a Sabbath remains for the people of God, then what happened? Why is there no real Sabbath, no real rest for us today? Instead of rest, most of us do all of our housework, shopping, and yard work on the weekend, we watch some football, maybe go to church, go out to eat, then call it a day. That's not rest.

That's not holy, either. In Scripture, holy comes from the Hebrew kadosh, which means set-apart. The Sabbath is not set apart for God in our western culture, but rather, it's ignored and made like any other day of the week, breaking one of the first commandments God gave to mankind.

If God's rest is so great, why did we lose it?

Well, the Roman Catholic Church -- in a kind of rebellion against the original faith -- broke from the Sabbath, the commandments, God's festivals, and all things "Jewish", replacing it with man-made holidays based around the existing pagan festivals at the time. Such was instituted at the outset of the 'Holy' Roman Catholic Church, starting with the first Pope [update: objections to this assertion, see footnote 1], Constantine, in 325 CE. Constantine, a sun worshiper himself according to his Mithra religion, had previously declared his sun-day the official, state-sanctioned day of rest:

"On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it oftne happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost."

-Constantine, Dies Solis decree, 321

Below is quotes from prominent Catholics regarding why they changed the Sabbath by their own authority.

Catholic Confessions About Sunday

• Confession Number 1: The Catholic Church admits it changed God's Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.

Q. Which is the Sabbath Day?

A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.

Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?

"A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday." Peter Guierman, The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957 ed.), P. 50. Copyright 1930 by B Herder Book Co., St Louis. Used by permission.

"The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her Divine mission, changed the day (of worship) from Saturday to Sunday. . . . The Christian Sabbath is therefore to this day the acknowledged offspring of the Catholic Church, as Spouse of the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant world." Editorial, The Catholic Mirror ( Baltimore ), September 23, 1893

"The Divine institution of a day of rest from ordinary occupations and of religious worship, transferred by the authority of the (Catholic) Church from the Sabbath, the last day, to Sunday the first day of the week, . . . is one of the most patent signs that we are a Christian people." James Cardinal Gibbons, The Cross and the Flag, Our Church and Country (New York: The Catholic Historical League of America, 1899), pp 24, 25.

• Confession 2: Catholic authorities confess there is no Scriptural support for changing God's Sabbath to Sunday.

"Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday." Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About ( New York : P.J. Ken edy & Sons), p. 136 Copyright 1927 by P.J. Ken eday & Sons. New York . Used by permission.

"You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify." Cardinal Gibbons (for many years head of the Catholic Church in America ). The Faith of Our Fathers (92nd ed.,rev.; Baltimore : John Murphy Company), p. 89.

"Nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the (Catholic ) Church outside the Bible." "To Tell You the Truth." The Catholic Virginian, 22 (October 223 1947),, 9.

"Q. Have you any other way of proving that the (Catholic) Church has power to institute festivals of precept?

"A. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her;. . .she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh, day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority." Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism (3d American ed., rev,; New York : T.W. Strong. late Edward Dunigan & Bro. 1876), p. 174.

• Confession 3: Protestants who keep Sunday as a holy day pay homage to the Catholic Church, since it was the Catholic Church that turned Sunday into a holy day.

"But the Protestant says: How can I receive the teachings of an apostate Church? How, we ask, have you managed to receive her teachings all your life, in direct opposition to your recognized teacher, the Bible, on the Sabbath question?". (The Christian Sabbath ) 2nd ed.; Baltimore ; The Catholic Mirror, 1893), p. 29, 30.

"If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church." Albert Smith (Chancellor of the Catholic Archdiocise of Baltimore), replying for the Cardinal in a letter of February 10, 11920.)

"It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of JESUS CHRIST, has transferred this (Sabbath) rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves to the authority of the (Catholic) Church," Louis Gaston de Segur, Plain Talk About The Protestantism of To-day. (Boston: Patrick Donahoe, 1868), p. 225.

"Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the (Catholic) Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought, logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath. . . ' John Golmary Shae, "The Observance of Sunday and Civil Laws for Its Enforcement." The American Catholic Quarterly Review, 8 (January, 1883), 152.

• Confession 4: Catholic authorities claim the Seventh Day Adventist Church is the only major Protestant denomination keeping the Scriptural Sabbath.

"The (Catholic) Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her Founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant, claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. In this matter the Seventh Day Adventist is the only consistent protestant." "The Question Box," The Catholic Universe Bulletin, 69 (August 14, 1942). 4.

"The Israelite respects the authority of the Old Testament only, but the (Seventh-day Adventist, who is Christian accepts the New Testament on the same ground as the Old viz: an inspired record also. He finds that the Bible, his teacher, is consistent in both parts that the Redeemer, during His mortal life never kept any other day than Saturday. The Gospels plainly evince to Him this fact: whilst, in the pages of the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles and the Apocallypse, not the vistige of an act cancelling the Saturday arrangement can be found." Editorial, The Catholic Mirror ( Baltimore ), September 2, 1893.

"What Bible authority is there for changing the sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week?

"Who gave the Pope the authority to change a command of God? If one follows Scripture alone, there's no question one is obliged to keep the Scriptural Sabbath, as it is prescribed by God himself to be kept holy.

With such strong-arming of God's commandments by the Roman Catholic Church, it is no surprise that the daughter of the Catholic Church, the Protestant church, inherited these man-made traditions that replace God's commandments. To this day, most Protestants continue in the ways of the old Catholic religion and disregard one of the first commandments in Scripture: to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Nonetheless, it is a terrible shame that the Protestant Reformation, which threw out many of the fallacies of the Catholic Church, failed to go the last mile and restore the Sabbath day. Instead we are left with the inherited lies of our fathers, the religion of man-made rituals that replace the things of God.

Footnotes:

1. *Update: A Catholic commenter asserts Constantine was not the first pope. At most, Constantine was the Roman Emperor, who founded what is now the Roman Catholic Church. I can't find any historical references to him being referred to as a pope; instead he was Holy Roman Emperor, a sun worshiper who, after his conversion to Christianity, mixed his former Mithra religion as well as various pagan religions of the Roman Empire in the creation of the new formal state religion of Rome, which later became Roman Catholic Christianity.


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