There Is Always Another Book...

I am a reader. In fact my family are readers. In our house there is no such thing as having too many books. There are days, especially when moving, that I might have disputed that point, but for us there is nothing quite like a good book.

But have you noticed; There is always another book? It doesn't matter how well read you are, someone is always coming out with something new and no matter what you try to do, you will never be able to read every book written. So if you are like me you pick a subject or a category of books that fascinate you and you dig in and read.

Then you have the problem of differing styles and opinions. I am a SciFi fan for instance, but everyone who writes scifi has a different opinion as to what the future is going to look like, or a different opinion on whats out there for planets and cultures. I am also a fan of history and that can get real confusing. No matter your view of historical events there is always someone else who sees it differently then you do. There is just no way that you get everyone to agree. To many opinions , too many points of view and more material to research then you can shake a stick at.

So why bring up the obvious? Besides the fact that I am good at pointing out obvious things; I had some folks ,after my last blog posting, suggest some more authors to check out and read, which I do appreciate, however as I have said; There is always another book.
It's not really an argument per se it is simply that I have found a vast amount of differing opinions as to what the scriptures say and a lot of it coming from people with much greater minds then I have, both Jews and Gentiles alike, writing with a knowledge that I can only dream of, yet with differing views.

Yesterday ,just for the fun of it, I looked up the proverbial 300 proof texts that the Christian world uses to prove their point, and while I didn't find those, I did find many web sites that addressed some of them and the battle went back and forth both for and against. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people with differing views were being so polite to each other, but there was no consensus agreed upon, just differing opinions using the same scriptures!

So the question really boils down to this; What does the scriptures say? Not what some scholar says, not what someone with an agenda says, but what does the scriptures say?

Here again it can get tricky. In the USA we have many translations of the Bible and we have many well educated, theology school taught pastors, who can rattle off some of the finest sermons, eloquently spoken, that you have ever heard, however no one seems to be able to agree. Some denominations, using the same Bible that I have would condemn me and you to hell for seeing the scriptures in a different way then them. I was once a part of a denomination that had it's own prophet and it's own version of the Bible and if you didn't become one of them then you were going to be lost in the last days so I know this to be true.

For those who would say at this point well you should only use the KJV , you need to go and look at the history of it. It is nothing more then a translation that was based on the best interpretations of the scriptures that were available at the time, the most popular being the Geneva Bible. The men who translated it all had a political and religious agenda and as time has shown us, especially in regards to the "New Testament" there has been many errors in the translation. Remember I am not asking you to believe me, my hope is that you will look for yourselves and decide.

So it again boils down to this; What does the scriptures say, more to the point what does G-D have to say?

I believe whole heartedly that the day is coming when all our differences are going to go away and we are going to be asked to make the most basic of choices; Are you going to serve G-D and follow His commands, or are you going to follow the leaders of this world and the enemy of our souls?

Notice I didn't say are you going to convert to Judaism or Christianity, I didn't say are you going to be Orthodox or Southern Baptist because in the end that isn't going to matter. What is going to matter is whether or not you obeyed G-D and followed Him.
Some of you may be having the gears in you head spinning saying, but wait we must(pick your must)in order to be saved by G-D. I humbly submit to you again that the issue is much simpler then that. Just like Adam and Eve had a simple choice, obey or disobey, we have that same choice and it is going to be set in front of us soon.

You may disagree with me and the way I believe and that's OK. I don't condemn people for not believing the same way that I do. I simply offer what G-D has shown to me.
There may be other books out there that can prove me wrong, there may be books out there that may prove me to be right as well, personally I don't care. What I do care about is you understanding that what is coming will be different then anything you have ever been taught and in the end it will boil down to Obeying G-D or Man, all the other books with their own opinions can go away. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord and Obey Him.

Shalom,
Ignacio

The Ah Ha Moment

Have you ever had one of those "ah ha" moments? The kind of moment where everything suddenly fell into place and you saw something clearly for the first time? I have recently had one of those moments and while I don't expect anyone to be excited by it I am going to tell you about it anyhow.

For a long time now I have been studying the Tenach( The Old Testament) and have been trying to understand why it is that the Jewish people don't believe that the Messiah has come already. I have been as thorough as I know how and have looked at various translations, including Hebrew, and I have been on many a web page giving me the opinions of some minds that are better then mine. I have read Eusibius and some of Maimonides ( sorry if the spelling is off ) but the bottom line has been the study of the scriptures themselves and I have come to the conclusion that the reason that they don't believe that the Messiah has come, is because he hasn't.

For those of you who are left at this point I'll explain why I believe this, I won't drag it out because I have been at this for a long time, but the simple fact of the matter is that Jesus didn't fulfill the prophecies of the Messiah.

There is no peace on earth , G-D Kingdom has not been established in Israel, The Jews are still hunted and persecuted and not all the tribes have returned to Israel, though I think that day is coming soon, the laws of G-D have not been written on every one's hearts and very few ,other then the Jews themselves, keep the Holy days as has been predicted by the prophets as happening when the Messiah comes to rein.

Some might say to me well there is a second coming, please show me in the Tenach where that is written. I have searched high and low and there is nothing there.
Some might say we need the blood of Jesus to forgive sins. Go back and look at the Messianic prophecies and you will find that it is G-D Himself that does the forgiving and cleansing of His people, no where does it speak of an intermediary it only speaks of G-D doing these things. Not to mention that G-D speaks of Himself as only being One.

Some of you might say well Jesus was of the family of David and so that proves it. If you look carefully at both of the ancestors listed by Matthew and Luke you will find several glaring inconstancy's starting with the grandfather. You will also see A king who was told that there would be no more kings after him to sit on Davids throne, and you will find that while one goes back to Solomon the other goes back to Nathan and while he was Davids son, he was not in the line of Kings. Some have said well one line is going through Mary while the other is going through Joseph. The problem with that is that they both claim to be going through Joseph, and if Jesus had no earthly father then Joseph's line wouldn't have counted any how.

Here is a question for you; If the Messiah has come already, then why such hatred of the Jews? The Romans killed Jesus, and if really his purpose was for the removal of our sins, why is it that time and time again nations have tried to destroy Jews?
It's simple really, The Messiah hasn't come yet and HaSatan the enemy of our souls knows this, so he directs people to try and kill the Jews in order to stop the prophecy from happening.

I have spent much time looking over the proof texts for Jesus and what I have found is that if taken in context, something preachers are always saying to do, the text don't match. If that's not bad enough I have also found where the actual Hebrew is far different then what it has been translated to in English. Considering what I have learned of the history of the KJV and the Geneva Bible , I am not surprised.

From a historic point of view there are only a few notes on Jesus and most of those are in dispute, but here is my question; If there was a Star that was so bright that it not only led the wise men but rested over the place where he lived, where are the historical notes of that? The Greeks and the Romans worshiped the "gods" of the heavens so it would seem to me that they would have seen it and said something to someone. There is no record of a census being posed nor is there any historical accounts of Jerusalem being in an uproar over the wise men coming and looking for the Jewish King. Certainly someone would have written on that if it had happened.
One other thing , it says that Joseph and Mary brought him to the temple to be circumcised, Mary couldn't have gone near the temple for 30 days after having a son, that was Jewish law handed down by G-D Himself.

There is much more I could write on this but as I suspect that I won't hear much from anyone, I will simply ask you to check it out for yourselves and decide whats what.
As for me and my house we will serve the G-D of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, for G-D is One, and besides Him there are no others.

Shalom,
Ignacio