OBL And Mother Teresa

What a week it has been. Sunday night we were informed that OBL had finally been killed in a rather nasty 40 min fire fight with Navy SEALS and that ultimately he was killed in the course of that fight. Americans who heard this, I was sleeping when the president told the nation, went out into the streets to celebrate the death of this man and to basically flag wave and rejoice.

Then the story started falling apart. In fact the only thing that seems to be true in this whole story is that he is dead and even then they won't show the evidence to prove it, so many don't believe it's true. Personally I think it's true that he's dead, I just believe that it happened long before now and that his death has been put on hold for political reasons. I also believe that I don't really care. If him and his cave dwelling buddies were really the ones responsible for 9/11 then great, he's dead, and can we now move on to more important things? Such as calling it a win and bringing the troops home?

OBL can serve as an object lesson though to all of us. Here was a man that was, by all accounts, a very wealthy man, from a very powerful family in Saudi Arabia. He likely had every toy and whistle that any man could want. He was working for the US government in Afghanistan and so was likely receiving a goodly chunk of change from us as well. Something changed though.
He went from being our man, fighting the Soviets, to public enemy #1 all in a matter of moments.

We can debate as to whether or not he was actually involved or just a convinient target to point a finger at and we can debate the how why and when of his death but the one thing that can't be denied was that he went from rich and powerful to being quite dead.

Mother Teresa was just the opposite. She had nothing. No money. No power, no wealth to command and yet she took what little she had and she did some real good for the poor of India. She fed those that she could, clothed whom she could and took care of the sick. Yet in the end, humbly and just as poor as when she started her mission, she died.

Sadly, most people will remember OBL long after Mother Teresa has been forgotten because of all the evil he allegedly did and yet Mother Teresa is the one who deserves the remeberance more. His life was filled with violence and death and hers with healing and hope.

OBL dead? Good, lets move on to really note worthy people now and let him fade away into the dust of obscurity where he belongs.

Shalom,
Ignacio

Why I left Christanity

Today I am going to be writing about how I came to leave Christianity and embrace Judaism and the one true G-D of Israel and the creator of the world.

One thing I should mention here I am not interested in “converting “you to what I believe. You may find that hard to believe because of what you are taught in Christianity about converting the world, but in Judaism they don’t believe that you need to be converted (I have not converted by the way) but only that you live as a righteous Gentile following the laws that G-D gave to Adam and to Noah, which are known as the Noachide laws, a subject for another day, and in keeping those you will have a place in the kingdom to come.

Another thought that came to me is that some of you seem very shocked that I have left Christianity. A few have suggested, rather strongly, that I am ‘godless’ or that I am following the father of lies. It finally hit me as to why. As Christians you are taught that if a person does not believe in the deity of Jesus then they are automatically placed in the camp of Satan by default, so my guess is that you couldn’t imagine that I would be anything else, other than a Christian, when I am acting and living my life in a G-Dly manner, quoting scripture and singing the praises of G-D. I think that it is very hard for you to compute and therefore the shock comes in.

So as I set out to write this, here is my challenge to you; be open minded. If you are reading this for the purpose of trying to find my mistakes or to try and convince me that you are right, then you miss the purpose of this writing. Some of you have asked and now I am answering.

You also must keep in mind two very important facts; the first being that I was a pastor and that I have been involved in Christianity, in various forms, most of my life. The second is that I never set out to disprove Christianity, in fact I was determined that I was going to prove that Christianity was right so I could present this to a few Jewish people that I had met. Obviously, my studies did just the opposite and as a result I have left Christianity in all its forms.

What started me on this road was a simple question that had come after a rather severe berating I had received from a Jewish man on my interpretation of something that Jesus had said, I don’t even remember what the issue was, but what I do remember is that I couldn’t understand why it was that they couldn’t seem to grasp that Jesus was the messiah and that he was their future king. This led me to ask the one simple question; why don’t the Jews believe in Jesus? This was my starting point. It made no sense to me that such a wonderful and intelligent people couldn’t grasp something as basic as that and so I started out to show them , if I could, just who he was and that they were wrong. I couldn’t accept the idea, as most Christians are taught, that the Jews were blinded to the truth because I had listened to too many Jewish Rabbis and people who knew the NT very well so it was not a matter of ignorance, there had to be another reason.

To set the stage for you, I had already left my position as a young adult pastor and camp director, not because I didn’t believe in Jesus, but because I had started to learn about messianic Judaism and I believed that this was the route that we should pursue. In all fairness it was probably, up until that time, one of the best things I ever did. The group that we belonged too did not believe in trying to convert people, especially the Jewish people, because they believed that the Jewish people already had the Torah (the law) and G-D.  Our Rabbi was Jewish and through his teaching we embraced a combination of Jesus and Jewish ways, I wore the Kippah, Tzit Tzit, and the Tallit, by all external measure I had become Jewish but still with just that touch of Christianity. The reason that I believe that it was one of the best things to ever happen to me and my family ,was because it introduced us to Judaism and it started me on a study and love of the” Old Testament” and more of a love for the G-D of Israel as a result.

The first thing that I did was peruse the internet. There are many articles and excerpts from writings and books that were both for and against Jesus as being the messiah. I looked at some of the writers of the Jewish Talmud as well as some of the early church fathers and the one thing that I came to realize was that all of them had some sort of an agenda or, perhaps better put, a bias in one direction or the other and it was really hard to find someone who was neutral on the subject. Those that were neutral usually turned out to be atheists or serious skeptics of G-D or religion in general. So I decided on a completely different approach.

The first thing I did was decide how I would approach someone in the time of Jesus to convince them that Jesus was the messiah that they were looking for. I wouldn’t be able to use the NT because that was written well after the events so that left me with the option of just using the OT to prove the point. It makes perfect sense to do it this way when you consider that Jesus and his followers as well as John the Baptist would have only been able to base their views or opinions on their knowledge of the OT prophecies. So I used several different versions of the Bible, including KJV, NKJV, and NIV amongst others. I also used the Strongs/Vineyard concordance as well as a program that could show the words as they would have been written in the OT Hebrew and, with pens and lots of paper, I began to search.

The first thing that I started with was the word Messiah. Messiah is the English translation of the Greek word Christ which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiyach which simply means “anointed one“. The word is used 98 times through the Bible with 86 of them appearing in the OT. Of those 37 apply to people such as kings and priests and one refers to a person in particular, that being Cyrus who eventually let the captives go back to Israel and rebuild the temple. Please see Strongs/ Vineyards #4899. Nowhere though is there any reference to the Messiah, or anointed one, as being anything more than human.  A servant of G-D?  Yes. A king yes, but nothing about him being G-D in any form. 

I still wasn’t too rattled though because I figured that somewhere in the scriptures I would find something that would explain the idea of the messiah being G-D, I just had to dig a bit deeper. So dig I did. I started out by reading every scripture that I had ever heard even had the remotest reference to what the messiah was supposed to do or be. I read all the “suffering servant” passages, checked out words and entire phrases as they would have been written in Hebrew/Aramaic and came to the rather startling conclusion that there were no scriptures what so ever that even hinted that the messiah was going to be anything more than human, with the exceptions of the ones that clearly pointed to Israel doing the suffering, but there again we are not talking about Israel being G-D, just His servant. Well needless to say I was floored. I had always just kind of assumed that it was there hidden in the passages but it wasn’t.  I even did the whole 300 proof texts thing only to discover that the vast majority of them could have applied to anything or anyone and the few that were left were either badly misquoted or were taken out of context and still none of them proved that the messiah was to be G-D. It simply was not there.

Let me remind you at this point that there was nothing more I would have liked any better than to have found some sort of solid proof the messiah was to be G-D. This discovery threw me for such a loop that for almost a year I did nothing more than mull over it and re read biblical passages just to make sure. I honestly couldn’t decide if what I had found, or in this case not found, was really all that important. It seemed to me that Christianity had done a lot of good for the world and if getting people to know G-D was through someone who everyone believed was G-D then who was I to say.

I decided at that point that what I would do then was find out what the scriptures did have to say about the messiah, because I thought that surely Jesus could at least have that role even if he wasn’t G-D. I started from the beginning again and came to realize that even in this manner he couldn’t have fulfilled the role as the messiah, because one of the things about the messiah is that he is to bring about an end to war and bring both a universal peace and knowledge of G-D and His laws, none of which Jesus accomplished. In fact Jesus himself said that he hadn’t come to bring peace but a sword, that alone would disqualify him and since his time there have been literally millions killed in his name, many of them Jews, who simply refused to convert. Israel is not the nation it once was and yet the messianic prophecies say that when he comes the nations of the world will come to Israel to seek forgiveness and for the knowledge of G-D and as of this writing this has not happened. In fact it is quite the opposite; the nations of the world are ganging up on Israel to do her more harm. Now I know that some of you are thinking to yourselves well he is going to accomplish all that during his second coming. The problem here is that there is no mention at all of any second coming nor is it even implied.  Again a commonly held belief in the Christian world that’s not there.

This is usually about the time someone will say to me, well what about the blood sacrifices don’t they point to Jesus? If the sacrificial system was done away with and the temple destroyed how is it that they can have forgiveness without the shedding of blood?

First of all if you go back and do a careful reading of the sacrifices you will discover two things. One is that a blood sacrifice wasn’t always needed, especially for those that were poor. They had flour offerings as well as meal offerings, no blood necessary, and then the second thing is that when they did have an offering of animals, depending on the situation it could be a Dove, or a male or female sheep and or goats or a bull.

So what about the temple then, how does one receive forgiveness without the sacrifices and the temple?

Prayer. Simple answer isn’t it? G-D, through Solomon and Moses, foretold of a time when the temple would be gone, that they would not be able to do the sacrifices and that they would be in captivity because they turned from Him and went to other “gods”. What they told the people was simply this; when you go into captivity and you finally realize that you have sinned turn your heart back to me and seek my forgiveness. Solomon goes so far as to say that their prayers will be as the sacrifices of bulls. All through the prophets you have this theme emphasized that when they turn their hearts back to Him that He will forgive them and save them. It’s not through the sacrifices it’s through having a willing heart to turn back to Him. In one place it even says that He will bring them back to the land, then forgive them, then remove their Idols and place His laws back in their hearts where it will never be removed. Not because they deserve it but because He is their G-D and He loves them. In fact if you take the time to look at the OT prophets , you will find that it’s not just about the “wrath” of G-D but rather that there is much to be found as to His redeeming His people and bringing them back to Israel. I should also point out that it also is very clear that it will be all who worship G-D will be amongst those that G-D gathers not just the children of Israel. But here is a real shocker for you, in the end the third temple will be build according to the description given to Ezekiel and the sacrifices will resume. It also says that the nations of the world will keep at least some of the holy days of the Jews such as Sabbath, New Moon and the Feast of Tabernacles, it even goes so far as to tell you that the nation that doesn’t keep the Feast of Tabernacles will not receive any rain.

So the more I studied the more surprised I became because I was seeing things that I had never seen before and suddenly realized that it was I that was blind, not the Jews.

Other things kept showing up ,like G-D saying over and over again that He alone is G-D and besides Him there are no others, that He will not share His glory with another or the all-important, you shall have no other gods before me. Probably this one alone was the one that pushed me into a realization that worshipping anyone else other than G-D is Idolatry. The first commandment that He gave to the children of Israel was that they were to not have any other G-Ds before Him, in fact the reason that they were scattered into captivity and exile was because they broke that law over and over again.

There can only be one G-D and He has made that very clear.

Now at this point you have probably noticed that I haven’t given you much as far as biblical text goes. It’s not because they don’t exist, they do, and it’s that I want you to do the research for yourselves. Secondly though I could give you a good chunk of them but I would be wasting my time if you aren’t really interested in the truth of it all, and it has come to my attention, especially while I was a pastor, that most aren’t interested in the truth they just want it handed to them in a sermon. So if you are truly interested you will look for yourself and, I might add, I have only scratched the surface of what is to be discovered if you actually look.

I will however leave you with two texts to consider and my own prayer that you will look for yourself.

Jeremiah 16: 19-20    O LORD, my strength and my fortress My refuge in the day of affliction The Gentiles shall come to You  From the ends of the earth and say,  “ Surely our fathers have inherited lies,  Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”  ²⁰ Will a man make gods for himself, Which are not gods?

Zechariah 8:22-23 ²² And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the LORD Almighty and to entreat him.”

 ²³ This is what the LORD Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’”


From here I don’t know what else I could say to you that would convince you of anything, and as I said in the beginning I’m not trying to convert you to my way of thinking or believing and, quite frankly, if believing that Jesus is somehow god will at least point you to the true G-D of Israel then who am I to stand in the way of what He is doing in your life.
The challenge I do give though is to read it and research it for yourself and then draw your own conclusions, with a heart for G-D and not the doctrines of man.

Shalom,

Ignacio

Puzzle Pieces

I knew an Autistic man once who was amazing when it came to puzzles. He could take any puzzle, look at the picture on the box, dump the pieces on the table and know where all the pieces went without ever looking at the picture again. Even the most complex and large puzzles were not a challenge. On the flip side to that, if there was a piece missing he would get highly upset trying to find it but even if he didn’t he was able to do the rest of the puzzle, missing piece and all.

My grandparents always had puzzles around. They had a table out on the porch where they would spend a great amount of time reading and putting these together. Now I can’t say that I spent a lot of time helping them but I did have one very memorable day when I destroyed one badly. We had a rather large amount of snow one winter and as always the snow banks went all the way to the roof of the house and being a very typical wild kid, I thought that taking my sled up on the roof and sliding off would be great fun. It was until I discovered that the house let off just enough heat to melt the snow right next to the window on the porch and it gave way. I suddenly found myself sliding through a window, boots first, right onto the table that had the puzzle on it. Pieces flew everywhere and the only thing my grandmother said was; “well there goes that puzzle.” I don’t think that they ever found all the pieces.

Personally I love puzzles. I haven’t put one together in a while because it always seems like I buy a puzzle and either there is a piece or two missing or I lose one almost  instantly into some dark void as I’m opening the box. Sure I can put it together, but it’s not going to look right without all the pieces.

I wonder how many of us go through life thinking that we are one of those missing pieces. We think to ourselves that we are nothing because we haven’t done all the good that Mother Teresa has or we are not some great Biblical scholar or Rabbi and so therefore we are nothing but discarded and forgotten pieces. Perhaps you consider yourself to damaged and broken, too young or to old, I don’t really know but I do know this; G-D has created you for a purpose and that purpose may not always be evident to you and me, but He has one for all of us. 

Consider for a moment just how many people you interact with in a day. Every one of those people that you interact with is a part of the great puzzle and they interact with others and it just spreads from there. It is impossible to not be a part of that puzzle. There is a good chance that I don’t know you, yet G-D is using this medium to connect us together in this puzzle. The only way to avoid being in this puzzle is to have never been born.

Psalm 139 asks a really simple question; “where can I go from your presence” the answer is simple; nowhere. He is always there and He sees us in the big picture. You are not a disregarded piece of the puzzle, without you the puzzle cannot be complete.

I already know what some of you are thinking; how can we be a part of the same puzzle when we don’t see eye to eye on the things of G-D? Where has it ever been written that before the time when G-D’s kingdom is established, that we are all going to agree with each other? The only time I see it is when all the nations go up against Israel and G-D destroys them for doing so! In Genesis chapter 11 you have the whole world coming together to defy G-D and G-D scatters them to the four winds and confuses their language. Maybe, just maybe, having the same view of things isn’t always so good.

Going back to the puzzle analogy, how many of the pieces are the same?  If all the pieces were cut the same way and all had the same design on them wouldn’t that really defeat the purpose of building a puzzle?

The bottom line is simply this; we are all a part of G-D’s puzzle. We are all a part of the big picture that He is putting together. We may think we are discarded or of no importance, but, as I said earlier the puzzle cannot be complete without you.

Shalom,

Ignacio

Deleted posts

Just a quick message for anyone who is reading this blog. I have deleted a rather large portion of what I have written over the last 4 years because I realized that it was causing some confusion as to what it is that I believe. It originally started from a Christian point of view and since that time I and my family have come to embrace Judaism as much as a Gentile can and this has apparently caused some confusion. To those who were confused by it I apologize. Simply put I am not a Christian in any form any more and as I said before I follow Judaism as much as I am able to do as a Gentile.

Shalom,
Ignacio

Goodbye to Arkansas

This is to be my last posting from Arkansas and I am really not sure what I want to say.

To quote Thumper from Bambi “if you can’t say nothing nice, don’t say nothing at all”. So that sort of leaves me hearing crickets in the background.

It hasn’t been all bad here. We have learned a lot, but I guess what we learned wasn’t what we had hoped to learn or even do. I came here with the high hopes off helping a friend with a new type of ministry and instead wound up loosing that friend and a host of others, all because I believe differently concerning G-D.

I realize in the Christian world that my difference is huge, not believing that Jesus is G-D, but nothing about my values or morals have changed, yet here in what is supposed to be the Bible belt, home of more variations of Christianity then you can shake a stick at, and I have found a level of intolerance that I never quite expected. Sure I have known that there is a large concentration of KKK and skin heads, but I never imagined intolerance coming from the churches. Actually it isn’t so much intolerance as it is ignorance, ignorance as to what I believe and just how little of a threat I am to any ones ministry especially if their goal is supposed to be helping people. Ah well, I was seen as a threat thus here we are.

In many ways it’s ironic that the NE is actually more tolerant of differing views then here in the south, some in the NE will tell me that I am wrong, but at least they will do it to my face and we then continue on with our friendship, yet I am always seeing the polls that tell us just how ungodly folks are up there and yet I haven’t found that to be true. If by “ungodly” you mean that many people want nothing to do with main stream denominations then I would probably agree with you but just because someone does not conform to the denominational view of things doesn’t mean that they are ungodly.

What is it that makes a person “godly”? Is it following one denominational view over another? Is it dependent on how many times you darken the doorway of a church or synagogue? Is it a question of how many times you go to confession or how much you give in money? Is it carrying picket signs or fancy programming? The list could go on but the answer is no. Then what does make a person “godly”? Interestingly enough both the Jewish bible and the Christian bible agree on this question, though it tends to get lost in the battle for denominational superiority and it’s really simple.

Love G-D. Love your neighbor. Five words, two very short sentences, and you have just summed up the entire Bible. How do you love G-D? Read the Bible and you will find out. How do you love your neighbor? Read that same Bible and you will find the answers to that as well. This is not difficult. It is us humans and our desire to be better then others that make this whole thing difficult.

Just based on those two basic commands there is no reason why we cannot work together but alas it’s our own personal doctrines that seem to get in the way. So we don’t believe the same way about G-D, at least we believe, and that doesn’t excuse us from serving others.

This is the part where I stop. There is more that could be said, but my friends already know what I believe and they are still my friends. To you Shalom.

So as we go into the Passover and Easter holidays, I simply hope that you will remember that which we have in common and may your holidays be blessed.

Shalom, see you soon NE

Ignacio

A Follow Up....

This post is a follow up on my last post where I basically said that throwing out G-D has left a vacuum that is filled with evil and I really didn’t take much time to focus on what that evil might look like or, should I say, in what manner it shows its ugly head, so I thought I’d take just a moment and try to clarify what my humble opinion is on that. Please understand all of what I believe is tied into the idea that we have pushed G-D away and this is the result of that collective decision.

One of the things that I liked about “Star Trek Next Generation” was the idea that they had become a society where financial gain had become obsolete. Everyone had had everything that they needed or wanted simply because they contributed to their society. This is not to be confused with communism. That is nothing more then squashing people into the dirt. Their society (STNG) was simply that by doing away with financial profit, they were able to fix all the problems of the world and that all people were blessed and well off because of it. Their catalyst for this society however was very similar to what’s happening to us, poverty and strife, greed run rampant and endless war ending with a massive war that destroyed all nations and governments. Then the Vulcans showed up…

We are still a very blessed nation, I think that this is quickly passing because of our greed and selfishness, (and I see no signs of Vulcans coming) but no where on Earth is there a nation with so many resources on hand as we have. We could easily not only sustain ourselves but we could sustain most of the world just based on the foods and products that we are capable of producing but we don’t. Why is that? Simple, it’s a combination of greed and arrogance on our part.

We literally have the ability and the means to feed the world and yet our government pays farmers to not grow food. Then what is grown is genetically altered and is priced through the roof, so that poor countries can’t afford it and because it’s genetically altered many countries don’t want it. Yet our government allows it to go on even as billions starve to death or have very little and what is available, right here in our own country has been priced sky high and it is still going up. We have been greatly blessed with the ability to grow a variety of food and we are squandering the chance to do some real good so that a few elites have large bank accounts. I say “we” in very generic terms here. I know many people who grow their own food and they share it or sell it as inexpensively to others as they can but even for them, as more regulations are piled on and the price of farming goes up, it is getting harder to maintain and keep up with the big boys.

This is greed pure and simple, when G-D is tossed aside, greed follows.

We also have the ability to clothe the world and bring the world material comforts that they have never had, but again the powers that be don’t do that because there is no profit in it.

All of this combined with the fact that everything from our food to gas has gone up through the roof has put those of us who would like to help others in a very tight spot.

My wife and I, up until a little while ago, would make donations to various projects and people that needed it. We have always felt that we are blessed and that we should share with others if we could. In the last year or so that has become increasingly difficult as the price of everything has gone up and we watch the end of the month come up short of cash. We are not alone in this. Many others are faced with the dilemma of helping out others or just simply keeping food on the table. So the people who could literally do a world of good do nothing, while those of us who want to help out even in a small way are cut off.

I recently heard the story of a man who would pass out food to the homeless, who was court ordered to desist because his food had not gone through some sort of health inspection. This is insane and all of this, everything mentioned, is one of the reasons that I believe that G-D is removing His blessings from us. We are not willing to share so we don’t deserve what we have.

Our arrogance comes from the idea that we are blessed and always will be and that we are the most powerful nation in the world and we can’t be stopped. Every nation in history that has risen up to great power has all suffered from the same things that we are, greed and selfishness. Wanting nothing more then our constant mindless entertainment, and belief that our military and our nation will always be great.

Rome is a fine example of this, they ruled for hundreds of years and yet, in the end it was all the fore mentioned things that did them in. They cared nothing for anyone who was not Roman, they lived very decadent and lazy lives full of constant amusement and they stretched their military to far in their conquests. Sound familiar?

Their great empire fell and they didn’t see it coming, their military was broken and they didn’t see it coming and in the end they lost everything. An amazing empire was destroyed and they didn’t see it coming. We are no different. Except that we have been warned, we are just choosing to ignore it.

We could turn this around, though I’m not hopeful that this will really happen, by taking the resources that we have been blessed with and blessing the world with it, but in order to do that we would have to return to G-D first so that we would have the ability, again collectively speaking, to understand that loving G-D and loving our neighbors, no matter who they are, is a major part of being blessed by G-D.

So when I say that we are reaping what we have sown what I mean simply is this: If you toss G-D aside evil, in whatever form you care to call it, takes over. When that happens, greed and suffering quickly follow suit and the common people suffer, this is what is happening. We have told G-D to leave and He has. Evil has taken His place and the world suffers for it and there are no Vulcans on the horizon to show us the way.

I believe this passage says it very well. “For the earth was defiled under its inhabitants; because they transgressed teachings, violated laws, broke the ancient covenant. That is why a curse consumes the earth, and its inhabitants pay the penalty….”

Isaiah 24 5:6

Shalom,

Ignacio

Scifi and G-D

I am a fan of mindless Sci-Fi entertainment. I love it. The more far out there it is the better I like it. I own the movie 2012 and I was awed with CGI and all the other major effects that they produced. Even the idea of the world’s government building arks to save the elite was fascinating to me. Of course all of this kind of thing you can find all over the internet and in a lot of Hollywood movies as well and I love all of it. I even liked the movie the “The Day After Tomorrow” where it shows an almost instantaneous freezing of the northern hemisphere, while I disagree with the premise it still asks the question ; what if?

Well over the weekend we got a bit of a taste of “what if “and there is not any cool CGI to look at, it is all very painfully real.

The world is literally staggering with a massive sense of loss over the utter destruction in Japan. The earthquake was so powerful that it moved Japan 8 feet and left a rip in the crust that is 50 miles wide and 150 miles long. Some scientists are saying that the earth tilted in it’s axis by some small an amount.

They are now dealing with possible horror of radiation poisoning as well. Something else that was not reported on much was that 2 Volcanoes erupted at the same time as the earthquake hit, one in Russia and I believe the other was on one of the Japanese islands.

While that has been the center of attention, more fish have washed up in various places and no one seems to know why, that added to birds and other fish earlier in the year. I have read that the worlds Bee populations are dying out as well as Bats, what is going on? And magnetic North is moving at almost 40 miles a year as well.

The internet is filled with many dire predictions as one expert after another tries to explain what’s going on. Some say it’s because the magnetic poles are moving, others say it’s because planet X is getting closer to us and the sun. Still others have the idea that the world’s governments are engaged in a new type of weather war using top secret sophisticated equipment to cause all the massive Hurricanes, snow storms and yes even earthquakes. Some even say it’s all G-D’s fault. Most things suggested are theories. Some may be more possible then others and any and all could be possible, but the one I want to address is the idea that this is G-D’s fault. Is it really?

Someone recently asked “why is G-D doing this to us?” and I have an answer but it’s not probably what you think. I don’t think that it’s G-D doing anything to us. I believe that what is happening is exactly what we have brought upon ourselves. We have told G-D that we don’t want Him in our schools or our government. We have tried to remove Him from every aspect of our lives. Pastors and Rabbi’s have gone the politically correct route and will not speak out against the corruption in our government and in the churches them selves. We would rather be told about the love of G-D, rather then the idea that there is a judgment coming for our collective sin of getting rid of Him and turning to our “idols”. G-D is a gentleman. We have told Him that we don’t need Him any more and He has obliged us. The problem is that when you remove G-D and all the goodness and morality that come from the idea of G-D, it has to be replaced by something and usually that something is evil. Call it Satan or HaSatan, call it what you will, but evil is at its heart and destruction is in its nature.

Here is a rather poor analogy, if I decide I am going to make doughnuts and my children wish to help, one of the first things I am going to tell them is to keep away from the very hot oil, because if they touch it they will get burned badly, but if they don’t we will have some fun making them and eating them. Now I have given the warning and my child then proceeds to do things their own way and puts their hand into the oil and they get badly burned. Is that my fault? Did I cause the burn? Did I not give out a warning? Didn’t it happen just as I said it would? The point is that I gave the warning and I was ignored and it happened just as I said it would. G-D has given us warning after warning and we have pushed Him away and we ignore Him, what then, do you think is going to happen?

Look at the book of Deuteronomy chapter 28. G-D tells the people of all the blessings that they will receive, and become to the nations, if they obey Him and then it goes through a much longer list of what would happen if they disobeyed. Look at all of the prophets. Over and over it’s a call for repentance of the people and the warnings as to what was to come if they didn’t. G-D kept His word true then and His word is still true for us today.

One thing to consider, what the Israelites had in common with us now is that they collectively rejected G-D. Not all individuals did. In fact G-D said at one point, that He had 7,000 that had not bowed the knee to Bale, but as a whole everything from their leadership on down had rejected G-D and had turned to foreign gods. He told them what would happen and everyone, including the innocent, wound up suffering for it.

As a Seventh Day Adventist, growing up, I heard all the dooms day scenarios that you could imagine. We had many books and sermons based on what everyone believed would be the “end times”, and I remember we would have conversations, at least those of us that were of the rebellious type, that were something to the effect that when the end times came we would recognize them and then turn back to G-D and in the end be saved. Obviously my personal beliefs have changed a lot since those days, but scriptural events are being fulfilled even as I write, not in the way that I was taught as a kid, but none the less we are seeing the destruction of the world a bit at a time and I believe that it is no coincidence that this is happening even as we push G-D further and further away.

The bottom line is that G-D isn’t doing this to us. It is simply a result of us, collectively, pushing G-D aside and in doing so loosing His protection. Sadly, that means innocent people suffer as well.

To the western world in general, but to the USA specifically I say, that we all need to put down our stupid petty differences and realize that we need to return to G-D because our day is coming and I think it will be soon. Please note I didn’t say join my religion or someone else’s, but we all do need to return to G-D. How you do so is between you and Him. Enough of the finger pointing it’s time for prayer and a return to loving G-D and our neighbors.

Shalom,

Ignacio

To my few friends in Israel, my heart breaks for all of you and for the family of the people killed. It is both a tragedy and a travesty of justice that the whole world would ignore the murder of innocent Jews and yet have a fit over building houses on your own land. We have collectively become perverted calling (or ignoring) evil good and good evil.