2016 ~ 21
Abib (Nisan) 5776Natsarim and Christianity -(Resource - Lew White)
The Torah Parashah today is focused on
Pesach (Passover), Chag HaMatzah (Unleavened Bread), and Yom HaBikkirim (First
Fruits), with Shemoth (Exodus) 13:17-15:26; and Bamidbar (Numbers) 28:19-25
***
Last week we talked about who we are = Natsarim.
Gilyahna
(Revelation) 12:17
p 919
“And the dragon was angry with the
woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her zera (seed), that shomer
(watch, keep, observe, guard) the mitzvoth (instructions) of YHUH, and have the
testimony of Yahusha haMashiak.”
Gilyahna
(Revelation) 14:12
p 921
“Here is the endurance of the
Yisharalite kidushim (saints): here are those that shomer (watch, keep, observe
or guard) the mitzvoth (instructions) of YHUH, and the emunah (faith) of
Yahusha.”
*
YashaYahu (Isaiah) 49:6 p 331 RSTNE
“And
He said, It is a light, easy and small thing that You should be My Eved
(servant) to raise up the tribes of Yakov, and to restore the preserved ones of
Yisharal: I will also give You for a
Light to the heathen, that You may be My Yahusha to the ends of the earth.”
Who are these - “preserved ones of
Yisharal”?
-- The foot note in our Scriptures for this
verse (p 331) has a lot of information:
“The early believers in Jerusalem,
Judah,, and Shomron (Efrayim’s former capital) were all called Notzrim,
Notsraei, or Netsarim Yisrael. They are
the “preserved ones” from both houses, from both the 721 BCE and the 586 BCE
exiles. Believers are the preserved
little branches, or notzrim of the main Vine, our Messiah Yahusha. The Hebrew word for branches is netsarim, the
same term used her for the “preserved ones”.
So we are all “preserved branches” of Yisharal.
Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 31:6 p 372
“For
there shall be a yom (day), that the
called out Netsarim-Notsrim the ones who watch on the Mount Efrayim shall cry,
Arise, and let us go up to Tzion to YHUH our Alohim.”
--
foot note.... “The word Notzrim speaks
of watchmen (guards) appointed by YHUH and assigned to the task of watching
over the restoration of all Yisharal.”
“ The word notzrim, and the root is
natzar. The real explanation of the word
in Hebrew is to safe keep, to keep until a later time, to hide it in a way that
will be revealed later.”
“The word netzer is used only three
times in the Tanakh and everywhere it is mentioned it has to do ONLY with
Efrayim.”
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 11:1 p 303
“And
there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Yishai, and a Netzer-Branch
shall grow out of His roots.”
**
The first Natsarim were the early
followers of Yahusha.
Please notice - I
didn’t... and more importantly - the Torah does NOT say the first followers of
Messiah were “Christians”.
I actually thought the
scriptures said that! I remember being
in a class and getting told that!!! :(
The church fathers called the Natsarim
heretics because they:
1.
Obeyed the Commandments
2.
While holding to the Testimony of Yahusha.
..... Basically - they didn’t just fit
in and go alone with the popular culture!
*
We are a sect named after the original
followers of Yahusha of Natsarith (see Act 24:5).
Acts 24:5 p 803 In
speaking about Shaul - “The Apostle Paul”
“For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition
among all the Yahudim throughout the olam (world), and a ringleader of the sect
of the Notsrim (Natsarim).”
What was Shaul teaching? - Torah keeping
and Mashiak .
*
Lew White says...
“Our obedience perfects our belief. We
guard two primary things:
1.
Yahuah's
Name, and
2.
Yahuah's
Word (His Covenant with Yisharal).”
He goes on to say...
“We have been pursued by the dragon from
the beginning.
OUR CONTINUAL OPPONENT IS THE DRAGON.”
**
What the early church fathers said about
the original followers of Yahusha.
Now we need to understand this... these
“church fathers” - are the “fathers” of christianity.... and NOT Torah keeping Mashiak following
believers ....they were NOT Natsarim... We can see this clearly based on what they
said about the Natsarim....
Lew White said these “church fathers”
were...”The dragon's religious architecture of rebellion, and became an
institution of deceit.”
They became known as:
The Catechetical School of Alexandria,
Egypt and the church fathers who taught there developed what ultimately became
Christianity, and later Roman Universalism = Catholicism.
These early church fathers of Alexandria
wrote about a certain sect, the Natsarim.
They worked predominantly with Greek
texts, yet from reading their Greek letters, we quickly discern that they
despised the Natsarim whose existence seemed to threaten their teachings.
One of these church fathers’ indicated
that - these Natsarim possessed the
writings of MattithYahu (Matthew), and stated that they were in Hebrew letters,
as they had been originally written.
These facts, and more to follow, clearly
contradict what many people today have been led to believe about the original
followers of Yahusha!!
~~~Nobody called the
Natsarim - Christian!!
The Natsarim were spoken against by
those in authority in the days of Paul:
Maaseh Shlichim (Acts) 28:22 p 807 RSTE
"And we think it right to hear from
you what you think, for indeed, concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken
against everywhere."
This sect - the NATSARIM -- was suppressed by the early church
fathers, and by the developing hierarchy at the earliest formal school of
Christianity.
***
So today let’s add to what we have
learned:
(Again, using Lew White’s work)
CHRISTIAN:
The origin of the term
The word christianos was used
twice in the Greek text as a device
of scorn,
since in the ancient world it conveyeda much
different sense than it does today.
The use of the word christianos
did not “name” the sect, but it was a derisive, scornful label that meant
they were like gullible, dumb beasts, or cretins.
The word christianos (Latin, Christianus)
was a term of scorn, traced
back through a related word which history never revised:
cre·tin (krēt'n)
n. 1. A person afflicted with
cretinism. Slang: An idiot. [French crétin, from French dialectal, deformed and
mentally retarded person found in certain Alpine valleys, from Vulgar Latin
*christiānus, Christian, human
being, poor fellow, from Latin Chrīstiānus, Christian; see Christian.] Source:
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the
English Language
Cretinism
is dwarfism and or retardation. Cretin is simply the word that is
derived from the word CHRISTIAN, crestin.
cre·tin
(krēt'n) n.
1.
A person afflicted with cretinism.
Slang:
An idiot.
In
their adherence to the Torah,
a Christian might well be considered to be retarded; but the actual
word that means "retard" or "idiot" is derived from
CHRISTIANIANOS: cretin -
a term of scorn.
(PLEASE READ THIS AGAIN:)
|
I just said the first followers of Mashiak who kept
Torah - are the Natsarim...
but then I throw in this stuff from Lew White - that
the word Christian was a SCORNful title...
Interesting , isn’t it - that the ones who scorned the
Natsarim - later decided to keep a title that was about being scorned!!
WHY THE TERM NATSARIM?
The foremost reason is prophetic. We are
described as a remnant of the scattered tribes by many prophets, but in the
last days we are called by the term NATSARIM as we cry out on the hills of
Afraim (Ephraim).
YirmeYahu (Jeremiah) 31:6 p 372
“For there shall be a day when the watchmen cry on Mount Afraim, ‘Arise,
and let us go up to Tziyon, to Yahuah our Alahim.’ ”
-Lew says - “Natsarim do not refer to
Yahuah by any Pagan titles or names, -
they use His true Name, being careful to guard it and not allow it to be
destroyed (not using it destroys it).”
“Torah is a relationship, not a
religion. This relationship is the code of conduct
for the government or kingdom of Yahuah, to reign with His bride, Yisharal.”
Man’s religion whats to have
relationship and worship and live how man decides is okay... and these ideas
seem to most often come from Pagan cultures not ordained by Yahuah.
(I don’t see people making up anything like what
is in the Word.... twisting it yes - but the stuff they come up with ... well,
find it in “new age” paganism!
Lew says - “Torah is the foundation for
the relationship” (between Yah and man), -
-
while the YHUH and Torah consistently refer to Torah as a marriage Covenant
between Himself and Yisharal.
Mixed worship is as adultery to Yahuah.
Our commission as Natsarim =
=is teaching Torah to the nations, thus increasing
Yisharal.
This is NOT
Christianity.
For many of us - hearing this might feel
awful.... But what part of DOING Christianity - do you want to do?
What celebrations would you choose?
What practices and behaviors would you
choose?
Frankly I don’t see much that lines up
with Torah... and so I don’t want it.
It is a mixed up mess of Paganism...
But I believe the dragon is very happy
with the mixed up mess... because - as we know - they are accepting more and
more mess... and many are now saying God is God - no matter what you call
him...
and choosing to unite faiths....
Never does YHUH say this is okay!
Lew says:
The dragon hates this idea that, our
commission
as Natsarim =
= is teaching Torah to the
nations, thus increasing Yisharal.
and ... the Covenant, and the Natsarim.
The Covenant is between Yahuah and His
bride (Yisharal); it’s a marriage.
Lew says: The dragon hates Yisharal, and
this sentiment was present in the church fathers and those doctrinal
descendants of them.
When false teachers say, “Gentiles
don’t have to obey, the Torah is for the Jews,” they have been influenced
by false teachings keeping them imprisoned in a stronghold.
A
stronghold is a mental fortress of false belief, stemming from Replacement Theology and supercessionism ...
... both huge errors of Christianity!
Yahuah
does not change.
~
Lew says..... A sophisticated religious architecture
exists, designed to promote a culture of rebellion to YHUH.
THE GREAT COMMISSION: WITNESS OF YAHUSHA
Mattithyahu 28:18-20 p 706 RSTNE
“And
Yahusha came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to Me in the shamayim
and in the earth. 19 Go therefore, and
make talmidim of all nations, doing mikvah upon them in My Name. 20 Teaching them to shomer all things, which I
have commanded you: and see, I am with you always, even to the end of the olam
hazeh.”
Please note that in most Scriptures out
there - it doesn’t read like ours... it
says something like:
“immersing them in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Set-apart Spirit”
The RSTNE makes it clear it is about the
NAME of YHUH... and the Aramaic English New Testament says in foot note:
“Aramaic
has “name” - singular - which does not support the traditional trinity
theology.”
*
“Which I have commanded YOU...”
“YOU” = *His Natsarim, those following
Him, the Mediator of the Covenant = Mashiak.
Any who obey Torah become citizens of
Yisharal, Yahuah’s Covenant people.
~
White then adds:
ROMAN CATHOLICISM IS MODERN MOLOK WORSHIP
The Covenant is a marriage
between Yahuah and Yisharal, His bride; and Natsarim Yisharal
(Nazarene Yisharal) represents the first-fruits of a great harvest.
Yisharal is the chosen nation, and the Natsarim are an elect
group within Yisharal, called by Yahusha as workers in His end-time harvest of
mankind.
Yahusha removed His menorah (lampstand) from
the 1st assembly in Ephesos, Rev. 2:5. It has been restored to Natsarim
Yisharal today.
The menorah is a symbol of the TORAH,
and it also is the most widely known symbol for YISHARAL.
**
Lew says
Worldwide, there are about 1 billion
people living (producing bad fruit) according to the doctrinal errors (a bad
tree) of a few men called the “church fathers.” These men molded the patterns
of early Christianity, and in their own words declare they were not Natsarim,
but rather suppressed the Natsarim as heretics and
accused them of perversion for obeying the
Commandments.
These church fathers were men who failed
to adopt the Covenant, but instead pursued control over doctrines as they
interpreted them.
Some castrated themselves and others,
became monks, took vows of poverty, celibacy, silence, and condemned the
Natsarim for holding to the Torah while professing belief in Yahusha.
Celibacy is a Hindu thing. Mixed
teachings are the leaven that’s filled the whole Earth (the whole lump of
dough).
Those whose thinking has been affected
by the false doctrines of these early apostates view the Natsarim today as
heretics also, and it is the same “spirit of error” that possessed the church
fathers that is at the root of the bad tree, producing bad fruit.
The good fruit is the obedience of the
set-apart ones, because obeying the Covenant produces love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This
tree will not be cut down by the reapers.
The tree that is against the Covenant
(lawless) will be eliminated, and be left with neither root nor branch
(offspring).
A STATE-IMPOSED RELIGION
The teachings hatched at the
Catechetical School of Alexandria persist in every modern seminary today. The
apostasy (falling-away from Torah) became institutionalized, and men’s
traditions were set up to conceal their former Pagan origins. The doctrinal
descendants of the church fathers still use the title “father.”
A STATE-IMPOSED RELIGION
The teachings hatched at the
Catechetical School of Alexandria persist in every modern seminary today. The
apostasy (falling-away from Torah) became institutionalized, and men’s
traditions were set up to conceal their former Pagan origins.
The doctrinal descendants of the church
fathers still use the title “father.”
For centuries after the resurrection of
Yahusha, false teachers arose to draw away disciples
after themselves, just as Paul predicted would occur (Acts 20).
Today we look back and call these men the church fathers.
Pantaenus, Augustine, Tertullian,
Jerome, Epiphanius, and a dozen others guided the doctrines, and a
great falling-away occurred through these elders (bishops,
overseers).
THEY DO NOTHING YAHUAH SAID, AND
EVERYTHING HE SAID NOT TO DO
Yahuah tells us not to learn the ways of
the heathen, nor serve Him in their way (Dt.
12:30-32).
Yahusha told us "Man does not live
by bread only, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds from the mouth of Yahuah."
With this in mind, we see the world
learning the opposite:
We revise the Paganism, and do it anyway: eggs, rabbits, trees, steeples, statues, holy water, wreaths, Easter, Christmas, Sun-day, monks, and more.
He tells us to rest on the 7th day, so
we rest on the 1st day and work on the 7th.
He tells us what we may eat; we tell Him we’re going to eat
everything we want to eat. He tells us to call on His Name, Yahuah; instead, we
call Him by generic terms, even former pagan proper nouns: (God, Baal = LORD)
He tells us to observe specific
appointed times, so we use our own reasoning, mostly based on formerly Pagan
observances we've adapted to fit what we want them to mean.
We follow men who scorned the Natsarim
and wanted nothing in common with the Yahudim, admitted to by their own words.
Yahuah’s festivals reflect the
redemption plan for Yisharal, but were forsaken (Daniel 7:25).
All the nations of the Earth are invited
to graft into the commonwealth of Yisharal through the Covenant (Ephesians 2:8-13), but it’s called legalism when anyone obeys -
legalism equates to heresy.
If we are legal then we are true citizens
of Yisharal; if we practice lawlessness, we are impostors, and usurping what is
not ours to claim.
We cannot simultaneously claim to be
Yahusha’s followers and not obey Torah.
If we claim to know Him, then we obey the Commandments (1 Yochanan 3).
*
The fourth century Church Father,
Epiphanius, gave a detailed description of the Natsarim:
Listen to this very carefully...
“We shall now especially consider
heretics who call themselves Natsarim; they are mainly Jews and nothing else.
They make use not only of the New Testament, but they also use in a way the Old
Testament of the Jews; for they do not forbid the books of the Law, the
Prophets, and the Writings ... so that they are approved of by the Jews, from
whom the Nazarenes do not differ in anything, and they profess all the dogmas
pertaining to the prescriptions of the Law and to the customs of the Jews, except
they believe in Messiah. They preach that there is but one God, and His Son
Yeshua the Messiah. But they are very learned in the Hebrew language; for they,
like the Jews, read the whole Law, then the Prophets...They differ from the
Jews because they believe in Messiah, and from the Christians in that they
are to this day bound to the Jewish rites, such as circumcision, the Sabbath,
and other ceremonies. They have the Good news according to Matthew in its
entirety in Hebrew. For it is clear that they still preserve this, in the
Hebrew alphabet, as it was originally written.”
***
Now let’s switch gears and talk about
the mess/stuff from other religions....
Muhammad is not a Hebrew name, it is a
form of a Hindu title = Mahadeva, and
referred to Shiva the destroyer deity.
Maha+deva literally means “great (maha)
god (deva)” in Hindi. Many Arabic words are derived
from Sanskrit.
MAHADEVA = ALLAH AKBAR
The Islamic faith derives an enormous
amount from the previous Indian presence in the region.
The chant allahakbar, “allah is great,”
did not arise from a vacuum.
Reverse-translating allah akbar into
Hindi we get Mahadeva.
Islam’s ideas... and the Hindu Shiva shrine’s design,
the black stone and yoni, the crescent and star, the circumambulation, and
other features are shared with the worship of the Hindu deity Shiva.
The most sacred ceremony in Hinduism is called Shivaling.
It is performed with a stone object inserted in the
hole of an oval object called a yoni.
-
The ceremony is conducted inside the Shiva shrines. The new ramps
installed for worshippers at Makkah resembles this object perfectly.
-
The shape of the area in front of the Cathedral at Rome appears to have
all the ingredients of a Shiva shrine, ready for Shivaling.
In both cases, the people become the unwitting
participants in the ceremonial worship of the Destroyer, Shiva. - and they
don’t even know it!!
The Islamic shrine at Makkah (Mecca) originally
contained 360 deities, reflecting a close kinship with eastern cultures and the
worship of the heavens.
This is very important:
The Muslims circumambulate counter-clockwise, the Hindus clockwise, and those who serve Yahusha stand
still and He delivers us.
~~ The
practice of circumambulation, the crescent, star, the shape of the shrine,
the black stone object and its relationship to the opening of metal at the
corner are among many distinctive traits associated with the worship of the
Hindu deity Shiva.
The world is thoroughly defiled by objects of
fertility which Yahuah calls an abomination. Babel the great is called a
“mother of harlots” for a very good reason.
Think how some buildings relate to this...
shivaling...
The Shiva Shrine, the U.S Capitol, the Hindu Shiva
Shrine, and the golden dome temple of Islam....they all look similar
a base - a yonis - with a round part going into it.
There is correlation between a hindu prayer mat and an
yoga mat!
How did all the Hinduism reach the Middle East so long
ago?
Lew White says....
Shiva worship and shivaling (the most sacred Hindu
ceremony) began at least as early as the 8th century BCE in India.
By the 2nd century BCE, the famous “Silk Road” out of
India had reached the Middle East and Mediterranean Sea.
This is one of the most famous of all ancient trade
routes. This trade route brought incense, spices, silk and other items in
caravans over vast distances.
In addition to items of trade, these caravans brought
the culture of Hinduism
--and Shiva shrines to all places along the route.
The shrine at Makkah is one of those ancient Shiva
shrines.
An Islamic teacher (Mufti Mohammad Ilyas Qasmi) in
India is teaching his understanding of the Hindu roots of the Islamic faith.
This Muslim cleric claims that Lord Shiva was the
first prophet of Islam.
The teachings of men blocked the identity of our
Creator by substituting His Name.
Read
the preface of any NIV, and you'll see they admit removing it and inserting the
device LORD. LORD is the definition of the Hebrew word “BAAL.”
Yahuah's people struggled with mixing together
(syncretiizing) practices from paganism with the directions Yahuah
gave them. One was the omission of the Name. Pagans would
not use the name of the deities they worshiped, but
substituted those names with theonyms.
In contrast, Yahuah said His Name was to be proclaimed
and the knowledge of the esteem of Yahuah would fill the Earth as the waters
cover the sea.
The women of Moab enticed the men of Yisharal through sexual worship of their deity Molok (vicariously
Nimrod).
Christians and Muslims mindlessly do the same through
the symbols, objects, observances, and terms they adopted
from pagans.
We must work to open the eyes of the blind, and not
excuse the traditions inherited from the land of Nimrod.
*****
I see so much in what is going on in the
world now... so much more clearly.... it
is the dragon...
But if I see the situation better than I
see my Mashiak so much better as well.
So...What are we called?
From all I read in Torah - YHUH calls us
Natsarim.
May we carry the testimony of Yahusha
HaMashiak and always keep Torah (instructions)... may we finish strong.
