 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
Let us not forget what we just have learned. It was the Soul of the animal as found in it's blood, which when presented and placed on the altar in the Sacrificial System as a sacrifice to God which was at the same time a true picture of the Spiritual condition of the sacrificier's Soul which had previously repented, shown remorse over his sin, confessed his sin, prayed to God about his sin, and performed deeds of almsgiving and other righteous deeds which was only then accepted by God as an atonement for sin according to the Hebrew Scriptures and as attested to over for over 3,000 years of Jewish history. Such a procedure of repentance, remorse over sin, prayer, and subsequent righteous deeds as commanded in the Torah was the only way for atonement for sin. Such actions by the sinner was understood by God as the surrender of that person's Soul toward Him. When accomplished by the sinner then his Soul was accepted by God as an atonement for his own sin and then and only then could he rightfully make a declaration through the Sacrificial System that his Soul was in "right standing" with God and this was done my bringing the "blood/Soul" of the animal and placing it upon the altar as a substitutionary representation of the condition of the Soul of the sinner having obeyed the conditions in the Torah concerning obtaining atonement for the sin of his Soul. This is key to the Sacrificial System and the role of "blood" within it which escapes a traditional Christian when reading the Bible. Seeing the numerous times that "blood" is mentioned in both the Old and New Testament often leads us astray from the true function and role of "blood" in the Sacrificial System without the above understanding. Coupled with this is the life-time of hearing sermons in our Churches which totally misrepresents the role of "blood" in the Jewish Sacrificial System and one can see for himself how we come away from such instruction with a completely erroneous understanding and interpretation of the role of "blood"; especially as it relates to the death of Jesus which we are consistently told is the "only" atonement for our sin and our faith and trust in his death is our only way to Heaven. Funny, that the Jewish people and the Rabbis, to whom this Sacrificial System was given in the first place and operated by them for thousands of years, refuse to accept and believe such a teaching about their own Sacrificial System. It should appear to you that if anyone is qualified to both understand and teach about the Sacrificial System correctly then it is the Jewish People and their Rabbis and scholars and not Roman Catholic Monks which created this "Jesus theology" in the first place.
As we have seen it is not the "blood" but the "Soul" in the blood which demonstrates its surrender to God. Later when the blood of the animal is placed on the altar following the hands of the sacrificer being laid upon the animal brought to be sacrificed that actually it is the "blood" or the "Soul of the offerer of sacrifice" which is representatively placed on the altar in lieu of the animal which served only as a substitute for the person who brought the animal to the altar. The animal was literally the extension of the person life who was bringing the sacrifice. God would not have a human sacrifice his life and blood and place it upon the altar as a demonstration of “communion” and “fellowship” with God; God does not desire the death of His children. Instead the animal was the extension of the person’s life and in such a way the person's actual "life" and Soul was placed on the altar through the animal's blood. The person bringing the animal had fed, groomed, and cared for the animal usually most of the animal's life. Literally, the animal was part of his life and his life's energy had been invested into the care of the animal. So when the "Soul” of the animal was taken and offered upon the altar in the release and placing of the animal’s blood on the altar, then the person by proxy was represented on the altar in communion with God, not the animal. Understand the animal was innocent having never sinned and it served as perfect picture of the present condition of the Soul of the sacrificer who had repented of his sin prior to coming to the Tabernacle or the Temple. This Sacrificial procedure was supposed to be a picture of the Spiritual position of the person bringing the sacrifice. The person bringing the sacrifice was ALREADY to have repented of his sin, confessed his sin, prayed, and made restitution to his fellowman if needed BEFORE he ever brought the animal to the altar. Then when he had done these spiritual necessities as commanded and taught in the Torah PRIOR to bringing the animal to the altar, then the person’s Soul was AT-THAT-MOMENT (atonement) right with God. He stood before God, priesthood, and mankind forgiven and his prior repentance, confession, prayer, and restitution had accomplished for him atonement PRIOR to the animal being offered. “At that moment” his Soul was again in right standing and relationship with God and this mind you was long before he cut the animal from his flock and brought it to the altar for sacrifice. In order to make such a declaration to the the right standing and relationship of his life and Soul to the world and his fellowman, as well as to God, then he was required by the Law of Moses to take an animal and have it slain and its blood placed on the altar which as we have seen was to be true and honest expression of his Soul before God. In so doing, the animal blood and Soul was at that time an ACCURATE PICTURE of the Spiritual state of the person making the sacrifice. The animal’s Soul (in his blood) was placed on the altar in communion with God and was AT-THAT-MOMENT a true picture of the sacrificer’s Soul and its communion with God. Besides this, if anyone wanted to eat meat, the animal’s Soul had to be given back to God before the flesh could be consumed. So you see in the Sacrificial system there were two dynamics at work: atonement and the conditions necessary to eat meat which also contained the Divine image which had to be given by to God.
When, when making sacrifice properly, the sacrificer knew that he had attained something special with God. Christian teaching today is completely devoid of this knowledge and I thank God over the years in my studies that He allowed me to find and recover this most needed part of instruction. This knowledge, when properly understood, will go a long way in helping the Christian separate error from truth as he hears taught in his churches.
Answer for yourself: Are you aware that whenever the Torah commands that offerings be brought that these commandments use only God's Four-letter Name (yod-hey-vah-hey); the "Tetragrammaton" (I AM)?
YHWH is the distinctive personal name of the God of Israel. Of all the names of God, the name of God, YHWH, is the one which occurs most frequently in the Hebrew Bible. This Tetragrammaton appears 6,823 times in the Hebrew Scriptures according to the Jewish Encyclopedia. If other names were used, some might err, thinking that there are many Gods or forces, one demanding this offering and another demanding some other offering. Such is not the case, only YHWH demanded sacrifices. Since the Name Elohim (the plural name for God meaning "gods") represents God as the One Who controls nature, that Name might be taken to imply that there is an angel or a power who has dominion over a particular land or aspect of existence, and that that power requires the offering. Such is not the case, the Godhead is not referred to as requiring these sacrifices but only YHWH. This is His Name as the God of Mercy. No one should think that God requires offerings to feed or appease Himself. The Eternal One has no needs that man can satisfy for everything is His and nothing is beyond His power!
Answer for yourself: What then is the purpose of the offerings?
There are in fact 5 different types of animal sacrifice that regularly took place in Israelite religion
Answer for yourself: What should this teach us?
Simply that it was not only animal sacrifice which was offered, but other crops and fowl were acceptable as sacrifices. Only needs to see Micah 6 for an example of how God does not glory in sacrifices but in the heart (Soul) of the believer. You should be seeing by now that these offerings provided man an opportunity to unite himself to God to whatever extent it is possible for mortal man to do so through repentance, confession, and restitution. This union with God was accomplished by these offerings which only pictured the condition of the Soul of the person bringing them. Only one of these "relationship" offerings was a sin offering. This should teach us that besides the sin offering that mankind was given other ways to approach and become acceptable to God.
Similarly, there is a humanly created fire below on the altar and there is the Heavenly fire from above, which God has placed upon Israel's altar. Both of these flames are fed by the offerings of the Jewish people, symbolizing the union of man's Spiritual aspirations with God's goals for him. Thus the offerings provide Israel a means for Spiritual elevation ["korban" or mankind drawing closer to God].
All creatures emanate from God and have no independent existence on their own. Man has freedom of choice and his intellect puts great achievements within his reach, but all of this is possible only because God gives him the power to do so. Man could not function or even exist without God. The goal of creation is for man to acknowledge this basic fact; to recognize and proclaim that everything exists because of God and nothing can survive without Him. There are many ways for God's glory to be revealed and recognized. The highest recognition of all is for man to know The Oneness of God, meaning that there is nothing aside from Him. He achieves his ultimate greatness when he recognizes that "there is none beside Him" (Deut. 4:35). An offering is a demonstration of this concept. It says that its owner is surrendering his possessions to their Source (God). Theoretically, one might expect him to be ready to give even his very life in acknowledgment of God's sovereignty, but that is not God's will that man dies but that he lives. God wants man to live, to grow, to thrive, to serve; and God ordains the offerings as man's way to recognize His Oneness throughout man's life. Thus, by offering his possessions [as seen in the personal animal presented to God in sacrifice, which was usually owned by the person bringing the sacrifice], one symbolizes that he has no existence but for God's will.
The efficacy of offerings in obtaining God's favor is comparable to the way food makes it possible for the Soul to maintain its attachment to the body. Material food cannot provide nourishment to the Soul, which is not a physical entity. It is physical nourishment of the body that enables the animal body to remain healthy enough to play host to the Soul. Likewise, the "food of the Altar's fire" somehow effects the process that enables the Shechinah to remain among the people of God and Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures which was a necessity for them being the "light unto the world".
The food of the Soul is not measured in calories, vitamins, and minerals. Only intellectual and Spiritual pursuits can nourish the Soul. Torah study, prayer, even meals in celebration of such events as Sabbath and the Biblical Feasts and Festivals all have a sacred content that is capable of nourishing the Soul. Only in this sense do the Sacrificial offerings constitute food for God. Man's dedication to God and His commandments provides the nourishment that enables the Shechinah to attach itself to human beings and their handiwork. We think of food in terms of nutritive value, but that is not what sustains life. Man does not live merely because of the bread (material component). He lives through the bread's Spiritual component; what emanates from the mouth of God. This is what holds together body and Soul and what holds together Godliness and Israel through the agency of the offerings, again but a picture of their Souls. This is why the animal had to be presented and offered to God in a Spiritual way when it was killed and not slaughtered behind a person's house. This is why the animal had to be presented first to God and later given to the Priesthood before the sacrificer could take parts of the meat home to his family. Something Spiritual occurred here which we lack understanding as Christians. This personation of the animal to God first before man could eat the meat was God's way of imparting Spiritual nutrition to our Souls; a process which we miss totally today when buying our meats at the deli or the supermarket as it exists today. We have lost a lot.
Having now come to the understanding that it was a life lived above sin that was so pleasing to God that He accepted such a life as an offering and atonement for one’s sin, it should behoove you to begin to rethink what you believe about atonement as a Christian. If you were to do some comparative religious study you will see the preponderance of evidence of how foreign Roman concepts of salvation are woven into Pauline theology throughout your New Testament. Without the truth of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Sacrificial System and accompanying personal knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures as compared to their later changes in the Greek and later English versions of your Bible you will never notice these by yourself. Serious study is required to open your Soul and Mind to these alterations of the Scriptures in our Bibles and their reflective altered religious dogmas. I have only now begun to show you the truth behind the Biblical teachings of atonement and have not mentioned once the Romanized Paul’s theology which we often find in the New Testament. The reason I have not is that nowhere in the Jewish Masoretic Palestinian text are such Pauline concepts of atonement found. Only when you read the fraudulent and mistranslated Greek Scriptures, which the Rabbis did not translate beyond the first 5 books of the Old Testament, do you begin to find such falsified ideas of atonement surfacing in the text http://historyofformationofnewtestament.netfirms.com.
But hear now that such concepts concerning atonement as well as many other altered religious dogmas as they exist in our Christian Bibles today cannot be found anywhere in the Hebrew and Jewish Scriptures before they were later "mistranslated on purpose" in the production of Greek, Latin, and later English translations. Somebody “fixed” the Greek translation to read differently and others after them did the same to the Latin and Greek versions. And sadly for you, these altered and paganized Greek, Latin, and English mistranslations became the foundation for your Christian Old Testament. To make matters worse, your New Testament quotes from the fraudulent Old Testament in hundreds of "key" theological places (http://www.faithofyeshua.faithweb.com). Unknowingly for you, over and over as you read your Christian Bible you only reinforce and rehearse error and Spiritual untruths! You need to know this in order to begin to verify what I say to yourself for only through your personal study will you see these things for yourself as I and so many others have.
Answer for yourself: What happened to the Divine Truths handed down since the beginning of time, as far back as ancient Egypt and which were later entrusted to the Israel and the Jewish people by Moses and others between the 2nd through the 5th century when they fell into the hands of Rome? What happened to these Sacred Scriptures and texts at the hands of Rome? Who changed these Eternal Divine Truths about the Soul and gave the world a replacement religion completely devoid of its Egyptian, Hebrew and Jewish roots? Who knows this history and sad tale? Who knows of this tragic purposeful misrepresentation of the Hebrew Faith and Scriptures as they now stand so badly corrupted in our Greek and English Bibles? Who is to blame and what can we do about it? Well, for starters we can learn the "truth" before is was changed by Rome. That is a great place to start and then it is simple from there to make your own "A" and "B" comparisons of what the Scriptures once said and how they were altered later by Rome. Then you can see this for yourself and how the dogmas that come from them were altered almost beyond recognition as we received them in our Bibles today.
The Jews have always known what I am sharing with you in this article; it is Rome who did want to receive a religion that focuses upon the Soul, military might and world domination was they plan. Through their invincible army, fear, and ignorance they accomplished their goal and left 18 million bodies in their wake. It is time someone told you the truth! The righteous Jews know of this alteration in Biblical atonement as it stands in the Greek and later Christian Bibles and have known this since 200 B.C. when the Greek translation was understood by them to be a tragic corruption of the Hebrew Scriptures and its message. History records 3 attempts of the Jews to correct such a forged Greek translation but sadly their efforts were not enough to overtake and thwart the popularity of the already translated LXX (Septuagint) as it had spread into the non-Jewish speaking world. It was all downhill from there.
Back to our point, regardless of what the later Greek and English mistranslations of them say as well as their tragic quotations in the New Testament as surrounding the death and supposed atonement of this Jesus, understand right now that as taught the animal’s Soul represented the Soul of one making the sacrifice, and we, as non-Jews, today are beneficiaries of this Divine Truth only if we know of it. But in this lesson we must no longer overlook the importance of a life lived above sin which procures one’s redemption and not the inert and passive blood of the animal or even the "passive" blood of a supposed Jesus who shed his blood. The "blood" in Sacrifices "never atoned" for anything! Lives lived honoring God through faith, repentance and obedience atoned for sin and always will. Your Covenant requires it! Such is the message of Bet Emet Ministries as we are called to live like Jesus, the example for all, and not just “believe in Jesus” or "believe the created theology around his person" which was later created by Rome. It has been my experience as a Pastor over the years to encounter multitudes of Christians who trust in Christ’s blood instead of understanding the importance of the example of this life shared with us in the New Testament. In our "Jesus Story", we find the life of Jesus, a true symbol of the perfected Soul, exampled for us as how our Soul is to live in obedience to God. Our "Jesus Story" is the "pattern" for all Souls. If we choose to be a "follower" of this "way" then we are told certainly by both the Hebrew Scriptures let alone the New Testament that all will be well with our Soul, that our Soul will be our atonement for any sin. Our Soul will be our OWN atonement. We must walk out our salvation with fear and trembling, but we are as well are co-laborers with God in our own salvation through faith, repentance, and obedience. Such a mistaken understanding of our redemption as depicted in the typical Roman "Jesus Story" has robbed us of the truth about true Biblical atonement. We fall into this deception since we were never taught the truth about the Sacrificial System and atonement from a Hebraic perspective. This has caused multitudes of Christians to focus upon the "blood of Jesus" as a way to escape the penalty of our sin instead of focusing of the miraculousness of a life lived above sin!
Answer for yourself: Which of the two above scenarios reflects your love for God, getting out of "hell" free or "living a life reflective of your true Being, a child of God that images his Father"? If God so loves us does it not stand to reason that he desires we love him in return and obey him or just "escape Him"?
Such a false sense of security in “blood” instead of “lives lived holy before God and mankind” unconsciously robs us of the Divine Truth of the Hebrew Scriptures and causes the believer to not regard sin with revulsion, loathing, and repulsion as he should. We tend to view sin as less harmful than it is, and compromise with sin lies at the door.
The bottom line for all Christians to understand is that we have heard way too much preached about Jesus and Roman "replacement theology" attached to this example and far too little time has been devoted to serious study from the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures which tell us exactly and accurately who "the Christ/Messiah" of Judaism really is and as well his true message and mission to the world. If we had studied the original sources available to us, we would not be so mixed up Roman theology in Christianity today which boasts over 2000 different denominations all maintaining they have the truth about Jesus while at the same time producing the fruth that has made America the most violent and crime ridden nation in the world.
SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE MESSAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH…LOOK AT THE FRUIT OF THIS MESSAGE IN OUR COUNTRY WITH A CHURCH ON EVERY CORNER AND TELEVISIONS FILLED WITH THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE OF GRACE WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ONE'S OWN SIN! JUST LOOK OUT YOUR DOOR AND ASK IF THAT IS THE BEST THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN DO????????
I don't plan to get into why the Christian message at this time is wrong in so many areas but suffice to say that the Christian message is corrupted today to Rome's efforts to replace a Hebrew centric Faith with one of its own making. We see this repeatedly over and over again in comparison of the texts in "key" theological places in our Old and New Testaments. We will example these in detail when we get there in our studies so please be patient. There is only so much we can tackle competently at a time. Let it suffice to say as shown beyond question on many of our other sites that we are in this sad state today because instead of being a true follower of Jesus, his example and message that emanated from within the Jewish faith we are camped at the feet of pagan Rome and the Romanized Paul's antinomianism (anti-Law bias). May God forgive our laziness of letting others tell us what to believe instead of us studying to show ourselves approved unto God. I just showed you part of the problem and this is your beginning of deliverance from a Replacement Religion. Implicitly we are led to not revere the Laws and Commandments of God because of the solar teaching that “Jesus died for me” and my "get out of hell free card" saves me. This comes straight out of Rome's literalized Sun worship as you have seen on this site and others. As a Pastor for 8 years I saw such falsehoods and false securities because of "Jesus blood" lived out in the lives of the congregation year after year; the shocking details I cannot share. But when you teach such a pernicious dogma to 2.5 billion people, the there is no personal accountability for sin or that the incarnational purpose is not to evolve into the "fullness and stature of Christ" then mankind loses sight of his Spiritual purpose on this planet and his conduct deteriorates into all different types of debauchery, even in the church where there is no sin too shameful to be names among the parishoners.
When and where there is no Law, no Commandments, no requirements, no accountability, no personal responsibility for one's sin, and no repentance, and only a "false teaching on trusting the blood of Jesus", "blood" again which we have learned has nothing to do with atonement in the first place and was only served a "passive role" in the Sacrificial System, then there is no righteous fruit and we have our newspapers and televisions filled with horror story after horror story and criminal actions done by our predominantly Christian nation. In America, the crime clock continues to click: one murder every 22 minutes, one rape every 5 minutes, one robbery every 49 seconds, and one burglary every 10 seconds. And the cost of crime continues to mount: $78 billion for the criminal justice system, $64 billion for private protection, $202 billion in loss of life and work, $120 billion in crimes against business, $60 billion in stolen goods and fraud, $40 billion from drug abuse, and $110 billion from drunk driving. When you add up all the costs, crime costs Americans a stunning $675 billion each year. And sadly too few can count on their lives being a sufficient atonement for their sin because they have been taught a pagan "literalized and historized" Sun-godman story which Judaism and every nation that has graced this planet before denies, and in doing so we have laid for us the foundation for a religion that allows its followers to get away with anything. Emotionalism is a sorry substitute for Divine Truth and true knowledge.
Answer for yourself: For after all, if I am saved by the blood of Jesus, what need do I have to live like Jesus in the first place and obey the commandments of God? How much of this "get out of hell free" theology has caused us to not strive for our Soul's perfection?
Answer for yourself: If saved by the blood of another, what does a little sin mean…what can it hurt? How large should I draw the "gray area" of my life?
Answer for yourself: Are you beginning to see the effects from the tragic erroneous theology concerning atonement as taught by Christianity and related thinking involved in focusing upon the blood of Jesus instead of the life of Jesus lived above sin as my example? Now look out your window to the world and see what the fruit of 1700 years of erroneous teaching has grown! America has 12% of the world's population and over 25% of the world's incarcerated behind bars. Think on that as ask your Pastor is this "get out of hell free" theology and if he thinks it works. Ask him if this was God's best idea or maybe if the Jewish people were right all along. You can lay this blame on the mess we have in America and large part of the world at the feet of Christianity and their adulterated Bible in which Rome changed the salvation message of God for His Souls incarnated on Earth. We have much to yet learn so hang on.
Let us continue our study in the next article in this series.
Bennoah1@airmail.net