Sunday, January 3, 2016

Messiah needed to be adopted "full-partner"?

There's a Christian Universalism website teaching the following:
...at the age of thirty in the Mosaic tradition, the son who would take over his father’s business. He would be taken by the father to the gate of the city where the elders met, and he would say to the elders, “This is my son; today I have adopted him.” This was a Hebrew expression meaning the father has made the son a full-partner in his business. The Son’s word in business was as good as the Father’s – they were one.
When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Father also spoke the words “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” But this time on Mount Hermon, He added, “HEAR HIM!” Under the Old Covenant, the voice the children of Israel were to hear was the Law of Moses and the prophetic utterances of the prophets. Elijah, on the mount of transfiguration represented the Prophets and Moses represented the Law. God the Father overshadowed them all and then Moses and Elijah disappeared – they faded away. This symbolized the passing away of the Law and the Prophets. The letter of the Law was being replaced with the Living Word of the Son of God Who is ever at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well-pleased. Hear Him!” Oh, if we could just fully embrace the fullness of the importance of those words!
Oh if we could fully embrace the error in this teaching!

Whether or not it is true that there is/was a "Mosaic tradition" of a son taking over the father's business in this manner (I have found no such tradition in my research - please let me know if you are aware of such a tradition), it does not matter!  The Messiah said in John 17:5 that He had glory with the Father before the universe was formed. So before He was born He was already King of Kings; He did not need 30 years as a human to "graduate" to "son-ship" - to be made "full-partner". He always had Son-ship because he cannot change--ever (Hebrews 13:8).

Also, "Elijah, represented the Prophets and Moses represented the Law" is a common Christian interpretation, as is the idea that "Hear Him" means that the Torah and the Prophets must somehow  "give way to Jesus". The problem is "hear Him" meant "LISTEN to and obey Him ", and did not mean He, the Messiah, would somehow "change things" or teach something "new".  So to say "This symbolized the passing away of the Law and the Prophets - The letter of the Law was being replaced with the Living Word of the Son of God" is just nonsense.  God would not have given a set of rules to His people, (a set of rules which kept them holy for Him, see http://blog.therefinersfire.org/2015/05/what-does-it-mean-to-be-holy.html), and then have those same rules somehow NOT apply to all people after the Messiah came!  No!  The Messiah changed nothing!  The Messiah taught OBEDIENCE to the Father!  This was the SAME teaching as Moshe and Elijah.

This Universalism teaching went on...
The Father said, “HEAR HIM!” “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:17) This is how faith comes – NOT by reading the KJV, or the NIV or any other translation. It must be a Living Word. We are NOT saved by our faith in Jesus Christ – we are saved by Jesus’ faith placed in us.
Emphatically NO! We are NOT "saved" by "Jesus' faith placed in us"!  We are saved by our faith in God and the Messiah, and our lives which reflect obedience to the rules (Torah)!  (See John 17:3 and 1 John 2:3).  Further, the idea of "hearing" the Word is found throughout scripture, but few realize the Hebrew word translated into English as "hear" is the Hebrew word "Sh'ma" and it does NOT simply mean "hear"!  It means "hear the instruction and DO it"!

Hearing the Word is not sufficient unless the “hearing” is followed by deliberate action.  This is the case in Romans 10 where Paul expands on the "hearing in the ear" by writing: "Therefore, faith is from the hearing in the ear; and the hearing in the ear is from the Word of Elohim.  But I say: “Have they not heard? And, lo, their proclamation has gone out into all the earth; and their words to the ends of the world.”  But I say: “Did not Israel know?”  First, Moshe said thus: “I will awaken your emulation by a people which is not a people; and by a disobedient people I will provoke you.”  And Yesha’yahu was bold, and said: “I was seen by those who did not seek me out; and I was found by those who did not ask after me.”  But to Israel, he said: “All the day have I stretched out my hands to a contentious and disobedient people. " (Romans 10:17-21).

James, explains how to avoid the easy interpretation of just “hearing” without follow-through, and his message is very evident: "For if any man will be a hearer of the Word and not a doer of it, he will be like one who sees his face in a mirror: for he sees himself and passes on and forgets what a man he was.  But everyone that looks upon the perfect Torah of liberty and lives fully in it, is not a hearer of something to be forgotten, but a doer of the things; and he will be blessed in his work.” (James 1:23-25).  And Paul added:  “For not the hearers of Torah are righteous before Elohim; but the doers of Torah are being made righteous." (Romans  2:13).

You see we can't have Paul saying both "you are made righteous by doing the Torah" and  "faith is from the hearing in the ear; and the hearing in the ear is from the Word of Elohim" and it mean that Torah somehow "passed away"!

Folks, the INTERNET teems with false teachings.  The ONLY way to combat these teachings is to thoroughly read and study the Bible for yourselves - and I mean the WHOLE Bible, not just the "New Testament" for if you have not read and understood the Tanach (the Old Testament), you cannot understand the New Testament.  Our recommendation is that you stay off Internet till you have read ALL of the Bible.  Then, seek out help via the INTERNET for those areas you don't understand.  But by then, you should have a better chance of recognizing a false teaching and can avoid them. 

3 comments:

  1. Amen to that my brother we need to read the whole word of YHWH pray for discernment by the power of the Holy Spirit to know what is true & what is false. The Word first!!!

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  2. I guess we could sum everything up from Revelation 14:12 "12Here is the perseverance of the Set Apart ones, those who keep the commandments of Elohim, and the faith of Yeshua.”

    Two things! Like we all have been saying until we are blue in the face: 1) Keep the Torah 2) Faith of Y'shua.

    Some say "I have Torah, I don't need Y'shua"
    While others say "I have Jesus, I don't need Torah"
    Truth is, we need both.

    Hebrews 10:26 is quite clear, and it's also a paraphrase of: Numbers 15:27-31 27
    “‘27If a person sins unwittingly, then he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. 28The priest shall make atonement for the soul who errs when he sins unwittingly before the Master YHWH. He shall make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven. 29You shall have one law for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them.
    30
    “‘But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, blasphemes Master YHWH's. That soul shall be cut off from among his people. 31Because he has despised Master YHWH's word, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off. His iniquity shall be on him.’”

    Interesting, native born and foreigner... Haven't we heard those words before?

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