The Inconvenient Speed Bump

 

     So far in this life (69 years) there has only been two times where I stood on the knife edge, knowing that all has changed for all time. The first occurred at September 1968, the beginning of my second year as a Lutheran pre-theological student. Earnestly reading, studying, trying to square the holy writings of Scripture, with the writings of men, I read one sentence that sent shivers through me. At that precise moment, my life changed.

 

“But this, as we have said, was not legalistically determined by the church.

The legal establishment for the observance of Sunday, the day of the helios1, was first instituted by the state. 2

 

I just sat at my desk starring at that sentence, finally placing a bookmark at page 61. At that precise point I closed the book and quit the Seminary, but more than that my faith was shattered. I had walked into Bronxville, New York one year earlier excited to get started with my dream from age 10 – to be a Lutheran Pastor. I walked away, my faith shredded until it hung on the thread of Pascal’s Wager3. I had consulted with Pastors and Professors repeatedly asking: “How did we get from Saturday to Sunday?” “But Pastor Jesus himself said the law4 doesn’t change!?” The only answer I ever got was “Read what Luther wrote.”

 

     In that life changing disaster there was a silver lining so huge that I give thanks instead of complain! The walk from My dormitory, Bohm Hall, in Bronxville, NY to my Great Aunt’s apartment in Mount Vernon, NY was a leisurely half hour. The first place in America I remember after getting off the ship in New York City was my Great Aunt’s apartment on the corner over the hardware store, around the corner from the little Italian kitchen serving the best pizza ever! Every Sunday, she hosted me for lunch and we would talk – serious talk. To make a long story short, it was as if her message was: -You may be studying to be a Lutheran Pastor, but NEVER forget who YOU ARE!- Ever since Mom’s “Orange Lecture” in Germany, I had spent hours trying to square being Jewish in “The Church”, Scripture, and theology. All the while being required (yes mom!) to hide being Jewish.

 

     I would love to report that all cleared up in a few years. No, I just ‘kicked the can down the road’. Working 25 years as a District Representative for a Lutheran non-profit Fraternal Benefit Society, I was woven into the fabric of the seven Lutheran Churches I served. How did I deal with the questions? I faced two options. On the one hand I could accept Lutheran Theology and ignore Scripture. On the other hand I could accept Scripture and ignore Lutheran Theology. My choice was to accept Theology, believing that I was not smart enough to understand Scripture. I quit reading scripture and allowed others, smarter than me (so I thought), to tell me what the Scriptures were saying.

My choice – My responsibility

 

     From the month that I entered the seminary until my first Shabbat in New York City (September 1967 to September 2007) there was a 40 year search for truth, characterized by the realization I could choose to listen to men (Theology) or YAH (Scripture). All that time I was certain that somewhere in Scripture I would find the gem explaining “how did we get from Saturday to Sunday”. When I could not find it in Scripture or figure it out, I shook it off, too busy and complacent. But praise YAH I learned that YAH’s Scripture was-is correct and men’s Theology is really Replacement Theology.

 

1. Helios (/ˈhiːliɒs/; Ancient Greek: Ἥλιος Hēlios; Latinized as Helius; Ἠέλιος in Homeric Greek) is the god and personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios

 

2. Teaching Luther’s Catechism I, Herbert Girgensohn, translated by John Doberstein, Muhlenberg Press, 1959, Page 61, The Third Commandment, The Christian Sunday, paragraph two

 

3. Pascal's Wager is an argument in philosophy presented by the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal (1623–62).[1] It posits that humans bet with their lives that God either exists or does not.

 

4.Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. https://www.bible.com/bible/1/MAT.5.kjv

Shabbat!

 

Any other day is a counterfeit replacement.

 

Malachi 3: (ISR98)

6. “For I am יהוה, I shall not change, and you, O sons of Ya‘akov, shall not come to an end.

 

Genesis 2 (ISR98)

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their array.

2 And on the seventh day Elohim completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

3 And Elohim blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because on it He rested from all His work which Elohim in creating had made.

4 These are the births of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that יהוה Elohim made earth and heavens.

 

Exodus 20: (ISR98)

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart.

9 “Six days you labor, and shall do all your work,

10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of  יהוה your Elohim. You do not do any work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

11 “For in six days יהוה made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore יהוה blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart.

 

Leviticus 23 (ISR98)

1 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,

2 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘The appointed times of  יהוה, which you are to proclaim as set-apart gatherings, My appointed times, are these:

3 ‘Six days work is done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a set-apart gathering. You do no work, it is a Sabbath to יהוה  in all your dwellings.

 

Deuteronomy 5 (ISR98)

12‘Guard the Sabbath day, to set it apart, as יהוה your Elohim commanded you.

13‘Six days you labour, and shall do all your work,

14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of יהוה your Elohim. You do not do any work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, no your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, so that your male servant and your female servant rest as you do.

15‘And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Mitsrayim, and that יהוה your Elohim brought you out from there by a strong hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore יהוה your Elohim commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

 

Isaiah 66: (ISR98)

23“And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares יהוה

 

Ezekiel 39:7 (ISR98)

7“And I shall make My set-apart Name known in the midst of My people Yisra’ĕl, and not let My set-apart Name be profaned any more. And the nations shall know that I am יהוה, the Set-apart One in Yisra’ĕl.

 

Matthew 5: (Aramaic English NT)

18 For truly I say to you that until heaven and the earth pass away not one Yodh or one stroke will pass from Torah until everything happens.

19 All who loosen, therefore from one (of) these small commandments and teach thus to the sons of man, will be called little in the Kingdom of Heaven, but all who do and teach this will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

Matthew 10: (Aramaic English NT)

34 Do not think that I have come to bring calm on earth. I have not come to bring calm, rather a sword.

35 For I have come to divide a man from his father, and a girl from her mother. And a daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law.

36 And the advisories of a man will be his household.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

38 And anyone who does not take up his staff and come and follow me is not worthy of me.

 

Matthew 12: (Aramaic English NT)

8 For the Master of the Shabbat is the Son of man.”

 

Revelation 12: (Aramaic English NT)

17 And the dragon was enraged against the woman; and he went to make war upon the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of Elohim and have the testimony of Y’shua.

 

Revelation 14: (Aramaic English NT)

12 Here is the patience of the Set Apart believers who keep the commandments of Elohim, and the faith of Y’shua.

 

Revelation 18: (Aramaic English NT)

4. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying: “Come out of her63 my people; that you may not participate in her sins, and may not partake of her plagues.

 

Note 63:  “Her” refers to spiritual Babylon which is represented by all religious organizations who make void Torah and speak against Y’shua Mashiyach. All earthly governments and religious institutions have modelled their hierarchies and values after her, she is the harlot system of materialism, relativism, humanism and paganism that has installed her own religious “priesthood” by replacing YHWH and His Mashiyach with her own “messiahs.” “Come out of her” means to turn to YHWH, observe His Torah and walk in Mashiyach according to the Image of Elohim.

 

Numbers 23: (ISR98)

19“Ěl is not a man, to lie; nor a son of man, to repent!

Has He said, and would He not do it; or spoken, and would not confirm it?