Yes, I get the irony. But isn't it true? What Daddy looks at his little girl and looks forward to the day that she'll be dating? And why is that exactly? Perhaps it's because most of us have been there - we've experienced the dating scene and we know full well that dating leads to a lot of things, most of which do not include marriage! So, what's a dad to do these days? Should our kids be dating? What about the more conservative approach - courtship? Well, here is an honest attempt to look to our Creator and see just what DOES the Bible say?
Yes, I get the irony. But isn't it true? What Daddy looks at his little girl and looks forward to the day that she'll be dating? And why is that exactly? Perhaps it's because most of us have been there - we've experienced the dating scene and we know full well that dating leads to a lot of things, most of which do not include marriage! So, what's a dad to do these days? Should our kids be dating? What about the more conservative approach - courtship? Well, here is an honest attempt to look to our Creator and see just what DOES the Bible say?
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Here is a video teaching by Dr. Arthur Bailey that should cause Christians to evaluate the nature of the true enemy in the War on Christmas. For more information about Dr. Bailey, his work, and teachings you can visit his website at http://www.arthurbaileyministries.com. A quick look through the Scripture will yield at least 4 verses referring to the antichrist directly and more that reference the antichrist indirectly. However, here are the four verses that can be identified very quickly: 1 John 2:18 NASB 1 John 2:22 and 1 John 4:3 indicate clearly that the spirit of the antichrist will deny Yeshua as Messiah and will claim that Yeshua is not from Yahweh. That sounds pretty clear on the surface. However, perhaps there is another interesting layer here. Let’s take a short jog through the scripture real quick. Let’s look at John 1:1 John 1:1 NASB In the Tanach, we are repeatedly told that the words of Yahweh are his teachings, which is the Hebrew word torah. Yah’s teachings are his word. For instance: Job 22:22 The Scriptures 1998+ Now, if we go back to John 1:1 and replace “Word” with Teachings we see the following: John 1:1 Now, if we move on to John 1:14 we see the following: John 1:14 NASB John 1:14 is referring to Yeshua. So, Yeshua is the Word (Teachings) in the flesh. So, in a nutshell, if the antichrist will deny Yeshua is from Yahweh and will deny that Yeshua is the Messiah. In other words, the antichrist will deny Yeshua who is the Word (Teachings).
What does this mean? Well, it’s not a stretch to say that anyone who denies the Teachings of Yahweh, otherwise referred to as the Torah, are acting in the spirit of the antichrist. The spirit of the antichrist is not merely a denial of Yeshua but also acts more broadly by rejecting the Torah (Law/Law of Moses) of Yahweh. How many people reject the Torah/Law? How many people are acting in the spirit of the antichrist? Frighteningly, this includes a good portion of the Christian Church as we know it today! Shalom Aleichem! The H.U.B. You consider yourself Protestant, right? Take a look at the quotes below from various Catholic sources and then ask yourself this question: How Catholic am I really?! T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18,1884. "I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says: 'No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.' And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church." Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R., The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957), p. 50. "Question: Which is the Sabbath day? James Cardinal Gibbons (The Faith of our Fathers, 88th ed., pp. 89) declared: “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day that we [Catholics] never sanctify.” Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975),Chicago, Illinois. "Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts: The vast majority of Christian churches today teach the observance of Sunday (1st day) as a day of rest. However, history, as well as the Scriptures, make it pretty clear that the apostles and the early church maintained a Saturday (7th day) Sabbath. The sources above and a plethora of others demonstrate clearly that the Roman Catholic Church instituted the observance of Sunday as their day of rest instead of the 7th day of the week (as dictated in the Scriptures). So, again I ask you to consider the question: Just how Catholic are YOU? Shalom Aleichem!
The H.U.B. Zephaniah 3:17 This verse is a perfect example of believers holding onto the promises and ignoring the commandments … and the warnings. In context, we see that Zephaniah 3:1 is a warning to a rebellious city. Zephaniah 3:1 A quick word-study shows that "REBELLIOUS" means to go against His command and not obey His Words - in ALL that He commands ... as we see here: Joshua 1:17 Also, in context, we see that this ever-so popular "word of promise" from Zephaniah 3:17 is spoken to none other than the remnant of Israel: Zephaniah 3:13 To do no "wrong" as seen in Zephaniah 3:13 means to do no: H5767b עולה avlah (732c); from the same as H5766; injustice, unrighteousness, wrong: - iniquity (3), injustice (4), injustices (1), unjust (1), unjustly (1), unrighteousness (9), violence (1), violent injustice (1), what is unjust (1), wicked *(3), wickedness (4), wrong (3), wrongdoers (1). We see that to "lie" as mentioned in Zephaniah 3:13 is to be deceitful and, in most cases, deceitful in opposition to His Truth and can be confirmed by looking at the following verses:
So, Yahweh is mighty to save indeed! However, this promise is to the remnant of Israel and remnant are expected to follow Yahweh's commandments, obeying His Torah and THEN they receive the promise!
Shalom Aleichem! The H.U.B. Church goers and pastors are being hammered left and right by believers asking questions about what the Bible has to say about the fourth commandment. Pastor Tim Conway takes his stab at answering these questions. Watch as Conway has a self-dialogue in regards to what the Bible does – or doesn’t say – about the … Sabbath, Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, First Day … what was it again??? Shalom Aleichem! The H.U.B. So, this is a question that we have all thought about from time to time. After looking at this topic in the Scripture, the result is not quite what we anticipated, nor does it really line up with the common “story line.” Let's take a look at what Scripture says about what happens to us when we die. The body and soul return to the dust and the Spirit departs and returns to Yahweh. Psalms 146:1-4 NASB The body and the soul are delivered into Sheol in death. 1 Samuel 2:6 NASB The body and soul are asleep in Sheol and are awakened to a day of judgement. Daniel 12:2 NASB Many look to Yeshua’s death on the stake as a reason to believe that when we die, that very day we will be in heaven. Luke 23:43 says, “And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise." At first glance, it seems that Yeshua promised the thief that the thief would be with Him (Yeshua) in "paradise" that very same day. However, John 20:17, clearly states that Yeshua didn’t go to heaven during those three days after He died. How is it that Yeshua made this promise to the thief? We know that no deceit was found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22 & Isaiah 53:9), so Yeshua couldn’t have promised the thief that the thief would be with Yeshua that same day in paradise. There is no punctuation in the Greek texts. Read it again, with a slight change in the placement of the punctuation: “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise."
In Luke 20:34-38, Yeshua specifically states that Yahweh is the God of the living not the dead, which further supports the notion of a resurrection to eternal life. At that future time, the dead will be roused from their sleep. And, in John 14:1-3, Yeshua spoke of all who will believe it and accept it regarding the time when the dead will wake up. Yeshua indicates that when He returns to Earth, He will re-gather his chosen ones (including those that have died) and bring them to Himself. This verse indicates that there will be dwelling place and that we will have a consciousness of Yeshua and our environment again. In summary, it seems that, according to our study of Scripture, when we die, our body and soul are put to rest in Sheol and our Spirit departs to Yahweh. While in Sheol, we are in some sort of "sleep" state without consciousness and without awareness of even Yahweh Himself. Despite the Biblical evidence, this is not a popularly held view. It is important that we point out that the Scripture is also clear that while death may be a “sleep of unconsciousness,” it is only temporary. For those who trust in Yahweh to keep His promises through Messiah, eternal life without death awaits them for eternity! Shalom Aleichem! The H.U.B. The topic of discussion at last H.U.B. gathering was the The Third Day. This was an interesting topic and was full of potential. So, before we get to the material discussed let's first digress for a moment. This did not turn out like we expected...not even remotely! So, we met at the usual location on Shabbat morning and lo and behold...we don't have the key to the building! Some folks were scrambling to find the key, some were trying to contact people that were coming to The H.U.B., some were scouting out alternative locations, etc. It was a dynamic morning. However, we all finally just settled in to the fact that Yahweh was doing something here so we finally just went with it. We ended up settling on a meeting in the park and just planned on winging it. Let's just say that is was a fantastic time. The weather couldn't have been better, the park was beautiful, the spot we settled in was shaded and Yahweh provided a wonderful breeze, the time of praise was heartfelt, the pot-luck dishes were perfect for the park, etc., etc. Yahweh provided us a perfect day and we delighted in the day that he indeed made. Oh yeah, it was also the third official meeting of The H.U.B. and we were studying The Third Day in scripture. Finally, to top it all off, we never lost the key! The key was with us the entire time but Yahweh had hidden it from us for his purposes. Enough about that. The following images are snapshots of our meeting notes from our last meeting. You can click on any of the images to view larger and un-skewed version. Shalom Aleichem!
The H.U.B. Food for thought: What if we applied the same “standard” to all the commandments that some believers apply to the Sabbath commandment? The standard goes something like this: It doesn’t matter which day of the week you honor as the Sabbath, so long as you honor a Sabbath day. With that same standard applied, the Ten Commandments might look something like this:
Seems a little ridiculous, doesn’t it. However, if we look at our society, we can quickly see the ramifications of this exact mentality. It’s a slippery slope when we start applying our own standards to God’s Word, isn’t it? Romans 1:25 puts it this way: Romans 1:25 In stubbornness of heart, we see God’s people (us!) repeatedly being admonished for applying their own standards to His Word instead of His standards to their life. Jeremiah 9:13-15 Psalms 81 coveys the heart of our Father so well: Psalm 81:11-13 Shalom Aleichem!
The H.U.B. We have seen a tremendous amount of interest at The H.U.B. from individuals interested in what we are doing. Now, we would like your input. We would like to solicit the input from the larger community to provide us direction on what types of topics you would like to cover during our Shabbat midrashes and on our blog. The survey below is very simple and is intended to simply gather ideas so we can better serve you. |
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