Shalom All,
As I've been trying to unlearn the things I just
blindly accepted from the religion and culture I was brought up in, I find
myself amazed at my blindness. I just took so much for granted. One of
those things, brought forth now with the discussion concerning Paul, is
justification by faith.
Paul's teachings place an emphasis on not
thinking you can earn your way to heaven. It seems as if the most hideous
sin is to think you can ever do anything to gain acceptance with YHUH, that
His acceptance of us is purely about His goodness and has nothing to do with
us.
My question - can this be found anywhere else in
Scripture???
Everywhere I look acceptance with YHUH is
completely conditional on us doing what He says. If we don't do what He
says, we get His punishments. This is exactly the first lesson learned in
Eden with Adam and Eve. Then look at Cain and Abel - the one who obeyed was
accepted, the one who didn't wasn't. Abraham believed YHUH and obeyed Him
and was therefore chosen by YHUH. He wasn't just "saved by faith" as a
non-performing mental attitude about YHUH in which he claimed YHUH's
promises based solely on YHUH's goodness and having nothing to do with
whether he obeyed YHUH or not. Israel was brought forth out of Egypt. Was
she brought forth because she did something to deserve coming out? Many
would say no, that she did nothing to deserve coming out. But if she didn't
obey YHUH, she didn't come out! The people had to kill a lamb, put the
blood on the doorpost, and make their preparations that night. They had to
physically uproot their lives and begin a difficult sojourn to leave Egypt.
If they didn't do all that, they didn't get to go; it was that simple. They
couldn't sit in their homes and argue, "Now are you doing this so you can
deserve going? Or are you doing this because you love YHUH? If you're
obeying Him because you think you can earn your acceptance with Him, then
you're being a legalist! You can only do this if you accept that it doesn't
earn your deliverance from Egypt and it's only because you love Him." Did
Abraham get circumcised because he saw it was a necessity to obey YHUH? Or
did he clarify with everyone in his camp instead, "Now if any of you get
circumcised, the Messiah will have no part in you, you who are so quickly
fallen from grace. You know we don't do anything to get accepted by YHUH.
His acceptance of us is based purely on His goodness. We are totally bad
and can do no good thing. So you must get circumcised this morning only if
it is from the bottom of your heart that you love YHUH and want to show Him
your love be removing your foreskin today."
All the way through Scripture YHUH's acceptance
of us is conditional upon our obedience. Paul threw in this "justification"
versus "sanctification" issue which makes doing what is right look wrong
because you might have this hidden motive of trying to earn your salvation
with your obedience! Where, I ask again, is this found anywhere else in
Scripture??? Can anyone show me a single verse in the Old Covenant where
YHUH condemns someone for doing what He says because they are rejecting His
grace? Where does YHUH ever come close to saying that a person's obedience
is indicating they don't love Him and are trying to work their way to heaven
instead? Even with the Pharisees, the Messiah condemned their disobedience,
not their obedience:
Mat 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for
ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier
matters of
the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to
leave the other undone.
He didn't say, "Don't pay your tithe when you have a wrong
attitude." He told them to keep doing what they were obeying, but to change
their attitude that wrong!
It is true that YHUH chose Israel even though she was least of
all the nations, and had no reason to be chosen; but only those who obeyed Him
could be in that group. When their attitude was wrong, did He tell them not to
get circumcised until they changed their attitude? Here's what He said:
Deu 10:16
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
Why didn't Paul tell the Galatians to circumcise the foreskin
of their heart, not JUST the foreskin of their flesh? Because He was making
wrong look right and right look wrong. Those who didn't get circumcised
then "showed their faith" that they were not saved by any work of their own,
therefore being righteous because their disobedience to the Torah somehow
demonstrated how good YHUH was that He accepted them without them doing
anything. Those who obeyed the Torah and circumcised their flesh were then
in the category of those who thought they could earn their way to heaven.
This is an insidious undermining of YHUH's law and a platform
from which man can boast in his sins and claim he is doing YHUH some
righteous deed by demonstrating how good He is to save a sinner in their
sins because they don't have to do anything except believe in order to be
saved because they are justified by faith!
I've been warned by someone on this forum privately that I'm
going to be damned for rejecting Paul from the inspired Scriptures. Yet the
very ones who claim Paul's message of saved without any works of the law
think I can't be saved unless I accept Paul! I'm not damned if I disobey
the Law, because Paul says we are saved by faith without the works of the
law. But I am damned if I disobey Paul because some mystery writer said
those who don't accept Paul's writings do so to their own destruction.
The more I think about this deception, the more I hate it!
YHUH is looking for our obedience, and the apostle of the lightning from
heaven made a dirty word out of obedience. No matter what I am obeying,
whether it be the Sabbath, the Sacred Name, the testimony of YHUH with the
white raiment, etc. I am accused by those who don't do the same as working
my way to heaven, that I think I can earn my salvation, that I am a
legalist, and so on. My obedience is treated as a crime toward heaven of
the worst kind because of Paul's writings alone!!!! This teaching came
straight from hell and from the author of confusion and the enemy of
righteousness. I will stand for obeying YHUH no matter what. If your
attitude is wrong in your obedience, then change your attitude, don't stop
your obedience!! It's amazing to me that all these pauline people who don't
obey the law and/or testimony and claim they don't judge others are so
confident of the hidden motives of those who do obey because of paul's
teachings.
I was recently told "You can wear as bright and pure of a
golden sacred name insignia on your forehead as you like but when you
condemn the holy Scripture as you are doing you are going to be damned." In
other words, obedience to the testimony means nothing, but my salvation
hangs on accepting paul's teachings.
YHUH teaches if we don't obey Him, then He won't even listen
to us. This contradicts paul:
Pro 1:22
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners
delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my
reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known
my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have
stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought
all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your
calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as
desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress
and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will
not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For
that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They
would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Paul teaches we are saved only by faith,
without the works of the law. This teaching is not accepted by YHUH:
Eze 33:31
And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit
before thee as
my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their
mouth they shew much love, but
their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou
art unto them as a very
lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an
instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
So all those who believe paul and want to hear YHUH's words
and not do them or else they may seem like they are earning their salvation,
beware. This is a subtle masterpiece of the enemy to cause people to
profess love without obedience. The watchmen on the walls of Zion will warn
the wicked, not that they better be careful they don't obey YHUH to be
saved, but rather that YHUH's judgements are coming on those who don't obey
Him:
Eze 33:3
If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and
warn the people;
Eze 33:4
Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning;
if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own
head.
Eze 33:5
He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall
be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6
But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and
the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take
any person from
among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I
require at the watchman's hand.
Eze 33:7
So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of
Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them
from me.
Eze 33:8
When I say unto the wicked, O wicked
man, thou shalt
surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that
wicked man
shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 33:9
Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he
do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast
delivered thy soul.
Eze 33:10
Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye
speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins
be upon us, and
we pine away in them, how should we then live?
Eze 33:11
Say unto them, As
I live, saith Adonay YHUH, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Eze 33:12
Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The
righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his
transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall
thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall
the righteous be able to live for his
righteousness
in the day that he sinneth.
Eze 33:13
When I shall say to the righteous,
that he shall
surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity,
all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity
that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
Eze 33:14
Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn
from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
Eze 33:15
If
the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in
the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live,
he shall not die.
Eze 33:16
None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he
hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
Shall we warn people, as paul does, if they obey the Torah (i.e.
get circumcised) the Messiah will have no part in them? Or shall we warn if
they don't obey the Torah YHUH's judgments will come on them? Those who take
paul's view of this matter and warn against obedience to YHUH will also stand in
judgment before YHUH as an unfaithful watchman.
Please dear family, consider this issue carefully. Obedience
is truly a life or death issue, even as it was on that first sinful day in
beautiful Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed. Not even paul's brilliant
contrivance of the truth can change the simple proof throughout all of Scripture
that acceptance with YHUH is conditional upon obedience.
A Watchman with open, tearful eyes,
Aderet
http://www.whiteraiment.com/index.htm