Monthly Archives: July 2015

July 31, 2015 SnyderTalk: Faith in Yahweh secures our salvation, so who is Yahweh?

1--Intro Covering Israel and ME

“And it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of Yahweh will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ‘Come and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us about His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.” Micah 4: 1-2

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2--SnyderTalk Editorial 5 New Temple MT

Faith in Yahweh secures our salvation, so who is Yahweh?

In Ephesians 2: 8, Paul said that we are saved by grace through faith.  That’s a fundamental truth, but grace isn’t a license to kill and faith in Yahweh is more than believing that He exists.

Regrettably, far too many Christians think grace means that our actions don’t matter and that faith isn’t an issue.  How wrong they are.

John 3: 16 is one of the most quoted and misunderstood verses in the New Testament:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

John 3: 16 is part of an explanation about being “born again” that the Messiah was giving to Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader.  Let’s put it in context:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to the Messiah by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” The Messiah answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” The Messiah answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

“How can these things be?” the Messiah answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God [That Name is Yahweh]. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3: 1-21)

As uplifting as John 3: 16 is, most of the time it is quoted out of context, and this part of the explanation is completely ignored:

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3: 18)

To believe in the Son (i.e., the Messiah) means to have faith in Him. The Messiah said that if we don’t have faith in Him we have been “judged already”. In other words, faith matters a lot.

Faith doesn’t mean just “believing in Yahweh”.  As James said, “You believe that God is One. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” (James 2: 19)

Demons aren’t saved, so their belief is nothing more than intellectual acceptance of Yahweh’s existence.  Saving faith requires that we follow the leading of Yahweh’s Spirit. In other words, saving faith requires obedience.  Absent that, believing is mere intellectual acceptance of Yahweh’s existence, and as James suggested, that’s not enough.

In John 3: 36, the Messiah made that fact perfectly clear:

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 3: 36 isn’t quoted by most of the people who quote John 3: 16, but it’s fundamental to salvation.  Faith matters, and faith manifests itself in obedience to Yahweh.

In the text of the quote from John 3: 1-21, I said that Yahweh is the Name the Messiah was referring to in John 3: 18.  How do I know?

Let’s begin by looking at Jeremiah 23: 5-6:

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His Name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.'”

In other words, the Messiah’s Name is Yahweh, and He is our righteousness.  Without faith in Him, we have no righteousness and are doomed.

Now, let’s look at Joel 2: 32:

“And it will come about that whoever calls on the Name of Yahweh will be delivered/saved.”

On Pentecost/Shavu’ot the year that the Messiah was crucified, Peter quoted Joel verbatim. (See Acts 2: 21.) Later, Paul quoted Joel verbatim, too. (See Romans 10: 13.) Both Peter and Paul were explaining salvation by saying that everyone who calls on the Name of Yahweh will be saved.

Peter stressed that point in Acts 4: 12:

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Thus, the Name that the Messiah meant in John 3: 18 had to be Yahweh. Faith in Him secures our salvation, and He is our righteousness.

Lest there be any doubt, the Messiah made it crystal clear who He is:

“Truly, truly I say to you before Abraham existed, I am.” (John 8: 58)

Yahweh’s grace is there for the asking, but it must be accompanied by faith or it has no effect.  Also, saving faith is accompanied by obedience or it’s not faith at all.  But we must have faith in whom?

We must have faith in Yahweh that manifests itself in obedience to Him.

You should read His Name is Yahweh if you haven’t read it already.  You should also read What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life?

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13--Perspectives 2

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Michael Curtis—France Is Severe on Holocaust Denial:  

France is a country officially based on its form of laïcité, essentially the absence of religious involvement in governmental affairs.  It is welcoming that it has taken to heart a passage from the biblical Proverbs: it is joy to the just to do judgment, but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.  That judgment is punishment for the denial of the Holocaust.

That judgment should prevail in the trial of the 87-year-old extreme right-wing French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, currently a member of the European Parliament,  who on July 26, 2015 was summoned to stand trial for denying crimes against humanity, in this case the Holocaust.

In 1987 Le Pen , the founder in 1972 and longtime leader of the Front National (FN) party, made a remark for which he was convicted of racial hatred and was fined 183,000 euros.  At that time, he said, “I’m not saying the gas chambers didn’t exist.  But I believe it’s just a detail in the history of World War II.” 

He was fined again by a Munich court in 1999 for his statement that “If you take a 1,000 page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines.  This is what one calls a detail.”  Among Le Pen’s other contributions to history was his defense of the wartime French Vichy regime and the activity of its head, Marshal Philippe Pétain, who realized the need for France to defend the white world.

In April 2015, Le Pen informed French TV that he did not regret his statements about the Holocaust.  He repeated remarks he had made on a number of occasions in France and Germany that “gas chambers were a detail of the war, unless we accept that the war is a detail of the gas chambers.  I continue to hold this view because it is the truth and it should not shock anyone.”

[…]

To continue reading, click here.

SnyderTalk Comment: I’ll begin with a simple fact: Holocaust denial is a sick form of anti-Semitism.

It’s sick because more than 6 million innocent people were slaughtered mercilessly for one and only one reason: they were Jewish.  If that’s not sick, I don’t know what is.

Anyone who claims to believe that the Holocaust didn’t occur must deny mountains of irrefutable evidence and history.  In other words, Holocaust deniers are idiots.  Problem is there is no shortage of idiots in the world.  Many of them are high-ranking government officials.

Now for the more alarming point: Holocaust denial and other forms of anti-Semitism are on the rise around the globe.  France is not even the worst offender.  I think Iran is far worse, but it’s plaguing every country in Europe.  Singling France out masks the severity of the problem.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the U.S., too.  Today, it shows up primarily as Israel hate, but it’s more blatant forms are evident as well.  That’s when people openly admit that they believe Jewish people are responsible for all of the world’s problems.  As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s a real problem.

Jewish people are canaries in the coal mine.  They are the first targets of people who hate Yahweh, but others follow quickly.  Christians are the second group to suffer, and they are being persecuted right now in every country in the world including the United States.  That, too, is a verifiable fact.

These trends are alarming because they point to something really big on the horizon.  Like snowballs rolling downhill, they don’t stop until they hit something.  They leave carnage in their wake, and their end causes death and destruction.

Bottom line: anti-Semitism must be stopped and stopping it won’t be easy or painless.  That’s not conjecture.

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5--HNIY Print form 2

His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important.  It’s available in eBook format and in paperback.  It’s also available for free in PDF format.

  • God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
  • “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
  • “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
  • Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8: 58)

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14--Blessings from Revelation 2

Blessings in the Book of Revelation is a book that you need to read, especially now.  There are blessings throughout the Scriptures but Revelation is the only book in the Bible actually containing a specific blessing for reading it. It’s repeated twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. This is the reason that I believe Revelation should be the first step toward studying biblical prophecy. Though not easy to do, Revelation can be broken down and understood by anyone, not just the academic elite. So, Revelation’s blessings are for everyone.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

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Other Books by Neil Snyder

  • Stand! is a suspense novel that exposes the lies, corruption, and greed underlying the theory that man-made CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming. Professor Wes Carlyle and Karen Sterling, his research collaborator, carefully scan the audience for their would-be attacker—a member of the enviro-gestapo who has been following them for days.  Wes spots his man in the back of the room leaning against the wall.  Suddenly, another man in the audience steps forward and moves toward Karen at a menacing pace.  With a vicious stroke, he swings a billy club at her head.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.
  • What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life? deals with a question that every Christian has to consider: what should I do with my life? Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.
  • Falsely Accused is a true story about a young woman who was accused of committing a double homicide. It’s about a travesty of justice, and it reveals Yahweh intervening in the life of a believer to rescue her from danger in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.  Everyone will enjoy the book, but young people in particular need to read it because the mistakes made that led to the problem could have been avoided.  They were the kinds of mistakes that young people are prone to make.  As they say, forewarned is forearmed.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

15--Concentric Circles 5

See “His Name is Yahweh”.