“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation (atoning sacrifice) in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” (Romans 3: 21-28)

Intro to SnyderTalk

“For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

Thomas Jefferson

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Facebook Group His Name is Yahweh

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Email Distribution List

I have created an email distribution list that I use to notify people when I post a new SnyderTalk. If you would like to be on that list, send your email address to nhsny@yahoo.com. If you know others who are interested in SnyderTalk content, tell them to send me their email address, and I’ll put them on the list.

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Websites you need to see

Friends of the Israel Defense Forces
Israel: About Israel, The Israel Project, Tourist Information, the Holocaust, Israel map, Israel’s War of Independence, the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the First Intifada, the Second Intifada, Arab-Israel conflict, and anti-Semitism
The Temple Institute
Video: The Aaronic Blessing—This is a beautiful video rendition of The Aaronic Blessing (Numbers 6: 24-26) in Hebrew and English, but notice that the title Adonai is used instead of the Name Yahweh. That is in keeping with a Jewish tradition that dates back to the mid-second century B.C., but you can be certain about this fact. Yahweh’s Name is essential to The Aaronic Blessing and should be there.
Video: He is Yahweh

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SnyderTalk® Commentary

Today I’ll show where Yahweh’s Name should appear in Matthew chapters 3 and 4.

Matthew 3

Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, “THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE READY THE WAY OF YAHWEH, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!’”
Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan;
and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
“Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;
and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.
“The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
“His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him.
But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”
But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him.
After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,
and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Matthew 4

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”
Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,
and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT YAHWEH YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory;
and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP YAHWEH YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”
Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee;
and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.
This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:
“THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES—
“THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.
And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.
Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them.
Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.
The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.
Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.

What we do matters, but we cannot earn salvation with our works. Only faith in Yahweh leads to salvation.

Very few Christians actually know what the Bible teaches. They may attend church regularly, read the Bible, and even serve in high profile church positions, but most of them have never studied the Scriptures carefully. That’s unfortunate because Yahweh expects us to know and obey His Word. He wants us to open our hearts to Him and allow Him to lead us where He wants us to go.

I suppose they think that once they’ve made a profession of faith, it’s all over but the eventual trip to heaven. They sashay away from their “salvation experience” rejoicing in blissful glee and singing Kumbaya without giving too much thought to what comes next, but the next step determines whether their profession was real or contrived. I may be overdoing it a little for dramatic effect, but not a lot. Salvation is not something to be taken lightly. It’s a life changing experience.

In a conversation with Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader and a man who was very knowledgeable about the Scriptures, the Messiah explained salvation this way: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3: 3) In John 3: 16, He continued His explanation: “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.”

According to these verses, when a person is “born again” he has a new life in the Messiah—an eternal life. It doesn’t begin in the sweet by and by. Eternal life starts at the instant we put our faith in the Messiah—when we believe in Him. In the truest sense of the word, salvation day is our birthday. It’s the commencement of our new life with Him.

Salvation is Just the Beginning

In one sense, salvation is like an M.D. degree or any other professional degree. Those degrees are required for entrance into a profession the same way salvation is required for admission to heaven. They are tickets to the game and that’s all. They are NOT the game itself.

Some of you are probably beginning to wonder if the Bible actually says that. The answer is YES!

When you’re saved, the game begins. You take your position on the field, and the Coach takes charge. Paul explained it like this: “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Romans 8: 14) In John 3: 36, the Messiah explained it a little differently: “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.”

It’s perfectly clear that there’s an important connection between being led by God’s Spirit and obedience. A surprising number of Christians think of obedience in terms of strict adherence to the Ten Commandments and all the other laws in the Bible. I would never attempt to minimize their importance and I’m not advocating loose living, but the obedience Yeshua was talking about in John 3: 36 has to do with our willingness to be led by Him. You can rest assured that evidence of our new birth will become apparent in due course. The changes in our lives may be slow and difficult for others to see or they may be rapid and dramatic. Whatever the case may be, Yahweh will know, and that’s what matters.

I like this analogy. Think about the laws in the Bible as the rules of the game—a game like football for instance. God wants us to play by the rules to avoid penalties, but to win the game you have to score points. Occasionally, the most penalized team wins. That happens all the time.

I’m not saying that penalties are irrelevant because they can prevent us from achieving victory, but when the clock ticks down to zero, the winning team will be the one with the most points. There is no place on the scoreboard for “yards penalized.” You’ll have to wait for newspaper reporters’ accounts of the game to get that statistic, or you can go to the Internet and get it right after the game. To the players, the coaches, and the fans the only statistic that matters at the end of the game is final score.

Legalism is Offensive to Yahweh and Everybody Else

It’s Yahweh’s job to lead us to victory. It’s also His job to teach us how to play by the rules. That doesn’t happen all at once. It takes practice, practice, and more practice over time—the same as learning to play any sport takes lots of practice.

Yahweh doesn’t call a timeout or postpone the game temporarily until we’re perfect. Quite the opposite, we take the field; the whistle blows; the battle gets underway; and we learn as we play—on the fly so to speak. Perfection isn’t required or even expected at this point. We won’t achieve perfection until we give up our mortal bodies and take on the immortal ones Yahweh has prepared for us.

The legalists among us may go berserk when they read the last paragraph, especially the last two sentences in the paragraph. They will point out very quickly, and probably with a holier-than-thou tone in their voices, that the Bible says, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5: 48) If legalists would simply look in the mirror, they would see how far off the mark they are personally. I guess they don’t use mirrors. If they do, they must look at their images through rose-colored glasses.

In Matthew 23: 24, Yeshua aimed this remark at the legalists who followed Him around from place to place trying to find something they could use against Him: “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” That may have been hyperbole, but He was making an important point. The crowd probably erupted in spontaneous laughter at the thought of the immaculately attired religious leaders in their long, flowing robes chomping down on camels. I think Yeshua purposely ridiculed them in front of others to teach them a lesson and to show the crowd how hypocritical and ridiculous they were.

In Luke 6: 41-42, Yeshua said, “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”

As you can see, the Messiah left no room for doubt in anyone’s mind about where He stands when it comes to legalism. He’s against it pure and simple.

That being said, Matthew 5: 48 is correct. We are supposed to be perfect, but the perfection Yeshua was talking about in that verse is a perfection only He can deliver. It wasn’t by accident that the Messiah delivered that message as a part of His Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5, 6, and 7) The primary purpose of that oration was to reveal God’s perspective on right living. More than anything else, The Sermon on the Mount teaches us two things:

We don’t understand completely what Yahweh wants and expects from us. In fact, we’re so far off the mark that it isn’t even funny. Stated another way, Yeshua was saying that Yahweh’s view of perfection is beyond our ability to comprehend.
Yahweh is our Judge.

The apostle Paul had an interesting take on this subject, and he’s a more credible witness than any of the legalists I know:

“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation (atoning sacrifice) in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” (Romans 3: 21-28)

That is one of the most important passages in the Bible. It tells us in plain language that what men and women have longed for since the creation—i.e., holiness, righteousness, and salvation—can’t be obtained by obeying the law. That’s why Paul emphasized that righteousness was manifested apart from the law. The law and the prophets (i.e., the Bible) merely point in the direction of the One who delivered righteousness to us. He is Yahweh Tsidkenu—Yahweh our Righteousness. (Jeremiah 23: 5-6) In other words, Yahweh is our righteousness. Faith in Him leads to salvation.

Paul said it perfectly in Romans 3: 28: “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” It’s as simple as that. If you have a problem with it, you need to accept the fact that you have a problem with the Bible and with God’s plan of salvation.

But Paul had something else to say about this subject that demands our attention: “For ground that drinks the rain which falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.” (Hebrews 6: 7-8)

This is the bottom line. What we do matters, but only faith leads to salvation. In the end, true faith is manifested in works that please Yahweh.

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Copenhagen Summit and Weather Week in Review

SEPP (Science & Environmental Policy Project) SCIENCE EDITORIAL #30-2009 (Dec 19, 2009), by S. Fred Singer, President of SEPP

Junk Science #1: IPCC’s First Assessment Report

In 1988, two UN agencies, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), set up a climate science panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its Charter directs the IPCC to assess worldwide scientific, technical and socio-economic literature “relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change.”

And indeed, the IPCC has steadfastly pursued this goal and has given a short shrift to any possible natural influences on climate. (This despite the fact that the historic record shows unending changes in climate, both warming and cooling, on time scales ranges from years to eons.) It would be strange indeed to think that such natural changes stopped with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, but this logical point seems to have been ignored by the IPCC and many others.

The IPCC charter also states that IPCC will assess the science on a “comprehensive, objective, open and transparent” basis. Unfortunately, none of these aims have been realized – as was brought home by the recent revelations contained in the e-mails of ClimateGate.

The first IPCC science assessment, FAR or AR-1, was published in 1990 and formed the science basis for the Rio Climate Summit of 1992 that led to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC or ‘Global Climate Treaty’), which in turn forms the basis for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the COP (Conference of the Parties – to Kyoto), and all national and international efforts to control the emission of greenhouse gases.

The Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of IPCC-FAR concluded that observations and Greenhouse (GH) models (all of which show a steady increase of global temperature as the level of GH gases rises) are “broadly consistent.” They ignore not only the lengthy period of cooling (from 1940 to 1975) but also the existence of weather satellites, which, at that time, had shown no warming since 1979 (when data from MSU – microwave sounding units — became available) — or even a slight cooling. No wonder that IPCC denied the existence of such ‘inconvenient truth.’

To correct such biases and deficiencies, we set up the NIPCC (Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change) to examine the same peer-reviewed science literature as the IPCC, but including also papers ignored by the IPCC. Our conclusion is given by the title of the NIPCC summary report of 2008: “Nature, not human activity, rules the climate.”

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News Items of Interest

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His Name is Yahweh

There is a wealth of material available for free download on www.hisnameisyahweh.org including the book His Name is Yahweh. His Name is Yahweh is also available at Amazon on Kindle for just $5. If you haven’t read His Name is Yahweh, you should. The importance of Yahweh’s Name is becoming more apparent with each passing day.

HNIY bookcover in JPEG Kindle edition