“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)
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Yahweh doesn’t want or need a birthday celebration
Oil prices are plummeting. The Syrian Civil War is getting hotter each day. Iran is on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia and Iran are on the verge of war without proxies. Russia is arming Hezbollah. But this is the most newsworthy development in the Middle East:
Emirates 24/7 News—December 24 is UAE public holiday to mark Prophet’s birthday:
Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, and Chairman of the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources, has declared Thursday, December 24, an official holiday for the public sector to mark the birth anniversary of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), postponed from December 23.
Their logic is simple. To take some of the light off the Messiah at Christmas, some Muslims want to celebrate Mohammed’s birth at that time.
Some will argue that the Jews did the same thing when they initiated Hanukah, but that’s not true. Hanukah is also known as the Feast of Dedication. It commemorates the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabee in 164 B.C. It predates the Messiah’s physical birth by more than 150 years, and He celebrated it Himself. See John 10: 22-30.
Muslim attempts to steal the limelight will infuriate Christians who have no idea that the Messiah wasn’t born on Christmas. Emperor Constantine fixed the Messiah’s “birthday” at the winter solstice so that it would coincide with the celebration of the birth of Sol Invictus, the sun god.
The Messiah’s “birthday” is of no consequence. Yahweh doesn’t want or need a birthday celebration. If He had wanted us to celebrate His “birth”, He would have told us.
Celebrating Yahweh’s “birth” is ridiculous. Hayah is the Hebrew verb from which His Name is derived. It means “to be”, and the Name Yahweh means “I am”. He has no beginning and no end. He is the self-existent One. He wasn’t “born” and He can’t die.
Yahweh didn’t tell us to celebrate His birth, and we know that the Messiah wasn’t born on the winter solstice. We also know that Yahweh commanded us to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths), and Passover among others. The Messiah was born during Sukkot in the fall of the year.
When Yahweh returns, Sukkot will be a mandatory feast. Those who refuse to celebrate it will suffer the consequences:
And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; in that day Yahweh will be the only one, and His name the only one.
All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.
Now this will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about in that day that a great panic from Yahweh will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps.
Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh Sabaoth, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths [Sukkot]. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh Sabaoth, there will be no rain on them. If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which Yahweh smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths [Sukkot]. This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths [Sukkot].
In that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “HOLY TO YAHWEH.” And the cooking pots in the Yahweh’s house will be like the bowls before the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh Sabaoth; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of Yahweh Sabaoth in that day. (Zechariah 14: 9-21)
If Muslims want Christmas, let them have it. It’s a sacrilege anyway, even though most Christians don’t know it.
Let’s celebrate Sukkot as Yahweh commanded.
There are other feasts that I didn’t mention. If this interests you, take some time to study the feasts. All of them are signs of the Messiah.
I can’t conclude without saying a few more words about Passover. It is not Easter. The dates of Passover and Easter seldom coincide. Easter is the celebration of the Assyrian and Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar, hence the name Easter. Easter is a sacrilege, too.
What does Yahweh say about worshipping Him with pagan rituals? This is what Yahweh told Jeremiah:
Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says Yahweh, “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens although the nations are terrified by them; for the customs of the peoples are delusion; because it is wood cut from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They decorate it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers so that it will not totter.” (Jeremiah 10: 1-4)
This is from the Torah:
“Be careful to listen to all these words which I command you, so that it may be well with you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of Yahweh your God. When Yahweh your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ You shall not behave thus toward Yahweh your God, for every abominable act which Yahweh hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.” (Deuteronomy 12: 28-32)
The bottom line: forget the Messiah’s “birthday” and do what Yahweh told us to do. Let’s celebrate Sukkot. It represents Yahweh coming to tabernacle with us, hence the name Feast of Tabernacles:
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1: 14)
The word translated as “dwelt” in this verse means tabernacle. He came during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) to tabernacle with us.
Now that’s worth knowing and considering.
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His Name is Yahweh, the website, is a companion of the book His Name is Yahweh. Both of them explain the importance of God’s Name.
The website is loaded with factual information that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Yahweh is our Savior and that the Messiah is Yahweh.
I hope you will take a few minutes and explore the website. I also hope you will share it with your friends and family.
It’s time for believers to tell the world about our God by His Name—Yahweh.
To see videos that explain the importance of Yahweh’s Name, click here.
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Fiscal Times—ISIS cash goes up in smoke as US targets terror group’s finances: The U.S. military’s push to cut off the cash flow to Islamic extremists has taken an explosive turn. On Monday, defense officials told CNN that the U.S. dropped a pair of 2,000-pound bombs on a building in Mosul, Iraq, that contained potentially millions in currency belonging to ISIS. Officials said that intelligence efforts had determined that the site, now reduced to rubble, was a “cash collection and distribution point” for ISIS, which is believed to take in tens of millions of dollars each month. The mission seems to be an extension of the recent Defense Department push to pinch ISIS in its wallet by hitting the extremist network’s oil infrastructure.
Daily Mail—New email headaches for Hillary as judge orders release of 29,000 pages of private messages from top aide Huma Abedin:
A federal judge has ordered the release of an archived trove of 29,000 pages of emails from one of Hillary Clinton’s top aides as secretary of state. The State Department will process for public release the emails by longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin that she sent or received on a private account she used while serving as Clinton’s deputy chief of staff from 2009 to 2013. The messages were surrendered by Abedin last year after the State Department requested them after officials there became aware they did not have a complete record of work-related emails from Clinton’s top staff, according to a report in Politico.
NBC News—Pentagon: 2 U.S. Navy Boats With 10 American Sailors Held by Iran Military: Iranian military forces seized two U.S. Navy boats Tuesday and are detaining them on Iran’s Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf, senior U.S. officials told NBC News. The officials said it’s unclear whether the 10 American sailors aboard two small riverine vessels had strayed into Iranian territorial waters before they were captured. The sailors were on a training mission around noon ET when one of the boats experienced mechanical failure and drifted into Iranian-claimed waters, officials added. Iran’s coast guard took them into custody, although the crew has been described as being safe.
SnyderTalk Comment: See “Two US Navy boats in Iranian custody but crew will be returned ‘promptly’”.
Shmuley Boteach—Hillary Clinton’s Troubling Relationship With an Israel-Hater Adviser: Who is Max Blumenthal, why is he a Hillary Clinton Israel Svengali and does he pose as big a headache for Hillary as Jeremiah Wright did for Barack Obama? […] Blumenthal is one of Hillary’s closest advisers and a longtime family friend. He was a senior adviser during Bill Clinton’s presidency and served again as senior adviser for Hillary’s failed 2008 run for the White House. Blumenthal was clearly a man whose advice Hillary trusted and she was willing to pay him $10,000 a month for his services. However, the information uncovered from their email exchanges paints a troubling picture. What they show is a slew of anti-Israel writings and opinions, many of which originated from articles written by Blumenthal’s own son, Max Blumenthal. Max is a writer and self-declared “anti-Zionist,” known for his active support of the BDS movement and his calls for the dismantling of the state of Israel. He trolls pro-Israel writers, as I can personally attest.
Robert Spencer—Obama ordered CIA not to support 2009 Green Movement in Iran because he wanted to court Khamenei: As demonstrations and revolts swept the Muslim world during Obama’s first term, he was enthusiastic. He had encouraging words for the “Arab Spring” demonstrators in Egypt and Tunisia, and even gave military assistance to their Libyan counterparts. During the third and last debate of the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney and Obama sparred over which could express support for the Syrian rebels (who are dominated by Islamic jihadists) more strongly, and as Obama’s second term began, his administration was inching ever closer to military aid for those rebels. Yet there have now been three large-scale demonstrations in Muslim countries that Obama did not support — and those three exceptions are extraordinarily revealing about his disposition, as well as his policy, toward Islam.
CNN— Istanbul: Deadly suicide blast has ‘Syrian roots,’ President says: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a Tuesday blast that killed 10 when it ripped through a popular tourist area in central Istanbul has “Syrian roots,” further proof Turkey is not immune.
Politico— Turkey’s unwinnable war: If 2016 is anything like the year that just passed, we are in for real trouble. Beneath the world’s radar, a serious insurgency has been simmering in Turkey’s Kurdish regions for months. Urban clashes, with three or four casualties each time, are a daily occurrence. Youth groups affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are controlling parts of major Kurdish cities, fighting government forces for greater autonomy. And the Turkish government is responding with a harsh military crackdown that not only targets the militia but ends up affecting civilians.
SnyderTalk Comment: See “ISIS member behind deadly Istanbul suicide blast, PM says” and “Istanbul bombing: Is Turkey’s war on ISIS coming home?”
Erdogan’s double-dealing is coming home to haunt him.
Burak Bekdil—Turkey: Is It Religiously All Right to Lust for My Daughter?: Turkey has a government agency that regulates “religious affairs” [read: Sunni Muslim Affairs]. It is run by the country’s top Muslim cleric and reports to the prime minister. The Directorate for Religious Affairs, or Diyanet in Turkish, enjoys an annual budget bigger than those of more than 10 other ministries combined – and its president, a government-appointed cleric, enjoys a $400,000 chauffeur-driven car. Among its duties is to issue “fatwas,” or to tell Muslim Turks what is religiously permissible and what is not. Its current president, the top cleric, also enjoys making long, doctrinaire speeches. Sometimes they sound reasonable, sometimes not.
SnyderTalk Comment: I wouldn’t take any of this seriously if so many Muslims didn’t take it seriously. Since they do, we have no choice.
The Daily Beast— Russia Is Arming Hezbollah, Say Two of the Group’s Field Commanders: Lebanese Hezbollah field commanders with troops fighting in Syria tell The Daily Beast they are receiving heavy weapons directly from Russia with no strings attached. The commanders say there is a relationship of complete coordination between the Assad regime in Damascus, Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia. At the same time they say the direct interdependence between Russia and Hezbollah is increasing.
SnyderTalk Comment: Also see “Russia Giving Advanced Weapons to Hezbollah, ‘No Strings Attached’”.
Khaled Abu Toameh—ISIS Followers Plan To Take Over Gaza Strip: A new group calling itself the Palestinian Islamic Army (PIA) has popped up in the Gaza Strip, signalling incontrovertibly the growing influence of the Islamic State (ISIS) among Palestinians. A thirty-minute video put out by the PIA shows its followers pledging allegiance to ISIS “Caliph” Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and paints Hamas leaders as “apostates” and “infidels” for failing to implement Islamic sharia law in the Gaza Strip. The video constitutes proof positive that the ISIS ideology has infiltrated Gaza — a truth that Hamas has unsuccessfully been trying to conceal for the past year.
Washington Post— A spring tide of refugees could be even bigger than last year’s, European leader says: Luxembourg has played a key role in Europe’s response to the refugee crisis, having held the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union for the final six months of 2015. Luxembourg was also the first country to accept asylum-seekers from Greece under the E.U.’s plan to distribute people more evenly across Europe, using a quota system. Luxembourg’s Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, sat down for an interview with Washington Post London Bureau Chief Griff Witte at Bettel’s office in Luxembourg City on Jan. 6. The following are excerpts of their conversation.
Washington Post— After New Year’s Eve assaults, Muslim migrants targeted in Cologne: Over the weekend, some 20 unidentified assailants cornered and attacked migrants in the German city of Cologne. The victims included a half dozen Pakistani men, two of whom were hospitalized. There was a separate assault on a Syrian asylum seeker, who was lightly injured after being set upon by five attackers. The incidents follow a grim spate of attacks that took place in Cologne and a handful of other northern European cities on New Year’s Eve. In Cologne, mobs of men, the majority of whom were reported to be of North African or Arab origin, robbed and sexually assaulted female passersby and clashed with an overwhelmed, startled police force.
SnyderTalk Comment: This is just the beginning.
Beware. The U.S. isn’t an island.
Fiamma Nirenstein—The clash between Sunnis and Shiites: According to Amnesty International, Iran carried out the death sentence of about 700 people just in the first six months of 2015, approximately 4 executions every day. Similarly, about 700 people were put to death in Saudi Arabia, although in one year’s time. No, neither data is comforting: the numbers are staggering. However, it is not trivial to bring them to light while the Iranians continue to be portrayed with diplomatic grace. But the Shiite-Sunni confrontation has surfaced dramatically. The provocative execution by the Saudis of the Shiite preacher, activist and perhaps terrorist Nimr al-Nimr prompted the Iranians to react like wounded tigers.
SnyderTalk Comment: Don’t underestimate the significance of the Sunni-Shia divide. Yahweh uses things like this to accomplish His goals. He’s done it before, and He’ll do it again.
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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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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.
See “His Name is Yahweh”.
