“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Sometimes I Want to Cry
Sometimes I want to cry. Sometimes I do cry, because of the things I see.
Some of you may be thinking, He’s crying because of the depravity that is so obvious among us.
That’s a reasonable assumption, but it’s incorrect. I’m crying because of the total lack of consciousness of people who should know better. I’m crying because people who puff themselves up and think of themselves as Yahweh’s emissaries are doing Him, themselves, and people who foolishly listen to them a great disservice.
I believe that if we shut down half the churches in the U.S., it would have no effect on life in our country. They are spiritually dead. It may be 90 percent of the churches. I can only guess. Far too many pastors like to talk about the power of Yahweh, but they refuse to call Him by His Name, and they deny His power in the here and now.
I don’t believe an intelligent person can read the Old Testament, a.k.a. the Tanach, and not see the importance of Yahweh’s Name. The same is true for the New Testament. Yahweh’s Name is so integral to understanding His message to the world that you have to be spiritually blind not to see it.
Even so, very few preachers ever mention Yahweh’s Name from the pulpit, and most churchgoers have never heard a preacher declare that Yahweh is our Savior, our only Savior. They are blind leaders of the blind. If they can make me cry, what do you think they do to Yahweh?
“I, even I, am Yahweh. There is no savior besides Me.” (Isaiah 43: 11)
I’m sick of it. I’ve had enough. I’m through playing footsie with them. I’m ready to tell them the unvarnished truth.
Imagine that. Me, a business professor from the University of Virginia, telling preachers and evangelists and hucksters of all sorts that they are shameful disgraces. I may be feeling my oats, or I may be at the starting point of new leg of my journey.
Actually, I know where I am. I’m beginning to feel Yahweh’s pain as He looks out at the people who profess to be His emissaries. As a group, they are disgraceful.
It has taken me a long time to get to this point, but I am finally here. Praise Yahweh. I’m telling you what is on His heart.
Almost 20 years ago, Katie’s parents asked me to deliver a presentation about Yahweh’s Name to members of their church. I did it, and unbeknownst to me, one of the attendees was the former pastor of their church. When I finished my presentation, he said, “I wondered about that when I was in seminary.”
I said, “You are a preacher?”
He said, “All of my life.”
“What were you wondering,” I asked.
“As I read the Bible,” he said, “I could see all the things Yahweh said about His Name, but I also knew that we had substituted ‘the LORD’, ‘the LORD God’, and ‘the Lord GOD’ for His Name. I wondered why. Now, I know.”
He was more than 80-years-old at that time. I admired his humility and his honesty. He had spent his entire professional life talking about Yahweh without ever mentioning His Name, even though His Name is the only Name in which we have salvation. That day, he got it. Imagine what might have happened if he had gotten it 60 years earlier.
“And it shall be that everyone who calls on the Name of Yahweh will be saved/delivered.” (Joel 2: 32, Acts 2: 21, and Romans 10: 13)
I’m sick of Easter Sunday services. In reality, it’s a celebration for the fertility goddess Ishtar with a thin veneer that looks like Passover. Easter Sunday is rooted in Catholicism, not Yahweh’s word. Yahweh made clear that we are not supposed to mix the holy with the profane.
“Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.” (Ezekiel 44: 23)
I’m sick of singing Christmas trees and Christmas pageantry. Christmas, too, is rooted in Catholicism, not Yahweh’s word. It coincides with the annual festival for sun god worshipers at the winter solstice. Like Easter, a thin veneer makes it look like a celebration of the Messiah’s birth.
Ironically, Yahweh commanded us to celebrate the Messiah’s death as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. It’s called Passover, but we have dropped Passover and substituted Easter. All the while, we ignore Sukkot completely, a.k.a. the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Booths. It is a mandatory feast, too. The Messiah was born during Sukkot, not Christmas.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim. He was in the beginning with Elohim. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. […] And the Word became flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled or pitched His tent] among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1: 1-5 and John 1: 14)
Ask typical churchgoers what Sukkot is, and you will probably get blank stares. Then ask them about the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Booths. You will get the same reaction. How can that be? The only way to explain it is that preachers are not doing their jobs.
I’m sick of entertainment being substituted for the truth. Paul alluded to this problem almost 2,000 years ago:
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” (2 Timothy 4: 3)
I’m sick of hucksters fleecing the flock. I’m sick and tired of hearing so-called “men of God” urging people to send their money to Jesus, but they give them their own addresses. (See Hank Williams, Jr., The American Dream.)
I’m sick of hearing the name Jesus, since His Name is not and never was Jesus. At birth, He was given the Aramaic name Y’shua, and He told us that He Yahweh. If people don’t know that, they have no business pretending to be His emissaries.
“For a Child will be born to us. A Son will be given to us. The government will rest on His shoulders, and His Name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty El [El Gibbor], Eternal Father [Aviad], Prince of Peace [Sar Shalom].” (Isaiah 9: 6)
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. 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. This is His Name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
“For this reason also, Elohim highly exalted Him [Y’shua the Messiah], and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name [Yahweh], so that at the Name of Y’shua [Yahweh] every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Y’shua the Messiah is Yahweh, to the glory of Elohim the Father.” (Philippians 2: 9-11)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham existed, I AM.” (John 8: 58)
Like I said, I’m sick of playing footsie with preachers. I am also sick of reading Bibles that edit Yahweh’s Name out, thus reducing His Name to naught. That’s a violation of the 3rd Commandment:
“You shall not take the Name of Yahweh your Elohim in vain, for Yahweh will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” (Exodus 20: 7)
Taking Yahweh’s Name in vain means to reduce it to emptiness or to naught. What could be more empty than eradicating Yahweh’s Name entirely?
When Peter said that judgment begins with the church, He wasn’t kidding. Preachers and Christian publishing houses are likely to be the first targets.
“For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of Elohim, and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of Elohim?” (1 Peter 4: 17)
Personally, I hope they are the first targets. Pruning is an important step in increasing crop yield. There is a lot of dead wood in Christendom today. Pruning is necessary.
Some of them will say, “That’s not a Christian perspective.”
People who say that don’t know what they are talking about. This is my response to them: “Hogwash. It’s Yahweh’s perspective. Read Ezekiel 34. Do you think Yahweh has changed His mind about people who claim to be His emissaries but are not?”
Then the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says Adonai Yahweh, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost, but with force and with severity you have dominated them. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.”
Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh: “As I live,” declares Adonai Yahweh, “surely because My flock has become a prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock; therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh: ‘Thus says Adonai Yahweh, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.”’” (Ezekiel 34: 1-10)
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
