This post is regarding the deceitful and destructive methods of Messianic Judaism and the Hebrew Roots movements trying to allure Jews to a new flavor of Christianity. This new flavor is like a chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream cone. Imagine if someone told you that under the chocolate you will have more chocolate ice cream. However, once you bite into the and get past the thin layer of crunchy chocolate you find vanilla. It's not that you hate vanilla, you just don't want vanilla. This is how Messianic Judaism has been luring victims of their deception except the chocolate outside is the Hebrew language and instead of finding the flavor you seek, Judaism, you find what you are not interested in, Christianity. Please see the following videos from Rabbi Ginsburg discussing what is so messy about Messianism. This rabbi discusses the religious treason of Messianism.

...but what about resurrection from the dead?

For any Jew being approached or curious about Christianity please watch this final video:

Q: How do you know what is good?
A: A tool that is used for the purpose it was designed.

Please watch this video with Rabbi Akiva Tatz discussing the spiritual and physical matters of our speech. Your ability to speak is a kind of tool and yet how often do we consider how we use this tool?

Enjoy!

Check out Patrick Aleph's video class from OneShul.org on being Jewish in a world where it feels like we are alone and some suggestions he has!

This documentary brings forth historical evidence and discussion as to the true origins of the entire concept of the Christian Jesus and why the religion was centered in Rome. How did the New Testament come to be?

Rosh Codesh, Happy New Moon and Month to all! Just as the new moon is covered in beauty and mystery so is my hair joyfully covered (most of the time anyway). This month I would like to share a couple more of my tichel looks along with some I've already shown. Enjoy!

Pssstttt....These were all purchased through The Tichel Shop.com.

I posted about the beauty and tradition in choosing to wear a tichel. However, sometimes people feel guilty unnecessarily because they do not want to wear one or some men do not necessarily want their wives to cover. Do they need to feel this guilt or is there another understanding on the mitzvah for the modesty of covering a woman's hair? See this great video and comment on your opinion!

There is a teaching that Jesus was the stumbling block to the Jews and that through this stumbling block the world can be saved because if the Jews did not stumble because of him then they would never had rejected him as their savior hence the need to offer salvation to the rest of the world would not have been needed.

This teaching is another confusing error that encourages people to be stumbling blocks to each other. Let us first look at what a stumbling block is. Do you want to be a stumbling block? Should you worship one?

Since this teaching comes from the Christian writings which were originally written in Greek we will look first to the Greek. Stumbling block is defined in the Strong’s Concordance as (G4625) Skandalon, meaning a trap or snare or equally something that offends.

Stumbling block σκάνδαλον, skandalon, skan'-dal-on
A “scandal”; probably from a derivative of G2578; a trap stick (bent sapling), that is, snare (figuratively cause of displeasure or sin): - occasion to fall (of stumbling), offence, thing that offends, stumbling-block.

The Hebrew word for stumbling block is (H4383) Mikshole means an enticement, obstacle or idol which causes to fall or is an offence. Mikshole is derived from the root word (H3782) Kashal which means to literally stumble and fall down or decay.

Mikshole:  מכשׁל    מכשׁול  , mikshôl  mikshôl, mik-shole', mik-shole'
Masculine from H3782; a stumblingblock, literally or figuratively (obstacle, enticement (specifically an idol), scruple): - caused to fall, offence, X [no-] thing offered, ruin, stumbling-block.

Therefore by the Christians own teaching from their bible their savior is indeed an enticement, obstacle and/or an idol by definition. This is an interesting point to come back to shortly.

Ezekiel 14:3
Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

From the Christian bible:

1 Corinthians 1:23
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

From this verse we see that the Christian savior is a stumbling block to the Jews. Why would their own supposed Messiah who is coming to redeem, restore, and refresh them really come to trick them so that they fall and sin to worship a man? In the verse of Ezekiel 14:3 we see a clear message that idols are a stumbling block and according the Zephaniah 1:3 God will consume all the wickedness including the stumbling blocks.

Zephaniah 1:3
I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith HaShem.

Just as God taught the Isrealites in the wilderness about the Shabbat, then tested them it appears that perhaps God also taught and reprimanded the descendents of the Torah covenant about idolatry and sin then tested them. If indeed this Jesus was the stumbling block to the Jews that is written in the Christian bible then it would be likely that this was a test for the children of Israel whether or not they would stay loyal to God or go after another version of the golden calf as a false representation of God on earth.

Exodus 16:4
Then said HaShem unto Moses: 'Behold, I will cause to rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or not.

“To Prove them” (נסה, nâsâh, naw-saw' - A primitive root; to test) means to test them. God is testing if we do as we are told or not. We know that throughout prophecy punishment is decreed for the Jews who fell into idolatry. For those who remain loyal to God they are given a reward. One example is Jeremiah who has several words to share with us about idolatry and wrong doing.

Jeremiah 7:4 - 10
Trust ye not in lying words, saying: 'The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, are these (4). 'Nay, but if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbour(5);  if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt(6);  then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever (7). 

Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit (8).   Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye have not known (9), and come and stand before Me in this house, whereupon My name is called, and say: 'We are delivered', that ye may do all these abominations (10)?

The people of Israel were even warned about the ways of the nations around them. See if these practices look familiar to you:

Jeremiah 10:1- 4
Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel (1); thus saith the LORD: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them (2). For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for it is but a tree which one cutteth out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe (3). They deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not (4).

You see that there is nothing new in pagan practices of collecting trees and decorating them with silver and gold. The goldsmiths and wood workers of today make the idols of “saints”, crucifixes and crosses for worship by the millions of Christians around the world. These crosses are sun signs that were worshiped long before Christianity. One example is the Egyptian Ankh or the Babylonian sign of Ba’al (which is like the St. George’s cross).

Jeremiah 10:12 – 15
He that hath made the earth by His power, that hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His understanding (12);  At the sound of His giving a multitude of waters in the heavens, when He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; when He maketh lightnings with the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasuries (13); Every man is proved to be brutish, without knowledge, every goldsmith is put to shame by the graven image, his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them (14). They are vanity, a work of delusion; in the time of their visitation they shall perish (15).

The worship of idols and breaking the commandments of God are certainly offensive to the Etnernal one. Certainly, someone who says that you have to believe in a man that has died and his blood must be symbolically drank and his flesh symbolically eaten for forgiveness of sin is not walking in truth for this contradicts Torah. If someone says to you that no longer do you have a direct connection to God but now must go through the name and image of a man that was crucified does not speak wisdom to a son or daughter of the commandments.

Ezekiel 8:14
Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.

The story and practice of weeping for Tammuz encircles the mourning of a god that dies around the time of March to April as an agricultural fertility god. The practice of weeping and mourning for this dying god is thought to have protected them from future disaster. Part of this pagan ritual was to pour drink offering of wine and eat cakes much like the Easter service where the death of Jesus is mourned and wine and bread are consumed during the time of March to April.

Paul never met Jesus in person yet he writes against keeping the Torah and writes against the Jews who do not believe in this idol myth that is being sold. The religion of Christianity is full of practices and lore that comes from many influences including Judaism. Yet they claim that their savior is the necessary stumbling block for salvation of the world. Paul writes in the book of Romans about the issue of Jesus being a stumbling block to the "blind Jews" of the time. However, is his writing accurate?

Romans 11:9-11
And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, And a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them:  Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow thou down their back always.  I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

This verse tries to establish the rejection of the Christian idol as parallel to David’s Psalm 69:22-23 where it says, “Let their table before them become a snare; And when they are in peace, let it become a trap.  Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; And make their loins continually to shake.” So Paul is cherry picking this verse and appointing it to those who have discernment enough to know that this golden calf is not the Almighty. However, if we look at the entire psalm, or even just a few verses before this one referenced we will see clearly that “they” means David’s enemies! Not Jews who reject a man-deity idol of the future.

Finally, the last nail in the coffin of the argument that Jesus was deified and raised to the height and equality of God Himself is found in the concept of Lucifer. I believe this verse directly predicts what has happened with Christianity:

Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star [Lucifer], son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
Isaiah 14:13 And thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;
Isaiah 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
Isaiah 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit.

You will need to know what ‘day star’ means and how it was interpreted in Christianity. The New Testament writers interpreted this word as Lucifer in their Old Testament which comes from the Greek word of light. The word from the Strong’s Concordance is:

הילל , hêylêl, hay-lale'
From H1984 (in the sense of brightness); the morning star: - Lucifer.

You can easily see the morning star definition and a quick search in an encyclopedia will confirm this is in reference directly to this verse. Now look carefully at the verse and how it states that Lucifer will ascend to heaven and put its throne above the stars of God and upon a congregation and make himself like the Most High. Interestingly, the New Testament writers have told Christians to look forward to the day that the Morning Star arises in their hearts.

There are two places which confess that Jesus is Lucifer. The first is Revelation 22:16 “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star.

The strange thing here is that in Revelation 22:16 the same word is not used as is found in 2 Peter 1:19. Rather in the statement apparently from Jesus it provides three different words for bright morning star.

Bright: λαμπρός,  lampros, lam-pros' -  figuratively magnificent or sumptuous (in appearance)

Morning: ὀρθρινός,  orthrinos, or-thrin-os' - From G3722; relating to the dawn, that is, matutinal (as an epithet of Venus, especially brilliant in the early day): - morning.

Star: ἀστήρ, astēr, as-tare' - Probably from the base of G4766; a star (as strown over the sky), literally or figuratively: - star.

The second place is 2 Peter 1:19  “And we have the word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts”. Do they refer to the same thing in 2 Peter when they write “day star”?

The Greek word here is: φωσφόρος,  phōsphoros, foce-for'-os
From G5457 and G5342; light bearing (“phosphorus”), that is, (specifically) the morning star (figuratively): - day star.

When we see the three words from revelation, we see "magnificent looking" "Venus" "star" and it makes one wonder why they used this wording here and the word phophoros which means morning day star in 2 Peter 1:19. Either way, we know that God is not a man, a star, a sun, or the moon!

Yes, both of these places confirm that the faith of Christianity is based on a stumbling block of idolatry as prophesied in 14 of the one who would raise himself to the heights of the Most High. It is a stumbling block indeed; one that raises the image and name of a man to the heights of the Holy One and then turn our Eternal One into a pagan trinity of three with the worship of of images, statues, and idols of all sorts. The protestant reformation delivered an even greater blow to humanity in that they destroyed all requirements to live by the commandments of God thinking that they are “saved by grace alone” and therefore a magical occurrence happens when one calls on the morning star they call Jesus but truly is the stumbling block Lucifer that they believe they are now written in the book of life and will now have eternal life and all sin past, present, and future is erased. Lastly, the name of Jesus comes from the Greek Goddess of Ieso/Iaso. During the time of Hellenization in Israel by the Greeks, many Jews were Hellenized and took Greek names. Joshua was transformed to Jason which comes from Iaso and Jesus was an alternative form Ieso. Therefore when people are praying to Jesus they are praying to a masculine form of the Greek goddess of healing.

Therefore, you can now see clearly that the worship of Jesus is truly a stumbling block, admitted by the New Testament writers with an additional admission that Jesus is Lucifer that challenges God Himself for His High position. This stumbling block is established as an idol that was mostly likely prophesied about and there will be a separation of those who remain loyal to the One True God versus those who worship idols, or bright shiny blocks of stumbling.