Come! Let Us Reason Together!
In Yashayah 1:18, (Yashayah means "Yah Has Saved", but English Bibles deliberately misrepresent it as "Isaiah"), Yahowah invites us to walk along with Him and reason things through. Conversely, our adversary and his servants—government leaders, religious clerics, and their partners—threaten those who persistently question them, anyone who relentlessly seeks to apply reason to their religious doctrines.
Who is this adversary to whom I refer? He is the Lord. Remember, "the Lord" is simply a Hebrew title, ha ba'al, translated into English. The LORD is Satan, the adversary. His real name is halal ben shakar, or "Arrogant Son of the Morning Star", and he is ha Ba'al, the Lord mentioned throughout the Teachings, Prophets, and Writings (inaccurately and inappropriately called the "Old Testament").
Yahowah offers joyous freedom; the Lord offers harsh enslavement to man's religious and political systems.
Yahowah offers life everlasting. Halal ben Shakar, a condemned being, wants every one of us to share in the punishment he has brought on himself through his presumptuous and arrogant rebellion. And I have no doubt that he really likes it when he persuades someone to worship him as the Most High while they're trudging to their own destruction under the weight of his religious rules and regulations. Sadly, he really is the god of every religion in the world, and he has cunningly deceived his followers, blinding them, keeping them from discerning his true identity. And he has millions, if not actual billions, of people calling on his most famous title, "the Lord", every day and night.
Those who serve halal ben shakar as religious leaders swell themselves up, spread wide their arms, and declare importantly that they bring to us the Word of God, just as Zedkiyah and the other priests of the Lord did in the days of King Ahab (See 1 Kings 22). They preach that we must bow down and worship the Lord, proclaiming that he demands and cherishes our worship. According to them, we are but filth in his sight. They insist that we obey his alleged rules as they have explained them to us and perform the rituals they command us to perform, claiming as their authority their preferred man-made or copy-edited writings. Moreover, they swear that God commands us to support them. So we are told to pay them a salary whereby they might live comfortably as executives for the kingdom of God, regardless of our own living conditions. The Roman Catholic vermin who infest the Vatican are especially adept at this, but the pastors of Christianity's major denominations are not far behind them in their unbridled greed.
"God" in this case could refer to that nameless god of Judaism and Christianity, or to Allah, or Buddha, or Krishna or one of the other 33 million gods of Hinduism, or to this cow, or that monkey, or whatever. The please-everybody-no-matter-what evangelists for the religion of Alcoholics Anonymous (and their 12-stepping offshoots) will even tell you that your own personal God, aka your Higher Power, can be whatever you want it/him/her to be. They will tell you that the road into "the Spirit Realm" is a "Broad Highway" open to everyone. See their chapter, "We Agnostics", in their "Big Book".
Yahowsha spoke of a broad highway, if I recall correctly. He said it leads to destruction and declared that many would follow it to their doom. He also asked a piercing question. "What will it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his own soul?" So, what good will it do you to gain total sobriety if you lose our own soul in the process? Way to go, AA enthusiast! Please pick up your subpoena at the door: the Judge is waiting for you.
Yahowah, unlike politicians and religious leaders, reaches out harmlessly, smiling warmly, without guile, and says with unearthly gentleness, "Take My hand and walk with Me. We will be walking away from the religious and political systems of your fathers. Place My yoke upon yourself, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart. You will find My yoke to be easy and My burden to be light. Walk with me, and you will find rest for your soul, and I will give you life that never ends. I will remove your sins and will not let Myself remember them ever again. I will gently wipe every tear from your eyes. I will adopt you as My own and give you my Family Name. And when your time on earth is complete, I'll change you into a form that allows you to live safely with me as my very own child."
Hard choice, huh.
"Come! Let us reason together!" Seems reasonable to me to talk all this over with my Creator. How about you? You have an open invitation from Yahowah Himself to find Him through His Word. Will you accept that invitation and engage with Him on His terms?
How Great A Love!
1 Yah is Merciful / 1 Yaochanan / 1 John 3:1-2 (see note below)
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of Yahowah! And such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Yaochanan tells us that the world does not know us because it does not know Yahowah. The world does not know Him. Let the full impact of that truth sink into your consciousness. He isn't inside you and me. He isn't everywhere and He doesn't know everything. He doesn't love everybody. In fact, He declares unequivocally that there are some He actively hates. Those ideas about His omnipresence, omniscience, and all-inclusive love spring from religious myth. This isn't about doing "good", or building orphanages, or spearheading a food relief operation. It's about knowing our God as intimately as possible in complete compliance to His written instructions. Yahowsha tells us this about His Way which leads to Life: "Few there be that find it." The millions and billions of religious people are more than a few, and Yahowsha says they're not going to find it. Instead, they will either be annihilated at the moment of their death, or else they will hear Him tell them, "Depart from me, you workers of Towrahlessness. I never knew you," just before they are forever incarcerated in a pitch-black, soundproof isolation chamber in the universe's garbage bin known as Sheol.
We can most certainly get to know Him, though, if we are willing to invest the time and effort to dig out the truth. That truth is buried beneath crusted layers of religious deception and corruption. It's there; we just have to care enough about Yahowah and His Word to actually dig it out and clean all the crap off of it. And that is just how Yahowah wants it to be.
Yah is Giving Us a Gift / Mattanyah / Matthew 7:7
"Ask, and keep on asking, and it will be given to you;
seek, and keep on seeking, and you will find;
knock, and keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you."
We've got to want it.
Yah Lifts Up / Yirmeyah / Jeremiah 20:13
"You will search for Me,
and you will find Me,
when you search for Me
with all your heart."
We will find Him when we search for Him with all our hearts. We have His Word on it. It's all or nothing. And we have His promise that He will let us find Him. So the question is, do you really want to find Him? Then prove it: find Him!
If we don't care enough about Him
to get to know Him through His Word,
then He won't care enough about us to adopt us into His Family.
On the other hand,
if we love Him,
if we hunger and thirst
for a relationship with Him
enough to actually open our hearts and minds
to His Teachings, Prophets, and Writings,
then He will enthusiastically let us find Him,
and He will sweep us into His arms with shouts of joy.
And that is totally fair and appropriate.
Would you welcome into your home an impenitent felon who insists that he doesn't have to abide by your house rules, who refuses to acknowledge or use your name, and whose every action declares his view that you only exist for him to be able to use up your resources to satisfy his personal lusts? Of course not! And neither will Yahowah. Do not let yourself be deceived into believing otherwise.
As Ian Anderson sang, "He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sunday!" ["Wind Up"] And contrary to Christian myth, He is not a supernatural vending machine which produces whatever you want Him to if you are saavy enough to use a magical token imprinted with the words "In the Name of Jesus".
Do you want to know Him enough to turn off your electronics and look for Him in His Teaching, Prophets, and Writings? Are you willing to engage with Him one-on-One, eye-to-Eye? He has invited us to approach Him, and He said nothing about waiting until we consider ourselves cleaned up enough to be worthy. So we know that He isn't going to take offense at our boldness. He is going to welcome us. Will you come to Him?
Next: Where Does One Start?
= יהוה = ee-ah-oh-ah = Yahowah
Song / Mizmor / Psalm 19:7
Yahowah's Towrah is complete and entirely perfect, returning and restoring the soul. Yahowah's testimony is trustworthy and
reliable, making understanding and obtaining wisdom simple for the open-minded and receptive.
Yahowah's (
- יהוה) Towrah (torah — teaching, guidance, direction, and instruction) is complete and entirely
perfect (tamym — without defect, lacking nothing, correct, genuine, right, helpful,
beneficial, and true), returning and restoring (suwb —
transforming) the soul (nepesh — consciousness). Yahowah's testimony ('eduwth — restoring and eternal witness) is trustworthy and reliable ('aman — verifiable, confirming, supportive,
and establishing), making understanding and obtaining wisdom (hakam
— educating and enlightening oneself to the point of comprehension) simple for the open-minded and
receptive (pethy — easy for those who are receptive).
Footnotes:
The Death of Ahab
1 Kings / 1 Melekim / 1 Kings 22:1-40
They continued three years without war between Syria and Isra'el. It happened in the third year that Yehoshaphat, the king of Yahudah, came down to the king of Isra'el.
The king of Isra'el said to his servants, "You know that Ramoth Gilead is ours, and we are still, and don't take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?"
To Yehoshaphat he said, "Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead?"
Yehoshaphat said to the king of Isra'el, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.
Please inquire first for the word of Yahowah."
Then the king of Isra'el gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, "Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?"
They said, "Go up! For the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king!"
But Yehoshaphat said, "Isn't there here a prophet of Yahowah, that we may inquire of him?"
The king of Isra'el said to Yehoshaphat, "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahowah, Mikayah the son of Imlah. But I hate him, for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil."
Yehoshaphat said, "This is a king speaking?"
Then the king of Isra'el called an officer, and said, "Quickly! Fetch Mikayah, Imlah's son."
Now the king of Isra'el and Yehoshaphat, the king of Yahudah, were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.
Zidkiyah the son of Kina'anah made horns of iron for himself, and said, "Thus says Yahowah, 'With these you shall push the Syrians, until they are consumed.' " All the prophets prophesied the same way, saying, "Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and prosper! For Yahowah will deliver it into the hand of the king!"
The messenger who went to call Mikayah spoke to him, saying, "Now look, the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak good."
Mikayah said, "As Yahowah lives, what Yahowah says to me, that I will speak."
When he had come to the king, the king said to him, "Mikayah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?"
He answered him, "Go up and prosper! Yahowah will deliver it into the hand of the king!"
The king said to him, "How many times do I have to adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the Name of Yahowah?"
He [Mikayah] said, "I saw all Isra'el scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. Yahowah said, 'These have no master. Let them each return to his house in peace.' "
The king of Isra'el said to Yehoshaphat, "Didn't I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?"
Mikayah said, "Therefore, hear the word of Yahowah!
"I saw Yahowah sitting on His throne, and all the army of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on His left. Yahowah said, 'Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?'
"One said one thing, and another said another. A spirit came out and stood before Yahowah, and said, 'I will entice him.'
"Yahowah said to him, 'How?'
"He said, 'I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.'
"He [Yahowah] said, 'You will entice him, and you will also prevail. Go out and do so.'
"Now therefore, behold, Yahowah has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets: Yahowah has spoken evil concerning you!"
Then Zidkiyah the son of Kina'anah came near, and struck Mikayah on the cheek, and said, "Which way did the Spirit of Yahowah go from me to speak to you?"
Mikayah said, "Behold, you will see on that day, when you go into an inner room to hide yourself."
The king of Isra'el said, "Take Mikayah, and carry him back to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Yoash, the king's son. Say, 'Thus says the king, "Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread and water of affliction, until I come in peace." ' "
Mikayah said, "If you return at all in peace, Yahowah has not spoken by me. Listen, all you people!"
So the king of Isra'el and Yehoshaphat, the king of Yahudah, went up to Ramoth Gilead. The king of Isra'el said to Yehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but you put on your robes."
The king of Isra'el disguised himself, and went into the battle.
Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, "Fight neither with small nor great, except
only with the king of Isra'el."
It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw Yehoshaphat, that they said, "Surely that is the king of Isra'el!" And they turned aside to fight against him. Yehoshaphat cried out. It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Isra'el, that they turned back from pursuing him.
A certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Isra'el between the joints of the armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, "Turn your hand and carry me out of the battle, for I am severely wounded."
The battle increased that day. The king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot. A cry went throughout the army about the going down of the sun, saying, "Every man to his city, and every man to his country!"
So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, where the prostitutes washed themselves, and the dogs licked up his blood according to the word of Yahowah which He spoke.
Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Isra'el? So Ahab slept with his fathers, and his son, Ahazyahu, reigned in his place.
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Yahowah's prophecy regarding the death of Ahab
1 Kings / Melekim / Kings 21:16-19
It happened, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Isra'elite, to take possession of it.
The word of Yahowah came to Eliyah the Tishbite, saying, "Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Isra'el, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says Yahowah, "Have you killed and also taken possession? In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours." ' "
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Yah is Merciful / Yaochanan / John
Yaochanan was the special envoy known as the Beloved, "the apprentice that Yahowsha loved." Yaochanan means "Yah is merciful." We English-speaking people erroneously substitute John for the name Yaochanan, causing the name's precious meaning to be hidden from us. There are many of the Hebrew names in the Scriptures which included "Yah", a common abbreviation of the Creator's Name. Examples include names in our English "Bibles" ending in "iah" (Isaiah, or Yashayah, "Salvation is of Yah") and "jah" (Elijah, or Eliyah, "God is Yah"). There are more, and I encourage you to look them up.
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