Judaism teaches that the idea of a man being God—especially the man Yeshua—is in total conflict with the Hebrew Scriptures. Indeed, so staunchly is this believed that the translators of the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh (JPS) seemingly went to some lengths to reinterpret specific Scriptures, obscuring the plain sense that would otherwise overtly hint at a Messiah who is, in fact, God.
Read more
In today’s abortion debate, one side maintains that abortion is wrong because killing a baby (at any stage of life) is murder, which the Bible clearly condemns (Ex. 20:13, De. 5:17). The other side, however, argues that abortion is not murder since an unborn baby is not a person, but nothing more than a clump of cells, a parasite, or a tumor. While Scripture has nothing to say whatsoever on the topic of elective abortion, God’s word does teach us whether an unborn baby has any value, and, more than that, whether God considers it a person. It is this instruction that we can then apply to the subject of abortion.
Communion is one of the main sacramental rites of Christianity, believed to have been instituted by Yeshua Himself at His last supper. But when the Master said to His disciples that the bread is “My body” and that the cup is “the New Covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:19), was He really initiating a new ordinance for believers? What did He actually mean? The context gives us our answer.
“Therefore, pray this way:
‘Our Father who is in the Heavens!
Set apart is Your Name.
Your Reign come: Your will come into being, as it is in Heaven, also on earth.
Our apportioned bread, give us today.
And forgive us our debts of wrongdoing, as we also have forgiven those owing a debt to us because of wrongdoing.
And may You not lead us to testing through temptation, but deliver us from the evil.’ ”מַתִּתְיָהוּ Matit’yahu 6:9-13, mjlt
Q: Hello, I am wondering about the Pope’s changing of the part in the Lord’s prayer concerning “lead us not into temptation” to “do not let us fall into temptation.” Is he correct? Thank you. Read more
Answer this to yourself right now—don’t think too hard about it, just give the first answer that pops into your head: True, or false? The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy.
If you said, “true,” it’s probably because you know by heart what the Master says in John 10:10, and what you’ve heard (or taught) a thousand times from the pulpit, “the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy.” Unfortunately, there’s just one tiny, little problem…
That’s not what it says. At all.
I say, then, did Israel stumble so that they might fall? Let it not be! …For I speak to you—to the Goyim [Gentiles]—inasmuch as I am indeed an emissary of Goyim: …if Israel’s rejection is a reconciliation of the world, what will their reception be if not life out of the dead? And if the first-fruit from the dough is holy, then the whole batch is also; and if the root is holy, then the branches are also. But if certain ones of the branches were broken off, and you [Goyim], being of a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and became a fellow-sharer of the root and of the richness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not carry the root, but the root carries you! (Romans 11:11-18)
The internal conflict between Jewish and Gentile believers in the Body of Messiah is an ancient one. Almost from the beginning, Jews and Gentiles were mistreating one another within their new, ethnically-diverse, spiritual communities. This was exactly the issue Paul was dealing with in his letter to the believing community in Rome—to correct the arrogance and judgmentalism that had infected and separated the believers along ethnic lines. Read more
Excerpted from the Messianic Torah Devotional by Kevin Geoffrey.
“Rather, we have known that the Torah is good, provided one uses it lawfully….” 1Timothy 1:8
One of the major criticisms levied against the Messianic Jewish movement is that it allegedly causes believers to go back “under the Law.” Unfortunately, while much of our purported Torah observance is barely more than a superficial emulation of rabbinic Judaism, the accusation is not far from reality in some circumstances. Indeed, as the more militant among our ranks swing to the extreme with their versions of Torah observance, it becomes the very legalism they vehemently swear to oppose. The practices and propaganda of many independents, fringe elements, and those in pseudo-Messianic movements have also been cause for alarm within the larger Body of Messiah. Therefore, restoring the Torah to its proper context ought to be of paramount concern for the Messianic Jewish movement. Read more
When it comes to proving the existence of God and the truthfulness of His Word, it’s easy to come up short. As believers in Yeshua, we often present subjective or debatable evidence, such as personal experience, miracles, and fulfillment of Bible prophecy. But demonstrations of power and foreknowledge aren’t necessarily measures of truthfulness. Rather, we trust what someone says when we believe he is true to his word… when we believe he will keep all his promises. So why should we trust that God’s Word is true, that He exists, and that He is who He says He is? Because He has faithfully kept one objective, verifiable, and undebatable promise: Adonai has continued to preserve the Remnant of Israel from antiquity; He endures as the eternal guardian of the Jewish People. Read more
At the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East is a fundamental, socio-religious ideology that says Jews should not exist—anytime or anywhere—much less as occupants of the land presently known as the modern State of Israel. As a result, the Israeli State faces a constant and seemingly imminent threat to her national sovereignty and safety: Palestinian rockets and mortar shells launched almost daily toward Israeli territory; powerful Arab leaders with potential nuclear capabilities calling for the annihilation of the “Zionist regime;” escalating, internal conflicts within neighboring countries threatening to destabilize the entire region; the nations of the world continually demonizing every attempt made by the State of Israel to defend against her aggressors. Confronted by such contempt and antagonism, the government nevertheless tries to negotiate land for peace, with an Israeli/Palestinian two-state solution looming as inevitable. Yet the real and growing danger hanging over the State of Israel endures. Read more
The authority and power of the Scriptures rests solely on our belief that they are literally the written word of God. So what happens when we translate those God-inspired words from the languages in which they were originally written? Indeed, though many of us read the Bible effortlessly in our native English, English is certainly not the native tongue of Scripture. Though we may revere our English bibles as the infallible word of God, the fact is that Hebrew (or sometimes Aramaic, and Greek in the “New Testament”) is the original language of Scripture, and when we neglect it, we risk imposing our own flawed points of view on God’s word.
Though in large part, translators do a fine job retaining the essence of Scripture, there are times when English simply does not do a passage justice. Either through mistranslation due to bias or ignorance, or merely by the limitations of the receiving language, important details can become obscured, replaced by ideas from the reader’s experience or particular frame of reference. Read more
Join our mailing list to receive the free Perfect Word enews, and our monthly teaching newsletter.