EliYah:
- All right, I believe we have Brother Curtis on the line, if I could switch over here. Are you there, brother?
Curtis:
- Yes. HalleluYah.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. How are you doing, brother?
Curtis' Family:
- Shabbat Shalom!
EliYah:
- Wow! Sounds like you are in an echo chamber.
Curtis:
- Well, yeah. Here in Latin America, everything is built with tile.
EliYah:
- Okay.
Curtis:
- Tile and cement keeps things nice and cool in the summer and kind of cool in the winter. Yeah.
EliYah:
- Tell us where you're calling from. Where in Latin America are you?
Curtis:
- We're in Puerto Rico.
EliYah:
- Puerto Rico.
Curtis:
- In the Caribbean.
EliYah:
- Very well. Well, that was a great Shabbat Shalom, and Shabbat Shalom to all of you. I'm sure the weather is just a little bit warmer down there, huh?
Curtis:
- It's actually not. It's about 83-84 degrees Fahrenheit.
EliYah:
- Well, that's not bad. That's the temperature right now here in Missouri, so that's not too bad.
Curtis:
- Yeah, it stays real breezy. With the water all around, it stays kind of cool.
EliYah:
- Okay, well, that makes sense.
Curtis:
- Kind of similar to South Florida. As long as I lived in South Florida, I never understood when the weather people would use Miami as an example of hot weather in the summer.
- It was hardly ever over 90, and places like Minnesota and Maine were at 105, and Miami, with the water all around, the Gulf on one side and the Everglades, and the Atlantic on the other side, it was always around 85 degrees with a good breeze.
- Once you get away, it gets really still, and there's no wind, then it starts heating up, and the ground seems to hold the heat really well. Yahweh has brought us down here.
- I think quite a bit of what you're speaking about today is part of our challenges of loving, what you started out the study with. Correcting in love and whatnot is very difficult, of course, with your own family and other people.
- We can't talk a whole lot about it, because we were brought down here to do one of the things we do. Our main focus is Yahweh, and fellowship, and team building with education. It's facilitating and motivating togetherness and excellence. That's what education means to us.
- In dealing with the people who brought us down here to do some of those activities, dealing in the business world and Yahweh, it's very challenging.
- We've told them several times today is Shabbat. In this place, they speak both. Everybody speaks English, as well as Spanish. Today is Sabado, which means Sabbath. That's what they call today, Sabbath.
EliYah:
- Right.
Curtis:
- So he's tried to get in touch with us about ten times to find out what's going on, what we need in preparing for our work and whatnot. We didn't even answer the phone. We told him a long time ago, we don't do anything with that on the seventh day, on Sabado.
- It's kind of challenging. In love, you have to consider that they just don't get it. They don't seem to get it, and some of them never will. Without compromising the ways of Yahweh, we still have to love and correct and not waver ourselves or be influenced, or pushed, or drawn away, or anything.
EliYah:
- Our first priority in our life is that we love Yahweh and keep His commands. If someone gets upset because we're doing that, we can't let that influence us or draw us away or compromise.
- A lot of people will say, for instance, in using the sacred name, for instance, or using the Savior's name, they might say Jesus, or the Lord, or something like that, and they say, "I have to say that when I'm talking to the people of the world, or they won't know what I'm talking about, and it'll be a distraction to me being able to teach them the thing I'm trying to teach them."
- I've been using the name Yahweh since I was eight years old, and the last 19 years or so, as a believer, and I've never had a problem using the name Yahweh to an unbeliever, or to a Christian, or to anyone. It's never given me a bit of trouble.
- In fact, we got invited a few weeks ago to teach at the local church just up the hill from us. I did the whole message in Yahweh's name, and it was a Baptist church. I didn't have a single problem.
- It's just interesting that sometimes we come up with these ghost problems, where we think bad things are going to happen if we do what Yahweh commands us to do.
- The truth is we need to live and walk out our conviction, and Yahweh can work within that. If we were to be using the Lord all this time, and all of a sudden we tell someone we should really use the name Yahweh, then they look at our example and say, "You don't do it."
- How can they really understand how important it is unless we practice it ourselves?
Curtis:
- Exactly, yeah.
EliYah:
- And the same with the Sabbath. If we start compromising and saying, "Well, yeah, I would keep Sabbath, but my boss said I'm not allowed to today," then that communicates how important the Sabbath is to the world, which means if some man tells us we need to break it, we should go ahead and do it.
- We need to let our first priority and first responsibility be to what Yahweh commands us to do. That will be the light all men need to be drawn to.
Curtis:
- Yeah. HalleluYah. A brother and I were talking about an issue--if you make it an issue--of head covering. He said, "Curtis, you can't encourage something like that if you're not doing what you're supposed to do. You're still shaving."
- I said, "Well, no, actually I'm not. I quit shaving." He said, "Oh, okay, well, that's different. You encourage your wife to do this, that, and the other, but you're still shaving and whatnot."
- Those are issues that come up. Like you said earlier, there are some things that people don't like that is in scripture. Finally, with that issue, I said there's lots of verses, but Yahweh is the most logical in the universe.
- You can always say, why would Yahweh create men to grow hair on their face, but you want to shave it all the time? Wouldn't He just have created him with a clean face? What's it there for? I don't know what it's there for, but that's the way He created us.
- But anyway, the point was to encourage and expect and ask and want things done of the ways of Yahweh and not really doing all that I could do and that I know.
- That's all He expects us to do. He's merciful if you don't know or realize. Once you realize and you have even a little inkling of a feeling of something you're supposed to do, making excuses and compromising and figuring out how you can get out of it, Yahweh knows. He knows your heart.
EliYah:
- Right. That's it. He does know our heart. That can be good, or that can be bad.
Curtis:
- It's all good. That's all good.
EliYah:
- Good for us or bad for us, depending on the condition of it.
Curtis:
- Yeah, depending on the condition of our heart. Yeah, it could be bad, and we really have to work on it. We have to sit down and ask and listen. What is it with me? Even the worldly people will tell you, that's all you can really deal with or change anyway.
- It's so funny, because all the psychologist, psychiatrist, the mental worldly realms, they'll all tell you that's all you can change anyway. If you want to deal with problems, you can only just really deal with yourself.
- That's the same thing Yahweh says. That's where that comes from. All goodness and all wisdom comes from Yahweh, true wisdom. That's all we can deal with anyway. We can't do much of anything for other people, except be an example, which, once again, is right back in our own self, our own being.
EliYah:
- Right.
Curtis:
- We don't want to take up too much time here, hopefully have some other people call in and share. I asked long ago if anyone wanted to read some things, and maybe we're going to sing a song, and then encourage other people to share.
- I know there's a lot of people in the chat room that are new to the chat room and study. That's good and encouraging. We'd like for some of them to be able to call in and share.
- [Music Ministry by Curtis Family: "Shine, Yahushua, Shine"]
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. That's a good song. We like that one.
Sunny:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom. And who's this?
Sunny:
- Sunny.
EliYah:
- It's Sunny. All right. I think my daughter got a letter from you this week.
Sunny:
- Yep.
EliYah:
- That was very nice. Do you have something you'd like to share with everyone?
Sunny:
- Yes. Tehillim 129.
EliYah:
- All right, ready when you are.
Sunny:
- Okay.
Psalms 129:1 - <> "Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth," Let Israel now say --
Psalms 129:2 - "Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth; Yet they have not prevailed against me.
Psalms 129:3 - The plowers plowed on my back; They made their furrows long."
Psalms 129:4 - YAHWEH [is] righteous; He has cut in pieces the cords of the wicked.
Psalms 129:5 - Let all those who hate Zion Be put to shame and turned back.
Psalms 129:6 - Let them be as the grass [on] the housetops, Which withers before it grows up,
Psalms 129:7 - With which the reaper does not fill his hand, Nor he who binds sheaves, his arms.
Psalms 129:8 - Neither let those who pass by them say, "The blessing of YAHWEH [be] upon you; We bless you in the name of YAHWEH!"
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. Very good Psalm. We appreciate you sharing that. HalleluYah.
Sunny:
- HalleluYah.
EliYah:
- Anybody else want to share?
Sunny:
- Yes. Here's Ally. Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom.
Ally:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom. Is this Ally?
Ally:
- Yes.
EliYah:
- It sounded like you. How are you doing?
Ally:
- Good.
EliYah:
- Good. Do you have something you'd like to share with us?
Ally:
- Yes.
EliYah:
- All right, we're ready when you are.
Ally:
- Tehillim 134.
EliYah:
- 124.
Ally:
Psalms 134:1 - <> Behold, bless YAHWEH, All [you] servants of YAHWEH, Who by night stand in the house of YAHWEH!
Psalms 134:2 - Lift up your hands [in] the sanctuary, And bless YAHWEH.
Psalms 134:3 - YAHWEH who made heaven and earth Bless you from Zion!
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. Yes, I believe that's a song we sing. Do you ever sing that song?
Ally:
- Mm-hm.
EliYah:
- Yeah, I believe we sing that one quite a bit. We appreciate you sharing. Anybody else want to come to the phone?
Ally:
- No.
EliYah:
- Okay. All right, well, Yahweh bless you and all who are there. Have a great Sabbath.
Ally:
- Here's my dad.
EliYah:
- All right.
Curtis:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom, brother. You all have a great Shabbat.
Curtis:
- Thank you. We enjoyed the study very much. Love you all.
EliYah:
- Love you all. HalleluYah. I believe we have somebody on line two. I believe it's Brother RJ from Ohio. Shabbat Shalom.
RJ:
- Shabbat Shalom, everybody!
EliYah:
- HalleluYah.
RJ:
- And if anybody doesn't know, in the chat room, my name is Bemidbar, but my name is RJ. I'm not a ghost in the room. How's it going?
EliYah:
- We're doing great. Very good to have you call in. You've been coming in for two or three weeks now, maybe a month.
RJ:
- About a month. It's been more than a month, because I got immersed on the 6th, which is a month from tomorrow, I think.
EliYah:
- My goodness. Has it been that long?
RJ:
- Yeah, it has. It's been a good month.
EliYah:
- What in the world happened to the last four weeks?
RJ:
- I don't know, but I'm glad they're gone.
EliYah:
- Well, we're glad you're with us.
RJ:
- I think I've been coming in about maybe two months. I think about two months ago I came in. I was just wondering about what that person said in the room about the new moon. They said some people count off from a new moon and that Saturday isn't really Shabbat, but it's from new moon to the seventh day.
- Also, I just wanted to say Shabbat Shalom to everybody. I don't have a shofar, except an mp3 to play.
EliYah:
- Well, that would be close. That would be very close.
RJ:
- If you could answer that, I've never heard of that before, so I don't know anything about what they're talking about or what scripture they're talking about.
EliYah:
- Well, there is something out there you'll eventually come across called the lunar sabbath. The lunar sabbath is a doctrine which believes the weeks are determined by the moon. The way they do it is the first day of the new moon would be considered the new moon day, and then the day that follows the new moon would be considered the first day of the week.
RJ:
- And then they count off to the seventh.
EliYah:
- And then on the eighth day of the month, they consider that to be the seventh day of the week. So they go from the 8th, to the 15th, and the 22nd, and the 29th all being Sabbath days.
RJ:
- What scripture is that based on?
EliYah:
- I'll explain here in just a minute. Then, for those who don't know what this is, I want to explain a little bit.
- Then they run into at the end of the month, they either have--because there's always 29 or 30 days, so they end up having Sabbath on the 29th, on the 30th, and they believe the new moon day is also a day of rest, although some believe you only have to refrain from commerce on that day.
- What ends up happening is you end up having to rest three days, and sometimes you have to work eight days, depending on how many days are in that lunar month.
- You don't really follow the principle written in scripture of six days you shall work, and the seventh day you shall rest.
- The primary thing they use to support their belief, the strongest point they have is found in Psalm 104:19. In that scripture, it says:
Psalms 104:19 - He appointed the moon for seasons; The sun knows its going down.- The word "seasons" in Hebrew is called moade or moadim, the plural version of moade. On the surface, it sounds like fairly sound logic. They say the moon is for moadim, and there's a place in scripture that says that the regular Sabbath is called a moadim or moade.
RJ:
- Yeah, there's different Shabbats throughout the year that are different from the weekly one. It talks about that in Leviticus. I've never heard of or read anywhere, except in that scripture.
- Even in the New Testament books, you never hear of the moon being on this day, so the disciples did whatever.
- I figured if it was something I was supposed to be doing, I would have heard about it by now or read about it. That makes sense, if it's just one scripture, how some people could see it that way.
- It does say to work six days and then rest on the seventh.
EliYah:
- Right.
RJ:
- It does say there's other Shabbats.
EliYah:
- There is a tremendous amount of historical evidence. For instance, there are historians like Josephus, which talks about the weekly Sabbath as reoccurring. Actually, Roman historians, when they were saying the Jews kept the Sabbath, they tied it into the day they called Saturday, which was the way they kept weeks, reoccurring weeks every seven days.
- They referred to the seventh day as Saturday. This was a first century witness, several of them. They referred to the Sabbath as being Saturday. Of course, we know today the Roman calendar that was instituted by Caesar, 46 BC, if I'm not mistaken, the modern day calendar was instituted.
RJ:
- I haven't actually done any research on first century, but I know for a fact there's historians like Socrates and others around when Sundays were instituted by Constantine in 324 AD, I think it was.
- Anybody who's listening right now, just so you know, you can Google all this stuff.
- As far as Shabbat goes, it's pretty much a historical fact that up until about the fourth century, Shabbat was on Saturday. If anybody is curious, you can look it up.
- That's a first century witness that you're talking about?
EliYah:
- Yeah, first century historians. For instance, Frontanus, a Roman soldier, who lived from 40 AD to 103 AD, he said that the Jews in 70 AD, he was there, were attacked on the day of Saturn, which was a day that was sinful for them to do any business. Of course, the day of Saturn is where we get Saturday.
- He tied in the regular Sabbath with their Roman Saturday, which that weekly count has been unchanged since the time it began when he instituted that calendar.
- There are other historians between 63 AD and 229 AD who all confirm that Jews were keeping the day they called the day of Saturn.
- If you want to learn more about that, I have a link on the website. Scroll down under the heading, "Sabbath Observance." There is a link there called "Beware of the Lunar Sabbath."
RJ:
- That's on the front page?
EliYah:
- It's on the front page, EliYah.com/LunarSabbath.html. You can read more about it there.
RJ:
- I think it's really great when history backs up what the truth is. I remember a couple of months ago--and throughout growing up--I'll give everybody a little background.
- I grew up in I guess you could consider it one of the mainstream type of Christian churches. I think it's amazing how, when we are open to the truth, how we see all these things come together.
- I just think it's awesome, and it shows how--this is why I kept searching for the truth. I always felt like there was something not right. Everything didn't add up.
- Some people would say, "Why don't you share your faith with people?" Some people call it witness. They would say, "Why don't you share your faith?" I would say, "Can the blind lead the blind?"
- They would say, "What are you talking about? Aren't you sure about what you believe in?" I said, "As sure as I can be."
- Something inside me said there's more to this, because it doesn't all add up. There's 800, 900, 1,000 pages, and then for some reason everybody is saying I'm supposed to ignore them. That doesn't make any sense. Why would they still be there?
EliYah:
- Two-thirds of scripture are being ignored.
RJ:
- People could explain things, but it didn't make any sense, after hearing what they said. A couple of months ago, when I started digging in scriptures every single day--there came a point where something came over me, and I just started searching every single day. That's all I did.
- I started asking questions at the church I was going to. I asked the people--this is what I was studying out--what exactly happened to the law? That was about the week before I found out there were Shabbat meetings.
- Just asking that question, people treat you like you're insane just for asking that question. "Well, what do you mean what happened to it?"
- It's just amazing how much you can miss when your eyes aren't opened. One thing I realize now, after studying scripture more, you actually have to be chosen by Yahweh. He has to have that mercy on you to open your eyes.
- Sometimes when we speak to people, and they don't understand us--for me, personally, I have to realize their eyes haven't been opened. It's not something we do to deserve it. It's by mercy that it happens.
- I think that's something for everybody to remember. I know a lot of conversations I have on here with people is, "How should we talk to our families?" A lot of us are just coming into this.
- Something to remember is sometimes there is nothing you can do, except be an example. It's not within our power to do that. If somebody's eyes are closed, they're closed. They can't see.
- We're not the ones who can open that. Yahweh can do that. We don't have the power to do that.
- Sometimes we try to be the saviors and save other people. We can be a light, but we can't save anybody. We were just as lost as they were.
- I think that's important to remember. I just want to say Shabbat Shalom to everybody.
EliYah:
- Amein.
RJ:
- What were you saying?
EliYah:
- We want to be people willing to hear what Yahweh asks us to say, how He leads us in witnessing to others around us.
- Their actual reaction to what we're saying, we have to be able to, number one, if we're sharing it properly, with the mindset of love, rather than trying to be more of a mind of I want to prove you wrong mindset, if we're showing it in love, and if the Savior of mankind is working His will through us, then we need to be understanding that ultimately Yahweh has to be the One that makes the seed grow into a fruitful plant.
- We sow the seeds, but He has to make it grow.
RJ:
- That message you had today, that's one thing--the past couple of weeks, I checked out a Seventh Day Adventist Church, just to see what it's like, because I had never been to one.
- I remember one time you had said it's good to try to fellowship in person, so I thought, well, I'll check it out.
- I'll be honest, that message is simple and straight to the point, but the reason I didn't go today is because I wasn't growing spiritually at all those past two weeks I was there. Not that there's some craziness going on. They do have some crazy beliefs, but that's beside the point.
- It was just that the focus wasn't on how to be obedient. It was asking questions like what's heaven going to be like? What's this going to be like? Those are good things to meditate on and think about, but as far as somebody being new to the faith like me, personally, I need to focus on obedience.
- I'm not at the point where I need to be trying to understand what Revelation means. I'm still trying to understand the Old Testament. I think it's really good to hear messages like that. What does it mean to love Yahweh? That's necessary. That's the first thing. I think it's important to keep to the basics, especially just being immersed.
- I shouldn't be trying to understand all the deeper things. I should be trying to understand what it means to be obedient first. That's the first thing.
EliYah:
- I think that's something we all need to make sure we're on the right side of understanding. If we misunderstand something, for instance, regarding something we think is going to happen in the future or somewhere like that, we find out we're wrong later, we just had a misunderstanding.
- But if we find out that because we spent all our time focusing on what the future is going to be like, that we have missed out on seeking righteousness, and we get that wrong, then that may hold a whole lot more weight than if we misunderstood Yahweh's plan for the future.
- Walking in His commandments is the most important thing. Whether we understand all the perfect Bible prophecies, that's all well and good, but we do have to make sure our priority is that we love Yahweh and that we love our fellow man.
- I agree with you. I think that's a continued priority we ought to have--not just a new believer. As we grow, we can study these other things out, but we want to make sure we don't lose focus.
RJ:
- It's refreshing to continually refocus on what it means to be obedient. That's what it means to be children. If you have a three-year-old, and you tell them, "Don't touch the stove, it's hot," you don't want your three-year-old to turn to you and say, "Well, why do you not want me to touch the stove?"
- You just want them to be obedient. They don't have to understand why. They just need to do it, because there's wisdom in what you tell your children, just like there's wisdom in what Yahweh told us. That's what it means to come to Him like children.
- We don't need to understand every single little detail all the time, so long as we fear Him enough to obey what He says, and realize He knows the better ways than we do.
- We might not understand everything, but the main point is that we follow it, and it makes it more like Him, whether we understand why or not. That's what I've gathered the past couple of weeks in my own studies.
EliYah:
- I agree. If I told my son that in 15 years from now this is going to happen, assuming I had control over the future, and they misunderstood what I meant, that would be different than if they're so focused on trying to understand what I meant and misunderstood it, but then chose to disobey me. There's two different things there.
- Yahweh wants us to be His children. He wants us to learn how to love, as He loved, and to love Him in return, and to love our fellow man. That's the basic elements of our relationship.
- The same goes with our own children. We really can make a comparison in many, many different ways of what Yahweh expects out of us ultimately and how we expect things out of our own children.
- The bottom line is, as Yahweh has said, "What does Yahweh require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and walk humbly with your Elohim."
RJ:
- I really appreciate the message you did today. It was really great.
EliYah:
- Praise Yahweh.
RJ:
- Shabbat Shalom to everybody out there in the chat room. Say hi to me. Bemidbar. It means in the wilderness, apparently. It's the fourth book of the original Hebrew. Shabbat Shalom, everybody. Thank you EliYah for the message today. Keep on coming in and do it every week. I look forward to it every week.
EliYah:
- All right. Shabbat Shalom to you.
RJ:
- All right. Bye-bye.
EliYah:
- Bye-bye. It's always good to talk to newcomers. It looks like Bemidbar, RJ, is learning and growing. Praise Yahweh for that. He had a good question there about the lunar sabbath doctrine, which really was grabbing ahold of a lot of people.
- I believe it needed to be addressed. I mentioned the study from the main page called "Beware of the Lunar Sabbath." I believe it's important that we understand the truth and not stray away from Sabbath keeping, the way Yahweh commanded it.
- It is a very important command. We don't take it lightly. We want to be sure we are observing it according to the way He has commanded it.
- I believe we have someone on line one. Is that Laura?
Laura:
- Yes, this is Laura.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom to you.
Laura:
- Yeah, he gets it right! Shabbat Shalom! I have my nephew here, and he wants to say Shabbat Shalom to everyone. Hold on. You don't want to do it today? Okay, hold on. Say Shabbat Shalom.
Laura's Nephew:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah.
Laura's Nephew:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shalom.
Laura's Nephew:
- Bye-bye!
Laura:
- I'm sorry. They didn't know that I was trying to get them to come here. Here's Jasmine.
Jasmine.:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom, Jasmine. How are you doing?
Jasmine:
- Fine.
EliYah:
- Good. You have something you wanted to share with us?
Jasmine:
- Me and my friend wanted to share something, but first she wants to say Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Okay.
Kimberly.:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom. And who is this?
Kimberly:
- Kimberly.
EliYah:
- Hi, Kimberly. Glad you could join us today. You and Jasmine are going to sing a song for us?
Kimberly:
- Yeah.
EliYah:
- Sounds great. We're ready when you are.
Kimberly:
- All right.
Jasmine:
- Okay, hold on.
- [Music Ministry by Jasmine and Kimberly: "Oh, Let's Magnify Yahweh"]
EliYah:
- HalleluYah! I believe that's a Psalm somewhere, is it not?
Jasmine:
- I'm not sure. I keep forgetting. We just know the words. They just know the words to it, and it's pretty much the only one we know right now, together, as a group, because she hardly ever comes over, and she only comes over on the Sabbath, and that's pretty much the only time they ever try to sing.
EliYah:
- All right. HalleluYah. It's Psalm 18:46.
Psalms 18:46 - YAHWEH lives! Blessed [be] my Rock! Let the Elohim of my salvation be exalted.- HalleluYah.
Jasmine:
- Also, my mom wanted to say Shabbat Shalom to everyone.
EliYah:
- All right.
Jasmine:
- I didn't get to say hi to RJ yet, but hi RJ, if you can hear me. I know he can. Have a good day.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom to you all.
Jasmine:
EliYah:
- Laura Fagan from the Fagan household, and Jasmine and a friend, who came to visit and to give praise to Yahweh. HalleluYah. What a blessing that is to hear children lift up Yahweh's name. HalleluYah.
- At this time, if you'd like to give us a call, our telephone number is 416-683-3575 or toll free 866-435-4924. A good way to remember the toll free number is 866-4EliYah.
- If you'd like to call me during the week, I usually am available between 9 and 10 p.m. Eastern time through the week. I try to make myself available for phone calls at that time, if you have a comment or a question. You can always call during the broadcast, as well. We definitely appreciate any questions or comments you may have.
- I believe we have Brother Mark from Ohio on line one. Shabbat Shalom to you.
Mark:
- Shabbat Shalom, everybody. Thank you for all your participation and your questions. I really enjoyed them. Praise Yahweh.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah.
Mark:
- I have a question I've been pondering. I'm getting ready to go to Brazil in September. My wife is Brazilian. We've been in the faith of serving Yahweh for about five years, since we started our marriage five years ago.
- We're going to see some family over there, and some of them are pastors, and they're into Sabado, in Portuguese, which is also the same as Spanish, on Sunday. I'm sorry. Sabado is Saturday, but they worship on Sunday. I said that wrong.
- I've prayed about this, about going to the church on Sunday, and it doesn't fit with Yahweh, with my spirit. I just wanted your prayers and how to handle this, because I just don't feel led to participate in Sunday.
- I think we could go on a different day, like on a Wednesday, the fourth day of the week, maybe share something. I know they're going to ask me to speak, because they did the last time I went there.
EliYah:
- I think, even it's a Sunday church, and they invite you to speak, take advantage of that opportunity. Even Paul went into synagogues where there were unbelieving Jews there who had never heard the good word. He took that opportunity, when they asked him to come up and speak, he did.
- Of course, being family, you have to be little careful and make sure you don't damage your relationship. You want to be able to continue to reach out to them.
- It's something you're going to have to play by ear and see where Yahweh leads individually. If you want to make it a different day and invite people to hear you speak or something like that, I think it would be great.
Mark:
- So, you don't feel there'd be nothing wrong in going into Sunday observance?
EliYah:
- I don't see any problem going there for the purposes of sharing the Word. Even Gentiles were told, if they wanted to hear Mosheh, and, of course, they did, to go to the synagogues every Sabbath.
- Of course, there were going to be unbelievers there, but they had the opportunity to go there to hear the Word.
- I've walked into Sunday churches and tried to develop relationships with people who were there, and it's been a way to witness, but I would not go there to get fed the truth. I wouldn't use it for my local congregation, so to speak. For the purposes of witnessing and reaching out to others, I think it's great, if we are spiritually able to do that.
- Not everybody is at a place where they're ready for that. If Yahweh so leads, I think He certainly could. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Mark:
- Okay, you answered my question. I just needed some direction. I'll still pray about it. He has given me some things to say. I definitely do not want to offend my family, because they have great love for me and my wife. I don't want to sever that love, and I want to give them the love of Yahweh, above all things, is what I want to give them.
EliYah:
- Right. It's in that context that we're going to be able to reach others, so we need to make sure we maintain that context. It sounds like you've got the right idea. Keep that in mind, as you're sharing. Share in love, and it's a whole lot more likely to be received.
Mark:
- Thank you very much, and Shabbat Shalom to you and your family and everybody listening out there.
EliYah:
- All right. Shabbat Shalom to you all. Blessings to you on your trip to Brazil.
Mark:
- Pray for our finances for this, because we struggle a little bit, but Yahweh is faithful to us. I'd appreciate your prayers on our finances, also. My wife's name is Marian.
EliYah:
- Marian, okay. We've got that written down. We'll include that in prayer today.
Mark:
- Thank you, EliYah. Bless you all.
EliYah:
- Yahweh bless you, as well.
Mark:
- Thank you. Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom. Brother Mark from Ohio making an important trip there to Brazil. Family members are often the most difficult and challenging to bring along, because sometimes our walk embarrasses them.
- I walked this faith for about 13 years before my parents finally decided to look into it more. They are serving Yahweh today. HalleluYah. We praise Yahweh for that. Sometimes we have to wait longer than we would rather wait, and wait for Yahweh's timing and not try to force it and make it happen, which was a mistake I made early on in this walk.
- I was so on fire that I went and offended them and actually hindered. One thing we ought to think about is we never want to put the cart before the horse, so to speak.
- Sometimes we want to go out and tell everybody about the Sabbath or Torah or whatever, but that's all well and good. We need to communicate that, but if someone doesn't even know Yahushua the Messiah, if they're not even at a place where they've received Him and been baptized, we need to make sure we're communicating the need to receive Him.
- We can keep the Sabbath all day long, but if you don't receive Yahushua, then you don't have your sins cleansed and atoned for. Make sure we do maintain proper focus, and keep Yahushua as the focal point of not only our salvation, but as an example for us to follow. HalleluYah.
- I believe we have Brother Gary from Canada on line two. Shabbat Shalom to you.
Gary:
- Shabbat Shalom, Tom, and to your family and to all the family out there listening, all the ones that I know and some that I don't know yet. HalleluYah.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. Do you have something you'd like to share with us.
Gary:
- I just have more of a comment but also a question. I really enjoyed your study today, and I liked the fact that we got clarity on the fact that the names were erased from 99% of the versions--or the perversions I call them sometimes--of the scriptures.
- It reminded me, just recently I was down in Hawaii and was asked to do a scripture study.
- One of the people there opened up their Bible they had. I think it was a New Living Translation. They said, "Yeah, it says right in the front of it here that they've removed the names and replaced it with Lord or God. They've admitted to doing it."
- That, obviously, got a lot of encouragement for what I was trying to share about using the proper names. One of the guys said--it used the Tetragrammaton, YHWH. He said, "How come it isn't YHVH?" I went, "I've always used YHWH." Some people pronounce it Yahweh. He said, "How do we know we're pronouncing it correctly?"
- I said that's a really good question. We should maybe look at the Hebrew. My question is, when I looked at it, I thought, yeah, YHWH, it should be wa. Where did the weh come from? Even if it's Yahweh, eh is still pronounced eh, not a. That's a vowel, tesray [phonetic]. Then the V thing kept up.
- One of my arguments of why the name Jesus could not be correct is there was no J in the Hebrew. According to the studies I've been doing lately, there's no W in the Hebrew either. That letter in the Tetragrammaton is a V, and it's vav, and it's pronounced v. It's YHVH.
- I remember, when I first met a lot of you at Eminence, one of the people there was pronouncing it YHVH. I thought everybody else is pronouncing it Yahweh, so I'm going to go with the majority.
- In further study, it seems the better pronunciation would be YHVH.
EliYah:
- Well, yeah. As far as the pronunciation goes, whether it's weh or wah or vah or wah, the ah sound, if we look in, for instance, in Exodus 3, Yahweh was asked by Mosheh, "What do I tell them that your name is?"
- He said, EHYEH ASHER EHYEH. When you read that, you're like, how can that make sense? We don't call Him EHYEH.
- EHYEH is the way you pronounce the Hebrew verb hayah in the first person form.
- For instance, we have in English verbs that change their form, depending on different verb tense. The verb run changes to ran, if it's past tense or running if present tense is intended. In Hebrew, vowel sounds will change, depending on whether it's first, second, or third person, whether it's masculine or feminine, and a whole host of other reasons.
- When He told Mosheh to tell them EHYEH ASHER EHYEH, "I AM THAT I AM," He was saying the verb hayah in the first person form. Then the following verse in Exodus 3:15, He said, "Then you shall say Yahweh is the One who sent."
- Why didn't He say EHYEH there? Because Yahweh is how we say the verb hayah in the third person form. We're declaring He is. The One who is and is to come and so on.
- If you were to say Yahwah, it's not a legitimate verb form. It has to be Yahweh, because it's a lamad heh verb. It's actually a causative form, third person imperfect form of the verb hayah. As far as the V is concerned, in modern Hebrew they do not use the W. They use the V instead of the W.
- That V came along later as European influences in the language in Yiddish and so on made it difficult for people to pronounce the W sound. In ancient Hebrew, they did pronounce that letter as a W, instead of a V.
- That's the reason most Hebrew scholars will tell you the pronunciation is Yahweh. One of the evidences for the W sound is found actually within the Hebrew language itself. For instance, in Hebrew names like Yirmeyahu or Yeshayahu, they have an ending that's pronounced with an oo sound, not a v sound. Those names end with the waw or the vav, as they say in modern Hebrew, sound.
- That letter produces an oo sound at the end of Yirmeyahu or Yeshayahu or Obadyahu or Zekaryahu. It produces the oo sound, just like our English letter W can produce an oo sound.
- For instance, you can write the word "persuade" as p-e-r-s-u or you could say p-e-r-s-w, persuade, and you pretty much get the same sound.
- The W is a double u. Other Hebrew words that use that w, that waw for a vowel, it's actually one of the vowel letters in Hebrew--there's four of them: aleph, waw, heh, and yod.
- That word waw is used as a vowel in words like aveinu, which means our Father. Even the word ruach, as in Ruach HaKodesh, has that waw in it that people use for a v nowadays. It was originally a vowel, w sound.
- If it was originally a consonantal v, then that letter wouldn't have been chosen to represent the oo sound in the word ruach. Almost every Hebrew scholar you can talk to, who understands the history of the language, will agree that anciently it was a w and not a v for these reasons and others.
Gary:
- I was looking earlier at the "I AM THAT I AM." I AM is hayah in Hebrew. I thought it's like how some Jewish people don't want to say the name. They call Him HaShem, The Name. I thought hayah is like The Yah. I AM YAH. I saw that connection there.
EliYah:
- When you look at Strong's, if you're looking up an English word in Strong's, what you're going to find is not the actual way it's pronounced in the particular verse, necessarily. You're going to find the root verb from which that word mentioned in that verse comes from.
- If you put in your E-Sword program, you put your mouse over a Strong's number, you're not going to necessarily get what's actually in the Hebrew. You're going to get the root verb hayah there. But if you were to actually look at the Hebrew letters and pronounce them, you would come to EHYEH. You wouldn't even find hayah there. You would find EHYEH.
- Since EHYEH comes from the verb hayah, then that's why Strong's Concordance ties in that to the hayah verb. Strong's doesn't really tell you the whole story. It's a primitive way of researching. If we're only researching using a Strong's Concordance, we need to get deeper than that if we're really going to get adequate research.
- We've got to understand a little bit more about how the Hebrew language functions. There are a lot of armchair Strong's Concordance Hebrew scholars, but we need to understand how the language functions somewhat.
- One of the ways it functions is a verb like hayah can have many different ways that it changes the way it sounds, based on whether it's first person, second person, third person, past, present. Actually, there's not past, present, and future in Hebrew.
- There's only perfect and imperfect tense. The verb vowels will change, if it's masculine or feminine. If I was to say to a Hebrew woman--normally, you would say mash lumka [phonetic], which means, "What is your peace?" Or "How are you?"
- But when you're talking to a Hebrew female, you say mash lumek [phonetic]. So whether you're speaking to a male or speaking to a female will depend on whether you say mash lumka or mash lumek. Shlamek [phonetic] and shalmka [phonetic] are both rooted in the Hebrew verb shalom.
- You're saying literally, "What is your peace?" whether you're talking to female or male.
- There are so many different ways a Hebrew word will change its vowels and sound, depending on its verb tense. When we say EHYEH, we're saying hayah in the first person form, which when Yahweh was saying, "I AM," of course, He's going to say first person.
- But when we speak to Him, we say Yahweh, which is a third person form.
Gary:
- When we see the Tetragrammaton, the four letters or consonants, some people say the vowels were removed, and some people say, no, the vowels were added. When we say Yahweh, that's the addition of vowels to help people pronounce the name. Which one do you think it is?
- There are no vowels necessarily in the Hebrew language in all cases. It's a consonantal language; however, there are four vowels in Hebrew, and most people don't know about Hebrew to know that. Ask any person that knows anything about Hebrew. There is something called the four vowel letters, which are aleph, yod, heh, and waw. Those are the four vowel letters. Those letters do function in the Hebrew language as vowels.
- It just happens that the name Yahweh consists of four vowel letters. If you were to pronounce the Yod Heh Waw Heh as four vowel letters, you could legitimately come up with the pronunciation Yahweh.
- In fact, it's kind of interesting to note, if you were to put all the vowels that are common to all languages, i, a, o, u, e, in that order--we have a-e-i-o-u-but do it i-a-o-u-e, you come up with Yahweh, which is one of those little side things.
- I think it's something that, yes, the scribes did not put little vowel points in between the name Yahweh, other than the ones that would tell people to say Adonai or Elohim, depending on the context.
- This is where it gets a little confusing. They would put the vowel points for Adonai in between the name Yahweh, in between the yod heh waw heh, so that when people came to the name Yahweh, they would say Adonai, rather than Yahweh.
- If the text said Adonai Yahweh, because Adonai means Master, like Master Yahweh, thus says the Master Yahweh, rather than people repeat themselves and say "Thus says Adonai Adonai," they would change the vowels within Yahweh's name to the vowel points for Elohim, so that when people read that in the Hebrew text, they would say Adonai Elohim.
- That's why, if you look in a Strong's Lexicon, you'll find there are two variant ways the word is spelled. One has the vowel points for Adonai. The other has the vowel points for Elohim.
Gary:
- I read that that's where Jehovah came from, because a 16th century German Christian scribe was transliterating the Bible into Latin for the Pope, and wrote the name out YHVH, the consonants, and the vowels of Adonai, and came up with JeHoVaH, and that name sort of stuck. In German, the J is pronounced Y. You've got Yehovah or YHVH, or a variation of that pronunciation.
EliYah:
- That is exactly how the name Jehovah came to be. It was through a scribe who did not understand that this is a Jewish man's indicator to pronounce Adonai, rather than the actual pronunciation of the heavenly Father's name.
- That's proven, because whenever the name Yahweh, the Tetragrammaton is followed by the word Adonai or if Adonai comes after it, then they'll change the vowels in the Tetragrammaton to the vowels for Elohim. You actually would have to say Yahui instead of Yahuah.
- I believe the 1611 King James actually had not Jehovah but Yehouah. A lot of things have happened.
- We just have to do some deeper research. I know there are a lot of people who say it's pronounced this other way or whatever. I respect everyone's opinion.
- I have mine, of course, but in the end, if we are doing what we understand to be the right thing to do, according to the best research, Yahweh is looking on our hearts and knows what's there and that we're trying to live uprightly and that we have made sincere efforts.
- I would encourage you, if you're going to research the sacred name and how it's pronounced, please, at least take a couple of weeks and study how Hebrew works.
Gary:
- I was thinking that I can see how people could go to YHVH, because if they looked at just the letters without the vowel points on them and see them as they sit and pronounce them as the Hebrews pronounce now, even when you add the eh at the end of the name, that is still pronounced eh as in bet. It's not pronounced a as in a vowel tesray.
- I can see people looking at it now, if they were Hebrew, and looking at that Tetragrammaton and look at how they pronounce today and go that's YHVH. I could see how they could do that. Now we're thinking to go back and look at how it would have been pronounced 3,000 years ago and see if that pronunciation matches the way a Hebrew man would pronounce it today.
EliYah:
- The interesting thing is there are different verb classes. Depending on whether a verb has certain letters in it, it'll change the way the verb is pronounced. Certain vowels will come into play consistently under different verb classes. Hayah is what's called a lamad heh verb. When you take a lamad heh verb like this, and you put it in the third person, imperfect causative form, you come up with Yahweh.
- That's just how the language functions consistently across the board. In fact, Yahu, the reason why we have the short form, there is no way--I actually emailed Anson Reney [phonetic], a professor of Hebrew in Semitic linguistics in the land of Israel, and his words to me were, "Yahweh is the only possible form that could come out of this idea that the short form is Yah or Yahu."
- There's no other way. When you shorten a verb to Yah, there's no other way it could have come from Hebraically and linguistically speaking, other than it came from Yahweh.
- It's consistent all across the board. This is some of the research I have never put on the website. I'm going to have to really sit down and do a full length study on the pronunciation and put it online. This is some of the research I've come across.
- In fact, this week I actually updated the pronunciation page at EliYah.com/proof.htm and included some information like what I'm describing to you. That's something people can look to.
Gary:
- I have been researching it the last couple of weeks. I found a website that said it was YHVH, but in brackets, sometimes written YHWH and pronounced this way. I think there's some disagreement there.
- The other question, to add to that, when you look at the Hebrew letters for the Messiah, I just thought it was YH and then from there, but it looks like it's YHV or YHW, if you think it's W. The first three Hebrew letters are actually the same.
- When the Messiah said, "I came in my Father's name," in Yohanan 5:43, He really meant it, because three of the four letters in the Tetragrammaton of the Father are actually in the Messiah's name when we look at it. It's amazing.
- How would we pronounce that? The next letter is shin, which really doesn't have an equivalent in English, and the next one is ayin, and it's actually silent. It's a silent vowel. If there is a vowel, we don't see a vowel in that actual name.
EliYah:
- Yeah, yod, heh, waw, which we understand that to be Yahu, like we would say Yahweh. We say Yahushua. The next letter is called the shin. It produces the sh sound, so it's Yahush. Then there are two possible spellings that are mentioned in Hebrew. One just has the ayin, from which we get the ah, and from that people assume that the name Yahushua should be Yahusha.
- There are places in the Hebrew language that put another waw in between the final shin and ayin, so that you have shua.
- You can confirm that by looking up Deuteronomy 3:21 in the Hebrew text. It spells it yod heh waw, Yahu, shin, waw, ayin. You have a second waw, shua. That final waw is being used as a vowel there.
- Otherwise, you'd have to say Yahvshva. That's how you would have to. If you put the V there, you have to say Yahvshva.
- We understand that the waw produced an oo sound, if it's being used as a vowel letter. So we have Yahushua.
Gary:
- Interesting that salvation is also yshuwah.
EliYah:
- Yes, the Hebrew word for salvation is yshuwah with a final h or heh at the end. That word yshuwah is rooted in the Hebrew verb yasha. But, as you can see, the Hebrew verb there, their vowels can change based on the verb form of the word.
- That's how we can get yshuwah out of yahsha, and we can get Yahushua out of Yahweh's name and yasha.
- Lew White recently has posted something to his website, trying to convince many that the name should be pronounced Yahusha, but there are two places in scripture--I'm not talking you have to be a Strong's Concordance scholar even to figure it out. Just look it up in Deuteronomy 3:21 and Judges 2:7.
- The shua is impossible in those two places. You can look them up in the Hebrew text, if you're able to get a copy of the actual Hebrew. You can never get sha out of shin waw ayin, words that have sh, the u, and the ah sound.
- That's coming directly out of the Hebrew. I would have to say that because the Hebrew does have those alternative spellings there, the sha ending is not possible.
Gary:
- Yeah, that name, Yahushua, the Strong's refer to it as Yehovah or YHVH saves, which is kind of a combination of the salvation and the name of the Father.
EliYah:
- Right.
Gary:
- Thanks for that. It started to look, to me, especially if the H is at the end, then when I saw the Messiah said, "I come in my Father's name," I thought, yeah, well, because the first part of His name is Yah. But when I see the yod and the waw in there, and then you see the heh is in there, then if the heh is at the end, then He really does. The Father's name is completely there.
- Salvation is kind of in the middle part of it. It's good. It could be Yahvashua. I don't agree with what Lew is saying. I agree with you, basically. It doesn't seem like it could be possible.
EliYah:
- If we say Yahv with a v at the Yahu, if we say Yahv instead, then we'd have to be consistent and say at the end of the name Yahushua, you wouldn't say shua, you would say shva. You'd have to say Yahvshva, because the same Hebrew letter is representing shua. You have the waw at the end of Messiah's name, actually the second letter from the end, and you have a waw between the heh and sh or shin sound.
Gary:
- The ayin, the last letter showing there, that's actually silent. Before that is the shin, which is pronounced sh when there's a dot on the right, which there is, of course, as we see it written.
EliYah:
- Right, but there are two places at least in the Hebrew that don't have shin ayin. It has shin waw ayin. Even in your E-Sword, if you have a copy of the Hebrew, you can look up these two verses, which are Deuteronomy 3:21, Judges 2:7, that don't have shin ayin. They have shin waw ayin, which would mean you have shua there, not sha and not shva.
- Because Hebrew uses the waw letter as a vowel, it eliminates the possibility that it would be a consonant like the letter v. They had a letter v. The letter b or bet is also vet. That depends on whether there's a dot or dagesh in the center.
Gary:
- Thank you.
EliYah:
- All right. Good to talk to you. Blessings to you. Say hello to Denise for us.
Gary:
- Thank you. Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom to you.
Gary:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Brother Gary from Canada participated in the last three feasts we had, the Feast of Tabernacles 2007, and Passover, and Pentecost. He was there with us and joined us. He's got questions about Hebrew.
- I realize it's kind of technical. I've actually thought about doing a video, a Real video presentation at some point, explaining the pronunciation question in a visual format. I think it's a little easier that way, audiovisual.
- That's something maybe for the future. I'm sorry for those of you we may have lost in the broadcast. We had a sound dropout there for a little bit due to an internet connection issue.
- We're back online. At this time, we can go ahead and take your prayer requests. That will be our final phone call for the day. We can take your prayer requests. We'll go ahead and share a song here from the library.
- I think we will pull out a Hebrew song, "Ram V'nisa HaMashiach." This is sung by David Loden. It means "High and Lifted Up is Messiah." HalleluYah.
- [Music Ministry: "Ram V'nisa HaMashiach," "Yom Kippur"]
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. Indeed, it is. Fear not. Yahweh is our shield. When Yahweh says your reward is very great, we can believe it. We are very blessed, as Yahweh told Abraham. "In your seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed." And we are very blessed in Messiah, his seed, his offspring.
- Through Him, we receive the blessing and the promises of eternal life in the age to come. HalleluYah. It can hardly be greater than that. HalleluYah.
- [Music Ministry: "Lead Me to the River of Your Healing Waters"]
EliYah:
- May Yahweh fill you with His Ruach, His Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh, as you go out once again into the work week this week to glorify His name. May He give you the rest of Shabbat that you seek.
- It's good to be with you all once again. We love you all. May Yahweh bless you all. Shabbat Shalom to your homes.