- And that is the beginning of wisdom, is it not, that we fear Him, and that we are concerned about what He has to say. And we're concerned that when we see something in scripture that is contrary to what we are doing in our life, we fear Him, and we turn from that.
- That's when we learn wisdom. You don't really learn wisdom by filling our minds full of head knowledge. We gain wisdom through doing.
- I think there's a scripture about that, if I'm not mistaken. It says something like that in Psalm 119. I'll have to look that up.
- Anyway, at this time in the broadcast, we like to go ahead and take your phone calls. We'd love to hear from you. Our telephone number, if you'd like to give us a call and make your comment, ask a question -- even if you don't agree with me -- that's okay.
- I'd like to hear from you. And our telephone number, 417-683-3575, or you can call us toll free, 866-435-4924, 866-4EliYah.
- All right, we'd like to hear from you. It looks like we have our first call already. And as you might have guessed, our Brother Curtis. Shabbat Shalom, brother. Are you with me? Well, I hear him on there. All right, we'll try again.
- Kara says it's on the other line, so I'll try the other line.
Curtis:
- There you go. You've got to click on the right telephone line there. [laughs]
EliYah:
- Well, very interesting. [Curtis laughs] Because there was someone on the other line. It sounded like there was no dial tone, so I don't know what happened. But anyway, Shabbat Shalom to you.
Curtis:
- Shabbat Shalomie, Homie.
EliYah:
- How are you doing?
Curtis:
- Okay. Over, over, over, over, overcoming.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah.
Curtis:
- HalleluYah. [shofar blast]
Curtis Daughter:
- Praise Yahweh!
Curtis:
- [laughs]
EliYah:
- All right.
Curtis:
- [laughs] I've got a lazy, lazy one here that's trying to take a nap again already. [laughs] She's just got the shofar in her hand.
EliYah:
- That's all right. She's just Shabbat-ing, that's all.
Curtis:
- [laughs] I know it. Well, anyway, she said, when you came on, she would sing a song or something.
EliYah:
- That sounds good!
Curtis:
- Yeah. Well, I've got -- I don't know if I can even find it here. It's a really short letter -- but what you were just talking about. I know one of the verses that's probably maybe in the forefront or back of your mind, that you're thinking about is what you were just talking about doing.
- A lot of people talk about faith. That's what Yaakov says. They're speaking of faith, but we see our faith by what we do.
EliYah:
- Right.
Curtis:
- And he gives an example of somebody being cold and hungry, and they say, "Yeah, be blessed. I'll pray for you." Or something. I just relate it to the things I've heard now today in this day and age.
- And he says we see our faith by what we do. We give them some food and give them a jacket, we don't just say, "Be blessed, we'll pray for you." We invite them in, and give them some clothes, and feed them.
EliYah:
- Right. If we don't do that, he asks, "Well, how can it be that the love of Elohim abides in you?"
Curtis:
- Uh-huh.
EliYah:
- So we need to let the love of Elohim abide in us through Yahushua, and strengthen us, and we don't always give attention to that. And I'm persuaded that that's the way we do overcome sin is to let the love of Elohim abide in us and believe it does, and receive the Good News that it is Yahushua who lives in us, and it is no longer we who live.
- And the more we put that in our faith and manner of practice, then through all circumstances, through every scenario, through every trial, the less we're going to find ourselves in sin. And that's something we all have to work on, including me.
Curtis:
- My brothers, what use is it for anyone to say he hath faith -- the guys in the South African Scripture Institute don't like the word "faith." They put "belief." But there, a brother this past week mentioned that.
- There might be a little difference. It's the word for each of us in our own little world that causes stumbling blocks. But anyway, I mean, we've all lived with and looked at "faith" as the word.
- The people that write -- or put together "The Scriptures" -- which I believe is a really good translation, don't use "faith" for some reason.
- I'm sure it has to do with the root of the word, from where it comes from. But they put "belief" in there. And faith and belief, they're not that far off.
- So, my brothers, what use is it for anyone to say he hath faith, but does not have works? The faith is unable to save him. And if a brother or sister is naked and in need of daily food, but one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the bodily needs, what use is it?
- So, also, faith, if it does not have works, is in itself dead. But someone might say you have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I shall show you my faith by my works. You believe in Elohim. You believe that Elohim is one.
- You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. [laughs] Demons know Yahweh. They know He's one, and they shudder.
- But, once again, I mean, if you're not living it and showing it and walking it like Yahushua said: "Walk as I walk, follow me. Pick up the stake there. Grab the tree, pull it out of the ground and follow me." Follow me, you know.
- But anyway...
EliYah:
- Amein.
Curtis:
- They shudder. You believe that Elohim is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. But do you wish to know, O foolish man, that the belief without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father declared right by his works when he offered Yitzak, his son, on the altar?
- Do you see that belief is working with his works, and by the works the belief is perfected? That's what you just said a minute ago.
EliYah:
- Yeah.
Curtis:
- That's what you were just talking about a minute ago.
EliYah:
- Yep.
Curtis:
- Living it. You know. But anyway, that was one of the verses that came to my mind when you were saying that. There's a few, I'm sure, but he puts it pretty well. He puts it pretty concisely there for us.
- He was a follower in this age, the new covenant, and nothing was done away with, not one jot or tittle. It was all done, and it is fulfilled and continually, if we follow Him. If we follow Him, we're still doing it. HalleluYah.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. Got to have faith and works working together. I heard one brother said, you know, if faith is one oar, and you're in a boat -- faith is one oar and works is the other. They both work together; otherwise, you're just going to go in circles. You're not going to get anywhere.
Curtis:
- Yeah.
EliYah:
- And they both work together, and you'll get somewhere. You'll grow, and you'll move on to greater things, and it's something we all have to strive for. We've got to row, though, don't we? We've got to row, and that requires effort on our part.
Curtis:
- Yeah.
EliYah:
- To give us strength. Yahweh gives us the strength to move forward.
Curtis:
- As almost always, since you and I have been friends, something has come up. Yahweh has showed us some of the same things through the week, and it comes in the study. Somehow it comes up somewhere in your studies and mine.
- And one of them this past week was nothing is unclean. And I was with some brethren down in south Florida.
- We went to take little Noah, at five weeks -- which is kind of unusual -- at five weeks, little Noah had his first doctor's visit, because we know the guy, and he crosses the line between scripture.
- And he has actually the official piece of paper of the world of being a pediatrician.
- But the first day he had open was sometime this past week, so we did have a few things we could have done, but mainly what we did was go to take little Noah and visit with Mom, who lives down in south Florida, mid, kind of south Florida, visited with her.
- And I was visiting with some brothers down there -- I'm not playing -- and the verses came up, "Nothing is unclean," because it's become an issue.
- It has become an issue, and that was what came to my mind when we were discussing things, that Yahweh said don't call anything unclean that He's created. Funny enough, awhile back, a couple of years ago, somebody that I trusted knew scripture or the Bible, as he calls it -- I do, too -- the Bible.
- I thought he knew it pretty well. And he brought up the verse in, I think it was Acts, wasn't it, where he brought up Kepha's dream. And he was -- I was asking him why he was eating sausage or something at breakfast, and he said, "Oh, well, look at scripture."
- And I said, "Come on, man, that explains it right there in the book. That's not about food. It's about people."
EliYah:
- Right.
Curtis:
- And calling anyone unclean and so on and so forth. Anyway, that came up this past week with us, too. We were discussing some of the same things.
- And the other thing I just jotted down during your study is the Bible, the scriptures, the scriptures of Yahweh, the writings of Yahweh's people, is our history book. That is our history book.
EliYah:
- Yeah.
Curtis:
- We do have substantial documentation, all of the accurate ones confirm the scriptures of Yahweh. But that is our history book that we are to be looking at, His people. That's His history book that He's given us to look at.
EliYah:
- And that is the history of our nation.
Curtis:
- Right, absolutely.
EliYah:
- The history of our nation is not found in American textbooks.
Curtis:
- Nope.
EliYah:
- It's found in the history of Israel, to which we have joined, and we don't look at Israel as being, necessarily, those people over there way back then, their fathers, their this, and their that, but we need to look at it in terms of our fathers, because we have been -- whether we're Gentile or not -- we've been adopted.
- And I have a couple of adopted girls here, and they are every bit as much as my daughters as anyone else, birth children or whatever, and I am their father.
- And that's how we need to view ourselves, in terms of Israel, that we are Israel, and that is our history book. You're right.
Curtis:
- Yeah. We are Israelites. Hopefully, we are Israelites, and I think all of us eventually come to know that, that, you know, Messianic or whatever, Israelites is the most accurate, and adopted, grafted in, or born.
- I mean, if you're born Yehudim or of whatever tribe, hey, great. You know. But that's -- another thing we spoke of, we talked about was the generational things that are written about, because there's curses, and there's blessings, but Yahweh overrides them all if you are His.
- I mean, He doesn't override the blessings. He gives them. But there's no need to worry about generational curses. They're definitely written about, and they're definitely real.
- But if you're His, you're a true Israelite, adopted, grafted in, however you want to put it, dying to self and living for Him, giving your life, and your life's going to show it.
- Your words, your life, and everything is going to show at work. We're not perfect. Of course, we're not perfect, but we are living in that direction.
- We are working and walking and heading in that direction. We're Israelites. And I mentioned to somebody, early on, before it was even revealed, the group that Yahweh had chosen, that they weren't even what they know as Yehudim yet.
- I was like, what? Are you kidding? No, that's not true. Yeah, just read it. Read it. He didn't really reveal until after a little while what group He had even chosen. They weren't called that then.
- It's the words that stumble us so much, these words and the way we've been taught and what we think. We have to overcome that.
EliYah:
- It's our own definitions, based on incorrect assumptions.
Curtis:
- Right. We're our own -- I know I'm my own worst enemy. I have been for a long time, but I just have to die to that self. And as in -- Yaakov also puts another great, absolutely necessary precept, doctrine, idea. I don't know, whatever you want to call it. The tongue, the tongue -- a man -- what does he say?
- A man that tames the tongue is a perfect man?
EliYah:
- Right.
Curtis:
- Ooh. You know, Yahushua says very little, had to -- very little -- but all with authority, truth, and love, absolute love.
EliYah:
- Right.
Curtis:
- It's incredible. And that's what we are -- our hearts desire is to work and walk and live in that way. And He is the one that's doing it. In our weakness, He is strong. And He is perfecting us.
- We work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but He perfects us through that fear, fearing disobedience. That's it for me. That's the only fear I have is disobeying Him.
- Otherwise, I don't do -- whatever happens.
EliYah:
- Yeah, that's the fear of Yahweh. It's the underpinning of everything we do. And, of course, it brings us to a place of realization and wisdom, the realization of what He has done for us.
- We realize how much He loves us, and just compels us by His own example of -- you know, in service to us, how we ought to serve and love Him.
Curtis:
- Right.
EliYah:
- And...
Curtis:
- The greatest is the servant of all, and it all points right to Messiah. It has to point to Messiah. If it doesn't, something is wrong. It all has to point -- it comes right back to Him.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah.
Curtis:
- We're going to -- I realize, too -- I talked to a couple of people. I talked to you about it when we were down in south Florida. There's a few people I know of now, probably at least a half dozen, that don't know each other, really, have never met each other and whatnot.
- I talked to one, while we were down there, on the phone, but we couldn't stay down, because of just animals here on the little farm -- and not even planning to stay as long as we did.
- But what I think, what I'm hearing and thinking is sometime in the next couple of weeks, we're going to be back. We have to go back down to south Florida for several things.
- And I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks to get in touch with the brethren that we know of, by the grace of Yahweh -- halleluYah -- through EliYah.com and your studies and everything, that we know a few people.
- And I was talking to one, and heard that we should probably get together and do some immersions in the name of Yahweh. What better time and better place than south Florida in the middle of the winter?
EliYah:
- Right.
Curtis:
- [laughs] So I'm going to be getting in touch with some people that we know and just get together, and sing some songs, and do some immersions. That's what I hear Yahweh saying is that we should all get together and just stir everybody to meet each other, you know.
- And, hopefully, get together more often the people that are living in south Florida that are following him. And I just remembered that several were talking about immersions, and I thought, wow, maybe Yahweh is going to do that, too.
- In the next few weeks, we might get together and do some of that. So, anyway, I just thought it would be something to mention.
EliYah:
- Good.
Curtis:
- Just hoping there are some people that are just coming on to the study and the fellowship here on the 21st century online Shabbat fellowship and study, and just welcome everybody.
- And if anybody has any ideas or needs or anything like that, just put them out there and put them on. That's what the forum there is all about is fellowship for those of us that are scattered.
- And this is one of the mediums that we use and have there, you know, the next best thing to being there.
EliYah:
- Right.
Curtis:
- Put the ideas on there. See if Yahweh will bring it together.
EliYah:
- Amein.
Curtis:
- Yeah. So I'm getting Mrs. Tucker here to sing some praises.
EliYah:
- Sounds good.
Curtis:
- I don't know what we're going to do here. [laughs]
Mrs. Tucker:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom to you. How are you doing?
Mrs. Tucker:
- Okay. I've been resting.
EliYah:
- Good.
Mrs. Tucker:
- Shabbatin'.
EliYah:
- Shabbating.
Mrs. Tucker:
- Yes.
EliYah:
- Yep. Do you have a song for us?
Mrs. Tucker:
- Yes, we've got a song in our hearts.
EliYah:
- Sounds good.
- [Music by Tucker Family: "Mary, Did You Know?" and "Humble Thyself in the Sight of Yahweh"]
EliYah:
- HalleluYah.
Curtis:
- HalleluYah. I love y'all.
EliYah:
- Love you guys.
Curtis:
- Everybody pray.
EliYah:
- Amein.
Curtis:
- Pray for us and pray for us all. Pray for His people. Pray for our enemies.
EliYah:
- Amein.
Curtis:
- Pray for peace, pray for truth, pray for shalom. And His will be done, absolutely.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. Thank you, brother.
Curtis:
- HalleluYah. Shalom. Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Shabbat Shalom. Brother Curtis from the Florida area, as he likes to say. And if you'd like to give us a call, if you have a comment or a question, please do so.
- Our telephone number, once again, 417-683-3575, or toll free 866-4EliYah or 435-4924.
- I'd like to hear from you. It looks like we do have a couple of questions here that came in the room. And we will get to those. In the meantime, I'd like to go ahead and share a song from the library. This next song by Brother John Fisher, "You Are the King of Righteousness," and his wife Elizabeth. HalleluYah.
- [Music: "You Are the King of Righteousness"]
EliYah:
- Amein. He is the King of righteousness. And it looks like we had a few questions here we're going to look at.
Q. One of which is 1 Corinthians 11:4-7. It says men should not have heads covered. Ezekiel 24:15-23, Yahweh told them to keep their turbans on. So should we, as men, wear head coverings, as long as they are not veils?
EliYah:
- That very question is addressed very thoroughly at EliYah.com/Talmidim/Headcovering. I'll type it out for you here. Dot html. Again, EliYah.com/Talmidim/Headcovering.html. Not headcoverings. It's singular.
- So look up that, and I address that question. And as far as Ezekiel 24, the purpose of that was so they would not mourn when they were wearing turbans. It said keep your turbans on. Don't even mourn. So that was the point.
- But I think it would be better to address it there, than here. It's a very in-depth question, but my understanding is that men should not cover their heads during prayer or prophesying.
Q. Hosea 2:11 says "cause all her rejoicing, all her festivals, her new moons, her Sabbaths, even all her appointed times to cease." One could look at that and say, well, that's their feast days. Yahweh has His.
EliYah:
- But even if it was Yahweh's feast days, that's pretty much what happened. This particular book is referring to Israel, and the northern tribes, and that's exactly what happened. All their feasts were gone, because they were exiled out of the land.
- This is Hosea speaking. You've got to always understand that -- like Hosea 1:1:
Hosea 1:1 - The word of YAHWEH that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.- There's historical context to what's being spoken here, and ultimately what happened was the Assyrians came in and hauled away all the Israelites and caused them to be scattered abroad, and they haven't kept the feasts -- the northern tribes haven't kept the feasts since.
Q. And then somebody asked, why did Paul tell the Gentiles to remain uncircumcised, if they were that way when they were called?
EliYah:
- I believe the reason for that was that it wasn't the first item on Yahweh's agenda that the first thing you have to do when you become a believer is to go get circumcised.
- Historically, in the Tanakh and the Torah, their children of Israel were not getting circumcised when they were in the wilderness, and yet Yahweh didn't send down the hailstones and the plagues. But right before they entered the land, they did get circumcised on the hill of foreskins in the book of Joshua.
- So the precedence we see in the Torah is it's not the first thing on the list. You need to get the sin out first. And as Paul said, circumcision is profitable, if you keep the law. But if you don't keep the law, then your circumcision is uncircumcision.
- So they had to learn some things. They had to learn how to be obedient, in terms of His will. And Romans 2:25. And that's why Jews, it says, can make their boast in Elohim, because they know His will. Romans 2:17-18:
Romans 2:17 - Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of Elohim,- Very true. We know His will when we read His law. But if you don't bother keeping His law, what good is the circumcision? It becomes uncircumcision.
Laura:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- How are you doing?
Laura:
- Well, hold on. Lea decided to get in something she's not supposed to be in. Put that down, sweetheart. Well, actually, I still have a broken leg.
EliYah:
- Okay.
Laura:
- I don't know if you heard that or not yet, but it's still broken. I've got three more months off of my leg.
EliYah:
- Wow.
Laura:
- And I'm not in a cast though anymore. Thank goodness.
EliYah:
- That's good.
Laura:
- But I do have a [inaudible] on my foot, and it's -- unfortunately, I can take it off, and I keep forgetting to put it back on, like I'm supposed to.
EliYah:
- Right. Well, so you have three more months, and then you'll be able to walk on it?
Laura:
- Three months, and, hopefully, I'll be able to walk on it.
EliYah:
- Okay.
Laura:
- Yeah. Just now, like the last -- I don't know if I'm yelling or not. I probably am, knowing me.
- The last appointment that I had, when I went to the doctor to see if it was okay, it just now started healing.
EliYah:
- I see. Well, that's good. So you're finally healing up a little bit. Let's see, in three months, that'll be, let's see, just about right before Passover.
Laura:
- Well, thank goodness.
EliYah:
- Just in time for another feast.
Laura:
- Prayingly, it will be healed, so that I can come to the Passover.
EliYah:
- Just don't wear flip-flops, okay?
Laura:
- I won't.
EliYah:
- Okay. [EliYah and Laura laugh]
Laura:
- And I'll bring a flashlight with me, too.
EliYah:
- That's a good idea.
Laura:
- Even if I don't need it.
EliYah:
- [laughs]
Laura:
- But right now, my baby just finally started walking, and I'm so happy.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah.
Laura:
- 'Cause I don't have to hold her 24/7.
EliYah:
- Uh-huh.
Laura:
- Although when my mama and Jasmine comes home, that's all she wants to be done, is held.
EliYah:
- Uh-huh.
Laura:
- And right now, they're in the requests with [inaudible] healing everybody.
EliYah:
- Oh, really.
Laura:
- Yes, sir.
EliYah:
- Okay. So now your daughter's walked, and you're not walking.
Laura:
- Yeah. [laughs] Kind of flip-flopped on us. [laughs]
EliYah:
- That can be a troublesome thing, especially when you get into things.
Laura:
- Well, actually, I can crawl around though, still.
EliYah:
- Okay.
Laura:
- That's the good thing. Actually, I just now started getting to the point where I can crawl around on my hands and my knees. Because at first, when I first started trying, it would go straight to that bone and kind of like make it to where I could feel the pain again.
EliYah:
- I see.
Laura:
- But now I can crawl around on my hands and my knees when she's walking around or anything, if I need to.
EliYah:
- That's good. Well, at least you can chase her down.
Laura:
- Yeah. [laughs]
EliYah:
- So how's everything else?
Laura:
- Well, let me tell you, my mom is getting more and more stressed. Jasmine needs prayed for.
- My sister Kristen and my sister Ronnie, out of all the people in the family, she needs prayed for a little bit more this time, because of the fact that she just lost her job, and she pretty much is with a guy that I'm literally scared is going to try to kill her.
EliYah:
- Oh.
Laura:
- And that's -- Ronnie's the one that you don't remember. She's the one that doesn't do the Sabbaths or anything, but we're trying to get her back into it.
EliYah:
- Okay.
Laura:
- Jasmine, she needs prayed for, because she was acting up at school and everything, which is why she was homeschooled, so she wouldn't act up at all.
EliYah:
- Uh-huh.
Laura:
- But other than that, my mama, she's in pain a lot. My dad has been worried about my mom and everything. And sometimes I'm scared that something bad is about to happen to her.
EliYah:
- Oh. We're going to pray for her and for Ronnie, you said?
Laura:
- Yes, my sister Ronnie.
EliYah:
- Okay. All right, we'll do that. We've got them on the prayer list here.
Laura:
- Okay. And I just wanted to say Shabbat Shalom to everyone that's listening and to all those who were at the feast, that actually remember me. [laughs]
EliYah:
- Okay. Well, Shabbat Shalom to you. Good to hear from you.
Laura:
- All right, good to hear from you, too.
EliYah:
- Yahweh heal you, in Yahushua's name.
Laura:
- All right.
EliYah:
- All right, goodnight.
Laura:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Or good afternoon. All right, I'm used to the goodnights, because I call -- or answer calls in the evening. But anyway... I believe we have on line two, our brother RJ. Shabbat Shalom, brother.
Gavriel:
- Gavriel, yeah. Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Ah, Gavriel. Sorry.
Gavriel:
- That's okay.
EliYah:
- How are you doing, brother?
Gavriel:
- I'm doing all right. How are you doing?
EliYah:
- I'm doing all right. Yahweh is good, through it all. HalleluYah.
Gavriel:
- HalleluYah. I just wanted to call in and say Shabbat Shalom to everybody. And I'm really glad you went over that in detail today, because that word "dogma" there in Ephesians 2:15, that's the same one that's in Colossians.
EliYah:
- Right.
Gavriel:
- Yeah, you've got the same one in Colossians 2.
EliYah:
- Exactly.
Gavriel:
- I didn't know you had a study on Colossians, but I found it on your website after I dug for awhile. I don't think it's linked off the front page, but I don't know, maybe it is, but...
EliYah:
- It should be.
Gavriel:
- That was a good study, too. Somebody asked me the other day, "What about this one?" And I said, "Well, that doesn't even have the word "law" in there. It doesn't even have it all. It just says "handwriting" as an ordinance.
EliYah:
- Mm-hm.
Gavriel:
- And some people try to say that's what you were talking about.
EliYah:
- Right.
Gavriel:
- And I would just really encourage anybody out there to just study this stuff out, you know? It's the same thing like with Romans 10:4 where it says, in the NIV, it says, "the end of the law," but then the NIV translators, that's the one that's translated "end."
- In Romans 10:4, in Strong's concordance it's G5056, I think. And that one that translate also as fulfill in another place.
- In 1 Peter 1:9, they translate it as "the goal." And it says, "You're now receiving the goal of your salvation, which is your faith."
- And so if they're going to say that Romans 10:4 means it's the end of it, as in it's over with, and that means we don't even need to have faith either, according to 1 Peter 1:9, because it's the same word. It's like saying we're saved, so we don't even have to believe now.
EliYah:
- Right.
Gavriel:
- So I didn't really know about any of this stuff about a year ago. I know a lot of people listen in kind of hear some of this, and you scratch your head, and you wonder what is this guy talking -- speaking truth or not?
EliYah:
- Mm-hm.
Gavriel:
- And I just encourage them to go look it up, because they're not going to discuss this stuff in a Sunday church service.
EliYah:
- No.
Gavriel:
- They'll plow right past this.
EliYah:
- Yeah, especially given the fact that if they did discuss it, then the whole denomination would go down the tubes.
Gavriel:
- Yeah.
EliYah:
- And if they actually adopted it. So...
Gavriel:
- I actually sent out an email to -- well, I got re-immersed in the name of Yahushua, you know, and other people know, too -- not everybody, probably those who listen -- but in June, earlier this year.
- And a few weeks before I made the decision, a few people were asking me about it in emails and stuff, friends and stuff, and then the person who was the evangelist at the church I was going to, they knew I was studying out the laws. That's what I said to them.
- But they didn't really know what was going on, and he emailed me and asked me, and I mentioned that I was getting re-immersed again.
- And he said, "Well, yeah, I'd like to know why." So I sent him the email I sent to the other person, and it has, basically, every single -- that long study you have about the name, every single study about the name.
- I basically compiled all the scriptures in that email to him.
EliYah:
- Mm-hm.
Gavriel:
- And I sent it to him, and all I got back was, "That's a lot to chew on. Get back to you later."
- And that was about six months ago, but I haven't heard back yet. So...
EliYah:
- I see.
Gavriel:
- People don't really want to -- you know, if I went in there and started saying that, they would -- they'd tell me to get out. So for anybody who's listening to this, I encourage you to just don't let people persuade you.
- Let the scriptures persuade you what the truth is. We can't let the world...
EliYah:
- Right, because that is our testimony that's in the scriptures. That's our foundation, not a pope or a pastor or any man leading some group or whatever that's our foundation. It's Yahweh, Yahushua, and the testimony of Yahushua that we have.
- And we've got to build it off of what the scriptures say and not off of what man says. And so that's the difference.
Gavriel:
- Yeah. That one verse that you said today with the established -- we establish the law, what Paul said...
EliYah:
- Right.
Gavriel:
- That sounds like the one that, I think, is in Deuteronomy. I'm not sure. I think it's in like Deuteronomy 27 or verse 26 or somewhere around there. And it says, basically, the same thing.
- It says cursed is the man who does not establish the words of this Torah, or this law.
EliYah:
- Right.
Gavriel:
- And so a lot of times, people take that, and they say, you know, He's establishing a new law, but they don't even -- you know, I didn't even know either. Half the time that He's talking, He's quoting stuff out of the Old Testament, so why would He be against something that He's constantly using to explain His points?
- That wouldn't make any sense either, really.
EliYah:
- Right.
Gavriel:
- So...
EliYah:
- Yeah, why quote from something, if it's an authority to confirm what you're saying -- and that's what Paul did a lot -- if the thing that you're quoting from doesn't bear any weight whatsoever, as far as what's truth.
Gavriel:
- Or as people say in Galatians 4, if it's a weak and miserable principle -- and I used to read that, too, and I thought the same thing, because that's what the NIV says, you know.
- And when I found out that -- and this is actually one thing that caused me to start studying more in depth was that Ephesians 2:15, because I didn't know that existed.
- I didn't even know what e-Sword was or anything. I just used the BibleGateway.com. And when I found out that Ephesians 2:15, that was changed, that kind of, that led me to start studying out these things more, and this was before I started keeping Shabbat.
- And the first Shabbat I kept was in your chat room here, and this was about two weeks before I started doing that, I came across that translation there in Ephesians 2:15, and that really just ticked me off.
- I was angry, to be honest, because I've used the NIV since I was a kid. They told -- you know, the NIV isn't terrible in every location.
- Don't get me wrong. It does a good job in lots of places, but when there's a mistake, there's a mistake.
- And I was just -- when I was a kid, they told us in our church that I grew up in, they said this is the most accurate translation, and they even put it above the King James and everything else.
- And so I grew up with this mentality that the NIV is reliable. And when I found that out, that was like, who are these people teaching me this stuff? You know?
EliYah:
- Yeah.
Gavriel:
- What have I been taught? I need to examine this stuff, because it's not accurate. Something is not adding up here.
EliYah:
- Well, we're called to be researchers and people that are like the Bereans, be willing to search things out and see if what we're being taught is true.
- And we've got to be at a point where we're willing to examine everything that we have believed, and see if, indeed, the scriptures line up with it, both Old and New Testament.
- And most people today -- and I kind of touched on this a little bit last week -- most people today are not founded or grounded in the law and the prophets so much.
- They might think they know Paul or think they know Yahushua's words, but very few people can prove, from the scriptures, that Yahushua is the Messiah, for instance.
Gavriel:
- Yeah, I liked that study. I listened to that before last week, too, because I know that was up there on the transcript page. That's a good study.
EliYah:
- Right. So if we don't even know why He's the Messiah, we just kind of do -- we assume it, because that's what our culture says.
Gavriel:
- Yeah.
EliYah:
- He's the Messiah. But we have to know from the law and the prophets why He is the Messiah.
- When we start to examine those things, then when the New Testament says different things and quotes different things from the Old Testament, and things like that, then we're going to understand what's being said, not only in the Old Testament.
- We'll understand what's being spoken in the New Testament, because the Old Testament is the underpinning or basis upon which everything written in the New Testament is written.
- If there was no Elohim that created the heavens and the earth, then why are we even worried about any of these things in the New Testament.
Gavriel:
- Yeah.
EliYah:
- So there's an underlying teaching that we need to be stable in.
Gavriel:
- I think one of the things that I didn't understand, that I only started understanding about a month or two before I started keeping Shabbat was I had this picture that --I called Him God -- I had this picture that God, that Elohim, that Yahweh changed, that Yahweh was this way back then, and now He's evolving with the times or something like that.
- I didn't say that verbally, but that's what my -- and I realized, I started studying it out, and then you have verses like 1 Samuel 15:29, and it says:
1Samuel 15:29 - And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.- Yahweh is not like a man that He should change. And then there's a bunch of other ones. I started studying out who is this God that I'm worshiping? Who is this Creator? And I realized I don't even know who this person is.
EliYah:
- Well, there is a man named Marcion, who lived in the second century, who basically -- he was rejected by the Christians at the time, but their doctrines were kind of influenced by this man.
- Now, you notice today that even though Paul's writings only make up five percent of the Bible, by volume, that Christianity, as a whole, places a tremendous amount of emphasis on that five percent.
- But Paul Himself said he did not fail to declare to them the whole counsel of Yahweh. And so there's certain parts of the scriptures which are ignored and neglected.
- And so this belief the people have about Paul -- and Paul this, and everything is about Paul -- all this kind of focus that there is toward Paul, you're going to have an unbalanced view of what Yahweh is trying to teach us, because you're just listening to five percent of the Word.
Gavriel:
- See, and I didn't even have that kind of a focus on Paul. I think the reason why I was lost for so long is, number one, I didn't know the Old Testament at all and what it said, but it's not that I was against it, because my favorite book, even before I believed in keeping Torah, was Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.
- I've always read Proverbs since I was young. For some reason, I always liked it. Maybe Yahweh put that in me, because one thing that kept me going towards the truth is the Proverb that says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."
- And so I would always say to other people, you know, this might seem right, but I might be on the wrong path. And they were like, "Nah, you're fine. You're doing okay."
EliYah:
- Uh-huh.
Gavriel:
- But I was, I was lost. And so maybe that Proverb kind of saved me in a way.
EliYah:
- Well, what happened -- I don't mean to interrupt you. I was trying to explain that the man named Marcion, he believed -- if you can just bear with me here.
- He believed that all of the Old Testament and -- even including Yahushua's words and everything He taught -- he believed that the Old Testament deity was a completely different deity than the one in the New Testament.
- He believed that anything that had to do with Jewish this or Jewish that -- and he created his own Bible. And of this Bible, he stripped out anything that looked Jewish, and anything that had any mention whatsoever of the Old Testament.
Gavriel:
- What was this guy's name?
EliYah:
- His name was Marcion.
Gavriel:
- Marcion?
EliYah:
- Yeah. Now, he lived in the second half, like 150 AD, somewhere around there, and he believed that the Old Testament ought to be rejected, because it belonged to this inferior Elohim, not the one revealed by Yahushua.
- And so even though most of Christianity rejected him as a heretic, his influence remains to this day, and it's a heavy emphasis on Paul and so on.
- But Paul's writings are hard to be understood in some places, as we've illustrated today. And so they are something which Peter said can be twisted to someone's own destruction.
- And so that's something that ought to raise a little red flag, if we're putting a whole lot of emphasis on Paul's writings to say that the law is abolished, because it's not the commandment keepers who are going to be destroyed, brought to destruction. It's the commandment breakers.
- And so that undue emphasis on Paul and this belief that, "The Old Testament is not for me and only Paul is for me" -- and I've actually met people who believe that, actually.
- They don't even follow Matthew, Mark, Luke, John or anything. They only follow -- actually, they only follow Luke, because Luke apparently wrote to Greeks, supposedly.
Gavriel:
- Oh, boy.
EliYah:
- And they only follow Paul. [EliYah and Gavriel laugh] And I just about came unglued. I couldn't hardly believe it. And they said, "Because we're Gentiles, and Paul only wrote to Gentiles, and so, therefore..."
Gavriel:
- Oh, my gosh.
EliYah:
- "Everything that James wrote or Peter wrote, or whatever, doesn't apply to me."
- So there's just all kinds of confusion out there, but it's all one book! It's all one sweet, beautiful, unified Word of truth.
Gavriel:
- Well, even when I didn't believe in the things I believe in now, I still recognized that -- even I said years ago, before I knew about any of this, before I knew about the names of the Messiah and the Father.
- Even then I told people, I said, well, they're using -- clearly, in some places I knew they were using the Old Testament, the Tanakh to teach. And I said, well, if they're using it, then we can use it, too.
- So I always looked at it as a place for wisdom. I just never understood. I was confused. I guess I was convinced by the New Testament things, Mark 7:19 and all the other ones, that, well, things are just different now, you know.
- It's different times. We need different things. And all that idea. He doesn't change with the times, though. A hundred years from now, when people are acting different than they are today, is there going to be some kind of new Elohim that's going to come around?
- I never really asked myself those questions. But sit there and ask yourself, anybody out there listening. Is there going to be a new God 100 years from now when there's people who are different then, too?
EliYah:
- Right.
Gavriel:
- Probably not. And I didn't think about that, but that makes a big difference on how you look at things. It really does.
EliYah:
- Mm-hm, absolutely.
Gavriel:
- So it kind of changed my whole perspective.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah for the truth.
Gavriel:
- Yeah.
EliYah:
- And that we are able to see the things we see. I'm sure that there's other things that we don't yet see that we need to see.
Gavriel:
- Yeah.
EliYah:
- And just keep our eyes open for them.
Gavriel:
- We've got to constantly keep repenting, because even after we've come to understand the basics, then we've still got to be perfected. We can't just stop and say, "Well, I've arrived, I'm here."
EliYah:
- Right.
Gavriel:
- That's what Shabbat is for though. It's to be re-energized, refreshed. I love that saying. I don't know who said it first, but I heard somebody say, "As you keep the Shabbat, the Shabbat keeps you."
- And I think about that every week, when it gets close to sundown on Fridays. I think, "Praise Yahweh." The rest of the world is out there running around like crazy, and I get to rest for an entire day.
EliYah:
- HalleluYah.
Gavriel:
- So halleluYah. Well, Shabbat Shalom to everybody, and it's great talking to you, EliYah, and thanks for the message. As always, I love just getting back to the basics, and it helps me out to just refresh my mind, and so thank you very much, and bless you and your family.
- And Shabbat Shalom to everybody.
EliYah:
- Praise Yahweh. Good to hear from you, brother. Shabbat Shalom to you.
Gavriel:
- Shabbat Shalom.
EliYah:
- Brother Gavriel from Ohio, joined us for the feast this year, always a blessing to talk to him. Praise Yahweh for His goodness to all of us, in showing us the things He has shown us, and we need to keep humble in these areas, don't we, and not get so puffed up.
- That's what knowledge does if we're not careful, because the key is not in what we know; it's in what we do with what we do know.
- And the key is not to know everything, but to be known by Him. And if we think we know anything, we know not yet as we ought to know. Right? HalleluYah.
- All right, I think that's the last of our phone calls today. I've got a couple of more questions that came through, we're going to address after this next song.
- If you have any prayer requests, let them be made known, as well, and we'll get to those a little later in the broadcast, as we close out the broadcast today in prayer.
- And speaking of our foundation, this next song from the Feast of Tabernacles.
- [Music: "I Lay In Zion" and "Consider the Lilies"]
EliYah:
- HalleluYah, amein. Yahweh takes such good care of us. HalleluYah! He is the greatest servant of all, is He not? Amein. All right, we had a few questions here. One of them was about Paul.
Q. How do we know that what Paul wrote originally is what we read now? We don't even have the original writings.
EliYah:
- We could probably say that about every Bible verse from Genesis to Revelation. How do we know that what Moshe wrote originally is what we read now? Or what Yahushua spoke is what was intended to be understood? We can go in all kinds of directions.
- But Yahweh has shown an uncanny ability to preserve His Word pretty well -- at least to the extent that you're not going to get thrown off into some kind of wild doctrine that's not true.
- And, yes, there have been some, maybe some changes here and there. Other than the sacred name begin removed from the text in the New Testament, my studies of the different texts that are out there reveal that there are very few variance, textual variance that have anything significant, as far as any bearing on what we believe.
- And even in the variants themselves, there can be a reasonable explanation of those variants, to the extent they would not contradict other scripture.
- So I think we're looking at a pretty reliable set of manuscripts here, that we can look to and gain truth from; especially when Yahweh's Holy Spirit, His Ruach HaKodesh, is leading us.
- All right.
Q. Somebody asked, when should a person be circumcised?
EliYah:
- That is up to the individual. If and when Yahweh chooses to lead the person, then they should follow that leading.
Q. And somebody asked about, when somebody asks me what religion I am, what church do I attend, what do I say?
EliYah:
- That's always a tough question, isn't it? I like to say I'm just a disciple of Yahushua. I follow the way. I follow the scriptures to the best of my understanding. I don't believe there's a difference between what Yahweh told us to do in the Old Testament or the New Testament, that we want to follow at all.
- We've found that there's no contradictions between the Old and New Testament, and so we follow the whole Word.
- And kind of leave it at that, and that usually prompts a question or two. And then we get to take the opportunity to explain.
- We believe in keeping the Ten Commandments, for instance. The Ten Commandments say the seventh day is the Sabbath, and so that's what we do.
- We've found that the tradition has been changed. It's not a Bible verse that tells us anywhere it's been changed.
- We're more interested in following the Bible, than we are tradition.
- And that usually prompts a question or two. So, you know, we can respond in such a way that people ask questions, and then we can share our understandings. All right. And I think that is all the questions I see here there. If there were others -- oh.
Q. Somebody asked about the winter solstice. What is the winter solstice?
EliYah:
- Well, that's the moment when the sun -- we're orbiting around the sun, right? That's the moment when the northern hemisphere is the furthest from the sun, and the sun begins to make its trek backwards.
- Actually, the earth hits that point in its orbit of the sun where the sun starts moving more toward the northern hemisphere. So you'll notice that our sunset times from now on, starting after this week, will start to get a little bit earlier in the day -- or, I'm sorry, a little bit later in the day.
- And right now, they're pretty early. At least, here it's -- I think it's 4:52 or something.
- So, anyway, you'll notice that the days are going to start getting longer from this point on.
Q. But as a relevant matter concerning Christmas, is it a time in pagan roots or background to make them go together?
EliYah:
- Absolutely. It's almost every pagan sun god ever was supposedly born on December 25th. So the reason for that is because the sun started to come back, and so they, "Oh, it's a new god's birthday," in their attempt to arrive at human reasoning to explain the way things are.
- And as a result, they had festivals and all kinds of things to celebrate this new god being born. And it just so happens that Yahushua somehow got mixed in there with them, and Christianity says, "Oh, that's when Ieosus Christos was born."
- Oh! I just shudder to think that anybody can say something like that, like we had to borrow their birthdays or something.
- But anyway, that very topic, if you go to the transcripts, EliYah.com/transcripts, you will notice that there is a study on the Christmas issue.
- I'd encourage you to listen to that study or read it there on the transcripts page.
Q. Somebody asked, can I address why 2 Samuel 24, it says how Yahweh moved David to number the Israelites, but in 1 Chronicles 21:1, it says that Satan moved David to number the Israelites.
EliYah:
- So let's look at those two verses. I don't know what the verses are offhand. I remember studying this out, though, one time.
- The anger of Yahweh was aroused against Israel, so he wanted to judge them for some kind of wrongdoing.
- And so He allowed Satan, who like what we see in the book of Job -- I can picture Satan saying, "Oh, I'm going to -- these people are doing all these wrong things, and let me go and do this thing to David," the same way he did to Job and bring calamity.
- In this case, He moved -- Yahweh allowed Satan -- took away the hedge of protection -- allowed Satan to tempt David to number Israel, which was a sin.
- But you'll notice what came out of that was that the angel of Yahweh stopped at the threshing floor of a particular man's house. His name escapes me at the moment. And that was the place where the temple was built.
- So He took the negative and made some kind of positive, as He likes to do all the time. He obviously moved Satan to go against Yahushua, too, but he used that for an awesome thing, as well, didn't He?
- But Satan cannot do anything without Yahweh's permission. And sometimes Yahweh will allow calamity to come upon our life as a spanking, as a judgment against us and some kind of punishment.
- And for some reason, Yahweh was not pleased with the way things were going there in 2 Samuel 24:1.
- All right, I hope that answers it -- at least it's to my satisfaction. If it's not, maybe you can research some more. I can look at it some more, as well.
- The temple was built at the threshing floor. Let's see, I can find the verse for you. There's his name, Araunah. 2 Samuel 24:18, start at verse 17:
2Samuel 24:17 - And David spake unto YAHWEH when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house.
2Samuel 24:18 - And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto YAHWEH in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.- And that ended up being the place where the temple was built. And it's kind of interesting, because David said, "Let this sin be upon me and my father's house."
EliYah:
- HalleluYah. Indeed, halleluYah. Yahweh be magnified. At this time, we'd like to prepare our hearts for prayer.
Q. In the meantime, somebody asked a question about working for nonbelievers. Is that like submitting to bondage, and should we be working with each other for our sake and for Yahweh's praise?
EliYah:
- I think, ideally, we would want to work with one another and not with someone else who is an unbeliever. But sometimes working with unbelievers can produce fruit in regards to being able to proclaim Yahweh's ways.
- So I think the ideal situation would be to not be under someone else's yoke in that way and to be sure that we're working with brethren. That would be the ideal thing.
Q. Somebody asked is it okay to work at McDonald's and serve people swine or to work as a pizza delivery person delivering swine and shellfish for people to eat?
EliYah:
- I could not do that in good conscience myself. That would be like working at some kind of business that's making money off of sin, and I just couldn't do it. I wouldn't want to participate in that.
- Now, that doesn't mean you can't work for a company that happens to have sinful people in it, but they want you to participate in selling things that bring people to sin, that would be another matter altogether.
- So that's where I'm at on that. Yahweh lead each one of us according to His will. And I got your prayer request, Brother Yahusef about employment.
- The song is by Steve McConnell, and it's called Yom Kippur. I don't remember the name of the album that we just played, but it's a good song. We enjoy it, and a lot of people do. I do share that often here in the room for that reason. It's good preparation for prayer, I think.
- [Prayer Service Withheld]
EliYah:
- Thank you, brethren. Good to be with you once again this Shabbat afternoon. Yahweh bless you, keep you. As you go once more to enter the work week, may His Spirit be in you, in such a way, to draw all men to Himself.
- We love you all. Yahweh bless you all. Shabbat Shalom to your homes.
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