Guest Blogger!!! "Why I'm Glad I Didn't Become a Pastor" By: Steve Sherer



Steve and his wife Kelsea:)



My good friend Steve Sherer is good at three things: running, making cute babies, and writing! Author of "Spiked Up: Ready to Run", Steve ran his way to the Olympic Trial Finals and became the 2nd fastest runner in Michigan History. Here is his essay:

"Why I'm Glad I Didn't Become a Pastor"

Most people hear 10 Commandments and immediately think of Charlton Heston and his famous Hollywood movie.  But do people today really understand them?  I didn’t understand a lot of them until recently, and I have been raised in the ‘church’.  Recently, I discovered a very scary one that has been misrepresented for years!  The third commandment says:

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain Exodus 20:7

Which I and maybe you took as, don't just throw around the name in common talk.  Luckily, most people do not know the correct, original Name of the Messiah and the Creator!  So it’s difficult to actually break this law in the way we translate it today.  But here's a different translation of the verse based on the Hebrew words:

nasa'  (do not take up) shem ( the name)  Yĕhovah (the LORD)  elohiym (God) shav' (emptiness in speech: Lying, vanity, falsehood) for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that nasa'  (take up) his name in shav' (emptiness in speech: Lying, vanity, falsehood)

So to put it together it may be more accurately represented as, " Do not take up the name of Yĕhovah Elohim to spread lies; for Yĕhovah will not hold him guiltless that uses HIS name to spread lies."

This verse becomes scary to me to think back all the times I or others I know might have used, “Well God said….”  Or “God doesn’t care if…” or anything like that referring to what the scriptures say!  I truly repent of that action and encourage others to do likewise. 

It’s also scary for teachers of the scriptures.  If you are teaching others how to walk with Yahovah, you’d BETTER know what HE is telling HIS people.  The Scriptures are closed for interpretation; they should be deciphered.  This is probably a common problem for speakers that can talk an hour about one or two verses.  Is it really possible to NOT move from the original meaning if you talk about all the different ways a single verse or two can apply to us?  Instead of interpretations, teachers should strive for deciphering EXACTLY what the scriptures/Yah’s Word says in the original intent.  This could entail all of the following:

• Who was it spoken to? And why was he saying it them?
• In the original Language, what did it say?
• How does the one verse match with the WHOLE LETTER!  They didn’t write these books in chapters and verses, it was one big letter.  To get the meaning of a single verse; one must put it in context of the entire chapter or could be in error.
• Is the verse a quote from the only scriptures they had at the time?  If so, you then need to go back and find out what point was being made in the book the quoted verse was taken from.
• Perhaps the biggest mistake people make today is found in 2 Peter 3:15-16 – “…and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”  Does this mean we have to have a post graduate degree to understand the scriptures? Of course not! He was a fisherman, so I doubt he was talking IQ smack; he is clearly talking about people being unlearned and unstable in the Scriptures here (no offense to fishermen, I am a big time fisher, but it’s more skill than head knowledge).  And again, the only Scriptures he could have been talking about here was the first 39, the last 27 were not out yet.  Most people hove no foundation in the Tanakh (first 39) so they twist the scriptures to their own destruction. Peter also says, We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:19-20)

We do not have a strong base in the Tanakh, but yet we dive into a books and letters about them.  This is like having a map, without any idea of where you are going or where you are to begin with.  What is the VERY first word the Messiah said to everybody once HE returned from the Desert?  REPENT or Shüv in Hebrew. Repent means literally to turn back, to return, and to restore.  When the Israelites heard this, they would have no question as to what it meant: turn back to The Creator’s ways, stop adding to it or taking away from it, and GO BACK to the Torah/Covenant.   The religious leaders of the day had added so much to the Word that some probably just gave up trying.  (I’m guessing they chose one law and had long talks about them in all different ways it could mean to them)  The Messiah had some choice words for them…

Today, does anybody have any idea how many denominations of Christianity there are currently around the world?  1000?  3000?  5000??  Not even close.  Ten years ago we had 33,820 denominations in Christianity alone; not including ones with less followers than a hundred.  We probably have many more by now.  This statistic should scare ANY Christian to wonder, “HOW?! WHY?!”  I think Peter said it best that “the unlearned people twist Paul’s difficult writings to their own destruction” when they break the 3rd commandment. 

So that being said, I admire the courage pastors have taking on this responsibility.  I strongly considered becoming a pastor a while back in College.  But am very glad I do not have to consider losing my lively hood if I do not speak biblical truth to itching ears.

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing [dabar.(word, speech)]: but the honor of kings to search out[chaqar(examine thouroughly)] a matter [dabar.(word, speech)] Pr 25:2

                                                                                                  

Sunburn-Part Two-The Rise of Anti-Semitism

"Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards."

-Soren Kierkegaard

I would say there are two superstars most revered by the modern day Christian. Jesus, of course, and in my opinion, Paul. Paul, the author of most of the New Testament, was pretty cool for several reasons, but that is not the topic of today's post. Today, we're going to talk about replacement theology, or rather, how much of the church today is the way it is as a result of the titanic influence tradition has had upon it. Paul has something to do with it however. 

The most famous of Socrates' students was Plato who, after Socrates died, opened his own school where Aristotle would become its most famous pupil. Obviously, all three of these guys were extremely influential and I think they still are. Nevertheless, fast forward to the time of Christ: Gentile believers at the time were heavily influenced by this Greek philosophy. 

Now, Paul was going to preach to the Greeks who were obviously worshipping other gods...like ZUES? We are all familiar with at least some greek gods, I think, thanks to movies like HERCULES! Anyhow, in 1 Corinthians, Paul says, "To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to men, that I might by all means save some."

Now, what Paul is saying here is that in order to convert some of the Greeks, he was going to use Greek philosophy. Obviously, this wasn't the best idea he ever had, and luckily Paul did change his mind about it later. However, at the time, Paul thought this would work.

So there Paul was, in Athens, where everyone was worshipping a bunch of different gods and discussing philosophy. Paul hung out in the synagogue and the marketplace everyday trying to tell anyone who would listen about Yeshua (Jesus). One day, a couple of Stoic and Epicurean philosophers bumped into him there. Naturally, they thought he was a bum. "What does this babbler want to say?" They said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods!" 

[Note: Epicureans were a lot like buddhists in that they believed the best way to be happy is to not want anything. Wanting things leads to pain. This group had a large influence on Christianity. Think of priests/nuns not marrying? Monasteries? Stoics, on the other hand, believed there was no universal criterion of truth. They said truth was based, not on reason, but feeling and the best way to live was in moderation.]

It's safe to assume that Paul read all of these different kinds of philosophy. When he was preaching, he often used some of it! Check it out: 

In Acts 17:22-28 Paul says ..."for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'"

Here, Paul is QUOTING Aratus from Cicilia (300 BC)! From his poem the "Phaenomena." 

"Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zues. For we are indeed his offspring..."

Interesting! Paul is a wee bit of a plagiarist! Here's another example:

Tit 1:12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.

Here, Paul was quoting Epimenides of Knossos who, when writing about Zues, said "They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one. The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!"

(The 'lie' of the Cretans was that Zeus was mortal.)

Here's another:

1 Corinthians 15:33 "Do not be decieved: 'Evil company corrupts good habits.'" 

There, Paul is quoting the playwright Menander! 

Oh Paul. YHWH is SO not the same as Zeus! He had good intentions, though. He wanted to be all things to all people, but it's kind of like quoting the Qur'an to teach about the Torah. Allah is SO not the same as YHWH either. But I digress.

Paul comes to his senses later when he says, "My mission from Christ was not to baptize, but to tell the good news; not, however, in the language of philosophy lest the cross of Christ should be robbed of its meaning..." 

The mistake Paul made is an example of what this post is going to discuss: replacement theology. 

Let me elaborate. 

When the Roman Catholic church originated, it was the end of the persecution of Christians and the beginning of discrimination and persecution of the Jews which continued throughout history. Tertullian said that God had rejected the Jews in favor of the Christians. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, declared, "Jews are disinherited from the grace of God." 

This is just the BEGINNING. 

In the 4th century, Eusebius wrote that the promises of the 'Hebrew' Scriptures (the Torah) were for Christians, not the Jews, and the curses were for the Jews. He said the church was the Old Testament continued and that superseded Judaism. 

Remember the Council of Nicea? They wrote, "In rejecting [Jewish] custom, we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter; we ought not therefore have anything in common with the Jew, for the savior has shown us another way."

Uh, really? When was THAT? 

They continue, "Our worship following a more legitimate and convenient course...to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jew. For it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast...For to celebrate passover twice in one year, is totally inadmissible. But even if this were not so, it would still be your duty not to tarnish your soul by communication with such wicked people." 

Remember Martin Luther? He wrote a book called, "The Jews and their Lies." Here's a bit of it:

"I shall give you my sincere advice: First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn....Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues..." This goes on and on! Look it up. 

In 1492, Jews were kicked out of Spain. If they converted to Christianity, they could stay but they could not keep a Torah scroll or keep the sabbath. If a Jew was caught keeping a sabbath or with a Torah scroll, they would take the ENTIRE TOWN, (including women and children) lock them in a synagogue and burn them alive!  All the while singing Christian worship songs! 

The problem with all of this, besides the OBVIOUS violence and despicable ignorance, is that the church rejected the Torah, writing off its commandments as 'Jewish' customs that were beneath the new Christian ones, in the name of Christ no less! Replacement theology. 

God's greatest commandment is IN the Torah! "...you shall love the LORD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart." (Deut. 6:4-8)

Remember when Christ said in John, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE."? 

Check this out:

Psalm 119:1 Blessed are the undefiled in the WAY, who walk in the LAW (TORAH) of the Lord."

Psalm 119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy LAW(TORAH) is the TRUTH.

Prov. 13:14 The LAW(TORAH) of the wise is a fountain of LIFE, to depart from the snares of death. 

The Torah is the way, the truth, and the life. Yeshua (Jesus) was the Torah in the FLESH. He taught it, Paul taught it, and the early church rejected it associating it with the Jews! Henceforth, the church today is more Roman Catholic than anything else! We keep pagan holidays over the feasts of the Lord because we think the feasts are Jewish, when YHWH commanded us to keep these feasts before Judaism even existed.

Now the interesting thing is, most of us have a copy of the Torah. It's in the bible! We just don't really pay attention to a lot of it. Sure, we like the stories, Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark...but we have no idea that we are still supposed to be DOING what it SAYS. We think that the ten commandments are the only instructions in the Torah and as a result we miss out on a LOT. 

I would even go so far as to say that the separation of the "Judaism" in the bible from Christianity is why Christianity doesn't make any sense to the believer who decides to dig a little deeper beyond what they learned in Sunday school. We learned it wrong, we teach it wrong, and as a result, no one believes in it anymore. You simply can't understand the New Testament without the Old. 

I'm just laying the GROUNDWORK! 

Keep reading! I'm going to go in depth about modern church customs, where they originated and a lot more! 

Ashley

Cool space stuff!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile! The holidays and other misadventures have been keeping me pretty busy.

I still am preparing the next few blog posts, but I know I need to give my readers SOMETHING to nibble on!

As you guys know, my goal is to learn Hebrew. At least to learn how to read biblical Hebrew which will easily cut out a LOT of time spent book-juggling in order to translate a single word! I am, however, learning letters here and there, and since EVERY letter is significant in the Hebrew text, you can learn a lot about just one.

If you didn't know, our alphabet comes from the Hebrew alphabet. Alef-bet! Alphabet! I might elaborate on this further in the future, but for now, I want to introduce you to the 'tav', the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

                                           The TAV:

This is what it looks like in the bible. However, in ANCIENT Hebrew, it looked like this:

Kind of like our 't', huh? 

Allow me to elaborate. Original Hebrew wasn't quite a language the way we understand language today. It was a PICTURE language. The Old Testament was literally written with a bunch of little drawings so that the people could understand the meaning. It evolved into the more elaborate biblical Hebrew that is read today. 

Now, 'tav' means "to seal, to covenant, a MARK." You could even go so far as to say it's God's signature. When the bible talks about 'signs' and God's covenant with his people, you will surely find a tav in that word. 

Now check this out:

This is called the 'Whirlpool Galaxy.' It was discovered in 1774 by Charles Messier. Pretty, huh? These days, we have the technology to photograph the center of that whirlpool. Below is a photo taken  by the Hubble telescope. 

Behold the tav in SPACE! A sign, a covenant, a mark, God's signature. 


Pretty awesome? Yeah. Now, many Christians think that this is a sign of hope because they immediately see the cross upon which Jesus died. That's great! But it's even cooler when you discover that this letter existed and had a LOT of meaning beforehand and actually made Yeshua dying on a cross ALL THE MORE significant. A cross, the letter 't', had meaning hundreds of years before the death of Christ. About 500 years before to be more exact. 


Many of us believe that the sun exists for light and heat. That is obviously true, but YHWH created the sun and the moon and the stars to be SIGNALS before anything else. 


Check out Genesis 1:14


And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them SERVE AS SIGNS to mark seasons and days and years."


The Hebrew word for sign is 'Oth' which means 'in the sense of appearing, a SIGNAL.' 


When we read that in English, we MISS the true meaning! The number one reason God put the sun in the sky was for SIGNALS. Then for 'SEASONS' which in the Hebrew translation actually means 'appointed times'. NOT fall, winter, spring and summer, but appointments that God made to meet with his people. Like the sabbath and the feasts. Now would be a great time to read my post about the feasts and if you would like to, CLICK HERE. Not only does YHWH promise to meet with us on those days, he also has used them throughout history to signal those following him of what is coming. But that is more for another day! Stay tuned! And ask away if you have any questions!


Love,


Ashley

Lost dogs

Everyday, my mom and I go on the same walk. We have to drive to get to this particular road so we load the dogs into the back of the car and drive a few minutes down the street so we can walk undisturbed down this pretty country road. 


Today, after we finished, we pulled into the driveway and my mom asked me to get the mail. I headed to the mailbox and she went inside. 


It was only a moment after I walked in the house, mail in hand, that I noticed the absence of jingling collars. "Did you let the dogs in?" I asked. Absent-mindedly, my mom told me they were still outside. "Mom, they don't have their boundary collars on!" I said, worried about my new pup. I didn't trust her not to run away quite yet. "Oh, they'll be there," she replied. 


My dad and I, both much more concerned, called for them. When they didn't come, the panic set in. I pulled my boots back on and went outside calling for them. I remembered the last time this happened, I had found Bella in the middle of a swamp. I had to put on my big rubber boots and fish her out of pond sludge three feet deep. 

Bella

In the winter, I had no idea what sort of things could happen. My mind raced, thinking about soft spots on the lake where they could fall through the ice, crazy drivers on icy roads, hillbilly hunters in the woods that would mistake Bella for a deer... 

Maya

I got into my car to conduct a proper search. As I went to turn the ignition I glanced over at my mom's car and saw my puppy, Maya, staring at me from the driver's seat. 


We had never let the dogs out of the car.


I jumped out and opened the doors to let them out. By that time, my mom had her boots on too and was calling for the dogs in the front yard. 


"MOM! You never let them out of the car!" I yelled.
"You were supposed to!" She yelled back.


We argued back and forth over who was the bigger ditz for a couple of minutes then both resigned. Mom went back to baking and I sat down to write. 


What a perfect example, I thought. Here we were going berserk looking everywhere for our dogs who were right where we started all along. Similarly, people are desperately seeking meaning to their lives, trying to find their purpose, all the while arguing back and forth about who's right, who's wrong when typically they both are in one way or another.  


Admittedly, finding the truth is not as simple as just going back where you started. Centuries of misplaced doctrine has been assigned to our generation by the Greeks, Romans, as well as generations of depraved and self-serving religious leaders who all have turned faith into a game of telephone. He said do this and she said do that. No wonder people are fed up with the idea of a higher power. Even those that believe still follow the misguided dogma of those who came before them.


I walked through the halls of the church I grew up in yesterday where I saw balloons lining the halls reading 'Happy Birthday' in honor of the Christmas season as if Christmas is a big birthday party for Jesus. I couldn't help but be so FRUSTRATED. This is not a personal attack on my church, or the people who attend it, but if we are going to believe in Christ, shouldn't we KNOW that his birthday is not on December 25th? I learned that in high school! But furthermore, shouldn't we know Christ's ACTUAL birthday (the Feast of Tabernacles) and celebrate it as such instead of a pagan day on which Jews were shamelessly persecuted throughout history? 


All I saw when I looked at those balloons were more generations of people who would undoubtedly find holes in the faith that they depend on. I saw the kids who would grow up like me, believing and then being disappointed when the God they were told about didn't make ANY sense. When the stupid rules that the church set in place would become too much of a burden to bear and prayers would slowly grow silent, suffocated by disbelief. 


But all the while, we know there has to be something. We are not just here to live, have babies and die, are we? We are animals, yes, but mankind is undeniably set apart in the sense that we question our meaning. 


Bill Muehlenberg, author of 'The Unbearable Heaviness of Being', wrote, "Announcing, and believing, that God is dead has consequences. And it is we who suffer the most for it. We cannot bear the whole universe on our shoulders. We were not meant to. We must let God be God. Only then can men be men. Only then can we find the way forward to be possible, and the burdens not insurmountable."


This was true, at least for me, when I declared in my own heart that there was no God. I needed something, though. I read countless books on philosophy and buddhism, trying to find a way to live without God and also, peaceably. I meditated, sometimes for hours. I searched for ways to discredit the bible and ignorantly spouted off statistics and biblical mistranslations, mainly to piss off my devout Christian parents. 


I said a lot of stupid things back then, but I was right about one of them. Religion is, in large part, terribly misguided and the bible mistranslated. I knew there had to be a God, but I knew that the God of the modern day Christian church could not be plausible. 


Amazingly, like my "lost dogs," I found the answers where it all began: the bible. 


Painfully obvious, right? Let me explain. 


My bible study no longer consists of a colorful book full of feelings and an NIV. The books I use are bigger and heavier then all the ones I used in college put together! I often need two or three just to work through a page or two of scripture. I have a copy of the bible in its original Hebrew and Greek and I have to use several other books to slowly pick through and properly translate the passages. I research the history and context of what is being written as well why it was included in the cannon of scripture in the first place. 


What I have found would BLOW your MIND. You see, we miss the coolest parts of the bible simply because we read it in English. We misunderstand these translations further in our ignorance of the Hebrew culture and human history in general. When we study it in the original Hebrew, there are countless prophecies that have already come to pass, hidden meanings and words that in Hebrew are FAR BEYOND coincidence, but are lost in translation. Sometimes, I get CHILLS because it's so CREEPILY accurate. 


There is more than enough within the bible alone to prove its scientific and historic accuracy, as well as a TON of supporting evidence outside of it. You just have to dig! You can't just pop in a tape or read a book and believe that that person knows what they're talking about just because they're a pastor. The bible has been taught incorrectly for too long. We need to see for ourselves. We need to go back to the beginning! 


Now, I realize that not all of you are willing to bury yourselves under a pile of books that weigh forty pounds everyday for fun. Who has time for that?!


I'll tell you who: THIS GIRL! 


I am studying everyday so that I can give my readers the most accurate historical accounts of the bible as well as the truth about what it says in its original form. And I have an AMAZING group of women here who have been such a huge help to me in so many ways; (Special thanks to Kelly Greene and Donna Corker who have been an ENORMOUS help, both in freely providing me with costly research tools as well teaching me how to use them! HOW will I ever thank you?) 


Also, I apologize if parts of this blog come off as being offensive. I don't mean to attack the church or the people who go to church. I can only speak the truth as I see it, and the what I have found is that the truth is not what the church has been telling me. 


I've made it my mission to question ALL that the church has taught me, sift the truth from the garbage, and write about it in this blog. 


I hope that what I find helps you as much as it helped me.


Love,


Ashley 




Do YOU want to know the truth about Christmas? Click HERE! 


If you would like to learn about Christ's real birthday as well as the actual holidays God called us to celebrate, click HERE! 


Finally if you would like to read more about why I started this blog, click HERE!

'Nudity and Liquor?' 'Tis the Season!--Exploring the history of Christmas

No one loves the holidays more than my dad. He starts listening to Christmas carols in early November and won't stop until mid-January. He watches 'A Christmas Story' on repeat (including the special features) so watching the movie with him is not unlike VH1's Pop-Up Video with all of the useless trivia he just can't help but share as we watch. "Did you know this movie was filmed in OHIO?!?!" "No, dad. That's awesome." He can quote 'The Grinch' verbatim and drinks Egg Nog like his life depends on it.

However, my dad, like so many people, are unaware of where Christmas came from. I think most of us know just from history class that Christmas was not the actual the date of Christ's birth. SO when did we decide to celebrate Christmas on December 25th? Where did Santa come from? What about caroling? Christmas trees?

Christmas originated in the Roman Catholic church. (Now may be a good time to read my post about Constantine, the Roman Emperor who founded the Roman Catholic church!)

Christmas was originally the holiday of Saturnalia, a week-long party that began December 17th and lasted until the 25th. This was no ordinary holiday party. In fact, during this week, Roman law actually forbid punishing those who damaged property or hurt people. It was literally out-of-control.

Every year, each Roman community would choose a victim to represent the "Lord of Misrule." They would force the person to eat and drink themselves sick, then at the week's end, the people would brutally murder him/her. That wasn't all; nearly everyone would get drunk and many other atrocities would occur such as human sacrifices and rape. It probably wouldn't be a party that anyone today would be interested in going to, but I think most of us know that the Romans were pretty sick people just from watching 'Gladiator.'

The Roman Catholic church figured that blending pagan and Christian holidays would make it easier for them to convert the pagans to Christianity since most of them were unwilling to give up Saturnalia. Of course, there was nothing Christian about Saturnalia, so religious leaders decided to name the last day of the festival, December 25th, Jesus' birthday. Of course, this did nothing to stop the debauchery during this festival.

Not that they really wanted to. In fact, Pope Paul II revived some of Saturnalia's traditions of singing naked in the streets (the early form of Christmas caroling) by forcing the Jews to run naked through the streets of Rome. During the Saturnalia festivals throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, rabbis were forced to wear clown costumes as they walked through the streets while spectators threw things at them.

Happy birthday Jesus.

And considering that Jesus WAS a Jew, there was NO WAY he would have condoned these festivities given that they have historically been days of shame, torture, rape and murder for the Jewish people. Jesus celebrated Chanukah! But more on that later.

Thankfully, Christmas looks a little different these days. Especially in Michigan, getting naked to go sing outside people's houses would no doubt end up in some serious frostbite.

Unfortunately, the traditions that go hand in hand with the holidays (Christmas trees, mistletoe, Santa Claus) are also of a pagan origin.

Santa Claus? He was based on a real person, Saint Nicolas (named a saint in the 19th century) who was born in Turkey and later became Bishop of Myra. What's interesting is that he was on the Council of Nicaea with Constantine!

After his death, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones to Italy where a cult formed. Members of this cult gave one another gifts during an annual pageant  on the day of Nicholas' death on December 6th.

The cult spread to German and Celtic nations where it was adopted and assimilated into their worship of Woden, their chief god, who had a long white beard and flew through the skies on a horse. The amalgamation of the two birthed St. Nick and eventually the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he distributed gifts on the 25th of December, rather than the 6th.

Add a few years of influential literature and some ad campaigns and Santa Claus was BORN. In 1931, Coca-Cola used his image to sell their products and insisted that his coat be a bright Coca-Cola red. As you can see below, that was just the beginning of Santa's career in advertising. 

               

Now, I realize that this post may be depressing and/or downright shocking and I swear if my dad sees it he'll probably cry. Christmas has its past and people are obviously free to celebrate it if they choose. After all, it is a great time of year that's good for families and great for the economy!

However, no longer do I associate Yeshua (Jesus) with the Christmas season. In fact, the more I learn about Chanukah, the more I desire to celebrate that holiday instead. Yeshua celebrated Chanukah, and while it is not one of YHWH's feasts, I think it needs to make a comeback. SO, my next blog post will be about just that! CHANUKAH! Its history, how to celebrate and why it lasts eight days!

Stay tuned!

Love,

Ashley

Would you like a side of POOP with your pee?!

I won't lie. I'm a little nervous about the topic of today's blog, especially because if my readers are ANYTHING like my dad, they will go to their death defending the food they love to eat.

Since the beginning of my studies of the Hebraic roots of scripture, one of the first things I changed about my lifestyle was going Kosher. Again, typically associated with the Jewish culture, a Kosher diet, or 'Kashrut' is defined as the set of "Jewish dietary laws" that exclude foods like pork and shellfish.

This change was, at first, a tough sacrifice. I loved bacon and crab and shrimp and so on, but I couldn't keep eating it in good conscience after extensive research into WHY the Jews adhere to these dietary practices.

Let's just begin with America's favorite little mammal: the pig.

Pigs are useful little creatures if only for the fact that they are little trash cans with legs. They will literally eat ANYTHING: poop, pee, dead animals, rotten meat or vegetables, etc. In fact, farmers typically utilize this characteristic of the pig to save money. Farmers will buy barrels of rotten meat, vegetables and eggs to feed their pigs. And if another animal dies on the farm? Even better. Farmers will often feed the carcass to their pigs!

Now, don't feel sorry for the pigs. They were made to eat disgusting things, so their bodies are designed to handle exceptional amounts of poison and toxins. However, unlike cows or chickens, pigs don't have anything in their system that filters these poisons from its flesh. So when we eat pigs, we are really just eating a whole lot of NASTY. In fact, while cows and chickens and the like take about 12 hours to digest their food, pigs only take about four hours until whatever they've been eating is on their bones.

Pigs literally ARE what they eat. So when you eat pork, you could be eating any number of things and most likely, those things are NOT pretty.

Pork is by far the most common unclean meat that Americans consume, but it is far from the only. Pretty much any animal that is a "bottom-dweller" or as I like to call them, "nature's clean-up crew," were never intended for human consumption. Crabs, lobster, shrimp, catfish, clams etc. are all creatures that are not meant for food. They are meant to clean up after the mess we make in our environment!

Coincidentally, when you eat things like lobster and shrimp, you are eating animals cooked in their entirety. You consume their poop, pee, intestines, etc. as well as the toxic meat! You probably have even SEEN poop in shrimp before. I know I have.

(There are many other unclean meats, however, most of those aren't consumed in this country. Things like dogs, cats, horses, octopus, and armadillos are other examples of meats we should avoid. You can find several listings on the internet of foods that are okay and foods that aren't.)

Now there are two things to consider: The first is the fact that ALL of the meat we should avoid is listed in the bible as 'unclean' and we (ALL of us, NOT just Jews!) are instructed not to eat it. Why? John Hopkins University School of Medicine did a study in which all of the meats listed as clean and unclean in the Old Testament were tested using a standard toxicological test. What were the findings? EVERY SINGLE ANIMAL CALLED 'UNCLEAN' BY THE BIBLE WAS FOUND TO BE TOXIC! Also, every 'clean' animal tested out non-toxic.

Imagine that.

No WONDER Israel, a Kosher nation, has the lowest death rate in the world!

The second thing to consider is what we're doing to the earth's ecosystem as a whole. We kill and eat all of those animals that help our planet by consuming our waste on land and in the ocean.

I tried to tell my dad just some of the things I've learned about how disgusting these meats are. I told him that the bible actually says NOT to eat those things. You know what he said?

"We're living under a new covenant. It's ok now." This is a painfully common response given by the modern day Christian that, like so many other things they say, are completely unsupportable by scripture.

The "new covenant" he's referring to is one that many modern Christians believe in: that since Christ died, we no longer have to mind the Old Testament and what it tells us. (You may remember the term 'dispensationalism' from my other post? Here's a perfect example!)

This idea, of course, couldn't be further from the truth. NOWHERE in the bible supports it; it is a man-made doctrine. This blatant disregard for Old Testament scripture was and is the catalyst for the misconstrued pseudo-faith that the modern church currently adheres to. YHWH didn't tell us not to eat these things because of any covenant, but because they are TERRIBLE for us! My friend Kelly always says, "you wouldn't give your child the option of eating poop, would you?!" Yeshua (Jesus) did not die so that we could have bacon with our eggs! (Though I have found that certain brands of turkey bacon are really good!) Scripture never declared these foods okay for consumption and neither does modern science.

One awesome thing I have discovered since beginning this journey, is that YHWH's laws are win/wins. They aren't mindless rules that he gives us to be miserable, they are for our GOOD. Sadly, the modern church ignores many of them and emphasizes many that don't even exist in scripture. THAT, however, is yet another topic for another day.

Until then, my advice is to start looking for yummy substitutes for your porky cravings! You'll find that many companies make really good turkey or beef versions of things like sausage and salami, bologna and hot dogs and so on. I would encourage some of my Kosher friends to leave comments suggesting their favorite alternatives!

Also, if you don't believe what I'm saying, or even if you do, I strongly encourage you to research this stuff on your own! It can only benefit you.

I would also like to thank you all for the support I have received since starting this blog. I am truly grateful for all of your love and encouragement and the feedback has been amazing and rewarding.

Love,

Ashley

Have a Holly Jolly Chanukah! YHWH loves to PARTY!

One of the best things about believing in YHWH (God) again, are all the new HOLIDAYS I get to celebrate. For all of you who don't think 2 or 3 big celebrations a year is enough, YHWH is the God for you! He actually insists upon seven big celebrations a year! And a couple of those last longer than just a day. Of course, ask most Christians and they will not know what those are and the ones that do think they are "Jewish holidays." *SIGH* It's okay. So did I. 

The reason I started this blog was to help inform people about the truth of the scriptures and how seriously cool they are. (I realize I'm using the word "cool" lightly since when I try to tell my brothers about this stuff, they roll their eyes and think I'm a nerdy Jew wannabe.) But the bible has been mistranslated, misinterpreted and seriously misused throughout centuries of mankind messing with it and now I don't blame people when they think Christianity is bogus. These days, it kind of is! 

But when I go right back to the actual bible, and research it in the original Hebrew as well as the historical context in which it was written, it is seriously the most amazing compilation of books that we have possession of, and believe me, I have read a LOT of books. When I was an atheist, I used to like reading books by atheists. I would get all excited about my atheism and how intellectually superior I was...until I read about how they killed themselves on the internet. But never mind that; it's an entirely different topic. 

Today, I'm going to talk about the holidays that YHWH calls us to celebrate and why they were never intended to be just "jewish." (Another perfect example of how ignorant the church has been throughout history, misleading millions thanks to their blatant disregard of scripture. Ugh. Sorry, it makes me mad.)

OKAY! So here they are:

1. Passover

2. Unleavened Bread

3. First Fruits

4. Shavuot (Pentecost)

5. Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets)

6. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)

7. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) 

 The first four are the Spring feasts and the last three are the Fall feasts. Ok that's all. Have fun!

Just kidding! I'm going to tell you what they are. But first, I want to encourage you to do some digging on your own. Don't just take my word for it! Check out Leviticus 23! Do some research. We are so lucky in this generation to be able to have a fact-based faith thanks to the abundance of information on the internet and so on.

The first question people usually ask is "aren't those Jewish holidays?" Were they intended for solely the Jews? Absolutely not. Judaism didn't even exist yet. These commandments were given to the Israelites. The Israelites, at the time, were split into 12 tribes, only ONE being the tribe of Judah (where Jews came from.) YHWH intended these laws for everyone, not just one-twelfth of them. The Jews, however, are the only ones who still faithfully keep them so we assume that they are. 

Leviticus 23:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are MY FEASTS." 

Nowhere does YHWH say that these feasts are solely Jewish. Go see for yourself. Now, it's important to understand that whenever YHWH addresses "Israel" he is talking about US. The church. This is imperative to understand in order to truly understand the New Testament. Also, that YHWH was never exclusive. ANYONE could become a part of Israel no matter their background or heritage. Obviously, it is still that way today. 

So why did YHWH give us these feasts? Because they are super significant ALL throughout history as well as what is to come. If you study where the feasts fell in history, you'll find that YHWH does everything according to his feasts. Yeshua (Jesus) was born on the Feast of Tabernacles! That's why there was "no room at the inn." Everyone was in town partying it up! He died as the PASSOVER lamb and rose on First Fruits! 

(NOT Easter which is another Pagan holiday to honor Babylonian King Nimrod's crazy wife Easter, who thought she was a Goddess that landed in the Euphrates River in a giant egg. Every year, the priest of Easter would impregnate virgins on the alter of Easter. The next year, when the babies would be 3 months old, they would kill them and dye eggs with their blood. Didn't you ever wonder why we dye eggs at Easter? SICK. What's even sicker is that some churches STILL only allow their eggs to be dyed one color: RED. They probably think it's representative of Christ's blood or something equally mistaken when really they're honoring a psycho.) 

These are just two of SO MANY examples of how YHWH times things according to his feasts from the story of Noah's Ark all the way through Revelation where the prophecies are recorded. I would seriously encourage you to research this on your own if you're having a hard time believing it. A lot is information I found from non-Christian sources that neither support or condemn scripture. I try to stay away from religious sources actually since I don't totally trust them to be accurate and unbiased, with the exception of the actual bible of course. 

YHWH calls us to honor these feasts so that we can not only remember these things, but so that we will be ready for what is coming. 

SO what are these feasts? I'll briefly go over each one and then you can research further on your own if you're interested. If I wrote EVERYTHING this blog post would be painfully long.

Passover (Pesach) is a one-day feast celebrated in March/April in remembrance of leaving Egypt. The idea is that in order to be saved, you must leave Egypt and join the house of Israel. Jesus was crucified on Passover. THIS IS A FACT. YHWH planned that on purpose! Yeshua was the passover lamb and by accepting his blood we are saved, JUST like when the Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians and had to put lamb's blood on their doorposts to save their firstborns way back in the book of Exodus (or 'Shemot' in Hebrew. 

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is the day after Passover! It lasts for seven days and we are called to only eat unleavened bread. Leaven represents two things in scripture: sin and interpretation. Yeshua said "don't eat the leaven of the Pharisees" which was an IDIOM. It meant don't buy what they're saying, it's garbage. A warning that is OBVIOUSLY still relevant today since many leaders in the church are STILL full of it, ignoring the front of the bible and what it says. 

First Fruits was the actual day that Yeshua rose from the dead. The first day of the week (Sunday) after Passover. 

Shavuot or Pentecost is 50 days after First Fruits. This celebrates the day that the commandments were given to Israel on Mount Sinai. 

These are all the Spring Feasts that deal with the first coming of the Messiah. While all of YHWH's feasts are important, His Fall feasts are the MOST important because they deal with the SECOND coming of Christ. They are the following:

Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets) celebrates the day that the Messiah will return and set up a new government. We are called to take the day off and maybe blow on a shofar! (A trumpet made of ram's horn that the bible says we will hear at his return.) It's the head of the new year and is a rehearsal for the second coming. 

Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) celebrates judgment day. The day that sins will be atoned for.

Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) is the most important feast. (Also, Yeshua's real birthday as I already mentioned.) It lasts for a week and represents the final harvest when everything is settled and we will have a huge party to celebrate YHWH renewing heaven and earth. 

I realize that many have a hard time believing in the prophecies of the bible, however, I personally have found this to be one of the most fascinating parts of my studies! Upon digging deeper, you will find SEVERAL prophetic claims in the bible that have already been fulfilled. In fact, the bible is written in a prophetic pattern, where one part foreshadows the next. But that is another post for another day. 

I hope that this inspires you to do some studying on your own! The next post I'll do will document the beginning, both of my journey and the very first book of the bible: GENESIS. It's where I began and I've been hooked to studying the scriptures ever since. 

Again feel free to leave comments or ask questions!

My email is ashleyalysse476@gmail.com

Love,

Ashley