If your life is not in jeopardy for what you
believe, you’re probably on the wrong side!
“Indeed, all who want
to live a godly life united with the Messiah Yeshua will be persecuted.” (2Tim 3:12)
It is what you actually believe that determines how you walk out your faith,
“but avoid stupid controversies, genealogies,
quarrels and fights about the Torah; because they are worthless and
futile.” (Titus 3:9)
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Please Note: Absolutely nothing on this website should be taken as anti-Church. I am not anti-anything or anyone. I am only pro-Torah and pro-Truth (see “Philosophy”), but sometimes the Truth upsets our long-held beliefs. I know it certainly upset mine! For example, see “Why Isn’t My Theology Consistent Throughout the Website?”
| Please Note Well: It is not my intent to belittle, unduly criticize, or “bash” anyone who may hold religious or political persuasions or opinions that differ from my own. Even though I may absolutely and totally disagree with your opinion, I will defend to the death your God-given right to hold it. If I am right and you are wrong, you have the God-given right to continue to be wrong. If I am the one who is wrong, how can that possibly affect you in any way? Since this website was originally launched in 1995, I have continually held the position that I am not anti-anybody; I am only pro-Truth. [Please read this important page for my definition of “Truth.”] |
If you disagree …
Congratulations! At least you are among those who actually take the time and effort to think!
The information presented on this website is my own personal opinion, and mine alone. It is not intended to represent the opinion of all of Messianic Judaism or of any group or person other than myself. This is all about what I personally believe, and nobody else. Your theology is what you think about God; it is highly doubtful that any two people on this planet share exactly the same theology. Nor should they!
Some will consider many of my opinions and conclusions as highly speculative in nature and open to many different interpretations, some perhaps far better than my own. They are probably absolutely correct. I don’t pretend to own a monopoly on Truth. It is your God-given right to disagree with my opinions and interpretations of Scripture. I do not expect, or even want, you to accept my opinions as your own unless Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) leads you to those opinions.
If you disagree with me, please do not waste your time and mine by emailing me to tell me how wrong I am, or to complain about the content of this web site, or to try to change my mind, or to try to engage me in theological debate (I simply don’t have either the time or the inclination to debate theology or doctrine with you), or (as many people do) simply to “tell me off.” I simply don’t care any more! Your theology is between you and God!
If you would like to know my response to almost any objection you could possibly make to my position on Messianic Judaism, please read the fourteen pages under “Antisemitism in the Church.” I think the person to whom I respond on those pages has made — and I have answered — just about every conceivable objection to my position.
But more importantly, it is not my responsibility to try to convince you of anything. God has directed me to always be ready to present and defend what I personally believe (1 Peter 3:15-16). That is what I have done in the 2,500-plus pages of this website. What you choose to do with that information is between you and God.
My opinions and interpretations are based on more than 50 years of intense personal study of the Scriptures, including over nine years of seminary training culminating in a master’s degree (M.A.) in Biblical Studies, a master’s degree in Systematic Theology (Th.M.) and two doctoral degrees — one in Theology (Th.D.) and and one in Ministry (D.Min.). My theological opinions are very difficult for anyone except Ruach HaKodesh to change or influence, and He changes my opinions frequently. In about 1998, Ruach HaKodesh began to radically convict me that what I had believed and had been teaching since the early 1960’s was simply foundationally wrong, and sent me down a new path of understanding — one based on what the Bible actually says, and not what I wanted it to say or what I was taught by others to accept that it says.
You are simply not going to succeed in convincing me that what Ruach HaKodesh has been showing me since 1998 is wrong; hundreds — perhaps even thousands — of others have failed to do so. Do I think I “know it all?” Of course not; far from it. Ruach HaKodesh teaches me something new every single time I open the pages of the Scriptures! If He didn’t, I probably wouldn’t bother to study the Scriptures at all. What would be the point?
I believe that the entire Bible — which includes both the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and the Apostolic Writings — can be proven beyond any possible doubt to be the literal word of God as transcribed by men specially equipped by Ruach HaKodesh to accurately record exactly — to the very letter and even the smallest part of the letter — the message that God desired to transmit to those who love Him. I believe that since God desired to reveal Himself to men, He did so in a language and in a format that men could easily understand if they would simply read what He said and interpret the message using the standard rules of language and grammar that apply to the language in which they were originally written, and in the historical milieu in which they were originally received.
To restate the point in the simplest terms possible, I believe that the Scriptures can only be accurately understood in exactly the same way that they would have been understood by those to whom they were originally written, who originally received them, and for whom they were originally intended.
In the second place, I simply don’t have the time to read the daily deluge of dissent, discontent, and deceit. [Yeah, I thought that was a particularly cleverly-turned alliterative phrase, too!] For more than ten years I received well over a hundred email messages every single day, most of which were from people who only want to argue or tell me off! “Truth” [as defined here] offends a lot of people, including some members of my own family! I have therefore been forced by these circumstance to install an email filter program which simply deletes most of the email that I receive, and I scan the survivors as my very limited time permits. If you send me hate mail, the chances are probably far less than 1% that I will ever receive it.
In the third place, I am simply far too busy to read hate-filled email from ignorant (and mostly inarticulate) people who, quite frankly, have no factual basis from which to form any kind of opinion (like this one from August 2001, for example). [Of course, I'm not talking about you! But you almost certainly know the kind of people I mean. You probably have several of them in your congregation.] Most of the people who write the really offensive messages — like the Arabs and American politicians who insist that the Jews have no right to the land that God gave them 4,000 years ago, and the anti-Semitic religious bigots who insist that God is a liar Who has revoked His irrevocable covenants with Israel and transferred them to “the church” — only want to argue their emotions in total disregard of both historical fact and revealed Biblical Truth!
Since I have never accepted a salary for any part of over 50 years of ministry (starting in 1962), that means that I always had to earn a living the old-fashioned way — I worked for it! Now that I have retired from working for — and drawing a paycheck from — others, I spend an average of 30 to 40 hours a week studying the Scriptures and writing new articles (and revising older articles) for this website. I am also heavily involved in several community service organizations. Therefore, I spend less than about an hour a week reading the little bit of email that actually manages to get through to me, and I seldom actually read a message until several weeks after it was sent. Your chances of reaching me with hate mail just aren’t very good at all.
If you believe that your opinions are worth voicing and you would like for other people to be able to hear your message, then I most respectfully suggest that you do what I have done. Rent yourself a little corner of the World Wide Web, spend a few hundred hours building your own website, then spend 20 or 30 hours a week keeping it current.
Oh, I almost forgot! If your website actually says something worthwhile, be sure to install an email filter to capture and discard the hundreds of pieces of hate mail that you can expect to receive every day.
And in case you were wondering … nobody else pays for any part of my rather significant website expenses. I pay them directly out of my own pocket.
While I am on the subject, this may be a good place to respond to the charge that I hate or “bash” some religious, ethnic, and/or political groups, particularly Arab Muslims, Catholics, and Democrats. [See the introductory note at the top of this page.] Nothing could be farther from the truth. [I am actually an equal-opportunity bigot. I hate everybody equally!! — Oh, fer cryin’ out loud! That’s a joke! Lighten up!! But you just watch and see; somebody is going to quote that statement out of context!] I’m not really anti-anybody, but I am pro-Truth. Therefore, when I take a firm stand in favor of Truth, the only logical result is that I must stand against those who have taken a stand against Truth.
So now you must ask me for my definition of “Truth” [John 18:38]. Simply stated, “Truth is that which is, as contrasted and opposed to that which is not.” That which actually exists is Truth; all else is then of necessity false. There is, therefore, only one single objective truth in all of our space-time continuum and beyond. [READ MORE] There is only one Creator-God Who is the Author of all that is, and He is therefore the Author of Truth. He desires to reveal Himself to His creation, and He has done so through the Jewish Prophets, whom He specially and supernaturally equipped to receive and record the Truth that He has chosen to reveal.
Does the Bible contain all the Truth that exists? Certainly not. The Bible does not contain all Truth, but all that the Bible does contain is Truth. The Bible (as written, not as interpreted by men — including me) is therefore the standard by which all other knowledge is to be measured. Truth is also to be found in God’s creation, in the laws of physics, chemistry, and mathematics that He ordained as controls in our multiverse, as well as in the accurate record of history. But when the knowledge that we receive from creation is in disagreement with the Truth contained in the Bible, our understanding of that knowledge must be adjusted to fit the revealed Truth of the Bible. Those who fail to make that adjustment exchange the Truth of God for the lies of HaSatan.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever. Amen.
… And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. [Romans 1:18-32, NAS]
I neither “hate” nor “bash” people who have taken a stand against God’s revealed Truth. I simply recognize and acknowledge them for what God says they are.
Oh, and if you are a Muslim who is offended by my pro-Israel
position, don’t bother to try to contact me
or come after me. I already have at least a half-dozen fatwahs[1]
against me (and I am almost always heavily armed)!
1. Source: John F. Schmidt. “A Fatwah by any Other Name” 12/1/02, accessed 09/13/19.
“One of the latest Muslim terms beginning to find its way into our English lexicon is ‘Fatwah,’ a religious edict issued by some Muslim authority. As the word is commonly used today, it is usually associated with a pronouncement calling for the death of some offender against Islam.
“Just last week we observed an example of this when the deputy governor of a northeastern state in Nigeria called for the death of the writer of a Nigerian newspaper article who made a comment about Mohammed’s possible tastes in women. The Islamic furor over the reference to the Miss World pageant has resulted in the deaths of over 200 people and stirred civil unrest in the country.
“Details of the fatwah have been widely reported under the ABCnews.com article titled ‘Nigerian Calls for Death of Writer’ dated November 26, datelined Lagos, Nigeria. ‘While state officials in Nigeria cannot issue fatwahs, the deputy governor, “like all Muslims,” considers the death sentence against Daniel as “a reality based on the teachings of the Quran,” Zamfara state Information Commissioner Tukur Umar Dangaladima said Tuesday.’
“Islam's holy book ‘states that whoever accuses or insults any prophet of Allah … should be killed,’ Dangaladima told The Associated Press. ‘If she (Daniel, writer of the offending article) is Muslim, she has no option except to die. But if she is a non-Muslim, the only way out for her is to convert to Islam.” [BACK]
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