By Brother R Michel Lankford
We believe Yahweh Almighty God, we believe His Son, but we do the OPPOSITE of what He says?! How does that work?
““Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46, NASB95)
Hello and Yahweh Almighty be with you. In most recent blog entries we have been looking more closely at the writings and teachings of Paul the apostle. Why have we been doing this? Quite frankly it is the epicenter of the debate between Biblical Whole Testament Christianity, of the 1st century and the Babylonian Christianity of the 4th century.
Why do supposedly Bible believing Christians reject Yahweh’s 4th Commandment’s seventh day Sabbath in favor of keeping Sunday worship which was commanded by pagan Roman emperors, and Roman Catholic Popes, who called themselves God, and pretended to be God?
Why do supposedly Bible believing Christians utterly reject Yahweh’s Sabbaths and His Holy appointed feasts and times of meeting for rehearsal with the Lord (Leviticus 23), but instead, they choose to routinely violate Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Deuteronomy 12:1-4, 8, 29-32; Jeremiah 10:1-2) and they import religious festival days, decorations and customs which can be easily and directly traced as being imported from Babylonian sexual fertility festivals such as Christmas/Saturnalia winter solstice) and Easter, in direct defiance of what God commanded?
Why do supposedly Bible believing Christians utterly reject the Messiah’s own teachings? Messiah Himself specifically said if we teach the commandments of human beings as though they were doctrines from God, it is offering to God vain worship. Messiah also said that if we disobey or do away with what God commanded in order to maintain human tradition it is offering God vain worship (Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:1-13).
Vain worship is the exact opposite from the worship that Yahweh is seeking (John 4:24). To offer something in vain means that it is futile, meaningless, and without merit. So why do we continue to offer to God what Messiah identified as vain worship?
So why do supposedly Bible believing and Bible pursuant Christians continue to favor Roman Imperial, Babylonian and Druid sex-god worship traditions, while at the same time they utterly reject, and sometimes even revile the worship practices which Yahweh instituted and which Messiah and the apostles followed?
How is it that supposedly Bible believing and Bible pursuant Christians can consistently do the expressed OPPOSITE of what the Creator says is good, and yet they still consider themselves righteous and pleasing to the Almighty through the Messiah?
If you ask any traditional Christian today, and you bring up these Scriptural points, you’re likely to get a deer in the headlights look, because the majority of them are not even aware that there’s a huge discrepancy between the faith that is Biblically commanded, and the one that is traditionally practiced, and represented as being “Christian” today.
Among those who are more spiritually and biblically aware, many will readily acknowledge that there is in fact a discrepancy here, but they will quickly refer you to selective writings from Paul the apostle to defend the idea of rejecting what Yahweh the Almighty expressly Commanded in favor of keeping what Roman emperors, and later what Roman Catholic Popes have commanded. This is now supposedly perfectly fine, because we are supposedly not under God’s Law any longer, but we are now under God’s Grace, and they will quickly shuffle you off to selective parts of Paul’s writings to defend the idea that doing the OPPOSITE of what God said is good is now supposedly what it means to live under Grace.
Now, Yahweh Almighty God gave us His Laws Commandments and Instructions. The SAME Yahweh Almighty Creator God gave us HIS GRACE through Messiah. Yahweh Almighty God is perfect, and His ways are perfect (Psalm 19:7-14).
The Creator is NOT schizoid. Yahweh Almighty is NOT schizophrenic. Even according to Paul the apostle, Yahweh Almighty CANNOT deny or contradict Himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
Please do not deceive yourself and do not allow yourself to be deceived. God’s Law can NEVER be the opposite of God’s Grace, and God’s grace can NEVER be the opposite of God’s Laws. True interpretation of God’s Law will never deny or contradict God’s True Grace, and God’s True Grace will NEVER teach you to do the opposite of God’s Laws Commandments and Instructions, because both are PERFECT, and they were BOTH given by the same PERFECT ETERNAL CREATOR, so they cannot rightly contradict each other, no matter what we have been trained to believe by the religious traditions of human beings.
Yahweh Almighty used 40 people empowered by the Holy Spirit to write the Scriptures. Of those 40 writers, a minimum of 38 of them wrote either explicitly or by figurative example that the only way to be righteous before God is to turn AWAY FROM SIN (disobeying God and His Commandments), and to TURN TOWARD Yahweh Almighty, and do what He Commanded. Of the two remaining writers, the book of Esther does not mention Yahweh’s name or His Commandments at all.
Of all the 40 writers of Scripture which God used, there is only one that even remotely APPEARS to suggest that we can allegedly abandon God’s Laws Commandments and Instructions, and still be considered righteous through faith; and that is supposedly Paul the apostle.
It is through Paul’s writings that we have trained ourselves to believe that we are not under law, but under grace.
It’s through Paul’s writings that we have trained ourselves to believe that God’s laws commandments and instructions have been nailed to the cross, and therefore they do not apply to those who have faith in Messiah.
With such an apparently HUGE discrepancy between the writings and teachings of Paul the apostle, and 38 other biblical writers which the Creator used to write Scripture, it’s imperative that we make absolutely certain that we have read, understood and interpreted Paul correctly, lest we be found to have been preaching a false Christianity in Paul’s name. That’s why we’ve been looking so closely at Paul’s teachings in this series. Much hinges on whether we get Paul right or not.
A Review of our Series
In recent months we have been dealing with the series called, “But Abba, Paul told me I could.” Did Paul really teach Christian believers to DISREGARD, to DISOBEY, and to DO the OPPOSITE of Yahweh Almighty God’s Laws Commandments and Instructions? The Weight of Biblical Evidence is overwhelming that in reality, Paul WAS NOT teaching believers AGAINST keeping God’s laws commandments and instructions in written Scripture:
- Lesson 1: We gave 9 biblical provable reasons why we can KNOW that Paul the apostle was NOT teaching AGAINST KEEPING Yahweh Almighty God’s Laws Commandments and Instructions. Reason #9 on that list was the fact that IF Paul had been teaching against the Creator’s Laws, Paul would be CONTRADICTING his own teachings; which by itself makes the whole notion of Paul teaching against God’s Commandments utterly absurd on its face. The remainder of the lessons in our series would detail the explanation of reason #9 on our list. We then proceeded to give 9 MORE examples where Paul actually taught IN FAVOR of learning from and DOING the Creator’s Instructions in the Old Testament, and not doing away with them.
- Lesson 2: Paul taught the predominantly Gentile congregation in Rome, well after the death and the resurrection of the Messiah, that the writings of the Old Testament were written for OUR instruction and to give us hope (Romans 15:4-6). Now, if something is still valid to give us instruction and to produce in us hope of future events, then it cannot be invalid or done away with at the same time.
- Lesson 3: Paul taught the predominantly Gentile congregation in Corinth about the value of the Old Testament writings, and our need to learn from Israel’s sins and mistakes, and that we should not repeat their sinful lawless and disobedient ways against God, (1 Corinthians 10).
- Lesson 4: The apostle Paul gives the clearest evidence that he WAS NOT teaching AGAINST keeping Yahweh’s Laws Commandments and Instructions. In Romans 8:5-8, Paul expressly SAYS that NOT subjecting ourselves to God’s Law; is carnal minded, it is at enmity or hostile against God; it CANNOT please God, and such a carnal mind that does not subject itself to the Law of God, leads to death according to Paul. Now, by definition, that which leads to death CANNOT be Eternal Life. Think carefully. Since Paul himself SAYS that not subjecting ourselves to God’s Law is carnal minded, it is hostile against God, it cannot please God and it leads to death; then by definition such a mindset, and such a way of life, CANNOT be what it means to live under God’s Grace. Please do not deceive yourself.
- Lesson 5: The apostle Paul teaches the predominantly Gentile congregation in Corinth and he gives them a clear call to holiness. To be holy means to SEPARATE OUT. Paul tells the Corinthians that in order to be accepted by Almighty God as one of his children, we must SEPARATE ourselves from certain things. One of the key things that Paul says we are REQUIRED to SEPARATE from in order to be accepted by Yahweh as one of His children, is Lawlessness; (Greek Strong’s #’s 458-459); which in part literally means to be destitute of, or to live outside of God’s Laws and Commandments given to Moses. Paul says we MUST SEPARATE from Lawlessness, in order to be accepted by God as one of His children. Since we are REQUIRED to SEPARATE FROM LAWLESSNESS in order to be accepted by God, then continuing in lawlessness CANNOT possibly be what it means to live in the Grace of God, (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1).
- Lesson 6: The apostle Paul clearly tells his young protégé pastor Timothy to CONTINUE DOING the Scriptures that Timothy had known since childhood. There was NO such thing as a New Testament when Timothy was a child. So Paul was telling Timothy to CONTINUE DOING the Old Testament which he had learned since childhood. IF the Old Testament was done away with when Messiah died and rose again, then WHY does Paul clearly instruct Timothy to CONTINUE DOING them? Why does Paul go out of his way to express the ONGOING VALIDITY, of ALL Scripture, (which includes the Law)? He doesn’t tell Pastor Timothy to stop doing those things. He clearly tells Timothy to CONTINUE and NOT STOP doing them, (2 Timothy 3:1-17).
- Lesson 7: The apostle Paul uses the term the son of ANOMIA, or the son of lawlessness to describe the ANTICHRIST and the son of perdition. It’s the SAME key Greek word as the one used in the summary above, (see Lesson 5 summary). Since Paul CLEARLY uses this same word to describe the ANTICHRIST, then he cannot be teaching that living outside of God’s Laws Commandments and Instructions is a state of Grace. The same condition which Paul uses to describe the antichrist CANNOT POSSIBLY be what it means to live under the Grace of God, (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7, 8).
- *Lesson 8: The apostle Paul gives a clear definition of what Jesus Christ and the Grace of God actually came to do: (1) God’s grace appeared and Jesus Christ came to bring us salvation. (2) God’s grace appeared and Jesus Christ came to TEACH and instruct us to REJECT ungodliness, and worldly desires. (3) God’s grace appeared and Jesus Christ came to TEACH and instruct us to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age. (4) God’s grace appeared and Jesus Christ came to REDEEM us FROM EVERY LAWLESS DEED; (It’s the SAME Greek word used is the one in Lesson 5 summary). The apostle Paul just said that lawlessness is the very thing which Messiah and the grace of God came to DELIVER US FROM. Since the Grace of God, and Messiah came to deliver us FROM lawlessness, then living in lawlessness is the OPPOSITE of what the Grace of God actually came to accomplish, even according to Paul’s own teachings. (5) The Grace of God and Messiah appeared in order to make us God’s own special people, who are a people ZEALOUS for GOOD DEEDS; which by definition is the OPPOSITE of lawlessness. That’s what Messiah and the grace of God which Messiah brought came to accomplish. That’s the opposite of lawlessness, even according to Paul’s own teachings. Since Grace came to REDEEM US FROM LAWLESSNESS, then lawlessness CANNOT be Grace.
- Lesson 9: Since we KNOW that Paul was CLEARLY NOT teaching AGAINST KEEPING Yahweh’s Laws Commandments and Instructions, the question then naturally becomes what was Paul teaching? In Lesson #9, we discussed the 7 different kinds of laws which Paul discusses in his letters, and that only by studying the context can we know for certain WHICH law Paul was actually referring to at any given point. We also gave the example of Romans chapter 6, where Paul discusses the fact that because of Grace through Christ working in our lives; we are no longer subject to the law of sin and death. Paul DOES NOT say that we are not under God’s Law anymore. Paul says that we are not under the dominion of the law and of sin and death anymore, because the Grace of God helps us to overcome our sinful nature through Christ, so we don’t have to obey sin anymore, (Romans 6:1-14).
- Lesson 10: Many people read Colossians chapter 2, and they ASSUME that Paul was teaching AGAINST KEEPING God’s Appointed Times and Holy Days. Now we have seen ample evidence that Paul obviously was NOT teaching against God’s Law, so what was you really teaching in Colossians chapter 2? There definitely APPEARS to be a contradiction. In reality, if we look at the biblical and geographical context of the book of Colossians, the Colossian Christians were actually surrounded by idolatrous pagan Roman cultures. In reality, the Colossian Christians were LEARNING and KEEPING the Biblical Feasts and Festivals described in the Scriptures, in stark contrast to their Roman pagan neighbors. They were likely being judged and criticized by their pagan neighbors for forsaking pagan religious rituals, and for taking up the Biblical ones. Paul was actually encouraging them to CONTINUE, and not to allow themselves to be judged by the religious rules and traditions of MEN. The term for God’s Law does NOT appear anywhere in the entire book of Colossians. On the other hand, warnings against being led astray by the rulings opinions and traditions of men appears no less than six times in the book of Colossians.
Did Jesus Really Nail God’s Law to the Cross?
Here’s another passage that many Christians use to defend the Lawless interpretation of Paul’s teachings:
“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” (Colossians 2:13–15, NASB95)
In this passage, 2 KEY words are used
- The decree of the certificate of debt (CHEIROGRAPHON); (Greek Strong’s #5934) In Greek, it is literally a legal decree containing an indictment and the evidence of the crime to support the accusation. It would be presented in court by the prosecution against the defendant. Paul makes the point that because Yeshua the Messiah already paid for the crime with His own life, we cannot be condemned for it. The record against us is then legally expunged and is inadmissible against us in the heavenly courts, so to speak. So the prosecution’s case, the record, and the evidence of our violations, is then moved out of the way, and is not a hindrance to us anymore, because of Messiah.
- The other word used in this passage is the word decree, (DOGMASIN); (Greek Strong’s #1378). Now, this is a crucial Greek word throughout Scripture; because the word DOGMASIN is used EXCLUSIVELY to describe man-made rulings of a political or religious leader. Throughout the Scriptures, DOGMASIN is NEVER, EVER, used to describe Almighty God’s Law, and it is NEVER used to describe Messiah’s Commandments.
In fact, throughout the entire book of Colossians the Greek word used for God’s Law is never used it all. So in this passage, Paul NEVER mentions God’s Law being nailed to the cross at all. Our violations, and the evidence against us is nailed to the cross, and the opinions and rulings of human religious leaders are overruled by Christ’s sacrifice, but NOWHERE does Paul say that God’s law has been made null and void at all. That is a misunderstanding that we have gathered from the English text and by our own human traditions, but it IS NOT supported by the original manuscripts.
The same word for human religious laws DOGMA is used in Ephesians 2:14-15:
“For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of Commandments contained in DOGMA, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,” (Ephesians 2:14–15, NASB95)
Once again, on the surface it APPEARS that Paul is saying that Messiah has nailed God’s Law to the cross, but once more, if that is what Paul taught, he would be contradicting other parts of Scripture and other things which he specifically said. Once again Paul does not specifically mention God’s Law here, as he specifically identified it in Romans 8:5-8. We merely ASSUME that he is referring to God’s Law because we have read that understanding into the text, even though the physical text of Scripture does not say it. Once again, we are confronted with the question, ‘To which law and to which commandments contained in ordinances was Paul referring?’ Once again, the original Greek word used is DOGMA, a word which is never used to describe God’s Law or Commandments but ONLY used to describe man-made religious rules.
Conclusion:
Today, Many Christians who think that they are Bible believing and Bible pursuant are routinely breaking the Commandments which the Almighty gave in Scripture, and which He confirmed in BOTH the Old and New Testaments.
They will routinely reject and forsake the Creator’s seventh day Sabbath, and God’s other Holy Days (Leviticus 23), in favor of keeping Sunday, which was first, commanded by pagan Roman emperors, and then by Roman Catholic popes, both groups of which claimed themselves to be God. They follow the same scenario by using Christmas to commemorate Messiah’s birth, Easter to commemorate the resurrection and Valentine’s Day to commemorate love, and they adapt Halloween into fall harvest festivals and bring them into the churches.
All of these traditions can easily trace their origins to the worship of pagan false gods and goddesses of Babylon, Rome, Druid and other pagan religions. ALL of these traditions which WE ARE BIBLICALLY FORBIDDEN TO COPY OR IMITATE, were forced into Christianity by the decree of Roman Catholic popes, in direct DEFIANCE of the explicit Commandments of the Real Almighty God in BOTH Testaments of Scripture (Deuteronomy 12;1-4,8,29-32; Jeremiah 10:1-2; cf. 1 Corinthians 10:1-21; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; Matthew 5:17-20 Matthew 7:21-23; John 14:21; John 15:14; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 14:12; Revelation 18:1-4).
Yeshua of Nazareth, the Messiah Himself declared that if we teach the commandments of human beings as though they were doctrines from God when they are not, then we are worshiping God IN VAIN. Moreover, Messiah also taught, that if we set aside the Commandments of God in order to keep and maintain traditions set by human beings, this is also worshiping God in vain (Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:1-13).
So why is it that Christianity can adopt a religious system that openly teaches people to do what is 100% contrary to God’s Law, contrary to every Prophet, contrary to what Messiah lived and preached, contrary to every single apostle, and then still consider ourselves to be biblically observant Christians? Simple, they do it because pagan Roman emperors ordered us to do so. They do it because pagan Roman Imperial Senates ordered us to do so.
They do it because Roman Catholic popes who imported Babylonian and Roman Imperial religious systems into Christianity and also ordered us to call it Christian, and ordered their followers to do it, and killed people who wouldn’t go along with it.
So how did PROTESTANTS, evangelical biblically pursuant people come to believe that you could actively DISOBEY and set aside God’s Word to KEEP Babylonian, Roman Imperial and Roman Catholic traditions of men, and yet still consider ourselves Biblical? Quite simply, they do it because we have come to believe by tradition that the apostle Paul told us it was okay to do this.
THE ENORMOUS PROBLEM IS THAT THE PHYSICAL TEXT AND CONTEXT OF SCRIPTURE, ALONG WITH ORIGINAL LANGUAGE STUDIES, CLEARLY SHOWS THAT PAUL THE APOSTLE DID NOT TEACH THE LAWLESS INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPEL WHICH WE HAVE SO EASILY ATTRIBUTED TO HIS NAME.
Jesus DID NOT nail God’s Law to the cross. He nailed our sins and violations to the cross. Jesus did not nail God’s Law or God’s Decrees to the cross, because not subjecting ourselves to God’s Law is still carnal minded and still leads to death, even according to Paul (Romans 8:5-8; cf. Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 13:41–42; Matthew 24:12–13).
We do not obey God in order to get saved, but getting saved through Jesus Christ should cause us to be willing and able to obey God.
That’s what Paul was preaching. First you get saved, then you learn to obey God after you get saved. That’s what the Old Testament taught (Ezekiel 36), and that’s what Paul was also teaching, (Philippians 2:13).
Remember that abandoning God’s Law’s doesn’t make it to heaven even by New Testament standards. What Jesus really nailed to the cross was the cheirographon; (the accuser’s RECORD of our violations); and the dogma; (the religious rules, regulations and institutions which were invented and imposed by men), and which violated God’s Word, and only served to confuse people about God’s ways. That’s what Jesus really nailed to the cross.
The problem is that we keep insisting on setting aside God’s decrees, and then resurrecting dogma, on an all too frequent basis.
You see, according to the limitations which the Creator has HIMSELF established in His Word, HE CANNOT deny, do away with, or reject His Own Laws. But, what He could do, and what He did do was to find a SUBSTITUTE to pay for our violations in our place, and so remove the RECORD of our debts. Then He sends the Holy Spirit to progressively CHANGE US from lawless sons of disobedience, and He TRANSFORMS us into OBEDIENT children of God, who progressively LEARN and then DO the Father’s Will and Commandments that is the true and legitimate work of Biblical Grace (Ezekiel 36:25-27; Philippians 2:13; Titus 2:11-14).
Biblically, God CANNOT change or REMOVE His Law, but what He CAN do is to change and transform US. Anything less is COUNTERFEIT Grace.
Brother R Michel Lankford
