[This is a letter exchange between Sinaite ‘NSB’ and ‘EG’ a Christian friend of NSB’s sister, ‘LSS’ who at that time, just like her childhood best friend, was also in a state of confusion and dismay, and had not yet transitioned out of Christianity into Sinai 6000. The date of this exchange is year 2009, when the core community that eventually formed Sinai 6000 were still in transition. EG has chosen to remain in Christianity after this exchange; that is ‘normal’ in our experience . . . we have not convinced one former Christian colleague/friend/family member. But what encourage us immensely are the number of visitors to this website. Indeed, there are Truth-seekers and God-hungry-individuals who are not content with the religion they are in; to them we say, keep going on your quest, the pilgrimage leads back to Sinai. We keep looking back if any of you have gotten on the same path as we have.—Admin1]
——————————–
Dear NSB,
I’m crying as I am typing this. I can’t explain why I find myself crying when I’m alone these past days… I think partly because Christmas has lost it’s meaning…or has it? Jesus is not who he claimed to be, or is He?
I even hesitate leading prayers… Then I hear Christmas songs that tug at my heart, Silent Night, The First Noel…This is one of the saddest Christmas I’ve ever had…
I’m not blaming you, for like you I am a seeker of the Truth. But as I said earlier, it was easier to let go of Mary because I had Jesus. You loved Jesus too. Didn’t you have a struggle letting him go? Or were you so caught up with your readings? Or am I just too emotional. What bothers me most is that I do not know what to believe at this point. I’m praying for the Lord to shed some light.
I do appreciate your going out on a limb to share what you now believe is the truth. It is easier to remain silent. If this is the truth, I will be eternally grateful to you. Keep the articles coming and I’m reading. But on my own, I’d like to research on how the New Testament came to be rather than delve into Jewish literature right now. If there are extant manuscripts of the Old Testament (which are much, much older), why can’t there be of the New Testament?
I’m going to ATS (Asian Theological Seminary) tomorrow to look for books to shed light on my confusion. I’m praying that Yaweh will lead me to the right books. I borrowed your sister’s book lying on her bedroom table“What’s so great about Christianity?” I’m picking up some good points for Christianity. I’m meeting with ‘LM’ (Christian Education, Dept. Head) – [your sister] knows her. And I plan to discuss this with her. She’s a gentle, loving and humble Christian…ready to die anytime. She’ll be open. ( She has liver cancer.)
I’ve had a lot of time to think these days being home ‘sick’ for five days now. I was an idiot to have had the infusion of Aclasta this time of the year – the busiest. I did not consider the possibility of experiencing the side effects. On day 1 I had diarrhea, dizziness, nausea, fever and bone aches! It was like having flu! I’m better now except for weakness and pain in my wrist and finger joints. I went to a Christmas party but just remained seated somewhere, anywhere and left ahead of the guests. Aclasta is for my bones, to deter further weakening. I could have opted for the weekly or monthly pill. As I said, I am an idiot.
I can’t wish you a blessed Christmas… Shalom…
‘EG’
—————————
Shalom ‘EG’,
And I do mean the peace that only the One True God can impart to any true seeker:
“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
You will seek me and find me
when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you. . .” [Jer. 29:12-14]
This is the only assurance I can direct you to for now, from the Scriptures that constantly declare “Thus saith the Lord” –the TNK.
What can I say . . . except again, I am sorry I introduced this to you when you were not ready, at a really bad time, knowing we would not have time to discuss this at length and to your satisfaction. I sprung it on you, ready or not, I should have known better.
This kind of revelation requires the proper timing, although I don’t know if there is EVER a right time to share this with any Christ-worshipper. In hindsight, I should have waited until after Christmas when [your best friend, my sister] was back so that the two of you together, could give this a hearing, discuss among yourselves, process it and make your individual decision. You two are kindred spirits, specially in matters of faith.
Instead, what did I accomplish in dropping a bomb like this, except to unsettle you, cause so much sadness, create a vacuum in your heart and doubts in your mind without my being around to help you get through the shock. It has the effect of the earthquake of 1990 to the people of Baguio, at least that’s what some have expressed to me.
You are not the only one who initially has felt this way. Only those who are open to giving this a hearing go through the sadness; others are unshaken and stick to their foundational beliefs, that essentially, the NT is God’s Word, Jesus is God Incarnate, God is a Trinity. They say it with conviction, and they’re quite content where they are.
You see, not everyone I’ve shared this with was open to a challenge of their long-held belief system, so please do not feel like you have to go along with any of this. My teacher ‘RW’ stands his ground, as does his disciple ‘DA’ who heads the Messianic community here . ‘RW’ says ‘DA’ and I are his two best students. He is very sad I have taken this detour from the well-beaten path and labels me “sayang” [“what a waste”]; I feel I simply have gotten off on a detour from the True Path that Christianity has taken me thru all my life, and finally rediscovered and returned to the original Way, from the “God” of Christianity to the self-revealing God on Sinai.
How can anyone go wrong by returning to Him?
The Torah requires that when we make an accusation, we have to present two or three witnesses. I present the following:
1. The witness of history —
I stumbled on this quite accidentally; I was content with [Christ-centered] messianic theology which I have been sharing since 2007; but reading six history books about Christianity alerted me to the very source of Christian doctrinal belief — the Nicene Creed decided on at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE—pagan Rome/Papal Rome. Ecclesiastical history reveals a lot more so it’s good you will be doing your own research.
Part of the witness of history is the witness of the history of antisemitism which played a big part in the Christian church’s departure from everything Jewish, from the TNK, from the God of Israel. Not too many books on this, I ordered one through ‘RW’ because I borrowed his copy from the Messianic library. Yet, for someone who has drummed into me for two decades to “think Jewish”, he is now saying the Jews are hardheaded and close-minded and therefore blinded, that’s why they cannot see Jesus who is so obvious all over TNK.
Yet another part of the witness of history is the development of replacement theology, displacement theology, and supersessionism. You might want to check out those words but you would almost have to go outside of Christian bookstores/libraries to understand them. I learned about them from Messianic teaching, never heard them as a Christian, never read them in Christian books.
2. The witness of modern biblical scholarship —-
This takes you to all the biblical scholarship done on textual criticism source criticism, literary criticism, redaction criticism which question the credibility/integrity/divine inspiration of the New Testament scriptures. If the only source of Christianity’s claims about the divinity of Jesus and the Trinitarian nature of God are the NT scriptures and the canon is questionable, then the whole belief system falls apart.
When that whole belief system crumbles from under you, if your right foot was standing on NT while your left foot was standing on TNK, the only thing to do is put that right foot with the left on the TNK . . . so therefore, you are left with only one recourse:
3. The witness of TNK
Supposedly the foundation of NT, the prequel to NT’s sequel. Why can’t the Jews accept Jesus as their messiah? He does not fit the criteria of the Jewish messiah, according to TNK.
Along with #3, you will need to start understanding the Jewish perspective. The rabbis know best how to interpret their Scriptures; read their counter-missionary arguments against the 300+messianic prophecies according to the correct Hebrew text, not the English mistranslations. You will begin to understand why they think the way they do and why Christians who rely on English translations also think the way they do. They’re reading two different versions—the original, and nonstop mistranslations of the original.
Michoel Drazin who authored “Their Hollow Inheritance” (referring to Christianity) says faith is justifiable only when something cannot be determined by knowledge, so he wrote a whole anthology putting side by side messianic texts according to the KJV and the Hebrew Bible—- you might want to check out later; you can download it for free from www.michoeldrazin.com. It gets very technical, very detailed, but worth the time and effort.
It took me 3 months of non-stop research before I decided I had been duped all my life. I didn’t spend any time lamenting, I decided to move on, having wasted enough time on the wrong belief and worshipping the wrong god!
Once I settled the one simple issue that the NT is unreliable as my source of faith, then I had to let go of Jesus as God, and God as a Trinity. Jesus of history, whoever he was, a Torah-observant Jew who must have taught the true observance of the commandments of the God of Israel . . . I’ll never know for sure, how can I be sentimental about a mythic figure?
What I know for sure is the One True God—
- did issue His commandments from Sinai,
- revealed his name as YHWH,
—Whom we get to know reading through the Hebrew Scriptures, the TNK, in His Self-description, that He is —
- an awesome God,
- compassionate,
- full of grace and mercy,
- who is perfectly just,
- and demands righteousness,
- Who simply calls everyone —
- to repent
- and walk in His ways
- and acknowledge Him.
Please read Deuteronomy 30, and then Ezekiel 18.
In HIS NAME,
NSB@S6K
Post Script: Update May 20, 2016
A Christian neighbor of Sinaite BAN found out that she hosted a “Bible Study-Fellowship” every Friday night and offered to join our core community. They came late, after we had eaten our fellowship meal; still, we sat with them as they were served their reheated dinner. In the process, we were asked what we discuss at our “bible study” — we said the Torah of the “Old Testament” . . . more questions, we suggested they check out our website where we explain who we are and what we are into. The husband led the prayer before meals, ending “in Jesus name”. Three of us did not say “amen”, the Mormon among us did, thinking it was a matter of simple courtesy . . . plus to her, it is no big deal. Well, to the rest of us, it is. You either stand by your God or you don’t. We proudly proclaim the Name of the God we worship, YHWH, and part of allegiance is to keep silent when another God’s name is referenced in the context of prayer. After the couple finished their dinner, they excused themselves and left before we started our Torah study. Understandable.