We have heard it said – A Sinaite's Apologetics – 8

[This is the final article in the series A Sinaite’s Apologetics 5,6,7—this is how our messianic teacher described himself. We will discuss his carefully chosen words one by one.]

 

——————————————-

 

“Your beloved ex-teacher,  

bond-slave of

YHVH: Father, Son Yeshua, and Spirit”

 

“Your Beloved . . .” 

 

Even if we have dropped out from our former religious/church/fellowship circles, leaving behind people who became friends because of commonly-held beliefs, we hold them dear in our hearts, having been believers of the same persuasion for decades, having enjoyed years of fellowship in study and worship, and having grown and matured together in a common faith.  

 

Diversity should not lead to the end of friendships; granting differences in belief inevitably divide but if nothing else, such differences should in fact make each side curious enough to check out why the other is doggedly clinging to the belief system he/she has chosen.  There is always something to learn from one another; we can accept or reject in the end but we should at least show respect for each other’s chosen pathway to God-given Truth, even if we do not agree. . . because Truth is Truth and does not change; we are all seekers, that is why we are where we are, at different points of our Truth quest —- and we can and should adjust ourselves according to the aspects of Truth we continually discover each step of the way.

 

Please reread the prayer to the God of Truth we posted on a banner scroll on our HOME page.  

 

Our common grounds are:  

• we are seekers after Truth, 
• and the True God.  

Where we eventually part ways:  

• the source of our belief, 
• the foundation of our faith, 
• and that would be the Scriptures we consider as God-breathed, if not the very words of God—
  • to the Christocentric and Trinitarian, that would be the New Testament first, and the Old Testament only when it serves the purpose of prophecy and fulfillment;
  • to Jews that would be their Hebrew Scriptures, the TNK;
  • to us Sinaites, that would be the first five books of Moses, the TORAH; everything else that is appended to it should conform to it.
• Ultimately, we part ways because of our differing answer to these: 
  • WHO is your God, 
  • WHAT is His Name?

 

The ‘forbidden fruit’ to the one-sided could be the very path that leads to an alternative possibility. There is always more to discover but the close-minded deprives himself of further illumination. Revelation is a one-time event; the discovery of that revelation and the understanding of it is what is progressive or a process.  Once convicted, one starts to apply what one progressively learns and accepts in one’s life.   

 

Some are fortunate to have discovered the True God early; the chosen people have been blessed with that unique privilege even if some of them still do not pay heed.  We gentiles have their scriptures attached to the New Testament but we can’t seem to see beyond Paul’s looking glass— that “mirror dimly” of 1 Corinthians 13:12.  It is possible to know the God of the TNK, He has spoken clearly.  It is the god of the Christian Scriptures that remains a mystery to all simply because that god is impossible to explain. 

 

“Ex-teacher”  

 

As far as Christian/Messianic theology, yes; but there is always something to learn from good teachers and they are much appreciated; we would not be where we are had it not been for their tutelage.  Teachers are teachers because that is what they do best; as for disciples, it is only natural to win some, and lose some. Teachers don’t have to lose their students if they are more open-minded, listen once in a while, learn from their students, be tolerant of  differing opinions, humbly admit that perhaps they have missed doing research on the very topic their students bring up before them and explore the possibility that they might be wrong. 

 

“Bond-slave”

 

 This is an interesting choice of words.  Is there a difference between “slave” and “bond-slave”?  A note in one Study Bible explains that a bondslave is a slave who has served his time and therefore has been given his much deserved freedom but  . . . surprisingly, he refuses to be free and chooses to remain in bondage to his same master to whom he has gotten attached, so that he is just too happy to stay where he is.  Our ex-teacher chose his self-description well, befitting his personal choice to remain with the god he has known, has taught and witnessed to others, has served all his life. He chooses to be in bondage to this god because he has invested a lifetime of study and heartfelt worship in his belief and conviction, and so be it, we respect that as we expect respect for our belief and conviction, even if it runs counter to his.     

 

 

“YHVH: Father, Son Yeshua, and Spirit” 

 

Finally, our beloved ex-teacher saves his best salvo for the last: He names his “God.”  

 

Compare this with the self-declared Name of the God on Sinai and His consistent use of the Hebrew word echad —One, as in the One and Only, as in ALONE. 

 

Nowhere is there a hint in the TNK of YHWH’s future metamorphosis into a trinitarian godhead such as that presented in the New Testament scriptures.  Any TNK ‘prooftexts’ being presented to justify the change of TNK’s Immutable God is misunderstood, misinterpreted and misapplied due to a lack of understanding of the Hebrew language, Hebrew thinking, and cultural context.  

 

The custodians of the Sinai Revelation, the Israelites, the Jews, would consider such a renaming of TNK’s God as blasphemy, i.e. the equating or identification of non-gods with the One True God.  To change the very nature of God from what He has repeatedly proclaimed in His original Revelation is not the meaning of “I will be Who I will to be.”  

 

Regardless of how one tries to fit the “Old” Testament God to the “New” Testament God, or vice versa, they are not the same.  Even with the insistence on “three-in’one” or “tri-unity” it does not fit whether mathematically or logically, and appears to be about as strange as a square circle or as impossible as a round square.  

 

In fact, believers in “Father, Son Yeshua, and Spirit” should stick to simply calling their God the Trinity without superimposing YHWH on their equation, because on top of violating the first commandment, they become guilty of violating the 2nd as well as the 3rd— have no other gods and do not use the NAME in vain. Jews as well as we Sinaites would have no problem respecting a concept of a Trinitarian God [as someone said “live and let live”] but it is an insult to the God of Israel, the God on Sinai to be reconfigured by a council of mere men and declare Him different from what He Himself has self-declared in His original Revelation.  The god decided upon by the Council of Nicea who is human-divine, first a biannity then upped to a trinity —- is not the God of the Hebrew Scriptures.  In the words of our teacher, “No Way!” whenever he corrects a misconception.  

 

Here are declarations in the TNK about that GOD: [Translation: Christian/ArtScroll]

• Exodus 8:10  . . .there is no one like YHWH our God.
  • [AST]   Exodus 8:6 And he said, “For tomorrow.” He said, “As you say – so that you will know that there is none like HASHEM, our God.

 

• Deuteronomy 4:35  YHWH, He is God; there is no other besides Him.
  • [AST] Deuteronomy 4:35 You have been shown in order to know that HASHEM, He is the God! There is none beside Him!

 

• Deuteronomy 4:39  Yahweh, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 
  • [AST] Deuteronomy 4:39 You shall know this day and take to your heart that HASHEM, He is the God – in heaven above and on the earth below – there is none other.

 

•  Deuteronomy 32:39  See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me” 
  • [AST] Deuteronomy 32:39 See, now, that I, I am He – and no god is with Me. I put to death and I bring to life, I struck down and I will heal, and there is no rescuer from My hand.

 

• Deuteronomy 6:4  Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one!
  • [AST] Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: HASHEM is our God, HASHEM is the One and Only.

 

•  2 Samuel 7:22  You are great, O Lord God; for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You.
  • [AST] 2 Samuel 7:22 because You are great, HASHEM, God, for there is none like You and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

 

• 2 Samuel 22:32  For who is God, besides Yahweh? And who is a rock, besides our God? 
  • [AST] 2 Samuel 22:32 For who is God besides HASHEM, and who is a Rock besides our God?

 

• 1 Kings 8:60  Yahweh is God; there is no one else.
  • [AST] 1 Kings 8:60 so that all the peoples of the earth shall know that HASHEM is God – there is no other. 

 

• 2 Kings 19:15   You are the God, You alone  of all the kingdoms of the earth.
• [AST] 2 Kings 19:15 Hezekiah then prayed before HASHEM, and said, “HASHEM, God of Israel, Who dwells atop the Cherubim: You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world; You made heaven and earth.

 

• 1 Chronicles 17:20  O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You.
  • [AST] 1 Chronicles 17:20 HASHEM, there is none like You and there is no god besides You, like all that we have heard with our ears.

 

• Nehemiah 9:6  You alone are YHWH. 
  • [AST] Nehemiah 9:6 You alone are HASHEM; You made the heavens, the most exalted heavens and all their legion, the earth and all that is upon it, the seas and all that is in them, and you give them all life; and the heavenly legion bows to You.

 

• Psalm 18:31  For who is God, but Yahweh? And who is a rock, except our God.
  • [AST] Psalm 18:32 For who is God besides HASHEM, and who is a Rock except for our God?

 

• Isaiah 37:20    You alone Lord, are God.
• [AST] Isaiah 37:20 So now, HASHEM, our God, save us from his hand, then all the kingdoms of the world shall know that You alone are HASHEM.

 

• Isaiah 42:8 “I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, or My praise to idols.”
  • [AST] Isaiah 42:8 I am HASHEM; that is My Name; I shall not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven idols. 

 

•  Isaiah 43:10  Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. 
  • [AST] Isaiah 43:10 You are My witnesses – the word of HASHEM – and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you will know and believe in Me, and understand that I am He; before Me nothing was created by a god nor will there

 

Isaiah 44:6  I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.

• [AST] Isaiah 44:6 Thus said HASHEM, King of Israel and its Redeemer, HASHEM, Master of Legions: I am the first and I am the last, and aside from Me there is no God.

 

• Isaiah 44:8  Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.
  • [AST] Isaiah 44:8 Do not be afraid and be not terrified! Did I not make you hear of yore and tell you; and you are My witnesses: Is there a god aside from Me? There is no rock I do not know!

 

•  Isaiah 45:5  I am YHWH, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God.
  • [AST] Isaiah 45:5 I am HASHEM and there is no other; other than Me there is no God; I will gird you, though you did not know Me,

 

[Isaiah 45:14  Surely, God is with you, and there is none else, No other God. 

• [AST] Isaiah 45:14 Thus said HASHEM: The toil of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabeans, men of stature, will pass to you and will become yours; they will follow after you and pass in chains. They will prostrate themselves before you; they will pray before you, ‘Only with you [Jerusalem] is God, and there is none other, except for God’;

 

• Isaiah 45:18  I am Yahweh, and there is none else. 
  • [AST] Isaiah 45:18 For thus HASHEM, Creator of the heavens; He is the God the One Who fashioned the earth and its Maker; He established it; He did not create it for emptiness; He fashioned it to be inhabited: I am HASHEM and there is no other.

 

• Isaiah 45:21  “Is it not I, Yahweh? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.
  • [AST] Isaiah 45:21 Proclaim and approach; even let [your leaders] take counsel together: Who let this be heard from aforetimes, or related it from of old? Is it not I, HASHEM? There is no other god besides Me; there is no righteous god besides Me and no savior other than Me.

 

•   Isaiah 46:9  I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.
  • [AST] Isaiah 46:9 Recall the early events of ancient times, [see] that I am God and there is no other; [I am] God and there is none like Me.

 

• Zechariah 14:9 And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; in that day Yahweh will be the only one, and His name the only one.
  • [AST] Zechariah 14:9 HASHEM will be the King over all the land; on that day HASHEM will be One and His Name will be One. 

 

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