Chapter 1: Introduction to study

Okay, here we are at Bible study boot camp. Before I start this, I wanted to uh just share very briefly my sister Christine Baronson, David’s wife, obviously called me yesterday and was just sharing her feelings about the whole Charlie Kirk thing. and she wanted to share that she felt like at the end of the day fear is what is behind some of these actions that we see happening to people like Charlie and and others obviously there’s hatred there obviously there’s mental stability there instability there but at the end of the day there’s fear it’s fear and she suggested that we do a lesson on fear which I thought would be good you know we could look at it from a biblical perspective and we will uh in the near future But today I wanted to do Bible study boot camp. I felt like it was an important thing to discuss uh this topic be uh because it’s a great need uh in the world today. And I I think that a lot of the stuff that we’re going to go over today is probably going to seem and feel elementary to many people in this group uh just because you’re already, you know, Bible students to at some level.

Maybe if you’re watching on YouTube, this this will help. Maybe if you’re in the group, this will help. I I don’t know. But I did I definitely felt like it was it was necessary for us to address this topic. And so I I want to start by asking this.

Chapter 2: Knowing who is who

What is the most important thing I could teach about studying your Bible? Now, depending on who you ask, you’re going to get all kinds of answers on this. If you ask a replacement theologist, he’s going to say, “Oh, well, you need to study all you can about Jesus.” Uh, if you ask a dispensationalist, you’re going to get a different answer. And so on and so forth. My answer to this question is is this most important thing you can learn uh in studying your Bible is knowing who is who. And I know that all of you can probably relate to the feelings of confusion and curiosity and exhaustion even in studying your Bible, reading your Bible, and coming across these names of people that are weird to you because you know people in the Bible don’t have names like Jim, Bob, Ralph, and hike, you know, they have they have Hebrew names and they’re they’re challenging sometimes to read. And then you get into the genealogies and the cities and the places and you can be absolutely lost and so lost that you really kind of give up on pursuing understanding a verse because it just has this level of confusion that is hard to get around.

But if you want to study the Bible with understanding, you must first know who the people in the text are. The scriptures are filled with names, genealogies, tribes, nations, prophets, kings, apostles, disciples, and each of them carries a place in God’s story. If you miss who is speaking and who is being spoken to or who is being described, you risk missing the point altogether. So understanding who is who is not background trivia. It is the framework that allows every verse to be read in its proper light.

Chapter 3: Answering life’s big questions

And we all know that the Bible begins with Adam and ends with Yeshua. But the middle, all the stuff in the middle answers all of our questions. some of the hardest questions of all like why God created mankind, like why sin entered the world, how sin changed the world, why Israel was chosen and still are, why the law was given, why Yeshua came, who Yeshua came for. And this is a big one that we’ve discussed several times on this channel. Why Yeshua had to die to provide salvation. If you are a New Testament believer and you cannot answer that question biblically, then you’re not in a good place. You’re building on sand. That’s a tough question. Why faith not works is what justifies. Why the Holy Spirit was given, why suffering and trials are allowed. And why hope in the resurrection matters as a as a practical, and I have many in this video, and sometimes as we go through these slides, some of the stuff’s going to be repetitive because it just is. It’s the nature of the animal, so to speak. But as a practical, if you want to start learning some depth in your Bible study, you can start with answering those questions right there.

Take a snapshot of that list and start searching your Bible out for answers to these questions. Just by doing this alone, you will grow exponentially in your understanding of scripture. All of these questions can be answered within the pages of the Old Testament. Did you know that? every single one of them. I used to have friend of mine, evangelist friend of

Chapter 4: Israel and the plan of salvation

mine who told me that if you can’t prove that Yeshua is the Messiah by using the Old Testament only, you don’t know your Bible. Right? True. And Glenn says that’s absolutely true. All these questions can be answered within the pages of the Old Testament. Many of these questions cannot be answered without knowing who is who. We go down that list that in that are starred by asterisks. How sin changed the world. Why Israel was chosen and still are. Those those questions marked with an asterct. Specifically, you cannot truly answer without knowing who is who in the Bible as a great place to begin. You cannot truly understand the plan of salvation unless you understand who the people of Israel are, their relationship to Yahw, and how his covenant with them unfolds throughout scripture and finds its fulfillment in Christ. And if you are a New Testament believer and you happened upon this video and you’re seeing words like Yah, that’s just another way of of saying him. That’s it’s a shortened way of saying his name and we find that in the book of of Isaiah. So it’s not just something that we made up.

But you can’t truly understand the plan of salvation unless you understand the people of Israel. This is a challenge to you because we were talking in the fellowship about how some people feel towards Jewish things and uh I made the point uh that in my book I described how many today’s believers Christians would not call themselves anti-semitic but in their hearts they do have hostility towards all things Jewish. So I called it Judaistic hostility. And you’ll find that it exists in the Christian world. And it exists at such a level that it really kind of prevents people from understanding who the people of Israel are. In doing so, you’re only hurting yourself. You you can’t truly understand the plan of salvation without understanding who the people of Israel are. And shockingly that you as a beloved follower of Yeshua are actually part of the people of Israel that at some level you may despise. Little bit of a moral challenge there.

Chapter 5: The love story of Israel

Love story between God and his chosen people. Israel is the backbone of the entire Bible. The second greatest thread in that word should be in not is the second greatest thread in all of scripture. I’ve again made this point before. The Messiah himself is the greatest thread throughout scripture. The second one would be his love story between him and his people Israel. So how important is it that we know it? How important is it that we understand it as believers and followers of Yeshua? Just a brief synopsis here of this love story. We we start with the 12 tribes of Israel and and you’ll learn in your Bible study that they were split in two because of their sin, because of their rebellion. 10 of the tribes were called the house of Israel and two of the tribes were called the house of Judah. That alone confuses a great number of people as they read their Bible. They don’t know who’s who. Why? Who is this house of Judah? Who is this house of Israel? How are they different from the United Tribes of Israel? That’s an important place to start.

And even more important is how the Lord brings them back together prophetically. the story of the two sticks in the book of Ezekiel, the one new man as Paul explains it in Ephesians 2. He is going to bring these two tribes, these two sects, these two houses of Israel back together prophetically and just how much the cross plays a part in that restoration. You need to know who is who in your Bible. This is a snapshot from my Jacob to Jesus lesson that kind of briefly explains this phenomenon. The 12 tribes of Israel because of their disobedient was divided into two, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, both of them continued to be disobedient. The father divorced the house of Israel and in doing so they became Gentiles because he was no longer their God. and they were no longer his people and they were cast into Assyria and into the world. So by all intents and purposes they had become Gentiles. The house of Judah because of their disobedience was cast into Babylon for 70 years for rejecting the Shabbat, the land Shabbat in specific. They were allowed to return to Jerusalem.

When you read the book of Ezra and the book of Nahhemia, that’s the story of them coming back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls that had been torn down. Now, the house of Judah only consisted of the h the the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. So, what did they became known as? They became known as the Jews. This is important for you as a Bible student to understand. This is not just semant semantics. The word Jew comes from the word Judah. And so not all Hebrews are Jews. It’s much like I’ve said a 100 times, every Texan is an American, but not every American is a Texan. And the same is true here. The house of Judah became known as the Jews and the rest, the other 10 tribes who were cast into the nations became Gentiles. These are very important distinctions as you attempt to understand not just your Old Testament but your New Testament and who is talking to who. So,

Chapter 6: Key biblical names

some practicals as a result of this first two slides here. Names that you should know for a basic understanding of scripture. Now, some of you are going to look at this list and go, “What about so- and so? And what about so and so?” Well, understand this is a these are practicals for a basic understanding of scripture. Well, you should know about this name. Now, you may argue with me about what his name is. That’s okay. Okay, I’m not going to argue back. Uh, I believe it’s Yhovah. Other people say it’s Yahweh. Um, I don’t care. As I’ve said in other lessons, you want to call him Yahweh. Amen. I’m going to love you this just the same. Exodus chapter 3, you learn his name in the Hebrew. You will not see it in your English translation. You have to understand the Hebrew in Exodus 3. But that’s a very important name. It is the name of God. It is the name that was prophesied the na that the the nations would know the Gentiles would eventually know this name. So that’s super super important. Obviously you need to know Adam. You need to know Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

These are very important names in the story of the Bible, especially the salvific history of the Bible. From Jacob you get the 12 tribes and in the 12 tribes you get Joseph and from Joseph you get Ephraim. Again basic understanding of names. These four people are what we call Israel or what the Bible will call Israel in your Bible study. Sometimes you’ll see in scripture that the Bible interchanges the word Jacob for Israel or Joseph for Israel or Ephraim for Israel. Who’s Ephraim? Ephraim is Joseph’s son. Okay. So uh that was a huge eye openener for me when I realized how many different ways the Bible uh identifies the house of Israel uh namely through Jacob, Joseph and Ephraim. Now as we already noted 12 tribes became the house of Judah and the house of Israel and then Ephraim also is known as the house of Israel. Why is that important? There’s a lot of Old Testament prophecies about Ephraim. And as I have said in other videos, anytime that you look at Old Testament prophecies about future Ephraim, that is a reference to us. We we are the house of Israel.

We are grafted in as Romans teaches to Israel, but specifically through Ephraim. And so you want to make that connection as you’re studying your Bible. Now, the house of Judah had several prophets sent to speak directly to it. So, as you’re reading your Bible and you’re wondering who Isaiah and Micah and Jeremiah and so on, all these prophets are speaking to, you need to understand that those specific prophets were speaking to the house of Judah. And likewise, the house of Israel had these specific prophets speaking to them. Now, as you can imagine, they had two very different needs. Well, repentance was the broadest umbrella need for both tribes, but they spoke to them based on who they were, based on who they would become. And so that’s a key thing. And then, of course, we know that post exile, the house of Judah also had Malachi, Zachchariah, and Haggi addressing it. But there was another prophet that was sent to speak to the house of Israel. Who was that? Glenn number two. A very big special prophet. Do you remember? You certainly should. I’m scanning the list to see what hope. Yeshua. Yeshua was a prophet.

Obviously, he’s the son of God, God in the flesh, but he was also a prophet sent to the house of Israel. How do we know that? Well, because in Matthew 15, he himself says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” So Yeshua himself came to deal with this lost house. Where was this lost house? They were in the wind. They were sheep uh that were outside the pin. They were the Gentiles and he was calling them back. So just a brief overview. If you’re looking to have some practicals for understanding who is who, my suggestion would be to search out these people and their place biblically and historically.

Chapter 7: Foundations of scripture

Sacred text, serious study. Stop playing. Start digging. Joanne, let me just ask you. What do you see in the image here? Um the child on the left is just building a house on sand, New Testament only. And the other child is digging down into the sand to the foundation which includes the Old Testament. Yeah. Which brings to mind obviously the scripture about building your house on the sand, right? Um, would it be fair to say that if you hold to nothing but the New Testament that you’re building on the sand? Glenn, number two, what would you say? You could give wash away. Okay. Uh, I I I would say yes. Are you saying that if I build my house just on Yeshua, just on Jesus, I’m building on sand? Well, yeah, sort of. Is Yeshua not strong enough to save? Of course, that’s not what I’m saying. But I’m saying you can’t even understand Yeshua truly without digging down to the bedrock of the Old Testament and knowing why he came and who he came for and why he had to die. So contrary to Christian belief, popular Christian belief, the Old Testament and the New Testament are not mutually exclusive.

They are too often treated as two separate books for two separate people. The Old Testament was for the Jews. I’m a New Testament believer. The New Testament is for me. And some people even go further than that and say, not just the New Testament, but Paul, he’s my apostle. He’s talking to me. And they do that at the exclusion of everything that the Old Testament has to say. They are not mutually exclusive. A person cannot in any way understand their New Testament apart from the Old. The New Testament is built on the foundation of the Torah and the prophets. And without that grounding, the words of Yeshua and the apostles are stripped of their context and meaning. I give you 2 Timothy 3. But

Chapter 8: The value of the Old Testament

Paul says to Timothy, a young teenage evangelist who was leading a church there, you must continue in the things that you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures. Stop. Which holy scriptures? By this time in human history, there was no such thing as the New Testament. Paul’s letters had not been canonized yet. At this point in history, all they had was what is what’s commonly called the Tanakh or the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures. So when he says that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures the student of scripture needs to stop and ask that question which holy scriptures and if the holy scriptures he’s referencing to is the old testament then does this apply to me in the new testament and the answer to that question is yes which are able to make you what wise for salvation through faith. That’s interesting. So this Old Testament that Paul is talking to Timothy about, he is saying is wise to make you salvation through faith. Huh? Salvation has always been about faith even in the Old Testament.

But the church, the modern day church, evangelicalism, has reduced the entirety of the Old Testament to quote unquote being under the law. And thus, you have basically robbed it of all of its value. And we’re going to learn here in a second that it’s got a great deal of value. that Christianity has disregarded all scripture. Hm. Okay, stop. Again, which scripture? There was no New Testament when Paul wrote this. So when he says all scripture, what is he referring to? I I am appealing to your intellectual honesty here viewer. When your New Testament says all scripture, it could only be referring to that which was already written and that is the entirety of the Old Testament. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. What’s another word for profitable, Joanne? Valuable. Useful. Beneficial. I second. Beneficial. That’s another great word for what? For doctrine. Uh-oh. Now you’re in trouble. You who have disregarded the Old Testament, you who think it’s just for the Jews, Paul, the Holy Spirit ultimately is telling you otherwise. The Old Testament is profitable for doctrine.

Who gets to determine that doctrine? in the Old Testament. You me? No. Yah. God does. It’s profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So, let’s reverse this verse. If you have disregarded your Old Testament as being only for the Jews and not for you, then can you say that you are properly instructed in righteousness, that you are complete, and that you are thoroughly equipped for every good work. You cannot logically say that. Romans 15:4, for whatever things were written before, again, stop and ask the question, written where the Tanakh were written for our what? Our learning, our instruction, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 1 Corinthians 10. Now all these things, he’s talking about Israel here in the desert. All these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our instruction. So again, we have to pay attention to what we see in the Old Testament.

Luke 24, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning to himself. Okay, so who’s this? Yeshua. Yeshua is talking and it says that he began at Moses. What does that mean, Glenn? Number two, that means Genesis. That’s right. That means at the very beginning that mean when when you hear the words like Moses being referred to as scripture. That’s Torah, right? Because he’s responsible for writing the Torah. So when it says he was beginning at Moses, it means he began with Genesis and all the prophets to tell them all the things the scriptures had to say concerning him. So I ask you, student of scripture, do you know all the things that the Torah has to say about Yeshua? I doubt that you do. And you need to so follow along with me here. When you ignore the Old Testament, you cannot continue in the things that you’ve learned. You’ve been robbed of that. You’re coming into a story twothirds of the way in without having the foundation of understanding what the first twothirds were talking about.

You cannot know the holy scriptures in the same way that Paul has exhorted Timothy to do. You are not properly instructed in righteousness. You are not thoroughly equipped. You’re not learning properly. You’re not properly instructed. And more importantly, you have no understanding of the scriptures concerning Yeshua, your Lord, the person that you committed to following. You don’t understand it and therefore don’t truly understand him. Sacred texts, serious study. Stop playing around in your Bible study and start digging for the truth, for answers.

Chapter 9: Misusing the Bible

Handle with care the right and wrong ways to study the Bible. Glenn, number two, what do we see in this image? We see an angry man. Yeah. An angry man. What’s he do? What else is he doing? Uh, I guess tearing up the Bible. Yeah, he’s tearing things out of the Bible. He’s ripping things out of the Bible. And what do you think? What What kinds of things do you think he’s ripping out of the Bible? Things he does? Well, yeah, of course, in the Christian world, the law, but ultimately things he doesn’t agree with, right? He’s ripping them out. And the guy on the left, she’s patiently writing things down and learning. So, yeah, we have two separate pictures here that are strikingly different. So, tearing verses out of the Bible that you don’t like or agree with. Does this actually happen today, Joanne? In essence, but I don’t know that you uh I think in the past different ministers uh have come up with their own conclusion of what the Bible’s saying.

And so they may change a little bit here and there and say, “Well, this is what really it means.” And from a lack of understanding, you’ll exclude certain parts of the Bible that you don’t want to get into because you really don’t understand it. Yes. Welcome back, Glenn. Number one, thank you. Consider the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the New World Translation. That’s the version of the Bible that they use. That’s called the New World Translation. The new world translation renders John 1:1 as the word was a god rather than affirming full deity. So in every other bible it says the word was god but in their version they have included that preposition that letter a to make it say the word was a god. in their version of Genesis 1:2, spirit of God becomes active or God’s active force. H why? Well, because they’re trying to push forward an agenda, uh, an ideology, and so they have taken things out of the Bible and replaced it with things that better match their ideology. What about the Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons, and their expanding canon?

They have new books in their version of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, The Pearl of Great Price. What’ you say, Glenn? The The Golden Golden Tablets. The Golden Tablets. Yes. So, they’ve got additional books written by their prophets. um that don’t show up in any other scripture. What about the Catholic Church? In the Catechism Admission, Converse Catechism of Catholic doctrine by Peter Gazerman, there is this interchange written down. What What is the Sabbath day? Saturday is a Sabbath day. This is a priest answering the questions. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? answer. We observe we observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church in the council of Adosa transferred the slimity of Saturday to Sunday. And in that document it says Christians must not Judaize by Judaize. That’s interesting. And Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord’s day, which they call Sunday, and if they can, resting then as Christians.

So, has the Catholic Church, like the image on the screen, ripped things out of the Bible in favor of their own things? Yes, they have. Now, you may be thinking, “Well, those are cults, the Catholics, but my Christian church doesn’t do this, don’t they?” The majority of evangelical churches today have effectively eliminated the Old Testament as a source of doctrine. I call it Old Testament illiterate. While it is still read from moral stories or historical context, which drives me crazy how certain teachers, preachers, and pastors can borrow verses from the Old Testament to make their New Testament lessons sound cooler, but disregard the actual historical context of the verse itself. It is rarely taught as authoritative instruction for faith and practice. In doing so, these churches separate the New Testament from its foundation, disregarding the fact that every apostle and even Yeshua himself taught from the Torah, the prophets and the and the writings. Remember the verse we just looked at. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable and is useful and is beneficial and is valuable for doctrine.

So yes, your Christian church just like the Mormons, just like the Jehovah Witnesses, just like the Catholics has torn out pages of the Bible. in this case twothirds of it and thrown away. So what does this mean?

Chapter 10: Handling truth honestly

It means if you disregard the Hebrew scripture or the Old Testament for purposes of your doctrine, you are violating, sorry for the typo, you are violating New Testament teaching. Which New Testament teaching? It’s right in front of you. Second Timothy 3. violating you’re violating you’re violating New Testament scripture if you disregard the Old Testament because Paul obviously isn’t Paul is obviously in encouraging his young disciple Timothy not to and yet we do to do so is to handle the manifestation of truth deceitfully. What do I mean by that? 2 Timothy 4, we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. So I ask this question, how is Paul able to to commend himself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God? Using that verse to find your answer, how was Paul able to commend himself to every man’s conscience? By dealing honestly with the scriptures. That’s right. And that’s as simple as it can be. Not handling the word of God deceitfully.

Dealing honestly with the scriptures. How do you do that? You let the scriptures say what they say without you trying to add your ideology, your thoughts, your opinions into the scripture. You let it say what it says and whatever it says, that’s what you embrace. You you do it by not forcing your beliefs into scripture but allowing it to speak plainly and define itself. So practicals from the last two slides.

Chapter 11: Practical study methods

Do not ignore obviously or disregard your Old Testament. Seek out the meaning of words that you’ve heard your entire life. In my case, when I was reading my Old Testament and I read the house of Judah, that confused me and I didn’t understand what that meant or the house of Israel. How was that different from the 12 tribes? It took time for me to seek out the meaning of those words that I had heard all my life. And you’ve heard them, too. Different words perhaps, but you’ve you’ve heard them, you’ve read them, and you don’t understand them. Seek them out. Words like feast, Sabbath, law, Judah. Proverbs 4, wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And all you’re getting, get understanding. So, as a student of scripture, seek out the understanding, the things that confuse you. Seek out the understanding. Don’t stop until you do understand. Don’t depend on verses of the day. Go beyond. And you know what I mean by that? I’m going to touch on this a couple times in this lesson. Those people who wake up and their phone has an app that gives them a scripture of the day.

And that’s basically the bulk of their reading, the bulk of their study, and if they love it, they’ll copy it and they’ll text it to all their friends and family. How cool is this? How’s how encouraging is this? Don’t depend on that. Go deeper in your Bible study. Go beyond. Don’t ignore the genealogies, the names, the numbers. They all mean something. I did for many years ignored these things because it was too quote unquote hard to figure out. No, it’s not. Once I started to try to figure out those things, it wasn’t that hard. But they do all mean something. There is not a stroke of the pen, not a jot or a tit, not a single Hebrew letter in the scriptures that does not have a meaning. There’s no filler. You know how you can read books and stories even movies and you know the ultimate point of the book or the story but there’s all this filler stuff. There is no filler in the scripture. It all means something. Figure that out. Don’t study out of context. Don’t build doctrine on a single verse. Too many churches. That’s the reason we have 40,000 denominations because they’ve built entire doctrines on single verses.

Deuteronomy 19, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be established. Do compare scripture with scripture. In challenging situations, things that you can’t quite understand, the scripture will explain itself somewhere else. So, you always want to make sure that you’re comparing scripture to scripture. It’s never going to disagree with itself unless for a very important reason. Why do I say that? Because you will find in the proverbs that there are proverbs in different parts of the book of proverbs that seem to contradict the other. Rebuke a fuel fool and don’t rebuke a fool. Yeah. Yeah. Glenn doesn’t mention one to rebuke a fool to rebuke a fool and not to rebuke a f fool. I say that five times fast. But there’s actual reason for that. There’s meaning behind that and it’s up to you as the student to figure that out. Isaiah 28, for precept must be upon precept. Don’t skip the hard to understand passages. Don’t rest until you understand. Don’t build your convictions on uh or doctrines on the commentaries of scholars. That’s a huge one right there.

As a young student of scripture, I depended heavily on scholars, on commentaries. I bought them. I had them on my bookshelf. Why? Well, because these are wise and learned men. But at the end of the day, they’re only men. And I can’t build my convictions or my doctrines on their opinions. And that’s true with this class. I may have the gift of teaching and be very convincing in one way or another and have a good heart and all that kind of stuff, but I am a man and I am not divine. I am not inspired. And so we cannot build our convictions on commentaries or scholars or teachers, but on what the scripture says alone. Don’t trust one version over another version. Why the English translations mislead? I’ll link to my video uh the error of the lawless at this point so you can see how we exposed that. Do do pay attention to the original languages. huge. At some point in my own personal Bible study, I went away from all things commentary and only focused on the languages, what what was actually written, the words behind these words. Don’t let church tradition override what you can actually see with your script with your eyes in scripture.

Amen. That’s a huge one. Do take notes. Always pray for wisdom when reading your Bible and he will give it gladly. It’s a promise. James 1, if any of you lacks wisdom, lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach. What does that mean? He’s not going to find a reason not to give it to you. It will be given to you. Let’s move on. Twist it and miss it. The dangers of dismissing Paul. Okay. Why am I doing this slide? Well,

Chapter 12: Understanding Paul

to my amazement when I first came into my own knowledge of the ways of the Lord some what eight or nine years ago now, it blew my mind that there were a subsect of Messianics who think Paul is a heretic and who thinks he shouldn’t be in the scriptures, who thinks he is the lying spirit that Yeshua warned us That blew my mind. I I just couldn’t comprehend it. So, I did a lesson, two lessons entitled Paul Taught Nothing But Torah. Paul, you know, part one and two um to show that that’s just not true. But if you twist Paul, you’re going to miss Paul. And that’s exactly what so many people have done. Paul did not teach lawlessness as is commonly understood in the Christian churches. He taught salvation by grace through faith with the law bearing witness to Yeshua. Rejecting Paul is rejecting the very testimony of the risen Christ who appointed him and it pulls the foundation out from underneath the New Testament. This position is very dangerous because it pits scripture against itself. Makes Yahw out to be two-faced.

Makes Yeshua out to be two-faced. and leaves people vulnerable to false gospels that either exalt legalism or cast off the law all together. Second Peter 3. If you’re one of those people who thinks Paul is a heretic, I want you to pay careful attention. Here’s Peter. Who is Peter? Peter is an apostle, an inspired writer, walked with Yeshua. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot with and blameless. And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. As also our beloved brother Paul stop. Here’s Peter, an apostle, identifying Paul as beloved and as a brother. If Paul was a heretic, he would not be doing this. 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, twist it, and miss it to their own destruction. as they do also the rest of the scriptures.

You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, know what beforehand that Paul’s teachings are difficult to understand and not to twist them, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the lawless, but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why is Peter saying that Paul is hard to understand? Again, this is Peter. He wasn’t the brightest of all apostles when you read the scriptures. He was kind of a knucklehead, but he was an apostle nonetheless. Holy Spirit inspired. Why is Peter saying that Paul was hard to understand? Because even Peter, a fisherman who walked with Yeshua, didn’t have the depth of knowledge in the Torah and its fulfillment in the New Testament like Paul did. That’s why Paul was chosen. Paul was chosen because he was the preeminent Torah Old Testament scholar among the rabbis. That doesn’t define Peter. So Peter acknowledges that he’s hard to understand. But notice how Peter equalizes the word untaught and unstable in this sentence because they are the same. Untaught in what, Glenn? Number two, Torah. Torah.

And if you’re untaught in Torah, you are unstable. You’ve not built your house on the rock. and you will twist the scriptures because you don’t understand these people twist Paul’s words which Peter calls the error of the lawless. We have to get our brains around this. Not just those of you who think Paul is a heretic, but those of you who are in the church who think Paul is teaching lawlessness that you are free from his law, you have to wrestle with this this whole concept and ask yourself, am I untaught? How much do I know about the Old Testament really? Am I unstable? And have I twisted Paul’s letters to say something that they don’t? Chances are you have. And that would be your error. The error of the lawless. Now for practicals, I give you this. Take a snapshot of it. Pause the video. Whatever you got to do. This is a list of Paul’s accusations and responses that you know the accusation being that Paul teaches against the law. Well, here’s a verse that rebutts that Paul is accused of persuading Jews to forsake Moses. Well, here’s a verse that rebutts that. There’s a list of them. I’m not going to go through them.

I’ve gone through them in my Paul taught nothing but Torah video. So if you want to stop just take a look at this. I encourage you to do so so that you can get a better conviction on Paul. Let’s look at secondhand theology.

Chapter 13: Avoiding secondhand theology

Too many believers are building their faith on borrowed convictions. They believe what they believe about God not because they’ve searched the scriptures themselves, but because someone they trusted told them it was true. This secondhand theology is dangerous. Truth must be tested against God’s word, not inherited from man’s opinion. Now, again, from a personal level, this used to drive me crazy uh when I was first coming out of Babylon because I was talking to my trusted friends and brothers and they kept referring to this church father or that church father or this theologian or that theologian or this scholar and that scholar. And it drove me nuts. No, you don’t build your faith on borrowed convictions on what somebody else has to say. That includes here in this group. If you’re honest, most of us could admit that at some point in our lives, we believed what we believed because Pastor Bob taught it, Elder Jim said it, Father Ralph shared it with us. If not them, then perhaps a trusted family member, mom, dad, grandpa once said this or that, and it’s been gospel for us ever since.

We never bothered to check it to see if it was right. We just accepted it because we didn’t know otherwise. And therein lies the key. Both scripture and human research testify that people often follow the crowd or the loudest voice rather than discerning truth for themselves. So ask yourself this question before we look at Exodus 23. Who is who has been the loudest voice in your life? Who’s been the crowd that you followed? That crowd could be an entire church and you just joined it because it looked like a great group of people and you just adopted everything they believed without discerning the truth for yourself via scripture. Or maybe it wasn’t the crowd. Maybe it was that loud voice. your mom, your dad, your grandpa, the one that you love so much, your grandma, Father Ralph, Elder Jim, Pastor Bob that you just had this close relationship with and by golly, you love them so much, you just embraced whatever they had to say as truth. Is it? Do you know it for a fact? Exodus 23:2, you shall not follow a crowd to do evil. This is a command. This is Torah.

Nor shall you testify in a dispute as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. If a crowd is an entire church and you can see with your own two eyes that they are in violation of scripture, shall you follow that crowd? No, you shall not. according to Torah. Deuteronomy 12, take heed to yourself that you are not ins snared to follow them, that you do not inquire after other gods, after their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods? I’ll do likewise.” No, you shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. And then, of course, we know Matthew 7, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. many roads go by it. My question is why are many going through it? For the same reason that thousands upon thousands of people flock into what I call feel-good churches today. They want an easy salvation, a painless salvation, one where not too much is asked of them. And if any of them were serious seekers of scripture, they would know exactly what these ch churches are. But they are there precisely because they don’t seek.

Do you see the irony there, Glenn? Number two. Yes, I do. The only reason that they’re in these feel-good churches is because they don’t know scriptures. And if they took the time to know the scriptures, they would know that that’s not where they need to be. It’s a catch 22. So don’t embrace secondhand theology. Know what you believe because you, you’ve studied it, you’ve saw it.

Chapter 14: Moving beyond shallow study

Scripture. Okay. Uh sorry about my tone in this lesson, but really not because it is boot camp after all. And if you’ve ever been through boot camp, you get yelled at. You have somebody raising their voice at you. So, I’m a little bit more aggressive in this lesson than normally, but that’s okay. Bible study boot camp. Scripture isn’t a sound bite. Grow beyond shallow Bible study. Number one, what do you see in this picture? He’s pretty religious. Okay, he’s pretty religious. What else do you see? Well, he’s got all different scriptures he’s looking at and he’s got a nice uh Bible verse drink. Yeah. So, what this picture kind of represents is someone who has access to all the scripture he possibly can have access to, but he’s sipping it from a straw. He’s taking little sips at a time instead of consuming the scripture properly. I want to treat this slide with a little humor. So, so indulge me. 1 Corinthians 3. I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food. For until now, you were not able to receive it. And even now, you are still not able.

I wonder, you know, when we read, again, this is Paul, Paul’s sentence structure and his phrasiology can sometimes make it hard to follow. So, I wonder what that verse would look like if I put it into contemporary language of today. And this is what I came up with. I wanted to talk to you like grown-up believers, but you weren’t ready for it. You were acting more like little kids in the faith. So instead of giving you deep teaching, I had to give you the basics like milk instead of real food because you weren’t ready for anything heavier. Honestly, even now, you’re still not ready. Is that a pretty good pretty accurate depiction of what Paul’s saying there in 1 Corinthians 3? You think, Glenn? Yeah. They didn’t have a foundation. Yeah. Yeah. So what I mean, what’s Paul saying here? Paul’s saying is he wanted to teach them deeper things. He he wanted to help them understand, but they weren’t able to receive it. Not that they didn’t want to receive it. They weren’t able to.

I wanted to add something really quick when I see this picture that kind of informs me about what you’re trying to say here, too, is that it’s not often that people aren’t able. It’s because they’re I see him in this picture kind of he’s got his verse that he clings to the few verses that he clings to and that has formed his faith and it’s more like what people aren’t willing to let go of um in order to be able to receive everything else. I don’t know if it’s an inability as much as it is a resistance, a refusal. Well, I think it’s both. I I think if you’ve heard me say it a hundred times in my lessons, if you’re happy with your paradigm, if you’re happy with your little world, then you will not go beyond it. You will not a you’ll not be able to go beyond it. You won’t be able to receive it. I wanted to share with you another scripture. Hebrews 5 verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. The writer of Hebrews saying the same thing.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. So I did it again with this verse. Put it into my own contemporary words. By now, you should be teaching other people, but instead you still need someone to go back over the ABCs of God’s word with you. It’s like you’ve gone back to needing baby food, milk, when you should be eating solid food. Anyone who only ever drinks milk is still a baby and hasn’t learned how to live by God’s word. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is saying when he says, “Everyone who partakes only of milk is quote unskilled in the word of righteousness.” So who is Paul and the author of Hebrews speaking directly to in these verses? These people survived on milk. They camp out on the basics, proudly recycling the same truths they learned years ago, as if repeating them is the same as growing. It’s safe for them to stay in the kiddie pool of faith. And some have become masters of that kiddie pool because the deep waters of real understanding are scary. But endlessly rehearsing the ABCs of Christ is not maturity.

It’s spiritual stagnation dressed up as faithfulness. And when deeper truth arrives, it’s rejected because they weren’t able to receive it because they are unskilled in the word of righteousness. Personal note, this used to this was a very real reality in my previous life, in my Christian life. My old affiliation, all they taught was seeking and saving the lost making disciples of men. And in 35 years, I can’t count the number of ways, the number of angles that they learned to come at that topic. Sermon after sermon after ser. Everything they read in the Bible was looked at through the prism of making disciples. They were stuck in the ABCs of their faith. And they still are. And maybe you are too. You live on basic understanding of scripture. It’s time to grow beyond and get into serious Bible study. Practicals in this

Chapter 15: The living voice of God

regard. Well, it starts with this. Too many believers treat God’s word like a fortune cookie. Right. Glenn number two. to be cracked open for a quick slogan, a quick inspiration for the day. No, it is the living voice of the God of creation. The very words of the king whom you committed to following his word. All of it is the fire that consumes and purifies. A hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces. Sharper than any two-edged sword. Lamp to our feet. light to our path, the bread by which man truly lives, enduring forever, powerful to make wise unto salvation. It is no trinket of chance, but the eternal word of God. The greatest practical I could give you in this regard in line with this slide is to have this conviction about your Bible. That’s the most important. But there’s a few others. Stop using the scriptures like daily inspiration quotes. Stop starving the spirit within you with five minutes of reading because you’re in a rush. No. If you’re too busy to study your Bible, you’re too busy and you have to make the necessary changes.

Choose topics to exhaustively study out like the festivals, like food laws, like Shabbat, like Abraham, like Jacob. Choose those topics and just exhaust yourself on learning everything. You can trace names throughout scripture. Seek out the Hebrew and Greek behind English translations. These these are that’s super super important stuff. And most importantly, cry out for wisdom and understanding, which we’ve already covered, but I told you we were going to double up on things because this is important. Always ask for wisdom. Always pray for understanding. One of the things I love about Glenn number two, when he’s up against a question or trying to figure something out, he’s always stopping and praying, which I do, too. That’s why we’re such good friends, I think, because we’re alike in this way. We pray for wisdom in the moment. Not just in the morning, but in the moment. Whatever we’re dealing with, we’re asking the father for wisdom. We encourage you to do the same. Okay, here’s the last slide. Then we’re going to get into fun stuff here.

Chapter 16: Fear and AI

Artificial intelligence. What’s the slide here? Glenn number two. The woman is being accused. Yeah. What I mean, consider the the timing, the the age that she’s in. People are holding fire and pointing fingers at her. They think she’s what? A witch. A witch, right? She’s a witch. Let me show you some things. Eyeglasses. In the 13th century, early spectacles were accused of being unnatural because they gave sight beyond what God intended. They thought they were of the devil. Do your research. The printing press 15th century. Some clergy called it a tool of the devil because it could spread heresy as easily as a scripture. Ironically, it became the main vehicle for spreading the scripture. But in the 15th century, there was talk that this was certainly the handiwork of Satan. The telescope church authorities branded it suspicious because it challenged the geocentric worldview considered divinely ordered. They thought certainly this was evil. The microscope accused of prying into God’s hidden creation. unnatural seeing thought to belong to sorcery. There was a time the microscope was considered sorcery.

The lightning rod, this is a funny one. Many preachers said it interfered with divine judgment. Lightning is God’s wrath until it was burning their churches down. Some churches refused to install them until their steeples kept getting burnt down. So, oh yeah, all of a sudden it’s now it’s a smart thing to put a lightning rod there at the top of your steeple, which is pagan in its origin in the first place, the steeple, but um that’s a whole different lesson. But no, the lightning rod was considered to be sorcery and and interfering with God’s wrath, electricity itself. Many thought it was dark magic. Electric light is called Satan’s light in its early days. 19th century guys that electricity as you and I use it today was considered sorcery. So I ask should we fear AI in similar fashion? In almost every case that I just showed you, what was once what was once feared as witchcraft, sorcery, or satanic eventually became normal daily life? Sometimes even a tool for spreading the very gospel once used to condemn it. So should we fear AI in the same way? Here are some practicals for using AI safely.

If AI is going to be used by a follower of Christ, the question is not whether it’s evil, but how it’s stewarded. A tool is not inherently evil. Any tool can be used for evil or good. My truck is not inherently evil. But if I go out there and drive it with the intent of hurting and or killing somebody, then it is evil. I have used it in an evil way. So the question isn’t whether or not something is evil, but how it’s stewarded. Point number one, maintain control of content. You set the direction. Don’t let it dictate your beliefs or doctrine. When asking AI biblical questions, tell it to only give you answers directly from scripture and to ignore all commentary. You can do that when you engage with AI. You can ask it a question, a biblical question, and say, “Do not give me answers from any man-made source or writing. I only want answers directly from the New King James Version or the ESV version or the original scriptures and it’ll do so. Use censored AI platforms. Many AI platforms are pre-programmed already not to make certain images and not to entertain certain lines of discussion.

Pornography is not allowed, nor images of people in dire circumstances. I I was trying to make an image some months ago for one of my lessons that that was about I can’t remember if it was about sacrifice or what. I said, “Sorry, I can’t make that. It’s outside of our boundaries. Can’t do that for you.” So, use a censored AI platform. There are those out there that are uncensored. I would not recommend that for the same reason that I would not recommend using your internet browser to search porn. It’s the same thing. It’s the same control. It’s the same discipline. So use these censored AI platforms. Set parameters with AI like settings on Facebook or Tik Tok. You can give AI instructions like when I ask biblical questions, only answer directly from the Bible. Or better yet, tell me what the Hebrew and Greek say. We covered that a moment ago. So you can set these settings, these parameters within your um tool of choice. be it chat GPT or Grock or some other uh AI and then my favorite is this argue with AI. Glenn and I do it all the time.

AI pulls its knowledge from the billions of published works on the internet including commentaries and other biblical instruction. However, it does not have a religion and sometimes it will offer you answers with obvious dispensational leanings. Why? Because it’s pulling its knowledge from what’s online. And you and I both know that there’s a lot of dispensational leanings online. So when you argue with AI using scripture alone, it’s actually learning from you. Glenn in uh preparation for uh this lesson, he sent me a a video of a man talking to Grock and uh teaching it about the existence of God. And you you could tell that this AI was actually learning. Ironically, when you go back to asking it a question as a firsttime user, it reverts back to its default. Even though it has learned from you that God is actually real, when a new person gets on and asks the question, it’s going to default back to its pre-programmed, and I hate to use that word, pre-programmed, but it’s programmed answer based on what it sees online. Would you have a better way of explaining that, Glenn? Well, yeah.

If it’s using a universal uh large language model, then it’s everybody’s opinions all mixed up. But when you restrict the the LLM to uh you you you build a fence for it where you say only use the the Hebrew scriptures or only use uh the original languages only use um uh writings that are in the nothing postappostolic so that you don’t get in into things that have Protestant or Catholic leanings. Uh but when you restrict its large language model, then it’s going to pull from uh the the the knowledge that it has that has the boundaries that you set. Okay. Amen. Well, let’s finish up here, guys, cuz I’m running low on time. So, can AI be used for evil? Yeah. Yes, it

Chapter 17: Fellowship and conclusion

can. Sure. Just like everything else in our world, if I wanted to sin with the internet, I could do so right now in front of all of you. We’re all online. We’re all using the internet for our spiritual benefit. But how am I using it? I’m using it for teaching, fellowship, disciplehip, love, and that’s the point. Tools themselves aren’t righteous or wicked. It’s the heart of the one who uses them. Yahw gave us wisdom to create, even things like AI, and he expects us to use it for his glory, not for sin. Just like Joseph told his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And that’s how I choose to use AI. So, we have two options. We can choose to live in fear of things we don’t understand, or we can seek wisdom from God, walk in faith, and use what he has given us for good. He never called us to monasticism. What’s monasticism, Glenn? Can’t wait to find out. This is monasticism. Oh, monsters. Yes. It’s people who have secluded themselves from everything in the world because it’s all evil. You have the extreme monks in Tibet.

Right here in the United States, you have the Amish who will not use electricity, who will not drive cars, who there’s I mean there’s a whole list of things they don’t do because to them it’s all the world. And so they secluded themselves in their little world and they’re not sharing their faith. They’re not out evangelizing the world as Yeshua commanded. Nope. They’re safe in their little bubble. And that’s what you risk becoming when you look at things you don’t understand and just call it evil, call it the devil. It can be used as such, but we are not of the world. We are in the world but we are not of the world and therefore we will not use it in that way. Thus ends my boot camp lesson. Good job. And some of you have questions. I I think um brother Samuel had his hand up first and then we’ll go to Tim Snow. So jump in there. All right. Shabbat shalom elder daughters. you you and I and we’re number two are going to have to have a a discussion about AI and technology one day.

I have a slightly different take than yours, but I generally agree it can be used for for good and for the purposes of spreading the gospel and finding the lost sheep, but there’s another element to it. But I’m not going to go there right now. Let me just focus on um this teaching and and what you shared this boot camp um idea concept is invaluable. Let me tell you why. I I had to to talk to um a brother of mine um in another assembly. And what I ended up bringing to bear was one of the lessons that you taught some time ago with respect to Jacob having to wrestle with the angel of Yhovah alone being alone because this brother felt isolated and that he lost a friend and that he was struggling given current situations. And I brought that lesson to the forefront to give him edification and strength. Then I started to realize it wasn’t just Jacob who who struggled alone with the angel of Yehovah. Even Joseph who was sold out by his brothers was alone in Misraim. He was alone in prison for about two years.

Um, and it took a while for him to go through that trial before he was able to come into the fullness of his purpose, the reason why he was in Egypt. And the same thing with Daniel. Daniel was alone when he decided to defy the king’s edict and pray where people could see him openly. And he went into the lion’s den alone. Alone. You even see it with the Messiah when he was in the garden of Gethsemane and he wanted the his disciples to stay up with him, but they fell asleep. So, he’s praying by himself alone and he’s ready to go to his death for Israel, for us, for our salvation. So, I was able to take what you shared and then I’m seeing the connection with other things in scripture. Um but also why it’s important and I think this is something that you and definitely um Sister Christine um touched on is when you don’t see the connections and when you don’t really understand what is being communicated especially by by Paul you get lost.

And one thing I notice a lot about evangelicals, charismatics, Pentecostals, they really love that piece of scripture where Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.” But they don’t see everything else in that passage leading up to that. they think is a magical incantation that gets them money, that brings them wealth and renown and just satiates all of their carnal desires. And what it really means is that you can endure all things the same way that Messiah endured to the end to be resurrected to glory as the first fruit of the resurrection. The same holds true for us. We follow that model and that model was established even in the Old Testament with the trials and tribulations of all of the patriarchs and the saints and the prophets. So what you shared is invaluable. I hope people really listen and are edified by by this lesson because it’s of critical importance given the times. And thank you for allowing me to share, brother. Oh, of course, Samuel. We always love your words of insight, encouragement, uh, brother Snow. Okay. Thank you so much, Ed, for that message. I’m grateful for it.

Um, I what I got out of that is I feel a couple things. Number one is I think heart posture really, really matters. Um, and I’m talking about myself, all of us, but and and then our hearers. um maybe those we’re trying to work on with the existing church relationships or family members etc or the lost. But I think our heart posture matters as it pertains to this particular study. Um I’m reminded you know of Matthew 13:15 where uh Yeshua is talking about you know the dullness of of their hearts. I’m I’m also reminded about that verse where it says he who has ears let him hear. just in even revelations, he he uses that phrase like eight times. And I know he’s talking about we all have ears, but it’s it’s it’s it’s really talking about our heart posture, I feel like, towards his word. Um more of a maybe an attitude of shama, of obedience, you know, you know, a posture, I think, a humble posture. Um, you know, I’m reminded also you you hit on that daily verse mentality and I I just constantly find myself talking to people against it and and I’m reminded of Isaiah 28:9 and 10 where even myself, I didn’t read the Bible this way.

I think you hit on uh, you know, where people just didn’t read the Bible because you didn’t understand it. But it says to how should we we should read it line by line, precept by precept, here a little, there a little. Um, and I just, you know, just was reminded by that. And I I think ultimately just our attitude needs to be because you touched on the milk uh versus a solid food. And I I’m reminded of, you know, even some of Charlie Kirk’s words, but you know, I I saw a clip says we should be, you know, we we should we should be um salt and light and not confirm or affirm, but we need to transform and we need to have that posture. So, these are just some things that I I got out of the message. Thank you. Amen. Tim, thank you, brother. Appreciate you. Uh, let’s see. Ray Flowers, hey, Shabbat Shalom. Uh, this teaching was awesome that I really really enjoyed it.

Um, I actually taught a similar lesson to this in in our congregation and I called and it was because I’d heard the same thing you had heard. people were dismissing Paul and so I I called it, you know, we need a paradigm shift when it comes to the letters of Paul because we often take the approach that Paul lived in the 20th century all of a sudden and uh he didn’t know Torah and he was teaching that it was all done away with. So I I you know I said you know when we’re going into Paul you almost need a paradigm shift when you’re reading his letters and so you brought up so many good points. I really love this teaching about how you approach the New Testament and the Old Testament. And I had made a comment in the chat. The most dangerous page in the Bible is the is the blank page that sits in between the Old Testament and the New Testament because it separates them. And you wouldn’t read any book like that. You wouldn’t start twothirds through and think you’re going to understand what the book was talking about. You have to go back to the beginning and read the book all the way through.

And so the some of the concepts you brought, I just love this teaching. I was doing my happy dance throughout the whole thing. Uh it was a really good teaching and I was blessed. So, I just wanted to say thanks. Amen, brother. I appreciate you encouraging words. Uh, okay guys. Well, listen, I would normally encourage more fellowship. I have a family function that I’ve got to be to be at across town and so I’ve got to to jet. Um, but man, it’s so great to have all of you guys here today with us on this Shabbat. I encourage you to have a fantastic Shabbat, a great weekend, and um we’ll talk to you guys very soon. Love you all. Shabbat shalom. Shalom. Shabbat shalom. Shalom. Shabbat shalom. Shalom. Much love. Shabbat shalom. Okay.