Chapter 1: Introductions and updates

Amen. Thank you, Randy. Okay, guys. Here we are. [snorts] Lesson this morning is heretic guilty as charged. Why am I doing this lesson? Well, the next slide is going to explain that, but I wanted to just take a brief moment here before we kick things off to say a couple of things. First and foremost, my gratitude to Glenn number two and Super Samuel for leading us in such a great discussion on Shabbat. Uh I’ve had nothing but positive feedback uh both in person and online. The comments have all been amazing. Um so thank you guys for for doing that. It

was awesome. I I love the fact that I have mature brothers like you who can step in and and take over in times when I’m not able to to be here. Um so amen. Thank you guys for that. Secondly, I wanted to let you know that on Tuesday I sat down for a 4hour plus 4 and a half hour plus interview from Michael RDE’s team. The original plan was to fly me out there, but he said they don’t do that anymore. So, we did everything by Zoom. But four and a half hours talking about my Paul series.

Uh Paul taught nothing but Torah series. And that was both exciting and exhausting at the same time because we we basically taped four episodes um that they’re going to be running. And I’m not entirely sure when they’re going to run that. According to Doug Hamp, it’s usually a month or two before they actually go live with this stuff. So, they have a backlog of things that they’re recording. But, it was a lot of fun. Looking forward to that being out. And of course, when it does come out, I’ll make sure you guys know. But um it was a great experience to talk to, uh

Scott Lair, who is the guy who does all the interviews. He’s the the face of Michael RDE’s Shabbat meetings, the bald guy with the goatee. Um I’m sure you’ll recognize him. But we had a great time and it was a great conversation and uh I’m looking forward to when that comes out. Also wanted to say thanks to everybody who is showing their support for our little group by buying t-shirts like Daria and others and um a number of you who have signed up for membership on my YouTube channel and the gifts that you’re giving in that regard. They are

so important and I’m so very grateful uh for your support in in that regard.

Chapter 2: Defining heresy

Okay, so here we are. Heretic guilty as charged. Let’s explain why I wanted to do this lesson. In my years being in my former affiliation, my former church, there was a fear uh that always seemed to loom over our heads as members of ever becoming that person, that heretic in our beliefs. This fear was closely tied to the threat of church discipline where questioning, re-examining, or stepping outside accepted doctrinal boundaries carried the very real possibility of correction, censure, or removal. As a result, conformity was often prioritized over sincere and careful engagement with scripture.

In the earliest days of my journey of discovery of the ways of the Lord, one of the church teachers warned me that I was toying around with this thing called heresy. And I put this in my book. There is no New Testament author who has anything negative to say about the Old Testament law. We have already established its positive attributes. And yet when someone sets their mind on being obedient to it, there is an immediate objection from others. Recently, I even had a church teacher tell me that the idea was heretical. Heretical.

When did obeying God’s commands become heresy? How did this happen in the church? That’s a quote from my book. Looking back, I used the word heresy or heretical or heretic quite a bit in my book. It was not until I took a very hard look at these words that I realized that I had used them improperly. My understanding of these terms at the time of writing was shaped by a distinctly Christian 5 minutes framework. And my desire now is to correct that understanding. So I’ve learned some things about this word, about its meaning, about its origin, about who uses it and why.

And I felt it was incumbent upon me to not only correct publicly my understanding of it, but also to help pass that understanding on to you. So that’s what I hope to do this morning.

Chapter 3: Biblical usage of hairesis

In today’s Christian churches, the words heresy and heretic are typically used as tools of doctrinal enforcement rather than biblical descriptions. They are applied to anyone who steps outside of accepted theological systems, creeds, or denominational lines. 6 minutes Even when the issue is sincere disagreement or careful study of scripture, the modern usage does not arise from the language of the Bible itself. In scripture, heresy is not defined as holding an incorrect theological opinion, but as factionalism in its purest form and destructive teaching in its worst form. And we’re going to desri explain what that means here in a moment. What

the church now calls heresy is largely a postbiblical construct shaped by institutional authority and not by the Hebrew and Greek terms found in the text. It’s in the New Testament that we see the Greek word heresus from which we get the word heresy. The literal meaning of this word is choice, is faction, is party, is a sect. And even as I explain that definition, because of our American church indoctrination, even those four words have a scary element attached to them. faction, party, sect. Sometimes when we see these words, we think cults. We

think evil cults. We think of heresy when in fact they don’t mean that at all. They don’t mean what we’ve always believed the word heresy to mean. How can we know these things? Well, when you look in the book of Acts in chapter 24, this is Paul talking and he says, “But I confess to you that according to the Way.” Now, what’s the Way, Glenn? Number two, that’s that’s the Way that Paul taught when he used the term the Way. It’s not just only the Way the the Paul taught, but by this time in biblical history, maybe that’s the wrong way to say it, but by this time in

biblical history, the ways of the Lord were what someone followed when they were being obedient to Yehovah. And so it became known as the Way. And so Paul is saying here that according to the Way capital W which they call a sect heresist. So I worship the God of my fathers believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. So here Paul is identifying the Way that’s called a sect. Although in today’s churchianity jargon, the word heretic has come to mean one who denies the faith or is associated

with false doctrine. However, this is not the case biblically. The Pharisees in Acts 15, some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it’s necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Why is this verse important? Who were these Pharisees? These weren’t just your average everyday Pharisees. These were converted Pharisees who had come to faith in Yeshua. And and yet they’re identified here as a sect. So sect can’t mean apostate in this text. Similar with the Sadducees, Acts 15. And the high priest rose up and all those who were with him which is the sect of the Sadducees and

they were filled with indignation and so on and so forth. So here the Sadducees are called a sect, a faction, a choice. Well, what about Paul? We go back to Paul’s words in Acts 26. My manner of life from my youth which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem. All the Jews know they knew me from the first. If they were willing to testify that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. So again, here we can see in these three examples that this word heresus

is not being used to define somebody who quote unquote stands opposed to written doctrine, but a choice, a party, a faction, a group, a sect. And that does not necessarily mean apostasy or apostate. or does it mean heresy in the Way that we have learned it? This is all going to become clearer and clearer as we move along. In 1 Corinthians 11 19, Paul says, “For there must also be factions among you. There must also be heresies among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. So if these factions, if these heresies are tolerated, they cannot be apostate

in nature. Now I’m going to explain that word apostate a little later. I probably should have done it sooner in this lesson because I’m using it twice. Um, let’s just talk about it briefly. What is apostate? 12 minutes Well, apostate is that word that so many believe the word heresy to mean. Apostate is that person who has come to understand the truth as it is written and then turns away from it. So when you look at Paul’s words here in 1 Corinthians 11 where he uses the word heresies, if they are tolerated, they

cannot be apostate in nature. However, they can be destructive. Peter says in his second epistle, “There were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, destructive groups, destructive factions, if you will.” So, let’s talk about this for a little second here.

Chapter 4: Destructive heresies

Number two, we’ve already come to understand just in these first couple of slides that the word heresy in and of itself does not mean that you are standing apostate against written text. Heresy, as we said in the opening slide, has more to do with standing opposed to institutionalized doctrine. If that’s the case, then what do you think Peter means when he talks about destructive heresies? Okay, what does that look like today? And I have some things in mind. If you don’t, that’s fine. We can move on. But these are factions, groups,

parties, sex, ss that are destructive in nature. Does any of them come to mind to you? Times. Give me a couple. Okay. So, so I look at this word heresies. The term I like to use is the word herd. a group of people that agree on something. It’s it’s just a herd herd mentality u attracts people to the herd attracts people to the false doctrines uh which you can look at all of the churches that evolved uh from the Council of Nicaea and the adoption of the trinity, the adoption of Sunday Sabbath.

I mean, they’re all part of the herd and it they are so seductive. I mean, you look at all the all the super churches that have 20,000 people show up on a Sunday. They are herd mentality or uh group think. Yeah. Well, I would agree. Well, here’s what I’m thinking. Um, what are some destructive heresies that live among us right now? Well, we’ve talked about them. If you recall in my Torah terrorist lesson, there are people within the body of the Torah pursuant uh community that are sacred namers. They’re name

police. And boy, they’ll come down on you if you use the word Lord or you use the word God or you don’t say Yahweh or you don’t say Yahusha. There are some people in the body that if you’re not wearing seat seat, you’re you’re not treated well or you’re treated as less than or you’re looked down upon or you’re not as wise as they are or it’s it’s all over the place. We have these destructive heresies within the body. Destructive sex, destructive groups who are not there to build up the body, but to tear down the

body. They’re not there to build up the individual, but to tear down the individual because you don’t see things quite the Way they do. That is a destructive heresy. So we can understand now a little bit better when we read Peter’s words. Before we have this understanding how did we read that? We read that as if these people were bringing in false doctrine. Now do false prophets and false teachers bring in false doctrine? Yes, of course they do. Yep. But here he’s talking about destructive heresies. It’s a little bit different.

And I think that’ll become clearer here as we move along.

Chapter 5: Institutional authority

So where do we get our current understanding of this word heretic? Well, you guessed it. The Christian church. Evangelicalism at large is responsible for our current understanding of this word preceded by Catholicism which Glenn number two says was preceded by Catholicism and there’s very much so truth to that as we’re going to see here in a moment. Stop getting ahead of me Glen number two. Okay. The improper use of the word heresy begins after the apostolic era. Uh when the church moves from textbased authority to institutional authority. What do I mean by this statement in red framed in red? Well,

imagine yourself living back in that day. Imagine yourself living back in the day when there were living apostles amongst us. Now, we all know they didn’t all live very long because they were all killed, eventually martyed. But imagine yourself living in that time. Who were these men? These were men that walked and talked with Yeshua and received one- on-one training from our Lord himself. And of course, Yeshua left us there in Matthew 28 and left the 12 to continue on their teaching. So these 12 were an anchor to the truth

and they became orbiters of what was right and wrong and rightly so initially in this early stage of their ministries and of the church experience. However, one by one they began getting martyed all except for John. So imagine you’re there and imagine now that you’re there, this last apostle is gone and you’ve lost your anchor. In that day there was it’s safe to say that people were lost and it was during that time that the church moved away from textbased authority to what became known as institutional authority. The key shift was then and

still is now. The deviation from leadership becomes equivalent to deviation from truth. Now, even as I say those words, many of you, like me, can attest to this happening in your own congregation where anything that you did was outside of party lines became a deviation from truth in their minds. Such was the case for me at least. You mentioned the Catholic Church, Glenn. Number two, Ignatius of Antioch. Who was Ignatius of Antioch? He was one of the church fathers. quote unquote church fathers. 74 years after the ascension of Messiah, Ignatius presents obedience to the

bishop as the defining boundary of faithfulness. That’s a huge deal right there in the history of the early church. He sold out. He sold out. Ignatius presents obedience to the bishop as the defining boundary of faithfulness. How do I know that? Well, in these three letters, he basically says, “Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be.” Just as wherever Yeshua is, there is the Catholic Church, institutional authority. He who does anything without the bishop and preseritters and deacons does not have a clean conscience. institutional authority. Do nothing without the bishop, but be subject also to the preservery as to the apostles of Yeshua.

Institutional authority. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been looked at or I was looked at like I was speaking a different language when I dared challenge the church fathers in my book. 22 minutes They like so many before them left the ancient path in one way or another. So we don’t put our faith in these individuals as some kind of uh truth holders especially when in their writing they’re saying things like this. So Ignatius is the first surviving writer to centralize authority in a single bishop. Treat separation from that bishop as spiritual danger.

conflate unity with obedience and imply legitimacy flows from the leader’s position. Now again, I can only speak for myself, but when I look at that list, I can tell you confidently, as can Tim Snow, as can Sasha, as can the Garrisons, as can the Baronsons, who all come from my old fellowship, that this is a precise explanation of that fellowship. And I I know I’m I’m wise enough to know that it was not limited to my group alone. Especially number three, the people that I wanted so desperately to talk to about the things that I was learning were more

concerned about messing up the unity than they were with obedience. and obedience to them wasn’t necessarily following what the Bible said, but obedience to them was keeping the unity in the church. So, I hope you’re getting a better understanding as to the origins of the word heretic in the word heresy. 24 minutes Because heresy went from being defined as a choice, a party, a faction, a sect that Paul said must exist among you to being redefined as willful deviation from an authorized interpretation enforced by institutional leadership. Are you following the Glenn?

Chapter 6: The dangers of hierarchy

Number two, why this matters historically. Once this idea exists, everything that follows becomes possible and has become reality within the evangelical churches. Heresy is now defined institutionally and not biblically. Councils are created to enforce accepted church doctrine. What do these councils look like? Well, in our group, there were elders and deacons and evangelists who were all part of this group that would get together and in enforce doctrine. I actually had several meetings with these groups during my early years trying to make sense of the things that I was learning and they would have none of it.

Dissent is criminalized. I was criminalized. I was a wellrespected long-term brother slashpastor slash missionary in my congregation for 35 years. But once I embrace these things, I I I might as well become the devil himself. And I’m sure many of you can relate to that. And then scripture is mediated through a hierarchy. What does that mean? Well, that means definition of words, terms, and things that you see in scripture are only accepted if they come from a leadership hierarchy. And certainly that existed with me, as I’m sure it did with so many of you. So by this time in history, time of

Ignatius, by the time of uh the council of Nicaea, the groundwork was already laid for this institutional authority. Nicaea did not invent the system as so many people believe. It inherited it and it codified it. Why is this a departure from the ancient path? Well, simple. Scripture never places the truth in human office. To the contrary, 1 Corinthians 1, not that we have dominion or rule over your faith. Who’s talking? This is Paul. This is the mighty apostle Paul saying, I don’t have dominion over your faith. I don’t rule. That’s what that word

dominion means, over your faith. We are fellow workers for your joy. For by faith you stand. Matthew 20, Yeshua speaking. You know that the rulers, same word for dominion, of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And let me just stop here at this moment and tell you from a teacher’s perspective how incredibly freeing that is to be amongst a group like you. People who show up here week in and week out.

Not as your leader, not as a person who has authority over you, but as someone who is a fellow worker for our joy together, for our collective joy together. Am I using my God-given talents to teach? Yes. But that’s all that is. I’m using it to serve. I’m using it to help. I don’t want to be that person. Glenn doesn’t want to be that person who feels like he has to be in charge that there has to be some type of hierarchy. Hierarchies within the body of believers is ungodly in the ways that we have used it.

And it’s from these type of hierarchies that we have adopted incorrect definitions of words like heretic. So if being a heretic in today’s Christian jargon means

Chapter 7: Guilty as charged

29 minutes that I disagree with your institutionalized religion that I oppose your group think theology. There’s your thoughts there. Number two, that I’m labeled as a dissenter and treated as such and that I disagree with your top-down authoritarian beliefs and that I hold the written text over your emphatic opinions that are filtered down by your ministry underlings. If that’s being a heretic, I am guilty as charged. And so are you. So should you be guilty as charged. If you like [clears throat] Paul are following the Way. And we should like the brothers in Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who said these words, “Let it be known to you, oh king, oh rulers.

We don’t serve your gods. Nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” And brothers and sisters, that’s what has happened in the Christian church. They wouldn’t say they’ve done this, but knowing what we know and understanding what we understand, which is so funny. Glenn this morning started off with a discussion of understanding. There are certain things that we understand that we can now look at and go those things, those ways, those methods, those doctrines that you have set up are golden images, our golden calfs, and we’ve spent enough

time in our lives worshiping them, but no longer. I’d rather be called a heretic and be guilty as charged in that regard. Okay, so let’s drill this down. If heresy or heretic doesn’t mean what we’ve always thought it means, and it doesn’t, then what is the Hebrew equivalent? Can you think of one? Plan number two. The Hebrew equivalent of what we’ve always thought the word heretic meant. You Well, you know why you can’t think of it? I’ll tell you why. Because there isn’t one. [laughter] There isn’t one. There is not a Hebrew

equivalent to what we have all thought that the word heretic meant. There is no Hebrew word in the Tanakh or the Old Testament or in the Greek New Testament that directly corresponds to the later theological concepts of heresy or heretic as defined in today’s evangelical churches. If that’s the case, what does this mean? Heresy as defined by modern-day religion does not exist. Heresy as defined by modern-day religion simply means to violate their accepted doctrine. If that’s true, Glenn, am I a heretic? Yes. According to them. According to them. Yes. And they are according to you.

Well, if we use that same definition here, we see where Paul uses the word correctly. And these are verses that we’ve looked at already where he confesses that according to the Way, which they call a sect. and in 1 Corinthians 11 that these must be existing among you. These sexs must be existing among you. So according to my old affiliation for example, as I just said, I’m considered to be a heretic. Not because I stand opposed to that which is written in scripture, but because I stand opposed to their interpretation of said scripture. There’s a huge chasm between these two.

The the question to me as I was going through this, studying this, that begs to be asked is this. Can a person be considered a heretic when it comes to what is written? Now, considering everything that we’ve talked about, can a person be considered a heretic when it comes to what is written? Say yes. You say yes. Go ahead. Depends on who wrote it. You’re talking about written in the word. Remember the definition of the word heretic? Yes. Because it could be the sect. Okay. Well, I’ve already said that there is no Hebrew equivalent to the modernday definition of the word heretic.

So if that’s the case, can a person be considered a heretic when it comes to what is written? And the answer is simple. Only if you use the same bogus definition. Otherwise, no. You can only be a heretic to what is written if you use their definition of the word. The bigger question, if heresy is a postbiblical label, I.e.

Chapter 8: Defining apostasy

their idea. Then what does scripture call the intentional rejection of his revealed doctrine? Now this this is not apostate. [clears throat] What is apostate? Apostate means you once held to the truth. You believed, understood, and held to the truth and have turned your back on it. That’s different than this question. If heresy is a postbiblical label, then what does scripture call the intentional rejection of his revealed doctrine? Well, the evangelical church will say that it’s just a difference of interpretation. After all, freedom in Christ is what matters. But the Bible does have a definition for it and it calls it a rebellion, a

turning away. And these are the words that we see in the Hebrew to define these things. Pasha is to transgress or to rebel. Again, marad is rebellion and sarah which also means to turn aside, to depart, to remove oneself. This is the most common behavioral description of apostasy. 36 minutes Apostasy in scripture is not defined as questioning doctrine, disagreeing with leadership, or leaving an institution. Biblically, apostasy is the intentional turning away from Yahweh himself expressed through covenant abandonment, idolatry, and rejection of his commandments. You can see I asked Chat JP to give me the

definition. It used our favorite word, Yahweh. It’s a departure from the Way. And it’s frequently paired with phrases like from the commandments or from following Yehovah. Turning away from the commandments. Turning away or turning aside from following Yehovah. And here is a passage

Chapter 9: Generational inheritance

that we’re going to camp on for the next few minutes to kind of drill down on this. We know this verse, this chapter in Deuteronomy 13. If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you saying let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them and you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all of your

heart, with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice. You shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken in order to turn you away to Sarah from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage to entice you from the Way in which the Lord your God has commanded you to walk.

So you shall put away the evil from your midst. So, let’s take a harder look at this little section of scripture here. First thing I want to point out to us as followers of the Way is this. Yah will use false teaching to test your heart. Knowing this, I want you listener to consider your past. And think about the things that you once believed to be absolutely true. You we failed that test back in the day. I failed that test back in the day. As I’ve shared many times in this class

that there was a time in my life that I was absolutely certain without a shadow of a doubt that God’s law had been abolished. I was absolute in my conviction on that. Now I understand that I was absolutely wrong. But that was a test and I failed that test. Many of you, if not all of you, failed that test. Why did we fail that test? Because we listened to the words of lying prophets, even though most of them, sorry for the typo, weren’t even aware they were lying. And some of us then became teachers of this lies, of these lies. I.e. me.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that these guys who were teaching me these things all of my young life, they they weren’t even aware that they were passing on lies. I wasn’t aware that I was receiving lies. But I still stepped up in my ambition ambition to become one of those teachers. to pass on the lies. Jeremiah 16, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness, and unprofitable things.” Gentiles, that was me, shall come to you from the ends of the earth. And they are

now as we speak, we can see this prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes with the awakening that’s going on around the world. And what are we all saying? Our fathers have inherited lies, worthless and unprofitable things. This is what they taught us. Why did they teach us this? Because they were taught that. And their fathers before them were taught that. And we can see this literally unfolding before our very eyes. Jeremiah’s statement, “Our fathers have inherited lies,” reveals a generational problem. not a one-time thing where error is not just simply introduced but passed down, assumed,

guilty, and reinforce over time. These lies are received as inheritance. It’s what we’ve always believed. And how many times have I heard that? How many times have I said that? Why do you believe what you believe? Well, it’s just what we’ve always believed. I was kind of raised up in this family. It’s what we’ve always believed rather than testing those things against the word. So what begins is deviation in one generation becomes tradition in the next and eventually identity. The people have identified themselves with these lies. The danger Jeremiah highlights is not just ignorance but unexamined inheritance

where longevity is mistaken for truth and familiarity replaces faithfulness. Again, this is something that I spent a great deal of time on in my book where people have misunderstood the longevity of a doctrine, how long it’s been with them, and they have mistaken that longevity as truth. It’s familiar. It’s what my parents believed. It’s what my grandparents believed. It’s what my churches believed for thousands of years. I was even asked at one point in my early years of the journey. Ed, are you arrogant enough to tell me that Christians for 2,000 years has gotten this wrong, but all of a sudden you have it right? So, yes, I’ve had that question.

But as Glenn shared earlier, group think fank isn’t truth. Longevity of something existing in our culture, in our religion, isn’t truth. And unfortunately, we failed these tests. With each generation, the lies get worse. Again, you notice the theme

Chapter 10: False prophets and leaders

here. I spent a lot of time in Jeremiah this this week. Jeremiah 7. Yet they did not obey me or climbed their ear. They stiffed their neck. They did worse than their fathers. So we can see this is generational. It gets worse from one generation to the next. Leaders who transmit the error institutionally. Jeremiah 23. Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophet who prophesy to you. They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. They make you worthless. These prophets that

Jeremiah warned against, their teaching made them worthless. Why? How does the the prophets were prophesying falsely make them worthless? Explain that to me. They believed him. Okay. And therefore, and they obeyed them. They were Yes. They became, they went from unleaven to 11, toughed up, full of false doctrine. Yes. When you listen to false teaching and you obey false teaching, then you have become worthless. So these prophets, I asked myself the question as I was studying this, who are these prophets that Jeremiah is talking about? Well, turns out these prophets were court and temple prophets in Jerusalem.

They were recognized and reputable in the eyes of the people in Jerusalem. They weren’t called by Yah, but they claimed they were. They were selfappointed, if you will, prophets or maybe even the leadership of Jerusalem appointed them, but they were not called by the Father. What does that sound like? That sounds like so many churches today, regardless of its flavor, of selfappointed prophets, pastors, and some who even dare call themselves apostles who have set themselves up as teachers who are saying things that Yahweh never said. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.

I have not spoken to them yet they prophesied. So Jeremiah who was actually a prophet called by Yah was preaching against the establishment was preaching against his brothers who called themselves the prophet. trying to get the leadership to repent and to walk in the Way instead of reinforcing inherited lies and offering reassurance where repentance was required. Jeremiah stood outside the religious consensus not because he rejected the word of God but because he refused to delude it because from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given

to covetousness. He’s talking about the leadership of Jerusalem here. And the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the hurt of my people slightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. Glenn, as many times as I’ve read that verse, this is the first time that the word slightly stood out to me. I just never saw it before. I’ve quoted this verse many times. When I turned to it and I looked at it, I’m like, slightly. I never saw that before. What could that mean? They have also healed the hurt of my people slightly.

Saying peace, peace where there is no peace. I guess the first question you have to ask is where does the hurt come from? What hurt is he talking about? Well, hurt comes from their teaching. The hurt comes from the destructive things that they’re teaching. So they caused the hurt but then they would turn around and slightly heal them by saying peace peace when there is no peace. The hurt didn’t originate with the people alone or from God. It originates with the leaders who dealt falsely who created the wound and then pretending to treat it. So they are false teachers

passing on false teaching that they have called truth. Thus hurting the people. 49 minutes But then they would come back around when those people are hurting or injured and slightly help by saying peace. Peace where there is no peace. striking to me how much the book of Jeremiah uh fits our generation so well. So I say

Chapter 11: Testing the heart

again in Deuteronomy 8, you shall remember the Lord your God who led you all these ways 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and to test you and to know what was in your heart. The first time that I read that this week, it stood out to me again. He’s going to use these things to test us to know what was in our heart. Well, doesn’t he already know what’s in my heart? Right? What which of us would say he does not know my heart at this very moment? So, what was he saying here? If he’s going to test you with these false teachings

to know what was in your heart, then you have to ask how in the context of this verse, how does God know what’s in your heart? It’s like he tested Abraham sacrificing. Okay, he was fantastic response. But I need I need you to speak up so the people can hear you. He tested Abraham. Finish that thought. How how did he know what was a in in in Abraham’s heart in that moment? By telling him to sacrifice his son. And then what did Abraham do? He went about the process. Walked three days towards the mountain, took the wood, took the kindling, bound Isaac, raised the knife.

He was doing it. And the Father had to say, “Abraham, [laughter] hang on.” But the answer to that question, Glenn just so perfectly nailed it, is that he they did it. And that’s how he knows what’s in your heart is by how you respond to a false prophet or not, and how you respond to truth or not. Your reaction, your response, what you do is what’s in your heart. So what h how do we look at this? We look at this by saying when the Father wants to know what’s in

your heart, he’s going to watch what you do in response to a false prophet or in response to the truth. That’s why, and I don’t I’m not trying to pat myself on the back here, but the moment I realized that the food laws were still with us, that moment, I got up and emptied my freezer. I was like, “Wait.” Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. My wife was like, “What are you doing?” I responded correctly. And at that moment, it’s safe to say that the Father knew what was in my heart based on that action.

put away the evil. When we look at Deuteronomy 13, we go, okay, what’s happening here? Well, they have a person here obviously who identifies himself as a prophet of people within the establishment of Israel, a body of believers. Again, remember this in today’s context. There’s a person who identifies himself as a prophet or a teacher or a pastor of the people within the establishment of the body of believers. And he is teaching a way other than what Yahweh has taught. The goal of this teaching according to Deuteronomy 13 is to turn the hearers away.

That is covenant language. To turn away is to be outside of the covenant. And that’s why it says from the Lord your God because you are stepping outside of the covenant. Remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about the difference between obeying his law and keeping the covenant. This is another great example. When you when your heart is turned away from the Lord, you’re stepping outside of covenant. Those who go along have willingly gone along either by intent or by ignorance. The lesson here in Deuteronomy 13 is not only for corporate

entities like churches, but more so for us the individual.

Chapter 12: Fear vs. faith

What does the opposite of this look like? Well, let’s look at John nine. In John nine, Yeshua comes along and he 54 minutes heals a blind boy. You recall the story. The Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered and said, “We know it’s our son and that he was born blind. By what means he now sees, we do not know.” Did they know?

They did know. Or who who opened his eyes? We do not know. He is of age. Ask him. He’ll speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that he was the Christ, they would be put out of the synagogue. Okay, this is one of those stories where, if you’re me, I ask, what an interesting thing for the Holy Spirit to put in the scriptures. Why is it in the scriptures? And why is this the opposite of what Deuteronomy 13 is saying?

There’s a lot here and I want to take a look at it by reading the second half. So they again called the man who was blind and said to him, “Give God the glory. We know that this man Yeshua is a sinner.” The man answered and said to them, “Why? This is why this is a marvelous thing that you do not know where he came from. Yet he has opened my eyes.” Now we know that God does not hear sinners. But if anyone is a worshshiper of God and does his will, he hears him.

Since the world began, it’s been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of the one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. So this boy is basically rebuking the Pharisees. And they answered him and said, “You were completely born in sin. you’re teaching us and they cast him out. Okay. Why is this different in Deuteronomy 13? On one hand, at the beginning of John 9, we see parents who did not stand up for the truth, a truth that they knew and understood for one reason.

They feared the establishment. They feared being cast out. They feared losing their fellowship. They feared losing their family in the synagogue. They feared losing the familiarity. They feared losing that something that they had had for their whole life. And so because of that fear, they gave in. They didn’t they didn’t want to be labeled a heretic. Because of that fear, they gave in. And yet his son did not give into fear. And the [clears throat] irony is they did cast him out. The parents preserve their standing by deferring to the synagogue, fearing being labeled a heretic and expulsion more than falsehood. I wanted to make it clear in

the course of of my study what it means to be a heretic because I think there are many who are going through the journey right now. They’re going through the awakening and they have the same fears. They have the same curiosities, the same wonders, the same questions and they’re afraid of of earning this label. And I say as a believer and following the Way, we can’t shy away from it. We have to almost embrace it. And if I’m brutally honest, I I’ll tell you that when I thought about this lesson, I

wasn’t even sure how to close it because we’ve looked at this word from so many different angles. And I wasn’t sure and still am not sure who it hits, if it hits, who’s going to relate to it, who it’s going to speak to. [clears throat] And so I thought I’d leave the closing up to us as a group instead of just me saying, “Here’s the summarization of the whole lesson.” I wanted to get your thoughts, responses to anything that we

Chapter 13: Group discussion and closing

looked about here and talked about here and see what’s what. Glenn Glenn has thoughts, so I want to let him share first. I’m going to turn the camera so you guys can hear him better. [snorts] Good morning, everybody. Um, this is I’m sure this hit home with a lot of us and we’re relating to maybe some of our experiences. Uh, I wanted to uh bring a different perspective to the subject. I know Ed loves different perspectives. So I I I will bring that. Um what I would like to remind us of is that in Revelation it talks about a beast which represents the Babylonian system that runs the world.

What rides the beast is a great The great uh represents a false church. the false church, this this great has a cup in her hand which is full of the blood of the saints. So there’s a great false church out there. Now if you look at some of the events of council of the council of Nicaea, two of the doctrines that they adopted was trinity 1 hour, 1 second and uh Sunday worship and uh all of the elders all of the people in the council of Nicaea did not 1 hour, 11 seconds

agree with that and so six of them were martyed because they wouldn’t buy into 1 hour, 18 seconds the trinity law. So if you look at the hallmarks of the great false church, 1 hour, 27 seconds you’ve got Sunday worship and you’ve got trinitarianism. 1 hour, 32 seconds And this great is going to persecute the church, the true church. 1 hour, 40 seconds They did they, you know, they made it illegal to keep the Sabbath. Uh it was punished by death. They caused the great 1 hour, 49 seconds dispersion of God’s true church, true worshippers.

1 hour, 54 seconds Now, that hasn’t changed. Now, just because Martin Luther uh nailed some 1 hour, 1 minute doctrines uh to the door and said, “You guys are wrong about all this doesn’t mean that what he led was the true church.” Because they still embrace the Trinity. They still embrace Sunday worship. And they’re still the great And you look at all the Protestant daughters that peeled off from the great They’re part of the system that hates God’s law, that hates God’s people. And so, you know what I would say is just, you know, it’s no wonder

that when we embrace the truth, we’re hated. It’s not just it it’s an unreasonable emotional response to the logic of pointing out God’s truth. They hate us. They hate the truth because it shows they’re wrong. And so that’s that’s my addition to this. 1 hour, 2 minutes No, it’s all it’s all good. Thus, we’ve thus we’ve inherited this uh incorrect definition of the word heresus or or heresy. Uh okay, let’s see. I didn’t see who had their hands raised up first, so I’m going to go from left to right. Let’s start with brother Flowers.

Hey, brother Ed. Uh nice to finally meet you last week. Um it was awesome to Yeah. to actually meet you face to face. Uh this message was fantastic for me. Uh especially because I’m actually dealing with this right now. I have a a good friend. I grew up with him since we were kids and he is in the Church of Christ and he loves to send me videos how they believe that they’re not a denomination. And so this this one really hit home. I was like cuz because of the word heretic. You know there you pointed out

greatly that there’s a word heretic that the church defines and there’s a word heretic that the scriptures define. If I go against the text of scriptures, I’m a heretic according to scripture. But if I go against their beliefs and what they think, I’m considered a heretic. Two different things. And so I was trying to explain to him this Church of Christ came out of the 1800s. It came out of the Great Awakening. It was started by a man named Tom Thomas Campbell. You are 100% a denomination. Now, you might say you’re not, but you go along with mainstream Christianity. and and they

love to you and you you pointed out another thing that you pointed out and I love to also bring up is we always think well how could the church be wrong for 2,000 years and like your church pointed out to you oh Ed now you think you’re right that somehow you know the truth when we’ve been teaching this forever and I always take them back to Exodus in Exodus chapter 24 the covenant is confirmed 40 days later they’re making a golden calf we quickly go astray it’s part of our nature is what we do and then you read the letters of Paul he also says says, “False teachers are already among you.” So, this is common.

And to think that we can’t get it wrong for 2,000 years, we’re fooling ourselves. And so, this this message really hit home for me. I love the Way you did it. And I love the differences between there’s two different heretics. There’s a heretic that goes against scripture, and there’s a heretic that goes against church doctrine. And I would rather know from scripture whether I’m a heresy rather than what church tells me that I’m that I’m in heresy. So those are the points that I wanted to bring up. Yeah. Amen. And hopefully I made it clear in my lesson there there’s the heretic who goes against u agreed upon

doctrine. It’s the apostate that goes against scripture. Amen. So and that’s worse. That’s definitely worse. Okay. Let’s see. Go ahead, Lesie. Well, I really love the message and ironically the gentleman that was talking just ahead of time said that um his friend from the Church of Christ, which as you know, Ed, we share that background. And um you know it it the almost verbatim what the gentleman ahead of you said was the example I was going to give is right after the law was given within a matter of less than 40 days they were casting a you know they were creating a physical

you know the false god false doctrine false everything and it is very natural pe for people to just naturally do that and so this was very I appreciated it very much and I think you know why after our conversation yesterday and just our background but I really appreciated it very much and it is very hard to um it is true the saying it’s much easier to get to be fooled than to convince somebody that they have been fooled. So thank you for your lesson. Amen. Thank you Leslie. It’s always good to hear from you. Okay, our wayward travelers, David and Christine Baronson, it’s your turn. Great to see you guys.

Good to see everybody. Um, sorry we were absent the past few weeks. We’re still We were traveling. We’re still traveling, but excited to be with everybody here. Um, great lesson as usual, Ed. Um, one of the things that I wanted to bring up and potentially a suggestion for a future lesson is that I think that the the challenge that at least I’ve encountered, we’ve encountered with uh with what you just described and I think you did a great job of kind of separating between a biblical definition of heretic that there isn’t one in the Old Testament,

but you know that understanding versus the modernday modern church understanding of heretic. I think that that goes also handinhand with this potential confusion, lack of clarity of what the the term unity means. Okay? Because every time that you come into a situation like this and they say you have a different perspective, opinion, interpretation, it immediately they see that as an affront or an attack on unity, which is a fundamental uh guideline or foundation that the church is built on and that that Jesus and and and God obviously uh are and

Paul obviously are all to being called a divine enforcing, right? And so then you’re you’re labeled as divisive that you’re threatening unity yet we so I think it would be good to clarify and I was trying to remember in my head if you’ve already covered the specific topic I know you’ve touched about it probably in Torah terrorists and some other situations but what does the biblical definition of unity really look like? How can we have a situation where there are sex and factions among us yet we are still unified? Right? because in the

modern-day believer’s mind that cannot coexist, right? And so I think that that would be something that’d be worth looking into. One of the scriptures that were used against us uh interestingly in two occasions the same scripture is used slightly different twist on it is in 1 Corinthians 1 where it says that I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord uh Jesus Christ as the ESB that all of you agree and that there be no division among you but that you be united in the same mind and the same

judgment and we were accused of not being in the same mind and same judgment. Hence we should be separated, excommunicated from the church. Yet Paul himself in the same book talks about the fact that you need to be united yet there should be also factions among you. How does that h what does that look like? So um just a thought along that lines of maybe something that’s worth discussing. Did you want to say anything? Who’s there? Who’s there with you, bro? Oh, sorry. Christine’s here and then Sammy. Sammy with us and Izzy, his wife Izzy, is here as well. So, we’re all sat here together. Uh, and as I said, excited to be with everybody again.

Oh, amen. It’s good to see you guys. And yeah, uh Glenn agrees with you, David, that that sounds like a a great topic. Maybe we’ll do that. Uh, okay. Uh, let’s see who’s up next. Brother Sasha from Finland. Shabbat shalom, everybody. Uh I took a few notes uh from this lesson which really came close to my heart. Um we came we come from the same family of churches and what I thought of was the fear of not belonging as as human beings. we are very weak and we we need a a situation or a family or something that we feel that we are

like the the last uh John nine you read the fear of not belonging being cast out 1 hour, 10 minutes and uh and that that connects with loyalty when I was young I I became a Christian at 21 in 91 and I wasn’t raised in a religious home or Christian home or anything. I just was invited and came to study the Bible and after a few months I decided to I want to be a disciple of Christ and I had a fire in me. I really wanted to do lot for the Lord but the loyalty was between being I thought everything the church did was of course of Christ.

So I wanted to be loyal and being a disciple meant also to be discipled by somebody who knew better. So loyalty became more to the church than to actually question truth. So that’s my my first point is do am I afraid to question what really is truth and to go and get go after that or am I afraid to be dysfellowshipped because what what leads to that is when you when you come into fellowship like this we were we were in you become comfortable as well with not questioning the truth and you close the lid on what actually could be outside what I call the religious shoe box. This

these are my walls. This is my box. This is what I believe and I don’t question anything outside of that. So when I 3 years old became a leader of of a new planted church in Oslo, I got questions that I couldn’t answer. So what happened was that I shoved it under the rug or said it wasn’t that important and I we could get to that later but I never got to it later. So that became holes in my own faith like a Swiss cheese and and uh it it didn’t build me up. I didn’t go after those answers.

So after a while I got burned out. I left the church and I said to God, “One day I will come back, but it has to come from the heart. I really want to know you then.” And it took 14 years for me to open the Bible again and and pray. And after that, the journey began. And I really wanted the truth on my own. So I started to dig everywhere and after just two years I met my wife who also came out of the same congregation and had left that and had her journey

h and u so now we are together making the same journey together and we are standing on the rock we don’t know everything the more we search out you know the more there is to learn but We we come across this all the time when we engage with people friends or or like my workmate. We had a discussion this this uh this week a short discussion and he I asked him why did why did Jesus say that he only came for the the lost sheep of the house of Israel and he said I don’t want to discuss this.

So, it wasn’t a matter of, okay, I don’t I don’t really understand, but I I would like to sit down with you and we could discuss this and I could show you some what I believe. But he just closed the door right there. And that’s what what a good sign for me is someone who is afraid to look for truth. Who is on the throne? Is it your congregation or is it Yeshua Hamashiach? Who is the truth, the life? That’s my my journey. So my thoughts. Uh I think for anyone

that’s listening after this this shoot is over, just go for the truth. That’s my my challenge to you and also my encouragement. You have nothing to lose. Thank you. Amen, Sasha. That’s so heartfelt and so honest. And I’m so happy to hear you share those things. As I was listening to you, I thought about the number of people, all of us who were have been in your position who have done the same things. You know, we none of us wants to be that guy. None of us wants to be a boat rocker.

Um, and so we we for all different reasons, as you said, we shove things under the rug. And that occurred to me as well as I was on my journey. And I thought to myself, well, I can’t I I what am I going to do? Am I going to serve him or am I going to serve the peace? Am I going to serve him or am I going to serve the unity? If there’s any reason to be disunified at all, it should be over a text in the scripture. Yeshua said he came to divide. He came to bring a sword. So, it’s it’s that thing we can’t we can’t stop doing that.

And then I also included this thought, show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome. That that phrase right there is the answer to so many of our questions. What is the incentive? If your incentive is to keep the peace, then that’s what you’ll do. The outcome is you shove things down and don’t face them. Don’t deal with them to your own detriment. And if you’re a teacher, to the detriment of your hearers, if the incentive is to make money, then if you’re a pastor being supported by the church, you won’t rock the boat

because rocking the boat puts your income at risk. Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome. That’s a big deal. And uh unfortunately many of us in the past have failed that test. Glad I’m I’m glad and happy to see that we’re recognizing these errors and becoming more like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Uh more like Yeshua in that regard and not afraid to stand on truth regardless of what it costs us. Okay, brother Landis, you’re up next. Shalom everybody. So good to be here. Uh great message Ed Tasha. We’ve all been there. We all can relate to what you’re

saying, brother. Um Glenn, number two, I wanted to add something to what you said. Um I believe it’s in Daniel. It talks about uh they’ll change the times and laws. And let’s see here. Uh let’s see. No graven images, Sabbath. Uh and then what calendar are we on? Oh yeah, we’re on the Gregorian calendar. Pope Gregory. So th those are all come to pass. And so my question though is um Glenn number two, maybe you can elude on this. Who are the tears in the parable of the wheat and tears? Who are the tears? They look like wheat.

They grow like wheat. They act like wheat, but in the end they’re not wheat. So thoughts? Anyone? Did you want to address that? Who are the tears? Well, we don’t know who the tears are because they look like the wheat. They act like the wheat and you can’t really tell until that angel comes down to take the harvest and uh the the wheat is separated from the tears. But I don’t think that we should confuse the tears with with the the great false church that persecutes the true church. And so what we do know is that the tears are not persecuting the uh the the true church because that

would identify themselves as as the false church. Yeah. And if I can just add to that real fast, I would say this. The tears don’t know their terrors. Amen. They don’t. They are serving their idea of God, their version of God. And they are standing on what they believe to be true. They have been misled. They have listened to a false 1 hour, 19 minutes prophet. They have embraced what the false prophet has to say. And they themselves have become a false prophet unwittingly. And why? Because they weren’t seeking truth. And that’s the trap. So I think that the tears that we see in the

churches uh they they doubtful they even know. You remember Diotrophies? Diotrophies. Yes. Where you know he was persecuting the apostle John. Yes. That’s like a tear. Yes. Yes. Hopefully you guys heard that. Uh, okay. Let’s see who’s up next. Andrew and Gee, G. Hi. Uh, this this is our first time here. Um, it’s G, by the Way. Yeah. Thank you. Um, so, Shabbat Shalom. Um, I also I I want to start off by thanking you for this channel. Uh, my wife came across your videos. um few months ago and uh she

shared one with me and I instantly was hooked and so we’ve been um kind of we’ve been keeping up since then and every now and again uh going into the backlog. Uh every teaching has been a blessing. Um and I like that it’s a discussion so you’re not actually just talking at people, you’re discussing things with people. Uh it’s very different from sitting in a Baptist sermon. So uh which when we first met we we were going to a Baptist congregation um and we love the people there. Uh but we’ve we came into Torah observance uh

I want to say what’s it been about six months or so ago. So we’re still really new at this. Um and we’re learning things all the time but we started attending a Messianic congregation in our area and it’s been a real blessing with them. Um, not that we agree on everything because they they all have faction factions amongst themselves. Um, but they’re willing to discuss things, you know, and uh with my Baptist pastor, I raised some of my concerns with the teachings um that he was giving and he printed out a full list of all the textbook,

you know, Antonyomian, you know, basically calling me a Judaizer. or legalistic person or whatever. And um he told me at the end of the day that let’s just agree to disagree. And I didn’t think that that was the right response. Like if we’re in this journey together, we’re all seeking truth, right? So wouldn’t we want to get to the bottom of things? It’s not that we have to agree, but if we still disagree, we should continue discussion. at least as far as I see it. Um, I wanted to thank David for bringing up the uh the passage about

uh how we should be of one mind because that was something that was brought up to me as well. Um, we have a good friend of ours that was in the uh Baptist congregation with us and he left to become Orthodox, like Eastern Orthodox. Um, Greek Orthodox I don’t really know the difference but uh his his position is that we are taking the interpretation of scripture into our own hands and we’re quote selfshepering which is dangerous according to them. Um and he delegitimized the pastor at the the Baptist church as well as pretty

much all other pastors. He said that um if they didn’t have the laying on of hands that they’re not a true uh bishop and that they they they don’t hold authority. Uh, so I don’t know how to conversate with him when he basically shuts down. Like I brought up Jim Staley. I shared a Jim Staley video with him, which I thought was a great lesson. And he instead of watching the video, he went into researching Jim Staley and some like allegations that were against 1 hour, 24 minutes him. And so he said, “Oh, well, I don’t have to listen to anything he said because XYZ.” It’s like, you know, argue

the substance, you know, instead of attacking him ad homonym. And it’s like some people there’s just this wall up. And if I bring up Torah observance or the the validity and the profitableness of of the law um more than once or twice, I’m I’m legalistic and I’m just that’s all I’m about is the law. I don’t know how to get past that boundary. Uh okay. Well, let me address that real fast. uh you brought up a lot of great things and I appreciate you guys being here. First and [clears throat]

foremost, we love having you guys here and we love hearing your stories. It’s awesome. So, welcome to the two of you. Thank you. Um oh, also you start at the top here. You you shared about David’s passage in first Corinthians about being of one mind. The problem is who gets to decide what the one mind is? In today’s contemporary churches, it’s the leadership of that church who gets to determine what the one mind is. And you’re either with them or you’re against them. They won’t entertain discussion on that one mind having a biblical anchor.

And as far as I’m concerned, you asked, I’m not sure how to engage with him. Well, he’s already told you that he’s not interested in engaging with you on truth. He’s already tipped that hand. In my perspective, in my life, when someone has shown me who they are so early in a conversation that they’re not willing to talk about truth, as it comes from scripture, then I don’t waste any more time on them. They are not ready. It’s not a wall. It’s a veil. Yes. They they like Israel have been veiled to the truth because they’re seeking to enforce institutional authority.

He gets his convictions from, as Michael RDE calls it, cemetery or seminary. and they’ve passed down those teachings and those religions and that’s all they know. So anything that challenges what they’ve been taught is un is is not tolerated in their mind. So I guess if I was to answer you directly, Andrew, I would say move on. Don’t don’t try to find ways to look for chinks in his armor because you’re going to find them all over the place. but he’s not interested in you pointing out the chinks in his armor. And so you don’t don’t waste your time.

Yeshua said, “Wipe the dust off your feet and move on is what we should do.” Um, and as far as the Jim Staley thing is concerned, yes, Jim Staley spent time in prison. It’s it’s there’s videos out there as to all the reasons why. He’s very open and honest about it. But if we take a stand like your pastor did because of Jim Staley’s past, then we shouldn’t listen to Paul. We shouldn’t listen to Peter. We shouldn’t listen to John the Baptist. We shouldn’t listen to just about any of the apostles

because they were all imprisoned as was Yeshua himself to a certain degree. It’s just lunacy. And so, thank you so much for your thoughts. Please come back and join us in the future. We’d love to hear more uh from you and about you and looking forward to doing that. So, let’s continue on. We’re running out of time here. Brother Luke Kendrick, I want you to share next, but man, you got to keep it short. I know how you like to just run off with things. Yes, I do. Shabbat shalom and and Mishbaka. Um yeah, let he who is without

sin cast the first stone. So, uh, but it just brings to mind when Yeshua said, “I have not come to bring peace to the world, but a sword to divide mother-in-law from daughter-in-law, from father from son, from brother from brother.” [clears throat] Those who hold the truth of his word, of his Torah, of his instruction. I mean, I I count myself blessed that I came in I when I first came into this walk, I was I was kind of upset that I spent the better part of my life just out there in

the world, just not giving any credence to God at all. Uh but when I came into this faith, I read the Bible for myself without any teachers, without anybody instructing me. And my first thought was why aren’t we keeping the Sabbath and etc etc. And then it just evolved from there. And I just uh to address what the gentleman said before me [snorts] and you did a fantastic job addressing that. But not but. How about and [clears throat] um like you said, all you can do is bring it up and if they’re not willing to hear it, move on. Shake the dust off your

feet and [snorts] move on. But don’t burn that bridge. I mean, I consider myself extraordinarily lucky that I uh am a member of a church here in Eugene, Oregon [snorts] that allowed me to voice my opinions on Torah. [snorts] They didn’t shut me out. They didn’t ask me to leave. They didn’t nothing like that. If anything, that’s where I discovered 12 other members of my congregation who also desire to keep Torah. And I am so grateful for that. I am so grateful for everything Yah Yahovah has done in my life.

Every decision I’ve ever made my entire life has led me to this very moment. The wise man once said, [snorts] “And I am just so grateful for you, Ed. Number one, you are definitely one of my rabbis that I am so blessed to have in my life where I could just text you a question and you get back to me and I’m like, who gets that? Who gets that? Nobody. So, thank you, Ed. Thank you for this congregation. Thank you. Amen, brother. I appreciate that. And I’m happy to be here for you, but don’t you ever call me Rabbi.

[laughter] Okay, listen. Um, and you are you you open doors that I didn’t even know were there. So, Amen. Amen. Let’s see. Samuel, you got about a minute and then recording. You have about a minute and then we’ll end up with David and Christine with about a minute. So, let’s go ahead and jump in there. Super Samuel. Let’s hear from you. Bash shalom. Brother Luke. There’s an interesting thing about the whole passage about let him without saying cast the first stone that I think people don’t really appreciate. I think that’s used out of context unfortunately. We can have a discussion about that later, brother. Um but but to this um to the

point of this assembly in a in a very pointed question that brother David asked um when it comes to unity if you look within the Brit Kadesha the New Testament you get clues as to how we walk in unity. So number one there is a passage in one of the letters of Raf Saul or the apostle Paul where he talks about divisions that occurred between I believe the assembly of Corinth where some say they are of Paulo some say they’re of Paul but the whole point was that they knew what the Gospel was they

knew what the truth was there may have been some minor differences in terms of their approach but Paul says something that was very telling Number one, neither Paul nor Apollos were crucified for the sins and for the reconciliation and redeeming of Israel. It was Yeshua Hamashiach. So that’s the first point of unity that we agree on his kingship and we agree that he is our master and that we are to obey him. And that leads us into point number two of what establishes unity which is Torah. the instructions that were given to us through Moshe which were which was upheld by Messiah upheld by the apostles which is upheld by the

prophets. So as long as we agree on those two things that Yeshua is king and that Torah the commands the instructions of the most high are what we follow then you are my brother and Messiah. If we divide on any of those things we are not brothers. Maybe we’re half brothers and half sisters, but we are not one and the same. And if two are in agreement, that means we are walking together in agreement. Now, we may have some doctrinal differences. Brother Ed and I don’t agree on everything, but I respect

brother Ed as a moray and I don’t overstep my bounds with respect to certain things. If I have a disagreement, I’ll voice that with him personally. We can go back and forth and talk because the whole point which is within the brick they give and lay out the instructions of how we are supposed to walk out disciplehip. There’s no one above anyone else. This whole thing about bishops and pastors and shepherds and apost is nuts. It’s lunacy. And if you do the deep dive within the language, you come to understand the meaningless the meaninglessness of it.

And that is all from the of Babylon. Come out of her, my people. Come out of her. That’s all I have to say, brother. Thank you. Shabbat shalom. Amen. Samuel, as always, we love your thoughts and yes, it’s great to hear from you. U Okay, Cordon, you got about a minute, brother. Shalom, Ed. You know, I can be definitely long-winded, but because I actually have a minute, I will try not to actually be that way. Um, so I wanted to kind of go back to the wheat and the tears because I feel like the wheat and the tears uh the tears and I don’t know

if this is more so than anything else but it seems like it would be more based upon teachers versus followers. I was just reading in a while that was going on in Leviticus 4:es 2 through3 talking about sins unintentional and then numbers 15:30 through31 who’s who talks about who sins defiantly whether nativeborn or foreigner and uh I’m just trying to figure this out because I know that there are millions and millions and millions of Christians out there that they don’t know as much as the Torah as we do. Okay. Um but they’re trying they’re really really trying to follow. But it seems like their teachers are the ones who say like, “Oh, you don’t have to

keep the Sabbath. You don’t have to keep the food laws, and you definitely don’t have to keep the festivals and things of that nature.” And I feel like basically in the book of James that those who teach are going to be uh judged more strictly than those who won’t. So, I’m just trying to think and have a question for the overall group for those people out there who are unintentionally sinning. Will there be more justice on the day of judgment? Because I know in basically Matthew 5 is that those who teach uh the commandments of God will be

called great and those who do not will be least in the kingdom of heaven. Either way, they’re going to be in the kingdom of heaven. So, I wanted to get your perspective. Thanks, Sorry, my mic was turned off. That’s a big question, brother. At the end of the day, um here’s what I can tell you. I I addressed some of this stuff in my uh veil lesson. So, if you’re curious, go back and look at my lesson called the veil. How will these people be judged? You know what? The only thing that we know for sure is that they will be judged with absolute justice.

a justice that you and I have no idea how to define. His absolute justice and we don’t understand what that means. We’re judged by what we understand. Yeah. Yes. And that’s what I go into in my lesson. Glenn says we’re judged according to what we understand. So, um yeah, I would say because of time, go back and watch that lesson cordon called the veil and I think the questions will be answered to you. Okay, let’s wrap it up here with brother Baronson and um and see what he has to say. David, are you there?

Yeah, we’re still here. Um we can follow up separately because of time. Just a quick uh note on on Samuel. I appreciate your points and I think that that’s part of you know maybe a future lesson. What are those fundamental tenants that we all have to agree on for us to be considered unified uh uh and unity? Right. So you had mentioned two of them. You know we need to get some scripture backed up scripture to identify what are those fundamental tenants. We say okay if we agree on these things then we are

unified and if we’re not then you’re not a we’re not uh you know we should not be uh worshiping together. We’re not brothers if you will. So that’s how comment did you have. No, I just wanted to take a minute to encourage Andrew and and G um that my brother said to David and I um you know several years back when we were you know brutally kicked out of our congregation after three and a half decades of serving them um you know I was crying because I was so angry and I was so

frustrated and felt so betrayed and abandoned and I mean just every emotion you can imagine. My brother said, “Listen, you you no doubt right now feel angry and betrayed and sad and confused [clears throat] and excited all at the same time because you are about to embark on a very powerful journey of of emancipation. Honestly, if if I can think of a different word, that’s the best word. And it’s been 2 and 1/2 years since we were booted. And we’ve lost every friend that we had in that in that church. And I can tell you that it’s been the best two and a half years of our walk with

Yeshua. challenging for sure, but as much as you are going, Andrew and G to want to shout from the rooftops, you’re going to want to call these people. I can’t tell you how many hours I took up of my brothers where I was just with nashing teeth like, I can’t believe they did this to us. Us, we’re, you know, us. I’d had all of them at my dinner table a thousand times. How could they do that to? And my Ed said, you know, Christine, it’s pearls to pigs. You cannot change the system. It’s just stay the course.

God will provide the opportunities. And he has. Um, do I wish it was faster? Do I have the desire to want to send that just get on Facebook and just blow them all away? Yeah. But don’t do that. But just trust and rest and know that moving forward you’re on a new path and that God is going to take care of the rest. Um I share that with you because you sound a lot like we did two and a half years ago. Like what do I say and how do I say I wouldn’t even worry too much about what to say because they’re not going to accept what they like Ed

said they they’re not really interested in not yet. they’re not ready. We can pray for their hearts and that God will soften their hearts, open their eyes, remove the veil as we mentioned. Yeah. And you know, it it also there’s another journey is he may not think you’re ready to talk to them because I know I had to work through a lot of I I I would even go so far as to say that I’m still a little salty, you know, and and still working through some of that those emotions. But when the time comes

um you know that he loves them too. He will bring us together and we will have the chance to talk and I trust the same is going to happen with you and G. Amen. Uh awesome. Well guys, man, this this lesson kicked up some dust, didn’t it? A little bit. And I didn’t didn’t think it would. But I sure am grateful for all of your comments, all of your perspectives, uh all all of your presence here this morning. I pray that you guys have a fantastic Shabbat, a restful, peaceful Shabbat on this day of the Lord. And

we’ll see you next week. Next week I will be traveling, but I think I’m going to be able to log on nonetheless and teach something. Um, and I’m hoping that’ll be the case. So, u, be praying for one another. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you guys next time. Shabbat shalom. Shalom. Everybody shalom. Bye everyone. Shabbat shalom. Have a good day and stay warm. Stay safe. I love you. Stay safe and stay warm. Bye. Love you. Bye Daria. Shabbat shalom.