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WORLD HISTORY
From Creation to the End of the
Age
“In the beginning Elohim
created the heavens and the earth” – Genesis 1:1.
“GOD” is a common translation of Elohim – the Judge.
Elohim is a name for our God representing Him as Judge of His
creation. “Elohim (the Judge of His creation) looked on the
earth, and behold, it was corrupt” – Genesis 6:12.
“I,
Yahweh, do not change” – Malachi 3:6.
“LORD” (all caps) is a common substitution for Yahweh – the
Eternal. Yahweh is the Holy Name of our God representing Him
as the Eternal Gracious One. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of
Yahweh” – Genesis 6:8.
God does
not change in his dealing with His people. “That which has been is
that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will
be done. So there is nothing new under the sun” – Ecclesiastes 1:9.
God created the earth, suitable
for intended creatures. Then God created man, to walk with Him, led
by His Spirit. God gave instruction – Torah – to Adam.
When man fell, rejecting the
leading of God’s Spirit and disobeying God’s instruction, then God
promised a redeemer. Those who trusted God’s provision were
instructed to display their faith with prescribed actions (edot
– ordinances) to display spiritual insights. These ordinances
included animal offerings, such as Abel performed, showing his faith
in the promised redeemer. Cain thought his own way was good enough,
and was rejected.
After sixteen centuries, Elohim
judged the world as corrupt and destroyed most of it with a flood.
But Yahweh showed grace to Noah. Our God is eternally the God
of grace and Judge of His creation.
Almost four centuries later,
Noah’s descendants failed to spread out as instructed. Yahweh,
in grace, dispersed them into seventy nations by giving them
divergent languages (Genesis 11:9).
At the dawn of the third
millennium, Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham – the father
of many nations, to bring his descendants of faith back to a world
renewed like Eden (Genesis 14). The Apostle Paul carefully explains
how those who trust in Yeshua/Jesus are partakers in that
Abrahamic Covenant (Ephesians 2).
After four centuries, God
separated those who offered the Passover lamb, to be His qehal/church
in the wilderness. These nominal followers of Abraham had strayed so
far from walking with God by His Spirit, that God through Moses
delivered commandments to show them their error (Romans 3:20). God
carved two stones: one with five commandments showing how to love
Yahweh, and one with five commandments showing how to love a
neighbor. He also instructed men to “love Yahweh your
Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5), and to “love your neighbor as
yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
These instructions were further
detailed in three categories: mishpatim – judgmemts, commonly
known as moral laws; edot – ordinances, performances to
display spiritual insights (i.e. instructions concerning holy days
and offerings); and huqqim – statutes, actions without
obvious reason that bring us closer to God (i.e. instructions for
kosher food). (Note: Common English Bible translations completely
mix up these three terms from the Hebrew text.)
Late in the next millennium,
Yeshua/Jesus came as the promised redeemer. He said that the
greatest commandments are to “love Yahweh your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”, and to
”love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39): no change!
Yeshua/Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the
Torah or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to
fulfil. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not one yod (the smallest letter) or one serif
(stroke) shall pass from the Torah until all is
accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these
commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be
called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches
them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” –
Matthew 5:17-19.
Yeshua/Jesus said that He
did not come to abolish Torah, and those who taught against
even the least of it would be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.
One phrase is often extracted, “I came to fulfil,” and is
misinterpreted to contradict the previous phrase, “I did not come to
abolish.” If anyone would never steal, he would fulfil the law “Thou
shalt not steal”: but that law would still apply to him and everyone
else – it would not be abolished.
The Apostle Paul took a Nazarite
Vow to certify that he kept the Torah (as given to Moses) and
did not teach against it (Acts 21). He took an animal offering to
the Holy Temple at the conclusion of his vow (as required by Numbers
6) – decades after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of
Yeshua/Jesus!
Abel made a proper offering;
Abraham made proper offerings; the church in the wilderness (see
Acts 7:38) made proper offerings. Since the Holy Temple was
destroyed, animal offerings are forbidden anywhere else (Deuteronomy
12:26-27). Animal offerings will properly resume at the future Holy
Temple (Ezekiel 43:18, 44:15). Animal offerings were never a basis
for salvation, but were ordinances (performances to display
spiritual insights) of God’s instruction, since Adam’s day, and will
be until the earth is renewed.
God has given instruction for man
– Torah (often called law), and He did not change it 2000
years ago. There are no different dispensations, such as of
desolation, law, and grace. From creation, He was the God of
judgment and the gracious God, and He is still God of judgment and
the gracious God. He gives us instruction; we have no standing to
even question what He may or may not do (Romans 9:20) or what is
fair for Him (Romans 9:21). He holds all rights – we should
acquiesce.
God did not divide His Word into
“Old Testament” and “New Testament”, terms commonly used to imply
that one supersedes the other. The “renewed covenant” (Brit
HaChadashah) of Jeremiah 31:31 concerns a future application of
the Abrahamic Covenant, not a present “New Testament.”
Salvation has been by grace
through a faith that produces works since the first man, and has not
changed. Men looked forward to Yeshua/Jesus as savior from
Adam’s time until 2000 years ago, and since then look back to Him as
savior. Judgment comes for every man, from Adam to us; there is a
judgment for rewards for the faithful – gain and loss per our deeds
(1 Corinthians 3:12), and a judgment for punishment for the
unfaithful.
God had His church 3½ millenniums
ago in the wilderness (Exodus 12:6, Acts 7:38). Yeshua/Jesus
came two millenniums ago to “build it up”, and He said then that it
would never die out (Matthew 16:18). Yeshua did not come to
start a new religion or a new church: He came to redeem and build up
His congregation. (Qehal is translated into Greek then
English as both sunagoge/synagogue and ekklasias/church;
these terms are not biblically distinct, only distinct in modern
usage.)
Men of faith have walked by the
indwelling Holy Spirit for all time; there was no basic change 2000
years ago. There have been several occasions of special workings of
the Holy Spirit in men to certify major workings of God, such as
through Moses and Elijah and Yeshua and His apostles.
The Sabbath (seventh day) was
sanctified (made holy) by God at creation (Genesis 2:3); it applies
to man since Adam (Exodus 20:8, Isaiah 56:6, Matthew 2:27), and it
will apply in the millennial reign of Messiah (Ezekiel 46:3) and in
eternal glory (Isaiah 66:22-23); He has never changed it. Yeshua/Jesus
did not ever break the Sabbath, as some would interpret; He came to
keep Torah instructions (Matthew 5:17). We are instructed to keep
the Sabbath holy – meaning to preserve it as a day dedicated to our
Savior.
God also established seven annual
Holy Days, related to three feasts. They portray, in order, aspects
of the “Salvation of Yahweh” – from our redemption to our
glorification. They are ordinances which God calls “eternal”
(Leviticus 23:21).
Many things are commonly read into
the Apostolic Writings, and even written into translations. God did
not change “Yahweh’s Feast” (Exodus 10:9 – the Passover seder) to
“the Lord’s supper”; the error is misinterpretation from poor
translation. God did not eliminate washings in a mikvah and
institute a new baptism. Paul did not teach against circumcision in
Galatians 5; that is reading something into the text.
God’s inspired Psalms have been
replaced with hymns to fit each denomination’s dogma. “Psalms, Hymns
and Spiritual Songs” (Ephesians 5:19) are titles to the five books
of Psalms which combined make our 150 Psalms. Singing Psalms can
vastly affect most people’s understandings!
Yeshua/Jesus said: “I also say to you that you are Peter (Petros),
and upon this rock (Petra) I will build My church; and the
gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of
the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have
been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have
been loosed in heaven” – Matthew 16:18-19. God established a
priesthood of the firstborn from Adam, then a Levitical priesthood
in Moses’ day (Numbers 8:18). From Moses, God established the
Sanhedrin (Numbers 11:16) to make halachic judgments (how we
should walk to fulfill Torah); then Yeshua/Jesus gave His
apostles halachic authority (Matthew 16:19). “Bind” means
require or forbid, “loose” means allow freedom; a woman is “bound”
to her husband as long as he lives, but is “loosed” – free to marry
if she wishes, after he dies (Romans 7:2). This halachic
authority was given to the apostles, not only Peter: “You are
Petros/Peter (rock); upon these Petra (rocks) . . .”
refers to the twelve apostles (see Rev 21:14). “Bind” is from the
Greek pluperfect tense of deo, and “loose” is from the
pluperfect tense of luo: whatever the apostles would bind or
loose must be that which was in the past, and to remain in the
future, bound or loosed in heaven – that which was God’s Torah,
never to have one letter changed (Matthew 5:18)!
Elohim (the Judge of His creation) destroyed/renewed the earth
once by water (Genesis 6), and will in the future destroy/renew it
by fire (Luke 17:29, 2 Peter 3:12). Yahweh (the Eternal
gracious one) has saved people through faith, and led them by His
Spirit (Ruakh haQodesh – the Spirit of the Holy One), since
Adam’s time, and throughout our time. He has given us Torah/instruction
that does not change! He does not change – in the basic ways He
deals with us.
“I,
Yahweh, do not change” – Malachi 3:6. “That which has
been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that
which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun” –
Ecclesiastes 1:9.
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