What’s the significance of #Shavout (day of #pentecost)? ~3500 years ago, on this day, Elohim gave the laws to Moses. ~2000 years ago, on the same day the same Elohim, came to dwell inside each of us as the Holy Spirit starting with the gathering on the upper room. This is celebrated as Shavout or pentecost (pentecost is Greek for 50th day)

// “If you love Me, you shall guard #MyCommands. Yoḥanan (John) 14:15 TS2009 //
if this verse replaced John 3:16 as the most important verse in the Bible perhaps many more Christians won’t continue to live in LAWLESSNESS.

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shabbat Shalom & Happy #shavout !!!

The lighter yoke

// “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (renewal, blessed quiet) for your souls. 👉For My yoke is easy [to bear] and My burden is light.”👈
Matthew 11:28‭-‬30 AMP //

// “For 👉this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too difficult👈 for you, nor is it out of reach.
Deuteronomy 30:11 AMP //

The Messiah never said #NoYoke. He said His yoke is easy to bear – the same thing that the Father said about the Torah in deut 30:11 – that His commandments are not too difficult for us!!! Another “Ripley’s believe it or not” moment for many!!! And this is a relative term – so what other Yoke was he comparing with? So what was the #context of this verse?

2000 years ago there were #HyperLaw teachers who taught that salvation was thro works only – that salvation was thro keeping the written Torah as well as the manmade oral Torah – which wasn’t the intention of the Creator who gave the Torah. They taught their traditions to the extent that they considered eating without washing hands was a sin & that a person shouldn’t carry his mat (after being healed by the Messiah) on a shabbat & that 1 shouldn’t heal others on a shabbat. This was the extent to which the pharisees had drowned in their teaching & totally lost the Creator’s purpose of the laws.

The Heavenly Plan (beginning from Eden)

The Heavenly plan given by the Father throughout Bible is consistent – humans were given free will & #commandments & blessings of obedience & curse of disobedience – starting from the garden of eden where the commandment (that is 👉the commandments were given even before man sinned👈) was not to eat from the Tree of knowledge of good & evil. The blessing of obedience was eternal life & the curse of disobedience was death – which didn’t happen instantaneously – but after living a miserably (when compared to the life in eden) for 900+ years.

Then at Mt Sinai where the Torah was (re)given confirming the same routine. The prophets said the same thing. The Messiah said the same thing. And the same thing is written in revelations too.

The only confusing part are some of Messiah’s words (taken out of context) & a large part of Paul’s letters (again taken out of context) because:

1. If we read Paul’s letters within the context of the entire Bible we won’t go wrong. In fact we can learn a lot more. But people seldom want to learn.
2. They are letters & we don’t have the other side of those letters. And we don’t have the contexts behind each of his letters.

Other letters written by James (Yaakov), John, Peter are inline with rest of the Bible.

And the New Covenant promises that the laws will be written in our hearts & minds during our eternal life in New Jerusalem.

Fulfill = ending or full meaning

The Messiah said He came to fulfill the laws meaning He came to give FULL MEANING to the laws!!! Unfortunately many read Mat 5:17 as FULFILL = ENDING. That clearly is a case of mistranslation. He came to demonstrate how the laws were meant to be kept – not just in actions but in actions as well as in thoughts – that’s the full meaning of keeping the laws which is what He expounded in Mathew ch 5 v21 onwards.

// Don’t suppose I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to do away with them, but to give them their full meaning. Heaven and earth may disappear. But I promise you not even a period or comma will ever disappear from the Law. Everything written in it must happen. If you reject even the least important command in the Law and teach others to do the same, you will be the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. But if you obey and teach others its commands, you will have an important place in the kingdom. You must obey God’s commands better than the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law obey them. If you don’t, I promise you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:17‭-‬20 CEV //

So the reason Messiah said “You must obey God’s commands better than the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law obey them” is because they were doing mere lip service in keeping the laws & weren’t wholeheartedly keeping the laws.

Salvation in the OT was Faith based only!!!

Even in the OT period salvation was faith based salvation – so this isn’t a new concept found in the New Testament – quite contrary to what many believe.This might shock many: Salvation was, is & will always be thro His grace only. Moses wrote down the Torah & then wrote blessings of obedience & curses of disobedience. He never wrote anything called salvation thro Torah obedience. Nineveh was saved when they repented.

When the Messiah said “your faith has saved you” it was faith based salvation. When He told the thief on the cross “tomorrow you will be with Me in paradise” it was faith based salvation only. These 2 incidents happened before the New Covenant came into effect.

// But Jesus told the woman, “Because of your faith, you are now saved. May God give you peace!” Luke 7:50 CEV //

// Jesus replied, “I promise that today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43 CEV //

Acts 15 – what’s the whole story?

Works based salvation was a manmade thing – never from the Bible. It was some judaizers who tried to preach that salvation was thro obedience to the laws – this is what the Messiah & the disciples had to deal with & all Paul’s letters are against this false teaching only.

// Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised in accordance with the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Paul and Barnabas disagreed greatly and debated with them, so it was determined that Paul and Barnabas and some of the others from their group would go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders [and confer with them] concerning this issue. Acts 15:1‭-‬2 AMP //

Acts 15:20 talks about the entry conditions for gentiles to become part of the congregation after which they were supposed to attend the synagogues every shabbat & Learn the Torah which was read there – this is explained in Acts 15:21. This was against the entry conditions laid out by the judaizers in Acts 15:1,2. So Acts 15:20 can’t be considered as the all encompassing criteria for salvation for gentiles – it lacks even the fundamental laws that they would have been already following in their pagan religions – like do not murder, do not steal, do not lie….. So to read verse 20 alone without reading verse 21 can be considered as foolishness at best.

// And so, my friends, I don’t think we should place burdens on the Gentiles who are turning to God. We should simply write and tell them not to eat anything that has been offered to idols. They should be told not to eat the meat of any animal that has been strangled or that still has blood in it. They must also not commit any terrible sexual sins. 👉We must remember that the Law of Moses has been preached in city after city for many years, and every Sabbath it is read in our synagogues👈. Acts 15:19‭-‬21 CEV //

So what is the purpose of the laws???

I’ll explain it in greater detail. Transgression of the law is sin. We were sinners (transgressing the laws) & when we accept the Messiah as our personal saviour the charges against us were wiped by the blood of the Messiah – that’s salvation – which was, is & will always be thro His grace & our faith only. We can’t earn salvation thro our works even tho it’s freely given. We can get salvation thro His grace only – not thro merit. That said once we are saved what kind of life should we live? According to the ways of the world or according to the word of TMH? I would choose the latter – keep His eternal LAWS so that I don’t sin.

// God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross.
Colossians 2:14 CEV //

// Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4 KJV //

Hyper grace teaching & (once saved always saved) OSAS are unbiblical – they say future sins are also forgiven – I’m not saying that.

For all those who misinterpret James 2:10 //For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all// without reading the following verses which explain what that verse means 👉(For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
James 2:11‭-‬12 NKJV)👈 & say becoz of this verse (James 2:10) they don’t keep any of the laws pls read this:

Breaking 1 law is like 1 puncture in 1 tyre – if a car tyre is punctured in just 1 spot the entire tire looses air & the vehicle becomes unmovable. This is what this verse implies.

So what do we do? Do we buy cars that have sledges or tank like chain tracks or wooden tyres or steel tyres or solid rubber tyres or no tyres? Lol. NO. We keep a puncture kit – we fill the puncture & fill in air & we are good to go. This is grace. So by grace, we can undo the damage when we confess & repent of our sins & we become whole again.

PS: We don’t keep the laws for our salvation but we keep the laws because of our salvation (which was given freely to us unworthy sinners thro His grace) & to keep our garments clean for judgement day. And if we soil our garments, we seek forgiveness & all the dirt is washed away thro His grace.

Shabbat Shalom once again !!!

Happy Shavout !!!