Is This the Season to Change Your Life

At this time of year, many people are getting ready for the Christmas holiday season.  Some people go all out with decorations and food, not to mention the gifts they buy.  It can be a time of great happiness.  It is also the time of year most associated with depression.  Whatever this season usually brings your way, there is something wrong that goes to the very heart of Christmas itself.  It's called Christianity.  

On its surface, Christianity seems like a perfectly good religion.  The fellowship and sense of belonging in the Christian community are a strong component.  But it is rooted in  some of the biggest lies ever perpetrated on humanity.  That's right.  For two-thousand years, the church has been telling us that a man named Jesus is the Messiah foretold in the Hebrew scriptures.  Unfortunately, this claim does not hold up to scriptural scrutiny.  If you are one of the many people who make this claim, I urge you to take some time to reexamine exactly what it is you believe.   This is the perfect time to make a change.

There are many contradictions in the Christian Bible.  Your pastor won't be able to explain these to you because s/he may not even know they exist.  While the church does encourage reading the Bible, they rarely ever give explanations.  One of the more popular ways the church encourages to study the Bible is through published Bible Studies.  There are some that are better than others, but many of them pull pertinent verses out of the Bible in order to make whatever point they are trying to make. Rarely do they ever look at the Gospels next to each other. The reason for this is that they don't agree with what they claim happened all those years ago.  Take, for example how many women went to the tomb and found Jesus was missing?  Each gospel recounts a different story of what happened. No amount of explaining will change what the texts actually say.  Look it up.  

There are serious doubts as to whether or not Jesus even lived.  It is implied, and taught by many, that the Gospels are eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life.  The fact is that they were written between thirty and fifty years after Jesus' alleged crucifixion.  There are quotes of what he said written thirty years after he said them.  How does that work?  Apply some real world wisdom to this for a minute.  Think back to an important event to which you were a witness.  Can you remember exactly what everyone said?  Can you remember what was said thirty years later?  I don't think you can, at least not with the level of accuracy implied by the authors.  Now I have a good idea what you are thinking.  The holy spirit told them what to write.  Let's look at this for a minute. Nowhere in any of these texts does it mention this happening.  If you look at any of the prophetic writings in what you call the Old Testament, they always say something like, " the world of the Lord came to me saying...".  It would stand to reason that if this is what is happening in the New Testament it would say something similar. Wouldn't it?  I get the idea that every time something can't be explained, it is chocked up to the holy spirit.  Then, no one can question it.  So it solves a lot of problems for Christianity.  

There are some things you need to know which I encourage you to ask your pastor about.  

• Christianity claims that Jesus died for your sin.    
• Ezekiel 18:20, Psalms 49:7, Jeremiah 31:30 all say that no one may die for the sin of another, but that each one will die for his own sin
• Christianity claims that there must be a blood sacrifice for sin.
• Isaiah 55: 6-7, Psalms 32:5, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Ezekiel 18:21-22 say that repentance is all that is needed for forgiveness
• Christianity claims that Jesus is the Messiah
• Jesus did none of the things which the Messiah is prophesied to do 
• The Messiah will bring about a time of world peace
• Jesus said he did not come to bring peace but a sword

There are too many inconsistencies in the New Testament to list here.  There are many exhaustive works on this subject available.  A simple internet search will reveal this.  This is not my purpose. My purpose is to show that there are, in fact, inconsistencies.  There is enough here to get you started asking questions.  I encourage you to do so.  

Copyright 2015 by William Bouker    

Light and Darkness

We all know that light and darkness are opposites.  Where there is darkness, there is no light.  Both light and darkness have different properties.  Light can travel through darkness.  It is active.  It has power. It gives off heat.  Heat is the release of energy.  Whereas darkness is associated with cold, slow movement, and lack of sight.  Darkness is static.  It doesn't move.  When it does appear to move what is actually happening is that the light is moving away, leaving the darkness.  So, darkness is what is left when the light leaves.

Light is associated with wisdom, as in the light of Torah.  The light of Torah displaces the darkness of wickedness.  Science teaches us that the light we see is only a fraction of total energy emitted by the sun.*  When we apply this concept to the light of Torah we can get a better understanding of how God works in our lives.  There is the part we see and the part we cannot see.  The part we cannot see is where all of the energy and power is.  Another property of light is that it radiates, that is it moves or spreads out from a central location.  So it is with someone who studies Torah and applies its principals to their life.  The light of Torah within a person will radiate outward and can be seen by those around them. Remember the properties of light.  The light that we see is only a fraction of the energy emitted. Applying this to Torah, we find that a follower of Torah actually emits  more of its power than can be seen.  This is one of the amazing ways in which HaShem works through us to eradicate the darkness of this world.

Merriam- Webster.com defines light as the form of energy that makes it possible to see things.  The connection to Torah  here is obvious.  The Bible speaks of another light.  The light to the nations. This is, of course, speaking of the Jewish people being the light which guides the nations of the world to HaShem.  This is a special kind of light.  The nations of this world are filled with darkness.  This darkness comes from the lack of knowing anything about HaShem.  There are religions, self-help groups, motivational speakers, and so on who make various claims to the light, but the light is not in them.  Most, if not all of them are at their root only after money; money which cannot save them and which emits no light. Better one should give their money to the poor.  This is also the light of Torah.  

The light to the nations is a beacon for all of us who are not Jewish.  Now is the time to look for that light.  It has been there all along.  The problem all along has been that people all over the world have been blinded by hatred to the Jews.  Those who harbor hatred are in the darkness.  They cannot hope to find their way out of that darkness without the light to the nations.

The time is now.  The light to the nations is getting brighter.





*Properties of light PVEducation.org

Copyright 2015 by William Bouker

They Don't Teach This Stuff in Sunday School

For kids, Sunday school is a fun place to go.  It's an informal setting in which to learn all of the church stuff they need to know. Who wouldn't love that?  Kids get to learn all of the Bible stories like Noah's Ark, Daniel in the lion's Den, baby Jesus in the manger.  There are more, but you get the idea. As kids get older they learn more important stuff.  They learn more about Jesus and how he supposedly died as a sacrifice for the world.  Sometimes they learn how to apply Christian teaching into their personal lives.  On the surface, it all sounds really good.  But, there is a lot of stuff they don't teach.

They don't teach that Jesus, being a Jew, was under the Law of Moses.  They don't teach anything about the Law of Moses.   They don't teach any of that stuff.  They teach who Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were.  They teach that Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt.  They teach that Moses went up on the mountain and received the Ten Commandments.  They make sure to teach about the golden calf Aaron made ( you know those Jews should have known better).  But, they don't teach anything about the tent of meeting, the sacrificial system, or the Amalekites who tried to slaughter the Children of Israel.  They don't teach how the people's clothes didn't wear out, or how God delivered their enemies into their hand.  No, they don't teach any of that stuff in Sunday school.

They teach how Jesus healed the sick, made the blind to see, and fed five thousand people with a few loaves of bread and some fish.  They teach how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and turned the water into wine (but it wasn't really wine, it was grape juice because Christians aren't allowed to drink alcohol).  But they don't teach that anyone who comes along teaching something other that what Moses taught, even if they do miracles, is a false prophet.  They don't teach any of that stuff.

They don't teach that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John didn't actually write the gospels.  They don't teach that these books were written much later after Jesus died.  They do teach that the gospels are first-hand accounts of Jesus' life.  But they aren't.  They don't teach that the original Greek versions of the gospels aren't even attributed to anyone.  Those names were added much later.  They don't teach that Paul said it was okay to convince people to believe in Jesus by trickery.  Again, they don't teach that stuff in Sunday school.

They don't teach the history of Christianity in Sunday school.  They don't teach that Christians slaughtered Jews all across Europe.  They don't teach that Native Americans were also slaughtered because they weren't Christian.  They don't teach that Christians stole the property of Jews and anyone else who wouldn't convert to Christianity.  They don't teach about when the church had the policy of convert or die.  They don't teach that stuff in Sunday school.

There are so many things they don't teach in Sunday school and I could go on and on.  I understand why they don't.  I understand that if they actually taught scripture, everyone would simply leave. There would be no one left to teach.  The saddest thing is, they believe the stuff they are teaching.  It isn't their fault, it's the same stuff they were taught.  

The Blinders are Off

Christians believe that Jews have been blinded to Jesus being the Messiah.  I also used to wonder why Jews didn't believe in Jesus.  I was told that Jews had blinders so that they couldn't see the truth. All they need to do is read the New Testament and they will see it clearly.  Right?  After all, Jesus died for their sins.  Didn't he?    He even said he came for the Jews first.  But, they rejected him two-thousand years ago.  So they will have blinders on until Jesus comes back.  Then they'll realize how wrong they've been all these years.  Or will they?

These are but some of the things Christians ask from time to time.  They conclude that, obviously the Jews have blinders.  It had to be that way so that Christianity could spread throughout the world.When Jesus comes back, Jews all over the world will suddenly be apologetic for disbelieving in him all these years.  So goes the general thinking of Christians all over the world.  

The truth is that nothing could be farther from the truth.  Christians are the ones with the blinders. Here is the proof. The Christian text tells us that all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness  (2Tim 3:16).  The scripture to which this is referring is the Hebrew Scripture.  Keep in mind that when Paul wrote to Timothy, the New Testament had not been compiled yet.  At that time, they only had the Hebrew Scriptures.  Paul had already told Timothy to study to shew thyself approved (2Tim 2:15).  

Paul and Timothy would have known that no one can die for the sins of another (Dt 24:16).  Yet they tell us that Jesus died for our sins.  They would have known that God abhors sacrificing one's children.  (Lev 20:1-7).  But we are told that God Himself sacrificed His son. These are complete contradictions to the scriptures Paul is telling Timothy to study and to use for instruction.  

Jews who know the Scripture, know these things.  These are some of the reasons they reject Jesus. It's not because they have blinders.  It's because they don't.  None of the New Testament can align itself with Scripture.  How is it that a Christian can read these things in the Bible and still hold to what the New Testament is saying?  The answer is simple.  They are blind to what the Scriptures are telling them.  I know this to be true because I was once one of them.  Thank God, the blinders are off.  Now I can read the Scriptures clearly and see for myself what is true and what is not.  

Every day I find that Christianity  is filled with falsehoods.  What it really is, is idolatry.  Christians believe that Jesus is God.  With the exception of a few smaller sects, Christians believe in the trinity. That is that God is three.  Again, scripture disproves this.  Deuteronomy 6 tells us that God is one. The trinity is a contradiction to this.  Jews are not blind to this.  Twice daily they recite the Shema. They know that God is one and not three.  

Now that my blinders are off, I can see what God has been telling me, through His word, all of my life.  Scripture tells us to keep the seventh day holy.  Christianity tells us to keep the first day holy. Scripture tells us not to worship anyone but God.  Christianity worships Jesus.  This is idolatry.   Scripture tells us to only eat clean animals.  Christians eat animals that are considered unclean. Scripture tells us that God's word is eternal.  Christianity tells us that God's word is now void.  This raises a question.  If the law is now void, how is it that Paul told Timothy that all scripture is profitable for doctrine?  Paul is clearly contradicting himself.  Christians, you know these  verses. This must be making you uncomfortable.  Is it possible that what you have been taught since you were a child is actually wrong?  It is wrong.  Pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Ask Him to show you the truth about Christianity.  Ask Him to remove your blinders.  

I have shown you only a few examples of contradictions in the Christian text.  There are many, many more.  You must ask yourself some serious questions.  Can scripture contain contradictions?  The ones I have shown you can't be denied.  If scripture was given to the Jews, doesn't it make sense that they might have a better understanding of it?  They can read it in its original language.  My final question to you is this.  Are you willing to overlook all of this because of what your pastors, teachers, parents, etc told you in spite of what you have seen here?  Only you can answer this.  I hope you decide to take off the blinders.

 Copyright 2015 by William Bouker

Will the Church Be Destroyed

Zecharia 8:20 Thus saith the LORD of hosts: It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities; 21 and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying: Let us go speedily to entreat the favour of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will go also. 22 Yea, many peoples and mighty nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favour of the LORD. 23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’

Zecharia 8 is a prophecy for the Messianic Age.  As the chapter begins we see that peace has already come to Jerusalem.  Children are playing in the streets.  God has already brought back all of the peoples of the diaspora.  In verse 8 we see that the Temple has not been built yet but, the original foundations have been uncovered.  Finally, at the end of the chapter, we are told that peoples from other nations shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

This is a very important time in the future.  Who are these people that are turning to the Jews?  As I will show through scripture, these are the remnant of the people after the church and all other religions have been destroyed.  We are told this will happen after the destruction of the empire that has stood for thousands of years, Rome.

Looking at Daniel chapter two, we find Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the four kingdoms.  They are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.  These four kingdoms are world powers of their time. Each of these conquered Israel with Rome being the final and most ruthless of the four.  In verse 41 we see that Rome will be divided.

41 And what you saw, the feet and the toes-which were partly of potter's clay and partly of iron-so it will be a divided kingdom, and in it will be some of the strength of iron, in view of what you saw iron mixed with clay.

In the next verse, we see that part of this kingdom will be strong and part will be broken.  The part that remains will be mingled with the seed of men, but they will not cleave together.

43 And what you saw, iron mixed with clay, [connotes] that they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not cleave one to the other, as iron does not mix with clay.

When we get to verse 44 we see something miraculous.  A fifth kingdom will be set up by God Himself.  It will  destroy all of these other kingdoms and will stand forever.  This will be the Messianic Age we discussed earlier.

44 And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom forever, it will not be destroyed, and the kingdom will not be left to another people; it will crumble and destroy all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

These verses from Daniel make up some of the most important verses in the entire Bible.  There is a part of the Roman Empire that is still in place today.  This fragment of Rome has mingled with the seed of men.  That is to say that it has gone out through all the world.  This is a huge kingdom but, the people do not cleave together.  This remnant of Rome is the church.  Christianity has literally thousands of denominations.  They are all separate and independent of each other, yet they are all one kingdom who declare Jesus as their king.  This kingdom will stand until the fifth kingdom is set up which will destroy it and the remnant of the other three kingdoms.

We just saw how the church will be destroyed.  This brings us back to Zecharia 8:20-23.  This is the reason why the peoples of the earth will finally turn to the Jews in an effort to save themselves.  The sad part of this is that when kingdoms are destroyed it means that there will be war.  Many people from these kingdoms will die without the chance to turn to the Jews to learn about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Many people believe we are at the beginning of the Messianic Age.  People are turning to Judaism in record numbers.  The rate of Orthodox conversions is exponentially higher than it was just twenty years ago.  Time is running out for these wicked kingdoms.  But, there is still time to take hold of the garment of a Jew and ask him to teach you the ways of God.  

Copyright 2015 by:

 William Bouker

How Christianity Condemns Itself

Christianity is credited with being the largest religion in the world.  They certainly have the biggest footprint.  But, Christianity is vastly divided into many different denominations.  Many of these denominations have been split into even more denominations.  It seems that whenever a group of Christians are at odds with what their respective denomination is teaching, they simply start a new one.  Take for example the Baptists.  There are Southern Baptists, Northern Baptists, Independent Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Missionary Baptists, and others.  How much difference can there be among these?  Consider this, there are thousands of separate denominations of Christian churches. There must be something to this, and there is.

Christianity had it beginning in Israel in the first century of the common era.  The exact history is sketchy at best.  Jesus began his teaching sometime around the year 30.  The earliest writings, those of Paul of Tarsus, appear some twenty years later.  The gospels were written many years later.  The writers of the gospels are not known.  Early Christian bibles don't attribute the gospels to any specific writers.  They are not named.  The Catholic Church admits that the names were assigned at a later date.

The New Testament claims that Jesus came to the Hebrew people, who rejected him.  It was after his death that he was preached to the gentiles.  His coming to the Jews is highly problematic.  Hebrew scripture has a specific test written into the law to determine if a prophet is true or false.  When one applies this test to Jesus, he does not stand up to scrutiny.

1Everything I command you that you shall be careful to do it. You shall neither add to it, nor subtract from it. 2If there will arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 3and the sign or the wonder of which he spoke to you happens, [and he] says, "Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us worship them,"  4you shall not heed the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of a dream; for the Lord, your God, is testing you, to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. :5You shall follow the Lord, your God, fear Him, keep His commandments, heed His voice, worship Him, and cleave to Him.  Deuteronomy 13:1-5 (CJB)    Deuteronomy 13 full chapter

Looking closely at this we see that the false prophet can do signs and wonders (miracles) and still be a false prophet.  One may argue that verse three says that the false prophet will say "let us go after other gods which you have not known..." and that Jesus was not teaching about another god.  He was teaching about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  On the surface, this seems like a strong argument.   Look back at verse one.  1Everything I command you that you shall be careful to do it. You shall neither add to it, nor subtract from it.  (the Christian Bible doesn't include this verse here but places it in the previous chapter.)  Christianity adds Jesus himself.  Christianity teaches that Jesus is God.  Christianity also subtracts some things from what God commanded.  If you are a Christian, you have undoubtedly heard that the Law of Moses was too hard for anyone to keep and that it was nailed to the cross along with Jesus and made void.  Does that sound like it is in agreement with Deuteronomy 13:1?  

Copyright 2015 by

 William Bouker

Wisdom and Folly

And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I know that this too is a frustration.  For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge, increases pain.  --Kohelet

History tells us that King Solomon was the wisest man to live.  In spite of his warning above, I still seek wisdom.  He too sought wisdom, even knowing what it would bring.  Wisdom is in itself a search.  It is an endless journey.  So, in searching for wisdom, it seems fitting to start with Solomon.
Wisdom doesn't change.  Only our perceptions change.  One may approach a subject, considered it at length, and come to a conclusion.  Later in life, that same person can approach the same subject and come to a completely different conclusion.  In such a case, what has actually changed?  The subject itself doesn't change.  The wisdom doesn't change, for from wisdom did the first conclusion come after serious consideration and the application of wisdom.  The person changes.  They now have more experiences from which to draw knowledge.  But knowledge is not wisdom.  Knowledge is like an object.  It can be given, shared, and learned.  A parent teaches by giving them the knowledge of the things they need to know.  This is not wisdom it is simply the sharing of knowledge.

Wisdom is not knowledge, but wisdom can be revealed through one's knowledge.  A wise man may have no knowledge of a specific subject.  But, given a small amount of knowledge about that subject, he can apply his wisdom to it and gain more knowledge of that subject.  Conversely, a man who is very knowledgeable about a subject, but lacks wisdom, cannot attain wisdom even if a wise man shares his wisdom with him.  He might apply that wisdom to that subject, but when another subject arises, he will not be able to apply that wisdom to it.

A wise man will acquire knowledge of many things, including folly.  Folly is foolishness.  A foolish man does not know he is foolish.  Only a wise man can truly know foolishness.  For the foolish man, his actions are normal.  Only the wise man can see it for what it is.  This begs the question, can a wise man act foolishly?  He can if he is not applying his wisdom.  Drunkenness is a good example of this. A wise man may want to escape the vexation of his life.  He hides his wisdom away for a time. After experiencing his folly, he sees that it is not what he wants.  He cannot live like that, so he returns to his vexing wisdom.

Why does wisdom bring vexation?  One would think otherwise.  Can't the wise man find a way to avoid such vexation?  The reason is because so many of those around him are not wise.  When a wise man sees others struggling in what they are doing it  is troubling for him.  What seems simple for the wise man, is hard for others.  It is not an easy thing to watch you friends and loved ones struggle with things that seem so easy to figure out.  When you correct the foolish person, they will hate you.  A wise man is happy for correction.  It adds to his wisdom.  The folly of mankind is the vexation of the wise.  

copyright 2015 by 

William Bouker

Misled

Being Misled

What do you do when you find out that someone has misled you?  Many of us get mad and lash out in some way.  The sad fact is that people lie to each other.  When we catch a friend or family member in a lie, our trust in that person is shaken and in many cases, it is shattered.   The extent to which that trust is shattered is in direct proportion to the size of the lie.  Small lies are most times overlooked while big lies take time to be repaired.  Sometimes these big lies cause irreparable damage resulting in one never having anything to do with that person.  One of the biggest reasons for divorce is dishonesty.  None of this is new information.  

There is a lie that I am going to tell you about that may shake you to your very core.  This lie is so big that a very large percentage of the population have fallen because of it; friends, loved ones, fellow church members, co-workers and even your casual acquaintances, are its victims.  I say, victims because that is exactly what they are.  This lie goes so deep that the poor people who are being held victim to it don't even realize what has happened to them.  The worst part of this is that it is being furthered by those we want to trust the most; the church.

I use the term church very loosely, as I don't wish to alienate one specific denomination.  It's not the Catholics, the Baptists, the Methodists, or the Presbyterians.  It's not the Messianics, the Charismatics, or any of the other thousands of other denomination which claim to be of the Christian Faith.  It is all of them.  In fact, this lie, which the church perpetuates, is rooted in the idolatry thousands of years older than the church itself.   

Background

No matter what a specific Christian church calls itself doesn't matter.  They all hold to the idea that Jesus is the Messiah foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Each denomination holds fast to their own version of the narrative, but for the most part, they can all agree on this one point.  It is not my intention to pick apart any one denomination for their beliefs.  The fact is that the people in each denomination believe what they do because of what they have been taught.  These teachings go back two thousand years to the time of Jesus.  It is generally accepted that Jesus lived in Israel during what is called The Second Temple Period.  (538 BCE to 70 CE), and that he was the Messiah. 

The New Testament tells us the story of Jesus and the early church as well as those credited with its beginnings.  The writers of the New Testament tell us that everything that happened during this time was foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures.  They mention various passages from scripture as evidence of this.  This is where the problems start.  This is where the lies begin that have been destroying lives for centuries in the name of God.  

According to Scripture, I use this term to mean only the Hebrew Scriptures included in the Hebrew Bible and not the New Testament, the Messiah will be the King of Israel and a descendant of King David (1040 - 970 BCE).  This becomes a problem for Jesus because his lineage is questionable.  The New Testament gives two, very different lineages for Jesus.  One can be found in the book of Matthew and the other in the book of Luke.  There is a problem with both of these lineages so whichever one you choose, they both disqualify Jesus as the Messiah.  Matthew's lineage includes an ancestor named Jechoniah (Mt 1:11).  Jechoniah was cursed by God so that none of his seed would ever sit on the throne of Israel. (Jer 22)  The lineage in Luke is through David's son Nathan and not through Solomon.  Both of these problems alone disqualify Jesus as the Messiah.  You will never hear this in church, but you can easily look it up for yourself in your own Bible.  This is only one of many examples.  My purpose is not to outline all of the misinformation in the New Testament.  I will go into these in a later entry.  If this surprises you or you are in doubt, I urge you to look it up in your own Bible.  

The Test

Deuteronomy 13:4 tells us that God will test the Children of Israel with false prophets.  Remember, Jesus came to the Jews.  Christianity didn't spread to the gentiles until after his death.  The first part of Deuteronomy 13 explains how to determine if someone is a false prophet.  Anyone who teaches anything other than what was given through Moses is a false prophet; even if thy do miracles. Miracles are not indicative of someone being either from God or being God.  Deuteronomy 13 is the reason the Jews, as a whole rejected Jesus.  

Many Jews failed this test.  All those who followed after Jesus because of the miracles he did, failed to see what was really happening to them.  They were being tested.  Over time, those Jews who followed Jesus dwindled until there were no more.  By the end of the first century and into the second century, Christianity had become a religion of the gentiles only.  

Back to Today

Over the last year I have been studying the Scriptures and have found this truth.  The church is nothing more than a test that was given to the Jews two thousand years ago.  But it gets worse.  The Christian Bible contains both the Old and New Testaments.  We are told that the Old Testament is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures.  It is not.  Many of the Scriptures have been changed in order to fit the narrative of Jesus as the messiah.  The day I learned this was the day I left Christianity. Apparently, the entire chapter of Isaiah 53 is not about Jesus at all, as we are told.  It is about Israel.  This is the case in many of the Messianic Prophecies in the Christian Bible.  Once I realized this chapter, one which has been the cornerstone of Christianity, was being misrepresented, It was all over.  Without Isaiah 53 there is really nothing left.

Many of the messianic prophecies quoted in the New Testament aren't messianic at all.  Most of them are about the Hebrew people.  One of the more famous ones is the Emanuel prophecy.  Matthew 1: 21-23 describes how Mary, the mother of Jesus, was found to be pregnant.  An angel appears to Joseph and says, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."(KJV)  This story is told in churches around the world at Christmas time.  The problem is that the prophecy to which this refers is in Isaiah 7:14.  In the Christian bible it says, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."  This sounds like it fits just right.  Now read it in the Hebrew scriptures, "Therefore, the Lord, of His own, shall give you a sign; behold, the young woman is with child, and she shall bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel."(Complete Jewish Bible)  Notice it says "the young woman (not virgin) is with child, (not shall conceive).  The young woman was already pregnant when Isaiah gave this prophecy to King Ahaz.  But, this doesn't end here.  When you read the entire chapter of Isaiah, you will see that this prophecy is something completely different.  It is not about the messiah at all.  It is about King Ahaz grandson Hezekiah, who would rescue his people.  When reading the Bible, you must always read it in context.  One could simply pull a line out and make it mean anything.  This is what the Christian Bible has done; taken things out of context and superimposed a different meaning to it.  In other words, it is a lie.  There are examples just like this all over the New Testament.  The problem is that many Christians do not ever read the Old Testament.  When they do, it is specific verses taken out of context.  In this example, they read Isaiah 7:14 but not the rest of the chapter.

So What Now

This leaves me in an interesting position.  What am I?  Currently, I am what is called a Noahide.  A Noahide is a person who adheres to the seven laws given to Noah after the flood.  They are as follows:

Do Not Deny God

Do Not Blaspheme God

Do Not Murder

Do Not Engage in Incestuous, Adulterous or Homosexual Relationships.

Do Not Steal

Do Not Eat of a Live Animal

Establish Courts/Legal System to Ensure Law Obedience

These laws, or rather, groupings of laws; there are deeper aspects to each one, are very easy to follow.  So, how come you've never heard of them?  The one-word answer is religion.  There have been countless religions throughout the history of the world.  Many of them revolve around things like the sun, the moon, the earth, etc. People have made up religions around almost anything.  Over the centuries, various aspects of some got molded into another.  This is seen in Christianity with the celebrations of Easter and Christmas.  Both of these holidays have their roots in ancient pagan religions.  Easter is the celebration of Ishtar, the goddess of fertility.  Christmas is the celebration of the winter solstice.  These holidays were Christianized  so many years ago as a way to appease the people who celebrated these holidays originally in an effort to include them into Christianity.  There are many other "gods" with the same characteristics as Jesus.  Some of these characteristics include being born of a virgin, born on December 25th, resurrected after three days, and several others. These pagan holidays can be traced back to ancient Babylon and its first king, Nimrod.

Christianity today exists for one reason, to perpetuate Christianity.  To do so takes huge amounts of money.  Participants are expected to give a portion of their income to the church.  They call it tithing. Tithing, as they describe it does not exist in the Hebrew scriptures.   Tithing is used to pay for the church and the things that the church decides that it needs.  Scripture describes four different tithes, none of which went to the Temple.  Yet, every time the church brings up tithing it goes to the old testament.  "Bring the tithes into the storehouses," they quote.  Tithes went to the Levites so they would have food to eat.  The Levites, in turn, gave a portion of this to the Priests so they would have food to eat.  Now, every third year, the people would bring their tithe and would eat it themselves. The Temple received one shekel per person per year.  It was not a tithe.  This was over and above the tithe and went to the Temple.  The Temple didn't get the tithes at all.   If you want to see a difference in your life, give that portion of your income to charity.  (I will expound more on this in a future post about forgiveness.)

Make a Decision

The information I am giving you here may have shocked you.  That's normal.  If you are in the church I can't urge you enough to follow up on this.  Please, don't take my word for it.  What I think, or say, doesn't matter.  Go to The Bible and look these things up for yourself.  You have been told that God is three.  You have been told that Jesus is the son of God, the prince of peace, the son of man.  With this I will leave you two things.  Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God; the Lord is one." (not three but one). Psalms 146:3 Do not trust in princes, in the son of men, who has no salvation.4 His spirit leaves, he returns to his soil; on that day, his thoughts are lost.5 Praiseworthy is he in whose help is the God of Jacob; his hope is in the Lord his God.6 Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, Who keeps truth forever.

Copyright 2015 by:

William Bouker

I Wish My Christian Friends Knew This

A Heartfelt Welcome

Do you know that I still love you?  Do you know that I would never do anything to hurt you? Do you know that I feel guilty for holding on to something that will change your life forever like it has done mine?  Do you know that I am willing to risk losing every one of you and face being shunned by you in order to bring you this information?  While I hope that is not the outcome, I feel that strongly that you have a right to know the things that I know.  It is with this in mind that I am going to enlighten you to several things in the Holy Scriptures. While going through these, I don't want you to take my word for any of this. I ask that you look these things up for yourself.  I will try and use the King James version for your convenience except in places where that version was changed.  Yes, the King James version of the Bible has been changed.  For these passages, I will employ the JPS Tanakh and the Complete Jewish Bible. These can be found on some of the online Bible services available.  If you are unfamiliar with these books, they contain three sections of scriptures; Torah, Prophets, and Writings.  All of the books in your King James version of the Old Testament are in the Tanakh but they have not been changed to fit the Christian narrative.   The versions I am using are in English so you won't need to read Hebrew.  

It is widely accepted that the Septuagint (Greek) version of the Hebrew Scriptures was translated during the reign of Ptolemy II (309–246 BCE) for the library at Alexandria.  That original translation was lost when the library was destroyed. (date is speculative)  Jerome (ca.347- 420 CE) is credited with translating the Septuagint from Greek into Latin.  Jerome is remembered as saying that there were many different Septuagints.  When he did his translation it was some five hundred years after the original Septuagint was completed  by the Hebrew fathers in Alexandria.  He did not translate from the original but rather several uniquely different versions.  Later, in 1611, the King James Bible was first released. "For their Old Testament, the translators used a text originating in the editions of the Hebrew Rabbinic Bible by Daniel Bomberg (1524/5), but adjusted this to conform to the Greek LXX or Latin Vulgate in passages to which Christian tradition had attached a Christological interpretation."wikipedia   This means they rewrote parts of the Bible to say what they wanted it to say.  Many people believe that the King James version of the Bible is the inspired word of God.  It is not.  It is a translation of a translation of a translation, etc with various changes made along the way to fit Christian beliefs.  It was created for use in the Church of England.

With all of this in mind, remember that I am coming to you in love and genuine concern for you and at the risk of losing all or some of my family and friends.  Let's continue.  I used to believe the same things you do right now.  I believed Jesus was the messiah.  I believed he died for my sins.  I believed he was coming back someday.  I believed it because my parents taught it to me.  We learned it in Sunday school.  In short, it was handed down to us from those well-intentioned souls that received it from their fathers before them.  The prophet Jeremiah wrote "... to You nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, 'Only lies have our fathers handed down to us, emptiness in which there is nothing of any avail!'" (Jeremiah 16:19 CJB)  If you want to know what it's all about, please keep reading.   

What is a Messiah

Messiah is the English translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach.  It means anointed.   In the Hebrew Bible, there are several people called a Mashiach.  All of the kings of Israel and Judah were anointed, not only David.  Cyrus King of Persia was also called God's Mashiach. (Isaiah 45:1)  Messiah in no way means that the person is the son of God, or a savior, or anything but someone who has been anointed.  There is a Mashiach who will come at some time in the future. This is mentioned throughout the Bible.  This is the Mashiach the church claims to be Jesus. Scripture tells us that the messiah will do several things.  He will build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28), gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6), usher in an era of world peace (Isaiah 2:4), spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel (Zechariah 14:9).  As yet, not one of these things has happened.

Now, I know what you are thinking.  Jesus will do all of these things when he returns.  That's what we were told in church.  There is no mention of a second coming in any of the Hebrew Scriptures anywhere.  You will undoubtedly, counter with Isaiah 53.  This is one of four prophecies of the suffering servant.  This is one of those places where the King James Bible was changed to fit the Christian narrative.  When you read Isaiah 53 in the Hebrew Bible it tells a very different story.  The suffering servant is Israel, not Jesus.  Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (KJV)  If Jesus is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 how can he see his seed?  Jesus didn't have any children!  This is straight out of your Bible.   In fact, as to ushering in an era of world peace, Jesus said in Matthew 10 "34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." This is not the language of the messiah.  This is in violation of the commandment to honor one's father and mother.  How can this be the messiah of God?   It cannot.

Life Without Jesus

We were told in church that, if we do not accept Jesus as our savior we would be cast into hell, either at our death or at the end of the age.  This is a scare tactic used by the church. The church tells us that Satan is somehow the adversary of God.  This simply isn't possible. How can something He created be an adversary.  If the satan (a title, not a name) were an adversary, he would have to be on the same level as God.  To put anything on the same level as God is saying it is equal to God in some way.  Since God is a deity,  to put something on His level is to deify it.  This is the very definition of  idolatry.   This is very problematic for Christianity since Christians believe Satan has power over them and only believing in Jesus will save them from him.  Hebrew thought tells is the satan is more like what we would think of as a prosecuting attorney in a trial, an accuser.   This same idea of idolatry also applies to Jesus when you equate him with God.  

The idea of the trinity is nowhere in the Hebrew Bible.  On the contrary, Deuteronomy 6: 4 tells us, "4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: (KJV)  Now read it in the Hebrew Bible "4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God; the Lord is one."  (CJB)  You can see that the Hebrew Bible teaches us that God is one; not three.  The King James Bible seems to gloss over this very important aspect.  Not only is the trinity not mentioned in the Hebrew text, in this verse, it is refuted.  The earliest church writings, those of Paul, don't even mention the trinity or put forth the idea that Jesus is God.  

I remember the day I finally decided to leave Christianity.  After learning that Isaiah 53 was not about Jesus, which really is the glue holding Christianity together,  I spent that day reading the Bible.  Later that day I had to ride to the store for something.  Do you know that feeling you get when it's just you in the car?  The rest of the world seems to slip away when you close the door and that pleasant silence takes over.  I remember driving up the road and such a great feeling of freedom came over me.  It was like nothing I've ever felt before.  Now I live in that freedom every day and you can too.   

Do you remember in the New Testament where it says that the Law of Moses is a burden? The church will tell you that Jesus did away with the law.  Paul will tell you that it was too hard for anyone to keep.  In my experience, it has been anything but hard.  Duet. 30:11 says, "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off." (JPS)  Would you rather believe Paul, a man, or the God of Israel who gave us the law in the first place?  He made us.  He knows our abilities and our limitations.

If He says it's not too hard we ought to believe Him, at least, try.    

There are six hundred and thirteen commandments.  That sounds like a lot of rules to follow.  The fact is that all of them don't apply to everyone.  Some apply only to farmers, some apply to kings, some are for men while others are only for women.  Many are specifically for the priests and some are only for the high priest.  Have a look at this list.  613 commandments.  Do these really look that hard to keep?   Did you know that there are over one-thousand commandments given in the new testament?  Most of these apply to everyone. New Testament Commandments  There is true freedom in the Law of Moses.

Your church will never tell you this.    

With all of this in mind, know that the Law of Moses was only given for the Jewish people. Christianity attempted to superimpose itself into the Jewish tradition.  The truth is that if you are not a Jew, you don't have to follow the Law of Moses.  So what does someone do when they realize that Christianity is a false doctrine?  You actually have two choices.  You can convert to Judaism or you can be a Noahide.  Converting to Judaism is not something to enter into lightly.  Unlike Christianity which only takes a public profession of faith, Judaism takes quite some time to complete a conversion.  Noahide is a term the vast majority have never heard before.  After the flood, God gave Noah seven laws by which to live.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all Noahides.  Everyone in the Bible prior to Sinai was a Noahide. It is the oldest belief system in the world.   Gentiles, who keep the seven laws, are guaranteed a place in the world to come.  

Noahides

The Noahide laws also called The Seven Universal Laws are a very simple code.  

1.  Do not deny God.  There is only one. Idolatry is forbidden.

2.  Do not blaspheme God.  

3.  Do not murder.  

4.  Do not engage in incest, adultery, pederasty or bestiality, as well as homosexual relations.

5.  Do not steal.

6.  Do not eat of a live animal.

7.  Establish courts/legal system to ensure obedience to the law.

Please follow the link for more information on Noahides   For a video on Noahides, follow this link.  

Did You Know

Now I'd like to give you some general information which you will, hopefully, find interesting. Please take the time to look up the verses and read them in context.  That means read what is written before and after the verses being quoted.  Studying the Bible in context will open up the full meaning that God is giving us.  Quoting one verse is sometimes useful when making a specific point within a bigger work.  Quoting one verse as the subject for an entire work is not.  When you quote one verse without any supporting text, that is taking scripture out of context.  When quoting out of context, you can make a verse mean almost anything you like.  Many preachers do this for their sermons.  I have seen this many times.  It is wrong.  

The New Testament gives two completely different genealogies for Jesus.  One is in Matthew chapter one. The second is in Luke chapter three.  Both of these lineages disqualify him as the messiah. Matthew puts Jeconiah in the list.  Jeconiah was cursed by God  (Jeremiah 22:24-30).  In Luke, the line goes back to David's son Nathan and not Solomon.   Both of these genealogies disqualify Jesus to sit on the throne of Israel.  Furthermore, If Jesus is the son of God through the virgin birth, he cannot be a son of David.  In the Bible, inheritance is determined by the father's side.  Many say the lineage in Luke is really Mary's.  But the text doesn't say that.  Also, Luke's version has fifteen more generations listed.  Read the names. Most people just skip over the names and trust that it is correct.  They are hard to pronounce.  It's easier not to read them.  Why do I need to know all these names anyway? Learning who these people were and what they did will expand your knowledge of the Bible. Give it a try.   

According to Daniel Chapter two, the messiah will not come until after the split of the Roman Empire.  Jesus came before the split.  Dn 2: 40-46  44. "And in the days of these kings [separate kings of Rome] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever."(CJB)  Read it for yourself. When you read Daniel, go through the first few chapters.  You will see that the Roman Empire will be in place until the Messiah comes.  The kingdom of Rome that is still standing today is the church.  Notice how Daniel says,  "2:43 And what you saw, iron mixed with clay, [connotes] that they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not cleave one to the other, as iron does not mix with clay." (CJB) The Catholic Church has mingled with many others.  How many different denominations of Christianity are there?  None of them cleave together.  If you are a Protestant, what is your feeling about the Catholic Church?  If you are Catholic, what do you think about Protestants?  Do you ever see your churches joining together?  

If you've gotten this far, please remember what I told you in the beginning.  Do you know that I still love you?  Do you know that I would never do anything to hurt you? Do you know that I feel guilty for holding on to something that will change your life forever like it has done mine?  Do you know that I am willing to risk losing every one of you and face being shunned by you in order to bring you this information?  If you are not willing to question your beliefs how can you know what you truly believe?  

Nowhere in the New Testament does it say it is the word of God.  All through the Hebrew scriptures, it says such things like, "the word of the Lord came to...", and "Thus says the Lord."  Phrases like this are not found in the New Testament.  Wonder why?  This is because the writers were writing after the fact.  None of them were eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus.  

The gospels were written at the end of the first century.  Jesus died around the year 33.  At least, fifty years passed.  Ask yourself, if you were writing about something that happened fifty years ago, how accurate could you be?  Do you think you could accurately quote as much as is attributed to Jesus?  The New Testament, as we have it today was compiled in the year 325.  That is almost three hundred years after the death of Jesus if he actually lived at all. There is no record of him.  Oddly, there are records of John, the Baptizer and James. (see the writings of Josephus)  Did you know Paul's writings were written before the gospels?  Paul doesn't say Jesus is the son of God.  That idea came later.  The book of John was later and has more of a Roman influence.  We notice that the Romans are almost viewed as the good guys.  Pilate, the cruelest of the rulers over Judea, found nothing wrong with Jesus.  Five days before his trial, Jesus was hailed by throngs of people as the king of the Jews.  (At his trial they are screaming, "crucify him!")  This would be a threat to the Roman authority and would have been dealt with severely by Pilate, which is exactly what happened.  The Romans crucified Jesus.  Crucifixion was reserved for enemies of the state.  

I have given you a small taste of the information I have learned.  There is life outside of the church.  I will leave you with a quote from Jeremiah.  Make sure you read the entire chapter to get the full context.  Jeremiah 16:19 "O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit."

copyright 2015 by:
William Bouker