xmlns:og='http://ogp.me/ns#'UA-81427306-1 Wisdom and Folly: May 2016

Monday, May 23, 2016

Turning Evil into Good- The Conclusion

There is plenty of talk about all of the evil in the world today.  Murder, rape, violent crime, and terrorism are just a few examples.  When we take a deeper look at the evil in the world, we find domestic violence, child abuse, robbery, corruption, even animal abuse.  All of these are good examples of some of the evils in the world today.  As a society, we like to think that our generation faces more evils than the world has ever seen.   If we look at the Bible we find this to be false. Genesis 6: 5-6 tell us that there was so much evil in the world before the flood that HaShem regretted having created us. 5 And the Lord saw that the evil of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of his heart was only evil all the time.6 And the Lord regretted that He had made man upon the earth, and He became grieved in His heart.  It says that every imagination of his [man's] heart was only evil.  That's a lot of evil.  It is foolish to think that the evil we face today is any worse than the evil they faced in those days.  Ecclesiastes 1:9 teaches us that  9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.    

What do we know about evil?  One of the major breakthroughs of the information age is research. There have been countless studies into what makes people commit evil acts.  Any of us can go online and look up these studies and learn for ourselves what science tells us are the reasons for these acts. What science cannot tell us is the source of evil in the world.  Again, I turn to the Bible for the answer.  Isaiah 45:6-8 tells us the source. 6 In order that they know from the shining of the sun and from the west that there is no one besides Me; I am the Lord and there is no other. 7 Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates evil; I am the Lord, Who makes all these. 8 Cause the heavens above to drip, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let salvation and righteousness be fruitful; let it cause them to sprout together; I, the Lord, have created it.    Also in Amos 3:6 Will a shophar be sounded in the city and the people not quake? Will there be evil in the city if the Lord has not done it?  Yes, you read that correctly.  Evil comes from the Lord.  In Deuteronomy 30: 15-16 it says, 15 Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, 16 inasmuch as I command you this day to love the Lord, your God, to walk in His ways, and to observe His commandments, His statutes, and His ordinances, so that you will live and increase, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land to which you are coming to take possession of it.  Why has HaShem put evil in the world?  The reason is very simple.  It is in order to give us the ability to choose Him.  Without giving us this choice, we don't have free will.  Without evil, we could not know hatred.  Without hatred, we could not know love.  Can you imagine the world without love?       

Throughout the Bible, we find stories where G-d turns something evil into something good.  Joseph was sold into slavery, spent time in an Egyptian prison, and later became second only Pharoh. Within this same story, we find that G-d sent a famine into the land of Cannan where Jacob and his family lived.  They were forced to go to Egypt looking for food and as a result, Jacob was reunited with the son he thought was dead.  There are many stories just like this.  All of these stories have an underlying theme.  G-d can take something which we perceive as evil and make it good.  Not only does He make it good.  He makes it extremely good; so much so that it could only be His will that makes it happen.  Could the children of Israel have simply walked away from over two hundred years of bondage without divine intervention?  Could Abraham have survived when Nimrod had him thrown into a furnace?  Likewise with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego?  Daniel was thrown into a den of lions, survived without a scratch and was made Viceroy.  Moses fled Egypt, running for his life and later returned as the greatest prophet of all time.  Elijah fled for his life.  David fled for his life.  Jacob fled for his life.  In all of these stories, they faced an evil which HaShem used to perform miracles.   

After the times of the Bible, Israel would face some of the most evil times in its history.  The Romans devastated the people.  They flayed the flesh from the great Rabbi Akiva for the crime of teaching Torah.  The Roman Empire would later spilt, with the remnants becoming the Roman Catholic Church. These later Romans spent centuries killing Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. They were forced out of Spain at the hands of the Inquisition.  Many submitted to conversion. Others fled to Portugal.  Part of the deal made with Queen Isabella to finance the journeys of Columbus included running the Jews out of Portugal.  Many Jews from this period were received by the Muslim-controlled Ottoman Empire.  Antisemitism later reached a climax in twentieth century Germany where at least six million Jews were savagely murdered.  Some estimates put that number at close to nine million Jews whose only crime was being Jewish.  Civilized people of today don't understand how this could have happened.  Many are now denying that it did happen.  This is a foolish claim since much of it was filmed at the time.  After two thousand years of hatred, forced conversions, killings, and varying degrees of rampant antisemitism, we were blessed with the reformation of the state of Israel in 1948.

The title of this article is "Turning Evil into Good- the Conclusion".  I chose this title because we are approaching the conclusion of this age.  The biggest evil in the world which the Jewish people have faced since the time of the Bible has been Christianity.  While it is true that the Holocaust saw the murder of the largest number of Jews in recorded history, it too had its roots in Christianity.  Hitler was a fan of Martin Luther who also supported, even called for the mass killing of the Jewish people. It is no doubt that Christianity has been the leading cause of death among Jewish people since the time of Jesus, who ironically, was a Jew.

Christianity,of course, has its roots in Judaism.  The early Christians were Jews who were misled by a false prophet.  By the end of the first century, however, Christianity was its own entity.  It was no longer made up of Jews.  It was made up of Romans and Greeks, both of whom hated the Jews. What happened all those years ago set the stage for the final and biggest example of HaShem turning something evil into something amazing for the Jewish people; the Messianic Age.  Isaiah 53 explains that the Jewish people, after having been despised and rejected (vv 3-4), will be used by G-d to vindicate the just (v11).  You see, G-d has always used the little guy to further His purpose. Look back at the stories we discussed earlier.  Joseph, Jacob, Moses, David, Daniel, and Elijah were all the little guy.  G-d uses the small and weak to show His glory to the big and the strong.  This is exactly what will happen in the final story.

Look at the Jewish people.  Compared to other religions of the world they are the smallest. Christianity is the biggest by far.  Christianity is the Goliath that will be destroyed by a son of David. Like Egypt, Christianity has been allowed to become grand.  In their grandiosity, they have oppressed the Jewish people.  They are like Esau, who could have supported his brother Jacob, but decided to stand aside and let His brother be destroyed (Obadiah 1).   They are the fourth kingdom of Daniel chapter 2 that will be destroyed when G-d sets up the kingdom that will not be destroyed.
                         


Copyright 2016 by:
William Bouker

Thursday, May 19, 2016

What the New Testament Doesn't Say


There are a few phrases that are not found in the New Testament.  They include: thus says the L-rd; G-d said; the word of the L-rd came to ...  These phrases are not found anywhere in the New Testament for a very good reason.  It is not from HaShem.  There is no true prophecy in any of those books.  The books of the prophets are alluded to in many places by the New Testament writers. Most are misquotes, some are not quotes from the prophets at all, the rest are just wrong.

Prophecy is a peculiar and often misunderstood thing.  Most people think it is something like fortune-telling, that it is a way of telling the future.  We know that during the time of the Bible, there were many prophets.  King David had Nathan the Prophet who would come to him and tell him what G-d had said.  Such was the job of the prophet, to relay what G-d had said regarding something that had happened, was happening, or was/is going to happen.  Out of the thousands of prophets who lived, only a few left any documentation as to what HaShem said to them.  The last of the prophets was Malachi, thought by many to have actually been Ezra the Scribe.  After the time of the Book of Malachi, there was no more prophecy in the world.  The reason so many prophets were left out of the Bible is because what they had to say didn't pertain to us.  It wasn't necessarily about the future.    

The Bible instructs us how to identify a false prophet.  Deuteronomy 13 gives plain, easy to follow instructions.  Take a moment and read the text for yourself.  Know that it is not giving you permission to stone anyone.  The death penalty can only be imposed by the Sanhedrin, that is the central rabbinical supreme court of ancient Israel, composed of 71 sages.  There are many signs and wonders outlined in the New Testament.  But the central theme is that of doing away with the Law of Moses and following the teachings of Paul.  This is in direct violation of Deuteronomy 13.  The last verse sums it up. 19 For you shall hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is proper in the eyes of the Lord, your God.  Does this really sound like the words of Paul?   If Paul agreed with this scripture, there would be Christians all over the world keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath.  Obviously, Paul wanted something different for his church.  

We know from church history that the gospel writers are unknown.  The names were assigned many years later.  Searching the Catholic Church's online encyclopedia proves this. (I do not link to their site because their policies don't allow it).  We know from reading the gospels that they are not attributed in any way to being divinely inspired.  They are riddled with inconsistencies from one to the other.  These are not prophetic works.  That is to say, they are not the word of G-d.  In fact, G-d is barely mentioned in the New Testament, other than to say that He sent Jesus.  Isaiah 42: 6-10 tell us that HaShem will not share is glory with another.  The church would have you believe He shares His glory with both Jesus and the holy spirit.  That is a complete contradiction.  6 I am the Lord; I called you with righteousness and I will strengthen your hand; and I formed you, and I made you for a people's covenant, for a light to nations. 7 To open blind eyes, to bring prisoners out of a dungeon, those who sit in darkness out of a prison. 8 I am the Lord, that is My Name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to the graven images. 9 The former things, behold they have come to pass, and the new things I tell; before they sprout I will let you hear. 10 Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise from the end of the earth, those who go down to the sea and those therein, the islands and their inhabitants.  Notice verse 9.  "the new things I tell; before they sprout I will let you hear."  If the New Testament was actually from HaShem, He would let us hear about it.  How does HaShem let us hear?  Through prophecy.  This never happened.  

Isaiah 42 poses a huge problem for the church.  There are only two ways to interpret this problem. Either Isaiah is lying or the church is lying.  If we say that Isaiah is lying, then everything else in the Book of Isaiah is suspect.  Since the church uses Isaiah to justify itself, if he is lying, the church ceases to exist.  If we say that the church is lying, then everything else it says is suspect.  To rectify this question we will look at Isaiah 1.  In the beginning of the book, he identifies himself as well as his father and the reigns of the kings during which he prophesied.  This lends credence to what he is saying.  The gospel writers don't do this. We have no idea who is writing or even when.  All we have is what the church tells us.  So without knowing the authors, all four gospels become suspect. They have no validity.  Their authors won't even put their own names to what they are writing.  

Paul, on the other hand, has no problem identifying himself in his books.  Have you ever wondered why the church does what Paul says and not what the gospels say?  According to the gospels, Jesus said to follow the Law of Moses and to do everything the Pharisees say.  Paul says the Law of Moses can't be followed and it seems, means very little to him in his teachings.  The Christian church is essentially the church of Paul and not the church of Jesus.  The teachings of Jesus in the gospels mean absolutely nothing to Paul or the church.   I will prove it to you.  If you are still a Christian and part of a church, go to your pastor or a teacher, or an elder and ask them this question.  "Why don't we follow the Law of Moses as Jesus instructs us in Matthew 5:17-19?"  See if they don't refer you to something Paul said.  This is one of the issues I had with the church.  The church claims that Jesus died for us.  Doesn't it stand to reason that they should be following his teachings?

If you are a Christian I urge you to ask that question.  If you are not  Christian but know someone who is, please get them this information.  There is truth to be found in the Holy Scriptures, the Tanakh.  The inconsistent ramblings of the gospel writers combined with inconsistent ramblings of Paul can never contain truth.  They contradict each other.  You know there is no truth in contradictions.    

Copyright 2016 by:
William Bouker

           

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Prosperity

Joshua 1:8 This book of the Torah shall not leave your mouth; you shall meditate therein day and night, in order that you observe to do all that is written in it, for then will you succeed in all your ways and then will you prosper.



These days we place a great deal of value on prosperity.  We worry about it.  We have sleepless nights.  We work long hours only to find we still don't feel prosperous.  Our houses aren't big enough. Our furniture isn't as good as our neighbor's.  The money we make never seems to be enough to get the things we want.  We obsess over what we have and don't have.  Prosperity, or the desire for it, is becoming the thread that binds us together as a society.  As with all the other areas of our lives, we have but to look to the Bible to find the answers.  

In the first nine verses of Joshua, HaShem is speaking with Joshua.  He informs Joshua that Moses has died and that He will be with Joshua as He was with Moses.  But Joshua must do something: Just be strong and very courageous to observe and do in accordance with all of the Torah that Moses My servant has commanded you.  He had to observe the Torah of Moses.  If he did this he would succeed in all his ways and then prosper. 

I find it interesting that it says he would succeed and then prosper.  So prosperity comes after success. That seems simple enough.  This simple concept is what is plaguing society today.  We all have little successes in our lives.  Each one of them comes with a small degree of prosperity.  But successes like this only lead us to want more success.  For many people, success is an addiction. There is a rush one gets in that instant when success is realized.  There is a problem with these little successes.  Having a success here and there is not having success in all your ways.  It is having success in some of your ways. Partial success can also be considered partial failure.  Failure cannot lead to prosperity.  This is where our society has broken down.  We expect prosperity from failure. We can only find prosperity when we succeed in all our ways.  So, if you want to succeed in all your ways, you should do as Joshua, observe to do all that is written in the Torah.  

Another big problem is the way in which we define prosperity and success.  Prosperity is defined as the state of being successful usually by making a lot of money*    Success is defined as  favorable or desired outcome; also :  the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence.**   Both definitions have to do with making a lot of money.  While being successful in business will bring you money, this is only one kind of success. There are others which must be considered.  These include family success, personal success, spiritual success, charitable success and numerous others.  Remember what the Bible says, "then will you succeed in all your ways and then will you prosper."  You can see that being successful in one way might make you rich, but it won't make you prosperous.  Our definition of prosperity must be flawed. 

True prosperity can only come by connecting to HaShem.  We connect to Him by keeping His commandments and doing mitzvot.  Mitzvot is the plural form of the Hebrew word mitzvah.  The simple meaning for doing a mitzvah is the act of keeping a commandment. For example, we are commanded to give charity.  When we actually give charity or help a poor person in some way, we are performing a mitzvah.  There are countless acts that can be considered a mitzvah.  But, you can only be credited with performing a mitzvah when your intent is to keep the commandment.  For example, we are commanded not to murder. People all over the world don't commit murder every day.  If you refrain from committing murder because it is illegal and you might go to jail, you have not performed the mitzvah because your purpose was not to keep the commandment, but that of personal safety.

Prosperity is so much more than riches.  It is finding favor is the sight of G-d.  It is the lengthening of your days.  It is living in peace.  It is pleasantness, understanding, security, and charity.  Take a moment and read Proverbs 3 for the Biblical understanding of prosperity.  

Joshua 1:8 This book of the Torah shall not leave your mouth; you shall meditate therein day and night, in order that you observe to do all that is written in it, for then will you succeed in all your ways and then will you prosper.      

Copyright 2016 by:
William Bouker



* "Prosperity." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 4 May 2016.
** "Success." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 5 May 2016.