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POSTED 01 APRIL, 2004
The Highway to Perdition
by J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
There is an old expression: “The road to Hell is paved with good
intentions.” Many people are walking on this road and are on the
direct route toward eternal punishment. Yeshua the Messiah warns
us that “the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to
destruction, and there are many who enter through it” (Matthew
7:13). While this Scripture is primarily applied to those who do
not claim faith in the Lord, very sadly in our day former
Believers may be fulfilling Yeshua’s words better than atheists
and agnostics and members of other religions.
How we got to where we are today is an area of profound
occurrence. Hopefully, each one of us who has entered into the
Messianic community, who came to a realization of our Hebraic
Roots, Torah observance, and the restoration message of all
Israel, did so because we were seeking more of God and were
diligently studying the Scriptures. Hopefully, we came into this
understanding because we were seeking to grow and mature in our
faith, and in all things we were seeking to emulate our Messiah
Yeshua.
Sadly, this is
not the case for everyone. Rather than encouraging people to
grow and mature in their faith, with the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, another motivation is being encouraged: “Question
everything!” While asking questions is by no means a sin,
and while searching for the truth should be encouraged, the fact
of the matter remains that if you question everything for the
expressed purpose of questioning everything, you will eventually
ask questions that cannot be answered. The possibility exists
that you may eventually deny the entire truth of the
Scriptures, not only the Apostolic Writings (New Testament), but
also the Tanach (Old Testament). It must be noted that the
Biblical pattern is not to “question everything,”
but rather to seek confirmation of a fact or matter,[1]
to confirm whether or not something being said aligns with the
Word and can actually be proven.
In recent days, the crisis that has come to the forefront in the
Messianic community, because of any number of varied factors, is
that the path to perdition is being expanded into a major
interstate highway. Thanks to sensationalistic teachings and
spirits of doubt that are being sown into the ekklēsia,
there are some in the Messianic community—who under the guise of
being “truth seekers”—have denied the Divinity of Yeshua and His
Messiahship. Of course, it should be noted that in the “big
picture” this is not a unique problem, because there are liberal
Christians who reject Yeshua’s Divinity and who believe that
“all roads lead to God.” But it especially hits home for us
because of the small size of the Messianic movement. For those
of us who are seriously seeking to grow and mature in our faith,
and who take our salvation experience very seriously, we must
understand the spiritual root of what drives people to apostasy,
and thus to accept shoddy Biblical exegesis.
The three-stage path to perdition that we will examine in this
article is that people deny:
1. The plurality of the Godhead 2. The
Divinity of Yeshua 3. The Messiahship of Yeshua
The Spiritual Root of the Apostasy
Whether certain individuals wish to recognize it or not,
ultimately denying saving faith in the Messiah of Israel had a
definitive spiritual root. Theology and Scriptural
interpretation can only go so far if a person has made up his or
her mind that Yeshua is not the Savior of humanity. The dilemma
that exists for us is how can people, who once claimed to know
Yeshua as their personal Savior, quickly deny Him and His saving
work? How can people literally regard “as an unholy thing the
blood of the covenant that sanctified him” (Hebrews 10:29, NIV)?
There will always be discussion as to whether or not those
apostatizing from the faith were ever truly spiritually
regenerated and truly “knew Him.” There will always be
debate over Scriptures such as 2 Peter 2:20-22, Hebrews 6:4-6
and 10:26-31, as to whether or not someone who has been saved
can fall from the faith. However, one thing that we should be
conscious of is the fact that none of us should take our
salvation for granted. In all that we do, we must keep
Yeshua and emulating His example as our primary focus. If we
take our eyes off Him and we do not seek to follow His example
for us, ignoring what He says on certain matters, then we will
not be able to stay the course and enter into the Kingdom of
God.
Those of us who are Messianic came to this understanding through
a variety of events and persuasions. Many simply had a desire to
learn more about the “Old Testament,” and wondered why
mainstream Christianity no longer kept the seventh-day Sabbath
or Biblical holidays. Others read Yeshua’s words in Matthew
5:17-19 about the Torah or Law of Moses not passing away. Some
entered into the Messianic movement to gain a better
understanding of end-time prophecy. But the motivation should
always be that we are seeking truth, and seeking full compliance
with Holy Scripture as Yeshua and His Apostles understood it,
and would live it out today.
But others who came into the Messianic movement entered in for
other reasons. The most commonly encountered, of these “other”
reasons, is that people heard sensationalistic teachings
denouncing everything that evangelical Protestant
Christianity (as opposed to Catholicism) taught them. It was all
“utterly pagan” and a “lie” from Satan—they were told. The
individuals who accept this point of view often “get mad at the
Church,” have legalistic tendencies, and are easily swayed
toward things that support their opinions, regardless of whether
or not they are supported by the Bible, historical sources,
and/or reasoned exegesis. It has been this second group of
people where the apostasy has originated.
How do people get angry and then take the side exit onto the
highway to perdition?
Consider some of the changes that you have had to go through in
your quest to be a Messianic Believer. What happened when you
started keeping the seventh-day Shabbat instead of Sunday
Church? What happened when you started celebrating the Biblical
holidays of Leviticus 23, instead of Christmas and Easter? What
happened when you started eating kosher? What happened when you
realized that Yeshua returns for the saints after the
Tribulation, rather than before it? What happened when you
started using the Messiah’s Hebrew name “Yeshua,” and did not
really use “Jesus” any more?
Did you upset any friends or family when coming to these
conclusions? Did you ever get criticized?
How did you respond to the criticism of others? Did you turn the
other cheek (Matthew 5:39; Luke 6:29), realizing that justice
comes from your Master? Or did you attack back in vehemence?
Sadly, many people attack back. Even more problematic, when they
incur criticism because of their Messianic beliefs, they fail to
forgive, forget, and move on. Yeshua issues some very hard words
concerning what happens when we do not forgive others because of
wrongs done to us:
“But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not
forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:15).
If we do not forgive others, then our Heavenly Father cannot
forgive us of our sins. If we do not forgive others, we give
Satan and his forces legal right to harass us. It is through
that demonic harassment that the enemy is able to lead people
onto the highway to perdition. When we have decided to take
matters into our own hands, and not let God deal with others, we
begin to have problems. The epitome of where these problems can
lead is full denial of the message of the Apostolic Scriptures
(New Testament), because our motivation was not to grow in
Yeshua, but rather prove ourselves “superior” to others:
“Pride precedes destruction, and arrogance comes before failure”
(Proverbs 16:18).
So what are the errant doctrines that the enemy has been able to
sow into those who have become embittered, and are harassed by
his minions?
Stage #1: Denying a Plural Godhead
The first stage toward complete apostasy from faith in Yeshua is
denying the reality of a plural Godhead. Often when a person
enters into the Messianic community, and begins a study of the
Torah, he or she discovers some problems with the widespread
“Trinity” doctrine, the way that most of Christianity has
determined to define the uniqueness of our Creator. The basic
explanation of the Trinity is that God has revealed Himself to
mankind in the “persons” of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Any
cursory reading of Scripture itself will show God the Father,
Yeshua the Son, and then the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh)
functioning. However, there are problems with how many
have viewed these elements over the centuries, affecting other
theologies. What has often happened is that outsiders, notably
from Judaism, have come to the conclusion that Christians
worship three gods, rather than the One
Lord God of the Bible.
In examining the Godhead, we must take into serious
consideration the fact that different Christian denominations
and theologians have defined the “Trinity” in any number of
different, and indeed contradicting, ways. Any criticism
of the “Trinity” concept must take into consideration that there
is no universal view of it in Christendom. Some denominations
and traditions literally view Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as
“three gods,” and then others view it as three different
manifestations emanating from the same source. Others view the
tri-unity of the Godhead as a mystery that cannot be fully
understood because there is no human frame of reference to
understand the Eternal.
The widespread Messianic position on the Godhead is slightly
different than the “Trinity” teaching of mainstream
Christianity. Like theologically conservative Christians, most
Messianics believe in a plural Godhead. This is most often based
in the fact that the Hebrew word for “God” most often used in
the Tanach, Elohim (~yhla),
is a plural word. During the Creation week, the Lord
Himself says “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our
likeness” (Genesis 1:26), indeed indicating a plurality of the
Godhead, as in Genesis 1:27 human beings were created in the
tzelem Elohim (~yhla
~lc)
or “the image of God,” referring to the “Us.”
The difference between the plurality of God as presented by many
in mainstream Christianity and Messianic Believers is that we
view the Godhead as being more “fluidic,” than a rigid “three
persons” of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe that the
plurality of the Godhead must be understood in the light of
Biblical monotheism, which is the fact that the God of Israel is
the One and only God that demands our worship. This concept is
understood well in the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4:
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord
is our God, the Lord
is one!”
This verse has been interpreted variably in both Judaism and
Christianity. The primary thrust of the Shema, though, is
not necessarily a definition of the Godhead, but rather how the
Lord is the “One and Only” (ATS) Creator God “alone” (NJPS). It
is a declaration of monotheism that the Ancient Israelites were
to make as they were coming out of Egypt, a land of many gods,
and into Canaan, likewise a land of many gods. Israel would be
separate because it only acknowledged one Supreme Being, and
that Deity was recognized in the actions of His people, not by
any idol or carved image.
What the debate surrounding the Shema has become, is not
one where we recognize the God of Israel as the One God of the
Universe, but rather how we are to understand Him. Specifically,
the argument surrounds how we are to understand the phrase “the
Lord is one.” Is
this oneness an absolute oneness, or is it a composite oneness?
Is Elohim absolutely singular, or is it plural?
Traditional Judaism holds that Elohim is an absolute oneness.
Thus, any attempt to make Elohim a plurality in the context
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is, in their view, a foreign
understanding. Christianity, in contrast, holds to Elohim being
a composite oneness, revealed in Scripture by Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. This is what has often been termed the “Trinity,”
although the term is extra-Biblical. Many Christians acknowledge
this and admit that to be able to fully understand our Creator
is impossible for our human minds.
Many people entering into the Messianic community come from
varied Christian backgrounds where the Godhead has been defined
in different ways. Some come from backgrounds where the
“Trinity” was defined as three co-existent manifestations
emanating from the same Source, yet united in substance and in
purpose. Others, in contrast, were of the impression in their
Christian setting that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were like
three “gods.” Because of this latter group, it is often very
easy for some to be convinced that if they are worshipping
Yeshua, that they are worshipping a god separate from the
Father.
As people such as this are exposed to an Hebraic world view,
they often examine the writings of the Jewish Rabbis which
denounce a belief in a plural Godhead. Rightfully seeing some of
the fallacies of the “Trinity” teaching in some of its forms,
the foremost of which is that some believe that the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit contradict one another—rather than being
of one purpose—it is then easy to reject the belief in a plural
Godhead. Furthermore, if people have opened themselves up to
doubting any and all Christian theology, they will come up with
excuses to deny a plural Godhead as the denial of the “Trinity”
doctrine is considered heresy by the Roman Catholic Church.
Before continuing, let me state first and foremost that as
Messianics we have some problems with the “Trinity” doctrine as
it is widely taught or understood in Christendom. While we
believe that the Godhead is plural, as certainly implied by the
Hebrew term Elohim, we believe that it is wrong to put limits on
our Creator by saying that He can only reveal Himself in
the manifestations of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We cannot
put absolute limits on God such as this, and it is possible that
there are other manifestations of Him that He has presently
chosen not to reveal to us. The plurality of God is much more
complicated and mind boggling than what the “Trinity” teaching
can ever define for man, albeit it is the best human description
that theologians have been able to use to define Him in the past
two millennia.
But the bigger problem is what happens when a person accepts the
belief that Elohim is an absolute oneness, meaning that there is
no plurality in the Godhead, and thus there is no co-existence
between the Father and Son, the Son and the Spirit, the Spirit
and the Father, etc. If Yeshua is indeed God, and God is an
absolute oneness, then how can Yeshua pray to the Father? How
can the Father talk to Yeshua? How can Yeshua admonish people to
entreat the Father if there is no co-existence between the
Father and the Son? This leads to people questioning whether or
not Yeshua is God in human form, or just a man empowered by God.
We must be reminded as mortals that we do not have the powers
that God has:
“Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered
the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His
garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is
His name or His son's name? Surely you know!” (Proverbs 30:4).
Stage #2: Denying Yeshua’s Divinity
When people accept Elohim as being an absolute one, rather than
a composite one, but then they read in the Scriptures how the
Father and the Son clearly do co-exist, they begin to
doubt Yeshua’s Divinity and whether or not He truly is God
manifest in the flesh. Some have extreme difficulties realizing
the dual nature of Yeshua, as both the
Lord in human form,
but also a man with bodily functions. We run into problems when
people attempt to understand every aspect of Yeshua’s
existence, rather than just accepting Yeshua for who He says He
is, demonstrated by His actions and His works.
The issue of Yeshua’s Divinity is an issue of salvation because
of two critical factors:
1. The Bible says that only the Lord is our
Savior. 2. The Bible says that only God can forgive our
sins.
Failure to take into consideration these two critical factors
has led many onto the highway to perdition and toward eternal
punishment.
Isaiah 43:11, 45:15 say, “I, even I, am the
Lord, and there
is no savior besides Me...Truly, You are a God who hides
Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!” This same sentiment is
repeated in Hosea 13:4: “Yet I have been the
Lord your God since
the land of Egypt; and you were not to know any god except Me,
for there is no savior besides Me”
The Hebrew term
rendered as “savior” is derived from the verb yasha ([vy),
which means “help, save, rescue” (CHALOT).[2]
Isaiah 63:7-8 tells us that the Lord became the Savior of
Israel:
“I shall make
mention of the lovingkindnesses of the
Lord, the praises of the
Lord, according to
all that the Lord
has granted us, and the great goodness toward the house of
Israel, which He has granted them according to His compassion
and according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses. For He
said, ‘Surely, they are My people, sons who will not deal
falsely.’ So He became their Savior.”[3]
The Psalmist is
most candid when he says “God will redeem my soul from the power
of Sheol; for He will receive me” (Psalm 49:15). Who can
padah (hdP),
that is “ransom” (BDB),[4]
us from Hell? Only a Divine Being can redeem mankind, as Psalm
49:7 makes it perfectly clear that “No man can by any means
redeem [padah] his brother, or give to God a
ransom for him.” The Hebrew Scriptures make it clear that only
the Lord can redeem us.
Mary, the mother of Yeshua, recognized that only the Lord could
be her Savior, attesting “my spirit has rejoiced in God my
Savior” (Luke 1:47; cf. 1 Samuel 2:1). The Apostolic Scriptures
fully affirm that Yeshua the Messiah is the Savior, and that
salvation comes from God. The angels proclaimed at the birth of
Yeshua, “for today in the city of David there has been born for
you a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord” (Luke 2:11). In John
4:42, Yeshua is plainly called “the Savior of the world.”
The testimony we see in the General Epistles makes it clear that
Yeshua is the Savior. The Apostle John writes, “We have seen and
testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior
of the world” (1 John 4:14). The Apostle Peter attests that the
Father has “richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Savior,” Yeshua the Messiah (1 Peter
1:11, RSV). He also admonishes us to “remember the words spoken
beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord
and Savior spoken by your apostles” (2 Peter 3:2).
Concerning Yeshua’s Divinity, Peter is very direct in 2 Peter
1:1 when referring to “our God and Savior, Yeshua the Messiah.”
The letters of Paul also make it clear that Yeshua the Messiah
is the Savior. He writes in Philippians 3:20, “our citizenship
is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the
Lord Yeshua the Messiah.” He speaks “of God our Savior and of
Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1, RSV/NIV). He also writes
that as Believers “we labor and strive, because we have fixed
our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men,
especially of believers” (1 Timothy 4:10). He considered the
“Savior Messiah Yeshua, who abolished death and brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10), and
most importantly that we are “looking for the blessed hope and
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Messiah
Yeshua” (Titus 2:13).
To those who would say that Yeshua the Messiah is not God made
manifest in the flesh, what do you do about the testimony of the
Apostles who believed in Him, recognized God as the only Savior,
and then recognized Yeshua as the only Savior? If Yeshua is not
God, and is just solely a normal human being, then how could He
be the Savior of humanity if the Tanach is clear that a man is
powerless to redeem another man?
The issue of
being saved from eternal punishment is directly tied with
forgiveness of sins. Psalm 79:9 says, “Help us, O God of our
salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us and
forgive our sins for Your name’s sake.” The Hebrew verb kafar
(rpK)
or “atone” (ATS), appearing in the Piel stem (intensive action,
active voice) means, “cover over, pacify, propitiate” (BDB).[5]
Ultimately, the covering or atonement for our sins must come
from the Almighty.
The Apostolic Scriptures are clear that during the ministry of
Messiah Yeshua that He forgave human beings of their sins: “And
Yeshua seeing their faith said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins
are forgiven’” (Mark 2:5). In response to Yeshua’s forgiving
people of their sins, the Pharisees present considered Him to be
blaspheming: “Why does this man speak that way? He is
blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7).
These Pharisees considered Yeshua to be blaspheming because of
the authority that they recognized He was operating through.
They knew from the Tanach that only God could forgive people of
their sins. So if Yeshua was not God made manifest in the flesh,
how could He have the power to forgive sins?
The facts that only God can redeem us and forgive us—are the
principal reasons why Yeshua must be Divine. However, at the
same time, we must recognize that the Apostolic Scriptures also
speak of “the Man Messiah Yeshua” (2 Timothy 2:5), and
that the Word is clear that Yeshua was born, lived a human life,
had bodily functions, and experienced crucifixion and the death
of His flesh. Yeshua experienced many of the same human
challenges that we face today. However, simply because this is
true, does not make Him 100% human, 0% God. When the Lord
appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18 as a human man, did He
suddenly become something less than God? No! God can do anything
that He wants to do, and it is not our right to define God in
terms of what He can and cannot do.
The problem as it relates to people in the Messianic community
who later deny Yeshua’s Divinity, is that Judaism—in spite of
what the Tanach says about God being our only
Savior—emphatically believes that the Messiah is not Divine. One
of Judaism’s principal problems over the centuries has been the
so-called “Deification” of Yeshua. Things get more complicated
when people who are resolved to reject any “Christian” teaching
they read in the annals of Church history, and those councils
and creeds of Catholicism that proclaim denying the Divinity of
Christ is heresy. All of a sudden, Scripture does not become the
primary focus, and instead one’s focus can become a vendetta
against the past.
What is most ironic is that people in the Messianic community
who deny Yeshua’s Divinity often research the works of liberal
Christians who have absolutely no regard for the Messianic
lifestyle or Torah obedience. There are several prominent books
by Christian authors on the market promoted by this camp, but
most of the authors believe that the Torah or Law of Moses has
been abolished (and some even deny that Moses wrote/composed any
of the Pentateuch). How on Earth should we as Messianics accept
these teachers’ interpretation of the Shema and the
Tanach, and their exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures, when by
their own admissions they believe that these Scriptures have
little relevance for the Believer today? Why should we be
lectured to about the Torah by those who are not Torah observant
(and may even consider the Torah to be “Israel’s mythology”)?
Obviously, the problem is ultimately spiritual—and some people
have been looking for answers in all the wrong places.
Has a person who has denied Yeshua’s Divinity—and instead
believes that He is only a human man—lost hope of salvation? Of
course, it is important for us to want to know the truth and
evaluate Yeshua’s Divinity based on Scripture. But we should not
question things with the expressed purpose of denying them. What
happens to the person who denies Yeshua’s status as a part of
the Godhead? In due time, because people have decided that He is
simply a man, they then begin to doubt His Messiahship. After
all, they say, if God is our only Savior and then Yeshua is
not God, why do we even need Him?
Stage #3: Denying Yeshua’s Messiahship
Once a person has denied Yeshua’s Divinity, and has decided to
make Him just another man, or perhaps even a man that has been
“empowered by God,” it is usually not surprising to see that
person be open to the arguments that have existed for centuries
against Yeshua’s Messiahship. In recent days as many have come
out of mainstream Christianity and have embraced their Hebraic
Roots, they have examined the writings of the Sages and Rabbis
of Judaism. While there is much good teaching and insight that
can be gleaned from them, the reality remains that these
teachings come from people who often by their own testimony are
not Believers in the Messiah.
Those who often open themselves to researching the things of
Judaism, and give high spiritual credence—perhaps above
Scripture—to things like the Mishnah, Talmud, and Kabbalah are
the ones who are most susceptible to being open to modern Jewish
beliefs concerning the Messiah, and why Yeshua of Nazareth or
Jesus Christ cannot be the Anointed One. One move that has grown
up as a counter to Messianic Judaism and its missionary
outreaches in the Jewish community for presenting the gospel has
been that of the Jewish anti-missionaries. The anti-missionaries
are Jewish groups whose express goal is to disprove the
Messiahship of Yeshua. To some who are not fully grounded in the
Scriptures and ancient history—and often have little, if any
spiritual discernment—the complicated arguments made by the
anti-missionaries are often accepted by those who are seemingly
looking for a reason to deny belief in Yeshua.
Most often, the arguments you will see from the anti-missionary
groups focus on what they perceive to be contradictions in the
Apostolic Scriptures, and then prophecies that the Messiah is
supposed to fulfill, that they say that Yeshua did not fulfill.
To say that the anti-missionary arguments are completely
objective is anything but so, as many are sensationalistic and
emotional, and focus more on Christian anti-Semitism and why
Jews should not “accept Jesus” than on the Scriptures and the
actual issues themselves. Sadly, the anti-missionaries are now
seeing that many in the Church are exploring their Hebraic Roots
and Torah study, and have begun to focus their efforts at
non-Jews in the Messianic movement, in an attempt to see them
convert to Judaism.
In order to counter the arguments of the anti-missionaries, we
must recognize one critical thing. Yeshua says in Luke 24:44,
“These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with
you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of
Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” We are
told that “beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He
explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the
Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). As we understand Yeshua coming as the
promised Redeemer, we are required to do more than examine the
critical Messianic prophecies of Him being the Suffering Servant
and the Conquering King, or Him being the Lamb that was slain,
or Him being the Prophet greater than Moses.
We are also required to look at the recurring themes and
patterns in the Tanach, recognizing that they all have Messianic
significance. We need to look at the lives of Biblical
characters like Joseph and Moses. We need to understand that
Scripture repeats itself. Most importantly, we must be in a
position to answer the claims of the anti-missionaries who say
that Yeshua violated the Torah, which is largely (and sadly)
upheld in too much of Christianity, which absolutely goes
against the prophecies of the Word going forth from Zion during
His reign (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2).
We Need to be Careful
As Believers who are pursuing the Messiah of Israel, it must be
our job to be in full compliance with all of Scripture: both the
Tanach and the Apostolic Writings. Certainly, as many of us have
entered into the Messianic community, we have gleaned
understanding from our Jewish brethren and know there are
edifying truths in Judaism that are beneficial for us to
incorporate. However, let us also understand that the Torah is
the foundation of Scripture, but not all of Scripture.
The Lord has been in a state of revealing His plan to humanity
progressively, and there are things in the Apostolic Writings
not fully revealed in the Tanach (Hebrews 1:1). Most
importantly, we have to recognize that God must call people to
Himself, and they must be supernaturally revealed of who Yeshua
is:
“Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found Him of
whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Yeshua
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ Nathanael said to
him, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to
him, ‘Come and see.’ Yeshua saw Nathanael coming to Him, and
said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no
deceit!’” (John 1:45-47).
When Yeshua saw Nathanael coming toward Him, He said that he was
an Israelite who had no guile. As Nathanael later became one of
His Disciples, he had to be prepared by God and had to be shown
by the Holy Spirit that Yeshua was the One of whom the Torah and
the Prophets spoke.
Similarly, when one of us comes to faith in Yeshua, we must
humble ourselves before our Creator, and be supernaturally wooed
by the Holy Spirit regarding the Messiah of Israel. We must then
confess our sins and repent, turning from our sinful ways. Our
faith ultimately is our trust in God to see us through the
unseen things that we will encounter in life. If we do not have
Yeshua, our Divine Redeemer, as the focus of our life, we are
likely to make a wrong turn onto the Highway to Perdition.
J.K. McKee (B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury Theological Seminary) is the
editor of TNN Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is
a Messianic apologist. He is author of several
books, including: The New Testament Validates
Torah, Torah In the Balance, Volume I, and
When Will the Messiah Return?. He has also
written many articles on the Two Houses of
Israel and Biblical theology, and is presently
focusing on Messianic commentaries on various
books of the Bible.
NOTES
[1]
Cf. Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; Matthew 18:16; 2
Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28.
[2]
William L. Holladay, ed., A Concise
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament
(Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 1988), 147.
[3]
There are many other references in the
Tanach indicating that only God is the Savior or
salvation, including: 2 Samuel 22:3; Isaiah 43:3; 45:21;
49:26; 60:16; Jeremiah 14:7-8; Psalm 17:6-7.
[4]
Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles
A. Briggs, Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English
Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), 804.
[5]
Ibid., 497.
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