I want to do something a little different from what I normally share, but I feel that there is a critical need to write an expository study of the statements made by the serpent in Genesis 3. Through doing such a study I believe you will see how Satan, revealed in Revelation 12:9 to be this very same “ancient serpent”, is the driving force behind all anti-Torah “Christian” theologies. By examining each statement the serpent makes in the narrative a pattern will be revealed that we can then compare with the type of beliefs expressed by those who claim new covenant Believers are not under the law and that The Torah was nailed to the cross.
I have often said that you cannot understand the writings of the apostles—typically referred to in error as “The New Testament”—if you do not understand The Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible often referred to in error as “The Old Testament”. I say “in error” because the terms “Old Testament” and “New Testament” are wrong and misleading terms that have their roots in Marcionism. The intent may be as innocent as trying to section The Bible for easier study, but these terms are themselves not actually biblical at all and are heavily used for the support of poor theological views that generally discard at least some things listed in the portions of Scripture commonly referred to as “Old Testament”.
To continue with this line of thought, you cannot understand The Tanakh if you do not understand and have a positive view of The Torah and you cannot understand The Torah if you do not understand the first three chapters of Genesis. It is, after all, a direct result of what took place in Genesis 3 that we even have The Torah, The Bible, The Gospel, and the events of Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection. If Genesis 3 never happened, theoretically we would all still be living in the Edenic world.
In the first two chapters of Genesis we have the record of The Creation and the mandate to all of humanity to care for the whole of Creation. In Genesis 1:26-28 God charges mankind to be responsible for all other life on the planet, both plants and animals, and in Genesis 2:15 He reiterates this by telling us to tend to His Creation. When you study The Torah, especially the commandments that apply to everyone without prerequisites, so much of what we are instructed is related to a proper and humane care for all life on earth.
Then we come to the third chapter of Genesis where we see everything fall apart. It is here that we will draw our attention and seek to look at what transpired on that day; a day that I personally believe based on the language used was the weekly Sabbath Day. Whether the very first Sabbath mentioned in Genesis 2:1-3 or another later one, it seems to indicate that God was not in the garden during these events, and the only day in that world it suggests God was not with Adam and Eve was the weekly Sabbath. This may seem insignificant, but what were they doing in the garden, their place of work, on The Sabbath to begin with? This too is something to think about, as perhaps they had already set the tone and the reason the serpent was at the tree in the midst is less because God was not there and more because he knew if they showed up in the midst of the garden on The Sabbath they were already in a compromised position. They may not have been breaking The Sabbath as nothing suggests they were there to work the garden, but it seems logical to conclude that they should not even have been in their place of work at all on that day. We should keep this in mind as we go through the statements of Genesis 3.
The Question
But the serpent was shrewder than any animal of the field that Adonai Elohim made. So it said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from all the trees of the garden’?”
—Genesis 3:1 (TLV)
Here is the beginning of the entire scene, the slithering tongue of the serpent asking if God really said not to do this thing. The question is crafty, but it’s worded in truth. God did say not to eat from all the trees in the garden because there was one tree prohibited. All you need is one for it to be true that you cannot eat from all of the trees. While God said, essentially, “You can eat from all of the trees in the garden except for one,” the serpent reworded this in a question intended to give the impression that “this one is clearly a part of ‘all’ and should therefore be among the trees you can eat from”. Miguel A De La Torre offers an interesting thought regarding this in his commentary Genesis, where he says:
The serpent, constantly portrayed as a liar, does not lie, but it also does not tell the truth. The serpent, in a way, was truthful in stating that eating the forbidden fruit would make humans godlike, being able to distinguish between good and evil. But how humans defined “godlike” was probably very different from how the serpent was defining it. This is why the serpent can best be understood as a trickster figure, not necessarily evil, but shaking up the foundation of the cosmos nonetheless.
Now, while I understand what he is trying to say, I have to say that I absolutely consider the serpent to be evil. After all, we are talking about Satan here. While the statement regarding becoming like God is something I will address a little further in this study, it is important to note that the serpent’s method was to use true statements in a way that was misleading instead of outright lying. We could say that Satan was taking God’s words out of context—something that continues to be responsible for beliefs and teachings that plague “Christian” religion today.
Through this initial question Satan gained control of the encounter. The woman responded that they were free to eat from all of the trees except for one. But the wheels of doubt were already beginning to turn.
When you begin to submit to the questioning of a commandment of God then you are entering into a dangerous path. There are many things that today the “Christian” religion questions from The Torah. It questions the Leviticus 11 food laws. It questions The Sabbath Day. It questions the Feast Days. It questions if popular holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween can truly be a violation of Deuteronomy 12:29-31. “Did God really say,” becomes the foundation for statements like, “we’re not under the law,” or, “if you are still following the law you have fallen from grace and voided the work of the cross.”
We should really pause here and think about this. Scripture makes it very clear that Yeshua is the righteous one and Satan is the lawless one. The Bible defines righteousness as obeying The Torah (Deuteronomy 6:25) and lawlessness, or sin, as breaking, transgressing, violating The Torah (1 John 3:4). Popular religion teaches different definitions for these words to deviate from what these passages say, which is why it is critical that we allow God-breathed definitions within The Bible to tell us what the important words that determine doctrine mean. With these Bible definitions established, we can say that Yeshua is the Torah-keeping and Torah-teaching one and Satan is the Torah-rejecting and Torah-breaking one. So, whenever you see and wherever you hear The Torah being questioned, it is Satan—the lawless, Torah-rejecting, Torah-breaking one—who is behind it. This especially includes a majority of “Christian” beliefs that say there is no longer a requirement to follow The Torah, whether in whole or in part.
The serpent’s question serves the first step in his plan of attack, and that is to get you to question the command of God. It creates doubt in your mind. Did God really say? Did God really mean it? Does God really demand that you follow such a petty little thing as what you eat? The moment you begin to mull that over is the moment you give place to the devil and question whether or not God cares all that much about “something so small and insignificant” as a food law.
You Won’t Go To Hell For That!
The serpent said to the woman, “You most assuredly won’t die!”
—Genesis 3:4 (TLV)
The next thing the serpent does leads from questioning the commandment to rejecting it. He makes the commandment non-essential to your faith practice. Maybe it’s good to follow certain things in The Bible like the food laws or keeping The Sabbath or celebrating the biblical Feast Days, but will not doing those things really cause us to “go to hell”?
I do not know how many times someone has tried to tell me that something is “not a salvation issue” or “won’t cause anyone to go to hell”. There is a real problem with this way of thinking. First of all, when someone thinks like this they are trying to justify their actions or someone else’s against The Father’s Torah. In some cases they are people who follow The Torah, but they had some close friend or relative who did not and died and they want so desperately to believe that person is not “in hell” because they ate pork or worked on Saturday morning or some other thing they are convinced is a non-essential.
What is the difference between Satan telling Eve, “You won’t really die if you eat that fruit,” and “Christians” saying, “Nobody is going to hell because they eat pork and shellfish”? There is not one single thing different aside from the fact that the fantasy land theology of “Christian” fiction says that these are different things. In Genesis 3 Satan spoke through the mouth of a serpent, today Satan speaks through the mouth of the “Christian pastor” with all of their antinomian rhetoric, chanting that they are “not under the law” and “The Torah was nailed to the cross” and “if you dare suggest that we still have to follow The Torah you have fallen from grace and made void the work of the cross”. These are all false beliefs that started with the serpent uttering the words: “You will not surely die!” Yes, they are all based on things stated in the Apostolic Writings, but like happened in Eden the same serpent takes statements from the Word of God and twists them to deceive. He’s not lying outright, but he’s also not telling the truth.
Doubt has filled the mind, the commandment of God is questioned, then it is presented as a non-essential, and you move toward rejecting it. The commandment of God! Think about it.
Too often people call The Father’s Torah by some unbiblical title like: The Laws of Moses, The Mosaic Laws, The Levitical Laws, or Jewish Laws and Traditions. Recently I was in a discussion with someone where the food laws were being highlighted and the person kept referring to them as “Jewish dietary laws”. I explained several times that they were not “Jewish” and how there weren’t even technically any Jews when The Torah was given to Moses—the terms “Jew” and “”Jewish” refer to those of the nation of Judah following the kingdom split that happened after the death of Solomon. But the person insisted on referring to them, in complete error and ignorance, as “Jewish dietary laws”. Why? Because so long as you are convinced that certain commandments are Jewish laws and traditions you can say that they are not to be imposed on “Christians of gentile heritage”. Anything you call “Jewish” becomes non-essential. You may see value in doing them if you want to, but they are not to be mandated.
This all traces back to this single statement from the serpent, “You will not die.” Today “Christianity” remains the largest religion in the world and it tells people that they “won’t go to hell” if they don’t keep the food laws or The Sabbath or the Feast Days. The modern “Christian” has been led to believe that these and other commandments are non-essential while they eat whatever they want and celebrate holidays that were invented by the pagan Roman Catholic religion—and very likely inspired by pre-existing pagan religions. Where does this come from? It all started with the serpent’s statement. Daniel 7:25 speaks of an anti-Messiah figure who at the very least is connected with Satan, if not actually being Satan, and of this character it is said he will: “continually harass the kedoshim of the Most High, and will try to change the appointed times and law.” In the modern day the “Christian” religion harasses those who would uphold God’s Law, calling them legalists and Judaizers, while changing the appointed times and Torah. They say you can eat whatever you want, don’t have to keep The Sabbath, “Jesus is our Sabbath” or “Sunday is the Christian Sabbath”, have different holidays from the ones even Yeshua celebrated, and numerous other things.
A preacher of a past generation, A.W. Tozer, once said: “Christianity is decaying and going down in the gutter because the god of modern Christianity is not The God of The Bible.” I would take it one step further. As it is clear that “Christianity” today does exactly what the serpent in Genesis 3 did and exactly what Daniel 7:25 says this anti-Messiah figure will do, it becomes abundantly clear that the god of the “Christian” religion is Satan.
Satan is the lawless one. He is fully capable of imitating every single thing you see done in “Christian” churches, but the one thing he cannot imitate is the one thing you don’t find in these same churches—full obedience to The Torah. The “Christian” religion makes up an entire one-third of the world’s total population. Revelation 12:9 says that the ancient serpent, which is Satan, deceives the whole world. One-third of the world is a pretty large chunk, and when that one-third is a religion that teaches you don’t have to follow part of The Bible, doing and saying exactly what the serpent did and said in Eden, and when that one-third is a religion that harasses the true followers of Scripture, and when that religion claims there are changes to The Torah and appointed times and that now we celebrate “other holidays” and now we can eat whatever we want and now we have a different Sabbath Day, that religion is of Satan.
They seek to devalue the commands of God. They were once the standard of holiness (Leviticus 11:44, 19:2, 20:26), but now they are optional at best and don’t you dare suggest they are a salvation issue because “you won’t surely go to hell if you eat pork or don’t keep The Sabbath or celebrate Christmas and Easter”. Yeshua said something very interesting in Matthew 7:21-23. He described a group of people that to this day only matches the “Christian” religion and then said those in that group will be rejected for lawlessness. There is literally no other people group from the time Yeshua said those words to the present day that does the things He described—casting out devils, working miracles, prophesying—and attributes those works to His name and are workers of lawlessness, people who reject all or parts of The Torah. When there is a lawless one who leads people to believe they don’t really have to follow certain commandments and you won’t surely “die and go to hell” if you reject them and there is a righteous one who said that if you love Him and if you want to enter into life you have to keep the commandments, it becomes quite clear who the god of “Christianity” is. The “Christian” religion has literally become the prophetic fulfillment of Matthew 7:21-23. Most of the people who are coming to the truth of a Torah-positive theology come out of “Christian” religion, but those who find that truth will always be “the few” spoken of in Matthew 7:13-14.
Don’t Void The Cross!
“For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
—Genesis 3:5 (TLV)
Now we come to the point where the decision is made to break The Torah of God. Satan got you to question the commandment, then he convinced you the commandment was not essential so you would reject it or at least start thinking it’s optional, now he gets you to conclude that breaking the commandment is essential. You won’t die if you eat the fruit, you won’t “go to hell” if you eat pork or don’t keep The Sabbath Day, but that only gets you so far. You can believe the words of Satan up to this point and still conclude that it doesn’t hurt to keep the commandments. A lot of “Christians” are stuck in that place, thinking it’s fine to follow the food laws or keep The Sabbath if you want to. They are just one statement away from Satan’s final blow.
But now we come to the last part of Satan’s three-pronged attack where you find out that there is a necessity to break the commandment. In the scenario at the tree it was: “you will be like God.” Suddenly there is something you need and you can only get it through breaking the commandment. Even though God said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” the serpent presented his case that they were not like God and in order to get to that place they had to eat that one thing God said not to eat.
Today “you will be like God” has been replaced by statements like “if you try to keep The Torah you have fallen from grace and made void the work of the cross”. These may be different statements but their purpose is the same—they seek to lead one to a belief that you need to question, reject, and ultimately break God’s Laws. “Christian” theology tells you that if you dare to keep whatever commandments have been deemed obsolete you are voiding the work of the cross. In other words, you are somehow saying that the work of the cross was not enough if you still have to obey the commandments.
But how does this make any sense? The entire reason that Yeshua had to be crucified was because the commandments were broken. If the point of this whole thing was to reject and live against The Father’s Torah, then shouldn’t the action of eating from the forbidden tree in Genesis 3 have secured the whole of humanity as being in right standing with God? What is the purpose of being redeemed from sin if we are supposed to still live in sin?
The fact of the matter is that the reason there is sin, the reason there is evil, the reason there is chaos, the reason we have a Bible, the reason we need to be redeemed, the reason Yeshua had to die and be raised again, and the reason we are called to repentance from our sin is because someone ate something God said not to eat. And yet today “Christianity” teaches that if you dare to follow something like the Leviticus 11 food laws you will ruin everything. How can such a “Christian” theology be anything but the concoction of the same serpent that was met at The Tree of Knowledge in Eden?
Isn’t it interesting that the start of sin and deception appears to have been a result of the first humans being where they were not supposed to be on The Sabbath Day and then eating something they were not supposed to eat and today the most contested of all commandments in “Christianity” are keeping the true biblical Sabbath Day, celebrating the biblical Feast Days (also called Sabbaths), and adhering to the Leviticus 11 food laws? Who do you think it is that has all of the estimated 2.4 billion “Christians” convinced of these things? Satan, the same serpent who convinced Adam and Eve of these same things in Eden, or Yeshua who taught all of His followers to live by The Torah just as He did?
I make a good effort in my writing to not often go into “preachy rants”, but I am so sick of people telling me this, that, or some other thing is “not a salvation issue” or “God will not send people to hell” for whatever commandment they have deemed nonessential. It’s absurd, it’s unbiblical, and it’s completely anti-Messiah. Those who ask if something is a salvation issue or if something will cause anyone to go to hell are just trying to convince themselves and others that there is not a penalty for that sin. They are asking the wrong question to begin with.
We are called to holiness, so why not ask: Is it holy?
Is it holy to violate the food laws? Is it holy to break The Sabbath? Is it holy to not celebrate “those Jewish holidays” that are actually referred to in Scripture as Yah’s Feast Days?
The mark of holiness is defined in Revelation 14:12 as following both the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua. Let me help you out, just in case you have been brainwashed by “Christian” theology and its lies—the commandments of God are the instructions of The Torah. Shortly before this in Revelation 12:17 we are told that Satan wages war against those who both keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua. Satan is not at war with “Christianity” because as a whole “Christians” are followers of the Genesis 3 serpent. Satan does not need to wage war against his own followers, and the moment you embrace “not under the law” and “fallen from grace” and “nailed to the cross” and “voiding the work of the cross” and “Jesus only” and “not a salvation issue” theology you are a follower of Satan.
The phrase “Be holy, just as I [Yah] am holy”—which is quoted in 1 Peter 1:16—is directly linked to keeping the food laws more than anything else in The Bible (Leviticus 11:44, 20:25-26) and also directly linked with such things as keeping The Sabbath, not wearing wool and linen together, and not getting tattoos (Leviticus 19). Did Peter take this statement out of context when he quoted it, or did he understand what it was and is directly connected with?
The Tree Of Forbidden Knowledge
But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you must not eat. For when you eat from it, you most assuredly will die!
—Genesis 2:17 (TLV)
Having gone through the serpent’s plan of attack, I want to turn the attention now to the tree itself. The Bible calls it the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but as it was the one tree in The Garden that was prohibited to eat from I would say we could alternately call it the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge, as the knowledge held by the tree was prohibited by God.
There are things that we are not meant to know, and it seems that anytime people go on a quest for extrabiblical knowledge they get wrapped up in weird and goofy beliefs. In other words, bad things always result from chasing after that which is forbidden by Scripture. There is a song I like to include in my playlist when exercising. It’s from the Bible-based Swedish metal band 7days, and the song is titled Under The Sun. The chorus of the song says: “I accept that some things, Under the sun, Are not meant to be understood.” This, of course, is built on the opening statements in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Deuteronomy 29:28 (TLV) says: “The secret things belong to Adonai our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever—in order to do all the words of this Torah.” This is part of The Torah, being in the Book of Deuteronomy, and therefore it is to be treated as a commandment—not following this passage would be a sin (1 John 3:4). As with the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge, there are things that belong to The Father and we are not to be concerned with these things or seek to discover them. It would stand to reason that if something is secret and belongs to God, then the truth of that thing would never be able to be discovered by any human in this life.
So, if something is forbidden knowledge and cannot be discovered by people while living on this planet, what do you suppose is the source of anything that appears to be hidden and secret knowledge? God is not the author of confusion, as the Scripture says. So where there is chaos and confusion in theology, perhaps those things are driven by Satan. Think about topics of eschatology like whether or not there will be a rapture and when exactly it will take place or topics like the Unitarian vs. Trinitarian debates. All these things do is serve to create chaos, confusion, and ultimately division. Who do you suppose is behind this, as these things are not clearly revealed in Scripture?
In “Christianity” the concept of a pastor is not the same as anything that may have existed in biblical times. The “Christian” pastor was born out of the pagan Greek and Roman philosophers. There is a well-documented history of this tracing to at least the fourth century when the “New Roman Religion” was formed under the Emperor Constantine. It was a religion based in part on The Bible and existing “Christian” beliefs that were already established, but it also seems to have retained a lot of elements of the Old Roman Religion. Through this, as this form of “Christianity” was deemed the official religion of Rome, pagan temples were converted into “Christian churches” and the pagan philosophers who taught in these temples became “Christian pastors”.
The concept of the philosopher was to search out esoteric knowledge and present it to their audience. Their motivation was to impress those gathered in their hearing with their wisdom that they would return to their gatherings and bring others to hear what they had to say. Does this sound familiar? It should, as to this day it is at the core of “church services”. The “Christian pastor” is on a never-ending quest for that next big revelation or that next discovery of some hidden wisdom that they can present in order to fill their pews with listeners—who in turn will financially support the “church” and the “pastor”.
Prior to this, for at least the first three hundred years, the followers of Yeshua met primarily in homes for more intimate fellowship and open discussion of Scripture and nobody was lording over a crowd trying to impress those gathered with their knowledge. The primary role of the pastor in these settings appears to be maintaining order and ensuring nobody began to promote heresies. Other than that role, they were a part of the body of fellowship. Under this system of fellowship they “turned the world upside down” and some scholars have proposed that there were hundreds of thousands of people in this network of Believers scattered throughout the Roman empire meeting in homes and other discreet locations (catacombs were a popular meeting place, as they were not frequented by pagans whose religious views of being among the dead kept them away).
The “Christian” religion has at least in part, and some in whole, rejected The Torah. It’s not just things like the food laws, The Sabbath, and what holidays they celebrate. It rejects the commandment that secret things belong to God and revealed things are for us—all for the sole purpose of following The Torah. “Christianity” as a whole, with little exception, has chosen to eat from the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge and through this choice they deviate from the plain commandments of The Torah on their quest to find things not revealed in the plain text of The Bible.
Some would say that if “Christianity” is not the correct religion, then there is only one other valid biblical alternative: “Judaism”. After all, every single person who wrote The Bible, with the possible exceptions of Job and Luke, were Israelites—and there is a case to be made that both Luke and Job were Hebrews or Israelites as well. I often remind people that The Bible is a Hebrew book written by Hebrew people about the Hebrew God from the perspective of Torah-keeping Hebrew culture. But is “Judaism” really the only other alternative?
Deuteronomy 18:15-19 describes a “prophet like Moses” that will rise up, and to Him we are to shema (hear, listen to, follow, obey). Acts chapters 3 and 7 reveal that this “prophet like Moses” is Yeshua, The Messiah. “Judaism” spends a lot of time studying The Torah, but it rejects Yeshua as The Messiah. In addition to this, for the most part it treats The Talmud as equal with The Torah and most in “Judaism” are at least somewhat influenced by kabbalah (a Jewish form or mysticism and witchcraft). So “Judaism” also partakes of the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge.
Some would contend that “Messianic Judaism” is the alternative, as it both believes in keeping The Torah and following Yeshua as Messiah, in harmony with Revelation 14:12. But, does it? Much of this belief system teaches that anyone “not Jewish” is not bound to follow The Torah. This is in direct conflict with Exodus 12:49 and Numbers 15:16 that says the same Torah applies to both the native born and non-Israelites who enter into covenant and Ecclesiastes 12:13 that says keeping The Torah applies to all mankind (TLV) and is what being human is all about (CJB). In addition to this, 1 John 2:6 says that followers of Yeshua must walk as He walked—and He lived His life according to The Torah. Since Paul made it a point to say that in the new covenant there is neither Jew (the native born) or Gentile (non-Israelites) but all are one in Messiah, then 1 John 2:6 applies to all followers of Yeshua without distinction.
Exodus 12:49 and Numbers 15:16 are part of The Torah, so these statements are to be treated as commandments. This means that even at least a portion of “Messianic Judaism” is also choosing the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge and breaking The Torah by teaching that “Gentiles” or “Christians” who are not of a native-born Israelite bloodline do not have to follow The Torah. As such, they break The Torah by violating the commandment that the same Torah applies to all and they deceive non-Jews into a false belief that denies them the blessings of obedience. On top of this, like Orthodox “Judaism”, “Messianic Judaism” is also all too often influenced by Talmud and kabbalah.
Then we turn to obscure movements like Hebrew Roots, which is often seen as having evolved out of controversial and cultish groups like the Seventh Day Adventists and the followers of Armstrongism. Really, the term Hebrew Roots probably refers to at least three distinct movements, but due to numerous factors—like the belief in things like flat earth theory, sacred name debates, calendar controversies, Hebrew word pictures, treating pseudepigraphal and apocryphal writings as Scripture, and many other such things—some have moved toward Messianic Judaism or a Messianic form of “Christianity”. One such spinoff of this I have seen is calling itself “Pronomian Christianity”, which seems to be a somewhat Torah-based form of “Christianity” that promotes Torah-keeping to a degree, but like mainstream “Christianity” may say that it’s “not a salvation issue” or that the holidays popular in mainstream “Christianity” are not really pagan, despite their Roman Catholic origins. All of this is also a result of people choosing forbidden knowledge. Instead of following The Torah for what it literally says, people try to add in things that they have no business dabbling around in and it creates chaos and disorder—exactly the same way the initial choice to partake of the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge did. Let me add, there is a difference between what has been labeled the Hebrew Roots Movement and generally acknowledging that the roots of true biblical faith are Hebrew.
It seems that everywhere you turn religions that are based in part on The Bible but not on the whole counsel of Scripture are always the result of chasing after some aspect of forbidden knowledge.
The Tree Of Torah Life
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my mitzvot. … She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and blessed will be all who hold firmly to her.
—Proverbs 3:1, 18 (TLV)
This passage typically uses teaching, instruction, or law in its opening line, but the Hebrew word is torah. My thoughts are that translators lean toward words that would disassociate the word with The Torah due to a context issue—it would seem on the surface that this is an instruction from Solomon to at least one of his sons. However, this is Scripture and we must therefore consider that there is a broader context that this passage is really The Father speaking to all of us who enter into His covenant life.
Notice that further into the chapter it says that The Torah is a tree of life. This is also very important because Scripture also tells us that The Torah is the way (Psalm 119:1), the truth (Psalm 119:142), and the life (Psalm 119:153-154). Most are familiar with Yeshua using these same words of Himself in John 14:6.
The Tree of Life is the other tree highlighted in the early Genesis record. It was a tree from which Adam and Eve were free to eat, and had they continually chosen to eat from it they would have lived forever. But the moment they chose to reject The Torah they had been given, which included the commandment against eating from the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge, they lost their right to the Tree of Life. The Bible tells us that God closed off the way to the Tree of Life to prevent access to it because if they would eat from it in their fallen state they would live forever in their sin.
But a new Tree of Life emerged; it is The Torah of our God. Many today, those who have been deceived by the serpent through “Christian” religion, call it things like “Jewish laws” or “The Laws of Moses”. These terms are grossly misleading. First of all, The Torah is God’s instructions for how to live on this planet in the post-fall world—the state of the earth following the Genesis 3 incident. They were not given by Moses or “the Jews”. Again, there was no such thing as “Jews” when Moses received The Torah, the terms “Jew” and “Jewish” refer to those of the nation of Judah following the kingdom split after the reign of Solomon.
Second, it is very clear that The Torah was known prior to the time of Moses. According to Genesis 7, Noah knew the difference between clean and unclean animals, something that The Torah gives much attention to (see Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14) and Abraham is said to have followed The Torah (Genesis 26:5, again often a poor translation as the Hebrew text uses the word Torah here as well).
Proverbs 11:30 says: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life…” The Bible defines righteousness in Deuteronomy 6:25, saying, “It will be righteousness to us, if we take care to do all this commandment before Adonai our God, just as He has commanded us.” So, righteousness is doing what The Torah says to do (and not doing what it says not to do). Yeshua said we will know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 12:33), so the way to know if someone is counted among the righteous followers of Yeshua is that they live according to The Torah—just as He lived. After all, if The Torah is a tree of life, as Proverbs 3 tells us, and The Torah is put into the mind and written on the heart of the covenant Believer as Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8 tells us will be the sign and seal of the new covenant, then the Believer becomes a tree of life as well, producing the fruit of the tree of life by living according to The Torah.
Revelation 2:7 says that those who overcome will be given the right to eat of the Tree of Life and Revelation 22:14 says that those who obey the commandments of God will have the right to the Tree of Life. Isn’t it interesting that The Bible opens with people losing the right to the Tree of Life because they violated the commandment of God and closes by saying only those who embrace the commandments of God will be given access to that very same Tree of Life? The major theme throughout Scripture regarding the Tree of Life is that it is connected with Torah obedience, while the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge is connected with Torah rejection.
Hosea 4:6 records the words of God spoken through the prophet saying: “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” This tells us that there is a knowledge that is not forbidden; a knowledge that we need. But context is always necessary, otherwise many would take this passage, as they do with others, and use it to justify searching out matters that are forbidden knowledge. We see this a lot with things like Bible codes, Hebrew word pictures, Kabbalist gematria codes, and other such things. Proponents of these things would use a passage like this without considering the surrounding context to justify such esoteric forms of “knowledge”. Sadly, all of these types of things are easily proven completely false concepts.
Hosea 4:1 says, “…because there is no truth, no covenant loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land.” Then if we finish reading verse 6 it continues, “Since you rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being My kohen. Since you forgot the Torah of your God, just so I will forget your children.” It becomes clear that the knowledge being addressed here is knowledge of The Torah—knowledge obtained from the Tree of Life.
Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out.” This is another passage sometimes used to justify a quest for forbidden knowledge, but the context is not telling anyone to seek out forbidden knowledge. Rather it is an instruction that a ruler searches out matters through study of The Torah to make a right ruling. In like manner, we today are to study The Torah to make right rulings in our own walk of faith.
Again, Deuteronomy 29:28 (TLV) says: “The secret things belong to Adonai our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever—in order to do all the words of this Torah.” Revealed things is a direct reference first to what is plainly instructed in The Torah, and from there to that which is revealed in the rest of Scripture that teaches us about the importance of living by The Torah. We’re literally commanded by God not to seek after forbidden forms of knowledge, yet today many—especially in otherwise Torah-positive circles—are easily caught up in searching for things they believe are “hidden” within the text of The Bible more than what is plainly revealed in Scripture.
I bring this up because most Torah-positive Believers would not dare think it OK to eat what God said not to eat—things like pork and shellfish. But they do get caught up in things that violate the commandment from Deuteronomy 29:28. These commandments, like many others, are what are generally referred to by the Hebrew word choq (חֹק). This word is used as one of three types of commandments in Deuteronomy 4:45, where it is typically translated as statutes. The other two are testimonies (edah, עֵדָה) and ordinances or judgments (mishpat, מִשְׁפָט). The ordinances are things that we need no explanation for, like “do not murder” or “do not steal”. Most people can figure out why God would tell us not to do these things. The testimonies are commandments that tell us why we need to keep them. Take, for example, The Sabbath. We are told to keep it on the seventh day and no other day is acceptable, and then the explanation is given that this is because in Genesis 2 God set apart the seventh day, blessed it, and made it The Sabbath Day.
When it comes to statutes (choq), however, we are given no explanation and they are typically commandments that can easily be taken as non-essential—like the simple act of eating something that looks good or maybe you already know tastes good (a lot of people today know what pork and shellfish taste like, whether because they were raised in a worldly home or an antinomian “Christian” home). Though these are the easiest for the serpent to slither in and convince people they are not important or they don’t really mean what some “rigid legalistic fanatic” says they mean, convincing them that they are not all that important, they are actually the most essential of all to obey.
Commandments in the choq category have two characteristics that most others do not. The first is that these are the things that actually set us apart from the world and from false religion—including false “Christianity” that teaches against The Torah. There are some in the edah category that also set us apart, like keeping The Sabbath or celebrating the Feast Days, but all choq commandments set us apart. Nobody is set apart because they don’t commit murder or don’t rape women; these are standards of morality held worldwide regardless of one’s religious beliefs. The second thing regarding choq commandments is that these are the ones that prove your faith in God and your belief that He is God. The Israelite people have a saying regarding these commandments: Zot chukat haTorah. It means: “This is The Torah’s decree.” In modern American culture we would say it like this: God said it, that settles it. In other words, if it’s in The Torah we don’t need a reason beyond that. It’s nice when we can understand without explanation as with mishpat or get an explanation as with edah, but those commandments we must accept and obey with nothing other than faith are the ones that really prove whether you are committed to God and The Bible or simply committed to popular “Christian” religion and its antinomian lies.
While many in the Torah-positive circles wouldn’t think of eating unclean things or working on The Sabbath, many are caught up in various beliefs that fail when properly researched. Their Tree of Forbidden Knowledge includes things like flat earth theory, regarding apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings as Scripture, things like Bible Codes and Hebrew word pictures, and numerous other things. The serpent knows he cannot get them to question the choq commandments regarding the food laws or the one about not wearing wool and linen together, but he gets entirely too many of them to violate Deuteronomy 29:28 by enticing them with things that “look Hebrew”. The flat earth people think they are following a “more biblical cosmology”. The apocryphal and pseudepigraphal people think these writings were “rejected from being part of Scripture through some conspiracy”. The Bible codes and Hebrew word pictures people think they have found some secret messages encoded in the Hebrew language. But things like this are always rooted in the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge and all too often easily refuted and shown to be false.
Serpent Christianity
It’s really quite ironic, “Christians” will look at the Genesis 3 narrative and say: “I can’t believe they did that. All that good fruit in the garden and they couldn’t follow a simple commandment regarding the fruit of just one tree?” But then they do the exact same thing the serpent did, and more than anything else they do it with the food laws from Leviticus 11. This deception even finds its way into some of the highest levels of “Christian” academia. Allow me to give some examples of this.
Christopher J.H. Wright, Ph.D., put out a phenomenal book titled The Mission Of God: Unlocking The Bible’s Grand Narrative. There is so much great content in the book, so much so that I highly recommend reading it. One profound statement Wright makes is: “The whole Bible renders to us the story of God’s mission through God’s people in their engagement with God’s world for the sake of the whole of God’s creation.” But this great work is overshadowed by a dark cloud where the author, for seemingly no good reason at all, says this:
Now there are some things commanded in the Old Testament that we no longer obey, of course, such as the sacrificial system and the clean and unclean regulations. … The distinction between clean and unclean animals and food was symbolic of the national distinction between Old Testament Israel and the nations, a badge of their holiness. The New Testament tells us that this old distinction is abolished in Christ, in whom there is “neither Jew nor Greek” (Gal. 3:28). So we no longer need to observe the Old Testament food laws…”
“Of course,” says Wright. It amazes me when people are so confident about this matter when they are, in reality, so wrong about it. If the purpose of the food laws was to distinguish “Old Testament Israel” from the pagan nations, as is so often stated by those trying to say they no longer need to be followed, then why was it important for Noah to distinguish between them before the flood and long before there was a nation of Israel and why in Revelation 18:2 are unclean beasts and unclean birds still unclean? Why would Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:25, quoting the “Old Testament Israel” prophet Isaiah, tell us we still have to “touch no unclean thing” in order to be received by God? Why would Peter in 1 Peter 1:16, quoting The Torah from Leviticus 11:44 and 20:26 where the statement is directly applied to following the food laws, tell us we still need to “be holy, as God is holy”?
Another example comes from the book The Epic Of Eden: A Christian Entry Into The Old Testament by Sandra L. Richter, Ph.D., which is also fine work in many ways. This book provides a wealth of information about the culture that surrounds the biblical narrative and such important aspects of understanding Scripture as the suzerainty treaty. Yet, this is another work overshadowed by the same dark cloud. Says Richter:
Most everyone recognizes that simply abolishing the entire Mosaic law contradicts the New Testament (what do you do with the Ten Commandments?). Most equally recognize that imposing the law in its entirety on the Christian also contradicts the New Testament (what of God’s instruction to Peter in Acts 10 to embrace unclean foods as clean?).
Why do people always say that Acts 10 is the ultimate “proof text” about this topic when even Peter tells us in the text the correct interpretation of the vision? I did a lengthy study on this passage specifically in an article titled Get Up Peter! Kill And Eat! If you are looking to dive into this passage, there is a lot packed into that study, but for now I will quickly highlight three of the major points I brought up in the article.
—Acts 10, in the vision, there are two types of animals: common and unclean. Common is from the Greek word “koinos” and refers to a Jewish takkanah that stated a clean animal becomes “common” if it comes into contact with an unclean (akathartos) animal. When you study this out, in the vision God wasn’t telling Peter to eat something prohibited by Torah, He was telling Peter to kill and eat only that which was prohibited by a man-made religious tradition.
—Peter gives the interpretation of the vision, saying that it was a message to not call people unclean simply because they were not Jews. This passage is essentially the opening of the door of salvation to all people, not a blanket (no pun intended) overturning of the Leviticus 11 food laws.
—No other dream or vision in the whole of Scripture is approached by ignoring the stated interpretation in order to read into it a different interpretation in order to claim a Torah prohibition is abrogated. Nor is any other dream or vision in The Bible interpreted to mean literally what was seen. Joseph was not being told in his vision to literally go into the fields to look for actual wheat bowing to him. Pharaoh was not literally being told to go into the pastures to search for actual skinny cows eating actual fat cows. Peter was not literally being told to eat things that were unclean.
Whenever a so-called pastor, preacher, evangelist, prophet, Bible teacher, Bible scholar, or anyone else puts out great content filled with essential truths about the topic they are discussing and somewhere within their message they tell you that “Christians” no longer have to keep the food laws, The Sabbath, the Feast Days, or any other commandment of God it should be of particular concern. I have known people to say: “Truth is truth, regardless of the source.” In one sense, I can accept that. I can read books by biblical scholars like Wright and Richter and because I know enough to know when they are promoting a lie I can just ignore those things while studying the main topic they are teaching on.
There is, however, a larger concern when it comes to books, sermons, and other teachings that are filled with great content but tell you that you don’t have to obey the food laws or some other thing. When this happens it is a repeat of Genesis 3. The hissing voice of the serpent is manifested through such works, surrounding the claim that the food laws, The Sabbath Day, the Feast Days, or any other commandment is now void with otherwise completely true statements. What this does is causes people to think: “Wow, this person is very smart, they have a university earned Ph.D., and they wrote this phenomenal book filled with all kinds of great truth. And now they are saying the food laws and The Sabbath and other ‘Jewish laws and traditions’ no longer have to be followed. Certainly a person this learned in Scripture and ancient Israelite culture couldn’t possibly be wrong about this.”
Once that happens, once you begin to think those kinds of thoughts, the serpent has you. This is particularly concerning when it comes to “Christianity” because as a religion it is leading people to embrace faith in its version of “Jesus” only to turn around and say it’s OK to eat things that are prohibited by The Torah. The “Christian’ religion is filled with teachings and quotes from seemingly great preachers that sound true on the surface. Take these statements from some of the most highly regarded pastors of the twentieth century.
“Jesus did not come to change the law, but he came to explain it, and that very fact shows that it remains, for there is no need to explain that which is abrogated.”
—Charles Spurgeon
“Our Lord told His disciples that love and obedience were organically united. The final test of love is obedience.”
—Aiden W. Tozer
“Christian teachers have vied with each other in denouncing the Law as a ‘yoke of bondage’, ‘a grievous burden’, ‘a remorseless enemy’. They have declared in trumpet tones that Christians should regard the Law as ‘a strange thing’: that it was never designed for them: that it was given to Israel and then made an end of at the Cross of Christ. They have denounced as ‘Legalists’ Christians of the past, who, like Paul, ‘served the Law’ (Rom. 7:25). They have affirmed that Grace rules the Law out of the Christian’s life as absolutely as it did out of his salvation”
—Arthur W. Pink
I see statements like this all the time from theological works past and present. But what happens when you bring up the food laws or keeping the biblical Sabbath Day or celebrating the biblical Feast Days or renouncing Christmas and Easter as totally pagan festivals? Suddenly you are met with resistance, stating: “Well, that’s not what we mean. We are not talking about those old Jewish Laws of Moses.” Well, what in the world “laws” are you talking about then if not God’s Torah? If we follow statements like these to their logical conclusion based solely on Scripture—you know a lot of “Christians” still like to say Sola Scriptura—then they should be a reference to The Torah. So why aren’t they?
Typically what they are talking about is their fantasyland “Christian” fiction pseudo-theology “laws of Christ” that nobody can actually define. And when you call them out on it they begin to waffle about and make stuff up. Let’s look again at Richter’s statements in her aforementioned book. Just after making the above remarks, she says: “Although I cannot offer a complete solution to the conundrum, let me at least contribute to an answer.” To clarify, what she is really saying here is: I have no clue what I am talking about because antinomianism causes all kinds of conflicts with the biblical text so I’ll just make up a bunch of theological nonsense that sounds good to people who want so desperately to believe ‘not under the law’ doctrines.
From here she begins with the typical excuse making common among both whole and partial antinomians. The first thing she does is make a claim that rules and commandments can change. This despite the fact that Scripture says God does not change and Yeshua our Messiah is the same yesterday, today, and forever. One of her examples is to ask: “Is adultery the problem, or unbridled lust (Mt. 7:27)?” Think about what this is asking—of which we can also look at the next point and ask: Is murder the problem, or hate speech?
If we were to follow this line of thinking to its logical conclusion, as it’s an attempt to support the idea that laws given through The Torah like the food commandments or the seventh day Sabbath are no longer applicable, then we are to say that it’s acceptable to commit actual adultery so long as you aren’t lusting after the person or commit actual murder so long as you aren’t speaking evil of people. In modern society there is, after all, the concepts of casual sex and friends with benefits where people have sex with whoever they want claiming there is no emotion attached to it. What Richter is saying here, in her attempt to justify the claim that the food laws are abrogated, can easily be spun to justify such casual sex or even casual murder. After all, many serial killers have been shown to see their acts as a mere hobby. There is no emotion involved and no hate for their victims or anyone else. But this is exactly what this type of theology leads to. I wrote a great article several years ago that is fitting to mention here, it is simply titled: Desensitized.
A second major error that Richter makes in her Standard Americanized Doctrine (SAD) is through her reference to Colossians 2:16-17. She says: “…in the new covenant the specific Mosaic regulations regarding these issues are annulled: our buildings of worship are no longer dictated by a certain architectural model, the believer is no longer required to bring a sacrifice, the laws of ‘clean and unclean’ are abrogated, the mediation of priests is unnecessary, and the holidays of Israel’s cult have become ‘a mere shadow of things to come’.” I really wish people would do two things before misquoting this passage: 1. Learn the context of Colossians based on who it was primarily addressed to, and 2. Realize that this particular statement in question is not past tense, but present and future tense.
Paul did not say that matters of food and drink, festivals, or The Sabbath were a shadow of things that had already come, he said these things ARE a shadow of things TO COME. He said this decades after the life and ministry of Yeshua, so he was saying that within the time of the new covenant these things are still to be done as they point us to the real Messiah Yeshua. That which is real casts a shadow. Something that is not real, such as an apparition or hologram, does not cast a shadow. 2 Corinthians 11:4 tells us there are going to be false versions of Yeshua, apparitions and holograms of him—and these counterfeits do not have a shadow. If you want to know if you are following the real Yeshua, part of that is found in keeping things like the food laws, Feast Days, and Sabbath—three of the most rejected commandments of God in the entire Bible by the so-called “Christian church”. Paul advocated for celebrating the Feasts (Acts 18:21, 1 Corinthians 5:8), touching no unclean thing (2 Corinthians 6:25), and Hebrews 4:9—which many scholars believe to either be written by Paul or one of his direct disciples—says The Sabbath remains for God’s people.
Colossians was written to a community with a majority of converts from the Gentile nations. We gain further context when we look at Colossians 2:8 where Paul begins his warnings to these Believers by telling them not to be captivated by philosophy, deceptions, traditions of men, and worldliness. Of particular interest here is philosophy, which was the way of the pagan Greek and Roman philosophers. In verse 22 Paul further refers to man-made commands and teachings. Understanding the context, Paul was telling this community to not let people judge (or mock) them for keeping the commandments about food, festivals, and The Sabbath. His warning was a result of this community made up predominantly of converts from the Gentile nations coming under ridicule from those who continued in the paganism they left behind. They would have kept the commandments about these matters because, as noted, Paul taught that these are all to be kept. So they were not being judged (or mocked) by so-called “legalists” for not doing these things, they were being judged by unconverted pagans because they no longer followed the ways of the pagans. Those who were doing the judging and mocking of Messiah’s community in Colosse were the same as modern-day “Christians” who are so deceived and deluded that they mock Torah-keepers, calling them legalists, Pharisees, Judaizers, and other such derogatory names.
The third error made by Richter is a claim that: “…apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, deacons and teachers have replaced the prophet, priest and king of the Mosaic covenant.” She goes on to say, “The only title that survives into the new covenant is that of ‘prophet,’ but even this office is substantially transformed.” Of this claim she gives no Scriptural support, only a footnote where she gives details about “Old Testament prophets” based on Scripture followed by another baseless statement: “In contrast, the New Testament office of prophet is only a religious appointment, and the New Testament prophet is never compared to Moses in terms of authority and rank.”
This, of course, is quite convenient for “Christianity” as there is no shortage of so-called “prophets” today who if put to the test of Deuteronomy 13 would be deemed false prophets that are to be rejected and we are emphatically told not to listen to. If we, as Richter does, make stuff up and claim that there is some “New Testament prophet” that is not the same as a true biblical prophet then the “Christian prophet” can teach “not under the law” and “nailed to the cross” theology and still be a “prophet”, and they can give false prophecies and predictions that do not come to pass as so many of them do and still be a “prophet”, and there is simply no biblical standard by which the “Christian prophet” is held accountable. But if we continue to apply The Torah, the very commandments of our God, then we have a standard and all of these “Christian prophets” who say you don’t have to follow certain commandments are not prophets at all—they are soothsayers and fortunetellers.
I spent a lot of time in this segment because there are a lot of books, sermons, articles, and other teachings from mainstream lawless “Christianity” that are filled with a lot of truth, but that truth only serves to get you to believe a single lie. That lie may be that you do not have to follow the Leviticus 11 food laws. It may be that “Jesus is your Sabbath” or “Sunday is the ‘Christian’ Sabbath” so you don’t have to keep the actual Sabbath. It may be that those Bible Holy Days are “Jewish traditions” and we have “Christian” holidays that despite being pagan in origin are what we celebrate now. It may be that some goofy nonsense like Hebrew Word Pictures or Bible Codes doesn’t really violate Deuteronomy 29:28 because these are “secrets” hidden within the Hebrew text. It’s all Genesis 3 replaying over and over and over again. Consider this interesting thought by Oskar Skarsaune from his book In The Shadow Of The Temple: Jewish Influences On Early Christianity:
The Gentiles need not become circumcised Jews in order to be fully accepted into the people of God, but they are requested to keep those commandments of the Torah which are obligatory for Gentiles living among the Jews. Among these commands, special emphasis is laid on those related to table fellowship—in other words, the decree is specifically aimed at the unity of mixed congregations. The Jewish believers are asked to recognize their uncircumcised brethren as belonging fully to the new people of the Messiah, while Gentiles are asked to respect the sensitivities of their Jewish brethren and not to violate the Torah commandments valid for Gentiles living among Israelites.
While I find Skarsaune’s wording to be a little passive, with the potential to be taken as saying a “Christian” is free to disregard Torah if not in the presence of Jewish people, there are some things that should be noted. First, Skarsaune does go on to emphasize that biblical matters of food are a part of what he refers to as “table fellowship”. More importantly, however, passages like Exodus 12:49, Numbers 15:16, and Ecclesiastes 12:13 make it clear that the same Torah applies to both the native born (those of Israelite lineage) and the stranger or sojourner (those of Gentile lineage). Further, in the Apostolic Writings we find that converts of a non-Israelite lineage are grafted into the cultivated olive tree of Israel (Romans 11:17-24) and that the mark of holiness is found in both keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua (Revelation 14:12). And let’s be clear, the only thing in the entire Bible that can be legitimately called the commandments of God is The Torah and anyone who says otherwise is making stuff up that cannot be supported by anything in The Bible.
So then, regardless of where Skarsaune may ultimately stand on matters of Torah like the food laws, The Sabbath, the Feast Days, and other commonly rejected commandments—I saw nothing in his book negative toward keeping the food laws, certainly nothing as outrageous and clearly out of context as the statements made by Wright and Richter, however in some areas he does appear to advocate for “Sunday worship” in place of The Sabbath and “Easter” in place of Passover—if we again follow his statement cited above to its logical conclusion it would absolutely have to include these most commonly rejected commandments by “Christians” because Scripture is very clear from cover to cover that these are imposed on all people.
As do most committed students of The Bible, I have an extensive library of books written by “Christian” ministers. Many of them contain a lot of true statements and great insight to the way they approach Scripture. Some are more obviously full of heresy. But almost all of them have this in common: they are written by people who believe at least some of the commandments are abolished, especially the three I have been highlighting. These “Christian” authors are preaching the serpent’s message and their “Christianity” is the serpent’s religion.
The Need For Repentance
I mentioned earlier about those who say things like “not a salvation issue”. What these people fail to realize is that repentance is the first step in the salvation process. And what is it we are supposed to repent of? Sin. And what is sin? The breaking, violating, transgressing of The Torah (1 John 3:4).
It is popular today to talk a lot about grace, but in most cases the promoters of the modern “Christian” concept of grace have a wrong concept of it. Titus 2:11-12 tells us that grace is what teaches us to reject worldliness and ungodliness—in other words, to repent of sin—and embrace righteousness. The Bible defines righteousness as obeying or keeping The Torah (Deuteronomy 6:25). So, then, grace is given to guide us into repentance—rejecting sin and embracing The Torah. All of this harmonizes with Revelation 14:12 that tells us holiness is in both keeping the commands of God, The Torah, and the faith of Yeshua, The Messiah.
“Christianity” teaches what I often call “Jesus only theology”—the idea that “believing in Jesus” is the absolute only thing you need to do to be saved. But how can this be when in order to “believe in Jesus” you have to repent, meaning you have to make the conscious decision to stop breaking The Father’s Torah so that you can properly follow Yeshua and His Torah lifestyle? If the choice to stop breaking The Torah and start living by The Torah is not a salvation issue then there is no point to repentance, it’s no longer necessary to repent in order to be saved and enter into covenant with God through faith in Yeshua.
The “Jesus only theology” of “Christianity” is nothing but the three-pronged attack of the Genesis 3 serpent. It tells you that you don’t really have to keep the commandments, causing you to question the need to keep them. They are not a salvation issue, so they become unnecessary. Then it’s all about how if you dare to say anything about keeping commandments you are a legalist and a Judaizer who is “voiding the work of the cross” and “fallen from grace”, so it becomes essential to oppose Torah-keeping in order to embrace the “Christian” concept of salvation. “Christianity” is a whole religion that today claims a whopping one-third of the world’s total population and is built upon the three-pronged attack of the adversary of Scripture.
It wasn’t always this way. The one time in the Book of Acts where the followers of Yeshua were called Cristianos they were Torah-keepers. The very word in the Greek held a stronger meaning—it denoted one being a slave, and those who were called such viewed themselves as slaves of Yeshua and His Torah lifestyle. Today the word “Christian” simply means you identify with the religion and “believe in Jesus”. The “Christianity” of today simply is not the same as the faith of those who wrote The Bible—it’s a totally different religion.
“Christianity” does not follow The Bible; it uses and manipulates The Bible. It teaches you that you don’t have to follow commandments. When you bring up commandments they say: “That’s Old Testament, we are the New Testament church and we’re not under the law.” But whenever they want to seek out some Scripture about blessing or see inspiration where do they go? To what they call “The Old Testament”. It’s a religion that teaches an approach to Scripture that is wholly unbiblical.
Recently a popular televangelist, Creflo Dollar, openly renounced his past teachings about tithing saying that it’s “Old Testament” and “we’re not under the law”. Now, what “Christianity” presents as tithing really isn’t biblical to begin with. But when he made these statements in his sermon out came all the people who promote the false “Christian” view of tithing to speak against him. I asked some of them about keeping the food laws or The Sabbath, to which some said that’s “Old Testament” and “we’re not under the law”. One even told me I have a legalism problem, to which I replied that it’s not me having a legalism problem but he that has a lawlessness problem. But it’s funny, you know, they are all mad about Creflo Dollar renouncing tithing as “Old Testament” and saying “we’re not under the law”, yet when you mention other commandments they use that exact same argument. It just shows how mixed up, confused, and hypocritical “Christian” beliefs really are.
You can find the way of truth by going through “Christianity”, most people who found their way to biblical truth did go through “Christian” religion. But the majority of people wrapped up in “Christian” religion will never find actual biblical truth. And if they did, The Bible would not be true.
You see, in Matthew 7:21-23 Yeshua describes a religion that historically has only ever matched “Christianity”. He says this will be the way of many—remember, “Christianity” is one-third of the world’s population. Then He says that those who follow this belief system will be rejected for their lawlessness—they rejected His Father’s Torah. They say that keeping the commandments is “not a salvation issue”, and Yeshua said the exact opposite. Not only did He say that lawlessness will be the standard by which people are rejected from His Kingdom, He also said that if you want to enter into life you have to keep the commandments (Matthew 19:17). The followers of modern-day “Christian” religion are the followers of the Genesis 3 serpent. They simply do not live by the whole counsel of Scripture. Let’s recap the three-pronged attack of the serpent.
Genesis 3:1, Satan creates doubt: “Did God really say…?” He leads you to question the commandment of God.
Genesis 3:4, Satan makes the commandment non-essential: “You won’t surely die if…” “You won’t go to hell if…” He leads you to reject the commandment of God.
Genesis 3:5, Satan makes breaking the commandment essential: “God knows you will be like Him.” “You have fallen from grace, voided the work of the cross.” He leads you to violate The Torah, which is the very definition of sin (1 John 3:4).
This pattern is even seen in the temptation of Yeshua during His time in the wilderness. Scripture records that Satan first said, “If you are the Son of God…,” creating a sense of doubt, and asking Him to prove Himself by turning stones into bread. The second temptation sought to make the commandment of God nonessential, as Yeshua shows in His reply that, “It is written, you shall not put God to the test.” Finally Satan tries to make breaking the commandment of God and submitting to the ways of the serpent essential by saying that if Yeshua would simply bow to him then all the kingdoms of the world would be His. It’s the same tactic repeated over and over again and today this pattern is the basis for practically all of “Christian” theology, and the followers of “Christianity” don’t even see it. They honestly believe they are following The Bible through beliefs that tell them they don’t have to follow some parts of The Bible.
Satan, that ancient serpent, will search until he finds a commandment you are willing to question, reject, and break. I know a preacher who used to teach how The Bible says not to tattoo your body and in the past spoke rather disparagingly about at least some aspects of Christmas and Easter—specifically Santa Claus and the egg-laying rabbit. He was a premiere preacher of holiness, at least from a Pentecostal Christian perspective, for a very long time. Then he began to open his eyes to the food laws, The Sabbath Day, and the biblical Feast Days. This all seems to be quite positive.
But then his daughter decided she wanted to get tattoos upon turning eighteen, so they “began to study”. You better be careful when you decide to study with the end goal being to find a way around the commandment of God, because Satan is right there slithering around waiting. Somewhere along the way they concluded that maybe Leviticus 19:28 really doesn’t prohibit tattoos, and so they started to get them. Then they started having the most worldly Christmas and Easter celebrations, complete with Santa Claus, dropping Easter eggs out of a helicopter, and creating a carnival atmosphere. Then they stopped talking about the Feast Days and reduced them to nothing but a fundraising gimmick. Then I saw pictures of them sitting at a table of unclean things—specifically boiled crab legs and shrimp. And today this place that once declared that there is much to be gained by a return to the discarded values of the past has discarded all of its past values of Bible obedience and that once talked about raising the standard of holiness has lowered its standards to the point where it is now a cesspool of worldliness doing evil in the eyes of God.
Some people think I put too much emphasis on things like the food laws, the Feast Days, The Sabbath Day, or the history of Christmas and Easter. But these are currently the top Torah violations by “Christians”. As such, they at least could be the top things that will result in people hearing those dreaded words from Matthew 7:23, “Depart from Me, I never knew you, worker of lawlessness.” In a biblical context that word lawlessness is a direct reference to antinomian rejection of The Torah, whether the whole Torah the way full antinomians such as “pastor” Andy Stanley who famously taught that we have to unhitch from the “Old Testament” or partial antinomians like Richter and really just about every “Christian” minister as practically all of them take exception with at least one of the “big four” that I often highlight.
Most “Christians” would not even read this entire message; they would get offended and feel like I am insulting their false concept of grace. Of those who would push through and read the whole thing most would conclude that this is “legalism, heresy, Judaizing” or some other such thing. But maybe there is someone out there, maybe it’s you—after all, you have made it this far—and it’s all starting to “click” and make sense. There are people who are fed up with the lies of “Christianity” and want to embrace the truth of The Bible.
And please understand, despite how all of this may come across because the hard truth is always a difficult pill to swallow, I am not against “Christians” or their faith. In almost every case, including with the leaders, they are victims of hundreds of years of the serpent’s three-pronged attack to the point where it is today the unquestioned and accepted beliefs of “the church”. Something to keep in mind is that God’s commandments always end with a period. When a question mark is added you can be sure the serpent is slithering in. Nowhere in The Bible does God ever ask, “Did I say not to eat unclean things? Did I say to keep The Sabbath? Did I say to celebrate My Feasts? Did I say not to mark up your body with tattoos? Did I say not to appropriate the religious traditions of pagans?” These are the questions of the serpent, and they are always followed up with, “You won’t really die. People don’t go to hell for that. It’s not a salvation issue.” And then further followed by, “God knows this will make you like Him. If you try to obey that Mosaic law you will fall from grace and void the cross. You have to reject and violate The Torah in order to validate your salvation.” And people actually believe it, but they are victims. They need the truth so they can be set free.
I do hope if you have read through this message and see the source of anti-Torah theology is the same serpent revealed in Genesis 3 that you are ready to turn from the lies of popular religion and embrace truth. I know it’s hard to go against the grain and do what nobody else wants to do. But The Bible is still the truth and the commandments of God still reign supreme. Don’t let the Genesis 3 serpent and his religion of “Christianity” win. There is a true Christianity, and it is summed up in Revelation 14:12—true Christians are those who both keep the commandments of God (The Torah) and the faith of Yeshua our Messiah.
—Blessings and Shalom—
©2022 Truth Ignited Ministry
