The Christians of the world are going seriously astray, but worst of all,  either do not see that they are falling off the path of righteousness, or are being told there is no path to walk!  The wolves are in the fold everywhere, with their sheepsuits on, pretending to have the word of G-d.  And those of us who are attempting to stick to the basic straight and narrow way have trouble even getting a hearing with these deluded people.

They do not want to hear a message of repentance and obedience, they want to sing and dance and enjoy themselves without any real recognition of G-d.  They worship their worship, and not G-d, and turn away at the first mention of a serious subject in the sermon that currently lightly discusses how to be happy in a worldly way with no attempt at or acknowledgement of the obedience they owe to G-d.

“I’m not a Jew!”

They say they are not Jews, and want their Easter and Christmas celebrations of the most pagan things of the old Roman church under Constantine.  They don’t seem to be aware except in the most superficial manner that YHVH is the one that gave the New Covenant that we are partakers in through Yeshua, and that he also is the G-d that the Jews worship.  They turn away from the Saturday Sabbath because Sunday is what everyone else does, and are thus obeying the changing of times and seasons of the Roman Catholic Church under Constantine!

Romans 2:26-29 (CJB)
²⁶  Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Torah, won’t his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
²⁷  Indeed, the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys the Torah will stand as a judgment on you who have had a b’rit-milah and have Torah written out but violate it!
²⁸  For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical.
²⁹  On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.

Granted, they are not Jews, but they are Israelites, grafted into Yeshua, the vine of Judaic faith, and need to stop acting like Greco-Romans!  Christmas is Pagan, and Easter is Pagan, and they need to stop celebrating the wrong things, even if they do not want to leave their Pagan ways behind, because commandments are just that…commandments. They might not want to prevent themselves from killing people, particularly evil people, but they obey the commandment because it is a commandment!

Sooner or later, they need to begin celebrating the true Shabbat and the true Festivals of G-d in their own un-Jewish way, and begin to obey G-d in the ways that are taught by the Apostles, and by Yeshua, and not by their so-called Pastor.  There is no need to act Jewishly, but the Festivals are Prophetic, and they are shadows of the Messiah, and if you ignore the Shabbats of G-d and the Appointed Times of G-d YHVH might accept it, but he might also feel as he isn’t being loved very much, and indeed, is being hurt by their lack of interest in what he wants.

Matthew 7:21-27 (KJV)
²¹  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
²²  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
²³  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
²⁴  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
²⁵  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
²⁶  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
²⁷  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Acting out our obedience to G-d is our worship, however quietly and discreetly we may act it out so as to not disturb others, yet that does disturb the Paganized Christians I know, although they say they accept this odd behavior in me while thinking me a bit insane to be so Biblical.  However, I think one day it will not be acceptable to the interfaith Churchianity that is looming out there on the horizon and I think that keeping a Saturday Shabbat and the Moedim is going to become a real problem to the AntiChrist one day, just like anyone who doesn’t take the Mark will be.

Even though we Messianic Believers dont follow Torah in any uniform or traditional way, most of us follow the original Acts 15 decree, and the New Covenant as Yeshua taught with no particular set of traditions or rules.  But just the fact that we are not doing what is important to the world will soon cause offense to Churchianity because what we are doing doesn’t fit in their world.

To them, we are looking suspiciously like Jews in some ways (Shabbat, Moedim, avoiding Lashon haRa, Kosher Lite), and that is not easy or popular, and might one day be dangerous.  And that keeps people in Pagan Churches, because it is uncomfortable to be obedient to G-d sometimes.  Yeshua warned that he had come to bring the sword of division between family members, and friends, and it will happen.  The point is always, who do you love more, Abba, or your comfortable relationships with family and friends?

That doesn’t apply to me!

My friends and everyone I interact with regularly are all Believers in Yeshua, but are resting in Grace PLUS their general awareness of Yeshua’s desires as stated in the Brit Chadashah, and their following of that awareness.  And yet, they do not keep the Moedim…Shabbat, and the Festivals of G-d.  They do not follow the Acts 15 commandments.  They say the Moedim that G-d enacted as part of the Mosaic Covenant does not exist in the New Covenant, and does not apply to them, even though the New Covenant is that part of the Mosaic Covenant that was once written on stone that is to be carved into their hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit.  They also say that they avoid all the things in the Acts 15 decree, so what is the problem?

There is no blatant, obvious sin in their lives, and most of them have withdrawn to one degree or another from Churchianity simply out of disgust, but they are not in the least bit interested in what the Bible says outside of their original teaching in the Christian churches either.  They look upon those attempting the following of the commandments as odd because they are uninterested being different from the world they are happy in, and they think there is no penalty for disobedience to G-d because Yeshua took the sin of the world on his shoulders.  Yeshua did exactly that for those who repent of their sins, and turn away from them…repent from not doing what he commands, and turn away from lawlessness.

But these many Believers in Yeshua cannot seem to connect the idea of lawlessness with themselves and their behavior.  Even if I mention that Yeshua is soon to come, as in their lifetime and mine, they nod, and agree, but do not seem to take anything about that fact as a reason to try and improve their walk.  Their walk, to them at least, is just fine, and I need to stop bothering them about my silly ideas of what the Bible really says!

At most I get a vague interest in the End Times and in prophecy from a few people, and how it is playing out on the ground from those who have never been previously interested in prophecy, which is, other than our personal example, about all there is to talk about with people who are not attempting Torah obedience to the minimal extent the Acts 15 Decree mandates.  And oddly, they do not seem much interested in helping anyone else to a saving knowledge of Yeshua either, except in a general, positively affirming kind of way.  Still, those interested in prophecy are not seeing what I do in the Bible, and a lot of others like me.

They are not uninterested exactly, but they are not overly concerned either, so my mentioning what I see in the Acts 15 Decree, and in Yeshua’s many descriptions of how to follow the commandments that discuss loving G-d and loving one another, cannot be used to interest them in the future consequences of their lack of action.  And the weird church behavior that is showing everywhere they are aware of, and pretty much agree with me that it is terrible, but do not see what there is to be done about it.  They also think that those horribly fake Churchians are very wrong and different from themselves, yet they do little that is different from the people they disapprove of openly, except avoid the wacky churches.

Pagan is as Pagan does!

The Christians that I know well and love dearly are also somewhat aware of the pagan behavior of the Western World and the various Christian denominations, but more or less gently accept it, and partake of it to the social degree necessary in the society around them to keep others from being uncomfortable.  They just do not wish to do anything about it.

So what can we do, who are worried about their friends and families future status in the Kingdom of G-d run into the fact that those around us can tolerate that we think a different way, and see different things in the Scriptures, and thus act differently, but do not want to join us?  It often seems that we can do nothing because they are simply not interested in what we have to say, and see no reason to be interested in doing anything about it.

Some amongst the more Non-Pagan Believers out there in the world are beginning to say that those who do not do as they do are not saved.  We are almost all the way back to having Believers in Yeshua who are not able to accept those that do not do as they do in regard to the commandments Gentiles are supposed to follow, even though they are only Torah Observant in a very limited, un-Orthodox, un-Rabbinical way.  Some Torah Obedient Beleivers in Yeshua are flat-out saying that everyone is wrong except them…which is not a matter of simple disagreement over non-salvation matters as is usually the case between denominations, but ex-communication or dis-fellowship.

Some of those Believers that value Easter and Xmas over the Acts 15 Decree instead of thinking them idolatrous also eat blood, pork and shellfish even though they know Abba doesn’t like it, continue to not marry their lovers, and also fellowship closely with other Paganized Christians and even Unbelievers.  They do this, because they say they are not Jewish.  They say that was what they were brought up with, and it was never wrong to anyone they know.  They want to keep their pagan stuff because of their understanding of the Acts 15 decree as saying they need do nothing but avoid Idolatry, avoid Temple Prostitution, avoid eating blood, and avoid foods sacrificed to Idols.  They are so uninterested in anything Biblical that one might call them Christianizers, if in a non-Orthodox, non-Catholic way.  But being a Disciple of Yeshua is not about mere avoidance!

Avoidance is not Obedience

Avoiding Idolatry means worshiping G-d the Father in the ways he wants to be worshipped, which we can know because it is written down in the Scriptures, and it is plain that Abba likes the Saturday Sabbath and his Festivals celebrated.   They are celebrations and are meant to be enjoyed even as we learn from them about Yeshua.

Avoiding fornication is the avoidance of close, intimate friendship with those people in Pagan faiths as much as it is about being chaste, and avoiding what were orgies at the local Temple of Diana.  It means withdrawing a way from those you love that are not willing to be obedient to G-d.

Avoiding the eating of blood and of eating foods not sacrificed to Idols means eating Biblically clean foods, and at the least washing/brining/salting your meat before you cook it unless you can afford Kosher meat which is kashered already, because from Noah onward, clean animals were separated out for food, and killing them kindly, and draining the blood from them fully was important from the beginning.

They were lied to and they BELIEVE the lie.

Still, I am gravely afraid that there is no reasonable way to broach the matter as being of importance to those Pagan Christians that are tolerant of the idea that I honor Shabbat and the Feast Days when they are also firm in their trust in Yeshua for their salvation, and are actively walking out their understanding of the New Testament.

They do not see that they are doing anything wrong when they are not doing what Yeshua did and spoke about in the simplest, scripturally stated, non-pagan, non-Jewish manner that they can. They don’t see that Yeshua spoke constantly about Shabbat and explained about how not to tie people up in rules.  They don’t see that Yeshua celebrated every Festival, and also spoke about how to walk in the path of righteousness created by following the Ten Commandments in great detail!  They don’t see that Sha’ul kept all the commandments, and that his freedom from the ‘law’ was freedom from the Phaisaic traditions of the Sages and the Elders.  It wasn’t about freedom from the Mosaic Covenant, because the New Covenant is the Mosaic one written on the heart, and not on tablets of stone.

The people I know are all Gentiles, and sincerely believe that they are not required to be anything but circumcised in their hearts.  They do not see that circumcision of the heart is created by being willing to do all that the Ruach haKodesh shows them is right, and that part of what is righteous is written down in the Acts 15 Decree, and in all the teachings of the Apostles, as well as every word that dropped from Yeshua’s lips.

They have been wrongly taught, and they understand only that they are under ‘Grace’, and think that good intent and good will are enough to please G-d.   They want a simple faith, like they were brought up with, and don’t want all these new ideas…the ideas that are written in their Bible.  They are law-abiding in the civil sense, but they walk in the ways of the Pagans as much as they walk after Yeshua.  I do not know how to dispute that without being offensive until something is being done against those that keep Shabbat, and the Festivals in the Western World, except to write about it here, and elsewhere, and pray that someone will read it that needs to understand more about their relationship with Yeshua than their initial redemption and salvation through faith.

They Don’t Know That Obedience IS WORSHIP!

Salvation is through faith in Yeshua’s action on the stake, but pleasing G-d takes a bit more than mental assent!  You would almost think that they don’t want to be blessed by G-d, because a lot of them seem to be doing everything in their power to keep away from YHVH, except to be generally kind and decent to all.  They don’t do much in the way of worshiping G-d, except praise him and thank him for Yeshua, which is only a good beginning of worship, because they don’t understand that obedience is our worship…the valuing of what G-d wants, as stated in the Scriptures.

That frustrates and saddens me, and worries me for their well-being, because I do not see a way to reach people that LOVE Yeshua in these matters until the AntiChrist is fully revealed, and makes it plain what worship he wants, and until the Two Witnesses are available to say with authority what it is that G-d wants from all of us.

I am not particularly good, nor do I walk all that much in righteousness, and I don’t follow the commandments as stated in the Acts 15 Decree and as described and performed by Yeshua in the New Testament as well as I want to, but I do try to follow them, and I do honor them.  Most of those Christians that trust in Yeshua for their Salvation do not.  They see and hear what has been told them for so long…almost 1800 years…that they do not even read their Bibles to see if what they are told is true, because the half-truths taught them are enough to cause them to lose their reward from G-d, presuming they are faithful enough in Yeshua’s eyes to get into the Kingdom by the grace they are counting on.

John 14:21 (CJB)
²¹  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

The Truth is Coming Soon to the Temple in Jerusalem

I also see that this is a big portion of why there will be a Temple, and the Two Witnesses and the AntiChrist stomping all over Jerusalem. There is no other way to reach those that are obedient in their own eyes to YHVH, and who are walking the narrow way that they see before them in the Lukewarm version of a good walk…unless of course, we flat-out tell them they are being Lukewarm, and thus push ourselves over the edge of a cliff of non-fellowship. From their point of view, we are simply being unreasonable, uncivil, and repetitive.  We have no standing, and no authority, and they are unwilling to see if what we say is true, because they might have to do something about it.

If we push ideas at them to the edge of offense without something to point to as being indisputable, like the AntiChrist and the Two Witnesses showing them the time is NOW, are we not going to lose them anyway? How do we truly imperfect followers of Yeshua tell them, who are walking in Yeshua to the best of their knowledge that they don’t know as much as they thought, and that it is time to come up higher, and return to their first love of Yeshua, when anything he wanted was a pleasure to attempt to do.

We can tell them that they are not following the Acts 15 commandments, and know that at least we are telling them an unpleasant truth…that we do not know who the 5 Bridesmaids without oil are, but they might want to re-read their Bible with the question in their mind as they ask for discernment on the matter.

And those of us unwilling to offend those we love need to ask, ”Abba, am I  being lukewarm?”