What Does 'being saved' Mean

Have we been misled by the doctrine of 'eternal security'?

Have we been mesmerized by the chanting of 'once saved always saved'?

It has been taught that  "... eternal security is that work of God in which He guarantees that the gift of salvation once received is possessed forever and cannot be lost."

If we take the time to read Scriptures for ourselves we learn that this is not the case.  We cannot continue to 'sin' and expect that our salvation won't be affected. We continue to have personal responsibility in our relationship with YHWH as per coming into covenant with Him.

Hebrews 3:13 - But look deeply into yourselves all the days, during the day which is called today and let none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have part with the Mashiyach, if we endure in this firm confidence, from the beginning to the end, as it is said, Today if you will hear his voice, and do not harden your hearts, to anger him.

Jude 1:5 - Let me remind you that Elohim, after once rescuing (saving) the people from Egypt, again destroyed them who did not believe.

Guess that kind of flies in the face of 'once saved always saved', don't it?

So what is salvation and what are we saved from?

Acts 2:38 tells us in order to be saved (from the curse of eternal death) that we are to repent (return to Yah, turning away from our old sin nature) and be immersed (ritually cleansed) so that we may receive the Ruach haKodesh (The Set Apart Spirit of YHWH). 

This goes all the way back to Exodus and Deuteronomy in regards to choosing between the Blessing and the Curse:

​Exodus 15:26 - If you will diligently listen to the voice of ​YHWH your Elohim, and do that which is right in ​H​is eyes, and give ear to ​H​is commandments and keep all ​H​is statutes, He will put none of the diseases on you that He put on the Egyptians, (for I am ​Yahweh​, your healer).

Deuteronomy 11:26 - See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of YHWH your Elohim, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of YHWH your Elohim, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

Deuteronomy 30:15 - See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity. For I command you this day to love Yahweh your Elohim, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His laws, and His rules, that you may thrive and increase, and that He may bless you... But if your heart turns away and you give no heed, and are lured into the worship and service of other gods, I declare to you this day that you shall certainly perish... I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Chose life by loving Yahweh Elohim, heeding His commands and holding fast to Him. For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure...

Deuteronomy 30:19- I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life if you and your offspring would live by loving Yahweh Elohim, heeding His commands, and holding fast to Him. For thereby you shall have life and long endure.

In these verses we are being told we have a choice to make between the blessing and the curse = eternal life in His Kingdom or eternal death spent in Fire Lake. If we choose life we place our Creator first and foremost in our lives and teach our children well.  Because of our love for our heavenly Father we obey His Instructions and in return we receive the blessing.  That sounds like 'salvation' to me and we achieve it by Faith - committing ourselves to our Creator.

We are not automatically 'filled with the spirit' nor 'baptized in the spirit' but are made ready to receive it. We prepare for the indwelling of Yah's Set Apart Spirit by spending every day in the Word of Elohim, reading and studying and learning Scriptures. Even the apostles who were taught by Y'shua face to face for three years were not filled with the Spirit until 50 days after the death of Y'shua - specifically ten days after the resurrected Son of Elohim was taken up and placed at the Right hand of the Father (Shavuot). Being baptized by a preacher in any church does not make one 'saved' but does show an outward appearance of one's desire to accept Y'shua and walk the Path of Righteousness from then on forward.  If we fall for temptations afterwards, we will loose our footing and salvation becomes a mute point. Being tested by difficult times is for the sake of our refinement.  

Deuteronomy 8: You shall faithfully observe all the Instruction that I enjoin upon you today, that you may thrive and increase and be able to posses the land that YHWH Elohim promised on oath to your fathers. Remember the long way that YHWH your Elohim has made you travel in the wilderness these past forty years, that He might test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep His commandments or not.... Romans 2:5 - But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when Yah's righteous judgment will be revealed.

If we turn away from our old sinful ways and return to the Creator, learn His Teachings and be immersed symbolizing our intentions, then we are ready to receive the gift of His Set Apart Spirit. If we make the first move then Yah will follow up, giving us His unmerited love and favor. It is a process, not an end-all. We never stop learning until the day He restores all things! His Spirit continues to reveal and comfort us with His Truth providing we continue on His Path of Righteousness. He is our salvation through the testimony of His Son. 

Today means today for anyone in any day who reads this and chooses Life, and begins to obey the Instructions given by our Creator. The blessing or the curse is the result of our choice in this lifetime. People ask why there is so much pain and suffering in the world and why bad things seem to happen to good people. Read those above quoted Scripture verses again. We made the choice to obey the one who spoke creation into existence and we are expected to follow through, abiding by the terms of the covenant.

Hebrews 13:13- Look deeply into yourselves all the days, during the day which is called today; and let none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Clean or Unclean

Definition of unclean:

1: morally or spiritually impure 

2: infected with a harmful contagion 

3: prohibited by ritual law for use or contact

The Book of Leviticus is not an easy read.

Chapter 5 teaches about incurring guilt through sin, either intentionally or unknowingly, according to the Teachings of Yahweh; and provides the appropriate action to be taken to remedy oneself.

In regards to coming in contact with anything 'unclean', when one realizes his guilt, he acknowledges his wrongdoing and provides the required offering to the priest who makes expiation on his behalf, and all is forgiven. (It is the feeling of 'guilt' that creeps in after we have done something wrong. It's as if wearing 'filthy rags' instead of 'fine linen')

Leviticus 5:5 teaches when he realizes his guilt in any of these matters, he shall confess the circumstance of the sin which he is guilty of and bring his penalty (sin offering) to Yahweh (via the priest). If we transgress any of His Laws = His Instructions in Righteousness = this is considered as sin.

Unintentional sin is forgivable once we realize what we have done and pray for forgiveness. Y'shua is our high priest who intercedes on our behalf and we are forgiven. The Instructions still apply to us today but the remedy has been changed from bringing offerings to the temple and priest, to accepting the death of the Son as our covering and salvation from eternal death.

Hebrews 10 (lightly paraphrased)

We choose to accept Y'shua as our High Priest who offered a one time sacrifice for sins, who sits forever at the right hand of Elohim where he waits until his foes are placed as a footstool under his feet. For, by one offering (himself), he has perfected forever them who are sanctified (set apart) by him. And the Ruach haKodesh also testifies to us by saying: This is the covenant which I will give them after those days, says Master YHWH: I will put my Torah into their minds and inscribe it on their hearts and their iniquity and their sins I will not remember against them. Now, where there is a forgiveness of sins there is no offering for sin demanded. We have therefore my Brothers assurance of entering into the sanctuary by the blood of Y'shua and by a path of life.

Another misunderstanding about clean and unclean shows up when folks point out that God told Peter all food was acceptable to eat, Acts Chapter 10, but they don't read the entire chapter.  Peter's vision is clarified when we read beyond the part about the food vision and take into consideration his standard of not meeting with people who were not of the House of Israel (tribal descendants). Cornelius the Centurion was a believer in Elohim who saw a vision and was told to send some men to go get Simon Peter and bring him to his house. The next day Peter was in prayer and was feeling hungry. He saw a vision of what looked like a linen cloth coming down from heaven full of all creatures and creeping things and birds. He heard a voice say Slaughter and Eat! But he did not because he had never eaten anything defiled or unclean. The second time this happens a voice said "That which Elohim has cleansed, you should not consider defiled." This vision happened a third time.... Peter was standing there marveling at this when the 'three' men from Cornelius showed up at this house. The Spirit tells Peter to go with those three men without being indecisive because it was The Spirit who sent them. Peter goes with them men to Caesarea. Acts 10:28 explains the unclean food vision - "... it is not Lawful for a Yehudean man to associate with a foreign man who is not a son of his tribe, but Elohim showed to me concerning a man not to say that he is unclean or defiled. So I came to you...."  (food was used as a visual metaphor; this vision was about Gentile believers).

Click here to go to my study: Substitutes

Fairy Tales

I was born in 1955. As a child I loved stories, especially fairy tales.  Mom had a book by The Brothers Grimm in which were stories like Rapunzel, The Three Billy Goat Gruff, Hanzel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, which I would read over and over - I had such an imagination that these stories played out in my head like a movie as I read them!  The pictures drawn to depict different scenes in each story intrigued me as well. I was fascinated and completely drawn into the stories which is why they were so popular - almost every child was enchanted by them!  These stories introduce fairies, gnomes, ghosts, goblins, giants, good witches and bad witches into our creative young minds.  And with that we were led away from God the Creator before we even got a chance to know Him.  This is the handiwork of Satan, the deceiver, that old serpent the devil.  With all this fantasia, who needs a god?

In the mid-sixties, for me, fairy tales gave way to a love of science fiction (fairy tales for grown ups).  Dad had a collection of paperbacks, some by Isaac Asimov, and I read many of them. Sometimes Dad would plug in the small TV in our bedroom so we could watch late night sci-fi shows (in black and white) on Friday or Saturday nights. I remember watching the Twilight Zone, War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still and One Step Beyond. Mom didn't approve... she knew we'd have bad dreams!  But she didn't know how deeply those fairy tales and science fiction were forming my world.  

Outer Space was big food for my imagination! And there were more TV shows that kept me hooked- The Time Tunnel, Lost in Space, The Jetsons, The Thunderbirds, Superman, My Favorite Martian and many more.  Life on other planets beyond our galaxy was real to me.  I would stare out into the sky trying to see as deep into space as I could, both daylight hours and nighttime, wishing a starship would come and take me away. I use to draw pictures of flying saucers, beaming down a ray of light that would levitate frightened young girls, still in their night gowns, taking them up into their ships. I believed that aliens came to earth, genetically impregnated the apes, mixing their DNAs and created man, the man of evolution stature. Of course, at that time, I had no idea I was standing at the doorway and peering into the occult - a world without God the Creator.

As I got older- marijuana, alcohol and a mix of recreational drugs helped to fuel my already colorful imagination and push me through that doorway. The New Age movement became the next attractant for me, taking me deeper into science fiction, offering a way to 'live it' while embracing the Alien/Evolution theory (another fairy tale for adults). In my quest of self enlightenment I could even have 'out of body' experiences (one such event scared me so much that I never attempted to go further in that area).  Mom had a couple of books, one by Edgar Cayce and another by a channeler, Elizabeth (I forgot her last name) who were both psychics. They gained popularity in the late 60's early 70's, if I remember correctly. So ESP and other paranormal abilities fit right in with my conditioning. Television programs still played a part with shows like I Dream of Jeanie, Bewitched, Star Trek... my brain was ripe for the picking, but it was Satan doing the harvest.

Even though I'm using my own life as an example to put forth this 'pre-conditioning' idea as a technique to take us away from our Creator, I am not an isolated event... almost every child has been told fairy tales, but I cannot prove that every child found them as a Great Escape, as I did. Speaking of 'escapes', who didn't love the movie 'Wizard of Oz'? Innocent enough story, eh?  Consider this:

L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz was a member of the Theosophical Society, which is an organization based on occult research and the comparative study of religions.  Baum had a deep understanding of Theosophy and, consciously or not, created an allegory of Theosophic teachings when he wrote the Wizard of Oz.

The Theosophical Society is an occult organization, mainly based on the teachings of Helena P. Blavatsky, which seeks to extract the common roots of all religions in order to form a universal doctrine.

also:

The three declared objects of the original Theosophical Society as established by Blavatsky, Judge and Olcott (its founders) were as follows:

“First —To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
Second — To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science.
Third — To investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.”

This is only one example of fairy tales being used to alter the thinking of young minds, but I believe all stories that ignore our Creator and dishonor Him are not beneficial for the development of a child.  And YES I enjoyed the movie Wizard of Oz and I'm no longer afraid of the flying monkeys, but... this is just one more fairy tale in a collection of many that are aimed at young minds with a possible controlled result.  Today we have Harry Potter, Avatar, Contact and other movies promoting transhumanism, without God or mixing Him with aliens.

What brought this on was, we watched 'Hook' the other night, (Robin Williams finds out he is really Peter Pan - Dustin Hoffman plays Capt. Hook) and in the back of my head I'm criticizing the flick for not honoring the Father. Sure it's an enjoyable film, a funny twist on an old fairy tale, harmless! But- as with most fairy tales, fables and other children's stories, belief in the One True God is absent. Is this by accident? Of course not. The Father of Lies, Satan, deliberately eliminated Adonai our God from these stories. We call it 'entertainment' - but it's nothing but a pack of creative lies.

Now, consider this:

The Torah (first five books of the Old Testament) if full of colorful events that would make wonderful stories to tell children. Each event is its own story: The Creation, Eden, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, The Nephilim, Noah and the Flood, Nimrod and Babylon, the life and times of Abraham, Sodom and Gomorrah, Ishamel and Isaac... these are but a fraction of the Word and barely touch the Good News of the Kingdom of YHWH our Creator. The gospels are historically true happenings as exciting and mesmerizing as any fairy tale and they honor Him! The stories include demons, witches, amazing feats, signs and wonders, tragic events and miracles that stir every emotion. When you tell these stories to your children they are given a sound foundation from which to develop into honest, fair and just adults who love God their Creator. Imagine the type of community that would arise from good folk like that?  There is no deception, no lies, no tricks to cause one to stumble and fail, rather, the gospels well equip one to survive against the constant attacks made by Satan and his minions. In other words, these stories prepare us for life!

I am ashamed that I wasted so many years avoiding Yahweh our Creator. I certainly would have been spared many unnecessary heartaches and pains.  Since that is not the case, my past is the basis for these writings - a comparison to ponder.  Yahweh our Creator will forgive us the follies of our youth.  His Son, Yahshua, shed his blood to atone for our sins. Together they shine their Light on the Path of Righteous Living on which the Set Apart Spirit of Father Yahweh leads us to understanding, wisdom and truth.

1995 ~ My New Beginning

I came to repentance in 1995, tearfully asking for help from the very God I had been ignoring all those years. 

I was Channel Surfing TV than actually watching anything. I stopped on a program because the man looked like my Grandpa Bryan. This man on TV was a preacher sitting behind a wooden desk with the American flag behind it. There was a small statue of an eagle on the desk along with some other things and his big old Bible. His voice was calm, his demeanor firm, and the words weren't what I was expecting from a preacher. I continued to listen to him.

I was listening to every word out of this preacher's mouth as if he was in the room speaking directly to me! I was embarrassed and ashamed as my was life laid open before "God and Everyone". I prayed for the first time ever, asking for salvation, asking Jesus to come into my life and forgive me my sins. By this time I was bawling! I was a mess! My life was at a dead end until that day.

I had no idea...

I cried and confessed and asked several times to be forgiven that afternoon. I was bewildered when I realized I had been Satan's plaything for all those years! I became disgusted at my behavior back in those days! It's as if it were another person who did all those bad things. Oh, and the joy of knowing salvation had me floating on air for days to come! And I confessed and cried for a few more days after that! I had a lot of sinning to fess up to and it wasn't easy. My heart had been opened and the process of cleaning began.

The Holy Spirit got a foot hold in me that day and my journey began. Realizing our sinful nature is only the beginning. There is a whole lot of learning that follows. Each beginning will be different for other folks - not everyone needs to hit rock bottom, like me, in order to have their eyes opened.

So many have gone before us! There is nothing new under the sun, it's just that our eyes get opened and we see more clearly than before. Our Father is continually refining us, as the day He gathered His People and led them out of Egypt. He continues with each test he put before us in our individual lives today. It is a wonderful feeling knowing our Messiah! I love this path that I am on, that we are on.