Friday, May 10, 2024

Jacob's Trouble

 Jeremiah 30

Yahweh is speaking to Jeremiah about the days to come when He will restore the fortunes of His people and Judah.  He will bring them back to the land of their inheritance.  This happens when His Son returns and sets up his kingdom on earth in the promised land - the land of Canaan.  This has nothing to do with the tiny nation-state of modern-day Israel and this did not happen in 1948.

We have learned from previous studies that the House of Israel (Jacob's descendants) is made up of all true believers.  

"That day will be awesome, there is none like it!   It is a time of trouble for Jacob, but he shall be delivered from it."  

Yahshua His Son is the king God will raise up for them.  This is what is meant by God telling us the end from the beginning.  This is also why we read Scriptures from the beginning - Genesis - through to the end - Revelation - and let His Spirit reveal the truth.

Verse 11: I will make an end of all the nations among which I have dispersed you; but I will not make an end of you! I will not leave you unpunished but will chastise you in measure.

This verse brings to mind Seals 1 through 4 as opened and Seal 5 in the process of opening when true believers are persecuted.

Verse 14: All your lovers have forsaken you, they do not seek you out, for I have struck you as an enemy strikes .... because your iniquity was so great and your sins so many.  I did these things to you because your iniquity was so great and your sins so many.

In this study I can see this foretold event the same as what Yahshua foretold in Matthew 24 which is called the Beginning of Sorrows.  From my studies I say we are more than halfway through the Beginning of Sorrows aka the time of Jacob's Trouble.  And this ties in with the Seals we read of in Revelation.  I see this as Three Witnesses to the same timeline.

Verse 22: "You shall be My people and I will be your God."

Continue reading into chapter 31 and in Verse 8 we recognize the gathering of the remnant.  This happens at the return of His Son on the last day at the sounding of the 7th trumpet.

31:10 - Hear the word of Yahweh .... Say: He who scattered Israel will gather them and will guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.

Yahshua refers to us as his flock which includes another flock he will gather at his return.  The flock is from the House of Israel, descendants of Jacob who remained faithful to the one living God and the other flock is all who turned from their old pagan ways to our God Yahweh, accepted Him and live accordingly.  

Here are the links to other studies I shared in this blog relative to this study:






Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Models for Sale

The Vigilant Citizen
Published February 21, 2022

Jean-Luc Brunel – said to be Jeffrey Epstein’s “pimp” – was found dead hanging in his jail cell. Several people close to the case do not believe that it was a suicide. Did Brunel know too much?

??

Jean-Luc Brunel, the notorious fashion agent who was suspected of procuring over 1,000 girls to billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell on February 19th, 2022. The apparent cause of death: Suicide by hanging. Aug. 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead by hanging in his jail cell. In both cases, no camera footage was available.
 
Brunel’s death occurred only days after Prince Andrew settled his lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre who accused him of sexual abuse while she was a minor. According to the Telegraph, Queen Elizabeth herself will provide money to pay for the settlement – an estimated $20 million. 
 
Is the occult elite actively silencing anyone who could blow the lid on a massive scandal involving some of the world’s most powerful people?
 
A year after Epstein’s death, Steve Bing – a billionaire Hollywood director who was close friends with Epstein – died mysteriously by falling from the 27th floor of his apartment building. While the official cause of death was said to be “suicide”, some claim that he was killed because he knew too much.
In Aug. 2022, Steven Hoffenberg was the latest of several Epstein associates found dead. French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, Mark Middleton former special advisor to Bill Clinton with ties to Epstein, was found dead in May. Middleton's death also was ruled a suicide. He was found hanged from a tree with a shotgun wound in his chest.
One key person remains in this sordid affair: Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein’s long-time partner acted as a “Madame” throughout the years by facilitating the abuse of young girls. She is currently in jail and her family is convinced that Brunel was “suicided”. They also believe she might be next.
 
Brunel was a prominent model scout who was credited for discovering Sharon Stone and Monica Bellucci. In 2004, he founded MC2, a model management company that was financed by Jeffrey Epstein. Through this company, hundreds of girls were recruited by Brunel to be trafficked and abused by Epstein and his circle of elite friends. According to witnesses, Brunel used his reputation in the fashion industry to lure “poor girls” into a global ring of underage slaves.


In a 2015 affidavit, accuser Virginia Giuffre stated:

A lot of the girls came from poor countries or poor backgrounds, and he lured them in with a promise of making good money. Jeffrey Epstein has told me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s girls, and everything that I have seen confirms this claim.
In court documents that were filed in both the United States and France, Guiffre said she had “sexual relations with Brunel on several occasions” when she was aged 16-19. She added that both Brunel and Prince Andrew abused her in Little Saint James – Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.

Brunel’s history of abusing models was known for decades.

“Brunel was the subject of a seven-month investigation by CBS producer Craig Pyes and reporter Diane Sawyer for 60 Minutes. The investigative segment “American Models in Paris”, which aired on 23 October 1988, covered the conduct of Brunel and fellow Parisian modeling agent Claude Haddad. Several American models who worked with Brunel were interviewed by 60 Minutes and described their experiences of the culture Brunel fostered where the models were routinely drugged and sexually abused.”

Despite these accusations, Brunel remained free and kept on running his agency while traveling abroad for scouting assignments.

During that time, Brunel became close friends with Jeffrey Epstein, who shared his obsession with abusing girls. Court documents state that Brunel once sent three 12-year-old girls from Paris to America so they could be abused by Epstein as ‘a birthday present’.

Court documents also show that the modeling agency MC2 was a front for a global underage sex ring organized by Jeffrey Epstein.

On December 16, 2020, Brunel was intercepted by police at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, as he was about to board a one-way flight to Dakar, Senegal. He was then placed under ‘garde à vue’ custody for questioning in relation to rape, sexual assault, criminal conspiracy, and human trafficking, with all of the allegations involving minors.  Since then, Brunel had been incarcerated at La Santé – the notorious maximum-security prison in Paris. On February 19th 2022, Brunel was found dead in bizarre circumstances.
He was found hanging by his bed sheets in his prison cell. French prison authorities told local media that “no breach” in security at the prison had occurred, and an investigation into the cause of death had been launched. 
A few years prior, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead hanging in his jail cell using bed sheets. Due to “technical errors” CCTV footage of his prison cell was said to be lost.
 
Most prison cells in France are not monitored (for privacy), there is also no footage of Brunel’s suicide. This led some observers to believe that Brunel might have been murdered by the same forces that killed Epstein.  A source told the Daily Mail that there was no indication that Brunel had suicidal tendencies.
"There were no obvious fears for the prisoner’s health, and he was not on a suicide watch, having already been in prison for many months."
In the wake of Brunel’s death, Ghislaine Maxwell’s family also stated that the “suicide” was highly suspicious.
 
Ian Maxwell added that (his sister) Ghislaine was put into a room at the prison with a psychiatrist and two others, including a guard with everything recorded on camera. Nevertheless, he fears for her safety.  “Despite the psychiatrist advising to the contrary, she was deemed a suicide risk and they are continuing to wake her up every 15 minutes in the night”.  Ian Maxwell insisted that Ghislaine is not suicidal. He also found it “ironic” that Epstein and Brunel, who died of apparent suicides, were not on suicide watches in their respective prisons. Epstein had been taken off suicide watch shortly before his death in August 2019.

In Conclusion

The death of Jean-Luc Brunel mirrors the death of Jeffrey Epstein. He is the latest casualty in an apparent ongoing operation to silence anyone who might expose the occult elite’s sick tendencies. Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs revealed that a great number of prominent celebrities, businessmen, politicians, and elite people were involved in a sex ring of underage slaves that operated across the world – most notably on Epstein’s own private island. 
 
Jean-Luc Brunel was accused of recruiting girls for this elite ring. Epstein reportedly boasted that he personally slept with over 1,000 girls that were “shipped” to him by Brunel. 
 
In other words, Brunel knew everything about this sordid affair. And there was a risk that he could spill the beans on several elite psychopaths. And now he’s dead. Ghislaine Maxwell might be next. 
 
End Quote
 
But wait! There's more!
 
John Casablancas met Donald Trump in the 70s. Donald had his modeling agency 'T Models' which he later changed to 'Trump Model Management' and it ran for 18 years, closed in 2017. He was also friends with Mr. Epstein and that is how he met Melania. Donald Trump was quoted as saying he got to know financier Jeffrey Epstein in the late 1980s. “He’s a lot of fun to be with,” Trump famously told New York magazine in 2002. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
 
 
 
"Sometime in 1995 when Ivanka Trump was 14 years old, her father signed her up with a modeling gig at his friend John Casablancas' agency, Elite. The president of the company, Monical Pillard, first set his sights on signing Ivanka when she was 11 or 12."
Trump became friends with Casablancas sometime in the 1970s after being introduced by Roy Cohn*. Casablancas personally managed Ivanka’s modeling career.

Ivanka, 9 years old, with her dad


 

 
Trump owned his modeling agency for 18 years which closed in 2017, not without controversy.  He also encouraged aspiring fashionistas while presiding over the Miss Universe Organization. 
“I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant,” Trump told Howard Stern in 2005.  "Therefore I’m inspecting it… ‘Is everyone OK?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”

 •••••••

More thoughts to ponder:

Who is Judge Acosta who convicted Epstein of child rape in 2017 but was only sentenced to 13 months in prison due to his friendship with Trump, and Acosta became Trump’s minister of labor, but was forced to resign when Epstein’s case reopened? What did Epstein and Maxwell have to do with Donald and Melania Trump, whose work has led to suicide and arrest?

In New York, Maxwell partnered with sex and drug dealer Epstein to offer a modeling job with the intention of earning astronomical income by giving beautiful young virgins to the rich.

She attended Marlborough College, one of Britain’s most expensive private colleges, and through her father connected with members of Buckingham Palace, had easy access to Britain’s dirtiest rich, including “Prince Andrew”.

Epstein and Maxwell needed to select celebrities in New York and London to start their own sex agency. He convinced Trump, who worked hard to escape financial bankruptcy in 1991 and needed to meet famous people.

Maxwell also considered Prince Andrew, who had good relations with influential people in London and the wealthy princes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Epstein was introduced to Prince Andrew by Maxwell to host the London Sex Club, and he worked for many years at London and New York Sex Clubs, and Andrew was a regular client of virgin girls.

The American team “Trump-Epstein” and the British team “Andrew-Maxwell” needed to work with a global brand to start an international career to host the sex of the rich.

Trump, a regular at Casablanca nightclubs at his New York mansions, hired John Casablanca, director of the Italian company Elite Model Management, to work with him, and in 1991 signed a business deal with him as an investor and referee for the Elite Model beauty pageant.

With this agreement, the modeling industry and the sex industry of Europe and the United States merged, making it possible for politicians and the rich to have easy and hassle-free sex with teenage and virgin girls at the Trump and Epstein parties, which was welcomed. Even former US President Bill Clinton and Arab princes attended the parties.

Trump and Epstein held the Young Model Girls Contest at the Plaza Hotel in 1993 and in Maralogo in 1993 to advance their work. In these competitions, the top models who were willing to cooperate with the “Elite Model” were selected.

The competition was an important achievement and showed that girls from Eastern Europe and Latin America, and especially Brazil, are more willing to work in the sex industry. Since then, Elite has focused its modeling work on teenage girls identified through fashion brands and fashion magazines in Eastern European countries.

For easier access to Eastern European girls, “Elite Model” selected young supermodels who, while familiar with the Russian language and culture, were more attractive to girls from Eastern European countries, and then could more easily communicate and educate girls, especially from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus were transferred to the United States and London.

“Melania” was noticed in these searches among the beautiful girls of Eastern Europe. An unknown figure, she was introduced to Casablanca and Epstein through a man named Paolo Zampolli. From now on, in order for Melania to become international, it was necessary for her to become famous worldwide in collaboration with world-famous brands in France and Italy.
Zampolii started the ID Models agency in the 1990s to attract European girls and coordinated Melania’s work in Italy with “Joseph Mifsud”, who had close ties to Trump and Epstein.

In 1992, with the support of Zampolii and Mifsud, “Jana Magazine” published photos of Melania with 12 beautiful young girls, which eventually selected Melania as the top three models of the year. The yellow press immediately published reports and photos of Melania’s personality and achievements.

After gaining fame in Italy and France in 1995, Melania arrived in New York on an H-1B visa and lived with a sports photographer named “Matthew Atanian” and later with Epstein in an apartment where he worked as a photographer.

The apartment was actually owned by Elite Model and photographed teenage girls exported from Europe to evaluate modeling. It was in this apartment that Jeffrey Epstein was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl after forcing her to undress.

Melania’s main problem during her first years in the United States, however; was the heavy cost of living in New York. From 1995 to 1997, she paid for her expensive living in New York by printing nude photos, especially on Trump’s private jet and escorting some Epstein clients, until some important events occurred in 1999.

Trump, who chose Melania as one of his sexy dolls, divorced his second wife and started T-Models in hopes of expanding the empire of the fashion world. Under Trump and Epstein, the company entered the sex trade and illegally traded virgin girls and minors to the rich.

Melania, who after a few years of sexual slavery had lost her appeal to long-awaited clients, was hired for a second phase of work hosted by young newcomers and forced to maintain her body and set an example for new models. Perform two cosmetic operations on the chest and face during the years 98 and 99.

At T-Models, Melania and Maxwell managed to train girls to photograph and then sleep with the rich, and for models who were reluctant to continue, they persuaded them and even their parents to settle for a lucrative short-term job with a residence and work permit in the United States by showing their own bank accounts and photos of their parties and how they progressed in the fashion market.

In order for the newcomers to start their careers without any embarrassment, Melania and Maxwell forced them to watch a free relationship with rented men to learn how to behave in a variety of sexual ways with guests.
Seeing these scenes, they had to learn the courage and skills to have sex with men of all tastes and ages. In some cases, Melania and Maxwell were even the sex model for rented men.

Accordingly, a U.S. court has charged Maxwell with sexual harassment of underage girls after her arrest, which carries a life sentence under the law.
Although Trump promised to shut down T-Models after his inauguration in January 2016, the agency continued to work until 2017 to remove model girls who were staying in the United States illegally.

To cover up the role of Trump and Melania in the sex club, Epstein has (apparently) committed suicide, Joseph Mifsud disappeared, Prince Andrew has been summoned by the US Attorney, Maxwell has been arrested, the family of US Federal Judge Esther Salas judge have been assassinated, 10 complaints against Trump Silent, Trump’s lawyers have either threatened exponents of Melania’s sexual slavery or collected her nude photos at great expense.

*Roy Cohen 

Cohen started representing the Trumps in 1973 after the Department of Justice sued them for racist rental practices at the thousands of apartments they owned, through the rest of the ’70s and into the ’80s. Cohn became for Trump something much more than simply his attorney. At a most formative moment for Trump, there was no more formative figure than Cohn. Trump loved the guy because he was 'ruthless'.
 
They were both ruthless....

"Trump boasted that he kept a photo of Roy in his office, to intimidate people. “Roy is a terrible lawyer,” he told the laughing crowd. “But I only need to mention his name and people are too scared to challenge me.”



 


Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Another 'holiday' with Pagan Roots

 Quote:

In America, it’s believed that the first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, but this was not the first time people gathered to give thanks for the Autumn harvest.  In fact, people have been celebrating the harvest for millennia and our Thanksgiving meal is just a modern incarnation reflecting these ancient celebrations of autumn abundance.

Harvest celebrations were also important during Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Pagan times. In Britain these traditions evolved into a holiday called Harvest Home. Historically, the date of Harvest Home differed each year as it was celebrated when all of the autumn crops were finally harvested. The final cartload of food was paraded through the town and a big Harvest Supper was celebrated among the villagers.

In addition to Harvest Home, a separate religious holiday called the "days of thanksgivings" was practiced in the Church of England, in which people set aside one religious day of their choosing to "give thanks to God." We get the name “Thanksgiving” from this Christian tradition, while the feasting commonly associated with Thanksgiving largely derives from the Harvest Home celebrations.

Luckily for us Americans, our harvest Thanksgiving celebrations were never commandeered by the church and as such they remain pretty Pagan to this day.

Here in America, a lot of our imagery around Thanksgiving shows a shared meal between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. It could be said that this rosy view of our first Thanksgiving meal together is largely misleading and helps to obscure the many atrocities the colonists committed upon the Native Americans. The Native Americans, like the ancient Pagan peoples of Europe, understood the importance of honoring and respecting the harvest. And during the first American Thanksgiving that took place in 1621, the Native Americans paused to give thanks to many spirits and deities that aided in the bountiful harvest.

Symbols

There are three key symbols that are common to Thanksgiving celebrations: the cornucopia (aka the horn of plenty), the turkey, and corn. All these symbols were viewed as very important among Pagan societies. 

Let’s begin with the Cornucopia, an important symbol in ancient Greece and Rome. This symbol goes back to a story from Ancient Greece where a goat pulled off his horn and offered it to the God Zeus. This was a magic horn that would refill indefinitely with food and drink ensuring that Zeus would never go hungry.  

The Cornucopia was also incorporated in statues and money across ancient Rome and was often used in representations of the goddess of grain Ceres and the goddess of luck Fortuna.

The Turkey, the centerpiece of the American Thanksgiving dinner. Many Native American tribes view Turkey as a symbol of fertility and abundance. As a totem animal, Turkey reminds us of the importance of our relationship with the land as the land is the source of our nourishment and sustenance. Turkey feathers are also viewed as especially important and are used in ritual wear and in smudging ceremonies. So when we eat Turkey at Thanksgiving we are celebrating & honoring the connection we have with our sacred land and the animal spirits.

Corn is often used as a symbol to represent Thanksgiving. Corn, also called maize, was a key staple crop among the Native Americans and it played an important role in their spiritual beliefs.  In some tribes Corn itself was seen as a spirit and often it played a role in ceremonies. 


Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Spiritual and Physical


The question I was asked: 
Did God create the angels after His own image?
 
My first answer, without further study of Scriptures, would be 'no', because He specified 'man' would be made in 'Our image, Our likeness'.  "Our" would include the existing angels along with Yahweh, as they are similar beings, of the same Spiritual substance. 

Genesis 1:26 = Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness
Verse 27 = And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created them.
 
It seems the angelic realm has existed with God prior to the earth age yet we do not know if they were created or were naturally part of His Spiritual Realm.  What we know for certain is both Yahweh and His Host exist in the Spiritual realm and us mere humans do not have a full understanding of what this means.  Our day will come.

Hebrews 1:14
Are not the angels ministering spirits 
sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

 
Here is a distinction I've never paid attention to before.  Read Genesis 5.
This is the record of Adam's line.  When God created man He made him in the likeness of God, male and female He created them.  And when they were created He blessed them and called them Man.   When Adam had lived 130 years he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth.

Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of Yahweh and His heavenly host.  When physical man began to procreate they were in his human image.  

This might be why we need to be born again.... 

•John 3 ~ I tell you that unless a person is born again from above he cannot see the Kingdom of God... unless a person is born from water and the Spirit  he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

We have been born from water = a physical birth.  Now we must experience that Spiritual birth and it doesn't come from being baptized.  It comes from reading and studying and being in fellowship with other set apart believers as we seek Yahweh and gain understanding via His Spirit.

John 4:23 ~ But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, indeed. Yahweh seeks worshippers as these. For Yahweh is Spirit, and those who worship must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
 
John 14:16 ~  And I will ask of my Father and He will give you another Redeemer who will be with your forever. The Spirit of Truth, he who the world is not able to receive because it has not seen Him nor knows Him. But you know Him for He dwells with you and He is in you.
 
John 15:26 ~ But when the Redeemer comes, he whom I will send to you from the presence of my Father, the Spirit of Truth, He who proceeds from the presence of my Father will witness concerning me.

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Did Noah have Seven Laws?

No, Noah did not have a separate set of Laws.  

That idea appears only in the Talmud

and not in Yah's Instructions 

which were given to all mankind. 

📖

Some folks think that Noah had a separate set of 'Laws from God' and refer to them as the Noahide Laws of which they claim there are seven of them.

That idea appears only in the Talmud and not in Yah's Instructions which were given to all mankind. The Talmud was composed many years later.
Basically, these are the seven 'laws' which Judaism applies to Noah:
•Do not profane God’s Oneness in any way.
Do not curse your Creator.
•Do not murder.
•Do not eat a limb of a still-living animal.
•Do not steal.
•Harness and channel the human
•Establish courts of law and ensure justice in our world.
How many of those can you relate to the original 613 'laws' from Yahweh? Or even the Ten Commandments most of us are familiar with? 
 
Religious leaders sure seem to think they are more important than any of us when they 'take from' and 'add to' the Word of God.
 
The Noahide Laws are a product of man's imagination, Jewish tradition and religious power trips.
Quote: The seven Noahide Laws are not explicitly listed in the Bible. Instead, they are derived according to the Talmud‘s interpretation of Genesis 2:16 given to Adam, and Genesis 9:4-6 given to Noah. The Talmud is a “Jewish literary collection of teachings, laws, and interpretations based on the Old Testament Torah. It has two parts, the Mishnah and that Gemara.

Yahweh was never about religion
 
One God, One Faith, One People who abide by Yahweh's Owner's Manual = Scriptures, especially Genesis through Deuteronomy where we learn His Instructions for all mankind. Once we learn His Instructions, the rest of Scriptures seems to show us how to apply them to our lives accordingly.
 
I do not encourage the use of the talmud nor do I support folks who use it as a teaching guide. 
 
Rabbis believe
 "Without an oral tradition some of the Torah's laws would be incomprehensible"
and this is simply not true. 
As we continue to read and study Yah's Instructions, it is His Spirit that reveals the truth and teaches us how to apply His Word to our lives in today's world. The talmud provides insight to the 'Jewish mindset' (not the Hebrew mindset) via the early rabbinic system (the beginnings of Judaism = a religion). It is a collection of writings that covers 'Jewish law and tradition', setting Yahweh aside.
 
Rabbis believe we cannot understand "Torah" without 'oral tradition' and that is simply not true. They were guilty of putting a 'fence around Torah' back in day and many religious leaders have followed suit. My main point is to advise caution when it comes to the traditions of man. When we continue to read and study Scriptures daily, His Spirit will reveal the Truth wherein we gain knowledge and understanding, without the influence of traditions or man's opinions about "God". 
 
Y'shua called the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because they transgressed against the Commandments of EL by way of their traditions which later became recorded in the Talmud. This is a big reason why I do not recommend using the Talmud in an attempt to teach, shed light or verify the Word of Yahweh.

 


 

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Upper Rooms

I recently found out that there seems to have been the discovery (years ago) of the 'upper room' mentioned in Scriptures in regards to where Yahshua ate with his Apostles the evening before he was executed.  I do not know how anyone knows the location because it was not given in Scriptures.... it's all guess work and probably a money making tourist attraction.  This makes me think of Yahshua overturning the tables at the temple where folks had been selling oxen, sheep and doves alongside with the money changers.  "Do not make the House of my Father a house of bartering".    

In modern day Jerusalem folks shouldn't pick any old place and give it a 'holy' name, then include the place with tour guides.

There is more than one mention of an 'upper room' in Scriptures but the 2nd most famous one is where the Apostles gathered.  

It is not so much where these rooms were located but what's important is the events that occurred in them.  Folks have glazed over the lesson in order to adore the physical things.

Quote from Israel Advantage Tours: This structure has been regarded as the traditional site of the Last Supper since the fourth century AD.

According to scripture, the Upper Room is where the Last Supper took place and where Jesus washed His disciples’ feet (John 13:1–20). It is where the disciples gathered in fear after the death of Jesus. Jesus appeared in this room on two occasions after the Resurrection. It is here He showed Thomas the wounds in His body. It is where the 120 believers prayed on the Day of Pentecost. The Bible tells us that tongues of fire appeared to them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages (Acts 2:1-4). At this place the church of Jesus Christ was born.
I can barely read this without clenching my teeth together 😖  Let me tell you why.

No where in Scripture is the location of the 'upper room' where the passover meal was eaten ever revealed.  Yahshua's instructions for his disciples to make preparations for this meal are found recorded here, which I have lightly paraphrased. Please read from your bible when you have time:

•Matthew 26:18 - Go to the city to a certain man and say to him, "Our master says his time has arrived.  With you and his disciples he will observe the Passover"
•Mark 14:13 - he sent two of his disciples telling them, "Go into the city and there you will meet up with a man who is carrying a vessel of water.  Follow him. Where he enters say to the master of the house, Our master told us to ask where is your guest house so we may eat the passover meal..... he will show you a large upper room that is furnished.  Make that room ready and prepare our meal there....
•Luke 22:8 - Yahshua sent Peter and John to go prepare the passover meal.  Verse 10 - When you enter the city you will meet up with a man carrying a skin of water.  Follow him, and where he enters say to the master of the house, Our master says 'Where is the lodging house where we may eat the passover meal'.  He will show you a certain large upper room that is furnished.  Prepare there.

All God has told us is this is an upper room where His Son observed the Passover meal with his Apostles.  We do not know the location of this place other than it was in the city of Jerusalem; nor do we know who owned it, but it was a house and not the tomb of David.  Back in the day, an upper room was "a roof chamber built above the main house, usually for the purpose of leisure."
 
After this passover meal was eaten, Yahshua and his disciples took a walk to the Mount of Olives. The sun has already gone down, so according to Yahweh's perfect timing, it is now the 15th day of this month (still dark), this also being the 1st day of Unleavened Bread.

The other famous upper room is where the Apostles gathered after the resurrection of Yahshua.   Again, we read it is in the city of Jerusalem where they were staying but not a specific address.  We do know it was seven furlongs from the Mount of Olives which is about 7/8 of a mile. (Acts 1:12)

Friday, June 2, 2023

What is Salvation

Definition from the Webster Dictionary-
  • deliverance from the power and effects of sin
  • liberation from ignorance or illusion
  • preservation from destruction or failure
  • deliverance from danger or difficulty 

What has Yahweh told us about being delivered from sin, liberated from ignorance, preserved from destruction and delivered from danger? 
Deuteronomy 4:35- YHWH has clearly demonstrated that He alone is God and there is none beside Him - He is God in heaven above and on earth below - there is no other. Observe His laws and commandments that it may go well with you and your children. 
Is baptism necessary?  Has the Church really distorted what is means to be immersed? Baptism is a physical portrayal of a spiritual reality. Yahshua was killed, placed in a tomb then raised by God.  Before this, before he started his ministry, Yahshua was immersed by John in the the Jordan River which was when he received the Spirit and authority of his Father.  And prior to this event, in the old testament days, personal cleansing and purity were important. "Ritual purity was mandated in order to enter the tabernacle or temple, before making a sacrifice, and for receiving the benefit of a priestly offering". 
 
In Exodus 19:10–11, God commanded Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day Yahweh will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people." This is the first time God commanded the people to wash themselves and it was in preparation for entering His presence. Similarly, in Exodus 29:4 God commanded that Aaron and his sons be washed with water in preparation for their service as priests. These men would be mediating in God's presence on behalf of the people and this symbolic washing was necessary for them to be ritually clean.  
 
One must be 'ritually clean' in order to come into the presence of Yahweh.  In our day, His Son Yahshua is the way to the Father and by accepting his shed blood of the renewed covenant we become born again of the Spirit.... one publicly displays their commitment to the Creator and exhibits they have the testimony of His Son by being immersed. 

1 Peter 3:21

And you also, by a like figure (Noah) are made alive by immersion (not when you wash your bodies from filth, but when you confess God with a pure conscience and by the the resurrection of Yahshua the Anointed One, who is taken up to heaven and is on the right hand of God and Angels;  and authorities and powers are subject to him.
 
 In Ephesians 2:8 we read it is by God's grace we are rescued (saved) and this is because of our faith in Him.  This gift of His is the life of our souls if we follow in the Way of Yahshua. We don't take any credit for ourselves as all praise belongs to Yahweh.  The good works we do are the same we have learned from His Son so no one can boast about themselves and what they have done out of their own pride and arrogance. (Please read Ephesians from your own copy of Scriptures when you have time).

What it boils down to is our salvation depends on two things: Faith in Yahweh and acceptance of His Son's shed blood of atonement.

The origin of being 'baptized in water' is from thousand of years ago, before Jesus walked this earth, as the ritual of purification of oneself by immersion in water.  The faithful would immerse themselves in a 'mikveh bath' before entering the temple.  Some of these 'baths' have been uncovered in Jerusalem at the foot of where the temple stood.  In today's world we see the results of man's imagination making baptism into something mandatory, and not something one does by choice.  When we choose to be baptized it is a physical act representing our faith in "putting off the old man and turning our hearts toward praise and worship of Yahweh God".  It is an act of faith not an act of being saved and immediately 'filled with the holy Spirit'.  Remember, the Apostles were not filled with His Spirit until after 3 years of being taught by our Messiah, and then ten days later they received His Spirit as promised by His Son.  They had been in training, being prepared to receive Yah's Set Apart Spirit.