The Real Yeshua

  I closed my previous email with Yahweh cursing the snake and then turning his attention to Eve. Before I continue with the story, I want to pause and point out some things you must keep in mind as the story continues.   The commandment Yahweh gave Adam stated that “ in the day you eat of the forbidden fruit dying you will die . ” The Hebrew phrase translated “ dying you will die ” does not mean “ you will fall over dead ,” it means “ the process of dying will begin .” Adam ate the forbidden fruit, and that process began.   The first act of justice in the Bible happened when Yahweh asked Adam if he had eaten the forbidden fruit. He questioned Adam and listened to his answer. He questioned Eve and listened to her answer. He cursed the snake. Now Yahweh is going to reveal the consequences of their actions, beginning with Eve.   1. I will greatly multiply your hardship, pain and suffering in general . Her life is going to change dramatically from what it has been. ...

  In Genesis 3:6 Adam ate the forbidden fruit, and this is what happened next:   The eyes of both Adam and Eve were opened. They knew they were  naked .   In my previous email I explained the wordplay the ancient author used to make an important point. A snake was more subtle, shrewd, clever, crafty, and cunning than two humans – they had been shamed and exposed! Instead of revealing the image of God through their actions, they acted like the snake. After being exposed Genesis 3:7 reveals what they did -- they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.   When they heard Yahweh walking in the garden -- Adam hid! Then Eve hid too. They hid in the trees of the garden.   ● Yahweh : “Adam, where are you?”   ● Adam : “I heard your voice and I was afraid because I was naked. Then I hid myself.”   ● Yahweh : “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?...

  Shame played a very powerful role in the ancient Jewish culture. It is something most American readers miss because it isn’t a major factor in our culture. But the relevance of shame is the focus of this account. Below are some key points Bible readers must understand about it.   ● Shame must be understood in the context of group culture.   ● Shame implies a failure to live up to internalized parental and larger societal goals, i.e. what a person "should be like".   ● The shamed person experiences his/her failure as a lowering of personal dignity in the eyes of the group and fears ridicule, contempt or expulsion.   From the first chapters of Genesis on, we see humankind struggling to resolve interpersonal and intergroup conflict. The stories depict characters wrestling with powerful and sometimes contradictory impulses.   Personal and group destinies can only be truly fulfilled through membership in the larger units of family, tribe, and nation.   We...

  My last email ended with Adam, Eve and the snake standing in the middle of the Garden in Eden looking at the forbidden tree. The snake’s words – “ the day you eat of it ya’ll’s eyes will be opened, and ya’ll will be like God – had caught Eve’s attention. Genesis 3:6 reveals what she is thinking.   1. The woman  saw that the tree was good for food.   2. She saw that it pleasant to the eyes.   3. She saw it was a tree desirable to make one  wise .   The first two things she saw agree with what the Bible said about trees (Genesis 2:9).   God made  every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food .   The third thing she saw is very different from what God commanded. Until the moment the snake spoke, she saw that “tree as something so dangerous that if she even touched it she would die!” She wanted to avoid it at all costs.   The only thing that changed was a belie...

  What passes for “world order ” in the 21 st century was created in the German region of Westphalia in 1648.   It was created without the involvement or even the awareness of most other continents or civilizations .   It was created to end the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), which was like a wildfire in which political and religious disputes commingled . Combatants resorted to total war against population centers . After nearly a quarter of the population of Central Europe died from combat, disease, or starvation, the leaders of the nations and religions involved met to define a set of arrangements that would end the bloodletting .   ● Religious unity had fractured with the spread of Protestantism.   ● Political diversity remained because autonomous political units had fought to a draw .   The arrangements they made created what we now call the “ sovereignty of the state.   ● A multiplicity of political units, none powerful e...

  If Jesus dropped by your church or home, what do you think he would say? Based on what we have learned about the Jewish Jesus that founded the Kingdom of God Movement in first century CE Galilee, it would not be, “ Are you saved? ” Instead he would ask:   What are you teaching your children and grandchildren?   Why would that be the first thing Jesus would want to know? When God saw that the evil of the man was  great in the earth, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart  was  only evil all day long, and that the earth was filled with violence – He wiped the entire human population (except for one family) off the earth with a flood . The path that led an entire generation to their deaths can be summed up in God’s words – “ the inclinations of their heart were evil from their youth .”   In a previous email, Nations Will Guard the Way of Yahweh With Abraham’s Sons , I discussed why God chose Abraham: ...