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We must not forget what we just learned. As the reader you must understand that what you learned is the “theology” of sacrifice and any other “sacrifice” must fit this mode of understanding. This means when viewing the death of Yeshua one must be equipped with this understanding before trying to evaluate the meanings that might be attached to his death. Along with this one must equally be equipped with sufficient information concerning comparative religions and the death of their “gods”. Only if one comes to the “Jesus materials” possessing this information can he be guaranteed to be able to discern the true meaning of his death or at least see if concepts from “pagan mystery religions” have been attached to his death. This is especially important when reading Paul’s writings. With what we have just learned as a background let us return to Paul’s statement that "Christ died for our sins" which was the fundamental fact of the early Gentile Christian message, the corner-stone of early Gentile Christianity (but not Jewish Christianity or Messianism). But as soon as this simple fact is stated a number of vital questions are bound to arise. In order that we may have an intelligent and correct understanding of this important doctrine it is necessary that we know precisely what occurred and did not occur when Jesus died on the cross. We cannot rest content with teaching that leaves the central doctrine of the Christian faith shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. This does not mean that all mystery can be removed. But the Scriptures do supply the interpretation of the death of Christ that the inquiring mind legitimately asks for, and the salient factors concerning it should be known by all Christian people. Believing that the Hebrew Scriptures (the Palestinian Masoretic Text and not the corrupted LXX from which your Christian Old Testament originates) is God's word to man, and that the statements of Scripture regarding the death of Jesus in the Greek New Testament are often mistranslated on purpose (http://geocities.com/faithofyeshua),then if you, ordinary Christian men and women, are to even find the truth concerning the death of Jesus, then we must deal with some rather difficult information at times. It is not my wish to destroy anyone’s faith, only to expose the changes made to the text as well as the lies that have been passed down about the death of Jesus which his original follower never “believed”. We hold it to be our task and privilege under the promised guidance of the Holy Spirit to "search the Scriptures", the Jewish Scriptures that Yeshua himself accepted, until we reach that understanding which satisfies the mind and heart and conscience, and leads to certainty and finality.
According to the New Testament, especially the writings of Paul, we are told, for instance, in broad terms that we are members of a fallen race, that God has given His only-begotten Son for our atonement, and that salvation is through Him (Messiah) and not through any works which we ourselves are able to do.
Answer for yourself: How correct is this statement when compared with the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures concerning atonement and forgiveness?
Let us not forget what we just learned in the prior articles.
Certainly anyone who accepts these facts and acts upon them will be “saved” because the fruit of the Christian message leads to Godliness. Yet, accepting these facts and acting upon them would appear to represent only a minimum of faith, and God has made it possible for us greatly to enrich and expand our knowledge of the way of salvation if we will but give careful attention to His word. But the problem is great; you first have to know if you, the Christian, even has His Word, or if your Old Testament is corrupted in special places. For example, the Isaiah translations in the Old Testament of your Christian Bible read completely different in many “messianic” passages as opposed to the Jewish Tanakh. You should ask yourself “why” your Christian Old Testament reads so much different from the Jewish Scriptures from which it was supposedly taken! Most likely you never knew this. It is time to awaken to such sad facts, for it is these alterations which have led to false beliefs concerning Yeshua, his life, and his death.
Christians generally insist that the absolute need for a vicarious blood sacrifice is rooted in the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament), and cite as proof Leviticus 17:11 "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul." The sad fact of the matter is that most Christians and Pastors don't understand the verse at all.
As a Christian, you have probably heard many sermons on the topic of atonement, and have undoubtedly read many studies which support the contention that there is “no atonement without blood.” But the truth of the matter is that neither the Book of Hebrews [it says “almost all things”..not “all things”] or the Old Testament says that. Of course you are also aware that this is a teaching which is not shared by traditional Jews and for a very good reason which has escaped the Gentile Christian church because of their mistranslation, alteration, and therefore misinterpretation of the passages in their Bibles as well as because of superficial reading of the whole Bible.
Answer for yourself: Have you ever wondered how the Jewish people could reject what to you seems so clear? Why would anyone reject a “free” salvation? It does not make sense to the rational mind.
You might remember that in junior high school, we were often given an assignment to write the title for a story; what is the central idea of a passage. Let's look at Leviticus 17:11 in context in order to make sure we understand the “central” idea of the passage.
"And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who consumes any blood, I will set My face against that person who consumes blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. Therefore, I say to the children of Israel, `No one among you shall consume blood, nor shall any stranger who sojourns among you consume blood.'"
What should immediately be apparent is that the topic of this passage is NOT how to secure atonement from sins, but the prohibition against consuming blood. We are told parenthetically that the reason for this prohibition is that the blood contains the vitality (soul) of the animal (Genesis 9:4, Deuteronomy 12:23) and consequently, when we bring an animal sacrifice, its soul (life) which is in its blood serves as the atoning agent, and not another part of its body [the blood]. The writer of Leviticus informs us that it is the soul, one’s life, which is in the blood [blood is the object of the preposition “in”] which was offered to God daily and even in death which was pleasing to God and which God accepted as an “atonement” and as an “offering for sin”. Notice that it is not the “blood” which was accepted for an offering for sin, but rather the “life/soul” which was “in” the blood. “Blood” is not the subject of the sentence. This might be a shock to you but “life” is the subject of the sentence. Or better said, it is the “life” which is the subject of the sentence. That means it is not the “death” or “the blood” which accomplished anything, but rather the life of one which provided atonement. Such a life is one lived in repentance, confession, prayer, and restitution as shown earlier in these articles and as attested by the Jewish Bible. Even your Christian Old Testament will teach you the same things if you are aware of it. It just so happens that the “life of the one bringing the sacrifice” is “pictured” in the life of the animal as the animal’s blood is placed on the altar.
The Hebrew word for “life” which is in the blood is the word for “soul”. Such a life, if it was to be accepted as an atonement, was one which was lived completely obediently to God’s Commandments [by which he never sinned]. Such a life that turned from sin was so pleasing to God that He accepted such a life as an offering for one’s own sin. Such a life was lived in a constant intent to live the commandments of God and when one fell short through sin one was preoccupied to repent and then recapture one’s right standing with God. After repentance, “at that moment”, one was restored into right standing and relationship with God and the placing of the blood of the animal was representative of the sacrificer’s soul before God since he had ALREADY repented. The animal was a picture of him at that time. The soul of the animal was a picture of the sacrificer’s soul, but only if he had repented PRIOR to bringing the sacrifice. Now you can understand why God at times tells us that He is wearied by the sacrifices of the people. They were just killing the animals and there was no repentance in their hearts!
Notice that God is tired of ritual without repentance.
Notice what God says next and the remedy to this sad state of spiritual affairs He finds in His people. Notice what God tells them what they must do!
There you have it. Through repentance, confession, and a return to obedience to the Laws and Commandments of God the people could again be received by Him. Nowhere did God say He did not want the people to continue bringing the sacrifices if their hearts were contrite and repentant. Only then, as you have learned, was their hearts to be represented by the animal’s blood and soul on the altar. Anything else was a lie. Such was a waste of life; not only theirs but the animal’s as well.
The Hebrew word for “soul” is as follows as seen in Strong’s Concordance:
5315 nephesh (neh'-fesh);
from 5314; properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental):
KJV-- any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, X dead (-ly), desire, X [dis-] contented, X fish, ghost, + greedy, he, heart (-y), (hath, X jeopardy of) life (X in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thyself-), them (your)- selves, + slay, soul, + tablet, they, thing, (X she) will, X would have it.
The Hebrew word for “soul” is as follows as seen in Brown-Drivers-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon:
5315 nephesh-
My whole life I was told that I was “saved” by the blood of Jesus, yet Leviticus tells me that atonement which brings salvation is accomplished by my life before God!
Looking at the definition above, one quickly sees that the activity of one’s will, mind, and character [one’s soul] was said to be accepted in Leviticus 17 as an atonement for one’s sin [life and not blood remember?].
Jesus, like all Jewish people who came before him who were devoted to God and His Torah, as well as those who lived after him, comprise the “suffering servant Israel”. Let us remember that Isa. 53 speaks of the nation and corporate Israel as the Suffering Servant and not an individual even if singular pronouns are often used among plural pronouns. It is this “Suffering Servant” who is “the” light for the non-Jewish nations. With this perspective, we now can come to understand that the blood of Jesus carried the life force of Jesus (his soul). Jesus was totally committed and surrendered to the will of God and His Torah. That instead of Jesus’ death, in reality it was his life, a life lived pleasing to God as part of the Israel of God which God accepted as atonement for sin. In particular Israel is the priest for the Gentile world, and they bring sacrifices for the sins of the Gentile world. THINK! Israel’s “soul”, not only Yeshua’s, but all of righteous Israel, past and future, “atones” for sin. These righteous lives are accepted by Hashem on the altar, according to Leviticus 17, as atonement for sin, the sin of the Gentile nations who know not God. Such in reality “atones and saves”. When I as a non-Jew comes to the knowledge of God and His commandments, then when lived before Him I identify with Israel and join Israel in making atonement with my life.
Remembering what we have already learned...that singular pronouns in the Servant Songs of Isaiah refer to the nation of Israel and not to only one person like Jesus. In so doing we can find the following verses even the more astonishing.
6 We all went astray like sheep, we have turned, each one on his own way, and the Lord accepted his [the corporate nation of Israel] prayers for the iniquity of all of us.
Now let us never again under estimate the importance of the prayer service in the Jewish synagogues of the world for by it atonement came for Gentile sins.
Now it become a little more clear. When one looks at Jesus, or other righteous Jews as the Suffering Servant of the LORD, then we see their lives and understand them as “lights to the nations”. Then it is easy to understood such righteous lives and deaths as lives lived as examples which were in complete submission to the Commandments of God as demonstrated by one’s complete submission of the mind, will, and emotions to God and His desires for his people. Such examples when followed by me, literally “saves”! Such lives atoned for sins of the Gentile world and serve as an example to me and you…by which if we follow such examples….provides atonement for our sins. Literally the “corporate” example of Israel is to be individualize in each believer’s life when one comes into personal relationship with God. This is explained when one reads Isaiah 53 from the Jewish Scriptures and not the corrupted Christian Old Testament.
Jesus lived a God-honoring life to such a degree that God accepted his life, as he had all Jews devoted to Him. In Jesus’ life God could tabernacle in a way He never had before with any man and the “Word/Messiah became flesh” at the immersion and anointing of Jesus. Let us never forget that Israel has had many “anointed” (messiahs) messengers of God as was Jesus. Then subsequently his God-honoring life (soul) was later accepted as an offering for sin in behalf of mankind as had others of Israel before him (and those of Israel who would follow him). His soul was pure and could be accepted upon the altar of God in lieu of us. God accepted his prayers for the iniquity of us .
34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do… (KJV)
So it was not Jesus’ death so much as his God-honoring life-style which was lived in complete submission to the Father and His Commandments which not only brought Jesus to tabernacle within God “without measure”, but shows us the way to both live and die in a way which honors both man and God and procures for us our atonement when we live our lives by his example. The death of Yeshua was not so much a sacrifice for us but an example for us.
Had Jesus not died then there most likely would not have been a movement catalyzed from within a Gentile hating Judaism of the 2nd Temple period which would reach out to the nations with the Torah and the Laws of Noah. The death, where the blood of Jesus was shed, was the catalyst that caused a mission into all the world where the Covenant of Noah was extended to the Gentile World. We call this the Great Commission today. Now understand which is said next. For in the wake of Yeshua’s death would come a movement into all the world which aimed at taking the Torah to the nations whereby non-Jews could learn how to live lives pleasing to God as had Israel through faith and acceptance of the commands of God respective of their Covenant. Messianic Israel took to the non-Jews and the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel God’s Covenant made with the non-Jews since before Noah. Faith and obedience to the Covenant stipulations brought salvation to the non-Jewish world. In others words Jesus traded his life for ours as previous Suffering Servants of God had done in preserving the truths of God for all mankind, and God accepted the bargain. This understanding is what Isaiah understood about the sacrifice of the Suffering Servant. Because of the death of Jesus, and I believe his resurrection, the teachings by which non-Jews could enter Covenant with God and live by the Commandments of God was to be taken into all the world. Along with these teachings would come the understanding that repentance from sin and a return to God provides a life pleasing to God which He then accepts as atonement for sin. Through the ages of the Christian Gentile Church this teaching was lost! Your example of being a Christian today which does not understand the sacrificial system of the Bible is proof.
The vast majority of Christians in the world today have not been told this and wander in fables because they lack the correct understanding which only can come from in-depth Bible study. And you have to have the right text before you start. Sadly Christians for the most part cannot find the truth because they are working from a corrupted text. They only reinforce error. Buy yourself a Stone Edition Tanakh. Then you will have the Bible Yeshua used.
So it was the Suffering Servant, Israel, composed of many Israelites, whose lives lived daily in complete obedience to their God which was so pleasing to God that they could be accepted by God as an offering for sin and not their red corpuscles (blood) which Christianity sadly focuses. And the Lord accepted his [the corporate nation of Israel] prayers for the iniquity of all of us. What makes this even more remarkable is that in this very passage from Isa. 53 it is the GENTILE KINGS OF THE WORLD SPEAKING & NOT THE JEWISH PEOPLE OR THE JEWISH PROPHETS! The Gentiles will one day understand the role played by the righteous Jewish people in expiation of their sin! This is prophetic but you can fulfill it today if you open your heart and head to the facts presented in this article.
Such is the teaching of Isaiah and Leviticus.
Because of the proliferation of bloody rites in Gentile paganism, the Gentile converts to Jewish Christianity would in the first centuries, inherently revert back to pagan backgrounds. Thus the emphasis today on blood instead of a God-honoring life as the offering for sin has been inherited by the Gentile Church. Such falsehoods as taught by Paul was a “bridge” to the non-Jewish nations as he attempted to “be all things to all that he might win some”. Paul gave the non-Jew nothing more that what they already had; for in the pagan mystery religions, of which Troas was the capital of Mithraism, Paul’s home town, the old pagan concepts were rolled into Jesus by Paul for Gentile acceptance. They did not have to accept Judaism per se, he would simply remold Jesus into a neo-pagan to which they could relate. Such is the reckless acts of one desperately trying to be received and accepted because of his rejection by the Jerusalem Church. When Jerusalem would be notified of what Paul was teaching, he would be repeatedly summoned to answer charges. Finally, in Acts 21 he was arrested, but his submission to the Jerusalem church was never in question. They just never accepted “Paul’s” gospel. Neither should you! Paul’s gospel could not “preach” in Israel, only 1500 miles away when few knew little of a Jewish Jesus or the Torah. Such a clever tactic by Paul only made Yeshua the head of the non-Jewish pantheon which were already filled with pagan gods which gave their body and blood for their followers for salvation. SUCH A TEACHING AS SHARED BY PAUL IS NOT JEWISH NOR IS SUCH A TEACHING BIBLICAL! IT IS PAGAN TO ITS CORE AND YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT! JAMES AND THE JERUSALEM CHURCH DID! The whole sorry affair can be seen as I have detailed it in this web-site if you read it thoroughly.
I just gave you the Biblical teaching on atonement.
Answer for yourself: Have you noticed we have not discussed “sin offerings” yet but have covered the gamut of atonement? Sin offerings only began after the terrible sin of idolatry and blasphemy of the Name of the LORD when Israel rejected YHVH at Sinai. Now God would add a new law that had not existed prior to that time. Request our article on “The Law That Was Added” to further your understanding in this area.
Really I don't have much to say except they were instituted after the golden calf incident. Then a whole priesthood and tabernacle was required. But even looking at sin offerings, the same spiritual dynamics that we have learned are applied; namely, the soul or life of the sacrificer is placed on the altar as a picture of his renewed relationship with God and the accuracy of such a demonstration was determined if he had repented, confessed, and made restitution PRIOR to bringing the sacrifice.
Having now come to the understanding that it was a life lived above sin that was so pleasing to God that God accepted such a life as an offering and atonement for one’s sin, it should behoove you to rethink what you believe about atonement as a Christian. If you were to do some comparative religious study you will see the preponderance of evidence of how pagan concepts of salvation are woven into Pauline theology. I have shown you the Biblical teachings of atonement and have not mentioned Paul’s theology once. The reason I have not is that nowhere in the Jewish Masoretic Palestinian text are such Pauline concepts of atonement found.
Only when you read the fraudulent and mistranslated Greek Scriptures, which the Rabbis did not translate, do you begin to find such ideas surfacing in the text. But never fail to understand that such concepts cannot be found in the Jewish Scriptures from which the Greek translation emanated. Somebody “fixed” the Greek translation to read differently. And sadly for you, these altered and paganized Greek mistranslation became the foundation for your Christian Old Testament. To make matters worse, your New Testament quotes from the fraudulent Old Testament. Over and over as you read your Christian Bible you only reinforce and rehearse error! You need to know that. But that happened over 2000 years ago and who knows? Well I do, and others do who have studied enough to see it! The Jews have always known. It is the secularized Jews of today who don't. It is time someone told you! The righteous Jews know this and have known this since 200 BC when the Greek translation was understood by them to be a corruption of the Jewish Scriptures. History records 3 attempts of the Jews to correct such a forged Greek translation but sadly their efforts were not to overtake the popularity of the already translated LXX (Septuagint).
Understand an animal’s soul represented the soul of one making the sacrifice, and we, as non-Jews, today are beneficiaries of having the Jew’s prayers for our sin on Yom Kippur. Jesus is the archetype for all of Israel. But in this lesson we must no longer overlook the importance of a life lived above sin which procures one’s redemption and not the inert blood of the animal or of Jesus. Lives lived honoring God through faith and obedience atones. Your Covenant requires it! Such is the message of Bet Emet as we are called to live like Jesus and not just “believe in Jesus.” It has been my experience as a Pastor over the years to encounter multitudes of Christians who trust in Christ’s blood instead of understanding the importance of his life, symbolized by his soul in his blood, as lived in obedience to God as a form of atonement, or even their own lives, as lived pleasing to God for their OWN atonement. We must walk out our salvation with fear and trembling. We are co-laborers with God in our own salvation through faith and repentance. Such a mistaken understanding of our redemption as seen from Paul, since not being taught the truth from a Hebraic perspective, has caused multitudes of Christians to trust in the acclaimed miraculous powers of the blood of Jesus instead of focusing of the miraculousness of a life lived above sin. Such a false sense of security in “blood” instead of “lives lived holy before God and man” unconsciously causes the believer to not regard sin with revulsion as he should. We tend to view sin as less harmful than it is, and compromise with sin which lies at the door.
The bottom line for all Christians to understand is that we have heard way too much preached about Jesus and far too little studied from the texts of the Jewish Bible which tell us exactly and accurately who he is as well as his original mission. If we had studied the original sources available to us, we would not be so mixed up theologically in a Christianity today which boasts over 2000 different denominations all maintaining they have the truth about Jesus while at the same time being the most violent and crime ridden nation in the world.
SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE MESSAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH…LOOK AT THE FRUIT OF THIS MESSAGE IN OUR COUNTRY WITH A CHURCH ON EVERY CORNER AND TELEVISIONS FILLED WITH THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE. JUST LOOK OUT YOUR DOOR AND ASK IF THAT IS THE BEST THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN DO????????
May God forgive our laziness to let others tell us what to believe instead of us studying to show ourselves approved unto God. I just showed you part of the problem. Implicitly we are led to not revere the Laws and Commandments of God because “Jesus died for me” and my get out of jail card saves me. As a Pastor I saw such falsehoods lived out in the lives of the congregation year after year. When there is no Law, no Commandments, no requirements, no accountability, then there is no righteous fruit and we have our newspapers filled with horror story after horror story and many of these atrocities are being committed by clergy.
Answer for yourself: When was the last time you saw a Rabbi skip off with the funds of the synagogue or be caught with a prostitute? When was the last time a Rabbi was found molesting a child? Are they any different that non-Jews; or is it because they have a fear of God that is lacking in the Christian Church because we have "implicitly" been sold a bill of goods that we are "already" forgiven and can get away with it because "Jesus paid it all?"
And sadly few can count on their lives being a sufficient atonement for their sin when your whole life the Church has taught you to live without Law and the Commandments of God. This the legacy of Paul and his mystery religions superimposed upon a Rabbi names Yeshua/Jesus. You were taught these "laws and commandments" were a curse. Emotionalism is a sorry substitute for knowledge.
Answer for yourself: For after all if saved by the blood of Jesus, what need do I have to live like Jesus and not disobey the commandments of God? Isn't Jesus my “grace card” that allows me to live anyway I want to and not fear the end-result of such non-accountable behavior?
Answer for yourself: If saved by the blood of another, what does a little sin mean…what can it hurt; for after all, did not Jesus die for me as the Roman document ...the New Testament states?
Answer for yourself: See the tragic thinking involved in focusing upon the blood of Jesus instead of the life of Jesus lived above sin?
Shalom.