Traditional Anti-Torah Church Doctrines: The Curses of Our Fathers

By Cornie Banman

Have you ever stopped to think whether the doctrines you hear in your church are actually coming from the word of the creator? In Traditional Anti-Torah Church Doctrines, author Cornie Banman offers an analysis of doctrines to help Christians ascertain whether a doctrine comes directly from God or originates from man.

Banman explains how and why traditional Christendom has rejected the Ten Commandments and how that belief has inevitably created an anti-God messiah. In Traditional Anti-Torah Church Doctrines, he shows how:

A subtle and powerful philosophy of anti-Jew doctrines has indoctrinated traditional Christians into believing the Messiah's first coming was to abolish the Ten Commandments The philosophy of a few church fathers has undermined the Ten Commandments by elevating manmade traditions to commandment status An anti-Jew philosophy plays a key role in abolishing the commandments and exposes its foundationThe God of Abraham has given mankind a simple formula to test and measure all doctrines against his word Anyone can use that test against all doctrines to see whether they are inspired by the God of the scriptures or by the gods of this world. A person who's snared by deceived indoctrination can get back into alignment with God's true word

Illustrating his beliefs with biblical evidence, Banman provides guidance for testing and measuring the instructions coming from your church with God's truth in a simple way.

http://corniebanman.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491743140

Cornie Banman

Cornie Banman has worked in the sawmill industry for three decades. He and his wife, Sara, have one daughter and live in Alberta, Canada. Banman’s first book, The Commandments of God, was published in 2011. Visit him online at http://corniebanman.com.

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Traditional Anti-Torah Church Doctrines

The Curses of Our Fathers

Copyright © 2014 Cornie Banman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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iUniverse rev. date: 09/04/2015

Contents

Introduction

1. Where Did the Church Traditions Begin?

2. The Torah Test

3. Hebrews—Abraham’s Descendants

3a. Israelites, Jews, and Gentiles

4. God’s Laws for All Mankind—Designed for Eternity

4a. The Physical Laws, the Ritual Laws, and the Spiritual Laws

4b. Works of the Laws

5. God’s Laws in Today’s Congregation

5a. God’s Holy Day Plans—Man’s Awesome Promise of Hope

5b. A Pretribulation Rapture—Satan’s Babylonian Bypass Theory

6. God’s Commandments and Laws in the New Covenant

6a. God’s Dietary Laws in the New Covenant

6b. Does Man Have an Immortal Soul?

6c. The Two Adams

7. Paul Keeping Laws?

7a. Does Keeping God’s Commandments Forfeit Salvation?

8. The Core of Corruption in the Traditional Religious Circle

9. The Doctrine of Balaam

10. Traditional Christendom vs. Jewism: Wall-building

10a. A New Wall of Enmity

11. What Does All This Mean?

11a. The Universal Mother-Harlot and her Daughters

12. Reversing the Curses

12a. Man Does Not Have Inherited Sin

13. Hebrew/Greek/English Concordance

The Ten Commandments of the Lord

The Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto

About The Author

Introduction

I was born in a small farming community in La Crete, Alberta, Canada, in the spring of 1959. My wife, Sara (Wolfe), from southern Manitoba, and I got baptized in a local Church in La Crete in the spring of 1981, and we got married in the summer of that year. Sara has a tremendous passion for children, including the handicapped, and all children love her. She is a very serious gardener. She is a blessing to me and to all who know her. God blessed us with a wonderful daughter, Kathryn, in the summer of 1996; she also enjoys gardening and doing yard work.

My wife and I both grew up in a culture of very religious and sincere churchgoing Anabaptist Mennonites. Mennonites are a people who take after the faith of a man called Menno Simons, an Anabaptist who broke away from the Roman Catholic system in the early sixteenth century and started his own denomination.

After I finished the eighth grade at age fifteen, I started working in the sawmill industry. I have built and maintained sawmills for other people for a few decades. I am presently employed at one that I set up in 1991 for eight local businessmen. I still enjoy that line of work.

In 1998, greed motivated me to become a partner with a friend in a business venture, which failed financially. New partners got involved and eventually purchased the business, but they didn’t pay for it as promised. I tried to settle through the legal system but was forced to back off by the church of which I was a member, with a promise of settlement. Since I was brought up in the church system, I obeyed them. But settlement never came. We felt extremely betrayed by that church system. This brought me down very low, to a point where it humbled me enough that I eventually surrendered myself to my Creator. I repented, turned away from that system, and turned to God for my first time. Thus, the healing process began.

We do not belong to any denominational church now. But we have, as a family, committed ourselves to obey the God of heaven and earth. We belong to God’s congregation now—the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16)—and He provides our spiritual food, and His blessings are overwhelming. But this comes with a price tag, because it means committing to the laws and commandments of the creator God, for which much criticism comes from traditional Christianity. All the years that we did attend the Mennonite churches, we were fully convinced that the congregations were, as a whole, fully keeping the Ten Commandments. We were indoctrinated with a belief that our congregations were the only ones that were living by the commandments of God. We didn’t wake up to realize, until we severed from that system, that they not only did not keep God’s commandments but also, in a hideous and deceitful way, advocated that one ought not keep them, because they are burdensome. In order to reason around not needing to keep them, they professed that God gave them to the Jews only, thus justifying the enforcing of their own traditional doctrines as divine commandments of God. Their doctrines rub shoulders with the Ten Commandments, but they are mixed with traditions and customs of men and, as such, are preached as God’s divine Word. The catechism, which is a question-and-answer tool wherewith to teach teenagers about God’s divinity, includes the rehearsing of the Ten Commandments. Then, ironically, five questions after the actual Ten Commandments are rehearsed, it is professed that those commandments were only a teacher for the people of ancient times and don’t apply to us today.

Going through this experience has developed within us a tremendous passion to share with the world what we have learned from God’s truth; especially how the scriptures revealed to us what changes we would have to make in our life to be able to be healed from those troubles. Thus, we feel moved and obliged to share our experience with all who have ears to hear, in hopes that it may deliver some hope and encouragement to others who may find themselves in similar situations, that they also might find healing through and by God’s truth.

I don’t declare myself to be a prophet or anything of that sort. I’m an average, wage-earning family man with a strong passion to share what we have learned from God’s truth. And new revelations and convictions confront us daily. These experiences are what motivated me to start publishing books and tracts, and also a website to share with the world. If any good comes from it, I pray that all honor and glory goes to our creator God.

Love,

Cornie Banman

I’ve done a lengthy study and research on today’s traditional church system, which I refer to as traditional Christianity or the traditional church system; by which terms I mean the Protestant reformation religion (protesting Catholics). These terms relate to the church denominations that can trace their genealogy back to the Roman Catholic system.

My wife and I started out by looking into God’s Word to confirm that the doctrines that were taught in the churches in our area were backed up by the Holy Scriptures. And we were truly convinced that they were, as we were always assured of by our parents and the preachers. We were shocked to discover that the doctrines of these churches were merely traditions of men, and as such were usually the exact opposite of the Holy Scriptures. They claim that the Ten Commandments are binding upon us, but they refuse to abide by certain ones, which they shrug off as being commanded only for the wicked and evil Jews, whom they’ve labeled as the murderers of our Lord. This shocked us to the core. So we studied the Holy Scriptures along with other resources to try to find out how a church system that swears to be unanimously scripture based could have gone so tragically wrong.

The results of that study motivated me to publish a book to show that God’s moral laws are eternal and still apply to us today, for our benefit—not as a burden, as is taught by traditional Christianity. That book is called The Commandments of God. Are they burdensome? Are they abolished? It can be obtained through my website, http://corniebanman.com, through the publisher iUniverse (www.iUniverse.com), and from most online bookstores. On my website I also have a few tracts in English and German. Feel free to print them to share with friends.

What I learned from writing that book motivated me to continue the study to see how the early church fathers could have borne such an apostasy. It will help to more readily understand the concept of this book if you have already read that book. However, this book is only a slight continuation of it, and more of an explanation of how and why traditional Christendom has rejected the Ten Commandments, and how that belief has inevitably created an anti-God messiah.

In Traditional Church Doctrines I show how a subtle and extremely powerful philosophy of anti-Jew doctrines has, with sobering success, indoctrinated millions, or perhaps billions, of traditional Christians into believing that the Messiah’s First Coming was to abolish the Ten Commandments. I will show how the philosophy of a few demon-inspired and God-hating church fathers has successfully accomplished that mission by elevating man-made traditions to commandment status through traditional church doctrines. We’ll see how an extreme anti-Jew philosophy plays a key role in that mission, and thus expose its foundation and maybe—with the help of God—start shattering some of those beliefs.

In section 2 I describe how the God of Abraham has given mankind a very simple formula to test and measure all doctrines against His Word. I occasionally demonstrate that test throughout this book, and by the time we get to the end you will see how anyone who has a willing mind to learn God’s truth can use that test to prove all doctrines to see whether they are inspired by the God of the scriptures, or perhaps by the god of this world. Then I will show how a person who’s snared by deceived indoctrination can get back into alignment with God’s true Word.

I’m not judging or condemning the churches, or people to whom this applies, but I do abhorrently rebuke the traditional law-done-away doctrines that I am unveiling in my books and tracts. Any congregation that is unanimously scripture based need not wear this shoe. Please read this entire book with an open and unbiased mind before judging it.

Important Notice: Most of the New Testament, which was written between about AD 40–100, was originally written in Greek and translated to other languages many centuries later. The King James Version (KJV) was translated into English from 1604 to 1611. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew. I have a Hebrew-Greek-English interlinear scriptures set, in which every Hebrew and Greek word is numbered for the purpose of cross-checking in the concordance dictionary. I have studied the contents of the articles in this book and have included a number of definitions in hopes that it will help you to understand the contents of this book and, moreover, the scriptures.

Throughout this book you will see endnote numbers, such as ²², which indicates that you will find the Hebrew or Greek word from which the previous word or words were translated, with the definition, in section 13. I have emphasized texts in scripture verses by setting text in boldface, underlining text, and sometimes italicizing, throughout this book. Words and phrases among scripture citations in [square brackets] are added by me for emphasis only. All citations are as they appear in the scripture, with the exception of the words or phrases that I have set in boldface or otherwise emphasized (which is done for clarification purposes only, so that you can see what I am emphasizing at the time). No words or phrases have been altered to any extent beyond what I’ve mentioned. All scripture verses are quoted from the KJV unless otherwise stated. The Ten Commandments from the scriptures (Ex. 20:2–17) and the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto are cited on pages 378-382.

1. Where Did the Church Traditions Begin?

We need to start way back in time, a few millennia ago or so. In the book of Genesis God told Abraham—a man who had great and absolute faith in Him—that He would give him much property in which He would raise up many people through his seed, by which He would bless the whole world: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth (Gen. 13:15–16; read also Gen. 12:3, 7; 15:5–7; 17:7–8; 18:18; 22:17; 24:60; 26:3–5; 28:13–14; 32:12; Ex 32:13; Deut. 9:5–6; Acts 3:25; Rom. 4:17; Gal. 3:8, 17; Heb. 11:12). God made an eternal promise and covenant with Abraham: "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting <`owlam>¹ covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting <`owlam>¹ possession; and I will be their God" (Gen. 17:7–8; read also Gen. 26:24; 28:13; Rom. 9:8; Gal. 3:17; Heb. 11:16).

God foretold Abraham that his descendants would be oppressed in a land of strangers from among whom He would later redeem them with great substance. Abraham had a son Isaac, who had a son Jacob. And because of Abraham’s faith and obedience to God’s laws and commandments, which God knew he would also teach to his children (Gen. 18:19), God transferred the covenants and promises to his descendants: "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge <mishmereth>², my commandments <mitsvah>³, my statutes <chuqqah>⁴, and my laws <towrah>⁵ (Gen. 26:3–5; read also 22:16; 28:15; Ps. 105:9–10; Heb. 11:9). In Genesis 32:28 God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, meaning that Jacob’s descendants would be powerful and would rule as God: And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel <Yisra’el>⁶: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed" (Gen. 32:28). From that moment on, Abraham’s descendants—flesh-born and also adopted Gentiles (Ex. 12:38; Rom. 2:28–29; 10:12; Gal. 3:28–29; Col. 3:11)—are all together called Israelites; the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16), named after the congregation of Jacob/Israel (Deut. 33:4), through whom the covenantal promises can be obtained.

In Exodus chapters 1 to 11, we read of how the Egyptians forced brutal labor upon the Israelites for a few centuries. Four hundred thirty years, to the day (Ex. 12:40–41), after God made the covenant with Abraham (Gen. 17:21; Gal. 3:17), He demonstrated His sovereignty and mighty powers while He delivered the Israelites, Abraham’s children of promise, out of the Egyptian bondage and slavery. God set appointed times for the special events that pertain to the fulfillment of these covenantal promises (Gen. 15:13; Gen. 17:21; Gen. 18:10, 14; Gen. 21:2; Acts 7:6; Rom. 9:9; Gal. 3:17) because the whole of these plans reveals to us how He is restoring His kingdom back into the state in which it was before the archangel Lucifer, called Satan, the devil (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), rebelled against God, thus defiling it.

It’s interesting to note that the 430 years go back to the day after Isaac was born, which was also exactly, to the day, one year after Isaac was promised to Abraham and Sarah: "But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time <mow`ed>⁷ in the next year" (Gen. 17:21). So the day on which God promised Abraham a son, the day on which that son was born, and the day of the Lord’s Passover, when God redeemed the Israelites from Egypt, happened to be on the same day of the year—God’s appointed time. The Messiah also kept the Passover on that same day in the New Testament (Luke 22:13-20), when He became the Passover Lamb of God (1 Cor. 5:7; 1 Peter 1:19).

After about four centuries of being enslaved, the Israelites were glad to be redeemed from that bondage. But they soon forsook the God of their father Abraham and worshipped the Baal gods of the pagan nations around them. The whole book of scriptures is full of testimonies and examples of these accounts: "And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them (Deut. 31:16). After their forty-year journey through the wilderness and desert, Moses reminded them of exactly that fault: Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you" (Deut. 9:24).

The gods with whom they flirted were always pagan deities from the heathen world around them. The heathen gods continually enticed them with worldly lusts and desires of the flesh in order to seduce them away from the God of Abraham, who delivered them from bondage. This type of flirting, which started with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden still continues today, inspired by that same satanic spirit. And we are still descendants of that same Adam (Gen. 5:3; 1 Cor. 15:22, 45).

God made a covenant—a binding agreement, or contract—with the Israelites in Exodus 19–24, which was agreed upon and ratified by blood. This married them to the eternal God. He became their husband (Jer. 3:14; Ezek. 16:8, 32), and likewise they became His wife. He established them and bought them (Deut. 32:6). This God—the God of Israel, which is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob—is a sovereign God with endless power, and He is jealous when other gods get His credit. He calls it adultery or whoring when that happens, and He warned them about that:

Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. (Ex. 34:11–16)

Mankind’s fear of man, which has developed a tremendous selfish desire to serve man rather than God, seems to be the overall theme of most of the Old and New Testament scriptures. The prophets and writers of the Holy Scriptures have great and terrible warnings for us and for future generations for following the traditions of men because they come directly from the god of this world—Satan, the devil.

God promised that He would at a certain time send a Redeemer who would destroy Satan and his influences (Gen. 3:15). That Redeemer—the Messiah—was manifested about two thousand years ago to remove the penalty of sin for repentant believers: Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Although there are many prophecies in the Old Testament about that Redeemer, there is much more prophesied about His Second Coming than there is about the first. The Second Coming is when He will come to rule this earth while opening the way to unprecedented peace and prosperity. The Jews—Israelites—of old were eagerly looking forward to the events of His coming, but because of their self-righteous and prideful hearts, they ignorantly overlooked the events and purpose of His First Coming. Therefore they overlooked the need for what was prophesied to be delivered by His First Coming. After all, they didn’t need to be delivered or redeemed from the penalties of sin, because as you can read in John chapters 5 through 10 (you need to read these six chapters to understand this vital point), they claimed that they were already free because they were Abraham’s descendants, and because of the fact that they were circumcised in the flesh.

As a result of their boastful, control-mongering pride, they preached their traditional doctrines as divine commandments wherewith God’s commandments were automatically forsaken: "Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition (Matt. 15:6; read also Mark 7:6–9). That’s what kept their hearts uncircumcised, wherefore God blinded/veiled their hearts: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ" (2 Cor. 3:14; read also Deut. 29:4; Isa. 29:10; John 12:40; Rom. 11:7–8). When one realizes that the New Testament does not abolish or contradict the Old, but that, rather, through it God reveals events that fulfill His great salvation plan and the hope of mankind by the manifestation of its prophecies, God removes the veil.

So the Pharisees argued that this professing Son of Man was not their promised Messiah, because according to their understanding of the prophecies of His coming, He would come as their Jewish Lord and King. After all, He was born to be the King of the Jews (Matt. 2:2). Therefore, they thought that, if He were the promised king of the Jews, He would come and bring peace to and for Israel, as was prophesied that He would do. They believed He would come and prove to them that He was the true Messiah of which the prophets had spoken and written. According to their understanding, he had come to literally be their Jewish king, and as such He would judge the Romans and whoever else was in opposition to their beliefs, and kick them out of existence forever!

Yes, one of His great promises is that He will rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to remove wickedness from this world; but He will do so at His Second Coming. He clearly stated that His First Coming was not to make peace but war: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household (Matt. 10:34–36). These are trials with which we will be tested until He returns: I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?" (Luke 12:49). He is looking forward to the time when all will be fulfilled, after fire will kosher this earth together with the whole universe as we know it—And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts (Mal. 4:3; read also Matt. 24:35; Mark 13:31; Rev. 20:11; 21:1; Isa. 34:4; 47:14; 51:6; 2 Peter 3:10-12)—for to fulfill the establishment of His Father’s holy kingdom (Matt. 5:18).

Peter wrote about an end-time fire by which the earth together with its surroundings will be koshered and made holy: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10). Joel prophesied that there will be war on this earth until the Messiah returns: "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears … for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision" (Joel 3:10, 14). After His return, the Messiah will deliver peace and salvation, which the Jews of His day expected of His First Coming: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isa. 2:4; also read Mic. 4:3). After the Messiah returns to put an end to the deadliest war to ever have occurred in this world (the Great Tribulation/Jacobs trouble; Jer. 30:7; Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21) and lock Satan away, people’s efforts, through love for one another, will be focused on peace and prosperity the likes of which the human mind cannot even imagine.

Even the Messiah’s chosen disciples, also yet deceived and blinded, believed that the Messiah had come at that time to rule the earth: When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6; read also Matt. 24:3; Luke 19:11; 24:21). Not until the Messiah presented Himself to them after the resurrection did they begin to understand the true gospel of the kingdom of God on earth, of which the prophets of old have written. Only then did they begin to understand what the Messiah had meant when He spoke to them—that He was expounding on the order of the fulfilling of the setting up of His Father’s kingdom here on earth—which is spelled out in the Law and the Prophets (or, as it is called in Hebrew, the Torah)—instructions with which they were familiar in the carnal and physical manner. Now they began to understand that the crucifixion and resurrection of the Messiah—as vital, holy, and essential as those events were—were merely the beginning of the prophetic events that must be fulfilled in order for the Messiah to restore and set up God’s holy kingdom: "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? … And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things" (Luke 24:32, 44–48); thus a Torah test. He removed the veil from their hearts so that they could understand that the Old Testament prophecies were in the process of being fulfilled. Torah prophecies were brought to their remembrance, causing them to understand and thus believe.

The Messiah always spoke in parables because the uncalled people weren’t supposed to understand him:

And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear [He unveiled their hearts]. (Matt. 13:10–16; read also Isa. 6:9–10; Mark 4:10–13; John 12:40; Acts 28:27)

After receiving the Holy Spirit during the next Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4), His called-out ones began to understand the spiritual aspects of those events.

God blinded the Pharisees for a purpose—they were not yet called. Thus, still to this very day, they cannot understand. And most of them will remain veiled from the truth until God calls them; and He will, in His time. We will see more of this as we progress along.

This lays the foundation and sets the stage for what I will focus on in this book, because many of these very same prophecies are also being overlooked by today’s traditional church system in a similar manner, but with a twist. By the time we get to the end of this book, we will see that the traditional church doctrines are cunningly established upon extreme anti-Jewism, which reveals their anti-Torahism. We will see how a vicious anti-Jewism in their philosophy inevitably forces them to use different rationale and reasoning than the Pharisees did regarding righteousness. Therefore, they have, just like the Pharisaic Jews, misappropriated the purpose and the timing of the vital events of the Messiah’s First and Second Comings.

The extreme anti-Jew doctrines of traditional Christendom come from a very powerful fourth-century Roman Emperor—Constantine the Great. While he was in power, he made a couple of very bold and powerful life-and-death anti-Jew decrees, which stated, It is our duty not to have anything in common with the murderers of our Lord… …We should have nothing in common with the Jews. He called it a divine command …the divine favour, and this truly divine command. And his decree goes on to say that …All our brethren in the East who formerly followed the customs of the Jews are henceforth to celebrate the said most sacred feast of Easter at the same time with the Romans… That decree was penciled between AD 317 and 325, and it was canonized (made Roman Catholic Bible doctrine) around AD 341 by a later successor emperor (Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series, vol. 14, [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996], 54–56, 108). The Easter decree became canonized at a later point at Antioch in Syria (Canon I, page 108).

Constantine also traded the seventh-day Sabbath for the first-day Sunday, which became Canon XXIX at Laodicea, in Phrygia: CHRISTIANS must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ (page 148). Thus, because of Constantine’s extreme hunger for power and control, he amalgamated all the beliefs of that time into one universal religion; hence the Roman Catholic Church was born. All beliefs were welcome, as long as they had nothing in common with the beliefs of the Jews and paid homage to the Roman Empire and its deities—like Mithras—the sun god which Constantine worshipped.

Since the Pharisaic Jews believe only in the Old Testament scriptures, the believers of the universal Roman Catholic Church system, because of their anti-Jew mind-set, cannot use the scriptures from the Old Testament but only from the New Testament—because their beliefs can’t have anything in common with those of the Jews. Therefore, both sects are unable to understand the truth of God’s Word; they remain veiled/blinded from the truth. On the philosophies of such hateful anti-Jew apostates hinge most, if not all, of the traditional doctrines that the early church fathers invented, thus establishing the foundation of today’s traditional church’s doctrinal system. I realize that dedicated traditional churchgoers will take issue with this statement, but unless you study and prove these things for yourself and believe what you find in God’s Word, it’s impossible to even begin to understand this great apostasy. It’s very important to study this prayerfully with an unbiased mind-set, because if you’re determined to defend doctrines of a traditional law-done-away church system, your heart will remain veiled! Bear this point in mind throughout this book, and moreover when studying the Holy Scriptures.

The apostle Paul reminds us that we’ve been deceived through religious systems by false, blinded, and glory-seeking theologically trained teachers: "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity [singleness] that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him (2 Cor. 11:3–4). Today’s anti-Law advocates teach a gospel consisting of God’s truth mixed with lies in a way that portrays a spirit of a messiah who came specifically to abolish God’s commandments. Paul reminded us to not mix God’s truth with paganism: But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils" (1 Cor. 10:20–21). One cannot truthfully profess God’s Word while serving and advocating paganism.

Lies such as these, and the Pharisees’ arguments with the Messiah (John chapters 5–10), must be what inspired John to remind us about how we can know whether we are worshipping the true Messiah—the One who forgives sins when we repent for breaking a commandment: "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:1–4).

With a law-done-away mind-set (supposedly making sinning impossible), a person cannot feel a need for a redeemer to forgive sins. The pride of the Pharisees caused them to not be able to see their sin, because they professed to be keeping God’s commandments. Their trouble was that they kept them according to their perverted version, whereby God’s commandments were forsaken. Traditional Christendom advocates that God’s commandments don’t exist anymore, wherefore they keep the traditions of their church, whereby they also forsake God’s commandments—just like the Pharisees. God says we are still sinning: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (1 John 1:8–10).

John gave us these strong warnings decades after the commandments were apparently abolished. He knew that to transgress a law, there must first be a law to transgress: All unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17); sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4; read also Matt. 5:17–19; James 2:8–11); all thy commandments are righteousness (Ps. 119:172). To not sin is to keep God’s commandments. To sin is to not keep them. If God’s laws and commandments were abolished, then John’s warning to not sin, and his encouragement that we have forgiveness upon confession in case we do sin, would have been totally in vain! He knew, as also Paul did, that we are still carnal and thus able to sin: For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom. 7:14; read also 1 Cor. 3:3–4). And they believed the Messiah when He said that not one jot or tittle would be destroyed from God’s laws: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:17–19).

Satan does not necessarily present himself as a gruesome, fire-spitting devil, as he is typically portrayed; else he could not deceive people: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:13–15). They come with great authority: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12).

Jeremiah lamented about the spiritual tragedy that Satan delivers through false ministers: "My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away" (Jer. 50:6). In chapter 23 Jeremiah explains how Satan’s ministers deceive God’s flock and lead them astray, thus warning such preachers and their followers. It’s addressed to specifically convict pastors and to warn and inspire their listeners to, as Paul warns, Prove all things (1 Thess. 5:21). As the Bereans did, they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). The Bereans compared the teachings of the apostles with the only scriptures they had—the Old Testament scrolls. In Deuteronomy chapter 12:28–13:5, the God of Abraham commands His people to do exactly that, and I will expound a bit upon that before going any further. Throughout this book, I will be focusing on what I will describe in section 2, which I will call the Torah test.

2. The Torah Test

The theme of this book hinges on the aspects of a few very important scriptures regarding prophets and preachers who prophecy and do miracles. God gives us a very strong command to heed their sayings: "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him" (Deut. 18:18–19).

But, He says, if he claims to be a prophet of God and his prophecies do not come to pass, he is a false prophet and as such is to be put to death. But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him (Deut. 18:20–22). That seems quite simple, straightforward, and fair: if a person