Christianity and Sensibility

By Becca Blackwelder

A Five Star Scribd listing! Should women teach in church? Is divorce a sin? Was Noah's flood real? Were Adam and Eve real people? What about homosexuality? This book goes into some hot debated topics using text, scripture, definitions, culture and tradition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ami Blackwelder
• Release date: Nov 10, 2009
• ISBN: 9781301215218

Book preview

Christianity and Sensibility

By

Becca Blackwelder

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2009 by Becca Blackwelder

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or repro-duced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, includ-ing photocopying, recording, taping or by any information stor-age retrieval system without the written permission of the pub-lisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Eloquent Enraptures books may be ordered through local book: http://beccasreligiousbooks.blogspot.com

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this to my family and countless friends for their interesting discussions which have helped shaped the ideas of this book. I would also like to dedicate this book to the truth seekers of the world. Lastly and most importantly, I would like to thank my Creator for the special gifts given uniquely to me.

About the Author:

I am a graduate with a Bachelors degree in English with a focus on creative writing. I have traveled extensively in my life and have enjoyed learning about other cultures and beliefs and lives first hand. My educational background and experiences have in-fluenced both my writing styles and content. I hope you enjoy.

Other religious works by this author:

The Ancient Genesis

The Other Five Senses

Part one discusses the Messiah and the misunderstandings mod-ern day Christianity has about Mashiach because of her departure from Judaism around 60 AD and sealed in 300AD with Con-stantine, the first Roman Christian emperor.

This split from Judaism was created because of the flood of gen-tiles that poured into the faith, bringing with them their Roman, Greek and Pagan ideas, leaving behind the Jewish understanding which was not missed and often even hated. Along with the em-bracement of Greek, Roman and Pagan ideas, the church was shaped under an influence that would stringently change the face of modern day Christianity and envelope it with misunderstand-ings of scripture.

Part two discusses a variety of Christian topics that are debated because of historical, archeological, linguistic, and humanitarian reasons.

Part three discusses the prophecies of Revelation and their rele-vance to Messiah and today.

Words italicized are not my own words, but from the referenced site (internet or book) listed before the italicized words. Many friends who do not want their names listed in the book will only be referenced as my friend (with no name).

Table of Contents

The Messiah’s Name:

The Messiah’s Birth:

The Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Messiah

The Messiah’s Genealogy:

The Father of Shealtiel

Jehoiachin’s Curse

The Trinity:

Forgiveness and Atonement

The 7 Feasts of Israel (and Chanukah)

Part Two: Christian Dissension

The Roman Census

The Governor Quirinius

Women in the Church

Divorce:

Homosexuality

Noah’s Flood

Information from David Rohl

Salvation

Law and Love

Part Three: The Prophecy of Revelation

The 8th Kingdom

The Beast

The Elders of Revelation and the Lamb

The Messiah’s 2nd Coming

From Cohen

Messiah: The Arm of YHVH:

The gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke all begin painting a con-crete picture of Christ, with the genealogy of Christ, the story of John the Baptist the forerunner, and stories of Christ. John paints a different picture, a more abstract picture, a picture that is wo-ven with spiritual images.

John opens his gospel with ‘In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, with-out him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the dark-ness, but the darkness has not understood (overcome) it.

The scripture indicates that the Christ, the Messiah, is the arm of YHVH. It is the arm of YHVH that has done the work of crea-tion, ‘through him all things were made.’ Even Isaiah the prophet says in Isaiah 53:1, and the New Testament echoes this idea in John 12:38 ‘Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’

But what name does this messiah go by, when was he born and when was he crucified? These three questions are questions that many have asked and debated about since Christ came. This pa-per will address six questions with conclusions I feel reveal more information to understanding the full truth.

The Messiah’s Name:

Most of us know that Jesus is far from the original name given to the Messiah by his mother, Mary. Since Mary was a Hebrew, she most likely gave a Jewish name to her son. She may have called him that name in Hebrew tongue or even in Greek tongue while he grew up. Greek was the most popular language at that time. It is important to know his actual name because the scripture tells us in Luke 2:21 that the name given to him was a name an angel had given him before he was conceived.

Many Jews were awaiting their coming Messiah and many moth-ers named their sons names relating to this idea. One common name found at that time period was Yehoshua, which meant ‘He (YHVH) who is salvation’ or ‘He saves’, but it does not mean our salvation as some misunderstand. The name is not Yahshua.

It is this name that most scholars agree is the name given to the son of Miriam. Yehoshua (ye-ah-sh-oo-o) translated into the English fits more the form of Joshua. However, the Hebrew word Yehoshua was shortened to Yeshua, which then translated into Greek was Yesous (ee-ah-s-oo-s) meaning healer. From the Greek, it went into Latin as Yesus. The name then went into Old English as Jesus, but the J was pronounced softly in Old English, more like a Y. The old English became modern English where we pronounce the J hard. Now we have the name Jesus with a hard J pronunciation.

However taking the name Jesus now and translating it back into the Greek gives us a troubling problem. The name no longer is translated as healer, but GE means earth and SUS means swine and thus rendering the meaning earth swine. Iesus into the He-brew is translated as IES into man and SUS into horse and thus rendering man horse as its meaning. Both are troubling indeed.

We are all accustomed to calling our Messiah Jesus with a hard J sound. But we should be aware that that is not the name given to him by his mother or by the angel from YHVH. We should also be aware that that name does not hold any significant transla-tional or definite meaning and in fact holds a derogatory mean-ing. However, we also should consider it is the person or object that brings meaning to a name, not the name that brings meaning to the person or object.

The Messiah’s Birth:

The gospel of Luke gives us one of the more comprehensive de-tails surrounding the date births of the Messiah. Many say this date is impossible, but upon reading the information below, you will see there are enough details left behind to know.

How does Luke do this? He provides us with information about John the Baptist. We learn from Luke 1:23 that, upon Elizabeth’s husbands return from his duty, she becomes pregnant. How does that help? John’s father, Zacharias, was a priest serving in the Jerusalem temple during the course of Abijah (Luke1:5). It was during this time of temple service that Zacharias learned that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a child (Luke 1:8-13). After he completed his service and traveled home, Elizabeth conceived (verses 23-24).

This order of priests ministered in the Temple the eighth week of the Hebrew year according to the ordinance of 1 Chronicles 24:10 (and according to the Talmud). The eighth week trans-verses the last week of the second Hebrew month of Iyar and the first week of the third Hebrew month of Sivan, which culminates at Shavuot (Pentecost). This is the anchor point for discovering the exact time of the Messiah’s birth. The angel promised Zacha-r'yah that his prayer had been answered, and when he went home to his wife Elisheva (Elizabeth) she conceived, it seems almost immediately. This puts the conception of Yochanan (John the Baptist) very near the time of Shavuot, the Feast of Pentecost, in the second week of the month of Sivan, the third Hebrew month. Historical calculations indicate this course of service cor-responded to June 13-19 in that year (The Companion Bible, 1974, Appendix 179, p. 200).

How does that help us with the Messiah’s birth date? It helps because we know from Luke 1:36 that Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy when she was visited by Miriam and, from Luke 1:26, that Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel to tell her about her own pregnancy in this sixth month. We learn in Luke 1:39 that when Mary visited Elizabeth, the baby in her womb, John the Baptist, leapt at the sound of Mary’s voice. Elizabeth says, ‘Blessed are you among women and the child you will bear.’

What month did all this happen in according to Luke? The end of June plus six months gives us the end of December as the conception time of the Messiah. If we add nine months to De-cember, we get the month of September as the due date for the Messiah.

Christ is shown celebrating Chanukah in John 10:22, 23. It is at this celebration that He declares I and My Father are One [John 10:30], which testifies to His Divine origin in His concep-tion. It also reinforces Chanukah as the time of His conception.

Haggai 2:18-19 — Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (on the Hebrew calen-dar, it is 24 Kislev, sometimes this is the 24th of December), from the day when the temple of the Lord was founded, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit. Yet from this day on I will bless you.

So the Messiah was conceived in December and now we have a day, the 24th of December.

Historically, then, it is more accurate to celebrate Messiah enter-ing the world through conception at Chanukah rather than to cel-ebrate His birth at Christmas.

What else supports this month:

We know that shepherds were in the fields watching their flocks at the time of the Christ’s birth (Luke2:7-8). Shepherds were not in the fields during the winter months of Judea as in December, when it is rainy and cold. The months likely for this would have been summer/fall months. These months would have been May-July and August-October

Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem to register in a Roman cen-sus (Luke 2:1-4). Such censuses were not taken in winter, when temperatures often dropped below freezing and roads were in poor conditions. But this is not the only reason they would have gone to Bethlehem. They went also to fulfill the Feast of Taber-nacles in September.

Nisan, when John the Baptist was born, is the first month of the Hebrew year. As we have shown, Mara conceived six months after Elisheva (Elizabeth) conceived, which means the Messiah’s birth would have to come six months after John's birth, during the seventh Hebrew month of Tishri. Since we know that John was born at Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread (March), which is nine months from his conception time at the end of June, we learn the time of Messiah’s birth by counting six Hebrew months from Passover. The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on Nisan 15 and six months later, Tabernacles begins on Tishri 15. There-fore, Messiah could have been born on the first day of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).

The eighth day, the Messiah was circumcised according to the scriptural command [Luke 2:21]. For a male, this is what accom-plishes a full Hebrew birth. The Feast of Tabernacles is for exact-ly eight days. The first and last days are both holy Sabbaths. The Messiah, if born on the first day, a holy Sabbath, was then cir-cumcised on the eighth day, a holy Sabbath. YHVH then in-tended this entire Feast of Tabernacles to be set aside in order to accomplish and celebrate the Messiah’s birth into the world.

However, another interesting scripture comes to mind which is The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam be-came a life-giving spirit. In 1 Corinthians 15:22, it states, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ (the Messiah) all shall be made alive. The Messiah is the second Adam. Rabbis have long taught that Adam's birth date was on 1 Tishri. It is possible Christ then returning on Rosh Hashanah would be the ‘birth’ of the Messiah into the ‘new’ world. This is known as Rosh Hashanah, or the birthday of the soul of man.

In Summary:

The month can be said with certainty is the month of Tishri, given the story of Elizabeth and Mary in the Gospel account of Luke, in addition to the scripture Haggai 2:18-19 — Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month….and given that we know it was a summer/fall month.

The day: Tishri 15 is supported well. The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. In 1 Corinthians 15:22, it states, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ (the Messiah) all shall be made alive. This scripture seems to support Tishri 1; however this could be because