Issued: 08/16/21 Revised: 12/6/23

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

MISSING THE YAHWEHS FOR THE SCRIBES

   As stated previously, Judaism and Christianity share the same problem:  Neither can differentiate between Father, Yahweh the King, and His Redeemer/proxy God, Yahweh Son (Isaiah 44:6).¹  Hosea did. According to Son,  “Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me” (Hosea 7:13)”; and as Father confirmed,  “They call me the Most High, but they don’t truly honor Me” (Hosea 11:7).  Why the conflicting testimonies if Father and Son are indeed the same Person?  And if Jews believe their worship is directed towards Yahweh Father, the One and Only True God, why would He say no one—including Jews—truly worships Him? 

   This lack of understanding is glaringly evident more in Judaism than in Christianity.  In the Old Testament, the name Yahweh is interchangeably used by Yahweh Father and Yahweh Son; which is understandable given that Father named His Angel Son after Him (Exodus 23:21). The third Heavenly Speaker, the Holy Spirit, uses it to reference either of the two.  In the New Testament Jesus’ insistent differentiation between Father and himself made identification easier; and with him on earth, there was no longer a proxy God in Heaven.  It was post-resurrection that Jesus was given an Interim Godship until end times (Matthew 28:18); a second proxy Rulership conferred upon him by Father (Daniel 5:21; John 3:27; Revelation 2:27, 5:5-7).

  Whereas Christians muddle things up by misinterpreting John 1:1 and John 10:30, Jews have glossed over the Scriptural ‘contradictions’ discussed in Part I of this series to hold fast to their sacred cows.   On the evidence of those ‘contradictions,’ alarms should have rung in Jewish heads by the evident fact that Scripture invests one particular Angel with God-like attributes (Genesis 32:24-30, 48:15-16; Exodus 3:2-6,14-15; Hosea 12:4-5); yet not a phonon has sounded.  This is the root cause of Judaism’s failures vis-à-vis their God. Notwithstanding their undying devotion to the Yahweh of their forbears, they have never assimilated that Yahweh Son, not Yahweh Father, interacted with Israel throughout the Old Testament, speaking to them (Exodus 20:22; Deuteronomy 5:26), being seen by them (Exodus 24:9-11), and perpetually at loggerheads with them (Isaiah 46:4). Or that in promising to incarnate in order to gather his “sheep” (Ezekiel 34:11-12,17,31↔Matthew 25:32-33; John 5:22, 10:16), this Yahweh entered the world as Jesus of Nazareth, their long-awaited—but summarily rejected—Messiah. And what is worse, their worship of Yahweh Son continues to deprive Yahweh Father of His worship—Hosea’s point.

Judaism is not hampered by Trinitarian doctrine or by misinterpreting John 10:30:  In their theology, Jesus plays no messianic role.  The Old Testament, however, is chock-full of evidence confirming not only Jesus’ Messiahship but his central role as the interactive God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob [renamed Israel (Genesis 32:28)].²  Paul’s entire ministry was informed by such evidence (Acts 26:22); but to Israel’s detriment, their obstinate desire to go the way of their ‘sages’ (Deuteronomy 9:6; 1Samuel 8:7; Jeremiah 5:31; Hosea 8:4; Romans 10:3) has fed the spiritual blindness that plagues them to this day (Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:14).

   Provisions had been made for Jews to receive divine revelations (Deuteronomy 29:29) but not necessarily to understand them.  1Peter 1:10-12 makes the case that Old Testament “prophets sought and searched diligently, [prophesying] of the grace that would come to you [Christians], searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ [the Holy Spirit], which was in them, pointed to, when He predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them.  To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from Heaven; which things angels desire to look into.”

   We see proof of this in Daniel 12:9. Though channeling future events, Daniel was not made privy to their significance; why would he if Daniel was not to take part in them?  Secondly, during the “time of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24; Romans 11:25), the commission to dispense new revelations would be entrusted to faithful Judeo-Christians of all walks of life; so that Old Testament-like prophets would no longer be needed (Luke 16:16)—except, of course, as reference points to build upon what those prophets had not been made privy to (Daniel 12:4; 1Peter 1:10-12).  Without the Old Testament, understanding of Father and Jesus is impossible—which is the reason why Satan has fought tooth and nail throughout the ages to disparage it or suppress it entirely.

   Thirdly, and most important, Judaism’s lack of spiritual enlightenment—figuratively and literally—lies in its rejection of Jesus, both “Light” (Genesis 1:3↔John 8:12) and sender of the Holy Spirit Who reveals and explains everything (John 15:26, 16:13; 1Corinthians 2:7-14); despite the fact that Moses, on whom Jews pin their orthodoxy, told them to listen to and obey his future counterpart (Deuteronomy 18:15; John 5:46; Acts 3:17-22↔Genesis 41:40,55).  The Old Testament portrays the Holy Spirit acting through Biblical characters (Exodus 31:3; Judges 14:6; 1Samuel 6:13) but only dispensing knowledge through hand-picked prophets (Isaiah 6:3-8; Jeremiah 1:4-9; Ezekiel 2:2-7, 3:14; Zechariah 7:12).  It was an anointment never “poured” over Jews at large.

THE INSURMOUNTABLE HANDICAP

   Mathematics has formulae accounting for most reality-based phenomena.  Judaism’s is simple:  No Jesus = no Holy Spirit exclusively channeled through him = no true spiritual understanding.

   Without the Holy Spirit that Jesus dispenses, Jews cannot assimilate anything beyond what they see and read, considerable and erudite as that may be—Mark 4:12’s double whammy rooted in Isaiah 28:13, 29:10-14.  As stated, the objective in these verses is to ensnare the rebellious and hold them accountable for not relying on Father’s spiritual guidance alone (Deuteronomy 26:16-17, 28:9, 13-14).  Everybody born of man was deemed as untrustworthy as Yahweh’s own Levites had been (Psalms 146:3; Malachi 2:7-8)—the virgin-born Jesus being the sole exception to that injunction.  Where Jewish priests were concerned, instructions were to obey them in matters of ritual but not to be anybody’s role models (Isaiah 1:23; Jeremiah 8:8,10-11; Matthew 23:3).  Yet because like Aaron Jewish priests catered to their congregants’ expectations (Isaiah 30:9-10; Jeremiah 6:14; Amos 2:11-12), Israelites were instrumental in aiding, abetting and deepening their own spiritual shortcomings (Jeremiah 5:31, 7:23-26, 8:8-10, 9:13-14).

   Now the Holy Spirit is Father’s “sword” (Ephesians 6:17), the sword Jesus brought his disciples (Matthew 10:34), and symbolized by the two-edged sword emerging from his mouth (Revelation 1:16↔Hebrews 4:12). While Jews relied on real weapons for their battles, in Zechariah 4:6 the Holy Spirit was telling them otherwise:  “This is the word of Yahweh [Father] to Zerubbabel [builder of the Jerusalem Temple and so another symbol for Jesus↔Ezra 3:8, 4:3, 5:2; Haggai 2:23; Zechariah 4:9-10], saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.’”

   Granted that these prophecies were meant for Christians, but they appear in Jewish texts; and could have been understood by Jews if only they had taken Father at His word (Jeremiah 33:3)—as repeatedly taught (Genesis 40:8, 41:16,38; Numbers 11:17, 25; Deuteronomy 29:29; Daniel 2:22, 4:8).  They did not because of herd impunity (sic):  Why bother with downer prophecies when they had priests they supported financially to set their minds at rest?  Let priests do the redacting and let us focus on earthly affairs. Hence Isaiah 1:13-15, 22:12-14; Jeremiah 5:31; Lamentations 2:14; and Amos 5:21.

THEY DID IT THEIR WAY

   What lies at the heart of the Jewish dilemma is a very human foible:  The need to have one’s cake and eat it too.  First, complain and demand; then push the envelope and see where that gets you: Extrapolating from the old adage,  the crying bevy (sic) gets fed (Numbers 11:31-33).  When the march to freedom got rough, Israelites moaned for the “good” times enjoyed under Egyptian oppression (Exodus 16:3; Numbers 11:1-10); when told to leave no manna left-overs for the next day, some hoarded it [waste not, want not (Exodus 16:20)].  Once ensconced in Canaan, a change of management was in order:  Why depend on an inflexible Deity when human leaders more amenable to pleasing and cajoling could be chosen to rule over them (1Samuel 8:3-7)?  No matter warnings that have become institutionalized, political realities to this day (1Samuel 8:11-17), Yahweh was their option of last resort. When in trouble, call on Yahweh (1Samuel 8:18); when all is well, see you later, All-Creator (Hosea 13:6).

   Yahweh’s spot-on assessment of the Jewish mindset started early in Deuteronomy 9:6 and echoes throughout the Old Testament, where Israelites are portrayed as stubborn, obstinate, unyielding, rebellious, and with hearts impervious to His truths  (Isaiah 42:24, 43:27; Jeremiah 4:22, 9:13-14, 31:32; Ezekiel 2:7, 3:6-7, 20:16,39; Hosea 8:12; Micah 1:5; Zephaniah 3:3-4; Zechariah 7:12).  Jesus’ statement in Matthew 23:29-34 shows that Jewish recidivism was alive and well during his ministry;  and it would continue to be deployed against the Apostles in name of religious orthodoxy (Acts 5:17-18,33,40, 7:54-60, 13:50, 23:12, 25:2-3).

   Though presumptuous of their ‘chosen’ status, Yahweh did not consider Israelites exemplars of morality:  “Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land…[but] in order to confirm the promise Yahweh [Father↔Genesis 22:16; Hebrews 6:13] made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 9:5).  In other words, I made a promise to your forebears and I do not go back on My word (Genesis 17:1-8; Hebrews 6:13-18).  Nothing to do with your moral character; rather, because you were so insignificant and powerless, I chose to work through and despite of you to bring mightier empires to heel (Deuteronomy 7:6; 1Corinthians 1:27-29).

SURRENDER NEVER

   Enter the religious ‘sidestep’ dance.  Spiritual battles were to be fought with spiritual ordnance (Ephesians 6:12-17); and sometimes instructions were to submit rather than fight—never a welcomed option (Jeremiah 38:14-23).  In face of external threats, though told to stay put and wait on Yahweh’s deliverance, Israelites hedged their bets on Egyptian might, just in case Yahweh took His time coming to their rescue (Isaiah 30:1-7, 15-17).  When Yahweh demanded their submission to the King of Babylon (Jeremiah 27:17, 44:10-12), Jewish response was nothing doing (Jeremiah 37: 5-10, 42:13-14).  Caught in that dilemma, and having been put on the most-wanted list (Jeremiah 36:26), Jeremiah thought discretion the better part of valor; opted to leave Jerusalem [not what Yahweh had instructed]; was caught, whipped, imprisoned; and having been the source of ‘unpatriotic’ opinions became an early victim of right-wing, cancel culture:  He was thrown down into a muddy cistern to shut him up and bury the truth with him (Jeremiah 37:11-15, 38:4-6).  It all sounds like snippets of contemporary, national politics, which goes to show the enduring relevance of Ecclesiastes 1:9-10.

   In modern parlance, Jews were on the wrong page of His-story and still are.  Today’s Israel pins its hopes, as it once did with Egypt (Isaiah 31:1-3), on weaponry and alliance with world superpowers. For a third time unfortunately, the chickens will come to roost and Jerusalem will again fall, as Jesus predicted (Luke 20:21).  Though scholars [as is their entrenched custom↔Jeremiah 8:8)] posit that Luke’s Gospel was written after Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 CE [i.e., 80–110 CE], those of us who know our Jesus and our Bible better understand the 70 CE event foreshadows a future equivalent, since Jesus was talking about end times (Matthew 24:21).  By 70 CE the Gentile world had not yet been truly evangelized—meaning fully steeped in “hidden wisdom”; mirroring today’s lack of Christian enlightenment the world over. In the Bible Jerusalem’s fall is at the locus of momentous events in the offing; so as Jesus told us, when armies surround the Jewish capital (Luke 21:20), that will be the definitive sign that all is lost and the Great Tribulation will begin. We will recognize this as it unfolds.

ADVERSITY, THE MOTHER OF IMPROVISATION

   It is not that Jews are an overtly aggressive people:  Compared to what Christians have done in name of Father and Jesus, they are veritable boy scouts.  And while by no means insensitive to and dismissive of the human toll and suffering Jews of all ages have had to endure, the reason for the fate that dogs them to this day, as their Yahweh told them—and us, is their obstinate refusal to follow Father’s rules down in toto.  Forewarned is to be forearmed (Deuteronomy 29:19-20); and forewarning of all ensuing horrors for disobedience were catalogued in Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Isaiah 5:24-25; Jeremiah 16:10-12,18; Lamentations 2:17; Hosea 8:12.

Judeo-Christians forget at their peril that Father’s protection depends upon a contract, wherein He and men agree to conditions and responsibilities which, if defaulted upon, invalidates said contract (Deuteronomy 29:14-15; Jeremiah 31:32; Hebrews 7:18-22).  Invalidation results in Father’s withdrawal from the bargaining table, leaving the field open for Satan to have his sport at men’s expense.  After all, human genocide is Satan’s only means to strike back at Father (Isaiah 63:9).

   Consequently, not following Father‘s demands is the root cause of all human suffering, a no-brainer since both Adam and Even, seduced by Satan’s arguments for self-sufficiency (Genesis 3:4-5) were booted out of Eden for that very reason.  Scholars spread spiritual ignorance because they alter and amend Father’s word, a perennial no-no (Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:6; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Revelation 22:18-19).  In order to stay relevant—and comfy in their respective niches—religious leaders ‘modernize’ Biblical teaching to suit human agendas rather than Father’s; the opposite of which exemplifies Father‘s true worshippers (1Samuel 3:19; Acts 26:22; Titus 1:9). Needless to say, scholars and scribes ‘editing’ Scripture help Satan maximize collateral soul-carnage amongst their audiences.  And Jews were no different:  When it came to fudging Father’s rules, they jumped on the great-dragon’s (Revelation 12:9) bandwagon.

   Following Jesus’ lead, Paul, himself a zealous member of Pharisaism’s die-hard base (Acts 8:3, 9:1-2, 22:3-5, 26:5; Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:5-6), relied on Old Testament authority to validate his ministry (Acts 24:14, 26:22; 1Timothy 6:20; 2Timothy 1:13-14).  His break from aspects of Mosaic Law had nothing to do with improvisation and everything to do with the New Covenant’s contractual terms (Hebrews 8:6-7,18-19, 9:9-10,15-17).  Holding fast to Ten Commandments morality and the “love your neighbor as yourself” mandate upon which Judeo-Christianity rested (Matthew 22:37-40), Paul jettisoned whatever ritualistic constraints Mosaic Law had imposed on individual free will during “the times of ignorance” (Acts 17:30).

   Jesus’ “light” revealed the path to the kind of worship Father revels in:  In spirit and in truth (John 4:24), both of which imply informed, personal choice.  The enforced obedience of Mosaic Law conspired against those goals; hence Jewish failure to engage Father through rote obedience to the letter of Mosaic Law (Matthew 23:13-28↔Romans 9:31-32).  If Mosaic Law did enforce a modicum of obedience, it was Yahweh’s way of putting the Israelites in spiritual rehab to flush the Egyptian idolatry contaminating Jewish souls for over 400 years of servitude (Exodus 12:40).  In short for their own good, since except for compliance, Father stood nothing to gain from them:  He could have scrapped them away and begin anew with a more docile nation.  Yet because “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29), even if ‘divine nerves’ were frayed and reaching out ignored, Yahweh Son stood by them (Isaiah 46:3-4, 49:15, 65:2; Matthew 23:27).

   How different from Satan’s modus operandi!  His secular and religious minions the world over insist on enforced obedience.  They do not seek enlightened minds but browbeaten zombies, or better yet, robots that can be programmed to behave as told; all keeping apex predators comfy, because they sure as heck do not share the burdens they bulldoze upon the shoulders of their inferiors.

   Yahweh’s anti-idolatry initiative failed after the waters of the Red Sea had scarcely dried up on Jewish sandals, aided and abetted by Moses’ brother, Aaron; thus showing that the family that prays together does not necessarily stay together spiritually (Exodus 32:1-6, 19-25).³ From then on idolatry became de rigueur in the Jewish—and later Christian—psyche, raging faster and wider than all pandemics combined (Isaiah 45:20, 65:3; Jeremiah 1:16, 2:11; Ezekiel 14:4; Hosea 11:2).

   But we digress.  Returning to Paul and his criticism of Mosaic compliance by rote, it is perhaps for this perceived ‘flip-flopping’ that Paul’s Jewish critics consider him a turncoat and the ‘inventor’ of Christianity.  Paul’s gain (Matthew 5:11) and their loss; since Jewish zealots cannot identify Jesus as the pre-existent Yahweh Son they claim fealty to—proving Isaiah 28:13’s and Mark 4:12’s terrible but enduring efficacy to this day.

  Now, Paul was not about fudging his stance when it suited him (1Corinthians 9:19-22); and whether this came out of Solomon’s (Ecclesiastes 7:16) or Jesus’ (Matthew 10:16) advice is up to the reader’s opinion.  But whereas Paul railed against circumcision (Galatians 5:1-7) and its proponents (Philippians 3:2) in the understanding that male circumcision was merely shadow to the substance of ‘heart’ circumcision (Jeremiah 4:4; Romans 2:29), he was also aware that the ritual would always be at the forefront of Jewish resistance to Christian teaching.  So even if actively opposing it (Acts 15:1-2) and warning of its adverse spiritual implications (Galatians 5:2-3), he prevailed on Timothy to be circumcised—by Paul himself!  Timothy, the son a Greek man and a Jewish woman apparently needed the circumcision imprimatur to be perceived as ‘kosher’ amongst Jewish expats (Acts 16:1-3)—a requirement that the full-blooded, Greek Titus was spared (Galatians 2:3-5).

UPGRADED PLAYBOOKS

   Prior to the Jewish Diaspora, Paul remarked that though zealous of God, Jews went on to substitute Father’s righteousness with their own, so that even to his day whenever Moses is read, “a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (Romans 10:2-3; 2Corinthians 3:14-16).  Paul’s explanation behind the significance of Moses’ veil is something not readily traceable in Scripture (2Corinthians 3:13); so we must assume it is an insight the Holy Spirit gave us through him (2Peter 1:20-21, 3:15-16).

   The Jewish response to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE was to unleash a tsunami of religious writings/commentaries which were in violation of the mandate never to add anything to Father’s word (Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Ecclesiastes 3:14).  Nothing new here:  Their ancestors had gone there, done that (1Corinthians 10:2-3); and so were blinded to the truth and cut off (1Corinthians 11:7-8, 22-23).  When Saul sought Father’s guidance, he went about it violating a divine decree (Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:11) and got killed the next day (1Samuel 28:3-19).  Yahweh is not a fan of self-enterprising behaviors:  In His Book, rebellion and obstinacy are comparable to the sins of divination and idolatry (1Samuel 15:22-23); which is why His ears tune out the prayers of the disobedient (Proverbs 28:9; John 9:31) no matter how orthodox they might think themselves to be (Galatians 6:3).

  After the Diaspora, the surviving Pharisees [the Sadducees no longer extant] went on alert mode to ensure the survival of the dispersed Jewish nation—as their elders had done by means of another betrayal (John 11:50-52).  Thus with the Torah as their seminal foundation, they set in motion a Plan B that addressed evolving, social challenges Mosaic writings did not cover; once again proving that ostensibly to serve an uncompromising God compromising His mandates was the way to go. These all-comprehensive texts held the global cohesiveness of their nation but rent asunder any possible spiritual access to their God; though in truth no connection existed following Jesus’ crucifixion, since the Mosaic Covenant had been annulled and superseded by a faith-based new one (Galatians 3:10-18).

TRADITION:  JEWS’ PERENNIAL STUMBLING BLOCK

   Modern Judaism, however many its branches [Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstruction and Reform], is rooted in the Pharisaic tradition that Jesus reviled; so that to this day, as then, its emphasis lies on rituals and sundry discourses on semantics and points of law, instead of Jesus’ non-ethnic (Acts 10:34-35); classless (Matthew 23:8-10; John 13:16, 15:14-15; Luke 6:40; Romans 10:12; Galatians 3:28); family-values subverting (Matthew 10:35-36; Luke 14:26, 17:16-29); life-devaluing (Matthew 10:37-38); ritual-disparaging (Matthew 15:17-20, 23:13-32; Luke 11:37-52; John 8:13; Galatians 5:6, 6:15; Hebrews 9:9-10); universal/fraternal love-based (Matthew 22:39; John 15:12) initiatives—in short, the very opposites of norms embedded in the Jewish psyche.

   Tradition is a man-made concept so insidious that it has become autonomic in Jewish thinking.  No matter how oftentimes proven wrong, unwise, and counterproductive, it will proliferate, given changing social climates, like dormant species in nature.  Even Peter, ever the die-hard, elitist traditionalist, had to be shown a vision challenging his Jewish biases (Acts 10:28, 34-35); and this after three years of witnessing Jesus’ dismantling Mosaic customs (Matthew 15:1-18↔Isaiah 29:13)!  But inculcated tradition is an addiction hard to break: Jesus or no Jesus, Paul called Peter to task over the latter’s Mosaic relapses (Galatians 2:14-16).

   Unfortunately, Jews cling to tradition like barnacles to a rotting hull:  They have built their whole survivalist ethos around it.  It might be said they have endured as a people because customs define who and what they are [a cop-out, given that Yahweh expected  better things from them]; and then there is the psychological component, which Satan so aptly exploits, by which persecuted minorities wield as their badge of virtue the very attributes others despise them for.  The Mosaic Covenant is at the core of those traditions, containing, alas, two of Judaism’s Trojan Horses:  The inability to achieve remission of sins through animal sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple no longer there (Deuteronomy 12:13-14); and male circumcision which constrains them to obey the whole of Mosaic Law (Galatians 5:3)—an objective never meant to be achievable (Ezekiel 20:25; Acts 15:10; James 2:10).

   The breadth and depth of Rabbinic literature cannot jump over the first hurdle—if Jews are serious, that is, about reconciling with their Yahweh.  Loopholes have been suggested by which prayers alone make everything with Father honky dory (1Kings 8:46-49); but prayers, in the symbolic lexicon of Scripture, are the equivalent of the incense that was offered upon the altar (Leviticus 16:13; Revelation 5:8), not the blood of Christ essential for the remission of sins (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22) and sanctification of souls (Revelation 7:14).

  Enter Jesus and the pragmatism of Father’s New Covenant.  Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb (John 1:29; Revelation 21:9,14,22) whose blood remits men’s sins provided they remain committed to Jesus’ doctrine (Matthew 12:43-45↔2Peter 2:20; Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:38):  He dies only once [in Jerusalem] and with his “sprinkled blood” confirms his New Covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 12:24), just as Moses confirmed his (Exodus 24:8).  No longer any need to go to Jerusalem to offer animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins (Deuteronomy 12:13-28):  Jesus, as Heavenly High Priest unstained by sin for all eternity, now in Heaven giving direct access to Father through the “veil” of his flesh (Hebrews 4:14-15, 7:18-28, 8:1-2,12,24-26, 10:19-21).  Why through his flesh?  Because “in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9); so that Jesus’ mystical body is both Temple and Holy of Holies where the Divinity suffuses all (Ephesians 4:6, 5:23).

   Even circumcision, once required as confirmation for Father’s pact with Abraham (Genesis 17:9-14) and Moses (Leviticus 12:3), was the symbolic shadow for the spiritual circumcision that truly mattered:  That of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4; Romans 2:28-29).  The ‘heart,’ if by this we mean the organ in human chests, has no prepuce; thus ‘heart’ in its symbolic context refers to the human soul, the quintessence of our innermost selves since flesh profits nothing (John 6:63).  Its ‘circumcision’ is the conscious removal of whatever biases and preconceptions prevent exposure to and assimilation of Father’s truths—a ‘surgery’ that must be performed individually (Luke 4:23).  If the resurrection is about transforming mortal bodies into immortal flesh, and in Father‘s Kingdom men and women will be like the angels in Heaven (Matthew 22:30), why would cutting off male foreskins have any lasting significance in the scheme of redemption?

   So let us think laterally, as Paul did.  Abraham’s faith justified him before his circumcision, in order to encompass all people of faith, Jewish or Gentile, the world over (Romans 4:9-12).  That circumcision played no role in the New Covenant is clear from Acts 10:34-35 and Romans 2:12-15, where universal acceptance by Father was not predicated on foreskin removal but in people’s moral fiber (Matthew 15:19).

   And if anyone attaches special significance to gender, since women have no foreskins nor were they asked to mutilate their corresponding erogenous organs, think again.  Because the Bible treats women as indistinguishable from men symbolizing the “one flesh” Jesus shares with his Church, (Genesis 2:23-24; Ephesians 5:29-32); and despite the fact men, not women, are the chosen vessels tasked with preaching Father’s word (Exodus 18:21; Numbers 18:1-2; 1Corinthians 14:34-35; Ephesians 5:22-24; 1Peter 3:1-7), women too must circumcise their ‘hearts’ in order to reconcile with Father, an objective always achieved through the sole condition demanded of all sexes:  Unquestioning and absolute obedience.

If Jews are otherwise such pragmatic people, why cannot they see all the advantages in the upgraded covenant?  On the one hand, with Jesus officiating in Heaven, no periodic trips to Jerusalem would ever be needed to remit sins (Deuteronomy 12:11↔2Chronicles 6:6); even Jews living in Antarctica or atop K2 could access the Most High God from there through the upgraded “veil” giving access into the Holy of Holies (Exodus 26:33; Hebrews 10:19-22).  On the other, circumcision of the flesh chained people for life to a set of rules and regulations that Yahweh himself admitted were not conducive to salvation (Ezekiel 20:25), since justification could only be achieved by observing all (Ezekiel 20:10-11).  If one rule of the law was broken, all other commandments were also broken (Psalms 119:4-6; Galatians 3:10-12; James 2:10); there was no cherry picking nor loopholes allowed.  The Apostles admitted that to-the-letter observance of Mosaic Law was beyond human capabilities (Acts 15:10); and Paul, divested of his Pharisaic chains by the key of Jesus’ freedom (John 8:32), railed against circumcision as a step backwards from Jesus’ grace into renewed enslavement (Galatians 5:2-4).

YAHWEH’S ENDURING BUT COSTLY LOVE

   In all these things we see ulterior motives on Father’s part:  A heavenly place of worship providing guaranteed access to Him while offsetting constraints of distance and travel expenses; and perhaps—why not?—a way to escape ethnic profiling?  For circumcision had been the incontrovertible proof of Jewish ethnicity branding them throughout the ages, resulting in many of the horrors they have had to endure.  Had they accepted Jesus, and not become circumcised, would many have been spared horrible fates linked to that rite, like Nazi concentration camps?  Behaviors could be modified to suit contingencies; phylacteries hidden; dietary habits overridden, but circumcision?  We are always so gung-ho to prop up this image of the vengeful God Who must exact His pound of flesh if crossed, that we never consider giving Him credit, in His love for men and in His foreknowledge of future events, for packing the New Covenant with safeguard measures.  Which is in keeping with Paul’s contention that Father “[would] not allow [His faithful] to be tempted above what [they are] able [to face], but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that [they] may be able to endure it” (1Corinthians 10:13).

   Even if not told outright or expressed symbolically, some Scriptures suggest pointers to future events.  When Jesus said the Gospel would be preached to every creature on earth (Matthew 24:14), did he have in mind the Internet, a medium that has played a vital and crucial role in that endeavor?  Does not Luke 21:26 [↔Ezekiel 21:7] and Revelation 16:8-9 hint at climate change, some of which is now irreversible and some of which is closer than previously projected?⁴  Despite the Sadducees being the elite priestly class, was Jesus’ focus on Pharisees and their scribes a veiled warning about ‘more-of-the-same’ from future Rabbinism and like-minded Biblical commentators?  Is not Paul’s Galatians 1:8-10 warning telling us to steer away from ostensibly angel-revealed, religious texts like the Qur’an and the Book of Mormon, offshoots of Abrahamic faith?

   Why any of this, if not to give us a head-start in our race towards redemption, a leg up to help us look beyond the stumbling blocks Satan litters our paths with?  Father wants to save people, not destroy them (Ezekiel 18:32, 33:11); and to achieve that end, He provides means for all runners to cross the finish line where He awaits (2Samuel 14:14).  If we are foolish enough not to hold on to the life-lines thrown to us, let us not accuse Him of malice towards us.

   Father is both good and severe (Romans 11:22):  He needs to be in order to keep men in line for lusting after the innate predisposition to evil (Ecclesiastes 7:29, 9:3) that alienates them from Him.  He would prefer that men honor their side of His Covenants in order to spare them suffering (Lamentations 3:33). Yet to force men back within established parameters to fulfill their unmet aspirations (Jeremiah 29:11; Ezekiel 20:37), He will not spare them the rod (Proverbs 13:24)—an iron rod, by the way, which is a symbol for Satan under Jesus’ control (Psalms 2:7-12; Revelation 2:27).  Though father of human souls, Father is no paternal John Doe who can be bargained or run circles around.  What He says goes and heads must bow to His demands (Ecclesiastes 8:3-4; Isaiah 14:27); and if He says, “Jump,” do it without asking how high. For lacking the means to oppose Him (Daniel 4:35; 1Corinthians 10:22) or attempting to go solo (John 15:4-5), Satan piggybacks onto men’s libertarian tendencies to help them dig their own graves.

POSTER PEOPLE OF SPIRITUAL FAILINGS

   The Jewish experience is mapped out in Scripture to tell us what the score is.  If they adulterated Father’s word, they felt justified in so doing (Jeremiah 8:12); in times of prosperity, He was farthest from their minds (Hosea 13:6).  Incrementally, and because transgressions were not met with immediate consequences, Jewish rebelliousness was emboldened (Ecclesiastes 8:11), beginning with stirrings of cloaking devises (sic↔Isaiah 29:15); to divine dares (Zephaniah 1:12); to outright claims of Yahweh’s abdicating earthly concerns (Ezekiel 8:12); at which point divine covenants became obstacles in the Jewish quest for self-determination (2Kings 17:15; Isaiah 24:5; Jeremiah 31:32: Hosea 8:1,4).  Why not come up with contingency scripts and legitimize them with spurious, divine imprimaturs?

   At the most basic level, Jews have never assimilated that Middle Eastern Israel is not the Promised Land of Scripture, “a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands” (Ezekiel 20:6).⁵  Who is to say that if the Israelites had not played their whining, cantankerous cards in the desert, Jews would have been truly entered the promised paradise?  Present-day Israel is not the prophesied, weapon-free land of enduring peace (Isaiah 2:4, 32:18, 65:25; Ezekiel 34:25; Hosea 2:18).  It is a country armed to the teeth and ever on the alert to strike back whenever its sovereignty and way of life are encroached upon.  Though Father is through with their beloved Jerusalem [shadow], mired “in slavery with her children” (Galatians 4:25), Judaism’s focus has never shifted to its divine counterpart [substance]:  The Heavenly City (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 11:14-16; Revelation 21:9-27).  The lowdown is that while they worship their Yahweh, they are not prepared to trust His agenda.  They love their country too much to gamble on promises of real estate unseen and slices of pies-in-the-sky.

   To this day obstinacy has made Jews impervious to contemplating alternatives, especially those that cannot be controlled, or at the very least, finagled.  If Mosaic compliance failed to deliver expected benefits while defaulting on it, this time around they are not budging.  Jewish expectations of a Third Temple to be built on Mount Moriah yet again shows us the pigheaded notion that a God Who has flatly stated He will not ever live in human-made buildings can be cajoled into inhabiting the premises, despite the fact that in His Heavenly Jerusalem, there will no Temple—period! (Revelation 21:22).  Jesus’ “body,” the Church, is Father’s designated home.  And in order to build Temple #3, if Jews could push the envelope of Arab dispossession further and get away with it, they would plunge the entire region into a war the likes of which the world has never seen.  Mercifully, on that score, Father has drawn a line Jews cannot cross.

JUDAISM’S MIXED-BLESSINGS DENOUEMENT

   Will Jews ever change their ways?  Hardly:  If Jesus as Yahweh Son from Heaven and during his ministry on earth failed, how can anyone hope to prevail?  But even this was foreknown:  “For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days; because you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands” (Deuteronomy 31:29).  In other words, when Jews are once more raked over burning coals, some will seek Father in their despair and find Him, when and if “in the latter days [they turn to] Yahweh your God, and listen to His voice” (Deuteronomy 4:29-31; Jeremiah 29:12-14).

   Those latter days are now and this is why Jerusalem must fall in our lifetime.  When Jews were loathe to part with their idols, Yahweh told them to call upon them in their time of need (Isaiah 57:13); if Jews wanted His protection, they would get it on His terms (1Kings 8:48-50↔Jeremiah 29:13).  Please note that Isaiah 57:13 is referencing Father’s Holy Mountain, not the low-rising, Moriah proper in Israel, but the one filling the whole earth (Daniel 2:35,44). Only upon the latter one will the Heavenly Jerusalem will alight and only there will all the redeemed peoples of the world pay homage to Him (Isaiah 35:8-10, 66:10-13, 22-23; Joel 3:17-18; Revelation 21:3, 24-26).  In short, a future Jerusalem not now on earth.

   If this is the bad news for Jews, the good news is that they are loved on account of their progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Romans 11:28).  They should thank their lucky “star,” not David [shadow] but Jesus [substance↔Revelation 22:16], for their deliverance at the world’s penultimate moment by him who they resisted, rejected, and nailed to a cross (Matthew 23:37; Romans 11:25-27).

   The glory is all Yahweh Son‘s/Jesus’ for his fathomless love.  The shame lies with Jews paying lip service to a God Who remains unknown to them; as well as the failure to credit—and embrace—the Yahweh Son/Messiah who will always be on their side until the bitter end (Isaiah 46:4, 49:15).

¹ Go to http://www.biblehub.com to see how the wording of many translations perpetuate this error.

² As discussed in Part II On the Divinity of Jesus, re-naming people is one of Jesus’ messianic roles (Isaiah 65:15; Acts 9:16; Revelation 2:17, 3:12, 22:4).

³ In a push for equal female representation, Miriam, Moses’ sister, relied on technicalities to advocate for her share in authority (Numbers 12:1-2).

⁴ Our Sun is now entering an active phase [solar maximum] earlier than previously predicted, which now seems to be the new normal where scientific predictions are concerned:  Former estimates have erred on the optimistic side.  Since sun heat drives weather patterns, and solar storms play havoc with electric grids [powering cooling systems] and telecommunications, we will not have a nice time of it, as Revelation 16:9 pointedly states.  In point of fact, among other possibilities, Amos 8:12-13 may be hinting at a breakdown in global communications—dismal news for those conjoined to smart phones and social media.

   On April 2021 a solar flare caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean; and on July 3, 2021 a solar flare released energy equivalent to 100-megaton hydrogen bombs exploding simultaneously. Thankfully it occurred on the side of the Sun away from Earth.

⁵ No country on earth that we know of flows with milk and honey; in fact beehive collapse bides badly for honey production worldwide. Cattle in general are being looked askance for their significant contribution to global warming in the form of methane gas; consequently, milk overflows are doubtful.