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SEARCH QUERIES OF THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE USING YOUR GOOGLE
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Stop! Read this first. Many scholars misread Ac 21:20-21 and think the text
is saying "Many [Judaizers] were zealous for legal justification." The text says
no such thing.In spite of Ac 15:13 and following many scholars read
Ga2:12 and believe that a
separatist Ya'akov sent the Jerusalem group to Antioch.The text does not
say that.The fact is, there were brethren in Jerusalem that worshiped inMoshiach'sShul there and there
were brethren outside of Jerusalem.There was unity between them though they were
culturally diverse.We must all stand before Moshiach'sBet Din, and this humbles us and
brings unity. However, if
we know Moshiach's Torah, the Torah wherein Moshiach is the goal, the Torah wherein
everything is about Moshiach (Lk24:44), then we can approach
with confidence and not shrink
back at the Bias HaMoshiach.When the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu is set forth
truthfully, it is the DerechMoshiach, the ToratHaCherut (the Law of Freedom).He whom
the Moshiach sets free is free indeed.To
say this is not reading the Torah with the intent of legalism or judaizing.This is not adding conditions
to salvation.This is not telling Goyim that they have to do
certain Jewish mitzvos to be saved. Neither Sha'ul nor
Ya'akov offers the law in itself as a means to salvation (Jas. 2:10; Gal. 3:10). Both men speak of the
"torah of freedom" (Jas.
1:25; 2:12; 1 Cor. 9:21) in a way that implies
Moshiach (Jas. 2:1; Ro.
8:2), and Ya'akov, no less than
Sha'ul, emphasizes the need for emunah (Jas. 1:3, 6; 5:15), for ahavah (agape)
toward G-d (Jas. 1:1), and being reborn from above (Jas. 1:21).
It is
important to remember that the book of James may be the earliest writing in the
Brit Chadasha corpus. To understand it, imagine that you are a member of the
congregation in Jerusalem about eight years after the death and resurrection of
the Moshiach. At that time Herod Agrippa I and various rich religious men would
be persecuting you, even as James the son of Zebedee was martyred and Peter had
to flee the city. Perhaps you heard them blaspheme the Name, just as today some
call our Moshiach “Yushka.”
Perhaps you have lost your job or your home or land because of their persecution
of your family members who are believers. Now you have in your hands something
written by the half-brother of Moshiach, the Apostle James (Ya'akov), who is an
elder in the Jerusalem congregation. You start reading the book of James in the
Orthodox Jewish Brit Chadasha (and I hope you will here and here and here and here and here and here). When you read it, you
notice that he speaks of devilish pseudo-wisdom and devilish pseudo-faith, and
carnal people in the kehillah who are led by their lusts to fight fellow
congregants and fawn with envy over wealthy drop-in visitors. Such worldly
religionists are uncharitable with a hypocritical callousness toward the needy,
who receive from such only pious words bereft of any tangible deeds. We are
saved by faith but the faith that saves is not dead. This is why we live a
sacrificial lifestyle, so we can give. This is why we go to the homeless shelter
and preach on the street, so that we will not fall into a kind of dead
orthodoxy, a mere intellectual assent that is empty and formal and nominal and
cold and dead. James is exposing evil desires and thoughts in the believers so
that their hearts will be disabused of the love of the world, so that they will
confess their sins and turn from their evil thoughts and be healed. Those led
astray and deceived by the deceitful
delusions of their yetzer hara
(evil inclination) must resist
the devil. Look at James 4:5,
which says “Or do you think that in vain the Kitvei Hakodesh (Holy Scriptures)
attests that Hashem yearns jealously over the Ruach Hakodesh He causes to dwell
in us?” 1Sm 19:23 says that the Spirit of G-d was on King Saul, but then in 1Sm
16:14 it says that the Spirit of the L-rd departed from Saul. David also sinned,
and apparently remembering this aspect of the jealousy of the L-rd over His
Spirit, David cried out in repentance, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me!” (Ps
51:11). Some scholars believe that the spirit in James 4:5 is the human spirit
and not the Holy Spirit. But I do not. There is a warning here. G-d’s Spirit
will not always strive with men, G-d’s Spirit can be grieved, and like Samson we
can backslide and not realize the Holy Spirit has left us. So there is a warning
here not to take the Holy Spirit
for granted, or to indulge evil thoughts that grieve the Holy Spirit. As
Paul says, whoever rejects this “rejects G-d who gives to you His Holy Spirit”
(1Thes 4:8). If we point Jewish people to the truth of the Scriptures using Rabbinic writings as a bridge to the closed canon of inerrant Holy Scripture, this is
following the methodology endorsed by the Word. For example,
Sanhedrin 98b says the World
was created only on Moshiach's account.
לאnot
אבריcreated
עלמאthe world
אלאexcept
למשהforMoshiach.
Co 1:16 (OJB) says all things were
created FOR Moshiach.