Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Echad.
By Charles Ryalls
Hear O Israel, The Lord is one.
This is true for all the congregation of believers as well. The Trinity is a great mystery even to those who are part of the "Church" and should understand these things. How can I explain this to my Jewish brothers, when it is hard even for me to understand? But here is a simple way of viewing it. God IS one. There is only the one God. God is infinite and omnipresent. He is righteous and just. In other words perfect in all thought and being. You might say that He is everything else that we are not.
We on the other hand are part of His handy work. We are created and are fallen, because of our rebellious and sinful nature. We are imperfect and finite occupying a defined place in the cosmos and limited by time as well as space. We were created in His likeness in that we are endowed with free will, intellect, and have an eternal soul. God chose to reveal Himself to us so that we could be restored to Him, in fellowship, having been separated from Him by our sin. So God became flesh, in the form of a man, Yeshua, so that which was intangible could be touched and seen and known by our limited senses. For how could a God who is infinite reveal Himself to the finite in any other form. We could never become like Him, so He became like us. The Lord chose to become finite for our sakes, so that we could learn of Him and come to be saved, restored to that which He created us to be. John, in his gospel, tells us that Yeshua was with God in the very beginning, when all things were created. John even says that He, Yeshua was the designer and creator. Yeshua was the Messiah from the very beginning as well.
Here is a Hebrew scripture that shows this Messiah, Yeshua, as the son of man standing with the God of Heaven. He is identified as the one who shall come to destroys the power of kings and break the teeth of sinners. This is an excerpt from Enoch. You can read the rest of this portion from this link. Enoch
Enoch XLVI. 1. And there I saw One, who had a head of
days, and his head was white like wool, and with Him was another
being whose countenance had the appearance of a man, and his face
was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels. 2. And
I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden
things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he
was, (and) why he went with the Head of Days? 3. And he answered
and said unto me: This is the Son of Man who hath righteousness,
with whom dwelleth righteousness, and who revealeth all the treasures
of that which is hidden, because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen
him, and whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits
in uprightness for ever. 4. And this Son of Man whom thou hast
seen shall <raise up> the kings and the mighty from their
seats, [and the strong from their thrones] and shall loosen the
reins of the strong, and break the teeth of the sinners; 5. [And
he shall put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms] because
they do not extol and praise Him, nor humbly acknowledge whence
the kingdom was bestowed upon them
It is important to understand that Yeshua was not a Man who became God. To the contrary He was God Himself who became man. The opposite of this would be Mohammed for example where a man allegedly gains perfection and becomes a god. This is also the lie taught by the New Age movement. The idea that if we strip away our flesh nature, by our own efforts and become united to all others in an ethereal unity that we will become gods, or part of the one god. This is a very old lie, but it still sells today as it did in the beginning. In the garden of Eden, Satan told Eve, if you eat of the fruit of knowledge, your eyes shall be opened and you shall become as god's. It's a tired old lie but people are still going for it. It brought down the entire human race and continues to destroy men today.
Yeshua, was God become flesh. He was one with the father, God become man, for our sake.
JN 14:9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? [10] Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
Now to a Jew this would be blaspheme because it seems that Yeshua is saying I am a man, and have become one with the father. And this would be blaspheme indeed if that was what He said. But what He said was that He was God who became man in the person of Yeshua. And as Yeshua, He became as one of us, suffered from all the same temptations and struggles that we all face, except He did it without sinning. He suffered torture even unto death on a Roman cross so that we could be restored to Him. This is the kind of love God has for us. Isaiah speaks clearly about the Messiah who would come and suffer and give His life to justify many.
During times of oppression the Jews looked for the Messiah that would come as the victorious King, defeat the enemies of Israel and set up an ever lasting Kingdom. They needed this and wanted it badly and missed the fact that before that could happen, God was first going to deal with the sin of men so that there would be a righteous nation of people to bring into this Kingdom. This Chapter is about that suffering servant. He is man, he grows up as a man, he dies as a man, but then He is raised up and bring new life to many:
ISA 53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
ISA 53:2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
So unlike the splendor of God that someone might expect, He comes as a lowly and common man, nothing special about His appearance that we would take special notice of Him, yet upon closer inspection we realize that it is the one God, Adonai become man, in Messiah.
ISA 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
ISA 53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
The people of the day who could not see in Him the manifestation of God, considered Him a man who was receiving the just reward from God for His sins. But it was for our sins that He was suffering. Paying the price of our debt. He was both the sacrifice, and the high priest. Even on the cross as he died He spoke the same exact words that the high priest was saying at that moment in the temple, "It is finished." And as he died, the veil of the temple, that inches thick curtain that had served to separate man from a righteous God, was torn in two, giving all free access to His holy presence.
ISA 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
ISA 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He did this of His own free will. He was innocent as a lamb, spotless and without sin before God, and went to the slaughter for us, becoming our Pascal Lamb, the bearer of our iniquities.
ISA 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
ISA 53:8 By oppression* and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.*
He was killed on a Roman cross, between two criminals and yet had no sin of His own. Yeshua was buried in a grave site near Golgotha, the place of the skull, in a tomb donated by a wealthy man, Joseph of Aramathea.
ISA 53:9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
ISA 53:10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
But as Isaiah saw, after suffering death and being buried, He would once again see the light of life, He would be raised from the dead and have eternal life. And because of what He did, in paying our debt of sins, we too are promised new life in Glory.
ISA 53:11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life* and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
ISA 53:12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
I have heard ignorant people say that Yeshua was killed by the Jews as if it was not supposed to happen, like it was a mistake in the plan of God. But nothing is farther from the truth. It was the plan of God, to become a man as one of us, to die for us, to make a way to reconcile the whole creation unto Himself. God's laws stands eternally on it's own. It was spoken into existence and will remain forever. Yeshua told us that not one Jot or tittle of the law would pass away. The Lord came to represent us before His own law. To put it in human terms, it is like the writers of the constitution, who after writing the law and agreeing to it's authority, become subject to the very law they have written. As judges they do not give an opinion based on what they "feel" is just and right, they must judge a case by comparing the circumstances to the law, the constitution, to see if there is a ruling defined in it's precepts. You see even God can not violate His own law. He said if you sin you will die. But He also made a provision, in the law of the kinsman redeemer, where someone else can pay our debts and set us free from its burden. This is what Yeshua did. He is our kinsman redeemer. He redeemed us while hanging on a Roman cross while the people standing around Him cast insults upon Him and cast lots for His clothing, his only personal possession.
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PS 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are
out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within
me.
PS 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue
sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
PS 22:16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled
me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.
PS 22:17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.
PS 22:18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
PS 22:19 But you, O LORD, be not far off;O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
PS 22:20 Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.
After the resurrection of Yeshua, many witnesses saw Him over a period of 40 days. Then he took His small band of followers up to the mount of olives, gave them His final instructions and words of encouragement and in their sight He was taken up to heaven. He will return from Heaven on a day not too far off, to defeat the rest of the enemies of God and to fully establish His Kingdom. But He did not leave us alone or without help. He gave us another helper, comforter, to be with us until He returns. This helper is the third person of the Trinity, The Holy Spirit. It was a promise from the time of Jeremiah that the Lord was going to bring in a new Covenant that would be better than the covenant that He confirmed with Israel at Mount Sinai, after they left Egypt. This covenant was establish by Yeshua through the giving of His own blood. And it was made manifest on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the believers and the law and the love of God was written on their hearts by the Holy Spirit. He paid our debts to clear away our sins, and then He comes in the form of the Spirit and indwell us, to help us to live in obedience to His own will. He does the work for us. All we need to do, is surrender our free will to Him and allow Him to be, who He is, The Lord God Almighty.
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JER 31:31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
JER 31:32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to* them,* " declares the LORD.
JER 31:33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house
of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will
put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will
be their God, and they will be my people.
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Yeshua told His disciples several times that this gift of the Holy Spirit was going to come.
JN 14:25 "All this I have spoken while still with you. [26] But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. [27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
LK 12:11 "When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, [12] for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."
ACTS 1:4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. [5] For John baptized with* water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
RO. 5: 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
The Holy Spirit lives in us and around us, to lead us into the truth of the word of God. In fact it is impossible to understand the things of God without the Spirit to unlock it's mysteries.
1CO 2:10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
The Spirit of God who dwells in us also seals us until the day of redemption. What does that mean? It means that He assures us of our salvation, lets us know that we are become the sons of God. The Spirit is God in his omnipresent form, who dwells in and among us. He can not dwell where there is sin and defilement. But after Yeshua has paid the price of our sins and cleansed us we have God imputed righteousness, and become the dwelling of God, the temple of God.
EPH 1:13 Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-
And in this process of sealing He keeps us in the knowledge that we have become the Son and daughters of God.
RO 8 :15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.* And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
These are the three manifestations of God.
God the Father who is the completeness of God in all that He is, who sits upon all of creation as Lord of all.
Yeshua, God who became flesh to redeem His creation unto Himself by giving Himself as a living sacrifice.
God the Spirit who dwells among us and in us to seal us until the day of redemption, reminding us of who we really are and who God really is.
In the Jewish prayer it says: Sh'ma Yis-ra-el. Adonai Eloheynu, Adonai, Echad. Which means Hear O Israel, the Lord He is God, the Lord He is One. The word one Echad means, one made of parts. Like one building made with many bricks. Like a marriage where two become as one (Echad) flesh. How important this is for all to understand, especially our Jewish brothers. Yeshua was a part of God, God become man. Adonai Tzid-Ke-nu (The Lord is our righteousness.) Adonai Yeshua Te-nu. ( The Lord is our Salvation.)
King David understood the idea that God was expressed as one made of parts, or present in more than one place at one time. After his sin of adultery and murder over Bathsheba, he called out to God, who was in heaven above and asked Him not to take the Holy Spirit away from him. David understood that there was a part of God Himself living inside of Him. He speaks to God in heaven , while God the Spirit dwells in him.
PS 51:11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
This was part of the anointing from God. It was only given to the prophets and Kings in that day, but in the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31 it is shown that this is to be given to all who are part of the covenant, the believers in Yeshua. This is the outpouring of the Spirit that was spoken of by Joel and witnessed by the people of Jerusalem on Pentecost.
JOEL 2:28 "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
JOEL 2:29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will
pour out my Spirit in those days.
There are many examples that show the Spirit as being separate
from God the father. Here is one from Isaiah:
ISA 63:11 Then his people recalled* the days of old, the days of Moses and his people-- where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them...
It is difficult for our Jewish brothers to accept that there is any kind of unity in the Church which is based on the belief in one God, when they see so many denominations and separate doctrines. From my experience, within the church I see this as well and can not understand it. The fact is there is very little unity. All the denominations seem to be set against one another. "We believe this and they don't so we are saved and they are lost." It's like the old Joke about St. Peter tip toeing past a row of doors in heaven , leading in a new bunch of saints to their rooms, and he says, " Shhhh! We don't want to disturb those people in there. They think they are the only ones here too." How sad for the Church. The only thing we have in common is that we are all unworthy, and saved by His grace. If we could just forget about our petty differences and look to Him who is our God. For in the end we WILL be one congregation under one God. Both Jew and Gentiles , all 493 different denominations. In the end we will know Him as we are known by Him, and we will see how really evil our preconceived notions were, and how faulty our understanding was.
Another thing that drives people away from Christianity and repulses our Jewish brothers is the hypocrisy that exists in the Church. How can you talk righteousness and live like the devil? Yet that is what happens all the time. And these things are blazingly obvious to those who do have unity and discipline. Can you imagine for a moment how difficult it would be for a Jewish brother to hear your message of love when all he sees in the Christian world is Catholics and Protestants killing each other on the news. Or hears stories about corrupt preaches and church officials who are caught in all sort of criminal activity. Nearly everyday there is some story about some preacher who is sexually impure or caught in the back seat with some woman or some other such thing. Do you ever hear these kind of stories from the Jewish faith? I haven't.
Look back and consider what a legacy we have as the Church of God. How about the Roman conversion when Constantine marched the troops through the river in a mass baptism, making them suddenly "Christians" and then turning them loose on the Jews to kill them. Rome was converted to Christianity by force on penalty of death. These were not spirit filled, born again, Christians. They were Roman Pagans that were given a name that would bind them together in a single group for the purpose of military conquest. It was the marriage of the legitimate Christian faith with the tyrannical government of Rome and it's pagan beliefs. This was and is the Roman Catholic church. It was the beginning of centuries of blood letting at the hand of the Popes themselves, who became the new Ceasars of the Roman empire. The office of Inquisitors was established and anyone who would not embrace the Roman form of Christianity was tortured and burned at the stake. They rounded up the Jewish brothers into their synagogues and bared the doors shut, set them on fire, and burned them to death in the name of Jesus. History says that they sang songs of praise to Jesus while the people inside died horrible deaths. And it was not just the Jewish and the Islamic who were targeted by this Apostate false religion. It was reformist (Protestant) Christians as well, who the Popes condemned as "Heretics", because of their belief in personal salvation through Messiah Yeshua. Over the years Tens of Millions of Christians were killed by the church in Rome! Yes my Jewish brothers, the true believes and followers of Yeshua, our Messiah, were subjected to horrendous torture, seizure of property, and death by fire, at the hands of these Roman Catholics. And even today members of this church have not confessed their sins and say things like "These are the ways of War, it was a holy war." It was just another Jihad lead by the Devil, another racist act of hatred against the chosen of God. May He have mercy upon their souls.
The Crusaders in the ninth through the thirteenth century performed genocide on the Arab Moslems. They destroyed all the brightest minds and the finest works of their culture and at the same time rounded up and killed as many Jews as they could, all in the name of "Christ". This is the Legacy of a church that today claims to be the one true church ordained by Christ Himself, and who condemn to hell, on no real authority, any who will not subscribe to there religion. These same self righteous churchmen were responsible for the Spanish inquisition, which again overflowed to the Jews.
The Russian Orthodox, (a branch of the Roman Church) later expelled the Jews and persecuted them. The English expelled them. The Catholic Germans nearly eliminated them all together as a people in the reign of terror under the little antichrist, Adolph Hitler. And the Pope gave consent and even blessed the Reich authority. And now the United States, who is seen as a Christian nation is turning against the Jews and taking sides with the terrorist Palestinians to give them the lands of Israel. We should all hang our heads in shame.
Oh, I know that many who read this will say, "It was wrong, but it wasn't us. It was our forefathers." And that is true but what have we done today to call the current U.S. Government to task over their ill advised course of action? We are sitting by watching with our mouths shut, and our hands folded in our laps, while the same things happen again. How can we ever witness to our Jewish brothers? Yet in the end we will be one congregation. It is in God's hands. But I tell you that we will have to account for the actions of those elected officials who we, in silence, allowed to take a stand against God's chosen.
I pray for the day when Yeshua reveals Himself to His Brothers, as their Messiah. I look forward to the time when He comes and Judges the Church for the blood that it has shed in His name. And I believe this Judgment has already begun, Baruch Ha Shem! Let His people be one as He is one.
Please my dear Jewish brothers, if you have made it this far in this paper, understand that not everyone who calls themselves "Christian" is in fact what he professes to be. There have been many evil things done by people who were not obedient at all to the Lord or walking in His Spirit. Do not judge the true believers by what you see. These people who practice violence and hypocrisy, and hatred, are not believers. Some people think that they are Christian because their name is on some membership roll in a church, but they don't have a single idea of who our God is. Yeshua said "There would be some who would say 'Lord, Lord!' and I will say to them, "Depart from me, I never knew you!" The history of heinous crimes that were done in the name of the Lord, have made the name "Christian" a curse to the rest of the world. There is a day coming when once again the name of the Lord will be a blessing to all the nations. That day is already here for those who know Him and are called by His name. Yeshua Ha Meshiach!
SH'MA YIS-RA-EL
ADONAI ECHAD
ADONAI TZID-KE-NU
ADONIA YESHUA TE-NU
Yeshua The King - Charles Ryalls Site
