Joshua 24:14
¹⁴ “Now therefore, fear Yehova and worship Him in sincerity and in truth. Get rid of the gods that your fathers had worshipped beyond the River and in Egypt, and worship Yehova. ¹⁵ If it seems bad to you to worship Yehova, then choose for yourselves today whom you will serve—whether the gods that your fathers worshipped that were beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will worship Yehova!”

Lot’s of people know about the quote at the end of verse 15 in Joshua 24. Go to any “Christian retailer” and you’ll probably find wall plaques for sell, quoting “As for me and my house…”
But how many are familiar with the preceding verse 14?

What can we learn about this from Joshua?
He makes it very plain and simple for us.
—Fear Yehova
—Worship Him in sincerity and truth

What does it mean to fear Yehova?
Is it healthy to be afraid of our Creator?
Why should we ever fear a loving God?
We are given this bit of advice in Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

If we look at the Hebrew for fear, we find this:
H3372  Transliteration  yare’ 
Strong’s Definition:
יָרֵא yârêʼ, yaw-ray’; a primitive root; to fear; morally to revere; causatively to frighten:—affright, be (make) afraid, dread(-ful), (put in) fear(-ful, -fully, -ing), (be had in) reverence(-end), × see, terrible (act, -ness, thing).

We can combine both meanings of this word to describe our response to Yehova:
fear in reverence, or reverent-fear
He is the Creator of all things.  He gives us each heartbeat and each breath.  And His final judgment will not determine the fate of our physical bodies, but the fate of our soul. We should have much respect and reverent fear of Yehova.  Everything that we are or will be [or will not be] is decided by Elohim.

How do we go about this?
First, let’s take a look at the Hebrew for truth:
H571 Transliteration  ’emeth
Strong’s Definition:
אֶמֶת ʼemeth, eh’-meth; contracted from H539; stability; (figuratively) certainty, truth, trustworthiness:—assured(-ly), establishment, faithful, right, sure, true (-ly, -th), verity.

And here is sincerity:
H8549 Transliteration   tamiym
Strong’s Definition:
תָּמִים tâmîym, taw-meem’; from H8552; entire (literally, figuratively or morally); also (as noun) integrity, truth:—without blemish, complete, full, perfect, sincerely (-ity), sound, without spot, undefiled, upright(-ly), whole.

We know from the English words truth and sincerity that Joshua’s statement is serious in nature, and these two words bring forth a certain understanding. Looking at the Hebrew and the definitions of both words, we add to the idea of worshipping Yehova the following concepts: integrity, certainty, trust, perfect, undefiled, faithful, and more…  Are these the type of words you would use to describe your walk of faith, your behavior, your worship of the Living Elohim?

Let’s take a look at some scriptural advice concerning truth:

Psalm 25:9-10
⁹ He guides the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble His way.
¹⁰ All Yehova’s ways are loving kindness
and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.
Psalm 85:10-11
¹⁰ Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him,
so that glory may dwell in our land.
¹¹ Loving kindness and truth meet together.
Righteousness and shalom [peace] kiss each other.
Psalm 86:11-12
¹¹ Teach me Your way, Yehova,
    that I may walk in Your truth.
Give me an undivided heart to fear Your Name.
¹² I praise You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and glorify Your Name forever.
Psalm 111:7-8, 11
⁷ The works of His hands are truth and justice.
All His precepts are trustworthy—
⁸ they are upheld forever and ever,
made in truth and uprightness.
¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.
His praise endures forever.

Proverbs 3:3
Let kindness and truth never leave you— bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
Proverbs 8:7
For my mouth speaks truth, and my lips detest wickedness.
Proverbs 12:19
Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue for only a moment.
Proverbs 14:22
Indeed those who plot evil go astray but grace and truth come to those who plan good.
Proverbs 14:25
A truthful witness saves lives, but one who utters lies is treacherous.
Proverbs 16:6
By mercy and truth is iniquity atoned, and by the fear of Yehova one avoids evil.
Proverbs 23:23
Acquire truth and do not sell it, acquire wisdom, instruction and understanding.

Psalm 117:2 and Psalm 119:142-144 go together well:
² For great is His loving kindness toward us, and Adonai’s truth endures forever. Halleluyah!
¹⁴² Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
And Your law is truth.
¹⁴³ Trouble and anguish have overtaken me,
Yet Your commandments are my delights.
¹⁴⁴ The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting;
Give me understanding, and I shall live.

In these quotes from Psalm and Proverbs, we see that Yehova considers His Torah, His commands, His law to be truth, and He considers it to be truth forever.
How is your walk with Yehova?
Do you consider His instructions to be forever, or do you consider them to be obsolete?

Joshua says “…But as for me and my household, we will worship Yehova!”
Whom do you serve?
The New Testament helps us to figure it out.
1John 2:3-6
The Test of Knowing Him
³ Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. ⁴ He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵ But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God ^[a]is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. ⁶ He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

 2John 2:6
⁶ This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.

I have spent nearly two years studying the scriptures, praying about understanding, and I’ve written nearly 250 articles here as a result.
While I’ve been informed by a number of people that these articles were helpful to them, they have especially been helpful for me.

When I began to study the scriptures seriously, I started to learn new truths.  Well, the truths were not new, but they were new to me.
All I knew were the things I’d been taught over three plus decades in the mainstream church.

But I noticed the scriptures did not match what they are teaching.
When I asked church leaders questions about these things, open door policies quickly became “avoid-that-guy” policies.
They didn’t seem to want any part of serious questions regarding the Old Testament…

And so, my journey began.
As I studied, I learned.
And as I learned, I shed the things I had been taught, in favor of what the scriptures say.
I paid particular attention to the very words of Yehova (God) and the very words of Yeshua Messiah (Jesus).
One of the very first startling things I learned is that Jesus of the mainstream church system is not the same as the Messiah described in scripture.

I eventually came to realize that mainstream doctrine opposes Yeshua Messiah, and teaches the opposite of many things He said!!  Once I wrapped my head around that tough-to-swallow concept, I had to explore what that meant for many millions, if not billions, of Christians in the world, past, present, and future.
What I learned was not good.  The direct quotes of Yeshua Messiah are not favorable to those steeped in church doctrine.
This was a shocker for me.

My articles of warning here in this blog show the path of my own learning. In studying the Torah portions in 2017/2018, one thing in particular stood out to me:
Mosheh (Moses) always interceded for the people of the children of Israel. Even when Yehova was wroth, and wanted to destroy them entirely, Mosheh fell on his face and prayed for the Hebrew nation.
If I were to go back and read all of my articles, I believe Mosheh’s influence can probably be seen. I went from telling the church how wrong they are, to warning they are wrong, and praying for them to learn the scriptures.  In my personal prayers, I began praying for Yehova’s mercy for those who reject His words and His ways.
I learned mercy over criticism.

With that said, most people in the world do not agree with me.
Obviously, most in the mainstream churches who happen upon my articles tend to not agree with me.  But most in the Torah communities do not agree either.
Such is life…
I spent countless hours debating people, trying to defend the scriptures.
I’ve realized, though, that the scriptures do not need to be defended.
They say what they say, and it will never change, according to Yeshua.

I believe I have reached a point where I will no longer debate those who do not believe the scriptures, often times the very words of Messiah.
I will no longer be writing articles trying to highlight the differences between scripture and common beliefs and doctrine.

Shift happens.
And it is shifting and happening right now.
I will study scripture with great effort and prayer for as long as I live.
I will not stop writing articles.
But I plan for them to be different in nature.

I plan to do some topical studies, or even individual word studies.
As in, look up all references to truth, or wisdom, or blessing, or curse, or this or that, and study out how those topics are depicted throughout scripture.
I have begun leading an online Shabbat fellowship with Torah portion studies being the main focus.  I may post articles here, going over the Torah portions.

If you think my articles here are helpful, thank you for spending some time in study. As always, never take my word for anything.  Always study it for yourselves, just as the Bereans did.

Cogito, ergo sum is a Latin philosophical proposition by René Descartes usually translated into English as “I think, therefore I am“. The phrase originally appeared in French as je pense, donc je suis in his Discourse on the Method, so as to reach a wider audience than Latin would have allowed.

We’ve probably all heard this phrase by Descartes, right?
“I think, therefore I am.”
Have you heard of this one?
“I think, therefore I am right.”

This is going to be really quick and fast.
If you speak of your doctrine or theology starting with the words “I think…” or “I believe…” then you may need to study a bit.

When you describe your doctrine or theology, you should start with these words:
“Scripture says…”

Too many people inject their own thoughts, emotions, and ideas into their theological beliefs.  Sometimes doing so results in changing or denying the scriptures.
Sometimes doing so requires us to change or deny the very words of Yeshua or Yehova.
We probably shouldn’t do that.

Let your yes be yes, and let your no be no.
Start your theology discussions with “Scripture says…” and you can never go wrong.

As you may already know, I quote Jeremiah 16:19-20 quite often.
It is so very important today, and moving into the future, as we get nearer and nearer to End Days, and specifically, the very end day.

Jeremiah 16:19-20
¹⁹ O Lord, my strength and my fortress,
My refuge in the day of affliction,
The Gentiles shall come to You
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
²⁰ Will a man make gods for himself,
Which are not gods?

Just how important are these words?
Do the prophets’ words still matter today?
If the prophets have gone silent for many centuries, can we still look at what the biblical prophets said, and apply it to our lives?

Absolutely.
Verse 14 and 15 of Jeremiah 16 set the timeframe for the statement made in verses 19-20.
They show us this has not yet occurred, but it is coming.
Jeremiah 16:14-15
¹⁴ “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

So…
If the words spoken in verses 19-20 have not yet occurred, but are coming, then we should take them seriously.

What do they tell us?
1.  Our religious system will get everything wrong, teaching nothing but lies.  These are inherited lies, so we are talking about generations of lies, not just a sudden change at the end.
2.  The result of these lies are what?  Men will make up their own gods, but they are not gods.  If they are not gods, then they cannot save.

So, yeah, this is a big deal.
I had a “conversation” [social media dialogue] with a person who considers himself to be saved.
I shared scripture, the direct quotes of Messiah, that would indicate otherwise.
His response?
I can’t receive that. At least the part about the “Depart from Me. I never knew you.”

The scriptures tell us all about Messiah, the Son of the living God.
We are told about the things He did, and many of His words are recorded in scripture as direct quotes.
It is simple to learn about Him, and to get to know Him simply by reading the scriptures and believing what it says.
I think it is especially important for us to learn His warnings, and understand the consequences of not heeding His warnings.
That is the entire purpose of my blog here.  I’m nearing 250 articles specifically about the warnings in scripture.

There are so very many people out there who reject the words of Messiah, and yet claim to know Him, love Him, and serve Him.
Is this problematic?
Yes, double yes, and triple yes.
Why?
Because of these direct quotes of Yeshua Messiah:
“I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.“
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?”
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 
…And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

His sheep hear His voice.
His sheep follow the things He says.

If your theology and doctrine require you to respond to the things Messiah said with, “Yeah, but…” then you are doing it wrong.
We do not get to change the things He said.
We do not get to disagree with Him.
We do not get to decide He never said that…

The prophet Jeremiah told us all about the people who do this.
²⁰ Will a man make gods for himself, which are not gods?

People have created a new messiah of their own liking.
Their messiah conforms to their own ideas about salvation.
But their messiah does not match the Messiah in scripture.
Their messiah is based upon the ideas made up by men.
Their messiah is a figment of their imagination, although they call him by the same name used in scripture.

I just checked the NY Times Best Seller list for novels.
Origin by Dan Brown is the #1 best selling book today.
Let’s do a simple exercise…
If you knew nothing else, and it was declared that the secret to your eternity was in this book called Origin, what would you do?
If someone handed you a copy of this book and said your eternity depends on what is written inside this book, how would you approach it?

Would you start at the beginning and read it all the way through, gleaning information and truth as you go?
Or would you skip to somewhere near the end, and begin reading there?  Would you trust your eternity to whatever you are able to glean from the last 25% of the book?
All that is at stake is your eternity, so what does it matter?

Most people would likely choose to read the whole book, am I right?
Why do people not do this with the bible?
When a person begins “going to church” they are often told to begin reading their bibles in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Here is where I’m going with this…
What if there are important things we need to know in the first 75% of the bible?
What if there are foundational truths in the Old Testament?
What if there are things in the New Testament that cannot be understood in context without first knowing some basic truths established in the Old Testament?

Let’s take a look at a few things.

We are told in the Old Testament that God never changes.
We are told that His instructions for living are forever, for all generations, a perpetual covenant, everlasting.
We are told that His instructions are for both the native-born Hebrew AND for the strangers among them.
We are told that the instructions He gave were for the people present at the time, and for the people not present at the time, all people for all generations.
We are told in the Old Testament that God does not lie and that He does not change His mind.

After Yehova gave His instructions, the prophets throughout the Old Testament all told the people to turn back to and follow the instructions of Yehova.

In the New Testament, Yeshua Messiah taught us that He did not come to abolish the law and the prophets. He teaches the people to follow the will of the Father, which is defined in His instructions, the Torah, the law.
The Apostles follow the Torah, and teach others to do so.

But then…
The Mainstream Christian “establishment” comes along and tells us the Old Testament law is nailed to the cross and is no longer applicable.
They say that the law is done away with, and they establish this ideology based on half the writings of Paul.

This causes some major problems with scripture.
We have to ignore half of Paul’s writings in order to believe this doctrine.
Do we follow “Pro-Torah” Paul?
Or do we follow “Torah-Done-Away-With” Paul?
Peter warns us not to make this mistake in 2Peter 3:14-18.
On his deathbed, Peter wrote to us about misunderstanding some of Paul’s writings.  He says the twisting of Paul’s writings, and the rest of the scriptures [Old Testament is all there was at the time] will result in our destruction if we follow the ways of the lawless.

In addition to Peter’s warning about this, scripture tells us that Yehova does NOTHING without first revealing it through His prophets:
Amos 3:7
Adonai, God, does nothing without
revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
Do you believe this scripture?
If this is in scripture, then it is true and we cannot ignore it.
And if this is true, please show me where Yehova revealed through His prophets that Apostle Paul would one day change everything about His doctrine.
If Paul was tasked with changing everything, then Yehova would have told us before hand, via the prophets, just as is stated in scripture.
This is a huge problem!!!
The prophets all say to follow Yehova’s instructions, His law.
No prophets says to not follow the God’s instructions, nor does any prophet say this will ever change.

But these are not the only problems of believing Mainstream Christian doctrine.
Their idea that the law is done away with requires God to be a liar.
It requires us to believe that God changed His mind.

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man who lies,
or a son of man who changes his mind! 

Believing that Yehova’s instructions in the Torah are no longer applicable today requires God to be a liar.
He said those commands are forever, for all generations, never-ending, and that they are a perpetual covenant.
He said they are for everybody, not just the Hebrews.
He said they are for the people present then, and for all people not present then.

There is another problem.
If our religious institutions teach today that the law is done away with, then they fail the test of a false prophet.
What does Yehova require of anyone who teaches against His word and is a false prophet?  They are to be killed [in a Torah abiding nation, which will one day come to be again].

Believing Mainstream Church doctrine indicates that you do not understand who Yehova is, and that you do not understand His character.
How can this be remedied?
It is pretty simple.
Read the bible, beginning at the front.
As you progress through the bible, take notes of anything that God says is forever, perpetual, for all generations, or never-ending.  Take notes of the things that God says will never pass away.
Take note of the things that scripture says is truth.
Take note of the things that God says will bring life and blessing.
Take note of the things that God says will bring death and curse.

Continue doing so with the prophets’ writings.
Look at the Psalms and the Proverbs, and take note of the things that are identified as truth, wisdom, knowledge, and are life-giving.

When you have established a solid foundation of knowledge based on the beginning fundamentals of truth, THEN move forward and read the New Testament.
If you understand the things that God said were forever, and were for all people for all generations, and if you understand that He never changes and that He does not change His mind and that He does not lie, then you can understand the New Testament writings within those boundaries.

Your eternity depends on what the whole bible says, not just the last 25% of it.
And you cannot understand the last 25% of the bible unless you read and understand the first 75% of it.