Articles
My Journal
Publish Date: August 6, 2007
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By Robert B. Holman, Senior Pastor
Mishlei (Proverbs) 25:2 CJB G-d gets glory from concealing things; Kings get glory from investigating things.
I am the third generation of pastors. I was raised totally Apostolic, Pentecostal. This was all I ever knew. At twenty years of age, I was called to the ministry of preaching and teaching G-d’s Word. My desire from the inception of the calling was to be truthful concerning the Word of G-d. I had read 2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” NKJ. So it was my desire to do just that.
Being young, I was influenced by the preaching, teaching styles and methods of the fathers, those of renown status within our denomination, and I tried to emulate what I had seen to be affective in their approach. It is easy to be a clone and a mimic. It does not require much thought. This happens particularly when you have confidence, and admiration for a people, their style, and their pedigree. However, the problem rest in whether or not the things being mimicked are totally true and correct. This is where the work of the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) plays a real important part in the life of the one who has been called by the Father to expound His Word, and feed His Sheep. Yochanan (John) 16:13 “However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” If you sincerely ask the Father to show and teach you the truth of His Word He will. For me the truth of G-d’s Word to his people was always important and mattered
I spent forty years trying to be like everyone else before I came to realize my particular calling. That there was depth of understanding and knowledge within G-d’s Word that was missing from mainstream theological teaching and preaching. There was also the absence of the Judaic and Hebraic thought. After all, in varied circles of Christian doctrine the very term Judaism in and of itself was taboo. As I studied to teach, questions would develop in my mind concerning the truth of the scripture. In some instances, the scriptural explanations taught by mainstream Christianity did not add up. I began to search within the scriptures for answers. The Ruach HaKodesh began to direct my course, leading and guiding me to truth as recorded in Yochanan’s (John’s) 16:13 gospel. In these last days the Ruach (Spirit) is calling people who have an ear to hear to return to the truth of the Fathers that of Moses, Avraham, Yitz’chak (Isaac), Ya’akov (Jacob). Scripture teaches us to “hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” Revelations 2:7. This is not a building, it is the place within the hearts of people that believe and are converted by the work of the Ruach HaKodesh. That was me.
Take note. The truth of G-d’s Word is not after the order of denominational doctrines or the traditions of men. It is in accordance with His Ruach (Spirit); the difference is night and day. You come to accept G-d’s truth at any cost irrespective of your position or status in life, because ‘Truth Matters’.
If truth mattered, then I had to come to grips with the fact that G-d does not change. I had heard repeatedly, the phrase that G-d was the same today, yesterday, and forever, and he changes not. I used this phrase myself. The Ruach HaKodesh began to direct my study of scripture toward a Hebraic perspective. I don’t recall when this took place. However, I noticed from a lot of my sermon notes that much of what I taught was from the Old Testament and re-enforced by the New. I discover the truth that G-d does not change. The Words of Sha’ul (Paul) spoke to me saying from Romans 3:2 “. . .In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the very words of G-d.” To that extent the Ruach HaKodesh said to me “if I gave the Jews my word first, why would I have stopped giving them wisdom and understanding of my word or the application.” Dear ones, there are righteous, holy people among the Jewish people whom G-d provided (and still is providing) truth and understanding. There are fathers or sages of the Jewish Messianic faith who are filled with wisdom and understanding of the scriptures. These men understand a depth of the scriptures that those who study from a Christian thought can never know. It was through this type of study that I became aware. I needed to connect to, and understand my Hebraic roots.
Sha’ul in Acts 20:29, 30 said, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you; and they won’t spare the flock. Even from among your own number, men will arise and teach perversions of the truth, in order to drag away the talmidim after themselves.” The Ruach HaKodesh began to show me who the savage wolves were, and what group of people were influencing scriptural change. A violation of Deuteronomy 4:2. I discovered that none of the changes were the direct result of the work of the Ruach HaKodesh. At that point, it was easy to accept scriptural total truth, and return to the Torah, and the Tanakh as the foundation of scriptural understanding, realizing that it was that scripture that Sha’ul speaks about in 2 Timothy 2:16 as being the scripture that was God-breathed; it was that Word in John 17:17 where YeShua prayed to the Father, “Set them apart for holiness by means of the truth - your word is truth.”
I searched and found a preponderance of evidence in support scriptural changes that were the result of men who were not Holy men and not led by the Ruach HaKodesh. I discovered that the Greeks and the Catholic Church had influenced the understanding of the scripture. I read an article from the St Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel dated May 21, 1995. http://biblelight.net/st-cath.htm. It said quote, “Perhaps the boldest thing the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday.” “The Day of the Lord” (dies Dominica) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power.” The article further goes on to say “people who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority should logically become 7th Day Adventist, and keep Saturday Holy.” This and many articles like it are posted on the World Wide Web. My point is that truth has been altered by the likes of such men who believe they are higher and smarter than G-d or the Son of G-d who was obedient even unto death. By the way, YeShua’s obedience was in respect to honoring the scriptures as His Father had dictated. To YeShua those scriptures were the Torah and the Tanakh to which He was completely Torah compliant. There in the bibles tells us that YeShua was obedient even unto death on the cross.
After review of the evidence in support of how the Sabbath worship was changed to the first day of the week and how replacement theology changed the word Torah in scripture to law, and evoked Easter as a Holy Christian day; I came to the knowledge of what influenced Christianity to believe that what G-d spoke into existence as scripture needed to be changed, and how some of the truth of G-d’s Word had been replaced and altered. Some where in scripture I read, “do not add to, or subtract from.” Problem being is that a half truth is a whole lie. Scripture teaches us to honor the Sabbath and keep it Holy and to obey all that is commanded.
I sought the Ruach HaKodesh, and he returned me to the original text, the Hebraic Torah, and the study of scripture from a Messianic perspective. My journey has brought me to this point. I am doing all I can to present myself to G-d as someone worthy of his approval, as a worker with no need to be ashamed, because I deal straightforwardly with the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15 CJB). I believe in the total authority of scripture. YeShua says in Yochanan (John) 16:13 “However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own initiative but will only say what he hears. He will announce to you the events of the future.” My journey does not end here. The Word of G-d is a continuing journey ever revealing truth.
I have come to realize that we are living in the time of the end. The book of Daniel has been open knowledge has increased. The Messianic age has begun with Jews accepting YeShua as Lord, and both Jew and believers of all nations returning to adherence to the Torah.
So why settle for a half truth just because that’s the way it’s been? Why continue to follow the norm? The Son of G-d, YeShua never did. He is our perfect example. Seek G-d’s truth for yourself. Ask the questions that are deep in your heart. Ask the Ruach HaKodesh to reveal His truth to you, and become converted. Begin to walk in the light, as YeShua is that light, shining in the darkness
Yochanan (John) 5:19 CJB “So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom Of Heaven”
‘You too can be great in the Kingdom of G-d’
It’s a great place to be.
