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Baptism in the Name of Yahshua

Introduction
   In the previous issue of YAIY Beacon, I discussed Matthew 5:17 – "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” – which dealt with exactly what “fulfill” meant. Additionally, in the time of Yahshua, there existed a Hebrew idiom, crucial to understanding what Yahshua was communicating to those charged with the responsibility of guarding the Law – the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. When He told the religious leaders not to even think that He came to destroy the Law but to fulfill the Law, He was using an idiom to argue the correct interpretation of Torah. The phrase, “To destroy the Law,” meant, in the Hebraic mind, to MISINTERPRET the Law. Likewise, to “fulfill the Law” meant to CORRECTLY INTERPRET the Law. For example, a Rabbi who disagreed with another Rabbi, might say, “You are destroying the law!” Similarly, a Rabbi who agreed with another Rabbi might say, “You are fulfilling the law!” So, when Yahshua said, “He did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them,” He is effectively, in context, saying, “I have not brought a false interpretation of the Law or the Prophets; rather, I am demonstrating their correct interpretation.”

Interpretation Through Demonstration
   How did Yahshua the Messiah “demonstrate the correct interpretation of the Law and the Prophets”? Through His actions! Every moment of His life here on earth was a demonstration of the correct interpretation of the Law and the Prophets! The false Scriptural interpretations made by the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, lead to the false doctrines they established, and thus their behavior demonstrated that which destroys the Law and the Prophets. Examples, in Scriptures, are plentiful.
  
You have made the commandment of Yahweh of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men,” Matthew 15:6-9.
  
It is time for You to act, O Yahweh, for they have regarded Your law as void, Psalm 119:126.
  
How can you say, “We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us”? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh; so what wisdom do they have? (Jeremiah 8:8-9.)
  
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your Elohim, I also will forget your children, Hosea 4:6 NKJV.
  
“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of hosts. But you have departed from the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says Yahweh of hosts. "Therefore, I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways but have shown partiality in the law," Malachi 2:7-9.

Partiality in the Law
   Let me ask you, “What is partiality?” The thesaurus says that partiality is synonymous with the words, “bias, prejudice, preconception, preference, predilection and inclination.” Yahweh, through His Prophet, Malachi, is chastising the priests of Israel for their self-preferential and incorrect prejudice in teaching the Law of Yahweh. Comparatively, Yahweh is chastising the pastors, priests, ministers and shepherds of today who say they are teaching His Way, His Word and His Law, while, in fact, they are teaching a distorted, biased, prejudiced, preconceived and preferential doctrines, many of which were founded in 325 CE at the Council of Nicaea.
  
Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law, Romans 3:31.
   Paul is saying that faith establishes the Law. But, faith in what? I submit to you that, as Paul was a master of the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, he holds strongly to the Word of Yahweh.
  
How long, you simple ones [the word translated “simple” comes from the Hebrew word, pethah, which means deluded]; How long, you deluded ones will you love delusion? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn [The Hebrew word is shuwb - Literally, “return to the starting point”] at My rebuke; surely I will pour out My spirit on you; I will make My words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, because I have stretched out My hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all My counsel, and would have none of My rebuke – I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes [properly, “when the object of your fear comes”]; when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes [This Hebrew word for “destruction” is shoah; and if you remember, it is what is now translated Holocaust.] like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. THEN, they will call on Me. But, I will not answer; they will seek Me diligently, but they will not find Me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of Yahweh; they would have none of My counsel and despised My every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the deluded will slay them, and the complacency of fools [literally, fat ones; so, we read], ... and the complacency of the fat ones will destroy them; but whoever listens to Me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil, Proverbs 1:22-33 NKJV.

Pointing to Yahshua
   Virtually all churches in Christendom refer to the prophecies concerning the Messiah. In the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, the Messiah was prophesied to be:
   A descendant of Abraham; a descendant of David; a prophet like Moses; the Son of Yahweh; born at Bethlehem; born by a virgin; prophesied to come at a specific time; called a Nazarene; the “stone the builders rejected”; the “head cornerstone”; the One Who would heal the lame, the blind and the deaf; preaching first in Galilee; silent in the face of His accusers; hated for no cause; falsely accused; betrayed by a friend; sold for thirty pieces of silver; scourged, spat upon, mocked and hair pulled from beard; pierced, hands and feet; nailed to a tree; men will cast lots for His garment; bones will not be broken; forsaken by His disciples; resurrected after 3 days in the belly of the earth (often leaving out the 3 nights); and ascend to Heaven and sit at the Right Hand of Yahweh
   All of these prophecies are true and described in the literature written by members of the major religion of the world. But I ask you, why do we not find these “New Testament” authors writing about the most significant prophecies found in the Torah, Prophets and Writings or even in the New Testament?
   Why do we not see a list of fulfilled prophecies that includes the Sacrifice of the Lamb of Yahweh, celebrated as Passover? Why do we not see a list of fulfilled prophecies that includes the removal of leavening, the taking away of our sins at baptism, celebrated as The Feast of Unleavened Bread? Why do we not see a list of fulfilled prophecies that includes the ascent of Yahshua into Heaven and return to earth in His spiritual body, called the Sheaf Wave Offering? Why do we not see a list of fulfilled prophecies that includes the counting until the Law and the Spirit are put into the hearts and minds of mankind, celebrated as The Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost?
   We don’t see the Feast Days of Yahweh in a Christian list of prophesies fulfilled by the Messiah, because most of the traditions of Christianity were created by people who hated anything that looked “Jewish” or written in Hebrew. Here are just a few examples (out of hundreds) of this prejudice:
   c. 240 CE – Origen of Alexandria writes that the Jews "have committed the most abominable of crimes" in conspiring against Christ, and for that reason "the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and anotherpeople was called by God to the blessed election." [Talk about proof texting!]
   In 248 – St. Cyprian writes that “the Jews have fallen under the heavy wrath of God, because they have departed from the Lord, and have followed idols.” [Proof texting!]
   c. 380 CE – St. Gregory of Nyssa refers to the Jews as "murderers of the Lord, assassins of the prophets, rebels and detesters of God ... companions of the devil, race of vipers, informers, calumniators, darkeners of the mind, pharisaic leaven, Sanhedrin of demons, accursed, detested ... enemies of all that is beautiful." [Proof texting!]
   In 400 – St. Augustine writes: "the Church admits and avows the Jewish people to be cursed, because after killing Christ they continue to till the ground of an earthly circumcision, an earthly Sabbath, an earthly passover ... for it is revealed in the New Testament. While they will not turn to God, the veil which is on their minds in reading the Old Testament is not taken away ... the Jewish people, like Cain [? Here, St. Augustine is accusing all Jewish people as murderers], continue tilling the ground, in the carnal observance of the law, which does not yield to them its strength, because they do not perceive in it the grace of Christ." [Proof texting! Proof texting! Proof texting!]
   In 768 – Pope Stephen IV decries [condemns] ownership of hereditary estates by "the Jewish people, ever rebellious against God and derogatory of our rites."
   c. 1010-1020 – In Rouen, Orléans, Limoges [and] Mainz ... Jews are converted by force, massacred, or expelled.
   In 1081 – Pope Gregory VII writes to King Alphonso of Spain telling him that if he allows Jews to be lords over Christians, he is oppressing the Church and exalting "the Synagogue of Satan." [Proof texting!]
   In 1096 – Massacres of Jews take place in the First Crusade, destroying entire Jewish communities in Mainz, Speyer, Worms, Cologne and other cities. The Jewish chronicler reports: "The enemies stripped them naked and dragged them off, granting quarter to none, save those few who accepted baptism. The number of the slain was eight hundred in these two days." The chronicler Guibert de Nogent reports that the Rouen Crusaders said: "We desire to go and fight God's enemies in the East; but we have before our eyes certain Jews, a race more inimical to God than any other."
   c. 1270 – St. Thomas Aquinas writes that the Jews sin more in their unbelief than do pagans because they have abandoned the way of justice "after knowing it in some way."
   By the year 1200, Jews had been expelled from France, England, southern Italy and parts of Germany and Austria.
   In 1320 – The "Shepherds' Crusade." A Christian chronicler records: "The shepherds laid siege to all the Jews who had come from all sides to take refuge ... the Jews defended themselves heroically ... but their resistance served no purpose, for the shepherds slaughtered a great number of the besieged Jews by smoke and by fire ... The Jews, realizing that they would not escape alive, preferred to kill themselves ... They chose one of their number (and) this man put some five hundred of them to death, with their consent. He then descended from the castle tower with the few Jewish children who still remained alive ... They killed him by quartering. They spared the children, whom they made Catholics by baptism."
   In 1347-1350 – During the Black Death, Jews are accused of poisoning wells in order to overthrow Christendom, and many thousands of Jews are killed.
   In 1492 – After forcing many Jews to be baptized and then referring to them as Marranos (swine), and after an Inquisition in which some 700 Marranos were burnt at the stake for showing signs of "Jewish" taint, Spain expels all Jews from the country.
   Fast-forwarding to 1921 - Speaking for Pope Benedict XV, a Vatican spokesman informed representatives of the Zionist Movement that they did not wish to assist "the Jewish race, which is permeated with a revolutionary and rebellious spirit," to gain control over the Holy Land.
   As for the 1940’s, we all know that anti-Jewish sentiment among Christians and politicians led to the Holocaust, which is well-documented and unnecessary to expand upon. In 1965 – The Second Vatican Council issues its Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: "True, authorities of the Jews and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today ... The Jews should not be presented as repudiated or cursed by God ... The Church decries hatred, persecutions, displays of antiSemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone."
   And in the year 2000 – Pope John Paul II visits Israel. He pays tribute to the victims of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority), and he leaves the following prayer between the ancient stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
   “God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations [Let me read that again] You chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations: we are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”
   Now, in reference to the above statement acknowledging that, “Abraham and his descendants were chosen to bring the name of Yahweh to the Nations”; in 2009, the Pope issued a decree that the NAME of Yahweh will not be uttered in their liturgy, in deference to Jewish tradition.
   If efforts were made, since 1965, to reduce antisemitism, then why do we not see Passover, Unleavened Bread, the Sheaf Wave Offering and the Feast of Weeks added to the list of fulfilled prophecies?
   I will tell you why. For the same reason we do not see prophecies that ARE YET TO BE fulfilled, according to Scripture! And, these are: the return of the Messiah, called the Day of Trumpets; the gathering of the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel and the House of Judah, called the Day of Atonement; the entering into the Kingdom of Heaven, the New Jerusalem, called the Feast of Tabernacles; and the White Throne Judgment, when all evil is thrown into the Lake of Fire, which is called the Last Great Day! It is seen as JEWISH! “Heaven forbid” we entertain the notion that the Feasts of Yahweh [not the “Feasts of the Jews”] are prophetic celebrations and rehearsals for Yahweh’s Plan of Salvation, of which ALL of the FEASTS are about the Messiah Yahshua!


Jewish
   I submit to you that, in spite of the last 45 years in which people have been entertaining the idea that we should not hate the Jews, the past 1,800 years of persecution of the people of the Covenant – which includes the persecution of the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings – has instilled within most Christians, if not within all of mankind, an almost “natural” prejudice against anything that looks like or sounds like something “Jewish.”
   It is this prejudice (much of it subconscious) that has instigated, established, maintained and supported doctrines contrary to the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings from its onset. This prejudice has given rise to doctrines within the most popular religion in the world that, “the Law of the Jews, the Law of Moses, including the 7th day Sabbath and all their festivals, have been done away with, because ‘Jesus has fulfilled everything’” [a reference to Matthew 5:17]. It is taught that, “We, of the faith, will be raptured out of the world before the Tribulation comes to do away with the wicked.” And who are the wicked? “Those who do not believe in ‘Jesus.’ We are saved and nothing we do can change that! We’ve made it; we’re in, and someday we’ll meet our family in Heaven. Halleluyuh! Praise the Lord!”
   These doctrines are false. If we repeat a lie enough times, it becomes the truth, especially if everyone around us is doing the same thing. These false doctrines are the creation of men seeking power and authority, who want things done THEIR way and not the way of our Heavenly Father. False doctrines have become part of our culture, part of our lives. Upon them, we, as a Christian nation, attach the warmth of family gatherings, security, bondedness and yes, love and hope. These are feelings that mankind cannot live without. To change them, to take these traditions away, is heart-breaking. I understand.


Changing
   To entertain a change in belief immediately puts us in a state of fear, guilt, powerlessness and confusion. Every fiber of our bodies wants to reject change. Why? Because we want to survive. The urge to survive is built within us; it is the most natural instinct we are given. And, because we are thinking beings, the most serious threat to our being, our life, is a change in our thinking. Security to us humans is, “everything today is just the same as it was yesterday.” What happens when we move to a different house or a different state? What happens when we get fired and can’t find a job? We don’t like change. And, since even our MORALS are based on religious beliefs, we especially don’t want to change the interpretation of our religious texts. Satan takes great pleasure in manipulating the establishment of doctrinal differences. And what are doctrinal differences except changes in interpretation of religious texts. This, of course, leads to arguing, fighting, warring and even killing. What nations, warring against one another, do not believe that, “God is on our side”?
   So. Now that I’ve fully dispelled any hope of changing this world to accept Scripture the way WE interpret it, let me just say that the obvious truth is, we have NO power to change others’ minds and hearts. Does that mean we should stop preaching the Word according to how we see it? No. In fact, for there is even a better reason to continue teaching what we are convicted of. We are given the Great Commission, as stated in Matthew 28:18-20:
  
And Yahshua came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in My name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
   I must advise you, however, of a perversion in this rendering of or no-longer-existing Greek manuscripts, by Latin scribes seeking to manipulate the text to support their doctrinal stance. From the “De vita Constantini, IV, 37”, we read, “According to [the historian] Tischendorf, Codex Sinaiticus was one of the fifty copies of the Bible commissioned from Eusebius by Roman Emperor Constatine after his conversion to Christianity.” From Milne and Skeat’s 1938 text, Scribes and Correctors of Codex Sinaiticus, we read, “Between the 4th and 12th centuries, seven or more correctors worked on this codex, making it one of the most corrected manuscripts in existence.” Bruce Metzger, in 1991, wrote in Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Palaeography, “Tischendorf during his investigation in Petersburg enumerated 14,800 corrections only in the portion which was held in Petersburg (2/3 of the codex). Tischendorf also believed that four separate scribes copied the work ... and that five correctors ... amended portions.”
To further support my assertion, I offer several historical writings in the Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature, where we find, written by F.C. Conybeare [kon’i-bay-ahr’], in the Hibbert Journal, October 1902, the following:
   “Of the patristic [fatherly] witnesses to the text of the New Testament as it stood in the Greek Manuscripts from about 300-340 A.D., none is so important as Eusebius of Caesurae, for he lived in the greatest Christian Library of that age; that, namely which Origen and Pamphilus had collected. It is no exaggeration to say from this single collection of manuscripts at Caesurae derives the larger part of the surviving ante-Nicene literature [that is, after the year 325]. In his Library, Eusebius must have habitually handled codices of the gospels older by two hundred years than the earliest of the great uncials that we have now in our libraries.” [the word, un’-shial, refers to a form of lettering found in Greek and Latin manuscripts from the 3rd to the 9th centuries, - from 200 to 800 BC]
Conybeare continues:
   “According to Ludwig Knupfer, the editor of the Christadelphian Mo natshefte*, Eusebius, among his many other writings, compiled a file of corrupted variations of the Holy Scriptures, and ... the most serious of all the falsifications denounced by him, is without doubt the traditional reading of Matthew 28:19.” [The verse we just read above, which we’ll come back to.]
   Conybeare’s source material has been lost, as he later wrote:
   “... through events of war I have lost all of my files and other materials connected with the magazine. But various authorities mention a work entitled Discrepancies in the Gospels, and another work entitled The Concluding Sections of the Gospels.”
   According to Conybeare:
   “Eusebius cites this text (Matt. 28:19) again and again in works written between 300 and 336, namely in his long commentaries on the Psalms, on Isaiah, his Demonstratio Evangelica, his Theophany ... in his famous history of the Church, and in his pan•e•gyr•ic [meaning extravagant praise] of the emperor Constantine. I have, after a moderate search in these works of Eusebius, found eighteen citations of Matthew 28:19, and always in the following form: ‘Go ye and make disciples of all the nations in My name, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I commanded you.’”
   Therefore, if Eusebius and those attesting to his credibility are correct, Matthew 28:18-20 should read, by virute of the historical writings closest to the oldest texts:
  
And Yahshua came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in My name, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
   What is missing in this correct translation of the words of Yahshua about baptism? The phrase, in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This phrase was added to Scripture. Why? To support the false doctrine of the “Trinity,” formally established in 325 AD, as part of the Roman Catholic Church.
   In Ivor Davidson’s The Birth of the Church, he wrote, “Catholic Christianity was legalized in 313 [AD] under Constantine’s Edict of Milan, and declared the state religion of the Empire in 380 [AD]. From M'Clintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, we read, “After its legalization, a number of doctrinal disputes led to the calling of ecumenical councils. The first seven Ecumenical Councils, from the First Council of Nicaea (in 325 [AD]) to the Second Council of Nicaea (in 787 [AD]), sought to reach an orthodox consensus and to establish a unified Christendom [that is, a ‘traditional standard faith’]. The doctrinal formulations resulting from these ecumenical councils were pivotal in the history of Christianity.”
   From the Encarta Dictionary, the word, “ecumenical,” relating to the councils that formulated Catholicism, means “involving, or promoting the unity of different Christian churches and groups.” Historically, and in the present times, the Roman Catholic Church continues to develop the doctrine of ecumenism, the same format used at the first Ecumenical Council at Nicaea. They are continuing to create a consensus within all Christian Churches – based on Catholic doctrines. And why not? Christianty, claiming NOT to be connected to Catholicism, retains Catholic doctrines in the form of Sunday worship in place of the Scriptural Sabbath, Christmas to New Years in place of the High Sabbath of the Feast of Tabernacles to the Last Great Day, Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday in place of Passover to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and St. Patrick’s day, Valentine’s day, and Halloween on All Saints Day.
   From The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press, 2005), we read, “Since the beginning of the third century the doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "the one God exists in three Persons and one substance, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Trinitarianism, belief in the Trinity, is a mark of Roman Catholicism, Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy as well as of the "mainstream traditions arising from the Protestant Reformation, such as Anglicanism, Baptist, Methodism, Lutheranism and Presbyterianism. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church describes the Trinity as ‘the central dogma of Christian theology’.”


Baptism In Yahshua’s Name
   Are there Scriptural witnesses to the fact that baptism is to be done in the name of Yahshua, and not in the Trinitarian doctrine of “the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”?
  
For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: “Yahweh said to my Master, 'Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’ Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that Yahweh has made this Yahshua, whom you executed, both Master and Messiah." Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Yahshua the Messiah for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as Yahweh our Elohim will call," Acts 2:34-39.
   Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of Yahweh, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet the Holy Spirit had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Master Yahshua. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit, Acts 8:14-17.
  
Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him Who would come after him, that is, on Messiah Yahshua." When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Master Yahshua. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all, Acts 19:4-7.
   So, in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, we find three witnesses to baptism in the name of Yahshua.
  
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away, Matthew 24:35.
   What are Yahshua’s words? When you hold the Scriptures, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, you are holding Yahshua’s words.
   May we read the Bible for what it says, and not according to what we have been taught by the mouth of mankind. May we allow Yahweh to speak for Himself through Scripture and through His Spirit. May Yahweh’s will be done on earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. HalleluYah!


-Elder John Fisher


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