Heaven: A Believer's Final Resting Place?

One of the greatest myths ever foisted upon the church... not quite as much as the Church being separate from Israel, is that believers go to heaven when they die.  Did you realize that nowhere in the Bible does it teach that believers go to heaven when they die?  Now there are some believers who were beheaded, seen under the altar in Revelation, waiting for God's justice to be poured out on His enemies.  But that's a weird place to spend eternity.  That passage is primarily teaching about Yhwh's dealings with fallen man and their fallen leader.

In doing a word study on heaven, I went through, and looking at the uses of the word heaven in scripture, and in most cases, it is referring to the atmosphere over our heads.  There are cases where it states that Yhwh lives in the heavens... and there are cases where believers, when they die, are with the Lord, but nowhere in scripture does it say that that is in heaven, above the earth.

Deuteronomy 4:19  (19) "And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

Exodus 31:17   (17) "It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed."

Deuteronomy 9:1   "Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven,

Deuteronomy 11:11  (11) "But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven,

Judges 5:20   (20) "The stars fought from heaven, From their courses they fought against Sisera.

And there are many more such verses, but for sake of brevity, I will not include them here.  It would make a excellent bible/word study though to go to your favorite online bible, and simply study on the word "heaven," and I think you will be greatly encouraged and amazed at what you find.


The Bible does teach however that believers in fact go to Abraham's bosom, located in Hebraic thought, under the earth. 

Luke 16:22  22 "Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.

Another passage we see a glimpse is where king Saul went to inquire of the prophet Samuel by a witch, at En-dor.  1 Samuel 28:15  15 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?"

When the Messiah Y'shua, after his crucifixion, where did he go?  This is probably the most agreed upon by students of the Bible, his spirit descended down into hades, the place of prison of disobedient spirits. 

1 Peter 3:18-20  18 For Messiah also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to Elohim, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,  20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of Elohim kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

In extra-biblical Hebraic literature, there is a picture of many things that dwell under the earth.  It is taught that under the earth there are indeed two places, both Abraham's bosom, the place of paradise and comfort for all followers of the Messiah, and of Hades or Sheol, a gloomy place of punishment for those spirits who rejected Yhwh's Covenant of forgiveness and life in Messiah Yeshua.  We see a glimpse of this in the already quoted parable of Lazarus and the rich man:

Luke 16:25-26   25 "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.  26 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'

So we can see here the Y'shua believed and taught about believer's being carried to Abraham's bosom.  And this was believed by the disciples, and by the entire early church.  Through the ages there has been a slow departure from these beliefs and teachings of our older, wiser fathers, as man entered into eras of "enlightenment," realizing he could know things apart from the word of Elohim.  But we didn't consider the words of Proverbs: "The fear of Yhwh is the beginning of knowledge." (Pr. 1:7).

There is also a passage I love speaking of the redeemed Israelites in the last days, as they are bought into the kingdom of Elohim, the land of Israel (cf. Ezek. 36), and they report to the Yhwh:
Jeremiah 16:19  19 O YHWH, my strength and my stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, To You the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, Futility and things of no profit."

In these last days, the Father is exposing corruption everywhere, and has shown us that most of what we have been taught, is wrong, and/or a lie.  I know that this post is far from conclusive concerning the matter of believers, and their final resting place, but I hope that this will spur you on to read, and search, and you too will conclude that a believers final resting place is in the land of Israel, with Messiah, keeping Torah.

Luke 16:16-17  16 "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.  17 "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

Your Sons Like Poplars...

The Yhwh gave this to me a couple of weeks ago, and I just haven't had time to write about it yet, but this was such an encouragement and confirmation about what Yhwh is doing in these last days, and in our lives.

I was reading in Isaiah 45, and had gone back the enxt day, to read and study and chew on the text, but I wanted to start a chapter previous, to get more of the context and appreciate what the text was saying.  When I started reading in chapter 44, it said this:

 NAU Isaiah 44:1 "But now listen, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen:  2 Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, 'Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.  3 'For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants;  4 And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.'  5 "This one will say, 'I am the LORD'S'; And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, 'Belonging to the LORD,' And will name Israel's name with honor. 

The latter half of Isaiah is written all about the restoration of Israel in the last days.  Yhwh always tells Jacob/Israel now to be afraid, and that He is for them.  

3 'For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants;

In verse three, He says that He will "pour out water on thirsty land, and streams on dry ground."  The Word in Scripture is likened to Water, and dry, thirsty ground to people or lands where there is no hearing of the Word of the Yhwh.  As I was reading through this verse, it brought to mind imagery, both of Yhwh literally fulfilling this in the land of Israel, where there are already streams of living water flowing in previously dry stream beds.  But then we also have the spiritual component, because the phrase is complemented in the second stanza by saying He would pour pout His Spirit on your descendants.  The apostle Peter stated that this is what was happening on Pentecost, after the ascension of the resurrected Messiah, Yeshua ben Josef. 

4 And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.' 

Then I received another insight as I continued to read.  The imagery of trees planted by streams of water from Psalm 1.  "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the Torah  of Yhwh, and on His Torah He will meditate, day and night.  And he shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf never withers, in whatever he does, he prospers" (Ps. 1:1-3).

And so I picture all this dry, cracked waste land which we picture of ancient Egypt, and I think of John hte Baptist at the Jordan, with the scribes and the Pharisees looking on.  And he says to them, "God can raise up children from these stones!"  And I wonder if he is not drawing from this prophecy in Isaiah 44.

 4 And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.'  5 "This one will say, 'I am the LORD'S'; And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, 'Belonging to the LORD,' And will name Israel's name with honor. 

And so you have a picture of this vast waste land, dry and cracked, with sparse shoots of grass here and there, and all of a sudden, these Poplar trees begin to shoot up, not all together, but spaced apart, in random places... and they begin to grow large in height and strong, like trees planted by streams of water.  And the water is the Word, the Torah (which let's not forgot, was the only Word of God during the time of Yeshua and the apostles).  

So this passage is telling us that in the last days, in land stricken by a famine of the Word of the Yhwh, that He would pour out His Spirit on sons and daughters, and cause them to grow up like Poplars planted by streams of water, that is, full of strength and knowledge and understanding of the Word, the Torah... and that they would begin again to identify with Israel, and proclaiming to belong to the God of Israel.

And that has been me and my wife's experience with our beliefs and convictions, as we have studied about the return of the Messiah in the last days, and of his coming for His people.  And Abba has revealed these truths to us.  As He says in Ps. 25:14, "The secret (or counsel) of the Yhwh is for those who fear Him, and to them He will make known His covenant."

The Way of The Master - Keeping Torah

Many of us are familiar with the young man who approached Yeshua, and asked the question, "Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"


But so often, we fail to recognize this story for what it is... evangelism by the Master.  Here we have a true seeker, "... what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 


And the response is amazing!


Mark 10:17-22 ¹⁷ As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" ¹⁸ And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. ¹⁹ "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'" ²⁰ And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." ²¹ Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." ²² But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.


And so here we see, by the Bible's own admission, the "Way of the Master."  It is a little different from Ray Comfort's method of evangelism.  Yeshua points him to the one standard that all men are held to, that of Yahweh's Torah, "you know the commandments..."


And so we see Yeshua's answer to the man's question, keep the commandments.  How can we have missed such an important question so quickly resolved here in the Gospels?  Because of our separation from the God-ordained carriers of the faith, the Torah.  Clearly, this is what Yeshua tells us that we must do to gain eternal life. 


The young man replied, "all these things I have done..."  Does this mean he was without sin?  No, it means that, according to Yhwh's commands, when he had sinned, he made sacrifice at the temple.  But he had a bigger problem.  Being a man of wealth, he had much possessions, and they were an idol for him.  And Yeshua knew that too.  So when he told him to go and sell his possessions, and give to the poor (another aspect of the Way of the Master ~ the fruits of Torah and Spirit-filled living in the life of believers), the young man was dismayed and chose not to follow the rabbi's advice. 


And so here we see that the young man did not love his neighbor as himself.  As so as Yeshua's criticism of the scribes and teachers of the Law, tithing their mint, dill and cumin, but neglecting the weightier matters of Torah, so too did this young man, miss the spirit of the Torah's teaching.


Again we see Yeshua the Messiah stressing that it is not necessarily about our physical, visible rituals we carry out (though that is a part), it is about our heart's identification with the Father's heart.  How is your heart?  Do you carry out the Father's will/desire in your life?  Many protestants question that and do not know how they can clearly identify that in their lives.  But the apostle John helps us with this, and spells it out clearly, "All who commit sin practice lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness," that is, torah-lessness (1 Jn. 3:4).


Matthew 7:19-23 ⁹ "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ "So then, you will know them by their fruits. ²¹ "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. ²² "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' ²³ "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

Rom. 6:16-17: Paul, teaching righteousness, teaching Torah

Romans 6:16-18 ¹⁶ Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.




Here we see, the apostle Paul, a Pharisee (Acts 23:6), teaching about the new life, and believers living lives of obedience to righteousness.  We see that in v. 16 he teaches us that you are a slave of what or whom you obey, giving us two options: 1) either of sin, resulting in death, which Paul had taught earlier in his letter to the Romans (Rom. 6:23), or 2) of obedience, resulting in righteousness. 




But now we have a dilemma.  The modern "Church," teaches that Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled the Law so that we don't have to keep it.  In fact, I have had pastors tell me that trying to keep the Law is bondage, and will send you to hell (speaking of me, personally)!  So is the apostle Paul telling believers that Yeshua died to set them free from something that they are now obligated to live by, or that they are free from?




He is instructing believers that they are to live for righteousness, to live in obedience to it.  But living in obedience implies something, a standard, a rule or Law that must be obeyed!  If we are to live in obedience, the Law then is not dead.  It remains true and in effect today just as it was two thousand years ago.  The apostle is instructing believers under the New Covenant through Yeshua's death and resurrection (on Passover and the feast of First Fruits), to live in obedience to the Instruction (Torah) Yhwh commanded his people keep forever (1 Chr. 16:15; Ps. 105:8).




This teaching found in the depths of the New Covenant itself, in a book championed by the Reformers for teaching the doctrine of salvation by grace, actually hearkens back to the teachings in the Torah.  In Deutoronomy 28, the Yhwh speaks through Moses, his servant, and he speaks of the blessing that will be received for living lives in obedience to the Instruction of Yhwh (Deut. 28:1f)  It also speaks of the curses, sickness and destruction to follow after those who live lives of disobedience to the word of Yhwh (Deut. 28:15f).




In the New Testament (B'rit Chadasha) the apostle tells us that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).So we see that the New Covenant is not in juxtaposition to the Old Testament, in fact, Paul is confirming the Biblical teaching of the Torah, for the New Covenant believers to follow and live their lives after.


¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.


When the apostle Paul teaches that believers have become obedient from the heart, he is repeating the teaching of the prophet Jeremiah who first defined what the New Covenant (B'rit Chadashah) would be.
Jeremiah 31:33 ³³ "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My torah within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.


In one of the first teachings/promises for a new Covenant, Jeremiah is prophesying that the Yah's Torah would be written on the hearts of His people.  This is one reason why in the churches today, there are so many "cultural Christians," people who claim the name of Messiah, and defile Elohim's name among the nations, because with the teaching that "we are free from the Torah," they live lives of lawlessness, looking no different from the rest of the world, while receiving the comfort and assurance of Yhwh's blessing on their lives. 




The Hebrew Apostles knew the Tanakh, and they knew the Psalms.  They understood the teaching that Torah IS righteousness, it is Truth (Ps. 145:142)!  The apostle John tells us that everyone who lives in (active, continual) sin, lives in lawlessness (1 Jn. 3:4)!  And so Paul, writing in chapter three of his great systematic exposition on salvation by grace, tells us in verse thirty-three, "What then, shall we nullify the Law (Torah) through grace?  May it never be!  Rather, we establish the Torah!"


In our churches in America, the West, for so long, it has been taught that the Law and Grace are opposed to each other, and has given support to doctrines (ie, teachings of men) such as "dispensations."  But it seems the apostle is not teaching that the Torah and grace are in opposition, but rather, that the Torah, and grace, go hand and hand! 




Psalm 119:32 ³² I shall run the way of Your commandments, For You will enlarge my heart.


Psalm 119:96-104 ⁹⁶ I have seen a limit to all perfection; Your commandment is exceedingly broad. Mem. ⁹⁷ O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. ⁹⁸ Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. ⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts. ¹⁰¹ I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word. ¹⁰² I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, For You Yourself have taught me. ¹⁰³ How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! ¹⁰⁴ From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.


Understanding more about the Hebrew mindset of the authors of the Bible, we can see that the theology of the Bible is seamless.  There are no two separate parts.  Scripture is one united, complete whole!  It's theme from beginning to end is the restoration of Eden, and Yhwh fulfilling His promises to Avraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants.

After the Tribulation, Connecting the Testaments

In the Gospel of Matthew, the now famous chapter twenty-four, verses 29-31, Y'shua tells us:

“And immediately after the tribulation of those days, 

‘the sun will be darkened 

and the moon will not give its light, 

and the stars will fall from heaven, 

and the powers of heaven will be shaken.’

And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect together from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other end of it.


Was Yeshua (Jesus) making a new claim, or reinforcing an old Israelite hope?
What did the Rabbi Shaul (aka apostle Paul), teach?  

We see in a letter to the believers in Thessalonica:

"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be snatched away at the same time together with them in the clouds for a meeting with the Lord in the air, and thus we will be together with the Lord always." 1 Thess. 4:16-17


Zechariah 8:2-8 ² "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.' ³ "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.' ⁴ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. ⁵ 'And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.' ⁶ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?' declares the LORD of hosts. ⁷ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; ⁸ and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.'


So we see, reading our Bibles contextually, that Y'shua did come to fulfill the Messianic hope.  He is both Messiah ben Josef, and Messiah ben David, still to come in glory and conquering power!  The Protestant and Catholic churches have been steeped in the tradition of men for so long that there is a difference, a separation between the first and the Renewed Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33), that for many, the Old Testament is not a serious object of inquiry (to their own destruction).


But in truth, the Bible contextually has one theme throughout, and Yeshua came to restore the lost ten tribes (Mat. 15:25, 10:6), to reunify the tribes of Israel (Ezekiel 36:22-28)) under Torah (Zech. 14:16: Is. 2:3; Mic. 4:2).


The Gentile Church is not a separate people from the Jews, nor should it be.  Any simple student of history can verify that Sunday observance by the Church shifted formally under the reign of Constantine.  The early church kept Sabbath, observed Yahweh's feasts (Lev. 23) and observed the teaching of the clean and the unclean.  Who the Gentiles are... is that they are now the prophetic fulfillment of Ephraim, who was prophesied by our father Jacob to be the "fullness of the Gentiles" (Gen. 48:19).  As the one who received the blessing of the firstborn (along with Judah), Ephraim was also known as the head of the ten northern tribes (the "lost tribes").


This is why, Jeremiah tells us, the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33) is for the house of Israel and the house of Judah (no one else is named).  But the tribes were to be dispersed through all the world and mixed with all the peoples (Hos. 8:7) so that they could be brought back in to Covenant with Yhwh, and walk in His commandments (1 John 2:6).


Y'shua lived a sinless life, by walking according to the words of life, Torah (Deut. 30:15,16).  All who follow Him are commanded to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6).

Ramadan: Month of Jihad - Prophetic Convergence?

As the month of Ramadan comes in, many Muslim groups are calling fellow Muslims to unleash upon their infidel neighbors in whose midst they dwell.  Many news sources report this.  Breaking Israel News, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, just to name a few.

Some are disenchanted, having grown numb by all the all of jihad and rumors of war from so many quarters.  Indeed, is this not what Yeshua, the very Word of Elohim said would happen in the last days.  Matthew 24:6  6 "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end."

That is not yet the end!  That is but a setting stage for the entrance of the Instead-of-Messiah.  Some call him Maitreya, the world teacher.  Others are looking for Mahdi or Christ.  But the holy Bible, which has been and IS accurate in all of its prophecies, says he will be the man of Lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:3).  

What is Lawlessness by which we can distinguish this man/being/creature with a Savior complex?  "Lawlessness" is the English translation of being without the "Law" of God, Yhwh, Elohim, the God of the Bible who revealed His Memorial name to Moses.  The English word translated as Law is more properly translated as "Instruction," as is more fitting of a Father giving direction to His children.  But this word, "Law," is translated from the Hebrew for "Instruction," which is better known as "Torah."

Both Protestant and Catholic Churches throughout the world believe and teach that believers were set free from the Law in our Gentile understanding of the scriptures.  They are right in saying that we cannot earn our salvation by keeping the Law.  True enough, Paul makes this abundantly clear in his beautiful exposition in Romans 3, where he tells us that the whole world is under the Law, yet no one is manifestly able to keep it, for we all fall short of the glory of Elohim.  

But, he tells us that we are justified (declared righteous) through grace, by the redemption which is in Messiah Yeshua, whom Elohim displayed publicly as a propitiation (Rom. 3:24,25).  But then he asks in verse 31, "What then?  Do we nullify the Law through faith?  May it never be!  On the contrary, we establish the Law through faith!"  Romans 3:31 is one of the least expounded verses in the Protestant Bible.

Believers in the Jewish Messiah are to KEEP THE TORAH!  The Apostle John tells us in his first epistle, "He who commits sin commits lawlessness.  Sin is Lawlessness" (1 Jn. 3:4).  So when Scripture declares the coming deceiver/one-world leader the "Man of Lawlessness," we can also translate/understand that as the "Man of Torah-lessness."  So we see his spirit is already among us, and the church is in position spiritually to fall right in line with him.  

But back to the prophecies.  There was a rabbi not too long back leading a group in prayer for the nation of Israel, meeting at the cave of Elijah, who fell into a trance and had Elijah appear to him, and warn of a war coming in the south of Israel, moving northward, in which the lives of many Jews would be lost.

More recently, a New York rabbi received a message from the divine telling him that after Shavuot (the feast of Pentecost), there would be a major civil-war in America.  In the article covered by Israel Today, he is quoted as saying:

"Listen to me carefully dear Jews," said the rabbi, "whoever has in his hand to get up and go and go to the Holy Land Israel as soon as possible while it is still is possible, this includes leaving large parts of South America and most of Europe … also the United States will be a place of danger in the war and it is still too early to say which states within the United States will survive, but many parts will be destroyed and poisoned, even civil war will break out in the United States and states will cut themselves off from the federal government … the Land of Israel will be the safest place to survive the war, although there will also be terrible difficulties there."

And there are more prophecies given of rabbis concerning the end.  Yhwh is not through with His people, nor His Torah!  Read how Messiah will rule upon His return!  Torah is not dead, nor a curse.  It is the Truth (Ps. 119:142)!  The Most High still communicates through dream and vision to His prophets and rabbis.  He is warning us.  Will we listen?

Whose Identity is More Important, the Man, or His Lawlessness?

In recent months, something has become more and more apparent to me, as countless people through the pas decades and centuries have been named or considered as candidates of the Antichrist, that there are any number of people who could be that person... but to what avail is identifying him before hand?  In that day it will be evident enough!


What is more important, I think, is being able to identify the Lawlessness to which he is ascribed (2 Thess. 2:3).  This seems to be a topic that is largely untouched by the mainstream church, and much to its own detriment!  Biblically speaking, this is not a hard topic to figure out.  But I think because of its blinders towards the Law of Yahweh, the modern church cannot see it, and again, much to its peril!


For the student of scripture, they know that Law, as translated in most English bibles, is the translation of the word "Torah" in Hebrew, which more accurately means, "Instruction" rather than "Law".  Through certainly the past century, there has been a gradual drifting away from the Law within the church as binding upon believers lives.  Gradually people began less and less to see the world upheld and governed by the Laws of God, and more and more of a Gentile understanding that Jesus came to set us free from the Law, because it is a "ministry of death, written on tablets of stone" (2 Cor. 3:7).


This is an example of a Gentile (non-Hebraic) misunderstanding of scriptures.  Of course the Law (Torah) is a ministry of death to people, because of our sinful nature and attitudes.  We would much rather follow the law of Crawley, "Do as thou wilt..." rather than keep the Law of Yahweh, whose very words are life:


Deuteronomy 30:15-20 ¹⁵ "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷ "But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. ¹⁹ "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."


So we see from the Torah, in Dt. 30, that Yahweh commands his covenant people, the Israelites, and the sojourners among them, that His word is life!  To obey Yahweh's word is life and prosperity, and to deny it, to disobey it, is death and adversity.  And so we see the proclaimed Church in the world, proclaiming that we have been set free from the Law by the very one who claimed to be the Word of Elohim in the flesh, the Messiah, Son of David.


But what did Yeshua teach?  He taught:


Matthew 5:17-19 ¹⁷ "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


Yeshua said that He did not come to abolish the Torah, but to fulfill it.  And he did fulfill some of it, known as the Spring feasts (mo'edim).  But he is still to fulfill the Fall feasts!  That is, "until heaven and earth pass away, not the [least part] shall pass from the Torah, till all is accomplished!


Did anyone see if heaven and earth passed away yet?  Oh wait, ok, we're all sitting here, the heavens and earth are still all around us.  Ok, it didn't pass away.  Whew!  I'm so relieved!  Aren't you?  So why then do we think the Torah passed away?  Can anyone say Gentile Dummies?  Yes, that is what we are, and have been for the past two thousand years! Because in our anti-Semitic bias, we have refused to see it, and we have spurned, and kicked against the word of God, all the while proclaiming a love for God and his people (except the Jews, His people).


For two thousand years, we have had Gentile leaders of a Semitic religion.  The Gentiles really did hi-jack Christianity, and morphed it into our anti-Semitic, Greek/Roman/Babylonian form!  And so that brings me back around to the theme of the blog, whose identity is more important, the man, or his lawlessness?


I think as a follower of Messiah Yeshua, my brother and king from Judah (yes, he was a Jew, not a Palestinian), that identifying the Lawlessness is far more important, especially when God's word, and obedience to it are life!  Didn't Peter say to his rabbi, "To whom shall we go?  You have the words of life!"  For the orthodox Jew, this has the ring of Torah (Deuternomy 30) to it, and again, a Messianic confession!


The apostle John, the beloved of Yeshua, warned his readers about the spirit of lawlessness in his day:


1 John 2:18-19 ¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
1 John 2:22 ²² Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.


In my Gentile understanding, brought in a Southern Baptist church, I used to think that this meant those who had left the Church, that is, the Protestant Church.  Now, understanding that "the secret of Yhwh is for those who fear Him, and to them He makes known His Covenant (Ps. 25:14)," I see that the Jewish apostle was writing of those who were "leaving the Church" of his day, those who were turning away from the sound doctrines of scripture, that is, Torah/Tanak.  John tells us that they had/have a spirit of antichrist!  He tells us in 3:4 that sin is lawlessness (torah-lessness)! 


So today, what do we have in most churches across America?  We have the spirit of antichrist, the spirit of lawlessness, where the pastors proclaim confidently and unashamedly to turn people away from the Law of the Most High, through which He will reign again upon His return (cf. Ezek. 40-48).


The Great Deceiver in our midst has already proclaimed that the Cross is to no avail, and it "did not work!"  And he is gathering all his children to him already! 


So how about you?  Are you in a church where they proclaim Jesus set us free from following the Law (Torah)?  You should flee from there, get yourself into a congregation of believers who want to keep the instruction of Yahweh, who want to keep His word, His Sabbath, and His Mo'edim, as He proclaims in His word!  Are you a pastor preparing people to accept the anti-Messiah, and his doctrine of lawlessness?  Even most of America's big-name, celebrity preachers are doing so, leading people astray, they are wolves in sheeps clothing, ravening the sheep.

Hebrew Theology, Hebrew Roots

In college, I majored in Philosophy, and it was there I learned and really began to see that all people see the world through a certain paradigm, or world-view, if you will.  Christians hold a different world-view from Muslims, though at certain points they intersect.  Hindus and Buddhists have had much of their world-view covertly imported into the traditional Western world-view. 


The Biblical authors all had a Hebraic world-view, shaped by the author of the Bible Himself.   The world-view of the Hebraic peoples, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all had one thing in common, their Hebraic culture and world-view, shaped by the Torah, the instruction of Yahweh.


Abraham Isaac and Jacob all held a Hebraic world-view.  Moses had one.  So did Joshua, David, Joseph, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Hosea, Joel, and so on till Yeshua. Yeshua had a Hebraic world-view.  He lived the word of God.  He WAS the word of God!  The word of Elohim in the flesh.  He was the Torah.  He IS the Torah made flesh!


The Hebrew world-view, the roots of the Hebrew religion, the roots of the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were shaped and put in place by Yhwh Elohim Himself, the great I AM.


When ministers and pastors come out against the Hebrew Roots followers, and label them as divisive, they are right.  Adonai Yeshua said, "Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth, but to bring a sword" (Mt. 10:34).  The Word of Elohim is "sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing both soul and spirit, joints and marrow" (Heb. 4:12), separating out the wheat from the chaff.  But those of the "Hebrew Roots" are following and remaining true to the faith of Abraham (Rom. 4:12,13), and with Rabbi Paul, the Pharisee, they "celebrate the feast" (1 Cor. 5:8), for Messiah Y'shua was a minister of a better, re-newed Covenant (Heb. 7:22, 8:6, 12:24).


This is why Y'shua taught his disciples saying:


17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law (Torah) or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.


19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


^{Ps. 119:142} Your righteousness [Yhwh] is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law (Torah~ instruction) is truth.

The Goal (End) of the Faith - Part Two

In Part One, we looked at a letter from a Rabbi to his son in the Faith.  Rabbi Shaul, known to most as the Apsotle Paul.  In this excerpt of his letter to Timothy, I translated the term "law" which is being carried over from the Hebrew concept, as "Torah" or, "instruction." When hermeneutics are applied consistently, we can see more clearly.

In this first part, we see that Rabbi Shaul tells Timothy: "1 Timothy 1:5  the goal of our torah is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."  Some of you who read this may think we are heading in a direction of legalism, or something akin to that of the Judaizers.  On the contrary, the Rabbi precedes this verse in the letter to Timothy with the aspiration:

1 Timothy 1:4  4" nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith"  Note, the Apostle puts torah, and faith together in the same sentence, whereas modern churches teach they are opposite and antithetical!

But where does Rabbi Shaul get this expectation, or this doctrine, that this instruction (torah) has as its goal a "good (ie, clean/pure) conscience and a sincere faith?"  It is the teaching and testimony of the First Covenant, and Yhwh's redemptive promises to Israel, the sons of Jacob.

One place we see this clearly is by the prophet Zechariah.  Yeshua taught, "I did not come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets...."  In chapters 12-14, Zechariah prophesied on the coming battle of Armageddon, and the salvation of all (yes, twelve tribes) of Israel.  In chapter 14, we see Yeshua Messiah's victory:

Zechariah 14:9  9 And the LORD (Yahweh) will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD (Yahweh) will be the only one, and His name the only one.

And then a few verses down, we see the state of affairs in the Messianic kingdom, also know as the kingdom of God.

Zechariah 14:16  16 Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD (Yahweh) of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Sukkot).

Most churches teach in their theology that Yeshua, or Jesus came to set us free from the Law.  Never mind that John tells us that "everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness.  Sin is law-lessness (1 Jn. 3:4)."  Protestant believers have been separated from the worldview of the Hebrew authors of the Bible, almost from the second century.

The fact is, the Bible clearly defines the righteousness of Yahweh with his commands (Ps. 119:150), His Torah (instruction - Ps. 119:142).  During His life Yeshua lived a life of perfect righteousness, keeping Yahweh's Torah perfectly.

Does it then make sense that once Yahweh delivers sinners from the punishment and verdict of their sin, that he will allow and encourage them to live in law-lessness (unrighteousness)?  Yet this is the approach that many who claim to follow Messiah take.  But scripture tells us that "he who claims to live in him (Messiah Yeshua) must walk as he walked" (1 Jn. 2:6).  The apostle Paul asks, " What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom. 6:1,2).

Clearly, we see that the Messiah Yeshua reigns from His temple in the Millenial Kingdom, over the restored Israel, and the surving remnant of mankind, who will then repopulate the earth during this 1,000 year period.  As Yahweh Elohim told us, "He is the same yesterday, today and forever."  His standard of righteousness never changed.  In fact His Son, Yeshua, His Word/Torah made flesh will reign over His people, till He hands over all things to Yahweh Abba, the Father.

Birthed By Truth. (Jas. 1:18)

By his* will he gave birth to us through the message of truth, so that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. (Ja s. 1:18)

The typical believer says amen!  But what exactly is the message of Truth?  Yeshua the Messiah tells us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn. 14:6).  Okay, but is there more?  How is this understood from a biblical worldview?  A good hermeneutical principle is that. Scripture always interprets scripture.

In Ps. 119, the longest  chapter in the Bible, which is in praise of the Torah (law) of Elohim, we are told this:  "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth" (142).  So here we are told Yhwh's Torah is truth.  This is perhaps one of the most neglected verses of scripture by the entire Christian Church, and it separates those who belong to Messiah, and those who have a spirit of religion.

Further down, in Ps. 119:151, we read: "You are near, O Yahweh, and all your commands are truth."  In fact, reading sections Tsade and Qoph, verses 137-152, you see the themes of 'righteousness,' 'the word,' 'belief,' and 'obedience' to Yhwh's righteous commands.

So for the Jews living during the days of Yeshua's first advent, they would have understood the term "word of Elohim" as the Tanak, or more specifically, the Torah, which we see throughout the Psalms, and the entirety of the Tanakh (Old Testament).  So when the apostle John writes "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" (Jn. 1:14), he was communicating that the Torah became flesh!"

We know Yeshua lived a sinless life by keeping God's Law (Torah) perfectly.  That is how He was able to fulfill Passover as the lamb of Elohim.  John further instructs believers in one of his lesser known books, that "anyone who claims to live in him must walk as that one walked" (1 Jn. 2:6).  That is to say, believers must walk in righteousness, that is, in Torah, not to be saved, but because they are saved, in obedient love.  Yeshua taught, "The one who loves me will keep my commands."  Amen!

Letter From A Rabbi:The Goal (End) of the Faith

"Applying a consistent hermeneutic, we see more clearly!"  -Chris Parker

In running a race, when do runners reach the goal?  At the end, finale, or completion of the course!  In a similar way, you might say, the goal of the Biblical faith is realized at the end.  Listen to what Rabbi Shaul said to his son in the faith:

“But the goal of our instruction (torah) is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith without hypocrisy, from which some have deviated, and have turned away into fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the torah, although they* do not understand either the things which they are saying or the things concerning which they are speaking confidently. 

But we know that the torah is good, if anyone makes use of it torah-fully, knowing this, that the torah is not given for a righteous person but for the torah-less and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and totally worldly, for the one who kills his father and the one who kills his mother, for murderers, sexually immoral people, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching (ie, Torah),”

Changing standards of Rughteosness? Amos 2:4-5

Christian doctrine claims affirms the OT teaching that God does not change, but is the same yesterday, today and forever, where Yhwh says, "I do not change" (Mal. 3:6).  Yet the belief is maintained by nearly all Protestants that they are "set free from the Law (instruction)".  Yet when we read the Prophets, we see that Yhwh's great wrath is aroused for the rejection of the Torah.

"Thus says Yahweh: “For three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of Yahweh and have not kept his rules, and their lies have led them astray, after which their ancestors walked! So I will send a fire against Judah and it will devour the citadel fortresses of Jerusalem." Amos 2:4-5

So the question is raised, does Yhwh change?  Will he punish Israel for rejecting His Torah while giving unrighteous pagan Gentiles a free pass, and then continue to judge Israel by the standard of Torah?

Elohim's very word states that He does not change.  Yeshua, the word of God made flesh, is testified by that author of Hebrews, that he is the same, "yesterday, today and forever" (13:8).

Gentiles Frees from Jewish Law.

I thought this was great, by 119ministries, I had to share it.

We Inherited Lies.

One prophecy that I have not seen dealt with is Jer. 16:19.

O Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, 

and my refuge in the day of distress, 

to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth, 

and they will say, “Our ancestors have inherited only lies, 

vanity, and there is no profit in them.  Jer. 16:19

In the context of chapter 16, the dispersed Israelites are brought back to the land that Yhwh promised in covenant to Abraham.  This is another prophecy of the regathering of the Israelites that have been exiled to the ends of the earth (Gen. 49:18; Hos. 7:8) , as Moses foretold in Dt. 30:1-5, who have forgotten their heritage, their identity as God's people.

And I will put an end to all her mirth, 

her festivals, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, 

and all her appointed festivals;   Hos. 2:11

But one of the signs of her awakening in the last days is not only a recovery of the knowledge of who they are, and of keeping God's instruction, but also an awareness that all they have been taught by their "fathers" are lies.  

One example of this is Darwinian evolution.  As technology advanced, and people were able to see on the molecular level, the complexity observed defied what is possible for random, purposeless natural selection.  The way to get around this now is to give the credit to extraterrestrials and directed evolution, explaining away miracles, faith in God, worship, and the justification of regular child sacrifice by ancient societies.

These are some of tthe ideological results of the new science.

A time is coming when people will say together "all we've inherited from our Fathers are lies!"

The Kingdom of Elohim

So many times Protestants speak of the kingdom of God, and longing for the kingdom of God.  But since our churches teach that we are set free from the Law (Torah), we don't bother ourselves with the Old Testament (Tenach).  Because of this, we forget what the kingdom of Elohim (the name primarily translated as "God" in English Bibles) actually looks like in the Bible.

Protestant Christians have a nebulous (unbiblical, subtley anti-Semitic) view that while Yhwh deals with the Jews here on earth, "Christians" are taken to a kingdom that is fairer than day somewhere above the celestial domain.

What is interesting is that this picture is not even Biblical (kinda like the view that says "the church is a hospital for sinners"!  That's not the purpose of the Ekklesia, and is not Biblical, but that's another post!).  The only time sinners are shown in heaven, in Revelation, is in the interim period just before the return of Messiah to earth, to reign from the Temple, as is explained in Ezekiel. Cha.  40-48.

Zech. 14:16 - And then every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths. And then whoever of the clans of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, it will not rain on them.

Mica 4:2 says - And many nations will come and say, “Come! Let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, and to the temple of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths,” for thelaw will go out from Zion, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.

From these and many other references, we see that Yhwh, Adonai Yeshua will reunite the tribes of Israel to live in the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to live under Yhwh's instructions (Torah) forever.

Ezekiel. 37Then speak to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Look! I am taking the piece of wood for Joseph that is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel its associates, and I will put them on it, the piece of wood of Judah, and I will make them into one piece of wood, so that they be one in my hand.’ ” And the pieces of wood on which you wrote will be in your hand before their eyes. And speak to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Look! I am taking the Israelites from among the nations to which they went, and I will gather them from everywhere, and I will bring them to their own soil. And I will make them into one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and they will all have one king as their king, and they will not again be two nations and will not again divide into two kingdoms again.

Wonder where those tribes are today?  Believe it or not, that can be discerned, much as many pastors and teachers rightly discern the children of Esau, so the children of Israel can be seen.  A good Jewish research site for this is www.hebrewnations.com, or www.britam.org.

This is the Kingdom of God,. all the tribes/nations of Israel inhabiting the land promised to their forefathers so long ago, under the reign of Messiah Yeshua, who is the Torah made flesh (Jn. 1:14).  This is why the gospel of Messiah is to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles (ie, dispersed Israelites) Rom. 1:16.

An Instance of Yeshua (Jesus) Teaching Torah

In the Gospels, if we read it with our eyes open, we can see clearly that Yeshua taught/clarified and explained Torah.  Here, in Jn. 7, during the Feast of Sukkot (Booths), Yeshua begins teaching mid-way through the feast.

"Now when the feast was already half over, Jesus went to the temple courts* and began to teach.* Then the Jews were astonished, saying, “How does this man possess knowledge, because he* has not been taught?” So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not mine, but is from the one who sent me. If anyone wants to do his will, he will know about my* teaching, whether it is from God or I am speaking from myself."

The Jews were clearly impressed and amazed at his teaching.  He was not teaching to do away with the Law (Torah), otherwise they would have torn their clothes and decried him a blasphemer.  But this is not what happened (Jn. 7:19-24).

We are not told all of what Yeshua taught here, though we are given a glimpse of some ( vv. 19-24), exhorting the Jews to follow Moses and KEEP Torah!  All His teaching had a point, we can safely assume it had something to do with the feast of Sukkot, and His role in fulfilling it (c.f.. Matt. 5:17-19).  The Apostle John points out in the beginning of his Gospel account, that the incarnated Torah (Word of God) became flesh and tabernacle (or "sukkahed") among us (Jn. 1:14).

"Now on the last day of the feast—the great day—Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let him drink, the one who believes in me. Just as the scripture said, ‘Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now he said this concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)"

We see here that indeed Yeshua was teaching on how He is the substance of what the feast is pointing to.  He's not saying "Quit keeping the feast," but explaining how He is the fulfillment (Mt. 5:17).

Yeshua taught we are to keep His commandments, and the word (of His time, he did not supercede it, He WAS it) commands we observe Yhwh's feasts (Lev. 23; Mt. 5:17-19).

ISIS, Yhwh's Tool for Judgement on The Israelites

About a year or so ago, Yhwh spoke to me as I was studying my Bible.  The previous night on the news, there was much celebration of law-lessness.  And Abba said to me, "Look, the eyes of my Lord Yahweh are on the kingdom of sin, and I will destroy it from the surface of the earth. However, I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares Yahweh."  Amos 9:8

As we reject the ways of Yhwh on earth   in our respective countries, we think Elohim doesn't see.  Or we think He is like us, and that's part of the problem, we worship a God made in our image.  We reject the holy, set-apart God who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible.

As a consequence of disobedience to the Torah, the ten northern tribes were scattered. Dispersed to the ends of the earth (Hos. 7:8), 9:17).  Later, around 135 C.E., the house of Judah also was exiled into the nations.  The tribes have migrated, and in fulfillment of prophecy, gone to the ends of the world.  And so Yhwh has graciously extended the Covenant to all peoples.

And we are there descendants.  If we reject Father's instructions, do we think we shall escape judgment?  Abba Yhwh knows all things.  He has prophesied a coming shaking.

“Yes, look, I am going to command and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations like one who shakes with a sieve, but not a pebble will fall to the ground. All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil will not overtake or confront us.’" (Amos 9:9-10).

Repent and follow Yhwh's instruction, the Torah.  The Torah-less one is coming, and he is here!

Did the Apostle set Gentiles free from Torah? The Truth about Acts 15!

Coming from the Southern Baptists, I know this is a commonly held view, that the Apostles named only four things which the Gentiles had to abide when becoming followers, and thus they declared the Gentiles free from having to keep the Law (Torah).

In this 35 min. video, Jim Staley of Passionfortruth.com, gives an excellent defense on why this is not all the Apostles were saying.  Staley leads us on a closer inspection of the Council's ruling in "The Truth About Acts 15".  This is an excellent teaching for all hungry for Truth!

Prepare - We are at the Verge of Collapese, says Johnathan Cahn Author of The Mystery of the Shemitah

Monte Judah: Gathering the Exiles of Israel (Deut 29/30)

This is an excellent teaching I just came across by Monte Judah!  Confirmation is SWEET!  This is what the Father has been showing me, and what I am seeing now as one of if not THE BIGGEST Endtime Prophetic Events, the regathering of the 10 Northern Tribes (Ephraim) to Israel.