Evidence that Jesus / Yeshua is Yahweh

Posted on September 17, 2023 by Asec

Genesis 19:24 – YHWH rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah divine

Amos 4:11 – I have wrought destruction among you, as when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; You have become like a brand plucked from the burning. Yet you have not turned back to Me – declares YHWH.

Genesis 22:11-12 – But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Genesis 31:10-13 – In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I sai, ‘Here I am!’ And He said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to Me. Now, arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.'”

Genesis 48:14-16 – But Israel (Jacob) stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head – thus crossing his hands – although Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph, saying: “The God in who ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked; The God who has been m shepherd from my birth to this day – The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm – May He bless these lads.” (The Hebrew for He in ‘May He bless these lads’ is in a singular verb form, indicating that the author wants to consider all three instances as one).

Judges 6:1- – An angel of YHWH came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was then beating out wheat inside a winepress in order to keep it safe from the Midianites. The angel of YHWH appeared to him and said to him, “YHWH is with you, valiant warrior!” Gideon said to Him, “Please, my Lord, if YHWH is with us, why has all this befallen us? And YHWH turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And YHWH said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” ~ In this passage it is clear that the angel of YHWH is being spoken of as YHWH Himself. This passage continues for several additional verses.

Other passages show that the Word of the Lord was identifiable as YHWH: Genesis 15:1, 1 Samuel 3:1-21, Jerimiah 1:4-9. These examples show a being who is physically present, yet is referred to as The Word, and YHWH simultaneously.

All of the examples we’ve seen up till now are biblical. This next one is extra-biblical; a Passage from the Baal Cycle in Ugarit showing that Baal was thought of as the Cloud Rider – “What manner of enemy has arisen against Baal, of foe against the Charioteer of the Clouds?” This passage is evidence that Baal was thought of as a god who rode the clouds.

Psalm 104:1-3 – Bless the Lord, O my soul! O YHWH my God, you are very great! You are clothed with spendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment stretched out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of His chambers on the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He rides on the wings of the wind. ~ Here we can see the psalmist saying, in effect, Baal is not the Charioteer of the Clouds – it’s YHWH.

Daniel 7:9-13 – As I looked on, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His garment was like white snow, and the hair of His head was like lamb’s wool. His throne was tongues of flame; its wheels were blazing fire. A river of fire streamed forth before Him; thousands upon thousands served Him; myriads upon myriads attended Him; the court sat and the books were opened… One like a human being came with the clouds of heaven; He reached the Ancient of Days and was presented to Him. Dominion, glory, and kingship were given to Him.

The above was presented by Michael Heiser in the video posted below. His conclusions?

Old Testament theology supports the idea that Yahweh can be present in two persons, sometimes in the same scene. And, this second Yahweh figure is portrayed in human form, and even physically embodied. This was an accepted idea in Jewish theology until the second century, when the Jewish leaders realized that Jesus looked a little too much like that human embodiment of Yahweh; so, in spite of what scripture says, they made the idea of two powers of the Godhead into heresy.

In my opinion, these Old Testament scriptures that support the idea of Jesus / Yeshua being Yahweh are further, compelling evidence that Jesus was who He said He was – the Son of God, and God Himself.

Reference: The belief that there were two powers in heaven was acceptable in Judaism until about the second century. Two Powers in Heaven, a book written by Alan F. Segal in 1977, covers this phenomenon from a Jewish perspective. Segal was a practicing Jew.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=CUkhWBKCuXc%3Fsi%3DswCEARLecXuAbF4x
Two Powers of the Godhead
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Calculating the Birth and Death of Jesus

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Asec

When was Jesus born? And when did He die? There are some compelling theories we will look at in this post. Let’s start by looking at the first five verses of Revelation 12:

12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Now, the woman is generally agreed to be Israel, represented here by Virgo the Virgin in the constellations. The Sun is over Virgo, so she is ‘clothed’ with it, and the Moon is at her feet (see screenshot from Stellarium below).

Leo the Lion, representing Jesus, the Lion of Judah (Genesis 49:9), stands in protection of Virgo (Israel), and at Leo’s heart is the star Regulus, which is, on September 11, 3 BC, in conjunction with Jupiter, the ‘King’ planet. Note that the date in Stellarium is 2BC, that’s because Stellarium has a year 0, but no year 0 exists in reality – there was no year zero; if you were to travel back in time, it would go year 2, year 1, year -1, year -2, year -3.

When I lived in Sweden several years ago, we lived in a smaller town and the night skies were fairly dark. It encouraged me to start studying the stars. One night I had my star chart out and saw a quite prominent star that was not on the chart – further consultations with Stellarium had me realizing that I was seeing my first planet, Jupiter.

Some scholars believe that Jupiter was the ‘star’ that pointed to the birth of Jesus two thousand years ago. E.L. Martin, in a view that is shared by Dr. Michael Heiser, makes the case in The Star that Astonished the World that the conjunction of the ‘King’ star with Regulus (the ‘heart’ of Leo) and the supporting positions of the sun and the moon near Virgo makes a strong case for heralding the birth of Jesus.

Revelation 12 is not prophecy – by the time that Revelation was written, Jesus had already been born, died, and resurrected. Rather, Revelation 12 is telling us what already happened.

Now I realize I’m skipping all kinds of important additional information, but I want to get to the other side of this equation quickly – the death of Jesus was approximately 30 AD. How do I arrive at that?

In a previous post, I cite text from the Jewish Talmud that says that:

“Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the western most light shine; and the doors of the Hekel [Temple] would open by themselves” (Soncino version, Yoma 39b).

Read the complete post for the long explanation, but in brief, once Jesus was crucified and resurrected, there was no use for the temple any longer. The temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD, but for 40 years before that destruction, four very powerful signs were observed by the priests; for example, the temple doors would open by themselves.

So there we have it; evidence from the heavenly bodies for Jesus being born on September 11, 3BC, and evidence from the Jewish Talmud for Jesus being crucified in approximately 30AD.

We know from Luke 3:23 that Jesus started His ministry at about the age of 30, and we know from the gospel of John that His ministry spanned three Passovers, putting Him roughly at the age of 33 when He was crucified. If we count from September 11, 3BC forward to 30AD, we end up with 32 years exactly. We have to also figure in that for Jesus to have observed three passovers during His ministry would only require just barely over two years. So the strong possibility is that 9/11/3BC to sometime in 30AD could well be the nearly-exact lifespan of our Lord and Savior; and being that it is until now the most significant event we have on record in human history, that is pretty interesting. I would say that the heavenly signs in the Moon, Sun and stars gives one the proper scale of His first coming; God, incarnated into human flesh.

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Testimony from New Age to finding Christ

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Asec

This young woman has a fascinating story! She was totally immersed in New Age but then one day noticed an interesting pattern…

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Mathematical Challenges to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Asec

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The Origin of Life

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Asec

James Tour describes the science in the search for the origin of life, and demonstrates how unlikely it is that life ever originated by chance.

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New Age Solves the Mystery

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Asec

This is a fascinating story of searching for and finally finding the one true God.

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The anti-Judaism of Barnabas

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Asec

The Epistle of Barnabas is dated between A.D. 130-138, and was obviously not written by the Barnabas, but someone using that name. Nevertheless, it gives us a picture of the thought among early Christian leaders at that time. As Bacchiocchi notes, it gives us the first example of Sunday as being termed ‘the eigth day’, and it also depicts the tensions between Jews and Christians of that time, which led to changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.

1. Further, then, it is written about the sabbath also in the Ten Words which God uttered to Moses face to face on Mount Sinai, “And treat the sabbath of the Lord as holy with clean hands and a pure heart.” 2. And in another place he says, “If my sons keep the Sabbath, I will let my mercy rest upon them.” 3. He mentions the sabbath at the beginning of the creation: “And in six days God made the works of his hands, and ended on the seventh day, and he rested on it and made it holy.” 4. Observe, children, what “he ended in six days” means. This is what it means, that in six thousand years the Lord will bring all things to an end, for a day with him means a thousand years. He himself bears me witness, for he says, “Behold, a day of the Lord will be like a thousand years.” Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be brought to an end. 5. “And he rested on the seventh day” means this: When is Son come and destroys the time of the lawless one, and judges the ungodly and changes the sun and the moon and stars, then he will rest well on the seventh day. 6. Further he says, “You shall treat it as holy, with clean hands and a pure heart.” If, then, anyone can now, by being pure in heart, treat as holy the day God declared holy, we are entirely deceived. 7. Observe that we will find true rest and treat it as holy only when we shall be able to do so having ourselves been made upright and had the promise been fulfilled, when there is no more disobedience, but all things have been made new by the Lord. Then we shall be able to treat it as holy, after we have first been made holy ourselves. 8. Further he says to them, “Your new moons and sabbaths I cannot endure.” You see what it means: it is not the one that I have made, on which, having brought everything to rest, I will make the beginning of an eighth day, that is, the eighth day with rejoicing, on which Jesus also arose from the dead, and having shown himself ascended to heaven (ch. 15).

– The Epistle of Barnabas, translation by E. Goodspeed (fn. 16), pp. 40-41.

As Bacchiocchi notes, the author of this Epistle argues that the rest of the sabbath days is not a physical rest but a rest at the end of days, the thousand years rest. He also argues that to keep the sabbath holy is impossible until this thousand years rest is commenced, and that, since God said “Your new moons and sabbaths I cannot endure”, this means that the current sabbath is unacceptable, and the real sabbath will be the one at the end of time.

This telling letter illustrates how early church fathers struggled to find scriptural support for changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.

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The Anti-Judaism of Justin Martyr

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Asec

Justin Martyr was an early Christian (100 AD to 165 AD) who was martyred for his faith; but his writings demonstrate some of the attitudes towards Jews and things Jewish. For example, Justin wrote to Trypho, a Jewish contemporary, that..

We, too, would observe your circumcision of the flesh, your Sabbath days, and in a word, all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you, namely, because of your sins and your hardness of heart.

This single sentence illustrates that early Christianity was grasping for reasons to separate itself from Judaism, particularly when we know from the writings of Epiphanus (see post on the Nazarenes) that the early church kept the Sabbath and other Jewish festivals. Because Justin Martyr ‘knew’ why God had given the Sabbath and festivals to the Jews, he was justifying breaking with those commandments. Maybe we should call him Justin the Justifier.

Justin further writes in Dialogues with Trypho that:

If we do not accept this conclusion, then we shall fall into absurd ideas, as the nonsense either that our God is not the same God who existed in the days of Henoch and all the others, who were not circumcised in the flesh, and did not observe the Sabbaths and other rites, since Moses only imposed them later; or that God does not wish each succeeding generation of mankind always to perform the same acts of righteousness. Either supposition is ridiculous and preposterous. Therefore we must conclude that God, who is immutable, ordered these and similar things to be done only because of sinful men.

– Dialogue 18, 2, Falls, Justin’s Writings, p. 175

I think most theologians would disagree with Justin’s assertion that the Sabbath and festivals were given to punish sinful men; in the light of modern times it is easy to see the flaws of Justin’s logic, yet here we are, still living out errors propagated two thousand years ago.

Of all those Christians who reject these principles of Judaism, none today ascribe to Justin Martyr’s thesis that the law was given to Jews because of their sins and hardness of heart. Today, the reasons are different, but the end result is the same; we’ve found a way to separate ourselves from original principles.

Justin then states that…

The custom of circumcising the flesh, handed down from Abraham, was given to you as a distinguishing mark, to se you off from other nations and from us Christians. The purpose of this was that you and only you might suffer the afflictions that are now justly yours; that only your land be desolated, and your cities ruined by fire, that the fruits of your land be eaten by strangers before your very eyes; that not one of you be permitted to enter your city of Jerusalem. Your circumcision of the flesh is the only mark by which you can certainly be distinguished from other men…
As I stated before, it was by reason of your sins and the sins of your fathers that, among other precepts, God imposed upon you the observance of the Sabbath as a mark.

– Dialogue 16, 1, Falls, Justin’s Writings, p. 172, 178

You have spared no effort in disseminating in every land bitter, dark, and unjust accusations against the only guiltless and just light sent to men by God… The other nations have not treated Christ and us, his followers, as unjustly as have you Jews, who indeed, are the very instigators of that evil opinion they have of the Just One and of us, His disciples… You are to blame not only for your own wickedness, but also for that of all others.

– Dialogue 17, Falls, Justin’s Writings, p. 173, 174

To the utmost of your power you dishonor and curse in your synagogues all those who believe in Christ… In your synagogues you curse all those who through them have become Christians, and the Gentiles put into effect your curse by killing all those who merely admit that they are Christians.

You do all in your power to force us to deny Christ. We resist you and prefer to endure death, confident that God will give us all the blessings which He promised us through Christ.

– Dialogue 16 and 96, Falls, Justin’s Writings, p. 172, 299

On a day which is called Sunday we have a common assembly of all who live in the cities or in the outlying districts, and the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the Prophets are read, as long as there is time.

Sunday, indeed, is the day on which we all hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which God, transforming the darkness and prime matter, created the world; and our Savior Jesus Christ arose from the dead on the same day. For they crucified him on the day before that of Saturn, and on the day after, which is Sunday, he appeared to his Apostles and disciples, and taught them the things which we have passed on to you also for consideration.

– Justin, I Apology 67, 3-7, Falls, Justin’s Writings, p. 106-107

Interesting how Justin Martyr argues for a new day of worship by tying Sunday to the first day of creation. We see here simple human logic at work; Justin and other early Christians desired to be as different from Judaism as possible because Rome was persecuting and taxing Jews. To come up with reasons for changing the day of worship was simply an of an act of survival. Ultimately, Justin was martyred anyway.

It is written that God once allowed the Sun to be worshipped, and yet you cannot discover anyone who ever suffered death because of his faith in the Sun. But you can find men of every nationality who for the name of Jesus have suffered faith in Him. For His word of truth and wisdom is more blazing and bright than the might of the sun, and it penetrates the very depths of the heart and mind.

– Justin, Dialogue 121, Falls, Justin’s Writings, p. 335; cf. Dialogue 64 and 128.

As Bacchiocchi rightly wonders, isn’t it interesting that Justin Martyr, living in Rome, would want to give credit to sun worship? Could it be to align himself with the Roman authorities, who even in that day worshipped the chief diety and sun-god Saturn on Sunday?

It’s pretty clear from the writings of Justin Martyr and other early Christian leaders, as well as historians like Ephiphanus, that in the first few hundred years after the death and resurrection of Christ, the early church experienced a schism from Judaism, and took on new, man-made principles and practices.

If we can see this, then we might be able to, on an individual level, foster a renewed appreciation for Judaism in so far as those practices are practicable – and taking care to distinguish from the written law and the oral traditions of the fathers and rabbis as written in the Babylonian Talmud and other writings.

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The anti-Judaism of Ignatius

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Asec

Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch during the time of Trajan (A.D. 98-117). His anti-Judaic writings demonstrate, first, that at that time there were many early Christians keeping Jewish customs, and secondly, the clear schism that was developing between Christianity as a sect of Judaism and Christianity as a new, man-made religion.

From C.S. Mosna, Storia della Domenica, p.95:
The bishop argues “against the Judaizing tendencies of his territory, which, not far geographically from Palestine, had suffered the influences of the synagogue and of the Judaeo-Christians.”

From Pseudo-Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians 9, ANF I, pp. 62-63:
Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness… but let every one of you keep the Sabbath in a spiritual manner, rejoicing in the meditation on the law, not in the relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, nor walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them.”

Here we can see the first beginnings of a move of the early Christian church away from Judaism, away from a seventh day Sabbath. As we move on to other anti-Judaic early church fathers, Barnabas (the epistle of Barnabas is dated by scholars between A.D. 130-138) and Justin Martyr (Dialogues with Trypho are dated between A.D. 138-161), we can see an even more developed position of anti-Judaism as well as a substitution of Sunday as the preferred day of worship.

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The Nazarenes kept Jewish observences until the fourth century

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Asec

Early Christians, living in Jerusalem, and called the ‘sect of the Nazarenes’, fled in 66/67 AD when Rome invaded Jerusalem, and settled in Pella (Pella is about 70 kilometers north and west of Jerusalem, on the east side of the Jordan river), and thrived there until the fourth century.

This is noteworthy when we consider the transformation that occurred between the first century and the fourth century; namely, that Christianity gradually rejected circumcision, the Sabbath, the Festivals of the Lord, and other early Christian practices, and the adoption of syncretic observances such as making Sunday the day of worship and the observance of Easter.

From Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses, 29, 7, PG 42, 402.
The sect orginated after the flight from Jerusalem, when the disciples were living in Pella, having left the city according to Christ’s word and migrated to the mountains because of its imminent siege. Therefore in this manner it arose when those of whom we spoke were living in Perea. From there the heresy of the Nazarenes first began.

From M. Simon (fn. 57), pp. 47-48.
They are characterized essentially by their tenacious attachment to Jewish observances. If they became heretics in the eyes of the Mother Church, it is simply because they remained fixed on outmoded positions. They well represesnt, though Epiphanius is energetically refusing to admit it, the very direct descendants of the primitive community, of which our author knows that it was designated by the Jews by the same name of Nazarenes.

From Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses, 29, 7, PG 41, 402.
The Nazarenes do not differ in any essential thing from them [i.e. Jews], since they practice the custom and doctrines prescribed by the Jewish law, except that they believe in Christ. They believe in the resurrection of the dead and that the universe was created by God. They preach that God is one and that Jesus Christ is his Son. They read the law.. Therefore they differ both from the Jews and from the Christians; from the former, because they believe in Christ; from the true Christians because they fulfill till now Jewish rites as the circumcision, the Sabbath and others.

As Samuel Bacchiocci (Sabbath to Sunday, pp 157) so aptly notes, ‘the possibility exists therefore that the Nazarenes represent the survival of both the ethnic and theological legacy of primitive Jewish Christianity’.

This is important to reflect on, in the light of other articles you will find here and elsewhere regarding how Christianity was transformed over a few hundred years from a sect of Judaism into a new religion, absent nearly all the practices which Jesus and His disciples kept.

As we shall elsewhere, this transformation was the result of cultural and theological tensions between early Christians and Jews, Roman persecution of the Jews (and anyone who worshipped on Saturday was linked to Judaism, and thus responsible to pay a tax to Rome known as Ficus Judaicus), and the day of worship sanctioned by Rome being Sunday.

The question we have to ask ourselves, if we are honest, is how is it that Christiandom, with this knowledge of the history of events, is still walking in this error two thousand years later?

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