THE FOUNDATION OF DECEPTION
Part I: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO CONSTANTINE
The first part of this article will expose truth that we must know to be in good standing with our heavenly Father, but it is not a complete study by any means of this topic, or is it a complete study on the roots of the Christian Church. But, it is packed with information that you need to know so that you can be free from what is definitely not from the One, True, Ever-Living “Father-God” of Israel and His Son, our Savior. Of course it should inspire your own study.
Our Savior is restoring us to what He left us at His ascension. It is important to know what He left us and what He did not leave us. He did not come to start a new religion! As we will see later on, what came in the 4th century and onward was so different than what He left us that it was almost and is almost still unrecognizable.
Are you living in a deception? Most people in their lives get hooked into deceptions at some point. So, if you’ve lived in this world for very long, you’ve been deceived, lied to, manipulated, controlled, used and abused. Isn’t that the truth!!
Are you vulnerable to receiving deception? In other words, do you make it easy for deception to come into your mind and emotions? This article will give you clues as to your own vulnerability to being deceived. Have you opened doors in your life to receive deception? It all begins with basic questions, like: Where, specifically, and geographically, do you want to spend eternity? What is your desired eternal position in that place? What relationship do you hope to have with your God in that eternal state? Your answers are at the core of your faith and corresponding actions. Your answer will determine your lifestyle, your thoughts, your actions, your motives and motivations, your direction and your attitude toward yourself and the world around you. It will locate your identity. What we really believe is seen in our words and our actions.
(Note: I will be using the Hebrew names, titles and words for correct identification with the original and continuing purposes of our heavenly Father).
I know that I am most likely writing to mainly believers in the Machiach (Messiah) Yahushua (Jesus the Christ)--the final spotless Lamb of Elohim (God) who died (was impaled) on the stake (pole, tree) to take the punishment due us by a righteous Elohim for our transgressing of His Torah (Law, Word, commandments, statutes, judgments, precepts, governmental right-rulings), and who rose from the dead to secure our eternal life. Praise His Name!!!!
The Torah includes the first five books of the Tenak, or Genesis through Deuteronomy. The Tenak is what we call Genesis to Malachi. The term Tenak (spelled phonetically) is an acronym for Torah, Nebi’im (prophets) and Kethubim (writings). This was shortened to the one word “TaNaKh”.
The Torah is His basic pattern of culture and governmental rule—it is the Law of the Great King of heaven and earth. “For our citizenship is in heaven”. (Philippians 3:20) If we are citizens of His kingdom, by the new birth, then the Torah is the governmental constitution that deserves our allegiance. If we are born again, then we have duel citizenship. We are citizens of a country in this world and we are also citizens of His realm. His country will take over the whole world in the near future. In Acts 5:29, Peter says, “we ought to obey Elohim, rather than men”. So, our first allegiance is to our citizenship in His kingdom. If you disregard the Torah, calling it obsolete, you are disregarding the culture and government that Yahushua will establish as absolute iron-fisted Law in His coming kingdom, and in the eternal kingdom of the Father. In other words, if you are lawless against the laws of His kingdom now, how do you expect to be treated when that Law is enforced on this earth? He will rule with a “rod of iron”, and enforce Torah in its entirety. That’s what His Word tells us over and over!!
Yahushua is our Savior--Elohim in the flesh, who rose from the dead and “ever-lives to make intercession for us”. That is the core of the faith of the followers of Yahushua. His Father’s Name is Yahuweh (Exodus 3), which means: “I am the eternal, ever-existing One). Yahushua came in His Father’s Name. His correct Name means: “Yahuweh Saves”, and is Yahushua--pronounced like Joshua in Hebrew (Yehoshua), but containing the Hebrew letters in Yahuweh’s Name. The “J” in the English language is only about 400 years old--remember that when you use Hebrew words. The Hebrew pronunciation for Jerusalem is phonetically “Yerushalayim”.
Resuming our discussion: Of course the answers to my questions above about eternity, for most of you would be, “I want to go to heaven”, or “I want to go and be with Jesus”. Few have any concrete idea of what that really means. Most Christians have a general picture in their head of the eternal state, that they got from pictures on the Sunday school wall, or from a pastor painting a verbal picture, or from a book, or their own imagination.
But very few, from a passionate heart of love, will answer that they want to live in His presence, and eternally want to live in His city with Him as His Bride. Some will say they want to rule and reign with Him for 1,000 years before Father’s coming with His city. But, few realize the qualifications for such reigning. It is not automatic!!
In fact none of the Word is automatic just because you prayed a prayer at some point in your life. That’s man’s teaching. In fact, honestly, the “sinner’s prayer” was introduced by Dwight Moody, in his revivals in the 1800’s. So, we have to get back to 1st century requirements from the mouth of our Savior, Himself.
There are only two eventual eternal states: on the new earth or in the lake of fire. For hell is thrown into the lake of fire, and His heavenly city descends upon the new earth (Revelation 19-22). I just finished writing a rather lengthy article on “the intermediate state” between death and resurrection, showing different views as opposed to general Scriptural teachings throughout the Word. There is no verse in the Bible that says that when you pray a prayer to get saved, you get
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a free ticket to heaven when you die. That was part of rhetoric by evangelists in the 1800’s. It is not rhetoric from our Father. It talks about eternal or everlasting life in the Word, but that is at the resurrection of the dead, when He comes. Our intermediate state, and our eternal position is determined by much more than praying a prayer. In this article I go to the root of Truth, exposing the fact that much of what we have believed is based on some idea from an unsaved “church father” from the 4th century onward, or from some saved human later on. But, most of our Christianity and ”Churchianity” is man-made, a mixture, and pagan at its foundation from about 132 onward.
Yahushua did not come to start a new religion or make a new covenant as opposed to an old one, but to carry forward His covenant with Israel in His own blood, as the final Lamb of Elohim.
Most Christians selfishly take a “free” salvation--free ticket out of hell—which causes most Christians to have a selfish goal. We want eternal bliss. But, so did the pagans, and so do all religious people from all times. Rome had their Elysian Fields, and the Muslims have their harem of virgin girls. Buddhists have their Nirvana. It is in the human heart to live in
eternal bliss. Our heavenly Father placed a desire for eternal life in the spirit of man!
We all have a concept in our minds of what “heaven” is like. A weak, self-centered gospel is at the core of our deception regarding salvation. Yahushua, the Elohim of Israel, certainly did not preach an easy gospel!!! (See Luke 14:25-33)
What is the difference in the eternal goal of your faith and the eternal goal of a pagan’s faith? Is your concept of heaven a selfish one—a gorgeous mansion, golden streets, and eternal bliss with family and friends? Did Yahushua die so that you could have your own mansion? That’s not quite the Hebrew context of John 14:2. This world is tough, and we want to escape it. But, our Father has never backed easy escapism.
All religions have their road to salvation and heaven by different means. All religions have faith in what they believe, and they work in accordance with that faith. Most Christians don’t even work in accordance with their faith, but have a head belief-system that they think will get them through “the pearly gates”. You know I’m telling the truth. Most Christians don’t act out their faith, and have no intension of it messing up their lifestyle, other than church on Sunday morning. They feel sorry for those poor brothers and sisters who have “a call” to “full-time service”. I know what I am saying—I’ve been born again for 52 years, and in the ministry since age 9. I’ve seen it all and heard it all!!
Many Muslim’s believe their Koran to such an extent that it causes passionate action to honor their God, even if it means blowing themselves up with bombs to kill “the infidels”. Every religion’s faith calls them to action. Your heart’s desire for Him will tell you whether you are a candidate for deception or even eternal damnation, or whether you will not be deceived and stand firm and not deny Him in the face of persecution and pressure. For the strength of your relationship with your Elohim, personally, on a daily basis, your intimacy with Him, knowing Him and His Truth, and His Word, and His ways and thoughts is what will get you through these days to come. If you don’t know Him well, your faith will be challenged and may fail, because it is not grounded in the knowledge of His Word, or in Him as someone you know and trust totally. You will think He failed, if you don’t know Him. It takes a passionate, fiery heart of love for Him to ward off deception.
That is why He says: “You shall love Yahuweh your Elohim with all of your heart, with all of your soul and all of your strength.”
For more clarification: In the Scriptures, the word “Lord” is used 6,823 times (both in the Tenak and the Brit Chadashah—Messianic Scriptures), and except for a few hundred times when it means “Master” and then “Adonai” is used, His Name Yahuweh should be used in place of “Lord”. But, there is even suspicion that the word “Adonai” is related to the god Adonis. This superstition regarding His Name came about after the Jews returned from Babylon, where they picked up quite a few superstitions, that are still in effect today, even among Messianic believers. This superstition regarding Father’s Name is based on the fear of breaking the third commandment of not taking His Name in vain, or commonly. So, in the Greek translation of the Tenak, the word “Lord” took the place of His real Name for the most part. God was also used, and that word is also a god of the pagan world. Perhaps our Father used this to protect His Name for all these generations, because His Name was blasphemed worldwide because of the idolatry and whoring of all of His people, including Christians. The title “Lord” is “Ba’al” in Hebrew. Ba’al was and continues to be a nasty pagan sun god of the most ancient world, worshipped by phallic symbols, and receiving human sacrifice. His worship under other names is still with us today. More later on that….
This god, Ba’al, or “Baal” was worshipped on “the Lord’s day”, the day of the sun god—or Sun-day, since his name means “Lord”, and he, under all sorts of names, represented the sun god. The church adopted the pagan’s day of worship after the 1st century, and especially in the 4th century when it was “formalized” as general rule. Let us not call our Elohim by such a horrible title!! We are to keep His Name set-apart and reverence it with fear.
Calling our Father by His correct name, which is His identification, is part of having an intimate love relationship with Him, rather than having a religion!! If you don’t have an intimate relationship with Him now, it will be hard to trust Him in the days to come with your eternal life. Your faith will be tested and challenged. It will be shaken terribly at the core, and only those who cannot be shaken will remain strong.
Deception is easy to fall into unless you have a passionate hunger for Truth. “His Word is Truth” and He is Truth! “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Yahushua warned us in Matthew 24: “Be not deceived”. He warned us of a time when even the “elect” would be vulnerable to deception. We are in that time period. We must find the foundations of deception
If your desire is for heaven, to escape hell for some place in the sky, and your idea of heaven is like the Roman’s “Elysian
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Fields”--a euphoria of bliss and peace--then you are wide open for deception. You have no solid reality to your faith.
If a desire to be in His presence--to intimately know Him, to be by His side to see His face because He is your beloved, your Bridegroom, your reason for living on this earth is what motivates you, then most likely that strong faith will keep you from deception and preserve you as one of those overcoming ones who stand strong through tribulation until He comes.
If you are now preparing as a Bride would, to receive her Bridegroom, then your desired position is Revelation 22:3-5—to
see His face and live in His presence eternally. Only those obedient to His commands have the right to live in His presence. I’m not saying that—He says that in many Scripture passages!! We’ll investigate that further in this article.
If you have little interest in knowing Him--and are content in going to church, reading a Psalm once in a while, throwing up a few prayers when your child is sick, or you need money, focusing your life on this world and a pragmatic relationship to
it, wanting all you can get for yourself--then your heart, which is on this earth, can never be content to live in the physical
presence of Someone you don’t know--not forever and forever.
There is no “sugar bear” coating as you float up to heaven that will change you into wanting something you never wanted on earth. Remember the picture of Sugar Bear on the box of Sugar Crisp cereal? I do—back in the 50’s I think.
Our Father does not violate our will. Let’s get lollypop sugar religion out of our thinking once and for all!! Lollypop’s melt in the heat, and if our religion is sugar coated but not real, we will melt in the fires of purging to come!
If your heart is earthbound, then your eternal destiny, your eternal positioning is also earthbound—on the new earth.
There will be a new earth for the “nations of the saved”. But, if your obedience, love and passion for Him is to be in His presence here and forever then your eternal destiny will be different. Even your position in the kingdom on this earth for 1,000 years under Yahushua’s rule will be entirely different. But, when Father creates the new heaven and the new earth, and moves His eternal city, the New Jerusalem (which we call “heaven”) down here to hover over this planet, then the eternal positioning will take place. (See clearly Revelation 21:22-22:6)
There are three eternal positions. But, the Bride is in the 3rd position only. She is purified by her active fiery passion for Him in this life. She is the “Doulos”--the bond slave of Yahushua. (“Doulos” is Greek for bond slave) She lives where all Brides/wives live--in the presence of her Husband. (Look at the wording in Revelation 22:3-5.) She is marked. In Part II of this discussion, article II, we will discuss the marking of the “overcomers”—the Bridal remnant. The Bridal heart is so different from the “normal” and average Christian’s attitude that it is radical and revolutionary, and even fanatical to the average church-going person. Those who live their lives for themselves and other people are already deceived.
To be racially, supernaturally born again (born from above by the Ruach ha Kodesh—the Holy Spirit), we must “forsake all”--all that we are in total, to follow Him.
We no longer belong to ourselves, but we are “bought”. Only slaves are bought! We were purchased at the price of His blood. It is part of the Hebrew marriage contract—for the Bridegroom to pay a price for His Bride. Our Bridegroom paid the ultimate price for us. Acts 20:28, speaking to pastors Paul says “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, among which the Set-apart Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of Elohim, which He has purchased with His own blood”.