How Does the Netzarim (Nazarene / the branch) Faith Differ From Christianity?

This is my Chief Rabbi. He reposted this recently!

How Does the Netzarim Faith Differ from Christianity

by Rabbi Robert O. Miller

“Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of Yahweh are right; the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. (Hosea 14:9)”

“For this is the love of Yahweh, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3)”

In 2 Timothy 2:15 the term “rightly dividing” is translated from “ortho tomeo,” literally means "to rightly cut, to cut straight." Messiah YahShua came to straighten out the interpretation of Yahweh’s Word. Messiah YahShua has cut and divided the Word of Yahweh in order to give us true understanding of Life. The Netzarim Faith maintains that the Messiah didn’t come to start a new religion. He came to restore the Faith Yahweh gave to Israel who were to be a Kingdom of Priests ministering to the rest of mankind (Exodus 19:6).

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Naviim (Prophets). I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one yod (smallest letter in the AlephBet) or one taug (accent marks above the letters) will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Rabbis of the Torah and Parushim (Pharisees – separated ones), you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:17-20)”
“But the path of the just is like the shining light, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. (Proverbs 4:18,19)”

YahShua did not abolish the Word of Yahweh. Our Messiah came to fulfil Torah by correctly interpreting it. Messiah YahShua came only to abolish the enmity or hatred man had towards Torah because of their sin nature and a wrong interpretation of Torah that opposed Yahweh. Sin had separated mankind from Yahweh. The wrong interpretation of Torah created isolationism instead of evangelism and withheld the goodness of Yahweh’s Word from others. It had always been the Father’s intention for His Torah to be given to the nations through Israel. Israel was to be the Light (Menorah) to the entire world – a Kingdom of Priests (Exodus 9:16).

“Arise, shine; for your light has come! (Messiah) And the glory of Yahweh is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth (Lack of Torah), and deep darkness (spiritual shame) the people; but Yahweh will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light (Isaiah 60:1-3)”
It is through Torah that Messiah YahShua is revealed. In Messiah’s own words He upholds Torah.

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings (Torah), how will you believe My words?" (John 5:46,47)”

Messiah YahShua said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Naviim (Prophets). I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” The Greek word “kataluo” {kat-al-oo-O} interpreted here as “abolish” was a term used to describe an interpretation that was not correct or subversive. But the Greek word “pleroo” {play-o-O} interpreted here as “fulfil” was used to describe a proper interpretation of the Scripture, to render the full meaning. This word coincides with the Hebrew word “basar” {baw-sar'} which means full message or meaning. He is warning us not to think! "I have come to fulfill the Torah, " He says, "but do not even think that by fulfilling it, I am thereby abolishing it."
Woe to the teacher that abolished Torah! Those who are held responsible are accountable to Yahweh who appointed them. "My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. (James 3:1)"

“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one yod (smallest letter in the AlephBet) or one taug (accent marks above the letters) will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Messiah YahShua is saying not even the slightest stroke of a pen or the smallest letter of the AlephBet will be nullified.

“It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Torah. (Luke 16:17)”

“…the Scripture cannot be broken…( John 10:35)”
"Not a letter shall be abolished from the Torah forever" (Exodus Rabbah 6.1). Since we can see Heaven and Earth are still here we know the Torah is still in effect!
“Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. (Ecclesiastes 1:4)”
“May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun (which is in the heavens). All nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed. (Psalm 72:17)”
“[David’s] line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, (both in the heavens) the faithful witness in the sky." Selah (think about that!) (Psalm 89:36-37)”
“He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. (Psalm 104:5)”

“This Torah with its statutes and laws is everlasting. We may not add to them or detract from them. Whoever adds to them or detracts from them or misinterprets the Torah is a wicked impostor and a heretic (Mishna Torah).”
“So anyone who does not obey one of the smallest commandments, and teaches other people not to obey it, will have the smallest part in the Kingdom of Heaven. But any one who obeys and teaches the Torah, will have a big part in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

The least figure in the Kingdom of Heaven right now is Hellel ben Shahar that has the position of HaSatan (the Prosecutor). He is the accuser of Yahweh and His people (Revelation 12:10).
“Now there was a day when the sons of Elohim came to present themselves before Yahweh, and HaSatan also came among them. And Yahweh said to HaSatan, "From where do you come?"
So HaSatan answered Yahweh and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it." 

Then Yahweh said to HaSatan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears Elohim and shuns evil?"
So HaSatan answered Yahweh and said, "Does Job fear Elohim for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" 

And Yahweh said to HaSatan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh. (Job 1:6-12)”

So what our Messiah is saying, that if you deny Torah and teach men that it is done away with, you’re not just insignificant, you are of the devil!

Everything that Messiah YahShua taught from the Torah and He did not teach anything that was not from the Torah. Messiah YahShua taught Torah! Now, we are instructed to bring Torah to the people of all nations. He told us to teach the Gentile nations "to obey everything I have commanded you (My Disciples)" (Matt.28:18). And He commanded His disciples to obey the Torah (Matt 5:17-19 & 23:1-2) If we have a Kingdom we have a King and if we have a King we have a Ruler and if we have a Ruler we have rules and what are those rules-----Torah. Messiah YahShua promises to bless the Torah teachers, “he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
You can teach what you know but you can only reproduce what you are.

“For Messiah is the goal of the Torah for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4)”
In John 14:15, He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” What exactly did Messiah YahShua command? Well, the first recorded command he gave appears in Matthew 4:17, “From that time Rebbe YahShua began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The word “repent” or “teshuvah” means to turn away from sin. “…sin is the transgression of the Torah. (1 John 3:4)” To repent means to turn back to Yahweh and His precious Word.

“‘…you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi (Priesthood),’ says Yahweh Almighty.” (Malachi 2:8) Who has taught people that the teaching given to Moses by Yahweh has been done away with and caused them to stumble at the commandments of Yahweh? When you look at the ministry of the Messiah and His disciples you can see it wasn’t them. So the question can be asked, “Who did subvert the Faith of Yahweh and create a new religion?”

Messiah YahShua warned: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
Rabbi Shaul (Paul) warned: “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” (Acts 20:29-31)
How can we tell a false prophet or teacher? “By their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:16) What is the “fruit” of these “false teachers”? Here are their fruit: “There are six things Yahweh hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes (arrogance), a lying tongue (teach falsehood & error), hands that shed innocent blood (condemning), a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies (slanderer) and a person who stirs up conflict in the community (of the Faith).” (Proverbs 6:16-19) In other words they “cause many to stumble” at the Word of Yahweh. On the contrary, the Netzarim Faith and its teachers have fruit that cause people to love the commandments expressed in Yahweh’s Word.

Let’s take a look at the difference in the two types of teachers:
“For they being ignorant of Yahweh's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of Yahweh. For Messiah is the goal of the Torah for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Torah, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. (Romans 10:3-5)”
It is through Messiah that we are able to strive to live by the instructions & teachings – Torah - of our Creator – Yahweh.

Centuries of Christian Anti-Semitism, Anti-Hebraic, and Anti-Torah replacement theology has resulted in a religion that promotes darkness and rebellion against Yahweh by ignoring, replacing, or discarding His instructions to mankind. The Christian belief that the Torah has been abolished would have been viewed as ridiculous and wicked by King Messiah YahShua and his Talmidim (Disciples). This kind of theology is in direct opposition to the teachings of the man who Christians claim is their Christ. "The rejection of the Law by Christianity, therefore, was a departure from its Christ." (Jewish Encyclopaedia, ed. Isidore Singer New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls, 1903), Vol.V.,p.52)

In order to perpetuate the lie of the death of the Torah, Christian leaders had to reach back into the musty corridors of time and find a theological way of eliminating the bulk of Messiah YahShua’s own teachings. They found this by a slight-of-hand interpretation of the writings of Messiah Sha’ul, in a way that is un-Hebraic and which Rabbi Sha’ul, that they call Paul (midget), would vehemently oppose. The man that originated this school of thought was Marcion the heretic. Marcion’s Anti-Semitic; pro-Paul churches spread throughout the Roman Empire and soon became a major threat to the Messianic faith.

Marcion was born in 85 CE at Sinope on the Black Sea and was raised to be very Anti-Semitic. Marcion taught that the entire Hebrew Bible should be rejected because it belonged to an evil, inferior deity (Yahweh), and not to “the God revealed by Jesus of Nazareth.” He also rejected any of the Messianic writings, which appeared to speak favourably of "Jewish practices" (like keeping Torah). 

Marcion taught the law was something obsolete and of little use to a Christian. The Torah that he began to call the Old Testament and its commandments is opposed to his New Testament founded on grace. Following this school of thought you end up with either a schizophrenic deity, or Marcion’s two gods.

In “Against Marcion,” Tertullian accuses Marcion and his followers of "forbidding what (Yahweh) commands and commanding what He forbids. (IV.1)" Following Marcion, Mainstream Christianity often commands what Yahweh forbids: "Forget the Sabbath. Ignore the holy days and dietary laws. And shave that beard, so you will look like a Christian!" "Marcion sets up unequal gods." Tertullian writes, "The one a judge, fierce and warlike (Yahweh), the other mild and peaceable (God), solely kind and supremely good. (Tertullian, Against Marcion I.6.)"

A spirit of lawlessness has been hanging over the Church for all of its history. Tertullian shows the importance Messiah YahShua attached to keeping Torah when he writes about the rich young ruler who approached Messiah YahShua: "So when he is asked by that certain man, "Good Rabbi, what shall I do to obtain possession of eternal life?” he inquired whether he knew –which means, was keeping, the Creator’s Commandments---.Come now, Marcion, and all you companions in the misery and sharers in the offensiveness of that heretic, what will you be bold enough to say? Did Messiah here rescind those former commands---? (Against Marcion IV.36)”
Who are we supposed to be following? Marcion’s perversion of what Rabbi Sha’ul said or Messiah YahShua’s teachings based on what Yahweh says.

“Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Sovereign is salvation--as also our beloved brother Rabbi Sha’ul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our King and Savior Messiah YahShua. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amien. (2 Peter 3:14-18)”

I can only imagine the anguish Rabbi Sha’ul would feel to see the Holy Torah, that he loved and honoured so much, be so viciously attacked and declared dead by those like Marcion who twist and take out of context his very words. Tertullian opposes Marcion’s misuse of Rabbi Sha’ul’s writings by pointing out the "Jewishness" of Rabbi Sha’ul's faith, and then asking, "What had (Rabbi Sha’ul) still to do with Jewish custom, if he was the destroyer of Judaism? (Against Marcion V.5)"

Interestingly enough, those taking Rabbi Sha’ul’s words and twisting them are called in the Greek “athesmos” {ath’–es-mos} which means, “one who breaks through the restraints of law and gratifies his lust.” In other words lawless or Anti-Torah.

Tertullian also refers to Romans 7:7, to combat Marcion’s hatred of the Torah: "What shall we say then? That the Torah is sin? Yahweh fordid.” Shame on you, Marcion. Yahweh forbid: the apostle expresses abhorrence of complaint against the Torah---Yet he adds even more: "The Torah is holy, and its commandment is just, and good (Rom. 7:12)." (Against Marcion V.14) As Tertullian points out later, "you cannot make a promoter of the Torah into an opponent of it. (Against Marcion V.17) "

Today, the Neo-Marcionite Christians overlook or choose to ignore the positive things Rabbi Sha’ul said about the Torah. "For in my inner being I delight in Yahweh’s Torah" and "I myself in my mind am a slave to Yahweh’s Torah " (Rom. 7:22,25). He tells Rabbi Ptolemy (Timothy), "We know that the Torah is good if one uses it properly" (I Tim. 1:8). To the Corinthians he writes, "Keeping Yahweh’s Commandments is what counts" (ICor.7:19). "I have committed No offense, either against the Torah of the Jews or against the Temple"(Acts 25:8). "Brethren…I had done nothing against our people, or the customs of our Patriarchs…(Acts 28:17)”

Messiah YahShua did not abolish the Word of Yahweh. Our Messiah came to fulfil Torah by correctly interpreting it. Messiah YahShua came only to abolish the enmity or hatred man had towards Torah because of their sin nature and a wrong interpretation of Torah that opposed Yahweh. Sin had separated mankind from Yahweh. The wrong interpretation of Torah created isolationism instead of evangelism and withheld the goodness of Yahweh’s Word from others. It had always been the Father’s intention for His Torah to be given to the nations through Israel. Israel was to be the Light (Menorah) to the entire world – a Kingdom of Priests (Exodus 9:16).

“Arise, shine; for your light has come! (Messiah) And the glory of Yahweh is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth (Lack of Torah), and deep darkness (spiritual shame) the people; but Yahweh will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light (Isaiah 60:1-3)”
It is through Torah that Messiah YahShua is revealed. In Messiah’s own words He upholds Torah.
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings (Torah), how will you believe My words?" (John 5:46,47)”

The Netzarim Faith teaches:
“I, Yahweh your Elohim, am a jealous Elohim, … showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:5-6)
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you obey the commands of Yahweh your Elohim that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of Yahweh your Elohim and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” (Revelation 22:14)
“Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the Torah of Yahweh. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.” (Psalms 119:1-2)
The False teachers teach: They pit YahShua against Moses and lie when they say YahShua taught against the Torah. They do this so that they selectively teach that the commandments of Yahweh are done away with. Messiah YahShua said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Naviim (Prophets). I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

The Netzarim Faith teaches:
“Keep [Yahweh] decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land Yahweh your Elohim gives you for all time.” (Deuteronomy 4:40)

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Temple of Elohim of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The Torah will go out from Zion, the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:3)
The False teachers teach: We are no longer to keep Torah.
The Netzarim Faith teaches:
“You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24)
“…the people of Yahweh … keep [Yahweh’s] commands and remain faithful to YahShua.” (Revelation 14:12)
The False teachers teach: That all is needed for salvation is belief in Christ. However, we know belief is not enough, “the devils also believe, and tremble.” (James 2:19)

They also teach, that nobody is justified by keeping the commandments. There is a story in Matthew about this question: “a man came up to YahShua and asked, “Rabbi, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” YahShua replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” (Matthew 19:16, 17)

The Netzarim Faith teaches:
“Love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)
“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.” (Leviticus 19:18)
“YahShua replied: “‘Love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-49)
The False teachers teach: deceptively that YahShua nullified all other commandments by only upholding these two. They say, “Love is enough!” But Yahweh said, “love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:6) YahShua taught: “If ye keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love.” (John 15:10)

The Netzarim Faith teaches:
Moses was told by Yahweh: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18)
Stephen witnessed that YahShua was the “prophet like unto Moses” who had been prophesied to come. “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘Yahweh your Elohim will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’”

(Acts 7:37) “For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” (John 12:49-50)
The False teachers teach: that one must decide to either follow Moses or the Messiah they are mutually exclusive. Moses is outdated while the Messiah is new and improved!

The Netzarim Faith teaches:
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your Elohim. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

(Exodus 20:8-11)
The False teachers teach: twisting Romans 14:5-6, where Rabbi Sha’ul wrote: "One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives Yahweh thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives Yahweh thanks."

From this statement, it could appear to some that Rabbi Sha’ul or Paul is saying that whatever day one chooses to rest and worship is irrelevant so long as one is "fully convinced in his own mind" and "observes it to the Lord."
Keep in mind that Rabbi Sha’ul, earlier in this same epistle, had written that "the Torah is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good," that "the doers of the Torah will be justified," and that he found "delight in the Torah of Yahweh" (Romans:7:12; 2:13; 7:22). If he were saying in Romans 14 that Sabbath observance is irrelevant or changed, such an assertion would be completely inconsistent with his other clear statements in this same letter.

The passage in question about days in Romans:14:5-6 is immediately between references to eating meat and vegetarianism in verses 2, 3 and 6. There is no biblical connection between Sabbath observance and vegetarianism, so these verses must be taken out of context to assume Rabbi Sha’ul was referring to the Sabbath.
The Expositor's Bible Commentary explains that "the close contextual association with eating suggests that Paul has in mind a special day set apart for observance as a time for feasting or as a time for fasting" (Everett Harrison, 1976, Vol. 10, p. 146). It is apparent that Rabbi Sha’ul wasn't discussing the Sabbath but, rather, other days during which feasting, fasting or abstaining from certain foods was practiced.

Rabbi Sha’ul was writing to a congregation composed of both Jewish, returning Israelites and gentile believers in Rome (Romans 1:13; 2:17). Eating and fasting practices that were not clearly addressed in the Scriptures had become a point of contention.
The Talmud records that many Jews of that time fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. They also had other traditional fast days (compare Zechariah 7:3-5). Since some of the Jewish Believers in Rome self-righteously criticized others (Romans 2:17-24), perhaps they had become like the Pharisee who boasted, "I fast twice a week" (Luke 18:12), and set themselves up as more righteous than others who were not fasting at these times.
Rabbi Sha’ul was setting the record straight by emphasizing that fasting is a voluntary exercise of worship not limited to particular days. Therefore, one person's fasting on a particular day when another is eating does not make him more righteous.

These are just some of the examples of how the Netzarim Faith differs from Christianity.
“…when Yahshua had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matthew 7:24-29)
“Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose hope is Yahweh. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:6-8)

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Thanks for reading. Hopefully this will help answer questions for you and others! 
More later....

Cross verses Stake! Part I

This is first in a series (part 1)


I know I am going to stamp on a lot of toes with this post, that being said here goes for those who want to learn the truth.


I know most people believe Messiah died on a cross. That's a lie. I am going to be clear on that fact. Plus the power of the fact of a stake is stronger in its truth!!!


About the year 300 Constantine changed "Stauros" from stake to cross or rather sacred "t".


Ok proof from others....


They post a wonderful article.  If you want the whole thing its free to download.


http://eternalcog.org/ecgbooklets/the_truth_cross.html


here's a sample:


                         ***
                     The Truth of The Cross

by

Nathan Albright

and

Randy Vild

    The cross is one of religion’s oldest symbols. And although most people only associate it with Christianity, it has actually been employed by an endless array of beliefs for millennia. Furthermore, its presence in worship can be traced to faiths that existed over fifteen centuries before Jesus of Nazareth walked as a man on the earth. The truth be known, this great religious fixture is actually rooted in a belief that is light years from that proclaimed in the pages of your Bible.

 

    The cross in its earlier forms appeared as the letter “T” and symbolized Tammuz, the ancient god of the Chaldeans and the Egyptians. The mystic “T” was a symbol of great divinity in the ancient world and has been called, “the sign of life.” It was used as an amulet worn over the heart and was inscribed on the official garments of pagan priests (see: The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop 2nd American edition pp. 197-198). Additionally, some ancient religions used the cross as part of the dress of vestal virgins. They would wear them suspended from necklaces which adorned their garments during pagan rites (see: Pere Lafitan, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. i. p. 442).

 

    History reveals that there is hardly a pagan culture where the cross has not been found. For example, the Druids made prolific use of this symbol throughout their worship. When writing about this practice, the 19th century scholar, Thomas Maurice, in his work, The Indian Antiquities, made an extraordinary observation about the prominence of the cross in Druidic nature worship. Notice what this distinguished scholar writes:

“The druids in their groves were accustomed to select the most stately and beautiful tree as an emblem of deity they adored. And having cut the side branches, they affixed two of the largest of them to the highest part of the trunk, in such a manner that those branches extended on each side like the arms of a man, and together with the body, presented the appearance of a huge cross, and on the bark, in several places was inscribed the letter t.”

 

    The worship of the cross was not limited to the Druids. It also stands as one of the most prominent figures in Buddhism. Buddhist’s often decorate the cross with leaves and flowers, and refer to this symbol as the “divine tree.” It has also been called the “tree of the gods” and “the tree of life and knowledge.”

 

    However, it is not simply ancient pagan religions that characterize the cross with such words. In the Roman Catholic Church, this symbol is often referred to as the “tree of life.” Members of this great religious body are even taught to address it as follows:

 

Hail, O Cross, triumphal wood, true salvation of the world, among trees there is none like thee in leaf, flower, and bud. O cross, our only hope, increase righteousness to the godly and pardon the offenses of the guilty.

 

    Clearly the Church of Rome sees the cross as a vital component of worship. It is venerated as a sacred symbol of the faith embraced by the great “Mother Church.” With this understanding, let us explore how this icon became such a HUGE part of the “believer’s” faith today.

 

What is a Cross?

 

    The New Testament word “cross” used frequently in the scriptures is actually a translation of the Greek word stauros (Strong’s Concordance # 4716). Because this term is rendered “cross” by translators, most professing Christians are convinced that Jesus was crucified on a traditional “T” cross (see: A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, London, England: The University of Chicago Press, 1979, p. 764). But is this true? Understanding the meaning of this remarkable Greek word (stauros) is critical in coming to an honest conclusion concerning the instrument of the Messiah’s death.

 

    The word stauros literally means a “post” or “stake.” Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, Vol. 1, p. 256 indicates that stauros “denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake” According to the prominent scholar E. W. Bullinger (1837-1913), stauros “never means two pieces of timber placed across one another, but always one piece alone” (see: Companion Bible Appendix 162). Mr. Bullinger went on to state: “There is nothing in the Greek of the N.T. even to imply two pieces of timber.” Bullinger’s conclusion is supported by the meaning of the Greek verb stauroo (“to drive stakes”). Therefore, it would certainly appear that the “cross” on which Jesus was crucified was actually an upright beam as opposed to the traditional “T” as so many assume.

  

A Common Argument

 

    Some have argued that the words recorded by the apostle John when describing Jesus” execution prove that the Messiah carried an actual cross on the way to Golgotha before collapsing in exhaustion. After all, this beloved apostle seems to use the term “cross” in his narrative. Notice what John writes.

 

And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. (Jn. 19:17)

 

    At first glance it would appear that John called the instrument of Jesus’ death a “cross.” However, let us examine this verse closely to determine what is truly being said. The Greek word for “cross” used by John when chronicling this moment in the life of the Messiah is, once again, stauros. As was mentioned earlier, stauros is not a cross as one thinks of it today. It is in fact a beam or pole.

 

    According to John, what was taking place at this point in Jesus’ execution was a practice that was unspeakably cruel and degrading. Here, the condemned is forced by his executioner to carry the very object that would be used in his death. This is similar to what was done by the Nazis in WW II when they would force their victims to dig their own graves before being executed. However, although what happened to the Messiah was gruesome and barbaric, it actually helps to prove a point concerning the “cross” on which He hung.

OK so I thrown a lot at you. But keep in mind there's so much more this this text these two men wrote

again here's the link to the full e-book and it's free.  http://eternalcog.org/pdfs/ecg/The%20Truth%20about%20the%20Cross.pdf

I am in no way endorsing or negating the Eternal Church of God, just sharing their findings.  

More Later.

Why does Torah say don't?

I sitting and thinking about a child mind set. How many times do parents tell their kids to don't do that or don't do that?
We are told in Torah to don't do something why.  Well the very nature of our Creator is for his purpose he asks us not to do something. With that understanding it becomes clear to us that everything should be about him.
He open will say don't do that because I tell you. Yet we are so childish and so whatever and do it.
Example. A man should touch a woman he's not married to, "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman." 1 Corinthians 7:1


Why not, why can't I just touch every woman I want. It doesn't see fair....(rants of childish person).






We must all be careful you're not being childish in your choices....


More Later....

Ok,  So it's been awhile since I posted something. So be it.

We just celebrated Shavuot, "The Giving of the Law".  It was the time when Yahweh gave the Law to his people.  Many covenants that are one Like Yahweh is one (echad)

1. Adam -      Take care of what I give you, and be fruitful (have children).
2. Noah  -      I will not flood the whole earth again be fruitful and spread out   
3. Abraham - The Land is yours, and Your decedents would be to many to count.
4. Moses    -  Here is my Laws and Statues 
5. Yeshua   -  Right of return

Deuteronomy 29:1-28 talk about the giving of the Law and the dangers of breaking it. Verse 29 is clear as to the secreat thing of Yahweh.  "The secret [things belong] unto the LORD (YHVH) our God (Elohim): but those [things which are] revealed [belong] unto us and to our children for ever, that [we] may do all the words of this law."

The New Covenant; Did you know it was mentioned twice in the so called "Old Testement" (really it all one testement).

Deuteronomy 30:1-3 

"And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call [them] to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, 2) And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; 3)That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee."

This is about the new covenant also mention in Jeremiah 

Jeremiah 31:31-33
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33) But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Also in Hebrews

Hebrews 8:8-10

For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10)For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Notice how the "New Covenant is for Judah and Israel (reunited)", Not the church.

More later

Shalom!

Our World: The Left’s loser message

Whereas it once promised peace and prosperity, the Israeli Left now operates in a closed universe in which reality has no place and opposing views are systematically ignored.


Here's the original news story. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=202108


Check out the larger post on http://nazarenechabad.com

More later...

My New Location...

I have set up a new location. But I will still post here...just only shorter posts.

Why did I switch the main part elsewhere? Glad you asked. I want more control and protection from being blocked. Right Now sites like blogger.com and wordpress can block you if they choose. But I recently setup my own site oddly enough using wordpress software. But because it isn't on the wordpress's site I am protected from being closed down or censored.

I may change the software I use to make the blog. But for now I am going to use wordpress software.

That's about it.

More Later...

Zionist Christians Might Be From Israel's Ten Lost Tribes!

This is a repost from the Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=189890

I didn't see any reason to rewrite it. So it may have wording I wouldn't use. It's really wonderful to see others getting the vision with their eyes being opened!

Shalom Here it is....

___
Zionist Christians might be from Israel’s ‘Ten Lost tribes’ By BRIAN HENNESSY 10/02/2010 03:54

After nearly two millennia of animosity and distrust, we see large numbers of Christians loving Jews. Talkbacks (3)

We are witnessing an amazing turn of events in Jewish/Christian history. After nearly two millennia of animosity and distrust, we see large numbers of Christians loving Jews. And Jews worldwide are responding and appreciating Christians for their friendship and strong support of Israel. Perhaps no greater evidence of this new congeniality is the very magazine you are holding: a special monthly edition of The Jerusalem Post dedicated to Christian lovers of Zion.

This new mutual warmth has caused many Jews and Christians to remark that we have more in common with each other – in spite of our different beliefs regarding Jesus – than we do with many of our co-religionists. For we are as far removed from our Jimmy Carters and Reverend Wrights as the Jewish Zionists are from their Noam Chomskys and Richard Goldstones.

The swiftness of the change has also caused many within the Christian Zionist movement to wonder if there isn’t more going on here. Is our sudden passionate defense of Israel being driven by something deeper than just our common biblical heritage? Could we actually be witnessing the fulfillment of the most prophesied event in the Bible – the reunion of the House of Israel with the House of Judah? More to the point, could we Christians be actual descendants of the missing Ten Tribes of the House of Israel, captured by Assyria and scattered among the nations in 722 BCE?

More and more Christians (myself included), and even some Jews, have come to this startling conclusion!

Although the event is foretold by all of Israel’s prophets, none described it more graphically than Ezekiel. Given a vision of a valley covered with dry bones, he was asked by an angel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” When he could not answer, the angel told him to command the breath [Holy Spirit] to breathe “on these slain that they may come to life.” So he did, “and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.” He was then informed: “Son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:1-14).

This powerful vision was soon followed by a command from the Lord to join two sticks together, reemphasizing the reunion of Judah and Israel. “And I will make them one nation in the Land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, and no longer be divided into two kingdoms... My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd” (Ezekiel 37:22,24).

For those a bit hazy on their biblical history, let me back up a bit.

The breakup of the united kingdom of Israel into two separate nations is told in 1 Kings 11 and 12. There we read of God’s judgment on the House of David following the reign of Solomon. God had warned Solomon to repent of his idolatrous ways, but the king ignored God’s command. Consequently, 10 of the 12 tribes were ripped away to become a separate nation known as the House of Israel (often called “Ephraim,” after its largest tribe). The two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin, formed the southern kingdom and became known as the House of Judah. Both continued as separate kingdoms for another 200 years, often actually warring with one another.

Eventually God’s judgment fell again, but only on the northern kingdom. After God “divorced” the northern kingdom by declaring it to be “not My people” via the prophet Hosea, Assyria swept down and carried them off into the nations, where they assimilated and disappeared. As gentiles, they were now “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world” (Ephesians 2:12).

God’s judgment finally caught up with Judah also about 100 years later, when she was exiled to Babylon for 70 years (and where her people were first called “Jews”). She eventually returned to the Land and lived there long enough to birth the man we Christians worship as the Messiah. One hundred and thirty years later, Judah suffered a second exile, this time being scattered to the four corners of the earth by the Roman legions in about 135 CE.Now all 12 tribes were dispersed among the nations, until descendants of the House of Judah began to come home in the late 1800s. But the other 10 tribes of Israel are still missing.Some contend that enough representatives of the northern kingdom were absorbed into the House of Judah before the Assyrian exile to say the whole nation is today represented by “the Jews.” But why would the prophets, many of whom wrote long after the exile of the northern kingdom, talk of the glorious return of the 10 tribes and their reunion with Judah if it had already taken place?

The bottom line is that more than 80% of Jacob’s family is still missing and have had 2,700 years to intermarry with every nationality. Today they probably number in the hundreds of millions. Where are they? How will we know them? And if we are in the Last Days, as most of us believe, how will they be found in time to be reunited with Judah?

What of the New Testament? Are there any suggestions there that the non-Jewish followers of Jesus could indeed be physical descendants of the scattered tribes? Once you begin to look, the clues are everywhere!

Start with the inauguration of the New Covenant by Jesus. Most Christians and Jews think this was something Jesus created for Christians. But when you read the words of the covenant you see it was promised only to the descendants of Judah and Israel through Jeremiah’s prophecy.

“Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 31: 31,32; Hebrews 8:8-13)

We also have the apostle Paul saying clearly to the believers in Galatia: “If you belong to Messiah, you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:29).

To the believers in Ephesus he writes that “you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ [...] that in himself he might make the two into one new man” (Ephesians 2:13-15).

Doesn’t that sound like the two joined sticks of Ezekiel?

And in his letter to the Roman church, Paul applies to the gentile followers the very words of hope that the prophet Hosea spoke to the banished northern kingdom, saying: “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people.’ And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’ there they shall be called sons of the Living God” (Romans 9:25,26; Hoseah 1:10). And are not the followers of Jesus called “sons of God” by the Jewish writers of the New Testament?

Then there’s Paul’s figurative analogy in Romans 11 of the gentiles being wild olive branches grafted into the cultivated olive tree of Israel. But notice that we too are olive branches. The “wild olive tree” analogy fits perfectly with the northern kingdom scenario of a people who were simply let go.

We also have the apostle James greeting the whole church in the opening of his epistle, both Jew and gentile, as “the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad” (James 1:1). That’s puzzled scholars for centuries.And consider the statement by the author of Hebrews that, “Both he who sanctifies [referring to Jesus] and those who are sanctified are all from one [referring to Abraham], for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11-16).

We also have John’s description of the heavenly city of Jerusalem in the book of Revelation having only 12 gates, each named after one of the 12 tribes of Israel (see Revelation 21:12). There is no gate marked “Christian.” Or any back door for “righteous gentiles.”

And of course there are these words of Jesus (who was of the tribe of Judah), spoken to his Jewish followers: “I am sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Not much room there for anyone outside the chosen line of Isaac, is there?

Speaking of not much room, many readers are no doubt thinking, “if this is true, how would so many Christians ever fit into Israel?” Although not all will come home, for only “a remnant will be saved” (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27), still the number would be quite large. That makes this prophecy by Isaiah all the more intriguing: “The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; make room for me that I may live here. Then you will say in your heart; Who has begotten these for me... Behold I was left alone, from where did these come?” (Isaiah 49: 20,21)

I guess the Lord Himself will eventually make it clear whether we Christian Zionists are the missing tribes. A recent news item even suggests a possible way. A new genetic study has shown that worldwide Jewry all share the same genome, proving they constitute “one family.” Maybe it’s time we non-Jewish lovers of Israel take the same test.The writer is the author of Valley of the Steeples. His writings can be found on www.bhennessy.com
____

A final Note: I know that most of the Christian Zionist are Israel. They need to come back to Torah, all of it. In any marriage relationship you can't pick and choose what parts of the marriage covenant you want to keep. Christianity talks about how it a relationship. It really a Marriage relationship, very different. I guess I need to post something about this soon regarding how we are in a marriage with YHVH not just a relationship.

Shalom and Yah's Blessings
More Later...

What's Important to you?

There is no Trinity - But there is Unity!

What do I mean by the title, no trinity.

There are those out there in the Christian community and even some Messianics who still hold on the idea of the "Trinity". I know this is a sacred cow to many Christians. But I must say Torah doesn't support that idea. The whole concept comes from Babylonian thought process. Nimrod, Ishtar, Tammuz: What am I talking about?

Well, for those who don't know the first time a Trinity was mentioned was back then. Ishtar's husband Nimrod died. When her son Tammuz was born she said he was the resurrected Nimrod. The Greeks follow the same route and then the Romans did the same thing with their pagan gods. They even followed through with idea of resurrection and aspiring to greatness; to include coming down to live amongst the people.

Well then the whole concept of Trinity transitioned into the Catholic Church. You may not know that Constantine started the Catholic Church. But he did and he didn't convert to Catholicism till his deathbed. He was pagan till then.

They then made it "Father, Mother, Son", from Nimrod, Izstar, Tammuz; to god our father, Mary the sons mother. Jesus her son and the son of god. Today many Christians try to say they are different than Catholic. But are they really. They still want a doctrine of Demons, namely the Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit. No where in Torah(the Bible) have I found a single verse to support this claim.They are trying to make an idea fit into the Torah. That's called an agenda when you have an idea and try to prove something by a preconceived idea.

Note: there is even now a concept of taking into account the whole text of the Bible. Then you can find the Trinity from the Bible. But no where does it say three. You're suppose to use the whole Bible to realize that there is a Trinity. Yet not one verse says anything about three. Pretty slim pickings if you ask me.

But why would you want to limit Yahweh to three when he is so so much more. He is one, Echad in Hebrew. It is a unlimited number simply referring to the fact that Yahweh is unified.

As Netzarim we are to study Torah for its own sake, not trying to make it say something. The by product is we gain understanding of who Yahweh is. We grow closers to him. After all, "You Study Whom You Love". So if you love Yahweh then study him by his book, because it is him!

The word says numerous things about the Ruach(Spirit). It says Father and King, Spirit and Holy Spirit. It says the Spirit of Yahweh! But never does it say Trinity. The closest it says it "godhead". But that doesn't mean trinity. Yahweh is beyond the concept of three. He is everything so his number is limitless. The Spirit is very undefined.

Messiah is the father, the image of Yahweh, and his son.

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious full message of Messiah, who is the image of Elohim, should shine unto them." 2 Corinthians 4:4

"Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" Hebrews 1:3

"Who is the image of the invisible Elohim, the firstborn of every creature:" Colossians 1:15

"Elohim is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth." John 4:24

Adam, hence man was created in the image of Yahweh; who is Yeshua (Yahoshua). The fine line between Yeshua and Yahweh our Father is so blended; that its hard to tell who is who. Where one begins and the other ends other words.


HERE IS THE STRAIGHT TALK: When we see a person's body or face, that is not them. The real person is inside of them. It is spirit and flesh. The part we can see is just the image of the person. The real person that is in control of the flesh is not seen.

Yahweh our heavenly Father is not seen as stated in John 4:24 and Colossians 1:15. However Messiah is seen. As far as the Ruach (the spirit), it is an undefined portion of Yahweh. Yeshua is his image, the part we see. Not three personalities, or parts. That's the best way I can say it, with what Torah gives us.

More Later,

James

Month of AV

This is a month for a lot of things bad that happened; the month of Av!

Both Temples were destoryed in the month of AV 421 BCE and 70 CE, on the 9th of Av.

A lot more happened as Av has always been the month of tragedy.

I was wondering if anyone else noticed that the Month is often more agitated times for you.

The spirits that work for and with HaSatan (Satan) really get everything all worked up during this month. We are now past the worse I pray!

More Later!

Not much to say this day, Sabbath has begun. Blessings to all!

Shabbat Shalom!

Yahweh's Blessings and Shalom Alechem!

James

Palestine Betrayed!

This is a reposting from Daniel Pipes.
Mr. Pipes is a columnist for National Review Online, director of the Middle East Forum, and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Nakba, the Arabic word for "catastrophe," has entered the English language in reference to the Arab–Israeli conflict. As defined by the anti-Israel website The Electronic Intifada, Nakba means "the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands [of] Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948."

Those who wish Israel to disappear actively promote the Nakba narrative. For example, Nakba Day serves as a mournful Palestinian counterpart to Israel's Independence Day festivities, annually publicizing Israel's alleged sins. So established has this day become that Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations — the very institution that created the State of Israel — has sent his support to "the Palestinian people on Nakba Day." Even Neve Shalom, a Jewish-Palestinian community in Israel claiming to be "engaged in educational work for peace, equality, and understanding between the two peoples," dutifully commemorates Nakba Day.

The Nakba ideology presents Palestinians as victims without choices and therefore without responsibility for the ills that befell them. It blames Israel alone for the Palestinian-refugee problem. This view has an intuitive appeal, for Muslim and Christian Palestinians had long formed a majority on the land that became Israel, whereas most Jews were relative newcomers.

Intuitive sense, however, does not equal historical accuracy. In his new tour de force, Palestine Betrayed, Efraim Karsh of the University of London offers the latter. With his customary in-depth archival research — in this case, relying on masses of recently declassified documents from the period of British rule and of the first Arab–Israeli war, 1917–49 — clear presentation, and meticulous historical sensibility, Karsh argues the opposite case: that Palestinians decided their own destiny and bear near-total responsibility for becoming refugees.

In Karsh's words: "Far from being the hapless victims of a predatory Zionist assault, it was Palestinian Arab leaders who, from the early 1920s onward, and very much against the wishes of their own constituents, launched a relentless campaign to obliterate the Jewish national revival which culminated in the violent attempt to abort the U.N. partition resolution." More broadly, he observes, "there was nothing inevitable about the Palestinian–Jewish confrontation, let alone the Arab–Israeli conflict."

Yet more counterintuitively, Karsh shows that his understanding was the conventional, indeed the undisputed interpretation in the late 1940s. Only with the passage of time did "Palestinians and their Western supporters gradually rewr[i]te their national narrative," thereby making Israel into the unique culprit, the one excoriated in the United Nations, university classrooms, and editorials.

Karsh successfully makes his case by establishing two main points: that (1) the Jewish-Zionist-Israeli side perpetually sought to find a compromise while the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim side rejected nearly all deals; and (2) Arab intransigence and violence caused the self-inflicted "catastrophe."

The first point is more familiar, especially since the Oslo Accords of 1993, for it remains today's pattern. Karsh demonstrates a consistency of Jewish goodwill and Arab rejectionism going back to the Balfour Declaration and persisting throughout the period of British rule. (To remind, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 expressed London's intention to establish in Palestine a "national home for the Jewish people," and the British conquest of Palestine just 37 days later gave it control of Palestine until 1948.)

In the first years after 1917, Arab reaction was muted, as leaders and masses alike recognized the benefits of the dynamic Zionist enterprise that helped revive a backward, poor, and sparsely populated Palestine. Then emerged, with British facilitation, the noxious figure who would dominate Palestinian politics over the next three decades, Amin al-Husseini. From about 1921 on, Karsh documents, Zionists and Palestinians had many choices to make; while the former invariably opted for compromise, the latter relentlessly decided on extermination.

In various capacities — mufti, head of Islamic and political organizations, Hitler ally, hero of the Arab masses — Husseini drove his constituents to what Karsh calls "a relentless collision course with the Zionist movement." Hating Jews so maniacally that he went on to join the Nazi genocide machine, Husseini refused to accept their presence in any numbers in Palestine, much less any form of Zionist sovereignty.

From the early 1920s, then, one witnessed a pattern still in place and familiar today: Zionist accommodation, "painful concessions," and constructive efforts to bridge differences, met by Palestinian anti-Semitism, rejectionism, and violence.

Complementing this binary dramatis personae, and complicating its stark contrast, stood the generally more accommodating Palestinian masses, the disgracefully anti-Semitic British mandatory authority, a Jordanian king eager to rule the Jews as subjects, feckless Arab state leaders, and an erratic American government.

Despite the radicalization of Palestinian opinion by the mufti and despite the Nazi rise to power, Zionists kept seeking an accommodation. It took some years, but the mufti's zero-sum policy and eliminationism eventually convinced reluctant Labor leaders, including David Ben-Gurion, that good works would not facilitate their dream of acceptance. Still, despite repeated failures, they continued the search for a moderate Arab partner with whom to strike a deal.

In contrast, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the forerunner of today's Likud party, already in 1923 understood that "there is not even the slightest hope of ever obtaining the agreement of the Arabs of the Land of Israel to 'Palestine' becoming a country with a Jewish majority." Yet even he rejected the idea of expelling Arabs and insisted on their full enfranchisement in a future Jewish state.

This dialectic culminated in November 1947, when the United Nations passed a partition plan that nowadays would be termed a two-state solution. In other words, it handed the Palestinians a state on a silver platter. Zionists rejoiced but Palestinian leaders, foremost the malign Husseini, sourly rejected any solution that endorsed Jewish autonomy. They insisted on everything and so got nothing. Had they accepted the U.N. plan, Palestine would be celebrating its 62nd anniversary this May. And there would have been no Nakba.

The most original part of Palestine Betrayed is the half that contains a detailed review of the flight of Muslims and Christians from Palestine in the years 1947–49. Here Karsh's archival research comes into its own, allowing him to present a uniquely rich picture of the specific circumstances of Arab flight. He goes one by one through the various Arab population centers — Qastel, Deir Yassin, Tiberias, Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Safad — and then takes a close look at the villages.

Israel's war of independence divides into two parts. Ferocious fighting began within hours of the United Nations vote to partition Palestine on Nov. 29, 1947, and lasted till the eve of the British evacuation on May 14, 1948. The international conflict began on May 15 (the day after Israel came into being), when five Arab state armies invaded, with hostilities lasting until January 1949. The first phase consisted largely of guerrilla warfare, the second primarily of conventional warfare. Over half (between 300,000 and 340,000) of the 600,000 Arab refugees fled before the British evacuation, and most of them in the final month.

Palestinians fled in a wide range of circumstances and for varied reasons. Arab commanders ordered noncombatants out of the way of military maneuvers; or they threatened laggards with treatment as traitors if they stayed; or they demanded that villages be evacuated to improve their standing on the battlefield; or they promised a safe return in a matter of days. Some communities preferred to flee rather than to sign a truce with the Zionists; in the words of Jaffa's mayor, "I do not mind destruction of Jaffa if we secure destruction of Tel Aviv." The mufti's agents attacked Jews to provoke hostilities. Families with the means to do so fled danger. When agricultural tenants heard that their landlords would be punished, they worried about being expelled and preempted by abandoning the land. Bitter internecine enmities hobbled planning. Shortages of food and other necessities spread. Services like water-pumping stations were abandoned. Fears spread of Arab gunmen, as did rumors of Zionist atrocities.

In only one case (Lydda) did Israeli troops push Arabs out. The singularity of this event bears emphasis. Karsh explains about the entire first phase of fighting: "None of the 170,000–180,000 Arabs fleeing urban centers, and only a handful of the 130,000–160,000 villagers who left their homes, had been forced out by Jews."

The Palestinian leadership disapproved of a population return, seeing this as implicitly recognizing the nascent State of Israel. The Israelis were at first ready to take back the evacuees but then hardened their position as the war progressed. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion explained their thinking, on June 16, 1948: "This will be a war of life and death and [the evacuees] must not be able to return to the abandoned places. . . . We did not start the war. They made the war. Jaffa waged war on us, Haifa waged war on us, Beisan waged war on us. And I do not want them again to make war."

In sum, Karsh explains, "it was the actions of the Arab leaders that condemned hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to exile."

In this book, Karsh establishes two momentous facts: that Arabs aborted the Palestinian state and that they caused the Nakba. In the process, he confirms his status as the preeminent historian of the modern Middle East writing today, and extends the arguments of three of his earlier books. His magnum opus, Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923 (with Inari Karsh, 1999), argued that Middle Easterners were not, as usually thought, "hapless victims of predatory imperial powers but active participants in the restructuring of their region," a shift with vast political implications. Palestine Betrayed applies that book's thesis to the Arab–Israeli conflict, depriving Palestinians of excuses and victimhood, showing that they actively, if mistakenly, chose their destiny.

In Fabricating Israeli History: The "New Historians" (1997), Karsh exposed the shoddy work, even the fraudulence, of the school of Israeli historians who blame the 1948–49 Palestinian refugee problem on the Jewish state. Palestine Betrayed offers the flip side; if the earlier book refuted mistakes, this one establishes truths. Finally, in Islamic Imperialism: A History (2006), he showed the expansionist core of the Islamic faith in action over the centuries; here he explores that drive in small-bore detail among the Palestinians, connecting the supremacist Islamic mentality with an unwillingness to make practical concessions to Jewish sovereignty.

Palestine Betrayed reframes today's Arab–Israeli debate by putting it into its proper historical context. Proving that for 90 years the Palestinian political elite has opted to reject "the Jewish national revival and [insisted on] the need for its violent destruction," Karsh correctly concludes that the conflict will end only when the Palestinians give up on their "genocidal hopes."

Mr. Pipes is a columnist for National Review Online, director of the Middle East Forum, and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

This Is Just The Beginning till...

This is just the beginning till we wake up!

There are those who would see any friend of Israel, or land that gives Jews freedom; a threat! That would be the Muslims! We must be ready for truth and how to understand it!

O' don't worry. The Muslim mind set is quite clear.

"Kill all the Saturday people and Kill all the Sunday people!" Think I am making this statement up. Mohamed said it himself. As posted elsewhere

Jews and Christians are the goal. They see us a infidels and they won't stop till we are dead or converted to Islam!

This maybe a hard message for some people to hear or believe. Islam has a long history of expansion by the sword. An exert form Wikipedia

Within Islamic jurisprudence, jihad is usually taken to mean military exertion against non-Muslim combatants in the defense or expansion of the Ummah. The ultimate purpose of military jihad is debated, both within the Islamic community and without, with some claiming that it only serves to protect the Ummah, with no aspiration of offensive conflict, whereas others have argued that the goal of Jihad is global conquest. Jihad is the only form of warfare permissible in Islamic law and may be declared against apostates, rebels, highway robbers, violent groups, and leaders or states, Islamic or otherwise, who oppress Muslims or hamper proselytizing efforts. Most Muslims today interpret Jihad as only a defensive form of warfare: the external Jihad includes a struggle to make the Islamic societies conform to the Islamic norms of justice.

Maybe only a few hundred thousand Muslims are dangerous. Then we have nothing to worry about or do we.

PALESTINIAN MUSLIM CLERIC URGES ALL ARABS TO KILL JEWS, CHRISTIANS, AND AMERICANS WHEREVER THEY HAPPEN TO LIVE! This was stated back in the year 2000! NEWS BRIEF: "PALESTINIAN INCITEMENT TO MURDER JEWS", Sunday, October 15, 2000.

"Palestinian Television continued over the weekend to re-broadcast excerpts from a Friday sermon in the Zayed bin Sultan Aal Nahyan mosque in Gaza. Translation supplied by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI):

'The Jews are Jews, whether Labor or Likud... They do not have any moderates or any advocates of peace. They are all liars... they are the terrorists. They are the ones who must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said: 'Fight them: Allah will torture them at your hands, and will humiliate them and will help you to overcome them, and will relieve the minds of the believers...' "

Don't think it's just an American issue. Islamics have vowed to do the same everywhere!


We must pray against such hatred no matter what caused it!

"When your people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to you, and confess your name, and pray, and make supplication unto you in this house: Then hear you in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which you gave unto their fathers." I Kings 8:33-34

Then YHVH (Yahweh) will save us from destruction and bring all of Israel back home!