The thing that hath
been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be
done: and there is no new thing under the sun Ecclesiastes 1:9
We are often quite harsh on those who in the New Testament
assumed Messiah was wrong and the traditions handed down by their fathers where
correct. However do we ever stop and ensure that we are not doing the same
thing.
The traditions were the conclusions of the Jewish forefathers
as to how the law was to be honored and lived out. For instance the law stated
to do no work on the Sabbath for it was a day of rest. The traditions of the Fathers
attempted to define what work was and what was inclusive of rest.
Remember the sabbath
day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the
seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: Exodus 20:8-10
Yeshua is, at times,
seen taking part in the traditions (John
8:6) and at other times He challenges them vehemently (Matthew 15:1-10). His opponents had so accepted the traditions that
they had changed from a way to stitch the scripture together and became a form
in which the scriptures where forced to fit.
The Pharisee stood and
prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican Luke 18:11
While we thank YHWH for His grace that we are not blind as
those poor men we at the same time force scripture into the accepted
understanding of our denominations and fellowships. We certainly dismiss any
discussion of those things which have been established since Constantine;
doctrines such as these are so sacred that anyone who questions them is a heretic
for like the Pharisees before us we have made our fathers understanding above
question even from the scripture.
I ask you please don’t assume I am some rebel. I have great
respect for the church Fathers and others who have tried to make clear the
greatness of our Messiah and the redemption price paid by both our Heavenly
Father and His only begotten Son.
If any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and
upbraideth not; and it shall be given him James 1:5
My course, and yours,
is to know Him and the power of His resurrection it is not to learn others
opinions of it.
If teachers born from the same womb as Messiah missed some
key understandings of scripture; leading to incorrect expectations of who
Messiah was and what His ministry consisted of. These misunderstandings accepted
as truth throughout the entire nation engrained in the minds of His own
disciples, who had heard him and touched Him and been witness to the Shekinah
coming forth from Him, that even after His death, burial, and resurrection
asked “will you now restore the Kingdom to Israel?”
The power of assumed perceptions is to make one blind to the
truth plainly spoken. If we see that the scholars and lawyers of the first
century then we must allow for the same misunderstanding in the theologians
that followed. I have said all of this so that we might seek the truth revealed
in scripture with open eyes and with careful consideration of its meaning. So
with these things in mind we come to the subject of original sin.
There is a way which
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12
The perception of men that confuses the issue starts in the
garden. Original sin says in its most basic explanation that we were in Adam
when he sinned thereby either directly or by hereditary the sin guilt and
nature passed to us. The problem is the focus on the sin as an end result and
not as it truly is as a seed of death. The tree of the knowledge of good and
evil is not a tree whose fruit brings sin it is a tree that brings death. An apple is not a tree it is a fruit…but that
seed is what brings forth the tree. When that tree is present it brings a
harvest of a multitude of apples.
And out of the ground
made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good
for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. Genesis
2:9
To be clear the focus on sin and righteousness, clean and
unclean, holy and defiled is the result of the duel nature of good and evil.
This focus blinds us to true understanding of these two trees. The tree of (which
brings) life and the tree of (which brings) death go beyond action, will, and
motive to the very core of being; it is not what you do but what you are.
I call heaven and
earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed
may live Deutoronomy 30:19
When Adam became a tree of death then his seed could only
bring forth seed after his kind. This nature of death is deceptive in that it experiences
doing both good and evil. This nature is not capable of only doing one of the
two for both are its makeup. So it sets out to make the scale balance in such a
way that the good is greater than the evil. Of course this whole system depends
on consciences of what good and evil consist of. It is this driving force in
man that has brought forth religion, culture, philosophy and social structure.
It is this same nature that reads the scripture and sees actions to be taken
instead of a nature that must be changed. It is not original sin that has
passed to us but the dual nature of death.
Hear, O Israel: The
Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I
command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: Deuteronomy 6:4-6
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 Jeremiah 30:33
The tree of life is one nature; it is the life of YHWH
breathed into Adam. Yeshua prayed that we might be one as He and the Father are
one for YHWH is one. In the cross our old natural man is crucified in Messiah
and the Holy Spirit that gave Him life makes alive even our mortal bodies.
Adam was born into the union of YHWH’s life and given a
choice to remain or make his own way. This choice came with a warning that his
way would bring death. Adam brought death to us all. Yet despite being born
alone into a world of men who are each alone no matter the size of a crowd YHWH
has still loved us and extended Himself to us that we might have life and union
in Him.
We must let go of trying to do right and trust Him to make
us right; which will bring us to our next subject of Cain and Able.
