|

The Most Misunderstood Book
of All Time
The Bible is the most misread and
misinterpreted Book ever written. Much of what you may think the Bible
teaches is probably not even close to the truth. You just might be stunned
to discover what’s been hidden for 2,000 years.
Have you ever wondered why so many different
Protestant denominations exist, each with contradictory teachings? Some say
the total is as high as 33,000 worldwide, each claiming to teach the same
Bible yet unable to reconcile their doctrines and understanding with other
denominations.
One cause for the confusion is that the
Bible, which teaches about man’s salvation and how to attain it, is both the
world’s all-time bestseller and the least understood book in existence.
An effort to correctly harmonize all of the
Bible’s teachings has been ongoing for centuries. More than 90 English
translations of the Bible are in print, each with a goal to present the
Scriptures better and more accurately than any other. So why is there so
much disagreement about what it teaches? And why are so many traditional
doctrines and practices difficult to prove from the Scriptures?
Are You Serious?
You may be astonished to learn that the Bible
nowhere promises eternal life in heaven or endless suffering in sulfurous
flames of hell. Nor does it command or teach the observance of the most
popular holidays like Easter, Christmas, or even worship on the first day of
the week.
We could hardly get away with such
provocative statements if they weren’t true. Make no mistake. These are
verifiable facts from Scripture itself and we challenge you to confirm
everything written in this brochure by simply looking it up in your own
Bible. Don’t let anything go unproved.
Increasingly rare is the church or ministry
that encourages its members to study the Textbook of their faith, let alone
take along a Bible to worship services and prove what the minister is
saying. This pervasive malpractice is one of the reasons that popular error
continues to go unchallenged and uncorrected.
What is offered as scriptural teaching today
is light years away from what was taught only 100 years ago in the name of
biblical truth. Many are sitting in their pews without the slightest idea
that key doctrinal statements they hear week after week have nothing in
common with Scriptural teaching. Just hearing a tired string of platitudes
interrupted by a touching story in a 20-minute sermon is not going to cut
it, either.
If you are serious about what you believe, if
you care about your eternal salvation, then it is time to dig into the Word.
It is time to learn the facts from the Scriptures alone.
To understand the textbook of your faith you
must first read the book. You cannot rely on someone else to make the effort
for you. Don’t leave to the “experts” something as important as your
personal salvation. The Bible says you are entirely accountable for
yourself: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” the Apostle
Paul wrote in Philippians 2:12.
You are responsible for your own
understanding and what you do with it. You can’t look to someone else to
answer for your beliefs or the way you lead your life.
In the spirit of this Biblical command we
will detail some of the more startling truths presented in both Old and New
testaments. These are facts that have been hidden for centuries – some of
which may absolutely shock you. And remember, don’t accept anything you
hear or read without proving it first from your own Bible.
Identity Theft of the
Father and Son
Imagine a baby boy born to a typical American
family in Iowa being given a Russian name like Vladimir. It just wouldn’t
happen! But think about this: Your Savior was born a Hebrew of Hebrew
parents. Yet the Hebrew Name they gave Him was eventually stolen away and
replaced with a Greek name (Jesus) that He never knew the whole time He
walked this earth.
Look up the letter “J” in a comprehensive
dic-tionary or encyclopedia and you will discover that the J is only 500
years old. It was the newest letter to join the alphabet – any alphabet. We
must conclude that with no J in existence the name “Jesus” did not exist
either – not in any language – prior to the time of Christopher Columbus.
The Book of Matthew tells us that an angel
told the Hebrew Miriam (Mary) and Yowceph (Joseph) what to call their
newborn son. “And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name
Yahshua: for He shall save His people from their sins,” 1:21. This Hebrew
Name, Yahshua, means “Yah Is Salvation” (Yah-shua). In spite of this fact
most Bible translations continued to promote a Greek name He never knew,
which has led millions to believe it is genuine. But scholars everywhere
know better, as do most ministers from their seminary training.
A good study Bible like the Companion
explains that His Name is the same as Hoshea, prefixed with the word “Yah” –
hence Yahoshea or Yahshua as it was pronounced at the time if His birth.
(The “o” in Hoshea began to be dropped after the Babylonian captivity.) If
you saw The Passion movie you will recall that the Savior was known
exclusively by the Hebrew-Aramaic name “Y’shua.”
The Anchor Bible explains His
Name Yahshua in a note on Matthew 1:1: “The first element, Yahu (=Yahweh)
means ‘the [L-rd],’ while the second comes from shua ‘To help, save’” (vol.
26, p. 2).
In Hebrew all names have meaning. Recall that
the angel said that the Son would be given a specific Name because He would
“save His people from their sins.” The last part of His Name in
Hebrew means just that – “salvation.” But that is not all.
The Bible also quotes the Savior Himself
saying that He came in His Heavenly Father’s Name. “I am come in my Father’s
name, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you
will receive,” John 5:43. The prefix “Yah” in His Name Yahshua comes
directly from the Father’s Name Yahweh. He literally and truly came
in His Father’s Name!
The short family name “Yah” is found in many
names in the Bible, including IsaYah (Isaiah), JeremiYah (Jeremiah), Yahel
(Joel), and EliYah (Elijah). You even use it when you say the word “halleluYah”!
Translators pirated away the family Name when they substituted the letter
“y” with “i” or “j” in various names and words.
You will find the Father’s Name in the
complete form YHWH (Yahweh) no fewer than 6,823 times in the original Hebrew
manuscripts that produced the Old Testament. The Teutonic term “God” does
not appear in the Hebrew Old Testament. Nor does it appear in the ancient
Greek of the New Testament from which most all modern versions are derived.
You can confirm this fact for yourself in any concordance. In the ancient
Greek New Testament the term used is the Greek theos or a close
variant thereof.
To whom are you really praying if the two
most popular names used for the Father and Son are not even in the original
Scriptures? Some may be saying, “Well, it doesn’t really matter. He knows
who I mean.” How can the worshiper say to the One he or she worships, “I’ll
decide what I will call you”? Especially when the Father is so adamant that
we call on His Name! Does He need to reveal His Name more than 6,823 times before we will grasp its importance?
No one can change your name without your
consent. Neither is it an option for us to call our Creator whatever may be
traditional or popular – but incorrect.
Isaiah 52:6 equates being a child of His by
this specific characterisitic: “Therefore my people shall know my name.”
That is how important His Name is to Him, just as your name is dear to you.
How annoying when someone mispronounces or otherwise misuses your name,
especially when they know what
your name is. Imagine how the Father in heaven feels when you substitute His
Name with something else entirely. especially if that substitute name
relates to a heathen deity.
Open a Bible concordance like Strong’s
or Young’s to the heading “name” and note how many times the
Scriptures command us to honor and glorify His Name. Names show identity.
You cannot change names without altering an individual’s identity and
person. Doing so is identity theft.
In Isaiah 42:8 the Father clearly says, “I am
Yahweh [“YHWH” in the Hebrew]: that is my name: and my glory will I not give
to another, neither my praise to graven images.”
Fourth Commandment Upgrade?
The Fourth Commandment tells us to “remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” meaning set apart. If there were any
question about which day of the week is the Sabbath, the commandment nails
it down: “Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: But the seventh
day is the sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim…For in six days Yahweh made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:
wherefore Yahweh blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it,” Exodus 20:9-11.
Common wall calendars show that the week ends
on Saturday, the seventh day, while Sunday starts a new week. Nothing we can
look to in creation tells us when the Sabbath day is. It was divinely
instituted at creation by the Father Yahweh Himself, and the sequence of
days has remained the same since.
The Messiah Yahshua kept the same commanded
Sabbath that His Father Yahweh rested on. He went to the temple and
worshiped on the seventh day of the week, as did all of His disciples all of
their lives. Not a single passage of Scripture gives anyone permission to
switch the day of rest and worship from the Sabbath to Sunday.
That unauthorized change was the work of
Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century.
His edict made Sunday the official day of rest in his realm – a political
move in utter disregard of the Fourth Commandment. Major encyclopedias
confirm Constantine’s historical substitution of Sunday for the Sabbath.
Most of Christianity has honored this unauthorized substitution ever since,
justifying it by saying it was on the first day of the week that the Messiah
was resurrected.
First, He was already gone from the tomb by
sunset Saturday evening. Second, nowhere does the Bible say that a
resurrection day creates a Sabbath day. This change was made purely on the
authority of the Roman Church alone, which it freely admits.
A concordance will reveal that references to
the seventh-day Sabbath appear 60 times in the New Testament. But only 8
verses out of the entire New Testament speak of the first day of the
week – none of them enjoining worship on that day.
Even more questionable, none of those 8
“first-day” references is even clearly speaking of the first day of the
week. The word “day” was added by translators, indicated in most
translations because “day” appearing in italics. These 8 verses could just
as easily mean the first part of the week rather than the first
day of the week.
A key reference to the Sabbath in the New
Testament is found in Hebrews 4:9: “There remains therefore a rest to the
people of Elohim.” “Rest” is from the Greek sabbatismos, which means
“a keeping of Sabbath.” The Book of Hebrews tells us that the Sabbath
remains the day of rest, and the day that was kept as the Sabbath at that
time, as any biblical reference will tell you, was the seventh
day – Saturday. The Sabbath had always been Saturday ever since Yahweh
established it by resting Himself on the seventh day after creation, Genesis
2:2-3. The seventh day continued as the day of rest among New Testament
believers.
As a Jew, Yahshua went into the synagogue on
the seventh-day Sabbath to read and teach, Luke 4:16. In His prophecy of the
last days He admonished in Matthew 24:20, “But pray ye that your flight be
not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day.” He never would have
prophesied this if He knew that the Sabbath would no longer be binding.
Following his conversion the Apostle Paul
proceeded to keep the seventh-day Sabbath both with Jews as well as
Gentiles, Acts 13:42-44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4. This was many years after the
Savior’s resurrection.
These New Testament references tell us that
we have no authority to change the day set apart as holy by Yahweh Himself.
To do so is to make our worship fit our own desires.
Prophecy says that in the Kingdom all people
will come to worship Yahweh “from one Sabbath to another,” Isaiah 66:23.
Heaven on Earth
The typical funeral sermon announces that the
deceased is now “in a better place”– meaning in heaven – and smiling down at
the gathered loved ones. Although such a statement may comfort the grieving,
do the Scriptures themselves support it?
Yahshua the Messiah said plainly and clearly
in John 3:13, “No one has ascended up to heaven…” Of all the millions of
people who had died up to that point in history not one went to heaven. That
fact is on the direct authority of our Savior Himself. Certainly there had
been good people deserving of salvation who never went to a heavenly reward.
Take King David, for instance. He will rule directly under Yahshua in the
Millennial Kingdom, Ezekiel 37:24-25. But where is David now – in heaven?
Acts 2:29 explains about this man that Yahweh
loved: “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto
this day.” For nearly a thousand years up to the time Yahshua walked this
earth David lay in the grave, and he is still dead in the grave, having gone
nowhere but to his rest for the past 3,000 years.
Paul explained that we get everlasting life
only at the resurrection when our Savior returns to earth. In 1Corinthians
15:22-23 Paul wrote: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah shall all
be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah the firstfruits; then they
that are Messiah’s, at his coming.”
After searching the Scriptures for 40 years
we have not found one verse that says, “When we get to heaven,” or “I’ll see
you in heaven,” or “Rejoice for you will one day be in heaven,” or anything
similar. The notion of a heavenly reward stems from teachings of Greek
philosophers and Gnostic traditions, ulimately embraced by the church.
What we do find in the Scriptures are many
passages that speak of the earth as our reward, such as Psalm 37:11: “But
the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the
abundance of peace.”
We offer many more fascinating truths about
the Bible and the proper worship of our Father Yahweh. We invite you to
contact us.
Request the
booklet

online
studies |
Q&A |
free literature |
home
Copyright ©
2008 |
Yahweh's Restoration Ministry. All rights reserved.
|