WHY NOW LORD

WHY NOW LORD

When I first started coming to Bondservants, I kept wondering why the past 2,000

years that some Bible scholar, who has spent his life studying the scriptures has

not discovered these great truths and we do not have some largely populated

church espousing this very doctrine. After all the Protestant Reformation took

place over 500 years ago and we have had universities dedicated to just the

study of the Bible and the truth within it.

Why don’t we have at least a small church group scattered across the world

professing to believe in Yeshua and keep the teachings and instructions of God

from the Torah at the same time? After all we have 3,000 other denominations

professing their dogma and beliefs wrapped around one or two verses. I even

heard about the church for Honda drivers because their leader read where they

all came together in one ACCORD.

Seriously, though, this was a dilemma for me, until I realized that there are

Messianic Christian groups or Bondservants gathering together all over the

world. I worried about this and spent more time fretting over the scriptures of why

this is so, than any other matter.

Let me pause in this subject for a moment to explain something else I think is

important. I have learned to prefer the term Bondservant over that of Christian

for some very good reasons. Dictionary meanings of "Christian" and "Disciple"

are as follows:

CHRISTIAN: Believe in Jesus the Messiah as Savior: Somebody who believes

that Jesus was sent to the world by God to save humanity, and who tries to

follow His teachings and example.

DISCIPLE: Follower of a person or idea: somebody who strongly believes in

the teachings of a leader, a philosophy, or a religion, ant tries to act according to

them.

Therefore, a real Christian and Disciple of Yeshua (Jesus) is one who believes in the truth of God's Word, and studies to follow the examples set forth in that Word, and obey the precepts of that Word.

Many professing Christians will agree that this is a good definition of a Christian, but how many actually practice it and follow the example of Yeshua? Do they keep the Commandments of God? What would Jesus do? Yeshua kept all the commandments of the Father and never voided one either. He attended all the Feasts (God's appointed times for us to draw near to Him), even at the age of twelve. We read time and time again that Paul kept the feasts. Do New Covenant Christians do what Yeshua and Paul did?

Now look at Bond-servant. Paul, James, Peter, Jude and John all called themselves BOND-SERVANTS. They get this title from Exodus 21: 1 – 6 where God tells what to do with a servant when he has completed his time of servitude and is to be released, but the servant decides that he loves his master and wants to remain with him. He becomes a “Bond-servant” forever, to serve him, obey him and be protected by him. He becomes an heir to the master’s estate.

Now, back to my story.

My wife and I continued to attend services with the Bondservants, we continued

to learn the Torah at the feet of our pastor, and we continued to grow in our

knowledge and belief. Yes, our belief increased many folds because everything

we learned confirmed and justified what little belief we had prior to coming to this

assembly. Our understanding grew of how things happened and why things

happened and what will happen because of all of it. The keeping of Passover,

Feast of Unleavened Bread and Feast of First Fruits taught us what they meant,

how Yeshua fulfilled them and why God commanded us to keep them through

all our generations forever. We have learned that the scriptures are true, and

should be taken as a whole from Genesis to Revelation. We learned that every

dogma, every tenant, every denominational teaching must stand up within the

entire Bible. There can be no New Testament Church, voiding the whole Old

Testament, and still be of God’s perfect plan. Did not Yeshua say;

Mat 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”

Since the New Testament had not been written when He spoke these words,

then there is only one conclusion, He meant the words already recorded in the

Old Testament by Moses and the Prophets. And when God says we must keep

the seven feasts of Leviticus Twenty-three, then, as our Pastor Gary says, “Even

if it were to hair lip Santa Clause we better keep them!” And, when God says we

must keep the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy, then we better do that even if it

were to hair lip all the pagan gods. These commandments proceeded from out

of the mouth of God and these are the words we are to live by. We can not pick

and choose words from one part and ignore the rest.

Now that I have chased that rabbit down it’s hole, let me get back to what I

learned about why this is just coming to light now. The apostles and early

believers kept Torah and accepted Yeshua as their Messiah without conflict.

Between the time of Yeshua and 325 AD many dogmas and denominations

started cropping up all over the known world. You have probably seen the

program on the History Channel, “What the Romans Did For Us.” Well, this is

what the Roman Catholics did for us through the Council of Nicaea under the

Emperor’s direction.

1. Settled the debate as to the divinity of Yeshua.

2. Collected and canonized the books of the Bible into one official collection.

3. (Even though they left a couple old books out.)

4. Accepted the already translated Old Testament in Greek and translated the

accepted New Testament into Greek and then both into Latin. (Remember, the New Testament was first written in Hebrew. Jews wrote it, for Jews in the Jewish language. This is a fact accepted by all reputable Bible scholars today. Proven by a copy of Matthew among the Dead Sea Scrolls and Idioms and language structure of the other New Testament books.)

5. Maintained and taught the “Plan of Salvation” through the priest of the

Catholic Church to the whole known world. And, continued that teaching even

until today.

The Catholics also did some things that deluded and twisted their newly translated Bible.

1. By translating the scriptures from Hebrew to Greek and then to Latin, things

automatically became misunderstood. You can not transfer the exact meaning from one language to another and further translating into a third language only doubles the misunderstandings. They took advantage of this when they discovered that Paul’s letters in Latin or Greek could make void the whole Old Testament in part of his writings. Making the Torah null and void

provided the very excuse they needed to not keep the “Teachings and

Instructions of God” and that way they could bring in their own set of rules. This

gave them the excuse to obey Constantine when he directed that they would do

no Jewish things and keep no Jewish days. (Sabbath and the seven

appointments of God, even though these are not Jewish things but were the

instructions of God before there ever was a tribe of Judah (Jew) standing alone

to keep them.)

2. Constantine unified the religion and promised to make it the "National Religion", if the Church Fathers would compromise. They did compromise with Constantine and they "Christianized" many pagan holidays such as Ishtar (Easter) and Saturnalia (Christmas), mourning for Tammuz (Lent), Good Friday (The day Tammuz rose to become the sun god and holy day of Dagon the fish god), Lupercalia (Valentines Day and All Saints Day (Halloween). However they excluded every Feast of God listed below;

A. Seven days of Pesach/Passover (encompassing Passover:

B. Feast of unleavened Bread and

C. Feast of First Fruits)

D. One day for Hag Ha Shavuot (Feast of Pentecost)

E. One day for Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets, which is concurrent with Rosh Hashanah)

F. One day for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)

G. Seven days for Sukkot (Feast of Booths/Tabernacle) One day for Shmini Atzeret (Eighth Day of Assembly)

H. And the most important of all, Sabbath.

By excluding the seven Feasts, they deny the Church the understanding of Yeshua fulfilling the Spring Feast and how He will fulfill the Fall Feast.

Mat 15:3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

3. The Church Fathers introduced the doctrine that as the elders and bishops of

the Church, they had the authority of the Apostles to interpret the Scriptures and dictate what they meant and how to apply them. When Leo became the first Pope, he took this authority as his sole authority, saying it came from Peter, and every Pope since has been adding and changing the meaning of the scriptures to leave their own legacy.

At this point I had the question of why God would allow this watered down version of His Gospel could be circulated and spread so far around the world and for so long. I looked at a map of the Roman Empire and could easily see that if an Emperor dictated that this was the national religion, and the 300 plus Church leaders left Nicaea and freely started preaching the approved doctrine throughout the Roman Empire, I could see that it would only be a short while before the whole known world would accept this as their only belief. I explain how this all came about more thoroughly in the section called, "THE CHURCH REPLACED THE JEW, OR DID IT?"

ROMAN EMPIRE 305 AD

But, why was such a watered down version, a version loaded with paganism allowed to spread. Because the plan of Salvation was still intact, the Bible with it’s canonized books had been reproduced and recorded for us in the future, and the knowledge that Yeshua in the flesh was another dimension of God. That was enough to save millions upon millions since the day of Constantine. He has allowed the veil to cover some of His truths so that He can find those that will seek them out and believe and obey Him. There has always been a remnant keeping His Torah.

Pro 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

In His Covenants time and again, God has said if you will keep my commandments, My statutes and My ordinances, I will bless you. Even though

He does bless us from time to time now, those blessings are intended for when and where they will do the most good, in the Kingdom.

One could say that God would not be selective as to allow some to learn to keep His commandments and not others. You are right, He allows us all to seek out the truth, and we just do not do it. However, He is selective. The whole Old

Testament is His selection of whom He will favor and whom He will not, because

He knows their hearts. Place after place throughout the scriptures, God has placed a veil over parts of his word, and many, many times he has shadowed His meaning in parables. He lifts that veil and unscrambles that parable when it is right in His plan. Let me show you what I mean.

Luk 18:31 Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Be hold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.

Luk 18:32 “For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon,

Luk 18:33 and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.”

Luk 18:34 But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.

Yeshua did not want them to understand so that there would be no interference in Him fulfilling everything prophesied about Him. So you see, the great awakening is also veiled until the end time or the last days.

Dan 12:8 As for me, I heard but could not understand; so I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these events?”

Dan 12:9 He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.

Dan 12:10 “Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will under stand, but those who have insight will understand.

Dan 12:11 “From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.

Dan 12:12 “How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days!

Dan 12:13 “But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.”

These are the last days as we both know, and His WORD is now being revealed. He is preparing Priests and Kings for a great work in the time of Jacob’s Trouble, the last three and half years of the Tribulation. How do I know that it is in the last three and half years?

2Th 2:1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Messiah Yeshua and our gathering together to Him, (Rapture)

2Th 2:2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

2Th 2:3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,

2Th 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

2Th 2:5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?

2Th 2:6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.

2Th 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

2Th 2:8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;

2Th 2:9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,

2Th 2:10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

2Th 2:11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,

2Th 2:12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

2Th 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

This deluding influence that God will send down is not the teachings of the Catholic Church or any of the other 3,000 denominations. The deluding influence is to believe that great lie of the man of sin that he is God. That will cause the great falling away, the apostasy foretold in verse three above. When people see that they have been caught in the great tribulation and not been raptured out there will be a great falling away. They will fulfill the prophecy in the below scripture.

Jer 16:19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, (Tribulation) the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

Jer 16:20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

Jer 16:21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is YHWH. (Yahweh)

Not every one will fall away. Another prophecy will be fulfilled.

Zec 8:23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

Who is the Jew He is talking about here?

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

And also:

Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In other words the obedient Bondservant who loves Him and keeps His word is a Jew or Abraham’s seed. It will be to the Bondservants that the Church members will grab hold of, when they learn that they have been lied to about the rapture and that the Torah was made void so they could live any way they wanted.

If you read the verses below carefully you will see that it is at the end of the tribulation and Yeshua deals with Satan and his crowd and in verse 5 it plainly says that during these events when he raises the dead this is the first resurrection.

Rev 20:1 And I saw a messenger coming down from the heaven, having the key to the pit of the deep and a great chain in his hand.

Rev 20:2 And he seized the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

Rev 20:3 and he threw him into the pit of the deep, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should lead the nations no more astray until the thousand years were ended. And after that he has to be released for a little while.

Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones - and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them - and the lives of those who had been beheaded because of the witness they bore to our Messiah Yeshua and because of the Word of God (Elohim), and who did not worship the beast, nor his image, and did not receive his mark upon their foreheads or upon their hands. And they lived and reigned with Messiah for a thousand years

Rev 20:5 (and the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended) - this is the first resurrection.

So the rapture, the catching up does occur, but not until Yeshua returns and takes care of the Devil and his followers at the end of the tribulation.

Mat 24:3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you.

Mat 24:5 “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will mislead many.

Mat 24:6 “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.

Mat 24:7 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

Mat 24:8 “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

Mat 24:9 “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.

Mat 24:10 “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.

Mat 24:11 “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.

Mat 24:12 “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.

Mat 24:13 “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

Mat 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Mat 24:15 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),

Mat 24:16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

Mat 24:17 “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house.

Mat 24:18 “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.

Mat 24:19 “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!

Mat 24:20 “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.

Mat 24:21 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.

Mat 24:22 “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Mat 24:23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him.

Mat 24:24 “For false Messiahs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

Mat 24:25 “Behold, I have told you in advance.

Mat 24:26 “So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.

Mat 24:27 “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Mat 24:28 “Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Mat 24:29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Mat 24:30 “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.

Mat 24:31 “And He will send forth His angels with A great trumpet and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Take a look at verse 10 again. Here Yeshua says; “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another”. What could be so drastic a thing that would cause so many to fall away at this most terrible time in the whole history of mankind? The anti-Christ proclaiming he has the truth, that the rapture was a lie and therefore the whole plan of God is a lie and that all the troubles of the world is the fault of those that love and obey God. He will proclaim that he has the answers to the world’s financial problems, and that he can bring peace, and that he is the messiah. This is the deluding written about in 2 Th 2: 11. Then this is the GREAT TRIBULATION. The whole purpose of the Tribulation is when God can separate the sheep from the goats. It is not punishment, but a testing if we love Him or no. This testing will be in the House of God as well as the rest of the world. Those of us that do not lose faith and continue to believe in Him will be saved for His Kingdom. Those of us that keep His teachings and instructions (Torah) will receive the blessings as promised of being priest and kings. Those that take the mark and follow after the anti-Christ are without hope.

This is what was denied for Daniel to understand and was told to shut it up until the end time. Daniel saw in his vision, television, computers, aircraft, atomic bombs and instant communication, and how all these things made possible the great tribulation, but did not understand them. Only in our generation, living with all the technology to make possible all the prophecies about the end times can we understand them.

Only our generation has God started removing the scales from our eyes so that we can see where his Divine Word has been watered down, voided, nullified and mixed thoroughly with pagan worship as to put our very salvation in jeopardy. Even the Bondservants with the clearest vision are still blinded in some areas. God told us the end from the beginning, but even the best can only see a small portion. Part of the blessings of the tribulation will be, more of us will see the truths of His perfect plan. We will start to get cleaned up, in the tribulation for His coming. The Children of Israel had to spend 40 years in the wilderness to get cleaned up. That is a picture and type for the thousand years we will spend here on earth. We are so messed up that it will take a thousand years to clean us up before we can enter eternity with Him.

Now the great question arises how God is removing the scales from our eyes. What has happened and what is happening to take the blinders away so we can understand His great truths. There are many reasons for this and we need to understand a few of them.

In 1948 Israel was the prophesied nation that would be born in a day. The ten Northern Tribes (Israel), had been scattered throughout the world over 700 years before Yeshua. The Southern Tribe (Judah), were taken into captivity over 400 years before Yeshua but a few returned after 70 years. Of these few the Nation of Jews had multiplied to the many in Yeshua’s day throughout what the Romans called Palestine. In 135 AD after the last revolt, Hadrian had every living Jew removed from Palestine and scattered throughout the known world. Wherever they went they learned the language of their new homeland and forgot their Hebrew. Only a few scattered Rabbis remembered it and kept its use in their religion. Hebrew became a dead language for almost 2,000 years.

One of the first things the returned Jews did after becoming a recognized nation was to rename their country back to Israel and elected to use Hebrew as their native tongue. They started teaching it in their schools and soon it became spoken throughout Israel again. Scholars all over the world started learning Hebrew and began to read the old manuscripts, the old scrolls and especially the Torah. They learned that the Romans had not always correctly translated the old Hebrew books into Latin. This was eye opener number one.

During the Twentieth Century archeologist, geologist and historians started digging up the Middle East and discovered many ancient and almost forgotten towns. Places like Troy, Megiddo, Sodom, Gomorrah, Jericho, Masada and Nineveh. At Nineveh they discovered clay tablets written in cuneiform detailing a great deal of Biblical history and the scattering of the ten Northern tribes.

Eye Opener number two.

In 1947 the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls made a huge impact on our knowledge. The scrolls were ancient leather and papyrus scrolls first discovered in caves on the NW shore of the Dead Sea. Most of the documents were written or copied between the 1st century BC and the first half of the 1st century AD. One scroll, a copper scroll, was a copy of Matthew. You have read the verses in Matthew:

Mat 23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:

Mat 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Mat 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

Mat 23:5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

In verse 3 where the translation reads “whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do”. The Dead Sea Scroll reads, “whatsoever they bid you observe, observe and do as Moses says”. Eye opener number three.

If we include all the many books and manuscripts in other languages being translated to English, and older and ancient books being rediscovered and read, our knowledge is growing in leaps and bounds. Add to that the advantage of the computer to collect, store, decipher and distribute all this newly collected knowledge to anyone with a desire to learn and we have eye opener number four.

The greatest eye opener of all is that of Gods own work as written

about in:

Act 2:17 ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ GOD SAYS, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;

Act 2:18 EVEN ON MY BONDSERVENTS, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT AND THEY SHALL PROPHESY.

Sitting at the feet of His Bondservants I have learned the answers to many of my questions and am passing those answers to you in this book. All over the world, believers are giving an "ear" to His Word, becoming Bondservants and are returning to His Torah. This is why the blinders are being removed now.

Each of us, called by the Holy Spirit, has a calling, an anointing, a job to do during this great tribulation and we better be ready in both practice and knowledge to lead those ten men when they grab our shirt tails. (And if you are reading this and understand it, you too are being called as others are being called in different ways.) We need to open our minds and see the truth. We need to study His Word and rightly divide the truth. This being the last days before His coming, we haven’t much time to learn as much of His Torah as we can and put it in to practice so that it becomes a part of us. Yeshua said we would not know the day or the hour but we would know the season. Look around Brother, look at the news, look at the weather, look at the fullness of the gentiles and look at the events foretold of this season. That season is upon us.