Someone asked me this past week what the real reason is behind the stubborn refusal among thousands of dedicated believers in Y’shua, to acknowledge that Y’shua is subordinate, and therefore less than (NOT the same as) Yahweh – the One who is his Father and our Father, his Elohim and our Elohim. This very deeply rooted RELUCTANCE to look at Y’shua the way He looked at Himself, and to talk about Y’shua the way He talked about Himself, in my view, is a huge stumbling block in our quest to follow Messiah, and, even more importantly, to follow the Biblical pattern of belief. The misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the Messiah may be subtle, but it is potentially a source of major deception. And it is not as though we are left in the dark by the Biblical Scriptures, as to the true nature of the relationship between Y’shua and his Father.
Y’shua fully relied and depended on his Father as the One who sent Him, taught Him, anointed Him, prepared Him, gave Him authority and was greater than Him. Therefore He put his TRUST in Yahweh, like we should put our trust in Yahweh. He PRAYED to Yahweh, like we should pray to Yahweh. He HUMBLED Himself as a servant before Yahweh, just like we should also do. He gradually INCREASED in strength and wisdom and favour, like we should also do (Luk 2:40, 52). He objected to those who wanted to put Him on the SAME LEVEL as Yahweh, like we should also do (Luk 18:19) and He was willing to admit that there were things that He did not KNOW, like we should also do (Mark 13:32). In addition, there were times when He felt FORSAKEN by Yahweh, in the same way as many of us have felt, throughout our lives. And there were times when He CRIED before Yahweh for the salvation and redemption of souls, like we should also do. He did not soar above TEMPTATION, like a bird, because He had supernatural powers. No, he struggled with temptation as a human being, like we do, and he overcame like we should also overcome. That is why it is written that He was tried IN ALL RESPECTS as we are, apart from sin (Heb 4:15). To have such a clear picture of Y’shua, consisting of these, and many other (far more than one hundred!), clear and straightforward pointers from the Bible, and then to carry on insisting that Y’shua is the same being as Yahweh, is posing a very serious threat to the core of our belief in Yahweh, and his Son, Y’shua.
There is a lot more to be said on this subject (and there are materials on our website with much more information and details on this matter), but I would like to get back to the QUESTION, right at the beginning. What is the reason for the continued insistence of thousands of Biblical believers, that for Y’shua to be the promised Messiah, He needs to be equal to Yahweh? I am using the word “CONTINUED” because the “Y’shua is Yahweh” idea is a view of Y’shua that roughly started around 100 years after his resurrection and found its way into the official statements of faith of many Christian denominations, up till this very day. And this, despite the fact that the bulk of the Biblical Scriptures are clearly presenting us with a different portrayal of Y’shua.
I simply do not know the full answer to this intriguing question. I told the person who asked me this question that I think one of the reasons has to do with the spirit of the ANTI-MESSIAH (anti-christ). According to 1 John 4:3 the concept “anti-messiah” may refer to a SPIRIT that is in the world, and has been in the world, at least as early as the time when John wrote his letters. What is the nature of this spirit? It is a spirit that is against the true Messiah, because the prefix “anti” means AGAINST or OPPOSED TO. It is also a spirit that is presenting Y’shua in a way that is AGAINST the straightforward portrayal of the Biblical writers.
Now, what else do we know about anti-messiah? Although the word “anti-messiah” is not used, the apostle Shaúl (Paul) had THE SAME SPIRIT in mind when he spoke about the man of lawlessness that was going to be revealed – someone who “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called Elohim, all that is worshipped, sitting in the temple of Elohim and pretending to be Elohim” (2 Thes 2:4). But Shaúl was not the first one who came up with this idea. The PROPHET EZEKIEL knew and prophesied about the same “spirit” when he wrote in Ezek 28:2, “Thus said the Master Yahweh, “Because your heart is lifted up, and you say, ‘I am Elohim, I sit in the seat of Elohim … whereas you are a man, and not Elohim, though you set your heart as the heart of Elohim … (because of this) your splendour will be profaned.” The prophet ISAIAH prophesied about something similar in Isaiah 14:13 “You have said in your heart, Let me go up to the heavens, let me raise my throne above the stars … let me be like the Most High.” DANIEL had the same spirit in mind when he prophesied about someone who would speak words against the Most High, and wear out the set-apart ones, even trying to change appointed times and the commandments that were previously decreed (Dan 7:25). Who is behind this? Is it not the same one who lied to the first man and woman in the garden and said to them, “Elohim knows that in the day you eat of this tree, your eyes shall be opened, and YOU SHALL BE LIKE ELOHIM, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5)?
Now, we need to be very clear on this matter. It is NOT Y’shua of Nazareth himself who came up with this idea that He was equal to Yahweh. Neither did his apostles or immediate followers or the writers of the New Testament come up with this idea. But there were indeed people and leaders and scribes and institutions and synods who later came up with this idea, and I cannot help but sensing here the same spirit that is revealed in the very first deception known to mankind, reflected in the words of Gen 3:5, YOU SHALL BE LIKE ELOHIM. Not only did Satan try (without succeeding) to elevate himself to become on par with Yahweh, the Almighty. He has since then made it his main objective in this world to infuse into ordinary people the craving and the arrogance to become bigger and higher and more powerful – even to the point of reaching equality with Yahweh. And what happens next? Under the influence of this very same spirit, people are beginning to look for impressive candidates around them, in this world, whom they may also elevate to a position far above the level of ordinary human beings. The age that we live in, is the age of superstars, champions, moguls, idols, icons, celebrities, tycoons, prima donnas, billionaires and even man-made messiah’s. And of slogans like “there is nothing you cannot do”, “be not afraid of greatness” and “live a life without limits”. It all sound quite nice, and there are indeed times in our own lives when we need to work on the aspects of optimism and motivation, but to be honest, to me these kind of slogans often smack of the arrogance of the anti-messiah spirit.
Not once that I know of, did Y’shua speak in this manner. That is why the apostle referred to the HUMBLE ATTITUDE of Y’shua, and encouraged the believers: Let this mind be in you which was also in Messiah Y’shua (Phil 2:5). The name of last week’s parashah was “TERUMAH” which is usually translated as “offering”, but quite literally means “something that is lifted up or offered up”. What is so interesting about this word, “terumah” is that it comes from the word “rum” (pronounced as “room”) and that the same word “rum” is also used in connection with pride and arrogance in Scriptures. A classical example of this is Isaiah 37:23: “Against whom have you lifted up (“rum”) your eyes in pride? Against the Set-apart One of Yisrael!” The correlation between the two concepts may easily be seen: In the same way as some people may “lift up” their offerings to show their gratitude and admiration for Yahweh, other people may “lift up” themselves or their eyes against Yahweh, as an act of arrogance and pride. But when we look at Scriptures, trying to understand the nature of Yahweh’s relationship with his people, we see that there is NO ROOM for this kind of attitude. There is indeed room for “terumah”, in which people are humbly giving something of themselves, lifting it up to Yahweh, and thereby putting the spotlight on Him and not on themselves. But there is NO ROOM for the Hebrew “rum”, in which people are arrogantly trying to stand up against Yahweh, or even mistakenly believe that any one other that Yahweh Himself, may be elevated to the very same level as Yahweh – the only One of whom it is written that He is from everlasting to everlasting (Ps 106:48), the only One of whom it is said that there is no one who may be compared with Him (Isa 40:25), that the light surrounding Him is an unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16), that his judgments are unsearchable and his ways untraceable (Rom 11:33), that his wonders are innumerable (Job 5:9), that He is exalted as head over all (1 Chron 29:11) and that He is to be feared above all mighty ones (Ps 96:4).
The confession that Y’shua subjected Himself to Yahweh as his Elohim, and is still doing that, even though Yahweh exalted him to a position that no one before has ever known, is not a POPULAR thing to say in our day. Many people will allow for difference of opinion in many areas, but NOT in this area. But I believe it is the clear language of Scriptures, as a whole. I also believe that by echoing this language and this message, we are taking a STANCE against the spirit of the anti-messiah, which is an effort to make followers of Y’shua believing and saying and doing things that are AGAINST the Messiah, and therefore putting a stumbling block in the way of honest and genuine believers in Messiah, making it very difficult to lift up pure and acceptable offerings (“terumah”) to Yahweh.
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