Last week we looked together at the strange command that Avram received while he was still living in Haran. Yahweh told him to leave Haran, using the two words “Lech Lecha” (“Go for yourself!” / “Go for your own sake!”), Instead of the usual “Lech” (“Go!”). In Hebrew, the second word “lecha” is just two letters, but it makes a world of difference. Two letters, or even just one letter, matters when it comes to the Word of Yahweh. Y’shua said not a yod or a tittle will pass from the Torah until ALL is accomplished. A yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet – literally the smallest letter there is. But it is the first letter of Yahweh’s Name, and this Name is used nearly 7000 times in the Scriptures. And if we were to omit the Yod – even just from one of the 7000 times that יהוה appears in the Scriptures, it would become הוה (hawah), and we would be worshipping an impersonal Elohim, addressing Him with an abstract word that simply means something like “Existence” or “Being.”
This is a simple example, but for me, it confirms the clear principle in the Scriptures, repeated countless times, that we may not subtract, or add, or deviate left or right from what is clearly written in the Scriptures. And not once do we read, “EXCEPT IF IT IS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT!” Y’shua fulfilled, or observed, the Torah – He did not abolish or set it aside. The one who spreads the message that Y’shua ended the Torah has removed a thousand times more than just yods and tittles from the Torah and from the whole of Scriptures. And if we think it is acceptable to remove yods and tittles, we are acting directly contrary to the Messiah’s words in the Sermon on the Mount, in which He said that every part of the Torah will remain until the end.
It is interesting how strongly “subtracting” or “adding” comes to the fore when it concerns a tradition or a conviction or a doctrine that is not clearly taught in the Scriptures. I cannot help but think of the concept of the “Trinity” in this regard. We are aware that the writers of the Scriptures, including the prophets, the Messiah, and the apostles, quite simply, had no knowledge of a concept like “Trinity,” nor did they speak or write about it. There is a fairly general consensus among scholars today that “Trinity” is a Roman Catholic invention and a philosophically loaded theory – with many concepts and ideas that are foreign to Scriptures. It is my view that it can only be “proven” today, if one totally ignores the yods and tittles, and thereby also ignoring the biblical prohibition against omitting from, and adding to Scriptures. I know I am stepping on the toes of many people when I say this, but from time to time, it is necessary to place our own convictions under the magnifying glass of the Word.
This week’s reading portion begins with Yahweh appearing to Avraham in the form of three messengers. The word for “appears” is “vayeira”. However, the word “vayeira” is also related to concepts like “perceive, discern, and appear to be.” It may also be used in connection with a scene or an event that is totally misinterpreted. And when it concerns a text or a chapter in the Scriptures, “vayeira” is a word that reminds us of the possibility that we might “read things into” a text that gives that text a totally distorted appearance. This is what has happened throughout history with Genesis 18. The three messengers, in the eyes of many believers, became the three so-called persons of the Trinity, or at least two of the three, with Y’shua casually eating grilled bread and veal with Avraham and Sarah in front of their tent, long before the actual time of Y’shua’s birth. And all this was happening while Avraham himself was steadfast in believing that there is only one true Elohim, and was just as steadfastly looking forward to the coming of the promised Messiah. This was also happening while the text (and the rest of Scriptures) does not give us a single clue about the possible involvement of Y’shua in a chapter like Genesis 18. Furthermore, it is clearly stated in Hebrews 1:1 that Yahweh, “in the past,” spoke to the people in MANY WAYS (sometimes in the form of one messenger, sometimes three, and sometimes with an entire army of messengers, as in 2 Kings 7), but only in the LAST DAYS (after the birth of Y’shua of Nazareth) did He speak to his people through His Son. Once again, we see the clear confusion – the yods and tittles being removed and the human ideas being added.
Let’s dwell a little longer on the theme of how clearly and simply the Scriptures speaks to us about the relationship between Yahweh and Y’shua, and how complicated we have made it by adding all sorts of yods and tittles. Over and over, the message is proclaimed in churches and faith groups that Yahweh, the Creator of heaven and earth, appeared (“vayeira”) on earth in fleshly or human form when Y’shua was born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. And yet the Scriptures tells us, at least 8 times, that Y’SHUA came in the flesh, not YAHWEH, and that THAT is exactly the key aspect of our belief and testimony in this world. Within Hebrew thought, if someone is said to have come in the flesh, or if something is said have happened in the flesh, it means that the prophecy and the expectation surrounding that person or that event BECAME A REALITY! But the Greek-inspired model of the Trinity requires that Yahweh and Y’shua must have the same “essence” (Greek: “ousia”), and thus the Scriptures is often distorted to say that Yahweh came in the flesh – totally against the intention of both the prophecies about the Messiah in the first part of the Scriptures AND the fulfilment of those prophecies in the last part of the Scriptures.
One example of this was the misplaced addition of these words in some earlier translations of 1 John 5:7: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: The Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” The consensus today is that these words are a blatant forgery, and they are no longer included in any of the modern translations. Someone else tried to change the meaning of 1 Timothy 3:16 with a subtle little stroke (or: tittle) to read: Y’shua who (changed to: “Theos who” or “God who”) was revealed in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, seen by messengers, proclaimed among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in splendour.” The change to the text was astonishingly easy: The oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts read like this: “(OC) ̅ was revealed in the flesh” and the translation is crystal clear: Y’shua was revealed in the flesh. But some of the later manuscripts looked like this: “(ΘC) ̅ was revealed in the flesh”, and thereby the text was changed drastically. With the addition of an insignificant stroke, it now reads: Yahweh was revealed (or appeared) in the flesh.
There is not enough time to go into more aspects of this debate. But one can see how the insignificant stroke of 1 Timothy 3:16 also came to change the understanding of John 3:16 in the minds of countless believers. Although this well known verse is saying, “For Elohim so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son…”, most believers simply take the shortcut of: “For Elohim so loved the world that He Himself came into this world…”. And so the custom began, and grew completely out of proportion, of worshipping and honouring Y’shua in the place of Yahweh. This happened, despite the fact that Y’shua always worshipped and honoured Yahweh alone – prayed to Him alone, and rebuked those who tried to place Him (Y’shua) on the same level as Yahweh. And despite the fact that Y’shua explicitly declared that Yahweh is HIS ELOHIM, in the same way as He is OUR ELOHIM. Also despite the fact that Y’shua emphatically taught that we should fulfil the will of His and our heavenly Father, just as He fulfilled the will of His and our heavenly Father.
There is no doubt about the greatness of Y’shua. And the Word does not leave us in the dark about where that greatness comes from. It is a greatness that Yahweh gave to Him. Yahweh raised Him from the dead. Yahweh exalted Him to a position at His right hand. Yahweh put everything under His feet, declares 1 Corinthians 15:27. And right at the end, when everything has been subjected to Y’shua (so we read in verse 28), then the Son Himself will also subject Himself to the One who subjected everything to Him, so that Elohim may be all in all. Through His Spirit, which is not, as presented in the Trinity, a separate person, Yahweh is already in all of us, in line with this verse. The question is whether He is also ALL to us, as this verse puts it. Or have we perhaps allowed the man-made omissions and additions of yods and tittles to cloud our vision, so that we have pushed Yahweh into the background, but thought nothing of it, because the Trinity advocates have made us to simply believe that Y’shua was equal to Yahweh? The Word explicitly says: It is Yahweh who should be ALL and in ALL – not Y’shua. Because, as a perfect example for us, Y’shua subjected Himself completely to Yahweh in the past and will continue doing so, right until the end.
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