Where Bible, Business & Life Come Together

Author: Roy Blizzard III Page 2 of 4

The root of the US’ issues with Islam


Roy Blizzard III © 2012

The root of the US’ issues with Islam is not in trying to respect the religion and appease its adherents, etc, etc , but in a failure to understand its tenets and history and then create a policy that stops Islam’s inherent covert plans to convert by the sword. Until all Western people are educated enough to stop believing that it is possible to peacefully co-exist with Islam, more people will continue to die at Islam’s hands. The US and all the non-Moslem world needs to adopt a very hard line stance against the creeping Islamitization by first making all Islamic followers swear allegiance to the US or face deportation and then prohibiting all Islamic Sharia and further immigration and getting out of every Moslem nation and withdrawing every bit of monetary support from every Moslem nation and thereby turning them over to themselves. Islam is not a very creative religion, but rather a destructive religion. The Moslem nations will remain forever a backward society in every way if the US just leaves them the hell alone. They have no choice but to do so due to the teachings of their own religion. Why do we want to tie ourselves to the sinking ship of Islam.

Who Is Your Enemy

Roy Blizzard III © 2011

As an ordained minister and a Hebrew, Greek etc. student of the Bible, holder of a MRE, as well as the son of a PhD in Hebrew studies and minister, I am well aware of many of the errors spread in the name of Christianity, especially the Old Testament ones that the so called pacifist movement so loves to spread, “thou shall not kill” and Jesus’ New Testament words “Love your enemies”.

Even if one is familiar with Hebrew it can be difficult to trace the real roots behind these Words and if you only know Greek you are at a real disadvantage and will probably never know what the truth is unless someone like me were to tell you.

You may or may not be aware that the Old Testament passage of Exodus 20:13, “thou shall not kill” actually is translated as “thou shall not commit premeditated murder”. There has been several good articles about this. However, I have never seen anyone write about what I am going to share with you now except for my father and I, as most Christians probably don’t know enough to find where to look for it.

In Matthew 5, where Jesus is speaking on the mount, he is giving a perfectly good Jewish sermon, saying nothing new, but just commenting on Jewish law. But when you read it in Greek and then English, if you know Jewish Law, you are immediately thrown off when you come to the statement to “love your enemies” as this does not make good Jewish sense as they had a teaching that said that if a man were to come to kill you, you should rise up and kill him first as your righteous character and that of your family is worth more than the unrighteous character of the evil one coming to destroy you.

So then, why does Jesus say to “love your enemy”? Is he stating some new law that we were unaware of? No, for to do so would have been to make God out to be changeable.

When I was taking Classical Greek at the University of Texas in 1986, this perplexed me so I started researching it. It took me several days to find out the answer. In the Liddell and Scott Greek English Lexicon which is the authoritative lexical aid for Greek I found an unusual reference that finally led me to the truth. The Greek word in question here is Exthros which is generally translated as Enemy in EVERY NEW TESTAMENT LEXICAL AID.

However, in the Liddell and Scott there is a reference to a 1st century A.D. grammaticus, Ammonius – Grammaticus, which defined the word Exthros as someone who had been a Philos (a brother) but is alienated (out of enmity you had become estranged from them for a while). It was different than a Polamios, who you are at war with (who was a blood enemy who was out to kill you) and a Dusmenos is one who has long been alienated and refuses to reconcile.

Then it all made sense to me.

Jesus was quoting the Jewish Law and EVERY New Testament commentary was wrong.

In the Babylonian Talmud, in the Book called Sanhedrin, which dealt with trials and legal issues, # III 5, there is a reference to this subject, “If one had not spoken to his brother (a person of the community or a Philos) for 3 days due to “enmity” then you could not sit on a court of law either for that individual or against that individual.

What Jesus was saying then was that you brothers had better quit behaving badly towards one another or else you won’t be able to support your community if such a need arises. A person may be falsely accused and if you haven’t spoken to your brother for 3 days you won’t be able to get him out of trouble or vice versa if you see your brother committing a crime, you can’t bring charges.

Even if we raise the argument that “Your “enemy” is someone who persecutes “you” in any or all situations how does this argument make Jewish sense if Jesus says that the time would come when even those of a man’s household would be an “enemy” (Matthew 10:36).

Scholar Richard A. Horsely in his book “Covenant Economics: A Biblical Vision of Justice for All” states concerning the verses in Luke 6:27-29 (and the corresponding ones in Matthew 5:43-44): “These are sayings on which pacifists (Including myself) who demonstrated against war and for civil rights based our non-violence. This interpretation, HOWEVER, takes the sayings by themselves out of the context of the covenantal speech. “Enemies” was the standard term in covenantal teaching for those local neighbors with whom people had come into conflict (and who could sabotage one’s crops – see Matthew 13:25), it is not a reference to the Romans” (page 110).

So Horsely, the pacifist, recognizes that this passage does not have to do with “blood enemies” or the polamios who would do us harm/violence. As a matter of fact he goes on to state “Neither in this speech (Luke’s version) or in Matthew’s adaptation of the Sermon of the Mount do these admonitions and illustrations concern violence, the slap on the cheek (Luke 6:29a) is an insult, NOT a full-fledged physical attack” (ibid. page110).

Also, scholar James L. Kugel in his book: “In Potiphar’s House: The Interpretative life of Biblical Texts” shows quite convincingly that the text in Leviticus 19:17-18, “17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. 18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord”. As interpreted by the Qumran community they see “brother”, “neighbor” and “children of thy people” as referring only to members of the Qumran community – anyone outside of the community, that is other Israelite’s, were seen as “enemies”. Enemies were anyone outside of the community.

As Kugel writes: “…for the drafters of the Damascus Document”(a Qumran scroll), it seemly likely that for them the “sons of your people” was a far narrower concept. For throughout their writings it is clear that they viewed the border between themselves and other Jews as absolute, and practices enjoined within the community did not apply to those outside. The world outside the sect was indeed full of “enemies” (ibid. page234). So loving your neighbor and not hating the son of your people or a brother only applied to fellow members of the Qumran sect – not to other Israelites outside of the community as they were enemies (because they were outside of the community, out of harmony with the community. Not in fellowship with them).

Kugel goes on to state that this helps to clarify Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43-44. That Jesus was arguing against (as he was throughout the sermon) a “restrictive interpretation” of the Torah that interpreted Leviticus 19:17-18 as meaning you are to love those you are in harmony and fellowship with (your neighbor or brother) – but it is okay to hate one of your fellow countrymen or member of the community that you are out of fellowship with, that you have had a falling out with (and thus becomes your enemy – ibid. pages 236-239).

Kugel also shows that this is alluded to in 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 where Paul writes: “If anyone refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man and have nothing to do with him, so that he may be put to shame. [Yet] do not consider (or treat him) as an enemy but warn him as a brother” So here we see a brother who is out of harmony, out of fellowship with the community of believers – but he is not to be seen or treated as an enemy but still held and admonished as a brother.

This suggests that Paul understood the tendency to treat one whom you are out of fellowship with as an enemy – so he tells them “DON’T do that!” An enemy came to be one who was close to us but who we are now out of fellowship with. Thus they become “an enemy”.

Jesus and Paul teaches us this is NOT how Leviticus 19:17-18 is to be interpreted, that is we are NOT to treat a brother/fellow believer whom we are out of fellowship with (or he with us) as an enemy. We are to treat them with love, do good to them, pray for them, maybe even admonish them – i.e. treat them as a brother still (even if they do not treat us as one). The full context of Matthew 5 and Luke 6 has to do with the community and the persecution that can be received from these we were once in fellowship with as Richard Horsely and Matthew 10:36 show.

So there you have it. Too many Christians have needlessly gone to their deaths and others have let too many individuals take advantage of others due to misunderstanding this one passage and the other passages and Jewish teachings that support it. All real men, especially the godly Alpha Males, should be prepared to defend themselves and their families from thugs and criminals and even false teachers and politicians who come in as wolves to destroy through distorted teachings that are just flat out wrong in order to manipulate you and control you.

You can now see that in Judaism, hatred by a Christian or Believer is only an invalid emotion when it is directed towards the innocent or the righteous. Nowhere does God tell us not to hate the cruel, the wicked, the barbaric, the murderers, communists/socialists and especially terrorists who stand against God and the righteous and innocent. In fact, if we are truly Believers/Christians then we are obligated by God’s Law to hate evil in order to resist and fight evil. Just remember that Jesus said “your enemy” in relation to your brother in Christ, he never said to love “Gods enemy” the one who is coming to kill you, the righteous or the innocent.

The enemy of the Believer/Christian in relation to what Jesus spoke on the Sermon on the Mt. is the person who somehow frustrates your day to day relationship with your fellow man and interrupts you fellowship with God by doing something stupid like denting your car or cutting you off while driving and because of it you’re pissed off. God’s enemy is the man who raped and killed some young girl. He is a brute fiend.

We, as Believers/Christians are under no such obligation to forgive ungodly, fiendish behavior. We should be hating, fighting and neutralizing ungodly terrorists within our midst no matter who they are so that they can never harm innocent people again, because when channeled in the right direction hatred is a positively positive emotion.

I hope you can find this useful in your daily lives.

Thanks to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach for the concept on God’s enemies vs. Our enemies. Thanks to Mike Davis for further information regarding an Enemy.

For excellent information on how to live your life as a Godly Alpha Male I can recommend the book The Alpha Male by John H. Ingle at your book store.

Greater Love Hath No Man

Greater Love Hath No Man

Excerpted from Roy’s published book The Gospel of John, An Actual Translation

Roy Blizzard III © 2012

John 15:13 “A man does not have love greater than this; he gives himself on behalf of his chosen.”(Often translated erroneously as beloved, see verse 14 below, since it can have a dual meaning. This passage is one of the most misunderstood passages in the entire Bible. Usually mistranslated and used as a proof text for passivism and altruism, the act of passivism and altruism escapes the entire context of Yeshua’s message. How Did Yeshua “give” himself to his own? By spending His entire life educating them in the Truth of God. We can’t die for another in order to be self righteous, or all we’d have to do is run up to someone and say I kill myself for you and commit suicide. But, we can give our lives to others by properly educating them and this fits the Torah, Talmud and all other Jewish writings) [Proverbs 8:21, Isaiah 5:1 ff, reference back to John 13:34ff, 33:6, 49:7-12] {Leviticus 19:16, “You shall not stand by the blood of your fellow.” It is understood in the Talmud that that one must do everything in his or her power to save the life of another Jew, even if this involves a violation of one or more of the mitzvoth except one of the following, idolatry, sexual misconduct such as incest, adultery and murder, so we can’t commit suicide on behalf of another. Sanhedrin 74a, Pirkei Avot 1:12-14, 3:14, 5:19…The disciples of our father Abraham have a good eye, a meek spirit and a humble soul. … The disciples of our father Abraham benefit in this world and inherit the World To Come, and as is stated, “There is an inheritance to those who love Me, and their treasures I shall fill” – Proverbs 8:21} (The Greek word θῇ which has been usually mistranslated as to put down or die should be more properly thought of as to give of oneself not give over oneself, thus you find in Pirkei Avot the following concepts, 1) It is a sign of even greater love that it has been made known to him that he was created in the image, as it is says, “For in the image of God, He made man” (Genesis 9:6). 2) It is a sign of even greater love that it has been made known to them that they are called children of God, as it is stated: “You are children of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 14:1). 3) It is a sign of even greater love that it has been made known to them that they were given a precious article, as it is stated: “I have given you a good purchase; My Torah, do not forsake it” (Proverbs 4:2).

This is the real meaning: Greater love hath no man that he gives of his life to the betterment of others and brings life to their bones by teaching them the ways of God.

If you have enjoyed understanding this verse in a new and richer way look for the rest of the Gospel of John, An Actual Translation in print now. “The Gospel of John, An Actual Translation”

In The Sunset

In the fading twilight times,
As my eyes are filled with tears,
I look out over my family home,
And I see the faces of my youth.

The good times and the bad are,
But a fading memory in time,
One by one felled by age and time,
Where has youth and vigor gone?

Saplings sprout and grow tall,
In the sun and rain at my home,
Timber is felled when mature,
But a hole is left hard to fill.

The sun is going down again,
And with it the ties that bind,
Fading memories as the sunset,
Sisters, brothers, kith and kin.

The Dark Places

Roy Blizzard III © 2016

I’ve entered a world of darkness

Hidden away from view

I see others are there with me

All seeing but not being seen.

Into the shadowy world I come

To escape that which I can not face

So I exist alone in a crowd of sorrow

Not being seen but seeing.

All who love me miss me

But what can I do to escape

For if they really knew me

They could never really love me.

So my life it goes on alone

Day after day, night after night

Seeking a love I’ll never find

From such a one as I.

I heard a man speak of love

In a way I couldn’t describe

Given in such a way

A man was forced to die.

For love of me

Whom he did know

And he sought out

In a world of hidden darkness.

Once I knew him

The sun shone around me

And my fear it left me

To travel back into the darkness.

To live once more

Finding another soul

In that hidden world

Of the sorrowful, despair of man.

Seventy Times Seven

Seventy Times Seven

Roy Blizzard III © 2017

In Matthew 18:21-22 there is a seemingly innocuous statement by Jesus about forgiveness.

“21) Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? 22) Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.” KJV

There appears to be no end to the speculation as to what Jesus meant here and I don’t really want to waste a lot of time dealing with all these other opinions. What I would like to demonstrate is that oftentimes Jesus is hinting at something that is not necessarily understood on the surface. This technique is well known in the Judaism of Jesus’ day and it is called Remez or Hinting.

But, just exactly, what is Jesus hinting at? Is this some blanket statement about forgivingness that would require us to just be Mr. and Mrs. Milk Toast, humbly accepting every abuse that comes our way, even to the point of our death, so that we too can hang on our cross and say, “Father, Forgive them for they know not what they do.”?

It is my opinion that this is not what Jesus was hinting at here in this passage. For the answer to this question we have to go back to the start of Chapter 18 and see what it is that Jesus is dealing with here in the entire passage.

In Matthew 18:1ff, Jesus begins this discourse talking about Purity. He does so by mentioning children. You see Jewish children in Jesus’ day started their education at about 5 years old by memorizing the laws of Purity. So for the Rabbis this provided a perfect simile. Let’s see what Jesus said here.

“18:1) At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2) And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3) And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4) Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5) And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6) But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” KJV

So we see the disciples ask a question about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus responds by saying that we have to change ourselves like unto children who study how to be pure of heart and pure of mind and pure of body or else we can’t enter into this Kingdom because unless we are willing to study purity as a humble child of a father then we won’t be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven. So what more is Jesus hinting at here?

Let’s look back at Psalms 113. It is a short passage but it tells us what the Humble does who is like unto the Father in Heaven.

113 Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the Lord.
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord; From this time forth and forever.
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting; The name of the Lord is to be praised.
4 The Lord is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens.

5 Who is like the Lord our God, Who is enthroned on high,
6 Who humbles Himself to behold; The things that are in heaven and in the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust; And lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 To make them sit with princes, With the princes of His people.
9 He makes the barren woman abide in the house As a joyful mother of children.
Praise the Lord! KJV

In other words, the humble man who is pure of heart will care for his fellow man and give God the praises in all things and considers the righteous things of heaven and the matters of earth that concern God.

In this second section Jesus elaborates on the pure of heart and the humble and warns us that we must be very careful not to be a stumbling block (offend) to these righteous people. He does this in a very Jewish manner, which we see reflected in the Talmud, in Baba Bathra 9b, written down much later. If you are not used to reading the Talmud it can be very cryptic, obscure, and difficult to understand so don’t worry too much about that. I bolded the part that especially concerns us.

Baba Bathra 9:b

[R. Isaac further said: What is the meaning of the verse, “He that followeth after righteousness(charity – Tzedakah)and mercy findeth life, righteousness(charity – Tzedekah) and honour? Because a man has followed after righteousness, shall he find righteousness?” — The purpose of the verse, however, is to teach us that if a man is anxious to give charity, the Holy One, blessed be He, furnishes him money with which to give it. R. Nahman b. Isaac says: The Holy One, blessed be He, sends him men who are fitting recipients of charity, so that he may be rewarded for assisting them. Who then are unfit? — Such as those mentioned in the exposition of Rabbah, when he said: What is the meaning of the verse, Let them be made to stumble before thee; in the time of thine anger deal thou with them? Jeremiah said to the Holy One, blessed be He: Sovereign of the Universe, even at the time when they conquer their evil inclination and seek to do charity before Thee, cause them to stumble through men who are not fitting recipients, so that they should receive no reward for assisting them.]



Here in verse 7 Jesus continues but begins to speak of those who will try to make the righteous fall. He speaks of offences which in Hebrew mean stumbling blocks or sin. “7) Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” KJV This refers back to Jeremiah 8:23 just as the passage above in Baba Bathra does. If you cause people to sin or are evil and you try to appear charitable for your own benefit then may God prevent you from getting any benefit from your so called charitable acts.

Jesus then goes on in verses 8-14 to comment on those who are in captivity by sin and facing eternal punishment.

“8) Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. 9) And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. 10) Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. 11) For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. 12) How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? 13) And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 14) Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” KJV

Again in Baba Bathra 8b we see a discourse which has a similar root thought and that is concerning the one who is held captive:

[Raba asked Rabbah b. Mari: Whence is derived the maxim of the Rabbis that the redemption of captives is a religious duty of great importance? — He replied: From the verse, And it shall come to pass when they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth, then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord, Such as are for death, to death, and such as are for the sword, to the sword, and such as are for famine, to the famine, and such as are for captivity, to captivity: and (commenting on this) R. Johanan said: Each punishment mentioned in this verse is more severe than the one before. The sword is worse than death; this I can demonstrate either from Scripture, or, if you prefer, from observation. The proof from observation is that the sword deforms but death does not deform; the proof from Scripture is in the verse, Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints. Famine again is harder than the sword; this again can be demonstrated either by observation, the proof being that the one causes (prolonged) suffering but the other not, or, if you prefer, from the Scripture, from the verse, They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger. Captivity is harder than all, because it includes the sufferings of all.]

Above we see that Jesus is commenting that it is better to be maimed and enter heaven as a righteous person than to be held captive by sin and enter hell for an eternity and the passage from Baba Bathra uses the same reasoning. Jesus then comments on how important His mission is to seek and to save those lost souls because the redemption of captives is such a duty of great importance and that God states in Psalms 116:15 that “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His Saints.”

Jesus then goes on to speak of the importance of forgiveness to salvation and life in His Kingdom in verses 15-20:

“15) Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16) But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17) And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. 18) Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19) Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 20) For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” KJV

Here Jesus deals with the Jewish concepts of community and forgiveness and salvation all in one. How to deal with one’s fellow man is of utmost importance to the Jewish community and to Jesus so that each man is not harboring negative emotions that can lead to sinful behavior. “If a brother” means one who is a fellow believer not someone who is coming to kill you. This must be stressed. Jesus always speaks in terms of those who are fellow believers not those who are rising up to kill you. Enemy to Jesus meant a fellow believer who was mad at you for some reason and who had not spoken to you for three days because of enmity and therefore could not sit for or against you in a court of judgement.

Jesus says go to your brother and try to work your problems out. If they refuse to do so take some others of the community with you to witness your attempts to work out your differences. If the person still refuses to work out the differences, then that person is to be shunned as a member of the community because they are no longer seen in the community as righteous, but as an unrighteous heathen who has no God or a cheater, one who is attempting to steal from you your Joy and Righteousness.

Jesus then comments about binding and loosing, which becomes one of the least understood terms in the entire NT. We see people trying to bind satan and bind sin and bind people etc., etc., etc. Unfortunately this concept is wrong. The concept here is that in matters of religious law a matter is either forbidden (bound) or allowed (loosed) by those laws. Here it is a follow up to the dispute in verse 15. This is a Rabbinic conversation and what they are saying here is that if your witnesses are in agreement that this matter needs to be settled in a particular manner then all parties should follow the advice of the witnesses. If there is not agreement then the matter is then taken to the larger body of the community and settled there because when the righteous community settles a dispute righteously God is there in the midst of it and will abide by the decision of the righteous who have made the law.

Finally, we come to the verse in question: In Matthew 18:21-22

“21) Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22) Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”

Jesus’ answer to Peter has been speculated upon in any number of ways, and I’m not saying that they are not valid arguments, but if we are following Jesus’ train of thought here in Matthew we have to look at this statement in terms of the overall thought processes and argument and not just pull some random theological argument out of our religious hats. Jesus has been speaking about those who are righteous and how they are to be handled and how they are to handle issues within the community of believers. Why would Jesus sudden change and start a discussion about numerology and mystical issues when in fact He has been very straightforward in His teaching of normative Jewish thought so far as seen from the quotes in the later Jewish work in Baba Bathra.

If Jesus’ last statement had to do with how do you deal with trespasses, brother to brother, then it would follow that His next answer to Peter’s question regarding this discussion would further elaborate His discourse. So if we look at the answer 7 times 70 what do we see here that is obvious and not mystical? Seventy is the number of Judges sitting on the Great Sanhedrin. While some may say that there is 71, in actuality there are only 70 judges and the court is presided over by the High Priest. This court has the power of life and death in its hands. The number 7 represents the 7 days of the week. So if we are following Jesus’ train of thought in this passage He would answer thusly: You need to forgive as the Great Court of Judgement forgives. As they have the power to save a life you have the power to save a life twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. For forgiveness assures that you will be as the righteous children who follow the laws of purity. You will be as the Humble before God who only seek to do the will of God. You will be as the righteous and can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven unmaimed by sin. You will be as the Messiah who goes to seek and to save those who are lost. You will be as God is when you forgive others because you will help lead them out of captivity.

The importance of this concept is now known scientifically. When someone doesn’t forgive, the body undergoes psychological, physiological and spiritual changes for the worse. The mind begins to change and dwell on the evil acts, not the good God. The body reacts by changing the chemistry of the brain and organs which can lead to heart disease, stroke and any other harmful physical issues. The Spirit becomes separated from God just as Adam and Eve in the Garden became separated from God. When this happens your spirit is not in a state of unification with God and your mind can’t know what is good for you to do in the situation and you become susceptible to grievous sin even to the point of losing your own life and soul.

This is what Jesus was answering to Peter. Forgive, that your life may be long and full of Joy.

What Is God Like?

Roy Blizzard III © 2012

When I read the horrifying stories of teenagers’ morals in our country, I shudder with fear. We are told the sordid tales of dope peddlers, prostitution, wrecked bodies, death and damned souls that have smeared its way across the front pages of our newspapers. This, added to the hundreds of other evidences of moral, social and political deterioration at a rapid pace, is causing alarm on the part of our leaders today.

Never has our nation been, in such danger from within and without. This is a serious and dark hour which grows more critical with every passing minute, but all of our problems stem from the fact that we, as a people created to be righteous, have wandered far away from God. We desperately need a spiritual and moral revival. If we don’t have it we cannot possibly survive. We must get back to God.

People are born wondering what is God like? Unfortunately no one really ever bothers to help answer that question so we go all through life questioning God instead of questioning our relationship with God. While no mortal person can ever know all about God, we can know certain facets of what God is like.

More than once I’ve had one of our young people come to me and ask, “Preacher, what is God like?” I’ve even had one of our teachers came to me with a problem. She said one of her pupils had asked her what God was like and she didn’t know quite how to answer the question. I’ve also read where a university President made this statement quite a while ago, “If it were possible for preachers to tell people what God is and what God is like, it would make the question of religion a good deal simpler for many people.” I believe that I can give you today some idea of what God is like if you will listen, carefully and attentively for it is indeed possible to know what God is like.

Certainly there is much speculation about what God is like and I am not claiming that I know all that there is to know about God, since thousands and thousands of men, far smarter than I have been arguing and debating this matter for thousands of years. I am not going to try and meet all these arguments, nor am I going to debate with any scientific or unscientific viewpoint of any particular philosopher. Rather I am going to take you directly to the Word of God and search there, for in the Bible we have a full revelation of what God is like.

Of course there are hundreds of things we could say about God as revealed in the Bible but I’m only going to choose four.

First,The Bible declares God to be SPIRIT! God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. This passage, found in the gospel of John finds Jesus talking to a woman at the well of Sychar. Jesus here made a straightforward statement about God. God is a Spirit. Immediately, we imagine some sort of cloudy vapor. But that is not a picture of God. If I want to find out what Spirit is, I can find out in the scene where Christ was spoken to after His resurrection and Christ said, “Come and touch me and see, for a spirit has no flesh and bones such as ye see me have.” So I know that spirit is incorporeal. In other words, it is un-body. Spirit is contrary to body. Spirit is opposite to body. Spirit is something that is not limited to body. Spirit is not bound in a body.

Spirit is not wearable as a body. Spirit is not changeable as a body. The Bible declares that God is such a spirit, that He is not limited to a body; He is not limited to shape; He is not limited to force; He is not limited to boundaries or bonds; He is absolutely immeasurable and indiscernible with eyes that are limited to physical things. The Bible declares that he has no such limitations. He can go anywhere and be everywhere at the same time. Thousands of people are trying to limit God to certain spheres and to regulate Him to certain categories that are the products of their own speculation. There is no limit to God. There is no limit to His wisdom. There is no limit to his power. There is no limit His love. ‘There is no limit to His mercy.

The old Presbyterian Catechism (A catechism is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present) which is a short one, describes God in the following manner, God is a Spirit, Infinite, Eternal, and Unchangeable. I think those three words do a good job of defining God. In other words, He is Infinite – not body bound. Eternal – He has, no beginning and ending. He is the one forever self-existent one. The Bible declares that He never changes – that there is no variableness nor shadow of turning with Him. Men change, fashions change, conditions and circumstances change, but God never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is almost impossible for slow, finite, earth bound mind to conceive accurately what all of this means.

The Bible teaches that there was no time when God was not. He has been as He is… forever. He has no beginning and he has no end. He is the Eternal unchangeable person. If you have any problem concerning God and the inspiration of the Bible, go back and look at it again. The basis of your entire problem is that you have not admitted God to be the sort of God that he is. If God is what he says about himself, there is no problem of providence, there is no problem of his oversight of nations of men, and there is no problem of His inspiring men to write this Bible. In other words, everything fits into place once you understand who and what God really is. When you get acquainted with God, it is perfectly simple.

Secondly, The Bible reveals God not only as a Spirit, un-discerned by human hearts and untouched by human hands, but it also reveals God as a person. Everywhere in the Bible it says, God says, God does, and God loves. Everything that we attribute to a person is attributed to God. A person is one who thinks, who feels, wishes, desires, and has all the expressions of a personality.

And, here is a most significant truth. Personality is not limited to body. Here on earth it is limited to body, but remember, you are an immortal soul. Someday your personality will leave this body. When former president John Adams was 91 years of age, someone asked the old statesman, “How are you feeling this morning, Mr. Adams?” He replied, “Quite well, quite well. But the house I live in is not feeling so good. I’ll soon be leaving it to get a new one.” God is not bound to a body, but he is a person. He feels, He thinks, He loves, He forgives, and He sympathizes with the things that make up our lives.

THIRDLY, the Bible declares that not only is God a Spirit and a person, but God is a holy and righteous being. From Genesis to Revelations God reveals himself as a Holy God. He is utterly perfect and absolute in every detail. He is too holy to touch sinful men – to holy to endure sinful living. He is a Holy and a perfect God. If America could ever get a vision of His majestic righteousness, what a tremendous difference it would make in the way our nation lives. If we could see the appalling difference that separates man’s unrighteousness and God’s perfect righteousness, it would change our way of living immediately.

It is impossible to understand the Bible unless you have a clear understanding of the very holiness of God. It was emphasized by the division of the Tabernacle and the Temple into the Holy and Most Holy Places. It was emphasized by the prescribed offerings what must be brought if an Israelite would approach God. It was emphasized by the institution of a special priesthood to meditate between God and the people. It was emphasized by the inner laws about impurity in the Book of Leviticus. It was emphasized by the set feasts of Israel and by the isolation of Israel in the land.

The Holiness of God regulates all other principles of God. Scriptures declare that His throne is established on the basis of His holiness. Because God is Holy there is a wide rift between God and the sinner. The scriptures say, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Your sins have hid his face from you that He will not hear.”

Not only is the sinner separated from God, but God is separated from the sinner. God’s eyes are too pure to look upon evil; because God is holy, He can have nothing to do with sin. Before sin came, man and God had fellowship with each other. Now that fellowship is broken, it is absolutely impossible for a sinner to have any contact with God whatsoever, unless it be through His Son, Jesus Christ. Man neither possesses, nor could ever possess of himself, nor can he acquire the sinlessness that it is necessary to have access to God. However, Christ came and made such access possible through Him.

In God’s holiness lies the reason for the death of Christ and what his holiness demanded in the exacting of the penalty of sin. His love provided in Jesus Christ. We are dealing with a pure and righteous and holy God and He will not tolerate our evil and our sins. How long is this pure God going to endure our divorce rate, our teen’s moral breakdown, our own immorality in government circles, our drunkenness, our cursing? How long is God going to tolerate our pride, gossip, malice, slandering, and love of money, ease and pleasure and the destruction of others for our own gain? Were it not for God, for His longsuffering and mercy, this nation would be swept into hell overnight with all other nations and peoples that forgot God.

The Fourth thing that I want you to see about God, in trying to find out what God is like, is the Bible expression, God is Love. Many people have misunderstood that part of God’s nature. Just because God is love does not mean that all aspects of His nature is sweet, beautiful and happy and that God’s love could not possibly allow for the punishment of sin. God’s holiness demands that all sin be punished, but God’s love provided a plan of redemption and salvation for sinful man. God’s love provided the cross of Jesus Christ by which man can have forgiveness of sin. It was the love of God that sent Jesus to the cross.

Who can describe or measure the love of God? This Bible is a revelation of the fact that God is love. When we preach justice, it is justice tempered with love. When we preach, righteousness, it is righteousness founded in love. When we preach atonement, it is atonement committed by love and given by love, provided by love and finished by love, necessitated because of Love. When we preach the resurrection of Christ, we are preaching the miracle of love. When we preach the return of Christ, we are preaching the fulfillment of Love.

No matter what sin you have committed, how black, dirty, shameful or terrible you may be, God loves you. You may be at the very gate of Hell itself, but God loves you with an everlasting love. Were it not for the love of God, none of us would ever have a chance in the future life, but thanks be unto God He is love. Because he is a holy God our sins have separated ourselves from Him, but thanks be unto God because of his love, there is a way of salvation, a way back to God through Jesus Christ His Son. “God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

However, this love of God that is immeasurable, unmistakable, and unending and this love of God that reaches to wherever man is, can be entirely rejected. God will not force himself upon any man against his will. You can hear of the Love of God, you can hear of the plan of salvation, the way God has provided through His son. And then you can say… “No, I will not have any of it.” And God will let you go on to hell without His love.

The Scriptures say in John 3:16, “that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever should believe into Him should not perish, but have life everlasting.” In times of ignorance it is better to just trust in God and believe that He is who He says He is. In Mark 16:16 we read, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” You must believe in God, confess that you are a sinner and be baptized into the saving grace of Jesus Christ. There must be a positive act of commitment and surrender to the Love of God. Nobody else can do this for you. You can set all of the days of your life under the preaching of the Love of God and go right out and die without Christ and without hope. Or, you can open your heart today and say, Lord Jesus, come in.

Yes the Bible declares God to be Spirit; the Bible declares that God is a Person; the Bible declares that God is holy; righteous, and pure; the Bible declares that God is love. But some of you might say, “Well sir, even though what you say may be true, I still can’t understand God, so therefore I cannot receive him.”

Well let me tell you, I don’t really understand how a black cow can eat green grass and produce white milk, but I drink milk nonetheless. I don’t really understand how a little black seed can be planted in the ground and a few weeks later you pluck a green watermelon with red meat and hundreds of little black seeds, but I love watermelons. I don’t refuse to turn on my television because I don’t really understand electronic circuits. I accept the principals of biology and electronics by faith. You see, Faith, true faith isn’t blind. Faith means that I have seen the item work, or grow, or function and I know that when I make use of it in its intended purpose it will do what it was designed to do. There are thousands of things that we do each day which we don’t understand, but we utilize freely, and the more we use them the more “faith” we have that this works. The same is true with God.

No, it is impossible for the human finite mind to completely understand God. This is where true faith and trust comes in. By Faithfulness I receive his plan for redemption and I Trust Christ to be my savior. In my own heart there is a deep assurance that I shall spend eternity with him. After all is said and done, if I had no other evidence than my own personal experience with God, this would be enough to convince me of God and Christ.

A little boy was flying his kite and it went so high that it was out of sight. A neighbor came by and said, “Jimmy, what are you doing?” He replied, “I am flying my kite.” “How do you know you are flying your kite, I don’t see it?” the man replied. The little boy looked up and with a confident smile said, “I know it’s up there because I can feel the tug.”

I know God through personal experience in an intimate relationship and so can you. It’s something I can’t describe as no words of mortal man can. I wish that I had the vocabulary to describe my experience with God, but I don’t, but you can experience your own intimate relationship with God right now for yourself for He is the One who is tugging at our hearts. All you have to do is ask.

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Roy Blizzard © 2012

Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” KJV

Much has been written about Peace and Jesus. Most of it wrong due to simple misunderstandings of Jewish law and the teachings of the Jewish Rabbi Jesus. This is such a case.

But does it mean we should always go and try to make what we think of as “Peace” with everyone even the evil or murderous? Does it mean Jesus was a pacifist? Let’s look a bit closer. Jesus here in the Sermon on the Mount speaks about peacemakers in English, but it doesn’t say this in Hebrew. The basic words in Hebrew for this passage would mean Happy are those who pursue peace. But again, what does this mean?

Let’s begin with the word Happy. The word Asherei in Hebrew has the connotation here of happy, but its root meaning is to exalt but with the connotation of a verification of a legal ruling or a substantiation to something.

The word for Pursue is Radaf and means one who chases after something, but here with the connotation of one who chases after another in order to save him or prevent him from sinning or to get what he has to offer.

The third word here is Shalom. This usually means peace, but here it more properly means salvation or a state of being of wholeness both above and below or spiritually and physically.

Now the fourth part we have to consider is the phrase Sons of God. This is a Hebrew idiom meaning that this person called a “Son” is so much like the father “God” or Elohim that whoever sees this one has seen God. His state of being or existence is reflective and indicative of a unification with the Father so what shows in his life is the life of the Father.

So what we have here would thus render the passage as Happy is the substantiation or vindication of those who pursue salvation in order to prevent a state of sin for they will be called Sons of Elohim, or righteous ones.

Now that we know this, was there a Jewish precedent? Yes.

Aaron was called the peacemaker. Aaron was also the one we are to emulate as he worshipped God out of love and not fear. Therefore we are to be a salvation or state of wholeness lover like Aaron who doesn’t worship God out of fear as did Job. When we concentrate on God and unify with Him in His love we stop worrying about fear, loss, war, etc., but we begin to take on the characteristics of God and these begin to flow outwards from within us to others who are in turn pursuing this state of salvation that we are living as a substantiation to its power to change our powerless lives to creative powerful lives full of hope and the glory of God.

So now we can see that this has nothing to do with the erroneous concept of Pacifism or the idea of making what we think of as “Peace” with murderers etc, neither of which concepts have roots in the 1st century Judaism of Jesus.

Why I use Hebrew to translate the New Testament

Why I use Hebrew to translate the New Testament

Roy Blizzard © 2012

I hope I don’t offend anyone, but I rarely read other Christian books. I just don’t see the point. Most authors don’t read, write or speak either Hebrew or Greek and usually have no working knowledge of Aramaic or Latin, French or German. So they usually begin their books with a faulty theological or linguistic premise built upon a lack of knowledge and lead others down the same primrose path they are on. It is sad really, the blind leading the blind into a realm of total darkness and ineffectiveness in God’s Kingdom here upon this earth and quite possibly lead them out of God’s hand entirely.

Let me make myself clear though, there are some books which I love to read and have read them several times. These books are mainly books of testimonies of men and women who have lived an existence with God that demonstrates the transformational creative power of God in their lives today. They are called in total The Bible.

Most of the other books I read are dictionaries, lexicons, Jewish theology books and science and geography books that I have to study in order to make sense of The Bible. I took a lot of Classical Greek courses at UT Austin and thoroughly enjoyed them because the Greek authors had an impact on the cultural life of ancient Israel in the times of Jesus. I enjoy archeology and paleontology as well. For you see, all this information is critical to the understanding of the Biblical Text. Do you really want to trust your eternity to someone who gets their information 10th hand and doesn’t even understand it when they read it?

Look folks, Jesus or Yeshua came as a Jew in the 1st century AD / CE. He wasn’t a Greek or Roman or an Aramean even though he would have been very familiar with these cultures. He wasn’t a Baptist or a Christian or a Lutheran, etc, etc, etc. He spoke at least 4 languages fluently as did most Jews in his day, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Aramaic. He was primarily a follower of the theology of the Pharisees and the school of Hillel although on some subjects such as marriage and divorce he followed the school of Shammai. He also was a part of the sect of the Hasids (not the same ones as today). These men were so pious that others sent children to request things of them.

Even though there are many people who want to believe the New Testament was written in Greek and some who want to believe it was Aramaic, it makes no sense that the book would be in anything but Hebrew, but the Hebrew in the first century was called Mishnaic Hebrew. Mishnaic Hebrew was a living language. It was busy absorbing all sorts of lingo from Greek, Latin and Aramaic, just like English does today. This is probably the greatest proof of all that Hebrew in Israel was the prima lingua or first tongue since it was doing the absorbing not the other way around.

There is little doubt that without a wide knowledge of the culture and languages of Israel and the nearby regions that the Biblical text is quite incomprehensible as seen by the fact that there are at least 30,000 different denominations of Christianity all believing substantially differing things almost all of which are based upon errors in translation. This simple fact has kept the organism of Christianity ineffectual at its primary mission which is to create life from darkness. I bet you didn’t even know there was a primary mission in Christianity.

If you read any of my articles here on hubpages or my new book The Gospel of John, An Actual Translation you will notice that what I write is quite different then what you have usually read in any other “translation” of the Biblical text. This is due to the fact that I have no agenda to push, no denomination to prop up, no need for you to let me pick your pockets for my own gain by lying to you about some new sensational BS that can’t be substantiated in the text, etc, etc. All I care about is what is the true meaning of the text and how it relates to the real story being espoused and how it relates to me and my walk of intimacy with my creator.

Dynamite with a Wet Fuse

Dynamite with a Wet Fuse

Roy Blizzard III © 2013

Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

This text should be the motto for every believer, every person who considers themselves to be a “Christian”.

What does the text say in the original Hebrew and Greek. In the Hebrew the phrase is גבורת אלוהים . Geeburat Elohim and has the meaning of strength or power. In the Greek the phrase is “δύναμις γαρ θεου” This is a greater descriptive for us because Dunamis is the Greek word from which we get our word Dynamite. Let us consider, therefore, that we are the Dynamite of God.

Quite a few years ago, around 2,500 years to be exact, a Greek named Democritus first coined the term “Atom” as a small particle which cannot be further divided. Man however, in his search for power was able to manipulate the atom from which we ultimately saw its explosive power when split at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. This was power beyond man’s comprehension, the power to destroy a whole city, total annihilation. Thousands killed and thousands more made homeless while children became orphans and others were maimed for life. This was a terrible destructive power, the destructive power of man.

Then came 1954 and an ever greater destructive power came into being, the Hydrogen fusion Bomb. At the island test site, it destroyed the entire island and blew open a hole thousands of feet long and wide in the ocean floor. The effects were felt many miles away and many years later but scientists say that this explosive force was just a baby in comparison to what we have now. Some scientists even claim that they are now capable of setting off chain reactions that could destroy the entire world.

Time is short in our lives as Bible prophecy is being fulfilled every day. Jesus’ second coming draws closer every day and too many are lost and they reason like the rich fool in Luke 12:19, “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”

It is time for us as a Christian Nation to wake up, blow up, or blow away. I say we must wake up. Look at Romans again, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto Salvation to everyone that believeth…” Yes the Gospel of God is the Dynamite of God, but like all dynamite it has to have a fuse to set it off; something that has some fire to touch it off and make it do its job. What it was created to do! That’s where your life comes in believer; your life is the fuse. Your existence must be joined to God’s existence so that the creative spark of God is able to explode into creative life through you.

But why is it that the world is in the condition it is in today? Man, created in God’s image and likeness is set against man the world over, even filtering down to our own political arenas! War, strife, unrest, apathy, ignorance. Why is the church in this same condition today? Churches battling other churches, unrest in the congregations, apathy towards God, falling attendance, and even universal salvation, feel good messages being promulgated as truth.

To tell you the truth, most people who call themselves “Christians”, people who have the dynamite of God within them, have wet fuses. They just won’t explode into anything creative for God or even their own lives. They are scared and in a state of ignorance. A wet fuse coupled with God’s dynamite is as much good as a damp fuse for man’s dynamite. Things won’t work as planned.

We must realize what a power we have within the existence of God. We must realize that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We must realize that Jesus is still on His throne at the right hand of God. Most of all we must realize we have to find a way to dry out our wet fuse and catch on fire for God in order to be the creative force that God has created us to be in this world that He gave us dominion over. There should be no abrogation to some third, forth or fifth party because we are all created to do a job, a creative job that takes the creative power of God in our lives to accomplish. We must accomplish it, not someone else. We must stop being afraid like the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai and draw near to God and His power.

Do you have a husband, wife, son or daughter that is outside of a relationship with Jesus? Do you love them? Do you want to spend eternity with them? Then you must win them to Jesus. How? By incorporating Him into your life and existence in such a manner that you become on fire for God. By getting on fire for God you can light the fuse to the dynamite that will explode with such a creative force that it will present to others a Jesus that fulfills all needs and wants and who can give them eternal life in the hereafter and joy unspeakable in the now.

Christians, your fuses have been wet for too long now. Only until we get on fire for God can we ever hope to grow or ever hope to win our relatives, friends, and communities and finally the world to Jesus. It has to start with you.

You say, “But what can I do? I’m just one person.” Well, what did Paul do? He went to where God called him to go and did what God called him to do. And no matter what you’d like to believe, you’re no different than him. He carried the dynamite of God to the known world of his day. We can all do the same today.

Time is growing short for man’s stay on the earth and more people may depend on what we decide to do with Jesus than you think.

We have a potential force within our grasp and our being such as never has been known before. We have a force so great that if we would ever dry our fuses and light them with God we would set off a force so powerful that instead of setting off a chain reaction that would destroy the world it would set off a chain reaction and save it. Today, we can have a second Pentecost or a second Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It just depends upon you.

You may say you love Christ. You may say you do believe His Gospel is the power or dynamite of God unto salvation. You may say you do want Him as your savior. You may say you do want to confess Him before man. You may say you do want to be a part of His second Pentecost. You may say you want to give your life to Him. You may say you want to become a member of Jesus’ Kingdom. Then get down on your knees and begin to pray, pray for God to light your fuse by helping you exist within God’s own existence and unify your will within His will. Accept Jesus’ reign in your life and through His Blood Covenant and His Baptism experience His forgiveness for your sins and explode in power in your own life as you go forth in His Kingdom here on the earth today.

Page 2 of 4

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén

Translate »