Baptism, A New Beginning (Part 1) By Michael Didier - WeAreIsrael.org The Statue of Liberty has welcomed immigrants to America for more that 110 years. People have been drawn here from all over the world by the hope of freedom, a new way of life and a new start. The process by which people become citizens of a new country is called naturalization. The naturalization process of leaving one nation and joining oneself to another requires three things. A renunciation of the old country and ruler The swearing of allegiance to the new country and ruler Adherence to the laws of the new country The creator said, “I am Yehovah (the LORD) your Elohim (lawmaker and judge), who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other elohim but Me.” (Exo 20:2-3) Yeshua (Jesus) said the same thing! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other …” Mat 6:24 Unlike Yehovah’s kingdom, many kingdoms of the world including the US Government allow dual citizenship. The U.S. Government recognizes that dual citizenship exists, but does not endorse it as a matter of policy because of the problems that it may cause. Dual citizens owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country. They are required to obey the laws of both countries.” (uscitizenship.info/uscitizenship-dual-citizen.htm) There were people in Yeshua’s time who wanted to leave their country of birth and join themselves to Israel. In this series of writings we are going to talk about what their naturalization process entailed and see if Yeshua started something new. Many people today believe that Yeshua did begin something new when he supposedly “instituted baptism.” If you recall, we did find out in the 2nd part of my “Born Again” series that Yeshua did not create something new when he told his disciples to “Remember him,” when they broke bread with one another. We found that he changed a tradition, but he did not create a new law. And he was certainly NOT celebrating Passover at that last dinner. Yeshua was prohibited from adding to or subtracting from any of Yehovah’s instructions given to us, and him, through Moses. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yehovah your God which I command you. Deu 4:2 So, if Yeshua did not add baptism, what are its roots and what are its implications? We are going to see what baptism meant to the Israelites who were left in the land, primarily Jews (short for Judah), during Yeshua’s time. We will see how unusual it was for a supposed Israelite to be baptized into Israel until John came along with his baptism of repentance. The Ger joins himself to Israel! A foreign man coming into Israel with his family was referred to by the Jews of Yeshua’s time as a proselyte or “ger.” Note: I must interrupt the flow for a moment to say this. When ever I use a translation, a lexicon, a dictionary, a commentary, a concordance or even listen to a teacher I always compare what they say in light of the scriptures that Yeshua, Paul , Peter, James, John and Jude all taught from which is Moses and the Prophets! We must all be good Bereans who listen to what someone says and then search the scriptures to see if what was said, is so. To the Torah and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isa 8:20) Many men, sadly – most men, who write our study tools and teach Yehovah’s word have never repented and turned to Yehovah’s ways and it is for this reason that Jeremiah says, O Yehovah, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.” (Jer 16:19) That said, here is a definition from a Jewish website on the “proselyte”which says, The proselytes were converts from heathenism to Judaism. The Greek original of the term, proselytos, is not found in classical authors, and was evidently borrowed from colloquial speech by the Septuagint as an equivalent for the Hebrew word “ger.” If we know Torah we know that the Creator did NOT intend people to turn from heathenism to Judaism. But what is interesting here is to understand that the proselyte in the Greek is the ger in Hebrew. I study for the most part with the New King James Version of the scriptures but constantly refer to the Hebrew as to not be led astray. One reason I like the NKJV is because it distinguishes between the ger who is joining himself to Yehovah and His people, by calling that man a “stranger” and the man from any other nation of the world (the Gentile) as a “foreigner” or a “sojourner,” both of whom are also distinctly different people. King James and many other translations are very sloppy in their translations of these Hebrew words and thereby mislead the reader. The Scribes and Pharisees were criticized by Yeshua who said they brought the proselyte in and did not teach them correct ways to live. Instead of teaching the ger to live according to Torah they taught them to live according to the doctrines and commandments of men, found in Judaism. “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Mat 23:15 This wickedness is still going on to this day in Judaism and Christianity; we are not allowed to add to or subtract from Yehovah’s ways. Our only safety is in following Moses and the Prophets; nothing more and nothing less! In part 2 of this teaching on “Baptism – A New Beginning” we will look at how a man from a foreign nation is naturalized or joined exclusively to Yehovah and His set apart people. Continue to Part 2
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 18:08:28 +0000
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