The Truths I Was Never Told Acceptance of the facts I discovered would transform my basic understanding of the Word, opening my blind eyes and bringing me to proper worship. This quest for Bible-based knowledge was nothing less than exhilarating! The more I dug into the Word the more the Scriptures began to make sense. I was blown over by the harmony in the Word. Yahweh’s ordained worship is a continuum from Genesis through Revelation. By stripping away unsupported and erroneous doctrines and observances, I found that the more error I tossed out the more insight I was given. I would realize to my total shock that countless popular beliefs and teachings have no backing in the Scriptures! Here is some of what I discovered: • I had searched for answers as to why I was worshiping on the first day of the week when the Fourth Commandment clearly teaches that the seventh day is the Sabbath. I was told the day of worship was changed in the New Testament with the Savior’s resurrection on the first day of the week. My minister explained that although the seventh day is really the scriptural Sabbath, I must observe Sunday as the Lord’s day. Yet, I found no New Testament support for such a change and nothing about a change in the Sabbath because of a resurrection day. Instead, I read that our Savior observed the seventh day Himself and so did His followers. His apostles, including Paul and Peter, James and John, continued to observe the seventh-day Sabbath and met for worship on the seventh day of the week long after the Messiah was resurrected. If His resurrection permanently changed the day of worship, then why didn’t the apostles ever switch THEIR Sabbath worship over to Sunday? I wondered. To my surprise, I learned that the Savior’s resurrection was not on Sunday morning anyway, but had taken place just before sunset on Saturday—exactly three days and nights from the time He was laid in the tomb, just as He promised in Matthew 12:40 as the one signature proof of His Messiahship. • Why did my church celebrate worldly holidays that were nowhere in the Bible, while ignoring the commanded annual Feast days repeatedly taught in Old and New testaments and celebrated all through the pages of Scripture? Who authorized these changes, I wondered. I could not get a satisfactory answer. The minister said, Just accept it on faith, and yet 1Thessalonians 5:21 told me to prove all things and hold fast to what is right. I could not accept what I could not support from the Bible. • I also wanted to know why I had been taught that the Old Testament had no relevance today, even though it was the very Bible used by the Messiah, His disciples, and all the early New Testament believers. In fact, it was the only Bible they had because the New Testament had not yet been written or codified. That would not happen for decades. If the New Testament had changed the worship of the Old Testament, then my Savior and His immediate disciples all worshiped in error because they still honored Old Testament teachings. If the Old Testament was my Savior’s teaching text, why shouldn’t it be my Scriptures as well? Was I not to do exactly what the Messiah did and follow His teachings? Is He not my judge? (2Timothy 4:1) • For some mystifying reason I was never told that my Heavenly Father has a personal name, Yahweh, and that He expected me to call Him by that Name and not by common, generic titles. Once the blinders came off my eyes I found hundreds of references to His Name in both Testaments, along with many clear admonishments that I was to honor and use His Name. I found the short form of the Father’s Name Yahweh (Yah) in many notable Bible names like IsaYah, JeremiYah, Yahel (Joel) and even in the word common term HalleluYah (which in Hebrew means Praise Yah). I had found the short form of His Name (Yah) in Psalm 68:4 of the King James Version. And even more astounding, His Name exists almost 7,000 times in the Hebrew text from which the the Old Testament is translated! Yet, no one in the church ever said a thing about it. In light of these facts I was stunned by the universal silence when it came to His revealed, personal Name. • Also puzzling was the fact that the Savior was born of Hebrew parents, yet He is called by a Latinized-Greek name today. What was the Son’s original and true name, I wondered? I needed to find out and then begin calling Him by His legitimate Name, the only Name given for salvation, Acts 4:12. Once I learned the correct Name of the Savior, Yahshua, I had a new appreciation for His statement that He came in His Father’s Name (John 5:43), that the Father’s Name was in His own (Exodus 23:21), and that His Name reflected salvation. None of which had made any sense with the incorrect Greek name He is typically known by. I spent years looking for answers to these and other basic questions. Surely somewhere people were faithful to the Word in all things and I needed to find them. The Messiah Yahshua had said that the gates of the grave would not prevail against the true Body of believers, meaning there would always be a remnant group carrying on the original faith and worship taught in the Bible, Matthew 16:18. It would not be a large, prominent denomination because the Messiah had said to His faithful, Fear not LITTLE flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, Luke 12:32. He also taught that the way of truth was narrow and few would find it, Matthew 7:14. The universal blindness I saw in the world of faith now made sense. I realized that I had to walk in all the light I was being given. My newfound understanding was refreshing and exciting. Being blessed with this incredible knowledge, I soon realized that I was responsible to follow what I was learning. I was grateful that after much diligent study and effort I found the answers I had long searched for.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 12:11:36 +0000
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