Our Last Hanukkah: The Gospel vs. The Sword

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Sermons Series 3:71, 30 December 2006

Our Last Hanukkah

The Gospel vs. The Sword

Main Themes:
Minor Themes:

Brethren and sisters, I welcome you in Yah'shua's Name to this first Sabbath meeting after the Hanukkah festivities with a message for you - a very important message - that Yahweh gave me last Yom Rishon (Sunday). It's about Hanukkah but it's also about something that is above Hanukkah. For eight days we have been celebrating the Feast of Dedication and for the last few years - but in particular the last two - we have been stripping away all the pagan accretions. But Yahweh told me last Yom Rishon that that is not enough - He wants us also to strip away all the trappings of nationalism that erect new walls of partition between peoples, because the Good News of Yah'shua the Messiah is not about Judahites or Jews vs. Greeks or Syrians but about the multinational family of Yahweh vs. the multinational family of Satan.

Last week we looked at the Mosaic ordinance of circumcision which was an ordinance commanded by Yahweh bringing a family into a covenant with Him - a family that would eventually be renamed Israel. He created that family, which became a nation, to be a light to all the nations. And then He sent His Son Yah'shua, ripped down that national wall of partition (Eph.2:14-16), and admitted people from all nations into the Covenant Nation of Israel, abolishing the ordinance of circumcision (which had been compulsory, only for males, and usually shortly after birth) and replacing it with the ordinance of baptism by full immersion into water for those who old enough to believe and make a reasoned choice, which admitted both Jews and gentiles and women. Paul said to the Galatians:

"For as many of you as have been immersed into Moshiach (Messiah) have put on Moshiach (Messiah). There is neither Yahudi (Jew/Judahite) nor Aramean nor Greek, there is neither eved (servant/slave) not free, and there is neither male nor female; for you are kol Israel echad (one) in the Moshiach (Messiah) Yah'shua. And if you are Moshiach's, then you are Avraham's (Abraham's) zera (seed)"

In Yah'shua the Messiah, Yahweh pays no attention whatsoever to your national or ethnic origin as far as qualifying to be a part of the Israelite national covenant. He just isn't interested in such distinctives. He is not interested in your racial origin. And whilst once a special seed was set-apart or made holy by covenant (Ezra 9:2) He has now cut off that race which refused to accept the King of Israel and His Kingdom and grafted on all the races of the world into Israel. Indeed, Yahweh has always been doing this. He has, throughout Israelite history, been grafting in Egyptians, Arameans, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Syrians, Canaanites, Moabites - anyone who is willing to follow Him. Over the course of time, this spiritual process of assimilation of different nations and races into the National Covenant assumed nationalistic proportions and it was this nationalism that created an artificial wall of partition. Yahweh detests all Herrenvolk doctrines whether it is Nazism, Zionism or any other kind of -ism that would artificially divide human beings on the basis of genetics or skin colour. There is only one race, the race of Adam, to which we all belong. Scripture says:

"He (Yahweh) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth"

Admission to New Covenant Israel is not on the basis of a genetic or blood relationship to Abraham, Jacob or Judah but on the basis of our relationship to the Messiah who creates and sustains New Covenant or Messianic Israel and by this our relationship to Abraham is defined. We can come in as natural branches (in direct descent from Abraham) or as wild branches (not in direct genetic descent from Abraham). Is there an advantage to being a natural branch? Definitely - Paul says so - because they are the inheritors of the generational blessings of Abraham when they choose Messiah and the more naturally 'fit in' to Messianic Israel - that's why they are called "natural branches" (Rom.12:24). Nevertheless we are all 'one blood'. The only separation between men that Yahweh permits is separation on the basis of covenant and set-apartness. He draws out those who love Him from those who do not, sets them apart (making them holy) and gives them a unique lifestyle, to which they naturally, joyfully and spontaneously react in positive affirmation, which mark them out as being His. Thus it is written:

"Praise be to the Elohim and Father of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Messiah. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Yah'shua the Messiah, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of Elohim's grace"

This ministry and assembly does not recognise the pre-eminence of any race, be it Jewish, white Protestant, black Rastafarian or anything like that. We don't care what colour you are or what Yah'shua was. We don't care if you were born Jewish or Greek, American Caucasian or South African black. We don't care what your social background or status is or was, whether you are educated or not, whether you have certain spiritual gifts or not, whether you are rich or poor, from happy or dysfunctional backgrounds. All we care about is whether you love Yahweh with your whole might, mind and strength, whether you accept Yah'shua as your Master and Deliver and surrender fully to Him, whether you love His commandments and desire to obey New Covenant Torah with your whole heart, and whether you love All Truth, and will actively strive to overcome error and sin. Above all we welcome those who are real, honest, genuine, and aren't playing games. If these things are your heart's desire, then you are welcome to this Mishpachah because that is what we are about in our totality.

Before we say farewell to Hanukkah this year we do need to address the important and thorny subject of racial bigotry which is infecting Messianism and some parts of Protestantism. We need to again take a look at the historical roots of Hanukkah and discern some dark seeds latent within it that must be firmly and totally removed. We can't allow them to remain and possibly sprout up in the future. So what I have to say today is by way of an official statement for this Mishpachah as well.

Over the years we have liberally referred to Antiochus Epiphanes as an 'antichrist'. We have done this not only because of what he did to the covenant remnant of Judah and to its people but also because of the name he gave himself, namely 'Epiphanes'. Those of you from traditional Protestant or Catholic backgrounds will, I am sure, be aware that in the orthodox calendar there is a time of the year which is designated 'Epiphany'. This is taken from a Greek word and literally means 'elohim manifest' or 'god manifest'. Antiochus IV called himself 'Epiphanes' because he claimed to be 'god manifest' - he claimed to be an incarnated deity! He claimed to be what only Yah'shua the Messiah is, namely 'Elohim manifest' or 'Elohim in the flesh'. His blasphemy in the temple at Jerusalem, setting up a statue to Zeus (the father-god of the pagan Greeks, known also as Jupiter by the Romans, but more accurately known as Satan) and then offering an unkosher pig in sacrifice to it, sparked a revolt in 167 BC which led to the liberation of Judea from the Greek Syrians by force of arms.

It is also worth remembering that Antiochus IV was not himself a Greek but a Jew who adopted pagan Greek culture and appointed other Hellenised Jews as his political cronies such as the High Priest and his army. Three years later after the 'abomination of desolation' had been set up in Yahweh's House, Judah Maccabee and his Judahite warriors overthrew the Syrian régime and recaptured the Temple.

I want you to note something very important about this man and his partisans. For though the revolt was undoubtedly justified in terms of overthrowing a murderous evil, it was not actually the best solution, because the origin of the problem was the apostasy of the people and their compromise with the truth. These Maccabee warriors - these heroes of Orthodox Judaism and of most contemporary Messianics, became the inspiration for the zealots in Yah'shua's day.

As I told you last Sabbath, the first Hanukkah didn't last, neither did the new state of Judea, because it was founded on two principles that are entirely alien to the Gospel: fury and murder. Nations that are formed on the foundation of military revolution do not last and do not produce the fruits of righteousness. When Yah'shua came, Israel was looking for another political liberator like Judah Maccabee. The Jews wanted to repeat the revolt which led to their brief independence as the Judean nation. These Maccabees or Hasmoneans, as they were called, may have been very zealous - just as the zealots were in Yah'shua's day - but they lacked spirituality. Within 65 years they were so drunk with power that one of their leaders, Alexander Janneus (note the un-Hebrew name), cruelly put down a revolt by the Pharisees who challenged his corruption, and ordered his Jewish soldiers to crucify 800 Pharisees. But his bloodlust was not satiated because while these Pharisees were hanging on crosses, dying the same agonising death that Yah'shua was to a century and a half later, Alexander Janneus ordered his troops to slit the throats of the wives and children of these men right in front of their very eyes (Josephus, Antiquities, 13:14:2). The spirit of Satan has no self-restraint - it wants to utterly devastate, humiliate and trample down, and can't stop until there is nothing left to defile.

Now I mention this piece of gruesome history to remind you just how easy it is for nationalism, power-lust and evil to supplant true spirituality and theocracy. And as I told you last week, the bloodthirsty Hasmoneans were quite happy to forcibly convert and circumcise non-Jews such as the Idumeans. The descendants of these forced converts, who intermarried with the Judahites, rule the modern Israeli Republic today as Illuminists and are the power behind Zionism. This Khazar-Edomite Republic is literally another Maccabeean Judea in our time. It looks, in some respects, like the 'genuine article - at least on the surface - but the reality beneath the surface is very different.

The Maccabees Revolt produced no liberty for anyone. Neither did the revolts that took place in Yah'shua's day or in the generation after Him. The last one led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Tenth Roman Legion, as Yah'shua had prophesied, and to the destruction of Masada after all its inhabitants had committed suicide, leading to the scattering of the Judeans throughout the world and the end of their nation. And there they mostly remain today because the vast majority of 'Jews' living in the Israeli Republic - probably over 90% of them - are not descendants of Abraham, Jacob or Judah.

That, brethren and sisters, is the legacy of violent revolution. Was the insurrection inevitable? Could Judea have been liberated from Antiochus IV by prayer and spiritual reformation? Of course! Look at the history of Israel and Judah! Read through Kings and Chronicles. Didn't Yahweh do mighty miracles for such as King Hezekiah when their monarchs trusted and obeyed Yahweh? The problem with the Maccabeean revolt was that it was the 'second best thing' and was a worldly solution that could not produce lasting fruits. Judas Iscariot, himself a Zealot, belonged to a political party identical to that of the Maccabees, wanted Yah'shua to be a revolutionary Judah Maccabee, aided with some supernatural power, and ended up selling Him for a few coins to a murderous gang of imposters claiming to represent Yahweh in the most infamous act of betrayal in all history.

Today's Hanukkah, celebrated by Jews and Messianics alike, has become a commercial festival not at all unlike Christmas and is, as we have already seen, saturated with paganism and Talmudism. Worse, in my view, is that it, like Purim, has become a focus for Jewish nationalism and Zionism, the very forces that created the Maccabeean revolt, the very forces that left no true spiritual foundation, the very forces that tried to revolt against the Romans and failed, the very forces that Yah'shua resolutely opposed! He gave the zealots of His day no grounds for satisfaction - indeed, many of them viewed Him with contempt as a reactionary Roman ally when He taught that we should "give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" (Lk.20:25) and refused all association with armed revolt. Yah'shua's Kingdom, like Yah'shua Himself, was not of this world - it was not of this world's political system, did not employ its methods, and could never ever be established by the sword.

Today I want us to ask ourselves this very important question: was Yah'shua's teaching on the Feast of Dedication, as recorded in John 10:22-23, an endorsement of Hanukkah? We have usually assumed that it was (and we really can't do much more than assume since we don't actually know). If He had been here in our time and the scene was Christmas outside St.Paul's Cathedral in London or the Vatican in Rome - a pagan festival that has lots of lights too - would Yah'shua have given essentially the same message as we find in the Gospel of John?

John does not tell us that Yah'shua was celebrating Hanukkah, only walking in the temple grounds. There is actually more compelling evidence to suppose that He was not observing Hanukkah than that He was. How can we know that? Because of the wider context of Chapter 10 in that Gospel. Paul Sumner summarises what this teaching was:

"Good shepherds protect the sheep, bad ones abandon them to wolves. God (Elohim) put Yeshua (Yah'shua) over his sheep as shepherd, and Yeshua (Yah'shua) will give his life for them. But not all of them belong to the Father—only those who obey the shepherd's voice. Some of those obedient sheep will be Gentiles, not of the Jewish fold. And the shepherd must gather them too in order to form "one flock" of believing Jews and Gentiles. This is God's (Elohim's) work. This is the essence of the Abraham Covenant"

Hanukkah and Yeshua

That was His bold teaching around Hanukkah. The place was swarming with people whose minds were filled with the Maccabee story and it was to that mindframe that He spoke. And in that atmosphere, His words were viewed as an outrage! Paul Sumner imagines what these people were thinking:

"Bringing Gentiles into the holy flock! The whole point of our Festival was to throw them and their wicked influence out and celebrate Jewish distinctives! Where is this man's call to expel the Romans and liberate his people? And what's this blasphemous language about some Jews not being authentic sheep? All Israel have a portion in the world to come. He can't be a true shepherd. This Yeshua of Nazareth is no Judah Maccabee" (Op.cit.).

The result was a division - do you remember what they said?

"At these words the Jews were again divided. Many of them said, 'He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to Him?' But others said, 'These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?'" (John 10:19-21, NIV).

Well, if that wasn't enough, Yah'shua continued to say things that hit at the very nerve of nationalism. The "final outrage", as Paul Sumner calls it, was announcing that He and Yahweh were echad or one. They accused Yah'shua of blasphemy and went into a self-righteous and murderous rage. Here was a Judahite telling His own people that He was Yahweh's Shepherd, which meant Israel's King, and that no one could get into the flock - into the Kingdom of Israel - except through Him! And then He had the audacity to declare that He was going to bring non-Jews into the House of Yahweh! And that He and Yahweh were of one mind concerning all the good works He had done.

Here was Yah'shua telling the Hanukkah celebrants that Elohim was manifesting Himself in an epiphany in His Shepherd, as His Messiah, as His Son - but as a humble suffering-Servant and not as a Hasmonean-type warrior in the image of Judah Maccabee! Imagine the people who have come in this fervent nationalistic spirit, at a time when the Roman garrisons must have been on full alert waiting for a riot any time, and said the very opposite of what they were expecting their Messiah to do and be during this 'Golden Calf' ceremony of theirs!

Nearly two centuries before, Maccabeean zealots contended with a Greek Syrian whose name meant 'Elohim manifest', the very title that belonged exclusively to Yah'shua! And here was a fellow Judahite who was seemingly saying the same thing as Antiochus Epiphanes by claiming to uniquely speak in Elohim's Name and Power!! Can you imagine the rage that that must have provoked! Later they said that He deserved to die for making Himself out to be the Son of Elohim (John 19:7).

Well, Yah'shua went and defended Himself and quoted Scripture to show that He wasn't being blasphemous (Jn.10:31-39) - He showed how Israel's righteous judges were called elohim too - but they would not listen. They would not accept Him as the Shepherd-King over their flock. They wanted a new Judah Maccabee! They wanted a revolutionary warrior who would spill blood as the Hasmoneans done and violently drive the heathen Romans out of the Holy Land! They wanted clashing swords, high drama, the rush of blood that comes with a fight, so that they could celebrate another nationalist triumph and build a powerful military state as Solomon, who turned his people into slaves, had once done.

Now does it sound to you, in the light of what actually happened on that Hanukkah, that Yah'shua endorsed the Hanukkah celebrations? How could He have done?! And the prime reason He could not have done was because the historical essence of the festival was that it endorsed liberty through war and self-effort, and not the life-redeeming, intervening power of Yahweh! What about the miracle of the cruse of oil? As we discussed last year, there is no evidence that this actually happened and that it was likely an invention of the Talmudic Rabbis to support their view of salvation and redemption - by the sword - through military conquest, by means of one of the temptations of Satan to Yah'shua when He was out in the wilderness!

What of other reasons that Yah'shua could not have endorsed the festival? It was rabidly anti-gentile and Yah'shua was pro-gentile because He was pro-all people. Moreover, as we know elsewhere in the Gospels, Yah'shua refused to promote a Maccabeean-type rebellion against Caesar - Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, knew this and acquitted Him of all guilt in this area. Also, Hanukkah is not a biblically mandated festival of Yahweh. And finally, the spirit of the temple leaders was unreceptive to a man who came as Yahweh's Son to liberate people from sin. Political power was far more important to them just as it had been to the Hasmoneans.

There can be no doubt that the Maccabees were courageous, but then so was King Saul. I can think of a lot of courageous people - Alexander the Great was a courageous warrior, Adolf Hitler was a brave front line soldier in the First World War. Courage is a virtue but it is not enough to create righteousness. The Maccabees were not the heroes of the historical faith given through Moses - the faith that pointed to Yah'shua which gives lasting salvation. They were not like Joshua, who was a type of Yah'shua, at all. Judah Maccabee was a warrior-prince who slaughtered gentile and apostate Judahites in the Name of Yahweh and Torah. He was not a Good Shepherd and did not love people the way Yah'shua did. And yet he is the hero of non-Messianic and Messianic Jews alike who are united by the common cause of Jewish nationalism just as the Maccabees and Zealots were. Judah Maccabee did not have the Abraham vision of blessing the nations (Gen.12) and was willing to kill anyone who threatened his religion. Yah'shua wasn't. He wanted to gather everyone into One True Faith and treated everyone alike. Yah'shua did not ignite a revolt against the Romans, and neither did the apostles after Him, even though they were defiling the City of Yahweh. Instead He taught His disciples to pray for their enemies and to "be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36, NIV) because only by winning your enemy for Yahweh will you ever bring about lasting peace, because this alone is the true spirit of repentance. This alone is the foundation of His Kingdom.

As Yah'shua was wandering around the Outer Court of the Temple in Jerusalem He must surely have sensed 'another spirit' - a dark, foreboding and murderous spirit - that was ready to accuse Him to death - a spirit that totally and utterly clashed with His mission to redeem. His own zeal burned for Yahweh's House - to cleanse it of chauvinistic defilement and commercialism, and make it "a house of prayer for all nations" (Isa.56:7, NIV; Mt.21:13) - a welcome to all the foreigners and outcasts who desired to unite with Yahweh and the Covenant Nation (Isa.56:6):

"Yahweh-Elohim declares -- He who gathers the exiles of Israel: 'I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered'" (Isa.56:8, NIV).

That is the ancient prophetic vision and it must uncompromisingly be ours too. We adamantly refuse to be caught up in contemporary Zionism or Jewish nationalism. It has nothing to do with Yahweh, Yah'shua, the Gospel, or true believers any more than the Zionist's enemies in the Middle East have. Zionism has nothing to do with true Messianism and those who flirt with it and court it might just as well be getting into bed with the Maccabees and Zealots of old. Hanukkah did not then, and still does not today, promote the true vision of our Heavenly Father and so must be rejected. We can, and should, remember it as an historical lesson with a spiritual message to us, and as a reminder of what we should be doing, but we absolutely cannot enter into it as a celebration any more. We don't need a second Sukkot, however nice that may sound, because we already have one and Yahweh evidently thought it was enough for the centuries that preceded Hanukkah. The only reason they celebrated a second Sukkot was because they didn't have the possibility of celebrating it at the right time. 'Better late than never' doesn't justify two celebrations subsequently. They were perfectly right to celebrate a late Sukkot then but that should have been the end of it.

We therefore find ourselves in quite an interesting position. This would not be the first time we have tried to purify something and found that what is left is just a lifeless skeleton, or at worse, a rotting carcass that poisons the redemptive work we are engaged in. In the past, Yahweh has revealed things directly to us and told us to make sudden changes, but also in the past He has led us through a process of gradual discovery so that we might fully understand why He does not want us to do or believe in certain things, and so as to be a witness to others asking similar questions as they seek their way out of the quagmire of false religion. For the work of the Ruach haQodesh is both reformatory and restorative. We have always claimed to be both a Reformation (much as the Protestants were, but taking the work of Martin Luther much farther) and a Restoration (as Yah'shua was) and have understood these two processes to be working side-by-side in our spiritual life. Some things changed dramatically and some gradually in our history.

Next year we will not be celebrating Hanukkah with all the ritual candle lighting and prayers. I know that the children will probably initially miss all the lights just as children converting from Christmas initially miss all the decorations and illuminated Christmas trees. We will memorialise it in the same way as we do Purim, another violent and nationalistic Judahite festival that really is completely contrary to the mission of the Messiah. We will have discussions and teach the lessons that we have been learning over the years about how not to bring in the Kingdom of Yahweh and how to prepare for the days ahead.

Our watchword is 'all truth' but to live by that we must swallow all pride and be prepared to be corrected. Hanukkah is not what it seems to be. We should remember the wise words of Jewish Rabbi Daniel Kohn who said:

"The lighting of the Menorah is not a farce, it has profound spiritual and religious significance. ... the historical elements which led to the Talmudic Rabbis shifting the focus of the Hanukkah story from that of a military victory to that of a miracle of a cruse of oil... After peace had been re-established with the Seleucids after the Maccabean War, the Hasmoneans refused to retire. They kept the elements of their guerilla army intact and CONTINUED the war as a civil war against the Seleucids and Hellenised Jews in Jerusalem... The Maccabees then commissioned an official history of their victory, called I Maccabees. It was unabashedly pro-Maccabean because they paid for it and therefore it is pure propaganda... The Hasidim (Jewish loyalists who had been against the Hellenising Jews) were scandalised by Maccabees for declaring themselves both worldly and temporal powers! They formed a new political opposition party called the Perushim (Pharisees) -- the separatists, and bitterly hated the Maccabees. These Perushim eventually evolved into the Rabbis who wrote the Mishnah and Talmud -- and they kept their hate for the Maccabees alive. After all, the Maccabees, in their eyes, had committed blasphemy by combining the powers of the kingship with that of the priesthood...

"Over the next 100 years, the Maccabees used their military might to expand the Jewish kingdom, forcibly converting the Idumeans to Judaism... They epitomised the worst in military dictatorship... The more successful the Maccabees became, the wealthier and more Hellenistic they became!... they ended up becoming the single most successful Hellenising force in Jewish society!...the Maccabean Kingdom was conquered by the Romans, and by the time the Rabbis, heirs of the Perushim and Hasidim, edited the Talmud, the land of Israel had known tremendous loss of life and destruction due to vainglorious military resistance and rebellion against Roman might. The martial memories of the Maccabees were no longer seen as reminders of a glorious past but dangerous, seditious influences which must be suppressed at all costs ... The rabbis feared glorifying a martial past while still occupied and oppressed... The myth of the cruse of oil masked the truth about Hanukkah for centuries. The rabbis may have deliberately lied about the military origins and Hellenistic causes of Hanukkah in order to maintain the holiday but shifted its focus to God and more religious themes out of a greater need for survival!..."

http://jewish.com/askarabbi/askarabbi/askr622.htm

And so we see Hanukkah serving the self-interests, first, of the Maccabees and, second, the Pharisees who were prepare to lie in order to stub their enemies and save their own skins. Hanukkah is a story of worldly political intrigue, or devious priestcraft and is of a spirit we should be repulsed by.

In the light of these truths we have absolutely no choice but to reject Hanukkah celebration and to declare that it was Hanukkah's satanic elements that ultimately nailed Yah'shua to a cross! By celebrating Hanukkah we have, unknowingly, been honouring antichrist - the very type in the person of Aniochus Epiphanes whom supposedly the festival is dishonouring. We have, in Hanukkah, a good cop/bad cop set-up, and Messianic Jews and Israelites everywhere have been falling for it, including ourselves until we knew better. Therefore we are repenting of our involvement in this festival and are setting it aside - for good. It can no longer be viewed as 'permissive' or an 'option' - it is a snare to our souls.

There will be no more 9-armed candlesticks - Yahweh never authorised them - He only ever authorised the seven-armed Menorah. Where in the Bible is there a divine symbolism for the number 9 anyway? There isn't. We can make deductions from the combinations of other biblical numbers but as a number 9 has no direct meaning in Torah. It does, however, have important occultic significance and was especially sacred to the ancient pagan Greeks because to them it symbolised the 9 muses or sister-goddesses, the daughters of Zeus (Satan) and Mnenosyne who were believed to preside over man's activities on the earth. The number 9 was also sacred to the Etruscans and Romans. The Romans honoured the goddess Nundina by holding a purification ceremony for male infants on their ninth day of life. In addition, every ninth year the Romans held a feast in memory of the dead. Nine is also a sacred number amongst Freemasons. Satanists particularly revere the number 9 because it is 6 in reverse which as 666 makes up the number of the beast (Rev.13:18). The famous occultist and palmist Cheiro said of the number 9:

"Number 9 persons are fighters in all they attempt in life. They usually have difficult times in their early years but generally are in the end successful by their grit, strong will and determination. They are hasty in temper, impulsive, independent and desire to be their own masters"

Am I imagining things, or am I seeing 'strange coincidences' with this 9-armed candelabra of the Talmudists, occultism, and the revolutionary spirit of the Maccabees? Cheiro's description fits the nature of Maccabee rulers to a tick. It is also the sum of the Illuminati number, 333 (3+3+3=9), which translates in their occult language as 'total control' as well as being the number of the demon Choronzon.

There is something 'odd' about Hanukkah (or Chanukah - it is spelled in many different ways). Like Christmas it is the Talmudic festival amongst non-Messianic Jews, having grown in importance and significance over the years to the Jewish community. And whilst that may in part be a reaction to Christmas and a conscious attempt to 'counter' it, I sense that there is some occultic trickery in this festival too that goes back two millennia. It may be my imagination but for now I feel increasingly uneasy the more I research this topic. Hanukkah is not all what it appears to be and is a subtle mix of truth and lies designed to promote a nationalistic antichrist spirit which spelled the ruin of Israel and Judah so many times in the past. For nationalism is always the last retreat of a scoundrel.

Nine is the number of death. Yah'shua died on the ninth hour. And whilst 9 is just 'another number' to us and to those of us who are not superstitious, it has absolutely nothing to do with Yahweh's moedim or important biblical symbolism.

Last Yom Rishon as I sat down at my desk the Ruach haRishon opened my eyes to this Talmudic festival. I felt a deep remorse that I had even been involved in it. But I did so in ignorance, not fully knowing what it was. We have all done so. It is, however, my responsibility as a teacher for teaching it to you and so I want to publicly apologise about that now and officially retract all I have said supporting it in the past.

Therefore I have to state that Hanukkah is no longer a part of this fellowship's liturgical calendar.

I do feel a sense of relief - it is like a burden lifting. Last Sabbath was such an experience, as we knelt in front of the altar and repented of wrong choices in our lives. I believe that we shall experience this more and more as we renounce untruth in our lives and adhere solely to the truth which is in Yah'shua our Redeemer. I am beginning to see why Yahweh has told me to delay building the new web site -- it still isn't started. But it will come. We must get our own house fully in order before we go out to the world with our great message.

"What are we going to do during the darkest and coldest time of the year?" some of you may ask. We shall fill our homes with love and truth as we should be doing all the year round. If we feel a loss it will not be real because it won't be based on a genuine need. It may, in the end, simply have answered to fleshy desires to have 'an alternative to Christmas' as both festivals fall at roughly the same time.

Funnily enough - as an illustration of this - I was reading a magazine produced by a friend in Norway - who is a Protestant minister whom I have often challenged about Christmas celebration - who wrote an article justifying the retention of pagan syncretism. His excuse for returning to Christmas celebration was entirely emotional ... because he felt 'empty'. Well, I can understand that in a way. My own family abandoned Christmas and Easter years before we repented and started observing Yahweh's appointments and I do recall that whilst I felt a relief at having got rid of a pagan burden there was an 'emptiness' of sorts. We were made creatures of natural cycles and Yahweh, knowing that, gave us the festivals of Israel - all seven of them, plus the monthly New Moon and the weekly Sabbath. Think about it - we are a truly celebrating people! Every Yom Shabbat - every Friday evening - we have a celebration that last 24 hours! During the rest of the week we eat simply and frugally and then when the Sabbath begins we have a sumptuous feast to give thanks to Yahweh for His weekly providence for us. We by no means every feel empty, deprived or bored. It's the day the children get lots of extras as we have a great family get-together with Yahweh.

No, we're not going to miss Hanukkah - actually it was an extra burden that brought in a false spirit however much we tried to purify and reform it. It deflected us from what we should have been doing just as Christmas once did. And you know what? When Yahweh showed me last Yom Rishon that Hanukkah was wrong, my wife was busily trying to make a movie with the children about Hanukkah. Without knowing what was happening to me, a great heaviness came over her and she could not make the movie. By the time I shared the news with the family she had already abandoned the movie.

In conclusion, I feel led to share you a passage from Genesis that speaks of the time right before the Great Flood. Let me read it to you:

"And they (the animals) that went in [to the ark], went in male a female of all flesh, as Elohim had commanded him (Noah); and Yahweh shut him in"

Noah was abandoning the world system so completely that once he had completed the tasks Yahweh had assigned to him in gathering the animals in two's and seven's into the ark, Yahweh SHUT HIM IN. There was no way that that door could be reopened without the entire project coming to grief and the world being lost. The door to the deliverance to the whole of humankind was a wooden door on a boat. Now if someone had come to you before Noah built the ark and said: "To be saved, you must enter a door on a giant ship lying on the ground inland" you probably would have laughed at Him. And yet all those who refused to go through that door perished - all of them. They had their opportunity to choose - to believe - but when they refused, the time had passed for them and the door of deliverance was SHUT BEHIND THEM!

"Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name drive out demons and perform many miracles?"

Last week I was watching a film showing charismatics prophesying (supposedly), driving our demons (supposedly) and performing many miracles (supposedly). They were extremely busy doing these things, they were very fervent, very sincere, and totally convinced that they were being anointed by the 'Holy Ghost' as they writhed on the floor, some trying to undress, hooting and howling and the like. They were very zealous indeed and having a party! But you know what? They weren't in the ark - they were exposed to a huge demonic deception. And do you know why? Because they weren't doing what Yahweh told them to do.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ...Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

We dare not follow ourselves, tradition, or take the word of preachers without checking up what they say in the Bible and then checking it out again with Yahweh in prayer. We dare not! We dare not scoff at Yahweh's way and offer excuses. We dare not show disdain for a giant boat built inland nor to the 'strange' festivals that Yahweh gave to His Covenant people. We dare not! We dare not chop and change and decide what we 'feel' is right since how would we know anyway? There is only one way and that way is narrow and hard to find as I keep on telling you over and over again (Mt.7:14). There are plenty of 'broad ways' out there that turn us into evildoers and lead us to destruction. It's ironic, isn't it, that 'Broadway' in New York leads to the highest professional theatre district in the entire United States where people indulge in a Greek custom utterly foreign to Covenant Israel - acting in 39 different theatres.

Remember those theatres along with the hippodromes and stadiums in Antiochus' and Herod's days? There is no theatre in the Kingdom of Yahweh, ONLY REALITY. Christendom needs to wake up before Yahweh shuts that door. Please don't assume that just because I have said that we probably have another generation before the Antichrist assumes power that we can sit back and continue on in our merry lawless way? Today is the day of every man's and woman's salvation (2 Cor.6:2).

I have watched this year as one person after another has been transported by the Third Wave and taken back to where they started because they either would not choose or chose not to believe Yahweh. It has been heartbreaking, and it's still going on in the aftermath of that great and sudden movement of the Ruach. And now they are trying to 'explain things away' just like the false prophets did throughout Israelite history. Read up Jeremiah and Ezekiel for some good examples. And how easy it is to put on a false face of bravado, having refused Yahweh's call, and marched blithely into the fog and into an unknown and frightening future. And, yes, this world is frightening. We stand at the edge of many potential apocalypses. A showdown between the USA and Iran is brewing and looking more menacing every day. The Islamic world is aflame with a Maccabee-type thirst for revenge and conquest that could explode any moment. It is always calm before the storm, and calmness never meant that storms weren't coming. And even if Yah'shua doesn't come back until the next generation, if you miss your calling now it's going to be too late for you whether He comes while you're alive or not because He's waiting to come to you, now! As the Olive Branch teaches:

"If a man has not prepared the soil of his soul for the Word of Elohim like the farmer who prepares his field, and who then sows it with seed, then he shall not bring forth any harvest, for the seed shall be choked and burned (Mt.13:17-21; Mk.4:3-7; Lk.8:5-8). Can the seed grow in the desert? Can the Word of Elohim grow in a desolate and unfertilised soil? Thus the Son of Man does not come to the soul which is like a desert, unless that soul fertilises and waters the soil of its heart through repentance and faith in My Name ... He who is not born again, and whose soul is as a spiritual desert, shall hide himself in the desert and in secret chambers, for he shall not be willing to witness of the Messiah who has given him everlasting life"

It isn't enough to bury yourself in a Bible and think that by this means you are coming to Yahweh, if the soil of your heart is full of the rocks of unbelief. Before the seed can take root you have to choose Yah'shua and repent! Unbelievers open Bibles too and use them to attack believers. Satan did it to Yah'shua. The Olive Branch continues:

"By this key you may know who are My disciples and who are not My disciples. For he who is born of Me shall be like a light coming out of the east, and shines even to the west, and [the light] shall cover his whole soul (Mt.24:27). And thus I shall come to that man and swell within him like a mustard seed that grows into a great tree (Mt.13:31-32)"

Have you ever seen something swell? Well, a heart that has repented and is actively trusting swells with the Ruach too until it feels it is going to burst with love; and when it feels that bursting, it's only desire is to give that love to others so that the pain of love may be relieved and turn to joy! It isn't thinking of self and what it can get, only what it can release and give. When you are born of the Ruach you can't not share the wonderful love of Messiah because you would burst if you didn't. You certainly don't need to force yourself to love or act it out.

People tell me so often that they want this and yet they refuse to choose to die to self and give sovereignty to Yah'shua. For a seed to spout, it must first die. We must die to everything that is not of Him and let Him till our soil.

Last week I saw a vision of a woman who is struggling to be free of oppression. I saw her standing erect, still and solid like a piece of wood, her hair as straight as a ruler, as though she had been refrigerated. She was stiff-necked, stubborn and proud and would not repent. She wanted the world more than Yah'shua but wouldn't admit it and just carried on a pretence of being a Christian. She reads the Bible for hours every day, seeking solace and release, but keeps the door to her heart firmly shut. And she's not alone - so many do this, head for spiritual Broadway, and carry on a lifeless theatre in search of applause and accolades because they won't accept responsibility for their lives. They won't grow up, they want others to make their choices for them, they want others to choose being a Christian for them and to live out the Christian life for them.

Because Hanukkah is a good-cop/cop-bad cop set-up, it's easy to be either an Antiochus Epiphanes or a Judah Maccabee and seek to enforce enslavement or liberty by the sword for the sake of supposed 'good'. Antiochus believed Greek culture was superior and that Judaism was just a primitive, religious relic that had no place in the modern world. Judah Maccabee and his descendants believed that the Kingdom of Yahweh could be established by the sword and that the gentiles were untermensch (sub-humans, just as the nazis and extreme Orthodox Jews do) much as the Catholic Church has done in the past and just as Fundamentalist Islam thinks it can today because they believe that the end justifies the means. Yah'shua came to the world to remind us that the means means everything, because it is the means that establishes the quality and veracity of the end. As Yah'shua warned: "the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matt.11:12, NKJV).

But that is not Yah'shua's way, and it's not ours either. There are plenty of people out there who want to force you to belief or unbelief by violently attacking you with the sword or with the pen. They would happily grind you into the dirt to 'prove a point', and especially to prove how 'right' they are (that's called self-righteousness). The means that what they use reveals who their master is. Modern-day Maccabees are doing the same today against the Palestinians, and the Palestinians are answering not only in kind but with unprecedented savagery shaped by their religion. The cycle of external violence there, along with the internal violence that lies in men's souls and which wages relentless war against their consciences, can only be broken by repentance: a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

Matthew 24 draws a comparision between the judgement of Noah's day and the impending second coming of Yah'shua:

"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man"

And not just externally. Today - this very day - Yahweh expects you to give an account to Him and gives you the opportunity to repent and get right with Him. Soon comes a flood of His wrath. You had better be in the ark of safety with the door firmly shut behind you because if you don't, you will only have yourself to blame. The door is shut for some people but remains open a little longer for others. Remember what Yah'shua said:

"See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut"

No one can deny you your salvation - only you can. Yah'shua also said:

"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture"

But the day is coming when Yahweh will divinely shut that door, when the day of grace is at an end, as He shut the door to Noah's ark. Please be wise. Don't make a fatal decision as Yah'shua warns most soberly:

"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of Elohim, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of Elohim. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last"

May we all reflect soberly on the reality around us and within us. We have to get grounded in 'all truth' or perish because only the truth can set us free (Jn.8:32)

For those of us who have chosen, whose hearts are swollen and brimming with love, let us go and have a Sabbath feast! Amen.

Acknowledgements
1. The Legend of Hanukkah
2. Occult Numerology and the Number Nine

Return to Hanukkah Page

COMMENTS FROM READERS

[1] "Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us "there is an appointed time for everything to be a delight to heaven", then goes on to say there is a time for war.

"For God�s people Israel, there is more than one time where He delivers us from slavery and oppression, and Hanuka is one of those times. Purim (the book of Esther), is another. They both commemorate God�s deliverance of His people.

"Hanuka celebrates the mighty deliverance of God through the Maccabees who fought against an evil Syrian king who wanted to destroy the Jewish people, by sentencing to death anyone who kept Sabbath, etc. Outnumbered by trained armies, the priests and people of Judah fought and won many a battle, due to their faith in God. They were able to re-take the Temple and cleanse it from the idols that had been placed in it. There is no reference to the one day�s worth of Temple oil lasting for the eight days of Hanuka. That�s purely rabbinic. But there is reference to Hanuka being celebrated for eight days. Why eight days? Some think it was a substitute for the fact that they hadn�t been able to observe the previous Sukote (Feast of Tabernacles), in October. And so in December, when the Maccabees cleansed the Temple of the pagan things and tore down the Altar, they may have incorporated Sukote�s eight days as a way of celebrating their victory. Eight days for Hanuka is mentioned in First Maccabees:

"�Then Judas (Judah) and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season, the days of dedication of the Altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev� (1st Mac. 4:59, NRSV).

"There is another reason why Hanuka lasts for eight days and this I believe is closer to the truth. When Moses consecrates Aaron and his sons for the priesthood, and the Tabernacle is dedicated for service, we see an eight day period (Lev. 8-9). This was most likely on the minds of the Torah observant Maccabees and the reason for the eight days as the very word �hanuka� means, �dedication.� As such, Hanuka becomes for us an eight day period of re-dedication of ourselves to Messiah Yeshua, asking Him to cleanse us of our idols, that we might be fully consecrated to Him.

"With Hanuka, as well as Purim,I take them not as holy days, but as holidays, commemorating historical times in Hebrew history that God moved to deliver His Jewish people from certain death. They are mini-deliverance times, or, mini-Passovers (Passover being THE day of deliverance).

"What�s the difference between a holy day and a holiday? Holy days are commanded by God and are linked with Sabbaths. These can all be seen in Leviticus 23. Holidays like Hanuka, are not �holy�, and fall into the category of something like the Fourth of July, or Presidents Day, etc., for America. Holidays are times of remembrance, but not Sabbaths or holy times.

"Much on Hanuka is cultural, like potato latkes (which isn�t necessarily evil or bad). Some things can be non productive though, like the giving of gifts for the eight nights. This is in competition with Christmas. As nice as gifts are to receive, Hanuka is not about gift giving but about rededication of ourselves (the Temple of Yeshua), to the Lord. It�s also a family time.

"Hanuka is an historical event that we Jewish people (and all those grafted into Israel too), can celebrate as another time when God delivered His people. It�s in recognition of this that the celebration takes place. Hanuka means dedication and points to the re-dedicating of the Temple after it was taken back from the hands of the wicked Syrian king.

"For us, the major theme of Hanuka is our re-dedicating ourselves to Yeshua, to His purpose for our lives. In this we see the cleansing of the Temple in the days of the Maccabees as an apt picture for what Yeshua wants to do with us, the temple of the Living God (1st Cor. 3:16). And with Yeshua declaring at Hanuka in the Temple in Jerusalem that day, that He was the visible manifestation of the Living God, we see Yeshua authenticating Hanuka for all of us, and our children" (JK, 31 October 2009)

My response

Hanukkah is not an "appointed time" (moed) of Yahweh so I don't see the application to Ecclesiastes - it was appointed by man like many other festivals celebrated by contemporary Judaism (e.g. Lag b'Omer). I actually used to hold a position very similar to yours and tried to extract parallels out of Hanukkah, making a kind of prophetic midrash out of it. But it is possible to make a 'prophetic midrash' out of almost anything that utilises key words like 'light', 'rededication', etc.. I have seen similar rationalisations used by antinomians to justify Christmas. That Yah'shua preached during Hanukkah no more authenticates it than I would be authenticating Christmas as a Messianic simply because I stood up and preached on Christmas Day and used some of the symbols around me as illustrations to reach the erring public. However you cut it, Hanukkah-observance is not commanded in Torah - we have not been commanded to observe it by Yahweh as the rabbis claim in their Hanukkah prayers. Worse, in many respects, as I demonstrate in my sermon (and an earlier one), there are many myths and untruths in the Hanukkah traditions which even orthodox Jewish scholars admit - as followers of the Truth we can not have anything to do with myths and historical inaccuracies for above all ours is an historical religion of truth.

Whether Ephraimite or Judahite our fathers have brought many false traditions with them which we are duty-bound to be rid of. There can be no exceptions to either House of Israel - there are no 'teacher's pets' tribally in the House of Elohim.

Finally, Hanukkah is, in any case, a late Sukkot - for those who were unable to celebrate the original Sukkot after the cleansing of the Temple. If we are celebrating Sukkot (as we are) we have no need to celebrate two of them, and certainly we do not need all the Hanukkah myths, talmudic lies, and historical inaccuracies added on top. If we accept the rationalisations for Hanukkah justification, then we can just as easily duplicate other festivals whenever we feel like it...only we can't.

At Sukkot there was also a light-lighting ceremony - so you can apply your excellent prophetic comparisons to Yah'shua there! :)

Baruch haShem YHWH, brother.

[2] "Good article, thanks for sharing. Unfortunately many believers who came out of the religion of Christianity quickly exchanged its vile 'holy days' for Jewish ones. Many young lambs have been led to the slaughter by the wolves outside of the gate of safety in Messiah Yahushua. None of the man-made religious holy dates and/or traditions are applicable to those who are begotten-again and Ruach-filled in Messiah. Period" (HvZ, USA, 21 December 2022)

Author: Lev-Tsiyon

Glossary of MLT Hebraic, Greek and English Terms
For other terms and full details please see the Micropedia
A
Adon(ai) = Master, a pagan fertility god, Adonis; used by many Messianics but not MLT
(a)eon(ian) = 7 dispensation- or age-long time periods, not forever (see le-olam-va-ed)
Alef-Tav = Alpha-Omega, A-Z, first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet = Yah'shua
Amen = truly, let it be so, written Amein by some Messianics
Apocrypha = Hebraic Scriptures not a part of the Protestant canon (e.g. Baruch)
Anti-Messiah = Hebraic term for the end-time Antichrist or anyone opposed to the Messiah
antinomian = lawless Christian who disregards all or part of Torah/commandments
Ashkenazi Jew = East European Jew descended from the Turkic-Japhethite Khazars
Assembly = church, congregation, ekklesia, community, fellowship, koinonia, gathering
Azazel = the Yom Kippur scapegoat
B
Baal, Ba'al = any other master than Yahweh, usually demonic in MLT terminology
Bachor(im) = firstborn son(s)
Bar/Bat Mitzvah = Son/Daughter of Commandment, covenant to obey Torah at age 12
being = soul, the whole person (spirit and body), e.g. "my whole being"
Beit, bet, beth = house, e.g. Beit Yisrael (House of Israel), Beth Lechem (House of Bread)
Beit haMikdash = Yahweh's Temple in Yerushalayim
B'rit Chadashah = the New Covenant; B'rit Chadashah Scriptures = New Testament
B'rit Milah = circumcision - abolished in the B'rit Chadashah, replaced by Mikvah
C
canon = authoritative Scripture (Heb. qaneh, Gk. kan�n = measuring instrument)
Catechumen = a serious, covenanted investigator seeking Mikvah or Baptism in MLT
Chag haMatzah = Feast of Unleavened Bread, second of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Chavurat Bekorot = MLT's Priesthood Order, Holy Order and Assembly of the Firstborn
Cohen = priest; Cohen Gadol = High Priest (also spelled Kohen)
Council of Yah's elohim = the heavenly Assembly of the Firstborn or Chavurat Bekorot
D
demon = fallen malek or angel in rebellion against Yahweh (Heb. shad; see �l-Shaddai)
derech = the Way, Path or Road - Yah'shua and the Gospel are the Way
Drash = moral or homiletic interpretation of Scripture - see PaRDeS
E
Echad = One, Union of two or more in one (as opposed to Yachid) - see Elohim
Echad Godhead Doctrine = Father Yahweh, Son Yah'shua and Sevenfold Ruach (Mother)
Êl, Eloah, Elah = God the Father, Yahweh
Êl-Elyon = Most High God, Yahweh
Êl-Shaddai = Master/Lord over all shads or demons
Elohim = God, the Godhead (Father, Son & Holy Spirit), lit. 'Mighty One(s)', 'Ruler(s)'
elohim = Israelite judges, rulers, angels or gods (false deities, idols, demons)
emunah = faith, actively trusting, clinging or adhering to (especially Yahweh or Yah'shua)
emet = truth, Yah'shua is the Emet
Ephraimite = descendant of the patriarch Ephraim and head of Messsianic Israel
F
Feasts of Yahweh = the 7 annual Moedim (Pesach, Chag haMatzah, Yom haBikkurim, Shavu'ot, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot)
G
Gan-Eden = Garden of Eden, Paradise and state of the purified heart in Messiah
goy(im) = nation(s), Israelites or gentiles not born in or converted to the Covenant
H
hallelu-Yah = praise Yah(weh)!
Heylel = proper name of Satan or haSatan = the Adversary, the devil
Sabbath = Yom Shabbat (Friday to Saturday sunset, add 1 day in IDL Zone)
Hochmah = Wisdom, title of the 7-fold Ruach haQodesh
I
IDL = International Date Line, false man-made time division in Pacific Ocean
IDL Zone = Area between the true Divine Date Line (Lake Van/Eden) and the false one
Israeli = citizen of the modern Edomite-Khazar Republic of Israel (not Biblical Israel)
Israelite = citizen of biblical state of Israel or a modern follower of the Messiah
J
Jew = post-biblical term describing descendants of Edomite and Khazar converts to Judaism
Johannine = pertaining to the Apostle Yochanan (e.g. Gospel of John)
Josephite = descendant of the patriarch Joseph, the head of Messianic Israel
Judahite = a person in direct descent from the patriarch Judah, forefather of the Messiah
Judaism = a Talmudic-based religion rejecting Yah'shua the Messiah
Judean = a citizen of the Kingdom or Province of Judah until the 2nd Century diaspora
K
Kadosh la Yahweh = set-apart or dedicated to Yahweh, 'Holiness to the Lord', MLT motto
Karaites = Jews (from 700 AD) who reject the Talmud and accept only the Tanakh
kashrut = keeping kosher, food laws of Yahweh and correspinding lifestyle
Ketuvim = Writings or Hagiographa of the Tanakh
Khazar = a Turkic convert to Judaism ~700 AD forming the Ashkenazi Jewish community
kosher = clean foods authorised by Yahweh for human consumption
L
Lashon Hara = evil-speaking, gossip or slander
legalism = false route to salvation through works (self-salvation)
le-olam-va-ed = dispensation- or age-long, aeonian, not eternal, forever or for eternity
Lev = heart, as in Lev-Tsiyon = heart of Zion
Lev-Tsiyon = Heart of the Fortress [of Yahweh], Hebrew name of MLT's founder
M
Master = Lord, Sir, Adon(ai) - (one in authority, a ruler - a king, husband, prophet, judge)
Malak(im) = Angel(s), heavenly supernatural messenger(s)
manna = wafers of honey, bread from heaven (lit. 'what is this?')
matzah = unleavened bread, see Chag haMatzah
Menorah = 7-armed candlearbra = the 7 annual Moedim and 7-fold Ruach haQodesh
Messiah = Christ; Anti-Messiah = Antichrist
Messianic Community = Body of Christ, sum total of all true believers; all true fellowships
Messianic Israel = all who worship Yahweh, trust in Yah'shua, obey Torah and overcome
Messianic Jew = Messianic convert from Judaism still clinging to Talmudic traditions
Midrash = aggadic interpretation of scripture vi� Drash, a scriptural discussion
Mikvah = baptism by immersion of convert into Yah'shua or of wife into husband
Mishpachah = family: nuclear, congregational, tribal or the whole of Messianic Israel
MLT = Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon = family of the heart of the fortress [of Yahweh]
Mishpat = right-ruling or judgement
mitzvah/mitzvot = commandment(s)
moed(im) = appointment(s) of Yahweh, 7 Annual Feasts, Sabbath and Rosh Chodesh
N
Nefilim, Nephilim = giant offspring of materialised demons and human women
Nevi'im = prophetic writings of the Old Testament or Tanakh
New Birth = spiritual conversion in the Ruach haRishon, being 'born again' with new heart
Nidah = a woman's menstruation period during which no intercourse is permitted
O
Olive Branch = collection of revelations, prophecies and visions published by MLT
P
Paraclete = Comforter, Advocate (NEB), Counsellor, Ruach haQodesh (Gk. parakl�tos)
PaRDeS = method of textual interpretation (homiletics) - see P'shat, Remez, Drash, Sod
Patriarch = a father who is head of his family, clan or tribe (lit. 'father-ruler')
Pentateuch = first five books of the Tanakh (Genesis-Deuteronomy), also called Torah
peribolaion = headcovering worn by daughters/wives in submission to fathers/husbands
Pesach = Passover, first of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Peshitta = an Aramaic version of the Bible
Prototrinitarianism = early, simplified MLT formulation of the Echad Godhead Doctrine
Prush(im) = Pharisee(s)
Pseudepigrapha = Non-canonical Hebrew writings additional to the Apocrypha
P'shat = literal, contextual, philological, exoteric, outer meaning of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Q
Qadosh Qadoshim = Holy of Holies, most sacred set-apart room of the Beit haMikdash
Qodesh, Kodesh = set-apart, holy (see Ruach haQodesh)
R
Rabbi = Teacher, term used by Messianic Jews and some Messianic Israelites = Pastor
Refuge, the 12 Cities of = divinely protected MLT fortresses during the 7-year Tribulation
Remez = hint or allegorical level of Hebraic understanding of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Rosh Chodesh = monthly New Moon appointment of Yahweh
ruach = spirit of a person (lit.'breath')
Ruach Elohim = Spirit of God (the Spirit of the collective Godhead or Elohim)
Ruach haChamashee = 5th Ruach presides over Yom Teruah and Yom Chamashee
Ruach haQodesh = the Sevenfold Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost (lit. 'Set-Apart Breath')
Ruach haRevee = 4th Ruach presides over Shavu'ot, Yom Revee and Bar Mitzvah
Ruach haRishon = 1st Ruach presides over Pesach, Yom Rishon and the New Birth
Ruach haShanee = 2nd Ruach presides over Chag haMatzah and Yom Shanee
Ruach haSheshi = 6th Ruach presides over Yom Kippur and Yom Sheshi
Ruach haShleshi = 3rd Ruach presides over Yom haBikkurim, Yom Shleshi and Mikvah
S
Sabbath = Yom Shabbat (Friday to Saturday sunset, add 1 day in IDL Zone)
Satan = rebel archangel Heylel, father of lies, devil, chief demon (lit.'Adversary')
Sephardic Jew = West European Jew of mixed blood containing many Judahites
Septuagint = Greek translation of the Tanakh, LXX
Shegal haShabbat = 7th Ruach (Sabbath Queen) presides over Sukkot and Yom Shabbat
Shekinah = Divine Presence and Glory of Yahweh-Elohim
Set-apart = holy, sanctified, consecrated, dedicated, separated (to and by Yahweh)
Shabbat-Shabbaton = High Sabbath (e.g. Yom Kippur)
Shalom = heavenly peace, standard Hebraic greeting invoking Yahweh's peace
Shamash(im) = servant(s), deacon(s), attendant(s)
Shavu'ot = Pentecost or Weeks, fourth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Sheol = grave or pit, euphamism for Hades or hell - also see Tartarus
shofar = ram's horn, blown during Yahweh's Moedim
simcha = joy, keynote of Sukkot
Sod = mystical, anagogic, inner or esoteric understanding of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Sukkot = Tabernacles or Booths, seventh of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Synagogue = Greek word used by Jews and Messianics (but not MLT) for a meeting house
T
talmid(a) = male/female disciple or student
Talmud = scriptures, teachings and commentaries belonging to non-Messianic Judaism
Tanakh = acronym for Old Testament Scriptures - Torah, Nevi'im & Ketuvim
Tartarus = place of imprisonment under the earth for rebellious angels and Nephilim
teshuvah = repentance, remorse and contrition leading back to Torah obedience
Torah = Yahweh's teachings or Law; New Covenant Torah includes Yah'shua's teachings
Tribulation, the Great = the final 7 years of the present aeon when Anti-Messiah rules
Trinity = Catholic Godhead formula - see Echad Godhead Doctrine and Prototrinitarianism
Tsiyon = Zion, a fortress, a name of Jerusalem and a prominent hill
Tzitzit/Tizitziyot = tassel(s) worn by men in remembrance of Torah
U
Universalism = salvation of all at the cosmic Yovel, with different rewards and punishments
Y
Yachid = one, single person or item, as opposed to Echad (many in one, unity)
Yah'shua the Messiah = Jesus Christ (the Son)
Yahudah = Judah - see Judahite
Yahweh, Yah, YHWH = the true Name of our Heavenly Father, also carried by Yah'shua
Yahweh-Elohim = LORD God (the Father, Yahweh as Head of the Godhead or Elohim)
Yahweh haQatan = the sent Yahweh = Yah(weh)'shua, Malak of Yahweh's Presence
Yam Suf = Sea of Reeds, the true Israelite Exodus water crossing, not the Red Sea
Yarden = Jordan River (lit. 'meanderer')
Yerushalayim = Jerusalem
Yisrael = Israel (lit. 'ruling with �l') = true believers under the New Covenant
Yom Chamashee = 5th day of the week (Thursday, Friday in IDL Zone)
Yom Din, Yom haDin = (the) Day of Judgement
Yom haBikkurim = Feast of Firstfruits, third of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yom Revee = 4th day of the week (Wednesday, Thursday in IDL Zone)
Yom Rishon = 1st day of the week (Sunday, Monday in IDL Zone)
Yom Kippur = Day of Atonement, sixth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yom Shabbat = 7th day of the week and Sabbath Rest (Saturday, Sunday in IDL Zone)
Yom Shanee = 2nd day of the week (Monday, Tuesday in IDL Zone)
Yom Sheshi = 6th day of the week (Friday, Saturday in IDL Zone)
Yom Shleshi = 3rd day of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday in IDL Zone)
Yom Teruah = Day of Trumpets, fifth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yosef = Joseph - see Josephite
Yovel = Jubilee or Year of Jubilee
Z
Zaqen(im) = elder(s) of an assembly or congregation, or senior members of a community
Zo� Life = Greek term for spiritual life in the Messiah

Commonly Used MLT Abbreviations
For additional abbreviations and explanations,
please see the Micropedia
A
Amp.V(er). = Amplified Version of the Bible
Aram. = Aramaic
AV = Authorised Version of the Bible - see KJV
B
BCAY = B'rit Chadashah Assembly of Yahweh - see NCCG
BoA = Books of Abraham (e.g. 1Abr., 2Abr., etc.)
C
cp, cf = compare with
CB(Q) = Chavurat Bekorot
CEV = Contemporary English Version of the Bible
ch. = chapter
CJB = Complete Jewish Bible
CLNT = Concordant Literal New Testament
CYe = Council of Yah's elohim
E
Eng. = English
F
ff. = and onwards/forwards
fn = footnote
G
Gk. = Greek
GNB = Good News Bible - see TEV
H
Heb. = Hebrew, Hebraic
HEM = Holy Echad Marriage, eternal marriage
HO = Holy Order - see Chavurat Bekorot
HOC = Holy Order Collection of revelations - see OB
HRV = Hebraic-Roots Version of the Bible
I
ibid. = ibidem (lit. 'in the same place'), referring to a book previously cited
ICJC = Independent Church of Jesus Christ, earlier name of NCCF
ISRV = Institute for Scripture Research Version of the Bible
J
JB = Jerusalem Bible
JBP/Phillips = J.B.Phillips translation of the New Testament
JNT = Jewish New Testament
K
KJV = King James Version of the Bible - see AV
L
LB = Living Bible
lit. = literally or literature
LXX = Septuagint, Greek translation of the OT
M
MLT = Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon
Moff. = Moffatt translation of the Bible
MRC = Messianic Renewed Covenant Version of the NT
MS(S) = Manuscript(s)
N
NASB, NASV = New American Standard Bible/Version
NC&C = New Covenants & Commandments - see OB
NCCF = New Covenant Christian Fellowship, earlier name of NCCG
NCCG = New Covenant Church of God, earlier name of MLT - see BCAY
NCP = New Covenant Press, publishing arm of MLT
NCW = New Covenant Witness, MLT magazine
NEB = New English Bible
NIV = New International Version of the Bible
NKJV = New King James Version of the Bible
Nor. = Norwegian
NT = New Testament, B'rit Chadashah
NWT = New World Translation of the Bible, unreliable Jehovah's Witness version
O
OB = Olive Branch - see NC&C
op.cit. = opere citato (lit. in the work cited)
OT = Old Testament, Tanakh
P
p(p). = page(s)
pl. = plural - see s.
PWNC = Prophetic Words of the New Covenant, revelation cataloging system - see OB
Q
QED = quod erat demonstrandum (lit. which was shown to be proved)
R
RCF = Restoration Christian Fellowship, earlier name of ICJC
RhQ = Ruach haQodesh, Holy Spirit
RSTNE = Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition of the Bible
RSV = Revised Standard Version of the Bible
RV = Revised Version of the Bible
S
s. = singular - see pl.
S&G = Smith & Goodspeed Version of the Bible
T
TEV = Today's English Version of the Bible - see GNB
V
Vulg. = Biblia Vulgata, Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible
W
WEB = World English Bible

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This page was first created on 19 March 2007 Last updated on 21 December 2022