 Have you read my previous blog post entitled The Learning Process: First Things First? If so you know that we’ve been talking about the process of becoming learned and stable. (see 2 Kepha/Peter 3:13-18) We’ve discussed that while the beginning of faith or belief, is often a moment in time, it is then evidenced by daily decisions to follow the Way of Yahushua that leads us back to a Covenant relationship with our Creator, YHWH the Father. We also came to a really important realization, one that keeps proving itself true in my experience over and over again, that an “either/or” mindset has become a massive roadblock in truly understanding many of the core truths of our faith as followers of Yahushua. It is this mindset that most often keeps many sincere believers from being able to grasp Torah as the root system of our faith because it can make those roots appear to be in contradiction to what they’ve been taught are foundational doctrines. When we can truly take hold of this understanding that our walk with YHWH is a process, it will shine a light on our path and ease the tensions sometimes felt in walking out our salvation, reconciling what the Word says with what many of us have been been taught in churches for many years. Nowhere else is this concept more important than with the most important foundation of our faith - Salvation. Salvation is a process It has a beginning and also involves a daily choice, a daily walk, and a progressive growth that results in the salvation or deliverance of our souls. This understanding can quench the doctrinal debate of “once saved, always saved” vs. “you can lose your salvation”. Both of those doctrines can lead to massive misunderstanding of the truth of Scriptural Salvation. Is this merely my own idea? Something I’ve constructed in my own mind to justify my walk in Torah? Or is it etched in the Words of Scripture, just thinly veiled by our preconceived notions, doctrines of men, and traditions handed down by religion? Some of these “hand-me-downs” have come from well meaning sojourners like ourselves, and some from the intentions of our adversary to lead us astray while convincing us we are on the straight and narrow. That’s where we’re headed in this blog - a deep dive into Scripture to discern the truth about salvation. Let’s begin at the end… Receiving the end of your belief, even the salvation of your souls. 1 Kepha/Peter 1:9 Reverse Engineering A good method to achieve an end goal, is to start at the end point and trace your way back to where you currently are, in order to more clearly see the path that must be walked to arrive at the desired outcome. We will get back to this method again later in this blog. But for now let us notice from the above verse that the end or goal of our belief IS the salvation of our souls. Recall that the Hebrew word for “become” is “hiya” and it implies a process. We don’t become “saved” overnight anymore than we become learned overnight, in a moment, or at the end of a prayer. It takes time and a process - thus one of the reasons we call this blog webpage “The Journey Back”. The word “journey” implies a step by step, one foot in front of the other walk from one place to another place. So does that mean that we are not “saved” until we finish the journey? Were we not taught in Sunday school and from most every Christian pulpit that we “got saved” when we prayed the “sinner’s prayer” and “gave our heart to Jesus?” Notice the either/or mentality trying to slither into place. Salvation is not either obtained by a prayer we once prayed or received at the end of an arduous journey on the straight and narrow. It is not either/or. It is both - yes and amen! For the Ben (Son) of YHWH, Yahushua ha’Mashiah, Who was proclaimed among you by us…was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For as many promises are of Elohim, in Him they are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the esteem of Elohim through us. 2 Corinthians 1:19-20 (HS) To truly understand what Salvation is, let’s first identify a common misconception often spoken of as if it were a well-established taboo. This belief has slipped into doctrines of churches, and it’s critical to address it as we head back toward the Scriptural truth about our salvation. Isn’t That “Salvation by Works”? You may be saying right now, “Well, wait a minute! What are you saying? Am I not saved? I prayed the “sinner’s prayer”, I gave my heart to ‘Jesus’. Isn’t that salvation? What about grace? Aren’t we saved by grace, not by works? This sounds like a ‘works based salvation’ to me.” First of all, every person’s salvation is known only to YHWH and the person. I would never attempt to tell someone else whether they are saved or not. What I will do is look at Scripture for myself, and encourage everyone else to do the same. We cannot trust such an important matter, our eternity, to doctrines of men! We must be convinced by Scripture and the Ruach alone that we are on the right path - The Way of the Father as taught by Yahushua Our Messiah. I will say this from my own study of Scripture: If you have accepted the invitation to follow Him, putting your trust in the work done for you by Him for the forgiveness of sin (the breaking of the Torah, His loving instructions - 1 John 3:4) and are walking in The Way, according to His Word, then you are saved, are being saved, and will be saved! However, if you have accepted the invitation and then, like some of His past followers, have turned back (John 6:66), you are no longer walking in The Way, His Way, the Way of Salvation. In the example from my previous post, if you have decided to make bread, and then thrown away the ingredients and the recipe, declaring, “I don’t need these anymore. We no longer have to do these things,” then I don’t image you will have a loaf of bread as the end result - the salvation of your soul. If this sounds like a hard message, even heretical according to what you’ve been taught or learned from doctrines of Christianity, I encourage you to look closely, with a heart open to the instruction of the Father, at two parables that Yahushua taught His disciples. One, often called The Parable of the Talents can be found in Matthew 25 and Luke 19. The other, referred to most often as The Parable of the Vineyard, can be found in Matthew 21, Mark 12 and Luke 20. The Parable of the Talents The Parable of the Talents is most often taught as an illustration of what we do in life with the gifts and talents we’ve been given. But what if it’s about more than that? What if it’s also about salvation itself? If we look at the context in both recorded accounts, we see that Yahushua was teaching about salvation and the reign of Elohim, the Kingdom of Heaven. He then tells of a wealthy nobleman who was going away to establish his reign. Before he leaves he entrusts his servants with different amounts of money, called “talents” in Matthew’s account, and “minas” in Luke’s account. The point is they were all GIVEN a gift from their master and told to WORK until he returned. When the nobleman returns, having received his reign (notice the Messianic and eternal context in the details of this parable) he calls his servants to him to give a report of what they had gained by trading. All but one had doubled the amount given to him, bringing a 100% increase to the returning ruler. This other one, however, had buried the amount given him because he claimed that the master was a hard man and required what he had not sown. He still had the initial gift. He had hidden it, buried it, kept it safe, but he had not invested it and had no INCREASE to show for it - he did not have a loaf of bread, nor any part of the process. It is so important to notice that He did not lose his gift, misplace it, or scorn it. He protected it. But he DID NOT put it to work - he DID NOT work out his bread, his salvation, with fear and trembling. He did not bear fruit. And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I shall judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a hard man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow. Why did you not put the silver in the bank, that when I come I could have collected it with interest?’ Luke 19:22-23 (HS) In other words, “Why didn’t you make bread from what I gave you?! You knew that I would require you to do the work. I chose you (the invitation) and you accepted my free gift. I gave you the money (the ingredients and the recipe) and I am here to give you the reward for your labor. But you have not labored. You have not worked. Therefore, you have no loaf of bread.” What happens to this man? In both accounts, what he has is taken from him and given to the one who has the most. The other servants question the master’s decision to give to the one who already has the most. The master offers this simple explanation: For I say unto you, That unto everyone which has shall be given; and from him that has not, even that he has shall be taken away from him. Luke 19:26 In Matthew’s account this man is called a “wicked servant”, and is thrown out into out darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (25:3). In Luke’s account, the master then brings before him all the others who did not want him to reign over them, referred to as enemies, and slays them. In both accounts, what this servant had - the free gift of the master - was taken from him. He had not put this gift to work, and thus had no increase to show for it when the master returned. Clearly having the initial gift still in hand was not enough. This is a hard word. This master was accused of being hard, too. Why would Yahushua teach this parable about Himself and His reign and seemingly show something quite different from what we’ve been taught in modern day churches? Who is wrong - Yahushua or doctrines of men? Let’s look at the next parable to see if we can answer that question.  The Parable of the Vineyard In this parable a man plants a vineyard, places a hedge around it, digs a winepress and builds a watchtower. He then leases it out to farmers while he goes abroad. When the “season of the fruits” draws near, which is a reference to the fall Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, he sends messengers to receive its fruit. (Notice again the implications in this parable of the final harvest and the end of the age.) The tenants want to keep all the increase for themselves, a little different spin than the Parable of the Talents. In that parable Yahushua highlights the one man who accepted the gift but did no work and thus had his gift taken from him. In this parable, Yahushua highlights men who accept the gift (the lease of the land) and do the work, but they have forgotten Who owns the field and everything that goes with it. These men beat and kill the messengers and at last the son himself. They are like the “church” in Ephesus who forgot it’s first love, forgot to Whom they belonged (Revelation 2:1-7). These men thought they deserved the increase of what was a gift to them in the first place. But they didn’t keep the original agreement - the Torah, the Covenant, the marriage ketubbah. They changed the rules, made new rules of their own liking. and without the son in the picture, still expected to receive not only a portion of what wasn’t theirs to begin with, but all of it. They were unfaithful. They broke the agreement (Covenant) and still expected to receive their “reward”. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of YAH is eternal life through YAHUSHA HA’MASHIACH our ADONAI. Romans 6:23 Clearly Yahushua is teaching that we must remain in Covenant with Him from beginning to end. We must accept the free gift, engage in the process THE WAY He spelled it out, and THEN we will receive the reward. Each of the messengers sent to the farmers, including the son himself, carried these instructions. The message didn’t change, just the Messenger. The counsel of YAHUAH stands forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. Psalm 33:11 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our ELOHIYM shall stand forever. Isaiah 40:8 Yahushua did not come in His own Name, meaning according to His own Way or teaching. He came in the Name of His Father, according to The Way of Torah, the loving instructions of the Father. He did not bring a different message, a different good news, a different gospel. He brought the same message, from the same Elohim of the prophets and teachers of the past, and He demonstrated it perfectly by living it and teaching it so that there was no more confusion as to what was and is required. I have come in My Father’s Name and you do not receive Me, if another comes in his own name, him you would receive….Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Mosheh, in whom you have put your expectation. For if you believed Mosheh, you would have believed Me, since he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe My Words? John 5:43, 45-47 (HS) One More Parable I’m known for saying to my riding students: “One more time!” We learn best by repetition, however, I know I’m often trying to cram just a little more into an already packed lesson. But sometimes that “one more” can be the key that locks our learning firmly in place. This “one more” parable tells the same message in a slightly different way. The Parable of the Workers (Matthew 20:1-16) describes laborers hired at different times of the day to work in a vineyard - some early, some mid-day, and others at the final hour. At the end of the day, they all received the same wage - the salvation of their souls. No more for those who worked longer, and no less for those who only worked the last hour. But they ALL worked. They ALL accepted the invitation AND engaged in the process until the end. The good news is the same from beginning to end - YHWH has made a Way back to a restored relationship with Himself. That Way is found in His Son, and that Way IS the Word, the Torah. Recall that both of the men who put their “talents” to work and doubled the original gift received eternal rewards and were called blessed, being invited into the reign of the master and put into positions of leadership. We, too, can be wise servants and choose to work out our salvation like these men. For Yahushua is not too hard, and neither is His Torah. It’s Not Too Hard For this Command which I am commanding you today, it is not too hard for you, nor is it far off. It is not in the shamayim (heavens), to say, ‘Who shall ascend into the shamayim for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so that we do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, to say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so that we do it?’ For the Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart - to do it. See I have put before you today hai (life) and good, and death and evil, in that I am commanding you today to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in His Ways, and to guard His Commands, and His Laws, and His Right-Ruling. And you shall live and increase, and YHWH your Elohim shall barak (bless) you in the land you go to possess. Deuteronomy 30:11-16 Did you notice process in that verse above? YHWH set before his people a choice - the invitation to salvation. He then describes what that choice will require of them: loving Him, walking in His Ways, and guarding or keeping His Commands, Laws, and Right-Rulings - the daily process of salvation. Then He proclaims the promise that they shall live, increase, and be blessed in an eternal inheritance - the end result, the salvation of their souls! Does He say anywhere that this will be too hard for them, impossible, or eventually done away with? Does He say, “No big deal, though. My Son will eventually come and do all this perfectly so that you don’t have to do it anymore?” The truth is that we will sin, we will miss the mark, we will break Torah. And we will need forgiveness and atonement made by the One Spotless Lamb. We cannot live without ever sinning (see 1 John 1:5-10). But we are not to bury this amazing gift of YHWH, the sacrifice of His Beloved Son, by continuing in sin (the breaking of Torah) after we’ve accepted the gift (see Romans 6 and Hebrews 10). What did Messiah say about this “yoke”? Did He say, “Come to me and I will do everything for you. It’s too hard for you, so you don’t need to do anything. Obedience doesn’t matter anymore. Faith without works is fine, grace got you!” What did He actually say? All have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wants to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I shall give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your beings (soul). For My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30 (HS) Working out our salvation is not too hard for us. It is not supposed to be a burdensome labour. We are to learn how to work and walk it out from Messiah and by His Ruach (Holy Spirit) that dwells within us. As we walk it out, we will see that it is a light and easy load to bear, and results in rest for our being, our soul. It will produce the goal - the salvation of our soul. But if your heart turns away, and you do not obey, and shall be drawn away, and shall bow down to other mighty ones and serve them, I have declared to you today that you shall certainly perish, you shall not prolong your days in the land which you are passing over the Yarden to enter and possess. I have called the shamayim (heavens) and the earth as witnesses today against you. I have put before you hai (life) and death, the berakah (blessing) and the curse. Therefore you shall choose hai, so that you live, both you and your seed, to love YHWH your Elohim, to obey His voice, and to cling to Him - for He is your hai and the length of your days - to dwell in the land which YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Yitshaq, and to Ya’aoqob, to give them. Deuteronomy 30:17- 20 (HS) What was given by the Father to His children was and is the same message given by the Son. Yahushua Himself reiterated that fact may times over. The choice is the same - choose life or death. The requirements are the same - keep the commandments and obey His voice. The result is the same - eternal salvation, the promised land of our souls. So WHY DO WE NEED THE MESSIAH?! Are we saved by grace, or by works?! Which one is it?! Let’s go back to the end to once again see how this is not an either/or debate, but a “yes and amen” surety.  Back to the End I started this blog with the mention of reverse engineering - starting at the end, the goal, and tracing backward to help map out a path and plan to get from here to there. I want to wrap up this post by swinging around full circle and bringing back our example from my previous post of making bread. In that example, bread is the goal, the end result we’re heading toward. So in that regard, it is the most important thing, like our eternal salvation. However, the end result cannot be attained without first a decision to make bread, and then following a recipe, a process, that brings us step by step to the final outcome. The salvation process is much like this example of bread. Salvation STARTS with the invitation of Our Savior to become His disciple. “Follow Me,” was His simple statement to those whom He called to walk with Him on His journey. We, like those 12 and many more who followed Him, must make the same line in the sand decision. This is the first and last. The beginning and the end. For without the Savior, there is no salvation. Therefore, if anyone is in Mashiah, he is a renewed creature - the old have passed away, see, all have become renewed! And all is from YHWH, who has restored us to favor with Himself through Yahushua ha’Mashiah, and has given us the service of restoration to favor, that is, that Elohim was in Mashiah restoring the world to favor unto Himself, not reckoning their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of restoration to favor. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (HS) We needed the Messiah, Yahushua - to MAKE US NEW. WE had to be made new so that we could walk as He walked. The “Law” didn’t have to be done away with so we could continue in our sin. YAH forbid! No - we were made new through the blood of Messiah, SO THAT we could walk by the Ruach and not by the flesh and that His Word, the same Word given from the Father, through the Son, would be written in our hearts SO THAT WE WOULD DO IT! (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 10:16) For some this happens immediately after the invitation. Yahushua says, “Follow Me,” and they drop their nets, leave their boats, and follow. For others it takes some time of watching, thinking, and “counting the cost” before they embark on the Way. Either way, there is a clear delineation and decision made that when their hearts are ready, they will leave behind what was their life, and set out in a new direction on a new path and a new life. Without this beginning, there is no process and there is no end result. Yahushua the Messiah is the ONLY WAY to the Father. Bottom line. Yahushua said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Hai (Life). No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6 This is the Gospel message, the Good News, seen not just in our “New Testament” Scriptures (the Brit Chadashah), but clearly laid out for all to see in the Torah as well. When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the Witnesses, and the Laws, and the Right-Rulings which YHWH our Elohim has commanded you?’ then you shall say unto your son, We were slaves of Pharaoh in Mitsrayim (Egypt), and YAHUAH brought us out of Mitsrayim with a strong hand, and YAHUAH sent signs and wonders, great and grievous, upon Mitsrayim, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes. And He brought us out from there, to bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. And YAHUAH commanded us to do all these Laws, to revere YAHUAH our Elohim, for our good always, to keep us alive, as it is today. And it is righteousness for us when we guard to do all this Command before YAHUAH our Elohim, as He has commanded us. Deuteronomy 6:20-25 Yahushua did not do away with the good and loving instructions of the Father, the Torah, the recipe, the process. He destroyed sin and death, nailing it to the stake! And he made a way back to the beginning. He is our Passover Lamb, the blood on the doorposts that keeps us from the angel of death and leads us out of slavery to sin, into the perfect Law of liberty! (James/Ya’acob 1:25) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after MASHIACH. For in Him dwells all the fulness of ELOHIYM bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of MASHIAH: Buried with Him in immersion, wherein all ye are risen with Him through belief in the operation of ELOHIYM, Who has raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all transgressions; Blotting out the handwriting of dogmas that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Colossians 2:8-14 Think not that I am come to destroy the Torah, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For amein I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one Yod or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Torah, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break (“luo” = loosen or relax) one of the least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of YAHUAH: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of YAHUAH. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Parashiym, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of YAHUAH. Matthew 5:17-20 The Necessity of the Process Once the decision has been made to follow Messiah in the Way, then comes the recipe, given by the hand of the Creator Himself, through His Son. This recipe is the Torah, the loving instructions of the Father, handed down to us all throughout creation, through multiple teachers and prophets, and eventually demonstrated perfectly in the very life of His beloved Son. (Recall the Parable of the Vineyard) This is The Way that Yahushua talked about and that is mentioned all throughout Scripture. (See future post entitled, “What is The Way?”) Many rejected it in the past and sought to come up with their own “recipe”, their own way. But each time that happened, the results were slavery and captivity to enemies. From that place, countless times, YHWH’s people would cry out to Him and He would once again send a rescuer to deliver them and set them back on THE Way (the path of Torah) through repentance (turning back to the Way.) This was the message of all the prophets, including Yohannan (John) the baptist and Yahushua Himself. Repent (turn and get back in the right direction) for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 3:2, 4:17 The recipe and all the ingredients needed to make this “bread” are given to us by YHWH through His prophets and His Son. We have all we need! (2 Kepha/Peter 1) It is our choice, our will, to follow the recipe and combine the ingredients given to us and bake the bread. One might say, “The bread is all that matters,” and they are right in that it is the intended outcome - the salvation of our souls. But without the process - the choice, the recipe, and all the ingredients put together, formed and baked in the hot oven of affliction - the bread, our salvation - will not be “worked out.” Salvation is not either/or. It is ALL these things - we cannot have one without the other. If we can change only one thing about the way we think, the way we approach Scripture and our relationship to Our Creator, I would suggest tossing out this either/or mentality when it comes to doctrine. That does NOT imply an “all-inclusive,” “anything goes” faith. No. The contents and requirements are clearly outlined all throughout Scripture (on our recipe card, so to speak.) We do not accept any other recipe from any other elohim as that would be a recipe for disaster, as the children of Israel demonstrate to us time and time again! As a chosen priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), we are to discern between the clean and unclean. (Ezekiel 44:23, Leviticus 10:10) We don’t just throw everything into the mixing bowl like Aaron did for the Israelites when he made the golden calf! There is no “mixing” of light and darkness in the Kingdom of YHWH! We must follow His instructions, His Way, His Torah, His recipe with His ingredients, to produce the bread, the fruit of the Ruach in our lives, that leads to Life eternal - the Bread of Life! HalleluYAH!  It’s in His Name - The Beginning and the End
The very Name of Our Savior, Yahushua, gives us all we need to truly understand salvation. His Name itself MEANS salvation. And there is no deliverance (salvation) in anyone else, for there is no other Name under the shamayim (heavens) given among men by which we need to be saved. Acts 4:12 (HS) Yahushua says of Himself: I am the First and the Last, and the living One. And I became dead, and see, I am living forever and ever. Amen. And I possess the keys of the grave and of death. Revelation 1:17b-18 I am the ‘Aleph’ and the ’Tau’, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Revelation 22:13 That verse is followed by a powerful verse that describes what happens IN BETWEEN the beginning and the end: Baruk (blessed) are those doing His Commands, so that the authority shall be theirs unto the tree of hai (life), and to enter through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14 (HS) Yahushua is the Beginning and End of our salvation - we cannot get in through any other door, nor can we bring about the final outcome, the salvation of our souls, on our own. Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of YAHUSHA HA’MASHIACH. Philippians 1:6 The part in the middle, the WORKING OUT OF OUR SALVATION, is the part we do with the Helper, the Teacher, the Ruach ha’Qodesh, the Breath of YAH, the Spirit of Yahushua in us to work and do His good will. (Philippians 2:13) If we don’t have the Beginning, we cannot have the process nor the End. If we don’t have the process, we can’t get from the Beginning to the End. Before you react here, just be still for a moment. I’m NOT saying that our salvation is BY works. We cannot save ourselves. But I am agreeing with the words of James (Ya’acob) that faith (the beginning) is dead WITHOUT WORKS. (James 2:17) You can decide you want to make bread. But if you do nothing with the recipe and ingredients that were given to you, then you will not have a baked loaf of bread at the end. Think about Yahushua’s conclusion from the Parable of the Talents: For whosoever has, to him will be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has. Matthew 13:12 I encourage you examine this parable and the other Scriptures, listening to the Ruach with ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart inclined to understanding. We don’t ever want to READ INTO Scripture any doctrines of man. We want to GLEAN FROM Scripture what is truly there, pure doctrine. This is not a works based gospel. It is the true picture of salvation as laid out by Yahushua Himself. He is essentially saying, I started this work and I will complete it. I will be with you every moment of your process, and I will ensure that you have a completed work (salvation, i.e. “loaf of bread”) at the end. You need to accept my invitation (“Follow Me”), become my disciple and not turn back (John 6:64-69), and endure to the end. (Matthew 10:22, 24:13, Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26, 3:5, 10, 12, 21) Paul (the one blamed most often for the false teaching of “doing away with the Law/Torah”) agreed with Yahushua when he said: Not that I have already received, or already been perfected, but I press on, to lay hold of that for which Mashiah YAHUSHA has also laid hold of me…I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of Elohim in Mashiah YAHUSHA. Philippians 3:12, 14 He also questioned the Galatians: You were running well, who held you back from obeying the truth? Galatians 5:7 Apparently, these converts to the Way had started well, but had been convinced by someone that they did not need to obey the truth. The Torah is the Truth. (John 17:17, Psalm 119:142) Yahushua is the Living Torah, the Word (Torah) in the flesh (John 1:1-5). Paul didn’t say that they started their own work or could work their own way to the end. He warned them that they needed to KEEP GOING and not turn back from obeying the truth, which is what Paul lived and taught. "Defending Paul Series" Jude (Yahudah) gives a similar correction to believers: For certain men have slipped in, whose judgment was written about long ago, wicked ones corrupting the favor (grace) of our Elohim for indecency, and denying (contradicting) the only Adon YHWH and our Adon Yahushua ha’Mashiah. But I intend to remind you, though you once knew this, that YHWH, having SAVED a people out of the land of Mitsrayim (Egypt), afterward destroyed those who did not believe (obey). Jude (Yahudah) 1:4-5 (HS) We cannot contradict the Words of YHWH or the Words of Yahushua. His Word is forever. He does not change. (Malachi 3:6, Isaiah 40:8 & 28, Numbers 23:19, Psalm 33:11, 90:2 102:25-27,119:89 Matthew 24:35, Hebrews 13:8, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21, Revelation 1:4, Hebrews 6, James 1:17) Last Words The title of this particular blog was taken directly from the scripture quoted at the beginning of it: Receiving the end of your belief, even the salvation of your souls. 1 Kepha/Peter 1:9 Let us end this post with a few scriptures that connect the concepts of salvation being a process that has a beginning, a middle and end: In the beginning Elohim created the shamayim (heavens) and the earth. Genesis 1:1 (HS) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim. He was in the beginning with Elohim. All came to be through Him, and without Him not even one came to be that came to be. In Him was Hai (Life), and the Hai was the Light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (HS) John 1: 1-5 And calling ten of his servants, He gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Trade (work) until I come.’ Luke 19:13 “I am the ‘Aleph’ and the ‘Tau’, Beginning and the End,” says YHWH “who is and who was and who is to come, El Shaddai.” Revelation 1:8, 11 Here is the endurance of the qodeshim (the set-apart ones), here are those guarding the Commands of YHWH and the belief of Yahushua. Revelation 14:12 (HS) I am the ‘Aleph’ and the ‘Tau’, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Baruk (blessed) are those doing His Commands, so that the authority shall be theirs unto the tree of hai (life), and to enter through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:13-14 He is the Beginning of our Salvation. He is the End of our Salvation. It is He Who works IN US to will (want) and to do His work. We must WORK, obeying all of His Words, until He comes, overcoming and enduring to the end. And we will receive the end of our belief - the salvation of our souls! HalleluYAH!!! Praise to the Most High! He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I shall give to eat from the tree of hai (life), which is in the midst of the Paradise of Elohim. Revelation 2:7 (*Note* - For a great extended study, read each of the exhortations to the 7 assemblies in Revelation 2-3, paying particular attention to the end of each section when He says, “He who overcomes…” and then gives a promise to all the overcomers.) Comments are closed.
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