Gabe, I will try to answer your questions the best I can. They are good ones, and deserve an answer, I think VaBlueRidge has given some good answers, but sometimes having it explained in different ways can help, so I will expand on what he/she has said.
gabebp wrote: -Assuming Paul is a false teacher, why does Yahweh allow so many billions of people to go astray and so few (.0001%?) to actually "get it?"
I would say the short and quick of it is simple, free will. Yahuweh gave man free will, and we have used it badly. He gave Paul, and everyone else the free will to distort His message, and he gave their victims the free will, and proper information, to listen to evaluate and decide rather or not to follow him. The fact that people were beguiled by that message is not Yahuweh’s fault, He gave them what was needed to evaluate it and realize that it was wrong, the fact that they didn’t is theirs, not His.
Rev 2 wrote: And you have observed and objectively tested those who maintain they are messengers but are not, and have found them false, deceitful.
This may not have been directed directly at Paul, but Yahuweh was commending the Ephesians for objectively testing (peirazo - scrutinized, examined through enquiry, tried, and pierced through) those who claimed to bring a message from Him. This is something we should all do, with anyone who claims to teach on behalf of Yahuweh, and those that don’t have only themselves to blame if they are lead astray.
On a side not, this is one of the reasons I love the GDR volume of YY. Studying Yahuweh’s assessment of the seven ecclesia gives us a great insight into what Yahuweh likes and doesn’t like. I.E. his hatred of the Nicolatians, a group who sought to incorporate pagan religious practices in with the following of Yahuweh, i.e. they founded Christianity.
[qutoe=gabebp] The implication is that those pastors and memebers of the church who unwittingly evangilize in the name of Jesus and preach the gospel will be damned to hell. Many of these folks are doing what they truly believe to be correct and are not intentionally lying to people. This just seems harsh.
Most of them will not burn in hell; they will simply cease to exist, a fair and just outcome. Yahuweh will not punish them, he simply allow nature to take its course. Man’s soul is not immortal, despite what many believe, in fact of the meanings of the Hebrew word nephesh, the word translated soul, is mortality. The soul being mortal, unless made immortal, by linking to a spirit, will eventually die. There are two spirits we can link our souls to, Yahuweh’s or Halal Ben Shakar, the Adversary. But most will not link their soul to either, they will not be linked to any spirit, and their soul will simply die and cease to be. In order to be linked to the Adversary, as I understand it, one must for all intents and purposes, sell their soul to him. Most do this for power money, etc. These are those who knowingly lead others away from Yahuweh. Examples of this group would be Muhammad, Constantine, Popes, those who know there is no justification for their authority and power, but convince others that it is of God.
I would say the average Pastor is as ignorant and deceived as the average follower, and will share the same fate, death.
gabebp wrote: -Assuming Paul is a false teacher, why did Yahweh not interviene in a way that allowed the truth to get out sooner and to a larger audience. Of all the Christian scholars who have come before, surely you'd think someone would have picked up on all of the contracdictions and false doctrines...
Yahuweh does not intervene in man’s free will. There are only a handful of examples in Scripture where Yahuweh does revoke someone’s free will, but they are few and far between, and he has great reason, but that’s a long story, and this is not the place. But again Yahuweh gave us plenty, so that if open minded we study it we can see it. The problem is most don’t study Scripture to understand it, they study it to understand their religion, and so they try to fit everything into what they have been told. Even using an English translation, one can see how much Galatians contradicts Yahuweh’s word, but most Christians don’t study Yahuweh’s Word, they study Paul’s more than anything’s, and then fit the rest into what Paul taught. Most Christian’s are New Testament centric, and most tend to take the view that since Paul was the last apostle, his word overrides what came before, it’s much the same as Islam where when there is a contradiction, the latest revelation supersedes the earlier. If they were to read from the beginning to the end rather than just the last quarter of the book they would see the contradictions. The naming of the volumes as Old and New Testament, adds to this, it gives the impression that one is outdated and superseded by the other.
gabebp wrote: Where do I go in YY to come up with a game plan to set myself on the right path? I'm not a quick study and it will take a long time to get through 2,000+ pages...
While YY is a great source and a fount of great information, there is nothing about it that is going to give you a to do list, and it is not the ultimate source.
My advice would be start with the Called Out or Salvation volumes. Understanding the Miqray and the Messiah’s fulfillment of the first 4 is a great way to understand Yahuweh and His plan for our salvation. The god Damn Religion volume is great if you want to see how we got so wrong, as I said before I find its review of the 7 Revelation letters to be a great way to study what Yahuweh likes and doesn’t.
A side note, I think Christianity has a tendency to get the cart ahead of the horse, with its focus on salvation. I wish I could remember who it was that said this, but it was someone on the forum who put it this was salvation is a byproduct of relationship. With Christians they want the relationship, so they can be saved, not to have a relationship.
gabebp wrote: Why doesn't Yahushua say something like "Father who art in heaven help us to carefully observe your Torah" in the Lord's prayer (Mat 6:9-13)?
Well he does say let your will be done, but in short, the “Lord’s prayer” was not meant to be a summation, end all be all, it was a simple prayer. He does tell us in the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5:17-19 wrote: Do not assume that I have come to weaken, dismantle, invalidate, or abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have not come to do away with it, but instead to completely fulfill it. Truly, I say to you, till heaven and the earth pass away not one jot nor tittle shall be passed by from that which was established in the Torah/Law until the time and place it All happens. Therefore whoever dismisses the least of these commandments or teaches people to do the same, they will be called the least important in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever performs them, and teaches them, they will be called the greatest and most important in the kingdom of heaven.
gabebp wrote: -Yahushua says to the woman with the bleeding affliction in Matthew "Daughter take courage your faith has made you well." This seems to speak in favor of simple faith being the saving element.
Well first there is the translation error to address here, the word he spoke does not mean faith it means Trust and Reliance. Yes Trust and Reliance upon Yahuweh and Yahushua is the essential element, but Trust and Reliance requires something, it requires knowledge and understanding, and that is where studying is essential.
Second no one here has ever said that following the Torah to the T was required for salvation, but knowing understanding and studying the Torah is essential for knowing Yahuweh. As Yahushua pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount we should strive to keep the Torah, and teach others to do so also, but he knows as well as all of us that we aren’t perfect, which is why he doesn’t require perfection, what He wants is for us to come to know Him, for who he is, and to Trust Him.
gabebp wrote: -Yahushua says it is "not what enters the mouth that defiles the man, but what preceeds out of the mouth that defiles the man (Mat 15:11). This seems to invalidate strict adherence to the old way of relating to the Torah.
With all due respect I think you have taken this verse out of context and drawn an errant conclusion. Yahushua is speaking to the Pharisees who have just confronted Him about His disciples not following tradition. He then replies to them quoting a verse from Isaiah which ends with the line teaching teachings -- commands of men. Then after the quote you posted His disiples questioned him, and, “And he answering said, 'Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up; let them alone, guides they are -- blind of blind; and if blind may guide blind, both into a ditch shall fall.'
So the entire discourse is about the teachings and traditions of man, not the teachings of Yahuweh, in fact the he specifically says that 'Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up’. Meaning that which Yahuweh planted shall remain, i.e. Torah.
gabebp wrote: -Yahushua desires "compassion and not a sacrifice." (Matt 12:7) This seems to invalidate strict adherence to the old way of relating to the Torah.
No one here is teaching strict adherence, but that does not mean that the Torah is invalidated, passé, and should be ignored.
Also in context, this is again a response to a charge by the Pharisees, who taught strict adherence to their oral law. In fact what the disciples did, was not a violation of the Torah, it was a violation only of the oral law. But the teaching that Yahushua was trying to teach here was not that the Torah is invalid, and we don’t need to follow it, it was that the Torah is for our benefit, as he says else where the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. The Torah, is not a burden, it is a blessing.
gabebp wrote: -"Yahweh's testimony....making understanding and obtaining wisdom simple for the open-minded" (abbrev. from Psalm 19:7) doesn't lead me to believe a 2,000 page book is necessary to make the case for the correct view of salvation. Yahushua seem to especially align himself with the simple and the humble. Often the simple and humble don't have the ability to grasp the finer points of linguistic nuiances and come to the conclusions (you can't rely on any of the current translations of the scripture) that seems to take 2,000+ pages.
It really doesn’t take that much, in fact the 2000 pages is overkill, but overkill is what some people need. I am of the opinion that if all we had was the Torah, we could come to know, understand and have a relationship with Yahuweh, provided we were willing to invest the time to study it. That said having the prophets and writings, the eyewitness accounts of Yahuhua’s time on Earth, are all great benefits, and aids.
Also it does take many pages to uncover what centuries of man’s meddling has made covered. It does take many pages to explain how we got to where we are and many pages to help people unlearn the lies that they have been taught since childhood. And it takes many pages to explain why translations, something which Yahuweh has nothing to do with, are wrong. The linguistic nuances are not necessary for understanding, but they do aid, and do allow a deeper understanding. When you have a relationship with someone, a close relationship, you don’t stop at just learning about the surface of the person, you over time seek a better and better understanding of them, and the same is true with Yahuweh, understanding the basics isn’t hard, but for some of us we seek to understand Him on a deeper level, the way we would anyone we were close to and cared about.
As for the inaccuracy and inadequacy of English translation, translations are simply a manmade affair, Yahuweh did not inspire any of the English translations out there, man did them. So we must assess the motives, and methods of the men who did them. Without going into detail here, I will say that when you take the time to study the history of translations, the methods were influenced by the motives, and for the most part the motives weren’t good. By in large most translations attempt to stay as close to previous translations as possible, because they know what sells, and in many cases that is not my assessment, but the stated goal. Also it’s easy to determine that the best sources were not always used. In the “New Testament” the “majority text” are used as opposed to the oldest text. The problem with that is simple, the more distance from the original the more likely they are to differ from the original. And with the “Old Testament” the Masoretic text are used, a text compiled in the 9th century AD, by agenda driven Rabbis, as opposed to the 2 century BC Dead Sea Scrolls. Then there is the case of inadequacy, where the translation is accurate to a degree but insufficient to convey the full intent. Words don’t translate from one language to another word for word very often, although most English translations attempt to do this.
And Psalm 19:7, one of my favorite verses by the way, carries the caveat of “making understanding and obtaining wisdom simple for the open-minded". Not many Christians that I know are very open minded, especially when it comes to anything that contradicts what they have been taught.
Also the translation you used shows a good example of why translations shouldn’t be trusted, as Psalm 19:7 actually read, “Yahuweh’s Torah”, not Yahuweh’s testimony.
Also while Yahuweh’s Torah does make understanding and obtaining wisdom simple to the open minded, most Christians don’t study the Torah, they are more interested in the “New Testament”, Paul and what their Pastor teaches. And therein lies the biggest problem, because of the “Pauline epistles”, Church teaching, and manmade traditions, most don’t study the Torah, and the ones who do (rabbis, etc) don’t do it open minded. What one has to learn to do, is to read Scripture without any of the religious influence, one of the reasons I think it is easier for those of us that came from an atheist/agnostic view, then those who, like my wife, came from a Christian religious perspective.
I hope this helps Gabe, I hope I didn’t come across wrong; I mean everything I say with love, and respect. I only wish to help. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them, I hope to continue this dialogue.