John Was Wrong?

Either John recorded things wrong, or someone twisted his words.

In Yokhanan / John chapter 8:42, Yeshua said this:

“If Elohim [God] were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came out from Elohim; I did not come of my own accord, but He sent me.”

 This clearly shows us that there is a relationship and a distinction between the Father and the Son. Then, in Yokhanan 13, we read these words of and about Yeshua:

“But Yeshua, because He knew that The Father had given everything into His hands, and that He came from Elohim and was going to Elohim, ⁴rose from supper and laid aside His robe; and He took a cloth and tied it around His loins.  ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of His Talmidim, and to wipe them with the cloth which was tied around His loins.”

Yeshua knew that He was going to return to His Father. And He needed to prepare His ‘Talmidim’ for His death AND departure. Talmidim was a Rabbinic term describing those who followed Him as His ‘Torah Students’, which gets rendered into English as ‘disciples’. He was their one Rabbi.

He explains to them that He is about to be betrayed by one of them. Yokhanan, the writer, and the one sitting nearest Yeshua at this Pesakh Seder [Passover Ceremony], informs us of the details of this night better than the other three ‘synoptic’ gospels; in fact, this ONE MEAL is the largest portion of His book, going from chapter 13 all the way through chapter 17. He details the section of the Seder on dipping bread, which is a ceremony in the Seder, two times. The one who would betray him dips his matzah along with Yeshua, indicating his coming treason.

He reiterates that He is going to leave them, and Kefa’s bold attempt at showing courage falls short, with Yeshua telling him that he would deny Him before sun up.

Then, he links the Pesakh Seder to the Galilean WEDDING, saying He is going to go and prepare a place in Heaven for His Talmidim, and then come back and get them. This provokes Thomas [Yokhanan 14]:

⁵T’oma said to Him, “Adoneinu, we do not know where you are going; and how can we know the way?”  ⁶Yeshua said to him, “I am HaDerekh, and HaEmet, and HaKhayim; no man comes to My Father except by me.  ⁷If you had known me, you would have known My Father also; from henceforth you know Him, and you have seen Him.”

These words are chock full. But, out of context, they become dangerously misunderstood!

First, when Yeshua said “I am THE WAY, and THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE”, He was NOT making up a new concept! This same author, Yokhanan, John, started his whole story with identifying Yeshua as “THE WORD”, saying that “THE WORD” became ‘flesh’, a BODY, and dwelt among us.

Each of those three things, that are actually ONE thing, were references from the JUDAIC MINDSET to THE TORAH, which IS the WORD OF GOD.

Psalm 119:1 calls the Torah “The Way”.

Psalm 119:142 calls the Torah “The Truth”.

Proverbs 13:14 calls the Torah “Life“.

Isaiah 2:3 calls the Torah “The Word”.

These are not the only places where all of these various descriptions are given concerning the foundational books of the Bible: Genesis – Deuteronomy. But, they show us precisely that Yeshua was identifying Himself as THE WORD in flesh; the TORAH, in flesh. All holy writ answers to the Torah. To Yeshua. Our ONE Rabbi and the teacher of His OWN Book!

So, a JEWISH MAN, the very SON OF GOD, who departed from His Father, became an infant, and confessed His own eternal nature to the Jews [John 8], then shows His Torah Students that He is the very IMAGE of His Father [NOT claiming to BE God, but claiming EQUALITY with God, being the very EXPRESSED IMAGE of Him [Heb 1:1-3], is talking to 11 Jewish men, whom Yeshua had taught the Torah for 3 + years, as THEIR RABBI [John 13:13], and telling them that He is the ETERNAL WORD: The WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.

THEN, He goes on and tells them this:

¹⁵“If you love me, keep my mitzvot.  ¹⁶And I will ask of My Father, and He will give you another comforter, to be with you forever, ¹⁷even Ru’akh HaEmet [Breath/Spirit of Truth], which the world cannot receive, because it has not seen it and does not know it; but you know it because it abides with you and is in you.  ¹⁸I will not leave you bereaved, for I will come to you after a little while.  ¹⁹And the world will not see me, but you will see me; because I live, you shall live also.  ²⁰In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  ²¹He who has my mitzvot with him and obeys them is the one who loves me; he who loves me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.  ²²Yehudah (not of Sekharyotah) said to Him, “My Adon, why is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”  ²³Yeshua answered, saying to him, “He who loves me keeps My D’var; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make a place of abode with him.  ²⁴But he who does not love me does not keep My D’var; and this Davar which you hear is not my own but the Father’s who sent me.” [John 14]

People in America have been told for 100s of years that the Commandments of God are NOT Yeshua’s commandments. Then, out of the other side of their mouths, they say that Yeshua IS God. But, He only has 2 commandments.

The serpent has indeed twisted the WORD of GOD in the minds of the masses. They’ve taken the 10 Commandments off our schoolhouse and public walls. And out of the churches. And then, they began to teach that “Jesus has one command, ‘love one another’. They do not know that “Love your neighbor as yourself” comes from the Torah, in the book of Leviticus.

Our Jewish people do not teach the Torah. They teach the “Talmud”. These are Rabbinic laws that supersede and contravene His Torah. Our Christian leaders do not teach the Torah, they teach later doctrines of men; ‘catechism’ was the start of it, and then the next religion has its own name for their subset of twisted ‘laws’, down to ‘church covenants’ and ‘statements of faith’. Most every one of them REJECT the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.

Yeshua was indeed a manifestation of the Nature of God in flesh, in a human body; with a soul. He suffered in His body the most arduous death imaginable. Then, He entered into She’ol, an event we cannot even think to imagine, to free us from SIN and DEATH. Sin is the breaking of God’s Word. It has been, since the beginning.

Keeping the Torah does not save us. Not at all. There are many Jewish people and Messianic people who are very good at the minutiae of the Torah; but, they have NO IDEA about the FREEDOM FROM SIN Yeshua gives us, that makes us JOYFUL to keep even the TOUGHER parts of the Torah, which is loving our sinful selves and the sinful people around us, knowing NONE of us are saved apart from the blood that was shed by Messiah Yeshua, the Son of God, the WORD/TORAH in flesh. After confessing that trust, keeping His Word is our expression of LOVE and gratitude, and our distinguishing ourselves from this world, which is rife with pagan and demonic belief systems.

Yeshua lived and taught the Torah. So did Peter, and Paul, and all the writers of scripture. The “New Testament” letters were written to drive people BACK to the Torah, the SCRIPTURES they were first taught, because they had already entered into error. Here we sit 2000 years later, and the congregations are rife with error. The seven letters Yeshua wrote to all the congregations 2,000 years ago are very applicable today. We must overcome ERROR. And all the errors of the congregations are listed in those letters, and are due to LEAVING HIS WORD in some form or fashion. Paul taught the congregation at Ephesus the SCRIPTURES, for TWO YEARS, EVERY DAY. THAT was the ‘first love’ that they had left behind. “RETURN” to your first love: REPENT to your first love: THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE.

¹Happy is the man that has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful.

²But his delight is in the Torah of  יהוה ; and in His Torah does he meditate day and night.

Psalm 1