“If you, even you, had only known on this day
what would bring you peace.”

Part One

The Lord Jesus said this during His entry into Jerusalem. The people shouted, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
“I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep silent, the stones will cry out.”
As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it, and said: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:38-44)

In the year 70 AD, Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus. He massacred Jerusalem and demolished the entire city.
The Lord Jesus knew this was going to happen because they would reject Him and nail Him to the cross as a criminal. He was the promised Messiah, the Son of God.

Anyone who deeply considers what the rejection of the Lord Jesus as a substitutionary sacrifice must have meant for God, His heavenly Father, falls silent…

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16,17)

Whoever rejects Jesus, God’s Son, as the Messiah touches God in the very depths of His being.

The Lord Jesus proved that He is God’s Son. He did the same as His heavenly Father. He too “spoke, and it came to be!”

To Philip He said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, Who is doing His work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.” (John 14:9-11)

The unity of the Lord Jesus with His heavenly Father is clearly seen in the works. Jesus spoke, and it happened.

Some examples:

– The raising of the young man of Nain.
Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to speak… (Luke 7:15)

– The raising of Lazarus.
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone (of the tomb). Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.”
When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
(John 11:40-44)

– The nature of Jesus’ work.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”
(Matthew 9:35-38)

– The storm on the lake.
A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t You care if we drown?”
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to His disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!”
(Mark 4:37-41)

Healings and deliverances.
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to Him, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”
(Isaiah 53:4 and Matthew 8:16,17)

The work of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus prepared His disciples for the time when He would no longer be with them.
He said:
“If you love Me, keep My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17)

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.” (John 14:18-20)

“Whoever has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love them and show Myself to them.”
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ‘But, Lord, why do You intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world?’
Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching. My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home with them. Anyone who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father Who sent Me’”. (John 14:21-24)

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:25-26)

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28)

The hatred of the world.
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One Who sent Me.”
(John 15:18-21)

Endurance.
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me.
I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,.” (John 16:1-4)

What did the Pharisees and scribes teach?
They had the books of Moses, which were to be read aloud once a year. These were Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The rest of the Old Testament was not read annually. But it is in the Psalms and the Prophets that much is prophesied about the Lord Jesus, their Messiah.
Moses warned twice that people should take God’s Word literally. He said in Deuteronomy 4:2: “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”
In Deuteronomy 11:32, Moses repeats this warning: “be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.”

What did the Pharisees and scribes do?”
They gave God’s laws a human twist. They changed the content of the laws that God had clearly communicated to Moses. While God had actually said, “You shall not add to what I command you, nor subtract from it.”
What we saw with the Pharisees and scribes, we now see in the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. They, too, do not adhere to what God has said in His Word. It’s too much to mention everything. Read more about this in Part II.

So the Jews have the Law, that is, the five books of Moses, but they have added much to it and taken much away. This is called the “tradition of the elders.”

The Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” He answered them, “Why do you also break even the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it.” To ‘honor’ one’s father and mother means to provide for them, ensuring they always have food, drink, and other necessities. The Pharisees and scribes used a pious pretext to acquire money, at the expense of caring for their parents.

In His speech against the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus warns the crowds and His disciples about them (Matthew 23). He also attacks them directly.

Some examples from Matthew 23:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (verse 13)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (verses 27, 28) (This chapter says “Woe to you” 8 times).
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.” (verses 33-36)
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (verses 37,38)

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus says about God’s commandments, the law: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20)

The High Priest
In the year 70 AD, Jerusalem was completely destroyed, as the Lord Jesus had prophesied.
The temple was also destroyed and never rebuilt. On Yom Kippoer the people were now without a High Priest to offer sacrifices on behalf of them for the forgiveness of their sins.

The prophet Hosea (750-722 B.C.E.) prophesied about what would happen ‘in the days to come’: “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to His blessings in the last days.” (Hosea 3:4, 5)

Why has God, the Heavenly Father, not appointed a new High Priest from among the priests?
The answer is: Because God, the Creator of heaven and earth, has Himself provided a High Priest. One, Who Himself was the sacrificial Lamb and also High Priest, Who was once and for all the Advocate for those who believe in Him and sincerely repent of their sins.

Only through our Divine High Priest do we come into contact with God, the Creator of heaven and earth.
There is no other way.
Everything goes through God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

The New Covenant
The Lord Jesus paid the ransom with His own blood. This is the New Covenant in His blood, the covenant of grace. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will teach us. Everyone who is truly born again has received God’s Spirit. God’s law is within them, in their heart. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied about this New Covenant:

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD.
‘This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD.”
(Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Prophecies about the Messiah.
The Law and the Prophets speak very clearly about the Messiah.

The prophet Isaiah prophesied the following:

“For to us a child is born,
to us a Son is given,
and the government will be on His shoulders.
And He will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of His government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6,7)

John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah Jesus.
The coming of John the Baptist was already foretold in the Old Testament by the prophet Malachi:
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” (Malachi 4:5,6)

The birth of John the Baptist was also announced. The evangelist Luke wrote the following about this:
“In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:5-17)

The announcement of the birth of the Messiah.
Luke further wrote that about six months later the angel Gabriel, sent by God, came to Mary.
“But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.
You will conceive and give birth to a son,
and you are to call Him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.’
‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’
The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:30-35)

The preparation for the coming of the Messiah.
Why did John the Baptist have to precede the coming of the Lord Jesus? Isaiah 59:1,2 gives the answer:
“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

When people say, “I do believe in God, but I don’t see anything from Him,” the answer is in Isaiah 59:1,2.

John the Baptist was preaching in the Judean wilderness, saying,
“‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’
People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.
Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes One Who is more powerful than I, Whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’” (Matthew 3:2-12)

“The One, Who comes after me” (Matthew 3:11)
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
But John tried to deter Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’ Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John consented.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him.
And a voice from heaven said,
‘This is My Son, Whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’”
(Matthew 3:13-17)

Why did the Lord Jesus have to be baptized?
Because the Lord Jesus was without sin, He was the only One eligible to take the guilt of sin upon Himself and bear its punishment vicariously.
What a great love the Lord Jesus showed that He was willing to bear the punishment in our place!

We must never forget that our God is a Righteous God. Sins (evil things) must be punished. In everyday life, we consider it normal for people who have committed a crime (whether minor or major) to be punished by the judge.
Why do so many downplay their own sins and bad deeds and never truly repent?

Jesus wanted to fulfill God’s righteousness in everything.
For our sake, He was baptized. At our baptism, we remember that our old self is buried and that we rise again with a new life with the Lord Jesus.
He has become our Lord, Whom we want to obey in everything in His power through the Holy Spirit.
God, the heavenly Father, sees us in Jesus, Who bore the punishment for our sins in our stead. (Isaiah 53:6)
Sadly, we often see that “the old self” is not dead but still very much alive.

The Lord Jesus had to become like us in every way, yet without sinning.
That is why He had to be baptized.
In His suffering, being mocked, and death on the cross, He had to fulfill ‘all righteousness.’
He bore our punishment. He died to save us from eternal death. Those who believe in Him and have found forgiveness will not suffer eternal death but will live forever with God the Father, with the Lord Jesus, God’s Son, and with the Holy Spirit.

Two more stories of baptism.
Philip was commanded by God to set out on the road that led from Jerusalem to Gaza around noon.
A eunuch from Ethiopia had gone to Jerusalem to worship. He was on his way back and, sitting in his chariot, read the prophet Isaiah chapter 53:7,8:

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Yet who of His generation protested? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was punished. Philip asked him, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’
The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’
Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized? “
And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.” (See Acts 8:26-40)

The second story shows the importance of baptism.

Acts 10 tells of Cornelius, a centurion of the so-called Italian band, a devout man, a worshipper of God with all his household, who gave much alms to the people and prayed to God regularly.
An angel of God spoke to him to send someone to Joppa and ask Peter to come to him.
Just before the messengers arrived, God had made it clear to Peter that He also loved Gentiles and that Peter should go to someone from the Gentiles to speak about Jesus.
Peter went and testified about the Lord Jesus by the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Something beautiful happened after the preaching.

“Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, Who is Lord of all.
You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached – how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.
We are witnesses of everything He did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him by hanging Him on a cross, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen.
He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.
All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, ‘Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.’ So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.”

They had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and yet they still had to receive baptism after conversion. Baptism after conversion is a testimony that someone has renounced his or her sinful life in the world; the old self is buried, and they rise from the water into a new life with God.

The Lord Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Don’t we need to testify to the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death on the cross, a burial, and a resurrection into a new life with Him? These examples show how God views baptism.

The many types of denominations and obedience to God’s Word and the Messiah.
Isn’t it absurd that people claim to have the Bible as the foundation of their faith and yet are members of so many different denominations? God commands unity among His children.

The night before His arrest during the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father: the High Priestly Prayer. (John 17) Among other things He prayed:

“Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one.
I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them for they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one — I in them and You in Me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.”

What is the reason that there are so many different faith convictions and denominations that claim to be based on the Bible, yet are completely different?

Do people do what God says? Moses summoned all Israel and said:
“Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them.
The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our ancestors that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. The LORD spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.
(At that time I stood between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.)
And He said:
‘I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.’” (Deuteronomy 5:1-8)

Kneeling and worshipping images is pure idolatry. The Church of Rome, among others, is guilty of this. Above, we read how God, the Creator of heaven and earth, thinks about this. It is an abomination to the LORD.
We will skip the commandments that follow and continue with the commandments mentioned in Deuteronomy 18.

The Jewish people came out of Egypt, where they served idols. In the land to which they went, people also served idols. Moses warned them, saying:
“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.
You must be blameless before the LORD your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.” (Deuteronomy 18:9-14).

This occultism, how many people in Judaism, the Church of Rome, and the Protestant churches are guilty of this? In both Judaism and the Church of Rome, people consult the dead, worship the dead, and ask so-called saints or ‘righteous people’ to intercede on their behalf
The prophet Isaiah says the following about this:
“When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. (Isaiah 8:19-21)

Indeed, people who practice occultism can often curse profusely, when things go wrong or when they are very angry.

In Deuteronomy 18:18,19, there are two prophecies about the Messiah, Jesus.
Moses prophesied:
“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put My words in His mouth. He will tell them everything I command Him.
I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name.”

Where can there be found any respect for God, the Creator of heaven and earth?
Where do people obey to what He says in His Word: “Do not add to it, and do not omit from it”?
Where do they obey the Messiah?

See Part II.

What are the additions and omissions of the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant churches, and Judaism?

Part two

Additions and Omissions.

On Mount Horeb, the Almighty Creator spoke to the people of Israel in the midst of fire. The people were afraid of the fire and asked Moses to convey God’s message to them. Then Moses spoke and reported God’s commandments to them.
This next beginning is crucial for all of us. Moses said: “Do not add to what I command you and do not omit from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.”
This commandment is stated twice, namely in Deuteronomy 4:2 and Deuteronomy 12:32. Adding to or omitting from God’s words is a very serious offense. Also read Revelation 22:18,19 on this subject.

Below, as a warning, is a brief overview of the additions to and omissions from the Bible in the following three religions: the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant churches, and Judaism.

The Roman Catholic Church.

This church has added so much, distorted so much, and omitted so much that, as a result, a completely different religion remained. This has nothing to do with God’s Word. No religion has slandered the God of the Bible as much as this church. The deception is that their Catechism contains 3,000 references to Bible texts to maintain the appearance that this church is based on the Bible.

Image Worship.
Catholics kneel before images. They also venerate them, while God’s first commandment is: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.”
They pray to the so-called saints and ask them for intercession. They kneel, light candles and make the sign of the cross in front of images of e.g. Mary. This is pure paganism in the name of God Who said in Deuteronomy 18:11 that speaking to the souls of the dead is an abomination to Him. They are doing precisely what God explicitly forbids.

The Pope as Vicar.
The Pope as Vicar of Christ is completely unbiblical. The Lord Jesus says in Matthew 24: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” The Roman Catholic Church believes that the Pope speaks and acts here on earth in the position of Christ. Such blasphemous doctrine is beyond words. The Lord Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as His Vicar to be with us forever, not the Pope. Christ poured out the Holy Spirit on His church on the first day of Pentecost. And how could a sinful man like the Pope ever take the place of Jesus Christ, God’s Son? History teaches us how these ‘vicars’ behaved. They themselves were guilty of fornication, murder, extortion, etc., or allowed their subordinates to be guilty of such.

The Mass.
The Mass is a pagan sacrificial ritual that only “functions” when celebrated by an ordained priest at an altar with a relic inside it. How pagan do you want it?! And then all that kneeling and making the sign of the cross before a thin slice of baked dough in a beautifully carved tabernacle. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Lord’s Supper, the memorial meal instituted by Jesus Christ.
What does the Roman Catholic church teach? The piece of bread truly becomes the body of Christ and the wine truly becomes the blood of Christ. It’s not sorcery! Bread remains bread and wine remains wine. In their own words, Catholics eat their “god” and their priests drink the blood. God’s children are not cannibals who eat their god!

Veneration of Mary.
The veneration of Mary originated around 400 AD. under the powerful influence of the pagan popular devotion of that time. For example, during a synod at Ephese there was a pro Mary demonstration in the city. The people insisted on venerating Mary as a kind of virgin goddess in the line of “Artemis of the Ephesians” (Acts 19:28).
The following texts clearly state something different.
“…and he (Joseph) had no union with her until she gave birth to a son.” (Matthew 1:25)
“Isn’t this the carpenter’s Son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary, and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren’t all His sisters with us?” (Matthew 13:55,56)
In the “Hail Mary,” the Roman Catholic asks her to intercede. This is again the contact with the dead that God explicitly forbids in Deuteronomy 18:11. The entire veneration of Mary is one major addition to the Bible.
(Note: we used the word ‘veneration’ here in accordance with the Catholic Catechism. This is an example of Roman Catholic ‘doublespeak’. This ‘veneration’ of Mary is downright adoration of a goddess.)

Infant baptism.
Infant baptism is found nowhere in the Bible. In Romans 6, Paul writes about baptism as a testimony of the converted, that spiritually they died and were buried with Christ and rose again to new life. Peter said to the repentant Jews: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Can you imagine this? A baby saying: “I want to be baptized, because I repent of my sins.” Infant baptism is very misleading, because people think they are Christians when they are not. Through the Roman Catholic Church, this addition to the Bible spread throughout Christianity.

Indulgences and the saying of Masses.
All over the world we see large, richly decorated Catholic cathedrals. How does a church get so much money? When we read how this church gets money through indulgences and the saying of Masses, we grieve for all those people who have been lied to to extort money from them.
Jesus Christ said that He is the way, the truth, and the life. He bore the punishment for our sins on the cross. He paid the ransom. Heaven cannot be purchased with indulgences, nor by paying for Masses, celebrated by priests.
Once I was given a tour of the Benedictine Abbey Church in Oosterhout (NL). There, twelve altars, all with relics neatly enclosed at the front, were arranged along the side walls, so that twelve monks could simultaneously say Mass for the souls of the departed. What a mass production line! What a farce!

Purgatory.
The doctrine of purgatory, a kind of hell with an exit to heaven, was broadly conceived by Gregory the Great (pope from 590 to 604). He drew on a treatise by Augustine. Later councils further developed this dogma. Nothing of this dogma can be found in the Bible. This doctrine has yielded enormous profits for the Roman Catholic Church, even to this day.

Celibacy.
Paul warns Timothy against those who forbid marriage. (1 Timothy 4:3) Roman Catholic celibacy arose in the first centuries under the influence of the Platonic ideal of chastity and apathy. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Bible or the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul chose to remain unmarried because he could then devote all his time to his mission for the churches and would not have to care for a family.
Regarding the period in which celibacy arose, it’s worth pointing out here a persistent misunderstanding surrounding Augustine’s so-called ‘conversion’. At that special occasion Augustine didn’t come to Jesus Christ as a repentant sinner seeking salvation. On the contrary, encouraged by his mother Monica and his friends, he decided right there in that garden to be celibate for the rest of his life. This decision did not stem from the gospel of Jesus Christ, but actually from Greek pagan philosophy.
The consequences of celibacy are terrible. Just look at the infamous sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. It occurred on a massive scale. God considers rape to be very horrific. What kind of faith is this when church leaders turn a blind eye to God’s commandments and the suffering of the victims, quietly transferring the rapist to another parish? All souls who were raped carry this suffering with them for the rest of their lives, both boys and girls, both women and men.

The Bible in the Mother Tongue Prohibited.
Why did the Roman Catholic Church prohibit reading the Bible in the mother tongue until the middle of the last century? Everything had to be in Latin, so only a few understood it, namely the Roman Catholic clergy. In earlier times, anyone who translated the Bible from Latin into his native language or printed such a translation was burned at the stake. Some examples:
– John Hus translated the Bible into Czech. He was burned in Constance in 1415.
– Tyndale translated the Bible into English. He was the first to use the printing press to distribute the Bible. He fled England and was later arrested and burned in Flanders. This happened in 1536 at Vilvoorde.
– At the Council of Constance (1414-1418), the deceased English Bible translator John Wycliffe (1328-1384) was also excommunicated. Therefore his bones were exhumed from the consecrated church ground in 1428 and burned.
The Roman Catholic Church forbade the reading of the Bible in one’s native language to prevent its deception from being exposed. Ultimately, in countries where the Roman Catholic Church was the official religion, many Protestants were burned or drowned for their resistance. History tells us many horrific facts, including genocide (the Crusades against the Albigensians in the 13th century, the massacres of the Waldensians in the 17th century).

The Protestant Churches.

How it started.
God enlightened Luther’s mind, so that he could understand the Bible. It became clear to him that the Lord Jesus died on Calvary to bear the guilt of those who repent of their sins. His 95 theses (1517) start with this God-given light. This was a glad tiding, indeed. Forgiveness of sins is not obtained through indulgences, because salvation cannot be bought with money. It is not available through praying the rosary, fasting, or self-mortification. Grace is also not dispensed by the priest through the host. Luther clearly explained that every believer is a priest himself and has in faith direct access to God through Jesus Christ.

The decline.
With sorrow and great shame, we must conclude that today’s Protestant churches do not have the living faith of their beginnings. How is that possible? What’s going on?
Through Moses, God commanded the Israelites to add nothing to His commandments and take nothing away from them. (Deuteronomy 4:2 and 11:32) The prophet Malachi passed on these words from God: “Remember the law of My servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.” (Malachi 4:4) So the whole of it! The Lord Jesus said: “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18)
That’s where things went wrong. In Protestant churches, all sorts of things are added to the Bible and all sorts of things are omitted from it. Too much to mention. We can only provide a brief overview here. First, the general addition of infant baptism will be discussed. Then, the specific additions and omissions in liberalism, reformed orthodoxy, and the evangelical movement will be addressed.

Infant Baptism.
Unfortunately, Luther failed to recognize that infant baptism is an addition to the Bible. Here are a few points:
– Hundreds of written sources from the first centuries of Christianity have been preserved that describe the baptism of adults. Moreover, baptismal pools for the baptism of adults can always be seen in the floors of church ruins from that period. Cyprian (200-258 AD) and Augustine (354-430 AD), among others, introduced infant baptism into the church of their time. This was documented by them and can still be read today.
– Many think they are already Christians because they were “baptized” in the church at a very young age. But biblical baptism is a confession of our faith in salvation through Jesus Christ. We think of this as a burial of the worldly “old” self. The old sinful life is buried, and a new life begins with the Lord Jesus. (Romans 6) The new self has placed its life in God’s hands. Can a baby give this testimony?
– Calvinism coined the slogan: baptism has replaced circumcision. Such a claim has no biblical basis whatsoever. Circumcision is a sign instituted by God for newborn Jewish boys, indicating that they belong to the Jewish covenant people. The Holy God has a covenant with the Jewish people. An everlasting covenant. Gentile Christians are spiritual descendants of Abraham only through their faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 4:16, Galatians 3:7) God said to Abraham, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3)
Baptism by immersion was instituted by Jesus Christ as a public profession of faith by a man or woman, young or old, who has recently been converted. Circumcision and baptism have nothing in common.

Liberalism
There are churches with synods that constantly change their doctrine with additions and omissions. Outsiders say, “These are churches with an ever-changing God.”
Isn’t this ridiculous and appallingly bad?
What is the real source of this development? The people of this world only use themselves as a benchmark and refuse to realize God’s supremacy. This makes a teaching like the evolutionary hypothesis very popular, even though there is no scientific basis for this theory. Under the influence of this world’s foolishness, the liberal churches have omitted Genesis 1, 2, and 3. But then they might as well discard the entire Bible! After all: no Creator, no God, no Son of God, no Fall, no Savior! Man then lives only to die. He is then “like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:20)
After omitting the chapters on creation, liberal theologians began to reject the vicarious suffering and death of Jesus Christ. It is the omission of, among other texts, Isaiah 53. This is a prophecy about the life of the Lord Jesus here on earth. It clearly announces that He will bear our punishment vicariously: “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” This is the heart of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and of the entire Bible. Because of these omissions, you are indeed left without the Bible and without the gospel.
Liberal church people also add things to the Bible. They don’t believe the Bible, but think they can speak and judge about it with pious words. It is a lie to claim that the God of the Bible approves of abortion, euthanasia, and gay marriage, when God has already pronounced His judgment on these matters. This is a consequence of the fact that liberal theologians have declared that truth is relational. “Something is true if someone experiences it as true.” See, for example, the Dutch Reformed Synod report “God met Ons” (1981). How strange! In this way man determines what is true in God’s eyes! That’s how humans imagine themselves to be like God! (Genesis 3:5)
Anyone who is even slightly aware of the current spiritual situation knows that the harmful influence of liberalism is still spreading.

The orthodox Reformed churches.
Orthodox sounds good, but is it? Is orthodoxy a safe haven in these turbulent times? Jesus Christ warned His disciples just as forcefully against orthodoxy as against liberalism. He said, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:6). The Pharisees were orthodox, the Sadducees liberal. Both groups emanate an invisible, evil influence.
John the Baptist told them the truth. Also the Lord Jesus had fierce confrontations with both groups. A word several times used by Jesus Christ was “hypocrites.”
God knows and searches our hearts and knows who abuses His name by taking center stage with pious words.

At first glance, it seems like people in the orthodox Reformed churches do have a lot of respect for the Bible, judging by the use of old Bible translations. But in spite of this even here, there are additions and omissions regarding the Bible.
An important addition to the Bible in very orthodox churches is the doctrine of the two types of the covenant of grace. This, in turn, is a direct consequence of the addition of infant baptism. To defend this unbiblical addition in their time, Bucer and Calvin argued that infant baptism was a token of the covenant. But you will search in vain in the Bible for a connection between baptism and the covenant. It is nowhere mentioned, unless you twist certain texts through biased interpretation. This idea of baptism as a covenant token is also absent from church history until the early 1500s.
The unbiblical argument of baptism as a covenant token has turned the Calvinist doctrine of baptism into a disastrous error. A flood of misery poured forth from this, including this doctrine of the two types of the covenant of grace. It is an attempt to make infant baptism appear credible and effective. All baptized children are supposed to belong to the ‘external covenant.’ Those who later in life come to the certainty of being chosen then belong to the ‘internal covenant’ and are allowed to participate in the Lord’s Supper. These are very few. There cannot be found any vindication for this doctrine in the Bible. It is a very, very sad issue, because in this way the true joyful gospel message of the salvation of the repentant sinner evaporates.
In these churches, there is also a special addition to the authority of the Bible. Next to the Bible, office-holders must also acknowledge the authority of three confessional documents. Such a thing is unacceptable. The authority of the Bible does not require the support of human documents. God Himself watches over His Word. (Jeremiah 1:12) This human contriving is also counterproductive. It has led to great spiritual aridity and many divisions in the Reformed orthodox churches.

The worst omission in the orthodox Reformed churches is the biblical call to repentance. The Lord Jesus began His ministry with this call. (Mark 1:15) He invited all who are weary and burdened to come to Him. (Matthew 11:28) God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. (Ezekiel 33:11)
The commission of Jesus Christ to His church was: “As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.” (John 20:21) Repentance for the forgiveness of sins was to be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:47) By omitting the command to call their listeners to repentance, the ministers of the orthodox Reformed churches are committing exactly the same sin as the scribes and Pharisees of old. They are closing the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. They do not enter themselves, and those who try to enter they do not allow to enter. (Matthew 23:13)
The result of this is the creation of a completely different church, namely a collection of people held together by law, tradition, and family ties. This is not according to the Bible. There it deals with people who repent of their sins, who are aware of their sinful nature, and who experience that they can only live as God intends through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:1-17)
There is another serious omission in certain orthodox parts of the Protestant churches. To name a few of them: neo-Calvinism, the Reformed Baptist churches, the Grace-to-You church of the late John MacArthur, the Banner of Truth, and teachers within the dispensationalist movement. They omit 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 from their Bibles. It reads: “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.”
This exhortation of Paul is rejected by these orthodox preachers. They quench the Spirit , because they teach that the Holy Spirit works differently now then in biblical times. According to them, He would not perform signs and wonders nowadays and He would no longer distribute the gift of prophecy. This is extremely presumptuous. How dare they dictate to the Spirit of God how He should work in our time? Such people have no idea Who God is and who they themselves are. Nowhere in the Bible can there be found any indication that God intended to stop His confirmation of the testimony of His children. In Mark 16:20 we read: “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it.” And in Hebrews 2:3,4 it says: “…how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also testifies (Gr. original) to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.” This is the normal course of events in the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom is an eternal Kingdom. This course of events has remained completely the same throughout the ages. The above texts are denied and omitted by “Bible-believing” preachers.
What about the prayer of the early Christians in Acts 4. They prayed to God the “Sovereign Lord Who made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.” What was their prayer, which was apparently inspired by the Holy Spirit? They prayed to God: “Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” (vs 30) How can mortal men assert that nowadays the Holy Spirit cannot give such a prayer to God’s true children, because such a prayer would not be in accordance with God’s will! The everlasting God hasn’t changed! His arm is not too short to save. (Isaiah 59:1) Our sins hinder us from seeing God’s almighty hand. (vs 2) God is the Sovereign Lord forever!

The evangelical movement.
This group encompasses many types of churches, as well as organizations that have followers within established churches. They share the feature of adding to the Bible a gospel that is adapted to man. Such a gospel is no gospel at all. (Galatians 1:6)
There is no fear of God in the evangelical movement. This is evident through the atmosphere of the meetings and the words spoken and sung there. It is a shame, for God is of a completely different dimension than man. He is the Eternal One, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Man is His creature and can do absolutely nothing of himself. He lives here on earth for only a moment. Afterward, he will have to give an account of his life before the Omniscient. God is not mocked. (Galatians 6:7) All superficial piety will then be exposed and cast out.
What does this adapted ‘gospel’ look like? The pamphlet “The Four Spiritual Laws,” distributed worldwide, demonstrates this clearly. These ‘laws’ are: 1. God has a plan for our lives and loves us. 2. Man has sinned and is separated from God. 3. Jesus Christ is the solution for sin and the bridge to God. 4. To be saved, we must accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior by faith.
After these laws, the pamphlet provides an example of a sinner’s prayer. When someone agrees with this prayer and prays it, he or she is called a Christian by the authors of the pamphlet.
Any understanding of the seriousness of sin and the significance of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is lacking. Coming to faith is not a matter of human reason and will. The human heart is filled with darkness and evil. After complete surrender to God through repentance and conversion, our hearts are cleansed of sin by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
A converted person desires to live closer to God and pleads for help through the Holy Spirit. If they sin, they find it deeply troubling, because sin separates them from God. In the evangelical world, you see the opposite. God’s commandments are treated lightly. Sin is not a problem there. After all, their ‘Jesus’ forgives all sins.
The same false gospel also underlies the ‘altar call.’ This is the call during a revival meeting to come forward or raise one’s hand when one has decided to ‘follow Jesus.’ Such a false gospel only produces false Christians. Conversion is before God in the secret place. People see that they are sinners. They are troubled by their sins and wrongs from the past. When they experience this, it is God’s grace to redeem them from their sins through the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary.
A part of the evangelical movement has become charismatic. There the gifts of the Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, prayer healing, and prophecy are at the center. As outlined above, people believe they can bring about their own regeneration through the adapted ‘gospel’. Similarly, some imagine they can possess the gifts of the Spirit on their own initiative.
The Lord Jesus Himself says the following about this: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’’“ (Matthew 7:21-23)
There are many “gifts” in the charismatic movement that have nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. These people are not converted or born again. They have no relationship with Jesus Christ, because He never knew them. These people are not focused on Jesus Christ, but only on the gifts. They will be dismissed as “ evildoers.”

Preachers within the evangelical movement omit certain subjects from the Bible. They never discuss the meaning of the narrow road and the narrow gate, because they present their audience with a broad road and a wide gate (Matthew 7:14). There is no focus on repentance, but sincere and thorough repentance is essential for conversion. The parables of Jesus Christ about the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) and the tax collector in the temple (Luke 18:9-14) address this. Jesus Christ contrasts there sincere repentance with legalistic sham faith. This repentance and the complete dependence on God in this are omitted from the evangelical movement’s Bible.

Hereby the discussion of the Protestant churches is finished.

Judaism and the Tanakh.

The Jewish people have endured immense suffering. For 2,500 years, this nation has been hated by other nations without cause. The evil role that so-called “Christianity” has played in these persecutions is beyond words. Therefore, it is not surprising that the vast majority of Jews have no interest in Christianity. This is why the content of the New Testament is largely unknown in Judaism.

The New Testament is not at all an anti-Jewish book. Jesus Christ wept over the fate of the people in Jerusalem. (Luke 19:41) The apostle Paul felt deep compassion for the Jewish people. Just as Moses was willing to give up his position with God for the sake of the people of Israel (Exodus 32:32), so was Paul. He knew that his sorrow was also caused by the Holy Spirit in him. (Romans 9:3)

There is no contradiction between the Tanakh, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. The Tanakh deals with the promises God gives. Many passages of the Tanakh remain incomprehensible without considering the eyewitness accounts from the final period of the Second Temple. These accounts concern the actual fulfillment of promises God made in the Tanakh. Extensive textual research shows that these documents have been reliably passed down through the centuries. You will find these accounts in the New Testament.

We have discussed above how Christianity has failed and continues to fail in obeying the entire Bible. What is the situation in the Jewish religion regarding obedience to the Tanakh? What are the facts?

What is omitted?
Many texts that speak of the coming of the Messiah are never read in the synagogue.
Just a few examples:
– Isaiah 7:14, about the virgin birth of the Messiah, is never heard by the people.
– Isaiah 53 is consistently and studiously avoided by the rabbis, even though this passage contains a precise description of the suffering and death of the Messiah, Who bore the punishment of His people. A few texts from this key chapter of the Tanakh about the suffering servant of the LORD:

“But He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on Him,
and by His wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
(Isaiah 53:5,6)

God Himself provided the Great Sacrificial Lamb for the salvation of His people.
Jesus, God’s Son, came to take upon Himself the guilt of our sins.
He bore the punishment that brings us peace.
The entirety of Isaiah 53 speaks about Him.
It is stated as clearly as possible.
Both the Psalms and the Prophets contain many prophecies about the Messiah.

Besides the texts about the Messiah, the texts about the promise of the Spirit were and are also ignored and omitted. A whole series of texts in the Tanakh point to the fact that only those who have received a new heart from God will have the law written on their hearts to keep it. Moses already prophesied about this:

“The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live..”
(Deuteronomy 30:6)

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
(Jeremiah 31:33)

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.”
(Ezekiel 36:26,27)

Is keeping the Torah, the law of Moses, even possible? The summary of the law is: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) And: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18) If we are honest about the condition of our hearts, we will have to admit that we fall terribly short of keeping the law. Paul said, “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” (Romans 7:21) A life with God is only possible in the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, who shows us the way. He teaches us about God, the Holy Heavenly Father, and about Who the Lord Jesus is. Jesus Christ said of Him: “He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from Me what He will make known to you.” (John 16:14,15)
The law cannot be kept in our own strength. After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ came the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He alone can give us spiritual life and enable us to live to God’s glory.

What is added?
God gave the law to Moses on Mount Horeb. The Ten Commandments were written by God’s finger on two stone tablets. All the other laws God commanded were passed on to the people by Moses. He wrote them down with the express warning not to add to them or omit from them.
In the New Testament era, there was the “tradition of the elders.” These were all human ideas about the Law of Moses, passed down orally from generation to generation by the scribes. Sometimes, through various additions, they distorted the very meaning of the law. See, for example, Mark 7:1-23.
This tradition was recorded in writing around 200 AD. With the later commentary on it, it became known as the Talmud. This book plays an important role in the Jewish religion today. Additions, not found in the Tanakh, were introduced through this recording. We will discuss two of these here.

Before the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, God strongly warned them about certain sins of the Canaanites. These are abominations to God. Some examples: divination, soothsaying, interpreting omens, and consulting the dead. See Deuteronomy 18:10, 11. Isaiah also speaks of the prohibition against speaking to the spirits of the dead (Isaiah 8:19, 20). All this is not without reason. The power of darkness in all these occult practices is very real.

In the Jewish religion, an explicit prohibition from God Himself has been added as a religious obligation. Throughout the centuries, Jewish children have been taught to pray during certain months at their mother’s grave to her soul to intercede for them with God. The same is done at the grave of a “righteous person” (tzaddik). People also visit Rachel’s grave on special occasions to ask her to intercede for them and their children. Graves are often visited on the anniversary of the deceased’s death and on the day before Rosh Hashanah (New Year’s Day), as it is believed that the soul of the deceased returns to the grave on that day.
In the Tanakh, this kind of contact with the soul of the deceased is strictly forbidden. The danger of this was demonstrated when Saul attempted to contact the deceased Samuel through the fortune-teller at Endor. The next day, he committed suicide on the battlefield.
This forbidden contact does appear in several places in the Talmud. The only explanation for this is the influence of the surrounding paganism. This is how the Roman Catholic religion also adopted this pagan custom. They pray to the saints and to Mary.
Another addition is the Jewish dietary law that prohibits meat and dairy products from being prepared together or eaten at the same meal. This dietary law has come to play an important role in Jewish kitchen and the Jewish meal. Neither the Tanakh nor the New Testament contains any reference to observing this law. God did, however, forbid boiling a young kid in its mother’s milk. (Exodus 23:19 and Deuteronomy 14:21) This would be an act without any empathy. God said that this should not be done.
An Orthodox Jewish kitchen has two counters and two kinds of utensils. Meat and milk must not come into contact with each other. The number of regulations surrounding this dietary law continues to grow. The question naturally arises: How did they manage to comply with this law in the desert? Two tents? One for meat and one for dairy products, with separate bowls, knives, spoons, etc.? What an addition based on a misinterpretation of the text, yet one with a profound impact! It concerns his own mother’s milk, in which God said the kid must not be boiled.

So far, some examples of additions to and omissions from the Tanakh. For Jews, as for everyone else, it is a blessing to read the Tanakh without adding or omitting anything. There are many known cases of Jews diligently researching the Tanakh with the intention of proving that Jesus could not have been the Messiah. They were prompted to do so because a family member had come to trust in Jesus as the Son of God, the Savior from their sins, the Messiah, and they wanted to convince him or her that they were wrong. Often, their search had the opposite effect, and their eyes were also opened to Who Jesus Christ really is.

Finally:

“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace!”
(Luke 19:42)

Why did we write this document?
Because of God’s love for people.
In Ezekiel 33:11, God says to Ezekiel:
“Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’”

The Lord Jesus said: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace.” In Isaiah 53, we read about our Messiah, what He did for us on Calvary.
After sincere, definite confession, we may look at Jesus, how He took upon Himself the punishment for our sins on Calvary.
Yes, every day we must honestly confess our wrongdoings, and then we will know and experience His love and peace. Isaiah 59:2: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

This is how you will receive a completely new life. The Bible becomes a very real book that guides you in this dark, chaotic world.
For those who can no longer participate in one of the above faiths because of how God and His Word are dealt with there, and who now find themselves alone, we recommend that they start a home church and study the Bible about what God Himself says in His Word. No additions! No omissions! So no arguing about “I believe this” and “I believe that.” Wonderful peace!

You can read God’s will regarding the church in John 17. We need to return to the way the first Christian church functioned. These were home churches, where God’s love was visible (John 13:34, 35, John 17:11, 20, 23) and where God did not tolerate lies. (Acts 6, Ananias and Sapphira)

In His last prayer, spoken aloud just before His arrest, the Lord Jesus prayed for His disciples and for us as well:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one — I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.”
(John 17:20-23)

The Triune God does love us. He wants us humans to join Him in heaven. The condition is true confession of our sins, for which the Lord Jesus bore the punishment on behalf of us through His suffering and death on Calvary.

Add nothing to that, and omit nothing!