Identity Theft Read online

I responded, “Throw in a few virgins, and this sounds eerily similar to the radical Islam of today.”

  “You’re so right,” exclaimed Shimon. “Religion is religion no matter what name you give it. It is easier to get people to fight for your cause if they are willing to die, and it is a lot easier to get them to be willing to die if you promise them paradise on the other side—plus something extra to appeal to their carnal lusts, like seventy-two virgins. For a destitute, uneducated Arab teenager who doesn’t see much of a future ahead of him, this promise is very attractive.”

  “It was the same with a lot of the Crusaders you showed me, right Ariel? Many of them were poor peasants who suddenly found purpose and identity through fighting for the Church, even if it was misguided.”

  “You are catching on quickly, David,” responded the angel.

  “Another pope, Stephen VI,” Ariel was not to be distracted, “had the body of a previous pope exhumed and dressed in his Episcopal robes so he could stand trial. He was found guilty. This mock trial also declared all of Pope Formosus’s ordinations to be invalid. Apparently he was not as infallible as once thought.”

  “This is crazy!” I maintained. “How can this be true? I see the Pope on TV and he hardly seems capable of such things.”

  “Fortunately the Catholic Church has changed—for the better, I might add—over the years. And to be clear David, there have always been true followers of Yeshua in the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the bishops throughout the centuries truly loved Yeshua and sought to serve Him. In fact, there were several popes who genuinely sought to serve the Lord, but this sad history, one that most Roman Catholics don’t even know, did indeed take place. And David, it is important that I prepare you for your future task ahead and that requires taking an honest look at history.”

  “Okay guys, I’ve already heard this, so I’m going to leave now. David, it was an honor to meet you.” And he was gone. Future task ahead? An honor to meet me? I wasn’t even sure if I believed any of this was happening—and here was Peter of the Bible telling me that he was honored to meet me!

  Ariel interrupted my reflections, “Now concerning Peter or Kefa and the belief that he was the first pope…” suddenly on my tablet opposite the Scriptures, under the heading, “Notes” were listed four points.

  “Read those out loud please,” Ariel requested.

  “Number 1. While it is clear from the early chapters of Acts that Peter—that is, Kefa—was the greater among equals, the senior leader among the apostles, it is also clear that Kefa gave himself to traveling ministry (Acts 8, Acts 10) and turned over this responsibility to James…”

  “Actually, his name was Jacob,” Ariel interrupted me, “but we will come to that later.” I continued reading.

  “…The brother of Yeshua, as he was clearly the one in charge in later chapters, both in Acts 15 where Shimon Kefa testified and in Acts 21 when Paul visited Jerusalem. Furthermore, in Galatians 2, Paul writes ‘When certain men came from James to Antioch where Peter was,’ proving both that Peter was sent out to Antioch from Jerusalem and that Jerusalem was the headquarters.

  “Who is Paul? You mentioned him earlier,” I asked.

  “Soon, David, just keep reading.”

  “Number 2. Peter clearly wasn’t infallible as we see in that same Galatians 2 passage. Here Paul rebukes Peter publicly for his hypocrisy in refusing to eat with Gentiles when certain men came from Jerusalem, though he freely ate with them before these men arrived. The tradition of the elders, which would become the oral law, forbade Jews to eat with Gentiles. This was not a biblical issue, but one of tradition—a bad tradition.

  “Number 3. There is no record in the New Covenant, or in history, of Peter ever being the bishop of Rome.

  “Number 4. And last, while there is evidence Peter visited Rome, we never see him portrayed as the Bishop of Rome. And even if he had possessed this position, where is it written in the New Covenant that the Bishop of Rome would hold the seat of authority over Church doctrine—ever? Let alone, forever? If such an idea were even biblical, Jerusalem, not Rome, would have been the obvious choice, as the Acts 15 Council, the first doctrinal conference of elders and apostles, was held in Jerusalem. And of course we know that Yeshua does not return to Rome to set up His millennial kingdom, but to Jerusalem.” (See Zechariah 14:1-4.)

  “I know that some of these things are probably a bit confusing to you, David—‘Millennial Kingdom,’ ‘Jerusalem Council,’ etc. I realize that much of this is new, but just stay with me and it will all be clear in the end. The main point I want you to see here is that God never intended for there to be any central authority on earth that controlled the faith and doctrine of every believer. He alone holds all authority, and it is to Him and to His Word that men must come. People can, and should, read His Word for themselves.”

  Notes

  * * *

  1. This doctrine was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church in the First Vatican Council of 1869-1870.

  2. G.W. Foote and J.M. Wheeler, Crimes of Christianity (London: Progressive Publishing Co., 1887), 123.

  Chapter Eleven

  NICE JEWISH BOYS: SAUL,

  JACOB, AND JUDAH

  “David, you asked about Paul. He is the central author of the New Covenant—at least of the letters to the congregations—and his name was actually Saul of Tarsus. He was both Jewish and a Roman citizen, not to mention a rabbi of the Pharisees. He studied under Gamaliel, one of the most respected rabbinical scholars of his day. He was so zealous for God and convinced that Jewish people who believed in Yeshua were deceived that he sought to arrest Jewish believers and even approved the stoning to death of Stephen, a leader among the first Jewish believers.”

  Acts 7:58–8:1 appeared and I made a mental note to look it up afterward. Right now, I was hanging on the angel’s every word. “However, on his way to Damascus to arrest Messianic Jews—Jews who believe in Yeshua—he was knocked to the ground and blinded by a great light. I remember that day! We angels weren’t too crazy about this guy. I mean, he was throwing Jewish believers in jail and even having some killed! But the Father said, ‘This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’ (Acts 9:15-16).

  “At the time, I quietly thought, He deserves to suffer all right, but couldn’t quite see how this guy would ever be preaching to the Gentiles. But, as always, Father knows best.

  “Yeshua had a little chat with Saul on the Damascus road and convinced him that he was on the wrong side of the issue. After this dramatic encounter, he became a believer and actually began to share the good news of Yeshua with Jewish people. In fact, he immediately went into the synagogues and began preaching.”

  “Wait a minute! Are you telling me that the primary writer of the New Covenant was a Jewish rabbi,1 and that after persecuting believers, he became one himself and actually went into Jewish synagogues preaching about Yeshua?”

  “You’re starting to get it, David,” he said with a big grin.

  “Well, why don’t Jewish people know this?” I demanded.

  “That is why you are here David—to answer that exact question! But not quite yet.” He continued telling Paul’s story. “Many years later, as he traveled throughout the known world seeking to help both Jews and Gentiles discover a dynamic, personal relationship with the King of the universe, the Bible refers to the fact that he had two names.” On my screen appeared: “Then Saul, who was also called Paul…” (Acts 13:9).

  “Sadly, for centuries Christians have taught that Saul changed his name to Paul after he became a believer. In other words, he had to get rid of his Jewish name and take on a Christian one.”

  “But Paul,” I jumped in, “is a Latin name and was popular in Rome long before Christianity. If anything, it would be connected to Rome, which was pagan and polytheistic.”

  “Right David, and let’s not forget. At the time that Paul was preaching, Rome was
anything but a friend to the believing community. In fact, Rome became the primary persecutor of the body of believers, the Kehilah, for the first three hundred years.”

  Just then a gray-haired English vicar appeared on the screen. He was addressing his congregation:

  “The Roman emperor Nero had the believers tied to poles in the garden, covered with tar and set on fire to illuminate his garden parties. And then he would take other believers and sew them into the skins of wild beasts and set dogs on them to tear them to bits to entertain his guests. And I have stood in that garden and wondered how many believers died a horrible death for his barbecue parties.”2

  “It is highly unlikely that Saul changed his name to reflect this barbaric culture. What’s more, if Saul truly changed his name from a Jewish one to a Roman one, then why did he wait so many years after coming to faith to do so?”

  “Then why does it say he was also called Paul?” I asked.

  “Let me ask you this,” Ariel replied. “Do you have a Hebrew name?”

  “Of course. Anyone who grew up in a Jewish home outside of Israel knows that it is common for Jewish people to have two names, one that relates to the culture in which they live, and a Hebrew name. Mine is Chaim.”

  “Ah, Chaim, a great name. It means life,” Ariel commented, then continued. “When Saul was traveling in non-Jewish areas, he used his Roman name, Paul, and when in Israel or amongst Jews, he used his Hebrew name, Shaul. Saul is its Anglicized equivalent. Notice the passage doesn’t say, ‘Saul, who changed his name to Paul,’ but rather, ‘Saul, who was also called Paul’—as, in addition to, not instead of.

  “Some of the smartest Bible teachers in the world miss this simple fact. This pastor you are about to see (a man standing behind a pulpit appeared on the flat screen but in pause mode) is an excellent Bible teacher and he loves Israel. He and his church have given sacrificially to Jewish believers. But listen to him in a recent message.”

  Ariel played me just one sentence. I couldn’t tell you the context of his sermon but I simply heard him say: “Saul was on the road to Damascus. That is what his name was then.”

  “Here is another one. This man’s messages are listened to by millions every week online.” Another man appeared. “Paul, his original name was Saul…”

  “This fine preacher, well-versed in the Scriptures, simply assumes that Shaul changed his name. If people so bright can miss this simple point,” Ariel noted, “how easy has it been for the enemy to rob Saul, the second most prominent figure in the New Covenant, of his Jewish identity and thus confuse the nature of the New Covenant for Jewish people?” Ariel noted. “Earlier I mentioned James to you,” Ariel said, switching subjects.

  “You said his name was actually Jacob.”

  “Good, you’re paying attention!” Paying attention was an understatement. I felt like I had a supernatural ability to absorb information. “Well I want you to meet Jacob, the physical half-brother of Yeshua.”

  The screen of the massive tablet lit up again and a handsome man in his thirties said to me, “Yeah, they sure did a job on my name. ‘James,’ for Heaven’s sake! No one ever called me James, not growing up, not ever! If they had, you might assume I was the butler or the chauffeur!” James was laughing. “But nope, I’m Jewish and grew up in Galilee.”

  “You…grew up…with…Yeshua?” I tentatively asked, making sure I used the name that Jacob would have known Him by. How surreal it was to be talking to someone who actually grew up in the same house as Jesus!

  “Yeah, and it wasn’t easy. Try growing up in the shadow of the Ma-Sye-Ya!” he raised his voice for emphasis, but was smiling. “In all seriousness, it wasn’t easy. It took me a long time before I believed—imagine your half-brother telling you that His other genealogical half is God! But after His resurrection, there was no denying that indeed, my brother was the Messiah. After I became a believer, others quickly looked to me for leadership, simply because I grew up with the Messiah. I resisted this at first—I had doubted Him for so many years. However, to my surprise that is exactly what He called me to do—to lead this new group of believing Jews in Jerusalem, along with Kefa and the other apostles, in following the Risen Messiah—my brother.

  “I’ll let Ariel take it from here. I just wanted to meet you.” And he was gone.

  Like Shimon Kefa, Jacob wanted to meet me? Who was I?

  “David,” Ariel continued his lesson, “in just about every other translation of the New Covenant—German, Hungarian, French, etc.—the word James is properly translated as Jacob or Yakov.”3

  “So why is it James in English?” I asked.

  “Many have speculated that since King James authorized the English translation of the Bible, translators did this to honor him, but actually the names Jacob and James had been synonymous for some time. The Latin name Iacomus (James) was very close to the Latin for Jacob, Iacobus, and it appears that it was just a linguistic corruption or confusion. Nevertheless, it has been a costly one.

  “The problem, once again, with this mistranslation of Jacob is that it lessens the perception of the New Covenant as a Jewish document. If a Jewish person, like you David, opened up the New Testament to the book of James, you would wrongly conclude that this James had no connection with Judaism or Israel. However, if the book, which was addressed to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered abroad, was properly entitled Jacob, your reaction would be just the opposite—you would instantly recognize that he is Jewish. It would convey and reinforce to you the Jewish context4 of the New Covenant. I want you to meet Jacob’s brother.”

  “Yeshua!” I exclaimed, terrified.

  “No, He had other brothers. David, meet Judas.”

  A shiver went down my spine. I was afraid to speak.

  “Relax, David, I am not that Judas.”

  “Who are you then?”

  “I am Jacob’s brother, like Ariel just said, which makes me, yes, the half-brother of Yeshua. I know that Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Yeshua, is more famous, or I should say ‘infamous,’ than I, but I did write one of the books of the New Covenant, albeit a very short one, creatively titled after yours truly. The problem with the other Judas, in addition to the fact that he was a thief and a traitor, is that his name has become synonymous with ‘traitor’ in modern vernacular and in many dictionaries.”

  On my tablet I saw: “Judas: someone who betrays under the guise of friendship, Webster’s Dictionary.”5

  “But no one, thankfully, ever actually called me by that name. My name is Yehuda, or Judah in English, the same name as the fourth son of Jacob, of the tribes of Israel.”

  Ariel took over, “As in the case of the name of Yeshua, had they skipped the Greek and simply transliterated from Hebrew to English, my friend here and his book would be known today by the name Judah.

  “Judah, or Yehuda, means ‘praise,’ from the same root word we get Judaism, the name of the Jewish religion. When ancient Israel was separated into two kingdoms, the southern kingdom was named Judah. Modern-day Israel still refers to the southern region of the territories that she recovered in the Six Day War as Yehudah.”

  “Ariel, it seems that there has been a concerted effort to make the followers of Yeshua look very non-Jewish. Not only has Yeshua’s identity been altered, but also His first followers; even His brothers appear to have undergone a Gentile makeover. I didn’t know any of this! And I know that my Jewish friends and family don’t know it either.”

  “David, we are just beginning. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Here, take my hand.”

  We were flying again.

  Notes

  * * *

  1. Formal rabbinic ordination did not begin until about forty years later, but rabbi was the term of honor given to a respected Jewish teacher in Paul’s day.

  2. Adapted from a message given by David Pawson at Brisbane Gateway Centre in April, 1998 entitled, What Hope for the Millennium?

  3. James appears in Spanish Bible as “Santiago”; it is derived from san (m
eaning saint) and Diego, which comes from Jacob—but changed a lot along the way. Nevertheless, it has no connection to the English name James.

  4. It is also interesting to note that in Jacob (James) 2:2 when it refers to the meeting place of believers, the Greek word that is translated meeting in the NIV and assembly in the KJV is synagogē, from which we derive the English word synagogue. This was not a blatant attempt to change the meaning of the word because synagogue, while associated today with Jewish houses of worship, does mean assembly. However, if the New Covenant translators simply used the obvious English equivalent, synagogue, it would have sent a different message to Jewish people.

  5. Webster’s Online Dictionary, s.v., “Judas,” accessed August 10, 2012, http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/judas.

  Chapter Twelve

  THE LAST SUPPER

  OR SEDER?

  Once again, we were going back in time. Above me were only stars, while below I could see time periods passing me by. They looked like scrolling movie film and I could make out the names—the Industrial Revolution, the Revolutionary War, Napoleon, and Louis the Sixteenth. And as we again drew closer to the ground, I knew we were back in Jerusalem. It was evening, and the city was bathed in soft golden light, as torches illuminated almost every courtyard.

  We hovered over one home in midair and I realized we were defying gravity. We were able to see right through the roof. It was as if it were transparent. A group of people were sitting around a long table.

  “What do you see?” asked Ariel.

  “A dinner party.”

  “Look more closely,” he exhorted.

  “I see a Kiddush Cup, for blessing the wine, and that looks like matzah. Is it Passover? Are they having a Seder meal, the meal we eat on the first night of Passover?”

  “Indeed they are, but this is no ordinary Passover Seder. Look a little closer, at the people.”