Was OT YHWH really SATAN? – Part 2

Posted Oct 26/2018

Hi Friend! As you can see my young friend is using a source that I don’t recognize, but asking and answering the classical questions that Tomas Jefferson popularized about the O.T. God vs. Jesus.

Thanks for the follow-up – I was wondering if you sent what I wrote to him (or her) and if they responded to the scripture passages I shared with them.

I cannot tell from the below whether they ever even READ them, much less PRAYED over them.

But after reading the email below—where he copy/pasted some slides from some teacher somewhere – I did a search and found the source on YouTube.

After reviewing much of the material from That YouTube Source (“YS” in the below), I became concerned that your young friend might have been harmed by those anti-biblical teachings.

It was shocking to me how little attention the teacher gave to the actual words of Jesus and His disciples. So many of the mistakes made in those teachings could have been avoided by simply listening respectfully to what Jesus and his students taught about the Hebrew bible and the events and teachings contained in the OT.

Your friend—in their honest search for knowing the Father—will need to decide NOW whether they trust Jesus or trust YS, as to what the OT teaches. They will have to decide whether Jesus was a failure as a teacher of the disciples, or whether the writers of the New Testament taught the truth that Jesus had passed on to them.

There is no other option – if Jesus says that His Father was the God of the Exodus, and YS says that Satan was the God of the Exodus, then you friend will have to decide whether YS knows more than Jesus (and therefore Jesus was either deluded or in league with Satan himself), or whether YS is just dead wrong.

No amount of complaining about the plagues or about fire from heaven or whatever can divert this question. Where is faith to be placed?—in the New Testament writings (the teachings of Jesus) or the interpretations of one modern human… myself included.

.............................................................

Before I comment on the email contents, let me point out two MAJOR ethical issues that MUST BE ADDRESSED FIRST:

Jesus said explicitly: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.”

In other words, things may not be what they seem. The command is to dig deeper and discover the truth. The surface of the text is to be reflected on, submitted to, and placed into the overall teachings of God.

A great example of this is Jesus’ use of a ‘contradiction’ in Matt 22.41ff—

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴²saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?

⁴⁵If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Only by accepting this at face value—as a ‘problem’—and then reflecting upon HOW IT COULD BE THE CASE, can one discover the truth that Jesus was pointing to – the divine nature or divine authority of the Messiah.

If we ONLY use appearances (like much of YS’s arguments are based on), we would also have to believe Jesus to be a liar, and to ‘change his mind’ (unlike the Father), to use curses, and to speak under oath:

Liar

Jesus answered him, ‘I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together, and I spoke nothing in secret’ (John 18:20)

With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples. (Mark 4.33f);

And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything bin parables (Mark 4.11)

Liar

You judge according to the flesh—I judge no one. (John 18:15)

Jesus said ‘For judgment I came into this would.” (John 9.39)

Changing His mind (and Liar)

So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. …. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

But after ahis brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. (one verse later!)

Speaking under Oath

“But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. (Matthew 26:62f) … And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14.62)

‘I put you under solemn oath before the living God to tell us if’ (ἐξορκίζω σε κατὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος ἵνα ἡμῖν εἴπῃς εἰ) … The Markan question becomes a demand for information under an imposed solemn oath. Though different language is used, it is probably right to contrast the oath imposed on Jesus with the oaths volunteered by Peter in vv. 72 and 74, the one evoking the truth and the other masking a lie” [HI:NIGTC]… “He stands up to signal that he is taking personal control of the investigation, and demands a response under oath” [NICNT]

Using Curses (and saying the disciples could do so!)

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. …

The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree

20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. (Mark 11.12-14 with 11.20-22)… When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matt 21.20-22)

The Final Judgment

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. … Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt 25.1, 41)

See what I mean?

I could make slides out of these and slander Jesus—just like many of the YS slides do about Yahweh.

You have to dig deeper and seek the Lord’s truth. Not just ‘what it looks like’ (generally out of context, by the way!)

The SECOND PRINCIPLE is just as important – allow the accused to offer THEIR side.

The book of proverbs has this dead-on observation (18.17):

The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.

“Comes (see 18:3) vividly represents the defendant stepping forward to present his defense And cross-examines him (wahaqaro) means, “to probe” in a purely cognitive and analytical examination and testing70 and connotes that the search is diligent, penetrating and difficult of something hidden and difficult to find (cf. 23:30; 25:2, 27; 28:11).” [NICOT, in loc]

“The implication is that the one who has the first word may seem to be in the right, but one should listen to the story of the other side—a second opinion, so to speak” [WBC]

In other words, you have to let the accused speak up and defend himself. It is unfair and misleading to just present one side of a dispute.

So, when somebody faults the ‘theologians’ from presenting an explanation or defense or cross-examining of the witness (the interpretation of the biblical texts), they are being unfair to the accused (in this case, Yahweh of the OT).

I cannot tell from the snippet of the email you sent HOW MUCH OF WHAT YS TEACHES has influenced your friend, so I am going to have to cover most of the major un-biblical (or even ‘anti-biblical’) errors there. I hope your friend will forgive me for all the detail (or hopefully delight in it—smile!).

With that in background, let’s dive into the fundamental errors of the YS.

[Just for my convenience, I am going to switch to the 2^nd person singular (“you”) below, to show that this is just a conversation between two students of the Word of God. I hope he (or she) will not think me too presumptuous in doing so.]

================================== =============================================

The fundamental error made by YS is failing to accept the teachings of Jesus and the NT on the nature of the Old Testament.

As students trying to know the Father better, we must align OUR BELIEFS about the scriptures with JESUS teachings (either in the gospels or through his student-emissaries).

When YS says that the OT is not ‘errant’ but contains the voice of Satan in many, many passages, he/she is 180 degrees in opposition to Jesus and the disciples.

We can see this by asking the New Testament what it teaches:

Did Jesus trust and use the OT as being truthful and accurate (even in passages ascribed to YHWH), or did he think it should be ‘broken up’ into God-given and Satan-given parts?

John 10:34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—

Psalm 82:6 -- I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;

Who did Jesus think gave the 10 Commandments (the NT God or Satan)?

Matthew 15:04 ‑ For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

Exodus 20:12 ‑“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.; Exodus 21:17 ‑“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Is only PART of the OT ‘breathed out by the NT god’ or ALL of it?

2 Timothy 3.16 -- All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Note: The only scripture generally available at the time of this writing was the OLD TESTAMENT.

Was ANY prophecy in the OT produced by ANYONE other than the Holy Spirit?

2 Peter 1.19ff: -- And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit

Note: The prophecies were given THROUGH people, FROM the NT God, and as DIRECTED / IMPELLED by the Holy Spirit.

In fact, were the predictions of the Messiah’s sufferings produced by Satan or by the pre-Incarnate Christ himself?

1 Peter 1:11 -- inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

Note: Because of the unity of the persons in the Trinity, prophecy can be ascribed to either God the Father, God the Son (the pre-incarnate Christ) or God the Holy Spirit.

Psalms 2 and 110 are by David and refer to the Son of YHWH—the messiah—as ‘breaking the nations with a rod of iron’ and calling on the nations to ‘Do homage to the Son, that He not be angry and you perish—for His wrath may soon be kindled’. 110 refers to the submission of enemies at his feet and the ‘shattering of kings in the day of His wrath”. Do the NT teachers believe Satan wrote this or the NT God of Jesus?

Jesus speaking:	Mark 12:36 ‑ David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’
Jesus speaking:	Matthew 22:43 ‑ He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
Peter and the disciples:	Acts 04:24–26 ‑ And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, “O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
Author of Hebrews:	Hebrews 10:13 ‑waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

Isaiah 6 is referred to several times in the NT. It speaks a word of judgment on Israel, saying ‘make their hearts dull… so they will not be healed’. Do the NT teachers believe Satan wrote this or the NT God of Jesus through Isaiah?

Jesus speaking:	Luke 08:10 ‑ he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
Jesus speaking:	Mark 04:11 ‑And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”
Jesus speaking:	Matthew 13:14–15 ‑ Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
Paul the Apostle	Acts 28:25f -- The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‑ ‘GO TO THIS PEOPLE AND SAY
John the Apostle	John 12:38 ‑ so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

Jesus and the NT authors cite, reference or allude to at least 200 OT passages—without once expressing a doubt about God’s authorship or expressing some belief that Satan authored them.

They ABSOLUTELY TRUST, quote, and reference passages in:

· all the books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy),

· all of the historical books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles),

· all of the poetical books (Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes),

· all the Major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel), and

· most of the longer Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah).

They LIVED the reality that ‘all scripture was God-breathed’. They submitted to it, delighted in it, accepted it—even the ‘hard passages’ we will look at below. They found it to be beautiful in character—connecting the OT YHWH with the NT God of Jesus and the disciples:

1 Peter 3:10–12 ‑ For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Psalm 34:12–16 ‑What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

The hypocrisy that Jesus called out against often was likewise found in the OT prophecies of Isaiah—ascribed to the God of Jesus/NT:

Mark 07:06–7 ‑And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men".

Isaiah 29:13 (LXX) ‑And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

The promises of YHWH to David are ascribed to the NT God, with David being called a prophet pointing to the resurrection of Christ:

Peter speaking:

Acts 02:30ff -- And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY ‑For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’

The Word of God – the OT scriptures from YHWH – was food for life, eternal power, and the source of the New Birth:

Matthew 04:04 ‑ But [Jesus] answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”	Deuteronomy 8:3 ‑And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know… that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (YHWH).
1 Peter 1:23–25 ‑ For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.	Isaiah 40:6–8 --‑ voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

[The reader should stop here and face these verses before the Father – do you accept the teachings of the New Testament about the inspiration of the ENTIRE Old Testament scriptures? – Jesus and the NT authors DID – do you trust THEM or your own (or YS’) opinions more?

================================================== ===============================

You may have already seen the errors that trip YS up (so skip this if you already have), but here are two fundamental ones.

First, YS misunderstands the beautiful text of 2 Timothy 2:15 (a challenge to both of us!), getting thrown off by the older translation in the KJV or NKJV:

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

YS somehow believes that we are supposed to ‘divide’ the Word of Truth into two pieces: the ‘real’ word of truth, and the word of Satan/error. But that just doesn’t fit the text. If you divide the WORD of TRUTH, you just get two pieces of WORD OF TRUTH. It did NOT say ‘divide the word of truth AND error’!

There’s no ‘word of error/Satan’ IN THE “WORD OF TRUTH’—that would make the phrase ‘word of Truth’ false or meaningless.

And modern translations do a better job with the word translated ‘divide’ there:

· Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (ESV)

· Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (NASB95)

The ‘divide’ word (ortho-tomeo) means literally ‘cut straight’ although that meaning had more or less disappeared by NT times.

Modern lexicons give:

· to give accurate instruction—‘to teach correctly, to expound rightly (Louw-Nida)

· guide the word of truth along a straight path (like a road that goes straight to its goal), without being turned aside by wordy debates or impious talk 2 Ti 2:15. (BAGD)

· the metaphor may be derived not from road making (τέμνειν ὁδόν), but from the mason’s cutting stones fair and straight to fit into their places in a building (M-M)

In none of those meanings is there a hint of ‘splitting into diverse components’.

The second slip-up by YS in their attitude toward the Word of the Living God is by over-extending the injunction to ‘test the spirits’ in 1 John 4.1:

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world”. (ESV)

YS asserts that this means we are supposed to ‘test the scriptures’ to judge whether their teachings are of God or of Satan. But this WAY over-reaching the limited text here.

We have already seen that there IS no ‘word of Satan’ in the OT—according to Jesus, the disciples, and the author of this passage in 1^st John.

And 1^st John explicitly tells us HOW TO TEST the SPIRITS in the new few verses:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

That’s pretty simple—the test is strictly about whether Jesus Christ was incarnate or not! Nothing about ‘Jesus being the image of the Father’ or ‘fire from heaven’ or ‘oath taking’! This was about false prophets of John’s day who denied the incarnation.

It is just twisting scripture to make it say anything more than that—e.g., judge OT passages by some unstated criteria.

That’s the ONLY passage on ‘testing spirits’ we have. Paul says to ‘test any prophets in the church services’ (1 Cor 14:29-32) and has a spirit-test in 1 Cor 12.3:

“Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.”

Again, very limited—nothing at all about judging the Word of God that gave us new birth, and which was trusted and taught by Jesus and the disciples.

=========================================== ========================================

So, let’s start with that—

Next we will look at the ‘controversial’ passages YS mentions and ‘search the scriptures’ to see who Jesus and his apostles thought gave the law, spoke to Moses, did the Exodus plagues, etc.

And then we will show the massive alignment of OT ethics and NT ethics (including Jesus and OT YHWH), and then try to ‘listen to the text and facts’ about the passages (or beliefs about those passages—more the case) that disturb people (especially the ones you mention).

So, more later—but you have to wrestle with this ‘can I trust Jesus when he tells me to trust the Hebrew Bible He used, taught, submitted to, and interpreted His life/mission by’…