It is really not uncommon, when sharing the truths of the Holy Spirit with christians, for the one sharing the Spirit’s truths to be told that he is in a cult. It actually happens to me quite frequently. But, I know that it comes from a place of spiritual ignorance and delusion, for I was once exactly where such christians are now.
I was deceived by those teachings for five decades, until the Holy Spirit illuminated my heart and mind to understand the many differences between those teachings and His truths.
First, let me ask, how many people who are in cults share things with people, and then ask them to go and research to see if what is shared is also what is shown in scripture to be truth? You see, that’s exactly what the Bereans in the book of Acts did. They heard the Word (truths of the Holy Spirit), and then searched the scriptures to verify that what they had heard was indeed truth (Acts 17:11).
Let’s see if christians, who are often so ready to call the Spirit’s truths “false teachings,” actually live a faith that resembles what the New Testament believers embraced and lived.
You see, the true Gospel came THROUGH the physical Jews, for they were the foreshadow Yah used to represent the future-revealed spiritual real substance of Messiah’s bride, which was revealed in Acts 2 on the Feast of Weeks.
So, the Father entered into a physical covenant with the physical Jews (Ten Commandments), and then He gave them hundreds of precepts, which were commandments that were contained in ordinances. Those ordinances covered animal sacrifice and regulations regarding “clean vs. unclean,” which were the laws that kept physical Jews and Gentiles separated (a foreshadow of Messiah’s bride separating herself from the world).
Those commandments contained in the ordinances governed HOW the Jews were to eat, drink, dress, have sex, and observe Yah’s Sabbaths, among many other things. But, what is important to understand is that the ordinances did not invent eating, drinking, dressing, having sex, or the Sabbaths themselves. No, those things exist separately from the ordinances.
Along with the commandments in the ordinances, Yah gave the physical Jews His traditions (Greek: “paradosis”), and the law mandated HOW those traditions were to be observed. But, what many christians fail to understand is that, what was abolished in Messiah were the commandments that dictated HOW Yah’s people were to live, because those who receive the spiritual covenant (Holy Spirit) are instructed by Him HOW to live.
And, those ordinances being abolished did not eliminate the Father’s traditions, just as it did not eliminate eating, drinking, dressing, or sex.
Along with Messiah, another notable person in the New Testament who also honored the Father’s traditions was the apostle Paul. And, not only did he observe them himself, he taught them to the Gentile converts, and told them to “hold fast . . . and keep the traditions” he had taught them (1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15).
What else did Paul say about this issue? He said that those who receive the Holy Spirit are grafted into Y’isra-el. Do you get that? So many christians claim that the Father’s traditions were given only to the Jews, and they’re right (even though they don’t know it), for those who are actually born again (not something of man’s decision), ARE Jews (Romans 2:29), they ARE Y’isra-el (Romans 11:11-24), and they ARE Abraham’s descendants (Galatians 3:28-29).
The real substance is spiritual, the foreshadow was physical. So, those who are Yah’s people (Y’isra-el) are adopted spiritually—it has nothing to do with physical race, gender, or geographical residence. There is no physical distinction that determines who Yah’s people are. The real substance is wholly spiritual—they are those who have been given the new covenant—the “ketubah” (marriage covenant), which is the seal of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9).
So, if the traditions that Messiah practiced were an integral part of the faith that was taught to believers during the New Testament, then what would a set of different teachings that contradict what the New Testament believers practiced and taught be called? Would that be “truth,” or would that be a “cult”?
After the New Testament apostles had all died, there were people who embraced SOME of the truths of Messiah Yahoshua’s Gospel (the ones that they could just add to the paganism they already practiced), but there were elements they just could not tolerate because of their bitter hatred of the physical Jews, not understanding that those elements never belonged to the physical Jews, but to the Father Himself.
So, they devised a plan to rid the faith of those things that offended them, and to replace those things with their own pagan practices and traditions. And, THAT was the beginning of christianity, which Constantine then codified in the 4th century. It was a counterfeit of the true faith from the beginning.
Paul actually referred to this new set of doctrines and traditions that would be invented in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, calling it a “falling away,” or “apostasy.” You see, there is a reason that Paul told the Gentile converts to keep the traditions he had taught them, for within those traditions are vast and rich truths about Messiah and His bride that are detailed, and they also reveal the Father’s prophetic calendar.
What christianity did was to obliterate what those traditions teach, which left the belief system open to man’s interpretations of what truth is, and is why there are now more than 41,000 christian denominations (Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary). Actually, each of those denominations is its own cult within the false belief system that was invented as “christianity.”
What christianity teaches is wholly different from what the New Testament believers practiced and taught; but, very often, when those truths are shown to christians, they refuse to see what the truth is (and, because of delusion, many cannot even see the truths that are presented in the scriptures, and Paul tells us why in 2 Thessalonians 2:11).
Not only do the Father’s traditions teach many details about Messiah, and reveal the prophetic calendar, they also show the true path to salvation. Because the Father’s traditions were abolished by christianity, many different teachings about salvation emerged, and it largely became a decision of man, devoid of the true path to it, and the literal confirmation by the Holy Spirit that one has received it.
The Ten Commandments were the physical covenant, a foreshadow of the spiritual covenant, which is the seal of the Holy Spirit. What christianity would have folks believe is that those commandments, which represent the future-revealed giving of the Holy Spirit as the seal upon Messiah’s bride, are “mostly” still valid, except for the fourth one. That is a teaching, then, that the Holy Spirit Himself has changed, and that the days that the Father has always called His have changed, or have ended.
And, THAT is what a cult looks like. False beliefs embraced as truth, even when the truth is explained to those who have been deceived by lies. The Holy Spirit has never changed. Messiah Yahoshua has never changed. And, the Father has never changed. What He calls His days ARE His days. That is why His days were taught by the apostle Paul, were honored by the New Testament believers, and are shown being observed during Messiah’s millennial reign (Ezekiel 45 & 46, Zechariah 14:16-19), which is still to come.
Those who claim that the Father’s Sabbaths ended at some point are deceived by false teachings; and all spiritual error has one ultimate source—the father of lies.
For more information: Circumcision and Spiritual Reproduction