What is true repentance

What is repentance? What does it mean to repent? Many believe that it is asking for forgiveness for a particular sin, but does it really mean that? Many people believe that it is and that they can carry on doing this sin, as long as they ask for forgiveness every time, that they are okay.

The word for repentance in the Hebrew Scriptures is the word, “teishuva.” The root word is the Hebrew word, “shuv” (pronounced shoov), which simply means, turn. The concept of teishuva (repentance) is not only associated with the turning away from sin in the Hebrew understanding. It can be used in many other ways too. Let us look at one such example.

In the time of the temple, the Levites who had certain duties in the temple, used to work in kind of “shift work” schedule. To indicate a shift change, a certain shofar blast would indicate the change. When this shofar blast was heard by a Levite who was to come on duty, he would immediately drop what ever he was busy with and “teishuva” (turn) and go to the temple to do his duty. It was not about turning away from something wrong, but rather to go do what he was required to do at that time.

Repentance from sin is the same thing. When we repent (teishuv), we are required to drop the sin we are busy with and turn 180 degrees and continue in the instruction of the Almighty and never look back. It is a permanent turning away from that sin, never to be repeated again.

New believers, people who come to follow the way of the Torah, have to “teishuva” (turn) away from their previous sinful lifestyle and go follow what the Torah teaches us to do. Once that believer, who has made a commitment to follow the Torah and learns what is required of him, then goes and commits a sin that is liable for death, according to the Torah, will then have his blood on his own hands. This person should not be allowed to fellowship with the congregation any longer. The reason for this is that it becomes understood by others that these kind of actions, that are an abomination, are acceptable to do. That person will be judged by the Almighty.

Repentance does not mean that we can ask for forgiveness and then continue to do the same sin again and just ask forgiveness every time. Repentance is turning away from that sin and put it behind you and never do it again. We will all eventually be living a perfectly righteous life if we all continue to do “teishuva” for all our sins. The more we do it, the easier it becomes and the more we are going to develop a pure love for the Almighty and His Word and also for our neighbors too.

If we all do teishuva and truly turn to do what is written in the Torah, then we will all stand side by side in perfect agreement with the Torah as our foundation. May we all study His Torah in order to know what is right in the eyes of the Almighty and turn from our evil ways to do what is good.

Do we really live by the Scriptural culture?

Believing in and serving the Almighty is not an add-on to ones life. I have heard very many people say that one should put the Almighty first in ones life, then I reply, “WHAT… as if He could be second!!!” The fact is that The Almighty and His instructions for us have to guide us in every single aspect of our lives. It has to become our culture to live by every single Word that comes from the mouth of the Almighty.

The Scriptures have to become our way of life and way of thinking in everything that we do, it should become our culture. The majority of people in this world belong to some religious organization of some kind. The largest religion in the world today is undoubtedly Christianity by far. When I hear or read about this fact, the words of the Messiah that comes to mind is found in the book of Matthew, “Enter in through the narrow gate! Because the gate is wide – and the way is broad – that leads to destruction, and there are MANY WHO ENTER IN THROUGH IT. Because the gate is narrow and the way is hard pressed which leads to life, and THERE ARE FEW WHO FIND IT” (Mat 7:13-14)

With the words of the Messiah in our thoughts, would one want to be part of the majority (the many)? The Messiah made it very clear that this is a matter of life and death. Should we not pay more attention and study to test everything in order to prove it true so that we follow the truth that leads to life? If we do not do so, then we are simply putting our own lives and the lives of our families into the hands of other people.

Let me use a practical example quick. I have two uncles, the one is a middle class worker and the other is a rich financial expert who makes a lot of money from the stock market. One day my middle class uncle asked my rich uncle to invest some of his hard earned money on the stock market for him so that he too could have some extra cash. My rich uncle agreed to do so and took his money to invest.

Now my uncle, that gave his hard earned money, trusted my other rich uncle because he was his own brother and believed he had his best interests at heart. What happened is that because my rich uncle was not investing his own money, he was not too worried about it and sort of forgot to look after his brother’s investment. In the end, he made a loss with his brother’s money. Now it was not because he did not care about his brother, but simply because he was more interested in making more money for himself or simply because any loss of that investment would have no effect on him directly.

This example has exactly the same principle as mentioned above. Are you putting your life in the care of other people, who in the end are more worried about their own lives and “forget” to look after your “investment,” namely your life? That is why it is written that we are to test everything in order to prove that it is right. We are responsible for our own salvation and therefore need to study the Scriptures for ourselves in order to know what is righteous and what is not. We then have to change our lives to the extent that it is perfectly in line with the Word/Instruction of the Almighty. “It has been written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of יהוה (YHWH)” (Mat 4:4). He is the only one who knows what is best for us.

Now, whenever someone, who is walking in the ways of the Scriptures and teaching the ways of the Almighty, encounters a Christian, they are usually accused of the following, “you are trying to Judaise me and the other people.” But is this statement true? Absolutely not!!!

Judaising someone is teaching them to follow Jewish traditions and teachings. There is a difference between Judaising and Scripturalising the belief/faith. Although the Scriptural way of life very much resembles that of what the Jews do in many ways, it is not exactly the same in the sense that the Jews (at least the Rabbinics) have many extra laws and “interpretations” of certain passages. But does it make everything they (Orthodox Jews) do incorrect? Certainly NOT.

Let us look at a few things that are different between the Orthodox Jewish faith and the Scriptural faith. Then we will look at the Scriptural faith and compare it to the Christian faith to see if that meets the Scriptural requirements.

A few Jewish traditions that are not Scriptural:

1)   Men have to wear a “kippa” (yarmulke) on their heads.
2)   Not allowed to eat meat and dairy in the same meal.
3)   Not allowed to have a blue thread in the tzitzit (Scripture requires us to wear tzitzit with a cord of blue in it)
4)   Have a set worked out calendar instead of watching for new moon (but only differ by a day or so when there is a difference)

Now let us look at a few things that are required by Scripture, that the Christians do NOT observe:

1)   Wear tzitzit (tassels) on the four corners of our garments (Num 15:38-40, Deut 22:12, Mat 9:20, 14:35-36, Mark6:56, Luke 8:43-44)
2)   Keep the Sabbath (Christianity does not keep the Sabbath) (Hebrews 4:9, Mat 24:20, Ex 31: 13-16, Isa 56:1-2, 58:13-14, 66:22-24, Deut 5:12, Ex 20:8-11, Jer 17:22 etc)
3)   Circumcision, which is an eternal sign of the Covenant given to Avraham (Christianity does not believe in circumcision) (Eze 44:9, Jer 4:4, Gen 17:10-14, Ex 12:43-44, Luke 2:21)

4)   Observe the Mo’edim (appointed times and feasts) as written in Lev 23 (Christians keep pagan holidays instead.) See – Christmas, Easter, Birthdays, New Year, Valentines day etc.
5)   The Name of the Almighty is (יהוה) and is His Name forever (Ex 3:15). (Christianity substitutes it with the names of pagan idols) See – God, Lord.
6)   Eating kosher foods only. (Click here to learn more)

The Jews do all of the above as it is required by the Scriptures, but Christians do NOT.

Now let us look at a few things that Christianity holds to as true doctrine, but is not at all Scriptural:

1)   The Trinity. (Click here to understand why this is not Scriptural.)
2)   The Law being done away with, lawless. (see – Mat 7:21-23, 24:12, 2 Cor 6:14, 1 John 3:4, 2 Thess 2:3 and 9, 2 Peter 3:17, Romans 2:12-13, 3:31, 7:12, John 14:21, Rev 12:17, 14:12, 22:14, 1 John 3:10, Mat 13:41-43, James 1:22)
3)   Faith without works, which is the keeping of the Torah (see – James 2:14-26, Romans 3:31)
4)   Only have to believe in “Jesus” to be saved. (Mat 10:22, 24:23, Mark 13:13, Click here too)
5)   The cross is a Christian symbol. (but is it Scriptural? Click here to learn more).

6)   Forgiveness of adultery… “he who is without sin, cast the first stone”

There are so many more that I could mention here, but I am sure that you get the point now.

The fact of the matter is that the Faith of the Scriptures is a Hebrew faith. The father of the eternal covenant is Avraham, to whom the Almighty made the covenant with. Christianity claims to be “sons of Abraham” and yet, they do not resemble Abraham in any way. Avraham was called an “Ivri” (Hebrew), where Christians follow a Roman religion.

Are we really trying to Judaise people? No… in fact, we are trying to Scripturalise people. The fact that someone who starts living according to the Scriptures might seem to look like a Jew or act like a Jew in many ways (in the eyes of the world), is because the lifestyle of the Jews are based mostly on the Scriptures. In fact, the Jewish nation is identified by the Torah, but most of them also follow extra laws that comes from the Talmud which was written by the Sages.

Christianity claims to be followers of the Messiah, but one thing that they simply cannot grasp is that the Messiah was and is a Jew (Y’hudi) and held to everything that is written in the Hebrew Tanakh. He lived according to the Scriptures and taught that we need to follow in His footsteps. I still remember a time when the church made arm bands that had the letters, “WWJD” written on them for the youth to wear. Those letters stood for, “What Would Jesus Do.” The wearer of the arm band would wear it as a reminder to do as “Jesus” would do in any situation. This was ironic as none of them ever did as the Messiah did or would do, for the simple fact because they had no idea what the Messiah would do in the situation because Christianity does not teach the true Messiah.

The fact of the matter is that Christianity has taken what is Scriptural and replaced it with other Westernized, Roman traditions of pagan cultures and religions.

Do you want to belong to the Hebrew faith of the Messiah and all His followers… or do you want to be a part of the Western Roman religion that has rejected the Scriptures in favor of their own personal teachings (doctrines) that are not at all Scriptural?

I am a Jew who follows a Jewish Rabbi who is my Messiah who teaches us to follow the Torah in every way.