Only the True G-d is worthy of our worship

Dear visitor…

“Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!” (Jeremiah 16:19-20)”

You have stumbled upon the blog of a former Messianic Jew Gene Shlomovich. I say “former” because there has been a dramatic change. After being a devout, unwavering, “born-again” believer in Jesus/Yeshua for almost 19 years (since my late teens), one who truly sought to love and serve Jesus as my G-d, my master and lord first through Evangelical Christianity (participating in overseas missions in Eastern Europe and South America for many years) then via “Messianic Judaism” (founding a sizable Messianic congregation), I came to a “rug-pulled-from-under-my-feet” realization. I’ve come to realize that I just could longer subscribe to a belief in Jesus/Yeshua as either Messiah, “L-rd”, “Savior”, “G-d in the flesh”, or even “simply” a prophet or a good teacher. As a Jew, I could not continue worshiping and serving another, a deified man Jesus, while remaining faithful to the G-d of Israel. I realize that for a Jew this was the gravest betrayal of the very G-d I so sought to honor most of my adult life. To honor as G-d someone other than the G-d of Israel Himself, a creature that was created by G-d or a “god” born out of human imagination, is idolatry.

I also came to understand that Jesus/Yeshua has no relevance to the Jewish faith or the Jewish people (apart from polemics and our relationship with Christianity). I am now simply just a Jew who seeks to observe G-d’s Torah and be faithful to the G-d of my fathers and the faith of my nation. As you might imagine, I did not come to this decision lightly – not at all. It was a very painful realization. And in case you are wondering how could this have happened, when I came to my understanding I have not read materials of, met with or spoken to anti-missionaries and no-one pressured me in any way. This is something that I came to on my own, by reexamining my faith from the ground up. I came to my decision after thoroughly and honestly comparing the claims of Christianity/Messianic Judaism vs. those of Judaism, their respective views on the nature of G-d, humanity’s sin and salvation against those expressed in the Tanakh. I studied historic origins and development of the Christian faith, the New Testament theology and cannon, Christianity’s use of the Hebrew scripture, Paul’s ideas and his profound influence on the new religion centered on a messianic figure. I compared all that to what is readily found in the Hebrew Bible. I reevaluated Yeshua’s (the “Prince of Peace” and the “Son of Man” of Christianity) claims to and eligibility for messiahship.

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. (Psalm 146:3)

G-d is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change his mind. (Numbers 23:19)

I also realized that it doesn’t matter if billions of very nice, kind people around the world sincerely honor, worship and serve Jesus as G-d, L-rd and Savior, or G-d through Jesus. It also does not matter if billions of Christians (and Muslims) consider Jesus to be the Messiah while considering Jews as deceived, wrong, blinded by G-d, in rebellion and uncomprehending of their own scriptures for the last two thousand years. Huge numbers of adherents to a particular religion (or world view) do not testify to the veracity of the claims made by that religion nor make its gods, theology or worship true, even if multitudes of people take comfort in that and believe that there’s safety in numbers.

But what does the Bible of the Jews have to say about that? Did the nations actually get it right by directing their worship at Jesus the man-god and did Israel fail by refusing to join them in bowing the knee to him? In the Hebrew Bible we read that the stubborn Jewish allegiance to their G-d and their refusal to worship anything but Him in the face of unceasing pressure and persecution will be exonerated and acknowledged by all:

To you (Hashem) shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!” (Jeremiah 16:19-20)

And what about the end of days, when we are told to expect Jesus to make his comeback, when every knee is to bow to him (Philippians 2:10)? Will the Jewish people be ashamed and mourn their failure to believe in him, as many Christians fully expect, because they refused to worship Jesus as G-d or recognize his messiahship? Will Israel finally repent of her stubborn refusal to worship Christ? Will she acknowledge that the nations of the world had become the Israel of G-d through Jesus, the Son of G-d, G-d in the flesh, the Second Person of the Three-Person G-d of Christianity? Prophets say that the opposite will be true. All nations will stream to the Jewish people because the nations of the world will finally recognize that the true and only G-d, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has always been with the Jews:

Thus saith the L-RD of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that G-d is with you. (Zechariah 8:23)

Friend, whether you were born a Jew or a Gentile, by worshiping Jesus and giving any human being the glory due to G-d alone you are committing a grave sin of idolatry, which is the worst offense against your Maker. When I finally realized that every time that I prayed to Jesus or in his name, every time that I thanked and praised that man, every time I depended on Jesus the human being for my salvation and forgiveness of my sins, I was committing idolatry, I was heartbroken. In my ignorance, I have been guilty of attributing G-d’s glory to a creature.

I am the L-RD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. (Isaiah 42:8)

You may be asking yourself – what about all those millions of people who so faithfully follow and serve Jesus, all the multitudes who worship him – how can they all be so wrong?

I used to ask myself the same question. But then I realized that G-d was never about numbers. While the whole world degenerated into utter lawlessness, G-d chose Noah and his family because they knew Him. G-d also chose Israel, though it was the least of nations. Don’t be concerned that so much of humanity worships a man-god of their own making, or that the nations honor man Jesus as their deity and Savior, as “G-d incarnate”. Please, don’t let it sway you from returning to your Father in Heaven, from forsaking idolatry. One day the whole earth, all the nations will worship G-d and Him alone, but you don’t have to wait until then. You can make a choice whom you will serve this day.

Before Him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by Him as worthless and less than nothing. To whom, then, will you compare G-d? What image will you compare him to? (Isaiah 40:17-18)

If you have been taught by others to proclaim Jesus as your L-rd and Savior, please do not ignore the clear words of your Father in Heaven:

I, even I, am the L-RD, and apart from me there is no savior. (Isaiah 43:11)

If you have any questions or comments, you can contact me privately at jewishthoughts@gmail.com

Shalom,

Gene Shlomovich