Anabaptist Apologist

The Virgin Birth |3 Introduction   When reading the Virgin Birth accounts in the New Testament , one is reading with, in my opinion, a sever bias based on the miss-translation in Isaiah 7:14 and faulty understanding of how genealogy is reckoned by Torah. The following are assumptions made by Virgin Birth believers: that the genealogies in Matthew and Luke are of Joseph and Mary , respectively; that Joseph's genealogy doesn't matter, but Mary's does; that Mary is a descendant of David, hence that's how Jesus retains his rightful inheritance to the throne.  A simple examination...   Matthew 1:17 gives three epochs, 14 generations each, from Abraham to Christ. It reads, “17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.” If you count the names epoch by epoch by epoch, it’s 14, 14, and 13. Why? b...

The Meatless Kingdom | 7 Introduction   This is the last post in this series on sacrifices and meat eating. In this post, we're going to evaluate Paul's writings in light of the Essene/ Ebionite doctrine and practice. What did Paul teach, and what has his impact been on believers? Most believers today take Paul to be an authority on religious matters. He has 13 epistles in what's called the New Testament , so it's no wonder why people assume he's a particularly blessed messenger. After all, why would God allow for 13 epistles to be in the Bible if they weren't authentic and his Apostleship genuine? But these same readers are unaware of the information we've presented thus far; they'll be unaware of the information presented here. In reality, what we're going to discover is that Paul taught the opposite of James, Peter and the other Apostles, and thus Yashua the Messiah.   As before, we'll present quotes from ancient writers that provide deep insi...

  The Virgin Birth | 2 Introduction Isaiah 7:14 gives us a promise of an alleged “virgin” birth. But what I think we'll see is that the context doesn't allow for such a conclusion.   Breakdown of the chapter   In order to understand why the context doesn't allow for a virgin birth, we have to examine the chapter(s) carefully.   in v.3 of chapter 7, Isaiah brings his first son with him to speak with Ahaz in v. 14, a “virgin” is promised a son, a sign to King Ahaz in chapter 8, we learn that it’s Isaiah’s son Mahershalalhashbaz, who is “called” “Immanuel This proves a few things: it’s primarily a near prophecy of Isaiah’s son Isaiah’s wife wasn’t a virgin because they already had a son (v.3), so the word can’t be translated “virgin.” The JPS TaNaKh renders the Hebrew word as “young woman” in English—which is contextually accurate if this has a double fulfillment, it shows that it isn’t prophetic of a virgin birth; and it shows that “Emmanuel” is an epithet. Jesus was ...

The Meatless Kingdom | 6 Introduction Now that we've explored some of the major scenes in the Old Testament as they relate to the topic of animal sacrifices and meat eating (from Adam and Eve allegedly being clothed with the skins of an animal that God killed, to God's supposed allowance for Noah to eat "all" things, all the way to the prophets who denounced animal sacrifices), we can now begin to step into the New Testament era. John the Baptist, the Essene Prophet The New Testament opens up with several key details as to who Jesus is and some of his early life, but it also opens up with one enigmatic figure standing between two crucial periods of history with a crucial message, and lifestyle, that bridges the gap between the older Prophets and Jesus. Thus, we'll begin with John the Baptist. John is the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth[1] and is a prophet of God sent "in the spirit and power of Elijah"--a mighty, righteous prophet, no doubt. Of John, Jesu...

The Virgin Birth | 1 Introduction   Like most, I grew up believing that Jesus was born of a virgin. Nearly all of christianity affirms this. Recently, I was challenged by some friends to reevaluate my claim(s). This post is the first in a series on this topic.   The Torah: Lineage/ Descent Principle   The Books Numbers 1:1,2, and 18 and Ezra 2:59 reveals patrilineal descent:[1]   
Num 1:1,2,18 AND THE HaShem spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after the were come out of the land of Egypt, saying: 2 'Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, by their polls; [...] 18 And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of name...