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The Kitten & The Alligator
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A PARABLE: There once was a little boy who had a cute little kitten. The little boy loved the kitten very much and played with it every day. One day the little boy noticed that the kitten had lost it's cute tail and instead, in it's place, was a large tail that resembled that of an alligator. This bothered the little boy, but he still loved his kitten and he said: "Now I have a kitten with an alligator tail." The very next day, the boy noticed that the little fluffy paws of the kitten had changed into the feet of an alligator. But he still loved his kitten and he said: "Now I have a kitten with an alligator tail and alligator feet." On the following day, the little boy noticed that the kitten's beautiful brown and white fur had been turned into the tough, leathery skin of an alligator and it was growing bigger. Sill, he loved his "kitten" and he said: "Now I have a kitten with an alligator tail, alligator feet and alligator skin." On the fourth day, the kitten's head had turned into an alligator head, with alligator eyes, and big, sharp, alligator teeth. In spite of the change in appearance, the little boy still loved his "kitten". The next time that the boy came to play with his "kitten", with one big bite, the "kitten" ate the little boy!
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The Application: The point of the parable is to illustrate the absurdity of anyone who refuses to recognize that the characteristics of an object must be considered important to the nameing of it and to the process of determining what it really is. As the shift from kitten to alligator occurs, there comes a time when one must admit that the "kitten" is more of an "alligator" than it is a "kitten". Note also that there is sometimes a danger if one does not make the proper distinction. There is a historical fact of which most of our Christian brothers and sisters are unaware. That fact is that the original followers of Yahushua "J-sus") were not called "Christians in the first century after the resurrection. They were called "Natsarim". (Acts 24:5,14, 22) In verse five of Acts, chapter four Tertullus was accusing Rabbi Shaul (Paul) before Felix, the Roman Govenor. Here, Tertullus states that Rabbi Shaul is a "ring-leader of the sect of the Natsarim." Later in verse fourteen of the same chapter, Shaul answers the accusations and proudly admits that he is in fact a member of the "way" (which Tertullus called a "sect"). Then he said: "...so I worship the Elohim of my fathers, believing all that has been written in the Torah and in the Prophets." This was his way of saying: "Yes, I am a Jew who is of the group of Jews who follow the teachings of Rabbi Yahshua, the Natsarim." Tertullus had given Felix the mistaken idea that Shaul was not a Jew, but after Shaul explained that the Natsarim were of the "Way" of the Jews, he temporarily dismissed Tertullus' claims in verse twenty-two and "rescheduled" the trial until Lysias, the commander could arrive. "Natsarim" has a double meaning. It can mean "branches" in memory of the Messiah's statement that: "I am the vine and you are the branches". It can also mean "watchman", the root word from which we get the word, Nazareth, the name of the Messiah's home town. It was called Nazareth because it was built upon a hill and had a beautiful vies of the surrounding country side. Today we have access to more detailed archeological information and more accurate historical data than ever before. This bulk of factual information provides an opportunity for the average individual to verify certain details concerning the true faith of Yahshua and concerning the actual manner of worship of the first century disciples. An objective analysis of this information points clearly to a very Messianic, Jewish-based faith in stark contrast to the traditional worship of Christianity. Yahshua never intended for his followers to leave the basic Jewish faith as established by his Heavenly Father. How contradictory to think otherwise ! A Brief History of the Natsarim The first believers in Yahushua ("J-sus") were almost all Yehudim (Jewish). When they came into the faith and knowledge of the Messiah, they were already a part of the Jewish faith. There were then, and still is today, many different Jewish groups within the Jewish faith as a whole. The Natsarim were a particular sect within Judiasm. They worshipped in the Temple, and in the synagogues. They observed the true Sabbaths and all the Appointed Times. They studied the Torah. The capital city of their faith was Jerusalem and on and on. Simply put --- they were not Christians. They were just Jews who followed the teachings of Yahushua, a Jewish Rabbi. As time went on, the gentiles were officially accepted into the Natsarim without requiring circumcism. (Acts 15) At first, the element of embracing the faith of Israel, was an automatic part of becoming a Natsarim. But later, when the number of gentil believers in Yahushua grew more quickly than the number of Jewish believers, things began to change. |
Anti-Semitism, the Motivation for the Christian Movement As long as the disciples and apostles who had been with the Messiah during his ministry were alive, they spoke with authority to keep the faith "on track". Thus, the first two centuries represent the purest form of worship after the resurrection that the world has ever known. Unfortunately, when the "eye witnesses" died off, the powerful majority of the gentile converts began to make certain "shifts" within the movement. The reason for these "shifts" (more precisely, "corruptions") is very logical. The gentiles were deeply moved by the Messiah's unconditional love for them and many accepted Yahushua as their Deliverer. They were impressed with the Jewish symbolisms and worship style. However, these gentiles had been converted out of various forms of paganism. Thus, they carried with them numerous doctrinal misunderstandings and a deep hatred for the Jews, a concept which they had been taught from the day they were born. The did not speak Hebrew. They could not read or understand the Torah. Strangely, although it was the heart of their faith, they chose to distance themselves from the Torah because they could not help but view it as a symbol of the Jews who loved it so much. They prefered to fucus upon the more recent writings which were originally called the "Books of Renewal". The fact that these writings were later renmed, the "New Testament" is an indication of the priority which the gentile believers ascribed to them as compared to the "Old Testament". Contrary to what is taught in most Christian seminaries, there is now ample proof that the original language of the Books of Renewal was Hebrew, not Greek. As Greeco-Roman believers in a Jewish Messiah, they had a problelm. As long as they didn't like the Jews, if they were every going to feel "at home" in this new faith, they would have to make some changes to make it more "palatable" to their taste. They had a huge task ahead of them. Their task was to remove the Jewishness from their Jewish Messiah and make their faith more "Romanized". At this point, the reader should be aware that the gentiles of that day probably did not understand the full ramifications of what they were doing. It is doubtful that they could forsee into the future and visualize what the eventual results of their "shifts" would become. By the later part of the second century, the significant differences between the Jewish Natsarim believers and the gentile believers became very apparent. A split in the movement was inevitable. The gentile believers spoke Greek and Latin and the sound of Hebrew names and terms was offensive to their ears. Thus, they no longer wished to call themselves, "Messionites" from the Hebrew word, "Meshiach" (Anointed One), which by the way was the original term used in Acts 11;26. Instead, they prefered to call themselves, "Christians", a word built upon the Greek word, "Christ", which also means "anointed". The Greek Septuagint translation was soon accomplished and other "New Testament" books were translated into Latin and Greek. Here we find the first major changes of Hebrew names into more Romanized names. In later centuries, with the translation of the Greek into English, the names were further "Anglicized". It goes without saying that the "Christians" would also reject the term, "Natsarim", claiming that the Jews from whom they originally received their faith were actually "Christians" from the beginning. In the fourth century, the efforts of the gentile believers to distance themselves from the Messianic Natsarim greatly accelorated due to the influence of Constantine, the new Roman Emperor. Constantine instituted the creation of the Roman "Catholic" (which means "universal" in Latin) Assembly. It is noteworthy that the popular word, "Church" was not used in any translation until after the famous Tyndale Translation centuries later. The word, "Church" comes from the German word, "kirche", from the Scottish word, "kirk", from "kerk" or the Netherlands and from the Old English, "circe". Each of these refers to Circe, the "daughter" of the pagan Sun-deity, Helios, famous for turning Odysseous' men into swine on their way back to Troy. Constantine's intention in creating the "Church" was political rather than religious. The Empire was plagued with various pagan factions constantly bickering among themselves. The Roman government was forced to waste valuable time and expensive military resources to squelch these internal arguments. However Constantine had a plan. He was convinced that the solution would be to create a single, universal ("Catholic") belief system for the whole Empire. By giving each religious group a "concession", the new "religion of the State" could embody portions of the faiths of all the religions of the Empire. Thus, each religion which was "converted" into the new Roman faith could look upon the Roman Catholic "Church" as an extension of it's own faith. It was a brilliant plan !
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Constantine must have been most impressed with the faith of the original Natsarim, which had not only grown quickly in number, but it was the only faith that had ever been successful in converting Jews and gentiles alike. His plan was to use this dynamic faith as the skeletal "bones" of the new Roman belief system. The "flesh" would be composed of an amalgamation of other faiths which were to be appeased in order to attract their support and participation. Although this was a brilliant political stratagy for the Empire, it was a formula for tremendous spiritual corruption. Naturally, the believers in Yahshua, which Constantine used for the foundation of his new Roman faith, were not the sect of the Jewish Natsarim who would never be a part of such an abomination. It was the gentile believers in Yahshua who saw this as an opportunity to bolster their influence and to politically strengthen their base of authority. To them, this was a chance to evangelize many of the pagan cults that many of them had come from. If they had to "cooperate" with other faiths in order to bring them under the "umbrella" of Christianity, that would be an acceptable compromise. From this point in the fourth century, until today, there have been at least thirty-six major corruptions of the original Natsarim faith which have unfolded over the centuries. (See "Favority Sermons", "A Way Which Seems Right", for a detailed listing of all 36) The reader will, obviously, not learn of these concessions in a Sunday morning sermon from a Christian pulpit. Thus, there is a need for a web site such as this to set the record straight in an accurate but kind way. Remember that truth is truth whether it conflicts with socially acceptable tradition or not. A Sampling of the "Shift" If only the language of the text used in worship were changed, a person could say that the Natsarim were just worshipping in Greek or in Latin. If, in addition to the language change, the names of the biblical characters were changed, one could say that the worshippers were still Natsarim even though they were worshipping in another language and using different names for the biblical characters. However, from this point, additional changes will begin to strain the limits of common sense. For example, if the day of worship is also changed from the Jewish Sabbath to the pagan "Sunday", then do you still have the genuine Natsarim faith, but just in another language, using different names, and on the wrong day ? Let us leap ahead in this process and ask this extended question: What if also the Appointed Times as detailed in the Torah were dismissed as "too Jewish" and the pagan-based Christmas and Easter were then substituted-----What if the Jewish calendar were replaced by the Gregorian calendar as the basis of determining special religious days----- What if the Name, Yahushua (or Yahshua) were changed to "J-sus" in order to appease six different pagan religions within the Roman Empire in the fourth century whose main deity sounds or is spelled similarly to "Iesous", the Greek root of the word for "J-sus"----- What if the Sacred Name of Yahweh (which is used 6,823 times in the original Hebrew text), were changed to the generic title of "G-d" (which is not found in any Greek or Hebrew biblical text a single time) ----- What if "Elohim" were changed to "Lord"----- What if the Jewish numbering of the days were replaced by the pagan names for each of the days of the week? ----- What if the "Church" was said to have replaced "Israel" as the "Chosen People" ----- What if the Torah was said to have been "done away with" ----- What if Rome was said to have replaced Jerusalem as the central "capital city" of the faith ----- and on and on ? Would the resulting faith still be the faith of the original Natsarim ? As we see in the parable, there comes a time when a person must make the observation that the "kitten" has become an "alligator". |
Making the Observation The observation of this seemly very obvious "shift" from kitten to alligator is not being made in the Christian Community by the average membership because, over the centuries, the believer has been told that the "kitten" always was an "alligator" ! The efforts of Christianity to "rewrite history" have been quite effective. Couple that with the well-intentioned local, State, national, and international leaders who go out of their way to avoid anything which may "embarress" the Church and you have the creation of an effective "snow job" for the public. Now--- if you add to that formula, the desire of hundreds of pubishers who see the large Christian market as a "gold mine" of customers and who may "bend the truth" here and there in order to more effecively sell their books----and if you factor in the people in the financial business world who capitalize on the money to be made from the items used in firmly established Christian, traditional holidays----- then you have an almost air-tight environment for the perpetuation of the "alligator" as if it were the original "kitten". Fortunately, two things are punching holes in the "bubble" to expose the lie: (1.) the internet and, more importantly, (2.) the Ruach ha Kodesh (the Holy Spirit). It is our Heavenly Father, Himself who is "calling" people out of "Babylon", as explained by C.J. Koster, in his book, "Come Out of Her, My People." (Available through "Strawberry Islands--- see page called, "Links") In this web site, the reader may learn what the pure Messianic faith or Yahshua was really like so that for the first time, you have an accurate basis of comparison. Then, after thoroughly "testing" every claim and seeing the verification with your own eyes, you can become a part of a world-wide Messianic movement to: (1.) return Christianity to it's Hebrew/Jewish roots, and in doing so, fullfill the prophesy found in Romans 10:19 and 11:11 to "provoke the Jews to jealousy". That dosen't mean to make them angry, it means that we should be so dilligent and passionate about keeping the Torah and being "grafted into the good olive tree" of Israel (Romans 11) that we challenge the natural born Jews to keep up with us. These are truly exciting days as we anxiously await the return of our Messianic King. Our hope is that every reader will prayerfully consider the truth that is presented on this web site. "Blessed are those doing His commandments (the Laws of the Torah) so that the authority shall be theirs unto the tree of life, and to enter through the gates into the city." (Revelation 22:14) HalleluYah ! (Praise to Yahweh !) |