Identity Theft (11 page)

“Ariel, it seems that there has been a concerted effort to make the followers of Yeshua look very
non
-Jewish. Not only has Yeshua’s identity been altered, but also His first followers; even His brothers appear to have undergone a
Gentile makeover
. I didn’t know any of this! And I know that my Jewish friends and family don’t know it either.”

“David, we are just beginning. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Here, take my hand.”

We were flying again.

Notes

1
.   Formal rabbinic ordination did not begin until about forty years later, but
rabbi
was the term of honor given to a respected Jewish teacher in Paul’s day.

2
.   Adapted from a message given by David Pawson at Brisbane Gateway Centre in April, 1998 entitled,
What Hope for the Millennium?

3
.   
James
appears in Spanish Bible as “Santiago”; it is derived from
san
(meaning
saint
) and
Diego
, which comes from Jacob—but changed a lot along the way. Nevertheless, it has no connection to the English name James.

4
.   It is also interesting to note that in Jacob (James) 2:2 when it refers to the meeting place of believers, the Greek word that is translated
meeting
in the NIV and
assembly
in the KJV is
synagogē
, from which we derive the English word
synagogue
. This was not a blatant attempt to change the meaning of the word because synagogue, while associated today with Jewish houses of worship, does mean assembly. However, if the New Covenant translators simply used the obvious English equivalent, synagogue, it would have sent a different message to Jewish people.

5
.   Webster’s Online Dictionary, s.v., “Judas,” accessed August 10, 2012,
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/judas
.

Once again, we were going back in time. Above me were only stars, while below I could see time periods passing me by. They looked like scrolling movie film and I could make out the names—the Industrial Revolution, the Revolutionary War, Napoleon, and Louis the Sixteenth. And as we again drew closer to the ground, I knew we were back in Jerusalem. It was evening, and the city was bathed in soft golden light, as torches illuminated almost every courtyard.

We hovered over one home in midair and I realized we were defying gravity. We were able to see right through the roof. It was as if it were transparent. A group of people were sitting around a long table.

“What do you see?” asked Ariel.

“A dinner party.”

“Look more closely,” he exhorted.

“I see a Kiddush Cup, for blessing the wine, and that looks like matzah. Is it Passover? Are they having a Seder meal, the meal we eat on the first night of Passover?”

“Indeed they are, but this is no ordinary Passover Seder. Look a little closer, at the people.”

“Wait a minute. I recognize Peter, I mean Kefa. Is this what I think it is?”

“Yes, it is the Last Supper; and tomorrow Yeshua will die.”

“Are you telling me that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder meal?”

“What else would you expect Jews to be doing on Passover in Jerusalem—celebrating
Festivus
?”

I have an angel who knows Seinfeld jokes
, I thought.

“Look on your screen.” I did and saw:

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
[Yeshua]
sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

They left and found things just as
[Yeshua]
had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

When the hour came,
[Yeshua]
and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”
(Luke 22:7-15)

“When you see Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, you don’t think
Jewish
. If I remember correctly, he has bread on the table! It’s Passover, for goodness sake; Jews don’t eat bread on Passover!”

“What do you expect from an Italian painter in 1495? The Church had already drifted so far from its Jewish roots, no one would have even thought to bring it to the painter’s attention. In Spain they were already killing Jewish converts who returned to Judaism. Why would Leonardo emphasize the Messiah’s Jewishness? In fact, doing so could have put his own life in jeopardy.”

“That makes sense,” I agreed. “So Yeshua died on the first day of Passover?”

“Yes, but there is more.” Ariel and I were flying again. This was a very short trip. We landed on a grassy knoll near some large rocks. I realized later that they were tombs.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“No, ‘
When are we?
’ is the correct question. And I’ll give you a hint—in Heaven we don’t call this day
Easter Sunday
any more than we call the Passover you just saw
Good Friday
. Read this passage David.”

This time it was a cloud that formed in the shape of letters. But it was in Hebrew. “Ariel, I can’t read Hebrew. I mean, I can sound out the words but I have no idea what I am saying.” Most Jewish boys in America learn how to read the Hebrew alphabet for their bar Mitzvahs, but rarely do we actually learn the language.

“Try,” he said with a mischievous grin.

So I did, and I found I could both read and understand Hebrew! Amazing! The verse said: “He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath” (Lev. 23:11).

“Ah…so? What does this mean to me, today?” I asked.

“David, this passage is from Leviticus 23. Adonai tells the Israelites to bring a Firstfruits offering before the Lord on the first Sunday after the first Saturday, or Sabbath, after Passover begins. On this day the priest would wave a sheaf before the Lord. It is called the Feast of Firstfruits. Shaul, remember him? He wrote this: ‘but now [Messiah] is risen from the dead,
and
has become the firstfruits…’” (1 Cor. 15:20 NKJV).

This time it was in English and I was beginning to grasp the significance of what he was showing me. “Is this the day Yeshua rises from the dead? And if so,” my thoughts were racing, “you are telling me that not only did He die on a Jewish feast day, but He also rose from the dead on a Jewish feast day?”

“
Bingo!
Such a good student you are,” and he actually pinched my cheek in jest. “But David, this is not just any Jewish feast day! It is the Feast of
Firstfruits!
Yeshua rose from the dead, as Shaul said, as its fulfillment. He is the Firstfruits of God’s harvest, and millions have followed Him. The same power that raised Him from the dead lives in them, giving them life everlasting. I imagine you would like to experience that, too?”

I could experience it, too? This was what I was looking for. Yes, I want that joy, that peace; I want that serenity I saw in Kefa, Jacob, and Judah. And they are Jews! I am not turning my back on my people. They
are
my people! This is what I have been searching for!

“Ariel, I’m ready. I want—
Ariel?
Where are you?” Finally, I was ready and my angel just disappeared. Unexpectedly there was a commotion behind me. I turned around and saw two women who looked absolutely terrified and a few Roman guards on the ground trembling with fear. Then I saw
why
. The massive covering stone had been removed from one of the tombs and two men in gleaming garments were standing beside them. No, they weren’t men. They were like Ariel… wait…it
was
Ariel! At least, one of them was. As they began to speak, their words formed in little clouds in front of me. I read as I heard them say to the women:

…Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: “The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again”
(Luke 24:5-7).

When Ariel reappeared by my side, I said excitingly something akin to, “You were…you…ah.”

“Yes, I was chosen to join Alexander in announcing that the King—the King of the Jews—had risen from the dead.”

I was beginning to understand that I was with no
Private First Class
angel. This dude had some clout. And what did that say about the fact that he was sent to me? What did all this mean? I’m just a writer from Philadelphia.

“That was an amazing day, that was,” he wasn’t even talking to me. “There was rejoicing in Heaven on a scale none of us had ever seen before; not even when Moses parted the Red Sea.”

“You were in on that, too?”

“No, but I watched it.”

“My rabbi once told me that the Israelites passed through the
Reed
Sea, not the
Red
Sea and that the water was only a few feet high.”

“Tell your rabbi that if he’s right, then an even greater miracle happened on that first Passover!”

“What do you mean?”

“All of Pharaoh’s army drowned in only two feet of water!”

We both laughed out loud as he took my hand again. Being somewhat analytical, I realized that I wasn’t just laughing because he was funny, but because I was with an angel, 2,000 years in the past and I was happier than I had ever been in my whole life. Happy isn’t even the right word. I was beyond happy. I was ecstatic! I felt a joy beyond my ability, even as a writer, to express. Later I would find the term “joy unspeakable” in the New Covenant—and that summed it up perfectly!

We were flying again but in daylight this time. When we landed, we were still in Jerusalem, but at the ancient Temple. We hovered above the courtyard and I noticed the city was packed.

“Why are all these people here?”

“Today is the day of Shavuot, one of the feast days on which Jewish pilgrims from all over the region come to Jerusalem to celebrate. It marks the ending of the forty-nine day counting of the Omer, from
Firstfruits
, the day Yeshua rose from the dead, to
Shavuot
, the Feast of Weeks. Sadly, most Christians know this feast day only as the Day of Pentecost, a Greek word meaning “fifty.” Greek-speaking Jews would also have used this word, but the difference is that they knew it was a Jewish or biblical feast day. Most Gentile Christians know it only as the day that the Holy Spirit fell upon and empowered the believers, birthing the Kehilah.”

“Can you unwrap that for me further? The Holy Spirit fell? What does that mean and why is this Jewish festival important to Christians?” I asked.

“Ten days ago, forty days after His resurrection, Yeshua told His followers, about 120 of them, to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to empower them. He told them that once empowered, they would take this message, the message of forgiveness of sin and redemption through His sacrifice, not only to Jerusalem and Judea, but also to Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. Look.”

The cloud returned and I read, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

I reached out and waved my hand through the cloud. The letters scattered, but then returned to form sentences again.
Unreal,
I thought. Suddenly there was a loud sound. It seemed to come from the sky, like a windstorm, and could be heard from afar.

“Look down David,” Ariel instructed.

When I did, I could see a large group, I assumed the 120, gathered in an enclosure that was part of a colonnade.
¹
I saw what looked like flames of fire resting over the heads of each of the believers there, who were now praising God loudly in different languages. They seemed intoxicated with joy. “There is Shimon Kefa,” I blurted out, as he made his way into the Temple courtyard, followed by the others.

“Keep watching,” Ariel was smiling.

The noise like a mighty wind, the flames of fire and the spectacle of Galileans speaking in foreign languages had quickly drawn a crowd of curious Jewish bystanders, which was growing larger by the minute.

“Oh, so this is what he was talking about when he proudly referred to his sermon on Shavuot. He is going to speak now, right?”

Ariel nodded, as Kefa stood up, “Men of Israel!” he declared. Kefa was right. This was an amazing moment. I had never heard anyone speak like this—certainly not in my synagogue. With passion, authority, and insight into the Scriptures, he proclaimed that Yeshua was Israel’s Messiah. His hearers were deeply moved. All these Jews, many of whom had come from other nations for Shavuot, appeared to be stunned by the rough fisherman’s dynamic delivery. Even the other believers were looking at Kefa with new respect and amazement, as if to say, “Is this the same Shimon Kefa that we know?”