I believe there is a huge problem going on that has caused sin in peoples lives for centuries. It is because of our disobedience and wanting the wide way [which is the path of destruction] and the world [satan is now the prince of this world and he deceives the world] instead of the Narrow WAY [which is the path to life] and to obey our ELOHIM [the Hebrew word for GOD and who I believe is FATHER/SON/HOLY SPIRIT] – see Mattityahu [Matthew] 7:13-14, Luke 4:5-7, Yochanan [John] 12:31 and 14:30. You love your spouse, family, friends and you can describe, if not everything, probably many things about them because of how special they are to you. How much do you know about ELOHIM? For example, what do the FATHER, SON, and the HOLY [SET-APART/QADOSH] SPIRIT [BREATH/RUACH] look like?
Most would probably answer that they have no idea what ABBA [Hebrew for FATHER] or the HOLY SPIRIT look like but that pictures and statues of the SON our MESSIAH [IMMANUEL/YAHSHUA/YAHOSHUA/
How many ask these questions in prayer and trust that their prayer will be answered? How many go by what men say or what they think and have not looked at Scripture or dug into the roots of it by comparing translations and looking at the original words behind our translations? Ask for the truth of these questions in prayer and see what happens. If you are shown something that is Scriptural and you recognize the truth of it but it goes against your beliefs, your family beliefs and your church’s beliefs, what would you do? The MESSIAH said he came here to divide families and that we would not be worthy of HIM if we put them first, Mattityahu [Matthew] 10:34-37. Would you allow pride or being weak to get in the way? I know some things are easier said than done but the MESSIAH died for us, we need to give our all for HIM because HE did that for us or at least keep trying if we are weaker than we would like to believe!
Ask ABBA for help with this if you need it and share what HE shows you with others because HIS SON needs our help to spread/sow the Truth with all of the deception going on in the world! Scripture says that in the time of the end more knowledge will be revealed – Dani’el 12:4. Hoshea [Hosea] 4:6, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” See also Mishlei [Proverbs] 1:28-33 and I Corinthians13:8-12. I heard that there are over 30,000 denominations and some say 41,000! Do you believe that anyone human has all the right answers? We all have truth and error/deception in our beliefs. We all can be false teachers if any of our beliefs are false and we share beliefs with others. I made the decision to want only the Truth, however it divided me from men, and I want all deception out of me because I do not want one spot of the enemy on/in my body or in my mind or in/on my whole being [soul]! While I would like this to happen all at once, it has been and still is a journey. ELOHIM is trustworthy and I have not been visited by HIM or a messenger, yet [but I still have hope], to tell me what the problems are in my beliefs about HIM. HE knows how much I want this and I know that HE has HIS reasons for all. I personally believe HE set up much to see what people chose and why and if they would enter into pride/offense instead of letting go of a false belief.
http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/a106.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
This is a command: Sh’mot [Exodus] 20:4 – “You are not to make for yourselves a carved image [graven image] or any kind of representation [likeness] of anything in heaven above, or on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline.” D’varim [Deuteronomy] 4:15-24 and Yesha’yahu [Isaiah] 44:9-20 go into more detail about images/representations, about those who make them and serve them, and how perplexed and angry ELOHIM feels! In regards to the images, carved/graven are those that are cut out, shaped, engraved, incised. Likeness or representation are those that resemble, have an imitative appearance, similarity, an image-pictorial-graphic likeness of something. I believe the majority of the arts world and much of what we have in our homes today would be included in these descriptions because verses specifically say any likeness of anything! Keep this in mind when you think about the pictures and statues of the MESSIAH we collect or look at in churches or pray-kneel-bow down in front of. If this is not actually how HE looked then who are you worshiping, adoring, talking to? How would you feel if someone fell in love with you based on a photo/statue and the photo/statue was not you? If they talked to the photo/statue and looked at it adoringly? How do you think HE feels about this and about not being obeyed! We have to go by HIS Way not ours.
The commands in the verses above are for our own good. ELOHIM is trying to keep us clean and pure so that we follow HIS SON and not get caught up in the deceptions of this world and end up following HIS enemy! Read D’varim 4:12,15,16. Tehillim [Psalms] 97:7 – “All are put to shame who serve carved images,”. See this link for the definition of serve and check out #8 as well as the rest of its meanings: http://www.thefreedictionary.
BTW, do you realize photos are images. Do you talk to photos of dead loved ones or idolize or feel lust/envy for a favorite movie star, musician/singer, or athlete or even an object in a photo? Do you realize envy can cause us illness? There is a war going on which we can’t see [the physical realm vs the spiritual realm] and I believe that many, if not all, decisions we are making are either connecting us to GOOD or to evil. Wrath, anger, fear, pride, greed, lust, envy, jealousy, bitterness, strife, gluttony, rejection, unloving, torment and other words of hurt I do not believe are just words in a dictionary. I believe they are some of the names of the enemies’ forces who are demonic spirits that have the right to attach to us/enter us by our connecting to them through our sin: actions of worship, and disobeying the MESSIAH’S commands, so they have a legal right to afflict/hurt us physically/mentally/
We do not know all the answers, but we have hope that at some point in the future we will, most likely when our KING returns and starts righting the Kingdom. I do not know how much of our emotions or behaviors are a result of demonic interference or attack or them planting a thought but I can tell you from personal experience and testimony of others, that the enemies’ influence on us is much greater then many would be comfortable knowing or believing! Read Iyov [Job] 4:13-21. A key point from those verses, “‘from morning till evening they are beaten down, they perish forever, with no one regarding. …They die, without wisdom!”‘ This is a spirit of fear talking to one of Iyov’s friends about mankind and is also mocking ELOHIM [read verses 17-21]. Verses 15-16, “A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: ” This is not an angel/messenger because in Scripture they are mentioned specifically as men talking, eating, etc. or flying and having features that were visible. The above verses are about a formless spirit causing Eliphaz the Temanite’s bones to shake. Read B’resheet [Genesis] 19:1-3 [which is one example amongst other verses] which describes angels/messengers as beings who looked like men and who had their feet washed and ate food with those they visited.
From studying Scripture, I personally believe that there are 3 male beings that make up ELOHIM. THEY each look different, have different thrones/vehicles of transportation, different names/titles, differing functions, they each make up different parts of the “BODY” of ELOHIM just like we make up different parts of the “Body” of the MESSIAH/CHRIST. THEY call each other ELOHIM because each are a different part of the ONE ELOHIM so THEY are each others’ ELOHIM [“therefore Elohim, your Elohim” – see verses below]. To explain it another way, if you are GOD and three of you make up the ONE GOD, then you are GOD to each other so you call each other “GOD” – Tehillim [Psalms] 45:7 and Hebrews 1:8-9 [FATHER to SON], and Revelation 1:6 and 3:12 [SON to FATHER]. ELOHIM’S SPIRIT is ELOHIM too. HE is also within us, the ELOHIM who is SPIRIT, I Yochanan [John] 4:12-16 and Yochanan 4:24. There is only one GOD because all three of THEM are needed in the creation process. Because THEY can’t create without each other, the 3 of them make up the “ONE BODY” of ELOHIM. If THEY each could create without help from another, then there would be 3 GODS!
There is ONE “Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad” [the Lord our God, the Lord is one] – D’varim [Deuteronomy] 6:4. These words [which are actually titles] “ADONAI/LORD” have replaced the FATHER’S/the ANCIENT OF DAYS NAME which are the 4 Hebrew letters “YHWH” – YAH for short. The FATHER gave HIS SON HIS NAME because of HIS SON dying for our sins – JESUS CHRIST became JESUS CHRIST the LORD [in Hebrew: YAHOSHUA HA’MASHIACH YHWH or YAH]. Yochanan 5:43, “I have come in My Father’s name…” and 17:11, “…and I come to you Holy Father, guard them in Your name which You have given Me…”. See also Tehillim [Psalm] 110:1, Mattityahu 21:5 [which matches prophecy from Zechariah/Z’kharyah 9:9] and 22:44. Many Bibles do not use the NAME “YHWH” because they use the word/title “LORD” instead. In the Scriptures translation of the Bible, in the back under “explanatory notes” for “Lord” and “post-exilic apostasy” and “emendations by the Sopherim [scribes]”, it says that the scribes altered the 4 letters of YHWH to the Hebrew word “Adonai” which in English is “Lord”. This changed 134 passages in Scripture! The scribes did not want others using the NAME YHWH in a wrong way but by doing this they changed Scripture which should never have been done. Read D’varim [Deuteronomy] 4:2, 12:32, Mishlei [Proverbs] 30:6, Mattityahu [Matthew] 15:6, I Corinthians 4:6, and Revelation 20:18 which all state NEVER to change the Word of ELOHIM. ELOHIM wants to be worshiped in Truth. How can you worship HIM in Truth, how can you please HIM if you do not know HIM! Do you know that when you say “hallelujah” it literally means “praise YAH”!
Also, in regards to the spelling of YHVH vs YHWH, I found this information to be helpful with getting to the roots of HIS NAME which backs up Scripture translations that use this spelling:
Consonantal semi-vowel
In ancient Hebrew, the letter ו, known to modern Hebrew speakers as vav, was a semivowel /w/ (as in English, not as in German) rather than a /v/.[11] The letter is referred to as waw in the academic world, and accordingly יהוה is represented in English academic texts as YHWH.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Starting with the physical description of the SON while HE was here on earth in the flesh, we have a very brief description of HIM in Yesha’yahu 53:2 – “he had no form nor comeliness; and when we saw that he had no beauty, we denied him.” From this we get that HE was not beautiful to look upon and because of that HIS own people denied HIM. HIS people were expecting their MESSIAH/KING to be beautiful like David and Sha’ul [Saul] were. Sh’mu’eI Alef [1 Samuel] 16:12 says he [David] was ruddy with beautiful eyes and was very handsome. Sh’mu’el Alef 9:2 says that Sha’ul was – attractive and tall. While there were other reasons HE was denied, my focus with this is on how HE looked. Another point, the first sin had to do with being led by the eyes. Havah [Eve] in B’resheet [Genesis] 3:5-6 was told by the serpent that “your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like gods” and Havah “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that the tree was delightful to look at“. She did not obey ELOHIM and neither did Adam and they were both sent out of the Garden, as a result of their disobedience, to a life of toil and pain. Since the SON of ELOHIM is the WORD of ELOHIM made flesh and HIS speech is full of grace and truth – Yochanan [John] 1:1-17 and Luke 4:22, what was of importance to HIM was that people heard the truth not that they were led by their eyes by HIS looks!
So besides not obeying the command of ELOHIM’S about no images or representations, people who have pictures or statues of who they believe to be HIS SON, who have bowed/knelt/prayed in front of and/or adored/worshiped/talked to these pictures or statues, are also being led by their eyes into disobedience! Also remember, HE was not beautiful or good looking which many of these images are. Yochanan 3:36 is clear that while we are saved by believing in HIS grace we must OBEY HIM to avoid the wrath of ELOHIM! Some popular Bibles do not use the word “obey” they say “believe” twice. There is a HUGE difference between the meaning of those two words in our language. If the Bible you use is not clear, compare the same verse in other translations [the Bible Hub and the Blue Letter Bible are handy tools]. http://biblehub.com/john/3-36.
http://www.blueletterbible.
I confessed and repented of worshiping images and not obeying ELOHIM when HE opened my eyes to what I had done. I asked HIM to wash me clean in HIS SON’S blood and told HIM I would not do it again!