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Revised 02/2018

Christianity doesn't worship apostle Peter's God

Thus proving Messiah is not "God in the flesh"

Ever wonder what the apostles thought about the "God in the flesh" concept?  Where can we find an apostle's opinion of who they considered Yeshua (Jesus) to be?  It would be useful, for instance, if we knew what the apostle Peter thought.

 

Oh wait!  We do know

 

Matthew 16:15-20 (KJV)

15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ (Messiah).

 

Parallel passages Mark 8:29 and Luke 9:20,21

 

Mark 8:29-30 (KJV)

29 And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. 30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.

 

Luke 9:20-21 (KJV)

20 He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. 21 And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing;

 

Though these verses present only a few sentences, they nevertheless actually contain an obvious and important truth regarding whether or not Messiah is "God in the flesh."

​If there was ever a time for Yeshua to clarify exactly who and what he was this was the time!  Yet he gave no hint that he is "God in the flesh," neither did he chastise Peter's failure to acknowledge him as God.  This is one of the clearest, most precise statements as to exactly who Yeshua is that we can find in the entire Bible, and it comes from perhaps the foremost of the original apostles - someone who had been with Yeshua form the very start of Yeshua's ministry, to his death, his resurrection, and afterwards as the original message of "Yeshua Judaism" begin to be spread.

​NOTE:  "Yeshua Judaism" is the true Torah faith Yeshua brought down from heaven as he  sought to reform what was and has since become a perversion of Torah.  He sought to re-instill the true intent of God's Torah within Israel, reinvigorate it by ridding it of its severe elitism which had occurred due to the extremely elitist mindset of Judaism's leaders, and spread it to all nations and peoples of the world instead of among only "the Jews" as is taught by those elitist leaders.  His efforts to reform, re-instill, reinvigorate, and spread Torah universally is the true reason why, then and now, he was and is hated within the "Judaism" which was birthed by those leaders. What is commonly called "Judaism" today is a faith that is actually based upon the biased opinions of a specific highly esteemed man (rabbi Akiva) and a small number of his followers whose opinions are found within the "Mishnah".  One of those followers individually acquired, parsed, and ultimately compiled the Mishnah.   The "Gemorah" (or Gemara, Gemora, etc.), which is also based upon the biased opinions of that Akiva-based sect within Judaism and which represents commentary on the Mishnah, was subsequently added to the Mishnah to ultimately become the "Talmud", upon which Judaism it totally based.  Today's "Judaism" could legitimately be called "Akiva Judaism" or "Akivaism".  More on that topic in separate discussions.

Yeshua asked Peter a simple direct question, "Who do you say that I am?"

 

Peter gave a simple, direct answer, "Thou art the MESSIAH, the SON OF the Living God."

 

Yeshua then agreed with Peter and said Peter's understanding was revealed to him from The Eternal God.

 

Now, if Yeshua is God, why didn't he correct Peter?  This would have been the perfect time to explain the "mystery" or "hypostasis" complexities of the Trinity or perhaps the "oneness" and "biunity" imaginings of others who consider him to be "God in the flesh".  It also gave Yeshua an excellent opportunity to delve into the alleged distortion of authentic kabbalistic implications behind his "divine" nature that today's self anointed counterfeit Messianic "rabbis" ignorantly espouse.  Why didn't Yeshua take it upon himself to correct Peter's failure to grasp the fact that he is God or to expound upon his supposed man-God essence?

 

Instead of correcting what Christian leaders apparently feel was Peter's ignorance, Yeshua blessed him, clearly inferring Peter was exactly right in his description.  Would Yeshua "bless" Peter for giving an incorrect answer?

 

The simple and inescapable fact is Peter was correct, and there was no need for Yeshua to add anything to Peter's understanding.

 

The conversation Christian leaders assume occurred

 

I suppose Christians, counterfeit Messianics, and others who promote the concept that Yeshua is God like to fancy themselves with the following spurious account of the conversation between Yeshua and Peter.  I will avail myself with the use of a pet phrase, "liar, lunatic, or God", I've heard among some of those who promote that Yeshua is God.  They foolishly say that Yeshua was either "a liar, a lunatic, or God".

 

"Peter, who do you say that I am, a liar, a lunatic, Messiah (Christ), or God?"

 

Peter responds, "Well, Rabbi Yeshua you certainly are not a liar, and even though some may consider you a lunatic I most certainly do not.  And, since even you worship the One True God of Israel and recite the Shema daily - "Here O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is ONE!" - I absolutely do not even allow myself to think the blasphemy that you are God.  No.  I believe you are Messiah as prophesied by our fathers."

 

"Peter, you poor stupid fisherman.  Do you not realize you are eternally damned for not recognizing that I am God just as the creeds say?  Forget what the fathers said.  Don't you know it is a mystery that can only be understood through having faith and by abolishing and redefining the long established understanding of God which was embraced by our ancestors?  Stop basing your faith only on the written Holy Scriptures of our fathers.  Only the ignorant limit themselves to such things. Throw out all that you've learned and all that has been written before. It is time for a new God to arise, and that God is me!"

 

"Creeds?  What creeds?  Our faith has no need for creeds.  We have the Holy Scriptures, and in them the Holy One teaches us we are not to add to His eternal instructions.  What creeds are you talking about my lord? And why should I discard all that my people have learned and suffered for?"

 

"Never mind the creeds.  They won't be here for a few hundred years, and who cares about past suffering.  Inquisitors!  Take Peter away to be tortured and burn him if he doesn't accept the creeds of those that are not so uncultured and stupid as he!  If he refuses to acknowledge me as God, kill him! Oh!  And before he dies inform him I no longer wish to be called by my actual Hebrew name of Yeshua any longer.  I think I'll change my name to Iesous (jesus) so that I can be more acceptable to those who will worship me as God and therefore follow after 'other gods'" that were never revealed before and won't be officially until the council of Nicea in about 300 years.

 

Well, such was not the conversation, and Yeshua praised Peter for his God-given insight.

​Today very few Christian pastors, theologians, or "Messianics" agree with Peter and do not really know who Yeshua is.  They are proclaiming a totally unscriptural "Christ" and committing idolatry by worshiping that Christ as The Eternal Creator.

One of the primary reasons for Christian ignorance of the true Messiah is a gross misunderstanding of the true "gospel of the Kingdom" which promises a literal Kingdom with Yeshua reigning as King, thus fulfilling the sure promises to Abraham, Isaac, and others that the Israeli people would literally inherit the land of Israel.  In order to do this they must be resurrected, which is the basis for Yeshua's answer to the Sadducees elsewhere in Matt. 22:29-32 and the ultimate basis for the hope of a resurrection.

 

When Christianity in the early centuries brutally and intentionally divested itself of the Torah mindset it lost virtually all truth, developed a largely false religion, and the anti-Messiah Beastly religion achieved dominance.  The major error that ensued was throwing out Peter's confession and creating a new "Christological creed".  Antisemitism and anti-Judaism lie at the very core of Traditional Christian dogma.  When the Hebraic foundations were (and still are) discarded, truth perished.

 

Regarding the Catholic teaching that Peter was the first Pope

 

Peter apparently didn't realize he was a "pope" since the first leader of the Messianic faith in Jerusalem was James - the brother of Yeshua.  In fact, until the defeat of Israel by the Romans in 135CE, there were fifteen Jewish congregational leaders of the Jerusalem Messianic community - which was the headquarters of the Messianic faith, and Peter was not one of them!  They were all relatives of Yeshua.  Only after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and defeated Bar Kochva to end the war with the Jews did a non-Jewish leader arise, and he - Bishop Marcus - was "appointed" by the Roman Emperor Hadrian with a prime objective being to rid the faith of "Jewishness"!  Hadrian was the same emperor than made circumcision a capital offense in 130CE; therefore, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where he or his appointed church bishop stood with regard to Judiac truths.  He even banned Jews from entering Jerusalem - a ban which lasted many years.  Atop the ruins of our Holy Jerusalem, the Romans built their new pagan city of "Aelia Capitolina" - with their pagan Temple dedicated to their god Jupiter, also known as Zeus, Capitolinus.

 

Having crushed Israel in war, the Roman gentiles destroyed and paganized the Holy Capital, eradicated the last genealogy of the House of David (except that of Yeshua), and replaced the annual Temple tax with a higher tax to maintain their pagan temple of Jupiter (Zeus).  It was then (135CE) that the true Body of Messiah was forced aside and the Beast began his expanding effort to "change times and laws".  One of his first changes was to replace the One God with his pagan Trinity and to confuse the true nature and final mission of the Messiah.  Oh, and of course he couldn't allow the Jewish name of the Messiah to remain; so, he changed that also into the false name "Jesus" - evidence of which exist to suggest is a name which gives honor to the pagan god, Zeus.

​Peter was never the "Pope".  The historical record proves without doubt Peter was never the leader of the "church".  Those who think he was are victims of pagan Roman lies.

Regarding the "keys to the Kingdom" and how "whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth should be understood"

 

The "keys" are a known metaphor denoting authority to "bind and loose".  I will let the following excerpt from The Jewish New Testament Commentary speak for me. This is commentary of Matthew 18:18 which also mentions "binding and loosing":

 

The words rendered "prohibit" and "permit" (v. 18) are, literally, "bind" and "loose." These terms were used in first century Judaism to mean "prohibit" and "permit," as is clear from the article, "Binding and Loosing," in the Jewish Encyclopedia, 3:215: "BINDING AND LOOSING" ... Rabbinical term for 'forbidding and permitting.' ...

"The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees. Under Queen Alexandra the Pharisees, says Josephus (Wars of the Jews 1:5:2), 'became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind.' ... The various schools had the power 'to bind and to loose'; that is, to forbid and to permit (Talmud: Chagigah 3b); and they could bind any day by declaring it a fast-day ( ... Talmud: Ta'anit 12a ... ). This power and authority, vested in the rabbinical body of each age or in the Sanhedrin, received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of justice (Sifra, Emor, ix; Talmud: Makkot 23b).

 

"In this sense Jesus, when appointing his disciples to be his successors, used the familiar formula (Matt 16:19, 18:18). By these words he virtually invested them with the same authority as that which he found belonging to the scribes and Pharisees who 'bind heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but will not move them with one of their fingers'; that is, 'loose them,' as they have the power to do (Matt 23:2-4)....

 

...a very different, non-Jewish interpretation, equating binding and loosing with remitting and retaining sins (John 20:23), was adopted by Tertullian and all the church fathers, thus investing the head of the Christian Church with the power to forgive sins, referred to on the basis of Mt 16:18 as the "key power of the Church." Needless to say, I reject this later understanding which bears no relationship to the Jewish context.

 

The Jewish New Testament Commentary, (Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications) 1996.

 

In summary, this conversation between Messiah and Kepha (Peter) clearly implies that Messiah is not God. If he were, either Peter would have said so or Messiah would have corrected the fact that he failed to recognize it. Neither occurred.

​Peter did not state that Messiah is God and Yeshua did not indicate that he is. It is my hope that The Eternal God will someday bring Christian leaders and their deceived followers to the correct understanding Peter had of Messiah.

 

Ever wonder what the apostles thought about the "God in the flesh" concept?  Where can we find an apostle's opinion of who they considered Yeshua (Jesus) to be?  It would be useful, for instance, if we knew what the apostle Peter thought.

 

Oh wait!  We do know

 

Matthew 16:15-20 (KJV)

15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ (Messiah).

 

Parallel passages Mark 8:29 and Luke 9:20,21

 

Mark 8:29-30 (KJV)

29 And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. 30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.

 

Luke 9:20-21 (KJV)

20 He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. 21 And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing;

 

Though these verses present only a few sentences, they nevertheless actually contain an obvious and important truth regarding whether or not Messiah is "God in the flesh."

​If there was ever a time for Yeshua to clarify exactly who and what he was this was the time!  Yet he gave no hint that he is "God in the flesh," neither did he chastise Peter's failure to acknowledge him as God.  This is one of the clearest, most precise statements as to exactly who Yeshua is that we can find in the entire Bible, and it comes from perhaps the foremost of the original apostles - someone who had been with Yeshua form the very start of Yeshua's ministry, to his death, his resurrection, and afterwards as the original message of "Yeshua Judaism" begin to be spread.

​NOTE:  "Yeshua Judaism" is the true Torah faith Yeshua brought down from heaven as he  sought to reform what was and has since become a perversion of Torah.  He sought to re-instill the true intent of God's Torah within Israel, reinvigorate it by ridding it of its severe elitism which had occurred due to the extremely elitist mindset of Judaism's leaders, and spread it to all nations and peoples of the world instead of among only "the Jews" as is taught by those elitist leaders.  His efforts to reform, re-instill, reinvigorate, and spread Torah universally is the true reason why, then and now, he was and is hated within the "Judaism" which was birthed by those leaders. What is commonly called "Judaism" today is a faith that is actually based upon the biased opinions of a specific highly esteemed man (rabbi Akiva) and a small number of his followers whose opinions are found within the "Mishnah".  One of those followers individually acquired, parsed, and ultimately compiled the Mishnah.   The "Gemorah" (or Gemara, Gemora, etc.), which is also based upon the biased opinions of that Akiva-based sect within Judaism and which represents commentary on the Mishnah, was subsequently added to the Mishnah to ultimately become the "Talmud", upon which Judaism it totally based.  Today's "Judaism" could legitimately be called "Akiva Judaism" or "Akivaism".  More on that topic in separate discussions.

Yeshua asked Peter a simple direct question, "Who do you say that I am?"

 

Peter gave a simple, direct answer, "Thou art the MESSIAH, the SON OF the Living God."

 

Yeshua then agreed with Peter and said Peter's understanding was revealed to him from The Eternal God.

 

Now, if Yeshua is God, why didn't he correct Peter?  This would have been the perfect time to explain the "mystery" or "hypostasis" complexities of the Trinity or perhaps the "oneness" and "biunity" imaginings of others who consider him to be "God in the flesh".  It also gave Yeshua an excellent opportunity to delve into the alleged distortion of authentic kabbalistic implications behind his "divine" nature that today's self anointed counterfeit Messianic "rabbis" ignorantly espouse.  Why didn't Yeshua take it upon himself to correct Peter's failure to grasp the fact that he is God or to expound upon his supposed man-God essence?

 

Instead of correcting what Christian leaders apparently feel was Peter's ignorance, Yeshua blessed him, clearly inferring Peter was exactly right in his description.  Would Yeshua "bless" Peter for giving an incorrect answer?

 

The simple and inescapable fact is Peter was correct, and there was no need for Yeshua to add anything to Peter's understanding.

 

The conversation Christian leaders assume occurred

 

I suppose Christians, counterfeit Messianics, and others who promote the concept that Yeshua is God like to fancy themselves with the following spurious account of the conversation between Yeshua and Peter.  I will avail myself with the use of a pet phrase, "liar, lunatic, or God", I've heard among some of those who promote that Yeshua is God.  They foolishly say that Yeshua was either "a liar, a lunatic, or God".

 

"Peter, who do you say that I am, a liar, a lunatic, Messiah (Christ), or God?"

 

Peter responds, "Well, Rabbi Yeshua you certainly are not a liar, and even though some may consider you a lunatic I most certainly do not.  And, since even you worship the One True God of Israel and recite the Shema daily - "Here O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is ONE!" - I absolutely do not even allow myself to think the blasphemy that you are God.  No.  I believe you are Messiah as prophesied by our fathers."

 

"Peter, you poor stupid fisherman.  Do you not realize you are eternally damned for not recognizing that I am God just as the creeds say?  Forget what the fathers said.  Don't you know it is a mystery that can only be understood through having faith and by abolishing and redefining the long established understanding of God which was embraced by our ancestors?  Stop basing your faith only on the written Holy Scriptures of our fathers.  Only the ignorant limit themselves to such things. Throw out all that you've learned and all that has been written before. It is time for a new God to arise, and that God is me!"

 

"Creeds?  What creeds?  Our faith has no need for creeds.  We have the Holy Scriptures, and in them the Holy One teaches us we are not to add to His eternal instructions.  What creeds are you talking about my lord? And why should I discard all that my people have learned and suffered for?"

 

"Never mind the creeds.  They won't be here for a few hundred years, and who cares about past suffering.  Inquisitors!  Take Peter away to be tortured and burn him if he doesn't accept the creeds of those that are not so uncultured and stupid as he!  If he refuses to acknowledge me as God, kill him! Oh!  And before he dies inform him I no longer wish to be called by my actual Hebrew name of Yeshua any longer.  I think I'll change my name to Iesous (jesus) so that I can be more acceptable to those who will worship me as God and therefore follow after 'other gods'" that were never revealed before and won't be officially until the council of Nicea in about 300 years.

 

Well, such was not the conversation, and Yeshua praised Peter for his God-given insight.

​Today very few Christian pastors, theologians, or "Messianics" agree with Peter and do not really know who Yeshua is.  They are proclaiming a totally unscriptural "Christ" and committing idolatry by worshiping that Christ as The Eternal Creator.

One of the primary reasons for Christian ignorance of the true Messiah is a gross misunderstanding of the true "gospel of the Kingdom" which promises a literal Kingdom with Yeshua reigning as King, thus fulfilling the sure promises to Abraham, Isaac, and others that the Israeli people would literally inherit the land of Israel.  In order to do this they must be resurrected, which is the basis for Yeshua's answer to the Sadducees elsewhere in Matt. 22:29-32 and the ultimate basis for the hope of a resurrection.

 

When Christianity in the early centuries brutally and intentionally divested itself of the Torah mindset it lost virtually all truth, developed a largely false religion, and the anti-Messiah Beastly religion achieved dominance.  The major error that ensued was throwing out Peter's confession and creating a new "Christological creed".  Antisemitism and anti-Judaism lie at the very core of Traditional Christian dogma.  When the Hebraic foundations were (and still are) discarded, truth perished.

 

Regarding the Catholic teaching that Peter was the first Pope

 

Peter apparently didn't realize he was a "pope" since the first leader of the Messianic faith in Jerusalem was James - the brother of Yeshua.  In fact, until the defeat of Israel by the Romans in 135CE, there were fifteen Jewish congregational leaders of the Jerusalem Messianic community - which was the headquarters of the Messianic faith, and Peter was not one of them!  They were all relatives of Yeshua.  Only after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and defeated Bar Kochva to end the war with the Jews did a non-Jewish leader arise, and he - Bishop Marcus - was "appointed" by the Roman Emperor Hadrian with a prime objective being to rid the faith of "Jewishness"!  Hadrian was the same emperor than made circumcision a capital offense in 130CE; therefore, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where he or his appointed church bishop stood with regard to Judiac truths.  He even banned Jews from entering Jerusalem - a ban which lasted many years.  Atop the ruins of our Holy Jerusalem, the Romans built their new pagan city of "Aelia Capitolina" - with their pagan Temple dedicated to their god Jupiter, also known as Zeus, Capitolinus.

 

Having crushed Israel in war, the Roman gentiles destroyed and paganized the Holy Capital, eradicated the last genealogy of the House of David (except that of Yeshua), and replaced the annual Temple tax with a higher tax to maintain their pagan temple of Jupiter (Zeus).  It was then (135CE) that the true Body of Messiah was forced aside and the Beast began his expanding effort to "change times and laws".  One of his first changes was to replace the One God with his pagan Trinity and to confuse the true nature and final mission of the Messiah.  Oh, and of course he couldn't allow the Jewish name of the Messiah to remain; so, he changed that also into the false name "Jesus" - evidence of which exist to suggest is a name which gives honor to the pagan god, Zeus.

​Peter was never the "Pope".  The historical record proves without doubt Peter was never the leader of the "church".  Those who think he was are victims of pagan Roman lies.

Regarding the "keys to the Kingdom" and how "whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth should be understood"

 

The "keys" are a known metaphor denoting authority to "bind and loose".  I will let the following excerpt from The Jewish New Testament Commentary speak for me. This is commentary of Matthew 18:18 which also mentions "binding and loosing":

 

The words rendered "prohibit" and "permit" (v. 18) are, literally, "bind" and "loose." These terms were used in first century Judaism to mean "prohibit" and "permit," as is clear from the article, "Binding and Loosing," in the Jewish Encyclopedia, 3:215: "BINDING AND LOOSING" ... Rabbinical term for 'forbidding and permitting.' ...

"The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees. Under Queen Alexandra the Pharisees, says Josephus (Wars of the Jews 1:5:2), 'became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind.' ... The various schools had the power 'to bind and to loose'; that is, to forbid and to permit (Talmud: Chagigah 3b); and they could bind any day by declaring it a fast-day ( ... Talmud: Ta'anit 12a ... ). This power and authority, vested in the rabbinical body of each age or in the Sanhedrin, received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of justice (Sifra, Emor, ix; Talmud: Makkot 23b).

 

"In this sense Jesus, when appointing his disciples to be his successors, used the familiar formula (Matt 16:19, 18:18). By these words he virtually invested them with the same authority as that which he found belonging to the scribes and Pharisees who 'bind heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but will not move them with one of their fingers'; that is, 'loose them,' as they have the power to do (Matt 23:2-4)....

 

...a very different, non-Jewish interpretation, equating binding and loosing with remitting and retaining sins (John 20:23), was adopted by Tertullian and all the church fathers, thus investing the head of the Christian Church with the power to forgive sins, referred to on the basis of Mt 16:18 as the "key power of the Church." Needless to say, I reject this later understanding which bears no relationship to the Jewish context.

 

The Jewish New Testament Commentary, (Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications) 1996.

 

In summary, this conversation between Messiah and Kepha (Peter) clearly implies that Messiah is not God. If he were, either Peter would have said so or Messiah would have corrected the fact that he failed to recognize it. Neither occurred.

​Peter did not state that Messiah is God and Yeshua did not indicate that he is. It is my hope that The Eternal God will someday bring Christian leaders and their deceived followers to the correct understanding Peter had of Messiah.