From: GATES2124@cs.com
Date: Tue Mar 11, 2003 1:56:34 AM US/Pacific
To: peterm@messengers-of-messiah.org
Subject: question

Hi,

I have seen many sites that says you are a kabbalah. Not real sure what it
is. Some say it is a new Age thing. Just curious if this is correct?
Please reply.

Jack Gates




From: Peter A. Michas <peterm@messengers-of-messiah.org>
Date: Tue Mar 11, 2003 10:19:24 AM US/Pacific
To: GATES2124@cs.com
Cc: Noseworthy Travel <rvanderm@travelwithus.com>
Subject: Re: question

Hi Jack,

Jack let me say that this ministry does not use or endorse the use of Kabbalah. Many years ago Barbara Aho and I got into it over the Christmas and Easter issue and her being a Lutheran, and me being totally opposed to these paganized holidays, it was not a positive encounter. From there she took it upon herself to try to stop people from listening to our teaching tapes or reading our materials. When we published the book she took off on some of the Hebrew words and terms and responded to them as all being something from Kabbalah. You will see that she states that we use the Hebrew name Yeshua and she states that the only name given in Scripture is Jesus and therefore Yeshua is Kabbalah. We use the Hebrew word midrash, which simply means parables, and she again says that the word midrash is Kabbalah. We tried many years ago to educate her to the difference between using Hebrew words and what is in fact kabbalah. It was all of no value and the more we tried the wilder her accusations became. So we now just ignore her and the one other Lutheran pastor that has a web page about our book and we just allow the book to stand on its own merits. There is not much anyone can say or do with people like Barbara Aho but leave them to their ignorance. If you have any specific issues or questions pertaining to the book please feel free to ask. Our web site is http://www.messengers-of-messiah.org

Thank you for taking the time to request a reply

Peter

P.S. A short definition of kabbalah (also spelled cabala) from the Webster's New World Dictionary: "an occult philosophy of certain Jewish rabbis, especially in the Middle Ages, based on a mystical interpretation of the Scriptures."

From Jack Gates;

Hi Peter,

Boker tov,

Thank you for long and detailed email concerning your ministry and Kabbalah.
I had a feeling this was false rumor.  I just wanted you to clear it up for
me.  I hope you were not offended when I asked you if your ministry played
any part of this false religion.  I think "The Rod of an Almond Tree In God's
Master Plan" speaks for itself.

I once heard a sermon from Perry Stone.  He was saying about 10-20 years ago
it was the liberal media that tried to destroy the church.  He says now it is
Christians who are destroying other Christians integrity.  I see these
website listed below are some of the lies to taint your ministry.  Satan is
now using our own Church to destroy us.  It is funny how we tend to break
down one another than build up one another.  I have listed them for your
viewing.

I do ask one more favor.  After hearing Perry Stone and Bill Cloud over the
past 4 years I have been very interested in learning Jewish roots.  I am
however very confused.  I am a current member of a Assembly of God.

I do not know where to begin.  I understand the law does not saves a person,
but pleases God.  I do not know how much I need to follow the law?  Do I just
need to celebrate the ever lasting Rembrances and feast.  Do I need to follow
all the 613 commands.  Must I keep the Sabbath holy?

Thank you for your ministry and your great book.  I intend to pass it along
to my friends.  I must admit, I believe in most of your book.  However, I
feel you have the oneness philosphy wrong.  I just feel we can not look at
the Father, Son, and Holy spirit in the humanist view.  I believe when Jesus
was baptised by John the Baptist, it was the perfect example of trinity.  The
Jews never did believe in Jesus or a begotton Son.  So I do not think you can
look in Jewish history to understand this concept.

Again, I enjoy your work and hope to read your reply.  God Bless.

Here are some of the websites who are spreading false lies about your
ministry.

http://watch.pair.com/fruit.html
http://www.seekgod.ca/embracinition.htm
http://www.youthofamerica.com/ree.htm
http://www.despatch.cth.com.au/Articles_D/HRMmagic.htm
http://christianparty.net/embrachrist.htm

Sincerely, In Christ,
Jack Gates
gates2124@cs.com



Hi Mr. Gates,

Thank you for your e-mail. Peter showed me that you e-mailed him, too. We were not offended by it. I am grateful you took the time to ask. The “long and detailed e-mail” came from Peter. Mine was pretty short (smiles).

I looked at some of the websites that you listed. At least the person(s) who wrote some of this documented where he or she found it. That much I appreciated. Unfortunately, they seem to think that if we quote a portion of what a kabbalist taught in order to clarify something in scripture, we have embraced all of Kabballa. This is absolutely wrong, and Peter has publicly stated many times his strong feelings about the error of Kabballa. Some of what a kabbalist believes is correct because it is based on scripture, but they mix it in with Babylonian mysticism and the occult and the end product is completely wrong. Half truths mixed with error can be a very deadly and deceptive combination.

The premise that Peter, Christie and I always adhere to is that any outside resource used to clarify something in the Bible cannot conflict with the Bible.  It seems like this would be a given, but it is not always the case in many teachings. Traditions, for example, are a powerful influence even if they don’t line up with the Word of God. We believe that the Bible is correct and any other source is secondary. If there is an irreconcilable conflict between the two, the Bible is true and the other source is wrong.

Concerning your other question about the law and what we should and should not be doing...  here is something that might help you because it helped me. There are two aspects to the law. There is the sacrificial law and the social law. One has to do with the picture of what the Messiah would ultimately fulfill when He gave His life as a sacrifice for humanity’s sin. The second is a lifestyle mandate.

We certainly are not required to perform animal sacrifices anymore, because that was all fulfilled in Yeshua. Done, finished, complete. I enjoy celebrating the Passover season as a remembrance of the fulfillment of what the Lord did for us.  It brings out the fantastic picture of the Messiah’s death and resurrection at the time of year that the event took place.  It is a celebration that gives glory to the Lord. I generally don’t participate in a complete seder (I confess I have only been to one seder so far so I could see what it was like), but I still like to give special honor to the Lord for what He did for us at that divinely ordained time of the year. However, I don’t raise a pet lamb and then kill it at Passover, and follow the Mosaic law’s commandments about the Passover. It is no longer necessary. Circumcision is no longer necessary. It is the spilling of human blood, the picture of what the Lord would do for us. Anything to do with the sacrificial law has been fulfilled through the sacrifice of Yeshua.

I also don’t want to lead people to believe that such an important event as the death and resurrection of the Lord took place during the weekend of Easter (the festival of Estar). This was a pagan celebration that was meant to deceive people and draw people away from the truth. It seems to me that if we do that, we are mixing some truth with error which is what those who follow Kabballa do. Sort of ironic that the very thing we are accused of doing in the websites you listed is the thing that we are strongly taking a stand against.

Therefore, the sacrificial law has now been nullified because it has been fulfilled, so we don’t have to adhere to these Old Testament commands. However, the social laws are still standing and the command is still there to live a life of holiness before the Lord. As believers, we have a relationship with the One to whom we have become betrothed. If we love Him, we will do His commandments because we want to please Him. We are His representatives so we want to reflect who He is correctly and honorably. If we abandon a lifestyle of holiness with the idea that it is not important, we will become an embarrassment to our Savior and weaken our relationship with the Lord.

The Sabbath day’s prophetic picture was actually fulfilled when the Lord rose from the dead on the Sabbath and gave us our Sabbath rest in Him. It is still a good idea to give yourself a day of rest each week to honor God, but your salvation is not dependant on whether or not you stop all activity and hunker down in your house each and every Saturday. I think Saturday would be the preferred day for rest for the same reason as celebrating the death and resurrection on Passover.  Both acknowledge the wonderful sovereignty of God in His fulfillment of a prophetic picture. But its strict observance no longer has the same divine consequences like it had in the Mosaic Old Testament law prior to Yeshua’s resurrection from the dead.

As far as the trinity concept – we don’t dispute the idea of three aspects to the Godhead. If we gave you the impression that we thought of this as a humanist concept we are going to have to go back and reword something in the book because that is NOT what we believe. I would appreciate it if you can send me the part that gave you that impression so we can work at clarification, if it is needed.

What Peter tried to show in this chapter is that the Godhead is not made up of three separate people – consequently, three separate gods. We hear the phrase “God in three persons, blessed trinity” in the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy.” This is incorrect. If we try to put a body on all three aspects of the Godhead, we run headlong into conflict with the Word that tells us God is Spirit.

The Lord stated “I and the Father are one.” The most succinct way for me to describe this is to say that the Godhead is a composite oneness – multiple aspects of one God working in perfect unity and harmony. God the Father (the will of the Father), God the Son (the Word performing the will of the Father - the Action), and God the Holy Spirit (the power to perform the will of the Father through the Son). This might be a shallow explanation to the Supreme Being and Creator of the entire universe, but it is more accurate than to say that He is three persons. That idea does not fit the description given to us in scripture.

Also, concerning Jews as believers, remember that the early Church was predominately made up of Jews and God fearers. There were so many Jews coming to the knowledge of the Lord in the first few years after the crucifixion that the Jewish leadership was afraid they were going to lose their position with the people, so they began to persecute the early Church. Jewish leadership didn’t accept the Lord, but it is not entirely accurate to say that Jews never accepted the Lord.

Hope this helps you. Glad you enjoyed the book.

Shalom,

Robert