This 70th week of Daniel Bible study post provides a rebuttal to a review on Amazon about The 70th Week Of Daniel 9 Decoded book.
Someone in my Facebook End Time Deceptions group commented, “On Amazon, The 70th Week Of Daniel 9 Decoded book, a rating and review dated August 2, 2021, this person partially agrees with you then wrote about what he/she disagrees with you on. I would like to know your thoughts on what is written.”
Since Amazon doesn’t give a platform to rebut someone’s comment, I’ll do it here. My comments are in red.
This person didn’t list their real name, so it just says “Amazon Customer” which is lame. It’s amazing to me that people speak against me but they don’t have enough of a backbone to identify themselves.
They gave the book three stars out of five, and titled their review with ‘Slips in a “Trojan horse” message.’
The author is right on, about the 70th week of Daniel. He has proved the fact by supporting Scripture. This is a very essential teaching. It clears up a lot of heresy about the end times. And this prophecy is significant proof of the deity of Jesus and his being the Messiah. It is very important for the Christian to understand.
That being said, the author slips in a “trojan horse” teaching. One that is not Scriptural. It is contradictory to the nature of Messiah. The author asserts that New Covenant born again Christians must seek to obey the law to please God. But the Law was never given to please God. It was given as a teacher to bring people to Jesus. Once that happens the Law is no longer necessary.
It’s interesting that they say that it’s contradictory to the nature of Messiah to seek to obey the Father’s commandments, since that is what Messiah did, and we are to mimic Messiah.
Regarding obeying the Ten Commandments, the Word of the Father, Messiah said: And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:29-31
When you follow Messiah’s two commandments, you’re following the ten commandments of the Father. The first four commandments are about loving the Father; the last six commandments are about loving your neighbor.
Messiah is teaching His followers how to obey the Father’s commandments out of love. Though Messiah fulfilled the law, the Instructions of His Father, but did not put it away.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Matthew 5:17
Messiah fulfilled the Father’s commandments perfectly, as no man can, but we are still to strive to obey them.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19
If a Christian disobeys the Heavenly Father’s commandments, if they lie, steal, cheat, etc., does that displease God? Yes!
So the opposite is true. When we obey His commands out of love and reverence, does that please God? Yes! There is no Trojan Horse in my book, just someone’s misunderstanding of what it means to walk out our faith!
We receive the Spirit of Truth and Love. And from the Holy Spirit come all matter of our good works. He sites many verses said by Jesus before Jesus was crucified. You cannot use those verses. Jesus was born under the law and was a teacher of the law.
Seriously? Did the authority of Messiah’s words change at the cross? No!
People cite Colossians 2:14 to proclaim that the law was nailed to the cross, but that is wrong as it the written record of our sins, which testify against us, which condemn us to death, that Messiah nailed to the cross as He paid the price for our sins as our Intercessor. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.”
We see that in the previous verse, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.”
His ministry was to the Jews only. He came to perfectly fulfill the law so we would not have to. That is why you cannot apply such verses as: Mat. 6:15: “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins”. Jesus spoke that during the time that the Law was in effect, and as a teacher of the Law.
This is a false statement, as Messiah proclaimed that He came for the lost tribes of the House of Israel, so He came for all twelve tribes. Many from the tribes of the House of Israel had returned before Messiah started His ministry, in the northern regions of Galilee where the House of Israel used to live.
Messiah’s statement in Matthew 6:15 still holds true. What kind of religion are we observing if we don’t forgive others when they sin against us?
Under the Law you had to earn God’s forgiveness. But when Jesus ratified the new Covenant with his blood on the cross, God’s forgiveness is given to us freely as a gift, to those who believe. What does the Bible say to Christians who are trying to still please God via obeying the Law? (Heb.10:18)
“Now where there is forgiveness of these things (sins), there is no longer any offering for sin.” That means our works have no power to reconcile us to God. So we can rest in Him. (Gal.5:4-6):”You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace…the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Nobody in the Old Testament earned forgiveness under the law! Those who believed by faith looked to the day when their promised Messiah would atone for their sins!
That said, obeying the Father’s commands caused them to be righteous before the Father, and the Father used these people to advance the kingdom.
In fact the Bible calls “the Law” the “ministry of death”. (2 Cor. 3:7,8) “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones…. (Notice the Law being spoken about is the Law etched in stone and is not ceremonial law, but the Ten Commandments.
Scripture clearly shows the saints should still keep the commandments of the Father.
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:17
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12
Messiah came to offer this covenant to the House of Israel and the House of Judah, fulfilling Jeremiah 31:31-33.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The author is firm about Christians striving to keep the law, to obey God. I wonder if he is aware that there were 600 laws Israeli’s had to follow? Yes we want to do things to please the Father. That is not by emphasis on doing “laws”, it is on emphasis of “being” His child. Out of the “being” comes the “doing”. The “doing” will be automatic, coming out of who we are in Jesus. (Gal. 5: 6)
“..the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” It says Faith, not “obey laws” are what matters. I would ask the author: If a Christian still had to obey the Law in order to please God, then exactly what did Jesus accomplish on the cross? Hopefully you can get around that “trojan horse”, the other part of the book is a valuable teaching that must be understood by every Christian.
I didn’t declare that we have to observe the ceremonial laws, which pointed to our High Priest, as Messiah has fulfilled them. We don’t have to sacrifice a Passover Lamb, as Messiah is the Spotless Lamb who atoned for our sins.
The remnant, the true Israelites, strive to keep the Father’s commandments, as they’re written on our hearts and minds, and we obey out of love.
If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. John 14:21
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10
Messiah came to be an example of how to live out the Father’s commandments, in the power of the Spirit.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matthew 22:37-39
Messiah is the Word that became flesh. The Word is the law, the instructions for living, from the Father. Following these teachings from Messiah is to fulfill the Father’s Ten Commandments.
It’s ridiculous to proclaim that we shouldn’t strive to keep our Heavenly Fathers commandments out of love and reverence for Him. Show me which of the ten commandments that it’s okay for a believer to violate. None of them! And if we do, we are to repent, to turn the other way and seek to not sin again.
We are saved by faith in Messiah, but to say that Messiah’s followers should not strive to obey His Father’s commandments is absurd. We are called to be a set-apart people.
There is no Trojan Horse in the book, just a solid explanation of the covenants and how the remnant seek to obey the Father’s commandments out of love and reverence for Him. This person should be ashamed for misrepresenting what I teach in The 70th Week Of Daniel 9 Decoded book!
