2005.04.26

16th day, 2nd month, 5766

PAPACY PONDERINGS

view recent editions on-line at http://www.tushiyah.org

by Rav. David Pollina

Shalom friends!  It has been 7 weeks since the last Tushiyah Thoughts, not for lack of thoughts, but for a bombardment of too many of them!  As many of you know, last month there was a widespread debate over the issue of setting the month.  The Jewish pre-calculated calendar sets this as the first month of the year, but the agricultural state in the Land tells a different story, establishing last month as the first.

For anyone who may not have researched these issues, I will include links at the end to the various articles I wrote on the subject.  Needless to say, there are two sides to any issue, and I suppose the date of this letter will express my belief in these regards.  In the end, at least for me, the commitment is to agree to disagree in shalom with anyone taking the alternate view.

Through this time, and actually for many prior months, I have been involved with a new kind of Messianic Association which was established for promoting unity around the two basics of our faith.  This group has officially launched, and you can see the beginning stages of it at http://www.comyisrael.org - the Conference Of Messianic Yisrael.  More will be developed on that site over the next few weeks, including an exhaustive teachings repository - with varying opinions and teachers all in one place.

Well, next in line was of course the death of John Paul II and subsequent election of his replacement.  Before this, I don't know if many people had heard of Saint Malachy, other than thinking he was the biblical prophet at the end of the minor prophets.  Well the whole world did indeed marvel at the passing of JP2, every nation, and every religion, and if Malachy is right, the end is near...

All of these things, believe it or not, have a common denominator.  As history marches steadily towards destruction and the return of Y'shua, more and more we will be asked to make choices.  Choices of authority.  WHO has the authority in our lives?  Is it YHWH or is it man?  In this time we must be ever in prayer for wisdom to answer these tests.

A grave danger presents itself when Messianic leaders will boldly stand up and state that the Sanhedrin of 1,600 years ago is authority in the lives of believers today.  The danger is in that this very same Sanhedrin also made it a crime to believe in Y'shua.  Immediately, the same leaders who will ascribe halachic authority to the Sanhedrin, will say "except when they say to deny Y'shua".  Well, folks, they either have all authority or they have none.  If one believes that the Sanhedrin had the authority to change Torah as to the Feasts and dates established by YHWH, then they have authority to deny Messiah as well.  If they can contradict Torah once, they can do so at will.

This is exactly the mantle inherited by Pope Benedict XVI.  The Catholic church has through history flagrantly claimed the right to "apostolic authority" - the right to change times and Torah.  They changed Shabbat to Sunday and will freely tell you that such rests solely upon their authority to change Scripture.

What did Y'shua say about this?  We are all supposed to be equals with only HIM as our head.  When the Apostles were told by the Sanhedrin not to preach, they boldly responded "if it is better for us to obey you rather than Elohim, you decide".

Why is this such a pressing issue today?  Because the world is getting set-up to accept the authority of haSatan in the form of anti-messiah!  I did a teaching on Paltalk last weekend regarding the current pope and the prophecies of Dani'el and Revelation, and one of the recurring themes of the end times is this issue of authority.  An audio stream of that session will soon be posted on www.tushiyah.org so keep checking there and within a couple of days, you can listen if you missed it.

The prophecies in the bible should be the ones we look to, not those given by catholic saints.

The divisiveness with which many brethren are willing to part fellowship over doctrinal issues highlights this trend toward the ultimate exclusion to be engineered by the anti-messiah.  We are to be a people of unity, rallying around two key principles - Torah and Messiah.  This is the basis upon which C.O.M.Y. was founded.  Named after a possessive form of the Hebrew "Comah" - "wall or that which is joined", "COMY" means "my joined ones", and that is what we are supposed to be about doing in the business of our Father.

In the aftermath of the first month debate, a Messianic Association had actually disfellowshipped many congregations who did not agree with the leader's perspective about following Sanhedrin Authority.  Those who dared seek to follow Torah alone were removed, like in the time of Dani'el.

If this is the way believers will act toward other believers who are trying to follow Torah, how will they stand in the day of TRUE testing which is coming?

That day may be coming very soon, in our generation.  The current pope may indeed be the last, the eighth head who is also one of the seven as referred to in Revelation 17.  Time will tell, but we must remain watchful.

Here are the links to various articles done last month.  I would particularly draw your attention to "A Question of Authority" and "The Absurdity of Pass-The-Buck Authority" as they discuss this issue of governing authority head-on:

Pasach For The Perplexed http://www.tushiyah.org/pasachfortheperplexed.html

When SHOULD you Pasach? http://www.tushiyah.org/pasach2.html

Parley With Barley? http://www.tushiyah.org/pasach3.html

What Would Sanhedrin Do? http://www.tushiyah.org/pasach4.html

Reply To Rob Miller http://www.tushiyah.org/pasach5.html

Karaites & The Holocaust? http://www.tushiyah.org/pasach6.html

A Question of Authority http://www.tushiyah.org/authority.html

The Absurdity of Pass-The-Buck 'Authority' http://www.tushiyah.org/authority2.html

De-Junking Junk Science http://www.tushiyah.org/pasach7.html

Will you pass the Authority Test?  Study this issue well, for at present we may only see it affecting the setting of this year, but the implications go much deeper.

May Yahweh bless you and protect you,

SHALOM

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