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Keith: Well, you all, this morning… I was up early this morning and I was supposed to do something that Nehemia and I had talked about, but this morning, it changed. So I’m going to do what I was given this morning, if that would be all right with you. I want to be sensitive to time, but I also have to let you know that when I heard last night with the water going off, I just figured, when the water comes on, it just takes a little moment, or something.

But I’m going to tell you what happened to me this morning, when I found out about this water. For those that don’t know, we’re here in Fort Lauderdale during this weekend. And in Fort Lauderdale, there was a main break, the mainline break. And as a result, they’re saying there’s now sewage that is getting into the drinking water.

Now, I don’t know if you know it or not, most drinking water’s really not that healthy anyway. [laughter] But when they tell you that there’s a problem with the drinking water, you’re supposed to really get your ears perked up and listen to what they say. In fact, I have a note here that they brought all over the hotel. It says, “Dear Guests, please be advised that we have a boil water order in effect until further notice. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. Best wishes.”

Now, here’s my question. I’m in a hotel. How do I boil water? Now, what I think they’re saying to me is that, if you don’t have any fire to boil the water, don’t drink the water. Is that fair? I think that’s what the hotel is saying. And I’m going to tell you something. When I read this, I think about brothers and sisters all over the world today, all over the world today, because you guys might be so disconnected. Myself, I’m not so disconnected. Did you know that right now, all over the world, this particular day happens to be Christmas Sunday? Did you all know that?

Audience: No.

Keith: You all probably didn’t know that. Today is Christmas Sunday, and so all over the world, there are people that don’t have the fire but they’re being given dirty water…

Audience: Oh, yeah.

Keith: …and they’re drinking it.

Audience: Oh, yeah.

Keith: Now, I talked to my wife, and she begged me not to say what I’m not going to say, because I love my wife, Andrea. I’m not going to say it, and so instead of saying what I was going to say, I simply want to give you a picture, if I can. So here’s what I wanted to say that my wife told me not to say, because when I woke up this morning at 6:30 this morning and I heard about this water, and just before I heard about the water, my whole message changed, which I was excited about. I go downstairs, I hear about the water. You know, I kind of wanted to say what I thought about this water. But my wife said, “Honey, don’t say that. Please don’t say those words,” so I’m not going to say those words. But you guys know what’s actually happening right now with the water? You know what it is? So instead of me saying what I wanted to say, I simply want to show you this sign, so that you can see it. It’s called “Warning! Sewage” Say, “sewage”.

Audience: Sewage.

Keith: Now, for my neighborhood, sewage has a different way of saying it. But that mean there’s something in the water that you don’t want to get in your system. But I am concerned that no matter how much we will say, “Warning! Sewage”, people will say, “But I’m thirsty. But I need something to drink. I’ve got to take a shower.” And this has bothered me, you all, because when I learn a thing, when I start understanding something, there’s just something in me that says, “Once I’ve understood it, once I learn it, I must apply it.” This is part of the reason that I’m so concerned for the people from where I come from. Many of them don’t know about what’s in the water.

Would you do me a favor and stand to your feet? And I want to do something really radical now, if you would. I want you to grab a hold of somebody’s hand. Touch somebody. And I want you to bow your heads, whether you’re listening to us online or you’re here in this room, I want you to bow your head. And I want to pray, “Father, I want to thank you for how amazing You are. I want to thank you for being the great orchestrator, the maestro in heaven that even affects things on earth. Father, I want to thank you for a mainline break that has caused all of us in this hotel to see a very clear picture of what we’re dealing with. Is it a coincidence that it’s this particular time, that the very root of this particular time, mixes that which was supposed to be clean, and that which is dirty, and then serves it up to the world and says it’s good for them?”

“Father, I pray right now that Your ruach hakodesh, that your Holy Spirit, would not only touch us in this hotel, but also those that are listening today or in the future. Father, we want to do something radical. We want You to tell us the truth. And then, as a result, help us to deal with the truth, whatever it is. We thank you in advance for what You have done, are doing, and shall do in Your holy name.” Everyone, say it together, “amen”.

Audience: Amen.

Keith: You can have a seat. Now, here’s what’s going on with me. Nehemia usually tells me what I’m supposed to speak about. I then try to take what he tells me I’m supposed to speak about, and we do that, and we’ve done this for three times. If you guys didn’t get a chance to get these particular DVDs, I want to say something about this. I want to tell Michael Rood and A Rood Awakening, thank you for this. They have captured through Shavuot and Yom Teruah the spirit by which we spoke the truth, and now it’s available.

This particular weekend, I’m not sure whether they should make a DVD from this particular weekend, especially for what I’m about to say, because I’m going to do something really quite radical. So what I’d like to do before I do that, can I do a little public relations and close the gap on the whole name issue? Would that be all right with you all? Because I’m going to tell you something, if you haven’t gotten the book, His Hallowed Name Revealed Again, if you haven’t got the DVD series, if you haven’t got the… Hey, do me a favor. Just let me know, “Yeah, I’ll consider it,” and then I won’t have to talk about any of that and I can just tell you what happened to me this morning, and share with you that which is fresh, and that is new, that came to me early this morning. I’ve got two choices, go with what Nehemia said, or get what the Holy Spirit said.

Audience: Go with the Holy Spirit.

Keith: How many of you all want me to do what Nehemia says? Say, Nehemia.

Man: Nehemia.

Keith: One, Amen. [laughter] He’s a paid participant. How many of you all want to hear what the Holy Ghost gave me this morning?

Audience: Yeah. [applause]

Keith: Amen. So what I want to do is, I want to close this section out, because this is really important to me. I met a lady this morning and her name is Maria. Maria, where are you? Oh, amen. Would you come here, my friend? I want to show you just where I’m at in my commitment, and Nehemia, this will encourage you, especially. Would you come here, Maria? Is there a microphone anywhere? Does this work over here? Come on up here, just for a second, right here. Maria came to me - and this happens to me so often, so many times - people from other parts of the world, other languages, will come to me and say, “You know what? The light has come on.” I’ve had people from China come to me and say, “Keith, we have read His Hallowed Name Revealed Again, and we realize this is the name, and even the pronunciation, from our own language.”

There are people in India that have said, “We’ve looked at this information. We’ve watched the video. Would you please come and help us? We want to understand the name.” You guys, I’m going to tell you something. There is a worldwide movement and awakening regarding our Father’s name. [applause] That is why I want to thank Michael, who’s got enough chutzpah to say, “Though the Christians will say we’re afraid,” he’ll say, “hey, if I can get the resources, we’ll let the world know.” Nehemia, who says, “Look, I know that my brothers and sisters say I shouldn’t do it, but we’ll do it.” This sister comes to me today, and she comes in this humble sort of way, and I simply want you to do what you did for me. I want you to read in the language of the Bible that you had from your mother, the verse that you brought.

Maria: First of all, when I woke up this morning, I grabbed this Bible, and I was looking at the dedication my mother gave me. And she wrote, “Numbers 6:24-26,” that Nehemia had mentioned about the blessings of Nazarites. And also she wrote Psalms 9:10, and so I went to read Psalms 9:10.

Keith: Ah-ha. And what language has this been written in?

Maria: My Bible is from Brazil, I mean, Portuguese.

Keith: Portuguese. [speaks Portuguese]

Maria: [speaks Portuguese]

Keith: I speak a little Portuguese too. Can I get an amen?

Audience: Amen.

Maria: There is another brother there, he’s Brazilian.

Keith: Okay, all right.

Maria: So it says in Psalms 9:10 [speaks Portuguese]... “Jehovah”. [applause] This Bible, she gave me like 10 years ago. So I was amazed, because I said, “I have to read this to Keith. God put this in my heart.” I said, “I don’t know why He said, ‘Read this verse to Keith.’” So when I saw him, the first thing I said was, “Can I read a Scripture to you?” And he was like, “Oh, of course.”

Keith: And you translated it into English.

Maria: And then I would translate for him, and he was like jumping all over the place. [laughter]

Keith: That’s between us. The people don’t need to know that. Okay, you’re going to learn that. You don’t tell everyone. This is the world listening, right now.

Maria: Oh my, okay. So it says…

Keith: Are you kidding me?

Maria: …in English, “And those who know Your name will trust in You, because those who search for Yehovah, Yehovah, will never be forsaken.”

Keith: Can we get an amen?

Audience: Amen.

Keith: Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you so much. You know, I want to tell you something, and I’ve got to just tell you this, you all. What excites me about this, I mean, Nehemia and I fight. Did you all know we fight? [laughter] We fight, and here’s why we fight. Because sometimes we realize that we come from different places, and we’re trying to find common ground. But let me tell you where this Methodist and this Jewish man have found common ground, and you need to hear this. We have found common ground in this book, right here. This book is the very Bible that Yeshua read, and within this book, we have also found common ground in the name of our… say, “our”.

Audience: Our.

Keith: Heavenly Father.

Audience: Heavenly Father.

Keith: So Nehemia and I have found common ground, but I will tell you something. Nehemia, you did something... This probably means this is the end of our shtick, because I’m going to have to do something radical. I am going to challenge my brother, Nehemia Gordon, to keep reading. [laughter] [applause] Now, when I challenge my brother, Nehemia Gordon to…

Audience: Keep reading.

Keith: …I’m also challenging you, to…?

Audience: Keep reading.

Keith: Because here’s the issue. Sometimes we can take a verse, declare a verse, but not let the verse be in context or maybe even allow the verse to minister to us about maybe something that’s going to get our attention. So sometimes we’ll take a verse out and run from the context. I’m wondering, Nehemia, when you decided at the end of your message - and I’m so glad that after this, you know, this is our last committed deal, because I’m sure you guys are going to say, “Keith, look. He’s a nice Jewish man, a Karaite. He’s been with you this whole time. He’s put up with you.” You know, this guy challenges me on a regular basis. Can I challenge him for just a moment?

Audience: Yes.

Keith: To…?

Audience: Keep reading.

Keith: He used the verse, Psalms 22:22. Would somebody put that up?

Woman: [laughs]

Keith: She’s laughing about this. It says, “I will declare Your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise You.” When Nehemia used that verse, I got so excited. I thought, “Wow, he’s using Psalms 22 to say to us, he’s not afraid to stand up and proclaim the name in front of his brethren.” Nehemia, I want to tell you, you have been true to your word, but I’m not sure you should have used that verse, because you’re using that verse amongst a group of people that when they read that verse, they think something else.

When they see… Come on, put the verse back on here. When it says, “I will declare,” they’re asking a question. Who will declare? Can I get an amen?

Audience: Amen.

Keith: Let’s look at Psalms 22:1, the beginning of the verse. “Eli, Eli…” You all learned how to say, “Uh-oh?”

Audience: Uh-oh.

Keith: You know that was me that came up with the “Uh-oh”? [laughter] Psalms 22:1, Nehemia says, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Now, I’ve done a radical thing. The Methodists, I am convinced this is probably… Could I tell you all something really radical? Michael, I’m going to make a confession. My wife, I’m going to make a confession… my lovely wife, Andrea. Nehemia, I’m going to make a confession to you, you’re my friends. Arthur, I’m going to make confessions to everybody that’s listening. It has been such a difficult time for me over the last two years. This last year, I did something so crazy. I actually allowed my name to be put in a pool of names to take over a church. Not a Methodist church, but a church. I put my name in there, just to see whether or not I’d been effective.

Come to find out, when they had my name in there, they looked, “Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, cum laude. He’s had all these 20 years, he’s done this, and this, and this.” Then, they pushed the button and listen to what I said. They said, “You are no longer in the process for this church.” [applause] Now, I cannot figure out what the problem is with me - why a church wouldn’t want a guy like me. I mean, I think I can preach just a little bit. I think I can read a little bit. I think I can communicate a little bit. But the problem they have with me is that I keep saying this: I am tired of tiptoeing around the tulips of tradition, especially when you are tiptoeing on the truth of the word of God.

[applause]

So Michael, Nehemia, my lovely wife, Andrea, I’m just telling you guys, I tested it and it’s true. I’m too controversial for the church. [applause] Now, when I look at verses like this, people shouldn’t get as nervous, because when I read, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” I think about this person who actually walked the earth, who had a name - and this is pretty radical - the name that he actually came in was the name that’s supposed to make us remember his Father, but instead, because we changed that name, it separates him completely from the name of his Father, and that is why today, if he were to walk in Fort Lauderdale today, and walk in most churches today on Merry Christmas Sunday, he would say, “What in the heck are you doing?”

[applause]

But if I’m going to be fair, my brother, Nehemia, you’ve picked the wrong Psalm. [laughter] Somebody tell me the name of the one that we know as the New Testament, the legal book says, “Who was the one who said, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?’”

Audience: Yeshua.

Keith: So you all got that?

Audience: Yeah.

Keith: Okay. Nehemia, are your ears open? [laughter] Psalms 22:14 it says this. “I am poured out like water and all of my bones are out of joint.” Who does that remind you all of?

Audience: Yeshua.

Keith: You all don’t get excited about that? Come on, man. It’s Christmas morning. If you don’t want to say, “Yeshua”, just say, “Jesus”. [laughter] Come on, somebody shout, somebody get excited. Somebody let Nehemia know it means something to you. Who is the one that you think his bones were broken? What is his name?!

Audience: Yeshua!

Keith: Psalms 22:18, it says this. “They divide my garments among them.”

Man: Uh-oh.

Keith: Yessir. “And for my clothing, they cast lots.” Now, some of you that don’t choose to read the Hebrew Bible, maybe you only read the New Testament, at least you know there was one, I think around 2,000 years ago, where they divided his clothes. Somebody tell me what you believe his name to be?

Audience: Yeshua!

Keith: Are you listening, Nehemia? [laughter] Psalms 22:16 says this. “For dogs…” And you know, Michael and Nehemia have both stolen my “keep reading”, and I’m glad they have. I only pray that they keep doing it.

Audience: Doing it.

Keith: “For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has encompassed me.” Now it gets really radical. Somebody, in Psalms 22:16 is saying, “They pierced my hands and my feet.”

Audience: Hey.

Keith: You all believe that to be…

Audience: Yeshua!

Man: Hallelujah.

Keith: Now, you guys, I’m preaching this in the presence of my Jewish roommate, Nehemia Gordon. [laughter] And some of you are saying, “Get him. Hit him harder. Knock him down. Make him say the name, Yeshua.” But I’m going to tell you something about Nehemia Gordon. I think he selected Psalms 22 on purpose.

Audience: Oh, yes.

Keith: I think Nehemia Gordon selected Psalms 22 on purpose, and I think partially, the reason that he selected Psalms 22 is because there are people in your movement, the Messianic movement, who say this: Yeshua never would have proclaimed the name. Now, forget theology, just for a minute. Let’s see what Psalms 22:16 and Psalms 22 is talking about, for those of you that believe that it is…

Audience: Yeshua!

Keith: Here’s what it says, Psalms 22:22.

Woman: Oh, yeah.

Keith: If this is who you believe to be…

Audience: Yeshua.

Keith: Come on, somebody. It’s Christmas morning. If this is who you believe to be…

Audience: Yeshua.

Keith: This is what it says, for those that are saying, “Doggone it, that Nehemia Gordon, and that Keith Johnson, they’re now teaching people how to say the name, pray the name, proclaim the name. They’re even going so far as to say that Yeshua did not go by the tradition of the Pharisees.” Let me tell you something. As sure as he said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” He also said in Psalms 22:22, “I will declare Your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will praise You.”

Audience: Hallelujah. [applause]

Keith: Now, I want to tell Nehemia “thank you”. Look at him back there, weeping. He’s getting closer. [laughter]

Man: Amen.

Keith: No, no, no, you’re all right. You’re all right, because now, that was for Nehemia. The second part is for you. Grab somebody’s hand and say, “I hope I can make it through the second part.”

Audience: Make it through.

Keith: Because for those of you that want to say Psalms 22 is Yeshua, and you want to pick and choose in the Tanakh where it feels like, sounds like, smells like, looks like him, either you’re going to have to take the whole role, or don’t take it at all.

Audience: Amen, that’s right.

Keith: The Bible that he read is the Bible that my Jewish brother has sat down with me on a regular basis, every consonant, every vowel, every accent, every Masoretic note, we should give this man a hand. Now, I will tell you something before I say it, here’s the controversy about me. Now, let’s just be real. Michael is one of the few that will say, “You can come.” But can I just be really real with you guys? Do you know what one of the big problems is with me? It isn’t just that I’m a Methodist, it’s that I’m a black Methodist. [laughter]

Man: That’s true.

Keith: And let me tell you why. I have a few people who will actually say this. In South Africa when we were there, one lady said this: “I never thought I would learn the name from a black man.” [laughter] The man that is singing and strumming from South Africa yesterday said it to me clear as day. Andrew Hodkinson, what I love about Andrew, he’s just honest. “Keith, I got to tell you something. It would have been easier if you weren’t black.” [laughter] And his point is clear. What in the heck is a black Methodist doing learning Hebrew from a white Karaite Jew? Somebody say, “God has a sense of humor,” [laughter] because I believe He has gone to others of Nehemia’s brothers and sisters and they said this: “We ain’t doing it.” I believe He’s gone to others from my background, and you know what they’re saying? “We ain’t doing it.”

But here’s what He did with Nehemia and with me. He let us know something. He’s so amazing, He’s so powerful, He’s so wonderful, He’s so magnificent, He’s so awesome. There is nothing we could do more important than embrace Him in everything He has revealed to us. Now, you all, it has cost me just about everything. The Methodists don’t like me. The Messianics don’t like me. The Jews don’t want me, [laughter] and I am in the best place I could be. [applause]

Audience: Amen.

Keith: And I’ve got to tell you why I am so excited to speak today. My wife did say this. She said, “Keith, yesterday you sweat out a shirt. Find a black shirt. [laughter] You are embarrassing the family. You are not doing… Find a black shirt,” so I found a black shirt so that when I begin to sweat, because I will tell you something, the fire is still inside of me. I’ve tried to go like this, but this morning I felt it again. And the fire, as sure as they say, “You’d better boil the water,” what they should have said is, “We need the fire to make the water pure.”

Audience: Amen.

Keith: It’s still in me. Now, I was saying something, and I’m going to get to that. This morning, I’m dealing with this, and I’m saying, “Wow. Here, there is this amazing God, this Creator of the universe, and there are people that are saying, ‘Keith and Nehemia, if you would just be someone else, look different, act a little bit different, we will invite you.’” We’re saying this. “Keep your invitation. Keep your invitation, but please, interact with the information, the inspiration, and the revelation.”

That’s what happened to me this morning, and so now, the first part was for my brother, Nehemia. We’ll let him work through what it means - Psalms 22. I’m not saying what I think, I’m not saying what he says, but I was pretty consistent in saying you all believe that the one who was speaking in Psalms 22 was?

Audience: Yeshua.

Keith: Let’s now move on. If you have your Bibles, I want to go to Deuteronomy 7:5, from the Torah. The word of God, given through the one named Moshe, whom we are to believe in, and do that which he has given us to do by God giving it through him. It says this, in Deuteronomy 7:5. “But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars. You shall smash their sacred pillars and you shall hew down…” and the word for hew down in Hebrew is the word “gideon”. Say, “gideon”.

Audience: Gideon.

Keith: “…their Asherim.” Now, Asherim, you all have heard enough about it this weekend. If not, you might want to check your Bibles for what Asherim means. And it says, “and burn their graven images with fire and I will declare your name…” Oh, that’s Psalms 22, and it says, “And burn their graven images with fire.”

So in Judges 6:11, here’s what we do. I want you guys to go to Judges 6, if you would. We’re going to talk about this man named Gideon today. This is the man who I have been given some direction to talk about. Go to Judges chapter 6, if you would. And in Judges 6 it says this. “Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of Yehovah, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” It says, “For seven years, the Midianites came.” No, it says, “For seven years, He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” God is amazing. Do you know that sometimes the Father in heaven will allow us to be put in the midst of those who are not even connected with Him, to try to get us to get to the place where we will reconnect with Him?

It says this. “Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other Eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing.” Verse 7, “When Israelites cried to Yehovah because of Midian, He sent them a prophet, who said, ‘This is what Yehovah, the God of Israel says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you to give you the land. I said to you, I am Yehovah, your God. You shall not worship the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But you have not listened to me.’” You know what? Is this not where we’re at today?

Woman: Oh, yeah.

Keith: He says, “I am the one who did all of this, and I have told you, Please, whatever you do, do not have any other little gods in My face. But you have not listened to Me.” Verse 11, “The angel of Yehovah came and sat under the oak that was in Oprah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite, as his son, Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites.” Now, when I read that this morning, I thought about myself. Sometimes, you all, I say to myself, “Maybe what I have done is, I’ve gotten my wheat in the wrong place.” It says, “He’s beating out his wheat in the wine press.” The wine press is for the wine, not for the wheat. But why is he beating his wheat in the wine press? He’s trying to protect his wheat from the enemy, so he’s gone into the wine press where he was nice and safe, to do what he was doing.

Up until 2009, you all, I was beating my wheat in the wine press. Man, I was learning. I was growing. I’m spending hours with Nehemia, we’re going back and forth. I’m learning Hebrew, I’m speaking Hebrew. I’m opening up the scroll, I’m learning it. I’m having a great old wonderful time, but you know what I come under conviction for? I was dealing with my wheat in the wine press of safety. And in fact, there are people out there that need the fruit of the labor, not for only the information but the inspiration, not so they can say, “Wow, isn’t he smart? Oh, isn’t he amazing?” No, if you asked anyone that deals with me, I will say this, as I’ve learned from my friend, Nehemia. I do not want you to say, “Keith taught me.” I want you to say, “I learned it for myself.” And one of the things I struggle with, with the leaders in our present denominations, fellowships and everywhere else, they get nervous because they say, “I cannot let the Karaite Jew come in and teach my people, because he might know something I don’t know.” Welcome to the party. You probably don’t even know as much about your New Testament as the Karaite does. Can I say that?

Audience: Yeah.

Keith: And let me tell you why, not because I’d lift Nehemia up to some great place. He has done what he has taught me to do; he has sat down, opened up the actual sources, and looked at them letter by letter, vowel by vowel, accent by accent, and guess what happens? The truth comes off the page, and we’ve got leaders that are saying this; “No, I cannot let you come in and speak to my people, because then my people might look at me and say, ‘Why is it that he had to teach us, and you didn’t?’”

So instead of giving you the truth, they’d rather you have tradition and stay in the place where you’re drinking bad water. [applause] Now, we’re in trouble. We are in trouble. I don’t know if he’s told you, the guy’s become too politically correct. Nehemia won’t tell you. Most of what you heard, if you go back and listen to it, is a direct result of a direct attack on him and on me from the spiritual police. They do not like us giving you access to information so that you can be on your own, confident of what it is you’ve learned.

For those of you that have certain pronunciation, or certain theologies, or certain practices, if you can’t show me where you got it and where you understand it, you’d better start questioning it yourself. Can I say that again, or should I move on?

Man: Say it again.

Keith: Come to the place where you become like the Berean. Search the Scriptures daily to see if what your rabbi, your pastor, your teacher, your leader, is saying, whether it be true or not. And if it is not true, you challenge them to say, “Show me in the…” Can I not be so excited? What is it about me? Why can’t I just be calm about this? [laughter] I talked to my wife last night, I said, “Hey, honey.” Arthur will tell you about this. When you talk to your wife after you preach you think, “She’s going to be like, ‘Wow. You were really amazing.’” I called my wife and she said, “Boy, you sure hollered the whole time.” [laughter] Now, that’s a way for me to stay humble, so I’m trying to remember what she said. I don’t want to holler. I want to be calm, would that be better for you guys, if I just calm down a little?

Audience: No, holler.

Keith: I’m going to calm down a little bit. It bothers me. It bothers me.

Audience: No, holler. Holler.

Keith: It upsets me.

Audience: No, holler.

Keith: It frustrates me. It makes me angry…

Audience: Yeah!

Keith: …when I see the sheeple… [laughter]

Audience: Yeah.

Keith: …being abused by those that call themselves the shepherds, that are making themselves fat off of bad information. [applause]

Man: That’s right.

Keith: That is why they don’t like me, and I’m glad that they don’t. However, Nehemia is not near as angry as I am. So don’t invite me, but please invite my friend, Nehemia. Can I get an amen?

Audience: Amen. [applause]

Keith: Let me move to the next Scripture, 6:11. It says this. “When the angel of Yehovah appeared unto Gideon, the angel said, ‘Yehovah is with you…’” and I love this, “…mighty warrior.” It’s almost like the angel of Yehovah could go beyond the fact that Gideon is hiding in the wine press, beating out his wheat. You know what it’s almost like? It’s almost like the angel of Yehovah could see Gideon’s future. I wonder if the Creator of the universe doesn’t sometime want to call us “mighty warrior” even before we’re willing to fight. I think there are people in here that are mighty warriors, that are just waiting for the verse that I’m going to get to.

Man: Right.

Keith: And it says this, “‘But Sir,’ Gideon replied, ‘if Yehovah is with us, then why has all of this happened?’” And you all know the story, he goes through the story. And it says to him, “The Lord, Yehovah, turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have.’” And then it says, “…and save Israel.” I want to go to Judges 6:12, I’m going to show you here. “The angel of Yehovah appeared to him and said, ‘Yehovah is with you, O valiant warrior.’” And then it says this. “Then Yehovah turned to him…” and this is where it gets a little controversial, “Then Yehovah turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours and you shall save Yisrael.’”

Now, my friend, Nehemia and I, have opened up the Hebrew Bible and guess what it says? What it says is, “Go in this might of yours and you shall yeshua Yisrael from the land of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” Now, here’s what’s happening right now. There are some people that are listening to me that are Jewish, and they’re thinking, “Uh-oh. He has left the farm.” There are other people that are Christian and they’re saying, “Uh-oh. He has left the farm.” Let me say to both of you, “I have left the farm.” [laughter and applause] And I will tell you why. What I love about my friend, we will read it as it is written, and what it says here is not “Yeshua” the name, yeshua for the word “salvation”. Are you with me?

Audience: Yeah.

Keith: “Then Yehovah turned to him and said, ‘Go in the might of yours, and you shall yeshua Yisrael from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?’ ‘But Yehovah,’ Gideon said, ‘How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh. I am the least in my family.’ Yehovah answered, ‘I will be with you, and you will strike them down.’”

Now, I will tell you something. I’m not going to bore you with the entire story, because I don’t have that much time. But I want you to do me a favor. I want you to do what I did early this morning. I want you to read everything you can about the man named Gideon, because I believe that it is a word for us today. Here is what we find in Judges 6:15 and 16, “‘Oh, my Lord, how can I yeshua Yisrael?’ And Yehovah said unto him,” the thing that more than anything else I want to hear is this; ‘I surely will be with you.’’”

Woman: Hallelujah.

Keith: If you don’t hear anything else, pray that you hear that. Whatever it is that you’re doing, there are some of you here that have left churches. Some of you have left Messianic fellowships. Some of you have left people that you believe are not telling you the truth, and you are attempting in your own strength to do some things.

But the only thing that I pray that you would ask is this: Whatever you are doing - and I’m speaking to everybody, I don’t care if it’s business, I don’t care if it’s education, I don’t care what it is - there’s one thing you want more than anything else, that He would say this; “I am with you.”

Judges 6:23 and 24, you all know the story. He goes about the process, Judges 6:23 and 24 it says this. After he’s dealing with this situation he says, “Oh, sovereign Lord, I’ve seen the angel of the Lord face-to-face, Yehovah.” And Judges 6:23 says, “But Yehovah said unto him, ‘Shalom.’” Say shalom.

Audience: Shalom.

Keith: “Do not be afraid.” Say, “do not be afraid”.

Audience: Do not be afraid.

Keith: “You are not going to die.” That’s what it says. And then, in verse 24 it says this. “So Gideon built an altar there to Yehovah.” We’ve talked about this the entire weekend. What did he build the altar for? Because he’s going to call upon the name, and what is he going to call upon him? The very thing that Yehovah said to him. I want to stop. I pray that you would hear these words from Yehovah today, “shalom”.

Audience: Shalom.

Keith: That you would hear Him say to you, “shalom”. For what it says is, “Gideon built the altar there to Yehovah and called it Yehovah Shalom”. So every time he prayed at the altar, he did a radical thing. He looked up at the altar and he said, “The one who said shalom to me, Yehovah Shalom, He proclaimed His name and His description.”

One of the things that I do, and I will say this. I won’t talk a lot about it, but I love that I did this. In the back of this book - 80 different descriptions like that that we find in the Hebrew Bible, where we take His name, Yehovah, or one of His titles, and we add the description that talks about who He is.

Why is this so important? One of the things that I do is, I will turn on the CD in the morning, in the evening, and I will sit there and just say those names and those descriptions over, and over, and over again. And there are some of you here that do that in your devotions. Some of you use this with your children. Some of you use it in your family, but some of you do not even know about the powerful descriptions that we find in the book that Yeshua himself read. These descriptions are multifaceted. They are deep in dimension. They are like a wonderful, wonderful buffet of information, inspiration, and revelation about our Heavenly Father’s name.

So he says to him, “Yehovah Shalom”. But then, Judges 6:34 comes, and here’s where I’m going to give the Christmas message. Look at your neighbor and say, “Keith…”

Audience: Keith…

Keith: The Methodist…

Audience: The Methodist…

Keith: Is going to give us...

Audience: Is going to give us…

Keith: A Christmas message.

Audience: A Christmas message.

Keith: And the Christmas message that I’m going to give on this particular day, 10 years after I was in the Old City of Jerusalem, is a Christmas message. And listen, I’m going to say this. This is a message for both Jew and Gentile. But I guarantee you something; there ain’t another pastor around the world on Sunday morning that’s preaching this message. [laughter] No Christmas service has said, “Turn,” after all the music… And you know, they have the camels, and [sings] “Away in the…” and all of that. You guys have got to feel special. Touch somebody and say, “I feel special.” Guess what? I am convinced. Hey, Michael, I want to say something. I’m convinced there’s not one pastor on a Christmas Sunday anywhere in the world that’s going to bring the Christmas message from Judges chapter 6. Say, “I must be special.”

Audience: I must be special!

Keith: Here’s why I’ve got to bring this as the Christmas message for the Jew and the Gentile. Now, don’t be offended, you all, about me using the word Christmas. We all know what that word is. Hey, this is just my shtick right now. I’m using it. They won’t let me preach in the Methodist church. Michael said I get to preach on Sunday on Christmas, so this is my… somebody say, “Christmas message”.

Audience: Christmas message. [laughter]

Keith: You know what? I’m going to have to do something really radical, you guys, if it’s okay, on the Christmas message. 6:31, it says this. They asked the question, “Who did this?” Did what? 6:29, “In the morning, when the men of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar demolished.” Where did that come from? We have to go a little bit further. “Yehovah said unto him…” verse 23, “…take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that’s seven years old…” and listen what Yehovah says to Gideon. “Tear down your father’s altar to Baal.” He says, “Take the second bull,” that means there’s two. Say, “two”.

Audience: Two.

Keith: “…from your father’s herd, the one that’s seven years old…” in other words, this is a specific bull, it’s a strong bull. It’s a tough bull. It’s one that’s not afraid, it’s a bull that’s not afraid. So literally, what happens is this, and I want to slow down and let you all know this. What Yehovah told Gideon, “Gideon, go get two bulls, because it’s time to tear down the altar of Baal.”

Now, can I say something? I’ve found two bulls. I’m going to say it right now. One of them is as bullheaded as I’ve ever met. His name is Michael Rood. [laughter] The other one’s more bullheaded than Michael, his name is Nehemia Gordon. [laughter] And do you know what has happened for me? These two bulls have helped me do what Gideon did - tear down the altar that was built to Baal. I’m glad you guys are quiet. You should get quiet. There aren’t many pastors that are preaching about the altar of Baal being torn down.

And then it says this, “And cut down the ashra pole.” Now, if they were consistent, they’d probably leave a little note to tell you what an ashra pole is. Maybe they would tell you that it was the Sidonians who created the Ashtoreth. Maybe they would let you know that it’s the Sidonians who used to cut down trees and put trees up, and call them by certain names, and worship certain fertility goddesses.

And maybe there would be some people that are listening right now that would say, “Now, what seems familiar about the fact that the altar of Baal was torn down, and I’m calling upon something that is not God’s name at an altar. And what is consistent about these trees, that they keep telling me, “Bring in your house and adorn them with gold, and with silver, and don’t worry about it. The children will love them. They’ll make your house smell good. They’ll make your house look good.” But somebody say, “It’s possible, some of those trees are being treated just like the ashra poles of ancient Israel.”

Oh, I’m convinced nobody’s preaching this on a Sunday morning. “Then Yehovah says…” and I love this, “…build a proper kind of altar to Yehovah, your God. As to the top of its height, using the wood of the ashra pole that you cut down. Offer the second bull as a burnt offering.” “So Gideon took 10 of his servants and did as Yehovah had said, but because he was afraid…” say, “afraid…”

Audience: Afraid.

Keith: “…of his family,” say, “his family…”

Audience: His family.

Keith: “…and the men of the town,” say, “men of the town…”

Audience: Men of the town.

Keith: “…Gideon did it at night.” Now, there’s a transition, you guys have to bear with me. Stay with me on this, have your Bibles open. At this point, Gideon has had a legitimate visitation from God. He’s built a legitimate altar to Yehovah. He proclaims the name, Yehovah. He calls upon the name, Yehovah. He’s even had a meeting with Yehovah. And at night, because he was afraid of his family… say, “family”.

Audience: Family.

Keith: And afraid of the men of the town, say, “men of the town”.

Audience: Men of the town.

Keith: …he did the work at night. I’m here to tell you all something. Ain’t no reason for me to do anything at night anymore. The cat is out of the bag. [applause] The Methodist wants to tear down the altar of Baal and cut down the trees that are being worshipped, that are opposite of the worship of the Creator of the universe. Can I get an amen?

Audience: Amen. [applause]

Keith: Then it says this. “In the morning, the council got together,” you know, the group, the men of the town, “and they said, ‘Where is Baal’s altar? It’s been demolished. Where’s the pole that was there?’ and they said, ‘Who did this?’ They said, ‘Who did it?’ And when they carefully investigated, they were told, ‘It was Gideon, son of Yoash.’” He has been found out.

“The men of the town demanded of Yoash, ‘Bring out your son, he must die because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the ashra pole beside it.’ But Yoash replied to the hostile crowd saying, ‘Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning. If Baal really is a god…’” and everybody say, “We know he ain’t…”

Audience: We know he ain’t.

Keith: “‘…He can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.’ So that day, they called Gideon “Jerubaal”, “may Baal contend against him”. And then it says this, verse 33, and I’m getting excited. You guys ain’t excited yet. Verse 33 says, “Now all the Midianites, the Amalekites and other Eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.” Now, can I do the radical thing? Can I switch books? Can I go to the book that Yeshua read? Can I pick up the book in its original language and history and context, and give you the Christmas message?

Audience: Yes.

Keith: I’m so glad. I’m not sure you’re going to be so happy after I give it to you, because it says this in 6:34. Can I read it the way Yeshua would have read it?

Audience: Yes.

Keith: After the meeting, after he gets enough guts to pull it down at night, after the town has come to him, after he’s been kicked out of his denomination, after they’ve been kicked out of the fellowship, after they’ve decided, “We’re not going to celebrate the pagan festivals, we’re not going to deal with the issues that you tell us to do.” After all of that, something happens in heaven, and I’ve got to slow down for a minute, because if you get this, you’re going to leave here with a different understanding. If you get this, you’re going to leave here with a different perspective. Something happens so powerful in the Hebrew Bible, that in English, they couldn’t let it be written.

And when I read it this morning, I started to shout. But I had to go outside, because Nehemia was in there, snoring. [laughter] And I couldn’t hear my own shout. I went outside and I read it with my Hebrew Bible again. And you guys, when I read it - and I want to slow down, please bear with me. Look at your neighbor and say, “Hey, this might be his last Sunday.” Come on, tell them, “Hey, he’s a Methodist. Give him some grace. He’s going to give it to us just the way it was read in the Hebrew Bible.” And here’s what it says, brother Arthur. I want you to write this down. Brother Michael, I want you to check it for yourself. Nehemia, make sure that I’m saying it the way it is in the Hebrew Bible. And it says, “Veruach, veruach.” Say, “ruakh”.

Audience: Ruach.

Keith: You all know about the ruach, right?

Audience: Oh, yeah.

Keith: Now, the ruach was hovering over the face of the deep, you all know about that?

Audience: Yeah.

Keith: The ruach of Elohim was hovering over this, the same ruach, the ruach. And then it says this, “Veruach Yehovah”. Oh, my gosh. You guys don’t understand what’s happening here. Veruach Yehovah did something, and here’s what the ruach of Yehovah did for Gideon. In your Bible, it probably says something like what? “It came upon him.” Let’s go ahead and look at the slide, because if we go by the Methodist Bible and the way that we’re supposed to read it, it says this. “But the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Then he blew the trumpet and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.” Now, that is a wonderful translation. The problem is, it just ain’t - as Nehemia said, “That’s bad English” – right.

In the Hebrew Bible it says this, and I just wish that we would raise enough resources for me to have my own KJV, the Keith Johnson Version. [laughter] “But the ruach of Yehovah lavshah Gideon. Then he blew the shofar…” I guess you all didn’t get it, so let me go back to the book, just in case you think I’m not saying. Here’s what it says, ladies and gentlemen. “Veruach Yehovah lavshah.” Guess what that means? It means that the ruach decided to wear Gideon.

Audience: Amen.

Keith: Hold on. Can I preach this for a minute? Let me just preach this for a second. Here’s what the Bible says. The Bible says that sometimes, the ruach goes shopping. Oh, you know, the ruach here is feminine, you all know that, right? The ruach is in the feminine form, and lavshah is also in the feminine. So the ruach sometimes goes shopping. Say, “shopping”.

Audience: Shopping.

Keith: And the ruach was shopping at this time, and looked and said, “Now, who will I wear?” [laughing] And so the ruach saw Gideon after Gideon had stood against the people, after Gideon had called upon the name, Yehovah. After Gideon had stood in front of all the controversy, and found two bulls, the spirit said, “Now, Gideon has my attention. I think I want to wear him.” [applause] Listen to me, now. The Hebrew Bible says this, that the spirit of God put on flesh…

Audience: Oh, wow.

Keith: Nehemia will get excited about this, because this is the Tanakh. You see, you guys will get nervous because you’ll say, “Wait a minute. Hold it, just a second now. That ain’t till the New Testament.” Look at your neighbor and say, “Keith and Nehemia are happy right now about this.” Why are we happy about this? Because the Christmas story all of a sudden ain’t just in the New Testament. We got the Holy Ghost putting on flesh in the Tanakh. [applause] Nobody’s excited about this?

Audience: Yeah.

Keith: Listen to me again now, my wife will understand this. Sometimes, my wife asks me to go shopping, but I hate… Let me say it again - I hate to shop. I hate this idea that you try on things you cannot afford. I hate that she goes into sections of stores, and we know we can’t go in that section of the store, so me and her have a big fight. I don’t like to shop, but the ruach of Yehovah loves to shop. And this weekend, the ruach is shopping.

Audience: Amen.

Keith: Oh, come on, now. Come on, now. The ruach is shopping this weekend, and he’s checking some of you saying, “Can I put you on? Can I wear you? Can I take you over? Can I tell you where you’re going to go? Can I tell you what you’re going to say? Can I tell you how you’re going to deal with things? Can I put on your flesh?” It is foreshadowing you all, for what I believe happened in the New Testament. You see, I believe I can tell my friend, Nehemia this, and he and I, we won’t even have to argue. Nehemia, sometimes the spirit of God puts on flesh. Come on, you all, work with me now. You’re supposed to be excited about this. And Nehemia’s like, “See, they don’t even understand, Keith. You have gone over their heads.” Tell me you understand what I’m saying.

Audience: Yeah. [applause]

Keith: Who I’m possibly talking about right now. Tell me this is not too overwhelming for you, that sometimes the ruach of Yehovah will put on flesh.

Audience: Yeah.

Keith: It didn’t happen on Christmas morning.

Audience: No.

Keith: Do you know that God actually can do it when He wants, where He wants, and whoever He wants, however He wants, just like He did, mm, with Gideon? Now, this is big controversy. I’m sure I’m out after this. Are you telling us that God put on the flesh of Gideon, just the way it says it? Check the Hebrew for yourselves. It says, “The ruach of Yehovah put on the flesh of Gideon.” Now, I’m not going to go a lot further. I’m going to get out of here. My plane leaves early in the morning, hopefully you all won’t beat me up before that. I’m going to tell you who I’m looking for.

It says this. After the spirit of God put on Gideon, it says, “Then Gideon blew the shofar.” Why? Because the ruach hakodesh had put on his flesh, and the ruach hakodesh, through the spirit of God, wanted to call the people to respond. And I love what he does. He blows the shofar, and then this radical little group of people called the Abiezrites gathered behind him.

I’m going to be completely honest with you, I’m going to tell you exactly where I’m at. I’m not going to do nothing at night. I’m going to tell you exactly where I’m at. Michael, I give you the Hanochites. Michael has come up with a whole thing. I mean, that’s powerful, man. He can do things better… He can market better than anyone I’ve ever seen, and he means it. You are called what?

Audience: Hanochites.

Keith: Michael, stand up and tell us how you do it. How do you do it, Michael? You go like this, come on. Lead us now with the Hanochites.

Michael: Who are you?

Audience: We are the Hanochites.

Keith: Amen. You all are the Hanochites. But let me tell you what Pastor Keith is looking for, right now. I need some Abiezrites. Let me tell you why. This group of people can’t be everybody in this room. Now, I’m going to do something radical in closing. I’m going to show you who I’m looking for. I’m looking for the remnant. I’m looking for the remnant group of people, and probably everyone in here, those that are listening are saying, “It ain’t me.” But I’m going to tell you something, the Bible that we’re reading right now tells us a powerful story, and I’m going to try my best to say it without going into great detail. And if I could just have some grace, you all, if you’ll check the Scripture for yourself, can I just give you my quick overview of what happens, without going verse by verse? If that’s okay, say, “amen”.

Audience: Amen.

Keith: I want you to open it and check it for yourself. But here’s what happens. After the ruach put on the flesh, and after the call that went through the shofar, those that are Abiezrites, which means “my Father helps”, these are the helpers now, they gathered behind Gideon. And then the Father said this, “You know what? There are too many of them. I can’t work with this many. Because of what I’m going to do, I’m going to have to cut them down.”

So the first thing that He says is this. “All that are afraid, go home.” 22,000 people out of 32,000 people said, “Oh, no, no, no. Hanging out with that dude, dealing with what they’re talking about, that ain’t nothing but fear from me. I am out of here,” and I have lost many friends that say this. “Keith, you have gone too far.” So unfortunately, a large percentage of people that I’m looking for are too afraid to go where Yehovah is calling me to go.

Then He says, “Okay, there are still too many. There are still too many.” He says, “Take them down to the water,” and if I can just show you what happened. He says, “Take them down to the water, and I am going to sift them for you there.” How did Yehovah sift them? He said, “Some of them will get on their knees, but others will lap like a dog.” And so guess what happened? They were probably thirsty. And it says that most of them went to the water and probably did this. “I’m thirsty,” knelt down and got everything they needed. Took care of their physical need, and the other thing they did, it was probably too comfortable there, because they bowed their knees so quickly. Maybe they were used to bowing their knee to Baal. The Father says, “For what we’re about to do, I can’t have those kinds of people with what we’re about to do.” He said, “But there’s another group of people that’ll do this. They won’t be on their knees. They’ll probably go like this, you all. They’ll see the water. They’ll know the situation we’re in. They’ll know we’re in a war. They’ll know the circumstances. They’ll know that the enemy surrounds us,” and I believe that 300 did this.

“Oh, I’m going to get my water. I’m going to keep my eyes out. I’m going to make sure I know my circumstances. I’m going to make sure that I understand that if I’m going to help somebody, I can’t help somebody just taking care of me.”

Man: Amen. Hallelujah.

Keith: Oh, I’m going to tell you what I’m looking for. Oh, I’m by myself on this. Nehemia and I, we said today, “This might be the last time we speak together.” I might have offended him, I don’t know. He offends me, sometimes. But you know what we’re committed to? We’re committed to keep reading. We’re committed to understanding it. This man has brought more revelation for those that come from the Christian Messianic background than their own leaders, and their own leaders say, “We don’t like him, because he don’t think like us, act like us, believe like us.” Hey, man. Nehemia’s all right. I’m praying for them.

Audience: Amen. [applause]

Keith: But I’m going to tell you something, and I’m serious about this. Michael, if you just give me a few more minutes, I’m serious about this. I am at a place right now where I’ve decided I want to go forward. I’m going to go wherever I’m asked to go, where there are people that I consider to be the remnant. And I’m going to be able to tell you who the remnant is. They’re not selfish. They’re not afraid. They’re willing to not only look out for themselves, but they’re willing to look out for somebody else. I’m looking for those that are willing to help. I’m tired of dealing with the masses. I’m tired of dealing with just everybody, “You got to make the message this way, because that would be offensive to everybody.” Guess what? Be offended by me now. And maybe that means this is my last opportunity, but I will tell you something. It just seems like sometimes, that the ruach hakodesh will stop by and say, “Keith, excuse me. Could I do something?” “Yeah, what do you need?” “I need you to get out of the way.” [laughter]

Man: Amen.

Keith: And I believe today is one of those days.

Man: Amen.

Keith: I believe that He’s shopping, looking for somebody that will say this; “Put me on.” And then, once He finds that one that he puts on, that person will stand up, grab the shofar, make the call, and there will be some people - probably not the masses, just a few - that will join. Now, I pray that every single need that we have from this weekend would be met, plus. But I also pray for this. I believe there are some of you that are ready to move beyond what’s happening with the general. I believe there’s some of you here that are saying, “You know what? I think I am the remnant.” And if you’re the remnant, we’re going to be able to tell, based on this. Are you afraid? Are you selfish? Are you ready to help somebody else do what God has called him to do?

I believe you’re here. It might just be two or three. It might just be four or five, I’m not sure. There might be just one. But here’s what’s happened to me. He’s taken over. And I’m going to tell you something, it is the best place for me to be. I’m sure that this is probably the end of my ride, hanging out in the wine press, beating wheat. I can’t do it at night anymore, 2012, we’re going to the world, with everything that God has given us. But I believe we need some Abiezrites. And let me tell you about them, you know what they did? They took the shofars from everybody that was sent home, everybody that was selfish, and then Gideon told them this. “Take a torch, put it inside of a clay jar, and now, let’s go fight.” Take a torch, some fire. Put it inside of a clay jar, shofar in one hand, fire in the other hand. And when we get before the enemy, we will smash the jar and the light will come forward and we will win. Bow your heads.

We’re looking for those that are willing to be like the ones who are willing to help. It’s easy to say, “Yeah, we are.” It’s harder to say, “We do.” And we’re looking for the “we do’s”, because in the hour that we’re in, God is saying, “If you’re afraid, now is not the time. If you’re selfish, I can’t use you. But if you’re willing to keep your eyes open, your hearts open, your ears open, your minds open to everything I have, and if you’re willing to crush the flesh so that the light of our Creator would come forth and allow yourself to be put on by the ruach, it is time for you to come into your call.”

So I’m going to make a call. Oh, I’m going to do it, you all. I do it every single time. Keep your heads bowed, I’m going to do it every single time. I’m going to keep swinging. I’m going to keep swinging. Okay, you can open your eyes for a second. Here I am, you all. Here I am, right now. They’re going to keep pitching, and I’m going to keep swinging. And I’m going to keep swinging, and one time, I’m going to hit that thing out of the park. I’m going to find somebody that says, “You know what, Keith? I’m an Abiezrite. I’m ready to be everything…” say, “everything”.

Audience: Everything.

Keith: I have enough time, don’t I? Don’t I have enough time? Five minutes, do I have five minutes? I have five minutes. I’m looking for somebody to say, “I’m willing to do everything…” Say, “everything”.

Audience: Everything…

Keith: That He wants me to do.

Audience: That He wants me to do.

Keith: I’m willing to be… Say, “I’m willing to be”.

Audience: I’m willing to be...

Keith: Come on, now. “everything”.

Audience: Everything…

Keith: He wants me to be.

Audience: He wants me to be.

Keith: I’m willing to go…

Audience: I’m willing to go...

Keith: Wherever…

Audience: Wherever…

Keith: He wants me to go.

Audience: He wants me to go.

Keith: I’m willing to say…

Audience: I’m willing to say…

Keith: Whatever…

Audience: Whatever…

Keith: He wants me to say.

Audience: He wants me to say.

Keith: So here are the waters. They are not dirty. Ain’t no sewage in these waters. Ain’t no sewage in these waters. And I know that everybody is not ready to be an Abiezrite, but if there are some that would say, “I’m not afraid. I’m not selfish, and I’m not going to kneel down like they do for Baal, but I’m going to go like this. And I’m going to keep my eyes looking.” If that’s you, if you have a moment to let the Father know you’re ready, I’m going to blow the shofar. And if it’s you, do not hesitate. Let Him know, “I am one, that I will be however you want me to be, to help those that you have called to do Your will.”

Oh, before I blow it, I should tell you something. It’s not easy. It’s not easy. Oh, I should tell you one more thing. It’s going to cost you everything you’ve got. But I will tell you something. If you say yes to Him, there’s no better “yes” you can say in your entire life. The waters are here. He’s ready to sift. Are there any that would respond?

Keith: [blows shofar] Father, we present to You those that are willing to help. Yehovah, we present to You, those that are not afraid. Creator of the universe, we present to You those that are willing to say, “put me on”. We present those that are here today, that are not saying it’s just about them, but it’s all about You. Father, I thank you in advance for what You are about to do with this group of people. The world is going to know - Yehovah, hu haElohim. Yehovah, You are God, and there is no other. You can do what You want, when You want, with whomever You want. You can put on the flesh of whomever You want, just like You put on the flesh of the one whom some celebrate in the wrong way. But You’re able to do it.

And so Father, we come before You, and the first thing we say is, “We’re sorry for whatever we have done that has not been pleasing to You.” We repent right now. Say it, Abiezerites, “I repent”.

Audience: I repent.

Man: Right now.

Keith: And now, because I’ve repented, I’m going to turn my feet and be led by You into truth to Your glory. I will help whom You have called. Say, “I will help”.

Audience: I will help.

Keith: I am willing.

Audience: I am willing.

Keith: To be everything.

Audience: To be everything.

Keith: To go wherever.

Audience: To go wherever.

Keith: To do whatever.

Audience: To do whatever.

Keith: To say whatever.

Audience: To say whatever.

Keith: That will help.

Audience: That will help.

Keith: You, Yehovah.

Audience: You, Yehovah.

Keith: Through Your people.

Audience: Through Your people.

Keith: Amen.

Audience: Amen.

Keith: [blows shofar] Halleluyah.

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You are listening to the Open Door Series with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Announcement: For over 2,000 years, Jewish scribes and Christian translators have worked together to conceal God's name so that you could not proclaim it. Now, God has united a Jew and a Gentile for the singular purpose to reveal His name to the nations. “Therefore, My people shall know My name. Therefore, on that day, I am the one who is speaking. Here I am.” That day has come for God's people to know His name.

Within a year apart, God revealed His name to both Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson from the two most important Hebrew manuscripts in the world. Now, they are collaborating to bring all of their valuable information, inspiration, and revelation together in what they call the “Hammer Pack". These resources will break through layers of tradition to reveal the truth about the name of God that has been concealed for too long. In the Hammer Pack you'll receive Keith Johnson's book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again,” with a newly released complete “His Hallowed Name” audio-video study kit, which includes the 12-episode TV series, “His Hallowed Name,” and an instructional CD where you'll learn to proclaim the unique name of our Heavenly Father, and 80 of His powerful Hebrew descriptions.

Also included is an important research update, as well as an uplifting teaching regarding encountering the name of God. Included in Hammer Pack is Nehemia Gordon's latest work, “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence,” where his search for answers leads him to uncover an age-old conspiracy of silence surrounding the Priestly Blessing found in the Book of Numbers that is based on God's name being unleashed.

Get the Hammer Pack right now, and you'll also receive the bonus DVD set, “Stand Against the Ban,” a live teaching series where Keith and Nehemia employ the linguistic, historical, and contextual hammer regarding God's name that you can use today. Remember, when you get the Hammer Pack, you'll be equipped to pray, praise and proclaim God's holy and powerful name. “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know. This time, I will make them know My power and My might. They shall know that My name is...” Visit our website now.

Nehemia: Yesterday, I talked about the literal Antiochus. He was a Greek ruler who tried to stamp out the Jewish faith, the faith of the Old Testament.

Woman: Halleluyah.

Nehemia: This is it. Thank you. Keith is jealous that I have a nicer shirt than him. That's what that acting out was about. So, I'm gonna talk to you today about the spiritual Antiochus. The literal Antiochus came along with a sword... where's my sword? He came along with a sword and threatened people's lives if they spoke the name of the Creator and followed the faith of the Hebrew Scriptures. The spiritual Antiochus tried to use intimidation to threaten your spirit, to threaten your soul.

Woman: Yes.

Nehemia: And what am I talking about? Now, growing up with my background as an Orthodox Jew before I realized I was a Karaite Jew, I was threatened by the spiritual Antiochus. I was warned that I must never speak the name of the Father of Creation, that I was always to replace it with a title, with a circumlocution, with “Adonay” or “Elohim,” with “Lord” or “God,” and never to actually speak the name that appears more than any other name in the Hebrew Scriptures. And here's one of the key passages that dates to around the year 150 CE or AD, which talks about this prohibition to speak the name, and actually it's a list of things. It opens up and says, “The following have no portion in the world to come.” I mean, if that's not spiritual antiochism, I don't know what is. They're threatening your eternal salvation here, these Rabbis.

This is the Mishnah, the writings of these ancient Rabbis. They have a bunch of categories and one of them is, “He who reads the outside books.” Does anyone know here what the outside books are, what they were referring to? They explain, in the writings of these Rabbis, that the sfarim khitzoniyim, the outside books or external books that they're referring to are what you refer to as the “Gospels.” It was forbidden by these Rabbis. A curse was laid upon anybody who read those books that they would have no portion in the world to come. And I've mentioned, I'm not Christian, I’m not messianic, but I've read those books and I think they got me on that one. Should I go run and be afraid?

Audience: No.

Nehemia: Okay, well, what's the second category of those who have no portion in the world to come? It says, “And he whispers over a wound saying…” and this is a verse from Exodus, “I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” And what they're saying here, is that anybody who prays over someone who's wounded, someone who has some kind of physical affliction, prays over them using the verse which describes the Creator of the universe as a healer, prays using that name and using that verse, that is someone who has no portion in the world to come. That is forbidden, to pray over someone, calling upon the name of the Creator of the universe. Well, they've got me on that one, too. Uh-oh.

Let's see what the third one is. The third one, they say in the same passage, in the name of Abba Saul, who was one of the Rabbis. He says, “Also, he who utters the Divine Name the way it is written.” So, three things they got me on. Three things according to these Rabbis, according to the spiritual Antiochus, I'm gonna burn in hell. According to the Rabbis, I have no portion in the world to come, in the future world, because I've read the Gospels, uh-oh. I've prayed over people who were sick, using the verses from Scripture. And I've spoken the name of the Father of creation the way it is written.

Audience: Oh.

Nehemia: Now, if you want to follow those traditions, that's between you and your Creator. If you want to say, “We must not speak the name of the God of the Hebrews, of the Father of creation, because it will offend our Jewish brothers and sisters.” Maybe you're Jewish, and you don't want to offend the Rabbis who have established this rule for us. Or maybe you're just like my good friend Tevya, from the movie, who says, “Tradition, tradition.” If it's just about tradition, or whatever it is for you… Should I give up my day job and become a singer? I don't know. I thought Anaise was good, but I think I'm better than you, Anaise. Let's admit it, come on. Tradition, tradition.

I dance with that song, yibbe-yibbe-yibbe-dum. So, whether it's about tradition for you, or you don't want to offend people, whatever it is, you're entitled to do that. That's between you and your Creator, I'm not gonna judge you for not speaking the name of the Creator of the universe. But I refuse to be intimidated by the spiritual Antiochus. And when I was studying this and came across this passage, I said, “Wait a minute. Abba Saul, who was the first Rabbi ever to say it's forbidden to speak the name of the Creator the way it is written, he lived around the year 150 AD, or CE as Jews say. He lived around the year 150. Well, what about the history of Israel for 1,700 years before Abba Saul? What did they do before that?” And this sent me on this long investigation that lasted many years, trying to find out what they did before Abba Saul, when they stopped speaking the name of the Creator of the universe, replacing it with these titles exclusively. When did that happen?

I looked at many ancient sources, and I did a little bit of investigation. One of my big questions was, “Did they speak the name of the Creator in the time of the Second Temple?” Remember, the Second Temple was destroyed in the year 70. And the popular belief and understanding is that sometime during this period of the Second Temple, the Jews stopped speaking the name of the Creator, and replaced it with this title, “Lord.” We know one specific group, the Essenes, the people who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, there's no question that they forbade speaking the name of the Father, that's for sure. But what about all the other Jews? That was one small little group with representatives on the shore of the Dead Sea and a few other communities. It was a very small group, though. What about the vast majority of Jews?

Well, I've done some digging and I found out… I discovered that there's actually some evidence that it was blasphemy to speak the name of the Creator of the universe in the 1st century, to speak the Father's name, and I actually have a video. Now, I was speaking before to Khayim, who is a videographer, a film guy, and I asked him when the first talking picture was. And he told me the first commercially produced talking picture was in 1927, “The Jazz Singer.” Great movie, if you haven't seen it. It's about this young Jewish man whose father is a cantor, and his father wants him to become a cantor just like him, but he feels called to go out and sing jazz songs, hence the name, “The Jazz Singer.” Amazing movie, I think it still has relevance even today. I kind of connected with the father and the son interaction there, which reminds me of my own experience, even though I'm not a jazz singer. But 1927, it turns out that there's a video going back 2,000 years. Can I get an Amen?

Audience: Amen.

Nehemia: Can we watch this ancient video that shows how the name was approached in the first century of the Common Era? Here we go.

Speaker: Matthias, the son of Deuteronomy of Gath. Say yes?

Matthias: Yes.

Speaker: Yes. You have been found guilty by the elders of the town of uttering the name of our Lord and so as a blasphemer, you are to be stoned to death.

Matthias: Look, I had a lovely supper and all I said to my wife was, “That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.”

Speaker: Blasphemy. He said it again. Did you hear him?

Nehemia: So, that really wasn't the video from the 1st century. Was there anyone who thought it was from the 1st century? No, I believe that was from the 1970s, or something like that. But really, what this shows is that it's infiltrated into popular culture that in the 1st century, people no longer spoke the name of the Father. I mean, it's right there in a Hollywood movie, it must be true, right?

Audience: Right.

Nehemia: Well, what do the sources actually say? And this is what I wanted to get to the bottom of. Is it really blasphemy to speak the name of the Creator? Are they going to stone me to death? Is that what they would have done in the Temple in the 1st century?

Here's a key passage, and this is Exodus 3:15. This is where God first revealed His name to Moses. Moses says, “What name should I tell the Israelites?” And it says, “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, ‘Yehovah, the God of your fathers, has sent me to you. This is My name forever. This is My mention, a memory for every generation.’” Yesterday, I talked about this word “zekher,” “mention, or memory.” “My mention, or memory, for every generation.” Every time we mention Him with our mouth or summon Him up in our mind, we are to call upon His name as “Yehovah.” I want to focus today on the other thing it says here, that “This is my name forever.” And the Hebrew word for forever is “le'olam.” Say, “le'olam.”

Audience: Le'olam.

Nehemia: And "le" just means "for" so we're not gonna really be concerned with that. But “olam” is ever, forever. Say, “olam.”

Audience: Olam.

Nehemia: And the word “olam,” “forever,” comes from the word “olam” meaning the “universe.” And when you say something is "le'olam" you mean, “for the continued existence of the universe.” As long as the world continues to exist, this will continue to be true.

Now, what the Rabbis did in the 4th century, when the ban on the name really did come into place... Remember, around the year 136, 137, the Rabbi was actually burned at the stake by the Romans. Khanina Ben Teradion was burned at the stake by the Romans for speaking the name. Sometime shortly after that, Abba Saul comes along and says, “Anyone who speaks the name the way it is written has no portion in the world to come.” By the 4th century, the name was completely banned and no one was allowed to speak it. And the Rabbis wanted to find support for this practice of not speaking the name, in Scripture. And where's the best place to look? In the very passage that says, “This name is for all time.” That's the place you want to find a proof to ban the name.

And they came to that verse, Exodus 3:15, where it said, “This is My name forever.” And they said, “We're gonna change that word. We're gonna change the word of scripture.” And here's how they decided to read it. Instead of, “This is My name forever,” a Rabbi named Rav Nakhman bar Isaac comes along and says in the 4th century, “Let's read the word ‘le'olam’ as ‘le'ha'alim.’” He changes the vowels, he adds two letters, and it becomes a statement that says, “This is My name to be concealed.” Say, “le'ha'alim.”

Audience: Le'ha'alim.

Nehemia: Now, here's the thing. Even though this Rabbi changed the way the verse is to be read, and said, “Therefore, God intended from the very beginning that His name would be concealed until the Messiah would come and restore it,” this is what Rabbi Nakhman Bar Isaac says. Even though he changes the way the word is written in every synagogue in the entire world, guess how they read this verse. Do they read it as "forever" or "to be concealed?” They read it as "forever,” and that's because the Rabbi, he could interpret the verse any way he wanted. He could change the vowels for the purpose of interpretation. But to actually read the verse in the synagogue, he didn't have the authority to change that. That was fixed long before the Rabbis ever came on the scene of history, and the Rabbi couldn't change that. So, every printed Bible in the world, every single synagogue in the world where they read the Scripture, they read it as "forever,” even though the official interpretation is to read it as "to be concealed.”

Now, the fact that he needs to change that word, change the vowels and add two letters, that tells you that he knew that the original reading really meant “the name was forever.” Now, my approach in trying to understand scripture is, I want to understand it based on the language and the context using reason, which confuses people. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is, I want to understand the words as they were spoken 3,500 years ago, in the original language they were spoken, which happens to be ancient Hebrew, in the ancient cultural context in which these things were spoken. And if you can't understand the culture and the language of ancient Israel, then you're going to have a hard time understanding what scripture is saying.

Let me give you a quick example, this is one of my favorite examples. Three times in Scripture, it says, “Lo tevashel gedi bakhalev imo.” Now, you don't have to know Hebrew, I'll translate that for you. It says, “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.” And kid, in Hebrew, “gedi,” is a young goat, and not boiling a young goat in the milk of its mother, what does that mean? Well, if you look at Jewish tradition, it says that this means that you must not eat meat and milk together. And because you can't eat meat and milk together, you have to have separate dishes for meat and milk, and you can't boil them together or consume them together.

When I look at that, “Do not boil a kid in its mother's milk,” it says it three times word for word. I say, “Okay, what does that mean, three times word for word, ‘Do not boil a kid in its mother's milk?’” First of all, I can't just throw out what the Rabbis say. If they say it means, "Don't boil a kid in its mother's milk" means “Don't eat meat and milk together,” I've got to ask them why do they say that? What evidence I there for that? What proof is there for that? That's the starting position, this interpretation that most Jews follow. Well, I look, and I see there really is no evidence for it. And on the contrary, I find in ancient Canaanite sources that the ancient Canaanites used to boil a kid in the milk of the mother as a fertility rite. This was a sacrifice brought to Easter, to Ashtoreth, the ancient goddess. And to this day in Lebanon, which is the one place where the Canaanites survived, in the mountains of Lebanon, they still prepare a dish which is boiling a kid in the milk of its mother. They don't know why, they don't remember it has to do with Ashtoreth, or Easter, but to this day they eat that as a delicacy.

Now, here we give the Rabbis the benefit of the doubt, but when we actually check the information and the sources, it doesn't fit. And as Keith likes to say, “If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.” I think he made that up, is that right? No. So, there's an example where if you look at the cultural context of ancient Israel, you find out in fact, the traditional interpretation does not fit the cultural context. The traditional interpretation misunderstands that the context has to do with an ancient pagan fertility rite.

Now, if you ask yourself, “How does this commandment apply today, do not boil a kid in its mother's milk, ‘cause nobody's doing that outside of Lebanon. What's the principle behind the commandment?” That's the question I always ask myself, what is God trying to teach me here? What is the principle behind the commandment, “Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk?” And to me, it seems the principle is, don't participate in pagan fertility rites.

Audience: That’s right.

Nehemia: If somebody sets up a tree to the goddess Asherah and they worship that tree, and they bring that tree into their homes and decorate it with different fertility symbols... I’d better drop this topic. Now, I wore this shirt today to convey a certain theme. These are Hanukkah colors, that's what we call these in Israel. No, all right, I'm gonna move on this is… I'm like Keith, this is too controversial.

Genesis 9:16. One of the things that you need when you look at scripture is to ask yourself, “Is it consistent?” If they say that “le'olam” means “to conceal” or “to be concealed” there, does it work in other places? Let's look at it. Genesis 9:16 talks about the covenant of the rainbow. After God destroyed the world, He put the rainbow in the heavens. Every time we would see it, we'd be reminded that God promised never to destroy the world through a flood again. And it says, “The rainbow shall be in the cloud and I will look on it to remember the everlasting olam.” Say, “Olam.”

Audience: Olam.

Nehemia: “A covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that's on the earth.” Now, if I'm consistent and I accept the interpretation of Rabbi Nakhman Bar Isaac, that this is My name to be concealed, le'olam, really means to be concealed, then I have to say in this verse too it means “concealed.” And rather than be the everlasting covenant, the rainbow, it is the concealed covenant between God and every living creature. Does that make sense?

Audience: No.

Nehemia: Not to me. And by the way, Keith has an amazing whole section in his book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again,” in which he talks about this topic. I was very impressed with this when I read Keith's book. Has he ever told this story? He was trying to prepare the study on the book, and he wanted me to help him. He wanted me to write it with him, and I was very busy at the time, preoccupied with certain personal matters in my life, and he was cut off. He had no ability to interact with me, so it forced him to go back and interact with the sources himself.

And I'm so glad and feel so blessed I was able to read his book after he’d interacted with the sources all on his own. And he brought this source, I was very impressed. He looked at the source about “to be concealed” and “forever” and all on his own, without talking to me and looking at my Hebrew skills, he came to the same exact conclusion that I came to. And he said, “Look, it's not consistent. If you're consistent and you look at other places where “olam” appears, and it means “forever,” it means, “for the continued duration of the existence of the universe,” we can't say, “This is my name olam means This is my name concealed.”

That's a great book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again.” As I mentioned, the only drawback to that book is that I'm not the co-author. But in retrospect, that was a great blessing both to Keith and to me, even though I don't have any percentages. All right, let's move on. Exodus 19:9, “And Yehovah said to Moses, ‘Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe in you forever.” And if you look in most of your English translations, you won't find "believe in you,” it'll just say, "believe you" or "trust you.” But in the Hebrew, it actually says that God revealed Himself to all Israel, 600,000 men and hundreds of thousands of women and children, for what purpose? “So that the people will hear when I speak with you…” God speaks with Moses, “and believe in you, Moses, forever.”

Did you know that in the Hebrew scriptures you're supposed to believe in Moses? What does it mean, “to believe in Moses?” What does it really mean? Think about it for a second, what did God mean here? It meant to believe that God really was speaking through Moses, and to live your life according to that instruction that God gave through Moses. To say, “I believe in Moses, would you like some of my pork sandwich?” I don't believe in Moses. My actions show that I don't believe in Moses. My actions say that yeah, Moses is some interesting little guy, who maybe some people have a tradition that God spoke to him thousands of years ago. But if you really believe the Creator of the universe spoke to Moses, and you believe in Moses, you've got to live your life in accordance with what Moses said, with the words that came out of his mouth from the mouth of God.

But let's look at the issue here of "forever.” “When I speak with you, and they will believe in you forever, olam,” does that mean we're supposed to believe in the concealment of Moses? Was this message of God speaking to all of Israel to be concealed? And you know, one of the really interesting things about the revelation at Sinai, I love the story of the revelation at Sinai, because if you look at every other religion in the world, you find out that they start out with one man in a cave somewhere up on a hill, having a revelation. But the faith of the Hebrew scriptures begins with 3 million people, 600,000 men and who knows how many women and people, they say about 3 million people, hearing the actual voice of God speaking from the mountain. And why did He do that? So that we would believe in Moses.

And it's interesting, there's a verse in Deuteronomy, where a challenge is laid out, and I forget the exact chapter and verse, but you can look it up. That's kind of funny. You can look it up, but I don’t know the chapter and verse. I'll post it on Facebook. There's a verse in Deuteronomy that talks about how there's never been a nation in all of history which has claimed that God has taken them out of bondage and spoken to them. And when I was a much younger man, I was starting to question the whole issue of the Rabbis. I said, “Well, if I'm questioning the Rabbis, maybe I need to question the word of God as well, the scriptures. How do I know it's really the word of God?” And I looked at that verse, and I went and began to investigate every religion in the ancient world, to see, is this statement true? If this statement really came from God, from the Creator of the universe, then it must be true, and there must not be any other nation in all of history that has claimed that God has taken them and spoken to them directly. And I found out that in fact, it was true.

There was always the man up on the hill somewhere in the mountain, who had the revelation, sitting under the tree in India, or whatever. But there was never in all of history, a nation that claimed that God spoke to the entire nation. And why is that? Because a man sitting under a tree in India can make something up and say, “Yeah, I had some experience.” Maybe he's telling the truth, but maybe he made it up and how can I ever know? But if three million people hear the voice of God, you can't make that up. Somebody would come and they’d look at the history in the Bible, the Old Testament, every one of the iniquities of Israel is laid out there. David sins, and Solomon sins, and Moses himself, his sins are laid out in the Hebrew scriptures. If Moses had made this up, if God had not spoken to the people, somebody would have stood up and said, “That was a lie. God didn't speak to us at Sinai.” And that's never happened, not in the history of ancient Israel. So, this is one of the reasons I do trust in the Hebrew scriptures.

Now, going back to the “olam” issue, it was not “to be concealed.” On the contrary, the very purpose of why God spoke to all of Israel was for it to be revealed and that we would believe in Moses for the continued duration of the existence of the universe, le'olam, forever. Let's look at another example. Exodus 31:16, “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath…” the Shabbat, “to observe the Sabbath throughout the generations for a temporary covenant for only 1,500 years.” Wait, that's not what it says, let's look at it again. “Throughout the generations as a perpetual olam, covenant.”

So, how long is the Sabbath relevant? Forever, le'olam, as long as there's an olam. As long as the physical universe continues to exist, this covenant will stand, according to the Hebrew scriptures. Verse 17, it says, “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days, Yehovah made the heaven and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” And so, if you deny that this is forever, the sign of the covenant of the Shabbat, you are essentially denying that God is the Creator of the universe, ‘cause that's what this is a sign of. This sign of the covenant is a sign that God, Yehovah, the Father of creation, the God of the Hebrew scriptures, the God of Israel, that He is the Creator of the universe. And if you deny the Sabbath, you're denying that He is the Creator.

Let's look at another example, Jeremiah 31:35-36, “Thus says Yehovah who gives the sun to light the day, and the statutes of the moon and stars to light the night. ‘If these statutes depart from before Me,’ says Yehovah, ‘so too shall the seed of Israel cease from being a nation in My presence all the days.’”

What He's saying here is, as long as the physical universe continues to exist, as long as there's a sun lighting the day, and there's moon and the stars in the night, these are signs in the heavens, their continued existence, that My covenant with Israel shall continue to stand. It was not intended to be a temporary covenant. It was intended to be forever. And if you believe the God of the Hebrew scriptures, then that covenant still stands today.

Every time I see the new moon up in the heavens beginning the Hebrew month, it reminds me that the God of creation is true, that the covenant with the God of creation with Israel is a true covenant. That's what these signs in the heavens remind us, and this is olam. He's not saying here the word “olam,” but He's saying it in very concrete terms. As long as there's a sun, as long as there's a moon and stars, as long as these statutes of nature continue to exist in the physical universe, the covenant with Israel will continue to stand.

Matthew 5:18. Now, I'm going out on a limb here, because this is y'all's book. There was a Rabbi 2,000 years ago who used this Hebraic expression. He said, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law, till all is fulfilled.” He's saying, “As long as the heavens and earth continue to exist, as long as olam, as long as the physical universe continues to exist, this thing shall not pass away.” This word that was revealed through Moses will continue, not even the smallest little dot or dash. You know, "jot and tittle" is a really interesting phrase, because what is a tittle? The Greek word there is “kuriah,” which means a “diacritical mark,” little dots and dashes that separated one word meaning from another word. And in the Hebrew version of Matthew... Maybe I shouldn't reveal this, ‘cause...

Audience: Go ahead.

Nehemia: Okay, in the Hebrew version of Matthew, it doesn't say "jot and tittle,” it says, “Ot venekudah” which means “consonant and vowel.” Whoo-hoo. We need to move on. Babylonian Talmud brings a story that is interpreted by many historians, and many people in the Jewish, Christian and Messianic worlds, to mean that in the 1st century, the Jews no longer spoke the name of the Creator. And let's look at this story, ‘cause this is one of the things I struggled with when I was trying to find the answers. It says as follows… this is a rabbi named Rabbi Tarfon. He's actually kind of a famous Rabbi, ‘cause he appears in something called “Dialogues of Trypho” with Justin Martyr, and he was a Kohen, a Priest. And he said, “I once ascended the dais…” This is in the Temple, there was a platform where they would recite the Priestly Blessing. He says, “I once ascended the dais after my mother's brother, and inclined my ear to the High Priest, and heard him swallowing the name during the chanting of his brother Priests.”

And many historians will bring this passage which describes Rabbi Tarfon coming up to the dais where all the Priests would stand up there and they'd recite the Priestly Blessing. “Yevarekhekha Adonay veyishmerekha. Ya'er Adonay panav elekha viykhuneka. Yisa Adonay panav elekha veyasem lekha shalom.” That's how it's recited in every synagogue in the world today, with “Adonay,” with the replacement. If you look in the original in Numbers chapter 6 it has the actual name, “Yud-hey-vav- hey,” Yehovah. Rabbi Tarfon seems to be saying that when he went up to the dais in the Temple in the 1st century, that he listened really closely to the High Priest and he heard him say the name, mumbling it. While everybody else said “Adonay,” he heard the High Priest say, “Yehovah.” And if that's true, that means that in the 1st century, they didn't speak the name. But is that really true?

And look, for me, it doesn't really matter. God said to Moses, “The name is forever.” I'm not all that concerned about what happened in the 1st century, but I do want answers. And what I mean by that… You know, Michael said I don't have an agenda. I'm gonna let you in on a secret, I do have an agenda. My agenda is, I want the truth.

Audience: All right.

Nehemia: But I don't think you can handle the truth. Can you?

Audience: Yeah.

Nehemia: Okay, I'm gonna bring you the truth. And for me, this is important, because if you come to me and say, “Something has been changed,” I wanna know when it was changed. Maybe you can't tell me the exact year, but you can tell me roughly, “Before this, it was this way, and after this, it was that way.”

And let me give you a quick example with the biblical calendar. We know from the ancient rabbinical sources that the Hebrew month used to begin with the sighting of the new moon on the western horizon, shortly after sunset. There are great details discussing this in the early writings of the Rabbis. They talk about how they would bring in the witnesses and they would interrogate them. And there was one incident that took place in Jerusalem in the 1st century, where a man named Tobias the Physician saw the new moon with his son and his emancipated slave. And he came before the council of the Priests. And the Priest said, “Okay, who saw the new moon?” And everybody raised their hand, and they said, “Well, we don't listen to emancipated slaves,” so they took the testimony of him and his son.

He then went before the council of Rabbis, a different council, by the way. The Priests and the Rabbis disagreed not about how to begin the month, just about which witnesses to listen to, and they each had their own courts. They said, “Who has seen the new moon?” And all three raised their hand, and they said, “Sorry, we don't listen to father and sons. We'll take the father and the emancipated slave.” And so, they didn't disagree about how to begin the month, they only disagreed about which witnesses were valid. And that tells you in the 1st century, all the Jews in Jerusalem, both the Rabbis and the Priests, although they couldn't agree on much, agreed that the month began with the sighting of the new moon. That's solid information. Now, what year did it change? That's what I want to know.

We find out reading in rabbinical sources that there was a Rabbi in the year 359 who came along and changed it under the pressure of the Romans. It had to do with the defeat of a Roman Emperor who the Christians called “Julian the Apostate,” I won't go into that, that's a whole history. After Julian, the Christians decided to crush the rabbinical council, wipe it out. And Hillel the Second came along and established the modern calendar that most Jews use today, saying that when the Messiah would come, we would go back to the original calendar. And you know, as a Karaite, I'm very controversial, I say I want to follow the biblical calendar today. Okay, we could agree or disagree on that. You know, when the Messiah comes, we'll all do the same thing anyway, so it shouldn't be a point of division, in my opinion. In any event, there I can point to, here's what they did before, here's what they did after, and here's the time in which it changed.

Now, what about the speaking of the name? I want to know what they did before, I saw that in Exodus 3:15. I want to know what they did after. Well, I grew up with that. And I want to have some idea of when it changed. And that's why I'm concerned about what they did in the 1st century, because there I have evidence that I can find out, did they really speak the name? Was the High Priest really mumbling? Everyone was saying “Adonay,” and he said, “Yehovah.” Is that really what happened? Let's find out.

I went to the sources, and I found out that that's a complete lie. And why is it a lie? Well, it's not really a lie, it's just not what we think it is. Let's look at the continued passage here, and this is the same passage in the Talmud. If you read the context... You know, Keith has this great expression that I love that I've adopted and stolen for myself, “Keep reading.” Repeat after me, “Keep reading.”

Audience: Keep reading.

Nehemia: So, if you keep reading, not just in the New Testament, and not just in the Old Testament, but if you're looking at any source, don't just take one word out of context that fits your theory. If you want the truth, you gotta keep reading and read the whole context. So, let's see what it says in the Talmud. It says that, “Our Rabbis taught it, first they used to transmit the 12-letter name to every man,” say, “12-letter name.”

Audience: 12-letter name.

Nehemia: “Ever since the robbers multiplied, they would only transmit it to the humble Priests, and the humble Priests swallow it during the chanting of their brother Priests.” Oh, so we're not talking about the name, “Yud-hey-vav-hey,” “Yehovah.” We're talking about the 12-letter name of the Father. What is the 12-letter name of the Father? It's so secret, I don't even know what it is, and frankly, I don't care. It's not in my Bible, so I'm not really concerned about what it is. Maybe it's a good thing that it became a secret, but we're not even talking about the four-letter name.

The first part is the most widely quoted passage of historians talking about when the name ceased to be used and it's not even talking about the name, “Yud-hey-vav-hey,” “Yehovah.” It's talking about some secret 12-letter name that we don't even know what it is today. And like I said, I could care less.

Another source they quote is Josephus, who was a Jewish historian in the 1st century. There's a lady there in the back, who I'm going to ask the stand up. I'm going to put her on the spot, Madeline. She's a 69-year-old lady who just went on a two-week tour of Israel with me and some friends. And she was hiking up and down the mountains, through the valleys, scaling the walls of mountains, literally. And one of the things I kept talking to the group about is Josephus, and she is a very honest woman, raised Jewish. And she said to me, “I'm Jewish, but I don't know who Josephus is.” And I explained, “Josephus is a Jewish historian who lived in the 1st century. He was actually a general of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, which began in the year 66. He was the leader of the Jews in the Galilee, and when the Jews were defeated in the Galilee, he was captured by the Romans. And he decided, “Okay, I'm just gonna help the Romans out instead of continuing the revolt. We have no chance of defeating the Romans, I'm going to survive.” He was a survivor. The importance of Josephus is once he got under Roman rule, one of the things he immediately saw is that the Romans, under the influence of the Greeks, despised the Jews. And one of the things the Romans were claiming is the Jews were this tribe of lepers that were so sick and miserable, they were kicked out of Egypt.

And so, he sat down after the war, after the rebellion, and he wrote a history of the Jews. And this is the first full-scale history that’s survived of the Jewish people, beginning with creation... I mean, besides the Bible, I'm talking about, and ending with the Jewish war against the Romans in the year 74 at Masada. And to this day, Josephus is a key source, because he's a Jew who lived through this period of the Temple standing, the Temple being destroyed and what things were like after the Temple. He actually had been in the Temple. He was from a family of Priests. He’d interacted with Jewish groups, so he's a very important source. And he tells us all kinds of important pieces of information about ancient Judaism. One of the things we need to do with Josephus, just like with any ancient source, is keep reading.

Audience: Keep reading.

Nehemia: And we have to look at the context. Josephus was writing primarily to two audiences. The main audience was the Greeks, who he was trying to convince that the Jews were not a tribe of lepers, we’re an ancient nation that goes back to the time of Abraham and Moses, and we have an ancient culture and an ancient tradition, and you've got to respect us. The Greeks respected ancient things.

The other group he was writing to were Jews in the diaspora, trying to convince them not to rebel against the Romans. That was a minor, secondary purpose he had. Here, in his book called “Antiquities of the Jews,” the second book, section 276, he says as follows. “God declared to Moses His holy name, which had never been discovered to men before, concerning which it is not lawful for me to say anymore.” Now, some historians have looked at this and said, “Well, in the time of Josephus, they no longer said the name of the Creator, the name of the Father, the name that was revealed to Moses, because that's what he means by, ‘It's no longer lawful for me to say anymore.’” Now, it's really interesting that the word for "lawful" Josephus used in that passage is a word that he doesn't normally use, and it's the Greek word “semitos.” Say, “Semitos.”

Audience: Semitos.

Nehemia: And it turns out that this is a technical term that has a very specific connotation, and it explains why he made this statement in the 1st century. Let's look at one of the commentaries on Josephus. The commentary on Josephus says, “The word ‘semitos,’ ‘lawful,’ used by Josephus here, is a technical term in the mystery cults.” Uh-oh. “Josephus thus takes the opportunity to impart to Judaism the flavor of a mystery cult.” Now, what is that about? What that's about is there were these religions, they call them “cults,” but they were really just temple-worshiping religions. They had a temple, and they had all kinds of mystery that you had to go through in order to become part of their religion. Those were called the “Greek mystery cults.” And Josephus wants to impress the Greeks. And so, to impress the Greeks, he kind of presents Judaism disingenuously as a mystery cult, because he knows that will impress his Greek readers.

And he wants two things to impress the Greeks more than anything. One is the name of the Jewish God, which he makes out that this is a mystery. “I'm not allowed to reveal it to you, simple people who haven't been inducted.” It's a mystery. It's a secret. There's a second thing. Remember, keep reading. What's the other thing he says is a mystery that only the initiated Jews are allowed to know? In Antiquities book 3 section 9, he says, “And they all heard a voice that came to all of them from above.” This is describing the revelation at Sinai, “which Moses wrote down two tablets.” That's the two tablets of stone with the 10 Commandments, “which it is not lawful, semitos, for us to set down directly, but their import we will declare.” In plain English, what is Josephus saying? The 10 Commandments are so secret and holy, I can't tell you Greeks what they are. I can tell you the basic gist of the 10 Commandments, but the actual words that God revealed to Israel on Mount Sinai are a secret. They’re a semitos, that it's forbidden to reveal to the Greeks. This is what Josephus tried to convince his Greek readers and they didn't know any better, how would they know the difference? So, he gives them a summary, a paraphrase of the 10 Commandments, but not the actual Commandments, which he says is semitos, unlawful to reveal. And that has to do with trying to present Judaism as this ancient mystery that would impress the Greeks. Are the 10 Commandments really a mystery?

Audience: No.

Nehemia: No. Is it true that in the 1st century, it was forbidden to reveal to people what the 10 Commandments really said?

Audience: No.

Nehemia: No. So, do you think it was really forbidden to reveal what the name was? If we're consistent, if we'll keep reading, the name and the 10 Commandments are both treated as these mysteries by Josephus. And they weren't mysteries, he was just trying to impress his Greek audience. And this is why it's important to look at the full context of the ancient sources. People will bring you one verse, or one passage, or one sentence out of context, and they'll say, “Look, I've proven my point.” And you really need to get into the depth of it and get to the sources and keep reading. Keep…

Audience: Keep reading.

Nehemia: …reading. Get to the sources and find out what it really says, if you want the truth. If you have the Nehemia agenda of uncovering the truth, you've gotta keep reading.

Here's a really interesting passage I came across in the Mishnah, the writings of these Rabbis, describing the service of Yom Kippur every year in the Temple, where the High Priest would come. And it says, “When the multitudes standing in the courtyard of the Temple heard the explicit name…” that's the name “Yehovah,” “…come forth from the mouth of the High Priest, they would kneel prostrate and fall on their faces, and then say, ‘Blessed is the glorious name of His kingdom forever.’” Now, why is this source important? If the multitudes heard the High Priest speaking the name in the Temple, and they bowed down on their hands and knees, and they said, “Barukh shem kevod malkhuto le'olam va'ed,” “Blessed is the glorious name of His kingdom forever,” could it have been a secret?

Audience: No.

Nehemia: I guess it wasn't a very well-kept secret. And what's really interesting about this, I didn't realize this until I was doing this research, I actually rehearsed this ceremony with my father growing up in the synagogue. In every Orthodox synagogue in the world to this day, during the Yom Kippur service, at certain points in the service, 10 times during the service, the entire congregation will bow down on their hands and knees, like the Muslims do. They'll bow down on their hands and knees, the way that they used to bow down in the Temple. And if you ask the Rabbis, “Why you do this?” they say, “This is a rehearsal of what we used to do in the Temple every time the High Priest spoke the name, the shem hameforash, the explicit name of the Creator, and what we will once again do when the Messiah comes.” So, I actually rehearsed this growing up and didn't even realize it until I was researching this.

Now, here's the point, here's the bottom line. The name was not a secret in the 1st century and it wasn't forbidden in the 1st century. Every Jew who came to the Temple heard the name spoken in the Temple by the High Priest at least 10 times. In addition, they heard it recited every day by the Priests who were reciting the blessing. It doesn't go, “Yevarekhekha Adonay veyishmerekha.” It really says, “Yevarekhekha Yehovah veyishmerekha,” “Yehovah bless you and keep you” “Ya'er Yehovah panav elekha viykhuneka.” “Yehovah shine His face towards you and be gracious towards you.” “Yisa Yehovah panav elekha veyasem lekha shalom.” “Yehovah lift His face towards you and give you peace.”

Every single time, three times a day, the Jews would hear the Priests saying that in the Temple. And maybe the High Priest was mumbling a 12-letter name under his breath, I don't know, maybe that's why the Temple was destroyed. But the rest of the Priests, they were reciting the actual name. And this is what the ancient rabbinical sources say, that it had to be the name. They weren't allowed to use a replacement in the Temple, because the passage ends, “And they shall place My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

So, even the Rabbis who today forbid the name and say it's a secret we mustn't share with the Gentiles, and really even with our own people, it's only revealed once every seven years from Rabbi to disciple. Even those Rabbis admit that at the time of the Temple, everyone knew the name. It was proclaimed by the Priests, and everyone heard it. Okay. Oh, boy. I said to Keith I'm not going to need the entire hour. And he wanted to bet me money, and I said I probably shouldn't do that.

Okay, but I want to talk really quickly with you about one of the really cool sources that I came across when trying to find out when they spoke the name and when they didn't speak the name. We established in the 1st century the Priests were speaking the name in the Temple. There's no question about that. There's definitive proof for that. What about the multitudes? What about the simple people? That's what I wanted to know. Did they speak the name in earlier times? And I came across a really interesting source, which was a letter written in paleo-Hebrew. In fact, here is the letter, this is what it looks like.

This is a letter from Lakhish, which in ancient times it was the second largest town in the kingdom of Judah. And in the Lakhish letter, there's a series of letters, let's go back to the previous slide. Actually, let’s go away from the slides for a second. Let me tell you what the Lakhish letters are. There were a series of letters written by this field officer who was the officer in charge of an observation post out in the Judean hills, and his name is “Hoshayahu,” which is a really interesting name because Hoshayahu means “Yehovah saves.” It comes from the same root as “Yeshua.” Actually, Hoshayahu and Yehoshua are the same exact name, just backwards. “Hoshayahu” means, “Yehovah saves.” And he's writing these reports back to his commander whose name is “Ye'ush,” which interestingly it means, “Despair.” And he's writing to the commander all kinds of things that are happening. He's writing about how we see the signal fires, and all kinds of interesting things. And these letters were discovered in Lakhish. They were sent to his commander, Ye'ush, and Ye'ush kept them in his personal archive, and when Lakhish fell, these letters were preserved. And one of the letters is Hoshayahu's response to the accusation by his commander that he was illiterate.

And I could imagine, we don't know exactly how it came up that he was accused of being illiterate, but it probably went something like this; that an order was sent to Hoshayahu by his commander, and Hoshayahu didn't follow the order. And the commander must have written something to him to the effect of, “What's the matter, can't you read letters? I gave you an order and you didn't follow it. What's the matter, can't you read?” And here is Hoshayahu's response to that accusation. He says as follows. “Concerning that which my lord said, ‘You do not know how to read letters,’ as Yehovah lives, no man has ever tried to read a letter to me. And indeed, I read every letter that comes to me, and I furthermore pay attention to it.” He's insisting that he's literate, he could read, and he can write, which is very interesting because if you would have gone to an ancient Canaanite in this period, or an ancient Babylonian, or an ancient Assyrian, and gone to one of the field officers… In fact, you could go to the Egyptian army today to some of the field officers, and the Syrian army for sure, and they can't read and write. The commanders on top, they can read and write, but the simple, little lieutenants and lower officers, they can't read and write.

And this man is insisting, “No, I can read and write. No one's ever tried to read a letter to me. I'm literate, as Yehovah lives.” Now, what's interesting is that he said, “As Yehovah lives.” Now, how do I know that he actually said those words? Maybe he actually said, “As Adonay lives,” but he wrote it as “Yehovah.” How do I know? And remember, I'm the Litvak, I want definitive evidence and proof. And when we look at the actual letter, here's what we see. We see here, this is a khet, say, “Khet.”

Audience: Khet.

Nehemia: Yud.

Audience: Yud.

Nehemia: Hey.

Audience: Hey.

Nehemia: Vav.

Audience: Vav.

Nehemia: Hey.

Audience: Hey.

Nehemia: Yud-hey-vav-hey is the name of the Creator. The khet there is the khet of the word "lives.” And the phrase, “As Yehovah lives,” which appears 44 times in the Hebrew Bible, that's the standard vow formula, or oath of ancient Israel. It's the phrase, “Khay Yehovah.” Say, “Khay.”

Audience: Khay.

Nehemia: Yehovah.

Audience: Yehovah.

Nehemia: “As Yehovah lives,” but Hoshayahu didn't write it this way. He wrote it like this. “Khayhovah.” He dropped one of the yuds in this phrase, “Khay Yehovah.” And the only reason he would do that is because he spoke that way. If you're writing it, normally you wouldn't write that way, but he wrote it the way he spoke it. And what's really interesting about this is the way he wrote it, “Khayhovah” isn't proper Hebrew. What he did here is he used a contraction. And you know, in English we have many contractions like "can't" and "won't" and "shouldn't,” and those are proper English. Ancient Hebrew doesn't really have contractions.

When an ancient Hebrew used a contraction like this, it's more like when we say in English "ain't.” What's "ain't" a contraction for? “Am not. I am not, I ain't.” That's not proper English. When you hear somebody say that, you say, “Okay, they don't speak the standard way that we're taught to speak in English.” You know, maybe some of your parents slapped your hand or corrected you. And when somebody says "ain't,” that's not standard, proper English. And when you said “Khayhovah” for “As Yehovah lives,” that was not proper ancient Hebrew. But it shows that this is how the simple captain who is the commander of this field observation post, that's how he spoke. And he actually spoke the name. I mean, that blows me away, that the faith of an ancient Israelite, of this ancient Judean, is so strong that when he swears, he doesn't say, “As the king lives,” and he doesn't say, “As Ba'al lives,” as many of his brothers and sisters did, he says, “As Yehovah lives.”

And imagine if you were his commander and you read this, and it has the equivalent of "ain't,” and he says, “I ain't illiterate.” I mean, that would have been funny, but that was the simple faith that this man had. That's how he spoke, he wrote the way he spoke. That's beautiful to me. I'm not gonna judge him for not speaking properly. To me, it's a beautiful thing, that he's a simple man who speaks the way a normal person would speak, and he speaks the name of the Father.

Why does he swear, "As Yehovah lives?” Deuteronomy 6:13, “You shall fear the Lord your God...” And of course, it says “Yehovah” in the Hebrew, with “Lord” in caps. “And serve Him and shall take oaths in His name.” And we see 44 times they did it in His name, again, in Deuteronomy 10:20. There is a really interesting end-times prophecy related to this. This is Jeremiah 12:16, it's speaking about the Gentiles. And it says, “It shall be if they nevertheless learn the way of My people to swear in My name, as Yehovah lives,” “Khay Yehovah.” Say, “Khay Yehovah...”

Audience: Khay Yehovah.

Nehemia: “…in the way they taught my people to swear by Ba'al.” Say, “Khay Ba'al.” No, don't say that. “Then they shall be built in the midst of My people.” This is a promise to the nations, “If they learn to swear in the name Yehovah the way they taught Israel to swear by Ba'al, they'll be built in the midst of His people.” Whoo-hoo. Now, this is an argument I have with many of my Karaite brothers and sisters, and many of my rabbinical brothers and sisters who say, “Those Gentiles, they're not gonna be part of us. You know, they talk about being grafted in. We're going to have Israelites and Gentiles, and never the twain shall meet.” This is an argument I have with many of my Karaite brothers and sisters and rabbinical brothers and sisters.

But you know, there's a really interesting passage in Genesis 12, I believe it's verse 3, somewhere around there, where God says to Abraham, He gives him a blessing. And the blessing is, “In you shall be blessed all the nations of the earth.” And this blessing appears several times to the forefathers. And the interesting thing about that is the word "blessed" can also mean “grafted in.” And that's how actually the Rabbis in the Talmud, some of the Rabbis, interpreted this, “And you will be grafted in all the nations of the earth.”

Okay, on that note, I probably need to wrap this up. Here's another passage that shows that the simple people spoke the name of the Creator. This appears in 1 Chronicles chapter 16. “Then on that day, David first commissioned Assaf and his kinsmen to give praise to Yehovah. ‘Praise Yehovah, call on His name.’” Now, these are the Levites. Okay, the Levites say the name, that's fine. What about the common folk? In verse 36, after they bring this whole long Psalm, this whole long praise using the name, it says, “And all the people said ‘Amen,’ and ‘Praise Yehovah.’” So, even the simple folk in ancient Israel in the Temple proclaimed the name, “Yehovah.” This wasn't a secret, it wasn't banned. That came about many years later, for various reasons that we talked about. The simple Israelites, they said, “Amen,” and “Praise Yehovah.” So, can we do that? I'm going to ask this side to say, “Amen.” Sorry, guys, you're not gonna be able to do it. And you guys say, “Hallel Yehovah.” “Hallel” is “Praise.” “Hallel Yehovah.”

Crowd: Amen. Hallel Yehovah.

Nehemia: Woo, I'm excited by that. Now, some people ask me, “Why on earth, Nehemia, are you coming up here and talking about this name? You could talk about a million things.” And you know what? I could. I could come up here and talk to you until you go blue in the face about the biblical calendar, and the intricacies of the aviv barley, and the new moon. And I could come up and talk to you about all kinds of interesting topics. I could talk to you about nidda, which people don't wanna hear. I could come up to you and talk to you about the laws of kosher in the Bible. I could come up to here and talk about all kinds of pieces of information that I have. Why am I so excited about this, talking about this name?

And I want to share really quickly with you a story that happened. Keith and I were invited to come and speak at this reformed Jewish temple in Georgia. And I've been to many Christian congregations and many Messianic congregations in all kinds of places, talking about the name, but this was the first time I'd been invited to come and speak in a real Jewish synagogue. No offense, Messianics. We were in there and I was speaking about this topic. And when I got to actually saying the name, I thought, “Okay, I'm not coming here to offend people. I'm very zealous for what I believe in, but I have common decency and good manners. I'm not going to come into somebody else's synagogue and say something that's offensive to them.” Michael can do that, but that's not me, even though I'm wearing his shirt.

Before I actually spoke the name, after I gave this whole presentation, I said to the man who was leading the service that day, “Would it be okay if I actually spoke the name of our God? Would that be offensive? In my Orthodox upbringing I know it would be offensive, and so, I wouldn't go to an Orthodox synagogue and speak it. Would it be okay if I said it in your synagogue?” And he said, “Absolutely, go right ahead.” And I stood there, and I was about to say it. And I closed my eyes, and I could have sworn I heard from the back of the congregation the shout of the High Priest shouting, “Blasphemy, stone him.” But I opened my eyes and there was no High Priest there, and out of my mouth came the name, “Yehovah.” And I was so excited, that was one of the highlights of my life. I felt like I was living the words of the Prophet who spoke in the Psalms these words, which said, “I will declare Your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assemblies, I will praise you.” Hallel laYehovah. All right, thank you.

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