Keep Reading – Keith Johnson (Open Door Series – Part 7)

Keith Johnson speaks in Albuquerque, New Mexico on the topic of "Keep Reading." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ePabZ10Gk?rel=0 Transcript

Keep Reading – Keith Johnson (Open Door Series - Part 7)

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.

Keith: If we go to… let’s see here, Psalms 80:18, I’m going to put it up on the screen. And as we were at Shavuot, my Jewish friend, Nehemia Gordon and I had had an encounter that literally changed our lives first. Then that encounter spilled out of our lives and began to touch other people.

When we were at Shavuot, we had some technical difficulties. I think it was actually the Creator of the universe, because He already knew that we were going to do what we were going to do there, but that we were going to continue when we got here. So I never got to really talk about this verse. This verse has gotten me into a lot of trouble, say, “trouble…”

Audience: Trouble!

Keith: … because it comes from what they call the “Old Testament”. And you see, in the Old Testament, when I first became a Christian at age 15, they handed me two books. One was a big book, I mean, it was thick. And I was not one who grew up in the church. I didn’t have much background in the church, and they said, “Here’s your choices. You can either read from the big book, or we’ve got this little thin book, and this would be all you need.” Now, be a 15-year-old from inner city of Minneapolis, having never been in the church and someone says, “You can either read this or you can read that,” come on, somebody.

Woman: That.

Keith: Which one are you going to pick? I picked the Book of John. They gave me the Book of John, I read it quickly and I said, “Now what?” They said, “You’ve graduated. We’re now going to let you read one of the other Gospels, the Book of Matthew.” And so they said again, “Now, here are your choices. There’s this book or this book. Which one are you going to choose?” I said, “I’ll take this one.”

And I opened up the Book of Matthew, and it said, “This is the genealogy of Jesus.” And then it went on, and it said, “from, or son of…” and then they started giving these weird names that I did not learn in the Book of John - David, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And I said, “Who are these people?”

“Don’t worry about it, just keep reading.”

And I’d go through the genealogy and it’d talk about Ruth, and Bathsheba. “Who are these people?” “Don’t worry about it, just keep reading.” And I got to the end of Matthew, and come to find out when I read through Matthew that there’s no way I could understand Matthew unless I were to go back to the big book.

Man: Halleluyah!

Keith: And when I would go back to the big book, my life began to change. And they told me in the church, “Don’t take the big book so seriously. It’s good for stories. You can preach it every once in a while. But spend most of your time in the skinny book.”

About three years ago, I was sitting in front of the television and I was watching 60 Minutes. And 60 Minutes came on talking about the history of Christianity, and they said these words. They said, “You know, we’ve done a survey amongst all the pastors and all the people, and we’ve come up with an amazing discovery. They say, ‘You can have present-day Christianity without Jesus.’”

Audience: Wooh!

Keith: And they caught my attention. They said, “But you cannot have present-day Christianity without Paul.” 60 Minutes said this, you can check it for yourself. We probably have the DVD right here at A Rood Awakening. “60 Minutes!” [laughter]

And when I watched that, and when I saw that, it concerned me, because I thought to myself, “Where did they get this information?” I come to find out that they’ve gone and done surveys amongst people in churches, and pastors. And what they figured out is that most pastors, when they stand up on Sunday mornings, have decided to leave the big book behind. And you know those words in the Gospels and the Red Letters, those are just a little bit too radical. Let’s get to Paul.

So when I was at Shavuot, I was going to share this particular verse, and come to find out that as a result of this verse, as excited as I was about people learning that we could revive, we could be revived to call upon His name, there was a huge backlash. There were people that said this to me: “You cannot go into the Old Testament and talk about revival, a part of New Testament theology.” Now, if you believe that, you probably are not going to like the message. Look at your neighbor and say, “It don’t matter.”

Audience: It don’t matter.

Keith: Because what I must do this morning is go to Paul. Amen?

Audience: Amen.

Keith: You know, people are getting nervous with me hanging around with a Karaite Jew. “Keith, you’re always talking about the Hebrew. You’re always talking about the Old Testament. Heck, you don’t even talk enough about the New Testament. Whatever happened to Paul?” Hey, look at your neighbor and say, “Today…”

Audience: Today.

Keith: “… the Methodist…”

Audience: The Methodist.

Keith: “… is going to talk about Paul.”

Audience: Is going to talk about Paul.

Keith: But before I do that, revive us and we will call upon Your name. Now, let me tell you something, I want to give you another slide here, if I can. Wait a second. Okay, if I can. Excellent. Great slide. Now, you’re going to look at this. People use this all the time, in fact, it’s in the back of my book. It says, “Therefore, My people shall know My name; therefore, in that day, I am the One who was speaking. ‘Here I am.’” And when I read that verse, when I see that verse, it just causes me to think that the Creator of the universe is deciding in this time, to make us, say, “make us…”

Audience: Make us.

Keith: …know His name.

Audience: Know His name.

Keith: He’s causing people around the world to know His name. But I did a radical thing this weekend. I decided to do what we’re going to do today. I decided to keep reading. And what I decided to do, as a result of one of my friends, who came up and said to me what she had read, I decided to look at the verse before my favorite verse.

Now, if you would put it up here, what it says is this. “Again, the Lord declares, ‘Those who rule over them howl…” Say, “howl”.

Audience: Howl.

Keith: “And My name is continually blasphemed.” Say, “blasphemed”.

Audience: Blasphemed.

Keith: “All day long.” I’m going to tell you something. There is some howling going on right now. I thought I should - I should say, I assumed - that people would be excited if we could bring the most recent information, and the recent revelation, and the recent scholarship on God’s name. I thought that especially amongst those that call themselves Messianics, they would be excited that there’s new information that they did not have before, that would help them call on God’s name, and come to find out that they had more interest in staying in the spirit of tradition than encountering new truth.

And this caused me a great concern, because I did not understand. If we can show you something that you can see, and the most complete and available Hebrew manuscripts, wherein you can learn His name, don’t you want it? And they would say, “Not if it ain’t what I already know.”

But I’m so happy that there are some of you here that are not so interested in staying around the tulips of tradition.

[applause]

I’m so happy that there are people that are listening that are saying, “Just give it to me the way it is.” Oh, but I’ve met so many in the movement that say, “Do not confuse me with fact, when I’ve already got my tradition.” So as I was going through this information with my friend, Nehemia, go back to the slide. It says, “Again, the Lord declares…” and of course, you already know because you are the experts. But because of my concern for my brother and sister pastors that are in churches, and because of my concern for my sisters and brothers that are still behind the walls of churches in their process, many of them do not know. So please bear with me while I explain something to them. If we see the word “Lord”, say, “Lord”.

Audience: Lord.

Keith: That is simply a tradition followed as far back as we know, at least 1,900 years, where Christian theologians and scribes have decided that you don’t need to know His name. So what they have done is, they’ve found a wonderful little title, and in order to show you that it’s a special title, they capitalize it, “L-O-R-D” Lord. Now, here’s where the controversy comes in. People start saying, “Well, how do I pronounce it?” And I’ve written a book, His Hallowed Name Revealed Again, with only one chapter on pronunciation, but 11 chapters on information. And do you know that I have people that will say, “Because you pronounce the name differently, I don’t want the most updated information.” Can you believe that?

Hey, put aside the pronunciation for a minute, and just learn the information. Because what I’m finding, there are so many people who do not have the information and yet, they’re out beating people over the head with pronunciation. And can I just say it right now? So many of them that are beating people on the head with pronunciation are wrong about the information.

Can I say that again?

Audience: Yes.

Keith: Or should I leave that alone?

Audience: No!

Keith: If we have information that will change your approach, why wouldn’t you want it? Only if there’s an agenda behind your decision. Can I do something? Hold on. Can you put the slide up? Now, don’t say this too loud. Those that are listening, don’t get concerned. But according to the most complete Hebrew manuscripts that we have, if we were to read it in Hebrew, what we would find when we come across L-O-R-D, and I’m not going to let it stay up too long, because it’s very controversial, we would find this. Let’s go, if you want more information, get the book. Now, open your Bibles, let’s go to the message.

After Shavuot, Nehemia was so inspired, he opened the door to the spirit of the living God. And as he opened the door to the spirit of the living God, two things happened. One, God said, “Okay.” Two, he got into a lot of trouble. People called us, leaders of the top religious institutions, put us on conference call and said, “What have you two done?”

And do you know what Nehemia said? “Now, we have their attention.” [laughter and applause] Nehemia said, “Now we have their attention, let’s turn up the heat.”

So Nehemia gets on Messiah’s Branch Radio, without telling me in advance, invites me on and says, “Keith, we have a radio interview, and it’s got a few things I want to share.” And I’m thinking, “It’s just another interview.” We get on the interview, and Nehemia gets on the interview and he says this. “This fall, Keith and I will be traveling all over the United States.” And then he says something really radical. He says, “This fall, we’re coming in the spirit of revival.” [applause]

Now, at this point, I’m a little nervous, because I’m thinking, “Now Nehemia, look. It was a good shtick. We had the DVD, it’s there. Let’s just move on.” He’s like, “No, the door is still open. The spirit of God is still working.” And he’s on the radio station, proclaiming and saying, “There’s going to be revival in His name.”

And the more he would talk, the more I’d get excited. You guys think you saw someone preach? You think the Methodists can shout? You should hear the Karaite when the Holy Ghost touches him. [applause] He’s on Messiah’s, say, “Messiah’s…”

Audience: Messiah’s.

Keith: …Branch Radio. And he’s saying, “We’re going to come in the spirit of revival,” and then he gets behind his little computer. And he starts typing, and pretty soon, Nehemia gets on his little newsletter. And he sends it out all over the world, and it’s up online, on aprayertoourfather.com. where he starts talking about all these things.

And then he says, “Listen. There was a certain thing that happened on July 15th,” and he gives the date. And he says, “You know what? There was a time where the folks came in France and released the prisoners from the Bastille Prison. And it happened on the very day,” it happened 200 years later, he says, “this is the celebration of that day.”

And then, he puts this wonderful little picture, because Nehemia, he can’t just write. He’s got to come up with these little pictures, so he comes up with this picture, I want to show it to you, real quick. This is Bastille Day. And from what I understand, that is Nehemia’s uncle, great-great-great-great-great-great Nehemia Gordon. [laughter] And he gives this picture and he says, “This is the spirit by which we’re coming. There are people in prison on the…” come on, somebody. Hello, somebody, “…on the other side of the wall.” And he says, “We’re coming, and if it takes sword, if it takes fire, if it takes conflict, if it takes problems, we are coming to set somebody free!”

[applause]

Now, I didn’t tell you something. This morning, as Michael was walking the streets, so was I. And I have to tell you, if he was walking the streets talking about what he was going to do, I was walking the streets saying, “Father, do I have to do it?” [laughter] Because I have to tell you something. This is as real as it gets for me. I don’t know about you who grew up in the church. I don’t know about your experiences. I don’t know about your denominations. Can I just tell you about what happened to me? God touched me at 14. I didn’t understand church. God called me to go to the place that you call “cemetery”.

But let me tell you what God did for me. God used seminary to give me information that I would not have had, had I not gone. And then, God took me through a process where He began to learn, and teach, and do these things in me. But He never set aside that thing inside of me, that thing that makes me want to shout, the thing that makes me want to move in His spirit. What He did is say, “Keith, you just stay where you are, but I’m going to add some information.”

I love the fact that the Bishop of the Methodist Church has still not kicked me out yet. I love the fact that they still allow me to be in that movement, and I’m going to tell you why. As much as I love meetings like this, there is a group of people that I want to get to, that are behind the walls of the Bastille prison. I want to do whatever I can do to help them get free.

Now, I didn’t know I’d be hooking up with a Jewish man. I thought he would just stay in that place, being a nice little Hebrew scholar, where he teaches me and we learn Hebrew together. But for some reason, and I’m not sure why, somebody say, “God”.

Audience: God.

Keith: For whatever reason, God has decided to touch Nehemia Gordon deep down in his gut, so that he stands with the Methodists and says, “we…” Say, “we”.

Audience: We.

Keith: Come on, somebody. Say, “we”.

Audience: We.

Keith: Are coming. Somebody say, “are coming”.

Audience: Are coming.

Keith: In the spirit.

Audience: In the spirit.

Keith: Of revival.

Audience: Of revival.

Keith: So that.

Audience: So that.

Keith: We can.

Audience: We can.

Keith: Call.

Audience: Call.

Keith: Upon.

Audience: Upon.

Keith: His.

Audience: His.

Keith: Name.

Audience: Name.

Keith: Give Him praise. [applause] Halleluyah!

Now that I’ve had my morning preaching fix, can I tell you what happened?

Man: Yes, please.

Keith: After he got on the radio and we talked to the lead people of the different religious institutions, Jewish and Christian alike, I received this letter. And the letter said, “Greetings, Mr. Johnson.” And it started this way. “I have followed Nehemia Gordon for several years. He’s very intelligent.” Whenever they start out like this, they go and drop the bomb on you. “He is very intelligent. He is nice, he is well schooled. His Hebrew Matthew Book is very interesting. I’ve read a little bit about you, and it seems that you have a very impressive resume.” Somebody say, “amen”.

Audience: Amen.

Keith: You know, Michael’s up here, supposed to introduce me. “Who do you want to talk about?” “Nehemia Gordon, Nehemia Gordon. And by the way, Keith.” “Okay, no problem. [laughter] And you also have an impressive resume.” Do you all know my resume? I graduated cum laude from the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. And my professors are saying, “Lordy, how come we let him graduate cum laude?” [laughter]

“I see that you too are doing a Storming the Bastille tour with Nehemia Gordon.” And then, he goes on to quote my friend’s words. “Nehemia said, ‘This fall, Keith and I will be coming…’ I haven’t told Keith, ‘in the spirit of revival, storming the spiritual Bastille, setting people free in the name, Yehovah, the Father of creation. Join us in opening the door and proclaiming the verse: Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.’”

And the man says this to me. I will not tell you his name, but as you could tell, I’m still holding the paper, and all you need to know is the paper is heavy. “Spirit of revival! Setting people free! While it seems that you are both well accomplished in your own realms,” and he goes on to say this, “unless Nehemia has converted, you are both unequally yoked. From my knowledge…” Somebody say, “my knowledge”.

Audience: My knowledge.

Keith: I wish more people would just say that, “From my knowledge…”

Audience: From my knowledge.

Keith: “… this may or may not be an issue for Nehemia, but it most definitely is for you.” And so what I’ve decided to do as a warm-up for this afternoon, which is a warm-up for Sunday afternoon, I decided to go to the verse that he decided to use. Let’s do that real quickly.

He said to me, “Spirit of revival! Setting people free! You are unequally yoked.” Turn to 2 Corinthians, if you would. And people have had issues with me again, because I spent so much time in the Tanakh, 10 years with my friend, Nehemia Gordon, learning the very Bible that Yeshua himself read. I was able to receive a scroll, I’m not going to tell you that story. I have Nehemia and others talk about it, it’s on the DVD. But what I love about having this backup, this has got my back. I so much love the fact that the Torah has my back, because that’s the very book that Yeshua read. It’s his Bible.

So when he came into the Synagogue and they said, “Let us read the Torah scroll,” and they said, “Who wants to read?” Yeshua would be in the back and he’d raise his hand and say, “Can I read?” And the rabbi would let him come down the aisle, and they would open up the scroll, and Yeshua would read it, just the way it was. And I want to give you a secret. He did not read it in the King James Version. He read it in the language that his Father gave it - Hebrew.

So people have attacked and they’ve said, “Keith, you’ve spent too much time with Gordon. All you’re doing is talking about the Bible that Yeshua read. Can’t you do something in the very part of the Bible that makes Christianity?” I said, “Okay, I’m going to be going to A Rood Awakening.” I would like to answer this man according to what he said, from my knowledge.

2 Corinthians 6:14 says this, “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” I want you to see something, real quick. If I open up the very Bible that people say Paul actually wrote, the Greek, bear with me real quick. It says this. “Be ye not heterozugountes,” that is Greek. Say, “Greek”.

Audience: Greek.

Keith: “…together with unbelievers.” Now, when I read that, the first thing I want to ask is this. Is this a word that’s used anywhere else in the New Testament? I come to find out that heterozugountes is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. Then, what I want to do is, I want to go to the Old Testament, the big part of the Bible to see, because I’ll tell you another secret. Paul didn’t pull stuff out of his head. Paul didn’t just make up stuff. Paul understood this very same book that Yeshua read, Paul understood it to be the very oracle of God.

Now, I have some opinions, we can talk about it later, about why there have been so many changes with Paul. But I’m going to just stick right here with what we have. I’m going to give you a quick thing here. If I find this word, “Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind,” if I look and come to find out it is a time where the very word that’s used in the New Testament is used in the Old Testament, these two words, one time in the New Testament, one time in the Old Testament, and come to find out, if I spend time understanding this word, the best way I could say it is, it says, “Be ye not mis-mated.” Say, “mis-mated”.

Audience: Mis-mated.

Keith: The idea in Leviticus is, you don’t want two different kinds of animals. And of course, this is a wonderful verse that Nehemia was trying to teach before the Holy Ghost got a hold of him at Shavuot, on the spiritual mixing of seed. But if you read it for yourself, you’ll find that that is exactly what we’re talking of. So it says, “Be ye not mis-mated.” Now, what we’re going to do is, we’re going to go on. It says, if you continue reading, “Be not eterozugountes together with apistois.” Say, “apistois”.

Keith: Now, what we want to do is keep it up there, and we’re going to look at something. If I go to another part where Paul actually is using the same word, 1 Corinthians 6:6 says, “But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers,” or apiston. Why am bringing this? The reason I’m bringing this, is this: What we want to find out when we’re reading the Bible is where the writer uses words, and how those words are used.

If we go to the story, the aspect of brother not going against brother, Paul was writing that to Jews. Somebody say, “uh-oh”.

Audience: Uh-oh.

Keith: “Do not go before the unbelievers,” Paul was saying, not, “Do not go before those who have a theological issue. Do not take your act, your issue, before the Greek judges, who do not believe the way you believe. They are unbelievers.”

Now, if we continue, continue with me, I want to show you the next slide. What it says is this. “For what fellowship…” and I love this part. Bear with me on this part. “For what fellowship…” and this is the man telling me, “hath righteousness with unrighteousness?” If I look at the word that Paul’s using, it’s “dikaiosune”. Now, if we see righteousness, there’s a word that we expect for Paul to use in the next part. Keep the slide up there, one second. What we’re going to need to do is, we’re going to show you an example.

In 1 Corinthians 13:6 it says, “Love does not rejoice with unrighteousness.” So there’s a word that Paul uses here that is this, “adikia”. Say, “adikia”. That is the opposite of “dikaiosune”, but guess - and keep the slide up there for a minute, because I’m going to try my best to stay calm. [laughter] If you keep the slide up there just one minute, I’m going to try to stay calm. Paul could have used “unrighteousness”, “adikia”. Guess what Paul uses? “Anomia”.

Audience: Anomia.

Keith: Come on, hit your neighbor, say, “Here it comes.” Hit your neighbor and say, “Here it comes.” Tell your neighbor, “Here it comes now.” We’re not in the Torah. We’re not in the Tanakh. We’re not in the Writings. We’re not even in the Gospels. We’re with Paul, the very basis of why Christianity is supposed to be together. We’re with Paul, the very verse that the man is using saying, “You’d better not hang out with Gordon, because he is an unbeliever. You are mis-mated with him.” What fellowship has righteousness with what we would think is adikia, rather we see anomia, so here’s what we need to do. Let’s go to the slides again. A- plus nomia, A equals without. Say, “without”.

Audience: Without.

Keith: Then we see nomia equals Torah. Say, “Torah”. Then we see anomia, somebody say, “Without Torah.” [applause] I’ve got to stop right here, for a second. Paul is saying – and excuse me for saying, “Paul is saying,” maybe I should say, “Shaul is saying…” Shaul is saying, “Listen. Now, do not hook up with those that are righteous and those who are without Torah.” The word “nomos” is used throughout the Greek Old Testament, which is a translation of the word “Torah”. So what is Paul saying in this verse? He could have just said, “adikia”. Instead, he says, “Look it, what connection is there with righteousness, and those without Torah?”

Now, in case you guys are getting nervous, I suppose I should bring another verse, because I can sense a little bit of… It’s not in the room now. It’s probably some people that are watching online that are saying, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What are you saying, Methodist?” So what I’m going to do is, I’m going to get radical. Rather than me telling you your opinion, I thought, “Let me see if I can find a verse where the one named Jesus or Yeshua actually did it.”

Now, I say, “Jesus” sometimes, because the people I’m trying to reach, many of them do not know, he came in a name. And so what they don’t understand is, they only have what they’ve been given, so they call him “Jesus”, and some of you all beat them over the head, because they say, “Jesus”. It’s all right. They’re coming!

[applause]

If we go to a verse from Jesus, or Yeshua, we will find this verse in Matthew 7:23 and give it to me up on the line. It says, “And then…” and this is him speaking, “I will declare to them, I never knew you Depart from me, you who practice…”

[applause]

The Methodists didn’t say it. Michael didn’t say it. Before Paul ever knew it, Yeshua said it. Yeshua said, “Look, there’s going to be a time where if you ain’t got that, you don’t know Me.”

[applause]

That’s probably a little controversial, so let’s do a really radical thing. This side of the room, your word is “keep”. Say, “keep”.

Audience: Keep.

Keith: Almost. This side of the room, your word is “reading”. Say, “reading”.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: Now, every time I go to this side of the room, you’re going to say…

Audience: Keep.

Keith: And this side will say…

Audience: Reading.

Keith: And that’s what some of my Methodist brothers and sisters are saying now. “Will you get off that verse and…”

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: Very well, let’s continue. “And what communion hath light with darkness.” Let’s get radical and take a look. If we go into the Greek, then many of my professors would say, “Keith, the most important thing is the Greek.” And guess what? I studied the Greek. I love using the Greek. However, I also love to find out where the Greek came from. And what communion hath photi,” say, “photi.”

Audience: Photi.

Keith: “…with darkness?” If we open up the Hebrew Bible that Yeshua read and that Paul studied from under Galileo, Galileo, he would go back and find that the actual word of photi is “ohr”. Say, “ohr”.

Audience: Ohr.

Keith: Now, say it from the screen, real quick. If we go to this verse, which I love, it says this. “Ki ner mitzvah ve’Torah ohr.” We find a play on words, that the word “ohr” plays on the word “T-ohr-ah” though it is not the same root word, the sound is the same.

So when I come across a verse like this, “For the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is an ohr”, or a light. [sings] Why Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and an ohr unto… They ought to let me sing. And an ohr unto my path. Oh, some of us need to learn to grab the flashlight, in the darkness of this world. Oh, I wish I could pick it up, but Michael said, “Don’t touch it.” [laughter] No, it says it right there. “Do not touch.” But oh, if I could just roll it and walk around New Mexico, with the Torah, oh, I’m convinced that in the midst of the darkness of this world, it would be an ohr, light.

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: Now, comes the controversy. I had to keep reading if I could get to the moneyball verse, and here it is, up on the screen. “And what concord has Christ with Belial?” Oh, some of your Bibles are going to tell you that there’s going to be a little asterisk, and if you go down to the asterisk, it will say to you that Belial represents Satan, in some translations.

But if I go to the Pope’s Bible - you know he’s got a Bible, too - now, his Bible don’t match with this, in many cases. He’s got an encyclopaedia that doesn’t match with this right here. But let the Pope do what the Pope does. He eventually is going to meet the real Holy Father, and I don’t want to be there when it happens.

Now, you all, if I check the Pope’s encyclopaedia… now I am having a fight. Can I just confess something? I’m having a fight with the Pope personally. And here’s what my fight is. Please take no offense, I know that there are many Catholic people… I’m not saying that you would think the way the Pope thinks. But the Pope thinks you’re supposed to think the way he thinks. In fact, he’s made several decrees regarding some things.

One of the things that the Pope has made me very mad about is this: In 2008, the Pope wrote a letter to all of his archbishops and big hats and said to them, “I have made a new ruling,” and his new ruling was this, in 2008. Now, I’m not going to give it all to you, but it’s in the book. Say, “book”.

Audience: Book.

Keith: He wrote a letter that says, as Pope, “I want you to know that there has been something that has crept inside of the church. People are beginning to speak and sing and pray the name of God.” And in 2008, the Pope wrote the letter, and I have it, somebody say, “in the book”.

Audience: In the book.

Keith: He says this. “This shall not be.” And I thought to myself, “Pope, what qualifies you to tell me that I can’t sing or pray to the One who is my Heavenly Father, who has a name?” [applause] The Pope doesn’t care about me, because he’s got millions of people that have bowed down to, whatever the Pope says, we do. So when I come out and say, as a result of information and inspiration we now have access to the name of God, he sends a letter saying, “There’s something that’s creeping into the church,” and he’s putting up a sign that says, “This shall not be.” But I’m here to tell the Pope something, and I hope he’s watching.

[laughter]

I’d rather follow the command of my Heavenly Father than even listen to your commands. And I know that we’re in an area right now where you all don’t get excited about that, so I’m just going to…

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Woman: Yeah.

Keith: The Catholic encyclopaedia says this. “Belial is commonly used as a synonym of Satan.” Now, what the man is saying in this verse is that I’m hanging out with someone who is opposite of Mashiakh, who is Satan. Now, you all, I’m going to do something and this is going to cause such a stir, people are going to write. Michael’s going to get letters about this, but I did something radical. I went over to Jerusalem. And when I went over to Jerusalem, I found out something: Nehemia Gordon changes his appearance when he’s in the United States.

[laughter]

He messed up and let me come over to Jerusalem in the Old City. Come to find out when he’s over there, his head don’t look the same. He only shaves when he comes on tour with the Methodist, but I was able to snap a picture when he wasn’t looking. And here it is, right here. [laughter] Take it off, quick.

Now, let me tell you why I brought that picture. It was Nehemia’s idea. And what Nehemia said to me that really caught my attention, he said, “Keith, do you know there are some people, to this day, that think that Jews have horns?”

There are people… he says that his own father, Rabbi Gordon, actually had a person… Rabbi Gordon was wearing a hat. And as Rabbi Gordon was in Chicago, and may he live to be 120, as he was in Chicago, a man came up to him and said, “Rabbi, can I see your horns?” [laughter] And Rabbi Gordon says, “We’re not allowed to show them in public.” I think I know where Nehemia got that dry humor. Somebody say, “Rabbi.”

Audience: Rabbi.

Keith: Gordon.

Audience: Gordon.

Keith: Why did I show you the picture? Because this man thinks that as I’m out walking, and traveling, and speaking, and teaching, and praying, and living, and working with Nehemia Gordon, he’s calling my friend, Nehemia Gordon, “Satan”. And if the Catholic encyclopaedia is right, I’ve got to write him back and say, “You’re right.” But somebody say, “keep”.

Audience: Keep.

Keith: Reading.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: I did a radical thing, you all. I decided to check it for myself. And when I checked it for myself, I found something. I want to show you something, really quick. Belial becomes “Beliar” in the Greek Septuagint, that is the Greek Septuagint which is the translation of the Hebrew Torah and the Tanakh. So what do I want to do? I want to go and see if I can find this word “Beliar” in the Greek Septuagint. And by God’s grace, an amazing thing, I find it one time in the Greek Septuagint. Why do I want to do that? I want to find out, since it’s only used one time in the New Testament, is it used somewhere else? And sure enough, if I open up the Greek Septuagint, I find it here. “Now, therefore deliver us the men, the children of Beliar…” Say, “Beliar”.

Audience: Beliar.

Keith: “… which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel.”

Why am I showing you this? Because now I want to do a really radical thing. If I know that Beliar is what they use in Greek, that means they originally looked at the Bible that Yeshua reads, and Paul is referring to the Hebrew. Say, “Hebrew”.

Audience: Hebrew.

Keith: And why do I want to look at the Hebrew? I want to look at the Hebrew and say, “How did they translate the Hebrew word into Beliar, which is only one-time used as Belial in the New Testament?” And then I found something that I’m going to try my best to stay calm on. [laughter]

If I go to the Hebrew Bible, I find these two words, “benei Bilya’al.” “benei Bilya’al,” 27 times, the word “Bilya’al” is used in the Tanakh, the Old Testament. Eight times, we find “benei Bilya’al” and every time we find the words “benei Bilya’al” we find an action with those people. This is the action we find in the eight times - and I guess I’m preaching to myself - that we find the eight times, “benei Bilya’al” we find it every single time, we find “benei Bilya’al”, these men are breaking Torah.

Audience: Oh!

Keith: Every time that I look at the eight times of “benei Bilya’al” they are breaking Torah. Now, Paul is doing a radical thing. Here’s what Paul’s doing. He’s building a case for why we don’t hang out with those that are not treating Torah the way Torah is to be treated.

Let me show you another verse, because you’re not convinced. Deuteronomy 13:13 says this, in the Hebrew, “Certain men, the benei Bilya’al,” say, “benei”.

Audience: Benei.

Keith: Bilya’al.

Audience: Bilya’al.

Keith: “Are gone out from among you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their cities, saying these words. ‘Let us go and serve other gods which we have not known.’” Now, you all, if I hadn’t checked all eight times, and I’m not going to have time to go through all eight times because Nehemia eventually wants to speak, and I want him to speak. But Nehemia, when you come up to speak, leave your horns back there. [laughter]

I’m going to give you just one example, and now I’m going to do something that I’m going to even get in more trouble about. I decided to look at what I call an “expert Jewish commentator” on this verse. Now, the Methodists get real nervous now. “You’re going to look at a Jewish commentator?” Yeah, because you know what, Bishop? The Jewish commentator knows more about the Torah than you do. I go to the Jewish commentator, a very famous Jewish commentator, his name is Rashi. Say, “Rashi”.

Audience: Rashi.

Keith: I have it up on the line, it says here. “The sons of Bilial, it means ‘Bili Ol,’ ‘Without yoke,’ because they broke the yoke of the Omnipresent.” What does it mean, “Bilial?” “Those who break the yoke of Torah.” Look at your neighbor and say, “We’re getting there.” Oh, boy. Let’s …

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: “Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” The guy is telling me not only is Nehemia Satan, he’s also an infidel. If I keep it up there, we find two words, “pisto” and “apistou”. If you take those words, P-I-S-T-O, P-I-S-T-O, the apistou is just the same without, one is pisto and one is the apistou. Here’s what we find. “If you have not been faithful…” in Luke 16:12, “with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own.” In other words, now we’re not just talking about some sort of theological thing up here. “Pisto”, “faith,” means action. How are you living? And that is exactly what we’re finding in here. But because my time is getting short, we need to…

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: If we keep reading, we find this, what I call the translation by the King James Version, or by the man who said to me, “Look, Keith. You are unequally yoked. You are mis-mated,” and here’s the translation of 6:14 and 15. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Satan, or Bilial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” If I just read the King James Version, I should not be hanging out with Nehemia Gordon, because I would be making an assumption that if I just simply read the King James Version, and the man hits me over the head with it, I’d feel guilty until I learned to…

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: Now, I want to give you a radical translation I found of these two verses. You guys, promise me, you won’t tell anybody about this translation. [laughter] Can I show you a translation if I take the Hebrew, and I take the Greek, and I take the King James, and the NASV, and the nearly-inspired version? If I take all the versions together, here is a translation I’ve found. I’m telling you, man, I’m not going to tell you where it came from, initially. Let me give you a translation of those two verses. Here it is, on the screen. “Do not get hooked up with one who does not believe in Torah. For what can be gained between righteousness and Torah-lessness? Or what fellowship has the light of Torah with the darkness of this world? Or what partnership is there between Mashiakh, Messiah, and those not yoked to Torah? Or what connection is there between one who is faithful, and one who is unfaithful to Torah?”

[applause]

I’m not going to tell you where it came from. Put it back up on the screen, now. Put it back up on the screen. You guys, now listen, listen to me. Promise me you won’t say anything when I show you this. Everybody, promise me you’re going to be quiet. Here’s where this translation came from. [laughter] Somebody say, somebody say…

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: Okay. I might as well keep reading, let’s keep reading. It says, “And what agreement hath the Temple of God… ” Now, you guys, Paul is doing something radical. He’s trying to teach us, he’s trying to help us. “And what agreement hath the Temple of God with idols?” You guys, there’s something happening here. “For ye are the Temple of the living God,” Paul says. And then he does a radical thing. He says this, and let’s just keep it up. You don’t need to picture me. “As God hath said.” Now, every time in the New Testament where I hear one of the writers say, “And God hath said,” I notice something interesting - and just bear with me while I’m moving. I’ve got to keep moving, because when I see, “And God has said,” that means that Paul is saying, “Open up your Tanakh.

Open up the oracles of God, because what I’m about to tell you, I didn’t say it. It wasn’t my opinion. I got it from the very book that Yeshua read, and that I call “all Scripture”. Now, for the radical thing. When Paul wrote this, there was no New Testament! I’m so glad for this side. These guys need help. Somebody say…

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: If I keep reading, and I go to the place where he says, “And God hath said,” come on, now. It says this. “I shall dwell in them and walk in them and I shall be their God and they shall be My people.” Where did God say this? Oh, boy. That radical book, that Torah, that part that Yeshua loved, Leviticus chapter 26 where people said, “We ain’t got to do it no more.” You know, they said that every single thing under the Torah has been nailed to the cross. The blood has covered it. But in my denomination, there’s one command that the blood does not have power for. It is tithing. Why did you all get so quiet? Every other commandment in the Tanakh has been nailed to the cross. You ain’t under the Torah no more, but you better bring your tithes. Somebody say…

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: I’m going to get kicked out for sure, this time. Then the amazing word that I love, but now, I’m almost done, Nehemia, is the word, somebody say it together…

Audience: Therefore.

Keith: Why do I love “therefore”? Because Paul is saying, “Everything I’ve said before, therefore means this.” And what do we have to do? We have to…

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: “‘Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,’ sayeth Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey. ‘And do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you.’” Many people read the New Testament and say, “I’ll stay right there,” but Paul himself said, “I ain’t even got it for this. I’ve got to go to the Tanakh to get it.” And where did Paul get it? Ezekiel chapter 20 verses 34 and 41. But what have we got to do, because it’s almost the end of time?

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: “‘And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me,’ says Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey, Almighty.” Where did that come from? 2 Samuel 7:14, 1 Chronicles 17:13. Now, for the last “therefore”. “Therefore…”

Audience: Therefore.

Keith: If you’re reading in your New Testament, something happened. You end up in chapter 7, rather than it being the end of chapter 6. And why did that happen? There was a man who was riding on his horse in around the 1600s and he decided, “I’ve got a good idea. I’m going to put verses in the New Testament.” And it says that as he was riding along on the horse, he would say, “12, oops, 1.” And what happens is, now that was supposed to be funny. [laughter] I must be almost into my time. The point is this. Man… Say, “man”.

Audience: Man.

Keith: Decided.

Audience: Decided.

Keith: To divide.

Audience: To divide.

Keith: The Bible.

Audience: The Bible.

Keith: And sometimes those decisions were made based on agenda. That is why on this day called Shabbat, which is to be the culmination, the major, most wonderful and radical climax of creation, where do we read about the seventh day? Chapter… chapter? You all ain’t with me. Look at your Bibles. We’ll talk about it later. But there’s an agenda. Instead of it being the seventh day, they put it at the beginning of the first, to try to make it the first day, so that when Sunday came, they said it’s not Shabbat. But that’s another topic.

Today is Shabbat. God has separated it and made it holy. It’s something that He has done, and man, every once in a while, gets their fingers in, and in this particular situation, what man had done is, he said, “Hey, look. I think 7 should be 7, because I don’t want people to realize therefore.” So what he did is, let’s start a new chapter. Instead of finishing chapter 6, he said, “Chapter 7.” And what do we find with chapter 7? This “Therefore, having these promises…” and I’m almost done, beloved, “let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” that is 2 Corinthians 7:1.

And now, for my testimony and ending. About 21 days ago, I found myself at A Rood Awakening. And I want to confess something you, and I’m getting personal now, but the world’s going to find out. I was struggling in my body. Stress was on me. There were issues taking over me. I was feeling a certain level of just sluggishness, and I show up at Michael Rood’s ministry, A Rood Awakening, and I meet two people, Dr. Tunsky and April Renee. And when I met them, they were talking and proclaiming about this issue, that it’s not good enough to have the spiritual without the physical, that you must address both. And I did the most radical thing. I asked them if I could meet with them, and they said to me this. “Well, Keith. Here’s what we could do. We could actually take you to a detox.” Say, “detox”.

Audience: Detox.

Keith: “Now, this detox is going to be about 21 days.” And I’m thinking, “21 days? I want to be on the road 21 days? Are you kidding me?” But for the first 10 days, all I did for 10 days is only drink live food, and all of a sudden, at about day 8 and day 9, my eyes started opening. My ears began to perk. My heart began to soften. And for the next 11 days, I would eat and I would think and I would pray. And guess what? Yesterday happened to be Yom Teruah - and my birthday - and it was the 21st day of the detox.

So today when I’m telling you, “Therefore”, come on with the screen, “having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves both physically and spiritually.” [applause] Now, you all have gotten real quiet in the house. Some of you want to say, “I am the Temple of the living God. Give me some more pig.”

Audience: No!

Keith: “I am the Temple of the living God. Where is the sugar? I’m the Temple of the living God, I eat what I want, when I want, at any time I want. But God, I praise you.” Let me tell you something. We’d better get ready for what’s coming, and what’s coming is going to mean you’re going to have to be physically, emotionally - come on, somebody - spiritually ready for what is coming. And I’m so glad that there’s a ministry that would say, “We’re not afraid to not only address spirit and mind, but we also will address body.” Now, you all that was the quietest you’ve been all the time, so let’s…

Audience: Keep.

Audience: Reading.

Keith: Here’s my end. I was at this place, two weeks after Mubarak was kicked out. Nehemia Gordon, the unbelieving Jew that they said I should not hang out with, said, “Keith, I’m not going to let you go to Egypt by yourself. I will go with you.” I have been around many teachers, Christian, Messianic, Jewish and everywhere else, but for some reason, they believe God until it gets dangerous. Then, they don’t want to believe God. But my unbelieving Jewish friend says, “I don’t care if it’s that, because if you say God wants you there, we’re in the safest place we can be.”

Man: Amen! [applause]

Keith: We went into Egypt, and as we went into Egypt a radical thing happened. Nehemia said, “Listen, I’ve been here before. I’ve had an amazing thing.” I talked about it before, you can get it on the video. I’m not going to give you all the testimony, but I’ve brought this for this reason. As we got to Egypt, we got to the base of the mountain, which is not the real mountain. Say, “real mountain”.

Audience: Real mountain.

Keith: But it looks good. It’s the middle of the night. As we get to the middle of the night, to the base of the mountain, they say, “You’ve got two choices. You can walk up the mountain, or you could hire a camel.” Now, Nehemia says, “I think we should walk.” However, what he didn’t say, and of course, it had already been determined, that his neck was hurting and he could not carry the bag that both of our stuff was in. So he said, “Keith, you carry the bag.” Look at your neighbor and say, “Keith, he might be a Methodist, but he ain’t a dummy.” [laughter] Somebody say, “Hire a camel.”

Audience: Hire a camel.

Keith: So we hired a camel. We hired two camels. And this man, which I want to show you a picture of, real quick, did a radical thing. He yoked one camel to the other camel. And in the middle of the night, as we were yoked together to the top of the mountain, there were some times when Nehemia’s camel was leading me. And Nehemia would be like, “Oh, oh, it’s dark!” [laughter] And there were other times when my camel would be walking side-by-side with Nehemia’s. And sometimes - and I’m so glad about sometimes - Nehemia had to follow me. [laughter] But here’s why I brought it. I’m yoked together with a man who loves Torah.

Audience: Amen! [applause]

Keith: Now, in closing, I want to show you a picture, and to do something very special. This picture is the picture from the top of Mount Sinai. And the reason I showed you that picture is because it’s not just a photo op. God has called me as a Gentile to hook up with a Jew, and I have reason to believe it’s prophetic. What is the application? “Blessed is the man. Blessed is the man who grabs a hold, keeps a hold, and walks Torah.” Andrew, come and sing this song.

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  • Elizabeth says:

    Won’t Christian leaders point to Acts 15 as a reason Torah is abolished for Gentiles? What is your take on that passage?