RAMADAN
June 6 -July 5, 2016

Ramadan is the ninth month on the Islamic calendar. It is the month that Islamic tradition teaches that Muhammad began to receive his revelations that would eventually be put in writing to form the Koran. As a result, Ramadan is the holiest month on the Islamic calendar.

According to the Koran, it is a religious obligation for Muslims to fast during the daylight hours of Ramadan to commemorate Muhammad receiving his revelations. The English version of the Koran reads as follows. I have used a hyphen when writing the name of the Islamic deity in keeping with the biblical command not to mention the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth (Exodus 23:13).

“In the month of Ramadan the Koran was revealed, a book of guidance with proofs of guidance distinguishing right from wrong. Therefore whoever of you is present in that month let him fast. A-l-l-a-h desires your well-being, not your discomfort. He desires that you fast the whole month so that you may magnify A-l-l-a-h and render thanks to him for giving you his guidance” (Koran 2:185).

In addition to the purpose stated above, the fast of Ramadan is similar in purpose and practice to the Biblical-Jewish fast day of Yom Kippur. In fact, the traditional Muslim interpretation of a verse in the Koran (2:183) is that Muhammad borrowed the idea of fasting from Yom Kippur. Traditional Islamic teaching is that those who observe Ramadan will have all their sins forgiven. It is said that when Ramadan arrives, the gates of heaven are open, the gates of hell are closed, Satan is bound and jinns (desert spirits) are locked up and whoever dies while observing Ramadan will enter paradise. Sound familiar?

Since the Arabic word for fasting (sawm) means “to refrain,” during Ramadan, Muslims refrain from normal physical and worldly thoughts and deeds. They spend their daylight hours contemplating spiritual matters, soul-searching, doing good deeds, seeking forgiveness, practicing charity, reading the Koran, praying, etc. Like Yom Kippur, It is a time of self-denial and purifying the body and soul. Observant Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and marital sex during the daylight hours. They rise early to have a pre-dawn meal called the suhoor. After sunset they have a post-fast meal called the iftar. Fasting is not required, although acceptable, for children who have not reached puberty, the sick, elderly, chronically ill and women who are pregnant, nursing or menstruating.

Let us pray that during this time of prayer, fasting and soul searching, observant Muslims will have a revelation of the One True God – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. May it be so from our mouth to God’s ears.

UNESCO is the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural agency that designates cultural heritage sites around the world. They recently erased 3,000 years of Jewish history and 2,000 years of Christian history with the stroke of a pen. They must have used a BIG eraser. How did they accomplish such a miraculous rewrite of history?

Turns out that those bastions of truth and freedom, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman and Sudan, presented UNESCO with a resolution regarding the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. Since Arab leaders deny there was ever a Temple on the “Temple Mount,” they refer to the Temple Mount by the Arabic name, Al-Haram Al Sharif. They call the Western Wall Plaza by the Arabic name Al-Buraq Plaza named after Mohammed’s horse that supposedly flew Mohammed from Arabia to Jerusalem.

The fact that there was a Temple on the Temple Mount for 1,000 years is not the BIG LIE. The BIG LIE is that Mohammed ever went to a Mosque in Jerusalem as there was no Mosque in Jerusalem when Mohammed died. Mohammed died in 632, six years before Jerusalem fell to the Arabs under Caliph Omar in 638. The Dome of the Rock was not built until 692, sixty years after Mohammed died. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was not built until 712 eighty years after Mohammed died. Mohammed never left Arabia. These are facts of history.

But with the UN (stands for Usually Nothing), don’t confuse them with facts. Always looking for an opportunity to deny Israel’s history and legitimacy, UNESCO gladly published the resolution declaring the Temple Mount and the Western Wall Plaza to be Arab cultural heritage sites. Can you believe it! Jerusalem is mentioned 800 times in the Bible and not one time in the Koran. That’s right; not one time.

In doing so, UNESCO declared the entire Bible to be a lie. Where are the Jewish and Christian prophets publicly rebuking this godless, anti-Judeo-Christian, hate-filled organization?

UNESCO is not only denying 3,000 years of Jewish and Christian history, it is also denying the testimony of the “Grand Terrorists” of all terrorists, Haj Amin al-Husayni himself. The “Haj” was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler’s ally. He was the world’s most violent and hateful anti-Semite who encouraged Hitler to import his “final solution of the Jewish problem” to the Middle East. He was a combination of Hitler and one of his descendants, Yasser Arafat.

In 1924, al-Husayni published a guide for Arabs visiting the area. The publication referring to the Temple Mount is called “The Noble Sanctuary.” Al-Husayni wrote, “The identity of The Noble Sanctuary with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.”

Of course, telling the truth is more than some Arab leaders can bear. So in 1954, the Grand Mufti responsible for overseeing the Temple Mount removed those comments from the publication.

While there are difficult days ahead for Jews and Christians, the One True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and modern Israel, has the final say about these matters. Zechariah writes of the days in which Israel will be re-gathered. The Lord says, “Behold, I will save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; I will bring them back and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people and I will be their God in truth and righteousness” (Zechariah 8:7-8).

CLICK HERE

For more information about this and related subjects, please order Dr. Booker’s book Christians, Jews and Israel, Standing Together in Troubled Times. This is really, really important.

Senator Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, is an ordained Christian minister. At a recent speech to a pro-Israel group called Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, Pastor Cruz said that the very “foundation of America and the American Constitution was the Torah.” Oh really? I bet that made the God-haters mad. But is this true? Let’s do a fact-check.

A few years back I wrote a book entitled, Christians, Jews and Israel Standing Together in Troubled Times. In doing research for this book, I discovered that the Pilgrims and Puritans were Hebraic Christians who had what I call a “Re-enactment Theology.” By this I mean they saw themselves re-enacting the Exodus from Egypt. My following comments are quotations from the book. These are just a few of the many statements in the book.

Since the word Hebrew means to “cross over,” the Pilgrims and Puritans thought of themselves as re-enacting the Exodus story. They were fleeing England which represented Egypt; the King of England was their Pharaoh, they were crossing over the Atlantic which was their Red Sea; America was like the land of Israel, the Native Americans were their Canaanites, and they, like the Hebrews, were entering into a national covenant with God in their New Promised Land (page 14).

The Hebrew Bible with its teaching on the Ten Commandments and the holy laws of God was their guide. The Torah (instructions-teachings) on justice, morality and ethics were the foundation of the judicial and legislative enactments of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These moral laws of God from the Torah would be enshrined as the legal code of the new nation (page 16).

When the Pilgrims and Puritans read the Hebrew Bible they saw that God and His chosen people entered into a national covenant at Sinai. Their clear intention in the new world was to do likewise. They wanted to establish a new nation that had a covenant with God that would be based on the moral laws of God given at Sinai. The citizens of the new nation would willingly agree to live by the laws which would constrain their natural evil impulses (page 15).

Puritan leader John Davenport said to the first assembly of New Haven in 1639, “Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men as well as in the government of families and commonwealth as in matters of the church.”¹¹ The assembly unanimously agreed with Davenport that the Word of God would be the only guide consulted in organizing the affairs of their government (page 17).

Following John Davenport’s speech, the Connecticut legislature in 1655 established governing laws based on the teachings in the Torah. They adopted a legal code containing 79 statutes, 38 of which contained biblical references from the Hebrew Bible. The Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Pilgrim Colony at Plymouth had similar laws governing themselves (page 17-18).

Abraham I. Katsh was a revered scholar and pioneer in Jewish studies. In his classic work, The Biblical Heritage of American Democracy, He noted the Jewish undertones of the Pilgrims and Puritans and said that “many classic Hebraic values became woven into the fabric of American civilization.” He further said, “There can be very little doubt that the Puritans were almost solely influenced by the Hebrew Bible.” He added “The Bible became for the Puritans a call to individual and national righteousness (page 18).”

In The Indestructible Jews, Jewish historian Max Dimont wrote that “The Puritans regarded themselves as Hebraists and took the Old Testament as their model of government (page 18).”

Katsh explains, “Since Puritanism was essentially a return to the Hebraic concept of a “compact or covenant” with God, it followed that the laws, regulations, ordinances by which the Puritan society was to be governed should be those contained in the Hebrew Bible (page 18).”

“The Puritans accepted the concept of covenant with God as the bedrock of their society and its legal structure. The most series implication of this concept of covenant was its exaction of righteousness and moral behavior. And since the boundaries of the moral behavior of the individual and the body politic were scarcely perceptible, the ethical laws regulating the activity of the community as a whole were virtually indistinguishable from those pertaining to the individual (page 19).”

“Throughout the period of colonization in New England, the Mosaic rulings and Biblical laws were considered the supreme authority in any question requiring the citation of a precedent. … For therein, the colonists felt, was found to be the model of society as they envisioned it. From these initial efforts, Hebraic laws and principles extended and prevailed throughout the colonies, and still later, in the national system of American constitutional law (page 19).”

Pastor Cruz is absolutely correct. America was founded on the basis of God’s laws in the Torah and those laws were enshrined in our Constitution and governing documents.

Christians, Jews and Israel Standing Together in Troubled Times is a most unique book explaining the Judeo-Christian origins of America. To learn more about the founding of America, please order this book at our webstore. This is really an important book. Please order a handful for your friends.

Let’s keep it simple.

The Biblical/Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar based on the moon revolving around the earth.  Every time there is a new moon, this marks the beginning of a new month. This new moon is called “Rosh Hodesh” meaning head of the month. The Feast days are based on the Jewish calendar. God set the Hebrew month of Nisan as the first month of the year on the Biblical calendar (Exodus 12:2). Passover is always in the middle of the month of Nissan when the moon is full. The Greco-Roman Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar that originally came from Egypt and was passed on to the modern world from Rome. It is based on the movement of the earth around the sun.

As the Jewish message of Jesus spread to surrounding nations, Jesus was accepted by the Gentiles who unfortunately were anti-Semitic. This obviously presented the emerging Gentile church with a problem. Jesus was a Jew, His teachings were from the Torah, and all His early followers were Jews, including the apostle Paul who was faithful to the Torah and did not start a new religion that would later be called Christianity.

But the Gentiles embracing Jesus did not want their Christian faith to be connected to the Jews so they changed the date to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from Passover week to a different date already familiar to the Greco-Roman world. This date was based on the Spring Equinox which occurs on March 21 on the Greco-Roman Gregorian calendar. Passover was changed to Easter and the date for Easter was to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21. This decree was enforced with the sword by the Roman Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea which met in 325 AD.

Here is the blasphemous statement Constantine wrote to all the church bishops:

It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom of the Jews, who had soiled their hand the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. In rejecting their custom, we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter … We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews for the Savior has shown us another way … we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews.

This horrific statement from Constantine established anti-Semitism as official church policy for European Christianity. For more details, please order Dr. Booker’s book, How the Cross Became a Sword at www.rbooker.com.

I am grateful for everyone who celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. God bless one and all. But in these times when God is so clearly awakening believers to the Biblical Hebraic roots of Christianity, and since He is returning as a Jew not as a Christian, shouldn’t we all ask ourselves the following question, “Would I rather celebrate our Lord’s resurrection on the correct time given in the Bible or “another way” chosen by a quasi-Christian pagan emperor sun worshipper who hated God’s chosen people, persecuted them without mercy and separated Christianity from its Jewish roots?” Even Pope Francis said “It is time for Christians to rediscover their Jewish roots.” Incidentally, these are Feasts of the Lord not Feasts of the Jews and are to be celebrated by all of God’s people for all time.

What is the Spring Equinox?

As the earth revolves around the sun, in the spring, the sun is exactly above the equator on March 21. This is called the Spring Equinox because the word equinox means “equal night.” That is the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world during the equinox. The March Equinox is the day when the Northern Hemisphere starts to tilt toward the sun, which means longer and sunnier days. The March Equinox is called the Vernal Equinox because it signals the beginning of spring (vernal means new like the spring). For obvious reasons, ancient people celebrated the vernal equinox as a pagan festival (Ishtar) of new life. Eastern Orthodox Christians follow a different calendar.

Yeshua/Jesus and “The Establishment”

You may have read about a recent incident at a high school basketball game in Newton, Mass. There is always a lot of emotion at sporting events as each side taunts the opposing team and fans. Most of the time it is all in fun. But the taunting at the game in Newton got out of hand.

Catholic Memorial high school was playing Newton North which is in a largely Jewish community. I have Jewish friends who live in Newton. If they read this blog I hope they know how much I love them.

When the Newton North fans taunted the all-male Catholic Memorial about the absence of girls at the school, some Catholic Memorial fans chanted back, “You Killed Jesus!” Whoa! This is not basketball, this is theology—bad theology that is preached every Easter and every Passover from Christian pulpits. The administration and students at Catholic Memorial quickly apologized for the anti-Semitic accusation that has been at the heart of Christian theology since the time of Constantine and the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

I know during Easter and at Passover, good, well-meaning Christian ministers will continue to preach the error that the “Jews Killed Christ.” Whenever this was preached in the Dark Ages of Europe, the uneducated hearing the sermon would leave their church service and go kill as many local Jews they could find because “they killed Jesus.” Since these people did not have a Bible and couldn’t read anyway, they had no idea that Jesus was a Jew.

So what is the truth? Who really killed Jesus? Christians understand the theological answer that Jesus died for our sins. I am not writing about the theological answer but the human answer. Were the Jews as a people responsible for killing Jesus? Were the Romans as a people responsible for killing Jesus? Who was responsible?

The short answer for who killed Jesus is two words—“The Establishment.” Now think about it. Prophets, revolutionaries and outsiders are always a threat to the establishment. Jesus was all three. He was a prophet, a spiritual revolutionary and certainly an outsider. His popularity with the masses, all Jews I might add, had grown so large that He was a threat to the establishment.

We only have to look at our current political election campaigns to see how much the political establishment hates those threatening their power and position. Furthermore, according to the political poles, the outsiders in both parties are very popular with a large number of the masses of Americans who are fed up with the greed and corruption of the political establishment. Our political establishment is in a panic. No doubt they are having secret meetings plotting and scheming to find a way to marginalize candidates they see as a threat. This is what was happening at Passover 2,000 years ago when the establishment plotted to kill Jesus when He came to Jerusalem.

The New Testament is clear that it was the Roman establishment represented by Pilate and the Sadducees Jewish establishment represented by Caiaphas whose power and control of the people was threatened by Jesus and His huge popularity among the people. (See for example Luke 23:24; Mark 15:9-10; John 11:53.)

Caiaphas was the Chief Priest who led the small Sadducee party that controlled the Temple and the sacrificial worship at the Temple. Their power and position and enormous wealth came from the Temple. They were the “upper-class” aristocratic group who were comfortable living in a Greco-Roman world. Like many with power, they bought their position from the Romans, were very corrupt, enriched themselves at the expense of the people and strong-armed anyone who threatened them. These were not godly leaders “defending the faith” but an evil ruling class protecting their position, their power and their purse.

It was a small group of religious and political leaders who desired to crucify Jesus because they were jealous of His fame and afraid He would upset the status quo. Like our modern politicians, the establishment met in secret and arrested Jesus and had a mock trial at night because they feared the people would revolt if they knew what they had done (Luke 20:19). The everyday people living in Jerusalem were in their homes preparing for Passover and had no idea what had happened. By the time they awoke the next morning, the establishment had already crucified Jesus. The people didn’t kill Jesus they loved Him.

We must understand the context and culture of the Bible or we will surely misunderstand it. For example, when the New Testament seems to speak negatively of the Jews, the writers are not talking about the Jews as a people group. They too were Jews. Jews who lived in northern Israel were called Galileans. They were hard-working country folk that the “big-city” arrogant establishment Jews in Jerusalem considered uncultured and unsophisticated. They even talked with a country twang. (See Matthew 26:73.) The Jews in the south were called Judeans. They were the cosmopolitan, high-bred, cultural sophisticates who looked down their nose at the “hicks from Galilee.”

When the New Testament writers speak about the “Jews doing this and the Jews doing that,” they are referring to a specific group. They mean the Judeans—the Jewish establishment running the affairs of state in league with the Romans. Specifically they mean the small Sadducee party that was in control of everything that took place in Jerusalem. When Jesus entered Jerusalem with 1,000’s of followers, the establishment realized they were losing control and had to put Jesus to death.

Christian ministers preach that this crowd turned against Jesus five days later and shouted “Crucify Him!” This is just not true. Caiaphas called together the Sadducee Temple priest who owed their living to him and instructed them to recruit some local thugs, a rent-a-crowd, and probably paid them and instructed them at the right time to join with them and shout, “Give us Barabbas.”  (See Luke 23:13.) There may have been no more than fifty or so of these people. They spoke for the establishment not for the common people. Please don’t be naive. This happens all the time in our own country. Most of the groups who are rioting in the big cities of America are paid thugs who are brought from the outside to stir up violence locally.

When the nations of the world say, “The Americans did this and the Americans did that” they don’t mean the American people. They don’t mean me and you. They mean the American government—they mean “The Establishment” in Washington. While the establishment in Washington does not speak for everyday Americans, we all suffer the consequences of their decisions. Surely we understand this.

So it was when the Sadducee priests and “rent-a-crowd” shouted, “Let His blood be on us and our children” (Matthew 27:25), they were cursing themselves not the Jews as a people group. Their curse was fulfilled forty years later in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned down the Temple resulting in the death of the Jerusalem elite and the end of the Sadducees.

From a Christian standpoint, God allowed Jesus to pay the price for our sins so we would not have to pay it ourselves, As Isaiah wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the LORD laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Instead of blaming the Jews for “killing Christ” Christians should thank God for His redemptive love and stand with the Jewish people as God’s still chosen people and for the suffering they have endured throughout history mostly at the hands of Christendom. While we all know that Christians and Jews have theological differences, we don’t have to agree on theology in order to love one another. And if we can’t love one another, what good is our theology.

For further information on this subject, please order Dr. Booker’s book, How the Cross Became a Sword at www.rbooker.com or click on link.

ON SALE – $5 plus S&H till Passover reg $7.95