Read Online Identity Theft by Ron Cantor - Free Book Online

names. I do not deny that names are important,” he began to lecture. “They are. But at the risk of contradicting myself, I would also warn you not to get too hung up on names. The Father is not looking to catch us on technicalities. Sadly, there are those who obsess over names and miss the essence of the person of Yeshua.”
    Ariel tapped the center of the file that read DL 1.0 and suddenly the computer within the ancient tablet came to life. Several men appeared. The first one said, “Unless you read the Bible in the King James English, you are not reading the Bible!”
    The second one said, “If you are not baptized according to our church’s constitution, you are not saved and you’re on your way to hell.”
    The third and last one proclaimed, “If you don’t pronounce His sacred name correctly, you will be damned.”
    Ariel was laughing. “Silly religious people—this is not the God of the New Covenant, who ‘is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.’”
    As he said this, I heard a sound, not unlike the one my cell phone emits when I get a new text message. Right on cue “No. 1: Matthew 18:14” appeared on the right side of my personal tablet.
    “There is no angel at the gates of Heaven ready to say, ‘Sally, we really would like to let you in. Your heart was pure, you loved people and sacrificed for the kingdom,
but
we got you on a technicality. You got a name wrong and so you’re disqualified. Sorry about that!’”
    Oh, so my angel is a comedian.
    “No!” He continued, becoming serious again. “God is looking for every opportunity to save. People who get caught up in names, genealogies, traditions, or rituals and overemphasize their importance have a
religious spirit
, and that is not a good thing, David—it blinds them to the love of God, and sometimes to God Himself. Paul warns Timothy about those who promote controversy rather than God’s love.”
    The text message sound and another verse appeared on my desktop, again with a number beside it: “They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions” (1 Tim. 6:4).
    My tablet desktop was taking notes for me.
I could’ve used one of these in college,
I thought.
    “Sadly, there’s always the danger of getting so hung up on the minutiae that we miss the very purpose of Yeshua’s coming, which was, ‘to seek and save those who are lost.’” A third passage appeared—Luke 19:10 NLT.
    “Having said that, if we are going to understand the New Covenant in context, we are going to have to review a few names, as these name changes and translations influence how we perceive both the culture and message of certain New Covenant characters. These name revisions have resulted in both Jewish and Gentile readers completely missing the fact that these people were Jews, with Jewish names. Revisions that have tragically obscured the Jewishness of the New Covenant, communicating incorrectly to Jews that the New Covenant is not Jewish.”
    “D’ling,” announced the appearance of Jeremiah 31:31 on my tablet:
    “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.”
    “David, while English versions of the New Covenant refer to Yeshua by His Greek name,
Iesous
, which when translated into English becomes
Jesus
, His parents never called Him by either of those names. Joseph, His stepfather, was given very specific instructions as to what His name was to be and why.” My tablet promptly displayed Matthew 1:20-21:
    An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take
[Miriam]
home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name
[Yeshua],
because he will save his people from their sins”
(Matthew 1:20-21).
    Ariel continued his lecture,