The Divinity of Yeshua Messiah-Part 1

Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections-72

Visitor’s Comment on the Cepher Bible Episode

A few weeks ago I received a comment from a visitor to themessianictorahobserver.org that I felt needed to be aired and discussed. The commenter was responding to a post I published earlier this year. (Reference: https://www.themessianictorahobserver.org/2016/02/15/the-cepher-bible-star-46/) That post had to do with my issues with the Cepher Bible. In that post, I reflected upon the outrage I felt towards the translators, editors and publishers of the Cepher who took liberties with certain translations in the Cepher.

Prior to that post, I had ordered and received two-copies of the Cepher and had gone through a process of getting to know the publication. I had high hopes that this Bible would be my one go-to-Bible. It so happens that I found one glaring problem (well, actually there were a couple problems, but in that post I focused primarily upon just the one glaring problem): the Cepher’s treatment of Philippians 2:11.

Before I proceed any further, allow me to present the comment to you as it was written, absent the commenter’s name. It reads:

‘If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you,’ Jn 15:19.
I want u to always know that the world will never agree with any one that stand for the truth. And the devil will always seek a way to destroy everything that glorify’s Yahuah’s name.
the cepher translators maybe right or wrong in translating that verse. ph 2:11. the fact still remains that Yahuah is Yahusha, and Yahusha is Yahuah. they are one and thesame.
Honestly i desire a copy of eth cepher, i cannot afford it now becos of the price which is about 75,000 NGN. (I believe that is the Nigerian Naira currency) pls if u don’t like yours i will be most honor if you sent it to me. Shalom

I will say that I did respond to this commenter’s post, pointing out that my post on the Cepher had much less to do with the Divinity of Master Yeshua than it had to do with what I considered to be a felonious manipulation of Philippians 2:11. But since this commenter’s comment seems to have somewhat called me out onto the carpet as it relates to my understanding and belief of the divinity or pre-existence of Messiah issue I felt it was high-time that I reflect upon and share my views on the divinity/pre-existence of our Master Yeshua HaMashiyach. Certainly not a popular thing to tackle, especially in our Faith community. Needless to say, there are few topics that can cause as much division and conflict in the Faith community than the question of our Messiah’s divinity and or pre-existence. Of course it should. It was of such importance, that at least two ecumenical councils were convened to discuss and rule upon this issue on behalf of the Church Triumphant. (Reference the Council of Nicea in 325 C.E. and the Council of Constantinople in 381 C.E.—Wikipedia and various Church History publications.)

Philippians 2:11, A Point of Contention

Oh, and I should add that I am not willing to part with my copy of the Cepher just yet, regardless my stance on its mistreatment of certain passages of the bible. Sorry my friend. I still have some use to get out of the book. Nevertheless, my stance on the Cepher and its treatment of Philippians 2:11 has prompted me to have a mind and heart whereby I can’t in good conscience endorse the Cepher for any truth seeking, Torah observant believer in Yahoshua Messiah. I still, however, believe the book contains the Truth of the Word of Yahuah and our Master Yahoshua Messiah. (Maybe not in those passages where the translators took liberties with in their translations.) But it still has value, at least to me and this ministry.

Now Philippians 2:11 is of course one of the most well known passages of the Bible related to, what I prefer to call “The Exaltation of our Master, Yahoshua HaMashiyach” to the right-hand throne of Yahuah our Elohim, where all things have been put in subjection under His feet. The King James rendering of this Philippians passage reads as follows:

“And that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Now, the other popular, well established and favored translations such as the NAS, ESV, ASV, NAB, NET and RSV, pretty much confirm the KJV’s rendering without much deviation. This being the case and when we take all of these and other translations into consideration, the literal meaning of this passage seems pretty clear to me: that there is coming a day (most likely in that great “World Tomorrow” that we’ve heard so much of throughout our lives) when every human being who has ever lived who has not been tossed into the lake of fire, will confess that Jesus Christ (i.e., Yeshua the Messiah) is Lord (i.e., Master), or in the Hebrew, Adonay. And this acknowledgment will be made to the glory of Yahovah our Creator. To me this seems pretty cut and dry and certainly one can dig much deeper into this passage for an even greater in-depth literal rendering if they so choose. From my read and understanding of this passage, however, two beings are referenced: Jesus Christ (i.e., Yeshua Messiah) and God the Father (i.e., Yahuah our Elohim or Abba Father). To me, there is no confusion or question as to whether the two entities referenced here are one and the same or two separate entities. Plainly read and plainly interpreted, I don’t see how anyone can deny that this passage is referencing two distinct entities, unless the writer (i.e., Shaul) was intentionally manipulating the wording of the passage to somehow cover-up a deeper or more complex meaning. Or maybe the writer was appealing to those of us who adhere to the varying levels of Torah or Bible interpretation and understanding. Thus, those of us who are super spiritual would receive of the Ruach Kodesh, a meaning to this passage that is beyond that which is plainly written in this passage. Some have even gone as far as calling the understandings and interpretations that extend beyond the plain and conservative reading of such passages as “progressive revelation.” And that my friends seems to be the line of demarcation as it relates to this and other such passages that are used to support the “pre-existence, overall divinity of of Yeshua Messiah-sect of our Faith Community. That demarcation line is where plain, conservative understanding of such passages end and allegorical, metaphorical and even mystical understandings and interpretations take over. And all too often, those of us who choose to stay on the conservative side of things and go with a more plain and clear read of such passages are all too often looked down upon and even maligned as not being members of the true Body of Messiah.

Is the overall divinity of Messiah supported by the Bible?

Well, there is no confusion until denominationalism and doctrine creeps into the discourse, pushes literal interpretation—contextual understanding of Scripture off to the curb, and introduce their deeper spiritual understanding of Scripture. That deeper spiritual understanding, I’ve come to learn, overshadows and even supersedes the literal interpretation of Bible passages. In this case, denominationalism and doctrine asserts its aggressive hold on the Bible and insists that Yahoshua Messiah and Yahuah our Creator are one and the same. And to ensure that that denominationalism and doctrine regarding the divinity of our Master sticks, along comes the Cepher to facilitate that end. The Cepher has come to essentially insert/inject one group’s doctrinal and denominational beliefs into the Messianic/Hebrew Roots community. And what better way to accomplish this than using the old “bait-and-switch” technique? Knowing that Messianics/Hebrew Rooters take their Bibles extremely serious and very personal, the best way to shove one’s ideology/doctrine/denominationalism down the community’s collective throats is by changing the wording of key verses in their Bibles. And what makes this even worse, the Cepher people don’t even apologize for taking, what they call, liberties with their interpretation and wording of Philippians 2:11.

I know that sounds absurd and at first I too felt it absurd that individuals would have such hubris and hijack the Bible to get their point of view across. But then, as I began to think more on this, it came to me that this is in no way a new approach to shoving ideology and doctrine down a Faith community’s throat through expert manipulation of various Bible passages. This has been a “tried and true method” of indoctrinating others into one’s belief system for quite a few years. When it wasn’t feasible for people to own a Bible centuries ago, parishioners required church leaders to read and interpret Scripture for them. Thus, it was quite easy for doctrine and ideology and denominationalism to be placed into the minds of the people without much in the way of challenges or resistance from the ignorant parishioners. Then when the Bible was made available to the masses for individual consumption, the onus then fell upon the publishers, translators and editors of the various Bible translations to delve into the Word of God and add in their ideological and doctrinal positions. So it dawned on me that the Cepher was in no way setting a precedence here.

But allow me to give you the Cepher rendering of Philippians 2:11 passage:

“And that every tongue should confess that Yahuah is Yahusha Hamashiach, to the glory of Yah the Father.”

Did you catch the problem here? The Cepher editors elected to translate the passage to read that “Yahuah is Yahusha Hamashiach.”

In my post addressing this issue, the focused of my post was on the Cepher’s changing of the wording of Philippians 2:11 to intentionally alter its original meaning in order to force feed us the translators’, editors’ and publishers’ doctrine and ideology. As I just stated, the Cepher publishers and editors remain unapologetic as to their actions, boldly asserting that they have every right to take translative and interpretative liberties with Scripture. The Cepher producers and editors have gone so far as to say that the Cepher is NOT a bible. Why would they say such a thing? Because the Cepher people believe the term Bible is of pagan origin. (Reference: http://www.cepher.net/is-the-cepher-a-direct-translation.aspx)

Whatever! Regardless how they choose to spin it, the Cepher is a Bible translation. As I just said, the Cepher is not the first bible to alter the original rendering of Bible passages in order to force-feed the reader the editors’ and publishers’ ideology and doctrinal views. I also sighted Michael Rood’s “The Chronological Gospels” as another Bible publication where the translator has changed the entire wording and thus the entire meaning of key passages in the Holy Writ from what should be its original literal translation and understanding.

One of the Cepher people, a Mr. Charles D. Lyons, did a modestly detailed defense of the Cepher’s treatment of Philippians 2:11 and his personal assertion that Yeshua is Yahuah/Yahovah. Unfortunately, I have as yet been able to learn who Charles Lyons is and just what his association with the Cepher organization actually entails. Thus, I can only conclude, since his position is officially posted on the Cepher’s website, that Mr. Lyons is a member of the Cepher organization. His defense appears at http://www.cepher.net/blog.aspx?post=2896 for your reference.

So What Now?

Is Yeshua and Yahuah one in the same Person?

But I’ve already addressed my issue with the Cepher in that prior post. What I am responding to in this post is this visitor’s comment regarding the divinity of Master Yeshua. Thus, I wish to respond to his statement that Yeshua is Yahuah/Yahovah, which is essentially a statement related to the overall pre-existence or divinity of Messiah. Furthermore, I wish to respond to this commenter’s assertion that anyone who disagrees with His view on the divinity of our Messiah is either of the world or in cahoots with hasatan (my words, not exactly his I will concede).

To say that “Yahuah is Yahusha” and that “Yahusha is Yahuah” and that they are one and the same is making a very serious assertion. I came out of Churchianity over a decade ago, leaving behind such rhetoric, only to find myself right smack back into such dogmatic rhetoric. Interestingly enough, this gentleman is not alone in his assertion. I surmise that there are countless members of our Faith Community who share this gentleman’s same sentiments and will fight you to the death over that sentiment. And when you get to the point in your walk that you are so passionate about your position on an issue that you’re willing to make such assertions of others in the Faith—that they are of the world; they are in cahoots with hasatan; or that they are destined for hell fire—I’m pretty sure that the love of our Master is handily being displayed by such individuals.

I’ve shared this multiple times on this program, that we are all on individual and collective journeys with Yahoshua HaMashiyach. We are all at different places in our individual walk. Some of us have thoughts, ideas, understandings and beliefs that differ greatly from others. But again, we are all at different places in our walk.

I realize that many in our Faith have views that are opposite mine as it relates to the pre-existence and overall divinity of our Master. And when I say divinity, I’m referring to the Creator as Yeshua—God is Yeshua in the flesh—Yahuah/Yahovah is Yahusha/Yahoshua, and Yeshua existed from the beginning. And you know what, I can still fellowship and love the brethren who have opposing views on the divinity of Master Yeshua. It’s all well and good. It won’t necessarily change my understanding and position on the issue however, but I will still value them as fellow believers and I won’t think of maligning or judging their profession of Faith. Someone mentioned to me once when I got my feelings hurt over a negative comment that was made related to one of my postings: this journey we’re on is a sifting process and those that are truly His (aka, our Master) will eventually fall by the wayside or be purged by the Master Himself.

Questions for You

How do you deal with opposition and challenge and the hardness that many members in our Faith community display to one another? As I’ve mentioned in previous episodes of this program, it’s impressive the level of head knowledge/Bible knowledge our people have, but the level of hardness of heart and spirit is just ridiculous to say the least. Where’s the Ruach in our Faith? That’s why I’ve somewhat disconnected from Facebook discussions of late, simply because of the vitriol that is common among the brethren of our Faith. And the question must be asked: how will people ever desire to be part of our community if all we do is gripe, challenge, postulate, debate, etc.? Hey, I’m not immune to this behavior myself. It’s so easy to get caught up in the emotions—that’s it—emotions that are generic to our Faith community. And if anything, the brethren should not get so emotional over issues related to our Faith. Nevertheless, emotions will play a role in our Faith Community. Our Community is made up of human beings and human beings can often be emotional over just about anything.

But maybe it’s time that I share my thoughts on this hot-button of a topic—the Pre-Existence and or Overall Divinity of Master Yahoshua Messiah. It’s not something that most teachers and preachers in and outside our Faith community care to address simply because it is such a hot topic. Most teachers and preachers fear offending members of their congregation and fellowships and losing the so-called tithes and offerings that keep their operations afloat. For me, I have no influx of tithes or offerings coming in to this ministry and the purpose of this podcast ministry is simply to share my thoughts and refections with you and others on a wide host of topics and issues relevant to our walk with Yeshua Messiah. So if, by chance, a listener to this program or visitor to my website vehemently disagrees with my perspective, it’s okay. I would hope that he or she would, instead of abruptly cutting this program off for good or unsubscribing to this ministry, take what I have to reflect upon, do their own research and use what they ultimately learned to firm up their own relationships with Abba Father and day-to day walk with Mashiyach. Hey, I’m not opposed to receiving friendly correspondence and sharing differing points of view on the issue. Iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17—”Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” ESV) and that’s part of what we should do as members of the Body of Messiah: share and discourse and exhort and bless one another. We have not been purposed to offend, hurt, cut down, discourage or any such thing, to others in the community. Sadly, such negative behavior is part and parcel of our Faith community. Needless to say, however, that this ministry and podcast program adamantly rejects such behavior.

My Perspective on Yahoshua HaMashiyach’s Divinity or Lack Thereof

Well, to put it frankly, right off the bat, I DO believe in the divinity of Yahoshua HaMashiyach; although with a big caveat I might add. That caveat is that our Master Yahoshua has been exalted by our Creator to an unprecedented level of existence that I would deem as divine. (Reference Hebrew 1:3-13; Psalm 110—key passages as it relates to the “Exaltation of our Master Yahoshua”) Thus, as it relates to His current state, and the state that He’s been in since His ascension right after His resurrection, I do believe that Yeshua HaMashiyach is now a divine being. However, I do not believe that He is Yahovah/Yahuah/God the Father/the Creator of the Universe nor do I believe He existed from the very beginning. And from that perspective, He would not be divine—maybe better stated, He is not overall divine as one would describe our Creator, Yahuah/Yahovah.

I know, confusing. But for me, it comes down to putting this stuff into proper Biblical perspective, which I hope to adequately explain here coming up.

I have several reasons why I don’t believe in the overall divinity of our Master—or more precisely, the pre-existence of our Master:

1. The Bible does not support Yeshua being anything apart from a created being—specifically He was a man—a human being. (And given how much time has elapsed for this episode already, I will reflect on this point only for the remainder of this episode.)

2. Commonsense does not support Yeshua being God the Father/God the Creator/Yahovah/Yahuah.

3. The Ruach Kodesh has not revealed anything other than Yeshua is Yahovah’s human son who for all intents and purposes is the Last or Second Adam.

4. Church history clearly reveals how the so-called Church came to its current understanding of the identity of their version of our Master and that our Hebrew Roots is still not immune to the Catholic Church’s wide-reaching influences that have existed over the centuries.

Now, before I touch upon each of these three general areas, allow me first to just say that this is simply my perspective on the issue of Messiah’s identity and divinity. I am not here to sway anyone over to my way of thinking and my beliefs. If anything, I would pray that this episode gets you thinking about why you believe what you believe. Is your understanding of Yeshua Messiah based upon the Bible, or is it based upon what your denomination, church, pastor or favorite teacher has taught you? From my perspective, my understanding and identity of Yeshua Messiah comes from the Bible, my God-given commonsense and the Ruach Kodesh operating in my life. Now I have consulted a few publications on this topic over the years in order to nail down some better wording than I can come up with on my own as it relates to this issue. But my belief and understanding on this issue existed before I discovered certain reference books on this topic. My primary go-to-references on this topic are two:

1. “One God & One Lord,” written by the team of John W. Schoenheit, Mark H. Graeser and John A. Lynn

2. “Jesus was Not a Trinitarian—A Call to Return to the Creed of Jesus,” written by Anthony Buzzard

Being open and transparent about these publications, I must warn you that these books were written by hard and fast Fundamentalist Christians who are not members of our Hebrew Roots Faith community. Nevertheless, both publications are based upon a sound biblical perspective on the subject. The way I see it: as long as we’re sticking to the subject of the pre-existence and divinity of our Master Yeshua and we’re not delving into the question of whether Torah observance applies to Believers in Yeshua Messiah today, I can still gain valuable knowledge and insight from you based upon your area of expertise and scholarly research.

I’ve always been a staunch advocate that Father, in His infinite wisdom and providence, gives His Truth to all types of people, regardless their Faith community. It then becomes our job to wade through the superfluous stuff that authors who are not of our ilk might add to their work. And that my friends, is what the Ruach Kodesh is for—to help us in our understanding of Yahoshua Messiah. Master instructed us:

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26, ESV) And then there’s John 14:26—”But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (KJV)

No Biblical Support for the Pre-Existence and Divinity of Master Yeshua

So without further belaboring this thing, let me begin laying out my understanding and belief of the pre-existence and or divinity of Master Yahoshua Messiah by expounding upon reason number one: “The Bible does not support Yeshua being anything apart from a created being—specifically He was a man—a human being.”

As it relates to the Bible being non-supportive of the divinity of the Master, there’s not a whole lot more that I can say. Every time someone in the Messiah pro-divinity camp comes up with a Bible passage or verse that seemingly supports their position on the subject, a careful read of that so-called proof positive passage will in no way hold water and fully support their position on the divinity issue. At best, those so-called proof positive passages only suggests that our Messiah was indeed a very unique and special being: not only to the world and to our Faith, but also to Abba Father. And probably the most used proof-positive passages the pro-divine and pre-existent side of our community uses are John 1 and its other supportive passages. (And I should add that those supportive Johannine supportive passages are few and far between.) Regardless how compelling their arguments might, their offered up proof-positive passages, in my humble opinion, in no way definitively proves that Master Yeshua is Yahovah/Yahuah or that they are one-in-the-same Being. They just don’t. In my opinion, there’s simply not enough literary evidence to support such a grandiose assertion.

Now those who stand behind a divinity and pre-existence interpretation of these passages will often assert that it is by the revelation of the Ruach Kodesh that one gains the proper understanding that Yeshua is Yahovah/is Yahuah/is the Creator/is God—or as the commenter summed up, “Yahusha and Yahuah are one in the same.” I recall this past spring reading a book by a Mr. Lew White, the title of which escapes me at this time, who in that book Mr. White asserted a similar sentiment to that of this commenter. However, Mr. White took his position a bit further by asserting that any who did not believe as he and his ilk did on this issue, those would be destined for a fiery destruction—Thus saith the Lord! (My added dramatics.) And you know, this has always been the approach of many self-professing believers in Yeshua Messiah. And, oh yes, Mr. White is a self-professing Hebrew Rooter.

Despite their varied approaches and efforts to intimidate those who might hold opposing views to the pre-existence and overall divinity of our Master, their behavior and actions still don’t change the fact that the Bible in no clear fashion supports their position on this issue. Now, if these folks are asserting that the revelation of the Ruach Kodesh acts and or reveals things to us that are contrary to the content of our Bibles—that is, the Holy Spirit is in the business of revealing things to believers that may contradict or supersede the content of our Bibles—then maybe we need to look at this and other issues a little differently and agree to disagree. But once we start getting into such controversial positions in the Faith, unity, love and fellowship are certain to suffer and the factions that currently exist in our Faith community are certain to grow in number. This all plays perfectly into the enemy’s hands as you may well be aware.

Despite the lack of Biblical support for the pre-existence and overall divinity of Master Yahoshua, according to the authors of “One God and One Lord,” the so-called “trinitarian concept has held the majority position since the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD.” And just to be clear what I mean by the phrase “The Trinitarian Concept,” which I say is part and parcel of the overall divinity and pre-existence position, the authors of “One God & One Lord” describe it well as: “…the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, they are coequal and co-eternal and together the three (3) of them make one God.” And I should mention that these authors too feel that there is no true support for the trinity or pre-existence of Yeshua Messiah in the Holy Writ.

Here’s an idea: instead of wrestling with one another on whether or not the bible supports the pre-existence and overall divinity of Messiah, why not consider how we arrived to the place in human history that the overwhelming majority of believers in our Faith community believe what they believe. According to Dr. Anthony Buzzard, knowing the truth of how we got the Trinitarian Concept in the first place will help us understand why only but a few people in our Faith community accept the true identity of our Messiah. (My paraphrasing.)

I agree with Dr. Buzzard: that if we take an honest look at the whole of the bible from the perspective of how Master Yahoshua is identified and titled, and then take a look at the set of creeds that emerged out of the various ecumenical councils of Nicea in 325 C.E. and Constantinople in 381 C.E., one will find a stark contrast between the two categories of creeds. That is, the biblical creed of the identity of Yeshua Messiah versus the Church’s creed on the identity of Yeshua Messiah. There is no agreeable comparison whatsoever; at least not from what I can tell. Just saying.

The bible’s creed concerning Yeshua Messiah is that Yeshua was a man, who’s Father was Yahovah/Yahuah, and Yahovah/Yahuah is a stand alone Being without any pre-existing God being companions or competitors. Having just touched upon the concept of creeds as mentioned by Dr. Anthony Buzzard in his book “Jesus Was Not a Trinitarian,” our Hebrew Roots Faith in my opinion, unequivocally demands that we recognize that Yahovah/Yahuah/Yahweh is a single God entity without any other co-existing or competing god-beings to be named or conceived. Deuteronomy 6:4, 5 reads:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (ESV)

Interestingly enough, the pro-trinitarians/binarians/pre-existers lob on to this passage as one of their proof positives to their position on this issue—that LORD is one—somehow denoting that there are multiple beings constituting the “oneness of God” or the so-called “Godhead.” And to be honest, I used to believe this explanation of the Godhead. For those of you who came out of Churchianity, do you recall how we were indoctrinated into communicating the trinitarian concept to others? We were to liken the trinity to water. Remember? Water can exist in three (3) states: a solid when it is in an ice state; a liquid at room temperature or thereabouts; and a gas at high temperatures. And at the time, this explanation made total sense to me and I bought into it lock-stock-and barrel. It wasn’t until I came into this Hebrew Roots community that I began to question the wisdom and accuracy of the trinitarian concept and the pre-existence of our Master Yahoshua Messiah. Upon first entering this Faith, as most of you may or may not know, Hilary and I began with the Church of God splinter groups of United Church of God and Church of God, International. Both these organizations held to a strict “binarian concept” of the Godhead, asserting the pre-existance and overall divinity of Yeshua, but dropping the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Godhead, per se. But even within the realm of the Church of God splinters, there was still debate as to whether Jesus was God the Father or that Jesus and God the Father were separate, but eternal co-existing entities. So even in the well-established realm of the Churches of God, there has always remained some semblance of an argument on this subject.

Well, I think I will stop here and pick up next time on this subject. I guess I was foolish to think that I would be able to contain my thoughts and reflections on this issue/subject in just one episode of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections. It seems to me that I may be looking at a couple more episodes on this issue before I can adequately and thoroughly present my position.

I hope and trust that I have not caused you to stumble or become discouraged over my discussion of this issue. Again, my purpose in bringing this up in the first place, is to encourage you to seriously consider why you believe what you believe regarding the most important person ever to walk this earth: Yahoshua HaMashiyach. Shaul described Master to the Colossian Assembly as:

“for in Him were all things created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16, ASV)

(Take note that the KJV and several other translations word this verse as saying that “for by Him were all things created,” which of course adds fuel to the pro-exister, divine position. The Greek word “en” spelled “epsilon nu,” in English means simply “in.” So I’m pretty convinced that the ASV, CJB, DRA, ERV, NAB and NIV are more accurate in translating this verse from the existing Greek manuscripts.

But my point is, if I can get you to step back and Biblically evaluate and determine just who Yeshua Messiah is, just like this commenter has pushed me to put my thoughts on this issue together and present them to you, and you come out of that evaluation with a firm understanding of what manner of Being Yeshua Messiah truly is, then I consider my mission accomplished. Because the way I see it is: if we fully understanding and know who Yeshua HaMashiyach was in the Bible; who He is today; and who He will be in the World Tomorrow, then we by default will fully understand and know who we are today and who we are to become in the World Tomorrow.