Lev 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
All this talk about the blood atonement that is bantered about lately curiously falls around Israel’s holiday of Yom Kippur. (See ‘What’s with the blood‘ and ‘Stricken by God‘). The need for a blood atonement has always offended people, from a Christian perspective it is called the offence of the cross. I wonder if Adam and Eve were offended when God sacrificed an animal to cover Adam and Eve’s sin? The blood atonement is an affront to mankind, full-stop.
Trying to skirt around the horrid nature of atonement and obviously the disagreeable reality of the blood that is needed to bring back man and reconcile him with his creator, is a failure to see ones fallen nature and ones sin in all its horridness, brutal, barbaric and diagreeable reality. One needs to clean it up so one does not see the truth of the matter! Clean it up, make it not so brutal, happily 
look away from that nasty mess, put on the biggest rose coloured glasses imaginable and think of happy thoughts. (See ‘re words‘ and ‘That cursed Fig Tree‘)
Anyway, after emailing a very hard working friend of mine he mentioned this word - hilasterion - to me, which is the greek word for propitiation found in this verse…
Rom 3:25 whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, as a demonstration of His righteousness through the passing over of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God,
What does this word relate to? It relates to the mercy seat, the lid that covers ‘The Ark of the Covenant’. The blood of atonement was to be sprinkled on this Ark, and now we have the completed fulfillment of this by the blood of Christ mentioned throughout the NT. It is in fact one of the main themes of the NT, if not THE main theme.
To deny this bloody sacrifice - it is, what it is - is to deny the whole works of the cross and the fulfillment of the law required of God. To deny it is to come under the works of the law again. Rememeber …
Rom 3:25-30 whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, as a demonstration of His righteousness through the passing over of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God, for a demonstration of His righteousness in the present time, for His being just and justifying the one that is of the faith of Jesus. Then where is the boasting? It was excluded. Through what law? Of works? No, but through a Law of faith. Then we conclude a man to be justified by faith without works of Law. Or is He the God of Jews only, and not also of the nations? Yes, of the nations also, since it is one God who will justify circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
By faith we are justified. The law points to our sin, the law points to the blood needed for appeasement, penal substitutionary atonement and reconcilation because of our sin, the law if followed without the faith that Christ has fulfilled the law makes us guilty of every law even if we commit just one thing against the law of God.
Jas 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all.
Don’t try to white wash it!
Related Article
AMEN!
AMEN right back at ya!
That post took a little research and soul searching for me.
I may write something more about the horizontal vs vertical reconciliation at the beginning of the week. It is just something that I have come across when I researched the atonement in Christ.
V
[...] Left or Right — You Decide ← Yom Kippur - Life in the blood [...]
[...] Yom Kippur - Life in the blood [...]
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the Blood of Christ
by Stephen Yulish PhD
During the Jewish High Holy Day of Yom Kippur (tonight),the Day of
Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-34), the High Priest went into the Holy of
Holies in the Temple to sprinkle sacrificial blood on the Mercy Seat of the
Ark to cleanse the sins of the people of Israel (Leviticus 16:20-22). A
crimson cloth was placed on the outside of the Holy of Holies which would turn
white when the process worked (Isaiah 1:18) and it always did. It always did
until forty years before the destruction of the Temple, when according to the
Jews own Talmud (rabbinic commentary),Yoma 39 a&b and Rosh Hashanah 31b, this
crimson cloth stopped turning white. Also, the lot that the High Priest picked
for the goat to be sacrificed to the Lord ceased coming up in his right hand
and began coming up in his left hand which was the hand which always was for
the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:7-10) which had all the sins placed on it and led
out of town.
Also, according to the rabbis own commentary (Talmud) the western light in the
Temple would not keep burning as before and the doors of the Temple would no
longer open by themselves!
What happened forty years before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD? Jesus
the Christ died for our sins once and for all around 30 AD. He became the
scarlet thread of salvation. By His blood, our sins are washed away and we are
white as snow. The Temple and its blood sacrifices of goats and bulls
(Leviticus 17:11) were no longer needed to cleanse us of our sins (Hebrews
9:11-15).Jesus is all we now need. He is our High Priest who made atonement
for
our sins once and for all in a holy place not built by human hands (Hebrews
9:24-26).
Praise His Holy Name,
That was a great comment Stephen, thanks heaps for the information.
Jesus is definitely all we need, I couldn’t agree with you more.
V
Iran, Israel and Armilus-the Jewish Antichrist
Stephen Yulish PhD
Much has been written of late concerning the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s claim that he had a mystical vision of the return of the 12th Islamic Imam, a child who disappeared in the year 941, who will be the Mahdi, the Islamic Messiah. When this Mahdi returns, he will reign for 7 years and then bring final judgment and the end of the world. Many Christians believe that he actually will be what the New Testament calls the Antichrist who will rule and reign for seven years during the Tribulation. It makes us all see more clearly not only how those left behind after the harpazo (rapture) will be deceived to believe that those Christians who disappeared to be with Jesus in the clouds were actually abducted by the mass of UFOs all over the skies, but also how those left behind will believe that the Antichrist who appears is actually the Messiah.
False prophets and messiahs have always been with us and the Bible warns us to be aware of them whether they are a Jim Jones or a David Koresh or the great Matraiya, or a Rev. Moon or the Lubuvitcher Rabbi Shneerson or the coming Mahdi. This warning is however especially important when it comes to Islam and Judaism because these are the very people who have rejected Christ and will be left behind to suffer together through these terrible yet deceptive times of Jacob’s trouble, the so called Tribulation. Satan has deceived the Muslims to believe that their Messiah will come in the end times and rule for seven years and then will bring final judgment and the end of the world. We know from the word of God that it will be the Antichrist that will rule for 7 years and then be defeated by the return of Jesus Christ who will bring final judgment and the end of the world. Muslim doctrine on this Mahdi, which is not part of the Koran but actually is part of oral tradition, is the work of Satan to deceive them and not bring them to the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Satan is alive and well in the mosques of today as he once was in the Catholic Church of the Inquisition and pogroms and the Lutheran Church of the Nazis. In both instances, Satan convinced the willing to persecute God’s chosen people and to try and destroy them. Satan hates the Jews because the Messiah came through them and the word of God was written by them. Also, if he can destroy Israel then where will the end time Temple be rebuilt and where will Jesus Christ return to rule and reign for 1000 years? Islam speaks of the prophet Isa (Jesus) returning in the last days to help the Mahdi defeat the evil one. Thus Islam has the two major players involved in the end times, Christ and the Antichrist, but has them terribly mixed up and jumbled. They will be deceived.
Unfortunately, this discussion of the Messiah (Christ) and the Antichrist is not only limited to Christians and Muslims. Jewish tradition also speaks very clearly about the person called the Antichrist. Neither most Christians nor most Jews have ever heard of this concept. An excellent summary of all the Jewish literature relating to this concept can be found in the Encyclopedia Judaica under the name Armilus. Armilus was the legendary Jewish name of the Messianic antagonist or anti Messiah.
According to the apocalyptic Midrashim, Sefer Zerubbavel, and the medieval sage Saadia Gaon’s Midrash Ge’ullah and well as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan there will arise a Messiah ben Joseph (the first of two Jewish Messiahs) who will be slain (pierced) by Armilus in the end times war of Gog and Magog prior to the time of redemption. He in turn will be killed by Messiah ben David the second Messiah. Jews say there are two Messiahs but it is actually one Messiah coming twice.
Midrash Ge’ullah states that “Satan Armilus is whom the Gentiles call antichrist but there is no proof of Christian influence.” Imagine, the Jews claiming the Antichrist for themselves and denying any Christian influence? That is amazing and ultimately so sad. The name Armilus is thought to come from the Roman name Romulus because the Jews hated Rome for destroying the Second Temple and decimating Jerusalem. The Encyclopedia Judaica states that Satan Armilus will have hold of the terrestrial world but Messiah will have control of heaven and eternal kingdom. Armilus’s evil deeds are described in the Midrash Ge’ullah. He will be “the least of kings, son a bondwoman, monstrous in appearance”. He will be born of a beautiful virgin, born of a stone. This was probably from a Roman legend by Virgil that in Rome a marble statue of a beautiful maiden formed not by human hands but by God was defiled by the wicked sons of Belial and would come and lie with her and impregnate the stone and thus create Satan Armilus. He will be 12 cubits tall and two cubits broad with a space between his eyes which are crooked and red. His hair is golden and the soles of his feet are green. He also will have two heads.
In my novel, Invasion: Israel, I created a fictional representative of this Jewish Antichrist, Satan Armilus, as a Dr. Sam Armilus, who embodied many of these characteristics.
My Dr.Armilus was of Jewish ancestry and was also a homosexual as the Prophet Daniel intimated. He will deceive the entire world into believing that He is God and will reign over the entire world. He will come with 10 kings together and fight over Jerusalem. He will slay Messiah ben Joseph and many other righteous men. Armilus will banish Israel to the wilderness and there be great distress for them and they will have to hide in caves. He will take the stone from which he was born and make her the chief of all idolatry. All will bow down to her and pour out libations to her. No one can look on her face for any reason. Is this the abomination of desolation mentioned in the Bible?
This marble virgin motif was a result of Virgil’s story popular in Rome coupled with the Christianity story of the Immaculate Conception and the worship of images both of which the Jews rejected. At the end, Messiah ben David will come and defeat Armilus’s 500,000 hosts and bring deliverance for Israel and the kingdom of heaven will come over the entire earth.
Once again this concept of the Antichrist in Jewish lore is one which is foreign to most Jews let alone most Christians. It is akin to the Jew who says that Jesus never existed because there is no record of him other than the New Testament. When it is pointed out that not only does the Talmud speak of Him but it talks of His being put to death for blasphemy and sorcery. “Jesus of Nazareth was going to be stoned for sorcery. A plea went out for anyone to plead on his behalf and nobody responded so he was hanged on a tree on the eve of Passover” (b.sanhedrin 43a. t.sanhedrin 10:11, g.sanhedrin 7:16. 67a). Moses Maimonides the medieval Jewish sage also spoke of Jesus in his Mishneh Torah where he spoke of “Jesus of Nazareth who aspired to be the Messiah and was executed by the court (Sanhedrin)”. So the Jewish person must be shown that his assumptions about Jesus and probably likewise the Jewish Antichrist are false. Most Christians as well, will not believe that Jewish extra biblical Midrashim and legends speak of Satan Armilus as the Antichrist and that they claimed that it was not a result of Christian influence.
These medieval Jewish storytellers spoke of two Messiahs. The first Messiah, son of Joseph who will be pierced by Satan Armilus (sounds like Jesus doesn’t it?), in the end time battle of Gog and Magog and then Armilus would be defeated by Messiah son of David (Second coming of Christ,) who would usher in Kingdom of God.
Many Jews will be deceived to believe that the appearance of Armilus, the Jewish Antichrist, is actually their Messiah. The Muslims will also be deceived to believe that the return of the Mahdi is their Messianic savior rather than the Antichrist. Ironically both the Muslims and the Jews will be deceived in the end of days.
In my novel, Invasion: Israel, Dr. Sam Armilus (my character representing the Antichrist) works hand in hand with Azazel, the fallen angel extraterrestrial in his UFO, to not only keep the Jews and Muslims deceived as to the truth concerning the disappearance of the Christians into the air to be kept from harm by Jesus, but also to kill the witness of those who call out to Jesus by beheading them. Armilus and Azazel also collaborate to convince the world that the Israelis (Jews) are vermin that need to be eradicated by a massive tank invasion.
No matter what Ahmadinejad or Bush or Olmert or Putin choose to do, remember that the Persian-Russian invasion of Israel was spelled out 2500 years ago by the Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel.
“When these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near”, Luke 21:28.
Dr. Stephen, thanks for the comment. I am pretty busy today, and I will got through it today, and will perhaps post about it in a few days.A woman’s work is never done you know.
I have had a cursory look at your novels on Amazon and they look really interesting.
I really appreciate your input. In fact if you have any other useful information you can contact me from my About L~J page in the email box provided.
V
Paula’s Miraculous Christmas Cookie Basket
by Stephen Yulish
Every year for the past eighteen years at this time of year, Paula takes out the same beautiful Christmas Cookie Basket that I gave to her way back in 1989. The amazing and yet obviously disconcerting thing was that I was living with another woman at the time! What was the big deal, I had asked myself? I know. I know. So sue me!
Let me tell you a wonderful Christmas story, an amazing, godly love story, of a beauty (Paula) and a beast (yours truly) that is truly stranger than fiction. Who knew?
Paula and my coworker (we both worked at the same company in Phoenix), Jeffrey Kastner’s wife Robin, made these beautiful holiday cookie baskets in her garage for extra money. Sure she was Jewish, but she made Christmas as well as Chanukah baskets. Hey, money is money. That’s my people.
I decided to get one for Paula. We had known each other at work since 1987, although we had never dated (she was a believing Christian and I was an unbelieving Jew who was living with another woman), although I had tried once (maybe twice?) but she had rebuffed me-imagine that? I had told Paula that I could have her during the day and my girlfriend at night. Paula had thought at the time that I was nuts, crazy, off the wall, at least contemptible at best. Whatever! Imagine that?
We had become increasingly drawn to one another, however, especially when against all odds I had accepted the Lord in October of 1988 after I had a series of visions and a dream and I was born again. Even though the Christian men at work like Philip and Chuck had been witnessing to me relentlessly for a year, I had not been receptive or convinced. Then God had revealed Himself to me directly, and I had believed!
But the problem was that I had not shown any outward change in my behavior in the year since (i.e. moving out from my girlfriend’s apartment, going to church or reading my new Bible). I had as they say dirty diapers as any newborn does. I knew the Lord in my heart and had seen Him myself in my divine revelations, but this stiff necked Jew could not nor would not change easily. Does anyone? I was a newborn Christian and I kept on messing up (my diapers). I still do occasionally even now, but I’m sure none of you ever does that.
I had contemplated moving out from my “roommate” but, because of health issues which were acute back then as they are once again today, I was fearful that if it did not work out with Paula I would have to fend for myself. That was even though my “girlfriend” had told me that if I ever needed real help (as I do today) she would just leave. Her best friend in college had married a guy who had gotten MS and died soon after.
Boy was I ever blind and stupid! She also told me that she would not marry me because she had some money in the bank and she did not want it to go my boys if we married and I died. Oy vay! She was clearly Jewish. I had often gone to Paula as my confidant and told her about the outrageous statements of this woman. Paula had advised me to get out. We had become good friends. I had gotten very upset when guys came to see her work or sent her flowers. I told her that they were not right for her. When she had asked me who was right for her, I had told her, me. She answered ‘yeah right, you are living with someone else!’ Persnickety wasn’t she? Ha!
Well, I bought that cookie basket for Paula and they delivered it to her great surprise. Her mother was living with her at that time and helping her take care of her two daughters, Kendra and Andrea. I had met her mother a couple of times at the office Christmas party and she apparently had also helped pray me into the Kingdom. Her second husband, Joe Labensky, had been a Jew (believer) who owned several businesses in a small town in Oklahoma. Anyway, Geneva loved the Jews and Israel. After I got saved, thanks in part to the efforts of Philip and Chuck as well as her daughter Paula, she had begun to pray for Paula and me to get together. Yeah right, fat chance, especially given my imprudent behavior. But God had a plan for my life.
When my three sons came to visit me that Christmas of 1989, I took them to see Paula and Geneva. I don’t know what motivated me but I got her address from someone and just went over there when my girlfriend was at work. The boys loved Paula and Geneva who made them French fries and talked about Israel.
The next month, January of 1990, Paula had finally had enough. She said later that she was beginning to really care for me but I was not responding. She used to be a secretary at Phoenix First Assembly under Tommy Barnett and that was still where she went to church. One day in late January, she had gone to the mountain behind the church and told the Lord that He should find someone else to take care of me because it was getting too painful. Unbelievably, at that same time, I found out later, I was at Acapulco Bay Beach Company Restaurant with my girlfriend somehow mouthing the words that it was over between us (it actually had been for quite a while) and I wanted to move out. As soon as Paula had given me back to the Lord, He had given me back to her. Can you believe that?
I moved out and got an apartment. I waited till the end of the month because I had already paid the rent. So sue me! When I had told the boys, they were elated and told me that never really liked that other woman who had been mean to them. Josh asked me if I was going to marry Paula. Out of the mouths of babes!
Our first date was January 25, 1990 and we went to dinner at a fancy restaurant but neither of us ate very much, we just stared at one another. Then we went to a Friday night service at Jewish Voice Messianic Ministries. My Christian clients had given me their magazine for years and I had always just thrown it away. Shelley Volk was the leader but he soon left to lead a Church in Paradise Valley. Since he was Jewish, they soon had the largest group of saved Jews in Phoenix. We followed him there. I began going to church and praying and reading my bible. I took my first communion there also (with matzo).
God knew that I needed help in my new life with Him so He had brought in the reinforcements, aka Paula and her mother Geneva, to truly disciple me. I went over there every night for dinner and Geneva even washed my clothes. She shrank everything, bless her heart. Geneva, Paula and I talked about the Lord and the Bible every night after we blessed the food which I had never done before.
I proposed to Paula on March 2 and again against all odds she accepted. She told me that she would marry me in spite of my MS as opposed to my ex girlfriend who would not marry me because of my MS. I even got down on my knee and asked Geneva for her hand. Our boss who also was a Christian asked Paula if she really wanted to marry me. He was not convinced that I was truly a Christian because as I said my outward behavior had not changed. There was no fruit. Paula told him that she knew my heart and I was truly a born again, Believer. That woman has real discernment. Watch out!
We asked Shelley Volk to marry us but he wanted us to have premarital counseling which of course was the correct thing to do. I said counseling, shmounseling, ‘forget about it’. We want to get married ASAP, know what I mean? Paula asked Associate Pastor of Phoenix First Assembly, Jack Wallace, whom she had previously worked for, to marry us. He did a couple of counseling sessions and married us on March 30, 1990 in front of the fountains at Phoenix First.
Given all of my troubled past and the haste of our marriage without premarital counseling it should never have worked. Throw in my inability to work much and all the financial as well as health obstacles and you would think that this marriage was doomed from the start. Well, going on 18 years later, it is stronger than ever which shows that God was in it from the beginning. Paula and I consider each other our beshert, our soul mate. It has been just the two of us and Jesus from day one. He has been the center of our lives and our Rock and our Redeemer. We could not have done it without Him. And, as all of you who know her, my wife Paula is not only a beautiful, sweet, loving, woman but she is truly a Proverbs 31 godly woman. Right? She has had to go back to work at NAU (new age university) and never has complained as well as having to care for me as my health has deteriorated. God had a plan all along. I truly love that precious woman and thank God for her.
First, the Lord gave me, this poor, pathetic, lost, schnook, the saving grace of His Son but then He gave me Paula. I have been doubly blessed and know that it was His grace and mercy that gave me both, not my deeds which were deplorable. Remember, I gave Paula that Christmas Cookie Basket while I was still living with another woman. OY! Can you imagine?
Only by the grace of God did we ever get married. Who knew? Geneva was ecstatic at our marriage and I became the favorite son in law even though Paula’s sisters’ husbands, Chuck and Bob, were fine Christian men who did everything for her. But I was a Jew. I loved that woman. On her deathbed in 1996, she screamed out for her doctor and nurses to come when I showed up. “Doctor, Doctor, this is my Jew son in law”, she had yelled. Her last words to Paula were to take care of me because I was a Jew and special to God. Whenever Paula and I had gotten into an argument, Geneva would blame Paula even when I admitted to starting it. That little spirit filled Baptist lady was exactly what I needed at the time.
Even though it is made of real cookies that cookie basket it is still intact and has not decayed even after 18 years just as our marriage has not either. Okay, Paula sprayed it with polyurethane. Sue me! Maybe she should spray me also. What are you laughing at!! Ha!
People often ask me if I believe in miracles. What they are really saying is do I have the faith to believe that God will heal me. Every time I look upon that Christmas Cookie Basket, my faith in God’s miracles is reaffirmed. Every morning that I wake up and glance upon that beautiful, spirit filled angel sleeping next to me, my faith in God’s miracles is also reaffirmed. If God can reach down and touch this once lost and perishing sinner and forgive me and give me eternal life and then give me heaven here on this earth with Paula, He can do anything. I believe!
Merry Christmas
Wow, thanks for your wonderful testimony Stephen.
You really do sound blessed by God. May you have a wonderful and blessed Christmas with your wonderful wife Paula and the rest of your family.
Thanks again for stopping by.