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Have you ever had someone say to you, “I believe in Yahushua, but I just can’t buy the creation story”? I remember a conversation with my father once about 34 years ago. We were discussing the Bible and he asked me if I really believed the creation story, and I said that I did, much to his amazement. I am relatively certain that, as a self-professing “Christian,” he was not alone. And in fact, I would dare to assume that it might be the prevailing sentiment among non-evangelical churchgoers today. Add to that some of the other miracles of the Hebrew Bible, such as the Flood and the Exodus, and you have a number of historical events that severely challenge a lot of nominal Christians. They do not believe that these momentous events are real history.
The same people who find it difficult to accept the miracle narratives of the Old Testament may also find it difficult to believe that Yahushua actually walked on water or changed water to wine or resurrected Lazarus. When you begin playing editor-in-chief with the Scriptures, you can quickly find yourself justifying any rejection of a portion of the Scriptures that doesn’t fit your personal worldview. In many cases one of two mental processes is occurring. Either the individual holds that all that is required is to believe that Yahushua is the Savior, and what Yahushua said or did doesn’t matter. Or, Yahushua is some kind of metaphor for a type of Eastern mystical righteousness.
It seems incongruous and contradictory that anyone would call themselves “Christian” and at the same time deny parts of that same Bible that Yahushua and the Apostles confirmed over and over again. It’s like saying to Yahuwah, “I accept your Son as Savior and Lord but I reject what he said and did. And by the way, I also reject what you have said about Yahushua.” You can’t have it both ways. When Yahushua says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” you reject his words at your own peril. It seems fashionable these days to accept a designer Messiah, one who fits nicely into a modern amalgamation of today’s lifestyle and belief sets. I don’t think that will go over big with the Father who says in Malachi 3:6, “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” Yahuwah does not alter His plans and laws to fit conveniently into a generation’s lifestyle or norms. We as created beings must be molded into Yahuwah’s ideal, that being the man Messiah Yahushua (1 Tim. 2:5).
Yahuwah does not alter His plans and laws to fit conveniently into a generation’s lifestyle or norms.
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So what is true belief all about? It is about Yahushua being the link and the bridge between the first covenant and the second covenant. It is about Yahushua’s words confirming the law, the writings and the prophets. It is about bringing Yahuwah’s revelation to its intended full meaning — “fulfilling” it. It is about Yahushua approving and appointing Apostles through whom Yahuwah would speak and further spread His ideas of salvation and the kingdom. Those Apostles suffered and died for the Word, the Gospel about the Kingdom, and all that had been written before them. Is it conceivable that Stephen would be martyred (Acts 7) after laying out the history of Israel to the Jews if he really believed that some of those very events that he described were only fables? And where did Stephen get his information? Was it not from the scrolls read every Sabbath in the synagogues, the very same scrolls that our Lord Yahushua read from and believed? Is there ever any indication that Yahushua didn’t believe the narratives that were read to him and from which he learned? If there is I have never read about it.
Now if Yahushua believed the Scriptures and the Apostles believed the Scriptures, then how can one claim to believe in Yahushua and deny what he and his chosen agents believed? Let’s take a look at some of the confirming Scriptures that unequivocally show that Yahushua believed all of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi (or the same books in the order in which he knew them, from Genesis to 2 Chronicles).
Let’s see where Yahushua and the Apostles make solid reference to the miracles of Genesis-Deuteronomy and also to the canon of the Hebrew Bible. Yahushua wondered if he would find faith when he returned. Faith is believing (as “Abraham believed Yahuwah, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”). The world’s constant tendency is to find ways not to believe. But as Christians we must always be seeking ways to support our belief. If that is not the case then why bother with faith at all? If you seek to undermine the very documents which promise life everlasting then you have come to the purest definition of confusion. The following is a list of confirming Scriptures. It is by no means exhaustive but it does cover the spectrum and lends support to scriptural continuity and the Bible’s unified message.
Luke 3:23-38 takes Yahushua’ lineage back to Adam. There is no indication that Yahushua repudiated these genealogies. To the contrary, he acknowledged the connection to Noah, Methuselah and Jacob.
Matthew 2:5-13. The fulfillment of the ancient Micah 5:2 prophecy concerning Yahushua’ birth in Bethlehem creating the link to the minor prophets and their references to the cataclysms chronicled in the Torah.
Matthew 4:1-10. Yahushua quotes Deuteronomy and Psalms in answering Satan during his temptation in the wilderness.
Matthew 5:17. Yahushua says, “Think not that I have come to destroy the law [Pentateuch] and the prophets [Isaiah-Malachi, including also Joshua-2 Kings, known as the former prophets], but to uphold and fulfill them.” Yahushua believed in these Scriptures and what they revealed about the past and the future. He did not single out certain “uncomfortable” historical or eschatological events and comment on their authenticity. Whether it was the creation story or Sodom and Gomorrah or the Flood, he, by his direct support and lack of criticism, confirmed his belief in those events. He could do nothing less since he was the final “Word” or expression of Yahuwah and his purpose for being was to uphold the word and spread the message of Yahuwah’s Kingdom.
Matthew 10:15. Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned by Yahushua as standing a better chance of vindication in the Judgment than some of those towns which were exposed to the preaching of Yahushua or his Apostles.
Matthew 19:4-8. Yahushua refers to the Creation when Yahuwah, the Father, made mankind as male and female. Yahushua did not redact the creation narrative. He believed the Scriptures as read every Sabbath in the synagogues.
Matthew 12:38-41. Yahushua refers to Jonah being three days and nights in the belly of a whale.
Matthew 24:37-39. Yahushua likens the end of this present age to the days prior to the Flood and Noah entering the ark. Once again there was no editing on the part of Yahushua. He took the flood to be a historical event.
Matthew 24:15. Yahushua links Daniel’ s end-time prophecy of the “abomination of desolation” with a sign of his future coming and the end of the age.
John 10:34-36. In answering the Jews, Yahushua comments on the word of Yahuwah that had been given to them and adds that “Scripture cannot be broken.” How many times did Yahushua chastise the Jews for not knowing the very Scriptures that they knew came from Yahuwah (YHWH)? Yahushua never corrected the word; he upheld it and indicted the Jews for their hardened hearts and unbelief.
Acts 24:14. The apostle Paul in his response to accusations brought against him before Felix said, “According to the Way, which they [the Jews] call a sect, I worship the Yahuwah of our fathers, believing everything written in the Law [Pentateuch] and the Prophets.” There was no hesitation here. Paul was dogmatic about his belief and appealed to the scriptural source of his faith. “The law and the prophets and writings” (Luke 24:44) were contained within the two bookends of the Hebrew Bible. The writings included some historical books as well as Psalms and Proverbs and Daniel.
Romans 1:18-20. Paul refers to the creation, not in a poetic metaphorical sense, but in a real and historical sense. I don’t think that Paul would have been swayed in his thinking by the theory of evolution. Interestingly enough, the Greeks were the first to propose and teach a form of evolution. Darwin just brought it forward in time. Paul was undoubtedly familiar with Greek teaching since it shaped the prevailing world view of the time throughout the Roman Empire.
Romans 5:14. “Death reigned from Adam to Moses.” Paul knew and believed that Yahuwah created Adam as the first man (not as an evolving organism), and he gave no indication that pagan Greek thinking had clouded his understanding of the plain sense of the Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4. Paul rehearses the Exodus and Israel passing through the Red Sea and compares it to baptism. He saw the “rock” as a type or pattern pointing forward to the coming Messiah. Paul did not believe that the Son of Yahuwah was alive before he was born!
2 Corinthians 11:3. Paul compares going astray from the simplicity of Yahushua to the episode when the Serpent deceived Eve. Paul did not feel it necessary to challenge the creation account.
Hebrews 1-4. Paul describes how mankind fits into the creation plan and compares man to the angels’ position in the past and future.
1 Peter 3:20. Peter lends his considerable weight, having walked and talked with Yahushua for many years, to the Noachian Flood narrative. Once again, there is no problem with Peter’s belief and understanding. He took the Hebrew Bible literally as a historical narrative.
2 Peter 2:6-8. Peter recounts the history of the ancient world and how Yahuwah spared righteous Lot from the cataclysm that befell Sodom and Gomorrah.
Finally, the book of Revelation is replete with references to the Hebrew Bible. There are some 450 allusions to it. This is the revelation of Yahuwah, which He gave to Yahushua to pass on to the churches. We have come full circle from Genesis to Revelation and the continuity of the Scriptures is confirmed. No Apostle broke ranks and challenged the revealed knowledge coming from Yahuwah the Father and His Messiah Yahushua who is Yahuwah’s final messenger, Son of Yahuwah and of David and the promised prophet (Deut. 18:15-18; Acts 3:22; 7:37). No Apostle ever intimated that he did not believe the Holy Scriptures or that his Lord Messiah (Luke 2:11) was in any way mistaken.
Yahushua upheld the authority of canon and Scripture in every instance and passed that faith along to the Apostles. If we are truly to claim the designation “Christian” then how can we deny these unbreakable links to the past? To say “I believe in Yahushua” and yet reject the very Scriptures he confirmed is beyond understanding. Yahushua was the Word incarnate. He could not have denied or challenged the revealed Scriptures any more than he could have denied Yahuwah. It wasn’t Yahushua’ responsibility to edit the Scriptures but it was his responsibility to uphold them.
I believe I can safely say that anyone who denies the narratives of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament: Law, prophets and writings, Luke 24:44) and the Greek New Testament Scriptures is at odds with Yahushua and Yahuwah. Yahushua bridges the Old and New Testaments with one foot in Genesis and one foot in Revelation. And he is telling the world and Satan, “This is my domain. Stay out of the way.”
Yahuwah, the Father revealed His word to the fathers and prophets who wrote and preserved the sacred Hebrew Scriptures (Luke 24:44). Only after that Old Testament time did Yahuwah speak through His Son, Yahushua, the word, a supernaturally begotten human being (Heb. 1:1-2; Luke 1:35). Yahushua fully confirmed those Scriptures, introduced the New Covenant, affirmed not the Law of Moses but “grace and truth” (John 1:14, 17). Having completed his work Yahushua now sits at the right hand of Yahuwah (“my lord” in Ps. 110:1), as High Priest, awaiting the green light to return to earth and set the record straight once and for all to an unbelieving and rebellious world. The Greek New Testament Scriptures record Yahuwah’s final word to us in His Son, the son of David.
