IdentityCrisis2

The Finding Emet radio program aims to help people understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The host, Daniel Rendleman, discusses the concept of identity crisis and how it affects individuals. He explains that our identity is shaped by our culture, surroundings, and experiences. Many people are unaware of this and go through life without questioning their beliefs and actions. Rendleman emphasizes the importance of discovering one's true identity and living according to biblical principles. He also criticizes the lack of true holiness and the similarity between Christians and non-Christians in their beliefs and practices. Rendleman encourages listeners to embrace their biblical heritage and live out their faith authentically. Hello, and welcome to the Finding Emet radio program. Emet is the Hebrew word for truth. This program will help you understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The Finding Emet radio program features the teaching ministry of Brother Daniel Rendleman of Emet Ministries. Prepare your heart to receive the Emet, the truth of the scriptures. More audio lessons and teaching articles are available at the www.emetministries.com website. Please visit our site to find all things spiritual, including a free online Bible search program or submit your prayer request. That's www.emetministries.com or www.findemet.com. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website. Let's welcome our teacher, Daniel Rendleman, as he helps us find the Emet. Hello. What if who you think you are really isn't true? What if you woke up one day to find out that all you hold dear in life is full of lies, hypocrisy, and evil influences? What if you came to your senses and found out that who you are is really somebody different? Psychologists and doctors call this experience an identity crisis. According to Dictionary.com, an identity crisis is a condition of disorientation and role confusion occurring as a result of conflicting internal and external experiences, pressures, and expectations. According to them, an identity crisis is a state of confusion. Having an identity crisis is scarier than you might think. Now everybody is scared of something right now, but perhaps the biggest threat facing humanity is not terrorism. Perhaps the biggest problem in the world is not nuclear war or famine. Maybe the largest problem facing mankind is the loss of identity. Humanity is going through a life-changing identity crisis, yet millions of people have not woke up to this fact. Like a bear in deep hibernation, the masses of people are asleep to this truth. Most people are snoring away to the complexity and the solution of this dilemma of identity. You see, you, yes you, you are a direct result of your surroundings. If you take away anything from this teaching, please take to heart and understand that you are a result and a sum of your culture. You are who you are because of the stimuli around you. You do what you do because of the influences that have shaped your life. The language you speak, well, you probably speak that because people around you do so. The clothes you wear, well, they are determined by your surroundings' climate and style and culture. The holidays you even celebrate, they are determined by the culture of your upbringing. Think about this for a minute, folks. What you think about life, what you think about politics, about the Bible, about social issues like divorce or abortion or voting rights or anything like that, any social issues is greatly influenced and determined by the events in your life and the people in your life. See, unless you've made a conscious decision to change, you are a direct result, you are direct reflection of your culture. To put it plainly, if you take your life experiences and you add that to your surrounding influences plus any independent decisions you make, that equals who you are. Or let me give you another example. A person in Iran, just think about a person in Iran for a minute, that person in Iran might speak with a Middle Eastern accent, a person in Iran might worship at a mosque, a person in Iran might wear a certain style of clothing and believe things about the world and about America simply because the society of Iran models and teaches these things. Now if the same person, this exact same person was born in South Africa or even South America or even South Carolina, things would be very different. Now you were probably raised in what is considered a Christian home and celebrated Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas in a Christian nation. Now you did these things whether or not you believed in Christ simply because America is considered a Christian nation. I mean just think, have you ever taken a class on how to celebrate Christmas? Of course not. I mean that would just be crazy, you know. This culture of ours, this culture in America influences people to do things. You see, you've never taken a class on how to do Easter because your culture and your surroundings influenced you and your family influenced you to keep this holiday. It's just part of natural life, normal routine. As effortless as breathing, you know, you pull out the decorations every year around December and you deck the halls. But you've most likely never stopped to ask yourself why. Why do you do these things? Why do you deck the halls and feel all jolly in December? This is where this plague upon humanity comes in. You see, there's a plague upon humanity right now. And the plague is people are going through the motions. Humanity is going through an identity crisis. People who say they believe in Messiah, the Savior, have lost their identity. They are not untouchable. They're not immune to this plague and loss of who they really are. And so friend, this plague of identity theft and identity crisis is worse than the plague of the AIDS, is worse than the plague of SARS and the flu epidemic all combined. It's a disease that has spread worldwide, yet few people are aware of its devastating presence. Few people are aware of identity's effect. From England to Mexico to China to America, no one is immune to the consequences of this corruption that is going on. Please stop for just a minute and think about a few things. Think about this for a minute. Doesn't it make sense that you are who you are because of your surroundings, because of your culture? Look deep into your mirror of identity and ask yourself a couple questions, honestly. Ask yourself, why do I believe what I do about life? Why do I believe what I do about social issues? Why do I wear the clothes I'm wearing? Why do I believe what I do about the Bible or about the Almighty? Well, if you're like most people, you are neck deep in your society and you're about to drown to the essence of who you really are. You're about to drown to who you were created to be, so we're going to throw you a life preserver. Folks, I know this is very alarming, but your true self, your true lifestyle, your true culture is very different than what you've been raised in and accepted. It is now time to wake up from the slumber. It's time to come to grips with the loss of your identity, life asleep from your eyes. Discover who you actually are in the family of the Almighty. You see, you're not just a believer in the Bible. You are part of the Bible. The Bible is your family scrapbook, and it's not hard to find yourself within its pages. Just open it up and read about your fathers. It's not just history, it's your story, and it's his story, history. Read about the family in the Bible. Read about your family tree, it's your genealogy. It's all there in the scriptures. You see, if you were to take a trip to a local mall and randomly ask people if they are Christians or not, you'll find that most people will respond with an alarming, well of course I'm a Christian. You know, America is called that Christian nation again. Even the coins of this country proclaim, in God we trust, yet if you were to watch the lives of all the people at the mall that you've talked to, you would see some very disturbing things, now wouldn't you? You would view perverse behavior, that's directly in conflict with the teachings of the Bible by some people, yet some people who said yes I'm a Christian would, you know, follow suit. You would notice a few people who claim to be religious actually acting worse than those who said they were not Christians. Now you ever wondered why that is? Why there are people who talk to talk but don't walk to walk? You see, a major problem with many of the 19,000 different denominations of Christianity is that the majority of the Christian faith does not teach true holiness. Years and years of man-made traditions and doctrines have persuaded people that to be holy simply means that a person is reverent or quiet or still. Friend, this is simply not the case. It's a little silly to think about. True holiness means something totally different and it means being something totally different. Now again, you know somebody who talks to talk but doesn't walk to walk and now it's easy to label these people as hypocrites, but have you ever noticed that most Christians and most heathens celebrate the same holidays without any problem? Have you ever noticed that most Christians and heathens talk largely with the same phrases and words and there's no communication gap? Have you ever noticed that most Christians and most heathens, you know, go to church every once in a while, read the Bible, do good things? I mean, look through the people in that mall again and just try to physically tell who is a church member and who's a non-church member just by the way you look at them. You see, this is the identity crisis that has afflicted Bible believers for many, many years. Most people, in fact millions of people, live with the wrong heritage, with the wrong culture. You see, too many people have been raised in a Western Christian culture when they should have been raised in a Biblical culture. This is not about religion or religiosity or even single beliefs. This is just about knowing the Bible and living the Bible. Sadly to say, in a majority of cases, there isn't much difference between a very good Sunday morning believer and a very good heathen. Think about it. Most New Testament Christians act just like people without any testament. The identity of Bible believers has been lost. However, this is not the way the faith was originally intended to be, nor is this the way it should be. Folks, this is not the way it has to be. If you are tired of hypocrisy, if you're tired of playing games, if you're tired of being hurt by different people and different beliefs, then take heart because the solution to this problem is about to be revealed, and the solution is understanding just who you are. Now let's take a few minutes and discover the story of the Scriptures. Just who are you? And while we do this, what we're going to do is actually look at the whole story of the Bible in just a few minutes. It'll take about eight minutes. We're going to go from Genesis to today, understanding the story of the Scriptures, understanding what happened in Genesis and what happened throughout the books of the Scriptures, and where we are today, and understanding just who you are. What is your part today as a believer in the faith? Let's start with the book of Genesis. Let's just start there. Now the Bible teaches that in the book of Genesis that the Creator created the world and He made man, and man fell, of course. Man disobeyed there in the garden, and because of this disobedience, because of this sin, man was separated from the Almighty, and that's really what sin is. Sin is disobedience to the word of the Almighty, so let's deal with that real quick so you know what sin is. Sin is disobedience to the word, to the will of the Creator. Now that we understand what sin is, you know, man sinned, and so the Scriptures say that all men have sinned and fallen short, and so the Bible teaches that there rose a man named Noah, and the Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Creator. Now something that you need to understand is that this guy's name really wasn't Noah. I mean if you read in your English Bible, it says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, yet if you were to go back to the original language that the Bible was written in, the language of Hebrew, then you'll find out that the Scriptures say that Noah found grace, that Noach found grace, that Noah's name originally in Hebrew was Noach, it was not Noah. So to understand the message of the Bible, you've got to understand the culture of the people that it was written to, and to understand the message of the Bible many times, you have to go back to the original language that it was written in. If I was trying to understand someone that had translated something to me, or trying to understand someone speaking in Spanish, I need to know something about the culture, I need to know something about the language that these people would speak. And so to understand the Scriptures, you need to do the same, and first and foremost in understanding who you are with this identity problem is understanding that the Bible was written in the language of Hebrew, and the language of Hebrew is very special. In the language of Hebrew, Noah's name was Noach. How did we get Noah? That's a good question, I'll explain it. You see, when the Bible translators took the Scriptures in Hebrew and were translating them into English, they translated all the words. So a word, let's say like Kaddosh in the Hebrew became holy, meaning set apart in the English. Yet when they came to the names, they wanted it to be something similar. They didn't want to use the Hebrew names, but they wanted it to be something similar. So they changed the Hebrew phrase of Noach to Noah, and they took away some of the identity there of Noach. So Noach here found grace in the eyes of the Almighty, and Noach built an ark, and he and his family were saved. Now understand his name was Noach, very similar. That the Savior, the Messiah name is Yeshua. Many people aren't familiar with that, yet many Bibles read Jesus. His name is Yeshua. Well let's get back to Noach. So Noach was again in this boat, and his family was saved, and the ark rested on dry ground, and the Most High spoke to Noach, and his three sons told him to populate the world, and shortly after this the Bible's attention turns to a man named Abram. Now in Hebrew his name is Avram. His name, of course, Avraham, or Abraham, and this is another righteous man. Folks, the rest of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is all about this man and his family. Understand that. That the books of the Bible are all about Avraham, or Abraham, and his whole family. Now Avraham's name means a father of many nations, and Avraham, he's called out of a wicked land, and he's taught the precepts and the instructions of the Almighty, and he's told that if he obeys he will be blessed, if he disobeys he'll be cursed, and so the Creator promises him that his seed will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the sands on the seashore. Now this is a promise given to him in the first book of the Bible, chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, and Avraham is promised a son, and the son will inherit the promise of blessing and multiplicity. Now you might know the story about Avraham and his son, and how his son is saved, and it's a great story, and I encourage you to go and read and study that, but we can't go through all the details because of time, but understand that it is Avraham that the Bible turned its attention to. Avraham's wife and him have a son, and they named the son Isaac, that's the English word, and in Hebrew it's Yitzhak, that's the original name, Isaac was called Yitzhak. And so Yitzhak is given the promise of multiplicity. From one generation to the next, the promise is passed, and Yitzhak is told that his descendants, Isaac's descendants, will be as numerous and fill the earth, this is in Genesis 26, verse 4. And so Yitzhak, or Isaac, has a son who obtains the blessings of descendants, and his son is named Jacob. Now in Hebrew, the word Jacob just doesn't appear in the original Bible, again it's in your King James Version, but that's a transliteration of the name. He was called, his name is Yaakov, Yaakov, so Yaakov, or Jacob, it says about him that from him will come a nation, and many nations, that's in Genesis 35, 11, so we're going quite along in the Scriptures now, and here we have Yaakov and Jacob, to which a promise is passed. Now Jacob's name is changed when he has a wrestling match, you could say, in Genesis chapter 37, and Jacob's name is changed to Israel. Again, Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and this name Israel, or Israel, literally means one who rules and reigns with Elohim. That's what it means in the Hebrew, El, Israel, is the prefix to the word Elohim, and many times in your Bible, you'll see something, and it's a short, simple word, and it's G-O-D, or God, and many times that word G-O-D, in the Hebrew, is Elohim, and it simply means mighty one. Well, Yaakov, or Jacob, wrestles with Elohim, or the mighty one, and so he has this wrestling match, and there his name is changed to Israel, or one who rules and reigns with Elohim, and over time, Jacob, or Israel, becomes the father of twelve sons, not just one or two or three, but twelve sons, and these boys also become known as the twelve sons of Israel, or the twelve tribes of Israel, or the twelve families of Israel, and it's important to note, friend, that when you speak of Israel, you're not just speaking of a land, you're not just speaking of a country, that before Israel became the name of a country, the land in the Middle East, before Israel became this nation, Israel was the name of this man. Israel was the name of his family. So if your name is Smith, and you have the Smith family, and then a land becomes the Smith family, well, that's kind of what happened with Israel here. He has a son, he has twelve sons, and they become the twelve sons of Israel, so now on, when you think of Israel, don't just think of a tiny tract of land in the Middle East, think of a family, think of a big family, okay? Now part of his family was named Joseph, again, that's the English version, his name, Yosef, in the Hebrew. Now, Joseph was favored by his father more than the other sons, and as you probably know the story of the scriptures, he ends up being sold into slavery by his own brothers. Through an odd turn of events, though, Yosef ends up in the house of the Egyptian ruler, Pharaoh. In fact, Yosef is exalted, he is put in a leadership position, second only to Pharaoh, and through Yosef's position, there's a famine that goes over the land, the earth is swept by this famine, through Yosef's position and through Yosef's wisdom, the earth is saved, and the family of Israel is reunited, and they settle near the land of Egypt. So if you're following along in the Bible, we're at the very last chapter of Genesis right now. And the family begins to grow and multiply in this land, and so this is the first chapter of Exodus. Now, time passes, and there comes a Pharaoh to power, who does not remember Yosef, who does not respect his family, again, the twelve sons of Israel, these are his brothers living there in the land, and this wicked ruler enslaves the descendants of Abraham. He's scared of them, yet they continue to grow in population, and you can read about this in Exodus chapters one through six. The physical seed, the bloodline of Abraham, of Avraham, and Yitzhak, of Isaac, and Jacob, of Israel, begins to grow and begins to spread, and it still continues to multiply while they're being persecuted. And after many years of bondage, the Almighty calls forth a Redeemer, and so the Most High speaks to a man through a burning bush named Moses. Now, again, we've all seen the Ten Commandments movie about Moses, you know, Cecil B. DeMille's great movie about Moses, but his name wasn't Moses. If you turn to the Hebrew, it's very similar, and you might think, well, that sounds Hebrew. Well, it does sound Hebrew, but the name of Moses is actually Moshe. So Moshe was called from this burning bush, and he had a very peculiar experience, kind of like a close encounter of a third kind. He heard this voice coming from a burning bush, and this voice said, go tell Pharaoh to let my people go. And so Moshe says, who am I going to say is sending me? What is your name? I mean, I hear this voice, and I see this bush, it's burning, yet it's not burnt up. Who am I going to say is sending me? And so the voice says, the Almighty says, he says, tell them I AM has sent you unto them. He says, tell them, and this is my name for all generations, and it appears in the King James Version and the NIV Version, all the versions of the Bible, as the Lord, L-O-R-D, and it's usually found in all capital letters, and it says, I AM, and tell them I AM sent me. Well, did you know that just as the names of the Hebrew people were changed into English, that the actual name of the Creator was changed from Hebrew to English also? That instead of putting his actual, real Hebrew name, that the translators of the Scriptures have hidden his name during the Scriptures. Now, you don't have to take my word for it. You can go to Encyclopedia.com, or you can turn to the preface of your Bible. Just turn there, if you've got really any modern translation, King James, NIV, New American Standard, whatever, and read the preface in the Scriptures about the name of the Lord, L-O-R-D. Now, surely you've seen in the Bible where Lord is in all capital letters in some places, and in some places it's lowercase letters. Well, the translators are telling you that this is something different, this is something special, that every time L-O-R-D is capitalized fully, or G-O-D is capitalized fully, that this is a special Hebrew name of the Lord. And it's this name that I'm going to tell you right now, I'm going to reveal it to you right now, it's the name of Yahweh. Yahweh. That the translators have actually hidden this name behind the capitalized L-O-R-D, or capitalized G-O-D, but when Moshe was there at the burning bush, and he says, who am I going to say is sending me? Who am I going to tell Pharaoh? What is the name of this mighty one? What is the name of this Elohim? You see, Pharaoh worships all these different gods, what name am I going to say? Who is sending me? He says, the Elohim of the Hebrews. Tell them that the master of the Hebrews, his name is Yahweh. So Yahweh reveals his name to Moshe, to Moses, at this burning bush. And so Moses goes forward with the name, with the name of the Almighty as Yahweh, and he goes forward with this message to Pharaoh, and you know the story, if you've seen the movies, you've probably read about it in the scriptures, that he goes forward, he says, let my people go, and after 10 plagues, the 12 sons of Israel, of Jacob, the 12 families of Israel, are released, and they're allowed to go free. You probably know the story, Yahweh wants his people to come out of Egypt, and to worship him. He wants his people to be different, he wants them to be holy. And so the horrible 10 plagues occur, and finally Pharaoh releases the family of Israel. This is the family of Israel, and all who attach themselves to this family, who say, yes, I want to attach myself to this family, and this is a huge camp of people that leave Israel. And they're the physical descendants, understand this, they're the physical descendants of Abraham, or Avraham, Isaac, Yitzhak, and Jacob, and Yaakov, or Israel. Here they are. Their feet and their bodies, they've left Egypt, but their minds still remain there, because their entire existence, all these people have known as slavery. All they've known is bondage. Now if you're with us in the Scriptures, we said we were going to go from Genesis to Revelation, we are almost there. And so here we are, with this group of people in the Promised Land, heading their way to the Promised Land actually, and their entire existence has been bondage. They are away from Pharaoh, yet they are disjointed, and very confused. Masses of people, maybe even millions of people now, have come out of Egypt, this physical family of Jacob, or Israel. Now understand this, they have no rules. They have no street lights, they have no stop signs, they have no senate. Can you imagine the pandemonium that would come from this? Can you imagine the confusion? I mean, here they are, with no rules. So, as the group approaches a mountain, the Almighty, Yahweh, calls the people. He tells them to approach, and they are reluctant to do so, so they send forth Moshe, and he goes to the mountain, and he receives from Yahweh, from the Creator, loving instructions. He receives rulings and guidelines for the people, for the nation. And these loving rules for living, they are kind of like a blueprint for life, and they cover every issue for this big family of Abraham. They cover everything from what to eat, to what to wear, to how to treat other people, to how to correctly worship, to how to handle judiciary problems, to pretty much everything you can think of. And this teaching serves as a sort of, I don't know, I guess you could say a sort of national constitution for this people, for this newly born nation. Again, they are just this group of people coming out of Egypt with nothing but Egyptian practices. They are coming out of bondage, and they have nothing, and so now they are giving these loving instructions and teachings. Now, in the King James Version Bible, again, there is a little problem, because the King James calls it the Law, L-A-W. Now it capitalizes it, and it tells you that it is special, but again, the Hebrew word behind this is the word Torah, T-O-R-A-H. And the word Torah simply means loving instructions. And so what they are given here is not laws to hold them back, but laws to protect them. They are not given laws that would be a bondage and a yoke to them, but they are given laws that would free them, protect them, and keep them safe, and set up a nation, the nation or the family of Israel. And so, just as a speed limit law sometimes we think is holding us back from going as fast as we should, for safety's sake, you should obey the speed limit law. For safety's sake, these people are to obey the Torah. And so, Israel is given this law and instructions, and they are told that if they obey the Torah, if they obey the laws that they were given, that they will be blessed abundantly, everything will go well for them, and they will just be blessed. And if they disobey the Torah, if they disobey the loving instructions and the rulings that the Almighty has given them through Moses, then they will be cursed. And so this Torah includes the Ten Commandments, but it is not just the Ten Commandments. Now many people today want to put the Ten Commandments up in courtrooms and things. Well I think the important thing is just to obey the Ten Commandments and understand them. So basically you've got the Ten Commandments, but how do you fulfill all of those Ten Commandments? That's why the rest of the Torah was given, the other commandments in the Scriptures were given on how to fulfill the Ten Commandments. So it's not just the Ten Commandments they were given. They were given many more commandments, and they were told to obey these commandments and they would be blessed. And if they disobeyed, they would be cursed. And so here comes this group of people, and they now have got a national constitution, they've got rules, and they've got instructions, and here they go. If they reject the Torah, they'll be cursed. If they accept it, they'll be blessed. And the Bible teaches that they set up this nation, and the power to choose was in their own hands. That the Creator, Yahweh, was not going to make them obey. He was giving them the choice, and we all have a choice today whether or not we will obey Yahweh. And so the people do like most would do, they yo-yo from obedience to disobedience. And so to deal with disobedience and disobedience, the Almighty Yahweh, He sends the people prophets who come and say, stop what you're doing, return to the Torah, go back and do what we were supposed to do. He sends them priests to do the same. He sends them kings to do the same. They call for a king, and finally there is a special king who comes into power. And we're going to be fast-forwarding a little bit through the Bible, but this king, his name is David in your English Bibles, in Hebrew it's Dawid. Well, David here becomes king, and he's a military king. He's a mighty king, and he brings military victories to this nation. They're there in the promised land, they've got the temple set up, and they're doing the worship as the Torah, as the law says, and things are going well for them, and they conquer all the lands around them through David, through his military might. Yet when David leaves the throne, his son becomes king, and you might know that his son is named Solomon. You probably don't know, but his son's Hebrew name, again, transliterated into Solomon, the English, and Hebrew is actually Shlomo. It's kind of funny, huh? Shlomo. Well, Shlomo, the king of Israel, means peace. The word Shlomo means peace. So when Shlomo, or Solomon, is king, there's peace, and the whole land is in peace, but when Solomon steps down from the throne, when Solomon steps down, the nation of Israel kind of goes through what's called a civil war split. They didn't really have a war, but the nation split. Now, understand this. Here's the nation, and they split similar to the north and the south split. It's the 12 families of Israel living in the land there in Israel, living in that Middle Eastern tract of land, and there's 12 families, or 12 tribes set up, and when Solomon leaves, the nation splits, and it splits into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom, and so the northern kingdom followed this wicked leader down a slippery slope of sin. Now, it's very important to understand that this northern kingdom was the majority of the people in Israel, was the majority of Israelites, was the majority of Hebrews. Now, folks, we're halfway through the scriptures right now, and if you were to turn to 1 Kings chapter 12, you can read all about this. I encourage you to do so. They follow their leader, and their leader sets up false worship days that are contrary to the Torah, to the loving instructions of the Almighty. This leader sets up in the north a false worship place, a false worship system, and says, let's do it this way. The scriptures say he even sets up a golden calf there for people to worship, and so the southern kingdom, that's down south, they pretty much stick to the Torah and their obedience to Yahweh and their obedience to that, and that's where the temple is, and what we're going to find out is what happens to this family, these 12 tribes of Israel, these 12 sons of Abraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, is that they're this nation, and this nation split, and basically 10 families, or 10 families, or 10 tribes are up north, and they go and they do their own thing. They fall away from who they are as sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those down south, the southern kingdom, they pretty much stick to who they are, and this is the land in the area called Judea. So understand this, that the people in the northern kingdom, in the scriptures, are many times called northern kingdom, it's also many times called Ephraim, it's also many times called Israel, and there are many times in the prophets, if you go and read the scriptures, that it says to the northern kingdom this, to Ephraim this, and it's speaking to those 10 tribes, those 10 families that are up north, that have this physical seed of Abraham, that was promised many, many descendants, and they're going and doing their own thing, they're assimilating into the nations, or they're acting like the world, they're being swallowed up and they're going their own way, and this is what the scriptures end up calling the Gentiles. Okay? Yet you've got the southern kingdom, which is in the land of Judea, and the southern kingdom pretty much sticks with the temple, which is in Jerusalem, and they stick with their culture, they remember who they are, and they keep the faith of the Bible, and they keep the Torah, and they obey Yahweh, and so the southern kingdom in Judea is called Judea, it's also called Judah, and the people here are many times called the southern kingdom, the prophets would come to them and say to the southern kingdom this, to Judeo this, and would also say to the Jewish people this. So if you ever wondered who exactly are the Jews, the Jews are people from Judea. That's pretty simple, isn't it? I mean, if you're a Texan, you're from Texas, right? If you're a Yankee, you're from New York, right? I mean, here's what's going on. The Jewish people are descendants from the area of Judea, from this southern kingdom, and so the scriptures teach that the ten tribes up north were punished for their sins, because they set up their own way that was contrary to the Torah, because they did their own thing, and they were punished because of that. They were taken captive by Assyria, this was called the Assyrian captivity, and this is a historically documented event that actually took place, and this took place about 722 BCE, and this is the kingdom of Israel, this northern kingdom was scattered. They were taken captive, and they forgot who they were. Now again, they'd gone and worshipped false gods, and they'd done their own thing, but they took this bloodline with them. Now remember that the physical descendant promise was given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so here it is fulfilling right here in the scriptures, and they're taken captive, and these people populate the areas. They go to the west, they go to Africa, they go to England, and these people are spoken as in the Bible as the Gentiles, or the nations, and as a whole, they've never returned to the faith. It's very important to understand, folks, that this group up north did not have the faith, yet they still had the physical seed, and they became known as the nations, or the Gentiles, and many times referred to as the Lost Tribes of Israel. Now the people in the southern kingdom tried to follow the Torah, but they put fences around the simple teachings of the Bible. They caused many people to stumble, and they also allowed paganism and idolatry to pollute the true worship of Yahweh, and because of this sin, these people, these tribes, this area of Judea, this family group of Israel, is taken into the Babylonian captivity spoken of in the scriptures. It's a historical event that actually took place for about 70 years, but while in captivity, these Jewish people, people from Judea, people from Judah, these physical bloodline descendants, remained who they were. They kept the faith. They practiced the rituals and traditions of it. And so, if you go and you read the book of Ezra, you read the book of Nehemiah, you read the book of Daniel, you'll see this, that here's Daniel, or Daniel, there in the Babylonian captivity, yet he's still praying. And you've got people still eating the right foods there in the Babylonian captivity, and they come and they rebuild the temple, the scriptures say, and this family group begins to return, and it's the restoration to rebuild the temple, and this is a return to their heritage, and they still continue to grow, and so they're taken away to captivity for about 70 years, and then they begin to return. This is the book of Nehemiah and Ezra and Daniel, yet the northern kingdom never fully returns. And so, you've got the years of the prophets that continue to take place, and the message is repent and return. Now, you might be asking yourself, what in the world does this have to do with me, with an identity crisis? Well, let me answer that. According to a recent public broadcasting PBS television special, the Lost Ten Tribes, the 12 tribes, total 12 tribes of Israel, and the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel have basically populated the majority of the world. That it could be as many as 4 billion, with a B, 4 billion people in the world have this physical bloodline in them. Well, you're probably saying, well, hey, I'm not Jewish, I know I'm not Jewish, I'm cutting this CD off right now, but listen, it's not a matter of being Jewish, it's a matter of do you have this physical bloodline in you, because if you do, you are Israel. You are Israel physically. Remember that these people went off the northern kingdom and populated the world. And these Lost Ten Tribes became lost because they lost their identity of who they were. They lost the knowledge of their belief in the Torah, and their belief in Yahweh, and they lost that, they forgot that, and they went out and populated the known world. And so, also, this Jewish people, we can track, we know how many they are. If the promise to Abraham was, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the sands on the seashore, if that promise was only about the Jewish people, that would be a lie. The Almighty would have lied, because we can count the Jewish people, there's only about 5 to 7 million left in the world today, true Jewish people. But the promise was not just about Jewish people, it was about Israel, it was about all of his descendants, not just those few tribes down south. And so, let me say this, and it might sound a little confusing, but if you want to know about your identity, it's this, all of Judah is Israel, but not all of Israel is Judah. Or all the Jewish people are Israeli, physically descended from Israel or Jacob, yet not all physical descendants of Israel, not all physical descendants of Jacob are Jewish people. Pretty much makes sense. Well, where are we in the Scriptures right now? We're about to turn to the time of when the Messiah comes. Now, here they are, the Temple is rebuilt, and so the Scriptures teach that the prophets would come and say, repent and return and repent and return, and so the Temple there is torn down again, and so the Scriptures teach that Herod rebuilds the Temple. And this Herod's Temple is built and is standing, and there is a Messiah that is born, the Savior was born in the city of Bethlehem, now that's the English name for it, what's the Hebrew? Bethlehem. And his parents name him, what do they name him, do they name him Jesus? Well, actually they name him Yahshua, this is the Hebrew form, and it means Yahweh is salvation. And then James says that they named the child Jesus, for salvation is of the Lord. Now understand that the Lord, again, is Yahweh, and so named this child Yahshua, meaning salvation is of Yahweh. Even today in Hebrew, if you were to say the word salvation, the word salvation in Hebrew is the word Yahshua. And so Yahshua matures into manhood, and he lives as the son of a carpenter, and he becomes a rabbi. The word rabbi means teacher, he basically becomes a teacher, he becomes a rabbi. And he goes forward with this message, his public ministry, and he chooses disciples, and this is his message, the message, the theme, the central message of the Gospels of the Bible is this, and this is his message, it is repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and as this message went forward, the people responded, and there were miracles, and there were healings, and people were even raised from the dead, and Yahshua, the Messiah, went forth and he told everyone to love Yahweh with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and your strength. He said this is the greatest commandment, and he said love your neighbor as yourself. Now you might ask, how do you do that? Does that mean all the other commandments, all the other Torah, all the other laws we have been done away with? No. He said love Yahweh with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. How do you do that? Well, you can go back to the Ten Commandments, it's a great starting place, and you keep the Ten Commandments. Surely the Ten Commandments have not been done away with. We have the Ten Commandments, right? How do you love Yahweh, and how do you love your neighbor? You follow the Ten Commandments. How do you follow the Ten Commandments? Well you study the rest of the Old Testament, you study the rest of the commandments to learn how to fulfill those. And so he went forward with this message of love, this message of turning from your sin and returning, and he said in Matthew chapter 5, he says, do not think that I have come to abolish the Torah, do not think I've come to do away with the Torah, but I've come to fulfill it. And by meaning by that, he also said that it will not be fulfilled until there is a new earth, and so do we have a new earth? Of course not. This is the same world that the Messiah walked on, and so all has not been fulfilled, and by saying fulfilled, he's saying, I'm coming to show you how to do it. He says in Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount, he says, do not think that I've come to abolish or do away with the Torah, but I've come to fulfill them, to show you how to live it out. And so Messiah Yeshua came with basically a few messages, and his basic message was this, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and he came to call people back to a life of heartfelt observance, a life of obedience, a life of love. He also came, the Scriptures say, in the Scriptures, in John chapter 10, verse 10, and a thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I've come that you might have life, and life more abundantly. So he came to bring life, and he says several times in the Scriptures that he came to seek and save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and also the Messiah came to show us how to live. You know the old bracelets, WWJD, well he came to show us how to live. Well, we said earlier that to sin is to break the word of the Almighty, to disobey the Almighty, and so if the Almighty's words is the Torah, the loving instructions given to Israel, we know that Messiah never broke the Torah, the Savior never sinned, and so if we want to be like him, we follow him, we do as he did. Now we know that while the Messiah lived, he rebuked many of the spiritual leaders because of their hypocrisy and their bad teachings, and he would say, you've heard it said this, but I tell you this, and because of this teaching that he did, because of this teaching of authority, many of the religious people planned to have the Messiah killed, and so Messiah was impaled upon a tree, and there he died for our sins, he died for the times that we've broken the Torah, and everybody knows that they put him in a tomb, and yet we know also by the Scriptures that he did not stay in that tomb, but three days later, he rose from the grave, and it's important to understand that Yeshua appeared to his disciples after this, and he told them to go into the world, teaching them everything that I've commanded them, it's in the last chapter, the last verse of Matthew, he says, going into the world, teaching everything that I've commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and everything that he's commanded, what has he commanded? He's commanded to love the Almighty, and love your neighbor, he's commanded all the commands of the Scriptures, he's saying go back and follow the Torah, go back the way you're supposed to do, and he says to go back and repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and so in Acts chapter 1, this is where we are in the Scriptures now, we are reminded that the Scriptures say that he came, and the disciples asked him a question, they said when are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel, you see they knew that the Messiah's most important message was the restoration of this family of Israel, when is he going to bring the family of Israel back together, and so he begins to tell them, he says to go, preaching and teaching, and by teaching people the Torah, by preaching, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the kingdom of Israel is restored, the family of Israel is brought back together, and so here we go. The Scriptures teach that at this point, the faithful is basically the followers of the Messiah, Yeshua, it was called the way, they were called Nazarenes, they were never called Christians by other believers, and so the early believers were called believers and Messiah, they were called Nazarenes, and the early believers were led by the brother of Yeshua, named James, or Yaakov, and they were never called Christians by other believers, this term came up much later, this new faith friend was an offshoot of Judaism, it was an offshoot of Judaism, remember Messiah was king of the Jews, now he was a rabbi, now here comes the rise of Paul, or Saul in Hebrew, he was a rabbi sent to the Gentiles, who were the Gentiles? Remember Gentile basically is a verb, is a noun that means nation, who were the Gentiles? It's the nations, right? Paul went to the nations, who are the nations? It's the lost tribes of Israel that have assimilated into the nations, that have become the nations who have lost their identity, they're lost because they've forgotten who they are, forgotten where they're from, so Paul goes forward with this message of repent and return, and they go and they take this, and as time and a season the followers were persecuted harshly, until you've got the Romans, and finally with the Romans you've got John on the Isle of Patmos receiving the book of the Revelation, and the Romans persecute and they persecute and they persecute, until there comes a Roman ruler who decides that they could not destroy this faith, that this truth, this faith that was going forth of the Nazarenes could not be destroyed by persecution, and so basically he takes an idea that if you can't beat them then it's time to join them, now again you might be saying, what in the world does this have to do with me and my identity, because here's where it comes folks, people have forgotten who they are, through many many years people have forgotten the true message of the Bible, and the message of the Bible is this, it's holiness, the message of the Bible is to live by the word of the Bible, and so people have forgotten who they are, when people begin to understand that we are Israel, when you really understand that you are a physical descendant of Israel, then you can go back to the scriptures and say, what does the scriptures say to Israel, now again you might be saying, well that's not me, I'm not Israeli, I'm not Hebrew, I'm not Jewish, it's this physical seed that has passed from generation to generation, but it's been stolen, it's been stolen, do you know what the fastest rising crime is in America, think about it for a minute, what is it, what's the fastest rising crime in America, did you know that the fastest rising crime in America is identity theft, that's right, identity theft is the fastest rising crime in America, according to a recent study and an ABC special, that the fastest rising crime in America is identity theft, which is people stealing other people's identity, acting like other people, you know someone can steal your credit card and act like you and go and spend your money, or use the internet to access information about you and then go and steal things or make transactions in your name, well folks the biggest problem with America today and with the world today is people have forgotten who they are, identity theft has set in and we have forgotten that we are Israel, and Israel has been called to live a life of holiness, if you're a believer in the Bible, if you are born again, if you believe that you are this, the scriptures say this, Galatians chapter 3 verse 29, if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise, go look it up, Galatians 3 29, now remember that you're a descendant of the promise, what promise, promise of blessing if you follow Torah, promise of multiplicity, and so here we have to understand that if you belong to Messiah, you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise, you can know your identity, your identity is your Abraham's seed, you are Israel, now the word here for seed in Greek is sperma, it's the word that we get the word sperm from, it refers to a physical descendant, not just a spiritual descendant, many people want to teach that the church has become spiritual Israel, yet the word here is a physical descendant, you are a physical descendant of Israel if you believe in the Messiah, you are a Hebrew, that's your identity, you're not a red headed step child of a Gentile, all the promises of the Bible are for you, ok here's three things to help you understand this, to wake up to this identity theft and identity crisis, the buzz is ringing, the alarm clock is going off now, don't hit the snooze button, don't cut off this teaching, understand this, number one, to understand the Bible you have to understand the people and the culture that it was written to, just like a person from the 1920s would have a hard time comprehending the words in a modern rap song, it is simply impossible to know the true meaning of the scriptures without being familiar with the times, the language, and the culture of the scriptures, many sayings of the Messiah can fully be grasped when you understand the culture of Messiah, number two, you have a biblical heritage, not just a Christian heritage, not just an American heritage, not just an American culture, you are a Hebrew, if you belong to Messiah you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise, Galatians 3, 29, that means everything the scriptures say is for Israel is for you, number three, learn to live as Israel, you see the Almighty has given you instructions on how to live as his people, and these teachings define who you are, this is not a burden and a yoke of a law, this is loving instructions that are found in the first five books of the Bible, you know, the books we have always been told to skip over, it is called the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the whole Bible again is about the family of Abraham, remember WWJD, well it is time to live like the Savior and reclaim who you are as an Israelite, the Messiah, Yeshua, never violated the Torah, we should strive to do the same, do you really want to do as he did, well understand that the Messiah ate kosher food, the Messiah went to a synagogue, the Messiah spoke Hebrew, the Messiah kept the biblical feasts, the Messiah acted like a Jew, even the Romans recognized that he was a Jew, when you live as Israel, many many verses, many of the passages in the Bible will come to life, when you walk out your heritage, you are going to finally understand the meaning of life and your place in this world, don't let identity theft steal who you really are, it is time to be the nation of Israel, it is time to claim who you are, it is time to be holy, you see the solution to the problem of identity theft, the solution to the problem of identity crisis, is knowing who you are in holiness, the Hebrew word for holiness is Kadosh, and Kadosh literally indicates a state of being set apart, it means to be different, one Bible dictionary says that holy to most English speaking people is this, it is a word that usually indicates some ethical quality, like a sinlessness or purity, that is what most people think, right, well the Bible dictionary continues, it says biblically this word holiness originally indicated the state or condition of a person being set apart from common affairs of life, and set apart as to holy to the creator, so holiness is being set apart, and it is a command, and it is how we reflect the father's love and represent him to the world, the scriptures say in Leviticus 1144, I am Yahweh, be holy because I am holy, it says I am Yahweh, be set apart because I am set apart, you have been called to a life of holiness, a life set apart, you have been called to be different than this world, to do things different, to follow the Bible, the scriptures say in first Peter chapter 2 verse 9, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, what nation? Israel, it says you are a people belonging to Yahweh that you may declare the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light, you see the problem with most people, with most Bible believers is they act just like the rest of the world, and they do that because they don't understand true holiness is being set apart, is being Israel in this world, is being in the world as the scriptures say, but not being of the world, and so the scriptures teach that the Messiah is restoring all things, that what is happening is the restoration of all things, and people are realizing who they are as Hebrews, as Israelites, friend, you are some of your culture, you do what you do simply because the people around you do it, but if you want to live out the Bible, if you love the creator of the universe, if you love Yahweh, if you want to follow the Messiah, it is time to claim him, it is time to understand him, it is time to forsake man's ways and accept Yahweh, it is time to forsake pagan worship days that the northern kingdom fell into and accept biblical holy days, it is time to forsake vague terms of God and Lord and use specific names of Yahweh and Yeshua, if you want to follow the Bible, if you want to stop this identity theft and this identity crisis, it is time to forsake spiritualizing everything in the Bible and literally do it, it is time to forsake only one testament and receive both testaments as true, it is time to forsake making it up as you go and receive the Torah as eternal, it is time to forsake a false worship day and accept the seventh day Sabbath as the Ten Commandments teach, it is time to forsake a false understanding of who you are and accept the knowledge that you are Israel, it is time to forsake spiritual void in your life and receive spiritual fulfillment, you see people have forgotten who they are because of many things that have happened in the past, you see people have forgotten who they are as Israel because of a man named Constantine, because this man named Constantine the founder of the Catholic Church, he was a Christian emperor who basically called himself the first Christian emperor and I told you that the true faith continued until a Roman emperor joined who said he could join them instead of beating them and so his message was plain and simple, the message of Constantine was to take paganism and falsehood and mix it with the truth, he did not want Bible believers to look like Jewish people, he did not want the true faith to be Jewish, he knew that he could not stop out the true faith of the Nazarenes of the Messiah Yeshua and so he felt that he could join them and so a deadly mix came, while Israel continued to spread, while this true faith of the Bible continued to grow, Israel continued to spread, Constantine founded the Catholic Church and so the bishops were set up and this holy Catholic Church, this new kingdom of Rome began replacing the kingdom of Israel and so he set up false worship days like Easter and Christmas and he began to mix the pagan worship days like Easter and Christmas and all these different pagan worship ways and he began to say well let's not look Jewish, let's not celebrate on the Shabbat on the seventh day Sabbath, let's keep the Lord's day, let's worship on sun day, why? Because Constantine worshipped the sun and because sun was the god of the world and it was a deity to worship and so worship on sun day was a day to worship the sun and so this evil ruler began this religion that led into the dark ages, people not being able to study the scriptures and evil teachings coming forward and so folks a false Jesus was beginning to be taught, a false Messiah was taking place, people were told things by many different denominations of you could say Catholicism until there became a split, you know the story about Martin Luther and the split and Protestantism, yet Protestantism has never really split from Catholicism, there's 19,000 different denominations of Christianity yet their people void, people are hungry, you see because as people seek to follow the Bible many people seek to do it the way it's always been done, you know the way the Catholics did it or the way grandma did it or the way mama does it or the way the denomination says to do it and yet restoration is coming, part of identity crisis is understanding that the Bible is the word for Israel, is the word for you, here we are today, the restoration is taking place, you're listening to this message right now and you're understanding who you are as Israel and now it's time to take the Torah and take your identity and go for it, to live it out, here we are today, there's turmoil in the Middle East, you have Christianity that has the Messiah, you have Judaism that has Torah, and the Scriptures say that we're going forward into the restoration of all things, in Ezekiel 37 I encourage you to go and read it, it talks about this, in Acts chapter 3 verse 21 it talks about this all throughout the Scriptures, it talks about Israel returning to the truth and here we are, completing who we are as spiritual people, understanding who we are, understanding who we are and restoring who we are, you see the message is a return to Genesis, a return to obedience to the Torah, to repent and return, man was made physical, emotional and spiritual and the truth of the Bible fills all of these voids, now it's your choice to accept it or reject it, think again for just a minute, think for just a minute, ask yourself one more time, why do you do what you do? Why do you believe about the Bible what you believe? Why do you keep the holidays that you keep? Why do you worship on Sunday when the Scriptures say six days shall you labor but the seventh is a Sabbath? Think about this, if you truly knew that you were in Israel, how would this change your life? Where in the Bible does it say not to keep the Torah? When in the Bible was the worship day changed? Where in the Bible were holy days changed to holidays like Easter and Christmas? Who are you as part of the kingdom? Who are you as Israel? Who are you? Well hopefully now that some light has been shed on your true identity as Israel, you can make a decision to go forward. Don't let yourself become a victim of identity theft, receive it and walk in it. I'd like to share with you just a few websites that you can go to that will give you some information on who you are. The first one is the website of this ministry and it's the website www.emetministries.com and inside this emetministries.com you will find a lot of information about who you are as Israel and you begin to walk in it and there if you go to the links page and go to the other parts of that you can begin to really fulfill who you are in the kingdom. I also encourage you to begin to live out your life as Yahweh's chosen people. Begin to study not just the New Testament but the Old Testament. Begin to take it all in as you and as part of you. Begin to read it. Whoever gave you this message, get with that person. Ask them questions. Begin to find out more about your heritage, more about who you are as Israel and be blessed. Repeat this prayer with me. Father, I come before you. I pray that you reveal to me my identity. Reveal to me your word. Anything false, take away. Anything that I should not be doing, show it to me. Reveal your truth. I want to live your word. I want to walk your Bible. I want to do as Messiah did. Forgive me for falling away. Open my heart that I may receive your Torah. Amen. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website or write to us at EMET Ministries, 1310 Trent Street, Newberry, SC 29108. That's EMET Ministries, 1310 Trent Street, Newberry, SC 29108. Thank you again for listening to Finding EMET with Daniel Rendleman. May you find the EMET and may the EMET, may the truth set you free.