APPALLING AND SHOCKING DISTORTION OF SCRIPTURES

          In my earlier blog post, I wrote, "Grounded in Scriptures to avoid being swayed by all winds of doctrines." For the sake of people who find my blog posts a bit too long to digest, I have summarised below. Some I will name later if they persist with their flawed teachings; others are already making an impact on many that have been misled with their false teachings. In the last days, we know that we have many wolves in sheep's clothings.

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          It is shocking when I heard a preacher claimed that the letter Alef א has a hidden meaning in it -- that it represents the crucifixion of Christ.

          Confidently, he described how the letter aleph is made up of the letter wav ו (meaning, a peg) and two yods י (meaning, two hands).

         Of course, people without any knowledge of the Hebrew language would be mesmerised, but not for me. As a atudent of the biblical languages, I seek to use Hebrew and Greek in a proper manner to exegete the Bible instead of delving into some mystical teachings as though God has hidden some meanings in every letter of the Hebrew alphabet for us to dig into.

        Despite reasoning with him that such a teaching should always be accompanied by a disclaimer, he started telling me that he learnt all this from some good Christian sources. While this could have been used as just a good illustration, to package it as though the letter alef has some hidden secrets that God wants to communicate with His people is nothing but absurdity and extra-biblical. I have written in jest how one can fantasize and mesmerize an audience that the letter 'a' and its capital form 'A' can have some hidden meanings, too.

Gematria, What Rubbish!

       Then, there is the hype about gematria. While I do not disagree that God uses some -- and I repeat, some typological numbers such as 3, 7, 12, 40 -- I have written in my Learn Hebrew Together blog that gematria is extra-biblical.

       It is wrong, for example, for someone to teach that behind certain Hebrew words there are hidden meanings based on some silly manipulation of numbers. I can only roll my eyes when I hear things like this: "You add this number, subtract that number, then multiply this number by another number and lo and behold! God's secret truth, only hidden, is now revealed to you!"

       Mesmerizing! But, is this what the Bible says? Let's look at the Scriptures if we can find any gematria used! What is worse is when one of these teachers to assign a number to the Most Holy Name.

       What shock me further is when, after adding, subtracting and sometimes even multiplying all the numbers assigned to each letter of the Hebrew word, they then claim how this is related to the number 26, being the number that you get when you add all the four letters of the Tetragrammaton יהוה together. The Name which the Jews regarded as Most Holy, I doubt if the Jews themselves would even assign a number to it!

      To put the record straight: Gematria never for once existed in the Hebrew text of the Bible, and it came about only very much later as a matter of convenience to put a chapter and reference to the text. In many references to numbers in the Hebrew text, each number has a word to it (see chart).

    If God had wanted to assign a number to each letter of the alphabet, He would have used the gematria whenever a bigger number is mentioned in the text. Instead of saying תִּשְׁעִים שָׁנָה וְתֵשַׁע for the number 99 years old, would God not have used the gematria צט for the number 99? Genesis 17:1 is not only the first occurrence; there are many other numbers in the Tanakh, where gematria was hardly used.

        The truth is before some Jewish scholars created the gematria numbering system, the biblical books never had the numbering system the way we have today. If gematria had existed during the era of the Tanakh, the biblical writers would have used the alephbet for their number system, whenever a number is mentioned! Period.

       Stretching this further leads to teachers who claim that in the Hebrew Scriptures, there is a code hidden somewhere. I was once mesmerized by a book, "Bible Code" by one Michael Drosnin who attempted to use computer technology to decode the hidden secrets in the Torah. He then linked it to some predictions, many of which have been proven untrue.

Steve Cioccolanti 

         One such proponents of gematria who has gone coocoo is Steve Cioccolanti. It is shocking that one of our local preacher claims he learns from good biblical scholars such as Cioccolanti!

        To me, Cioccolanti is no difference to the fengshui master when he starts to predict that Donald Trump is going to win the election because of the number 17. Whether Trump wins or loses an election is never specifically mentioned or predicted in the Bible. I nearly fell off my chair when I heard how Cioccolanti interpreted the Bible by saying that the number 17 is `Victory'. I quote:

         "Seventeen is a combination of five and twelve. Five is grace and 12 is authority. What do you think grace and authority combined means? Victory! (17) is also seven plus 10. Seven is perfect, and 10 is government, authority, justice."

         He quotes every instance where number 17 appears in the Bible. He then gave some patterns in the Bible before mentioning that Trump is going to be re-elected because the date for the poll falls on a day that is good in the eyes of the fengshui masters. What a joke! Such spiritual arrogance!

     And, if you still believe in such kind of teachings, Steve, you better explain more about this one statement you made: "Joseph was sold into slavery at the age of 17." So, should our kids also marry at the age of 17? Do we need to buy condos at the seventeenth level? Should the generals choose to go to war on the seventeenth day of the month? Well, if both sides choose 17, which side would win?

        To take this further, Steve Ciocolanti, what about 17 being a combination of 6+6+6 minus 1! Or, isn't 17 also the combination of four and 13, both numbers which are so-called taboos to most people! Steve Cioccolanti, Steve Cioccolanti, I don't know from which theological seminary you have graduated from or whether they are appalled with your brand of teaching! I have to expose the fallacies of such teachings so that people are not caught up with all winds of doctrines that lead them astray.

      In my humble opinion, Ciocolanti has taken a lot of things out of the Bible to deceive people who are gullible to such teachings. His teaching is not from the Bible, but he is delving into some extra-biblical teachings!

   

      Chuck Missler

      I have watched one of the videos by Chuck Missler talking about the Jewish feasts. This video link was forwarded to me by a sister who was defending the observance of the Jewish feasts by Christians.

      After spending nearly one hour, all I can say is this guy is not teaching from the Bible. He quotes the Scriptures out of context and begins babbling away. Instead of teaching with clarity, he talks about so many things but there is hardly any main idea of what he is trying to teach.

       Someone concurred with me after listening to the same video. Here are some of my personal comments regarding Chuck Missler's teachings:

(a) This guy, Mr Missler's teaching is simply incoherent. One hour  of my time wasted listening to the video, I was still unable to understand what was the main point he was trying to teach. At best, he was merely babbling away. As he was trying to pin down to a day when Christ was crucified, I asked myself, "What significance is this? Does it even lead to anything that is significant or what is taught in the Bible?"

My response to Mr Missler is: Do not be misled: If God had placed significance to the day - be it Friday or Wednesday -- when Christ was crucified, would God not have stated it clearly! In fact, the main focus in the crucifixion story is about Christ's suffering! Mr Missler does not need to crack his head over when Christ was crucified! There are things that are not that important. For someone who too much time to delve into such things, he should instead be teaching what God wants us to learn and obey in His Word.

(b) What I find most appalling is how Mr Missler spent more time talking about anti-Semitism in the early church just because the early church fathers had used strong words against the flawed teachings of the Jews that were creeping into the church. I wish to point out to Mr Missler that even Paul used strong words to shake up the Galatian church against the heresies linked to the rabbinic teachings and the Judaizers. Read Galatians 3:1. And, Jesus denounced the Jewish religious teachers in His days (Matthew 23)

(c) When Missler spoke about Isaiah 53, he tried to give a new dimension and prophetic meaning to the text. He said that it was not so much about Christ's crucifixion as the fulfilment of Isaiah 53, but as something else that is to come. Mr Missler, while I give you the benefits of doubt, your attempt to re-interpret the scriptures just to align with your agenda makes me cringe.

       I have seen enough of such teachers when my family and I were attending a  church in Petaling Jaya where all kinds of weird preachers were invited to share the Sunday pulpit. The day will come when these preachers will have to face the judgement seat of Christ.

Sadhu Sundar Selavaraj

      If that's not enough to warn you against false teachers, let me point you to another so-called 'prophet' in our last days, Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj, who touts himself as the 'prophet to the nations.'

      There is always the claim, "Do you know what the Lord told me?" instead of what good evangelical leaders like Billy Graham would say from the pulpit with authority: "The Bible says....." or "Thus says the Lord" quoting directly from the Bible.

       Along with this (and I roll my eyes), "God told me this and God told me that", Sadhu Sundar starts talking about all kinds of predictions for each year. Once again, what difference does that make of him from the fengshui masters!

       If Jesus had wanted to tell us what would happen for each year, He would have spent perhaps an hour to talk about each year from 30A.D. We would have a nice compilation into a gospel of all the years from 30 all the way through 2020!

      So, I do not know how people can believe in such rubbish except that there are some half truths mixed with teachings that can lead to more flawed teachings. Satan is a master of deception.

Other Strange Teachings

       There is no difference to the man from Pune, India who said, "Whether Jews or Gentiles, we must all be grafted into the house of Israel." When questioned further, he then burst out with this one statement which broke the camel's back:

"The house of Israel is Jesus and Jesus is the house of Israel!"

        This is almost heretical to everyone I spoke to! To equate the House of Israel with Jesus is to elevate Israel to position of the Son of God and if Israel sins against God, is this man talking about Jesus sinning against God, too? Such a bold statement he made is simply mind boggling.
 
       And, returning to the Malaysian scene once again, we also have people who claim that it is wrong to use the name of Jehovah, because this man claimed that that is the name of the "Supremely Evil One!" It is no wonder that at one point in his life, he wanted to be a rabbi which explains why he came under the strong influence of the rabbinic Jews.

       Then, there is another well-known teacher from Malaysia who said you need to pray facing towards Jerusalem if you want God to answer your prayers! I dare say this is utter rubbish! Apparently, this "great teacher" does not even understand the orientation of the Jewish temple where its main gate faces towards the East (הקדמ)!

Listen to this yourselves!

      Is this Bill Johnson? That name sounds familiar! He has been to Malaysia.

Some Words of Warning

       Having given you some examples to watch out, here are some scriptures that further warn us against false teachers and prophets:

This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. Jeremiah 23:16 

How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and  Sadducees. (Matthew 16:11-12)

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.