הַיְחָבְרְךָ כִּסֵּא הַוּוֹת; יֹצֵר עָמָל עֲלֵי חֹק
Today is Wednesday. In our prayers, we read a psalm a day, which was done in Temple times, and for the fourth day of the week [wed] the Psalm is 94. The verse seen above is verse 20, and reads “Shall the seat of wickedness have fellowship with You, which frames mischief by statute?” There is a sister verse in Isaiah that reads, “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write iniquity.” [10:1]
When I read the Psalms, I read them in Hebrew. And today I got to this verse and it just really hit me as I rendered it into English in my mind, on this wise: “Can the throne of wickedness befriend You [יהוה], which fashions oppression by decree?”
The word for mischief/oppression is “amal”. It’s more than just being ‘sneaky’. It is ‘inflicting tribulation on others’.
Many understand that the very first ever sin was a twisting of the instructions God gave to Adam.
The ‘nakhash’ is the one who fostered that first error. But, Adam had created a fence around the Torah [our Jewish readers should know what that means]. God told Adam specifically, “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” That is all that God said to Adam concerning the tree. But when the ‘nakhash’ came to Khava [Eve], Eve said this is what God told mankind: “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Elohim has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’.” A reader at the elementary level should see that there is an addition to God’s instructions here. Seemingly, Adam built a fence around the Torah [God’s Instructions] to protect her. God did not say ‘neither shall you touch it’. Eve was not there when Adam received the instructions concerning the tree. So, Adam, the progenitor of all mankind, added to God’s Word what God did not say! And because of that addition, the Nakhash, a beautiful, shining, cunningly attractive creature [charismatic], was able to take Adam’s addition and further twist God’s Word. Adam opened the door to the serpent’s wiles.
Adam could be explained as guilty of Psalm 94:20 and Isaiah 10:1. He created a ‘decree’ in “amal”, iniquity. Iniquity is the latent tendency to disobey God’s instructions. This is the tendency of mankind, whether righteously or wickedly motivated. And the impetus of the adversary is to take advantage of that, and create earthly authority that perverts God’s Word. And the ‘throne of iniquity’ manifests that.
Yeshua warns us of this. Many people think that the ‘devil’ is only out to get people from outside the confines of true religion. The exact opposite is true. The adversary need not worry about the irreligious or those who worship some other god. He’s already got them! The adversary, “HaSatan”, “The One Who Opposes”, opposes only God the Creator and what is right in His eyes. He opposes the “Good News” of Yeshua. He is most especially against the Son of God. He is “Neged HaMashi’akh”: Anti Messiah [antichrist]. And one day “Sheker HaMashi’akh”, the False/Lying Messiah, will be a man operating in that spirit upon the whole world, fooling the world that he is “Jesus”, and Buddha, and Mohammed, and all deities rolled into one: “God”. And again, Yeshua tried to teach us this:
15“Be careful of false prophets who come to you in lambs’ clothing, but within they are ravening wolves. 16You will know them by their fruits. Do they indeed gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17So every good tree bears good fruits; but a bad tree bears bad fruits. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruits, neither can a bad tree bear good fruits. 19Any tree which does not bear good fruits will be cut down and cast into the fire. 20Thus by their fruits you will know them.”
Ravening wolves inflict tribulation by decree. The Apostles knew it was coming on the world. Paul saw wolves within the congregation at Efesus, barely three years after he began teaching them:
29For I know this, that after I have departed, fierce wolves will attack you, which will not spare the flock. 30Also from among yourselves men shall arise, speaking twisted things to draw away talmidim after them. 31Therefore watch and remember that for three years, night and day, I did not cease to teach every one of you with tears. [Acts 20]
Paul tells us of a ‘mystery of iniquity’ in 2 Thessalonians. This is actually about the spirit of the false messiah being within the congregations. In greek-sourced translations, it’s actually rendered as ‘the mystery of lawlessness’, which to a Jewish person is the state of being ‘outside/in opposition’ to Torah, as ‘torah’ is a body of ‘law’ in one sense, and most translators render ‘torah’ as ‘law’ in English Bibles.
7For the mystery of iniquity is already at work, until that which now hinders is taken out of the midst of them. 8Then shall the Wicked One be revealed…
Yokhanan supports this same idea, telling us of the many ‘anti-Messiahs’ that have already come into the congregations, even in his day, and saying that this is the very spirit of The Anti Messiah, which Paul says will one day manifest in a single man.
18My children, it is the last time; and as you have heard that a false Mashi’akh shall come, even now there are many false Mashi’akhim, and from this we know that it is the last time.
False Messiahs do not necessarily call themselves “Jesus”. They say they represent Him, that they speak on Yeshua’s behalf. They are ‘anointed’, they are ‘apostles’, they are ‘prophets’, who use the power of Yeshua’s name to deceive people. There error is subtle, and most people are not able to detect it:
3And every spirit that does not confess Yeshua has come in the flesh is not from Elohim; this is the spirit of the false Mashi’akh, which you have heard is coming, and even now it is already in the world.
The ever so popular “Jesus is God” preaching that is going on today distorts Yeshua’s identity as the Son of God, who is in a body of flesh, now, and in the future separate from God in physicality, but perfectly united with His Father, the Almighty, in nature, intent, and purpose. Yeshua is a perfect representation of God [Heb 1:1-4]. He is not God himself, ‘very god’.
We assert that the trajectory the apostles warned about, which was already present in the late first century, became institutionalized after Constantine, when the “Church” united with imperial power. What had existed as a ‘mystery’ and a ‘spirit’ early enough for most of the Apostles to warn us about, eventually found official expression in a church-state system that could enforce doctrine by decree. Do they have ‘friendship with God?’ The implied answer in Psalm 94:20 is “No!”
4O you adulterers! Do you not know that the love for worldly things [friendship with the world] is enmity with Elohim? Whoever, therefore, esteems worldly things is the enemy of Elohim. [Ya’akov/James 4].
The Roman Empire is most definitely a ‘worldly thing’, especially considering they saw themselves as the rulers of the whole world. And they ruled by ‘decree’, insisting their ‘decree’ is from God Himself.
Constantine changed the day of worship to The Day of Sol Invictus, which we know today as “Sunday”. “Sol Invictus” was the name of his god for the rest of his life, until just weeks before he died, when he called an excommunicated bishop to baptise him on his deathbed. In establishing that day as the new Roman Imperial ‘Church’ [universal/catholic] which also became the state government, he said:
“On the venerable Day of the Sun [Sol Invictus] let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest…”
So we could accurately say: For the first time, imperial law gave civil preference to Sunday as the day of Worship.
Just a few years later, Constantine goes further and changes the Passover’s day to the spring equinox instead of the 14th day of the first month of spring according to barley and the new moon. In his decree to move the Passover, he says,
“Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd.”
The diatribe continues with even stronger language:
“…their hands having been stained with crime… let us have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd… for we have received from our Saviour a different way… Why should we follow those who are confessedly in grievous error?”
You do realize he is speaking of Jewish believers in Yeshua? Gentile believers, many of them, though not all, were still meeting with Jewish believers. This was done at the council of Nicea when he officially took over the congregations, deliberately forbidding Jewish Bishops to come to the meeting, which caused many [good] gentile Bishops not to go either. His ‘yes men’ signed off on his decree of iniquity.
Both of the previous edicts were iniquitous, because they violate two very plain instructions: Sabbath is the Seventh Day of the week, and Passover is the 14th day of the first month. And, it is “Passover”, not the fertility goddess’s day, “Ishtar/Easter”.
Many people did not comply with either of those first to ‘papal’ decrees, so about 28 years later, the empire had to take action:
“Christians must not “judaize” by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day… If any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.”
One can see that this is in regard to those who believe in Messiah who are still worshipping on Saturday, the Biblical Sabbath [well-established in Roman times] having their lives threatened by the “Christian Empire” with ‘hell’ [“anathema” means ‘cursed and going to hell’]. This happened at Laodicea, the congregation which Yeshua warned Himself, ‘you think you have made it’.
Barely 100 years later, Ephesus seems to fulfill Paul’s and Yeshua’s personal warnings to them. The Council of Ephesus affirmed the title theotokos, or ‘god-bearer’ for Mary. Although the council did not [yet] declare Mary divine, the centuries that followed saw Marian devotion expand dramatically until she was commonly invoked as the “Mother of God” and “Queen of Heaven.” The prophets spoke against both of those ideas passionately.
As the centuries progressed, particularly following the establishment of the faith as the Imperial state religion under Theodosius, the lines between civil and ecclesiastical authority grew increasingly blurred. Statutes targeting heresy, dissent, and those deemed to be “judaizers” intensified in their severity. The central new doctrines in question were the Sabbath, Passover, and ‘trinity’, the last of which took hundreds of years to develop. Throughout the medieval era, the church-state system reached a point where unyielding heresy could lead to death, as secular rulers executed the sentences passed by religious tribunals. While these specific measures cannot be attributed solely to Constantine, they characterize the long-term historical trajectory through which dogma was ultimately enforced by decree. Evil decrees, where [false] believers are killing believers. [a real believer would never kill anyone who simply disagrees with them, nor condemn them to hell].
We are not exempt from the warnings of the Apostles, nor from the phenomenon expressed in Psalm 94:20. The future holds for us a man who will one day rule, claim to be God, Jesus, Mohammed Buddha, and every deity all rolled into one person. Worldwide, anything biblical will be forbidden, especially the Sabbath, the Passover, and ONE GOD named יהוה who has a SON, a MAN named Yeshua.
We’ve been told in The Hitgalut, Revelation, that this is so:
1And as I stood on the sand of the shore, I saw a beast of prey rise up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads blasphemous words. 2And the beast of prey which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority. 3And one of his heads was as though mortally wounded; but his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered about the beast of prey. 4And they worshipped the dragon because he had given power to the beast of prey, saying, “Who can prevail against him to fight him?” 5And there was given to him a mouth, that he might utter boastful things and blasphemies; and power was given to him to make war for forty-two months. 6And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against Elohim, to blaspheme His Name and His dwelling place, and those who dwell in heaven. 7And power was given to him over every tribe, and kindred, and tongue, and nation, and it was given to him to make war with the K’doshim, and to overcome them. 8And all who dwell upon the earth shall worship him, even those whose names are not written in the The Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. 9If any man has ears, let him hear.
The ‘beast of prey’ will rise out of THE sea, the Mediterranean. This is the revisitation of Daniel’s four beasts. The Bear is Iran [Persia], the Lion is Iraq [Babylon], and the leopard is Turkey [ancient Greece]. This one man who unites these empires is empowered by The Adversary Himself [The Serpent, the one who DECEIVED MANKIND to worship God their own way]. He weds the harlot of Babylon, and then turns on her.
All of that is the fulfillment of what the Apostles foretold, that the ‘spirit’ of false Messianic doctrine was already in the world. Paul warned that it would devour them like wolves, and Yeshua warned several of the cities where ‘lateran councils’ occurred. None of those cities are still “believing” cities: they are all under muslim control, and have been for more than a millennium.
The warning of Psalm 94 is not merely about ancient Israel, nor only about Rome, nor even about the medieval church. It is a warning to every generation. Whenever men claim the authority to improve upon God’s Word, to replace His commandments with their own traditions, or to compel obedience through decrees that contradict Him, the mystery of lawlessness is again at work.
Paul said it was already working.
John said its spirit was already in the world.
History demonstrates how that spirit became institutionalized.
Revelation tells us it will one day culminate in a single man—the False Messiah—who will demand the worship of the whole earth.
The faithful are therefore called not merely to resist one corrupt institution or another, but to remain steadfast to the Word of יהוה as delivered through His prophets and His Son. Thrones rise and fall. Councils convene and pass away. Empires come and go. But the commandments of יהוה endure forever, and no decree of men can overturn what He has spoken.