Phases

The final thought from someone on one of my email lists spurred my thoughts this morning, so here is what I replied. I actually have more to write, but this is the Reader's Digest version of what I've had on my mind. And for those who have questions about being Hebraic/Messianic, or wonder how or why we answer questions the way we do, maybe this will help you to understand that as well.

I've said it for awhile, and it's not a lot, but maybe one or two people who have been around awhile will have noticed the same thing.

I've noticed over the years that there are "phases" that a person goes through when their eyes are opened. Some people call this being called to "the Truth," other call it "having scales removed," and others just call it "becoming Messianic." Whatever a person calls it, there are certain things that occur in their mindset over time.

PHASE 1 - Wait...I don't remember seeing THAT in the Bible!
In this phase, people's emotions start ranging from joy to sadness to anger, and questions start forming. They don't know what to think...is it a trick of Satan/HaSatan/the Adversary/the Enemy, or is it truly a revelation from God/YHWH/the Ruach/Holy Spirit? It doesn't appear that my pastor is teaching what I'm reading. What do I do now? I wonder if anyone else is seeing what I'm seeing? If I tell someone, will they try to explain it away? ... All types of questions start forming, and more things are being revealed.

PHASE 2 - That's not what Christianity taught me!
This is the phase where people get turned off by the church and angry to the point of being anti-Christian-anything. If it's Christian music, it's gone. If it's a King James Bible, it's gone. If it uses the term "Lord," it's gone. If someone uses the name Jesus, they cringe... At the same time, they start looking into Judaic roots, history, customs, traditions, etc., to the point of using Hebrew terminology, and insisting that "Yeshua" is **THE** name to use, without doing the research and realizing the truth of the matter. They look into these things out of spite, but more out of curiosity stemmed from the question, "If I wasn't taught THAT in my church, what else was I not taught?" It's also in this phase where people start blaming the church "system" on misguiding them, calling the church Babylon, and other biblical place names.

Just as an FYI...the etymology of turning "Y'shua" into "Jesus" is a LONG, many-language, process. Here is the basics of it (based on an article I wrote entitled, "What language do you speak?":

When someone says your name, is it the same or different in another language? If you hear the name Mateo, would you associate it with Mary, Mark, or Matthew? When you hear the name Matityahu, would you associate it with Marsha, Matilda, or Matthew? When you hear the name Matthaeus, would you associate it with Madeline, Matlena, or Matthew? If you chose the latter in all three instances, you would be correct. The name, Matthew, is also said Matityahu in Hebrew, Matthaeus in Greek, and Mateo in Spanish. Do you think that someone with that name would get upset if they were called Matityahu, Matthaeus, or Mateo? Do you think a person named William would get upset if someone from Spain or Mexico would address them as Guillermo? Of course not. And what about a name pronounced in Xhoso, a South African �click� language, being translated into American Sign Language?

When saying a name/proper noun in another language, things don't always transfer evenly. Here are some examples (f
Hebrew/Aramaic - Y(e)shua - Some same "Yehoshua (Joshua), some say/spell "Yahshua"...Like the pronunciation of YHWH, we won't know until the end THE correct way to say and spell it.
Greco-Roman - Iesous - pronounced Yay-zoos ... here is where some of the anti-Greek, anti-Christian mindset for this particular phase comes in. If it sounds like Zeus, it HAS to be from worshipping a false god. Wrong. How many languages on this earth use masculine and feminine suffixes? Greek is no different:
The Greeks had no "Y" letter, but they did have have a letter that had the "yeh/yuh" sound, the "I" (Iota)
The Greeks had multiple "E" sounds, so again, they chose the one they found closest to the sound they heard. They chose the Eta (long A sound). Notice they didn't use the Epsilon (short E sound).
The Greeks had no SH sound (from the Hebrew Shin), so they again chose the closest to what they heard. So they chose the Sigma (S sound).
The Greeks were again able to match the sound of the long U (stemming from a Vav/Waw), but not the letter, so they were able to use the Upsilon.
The Greeks knew that Yeshua/Jesus was a male, so they attached a masculine suffix to His name. But take note, some manuscripts don't always utilize this masculine suffix.
Thus, you have a name that, transliterated from the Greek, is pronounced Yay-suos, or Yay-su.

That name later gets turned into Latin, and German, and into Englisc (Anglo-Saxon/Olde English). This is where the language started moving towards our modern English. This is again where confusion sets in. Did you know that an Olde English F had an S sound, or a D with a line sounded like an E, or a G wasn't called a 'G' but a 'yogh'? It is at this point where the "I" gets, over time, turned into a "J" and the appearance of the Eta stays put and, again over time, gets turned into a long "E" sound. Thus, we now have the Modern English translation of "Jesus."

OK, so we went from disliking everything that the church taught us, and everything that has anything to do with "church" to the next phase...

PHASE 3 - I'm not Jewish!
This is the phase where people turn 180 degrees from disliking everything "Christian" to disliking everything "Jewish." If it's a rabbinical tradition, it's gone. If it's a book written by a Rabbi or the Sages, it's gone. If it's not found solely in the Bible, it's history. Why do people call me Jewish when I'm not? This is just one of the questions that start popping up during this phase. ((sorry...running out of time, so the rest of this is REALLY short))

PHASE 4 - I want to know!
This is THE pivotal phase in living a Hebraic life. This is usually the second longest phase. This is the phase that is when the majority of the personal research is done. This is also the phase that will determine, based upon how true to following THE Messiah, which path a person will travel - into living a Hebraic lifestyle or converting to Judaism.

PHASE 5 - This is my life....
This is the result of the previous phase, and is the longest of all of the phases. This is when a person makes the commitment/decision to travel the path of a Hebrew, or that of converting to Rabbinic Judaism. This is not to say that one who converts to Judaism will not meander to the other path. Maybe that person has something s/he needs to learn during that time that will be of assistance on the other path.

So there y'all have it...in a short form, what I have seen, and still see, in people's lives who have had their eyes opened and scales removed.