Brother Sergio. I'm grateful that you've called out the people of The Matrix who don't know they are in it. Most every denomination claims something special that separates them from and divides the Body to some degree.
The problem I've encountered along the way is that the original Church was started by the Jewish people. There was no such thing as Christianity. It's a manufactured name derived from non believers in Antioch and elsewhere. No one early on called themselves Christian.
The original believers following The Way. The only way in Scripture is Yeshua Jesus Christ.
The deviation from The Way was subtle but did eventually end up in a Council in 325ad. From that Council, the Roman Catholic Church ran the show for over a millennia. It ruined The Way with traditions that Christ never mentioned in His ministry. The reformation didn't change things much other than challenging the gospel of works. That is huge but we still have reformation churches that follow their own traditions of men.
You along with many others delivered me from the shackles of The Matrix because I was willing to look. God tells us to test all things through His Word. Are we not disobedient if we do not follow His mandate?
My walk has put me on a path to fully knowing Christ through all that He did while walking this earth. Anything other than The Way indicates you might be on the broader path!
Thanks again for all that you do. My life has been enriched from Hebraic tradition because you invited me to look. Can't dismiss the past. We are all One People under One Covenant period!
You enter by being brought into the covenant, not by agreeing to it. Covenants are cut, not accepted. Jeremiah 31:31 says HaShem cuts it with the house of Israel and Judah, and Yeshua cut it in Luke 22:20. Ephesians 2:12-13, strangers to the covenants of promise, brought near by His blood.
The Kingdom is already within. Christ has justified me and sanctified me.. He will glorify me at His Coming.
The work of God's Holy Spirit is sculpting me into what The Father created me to be. It's me surrendering to God's perfect will through my Savior. The work was finished on The Cross. My entry into heaven is by His Hand not my own.
My alignment with Christ is The Way. Christianity has broadened the road just as the rabbinic traditions have done. Walk the narrow path with Christ and all will be added unto you!
Brought near by blood I did not shed (Ephesians 2:13), kept by walking in the instruction the ruach was given to produce (Ezekiel 36:27). Yeshua’s own answer to your question was not “whoever accepted Me.” It was whoever does the will of My Father (Matthew 7:21).
You are not so good at reading minds as shown by your putting thoughts and words and ideas, "whoever accepted me" that I never espoused.
This would describe my beliefs, I believe yours as well.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
Why?
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him,
How?
for he dwells with you and will be in you.
— John 14:15-17
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
— John 14:21
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
— John 14:23-24
I leave you with this. God bless you.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I need to start by thanking you, Sergio, for enabling me to admit to myself that I am in much the same place as you. I'm much more focused on the Holy Spirit and the New Covenant. But let me answer your questions first. I'm not sure why He wants me to do that, but here goes.
Who taught you what you believe?
The Lord through His Spirit. Plus, I was directly mentored by my blood father when I met the Lord for nearly two years on a daily basis. He was seminary trained, and had some real problems with what he was taught. Pat (my wife) and I spent a lot of time examining what we had read and discussing what it actually meant. She had seminary training which I could clearly see as a problem. Plus, she read commentaries which added suspicious stuff. We were often shunned because of our charismatic background. Pat was taught to hide that fact by her seminary training. But being gifted socially, she learned how to be much more direct, as needed.
Where did it come from?
52 years of intensive bible study with almost no commentaries by men or women. I read a lot of stuff, probably well over a thousand or maybe three thousand books—most current, but many Christian classics. I studied through at least two dozen different translations, cover to cover. Since I met you I read through and studied the CJB. But almost all the teachings were compromised by assumptions and intellectual logic.
Who taught them?
As I said, the only resource I trusted was what the Ruach HaKodesh showed me in the scriptures. I had a lot of trouble with teachers who taught intellectually. Hence my focus on the Holy Spirit. I learned that through hard experience. Regularly, as I quoted a book I had read, I discovered that the book was in error. So, I've grown increasingly suspicious throughout the decades.
Where does the trail actually end?
Hopefully working on the creative team in the Kingdom, helping my Messiah during the millennium. Then the New Creation. On the other end, I didn't accept the 6000 year earth until 2011 or so. I was raised an evolutionist and didn't really question that. But every year I find out that more of scripture is literally true.
So, the question is where do I go from here? I live in a city where I know almost no one, though I am making friends at the senior independent living high rise. However, I have found no serious believers among any of them, either. I recently began keeping Shabbat, and I like it. Though it has been difficult for me to hear from that Lord clearly how I need to handle that.
Pat and I finally found a church here just before she died. But, it is a spec ops street evangelism ministry which has no concept of discipleship. They would not allow me to do anything, because all that stuff is supposed to be done by the "pastor". I put that in quotes because he is a pure evangelist. I still support them financially. But I have no church here, nd I have quit looking. I'm hoping to get a bible study going here. But they have a history of very flawed Bible study leadership.
So, I'm praying a lot. Learning to love the people here. Expecting the Lord to move in the future. Plus, I have learned a lot from you, Sergio, and several other Substack writers.
In general, I don't do well with poetry, so I get little out of any of the Psalms. Being socially challenged means that much of the emotional stuff doesn't touch me at all. I read the Psalms for prophetic content—and there is a lot of that. I read the major prophets a lot, but I prefer Isaiah and Ezekiel. In the minor prophets I favor Zechariah, Joel, Malachi. But I read all the prophets regularly. I also read Genesis and Exodus a lot. In the New Covenant I tend to get the most out of John and Luke, Romans, 1 Cor., Galatians, Colossians, Ephesians, Hebrews, and both Thessalonians, plus Revelation. But, in general, I read the New Covenant 3-4 times as much as the Tanakh.
I'm not sure what or why I have written what I did. But the Lord has approved it, so I'll post it.
One thing I'd like to tell you, Laura, and it's important that I explain it to you. The entire message is based on one word, and that word is "obsolete". The meaning in the original Greek means "aged." It does not mean "obsolete."
In other words, a Greek verb meaning "growing old" became a Latin legal category meaning "annulled," became an English word meaning "defunct," and then got pointed at the wrong object, the Torah instead of the temple administration.
Oh wow. This man has disparaged more people and led more people I know astray than I can count. Please beware. You can find all the answers in your Bible starting in Genesis and going through to Revelation. As Sergio has already mentioned, there are traditions and man-made doctrines on both sides. To take that further, I often point people to the name early believers used for themselves also - The Way. Matthew says the way or path is wide that leads to destruction, but the way or path that leads to life is narrow and few find it. The Way that Yeshua walked was not man-made. It’s right in our Bibles and doesn’t need councils or you tube preachers. Father left us His Truth to read and walk and study for ourselves so we can recognize the counterfeits out there with all their subtly and lies. It’s the only way we will KNOW the Real Deal. 💛
The strait and narrow way is well-named and getting narrower. I suspect that people will be shocked to discover how few actually love the Lord and want to be with Him all the time. It's freely available, wonderfully enticing, yet most do not want it.
Hebrews 4:9 is the best verse you could have picked. Read what it does.
Through chapter 3 into chapter 4 the author uses katapausis (κατάπαυσις), cessation-rest. At verse 9 he sets it down and reaches for sabbatismos (σαββατισμός), a word found nowhere else in the New Testament, meaning Sabbath-keeping. The observance. The verb is present tense: it remains.
Your quote stops one clause short. Verse 11 finishes “let us be diligent to enter.” An imperative of effort.
Verse 4 anchors the whole thing in B’reshit 2:2. Creation, not Sinai.
Put verse 8 and verse 9 side by side in an interlinear. If they are the same word, I am wrong and I will say so publicly.
While the traditions may well be traced to a council, a reformation, and groups of men (there were no women at Nicea), the fundamental core of Christianity runs through and from Judaism. So yes, my faith is through adoption into a family, even if the traditions around it are not the same as the root.
THANK YOU dear brother, for your gentle plea and for the work you've done on this.
I think not enough attention is paid to the early church/congregation. There was drift even within John's lifetime, as we see from Messiah's warnings to certain congregations in Revelation. Soon there was open rebellion, but little is known of how the congregation located in Rome had leadership that decided (for "political reasons"? for safety?) to re-brand as non-Jewish or even anti-jewish 💔.
We are warned to not be ignorant of our adversary's methods, yet most are. (maybe it's the kind of topic that congregations don't want ?) Re-branding is one of them. Changing the character or goals of an organization, without changing the name, is a form of deceit. It's also very effective. So when the leaders in the Roman congregation insisted the other churches agree to do easter instead of Passover, there was opposition (thank goodness!) from Smyrna, at least; but I don't know much of how long they held out against the pressure. Inclusivity just looks SO good. 😟
There have been times when I wished I was more inclined to compromise, about a number of things. It would sure make life easier! But I can't. The One whom my soul loves (canticles 3:3,4a) never compromised, so I must not.
I have pointed out to church-goers and christians that if Jesus really did die to set us free from "all that", He had the perfect opportunity to tell us so, but He didn't. He was seen by thousands after His resurrection. Apparently His message was the same, since nothing new is recorded. If it really was finally time to work on the sabbath and eat ham, He could have said so: indeed He SHOULD have said so, because it really was a big deal and not the mere lifestyle preference that some pretend it is. But in fact if He had told his followers to abandon the torah, it would have been proof He wasn't really the messiah (Deut. 13:1-14:2).
Sergio, this is wonderful information for those who want and need to dig deep. HalleluYah that He has given you this to share with others. I pray many will use it to the full-extent! 🙏🏼
Sergio, please reread my statement of faith. No new tree was planted. The tree, the root, is Jesus the priest after the order of Melchizedek. Not Israel. I do not replace or replant the root or the tree. I am simply grafted in by the Gardiner who also grafts in any and all (whosoever) of the nations, including those in Israel who believed and who believe today. The Torah cannot save you because you are fallible. Only Jesus was infallible and can carry you across the finish line. I'm also not basing my observation of the burned, broken and pruned branches on Paul's statement alone. It is from history, the whole old testament Torah and Tanakh describes over and over the agony of the unfaithfulness of God's people and the weeping Jesus over Jerusalem in the new. Certainly, I am not bragging. I'm saying you and I both approach the throne room of God on equal footing.
Laura, three things you said. Sit with them, because they answer each other.
One. You said the root is Jesus, priest after Melchizedek, not Israel. But Melchizedek first appears in Genesis 14 blessing Abram, the father of Israel. And Hebrews 7 makes that priesthood the ground of a covenant with the house of Israel and Judah. Can the priesthood you chose to escape Israel actually be cut from Israel, when Scripture introduces it blessing Israel's father?
Two. You said the great I AM existed before Abraham. Right. So the root was never Israel, and never Jesus-instead-of-Israel. The root is YHWH's covenant faithfulness running from Abraham forward, and Yeshua is the sap that was always in it. If the root predates Israel, what did you think got burned and replaced?
Three. You said Torah can't save because we're fallible. Agreed. I never said it did. So what are you actually arguing against?
Reread your own words. They point somewhere you didn't expect. Same Gardener, same root. You were grafted in, not handed a new tree.
Sergio, thank you for giving me this opportunity to thoughtfully provide to you what I believe.
Melchizedek blesses Abram who receives the promise of his seed, but he is not Jewish himself, nor is Abram yet Abraham or Israel. He exists before Isaac and Jacob, before the twelve tribes of Israel. As does Melchizedek, who is mysteriously from heaven perhaps or a completely different blood line from Seth, or is the spirit of Jesus perhaps who is eternal, another form of the Angel of the Lord.
Israel becomes an inner circle encompassed or embraced by God's resources: the priest Melchizedek, and Abraham and Sarah, the covenant and law(s), the character of God, the promise, the land. You misunderstand me that I wish to escape Israel. I do not. I have simply been searching for scriptural answers and have compiled this much information upon which to rest my faith's foundation. I absolutely owe much to Israel, of course, in the history of my faith, all the examples of God's character and plan. And, I own my future to Israel in that Jerusalem and Zion are located in the land of Israel, and I assume that God will reign from that location when Christ returns as King of the new kingdom.
The "root" is eternal but suffers terribly. The root is either
1) Jesus or God's son that God raised up for Himself, or the root is perhaps
2) Zion or Jerusalem which features as the transformed new Jerusalem and the throne from where God reigns.
Nevertheless it is cut down, it is burned with fire. I don't believe it is the the Covenant because the covenant itself ends, but in this metaphor, the root is living so that even when the branches are burned and pruned, the root lives on and accepts grafts of new limbs. It could be "the Son" is the eternal seed of Christ that comes through the seed of Israel. or perhaps a prophecy of Jerusalem which is actually burned to the ground. "Insects feed on it" "wild boars ravage it." "The walls are broken down." Psalm 80:12-16 says, "Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it. Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself. Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire..."
What you asked for was that I trace back my faith. I am not arguing about anything. This is simply my own understanding thus far. I am grafted into the new kingdom, the new Jerusalem or Zion under the new provisions of King Jesus, as are you if you rest your faith on Jesus's person and work rather than the efficacy of Torah.
Yes, there is a rich Church history. Our Christian faith 'began' when God appeared as an Incarnate Man, just as your Jewish faith 'began' when Yahweh appeared on Mt. Sinai to his chosen people, Israel. The faith appears with God's revelation to a chosen people. In the OT, it was Israel, the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the NT, it was the Jewish community first, then the gentile community. After faith came religion, the rituals and practices of that faith. The Jewish community has historical rabbinic counsels just like the Christian community does. Both faiths have religious practices and canons of Scripture that were settled upon by ordinary men of faith led by the extraordinary hand of God. Blessings as you seek the Truth.
I wonder if it has ever occurred to anyone that a Torah scroll has no footnotes or study notes and that everything in the Scriptures that followed was the explanation / commentary. THEN I read ‘Stop and Think’ . . . I hear your heart, Sergio. If I didn’t know better I think you read my mind.
Sergio, you say the written Torah, the prophets and the Messiah are the foundation of your faith, and I accept that works for you, but I have a problem reconciling major differences in the nature of God as described in the Old Testament with my understanding of his nature through the New Testament. In many instances, it seems as though they are describing completely different Gods.
Part of the way of I reconcile these is by abandoning literality for many passages. Another is allowing for inaccuracies due to inevitable errors in memory, transmission and translation, not to mention possible intentional modifications inserted later on.
I am especially challenged to believe actions by God in the early books of the OT are true.
I do not believe that God would ever command someone to kill their child as a sacrifice, but human sacrifice was very common in many cultures and religions of those days.
I do not believe that God would kill the first born children throughout all the land no matter how unrighteous they were (but spare those that sacrificed animals to him and painted blood over their door to show God their righteousness, as though otherwise God wouldn't already know who was righteous or not inside a given house). If sacrificing people or animals was shown to be wrong in 30 AD, wasn't it wrong a millennium or two earlier also? I do believe that a human ruler would order this because it and similar atrocities were very common throughout history, and I think somehow the real story of who ordered the massacre somehow was either unknown for sure or changed later on.
I could go on and on about stories where the OT God commanding his believers to commit atrocities and he directly smote many individuals and groups himself. I've become convinced he wasn't even the same God.
The promise had “two sides of the same coin”, Israel would obtain BOTH the EVERLASTING BLESSING & EVERLASTING CURSE…… AT THE SAME TIME ….HOW?
Deut 30:1.....WHEN ALL THESE THINGS ARE COME.. THE 🎯BLESSING🎯 AND THE 🚨CURSE🚨,..
Isaiah 35:4. Say to them... YOUR GOD WILL COME WITH 🚨VENGEANCE🚨, EVEN GOD WITH A RECOMPENCE; HE WILL COME AND 👉🎯SAVE YOU🎯👈
"ISRAEL"= 2 sides of same coin!
1) A PHYSICAL SEED MADE EXTINCT = EVERLASTING CURSE
2) A SPIRITUAL SEED COMPLETLY (“all israel” shal be saved) REDEEMED = EVERLASTING BLESSING
Romans 11:26. And so all Israel shall be saved:.... 👉WHEN👈 I shall 🩸take away their sins🩸
Acts 3:19. Repent... 🩸YOUR SINS MAY BE BLOTTED🩸 out, 👉WHEN👈 (Heb 9:8; Luke 21:28; 1 Peter 1:5) 🎯THE TIMES OF REFRESHING🎯
(** Isaiah 28:5 👉IN THAT DAY👈 unto THE 💯RESIDUE💯...12 This is the REST....🎯THIS IS THE REFRESHING🎯: yet they would not hear... 21..LORD...shall be 🚨WROTH🚨...bring to pass… HIS 👽STRANGE ACT.👽**)
Zech 3:9..."I will 🩸remove the iniquity🩸 of that land IN ONE DAY."
Jeremiah 33:8... I will 🩸cleanse them from all their iniquity🩸,
Ezk 23:48.. will I cause 🩸lewdness to cease🩸 out of the land,
Isaiah 27:9. By this...shall the 🩸iniquity of Jacob be purged🩸
Ezk 35:5.. in the time..🩸iniquity..an end🩸
Ezk 36:33. .. In the day..🩸cleansed...iniquities🩸
Hosea 14:2... say unto him, 🩸Take away all iniquity🩸..
Jeremiah 50: 20 👉in that time👈 the 🩸iniquity of Israel...there shall be none🩸; ..the sins...shall not be found🩸
Joel 3:21. I will 🩸cleanse their blood🩸
Isaiah 13:9.... the ⏰DAY OF THE LORD⏰ cometh, ... destroy 🩸the sinners thereof out of it🩸
Zech 14:1. THE ⏰DAY OF THE LORD⏰ COMETH.. 2...I WILL ☢GATHER ALL NATIONS☢....⚠️THE CITY SHALL BE TAKEN⚠️ ...15...PLAGUE.. ..19... punishment of ⛰EGYPT⛰....21... in that day...🩸NO MORE THE CANAANITE IN THE HOUSE🩸 of the Lord of host
Dan 9:11... 🚨THE CURSE IS POURED UPON US🚨..OATH….WRITTEN, IN.. LAW OF MOSES...24. SEVENTY WEEKS.. DETERMINED UPON THY PEOPLE…. HOLY CITY, TO 🩸FINISH THE TRANSGRESSION🩸, and to 🩸MAKE AN END OF SINS🩸…make reconciliation for INIQUITY, ...26...shall come..
.. ⚠️DESTROY⚠️... CITY . SANCTUARY... THE END THEREOF SHALL BE WITH A 💦FLOOD💦 💥
Matthew 24:39 ..until the 💦FLOOD💦 CAME ...so shall.. coming of..Son of man
Amos 9:5.. 🔥🌏THE LAND, AND IT SHALL MELT,🔥🌏 .. it shall 💦RISE UP LIKE A FLOOD💦… the flood of ⛰EGYPT⛰.
Jer 46..up as 💦AFLOOD💦, whose waters... 8 ⛰Egypt⛰ riseth up… 💦A FLOOD,💦 ...cover the earth…⚠️DESTROY THE CITY⚠️...10....THIS IS THE ⏰DAY OF THE LORD⏰…A DAY OF 🚨VENGEANCE,🚨... 20.. .⚠️DESTRUCTION⚠️ ((Rev 11:8)) ...21.THE DAY OF THEIR CALAMITY WAS COME...THE ⭐TIME OF THEIR VISITATION⭐ ((Lk 19:44))
Rev 1:7.. cometh with clouds.👁👁EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM.. THEY ALSO WHICH PIERCED HIM👁👁...THE EARTH SHALL 💧WAIL💧 BECAUSE OF HIM.
Zech 12:1.. ⚠️WHEN THEY SHALL BE IN THE SIEGE⚠️.. 6. IN THAT DAY....👁👁THEYSHALL LOOK UPON ME WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED👁👁,… SHALL 💧MOURN💧..
Amos 5:2. THE VIRGIN OF ISRAEL
🪂IS FALLEN;🪂 SHE SHALL NO MORE RISE: she is forsaken….none to raise her.. CALLETH FOR 💦THE WATERS OF THE SEA💦, AND 💦POURETH….💦 UPON….THE EARTH:..
HOSEA 5 :. 5...THEREFORE 🪂SHALL ISRAEL AND EPHRAIM FALL🪂 IN THEIR INIQUITY: JUDAH ALSO 🪂SHALL FALL 🪂 WITH THEM. .. 9. EPHRAIM SHALL BE ⚠️DESOLATE⚠️ IN ⏰ THE DAY OF REBUKE⏰:..10.... THEREFORE I WILL 💦POUR OUT💦 MY 🚨WRATH🚨 UPON THEM 💦LIKE WATER.💦
Jer 31:4... shalt be built, O VIRGIN of Israel:..7.. the 💯REMNANT💯 of Israel. 8... GATHER THEM ....15 .. ...Rahel weeping for her children ..23 .. in the cities thereof, 👉WHEN👈 ..BRING AGAIN THEIR CAPTIVITY ...27 ... I will sow….SEED ..MAN …BEAST (666yrs)
...31 .. I will make a ✝️NEW COVENANT ✝️with.. Israel, and.. Judah:.38 the 🎯CITY SHALL BE BUILT.🎯
Hebrews 11:10 For he 🎯LOOKED FOR A CITY🎯 which.. builder and maker is God.
🎯THE NEW JERUSALEM🎯
Tertullian, "Against Marcion" book 3 ch 25
the divinely-built city of Jerusalem...IT IS EVIDENT FROM THE TESTIMONY OF EVEN HEATHEN WITNESSES, THAT IN JUDEA... SUSPENDED IN THE SKY A CITY... FOR FORTY DAYS. As the day advanced... vanish instantly."
Sergio, I very much appreciate all your work, and it has helped me shake down my faith to the roots. What I have found is yes, Nicea is as you say without Jews. However, my faith is not based in Judaism. It is based in the great I Am who existed before the Jews or Israel. Abraham himself was not a Jew or an Israelite because God named his people from out of the lineage of Abraham's grandson.
God called out a people from Babel and called them his own and gave them a blessing and a purpose and the most extraordinary personal miracles and belonging in a land flowing with milk and honey. It was an inherited land where the vineyards were already planted and the houses already built, but as Jeptha showed, and as the Psalms and Judges and Samuel records, the people whored around and adopted child sacrifice etc…so that eventually, God divorced them.
The Jews rejected their king and Messiah.
God created an new kingdom and priest through Jesus who was a priest not of the tribe of Levi, but after the order of Melchizedek, outside the nation of Israel, maybe of Shem. The new priesthood and new combined kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven do owe a history to the Jews of the land of Israel, but mostly we owe our history of faith to the God of creation and the Word made flesh who dwelt among us.
We owe God our faithfulness because HE is the one unique Lord of our redemption, Jesus the Christ, who was, yes, Jewish through Mary but also I Am outside of Judaism, whose apostles were mostly Jewish and who were then infiltrated by Pentecost converts. A new Ecclesia was raised up of all nations, and I believe the reason Nicea happened apart from the Jews was that over the passing of time, AD34 happened and AD70 and the Jews became secondary to the dominate nations having become the despora. I don't worship the Nicean Creed. There may be flaws in it given that it was created by man. Nevertheless, as God does and is able to do, he preserves His image and His people known to Him even with our disagreements, incomplete faiths, and incompetence. I belong to Him and He will finish and complete His will in me.
The root is not Israel. The root and the true vine is Jesus the Christ. The original branches were burned off and pruned off both. New branches have been grafted onto the vine by the Gardiner not by the burned, hacked, and pruned branches (the Jews). The Jews who belong to Jesus are themselves grafted in just as the other nations are by the Gardiner Himself. We are all on equal footing, saved by grace in faith. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my savior all day long.
Laura, I love that this took you down to the roots. That's what it's for. Let me honor your heart and push back on one thing, because I earnestly believe it matters.
You've inverted Sha'ul's own image. Romans 11, the olive tree you're leaning on. He doesn't say the branches were all burned and a new tree planted. He says some natural branches were broken off and the nations grafted in among them. Among them, not instead of them. Then the line that undoes the whole thing: "do not boast over the branches. It is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you."
And you gave me the key yourself. You're right the great I AM predates Abraham. So the root was never Israel, and never Jesus-instead-of-Israel either. The root is the covenant faithfulness of YHWH running from Abraham forward. Yeshua isn't a different tree. He's the sap. The great I AM, the Memra, now made flesh, who was at the root the whole time.
So you don't have to choose between the God of creation and the roots of Israel. That's the false choice replacement theology hands you. Paul actually refuses it. The nations are brought near to the covenants of promise, not handed a new tree with the old one burnt and forgotten.
If the natural branches were burned and gone, why does he warn the wild branch against arrogance and promise God can graft the natural ones back in? You can't re-graft what was destroyed. The tree is still standing, Laura. You were grafted into it.
That's better news than the version where you replaced someone.
Brother Sergio. I'm grateful that you've called out the people of The Matrix who don't know they are in it. Most every denomination claims something special that separates them from and divides the Body to some degree.
The problem I've encountered along the way is that the original Church was started by the Jewish people. There was no such thing as Christianity. It's a manufactured name derived from non believers in Antioch and elsewhere. No one early on called themselves Christian.
The original believers following The Way. The only way in Scripture is Yeshua Jesus Christ.
The deviation from The Way was subtle but did eventually end up in a Council in 325ad. From that Council, the Roman Catholic Church ran the show for over a millennia. It ruined The Way with traditions that Christ never mentioned in His ministry. The reformation didn't change things much other than challenging the gospel of works. That is huge but we still have reformation churches that follow their own traditions of men.
You along with many others delivered me from the shackles of The Matrix because I was willing to look. God tells us to test all things through His Word. Are we not disobedient if we do not follow His mandate?
My walk has put me on a path to fully knowing Christ through all that He did while walking this earth. Anything other than The Way indicates you might be on the broader path!
Thanks again for all that you do. My life has been enriched from Hebraic tradition because you invited me to look. Can't dismiss the past. We are all One People under One Covenant period!
I love how you call it The Matrix, Scott, because that's exactly what it is, brother. Keep digging!!
How does one enter God's Kingdom, since you know?
You enter by being brought into the covenant, not by agreeing to it. Covenants are cut, not accepted. Jeremiah 31:31 says HaShem cuts it with the house of Israel and Judah, and Yeshua cut it in Luke 22:20. Ephesians 2:12-13, strangers to the covenants of promise, brought near by His blood.
How will you enter God's Kingdom? The last answer was nice.
A covenant is cut, not accepted??
Depends on the type of covenant. Anyway, how will Mr. DeSoto enter God's Kindom?
The Kingdom is already within. Christ has justified me and sanctified me.. He will glorify me at His Coming.
The work of God's Holy Spirit is sculpting me into what The Father created me to be. It's me surrendering to God's perfect will through my Savior. The work was finished on The Cross. My entry into heaven is by His Hand not my own.
My alignment with Christ is The Way. Christianity has broadened the road just as the rabbinic traditions have done. Walk the narrow path with Christ and all will be added unto you!
Brought near by blood I did not shed (Ephesians 2:13), kept by walking in the instruction the ruach was given to produce (Ezekiel 36:27). Yeshua’s own answer to your question was not “whoever accepted Me.” It was whoever does the will of My Father (Matthew 7:21).
You are not so good at reading minds as shown by your putting thoughts and words and ideas, "whoever accepted me" that I never espoused.
This would describe my beliefs, I believe yours as well.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
Why?
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him,
How?
for he dwells with you and will be in you.
— John 14:15-17
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
— John 14:21
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
— John 14:23-24
I leave you with this. God bless you.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Amen
My friend Sergio said it quite succinctly!
I need to start by thanking you, Sergio, for enabling me to admit to myself that I am in much the same place as you. I'm much more focused on the Holy Spirit and the New Covenant. But let me answer your questions first. I'm not sure why He wants me to do that, but here goes.
Who taught you what you believe?
The Lord through His Spirit. Plus, I was directly mentored by my blood father when I met the Lord for nearly two years on a daily basis. He was seminary trained, and had some real problems with what he was taught. Pat (my wife) and I spent a lot of time examining what we had read and discussing what it actually meant. She had seminary training which I could clearly see as a problem. Plus, she read commentaries which added suspicious stuff. We were often shunned because of our charismatic background. Pat was taught to hide that fact by her seminary training. But being gifted socially, she learned how to be much more direct, as needed.
Where did it come from?
52 years of intensive bible study with almost no commentaries by men or women. I read a lot of stuff, probably well over a thousand or maybe three thousand books—most current, but many Christian classics. I studied through at least two dozen different translations, cover to cover. Since I met you I read through and studied the CJB. But almost all the teachings were compromised by assumptions and intellectual logic.
Who taught them?
As I said, the only resource I trusted was what the Ruach HaKodesh showed me in the scriptures. I had a lot of trouble with teachers who taught intellectually. Hence my focus on the Holy Spirit. I learned that through hard experience. Regularly, as I quoted a book I had read, I discovered that the book was in error. So, I've grown increasingly suspicious throughout the decades.
Where does the trail actually end?
Hopefully working on the creative team in the Kingdom, helping my Messiah during the millennium. Then the New Creation. On the other end, I didn't accept the 6000 year earth until 2011 or so. I was raised an evolutionist and didn't really question that. But every year I find out that more of scripture is literally true.
So, the question is where do I go from here? I live in a city where I know almost no one, though I am making friends at the senior independent living high rise. However, I have found no serious believers among any of them, either. I recently began keeping Shabbat, and I like it. Though it has been difficult for me to hear from that Lord clearly how I need to handle that.
Pat and I finally found a church here just before she died. But, it is a spec ops street evangelism ministry which has no concept of discipleship. They would not allow me to do anything, because all that stuff is supposed to be done by the "pastor". I put that in quotes because he is a pure evangelist. I still support them financially. But I have no church here, nd I have quit looking. I'm hoping to get a bible study going here. But they have a history of very flawed Bible study leadership.
So, I'm praying a lot. Learning to love the people here. Expecting the Lord to move in the future. Plus, I have learned a lot from you, Sergio, and several other Substack writers.
In general, I don't do well with poetry, so I get little out of any of the Psalms. Being socially challenged means that much of the emotional stuff doesn't touch me at all. I read the Psalms for prophetic content—and there is a lot of that. I read the major prophets a lot, but I prefer Isaiah and Ezekiel. In the minor prophets I favor Zechariah, Joel, Malachi. But I read all the prophets regularly. I also read Genesis and Exodus a lot. In the New Covenant I tend to get the most out of John and Luke, Romans, 1 Cor., Galatians, Colossians, Ephesians, Hebrews, and both Thessalonians, plus Revelation. But, in general, I read the New Covenant 3-4 times as much as the Tanakh.
I'm not sure what or why I have written what I did. But the Lord has approved it, so I'll post it.
I am grateful for your transparency, David. Beautiful.
I'm still shocked that you react that way. But I love it.
This man has helped me a lot. https://youtu.be/mCJ0RDIdZnQ?is=DPYjrFzaDu46wzRU
One thing I'd like to tell you, Laura, and it's important that I explain it to you. The entire message is based on one word, and that word is "obsolete". The meaning in the original Greek means "aged." It does not mean "obsolete."
In other words, a Greek verb meaning "growing old" became a Latin legal category meaning "annulled," became an English word meaning "defunct," and then got pointed at the wrong object, the Torah instead of the temple administration.
Something to think about :)
Thank you, Sergio. I agree that all scripture is given for our instruction in righteousness and for correction.
I watched the video, Laura. My suggestion always stays the same: be Berean.
I commented on his video, worth the read.
Oh wow. This man has disparaged more people and led more people I know astray than I can count. Please beware. You can find all the answers in your Bible starting in Genesis and going through to Revelation. As Sergio has already mentioned, there are traditions and man-made doctrines on both sides. To take that further, I often point people to the name early believers used for themselves also - The Way. Matthew says the way or path is wide that leads to destruction, but the way or path that leads to life is narrow and few find it. The Way that Yeshua walked was not man-made. It’s right in our Bibles and doesn’t need councils or you tube preachers. Father left us His Truth to read and walk and study for ourselves so we can recognize the counterfeits out there with all their subtly and lies. It’s the only way we will KNOW the Real Deal. 💛
The strait and narrow way is well-named and getting narrower. I suspect that people will be shocked to discover how few actually love the Lord and want to be with Him all the time. It's freely available, wonderfully enticing, yet most do not want it.
Amen!
Hebrews 4:9 is the best verse you could have picked. Read what it does.
Through chapter 3 into chapter 4 the author uses katapausis (κατάπαυσις), cessation-rest. At verse 9 he sets it down and reaches for sabbatismos (σαββατισμός), a word found nowhere else in the New Testament, meaning Sabbath-keeping. The observance. The verb is present tense: it remains.
Your quote stops one clause short. Verse 11 finishes “let us be diligent to enter.” An imperative of effort.
Verse 4 anchors the whole thing in B’reshit 2:2. Creation, not Sinai.
Put verse 8 and verse 9 side by side in an interlinear. If they are the same word, I am wrong and I will say so publicly.
Jesus is the New Covenant shabbat.
Have you never read?
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
— Hebrews 4:9-11
While the traditions may well be traced to a council, a reformation, and groups of men (there were no women at Nicea), the fundamental core of Christianity runs through and from Judaism. So yes, my faith is through adoption into a family, even if the traditions around it are not the same as the root.
THANK YOU dear brother, for your gentle plea and for the work you've done on this.
I think not enough attention is paid to the early church/congregation. There was drift even within John's lifetime, as we see from Messiah's warnings to certain congregations in Revelation. Soon there was open rebellion, but little is known of how the congregation located in Rome had leadership that decided (for "political reasons"? for safety?) to re-brand as non-Jewish or even anti-jewish 💔.
We are warned to not be ignorant of our adversary's methods, yet most are. (maybe it's the kind of topic that congregations don't want ?) Re-branding is one of them. Changing the character or goals of an organization, without changing the name, is a form of deceit. It's also very effective. So when the leaders in the Roman congregation insisted the other churches agree to do easter instead of Passover, there was opposition (thank goodness!) from Smyrna, at least; but I don't know much of how long they held out against the pressure. Inclusivity just looks SO good. 😟
There have been times when I wished I was more inclined to compromise, about a number of things. It would sure make life easier! But I can't. The One whom my soul loves (canticles 3:3,4a) never compromised, so I must not.
I have pointed out to church-goers and christians that if Jesus really did die to set us free from "all that", He had the perfect opportunity to tell us so, but He didn't. He was seen by thousands after His resurrection. Apparently His message was the same, since nothing new is recorded. If it really was finally time to work on the sabbath and eat ham, He could have said so: indeed He SHOULD have said so, because it really was a big deal and not the mere lifestyle preference that some pretend it is. But in fact if He had told his followers to abandon the torah, it would have been proof He wasn't really the messiah (Deut. 13:1-14:2).
When i mention this, the antinomians are quiet.
Not repentant, but quiet.
Sergio, this is wonderful information for those who want and need to dig deep. HalleluYah that He has given you this to share with others. I pray many will use it to the full-extent! 🙏🏼
Sergio, please reread my statement of faith. No new tree was planted. The tree, the root, is Jesus the priest after the order of Melchizedek. Not Israel. I do not replace or replant the root or the tree. I am simply grafted in by the Gardiner who also grafts in any and all (whosoever) of the nations, including those in Israel who believed and who believe today. The Torah cannot save you because you are fallible. Only Jesus was infallible and can carry you across the finish line. I'm also not basing my observation of the burned, broken and pruned branches on Paul's statement alone. It is from history, the whole old testament Torah and Tanakh describes over and over the agony of the unfaithfulness of God's people and the weeping Jesus over Jerusalem in the new. Certainly, I am not bragging. I'm saying you and I both approach the throne room of God on equal footing.
Laura, three things you said. Sit with them, because they answer each other.
One. You said the root is Jesus, priest after Melchizedek, not Israel. But Melchizedek first appears in Genesis 14 blessing Abram, the father of Israel. And Hebrews 7 makes that priesthood the ground of a covenant with the house of Israel and Judah. Can the priesthood you chose to escape Israel actually be cut from Israel, when Scripture introduces it blessing Israel's father?
Two. You said the great I AM existed before Abraham. Right. So the root was never Israel, and never Jesus-instead-of-Israel. The root is YHWH's covenant faithfulness running from Abraham forward, and Yeshua is the sap that was always in it. If the root predates Israel, what did you think got burned and replaced?
Three. You said Torah can't save because we're fallible. Agreed. I never said it did. So what are you actually arguing against?
Reread your own words. They point somewhere you didn't expect. Same Gardener, same root. You were grafted in, not handed a new tree.
Sit with it.
Shalom v'shalva.
Sergio, thank you for giving me this opportunity to thoughtfully provide to you what I believe.
Melchizedek blesses Abram who receives the promise of his seed, but he is not Jewish himself, nor is Abram yet Abraham or Israel. He exists before Isaac and Jacob, before the twelve tribes of Israel. As does Melchizedek, who is mysteriously from heaven perhaps or a completely different blood line from Seth, or is the spirit of Jesus perhaps who is eternal, another form of the Angel of the Lord.
Israel becomes an inner circle encompassed or embraced by God's resources: the priest Melchizedek, and Abraham and Sarah, the covenant and law(s), the character of God, the promise, the land. You misunderstand me that I wish to escape Israel. I do not. I have simply been searching for scriptural answers and have compiled this much information upon which to rest my faith's foundation. I absolutely owe much to Israel, of course, in the history of my faith, all the examples of God's character and plan. And, I own my future to Israel in that Jerusalem and Zion are located in the land of Israel, and I assume that God will reign from that location when Christ returns as King of the new kingdom.
The "root" is eternal but suffers terribly. The root is either
1) Jesus or God's son that God raised up for Himself, or the root is perhaps
2) Zion or Jerusalem which features as the transformed new Jerusalem and the throne from where God reigns.
Nevertheless it is cut down, it is burned with fire. I don't believe it is the the Covenant because the covenant itself ends, but in this metaphor, the root is living so that even when the branches are burned and pruned, the root lives on and accepts grafts of new limbs. It could be "the Son" is the eternal seed of Christ that comes through the seed of Israel. or perhaps a prophecy of Jerusalem which is actually burned to the ground. "Insects feed on it" "wild boars ravage it." "The walls are broken down." Psalm 80:12-16 says, "Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it. Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself. Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire..."
What you asked for was that I trace back my faith. I am not arguing about anything. This is simply my own understanding thus far. I am grafted into the new kingdom, the new Jerusalem or Zion under the new provisions of King Jesus, as are you if you rest your faith on Jesus's person and work rather than the efficacy of Torah.
Yes, there is a rich Church history. Our Christian faith 'began' when God appeared as an Incarnate Man, just as your Jewish faith 'began' when Yahweh appeared on Mt. Sinai to his chosen people, Israel. The faith appears with God's revelation to a chosen people. In the OT, it was Israel, the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the NT, it was the Jewish community first, then the gentile community. After faith came religion, the rituals and practices of that faith. The Jewish community has historical rabbinic counsels just like the Christian community does. Both faiths have religious practices and canons of Scripture that were settled upon by ordinary men of faith led by the extraordinary hand of God. Blessings as you seek the Truth.
So true, I unpacked the details in the main article. Great eye!
My morning meditation👇
I wonder if it has ever occurred to anyone that a Torah scroll has no footnotes or study notes and that everything in the Scriptures that followed was the explanation / commentary. THEN I read ‘Stop and Think’ . . . I hear your heart, Sergio. If I didn’t know better I think you read my mind.
💙💙💙
Sergio, you say the written Torah, the prophets and the Messiah are the foundation of your faith, and I accept that works for you, but I have a problem reconciling major differences in the nature of God as described in the Old Testament with my understanding of his nature through the New Testament. In many instances, it seems as though they are describing completely different Gods.
Part of the way of I reconcile these is by abandoning literality for many passages. Another is allowing for inaccuracies due to inevitable errors in memory, transmission and translation, not to mention possible intentional modifications inserted later on.
I am especially challenged to believe actions by God in the early books of the OT are true.
I do not believe that God would ever command someone to kill their child as a sacrifice, but human sacrifice was very common in many cultures and religions of those days.
I do not believe that God would kill the first born children throughout all the land no matter how unrighteous they were (but spare those that sacrificed animals to him and painted blood over their door to show God their righteousness, as though otherwise God wouldn't already know who was righteous or not inside a given house). If sacrificing people or animals was shown to be wrong in 30 AD, wasn't it wrong a millennium or two earlier also? I do believe that a human ruler would order this because it and similar atrocities were very common throughout history, and I think somehow the real story of who ordered the massacre somehow was either unknown for sure or changed later on.
I could go on and on about stories where the OT God commanding his believers to commit atrocities and he directly smote many individuals and groups himself. I've become convinced he wasn't even the same God.
Simple question(s)...will God allow you into His Kingdom? If so, why? If not, why?
Kada, please tell me what you mean about leading people astray and such. Is he following a way of thinking you can name? Or what is he doing?
The promise had “two sides of the same coin”, Israel would obtain BOTH the EVERLASTING BLESSING & EVERLASTING CURSE…… AT THE SAME TIME ….HOW?
Deut 30:1.....WHEN ALL THESE THINGS ARE COME.. THE 🎯BLESSING🎯 AND THE 🚨CURSE🚨,..
Isaiah 35:4. Say to them... YOUR GOD WILL COME WITH 🚨VENGEANCE🚨, EVEN GOD WITH A RECOMPENCE; HE WILL COME AND 👉🎯SAVE YOU🎯👈
"ISRAEL"= 2 sides of same coin!
1) A PHYSICAL SEED MADE EXTINCT = EVERLASTING CURSE
2) A SPIRITUAL SEED COMPLETLY (“all israel” shal be saved) REDEEMED = EVERLASTING BLESSING
Romans 11:26. And so all Israel shall be saved:.... 👉WHEN👈 I shall 🩸take away their sins🩸
Acts 3:19. Repent... 🩸YOUR SINS MAY BE BLOTTED🩸 out, 👉WHEN👈 (Heb 9:8; Luke 21:28; 1 Peter 1:5) 🎯THE TIMES OF REFRESHING🎯
(** Isaiah 28:5 👉IN THAT DAY👈 unto THE 💯RESIDUE💯...12 This is the REST....🎯THIS IS THE REFRESHING🎯: yet they would not hear... 21..LORD...shall be 🚨WROTH🚨...bring to pass… HIS 👽STRANGE ACT.👽**)
Zech 3:9..."I will 🩸remove the iniquity🩸 of that land IN ONE DAY."
Jeremiah 33:8... I will 🩸cleanse them from all their iniquity🩸,
Ezk 23:48.. will I cause 🩸lewdness to cease🩸 out of the land,
Isaiah 27:9. By this...shall the 🩸iniquity of Jacob be purged🩸
Ezk 35:5.. in the time..🩸iniquity..an end🩸
Ezk 36:33. .. In the day..🩸cleansed...iniquities🩸
Hosea 14:2... say unto him, 🩸Take away all iniquity🩸..
Jeremiah 50: 20 👉in that time👈 the 🩸iniquity of Israel...there shall be none🩸; ..the sins...shall not be found🩸
Joel 3:21. I will 🩸cleanse their blood🩸
Isaiah 13:9.... the ⏰DAY OF THE LORD⏰ cometh, ... destroy 🩸the sinners thereof out of it🩸
Zech 14:1. THE ⏰DAY OF THE LORD⏰ COMETH.. 2...I WILL ☢GATHER ALL NATIONS☢....⚠️THE CITY SHALL BE TAKEN⚠️ ...15...PLAGUE.. ..19... punishment of ⛰EGYPT⛰....21... in that day...🩸NO MORE THE CANAANITE IN THE HOUSE🩸 of the Lord of host
Dan 9:11... 🚨THE CURSE IS POURED UPON US🚨..OATH….WRITTEN, IN.. LAW OF MOSES...24. SEVENTY WEEKS.. DETERMINED UPON THY PEOPLE…. HOLY CITY, TO 🩸FINISH THE TRANSGRESSION🩸, and to 🩸MAKE AN END OF SINS🩸…make reconciliation for INIQUITY, ...26...shall come..
.. ⚠️DESTROY⚠️... CITY . SANCTUARY... THE END THEREOF SHALL BE WITH A 💦FLOOD💦 💥
Matthew 24:39 ..until the 💦FLOOD💦 CAME ...so shall.. coming of..Son of man
Amos 9:5.. 🔥🌏THE LAND, AND IT SHALL MELT,🔥🌏 .. it shall 💦RISE UP LIKE A FLOOD💦… the flood of ⛰EGYPT⛰.
Jer 46..up as 💦AFLOOD💦, whose waters... 8 ⛰Egypt⛰ riseth up… 💦A FLOOD,💦 ...cover the earth…⚠️DESTROY THE CITY⚠️...10....THIS IS THE ⏰DAY OF THE LORD⏰…A DAY OF 🚨VENGEANCE,🚨... 20.. .⚠️DESTRUCTION⚠️ ((Rev 11:8)) ...21.THE DAY OF THEIR CALAMITY WAS COME...THE ⭐TIME OF THEIR VISITATION⭐ ((Lk 19:44))
Rev 1:7.. cometh with clouds.👁👁EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM.. THEY ALSO WHICH PIERCED HIM👁👁...THE EARTH SHALL 💧WAIL💧 BECAUSE OF HIM.
Zech 12:1.. ⚠️WHEN THEY SHALL BE IN THE SIEGE⚠️.. 6. IN THAT DAY....👁👁THEYSHALL LOOK UPON ME WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED👁👁,… SHALL 💧MOURN💧..
Amos 5:2. THE VIRGIN OF ISRAEL
🪂IS FALLEN;🪂 SHE SHALL NO MORE RISE: she is forsaken….none to raise her.. CALLETH FOR 💦THE WATERS OF THE SEA💦, AND 💦POURETH….💦 UPON….THE EARTH:..
HOSEA 5 :. 5...THEREFORE 🪂SHALL ISRAEL AND EPHRAIM FALL🪂 IN THEIR INIQUITY: JUDAH ALSO 🪂SHALL FALL 🪂 WITH THEM. .. 9. EPHRAIM SHALL BE ⚠️DESOLATE⚠️ IN ⏰ THE DAY OF REBUKE⏰:..10.... THEREFORE I WILL 💦POUR OUT💦 MY 🚨WRATH🚨 UPON THEM 💦LIKE WATER.💦
Jer 31:4... shalt be built, O VIRGIN of Israel:..7.. the 💯REMNANT💯 of Israel. 8... GATHER THEM ....15 .. ...Rahel weeping for her children ..23 .. in the cities thereof, 👉WHEN👈 ..BRING AGAIN THEIR CAPTIVITY ...27 ... I will sow….SEED ..MAN …BEAST (666yrs)
...31 .. I will make a ✝️NEW COVENANT ✝️with.. Israel, and.. Judah:.38 the 🎯CITY SHALL BE BUILT.🎯
Hebrews 11:10 For he 🎯LOOKED FOR A CITY🎯 which.. builder and maker is God.
🎯THE NEW JERUSALEM🎯
Tertullian, "Against Marcion" book 3 ch 25
the divinely-built city of Jerusalem...IT IS EVIDENT FROM THE TESTIMONY OF EVEN HEATHEN WITNESSES, THAT IN JUDEA... SUSPENDED IN THE SKY A CITY... FOR FORTY DAYS. As the day advanced... vanish instantly."
https://allendaves.substack.com/p/the-man-of-sin-a-falling-away666the?utm_source=share&utm_medi
Sergio, I very much appreciate all your work, and it has helped me shake down my faith to the roots. What I have found is yes, Nicea is as you say without Jews. However, my faith is not based in Judaism. It is based in the great I Am who existed before the Jews or Israel. Abraham himself was not a Jew or an Israelite because God named his people from out of the lineage of Abraham's grandson.
God called out a people from Babel and called them his own and gave them a blessing and a purpose and the most extraordinary personal miracles and belonging in a land flowing with milk and honey. It was an inherited land where the vineyards were already planted and the houses already built, but as Jeptha showed, and as the Psalms and Judges and Samuel records, the people whored around and adopted child sacrifice etc…so that eventually, God divorced them.
The Jews rejected their king and Messiah.
God created an new kingdom and priest through Jesus who was a priest not of the tribe of Levi, but after the order of Melchizedek, outside the nation of Israel, maybe of Shem. The new priesthood and new combined kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven do owe a history to the Jews of the land of Israel, but mostly we owe our history of faith to the God of creation and the Word made flesh who dwelt among us.
We owe God our faithfulness because HE is the one unique Lord of our redemption, Jesus the Christ, who was, yes, Jewish through Mary but also I Am outside of Judaism, whose apostles were mostly Jewish and who were then infiltrated by Pentecost converts. A new Ecclesia was raised up of all nations, and I believe the reason Nicea happened apart from the Jews was that over the passing of time, AD34 happened and AD70 and the Jews became secondary to the dominate nations having become the despora. I don't worship the Nicean Creed. There may be flaws in it given that it was created by man. Nevertheless, as God does and is able to do, he preserves His image and His people known to Him even with our disagreements, incomplete faiths, and incompetence. I belong to Him and He will finish and complete His will in me.
The root is not Israel. The root and the true vine is Jesus the Christ. The original branches were burned off and pruned off both. New branches have been grafted onto the vine by the Gardiner not by the burned, hacked, and pruned branches (the Jews). The Jews who belong to Jesus are themselves grafted in just as the other nations are by the Gardiner Himself. We are all on equal footing, saved by grace in faith. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my savior all day long.
Laura, I love that this took you down to the roots. That's what it's for. Let me honor your heart and push back on one thing, because I earnestly believe it matters.
You've inverted Sha'ul's own image. Romans 11, the olive tree you're leaning on. He doesn't say the branches were all burned and a new tree planted. He says some natural branches were broken off and the nations grafted in among them. Among them, not instead of them. Then the line that undoes the whole thing: "do not boast over the branches. It is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you."
And you gave me the key yourself. You're right the great I AM predates Abraham. So the root was never Israel, and never Jesus-instead-of-Israel either. The root is the covenant faithfulness of YHWH running from Abraham forward. Yeshua isn't a different tree. He's the sap. The great I AM, the Memra, now made flesh, who was at the root the whole time.
So you don't have to choose between the God of creation and the roots of Israel. That's the false choice replacement theology hands you. Paul actually refuses it. The nations are brought near to the covenants of promise, not handed a new tree with the old one burnt and forgotten.
If the natural branches were burned and gone, why does he warn the wild branch against arrogance and promise God can graft the natural ones back in? You can't re-graft what was destroyed. The tree is still standing, Laura. You were grafted into it.
That's better news than the version where you replaced someone.
Shalom