I was asked recently to what I credit my success in ministry. My answer was “Money is the root of all evil.”
I could tell the person who asked me the question didn’t understand my answer, and the truth is when I answered the question with that statement, I didn’t expect them to understand—at least, not completely.
I continued explaining, just as I will explain here. As a young person in synagogue, my rabbi taught me to ask questions. Because I was taught to ask questions, I ended up becoming agnostic for a period of time.
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It was also because I asked questions that I ultimately found Yeshua within the Judaism I had questioned so strongly. My questions led me to other questions, which led me to other questions. Many of my questions were caused by lies I had been taught in synagogue, and later in church. I know the word “lies” is a strong word to use to describe what I was taught, but it is also accurate.
Let me provide just a few examples of lies I heard over the years, beginning with the one above. I heard: “Money is the root of all evil,” “There were two of each type of animal in Noah’s ark,” “Noah’s flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights,” “Paul fell off his horse when the light shined from heaven,” “Eve and Adam ate an apple,” “There were three wise men” and “Bathsheba was sunbathing when King David saw her.”
I could continue to list hundreds of lies I was taught in synagogue and church over the years, each one by well-meaning people who were not intending to lie. They weren’t lying because they wanted to lie; they were lying because they were trying to share what they believed was the truth.
Unfortunately, because they didn’t learn to ask questions, they were simply repeating the lies they were taught by others who were trying to share the truth with them.
However, well-intentioned lies are still lies, and every lie is designed to cover up or make a truth unseeable or unknowable. A truth unknown, no matter how small, keeps us from knowing what the author of the Bible, G-D, intended for us to learn from what He actually wrote.
Money isn’t the root of all evil; The love of money is (1 Tim. 6:10). Removing those three small words changes entirely the truth of the verse and makes what was a truth a lie. Genesis tells us how many animals of each kind went on the ark: “Of every clean animal you shall take with you seven of each kind, male and female; and of the animals which themselves are not clean two, male and female; also of the flying creatures of the sky seven of every kind, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of the whole land” (Gen. 7:2-3, TLV).
Check these out for yourself: Noah’s flood lasted 150 days. The story of Paul never even mentions a horse. The Bible doesn’t say what kind of fruit Eve and Adam ate, and Bathsheba was taking a ritual bath when David saw her. For those who don’t know what a ritual bath is, think of a baptism.
My point in writing this is that many people reading this today have been lied to just as I was. I am not writing this to blame those who have told us these lies. I am pointing out these lies because when I found out I was lied to, I took the time to search the Bible for truth. When I stopped depending on what people said and began searching the Scriptures, the truth brought me from being agnostic to being fully convinced that G-D exists, that the Bible is truth and that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah of Israel.
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Eric Tokajer is the author of “Overcoming Fearlessness,” “What If Everything You Were Taught About the Ten Commandments Was Wrong?”, “With Me in Paradise,” “Transient Singularity,” “OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry,” “#ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer,” “Jesus Is to Christianity as Pasta Is to Italians” and “Galatians in Context.” Visit his website at rabbierict.com.
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