Crushing the Head of the snake

I was shocked the first time I found out that the word Catholic means "universal". Does it? Hmmm-- I never even thought about it before. i just knew that I didnt want to worship Mary. I have never understood this concept. Didnt Jesus say not to do that? So then IF folks do this, arent they going against scripture? Nevermind the fact that the Catholic church as a whole was just scary to me. The statues. The paintings. The crucifixes. The crown of thorns. Even these images in the pages of scripture were not as disturbing to me as the images, statues and artwork I have seen that pretain to Catolocism in particular. Stigmata? Oh good grief! Its easier to just describe scenes from movies than it is to truy and explain it. But my question always has been: Why does this scary thing only seem to happen under the umbrella (if you will) of Catholocism? I have never heard of such a thing happening involving any other church or faith. Holy water? Crucifixes? casting some evil spirit out? Suffice it to say that all of these things turned me off (to say the least) and I wanted nothing to do with it. Fortunately, my parents wanted nothing to do with it either, so my anxiety was not magnified by being made to attend a church I did not understand. My mother had always said that she had decided not to require her kids to go to any church. She was of the belief that a person had to stay with the same church they are baptized in...for life. This MAY bw true according to denimination-- but never have I heard it in any church that Ive been in. im the churches Ive attended, I was free to come and go as I liked. Anyway, mom did not want to commit us to something we didnt believe in. So she said we didnt have to go if we didnt want to. She said we could decide what we wanted to do and she would support it. In my case this was atteactive to me. I got saved in the tenth grade, and had a strong desire then to attend church on my own...just not a Catholic one 😊 Recently, as I was lying in bed, this thought seemed to hit me like a ton of bricks: How can we take God's name in vain when we dont even know whar it is? The ten commandments say "You shall not take the Lord God's name in vain." (commandment 3). Well, Ive always known that God's last name is not damn-- and once I was saved, and began attending Calvary Chapel, the "non-denominational denomination"-- I could NEVER have imagined saying. well, you know what I mean... I was a fifteen year old girl, Jesus had become my best friend, and I only wanted to please him. So, all these years later, in my late forties, Im being picky and saying that God is not his name...thats his title. Thats who he is.. but it would be like someone else calling us "Human" rather than by pur name. So, really HE has many names he goes by: Elohim, Adonai, El Shaddai, El Elyon (etc.)... but his actual name is said to be unutterable. At least this is what I learned when I took a Bible Literature class in college. The letters are YHWH, which men turned into "Yahweh" so that we could pronounce it. Man---okay, so...havent we already taken Gods name in vain then? I mean, we turned it into something that it... isn't. We had to...or we couldnt say it. The irony of it is, that at Calvary Chapel I was not learning the names of God anyway...or the ten commandments for that matter. This boggles my mind now because Calvary Chapel does go through the ENTIRE Bible systematically, alternating between the Old and New testaments. One Old Testament Book...one New. Old. New. and so on. So everything was covered. How did I miss the commandments? The answer is: I didnt. They were covered, like everything else. The thing is...the emphasis in the Evangelical church, particularly the Western Evangelical church, is on clinging to Jesus because we are now (as saved individuals), under His grace because of his death on the cross. So we are taught that learning Gods law, or his Torah, is little more than a nice gesture. (It is NEVER called the Torah, because the Evangelical church is not a a synagogue We do not want to exclude anyone. (We believe). Gods call is Universal. Universal? Okay. No problem. But I thought we weren't into Catholocism here? I WASNT. AT ALL. Fo For reasons I e already stated. (I think I should say, that I hadnt meant to go in this direction writing this, but the Holy Spirit is leading me there.). So, this os not to pick on any denomination or belief system. Its just that in my world, people chose Evangelical Christianity in order to get away from the things that Catholocism teaches that they do not agree with. (Worshipping Mary) for one, and things such as calling proests Father. To each his own, but isnt this offensive to our Heavenly Father? (Just another example). So we dont want to do these things. A more formal way of wording it (which I hate) is of course Protestant. But I hate everything being divided into big words, so I refuse to call it that. This whole fire was stirred in me because I saw this stupid post online that said : "Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Cristianity. Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism.". Wrong Judaism is Judaism because the tribe of Judah is the only tribe if the 12 who came back to the mountain after they all scattered and went their own way-- waiting for Moses to come back down with the ten commandments. Apparently, this is where the term "Jeeish" comes from. (That comes from Hebrew Roots pastor Jim Staley) if you want to look him up. And Christianity is Christianity because...why? This is the part thats hard to answer and I have considered myself to be one of them. Because we...worship Jesus Christ? I suppose this WOULD be the easiest answer-- but why do Christians say "We're not under the law" anyway? Arent we? Have the Heavens and earth passed away yet? Because if not-- according to Jesus himself, we are still under the law of God. (Matthew 5:18). According to what Jesus says there, we are still under His law guys. Why Evangelical churches do not teach it this way, I do not know. My own dad used to tell me that I believed in "universal atonement" and I had no idea what he was even talking about. I stay away from "blanket terms" like that. I realize that sometimes they are supposed to make complicated ideas simpler...but I find that usually, the opposite happens. So, if we worship Jesus Christ, then why do we reject the Law in Gods Torah, and say we are no longer under it? Did you know that there is no letter J in the Hebrew alphabet? We say, well, the name Jesus is Greek. It is. And if we know anything about Greek mythology, we know that it involves worshipping thousands of different dieties...which is fine, if thats your thing, but the Law of God says "You shall have no other gods before me.". The law written in God's word says that. The Word that is the Bible...that Christians claim we believe cover to cover? So what happens when a so-called "monotheistic " system of beliefs is "added" to a belief system that worships thousands of dieties? Listen, I dont deny that many folks that became Believers in scripture were in Greece/from Greece, and I dont deny that the new testament was written in Greek...but what happened here? Is Jesus suddenly not Hebrew anymore? Was he no longer known as the Lion of the tribe of Judah? No, hes the same yesterday,vtoday and forever. So whats going on here? We acknowledge the law of God, but we're no longer under it? Thats what it means to be Christian because Christ paid for our sins on the cross? Yes, he did. But if THAT'S true (That we are no longer under the law)--then Matthew 5:18 no longer makes sense Why would Jesus say that then? Did he lie? Of course not. God cant lie. We all know that. But something is clearly wrong here...isnt it? Did you know that Paul's name was Paul because thats what the Roman government changed it to? His name (in the Hebrew was rabbi Shaul (Sha--ul). Jesus's name (in the Hebrew) was Yeshua (meaning "Salvation". This is most likely what his parents called him growing up. But maybe we think that no longer applies because (Jesus) died and was resurrected. Has he transcended all of that now? Christians think so, dont we? Consider this: King James of England, who gave us the particular translation of the scriptures that we rely on so heavily, is said to have been an athiest. Where did I get that? A pastor whom I trust. James, the brother of Jesus? His name was Yakov or Jacob (not James). No, the king apparently had to have one of the BOOKS named after him too...so he changed it. Anyway...why do we assume that Jesus only followed the law because he was perfect? He said that the law has not been done away with. Wait-- he died on the cross, didnt he? That paid for our sins didnt it? Yes. But dont look at me...Jesus said it. What if Jesus followed the law and kept the commandments because he loved his father and kmew thats what HE wanted? What if Jesus kept Shabbat and ate cleanly, because he knew that this would be the behavior which proves that we have this thing called a relationship with him? Its not about religion, its about a relationship. Right? I heard it in church every week. Fine-- but a relationship isnt going to turn inro actions by osmosis is it? When I sorta crashed and burned in my Christian life, I remembered that "its not about religion, its about relationship?" Okay. Really? Relationship based on what? We say, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." Okay. How do we do that? Theres a million different ways to do this, right? Maybe this is why we have thousands of different "Christian" denominations, and we keep adding more. Wow...sounds like Greek mythology. Is that what we follow? Maybe. The New Testament was written in Greek, right? Yes, but the Hebrew commandments say: "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no ther gods before me." Okay, so we have developed a million different ways to worship one God. Fine, but then we tell people that it its not about who WE say he is, irs about who the BIBLE says he is. Fine. Who does the Bible say he is? I mentioned some of it up there. We know he's the savior of the world because he died. But why do we reject the identity he had when he lived, and believe thats what he wants us to do? Does this exclude anybody who is not Jewish? We think so... because the CALL of God is universal? It goes out to everybody? Great! Wonderful! Okay--whats the word for universal? Wait...that would be...Catholic? Right? Thats where I STARTED, remember? I already said Im not going there because I will not worship Mary and I will not call any man that isnt my dad "Father" And I will NEVER believe that any man exclusively, is a go-between for man and Jesus Christ. To each his own; but I wont go there. So, I think, in that sense, the Universal thing sinply doesnt work, because wouldnt this be that "wide path to destruction" the scripture talks about? You know, you have people saved in droves at Billy Graham crusades and concerts and so forth, and then you read the story of the Israelites in the wilderness being led to the Promised Land...and only Joshua and Caleb actually made it there. The rest if them abandoned the purpose...we might say. I think the rest of them were on that wide path of destruction. Remember, few find the narrow road. This is why it does not make any sense to me when these evangelists and so-called spiritual giants keep asking where the Joshua's and Caleb's are. To put it olain and simple, the endurance and presistence and faith of Joshua and Caleb is rare. Its hard to find. Its uncommon, because it is difficult. It is long-suffering. The faith of Joshua a Caleb does not come in large numbers. I DOES stir peoples hearts and attract big audiences; but when God chooses someone for a task, the process of preperation is always part of their enduring legacy. Its like slow labor. It takes years and gets harder with time. So, in all of this, Im saying why in the world have we been taught for SO long now, that the Torah and Gods law only applies to those who are Jewish? The word Catholic means "Universal"? Okay. But why is it that God's law...Gods Torah s not Universal? Isnt this WHY he gave it to us in the first place,? There is Rabbinical Judaism, and then there is Biblical cal Judaism. Rabbinical Judaism has all kinds of things added to it which are not Biblical. (As is my understanding). Biblical Judaism is pretty self-explanatory, isnt it? All Im trying to say is that doesnt it seem that God gave us the Torah in the forirst lace so that we would not need thousands and thousands of different denominators? Its right in the pages of scripture. There is no more blood sacrifice because Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled that with his death. And there is no holy water, stigmata, worshipping Mary, calling priest's "father" or liturgical offerings. No disrespect intended...I just would rather simplify things. By the way, Christianity basically stems from Catholicism... so if one is wanting to steer clear of Catholicism, maybe Christianity isnt exactly the way to go? To each his own. This is just my perspective on it