Did Yahusha accepted worship as a deity? If so,
then it could be implied that Yahusha was Yahuah in the flesh. The issue
at hand, is “Glory” which Yahuah declares that He alone is wise and to
Him alone belongs “glory, majesty, dominion, and Power.”
Jude 1:25
25 to Yahuah Our Savior, who alone is wise, be
glory and majesty, dominion and Power, both now and forever.
Yahusha agreed:
Matthew 19:16-17
16
Behold, one came to him and said, "Good teacher, what good thing shall I
do, that I may have eternal life?" 17 He said to him, "Why do you call
me good? No one is good but one, that is, Yahuah. But if you want
to enter into life, keep the commandments of Yahuah."
John 17:3
Now this
is eternal life: that they know you Yahuah, the only true God,
and (are
in covenant with) Yahusha the Messiah, whom you have sent (as
the mediator of that covenant).
Matthew 4:10
Yahusha said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship
Yahuah your God and serve Him only.'"
To answer the question; did Yahusha accept worship?
We need to define the term glory. This is a very fine line that we are
treading. While it is Yahuah alone to whom Glory (worship) belongs... it
is Yahusha who embodies the very image of the invisible Yahuah. Yahusha
represents (in bodily form) the INVISIBLE Elohim… Yahuah. Yahusha
is the son of and a reflection of Yahuah and reflects the Glory of
Yahuah. The same role Lucifer played and failed. There is glory due both
the Father and His Firstborn-again son.
Glory as CREATOR belongs to Yahuah alone. The
glory as King and Heir to all that Yahuah created belongs to Yahusha
given to him by Yahuah as an inheritance.
It is with that clear understanding that we must
approach Scripture. So, I am careful to whom I direct my worship as
opposed to my praise. There is only ONE worthy of my worship.... and
that is Yahuah. Yahusha is worthy of my highest praise. Below is the
definition of the word glory and how I apply it and to whom:
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Glory
1 a : praise, honor, or
distinction extended by common consent : RENOWN b : worshipful praise,
honor, and thanksgiving <giving glory to God>
2 a : something that secures
praise or renown <the glory of a brilliant career> b : a distinguished
quality or asset
3 a (1) : great beauty and splendor
: MAGNIFICENCE something marked by beauty or resplendence <a perfect
glory of a day> b : the splendor and beatific happiness of heaven;
broadly : ETERNITY
To #1 above,
I give to Yahuah alone.
To #2 above,
I give you Yahusha alone.
To #3,
above I give to both.
To whom I give glory in the form of worship
is not the real question here. The real question is, did Yahusha accept
glory in the form of Divine worship that belongs to Yahuah? Or did
Yahusha accept glory in the form of worship given to a superior man in
rank and position? We see below that Yahusha directed all glory in the
form of Divine worship to Yahuah alone:
Mark 12:28-30
28
Then one of the scribes came, and listened to all their discussion, and
had noted how well He answered. So, he asked Him; what is the first
commandment of all? 29 And Yahusha answered Him: The first of all the
commandments is: Hear, O Israyl, Yahuah is our Father. Yahuah is one. 30
And you must love Yahuah your Father with all your heart and with all
your soul, and with all your might.
Matthew 4:10
Then
Yahusha said to her; you get away, Satan! For it is written: Yahuah your
Father you must worship, and Him only you must serve!
Matthew 23:9
And
you must not pray to or worship any man on earth as a "Father," for you
have only One Father, Who is in heaven.
Now concerning the rest of the Scriptures that
appear to demonstrate that Yahusha was worshipped as in Divine Worship;
I will just lump them all together and give you the reason behind it.
First, let me say that we are commanded to worship
in Spirit (to Yahuah) and in (the) Truth (Yahusha is
the truth and the way). So true worship of Yahuah is coming to Him
by the example of the true way set by Yahusha. That is coming to Him
through Yahusha by proxy.
John 4:24
24 Yahuah
is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
John 14:6
6 Yahusha
answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through (in covenant with)
me.
Next, I want to point out that the word translated
"worship" is a word used to describe
the act of bowing down
which, in many cases, is not the intent of worshipping Yahuah or Divine
Worship; but rather recognizing a superior in rank or messenger of
Yahuah or ‘homage’.
hom·age
/ˈ(h)ämij/
noun
special honor or respect shown
publicly.
This is the meaning of the word we translated
“worship” in our English Bibles.
Strong's #4352: proskuneo
(pronounced pros-koo-neh'-o)
from 4314 and a probable derivative
of 2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master's hand); to fawn
or crouch to, i.e. (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in
homage (do reverence to, adore): --worship.
The word “worship” in English today has a quite
different meaning to us, we associate with Divine Worship only. That is
not how it is used in Scripture. Once again, we are not taught such
vital information and the translators failed to use a word in English
that better described the meaning in the original languages… to justify
Incarnation.
In the case of bowing down before a messenger of
Yahuah, those that bow are not worshipping the messenger but paying
homage. They are bowing down recognizing the messenger ‘comes with the
Power and authority of Yahuah’ giving Yahuah glory through the
messenger… this would be an example of worshipping Yahuah in Spirit with
the understanding that Yahusha is the true way to Him. It is a fine line
but Yahusha understood that line as I will demonstrate.
Before I go any further, let me say that bowing
down to Yahusha (as the anointed proxy of Yahuah and anointed King of
Yahuah's Creation; the "Truth of Yahuah") is not Divine worship, it
is respect. I have no problem with this type of “respectful worship (bowing
down to)”. As long as we keep the understanding of Yahusha's
superior position in the Kingdom, as well as the Power and authority of
Yahuah given to Yahusha as "The Truth and the Light” of Yahuah. I have
no problem with, and do not see that act as a violation of Yahuah's
revealed will nor proof that Yahusha is Yahuah. As long as the
Spiritual Intent of that act is Righteously directed toward Yahuah
through Yahusha the proxy.
Sha’ul does not say that every knee shall bow to
Yahusha; it is before Yahuah that every knee shall bow in
worship. Yahusha is the Judge not The Creator.
We stand before Yahusha, we hit our knees before
Yahuah:
Romans 14:10-11
For we shall all stand before the judgment
seat of the Messiah. 11 For it is written in Isaiah 45:23: “As I
live, says Yahuah, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall
confess to Yahuah.” 12 So then
each of us shall give account of himself to Yahuah.
Yahuah looks at the "Spiritual Intent" not the
physical act alone. One person could "bow down" to
Jesus in an act of Godly
worship while another can "bow down" to the Messiah Yahusha in an act of
recognizing his superior position and by proxy give worship to Yahuah.
One would be justified, the other in idolatry.
However, a witness to those two people both bowing
down would not know the "intent" of their heart and describe both using
the same word in Hebrew and Greek/Latin. So those words describe both
physical acts of Divine Worship and reverence to authority.
Ok, among the many passages of the New Testament
that presents Yahusha as being the object of "worship" is Matthew 14:33.
Matthew 14:33
33 Then they that were in the ship came and
worshipped (bowed down before) him (to
pay homage), saying, truly you are the son of God (they
bowed down to Yahusha in the sense of respect for his superior position
as son of Yahuah. They did not worship him as Yahuah).
Here we have a clear situation - one of many
recorded in the New Testament - of Yahusha being "worshipped", yet those
worshipping him did not worship him as Yahuah but as
the Son of Yahuah,
which to them, meant that they recognized him as their Messiah (King)
or as an emPowered, Righteous agent of the Almighty God. They were
bowing down as an act of respect to authority before Yahusha and as an
act of worship to Yahuah through His proxy.
Although many think the term "worship" is only
applicable to "God", in fact the term relates to showing reverence even
to a fellow man. Christian teachers do not make this distinction as they
are false teachers and lead us astray to believe Yahusha was worshipped
as a Deity. Then these false teachers take that sound bite out of
context and assume
Jesus is God. In every
case bowing down to Yahusha is in the context of showing reverence to a
higher authority.
As the Strong's Lexicon points out, the Greek term
is simply "used of homage shown to
men and beings of superior rank". The Greek word rendered “worship”
in the NT is the Greek word
proskyneō. Below, is the
Strong’s entrance for the word:
Lexicon :: Strong's G4352 –
proskyneō
in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage
(to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express
respect or to make supplication
In the 2nd Temple era when Yahusha lived; kneeling
or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance
(which is translated as ‘worship’ in the NT), whether to express
respect or to make supplication was a common practice. It remains a
common practice even today in the Orient in Japanese, Chinese, Muslim,
and other cultures around the world.
The often-referenced instances of Yahusha being
worshipped are another example of the desperation of Christians to find
any shred of proof for their unsubstantiated and false doctrines. This
is another example of the biased use of implicit (implied) proofs
(not explicit Scripture) by those promoting the mystery Babylon
man-God or traditional Trinitarian Christianity and counterfeit Messiah
Jesus Christ.
They IMPLY what is not there by using
mistranslation, misdirection, our ignorance, and stringing together
sound bites of Scripture out of context.
The reference,
A Dictionary of Biblical Languages
With Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament), by James Swanson,
defines the Hebrew word often translated "worship" as - "take
a stance of bowing low in an act of respect or honor, but not
necessarily worship of deity" (Genesis 43:28).
The reference in Genesis below is just such an
example of the type of “worship” Yahusha accepted:
Genesis 43:28
And they answered, Thy servant our father is in
good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made
obeisance (worshipped
him -
proskyneō).
We know Joseph was a "shadow" of the coming
Suffering Servant and above he is "worshipped" not in his own right but
because he was "a servant of his father" so they showed Jacob respect
THROUGH Joseph. This is exactly the case with the Messiah. He is a
"servant of our Father" and we give glory to Yahuah by showing Yahusha
respect for his superior position.
This term "obeisance" is from the Hebrew equivalent
of the Greek term used in the verse from Matthew
proskyneō shown above, as well as most other New
Testament verses where "worship" is the translation. The proper
translation should read “bowed
down to” not “worshipped”.
Again, we see the bias of uninspired Hellenized translators. Matthew, as
many of you already know, is now strongly assumed to have been initially
written in Hebrew; however, even if it was not, it was still written by
a Hebrew from memory of conversations in Hebrew.
From Strong's Lexicon we determine the Hebrew term
to mean:
Strong's Number 7812
shachah {shaw-khaw'}
to bow down, prostrate oneself
before a superior man in homage
before God in worship
before false gods
before angels
Note:
that the term can even refer to
"worship" of false gods! Of course, this is precisely the type of
worship practiced by Trinitarians (and all others) that promote the
antichrist (replacement Messiah) deception that “Jesus was God in the
flesh”. That is blasphemy and idolatry against the Most High who
alone is God.
Obviously, the context of Genesis is not referring
to worship of Yahuah. It records Joseph's brothers bowing before him
i.e. "worshipping" him (obeisance) as someone of much higher
rank.
Since Joseph was "worshipped" do they also claim he
was God? Of course not. We simply need to do a small amount of research
into the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew words that were translated as
“worship” to realize there are two types of “worship”. Worship directed
to Yahuah and worship directed to Yahusha as a superior in rank and
authority as the son of Yahuah.
