"It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'" (Luke 4:8)

Jesus says this to "Satan" as he is being tempted in the desert during his forty-day fast.

Why did Jesus fast for 40 days?

Jesus' fasting and sacrifice in the desert were meant to devote himself to the Supreme Being. It also served to prepare Jesus to begin teaching. Jesus' sacrifice symbolized the sacrifice of Moses and his followers as they traveled through the desert guided by God.

We also find that Jesus' sacrifice and exchange with the allegorical "Satan" provided a platform for understanding the focus of Jesus' teachings.

What does Jesus' response mean?

Jesus is quoting Moses. In reality, Jesus' statement provides clarification for a mistranslation that occurs throughout the Old Testament.

Jesus begins his statement with "It is written." This indicates that he was quoting scripture. In fact, we find that Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:13, a statement by Moses:

"Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only..." (Deuteronomy 6:13)

Wait a second. Even though Biblical scholars have accepted that Jesus was quoting Deut. 6:13, the verse is not precisely the same, as Jesus said:

"'Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'"

So while Deut. 6:13 supposedly says "Fear the Lord," Jesus says "Worship the Lord." Why the difference and does it even make a difference?

Jesus' teachings revolved around coming to love God and serve God.

How can you love someone you fear?

The translation to 'fear' is a mistranslation.

A number of verses from the Old Testament utilize the word "fear" in their reference to the Supreme Being. But ironically, most of those same teachers that were teaching love for God were also quoted as promoting the "fear" of God.

And even Moses, who supposedly used the word "fear," also promotes love for God, as he said:

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deut. 6:5)

Indeed, some have promoted the idea that while the Old Testament teachers taught of an angry God who demanded that people fear Him, while Jesus introduced a more loving, forgiving God.

Such an interpretation, however, is contradicted by Moses' own teachings (for example, in Deut. 6:5) as well as the teachings of Joshua, David, Abraham, Jacob and many other Prophets, who loved God. For example, Joshua said:

"So be very careful to love the LORD your God." (Joshua 23:11)

And David's teachings:

"Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for He guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked." (Psalm 97:10)

We also find many other pledges about God from all the teachers of the Old Testament concerning loving God, including those who also supposedly used the word "fear."

Rather, the word "fear" with respect to God in the Old Testament is a mistranslation.

"Fear" is being translated from the Hebrew root word, ירא (yare'). While one possible meaning of this word could be "fear"; according to the lexicon, ירא (yare') can also mean "to stand in awe of, be awed," or "to cause astonishment and awe, be held in awe," or "to inspire reverence..."

In other words, the word "fear" is an inappropriate translation. Why? Because it is out of context with the rest of the message being communicated by those teachers of the Old Testament. The more appropriate translation would be, as Jesus clarifies, is "worship." This could be alternatively used with "awe" or "revere."

One can certainly love someone they also revere or hold in awe. This is completely consistent. "Reverence" is also synonymous with admiration, adoration, esteem, loyalty, praise, and worship according to the thesaurus. And this is consistent with Jesus' translation, as he uses the word "worship," coming from the Greek word προσκυνέω (proskyneō), which means to make homage, worship, make obeisance and other supplications according to the lexicon.

Why was this translated to fear?

The early translations of the Biblical scriptures were transliterated from Greek and Hebrew to Latin. These early scriptures were not intended for general public consumption. Because most people could not read. Furthermore, the Roman government and its Roman Catholic Church banned the possession and use of any scripture in private homes.

This meant that the Latin Bible developed by the Romans was intended for use by Catholic priests, who would instill fear among the people. The general population was supposed to get their knowledge directly from the priests, who would read the Latin Bible.

We can see such an agenda as we find that the Book of Revelations - while hardly the last manuscript written - was put last in the Bible in an attempt to extend a warning to the general public about straying from the Church. Its last verses warn that "adding" or "taking away" "from this book of prophesy" will bring about plagues and take away a share in the "tree of life."

The Book of Revelations was put last in the Bible to imply that there are no other scriptures outside of the Holy Bible. This is being taught even though the Revelation verses are obviously referring to the Book of Revelation, and Jesus himself read and even quoted from scripture manuscripts not contained in the Bible.

This doesn't mean that the original manuscripts of the Bible contain falsehoods. It simply means that those who assembled and translated the ancient texts into the Bible had an agenda, and their agenda produced a document that has misled many into a false impression of the Supreme Being.

The bottom line is that the translations of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew to Latin were accomplished with a political purpose. Those who translated the books of the Old Testament had a lack of understanding of the Supreme Being. They themselves had not established a relationship of love with the Supreme Being. Their translations merely mirrored this lack of relationship with God. And this goes even for those "scholars" with tuition-paid degrees and appointed (elected) clergy positions within institutions that continue to promote an agenda of political position and authority.

Jesus, on the other hand, does no such thing. By his statement, Jesus knows perfectly well not only what Moses said, but also indicates that he indeed practiced Moses' instruction: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'

Notice also that Jesus does not say "serve God and serve me" in his statement. He doesn't say "Worship the Lord your God as well as me, Jesus." He clearly says "only," as in "solely."

If Jesus was God, why didn't he simply say, "Worship me and serve me only"? Was he trying to trick people? Was he creating some sort of mystery?

Rather, Jesus clearly states "the Lord your God." "God" means Supreme Being. "God" means Controller of everything. The Controller over everything does not need to become a man and suffer on the cross for our sins.

Does God have to follow rules of sacrifice?

Certainly not. God can remove sins with a simple thought. He does not need to engage in any kind of sacrifice to suffer for our sins. This teaching contradicts the superiority of the Supreme Being. It contradicts the existence of an all-powerful Supreme Being. Such a teaching is thus atheistic.

This doesn't mean that we cannot worship Jesus. But it means that we must worship Jesus solely in relation to God. Jesus is God's representative: God's loving servant. But Jesus clearly is not God. He is obviously referring to someone else as God. This is evidenced by Jesus' statement:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21)

Again, note the word "only" in this statement. Jesus is clearly teaching - just as did Moses, Joshua, David, Samuel, and John the Baptist - that we should use our lives to worship and serve the Supreme Being, and eventually, through those activities, come to know Him more and more, and learn to love Him with all of our being. This is confirmed by Moses' primary teaching, and by Jesus' most important instruction:

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'" (Luke 10:27 and Deut 6:5)

"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets...." (Luke 11:47-48)

"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the Prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the Prophets, and you build their tombs." (Luke 11:47-48)

Who built tombs for the Prophets?

Jesus is commenting on the hypocrisy related to the fact that the Temple institution of Jesus' time were honoring the Prophets - building monuments to them - while their institutional predecessors had persecuted them.

In other words, the Temple institution persecuted and murdered a number of Prophets. The same institution that was now honoring them.

Yes, over the centuries prior to Jesus' time, the Temple institution had persecuted many Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Amos, and Zechariah. To these, we can also add John the Baptist, Jesus' own teacher - who was persecuted by Herod - who also claimed to be some kind of ruler of the Judean people.

Jesus is pointing out that while they were saying they represented the Prophets in their teachings - their institution had murdered many of those Prophets.

Note that Jesus, along with Jesus' teacher John the Baptist and Jesus' own disciples, were also followers of the Prophets. But they truly followed the Prophets - in word and deed. They were not hypocritical as others were.

Who were the ancestors?

The word "ancestors" is being translated from the Greek word πατήρ (patēr), which can certainly be translated to "ancestors," but it also can mean, according to the lexicon, "teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received."

Thus a more appropriate translation of πατήρ (patēr) in this case would be "teachers" rather than "ancestors." Why? Because Jesus is speaking of the fact that they are following the teaching lineage of those who strictly abided by the ritualistic ceremonial trappings of the Temple tradition all the while they disrespected those Prophets who came - as did Jesus and John - to teach love for the Supreme Being.

Jesus is pointing out the hypocrisy of these teachers and their followers honoring the tombs of those Prophets while at the same time following the teachings of those who disrespected those Prophets and allowed them to be persecuted.

Yes, it is not necessarily as if they or their teachers physically killed these Prophets. For example, John the Baptist was killed by Herod, yes. But the Temple institution and their high priests during the time of John did nothing to protest the imprisonment of John. Because John was not a respected member - read professional scribe - of their Temple institution, these Pharisees and priests did nothing to help him. John's statement to these institutional Temple teachers illustrates the tension between them:

But when he [John the Baptist] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! (Matt. 3:7)

This also describes those who disrespected the Prophets before John. As John and Jesus both indicate, this Temple institution and its leaders were similarly entrenched. They could have protected those Prophets, but instead, they saw God's representatives as threats to their positions of authority. So they allowed these Prophets to be arrested and killed.

Didn't they also murder Jesus?

This is the very same institution - the same high priests and Pharisees - that also saw to it that Jesus was persecuted. The institution might be able to claim that the Romans crucified Jesus, but it was the high priest's guards who arrested Jesus and it was the high priest who handed Jesus over to Pilate and then recommended Jesus' physical body be murdered.

"So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the Prophets, and you build their tombs."

As Jesus indicates, by these institutional teachers claiming their rite of position among the very same Temple institution that allowed previous Prophets to be persecuted, they were ex facto approving the persecution of those Prophets.

Ironically, this same issue relates to the priests of the primary organized institution that dominantly controlled the teachings of Jesus for over 1,000 years. This institution persecuted innocent people who didn't abide by their ritualistic doctrines for centuries. In the more recent past, their priests molested children. This institution allowed then excused those activities. Do they still have the right to suggest that they represent Jesus?

Yes, they like to say that because God is merciful, we should have mercy upon those priests. But who are we to grant them forgiveness? Those who have not been abused are not in a position to forgive. Only those who were molested have that right.

And because many of those priests who molested children were never brought before trial and stood to face those they molested, there has been little opportunity for forgiveness in most cases.

As for the rest of us, we are in no position to forgive an institution that has broken its obligation to its followers to care for them - and thus broken their right to represent Jesus.

Did they commit genocide?

There are many examples of genocide that have taken place in human history. These include the Roman slaughter of the Jews in the Roman-Jewish wars of the First and Second Century, the holocaust slaughter of Jews in Europe by the Nazis and 70,000 in Jerusalem between the 11th and 14th centuries. They also include thousands being burnt at the stake during the first years of the Spanish Inquisition, and some 900,000 Waldensian Christians murdered during a 15th century period lasting three decades. More than 250,000 Dutch Protestants were murdered a decade later. Then they killed over 10,000 Protestants in Paris in 1572. Another 8,000 were slaughtered in the countryside.

In the Thirty-year's war of the 17th century, this institution's mobs attempted to exterminate all European Protestants. Some European countries lost nearly half their populations. Some 100,000 protestants were slaughtered in Ireland. Some 500,000 French protestants were exterminated by order of the French King who represented this institution.

This reign of terror against any person following another teaching other than that taught by this institution and related sects has continued through to the 20th century. This includes hundreds of thousands - even millions - of people among the indigenous peoples of North and South Americas, Polynesia and elsewhere around the world over the centuries - those who were considered "savages" if they didn't submit to forced baptisms and the like.

Yes, these modern institutions like to distance themselves from those acts of brutality, and certainly many of their leaders may not be personally responsible for them. Nonetheless, Jesus is teaching here that the institutional doctrines of these institutions keep them responsible. 

Fanatical philosophies are not tolerant of other forms of worship other than their own. It is such fanaticism that is at the root of former crimes against humanity.

In many cases, these acts of terrorism can be compared to some of the modern acts of terror we see today propagated through the misinterpretation of the Koran.

All of these fanatical groups are mistaken that anyone can be forced to love or worship the Supreme Being.

Along with mass killings, some of these institutions have persecuted or disrespected those who dedicated their lives to the Supreme Being over the centuries.

Is this fanaticism?

Some of the very same institutions responsible for genocide were also known for their fanaticism. These fanatical institutions are responsible for gross misinterpretations of various scriptures over the years. Just as the Temple institution Jesus is criticizing was responsible for its misinterpretation of the teachings of the Prophets during Jesus' time, many institutions today have also become fanatical, and are missing or ignoring the meaning of Jesus' teachings.

They have completely missed that Jesus' mission - as were the Prophets' - was to teach his students to come to know, love, and serve the Supreme Being. As some institutions have become lost in the pomp of propaganda, ceremonial rituals, and proclamations of being saved, they have missed the essential purpose of Jesus' teachings:

To call us home. The Supreme Being wants each of us as individuals to decide by our own free will, to return home to Him. He wants to give us the opportunity - out of our own free will without being forced - to decide to return to our innate loving service relationship with Him. 

He wants us to come to understand our spiritual identity and our innate need to love and be loved. He wants us to renew our loving relationship with Him and the rest of our spiritual family. This is why both Moses' and Jesus' most important instruction was:

" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38 - drawing from Deut. 6:5)

"You know the commandments ..." (Luke 18:20)

"You know the commandments: 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'" (Luke 18:20)

Did Jesus' teachings reflect the teachings of the Prophets?

This is Jesus' reply to someone who asked Jesus, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 18:18) Jesus' response quoted the teachings of the Prophet Moses, which included the ten commandments.

This part of Jesus' reply indicates something that some overlook regarding Jesus: Jesus didn't make up his own teachings. Jesus' teachings were consistent with the teachings of the Prophets, who represented God before Jesus' arrival. This is why Jesus quoted these instructions given many centuries earlier by Moses. And this is why Jesus often quoted other Prophets, such as Isaiah, David, Ezekiel, and others.

Some interpret that the Prophets all somehow predicted Jesus' life and death. As if all the teachings of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Eli, Job, Ezekiel, Noah and so many other representatives of God were only intended to predict Jesus' life.

If this were true, what would those Prophets' purpose be to teach their students? Their students died centuries prior to Jesus' arrival on the planet. Why would the Prophets' students need to hear about predictions of someone who would arrive centuries later?

The reality is, this isn't what those Prophets were focused on teaching. While many speculate about and even invent interpretations of many verses by the Prophets, none mentioned Jesus by name. Yes, they surely indicated how materialistic society treats God's representatives - and Jesus was God's representative. But as Jesus himself pointed out, many of the Prophets were also murdered in the hands of unbelievers.

What those who teach this have missed about the Biblical Scriptures is that Jesus' teachings mirrored the teachings of the Prophets. This is the connection between them. Jesus represented God. And the Prophets represented God. 

Their teachings were in sync because they were each passing on what God wanted them to teach their students according to the time and circumstance: In order to ultimately guide their students back to their innate loving relationship with the Supreme Being. This is how Jesus' teachings "fulfilled" the teachings of the Prophets.

This is illustrated by the fact that Moses repeatedly instructed his students about the importance of loving the Supreme Being:

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deut. 6:5)

"Love the LORD your God and keep His requirements, His decrees, His laws and His commands always." (Deut. 11:1)

"So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul— (Deut. 11:13)

"If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to Him and to hold fast to Him— (Deut. 11:22)

"... because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the LORD your God and to walk always in obedience to Him—" (Deut. 19:9)

"For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws;" (Deut. 30:16)

"...and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life..." (Deut. 30:20)

Thus we can see that loving the Supreme Being was the centerpiece of Moses' teachings. Furthermore, Moses' student, Joshua, passed on those very teachings to his own students:

"But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to Him, to keep His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Joshua 22:5)

"So be very careful to love the LORD your God." (Joshua 23:11)

Jesus also taught this most important instruction. He further clarified that it was the most important commandment:

" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38 (Jesus is quoting Moses in Deut. 6:5))

Moses, Joshua and Jesus weren't the only Teachers of the Bible who taught this instruction. Other Prophets - who were also in the same lineage of Moses, in the teaching lineage of Abraham - also had this same centerpiece of their teachings. For example, David wrote:

"Love the LORD, all his faithful people!" (Psalm 31:23)

Other Prophets also taught this as well.

Did the Prophets really teach 'fear God'?

No. Some translators have translated the Hebrew word יָרֵא (yare') to "fear" - as in 'fear the Lord.' But that Hebrew word יָרֵא (yare') also means "to awe" and "to revere" and "to honor" and "to respect" according to the lexicon.

In other words, those Prophets weren't teaching their students to be afraid of God - as we might be of someone who will hurt us. They were teaching their students to revere God. They were speaking of honoring God. They were speaking of seeing God as awesome.

After all, if they were meaning "fear" - how could this be consistent with Moses', Joshua's, and David's teaching to love the Supreme Being. How can a person love someone and be afraid of them at the same time?

Can you love someone that you fear?

No. You can't love someone you fear.

So why did these institutional translators decide to translate יָרֵא (yare') to "fear" instead of "revere" or "honor" or "awe?"

Because they had no love for God. Those institutions who employed these translators - such as the Jewish sects and the Roman Catholic church - weren't teaching love for God. They wanted to scare people. They wanted people to be afraid of God. When people were afraid of God, they could maintain their positions of power and authority.

It is for this reason that these early institutions - the Jewish institution of Jesus' times and the Roman Catholic institution - would not allow the common person to read scripture themselves. They only allowed the priests and officials of these institutions to directly read scripture. The Roman Catholic Church banned the direct reading of the scripture for over 1,000 years.

Both institutions tried to claim their versions of the scriptures were the only valid versions. They both said there were no other valid scripture scrolls (books) outside of the ones they included in their collections. Even though there were hundreds of others, many written by the same writers as those that were included.

Yet they ignored the most important commandment written clearly in these scriptures: The very instruction that Moses emphasized to his students repeatedly, as confirmed above.

Those Jewish teachers - the Pharisees and the Sadducees - emphasized the "ten commandments" along with many other rules and regulations such as ceremonial washing before eating and so on.

But why haven't they emphasized the most important commandment taught by Moses and Jesus - to love God? Because, if someone can have a close personal relationship with the Supreme Being - loving Him and serving Him - those officials of these institutions could not maintain their positions of power and respect. They would effectively lose their authority because the people's allegiance would be directed towards the Supreme Being and whomever the Supreme Being authorized to represent Him.

Do they represent God or Jesus?

This is how we can know that those in positions of power and respect among these politically-oriented institutions don't represent God. If they represented God as Jesus, Moses, David and the Prophets did, they would be teaching us to love the Supreme Being.

Rather than teach love for God, the priests and preachers of today's institutions who claim to represent Jesus have created their own philosophy: They teach that all we have to do is accept that we are saved by Jesus' crucifixion.

Yet Jesus didn't teach this. If their philosophy was right, why didn't Jesus teach this? Why did he teach his students that sinning has consequences?

“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14)

Why didn't Jesus just tell the man that his sins would all be washed away by his coming crucifixion? This would have been simple enough to teach, yes? It would have saved Jesus a lot of time and trouble - instead of Jesus teaching all the other things he taught.

And why didn't the Prophets also teach this if it were true? Why didn't the Prophets tell their students that their sinning won't have any consequence because Jesus will die for their sins? Why didn't the Prophets teach their students that after they die they would have to wait around in purgatory for thousands of years for Jesus to come and be crucified - and then wait for another few thousand years for the end of the world to come - and they'd be saved? Why didn't they teach this? Because it isn't true. And neither does it make any sense.

Jesus didn't teach this, and neither did the Prophets. Rather, we find that Jesus is offended by those who focus on Jesus while ignoring the Supreme Being:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matt. 7:21-23)

Rather, Jesus, Moses, Joshua, and all the other Prophets all taught that if we re-develop our loving service relationship with the Supreme Being, we become perfect. We become saved if we learn to love and serve God. This is how Jesus saves us.

Jesus and the Prophets taught this because the Supreme Being is lovable. He's beautiful. He's our Perfect Friend. And He's always there for us. If we love Him and serve Him we will be happy. And we will be saved even though we will no longer care about being saved.

You see, those who regain their innate loving relationship with the Supreme Being don't care about being saved. They simply want to please the Supreme Being. This is why Jesus said:

"By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me." (John 5:30)

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. (John 4:34)