Israel was the first corporate (group) apostasy. Yahweh chose a special people as a result of His covenant with Abram (later Abraham). These people were referred to as the "Children of Israel".
Even though Yahweh had His personal followers since the time of Creation, this was His first large group of chosen people.
How does a large group of people apostasize? How do they turn their back on Yahweh and follow other gods?
That is the question of this study.
The Exodus from Egypt to Canaan is full of examples of the "chosen ones" murmuring, rebelling and refusing to follow Yahweh. In fact, God determined that NONE of the people who left Egypt (except Caleb and Joshua - see Three Joshuas) should enter the promised land. They became "unchosen" because of their rebellion and lack of faith. We can safely ignore studying them.
Those arriving in the promised land, however, were Yahweh's "chosen".
We have hints from the original apostasy of Satan and the angels that followed him. Before the start of Israel's corporate apostasy there had been many instances of personal apostasy, largely idol worship. But now the GROUP is prepared to apostasize, corporately (as a group).
1. Change of Government.
A Change from God's Government is always the first step in corporate apostasy. It involves the removal of Yahweh from His throne of rule by promoting men (or devils, or men possessed by devils) as rulers above Yahweh. Originally, Yahweh was the Sovereign Ruler over Israel. As Ruler, He directed Moses (first) then Joshua, judges and the prophets. We can read about the change of government (Step 1) in I Samuel 8.
Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us.
And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.
Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city. 1 Samuel 8:5-22
God was removed and King Saul was installed on the throne as ruler over Israel. Step 1 was in place. There were many examples of unrighteousness, even among the kings, themselves. Before Step 1, most sin was personal, but now it had become institutionalized (corporate). Israel followed the path of apostasy, eventually being taken captive to Babylon. Even this didn't turn them back to Yahweh (except briefly and intermittently). Finally they arrived at Step 2.
2. Obeying man instead of Yahweh.
This step was institutionalized with the Rabbinical doctrine of "oral law" or "oral tradition". According to this doctrine, the oral interpretation of the Rabbis is more correct and binding than Yahweh's written, inspired Word.
Rabbis falsely claim that the oral traditions were given by God to Moses during the 40 days on Mt Sinai. However, "It is only at the beginning of the third century before the Christian era that we first see them appear under the general name of Tannaim, which means teachers of the tradition;" THE ANTIQUITY OF THE KABBALAH
The oral traditions reached an art form with the Pharisees around the time of Yahushua (Jesus) the Messiah. Eventually, these oral laws were codified primarily from around 200 - 500 A.D., becoming the Talmud, Mishnah, and Gemara. This codification of regulations, replacing the Law of Yahweh, has an analog in the codification of regulations, replacing the common law in England and the United States.
For those who believe in Jesus (Yahushua) the Messiah, Son of God, it's an easy thing to disprove these oral traditions as false. See what Jesus said about the hypocritical Pharisees here.
For those who don't believe in the Messiah, read for yourself some of the gibberish of oral tradition in the Talmud, or Zohar, or Midrash. Choose any link at random and start reading. Read for at least five minutes and decide for yourself whether you are reading inspiration from Yahweh or the bickerings of arrogant, self-righteous hypocrites. If that doesn't convince you, then study Judaism's Strange Gods.
"Jews don't read the Bible literally. We read it through the lens of generations of interpretations and acknowledge the evolution of human understanding of God. The Talmudic image of God is vastly different from the image of God presented in the Bible." Rabbi Laura Geller, Senior Rabbi, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills.
From the Talmud, come the three levels of study, ranked from lowest to highest:
A. "He who occupies himself with Scripture gains merit that is no merit.
B. "He who occupies himself with Mishnah gains merit for which people receive a reward.
C. "He who occupies himself with Talmud—there is no source of merit greater than this.”
Next came "legal" enforcement of these human interpretations. Laws and penalties were well established by Yahweh through Moses. It was a simple matter for the Sanhedrin, led by the hypocritical Pharisees to substitute their oral proclamations as law. This was institutionalized (corporate) enforcement leading to men's forced obedience to man instead of Yahweh. Step 2 was complete.
3. Hiding the name of "Yahweh".
The false teachers known as Pharisees made an oral "law" making it illegal to utter the name of "Yahweh" see Conspiracy #1 and the Jews. Yahweh, the Almighty God, was hidden (removed) from His people. His name was stolen and substituted with words like "master", "LORD", "adonai", "ha shem (the name)". Step 3 was complete.
4. Substituting Yahweh's sign, His Sabbath.
From the time the Children of Israel left Egypt until the destruction of the second temple, the people knew the true Sabbath. They didn't always keep it, but that failure was personal, not corporate. The true Sabbath law of Israel remained corporately "on the books".
At the start of every month, the priests directed the people to observe the new moon (month). Seven days after the new moon day was always Sabbath, and seven days later another, and another and another. This ended the month and the process was repeated with a new month (new moon day). This was the Jewish calendar. This calendar had no Saturday or Sunday. It had the seventh day after the new moon. (see "Yahweh Created Time ").
After corporately performing steps 1-3, step 4 was committed. This took place after the destruction of the second temple in A.D. 70, after the Israelites were slaughtered and dispersed and AFTER the new Roman calendar was created and enforced.
Rome outlawed the Jewish practice of determining the new (moon) month by observation, punishable by death. The Jewish leaders, having already passed steps 1-3 and having rejected the Messiah, decided to obey Rome and SUBSTITUTE the seventh day Sabbath commanded by Yahweh with a "Saturday" sabbath on the Roman day of Saturn, contained on the new calendar. They figured out a way to calculate the months for the continued observance of their feasts, but changed Sabbath to Saturday according to the Roman calendar. Step 4 was in place.
5. Changing Yahweh's laws.
The apostasy was complete. Now, the Jews were free to make whatever "laws" they wanted, and they did. They had already been changing many laws through their oral interpretation. They no longer obeyed Yahweh's commands, instead they obeyed their own, substituted commands. They had completed their apostasy from Children of Israel (Abraham) and Yahweh, to the false religion of Talmudic Judaism (known to outsiders as Orthodox Jews or Zionists), children of Satan (John 8:44).
The Yahwehists of the written Torah had been replaced by the Zionists of the Talmud. The Zionists' spiritual word is the Talmud, their father is Satan. Their apostasy "sanitized" the Tankh (Bible) by regarding it as merely history with no supernatural God, Yahweh. (see "History of Israel" by Ben-Zion Dinur and "The Invention of the Jewish People" by Shlomo Sand). Any hope that Christians place in a return to Israel is misplaced because the Israel of Yahweh does not exist there. Yahweh is not in Zion. Any hope of Zion Israel regaining its King David will not happen because the King returned to Yahwehist Israel but was rejected by the Talmudists.
Yahwehist Israel was replaced (briefly) by the Christian Church, until it also apostasized.
