How To Live Forever
By Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David (Greg Killian)
In this paper I want to examine what the Bible says about how a man can gain eternal life. I want to know how to live forever from HaShem's perspective. It is important to know, and realize, that what comes first is always more important than that which comes after. This means that whatever we find at the beginning of the Torah is more important than that which is found in the Prophets, in the Writings, and in the Nazarean Codicil.[1]
It is also worth noting that Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun.[2] This means that nothing in the Nazarean Codicil can be new and add something to that which is found in the Torah. In other words, those who are scholars will always verify their understanding of the Nazarean Codicil by finding the root in the Torah, just as the Bereans did.[3]
Let's begin, in the beginning, by looking at:
Bereshit (Genesis) 3:20-24 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. HaShem God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And HaShem God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So HaShem God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So, in the beginning, HaShem says that men would live forever if they eat from the tree of life. This is the first reference to eternal life, in the scriptures. Let’s look again to see if there are any other ways to have eternal life:
Debarim (Deuteronomy) 4:39-40 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that HaShem is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep His decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land HaShem your God gives you for all time.
The above passage seems to be saying that you can live forever by keeping the commands and decrees of HaShem. Lest we have any doubt let’s try to confirm this from another passage:
Yehezchel (Ezekiel) 20:10-13 Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I HaShem made them holy. "'Yet the people of Israel rebelled against me in the desert. They did not follow my decrees but rejected My laws--although the man who obeys them will live by them--and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So, I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the desert.
Yehezchel (Ezekiel) never comes right out and calls it eternal life, but, it is obvious that the way to live is through the commands of HaShem. This life is different than what the wicked do when they walk and breathe. The wicked do not live like the righteous. The only difference must be in how long they live. Let’s look at a few more passages to make this point clear:
Matityahu (Matthew) 19:15-17 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. Now a man came up to Yeshua and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Yeshua replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
and
Marqos (Mark) 10:17-23 As Yeshua started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Yeshua answered. "No one is good--except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." Yeshua looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Yeshua looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
The third way to live forever is to love HaShem and love your neighbor, which is a summary method of referring to the commands of the Torah which teach us ‘HOW’ to love HaShem and teach us ‘HOW’ to love our neighbor.:
Luqas (Luke) 10:25-28 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Yeshua. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have
The next way to live forever is to eat of the Bread from Heaven. Yeshua is obviously The Bread from Heaven. The fourth way to live forever is to Believe in HaShem and eat of the Bread from heaven (The living Torah). This Living Bread is clarified in:
Yochanan (John) 3:10-16 "You are Israel's teacher," said Yeshua, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, That everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Let's summarize the methods, used by HaShem and described in His scriptures, for obtaining eternal life:
Bereshit (Genesis) 3:22
2. Obey the commands of HaShem.
Debarim (Deuteronomy) 4:40, Matthew 19:17,
Mishle (Proverbs) 3:13-18
3. Love HaShem and love your neighbor.
Luke 10:25-28
4. Believe in HaShem and eat of the Bread from heaven (The living Torah).
John 6:43-51
These four ways to live forever are all clearly spelled out in the Bible, yet there is a problem. Let’s look at the problem:
Yochanan (John) 14:6 Yeshua answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Mashiach seems to be saying that there is ONLY ONE way to life and that is through Yeshua. Yet, we have already seen that there are clearly three ways to live forever. How do we resolve this? Proverbs puts all three of these together:
Mishlei (Proverbs) 3:13-20 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, For she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed. By wisdom HaShem laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; By his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.
The above passage is read, in the synagogue, when the Torah scroll is returned to the ark. When we say this, we agree that the ultimate wisdom is Torah. This passage shows that whoever created the world[4] is Torah and is the Tree of life. So, the Tree of Life, the Torah, and Yeshua are all the same entity. Yeshua must be the Tree of Life. Yeshua must be the Torah. Yeshua is THE way and THE truth and THE life!
The Tree of Life = Wisdom = Torah = Yeshua
Our Sages have taught that if we have a single thing (eternal life) that is expressed by multiple things, then the multiple things must all be one thing.
The scriptures often compare two different things, to a third thing. For example: Torah is light and Yeshua is light:
Mishle (Proverbs) 6:23 For the commandment [is] a lamp; and the law (Torah) [is] light; and reproofs of instruction [are] the way of life:
Yochanan (John) 8:12 When Yeshua spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
This has profound implications for the believer today. It means that we must obey all of HaShem's commands in the Torah or we will, in effect, be discarding a part of Yeshua. It means that if we make a distinction between the laws of HaShem that we must obey and those that we don't have to obey, that we must somehow believe in part of Yeshua and not in all of Him. This does not work! Just as Yeshua is a single entity, so also is the Torah a single entity. We cannot divide the commands of HaShem any more than we can divide the body of Messiah. We either obey all of the Torah or we have rejected Mashiach.
Further evidence for this idea is demonstrated by the fact that the Sages divide the 613 commandments into 248 positive (corresponding to the 248 bodily organs) and 365 negative (corresponding to the 365 bodily sinews). After all, a wise individual understands that he must take care of his entire organism if he desires physical well-being. So too it borders on spiritual blindness to dramatize one mitzva while ignoring another. If Yeshua is the Living Torah, then these 613 mitzvot represent His body!
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For further study: Shabbat is the "Tree of Life," a tree planted in a place of life, which is understanding.[5]
Why Bread?
In order to understand ‘bread’, we need to understand that nourishment, in the Torah, is always called ‘bread’. Therefore, we need to go back to the dawn of time to look at the food, the ‘bread’ that HaShem gave man in the garden of Eden.
Why were we commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good an evil? Why create such a tree if we cannot enjoy eating from it?
Chazal teach that it was created in order that we should acknowledge that this is HaShem’s world and He wants us to acknowledge that He is the creator. We acknowledge HaShem by not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why do we REALLY want to eat from the forbidden tree?
We REALLY want to eat from the forbidden tree because we want to control our food source. We need food every day or we will die, therefore controlling our food source is essential, which is precisely why HaShem commanded us NOT to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Strangely, HaShem did not forbid us from eating from the tree of life, before the sin. In fact, He commanded us to eat from every tree in the garden. After He commanded us to eat from all the trees, then He commanded us to NOT eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
HaShem therefore, gave us food, He gave us ‘bread’. We did not have to work for this ‘bread’. All we had to do was acknowledge that HaShem was in control by NOT eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It follows that the punishment for not accepting HaShem’s bread is that we will have to make our own ‘bread’. Therefore, the curse is:
Bereshit
(Genesis) 3:17-19 And
unto Adam He said: 'Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying: Thou shalt not eat
of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the
days of thy life. 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and
thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.'
Bread is a metaphor for the Torah. Just as bread nourishes the body, the Torah nourishes the soul. And just as physical bread is the fallen manifestation of a higher spiritual reality, the Torah in its present manifestation - as we know it - is a fallen version of the original. In its original form, the Torah does not discuss earthly reality, but rather only describes the spiritual realm.
Pirke Avot 3:17 Where there is no bread, there is no Torah; where there is no, Torah there is no bread.
Eat from the Tree of Life.[6]
We can eat from the tree of life only when HaShem makes it available to us sometime in the future. This ‘bread’ will be eaten when we trust HaShem to provide our needs without depending on our own efforts.
Obey the commands of HaShem.[7]
Once we trust HaShem enough to obey His commands and rely on Him to provide our bread, then we will enjoy eternal life.
Love HaShem and
love your neighbor.[8]
Loving HaShem and loving our neighbor is a summation of the 613 commands and of the ten commandments. As the two tablets contained five commandments on each tablet, so also do the first five teach us how top love HaShem, while the second set of five commandments teaches us how to love our neighbor.
Believe in HaShem
and eat of the Bread from heaven (The living Torah).[9]
This last method for obtaining eternal life clearly speaks of the bread from heaven. This reminds us of the manna which HaShem called “Bread from Heaven”.[10] What is interesting is that the manna did not require any work in order to eat it, just like the ‘bread’ of the trees in the Garden of Eden. For a brief forty year span we learned to trust HaShem for our daily bread. Yet, there were some who did not trust. Those who did not trust HaShem tried to store the manna. They also went looking for manna on Shabbat. This lack of trust was the same problem that Adam had. In the wilderness we wanted to be in control of our food supply, just as Adam wanted to be in control of his food supply.
All in all, it seems that eternal life depends on us trusting HaShem and obeying His commands.
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This study was written by Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David
(Greg Killian).
Comments may be submitted to:
Rabbi Dr. Greg Killian
12210 Luckey Summit
San Antonio, TX 78252
Internet address: gkilli@aol.com
Web page: http://www.betemunah.org/
(360) 918-2905
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Send comments to Greg Killian at his email address: gkilli@aol.com
[1] Nazarean Codicil: A better name than ‘New Testament’ which is neither new nor a testament.
[2] Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 1:9
[3] II Luqas (Acts) 17:10-11
[4] Colossians 1:16, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 3:9
[5] Shem MiShmuel, Bereshit 5671
[6] Bereshit (Genesis) 3:22
[7] Debarim (Deuteronomy) 4:40, Matthew 19:17
[8] Luke 10:25-28
[9] John 6:43-51
[10] Shemot (Exodus) 16:4