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A Response To Matthews Musings
The website: TorahToTheTribes.com recently published a YouTube Video called Matthew’s Musings – I Was Wrong. I’m Sorry! I have decided to take the time to respond to this video because it strikes me as one of the most dangerous and deceptive teachings that I have ever encountered in my entire lifetime! I have automatically transcribed the content of this video and pasted it below the embedded video, so that you can get the ideas if English is not your primary language.
Matthew’s Musings – I Was Wrong. I’m Sorry!
And Shabbat Shalom and greetings to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. It’s great to have you guys joining me here on another Sabbath, Shabbat musings, Matthew’s musings, and I feel blessed to be able to be able to bring you a live stream. I know I’m only doing it a couple of times a month, this is still a sabbatical, and remember these are Matthew’s musings, this isn’t some doctrinal dissertation, and I’m so thankful that you’re joining me here this Sabbath.
Give us some thumbs up, and remember go to toratothetribes.com forward slash connect to connect with all of the brethren on the Shabbat fellowship platforms, the women’s, the men’s prayer groups, just so that you can connect with like-minded Torah believers, hopefully in your area or nationwide or even worldwide. And remember we do like to celebrate the biblical feasts together, so plan for the biblical feasts this year, especially got a new place this year for the Feast of Tabernacles, we’re excited to talk about once we get that all dialed up. And please think about supporting Torah to the Tribes with your donations, and if you’d like to do that you can donate by texting TORAH to that number below in the description, or you can go to toratothetribes.com forward slash donate forward slash.
So today’s musings, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I made a mistake. And I think one of the biggest doctrinal teachings and most discouraging for me many, many years ago, I can’t even bear to look at it in the archives, and I was thinking about taking it down, but I think we learn from our mistakes, was a teaching I did about life and death and the afterlife and soul sleep. And the premise was that scripture where Yahushua says, nobody is ascended to the Father except the Son of Man.
And I was like, see, and then it says in Ecclesiastics, the dead know nothing. And from that I built this whole premise of soul sleep, which is really depressing, quite honestly, and really discouraging. It’s like you die and you go to sleep and you’re just like nothing in the ground until the resurrection.
Well, thank goodness that I actually have evidence from my life that that’s not at all true. And so today I’m here to lay down what I hope you can pick up. But I must warn you, I’m going to be teaching you about the afterlife.
And I wonder whether you’re going to be able to receive it, but I’m going to anyway. But if you can grasp what I hope to communicate today, I believe it will give you amazing comfort and an assurance, an assurance in our faith, because I’ve seen it, because I’ve been there and because I’m coming back and I am back. The only thing that I pray, of course, is that I can communicate what I know, what I’ve seen properly and convey that to you.
That’s the big problem, whether I can get out of the way and let the Ruach use me to share something that, of course, is the greatest, greatest mysteries. So with that in mind, brethren, shall we commence with this Shabbat’s Matthew’s Musings? I think we should. So without further ado, make sure that you’re all still there and live.
It looks like we’re good. We have thumbs up. We’ve got good audio.
All right, excellent, excellent. So let’s address this soul sleep. And several people have contacted me saying that, hey, Matthew, you’re wrong.
It is soul sleep over these past musings, these past months. And it kind of opened up that whole can of worms. And I felt just like, man, I remember how discouraged I was for years and hopeless.
And I hate feeling hopeless. So what does the Bible actually say about death? What does the Bible actually say about presence? And the life that I believe never actually dims, brethren. This life that you and I experience right now, it never actually dims.
You see, when the Bible speaks of death, we see it uses the language of sleep. It certainly does. It certainly does.
But sleep, this is key, sleep in the biblical imagination. It’s not unconsciousness. It’s not soul sleep.
It’s certainly not non-being. Sleep, if you think about it, is actually relational language. Relational language.
Now, if you’re taking notes during this teaching, and I hope you are, it’s amusing. It’s not a doctrinal teaching. But if you are taking notes, then there’s some things that I’m going to say you might want to underline that.
Because as I speak them out, it could easily just go right over your head because it’s in one ear and out the other. But if you really meditate on what I’m trying to communicate, I think you will be able to layer it with the scripture and really glean some wisdom. You see, sleep is not about unconsciousness.
It’s relational language. You could underline that. It describes the body’s posture in time, not the soul’s awareness in eternity.
I’ll repeat that. It describes the body’s posture in time, not the soul’s awareness in eternity. And this is where I was wrong.
Of course, for me now, scripture speaks so loudly, with so much clarity, like a banging, clanging cymbal these days. It’s not contradicting itself, but it’s revealing layers that were actually never meant to flatten. And I mistakenly flattened them out, but they’re layered and they’re not meant to be flattened.
The first question that I’m going to pose today is a little silly question, but not really. What kind of thing is a thing? What kind of thing is a thing? And you’re like, what? I mean, I know that sounds like a silly question, but it’s really not. What kind of thing is a thing? So before asking where the dead are, scripture asks what a human is.
And Genesis does not say man has a soul. The Bible doesn’t say that man has a soul. And the man became a living nephesh.
Genesis, Bereshit 2.7. Nephesh, that is noon, pei, shin. Noon, life, which is continuation, like a swimming fish. Pei, breath, expression, and shin, that’s fire language.
That’s transformation. Fire transforms material. And the material is still there.
The matter is still there. I’m breathing in, you’re breathing in Joan of Arc right now, even though she was burnt at the stake. The matter doesn’t cease to exist.
The fire just transformed the material, the matter, but it’s still matter. And nephesh is not a component. It’s animated being, a living, aware existence expressed through breath.
This is why scripture never speaks of souls as inert. In the wisdom of Solomon, remember, we just recently went through that in chapter three, it says the souls of the righteous are in the hand of Elohim, in the hand of Elohim. Hands don’t hold what’s unconscious, do they? No.
What do hands do? They preserve identity. Sleep is covenant language. It’s not neurology.
And this is where I was wrong. In Daniel, Daniel says in chapter 12, verse two, many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. And the dust sleeps, not the identity.
That’s where I was wrong again. The dust sleeps, not the identity. Yahushua uses the very same language with Lazarus.
Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him, John chapter 11, verse 11. But four days later, Lazarus recognizes, Lazarus speaks, Lazarus responds. Sleep is how the Bible describes the body’s relation to time.
You could underline that. Sleep is how the body describes, excuse me, how the Bible describes the body’s relation to time, not the soul’s relation to Elohim. That is key.
This is why Yahushua says something that most theologians avoid. Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, Matthew chapter 10, verse 28. If the soul were unconscious, then that distinction would be utterly meaningless, right? Utterly meaningless.
I mean, like I keep banging on about, presence after death is explicit in Scripture. Yahushua tells the thief in Matthew chapter 23, verse 43, today you will be with me in paradise. Not after centuries, not after a millennium, but today.
And Paul says something similar in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 8. To be absent from the body is to be present with the master Yahushua. Paul doesn’t say waiting, he says present. And then he kind of, like a dare almost, he says, I desire to depart and to be with Messiah, which is far better.
It’s like he’s daring Yahuwah in Philippians chapter 1, verse 23. And this is the thing. If death were unconscious suspension, then Paul’s longing would make no sense.
No sense. Why does the language of sleep then thread throughout the Bible? Because it does. Because Scripture speaks covenantally, not mechanically.
And this is the massive point that most miss. And I think in my Torah zeal, back in the messianic zealot movement, I became mechanical. Mechanical in keeping the commandments.
Mechanical. And now in the Malkit Zedek, I see everything covenantally, not mechanically. The dead are asleep to this age, but they are awake to Elohim.
That’s a massive distinction. That’s a dichotomy. The dead are asleep to this age, but they are awake to Elohim.
This is why Revelation shows us conscious martyrs. I saw the souls under the altar and they cried out. Revelation chapter 6, verse 9. Crying out then, what does it require? Well, obviously, you can’t be unconscious if you’re crying out.
You’ve got to have awareness. You’ve got to have memory. You’ve got to have justice.
You’ve got to have identity. I mean, look at the word ruach, for instance. We’ve got resh, vav, chet.
And it’s all right there in the biblical language. Resh, the head is conscious. Head and consciousness.
Vav, the connection. And then the chet, that’s a boundary. That’s a threshold.
The ruach then is conscious agency crossing thresholds. I mean, can you pick up what I’m laying down? The ruach is conscious agency crossing thresholds. And that’s what happens when we die.
Ecclesiastes totally confirms this. The dust returns to the earth as it was. The spirit returns to Elohim who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12.7. Soul sleep is human mechanical thinking. The Bible teaches us to think covenantally. We are not stored, brethren.
We are returned. I didn’t travel, brethren. I just unlayered.
I unlayered. Scripture always assumed reality was layered. In my Father’s house are many layers, many dwelling places.
Not rooms in space, but modes of being, brethren. Modes of being. Yes.
Yes. Paul speaks of this in 2 Corinthians 12.2. He was caught up to the third heaven. He doesn’t say he was unconscious.
He says he couldn’t articulate it in earthly language. He saw information, not flesh. You see, it’s the information that is preserved.
The flesh isn’t preserved. It’s the information that is preserved. Now, Paul goes on further and he says in 1 Corinthians 15.7, what you sow is not the body that shall be.
It really comes down then to what? Seed logic, not reassembly logic. And that’s the big thing. I was thinking of reassembly.
The body is reassembled. But it’s seed logic, brethren. A seed doesn’t preserve shape.
It preserves information. And that is what eternity is all about. That’s life, preserving information.
And physics totally agrees. Information is never destroyed. John already said it.
In the beginning was the logos. Logos is ordering intelligence. It’s not matter.
It’s intelligence that’s ordered. I mean, look at the word word in Hebrew. It’s davar, and it’s spelled dalet, bet, resh.
We’ve got dalet, a doorway to something. We’ve got the bet, the house, and then the resh is the conscious mind, the mind. The word then is intelligence entering structure.
That’s what it is, davar, intelligence entering structure. Isn’t that exactly what Yahusha said? In my Father’s house are many layers. Your intelligence is going to enter into a new structure.
Resurrection then is continuity of identity through transformation. Write that down. Resurrection is continuity of identity through transformation.
I’m not talking corpse revival, brethren. That’s mechanical. Who cares about corpse revival? Not interested.
I’m interested in continuity of identity through transformation. This is why Paul says, we shall all be changed, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 51. Not rebuilt, but changed.
I’m going to take a sip, getting a little tongue tied here. We shall all be changed. We’re not going to be rebuilt.
We’re going to be changed. I don’t want to be rebuilt. So then what’s judgment? Oh, judgment, judgment, judgment.
Yes, there is judgment, but what is judgment? Judgment, brethren, is recognition. You can underline that. Judgment is recognition.
It’s not a surprise. Yahusha says, I never knew you, Matthew chapter 7, verse 23. That is non-recognition.
I don’t recognize you. There’s the judgment. Judgment is recognition.
So what does it mean? It means judgment is relationship alignment. It’s relational alignment. That’s what judgment is.
It’s relational alignment. This is why the sheep are shocked in Matthew chapter 25, because they were already living in alignment. They were already living in alignment.
In the end, people don’t suffer because Yahuwah abandons them, but because the world is structured in a way that reveals who we are. Judgment reveals reality. It doesn’t invent it.
Judgment doesn’t invent reality. It just reveals reality. The foolish virgins, for instance, they are not immoral.
They’re just simply unprepared, because oil can’t be borrowed, because awareness can’t be outsourced. It’s that simple. You can’t outsource your awareness.
I mean, let’s look at the Hebrew word for oil just for a second. The Hebrew word for oil is shemen, shemen, and it’s spelled shin, mem, ch, nun. So again, we’ve got the shin, we’ve got fire, we’ve got the mem, waters, and we’ve got the nun, which is life continuity.
So what does shemen say? Oil is transformed into awareness. I mean, look, brethren, reality is hard. I mean, it is.
Reality is hard. Life is hard. You don’t rise to the occasion.
You fall to your preparation. Were you prepared? Because that’s the reality of it, and that’s a tough pill to swallow. You don’t rise to the occasion.
You fall to your preparation. The lamp of the body is the eye, Matthew 6, verse 22. So that must mean awareness determines brightness, surely.
And this is why works matter. Torah matters, not as merit, but as evidence of your alignment. You’re aligned with the Creator.
Yahusha says the righteous didn’t know when they served him, because it was who they really were. It was because that was who they were. So character then is identity.
And scripture already said, whatever a man sows, that he will also reap, in Galatians chapter 6. Not later, but now. So are the dead asleep? Well, their bodies rest in time. Their identities remain awake to Elohim.
Death is not a coma. It’s actually a threshold. Death is a threshold.
Matthew chapter 22, verse 32. Elohim is not the Elohim of the dead, but of the living. I mean, I hope you guys are tracking with me.
Are you tracking with me? Put that up in the chat, whether you’re tracking or not. Because look, if death were unconscious, and it was some kind of unconscious suspension, then much of scripture would simply collapse under its own weight. Because the Bible doesn’t speak of the dead as raised.
It speaks of them as being held, as being held. I mean, look at the 24 elders, for example. I mean, that’s identity that survived death.
John sees something amazing in Revelation chapter 4, verse 4. Around the throne were 24 thrones, and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments. I mean, they certainly aren’t angels. The Greek word here is presbytory, where we get the English word presbyterian, and it means elders, rulers, leaders.
These are human authority figures. They wear crowns, symbol of a reward. They are singing songs of redemption, and they speak of being purchased from among men in Revelation chapter 5, verse 9. So these elders were once alive on earth, which raises the unavoidable question, if no one was conscious before a final resurrection, then who the heck are they? Scripture doesn’t explain them away.
It assumes continuity of identity. It’s right there. It’s always been right there.
Scripture assumes continuity of identity. I mean, look at the word remember. The Hebrew word remember, zakar, zakar, to remember, and it’s spelt with a zayin, kaf, resh.
Now you may remember the zayin in the paleo script language, it looks like a weapon for cutting. So it’s a weapon or cutting or distinction. And then the kaf is like the open hand, and then the resh, of course, is the head, the mind.
So to be remembered by Elohim, it’s not nostalgia, brethren, it’s preserved identity held in mind and power. I know those who are mine, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 19. So knowing is relational.
It’s not archival like some kind of library system where we go in with our library card. No, knowing is relational, not archival. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 20, Paul says it, Messiah has been raised, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
And again, there’s that fallen asleep language that just trips us up. It tripped me up for a decade, brethren. But first fruits doesn’t mean first in chronological order.
It’s not chronological here, and then silence. No, it means pattern setter. First fruits means pattern setter.
The wave sheave offering back in Vayikra, Leviticus chapter 23, was not harvested grain, was it? No, it was a pledge of the whole field. The sheave was lifted alive and waved. It was acknowledged.
It wasn’t milled into flour. This is why Yahusha says to Miriam, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended in John chapter 20, verse 17. You see, something was happening.
Something was happening in the unseen realm. And Paul later confirms this. When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 8. Paradise below no longer exists because it’s paradise above now. We are no longer in the ground. We go to paradise above.
That is the layering system of the mansion. Paradise. Death itself was being reordered through the layers.
That doesn’t mean every soul instantly entered fullness, but it does mean identity was no longer trapped in oblivion. Does that make sense? Identity was no longer trapped in oblivion. So judgment, it’s not a court date like we were taught in church when we did the Romans road.
It’s exposure. Modern theology imagines judgment as a future spectacle, but scripture treats judgment as revelation of alignment. The light has come into the world and the people love darkness rather than light.
John chapter 3, verse 19. I mean, judgment happens when light reveals what already is. This is why the sheep are surprised and the goats are shocked in Matthew chapter 25.
They’re not sentenced, but they’re recognized. It’s the division between the sheep and goats. I mean, the world doesn’t punish us for our sins.
It punishes us by our sins. That’s a big distinction. The world doesn’t punish us for our sins.
It punishes us by our sins. And Paul totally agrees. Elohim gave them over famously in Romans chapter 1. So judgment is often permission, not intervention.
So this means awareness matters more than affiliation, way more than affiliation. So the Bible actually is quite ruthless on this point in Matthew chapter 7, 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, right? No, no.
I mean, these people aren’t atheists in Matthew chapter 7. They’re the religious, but religion without alignment produces no oil. Look at the word for light in the Hebrew. The word for light is or.
It’s a very simple word, aleph, vav, resh. We’ve got the aleph, the source and breath. We’ve got, again, the connection of the vav and then the resh, awareness.
So what does that teach us? It teaches us light is connected awareness that is sourced in Yahuwah. This is why oil can’t be borrowed, brethren. You can’t borrow discipline.
You either built it or you didn’t. Galatians chapter 6, verse 5, each will bear his own load. That’s it.
That’s reality, brethren. Each will bear his own load. I mean, my experience of the afterlife intensified responsibility.
Not escapism, because if death were unconsciousness, then morals would collapse right there into delay. They would. But the Bible insists on the opposite.
It is appointed for man to die once and after that, the judgment, Hebrews 9, verse 27. Judgment doesn’t wait for millennia to matter. No.
It begins with crossing thresholds. That’s when judgment begins when you cross the threshold. There’s no waiting room.
There’s no amnesia. There’s no dormancy. There is, on the other hand, immediate presence.
And there is immediate knowing. And this is very sobering, brethren. And scripture anticipated that.
Today, if you hear his voice, Psalms 95, and of course, famously quoted again there in the book of Hebrews, not later, today. So then you ask, why does the Bible use sleep language at all, Matthew? Why confuse us? Well, it’s to divide the sheep and the goats, brethren, because the goats will not discern it because they’re mechanical in thinking. But the sheep are discerning because they understand the unseen realm.
Because from the earth’s perspective, the body rests. Sure, that’s mechanical. But from Elohim’s perspective, all live to him, just as it’s confirmed in Luke chapter 20, verse 38.
Sleep is how time experiences eternity, not how eternity experiences awareness. If you’re taking notes, you might want to write that down and underline it. Sleep is how time experiences eternity, not how eternity experiences awareness.
And the true horror, brethren, isn’t death. It’s misalignment. Realizing you lived a misaligned life and there’s nothing that you can do about it.
It’s too late. The rich man in Luke 16, he’s aware. He’s remembering.
He’s recognizing. He’s not asleep. The tragedy is not torment imagery.
It’s clarity without capacity to change. That is hell. Clarity without capacity to change.
Our biggest gift is life and that we can still change. And I want to change. To my wife, I want to change.
To my children, I want to change. To you, I want to change. Which is why I posted this musing today is I was wrong and I’m sorry.
And this is part of my change to you. So the greatest hell is understanding too late. They will call, but I will not answer.
Proverbs chapter one. I mean, that’s terror, brethren. Not because Elohim is cruel.
No, but because alignment was never formed. So where are the dead? They’re known. They’re held.
They’re aware. They’re preserved. They’re awaiting fullness.
They’re certainly not erased. They’re certainly not asleep in oblivion. They’re not floating in fantasy.
The souls of the righteous are in the hand of Elohim from the wisdom of Solomon chapter three, verse one. And hands, well, they imply gentle care, awareness, and that implies purpose. Just like you gently handle a baby with care, purpose, and awareness.
This changes how we live today because there is no later version of who you will suddenly be. There is no later version of you who will suddenly care either. The you who crosses the veil, brethren, is the you you are becoming today.
And scripture does not threaten. It simply reveals. Today, salvation has come to this house.
Luke chapter 19, verse 19. Very sobering. Salvation, then.
Sorry, traditional Christian church. Salvation isn’t a Jesus ticket. It is alignment with reality, though, through the blessed son.
You’re not preparing for death. You’re actually training for awareness right now. Every move you make is training for the position you’ll hold.
Scripture already said, those who are faithful in little, well, Luke chapter 16, verse 10. So, am I musing? I don’t know. I guess all that to say this.
You’re not waiting to become eternal. You already are eternal. Death doesn’t switch consciousness on.
It actually removes the distractions. And scripture, when we read it honestly, has been saying this all along. The kingdom of Elohim, it is in your midst right now.
Luke chapter 17, verse 21. It’s not postponed. It’s not deferred.
It is present reality. So, the question is not what happens when you die. The question really is, who are you becoming before you do? This is why scripture never teaches conscious oblivion.
And it never teaches flesh recycling. The tension we feel around death, it exists because scripture uses two vocabularies at once. One for biological cessation and one for order of existence continuity.
I’ll repeat that. The scripture uses two vocabularies at once and they create a tension. One for biological cessation, one for order of existence continuity.
You should write that down and maybe underline that if you’re taking some notes. I mean, I have to. I love to take notes.
I usually scratch it down in my Bible and make all kinds of underlinings. And it helps me to remember things. So, when the Bible says the dead sleep, it’s describing the body, not the erasure of the self.
And this distinction, it really does matter. Because if sleep meant unconscious non-being, then vast portions of scripture, the Torah, the prophet, the wisdom, gospels, and the apostolic writings, well, they would collapse under their own testimony. The Bible doesn’t describe death as obliteration.
It describes death as transition, concealment, rest, and waiting, but never as erasure. When scripture speaks of sleep, it’s actually using language of appearance, brethren, not metaphysical destinations. The body rests, the nefesh does not dissolve.
Daniel says in chapter 12 of Daniel, many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Notice the precision of the language, the precision of the language. They sleep in the dust, not become dust.
They sleep in the dust. The dust is the location of the body, not the identity of the person. Why couldn’t I have known that a decade ago? I would have been a lot happier.
They sleep in the dust, not become dust, brethren. The dust is the location of the body, not the identity of the person. I’m preaching to the choir here because I made that mistake, and I am sorry.
Ecclesiastes is even clearer. The dust returns to the earth as it was. The spirit returns to Elohim gave it, Ecclesiastes 12.7. That’s two movements.
That’s two trajectories. Matter returns to matter. Spirit returns to source.
This is not annihilation theology, brethren. This is differentiated continuity. That’s what it is, differentiated continuity.
I mean, it’s amazing. Nefesh refuses soul sleep. It really does, because if Scripture intended to teach unconscious suspension after death, then Hebrew possessed the vocabulary to say it very plainly.
Instead, it consistently chose a word that implies continuity, awareness, return, and preservation. That word, brethren, nefesh, nefesh, living identity. Now, nefesh is often flattened.
Yes, I agree. It is often flattened into the Hebrew word soul, but it’s so much more, because in Hebrew thought, it’s the living self. It’s not a ghost trapped in flesh.
No. In Genesis chapter 2, it says, Yahuwah formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a nefesh hayah. He became a nefesh hayah.
Man doesn’t receive a nefesh. He doesn’t receive a soul. No.
He becomes one. The nefesh is the integrated identity. It’s the body, will, memory, desire, the relational presence, if you will.
It’s integrated identity, and identity transforms. It’s information. It doesn’t cease to exist.
The Torah repeatedly says the nefesh can love, rejoice, be troubled, be gathered. Gathered, not extinguished. It’s loved in Deuteronomy 6.5. It’s rejoice in Isaiah 61 verse 10, can be troubled in Psalm 42 verse 6, and be gathered in Genesis chapter 49 verse 33.
That is not annihilation or extinguishment language, is it? No, not whatsoever. Let’s just break that down. Nefesh, noon, pay, shin.
Again, we’ve got the noon, the continuation, the offspring, perpetuity, if you will. We’ve got the pay. Well, that’s expression.
That’s breath, articulation, and then we’ve got that fire of the shin, and fire transforms for sure, but it’s an active force. Nefesh is not inert. It’s continuity.
It’s continuing. We were never meant to vanish, brethren. So, I know I’m laying a lot down, these thoughts coming to me.
I hope you’re still with me, brethren. So, if we follow the biblical threads, and if the Bible is to be taken seriously on its own terms, Hebrew, prophetic, covenantal, then death is not an erasure, and resurrection is not some crude reassembly of atoms. The biblical witness refuses both material reductionism, if you will, and mystical escapism.
I think the church has been guilty of both, material reductionism and certainly mystical escapism. The Bible insists, though, on continuity without actually being confined, and identity without decay, and finally, there’s presence without distance. That’s what the Bible insists.
I’m sure of it. Continuity without actually being confined, identity without decay, and presence without distance. That’s what I experienced, and that gives me great hope in this world, and great comfort, and has taken away my fears, brethren.
The body rests. The self doesn’t disappear. What Scripture calls sleep is not oblivion, but concealment.
The way a seed sleeps in the ground while its pattern remains intact, waiting for the Moedim, the appointed season, which is why we should celebrate the Moedim, because it’s our resurrection rehearsal, our seed resurrection rehearsal. I mean, Paul’s language was never careless. A seed doesn’t preserve form.
It preserves information, and what rises is not the same expression, but the same identity, transfigured, and intensified, and that’s what I experienced, this intense, way more intense transfiguration experience. My experience exposed many of my assumptions that I had imported into the Scripture over the years, and those assumptions were wrong, and I’m sorry about that, and I’m sorry I had to go there and come back to be able to tell you, but at least I’ve been given that opportunity. So what I realize now is matter dissolves, energy transforms, but information persists.
The Bible has always told us this, just in different grammar. The nefesh is gathered. The ruach returns.
The neshimar, the neshimar is held. Then Yahuwah Elohim formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the neshimar of life, and man became, he wasn’t given, but he became a nefesh hayah. Nothing essential is lost, brethren.
This is why judgment in Scripture is not primarily about sentencing, but alignment, and the church has got it wrong. It’s all about sentencing, and the courtroom, and the Roman’s row, but no, it’s wrong. Judgment is alignment.
This is why resurrection is not about getting your body back, but about becoming fully what you already are. This is why the kingdom is never described as far away, but as near, at hand, within, and among. Oh yes, that sobering language.
Oh yes, and this is why how you live now matters so much more. If identity persists, if information is conserved, if character survive transition, then death does not fix us, it reveals us. My wife was telling me this this morning.
In plain language, brethren, you don’t level up after the game ends, you level up by how you played. That’s sobering. You don’t level up after the game ends, you level up by how you played.
Yeah, that’s it. What you fail to master in yourself will rule you in every realm. Yes, it will.
So we’re not waiting to become eternal, brethren. We are learning how to live as those who already are. Resurrection is not an escape hatch from the material world.
It’s the unveiling of what was already underneath it, and death, death is not the end of consciousness. It’s the removal of constraint, which leaves us, then, with only one question that has ever mattered. If who you are continues, and what you choose endures, and what you align with becomes your dwelling, then who are you becoming now, today? Because scripture, experience, and reality itself seem to agree on this one point, nothing essential about you is ever lost, it is only transformed.
And that’s my I’m sorry musing for you this Shabbat. I hope you enjoy our time together. Give us some thumbs up.
I’m going to pop on over and see if some of you are still in the chat. And if you’ve got anything you want me to answer, any questions, I’ll try. And I’ll pop right on over into the chat and have a look on my phone so I can have better viewing.
Let me see. Karen Long. Shabbat Shalom, Karen.
She’s in Central Pennsylvania. All right. Hi, Deb.
Shabbat Shalom. Love your new profile in the Bumblebee. Shabbat Shalom, Daryl Palmer.
Shabbat Shalom from Sublimity. It’s so great. Daryl was our first cameraman all those years ago and still faithfully watching.
Johnny Boos. Shabbat Shalom. Shabbat Shalom.
Libby, great to see you here from Louisiana. All over, all over. People from all over.
So amazing. I love it. Oh my goodness.
Let’s see. Zevi’s Homestead. We got good audio.
Well, it’s a bit late now, isn’t it? Hopefully you do. It’s all good right here. Let’s see if you’ve got any questions for me.
Remnant Atlas is definitely picking up what I’m laying down. Thank you, Remnant Atlas. Let’s see.
Let me go to the bottom here. Let’s see. Shabbat Shalom from New Zealand.
Christine Slater. Good teaching, Matthew. I have a lot to think about.
I have a lot to think about. I mean, I lay down a lot there. I think you have to rewind, rewatch, because it’s pretty heavy, isn’t it? DD Justice.
I need to listen to this again. I think I may have to revisit what I said, and hopefully I made sense to you guys, because I was kind of shooting from the hip here, brethren, but from the hip of experience. That’s the key.
Oh, Vicky from Australia. Victoria, Shabbat Shalom. Blessings to you.
Oh, thank you, Facts Over Fear. Anyone who says they was wrong on anything, I respect. Well, thank you.
I mean, that’s a big thing. You just have to own up to it, own up to it. I thought about taking that past teaching down, but then hopefully somebody would get to watch this teaching and see, well, hey, I’ve grown too.
I’m always about growing. BNM. BNM.
I guess I’m not picking up what he’s putting down. He keeps referring back to his personal experience. I’ll listen to it again.
Yeah, sorry there, BNM, if I didn’t make it clear to you. Karen. Shabbat Shalom, Karen Long again.
Religion without alignment produces no oil. That’s it. That’s it.
Exactly. Oh, I love this handle somebody’s got here. Flame of Joseph Malkit-Zedek.
Shabbat Shalom. That’s a great, great username there. And then Chris says, reality is only the redeemed are alive.
Everyone not redeemed is owned by death. All man is fallen, living under the authority of death. And then we’ve got people from Colorado.
From all over the place. Truly, truly, truly a blessing. Well, guys, that’s it for this Sabbath.
Yahuwah’s blessings. Go visit us over at TorahToTheTribes.com. If you’re watching this later, put some comments in the comments section. It kind of helps the old community building, you know.
And save up for the Passover. Save up especially for the Feast of Tabernacles. We’ll have an announcement coming soon.
We’re going to really go for it this year. Last year, we kind of were a little slow out of the gate. Obviously, a lot of things happened.
This year, new, exciting, massive growth. Lots of people coming to Torah To The Tribes. Lots of people watching the teachings.
Even these musings people are tuning in. And this is really just a break in a sabbatical before the big launch again here shortly. So Shabbat Shalom.
Blessings, love to you all. And I’ll catch you next time. Yahweh willing.
<This is the end of Matthew’s presentation.>
Now, for my Response.
First of all, what is a “muse”? The term originates from Greek mythology, so let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about it.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the band, see Muse (band). For human muses, see Muse (person) and Category:Muses (persons). “Muse” redirects here. For other uses, see Muse (disambiguation).
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, romanized: Moúsai, [ˈmuː.sai̯]; singular: Μοῦσα, Moúsa, [ˈmuː.sa]; Greek: Μούσες, romanized: Múses, [ˈmuː.ses]) were the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric songs, and myths that were related orally for centuries in ancient Greek culture.
The number and names of the Muses differed by region, but from the Classical period the number of Muses was standardized to nine, and their names were generally given as Calliope, Clio, Polyhymnia, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Erato, Melpomene, Thalia, and Urania.[1]
In modern figurative usage, a muse is a person who serves as someone’s source of artistic inspiration.
Etymology
The word Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, romanized: Moûsai) perhaps came from the o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root *men- (the basic meaning of which is ‘put in mind’ in verb formations with transitive function and ‘have in mind’ in those with intransitive function),[3] or from root *men- (‘to tower, mountain’) since all the most important cult-centres of the Muses were on mountains or hills.[4] R. S. P. Beekes rejects the latter etymology and suggests that a Pre-Greek origin is also possible.[5]
Number and names
The earliest known records of the Muses come from Boeotia (Boeotian muses). Some ancient authorities regarded the Muses as of Thracian origin.[6] In Thrace, a tradition of three original Muses persisted.[7]
In the first century BC, Diodorus Siculus cited Homer and Hesiod to the contrary, observing:
Writers similarly disagree also concerning the number of the Muses; for some say that there are three, and others that there are nine, but the number nine has prevailed since it rests upon the authority of the most distinguished men, such as Homer and Hesiod and others like them.
Diodorus states (Book I.18) that Osiris first recruited the nine Muses, along with the satyrs, while passing through Aethiopia, before embarking on a tour of all Asia and Europe, teaching the arts of cultivation wherever he went.
According to Hesiod’s account (c. 700 BC), generally followed by the writers of antiquity, the Nine Muses were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (i.e., “Memory” personified), figuring as personifications of knowledge and the arts, especially poetry, literature, dance and music.
The Roman scholar Varro (116–27 BC) relates that there are only three Muses: one born from the movement of water, another who makes sound by striking the air, and a third who is embodied only in the human voice. They were called Melete or “Practice”, Mneme or “Memory” and Aoide or “Song”.[citation needed] The Quaestiones Convivales of Plutarch (46–120 AD) also report three ancient Muses (9.I4.2–4).[9][10]
However, the classical understanding of the Muses tripled their triad and established a set of nine goddesses, who embody the arts and inspire creation with their graces through remembered and improvised song and mime, writing, traditional music, and dance. It was not until Hellenistic times that the following systematic set of functions became associated with them, and even then some variation persisted both in their names and in their attributes:
- Calliope (epic poetry)
- Clio (history)
- Polyhymnia (hymn and mime)
- Euterpe (song and elegiac poetry)
- Terpsichore (chorus and dance)
- Erato (lyric choral poetry)
- Melpomene (tragedy)
- Thalia (light verse and comedy)
- Urania (astronomy and astrology)[11]
According to Pausanias, who wrote in the later second century AD, there were originally three Muses, worshipped on Mount Helicon in Boeotia: Aoide (‘song’ or ‘tune’), Melete (‘practice’ or ‘occasion’), and Mneme (‘memory’).[12] Together, these three form the complete picture of the preconditions of poetic art in cult practice.
In Delphi too three Muses were worshipped, but with other names: Nete, Mese, and Hypate, which are assigned as the names of the three chords of the ancient musical instrument, the lyre.[13]
Alternatively, later they were called Cephisso, Apollonis, and Borysthenis – names which characterize them as daughters of Apollo.[14]
A later tradition recognized a set of four Muses: Thelxinoë, Aoide, Archē, and Melete, said to be daughters of Zeus and Plusia or of Ouranos.[15] One of the people frequently associated with the Muses was Pierus. By some he was called the father (by a Pimpleian nymph, called Antiope by Cicero) of a total of seven Muses, called Neilṓ (Νειλώ), Tritṓnē (Τριτώνη), Asōpṓ (Ἀσωπώ), Heptápora (Ἑπτάπορα), Achelōís, Tipoplṓ (Τιποπλώ), and Rhodía (Ῥοδία).[16][17]
Ancient writers often called Boeotia Aonia, and because the Muses often visited Mount Helicon in Boeotia, they were called Aonides and Aoniae Sorores.[18][19]
Mythology
According to Hesiod’s Theogony (seventh century BC), they were daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, Titan goddess of memory. Hesiod in Theogony narrates that the Muses brought to people forgetfulness, that is, the forgetfulness of pain and the cessation of obligations.[20]
For Alcman and Mimnermus, they were even more primordial, springing from the early deities Ouranos and Gaia. Gaia is Mother Earth, an early mother goddess who was worshipped at Delphi from prehistoric times, long before the site was rededicated to Apollo, possibly indicating a transfer to association with him after that time.
Sometimes the Muses are referred to as water nymphs, associated with the springs of Helicon and with Pieris. It was said that the winged horse Pegasus touched his hooves to the ground on Helicon, causing four sacred springs to burst forth, from which the Muses, also known as pegasides, were born.[21][22] Athena later tamed the horse and presented him to the Muses (compare the Roman inspiring nymphs of springs, the Camenae, the Völva of Norse mythology and also the apsaras in the mythology of classical India).
Classical writers set Apollo as their leader, Apollon Mousēgetēs (‘Apollo Muse-leader’).[23] In one myth, the Muses judged a contest between Apollo and Marsyas. They also gathered the pieces of the dead body of Orpheus, son of Calliope, and buried them in Leivithra. In a later myth, Thamyris challenged them to a singing contest. They won and punished Thamyris by blinding him and robbing him of his singing ability.
Pausanias records a tradition of two generations of Muses; the first are the daughters of Ouranos and Gaia, the second of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Another, rarer genealogy is that they are daughters of Harmonia (the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares), which contradicts the myth in which they were dancing at the wedding of Harmonia and Cadmus.
Children
Calliope had two sons, Ialemus and Orpheus, with Apollo. In another version of the story, the father of Orpheus was Oeagrus, but Apollo adopted him and taught him the skill of lyre while Calliope trained him in singing.
Linus was said[24] to have been the son of Apollo and one of the Muses, either Calliope or Terpsichore or Urania. Rhesus was the son of Strymon and Calliope or Euterpe.
The sirens were the children of Achelous and Melpomene or Terpsichore. Kleopheme was the daughter of Erato and Malos. Hyacinth was the son of Clio, according to an unpopular account.[25]
Hymenaeus was assigned as Apollo’s son by one of the muses, either Calliope, or Clio, or Terpsichore, or Urania. Corybantes were the children of Thalia and Apollo.[26]
Against the Sirens
In the sanctuary of Hera in Coroneia was a statue created by Pythodorus of Thebes, depicting Hera holding the sirens. According to the myth, Hera persuaded the sirens to challenge the Muses to a singing contest. After the Muses won, they are said to have plucked the sirens’ feathers and used them to make crowns for themselves.[27][28] According to Stephanus of Byzantium, the sirens, overwhelmed by their loss, cast off their feathers from their shoulders, turned white and then threw themselves into the sea. As a result, the nearby city was named Aptera (“featherless”) and the nearby islands were called the Leukai (“the white ones”).[29] John Tzetzes recounts that after defeating the sirens, the Muses crowned themselves with the sirens’ wings, except for Terpsichore who was their mother, adding that the city of Aptera named after this event.[30] Furthermore, in one of his letters, Julian the Emperor mentions the Muses’ victory over the sirens.
Against the Pierides or Emathides
According to a myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses—alluding to the connection of Pieria with the Muses—Pierus, king of Macedon, had nine daughters he named after the nine Muses, believing that their skills were a great match to the Muses. He thus challenged the Muses to a match, resulting in his daughters, the Pierides, being turned into chattering magpies for their presumption.[32]
Antoninus Liberalis called them the Emathides and wrote that they were transformed into nine different birds: the grebe, the wryneck, the ortolan, the jay, the greenfinch, the goldfinch, the duck, the woodpecker, and the dracontis pigeon.[33]
Cult
The Muses had several temples and shrines in ancient Greece, their two main cult centres being Mount Helikon in Boiotia, which holds the Valley of the Muses, and Pieria in Macedonia. Strabo wrote:”Helikon, not far distant from Parnassos, rivals it both in height and in circuit; for both are rocky and covered with snow, and their circuit comprises no large extent of territory. Here are the temple of the Mousai and Hippukrene and the cave of the Nymphai called the Leibethrides; and from this fact one might infer that those who consecrated Helikon to the Mousai were Thrakians, the same who dedicated Pieris and Leibethron and Pimpleia [in Pieria] to the same goddesses. The Thrakians used to be called Pieres, but, now that they have disappeared, the Macedonians hold these places.”[34]
The cult of the Muses was also commonly connected to that of Apollo.
Emblems
The following table lists the Classical names and attributes of the standard list of the nine Muses,[35] as well as their various associated symbols:
| Muse | Attribute | Symbols |
|---|---|---|
| Calliope | Epic poetry | Writing tablet, Stylus, Lyre[36] (image) |
| Clio | History | Scrolls, Books, Cornett, Laurel wreath[37][38] |
| Polyhymnia | Mime | Veil, Grapes (referring to her as an agricultural goddess)[39] (image) |
| Euterpe | Song and elegaic poetry | Aulos (an ancient Greek musical instrument like a double oboe), panpipes, laurel wreath[40][41] |
| Terpsichore | Light verse and dance | Lyre, Plectrum[42] |
| Erato | Lyric choral poetry | Cithara (image)[43] |
| Melpomene | Tragedy | Tragic mask, sword (or any kind of blade), club, kothornos (boots)[44] |
| Thalia | Comedy | Comic mask, Ivy wreath, Shepherd’s crook[45][46] |
| Urania | Astronomy (Christian poetry in later times)[47] | Globe and compass[48] |
Some Greek writers give the names of the nine Muses as Kallichore, Helike, Eunike, Thelxinoë, Terpsichore, Euterpe, Eukelade, Dia, and Enope.[49][full citation needed]
<End of Wikipedia Section>
So now, we have extremely clear evidence that the term “musing” means to listen to and pay close attention to a “muse”, which is really a fallen angel who is loyal to Lucifer and has no right to influence the life of a Christian!
In this light, I would say that the video’s title is very appropriate!
Now let’s take a closer look at Matthew’s actual teachings in his video and how they relate to real Bible truths!
The first mistake that Matthew makes is to identify a “soul” as “separate from the body”. This is exactly the SAME mistake that most Christian denominations make (along with Catholics) because they don’t pay attention to what the Bible really says!
"7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Genesis 2:7 KJV
Please notice that man did not “get” a soul, but the combination of the body and the breath of God made him “become a living soul”! Not sure about this idea? Did you know that the Bible says that a “soul” can die?
"4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die."
Ezekiel 18:4 KJV
In other words, a “soul” is a living person! And this is precisely what the word “soul” used to mean, even in American culture, before the introduction of “spiritism” (which is actually the worship of Satan and his angels)! Why do I say that? Because if there’s no such thing as a “soul without a physical body”, then there’s only one possible source of something like a “ghost”, and that source is Satan and his angels! Satan loves to deceive people and lead them away from God!
The first lie Satan ever told was, “Ye shall NOT surely die…” and he has certainly not given up on his first lie, but has successfully perpetuated it until today by convincing many people that the soul is a spiritual and immortal consciousness that is separate from the body! Yes, there is a Ruach (Hebrew word) that describes the “breath of God” that Jesus breathed into Adam when He created him. But this “breath” is like electricity that turns on a light bulb; it has no consciousness!
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