The Bridge Quotes

“I don’t know how I didn’t see it for so many years of Bible reading, but I didn’t.  Paul didn’t teach the Gentiles not to follow the law, he didn’t teach people not to have their sons circumcised (in fact he himself had Timothy circumcised in Acts 16:3).  And Paul himself kept the law.  Otherwise, James would have been telling Paul to lie about what he was doing.   So we traded Christmas for Sukkot, the true birth of Messiah during the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a shadow picture of Him coming back to reign for a thousand years.  When we keep that feast, we are making a declaration that we believe He was, is, and is coming.  We keep Yom Kippur, which is a declaration that we believe that Yeshua is the salvation of the nation of Israel as a whole, that “all Israel shall be saved.”  We keep Yom Teruah, the day of Trumpets, which occurs on “the day and hour that no man knows” at the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon during the 7th biblical month of Tishri.  We traded Pentecost for Shavuot, the prophetic shadow picture of the spirit being poured out on the assembly, as we see in the book of Acts,  just as the law was given at Mt Sinai to the assembly, which according to Stephen was the true birth of the church (Acts 7:38) – not in Jerusalem, but at Sinai. We also traded Easter for Passover, the shadow picture of Messiah coming to die to restore us to right standing with God, in order to obey Him when He said, “from now on, do this in remembrance of Me.”  We traded Resurrection Sunday for First Fruits, the feast which served as a shadow of Messiah rising up out of the earth and ascending to be presented as a holy offering to the Father.  In Leviticus 23, these are called the Feasts of the LORD, and were to be celebrated by His people Israel forever, not just the Jews, but all those who are in covenant with Him. Just like at Mt Sinai, the descendants of Jacob plus the mixed multitude who came out of Egypt.    We learned from I John 3:4 that sin is defined as transgression of the law.  I John 1:10 says that if we claim we do not sin we are liars, so sin still exists, and that was written long after the death of the other apostles, including Paul.  I read what Peter said about Paul in 2 Peter 3:15-16 – that his writings were hard to understand and easily twisted.  And I began to see that Peter was right because the more I understood what everyone besides Paul was saying, the more I realized that the only way I could justify what I had been doing was with Paul’s writings.  I couldn’t use Yeshua (Jesus), Moses, John, Peter or any of the others to back up any of the doctrines I was taught – I had to ignore Yeshua almost entirely, or take Him out of context.  I decided that Yeshua, and not Paul, died for me, so I had to”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“When we surrendered our lives to God through the Covenant renewed in Jesus’ blood, we were making an agreement with God to live set apart lives, to live His way and not our own way anymore.  Whether we knew it or not, we signed an agreement to make Him absolute Master over our lives, both temporal and eternal.  We gave Him permission to bless us – and to discipline us.  We gave Him permission to adopt us and be our Father.  We were not simply signing up for a “get out of hell free” card.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Those who keep the commandments of God, as well as those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ” – but as you can see there is only one group.  Not Jews and Christians, but something in the middle between the two.  Jews keep the commandments, and most (not all) deny Jesus, and Christians have the testimony of Jesus but have been carefully trained to not keep the commandments (even though they keep more than they think). Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Here, Jesus clearly reveals to John the identity of the saints – they are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus as Messiah.  Again, this is clearly one group and not two. Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“our translation into English is not always the best, but a deep study of any commandment, especially in context with the writings of the prophets, historical context, and the teachings of Jesus – we see that the spirit of the law was always supposed to be kept.  Jesus said Himself, and the rabbis questioning Him were in full agreement,[54] that the highest laws of all were Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18 – all other laws were to be followed according to the principles of these two --  Love God with all your heart, mind and being, and love your neighbor as yourself.  When the other laws are viewed through those divine filters, the spirit will always guide our judgment – it has always been the case. ”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“It was the empowering force that gave the saints of old the boldness and authority they needed to do both amazing and everyday things. The Spirit was the seal of God upon their lives.[42]  The Jews call this Spirit the Ruach.  Yes, the Jews do recognize the Holy Spirit.  In fact, you would be shocked to read how much pre-Messianic literature (Jewish writings before the time of Jesus) has in common with Christian theology, but I digress.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“of the”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“There were many of these extra rulings, and at this point they weren’t even written down so no one could hope to keep what they thought was the Torah without spending many, many hours at the feet of the Rabbis who taught them – like Paul did.  The common people who kept them were doing the best they could. They had no Bibles in their homes, and so they could not cross-reference what they were being told.  Questioning religious authority has always been potentially dangerous business, and it was no different back then.  Do according to the edicts of the Rabbis, or be judged by them as transgressors, which is exactly what they did to Jesus.  It is much the same in Christianity today – there is indeed nothing new under the sun!”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“The traditions of the elders largely defined what it was to be a religious Jew in Jesus’ day, and in some ways, greatly departed from the law given at Mt Sinai.  For instance, at Mt Sinai there was no separation between the natural born Hebrews and the foreigners who attached themselves to God, but in Jesus’ day, there was a great wall of legal division, not in any way justified by the Torah as given through Moses.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“The Talmud was compiled from the oral teachings handed down generation after generation by rabbis who claimed that Moses received not one, but two revelations on Mt Sinai, one to be written down and another to be passed along by word of mouth.  You can see how problematic this is, because even if it were true (and it is written that Moses wrote all the words that God gave him[77]), people over the 1400 years between Sinai and Jesus’ ministry could have added to and subtracted from them – and we see from the very writings of the Talmud (compiled between 200 and 600 AD) that the legal orthodox Jewish requirements have gone through alterations.  The Talmud is largely a book of Jewish laws and commentary, in essence, no different than we find in books on Catholicism and Protestant Christianity, except that the writings of the sages have been combined into one large text to be compared side by side so it can easily be seen what many ancient sages said about a given topic or dispute.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“quotes from both Jesus and the prophet Isaiah, which were clearly speaking against a certain kind of law.[76] That criticized law is called, in scripture, “the traditions of the elders.”  Even today, when an observant Orthodox Jew speaks of observing Torah, he is actually speaking of observing Torah according to the traditions of the elders, it is an unspoken truth – but they will gladly verify this if you ask them.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Deut 10:12-13 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? God requires us to fear/respect Him, love him, serve Him, and to keep His commandments and statutes – which were given for our benefit!  We have already established Moses as the witness Jesus chose, he even spoke face to face with the LORD as a man speaks with his friend.[74]  Moses says the commands are for our good – which means that we can no longer logically entertain the notion that they were given simply to prove we couldn’t live up to them.  There is certainly nothing good for us in that!  That would simply provoke us to anger and hopelessness. Jesus reiterated what Moses said, and at the same time, claimed His divinity. John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Tragically, I believe a great many clergymen grew up in such families, especially during the middle ages and Renaissance when the “second sons” of noble families were barely looked at and then passed off into the church to get rid of them.  We probably had a great many angry, brokenhearted men in the pulpits preaching their idea of our Heavenly Father based on their very unheavenly fathers, which breaks my heart. But Jesus said we have a good Father.  Not a Father to withhold praise and blessing when His children are striving to do what He wants them to do, but a Father who was so in love with His children that He gave His Son to die in their place.  We cannot reconcile a God who would make such an effort to save us, with a God who has given us no way to please Him.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“There are verses that talk about this -- Pro 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. Col 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Children, in order to thrive and become healthy, loving adults, need to be able to have attainable goals.  We need to be able to have our hopes come to fruition. When we are told what to do and we do it, we need to have that be good enough in the eyes of our parents.  When that hope is deferred, endlessly squashed, a child loses hope and may eventually stop trying.  But when that hope is satisfied through parental approval and love, it really is like a tree of life.  Being able to make a parent happy with us – well, it’s the deferred dream of many, many wounded children and adults.  And it wouldn’t be in the Bible if God Himself didn’t recognize it as true. ”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“What if I told you that there were people in scripture who were called blameless?  Elizabeth and Zechariah, the parents of John the Baptist, walked in all the commandments and ordinances blamelessly.[71]  And the Apostle Paul was also blameless according to the letter of the law.[72]  What about all the New Testament verses saying that we, as well as the leadership within the body, are to be blameless.[73]  If the law was impossible to keep blamelessly, then how did Elizabeth, Zechariah and Paul manage to do it at all?  And how were NT leaders supposed to do it without “falling from grace?”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“#1 – Jesus and Moses and God were right and the laws are good and not impossible to keep, and they are also eternal in nature. OR #2 – the Hebrew people were told that they could, and had better, keep a system of impossible requirements, and then were punished and cast aside when they inevitably failed – just to prove that they needed the Messiah who was not going to show up for a very, very long time. I ask you, what is the character of the Father that Jesus preached?”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“When God says forever, it isn’t like when we say forever – because He is forever!  He was, is and always will be!  At no point does “forever” cease to exist for Him, even though our limited existence in the flesh makes it hard for us to think in forever terms.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Ex 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. Lev 16:34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded Moses. Lev 24:8 Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. Num 25:13  And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“God says, “You will do my statues, and judge with my judgments, and I will bless you.” (Lev 25:18 paraphrase mine) Moses says, “You will keep His commandments and obey Him and serve Him and cleave to Him.”  And also, “He is faithful and will keep the Covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.” (Deut 13:4 and 7:9 paraphrase mine) That is an interesting point.  A thousand generations.  If a generation is even just 20 years, then 1000 times that is 20,000 years – that is how long God will bless those who keep His commandments.  Sinai happened roughly 3500 years ago.  A thousand generations is a long, long time from now – and certainly did not come to an abrupt halt 2000 years ago, ending the obligation to keep those commandments.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Of course, we never thought of it that way, we were simply taught that something was true for so long that we read over these verses without even thinking about it.  That’s called conditioning, when you are told something so many times that you accept it as fact, so completely that you can read something clearly to the contrary and not even see it.  And the people who taught us these things, they were the victims of conditioning too – it doesn’t even do any good to get angry about it.  Conditioning doesn’t mean we were stupid, it just means that we were diligently trained to accept a lie as reality, just like our ancestors!”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Lev 25:18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. Deut 13:4 Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. Deut 7:9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; These three verses are extremely challenging for anyone who makes the claim that the law is impossible to keep because they are left in the unenviable position of judging God’s integrity, as well as Jesus’. ”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Deut 29:14-15 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: The Covenant was not only made with those present at the time it was given, but with all those who, in the future, would join themselves to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  That’s us, and that means that all of God’s promises, all of His commandments, belong to us – not as burdensome obligations, but setting us apart as a peculiar people.  We aren’t like everyone else – we belong to God’s eternal family.  We aren’t second class citizens, nor are we any better than the natural born.[69] There is one law for the native born and the foreigner, same justice for all.[70]”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“anything we have handed down from Moses is a faithful witness – if it were not, then Jesus would certainly have pointed it out.  Moses’ writings are therefore above reproach. One of the last things Moses said before his death was this, after retelling the commandments to the entire Nation of Israel -- Deut 30:11-16 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?  Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.  See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;  in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. Moses never said, “well, hopefully you”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Jesus instead said that we have a kainos command, thereby making something visible again which had been clouded or obscured – in this case, by many years of religious traditions that created strife and animosity between those seeking God, both Jew and Gentile. I will cover this in my chapter about Peter and his Acts 10 vision.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“First of all, let’s look at the word “new” in Greek. Greek has two words for new – the first is neos, which means brand new – like you got a neos pair of shoes because the old ones fell apart.  The second is kainos, which means “renewed” like the moon every month.  When the moon goes black and the sky is darkened, it looks like the moon disappears and then with the first sliver sighting a day or two later, we get a new moon – but it isn’t a neos moon, it is a kainos moon.  It is simply renewed, now we can see the moon again.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Jesus did was to simply tell them what they already knew – He gave them the spiritual filters through which the entire law and prophets were to be administrated.  Love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself.  These were not strange commandments – they were already part of the Torah law – Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18, but they can be seen in every single commandment, when viewed through Hebraic glasses.  There was nothing new here, and the Pharisees and scribes in attendance admitted that He was absolutely correct.[67]”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“As an aside, there are many folks who bitterly hate those who tested Jesus, but we have to look at what was going on from the standpoint of what they were required to do biblically in order to test anyone claiming to be the prophet of whom Moses spoke.  Jesus was doing miracles, he claimed to be Messiah.  It was their obligation to test Him in order to not fall prey to a false prophet or false Messiah, as it was written.  Yes, some of the religious leaders were testing Him unrighteously, but I believe that a great many were testing him righteously and wisely.  We cannot paint any group of people with the same wide brush, as there were Pharisees and Scribes who were deeply and truly devoted to God, just as there are today.  They, just like us, have an obligation to test everything. ”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. (This was the heart of the matter, Jesus was challenging their authority, and their laws, and so in order to accuse Him successfully and kill Him, they had to get Him to change the laws as given to Moses – then they would have the legal right under God’s Laws to put Him to death, which they never could do until he claimed he was the LORD at His trial. At that point in their opinion they had Him for blasphemy.)”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Deut 13:1-5 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder (definitely applied to Jesus) And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; (by declaring new laws or destroying old ones, Jesus would have been preaching another god, which they had not known)  Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (God gave fair warning that false prophets and teachers are there to test our devotion) Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. (This is how we were to protect ourselves from following after false prophets, by knowing and keeping God’s commandments and only God’s commandments)”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“If Jesus whittled down the law of the Father to only two commandments, He would have broken Deut 4:2 and 12:32, which clearly command us not to add or subtract.  At this point, as I have said before, the Pharisees and Scribes would have had legal grounds to have Him executed as a false prophet under the guidelines set up in Deut 13 – in fact, everything they did to Him was an attempt to see whether or not they could disqualify Him as the Messiah, the prophet of whom Moses prophesied.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life

“Matt 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Christian theologians will often say that one of these two scenarios applies.  Either (1) there are only two commandments now – love God and love your neighbor, by what their definition of what love looks like, or (2) there is only one commandment now, “love one another.”
― Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life