Free Identity Theft by Ron Cantor

practice did not begin with the New Covenant or as a Christian tradition; immersion in water had been common practice in Judaism as a form of ritual cleansing for centuries before I implemented it in my ministry.
    “In fact, outside the Temple in Jerusalem were nearly fifty
mikvot
—immersion tanks—for Jews wishing to make a sacrifice at the Temple. The ministry of immersion with which the Lord entrusted me preceded and prepared the people for Yeshua’s coming. It was not something new to the people of Israel. They understood its significance. The fact that thousands of Jews ‘from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan,’ went out to be immersed by me attests to this fact.”
    Matthew 3:5 appeared on my tablet. “The fact that people now associate me and my signature with a denomination that began only five hundred years ago and that they don’t see me as a Jew is truly sad, because it takes the Jewish context away from the Gospel narrative. God called me, a Jewish man, to call the Jewish people to prepare themselves for the Jewish Messiah.”
    The screen on the larger tablet went blank.
    “I liked him, Ariel.”
    “I should let you know that the people you are meeting do not look as they appear to you. It was decided that for the purposes of our investigation each of these figures would appear to you as they would have appeared on earth during their lifetime,” Ariel explained.
    “Good to know. I was hoping people didn’t dress like cavemen in Heaven!”
    We had a good laugh. Ariel and I were becoming friends.

Chapter Ten

P ETER THE P OPE ?
    “Have you heard of Peter?” Ariel asked.
    “Eh, yeah, he was one of the first followers of Je—I mean Yeshua, right? Wasn’t he the first pope?”
    I thought Ariel was smiling because I began to refer to Jesus by His Hebrew name, but he was chuckling at my assertion that Peter was the first pope.
    “Okay, D’vid” he used the Hebrew pronunciation of my name, “there are two issues with Peter—his
name
, and his
function
. Let’s start with his name. First of all, it wasn’t Peter. The word
Peter
, or
Petros
in Greek, simply means
rock
. Peter’s real name was Simon, or Shimon in Hebrew. However, on the occasion he received the revelation and declared that Yeshua was ‘the Messiah, the Son of the living God…’” Matthew 16:16 appeared at the top of all the previous passages that had been sent me on my tablet. “Yeshua announced that henceforth…”
    “
Henceforth
? Who talks like that?” A strong, well-muscled individual with a big bushy beard now occupied the screen. He was confident and clearly had a sense of humor. “Angel, just let me tell my story. David,” he turned to me, “I really think you would rather hear it from me. I don’t use any of those three-dollar words like Professor Ariel over there.”
    “Oh yes, you are a brilliant communicator. The problem is, you don’t know when
not
to talk!” Ariel then mimicked, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah,” reminding the man of his ill-timed words on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Matt. 17:4).
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can remind us of that or you could tell him about my sermon on Shavuot…or before the Sanhedrin when they told us to stop preaching the Gospel! I remember it like it was yesterday, ‘Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Yeshua, the Messiah, that this man stands before you healed…salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved’ (see Acts 4:8-12).
    “In truth it wasn’t that difficult. Even though He had gone, He was still with us. We couldn’t see Him, but man, we could feel Him.