Tehillim (Psalms) 119:113
I hate the double minded, But I love Your Torah.
What is it to be double-minded? And why does Yahweh hate it?
We first see double mindedness in Genesis, where the woman Havvah (Eve) thought she loved Elohim, but did not think she needed to obey His commandments.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 3:1-7
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Yahweh Elohim had made. And he said to the woman, “Has Elohim indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Elohim has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For Elohim knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Havvah (Eve) was a historical woman, but she is also allegorical. That is because in Scripture, spiritual bodies are depicted as women. (For example, Israel is often depicted as a woman.) What we need to see, therefore, is that Havvah (who represents Israel) chose to believe Satan’s lie that she could claim to fear and obey Elohim, and yet still do what seemed good and right in her own eyes, and that she would become like Elohim, she took of the fruit, and she ate. She did not become like Elohim in that Elohim is the only one who is qualified to decide what is right and what is wrong (and He tells us these things in His word)—and yet she did become like Elohim, in that she decided for herself what was right. Thus the fall from Yahweh’s favor was complete—and this is also the story of the Babylonian church system.
Now let us dig into this a little bit deeper, to understand what goes wrong in the minds of the double minded. The woman Havvah saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that it was desirable to make one (worldly) wise. That is, it appealed to her flesh, and to her eyes, and to her sense of pride. These are the same three things the Apostle Yochanan (John) tells us to beware of.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of Elohim abides forever.
Yochanan tells us that whoever loves the world (or the things of the world) does not have the love of the Father in him. That means he is not of Yahweh, but of the world. Therefore he does not have eternal life (but will perish). (In other words, he is not saved.)
Yaakov (James) says the same thing. He tells us that wars and fighting come because we love the world—and that if we love the world, we are the enemies of Elohim.
Yaakov (James) 4:1-10
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Elohim? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “Elohim resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore submit to Elohim. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to Elohim and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of Yahweh, and He will lift you up.
In verse 8, Yaakov says that those who believe and yet sin should purify their hands, and that those believers with double minds should purify their hearts. But what does “double-minded” mean?
Yeshua tells us that no one can serve two master, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 6:24
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve Elohim and mammon.”
The implication is that to serve Elohim in truth, we must give 100% of our loyalty to Elohim, and not mammon (or unrighteous gain). This means we must keep our focus on serving Elohim, or we are disqualified, as Yeshua also told him who wanted to go and bury his father. (It is said that to “bury your father” is a Hebrew idiom meaning to collect an inheritance after a funeral.)
Luqa (Luke) 9:59-62
59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Adon, let me first go and bury my father.”
60 Yeshua said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of Elohim.”
61 And another also said, “Adon, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
62 But Yeshua said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of Elohim.”
What Yeshua is saying is that we need to keep our focus 100% on Elohim, or we are disqualified. This is the same as to say that we need to serve Yahweh our Elohim with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:4-5
4 “Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our Elohim, Yahweh is one!
5 You shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
The problem is, the double-minded believer has a mind to serve Elohim, but also an interest in the world—and his interest in the world causes him to split his loyalties. Therefore he vacillates between his desire to serve Elohim, and his desire to serve the world. This makes him tremendously unstable, as if he falters between two opinions.
Melachim Aleph (1 Kings) 18:21
21 And Eliyahu came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If Yahweh is Elohim, follow Him; but if Baal [The Lord], follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.
We can also see double mindedness as being lukewarm, as if we have one foot in Elohim’s kingdom, and one foot in the world. This causes us to be less than 100% committed, or less than 100% obedient.
Hitgalut (Revelation) 3:15-17
15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.
16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ — and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…”
Another problem is that the lukewarm never think they are lukewarm. They typically think they are already on fire. They think they are spiritually rich, when in fact their doctrines are bankrupt, and their fire is not ardent. So while a fire could be kindled in a pagan, it is hard to kindle a real fire in a Christian or a Messianic, because he believes he is not missing anything. He feels his heart is already pure, so he believes he does not seek after the treasures that come from giving oneself over to Yeshua’s Spirit with a whole heart.
Yaakov (James) 4:8
8 Draw near to Elohim and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Because Christians and Messianics believe they are already doing all they need to do, it is hard to get them interested in Yeshua’s true program. And because there is a schism in between what they believe and the facts, it can be difficult to show them otherwise.
The Great Schism of the Enlightenment
It is human nature to be double minded, and we know that Israelites have always had a problem with double mindedness, because not only did the apostles exhort the believers in the first century not to be double minded, but Moshe (Moses) also admonished the people not to do that which seemed right in their own eyes, but to obey that which Yahweh had commanded.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 12:8
8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today — every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes….”
It was also a fault in the days of the Judges.
Shophetim (Judges) 17:6
6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
However, the situation undoubtedly became worse after the Enlightenment (the Luciferism) of 1637, because this is when the Christian West collectively stopped viewing the world through the lens of Scripture. This is when secular thought began to rise in the West, spawning democracy, feminism, liberalism, evolution, and all the philosophical evils that beset us today.
The Enlightenment began after the occult philosopher Rene Descartes had a series of disturbing dreams in which he felt he was being communicated with by the spirit world. He then published his infamous maxim, “I think, therefore I am.” While the satanic aspects of this maxim are usually downplayed, it says that the reason we exist is not because Elohim made us, but because we think. It implies that we do not need to believe on Elohim, or obey Him, because we are our own Elohim (Elohim forbid).
In the study, “Satan Attacks us Through our Minds” (in Nazarene Scripture Studies Volume 4), we see that Satan quite literally attacks us through our minds, as he did with the woman Havvah. His plan is to get us to think we can disobey Elohim’s commands, and do what we want, and that we can still be saved, and inherit eternal life.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 3:4-5
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For Elohim knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.”
Again, the big problem here is that this failure to do the right thing and live the right way is very subtle, and easy to miss. Most Christians and Messianics believe they are already living the right way, and that they are doing all that they need to do. Yet Scripture is clear that if we do not do all that Yeshua commands, we do not know Him (and therefore, we are not yet truly saved).
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:3-6
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of Elohim is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
The big problem for so many Israelites is that they do not have an indwelling relationship with Yahweh-Yeshua. That is, they do not abide in Him. And for this reason, rather than being able to relate to the world through hearing in the Spirit, they are only able to encounter the world through their intellect—and this is precisely where Satan wants them, because if they only encounter the world through their intellect, Satan can mislead them, and get them to fall.
Yochanan (John) 15:4-6
4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
It is only by abiding in the Vine that we can escape the clutches of Satan, and dwell in His peace.
Double Mindedness: Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is also sometimes called, “shattered mind syndrome.” Imagine dropping a plate of glass on the floor, such that it breaks into many disconnected shards. The pieces are all there, and they are mostly in the right order, but they are not connected. Because they are not connected, they are unable to function as a plate of glass should.
The concept of a Gestalt is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That is, when we put all the parts of a car together in just the right way, we get something more than the sum of the parts—we get the use of a car. This is also how the mind works. When our mind is whole, and we abide in Yeshua, something special happens—but the double minded do not experience this, because they suffer from disconnection. They are not able to hear in the Spirit, and they are not able to have the right kind of relationship with Yahweh-Yeshua—and that is effectively because they need to purify their hearts, so the actions of their hands can be clean.
Yaakov (James) 4:8
8 Draw near to Elohim and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
If we will discipline ourselves to be single-minded in our pursuit of Yahweh-Yeshua and His Spirit, then we can experience an inner peace and stability that those who do not discipline themselves will never experience. To get this, we must purify our hearts, such that we do not ask what we want to get from our relationship with Yahweh, but what Yahweh wants to get from us. When we remember that He is the one on the throne, then we will experience peace and joy in trials, because we know that our patience makes us more pleasing to Him.
Yaakov (James) 1:2-8
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of Elohim, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from Yahweh;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
It is the faltering between two opinions that makes us so unhappy in trials. When we forget that Elohim is not here to serve us, but that we are here to serve Elohim, then the trials seem like a burden. Yet when we remember that our purpose is to build Yeshua’s kingdom according to His instructions and His voice, then we can relax into life, knowing that He is fully and completely in charge. This surrender and submission to Yahweh-Yeshua and His Spirit brings a sense of shalom and joy that cannot be found any other way. And in addition to that, Yahweh blesses.