A Spiritual Varmint
Here we have the classic Pharisee praying apart from the publican (Luke 18). Shai is the consummate shyster, which means liar, thief, and scoundrel. “The Refiner's Fire” is home to self-righteous vermin, cockroaches that feed in darkness who flee when the Light is turned on. So it is with all who think to exalt themselves when the Lord comes in His saints. The fire is turned on them.
Shai boasts of exposing false teachers, but she is worse than the phonies she and the other authors on that site write about. The phonies do their wickedness in the open, but “The Refiner’s Fire” makes a show of standing for the Lord while hiding in a dark corner, shunning exposure. The children of darkness they presume to rebuke are brazen while these so-called children of light conceal themselves in fear. What does that tell you except that they are also children of darkness?
Shai writes us, apparently on a fishing expedition to hook another false teacher:
Dear Paul,
I read your moving testimony and was wondering, are you no longer Torah observant? Were you ever? Nowhere in your testimony (nor any of the other testimonies) did I see evidence that actual obedience to YHWH is required. Mainly what I’ve seen in the testimonies is discussion about "dreams" and visitation of angels, etc. I never once saw the Name of God, let alone the Name of Yeshua which is the real Name of our Savior who was a Torah observant, seventh day Sabbath and Feast-keeping example of how to properly worship YHWH….
Thanks,
Shai
The Refiner’s Fire (therefinersfire.org)
Revealing Biblical Truth in a world of myth and fiction
We teach that "Mercy and Grace" do NOT invalidate Torah!
Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Yeshua did. (1 John 2:6)
Paul’s reply:
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him” (John 14:21 MKJV).
Hi Shai,
Moved as you might have been, you entirely missed the point of my testimony. I had disobeyed God in the matter of entering an unlawful marriage and was called upon to reverse my disobedience by obedience in forsaking my wife. Obedience was the sum of the matter. I cited the Scriptures the Lord gave me from Ezra chapters 9 and 10 as confirmation of His commandment.
Do you not see obedience being called for there? What is your problem? If it is written in the Bible, you see obedience, but if it happens in my life, you do not? You are blind to reality because you are altogether legalistic, in self-righteous, religious idolatry. You have made an idol of “Torah observance,” but have no use for actual obedience to God. Whatever you do, you do for yourself, not Him.
I, on the other hand, keep the Torah the same as Yeshua did. Since He has called and chosen me by His grace, it is actually Him Who keeps the Torah in me. He said not one jot or tittle would pass till all was fulfilled.
Saul of Tarsus describes having the same thing that I do:
“For I, through the Law, died to the Law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Messiah, and it is no longer I that live, but Messiah living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:19-20 HNV).
You never see the Name of God in our testimonies because you do not see Him. You can only see your idols that you please yourself with in sin.
We, by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, condemn your idolatry, which must be destroyed and is destroyed by the Word of God that we speak. Some choice articles for you to read or avoid as you choose to continue in your sin and error:
The Feast-Keeping that Is Sin
The Name of God
Law and Grace
Obedience
Shai’s reply:
Paul,
Thanks for your nonsensical, caustic response.
I’m really sorry to see that a Jew by the name of "Cohen" has been so deceived as to turn his back on YHWH in order to embrace the paganism that is Christianity. Christians have not only changed the Name of our Savior, but they have also changed the dates of His birth, death and resurrection and have ignored God’s COMMANDED Biblical Sabbath and Feasts in order to come up with own pagan-filled "holy days" of Christmas and Easter.
The articles you sent are from a completely Christian viewpoint – a viewpoint that has replaced ALL of Yeshua’s teachings and replaced them with the MISUNDERSTOOD, MISTRANSLATED writings of Paul….
Yeshua was a Torah observant, seventh day Sabbath, and Biblical Feast keeping JEW who OBEYED His Father’s commands and showed us how to obey!
You haven’t got the slightest clue. People such as yourself are the reason we Jews were scattered into the nations to be killed and abused by Gentiles. And you’ve chosen to adopt THEIR gods. Since you know the Bible so well, find the many scriptures where YHWH ordered the slaughter of anyone who did that!
Shame on you!
You can find on my website some proper rebuttals to all the garbage espoused on your website:
http://therefinersfire.org/challenging_christianity.htm
Have a nice day.
Shalom,
Shai
Paul writes back:
Shai,
What is with the sarcastic “Thanks” and disingenuous “Have an nice day” and “Shalom”? Are these godly demonstrations of the spirit you have cultivated by your law-keeping? You say I am caustic, but your tone is bitter and corrosive. In all your ways, you are the very image of your fathers, a hypocritical Pharisee. They were also false accusers.
Show me the “nonsense” in what I say. You haven’t because you can’t.
As for caustic, that is your assessment of the Truth, which you hate because It condemns the false structure you have raised in your own image, calling it “YHWH.”
Here is nonsense:
“I’m really sorry to see that a Jew by the name of "Cohen" has been so deceived as to turn his back on YHWH in order to embrace the paganism that is Christianity.”
I was living as an atheistic pagan when the Lord revealed Himself to me. How can that be called turning my back on God? I did not know or obey God at all until He brought me into the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which you call “paganism.” You blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
And how do I embrace paganism? We do not keep Christmas or Easter. We have papers on our site denouncing those. We keep the Sabbath and the Feasts according to the commandment of Yeshua. You do not. Who is the pagan?
You are also a liar. You have not red anything I sent you.
You are the one without a clue, and you are now held responsible for your ignorance because you could know better. Instead of listening, you stop your ears and shout accusations like an incensed Muslim. There is no difference in spirit. The only difference is that you should know better, claiming to believe on the Name of the Lord and Savior. Therefore you come under greater judgment than your heathen brethren.
If you have indeed received death threats (as it says on your website), it is because God has raised up enemies to pursue you, just like the Jews you write about, whom He expelled from the land of Israel. But you have not been in the Promised Land. You are a tare, a wannabe Jew, a phony. You have never known Him.
You say that God’s Word has ordained our slaughter because we worship false gods. But we are the ones boldly preaching the Good News in the Name of the only begotten Son of God, while you hide, preaching your legalistic false god. Since we have the evidence of the One True God Who is with us, it is Him Whom you have come against. He has brought you to His throne, where we sit with Him, to judge you. Though you wish to hide from men, you cannot hide from God. When He is finished with you, you will come worshipping at our feet.
Shai tries again to bluff her way through without substance:
Boy, you’re more lost than I thought. You insist you keep the Feasts according to Christ, yet you condemn them on your site. You are a study in contradictions and make absolutely no sense! I tried everything in my power to figure out what it is you believe while perusing your website but you have no statement of faith or anything else – just the audacity to tell everyone else they’re wrong.
The nonsense you espouse is very well countered on my website. I tried to strike up a conversation with you, but it didn’t work because you immediately got nasty and defensive. You apparently can’t take it when someone fights back.
I’m done casting my pearl before swine. Your "path of truth" is anything BUT the truth!
Paul’s reply:
Your power is the problem, “Shai”; you have none when it comes to the things of God. You are walking in your own righteousness, which God has said is the spiritual equivalent of used menstrual pads. That is why you cannot see anything. Your problem is that you say you can, and therefore your sin remains.
Shai bows out with her sarcastic, false grace, the product of her false law-keeping:
Thank you for writing to the Refiner’s Fire!
This is to inform you that your latest e-mail has been added to our list of "Internet harassers" and has been forwarded, unread, to The Refiner’s Fire automatic DELETE files.
Have a nice day.
July 2013 Update: In revisiting Shai’s site (The Refiner’s Fire) after several years, we now see she has published her name as Shali Shoemaker, also calling herself “Carmen Welker” on the RealityCheck.tv website listed under “Ministries you can trust.” Hmmm…..