Ebionites, Rob Skiba & the Law
About this sermon
Pastor Dean Odle argues that requiring Christians to keep the Sinai covenant undermines justification by faith and revives ideas associated with the ancient Ebionites. Using Galatians, Acts 15, and Paul’s contrast between bondage and freedom, he responds to teachings associated with Rob Skiba and the modern Torah-observant movement. Odle’s principal concern is not voluntary cultural practice but making Mosaic observance a measure of righteousness, salvation, or spiritual legitimacy.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle begins with Christ’s blood, fulfillment of the law, and the believer’s freedom to walk by faith. He distinguishes learning from Moses from seeking justification or covenant standing through Sinai’s commands.
Galatians 1 supplies the central warning that adding law observance to the gospel creates another gospel and places its teacher under Paul’s curse. Odle says the controversy concerns the basis of righteousness, not personal preferences about food or days.
Odle plays or answers arguments associated with Rob Skiba, accusing him of using straw men and moving New Testament texts into an Old Covenant framework. He urges listeners to compare the claims with the apostolic context rather than Skiba’s rhetorical presentation.
The discussion turns to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with Odle defending their distinction and unity against teachings he associates with ancient and modern heresy. He says errors about the Godhead often accompany errors about law and salvation.
Acts 15 is read as the apostles’ refusal to place circumcision and the Mosaic yoke on Gentile believers. Peter’s appeal to salvation by grace becomes Odle’s evidence that the council did not secretly require gradual Torah observance.
Paul’s allegory of Hagar and Sarah is explained as a contrast between Sinai bondage and the freedom of the Jerusalem above. Odle argues that Christians are children of promise and must not return to the covenant represented by the bondwoman.
Responding to accusations of lawlessness, Odle distinguishes the moral commands of Christ from mandatory seventh-day Sabbath observance. He rejects the claim that Christians who worship on another day thereby possess the spirit of Antichrist.
Food-law arguments are tested against the realities of Gentile mission and the New Testament’s treatment of meats. Odle uses examples from impoverished regions to show the practical burden created when dietary ordinances become salvation tests.
Odle argues that Skiba repeatedly takes New Covenant instructions and relocates them under Moses, making Torah the interpretive center. The sermon instead treats Christ and the apostolic gospel as the controlling context for Christian obedience.
The closing section compares the movement’s claims with the Ebionites and comments on Skiba’s public conduct, both through Odle’s critical lens. His final warning is to reject any message that questions salvation because a believer does not keep Sinai.
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Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
- 0:00:00
God, we thank you for shedding your blood, to pay the price for our sins, to fulfill the law, to set us free, to walk in faith and relationship with you. Lord, we thank you that that freedom we know is not a license to live immoral. God, we thank you today that our sins are forgiven, not by the deeds of the law, but by faith in your blood. And Lord, we don't come with any righteousness of our own, because that's filthy rags, that's what you said. It's your righteousness. And we thank you for it, in Jesus' name. Hallelujah, you may be seated this morning. We wanna welcome everyone. Fire and Grace Church this morning. I'm Pastor Dean Odell, otherwise known as the thorn in the side of certain individuals, the monkey in the wrench, the fly in the ointment, but I don't mind, because you know what? All my hope is in Jesus. It's not in me, amen? Nor is it in my ability to keep the law. We're gonna talk about that again today. This is gonna be part two. We're gonna follow on from last week as I didn't define some of the things that needed to be defined. And of course, I'm just gonna say, I know some people are getting ill, but I'm gonna explain some things today. I've been titled this today, the Ebionites, Rob Skeba and the Law. Now, I don't believe it's ever been a time in a Sunday morning sermon that I've actually put the name of an individual in the title of a message. But it was necessary, because many of you know, last week and the week before, I've kind of dealt with some of the heresies and some of the heretics and some of the things that were going on at the Flat Earth International Conference in Denver. And so last week, I was kind of dealing with some of the Gnostic heresies it's crept in through people like Zen Garcia, calling the Holy Spirit feminine. And so, you know, the Gnostic goddess, Sophia. And of course, I did touch on, because what I touched on last week was the scripture from 2 Corinthians chapter 11, where Paul warned that the people would preach another Jesus, they would have another gospel and they'd have another spirit. And when I got to the part about another gospel, I said this in the message, loud and clear. I said, if, where's Jordan? If, right? If you teach keeping the law of Moses,
- 0:03:04
trying to go back and keep the Old Testament laws, ceremonies, rituals, so on and so forth, circumcision, Sabbaths, feasts, new moons, dietary laws, pestles on your clothing belt or whatever. And you believe that that's what makes you righteous or is a salvation issue or is fruit of your salvation or whatever, I said, if that's what you believe, then you are a heretic, you have perverted the gospel. I didn't add anybody's name to that. But it triggered a certain individual, triggered them to the point of absolute insanity. And as you will know, that individual is Rob Skeba. Now, for those of you who don't know him, he happens to be a pretty well-known, pretty influential guy in the truth community, alternative, you say Christian, he was known for teaching about the Nephilim and some other things. And then of course, he got into flat earth and a lot of people came to know him through him taking a stand as I did as well for biblical cosmology. And on a lot of those things, he does very good work and stays true to the scriptures. But as I began to learn, as I didn't know him before flat earth, as I began to learn, he's also into the Torah movement or being Torah observant. Now, at first, that's not shocking to me because as I've said, I've had friends in the past who went to Messianic Jewish congregations and went to church or their services on Friday evening and had celebrated the feast to the best of their ability, but never ever was it a requirement for you to be righteous, or at least if you didn't do it, you weren't called the janitors and sewer workers of the kingdom of God, okay? That's a direct quote from Mr. Skeba. All right, so I feel it's important because the community needs to know who teaches what, who believes what. And some of these guys like Zen and Rob are not always fully upfront and honest in the sense of what they believe or they say out of both sides of their mouth and it takes a while to figure out what's the real core belief? And I've been keeping a file on Skeba for about two years of just screenshots and trying to figure out and actually contacting him and having conversations, private conversations, trying to find out does he really believe that New Testament, New Covenant believers have to go back and try to keep the ceremonial law of the Old Testament and the Sabbaths and the new moon, right? And the tassels on your belt and all this. Do you have to do that to really be right with God, to really be as holy and pure as clean?
- 0:06:04
And what I've discovered is he says out of one side of his mouth that it's not a salvation issue. And the next minute he says, if you don't do those things in the Old Covenant, then I question your salvation. And I'm gonna show you that he says it. Now, a lot of people out there are getting bent out of shape because they think, well, oh, I'm sick and tired of seeing you two pastors squabbling on Facebook and on social media. First of all, Rob Skeeb is not a pastor and that's by his own admission. He even says he's not a teacher and he says he tells people don't look to him, but then the way he teaches and the way he speaks, it is, look at me, I'm right. And everybody else in church history since the beginning, except for the apostle, and even maybe the apostle Paul, everybody else is wrong, but we Torah people got it right and I got it right. To the point he called me and Nathan Roberts, he called us lawless, nickelation Christians with the spirit of Antichrist, basically leading people Australia. I'm gonna show you, I'll show you all that this morning. And that we're at war with God, with Yahweh. That's what he said. Now, this is the level of insanity, but see what I said to him, and I did answer one of his posts because he came unglued after my sermon last week. He said, you called me a heretic. He's watching this morning too, I assure you. He called me a heretic. I never said Rob Skeeb was a heretic. I said, if you teach that we must keep the law of Moses, and I'm talking about primarily the rituals and the ceremonial things, the moral law was carried over into the New Testament about adultery and murder and lying. We'll deal with that this morning too. But I said, if you teach that as salvational, as for righteousness, then you're a heretic. Well, if he didn't teach that for salvation and righteousness, then he shouldn't have been bothered by anything I preach. And it was interesting on the thread, I kept making that point on his page that he deleted that whole thread because he shouldn't have been triggered. You know why what I said last week triggered him? Because that's his heart and belief. He does believe that you have to keep the law of Moses to be right with God, and I'm gonna prove it today. But this is not a new problem. I said this last week, this is not a new, the Torah, I'm gonna call it the extreme Torah movement. Because again, I know some people that wanna do those things just to learn and enhance their knowledge, and that's all fine. But the moment they start condemning others that don't and telling others they're gonna be janitors and sewer workers in the kingdom of God,
- 0:09:04
if they make it at all, because he questions their salvation, then we have a perverted gospel. And Paul is very thing Paul warned about in Galatians that the person that perverts the gospel like that is a curse. Oh yeah, and I ain't afraid to say it. Because the whole book of Galatians was about people coming in and saying, you gotta be circumcised, you gotta keep the feast, you gotta keep the law of Moses to be really right with God, to find your righteousness, your justification. And Paul said, anyone who does that is perverting the gospel, and that man is a curse. They're preaching a different gospel. And like I said, if you weren't robbed, you wouldn't have got triggered last week. But you are exposed, sir. And I don't care who it is. See, I don't kiss Christian celebrity butt. So let's keep going. Now some people have been bit out of shape because, oh, you shouldn't name names, you shouldn't do things publicly, blah, blah, blah, and I'm like, reread your Bible, please. Because 1 Timothy 4, 10 through 15 here, Paul named some names of some people. He didn't just name names on Facebook, he named it in the word of God that would last forever. He says here, for demons hath forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica, Tretians to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia, only Luke is with me, take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus, the cloak that I left at Troas with carpets will now come, bring with thee in the books, but especially the parchments. And look what he says here, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him for his works, of whom beware of him, for he hath greatly withstood or opposed our words. Okay, Paul named names, Alexander the coppersmith, even told what he did for a living, right? Let's look at one more here. And the third John, the Epistle, so not just Paul, because I know they hate Paul, so I'll bring in the apostle John here too, right? The apostle John, third John, his epistle, nine through 12, he says, I wrote unto the church, but diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, praying against us with malicious words. Remember that, praying against us with malicious words. Don't you think calling me anti-Christ, spirit lawless, Nicolaitan, that's malicious words, isn't it? So I'm calling out diatrophies, skeeba, all right?
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