Memorial Day

 

This is Memorial Day. It is not meant to be a day marking the beginning of the beach season, or other summer activities. It is a day for remembering those in military service who gave their lives for others. The beginnings of this remembrance was an occasion at the end of the Civil War called Decoration Day, at which time, former slaves designated a day to decorate the graves of those who died for the cause of freedom. It is an honorable and just thing for a nation to remember and show appreciation to those who have given their lives for our freedom and safety.
The LORD also teaches the far-reaching impact and honorable quality of remembering and memorializing Him. In the following examples, we will see how keeping a memorial to the LORD led to: a) a miraculous deliverance, b) personal and prophetic breakthrough, and c) a revolution in spiritual development and history.
Our first example is from the Book of Exodus. God had revealed Himself to Moses, and told Moses what his part would be in bringing the Hebrew people out of slavery under the Pharaoh of Egypt. Moses then asks God His name, so he could bring it to the people:
And God said unto Moses, "I AM THAT I AM":  and He said, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, "I AM hath sent me unto you."  And God said moreover unto Moses, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, "The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is My name forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations."    Ex. 3:14-15
The LORD was talking about the importance of keeping His name as a memorial, not just to the generation about to be delivered, but to all future generations. His name is connected to eternal deliverance. What is so important about these names that the LORD has connected to Himself that they should become a memorial? "I AM THAT I AM" not only connects the LORD to eternal existence and life, but also gives man the truth that God is all in all. He is whatever we need Him to be, including seemingly impossible deliverance from slavery and death. He is our answer to anything and everything. In Hebrew, His name expressed here, also known as haShem, is written with the letters YHWH, or in Hebrew, yod, hey, vaw, hey. The pictographic meaning of these letters is "behold the hand, behold the nail". A memorial of this name forever stands as the actual, as well as the prophetic promise, of the identity of Christ, the Messiah, as part of the Godhead. The LORD continues with the description of His name as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At this point in the time of the Exodus, those fathers of the faith, the covenant, and the people of Israel are dead. However, Jesus teaches that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him." (Lk. 20:38, Mk. 12:27). So this name, kept as a memorial, promises resurrection, and everlasting life. The power of His holy name!!
Our second example of the impact of keeping the LORD and His name as a memorial is found in Malachi. The LORD reveals that a spiritual condition exists among His people wherein they say, "It is vain to serve God". They believe that it will not benefit them to keep His Word, nor to repent at the breaking of His Word (Mal. 3:14). It is a sorry state indeed, when God's own people see no point, or benefit, in continuing in their faith. In may ways, it reflects the same spiritual condition of indifference to God that we find today. Seeing this condition of His people, the LORD establishes another memorial of power:
"Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name. "And they shall be Mine", saith the LORD of hosts, "in that day when I make up (prepare, fashion, accomplish, appoint, ordain) My jewels (shut up, peculiar treasure); and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."   Mal. 3:16-17
Those who keep the LORD's name as a memorial in this time when many others are leaving behind their trust in God, will be remembered in turn by God, in a special way. They would be recorded in a Book of Remembrance, and they would become a special, peculiar treasure to Him, shut up and protected. They will be treated by God the Father in the same manner that the faithful Son is treated. They would even cause the return of the people to God (Mal. 3:18). However, this is not the end of the memorial promise of God. As we continue into chapter 4 of Malachi, this memorial releases a great prophetic promise: a Sun (Son) of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings to those that fear God's memorial name, and Elijah the Prophet (John the Baptist: Mt. 11:13-14, 17:12) will return to bring this ministry of reconciliation (Mal. 4:2, 5, 6). We could use the understanding of the power of this memorial in the needed revival of our nation today, and as the Church preparing for the return of Christ.
Our last example from Acts 10, deals with a memorial of one individual that changed the understanding of an apostle, and revolutionized the Church (Ekklesia). It involves a man named Cornelius (of a horn), who served as a centurion in the Roman army. He was stationed in Cesarea (severed, cut off), and he believed in God devoutly. He received a vision in which an angel of the LORD told him, "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." (v. 4). Alms deal with feelings and works of pity, compassion and kindness towards those who are miserable and afflicted. Both in prayer, and in finances, Cornelius, out of his love for God, ministered to those in the nation of Israel, who were oppressed and suffering under Roman occupation, and from other causes. His ministry to others, though he served in the Roman army himself, became a memorial before God. As a result, Simon Peter, an apostle of Christ, was brought to the house of Cornelius by a vision he received from God, with the Gospel of salvation. This visit to Gentile Cornelius, ordained by God, challenged everything Peter knew about who could and should receive the Gospel. Peter would never have thought to share the Gospel of the Messiah, Jesus, with a Gentile, whom the Jews viewed as unclean. In his own vision from God, Peter was told that he should not call "unclean" what God had made clean (Acts 10:15). It is worthy to be mentioned here, that Jesus taught and promised this very thing: "...rather give alms of such things as you have; and behold, all things are clean unto you."  Lk. 11:41.
Not only was the household of Cornelius saved by the preaching of a corrected Peter, but when the rest of the Church heard what God had caused to happen miraculously, they held their objections, glorified God, and said, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."  (Acts 11:18). Salvation was for the Jew first, but then also for the Gentile (Rom. 1:16).
Because of the giving heart of one man, God, through a memorial, broke the traditions of men that divided races and nationalities. These same racial and ethnic divisions have become critical in our own nation. Jesus warned that this would happen in the Last Days (Mt. 24:7, Mk. 13:8, Lk. 21:10). As Jesus prophesied that "nation would rise against nation", the Greek word used here is "ethnos/ethos", from which we get our word "ethnic". Instead of today's Church becoming embroiled in ethnic arguments and positions, we should be making clear that these conflicts are part of the overwhelming evidence that we are in the Last Days before the return of Christ. After the miraculous memorial created by God because of Cornelius, destroying these animosities, divisions, and prejudices, we, the Church, should be proclaiming loudly that the kingdom of God is made from every nation, people, kindred, and tongue (Rev. 5:9, 14:6).
All of these above examples are also part of what a Memorial Day means before God.

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Precision Timing, Precision Rehearsal: Pesach

 

Examining the Passover Lamb

 

  

 We have previously discussed the fact that the seven feasts of the LORD have prophetic significance. The Ekklesia (the called out assembly of God's people) should be aware of their importance. Being "holy convocations", the feasts are "holy rehearsals" for special events connected directly to the Messiah, Jesus. The feasts are part of the example, shadow and pattern of heavenly things shown by God to Moses on the mount (Ex. 25:40, Heb. 8:1-6). So there is a precise pattern to follow for the feasts.

There is also precise timing given for the feasts. There are specific dates given by the command of God for all of them according to the lunar calendar. Part of the creation was manifested for the purpose of precise timing:

"And God said, "Let there be lights  (cheerfulness, joy, candlestick, to become light, to shine) in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs (signal, banner, monument, miracle, distinguishing mark), and for seasons (appointments, fixed times and place of meeting, assemblies, to summon, to betroth), and for days, and years."                                                                       Gen. 1:14

Fulfilments of prophecy do not happen at just any time, but at the precise timing of God. So it is also with the feasts. Although the Gentile Church, in an effort to separate itself from the Jews and from the Torah, tried to change the timing of the feasts by using the solar calendar instead of the lunar calendar of the Hebrews, God's exact timing prevails. The Ekklesia should be made aware of this precise prophetic timing, and the glory it brings to the Father, Son, and Spirit.

The first of the spring feasts of the LORD is Pesach (Passover), on the 14th day of Nisan. Nisan is considered by God to be the first month of the year. "Nisan" translates from the Hebrew as "their flight". The month of Nisan is associated with deliverance (see Neh. 2:1, Est. 3:7), and Pesach is a feast of deliverance. It marks the event leading to the Israelites' deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They used the blood of a lamb applied around their doors to protect them from the angel of death sent by God to plague Egypt. Following that last plague, the Hebrew slaves were released by Pharaoh.

In this same manner, the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus, delivered us, and continues to deliver, from the slavery of sin, and death. When the Church continues to separate the crucifixion of Christ from the feast of Pesach, it causes people to miss the incredible details of fulfilment which God precisely timed and set in place to declare to all generations, both Jew and Gentile, His miraculous salvation and deliverance prophesied beforehand through His feast. Let us marvel at some of the prophetically precise details and timing within the feast of Pesach:

Nisan 10-

• The High Priest would travel to Bethany, or Bethlehem, to carefully choose from thousands, the one lamb to be sacrificed for the nation on Pesach.

         During this same time, Jesus was in Bethany with the family of Lazarus.

• The High Priest would set apart the lamb he had chosen for the Passover.

         Mary anointed, or set apart, Jesus with spikenard.

• The High Priest leads the chosen lamb into Jerusalem, where crowds proclaim and sing from Ps. 118:26, "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD."

         Jesus entered Jerusalem as crowds waved palms and declared the same verse.

Nisan 10 through14-

• The Passover lamb is examined for any faults. It must be without blemish.

         During this same time, Jesus was questioned and examined by all of the following: scribes, priests, elders, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians (Mk. 11 and 12), Herod, and Pilate (Lk. 23), at which time Pilate announced:

   "I, having examined Him before you, have found no fault in this man..."  Lk. 23:14

Nisan 14-

• The Passover lamb chosen for the nation, is sacrificed at approximately 3 PM with the Levites singing from Ps. 116-118:

        "The sorrows of death compassed me...and the pains of hell: I found trouble and    sorrow... I am Thy servant...Thou hast loosened my bonds...

The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner..."

          At approximately 3 PM, on Nisan 14, Jesus died on the cross. He might even have been able to hear from Calvary the above singing of the Levites at the temple as He died.

The historian Josephus gives an account of a typical Passover sacrifice of thousands of lambs at the temple, one for each household, which preceded the sacrifice of the one lamb chosen for the nation. He describes the blood and rinsing water flowing into the aqueducts from Jerusalem, through the Kidron (to grow dark, to mourn) Valley, and into the Hinnom (lamentation, the river that separates Mt. Zion from the "hill of evil counsel") Valley, which in the Greek is called "gehenna", or "hell". In this valley, idolatrous sacrifices were made, including, historically, the burning of children, and where the garbage of Jerusalem was burned continually. The blood of the Pesach lambs, mixed with water, flowed down into these valleys.

On the cross, Jesus' body poured out blood and water from the piercing in His side.

Knowing some of these details associated with the first spring feast of Pesach, and their miraculous fulfilment through the events of the days leading up to, and including, the crucifixion of Jesus, gives us greater understanding of the precious atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Who but God could sovereignly and precisely direct this eternal Passover deliverance for all men.

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Reference: "Wake Up! God's Prophetic Calendar in Timelines and Feasts"

                   Lamm & Vanbeckervoort

                   Published by Stichting Zoeklicht (foundation)

                   copyright 2017

Whose Feasts Are They?

 

Often, those in the Church refer to the feasts ordained by God and revealed to Moses, as "The Jewish Feasts". This is not an accurate label. The LORD describes the feasts to Moses in this way:

"Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, "Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts."  Lev. 23:2

The LORD calls these appointed feasts "the feasts of the LORD", and "My feasts", therefore these feasts belong to Him. The feasts are to be proclaimed as "holy convocations", or in Hebrew, mikrah kodesh. This holy convocation is a calling together, a sacred assembly. This should bring to mind the definition of the Ekklesia, the Greek word translated as "church": the called out assembly of God's people. Mikrah, or convocation, also means "a rehearsal", or "a practice for something yet to come", so these convocations are a holy rehearsal for a coming event. Those coming events have to do with the Messiah, Jesus, as we shall see. It should be noted that included in these holy convocations, these feasts of the LORD, is the Sabbath (Lev. 23:3), which the Church has chosen to alter until it is unrecognizable, and unobserved. Instead, the Ekklesia should be proclaiming the holy convocation of the Sabbath feast of the LORD with Jesus who said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mt. 11:28), and, "There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God...Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest..." (Heb. 4:9-10).

The Apostle Paul confirms the prophetic nature of Christ in all of the feasts of the LORD when he tells the Church:

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."  Col. 2:16-17

These feasts are (present tense used) a prophetic shadow. They are not a work of the past, but exist in the present, and by their prophetic nature, extend into the future. If this is the case, then why does the Church choose to ignore, or forget, these holy rehearsals of coming events, these feasts that belong to the LORD? The point of the verse above, and of all of chapter 2 of Colossians, is not to tell the Church to ignore the feasts. The purpose is to warn the Church not to allow those who impose onto the observances of the feasts "philosophies, vain deceit, and the traditions of men", all based on the ways of the world. Rather, the Church is to keep the fullness of Christ found in these feasts as their foundation (v.8). Men shrouded the feasts of the LORD with religious legalism and tradition, until the Body of the feasts, Christ, became hidden. Paul said to keep the ultimate triumph of Christ in these feasts. With Christ being the Head of these feasts, the whole Body is joined together, nourished, and "increaseth with the increase of God." (v. 10-15, 19). There is something being "joined together" in the Ekklesia through these feasts. Keep in mind that Paul is writing all of these things regarding the keeping of the feasts of the LORD to a Gentile church in Colossae. These Gentile believers were keeping the feasts. Paul opened this discussion of the feasts by saying they were "the mystery of God and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," (Col. 2:2-3).

While the Church is to reject the religious traditions and legalisms of men regarding these feasts, many have, instead, associated the feasts with pagan customs like Santa Claus, Easter bunnies, and the like, making the resulting observances unrelated in any manner to God's feasts, or to His Word. This wasn't so in the early church.

Paul expected the Gentile church at Corinth to understand his references to Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread:

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."  1 Cor. 5:7-8

The very communion we share in the Body of Christ, the Table of the LORD, is from the Passover seder overseen by Christ with His disciples (1 Cor. 11:23-29, Lk. 22:7, 15-20).

When the Ekklesia forgets the feasts of the LORD, we also forget this solemn Word:

"The LORD was as an enemy...And He hath violently taken away His tabernacle...He hath destroyed His places of the assembly: the LORD has caused the solemn feasts (appointed sign, signal, meeting, assembly, betrothed for marriage, set time) and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and priest."  Lam. 2:5-6

We, the Ekklesia, are kings and priests before God (1 Pet. 2:9, Rev. 5:10). We should not be disregarding the importance of all the feasts of the LORD.
As the Ekklesia was taught by the apostles the power, and prophetic shadows of Christ in the feasts of the LORD, it was for the purpose of provoking Israel to jealousy "by them that are no people" (Rom. 10:19). Instead of this, by ignoring, or corrupting the meaning of the feasts, we have in many ways re-built the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile that Christ, having abolished this enmity between the two in His own flesh, made one new man (Eph. 2:14-16). This very thing is part of the above mentioned "joining together" to which Paul refers. We partially nullify the work of Christ in us when we re-build that wall of separation and enmity between Jew and Gentile.
Let us restore the apostolic foundation regarding the feasts of the LORD in sincerity and truth.

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Israel and the Two Sticks

 

Continuing the theme of the restoration of the apostolic foundation that we began last week, the scriptural truth regarding the nation of Israel needs to be established in the Church, the Ekklesia, the called-out assembly of God's people. While land was promised by God to all of Abraham's seed, a specific portion of it was promised to Isaac and Jacob, and was shown and specifically described to Moses on the mountain of Nebo before his death (Deut. 34:1-4).

It has been an incorrect teaching in the Church that Israel, as a nation, does not have to exist anymore, and/or that the Church has replaced the nation of Israel as a type of "spiritual' Israel. Not only have these false teachings existed in the Church through history, but are still present today. The following are examples.

Some of the popular translations and versions of the Bibles that we read today, incorporate information from the study dictionaries and commentaries of Gerhard Kittel, theologian. He had been a respected scholar of Jewish roots in the New Testament. Unfortunately, in 1933, Kittel aligned himself with the Nazi party in Germany, and eventually headed official committees that twisted God's Word with doctrines reflecting Nazi political dogma regarding the Jews. Kittel's subsequent ten-volume study dictionary, published at that time, became a source used in many seminaries, and as a source used for some versions of the Bible. His dictionary/commentary is still available for purchase today.
In another example, in 2010, the closing statement of the Catholic Synod was delivered by Cyril Salim Bustros. Included in his closing statement was the conclusion that promises made by God to the children of Israel "were nullified by Christ... There is no longer a chosen people." He went on to say, "For Christians, one can no longer talk of the land promised to the Jewish people."

The above are just two examples of a non-scriptural doctrine that needs to be corrected by restoring the apostolic foundations of the Church. Let us examine the scriptures regarding Israel: the Jewish people, and the nation.
God uses the nation of Israel to judge the other nations of the earth, raising and lowering kings and kingdoms as a result, and changing the course of history according to His will and Word. The nation of Israel also plays a vital role in the timetable of End Time events. The Prophet Ezekiel brought the Word of the LORD in this regard. In Chapter 37, Ezekiel is commanded to speak resurrection life to dried, disjointed bones. The bones are rejoined together, and live again to become a great army (v.10). In addition, five times the LORD prophesies that He will bring them into their own land, the land of Israel (v. 12, 14, 21, 22, 25), that they may know that He is the LORD, and He has spoken and done it.
"And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob, My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children, for ever: and My servant, David (Messiah), shall be their prince for ever."  Ez. 37:25
The LORD goes on to describe this promise to them as an everlasting covenant. He says these promises are for evermore (vs. 26, 28). The same Hebrew word is used to express "for ever", "everlasting", and "evermore". It is the word olam, meaning "perpetual, always, continuous existence, unending future". The root word, alam, interestingly means "secret thing, hidden, concealed". We will see more of this meaning in a later verse.
The LORD also will use this miraculous fulfillment of His promise regarding the nation of Israel, in order to teach the heathen that He sanctifies Israel for ever, because His presence will be in their midst for ever (v. 28).
In this same chapter of Ezekiel, the LORD speaks of a unification between Judah, and the children of Israel with Judah, and Ephraim, the son of Joseph, and the children of Israel with him. He tells the prophet to take two separate sticks labeled with the two separate names. In the prophet's hand, the two sticks become united, with God saying, "and make them one stick, and they shall be one in Mine hand." (v. 19). It is interesting that Ephraim was born to Joseph by a Gentile mother. So, not only will two previously divided kingdoms of Israel become one, but divided Jews and Gentiles will become one people.
Like the two sticks, Paul also speaks of this unification between Jew and Gentile into one new man through Christ (Eph. 2:15). The Gentiles then become fellow citizens with the saints (v.19). Like Ezekiel's dry bones, we were dead in our sins, but made alive again, and joined together (Eph. 2:1, 5). However, nowhere in this spiritual reconciliation to God, and unification between Jew and Gentile achieved in Christ, does Paul teach that Israel, as a nation, should cease to exist, or that the Ekklesia, the Church, replaces the nation of Israel in any manner.
Psalm 83, v. 1-5, also makes the point very clearly, that the nation, the land, of Israel is God's Word, His will, and His heart:
"Keep not Thou silence, O God: hold not Thy peace,, and be not still, O God.
For lo, Thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate Thee have lift up the head.
They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people, and consulted against Thy hidden ones (see above Hebrew, alam, used as a root for the word meaning "for ever", and "everlasting", and "evermore").
They have said, Come, let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against Thee."

The goal of these enemies in Psalm 83, is to end Israel as a nation. These enemies are described as enemies of God, who join themselves together against God, Himself. They do not want even the name "Israel" to be remembered in the earth. Why is the very name "Israel" so offensive to these enemies of God? It is probably for the same reason that God is determined to see that the name "Israel", very much continues for ever in the earth. The first time "Israel" is seen in scripture is in Gen. 32:28:
"...Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power (set in order, leader, prince, commander, noble) with God and with men, and hast prevailed (overcome, endure, accomplish, be victor, be able to reach)."
The word, Israel, itself means: God prevails, he will rule as God, soldier of God. No wonder God's enemies want the name "Israel" to be wiped from the earth. To rid the earth of "Israel", would be an attempt to spiritually rid the earth of the overcoming, victorious in warfare rule of God, Himself.
The Church, the Ekklesia, should not stand with these enemies of God. Let the true apostolic foundation be restored regarding the land, the nation of Israel. Let us be warned in the teaching of Proverbs 24:12, that if we say "we knew it not", God is aware of exactly what our hearts really know, and what our works really reveal.
Who is man that he should declare "passed away", what God has declared "evermore"?

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Restoring the Apostolic Foundation

 

Although there are those in the Body of Christ who do not accept the office of the apostle, Christ indeed gave apostles, and other offices, to the Body "for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto the perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."  Eph. 4:11-13

Since the Body of Christ has not yet achieved this fullness and perfection, the office and purpose of the apostle has not passed away.

The apostles and prophets are the foundation of a great, living, holy, spiritual temple with Christ as the cornerstone (Eph. 2:20). This living temple is commonly called "the Church", but a more accurate term is the New Testament Greek word ekklesia meaning "the called out assembly of God's people". The Ekklesia is not defined by a physical building, or denomination. It is a temple created out of living souls: "Ye are God's building...Ye are the temple of God." (1 Cor. 3:9-16). The people that are this temple are not restricted to a certain race, heritage, or culture. This Ekklesia, this living temple, is made from "all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues" (Rev. 5:9, 7:9). If any group of people, who have been called by the election of God, are excluded from this living temple, then, by definition, this temple is not the temple of God.  It is not the Ekklesia because the foundation upon which the spiritual building is being constructed is not the correct foundation.

We face just this sort of situation. The early fathers of the Church (see the Councils of Laodicea, and Nicaea), decided to exclude all observance of Jewish Sabbaths and Feast Days although Jesus, Himself, adhered to and embodied these very things, not in a religious manner, but in the spiritual truths that these appointed days represented. To deny these appointed days would be to deny Himself. Accordingly, He was circumcised on the eighth day (Lk. 2:21). At the age of twelve, He listened to and questioned the doctors of the temple, fulfilling what was required of Him at that age (Lk. 2:46, 49). Every year from His childhood onward, He attended the appointed feasts (Lk. 2:4). He participated in the Mikveh, the baptism of repentance of John saying, "...it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." (Mt. 3:13-15.

The incorrect foundation established upon the exclusion of Torah truth from the Church, was further built upon by the leader of the Reformation, Martin Luther. The same Luther who brought forth the scriptural truth of salvation through grace, by faith, also in later years, wrote shameful lies* about the Jewish people, and the Torah doctrines to which they adhered. These comments were so vile, it is not seemly to give them the light of day here. He even went so far as to advocate violence against synagogues, and the Jewish people themselves. He documented these things in his work, "Volume 47: The Christian in Society", in 1543. Though Luther started in truth with his revelation on salvation, the false teaching of enmity with the Jewish people, and with the Jewish faith, built a crooked house that had terrible repercussions in later history. It is time to restore the apostolic foundation of truth to the Ekklesia.

The following is the true apostolic foundation of the Ekklesia concerning the Jewish people from the Apostle Paul, who insisted that there is no complete Body of Christ without the Jewish believer, without Israel:

• Gentiles, who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, have now through Christ, been brought near. (Eph. 2:12-13
• Christ abolished in His flesh the enmity that existed between the two groups, and made both one, breaking down the wall of partition between the two. (Eph. 2:15).
• Now Gentiles are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. (Eph. 2:19).
• This (the joining together mentioned above) is the building fitly framed together, built together, that grows into a holy temple of God. (Eph. 2:21-22).
• Paul asks, "Hath God cast away His people (meaning the Jews)?" He answers, "God forbid. God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew." He states that "even at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (Rom. 11:1-2, 5).
• The stumbling of the Jews was so salvation could also come to the Gentiles (v.11). The world was reconciled to God, because the Jew was cast away, and the receiving again of the Jews shall be life from the dead. (v. 15).
• "How much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? And so all Israel shall be saved." (v. 26).

In Luke 6:46-49, Jesus taught about a house, properly built, dug deep, with its foundation set upon the rock (Jesus, the Truth, the Word). This house will stand against the flood. However, the house without a foundation, built instead upon the earth (worldly understanding and ways), will fall before the flood, and great will be the ruin of that house.

The Gospel is to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, or Gentile (see Rom. 1:16). It is necessary to restore this apostolic foundation, with Jesus Christ as its cornerstone, or the house will not stand. 

 

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*Reference: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/martin-luther-quot-the-jews-and-their-lies-quot



What Is Truth?

 

We live in a world where truth has become a rare commodity. Sadly, in many situations, we no longer even expect to find the truth.

However, Jesus was an uncompromising speaker of truth. He is truth personified (Jn. 14:6). He knows the value of truth to the human soul and spirit (Jn. 8:32). He stood for the truth of His Father, without exception. When Pontius Pilate, a coldly practical Roman governor, was examining Jesus before the crucifixion, he cynically asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Jesus had just finished describing His purpose and the reason for His coming, to Pilate:

"...To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth My voice."  Jn. 18:37

The word used here for the expression "bear witness", is the Greek word martyreo, from which we get the word "martyr", meaning those who will declare the truth even unto their own death.

Pilate, though he was a worldly man, knew he was hearing the truth from Jesus, because he went out to the crowd and said to them, "I find in Him no fault at all." (Jn. 18:38). Ultimately, even knowing this, Pilate still delivered The Truth to the mob to be crucified (Jn. 19:16).

Jesus, as Truth, died, and was raised again. Shouldn't we, the Church, also bear this same legacy of truth? Sadly, this is not always the case. In fact, the early Church was structured, in part, on the rejection of truth. Early in Church history, doctrines were established, still existing to this day, that purposefully denied truth. Both the Council of Nicaea, in 325 A.D., and the Council of Laodicea in 364 A.D., denied the Jewish Sabbath, and the observances of Jewish Feasts ordained by God, which were a prophetic picture of the Messiah, Jesus. They referred to these things and more, as "Jewish superstitions". Their goal was to separate the Christian faith from any connection to its Jewish origins and foundational truths found in the Word of God. The Church summarily discarded the truth that Jesus was the Passover Lamb of God, Who came to take away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29, 36), and the First Fruit of the resurrection of the dead (Rev. 1:5).

The Apostle Paul would have disagreed with those early Church decisions. He compared those of the Christian faith to wild branches that had been grafted into the olive tree, which is the Jewish faith (Rom. 11:17, 24). Those branches, by established Church doctrine, later decided to separate themselves from the very root that sustained them. How could those branches now thrive and live, having been separated from their root? Certainly not in truth.

 

Scripture describes the calling of believers as being one of "kings and priests" and a "royal priesthood" (Rev. 1:6, 5:10, 1 Pet. 2:9), called out of darkness and into His marvelous light. What is that light? It is the light of truth:

"O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles."  Ps. 43:3

"But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light..."  Jn. 3:21

The prophet Hosea warned that the priesthood, to which we also have been called, can be lost to us, and rejected by God. The priesthood is rejected because truth, and the knowledge of God, is rejected (Hos. 4:1, 6, 9):

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, and thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."  Hos. 4:6

In the same manner, as His kings, we are called to walk in God's kabode glory. We do this by searching the Word of His truth (Prov. 25:1). We are to search the Word so diligently, that we discover even the hidden things in the Word. If it seems shocking to read that we are to share the glory of God, scripture very much connects truth and the glory where we are concerned (Jer. 4:2, Jn. 1:14, Jn. 17:17-22).

In addition, scripture teaches that kings are preserved (guarded, protected, watched over, kept, maintained) by their association with truth (Prov. 20:28). This is the Word of God regarding kings.

As Jesus powerfully described His purpose to bear witness to the truth, it was in answer to Pilate's question, "Art Thou a king then?" (Jn. 18:37).

Like priests, kings are not to separate themselves from truth.

As the Church continues to reject the knowledge of the truth of its Jewish foundations and roots, as well as other truths of the Word of God, will God in turn reject the Church as kings and priests in His kingdom?

The Church needs to begin asking, "What is truth?", and to begin to search it out in the Word.

 

Contact/ Give:

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"Why Seek Ye the Living Among the Dead?"

 

The crucifixion of Christ, and His resurrection are the cornerstones of the Christian faith. There is no point to Christianity without them. The resurrection alone, is what makes Jesus different from all other spiritual figures, and is also a necessary part of the atonement work of Christ:

"And if Jesus be not raised, your faith is in vain; ye are yet in your sins."  1 Cor. 15:17

All four Gospels contain an account of the empty tomb, and the resurrection of Jesus (Mt. 28, Mk. 16, Lk. 24, Jn. 20). The Gospels tell us that on the first day of the week, as the women went to the tomb of Jesus to anoint His body, they were shocked to find that the large stone, with which the tomb had been sealed, had been rolled away. Angels who were present there spoke to them and told them, "He is not here", and "He is risen" (Mt. 28:6, Mk. 16:6, Lk. 24:6). In one account, the resurrected Jesus Himself asked one of the women, "Whom seekest thou?" (Jn. 20:15). In Lk. 24:5, the angel asks, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" They were all saying the same thing: if you are looking for Jesus, you have come to the wrong place. He is not to be found among the dead.

Not only did Jesus attain this great resurrection victory for Himself, but He attained it for all of us as well. What a great thing we have to celebrate! Yet in the Church, and in our lives as believers, we have placed Jesus back among the dead by changing the day proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus Christ into a day of Easter baskets, Easter bunnies, Easter eggs, Easter hats and parades, and pretty, new pastel Easter outfits. None of these things have resurrection life in them. They are all things that will pass away. He is not there. He is risen.

With our Easter traditions, we have also made the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ unrecognizable to the Jews, because we, the Church, have systematically removed these awesome events from their true contexts of Passover, and the Feast of First Fruits, of which they are very much the central meaning and Messianic fulfilment. By using the word "Easter", we have associated this day, instead, with false goddesses, including Ishtar and Ashtoreth. These pagan gods are not lovely and harmless, as we like to consider our Easter traditions, but they represent, instead, something very dark and carnal indeed, and have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. He cannot be found in it. He is not there. He is risen.

We are making it impossible for ourselves, our children, and others to find the resurrected Christ, because of these godless customs and traditions in which we have entombed Him again.

On the day of resurrection, when the women found the tomb empty, and heard the revelation of the angels, they ran to tell the disciples. However, the disciples did not believe them (Mk. 16:11, Lk. 24:11). Our failure to declare the resurrection of Christ on this day, really reflects the same unbelief. Not only have we again entombed Jesus in our dead traditions, but we have rolled an even larger stone, a stumbling stone of unbelief, back over the entrance of that tomb.

 

In the early Church, believers would greet each other saying, "He is risen!", and the answering declaration would be, "He is risen indeed!". Today we greet each other saying instead, "Happy Easter".

The angel is again asking the Church, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?", and Jesus Himself is asking, "Whom sleekest thou?"

 

To contact/give:

PO Box 155

Christmas, Fl. 32709
http://everlastingcovenant.wixsite.com/theshroud
https://twitter.com/everlastingcov8