The Church's Part


Divisions:

One resurrection

There is also a vital part to be played by the Gentiles. That is what the "time of the fullness of the Gentiles" is all about. When Paul speaks in Romans 11 about a hardening coming on the Jews until the fullness of the Gentiles, he is speaking about a period in which the nations are to be reached, and a unified body composed of every nation tribe and tongue comes into being.

As soon as Yeshuah left the Temple grounds, after He had finished speaking about the scribes and Pharisees, and their part in the end time, He went on to speak to His own pupils, who were shortly to become the foundation of the Church about their part in the end times.

As we said, chapters 23 and 24 go together. 23 prophetically addresses Israel, and the hope that they will one day be included in the Church. 24 and the following chapters address the Church, and those things that will happen as Israel is included.

First Let's look at some background scriptures and establish a footing. We can't really understand the end times until we understand resurrection -- Jesus's resurrection and ours -- in terms of the last days. They're both really the same thing.

I Corinthians 15:20-28:

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For "He has put all things under His feet." But when he says "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

Just as the Jews have always believed would happen, Messiah ushered in the resurrection from the dead. Contrary to their understanding, it didn't all happen at once in a short space of time. Most Christians know that.

However, contrary to our understanding over the years, the resurrection didn't just happen once two thousand years ago to Jesus, and will happen again to the rest of us one fine day. There is only one resurrection. It began two thousand years ago. It's still here. It isn't finished yet. It will climax when Messiah comes back as King.

Jesus was just the "firstfruits." Now, He is waiting for His enemies to be put under His feet, or made His footstool. That is happening now, through His resurrection power. Legally, we died with him, and when we become born again, our spirits are made alive with that resurrection power. We are constantly dying to ourselves in our daily experience and partaking of His resurrection power to take us to victory (at least that's what we're supposed to be doing). Final victory will climax in the resurrection of our bodies. Return to head of chapter

Restoration

The phrase "enemies under His feet," is from Psalm 110:1, which is quoted several times in the New testament:

Hebrews 10:12,13:

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

Who are His enemies? Without expounding enough theology to double the size of this book, lusts just say, those forces that stand in the way of God's plan coming to complete fulfilment in the world. This includes Satan, of course, but also everything under his influence (which can include us, when we refuse to submit to God's plans). When everything is placed under His feet through His resurrection power and the death of everything contrary to God's plan (including our fleshly natures) then it can be said that God's eternal purposes have been restored.

Peter quoted the phrase, "...till I make Your enemies Your footstool;" in His sermon in Acts 2. Then, later, he says practically the same thing, but calling it "the restoration of all things."

Acts 3:19-21:

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

Here, Peter was addressing the people of Israel in the temple grounds. What Peter was saying, was that once Israel repents and is converted, the promised times of refreshing, or the age of the Kingdom of Messiah will begin. In the meantime, Messiah is enthroned in heaven until all things are restored, or put under His feet.

Now, we can see the whole picture. There is only one resurrection, but in three stages: 1. Jesus's resurrection; 2. all things are restored; and 3. our resurrection.

So how will all things be restored? How will they be put under His feet? Will Christians worm their way into all government agencies, vote for Christian government and pass Christian laws? That's been tried before and it didn't work. We've pretty well proven that Christians can be just as power-happy and abusive as the next person. Instead of Messiah's kingdom, we ushered in the dark ages!

We always start with the best of intentions, and things even begin in the spirit, but as soon as we start moving in the flesh, we then have a recipe for disaster. Institutions, by themselves, no matter how perfect the structure, can never be trusted to get us beyond the first generation of faulty leadership.

So how will all things be restored? Let's look back at Matthew 24.

Verse 12 begins: And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. That's just the opposite of Christians getting into power (or if it happens because of Christians getting into power, God help us!).

Verse 13 continues:

...But he who endures to the end shall be saved (if Christians do succeed in creating a utopia, what would there be to endure? Why then, this exhortation?). And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

A vital part of the "restoration of all things" is the gospel being preached in all the earth. That is the "great commission". However, this verse has been watered down so that it doesn't mean very much to some people.

Remember, Jesus is speaking here in this chapter about the Church's role in ushering in the Kingdom of Messiah. In chapter 23, he spoke of Israel's role, but here, the Church's part. Many have thought Jesus was speaking about the role of Israel in Matthew 24, describing it as a special "Kingdom dispensation." The Church, according to them, is raptured out, and then the 144,000 Jews go out and evangelise every nation. The rapture, according to this logic, could happen at any time, even if many nations haven't been reached yet, because, they say, Matthew 24:13 isn't for this dispensation!

That could have been so had He still been speaking to the scribes and Pharisees, but here, He was speaking to the twelve apostles, who were shortly to become the foundation of the Church. The events of Matthew 24 and the following chapters speak of the so called "church dispensation."

Matthew 24:13 is speaking to the same group to whom He gave the great commission, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." If we have been commanded to go to every creature, to begin with, why do people have trouble accepting that all nations are to be reached by us? Not only have we been commanded to go to every creature, but the end can't come until we do! God's commands are not options!

So what, then? Do we just wait to be raptured out, and leave it to the 144,000 to do the job God gave us to do? Obviously not!

All nations must be reached first, because it is a body made up of all nations that will usher in the resurrection. That is the picture we see in Revelation 7:9 -- a multitude without number, from every nation tribe and tongue standing before the throne of God. They are in glorious unity because they are all in communion with God in the inner sanctuary. They are the "fullness of the Gentiles" that Paul talked about in Romans 11, and they have claimed their birthright! What's more, they've succeeded in making Israel Jealous (we know that, because in the verses just preceding, the Jews are being numbered and sealed). This is the body of Christ at her finest!

But, you say, that multitude is described as being in heaven!

Well, of course, they will one day be physically before the throne of God in heaven, but before that happens, they are in that exact same position spiritually though bodily on the earth. We are presently seated in the heavenly places in Christ, even while living out our physical lives on the earth. The prayer we were taught to pray, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," is a spiritual principal. That is the restoration we saw in Acts 3:21. It is the ministry of reconciliation we see in II Cor 5:18. When we, the Body of Christ on this earth, begin to resemble, both spiritually and in our day-to-day moment-by-moment consciousness, what we are in heaven, resurrection will be activated. Then, what's been true of us spiritually will also be accomplished in our bodies as well. Thus, Revelation 7:9 is speaking both of our spiritual position on earth, and our physical position once we get to heaven.

How does this happen? There are three word pictures shown to us in the New Testament:

A child brought to birth

Romans 8:11-26 and II Cor 4:7-5:9 both show us how all of nature, and we ourselves are groaning in travail for this birth of God's full complete plan on the earth. It's a form of prayer that doesn't entail simply stringing words together with "amen" at the end. One's whole being cries out, "Your kingdom come! Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!" Restoration is something that must be brought to birth, like a child. In the final chapter of this book, we'll look at another passage that illustrates this.

Ephesians shows us two more pictures:

A bride being prepared for marriage

Ephesians 5:25-32:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

"Washing of water by the word" is a picture of Jewish ritual immersion, or baptism. The Word of God cleanses us when we immerse ourselves in it as we would immerse ourselves in a baptism pool, or a mikva. Jewish women often immerse themselves for cleansing from various conditions unique to their sex, as commanded by Moses. A Jewish bride would certainly want to be ritually clean for her husband. So the Church must be clean, and without spot or blemish for Jesus. Immersing ourselves in God's word as we read and meditate in it daily is a part of being in the inner sanctuary. Return to head of chapter

A child being trained for adulthood

Ephesians 4:11-16 says that the gifts and callings have been placed in the church to equip us "...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

Now, in the resurrection age, we can clearly see four things in the process of happening. This is the mystery of Israel and the fullness of the Gentiles:

1. Every nation is being reached, so that the "fullness of Gentiles" can come in.

2. All nature, and all the Church, as they are being made aware, are groaning in travail before God until God's plan is fully birthed.

3. The Church is coming into unity, and becoming the glorious Church without spot or wrinkle, thus making Israel jealous.

4. Israel is being brought to repentance -- slowly at first, but as the Gentiles are reached, with greater acceleration, until finally the chief rabbis and leaders of Israel and all those "who sit in Moses's seat" make their final declaration.

A lot of this is up to us. As the Church is obedient to go forth and reach all nations, and to come into unity in the body, and submit to the Spirit of God in intercession and travail, we are hastening this process:

II Pet 3:11,12:

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

So, a lot depends on us. How are we going to get this done? Who's going to go to all those needy people? How are we ever going to get all those churches together? And the unbelieving Jews! Who's going to...

Marta! Marta! Get back into the inner sanctuary! God's got it all worked out!

In fact, Church, it's all the more vital that you know your place in the inner sanctuary. Return to head of chapter


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The Great Delay


Divisions:

Why such a long delay?

From examining the above scriptures, it became obvious to me that the first century Church expected Messiah to return in their time. Not just the local believers, but the writers of the epistles! They were constantly telling their Churches to hold out "'till the end," to "press forward," "hasten the day," and many other injunctions. They were genuinely pressing forward to that goal, and expecting it to happen in their lifetimes or shortly afterwards. Certainly not 2000 years later!

Paul, himself even said in Romans 13:11, "Now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed." Was that just an empty statement of the obvious -- like "today is the first day of the rest of your life?" or "Each step -- a step closer?" Somehow, I can't picture Paul making the kind of logical (but otherwise empty)motivational slogans that we like to quote today (all based on the mathematical formula, "The higher you count the more numbers you get"). If he said it, it was because he could observe, by the state of the church, and the state of current events, that it was nearer.

I wondered, why didn't it happen? Why, instead, did we go backwards, and go through the dark ages? It didn't make sense!

I had heard some explanations as to why the Church went backwards, but they didn't take into account the dynamics of living in the resurrection age. They said, "Well, Christianity was legalised, and then enforced as the state religion, there was no more persecution, the Church had it easy, and so of course! She backslid!" My next question was, "What happened to make the Church so weak that simply by becoming legal, and made the state religion, it fell flat? If that were such an effective weapon against the Church, why doesn't Satan do that all the time?" After all, failure to keep one's bearings during times of prosperity and comfort is as lethal a weakness as failure to endure under persecution. Paul said, "I know how to abound and to abase." So it didn't answer the question, "Where did we go wrong?"

I put the question to the Lord, and the complete answer has been several years in coming. I still probably don't have the complete answer, but I have what I believe will help us understand quite a bit. The following are four insights: Return to head of chapter

1. Gentile Church

Shortly afterwards, I began to realise that part of the answer could have something to do with what Paul called, "the mystery" of the hardening of Israel.

There were a couple of prophetic words that I read, and heard on tape, that spoke of a harvest of Jewish people, and how that would be as a "fountain of life." I then noticed the scripture in Romans 11, that Israel's acceptance would be "life from the dead."

I realised that somehow, for a reason I couldn't explain, Israel played a vital role in the church that was greatly diminished after the first century. A hardness had come on Israel in general, so the number of Jews being saved after the first few decades was limited. However, Gentiles were being brought in by the thousands, and continued to come in. Soon the Gentiles began to greatly outnumber the Jews in the church. I realised that their absence has left a vacuum, but I didn't exactly understand how. We'll never fully understand how until the full number of them have come in.

Much later, I realised the difference between Jewish thinking, and Greek thinking.

One verse quoted from Paul goes a long way in explaining the difference between the two.

...the Jews request a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness... (I Cor 1:22,23)

Faith and confession must come before the sign manifests -- not after. We saw earlier that the Jews' problem was that they put the sign before faith.

Now, we'll look at the other side of this problem. That is us Greeks and our emphasis on wisdom learned from Plato and Aristotle. The Jews emphasise signs, and the Greeks emphasise wisdom. Of the two emphases, the Jewish one is more Biblical. The preaching of the Kingdom of God is marked by signs and wonders, not intellectual wisdom. It's just that the Jews got it backwards by demanding a sign before they would believe Jesus was Messiah. The sign follows faith, not vice versa.

We, with our Greek minds have done untold damage to the Gospel message by trying to make it easy to explain to our fellow Greeks. We've interpreted it using Platonic and Aristotelian methods of deducting logic instead of the Jewish methods of interpretation.

While Greek logic may go a long way in scientific study, it is mathematical at its foundation. Spiritual things cannot be explained with mathematical logic. The Jewish style "organic" thinking goes a lot farther.

For example, Romans 11:12 says, "Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!" That is another Jewish rule of interpretation, called "Kal va Homer." That means, an argument "from a minor to a major premise." It says, in effect, if the minor premise is so, how much more the major premise! You can probably recognise this form from many of Paul's and Jesus's sayings as well as in Hebrews. It's a Jewish method of interpretation. Greek logic would not say that. To the Greek mind, the words "fall" and "fullness" assume equal but opposite values. They have therefore been saying, "If their fall is riches for the Gentiles, then their fullness would mean it's all over for the Gentiles! Therefore, we had better keep them down!"

That's just what we did. From the second half of the second century onward, we began stripping the Gospel of anything that sounded too Jewish. To our Greek minds they were too primitive. We got rid of such things as the belief in a literal one thousand year millennium, and even denied Israel a share in God's plan for the ages. We did this by insisting that all the prophecies apply only spiritually to the church with no literal interpretation in regards to Israel. After all, we said, Israel has forfeited any share in God's blessing by crucifying the Messiah. Besides that, the literal interpretation is only for the "ignorant masses". We, the enlightened only accept the spiritual interpretation. Return to head of chapter

2. Other changes in the early Church

Church leadership evolved slowly from a simple style to a system of highly professional clergy/priests.

In the epistles, and early church documents, such as The Didache, and The Epistle of Clement which were written in the late first century or early second century, it appears that each church was ruled by a group of elders, or a presbytery. The words "elder" and "bishop" were synonymous. Their ministry was supplemented by numerous itinerant apostles and prophets.

About a generation later, we find the epistles of Ignatious. Here, Ignatious addresses the leadership of the churches as "bishop" as though each church had a single bishop who was distinct from and over the elders. He further emphasises in almost all his epistles that nothing is to be done without the bishop, and that the bishop's decision is final. However, there was no mention yet of "laymen." It was still assumed that ministry was everyone's job -- just don't do it without the bishop's okay.

By the third century, the time of Cyprion, the bishops were taking an even greater hand in ministry, further reducing the role of the "laymen." This was the result of a "revelation" that the bishop was the "priest" of the local church, inheriting the role of the priests of the Old Testament. This was especially brought out with the belief that the church had fully replaced Israel in God's plan of the ages.

These developments took place even while the Church was yet under intense persecution by the Roman Emperors. With most of the Church classified as "laymen" with nothing expected of them ministrywise, the Church was greatly weakened.

A hierarchy of bishops and archbishops slowly evolved until finally the archbishop of Rome, or the Pope, was seen as Christ's vicar over the whole universal (catholic) Church.

All of these changes, no doubt, were the result of visions, and strategies. Some, no doubt divinely inspired, but others, simply "good ideas."

A lot can be said for having a ruling bishop over a congregation, who receives guidance through the Holy Spirit. Many today insist that it is the only way to run a church. However, the fact that the original apostolic churches were under a group of elders, should be a good indication that the ruling bishop should be accountable to a presbytery, in whom he can confide for his own spiritual needs. One thing which must be noted, however, is that the original presbyteries were not elected by majority vote, but appointed by an anointed apostle or prophet. The qualifications required of a candidate for an elder are clearly listed in I Timothy and Titus. Too often, these are overlooked by voting church members. On the other hand, many today have found that a unified presbytery consisting of single minded elders can wait on God for a unanimous decision. Urgent matters can still be delegated to a bishop who clearly knows his boundaries.

However good a strategy one may have for church government, it will always go off course if emphasis isn't laid on our inner sanctuary experience. A group of elders whose priority is to worship before the Father in the Holy of Holies, will make up a good presbytery. Likewise, a bishop who remains humble before the Lord, will be a good bishop. Without that inner sanctuary experience, visions and strategies wander off course, and end up becoming "good ideas." They in turn, make for a weak church. That, among other things, is what brought us into the dark ages.

These first two insights are practical, and show us the natural digression into the dark ages. However, this still doesn't satisfy me as to why it was allowed to happen to begin with. Why weren't the early believers rewarded for their intense fervency, and their faithfulness to the hope of the resurrection? With the original apostles, themselves, on hand to correct any mistakes made, and to make the necessary mid-course corrections which they so aptly made in their epistles, why wasn't their fervency and love successfully passed on to later generations?

I don't pretend to have the complete answer, but the next two insights show us something of God's hand in history. Return to head of chapter

3. We the Church have more responsibility than we think

If we do nothing, God does nothing. If we insist that human intellect is the best way to go, instead of making our inner sanctuary experience our priority, God simply says, "Fine. Carry on. Just give me a call when you are ready to do it My way." God isn't a manipulator, as some of us tend to be.

At an earlier point in history, a similar thing happened. In Ezekiel 22:30,31 God tells us:

...I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the Lord GOD.

It is quite clear from this verse, and from many others, that prayer is a decisive factor in God's dealings in the earth. Many excellent books have been written on the subject, so I will not dwell on all the different kinds of prayer. I will emphasise, that the way to all the different kinds of prayer is through the inner sanctuary. It is that, and nothing else that will insure that the 20th century Church breaks through into resurrection.

Many people have been praying, and there is a move world wide towards unity in Christ's body. However, there is intense opposition to that move, and the enemy is using every tactic he has been diligently practising for the past thousands of years to hinder that move. The Holy Spirit has His ways of motivating us to enter in and stay in the inner sanctuary. I believe this book is one of them. Another way is through the shaking of false foundations, in order to shift us over onto the true one. Nevertheless, it is up to all of us collectively and each of us individually to respond to that call. Otherwise, we could retreat into some more dark ages. We, the Church have more responsibility on our shoulders than we think. Return to head of chapter

4. The principal of death and resurrection

God, in his stepping back and saying, "Okay, carry on..." was in effect allowing His Church to die, as if to prove once more to the principalities and powers that be, that resurrection will happen, despite Satan's best efforts.

A principal can be discerned in Hosea 6:2:

After two days, He will revive us. On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.

This can be taken as a promise that Messiah would die, and be raised again on the third day. However, the pronouns, "us" and "we" indicate that it is saying more than just that. It is not simply the death and resurrection of Messiah Himself, but an identification with His people, who experience a similar death and resurrection.

To understand how, this works in with what's happening with us, we'll look in the Talmud:

Rabbi Kattina said: Six thousand years shall the world exist, and one [thousand, the seventh], it shall be desolate, as it is written, "And the Lord (alone) shall be exalted in that day." Abaye said: it will be desolate two [thousand], as it is said, "After two days will He revive us: in the third day, He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. (Hosea vi:2)

It has been taught in accordance with Rabbi Kattina: Just as the seventh year is one year of release in seven, so is the world: one thousand years out of seven shall be fallow, as it is written, "And the Lord (alone) shall be exalted in that day," as it is further said, "A Psalm and song for the Sabbath day" (Ps xcii:1) meaning the day that is altogether Sabbath -- and it is also said, "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past" (Ps xc:4). (Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 97a)

Peter, in the New Testament (II Pet. 3:8), also briefly refers to Psalm 90:4 as something like a formula -- a day equal to a thousand years. Thus, according to Abaye, Hosea 6:2 infers about two thousand years of desolation; and according to Kattina, the principal of Sabbath means there are altogether seven thousand years, the seventh being the millennium.

Actually, Abaye meant his two thousand years as an alternative prediction to Kattina's millennium, but if we look at it instead as the "great delay" before the millennium, we can see what has been taking place for the past two thousand years, with both Israel and the Church, which, as we said, are really one entity.

After two millenniums of exile in countries and regions without number, and without a Messiah to shepherd her lost sheep, Israel has once again become a political state, and is moving into position to come back to life.

The Church likewise, after having become dispersed into as many creeds and sects within that same period of time, has now been shifting her position to enter into the inner sanctuary, and move in greater unity towards the climax of the resurrection. That will be the third "day" (the dawn of the third day, we hope).

But during that time period, God's plan on the earth experienced a death. God's physical people and God's spiritual people became enemies. There are many other ways God's plan "died," some of which we've looked at already, but let's look at the history of the relationship between the Church and Israel, since that is close to the heart of our discussion.

First, the Jews persecuted the followers of Yeshuah, because they had stumbled over the cornerstone, having failed to see any decisive sign of Yeshuah's Messiahship. In those days, the believers in Messiah were seen as being no more than one of the many sects of Judaism. The Jewish community carried out disciplinary action on them as they did for any other offence, through judgement in the synagogues, floggings, stonings, and excommunication.

In Romans 12 and 13, after having explained about the mystery of the hardening of Israel, Paul goes on to tell the Christians how they should respond to persecution, which in those days came largely from the Jewish community. Even when they were persecuting us, our calling was to bless them: "...Bless, and do not curse ... Repay no one evil for evil ... If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men ... do not avenge yourselves..."

When it became obvious to the Romans that this was more than just a Jewish thing, persecution began coming from the Romans. This was by far more severe than that coming from the Jewish community. In the earlier years, the Jews co-operated, in some instances, with the Romans. That was, until the Bar Kochbah rebellion, after which the Jews were persecuted along side the Christians. From our perspective, this all was very sad, but we endured it.

What happened next was unthinkable. We forgot how to forgive. If we were supposed to be blessing them even while they were persecuting us, how much more when we finally gained the upper hand!

We forgot Paul's warning in Romans 11:18-21:

...do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.

In rebellious "sibling rivalry," we turned on our Jewish brethren, first by purging all the Jewishness from our theology, and later, by actively persecuting them.

We persecuted them, you ask?

Yes, we persecuted them. We even tortured them and murdered them! Although much of the persecution was carried out by people who weren't genuinely born again by God's Spirit, it was the same institution that bore the Name of Christ, and preserved the written New Testament scriptures, from which we inherit our doctrines of the Faith. It was the same institution whose existence made possible the reformation, and the later restorations of true faith. To put it short, we cannot separate ourselves from them. They are us. Also some of them were born again believers (you'll be surprised what a born again Christian is capable of when not walking in the spirit).

I will not go into detail regarding the Church's persecution of the Jews. That has been well document in an excellent book, "There's Blood on Our Hands," (Destiny Image) by Michael Brown. However, I will say that it is now nearly impossible for any Jew, though he tries, to believe that Yeshuah can possibly be Messiah of Israel (only by a miracle of God, many have).

One prominent rabbi I had the privilege of hearing recently described Christianity as an experiment that began 2000 years ago, and failed. The final proof, he said, is the holocaust. 2000 years of gospel preaching and New Testament teaching failed to change the hearts of the people of Europe sufficiently to prevent the brutal murder of 6,000,000 Jews in Hitler's German empire.

While a few Christians, notably the family of Corrie Ten Boom, gave their lives to save a few Jews from death, most turned a blind eye.

But, we say, that wasn't true Christianity!

How does a Jew tell the difference between "true" Christianity and the "Christianity" that murdered his forefathers? You can't tell him. You must show him. Stop trying to cover up, and confess to them the sins of our fathers -- our sins. Then, show them the love we were supposed to be showing them for the past 2000 years.

The Jews have forgotten all about the sign they were seeking. They've been too busy bracing themselves against further outburst of "brotherly love." The sign that the Jews need to see now, is a church that doesn't talk about love and unity, but has spent time in the inner sanctuary, and come to know the Father through Messiah -- a church that has spent so much time in the inner sanctuary that she knows that that is her only identity, so that it literally becomes her source of unity without having to talk about it. When the church has been transformed as a result, then, and only then will the Jews recognise this inner sanctuary as being none other than their own Holy of Holies, the veil of which was torn in two in 30 c.e. and was destroyed completely in 70 c.e. This is exactly what Paul said would provoke them to Jealousy.

That is how the resurrection of God's plan will come about. Despite the extreme limit to which the Church has fallen, despite the thousands of denominations into which the Church has divided, despite the "irreparable" damage done, resurrection will come. Return to head of chapter


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Unburying Our Heads


Divisions:

The proverbial botanist

Uncle Baruch! You shouldn't say such terrible things!

I know.

But I'm afraid that some terrible things have happened.

I'm also afraid that those terrible things won't just go away if we ignore them and pretend they didn't happen, or that we are not in some way responsible for the fact that it did.

We have to see things the way they are. We can't afford to live in a fantasy. We can't afford to bury our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich.

I say proverbial, because real ostriches don't hid their heads in the sand. Only proverbial ones do. It so happens that a certain early Greek botanist had his head in the sand while he was observing the habits of the ostrich.

Yes, the wounds are deep -- even deep unto death -- but if we face the facts and repent, the wounds can be healed.

The only thing we have going for us right now is the fact that God is so rich in mercy. All the while, He has patiently waited for us to come to our senses while showering us with blessing after blessing. His mercies have been "new every morning". Mercies they are indeed because we certainly don't deserve them. That mercy is there now for the healing of the wounds we've inflicted.

God's will is for the wounds to be healed, because that is the only way for God's plan for the ages to come to pass. That requires something on our part.

So in what ways are we like the proverbial Greek botanist? (I say proverbial because modern Greek botanists know that sand in the ears is bad for the ear-drum)

I can think of two ways right off. -- No, make that three. Return to head of chapter

Sitting pretty on our perches (or -- The Good Guys Wear White Hats)

Something inside all of us likes to think we are doing just fine. It's that same part of us that doesn't like to be proven wrong -- especially by our spouse, or mother-in-law. Things like that just don't seem to sit well with our self image. We like to think we have things all figured out, and that we are in control of our destinies.

As new believers, of course, that didn't affect us as much. Our elders in the Lord constantly told us what is right or wrong, and what habits had to change. We received correction from reading the Bible, and we began to change.

Finally, a time came when we felt we were "big boys and girls now." We began to have younger brothers and sisters in the Lord, and instead of people constantly correcting our behaviour, we have begun to have a hand in advising the new ones. However, on the rare occasion that someone comes to us with a word of correction, we know the Bible well enough, and know enough about spiritual things to tell them that we believe that we are right after all, and then we upbraid them in return on their "judgmental attitude."

In fact, we like to make it as hard as we can for those who feel they do have a word of correction for us. After all, it's about the worst thing they can do to us!

After all this time spent growing up in the Lord, we're finally "sitting pretty on our perch." The worst injustice you can do to me is to tilt my perch out of balance by proving to me that something or other that I believe is after all not the correct position, or that I'm doing something wrong, because then, I have to wriggle and squirm until I again find a comfortable spot.

I'll let you in on a secret that will be very useful in the times to come:

It is not God's will for us to sit pretty on our perch.

Then what are we supposed to do? Where does a "big boy" like me stand?

In the inner sanctuary!

God's place for us is a position of rest in the spirit, but not a place of fleshly comfort, or soulish confidence.

I'm not saying its not okay to be well off and comfortable. Just be "poor in spirit." In other words, you can be rich, but be as humble as a poor man. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then get the original Marta! Marta! book.

This all applies not only to us individually, but also collectively, as the Church.

Somehow or other we've been influenced by John Wayne and Roy Rogers. We've divided the world up into "the good guys" and "the bad guys." We like to sit pretty on our perch with confidence that we are on the side of the "good guys."

The cowboy movies are nice so long as you watch them from the point of view of the cowboys in the white hats. If you look at them from the point of view of the Indians, however, things can get a little bit uncomfortable.

No matter how high the standards of virtue a person or an organisation or people-group may hold, no matter how clean their record may be from their own point of view, there is always at least one person or group or a point of view somewhere in world that sees that party as evil. Nobody is the "good guy" in everybody's books.

That is true for two reasons. One is simply because not everyone (until Messiah comes) will ever agree on any one standard of ethics. However, it is also true because no one, including us, has ever live up to their own standard of ethics.

This second reasons is where we must answer to God.

So nobody's perfect, true?

That is very true.

But that's not a viable excuse. It's not polite to use that line in your own self defence. It only applies to us when we are accusing others -- as in "You're not perfect, so stop accusing others!" We're not talking about others here. We're talking about ourselves.

As I said, there are many deep hurts and wounds that have been inflicted by us. There is a rift between the Church and the Jewish community that shouldn't be there. There are rifts between various groups of believers and denominations that shouldn't be there. Just the fact that some believers refuse to recognise each other is sad enough (what am I saying "sad enough"! It's already too sad!) but in the history of the church, Christians have actually killed each other in the name of Christ.

Now, our perch begins to tilt just a little bit.

But certainly they weren't born again Christians!

Perhaps some of them weren't. At least, it's easy for Protestants to believe that the early Roman Catholics who persecuted the early reformers and the Huguenots weren't born again believers. Likewise, Roman Catholics who remember the persecution of their forefathers in England and Ireland under some of the Protestant kings may have doubts about the Christianity of the Puritans, and even the Church of England.

But, did you know that the early reformers in Europe and the Roman Catholics persecuted the Anabaptists? In many cases, they put them to death!

And who, you ask, were the Anabaptists?

Apart from the Mennonites, the Hutterites and the Amish, there aren't very many of them around today. They were just about persecuted out of existence. However, their worst crime was simply believing in a church composing only of the true believers, who have been baptised as believing adults or young people -- not as babies. Those who had only had infant baptism, they baptised again as believers. That's why they were called Ana - Baptists, or the "rebaptisers."

But that's what we believe, some of us will say.

Perhaps, but those of us who believe that way only recently came around to that opinion. We did so without repenting of what we did to the Anabaptists. We just sort of forgot about it.

The response of our forefathers to the Anabaptists was, "So you want to be baptised again? Here! I'll baptise you!"

Many of them were thus drowned in the river!

The Church of England persecuted the Puritans, but the Quakers were persecuted by just about everyone. Many of the Puritans and the Quakers moved to the new world, where they started colonies.

The Puritans did fine for the most part, except that they banished a few who varied from their official belief. In one case, they sent a woman and two children out to fend for themselves in the frozen wilderness! They also showed, on occasion, less than Christ like charity towards the American Indians.

The Quakers were the first to treat the American Indians as equals, and were also the only colony in the new world who didn't have trouble with the Indians.

The Anabaptists may have been among the only ones in their day who showed compassion to the Jews. I already told you in the previous chapter what both Catholics and Protestants did!

So, is Uncle Baruch suggesting that we all join either the Quakers or the Mennonites?

No. He is just trying to remove some of the sand from off of the back of your head! Our common history isn't as glorious as we have liked to believe. Neither is our present state. We'd better check the colour of our hats.

But we don't have to join the Quakers or the Mennonites. We are already one with them. Unfortunately for them, they're also one with the rest of us. I Corinthians 3:21 and 22 says, "All things are yours; whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the Mennonites or the Quakers."

Okay, Uncle Baruch is reading what isn't there, but the meaning is the same.

Many of these people I am referring to, even though the colour of their hats are hard to distinguish, they loved the Lord. They gave us the great doctrines of the Church. They gave us our great hymns. In all of the groups I've mentioned were people who desired to live holy lives before God. But just like us, they had blind spots.

Even the Roman Catholic Church, when it had sunk to its lowest ebb, still served as our benefactor in that it preserved the Holy Scriptures and the basic understanding of Christ that we have today. It also provided the resources so that Martin Luther was able to see the light regarding salvation by faith, which sparked the reformation. If it weren't for the Roman Catholic Church, even in the state it was in, Martin Luther would never have known there was as such a thing as faith.

They are all a part of us.

We are one body even though at the moment it might not seem that way.

If Pope John-Paul II is a born again believer, which many believe he is, then he is Rev. Ian Paisley's brother. I give Ian the benefit of the doubt that he is born again. I once heard him preach a fine evangelistic sermon in middle of Donegal Square in front of the Belfast City Hall. It sounded good enough to me.

They are brothers, and it is extremely important now that we realise that. They are brothers.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one in the Body of Christ, whether we like it or not.

Jesus has only one body. He's always has had only one body. What's more, he never has, nor will he ever change bodies.

He can't! It's the only body He has!

We cannot dissociate ourselves from Ian Paisley or the Pope.

We cannot dissociate ourselves from our forefathers who murdered the Jews without also dissociating ourselves from the Body of Christ.

We cannot effectively disown Martin Luther and John Calvin, and Zwingly, who persecuted the Anabaptists and the Jews and one another without disowning Jesus. They are members of the body of Jesus, and Jesus has no spare body.

Yet, by not dissociating ourselves from the Body of Christ, we are taking part in the guilt of our forefathers. We are guilty by association for the murder of millions of Jews and fellow believers.

Yet, if we do dissociate ourselves from the Body of Christ, we've cut ourselves off from the only salvation there is! There is salvation in no other name but the Name of Jesus Christ -- Yeshuah ha Moshiach.

See how impossible it is now to sit pretty on our perches? Why! The perch is practically perpendicular! (Try teaching your budgie that line!)

What can we do then?

The only thing is to weep, repent and thank God profusely for His mercy that's kept us all this while. Repent on our own behalves. We can also repent on behalf of our brothers and sisters. We can also repent on behalf of our forefathers.

In fact, we must if these wounds are to be healed.

Now, you see what I mean when I say that there are wounds that are deep unto death. Unless they are dealt with, they are going to fester, and deepen. It will not just go away by itself just because we choose to forget all about it and go our merry way. God's mercy only lasts until He's given us a clear chance to see our state for what it is, and repent of it.

Believers in Messiah, who know the state of things as they really are, have no way out but to live a life of repentance.

We can't afford to sit pretty on our perches and act like the good guys. We are a part of a whole, and we are therefore responsible. Return to head of chapter

Individualism

In the western world at the dawn of the twenty first century, we of course know better than that. We are individualists.

That means that if your plane makes a stopover in some obscure capitol, and suddenly terrorists storm the plane, and you have the misfortune of being from one of those evil western imperialistic nations that have been dubbed, "the great Satan," and they begin to vent their wrath on you, you can say, "Hey! I'm innocent! I didn't formulate our foreign policy! I know that some of my fellow countrymen unjustly treated your people, but that has nothing to do with me!"

Then, you will discover the sad truth that "enlightened" westerners and "highly motivated" middle-easterners don't think alike.

So who is right in this case? (Hint: in case you didn't know, the Bible was written in the middle-east, not in the west.)

While I would certainly not justify the actions of the terrorist, we also cannot assume that one is necessarily 100% right and the other 100% wrong.

It's true that each of us has to make an individual choice to do right. No one else can make that choice for us. Even if the collective whole makes the wrong choice, we as individuals are still responsible to make the right choice. That means that even if a husband orders his wife into bed with another man, she is responsible before God for the sin of adultery, and therefore should resist (if she is being raped, of course, that is a different story). If not, why did Sapphira die along with Annanias?

However, this does not mean that we are completely innocent when it comes to the sins of the nation, or the sins of our family clan, or people group. If we identify ourselves with any group, we are also guilty for the sins of that group.

That is why Ezra, Nehimiah, Daniel, and other prophets even though they were individually innocent of wrongdoing, never-the-less prayed prayers of repentance on behalf of their people with whom they identified. That is a form of intercession.

In that sense, the Palestinian terrorist is right. He is wrong, of course, in the way he resolves the problem. Many of the sins he is avenging are the very sin he himself is perpetuating. In purging the blood guilt himself, he is only creating more blood guilt.

Therefore, in answer to the question Cain asked almost 6000 years ago; yes, we are our brother's keepers. We share their guilt. Especially in regard to the Church, we are one body. Therefore we must be aware of our collective guilt, and be in repentance and intercession until we as a whole have cleansed ourselves.

It has been said that what part of our history we forget, we are doomed to repeat. That is why the Jews world-wide refuse to let us forget the holocaust. That's why there are war museums in Auschwitz, Singapore and along the River Kwae.

Just remembering it, though, is not enough. History will still be repeated despite the memory, unless it is dealt with. It will not be dealt with through trying to "live it down." It must be confessed, and repented of.

A more accurate way of saying it would be, "Whatever sin we deny personal responsibility, we are doomed to repeat." Jesus told the Pharisees that, when he said:

"Woe to you ... who say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt" (Matt. 23:30-32).

What he said to the Pharisees then, now applies to us! Woe to us if we continue to deny it just like they did!

Jews, as a whole have not forgiven the Christian community, because the Christians as a whole haven't repented of our mistreatment of the Jews yet. Many of us have individually but that's not good enough. Many of us have collectively as individual churches and denominations, but that's still not good enough. Born again members of the Nazi party still haven't. Christian Ku Klux Klanners still haven't. There is still anti-Semitism in the Church.

Surely there are no real born again Christians in any of those groups!

I don't think any of us are in the position to judge the experience of others. At least it would be very difficult to do so without hitting on some loose ends in our own lives. We could elaborate, but Uncle Baruch is probably going hard enough on you as it is!

The body of Christ, as one, must repent. Until we do, we as individuals must realise that the ball is in our court until we do.

Also, pray for God's grace so that history won't repeat itself in the mean time.

Now, having established the reality of collective guilt, have we not painted ourselves into a corner? Were we not right after all in branding the Jews "Christ killers?" After all, that's also "collective guilt too!"

Uncle Baruch's fourfold answer:

Number one: Christ Himself forgave them when He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Number two: Being a Jew, Christ was more theirs than ours anyway at that point in time. It was a strictly an internal matter. We gentiles had no right to interfere. --Well, okay, maybe groups like Amnesty International might have had something to say, but certainly not a thousand years after the fact!

Number three: They had help. We gentiles provided the spineless judge, hammered the nails in for them, and made a little sport out of it ourselves!

Number four: If it were up to us, we would have done it much sooner -- if only just to prove that we badly needed a sacrifice of the Righteous One (Tsedech) to atone for sins of this evil generation.

Need I say more? Return to head of chapter

"The ball is in their court"

Sometimes we like to say, "Well, we've done all we can. Now, the ball is on their court."

Then, we go our way as though all were fine, and expect that somewhere, somehow, the other party will come to their senses and come rushing to fall at our feet.

Did you know that there are not two sides of the tennis court? If there is, then you and the other party are both on the same side! How can the ball be in their court and not in yours? This could be one more area in which we have been overly "enlightened," like the Greek botanist.

What keeps our heads underneath the sand is the notion that because one party is held responsible, the other party is therefore let off of the hook.

We've repented on our own behalf already. We've asked their forgiveness already. We've preached to them; we've told them; they won't listen, so --

Nowhere in scripture is it ever indicated that because one party is the responsible party, the other party is let off. If we only understood this one point, it would change our lives!

In Ezekiel 3:16ff., Ezekiel was told by God (briefly summarised), "If I give you a word of warning for a sinner to repent of his ways, and you don't warn him, he will die in his sin, but I will hold you accountable." The phrase we like to remember is, "his blood will be on your head."

Often, people read this and they understand just the opposite of what it is actually saying. We have often thought it meant that only one of us or the other is ultimately responsible.

But, what if Ezekiel didn't warn them?

Then, the sinner's blood is on Ezekiel's head.

Then what about the sinner? Does that mean he's not to blame because Ezekiel should have warned him?

No. The sinner still died in his sin.

The sinner died in his sin and his blood was on Ezekiel's head.

Can you imagine the sinner standing before the Holy One in the judgement, and the Lord says, "Well, I'm so terribly sorry about this! You see, Ezekiel there was supposed to warn you. I mean, I gave him explicit instructions to go and tell you so that all this can be avoided, and -- well, I just don't know what to say!"

No! That man will go to judgement for his own sin. God will judge him based on what he did know even without Ezekiel's help. He will go to hell because he fully deserves to go to hell. Sending Ezekiel to warn him to begin with, was only an additional mercy.

On the other hand, based on this same passage, we like to say, "Well, I told him. Now, his blood is off my head!"

How did you tell him? Did you say it in the way that he or she is most likely to receive it? Did you say it in a positive or a negative way?

God didn't tell Ezekiel just to go and "tell them." God gave Ezekiel a prophetic word just for that particular person. The word was designed especially for that individual. If anything would cause that person to stop and think, it would have been that word that came directly from the mouth of God to that individual's heart.

God sends His word for the purpose of reconciling. Not just so He can say later, "I told you so."

If Ezekiel went and told him his own way, just to get a load off of his chest, so that later he could say, "I told you so," that man's blood would have still been on his head.

Mind you, that sinner will still be held responsible, even for Ezekiel's having "told him so," because he at least gained some knowledge of the fact; even if Ezekiel was also held responsible for not having "told him so" in the way the sinner would be most likely to receive it. We are still responsible for what we hear, even when the one who told us has a critical or judgmental attitude.

Yeshuah told them, "judge not...don't look for the speck in your brothers eye...etc." but he didn't tell us, "When someone with a log in his eye informs you of a speck in yours, don't listen!" Just because they violated a command of Yeshuah in telling us, doesn't mean we're let off the hook in regard to what they told us. In fact, as we already saw, Jesus said just the opposite in Matthew 23:3 when he said, "Whatever the [Pharisees] tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do."

So, how do we get ourselves off the hook?

Sometimes, the right way is to wait, and pray for the other party. It might not be the time to go today. Tomorrow might be the time.

I'm not talking about procrastination. There is a fine line to be drawn between waiting on God's timing, and procrastination. The only way to know where that line is to be drawn is to spend time in His presence.

If we have taken our place in the inner sanctuary, all of this will come more naturally. You can hear the voice of the Lord telling you, "Not yet," or "Now!"

If they refuse to believe, because the timing was wrong, when we could have waited on God for the right timing, their blood is again on our head. So there may be people's blood on our heads because we haven't been spending time in the inner sanctuary. That's where we all need to repent.

It is in the inner sanctuary that the wounds are going to be healed.

It is realising how poor we are in spirit and realising how short we have fallen, that we will see the Kingdom of God finally come to pass in power and glory.

It is by mourning in repentance for the state we are in that we will be comforted.

It is in meekness towards God and towards one another and acknowledging only who we are in Him, that we will finally inherit this earth which we've been fighting over.

It is hungering and thirsting for righteousness that will cause us to be filled with the presence of God.

Our place is in the inner sanctuary, and once we've stationed ourselves there, then the ball is in God's court. Return to head of chapter § Next Chapter

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footnote - 41 An example of "organic" logic would be the example given in the final chapter of the original Marta! Marta! book. There we saw how it is sometimes useful to throw together two apparently contradictory statements, such as, "Too many bakers spoil the dough," and, "Many hands make light work." Return to text

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footnote - 51 Surprisingly, the Talmudic rabbis foresaw the "great delay" before the church did! The following is from the Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 97a (the same passage as the above quotation of Rabbi Kattina and Rabbi Abaye):

It was taught in the School of Elijah, The world will endure six thousand years -- two thousand years in chaos, two thousand with Torah, and two thousand years will be the days of the Messiah.
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footnote - 61 In Rabbinical tradition, it is believed that when the righteous suffer and die, it is in atonement for their generation. "When there are righteous in a generation, the righteous are punished for the sins of that generation" (Shab 33b). How much more if the Righteous One is Messiah? Return to text

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