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A Latter Day Testament Book 2:

Why Messianic “Gentiles”/Hebrew Roots Believers will be subsumed unless they unite

Forward

The year is 2020 A.D.

It has been nearly 2000 years since Yeshua of Netzarat died in Yerushalayim (1,989 years to be exact) and after he was resurrected, the Emissaries (apostles), especially Paul, anticipated that Yeshua was soon to come, even that century! Of course, we now know that they were badly mistaken and even Yeshua said no such thing in his last recorded encounter with the Believers (Ma’aseh/Acts 1). Nevertheless, it has been nearly 2,000 years and we see ample evidence that His return is closer than ever before.

That is what worries me.

After the miraculous resurrection of the Messianic faith after a 1600-1700 year interlude, you’d think that Elohim’s people would have their “stuff in order”: they would be fully equipped to finish the work that Adonai started; they would be echad in their work; peace and harmony flowing from them and all the eyes of the Earth on them.

Anyone who calls themselves Messianic or some derivation of this latter day Faith, laughingly knows this is NOT the case, nor even remotely so!!

Why is this?!? Is it really a laughable matter?? Should not the Messianics be the ultimate Witness to the world, the true ambassadors of the coming eternal Kingdom? We know that YHVH has called no other People (nor Faith, by extension) to lead that Kingdom other than “Israel”. And yet, if we look into Yah’s standard, the Torah, and the Neviim, the Prophets and the B.e.s.h.a.c.h., the “New Testament”, we will see that we are failing in that task miserably and that Yeshua may tarry yet longer BECAUSE His people are not ready for the ultimate task!

…Or will he??

There is a thread of doctrine insinuated in the BeSHaCH[1] that suggests that the Lord will not come until his people are ready to receive Him. It is not a “hardened” doctrine because it isn’t as clear as Torah but it is suggestive of being so. The alternative to that thread of thought is that the Lord does not wait upon the Believers to be ready and that his return is fixed as suggested by Kefa when he said, “with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day” (2 Kefa/Peter 3:8), meaning, “time’s up” is almost here!

Either way, whether he tarries because of us or in spite of us, it is not a good thing because where I stand, ALL the Messianic people are failing to live up to their Calling, both Jewish and gentile Messianics, which means, if Yeshua came back today, there would be a lot of condemnation!! He gives mercy when we were called but Judgment begins as soon as we become His (Ma’asim 17:30-31).

In this series, I am going to go into depth as to why the Messianic Jews have become condemnable, why the Messianic gentiles are totally lost and disjointed and why nobody can or would ever find the Lost 10 Tribes (i.e. Northern Israel) nor should they align themselves with the Messianic Jews IF they were to gain consciousness of who they are!

It would be one thing if an outsider were writing this because it could be dismissed out rightly but unfortunately, I write this as one who knows and has been a Messianic ever since it really exploded worldwide…and then waned. When I was called into Messianism, it was the greatest experience I had ever had, bar none. I truly had a taste of what the Kingdom will be like someday but in time, less than a decade ago, the Messianic Jewish denominations organized into a hegemony and bought down the miraculous work that Elohim was doing worldwide and destroyed the very Work that would have, should have culminated into the coming Messianic Kingdom.

Yes, that Kingdom will come but it means that either a.) Adonai will have to punish the Messianic Jewish and gentile people pretty harshly or b.) He will have to start over with another people/faith. I don’t think the latter will happen because there isn’t that much time left to this era of human history and also because they were doing the right thing in the first place. They merely have to return to their “first love” as Yeshua tells one people in Revelation. I don’t mean return to the mistakes and doctrinal errors made, mind you, but to the bond of unity that was being developed by the Ruach ha-Kadosh! How do I know this? Because YHVH does not multiply a sect of people unless they please Him (or preordained for some other purpose) and there were some reports at the turn of the century that Messianism was the fastest growing religion in North America! My oh my how we have turned back so!

Like usual, it took Men to squash what Elohim was doing. In that same time period (coincidentally?), Secularism has arisen to new heights in the United States and those people are the same ones who condemn organized religion and say it is utterly useless, if not a hindrance to human enlightenment.

At this point, I can’t say I disagree.

May Elohim mercifully forgive the Messianics for what comes next in history because it sure don’t look good for us…

Introduction: “To the Gentile secondly”

In the spirit of Paul’s letter to the Romans, I now turn my warning to the gentile Believers of the Messianic Body. If you read book 1 and think I was pretty harsh on our Jewish brethren, you have even more correction/repentance to do! The Jews suffer from a couple major errors but the rest of Messianics, where does one begin?!? Like I said above, I have been around since Messianism really took off at the turn of the century but when the Messianic Jewish denominations divorced themselves from the rest of Messianics because we taught and lived as “One Torah & Covenant” people, these Believers really took a dive as they have become so “tribal” since then (as much as I hate that allusion).

By the way: that allusion is not a positive reference to the gentiles being “the Lost 10 Tribes”. I will take up that most complex topic in book 3. The allusion to being “tribal” is literally the best description of what non-Jewish Messianism has become – many tribal groups, fighting among each other like internecine warfare. Just as much with Messianic Jews but also with one another it seems. Messianism, or what gentiles have been forced to call themselves since Jews hijacked the term “Messianic”, “Hebrew Roots Believers” have devolved into mostly parochial-minded, doctrinal-directed Sabbath groups who many times can’t form a minyan because they can’t get along with any other groupies!!

I think the Father is totally let down by what Messianism has become because there really isn’t much time left in history to start with another people. In fact, I think the predictions spoken of in Revelation will be leashed upon “Hebrew Roots” Believers because they bring it on themselves!! It don’t have to happen that way; as I say constantly wherever I go, “no prophecy is expected to occur in one’s generation if one heeds the warnings about right and wrong elsewhere”. There are no dates to prophecy because the world isn’t born in a pre-destined state; some certain people are, but not planet earth.

IF THERE IS ONLY ONE BOOK OR WEB SITE OR ANY WRITING YOU READ THIS YEAR, HEAR ME IN THIS 2ND BOOK…

Chapter 1- Defining the Problem

One of the first problems that non-Jewish Messianics have and struggle with is that we have grown up in the western world. You can’t do anything about that. I am going to define a rather narrow thread that I believe One Torah & Covenant Messianics have been acting on (here on out to be referred to as O.T.C. Messianics or the historical, Netzarim).

OTC Messianics have come from every walk of life you can think of in the western world: Protestants, Catholics, secularists, and yes, even Judaism (those who don’t think the gentiles are prescribed for some other Torah) but the overwhelming majority are definitely from some Protestant tradition. I can attest to that: I was born and reared into the Mother of Protestant faiths, Lutheranism. Martin Luther started Christendom down a path where the Holy See knew it would go: into many thousands of sects. Even from the onset, there was more than one Reformer besides Luther and that’s because there never was total unity in Christendom, just forced unity. There were John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Menno Simons and even Sabbatarian Christians left over from the 4th century Netzarim. Some of these apart from Luther and Calvin were called “Radical Reformers” because they were trying to go even further than Luther in their reformation attempts. But the one thing they all had in common was their effort to purify the Christian faith! That’s it to put it simply.

The reader may have their own narrative worked out but I would argue that the Reformation never came to an end! That is really important to understand where the Messianic faith is concerned. One of the most critical points that Martin Luther had with the catholic hierarchy is that a Believer didn’t need a priest to interpret the Bible. Another is that Salvation came through Jesus Christ alone – not through Indulgences or any other “Work”. There are 93 other bullet points he taught but I just need to start on these alone because what he said, even if true, had far, far reaching effects that even Luther never dreamed would happen.

Because the catholic hegemony was so rife with doctrinal and theological errors (or should we say heresies!), the Reformation started the non-catholic down the path of “purifying” their faith as each generation passed, in each country where Protestantism went. Everyone knows how this country was founded right?? The Puritans and Pilgrims! Note how the “Puritans” were trying to “purify” their faith even apart from the Church of England, Anglicanism. That happened only a century after the Reformation started! Where are we now? 400 years later?!?

It is well-known that there are thousands of separate (protestant) Christian sects in the world. Think of some of the ones America has created in that time: Methodism, Mormonism, Quakerism, Adventism, to name a few. ALL have each in turn sought to purify the Christian faith either doctrinally or in lifestyle or both. It is not a hard sell by any means to see that modern Messianism/Hebrew Roots Movement has simply completed the loop that was destined to happen when you look at the motifs in the Beginning. Christianity was never supposed to be a separate religion from Judaism and a casual reading in the BeSHaCH[1]shows that the Roman empire didn’t distinguish the two at first. It was a perversion of the original Netzarim faith that established what is known now as “Christianity”. The Messianic Jews know this. We know this….but yet we don’t see everything else this has engendered because we are like fish living in water: we have never known any other environment other than the water we live in!

That environment is changing and with that, we can reassert biblical truths that have long, long, long been neglected – but that is precisely one of the first things I will advance in this chapter as being wayward.

Doctrinal Idols

The Western world is being “dechristianized”; we all know it. Most OTC Messianics have become more believing in Truth (biblical Truth) because western Christianity is being dismantled. This is both a blessing… and problem!

“A problem?!” you might ask incredulously?

YES, a problem. The problem with modern Messianism/Netzarimism is that we are continuing a Protestant tradition of purifying our doctrines to the point that Messianic goyim think that doctrine is ALL that matters to Elohim!! Without a catholic/protestant hegemony, there is nothing to keep OTC Messianics from splintering into as many Messianic sects as there have been Christian sects!

Doctrine rightly divided is Good to be sure but when Believers start another kehillah or church based only on a statement of dogma, then those Believers have made Doctrine an idol or a god (one-in-the-same to Him).

Doctrine is not the most important thing to Elohim. They are the bones which shape a Body but they are not THE Body itself.

And if you dispute that fact, tell me why does Yeshua allow Christianity to exist at all since we have pretty much restored almost all doctrines that have been neglected or will discover?? Or is it in vain that Messiah died for us while we were yet (ignorant) sinners?? (Rom.5:8, “ignorant” being added by me). According to what I see in the Messianic faith, all other people who “don’t believe like me” are going to be damned! Is that not the message that is sent when Messianics split into sects?

And still, there is a reason why OTC Messianics act and think like this…

Hyper-individualism

As stated in the beginning of this chapter, Martin Luther created the doctrinal rebellion against the catholic hierarchy because he said we didn’t need to have a priest to interpret the Bible. What isn’t commonly known about the background to this ruling is that catholics DID need a priest to interpret the Bible because it was kept in its Latin language since the 5th century. Luther said the people needed the Bible to be written in their own language and the people would be able to interpret the Bible just fine. (Unfortunately, what Luther didn’t think about was that Latin was 2 languages removed from the original and another translation would make it the 3rd language removed from the original, which would require ALL THE MORE an interpreter but that is another thesis…)

The fruit of this “new” teaching (in his time) is that it advanced Individuals over the Church. If you don’t need a priest to interpret the Bible, then this necessitates that individuals be given more freedom! This accords very much a strain that came with the Enlightenment Period or Renaissance. In fact, one could argue that Luther was a champion or founder of the Renaissance because it was another one of his doctrines that propped up this Individualism:

“Salvation comes through Christ alone and no other” (choose your favourite scripture for this; there are many)

If Salvation comes through Messiah alone, then what does this accentuate? Individualism, that is, the Individual over a Group, ANY Group!

Fast forward 500 years and what is the fruit of this motif? You have individual Believers who determine for themselves what is Right and Wrong – damned what your Church says! Why? Because “Jesus came to save you”. It isn’t about other people, we justify in our minds because after all, we aren’t their Judge. It’s only about you and your savior! It’s all about “my” salvation; my “righteousness” and so on ad infinitum.

I am not saying what Luther said was wrong or his motives were off but what has hyper-individualism created??

The Local Body is neglected

If it is all about “me” and Yeshua (or what the “Ruach revealed to me”), then there is no need to congregate with others. If other people believe as the same as me, then great! If not, oh well! “God is in charge. He will know what to do with them.”

These Doctrinal Idols and hyper-Individualism has become poisonous to the Messianic faith! There really isn’t much left of the “local body” to use common parlance. If this sounds remotely like your modus operandi, remember the Lord’s command to you, Individual Believer – “…the seventh day is a Shabbat…a holy convocation.” (Vay.23:3). Convocation is a command to gather together with others! He didn’t say “if you like the other people” or put any qualifiers on it. WE put qualifiers on it, such as: “as long as they agree with me” or “they teach correct doctrine”, etc.

There is a reason for the local kehillah. We will cover that in later chapters.

Good Works Neglected

Here is yet another area Martin Luther influenced that we have lost sight of:

Martin Luther sounded like he was very much against “Works” and indeed, one can verify that since he was coming against some of the Works of the catholic church, he was against human “Works”. In the centuries since then, many a Protestant minister has vilified the word “Works” (that I keep putting in quotes) because Paul spoke a lot about it in the Shlichim (or Apostolic Writings) and Paul almost always put Works in a negative context. We all agree with this and know this is why we need Salvation.

BUT – one of the times Paul did not put Works in a negative light was

“For we are…created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do.” (Eph.2:10)

Because there isn’t much of a Local Body in most places where Believers live, there has been a lack of Good Works/actions to be done by the local Body of Messiah. If there isn’t any Good Work being done, then Messiah is being made invisible to the world! Oh yes, I can hear people say now, “you can do a good work without other people” and I will say you can do a few things but you won’t make an impact in your society without the others from your Body!

Yes! Do Good always. Of course; but don’t think it is about you and Yeshua alone! He created you – and the other, and yet more others far off. When you congregate, you are necessarily doing a Good Work on a basic level. But that is not happening in most places where there could be a kehillah.

The Greater Body is neglected

This is sort of self-evident: if there isn’t any local Body (due to the tribal attitude of the locals), then the Greater Body is being neglected also.

We all know there is a “Body of Messiah”. All the Shlichim/Emissaries speak about it but we are in deep darkness so to speak. If the local Believers can’t cooperate to produce a kehillah and Good Works, then there is no way the national or worldwide Body of Messiah can do anything! The “Greater Body” is a cripple! Is this why Secularism is on the rise in the U.S. and the Western world?!? I believe there is something to that analogy, something that will be addressed later also.

No Oversight

Again, we can say because of the above, because there isn’t a functioning Body of Messiah, then there is no oversight, that is, there is no Leadership or Accountability in the Body!! ANY organization that exists must have leadership or accountability. In fact, I will make the axiom right now: if there is no accountability, then an organization does not exist!

For American and other western Believers, this may actually be a comfort to them! We have defined Freedom in such a way as to deign any Authority as an antithesis to Freedom! REALLY MY FELLOW MESSIANIC/NETZARIM BELIEVERS?? IS THAT WHAT THE 2020 INSURRECTIONS HAVE TAUGHT YOU?? I think it is high-time that we realize that we have come to swallow some poisonous strains of Philosophy in our culture and this is one of them!

Good Authority=Freedom;

Bad Authority=Slavery

If we are talking about the Kingdom of Yah and people who are truly “Spirit-guided”, then it is in our Individual interests to look for that “Greater Body”. I am getting ahead of myself but there is a way to have authority without slavishness to a Religion or religious leader. That is what the Atheists and Anarchists see and we Messianics have grown too used to being “the final authority” in our lives. We SAY that Yeshua is our LORD and thus, He would have the final word but that cannot be so if there are hundreds of Messianic sects in just three generations. (yes, modern Messianism has only been around since the 60’s, going into our third generation regardless of any forerunners who came before this)

We will now look at the conclusions of these problems/symptoms.

Chapter 2 – Conclusions to Netzarim/Messianic Problems

Everything I described in the first chapter, I have either personally done or experienced. Not many years ago, Messianic Believers started calling Messianism, “MessyAntics” if you can believe it. Sadly, those who called their faith that were perpetrating many of the problems I described or in other words, were self-fulfilling their nightmares! These are not people that should be instructing others of their “revelations”; they should not be leading campaigns of Good Works (not that they are). They are the ones who need prayer and need to be shepherded. Before we talk about solutions to this “Work of Men”, we need to ask ourselves a few questions.

If there is no Body…

As I stated in the first chapter, if there is no Greater Body, then what are we??

Really; I ask in all frankness because when I was looking for a truer religion as a young man, I was searching out to find a Body of people who might know and give meaning to my worthless, useless life. That is what Faith or Religion is – a cohort of people guided by some god (or higher Being). That is until Messianic goyim came along…

If we are not a Body, then I would analogize us as a bunch of Atoms. What are atoms? Atoms are not anything. They exist in Nature to be bounded with other atoms and more atoms until they become something tangible.

If I was to describe our sordid state, I would say we are atoms and are not anything right now! Atoms are invisible to humanity. We don’t see them. Elohim didn’t create and save people to be invisible. There is something greater happening and Elohim is always on the move!

Think of it this way: if we are not a Body of Believers, tangible and visible to the world, we cannot bear Witness because we are invisible; we cannot feed because we have not a hand; we cannot walk out our dreams or take the Road to the Kingdom because we have no feet; we cannot speak because we have not a mouth or tongue. Only if enough atoms are gathered together in one place do you have a mouth, feet, hands or head, etc. Messianic goyim think they themselves are the Body of Christ just because Paul said that His Spirit lives within us. Maybe so. Atoms are animated by some energy source but that doesn’t mean they are anything. They float through time-space just existing. No one worries about atoms that are “out there” because they are of no consequence!

If we are just atoms…

One of the most exciting things I learned when I was becoming Messianic many years ago was the Jewish concept of “Tikkun Olam”. Obviously I came to this faith through our Jewish brethren but the idea is very biblical. It means “Reparation of the World” – THIS WORLD! Some Sabbatarian people who have been associated with certain Churches of God are very antithetical to this motif. They aren’t much different than their Sunday cousins who aren’t worried about anything in this world except “being caught up in the Rapture train”. Such Believers couldn’t give a hoot about repairing this world because they say “Jesus will do it all when he comes back”. If your ultimate goal of faith is just to be saved, then give this book to someone else and don’t talk to me!

The true Faith, the faith of Messiah Yeshua is not primarily about eternal Salvation. Yeshua called us to do something but we cannot do ANYTHING if we are just atoms!! Even nature teaches that.

If the sole reason we exist is so we can uncover more “biblical Truths” for the rest of our days, we don’t need a church or local Body to do that. We just need to know the biblical languages, Hermeneutical philosophy (how we interpret the Bible) and some Geography and some History. For that matter, what do we need a congregation for? What I just described is what social or educational clubs do. Nobody would call an after school social a religion!!

Are we the people of Yehuah?

Really?

If our personal belief trumps anyone and everything else; if we cannot form into local Bodies, much less a greater, Regional or National Body; if there is no accountability in our faith; if no Work greater than ourselves is being done,

Are we really the people of YHVH – the ones who “were once not a people, but now are God’s people” (1Kefa 2:10; Eph.2:19)??? Who said that we were “special”, a “chosen people”?? Some ancient prophet or evangelist who knows us not? What Spirit said “we are His” if we do only what we want? What Brotherhood is there in 2020? Who is going to believe a person who thumps their Bible (or Constitution for that matter) and says, “The Bible says…” or “our forefathers meant this…”??

I had a very serious spiritual crisis when I was a teenager (most do nowadays!) and the Lord led me down the road to where I am today but between the poison pill of the Messianic Jews and their genealogy and Torah-for-them only and the poison pill of Americanism and Western philosophy of the rest of the Messianic people, I have to ask who are Elohim’s people?? Is this the way the world ends?? Or is the End coming because we, ALL OF YAH’S PEOPLE, have failed to do the Work necessary to maintain Humanity until Yeshua returns?? The latter question implicates great guilt for all of us if this is how Revelation comes about! We all ask, “Will YHVH allow us to experience the Tribulation even before THE last seven years come about?”

Why not? Have we no choice in the matter of our lives?! It is time the non-Jewish Messianic people really become conscious of what’s at stake – and the rewards!

Chapter 3 – What does Yehuah want from us collectively?

Notice that I am not speaking about His Will for you as an individual. You don’t need instruction on that and the Bible does not focus on that. You will find nowhere in the Bible “you (name) shall do this for the rest of your life” because it is really self-evident what you should do individually: take note of your natural talents and work in something that uses them. To that Paul adds that you should take into account what gifts he gives you upon immersion/salvation. (That may be more in the realm of doctrine but I think most people would agree to the latter).

The key word of this chapter is “collectively” because no matter how strongly you feel about “individual salvation” that is stressed far more in the Beshach (see footnote from chapter 1 on this term), when you come to realize that Torah is for you because you were and are being saved, you become conscious that Elohim is speaking more to “you all” and “we” than He is to individuals. Torah has no meaning unless there are “others”! And what do we do with those “others”? What is our relationship with them??

Perhaps that is one of the fundamental problems: maybe Messianics don’t know that when they vow that Yeshua is their Messiah, they have covenanted with Him…and everyone else that has done the same ritual for the past 2000 years! This is where I will begin: not with the concept of Covenant but what the New/Renewed Covenant[2] really requires of us Netzarim/Hebrew Roots Believers

A.  Acceptable Will

I discovered long ago that Paul’s talk of the renewal of Israel (the backdrop to Romans 12) revealed something about the nature of Elohim that I never knew possible. In Romans 12:2 (in the NKJV here and other versions), Paul talks about not the WILL of Elohim/Yah but His WILLS. We don’t have a linguistic concept for this subject because English-speaking people only think Elohim has a WILL – singular. And yes, while there is only ONE El-Elyon, one God Most High, Paul presents Him as someone who has multiple Wills or Desires.

Note the tripartite nature of his “Will” in Romans 12:2 – “…that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” Again, “Will” is singular in the English but he clearly denotes that His Will is multiple.

Why is that??

Is this just another reference to the Trinity godhead? Does the Father have a split personality??…Or is it because we are sinful beings and when we sin, we go down a path (for a time) that is NOT His Will for us?

I have, of course, led you to another profound subject that is not the subject of this book but suffice it to say, I believe Elohim, the Father, has a Will for each of us but when we sin, sometimes we cannot return to the Path He desired for us. That is one reason why He has “multiple” Wills for us.

The other reason He has multiple Wills for us individually and collectively is because He allows us to choose our Reward that He, Yeshua, will grant to each of us at his return. Not one of us will get the same Reward(s) when he returns; that much is plain.

So, the question is: what is Yah’s “acceptable” Will for us? What is the minimum that we should do collectively as Believers?? Here is one thing I glean from all the Word:

“…the seventh day is a Shabbat of complete rest, a holy convocation; you are not to do any kind of work.” (Vay.23:3)

There are many other mandates that one could say is His acceptable Will such as the first part of the above verse which tells us to work up to 6 days. Find a profession, something for which to support and love your family. Yes, this would be “acceptable” also but what I am aiming for in this chapter is what He wants the “Greater Body” to do.

If you do this, I believe you and I, all of us, have fulfilled the minimum as a Believer in greater Israel.

BUT, note that Elohim doesn’t just want us to keep the Sabbath day holy but to sanctify it by “convocating”, which is just an older word for assembling together all the individual Believers. This, we should do but we are not in this day-in-age.

If you meet with only one or a few or several people because you are either too far from others to have a congregation or live in a hostile country to Sabbath-keepers, you can be sure that you are doing the minimum that pleases YHVH.

What this is and what it is not

Everyone needs a starting place, especially when you are converting to Messianism. Our Jewish brethren have been at this far longer than some of us babies but when you don’t have enough to found a congregation and a building, Jews just assemble as a chavurah until the above can be achieved. A chavurah is nothing more than what we call “Fellowships”.

Fellowships start out of people’s homes because renting a hall is just huge money these days in North America. Fellowships allow for companionship, friendship and prayer-partners. It is all you can do since the average Joe doesn’t earn enough, even with several people, to buy a meeting building. It is something on which the Lord can build.

In this Age of technology, it has been made possible to create “online” services. I do not believe this fulfills the command in Vayikra! Here’s why:

“Virtual communities” is an abomination and perversion of the intent of Adonai. If you participate in this only, you are not “congregating” which means coming, in-person, to a REAL geographical place for His purposes. “Virtual” gatherings are an excuse not to actually accomplish something of value; it is an excuse not to actually get to know people; it is the easy way to do something and say you “did it”. It makes us weak.

I can go on and create another sub-chapter on this but I hope people will get it and not just make an exception. There are very good reasons why I strongly condemn the “virtual church movement” (if you want a name) and I know Sabbath-keeping people both Messianic and Christian who go to their computer every week, watch some teaching (or live worship service) and go on the rest of their Sabbath day and week like they took time out for an itch! That isn’t Sabbath worship; that is just a Bible study which you are free to do any day of the week, any year!

Yes, I do believe our faith has “devolved” since being resurrected. And those who teach that the “highest form of Worship is studying Torah/Bible” are confusing Jewish tradition with biblical injunctions!

Fellowshipping/congregating means something and it is meant to accomplish something for us collectively! Please read the rest of the chapter to know why I strongly oppose what is evolving in our faith.

B. His Good Will

In the Romans 12 passage above, Paul uses the term “acceptable”. In comparison to the other two qualities, one could render the term “acceptable” as in “o.k.”If Yeshua was talking to you about comparisons, he would say that what you are doing is “o.k.” – but I will show you a better way! Forming Fellowships is “O.k./acceptable” in his sight but he would encourage us all to do better. That is, His “good” Will.

What can be better than having a local Fellowship? I kind of gave it away above: if you can gather enough people to form a kehillah or congregation, that would be far more beneficial to each member of that group. If we use the Jewish concept of “minyan” (at least 10 members) or Yeshua’s standard of 12 talmidim, who are committed to meeting regularly, you will likely have more of a chance to purchase a meeting hall or construct a new building.

The first thing you may be thinking about is why am I stressing the purchase of a building since Paul said we are the Temple of the Living Yah?? A few reasons:

One is that Paul was speaking allegorically in those verses. He is not saying we ARE the Temple of Yah or else why would Yehuah build yet another Temple in the Millennium and eternity if WE are the Temple of Yah? We are not his literal Temple because YHVH only wants ONE Temple and it will be in the vicinity of Yerushalyim. (read book 3 as to why it is in the vicinity and not IN Jerusalem proper).

Two, because it is Yehuah that stresses congregating on Shabbat. A meeting hall, collectively bought with local tithes, belongs to everyone whereas meeting in someone’s house is just that – their house and thus subject to their rules which is not proper for a holy, set-apart people. A kehillah should have leaders but not the one who is most able to provide a space for people to meet just because they have money!

The Benefits of a kehillah/congregation

The benefits of having a kehillah are many times more than being a fellowship. Besides having the companionship, friendship and prayer-partners of a chavurah/fellowship, you can achieve the following:

  • Establish local leadership
  • Be a literal Witness to your neighbourhood
  • Begin Good Works programs
  • A place where the Believers can plan around

Let’s briefly look at each of these aspects: with a kehillah, you can begin creating leadership that you can’t do in a fellowship. Fellowships that try to establish “leadership” before there are 10-12 adults is rather presumptuous and vain. For example, if there are 3 that meet together and another couple that come “on occasion”, it’s pretty stupid for someone to get up and say “I am the priest/pastor/rabbi of this group and you two shall be the parishioners. If the other couple comes then you (Joe) will be over them and be my assistant”. You have to have a permanent presence before you can begin talking about “leadership”. Fellowships don’t have the “permanence” by nature. If Yah wants to build a presence in your community, HE will add to your numbers. Most fellowships don’t last for very long which is why Messianic Directories are so misinformed and outdated! Human nature prevents fellowships from being permanent but if that small group is guided by the Ruach ha-Kadosh, then they will be permanent in time because Yah will add numbers to them and they can form a kehillah.

Being a literal Witness to your neighbourhood means that the rest of the town/city can see there is a religious group in their midst, meaning that they can check it out if they are curious. Fellowships work in the shadows because there isn’t a very good mechanism for advertising their existence. A building is an automatic advertising sign! And if people are hostile to your presence, usually you have the support of local police. Having a building means something: it means “permanence” because buildings are made to last for generations. If the presence of the Ruach is there, then you should be too.

The biggest benefit of a kehillah is that you have enough people to start doing outreaches, drives and other Good Works. Fellowships can do this too but it isn’t set up to be long-lasting and the people don’t usually live close enough. I remember an Elder in a Sabbatarian church I went to long ago who advocated that we buy a radio station that came for sale at the time. It was a great idea but the fact was, even though we were a church (from my definition here), we didn’t have the manpower to sustain such a station even if we got the money! On top of that, we rented the Quaker meeting Hall so we couldn’t house the equipment on our site. And that is precisely my point about making the next step that Father would call Good/better: when you organize as a team, you can do so much more than individuals in a home fellowship! Elohim blesses us individually but He blesses us even more as a “group”- His group.

Finally, when you have a congregation and they are able to buy or build a building (which takes even more money than a dozen or even two dozen tithe payers can pay these days in the average American city), you can begin to plan things around this meeting hall because it isn’t going anywhere! Even dying churches continue on in their communities because they are able to rent out their buildings to people like us!!

As you can see from this subsection, online “communities” (such a perverted use of the word) cannot possibly do any of the things that we talked about in this chapter. The internet is a place where one can prepare a foundation but if it only stays on the internet, then it isn’t anything more than an informational source. Yehuah does not intend for His faith to be a Philosophy! As Paul said, Knowledge puffs up. It doesn’t do anything! The Kingdom of Yah is action-oriented which brings us to the final and “perfect” Will of Yah.

Chapter 4 – The Perfect Will of Elohim

Paul spoke about the “perfect Will” of Elohim to the Romans. Everyone wants to do Yah’s perfect Will of course but as we shall see in this separate chapter, the perfect Will of Yah cannot be done by any one of us alone. If you think that keeping the Torah is the “perfect Will of Yah” (as some Orthodox Rabbis would have you think), Paul also said to the Romans that living by Torah is only the minimum standard and all of it can’t be performed by us individually.

Also to be repeated before beginning is that Elohim gives us ALL a choice in what to do in Life so that He can reward us proportionately at Yeshua’s return. Again, that is why He has multiple “Wills”. What I say here in this chapter is, I believe, His perfect Will for us, collectively, but even I have not achieved this level. I have entered into negotiations about it but I can do nothing of myself because I am not an elohim!

Because Abba values the gathering of His people so much, it should not be surprising if it was said that His perfect Will is what His people do together. Granted: Abba and Yeshua love each of you readers. That is the milk of the Word as Paul would say. But it should be obvious that Elohim did not give any one of us all the Talents/Gifts to do His Will (1 Cor.12).

Yeshua’s legacy

When it comes to Yeshua’s life in the flesh, I think we can all agree, regardless of what kind of Messianic that we are that Yeshua lived the perfect Will of the Father. Can we not?

What was that perfect Will? That he obeyed all the mitzvot? That he obeyed unto death? Yes, this is part of the answer and why his death and resurrection was so significant – BUT that was his personal mission, not to be done or replaced by anyone else. No one else can be Messiah because he fulfilled that role. Therefore, we can say that that mission is not all there is about doing the perfect will of Elohim.

Since we cannot emulate what Yeshua did in death, it becomes all the more noteworthy what he did in this earthly LIFE that should be considered. You will note in the Gospel/Besorah books that Yeshua was often doing things as an “example” for people or something to emulate. The footwashing service is the most famous example but that was not all he expected us to “imitate”. What was his lifestyle? Americans would call his lifestyle “living simply” in this age and truly he did so because He was aware of who he was and where he came from. But living simply or intentionally poor was not something that he could have done alone. Remember we are still asking from chapter 3 what Elohim wants from us collectively?

Yeshua was born to be a leader but unlike other biblical leaders, he did something unique: he lived with his talmidim during his 3 ½ year mission. Leaders don’t usually do that. They lived their lives together as a community or as Jews would say, a moshav or a kibbutz (all of these with different shades of meaning). If you weren’t aware of this, note what Kefa/Peter said to Yeshua at one point:

“Look, we have left everything and followed you. So what will we have?” (Matt.19:27ff)

The point is they were a community that grew to 120 people when Yeshua died (Ma’asim 1:15). And if you don’t think they lived a communal lifestyle after Yeshua died, Ma’asim 2 makes that even more clear:

“…and there were added to the group [the Netzarim] that day about three thousand people. They continued faithfully in the teaching of the emissaries, in fellowship, in breaking of bread and in the prayers…All those trusting in Yeshua stayed together and had everything in common; in fact, they sold their property and possessions and distributed the proceeds…day after day, the Lord kept adding to them those who were being saved.”(verses 41-47)

I don’t mean to skip over verses above because you can read it on your own but I merely wanted to emphasize what kind of people they were and why Messianism exploded from the onset of the first Pentecost.

I don’t think I have ever come across a Believer who didn’t think the first generation wasn’t living the perfect Will of Elohim. Having said that, it never occurs to them WHY it was so! There is a unique power of Love and Commitment that comes with being a Community member, something that can’t be done by any other organizational form. There is much, much more to be said about this but in case I lost some readers above at the mention of “community”, let us quickly review what a Community is NOT!

What a Community is NOT

Many, many people usually get turned off when they hear the word “commune” or “community” and that is because it has gotten such a negative rap, especially from the unbelievers who tried it or even from religious people who later had “buyer’s remorse”. The most recent rap against religious communities if you were around in the 90’s was the Waco commune that was attacked by the U.S. government. If you remember, they were a Sabbath-keeping people, an offshoot of the Adventist sect. The problem with their community wasn’t their love of guns or even their polygamous practice but rather the typical abuse of the Community leader/founder. The number one problem with true Communities of YHVH/Yeshua has been the complete lack of check of power on the Leader (it is almost always an individual). If a leader is set up as a Christ, that is, an “anointed, unopposed leader”, more times than not, abuse will result. Therefore, I will state up front before advancing this issue that:

A community should not be set-up as a cult of Personality.

There should be strong leaders just like a village or town needs a strong leader to have a permanent presence but religious communities have almost always failed on the basis of worshipping a charismatic leader. We already have a charismatic leader – Yeshua and he said God is our Father. There is no basis for having a single, unopposed leader in a community. Paul said to the Corinthians in chapter 12 that he gave gifts to ALL people who have been baptized with water and the Spirit therefore, there should be many “strong” leaders if you have 10-12 families starting out.

Failed communities show us what the Millennium will look like someday. Yes, we will have a strong, charismatic leader, Yeshua, and yes, we will have to obey him but did you notice that even Yeshua set up a Quorum (Discipleship) of 12 in Israel to rule with him? Yeshua models everything we need to succeed in this life!

To expand on what a community is not:

  • A community is not an online, internet group. If people are not willing to move where people can gather in-person, then they are not interested in even being a “religious organization”; it’s a social club
  • A community is not a local fellowship for many of the same reasons above. Fellowships are the beginning of a “religious organization” but it doesn’t have permanence, accountability and everything we talked about earlier
  • A community is not even a congregation; a kehillah can be the basis of a future community if everyone invests in common property around the meeting building and creates legal positions of authority

Benefits of a Community

Many, many, if not the whole modern Body of Messiah has failed to grasp what a Messianic community should be because most Believers have come forth from either Christianity or Judaism and they do not practice what Yeshua practiced! It comes as no surprise then that most Believers have been deceived as to what biblical community is. A kehillah/congregation emulates what a community does in some aspects, but even the congregation is just a tight-knit social club that can be disbanded at any time! Not so with a biblical community; and that is just one of the benefits.

Communities are like corporations or nations – that is, they have an “ongoing eternal interest”. They don’t come to an end just because a leader dies or even if half the people die or go away. They continue on because everyone makes a tangible, financial commitment, as Yeshua made clear in Luke 14:33. To put in context, they were sacrificing to follow him but the principle is just the same for those who joined the Netzarim communities that began in Jerusalem at first. It wasn’t a rich person giving up what they had; it was everyone’s fair due to prove they had commitment to the other Believers in that Community, whether it was Jerusalem, Ephesus, Galatia, Thessalonica, etc.

 That is the difference between Community and all other forms of Messianic organization! Community has all the benefits of a fellowship plus a congregation but the reason a community will last beyond a lifetime or another 2,000 years is because only in Community do you have real, religious commitment. Just like you have to invest to be a “shareholder” in a corporation to receive any of its benefits, so is a biblical community. If you doubt this, take note of how many Messianic churches or congregations there has been since the 1990’s and how many still exist? If Messianic churches or congregations were real Communities, they would never go away. In fact, I can name all of the (Sabbath-keeping) communities on my right hand:

  1. The Twelve Tribe Communities (with branches all over the Americas and W.Europe)
  2. A Sacred Name community in S.C.
  3. A Messianic Christian one in Eskdale, UT
  4. [3]

And if there be any other ones, I am not aware of it to date. Many would consider the Amish and the Orthodox Jews to be biblical communities and truly, they are an inspiration but they are in reality “cooperatives” which function very nearly to a community but are not because they do not create interlocking interests, that is, they do not hold everything in common as our spiritual ancestors did. It is a viable alternative but I would say that if that were the goal, then how do you accommodate the ones who don’t have much to invest, much less in a property in a neighborhood that no one can afford except the family advocating everyone else live where they do!!

(And I have to add this since Zac Bauer has become an internet leader: do NOT learn community from that man. He does not advocate biblical community and his attitude about being with brethren stinks to high heaven. He is not a team player. If you listen to his teaching on community, you would learn the typical attitude of a “religious” American person: “you live over there; I’ll live here and don’t tell me what to do”. That is not community folks! I am horrified by his teaching on Community)

Yeshua’s foundation for his Lifestyle

The reason that the initial Messianic Believers formed communities wasn’t just because Yeshua said to (Luke 14:33; Matt.19:27). Yeshua knew that he came to establish a new priesthood. And Yeshua was Torah-observant (of course). So how did a priest live who was in Covenant?

The answer is clearly delineated in Bemidbar 35. Yeshua created his community based on the model, the instruction given to Israel in Bem 35:1-8. There you will see that the Leviim weren’t given a state or province as an inheritance like the rest of Israel but they were given “cities” because, as a flesh and blood representative, you have to live somewhere!

The only thing I would note to the Believer is that even though the Word says “cities”, if you look at the measurement of these “cities”, they were set up more as we would call a “community”, rather than one big, sprawling land mass that grows over time like cities do! These Levitical communities were contained and self-sufficient, in a manner of speaking. No other Israelite lived in Levitical communities except if that community was a city of refuge (Bem.35:9-15)

(In fact, if we had communit(-ies), we could protect a member who man-slaughtered someone or some other grievous worldly sin that could incarcerate them in the world’s jail. It is better to have them “incarcerated” among us than doing nothing in a worldly jail!)

The point is that Yeshua didn’t live the lifestyle he did just because he didn’t want to be weighed down by mammon and possessions; it was another example he did that he wanted us to imitate if we want GREAT reward for eternity. BUT, to repeat, this is not something you can do on your own (unless you have a family as large as Patriarch Ya’akov that is). In this day and Age, we will have to negotiate our way into such a set-up because we come from an egalitarian society (in theory) and no one can say with authority, “you give this, and I will give that…”If we had someone trustworthy as Kefa in our day, who headed the community that Yeshua started that became the 120 that became the “Mother Assembly” (historical term) in Jerusalem, then it would be a lot, lot easier to do but we do not have a common leader to do so. Thus, 21st century communities would be negotiated or entered into by covenant.

“HOW”?!? (You may ask)

Without writing another treatise on biblical community that I wrote many years ago, the long and the short is: if you are a worker in the world (and you can keep that position after forming a community), that is, an employee, you would give up more. If you are self-employed, have a company that can continue after community is formed, you give up less because it takes more resources to sustain a business, especially one which can hire brethren. If you are a large family with children, you would give up less because the main burden of supporting a family is the parents; if you are a small family (like my wife and I), we would be giving up more because we have fewer dependents.

Everything else: IT DOESN’T MATTER what you do or how you do it because Yeshua will support anything that is biblical at this point! We are far, far, FAR too diversified of a people, doctrinally, to let doctrines get in the way of community formation. Remember what I said in chapter 1: if doctrines are getting in the way of creating true, godly, covenant relationships (community of course), then you are idolizing Doctrines and you are in Sin. You love a particular doctrine?? Make it a negotiating point but don’t let it be THE condition by which you commit to the Body or not!

Chapter 5 –Messianic Communities & Yehuah’s Ultimate Desire

If you aren’t scared off by this point in what I have written, it means you really love Yah and his Servants (1 Yochanan 4:21) even if you don’t know how to make Community happen. It’s ok; what you should remember is that whatever state you are in collectively, you should always seek to do or be better! THAT, I believe is what Yeshua will bless.

Remember too that we have spoken about the “Wills” of Elohim. He is pleased with all forms of collective action but we shouldn’t think that we will receive anything of substance from Him [our eternal Reward(s)] if we aren’t living His “perfect” Will. I DO believe that if you, individual, were called to do a certain ministry, and you are doing it, you should merely be doing that with a Greater Body. There is no one of authority who can say to you that you shouldn’t do such and such ministry if that is what Elohim gave you to do! He wants you to do that but be part of a team. That is what Messianic Gentiles lack in this age…Or should I say, in this culture?? That leads to the next topic.

Community and Culture

When you have a biblical Community, that is, where everyone is invested into everyone else, you will create such stronger relationships that a “culture” will emerge from that community. I don’t need to create much of a picture to describe what I mean. I merely have to point to Chasidic communities or any other ethnic community to describe Culture.

When you have real Community, people know who you are and where you are because they naturally exhibit and create a “culture”. They do things a certain way; they talk a certain way; they think a certain way. They become a unit of society in themselves sometimes. If you want to befriend or join the Chasidim, you have to approach them and get to know them. If you like them but just want to do business with them, you have to do the same. No matter what scenario you choose, you will note that they have influence over you, not you over them!! This should strike several biblical injunctions to the Messianic Believer:

  1. Yeshua calls us out of the World, not into the World (Yoch.17:17-19; Rev.18:3) – (being “holy” means being separate. Yeshua only sends us back in to the world to save others…)
  2. You learn holiness only by being with like-minded people, not by being a friend with the world (Ya’acov 4:4; 1 Cor.15:33)
  3. The more Witnesses to the Kingdom there are in any given locale, the less can Unbelievers deny that Kingdom
  4. You have Group protection from enemies

If you are honest, you will recognize that you, individually, cannot accomplish any of these things as a Congregation, much less a fellowship or online “community”! In those settings, you go home into the world after the Sabbath is done, not into the Kingdom. You have heard the saying, “Don’t let anyone come between you and your spouse/spiritual brother”. This saying has context behind it but maybe one of those contexts should be taken literally: don’t let anyone come between you and your brother; don’t let a common, secular person live between you and your brethren. “Stick closer than a brother” (Mishlei 18:24).

What I am saying in this whole thesis is not in any way spiritual, although the Bible (Elohim’s word) commends it. Even worldly, immigrant people exhibit the trait of community better than us! What does that say? I used the Chasidim above as an example of biblical community but the reality is, whenever an immigrant has moved to this country in all its history, immigrants organized into ethnic groups. Why?? Because not only would it make it easier to communicate with one another, but they understood each other better than a native American would! They loved being with each other. They built local businesses together. I saw this growing up in southern New England. Where I grew up, anyone could point out where the Portuguese community was, the Italian community, the Polish community, etc. If you didn’t know where they were, a person knew you were not a Native to the area. (People think the Latinos are being rebellious but in fact, they aren’t doing anything different than any other ethnic group who came here! What America is uncomfortable with is not their foreign language usage but that there isn’t a “topping off” of immigration. That isn’t their problem; that is a problem with our politics, another topic entirely…!)

Culture and a Nation-State

Many American Believers whether they are Messianic, Christian or Jewish, all decry the loss of faith in our culture. What are they really grumbling about when they say this? It isn’t just a loss of faith: there is a reason why there is a loss of faith!

The reason I talked about Community & Culture above is because they are linked together. The term “Culture” actually comes from Agronomy, the study of soil management and crop production. We should all be able to relate to this whether we have done farming or not because Yeshua spoke about the deep things of the Kingdom using agriculture as the metaphor.

If we, America, have a “faithful culture”, as America has been since the beginning, we are “faithful” because we had faith and we nourished that faith from generation to generation. That is such a simple statement but there is so much more to be said that that statement is only a thesis statement of the underlying reality. To understand why we are or are not “faithful” anymore has to do with Culture. I was utterly ignorant of what “culture” really meant because I grew up in a city but I will confess that if you read world renowned Wendell Berry’s writings, especially his Unsettling of America, you will get an entirely new perspective of Life you never knew existed! I really could copy and paste pages and pages of his words that would illuminate what he said but as it relates to the Kingdom and Elohim’s Will, the basis would go like this:

Yeshua likened us and the Kingdom to a farm field. Abba is the Great Farmer and he wants to produce abundant crops. How would He do this? How would ANY farmer do this? (This is why he attracted such masses of people by the way…) A farmer would prepare the soil for production (if it wasn’t used previously). If the soil isn’t any good, crops will not be good/abundant. We can all relate to that but a true Agronomist understands what good soil is and how to make it better if it isn’t. Crops do not grow in a vacuum folks! They grow in a soil that has “culture”. That “culture” is as complex as our very own bodies. It largely determines what kind of crops you get.

Yeshua called a farm field the world (Matt.13:38; Yoch.4:35). In that “Field” is some rocky patches, some salty patches and some “good” soil which would be fertile for producing Food/Life. Two things can be said from this midrash: one is, where are you living in the world? Are you somewhere where you can produce Yah’s Kingdom or is it just a place because you like it?? Secondly, if you are anywhere where the soil isn’t fertile, you won’t become a plant, much less a fruitful plant. The Word isn’t as explicit in the Beshach (N.T.) but it is quite explicit in the Tanakh! Whether you are a genetic Jew or a grafted-in Jew (and you can’t be a grafted-in Israelite because there is no existing Israelite nation yet – more on that in Book 3), you weren’t an Israelite if you didn’t live IN ISRAEL!

My question to the entire Body of Messianics/Netzarim is quite simple: if we live scattered all over Creation, then how is it that we think that we are the Kingdom?!? To use another analogy: if you have 12 individuals who lived in the Dakotas (a desolate region) and they lived in two areas where there could be two home fellowships or they all lived near one of the larger cities and they had a congregation, how could such a people say “We are the Messianic Kingdom represented in North/South Dakota” if they only gather together two hours on any Sabbath, if that nowadays! Again, I have to keep repeating that I am not knocking such organizations because that is the Will of Yah too but if you have HIS Spirit that yearns for so much more of “His Kingdom”, why would you NOT move closer to where the locus of people are or create business relationships with the Brethren?? We live in the Western world. We live where we are by choice! We are not Communist China or the Soviet Union who controlled where people may live! If you agree that being in Covenant with Yeshua means he gets to tell you what to eat, what to dress, how to speak, what kind of work you do…..but not WHERE you may live?!? What kind of Lord-Servant relationship is that??

The Ruach ha-Kadosh and Yeshua said more than once in the Beshach that he is calling us to be a “Kingdom of Kings and Priests” (1Kefa 2:9; Rev.1:6) [some versions only say Priests but that does not matter for our point] This is NOT an allegory – Abba is really calling us to be a “Kingdom” or as we say now, a “Nation”. The Kingdom has no meaning to anyone unless it is literal and present. Yes, WE COULD BE that nation but we aren’t because there isn’t any representation of that Body that people can see and observe!!

Am I saying that we all need to move to Israel?? NO! And neither do they want us! I AM saying that Yah is trying to build a Faithful Nation and has been since Yeshua left the earth because only a nation can convert the world and bring Elohim’s present Order to an End. Is the present state of Israel that Witness? NO and by no means no! They are just another nation on earth who has some faithful Jews living there.

Replacement Theology?

Am I advocating that we replace the Jews as Yah’s people? Yah forbid. I am simply saying that modern “Israel” is NOT that Witness to the world whether they are promoting Dual Covenant Theology (thesis in Book 1) or promoting a Kingdom without Yeshua. Either way, Abba is still trying to create that faithful Nation. And he said many times in the Tanakh that He would use another Nation to fulfill His purposes if they failed from Devarim all through the Prophets. Yes, we are to be One people under YHVH with both the Israelites and Jews but that fulfillment won’t happen until Yeshua comes…

How can we be a Nation when we are so scattered and so few??

Very simply in one respect; the model is a very simple Sociological principle: a Nation is made up of states or provinces. States are made up of counties; counties are made up of cities and cities are made up of a composite number of Neighbourhoods. Those “Neighbourhoods” are  no less than what we are talking about here – Communities. Individuals and family households make up a Community but they do not create Culture in themselves. Therefore we can say that Community is the smallest collective unit of a Nation. That’s our starting point as a religious community. Anything less is just a social club.

And if you doubt the power of a Community has on the County or State, I would merely point out to you that Mecca, Jerusalem, Rome and Salt Lake City used to be just “a city” but now, they are states or even entire Nations in the case of Israel and Saudi Arabia!

Conclusions?

I guess it comes down to whether you want to be a Victim or a Victor. In any adversity, such as Believers are beginning to experience in our nation, if you want to accomplish Yah’s highest Will for you and your brethren, you can be a Victim or Victor. A Victim screams their head off and hopes that someone else will save them; a Victor fights back and takes steps to thwart the enemy. Our enemy isn’t just the devil; it is the people he uses. No one or no Entity is All-Powerful. Even if they are empowered by the Devil himself, we always have a Power to defeat our Enemies – and we don’t do it alone!

So what are we to conclude from this 2nd book?

Fellowships, Congregations/Kehillot, and Communities are very different ways of religious Organisation. One could say they represent different stages of development in the Body or the Kingdom. They are different levels of Commitment. One requires little of the Believer; the Other, everything and the Middle being somewhere in between. Yeshua says something about His people who are “in between” in Revelation and it isn’t pretty.

Nobody is a Community in themselves. You are incomplete just as Man and Woman is incomplete and the real Victories (and biggest battles) don’t begin until one is in Covenant with Yah’s people, not just YHVH-Yeshua themselves.

What does YHVH ultimately want?

  1. A faithful Nation that
  2. Respects Judah
  3. Will support future Joseph/Ephraim
  4. And to be a Light to the rest of the World

That’s the end of this matter. If you want to know about this future Israel I keep talking about, you’ll want Book 3 of this Latter Day Testament series.

[1] An alternative term to the New Testament courtesy of Andrew Eades. BeSHaCH is an acronym of the 3 parts of the N.T.

[2] I think both of these terms are useful and truthful for us Messianics. It is not an either/or issue.

[3] There is a movement towards Community in Cleveland TN and E.Peoria IL but as of this writing, is not formally organized like the other 3 are.