Why the American Religions are so weak, especially the Messianic “Gentile” ones

Part 1: Introduction

We, the Believers, whether Messianic or Christian, all know that this country, the United States of America was built upon the principles of the Bible and that YHVH and his Son, Yeshua were the true leaders of our nation, because the people who came to our continent were escaping religious persecution.

This is fact; no amount of Progressive smoke can erase that fact (though they try under the new Critical Race Theory being introduced in public schools)

Because we were of varying (mostly) Protestant sects, when we created our new union, the Constitutional Republic of the U.S., the Constitution had to allow the mixed people liberality in order for there to be a lasting Union since by 1789 there were also Jews and Sabbatarian Christians that were counted as Americans. Hence why the First Amendment was quickly passed within 2 years since the tiniest state of Rhode Island would not agree to the new Union without it (a little known fact to this day even among Sabbath-keeping people)

With such a rock solid beginning to our present Regime, it was said even 200 years later that we are a “Judeo-Christian” nation and there is no reason to believe it wouldn’t have continued because true faith does not have an expiration date! Faith wasn’t designed to die out. If the Kingdom of Elohim is now and forever and Yeshua is the eternal King and High Priest, why does it look like this country is about to expire?? There are reasons for it for sure! “Time” doesn’t change anything; that’s just an idiom but we do….

A background to “Messianic Christianity”

Since I, the writer of this article, am Messianic and been a practicing one for at least 20 years, it would be helpful to know the background of what was once called the “Messianic Movement”. Newer Believers don’t use that term anymore and there is a reason for this too further below.

The Messianic faith was resurrected and came forth from the Jesus Movement of the 70’s. I was too young to know about this when it happened so I was very delighted when some Christians created the “The Jesus Revolution” movie this past year so I could become acquainted with some of the major players.

What the movie didn’t capture probably because of time, prejudice and chronology was that unbelieving or secular Jews had been pulled into this Movement because as was well captured in the movie, this was a true revival, a Revival of the Ruach, of the Holy Spirit. As any work of the Holy Spirit will do, the Spirit works outside of our paradigms; that is how we know it is the work of the Ruach Kodesh.

American Jews had been slowly coming to Yeshua all of the 20^th century but it wasn’t until the confluence of this Jesus Movement and the Israelis winning back Jerusalem in 1967 did the Jews begin in earnest to create what was known until the end of the 20^th century as the “Messianic Movement”. Before that time, they were known as “Hebrew Christians” and they worshiped in Sunday-keeping churches. The Unbelieving Jews rightly called them “Christians” and not “Jews” because there was nothing about them that was “Jewish” except their ethnic background. This is not a point to be overlooked!

The Messianic Movement gave birth initially to the Chosen People Ministry, Jews for Jesus and the Messianic Communities (now known as “the Twelve Tribe Communities”) and later on in the 80’s, you will find the beginnings of today’s “Messianic Jewish” denominations, led mostly by UMJC and their affiliations.

Without going too deep into Messianic history because that is not the focus of this paper, many throngs of Gentiles came into the movement from roughly 1996-2005, so many that it disrupted the paradigms/doctrines of the Messianic Jews. Not content to let the Ruach lead, the Messianic Jewish leaders and teachers began pulling away and took control of where the faith was going. In 2010, the UMJC wrote a scathing position paper against all Messianic non-Jewish people and their teachers that in effect, “divorced” the gentile Believers in the Messianic Movement, unless, of course, we were willing to come under their authority (and hence, their heretical theology which I discussed at length in my book “A Latter Day Testament: Book 1”)

Nowadays, the Messianic non-Jewish congregations and affiliations are starting to become more “Christian” since only non-Jews are coming into our midst and as the collective memories of those who came before 2005 become a distinct minority. This is only natural – but it is not profitable!

Those who know the true nature of the Messianic faith will remember that, even if Messianic Jews divorced us, we would still be bound to be “Hebrew”, “Hebraic” in our practices because WE are not the root of the tree but Jews are (Romans 11 in a nutshell) and yes, by extension, Father Avraham but even if you want to take it that far back, it still would require of us to be Middle Eastern/Hebraic as I stated above. True Messianism is an intersection of Judaism and Christianity but if you take Judaism out of the equation (as the Messianic Jews already did), what do you have left??

Where does that lead us?

For those who remember or are aware of our real roots, we who are “Messianic”, came out of the “church system” (or the “rabbinical system” for the Jews) because they were/are errant, at the very least or outright heretical, depending on your paradigm. The point is: we could not stay where our spiritual cousins are because we would have been (or were) kicked out their churches and synagogues!

If this is so, then where does that lead us? It should lead us, as it did in the beginning, to something not-Christian and not-Jewish. In other words, we were free to formulate and practice a new “culture”! Culture is a very important practice as I grow older in the Faith because I see that it permeates ALL OF OUR LIFE in some way, shape and form.

Since Messianic Judaism divorced us (which is why few Believers left label themselves as “Messianic”), we can say with certainty that they aren’t out to convert “gentiles”. Unlike them, Messianic/Hebrew Roots, et al, groups do court the gentiles since a Jew is not likely to find us as attractive (unless they want to get away from Jewish culture!). To my dismay, the Gentiles we are constantly reaching out to aren’t the Buddhists, Muslims, Secularists, Atheists, etcetera but rather the “Christians”. This is only natural since the majority of us came from there but if we start wading back into the “swamp” to bring Christians into the fullness of the Kingdom (which includes the wholeness of Torah), to what degree are we losing our faith if we start becoming less “Hebraic”, au contraire to those who use that label??

If the character of our faith is really “Messianic Christian”, not only have we lost the spiritual War but we lose our very country precisely because Christianity is not only heretical in theology but they are too weak to win the Lost! The reason our country was a religious country for 200+ years is because the average American was encouraged to practice their religion, hence, the name of the First Amendment “Freedom of Religion…” NOT freedom from religion, au contraire to that namesake organization!

Admittedly, this is a long introduction to the real focus of this paper but I thought it necessary for some background first because those who are pursuing the true faith (never arrived), if you will, are way too young/new in the Faith to see that not all roads lead to the same End. Not only that but if you are someone who simply took off your “Christian” hat and put on a “Messianic” one without going through some training program, you are simply carrying your Christian doctrines on through to the Messianic faith and to put it simply, “that just ain’t so”.

Part 2: How Wrong Christianity Is

The reason I titled this paper as “Faith without a Body” is because not only does the religion “Christianity” err big time when it comes to being anti-Torah, they did not even get some of the basic concepts of Paul right from the beginning!! Hence why Kefa said in 2 Kefa 3:16 “…which the Ignorant and Unstable twist to their own destruction…”

If they got Torah wrong, what else did they get wrong?

If they got Faith and Grace wrong, what else did they get wrong?

If they got the Israelite and gentile identity wrong, what else did they get wrong?

The list really is long but here is another concept/doctrine they got wrong (but not all sects did): The Body of Messiah.

No, I don’t mean the Identity of the Body of Messiah, which is also important but THE very concept of a spiritual organism.

The problem with the Messianic Body today is if they didn’t get the Basics taught when they converted*, the Messianic “Gentiles” (for lack of a unified label) are continuing to go astray because, again, that is the baggage they bought forward.

PaRDeS

I will reiterate (or introduce, to some) and summarize here the basics of Messianic Hermeneutics, that is Exegesis, or how one is to learn the Bible because I don’t want anyone to misinterpret the major concept that follows that, which under girds my entire thesis.

“Pardes” is a borrowed word meaning an orchard or garden (“gan” is the Hebrew word for garden) and it is an acronym for the system of biblical exegesis.

*Conversion is a perfectly legitimate program that goes beyond the scope of this paper

P stands for pashat

R stands for remez

D stands for d’rash

S stands for sod

The way you study is to read a passage at the pashat level, then the remez level, the d’rash level and then the sod level, in that order because if you don’t, you will almost certainly go astray from what the text means the deeper you study.

The “pashat” means to study the literal meaning of the text. If you don’t get this, all other meanings you get will be in error.

The “remez” means to look for the hints, implications or inferences of the text. One can make a wrong analogy here but there is room for liberality.

The “d’rash” is short for “midrash” which is a term for teaching or sermon. It means the teacher (moreh) brings together the pashat and remez into a teaching that is understandable to the audience. Bringing in the allegorical or spiritual is appropriate at this level but is subject to misinterpretation by the audience as Kefa so bluntly pointed out.

The “sod” is a deeper spiritual meaning, more at the mystical level that only advanced students should endeavor, for obvious reasons.

I have heard a Messianic teacher say that he wants his students to dig into the Sod level when it comes to Bible but yet, they cannot if they don’t get the what the pashat or remez means. It sounds good but everyone goes off the rail if they don’t fully get the literal and implied meanings right.

When it comes to Paul of Tarsus, he clearly taught at a very high d’rash level and one could say at the sod level which is why those who weren’t his talmidim misunderstood him many times over!

More basic Messianic theology

Now, we can go forward because if we don’t have a common exegesis, it is no wonder Messianism is all over the map!

Paul was a very torah-observant Jew (Parush/Pharisee). He gives his credentials in . If you think he just gave that up because he believed the Messiah, you are still a Christian and that is wrong. Paul didn’t quit on Torah because that would have been the antithesis of Mercy. You don’t have one without the other – that is basic Messianic theology too. Christians hold to “grace” (which they don’t know) and the unbelieving Jews hold to Torah and so when Yochanan says in 1:17 (most versions)

“For the law was given through Moshe. Grace and truth came through Yeshua the Messiah”, Yochanan was not preaching a new supercessionary faith as is misinterpreted in Ibrim 9. No, he was merely saying that Yeshua came to complete the Torah’s meaning! (I won’t go into what “Grace” really means but I would highly, highly recommend going through the series of that word from Rav Berkson of MTOI. You will never see it the same ever again!)

When you come to know that the ReNewed Covenant was NOT given to replace or supercede the First Covenant (at Mt. Sinai) – another basic Messianic truth – then you can start reading Paul’s words in the vain and mindset he meant it to be received! Paul taught at a d’rash and sod level and some of the first Messianic/Nazarene Believers understood him because they went to synagogue and learned Torah. All of us did until they kicked us out in 80 AD (a historical side note, yes). Those who never stepped foot into shul weren’t any worse off (or so Paul thought) when he said,

“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor.2:2)

Paul did not mean that he had cast off Torah forever; even the next verse confirms that. No, Paul was merely emphasizing what his ministry would be once he gave up on reaching the Jews. I suppose he thought that once he established Messiah Yeshua as their final Rabbi, then they would learn the Torah through Him because Yeshua never even insinuated that Torah was being abolished! (Matt.5:17-18)

A mandate misunderstood

And so, here we are with Paul’s teachings, second and even third generations removed from the Resurrection of Messiah. Did Paul ever forsee a time where the Gentiles would be barred from coming to synagogue? He knew towards the end of his life that some massive upheaval was in the works. If he was the author to the Hebrews, the book of Ibrim, he thought Judaism was about to come to an end_____. And of course, he thought Messiah’s return was going to be in his day or in that century when he said, “______”

So did He see the need for organization? I will leave that up to speculation but even if Paul didn’t foresee a time when Gentiles and Jews would be split into two camps (thinking that Yeshua would soon come to save His people), Paul nevertheless left us with a huge, massive paradigm that has been ignored among Christianity and now, Messianism until this day – and to our peril I would add.

I say that if we don’t have a complete picture of what Messiah is doing, wants us to do, because of a lack of Vision, then we will fail our collective Mission – Every time; Individually and collectively.

And herein lies the first Irony:

When Yeshua gave us a Mandate to go make talmidim in Yehudah, Samaria and the rest of the world in Mattityahu 28:19-20 and Mark 16:14, Christianity thinks he gave US that mandate! Don’t misunderstand what I just said – he did give us a Mission for all time until he came again but it can’t be fulfilled by any, One, person!

There is a very serious Error in the Body of Messiah today that we Messianics have just completed to a T. It all begins with the Reformation.

Unintentional consequences of the Reformation

No one has properly analyzed/documented this but the Protestant Reformation was really influenced by forerunners of that Reformation who were Sabbatarian Christians who were long since cut off from their Messianic roots from the fourth or fifth centuries. True Believers never died out; they just went underground and spread what Truth they knew until a time of Liberation came. That time came when the Lord reared up one Martin Luther.  Everyone who wasn’t a Catholic (or a member of “the Church” as the lingua franca would say) was a Heretic. We all know it was just the reverse or else Messianism wouldn’t exist today. Even today, non-Catholic Christians speak of “the Church” as if it were a monolithic religion. This is errant thinking.

Since the Reformation was the first major fracture in the catholic church since it began, every Christian sect that descended from Lutheranism (and his allies like Menno and Calvin) has attempted to purify their religious doctrines since Luther accentuated the pursuit of personal Bible study (not his exact words but nevertheless true). This wasn’t a bad thing per se but it has led us Believers, collectively, to a place that never was the intent of Yeshua or the Apostles.

Here is something that Messianic “newbies” should know: Protestant Christianity has always encouraged personal Bible study (and now Messianism does too because of the undue Christian influence in our Body). Yes, they do Bible studies at their local church too, collectively, but personal study is what is encouraged.

On the other hand, Judaism (the other half of our faith), true Judaic Orthodoxy, does not allow nor encourage personal study of the Bible/Torah/Talmud. You only do it with a teacher/Rabbi.

This is a point of contention that goes back to the Reformation also but it is a rabbit hole for now.

As Messianics, what should our opinion be on this issue? It should be either “both are wrong” or “both are right” – yet another point of Messianic theology. In this case, I would say that our approach should be “both are right”. There is a good reason why our Bible studies should be personal (due to Luther’s arguments) but we have absolutely, positively no structure for collective studies in our Faith. Yes, I do imply theology schools but since we do not (except, again, for the Messianic Jews), what Messianic “Gentiles” need to know is that we have come to a place where our Faith has absolutely been Atomized to the point that there is absolutely no cohesion, nor collective Standard that comes forth from non-Jewish Messianics! We are about as impotent as a prisoner in a very heathen jail cell! That doesn’t fit what Moshe said was promised to the Torah-keeping Believer in Devarim 28:13:

“And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down…”

My point in this subsection is to say that we have perfected the Reformational ethos (and American also!) of empowering the individual at the cost to the Collective! And I would quickly add as a side note that this was destined to happen and only natural – but not profitable! When we have come to the place where our people are encouraged to “study for yourself” which is the true calendar (as merely one example), which was never intended by Elohim nor the Apostles, we have personally disintegrated the concept of the “Body of Messiah”.

What is a Body??

 Is this paper about the calendar doctrine?

No, far from it.

The calendar issue is only an effect of a deeper problem. What I keep trying to get to (and failed up to now because of the necessity of informing the Reader of background issues) is that in 1 Corinthians 12:27, Paul referred to spiritual Israel as the “Body of Messiah” (Most have heard and understood that we are “grafted in”to the Jewish-Israel tree so that doesn’t need to be rehashed…). WE, modern day non-Jewish Messianics, have failed to really comprehend this all-so important subject; so much so that I believe, truly, everything we do trickles down from this topic and will determine whether we are Impotent players on the world scene or Victors!!

(Moshe already told us what the Promise of YHVH would be so we should know the Outcome from the beginning!)

As I keep emphasizing in section 2 here on just how wrong Christianity has been on most every biblical topic, if they got the major things wrong as I stated earlier, do you think they got the topics of “spiritual Israel” and the “Body of Messiah” right?? Why is this?

I will tell you in a word why Christianity can’t get anything right: Allegorical!

They study just the N.T., which is dominated almost entirely by one man, Paul. As I said, he was a Jew and never stopped being one. But because he was a mature Jew, he taught almost entirely at the drash and sod level: the allegorical and mystical. You CANNOT learn the basics of the Faith starting at a senior high school level if you didn’t graduate from elementary school first!! Hence why the writer of Ibrim rebukes them for being children in the Word in Ibr.5:17.

Christianity understands that Yeshua is the resurrected Messiah – milk

Christianity understands that Yeshua saved us from the Law – WRONG – from the penalty of Torah – milk.

They get such things but we should be resolving to know the Basics of the Word as Messianics. Are we truly?? I question this as we enter the Era where we might see Yeshua return because if we aren’t doing what he said, what did He say would happen to us??

You know…

Let us start with the Basic concept of “Body”, which is the Foundation to this paper:

Paul taught Gentiles things using simple concepts because he wanted them to eventually eat “meat” but also because he knew his talmidim were already grounded in the pashat of the Word.

Everyone should know what a Body is because we all have one, no?!?

We are made of flesh and blood; we have internal and outer organs; we have a head, neck, torso, 2 arms, a waist, 2 legs and so on…we can describe our bodies in the minutest detail right down to DNA if we had to. A Biologist can describe biological processes; the Geneticist the molecular process. We can do this and be amazed at what Elohim created!

Paul, the mature Believer, is using allegory to speak to the Corinthians (chapter 12) and the Ephesians (chapter 4).

Who is Israel? If you start at the beginning of the Bible, you should know who they are by the time Paul begins speaking to the Roman kehillah in chapters 9-11. He is speaking allegorically there also.

So, if you know who Israel is and what a Body is, then you shouldn’t be mistaken if I make this equation:

Spiritual Israel=the Body of Messiah

If you are wondering why am I pointing out the Basics and what is so sublime about what I am writing, then you should read until the end of this paper because non-Jewish Messianics have missed this concept so badly, I am almost forced to describe to an Unbeliever about my Faith, “well, it is Faith without a Body” in this Day and Age!

Part 3: What IS a spiritual Body (that Messiah created)

I am tempted as I begin this section to think this topic may need to be a book in all itself but for the sake of brevity, I will attempt to outline the design of this concept and why you too, may see that there is no Body of Messiah today!!

A human Body is both a design of individual parts collected into a Whole. You can have parts without a Body but you cannot have a Body without the Parts. Remember this in the end…

If you don’t think Yeshua was creating a visible, living, temporal Body on earth before he died, you have missed the Missional mandate that we spoke about earlier. Matthew 28:19-20 was about creating a Body that centered in Yerushalyim, which connected to physically descended Israelites in Samaria who would then be connected to the gentile world everywhere else. If you don’t see this organization there, then you won’t understand the organization that will happen in the Millennium and eternity which is exactly the same! This is pashat level understanding (maybe remez level. After a while, one who has been in Torah for a long time begins thinking everything is Basic when it is not!)

The Father (and the Son) create things that are Eternal. That means His paradigm NEVER changes (much like HIS Torah – not the Torah of the Jews/Rabbis). So if His paradigm never changes, what was the Father doing through Yeshua? What Body was He creating and where is it today??

Those are two different questions:

 If Yeshua created a local Body that centered in Yerushalayim that was to encompass Samaria and from there to be connected to other People and Nations, what was He creating? He was creating a new nation; a spiritual one to be sure, but a new nation nevertheless. If you deny that, you have missed the End goal. Yes, the End goal for Us and all of Humanity is to be saved but that doesn’t happen in a vacuum! It takes a Body to give birth to a new soul. You know that or are you the inverse of Nakdimon of Yochanan 3? Nakdimon couldn’t understand what it meant to be born again and Yeshua was amazed because everyone knows how we are birthed into the world! And so, if we know that we are to be, ultimately, born again someday, then you should know that it takes a Body to do so!

That sets us up nicely for the second question: where is that Body today??

The answer, sadly, to my depression on some days: nowhere; it doesn’t exist!!!

It ain’t the modern state of Judah (another basic fact: the other half of Israel hasn’t returned to Judah yet so “Israel” is really “Judah”, unless you can make a case that Yechezquel 37 has been fulfilled…). The “Israelis” aren’t even Believers in their own religion so they can’t be The Body…

Judaism isn’t The Body besides the fact that they haven’t accepted Yeshua. Judaism isn’t even torah-based anymore! Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist – none of these follow Torah nor The Messiah….

Messianic Jews aren’t the Body by the mere fact that their core belief is a gospel that the Anti-Christ will use in the coming years – Dual Covenant Theology. Read Book 1 of “A Latter Day Testament” to know what that is about…

Christianity isn’t The Body because not only are they antinomian (against the Torah of YHVH Elohim), there is no branch of “Christianity” in Israel. All who were not born Israelite were to be grafted into Israel. That is not what I teach; it is what Paul taught in Romans 9-11…

Are WE the Body then?? No and no – although we could be!!

That gets right down to the subtitle of this thesis as to why we are so weak, we Messianic “gentiles”: We are not a Body; we are just Parts lying on the ground! What do you call parts lying on the ground? Nothing! A dead Body! Just parts.

A living, spiritual Body is NO DIFFERENT than a living, fleshly Body. Remember the rules of Messianic exegesis? You can’t have a “spiritual” unless you have a “physical” first. You can’t speak allegorically unless it is true pashat-wise (and remez-wise, if you will) …

A living, fleshly Body is one in which the parts of the Body are connected. If it isn’t connected, then it is a dead Body. If parts are missing from the Body, then it is disabled, not able to do what it was created to do!

A spiritual Body is no different. Only then can one read 1 Corinthians 12 and understand what a “spiritual” Body is.

What is a Body: We are made of flesh and blood; we have internal and outer organs; we have a head, neck, torso, 2 arms, a waist, 2 legs and 2 feet.

If you are one who thinks the Messianic non-Jews are The Body of Messiah (and you should or else, you would be of another religion right?) then:

• Who is the Neck?
• Who is the torso?
• Who are the Arms?
• Who is the waist?
• And who are the Legs and feet of this Body??

I am betting you can’t answer any of these because the parts are not connected to each other. That’s right! You have everyone who wants to be the Head but nobody who wants to be a part of the Body. Incidentally, no one can be the Head; Paul said Yeshua is in Col.1:18 but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a temporal head on earth, such as the Neck or another body part connected to the Head…

To be clear, I am not insinuating that MIA, Messianic Israel Association or MCC, Messianic Covenant Community were those bodies that I am talking about. No, they were just imitations of Christianity which is why they don’t exist anymore.

What I mean is, you can’t have a Head that isn’t connected to a neck, which isn’t connected to a torso which isn’t connected to legs and feet and arms and hands. You can’t in the flesh and thus, you can’t have it in the “spiritual body” either!

Conclusions

I am going to cut this thesis shorter than I initially intended because this leads to another subject that stands on its own but to bring this to a close, we should understand what it means to be “not connected” because you can’t have a Body, much less a nation, if it isn’t connected to one another. If you doubt that, then which of you thinks that we are the United States of America if one of the states didn’t associate with that Body?? You know the answer: they wouldn’t be! All of the States are legally, morally and economically tied together in One Union. What binds them together??

The answer to that can be very philosophical but I am pointing to something biblical here:

Accountability…

If I was speaking this, I would be taking a long, long selah (pause) because everyone I know in this Faith knows that we need to accountable but nobody but nobody does it!

The first retort I would hear from someone (and will) is that we do have accountability – we are accountable to Yeshua!

And I would say that while that is biblically correct, it is not complete! That is just a cop out for those who want to live their own lives the way they want to and say they are of the Brotherhood of Believers.

We cannot be of the Body of Messiah without accountability any more than you can have a human body without unified governance nor a nation without loyalty to a federal or central government. It is fiction to say “We are the Body”.

That is why we don’t win new converts to the Body; that is why Secularism and Progressivism is winning the War and even taking our children!! WE AREN’T A BODY! We have the American ethos alright that says we are Free without anyone having to tell us what to do! We are neither free nor unified!

Christianity was almost that Nation one time in history. There was a time when

Christendom=Europe

But they couldn’t have fulfilled the Mission of Messiah because they were preaching an anti-Christ gospel as well as murdering our spiritual ancestors! But it does give us a clue as to where to go…

In a nutshell, we aren’t the Nation of Messiah (=Body of Messiah=spiritual Israel) is because we don’t have Communities, which are the building blocks of Nations. We have plenty of Fellowships and Congregational Assemblies but nothing remotely close to a Body.

In my next paper, “How to build a spiritual Body”, I will outline how this happens and how we can not only survive but defeat the coming Beast Nation, collectively, until the day we see Yeshua returns! I am not exaggerating and I am not full of myself. I have been a Torah-keeping Believer for over 30 years AND I have a degree in Political Science. Nationhood is my specialty you might say.

We have the potential to be a People but if we aren’t working collectively, we cannot claim to be anything of Messiah, I believe. We are just atoms in the world and atoms don’t do anything in Nature until they combine with other atoms.

I will end this with a shout-out, if you will, to some strong, larger Assemblies who have structure in place to be something more. They aren’t communities yet but obviously, in my shout out, I commend certain organizations who have the potential for Leadership.

I am inspired by the Works being done by Tents of Jacob, Messianic Torah Observant Israel, Beth Yeshua International and Corner Fringe Ministries. Obviously, there are certainly other Messianic organizations out there who might be up-and-coming but I ask:

Tents of Jacob: why aren’t you taking the next step towards Community?

MTOI: you have structure in place for satellite congregations but what about Community?

Beth Yeshua: I love Rav Greg Hershberg but again why not go further?

Corner Fringe Ministries: you are too new to me but still you have a great example of submissive Leadership as it is not led by One man. Why not go further?

And to all of these, I ask, what is your relationship to one another?? I think all of these are important organizations but if You all are of the Messiah, how do you support and relate to one another because unless you are exclusivist, all these others serve the Lord also.

Background papers to this one: Books 1,2, and 3 “A Latter Day Testament”

Companion to this one: How to Build a Spiritual Body