The One New Man Study - The Theology Of Jew And Gentile - One In Messiah
Entire Study Recently Updated January 2006
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The One New Man Study - The Theology Of Jew And Gentile - One In Messiah Entire Study Recently Updated January 2006
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Lesson Sixteen: The Division Of The Gentile Church - Reaping What We Have Sown
Galatians 6:7
BUT WE ARE NOT ONE! There are now over 160 different ecclesiastical traditions with 23,300 separate and distinct denominations within the larger Body of Christ. As Don Finto says in his book "Your People Shall Be My People," - "the DNA of the church has become distorted. The natural law inherent in all of God's creation - the DNA so to speak - has had its effect on the Church. We have reproduced 'according to our kind.' (Gen. 1:11). By breaking from our Jewish fathers the Church has produced one division from another - we have reaped the division our "fathers" have sown in the past. And again this writer wants to make it clear when I say we broke with the Jewish fathers, I'm not talking cultural issues here - I'm talking about SPIRITUAL and BIBLICAL ones!
After embracing our Jewish brethren for close to 300 years, we have saw the last 1900 years produce division after division: Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic; Anglican and Protestant; Calvinism and Armenians; Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Nazarene and Pentecostal; denominationalism and non-denominationalism. The effect on society? NONE! ZERO! ZILCH! NOTTA! NOTHING! We have brought God down to nothing more than an argument in the Western Church and that's really sad. Because the glorious church the Lord Jesus birthed and bought by His blood was not and is not destined to be a divided church. If there is a dividing line in the mind of God it is that there are TWO parts to ONE BODY - the Jew and the Gentile.
This all began when the Gentile church assumed a superior position. The gaping wound of schism between Jews and Gentiles represents the granddaddy of all wounds in the Body of Messiah. All other wounds of division stem from this original wound. According to Marty Wildman:
"Because the Church had grown to believe that it superseded Israel and Messianic Judaism, the spirit of supersessionsim has plagued Christianity through the ages. The Orthodox Church believes that the Roman Catholic Church is in rebellion. The Roman Catholic Church has always viewed the Protestants as religious rebels. The many denominations and divisions in the Protestant church are primarily the result of one group of Christians superseding an existing group because they have found a "more pure way." Supersessionism essentially nullifies the promise of God to the previous group."
Israel is God's FIRSTBORN! (Ex. 4:22) A firstborn son has an irreplaceable position of honor in the family. Paul tied this theme into his writings to the Romans in relating Israel's calling and her place with God:
Romans 11:28-29 - As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. [29] For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
After years of wandering, Israel is on her way home. But the Gentile Church is acting like the older brother in the parable Jesus told in Luke 15. Israel is the son of a persecuted race. The Jewish people need ALL THE LOVE THEY CAN GET. The Lord has given the Gentile church EVERYTHING it could ever ask for and we still seek more from our own selfish hearts. We are arrogantly and prideful when we say, like the elder brother - "they had their chance, they squandered their inheritance; now it's our time; they no longer have any rights in the Father's house." But Father God is saying not so fast! He's saying, "QUICK! Bring the fatted calf and kill it; put the best robe on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet; let's have a FEAST and celebrate!"
Too often our prayers have come from hate-filled hearts and blood-stained hands. This is graphically illustrated in the famine in the time of David after his ascent to the throne. God told David, "it is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death." This goes deep so follow me here. Saul was dead. The Gibeonites were a group of people that were in existence LONG before David came to power. Why would God send a famine on the land because of a past generation. Why hold David and his kingdom accountable for that?
Yesterday's sins cause today's famine! Let that sink in Church! As Israel entered into the land, their leader Joshua, made a covenant with the Gibeonites. Four hundred years later, Saul, the first king of Israel, broke that covenant. The famine that blighted the land during David's reign came because Saul had dishonored and killed a covenant people. This godless dead, committed centuries later, now rested on the head of the present ruler, and God expected an appropriate act of contrition and confession - NATIONALLY AND CORPORATELY.
The Church finds itself in the same place today. Past generations of leaders have dishonored and even killed this special people God marked for blessing. A good friend of mine told me recently that the number of years America turned her back on the Jewish people (and a lot of that can be laid at the foot of the American church!) is the exact number of years we fought Vietnam. We are the descendants both physically and spiritually, of those generations! Authority has now passed to us just as it did David. From us in the 21rst Century Church God is expecting repentance over our Anti-Jewish stances and past bloodshed at His chosen people's expense. If this does not happen we will continue to be under a curse:
Malachi 4:5-6 - Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: [6] And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
The church basks in the presence but it's GODS GLORY that He wants to reveal to us! And when He reveals His glory - NO FLESH CAN GLORY IN THAT! NO FLESH can stand and boast in the presence of the GLORY OF GOD! I hear it all the time in churches all over America "God is here," "God is here," - friend, if God was there no one would be standing. We wouldn't be bragging, we'd be prostrate on the ground DEAD! Hear me America. Hear me church. There is BLOOD ON OUR HANDS! And it's Jewish blood. And the Lord Jesus (YESHUAH) is not happy right now at how we have treated His fellow brethren and kinsman after the flesh! This is not a call for us Gentiles to strap on prayer shawls and kuppas, partake of just Kosher food and light Menorah candles every Sabbath in trying to act Jewish. That is foolishness. Now if the Lord deals with your heart to do these things as an act of worship - then do it unto HIM, but don't do it thinking you're meriting some type of mystical favor with Him - you're not! I'm talking about the attitudes and motives of OUR HEART toward the Jewish people in the sense of intercession and prayer. The church world's awareness of Israel is LITTLE or NONE in most circles - no matter the denomination. Some of this is ignorance yes, but some of this lack of awareness is WILLFUL ignorance, which if not dealt with will send us headlong into unbelief and ultimately apostasy!
We can either repent of this evil wickedness and remove the curse or we can rebel and harden our hearts and see judgment hit America in such a way they won't be able to find Texas on a map after God 's through with us! I'm not saying that beating my fists in the air rejoicing over people being judged as some do. God forbid. I say it with tears knowing that the only thing standing between man and eternal hell is the CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS- Israel's Messiah! The only thing standing between the church and apostasy is the CROSS of a JEWISH MESSIAH, who shed HIS BLOOD 2,000 years ago for the remission of sins!
Matthew 26:17-29 - Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? [18] And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. [19] And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the Passover. [20] Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. [21] And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. [22] And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? [23] And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. [24] The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. [25] Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. [26] And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. [27] And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; [28] For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. [29] But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.
The Church in some parts of the world is coming to grips with it sins. Reconciliation groups are meeting in every nation. Germans are confessing to Europeans, Japanese to Asians, descendants of European conquerors to indigenous people groups, sons and daughters of former slaveholders and slave traders to sons and daughters of former slaves. The Jewish issues are no longer and cannot any longer be ignored. Some reading this may not have one ounce of care about any of this - but neighbor we had better START caring! This is the move of God that is ahead in the earth before Jesus comes!
And if the church of Yeshua wants to see TRUE BIBLICAL UNITY we must first be set free by territorial and denominational spirits and only have devotion to the KING! This unity can only take place when we as the Body of Christ, the family of God, ask the Lord to help us tear down the wall between the Gentile Church (Christians) and the Jewish people (both saved and unsaved).
When we cleanse our hands and hearts then we will see the promise of Psalms 133 come to pass upon us!
Psalm 133:1-3 - A Song of degrees of David.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren (JEW AND GENTILE) to dwell together in unity! [2] It is like
the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; [3] As the dew of Hermon,
and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord
commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
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