Shaul tells us that Yeshua will not return until first comes a great falling away, and a man of sin is revealed.
Thessaloniquim Bet (2 Thessalonians) 2:3-4
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called Elohim or that is worshiped, so that he sits as Elohim in the temple of Elohim, showing himself that he is Elohim.
As we saw in Nazarene Israel, this man of sin is the pope (or the papacy), because the papacy teaches against the law (Torah), and such lawlessness is precisely sin (i.e., torahlessness). (For details, see Nazarene Israel.)
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 3:4
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
We saw this great falling away in the last chapter. As the Melchizedekian order transitioned outside the land, the gentiles did not understand the need for Torah. This meant that the torahless Christian variations of the faith grew faster than the Torah-obedient Nazarene Israelite faith did. Fragmentation resulted. Then came the rise of the Roman-Babylonian Catholic order (as prophesied by Daniel), and the body was (correctly) globally united, but it was incorrectly united by force. This forced unity was later lost in the Protestant Reformation. Then, once unity was broken it was broken again and again, as many new Christian churches sprang up, following the teachings of Luther, Calvin, and various kings of Christian nations. Over time the Protestants became so used to the idea of more than one body of Messiah that they also became comfortable with the concept of independent churches and independent ministers. Today we have the House Church movement (including its Hebraic Roots cousins) in which the people (correctly) study the word for themselves, but in which there is no real priesthood, and no real unity from one congregation to the next, yet the people imagine that they are somehow “united in the Spirit.” Yeshua’s command to build Him a literal global kingdom is all but ignored, while the general spirit is one of shopping for blessings, while various sales-ministers hock their wares for gain. Many of people want to see how much they can learn and how little they can give, as if all Yeshua wants is for us to educate ourselves while we wait for Him to return. This is a broad, lazy path that leads to destruction.
In the above graphic, first the Good Shepherd (Yeshua) was struck, and His sheep were scattered, and became torahless Christians. Then His sheep began to follow a False Shepherd (Babylonian-Roman Church). Then in the Protestant Reformation the false Catholic Shepherd was also struck, and the sheep were again scattered, which is why the body is so fragmented today, and why the people are so scattered.
Zecharyah (Zechariah) 13:7
7 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion,” Says Yahweh of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.”
As we saw in Nazarene Israel, the house of Ephraim is the bride, and she is very rebellious. Ephraim has a long history of rebellion that goes back to the days of King Solomon. However, in these end times the Ephraimites are being led into a crisis, and they must choose. Either they must show fruits worthy of repentance and learn to walk the way Yeshua truly walked, or they will perish in the tribulation.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 7:13-14
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Yeshua’s path is not a pleasant “Bless Me Club” where the many expect to get blessed for showing up (or they won’t come back). Rather, Yeshua’s path is where the few who love Yeshua more than their own lives band together and search for ways to build Yeshua’s kingdom. This means they must develop a heart to bless others.
Ma’asei (Acts) 20:35
35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of Yahweh Yeshua, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
Love means giving more to the Great Commission than we take. Love means we try to bless others more than we get blessed. Yet as we saw in Revelation and the End Times, most of the Ephraimites will perish in the tribulation because they love their own lives more than they love Yeshua. If we do not love Yeshua enough to go from being served to serving, or from consuming to giving, then we will be unable to return to Yeshua’s true walk.
In the Great Commission, Yeshua says we are to teach the disciples to do all things that Yeshua commanded.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 28:20
20 “…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amein.
It is not enough to believe if we do not also obey, for even the demons believe Yeshua is the Messiah, yet while they tremble, they do not willingly obey.
Yaakov (James) 2:19
19 You believe that there is one Elohim. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble!
To be Yeshua’s disciples, not only must we believe what Yeshua says, but we must also do it willingly. In the parable of the house built on the rock, Yeshua tells us that only those who obey His words will stand, while those who believe but do not obey will fall.
Luqa (Luke) 6:46-49
46 “But why do you call Me ‘Adon, Adon,’ and not do the things which I say?
47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
What Yeshua wants is that all the parts of His body to give their fair share, so His body can grow. When all His people serve, Yeshua’s kingdom can be built in love.
Ephesim (Ephesians) 4:16
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
What many believers miss is that unless we are eagerly giving something back to Yeshua, we are not part of His body. Yeshua likens those who do not contribute to His kingdom to dead, withered branches which are cut out of the Vine, and will be burned (in the tribulation).
Yochanan (John) 15:6
6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Our own bodies cannot survive if the organs and limbs don’t give anything back to the body, but only take. Such bodies are sickly, and diseased, and the only way to save such a body is to cut out all the dead, lifeless parts before they become gangrenous. Yet if our job is not to tear out the tares (Matthew 13:29), or divide between sheep and goats, then how can the minority of disciples succeed in setting the Melchizedekian order back up, when there are so many more believers, than disciples?
Consider: Yeshua had 12 disciples who served 4,000 believers, and 5,000 believers. These believers may have thought they were disciples, because they believed on Yeshua, and wanted to learn. They may have thought they were making a big sacrifice to take the time and expense to come hear Yeshua teach. However, they were not disciples in that their goal was not to serve Yeshua, or to help Him build His kingdom. They did not come seeking to bless Yeshua, but to be blessed by Him. That is, their focus was still on being served by the King, rather than serving the King. They were still selfish, not selfless. Yeshua said that the reason they sought Him was not because they truly believed on Him (after having seen signs), but because they got fed. They ate of the loaves and were filled. They got to take.
Yochanan (John) 6:26-29
26 Yeshua answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because Elohim the Father has set His seal on Him.”
28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of Elohim?”
29 Yeshua answered and said to them, “This is the work of Elohim, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
In context, the believers in John 6 wanted to make Yeshua their earthly king, so He could lead an uprising against the Romans. However, Yeshua was not happy with this, because they did not come to Yeshua asking how they could serve Him. Instead, they wanted Yeshua to come lead a plan of their own devising. This meant that the believers did not truly love Yeshua, because they did not want to do what He wanted them to do. Therefore, He spoke to them in parables, so that seeing they would not see, and hearing they would not hear, or understand, as the disciples did.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 13:10-17
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14 And in them the prophecy of Yeshayahu is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;
17 for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Notice that in John 6:29 (above), Yeshua hid His true meaning from the believers with a riddle, saying that all they had to do was to believe on Him. What Yeshua did not say is that in the fullest sense of the word, to believe on Yeshua means we must live as He lived, and walk as He walked, because this is how the kingdom of Elohim is built. Yet the believers in John 6 did not love Yeshua enough to understand what He wanted, and so He felt no need to explain it to them, as He does not want a bride like that, and it is necessary that the majority shall perish.
Sadly, a similar issue exists in the Ephraimite movement today. What many Ephraimites call Torah is little more than resting, reading, and fellowshipping on the Sabbath and feasts. If we don’t love Elohim, it may not bother us to claim we are keeping Torah, when in fact we are only seeking His blessings. This is what Shaul calls not having received the love of the truth, so we may take our focus off our own selfish wants and pay attention to Yeshua and what He wants, and thus be found bearing fruits worthy of repentance.
Thessaloniquim Bet (2 Thessalonians) 2:9-12
9 The coming of the torahless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this reason Elohim will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Scripture tells us that it will only be a remnant of Ephraim (and Assyrian Judah) who will be saved, while the destruction of the majority of Ephraimites will “overflow with righteousness.”
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 10:22
22 “For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, [yet only] A remnant of them will return; The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.”
Could it be that the destruction of most of Ephraimite believers will be so righteous because after all the love and tender care that has been poured out on Ephraim over the centuries, anyone who does not put Yeshua’s will ahead of his own is not fit to live?
There have always been many more believers than disciples. In the first century there were the 4,000 and the 5,000, as compared to the 12. Yet even though the disciples are outnumbered, if the disciples will work as a team they can ultimately provide order to the movement through serving it. No one objects to being served, or loved, and if such service is done well it is possible to serve the people in the right direction.
In other words, if we will turn, and be converted, and put Yeshua and His people first (ahead of ourselves), then everything else will fall into place (while those who do not serve Him will perish).
He who has ears, let him hear.