In, “The Separation of Assembly and State” we showed how Judaism, Catholicism, Islam, and Protestantism are like four clusters of arrows that have each missed the bullseye a little. Judaism misses the mark in that it claims Yahweh gave the rabbis the authority to rewrite the Torah. Catholicism misses the mark in that it claims Yahweh gave the authority to rewrite the Torah to the pope. Islam teaches the wrong Torah altogether, because they follow the wrong prophet (and the wrong Elohim), while Protestantism has adopted the satanic doctrine: To each his own, and no man has a right to judge anyone else, or to enforce Yahweh’s laws!
A political vacuum arose when the Protestants rejected Yahweh’s kings. Suddenly the Protestants had to find a substitute form of leadership—and Satan loves to give us substitutes for the things Yahweh tells us to do. In America, the Founding Fathers set up a Roman-style democratic republic. Satan loved this, because Roman-style democratic republics are based on the idea that men know how to govern themselves better than Yahweh does. That is why, if we are willing to accept it, democracy is just another form of believing that we are like Elohim, knowing the difference between good and evil.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 3:4-5
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, “You shall not surely die:
5 For Elohim knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as Elohim, knowing good and evil.”
Roman-style republics are based on the idea that men can do what they want, so long as the majority agrees. However, for them to agree they must also compromise with each other (whic is why they say, “Compromise is the essence of the deal”). In business compromise works, but in government this is an error because compromising on Yahweh’s ways in order to please men is another way of saying “man-pleasing.”
Galatim (Galatians) 1:10
10 For do I now persuade men, or Elohim? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Messiah.
Man pleasing is a prerequisite for any populist, democratic, and/or Roman-style republic (even if the citizens are Protestants), because in order to win the vote, you have to please the greatest number of people (or at least, displease the fewest number of people). This system of man-pleasing gave the illusion of workability in the early years of the American republic because the majority of the population was at least nominally Christian, and could agree on a great many things. However, as we explained in “The Separation of Assembly and State,” when there is no Christian king, nothing stops the people from drifting away from Yahweh, and following after their own pleasure seeking and lusts (as it is in America and the democratic West today).
Both Protestantism and Roman republics are based on a rejection of Yahweh’s form of government, which is theocracy. Interestingly, this is why democracy never really catches on in Islamic society. Even though our Ishmaelite cousins do not know Yahweh, they are much more accepting of theocracy.
In contrast to modern Protestantism, Islam teaches the practice of a lifestyle. Far more than just a mere day of worship and rest, this lifestyle governs everything they do. This is very much a Torah principle (although it is sadly misapplied in Islam).
In the Christian world, the idea of stewardship calls for one to steward all of one’s life energies and abilities to further the Great Commission, and establish His kingdom. However, while a few Christians try to put this principle into practice, the level of Christian stewardship is almost a joke compared to the level of dedication shown by our Islamic cousins. Our Islamic cousins regularly devote their entire lives towards the practice of jihad, which is their corrupt version of the Great Commission. In comparison, except for a few missionaries and monks, the Protestant commitment seems somewhat lackadaisical.
There is a politically incorrect joke that goes something like this: “In heaven, the police are all English, the businesses are all German, and the cooks are all French—but in hell, the cooks are English, the policemen are all German, and the businesses are all French.” We could make similar jokes and comparisons about the monotheistic religions of the world.
While Judaism still believes in keeping the Torah, they change it to suit themselves. While Catholicism still believes in worshipping a Jewish Messiah, they have changed him to be a lawless Greco-Roman pagan. While Islam still believes in submission to an elohim, and in devoting themselves to furthering a kingdom, they got the wrong one—and while Protestantism believes in practicing love, they forgot that Yahweh knows we love Him when we obey His commands.
Yochanan (John) 14:15
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Children think their parents love them when their parents give them good things, and when they bend the rules for them. However, in contrast, parents know their children love them when they happily do as they are asked. Protestants forget that in adopting the democratic and satanic motto, “To each his own, and don’t judge!” they are essentially agreeing that they should be able to do what they want, however they want—and that if others will turn a blind eye to their failure to obey Yahweh’s Torah, they will return the favor. However, Yahweh does not see this refusal to obey His laws, and carry out His judgments and decrees, as love.
Yeshua loves us so much that He was willing to die for us, and we feel His love—but how many of us truly show our love for Him by laying down our lives for Him, and carrying out the Great Commission, as He asks? How many of us truly steward all of our life’s energies, so that we serve Yahweh with all that we have?
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:5
5 “You shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
So now we come to the fifth cluster of arrows, which is the Messianic movement. We Messianics might think that we love Yahweh with all that we have, but do we really? If we look closely, are there not some critical differences between what we know the Torah says, and what we actually do? It is this difference between what we know we should do, and what we actually do, in which Satan dwells.
Ya’akov (James) 4:17
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
The Protestant Reformation got started when a monk named Martin Luther found some discrepancies in between what Scripture said, and what the Church in his day was doing. He felt it was a problem that the Church was doing something other than what was written in his book—and he could not live with it. So what about us?
Brother, if we take a look at what the apostles did in the first century, and compare it with the way we do things in the Messianic world today, is it the same? I would warrant there are some huge discrepancies—and that Yahweh will hold us accountable, because we are not really doing what Scripture says to do.
I recently went to a talk by an independent minister. He talked about the virtues of being independent (which means he theoretically is not accountable to anyone). He also downplayed the fact that his marriage had just broken up, because he was there to get people to buy his book. As I sat there listening, I kept wondering if this is how the apostles would do things, if they were here today?
Timotheus Aleph (1 Timothy) 3:2-5
2 An overseer then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;
3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;
4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence
5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the assembly of Elohim?)….
The concept here is that when a man is in leadership, and stands up in front of the assembly, he is held up as an example to others, whether he likes it or not. And if a man is held up as an example to the flock, then it seems wrong for him to explain away the fact that his marriage just failed (so he can sell his books). Further, it is wrong that he is an independent minister.
Brothers, if we hope to serve Yahweh, then don’t we need to serve Him on a right foundation? And no other foundation can any man lay than that which is already laid—namely, Yeshua Messiah.
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 3:11
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Yeshua Messiah.
Shaul says that when we build on this foundation, our work will be tested, and proved as if by fire. If we build in wood, hay, and stubble, then while we may be saved in the end, we will also suffer a loss.
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 3:12-15
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Shaul tells us that we are the temple of the living Elohim, and the Spirit of Elohim dwells within us.
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 3:16-17
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of Elohim, and that the Spirit of Elohim dwells in you?
17 If anyone defiles the temple of Elohim, Elohim will destroy him. For the temple of Elohim is set apart, which temple you are.
But notice that we are not many different temples (or many different bodies)—rather, we are called to be one single temple, and one single body. This requires us to be connected to the rest of the body, and in the correct way. To suggest that Yeshua’s body can have independent limbs is absurd—as if His body can be made up of a number of different body parts that are not in contact with each other, and which are not coordinated in any way (which is a fair description of the Messianic movement today).
How can independent ministers truly serve Yahweh? If Yahweh was a great Shepherd with 144,000 sheep, would He be happy with independent undershepherds competing over what sheep belonged to whom? Would He not be far more pleased if His servants all humbled themselves, and decided to organize, to see how much better they could serve His sheep, if they all worked together?
Can any worldly business function if the employees do not work together? And if worldly employees must work together for a business to function, then how much more should Yahweh’s shepherds all work together, rather than operating independently?
We are living stones in His temple, and Shaul says we are to be put in place upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Yeshua Messiah Himself as the chief cornerstone.
Ephesim (Ephesians) 2:19-22
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of Elohim,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yeshua Messiah Himself being the chief cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a set apart temple in the Master,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of Elohim in the Spirit.
But if the Messianic movement is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, then how come we never see apostles and prophets in this movement? Is it not really more appropriate to say that we are built upon the foundation of the independent book and tape salesmen?
Brother, in all seriousness, what kind of foundation are we building on? If we are organized around the book and tape salesmen, rather than the apostles and the prophets, then how will our work stand, in the day that Yahweh tests our work by fire? And how will Yahweh be happy, if we don’t do what His word says to do?
As we explain in Revelation and the End Times, seal 6 will be marked by a nuclear event (at least in the Middle East, if it is not a nuclear world war).
Hitgalut (Revelation) 6:12-17
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
As we explain in Revelation and the End Times, the earthquake that takes place at seal 6 likely refers to a shakeup in the social order. This may be the same shakeup that takes place in Ezekiel 37, which leads to the formation of the Stick of Ephraim.
Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 37:7
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling [shaking]; and the bones came together, bone to bone.
In Ezekiel 37:7, the “bones” refer to the leadership. When the UN comes to full power, and institutes a one world religion, there will be a cry from the people for their leaders to do something to bring the movement together. However, this will not be possible, as long as each independent minister seeks to explain away Yahweh’s words, in order to maximize his own book and tape sales. No union will ultimately be possible on the foundation of the book and tape salesmen.
The only solution will be for the leadership to quit playing independent games, and come together upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Instead of seeking to monetize the free gift, ministers will need to give freely of that which they have freely received, and trust in Yahweh to provide for their needs through the tithe, the gift, and the offering.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 10:7-8
7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”
And for their part, the people will need to get serious as well. They will have to stop aiding and abetting the book and tape salesmen in their drive to replace the foundation of the apostles and prophets with the foundation of the book and tape salesmen—for no other foundation can any man lay, than that which has already been laid—the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Yeshua Messiah Himself being the chief cornerstone.
Ephesim (Ephesians) 2:19-22
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of Elohim,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yeshua Messiah Himself being the chief cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a set apart temple in the Master,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of Elohim in the Spirit.
The apostles would be revolted if they were to come back today, and see what a corrupt, self-serving variation of the faith the book salesmen have wrought with Yeshua’s blood.
Philippim (Philippians) 3:18-19
18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the stake of Messiah:
19 whose end is destruction, whose elohim is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame — who set their mind on earthly things.
And for His part, Yeshua would be furious.
Yochanan (John) 2:14-16
14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.
15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.
16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”
As I sat there listening to the book salesman explain away his divorce, and dismiss his need to be in proper accountability to Yahweh’s other ministers, I could not help but think that positive change would not take place until the people demanded it. If you go into any grocery store, all of the fresh, healthy food is around the edges of the store—and the center of the store is packed with aisle upon aisle of pre-processed, sugary junk food that will ruin your health—and yet the grocery stores all carry it, because that is what the people want to eat. The Messianic world is much the same way.
When we His people demand that our ministers all get it together, and come into right relationship upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets (and refuse to support independent book salesmen), then (and only then) will we have the kind of unity that everyone craves, but which independent book merchandising will never be able to deliver.
Yeshua talks about the importance of building one’s house on the right foundation.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 7:24-27
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:
27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Friend, what foundation are you building your house of worship on? Are you building on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Yeshua being the chief cornerstone? And are you stewarding all of your life’s energies and resources towards furthering the Great Commission by way of the fivefold ministry? Or are you building a coffeehouse fellowship upon the foundation of the book and tape merchants?
Choose your foundation wisely, for no other foundation can any man lay, than that which has already been laid. If it does not conform to the example the apostles set for us back in the first century, it is wrong.