If your life is
not in jeopardy for what you believe, you’re probably on the wrong side!
If you don’t believe Genesis 1-11, how can you
possibly believe John 3:16?
“Indeed, all who want to live a godly life united with the Messiah Yeshua will be persecuted.” (2Tim 3:12)
It is what you actually believe that determines how you walk out your faith,
“but avoid stupid controversies, genealogies,
quarrels and fights about the Torah; because they are worthless and
futile.” (Titus 3:9)
Dec. 27, 2015: While scrolling through the website looking for pages that need to be updated, I stumbled across this page that I originally posted in July, 2001 — over 14 years ago, and that I have not visited since then. For the past 14 and a half years I have been trying in every way that I know how to convince Gentiles Christians that the “Gentile Church”[1] has totally abandoned the True Gospel that was taught by Yochanan the Immerser, Yeshua HaMashiach, and Yeshua’s Emissaries, and has fallen into such deep apostasy that I seriously wonder if it is possible for anyone to actually be “saved” through the ministry of the Church. My effort in that regard, I believe, has been largely non-productive and may have actually been counter-productive. In the past few days I have made a conscious and difficult decision to radically change the direction of my ministry. I have decided to stop “casting pearls before swine” and concentrate solely on writing about what I believe and why I believe it. I will no longer try to convince anyone else to believe what I believe. I will write about what I believe and attempt to explain from the Scriptures why I believe it. Whether or not any one else chooses to see in the Scriptures what I see in them I will leave totally between them and Ruach HaKodesh. I'm not sure when, or if, I will finish this page.
Questions that will eventually be answered on this page:
- Why did Family Bible Church “go Messianic?”
- Isn’t that a step backward toward “the Law?” What about Grace?
- If you are already a Christian and you are already saved, why is all this “Messianic stuff” important?
- What will your Christian friends think?
- What will your Jewish friends think
Answers to all these and more are being prepared ... Stay Tuned!
In the meantime, click on the links at the top of this page for more issues about which the “Messianic Movement” might be concerned.
1. Why Did Family Bible Church “Go Messianic?”
(This answer was originally written in July 2001.)
There is a long list of reasons why Family Bible Church (now Benéi HaMelech Messianic Fellowship) made the decision to become a Messianic Jewish fellowship. Some of those reasons include the following:
- Having been called by God to the sacred office of
Pastor/Teacher, I have a God-ordained responsibility to teach what the
Bible actually says in its true grammatical and historical context,
not what I was taught that it says, not what my peers and colleagues
believe that it says, and not even what I personally want it to say. I am
by birth a Jew, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and probably of
Levi, and therefore I am a Jewish Believer in Mashiach. For far too long I
remained ignorant of my Jewish heritage, having been content to live
fully-assimilated as a Gentile Christian for 49 years.
- For two years (1999 to 2001) I conducted an intense,
in-depth study of the actual historical beginnings of what has come to be
called “the Church” and I discovered that much (perhaps even most) of what
I was taught to believe (and, consequently, what I had been teaching)
about the origins and nature of the Body of Messiah was simply not true. I
have an obligation to the Most High to correct what I taught in error.
- The traditional thinking of most Gentile Christians is that on the Day of
Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on the Upper Room, Peter went out
into the street and preached the first “Christian Sermon,” and there was
suddenly created a “Christian Church” with over 3,000 members. After my
intense two-year study, I discovered that it simply isn't true.
What actually happened was that under the direction of Ruach HaKodesh, a fisherman named Shimon Kefa bar Yonah, a Torah-observant Jew who was a witness to the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua HaMashiach, testified to thousands of other Torah-observant Jews as to what he had witnessed, and as a result that day there were over 3,000 Torah-observant Jews who became Believers in Melech Yeshua HaMashiach (King Yeshua, the Messiah), and Nazarene or Messianic Judaism became a part of main-stream Judaism alongside the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes. This movement known as “The Way” did not separate from the rest of Judaism until almost exactly 100 years later during the Bar Kokhba Rebellion. Therefore, if anyone desires to share the experience of the true “First-Century Church” the only place where they can do so is in a Messianic Jewish synagogue.
- There is no center for Messianic Jewish worship within
over 100 miles of our location.
- The Bible teaches that the Gospel is to be presented “to
the Jew first, and also to the Greek/Gentile.” Although billions of
dollars are being spent by individual Christian churches, denominations,
and other missionary outreaches to send missionaries to Gentiles, I
believe that very little is being done to present the Good News of
Mashiach’s Kingdom to the Jewish people.
- The “Jesus” that the Church presents to the
world is a
false prophet. He is a gross
caricature which bears very little resemblance to the historic
Yeshua of Nazareth. The “Jesus” of the Church was a Sabbath-breaker
who taught His followers that God’s divine instruction was done away
with and that they were now free of its oppression, that they have
no obligation to live a life of righteousness, but only believe that
He died for their sins and that He will take care of everything else
to guarantee a right relationship to God.
Effective immediately (July 2001), it shall therefore be the mission of this ministry to:
- Faithfully proclaim, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, that Yeshua of
Natzeret is Melech HaMashiach (Israel’s King Messiah) and the Redeemer of
Israel and of the world.
- Encourage and facilitate Jewish Believers in Messiah to retain their traditional
ethnic distinctive (their “Jewishness”), and to educate non-Jewish
Believers in Messiah about their spiritual heritage in Judaism,
encouraging (though not compelling) them to return to their Hebraic roots,
so that both Jew and Gentile may know the spiritual reality of being one
in the Messiah.
- Provide a Biblical Jewish context for Torah-based faith and life in a Renewed
Covenant context in which Jewish and non-Jewish Believers in Messiah may
worship together, as the Shliachim taught the Messianic Believers of the
first century, and as we believe worship will take place in the Messianic
Kingdom.
- Teach the Word of God in such a way that all Believers in Messiah, both
Jewish and non-Jewish, might be enlightened, encouraged, and equipped to
live and model a Biblically Torah-observant lifestyle.
- Fully support, in whatever way Ruach HaKodesh may lead, the reunification of Jewish and non-Jewish Believers into one Body of Messiah, the true “spiritual Israel,” and the return of that reunited Israel in fullness to her Covenant Land and to her rightful place as God’s “light to the world,” and the establishment of HaMashiach’s Kingdom on earth.
2. Isn’t that a step backward toward “the Law?” What about Grace?
3. If you are already a Christian and you are already saved, why is all this “Messianic stuff” important?
4. What will your Christian friends think?
5. What will your Jewish friends think?
1. I use the term “Gentile Church” to describe non-Jewish people who claim to follow the Jewish Messiah, the King of the Jews, while rejecting the Torah that He gave to not just Israel, but the entire world, through Moshe at Mount Sinai; who, for the most part, reject Israel’s position as God’s true Bride; and who regularly participate in a significant list of pagan practices. [BACK]
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