Is it a Conspiracy Against the Kingdom of God?
In Jeremiah 11:9, God does not precisely say that there was a conspiracy
against Him; but He does say Himself that there was a conspiracy of God’s
people of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah. Could movements today like
the millennium movement and renewed emphasis on the Torah be
legitimately and scripturally consider as Conspiracies against more the
Kingdom of God than against God Himself. The Millennium Movement is a
danger because it takes immediacy out of the Falling Away and Second
Coming, and the danger of GLC is a diversion from most necessary things
to unnecessary things. Bottom line, when you consider the detailed nature of
both threats to Christianity, they are similar as a Conspiracy against
Christianity in that they both lessen the Gospel of the Kingdom, the
Millennium Movement in that it distracts from the full establishment of the
kingdom on the New Earth in favor of a thousand year kingdom on earth
before the Second Coming, and the GLC brand of Messianic Judaism in
that it distorts requirements for citizenship in the present kingdom of God,
established during the life of Christ on earth.
It is not at all without significance that some of the adherents to Messianic
Judaism also came out of the Millennium Movement. Here is a quote from
online by one of them, “The Torah of Jesus is the basic law of the world and
will be universal during the Millennial.” Fundamentalists of the Millennium
Movement have become more susceptible as victims of Messianic
Judaism, because it has been so easy for them to apply Scriptures about
the new earth to ones about a thousand year kingdom on earth of Jews and
Gentiles. Also because of their so-called “literal” pick and chose method of
Bible interpretation. {What you really want to do on Scripture is to careful
look at the Old Testament law and prophet quotes God consider most
important to include in the New Testament for Gentiles and Jews, then
let the New Testament in the same context as the quote, interpret them
for you, as we will do in these studies in the coming months on
GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM, JEREMIAH, AND PROPHESY.}
Fundamentalists hardly ever just live Scripture alone to say exactly what it
wants to say. A case in point, in the first Sunday of 2000 when Rogers
preached a message on “after six days they went up to...”; and it was
amazing what happened during those six days, such as all the last events of
eschatology. Another case in point for the Gentile fundamentalists of
Messianic Judaism is what they do with the word “Word” in John chapter 1.
It is obvious that the Word is the name chosen by God, and previously given
to the Apostle John in the book of Revelation to describe Christ, as the also
Pre-existent Christ; yet when they get through with the “Him” of “and by Him
were all things made that was made”, and the Christ as “the Word made
flesh who dwelt among us and we beheld His glory”...such a real person...yet
as they develop their theories of the Torah, first five books of Moses and
the Oral Tradition {such as in the Talmud and Midrash} this Word
dedicated to Christ is considered by them to be the Torah. You would think
it was Karl Barth re-incarnated with his philosophy of Word and
existentialism.
In this day and time of the widespread promulgation of so much unsound
doctrine, the widespread popularity of movements and teachers of what
Paul in II Timothy 4:3,4 would call “itching ears teachers”, the result of
according to this Scripture of the Word of God coming from: (1) they have
already turned away from, or in the process of turning away from sound
teachings and doctrine--”they will not endure sound doctrine”; (2) they are
motivated by some specific personal or group personal desires to latch
onto and propagate some very specific doctrine like “Messianic Judaism”,
even if it is just for status, recognition, novelty, or money--”out of their own
desires will they heap up to themselves teachers with itching ears”. (II
Timothy 4:3,4a)
Messianic Judaism is by far not to be singled out as the number enemy
movement against the “faith once for all delivered to the saints”, but it is
rather just another Movement like the “Millennium Movement” that must be
dealt with solid Bible teaching and preaching. As always and according to
Scripture, the best way to counter such unsound doctrine is: (1) to discover
the source that feeds such efforts in the specific desires that the movement
satisfies of the Messianic Movement adherents; (2) preach and teach sound
Bible and sound Bible doctrine, recalling that “the pattern of sound words”
must be considered along with sound doctrine.
3-1: How Do We Find the Personal Wants that Motivate the Adherents?
1. A good starting place is the definition of the “Learning Channel” and then
“Messianic Judaism”.
a. It is a shame to lose some ground of sound doctrine by using their own
name for this American movement of Messianic Movement, but “God’s
Learning Channel” is what they chose to call themselves. Like the Mormons,
Roman Catholics, and so many other progenitors of unsound, they major in
half truth.
God's Learning Channel (or GLC) is a Judeo-Christian television network
which is based in the Southwestern United States. Based on the Messianic
Judaism movement, it describes itself as "teaching the Torah and the true
roots of Christianity", and its programming features a mixture of Christian
and Jewish teachers.
b. What is their motivation according to them?
GLC focuses on several main aspects that affect the Church today: (1)
Bridging the gap between Christians and their Hebraic heritage; and (2)
Standing against Replacement Theology by proving through scripture that
Christians do not Replace the Jews as the Chosen people, but are rather
grafted in to the promises given to their father Abraham.
c. “Messianic Judaism”.
Messianic Judaism is a religious movement that differs from mainstream
Christianity and from Judaism by combining elements of each into a single
faith. Like other Christian groups, its adherents believe that Jesus of
Nazareth (to whom many Messianic Jews prefer to refer by the Aramaic
form of his name, Yeshua) is the resurrected Messiah and often the Divine
Savior.[1][2][3] Messianic Judaism adds to this some observance of Jewish
Law, which is not generally practiced (and often discouraged) in Christian
churches.[4] These observances include observing the Sabbath from Friday
sundown until Saturday sundown, abstaining from pork, shellfish, and other
foods forbidden by Jewish law, and the observance of some Jewish
holidays. As of 2003, there were at least 150 Messianic congregations in
the U.S. and over 400 worldwide.[5] By 2008, the number of Messianics in
the United States was around a quarter million.[6] The number of Messianic
Jews in Israel is reported to be anywhere between 6,000 and 15,000
members, including the mainly Messianic Jewish village of Yad HaShmona,
near Jerusalem.[7][8] There are 200 Messianic groups in Israel.[9] Some
Messianic Jews are ethnically Jewish, and argue that Messianic Judaism is
a sect of Judaism.[10] Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and
Reconstructionist Judaism are, however, unanimous in their rejection of
Messianism as a form of Judaism.[11][12] Both Christians and Jews
consider Messianic Judaism to be a form of Christianity,[13] seeing
Messianic belief in the divinity of Jesus as the defining distinction between
Christianity and Judaism.[11][13][14] The Supreme Court of Israel has ruled
that the Law of Return should treat ethnically Jewish individuals who convert
to Messianic Judaism in the same way as it treats Jews who convert to
Christianity.[15]
2. While the official claim of the GLC is to bridge the gap with Judaism and
counter the replacement theology that Gentiles becoming the people of God
replaced the Jews as the people of God; both are exaggerations, the gap
and the replacement, like the rumor of the death of Mark Twain, have both
been greatly exaggerated--to be considered more as straw men of the GLC
sect.
Anytime, the book of Romans is taught and preached in its entirety, as we
will do in the coming weeks, it is also taught that a few Jews and many
Gentiles would make up the kingdom of God until “the fulness of the
Gentiles” was complete, and then with the “All Israel shall be saved”, the new
Israel of Gentiles and Jews, is the implication, like we see in the 6-15
thousand Messianic Jews in Israel, that more Jews will be saved. Not
necessarily the whole present nation of Israel will turn to Christ as our good
brethren B. H. Carroll thought, and not necessarily the 144,000 that others
have numbered, but enough to consider a revival among the Judaism
community as they turn to Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ. As we will see
later with a review of the Great Jerusalem Circumcision Conference of the
First Century the sect of the Pharisees were trying to make more Pharisees,
even Chrisitian Gentile Pharisees; the Scofield Reference Bible with its
notes on the Millennium Movement is trying to sell more Bibles; and the light
of the southwest is trying to promote and finance themselves.
To start the spread of a few facts to disperse from the Bible and other
sources, some of these straw men of the gap and replacement, when you
look up online “Messianic Judaism”, you will see an ad of Christian
Evagelism stating its goal is to see the fulfillment of Romans 11:11 for the
Jews:
“I say then, have they stumbled that they {the Jews} should fall?
Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy;
salvation has come to the Gentiles.” (Romans 11:11)
3-2: Replacement Theology.
We don’t wish to be like the fundamentalists before their takeover of the
SBC, back when they were called by themselves “Bible Baptists”, of whom
you always knew “more what they were against than what they were far”, and
led us while growing up in SBC work in Texas to call them “feudamentalists”.
However, it is good to mention this little bit of recent and oral history, as this
same exclusive and negative attitude that started the fundamentalists along
their path to popularity may also be the “personal wants and desires” of II
Timothy 4:3,4 that we are looking for. Ultimately, surely such a fighting and
exclusive attitude can be traced tot he same roots that Paul through the
Word of God condemned in I Corinthians 14:36 as: (1) did the Word of God
originate with you; and (2 did the Word of God come to you only.
NOTE: To paraphrase I Corinthians 14:37, if any one today thinks
himself to be a prophet or so considers himself, let him first
acknowledge the Word of God that has already been written; then
recognize that: (1) there is no such thing as new revelation beyond the
66 books of the Bible; and (2) nothing he says can possible add new to
the written revelations of the Bible. Yes, there are some arrogant ones
today who think that they are so great in the kingdom of God as to add
revelations to a changing Bible; but not for real! These with itching
ears, new words and new concepts, the “God told me” so, are nothing
less than the same false prophets Jesus predicted.
1. Definition of Replacement Theology.
Once again from Wikipedia, a good starting place, on the definition of
“supersessionism” or “replacement theology”.
“Supersessionism and replacement theology or fulfillment theology are
Christian interpretations of New Testament claims, viewing God's
relationship with Christians as being either the “replacement” or “fulfillment”
or “completion” of the promise made to the Jews (or Israelites) and Jewish
Proselytes. Biblical expressions of God's relationships with people are
known as covenants,[1] so the contentious element of supersessionism is
the idea that the New Covenant with the Christians and the Christian Church
replaces, fulfills or completes the Mosaic Covenant (or Torah) with the
Israelites and B'nei Noah.”
2. More Bible, Less Theology.
Anytime a group starts using words that extra-biblical--that is, not found in
the Bible, you can suspect that “itching ears Bible teachings are on the way”
{Jesus was less kind to such movement advocates, calling them “false
teachers and false prophets”; and further stating that this would be a
dominant characteristic of the final days of the “last days”, especially
during the Falling Away before the “little while”.}
Christians, Churches, and Denominations have become so susceptible
today to such unsound doctrines of the Millennium Movement and the
Messianic Judaism Movement, because they fall to admit {perhaps self-
denial on a large group scale} and recognize that we are well into the Falling
Away of II Timothy 4:3,4. You just can not explain all this unsound doctrine
and teachings, and so much of it in some many diverse ways, unless you
admit to the five stages of the Falling Away: (1) churches and Christians
cease to “endure sound doctrine”, alias will not put up with it or tolerate
sound doctrine {years ago Peter Marshall describe this first stage as “if
you stand for nothing, you fall for anything”; and the common American
practice of “I never discuss religion and politics” describes something
of the American character and personality that assisted in this falling
away from sound doctrine, which is really not a falling away from
church or church membership but is a FALLING AWAY FROM GOD,
CHRIST, AND BIBLE TEACHINGS}; (2) church members and other
Christians became far more motivation by what they wanted as individuals
and groups than what the pastor wanted, what Christ wanted, and what the
Bible taught; (3) these “want” motivations also led them to go out, seek and
find, itching ears Bible teachers that would agree with their wants, encourage
them along the lines of their wants, rationalize their motivations and desires,
and just plain pat them on the back as the elect people of God; (4) armed
with these itching ears teachers, preachers, so-called Prophets and
evangelists, and members {‘like the people like the priest, and vice
versa}, there was a whole scale Falling Away movement in the world and
the United States {in America, it started with the great influx after Billy
Graham of the Gospel of Prosperity itching ears teachers and preachers} of
“turning away from truth”, and that is where what is loosely called the
American Church {not at all the same as the church of the firstborn written in
heaven (Hebrews 12:23)} finds it self today. American Christianity is
presently in the process of a wholesale “turning away from truth”.
NOTE: This was what was meant when earlier it was stated that
Messianic Judaism and the Millennium Movement should not be singled
out for rescue of sound doctrine; for they are just a couple among the
man of turnings away from truth. If we are to try to get to the source, it
is not in a battle against all these “itching ears teachings” which
contain some half truth; for if we are not careful, we can oppose the
half that is true according to the Bible. Rather in order to rescue sound
doctrine in American Christianity, or in the vast body of people
disgusted with churches and denominations who still consider
themselves spiritual, we must: (1) preach and teach sound Bible and
sound Bible doctrine including the pattern of sound words; (2) expose
these motivations of church members as their own personal desires
and wants, and not based on Scripture {quite often based on opinions,
old wives tales, and distortions and rationalizations from Scripture}; (3)
recognize, expose, and do not support nor “heap up” popular
preachers of prosperity and the millennium movement and the
Messianic Movement, and many others {Satan has hundreds of tricks in
his bag that are coming out as he sees the time of release from
bondage as the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from earth, and the final few
days of the “little while” start}; and (4) try to no lend support to “the
turning away from truth”, or more evangelistically try to resist {by the
way a loosing battle that we still must fight} this nation and world wide
Turning Away from Truth of the Falling Away.
NOTE: You know the real cure in “Preach the Word; be instant in
season and out of season. REPORVE, REBUKE, EXHORT WITH ALL
LONG SUFFEREING AND DOCTRINE! “For the time will come....” (II
Timothy 4:3,4)
3-3: Teaching Bible from Romans and Hebrews on the Old Testament.
What can we do right now, to meet the challenge of the hour, in order to
fulfill the general command to preach and teach the Word? One solution
offered is to read careful, or teach and preach the Book of Romans--a very
significant part of the Word of God; and while you read it, note all the Old
Testament quotes, then look them up in the Old Testament in their original
context.
1. Did you know that what the quotes in the New Testament really are? They
are what God considered as most important for Christians to know about
the Old Testament. While we can appreciate the efforts of the Messianic
Movement at the Torah, both the first 5 books of Moses and oral tradition
of Judaism like for example in the Talmud and Mispha, since that is some
Bible; the better and total perspective is in what God years ago chose to
include in the books of the New Testament, Romans and Hebrews being the
most significant repositories of Old Testament quotes, from the Old
Testament.
NOTE: In other words, what is most important and most inclusive of
what God wants us to know from the whole Old Testament is the
quotes He had included in the original writing of the New Testament.
2. All divergent philosophies and movements of the past, including the
starting of certain churches and denominations, happened as groups of
people and so-called scholars went to pot exclusive on one verse or one
section of the Bible. Now, and in this time of the Falling Away of the last
days, we see primarily 4 movements: Charismatic, Gospel of Prosperity,
Millennium, and Messianic Judaism. And what they all have in common, and
with so many other sectarian movements of the past in Christianity, is that
they take part of the Word of God and “go everywhere preaching”.
3-4: This is a sect like reprimanded in the Jerusalem Council.
Not the Jews of the Messianic Judaism who have the courage to confess
faith in Christ, but in the Gentiles like those of the GLC we have another sect
like that of the Pharisees, Acts 15:5, who tried to force circumcision and the
total law of Moses on new Christian Gentile converts.
“But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, rose up, saying,
‘It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the
law of Moses.” (Acts 15:5)
1. Some of these Jews, in this case from the Jewish sect of Pharisees,
want new Christian converts to be just like them; and in the Messianic
Judaism movement what we have is a sect of Christians, not Jews but
Gentiles, who want other Christians in America to be like them.
2. They rose up, that is caused a turmoil among first century Christians; and
today, the GLC--once again not that wonderful group of Messianic Jews in
Israel numbering between 6,000 and 15,000--but a group of Gentiles of the
GLC are causing a turmoil among Christians in the Southwest around
Midland where they preach.
3. Both sects were and are trying to put additional requirements on
Christians that are not necessary. Specifically this sect of the GLC and the
past sect of the Pharisees have tried to levy requirements on Gentiles to be
circumcised and to keep the total law of Moses.
4. Actually I think what is not clear, and what the GLC does not make clear,
is that what they want Christians to keep is the Torah, which is both the 5
books of Moses, the Pentateuch, and the Oral Tradition of Judaism, which
is very large and very demanded.
5. The harm that this GLC effort is: (1) it places unnecessary requirements
on Christians; (2) it substitutes minors for majors; and (3) it easily flows in a
righteousness by law instead of a righteousness by faith which is the major
trust of Jesus, the Apostles, and the New Testament. {Even the Old
Testament if you read the Prophets closely, like in Jeremiah, and our recent
studies on Jeremiah.}
3-5: Let “Light of Southwest” note the verdict of the Council.
And at the same time they are creating this little condemned revival of the
Torah, written and oral tradition, let them simultaneously create a revival of
the total Word of God like in Acts 15:23-29. Let the GLC read again the
outcome of he Jerusalem Council in the letter sent out by the Apostles,
elders, and brethren of Acts 15:23-29:
“The apostle, the elders, and the brethren, To the brethren who are of
the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cillicia: Greetings. Since we have
heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words,
unsetting your souls {this seems to be what GLC is doing more than
making converts, by thinking active church members believe that they
have left out something required for salvation}, saying, ‘You must be
circumcized and keep the law’--to whom we gave no such
commandment--It seemed good to us, being assembled with one
accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and
Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have therefore sent Judah and Silas, who will also report
the same things by word of mouth.
For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no
greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from
things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from
sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
Farewell.”
1. Hopefully, you noted the “NECESSARY THINGS”. And those are the key
words, what is necessary in order to be a Christian, and in order to live the
life style of a Christian. Some things, GLC can come up with, are interested;
but NOT NECESSARY. {It is only necessary to promote and finance a
uniqueness to their own ministry, or even their own status and ego like
the sect of the Pharisees tried to do.}
There is a lot to be said for choosing the same words that the Bible uses. In
reality it is what Paul called “the pattern of sound words”. It is closely akin to
sound doctrine itself; and certainly to chose Bible words, rather than these
new words about the Torah that you are hearing {do not of course exclude
the 10 commandments as they fulfill the total intent from God of the
law, and faith}. Any time you hear new sounds, new words, new concepts,
you can pretty count on it like in the Millennium Movement or the GLC
version of Messianic Judaism that it is the condemned “itching ears”
teaching and preaching of II Timothy 4:3,4, that goes with intolerance
toward sound doctrine, personal wishes, desires, and wants, a turning away
from truth, and a turning into fables.
2. James and the First Apostles recognize the keeping of the total Law of
Moses as far as rules, rituals, statutes, and regulations as a BURDEN. It is
and was an unnecessary burden!
3. These same Apostles like James, Peter, and Paul wrote Scriptures of the
Word of God to prevent such frivolity {unnecessary things} and burdens,
primarily to explain salvation and righteousness as by faith and grace.
3-6: Law and Obedience in Jeremiah.
Such diversions toward the rules and regulations of the Old Covenant {not to
be confused with the Ten Commandments still fulfilled through Jesus}, might
well find themselves under the same condemnation of God as recorded in
the Temple Message of Jeremiah and the total book. It was simultaneous
with God’s recognition in Jeremiah that there was a conspiracy among the
people of God, against Him.
Then, like today, God’s people wanted to be religious and unique without a
priority for what God wanted them to do. They added all kinds of rituals to
the Temple worship like for the Queen of heaven. God, almost in frustration,
says effectively just go ahead and add all these works and rituals to your
worship, it is for nought and not profitable to God’s people anyhow.
“Thus said the LORD of hosts {anytime God uses this title for Himself
he is about to increase His work and effort toward the Gentiles}, add
your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.” (Jeremiah 7:21)
Then the oft repeat admonition of the Bible that it is better to listen to God
and show obedience to what you hear than to sacrifice, or work your way
into heaven or righteousness.
“For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I
brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or
sacrifices.” (Jeremiah 7:22)
3-7: The Long Range Cure is Study of Romans with Emphasis on OT
Quotes.
You know, have you ever thought of letting God interpret for you what is in
the Old Testament? Where do you start on the book of Romans? Many of
us have preached and taught it so often, and some even written books on
the book of Romans. Well, let us start now with the word “Israel”, which will
give us some foundation of the studies to come.
No matter what concepts or “itching ears” teachings that Christians of today
strive to add to the Word of God, most often like condemned at the
Jerusalem Conference which are repeat and condemned diversions toward
works over faith, you still read the same words of the book of Isaiah 10:
22,23 as recorded in Romans 10:27,28 {neither GLC, Light of the
Southwest, or Messianic Judaism has received, nor will received
revelations from God to modify what is already written here.}
“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
the remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in
righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the
earth.” (Romans 10:27,28 and Isaiah 10:22,23)
3-8: The Gospel of the Kingdom Will be Preached Up to the End, Jesus
Said.
This is a quote from Jesus as recorded in Matthew 24:14. With emphasis
on the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of the Kingdom, you can trace
backward from Matthew 24:14 for the preceding sequence of historical
events before the End: (1) Christians striving to endure to the end, and if
they do they are saved (Matthew 24:13); (2) sin and lawlessness will
abound, and the love of most Christians will wax cold on God, Christ, and
the Bible {not necessarily churches and denominations} (24:12), the first
words from Jesus of which are repeated by Paul in II Thessalonians 2:7 with
the addition of “mystery” and that the mystery was already at work, also with
events surrounding this rising tide of the flood of sin and lawlessness {Paul
summarizes the details of this Falling Away in II Timothy 4:4,5}, such as
the release of Satan to do his worse for a little while as the Holy Spirit is
also withdrawn from earth, and the sponsorship by Satan of the man of sin,
the son of perdition; and (3) many more false prophets than before, which
later Paul in writing the Scripture of II Timothy 4:3,4 will call “itching ears”
Bible teachers and preachers that are “heaped up” or amassed on a large
scale by similar “itching ears” church members.
NOTE: "Gospel of the Kingdom", of which this study is a
part, is one of the two supporting studies of Jeremiah,
Prophesy, and the Kingdom. The other supporting study is
"The Kingdom of God".
By popular online demand this
subject of Conspiracy is
expanded and edited.
1. Conspiracy Against the
Kingdom, Edited and Expanded.
By the way, this expanded
"Conspiracy Against the
Kingdom" is a prominent part of
the now available free
download of the complete
APPENDIX TO NDT, the cover
of which is shown to the far left,
and NDT itself will be out in
paperback shortly from
Amazon.com.
subject of Conspiracy is
expanded and edited.
1. Conspiracy Against the
Kingdom, Edited and Expanded.
By the way, this expanded
"Conspiracy Against the
Kingdom" is a prominent part of
the now available free
download of the complete
APPENDIX TO NDT, the cover
of which is shown to the far left,
and NDT itself will be out in
paperback shortly from
Amazon.com.
