Category: Theology

Pillar # 3  The Return of Yeshua will take place after the Gospel of the Kingdom has been adequately preached to all nations (ethnic groups).  

 

Matthew and Mark present what became known as the great commission.  The Mark text is not in the earliest copies of the Greek manuscripts but still might have been added by an apostolic person  It is early enough to summarize what the early followers of Yeshua believed. Yeshua states, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to every creature.” (16:15)  The text then goes on to speak about the signs and wonders that would accompany the spread of the Gospel. In Luke 24:45 Yeshua states, “So it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance for the removal of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.”  Then in Acts 1:8, we read, “You will receive power when the Ruach ha-Kodesh has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and through all Judah, and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”  

 

Two questions arise from these texts.  One is from the Luke text that says it was written.  Did the Hebrew Bible predict a mission to the nations?  It could be seen as the implication of the Abrahamic Covenant, to bring blessing to all nations.  It does appear that in spite of these texts the disciples did not understand the charge given to them of world missions, at least not the timing.   The second question is, what is to happen when this task is complete. The Gospels all proclaim that Yeshua would return again. There is an implied sense that after the task is complete the return of Yeshua will take place.  However, only in Matthew does this become explicit. Matthew not only repeats the great commission in chapter 28 and tells disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations” (v. 19), but in Matthew 24:14, Yeshua states that “This Good News of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”  What is the end? It is not the end of the world for the Bible predicts that the world will not then end. Rather it is the end of this age and the glorious coming of the Age to Come where Yeshua rules and reigns from a restored Jerusalem. It appears that Paul understood this and his mission to Spain was in his own way to fulfill a desire to complete the task of this preach the Gospel in new territory.  For Paul, who did not know the vastness of the world, the fulfillment of the task seemed within reach. 

 

It is now quite common among those engaged in world missions to believe that the second coming of Yeshua awaits an adequate testimony given to every ethnic/language group.  The late Ralph Winter, formerly of Fuller Theological Seminary and then The U. S. Center for World Missions.  It is now common for those in missions to believe that we move history and bring the time closer to the return of Yeshua as we pursue an adequate witness to every people including getting the Bible into every language.  We see this understanding also in the Lausanne Movement for world evangelism. This work is of translation is proceeding rapidly. Those who first grasped this, like Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravians, believed that it was incumbent upon them to send missionaries around the world to hasten the day of Yeshua’s return.  The Gospel of the Kingdom is a Gospel with power, signs and wonders, and the transformation of human life into the image of Yeshua. It establishes communities of the Kingdom. Those who extend the Kingdom by sharing or preaching the Gospel, or who go to other lands in missions are engaged in eschatological activity. Before Yeshua returns the witness to the nations has to be completed.  Only God knows that point. In our optimistic view, though there will be great trials at the end, the witness with unity and revival will lead to the second coming and the conversion of the nations. We have been visited by the leaders form the South Pacific Islands. They say they fulfill the word from Acts that the Gospel was to be taken to the ends of the earth. They see their locale as the ends of the earth.  They therefore also see the fulfillment of the Great Commission as leading to his return. We have a motive not only to see people saved, but to see the return of Yeshua. 

Pillar # 2.  The people of God will come into profound and deep unity leading to cooperation in cities, regions, nations and international.   Or simply, we can say that the second pillar is that the people of God see the fulfillment of Yeshua’s prayer for unity,  Of course, this pillar is very much connected to Pillar # 1.  There must be revival to overcome disunity, but there must be some in unity seeking and praying for revival for that unity to be attained.  This is why often revival movements produce a new unity crossing old boundaries among those who enter into it, but at the same time, provokes opposition by those who do not enter into it.  The center of this eschatological hope for unity is the prayer of Yeshua in John 17.  Some commentaries do title it the great eschatological prayer of Jesus.  It is the great final prayer of Yeshua before his crucifixion. The prayer and its implications are astonishing and wonderful.  Yeshua first prays for his immediate disciples to be in unity but then in v. 20 expands his prayer to those who believe through their word and implies all future disciples.  I quote,

“I pray not on behalf of those only, but also for those who believe in Me through their message, that they may all be one.  Just as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, so also may they be one in Us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that  You have given to Me, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one—I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them as you loved Me.”

“Father, I also want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, the glory You gave Me, for you loved ME before the foundation of the world.” John 17:20-25.

There are several who have argued since the Lutheran Pietists and the Moravians in the first half of the 18^th century and until today that this is a prayer for the unity of the Body of Believers in the last days.  This unity, that’s like the unity of the Father and Son.   This includes deep intimacy, love, and agreement. The result of that unity is that the world might believe.  This harkens back to the numerous statements in the prophets that the World will believe.  The ultimate conversion of the nations is in too many passages to quote, Isaiah 2, 11, 45, 60, 65, and 66.  Also in Zechariah 14, Joel 3 (4 in Hebrew). These passages are connected to the full salvation and restoration of the nation of Israel.   Psalms  2, 46, 66, 67,86, 87, 111, etc., also assert that the nations will come to acknowledge the truth and bow before the God of Israel. 

The unity of the Church in partial ways does make witnesses more effective and evidences greater power.  The ultimate unity for which Yeshua prayed leads to the nations believing and then our being with Him where He is.  This is parallel to the promise of being caught up to meet him at the end of the Age and includes in other passages the resurrection from the dead.  We are then with Him where He is.  Therefore we are all called to join our prayers to Yeshua and to pray for this unity, seek to work for it, and give ourselves in cooperative relationship.  It is a key to understanding the Moravians who would not plant churches to compete with other churches in various cities but would work for the unity of the churches in the various towns where they were sent. It is a key to understanding the Lutheran/Anglican cooperative effort to plant Christ Church in Jerusalem (1840) that they would demonstrate unity and prepare to receive the Jewish people who would return to the Land and have the opportunity once more in the Land to receive Yeshua.  They were seeking to live out John 17 in this effort.

Act 2:42 and 4:37 is a manifestation and a foreshadowing of what the Body of Believers will look like worldwide and from city to city.   “Now the whole group of those who have believed was one in heart and mind.”  (4:37)

Ephesians 4 also gives us a picture of the people of God attaining to unit and maturity.  The key to this unity is leadership that does the right kind of equipping or aligning.  We will return to this passage for the 5^th Pillar as well. Here we read of five kinds of leadership giftings that will equip or align the saints for “the building up the body of Messiah.”  (4:12)  This will continue until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge Ben Elohim—to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of Messiah’s fullness. (4:13) 

In other words, there is coming a day when this description of unity and maturity will characterize the Body of the Messiah.  Equipping leaders will continue to do their work until this point.   This will happen; unity and maturity will be attained.  This adds information to John 17.  What happens after the “until.”  When this is attained, then the world will believe and we will be with him where he is. 

Pillar #1  We must see a people of God in worldwide revival in passionate love for God the Father and his Son Yeshua.  This pillar was actually taught by some of the Puritans.  Ian Murray in his great book, The Puritan Hope, presents this idea.  For the Puritans, we will see a succession of revivals.  They will wax and wane, but then there will be a last great world revival that will not decline and will lead to the second coming of Yeshua.  There are several texts that show this Joel 2:28-30 (3:1-5) predicts a great pouring out the Spirit on all flesh before the great day of God’s final judgment and intervention. 

 

So it will be afterward.

I will pour out my Ruach on all flesh:

your sons and daughters will prophecy,

your old men will dream dreams,

your young men will see visions.

And also on male and female servants 

will I pour out my spirit in those days.

I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth—

blood, fire and pillars of smoke.

The sun will be turned into darkness

and the moon to blood

before the great and awesome

day of Adonai comes.

Then all who call on ADONAI’s Name

         will escape

for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem

there will be rescue, as Adonai has said

         among the survivors

                     whom ADONAI is calling.

 

The text is quoted as fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Shavuot) in Peter’s amazing sermon given after the Holy Spirit was poured out.  However, it is generally understood that just as the Kingdom coming, the fulfillment is partial and there is much more to come.  Though there was a judgment on Jerusalem at that time, the final judgment envisioned in Joel did not come. Nor did the ultimate rescue of Jerusalem come as indicated in the text.  Therefore people who experienced great outpourings of the Spirit in history hoped that their revival would lead to this greater fulfillment. We see this in the First and Second great awakenings in the United States (18th and 19th centuries respectively) and in the revival in Wales in the early 20th century and in China and Korea near the same time period.  The Azusa Street revival in Los Angelos in 1906 was also seen in the context of the hope for a final and great world revival.  Azusa was the start of the Pentecostal movement which looked toward a great world revival leading to the second coming. We still await the ultimate fulfillment of Joel 2.  Other texts that indicate the revival to come are found in several of the prophets. The glory of the Lord will arise on Zion in Isaiah 60. Does this revival in Israel not have implications for the people of God worldwide. It has been so understood. The next pillar on the unity of God’s people is hard to envision if it is not connected to revival, for Yeshua says that the “glory that You have given to Me I have given to them that they may be one.”  Ephesians 4 envisions Yeshua’s people attaining “unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Ben Elohim—to mature adulthood to the measure of the stature of the Messiah’s fullness.”  Without God’s people being filled with his Spirit in revival, it is hard to see how this is possible.  Pentecost led to unity in Acts 2 and it is a key to unity in the end. Those who in unity pray for revival are a foreshadowing of the revival and unity to come. The picture of the Bride in Rev. 19:7 is stated in these terms, “For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.”  This is before the final judgment before the Millennial Age at the coming of Yeshua. The essence of revival is that God’s people are filled with his Spirit and walk in the fullness of the Spirit. So in all these ways, the implication of Joel 2 and Acts 2 is that we will experience a new worldwide Pentecost.  We see this already beginning in the movements of the Spirit in these days. We long to see more.

 

 

The doctrine of the last days is very important because according to one’s interpretation of the last days or eschatology, one’s orientation to life varies.  Some think that we should avoid the doctrine of eschatology because it is a difficult subject that divides believers.  They would say, “Let’s just affirm that Jesus is coming back again, that he will raise the dead and transform believers, and then we will live with Him in glory forever.” Well, this is certainly a true statement of some basic points of the Bible’s teaching.  That we can not know more than this used to be my position after I came to a state of “eschatological skepticism” when I was 19 years old.  In my early 20s, however, I come to see that the thrust of the New Covenant Scriptures presents more important themes about the last days that really do affect how we live.  From the ages of 22-33, my understanding more fully took shape.  In this series of posts, I will lay out what I came to believe.   This is also the position of the Tikkun Global and its connected ministries and many also the position of many other partners in our efforts.  Many came to the same conclusions as I without any influence from me!   Actually, we are recovering an older view that had great influence from the mid 18^th century until the end of the 19^th century but was replaced by a pessimistic eschatology in the 20^th century.

I call this a classic view.  Basically, it asserts that there is unity in the Scriptures.  The coming of Yeshua brought the reality of the Kingdom of God.  The Good news of the Kingdom is the invitation to enter the realm of the Kingdom by submitting one’s life to the rightful King, the King of Israel and the nations.   The Kingdom of God has broken into this world, and if we do submit to the King as Lord, He forgives our sin and fills us with His Spirit.  He enables us to live a godly life of obedience.  However, the Kingdom is only here partially.  It will not come in fullness until his second coming.  We now have the Spirit, the gifts, membership in his new community and so much more.  He puts everything in our lives in the right order.  However, our desire is to see his return. That return is contingent on the fulfillment of five pillars.   We summarize here but then in the next posts will take each individually.  We are seeking to be part of and to foster a five pillars movement.  These five pillars are the foundation of eschatology, and all else has to be understood in the context of these five, including last days’ trials and victories portrayed in the prophets and the Book of Revelation.

This classic eschatology is based on a desire to see the return of Yeshua, longing for his return (Titus 2:13)  We desire to live in such a way that history is moved forward to the day of his return (hastening the day of God the day of his coming II Peter  3:11) Before Yeshua returns we have to see these five.  First, people of God all over the earth are passionate about Yeshua and are in revival.  This view of a last days mighty revival goes back to the Puritans of the 1600s.  This revival will lead to fulfilling the destiny of the Church to his second coming.  Secondly, we must see the Body of Believers come into unity and fulfill the prayer of Yeshua that his people would be one, loving and serving one another.  Then the world will believe that the Father sent the Son.  This is connected to and intertwines with revival. Third, we must see the work of world evangelism reach every people group with an adequate witness.  This side of the second coming, the Gospel must be preached to all nations (ethnicities) and then the end of this age will come and the subsequent establishment of the Age to Come.  (Matthew 24:14).  Fourthly, we Jewish believers in Yeshua with the Gentile followers of Yeshua must bring Israel to jealousy leading to life form the dead (the second coming; Romans 11:11-15).  Israel is still God’s elect people and all his elect in Yeshua form all nations will join with the Messianic Jews to see all Israel saved.   Fifth and last, and an obvious corollary is that there must be a leadership throughout the world that has the influence to lead the Body of Believers to bring the fulfillment of the first four pillars.  This is implied in Ephesians 4 that the leaders with the five functions equip or align the Body until we come to the unity of faith, “to mature adulthood to the measure of the stature of Messiah’s fullness.

This is an optimistic eschatology.  It is not saying that we will take over the whole world and rule before the Messiah returns.  It is saying that we will be a victorious people accomplishing the work that God has set for us to do leading to his second coming and the conversion of the nation.

 

I invite you to go deeper into this topic, by purchasing my book Israel, The Church and the Last Days.

I recently thought of writing about the danger of a massive human tragedy of enormous scope.  I am writing about the potential of acts of war that can bring untold death and destruction. C. E M. Joad was one of the more significant philosophers of the 20th century.  He was an atheist who used to argue for atheism on British Broadcasting Company Radio.  Then he converted to Christianity and wrote two books which were a great influence on me in my days of searching.  One was The Recovery of Belief and the other God and Evil.  Both books argue that evil is endemic to human life and proves the Bible view that the human race is under a curse and cannot extricate itself from evil but must have a Redeemer.  One part of his writings shows that all inventions for human progress also involve concomitant evil and tragedy. The invention of cars leads to untold tragedies in highway deaths.  We accept this as progress. Industrialization led to pollution and diseases form dirty air and the death of minors from mining coal. Insecticides that increase crop production and feed more people, then cause cancer.  Nuclear discovery gives us nuclear power and nuclear waste. The worst aspect is that nuclear knowledge gives us nuclear bombs. We create robots to make life easier, but the robots will lead to the loss of millions of jobs in the near future.   We produce computers with artificial intelligence, but artificial intelligence, something, will eventually control the people who made it. We produce robots for war and could find ourselves being destroyed by robot armies!

 

In this article, I want to note just two of the terrible possibilities.  One is a pulse nuclear bomb that is set off in the atmosphere and shuts down the electrical infrastructure of a nation.  The other is a sophisticated cyber-attack that can also shut down the whole electrical grid not only of a small country like Israel but the United States.  Yet, politicians do not address these concerns. They make climate change a minor issue by comparison. The article in the J. Post today did not assert that millions would die as others have asserted.  Rather, it pointed to the loss of medicine due to refrigeration being shut down and the lack of needed medicines leading to death and disease. The loss of transportation means the loss of food. Fuel pumps would be shut down and transport would come to a halt. While connecting everything by computer and internet seems to be a great advance, it is fraught with the greatest danger.   

 

To avoid a pulse attack, we have to be vigilant to prevent regimes that would use such a weapon from getting it.  Today Iran is a primary worry for such a weapon delivered by a missile. Of greater concern is the cyberattack. A rouge movement like Al Qaeda, ISIS or others who have computer geniuses could conceivably do this.  Experts say that the way to prevent this is to have parallel grids disconnected from the internet system and also to decentralize the grid with regional separate grids. This is expensive but is a lasting answer. It is amazing that no politician is addressing this.  Yet it seems to be the most pressing of issues. 

 

I would think that secularist would lose sleep over this.  I do not because I believe in God. The word apocalypse means revelation, but its common meaning is a disaster of terrible proportions.  This is because the judgments in the book of Revelation seem so devastating and that is one name of the book. Yet, we could conceivably be in danger of a terrible disaster where millions will suffer and die.  Politicians are terrible at caring about the long term issues and the sacrifice needed to prevent disaster. Shouldn’t followers of Yeshua be sounding the alarm? 

 

I don’t think we have ever seen such controversy in the United  States surrounding the 4 of July, the date of the declaration of the independence of the  United States when we recall the Declaration document itself.  I will be celebrating this holiday in Chicago with dear old friends.  They have a boat and we will watch the fireworks from out in Lake Michigan opposite Wilmette, Illinois Pier.   Here are some recent bizarre news stories.

Nike athletic company just recalled a sneaker that featured the original flag of the United States, the Betsey Ross flag, with its thirteen stars and stripes.  Colin Kaepernick, the noted football player/protester against racism, who famously practiced kneeling during the national anthem at games, protested the symbolism of the sneaker.  He claimed it was offensive to some because the 1776 flag was created during a time of slavery.  No one had ever before identified this flag as having any connection to slavery.  It was created by Betsey Ross from Philadelphia, more recently a feminist icon, who lived in Philadelphia!

The town where Thomas Jefferson lived, Charlottesville,  has suspended celebrating his birthday and replaced it with a holiday honoring the liberation of the city by the Union Armies in the Civil war.

Donald Trump angers the Democrats by making the 4th of July celebration one with a celebration of the military by ordering the parading of tanks.

Israel celebrates the meaning of the Fourth of July in a special celebration in the Jerusalem Convention Center, with the Prime Minister and other government leaders.

We are living in a society that is somewhat losing its mind.  A nation depends on being able to celebrate those who advanced it, even if they were human and indeed showed blind spots, and engaged in significant sin.  Dismissing Thomas Jefferson, and Washington will be next, because they owned slaves, is a great mistake.  Yes, owning slaves was wrong, but in that time, there was not yet the moral consensus.  Washington, according to his great biographer Flexner, was uneasy in conscience about slavery and freed his upon his death.  Jefferson did not do so.  they are valued deeply because of the gains in political liberty, freedom, and a government system of checks and balances to limit the power of tyranny.  There were also strong abolitionists like John Adams.  However, the founders were leaders who advanced civilization and without them the very human rights that we value today may not have been enjoined.

There is today a deep anti-Americanism on the left.  Those who foster this do not credit that the gains from the cultural developments in Great Britain and the United States were the keys to the elimination of slavery.  The battle for such human rights did not come from Africa, East Asia, South Asia or any other society.  There is much to celebrate and much of this cultural advance had roots in the Bible.  In the Wall Street Journal form July 2nd, William McGurn of the Journal worte and article entitled, “A Kosher Fourth of July.”  He amazingly documented that the ideas of freedom, liberty and justice celebrated on the 4th were symbolically tied to the Hebrew Bible.  The Exodus freedom theme was embraced by both Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin who proposed seals of the United States with symbolism from those events.  Jefferson proposed the Israelites in the wilderness led by a the pillar of fire and the cloud.  Franklin proposed Moses extending his hand over the Red Sea.   This idea of the Exodus and the founding of the country went back to the Puritans.  Martin Luther King also drew from Biblical themes and the Exodus for his civil rights movement.  McGurn points to the amazing influence of the Hebrew Bible in America, for places, towns and more. Eric Nelson argues in a similar fashion in his book The Hebrew Republic.

Major historical figures should be judged on whether or not they advanced civilization on the basis of the right values.  Though we accept the separation of civil government from ecclesiastical government, we still seek a government influence by Biblical ideas; that all human beings are sacred, created in God’s image, with rights given by God.  We seek a government that is a guard against where tyranny and the importance of checks and balances.  This is the government bequeathed to the United States by its founders.  They are to be honored for this and we celebrate them on this 4th of July.  As Franklin said after the Constitution Convention, we have been given “A republic, if you can keep it.”  And keeping it is still our great challenge as the forces of the extreme left and right seek to destroy it and as the left seeks to discredit the people who bequeathed it to us.  As an Israeli, we also benefit from the same republican roots in our society.

A popular theology among Christian teachers is that God does not judge unbelievers.  Since they do not know Yeshua and do not have the power of the Spirit, we should not expect them to be moral.  This teaching is contrary to both the historic Christian consensus and the historic teaching of Judaism. Both have taught that basic morals are revealed to people.  In Christian teaching, people are responsible for the amount of revelation they know preserved in their various cultures. In the Bible, however, one sees that God’s judgment is mostly proclaimed and carried out on corporate peoples or nations.  However, the individual also is judged but in this life, just how that judgment is carried out is difficult to determine. However, after death and in the Age to Come unbelievers are judged according to their works. No one is given a free pass because they were not a believer!  

 

Early on in the book of Genesis, we find that Sodom and Gomorrah are judged severely for the level of sin in the culture.  “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great indeed, and their sin is very grievous indeed. I want to go down now, and see if they deserve destruction, as its outcry has come to Me.”   And of course, we know the end of the story. The cities were totally destroyed in a terrible conflagration. Egypt is judged in the Exodus. Then the book of Amos gives the most amazing list of nations that are to be judged because of their behavior.  

 

Amos details the sins of the surrounding nations and predicts the coming of a severe judgment of God due to these sins.  We read, “For three transgressions… and for four.” He condemns Damascus (Aram/Syria), Gaza, Ashdod, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre (Phonecians) Ammon, and Moab.   Why? For such sins as exiling a population, turning a population over to Edom, pursing his brother with the sword without compassion, ripping open pregnant women.”  God does hold the nations to account. 

 

Then also note that Judaism teaches that all nations are accountable to the 7 Laws of Noah.  These 7 laws are really categories of law like the ten commandments. To have a good destiny in the age to come a person or nation must renounce idolatry and keep the seven laws of Noah.  Then there is the Book of Revelation. The judgment upon the nations is profound. 

 

The New Covenant Scriptures also portray the Gentiles as under judgment until they turn to the Lord. (Eph. 2:3, children of wrath).  This does not mean that we are to bring judgment to unbelievers but a warning that they are under judgment for their behavior and the hope of a solution through the Good News.   However, after death there is a judgment. To those who have been given much, much will be required. The idea that God does not judge those who do not know Him is not biblical. The message of the Gospel is a message that the rightful King has arrived, and that we are to pledge our loyalty to him.  If we do so, he will forgive our sins and deliver us from judgment. Everlasting life in the joy of his Presence will be the destiny of those who truly turn to him. 

 

A former editor of the Jerusalem Post today confessed his puzzlement on what Avigdor Lieberman is up to.  As some of my readers know, Lieberman prevented Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a government. For this, the Prime Minister vilified him as empowering the left and derided him for not supporting him to form a rightwing government.  Was he just playing politics? Was it a lust for power? We cannot know the motives, and contrary to the press and the politicians who oppose him, we will not engage in slandering him for his motives. Contrary to the editorial, there is a case that the Lieberman, the leader of Israel Batainu (Israel our Home), a Russian Jewish orientated party, is following real convictions. Were his motives as white and pure as newly fallen snow, it could be quite rational and principled for him to oppose the Prime Minister and to let his government fail to form.  Besides the severe critique of Lieberman, the Prime Minister derides the Blue and White, the main opposition party as leftist. How can this be the case since the leaders are former military leaders, one of whom is Boggie Yaalon, the former defense minister under Netanyahu who was replaced so that Netanyahu could bring Lieberman’s party into the last government in part by offering him the post of defense minister. Politics is really strange! Much of the criticism of Netanyahu by the Blue and White is that the Prime Minister has been too weak in fighting the terror of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.  This hardly sounds leftist! Blue and White puts forth other policies that are not that different from Likkud. In fact, they are open to being in a government led by Netanyahu’s party, Likkud, if Netanyahu does not lead it. They have said they will not be in a government led by a leader who will probably be indicted for graft. The claim of their being leftwing is that to form a government they will have to include parties on the left. Again, how strange since Netanyahu recently offered to the Labor Party a place in the government! Is your head spinning yet?

 

Back to Lieberman. There is a real question as to whether even after the next election, Netanyahu can form a government without Lieberman.  Lieberman’s primary issues have to do with the domination of the Ultra-Orthodox, and Netanyahu’s submission to their demands. This includes several very important issues, so important that we should give Lieberman a break on questioning his motives.  Here is his list.

 

1. The military or national service exemption to all men who claim to be studying Torah (translate this as Talmud and Rabbinic Law).   As part of this is to have large government funds supporting the Yeshivas (study houses) where such study takes place.
2. The welfare funds that are given to the Orthodox that make this claim (that they really are capable and so studying is not honestly enforced).  This is a terrible weight on the economy of Israel. All are paying for the lack of productivity/economic expansion, taxes, and diminished prosperity,
3. The rejection of the Jewish status of many Russian Jews, by some accounts up to 400,000.  Because they are not considered adequately Jewish by Orthodox Jewish law, they cannot marry in Israel since there is no civil marriage in Israel.  They do not want a Christian wedding where they identify as Christians, and they are not allowed to marry Jews. They thus have to fly overseas for marriage.   However, to add insult to injury, the Ultra-Orthodox, over against the more flexible national Orthodo,x are in charge of the conversion process. They have made conversion difficult, though this would relieve the pressure on them.

1. The government allows and fosters work on the Sabbath that they consider economically necessary, like train construction that enable avoiding shutting down on weekdays with the terrible problems that would cause.  The Orthodox demand that this not be allowed.
2. Business on the Sabbath.  The government allows restaurants, entertainment, sports, and convenient stores to operate in secular areas on the Sabbath.  The Ultra-Orthodox want to stop this. In addition, they want to shut down public transportation in such areas.
3. Segregated transportation:  The Ultra-Orthodox are now pushing for segregated transportation which has been declared discriminatory and illegal by the Supreme Court.
4. Segregated public functions.  The Orthodox are pushing for separation of men and women for public functions.   

 

Well, this is certainly a large enough list to not require questioning the motives of Lieberman.  When the next election comes, the key will be the votes that Lieberman and his party get and the number of votes that go to the rightist parties and the Ultra-Orthodox.  

 

  

The Feast of Shavuot, known as Pentecost in the Church world is the same Feast, the one emphasizing seven weeks after the First Fruits Feast of Passover week and the other Fifty Days after First Fruits or Resurrection Sunday.  The Biblical Feast is a harvest Festival of the first large harvest of wheat.

The Jewish community celebrates this Feast as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah, or the Law, though the Word Torah is broader than law, though it includes it.  It is the instruction of God and his statutes and laws are instruction. The Bible does not tell us to celebrate this Feast as the Feast of giving the Law or the Ten Commandments, the Covenant of the Ten Words more precisely.  Rabbinic calculation, which is quite reasonable, calculates the time of travel to Mt. Sinai and Moses ascending the Mount, which was at least close to this date if not on it.

For Christians, the celebration is the anniversary of the outpouring the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) and the reference is explicit.  The occasion of the Feast for me always brings to mind the opposition of Law and Spirit that is so pervasive popular Christianity today.  Spirit is opposed to Law, Grace is opposed to Law and Faith is opposed to Law. Yet, this certainly is a huge mistake in interpretation. Actually, the Bible makes it quite clear that the benefits of the New Covenant, the grace of God, the way of faith, and the power of the Spirit all enable the fulfillment of the Torah (Law in its essence).  Two verses show this clearly, Romans 8:4, “The righteous requirement of the Torah/Law is fulfilled in us who walk by the Spirit.” Romans 3:31 as well states, “Do we nullify the Law through faith? On the contrary, we establish the Torah/Law.”

What is usually not understood in todays’ popular Christianity is that the historic Protestant Christian teaching got this mostly right.  Most taught that we are only saved by grace, but that this grace embraced by faith enables obedience to the Law by the power of the Spirit.  Richard Hooker, who at the end of the 16^th century established the foundations of Anglican teaching, argued for a principle approach.  One can ask and determine usually why a particular law is there and can usually see the underlying principle.  He opted for a flexible application approach that does not enjoin the exact civil penalties and particulars but does enjoin the principles with civil flexibility in penalties for a New Covenant Age.  In this he responded to Puritan Calvinists who wanted to literally follow the whole Law as exactly as possible, including the civil penalties for violation. Calvin’s teaching in Book II Chapter 7 of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, allowed for more flexibility.  It is a magnificent summary. This approach to the continued applicability of the Law/Torah in the New Covenant was also the view of the Wesley and the Methodists, the revivalist Charles Finney and is found in the greatest statement of Baptist theology by Augustus Strong at the end of the 19^th century.  This approach was held by the great Old Testament Scholar at Wheaton, Samuel Schultz (my professor of dear memory) and today by Walter Kaiser, emeritus President of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.  I could go on and name many more who have argued for this approach.  

The weakness in the classical statements of Protestantism was the too easy bifurcation of ceremonial and moral law.  The ceremonial law included those markers that made Israel, the Jewish people, a distinct people. Sabbath, keeping the Jewish Feast days, circumcision, and food laws are all dismissed.  However, the Church was not consistent since they celebrated a Christian version of Passover First Fruits (Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday) and Pentecost. This should have given the lie to this too easy a distinction.  It was really based in replacement theology.

Messianic Jews and the growing number of Christians who share our theology on these matters celebrate both the giving of the Torah and the outpouring of the Spirit as the key to fulfilling the Torah on this day.  The emphasis has been shifted. Our concentration is secondarily on the Torah but primarily on being led by the Spirit and walking in his power. However, the Torah continues in importance and is applicable in the New Covenant.  

What does Plato’s well known analogy on reality have to do with the Church and Messianic Judaism? Plato described life in a cave with its dim lights and shadows as an analogy for those who live in the world of sensory experience and never come to a true understanding of reality or the full light of day. The shadows moving on the walls are mistaken for reality. For Plato, reality was his realm of true intellectual ideas. For me the analogy speaks of the reality of Kingdom life in power over against the dim light and shadows that typifies most of the Western Church.

The Spirit Poured Out

From the late 1960s through the 1980s there was a great move of God, especially among America’s young people. Literally millions were swept into the Kingdom of God. Some of these millions were Jews who are constituents of today’s Messianic congregations. This was a thrilling time. Many who came to Yeshua had vibrant testimonies of His revealing Himself. These were supernatural stories. These new believers attended worship services that often lasted for many hours. We attended one meeting that went from 6:30pm to 11:30pm every Sunday evening. True seekers visited and were met by God.

In Washington, DC, we experienced God’s Kingdom life. Many came to know the Lord. We counted many churches as friends of our Messianic Congregations. Wonderful things were happening in these churches. This was life outside the cave. It was life in the light of day. I call life outside the cave a life of God’s presence, power and manifestation, or PPM. In one wonderful gathering during those days we immersed 26 Jewish people in the name of Yeshua. There were unity meetings, prayer meetings among pastors, life in the Spirit seminars, cooperative efforts and more. There were amazing healings and stories of deliverance. Our pediatrician was not only a famous doctor in the state, but a man of mighty miracles.

Some Return to the Cave

I understand those who have never been out of the cave. This is the only reality they have ever known. However, something very sad happened from the 90s on. Many switched from the mode of seeking God for revival to adopting a sociological-psychological method for attracting people. Some of these knew life outside the cave but have since returned to the cave. This is true among Messianic Jews as well. This today is called “seeker friendly” or “user friendly” services. Far be it from me to not be friendly to seekers.  I want people to understand what we are saying and to be able to relate to what we are doing. However, this is a secondary concern. My primary concern is PPM. When PPM is great, then even our ineptitude is overcome, and God meets people. In revival there is a harvest, not only the picking of a few ears. Some who had experience outside the cave now argue that manifestations of the Spirit are contrary to reaching the lost. Wow! Tell that to the people in the southern hemisphere of the globe who are winning people in droves!

There is a hidden contradiction in this orientation. If the Spirit of God is manifesting Himself, we need to remember that He is a person and knows what He is doing. Certainly He acts for the best of those who do not yet know the Lord Yeshua. He is the One who brings people into the Kingdom. Of course the question is whether or not it is really the Spirit; but people can be trained to be more accurate and sensitive to the Spirit so that PPM (presence, power and manifestation) is the real thing. My great concern is that many have now decided that they no longer desire the presence and power of God. They no longer pray for it.

On one accasion, I also slipped into the error of going overboard in the seeker friendly orientation. The Jewish High Holidays were the one time in the year where we would be like other synagogues. We would be a place where the Jewish person who did not know the Messiah Yeshua could be comfortable.  Before the holidays, my wife Patty had an extraordinary dream. She saw a series of pictures: first she saw a man acting on stage and even identifying his stage name. Then the images changed and she saw this same man enter our sanctuary and then leave to sit in his car in the parking lot.

During the High Holidays the man from Patty’s dream actually showed up at our congregation just as Patty had seen in her dream. True to form he then left and sat in his car. At Asher Intrater’s urging, Patty went outside, shared the dream with this man and asked him to come back into the service for
prayer.

Asher came forward after my message and asked me to trust him to lead us into something special; then Patty and the visitor came forward. He publicly testified to the accuracy of the dream. This was a dramatic manifestation of the Spirit in the prophetic realm. I expected our other Jewish visitors to be impressed with our choir, our great worship music, the way we did liturgy and my speaking. But instead they were impressed by the supernatural manifestation of God. Some were saying, “This dream and the testimony mean that God is real, that He really intervenes!!”  It was a better testimony than anything I could have done.

I long for the life outside the cave; I wonder that those who once experienced it can return to the cave. I suppose the cave seems safe, manageable and an atmosphere more easily controlled. This is very desirable to some. It seems more respectable. I know that we have to learn to filter out what is not from God; but in an atmosphere of over control and government, God has been asked to please remain within our boundaries. This is the tendency of most of today’s seeker friendly directions. We are seeing some really big congregations established, but few are successful in winning new people to the Kingdom of God.

Life Inside the Cave

I want to illustrate life inside the cave. Let us imagine a big cavern.  There are many caves in the one cavern. The leaders in each cave compete for the people in the cavern to be in their cave. They rearrange the furniture and even make better cave furniture. This does attract more people. Some of the caves have many more people than others. There are even a few who drift into the cavern and go to one of the caves and commit to the light that they see in the cave. However, most of what goes on is only the people already in the cavern switching their cave dwellings.

All of today’s church growth statistics, especially the data compiled by George Barna, tell us that this is not really working. We need to seek God for a revival; a mighty move of God, we need to be open for His manifestations of power. When God pours out His Spirit, people are motivated to be truly discipled and empowered to win a lost world.

We have much literature on the history of revival; the accounts of Jonathan Edwards, the Wesleys and Zinzendorf to name a few. We have an historical record of life outside the cave. It is less safe but the Spirit knows what He is doing.

Revival in Israel

In Israel we seek a great harvest. We work in a training school that is committed to life outside the cave. We know that only God’s presence, power and manifestation will gain a great harvest in this land. The Book of Acts shows us life outside the cave and we are to accept nothing less.  This is our desire.  To gain a Jewish harvest, nothing less will do.