Sermon Video: God responds to the foolish choice of Abram and Sarai - Genesis 16

 

Abraham and Sarah are heroes of the faith, but they made plenty of mistakes along the way.  One of the most serious of them was the decision by Sarai to offer her slave Hagar to her husband Abram as a 2nd wife in the hopes that a son born to Abram and Hagar could be considered her son by adoption.  This way an effort to "assist" the fulfillment of God's promise.  Here's the thing: God doesn't need immoral help to accomplish his will.

In the end, the plan works in that Hagar bears Ishmael, but is a disaster in all other respects because it spawns a bitterness between Sarai and Hagar.  In the end, God intervenes to protect Hagar and her son, preventing Abram and Sarai's mistake from going further off the rails.

Sermon Video: God credits Abram's faith as righteousness - Genesis 15:1-6

Does faith exclude anxiety and fear?  As it turns out, it does not.  Abraham, the "father of faith" had them.  Abram's promise from God of a son and heir was a LONG time in the fulfilling.  Abram's expressed his frustration with this to God, and rather than getting angry, God offered him reassurance that his promise still stood.  It is Abram's acceptance of this promise, after expressing his anxiety/fear, that God credited to him as righteousness.

Sermon Video: Abram rescues Lot, then tithes to Melchizedek - Genesis 14

In Genesis 14 the story of Abram is dragged into the drama of a regional war when his nephew Lot is taken along with the spoils following one of its battles.  Abram responds in faith, boldly moving to rescue Lot.  His success leads to an amazing moment, where the victorious Abram tithes from the plunder to Melchizedek, a "priest of God Most High."  This offers an amazing insight into God's work in our world beyond the scriptures.

Sermon Video: Abram and Lot go their own ways - Genesis 13

After his failure to trust God while sojourning in Egypt, how will Abram react the next time he needs to live by faith in God's promises?  Genesis 13 offers the answer, in it Abram passes the test with flying colors.  When a conflict arises between his shepherds and those of Lot over the available grazing land, Abram offers Lot the first choice of the land so they can part in peace.  This incredibly generous offer from Abram highlights his faith in God, as the chapter unfolds God speaks to Abram reiterating his promises and once more proclaiming that the future of this land belongs to his offspring.

* Apologies that I stepped out of the frame a bit this time, I was trying to tighten up the zoom a bit, but I guess I don't stand still enough for that to work.

Sermon Video: Abram fails to live by faith - Genesis 12:10-20

Abraham and Sarah are heroes of the faith, but their lives had challenges just like our own, and they failed to meet some of them with faith.  When famine caused them to seek refuge in Egypt, Abram was willing to put his wife at risk in order to avoid danger that he feared.  This form of, "Let us do evil that good may result," is wholly unacceptable for God's people.  Our call is to do what is morally upright, circumstances don't change that.

Sermon Video: God's Grace in Action: The Call of Abram, Genesis 11:10-12:3

Following the Tower of Babel incident, when God dispersed a human effort to establish his presence among humanity, the narrative of Genesis turns toward the family line that leads to Abram, the man whom God will choose to begin his relationship with one particular people, and through them bless the world.

God asks a lot of Abram, to leave his homeland and trust that God will make him into a great nation despite the lack of children in his marriage with Sarai.  But God also promises amazing things to Abram, going far beyond what any connection to a God in the Ancient Near East would expect to be by proposing to Abram an enduring relationship.  With God it wouldn't be a mutually beneficially bargain, instead it would be an outpouring of grace.

Sermon Video: God's plan: A Flood and a Covenant, Genesis 6:14-22

God shares his plan with Noah, giving him instructions on how to survive the Flood that is coming and entrusting him with the care of the animals that are also to be spared.  In that process, God promises to Noah that he will establish a covenant with him, further deepening their already existing relationship.

In the end, Noah did what God commanded.  The narrative never tells us what Noah thought about any of this, we simply learn that he obeyed.

Sermon Video: Ending Romans with a loud, "Amen!" - Romans 16:25-27

In the benediction to his letter to the church at Rome, the Apostle Paul reminds his readers of God's marvelous Gospel, of the grace given in this generation through the coming of Jesus Christ who brought salvation to all the people of the world by faith.

Local Torah Club leader contends that Paul's Damascus Road experience was an "adjustment", hear how Paul actually describes his encounter with Jesus Christ.

The following was part of a series of comments on my YouTube channel, specifically the video introducing our objections as a ministerium to the Torah Clubs back in February of 2023.  Heather Mohnkern is the leading local Torah Club leader and their primary spokesperson in Venango County, she and her husband Keith were given an award by the First Fruits of Zion organization for outstanding service at the 2022 Malchut Conference.

To also add to the conversation…a recurring theme of the Gospels is Jesus pointing out the ‘religious hierarchies need to be theologically right’ took a secondary role  to ‘being in relationship and trusting the one walking with them’ and correcting established theology that had been misapplied.  Even Saul of Tarsus needed to have an ‘adjustment’ via his Damascus Road experience. He did not have to throw out his theology he just had to have an encounter with His G-d that bound the two together into something that would change the nations….relationship then theology.  And Paul never taught contradictory to Torah if you can remove supersessionism from hundreds of years of interpretations of his writings.  There is a whole academic explosion happening in the world right now to correct that which has  negatively impacted the greater Christian orthodoxy. - Heather Mohnkern, Franklin area Torah Club leader, 1/3/23

This then is the heart of the matter, did Saul of Tarsus only need an "adjustment" by encountering God, one that left his theology intact (or at least mostly intact)?  Was Saul of Tarsus on the right track in life, only missing that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, or did the roots of his murderous hatred toward the followers of Jesus run much deeper?  To be honest, I've never heard anyone downplay the Damascus Road experience before, but thinking about it, this is a necessary contention for First Fruits of Zion to make given that they believe (and teach) that Jesus was only a reformer of Judaism and that neither he nor Paul, nor any of Jesus early followers, intended to found the Church or Christianity.  From that viewpoint, Saul of Tarsus must have been one of the most excellent men of his day, for he was a follower of the Law of Moses with which few could compare.  Let's let Paul explain what really happened in his own words...

Galatians 1:13  New International Version

For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.

Before meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus was entirely opposed to the teaching and message of Jesus Christ, he wanted to destroy everything that Jesus had created.

Galatians 1:14  New International Version

I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Saul was both full of zeal and following the dictates of the Law of Moses as understood by his rabbinic teachers to the fullest, few if any could compare with his accomplishments within that system.  And yet, looking back on this life, how did the now Apostle Paul think of it, how close to God was he in that previous life?

Philippians 3:4b-11  New International Version

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

When Saul got up off the ground on the way to Damascus, having seen the risen Lord Jesus Christ, his entire understanding of what it meant to be in a relationship with God had changed.  His entire understanding of what God required of his people had shifted radically.  Faith, not works was the key.  Love, not precision in obedience to the minutia of the Law was its engine.  The man who wandered blind into Damascus to find Ananias was seeing things clearly for the first time in his life.  Prior to this he had known all about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he had not known him at all.  Saul of Tarsus could not have been in relationship with God because he had not faith, only self-righteousness.

"He did not have to throw out his theology" is a claim that fits well with the teachings of TC/FFOZ, for they would love to hold up Saul the Pharisee and just add faith in Jesus to that foundation, but that's not what happened, that's not how Paul himself felt about it.  In fact, what Saul thought he knew about God needed to change dramatically before he emerged as the Apostle Paul, the champion of grace and faith.

An adjustment??  When God knocks you off a horse because you're on your way to murder his people, he's got more than an adjustment in mind.

Sermon Video: "Everything that does not come from faith is sin." - Romans 14:22-23

Having established the grace we need to give each other in disputable matters, Paul ends the discussion with a warning toward those who might act against their own conscience, and thus do so without faith.

Along the way, we also have the important advice to "not condemn ourselves" by approving of things that we should not, and the clarification that it is not with respect to faith in God or his will that we should hesitate to act on faith if we doubt (in that case we ought to "dare Great things for God") but our own understanding, when we doubt ourselves Paul is telling us to err on the side of caution.

Sermon Video: How should we view ourselves? - Romans 12:3

Before explaining how the various members of the church (local and universal) fit together in God's will, the Apostle Paul offers a reminder that as Christians we need to look at ourselves with sober judgement.  His primary emphasis is the danger of letting pride skew our self-view, there is an equal (hard to say if it is more/less common) danger in letting doubt/despair skew our self-view in the opposite direction.  In both cases we can rely upon baseline truths to help us avoid self-deception: (1) We are all created in God's image, this creates a floor of self-worth, nobody is worthless. (2) We are all lost sinners, incapable of pleasing God on our own, this creates a ceiling of self-worth, nobody is perfect.  (3) We are all saved by grace, this moderates both extremes by lifting us up because of our transformation in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and reminding us that this gain is all a gift of grace.

Sermon Video: Seeing isn't Believing - Romans 10:16-21

The Gospel message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus is an easy one to share and comprehend, children are more than capable of fully believing it.  So, why did the Israelites in Jesus' generation, who saw his miracles, refuse to believe in him?  What is it about humanity that we're capable of this?

Willful and stubborn human pride is the answer.  The human heart is capable of looking at overwhelming evidence and ignoring it because we would rather not believe it.  It isn't the Gospel message that needs to change, but the hard hearts of those who won't accept God's love for them.

Sermon Video: Believe in Jesus, and you will be saved - Romans 10:5-13

How simple is it to receive the Good News of the Gospel?

Amazingly simple.  The intellectual hurdle is minimal, one only need acknowledge that Jesus has risen from the dead and he is Lord.  The crux of the matter is the willingness of the heart to accept the need for salvation in Jesus.

For everyone who does so, seeking salvation in Jesus, they will find it.

Sermon Video: Christ is the culmination of the Law - Romans 10:1-4

Why did Paul's generation of Law observant Israelites fail to accept Jesus as the Messiah?  One of the primary explanations, coming from Paul who knew this personally before his own Damascus Road conversion experience, was the presence of prideful self-righteous zeal.  Too many of the people sought to please God with their own efforts, rather than by faith trust in God's mercy and forgiveness.  The Law of Moses could never be the path to righteousness, it only showed God's people where they fell short of his holiness.

How did Jesus fix this apparent dead end?  By totally, completely, and forever fulfilling the Law.  The sinless life and guiltless death of Jesus Christ is the end of the Law because the moment Jesus breathed his life he had fulfilled it fully, thus bringing to a close the Law's time as the guardian of His people.  The Spirit would soon come at Pentecost to confirm this transition.

Righteousness has been been achieved by human effort or desire, it has always been, and always will be a gift of grace given through faith.

Sermon Video: Righteousness by Faith, not Law - Romans 9:27-33

Since the Law was given by God to his people, and he rewarded them for keeping it and punished them for breaking it, why couldn't righteousness come through obeying it?  Simple, that was never its intent.  God knew that humanity could never follow his commands perfectly, that all would sin, all would be lawbreakers.  The Law made God's people conscious of their sin, it did not offer them the solution to it.  The answer to that dilemma was always grace.  God's forgiveness and mercy given to his people, and his people's need to trust in that grace by faith.  Ultimately Jesus came to be the solution, to be the sacrifice for sin, and our faith became in/through him.

Sermon Video: Salvation depends upon God's mercy, not human effort - Romans 9:10-18

It is all about the mercy.  Salvation depends utterly upon the mercy of God, thanks be to God for that.  The Apostle Paul uses the example of Jacob and Esau (twin brothers) to demonstrate that God's mercy does not depend upon our character or effort, he gives it to whom he chooses.

Why is this a conclusion to be praised rather than a cause for alarm about freewill?   Because God's love, mercy, and grace will always be greater, more reliable, and more effective than any human effort.

FFOZ (Torah Clubs) admit they are sharing a another/new/different Gospel

 

It really isn't a big deal if FFOZ (Torah Clubs) reinterprets the Gospel message in a way unknown throughout Church History, is it?  If that's what you think, you may not be familiar with the Apostle Paul's dire warning to the churches in Galatia.  

Galatians 1:6-9 (NIV)

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

This is indeed a big deal, to those of us who claim Jesus Christ as Savior, its everything.  Listen, I know that in Church History there have been plenty of examples where would-be reformers were falsely labeled as heretics preaching a 'different Gospel', these steep overreactions from the Church have been deeply tragic.  That caution lest we repeat the mistakes of our ancestors in the faith in mind, we cannot allow a new version of the Gospel to go unchallenged, we cannot ere so far on the side of caution that we ignore false teaching.

How do I know that FFOZ (Torah Clubs) is teaching a new Gospel?  They readily admit it.  They know what they are teaching is new to the Church, the radical nature of what they are trying to convince others of is a big part of their motivation.  Let their own words bear witness...

{All quotes below comes from the video recordings of the Malchut 2022 Conference, a gathering of Torah Club leaders and financial backers, in other words, this is what they tell the insiders, the true believers.}

Direct quotes will be in italics, added emphasis in bold is mine, my commentary in {brackets}.

I mean, as this evangelical I did not understand the full scope of the gospel message. That is for sure. Especially as it pertained to Israel. But I would say as it pertained to any human being, but especially as it pertained to Israel. Instead, I learn to divide the world, as I’m sure many of you did, into two types of people: the saved and the unsaved, right? Those who have been born again by accepting Jesus into their hearts for a personal relationship went into a category we called the saved, that is the Christians. And those without Jesus, the unsaved, the non-Christians. And so the onus was on those of us who are the saved, that we have a responsibility and a mission to save the unsaved and persuade them to become Christians.  Which seems reasonable. In this respect this approach to evangelism, you know from what I’m looking at it now, was a little naïve and largely a misunderstanding of the gospel message. I mean, this is just not what Yeshua taught. We thought the gospel message was believe in Jesus so that you will go to heaven when you die. I mean, really, that was it. So believing the right things about Jesus. That was our sacrament. Having the right things in your head about Jesus, that was the thing that saved you. But that’s not what Yeshua said and that’s not what he taught. When I started to learn the New Testament from a Jewish perspective and to study the teachings of the Jewish Yeshua, I discovered a totally different gospel message. In fact, it used to trouble me that he never said anything about becoming Christians. Didn’t it trouble anyone else? I mean, it really troubled me. I mean, I’m talking as a teenager reading. I remember throwing the Bible across the room because it just seemed like everything contradicted, everything in the Bible contradicted everything I was learning in church. (Daniel Lancaster - Missionaries, 24:10ff)

{Daniel Lancaster, who grew up as an Evangelical Baptist, admits that he rejects the Church’s understanding that the people of the world can be divided into the saved (those who trust in Jesus) and the unsaved (those who do not trust in Jesus).  Lancaster then goes on to describe a very poor Straw Man version of what the Church has always taught about the Gospel, rejects this, and proclaims that he "discovered a totally different gospel message." through Judaism.}

His message had nothing to do with consenting to a creed. He didn’t introduce a new religion. Instead, he called for repentance within the religion that he was already in. (Daniel Lancaster - Missionaries, 26:37ff) 

{Again, Lancaster proclaims that FFOZ’s version of the Gospel has nothing to do with what you believe about Jesus, is NOT a new religion, but only a reform movement that was intended to and must remain within Judaism.}

Going to heaven and escaping from hell, in other words, dealing with the world of souls, these are corollaries. They’re related ideas. But not at all the focus, and never presented as the measure by which humanity can be divided into two categories, or that we could divide humanity into two categories, saved and unsaved. Wow! You know for somebody who grew up as an old Evangelical like me, that’s a big shift. It’s taken most of a lifetime for me to absorb the implications there, and I am still to this day trying to process it. I mean, it’s another one of those complete reshuffling of the cards, right? The Jewish gospel as I just described it is far more nuanced and at the same time far more robust, far more sweeping than rescuing a few fortunate souls from the fires of perdition. But, if you’re like me, and I’m assuming a lot of you are, coming from an evangelical background like me and accustomed to a simple formula message that divides the world into black-and-white, saved and lost, who is in and who is out, then this broader, deeper, wider message of the gospel actually leaves you feeling a little tongue-tied when it comes to evangelism and articulating the mission. (Daniel Lancaster - Missionaries, 30:13ff) 

{Here Lancaster fully develops the Straw Man version of the Gospel, one that only cares about souls and Heaven and has nothing to say about repentance and how we live this life (Who is preaching this nonsense?  Virtually nobody).  By creating the deficient Straw Man, now Lancaster can reject the traditional Gospel in favor of what FFOZ intends to replace it with.}  

I hope tonight to communicate clearly that the message that all of us have heard, the gospel message that all of us have heard, is not the message of the gospel of the kingdom. It’s a gospel in fact devoid of the kingdom, a gospel that has in fact obscured the kingdom. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 8:27ff) 

{The Founder and President of FFOZ proclaiming that the Gospel message taught by the Church is NOT what God intended.}

We’ve seen something that most Christians haven’t. Most followers of Yeshua have accepted him as their Savior, maybe as their Lord, but they have yet to see him as a humble rabbi from Nazareth, a teacher of Judaism who upheld the Torah and the Jewish way of life. Missing these critical aspects of Yeshua’s life and ministry doesn’t just mean missing out on Shabbat or Passover. It means we are missing the very corner stone of his message, the gospel of the kingdom. In fact the biggest difference, the biggest tension between post-supersessionist Christianity and Christianity, mainstream Christianity, isn’t what holidays we keep or the kind of food we eat. It’s not the biggest difference. It’s our understanding of what Yeshua ultimately came to teach and accomplish. The church’s gospel, the church’s interpretation of Yeshua‘s core message, has been incomplete for nearly 2000 years. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 8:27ff) 

{FFOZ believes they are the first ones in Church History to teach the “complete” Gospel, the hubris involved and the blanket condemnation of the entire Church is astounding.}

Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It’s a message to Israel and it’s a message that doesn’t make sense without Torah, without Judaism, without Jewish people, and without Jewish, like, identity. It’s a promise of restored monarchy, restored Sanhedrin, restored nation of Israel. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 8:27ff) 

{A Gospel without obeying Torah, practicing Judaism, and adopting Jewish identity doesn’t make any sense??  It is clear where FFOZ stands.}

Every house needs a firm foundation. The church has built its entire mission on an incomplete foundation on a partial gospel. This process began early, early, early when church theologians intentionally, intentionally stripped away the Jewish context of the New Testament. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 8:27ff) 

{According to FFOZ, the Early Church intentionally warped the Gospel message.}

The church today is floundering in the waves of cultural change with no Torah to guide them, no clear direction, and no concrete moral compass. Like shattered glass, thousands of denominations and independent churches fight each other over theology and practice because their core message is missing something. The gospel of the kingdom has been replace with an oversimplified distortion of Yeshua‘s message. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 16:53ff) 

{Boaz blames a non-unified Church on a delinquent Gospel message.}

The same Christians who propagated this incomplete gospel also translated the Bible into languages all of us can understand. The whole world knows about the Messiah of Israel because of missionaries and their efforts. But they were only telling a small part of a much larger story. Perhaps HaShem has ordered that for a time, let’s consider this. It’s temporary. The gospel of the kingdom needed to be watered down. It needed to be simplified so that at least some part of Yeshua’s message, his name, would travel as far as possible. And reach as many people as possible...But I believe that gospel and that time is coming to an end. I believe that the missionary efforts of the church have paved the way for the original gospel of the kingdom, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 16:53ff) 

{Why did God allow the Church to “flounder” with a “watered down” Gospel for 2,000 years, and why were missionaries so successful in spreading it?  Boaz thinks that it made evangelism easier, so God allowed it, but now the world is finally ready for the “real Gospel”.  FYI, God doesn’t operate like this, how could this be the Church that Jesus promised was coming and the Spirit came at Pentecost to empower?}

This gospel that has gone forth is only a tiny sliver of an idea but yet it was able to spread like wildfire and drew billions of people into the church. But, without Torah, without Israel, without repentance, it’s not the gospel of the kingdom. The whole world knows at this point, from my perspective, the whole world has heard or seen, knows the name Jesus, perhaps even Yeshua. They know the classic formula for what it means to believe or to go to heaven. Everyone has heard it. But the work isn’t finished. It’s just beginning. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 19:10ff)

{Is it sufficiently clear yet that FFOZ firmly believes that what the Church has taught for 2,000 years is NOT the true Gospel, and that they alone have the wisdom to replace it?}

Bringing Yeshua’s message to Gentiles is the whole purpose of the Torah Club. If you’re a Torah Club leader or student you’re part of this prophetic movement to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to all nations. Even if it’s not happening at pulpits and churches or in theological textbooks or in alter calls, it’s happening in your living room. Gentile Christians are finally discovering Yeshua’s message (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 33:19ff) 

{According to FFOZ, The Church is not bringing the message of Jesus to the world, only FFOZ is, for this first time, in this generation.}

I believe that there is a seed already planted by the gospel message that has been sent out, that is ready to be watered, ready to be nurtured so that it blossoms into the gospel of the kingdom. And as kingdom goes from something that looks dry and dead to something that is green, plush and beautiful. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 46:21ff) 

{The Gospel of the Church is “dry and dead”, FFOZ believes they will bring forth something new to replace it.}

Don’t think of this as a Bible study. Don’t burden yourself with the idea that, “You’re just, you know, each week…” You’re proclaiming the kingdom. You’re bringing Israel’s redemption. What we are doing is so much bigger than a Bible study. (Boaz Michael - And Then the End Will Come, 50:01ff)

{Just a Bible study?  They don’t think so.}

We teach that Jesus and his disciples were all Jewish, that their religion was Judaism, that Jesus did not cancel the law, Christians don’t replace the Jewish people, and Yeshua and the Apostles didn’t start a new religion to replace an old one. (Boaz Michael - What is your IQ? p. 2) 

{They believe Christianity should never have existed, only Judaism is God’s true plan.}

Because we are on a mission from God to transmit this good news unencumbered with the distractions that have beset it, the distractions of theology and supersessionism and misconstrued dogmatisms about eternal destinies. (Daniel Lancaster - Band of Survivors, 7:47ff) 

{The Gospel that the Church preaches needs to be stripped of its false dogmas according to FFOZ.}

Until then, however, there’s a small remnant, right. It’s a pretty small remnant of the kingdom on earth. There’s a few of us. There’s a few of us clinging to the Commandments in the testimony of Yeshua as it says in the Book of Revelation. (Daniel Lancaster - Band of Survivors, 7:47ff) 

{Any Gospel that supposedly only saves a tiny minority of those who claim Jesus as Savior is warped and twisted.}

Only a few proclaim an unencumbered gospel message like this. (Daniel Lancaster - Band of Survivors, 9:23ff)

{FFOZ knows that their version of the Gospel represents only a tiny minority, that it is NOT the same as that of the Church.}

Too often the good news of the gospel has been presented as bad news, as you know. I mean, It’s bad news for Israel, I tell you that. According to the bad news of the gospel, you know and I’m just gonna be a little facetious for a little bit, just forgive me because that’s just the way I am. It’s just part of my yetzer hara. But we need to harness the yetzer hara for the service of the kingdom. So that’s what I’m doing. According to the bad news of the gospel that missionaries ordinarily offer to Israel, Jews who don’t believe in Jesus, you know, suffer in hell for eternity. So that’s a good opening line. Along with the vast majority of humanity, so at least they won’t be lonely. But if you consent to believe in Jesus you can escape that fate in hell wherein, of course, almost all of Israel parishes but the only catch is you need to quit being Jewish because in Jesus there is no such thing as such thing as Jew and Gentile. I’m not kidding. I said I’m going to be a little facetious. But that is the message. That is the implicit message anyway that Jesus does away with Judaism and Jewish identity. (Daniel Lancaster - Band of Survivors, 17:43ff) 

{Daniel Lancaster, writer of the Torah Clubs materials, speaks with disdain about the idea that believing in Jesus or not affects a person’s eternal destiny.}

Likewise, the traditional message to the world doesn’t sound like good news for the nations either. It sounds, you know, something like this. God created you to be a worthless sinner. From the moment you were conceived, God destined you to suffer in hell forever. And if you’ve ever broken a single commandment, well it doesn’t really matter because Adam did for you, but you’ve broken them all and of course you know “all have sinned and fallen short” of his impossibly high expectations and the wages of that is eternal torment along with the Jews. So, therefore, you’re consigned under God‘s eternal wrath unless you consent to a certain set of theological propositions according to one side of the church or to a specific sacramental series of rituals according to the other side of the church. (Daniel Lancaster - Band of Survivors, 19:25ff) 

{Utilizing a poor Straw Man presentation of the Gospel, Lancaster again mocks the traditional message of the Gospel as “bad news.”}

OK, I’m done being facetious now. And again, I apologize. I’m just trying to make a point. When you put it like that the Gospel does, you know, it sounds pretty bleak. And it sounds a little absurd. That’s not good news for anyone. That would be bad news. And that particular formulation of the message probably did work pretty well in the Middle Ages when you could frighten people with dogmas that dangle them over hell only inches above, you know, a host of horn demons with pitchforks. It might have sold well in the Reformation when people were willing to except anything that could liberate them from the authority of Rome. But it just does not have a lot of traction with the average thinking person today. Who wants a religion like that? Who needs it? (Daniel Lancaster - Band of Survivors, 20:31ff)

{While the traditional Gospel could be sold to the less educated people of the Middle Ages and Reformation, according to FFOZ, thinking people today want no part of it.  The disdain for, and mockery of, the Gospel as it has been believed since the Apostles is very thick.}

Now, again, I’m not just trying to be controversial or irreverent. I’m just explaining to you why we need to reassess this. Why we at First Fruits of Zion and in Messianic Judaism, why we are putting the time and the effort into recovering the original good news message proclaimed by Yeshua and the Apostles. And this is why we need to understand the Gospels from a Jewish perspective (Daniel Lancaster - Band of Survivors, 21:34ff) 

{FFOZ is leading  a conscious ‘reassessment’ of the Gospel, replacing it with what they claim to be the original version.}

Outside of the Jewish context really, when you strip it back, doesn’t really make a lot of sense. It comes out convoluted. It comes out sideways like this which is—and it comes out in a way that really repels people rather than drawing them near to the kingdom and nearer to God. It’s rather than a message about God‘s love for Israel and his love for all of humanity. Even though that’s what we say it comes out—it sounds—when you really read between the lines of what we’re saying it sounds an awful lot like a message about God’s hatred for Israel and for human beings in general. And so, we’ve got something wrong here. (Daniel Lancaster- Band of Survivors, 21:34ff) 

{In Daniel Lancaster's opinion, the traditional Gospel is the message of God’s hatred for Israel and humanity.  This statement is beyond bold, it is deeply heretical, but also honest in that it reveals that FFOZ has no use for the Gospel of our ancestors in the faith.}

And when we clear the debris and uncover the truth, I don’t think it’s gonna take a lot of effort to sell the Good News, because it really is good news. But it does take a lot of effort to clear away the obstacles that are obscuring it. (Daniel Lancaster - Band of Survivors, 24:21ff) 

{The Gospel, as it is, is unacceptable to them.}

Sometimes you have to believe people when they repeatedly tell you who they are and what they're trying to do.  First Fruits of Zion, under the leadership of Michael Boaz and Daniel Lancaster, have gone much further in their denouncements of the Gospel and the Church when talking to the insiders at the Malchut Conference than they do in the published Torah Clubs materials.  Given that they're trying to win converts from those already attending church, it is wise (and deceptive) of them to hide their true disdain for, and rejection of, the traditional Gospel message.  In these direct quotations it comes through loud and clear.  This is why the Franklin Christian Ministerium unanimously decided to move forward with opposing this false teaching.  We may have differences on any number of other theological issues, but none of us are seeking to teach people a different Gospel than the one handed down to us.  That is what is at the heart of the mission and purpose of FFOZ, and it has no place in the Church.

** An important reminder: Our contention is not with Jews, Judaism, or Messianic Judaism.  FFOZ is a gentile led organization targeting gentiles, they are not associated with the Jewish people, the religion of Judaism, or the movement within Christianity known as Messianic Judaism. **

Sermon Video: "No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"! - Romans 8:1-4

Having established, in Romans, that all of humanity is alike condemned for sin, the Apostle Paul has offered up salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, a gift from God, as the answer.  Here, in Romans 8:1, Paul emphatically declares just how far and how lasting that salvation really is.  Where once there was universal condemnation, now NO condemnation remains for each man, woman, and child who is in Jesus.  The implications are astounding (and the rest of Romans 8 will dive deeply into them), but for a moment just enjoy the wonder of being set free from sin and death.

Doubt and Faithfulness are not polar opposites: A Lesson from "Doubting Thomas" - John 20:24-29

 

I find Caravaggio's The Incredulity of Saint Thomas to be a fascinating painting.  One of the reasons why is that the text of John's Gospel, which is the basis for the moment the painting portrays, never actually says that Thomas touched Jesus' wounds, only that he declared he wouldn't believe that Jesus had risen from the dead without doing so.  The painting aside, the episode of Thomas' doubt is deeply illustrative of how God deals with doubt throughout the scriptures.  Again and again we see heroes of the faith depicted as having doubt: doubt in themselves, doubt in what they've been told by angels, even doubt after working miracles in God's name.  From Abraham's twice invoked "she's really just my sister" routine in Genesis, to Moses' attempt to put the responsibility on his younger brother instead of himself in Exodus, to Gideon's repeated requests for confirmation in Judges, to Elijah's exhaustion because he thinks he's the only one fighting for God in 1 Kings, to Esther's hesitancy to step forward in Esther, and finally Zechariah's doubt while standing in the Temple itself talking to the angel Gabriel in Luke, we see these great men and women who accomplished amazing things by the power of God, expressing their doubt and hesitancy.

And here's the key thing: In none of those instances does God search for the 'smite' key {A reference to one of my favorite Far Side cartoons} and ditch the person expressing how they really feel.  Instead, in each case God offers a second chance in the form of reassurance and patience until the person with doubt is able, thanks to this act of grace from God, to overcome it and continue fulfilling their purpose in God's plan. The point is, they were still useful to God.

How does the Church treat doubt?  I'm not talking about those who deny the Trinity or the Virgin Birth, for example, thanks to heretical teachings, that's false conviction not doubt, but rather those who have genuine doubts about God, his will or purpose, because the life they've lived has brought these feelings into focus.  Too often the Church can feel like the last place you would want to admit that you're struggling with doubt, anxiety, fear, even anger toward God.  It feels like a judgmental place, a place where, "nobody has doubts, but me."  Why?  Not because that's true, not because you're the only person who has been wounded by life, but because for whatever reason we choose to portray faith as an all-or-nothing proposition.  In reality, faith is a journey, a commitment, the kind of thing that can take a hit, get knocked down, but then rise once more and continue on, even if the person holding onto it has some scars from the experience.  Faith isn't made of glass, it is capable of dealing with reality, looking at difficult questions with humility, and acknowledging when we don't have all the answers.  Why?  Because faith is primarily a relationship with God, not an intellectual pursuit on our part.  Yes, our minds are involved, we need to know and accept who God is and what God has done for us in order to have faith, but that faith is IN God, a person, not a concept or construct, a person (who just so happens to be the Creator of the universe, a key thing faith has going for itself).

If you're having difficulties, if your faith feels battered and bruised, you won't be alone if you go to church, God be merciful on us if those you find there make you think you are, because you're not, they may not be willing to admit it, but a number of the people sitting, singing, and prayer with you know just how you feel because they were there once too, and maybe still are.  In the end, God isn't going to give up on you, for each and every person who faith and hope are in Jesus Christ is an adopted child-of-God, we're safe in our Father's arms, especially when we have to ask God to 'hold us tighter'.

Sermon Video: The Gospel in a nutshell - Romans 6:23

The Gospel in one sentence.  Think about that for a moment.  God's plan to redeem humanity from sin and death, to turn humanity history from a tragedy into a triumph, can be summed up in one sentence.  Romans 6:23 does this beautifully, and in it virtually word is worth our pondering.