Pray as other pastors and church leaders are made aware of FFOZ that they too will recognize the danger, and pray that they will have both the courage to act and wisdom in how to address the issues.
Pray as other pastors and church leaders are made aware of FFOZ that they too will recognize the danger, and pray that they will have both the courage to act and wisdom in how to address the issues.
In a powerful story of God's grace and faithful love for us, Joshua and Carla share their own story spanning twenty years and three countries as they journeyed into the Hebrew Roots Movement, wandered from the Church they had been raised in, and were pursued by God until his grace called them back home to a place where Jesus Christ is the absolute center of their relationship with God (and not their own effort at Torah observance).
This story also is a message to family and loved ones who are concerned about someone in the HRM: (1) Pray for them, (2) Be patient, (3) show compassion, (4) and don't let the relationship be broken for the sake of an argument.
There are many topics connected to our faith about which the average Christians is mostly or entirely ignorant. Some of that is a failure of education/discipleship, but much of it is simply the breadth and the depth of ideas and concepts that touch on the faith that steers our lives. In all honestly, even scholars who spend their whole lives in study are a long way from knowing everything. With that in mind, we shouldn't be surprised that people in Torah Clubs don't run away as soon as Daniel Lancaster and FFOZ starts to teach them Gnostic mysticism. Our ancestors in the faith, however, who spent generations fighting against the malign influence of that philosophy during the 2nd to 4th centuries would have recoiled in horror because they knew how dangerous it was. FFOZ is taking advantage of our collective ignorance of Early Church history, and particularly of the heresies that the Early Church rejected. That needs to end.
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Lesson 45, page 14 "The early Jewish believers in Yeshua taught the same concepts. The collection of teachings and fictionalized narratives titled Clementine Homilies." |
Lesson 42-43, page 20 "one day, we will experience what we did unto others as if it was done unto us." |
![]() Lesson 41 page 6: "The church's loud and predominant teachings about God's grace also make it difficult for people to believe in God's wrath. Ever since the Protestant Reformation, the emphasis on grace has tipped the scale so severely off balance that many Christians anticipate no consequences for sin whatsoever. That's a good recipe for neutralizing the fear of the LORD, neutering the gospel message, and storing up wrath." It turns out that First Fruits of Zion has a problem with grace. Technically, they have a problem with the Protestant Church's emphasis on grace because they think it undermines God's wrath. Once again in this Torah Club lesson we have the Straw Man brought out to tell us that "many" Protestants think that there are no consequences, at all, to sin. Why would Protestants think something so foolish? Apparently because they spend to much time praising God's grace. Set aside for the moment that this is patently false. There is no substantial part of the Protestant Church that teaches that believers are free to sin because grace has "neutered" God's wrath. Given that there are hundreds of thousands of pastors worldwide, I'm sure FFOZ could trot out a few examples of crackpots in defense of their spurious claim, but to claim that this is so widespread that it needs a correction (that's coming) is ridiculous. This is a logical fallacy known as argumentum ad absurdum. If you claim that your opponent (and FFOZ's opponent is most assuredly the Church) believes something so foolish, those listening to you will be more likely to believe your "cure" for the non-existent disease. What then is the point? Why would FFOZ make such an explosive claim, attacking the fundamental viewpoint about the Gospel of 1/3 of the Church? What are they trying to put in the place of grace? |
Lesson 41,page 7: "It's important to remember that the New Testament Greek word translated as grace (charis) is the Greek equivalent to the Biblical Hebrew word we see translated as 'favor.' It's the same concept and should be translated consistently to avoid confusion." First Fruits of Zion wants to redefine grace. Redefine it how?? In a way that contradicts what the Church, particularly Protestantism, has long celebrated about God's grace. Why would it matter if FFOZ wants to equate grace in the NT with favor in the Old? The 2023 edition of HaYesod lays forth the whole plan {HaYesod's 2023 edition (First Fruits of Zion, Torah Club) heretically redefines grace: "grace is earned" and claims humans can atone for sins by suffering}: Grace = favor = earned. FFOZ has built its false teaching on the foundation of an eternal, perfect, and unchanging Torah that must be observed by all peoples, in all places, for all time. When rule keeping is the heart and soul of what you say and do, the natural result is to drift ever further into legalism. This is human nature, it happens every time. Conveniently, then, FFOZ now teaches that because Moses earned God's favor, and favor equals grace, we too can earn God's grace. Not only that, the HaYesod chapter proclaims that human beings can share their extra grace (earned by unjust suffering) with others. In case you're wondering, grace in the NT and favor in the OT are not one and the same. Word usage determines word meaning, context is king. The argument that FFOZ is making doesn't hold water, to simply proclaim that two words in different languages from texts written many generations apart are equal does not make it so. However, FFOZ must proclaim absolute continuity between the testaments on even things like word definitions because they are viewing all of scripture through the lens of Torah, but that's not how communication, and certainly now how translation, works. Nobody is earning the grace connected to the Gospel that is proclaimed in the NT. God chooses to whom he will give it, and God freely gives it. To say otherwise is an abomination. Lesson 41 page 9: 'The name of the daughter of Asher was Serah' (Numbers 26:46)...The census mentions a woman named Serah, the daughter of Asher. She's the granddaughter of the patriarch Jacob, and she also appears in the list of Jacob's seventy children who entered Egypt about three hundred years earlier: 'The sons of Asher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah and their sister Serah' (Genesis 46:17)" To warn about the disparagement of grace in this Torah Club lesson is the proper focus. That's one of the most dangerous ideas that FFOZ has ever put forth (tough competition there). So, why am I also highlighting this odd embrace of Jewish folklore as the means of interpreting Genesis 46:17, Numbers 26:46, and 1 Chronicles 7:30? The answer is simple enough: poor hermeneutical methods result in foolish teachings, or worse. Why is FFOZ telling Torah Club members that the Serah in Jacob's day was still alive during King David's reign? Jewish folklore says so. Lesson 41, page 10: "At the very least, she must have had longevity comparable to that of the earliest generations recorded in the Bible. Jewish folklore depicts her...According to one legend, she lived into the days of King David, and it was she who saved the inhabitants of Abel from the king's wrath. You certainly don't need to take that literally or believe it all, but, for the record, there really was..." I've seen this type of caveat many times in FFOZ materials. A bold claim is made that is pulled from extra-biblical literature, the lesson says "you don't have to believe it," and then the lesson moves ahead with that bold claim assumed as fact. The "but, for the record" reveals where the heart of the author of this chapter lies. In case you are wondering, there are plenty of names in the Bible that occur a few times over spans of generations. To assume that it is the same human being who is still alive solely on the basis of the name is NOT a normal exegetical conclusion. If the interpretation is just a folktale, and whether Serah lived the normal spans of years or 600 doesn't have any real theological significance, why should we care? We should care because FFOZ is using these extra-biblical sources to interpret holy scripture. The other times they use this method are much more consequential. It is part of a dangerous pattern of treating God's Word as if it is putty to be molded and shaped as needed. Do other teachers and ministries also selectively utilize and interpret God's Word to suit their viewpoint? Absolutely, it is sadly far too common. "What about..." is no excuse. All who treat God's Word in this manner should be held accountable. In the end, Lesson #41 of the Beginning of Wisdom is yet another reminder of why no follower of Jesus Christ ought to entrust his or her discipleship to FFOZ. |