Beginning of Wisdom (Torah Club) lesson #42-43: Afterlife uncertainty and more mysticism

Lesson 42-43, page 13
"God has ordered things so that 'man will not discover anything' about his fate in the next life.  We are only granted glimpses of Gehenna and Paradise.  It's impossible to construe those glimpses into a single and universal doctrine of eternal destinies."

One of the challenging things that I have found in my efforts to expose the false teachings of First Fruits of Zion is that there continue to be more dominoes that get knocked over by their abandonment of orthodoxy.  In this case, the orthodox belief that is now being cast aside by FFOZ is what is known as eternal security.  Since the Apostles, the followers of Jesus Christ have operated with the understanding that we have all the knowledge about the Afterlife that is necessary for faith and practice.  We don't know everything we want to know, in particular that whole "day and hour" piece of the puzzle, but we know everything we need to know to live with the certainty of faith in the here and now.  Using an unsound (non-contextual) interpretation of Ecclesiastes 7:14, FFOZ is proclaiming in this lesson that faithful certainty about what the future holds must be replaced with "glimpses" that cannot be pulled together to form an understanding that is true for all of us.

The implications of this sentence are far-reaching, unbiblical, and deeply dangerous: "It's impossible to construe those glimpses into a single and universal doctrine of eternal destinies."  The Word of God tells us otherwise.  There are only two kinds of people: Those who have been saved by the Blood of the Lamb who are safe in the Father's hands, and those who remain Lost who will perish apart from a relationship with God.

John 10:28-30 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!

1 John 5:12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

God has given us sufficient clarity about the Afterlife.  God has given us the rubric that applies to every single human being who has ever lived.  By proclaiming that this certainty is impossible to have, FFOZ is sowing seeds of doubt that will harm the faith of many.  Why would they do this?  What profit can they hope to reap from blurring lines that were clearly laid out by Jesus himself?

Lesson 42-43, page 19
"The soul forgets nothing.  It carries with it the record of every event, every deed and misdeed, every mitzvah and every sin.  Acquiring these memories is the reason the soul descends into a body and lives life as a human being in the first place.  The soul enters the world of concealment to attain merit through the free will to choose good or evil.  In this world, the soul learns to seek God, and through its many experiences in the body, it becomes uniquely you.  With those memories intact, the soul will one day be returned to the body for the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment.  The memories create continuity between the old you and the new you." {emphasis mine}

Did God create you so that you could obtain memories?? Is that why you were born?  My friends, we have a higher purpose than this.  We were created to love.  To love God and love each other.  To overcome evil with good. To live self-sacrificially in this life in the hope of God's justice in the next.  What FFOZ is teaching here is built on a false premise (the pre-existence of the human soul), and far too shallow to reflect God's glorious purpose in Creation.

In addition to the heresy of the pre-existence of the human soul, we once again see FFOZ teaching that merit is earned and combining it with the idea that human beings are capable of seeking God on their own {which is consistent with their embrace of legalism in the form of Torah idolatry}.  They need to teach that human effort on its own can bear fruit because they've staked their entire organizational existence on the belief that the key to pleasing God is properly obeying a set of rules.  

Here's the thing, the Apostle Paul knew better.  The book of Romans more than sufficiently debunks this wishful thinking.  Humanity apart from God cannot please him, has no hope of earning any measure of merit, and in fact is not seeking God anyway.  Without God's grace and the calling of the Holy Spirit we are dead in the water, period.

Lesson 42-43, page 19b
"This aspect of the life review can be considered the spiritual objective behind the commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  In the end, you will live your neighbor's experience as yourself."

Lesson 42-43, page 20
"one day, we will experience what we did unto others as if it was done unto us."

Lastly, one more new false teaching from FFOZ is introduced in this lesson, the "life review."  Borrowing from the testimonies of those who have been through Near Death Experiences, FFOZ is teaching that as you die you will actually experience your life over again, and on top of that, you will experience your life through the view of everyone else you have every interacted with.  They are saying that you will, literally, experience the impact of every good and bad choice you ever made in life by having that action done to you.

Aside from being a bizarre speculation into mysticism that has ZERO biblical basis, what is the harm of teaching what is assuredly unknowable and unprovable in this life?  It fits a pattern.  A pattern of embracing mysticism and teaching it as fact that is akin to FFOZ's uplifting of rabbinical teaching and even Jewish folklore as fact (rather than opinion).  A teaching ministry needs to be able to distinguish fact from fiction, truth from opinion, and what is known from what is only guessed at.  FFOZ has shown many times over that they lack this basic skill.

Beginning of Wisdom (Torah Club) lesson #16: Explaining salvation through the lens of Hasidic Judaism

There is much that we, as disciples of Jesus gathered together in the Church can learn from both ancient and modern Judaism.  The scriptures themselves contain many of these truths and lessons, but when and where other sources connected to Judaism contain Truth, we should not allow pride or prejudice to stand in the way of embracing it.  To an extent, this same principle applies to every other philosophy and religion on the basis of the general revelation that the Apostle Paul describes in Romans 1.  Truth is Truth even when those who hold it have only a small piece of the whole.  With respect to Judaism there is an added layer because the descendants of Abraham were chosen by God to be his covenantal people and given ongoing insight through special revelation from the time of Moses through the time of their greatest prophet, Jesus of Nazareth.  It is useful, then, for Christians to consider Truth when it is found in the Talmud (for example), for many of its rabbinic sources were men of faith looking forward to the Messiah (Hebrews 11).  Given that these oral traditions were not codified until the 4th century (Jerusalem Talmud) or the 5th century (Babylonian Talmud), the influence of the editors/compilers who rejected Jesus as the Messiah is also to be expected.  Nevertheless, texts like these retain some value for the Christian study of the Hebrew Scriptures in particular, offering us insights into how the text was interpreted in ancient times by the Jewish people.  

All this is what the First Fruits of Zion purports to be doing, and if this was all there was to it, I'd be supportive of their work as it would mirror my own educational efforts with respect to the original authors and audience of God's Word.  But that's not where it ends.

When utilizing sources from those who do not believe in Jesus, if they are those who believed in the God of Abraham, as is the case here, or those who did not, like the Greek philosophers that have influenced Church history, it is necessary that we proceed with caution especially when the topic at hand relates to the message of the Gospel.

For example, what the Talmud says about Isaiah 53 is of interest to the Church {For a useful discussion: Isaiah 53: The Forbidden Chapter - by R.L. Solberg} but ultimately this prophecy is about Jesus of Nazareth and those voices within Judaism which point in a different direction (that Israel itself is the Suffering Servant) have historical but not theological authority for Christians.  Let us treat these voices within Judaism, both ancient and modern, with respect and dignity, but they have no authority over those who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Which brings us to this example from the Torah Club lesson The Beginning of Wisdom #16 published in 2022 by FFOZ.  It is of historic significance for the Church to understand how various voices within the diverse opinions that constitute Judaism through the centuries have discussed the issue of salvation.  This is a worthwhile topic of study.  What did they believe that mankind needed to be saved from?  What did they think God's role in this salvation was and what was the role of human beings?  What is the role of faith, works, and grace in their view?  Answers to these questions have value and are worthy of study by Christian writers, theologians, and teachers.  But at the same time, we must recognize that if the source we're studying doesn't accept Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, neither the foundation nor the conclusions offered by that source can have any theological authority for followers of Jesus.

If Jesus isn't the heart and soul of your explanation of God's offer of salvation to humanity, what you have to say at best is helpful so that I might properly share the Gospel with those who believe as you do, but at worst your ideas are, to use Paul's term, a "stumbling block."  Again, this is true whether that source comes from Judaism, Greek Philosophy, Islam, Rationalism, Hinduism, or any other.  As Acts 4:12 makes abundantly clear, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

So when FFOZ shares one of the ways in which Hasidic Judaism (they spell it Chasidic) defines the cause of the human condition and God's response to it, it has historic value, but it cannot be presented by any orthodox understanding of Christianity as divine Truth.  On page 10, Daniel Lancaster prefaces this forthcoming tale of the preexistent soul's journey by saying, "Its an incredible journey."  On page 11, there is an attempt to connect this idea of the preexistent human soul to the Gospel message of repentance, Christ's atonement, faith, and forgiveness, which is a good thing, but the yeast has already been mixed in with the dough.  If FFOZ wanted to present this material as something to take note of, but not something it expects Torah Club members to believe, they would need to say so loud and clear, but they fail in this particular case and reinforce that failure by using the study questions #2 and #3 (see picture above) to reinforce the teaching that they took from Paul Philip Levertoff whom they say borrowed the ideas from Hasidic Judaism.  This is not a one-off bit of sloppiness where admiration for an early Messianic Jewish leader got the better of Lancaster who has taught over and over again in this series that he believes that accepting that our souls existed in paradise with God before we were born is a foundational teaching, one that has come up in roughly every other lesson, each time with a stamp of approval.

And this ultimately is the danger of not exercising discernment about the sources that are trusted to teach Christians about theology.  It isn't that FFOZ doesn't teach the Truth at all, at times they sound like an evangelical organization, but this Truth is always mixed with a wide variety of errors that were condemned by the Early Church (such as Subordinationism and Modalism), or as is the case here, come from modern Jewish mysticism.  The resulting mish-mash is something that neither Judaism nor Christianity can stomach as it attempts to shoe-horn Jesus into categories and concepts that were made by those who rejected Jesus as Messiah, all the while telling Gentile Christians who don't know better that this is the "authentic" and "original" belief of those who first followed Jesus.  The end result isn't pretty.

Beginning of Wisdom (Torah Club) lesson #7: A House of Card: Going full-on mysticism Daniel Lancaster imagines the conversations your preexistent soul had with God

 

If you had any doubt that the Torah Clubs (FFOZ) following Daniel Lancaster's teachings are purposefully subverting, more than that, outright jettisoning, the sole authority of God's Word, the proof is there to be seen in the actual Torah Club materials.  Now, you could also look at Rethinking the Five Solae - by Jacob Fronczak, First Fruits of Zion's failed attempt to label Protestantism as inherently anti-Semitic, a book that FFOZ is publishing and selling to see just how antagonistic this organization is to scriptural authority.

Here in The Beginning of Wisdom lesson 7, the Jewish mystical teaching of a pre-existent soul, a concept not found anywhere in scripture, is fully embraced to the extent that this idea becomes the very rationale for our time here on earth, "That's why we came to this place." (p. 6) We came here, according to FFOZ, to learn things that our souls in heaven couldn't because they were already in God's presence.  In other words, God needed us to disconnect from him so we'd learn to want to come back though life's "innumerable difficulties, trials, and temptations." (p. 6)  Thus FFOZ is not only imagining our purpose, but God's intention as well, both dependent upon the notion that we don't remember our time spent with God before birth.

Once you have this extra-biblical idea firmly in place, FFOZ will teach you that Jacob's journey out of the Promised Land and back (necessary because of how thoroughly he had cheated his brother) is an analogy for our journey from heaven, to earth, and back again.  Why on earth (no pun intended) would Bible believing Christians sit under this teaching?  Are you going to strain this filth out of the food they're serving?

Lancaster isn't finished, he's cheeky enough to invent God's dialogue with your pre-existent soul, of course we can't remember that warning because our memory was wiped clean when we slipped on our bodies "like clothing."  {see: Torah Club lesson #6 takes a bizarre turn toward Gnostic Dualism in support of an anti-Trinitarian view of Jesus}

The Group Discussion question in section 3 of lesson 7 is this, "What do you think of the Jewish idea of the preexistent soul?"

*FYI, it isn't a Jewish idea, it is one form of Jewish mysticism.  FFOZ wants you to view Judaism and Jewish thinkers as some sort of monolith that they can represent to you and teach you about, it is as pathetic as saying, "What do you think of the Christian idea of Calvinism?" or "What do you think of the Church's idea of priestly celibacy?"  Anyone with an ounce of knowledge of Christianity and the Church knows that some Christians adhere to Calvinism but many do not, and a portion of the Church has embraced priestly celibacy, for a portion of that segment's history, but most do not and never have.  Note: Torah Club/FFOZ materials rarely, if ever, cite sources for what they define as "Jewish thought" or when they say, "Judaism teaches."*

What do I think about the idea?  (1) It is extra biblical, (2) more akin to the ideas of Eastern religions about reincarnation than to anything Jesus taught, and (3) a dangerous wedge to begin teaching people to embrace an authority beyond, and ultimately against, the Word of God.

Listen to the Word of God: 62 Scripture passages that refute 'Christian' Nationalism - #21: Mark 8:36

 

Mark 8:36     New International Version

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

Hard to go wrong with quoting C.S. Lewis, so here goes:

“Let him begin by treating patriotism…as a part of his religion.  Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part.  Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely a part of the ‘cause’, in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce…once you have made the world an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing.” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1942, letter 7)

The whole world isn't worth a soul, how can America be?

Are you willing to walk away from living like Jesus in order to 'save' America?  Willing to lie, cheat, steal, bully, use violence, accept gross immorality when it comes from 'our team', embrace what-about-isms and hypocrisy, and on and on?

If you are, you're a fool.  

Satan is more than happy to trade your usefulness for the Kingdom of God {which any Christian gives up when they embrace immoral behavior, for whatever reason} for such a comparatively worthless prize.