My daughter turns 9 this week, what that makes this dad think about

It was in the fall of 2014 that I put Nicole's first sonogram into our Sunday worship PowerPoint and told the congregation that I had a picture to share with them.  There were gasps right away from the ladies who knew what they were looking at, everyone else needed an explanation.  Clara Marie was born in 2015, changing my wife Nicole's and my own life for good, and changing it for the good.

I spent a lot of time dealing with unpleasant ideas and people, that isn't an indictment of my congregation or this town, as they have been stupendous in their support of myself and my family, but a reality that reflects the human condition.  I research, write, and speak about racism, nationalism, sexism, corruption, abuses of power, heresy, greed, lust, and all the rest.  I also get to talk about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (the Fruit of the Spirit), but my own nature as a communicator and my personality often draw me toward those people and causes who need to be defended against evil.  What does any of that have to do with Clara?  Clara is a ray of sunshine and a breath of fresh air.  She hugs her dad with clinging arms and gives far too moist kisses.  She laughs with gusto, believes the best is possible, and doesn't know yet that life and people can really kick you when you're down.  I know that some day Clara will change, somebody will disappoint her, break her heart, but I'll appreciate every day that she has remaining with her youthful optimism, and pray that they continue.

That Clara is about to be 9 already also reminds me of our need to make the most of the time we have in this life, to borrow from Dead Poets Society, we need to "seize the day."  Clara being 9 reminds me that I came to Franklin more than 12 years ago, that now more than half of our married life has been spent here in PA.  Until 2023, the longest tenure of my career had been teaching at Portland Adult and Community Education, now it is being here at First Baptist of Franklin.  Unless God has plans for me that I don't know about, this will be the longest and most impactful chapter of my life; that it also happens to coincide with the years that I have been blessed to be called "Daddy" by my little girl only amplifies that thought.  

I also think at times of reflection like this about the men and women who haven't been blessed with the role of parenthood, and those who have become estranged from, or have mourned their lost children.  It was at a funeral a few years ago when a church member about my own age asked me to read a poem about her dad that I realized that being a dad had changed my emotional make-up.  Funerals can be hard for me, other peoples' grief can hit me hard (that's inherited from my mom) but this wasn't that, it was the thought that popped into my head of Clara having to grieve me some day that choked me up so thoroughly that day.  That being said about a child mourning his/her parent, I can't imagine what those of you who have carried the scars of a child who was only in your hopes, or who was with you for far too short a time, have been through.  May God grant you peace, that you still function each day with that pain is a testament to the strength you must have.

Lastly, being Clara's dad is one of the top three things I've ever had a hand in.  I say top 3 because I'm not counting being a child of God who was redeemed by Jesus as something I had a hand in, that was 100% God's grace, the Spirit's calling, and my parents' faithfulness; I don't take any credit on that one.  Those three things are, then, being the pastor of a congregation, Nicole's husband, and Clara's dad.  God has been good to me, I'm blessed with all three of those right now, and the knowledge that the one that was all grace (my salvation) will remain even if/when the others have come to a close.

If you read this someday, Clara, know that your dad is amazed by his Silly Pants* and loves you more than the words he's typing can ever express.

*The nickname Nicole gave her, appropriately she has embraced this accurate description and refuses to have any other nickname.

Why Boaz Michael thinks the Franklin Christian Ministerium chose to oppose the work of the First Fruits of Zion

“I mean, we have a Torah club group in Oil City, Pennsylvania that is now multiplied to 10 different Torah clubs in that area. So you see like a spiritual renewal taking place, which is incredible. But yet the pastors that have 25 people in their church are coming against the work of the Torah club because it's something that is not in alignment with their historical doctrines of their particular denominations." -Boaz Michael on Messiah Podcast #29, 05/13/23, starting at the 32:30 mark

Until a fellow Christian church leaders pointed it out to me, I didn't know that the First Fruits of Zion had responded at all in 2023 to the Franklin Christian Ministerium's effort to warn the Christian community about their unorthodox teachings.  There are several interesting things in this short statement: 

(1) The assumption that numeric success equals spiritual renewal.  Just because people are participating in something, it doesn't mean that God is or is not behind that effort.  For example: the Prosperity Gospel, Word of Faith, and New Apostolic Reformation movements are all growing rapidly in the world today, does that mean they're advancing the Kingdom of God?  Are they proof of spiritual renewal?  Popularity is not a measure of true discipleship.

(2) The sneering shot at the health of churches in Franklin based upon a numeric valuation.  Its an insult, but it isn't even a true one.  Truth be told, the pastors who signed our original statement serve churches that range from 25 to 350.  Some of them, like myself, serve as a solo pastor, others have multiple staff members.  Some have one service, again like us, and others have multiple services every Sunday to accommodate the crowd size.  But, and hear this clearly, church size is not proof of faithfulness (or unfaithfulness).  Church size is not proof of righteousness (or unrighteousness).  Church size is not proof of God's approval (or disapproval).  

(3) The assumption that a pastor of a small church doesn't need to be listened to.  This is a problem that affects the Church in America on many levels.  Almost all of the popular books, podcasts, YouTube channels, etc. are focused on pastors of mega-churches, that is, on "successful" pastors.  Those of us serving faithfully in the 98% of churches that are under 250 people rarely have our voices heard.  The results of this popularity-based leadership have been disastrous as popular pastor after popular pastor who had been lifted up crash and burn one after another because too many of them lacked either the moral qualifications of pastoral leadership, or the wisdom to teach biblically.  But they were popular, so people listened to them, they were popular, so people followed them.  If a pastor who has 9 people in his/her congregation is speaking God's Word prophetically, working within the parameters of the historic/apostolic/biblical orthodoxy of the Church, that man or woman should be listened to far more than the pastor who has 15,000 people in his/her congregation and bestselling books galore, but is perverting the Gospel with materialism, nationalism, or any number of false teachings that will not stand the test of time.

(4) The assumption that our opposition is based upon denominational doctrines.  This couldn't be further from the truth, the pastors who signed represent in no particular order: Anglican, Methodist, Episcopal, non-denominational, Lutheran, Church of God, Presbyterian, and of course Baptist churches.  There is nothing "particular" about our united opposition because we represent a broad spectrum of historic Christianity.  What does unite us in opposition is our common defense of the historic Gospel, the kind of teaching affirmed by the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed.  This is a basic, fundamental, and historic defense of the Gospel.  It has nothing to do with the secondary issues that differentiate a Baptist from a Lutheran, and a Lutheran from a Methodist.  In fact, the objections we have stated are equally at the heart of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches as well, they are teachings that precede by 1,000 years the Great Schism and the Reformation by 1,500 years.  Why?  Because we object to FFOZ based upon the New Testament where God has preserved the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.  

Read the original letter that started all of this for yourself if you haven't, look at what we are objecting to: The Franklin Christian Ministerium's warning about the First Fruits of Zion 

{Note: Our objections would have been even stronger if we knew in Feb of 23 what we know about FFOZ in April of 24, what we knew then was enough to convince us all to reject it.}

The Trinity is not a "historic doctrine of our particular denominations."

Jesus' fulfillment of the Law as the ultimate and last sacrifice for humanity's sins is not a "historic doctrine of our particular denominations."

The Fruit of the Spirit as the test of true discipleship, not the keeping of the Law of Moses, is not a "historic doctrine of our particular denominations."

These teachings, and others like them, are what our ancestors in the faith believed, it was the Gospel they preached, and it was the truth they were willing to be martyred while believing rather than betray.

We didn't unite to oppose you, Boaz, over petty differences but over the core of the Gospel as it has been preached, received, and celebrated for 2,000 years.  

We didn't unite to oppose your organization, First Fruits of Zion, to protect our own turf, but the sheep that God has given us to shepherd and the spotless Bride of Jesus Christ, his Church.

Leaving The First Fruits of Zion and the Hebrew Roots Movement behind: One Christian's journey

Pastor Randy Powell interviews Michael Spivey, a man who for more than a decade while trying to navigate connections within his family to the Hebrew Roots Movement, had wrongly thought that the First Fruits of Zion were an orthodox alternative.  Michael became a fervent supporter of FFOZ, only to realize that they were leading him away from historic and orthodox Christianity.

Note: This is the first interview of an ex-supporter of FFOZ that I've been able to publish, but it is one story among the many who have contacted me to share their encouragement for my efforts to counter this organization's influence, many of whom thought they were alone in being concerned about its unorthodox teachings and impact upon families and churches.  The mantra, "Torah Club changed my life!" that its supporters share when confronted with FFOZ's false teachings, is more true, and more painful, than they realize.

Torah Club lesson #6 takes a bizarre turn toward Gnostic Dualism in support of an anti-Trinitarian view of Jesus

 

I'll admit, I didn't see this one coming.  It would never have occurred to me to use the story of Jacob and Esau to redefine the Apostle Paul's use of "flesh" (Greek: sark) in the purely physical dualistic terms of Gnosticism.  There is a reason for that, of course: The Apostle Paul isn't talking about our physical bodies (in opposition to our soul/spirit) when he writes about wrestling with the "flesh," which is why the NIV has chosen to translate Paul's intention "sinful nature" rather than a more literal English word like "flesh" which has a physical connotation that's hard to let go of.  

And here we have Daniel Lancaster's Torah Club material stating that the cause of Paul's inner wrestling was his "flesh" is connected to the Hebrew idiom "flesh and blood" and therefore dovetails nicely with the idea that Lancaster has embraced of pre-existing souls that only wear a physical body like clothing.  There are several problems with this whole line of thinking, including that these ideas were troubling enough to the Early Church to have been condemned as heresy at the Council of Constantinople.  This path leads toward the Gnostic Dualism that so troubled the Apostle John in his first letter {1 John 4:2-3 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.} and went on to cause enormous trouble for multiple generations within the Church before that idea of a divide in humanity between flesh/bad and spirit/good inspired by Greek philosophy died out.

When I fail to live up to my calling as a disciple of Jesus, it isn't my material body that's to blame (as if my spirit/soul is a helpless victim unable to stop that nasty body), it is me, all of me.  I'm a whole person, not a collection of competing parts.  Jesus Christ died to save all of me, not just my soul, and the Holy Spirit works to transform all of me, not just a corrupted flesh, so that on the day of Resurrection I will be fully renewed, body, spirit, and soul; one person made new by the power of God's grace.

The previous post from lesson #1 of The Beginning of Wisdom {The very first Torah Club lesson (covering Genesis 1:1-6:8) undermines the Trinity} presents, along with Daniel Lancaster's disturbing The Only Begotten Son {The boldly heretical anti-trinitarianism of Daniel Lancaster (One of the key leaders of the FFOZ and Torah Clubs) in his own words}, a picture of the Word of God as an avatar of God (not a person) who simply indwells the human man Jesus of Nazareth {who presumably had his own preexistent human soul}, with that same idea, "The spiritual aspect of a human being dwells within the body like a man living in a tent." (p. 10)  

If Jesus Christ was a human being indwelt by an avatar of God, "like a body wearing clothing," as FFOZ is apparently teaching its followers, then that same dualism makes sense for the rest of us as well.  "The word of God then divested himself, like took off his outer garment so to speak and clothed himself in a human body.  Kind of like the word would dwell in the Tabernacle or would dwell in the temple." - Daniel Lancaster, The Only Begotten Son

But of course that's not the nature of Jesus described in the scriptures or accepted by the Church throughout its history at all, not even close.  The spirit and body of Jesus Christ was made one (the hypostatic union) at the Incarnation when the eternal Word (2nd person of the Trinity) permanently took upon himself humanity, including a human body, that same body that was resurrected on Easter Sunday.

It can be difficult to wrap your mind around such concepts that are so far removed from the orthodoxy of the Church, but that's the rabbit trail of dangerous error that Daniel Lancaster and FFOZ is leading countless people along.

Sermon Video: Creation is God's Temple - Genesis 1:3-25

The Creation narrative in Genesis 1 accomplishes two primary things, both for ancient Israel and for the Church today, it tells us who is responsible for everything, and why what was made was made.  The who is simple, the answer is God, nobody else is involved in the Creation account.  The why has a two-fold answer: (1) to be God's temple: his kingdom, abode, and resting place, and (2) to foster the relationship between God and man.  The second task is accomplished thanks to the wonder and awe associated with what God has made, a variety with purpose and beauty that causes us to ask, "Who was it that made it thus?"