This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
Before concluding his letter, the Apostle Paul offers an extended military metaphor about spiritual warfare. We learn that our enemy is not other human beings, but rather the schemes of the Devil and his minions. Against such foes we don't need the weapons of man, but the armor gifted to us by God: truth, righteousness, the Gospel, faith, salvation, and the Word of God.
Our call, in this fight, is to stand firm. Stand where we have been planted by the Lord.
In many of its publications, the First Fruits of Zion presents itself as an educational organization that is simply trying to help the Church learn more about the aspects of the Jewish people and Judaism that form the background of the Bible. Sometimes, however, they drop the pretense and go full-on Anti-Church revealing their belief that both Christianity and the Church were never meant to exist and have had an "incomplete Gospel" since the generation after the Apostles.
Rethinking the Five Solae by Jacob Fronczak is a prime example of FFOZ's hostility toward the Church and the key theological truths that have been believed by followers of Jesus for centuries. This isn't just a random book that FFOZ happens to publish, not only is it consistent with what is scattered throughout the Torah Club series, Jacob serves as the co-host of their public facing Messiah Podcast. As of this date, the book is still available on their website, they are still profiting from its sales.
Which is what helps make the actual content of this book so very alarming. It is the worst book that I have read in the past twenty-five years. There are two primary reasons: (1) It is built upon a click-bait title / premise that it doesn't begin to substantiate, and uses the unethical polemic of the Straw Man argument and the argument Ad Absurdum {i.e. Jacob doesn't argue against what Protestant actually believe, but against the most absurd version of his opponents ideas}. (2) It contains a host of dangerous false ideas, among them: That the Trinity is a construct, not an idea derived from scripture, that the scriptures were given to the Jewish people alone and nobody else has the right to interpret them, that the New Perspective on Paul ought to convince Protestants to abandon the idea of being saved by Christ alone through grace and faith alone, that congregational polity is folly and what we really need is a human authority that can force people to obey, and lastly, that the Messianic Jewish movement will never be taken seriously until it abandons its ties to Evangelicalism and embraces the structure of Orthodox Judaism.
The six-part series to follow interacts with well over 100 quotes directly from the book. For those wishing to utilize it, the PowerPoint from the videos is here: Rethinking the Five Solae - full rebuttal PowerPoint
The last group to be addressed by Paul after wives, husbands, fathers, and children, are slaves and masters. The message that Paul has for them spells out a principle that is equally relevant in our era's employees and employers: treat the work you are doing as if it was for the Lord. When we do this, we not only treat other people, whether they are customers or co-workers, as if they are Jesus and worthy of kindness and respect, but we treat the work itself as if it has dignity and purpose even if that would be otherwise difficult for us to recognize.
God cares about every worker, and God cares about the work that we do. Our whole lives belong to God, including our careers.
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.
Speaking to both children and their parents, the Apostle Paul gives timeless direction that is as applicable to Greco-Roman world of the 1st Century, as it is to our own post-modern Western culture. (1) Children need to obey their parents, (2) parents need to not exasperate (frustrate) their children.
In this case Paul embraces the time-honored tradition of parental authority because it is the right thing to do. Human nature requires it, kids need guidance. However, this isn't a heavy-handed dictatorship that Paul is advocating, the command to fathers (mom isn't exempt) to not make this process difficult for their kids reminds us that all of us have value in God's sight, men and women, adults and children.
Our culture may be very different from that of the Ephesians, but these truths remain timeless.
