Parsha: Mishpatim (Rulings) Exodus 21.1 - 24.18
Haftarah: Jeremiah 34.8-22; 33.25,26
FUNDAMENTALS: DO YOU HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH YESHUA? [8]
WHY WE MUST SEVER THE WORLD FROM OUR ORIENTATION
Copyright © BRI 2013 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI)
CAUTION: BRI Yeshiva notes are not available to the general public. They are not for distribution. They are not for reproduction. The notes may also bear little or no resemblance to the actual audio or video recorded BRI Yeshiva lecture.
Democracy remains "the worst form of government except for all the others..." - Winston Churchill
"...the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" - Benjamin Franklin
"Pleasant indeed are the study and the teaching of the Vedas! He who engages in these things attains to concentration and is no longer a slave to his passions; devout, self-controlled, disciplined in spirit, he rises to fame and is a blessing to mankind" - Upanishads.
In Matthew 28.19 we have the Great Commission. To some Christians it reads like this: "Go you into all the world and do your utmost to make it a better place. Strive eagerly and with all your might to right the wrongs of society as you come across them. Do your living best to change political views, improve the hospital system, and seek to empower and extend the authority of the United Nations."
No. He didn't say that did he? He said "Go you into all the world and disciple the nations." Make disciples to make disciples to make disciples... teach everything Yeshua commanded. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Mark 16.15 may not be in the original Greek of the Gospel of Mark, but it no doubts reflects the third century understanding of the intention of Yeshua's commandment in Matthew 28! "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel!"
It is my personal assessment that some of our students have unwittingly been drawn through subtle means back into the world system, and perhaps (in a sense more frighteningly) have never actually left it. The NWO emphasis on humanistic philosophy has had an eroding effect on Christians today as it has replaced the Gospel of God's coming Kingdom with that of social responsibility toward our fellow man. The Gospel of Christ has become the Social Gospel.
In my last lecture I introduced a slightly different theme in conjunction with our overall and central message of developing a relationship with our loving Lord and Saviour, Yeshua the Messiah. It is my intention to thoroughly cover this entire subject but with a slightly different approach than previously.
John the priestly apostle understood well the commandment of Yeshua. He amplified it in his Apocalypse. "Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues" (Rev 18.4). Paul also had no difficulty in coming to grips with the command of Yeshua. He knew precisely what he meant. "Come out from among them [the world] and be you separate" (2 Cor 6.17).
In fact, there is NO WAY we can remain IN the world (being OF the world) and still claim to be God the Father's sons and daughters. Now, some may challenge me on this matter, but they are not questioning me -- they are in reality challenging God Himself. Because, you see, it is God who made that claim, not this Teacher.
"Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and [as a consequence] you shall be My sons and daughters, says God Almighty" (2 Cor 6.17,18).
Here is authenticity. Here is truth. And here is God's acceptance of us as His sons and daughters. After all, IF we possess God's holy Spirit within, then that Spirit will drive us into a desire to become SEPARATE from the world and its ways and its philosophies and its chicanery. At the very least it will make us entirely uncomfortable with going along with the world's practices.
There invariably comes a time when we are to be reminded that Satan "deceives the whole world" (Rev 12.9) and John further enumerates his findings by claiming that "the entire world [modern civilisation] lies in wickedness" (1 Jn 5.19). How can it be otherwise when the god who reigns over this present world-system is not God the Father, but that same Dark Lord. Satan is even called by Paul "the god of this world" (2 Cor 4.4) as differentiated from the God of heaven. It is God Himself who has committed to haSatan the work of exercising deception over all humankind and its governments. And so, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not [those who are not Christians], lest the light of the glorious Gospel... should shine unto them" (2 Cor 4.4).
Our Lord Yeshua referred to Satan as the prince of this world in three instances (Jn 12.31; 14.30; 16.11) and it is intriguing that it again is John who emphasises this truth. And John is insistent that Satan as the prince of this world-system is soon to be judged (Jn 12.31). He is to be sentenced precisely because THIS WORLD IS HIS WORLD. At the time of his temptation, the Dark Lord made it clear to Yeshua that "all this power will I give you, and the glory of them: for it is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will give it" (Lk 4.6). The god of this present evil world-system has astonishing power for he rules the entirety of the earth. The Devil has a kingdom and it is global. Satan's global reign covers the politics of this world, the educational system of this world, the medical organisations of this world and the religious and philosophical ideologies that occupy the intellects of the commandment-breaking inhabitants of this world.
Are we taking every opportunity to grow in Grace and knowledge? This is our time as God's "Firstfruits" to develop our prayer life, our character, to shape our lives, centring on the holy Spirit's expectations of us. We are preparing through a biblical education to become a king and priest in God's Kingdom, His Government which will rule the earth shortly. That having been said, how can any of us seek to entangle ourselves up in the political struggles and opportunities that are presented to us in this life and at this time? For, "our citizenship [Greek, politeuma from which we derive politics] is in heaven" (Phil 3.20). This is the basis for my emphasis in our last lecture in this series, stressing the TREASON aspect of our involvement in worldly politics.
We have been appointed to be Ambassadors. Actually, this is wrong: we are appointed now to be Ambassadors of a very different government than any which exist at present here on earth in Satan's realm. As such we need to be able to properly interpret and represent the laws and regulations of the Government of God. Are YOU presently adequately representing those laws and rules and regulations of God's Government? Do YOU even know what they are? Can YOU list them? All of them? What are the ideals of the Kingdom of God? What are the laws of the Kingdom of God? Can you thoroughly explain the covenants of God? Can you adequately differentiate cultural traditions from God's rules and expectations for us today? Some folk believe they have reached a stagnation point with us. They need to repent, quite frankly, because it is my belief that they are not growing at all because of their gross ignorance of biblical matters. They have confused intellect with spiritual growth and comprehension. How tragic!
Listen! We are a HOLY NATION (1 Pet 2.9)! This assessment by Peter was also grasped by Paul and we covered this fact in our last lecture (1 Cor 12.2 Greek): "You know that when you were [of the] nations [you were] led away to dumb idols, in whatever way you might be led" (See Darby and Young's Literal Translation).
Reflect on the "father of the faithful" -- Abraham. Of this Patriarch the Scripture informs us that he was a sojourner in this world, divorced from its machinations, and so much so that he "looked continually for a city which has [spiritual] foundations whose architect and construction worker is God" (Heb 11.10). Abraham even dwelt in the Promised Land itself dissatisfied "as in a strange [alien] country" (Heb 11.9) and yearning for THAT which the Promised Land typically pictured...the Reality of the coming Kingdom of God (Heb 11.10).
Abraham had a number of children. His actual firstborn was Ishmael. Following the birth of the father of the Arab nations, Isaac (the child of promise) was born. Although Isaac was his second son of whom we have any direct knowledge, he was the firstborn "child of promise." Abraham had other offspring by Keturah and his other entourage of concubines (note "concubines" is in the plural of Gen 25.6), and as his family unit expanded, Abraham sent them away into "the land of the sunrising" giving them the unique gifts of his scientific research and the wisdom of his religious understanding (Gen 25.6). [Recall that Josephus calls Abraham a scientist, and a mathematician. It was only after Abraham arrived in Egypt that the Egyptians rose to immense world power.]
Intriguingly, these children of Abraham who journeyed "to the region of the sunrise" became the priestly Brahmins [the "(A)brams" of India], worshipping a God equivalent to the Jewish Eyn Sof -- "the inexpressible, intangible, unborn, imperishable, eternal Brahma" or "THAT which is [quite] beyond right and wrong, beyond cause and effect, beyond past, present and future" (Swami Prabhavananda & Frederick Manchester, The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal. The Principal Texts Selected & Translated from the Original Sanskrit, 1948, 18), in other words the creative God of the Israelites, Elohim.
The Upanishads, the writings of Abraham's children, speak of the need to recognise our ONENESS with Deity, and the Vedic Scriptures inform us that the more we recognise our essential UNITY with Him the more we shall renounce the world and all for which it stands. True, over the millennia the original teachings of Abraham's children by his concubines became perverted and extremely ascetic as they began to lose the balance against which their own religious texts emphatically warned. Over the millennia the number of Vedas grew dramatically. One hundred and eight have been preserved, but scholarly authorities have reduced the authentic original Vedas to a mere sixteen (ibid., ix, x). The earliest writings of Keturah's children (along with the children of Abraham's other concubines) stress separateness from the world.
Yeshua had a great deal to say about being ONE with him and God the Father. And, when you analyse those words of life one is impressed with the UNITY IN RELATIONSHIP with Yeshua that is the ultimate outcome. One way Christ expressed such essential unity was in an illustration of the "vine" which he shared with his disciples.
"I am the authentic vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples" (Jn 15.1-8).
Immediately some will feel a tremor of uncertainty regarding being "broken off" and "burned." But Yeshua is simply speaking of that which naturally occurs in any process of grape or fruit production. Christians are not literally "vines." None of us produce grapes (although some, like myself expressly enjoy the fruit of the vine on social occasions and for the purposes of relaxation and mind-altering mental enhancement).
Let me make it as perfectly clear as I can in this matter. The Messiah is speaking of fruit-bearing and fruit-retention -- and certainly not about maintaining our salvation. But no branch can produce fruit apart from its living organic connection to the vine. He is emphasising relationship. And he goes even further by stressing that answers to prayer hinge on that depth of relationship, that depth of knowing and sensing and enjoying and exploring that ONENESS with Deity in the UNITY of the Sh'ma.
"Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God, the LORD is ONE" (Deut 6.4).
A branch that does not recognise its essential oneness with the vine that produced it is doomed to begin turning from green to brown in its slow degeneration. When the vinedresser comes along eventually and sees that the branch has dried out he cuts it off and uses it for kindling for a fire. The branch has been removed from its position of grape-bearing ("fruit-bearing"). The lesson of the story? If a believer continues in his rebellion refusing to produce for the kingdom, God will ultimately remove him from his present position in His invisible ekklesia as a disqualified believer. He will suffer by being discredited or even die a premature death. It was this very removal from further Christian service that so terrified Paul (1 Cor 9.27). Again, this has nothing to do with hellfire. When do "men" gather "men" to cast them into Gehenna?
It is the priestly John the apostle who speaks so eloquently of our essential UNITY with God. This ought not to surprise any of us as John (a cousin of Yeshua) was an original follower of Yochanan the Immerser (also a cousin of Yeshua...both John's were related to one another: the Yeshua Party was in its infancy very much a family affair) who had been or was a Qumran Essene. The Essenes were not unaware of the writings of the children of Abraham by his concubines! As time goes on this assessment will be validated beyond any argument to the contrary. John was (as indications in his Gospels establish) very much influenced by the doctrine of God's unity with those He has called and elected from eternity. He was not unaware of God's unity, indeed, with all things.
John's Yeshua tells us: "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (Jn 15.18,19). "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours... Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me that they may be one as we are... I have given them your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world... They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world... Sanctify them [i.e., set them apart] by your truth. Your word is truth...I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word; that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and you in me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me" (Jn 17.9,11,14,16,17,20-23).
How can anyone read these most explicit words of the Saviour and still convince themselves that they can align their vote to any of the world's DIRTY FILTHY WORLDLY political parties in elections? Yeshua even stated with crystal clarity "I DO NOT PRAY FOR THE WORLD." If Yeshua held the world in such contempt that he would not even pray for them, how much more would he refuse to participate in the world's political elections and ambitions? And Yeshua is supposed to live IN each of us and we IN Him!
Some of us are absolutely hypocritical. If you are objecting to my statements in this lecture then please repent. You do not have to answer to me. You have to one day answer to God the Father as to why you failed to let the Lord Yeshua live his life FULLY in you...
"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Yeshua the Messiah whom you have sent" (Jn 17.3).
Eternal life and relationship cannot be separated. They go hand in glove. If there is no relationship there is no everlasting life. Its just that simple. But some believers still opt for a foot in the world and the other foot in God's Kingdom. It doesn't work that way. If you are one of these people you are deluded. And self-deception is the worst human trait there can be! Luke tells us in Acts 15.14 that through Peter God the Father visited the Gentiles in order to "take out of them [to extract FROM them] a people for His Name." They were no longer to participate in the affairs of their nation!
In the scroll of Daniel we find an amazing story concerning which we should all be familiar. What I am about to relate from another author establishes that I am not alone when it comes to hatred of the world-system. There are a growing number of biblical commentators and expositors who are in agreement that we Christians (call us "Messianic" or otherwise) commit treason when we cast our votes in political elections. One writer notes, "A little known, but remarkable, passage flies in the face of what every voter thinks upon casting his ballot. This is part of a remarkable story and partly explains why more talented people are leaving politics than ever before. It contains an amazing statement. Notice: 'This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will, and sets up over it the basest of men' (Dan. 4:17). The word base means 'the bottom, under.' If a house has a basement, it is located at the bottom or under the house."
Actually the Hebrew word for "basest" implies something else too. It implies degeneracy, evil, manipulative filth that is likened to excrement. Yep, sounds like he is describing politicians!
He is only one authority whom I could quote among hundreds of disillusioned believers. He used to vote in elections but has since realised that to continue doing so is tantamount to spitting in God's holy face! Again, how can any believer truly read and appreciate the words of Yeshua in John 14-17 (the REAL Lord's Prayer) and not be moved in desire to quit this filthy world-system with its values and ideals and personal philosophies once and for all? Yet I am afraid that there are some of us in the IMCF who mindlessly read or hear what I say and then live life as usual with little or no change and growth at all.
The same writer went on to speak some more on this subject. He wondered how many of his readers had ever taken the time necessary to "examine the fruits of the "tree" called politics, voting and democracy. It is based on the spirit of competition between political parties. Each party seeks to gain an advantage over the other and will even undercut good programs if it will cast a bad light on their opponents. During the political process preceding an election (often referred to as "election year politics"), the challenger will invariably oppose the incumbent seemingly at every turn on virtually every issue, to present himself as different, in the best light, solely to get elected. Over time, this has a devastating effect on the unity of a country that is supposed to stand behind its government. This openly -- and sometimes bitterly -- divides the citizenry of any nation."
Then he points to the "fruits" of politics as humanist thinking along with "favouritism, endless debates and arguments, bribes, lust for power, corruption, lying and deceit, scandals and cover-ups, greed, exploitation, manoeuvring and manipulation, aggression, relentless accusation, inefficiency, vanity, decisions based on polls, voter apathy, strife and back-stabbing."
Can we Christians vote in elections? If we do so we are voting for those fruits which our friend has painstakingly pointed out. I could easily have said the very same things, but I wanted someone else to do so in order that we all realise that it is not only myself who thinks this way. I was once involved in politics back in the Whitlam period (I was politically involved with, and active in, the Labor party and up to my eyeballs in fully supporting the United Nations Association -- my work was even publicly honoured just prior to my departure from the political arena) and I have not voted in any election since 1975. I had to learn that it is not permitted to become a political rebel, a political dissident or a political revolutionary (Prov 24.21). I have to simply live my life in obedience to the will of God. The consequences of such action? Hardship and suffering.
"Take with me," wrote Paul to Timothy, "your share of the hardships and suffering which you are called to endure as a good (first-class) soldier of Messiah Yeshua. No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of civilian life; his aim is to satisfy and please the one who enlisted him" (the expanded Greek intention of 2 Tim 2.3,4. See Amp., for clarification).
A Christian author has postulated correctly that abstention from the political system for the Christian is a positive step, not an abdication of responsibility (K. Cooper in his article Why I Believe that Christians Should Not be Involved in Politics, in Believer's Magazine, August 2011 issue).
He adds, in words I could have written, "The NT does not advocate engagement in politics, social movements or schemes for reform even though the conditions at the time were generally appalling. The early church concerned itself with the inward change which only the Gospel could produce and with regulating the lives of those who became Christians.
"Slavery was a scourge in NT times but none of the believers were instructed to campaign against it or try to remove it.
"The main tenet of democracy is rejection of any notion of absolute truth or higher authority and rejection of absolute moral values through acceptance of the rightness of whatever the majority think. This is anti-scriptural.
"Paul claimed the legal protection of his Roman citizenship (which he had from birth) but never participated politically nor taught Christians to do so (Ac 22:25-29).
"Christians are not directed to improve the world but to proclaim the Gospel which condemns it and offers salvation from it.
"Financial contributions to political parties, participation in election campaigns, running for political office and voting are all activities which constitute an unequal yoke with believers. The political world-system is opposed to God. Our chief influence in the world is to be through prayer and not the ballot box."
Amen?
In closing I must now ask all of you this question. As you answer remember that God is listening closely to your response.
How much do you treasure the cross of Christ?
I know for certain how Rav Shaul assessed it. He tells us all in Gal 6.14.
"But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
Again, "Do not be CONFORMED to this world but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind in order that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom 12.2).
Transformation of mind and character, rather than a conforming to the world-system, is the teaching of the Word of God as located in our Christian Bibles. It is equally the sentiment of the ancient children of Abraham, through his concubines, who took Abraham's truth into the land of the Hindu Kush and beyond.
Paul sought authentic spiritual growth through UNION with, and experiential knowledge of, the Creative "Unknown God" in whom he "lived and moved and had his being" (Ac 24.23,28).
Just so, the children of Abraham wrote, in phraseology reminiscent of the apostle Paul, "Brahman sees all. Knows all; he is knowledge itself. Of him are born cosmic intelligence, name, form, and the material cause of all created beings and things... Let a man devoted to spiritual life examine carefully [himself in relation to the world]... and realise that it is not by works that one gains the Eternal. Let him give no thought to transient things, but... let him renounce the world... The Brahman is all in all.... To know him, hidden in the lotus of the heart, is to untie the knot of ignorance. He is the refuge of all, he is the supreme goal [of the universe]. In him exists all that moves and breathes. In him exists all that is. He is both that which is gross and that which is subtle. Adorable is he. Beyond the ken of the senses is he. Supreme is he. Attain thou him!... in whom exist all the universes and all those that live therein -- he is the Imperishable Brahman. He is the principle of life" (Upanishads, Mundaka).
HISTORICAL NOTES.
Noted historian Edward Gibbon declared that the early Christians refused to take "any active part in the civil administration of the empire" (Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1., 416).
Phillip Schaff, a celebrated church historian, similarly called attention to the early Christians -- "disregard for politics and depreciation of all civil and temporal affairs as compared with the spiritual and eternal interests of men" (Phillip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2., 430, 1980 reprint).
"Early Christianity was little understood and was regarded with little favour by those who ruled the pagan world... Christians refused to share certain duties of Roman citizens... They would not hold political office" (A. K. Heckel and J. G. Sigman, On the Road to Civilization. A World History, 1937, 237-8).
"They [the Christians] refused to take any active part in the civil administration or the military defence of the empire... it was impossible that the Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes" (Edward Gibbon, History of Christianity, 1891, 162,163).
"Zealous Christians did not serve in the armed forces or accept political offices" (Habberton, Roth and Spears, World History, The Story of Mans Achievements, 1962, 117).
"While among Romans it was considered the highest honour to possess the privileges of Roman citizenship, the Christians announced that they were citizens of heaven. They shrank from public office and military service" (F.F.G. Guizot, former prime minister of France, Persecution of the Christians in Gaul, A.D. 177, Vol. III of Rossiter Johnson [ed], The Great Events by Famous Historians, 1905, 246).
"The Christians were strangers and pilgrims in the world around them; their citizenship was in heaven; the kingdom to which they looked was not of this world. The consequent want of interest in public affairs came thus from the outset to be a noticeable feature in Christianity" (E. G. Hardy, Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, Christianity and the Roman Government, 1925, 39).
"The emperors disliked Christianity because it seemed unpatriotic and un-Roman" (The Course of Civilization, Vol. 1, 1961, 144).