Romans (40) The Secret Ekklesia in God's Program

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS (40)
Analytical Commentary on Romans

 Has Israel Forfeited Its Future? (Part Five)

REJECTION: The Secret Ekklesia in God's Program
Romans 9-11

The Audio MP3 of this lecture is available via this link: http://www.bripodcasts.com/Romans/Lecture40.MP3

Copyright © BRI 2017 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)
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"Do not forget that [there was a time] when you Gentiles... were excluded from God's chosen community of Israel, aliens with no part in the covenant with their promise; you were immersed in this world, without hope and without God" (Rav Shaul, Epistle to the Ephesians 2.12 Greek)  

"The Jew is the emblem of eternity. He whom neither slaughter nor torture of thousands of years could destroy, he whom neither fire nor sword was able to wipe off from the face of the earth, he who was the first to produce the oracles of God, he who has been so long the guardian of prophecy and who has transmitted it to the rest of the world -- such a nation cannot be destroyed. The Jew has been and always will be the constant follower and confessor of liberty, equality, civilization and perfect religious toleration"  Russian Count Leo Tolstoy (The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. X., 264)  

"O Children of Israel! Call to mind the special favour which I bestowed upon you, and that I preferred you to all others" The Koran (Surah 2.47 The Cow)


The Lord Yeshua stated with power and authority: "I will build my Community of called-out ones [Gk., ekklesia, wrested as "church"] and the Gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Mt 16.18). The latter has been also translated in some versions as "and the Gates of Hell shall not eclipse it."

Yeshua did build that Community of Faith. The Yeshua-oriented Messianic Movement evolved eventually into a number of aberrant sectarian congregations ultimately emerging, after a series of divisions, councils and persecution, as the Roman Catholic Church " an entirely new religious organisation under the emperor Constantine. Yet down through the years God has always maintained a remnant of commandment-observing, faith-filled adherents who remained loyal to the Lord Yeshua despite tsunamis of political peril, religious persecution, and threats of satanic extermination. That is western "Church History" of the first three centuries in a nutshell. Some nutshell!

THE MODERN MESSIANIC MOVEMENT " ITS DANGERS
So here we are today, as an important (but sometimes contemptuously-held) adjunct to that same Movement " a small but vitally alive organisation (or perhaps better, organism) that maintains faith in Yeshua as both Lord and Saviour (in that order), and which sees itself as a remnant of loyalists adhering to the New Covenant in the flesh and  trusting to unqualified Grace in the Spirit.

In my 2012 lecture series FUNDAMENTALS: Issues of Faith, Trials & Prayer [2] I noted the following " and with a few additional thoughts it remains essentially as penned then.

"The great and ever-present danger confronting the present rapidly expanding Messianic Movement is that it is presenting all the characteristics of associations and groupings of assemblies which seem to be suggestive of a potential cult afflicted with the disease of sectarianism.

"Starting around 1974 and flowing over the decades pursuant to its launch, the Messianic Movement already reflects in miniature all the divisions and theological tensions experienced by the historic church which took place over a period of centuries.

"Where do we " as the International Messianic Community of Faith (IMCF) " stand in relation to these existing divisions, subdivisions and tension-filled cultural and religious conflicts?

"Today, to begin with, I must emphasise that in no way do I regard the IMCF as a cult (personality cult or otherwise) nor are we afflicted with a spirit of sectarianism " we stand boldly WITHIN the 2000 year old Christian legacy and legitimate biblical framework (sola Scriptura) provided by the holy Spirit, albeit we have inculcated a procedure of doctrinal purification which has involved the shedding of pagan trappings in the form of baptised church traditions and doctrinal aberrations that have accumulated over the centuries.

"We do not believe that the present Messianic Movement is the launching of the authentic ekklesia, absent for 2000 years, nor do we seek to engage in any way, manner, shape or form with apostates (Jewish or Gentile) who are promoting such an absurd teaching.  

"No scholar in their right mind would argue against the proposition that the universal church went into a dank, dark, regrettable apostasy just centuries after it was created. Again, no scholar in their right mind would doubt that the leaders of the universal church and their underlings, in some cases, sank into a frightful condition of spiritual and fleshly depravity only decades after the fall of Jerusalem to the armed might of Rome, nor would those same scholars dare to infer that the church has not experienced a Babylonian captivity at particular intervals throughout its 2000-year existence.

"Yes, ecclesiastical history fully documents the oftentimes tragic story of the church, in the east and the west. But to suggest or to even imply that ONLY NOW with the rise of the Messianic assemblies around the globe are we witnessing the emergence of the Community which was founded by the Lord Yeshua on Shavuot (Pentecost) in 30 CE is the height (or better, the depth) of utter ignorance and folly.  

"Without Mother Church there would be NO return to this present revival of Messianism. "Honour your... mother," says HaShem (Deut 5.16).

"With the doctrinal aberrations emanating from certain Messianic quarters it is timely to be reminded that the Christian Community was brought into existence when God the Father poured out His Spirit upon 120 disciples in the upper room of the Jerusalem Temple as described in Acts 2.1-4. It was poured out AT THAT TIME impregnating the firstfruits converts to Yeshua with dynamic, indestructible POWER. The result was the Christian Ekklesia " the Christian "Community of called-out ones" " later called "the church."  

"It happened back then IN 30 CE... not in the early 70's of our modern era!.... Hades will not eclipse it, overcome it, prevail against it, overpower it, withstand it, triumph over it, or conquer it.  

"Words cannot describe the outrageous agonies endured by the martyrs... They were torn to bits from head to foot with potsherds like claws till death released them. Woman were bound by one foot and hoisted high in the air by machines, head downwards, and with their bodies completely naked, without a morsel of clothing, thus presenting to all onlookers a most shameful, brutal, and inhuman spectacle. Others were tied to the branches of trunks and trees, and died horribly; for with the aid of machinery, the persecutors drew together the stoutest boughs, fastened the limbs of the martyrs to them, and then let the boughs fly back to their normal positions " thus they instantly tore apart the bodies of their victims. In this way they carried on " not for a few days or weeks, but year after year... [Sometimes] when during a single day a hundred men, as well as women and little children were killed, after being subjected to a succession of ever-changing torments... [such as being] torn apart with hooks, broken on the rack, mercilessly flogged, subjected to countless other tortures too terrible to describe, in endless variety, until they were finally given to the flames... [There were those who] died under the torture itself, others were starved to death... [Yet invariably they displayed] a most wonderful ardor, a kind of truly divine energy and zeal that belongs to those who believe in the Christ of God. For as soon as sentence was pronounced against [one martyr], another and still another would rush to the judgment seat and confess that they were Christians. They regarded with indifference the terrible cruelty, and the many different tortures, and with undaunted boldness declared their devotion to the God of the universe. They received the final sentence of death with joy, laughter and gaiety. Until their very last breath they sang, offering up hymns of thanksgiving to the God of the universe..." (Eusebius, Ecc. Hist., VIII, 9ff.).  

"I would suggest that many of those who today claim membership in the new Messianic revival have very little grasp, if any, of church history. For, according to a number of leaders of the present Messianic Movement, all the accumulated history of an apostate church (as they would consider Christianity) counts for nothing. The enormous contribution Christianity has made to the world is summarily dismissed as being of no consequence. Only the members of the Messianic Movement are truly converted, in their shallow and unfounded opinion.

"I am extremely careful when denominating that which counts as apostasy. I differentiate between Christianity and Churchianity. And I do so with considered purpose.

"In recent times, certain Jewish Messianic enthusiasts from Jerusalem have decided in their presumptuous religious arrogance to travel to a number of western nations in order to make more disciples... but having the temerity to teach (or more subtly imply) that there have been NO AUTHENTIC DISCIPLES OF MESSIAH until now in this end of the age.  

"Brethren, students, THIS IS A DISGUSTING FABRICATION of the worst sort. And it makes a LIAR out of Yeshua the Messiah and Saviour of the world who said his ekklesia would be established with the advent of the HOLY SPIRIT on Pentecost and that it would never die out.

"Eusebius, and later Fox, described the martyrs of Mashiach (Christ). We cannot allow ourselves to be so contemptuous of Christian history as to enjoin upon ourselves as Messianics the dubious (really, laughable) assessment that true Christians " authentic believers " ONLY exist within their synagogues and house assemblies. The mind boggles.  

"It's as if the modern Messianic organisations and associations have adopted the "one true church" doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, or perhaps more accurately that of the hundreds of cultic divisions of the defunct Armstrong Empire. As to the latter assessment we have connected the dots in a previous lecture in The Amazing Origin of Modern Messianism (section) in Fundamentals: The Fable of British Israel [4] The Khazarian Connection. God's church (if we must resort to such an appellation), or Community, is UNITED IN SPIRIT and BY THE SPIRIT. It cannot be a PHYSICAL, MATERIAL, VISIBLE organisation of any sort. And this includes The International Messianic Community of Faith (IMCF). God's true remnant exists as a SPIRITUAL ORGANISM as I have taught time and time again.

"Listen, everybody! We are not called to create a NEW "unity" " but to PRESERVE THE UNITY of the Spirit that already exists."

Such is and remains our intention, purpose and goal.

THE BELIEVING REMNANT OF ISRAEL IS NOT THE CHURCH
In our previous lecture I quoted extensively from the prophet Hosea, the very scroll from which Rav Shaul argued his case for the continuation of the believing remnant of Israel.

I wish to quote again from this same prophet. In Hosea 5.15-6.3 we read the following:

"For Anochi will be unto Efraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: Anochi, Anochi will tear and go away; Anochi will take away, and none shall rescue. Anochi will go back and return to My Place, until they acknowledge their offense and seek My face. In their misery and affliction they will seek Me early and earnestly. 'Come, let us return unto the Eternal. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; in the third day He will restore us, that we may live in His Presence. Let us acknowledge the Eternal; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.'"

Now please note what Hosea has here described. Recall prophecy has a former and a latter fulfillment (see my series of lectures on Isaiah for evidence to support this assertion). Hosea initially speaks of the destruction of Efraim " the northern ten-tribed alliance of Israelites, at the hands of the Assyrian Tigleth-pileser. In verse 12 (which I have not quoted here) God shares His insight into the future when He declares that Judah will take a lot longer to be crushed by invading empires. The word translated "rottenness" in this verse speaks of termites, although some versions translate it as "dry rot." In any event it says the same thing, Judah will be destroyed much later than their sister Israel. This destruction took place a century after Israel collapsed and was taken wholesale into Assyrian captivity from which they never returned. Judah fell under the Babylonians, and exiled into that same region but a remnant returned " 50,000 of them " from which God took yet another remnant of believers as His own. Later the Romans came in 6 CE and turned Jerusalem into an international city. Judah sought independence and faced the fury of Roman obliteration " 66-74 CE. The Temple itself fell in 70 CE.

However, Hosea looks beyond the Assyrian destruction of Efraim, to the final Roman assault and victory over Judah and counts forward "two days" during which time Judah began to revive, so much so, that IN the third day the Jews could expect the coming of the Messiah. This SAME Messiah would be GOD HIMSELF. Notice it now:

"Anochi will go back and return to My Place [this text describes briefly the Ascension of Yeshua back to the heavens which sent him], until they [the Jewish people] acknowledge their offense and seek My face." "As surely as the sun rises, He will appear [this is the Second Advent]; He will come unto us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth."

We are right now IN the Third Millennium from Judah's rejection of the Messiah. Two thousand long years has that ignorant rejection been steadfast. The third millennium has dawned and with it the final countdown to Yeshua's soon coming in the clouds of heaven to seize the planet from hapless, stupid, senseless humankind, and at last free it from the clutches of the Great Reptoid " the Dark Lord, HaSatan.

Listen! God will never go back on His Word! For God has sworn an oath that He will CAUSE a national remnant of Israelis/Jews to believe fully on and IN Yeshua as their Messiah. This is because God will, and MUST, fulfill the promises made to Israel and Judah through the Fathers of the Nation, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God entered into contracts with the Fathers which were ALL unconditional. (Please refer to my lectures on the Covenants of God.) The only conditional covenant (contract) God ever had was with the Jews at Sinai which was itself a marriage agreement " a marriage contract " and God Himself tore up that contract.

The conditional Sinai Contract is now absolutely and utterly defunct.

YESHUA INSTITUTES AND RATIFIES THE NEW COVENANT
What transpired in the upper room of the Jerusalem Temple in 30 CE on Shavuot with the giving of the Ruach HaKodesh to the original remnant of the Yeshua Movement was to introduce for the interim " between the crucifixion/ascension of Our Lord Yeshua and his anticipated Second Advent to this world to reign over the entire Earth from Jerusalem " God's great SECRET: a new inconspicuous faithful REMNANT never mentioned in the prophetic Hebrew Scriptures, and certainly not a REPLACEMENT of the Jewish people but at the same time a fully functioning Ruach HaKodesh-constellating ministry AS THE CORPUS CHRISTI, the spiritual Body of Christ, and the FINAL FEMALE MASHIACH (the Matronit, or Maiden) which was prophesied, expected, anticipated by the mystical sects of the European Jews and based largely on the Midrash Abba Gorion 1.5. Indeed, by the end of the first century CE the remnant Messianic Movement was seen mystically to be feminine in her spiritual Nature.

And why not? The holy Spirit and the Shkhinah of God are both grasped in Hebrew in the feminine gender. Further, the ekklesia may well be pictured as the Bridegroom and/or Body of Messiah, but is also portrayed by Paul as a Bride of Messiah (Eph 5.21-32 and in 2 Cor 11.2). Could you fail somehow to notice that Paul in the Ephesians quote further speaks spiritually of the intimacy of conjugal relations between God and the Messianic Community? (Eph 5.25-32). There exists also a spiritual dimension little understood in which, and by which, believers as a Community become channels of God's Grace to the point of "filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Messiah in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the Messianic Community" (Col 1.24). The Apocalypse itself hints at the endtime activity of an authentic Messiah in Rev 12. (I have not discussed this aspect of an endtime Mashiach as revealed here in this passage by John and will not until I have felt entirely satisfied that I can do so with resolute confidence that what I am teaching on the matter is correct.)

Whatever the case, Jewish tradition most certainly recognises the emergence at the end of the age of a spiritual Matronit, or Maiden, who is herself (and in a sense is) a "Redeemer" of humankind. The BRI/IMCF under this present Teaching leadership is, at the time of this writing, the ONLY Messianic Work of God which is proclaiming Grace to All which will culminate in an ultimate universal salvation, and which understands properly ALL the covenants of God. I expect this to continue to be the case!

So here we are as the Matronit, the Maiden, the endtime Messiah for the world, indeed a Redeemer acting in and by the authority of the ONE MEDIATOR Yeshua. And with us is a throng of angelic superpowers ready, willing and able to give us the heavenly support we need in times of trial, affliction and sorrow. They are gathered around us "in fine linen shining bright and white and clean" " in other words as PRIESTS " awaiting our command (Heb 1.14) to become activated to God's glory.

Are our angels largely sitting around unemployed? We create our own angels, and they can be utilised as our spiritual advisors and counselors! In fact, those angels need to be the spirit-embodied representatives of various aspects of our character: Love, Gratitude, Hope, Faith, Spiritual and Material Prosperity, Sound Physical Health, Mental Well-being, Romance, Overall Wisdom. These spirit-embodiments must be acknowledged on a daily basis as they become more intimately connected to us and serve us as guides in Life.

Is there an inherent danger in recognising our abilities in this matter of summoning and directing angelic guidance in our matters of life? Yes, there is! Apart from our own egocentric propensities rooted to the core of our yetzer hara there are archonic powers waiting for opportunities to present themselves and if we are not wearing "the armour of God" (or if that armour is not "a perfect fit") we can be in plenty trouble quick. And this is why John recommended that we "test the spirits" to ensure that we are appropriately dealing with His angelic agents and not counterfeit demonic representatives of the Dark Lord (1 Jn 4.1 cf 1 Thes 5.20,21; 2 Cor 11.13-15).

At his last Pesach, Our Lord Yeshua " in whom Paul said God dwelt fully " had taken the unleavened bread (matzos) and rich red fermented wine and had shared these items with his disciples as symbols and emblems of his body which was to be broken for them and as a token of the blood he would shed for the world. As to the wine, Matthew records these specific words:

"And he took the goblet and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink you all of it; for this is my blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Mt 26.27,28).

The disciples engaged in the taking of that wine " that blood " and in so doing prepared themselves for a startling new mission in which they would shed their own blood for the sake of the greatest mystery in God's perfect plan for the human race. Within weeks they were to be absorbed by the Ruach HaKodesh and set on fire to fulfill a ministry of reconciliation to the whole world. The Gospel was not limited to the Jews as a nation, but in their rejection of the actual New Covenant ratified by Yeshua's blood the way would suddenly open for God's Salvific will to be taken to the Gentile nations of Earth. The Yeshua Messianic Movement of the New Covenant began with Jews but within a few short years was inundated with Gentiles " Gentiles responding to the Gospel, and to the blood of Christ, for the forgiveness of sins.

The converted Jewish originals were launched as a remnant, a faithful remnant, but in no way did this remnant intend any permanent rejection of the people of Israel. In fact, many individual Jews were instrumental in advancing the cause of Christ in uniting the Gentile world IN the Messiah!

THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL " ESSENTIAL RECAPITULATION
Even though I have made mention of a number of Scriptures that speak of God's remnant in Israel, at this juncture it will do us well to reflect on other texts that also speak of God's faithful remnant.

Evidence from the Torah:
"The Eternal will scatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will survive [the remnant] among the nations where the Lord will drive you... [the Roman/Jewish War]"¦ In your distress, when all these things have happened to you in the latter days to come, you will return to the Eternal your God and heed him. Because the eternal your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors [Abraham, Isaac, Jacob] that he confirmed to them by oath" (Deut 4.27,30-31).

Evidence from the Major Prophets:
"In that day the Eternal will reach out His hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people" (Isa 11.11).

"There will be a highway for the remnant of His people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt" (Isa 11.16).

Clearly, this speaks of the remnant that still exists from the Assyrian invasion that destroyed and deported the survivors of the 721/718 BCE conquest. It predicts a restoration to (and in) the Promised Land of the "lost ten tribes of Israel." This occurs in the millennial period but that Messianic Age covers a period immediately prior to the Second Advent of Christ.

"Anochi Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where Anochi has driven them and will return them to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number" (Jer 23.3).

The Jeremiah passage speaks of racial/ethnic Israel because they will bear children, a fact that will not (apparently) occur in "Firstfruits" as Spirit Beings.

"In those days, at that time, declares the Eternal, search shall be made for Israel's guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for Anochi will forgive the remnant Anochi spares" (Jer 50.20).

Evidence from the Minor Prophets:
"I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob; I will certainly bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. I will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The Eternal will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever" (Micah 5.6,7).

"Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our Fathers in days long ago" (Micah 7.18-20).

"This is what the Eternal says, I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called The City of Truth, and the Mountain of the Eternal of legions will be called the Holy Mountain. This is what the Eternal says, Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets. This is what the Eternal of legions says, If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?, declares the Eternal of legions. This is what the Eternal of legions says, Behold Anochi is going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; and Anochi will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem, and they will be My people and Anochi will be their God in truth and righteousness" (Zech 8.3-8).

Kayafa, the high priest of the Jewish nation who condemned Yeshua, and who went even further in his destructive madness tearing his sacred garments and so disqualifying himself to further hold that exalted office, spoke a prophecy over the Messiah during the Lord's appearance before the political Sanhedrin:

"Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. 'Here is this man working all these signs,' they said, 'and what action are we taking? If we let him go on this way everybody will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy the Holy Place and our nation.' One of them, Kayafa, the high priest that year, said, 'You don't seem to have grasped the situation at all: you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for all the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.' He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest he made this prophecy that Yeshua was to die for the nation " and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were determined to kill him" (Jn 11.47-53).

This prophecy spoken over Our Lord Yeshua fully engaged a comprehension by the high priest of the Jewish nation that the Messiah was to accomplish what the prophets all knew " Yeshua would gather in to the Land of Promise the Jews of the entire Diaspora. For 2000 long years Jewish people have experienced being drawn back into the Father Anochi's love and Grace.

HOW DID GENTILES BECOME JEWS " AND DID THEY?
In this series of lectures on Paul's Letter to the Roman Christians I have taken pains to emphasise that Gentiles did not need to become Jews by race, or by culture, nor by enthnicity. I have given examples of Gentiles, like Ruth the Moabitess, and Uriah the Hittite, who " though they aligned with Israel and were loyal to Israel never surrendered (and nor did they need to surrender as a requirement) their Gentile identity. But some did.

The Gentiles who had joined the commonwealth of racial Israel became Jews by undergoing a rebirth in the waters of the mikveh and by circumcision. By so submitting, he thereby ceased to be a Gentile. As a proselyte of righteousness, he now possessed a clean slate as to his past, and became the bearer of a totally new identity which included a new name. He thus became at once subject to all the expectations, restrictions and penalties involved in the Sinai Covenant as affected a natural born Jew. As far as Gentiles were concerned " and this involved his former friends, family, and colleagues " restrictions relating to "table-fellowship" were set firmly in place. The new convert was certainly set apart from the world.  

The rite of admission of a proselyte into the Commonwealth of Israel was in contradistinction to those considered the "Righteous Gentiles" and "God-fearers" of the Diaspora. Luke devotes eleven passages in his Acts to "God-fearers" -- those who "reverence God" " among the Gentiles (Ac 10.2,22,35; 13.16, 26,43,50; 16.14; 17.4,17; 18.7). Those who gave reverence to the God of Israel were not circumcised but observed the so-called Noachian Laws and by so doing became a "stranger within the gate" " a friend and brother indeed, "but not a fellow Israelite" (Hugh Schonfield, The Original New Testament, 1985, 237 n.7).  

Luke classifies the Jews of his day and age as being composed of "Jews and proselytes" (Ac 2.9). They are to be differentiated from "God-fearers." In fact, we find the proselytes (as distinct from God-fearers) comprising the Jewish ekklesia BEFORE Peter took the Gospel to the Gentiles (Read Ac 6 carefully). Clearly, the proselytes were not to be identified with Gentiles and they were not denoted as "God-fearers" by Luke. This distinction is maintained by Paul as well (Ac 13.16,26). The Pharisaic "Circumcision Party" in Jerusalem was fiercely indignant that Gentile God-fearers were associating with Jewish believers and were uncircumcised (Ac 11.1-3).

Today, we would call such people "Jewish sympathisers" and they are usually found worshiping in "Clayton's" Jewish-Christian fellowships and churches, the Jewish fellowship cells when you do not have enough (or any) believing Jews with whom to fellowship. These believing Gentiles may follow some of the dietary regulations (especially avoiding contact with pork and pork products) and light candles on Sabbath evenings. They may even fast, and make use of Hebraisms and advocate "sacred names" in "talking the walk." They may even call their fellowship group a "synagogue." Be all this as it may, these latter are not Jews, have not submitted to the mikveh in order to become one, and could only be classified in the first century sense of being "supportive of Israelites."

The Messianic believers, when Rav Shaul came on the scene, were still largely constellating around Temple ritual and were ceremonially-oriented. Look, as a prime example, at their view of the salvation link between the ritual of baptism and the receipt of the Ruach HaKodesh (holy Spirit). In Acts 2.38 Luke records the thinking of the primitive Jewish believers regarding the mikveh (water baptism) and salvation. God would share the Spirit only if one was subjected firstly and foremost to the act of water immersion. No water baptism = no Spirit and therefore, no salvation. So vital was this procedure that later, when God sent Peter to the Gentiles, he insisted that the uncircumcised "God-fearer" Cornelius and his household undergo the rite of mikveh " even though the holy Spirit had already been received! (See Acts 10.44-48; see also 10.2,22,34-35).

Submission to the mikveh was a door or entrance not merely into the national life of Israel but into the New Israel (read, "remnant"). The Essenes, from whose ranks the early believers mostly came, promulgated the need of repentance which would form the basis of a New Israel, and had apportioned cities and geographical regions of Judaea, and the entire region of Palestine, on a marked revision of the sacred Scripture, based on a new model of God's Theocratic State. They also practiced ritual cleanliness, and it was expected of those who sought membership into the cloisters of the saved would enter the terms and conditions of the prophesied New Covenant by submitting to this rite of mikveh. You will remember from early childhood Bible stories from Sunday School or Sabbath School why it was that Yochanan the Immerser got his name and reputation.

And so likewise, to be circumcised in Israel meant that one had become a legal debtor to observe the entirety of the Torah's obligations and requirements concerning Israel, the Temple services, and the minutiae of the Mosaic covenant. Recall that the Messianic Movement was still predominately Jewish. It had its birth on Shavuot (the day of Pentecost) when the holy Spirit arrived and imbued the 120 talmidim (disciples/students) of the Lord Yeshua " and thousands immediately joined its ranks swelling it into a powerful and influential movement within the existing "Judaisms" of the time.

On the day of Pentecost the Jewish people in Jerusalem got a foretaste of the end-time promise of the coming of the holy Spirit! So much so did the early apostles believe that the coming of the Spirit ushered them into the last times that they saw in themselves the prophetic remnant of the Commonwealth of Israel predicted to fulfill the promises made in ancient times by all the prophets including David. All scholarly authorities in biblical matters recognise this to be the case.  

In Acts 15 we have what Gentile Bible scholars call the "first General Conference of the Church of God," and the "First Church Council of the Christian Faith." It ought to be properly assessed as the First Messianic Rabbinic Council. And, a vitally important Council it most certainly was. The enormous tragedy is that just a few hundred years after it occurred men completely forgot what had transpired there. So that today, Christians remain in ignorant bliss as to the obligations that were placed upon them.

The issue the Council had to settle was " and let's call a spade a spade " ENTRANCE OR ADMISSION INTO THE MESSIANIC COMMUNITY. If the Messianic Movement within the 'Judaisms' of the time claimed to be God's righteous New Covenant Jewish remnant of Israel " that is, and lets be frank about it, they claimed they were now the only AUTHENTIC Israel, the Jewish inheritors of the Essene mantle " then what eventuated in that Council was a ruling on what constituted legitimacy as being a Jew. Not only so, but the question had to be decided as to the role of the converted Gentile who was not a circumcised proselyte, but rather a staunch and fervent believer in Yeshua in association within the Movement. They had, after all, submitted to the mikveh! (Paul was yet to develop his brilliant One New Man theology.) This was not merely a matter of joining THE Messianic Community but of admission to THE Messianic Fellowship of ISRAEL ITSELF. That was the real issue at hand and do not permit any authority to convince you otherwise.

God has always had His remnant of authentic faith-filled believers. The advent of the Yeshua Messianic Movement became God's new remnant people. The Jewish nation had rejected Yeshua as their Messiah. So God, says Paul, rejected them in turn. But it was a temporary measure, for the great secret God was now sharing through the apostle Paul, was that the remnant would be used by the Lord of Heaven to create a psychological reaction in the Jewish heart " in effect they would be ultimately aroused to jealousy as the New Covenant Message of the Gospel went to the Diaspora Jews and thus also to the Gentiles with the result that God would turn His heart again back to Israel. It would indeed take time but God has a lot of that.

We saw God's heart begin turning to Israel in 1967 when the Gentile church stopped growing, and the Yeshua Messianic Movement began to once more take root. Today Jews are rediscovering Yeshua the Jew. They are coming face to face with the Messiah. Many Jews are starting to reevaluate their biases, animosity, and inbred hatred concerning Yeshua. Some rabbis have openly declared their repentance and their acknowledgment of the Messiah, and even more of them have become "closet believers."

Paul made it abundantly clear that God has not rejected His people. The Rabbi  continues to differentiate Israel from the "church" all the way through his epistles and especially here in Romans. Jews are Jews. Christians are Christians. Have a look at 1 Cor 10.32 where he writes of the possibility of giving offense "to Jews, to Greeks (Gentiles), and to the ekklesia of God." Here we find the threefold or tripartite distinction that Paul held in his theology. He never mixed any of them up. He well knew what David Chilton and other Replacement Theologians failed to grasp in their anti-Semitism. Only in Christ, in Mashiach, can a Greek, and a Jew, become ONE in Messiah and THAT can only be manifested in real terms AS they manifest as ONE NEW MAN in the secret ekklesia of God.

In the next few years we are going to see a violent and bloody civil war within the State of Israel over the identity of the Jewish Messiah. Blood will flow in the streets of Jerusalem. The idea has been mocked and challenged from the very first time I shared my view of this matter. But in no way can I back down on this notion because it is plainly revealed in the prophecies of Jeremiah attached to the scroll of Zechariah.

I would also like to add as we complete Romans 9, that Paul was not ignorant of the racial identities of ALL the Christians in Rome... he wrote to, and of, the Jews in Rome, but he also grasped a fact concerning which many Christians and Jews today may well be ignorant " the Gentile Romans as descendants of Esau were also Abraham's descendants! Notice it now: "Not all of Abraham"™s children are his true descendants; but "˜It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you"™.... Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebekah when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac" (Rom 9.7,10).

Paul's mindscape was such that his Letter to the Roman Christians included a recognition, by which he sought and courted Roman Imperial favour, that the Romans were "Isaac's seed" " racial Edomites " and were therefore included in an Abrahamic blessing through Isaac. This would no doubt have brought to the Roman mind a profound sense of astonishment.

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE 40

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