Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
The Judeo-Christian Value-pak
July 21, 2008
Why did Jesus not set up the temple as His headquarters in Israel, with the Judaic priesthood of the Pharisees as His chosen apostles? Was there ever a time when He endorsed the Pharisees of Judaism? Did He ever suggest to His apostles that they should submit to the doctrines of the Pharisees?
Do you believe that Jesus would be endorsing a Judaic/Christian value-pak of unity between religions today? Did Jesus ever once leave His apostles with the commission to go out and turn nations into morally good nations, irrespective of any compromise with religions in doing so? Did He ever preach a social gospel in place of the gospel of truth? Please don’t quote the Beatitudes as an example; for this was a spiritual lesson for those who could be identified as inheriting a spiritual kingdom belonging to Jesus and His Father, and not to the religious gods of the world and their followers.
Many Messianic Israelite believers, idolizing their Hebrewness as much as they value their salvation, like to point out that Jesus was raised to be a nice, faithful Hebrew, Jewish boy, loyal to the religion of Judaism. The truth of the matter is that He would never have endorsed the religion of the Pharisees, no matter how much anyone tries to manipulate, and dissect the Scriptures to serve this purpose. The Pharisees, at that point in time, were no longer in the line of the Levitical priesthood appointed by God; their appointment met with the approval of Rome.
At twelve, Jesus was teaching the Pharisees; it was not the other way around. He would have observed all of the Levitical law, for at His baptism, it was not a time for the purification of an already pure Jesus. It was time to transfer the reins of high priesthood from the last Levitical priest of high priest lineage, to Jesus the High Priest of the crossover blessing. It transferred from John the Baptist to Jesus and His priests, the apostles, the foundation of the apostolic church, which only Jesus could establish. Rome had no part in this movement, which would circumvent her, and all her future controls over His true church.
Jesus did, however, strongly endorse John the Baptist, the last of the Levitical high priest line to be recorded in Biblical history. John, like Jesus, had very little use for the Pharisees or for their doctrines and rituals. In fact, downright animosity existed between these two and the Pharisees. The difference between the two men and the religious leaders was the difference between testifying to the truth and testifying to religious dogma.
Messianic believers love to point out that Jesus kept all the feast days and Jewish holidays. The truth is that He initiated the feast days as the Lord of the covenant with Israel and, of course, He kept that which He commanded of them. However, He was not the author of Judaism or of any of their religious festivals, nor did He keep them. The feasts were the mere pattern and prophecy for spiritual fulfillment before Jesus’ return, which He, not man, would fulfill in completeness. The exception is the Feast of Tabernacles, which points to the Sabbath rest of the millennium, to be fulfilled in His reign on earth.
Among the Judaic holidays is the Feast of Dedication, known as Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. It was established by men, and not by God, in the second century B.C. after the victory of the Maccabees in recovering the temple from the Greeks by means of the sword. The Messianic Jews, today, will tell you about the endorsement of Jesus of this holiday as recorded in the book of John 10:22.
The truth of the matter is that Jesus was preaching outside the temple in Solomon’s porch, at the same time the Jews were inside celebrating Hanukkah. The same Jews came outside to challenge Him, at which point He declared they were not His people. There is absolutely no indication in Scripture that He was ever inside celebrating Hanukkah with them. He was the real ‘Festival of Light’, which they did not recognize.
The religious men of satanic origin were always His enemies, who caused the downfall of other men. It was this religious unity with the state, in a religious/state-controlled government, which insisted on His being put to the cross. They were all the people from among the religious Jews, who demanded that His blood be upon them, declaring they had no king but Caesar. As a follower of Jesus, I do not think I would want to join, at any time, my commission from Him to spread the gospel of truth with those who hold to the Judaic faith.
There is no place in the Bible where Jesus declares Himself to be the Son of the God of religion; at the same time, He does declare Himself to be the Son of the God of truth. There is no place in the Bible where He declares Himself to be the High Priest of Judaism; at the same time, He allows the reins of high priesthood to be transferred to Him from the Levitical high priesthood. There is no place in the Bible where He ever refers to Himself as being a Christian, or to His followers as being Christians; at the same time He calls His holy priesthood the apostles.
They were His apostles of the Way, and had Christianity ever existed at that time, Jesus would have opposed a counterfeit high priest of Rome, called the pope, as much as He opposed Caiaphas, the counterfeit high priest of Judaism, under Rome’s approval.
With the advent of Jesus into the world, God established a new covenant with man through His Son; the old covenant was established by the pre-incarnate Jesus with Abraham. That which the Judaic/Christian crowd seems to miss is the fact that it was by faith and obedience to God’s Word that Abraham was deemed righteous and acceptable to God. He, like all other men, is of one bloodline, which goes back to Adam. He himself was born a gentile and only became a Jew by covenanting with God, and keeping the covenant in faith and obedience.
Jewishness for Abraham was a spiritual matter, as it is for all who are sons of Abraham and inheritors through him on a spiritual level. Life is in the blood, and even the blood of Abraham would have been required of him, had he not made spiritual changes in his life, which were initiated by God. Esau was a twin of Jacob and of the same bloodline; yet God hated Esau and loved Jacob.
Being born into the nation of Israel did not guarantee a place in the house of God. From day one, being of God’s people, Israel, was a spiritual matter as opposed to being a matter of bloodline. If it were by bloodline, then the firstborn would have been the true inheritor of Abraham. Ishmael fared no better than Esau, in this respect, nor did Manasseh, son of Joseph receive the first son blessing.
Jacob declared the place of Bethel to be the house of God, for he had seen a vision of the ladder to heaven with the angels ascending and descending upon it. He had caught a glimpse of the new covenant and the kingdom of spiritual Israel, which centers upon Jesus (represented by the ladder, as was indicated later by Jesus, Himself, in speaking to Nathanael – see John 1:51).
Before Israel became a people, Jesus was, and declared His position as, Lord over Israel. But, of course, those who still believe themselves to be a special nation by bloodline cannot accept the crossover that took place at the cross, which opened up the kingdom to all nations of the world. For many Christians, the desire to go back to Israel and be one with the nation, is like being in a race and choosing to run backward instead of going forward toward the goal.
Did Jesus come on the scene as a surprise to God, or was He in His plan from the first day of Creation when He said, “Let there be light”? The Light of the world, the covenant of God with Adam and His covenant of the rainbow with Noah came long before God called Abraham to separate from the religious practices of his family to follow Him in a covenant move. The Way of Jesus was established back in the Garden, when the east side was closed off to the Way back to the tree of life and the Way to a kingdom inheritance. Jesus is the Way to the kingdom through the house of Israel.
The battle, which began in the Garden, was that of the antichrist spirit of religion coming against the Spirit of truth belonging to God. Man went over the wall, so to speak, from truth to the belief system. She was that mother of all harlots, Eve, who paved the way for Babylon the Great, the religious system of this world, to take root in the Garden of creation, by taking man into sin and the captivity of death.
Would Jesus be a part today of any Judeo-Christian alliance of religious unity? Never in a million years would He join with that which rejected Him in the past and continues to reject Him today. The religious true colors of Christianity are coming forth, as we see it being moved along the path to unity with all the other religions of the world. It will be one unholy unity of which the Antichrist is the author.
Like the apostles before her, the bride, the true revived apostolic church, will have no part of the religious system, but rather will stand only on the truth of the Word. She will hate Esau’s love for the stew as much as the Lord God hated it before her. She will testify only to truth before the rulers of the Babylonian system, as did Daniel, and her Beloved testify. She will stand up to the Antichrist as Jesus stood before Pilate.
Her rewards are not found in a position of honor in this world anymore than Jesus sought the position Satan offered Him, during His wilderness testing. Jesus knew it then and knew it later, when He declared it to Pilate; He is King of a kingdom that is not of this world, and His bride will be His queen who shall rule and reign with Him throughout eternity.
Be careful to avoid the Judeo-Christian trap that is set by Satan to ensnare the believers. He has no fear of losing religious groups, which are already his. He is afraid only of losing those who are born again of the Spirit of life and will make it back over the wall of the Garden, into the camp of truth before the religious Titanic of the iron empire goes down in judgment. Were they not dancing and making merry but a couple of hours before the ship went down? Does the Bible not warn that this will be the case before the judgment falls and man will suddenly come up against the wrath of God?
“Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues (Revelation 18:4).” That Judeo-Christian value-pak could well take you down with the rest of the ship of fools.