Mishpachah Yeshua Newsletter

A Newsletter To The Family Of Jesus From Restoration Ministries

The Hebraic family is not simply an individual or private matter.
Rather, it is an institution in which the whole community has a stake.
Thus, the Hebrew word “mishpachah,” meaning family, not only refers to parents and children,
but to the whole extended family worldwide in the body of “Yeshua”—our Jesus.

[click here for a printable copy]

August 2003  Topic: Burn Your Bridges Behind You

Dear Friends,
The day after Sue and I up-loaded our latest article, I Hate Nicolaitanism! (on our website under “Hebraic Articles”), the following question to Focus on the Family appeared in our local paper:
My 14-year-old boy is flighty, mischievous, irresponsible and lazy. If I don’t watch him very carefully, he’ll find ways to get into trouble — not really bad stuff, just stupid kid behavior. But I’m afraid I could lose him right at this time. What can I do to keep him on track?

Before you read the answer that was given to this parent, let me propose a few things for you to consider:

• Is there enough information to give this person a wise answer?
• If not, what would you ask him/ her before giving a reply?
• If you feel you could give a wise reply, what would you say?

If you’ve taken the time to read our article I Hate Nicolaitanism!, you probably understand why the response that was given was so disturbing — a Nicolaitan response! In this case the answer was another “Outsource the kid to the religious establishment. Your family can’t handle this, so you’d better give him to a church program to raise.”
Dr. James Dobson responded,
It is most important to keep your rambunctious youngster moving. If you let him get bored, he’ll find destructive ways to use unstructured and unsupervised time. My advice is to get him involved in the very best church youth program you can find. If your local congregation has only four bored kids in its junior high department and seven sleepy high schoolers, I would consider changing churches. I know doing that could be disruptive to the rest of the family, but it might help save your volatile kid...(emphasis added)

Consider the information below in light of Dr. Dobson’s reply. One of the statistics is from his ministry.
Church youth work in the US has been found to be less than 3% effective in training up young people who walk wholeheartedly for Jesus. The average stay of a youth pastor in a congregation today is about 9 months. A recent study found that fewer than 23% of children raised in Christian homes follow in the faith of their parents.

What would a Hebraic reply be to that parent’s question?
Why don’t you and your family begin to pray and fast, not only for your son, but that God would raise up another family or two so that your son could have some meaningful friends within the context of inter-family fellowship. Don’t give up praying and fasting until your heavenly Father sends His answer!

I Hate Nicolaitanism!
It’s important for you to know that Nicolaitanism is a religious system of control and power, an ecclesiastical system of suppression and subjugation. This insidious two-tiered system is recognized by the very definition of the name. The Greek word nicolaitane [NIK-oh-lay-it-TAH-nay] means “conquering the people.” The first part of the word refers to nikos, to conquer or have victory over. The middle of the word is derived from laos, which means “the people”. The commonly used term “laity” comes from it.
Which of the aforementioned replies, Nicolaitan or Hebraic, will give our Father the greatest glory? Keep in mind that biblically-based solutions to a situation don’t just alleviate the problem, but bring glory to God!
Nicolaitanism has incorporated so many systematic solutions to the needs of people, but how few bring any glory to our Father. For instance, if you’re divorced, your congregation may assign you to a “divorce recovery class” and take you through weeks of psychological techniques. Problems with your teenager? Put him in a youth group. And sadly, so many Christians like it this way because they’re removed from personal responsibility to come humbly before our Father themselves wherever Nicolaitanism thrives.
God’s Judgment on Nicolaitanism is Here
In the letters written to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, two groups are confronted with the issue of the Nicolaitans. The letter to the church at Ephesus states, “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6). These are incredibly strong words. Can you imagine participating in something that God hates? What if you are but don’t know it?
Again, to the church at Perga-mum John writes, “Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:15,16). At least the Ephesians hated the Nicolaitan practices as God did. Some of the Pergamum residents, though, embraced that teaching. What an awful situation to be in. Would you like to be someone against whom God Himself must fight?
We wrote I Hate the Nicolai-tans! because of a warning from the Holy Spirit. For some time we felt hindered on several fronts of our ministry, and we prayed for guidance. One morning the Holy Spirit warned us that even though we had written about Nicolai-tanism in Pastoring by Elders, we were still inadvertently supporting a spirit that our Father hates. He showed us that some of the email and telephone calls we received were from people who were choosing to stay within Nicolaitanism. Their problems were being brought on them by God, so why were we trying to help them?
As soon as we stopped, a whole world of wonderful things started opening for us! Then the Holy Spirit stirred us to write a fuller explanation of Nicolaitanism, which became the website article.

“Therefore come out from them and be separate,
says the Lord” 
(2 Corinthians 6:17a).
We are encouraging each of you who are already out of the Nicolaitan system: Don’t look back! Now that you are free, walk into all the grace our Father has for you. Yes, you will go through a time of isolation until you can find others who have a heart for righteousness so that you can fellowship together. But before others come, find the total sufficiency of Jesus first.
Many of you have admitted that what we have written is true,  but you fear leaving Nicolaitanism. There were others who proceeded you, “Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God” (John 12:42,43).
Most who know that Nicolaitanism is hated by God stay because they can hide in their pet sins. Adulterous clergy and pedophile priests make it easy to for “laity” to excuse their own sins. “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?” (Jer. 5: 31).

A Hebraic — Nicolaitan Comparison
In the two columns below is a brief comparison of the differences between the Hebraic and Nicolaitan systems. [For a fuller understanding see our article I Hate Nicolaitanism! on our website.]

Place a check mark next to each of the indicators that most reflect your current religious practices.