Restoration Ministries International
Restoring the Hebraic Foundations of the Earliest
Church
Preparing the Family of Jesus to Be Light in Darkness
Discussing How To
Restore The Early Church
Returning Intimacy and Power to the
Father’s Children
“I tell you that if two of you on
earth agree about anything you ask for,
it will be done for you by my Father in
heaven.
For where two or three come together in my
name, there am I with them.”
(Matthew 18:19,20) Lesson 2
Why Have We Written?
Intimate Relationship, Not Religion
It Takes Two To Relate
Religion Is Man-made
What Did You Embrace: Relationship or
Religion?
Allow Time For Incubation
God has permitted Sue and me to observe
“Christianity” in ways few people have opportunity
to. From 1983 to 1993 Sue and I administrated a retreat
ministry that touched the lives of over five thousand people
from just about every Christian denomination. For over 10 years
I counseled pastors and church leaders, primarily in
Connecticut but also in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New
Hampshire and New York. Before that I was Controller at a
highly regarded Christian college. I am a graduate of a
respected seminary.
Why Have We Written?
“I will rouse your sons,
O Zion, against your sons, O Greece,
and make you like a warrior’s
sword” (Zechariah 9:13).
We first heard an explanation of the above
verse at a prayer conference in Jerusalem in 1994:
Throughout the world our Father
is sending forth a Hebraic understanding
of the Scriptures to undo the heathen
influence of the converted Greek
philosophers of the second and third centuries
in the Church.
In the months following the conference our
Father took us aside and led us to the resources and
information that are the basis for the lessons in How To Restore The Early Church.
In a sense we are writing with concern for
those to whom we ministered at the retreat center. We wish that
we had known earlier the Hebraic principles God opened up to us
in Israel. Many people came to mind as we absorbed these
truths. We often thought, “If only they could hear this,
they could more readily trust God in their difficult circumstances.”
Although the written word and the videos
we have produced lack the informal and interactive dynamics of
a retreat, our goal is to furnish something practical,
something that you can apply in your daily life. Thus this
series of lessons to help you understand the the Hebraic truths
the earliest followers of Jesus lived by.
Through Restoring
The Early Church we want to help
you carefully scrutinize the type of Christianity you currently
embrace.
• Is your spiritual life based on a
personal, viable trust in God?
• Or, are you dependent on religious
forms and ritual practices to flesh Him out?
 The Hebraic Restoration is built on relational priorities. That is, certain relationships should be more vital
to you than others. We want to reiterate what we shared in
Lesson 1, Introduction to the Hebraic Restoration, when we
presented the Restoration Diagram: Everything
in your relationships with others begins with how you relate to
our Father and His Son, Jesus, in the way the Bible calls for. In priority, your walk of love-grounded
obedient trust is the most crucial of all your relationships. Out of the depth of your relationship with
the Father and Son all your other relationships exist. As you
move outward from the center in the diagram past your home and
home fellowship, the relationships diminish in intimacy and
priority.
You have only so much time and opportunity
to expend your life, and the first three relational rings need
to take precedence. Keep in mind that the quality of each
subsequent relationship as you go outward in the diagram
depends on the quality of the relationships nearer the center.
Intimate Relationship, Not Religion
NO WHERE does the Bible indicate that our
God established a religion. On the contrary, our loving Father’s
ongoing desire is to relate to His children as chosen ones called-out by
Him. In the beginning, He formed Adam in His own image to be
able to relate to Him in a way uniquely different from the rest
of His creatures. Eve was then created from Adam and for Adam, to
share that same relational privilege.
Abraham, whose intimate walk with God is a
model for the Hebraic Restor-ation, related to God in trust-filled obedience. So profound was his trust in the one true God that
he abandoned all that he knew in Mesopotamia to journey to a
land he had never seen. Such trust in God underwent the most
severe testing: his willingness to offer in sacrifice his only
son of the promise, Isaac.
Now that’s trust! And that trust-based life that looked to God to
bring forth life from a dead womb and to restore it to life if
need be was credited to Abraham by God as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). This man’s obedient
trust moved God to entered into an eternal Covenant to call out
Abraham’s descendants to live in the land He promised to
them.
Abraham is known as “God’s friend” in James 2:23. No wonder the apostle Paul
reminds us Gentiles of the relational connection with Abraham
for all who trust in Jesus!
The reason the promise is based on trusting is so that it may come as God’s free gift, a
promise that can be relied on by all the seed, not only those
who live within the framework of the Torah, but also those with
the kind of trust Avraham had — Avraham our
father for all of us.
This accords with the Hebrew Scriptures,
where it says, “I have appointed you to be a father to many nations.” Avraham is our
father in God’s sight because
he trusted God as the one who gives life to the dead and calls
nonexistent things into existence. (Romans 4:16,17,CJB).
Jesus, who was delivered over to death
because of our offenses and raised to life, makes those who trust righteous. Have you ever asked yourself why Abraham would be
called the father of all who put their trust in Jesus?
Paul clues us in:
But the words, “it was credited to his account . . . ,” were not written for him only. They
were written also for us, who will certainly have our account credited
too, because we have trusted in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Romans 4:23,24,CJB).
Think about this trust level in regard to
your own relational connection to Abraham in the spirit. Other
key figures mentioned in the Older Testament related deeply and
personally to God.
• “Moses was a very humble man,
more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3); “The
LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (Exodus 33:11a).
• “I
[the LORD] have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he
will do everything I want him to do” (Acts
13:22).
• “Enoch walked with God, and then he wasn’t there, because God took him.” (Genesis 5:24). “By trusting, Enoch
was taken away from this life without seeing death — ‘He was not
to be found, because God took him away’ — for he
has been attested as having been, prior to being taken away, well pleasing to God” (Hebrews 11:5)
Each of these examples is but a shadow of
the relational intimacy our Lord shares with those inhabited by
His Spirit through loving, obedient trust! This is the union
our Lord has always sought. If you relate to Him in the way He
desires, you’ll live far differently than someone who
just “practices religion”. In fact, you’ll
have nothing in common with them!
Stop for a moment and consider this:
How would your Father describe your relationship
with Him? A church attendee? A busy committee/activity
participant? A schedule-keeper for prescribed “Christian
duties”? His trust-filled, eager-to-please child? Go
ahead, describe yourself.
It Takes Two To Relate
Often overlooked when people discuss
relationships is an obvious fact: You can’t have a
relationship by yourself. As you relate, someone is relating
back to you. This is crucial when you consider your
relationship with the One True God: There
really is a loving Someone relating to you as well! Don’t lose sight of this reality.
Relationships are person-to-person. They
don’t demand a certain form or ritual to bind them
together. Relational interaction is
an issue of your heart because you connect to others through
your emotions. Someone to whom you
are emotionally attached, including God, is someone you value
in your heart. And, heart connectedness defies logical
analysis.
Ponder for a moment:
Bring to mind the people for whom you care
the most. Did your thoughts of them inspire heart feelings?
When you think of our Father and His Son,
Jesus, do you also experience intimate emotion, such as
gratefulness, security, devotion, longing?
What expressive feelings fill your heart
when you consider God? How do your feelings differ from those
you have for people here on earth? (Remember, feelings
aren’t the same as opinions. If you can substitute the
words “I think...” for “I feel...”,
you’re emanating from your mind, not your heart!)
Please describe your feelings for God.
So many who call themselves
“Christian” are enmeshed in religious forms and
ritual, not unlike those who follow pagan religions. A god who
is boxed in by prescribed rituals and forms is a creation of
your mind or someone else’s! That kind of god is a
“foreign deity” who has little or no involvement in
your life apart from ritual gatherings. Such a deist concept is
a far cry from the reality of intimate relationship with the
Father and His Son, Jesus.
Consider God’s relational command in
the Older Testament to love Him. The Hebrew word for the love He commands is ahav (ah-HAHV). This word means you have a passionate devotion
for Him, a deep yearning to be in His presence. Isn’t
this the intensity of love that Jesus calls for when He relates
the greatest commandment?
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ All the Law and
the Prophets hang on these two
commandments (Matthew 22:37-40).
This is the kind of love that takes action — a very vivid example of Hebraic response!
The Hebrew letters for ahav mean “a window
into the Father’s heart.” When you choose to
lovingly relate to Him as He requires, our Father reveals
Himself to you in a dynamic and
intensely personal manner.
Has this been your ongoing experience?
Please stop and answer this question, using an example to
illustrate your response:
Religion Is Man-made
The concept of religion is so familiar to
people that it evokes quite an array of emotional responses
when they think about their own religious experience. But religion is a man-made system.
Through religion, man establishes
institutionalism with its accompanying organization and
management. (Today’s church can “thank” the
ancient Romans for their pattern of organized religion that
chokes out relational connectedness. We’ll discuss this
more in a later lesson) Direction
and control rather than the
relational intimacy of extended spiritual family are the
currency of religion.
At the top of the control paradigm is one
individual, or a few, who manage many others. The few establish
and enforce the rules (through creed or tradition) that govern
the participation of others. Allegiance to a particular creed
of belief or behavior binds each religious system together.
Keep this in mind: Religion in itself
would not exist if people weren’t misled into believing
that their distinct religious ritual and specific creed made
them acceptable to God. And note: Religion
can exist without any relationship with God.
Jesus criticized the religious hierarchy
of His day for establishing a religion with man-made rules that
left God out:
• “They
worship me in vain; their teachings
are but rules taught by men.” (Mark 7:7).
• “You
diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess
eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:
39,40).
• “Woe to you, teachers of the
law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea
to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you
are” (Matthew 23:15).
How do you know you are in a religious
system? When “rule keeping” is more highly valued
than personal, intimate relationship with God.
Sadly, with the over 23,000 competing
denominations and sects in Christendom today, man is still
establishing religions. And each group
earnestly believes they are more correct than the others.
The abundance of non-Christian religions
in the world can exist without God. As zealously as practitioners of any
false religion insist they worship a “god” or
“gods”, there is NO other God except the ONE TRUE
GOD of the Bible.
We once had a conversation over dinner
with a dozen Japanese Buddhists. These men openly acknowledged
that Buddha was not “from the beginning” (as the
true God is). They readily admitted that they pray to Buddha,
but “Buddha doesn’t answer prayer.” Sounds
silly, doesn’t it?
Not to them! Because their focus was on
the form and practice of their religion. They had no
relationship with the one true God. But this is no different
for many who call themselves “Christian” but are
more committed to their creedal identity than to a relationship
with our Father in union with Jesus.
Jude offers fair warning against god-less
systems that divide people over man-made creedal practices:
In the last times there will be scoffers
who will follow their own ungodly
desires. These are the men who
divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” (Jude 1:
18,19).
What a contrast with the fiery heart of
Moses as he urged the Israelites, “Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, loving ADONAI your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him —
for that is the purpose of your
life!” (Deuteronomy 30:19b,20a).
What Did You Embrace:
Relationship or Religion?
You may be wondering, “What does the
issue of false religions have to do with Christians?” Simply
this. First, there is no biblical foundation for
“practicing religion” as a way of approaching the
God of the Bible. He relates to people based on the condition
of their heart and spirit:
• “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
• “For this is what the high
and lofty One says — he who lives forever, whose name is
holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit
of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah
57:15).
• “‘Has not my hand made
all these things, and so they came into being?’ declares
the LORD. ‘This is the one I
esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word’” (Isaiah 66:2).
The humble, repentant heart that seeks to
relate to God will always find Him. That kind of person
responds to the wooing of the Holy Spirit. The humble of heart
who trusts in Jesus as His Covenant requires will experience
Him in relationship. This is what the Bible affirms.
[Again, we encourage you to please read The Gospel of the Covenant is the Pilgrimage to
Salvation, under Hebraic Articles, for more on the scriptural basis for a
relationship with our Lord.]
From our Father’s standpoint the
clear dividing line in all of Christiandom is between:
• Those
who live repentantly. They have
fellowship with God and He answers their prayers, resulting in
testimonies to the Father’s glory.
• Those
who live with unconfessed sin. They
have no fellowship with God, and He does not answer their
prayers.
To re-cap:
Religion is a
man-made creation, appealing to mankind because in it man can define his own “gods”. In contrast, relationship
with God is the pattern of the
repentant, who are in union with the God depicted in the Bible and indwelling within them
through His Spirit.
The unrepentant are at home in religion.
Religion relies on acceptance of concepts, not on a love
relationship of obedient trust in the One True God of the
universe. Were there such a relationship, there would not exist
such a fragmented system of diverse denominations. The proud
intellect of man is behind religion and all of its various
forms and practices.
God’s commands were given to the
Israelites in the Older Testament to describe how to relate to Him and to
each other. His laws depicted for them the freedom and boundaries entailed
in their relationships.
The commandments of God that point to freedom are designed
to help people affirm and grow in their relationship with God
and with each other. Jesus summed up the essence of all the
freedom commands with the greatest commandment: to love. All the law
and the prophets are summed up in LOVE.
The commandments that establish boundaries reveal
areas that will harm relationships. These are the
“prohibition” commands, such as “Do not
steal, do not covet”, designed to deter you from
impinging on others and disrupting your relationship with them.
Remember, true love can’t blossom
where apprehension exists. God’s boundaries reveal where
we’ll produce apprehension in others, thereby quenching
love. Keeping God’s boundaries is the first step to a
life of love.
“For in Christ Jesus...the only
thing that counts is faith expressing itself
through love” (Galatians 5:6)
The apostle Paul plainly proclaims to the
Galatian believers that the only thing that counts is your
faith — your trust relationship with God —
expressing itself in love. And, the love to which Paul is
referring is evidenced by righteous
response and change into Christ’s character as He works in and through His people.
The apostle isn’t saying that the
fruit of faith-based love is “one of the many things
that counts.” Think about that. Love is the outflow of
your obedient trust relationship with our Lord.
The August 29, 2004, Parade magazine featured
an article about a noteworthy high school football coach. The
article, He Turns Boys Into Men, by Jeffrey Marx, commends Joe Ehrmann, a former
NFL star in the mid-1970's. Not only are Ehrmann’s goals
for developing boys into men impressive; the article also
reminded us of how destructive the Hellenist influence we've
written against so many times is on men in the US.
As we were leaving Israel after completing
our research, a follower of Jesus warned us, "You're going to the hardest place on earth for
anyone to embrace the Hebraic foundations. Hellenism owns the
church in the United States." Those words have come back to haunt us many times as we‘ve
done seminars over the years. The all-too-frequent phone calls
from unloved, unappreciated wives and from men who are all
cranial with no evidence of loving gratefulness in Jesus have
corroborated that statement.
When Bible knowledge consumes the head and
nothing flows from the heart, people have missed the intimacy
of relationship that our Father stresses throughout both
testaments.
Sue and I don't know Joe Ehrmann's
spiritual bent, but we were intrigued by his comment,
"Masculinity ought to be defined in terms of relationships,
and taught in terms of capacity to
love and be loved."
We’d like to quote Ehrmann’s
five goals for developing men of character and integrity.
(We’ve included applicable Scriptures next to each goal):
“1. Recognize the "three lies
of false masculinity." Athletic ability, sexual conquest,
and economic success are not the best measurements of manhood. (Matthew 11:
29).
2. Allow yourself to love and be loved.
Build and value relationships. (John 15:13).
3. Accept responsibility, lead
courageously and enact justice on behalf of others. Practice
concepts of empathy, inclusion, and integrity. (Isaiah 58:6-23;
Amos 5:24).
4. Learn the importance of serving others.
Base your thoughts and actions on "What can I do for
you?" (Philip-pians 2:3,4; Matthew 20:26-28).
5. Develop a cause beyond yourself. Try to
leave the world a better place because you were here.”
(Psalm 15).
If you’re a man, evaluate yourself
in light of the five points above. “If we judged ourselves, we would
not come under judgment”
(1 Corinthians 11:31)
It’s vital that you examine and
judge your own faith practices. In the next few pages we
contrast different aspects of the Hebraic,
relational way of interacting with
God and each other, and Hellenistic,
religious forms. Prayerfully go
through the comparison to discern if you have been told the
whole truth during your faith pilgrimage.
One of the main difficulties in any
discussion about “faith” is to
admit that you might be wrong.
To get started, ask yourself:
In what or in whom have you put your
trust?
Is your faith based on the creed you were
taught? Is it founded on the godliness and piety of your church
authorities?
Or, is your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of His Church? Is it really? If so, then affirm that reliance on our Lord in your heart. If you relate to our Lord with
wholehearted trust as He calls for, then you are indwelled by
His Spirit! Believe the promise of Jesus Himself:
If you love me, you will keep
my commands; and I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another
comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever...
The world cannot receive him, because it
neither sees nor knows him. You know him, because he is staying with you and
will be united with you...
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that
is, he will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:15-17,26).
God intended for the Spirit to be given to
every person who embraces the true Gospel. Peter’s words
were sweet music to his listeners at Pentecost:
Turn from sin, return to God, and each of you be
immersed on the authority of Jesus
the Messiah into forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit! For the promise is for you, for your children, and for those far away — as many as ADONAI our God may call! (Acts 2:38,39,CJB).
The apostle John further defines the
distinction between those who have the Spirit of Christ and
those who don’t: “We
are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does
not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and
the spirit of falsehood” (1
John 4:6).
So it comes down to this. Do you really
have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you? How else can you
determine the truths of God if you haven’t the Spirit of
truth? His indwelling presence will guide you into the reality
of relating to our Lord as He wants you to — in truth
that translates into righteous living:
• “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me’” (John 14:6).
• “Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so
that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (John 3:21).
• “Then you will know the truth, and
the truth will set you free.” (John
8:32).
As you go through the comparisons below,
take the time to re-affirm in your heart your trust in Jesus.
Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into the truth God wants you
to live by. And be confident in our Lord’s promise to
you!
Insert your name as you receive His
promise:
“If I, _________, lack wisdom, I,
________, should ask God, who gives generously to me, without
finding fault, and it will be given to me” (James 1:5).
Even asking him to give you wisdom in this matter is
a sign of your trust in Him! And He won’t fail you.
If you are already transitioning from
religion to relationship, it’s a move away from your
mind’s analysis and toward
responsiveness to the Holy
Spirit. The tentacles of your mind’s systematic rationale
and attempts to box God into your intellect must be removed one
at a time — and they don’t let go easily!
As you grow in reliance on the Holy
Spirit and in your commitment to experience His love and to share it
with others, your relational connectedness with our Lord and
with others will blossom and bear much lasting fruit.
Allow Time For Incubation
Through this material we trust that
you’ll be able to take appropriate steps of action in
your faith journey. We hope that you’ll be strengthened
in your walk with our Lord Jesus and be revitalized in
your relationships of marriage, family, and intimate
friends.
You won’t be able to just read these
truths in order for them become part of your life. You need to:
1. Discuss
these truths with others who will
press on in the faith with you. Discussion is the Hebraic
methodology of pursuing truth and applying it. In fact, the rabbis of the Hebraic
Stream taught that whenever two or three discussed God’s
Word, the Holy Spirit was with them to give understanding and
application.
Jesus affirms this same truth when
He says, “For where two or
three come together in my name, there
am I with them” (Matthew 18:20). The presence of Jesus in
your midst as you pursue truth makes all the difference in the
world. He stirs you to put it into practice!
2. Be patient
with yourself. Remember, you are on
a pilgrimage to your salvation when your name will be
proclaimed to the hosts of heaven. Your conversion is really the
beginning of your pilgrimage out of the world’s values and goals, and into the
Kingdom’s values and purposes.
In your discussion, emphasize
“what’s right before God”, not “who’s right”.
Don’t be too hasty to come to a resolution. God wants
each member of your family or group to develop spiritual
maturity by learning to think for himself and take
responsibility for his own convictions. That won’t happen
if people lean on the input of some perceived authority figure.
Remember, the pilgrimage to salvation as
you work it out together is transformational. It’s best seen in the increased
Christ-likeness manifested in each of you. As you apply the
different Hebraic foundations within your family, business, or
faith community, you will face:
• a season for separation from your
past relationships and lifestyle patterns.
• a time of initiation into
living by the new truths you are applying.
• a period of transition for you
and your household, faith community, or business as you grow in
your conviction to live by the new truths.
• the possibility for confusion as
the adjustments are taking place.
Be prayerfully patient with yourself and
with each other! Establishing a Hebraic
lifestyle is a process, a peaceful
process because you love God and desire to uphold Him in every
area of your life. The Holy Spirit participates through His rhema, that is, His
specific guidance for you through the Word.
Whether within your family, business, or
faith community, establishing the biblical basis for your
actions and decisions is critical for spiritual growth and
maturity. Ignorance of God’s ways is not bliss, but
heartache and frustration.
The first draft of our book, Restoring The Early Church was sent to a diverse group of Christians who
were respected in their various fields and ministries. Two
frequent comments surfaced in their feedback.
The first comments went something like,
“I know that what you’ve written is true, but
I’d be frightened to implement the changes needed to help
get my congregation back to the foundations of the early
Church. We’d have to admit we were wrong.”
The other often repeated comment was,
“You don’t have to prove your case; show people how
to bring it about.” In light of these responses, we have
written the lessons of How To
Restore the Early Church which you
are now using.
The comprehensive breadth of our research
is divided into three broad categories:
1: The Hebraic Facets of the Early Church
This section of lessons presents the
historic backdrop and influences of the God-trusting Hebraic
community that accepted the Messiah during the first century.
Their relational practices and teachings were foundational
for the Newer Testament writers.
2: The Loss of the Hebraic Roots
This brief overview highlights the events
that brought about the exchange of Hebraic roots for an alien,
pagan culture and worldly, organizational structure. Because of
the extensive research and writings of others in this area,
we’ ve compressed our discussion of the incursion of
Greek philosophy and Roman government into the church.
3: The Father and Jesus, the Home,
and Fellowship in Homes
The last section focuses on the primary
arenas for your Christlike development and growth — your
relationship with our Father and His Son, Jesus; your home as
the primary building block; and the support of righteousness
and load-bearing in the fellowship of homes. All other
dimensions of your life, including a viable congregation that
worships the Lord and serves the interests of His Kingdom, are
spawned from these central areas.
Restoration Ministries provides specific
training materials in support of this book. For further
information, please call 888-229-3041, e-mail Mikedowg@
aol.com, or visit our website Restorationministries.org.
Mike & Sue Dowgiewicz,
December, 2005
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