Preparing the Family of Jesus
To Be Light in Darkness
Our Father told us that the above heading
was a key purpose for our ministry. Think about what being prepared means
to you, especially in light of the Dark Days of Chastisement
that are soon coming. In a recent e-mail we shared with you a
prophetic warning from David Wilkerson written on March 7,
2009. Here is a brief excerpt:
"AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT
TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING
TO TREMBLE — EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US. There will be
riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting
—including Times Square, New York City. What we are
experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath." (italics added)
In response to this warning we received
many e-mails from around the world that confirmed in particular
the burning cities. Some of you had been given dreams, others
had received visions, and still others a strong witness in your
spirit that God had directed David Wilkerson to deliver this
warning.
When our Lord sends prophetic warnings, His
intent isn't to threaten His called-out ones. Rather, He is
prompting the followers of Jesus to
prepare, to be available and ready to
be His instruments of righteousness when the wickedness of many
will be exposed and love will grow cold.
This time of preparation is accelerating
toward the season when you'll be called to serve Him in the
ever-encroaching darkness. And this is the assignment our
Father has given us for Restoration Ministries: To Prepare You To Be Light
in Darkness.
“No one who puts his hand to the
plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:
62)
You may have left the self-serving
religious system, but you’re perhaps (or probably)
spending too much time feeling sorry for yourself rather than
preparing for your specific Spirit-empowered part in advancing our Lord’s
Kingdom. We encourage you: Stop looking back at what you left!
Especially don’t be bitter or resentful!
Instead, focus ahead as racers running with
perseverance (Hebrews 12:1). Throw off all those hindering
memories and fruitless habits, and discover instead how you can
bring the most glory to our Lord and King through your
grateful, obedient trust. Don’t let our Lord return to
find you down-spirited, hiding out in self-pitying isolation in
your home.
Do you understand our Lord’s purpose
for what’s about to happen both here in the US and around
the globe? It’s part of a plan that spans centuries, an
intervention by our Lord to slash through the man-made,
man-centered religion that has supplanted the love-grounded
trust relationship He has intended all along for those who are
in Jesus as His own.
In the second and third centuries a
religious system built on the glued-together foundations of the
old Levitical priesthood and the prevailing pagan
Hellenism created an unbiblical,
exclusive clergy class. During the upcoming Dark Days of
Chastisement, this unbiblical clergy system that stands between
our Lord and those who would follow Him is going to come to an end.
We serve a God Who is jealous for the love of His
Bride (Exodus 34:14)! He wants no intermediaries between Him
and her, nor any system that would compromise His holiness with
worldly practices. The religious system that tolerates sin and
brings down His Name among the nations will fall, to be
replaced by the Lordship of King Jesus, the Priest forever in
the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:17). You can count on this:
His way is going to be restored!
(For more on the vital role of Jesus as
Melchizedek, see our March 2001 newsletter, “Living as the Family of Melchizedek”; also Lifebtye 34. The Abrahamic Covenant
— Groundwork For The Hebraic
Restoration.)
To understand the nature of what our Lord
will be restoring, you need to anchor this truth: Jesus NEVER established a clergy system. That such a framework of intermediaries between
Him and His Church exists is a curse on Christianity. Why? Because of the centuries
of anti-Semitic attacks on the children of Abraham by the
institutional church system, beginning with the Greek
philosophers who converted to Christianity in the second and
third centuries.
(See Genesis 12:3; also Chapter 5 of our
book, Restoring the Early Church, “The Loss of Our Hebraic Roots”.)
How does God alter centuries of religious
tradition that contradicts His Word? Consider those among the
Jews — God’s chosen people!—who refused to
trust Jesus as their long-prophesied Messiah. Forty years after
the ascension of Jesus, God allowed the Romans to destroy the
Temple, denying the Jews a place to offer their sacrifices and
worship God.
As the Hebraic Restoration goes forth
around the world, we believe we’re living in a period
similar to the 40 years following the ascension of Jesus and
the destruction of the Temple. That was a time of frustration
for those who had embraced the Messiah. Known as “The
Way” and a sect within Judaism, they were confronted with
tension over whether to follow the Law, particularly whether
they had to be circumcised to be included (see Acts 15).
In accordance with His Word which had
foretold that Gentiles “not of His fold” would be
His people (Isaiah 49:6; John 10:16), our Lord freed His
followers from entanglement with Judaizers who had refused Him
and with those who demanded circumcision as an identifying sign
of the Abrahamic covenant. The religious edifice that gave the
Jews a common identification was razed as Jesus had prophesied
(Matthew 24:1,2). His followers didn’t need a Temple.
Each of them was a living stone in His collective temple, and
they needed to be about expanding the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 3:
16).
We can learn from the Chinese Cultural
Revolution of several decades past how fruitful it is when our
Lord destroys religious establishments that hinder the
expansion of His Kingdom:
As severe as it was for Chinese Christians
at the time, they now recognize how the Cultural Revolution
completely dismantled institutional Christianity in their
country. Almost all “church” buildings were
destroyed. This led to the quiet proliferation of house
churches among people who were fully responsive to the Holy
Spirit. And like the early followers of Jesus, they counted the
worth of their lives only in terms of loving and serving our
Lord and His purposes.
Out of these dark times the Chinese church
has become, by many estimates, the largest Christian community
in the world.
What the destruction of the Temple and the
destruction of “church” buildings in China did for
the Kingdom in terms of purification and revitalization is what
the Dark Days of Chastisement will do for Christianity in the
United States and perhaps around the world. Our Lord will not
only use these days to chastise, but to restore the loving
relational responsiveness He intended with His people.
(If you haven’t already, you may want
to read our Hebraic article: I Hate
Nicolaitanism.)
If you have fled the institutional,
self-serving system, ask yourself this:
Will you be prepared to equip
the saints for service?
On the last two pages of this Teaching
E-mail we discuss what our Lord is restoring to those
He’s called out of the world to serve Him in His Kingdom.
As Jesus restores the foundations of the earliest Church,
He’s calling each of His followers to fulfill their
Spirit-empowered part out of loving devotion to Him. He wants no spectators!
We want to encourage you: Don't isolate
yourself in your home feeling sorry for yourself. Instead,
prepare yourself to do your part when the Dark Days do come. Be active now in learning how to make the
Hebraic foundations your way of life so that you will be
fruitful and steadfast in standing for and in Christ. The time is coming where you’re going to
be called upon in ways you couldn’t have imagined.
“We have renounced secret and
shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the
Word of God”
(2 Corinthians 4:2a).
You may be outside the religious system,
but you may find that the Bible version you use is infected by
deceptions fostered by clergy-system domination of those who
sponsored the translation. In Chapter 2 of our book Pastoring By Elders:
“Nicolaitanism: Repression of God’s People”,
we note how Bancroft’s rules caused the King James
translators to alter portions of Scripture to maintain the
clergy system. Other translators have done the same.
(To understand the extent to which clergy
intimidation exists in Bible translations, you may want to look
at our Hebraic Article: Commentary
on the King James Bible Translation.)
We’ll examine some clergy-system
induced distortions of God’s Word so that you can correct
them in your Bible. Some of the mistranslations can hinder you
from cooperating with our Lord’s restoration of how He is building His
Church. As you’ll see: That
which our Lord is restoring calls for the mutual cooperation of the
equipping gifts. None of these will lord over the others.
Each of the outworkings of these gifts
existed in Judaism before the coming of Jesus and were well
understood by His earliest followers. The evolution of today’s clergy class, however,
nullifies the cooperative equipping work of these giftings,
superceding them with a man-made elevation of a clergy role
that was never intended by our Father.
Paul clearly lists these equipping gifts
and their combined purpose: to ready the people of God for
service and to build up the collective body of our Lord:
And He Himself gave some to be apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and
teachers, for the equipping of the
saints for the work of serving others, for
the building of the body of Christ (Ephesians
4:11,12).
Over the centuries the clergy system (and
intimidated translators) have deleted or distorted these gifts.
Let’s look at some contemporary Bible mistranslations of
these giftings.
Apostle
In order to convince people that the only
apostles were the original twelve, translators took the Greek
word apostolos in the Newer Testament and translated certain
instances as “representative” or
“messenger.”
The Greek word from which we derive
“apostle” is a person
sent on a particular mission to
deliver messages of truth. The Newer
Testament cites a number of men who were referred to as apostolos, but
the translators substituted other words (see, for example, 2
Corinthians 8:23).
Not even the words of Jesus are safe from
alteration through clergy-intimidated translators. Following
His washing of the disciples’ feet, Jesus declares that "a slave is not greater than his lord, nor
an APOSTLE (literal translation, NOT
the NIV "messenger" or NKJV "he who is
sent") greater than the one
sending him" (John 13:16).
The personal interaction of an apostle with
those to whom he delivers the Good News is obvious in
Paul’s loving devotion cited in 1 Thessalonians 2. His
reference to himself, Timothy and Silas as
“apostles” (v.6) was no mere title as some today
might assume! Rather, they lived among the people as role models, lovingly
devoted to those who were family in Jesus with them (v.8).
Their example of apostleship was an action fleshed out as the tender
spiritual nurture of a mother (v. 7), and their exhortation and
godly example as a father (v.11,12).
The loving affection of an authentic
apostle is further modeled by Paul in his anguished tears
emanating from deep love for his spiritual family in Corinth (2
Corinthians 2:4) as well as his “wide-open heart”
for them as his children (6:11-13).
God has and will continue to sovereignly
choose apostles and send them to carry out their mission
according to His will (1 Corinthians 12:28). But these who are
sent forth won’t just be dropping off messages. Their
very lives will be invested in their faith families.
Prophet
And God has
placed some in the church: first
apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then
gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:28).
Prophets in the Older Testament generally
spoke forth messages from God as warnings and predictions of
what was to come. Those with prophetic gifting in the Newer
Testament, however, are declaring
truth through inner Holy Spirit inspiration whether in a predictive sense or delivering
direct counsel from God.
Interestingly, Paul, Barnabas and Silas are
referred to as prophets as well as apostles, indicating that
these giftings aren't exclusive (Acts 13:1). Judas and Silas,
in their capacity as prophets, exhorted
and strengthened the called-out
ones in Antioch (Acts 15:32).
Again, there is no scriptural basis for the
present-day assumption among certain denominations that
prophets no longer function! In fact, since prophets are listed
as "second" among God's placement as well as second
in the listing in Ephesians 4:11, this gifting has great
priority from God’s perspective for the building up of
His people.
To neutralize the ongoing role of prophet
within the Church, some translators altered the original word propheteias used in 1
Thessalonians 5:19-20. Rather than its literal meaning of prophecies from the
Holy Spirit — the speaking forth of God’s will and
message, they inserted “inspired messages” which
waters down the purpose.
Evangelist
Paul exhorted his spiritual son, Timothy, “But you, keep your head in all
situations, endure afflictions, do
the work of an evangelist (Greek: euaggelistes), discharge all the duties of your
ministry” (2 Timothy 4:
5). The deacon Philip is also cited as an evangelist (Acts 21:
8).
So what was an evangelist? Like his
counterpart in the synagogue, the evangelist in the early
Church was a church planter and repairer in the pattern of Paul, Timothy, and Titus. He stayed on as long as need be in order to
establish local bodies and assist the faith communities through
tough times. (See, for example, Acts
14:21,22; 17:11-14.)
You’ll notice that there is overlap
with the work of an apostle as we described in the section
earlier about that gifting. Personal
interaction with hearers was a
hallmark to ensure that the truth shared was being put into
practice as a functioning, collective body. That ongoing relational contact undergirded their discipling of the new faith
communities — an essential component of biblical
evangelism.
Recognizing that local leadership and
guidance were needed by those who were growing in their walk in
the Lordship of Jesus, the evangelist exercised his
Spirit-given authority in anointing older, spiritually mature
men who were qualified to be shepherds (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5).
With the later intrusion of ecclesiastical
hierarchy modeled after the Roman government system, however,
no longer were men who were known among local bodies for their
wisdom and nurture anointed as elders. Overseers from outside their
relational sphere were sent as clergy functionaries, trained
and educated in the Hellenist pattern of pagan priests.
Today’s concept of evangelist has
imitated the “outsider” pattern of a stranger
coming in to do a “drive-by” — one who conducts mass crusades. To a gathered throng this person declares a Gospel
(often omitting the essential component of repentance, which
calls for turning away from evil and then turning to
God in the saving Lordship of
Jesus) — and then immediately moves on to the next
drive-by.
Such an incomplete, man-devised methodology
accounts for staggeringly grievous statistics. Numerous studies
reveal that only 4-10% of those who go forward at these kinds
of “evangelistic crusades” remain true to Jesus or
even become part of a local faith family.
That modern-day evangelists don’t
stay around to disciple new believers and integrate them into
faith communities is a method that feeds the desires of clergy
who certainly don’t want any outsider being involved in
their “turf”. Nor do many clergy want to be
accountable to make sure that those who are responsive to the
Gospel are incorporated into a faith community, not as passive
spectators but as equipped fruit-bearers.
So many millions have heard the words of
evangelists and even “gone forward”. Yet the most
glaring consequence of these crusades seems to be an inoculation of
masses of people against the true Gospel of the Jesus
they’ve never known as Lord of their lives.
Shepherd
Few of us today have an agrarian
background, especially with sheep. But the intimate
relationship of shepherd and sheep permeates much of both
testaments, depicting a relational
responsibility and responsiveness seldom experienced today among church leaders and their flocks.
The following excerpt from our book Pastoring By Elders comes
from Chapter 2. “Nicolaitanism: Repression of God’s
People”.
To undergird a clergy/laity distinction in
the Newer Testament, translators not only of the King James
Version but of virtually all commonly read translations used
the word “pastor” in Ephesians 4:11: “It was he who gave some to
be....pastors” Had the Greek
word used here, poimen (poy’-main), meaning
“shepherd,” been translated as such, this passage
would have kept continuity with the other Newer Testament
passages that refer to the shepherding role of the elder, presbuteros (prez-boo’-tair-oss).
The inaccurate translation creates a false distinction between
the ecclesiastical position of clergy who are called
“pastor”, and the Hebraic relational function of
older men who shepherd the Father’s children as family
leaders.
The role of a biblical shepherd of the New
Covenant is patterned after a number of honorable sheep
caretakers in the Hebrew Scriptures. Our relational, caring God
is known as the Shepherd of Israel (Genesis 49:24, Psalm 23:1). He not only
tenderly gathers and cares for the “sheep of His
hand” (Psalms 95:7), but also exercises discipline by not
tolerating unconfessed sin among His flock (Psalms 74:1).
A man who cared only for himself and served
his own interests was severely castigated by God as a
“false shepherd” for the harm he was doing to His
beloved people (see Ezekiel chapter 34; Jeremiah 25:34-38).
The intimate relationship with and personal
knowledge of each of his sheep by the shepherd was poignantly
depicted by Jesus in John chapter 10. The sheep have been in
close contact with the shepherd for so long that they recognize
his voice and trust His ability to guide them into all that is
good for them. Today’s version, the professional
clergyperson, has little knowledge of the private lives of the
“sheep” since he is more of a system administrator
than a personal role model of nurture and guidance.
In the Newer Testament three words are used
often interchangeably to reflect a biblical elder who serves as
a spiritual resource and leader of the collective gatherings of
Jesus-followers. A poimen is a shepherd who intimately and personally
guides, guards, folds and leads to nourishment. This term is
used to depict Christ (Matthew 26:31; John 10:11,12,14,16) as
well as those who serve the “flocks” of
Jesus-followers as spiritual shepherds (1 Peter 5:2).
An episkopos is literally a person who watches or oversees
with diligent and watchful care. The meaning certainly overlaps
with the role of shepherds, as the elders from Ephesus are
charged by Paul to “take heed
to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church
(the called-out ones) of God which He purchased with His own
blood” (Acts 20:28).
Episkopos is
full of honorable purpose, as Peter uses it with Shepherd to
refer to Christ (1 Peter 2:25) as the One who oversees our
souls, again intertwining the similarity of service. Paul makes
special note among the saints of Philippi of those who
“oversee” as well as those who have been selected
to serve as deacons (diakonoi). There is a plurality of both within congregations, not a
“bishop” position from afar who receives reports as
with many of today’s denominations. And, there is no
indication in the scriptural text that any office of bishop existed
among the earliest called-out faith communities — again,
a man-made contrivance for control.
Paul goes to detailed length to describe
qualities that are needed in those who would aspire to
“oversee” faith families — and most of these
qualities are relational with both their own family as well as fellow
servants of Christ (see 1 Timothy 3:1-7).
The third word used to denote biblical
eldering and leadership is presbuteros, literally an “older man” as used in
1 Timothy 5:1, 1 Peter 5:5, and John 8:9. As the term elder clearly
denotes, this person has quite a number of years under his
belt, and hopefully the compassion and wisdom to have learned
from his mistakes!
The interchange of these three terms is
most evident in Peter’s admonition to the elders (presbuteroi) who shepherd (poimanate, a command verb of active response) God’s flock, overseeing (episkopeo) them willingly and becoming examples for them to
emulate (1 Peter 5:1,2). You need to have a relationship with your
elders if you’re going to learn to imitate the qualities
that prepared them for eldering as God called for through
Paul’s instructions. Yet today’s “church
elders” often have little or no contact relationally with
the rest of the congregation in ways that would reveal the
development of Christ-like character.
The work of biblical elders had long been a
part of the Jewish community prior to the Incarnation. Jewish
elders, respected older men of wisdom, were present at the city
gates to serve the community in many ways, such as maintaining
discipline and excommunicating those who broke the law (such as
in Exodus 31:14). Their decisions served to keep the people
safe and reinforce the boundaries established by God’s
Word.
The elders of the Newer Testament also kept
the local congregations safe by maintaining adherence to
God’s Word and expelling the unrepentant in their midst
(for example, 1 Corinthians 5:2). They also prayed over and
anointed the sick (James 5:15) and role modeled how to live
worthy of God’s call on their lives. In summary, biblical
elders served interactively in the footsteps patterned by their
Chief Shepherd, Jesus (1 Peter 5:4), with humility and
compassion for their brothers and sisters.
It’s appropriate at this point to
mention briefly the translational bias that has infiltrated the
word diakonos (deacon), used for those who served within specific
faith communities. Both the NIV and KJV promote the word
“minister” rather than serve in such instances that reflect a position rather
than an act of service. And, when you hear the term minister today,
you immediately think of officially ordained clergy.
In Acts 6:1-4, the Hellenist widows were
being negected in the daily service (diakonia) of food
distribution. The Twelve directed the disciples to select seven
to be in charge of this. Yet the NIV adds to the Apostles the
word “ministry of the Word” — a term not in the
original text but one that adds a eccelesiatical flavor to the
work of the Twelve.
A similar interposition of bias in both the
NIV and KJV comes into play in Colos-sians 1:7 and 4:7, where
certain men who serve (diakonos) are referred to as ministers rather than servants in terms of
what they are doing as faithful brothers in Christ.
Teacher
Just as Paul reiterated that he had
received a multi-faceted appointment from God as apostle,
proclaimer, and teacher, so too the teaching gifting is
recognized by many as part of a shepherd/elder’s role (1
Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:11). For in-stance, Paul made it clear
that elders were required to be able
to teach, and that a number of
elders labored to the point of weariness in their teaching (1
Timothy 5:17).
Paul’s pattern of teaching, like
Jesus, was based on interactive
discussion in which he spent months,
even years, alongside those he was instructing (Acts 18:11).
His way of life was proof that how he lived was the same as what he
taught — and that could be attested to by those among
whom he spent intentional time. This relational pattern of
integrity was Paul’s guidance to his younger protegee
Timothy, with whom his discipling was that of a father and son
(1 Timothy 1:18; 3:10).
Paul’s teaching encompassed more than
the mere transmission of biblical facts that passes for
sermonizing today (along with entertaining jokes and
anecdotes). Paul determined that teaching often needed to be
accompanied by admonishment and warning (Colossians 1:28),
rebuke and correction — using God’s Word as the
standard for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). His primary aim was to help people apply
God’s Word as a way of life that would please their Lord.
The interactive discussion which leads to
application of God’s Word is first practiced in your own home. This
should be the lifeblood of your daily routine with your family,
so that the wisdom of your applications (your halakhahs) may be
seen by those who know you. When the Dark Days come, your
biblical applications will act as a spiritual firewall of
protection for you.
