The Distinctiveness of Christ

II Corinthians 13:5
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Yahshua Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?

I would like to give you a test of spiritual discernment. Recently I received a post from a brother in Christ who lives in Israel and maintains a mailing list. He sends out posts periodically, and I will include some comments from his most recent post. I would like you to consider what is written, and “examine it carefully.” I am giving you a heads up that I have discerned something to be amiss in it. I want you to see if the same concerns become readily apparent to you.

I have mentioned in previous posts that there is a flood of words being loosed upon the earth in this day, and this deluge impacts the opinions of believers in Christ. Many are having their opinions reshaped bit by bit without them having noticed. Unless one maintains a spiritual alertness, and is grounded in the word of God, they can find themselves beginning to drift off course in subtle ways. One day they will wake up and find that they have lost their bearings altogether.

With this in mind, I invite you to examine the following words sent out by this brother in Jerusalem.

The 2nd Jerusalem Assembly of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus
October 28-29, 2008

An Awesome event transpired this past week here in Jerusalem. From the opening of the Second Jerusalem Assembly of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, there was a sense, an awareness, voiced in the expressions used both from the platform and from those in attendance that we were seated in one of those rare moments that transpire only every once in a while. In this instance, it was epoctual (sic) – occurring only once in an age. The decision by the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) just four years ago to formally recognize and open dialogue with the Christian community here in the Land in order to promote a better relationship between the two is the propellant behind this transforming engine of convergence. This is a monumental overture from the government in charge of this Jewish nation to those who have been perceived for over two centuries (he probably meant millennia) as having been the perpetrators of persecution upon them. It was a momentous event that we were able to participate in only because of decades of sacrifice by true believers seeded into this Land who have been dedicated to promoting harmony between the Christian and the Jew – often at their own expense.

The idea of meeting on the basis of our shared interest in the Land of Israel and becoming acquainted with people involved in the fate of this country, allowing them to listen to the heart of believers who love this Land as much as they was cathartic and healing in both its conception and implementation. Just the prior Saturday, the government of Israel fell due to newly elected Kadima Party leader and acting Prime Minister Tizpi (sic) Livni’s inability to form a majority coalition within the Parliament (more answered prayer), thus forcing elections to be held within 90 days. It fell because the ultra-orthodox Shas party refused to join the coalition unless the PM publicly announced that a plank in the platform of that coalition would be to not divide Jerusalem. These are the brothers whom God has positioned on the front lines in this battle, manning the political bulwarks to stem this tide of madness toward giving away the Land. To witness the Shas party, represented at this event, being given a sustained ovation for their courage in this struggle by believers in Yeshua who feel the same as they brought tears to the eyes of many from both sides.

This conference concluded with an invitation to actually go into the Knesset itself for the final afternoon meeting on October 29, 2008 where Jewish MK’s (Members of Knesset) held hands with believers in Yeshua and with one voice joined in prayer to this One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we both worship for His favor and protection upon this nation. Never has this happened in a formally sanctioned event here in this Land of Israel before. While everyone from both sides understood this to be just a beginning with many hurdles and obstacles to overcome between us, still – it was Awesome, just Awesome.

Did anything stated here cause you concern due to its departure from sound doctrine? Keep in mind what has been shared in the previous two posts in this series. We have been speaking about the attacks on the exclusivity of Christ as the only way to access to the Father, and a trend among those in and out of the church to obscure any distinctiveness inherent in Christian belief and doctrine. Many are altering the gospel in subtle ways until it has taken on a character foreign from the words of Scripture.

If you did not notice what stood out to me, go back and read these paragraphs again and look for what is stated concerning Christians and Jews being brothers and being joined in prayer to “this One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we both worship…” Did any warning bells go off in your spirit? Have you been subtly influenced by the flood of words poured forth for many years now, until you not only are not alarmed, but might be led to add your “amen” to this brother’s comments?

Many statements such as these made by this brother in Christ sound good and reasonable. It feels right and charitable for a Christian to call a Jew his brother, and to suggest that the Christian and Jew worship the “One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” But is this true? Can a Christian and a “Christ-denying Jew both stand hand in hand in prayer and worship to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Are they both worshiping this same God in their own way? Where will such reasoning lead? I wrote to this brother and shared the following thoughts.

Dear H.,

There is a particular thought expressed here that I would like to comment on for your further consideration. It is found expressed in the following statements:

It is time for the Church to stop “stealing the fruit and destroying the root” of our heritage, to lay claim to our inheritance, to rise up and stand, shoulder to shoulder with His chosen people – our brothers in this family of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the same One True God whom we worship…

This conference concluded with an invitation to actually go into the Knesset itself for the final afternoon meeting on October 29, 2008 where Jewish MK’s (Members of Knesset) held hands with believers in Yeshua and with one voice joined in prayer to this One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we both worship for His favor and protection upon this nation.

It is error to declare that a person who is Jewish by natural descent or by embracing the Jewish religion is a brother to one who is born of the Spirit of Messiah, or to declare that they worship the same God. Both Christ and the apostles made this distinction clearly. Consider the following words:

John 8:33-44
They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, “You will become free’?” Yahshua answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Yahshua said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” Yahshua said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies… “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” Yahshua answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, “He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.”

H., there are some very important truths contained in these words of the Son of God. Christ makes a clear delineation between natural descent as children of Abraham and qualification as a son of God by being of the spiritual descent of Abraham. The majority of those who are born of natural descent have to this date not been considered as spiritual descendants of Abraham. The flesh profits nothing. It is the Spirit that makes alive.

We must keep these things in mind when relating to the natural descendants of Abraham. They are not our brothers. They have a different father. Believers in Christ have Yahweh as their Father, but those who deny Christ have the Devil as their father. No matter how much they say that Yahweh is their God, they are liars, for if Yahweh were their Father they would love His Son.

There can be no fellowship between Christian and Jew apart from the Jew also being born again of the Spirit of Messiah and becoming a partaker of His spiritual life.

II Corinthians 6:14-16
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For a Christian believer in Christ to be bound together with an unbelieving Jew is to form a partnership with righteousness and lawlessness. There can be NO fellowship between light and darkness. Christ told JEWS that did not believe in Him that they were of their father the devil. Here we are asked “what harmony has Christ with Belial?” This is a rhetorical question. The answer is implied. There is NO harmony between the two. There is NOTHING that a believer has in common with an unbeliever.

Those who say they are worshiping the God of Abraham, but have rejected Yahweh’s Son are liars. They are actually worshiping a god of their own manufacture. They have committed the same error as those who formed the golden calf and worshiped it, calling it Yahweh.

Exodus 32:4-5
He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.”

This people have always gone astray in their hearts. They have formed images of Yahweh that are not truly Yahweh. They worship an idol, and call it Yahweh. Do not be deceived into thinking that these Jewish believers who have rejected Messiah are brothers, or that they worship the God of Abraham as do believers in Yahshua. The Son of God has declared that this is not so, and His holy apostles have added testimony to this fact.

Romans 11:28
From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers…

Notice that Paul says God has not fully rejected them “for the sake of the fathers.” He says nothing of their faith or worship of Yahweh, for it is not on this basis that they are yet loved. On the basis of faith and worship they are “enemies” of those who are worshipers of Messiah. They do not worship the same God, nor do they walk in the same truth or faith. They are separated from the Spirit of Christ, which alone is the basis by which any who are in Christ might be called brothers.

I Corinthians 6:17
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

H., there is a spirit of ecumenism present today that is of the Devil. It seeks to convince people that there is fellowship based upon some other foundation than being a partaker of the life of Christ. This spirit of ecumenism suggests that Jews and Christians and Muslims are all people who share the faith of Abraham. I am sure you would revolt at the idea that Christian and Muslim both share the faith of Abraham. You should likewise revolt at the idea that Christian and Jew share the faith of Abraham, for Abraham manifested a different spirit from those who rejected the Son of God.

People of God, when a people begin to drift away from sound doctrine and no longer STUDY the Scriptures as they are admonished to do, they will inevitably begin forming their thoughts and opinions of what is true and false based upon a different source. Instead of seeking to know the mind of the Father in order to be found in agreement with His judgment, they will begin to form judgments according to the dictates of their own soul.

Isaiah 55:8-9
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares Yahweh. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

There is a vast disparity between the thoughts of God and the thoughts of man.

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Apart from the Spirit and the Word, we cannot know the thoughts of God. A people who are not diligently seeking to know the mind of the Father, and who have departed from the study of Scriptures, will be led into great error. Their minds will present to them many conclusions that appear righteous, but are actually unrighteous, being contrary to the thoughts of God.

In this hour there is a great pressure to be tolerant of diverse religious views and to embrace people of other “faiths.” President Bush and other world leaders have brought into the current vernacular the expression “people of faith.” Christians are lumped into one big melting pot of diverse religious beliefs along with Hindus and Muslims and Buddhists and Shamans and Roman Catholics and Mormons and Moonies. All are spoken of favorably as “people of faith.” What is inferred in such rhetoric is that it is sufficient and acceptable to have any type of religious faith. It does not matter if the faith is in a demon, a false god, or the One True God testified of in the Bible whose name is Yahweh and whose Son is Yahshua.

I believe that most professing Christians today cannot even define what it is that makes them a child of God and provides them entrance into the family of Christ. Most have some muddled idea that their confession of Christ as their Savior makes them a Christian. Some would add that one must also adhere to a few key doctrinal beliefs, such as the virgin birth of Christ, His sinless life, death on a cross, and resurrection from the dead.

Christianity is much more than adopting a core of basic beliefs and conforming oneself to a certain standard of behavior. To be a Christian one must become an entirely new creation. A man or woman must be born again spiritually, and become a partaker of the Spirit of Christ. This is the testimony of the verse cited at the opening of this article.

II Corinthians 13:5
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Yahshua Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?

Beyond a doubt, Yahshua Christ is not “in” a Jew who denies that Yahshua is the Son of God and who denies that He is the Jewish Messiah. On what basis then can a Christian call a non-messianic Jew their brother? On what basis can they assert that they worship the same God?

When a man or woman denies the Son of God, they are denying the Father. This is the testimony of Christ. He said, “If God were your Father, you would love Me.” They do not love the Son of God, therefore God is NOT their Father, and if God is NOT their Father, then neither are they the Christians’ brother.

Christ told the Samaritan woman at the well that a day was coming, and now was at hand, that all those who worshiped the Father must do so “in spirit and in truth.” There is no basis upon which one can claim that a Jew who denies Yahshua as the Son of God, and who does not have the indwelling Spirit of Christ, is a worshiper of Yahweh God. Mankind is either darkness or light. They are either dead in their trespasses and sins, and separated from the life of God, or they have been made alive in Christ and a partaker of the Spirit of holiness.

I am finding more and more that deception is entering into the minds of believers. They are being led astray from the simplicity of devotion to Christ. They have departed from the doctrine conforming to godliness (I Timothy 6:3). Worldly philosophy, and carnal reasoning is everywhere encroaching into the life of the church.

I have sought to clearly teach the nuts and bolts of the gospel. I would recommend the book Overcoming Addiction by the Spirit of Christ. Although the title refers to addiction, this book is really a basic exposition on the gospel of salvation. It describes the path by which all the children of God are called to overcome sin, Satan, and the world.

Many Christians in reading this book find that the basics of the gospel are set forth in a way that they have never considered or understood before. Understanding what is written will reveal the error of those who espouse that there is any commonality between a Christian who has been born again of the Spirit of Christ and a person of another faith, including a Jew. We are not all “people of faith.”

Satan has a plan to merge all religions into one. He is even now promoting this mindset of all religions containing “people of faith.” If you read the teachings of Freemasonry, or the Rosicrucian beliefs, or even examine the trend of the Roman Catholic Church to be the gathering point of all religions, you will see where things are heading. The following links provide resources for further study into these matters:

Freemasonry – The Spirit of Babylon: http://www.heart4god.ws/

Deconstructing Babel – Part 2: http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/deconstructing-babel-part-2.html

Are you discerning the subtle encroachment of this trend into evangelical Christianity? Have you noted its pressure upon your own life? These things will continue to increase until those who stand firm, declaring that there is no other name than Jesus Christ, Yahshua the Messiah, given under heaven by which men must be saved will be hated by all men on account of their testimony. Already I can discern the tide of opinion rising against those who maintain this confession.