Shalom! Welcome!
''Recovering the church's Hebraic heritage is restoring an over-Hellenized, over-Latinized Christianity to the faith of Jesus and the apostles. It is replacing the church's traditional Greco-Roman dualistic mindset with the biblically Hebraic holistic mindset in which the earliest church expressed their faith and devotion to God. Believers' lives are being enriched as they become more truly Christian (Christ-like) by being more like their Jewish Lord.'' - So says John D. Garr, Ph.D. of the Restoration Foundation.
Now is also the time in which the prayers of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, which He prayed for all who would receive His Word in John 17 are being answered, at this time and in this - your generation! John 17 teaches us that if there is to be a glorious church it will be the product of this supernatural and vital unity between believing Jewish believers in Yeshua and us so called 'Gentile' Christians, which testimony alone will convince the world that the Almighty Father really sent His Son into the world to be a sacrifice for sin! No amount of 'politically correct' religious ecumenical unity apart from the Messianic believers whom He refered to as 'My brothers' - will accomplish this.
Today, there is a widely accepted and popular doctrine of men considered to be doctrinally correct by Catholics and Protestants alike known as 'Replacement Theology' but which is, strangely, diametrically opposed to this Divine and prophetic objective.The roots of this Replacement Theology go back to the early Church around 300 A.D. and actually became the seed bed of 'Christian anti-Semitism.' This should cause us alarm.
Replacement theology or Supercessionalism to give it its pious, respectable theological name, has been the fuel that has energized Medieval anti-Semitism, Eastern European pogroms, the Nazi Holocaust and contemporary disdain for the modern state of Israel. This method of interpreting scripture appropriates all the blessings that were promised and pronounced over believing Israel as now being for the 'Church' yet and conviniently leaves all the curses on Israel...
Adonai however, has already decreed that purely for His Own Names's sake and for no other reason Israel will be reunited and fully restored to both Him and to the land - despite their historical wickedness and current blindness. Talk about grace and mercy!
Only when the veil of supercessionalism is removed can we clearly see from scripture itself that it is primarily through a restored Israel not simply a restored 'church' that His name will again be glorified amoung all the nations. (Ezekiel 36:16) In so far as the believing Gentiles from amoung the nations are being grafted into Messiah by faith along with what is currently only a believing remnant of national Israel - it will indeed be a glorious assembly!
Sounds far fetched? Paul tried to explain long ago that we should never become arrogant against Israel; that we former Gentiles are now actually fellowcitizens (we have a shared citizenship) with the believing Jews and we together we are members of His very own family. (Ephesians 2:19) This means that our new identity is wrapped up in being part of this new family that we are adopted into. What God in His widsom has purposed to join together, let not mere man divide asunder with a stroke of their theological pens!
Dogma aside, from a purely prophetic perspective its time for the breakaway Gentile Christian believers who are refered to as Ephraim in the scriptures (Joseph's adopted gentile sons) to become re-united with their Jewish brethren as a first fruits end time fulfillment of Ezekiel 37: 20-28 and take their place alongside (not in place of) their brethren.
This is part of how scripture will be fulfilled and how that His house will ultimately become a house of prayer - for all nations!
The picture below is of the Kotel, the Western wall of the original temple in Jerusalem. It is all that remains and is a favourite place of prayer - for good reason. Although other parts of the Temple Mount remain standing, the Western Wall is especially dear, as it is the spot closest to what was the Holy of Holies, the central focus of the Temple. It was once the nearest place to God on earth when the Holiest man on earth (the High Priest) on the Holiest day on earth (Yom Kippur) drew near to God; upon acceptance of the blood atonement God effectively charged Israels sins to His 'credit card' to be settled in full by finally being transferred to His own Son thousands of years later, setting all us debtors free. What a God! What a gospel! What a place! What a promise!
Solomon built that temple and at its glorious dedication prayed that the Divine Presence which so saturated it would never leave it and its still tangible today. Its still the easiest place on earth to connect to God today, if you ever hit the wall yourself and need to find a special place that Jacob first called Bethel, a unique portal between heaven and earth.
When all believers in the Elohim of Israel can gather in one place as one new man and being a Royal Priesthood to offer their prayers to God through the Son - then this collective and united act is probably as close as we can all currently come to its full prophetic fulfilment of there finally being a House of Prayer for ALL nations.
After they were filled with the Spirit, the early believers in Yeshua overcame their fears and were frequently to be found in and around the temple - especially during the set times of prayer. When King Solomon built the Temple, he specifically asked God to heed the prayer of the non-Jew who comes to the Temple (1 Kings 8:41-43). The Jewish prophet refers to the Temple as a "House of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56.7). To see a live webcam view of the Kotel (Western Wall) click here.
Current Torah portion
Behar/Bechukotai - "On the mount"
19 May 2012 (Iyar 27)
- Leviticus 25:1-27:34
- Jeremiah 16:19-17:14