About the Ministry
If you are interested in finding out how a deeper understanding of your Hebraic heritage deepens your Christian life, why not fill out the brief contacts form now and we will contact you by e-mail!
We also have a free book available for those in a leadership position that tackles the issues surrounding Replacement Theology and which introduces the concept of the Sin of Jereboam in the Church. Pay for P+P only.
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Background
So - just what on earth is going on? Why is this awakening not generally promoted in the mainstream?
It seems apparent that there is a strange stirring going on in the hearts and minds of many Christians around the world to seek out and to learn all about the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith!
Did you know that the word 'Israel' is mentioned in the scriptures 2301 times; the word 'Christian' is only mentioned twice. The earliest believers in Jeshua never called themselves Christians as this was a term of contempt used to ridicule those who, though Jews, faithfully maintained that Jeshua was the Messiah of Israel. In the book of Acts they are simply known as followers of the Judaic sect called 'The Way'.
After 'God' and 'Lord', Israel is the most mentioned word in the entire bible!
Roadmap: The Church: From Inception to Apostasy to Restoration
The Church is a lot of things to a lot of people. Its easy to look at the form and yet miss the substance.
This is not a treatise about which church denomination is right or wrong. Conceptually at the highest and most exciting level, the Church is best understood, in human terms anyway, as being the Bride of Yesua, the Messiah. Its a great mystery.
However, the journey of a bride to be towards maturity (at which point full unity with the bridegroom becomes possible) involves tests for faithfulness and purity; the courtship or bethrothal process finally culminates with a magnificent marriage feast that recognizes that the courtship has finally become a legal union, ready to bear fruit.
The heavenly bridegroom seeks above all else and in essence, her maturity - so that she can take her place alongside Him on His eternal throne throughout the ages. Its a beautiful picture, its just not an easy one to paint and even harder to be a part of.
Its never been about a building or a religious hirearchy, its always been about a relationship; its never been about 'law' - its been about Divine protocols to be observed when one wishes to draw near to a Holy God and not die in the process.
We have all sinned and forsaken the Lord our God - it was no surprise to Him so He designed the solution even before the problem came about!
The thing is, it never works out quite the way that we expected it should and its that faulty expectation that can still throw us today.
Have you perhaps heard it said that there are no unfulfilled prophecies that would cause Jesus to tarry and not return to earth very soon? Well, although we do maintain that Jesus the Messiah will return - even very soon given the rate of change in our world, there is another perspective.
We can see on the surface that there are some immediate prophetic events that impact on the time of His return that have not yet been fulfilled, like the division of Jerusalem. This is a precursor to His return. These and many other unfulfilled prophecies over more than 4,000 years have to do with both the land, the people and the Torah of Israel.
All 3 prophetic components sit outside of what we know as 'The Church' and have a prophetic impact that must be contended with to arrive at a proper scriptural application. In addition, what we have had and understood as being 'the Church' was never a subject of any prophecy.
The 'church' as we know it, was a great mystery hid in God, only revealed to Rabbi Paul - not taught by any man but given by the Spirit as revelation but even she does not sit in any state of holy isolation. Context is everything and infallible scripture - bible prophecy - is become the proverbial thorn in the theologian's side - they ignore the 'Old Testament' prophecies because they think that it does not apply to us today, since we have nothing in common with Israel. Since 2/3 of the bible is prophetic, that's really quite a thing.
On a somber note; its good to anticipate the return of our Messiah and why not speculate the timeframe if it helps us to stay focussed but what is one thing that we know for sure that He will do at that time when He comes? When He comes for one thing, He said that He will judge between the sheep and the goats, and that on the basis of how they have treated Israel, His covenent people, during the time that He was away! This is on an individual and a national basis. How more relevant can we get? See Matthew 25.
What's in a Church?
It's a little confusing - the same greek word translated church is at times translated as assembly or congregation but in James and Revelation also as Synagogue. Same word. Its easy to see how the translators resolved this - if the context of an assempled people is negative, you use the term synagogue, if positive you use the term church!
The first time that the term 'Church' is used after Yeshua's resurrection is in Acts 7:38 where the KJV curiously translated what most other translations render as 'assembly' as being 'Church'. Most importantly, whats happening here is more than use of a term - it was drawn from events recorded first in Exodus, speaking of a group of oppressed slaves under Moses who were first 'called out' of and delivered from Egyptian servitude. Their unique calling, destiny and identity would come to forever surround the land of Isael, the only place on earth where they would be able to fulfill their purpose of showing and modelling what it looks like to be married to the Holy God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Who was this assembly - do we know for sure who they are? Can we recognise them aside from a term of theological use or debate? Lets see:-
They were an assembly of downtrodden slaves, without hope and apart from any merits of their own and being without strength who received a special calling on the basis of a covenant made almost 500 years previous.
They were courted whilst still in Egypt and woo'd by a strange Divine Suitor that they did not know after 450 years of serviitude; they had done nothing to derserve His intervention yet He demonstrated His power over their enemies and captured their hearts with promises of freedom and a new home; He swept her off her feet with His 10 judgements - or were they courtship advances?
Especially note their coming out party - as a body corporate, out of blood soaked doorposts which was a picture of a birth canal - of being born again, note their passing through the sea as a picture of being water baptized, consider their drinking fresh water out of that Rock that followed them in the desert which Rock is a type of Messiah, also a picture of being filled with the Spirit. We do know who they were and also where they were headed, which tells us their destiny. They had received a formal introduction to the Heavenly Bridegroom, more than a mere Lawgiver Moses was actually the best man and Master of Ceremonies; since they were invited to become the bride of Adonai - going out to hear His full marriage proposal at Sinai. What we thought were 10 commanments was actually a legal marriage covenant - after all, to live with a Holy God and not die you MUST learn be holy too. They would go on to live with their Divine Husband in the Land He uniquely called His very own, the Land of Israel.
We now know exactly who they were, Who they became married to and how they took on another identity completely - they are Israel!
Our contemporary understanding of 'Church' in so far as it is a new term or a New Testament invention of non Jews, divorced from the very people and land and Torah of Israel - ie Lawless - is shown to be very shallow indeed. Only institutional religion has benefited from such a contrarian view.
The Greast Apostasy; Act 1 and 2
Rabbi Paul spoke plainly of it so we know its a 'New Testament' theme; but did you know that an Apostasy ( a falling away from the faith) as well as a final restoration in the end times was first prophesied by Moses way back in Deut 30? Yeshua is refered to as The Prophet like unto Moses.
| Deut 30:1 | It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where the LORD your God has driven you, |
| 30:2 | and shall return to the LORD your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul; |
| 30:3 | that then the LORD your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where the LORD your God has scattered you. |
| 30:4 | If [any of] your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there will the LORD your God gather you, and from there he will bring you back: |
| 30:5 | and the LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and he will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers. |
| 30:6 | The LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live. |
-Act 1; Israel's Apostasy
Moses prophesied that the Jewish people who had recived the Torah would fall away and be dispersed amoung the nations and then be restored back to God but only in the end times.
Then at that time, prophetically after the final restoration of National Israel , He will remove the stain of her backslidings and cut another covenant (a New Covenant), specifically a Re-newed covenant with the House of Israel - only not in their flesh as it was first but this time, in their hearts.
Deut 30:6The LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live. WHEN shall this be? If you read the context its only after they return to Him which we recognise as an end time event.
The circumcision of heart is a specific prophetic reference to the New Covenent - future tense and timewise, its specifically spoken to national Israel and scheduled to be inaugerated after Israel's national restoration - which has not happened yet. All that we have now until then is a First Fruits, we are a new creation, a first fruits of the New Covenent and as such, declare our faith that what God has began in us He will bring to completion, our being the first expression of that is what guarantees it.
This is not to deny that there is a New or Renewed Covenant in place but only to say that what we do have is only the first fruits. (James 1:18)
The prophetic pattern is, Firstfruits THEN harvest. By allowing our Theological bias to get the better of us we arrogantly said that we have no interest in the Feasts of Israel (even through they are refered to as the Feasts of the Lord and as being timeless events on His calendar) and so being without understanding and by forsaking Wisdom altogether we got confused about the entire prophetic agenda and timetable and left the table thinking that we were THE end time harvest rather than sinply a prophetic firstfruits. Professing to be wise we actually became fools.
You see, a first fruit is no second rate affair; its simply an early harvest offered to God in faith as being evidence of the full harvest that shall surely follow; its not for general consumption but is Holy to the Lord our God. We as well as the first Diciples and the earliest of believers from the day of Pentecost following Yeshua's resurrection, (which festival day was a festival of first fruits) are ourselves now a kind of first fruits to the Lord out of each generation but this is not THE harvest which is scheduled when ALL Israel will be gathered in at a time known as The Day of the Lord.
This subject of firstfruits is why currently only comparitively few people seem able to receive this message at this time. Its not strange. Its the prophetic pattern. It just feels strange because its not how we would have done it.
However, when you know the true church history; if you can see the Jewish root, if you understand the feasts of the Lord as being prophetic declarations not redundant pictures of something Jesus is alledged to have 'fulfilled' and upon gaining a wider prophetic orientation you begin to realise that God's faithfulness must extend to Israel here and now which is why He cannot and will not replace her with a 'Christian Church' now or at any future 'Dispensation' without breaking His marriage vows and invalidating hundreds of prophetic declarations. The two entities were once as one just like your body is one and through restoration (not revival or reformation) must become one again - but ONLY through faith in Yeshua as Messiah.
Its a tall order to be sure; only He can accomplish this and until then - we are simply and powerfully a firstfruits of the New Covenent, as cut by Yeshua just before He went to the execution stake; its a prophetic testimony that He is faithful to fulfill or to complete it!
-Act 2 Church Apostasy
The early Church comprised initially only Jews but after some 10 years believing gentiles were brought in and she so became 'one new man' in Christ (Messiah.) But trouble was already brewing.
After 325 a.d. the church as a corporate body was, as predicted, infiltrated by selfish and designing men who joined her ranks when it became popular to do so; deeply and painfully penetrated in this way, she soon lost her purity.
Still later, due to ongoing and intense persecution she became more isolated and distanced herself from every vesture of her Jewish legacy until she became something else other than what she had first been. Like Joseph in Egypt, she became so Egyptian outwardly that she became unrecognizable to her own kinsmen. In some ways, it was all quite inevetable. She finally broke away from the faith once delivered to the saints and the purity and simplicity of Torah and of faith in Him. Religion quite apart from godliness became big business.
Constantine had set the stage for the apostasy, the church fathers happily played the fiddle and the people came and they danced the night - that was the dark ages - away.
The reformation arose out of the ashes like a sudden daybreak and gradually the people cleared their drunken heads and surveyed the damage. They did not remember what they had done or where they had gone wrong. Changes were in any event necessary and a cleanup had to happen but even with Luthor's leadership, the stain would yet remain. Anti-semitism and replacement theology would now remain a staple on the church menu system for the following hundreds of years. Reformation is simply not enough, what was needed is a restoration and full restitution.
Replacement theology is still today, the big elephant in the room overshaddowing every church gathering, saturating almost every message preached from the pulpits. It does a great injustice to Gods prophetic timetable and real new covenant agenda; it is a subtle slight on His actual Character - He is depicted as a covenent breaker. It continues to reinforce the Constantinian divide. If we do not reconcile the wider divide between Old and New Covenents, Clergy and Laity, the people of Israel vs. the 'Church', accepting that we all need His ongoing mercy - the books cannot ever be balanced. There must be a full restoration, back to what was meant to be.
This is why moments before Yeshua's ascention in Acts 1, the disciples, whom He taught and who knew the scriptures from a young age, asked Him if He would at this time restore the kingdom of Israel. (Acts 1:6) Yeshua never denied that this was the intention or corrected them like He had done on prior occasions - however He said that this was something that was being taken care of by the Father personally and the timing was not to be their concern or immediate focus. He immediately goes on to talk about the need that they be filled with the Spirit in Jerusalem - not a change of subject but by so doing it would fulfill the Feast of Firstfruits, known as Shavout or Pentecost. The Master Rabbi answered their question and set their expectation extremely well. This agenda would further set them against the corrupt religious hirearch that had delivered Him up for execution - truly, they would need power from on high to stay true in the midst of the persecution and eventual excommunication to follow.
Don't Stop Reading
Most serious scholars readily admit that there has been an apostasy and that the contemporary Church is but a mere shaddow of its former self. Its still a weak admission.
The Church has already fallen away away from the Apostolic model that was once delivered to the saints and that decline is also not yet completed. It was however, no surprise to God as He predicted on many levels in Scripture and it has been happening even before the last Apostle died. 1 John 2:18 . To be sure, Judaism fares no better. John the beloved said in his day that the Anti-Christ is/ was already on the scene...
There is another principle that we find operating in scripture in that mercy (Restoration or reconstitution) always comes before Judgement. For example, in Luke 1:68-75 Yeshua's coming is announced and He brings salvation but within a mere 100 years the Temple is destroyed and the people are in exile because their politically incentivised and thoroughly corrupt leaders refused Him. Acts 3:20-26 says that Yeshua is that Prophet like unto Moses and in the end, that every soul that will not hear and obey Him will be utterly destroyed. This is the time to hear!
Restoration - Dual Effort
1. Israel's national restoration as a State came about in 1948 as the trigger for Israeli's returning from centuries of exile amoung the nations. This is now a matter of historical fact; it was also predicted in scripture.
2. What also happened in In 1948 was a simultaneous restoration of the Torah as indicated by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
This dual restoration is what has heralded a return of the true Gospel message which has also been in exile for 1,700 years - after the detruction of the temple in 70 A.D.
This modern return to the original Gospel mesage was prophesied by Moses in the Torah and has since 1969 seen the worldwide rise of Messianic Congregations. It has also impacted the Christian church who have slowly been becoming softened to Israel and has sparked this strange desire to discover more and more about the Hebrew Roots of the early Christian faith.
The late Derek Prince, of blessed memory, understood and preached the truth that there is a work of simultaneous restoration and revival happening in the Christian Church as well as in Israel.
We have come to believe that YHWH is doing a work of restoration of many things that have been lost to us Christians over the centuries of human traditions and the doctrines of men for whom religion became big business.
We have come to believe that there is now a restoration movement underway whereby believers are fulfilling Isaiah 51:1-15 and are looking back beyond the Protestant Reformation; back to and then beyond the Book of Acts - right back to to Abraham, the father of our Jeudo-Christian faith. In Abraham, the father of faith, all families of the earth will be blessed!
God promised to restore Israel, "as at the beginning." The apostle Kefa (Peter) announced that Yeshua would not return until the "restoration of all things spoken by the prophets since the world began", Acts 3:21.
This makes everything in the ancient Scriptures concerning the restoration of Israel of contemporary importance, especially as we see it happening in our generation.
The restoration of the people, the land, the language and the faith of Israel are all taking place as foretold in the prophets of Israel. Jewish people are converting to Messianic Judaism at the highest rate in over 19 years. Christian believers are rediscovering Yeshua and in doing so have began to rediscover the beauty of the Sabbath and the holy festivals, which the Scriptures declares will go on to be be observed by every nation in the Messianic Kingdom when Yeshua comes.
The Prophets testify of a coming Messianic age when all nations will learn Torah (Isaiah 2:2–3) and keep the appointed times of the Torah like the Sabbath (Isaiah 66:23) and festivals (Zechariah 14:16–17).
These are heady prophetic promises - would'nt you rather like to get with His program right now?
About us
We have been Christians for over twenty five years and have been to Bible School and Theological College but have always felt 'There must be something more'. In the last 6 years we have become more and more convinced that the roots of Christianity are in fact Hebraic.
In fact, for the first 10 years of 'Church History' there were no Gentile converts at all...
This journey of discovery began as we felt convicted to bring our youngest daughter out from the school system to be home educated. When we felt convicted to take our younger daughter out of school (6 years ago) providentially we met someone at our church at the time who also home educating her children. It still took us another six months of researching HE on the Internet before we decided in fear and trembling to take the plunge! [ Its a little easier still when one realises that secular education is more about Egyptian style discipleship and social engineering than gaining an education! - Ed.]
While we were searching all the options we felt that it was important to make the bible a more central part of HE as we did not want to follow the National UK Curriculum, which most definitely does not have a biblical world view. We then went looking for a curriculum and came across Robin Samson's biblical holidays web site and also her Heart of Wisdom curriculum.
It was the strangest thing when reading Robin’s testimony about how she as a Christian came to observe the feasts of Israel. I felt like my heart was going to explode with excitement! I had studied the 'Old Testament' in bible school many years ago and had studied Christology - specifically Christ in the the tabernacle but I always felt that there was more to it. I just did not know what it was...
As it turns out many years later there is a worldwide movement afloat. It builds on the simple premise that Yeshua (Jesus) never wanted 2 separate congregations - Jewish Messianic and ‘Gentile’ Christian. He wanted there to be ONE sheepfold with Himself to be the Chief Shepherd. It's easy to put that off into the future and although the fullest expression of that unity can only occur in the future there are many elements that must be dealt with here and now or else we are essentially irrelevant.
His death removed the age old barrier between Jew and Gentile because our unity was uppermost in His mind before he died and to that end He rose again.
Personally, we don’t want anything that Yeshua died for to be in vain or unrealised. Do you perhaps feel the same?
Have you ever felt that there must be more to contemporary Christianity? Are you perhaps tired of pretending?