Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
by Angus Wootten
Greetings!
We could use the word "BIBLE" as an acronym for "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth." The Bible is an Instruction Book that was given to creation by its Creator. Wisdom cries out for us to believe in and follow, the detailed instructions the Manufacturer gave to His creation. Yet, along life's journey many people may have tried to manipulate and spread seeds of doubt about the veracity of this invaluable Instruction Manual for mankind.
We are six thousand years into a journey, we are traveling through an endless universe on a planet called Space Ship Earth. The majority of the ship's passengers have lots of questions about where we came from and where we are going. And, there is a common consensus that we are not in a nice place, because- everybody on the planet has been condemned to death!
How do we get off this ticking time bomb? Or, how can we find someone on the Space Ship who can fix our problem?
For an answer, we look to the Creator's Operating Manual, we look to Isaiah 46:9-11. There, YHVH says, "Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure'; calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it'" (Isa 46:9-11).
The beginning, or foundational story found in our Instruction Manual is seen in the promise YHVH made to Abraham. It is difficult to imagine the drama that is now being played out on our Space Ship being completed without this important promise first being fulfilled. So let us briefly examine it.
The Bible is a factual, yet simple story. It recounts YHVH's dealings with Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob. Unfortunately, some have twisted and/or tried to add to the story over the centuries, and some truths have essentially been deleted in the minds of many in both Rabbinical Judaism and the Church. Knowing this to be the case, many of us cannot help but ask, "Do we really know the rest of the story?"
"The Rest of the Story" was a radio program hosted by the late Paul Harvey. In it he recounted factual stories on a variety of subjects. Each story had a surprise or "twist" saved till the end. Harvey always concluded by saying, "And now you know... the rest of the story."
One major twist in the BIBLE story was added by the early Church, when they shifted from a combination of understanding the physical promise that was made to Abraham along with a proper theological understanding of YHVH's call on His people, to one of a "new theology," minus the physical promise to Abraham. The promise was essentially spiritualized away.
For some, merely mentioning the word, "genealogy" in regard to our faith is essentially viewed as "unmentionable." It is no longer thought to be "part of the story." "Spiritual relationship" is rightly made primary, but the problem is, it is done to the exclusion of believing in the physical blessing that was once promised to our forefather, Abraham.
Before I continue with "The Rest of the Story," I need to establish a few points.
Genealogy is an extremely controversial subject, yet it plays a key role in Scripture. This short article does not allow a comprehensive examination of the place and importance of heritage in the redemption, reunification and restoration of the whole house of Israel so I will simply try to make my point by recounting a memory from the time when I enlisted in the service in 1945.
To enlist or join the service in World War II, there was one key requirement you absolutely had to meet: You needed to be alive and breathing! You could get in even if you lied about your age, education, nationality, or had some physical ailments. As long as you were breathing- you were in!
Likewise, in enlisting, joining, or becoming part of the people of Israel there are two key requirements: No matter what your physical heritage might or might not be, you need to see yourself as both, an heir of Abraham, and as a citizen of the Commonwealth of Israel (Heb 2:16; Eph 2:12). You may believe that you are one of those "stones" that John the Baptist said YHVH could turn into children of Abraham, or you may see yourself as someone whom, like Levi, YHVH said he saw in the loins of our forefather, Abraham. Either way, in the end, we must accept what Paul said, "If you belong to Messiah Yeshua, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." If you believe this- you are in! (Mat 3:9; Gal 3:20; Heb 7:10).
Now back to the Rest of the Story...
The Church was basically Jewish for its first twenty-to-thirty years, but due to a great influx of non-Jews, and the fact that even those with Jewish heritage were not putting their emphasis on their heritage, the Church came to the place wherein relationship with the God of the New Covenant was based more on what one believed. One's physical heritage was decidedly demeaned. Let us realize that prior to this time, biological relationship had been a primary factor in First (or Old) Covenant times. To have a relationship with the God of Israel under the First Covenant required that one be physically part of, or that they become, by joining, part of the physical nation of Israel. However, under the Roman Emperor Constantine, the idea of emphasizing belief rather than heritage essentially resulted in redefining the "God of Israel." By debasing and reinterpreting the Father's promise to physically multiply Abraham's physical descendants, the Church effectively changed the peoples' understanding of the God of Israel. Instead, He became the "God of all Peoples." This point is crucial to understanding our problem in this hour.
Under this new view, one became a part of the people of the God of All Peoples, by joining, not the nation of Israel, but the "Church of all Nations." Whether realized or not, this Church of all Nations also followed in the footsteps of Jeroboam and the Northern Kingdom of Israel: They too made their own priests and developed their own feast days and laws (1Ki 12:28-31). Laying claim to the promises once made to Israel, they began to declare that our God was through with the Jew and that the Mosaic Covenant was passe'.
In the eyes of the Church, followers of the Messiah were primarily spiritual beings. In this way they felt they superseded the physical nation of Israel. Membership in the Church of All Nations was based entirely on what one believed, faith was completely severed from the idea of relationship via physical genealogy. The chosen Nation of Israel all but lay dead on the floor. Biological descent was deemed to be irrelevant. In fact, most Christians today feel that they are descended from almost anyone other than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Apart from believing that they have "replaced" physical Israel, they do not see that they have any real relationship to "Israel."
If we examine this point we see the cunning and subtlety of the enemy of our souls, haSatan, the Accuser of the Brethren (Rev 12:10). We see that he continues to use a pint of poison to ruin a lake of truth. It is true that we are being built up as a "spiritual house" and that our Messiah's Kingdom is "not of this world" (John 18:36; Rev 11:15). But on the other hand, our Messiah wants to bring His kingdom, which is the Kingdom of Israel, here, to this earth. He even wants to bring it to a particular location, Jerusalem (Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22; Rev 21:2,10). The Church, however, wants to leave this old world and go off to Heaven. The sly one, the insidious one that is likened to a cunning snake that speaks half-truths, has successfully gotten them off their designated course. They do not see the need to help build up a physical nation that is entirely led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh of the God of Israel.
On the other side of the aisle, Rabbinical Judaism has kept alive the idea of YHVH having a physical people. They did this by continuing to see themselves as descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. However, from the Middle Ages on, to deal with the problem of rape, the Jewish people switched their emphases from patriarchal to matriarchal descent. One's heritage thus began to be based on the genealogy of one's mother. (The descendants of Levi are an exception to this rule. They instead continue to go by the Scriptural rule of patriarchal descent.)
The Church has been the greatest detractor of the place or importance of genealogy. They have taken the position that patriarchal genealogy is meaningless when it comes to establishing a relationship with the God of All Peoples. While genealogy is unprovable (for all), if it is deemed to be entirely unimportant, isn't that essentially rewriting the original Biblical story? Whether realized or not, isn't it a matter of changing / rewriting / reinterpreting YHVH's sworn promise to Abraham?
When it comes to rewriting stories, let us consider the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In it, Goldilocks visits the home of three bears, makes herself at home there and then falls asleep only to be later discovered by the returning bears. But what if, as people read the story to their children over the years they began to change the scenario? What if in the end, the story was that Goldilocks never actually visited the home of the three bears? In that case, many parts of the story would be affected. It would become a pointless tale of three bears that go out before breakfast for a walk while their porridge is cooling. That's not much of a story. The story makes sense only if we maintain all of its points and keep it in its original context. In the same way, the only way the story about Abraham makes sense is for us to stick to the original story.
To prove this point, let us examine what would happen if we go back to Genesis 15 and alter the Biblical story so it lines up with the Church's revised scenario.
Genesis Chapter 15:1-4:1 After these things the word of YHVH came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great."
2 Abram said, "O Adonai My GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
3 And Abram said, "Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir."
4 Then behold, the word of YHVH came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir."
Obviously, verse four is the verse that must be revised in order to follow Church theology, so let us now have it read:
4. Then behold the word of the YHVH came to him, saying, "Abram, I know you want a heir from your own loins, but adopted, or grafted in heirs are also a blessing, so Eliezer of Damascus is going to be your heir."
With this rewrite, we see that when Abram dies, his estate goes to Eliezer, and since we find no recorded descendants of Eliezer, when he dies, his estate and all that he inherited from Abram would probably go to his relatives in Damascus.
Wow! By rewriting just one verse, we have, in one fell swoop, done away with everything from Genesis 15:5 on. And we have destroyed the entire genealogy; the people and their stories found within our Creator's BIBLE.We have reduced the story to a tale of those who came before Abram. Furthermore, we don't have to change Abram to Abraham, since Abram will not be the actual father of a multitude of nations.
More importantly, how can we now have a faith like that of Abraham? We have gotten rid of the idea of Abraham being the "father of all who believe," because Abraham did not have to have the faith that, from his ancient body and Sarah's all but dead womb would come forth a child of promise. And that, from that child would come biological heirs that would be like the stars for number (Rom 4:3,19; Gal 3:6; Heb 11:8-12; James 2:23).
Now we have rewritten the story and gotten rid of Isaac, Jacob, the Patriarchs, and Moses.... But wait a minute- if there never was a Moses then we don't even have Genesis 1-15:4! In the original story, Moses wrote the first five books in our story. And we do not have any other books because, none of the authors ever lived! We can now appropriately title our revised story, There Isn't Any Story Anymore!
No story, no promise, no faith needed to receive the promise. It looks like the best parts of the story are lying on the editing room floor. But how is this revised story received in the Father's throne room? Most authors can accept some editing, but YHVH is not just any Author, and His story was not told simply for entertainment purposes. Surely He will have something to say to those who took it upon themselves to rewrite history- or His Story. He meant it to be our instruction manual, the living story of human redemption beginning with a man named.
In conclusion, as Paul Harvey would say, "Now, for the rest of the story..." But again, the problem is that there isn't any rest of the story.
We thus need to reject the errant tale of the Church and go back to the true and original Bible story. We need to read and believe it in its entirety- and we need to follow the Instructions given in that story. We need to realize that we are called to work toward the full restoration of the physical and spiritual Nation of Israel- here on Earth. If we see BIBLE as a acronym for "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth," in turn, wisdom cries out for us to believe in and follow the instructions our Manufacturer left for us, no matter how many people have tried to change the facts of the story along the way. And we want to do it now, before we leave this earth.
In these days of restoration we have the privilege of being able to share the true story. Each one of us needs to pray and ask the Father to help us to take full advantage of the extraordinary opportunities He gives us to serve Him. We need to ask Him how we can best share His awesome truths with Israel's lost Sheep, and how to help them understand that they are full and equal citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel. We need to help restore Yeshua's Davidic kingdom.
For more information on how to effectively reach the lost sheep see the article 2010 A Year of Opportunity 2010 A Year of Opportunity. And visit the Key of David Marketplace, and the Messianic Israel Alliance Marketplace to view books and materials that will help you to fulfill the ministry of reconciliation you were given (Rom 11:15; 2 Cor 5:18-20).
Shalom b'Yeshua,
Angus
This is a team effort, so we would like to hear your thoughts and comments.
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