THE MESSIANIC MOVEMENT

THE MESSIANIC MOVEMENT (What is it and what is its purpose?)

                Over the past few years, the Messianic movement has risen to a certain amount of prophetic significance in the Christian world. I believe that we are a unique people with a unique mission. We are called out by God specifically for last day events as we form a bridge between Jews and Gentile Christians.

                We are not Protestants. We were around long before the reformation. We are not Catholic          (Universal) Christians. We came long before the Catholic Church existed. We are not even of the Nicene Fathers for indeed we came long before the Nicene Creed or Constantine, or any of the well- known church fathers that existed in the 3^rd and 4th centuries...

                Our fellowship was with the disciples of Jesus and the apostles. We were the first people of The Way, the Jews that accepted Yeshua as our Messiah. We were baptized by the Holy Spirit at the first Pentecost and we took the Gospel of the Kingdom to our entire world in one generation.

                Knowing that Yeshua was the promised Messiah to the Jews, it took us a long time to embrace the concept that He was the Messiah for the gentiles as well. It was mostly Paul that broke the ranks and his turning was like a bombshell in our once peaceful world.

                But we couldn’t deny it forever. After all, the Gentile Christians were receiving the Holy Spirit even as we did at the first and it is not wise to reject what God has embraced.

                So one might even ask what purpose we serve in existing here in the last days. After all, if we receive Christ we are Christians, neither Jew nor Greek, Scythian or slave, or male or female for that matter. We belong to Christ and so we are all one family.

                The problem really started with the great divorce between Gentile Christians and Jews. To be sure, it was two sided. First non-believing Jews kicked Christians out of the temple and later, the Gentile Christians kicked believing Jews out of the Christian family tree and so Messianic Jews sort of got caught in the middle,  later to be slaughtered by the millions by the Gentile church.

                So why should Messianic Jews even be in existence today? What is the point? What is God’s purpose for us if any?

                Here is the problem and the purpose: the woman who gave birth to the man child in Revelation 12 became the woman who rides the Beast in Revelation 17. In other words, the Gentile church left its Jewish roots and instead blended pagan religion with Christianity and thus became the whore of Babylon. So here in the last days, God is calling the Gentile Church out of pagan Christianity and back to its Judeo/Christian roots while at the same time, calling unbelieving Jews to their Messiah.

                It is all a big mess really because at this very time we see some Gentile Protestants going back to Rome and to Pagan Christianity, even as other Gentile Christians are gravitating toward, their Judeo/Christian roots… back to the Jewish foundations of the New Testament church and back to the Old Testament foundations upon which the New Testament is built.

                It sounds complicated but in essence the entire world is gravitating to one of two poles. There is the pagan/Christian pole and the Judeo/Christian pole and since the antichrist seems to be both  a secular and a religious figure of some kind, then the world’s final religion will be pagan based with a thin Christian veneer and the Judeo/Christian group, as the scripture indicates will be a persecuted group that comes fully out of the pagan world and embraces Yeshua and His Word with all of their hearts no matter the cost.

                From this viewpoint then I find it shocking that there are Messianic groups that know very little of prophecy in spite of the fact that they are a highly prophetic movement. They have been raised up by God to perhaps take the place of other prophetic groups that have lost their vision along the way. It is a tragedy really that prophetic people grow lukewarm and become satisfied to maintain their traditions instead of carrying the torch and blazing a trail.

                Sadly, many prophetic peoples just want to fit in with the crowd today… to lose their unique identity… to fend off the winds of persecution with apathy. But that is not our calling. We are a prophetic people, called back into existence at the most prophetic time in history to stand between the poles and to clear up the issues and to call all who will come, back to the original Messiah and the original church. If you were to listen to Mark Biltz of El Shaddai ministries on You tube for instance, you would begin to understand something of the vital prophetic truth that has been lost to the church that is needed in these last days…. For instance: understanding the appointed times of the Lord as a framework for end time Bible prophecy and understanding the signs we have recently seen in the heavens to name a couple.

                Romans 11says it all: The Gentile church did not replace the Jewish people. They were instead grafted into the Jewish tree by faith in the Jewish Messiah and as such they became Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise. Jews and Gentiles are one family in Christ. And that is what God is bringing His remnant people back to.

                But just as surely, there is also a Pagan antichrist that is calling the whole world back to a universal worship of a pagan deity that is no less than Lucifer and so  the world is about to be embroiled in a fight to the finish  between these two poles.

                We live in momentous times and it should not escape our notice that Israel has now been back in their land for 70 years as of this year. Could it be that we are racing toward the end of the Time of the Gentiles when God will once again deal with His people the unbelieving Jews in the time of Jacob’s trouble during which time He will also judge the nations based upon how they treated Israel during this 70 years? About 70% of Jews living in Israel today are atheist and many of the rest (especially the orthodox Jews) are vehemently opposed to Yeshua, but Messianic congregations and ministries are popping up all over Israel and surrounding nations and thousands are coming to the Lord. So it is not as though we have no reason for existing.

                I think that the recent signs in the sun, moon and stars and the sign of Revelation 12 and the total eclipse of the sun over America are all telling us something very important. We are at the end of 70 years and what is happening in the world are Earthquakes, volcanoes, weather wars, mass animal, fish and bird deaths, freak storms in many places, technology bringing us into apocalyptic times, wars and rumors of wars on every side, plagues, famines and pestilence in many places, a resurgence in idol and satanic worship and pagan sacrifices.

                Things are coming to a head and we need to know who we are and what we stand for and where we fit into God’s prophetic picture. This is no time for maintaining age old traditions and rituals. It is a time to enter into a vibrantly alive relationship with Yeshua through His Holy Spirit… to stand upon His Word of Truth from Genesis to Revelation and to take the Gospel of the Kingdom into the world. The Gospel of the Kingdom is preached with signs following… not like the Charismatic parlor games we have seen in the past, but the genuine power of Jesus Christ being manifested in both Spirit and in Truth.

                Other than a word from the Lord that I am to return to Tennessee to be a father and a grandfather, I don’t yet know what purposes will open to Bonnie and me when we get there. I only know that we are all either in the game or out of it and we are heading for the final showdown.

                I will continue to write what the Lord gives me to write and to pray that His Word is coming through clearly in spite of me. Each of us has a special calling or God would not have placed us at this point in time. But His word to me as of late has been this. “Do the small thing… the thing He puts in your hand. Do it faithfully. Don’t look for the big thing, but be faithful in the small thing and He will soon put you in charge of bigger things. Before He died on the cross for the whole world, Jesus washed the disciple’s feet. He did the small thing first.

                This is the lesson that Bonnie and I learned at Rehoboth that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. Don’t seek for position, for your heavenly Father will place you where He wants you when you have proved your willingness to serve others He will use you. Great exploits are reserved for the humble and power to those who wait upon the Lord. Isa. 40:31