By Maria Merola
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We will never reach the Jewish people with a Greco-Roman paganized Jesus. Yahuwshuwa said to the Samaritan woman at the well “You don’t know what you worship but we do for salvation is of the Yahuwdiy (Jews)” ----Yahuwchanon (John) 4:22.
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When the prodigal son came back home, the father cleansed him by killing the “fatted calf” (blood atonement). And then the older brother Judah became jealous and said: ”Father, I never left home and rebelled against your commandments (Towrah) and yet you never killed a fatted calf for me.”
© Copyright Double Portion Inheritance, November 2007
As a writer and a public speaker, I often receive emails, ques-tions and comments from people of every walk of life. In my experience, the majority of people who I encounter do hunger and thirst for righteousness, and their questions are based on an honest and sincere desire to know the truth. But then there are those few who write to me raising objections that are not rooted in the truth from scripture. They always seem to come up with the same worn-out and often-times misquoted Bible passages taken completely out of context in order to defend their so-called “freedom in Christ.” By their arguments and their reason-ing, it is obvious that they have been indoctrinated by many of these racketeering preachers in the pulpits who preach lawless-ness for the sake of financial prosperity and popularity. One of these patented responses that I often hear from them is: “Why don’t you focus on preaching the gospel instead of debating about the Law?”
People who say such things are merely trying to deflect from the spirit behind my message to the church which is: “Come out of idolatry.” They use these types of responses as a smoke-screen but when you think about the logic behind what they are really saying, it goes something like this:
“Why not win souls instead of calling the church out of idolatry”?
This sounds like an oxymoron---doesn’t it?
Over and over again in the TaNaKh (Law, Prophets & Writings), we see that our creator, YaHuWaH was always dealing with Yisra’el his covenant people---not unbelievers. Why? Because if Yisra’el walked uprightly and she would forsake her idols, then the heathen nations would look to her as a light and they would repent.
But if the Christian Church is in idolatry herself she is powerless to win the lost. The Christian Church today must see that the blood of Messiah has grafted them into the same olive tree with Yisra’el. The Christian Church has not replaced Yisra’el. And so YaHuWaH deals with the Christian Church today no differently than he did with the nation of Yisra’el in the TaNaKh (Old Testament).
YaHuWaH says that judgment must begin within his house:
1st Keefa (Peter) 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of Elohiym (God): and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of Elohiym?
You see, if repentance begins with those who claim to be in blood covenant with our Messiah first, then the end result shall be that those who don’t obey the gospel at all will be won over also!
Yahuwshuwa (Jesus) came to earth first for the “lost sheep of the House of Yisra’el,” and then he sent his disciples to reach out to the Gentiles.
In other words we have to first bring back those within the Christian Church who are “the lost sheep” because of pagan influences and then we can win the rest of the heathen world. Otherwise, it is like the pagans trying to win the pagans. Or in other words, the proverbial “blind leading the blind.”
What happened to the House of Judah in the days of the prophet Yirmeyahuw (Jeremiah)? The nation of Judah became infected with the same religion of Babylon just like today’s Christian Church. And so YaHuWaH had to “pluck them up, break down their idols, images, and throw down their false pagan altars.” He had to afflict them, and destroy every vestige of paganism in their culture before he could allow them to come back to Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) to rebuild. It does not sound very gentle or loving does it? But indeed YaHuWaH’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts!
Yirmeyahuw (Jeremiah ) 31:28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, says YHWH.
You see, YaHuWaH has called me to do the same thing today! He has called me to pluck up false religious lies that have infected Christianity, and to break down idolatrous ways of thinking, and then we can begin to rebuild a new foundation on the true Rock which is the Yahuwdiyth (Jewish) Messiah named Yahuw-shuwa---not on a false pagan “Jesus” that the church is worshiping today.
Yirmeyahuw (Jeremiah ) 16:19 O YHWH, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Many in the Church think that they are worshiping the real Messiah but it is “Another Jesus” not patterned after scripture (2nd Corinthians 11:4). Most of Christianity has been conditioned to believe that our Messiah came to do away with the Mosaic Law (Towrah) and thus the majority of the Christian Church teaches a
We cannot save one single soul until we get them back to the REAL Messiah Yahuwshuwa!
We can preach the gospel all day long and then win them to a false pagan Jesus who is embedded in all of these pagan myths but they will not grow in the faith at all.
The rationale behind saying that we can use paganism to preach the gospel goes something like this:
“Why not tolerate idolatry and the sin of breaking the 1st Commandment in order to preach the good news that Jesus died so that we don't have to keep the commandments anymore?”
This, my friends is a false gospel!
To those who would say that our primary job is to go and preach the gospel, I could not agree with you more!
That is the primary reason why YaHuWaH has called me to educate the church, because we are not reaching the Jews with this pagan version of the gospel!
And please don’t give me that same old anti-Semitic attitude that I hear all the time where Christians rationalize it is pointless to preach the gospel to the Jews. They say things like “The Jews rejected Christ because their hearts were hard.” When I hear Christians saying this, I become furious inside, because they presume that “hard-heartedness” is exclusive to the Jewish people rather than a condition of the human heart! Jeremiah 17:9 declares that the heart of mankind is “deceitful and desperately wicked!” Christians who say these types of things are displaying that they have hearts that are even more hardened than the Jewish people because they won’t even try to reach the Jews for Messiah! Not only that, but since most Christians reject the Towrah (instructions) of our Heavenly Father, they are no different than Korah in the rebellion against Moses!
He was telling her that if you don’t worship him the same way that the tribe of Yahuwdah (Judah) does by keeping the Feasts and the Sabbaths, then YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU WORSHIP!
You see, the Tribe of Yahuwdah has been given the role of the “kinsmen redeemer” for the other eleven Tribes of Yisra’el. We see this illustrated in the story of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar in Genesis 38. Judah had promised to send her his youngest son Shelah as a “kinsmen redeemer” after his first-born son Er and the middle son Onan had already died. But instead, Judah himself ended up as her kinsmen redeemer! What this means is that the tribe of YaHuWDaH (Judah) is the tribe that reveals the Father & the Son as the “kinsmen redeemer!” See my other article entitled: “The Father & the Son Seen in Judah, the Kinsmen Redeemer.”
You see, the Tribe of Yahuwdah has been given the role of the “kinsmen redeemer” for the other eleven Tribes of Yisra’el. We see this illustrated in the story of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar in Genesis 38. Judah had promised to send her his youngest son Shelah as a “kinsmen redeemer” after his first-born son Er and the middle son Onan had already died. But instead, Judah himself ended up as her kinsmen redeemer! What this means is that the tribe of YaHuWDaH (Judah) is the tribe that reveals the Father & the Son as the “kinsmen redeemer!” See my other article entitled: “The Father & the Son Seen in Judah, the Kinsmen Redeemer.”
In Genesis 49:8-12 the patriarch Ya’aqob (Jacob) spoke a prophecy over his son Yahuwdah (Judah) from where we derive the term “Jew.” Ya’aqob (Jacob), whose name was changed to Yisra’el said concerning his son Judah: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come.” What does this prophecy mean?It means that the Tribe of Yahuwdah (Judah) or the Jewish people are the tribe that was commissioned to uphold the standard of the Towrah (Mosaic Law) for the other eleven tribes (of which Christians are grafted into). In Romans 3:1-2, the Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) wrote: “What advantage then has the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of Elohiym.” What are these oracles? The Greek Strong’s Concordance defines this word “oracles” as “logion” which means “the contents of the Mosaic Law.” So you see, the House of Yahuwdah (Jews) were entrusted with the mandate to preach the Towrah to the nations!
So you see, before we can have world revival on a global scale, we must first preach the true besowrah (gospel) of the true Yahuwdiyth (Jewish) Messiah!
So you see, before we can have world revival on a global scale, we must first preach the true besowrah (gospel) of the true Yahuwdiyth (Jewish) Messiah!
To the Jew First
Why are we commanded to preach the besowrah (gospel) to the Yahuwdiy (Jew) first? Because the scriptures say so:
Romiym (Romans) 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Mashiyach (Messiah): for it is the power of Elohiym unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Yahuwdiy (Jew) first, and also to the Greek.
Romiym (Romans) 2:9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Yahuwdiy (Jew) first, and also of the Gentile;
Romiym (Romans) 2:10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Yahuwdiy (Jew) first, and also to the Gentile:
I am the oldest of four children in my family. And so when I was a child, and all of us kids were being scolded for being rowdy, my father would always look at me and say: “Maria, you are the oldest, so you should know better.”
Elohiym in his wisdom has chosen “the weak things to put down the mighty and the foolish things to confound the wise” (1st Corinthians 1). And so he uses the Gentiles (the younger brother) to make the Jews (the older brother) come back up to the standard that he was chosen for in the first place. And so he has allowed Ephrayim (the younger) in the story of the prodigal to become as the first-born (Jeremiah 31:9) because he wants to provoke the biological first-born son (Judah) to jealousy. Why? Because the first-born son became complacent and he began to keep the commandments out of habit and he lost his first love. He was no longer doing it out of love for the Heavenly Father but out of duty. But when the prodigal son came home, he desired to obey the commandments because of the Father’s great love and compassion for him. This what the Father wants from Judah, the first-born as well. He wants Judah (Jews) to obey him out of love rather than out of duty. And he wants Ephrayim to come back home to the Towrah (instructions) of the Father so that he can provoke big brother to jealousy!
This is the wisdom of Elohiym!
If we attempt to use lies about Christ-Mass & Easter thinking that we can win people to Messiah this way, then we will later on have to undo all of the lies we taught them. This rationale sounds something like this: “I have to lie to you first so that I can preach the truth to you.” Now, do you see that we cannot use pagan holidays under the guise of getting people saved?
This kind of logic reminds me of what Yahuwshuwa said to the religious leaders of his day:
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
In Yahuwshuwa’s day, the religious leaders were going all over the world to win converts (proselytes) but once they did, they were making them twice the child of Hell (Gehenna) because they were teaching them false man-made traditions. These “traditions of men”
only made the word of our Creator of “none effect” (Matthew 5:16).
only made the word of our Creator of “none effect” (Matthew 5:16).
In other words, we can preach a false gospel by using lies, about Christ-Mass and Easter, but then what are we really winning them to? There is no power to come out of Babylon and the world in that kind of “watered down gospel.”
We must preach the message of the cross (self-denial) which says: “deny yourself, be willing to die for him and give up everything… forsake all idols and false pagan systems.”
That is the true gospel of which the Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) spoke:
“.......for the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that perish…”----1st Corinthians 1:18.
This means that we must preach an uncompromising message of dying to the old sinful nature, and the traditions of men.
In the past, I have had an affinity for finding old pieces of furniture in people’s trash, redeeming it, stripping off the old paint and uncovering the beauty of the real wood underneath. Once that was done, I could then apply the new finish.
You cannot apply new finish to old paint. You must strip away the old stuff so that the wood will become porous and receive the stain and the new finish.
The same thing holds true with preaching the gospel. We must first strip away the layers of old ways of thinking from people and then we can preach the real Yahuwshuwa--- the true Yahuwdiyth (Jewish) Messiah!
Then we can build on that foundation which is him!
If we are not preaching both elements of “Law & Prophets, Spirit & Truth, Wisdom & Revelation,” then we are not preaching the true Message of the Kingdom.
The Law of YaHuWaH (Towrah) gives us “wisdom” but the Ruwach Ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit) brings “revelation.” But we need both operating in our lives!
There are those within the Christian Church who have been given some revelation but they are lacking in wisdom because they think that the Towrah (Mosaic Law) is done away with.
Then there are the Jews who have wisdom from the Towrah, but many of them reject the Messiah, (who gives us anointing of the Holy Spirit).
So you see, both camps are missing something!
Christians need to come back to Towrah and Jews need to accept the Messiah Yahuwshuwa and receive his spirit inside of them!
The Jewish people have rejected him because of the false way that Christianity has presented a false, lawless, pagan Jesus Christ. Not only has Christianity rejected the Towrah (Mosaic Law) which the Messiah of Yisra’el always upheld and obeyed, but they have persecuted the Jews for centuries, and this is what has caused the Jewish people to reject him.
Why does the Bible teach us to preach the gospel to the Jew first? Because as the Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) explained in Romans 11:
“....if the falling away of them is riches to the world, how much more their fullness?”
In other words, we will win the rest of the world to Messiah when we first reach the Jews! They are the key to world revival! And how do we win the Jews to Messiah? When the Christian Church at large comes out of Mystery Babylon Religion, and they begin to obey the Towrah, then the Jewish people (symbolized by the older brother in the story of the prodigal son) will then be provoked to Jealousy! And this is how we truly preach the besowrah (gospel)! We do it by obeying Towrah and then we can “provoke Judah to jealousy!”
Ephrayim the Prodigal Son
Can you imagine the prodigal son writing and sending letters to his older brother while he is still in the pig-pen and trying to provoke his older brother to obey their father? The older brother would just laugh at him and say to him: “look at you hypocrite!...you don’t obey our father’s instructions and you are trying to win me over to live as you do?”
In the parable of the prodigal son, Ephrayim (Yisra’el ) represents the younger brother who was “afar off” in the land of Egypt (symbolizing bondage to sin). Judah on the other hand, represents the older brother who never left home but he continued to obey the father’s instructions (the Feasts and Sabbaths).
The prophet Ezekiel was given a commandment in Ezekiel 37:16-18 to take “two sticks” and to write upon one stick for Ephrayim and upon the other stick for Yahuwdah (Judah). YaHuWaH told Ezekiel that “the two sticks shall become one stick in my hand.”
The Hebrew word for “stick” is ets which means “tree.” In other words these two olive trees (Ephrayim & Judah) are the Gentiles and the Jews! When these two come together as ONE NEW MAN (Ephesians 2:15), then “the fullness of the Gentiles” will be accomplished (Romans 11:25). And this is when the natural branches will desire to be grafted back into their own olive tree!
This is when the “Two Witnesses” in Revelation 11:4 (the two candlesticks & the two olive trees) will preach an uncompromising message to the world that will cause the biggest revival in history! This revival will unify the Jewish and the Gentile followers of Messiah against the Anti-Messiah and his followers!
Ephrayim (Yisra’el ) will never win Judah (Jews) to the Messiah until Ephrayim comes back home to the commandments of the Heavenly Father just like the prodigal son.
Ephrayim (the prodigal son) only received the fatted calf (blood atonement) when he came home to his father’s instructions (Towrah) and then he made his older brother Judah jealous! And after Ephrayim received the fatted calf (blood atonement) he also received a signet “ring on his finger” (authority in the Father’s name) and he also received the white “robe of righteousness” or the wedding garment that qualifies him to get into the wedding!
That is the true gospel message to the Jew first and also to the Gentile!