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"GODFEARERS" IN THE NEW TESTAMENT: THE PATTERN FOR GENTILE PARTICIPATION IN THE ISRAEL OF GOD #5
Having looked at the Great Commission just a little in a previous article, we now know for sure that God never intended for the Gentiles in the various nations of the world to be taught various "theologies" about Christologies concerning this Jesus or the Jewish Messiah or any other later dogmas that will be developed hundreds of years later in successive and chronological Roman Church Councils concerning "his person" or "identity" as conneced to obtaining Eternal Life. Instead it is very plain when you study every word in this passage and paragraph in its original meaning (Greek) that the "only verb" in this whole paragraph in Matt. 28 which we call today "the Great Commission" is the word "teach" and it is in used the context of "teaching these Gentiles 'to observe" or "adhere to" something. We are speaking about "actions" and "deeds" here and not "mental ascent" to "beliefs" or "creeds" like "incarnation, virgin births, miracles, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, etc." Instead this whole Great Commission is geared to reaching the "non-Jewish" world with a message to them that is intended to motive them into following certain "conducts" and "behaviors" that will be pleasing to their Creator. This of course is better understood when we see that historically this involved taking these Gentiles and "non-Jews" their God-given responsibilities before God which are laid out in the Covenant of Noah and sharing with them their responsibilities to know, understand, and observe these 66 Commandments given them by God, our Creator, which are contained in this Covenant of Noah and enumerated by the Rabbis in its 66 Laws. There is nothing in this "Great Commission" other than "teaching the 'non-Jews' the Commandments and Law of God and how they are to correctly observe them in their lives which prepares them for the world to come.
Matt 28:19-20 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (KJV)
When reading this passage in English everybody wants to get up and "go" and "do" something but dear ones "go" is not a verb in the Greek and the real truth truth behind this word is tragically lost when translated so poorly into English as "go". I want to show you this further as we continue to look at the Great Commission and then we have to decide if we have understood it correctly and obeyed it correctly ourselves.
Strong's Concordance: the Greek word for "go" is Strong's number 4198
#4198 poreuomai (por-yoo'-om-ahee); middle voice from a derivative of the same as 3984; to traverse, i.e. travel (literally or figuratively; live, etc.); KJV-- depart, go (away, forth, one's way, up), (make a, take a) journey, walk (as in walk through out our lives, to live it out)
Thayer's Greek Lexicon: again the Greek word for "go"
4198 poreuomai- to lead over, to carry over, to transfer
Answer for yourself: Is this word "poreuomai" a verb in the Greek? No, it is not and we will look into this more in just a second.
Answer for yourself: What is the tense of the word in the Greek that is translated as "go ye?
Now this is very important so please pay attention since "Biblical Interpretation" relies upon other things quite often rather than "context". Upon study of this word "go" in the Greek we find that is is used in this "Great Commission" passage NOT as a verb at all but a participle. Greek 5679 ...5679 Tense - Aorist * Voice - Passive Deponent * Mood - Participle "Go ye" is not a verb...it is a Passive Participle in the Greek...but has been erroneously translated in the English as a "verb" thereby presenting a false picture of what the writer intended. The Greek participle corresponds for the most part to the English participle, reflecting "-ing" or "-ed" being suffixed to the basic verb form. The participle can be used either like a verb or a noun, as in English, and thus is often termed a "verbal noun." A simple way to understand how this "go" is to be understood is better seen by saying and understanding the writer is saying "as you are going, as you are living", etc. But again this "go", a participle, is a "passive" and not an "active" particle which carries the further meaning of "don't make a special effort" at this "going" but just let it happen as the normal course of your life. Now think on this for a second and it appears that all writer is saying to these Jews in this Eternal Mandate is something like "just be an example" among the "non-Jews" of the world or something like "let these 'non-Jews' see your Godly distinctives as you live out your relationship with your God". Be a light among these "Gentiles".
Isa 42:6 6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; (KJV)
Answer for yourself: So what does this mean to us? What this means to the Christians is that no purposeful activity is intended by this "going" but rather consistent and daily witness and instruction of the nations by Israel is to be done through one's normal course of life where the Jew makes no pretentious outreach to anyone; rather by the consistent demonstration of the Jew's life-does he declare the existence and glory of God where he lives our his faith through obedience to the Hebrew and Jewish Scriptures before others, the Gentile world. You see his very life is the "witness" of his faith in God and his obedience to what God has commanded and in so living out these Divine truths then the world around him will see this "distinctiveness" and be drawn to the light which his life exudes.
Answer for yourself: As Christians do we "look" at the Jew's life, how he lives, how he worships differently from what Gentile Christianity has taught us to do? Do we let his consistent observance of the Sabbath and the 4th Commandment in Exodus light our way to a higher obedience than the "Sun"-day we inherited from the solar worshipping Constantine? Do we let this consistent observance of God's Holy days as found in the Hebrew Scriptures and the history of the world speak to us about the pagan Roman calendar that the Christian Church has adopted from Constantine? Have we let the moral values of Judaism shame us into seeking these higher truths as we live in Christian nation which cannot build prisons fast enough for our 98% Christian citizens? Have we let the light of the Jewish faith shine unto us from the bushel placed upon it for some 1,700 years by Rome through giving in place of these precious Hebrew Scriptures their "substitute" Bible which is out outright forgery when studied seriously and when compared with this Hebrew Tanakh?
Answer for yourself: In noticing that the Jews observe the Biblical Festivals and Feast days for instance, have we ever stopped to ask ourselves why we as "non-Jewish" Christians don't observe these same "appointed times" with God as do the Jews? Have we ever studied long enough these Hebrew Scriptures to see a "pattern" where both Jew and "non-Jew" observed these Biblical Holy Days together and that the prophets spoke God's will that they do? Have we ever examined our Christian history in an unbiased way to see that this same "pattern" of worship of Jew and "non-Jew" existed into the 5th century before finally be squashed by Rome? Have we ever stopped to think let alone ask the Jew why he keeps the Sabbath, the 4th Commandment when we as Christians and supposed followers of the Jewish Christ do not? Have we ever stopped to ask the Jew why he does not accept or believe in this Christian Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and then open our hearts and eyes to listen to why he cannot accept this "Jesus salvation"? Have we ever wondered why the Rabbis' faces are not on the television and the subject matter of "20/20" where they are found molesting the children of the world like so many Christian ministers or running off with the Synagogue secretaries or found with prostitutes like our Christian ministers seem to do? Something is different about these people and the answer dear one is a "higher truth" that the "non-Jewish" world was never given by Rome for Rome did not want to live it out themselves for they hated these Jews and "their laws". You see the Jewish nation, like Egypt before them, know that we don't get away with anything and there is no "Jesus-Mastercharge" to get us out of jail free; mankind is responsible before God for his actions and without repentance there is no atonement. Thus the need for the Great Commission to model these truths to the perishing "non-Jewish" world, not only yesterday but today as well and the examples above only are the tip of the Jewish witness to us today...but if we only see and understand. It takes dear ones "eyes to see" and "ears to hear".
Such is the way the Great Commission was intended to be obeyed as taught by this Jewish Christ but instead today we find the mobilization of great forces of people and events by the organized Christian church at the costs of billions of dollars which is in direct disobedience to what this Jewish Christ commanded. Great outreaches are attempted with little or no follow-up and the "fruit" withers and wanders lost not planted in good soil after such endeavors. The Great Commission was commanded in order that the Jew's life be the vehicle to take the truth of God to the "non-Jewish" world and not the "non-Jewish" world turn the tables on them some 300 years later and try to "paganize" Judaism by a "reverse outreach" to "save the Jews" when our own New Testament says when speaking of "non-Jews":
John 4:22 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. (KJV)
Here, in this very verse, we find the Jewish Christ addressing a "non-Jew" and telling her her people that their worship of the Creator is flawed and that the true worship of God lies with the Jews and not the "non-Jews" of his day. Over the twenty years of my studies into the true origins of the New Testament and the Christian faith as it developed down through history not truer word has ever been spoken by either man or God for as "non-Jewish" Christians we have stayed, either on purpose or innocently, so far from the truth and the path intended for us by our Creator that is almost beyond belief when you finally see the scope and depth of what I speak.
As if that is not enough speaking of these "non-Jews" again we find:
Eph 2:11-12 11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (KJV)
Again because we don't know the truth about the Jewish Roots of our Christian faith and how the Gentiles departed from it and substituted a different religion in their later "reinterpretations of it", let alone produced for the world a Bible of their own design which is tragically "different" in "key theological places and passages", then in not knowing these things we assure ourselves that we follow the wrong path and allow ourselves to be led astray by our misdirected zeal which often brings us into a condition in our lives of direct disobedience to what the Hebrew instructs and what the Great Commission intended for us, as "non-Jews" to be know and observe in our lives. This should concern anyone who calls himself a "believer" in this Jewish Christ or this Jesus since most likely your Christian religious beliefs and actions motivated by them were imparted to you by an antisemitic Gentile Roman Church and their historic dogmas which certainly are not in parallel with the teachings of Judaism today which reflect the mind of this Jewish Christ both 2000 years ago and yet even today. When we read that very important passage:
Phil 2:5 5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (KJV)
we never stop to think that this is NOT referring to a "post-Constantinian" mind or a "post-Nicean theology" but instead reflects the mind of this Jewish Christ, a mind full of truths that once were taught to the "non-Jewish" world for several hundreds of years before the rise of the mighty Roman Empire which today stands guilty with blood stained hands for destroying not only these Divine truths but burning the libraries of the world to cover up these truths in the 3-5 centuries it took for them to control the known world. It is time to study these truths as Christians before we end up dead and stand ashamed before God since the typical Christian religious belief system taught today does terrible injustice to the "truth" and "the faith once given the saints" and all of this can be verified by your serious study into your faith when done in a "unbiased" and "scholarly" manner. It only takes one to be hungry for God and the truth and the courage to step out in faith and pursue such truth knowing all the while that our Blessed Creator never gave us lie; it was antisemitic men with agendas who have and this is the tragic truth that lies behind the sorted history of our Christian history and development of the Christian world.
The Jewish Christ never told the Jewish nation to mobilize or make any purposeful presentation or display of our faith. This applies to Christianity itself today. In fact this Jewish Christ stated just the opposite. This Jewish Christ (called Jesus in our texts) expected that men and women live our their Ethical Monotheism among their neighbors whereby their faith is seen in their works and actions like James so expertly taught in his epistle. This manifestation of one's faith as seen in response to the commandments of God and His Laws was how the existence and truths of this One God of Israel were to be witnessed to others. This Jewish Christ and Judaism never intended a satellite network or the renting of a 150,000 seat coliseum to hold a rally of masses of people; in fact he said not too. The participle "go" is "passive" and we must never forget this. He expected that one's life was to be a daily teaching vehicle were one lived out his faith in concrete actions in response to the Laws of God before all mankind that it is these Laws of God that usually go contrary to the tendencies of the "flesh" and in such a way, and that way only, was one to witness to others of his family and his neighbors these truths of our Creator. The word mistranslated as "go" in English is again a "passive participle" and not a "verb" but we would not know that unless we looked the word up in our Greek Lexicons or Strong's Concordance. Having most likely never done that and only listened to the unending refrain of "go" as echoed from thousands of pulpits by teaches unqualified to teach we have completely misunderstood this critical instruction to us by God. Let us never forget that "go" is more correctly rendered as "as you are living" or "as you are going through life." This is the intended meaning of the one whose mind we are to obtain as our own. If one was to take the time to compare the systematic theology of first century Judaism with the traditional systematic theology of the later emerging Gentile Christianity of Rome and even later Protestantism one would be horrified at what he sees for the differences are glaring and often breathtaking in scope. We have a replacement religion given us; make no mistake about it. We as "non-Jews" and Christians have been robbed of the fruit of this Jewish Great Commission by Rome. Seldom does Christianity not completely "reinterpret" and "replace" the Jewish religious beliefs that existed for thousands of years in their witness to the world of this Christ. At the hands of Rome from the early second century through the 5th century the damage was one and the Divine Revelation given to the Jewish nation for the world which had been entrusted God's Royal Priesthood and Holy Nation for thousands of years was unrecognizable. Rome was not God's choice to carry these truths to the world. Constantine will change all of that. And today we set in our Churches with this forged book and it black leather cover crafted by these long-dead antisemites never knowing that we are the "blind who follow the blind" we read about in its passages. And we can lay this blame not only on these Jew haters which we reverently call today "Church Fathers" but ourselves for not praying hard enough that God open our eyes and hearts because we want more of Him.
Answer for yourself: Is it not said:
Matt 5:6 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (KJV)
As we move on let us understand our responsibility as "non-Jews" to investigate Judaism and watch the Jews live out this "Pattern of Worship" before us as they faithfully fulfill this Great Commission and then hopefully as your understanding grows then you will desire to look into this "Pattern of Worship" which is modeled before us by Judaism and the "non-Jewish" world daily. If only we had the spiritual insight to see these "Divine Truths" shown us daily, weekly, and yearly as the Jews goes about his life and existence in rehearsal for the "world to come"; never once renting a mega coliseum to try to "evangelize" the Christian. No big effort here on their parts for they truly understand this Great Commission and obey it correctly; they let their light shine upon the "non-Jewish" world every Sabbath and with every Biblical Festival as they do with their distinctive dress and customs which hopefully will peak your curiosity as to "why they are different" from the Gentile world and in so asking you will make attempts to set at the feet of the Jew and learn of his God, the God which they are to share with you and not the "god" that Rome gave us.
One is to teach others by his life-style and not by getting on a soapbox or handing out tracts on some street corner. We are expected by this Jewish Christ to teach others to observer and "obey" what we have learned from the true message of this Yeshua and the pattern of his live that we can gather when reading the New Testament with "Jewish eyes". The problem before you is if you have been taught this same message that this Jewish Christ both believed in and lived out. A serious study of Christian dogmas compared with Judaism will leave no doubt somebody is wrong for both cannot be right and be 180 degrees opposite. Thus the need for your study to see just how we as Christians "got to where we are today" and in such study you will find where the train jumped the track and when. Then it is a simple matter of repentance on the part of the Christian to return "to the faith once given the saints".
Jude 1:3 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (KJV)
This "faith" you see has never changed; well not until the 3rd century where Rome put itself above God. It is Israel who is a light to all the nations of the world and not Rome for Rome has darkened this true light and almost came to totally extinguish it during the Dark Ages. But since all Jews are conveniently "blinded" by the writer of Romans chapters 9-11, which by the way was not in the original book of Romans until after 150 to 180A.D. (how long was Paul on "life-supports"?), then hardly anyone wants to be taught by "theologically blinded Jews" which is so conveniently inserted into the texts some 100 years later. The irony of the whole thing is that the reverse is actually the case and the blindness can be laid at the foot of the writers and editors of the New Testament who were "non-Jews" pretending to be Jews and followers of this Jewish Christ and that blindness continues in the lives of almost all Gentile Christians who have failed to investigate their faith and the origin of anti-Semitic Gentile Christianity let alone the reliability of these religious texts we read. It should jump out at you when reading, for example in Mark 7:18:
Mark 7:18 And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him; because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.) [NASB]
Here we are expected to believe that an orthodox Jew, one supposed to be the hoped-for Messiah, can just do away with all Kosher food laws and change the Book of Leviticus. This should make you wonder what other tampering has been done to these texts which we are assured are "God-breathed"! This should make you rise up and ask yourself if tampering has been done with other passages that could be purposefully misquoted and mistranslated texts from the Hebrew Scriptures that changed the Divine Eternal teachings affecting such critically important doctrines and dogmas as atonement, forgiveness, Messiah, fulfilled prophecy, obtaining Eternal Life, the real gospel from the false gospel, etc. I have spent as of now 20 years in such study for I quickly realized that I did not have the "truth" as a Christian Pastor both during and after Seminary and with God's help I was going to get it! Bet Emet Ministries stands today as this "House Of Truth" for all who are hungry and desire the same.
I'm sure that now you see the importance of such a commandment as the Great Commission issued to Israel in behalf of all Gentiles as they were shortly to be included in the Israel of God through faith in a message brought to them by disciples and apostles of this Jewish Christ in their outreach to the "non-Jewish" world during and after the first century whereby these "non-Jews" were taught to "OBSERVE" something in their lives and not just "believe" in just something. "Observe what?"; this is the big question that you have to ask yourself and begin to search the answers out for yourself. We can help you find these answers as Bet Emet Ministries as this article is doing.
Historically this is not the "first outreach" to the "non-Jewish" world that we find in Judaism. In 20 B.C.E. the followers of Rabbi Hillel and others attempted this same outreach earlier whereby the Covenant of Noah was taken to the Gentiles of the world. Again important to remember as it will impact on major developments later to arise in Judaism was the fact that the "non-Jew", in repenting of sins and turning to God in faith, were taught that they were "accepted" with God without having to make complete and formal conversion to Judaism as was being currently at that time maintained by other factions in Judaism (like the Shammai Pharisees). Not only that but the false religious worship of these "non-Jews" were to be repented of and a new worship and "service of God" instituted whereby they would worship the Father in Spirit and Truth alongside with the Jew instead of in disobedience and darkness as previously done. This is the reason why I devoted so much time and effort to lay out for the reader the hundreds of examples of "non-Jews" and "Jews" observing the same "Pattern of Worship" down through history in accordance with the Hebrew Scriptures and even showed how this was the "Pattern" followed up till the 5th century when the antisemitic efforts of Rome finally vanquished the "Jewish Church".
This new Messianic movement within Judaism of the Second Temple Period, having obeyed the Great Commission, would now face a problem of the highest magnitude within twenty years after the time given for the death of this Jesus: "What are we going to do with these Gentiles who claim to be followers of Yeshua, and who are turning to Biblical Judaism and Biblical Faith"? The solution came in the form of a declaration by the Apostle James, both the Lord's brother and head of Yeshua's church: "We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God." (Acts 15: 19-21).
Not only in the Old Testament do we find teachings that address such topics as "strangers" and "non-Jews" as they relate to a "Pattern" of worship and inclusion into the Israel of God, but also in the New Testament do we find many requirements given to every Gentile who will name himself by the name of this Jewish Christ (Yeshua); requirement when observed thereby allowed the "non-Jewish" and Gentile believer in God to become grafted into the Israel of God without the need for full-conversion which required circumcision which certain Jews, like Shammai and his School of Pharisees, had previously mandated for all Gentiles who were wishing to come to the God of Israel.
As you read this article, as well as others I have researched and prepared, you should have easily seen that reading the English often leads us astray from the mind of Christ let alone the truths we so desperately need to have in our lives if our lives are to honor God today and be examples of truth. This information comes through the vehicle of your serious study, for without it you may never come to the truth of these matters until you stand before God "face to face".
Let us continue in our study of the Godfearer as we look at the next article in this series.