The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2019 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 61

Twisting and Wresting

When Marcus became big bishop — the religious ruler – of Jerusalem, that marked a big difference between Jewish and Gentile Christians.

All the earliest Christians were Jews or Hebrews.

Acts 2
5) Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky.

Those Jews or Hebrews included Peter, John and all the other original disciples, except for Judas. Those men who lived with Christ for 3½ years were gifted with the spirit of Christ at Pentecost, as were thousands of other men and women. And they were all Jews or Hebrews.

Every one of them.

They all observed the Sabbath and Feasts as holy times to meet with their Creator. That’s why they were there at Pentecost — keeping the Feast. That’s why the disciples had to wait ten days after Christ ascended — “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,” He commanded them. And that’s why God the Father also waited until Pentecost to send His spirit — He was keeping the Feast, too.

But they were all wrong!

Just ask Marcus, who convinced the Jerusalem Gentile Christians to go with Hadrian instead of going along with Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Yeshua, and with his brothers. They were all wrong!

What did God give His people at His Feast?

His spirit.

And what does that spirit give?

Luke 21:15 – for I [Christ] will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.

Acts 6:3 – Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom.

Acts 6:10 – They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he [Stephen] spoke.

What does the holy spirit give?

Wisdom!

So all those early Christianos had a great measure of the Holy Spirit, and that spirit gives wisdom, but according to Marcus, they were all deluded. So Marcus and the Gentiles ignored the example of the Father, of Christ, of the original 120 and of the first thousands of spirit led Christians. Instead, Marcus and the Gentiles went with what Hadrian wanted — they forsook the Sabbath and Feasts. Then Hadrian allowed them to be in his new Jerusalem.

Except it wasn’t New Jerusalem, with the Temple of Yahweh. It was New Jupiterem, with the temple of Jupiter. And that’s where Marcus and the antinomians – those against law — wanted to live as Christians: in Aelia Capitolina, named after Hadrian and Jupiter.

Why would a Christian even want to live in Jupiter’s city?

Why did Mrs. Lot want to stay in Sodom?

So the Jewish Christians got out of New Jupiterem and the Gentile Christians got in. Suddenly there were two Christian groups, following different ways of life.

One tried to follow Christ their King and not Rome. The other tried to follow Christ and Rome.

Marcus and the Gentiles, who forsook the Sabbath and Feasts, lived in Hadrian’s city. Those who followed Christ and the apostles fled Rome’s city.

As cited before from Mosheim:
Nothing, in fact, can be better attested than that there existed in Palestine two Christian churches, by the one of which an observance of the Mosaic law was retained, and by the other disregarded. This division amongst the Christians of Jewish origin, did not take place before the time of Hadrian, for it can be ascertained, that previously to his reign the Christians of Palestine were unanimous in an adherence to the ceremonious observances of their forefathers. There can be no doubt, therefore, but that this separation originated in the major part of them having been prevailed on by Marcus to renounce the Mosaic ritual, by way of getting rid of the numerous inconveniences to which they were exposed, and procuring for themselves a reception, as citizens, into the newly-founded colony of Ælia Capitolina.
(Mosheim JL. Commentaries on the affairs of the Christians before the time of Constantine the Great: or, An enlarged view of the ecclesiastical history of the first three centuries, Volume 2. Translated by Robert Studley Vidal.)

By rejecting God’s holy meeting times, times to meet with God, the Gentiles got “rid of the numerous inconveniences to which they were exposed, and procuring for themselves a reception, as citizens, into the newly-founded colony of Ælia Capitolina.” And when they received Rome’s blessing, they doubtless bragged that God Himself was blessing them for their piety.

The Gentile view was that the Sabbath and Feasts were only ceremonial. Most historians who have written about those times had the same view, even while admitting the whole original assembly had the opposite view.

There was then a marked difference between the Marcus-led Gentile Christians and those Christians who were looked on as Jewish. But Paul said there was no difference between Jews and Gentiles.

Rom 10
12) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.

Gal 3
28) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Yeshua.
29) If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

Col 3
10) and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
11) where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.

Yet Marcus established that Jews and Gentiles were not one in Christ.

It is said that the Jewish ceremonial law included the Sabbath and Feasts, and that Paul did away with that law. However, when Paul went to the Gentiles, week after week he taught both Jews and then Gentiles on the Sabbath. Sometimes he observed the annual festivals in Jerusalem, but usually he kept them with the Gentiles in their home areas. Paul argued extensively with the Pharisees about circumcision, and wrote about circumcision in half his letters. The conference in Acts 15 was about circumcision. In Romans, Paul wrote at length against circumcision; He told the Galatians that “if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing;” He warned the Philippians to “beware of the false circumcision;” and so forth in half his letters. Yet he did not do that with the Sabbath or Feasts.

Yeshua was repeatedly accused of breaking the Sabbath by healing on that day.

John 7:22-23
22) Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.
23) If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?

We see how the Jews repeatedly attacked Christ for healing on the Sabbath. If Paul had taught against the Sabbath as he taught against circumcision, he would have been forced to write whole volumes to defend his position against the Jews. That didn’t happen because he did not teach breaking the fourth Commandment, or any other of the Ten Commandments.

So the Christian flock was divided between those who believed the Ten Commandments are moral law and those who believed that some or all of the Ten Commandments are just ceremonial.

The commandment keeping Christians were not headquartered in earthly Jerusalem, because there was no earthly Jerusalem, nor were they headquartered in any other earthly city. Their headquarters and their King was in heaven. The Gentiles who sought to fit in with Rome eventually became headquartered in Rome.

The lawlessness of Marcus and his Gentile Christians was not exactly a new development. Notice Peter’s warnings, from a time two generations before Marcus.

2Pet 2
1) But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.
2) Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.

What were those destructive heresies?

18) For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
19) promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.

The heretics promised liberty. Not liberty or freedom from sin, but liberty from law. They themselves were bondservants of corruption — practicing sinners. They believed in breaking the Ten Commandments as a way of life.

Remember how John wrote his letters to tell Christians what sin is and not to do it? The heresy of liberty from law was evidently already widespread.

Peter writes further about the ‘liberty from law’ heretics.

2Pet 3
15) Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you;
16) as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17) You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.

The King James Version says “unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures.” Wrest, as in wrestling – “to twist or turn from the proper course,” dictionary.com.

Twisting and wresting, leading to the error of the wicked!

What is the error of the wicked?

The error of the wicked is transgressing God’s Law. The Greek word there rendered “wicked” is Strong’s G113 – athesmos, lawless, and is translated that way in a number of versions, like the ISV.

2Pet 3 International Standard Version
16) He [Paul] speaks about this subject in all his letters. Some things in them are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, leading to their own destruction, as they do the rest of the Scriptures.
17) And so, dear friends, since you already know these things, continually be on your guard not to be carried away by the deception of lawless people. Otherwise, you may fall from your secure position.

The deception that Peter warned against was the deception of lawless people.

So how were these lawless people twisting Paul’s writings?

They were saying that Paul taught lawlessness.

Peter said these twisters were lawless people, so their twist was to say that Paul taught lawlessness.

Jude wrote about the same problem. He and Peter were writing to Christians only about one generation removed from the physical life of Yeshua Himself. Yet Jude had to tell them to contend for the first faith.

Jude 1
3) Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

What was the faith that was delivered to the saints, like Peter and John and the original disciples, as learned from the Master Himself?

That was a faith of obedience, following Christ’s example of obeying the Ten Commandments. They accepted Christ’s sacrifice for their sins and then they stopped practicing sin. They did not follow Satan’s example of sinning by breaking the Commandments. And that first faith was under attack among the Christians, as Jude explained.

Jude 1
4) For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Yeshua Christ.

Or, as the New English Translation clearly states, turning the grace or favor of God into a license for evil.

Jude 1 New English Translation
4) For certain men have secretly slipped in among you – men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Look how Jude described such Christians, who turned grace into license for evil.

Jude 1
12) These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13) wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

Was Jude rude? Clouds without water, wild waves of the sea, wandering stars – Mercy! Jude might have offended someone!

Paul even admitted that he was accused of teaching the twisting and wresting that Peter and Jude mentioned.

Rom 3
8) Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.

God forgives our sins and that’s good. So the more we sin, the more we can receive God’s favor or grace, right?

That’s what some were teaching, and that is quite a twist. Paul emphatically denied gracism, the license to break God’s Commandments.

Rom 3
31) Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

All this twisting and wresting leads back to the same old result – breaking God’s Commandments.

Sin.

Except this sin is made out to be holy – sacred sinning. And those who try to obey the Commandments are made out to be sinners. Those early Christians who maintained the example of Christ, of the apostles, of the 120 in the upper room, and of the thousands at Pentecost were themselves condemned as being –

Heretics, as Gibbon’s book on Rome recalls.

When the name and honours of the church of Jerusalem had been restored to Mount Sion, [when Marcus and the Gentiles became citizens of Aelia Capitolina] the crimes of heresy and schism were imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes which refused to accompany their Latin bishop...The name of Nazarenes was deemed too honourable for those Christian Jews, and they soon received, from the supposed poverty of their understanding, as well as of their condition, the contemptuous epithet of Ebionites. In a few years after the return of the church of Jerusalem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the law of Moses, could possibly hope for salvation… [Justin Martyr] confessed that there were very many among the orthodox Christians who not only excluded their Judaising brethren from the hope of salvation, but who declined any intercourse with them in the common offices of friendship, hospitality, and social life...an eternal bar of separation was fixed between the disciples of Moses and those of Christ. The unfortunate Ebionites, rejected from one religion as apostates, and from the other as heretics...
Fall In The West — The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Chapter 15

So those who contended for the faith once delivered were hated by Jews for being Christians, were condemned by Gentile Christians for being Jewish, and were persecuted by Rome for being Jewish Christians. They were called legalists, for wanting to obey the Ten Commandments and they just did not fit in this world.

Marcus and the illegalists, though, were approved citizens of Jerusalem — Jupiterem — because they did fit in with Rome. They convinced themselves that doing what Rome wanted, and what they also wanted by avoiding persecution, was what God wanted. So they gave up what God really wanted — obedience — and did what Hadrian wanted — disobedience — and pretended they were serving God.

Twisting and wresting — Those who obeyed God’s Ten Commandments were made out to be lost sinners and shunned by those who disobeyed the Ten Commandments, who were made out to be holy.

I wonder who was the mastermind behind that idea?

Whatever the theosophical theological arguments are, whoever the compelling personalities are, it always comes back to the question —

Should we break God’s Ten Commandments? Should people ignore Christ’s example and follow Satan’s example?

Over and over in history, from Adam and Eve through the Christian Church to the end time beast, Satan’s answer is yes – follow his example!

Satan gets people to agree with him by using the deceitful human heart. People don’t want to be unpopular, don’t want to be misfits in society, don’t want to be persecuted —

So they convince themselves that disobeying God’s Ten Commandments is what God really wants us to do.

In these end times, or in any other time, it’s enormously important to understand these two points.

1. Breaking the Ten Commandments is always sin and God never wants you to sin.
2. The deceptive human heart has an amazing capacity to convince itself that what it wants is what God wants.

When the Romans substituted the city of Jupiter for the city of Jerusalem, that was a type of what happened in the Christian Church. The Christian Church became not like the city of Jerusalem, with its Temple to Yahweh, but became like Aelia Capitolina, with its temple to Jupiter.

And when the Gentile Christians began to forsake the Bible holy days to fit in with Rome, how long would it be until they adopted the holy days of Rome?