The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 47

God’s Enemies

Israel has their King back. They’ve accepted what they once rejected and Yeshua personally leads his flock, as Yahweh led Israel through the wilderness. Men are anointed as elders to shepherd that flock, but no one man ever stands between the flock and the King. Women are loving wives and mothers and helpers to the Good News laborers. No one strives to be over others, either by setting up denominations or as kings of denominations. All strive to serve God and others and to fulfill the individual calling God has given them, instead of trying to grasp another’s position.

But the old question still remains —

How do you control the people?

The Ten Commandments tell people how to live. They tell what self-control is but they do not give self-control.

The giving of the Ten Commandments was a big, big deal — such a holy event that no one was to even touch Mt. Sinai, married couples were not to lie with each other and everyone had to wash his clothes. After two months in the wilderness, that could have been quite a job. Then Yahweh God personally came down on Mt. Sinai to teach Israel His Ten Commandments. The mountain smoked and Yahweh spoke the Ten Commandments — with His own voice.

Big voice!

Moses had to fast for forty days and nights just to receive those Commandments, engraved on tablets of rock — with Yahweh’s own finger.

Tough finger!

Those tablets were kept in a special box, the Ark of the Covenant. That ark pictures God’s throne in heaven.

Rev 11
16) The twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God’s throne, fell on their faces and worshiped God,
17) saying: We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was; because you have taken your great power, and reigned.
18) The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth.
19) God’s temple that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant was seen in his temple. Lightnings, sounds, thunders, an earthquake, and great hail followed.

So the Ten Commandments, spoken with God’s voice and written with God’s finger, are in heaven right at the throne of God, in God’s little box, the Ark of the Covenant.

God spoke them, God wrote them, and God keeps them at His throne.

Were any of those commandments bad?

No.

God don’t make no bad commandments.

None were ceremonial. None were superficial. None were supplanted. What God said is good. What God wrote is good. And everything at God’s throne is good.

All Ten Commandments are good, then and now. So when people can’t control themselves and break them, the Ten Commandments are not to blame. When people run a stop light, it’s not the red light’s fault.

Israel covenanted to obey those commandments and be blessed. If they broke that covenant, though, and disobeyed, they were cursed.

They did and they were.

2Kgs 17
13) Yet Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14) Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who didn’t believe in Yahweh their God.
15) They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom Yahweh had commanded them that they should not do like them.
16) They forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal.
17) They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.
18) Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19) Also Judah didn’t keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

Because of their constant troubles, Israel demanded a king like all the other nations, and rejected Yahweh as their king. Their human kings eventually led them to be kicked out of the Holy Land.

How incredible was all that?

In spite of all the miracles Israel saw and in spite of being taught and led personally by Yahweh God Himself and in spite of having a God engraved copy with them, Israel did not obey the Ten Commandments.

Go figure!

There were a few times when they were led by an obedient king, but even then the people often were reprobate.

Conclusion: there was something about Israel that naturally led them to hate God.

1John 5
2) By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.
3) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.

Loving God is obeying His commandments. Hating God is breaking them. And there was something about Israel that naturally led them to hate God and break His Commandments.

When Yeshua came in the flesh, he healed the sick, gave the blind their sight, and raised the dead back to life. Yet His own people rejected this miracle worker as King; not just rejected Him, but executed Him.

What were those people thinking? What can be wrong with making sick people well, letting blind people see and giving dead people back the breath of life? Yet the rabbis, scribes and even the priests had the miracle worker tortured and killed, and the Roman soldiers of the great Roman Empire carried it out.

How could those people all do that?

Through all those centuries when Israel continually disobeyed — were they especially demented or were they just —

Normal people, doing what normal people normally do?

When Moses took the first set of Ten Commandment tablets back down the mountain, he saw Israel adulterizing with the golden calf and with each other. Moses then threw the Ten Commandments down and broke them.

That represented what Israel had just done.

They had broken the Ten Commandments.

Moses then received a second set of tablets, with the same identical Ten Commandments as the first set, word for word.

That pictures what happened with Old Covenant Israel and New Covenant Israel. Old Covenant Israel had covenanted to obey God’s commandments, but had broken them and came under the death penalty. New Covenant Israel receives those same Ten Commandments, identical word for word. None of the commandments are changed at all. None are done away. None are ceremonial. The second set was the same as the first, word for word.

So if Old Covenant Israel could not keep those commandments, why would New Covenant Israel be able to?

Christ’s flock is still Israel, but this Israel grafts in those who were not physical descendants of Abraham but are spiritual children of Abraham — obedient.

Rom 9
6) But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.
7) Neither, because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children. But, In Isaac will your seed be called.
8) That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.

For this New Covenant Israel, those Ten Commandments that Israel could never keep were magnified — expanded and broadened.

Isa 42:21
21) It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.

The Ten Commandments were not dishonorable but they were dishonored — disobeyed! The magnified law would be honored. The Ten Commandments would be obeyed.

Yeshua explained the magnified commandments.

Matt 5
21) You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever shall murder shall be in danger of the judgment.’
22) But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.
23) If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you,
24) leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
25) Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him in the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.
26) Most certainly I tell you, you shall by no means get out of there, until you have paid the last penny.
27) You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’
28) but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

The magnified commandments expanded from not killing to not condemning; and from not adulterizing to not even thinking about it. So New Covenant Israel is to do what Old Covenant Israel failed to do, but with expanded commandments.

Old Covenant Israel, in spite of having many miracles in their history, in spite of being personally taught by Yahweh God, in spite of carrying around the Ten Commandment tablets personally engraved by God, did not obey those commandments. New Covenant Israel has the same Ten Commandments as Old Covenant Israel, and New Covenant Israel has the same problem. How do you control human nature? This is an even bigger problem because New Covenant Israel is commanded by their King to obey a magnified expanded law — Ten Commandments on steroids!

What was wrong with Old Covenant Israel? Why did they naturally hate God, the One who did so much for them?

Rom 8:7
7) because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

Or as the King James Version so succinctly put it —

King James Version Rom 8:7
7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Here’s something interesting.

Yeshua obeyed all the Commandments, all the time. Sin is breaking the Commandments —  …for sin is the transgression of the law,1 John 3:4, KJV. He didn’t sin, so He did not break the commandments or even think about it.

Who did break the Ten Commandments?

Satan. From the lie in Eden to the murder at Golgotha, Satan is the supreme commandment breaker.

John 8
44) You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.

Christ obeyed the Ten Commandments and Satan disobeyed them. So which of those two are people naturally like?

Satan.

We are naturally God’s enemies because our nature naturally does not obey God’s law and of itself simply cannot. It’s not like you can simply decide, “Hey, I’m never going to break a commandment again!” and then do that. You can’t do it. You are a natural law breaker. It’s who you are.

The word Satan means Adversary — Enemy! And that’s us, too.

That’s why Israel, in spite of being personally taught by God, in spite of carrying the Ten Commandments around with them, and in spite of having miracle after miracle performed among them — still broke those commandments.

Look what they were up against, as cited in the ‘Whole Heart’ chapter.

Jer 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

Gen 6:5
Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Gen 8:21
Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.

Mar 7:21-23
For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Joh 2:23-25
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he did. But Yeshua didn’t trust himself to them, because he knew everyone, and because he didn’t need for anyone to testify concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man.

That’s quite a condemnation of human nature.

How do you control the people? How does a person control himself?

A follower of Yeshua, a member of the flock, must not underestimate the difficulty of overcoming human nature, especially when Satan is constantly trying to seduce you to obey him. And he’s very good at getting you to follow him because he knows how you are.

After all, you’re just like him.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 46

Femininity in the Flock

The universe has amazing order. Everything functions according to law. Human science is based on this fact, yet it rejects the giver and sustainer of that law.

As the universe is set according to God’s plan, so are the family and the flock. God set the order in the universe and He set a certain order in both families and Christ’s flock.

However, people are always trying to change God’s design. Males try to change God’s order by claiming they are females, and females claim they are males. Taking drugs to alter physiology does not change God’s order. Men are men and women are women and those who try to change that are the most miserable of people.

And people try to change the order that God set with males and females.

In Eden, God set that the serpent would go on his belly. Snakes don’t walk, they crawl. In Eden, God set that man would earn his living by the sweat of his brow. And in Eden, God set that the wife would be ruled by her husband.

Gen 3
16) To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

That phrase “rule over you” is very strong. Most English translations give the same translation. The Hebrew word “mashal,” for ‘ruled,’ was used, for example, when Abraham’s servant “ruled over all that he had,” Gen 24:2; and when Joseph was a “ruler throughout all the land of Egypt,” Gen 45:8.

That phrase “rule over you” sheds light on what Peter said.

1Pet 3
1) In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word;
2) seeing your pure behavior in fear.
3) Let your beauty be not just the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on fine clothing;
4) but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God very precious.
5) For this is how the holy women before, who hoped in God also adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands:
6) as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are, if you do well, and are not put in fear by any terror.

Many women, perhaps most, have disagreed with what Sarah did there, but in God’s Word she was called a holy woman.

So a wife is subject to her husband. God set that order in the family and that cannot change in this era. In another era, that does change.

Matt 22
30) For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven.

But for now, a wife is subject to her husband, even if he’s not like the angels in heaven.

God also set parents over their children.

Exod 20
12) Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

God set Christ over the assembly and over every one in the assembly.

Eph 1
20) which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21) far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
22) He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,

This can never change. Yeshua the Messiah is over all men and women and all beings except one. Yeshua Himself is under the Father.

John 14
28) You heard how I told you, ‘I go away, and I come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I.

No one can break the order that has been set, although many try.

1 Cor 15
23) But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
24) Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

The New Testament repeatedly and strongly emphasizes the order that God set.

1 Cor 11
3) But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

Eph 5
22) Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23) For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.
24) But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.

That’s very clear instruction. Christ’s assembly is to be subject to Him, and in the same way a wife is to be subject to her husband. These are parallel and tied together. If a wife is not to be subject to her husband, then by extension her husband is not to be subject to Christ. So for a wife to refuse to be subject to her husband is the same as going against Christ as the head of the assembly.

The teaching that a wife is under her husband is strong and clear. It cannot be missed — except by those who want to miss it.

Col 3
18) Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19) Husbands, love your wives, and don’t be bitter against them.

If a wife is under her husband, then logically a woman cannot have authority in the assembly. Such a position would inevitably put some women over their husbands in the flock. For a woman to be under her husband at home and over her husband in the flock is contradictory confusion. Such a thing cannot be and God commands that it not be.

1Tim 2
9) In the same way, that women also adorn themselves in decent clothing, with modesty and propriety; not just with braided hair, gold, pearls, or expensive clothing;
10) but (which becomes women professing godliness) with good works.
11) Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection.
12) But I don’t permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness.

1Cor 14
34) let your wives keep silent in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as the law also says.
35) If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to chatter in the assembly.

If a woman teaches in the assembly, then that destroys the pattern God set both in the assembly and in the family. Women cannot teach in the assembly without being over their husbands, and by extension, that means their husbands can be over Christ. If wives are not subject to their husbands, then why would their husbands be subject to Christ? It’s all part of the same plan.

So the New Testament is loud and clear that women are not to teach or rule in the assemblies. Then what is their contribution to the flock?

Some contributions are shared by both men and women.

Praying and fasting, as Anna did at the Temple, is a job that any man or woman can have as much as each wants. Nothing is more important than these, yet they are not to make people look important.

Matt 6
5) When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.
6) But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

16) Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
17) But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face;
18) so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

It is ironic that the most important functions are not to make people look important. Perhaps that is why modern women do not protest, demanding to be allowed to pray and fast more. They can pray and fast all they want, but never to exalt themselves in so doing.

Both men and women were prophets and prophetesses. This was not a teaching function, but a messenger function, to let people know what was going to happen. Prophesying was prophesying, not preaching. God directly reaches out to communicate with a few people, usually to tell them what will soon come to pass. They then tell others.

It goes without saying that many people will presume to be a prophet or prophetess without direct supernatural communication from God. When their predictions fail, they are then to be totally ignored as false prophets or prophetesses. In the Bible, God spoke both to prophets and prophetesses, who gave accurate, usually soon-to-come-to-pass predictions.

Of course, most women were not prophetesses. The New Testament shows how women directly served the flock.

First of all, there is no overstating how important and far reaching a mother’s teaching is, as with Timothy.

Acts 16
1) He came to Derbe and Lystra: and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed; but his father was a Greek.

2Tim 1
5) having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you; which lived first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also.

Since Timothy’s father was Greek, with no indication that he was a believer in the true God, that means Timothy was totally taught by his mother, and by extension, her mother. Their teaching had an enormous effect stretching down through the centuries, as people have read Paul’s letters to Timothy, Paul’s fellow laborer. Again there is no overstating how important that mother’s teaching was and is.

One of the great absurdities of modern Protestant Christianity is that their churches spend great amounts of resources, with great amounts of fanfare, sending missionaries to far flung countries while mostly ignoring the discipling of the churches’ own children. Christian mothers, instead of sending their babes into openly anti-Christ government schools while they themselves spend their time working for the Almighty Dollar, should be love-tutoring them at home with the Lois/Eunice education system. This is a prime area of service to God and others, and those others are their own beloved children, their Timothys.

Then when children have left the home, older women have another area of service. The Bible commands women not to teach men, yet also commands older women to teach younger women.

Titus 2
1)  But say the things which fit sound doctrine,
2) that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in patience:
3) and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good;
4) that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,
5) to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed.

Widows without a family to care for also helped the Good News preachers.

1Tim 5
3) Honor widows who are widows indeed.
4) But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety towards their own family, and to repay their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.
5) Now she who is a widow indeed, and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.
6) But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives.
7) Also command these things, that they may be without reproach.
8) But if anyone doesn’t provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
9) Let no one be enrolled as a widow under sixty years old, having been the wife of one man,
10) being approved by good works, if she has brought up children, if she has been hospitable to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, and if she has diligently followed every good work.

Some women were specifically remembered by name for helping the laborers.

Phil 4
2) I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to think the same way in the Lord.
3) Yes, I beg you also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rom 16
1) I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae,
2) that you receive her in the Lord, in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.
3) Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Yeshua,
4) who for my life, laid down their own necks; to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles.
5) Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.
6) Greet Mary, who labored much for us.

So several women there are mentioned by name as being helpers to the laborers. Priscilla and Aquila mentioned in that passage are included throughout a whole chapter in Acts.

Acts 18
1) After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.
2) He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,
3) and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.

Paul then spent a long time in Corinth, teaching and being persecuted before leaving for Syria.

Acts 18
12) But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,
13) saying, This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.
14) But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;
15) but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don’t want to be a judge of these matters.
16) He drove them from the judgment seat.
17) Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn’t care about any of these things.
18) Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.
19) He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
20) When they asked him to stay with them a longer time, he declined;
21) but taking his leave of them, and saying, I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills, he set sail from Ephesus.
22) When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch.
23) Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.
24) Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.
25) This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Yeshua, although he knew only the baptism of John.
26) He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Priscilla and Aquila laid down their own necks for Christ. They were not partners but two parts of one whole. Priscilla and Aquila together as one flesh were kicked out of Rome for being Jews, then gave Paul shelter and sustenance and a place to work, stayed by him during intense persecution, and pointed the better way to Apollos. They did all that as a spiritual team, she subject to her husband, he willing to give his life for her, both willing to give their lives for the Messiah.

If a wife sees herself not just as under her husband but as one with her husband, she doesn’t chafe at being his wife.

So women are to be subject to their husbands and are not to rule or teach in the assemblies. Of course, this is well known to those who are familiar with the Bible at all and is also widely ignored. God’s pattern in the family and the flock is widely discussed, widely disputed and widely dismissed.

What is not so widely discussed is this fact.

Satan will try to the utmost to reverse God’s design for the family, for Christ’s assembly and for the whole world and its government. God says do it this way, and Satan will say do it the other way. Take everything that God set, reverse it, and you can see what Satan wants. The great deceiver wants women not being subject to their husbands, wants children not being subject to their parents, wants men acting as women and women acting as men, and wants women running churches and governments. The angel of dark light wants the family totally destroyed and marriage made meaningless, with men marrying men, women marrying women, and even three people getting married if they ‘love each other.’

More than at any time since the Great Flood, people are following Satan to destroy the family and the flock. This takes the form of women’s rights, children’s rights, gay and lesbian rights, transgender rights —

And all those rights are wrong.

This trend prevails in the end time churches and today’s churches, under the guise of progressive, ecumenical, pluralist religion. Anything goes as long as all go together.

Satan’s appeal is to human reason, human emotion, and human society over of the word of God. These are some of the arguments used to contradict God.

1. The Bible commands can be ignored because they were just a product of their time. Times are different today, so different standards apply today.

Time does not apply to God or His laws.

2. If I can’t rule over a church, that makes me feel like a second class citizen.

This is a striving for position, a focus on the self, a common liberal tack — ‘You done did me wrong.’

3. I need to teach and lead a church because of all the great talents I have.

One talent that’s missing there is humility. Big miss.

4. It just feels right for me to teach and lead a church. I feel called to preach. How can I disobey God and not preach?

People’s feelings from a deceptive heart do not overrule God’s inspired word.

All these deceptions are used both by the women’s lib and gay-lesbian rights movement, which are two sides of the same coin, because they stand on the same platform. That platform is human reason overruling God’s Word.

You will notice that all the above arguments appeal to the self, a striving for position, for self-interest and not for self-sacrifice. It is so important to remember that real leaders do not promote themselves. They quietly sacrifice themselves.

Again we cite Matt 20
25) But Yeshua summoned them, and said, You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
26) It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
27) Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant,
28) even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

God set the order in the universe and He set a certain order in both families and Christ’s flock. Women are to be subject to their husbands and are not to rule or teach in the assemblies. Satan’s teaching is the opposite of that, using self-serving arguments. The foundation of this ‘progressive’ religion is the idea that mankind — oops! — humankind has advanced so far, both in the Christian religion and in the state of the world, that old ‘repressive’ norms don’t apply anymore. Yet this ‘progressive’ religion is just the same old Eden trap, people overruling God because they think they know better.

Demons tried to change God’s order.

English Standard Version 2011 Jude 1
6) And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—
7) just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

God’s order is that one man and woman have each other for life, just as much as they want. Sodomians were not satisfied with that position, and wanted as many different people as they could have. In the same way, the fallen angels were not satisfied with the position God gave them and felt they were being treated like second-class angels. They thought they deserved a higher position.

Look at this world. What do you see?

In the business world, the sports world, or the arts world, you see a constant striving for a higher position. That is Satan’s mind.

Isa 14
12) How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
13) You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!
14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!

Verse 4 of that chapter says the prophecy was against the king of Babylon, but the New Testament shows that sometimes a different prophecy may be included in an initial one and most think that is the case here, with this part of the prophecy referring to Satan. Whether this refers to Satan or to one of his kings, it still shows Satan’s attitude. “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God!”

God’s way is the opposite of this world’s way. To follow God is not a constant striving for a ‘higher’ position — that’s Satan’s mind — but a constant striving to fulfill the position that God has given you in this life. God wants foot-washers, not corporate climbers.

Instead of having a progressive religion, mankind is regressing back to the pre-flood period when the world was and is filled with evil, and was and is on the brink of destruction, and except these days be shortened, no flesh will be saved. The progressive thinking that women should now teach and rule in churches and assemblies is merely an expected part of this end time mentality, the opposite of God’s order. This doctrine is on the verge of being enforced by law in affluent western nations.

The reign of women over men is now a worldwide movement. And one must wonder — in the very end time, how far will this pattern reach?

2Thess 2
3) Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the departure comes first, and the man [anthropos] of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,
4) he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.

Bullinger Companion Bible appendix 123: “anthropos = an individual of the Genus Homo; a human being as distinct from animals.”

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 45

Mothers and Wives

Did you ever wonder why the four gospels are not Matthew, Mark, Luke and Joan?

Many modern Christians wish those were the four gospels, and the progressives may well come out with a new Bible translation including those four gospels. But the fact is that the four gospels really are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — four men.

How about the rest of the books of the New Testament?

Acts was written by Luke. Paul’s letters, which including Hebrews I take to be 14, were written by Paul. The letters of James, Peter, John and Jude were written by their namesakes; and Revelation was written down by John.

All those guys were men.

How about Christ’s 12 disciples/apostles?

Luke 6
13) When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles:
14) Simon, whom he also named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew;
15) Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot;
16) Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor.

Those twelve disciples were all men.

Do you see a pattern there? With the authors of the four gospels, the writers of all the books of the New Testament, and the twelve disciples all being men, does that give us a lesson on God’s thinking?

Yes.

An incredibly strong, clear lesson. Christ uses men to shepherd His assembly.

The modern world — Satan’s world — hates that. Modern Bible translations have been produced to correct God’s presumed errors in gender language and equality, and as just stated, they may well produce a Bible translation with Matthew, Mark, Luke and Joan.

Well, no, that would still be unequal. It would have to be Matthew, Mark, Lucy and Joan.

Well, no again — it would have to be Lucy, Matthew, Joan and Mark.

Such Bible translators assume that the Bible can be corrected. But the Bible is the Creator’s exquisitely designed handbook for His creation, the manufacturer’s manual, the pdf for perfection. You may study the Bible for decades and still be routinely amazed at what you find. It is 49 books by original numbering, written by probably 40 men over about 4000 years, yet it is one whole complete work, designed and ultimately written by only one Author.

Therefore we must conclude that when Christ called twelve male disciples and when He had the New Testament written by eight men, that was all exactly according to plan. And when the New Testament includes detailed instructions on how men and women are to function, that also is exactly according to God’s plan.

We must further conclude — and this is important to understand — we must further conclude that Satan’s plan for men and women will be the opposite of God’s plan. And Satan’s end time world and government will be the opposite of Christ’s flock.

Men and woman are equally called to salvation.

Matt 24
40) Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left;
41) two women grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one will be left.

Acts 5
14) More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.

Gal 3
26) For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Yeshua.
27) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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.

Although men and women are equally called, it seems that in families it is more often the woman who seeks Christ first; then she leads the family on to their Redeemer.

Acts 16
13) On the Sabbath day we [Paul] went forth outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down, and spoke to the women who had come together.

Being equally called to salvation, women are also equally eligible for persecutions and trials for following Christ.

Acts 8
3) But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into every house, and dragged both men and women off to prison.

Acts 9
2) and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

None of Christ’s twelve disciples were women but many women served Him.

Matt 27
55) Many women were there watching from afar, who had followed Yeshua from Galilee, serving him.
56) Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Acts 1
12) Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.
13) When they had come in, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14) All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Yeshua, and with his brothers.

The women there continued with the disciples in prayer and supplication. On your knees before God is the highest position any person can have. All women and girls can have that position as much as they want. In fact, Anna spent basically her whole life in that position.

Luke 2
22) When the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord
23) (as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord),
24) and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.
25) Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
26) It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
27) He came in the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child, Yeshua, that they might do concerning him according to the custom of the law,
28) then he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29) “Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace;
30) for my eyes have seen your salvation,
31) which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;
32) a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
33) Joseph and his mother were marveling at the things which were spoken concerning him,
34) and Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which is spoken against.
35) Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
36) There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a husband seven years from her virginity,
37) and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn’t depart from the temple, worshipping with fastings and petitions night and day.
38) Coming up at that very hour, she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem.

Surely most people would think that Anna’s was a wasted life. For eighty-four years Anna never left the temple, fasting and praying night and day. And God picked her, along with Simeon, to greet His little baby boy when Mary and Joseph brought Yeshua to the Temple.

Obviously, Anna was very esteemed in God’s sight. Any parents who have a new child share that baby first with the people they cherish most, and that’s what God did with Anna. Nevertheless, although Anna was an extremely spiritual person, her function was not to write New Testament books or to be an elder in the assembly. Doing the job she was called to do did not make Anna a second class Christian. She was not an apostle or an evangelist or an elder, but with God she was first class all the way.

The most honored position in the whole Bible, other than that of the Son of God, was given to a woman — the mother of the Son of God.

Luke 1
26) Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27) to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
28) Having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!
29) But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be.
30) The angel said to her, Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31) Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and will call his name ‘Yeshua.’

Luke 1
39) Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah,
40) and entered into the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.
41) It happened, when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, that the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42) She called out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
43) Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44) For behold, when the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy!

Mary was especially blessed to have found such favor with God, to bear His only begotten Son, the firstborn of many brethren.

Rom 8
29) For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Since Yeshua was the firstborn of many brethren, other women who bear those brethren are also blessed. When they bring forth their own children, in a sense they are blessed like Mary, because each of those children that they bear may become a child of God. Each baby borne by each woman may be a younger sibling of the child that Mary bore.

Therefore all women, less than but like Mary, are also under this blessing.

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

No man will ever know what it is like to have a fruitful womb. Although many men today may appear to have a fruitful womb, none actually do.

No man can even imagine what that is like, to be carrying your child within you, and that child is from you and living on you. Then to nurse that child at breast, from first breath through the time of coos and giggles is simply beyond the universe of a man’s understanding.

Papas have their place but papas don’t have paps.

King James Version Luke 11
27) And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.

Mary and Joseph show God’s plan for women and men, wives and husbands, mothers and fathers.

First of all, Yeshua was known as Joseph’s son. Even though he was not Joseph’s biological son, in the earthly family he was known as Joseph’s son.

Luke 4
22) All testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, Isn’t this Joseph’s son?

John 1
45) Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote: Yeshua of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Yeshua was not known by the anti-Bible custom of matriarch-patriarch naming, such as Hillary Rodham Clinton. He was not known as Yeshua ben Mary-Joseph. He was simply Joseph’s son.

Secondly, even though Mary was most blessed among women, in the family God still worked with Joseph as head of that family.

Matt 2
13) Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
14) He arose and took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt,

19) But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,
20) Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child’s life are dead.
21) He arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22) But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee,
23) and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets: He will be called a Nazarene.

This is a very important point. Even though Joseph was not the biological father, and even though Mary was the most blessed and honored of all women, God still looked at Joseph as the head of that earthly family. God spoke to Joseph in dreams and told the head of the family what to do with his family. Even though the angel spoke to Mary first, when she was told what about the coming birth, God later recognized the authority of the husband and spoke to him.

On the other hand, look what Mary the mother did.

Luke 2
15) It happened, when the angels went away from them into the sky, that the shepherds said one to another, Let’s go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
16) They came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in the feeding trough.
17) When they saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this child.
18) All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the shepherds.
19) But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.

Both Mary and Joseph were there and both heard the same sayings but Mary the mother pondered, apparently more than Joseph did, if he pondered at all.

Luke 2
46) It happened after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions.
47) All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
48) When they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you.
49) He said to them, Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?
50) They didn’t understand the saying which he spoke to them.
51) And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

Again, Joseph was there with Mary — he probably led in the search for three anxious days! — and he also heard what twelve year old Yeshua said. Yet it was Mary the mother who kept what Yeshua said in her heart.

It seems that Mary’s heart was different than Joseph’s. Is it presumptive to say that Mary’s heart was different because she had a —

Mother’s heart?

You know exactly what I mean when I say a mother’s heart. You have seen it, felt it, been shaped by it — a mother’s heart.

What’s in a mother’s heart?

Mother’s love.

From our Homeschool Helpers Newsletter titled I Want My Mama.

God did not place women as top authority in the family. As girls they are under their fathers’ authority and protection. Later they are under their husbands’ authority. Women have a choice as to who they will marry, but once married, they are under their husbands, regardless of the character of the men. Women do not get to depose their husbands because of the husbands’ lack of character. If such were not the case, then all men would be deposed.

However, the fact is that in their own way, wives and mothers have the highest position in humanity.

I was watching interviews with some former World War II German soldiers. They had taken home movies of the war they went through, and their personal experiences made for some interesting viewing. Those interviews were made several decades ago, and even then the former soldiers were old men.

War is an unimaginably horrible experience and some soldiers just flat out lose their minds. The terror is so great that their minds simply stop working in a normal way. Shell shock, it’s called. The war that the Germans began because of their unquestioning loyalty to their mad Fuhrer killed 60 million people worldwide. Germany itself lost about 8 million people, 10% of its pre-war population, and their major cities were bombed into rubble, along with their railroads and highway bridges. So they too faced the terror that they caused.

One German ex-soldier had a particularly striking statement. He fought with and under a sergeant. Through the battles, that sergeant was a particularly tough man, leading his men into and through the human carnage that they faced. The soldiers under him respected him for his toughness, which is what counts in war.

However, eventually that sergeant himself was hit. He had been outwardly tough as he watched enemy combatants blown to bits, and tough even as his own men were maimed and claimed as casualties of war. When it was his own body that was torn apart, though, and when it was his own life that was flowing onto the dirt under him, what did he do?

The ex-soldier said that experience really got to him personally, when he saw his tough, hardened sergeant go down, and all that toughness and hardness disappeared in an instant of mortality, as the man lay crying and sobbing, screaming and moaning, suffering and hurting.

What did that tough sergeant say, as he was bleeding, guts out, life ebbing –

He said —

I want my mama!

When people are in a life threatening situation, when nothing else matters but life itself, when they may be surrounded by friends and buddies and medics who can’t really help, what is often said?

I want my mama!

You’ve heard that before, where grown men and women who have lived independently suddenly face not living at all, and they hearken back to their childhood cry –

I want my mama!

I have often heard of that happening. But in all my reading in my decades of life, I have never heard of someone in that situation saying, I want my daddy.

No.

Daddies have their place, certainly, head of the family, leader and enforcer of right, the sergeant who sets the battle plan. But in their own way, mothers rule. They have a nurturing nature, a watchfulness, a gentleness, a warmth, a mother’s love – a place that no father can fill.

And in its own way, this is the highest position in humanity.

When life is on the line and death is at the door, mother’s love is what people cry out for.

I want my mama!

And in line with that — Have you ever seen a man that you wished was your mother?

Me neither.

Paul wrote about the most excellent way.

1 Cor 12
27) Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
28) God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages.
29) Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers?
30) Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with various languages? Do all interpret?
31) But earnestly desire the best gifts. Moreover, I show a most excellent way to you.

What is this most excellent way? This most excellent way is where women seem to naturally excel.

1Cor 13
2) If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.

13) But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

Love is what women, wives and mothers do best. You see, men and women are different.

The liberals, progressives, socialists have a campaign now to encourage women to expose their breasts to the world. They claim that ‘Men can appear topless so women should be able to be topless in public, too. Anything else is discrimination.’ Of course, this blatantly ignores the fact that men and women are different. Women have little response to men’s chests. Men have great response to women’s breasts. Men and women are just different, outside and inside.

Men and women were designed by God to be different, both formed in the image of God and yet different from each other. And, in a Christian marriage, those two different individuals can combine to reflect the whole nature of God Himself, strength and fortitude combined with love and mercy.

Love is what women do best — a daughter’s love, a wife’s love, a mother’s love — love is what women do best.

The New Testament is totally clear about male and female functions in the family and in the flock. God did not give women positions of authority. God gave women the position of love. Since God Himself is love, what can be higher than that?

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2018 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 44

Authority in the Assembly

No popes, chief apostles, archbishops, or even church pastors —

In the earliest ekklesia, there was no authority at all!

Wrong.

There was authority given to men to shepherd the ekklesia. But it was never given to just one man. The authority was to serve the flock, not to exalt the man.

There was no one-man rule anywhere. However, since there were no monocrats either overall or locally — that’s not to say there was no authority in the local assemblies.

Sometimes the claim is made that since all brethren are the spiritual priesthood, there is no authority at all in the New Covenant assemblies.

1 Pet 2
5) You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Yeshua Christ.

9) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

Peter referred to all believers as a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood. And in Acts 15, the decision against circumcision was made by the apostles and elders and the whole assembly.

Acts 15
22) Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers.
23) They wrote these things by their hand: “The apostles, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: greetings.

From that, some may conclude that there was no human authority at all in the church — that all were priests with no one having ecclesiastical authority over anyone else. That would make the ordaining of elders and shepherds meaningless, and that conclusion does not match the reality of the New Testament.

Paul wrote about half of the books of the New Testament. He was an apostle and said he had the authority of an apostle.

1 Thess 2
5) For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),
6) nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ.

9) For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.

Since he was preaching the Good News, those who believed the Good News had the obligation to supply Paul’s daily needs. He said he had the authority to claim that, but instead he worked night and day to support himself while he preached.

He also made the same point to the Corinthians.

1 Cor 9
1) Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Yeshua Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?
2) If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3) My defense to those who examine me is this.
4) Have we no right to eat and to drink?

This right to be supported doing Christ’s work was not a right to be well to do but just the right to stay alive, not as a corporate CEO but only as a another mouth to feed — the “right to eat and drink.”

1 Cor 9 (cont.)
5) Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
6) Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work?

Paul shows there that the rest of the apostles, and James and Jude the brothers of the Lord, and Peter did use that right to be fed while they served. They did not work at earthly jobs when they did heavenly work. They didn’t get rich from that. They and their wives only got fed.

1 Cor 9 (cont.)
7) What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk?
8) Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing?
9) For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares,
10) or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope.
11) If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?
12) If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.
13) Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar?
14) Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News.
15) But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void.

Notice how Paul keeps referring to their “right”; Young’s Literal Translation uses the word “authority.” Paul’s point was that he, the rest of the apostles, and others who proclaimed the Good News had the right or authority to be kept alive while they did that. Paul often chose not to use that authority but he did have it.

So there was authority in the assemblies.

The most striking use of authority was when Paul told the assembly at Corinth to put an adulterer out of the flock.

1 Cor 5
1) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2) You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3) For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4) In the name of our Lord Yeshua Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Yeshua Christ,
5) are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua.

Paul bluntly told the Corinthians to put the adulterer out of their midst, for their good and for the sinner’s.

The shepherds or elders in Corinth should have done that already. A shepherd protects a flock by keeping away danger, either of false teaching or allowing sinful practices. Apparently both the elders and the assembly as a whole were overwhelmed by the ‘love the sinner by letting him sin attitude’ that often appears. The elders and shepherds there had not protected that flock, so Paul used his spiritual authority to command the Corinthians to put out the adulterer.

In his second letter to Corinth, Paul mentioned that both the group and the adulterer had repented. The adulterer stopped his sinning and the assembly stopped approving his sin. And in that letter, Paul mentioned that he had the authority to do what he had done.

2 Cor 13
2) I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare;
10) For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for tearing down.

Paul spoke of dealing sharply with a congregation when necessary. He had the authority to do that.

He also instructed Timothy and Titus to reprove.

2 Tim 4
1) I command you therefore before God and the Lord Yeshua Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:
2) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.

Titus 1
10) For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11) whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.
12) One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”
13) This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

The purpose of reproving is to keep the faith sound. Without that reproving or correcting, sound faith is lost, as if Corinth had never put out the adulterer.

Paul told Titus to exhort and to reprove with all authority.

Titus 2
15) Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no man despise you.

Since Paul told Timothy and Titus to reprove, that shows that authority to correct did not rest just with the apostles. Others were ordained to have authority, too.

Authority to do what?

Exhort, reprove and rebuke.

That is — to exhort to obedience, to reprove or speak out against sin, and to rebuke or publicly confront those practicing sin, as Paul did with Corinth and with Peter in Galatians. Shepherds naturally have authority to protect the sheep. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be shepherds.

Elders were to teach Godly conduct and to ensure that was taught and practiced among the flock. Their authority never went beyond teaching right and wrong and enforcing that in the assembly. When Paul wrote to Philemon, he had no authority to tell Philemon what to do with his slave Onesimus. And in a local assembly, the authority was a shared authority among elders, working together in the spirit of Christ, to exhort, reprove and rebuke.

However, all in the assembly were also responsible for rebuking sin. That shows how liberal Corinth had become, where the whole flock, shepherds and sheep, accepted the practice of adultery in their midst. Each of them had the responsibility to rebuke that sin. This was an extension of Yahweh’s instructions to Israel.

Lev 19
17) “‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.

To not rebuke sin is to approve it, as the Corinthians did with the adulterer. To not rebuke a sinner is to hate him in your heart because his sin will do him in.

Paul told the Thessalonians to exhort and correct each other.

1Thess 5
11) Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do.
12) But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you,
13) and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
14) We exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all.

So there Paul mentioned those who are “over you in the Lord,” yet he told them all to admonish each other.

He also told the Ephesians to reprove each other.

Eph 5:11
11) Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them.

Again, authority in the flock is to exhort believers to do what’s right and to reprove and possibly expel those who do wrong, for the good of all. This authority is not to force people to obey, convert, or conform by doing them harm. Obedience must be done of free will, from the heart, not the eyes. Satan uses harmful force to force obedience. Christ uses spirit to lead to obedience. Authority is used to teach what is right, not to try to force people to do what is right. The choice of right and wrong is presented, and each person chooses his path. Those who choose sin are removed from the flock. They don’t belong there.

In a passage about elders, Paul instructed Timothy to reprove in the sight of all those who were sinning.

WEB 1 Tim 5
19) Don’t receive an accusation against an elder, except at the word of two or three witnesses.
20) Those who sin, reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.

As recorded in Galatians, Paul reproved Peter in the sight of all. That principle of public correcting seems to apply not just to elders, because in Corinth the whole assembly knew why the adulterer was put out. And if such a person as Peter could be publicly reproved, certainly any other errant believer could, too.

In today’s litigious, government watchdog society, to reprove a sinner in the sight of all brings all sorts of legal problems. Lawsuits! So some might think that today we simply cannot follow Paul’s instructions to reprove in the sight of all because of the legal risks. Satan’s end time society considers such an action as cruel and hateful. Consequently open rebuke against sin today is seldom heard.

The problem, though, is not with Paul’s instructions to reprove in the sight of all. The Bible is not a cultural document that becomes irrelevant in a different time and society. If what Paul said was good then, it’s good now.

The problem is with churches’ organization. They are structured like worldly corporations instead of like the original ekklesia, which was a brotherhood of believers and not a worldly organization, subject to the rules of the world. When a church is a worldly corporation instead of a brotherhood, the legal wolves of the world — euphemistically known as lawyers — can then take the property and resources of a church. The earliest ekklesia did not corporately own property — they met in houses, and had no reason to accumulate assets. Their assets were spiritual, not financial.

Most people will reason that a church cannot do the work of God without accumulating worldly resources. In reality the reverse is true. A church cannot do the real work of God while accumulating worldly resources. The work that they accomplish that way may look good but causes little change in human hearts.

Authority in the flock is for those who do have changed hearts. Any who would sue at law for being correctly rebuked for sin are not part of the spiritual flock, anyway. They’re just part of the world.

The extent of church authority is only to teach right and wrong. Believers do not have to bow before or exalt that authority. They do not have to go through that authority to get to God. That authority does not stand in front of Christ but points people to Christ. And that authority is not one person, but a plurality of men, as were the apostles, shepherds and elders. Always plural.

Most of all, authority in the flock is used to serve Christ and the flock. Paul had authority to be fed while he preached, but while he fed them spiritually, he fed himself physically. He served them at great cost to himself. He was not their lord but their co-worker.

2 Cor 1
24) Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy. For you stand firm in faith.

Or as The King James so eloquently puts that verse —

KJV 2 Cor 1
24) Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

What a great phrase — “helpers of your joy!”

As cited before, Peter shows the purpose of authority — not lording, but leading.

1 Pet 5
1) I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed.
2) Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;
3) neither as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.

Again there, Peter did mention oversight. Yet those in authority in the flock are not lords but leaders, themselves held to the highest standard of personal obedience and dedication. If they personally abandon that high standard, then they are no longer leaders and must be removed from their position of authority. As one writer said of a philandering evangelist, “How many times can an elder commit adultery and still be an elder?”

His implied answer to that math question is “Zero.”

We have seen by these scriptures that those in authority in the flock are not back patters, as pastors routinely are, but butt busters — exhorting, reproving and rebuking.

In doing that, such elders will continually face hostility.

First, from the world they are preaching to.

The world always demands that Christ not be taught, and that His teachings on sexual chastity, family structure and salvation or damnation be abandoned. Those who persist in teaching the true Christ will be personally attacked. That is the way Satan and his world works — revenge.

Second, elders will often be attacked by some of those associated with the flock. The worldly spirit is absorbed by people in the assemblies who are too involved in the world. When they are rebuked, they attack the shepherds. The usual attack, both by the world and the worldly in the flock, is to call the reprovers haters and say they lack love. For the love of the Lord and of His flock, the shepherds must absorb these accusations of being loveless haters, all the while showing love for the attackers.

That is church authority.

No popes, no archbishops, no pastors — but there is authority — oversight — in the assemblies. Yet it is a natural function of human nature to despise authority. Sinners definitely do not like to be reproved with authority. Paul told Titus to “Let no man despise you,” Titus 2:15. He told Timothy to “Let no man despise your youth.” 1 Timothy 4:12. And Paul instructed the Corinth flock not to despise Timothy.

1 Cor 16
10) Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do.
11) Therefore let no one despise him. But set him forward on his journey in peace, that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brothers.

Why those warnings against being despised?

Obviously, because some Christians did despise those who were serving them. And in the 1 Corinthians 9 passage cited in this chapter, the apostle Paul himself had to defend his authority as an apostle, even after all he had endured.

However, when people despise authority, they don’t say, “I’m causing a big stink only because I’m a carnal, rebellious stinker.” No, instead of admitting their sin, they often personally attack the rebuker and despise the authority that pointed out their sin.

Ah, human nature!

People under authority despise it and people in authority abuse it.

Nowhere is this better shown that in the Diotrophesian Dictate.

The apostle John – a personal buddy of the Messiah! — was rejected by Diotrophes.

3 John 1
9) I wrote to the assembly, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, doesn’t accept what we say.
10) Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words. Not content with this, neither does he himself receive the brothers, and those who would, he forbids and throws out of the assembly.

Diotrophes rejected the authority of John, who may have been the only disciple of Christ’s twelve still living at that time. Even though John leaned up against Yeshua at the Passover meal, and spent years listening to Him teach, and was that apostle whom Christ loved, Diotrophes would not receive John! That was not a group of elders who decided that — that was Diotrophes alone.

So why did Diotrophes not receive John and the brothers?

Because they did not accept his preeminence.

What does “loves to have the preeminence” mean?

‘Y’all get in line, behind me.’

What, then, is Diotrophes’ implied dictate?

To follow God, you must follow me!

Apparently Diotrophes was one man ruling that assembly all by himself. He was not just one of the elders shepherding the flock. He was the local pope, the bigwig bishop, the ecclesiastical emperor. Diotrophes had become the one true church! Even John wasn’t in it, simply because he would not place himself under Diotrophes.

That’s not the authority of Christ’s ekklesia. That’s the authority of Rome. That’s unchecked human nature, under the cloak of religion. That’s misuse of authority, under the disguise of God’s authority.

To follow God, you must follow me!

And the problem was not just the person of Diotrophes, but also the position of Diotrophes —

One man ruling his congregation.

Christ did put authority in His ekklesia. That authority was to serve, and not to be served. Those ordained to that authority were often despised, both by the world and by the flock they served.

Ironically, the way of the earliest ekklesia, which was shared authority among elders working together in Christ’s spirit to exalt Christ the King, is seldom seen after that earliest period. On the other hand, the Diotrophesian Dictate — to follow God you must follow me — appears again and again and again.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2018 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 43

Shepherds, Not Pastors

We have seen that Yahweh first ruled Israel personally, without a pharaoh or emperor or king. We have seen that Christ rules His flock personally, without a pope or archbishop or chief apostle. Peter was the apostle to the Jews, Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and James had as much respect as anyone. Christ, not a church government, told each individual where to go and what to do. Since there was no human king in charge of the church, the apostles and elders all had to work together under and in the spirit of the King of kings.

What about the local assemblies then? Did they have a local mini-king, one man ruling over a congregation?

Earlier we quoted Ephesians 4:11 in two different translations, the King James and the World English Bible, an update of the American Standard Version.

KJV Eph 4
11) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12) For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

This one verse in the King James is the whole basis of having local church pastors, pastor meaning one man ruling a congregation. However, this chapter of Ephesians is about people working together in the spirit. Remember humans use monarchical type power to control people who can’t otherwise be controlled. With the spirit of God drawing people together, they don’t need someone else controlling them. They don’t need human monarchs.

WEB Eph 4
2) with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love;
3) being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4) There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling;
5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6) one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.11) He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;

12) for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;
13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

The point is unity in the spirit. Given human nature, this does not come easily. Paul’s letters are full of admonitions about problems among those earliest Christianos. They were taking each other to court, squabbling with each other, and James asked them where the wars between them came from. Even Paul and Barnabus had a minor disagreement. Neither Paul nor Barnabus had the church authority to tell the other what he had to do in serving, so they parted. Unity in the spirit requires overcoming human nature with Christ’s nature — the challenge of a lifetime!

But that is the way, chaotic as it may seem. Replacing God’s guidance with human rulers seems to bring harmony for a while, just as socialist Germany and the socialist Soviet Union seemed to be unified and energized for a time, until the burden of human tyranny came tumbling down on their heads. Monarchical unity is always a forced unity and will always at some point erupt into revolution and more chaos. This is true of political and religious governments.

When Paul is talking about unity in the spirit in Ephesians 4, he wouldn’t include the opposite of that in verse 11, the opposite being a Roman type pastor/ruler over local congregations.

We have mentioned how King James ordered his translators to retain ecclesiastical language, as is evident in these two verses.

KJV Eph 4
11) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12) For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

King James includes two church authority words there, pastors and ministry. Neither are correct translations. We already pointed out how ministry in verse 12 should be translated as serving, as the World English Bible does.

The Greek word translated as pastors in verse 11 is “poimen… a shepherd,” from Mickelson’s Enhanced Strong’s Dictionaries. Poimen is translated as shepherd in these verses.

KJV Luke 2
8) And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

KJV Matt 25
31) When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32) And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

KJV John 10
11) I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12) But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
13) The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14) I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

Notice that all those verses are quoted from the King James, where they translated “poimen” as “shepherd.” In fact, the King James always translates “poimen” as “shepherd” — except for Ephesians 4:11! Many other translations then followed that established tradition of putting the word “pastors” in verse 11. A few choose to translate it correctly, despite religious tradition.

WEB Eph 4
11) He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;

English Standard Version 2011 Eph 4:11
11) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible Eph 4:11
11) And, he, gave––some, indeed, to be apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists, and some, shepherds and teachers,––

Young’s Literal Translation Eph 4:11
11) and He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as proclaimers of good news, and some as shepherds and teachers,

Reading through the New Testament shows they did not have monocratic church pastors. They had shepherds and elders working together caring for congregations, but there was no one man rule.

Notice these passages.

WEB Acts 14
21) When they had preached the Good News to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,
22) confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of God.
23) When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

WEB Titus 1
5) I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you;

WEB Jas 5
14) Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

Notice that each assembly had elders — plural. No assemblies ever had pastors appointed. When someone was sick, he called for the elders — plural — of the local congregation to pray for him.

When Paul told Titus to appoint elders, why didn’t he instruct him to ordain a pastor over each assembly? When Peter wrote “I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder,” 1 Peter 5:1, why didn’t he exhort the pastors, too? When James said for the sick to call for the elders, why didn’t he have them call for a pastor?

Simple. Because the one man rule position of pastor did not exist in the local congregation, any more than one man rule existed in the church as a whole.

In fact, there’s not even a word for a pastor-ruler. When the King James inserted pastor that one time, the word is shepherd not pastor/ruler, so there’s no one word that designates a pastor-ruler. Other words for a religious server, like episkope — office, or presbuteros — elder, also do not mean a monocratic ruler.

If the position of pastor-ruler had existed in the earliest ekklesia, there would have been an example of somebody appointed as pastor-ruler. There are none.

In addition, in all the letters that Paul wrote, he included big hellos and goodbyes, as in the end of his letter to the Romans.

Warning — this is a long goodbye. He hardly left anyone in Rome out!

WEB Rom 16
1) I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae,
2) that you receive her in the Lord, in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.
3) Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
4) who for my life, laid down their own necks; to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles.
5) Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.
6) Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
7) Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
8) Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
9) Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
10) Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
11) Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet them of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.
12) Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who labored much in the Lord.
13) Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14) Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.
15) Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16) Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies of Christ greet you.
17) Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them.
18) For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent.
19) For your obedience has become known to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent in that which is evil.
20) And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
21) Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my relatives.
22) I, Tertius, who write the letter, greet you in the Lord.
23) Gaius, my host and host of the whole assembly, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, as does Quartus, the brother.
24) The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all! Amen.

Look at all the people Paul greeted there. But you will quickly see a couple of things. One — Paul did not salute some archbishop in Rome with a big ring, a tall hat and a funny robe. Second, there’s not even a church pastor there ruling over that congregation. The only emperor in Rome was the Roman emperor. That position exists nowhere in Christ’s flock.

In all the New Testament letters written to the congregations, there is never a salutation to any pastor-ruler over a congregation, just as we saw in the end of the letter to the Romans.

Also, when Paul left Ephesus for the last time — never to see them again — that was an extremely emotional parting. He called all the elders in Ephesus together for that serious, important gathering. However, he forgot to call the Ephesus church pastor!

WEB Acts 20
16) For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
17) From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to himself the elders of the assembly.
18) When they had come to him, he said to them, You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time,
19) serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with trials which happened to me by the plots of the Jews;
20) how I didn’t shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,
21) testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
22) Now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there;
23) except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.
24) But these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of the grace of God.
25) Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching the Kingdom of God, will see my face no more.
26) Therefore I testify to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men,
27) for I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
28) Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
29) For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30) Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
31) Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
32) Now, brothers, I entrust you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
33) I coveted no one’s silver, or gold, or clothing.
34) You yourselves know that these hands served my necessities, and those who were with me.
35) In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
36) When he had spoken these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
37) They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him,
38) sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Yes, they wept a lot, and one reason was because their church pastor had not been invited to that meeting!

Well, maybe not.

Ephesus didn’t have a church pastor, one man ruling over the whole congregation. They had elders and shepherds, and they worked together in Ephesus, and they were all there to say that sad goodbye to Paul.

Also notice Paul’s warning to them.

Acts 20
28) Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
29) For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30) Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

A man draws followers after himself when he rules by himself.

Yahweh in the Old Testament, who was Yeshua acting in that name and spirit, did not originally set up a king over His people. Yeshua in the New Testament did not set up a pope over His people. And that pattern prevailed, all the way down to the local assemblies. They did not have one man ruling over them, like a Roman emperorette.

Isn’t it comforting to see how God is so consistent?

If the position of pastor/one man ruler is not in the Bible, how did it come to be almost universally adopted in Protestant churches?

Martin Luther’s German translation of the New Testament in 1522, very early in the Reformation, rendered Ephesians 4:11 as “hirten”, shepherd or herdsman. English Bible translations before the Geneva Bible of 1560 — Wycliffe, Coverdale, Tyndale, Great Bible, Matthew Bible — rendered Ephesians 4:11 as shepherds. The Geneva Bible translated poimen as shepherds, too, except for that one verse. Protestants in Switzerland had transferred the position of the Roman Catholic priests to their Protestant pastors, which was one man over a congregation and the English language Geneva Bible, produced by English and Scottish exiles in Switzerland, reinforced that practice with their rendering of that one word in that one verse.

The Wikipedia article “pastor” says, “The use of the term pastor to refer to the common Protestant title of modern times dates to the days of John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. Both men, and other Reformers, seem to have revived the term to replace the Roman Catholic priest in the minds of their followers.” (Accessed 3/27/18.)

Rome had their pyramid of power — the Pope, the archbishops, and the local parish priests. That type of government had worked well — humanly speaking — for the Roman Empire for five centuries, until it fell in on itself. It had worked for the Roman Church for over a thousand years, until the protesting Protestants erupted. So the Protestants adopted the function of church pastors, which was a governmental counterpart to the Roman Church local priests.

That was ironic because the Protestants had just rejected monocratic rule when they rejected the Pope. Then they proceeded to reestablish it on a local basis, instead of following the New Testament example of shepherds with unity in the spirit.

Did relying on a government system instead of letting Christ lead directly keep the Protestant hordes in check?

Not exactly. Recent estimates of the number of Protestant denominations run from 33,000 (World Christian Encyclopedia) to 45,000 (Center for Global Christianity). Rome uses this disunity as a sign that they are the one true church. Of course, these Protestants exist only because the Roman Catholic Church was not able to kill enough of them to begin with, as they certainly tried to do.

There were no church pastor-rulers in the ekklesia. There were elders, shepherds, or overseers, largely from the local congregation, who had to work together in serving the local Christians. No one man could rule.

This does not mean that church pastors are bad people. Some do draw people after themselves, selfishly accruing glory and filthy lucre. Most are not that way, and are trying to serve well in their pastor positions. However, that is not Christ’s design for a local assembly.

The pastor job has one of the highest burnout rates of any job. Little wonder. All the local problems fall on one pair of shoulders. The job is unstable with pastor families always on the move. Pastors move on to bigger churches or congregations simply get tired of their pastor. The job is wracked with constant problems, because there will always be people in any one area who do not care for that one pastor. The pastor job tends to be a back patting position, with more coaxing than exhorting. After all, keeping the job depends on not offending the congregation, which means seldom correcting and continually cajoling.

Most people, though, are so used to this system of government that they can’t imagine functioning without it. Almost all local churches follow this pattern of government.

A church without a pastor? Come on!

The idea of having multiple shepherds or elders working together instead of just one man ruling does not even occur to them.

There are a few congregations today that do have multiple pastors, as they call them, which means they are not one man rule at all, but more in line with the pattern of the original ekklesia. This would seem to avoid the major problems of pastoring. Congregational problems would be shared among the elders, and there would be less moving because the congregation wouldn’t get tired of being led by only one man. These congregations, though, are a very small minority.

Under the Roman type government, the one man ruler can create the appearance of unity without real unity. He simply commands and the people usually obey, regardless of what they really feel. For Christ’s government to work, there has to be real unity — spiritual unity. Since there was no human king in charge of the church, the apostles and elders all had to work together under and in the spirit of the King of kings. The elders in the local congregations had to do the same. No one man was over the others so they had to work together. That’s what Paul was talking about when he urged unity in the spirit.

WEB Eph 4
11) He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;
12) for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;

All those different positions had to work together, both overall and locally. If they did not work together, if they did not have unity in the spirit, then the problem was not with Christ’s spirit or Christ’s government. The problem was and is with human nature not yielding to Christ’s spirit.

Many think that obeying a leader even if you disagree with him is noble. What is really noble is not disagreeing at all, but having the same mind — the mind of Christ — because you’re led by the same spirit — the spirit of Christ. Given human nature, this requires a miracle. Yet that is what Christ expects in his government. Not one man commanding, but different people communicating and communing with each other. Christ expects this miracle in His flock.

The fact is that Yeshua did not set up a Roman government in His flock. There is no one man in charge anywhere. Christ is in charge everywhere, even in the local assembly.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2018 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 42

No Pyramid

Cameroon in central Africa is not a large nation but is still very divided. Its main religions are Muslim, spiritism, and Christian. The Christians are further divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants. A Muslim leader in Cameroon had a unique religious requirement. Any woman who entered his palace – religious leaders often live like kings – had to do so with her breasts uncovered. Whether she was coming to him for religious reasons or just to deliver food and supplies, she had to be bare breasted.

When he counseled with those women, what did they talk about?

Undoubtedly, the Muslim imam has what he considers a good spiritual reason for this fleshly requirement. He can personally set his requirements because that religion rules with a pyramid of power, a chain of religious rulers who control the people.

Most religions rule like Rome, including the religion based in Rome. In fact they are a near copy of the Roman government, with an overall emperor, then a pyramid of lower rulers down to the local parish ruler. They have different names for their rulers than Rome had, like cardinals, and monsignors and priests, but the overall pattern is the same.

Christ’s flock is not ruled like Rome. No one man can require women to expose themselves and no one man can set right and wrong. There are no religious kings in God’s church, no popes, archbishops or chief apostles, because Christ is the King.

Instead of exalted positions with ostentatious titles and distinctive garments, Christ’s flock only has service positions. The original descriptors of those positions -– before the terms were religiously inflated — showed their humble status.

For instance, deacon from the Greek diakonos, simply meant servant. When Yeshua turned the water into wine at a wedding, “His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it,” John 2:5. The word servants there is diakonos, which in some places is ecclesiastically translated as deacon instead of servant.

In the earliest days of the flock, when they were all still together, seven men were chosen as table waiters.

WEB Acts 6:1-6

1) Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service.

2) The twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not appropriate for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.

3) Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

4) But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word.”

5) These words pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch;

6) whom they set before the apostles. When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

The word serve is translated from diakoneo, and those seven ‘deacons’ made sure the widows got their daily food. Those were jobs, though, and not ranks because Stephen and Philip also found time to do the job of evangelists. Again, evangelist was not a rank but a function. Church denominations later made both jobs of deacons and evangelists into ranks in a pyramid, and a deacon dare not do the job of an evangelist.

The word minister, as used in this verse in the King James, “And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister,” Acts 13:5, meant attendant or helper. The Greek word for that is huperetes, an assistant. Huperetes is derived from a word meaning “to row,” and literally means “an underoarsman.” So that makes the word ‘minister’ pretty humble — a boat rower, and a second class boat rower at that. With the inflation of the religious title of minister, it seems that most ministers would not be willing to go to the back of the boat.

So with time and religious refurbishing, positions of humility and service get reinterpreted into positions of exaltation and being served.

Notice these listings of functions in Christ’s flock, from the World English Bible.

1Cor 12

28) God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages.

Eph 4:11

11) He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;

Apostle is one who was sent forth.

Luke 6:13

13) When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles:

That seems like an exalted position, to be one of the original twelve apostles, along with a few others afterward like Paul. They were not just televangelists who happened to call themselves apostles. They had the signs of an apostle, as Paul said and did.

2Cor 12:12

12) Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty works.

We can deduce then that all apostles had the signs of an apostle, wonders and mighty works. We can further deduce that anyone who does not have those signs of an apostle is not an apostle. Miracle workers also had to have that little qualification — to have some supernatural event happen through them.

Many famous preachers today receive gluttonous salaries, and justify those by saying the pay is comparable to worldly corporations. The original Christians, though, sometimes had to pay just to preach.

Acts 18:2-4

2) He [Paul] found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,

3) and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.

4) He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

Paul had to pay his own way while he preached the way of giving to the Corinthians.

The job perks of being an apostle were these.

2Cor 11:24-28

24) Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one.

25) Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.

26) I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;

27) in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

28) Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily, anxiety for all the assemblies.

Those were the job perks of being an apostle. The ultimate job perk was giving the ultimate sacrifice. Practically all the apostles were martyred. So when being an apostle would probably cost you your life, although it was kind of an exalted position, that did add a touch of humility to the job.

A prophet or prophetess was not just someone who declared himself or herself to be so. That person received communication directly from God.

Num 12:6

6) He said, “Hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I Yahweh will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.

What the prophet or prophetess said had to come true, or he or she was a lying prophet and was to be ignored. Agabus’ prophecy came true because he was a prophet.

Acts 11:27-28

27) Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

28) One of them named Agabus stood up, and indicated by the Spirit that there should be a great famine all over the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius.

Agabus said it would happen and it did. The function of prophet or prophetess is certainly distinctive because it’s so rare, but it carried a high responsibility, which might cost the prophet his life if he or she was presumptuous. That again is a humbling feature.

1Kgs 13

11) Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel; and one of his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.

12) Their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” Now his sons had seen which way the man of God went, who came from Judah.

13) He said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it.

14) He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. He said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” He said, “I am.”

15) Then he said to him, “Come home with me, and eat bread.”

16) He said, “I may not return with you, nor go in with you; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.

17) For it was said to me by the word of Yahweh, ‘You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.’”

18) He said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” He lied to him.

19) So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

20) It happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who brought him back;

21) and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Because you have been disobedient to the mouth of Yahweh, and have not kept the commandment which Yahweh your God commanded you,

22) but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread, and drink no water;” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”

23) It happened, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.

24) When he had gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him. His body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the body.

A prophet had a special position, but arrogance put that particular prophet in a prone position.

Evangelist is from evaggelistes. Evaggelion which means good news, so evaggelistes is a bringer of good news – kind of a messenger boy. The apostles were also evaggelistes or evangelists who spread the good word. Again, these were jobs to do, not ranks in a pyramid. Apostles were also evangelists. Deacons were also evangelists.

Delivering the truth about the Messiah naturally brought persecution on the messenger. It always does, which is why so many present day “evangelists” water it down until it’s not the Messiah’s good news at all. If there is no persecution, then there is no real evaggelion.

Elder is from the Greek presbuteros, either an adjective meaning old, or a noun meaning an old man. This term was often used of Jews.

Luke 22:66-67

66) As soon as it was day, the assembly of the elders of the people was gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away into their council, saying,

67) “If you are the Christ, tell us…

And it was used of Christians, which was natural since it just meant an old man.

Acts 14:23

23) When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

These older men were overseers of local groups. Peter was an apostle but he also described himself as an elder. This position was respected, but presumably old men who were ordained as overseers had gained enough wisdom with their age not to be exalted by their position. Again, throughout most of their history true Christians suffered persecution, even old men. Polycarp was in his eighties when he was martyred by Rome. Such an eventuality always has a humbling effect.

Teachers had the most basic function, but that was not an exalted title like rabbi. And shepherd was what elders did, to help guide and protect the flock.

All those were positions of serving. None were positions of being served. All required giving and sacrifice on the part of the server. Christ had personally taught them to be servants.

WEB Matt 20:25-28

25) But Yeshua summoned them, and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

26) It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

27) Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant,

28) even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The jobs of Ephesians 4:11 cited earlier were for service. King James, though, insisted on keeping ecclesiastical power language.

KJV Eph 4:11-12

11) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12) For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

“…for the work of the ministry” sounds churchy. The word translated ministry there is diakonia, related to diakonos discussed earlier, meaning service. World English Bible translates it that way.

Eph 4:11-12

11) He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;

12) for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;

“…to the work of serving” doesn’t sound so churchy, does it?

Even apostles saw themselves as servants, not only of Christ but of Christ’s people.

As Paul wrote —

WEB 1Cor 3:5

5) Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

WEB 2Cor 4:5

5) For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake;

And Peter.

WEB 1Pet 5:2-3

2) Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;

3) neither as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.

So Christ’s flock had apostles, evangelists, prophets, prophetesses, teachers, shepherds, old men, table waiters and servers. That was not a pyramid. Those were positions of service, different jobs that needed to be done. Apostles were sent forth on the biggest missions. Evangelists spread the word. Prophets received communication directly from God. Teachers, shepherds, old men, table waiters and servers worked directly with the flock, teaching, guiding and helping physically.

There was no instance where one man ruled the flock or any part of the flock like an emperor. All served as servants. Government was from the top down and all around, and that government was Yeshua Himself. Under Him there was no human pyramid, no ladder of power for ambitious self-seekers to climb. All positions were positions of service, without exalting titles or ornamentation or regalia. Some worked without enough reimbursement even for daily living. Many gave their lives in their work. There was no suffocating blanket of human administration. There were no soldiers patrolling to enforce obedience. All Christianos had free choice to control their actions. Everyone in the flock had direct access to the King and everyone was directly responsible to the King, as Ananias and Sapphira were. All servers went directly to God to direct their lives. The deacons or table waiters Stephen and Philip did not have to go to the pope for permission to evangelize. They went directly to Yeshua and He said yes.

Again – there was no pyramid. There was no pope over the whole church, no archbishops under the pope over part of the church, no regional directors under the archbishops, and so on and so forth. Nobody stood between anybody and Christ the King. Nobody kissed anybody’s ring. There was and is only one Lord and Master.

2Cor 1:24

24) Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy. For you stand firm in faith.

And hard as it is to believe, following that principle that there was no pyramid of power and no emperors, there weren’t even any pastors ruling over the local churches.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2018 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 41

The King Rules His Kingdom

There was no doubt that Yahweh governed Israel personally. Look what He did.

1. He rescued Israel from Pharaoh and finished him off with ten plagues and a wall of wobbly water.
2. He gave Israel the ten rules of life with an earthquaking in-person sermon and a granite handwritten letter.
3. He helped the Hebrew grasshoppers run the eight foot tall giants out of the Promised Land.
4. He raised up judges like Gideon and Samson to lead Israel out of oppression by their surrounding enemies.

Yes, Yahweh as Yeshua did lead Israel personally. In spite of all that, what happened?

Israel decided that God could not govern them directly!

1Sam 8:5
5) …now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

It’s no surprise then that Yeshua, as He did with the Hebrews, governs His new covenant flock directly.

First of all, He began His flock at Pentecost — on His timing — making the disciples wait.

Acts 1
4) Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.

He personally picked Judas’ replacement.

Acts 1
23) They put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24) They prayed, and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two you have chosen
25) to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place.”
26) They drew lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

When some of the early disciples lied to the spirit of the Lord or Master, He personally booted them to Boot Hill.

Acts 5
1) But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession,
2) and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
3) But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
4) While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”
5) Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things.
6) The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him.
7) About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in.
8) Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” She said, “Yes, for so much.”
9) But Peter asked her, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”
10) She fell down immediately at his feet, and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband.

When Stephen was murdered, Yeshua was right there with him.

Acts 7
55) But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Yeshua standing on the right hand of God,
56) and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57) But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.
58) They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59) They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Yeshua, receive my spirit!”
60) He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Christ had Philip walk into the desert to meet with an Ethiopian high official, and then, to save Philip the walk back, gave him a supersonic return flight.

Acts 8
26) But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.”
27) He arose and went; and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship.
28) He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.
29) The Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”
30) Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31) He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him.

34) The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”
35) Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him Yeshua.
36) As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”

38) He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
39) When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing.
40) But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.

Yeshua personally picked His apostle to the Gentiles, which was somewhat of a surprise to the Christianos, to the Jews — and to that apostle himself.

Acts 9
1) But Saul, still breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,
2) and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3) As he traveled, it happened that he got close to Damascus, and suddenly a light from the sky shone around him.
4) He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5) He said, “Who are you, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Yeshua, whom you are persecuting.
6) But rise up, and enter into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7) The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the sound, but seeing no one.
8) Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. They led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
9) He was without sight for three days, and neither ate nor drank.
10) Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias!” He said, “Behold, it’s me, Lord.”
11) The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,
12) and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.”
13) But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem.
14) Here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”
15) But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.
16) For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

We notice in all those examples that there was no church government bureaucracy that Yeshua went through. He did not check what He did with the “church government.”

Why not?

He is the church government.

What if there had been layers of bureaucratic church government in place? What would they have done in each of those instances?

In picking a disciple to replace Judas, they would not have chosen by looking at the hearts of the men. They couldn’t. So they inevitably would have chosen based on outward appearance, education, flattering words, and men pleasing ability. But that’s not what happened. “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two you have chosen.” And He did choose, as only He could.

When Ananias and Saphira, who had probably seen the miraculous scene on Pentecost and miraculous healings, decided to pretend they had given more than they had, no church government would have condemned them to Boot Hill. After all, they did give a substantial amount to the church! Nevertheless, Christ sent them to Boot Hill, so called from the old west, where gunfighters were buried because they died “with their boots on” and not a bed-ridden death. Ananias and Saphira died with their sandals on and were not even given a formal burial. The young men just dug a hole and in they went.

Again, no church government would have or could have done it that way.

No church government would have picked Saul/Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. First of all, he was not a Gentile but a Hebrew from the little tribe of Benjamin that was almost wiped out because of their perversion. Wouldn’t a Gentile have been better for the apostle to the Gentiles? Or if an Israelite, wouldn’t someone from Judah or even Ephraim have seemed more appropriate?

Besides, Paul was the most avid persecutor of the Christianos. Even Ananias, the one who was used to restore Paul’s sight, was surprised by Christ’s thinking. “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem. Here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” Ananias was surely a great guy — but he was just a guy.

Repeat — no church government would have picked a Benjamite, the prime persecutor of the flock, to be the apostle to the Gentiles. But Christ did.

Worked out pretty good.

A church government probably would not have sent Philip hiking into the Negev just to chase down one Ethiopian chariot. How illogical is that? Jerusalem was full of people, so why go off into the desert to meet with one Ethiopian? The disciples were prone to such logical thinking as that, as we all are.

Matt 26
6) Now when Yeshua was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
7) a woman came to him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.
8) But when his disciples saw this, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?
9) For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.”

Doesn’t that sound like normal church government thinking there? So most church bureaucracies would have negated sending Philip to the Negev.

This is such an important lesson, so obvious yet so difficult to accept. Christ the King rules His flock as if He is King. Christians are quick to agree that Christ is King, but very slow to admit that He rules as King.

As He did with Cornelius and Peter.

Acts 10
1) Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,
2) a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God.
3) At about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him, and saying to him, “Cornelius!”
4) He, fastening his eyes on him, and being frightened, said, “What is it, Lord?” He said to him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God.
5) Now send men to Joppa, and get Simon, who is surnamed Peter.

19) While Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men seek you.
20) But arise, get down, and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.”
21) Peter went down to the men, and said, “Behold, I am he whom you seek. Why have you come?”
22) They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous man and one who fears God, and well spoken of by all the nation of the Jews, was directed by a holy angel to invite you to his house, and to listen to what you say.”

Yeshua personally directed all that. And He personally assigned Paul and Barnabas their jobs.

Acts 13
1) Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2) As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.”

Paul was even told exactly where to go.

Or where not to go, as in ‘Don’t go to Asia.’

Acts 16
6) When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
7) When they had come opposite Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit didn’t allow them.
8) Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.
9) A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing, begging him, and saying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.”
10) When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the Good News to them.

Paul was told to stay in Corinth for a while.

Acts 18
5) But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
6) When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!”
7) He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.
8) Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.
9) The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;
10) for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”
11) He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Paul was told to go to Rome.

Acts 19
21) Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
22) Having sent into Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

Acts 23
10) When a great argument arose, the commanding officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks.
11) The following night, the Lord stood by him, and said, “Cheer up, Paul, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must testify also at Rome.”

Acts 27
23) For there stood by me this night an angel, belonging to the God whose I am and whom I serve,
24) saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. Behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’

Church governments often do what Christ did in all those examples there — tell their men where to go and what to do.

Church governments can be a form of socialism, where elitist central planners — those who are supposed to know better — replace individual choice. Paul did go to Jerusalem to check with the apostles, elders and the whole assembly about circumcision, but that was the whole assembly and not just an elitist corps. And after that Paul looked directly to Christ for his personal direction. He did not look to other men to tell him where to go and what to do.

If Yeshua is the King of His flock, and He is, this means each individual in the flock must look directly to Christ for his guidance and not to a denominational government. When people look to governments of men first, the servant is not above his master. Speakers tend to check what they say with their church or denomination first, rather than checking with Christ first, and that is then the source of their inspiration, more inspired by men than by God.

It is not enough just to have the knowledge that Christ is King. In each personal life we must acknowledge that He is my King. This is not just a theological position but a personal conversion.

John 20:28
…”My Lord and my God!”

This is learning not to be like Israel with their go-between, get-in-the way kings.

Does Christ use church bureaucracies then? Does He imitate Rome, the epitome of human governments?

Yeshua personally led Israel through the wilderness as their Rock. He even told them where to go and when to leave, as the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They moved only when He told them to. They went only where He led them. Originally there was no human king under Him, and no government bureaucracy under Him, to take Israel’s children, their property, their taxes and their devotion. The King personally governed Israel as only He can.

Then — no surprise! — the same King governs new covenant Israel the same way.

Personally.

No pyramid of power.

No sprawling government bureaucracy.

The Roman emperor was not God. He had to have a pyramid of power to govern his kingdom, simply because he was human. He could only see across the room, until he got older and then he couldn’t even clearly see that far. Even if he had used glasses, he could still only see people’s appearance and not their hearts. With his pyramid of soldiers and magistrates and Herods and Pilates, he could only control people by force, not by spirit.

Yeshua is God, the Son of God. He can see not only across the room, but all across the world. He not only sees the outside of people but also their hearts. He leads his people by spirit, not by force. Since Yeshua is God, He does not need a pyramid of power — a human bureaucratic government — to control His flock. He has enough power to do that Himself.

Yeshua was the opposite of Roman emperors such as Augustus and Tiberius, so we would naturally expect Him to govern in an opposite way from those guys. No — Christ’s flock is not governed like the Roman empire with a pyramid of power and a smothering government bureaucracy.

However, old covenant Israel rejected this personal King for a Roman type human bureaucracy. Would new covenant Israel do the same thing?

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 40

Two Kingdoms

Two kingdoms, in continuous conflict, each trying to eliminate the other.

One is the Kingdom of God. Christ spoke often about that kingdom.

Mark 1:14-15
14) Now after John was taken into custody, Yeshua came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God,
15) and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

Luke 8:1
1) It happened soon afterwards, that he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God. With him were the twelve,

Christ had good reason to teach about the Kingdom of God. After all, that’s why He was sent.

Luke 4:43
43) But he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.”

The Kingdom of God, also called the Kingdom of Heaven, is not of this world, not of this present age.

John 18:36
36) Yeshua answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.”

Paul wrote that the Kingdom of God is not a fleshly kingdom.

1Cor 15:50
50) Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

The Kingdom of God has its beginning in its King and his redeemed, but the fullness of it is still to come.

Luke 21:5-7, 28-31
5) As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,
6) “As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”
7) They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”

28) But when these things begin to happen, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”
29) He told them a parable. “See the fig tree, and all the trees.
30) When they are already budding, you see it and know by your own selves that the summer is already near.
31) Even so you also, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near.

So the fullness of the kingdom is yet to come. The Messiah’s followers who will be in the Kingdom of God are often described as a flock. Yahweh, or Yeshua, led Israel through the wilderness like a flock of sheep.

Ps 77:20
20) You led your people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Ps 78:52
52) But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

However, Israel acted more like goats than sheep, leading to a new flock.

Isa 40:10-11
10) Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
11) He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.

Ezek 34:22-23
22) therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
23) I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

In his earthly years, Yeshua often referred to his followers as His flock.

Luke 12:32
32) Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

John 10:1-16
1) “Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
2) But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3) The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
4) Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5) They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”
6) Yeshua spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.
7) Yeshua therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door.
8) All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.
9) I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.
10) The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
11) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12) He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.
13) The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.
14) I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;
15) even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
16) I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

That flock is the beginning of the Kingdom of God —

One of the two conflicting kingdoms.

The other kingdom is of this world.

1John 5:19
19) We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

When Satan offered Christ the kingdoms of this world if Yeshua would worship him, those were Satan’s to give.

Matt 4:8-9
8) Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.
9) He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.”

The kingdoms of this world are Satan’s kingdom.

During Christ’s earthly life, the seat of this world’s kingdom was Rome, the apex of worldly kingdoms. Even to this day Rome is widely praised for its efficient government administration.

So how did Rome — this world’s kingdom, Satan’s kingdom — govern?

The hallmark of the Roman Empire was its extensive system of imperial administration, which included a hierarchy of magistrates and provincial governors.[1]

Which is to say, the prime mark of the Roman Empire was its smothering government bureaucracy, the penultimate pyramid of power.

At the top of the pyramid was the emperor, Augustus being the first.

Augustus built a foundation for his rule by consolidating political power in himself. At the same time, he maintained the veneer of the old republican political institutions by preserving the Senate, popular assemblies, and magisterial offices, though over time these bodies became more ceremonial than functional, merely rubber-stamping the decrees of the emperor. Augustus also reshaped the Senate, reducing its number from over one thousand to six hundred by weeding out senators he considered unworthy and handpicking its membership.[2]

Rome governed – and Satan governs – by centralizing power in a person. The first emperor Augustus kept the Roman Senate, giving the appearance of still having the Republic. However, the Senate was reduced in number, then the senators were handpicked by the emperor and therefore controlled by the emperor. It was no longer a Republic Senate, just a Rubber Stamp. They were not a check on the power of the emperor. They were just a part of the emperor’s pyramid of power.

Augustus and his successors built a system of imperial government to administer the empire’s vast territories and link them to the capital. This system, which allowed the provinces some measure of independence while being subject to Roman taxation and military control—functions crucial for the maintenance of the empire—proved quite efficient. Augustus settled former soldiers in the provinces, thus spreading Roman political and cultural influence and securing his power in distant lands…[3]

The emperor controlled Roman administration as he had done with the Senate. Every government position was an extension of the emperor’s power — just a piece of the pyramid.

The period of peace and prosperity inaugurated by Augustus persisted until the end of the second century, the high-water mark of the Roman Empire. By this time, the empire had attained an unprecedented degree of organization and unity—a remarkable achievement for such a large and diverse set of territories. This unity was attributed directly to the emperor: whereas under the Republic Romans’ chief loyalty had been to the state and its institutions, under the empire the emperor himself became their primary allegiance. Throughout the empire, cults were formed to worship the emperor and his family.[4]

Notice that the focus was placed on one powerful person, so much so that the person in power was even worshiped.

The emperors from Augustus through Marcus Aurelius (121–180) continued to strengthen their position and prerogatives. Many emperors came up through the military, and they used the power of the army to secure their rule. By the second century the emperor was named in public documents as dominus noster (Our Master), and his decrees were legally binding—indeed, all laws came from the emperor in the form of edicts, judgments, and mandates…[5]

All laws came from the emperor. His word was law. Naturally then, it was unlawful to disagree with the dictator who made the laws. After all, he was dominus noster, “Our Master.”

The emperor was known as the princeps (first citizen) during the first two centuries of the empire. Under this system, called the principate, the emperor consolidated the political power of several offices that had existed under the Republic: He took on the executive functions and imperium (absolute authority) of the consul (chief magistrate) and the religious authority of the pontifex maximus (high priest). Additionally, the emperor was invested with two other types of absolute authority: imperium proconsulare, governorship and command of the provinces, and imperium proconsulare maius, the power to trump any magistrate anywhere in the empire. Over time, the emperor took on all lawmaking authority…[6]

The emperor was imperium consul, pontifex maximus, imperium proconsulare, and imperium proconsulare maius. In other words, he was it. The government of Rome that is so praised for efficiency was that way because it bulldozed over individual freedoms.

That was how Rome governed – an extensive system of imperial administration under the emperor.

That’s how Satan governs.

Satan’s kingdom has power centralized in a person. That person is evil to whatever degree before they receive that power, then their evil is magnified by that power. Roman emperors are without exception signets of unchained human nature, the evil embodied in the human heart allowed free rein by royal reign.

Under that powerful person are political appointees who serve the centralized power. This pyramid of power is upheld by force of arms, soldiers whose sole purpose is not to uphold right and wrong but only to uphold the centralized power. The emperor or king or party chairman or fuhrer is right and it is wrong to even question whether he is right.

For example, in 30 CE the Roman emperor Tiberius had Herod in Galilee and Pilate in Judea. They were appointed by Rome and sought to serve Rome. Pilate knew that killing an innocent and righteous man was wrong, yet when the Jews threatened him with not being a friend of Caesar, he did what he knew was wrong because of Rome. The Jews themselves condemned Yeshua to death, to solidify their position with Rome. The Roman soldiers tortured and executed a man they didn’t even know, because they served Rome. They never questioned whether Rome was right because Rome itself was right. The soldiers were merely pawns of Roman power.

Those enslaved under such a government are indoctrinated not to individually evaluate right and wrong because the power itself is said to be right. You do not question whether or not the pharaoh, king, Caesar, Fuhrer or party chairman is right, simply because he cannot be wrong. To question whether or not the Fuhrer is right is itself wrong. You’re being disloyal to the Fuhrer.

This is extremely important to understand. This causes people to not individually judge what is right and wrong. They simply have someone else tell them what is right and wrong. When people are told to do wrong, they think they are doing right, because their leader told them it is right, and the leader is always right.

Why did so many Germans fight to the bitter end in World War II? After the imbecilic invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany had no chance of winning a war on multiple fronts, yet the Germans fought on, even to the last block around Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. Why? Why did Germans accept attacking so many nations who had not attacked Germany? Why did Germans participate in crimes against humanity seldom heard of in human history? Why did Germans give up their own lives and well being in a futile and fatal cause?

They did that because they thought they were doing right, because serving the Fuhrer was right.

Heil, Hitler.

This happens over and over in history, as in Rome, Socialist Germany, and Communist China, etc. The focus is subtly shifted from what is right to who is right. People then stop judging what is right and wrong, and simply accept their leader as being right. This is Satan’s prime tool of deception, giving up free will to follow the leader’s will.

This type of government is said to be from the top down. It is not. It is government from the bottom up, because somebody on the bottom gets in front of God. In this government, God does not set right and wrong. The human leader does. And when Satan centralizes human government in such a leader, all he has to do then is control that one person and he controls everybody who follows that person.

As can be seen today in most accounts of the Roman Empire, this type of government is often praised because of its ability to control the people. How does it control the people? By not allowing them the freedom to disagree. They are not unified by the spirit but by force. Unify or die.

The Roman Republic had been founded on the premise of rejecting this type of total government control. But after years of civil war in Rome, an all controlling government was accepted and embraced by the Romans because of its peace keeping ability. Most were content to follow and even worship the emperor, and any who actively disagreed were inactivated.

When this type of government is combined with a charismatic messianic leader, it is viewed as the epitomical human government. Its subjects are emotionally inspired while they’re spiritually numbed. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, a million Germans joyfully took to the streets to celebrate. They no longer had to judge right and wrong. It was right for the National Socialists to outlaw all other political parties because the Fuhrer said so. It was right to hate and kill Jews because the Fuhrer said so. It was right to invade Czechoslovakia and Poland and Belgium and Holland and France and Russia because the Fuhrer said so. Germany would win an impossible war because the Fuhrer said so. They knew the Fuhrer was right so all they had to do was follow the Fuhrer.

Because of their maniacal messianic support of the Fuhrer, sixty million people died, including many of those on that march.

When Yeshua began His new covenant flock, two parallel kingdoms were in continuous conflict, each trying to eliminate the other. One is the Kingdom of God, with Christ and His flock. The other is the kingdom of Satan, typified by Rome, with territories conquered by war, an economy supported by slavery, peace enforced by soldiers and a pyramid of power that spread a blanket of suffocating government control.

And that’s how Satan’s kingdom is governed.

How is the other kingdom governed? How does a Shepherd lead a flock? Does He have a human messianic leader with his own personal pyramid of power, like Rome?

Endnotes

[1] “Roman Empire”, Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcriptand-maps/roman-empire

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 39

King, Prophet, High Priest

Moses talked with God as with a friend, but Moses could never be high priest.

Aaron was the high priest.

Moses was a prophet and talked directly with Yahweh, but Aaron wore the beautiful garments of the high priest into the Holy of Holies where Yahweh was.

Aaron was said to be Moses’ prophet when Moses went before Pharaoh, and Miriam was called a prophetess, but Moses was the one that Yahweh spoke to directly. Even though Moses talked with God friend to friend, Moses could never be the high priest, or a priest at all. Each man, Moses and Aaron, had his job to do. Neither man could do the other’s job.

So, at that time, Moses was prophet, Aaron was high priest, and Yahweh was king. The people looked to Moses to give them messages from the King and they looked to Aaron to lead religious services between them and the King. This was a separation of powers — the principle that America was founded on — between Moses and Aaron. The powers of the prophet or political leader and those of the high priest or religious leader were not centralized in one man. And, over them all was the King, Yahweh.

Miriam and Aaron tried to do a power grab, as people already in power often do. No direct communication from Yahweh to Miriam the prophetess is recorded, but she led the Hebrew women in a dance after victory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea. In this power grab, Miriam, for whatever reason, was the one singled out for punishment.

Num 12:1-10
1) Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.
2) They said, “Has Yahweh indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And Yahweh heard it.
3) Now the man Moses was very humble, above all the men who were on the surface of the earth.
4) Yahweh spoke suddenly to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of Meeting!” The three of them came out.
5) Yahweh came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward.
6) He said, “Hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I Yahweh will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.
7) My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house.
8) With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see Yahweh’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”
9) The anger of Yahweh was kindled against them; and he departed.
10) The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

Leprosy seemed to be the punishment of choice for those who tried to centralize power in their positions. Uzziah was the king who wanted to be a priest. Unlike Miriam, he did not get over his leprosy after one week.

2Chr 26:16-21
16) But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17) Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of Yahweh, who were valiant men:
18) and they resisted Uzziah the king, and said to him, It isn’t for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary; for you have trespassed; neither shall it be for your honor from Yahweh God.
19) Then Uzziah was angry; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense.
20) Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked on him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; yes, himself hurried also to go out, because Yahweh had struck him.
21) Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of Yahweh: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.

After Israel got human kings, the offices of king and high priest were separate, with no man filling both positions and no woman filling either position. Both positions were inherited by family. A high priest had to be from Aaron and a king had to be from David, in the united monarchy and then in Judah. No high priest could be king because he was from Aaron and not David. And no king could be high priest, because he was from David and not Aaron.

During the time of the Maccabees/Hasmoneans, that family took over the position of both high priest and king or political leader. The office of high priest had been passed down from Aaron to the oldest living son of each generation, i.e. Eleazar, then Phineas, then Zadok, etc. The Maccabees were priests from Aaron not from that high priest line. Since they were Levites, they of course were not of the royal line of David of Judah. So the Maccabees combined the office of high priest and king, and they had the right to neither.

After the fall of Judah’s kingdom, the kings who ruled them were Gentiles — Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. And by Yeshua’s time, the office of high priest was also controlled by Gentile kings, awarded by them as a political prize. The high priests had power because of their position and they were corrupted by the power of that position, but they were not kings, because they were under Rome.

At the time of Christ’s death, Tiberius the pervert was emperor, and the emperor was also pontifex maximus, the high priest of the Roman religion. So Rome did combine the two offices of political leader and religious leader.

We see, then, that in God’s design the positions of political leader and religious leader were never filled by one man. In Rome, both positions were combined, which maximized the power of the emperor and maximized the evil that a man could do. The height of this evil was when the Christianos were martyred because they would not sacrifice to the emperor/high priest.

Finally, there came one man, son of man and Son of God, who could fill both offices of King and high priest without maximizing evil, since He had no evil.

Heb 1:1-3
1) God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
2) has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
3) His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself made purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

As in the parable of the farmers and the vineyard in Matthew 21 that we read earlier, God sent prophets to speak to His people. They were beaten and killed, so finally He sent His Son. This Son is “the very image of [the Father’s] substance” – like the messenger who had Yahweh’s presence in Him. This Son is “The radiance of [the Father’s] glory” — like the messenger of Yahweh in the flaming bush. And this Son sat down at the right hand of Yahweh.

When Caiaphas the high priest condemned Yeshua to death, that spotless offering was purification for our sins. He who the high priest offered became the high priest who makes the offering.

Heb 2:14-15, 17-18
14) Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15) and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

17) Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
18) For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

Caiaphas was not a merciful high priest. Instead of delivering from death, he delivered to death. He who was delivered to death can understand those who are in the bondage of fearing death.

Heb 4:14-16
14) Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.
15) For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.
16) Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

For our high priest we have Christ instead of Caiaphas. He knows our weakness and knowing Him is our strength. Because of Him, we can go right to the throne of Yahweh, to find mercy and help from God whenever we need it. There are no intervening layers between us and that throne. It’s just us and our high priest, intervening for us there at the right hand of God the Father.

Heb 7:23-28
23) Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death.
24) But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable.
25) Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
26) For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27) who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.
28) For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

Yes, high priests had weaknesses. Like human vanity and ambition. Such as this high priest.

Acts 23:1-5
1) Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day.”
2) The high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.
3) Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to judge me according to the law, and command me to be struck contrary to the law?”
4) Those who stood by said, “Do you malign God’s high priest?”
5) Paul said, “I didn’t know, brothers, that he was high priest. For it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

Acts 24:1
1) After five days, the high priest, Ananias, came down with certain elders and an orator, one Tertullus. They informed the governor against Paul.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia comments on that high priest.

ISBE article Ananias (1)
A high priest in Jerusalem from 47-59 AD. From Josephus (Ant., XX, v, 2; vi, 2; ix, 2; BJ, II, xvii, 9) we glean the following facts: He was the son of Nedebaeus (or Nebedaeus) and was nominated to the high-priestly office by Herod of Chalcis. In 52 AD he was sent to Rome by Quadratus, legate of Syria, to answer a charge of oppression brought by the Samaritans, but the emperor Claudius acquitted him. On his return to Jerusalem, he resumed the office of high priest. He was deposed shortly before Felix left the province, but continued to wield great influence, which he used in a lawless and violent way. He was a typical Sadducee, wealthy, haughty, unscrupulous, filling his sacred office for purely selfish and political ends, anti-nationalist in his relation to the Jews, friendly to the Romans. He died an ignominious death, being assassinated by the popular zealots (sicarii) at the beginning of the last Jewish war. In the New Testament he figures in two passages.

Perhaps Paul did not know Ananias was high priest because Ananias had recently been appointed to that position. This was not the same Ananias or Annas who was the father of Caiaphas’ wife. Like those other high priests, though, he was also the bitter adversary of Christ and the Christianos.

Those high priests had weaknesses, yet they entered the Holy of Holies every year on Atonement. But they were not the real high priest and the Holy of Holies they entered was not the real one.

Heb 9:24-28
24) For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
25) nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own,
26) or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27) Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
28) so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.

So Christ, not Caiaphas or somebody like him, is our high priest. He enters not just a tent but the real Holy of Holies in heaven. What does that mean for us?

Heb 10:19-23
19) Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Yeshua,
20) by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21) and having a great priest over the house of God,
22) let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
23) let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.

Ritual religion, with big buildings and big services and big positions, cannot get beyond their rituals. Just like the kings over Israel, that which looks so good keeps you from getting to that which is good, and to have the boldness to enter into the holy place.

No ritual religion can give you this.

Heb 12:1-2
1) Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2) looking to Yeshua, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

That is the whole point of this whole book — look to Yeshua, the author and perfecter of your faith, your high priest, your King, who sits on the right hand of God at the throne of God. Don’t ever put any church, denomination, religious leader or anything between you and Him.

In Exodus, Moses was the prophet, Aaron was the high priest, and Yahweh was the King.

Guess what?

In Yeshua, we have all those, the prophet like unto Moses, the coming King on the throne of David, and the high priest, making offering for us at the right hand of God the Father.

Heb 13:10-15
10) We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.
11) For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.
12) Therefore Yeshua also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.
13) Let us therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.
14) For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.
15) Through him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 38

Israel accepts the King they Rejected

There are two types of beings.

1. Those who die.
2. Those who don’t.

How would you describe a being who doesn’t die, who lives forever, who always exists?

How about – He Is?

Or if that being is speaking — “I AM?”

I AM includes I have been, I will be, I am right now and I Am always.

I AM!

In discussions with the Jews, Yeshua three times referred to himself as I AM.

ISV John 8:24-28
24) That is why I told you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”
25) Then they asked him, “Who are you?” Yeshua told them, “What have I been telling you all along?
26) I have much to say about you and to condemn you for. But the one who sent me is truthful, and what I have heard from him I declare to the world.”
27) They didn’t realize that he was talking to them about the Father.
28) So Yeshua told them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own authority. Instead, I speak only what the Father has taught me.

Some translations render “I AM” as “I am He.” They may put the ‘He’ in italics, to show that ‘He’ is not in the original Greek. The International Standard Version just quoted is accurate with the Greek, where Christ referred to Himself not as ‘I am he,’ but as “I AM.”

When Judas and the Jews came to capture Yeshua, He again said “I AM.”

John 18:3-6 ISV
3) So Judas took a detachment of soldiers and some officers from the high priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
4) Then Yeshua, knowing everything that was going to happen, went forward and asked them, “Who are you looking for?”
5) They answered him, “Yeshua from Nazareth.” Yeshua told them, “I AM.” Judas, the man who betrayed him, was standing with them.
6) When Yeshua told them, “I AM,” they backed away and fell to the ground.

That was a very powerful statement from I AM to those men, all of whom now AIN’T. It was obviously very powerful because it knocked all the attackers down, with their wimpy weapons in their hands.

In John 8, Christ once again called Himself “I AM.” This time, the Jews tried to kill Him for saying it.

ISV John 8:56-59
56) Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day, and he saw it and was glad.”
57) Then the Jewish leaders asked him, “You are not even 50 years old, yet you have seen Abraham?”
58) Yeshua told them, “Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, before there was an Abraham, I AM!”
59) At this, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Yeshua hid himself and went out of the Temple.

Why did the Jews try to kill Yeshua when He said I AM?

David Guzik’s Commentary on the Whole Bible says:

“I Am: The ancient Greek phrase is ego emi, which is the same term used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Yeshua’s day to describe the Voice from the burning bush.

The best proof what Yeshua meant by claiming to be the I Am is found by seeing the response of His listeners: They took up stones to throw at Him. They wanted to stone Him for blasphemy, for claiming to be God.”

So when Yeshua described Himself as I AM, the Jews knew He meant that He was in the burning bush that got Moses’ attention.

Paul wrote that Christ was the Rock with Israel in the wilderness.

1Cor 10:1-4
1) Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2) and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3) and all ate the same spiritual food;
4) and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

The Hebrew scriptures speak often about that Rock.

Deut 32:12-18; 29-31
12) Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.
13) He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of he field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;
14) Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
15) But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16) They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.
17) They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread.
18) Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

29) Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30) How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
31) For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

2Sam 23:1-4
1) Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse says, the man who was raised on high says, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel:
2) “The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.
3) The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, ‘One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God,
4) shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through clear shining after rain.’

If Yeshua was the Rock that went with Israel through the wilderness, who did Moses see in the burning bush?

Exod 3:1-5
1) Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb.
2) The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

Verse 2 says that the angel of Yahweh was in the flame.

The word rendered as ‘angel’ is malak, or messenger, as in the name of the book of Malachi, which means ‘my messenger.’ Malak is also in these verses, meaning an ordinary human messenger.

KJVGen 32:6
6) And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

KJVNum 20:14
14) And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:

With the angel in the burning bush in Exodus 3:2, Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible and Young’s Literal Translation render malak as ‘messenger,’ but most translations render ‘malak’ as angel when it refers to a messenger from the Father in heaven. Seems more religious that way, I guess.

So, the messenger of Yahweh was in the burning bush. Immediately, though, the passage says that this messenger was Yahweh himself.

Exodus 3
3) Moses said, “I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”
4) When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.”
5) He said, “Don’t come close. Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.”

The messenger of Yahweh was also Yahweh. That’s why the ground around Him was so holy.

When Moses asked Yahweh who he should say had sent him, ‘I AM’ was the explanation of that name.

Exod 3
11) Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
12) He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
13) Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you;’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What should I tell them?”
14) God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Moses was to say that I AM had sent him. Then he was to tell Israel this.

Exod 3(cont.)
15) God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.
16) Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt;
17) and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’
18) They will listen to your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall tell him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh, our God.’

Moses and Aaron were to tell Israel that Yahweh had sent them. That is His name forever and His memorial to all generations. Yahweh is the Ten Commandment name of God, appearing in all five of the first half of the Ten Commandments, and specifically commanded in the third commandment.

Exod 20:7
7) “You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

The name Yahweh is widely thought to be from the Hebrew verb ‘to be,’ or existence. Everything that exists comes from and depends on Him.

In other words, He is.

Or as   Yahweh put it, “I Am.”

And since everybody else is either dead, or will be dead, then everybody else is in this category –

“I Ain’t.”

When Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh, this is what they said.

Exod 5
1) Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”

And Pharaoh said, “Who’s Yahweh? I don’t know Him.”

2) Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don’t know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”

Pharaoh would learn.

So in the burning bush was the messenger or angel of Yahweh, who was also Yahweh Himself. When Israel had come out of Egypt, they were told that Yahweh’s name was in this messenger.

Exod 23:20-23
20) “Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
21) Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.
22) But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.
23) For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.

A couple more examples where the messenger of Yahweh was also called Yahweh are with Abraham and Gideon.

Gen 18:1-2
1) Yahweh appeared to him [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
2) He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,

Yahweh appeared to Abraham there, so one of those three beings was called Yahweh. This was that messenger who dealt directly with people.

Yahweh had an extended conversation with Abraham.

Gen 18:13-33
13) Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really bear a child, yet I am old?’
14) Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
15) Then Sarah denied, saying, “I didn’t laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
16) The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way.
17) Yahweh said, “Will I hide from Abraham what I do,
18) since Abraham has surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?
19) For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him.”
20) Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
21) I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”
22) The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh.
23) Abraham drew near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?

Abraham then had a bargaining session with Yahweh, and Yahweh agreed that if there were ten righteous in the whole plain, He would not destroy those cities. And then He left.

33) Yahweh went his way, as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

Down in Sodom, Lot didn’t want to leave the sordid cities, so the messenger granted his request to save one town. He urged Lot to hurry, because this messenger could not destroy the evil cities until Lot got out of the way. When Lot got, Sodom got hot, and the messenger, who was Yahweh, rained down fire.

Gen 19:21-24
21) He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
22) Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23) The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24) Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from
ahweh out of the sky.

Another example of the messenger of Yahweh being called Yahweh was with Gideon.

Judg 6:11-24
11) The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
12) The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
13) Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
14) Yahweh looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven’t I sent you?”
15) He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
16) Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
17) He said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.
18) Please don’t go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you.” He said, “I will wait until you come back.”
19) Gideon went in, and prepared a young goat, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.
20) The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” He did so.
21) Then the angel of Yahweh stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight.
22) Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face!”
23) Yahweh said to him, “Peace be to you! Don’t be afraid. You shall not die.”
24) Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it “Yahweh is Peace.” To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

This angel or messenger had fought Pharaoh.

Exod 14:19-20
19) The angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them, and stood behind them.
20) It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud and the darkness, yet gave it light by night: and the one didn’t come near the other all the night.

In Numbers 20, the same Hebrew word malak is translated as messengers in verse 14 and angel in verse 16, when it refers to the spiritual being that led Israel out of Egypt.

Num 20:14-16
14) Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the travail that has happened to us:
15) how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers:
16) and when we cried to Yahweh, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth out of Egypt: and behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of your border.

Isaiah says that this messenger was Israel’s redeemer and the messenger of Yahweh’s presence.

Isa 63:7-9
7) I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh and the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
8) For he said, “Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely:” so he was their Savior.
9) In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

So the messenger or angel of Yahweh had Yahweh’s presence, meaning He himself was also Yahweh. As Paul said, Christ was the Rock that was with Israel in the wilderness. Therefore this messenger of Yahweh, the One who personally dealt with Israel as Yahweh —

Was Yahweh the King that Israel personally rejected.

The little baby boy who was born King of the Jews was the rejected King Yahweh who had come to reclaim His throne.

Phil 2:5-8
5) Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Yeshua,
6) who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7) but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
8) And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

After the failure of the forty kings of Israel and Judah, Israel had the opportunity to again be ruled by their King. But the Jews again refused Him.

Matt 21:33-44
33) “Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.
34) When the season for the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit.
35) The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
36) Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they treated them the same way.
37) But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
38) But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and seize his inheritance.’
39) So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40) When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”
41) They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season.”
42) Yeshua said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?’
43) “Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruit.

And what nation is this, this nation that brings forth the fruit of the Kingdom of God?

This nation is Israel, begun on Pentecost with Jews and Israelites from many nations, and soon after enlarged with Gentiles grafted in. This Israel does accept Yeshua, the salvation of Yahweh, the messenger of Yahweh, as their King, their pillar of fire at night and their guiding cloud by day, who personally leads and guides them through their lives. Israel does accept the King they rejected. They do not need carnal human kings between Him and them.

One more thing.

In this marvelous story of the rejected King coming back to reclaim His throne …

You can’t make this stuff up. I will say that the Bible is 49 books in original numbering, written over 4000 years by 40 men, yet it is one book crafted by one masterful author, showing Almighty Yahweh God working out His plan in human history.

Long live the King — the I AM who always was, who always is and who always will be. All praise be to the King.