Kashrut and Famine (~17.69 MB) - Moriel Ministries
Kashrut and Famine (~17.69 MB) - Moriel Ministries
Kashrut and Famine (~17.69 MB) - Moriel Ministries
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MORIEL<br />
MINISTRIES<br />
“G o d i s m y t e a c h e r”<br />
April/June 2013<br />
Iyyar/Sivan/Tamuz 5773<br />
No. 54<br />
ANCIENT FUTURE FAITH<br />
PURPOSE DRIVEN<br />
Rick Warren<br />
robert weber<br />
rob bell<br />
Brian Mclaren<br />
Generous O+hodxy<br />
u n k o s h e r<br />
k o s h e r<br />
kashrut <strong>and</strong> famine<br />
A Midrashic commentary on Dietary prohibitions <strong>and</strong> the famine for the Word of God<br />
IN THIS ISSUE: “ Sons of Zadok ”<br />
June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly
F<br />
rom the <strong>Moriel</strong> team,<br />
featured articles<br />
Jacob’s next tour:<br />
GOD IS MY TEACHER<br />
Jacob will be coming to America in early August,<br />
but it will be a brief tour. He has only one conference<br />
planned in California this tour.<br />
For our Canadian friends Jacob will be heading north<br />
to Abbotsford BC for a conference. Details are found<br />
on the website.<br />
Jacob has a few engagements around the country<br />
<strong>and</strong> we hope to see you there. Check the website for<br />
his latest new speaking engagements.<br />
Jacob is also working into his schedule a trip to the<br />
Far East, which we hope will prove fruitful. Please pray<br />
for him as he returns home. Pray he gets some much<br />
needed rest before he heads to the East.<br />
New Canadian Branch<br />
Please pray for Steve Boot as he is opening our newest<br />
branch, <strong>Moriel</strong> Canada. Pray he can work through all<br />
the problems <strong>and</strong> concerns that go with starting a new<br />
branch Also, please pray for Steve <strong>and</strong> his wife as they<br />
decide on how to build this new ministry. Here is the<br />
mailing address of the <strong>Moriel</strong> Canada branch:<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Canada<br />
4909 49 Street PO Box 1122,<br />
Athabasca, Alberta T9S 1A0 Canada<br />
If you need any help in Canada please contact Steve<br />
Boot.<br />
New Website is Up <strong>and</strong> Running!<br />
The new website is now up <strong>and</strong> running, but we are<br />
still working out a few kinks. Overall it is a big step forward<br />
for <strong>Moriel</strong>. We want to thank both Charles <strong>and</strong><br />
Carol for their countless hours, <strong>and</strong> late, late night sessions<br />
to get this all together.<br />
As a number of you know the old webstore was a pain<br />
when it came to ordering. Now the biggest concern is<br />
the PayPal issue, as many people do not have PayPal<br />
accounts. But remember you can use your credit card<br />
with our site. We hope everyone likes new store as we<br />
think it is so much easier, <strong>and</strong> has many more features<br />
that should enhance your shopping experience.<br />
Also, see the article on <strong>Moriel</strong> Internet TV, we need<br />
your support, so please pray this will come together<br />
soon. Our biggest need at <strong>Moriel</strong> is prayer support.<br />
Thank you all.<br />
Jacob’s Itinerary<br />
FOR<br />
USA & CANADA<br />
USA<br />
– Calvary Chapel Chino Hills –<br />
Friday through Sunday August 2-4, 2013<br />
Hope for Today Conference<br />
What’s Wrong with the Church?<br />
Calvary Chapel Chino Hills<br />
4201 Eucalyptus Avenue<br />
Chino, CA 91710<br />
909-393-7100<br />
– Calvary Chapel Hemet –<br />
Sunday, August 25 - 9:30 AM<br />
26121 Hemet St<br />
Hemet, CA 92544<br />
951-927-6117<br />
– Calvary Chapel San Jacinto –<br />
Sunday, August 25 - 5:00 PM<br />
1450 W 7th St<br />
San Jacinto, CA 92582<br />
951-654-1401<br />
Canada<br />
– Columbia Bible College –<br />
Thursday through Sunday,<br />
Aug 15 - 17th, 2013<br />
Learn To Discern <strong>Ministries</strong> Conference<br />
Theme: Fear God, Not Men<br />
2940 Clearbrook Road<br />
Abbotsford, BC<br />
CONTACT Eileen MacDonald<br />
604-814-0777<br />
Cell 604-226-7277<br />
USA/MARCH 2014<br />
– Vision Calvary Chapel –<br />
Friday, March 21<br />
Sunday, March 23, 2014<br />
Prophecy Conference<br />
1900 West Olive Avenue<br />
Porterville, CA 93257<br />
559-361-1200<br />
*Graphics provided by ‘Shutterstock’<br />
<strong>and</strong> ‘Wikipedia.’<br />
GOD IS MY TEACHER<br />
April–June<br />
Issue No. 54<br />
PUBLISHED BY<br />
MORIEL MINISTRIES<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
www.moriel.org<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> International Director<br />
James Jacob Prasch<br />
ADMINISTRATOR<br />
david Lister<br />
Phone: 1•412•321•6154<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> AUSTRALIA, New zeal<strong>and</strong><br />
& SINGAPORE<br />
Margret Godwin<br />
National Administrator<br />
P.O. Box 112 Trafalgar Vic 3824<br />
Phone: 03 5633 2300<br />
Fax: 03 5633 2300<br />
Mob: 0416 138 008<br />
Email: moriel@vic.australia.com.au<br />
moriel South africa<br />
David Royle<br />
1 Trade Street<br />
Napier 7270<br />
West Cape, South Africa<br />
Phone/Fax: 0823739297<br />
moriel United Kingdom<br />
Allison Dodd<br />
P.O. Box 201<br />
Maldenhead Berks SL6 9FB<br />
Engl<strong>and</strong><br />
moriel United states of America<br />
David Lister<br />
P.O. Box 100223<br />
Pittsburgh, PA. 15233-0223<br />
Phone: 1•412•321•6154<br />
Email: morieldavid@yahoo.com<br />
MORIEL japan<br />
Geoff Toole<br />
Email: morieljapan@yahoo.co.jp<br />
kashrut<br />
<strong>and</strong><br />
famine<br />
4<br />
19<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Canada<br />
21<br />
24<br />
27<br />
AUSTRALIANnews<br />
29<br />
moriel japan<br />
kashrut <strong>and</strong> famine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4<br />
sons of zadok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12<br />
MORIEL PHILIPPINES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19<br />
MORIEL SOUTH AFRICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21<br />
MORIEL ISRAEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24<br />
AUSTRALIAN REPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27<br />
MORIEL JAPAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29<br />
MORIEL THAILAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31<br />
B a n g k o k S k y l i n e<br />
R i c e f i e l d s C h i a n g M a i<br />
31<br />
Introducing our New missionary to . . .<br />
thail<strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly
Feature Article Jacob Prasch Jacob Prasch Feature Article<br />
I<br />
The Lord spoke again, ‘These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are<br />
on the earth.”<br />
kashrut<br />
Introduction<br />
<strong>and</strong><br />
famine<br />
The Hebrew Dietary Laws are found<br />
in Dueteronomy 14 <strong>and</strong> Leviticus 11<br />
is the more inclusive version.<br />
The Lord spoke again to Moses <strong>and</strong> to<br />
Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the<br />
sons of Israel, saying, ‘These are the<br />
creatures which you may eat from all<br />
the animals that are on the earth.<br />
Whatever divides a hoof, thus making<br />
split hoofs, <strong>and</strong> chews the cud, among<br />
the animals, that you may eat.<br />
Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these,<br />
among those which chew the cud, or<br />
among those which divide the hoof: the<br />
camel, for though it chews cud, it does<br />
not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you.<br />
Likewise, the shaphan, for though it<br />
chews cud, it does not divide the hoof,<br />
it is unclean to you; (it had to be both<br />
chew the cud <strong>and</strong> divide the hoof) the<br />
rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it<br />
does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to<br />
you; <strong>and</strong> the pig, for though it divides<br />
the hoof, thus making a split hoof, it<br />
does not chew cud, it is unclean to you.<br />
You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch<br />
their carcasses; they are unclean to you.<br />
‘These you may eat, whatever is in the<br />
water: all that have fins <strong>and</strong> scales,<br />
those in the water, in the seas or in the<br />
rivers, you may eat.<br />
But whatever is in the seas <strong>and</strong> in the<br />
rivers that does not have fins <strong>and</strong> scales<br />
(in other words, shellfish) among<br />
all the teeming life of the water, <strong>and</strong><br />
among all the living creatures that are<br />
in the water, they are detestable things<br />
to you, <strong>and</strong> they shall be abhorrent to<br />
you; (notice the words detestable <strong>and</strong><br />
abhorrent–the recur throughout this<br />
passage); you may not eat of their flesh,<br />
<strong>and</strong> their carcasses you shall detest.<br />
Whatever in the water does not have<br />
fins <strong>and</strong> scales is abhorrent to you.<br />
‘These, moreover, you shall detest<br />
among the birds; they are abhorrent,<br />
not to be eaten: the eagle <strong>and</strong> the vulture<br />
<strong>and</strong> the buzzard, <strong>and</strong> the kite <strong>and</strong><br />
the falcon in its kind, every raven in<br />
its kind, <strong>and</strong> the ostrich <strong>and</strong> the owl<br />
<strong>and</strong> the sea gull <strong>and</strong> the hawk in its<br />
kind, <strong>and</strong> the little owl <strong>and</strong> the cormorant<br />
<strong>and</strong> the great owl, <strong>and</strong> the white<br />
owl <strong>and</strong> the pelican <strong>and</strong> the carrion<br />
vulture, <strong>and</strong> the stork, the heron in its<br />
kinds, <strong>and</strong> the hoopoe, <strong>and</strong> the bat.<br />
All the winged insects that walk on all<br />
fours are detestable to you. Yet these<br />
you may eat among all the winged insects<br />
which walk on all fours: those<br />
which have above their feet jointed<br />
A Midrashic<br />
commentary<br />
on<br />
Dietary<br />
prohibitions <strong>and</strong><br />
the<br />
famine<br />
for<br />
the<br />
Word of God !<br />
Written by,<br />
James Jacob Prasch<br />
legs with which to jump on the earth.<br />
These of them you may eat: the locust<br />
in its kinds, <strong>and</strong> the devastating locust<br />
in its kinds, <strong>and</strong> the cricket in its kinds,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the grasshopper in its kinds.<br />
But all other winged insects which are<br />
four-footed are detestable to you.<br />
‘By these, moreover, you will be made<br />
unclean: whoever touches their carcasses<br />
becomes unclean until evening,<br />
<strong>and</strong> whoever picks up any of their carcasses<br />
shall wash his clothes <strong>and</strong> be<br />
unclean until evening.<br />
Concerning all the animals which divide<br />
the hoof but do not make a split<br />
hoof, or which do not chew cud, they<br />
are unclean to you: whoever touches<br />
them becomes unclean.<br />
Also whatever walks on its paws,<br />
among all the creatures that walk on<br />
all fours, are unclean to you; whoever<br />
touches their carcasses becomes unclean<br />
until evening, <strong>and</strong> the one who<br />
picks up their carcasses shall wash his<br />
clothes <strong>and</strong> be unclean until evening;<br />
they are unclean to you.<br />
‘Now these are to you the unclean<br />
among the swarming things which<br />
swarm on the earth: the mole, <strong>and</strong><br />
the mouse, <strong>and</strong> the great lizard in its<br />
kinds, <strong>and</strong> the gecko, <strong>and</strong> the crocodile,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the lizard, <strong>and</strong> the s<strong>and</strong> reptile,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the chameleon.<br />
These are to you the unclean among<br />
all the swarming things; whoever<br />
touches them when they are dead becomes<br />
unclean until evening.<br />
Also anything on which one of them<br />
may fall when they are dead becomes<br />
unclean, including any wooden article,<br />
or clothing, or a skin, or a sack—any<br />
article of which use is made—it shall<br />
be put in the water <strong>and</strong> be unclean until<br />
evening, then it becomes clean. As<br />
for any earthenware vessel into which<br />
one of them may fall, whatever is in it<br />
becomes unclean <strong>and</strong> you shall break<br />
the vessel.<br />
Any of the food which may be eaten,<br />
on which water comes, shall become<br />
unclean, <strong>and</strong> any liquid which may<br />
be drunk in every vessel shall become<br />
unclean.<br />
Everything, moreover, on which part<br />
of their carcass may fall becomes<br />
unclean; an oven or a stove shall be<br />
smashed; they are unclean <strong>and</strong> shall<br />
continue as unclean to you. Nevertheless<br />
a spring or a cistern collecting water<br />
shall be clean, though the one who<br />
touches their carcass shall be unclean.<br />
If a part of their carcass falls on any<br />
seed for sowing which is to be sown, it<br />
is clean. Though if water is put on the<br />
seed <strong>and</strong> a part of their carcass falls<br />
on it, it is unclean to you.<br />
‘Also if one of the animals dies which<br />
you have for food, the one who touches<br />
its carcass becomes unclean until<br />
evening.<br />
He too, who eats some of its carcass<br />
shall wash his clothes <strong>and</strong> be unclean<br />
until evening, <strong>and</strong> the one who picks<br />
up its carcass shall wash his clothes<br />
<strong>and</strong> be unclean until evening.<br />
‘Now every swarming thing that<br />
swarms on the earth is detestable, not<br />
to be eaten. Whatever crawls on its<br />
belly, <strong>and</strong> whatever walks on all fours,<br />
whatever has many feet, in respect to<br />
every swarming thing that swarms on<br />
the earth, you shall not eat them, for<br />
they are detestable.<br />
Do not render yourselves detestable<br />
through any of the swarming things<br />
that swarm; <strong>and</strong> you shall not make<br />
yourselves unclean with them so that<br />
you become unclean.<br />
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate<br />
yourselves therefore, <strong>and</strong> be<br />
holy, for I am holy. And you shall not<br />
make yourselves unclean with any of<br />
the swarming things that swarm on<br />
the earth.<br />
For I am the Lord who brought you up<br />
from the l<strong>and</strong> of Egypt to be your God;<br />
thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.’”<br />
This is the law regarding the animal<br />
<strong>and</strong> the bird, <strong>and</strong> every living thing<br />
that moves in the waters <strong>and</strong> everything<br />
that swarms on the earth, to<br />
make a distinction between the unclean<br />
<strong>and</strong> the clean, <strong>and</strong> between the<br />
edible creature <strong>and</strong> the creature which<br />
is not to be eaten. (Leviticus 11:1-47)<br />
A LACK OF FOOD IS FAMINE<br />
During the Intertestamental Period the<br />
people had the Maccabees, but they had no<br />
prophets.<br />
There was no prophet from the time of<br />
Malachi to the time of John the Baptist. He<br />
came in the spirit of Elijah <strong>and</strong> fed God’s<br />
people during the famine.<br />
So it will be before Jesus comes. There<br />
will be a famine for the hearing of the Word<br />
of God.<br />
“Behold, days are coming,” declares<br />
the Lord God,“When I will send a famine<br />
on the l<strong>and</strong>, Not a famine for bread<br />
or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing<br />
the words of the Lord. (Amos 8:11)<br />
The way Elijah fed the Gentile woman<br />
<strong>and</strong> her son is a type of the way the ministry<br />
of Elijah will operate in the Last Days.<br />
PUBLIC HEATH<br />
These dietary laws are interesting. Jesus<br />
said, “What goes into the mouth does not<br />
make unclean, but what comes out of his<br />
mouth, that is what makes him unclean.”<br />
(Matthew 15:11)<br />
So there is obviously a meaning to it beyond<br />
public health. Nonetheless, let’s begin<br />
there.<br />
In the ancient Near East, with its lack<br />
of refrigeration <strong>and</strong> a desert environment<br />
where animals scavenged to survive, there<br />
was high risk of food poisoning.<br />
In particular, illnesses like trichinosis <strong>and</strong><br />
botulism could be contracted from eating<br />
certain kinds of foods. Pork or shellfish–not<br />
properly frozen, preserved or cooked, eaten<br />
in the kind of environment–was potentially<br />
deadly.<br />
So there was a legitimate medical reason<br />
not to eat these foods.<br />
PEOPLE WHO ARE IN A FAMINE WILL<br />
EAT ANYTHING<br />
But in a famine, anthropologists tell us,<br />
even the most civilized of human beings<br />
will eat anything.<br />
There are case studies where survivors<br />
of a shipwreck, for example, have actually<br />
resorted to cannibalism, eating the flesh of<br />
their own friends, even their own families.<br />
Notice in verse 47, you are to make a distinction<br />
between which is kosher <strong>and</strong> that<br />
which is not kosher, between the clean <strong>and</strong><br />
the unclean, between the eatable <strong>and</strong> that<br />
which is not to be eaten.<br />
The text continually reiterates that if<br />
something is not kosher it is to be detestable,<br />
abhorrent, loathsome.<br />
The thought of eating them should make<br />
us feel sick. These things shall be abhorrent<br />
to you–rats, serpents, bats, roaches, they<br />
shall be abhorrent to you.<br />
Just thinking about eating something like<br />
that should make you feel sick.<br />
But in a famine people get hungry enough<br />
to eat anything. They will even devour each<br />
other.<br />
GOD BECAME FLESH<br />
In the beginning was the Word, <strong>and</strong><br />
the Word was with God, <strong>and</strong> the Word<br />
was God. He was in the beginning<br />
with God... And the Word (Logos) became<br />
flesh, <strong>and</strong> dwelt among us, (John<br />
1:1,14).<br />
The word for dwelt in Greek is kataskenoo.<br />
It is the Greek translation of the Hebrew<br />
verb to tabernacle.<br />
The Hebrew is mishkan (from which<br />
comes (Skekinah). Mishkan speaks of<br />
God’s dwelling place. John is saying that<br />
the same God who was present with ancient<br />
Israel–the Shekinah who dwelt in the tabernacle,<br />
the Mishkan–had now become flesh.<br />
GOD HAD BECOME A MAN<br />
The ancient Greeks were dualists. They<br />
understood about the Logos, the creative<br />
agent of God <strong>and</strong> even the salvific agent of<br />
God, but their concept was of a transcendent<br />
Being.<br />
The minute you say God became a man,<br />
the Word became flesh, the Greeks could<br />
not h<strong>and</strong>le it.<br />
They believed that everything physical<br />
was evil; everything spiritual was good.<br />
Anything physical was regarded as the domain<br />
of a lesser god.<br />
Notice how this perverts a biblical truth.<br />
The Bible doesn’t say everything physical<br />
is bad. It says everything physical is<br />
fallen, <strong>and</strong> has temporarily come under the<br />
domain of Satan.<br />
Satan’s lies always pervert a truth.<br />
DUALISM<br />
Among the Greeks there were two main<br />
philosophical groups: the Stoics <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Epicureans.<br />
The Stoics eschewed everything physical<br />
<strong>and</strong> lived a monastic life based on mortification<br />
of the flesh.<br />
The Epicureans lived a life of lasciviousness.<br />
They believed that only the spiritual<br />
realm mattered.<br />
Both groups taught that there was a split<br />
between the physical world <strong>and</strong> the spiri-<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly
Feature Article – Continued<br />
Feature Article – Continued<br />
tual world.<br />
John’s teaching, that God could become<br />
a man, went directly against the dualistic<br />
Greek ideas.<br />
Dualism had many forms. Christian Science<br />
is dualistic. What does Christian Science<br />
say? “My body is lying to me. This<br />
doesn’t matter; it is only the physical. It’s<br />
the spiritual that matters. Death is an illusion.<br />
Old Age is an illusion.”<br />
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian<br />
Science, first fell victim to the illusion<br />
of old age, then fell victim to the illusion of<br />
sickness, then–voila, la gr<strong>and</strong>e illusion–she<br />
cashed in her chips!<br />
Men like E.W. Kenyon, Kenneth Hagin <strong>and</strong><br />
Kenneth Copel<strong>and</strong> teach this same dualism,<br />
which they learned from Christian Science.<br />
The Bible says that we are called to be<br />
in the world, but not of it, (John 15:18-19;<br />
16:33; Rom. 12:12; Gal. 6:14, Col. 2:20,<br />
James 4:43 <strong>and</strong> 1 John 2: 15-17).<br />
We are not called to be unnatural, we are<br />
called to be supernatural.<br />
Let me explain what is unnatural. The<br />
teaching that if God wants the spiritual man<br />
or the spiritual woman to suffer, they should<br />
be happy to suffer, is not Christian.<br />
That is not normal, that is unnatural.<br />
That is religious masochism. Look at the<br />
example of Jesus, He said, “Father let this<br />
cup pass from Me.” He didn’t want to suffer<br />
but still said, “Thy will be done.”<br />
It is unnatural to say the spiritual believer<br />
wants to suffer, if that is the Lord’s<br />
will. It is supernatural to say, “Lord, all<br />
things work together for the good, <strong>and</strong> if<br />
You know this is the best thing, give me the<br />
grace to suffer.”<br />
We are called to be natural. We are<br />
called to be supernatural. We are not<br />
called to be unnatural.<br />
The early church was up against this radical<br />
Dualism, Gnosticism, <strong>and</strong> all that went<br />
with it, <strong>and</strong> we have the same things today<br />
with the Hyper-Faith teachers.<br />
THE WORD BECAME FLESH<br />
The word became flesh (John 1:14). When<br />
Jerome translated the flesh into Latin in the<br />
Vulgate, he did not use corpus (body), but<br />
carnum, meaning meat. The Greek word<br />
for meat, sarx, The Word–the Logos–became<br />
flesh (sarx), literally, became meat.<br />
The Greek word for meat, sarx, is the<br />
same word for flesh.<br />
The Hebrew word for meat, barsah, is<br />
the same word for flesh.<br />
The Latin word for meat, carnum, is the<br />
same word for flesh.<br />
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes<br />
has eternal life. I am the bread<br />
of life. Your fathers ate the manna in<br />
the wilderness, <strong>and</strong> they died. This<br />
is the bread which comes down out<br />
of heaven, so that one may eat of it<br />
<strong>and</strong> not die. I am the living bread that<br />
came down out of heaven; if anyone<br />
eats of this bread, he will live forever;<br />
<strong>and</strong> the bread also which I will give<br />
for the life of the world is My sarx.”<br />
(John 6:47-51)<br />
In the same way that The Word became<br />
sarx, so now the bread I give is My sarx–<br />
flesh.<br />
Then the Jews began to argue with one<br />
another, saying, “How can this man<br />
give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:52)<br />
It is likely that the Sanhedrin, educated<br />
in midrash, would have understood what<br />
He was about.<br />
Jesus said to them,“Truly, truly, I say<br />
to you, unless you eat the flesh of the<br />
Son of Man <strong>and</strong> drink His blood, you<br />
have no life in yourselves. He who<br />
eats My flesh <strong>and</strong> drinks My blood<br />
has eternal life, <strong>and</strong> I will raise him<br />
up on the last day. For My flesh is true<br />
food, <strong>and</strong> My blood is true drink. He<br />
who eats My flesh <strong>and</strong> drinks My<br />
blood abides in Me, <strong>and</strong> I in him. As<br />
the living Father sent Me, <strong>and</strong> I live<br />
because of the Father, so he who eats<br />
Me, he also will live because of Me.<br />
This is the bread which came down<br />
out of heaven; not as the fathers ate<br />
<strong>and</strong> died; he who eats this bread will<br />
live forever.” (John 6:53-58)<br />
Jesus is talking about Himself as the<br />
bread that came down from heaven. The<br />
manna in the wilderness was a type, Jesus<br />
is the anti-type.<br />
We have to read the text in its context,<br />
but in turn we have to read it in the context<br />
of the whole Bible.<br />
The rabbis tell us that the matzoh–the<br />
bread used at Passover–corresponds to the<br />
flesh of the lamb. The Rabbis say it had<br />
to be striped <strong>and</strong> pierced because it corresponded<br />
to the flesh of the lamb.<br />
But He was pierced through for our<br />
transgressions. . . <strong>and</strong> with His stripes<br />
we are healed (Isaiah 53:5)<br />
When Jesus stated that the bread was<br />
His flesh, He agreed with the rabbis. This<br />
relates to the Passover, insofar as Passover<br />
also comes from the book of Exodus, where<br />
the manna began to fall..<br />
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE<br />
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH<br />
The Roman Catholic Church will try to<br />
tell you that the Lord’s Supper is the key to<br />
eternal life, but that is absurd. In their catechism<br />
they say that sins are forgiven by the<br />
sacraments of baptism <strong>and</strong> penance, not the<br />
Eucharist, so they even contradict their own<br />
doctrine. (Roman Catholic doctrine always<br />
contradicts itself, as does Mormon doctrine).<br />
For John 6:47-58 to be talking about the<br />
Lord’s Supper, it would have had to be talking<br />
about the Last Supper, when the Lord’s<br />
Supper was instituted. The Last Supper had<br />
to take place at Passover time in Jerusalem.<br />
The text tells us it was not yet Passover, <strong>and</strong><br />
this does not take place in Jerusalem.<br />
So it is not talking about the Last<br />
Supper, or the Lord’s Supper in any<br />
primary sense.<br />
What it is talking about is the bread that<br />
fell in the wilderness–a type of Jesus–<strong>and</strong><br />
He says this is His flesh.<br />
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes<br />
has eternal life. (John 6:47)<br />
Believe equals eat. How do we get this?<br />
The Word became flesh. The Word, the Logos,<br />
became sarx. Eat the sarx, believe the<br />
Word. You must read the text in its context.<br />
It has nothing to do with the doctrine of<br />
transubstantiation, which is cannibalism,<br />
<strong>and</strong> it certainly has nothing to do with the<br />
Last Supper.<br />
Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of<br />
Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). He used the<br />
language of the Hebrew memorial sacrifice.<br />
The Roman Catholic Mass is not the same<br />
sacrifice as Calvary. When you underst<strong>and</strong><br />
the Lord’s Supper as a Jewish Passover, it<br />
is a Jewish zikharon (memorial–see Exodus<br />
12:14, 13:9, 17:14, 28:29, <strong>and</strong> Leviticus<br />
23:24, etc.)<br />
Only when you divorce the Last Supper<br />
from its Jewish background can you begin<br />
to argue that it is the same sacrifice. But<br />
in the Jewish context that Jesus gave it, it<br />
can’t possibly be that. It is a memorial. “Do<br />
this in remembrance of Me.” It is a memorial<br />
of what Jesus did, in the same way that<br />
the Passover meal is a memorial of the deliverance<br />
from Egypt.<br />
HE WHO BELIEVES, EATS . . .<br />
The Word becomes flesh. “Eat My flesh.”<br />
What does that mean? It means eat My<br />
word. You take it into yourself.<br />
This is not new, the prophets taught the<br />
same thing, <strong>and</strong> even afterwards it was the<br />
same with the apostles.<br />
Your words were found <strong>and</strong> I ate them<br />
(Jeremiah 15:16). You take it into yourself<br />
<strong>and</strong> you believe it. As Jesus said, “He who<br />
believes eats My flesh.”<br />
“Now you, son of man, listen to what<br />
I am speaking to you; do not be rebellious<br />
like that rebellious house. Open<br />
your mouth <strong>and</strong> eat what I am giving<br />
you. “Then I looked, <strong>and</strong> behold, a<br />
h<strong>and</strong> was extended to me; <strong>and</strong> lo, a<br />
scroll was in it. When He spread it out<br />
before me, it was written on the front<br />
<strong>and</strong> back, <strong>and</strong> written on it were lamentations,<br />
mourning <strong>and</strong> woe. (Ezekiel<br />
2:8-10)<br />
Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat<br />
what you find; eat this scroll, <strong>and</strong> go,<br />
speak to the house of Israel.” So I<br />
opened my mouth, <strong>and</strong> He fed me this<br />
scroll. He said to me, “And He said<br />
to me,” Son of man, feed your stomach<br />
<strong>and</strong> fill your body with this scroll<br />
which I am giving you.” Then I ate it,<br />
<strong>and</strong> it was sweet as honey in my mouth<br />
(Ezekiel 3:1-3)<br />
Ezekiel ate the scroll. He ate the Word<br />
of God.<br />
And I went to the angel, telling him to<br />
give me the little book. And he said to<br />
me, “Take it <strong>and</strong> eat it; it will make<br />
your stomach bitter, but in your mouth<br />
it will be sweet as honey.” And I took<br />
the little book out of the angel’s h<strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> ate it (Revelation 10:9-10).<br />
Eat the Word. That concept is in the Old<br />
Testament; <strong>and</strong> it is in the New Testament.<br />
Jesus was teaching nothing new, only what<br />
the prophets said before Him, <strong>and</strong> what the<br />
apostles said after Him.<br />
The Word became flesh. Eat My word.<br />
Belief equals eat, as even the Roman Catholic<br />
Saint Bernard said.<br />
The Word becomes flesh, His own substance,<br />
as God, becomes His Word.<br />
YOU BECOME WHAT YOU EAT<br />
Metabolically, what you eat you are. Jesus’<br />
essence–His Word, His doctrine, His<br />
teaching–is Himself.<br />
Whatever you eat becomes part of you.<br />
Thus, when you eat something spiritually,<br />
you become what you eat.<br />
Terrestrial animals that the Jews were allowed<br />
to eat, that were kosher (clean), were<br />
types of Jesus Himself.<br />
Lamb is kosher. Behold the Lamb of<br />
God, who takes away the sins of the world<br />
(John 1:29).<br />
Goats are Kosher. But the goat on which<br />
the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented<br />
alive before the Lord, to make atonement<br />
upon it, to send it into the wilderness<br />
as the scapegoat. (Leviticus 16:10)<br />
Oxen are kosher. And he sent young men<br />
of the sons of Israel, <strong>and</strong> they offered burnt<br />
offerings <strong>and</strong> sacrificed young bulls as<br />
peace offerings to the Lord. (Exodus 24:5)<br />
Each one of them, in some way or another,<br />
is a type of Jesus.<br />
Eat what is kosher. Eat the Word.<br />
If somebody is not kosher, keep away<br />
from them. Because if you begin eating<br />
their word, you’re going to get sick. Eat<br />
what’s healthy; eat what’s clean.<br />
But if people become hungry enough–if<br />
there is a famine–people will eat anything,<br />
even each other.<br />
We have to underst<strong>and</strong> the Jewish idea of<br />
eating the flesh.<br />
Concerning him (Melchizedek) we have<br />
much to say, <strong>and</strong> it is hard to explain, since<br />
you have become dull of hearing. (Hebrews<br />
5:11)<br />
He is speaking here of typology <strong>and</strong> midrash.<br />
Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-20,<br />
Psalm 110:4) is a Christophany (a preincarnate<br />
manifestation of Christ), an Old Testament<br />
type of Jesus.<br />
The writer is saying, “I want to teach you<br />
typology <strong>and</strong> midrash, but you have lost capacity<br />
to underst<strong>and</strong>.”<br />
BABY FOOD<br />
For though by this time you ought to<br />
be teachers, you have need again for<br />
someone to teach you the elementary<br />
principles of the oracles of God, <strong>and</strong><br />
you have come to need milk <strong>and</strong> not<br />
solid food (meat). For everyone who<br />
partakes only of milk is not accustomed<br />
to the word of righteousness,<br />
for he is a babe. But solid food is for<br />
the mature, who because of practice<br />
have their senses trained to discern<br />
good <strong>and</strong> evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14)<br />
Again, he is saying, “I want to give you<br />
people meat. I want to teach you about the<br />
typology of Melchizedek, but can’t give you<br />
meat anymore, I’ve got to give you milk.”<br />
BACK TO THE BASICS<br />
(There are no chapter divisions in the<br />
original Greek)<br />
Therefore leaving the elementary<br />
teaching about the Christ, let us press<br />
on to maturity, not laying again a<br />
foundation of repentance from dead<br />
works <strong>and</strong> of faith toward God, of instruction<br />
about washings <strong>and</strong> laying<br />
on of h<strong>and</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> the resurrection of<br />
the dead <strong>and</strong> eternal judgment. And<br />
this we will do, if God permits. (Hebrews<br />
6:1-3)<br />
We are in the same situation today. We<br />
need to go back <strong>and</strong> teach the basics. People<br />
have lost sight of the foundational doctrines<br />
like repentance, baptism, eternal judgement,<br />
People are saying that there is no hell.<br />
The church now needs milk, not meat,<br />
by <strong>and</strong> large. And at this point, milk would<br />
be a big improvement. The Hindus actually<br />
drank cow urine because they think it’s<br />
holy, <strong>and</strong> I know of Charismatics drinking<br />
the spiritual equivalent. Milk would be a<br />
big improvement.<br />
Does that sound abhorrent? It is supposed<br />
to be abhorrent. These shall be detestable<br />
to you. The thought of it should<br />
make you feel sick.<br />
THE UNDISCERNING WILL EAT ANYTHING<br />
But solid food is for the mature, who<br />
because of practice have their senses<br />
trained to discern good <strong>and</strong> evil. (Hebrews<br />
5:14)<br />
They know how to put the Word into effect;<br />
they have a discerning knowledge of<br />
the Word <strong>and</strong> are able to put it into effect. If<br />
people do not have an effectual knowledge<br />
of the Word, they are not going to be discerning.<br />
When you are undiscerning, you<br />
will eat anything–kosher or not.<br />
And I, brethren, could not speak to you<br />
as to spiritual men, but as to men of<br />
flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you<br />
milk to drink, not solid food; for you<br />
were not yet able to receive it. Indeed,<br />
even now you are not yet able, for you<br />
are still fleshly. (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)<br />
Think of a baby when he learns to crawl,<br />
before he can walk. It doesn’t matter what it<br />
is, a marble, a crayon, a tip of a pencil; as far as<br />
the child is concerned, it’s sweet, it’s c<strong>and</strong>y.<br />
The mother takes anything that she knows<br />
can wind up in that kid’s mouth <strong>and</strong> puts it<br />
up where the kid can’t reach it. Because a<br />
baby is undiscerning, it will eat anything.<br />
So it is with Christians who are not<br />
trained in the right doctrine <strong>and</strong> the Word<br />
of righteousness, they will eat anything (especially<br />
if they are hungry enough).<br />
Milk would be a big improvement. Paul<br />
is complaining, “I wish they would drink<br />
their milk, maybe then we could take them<br />
out for a steak.”<br />
CHEW THE CUD<br />
Animals that don’t chew the cud or split<br />
the hoof are not kosher.<br />
Now these (Bereans) were more nobleminded<br />
than those in Thessalonica,<br />
for they received the word with great<br />
eagerness, examining the Scriptures<br />
daily to see whether these things were<br />
so. (Acts 17:11)<br />
The Bereans chewed their cud.<br />
Chewing the cud is not vomiting or regurgitating<br />
the food. It is bringing it up<br />
again, chewing over it, then swallowing it<br />
<strong>and</strong> taking it into your metabolism.<br />
Many Christians today have forgotten<br />
how to chew the cud. “Jacob Prasch or<br />
Derek Prince said it, so it must be true!”<br />
No, no, no.<br />
Paul said we should judge even what he<br />
taught (Galatians 1:8). Jesus said, “But do<br />
not be called rabbi; for One is your Teacher,<br />
<strong>and</strong> you are all brothers.” (Matthew 23:8)<br />
Chew the cud. Eat the food, bring it up<br />
again, pray about it, examine the Scriptures,<br />
<strong>and</strong> then if it’s right swallow it. Otherwise<br />
spit it out.<br />
WOLVES<br />
“Beware of the false prophets, who come<br />
to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly
Feature Article – Continued<br />
Feature Article – Continued<br />
are ravenous wolves.(Matthew 7:15)<br />
Wolves can imitate Christians. They can<br />
look like sheep, but they are false prophets.<br />
Their flesh (their teaching, their doctrine)<br />
is not kosher. Don’t eat it. It should be abhorrent<br />
to you.<br />
SNAKES<br />
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how<br />
will you escape the sentence of hell?<br />
(Matthew 23:33)<br />
Satan is a deceiver; the serpent beguiled the<br />
woman, Eve–a type of Israel <strong>and</strong> the church.<br />
Religious leaders who teach false doctrines<br />
come in the character of the serpent.<br />
Jesus says they will go to hell if they<br />
don’t repent. (He uses the Greek subjective<br />
mood here. The subjective mood in Greek<br />
implies doubt. It’s not important in English,<br />
but it’s very important in Greek. What He is<br />
saying is, “It’s possible for you not to go to<br />
hell, but it’s very unlikely you’re going to<br />
go anywhere but hell.”)<br />
Teachers of false doctrine crawl like<br />
snakes. They’re deceptive <strong>and</strong> beguilers.<br />
They come in the character of serpents.<br />
Don’t eat them. Keep away from people<br />
who teach spiritual seduction. Can you picture<br />
yourself picking up a snake <strong>and</strong> eating<br />
it? Would you eat a viper? No! Well, keep<br />
away from those vipers <strong>and</strong> their teachings.<br />
Don’t eat it. Keep away.<br />
Is eating a snake disgusting to you? The<br />
thought of eating a prosperity preacher’s<br />
doctrine should be just as disgusting.<br />
When you see someone sitting down<br />
reading a book by a prosperity preacher,<br />
you should think of someone munching on<br />
a rat! That’s what they are doing. It shall be<br />
detestable to you, it shall be abhorrent. The<br />
thought of eating these vile, vermin-ridden<br />
animals is disgusting, <strong>and</strong> the thought of<br />
eating those false doctrines should be just<br />
as disgusting.<br />
VULTURES<br />
Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures<br />
will gather. (Matthew 24:28)<br />
Vultures attack the body. They prey on<br />
what’s dead, on the persecuted church.<br />
Don’t eat it! Vultures should be abhorrent.<br />
You will find people who prey on dying<br />
bodies. They’ll find a church that’s<br />
in trouble <strong>and</strong> come along claiming to be<br />
the miracle man who will turn the church<br />
around. But all they do is carry off a limb<br />
or a foot so they can begin their own thing<br />
somewhere. Vultures aren’t kosher. They<br />
should be abhorrent to you.<br />
PIGS<br />
They came to the other side of the sea,<br />
into the country of the Gerasenes. And<br />
when He got out of the boat, immediately<br />
a man from the tombs with an<br />
unclean spirit met Him, <strong>and</strong> he had his<br />
dwelling among the tombs. And no one<br />
was able to bind him anymore, even<br />
with a chain; because he had often<br />
been bound with shackles <strong>and</strong> chains,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the chains had been torn apart by<br />
him <strong>and</strong> the shackles broken in pieces,<br />
<strong>and</strong> no one was strong enough to subdue<br />
him (Mark 5:1-4)<br />
Super human physical strength <strong>and</strong> super<br />
human intellectual power are two characteristics<br />
that frequently accompany demon<br />
possessions.<br />
Almost every recorded case of demon<br />
possession in the Bible was accompanied<br />
by irrational behavior–throwing themselves<br />
into fire, living in graves, etc. You<br />
can almost rule out demon possession in<br />
cases where there is no irrational behavior.<br />
And Constantly, night <strong>and</strong> day, among<br />
the tombs <strong>and</strong> in the mountains, he<br />
was crying out <strong>and</strong> gashing himself<br />
with stones. And seeing Jesus from a<br />
distance, he ran up <strong>and</strong> bowed down<br />
before Him; <strong>and</strong> shouting with a loud<br />
voice, he said, “What do I have to do<br />
with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High<br />
God? I implore You by God, do not<br />
torment me!” For He had been saying<br />
to him, “Come out of the man, you<br />
unclean spirit!” And He said to him,<br />
“What is your name?” And he said to<br />
Him, “My name is Legion; for we are<br />
many. (Mark 5:5-9)<br />
Now, if you can believe it, there is a<br />
president of an Assemblies of God Bible<br />
College in Australia, who wrote in an article<br />
in their magazine called, The Evangel,<br />
that the mans name, not the demons, was<br />
named Legion. This President is (supposedly)<br />
training others to be ministers. They<br />
will eat anything, won’t they?<br />
And they began to implore Him earnestly<br />
not to send them out of the<br />
country. Now there was a large herd<br />
of swine feeding nearby on the mountain.<br />
The demons implored Him, saying,<br />
“Send us into the swine so that<br />
we may enter them.” Jesus gave them<br />
permission. And coming out, the unclean<br />
spirits entered the swine; <strong>and</strong><br />
the herd rushed down the steep bank<br />
into the sea, about two thous<strong>and</strong> of<br />
them; <strong>and</strong> they were drowned in the<br />
sea. (Mark 5:10-13)<br />
Pigs are not kosher. In Galilee, there<br />
were Gentiles (non-Jews) <strong>and</strong> probably<br />
Jews who were not particularly observant,<br />
who would have kept pigs.<br />
To underst<strong>and</strong> what is happening here,<br />
we have to underst<strong>and</strong> the midrash.<br />
“do not throw your pearls before<br />
swine, or they will trample them under<br />
their feet, <strong>and</strong> turn <strong>and</strong> tear you to<br />
pieces.(Matthew 7:6)<br />
Who are swine? People who mock <strong>and</strong><br />
reject the gospel. What happens to them?<br />
“Then He will also say to those on His<br />
left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones,<br />
into the eternal fire which has been<br />
prepared for the devil <strong>and</strong> his angels;<br />
(Matthew 25:41)<br />
And the devil who deceived them was<br />
thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation<br />
20:10)<br />
In Mark chapter 5, the Sea of Galilee becomes<br />
a picture of the lake of fire. In Revelation,<br />
those who mock <strong>and</strong> reject the gospel<br />
go to the same place as the demons.<br />
SHELLFISH<br />
Let’s look at fish. A marine biologist<br />
took me to a fantastic aquarium in Cape<br />
Town, South Africa. It is a tank constructed<br />
with actual chunks of the continental shelf,<br />
from the underwater environment around<br />
South Africa. They put animals in there,<br />
like sharks, <strong>and</strong> you walk through glass<br />
tubes <strong>and</strong> you can see the sharks swimming<br />
above you. It really is incredible. He was<br />
showing me around <strong>and</strong> I was looking at the<br />
shellfish. They are scavengers at the bottom<br />
of the sea <strong>and</strong> they eat garbage. They are<br />
not kosher. They eat garbage, so–what you<br />
eat, you are–they become garbage.<br />
And He said to them, “Follow Me, <strong>and</strong><br />
I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew<br />
4:19)<br />
The apostles threw in the nets <strong>and</strong> pulled<br />
out fish when Jesus told them to cast their<br />
nets. We can witness, witness <strong>and</strong> witness,<br />
but until Jesus tells us where to cast our<br />
nets, you are not going to catch many fish.<br />
That’s not to discourage personal witnessing<br />
or evangelism, but when we talk<br />
about missions programs or crusades, they<br />
have to be directed by the Holy Spirit. Otherwise<br />
we are not going to catch many fish.<br />
But what are shellfish like?<br />
The Book of Revelation speaks of the<br />
earth <strong>and</strong> the sea (Revelation 5:14, 7:1-3,<br />
10:2,5,6,8, 12::12, 14:7)<br />
There are two beasts, one from the sea<br />
(Revelation 13:1) <strong>and</strong> one from the earth<br />
(Revelation 13:11).<br />
The earth speaks of Israel. The sea speaks<br />
of nations. Why are the nations in an uproar?<br />
(Psalm 2:1)<br />
Shellfish are closed <strong>and</strong> so far into the sea<br />
that they won’t get caught in a net. Shellfish<br />
speak of people who are closed <strong>and</strong> who are<br />
filled with garbage. If you don’t eat the right<br />
food you are going to eat the wrong food.<br />
They eat garbage <strong>and</strong> they become garbage.<br />
They are so far into the world system<br />
that they are not going to get saved. They<br />
are closed to the Gospel. Don’t eat them.<br />
SEEDS<br />
If one of these unclean animals fell on a<br />
seed before it got planted, the seed (<strong>and</strong> the<br />
fruit that came out of it) could be eaten.<br />
And if a part of their carcass falls on<br />
any seed for sowing which is to be<br />
sown, it is clean. (Leviticus 11:37)<br />
Why?<br />
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain<br />
of wheat falls into the earth <strong>and</strong> dies,<br />
it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears<br />
much fruit. (John 12:24)<br />
You fool! That which you sow does not<br />
come to life unless it dies; (1 Corinthians<br />
25:36)<br />
This is the catabolic process. When you<br />
plant the seed, it has the germ inside. The<br />
seed falls into the earth <strong>and</strong> dies, <strong>and</strong> a new<br />
creation comes out.<br />
So it is with us. The old creation is planted<br />
with Christ. In baptism we die with, we<br />
are buried with Him, <strong>and</strong> we are resurrected<br />
with Him.<br />
Our glorified bodies that are going to<br />
come out ultimately will be different from<br />
what went in.<br />
It doesn’t matter what the seed does; it<br />
doesn’t matter what the old creation did.<br />
You could have been a homosexual, prostitute,<br />
drug dealer, alcoholic or a criminal–it<br />
doesn’t matter what the old creation did, if it<br />
falls into the earth <strong>and</strong> dies, the food is clean.<br />
CHAMELEON<br />
The chameleon is not kosher. What’s a<br />
chameleon? The Hebrew word for chameleon<br />
is the same as the Hebrew word for hypocrite.<br />
Don’t eat it! Watch out for hypocrites.<br />
DON’T MUZZEL THE OXEN<br />
For it is written in the Law of Moses,<br />
“You shall not muzzle the ox while he<br />
is threshing.” God is not concerned<br />
about oxen, is He? Or is He speaking<br />
altogether for our sake? Yes, for our<br />
sake it was written, because the plowman<br />
ought to plow in hope, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
thresher to thresh in hope of sharing<br />
the crops. (1 Corinthians 9:9-10)<br />
What He is talking about here are those<br />
honest preachers who are deserving of being<br />
paid for the ministry. Those who work<br />
hard preaching <strong>and</strong> teaching the Word of<br />
God, <strong>and</strong> teach it accurately <strong>and</strong> fairly, are<br />
the ones who deserve the privilege of being<br />
paid for it.<br />
Don’t muzzle the ox when he is threshing.<br />
The ox is clean; you can follow his teaching.<br />
You can eat the ox, but not the pig, not<br />
the serpent, not the wolf.<br />
DOVES<br />
Doves are kosher–they are types of Jesus.<br />
They are one of the fives creatures that God<br />
ordered Abraham to sacrifice (Genesis 15:9)<br />
In the Law of Moses, they had to be<br />
sacrificed “over running water” (Leviticus<br />
14:5), symbolizing “the washing of the water<br />
with the Word” (Ephesians 5:26)<br />
LISTEN TO THE ANIMALS. . .<br />
There were clean <strong>and</strong> unclean animals.<br />
Zoologically we don’t know what all of the<br />
animals mentioned in Leviticus were.<br />
Some may be extinct, some may no longer<br />
be indigenous to the Middles East, but<br />
those we do know, or can find parallels of<br />
in the Bible, all teach us something about<br />
our spiritual diet.<br />
If people get hungry enough they will eat<br />
anything–mice, rats, bats, lizards, Kingdom<br />
Now, Ecumenism, Name-it-<strong>and</strong>-Claim-it<br />
<strong>and</strong> Faith Prosperity.<br />
It shall be abhorrent to you. The Bible<br />
keeps saying to you, over <strong>and</strong> over, It shall<br />
be detestable to you.<br />
These unclean spiritual foods should disgust<br />
you. The thought of them should be so<br />
disgusting to you that you have to put them<br />
out of your head, because they make you sick.<br />
The idea of swallowing a Benny Hinn<br />
doctrine should be like the idea of eating a<br />
rat–it should make you feel sick.<br />
It shall be abhorrent to you, it shall be<br />
detestable to you. The book of Mormon–it<br />
shall be detestable to you. The Watchtower–<br />
it shall be detestable to you; it should make<br />
you feel sick. Keep away from them. If you<br />
eat their teaching you’ll become something<br />
disgusting <strong>and</strong> unholy in the sight of God.<br />
DEATH IN THE POT<br />
When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there<br />
was a famine in the l<strong>and</strong>. As the sons<br />
of the prophets were sitting before<br />
him, he said to his servant, “Put on<br />
the large pot <strong>and</strong> boil stew for the sons<br />
of the prophets.” (2 Kings 4:38)<br />
There is a famine in the l<strong>and</strong>. There is<br />
nothing to eat, but the people have to eat<br />
something.<br />
Then one went out into the field to<br />
gather herbs, <strong>and</strong> found a wild vine<br />
<strong>and</strong> gathered from it his lap full of wild<br />
gourds, <strong>and</strong> came <strong>and</strong> sliced them into<br />
the pot of stew, for they did not know<br />
what they were. (2 Kings 4:39)<br />
When the people are hungry enough,<br />
they’ll eat anything.<br />
So they poured it out for the men to<br />
eat. And as they were eating of the<br />
stew, they cried out <strong>and</strong> said, “O man<br />
of God, there is death in the pot.” And<br />
they were unable to eat. (2 Kings 4:40)<br />
There was death in the pot. You eat this<br />
stuff–this un-kosher food, this pork or shellfish<br />
that has not been refrigerated–<strong>and</strong> you<br />
will die of botulism or trichinosis. There<br />
is death.<br />
So what did Elisha do?<br />
But he said, “Now bring meal (bring<br />
the grain).” And he threw it into the<br />
pot <strong>and</strong> said, “Pour it out for the people<br />
that they may eat.” Then there was<br />
no harm in the pot. (2 Kings 4:41)<br />
You put the grain in it. People who eat<br />
the grain are not going to get sick from eating<br />
this other stuff. They are not going to be<br />
affected by false doctrine <strong>and</strong> false teaching.<br />
They are not going to be sucked into<br />
Ecumenism, Kingdom Now theology, or<br />
Name-it-<strong>and</strong>-Claim-it.<br />
The grain takes out the poison. The grain<br />
absorbs the toxins. The grain renders it<br />
harmless.<br />
True teaching renders false teaching<br />
harmless.<br />
WHAT GOD HAS CLEANSED. . .<br />
It shall be abhorrent to you. Rats, snakes,<br />
vermin–<strong>and</strong> those who teach it, should be<br />
abhorrent. You shouldn’t even think of listening<br />
to those tapes, or going to those conferences,<br />
or reading those books, any more<br />
than you would munch on a rat. It shall be<br />
abhorrent to you. But if people are hungry<br />
enough, they will eat anything!<br />
This teaching is not some kind poetic license.<br />
See what happened to Peter:<br />
On the next day, as they were on their<br />
way <strong>and</strong> approaching the city, Peter<br />
went up on the housetop about the sixth<br />
hour to pray. And he became hungry<br />
<strong>and</strong> was desiring to eat; but while they<br />
were making preparations, he fell into<br />
a trance; <strong>and</strong> behold the sky opened<br />
up, <strong>and</strong> a certain object like a great<br />
sheet coming down, lowered by four<br />
corners to the ground, <strong>and</strong> there were<br />
in it all kinds of four-footed animals<br />
<strong>and</strong> crawling creatures of the earth<br />
<strong>and</strong> birds of the air. (Act 10:9-12)<br />
The reference is to the foods mentioned<br />
in Leviticus 11 <strong>and</strong> Deuteronomy 14–foods<br />
that were not kosher <strong>and</strong> which should have<br />
been abhorrent to him.<br />
A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill<br />
<strong>and</strong> eat!” But Peter said, “By no means,<br />
Lord, for I have never eaten anything<br />
unholy <strong>and</strong> unclean.” (Act 10:13-14)<br />
In other words, Peter was saying, “I<br />
won’t eat that’s not kosher.”<br />
Again a voice came to him a second<br />
time, “What God has cleansed, no longer<br />
consider unholy.” This happened<br />
three times, <strong>and</strong> immediately the object<br />
was taken up into the sky. (Act 10:15-16)<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly
Feature Article – Continued<br />
In Loving Memory<br />
And he (Peter) said to them, “You<br />
yourselves know how unlawful it is for<br />
a man who is a Jew to associate with a<br />
foreigner or to visit him; <strong>and</strong> yet God<br />
has shown me that I should not call any<br />
man unholy or unclean. (Act 10:28)<br />
This issue is the person <strong>and</strong> their beliefs,<br />
it is not race. The issue is what the person<br />
believes.<br />
The Romans of Peter’s day worshipped<br />
other gods; they worshipped Jupiter <strong>and</strong> all<br />
the rest of the Roman pantheon.<br />
DOGS<br />
Remember Jesus <strong>and</strong> the Syro-Phoenician<br />
woman who asked Jesus to heal her<br />
daughter. Jesus said, “It is not good to take<br />
the children’s bread <strong>and</strong> throw it to the<br />
dogs.” (Mark 7:27)<br />
What are dogs?<br />
For dogs have surrounded me; A b<strong>and</strong><br />
of evildoers has encompassed me;<br />
They pierced my h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> my feet.<br />
(Psalm 22:16)<br />
Dogs, was a derogatory Jewish term for<br />
pagans. “It is not good to take the children’s<br />
bread <strong>and</strong> throw it to the dogs.”<br />
He was not making a racist statement.<br />
Jesus loved that little Gentile girl as much<br />
as He would have loved a little Jewish girl.<br />
But what He was saying was, “Lady, your<br />
religion is not fit for human consumption.<br />
I am not going to give bread to dogs. Become<br />
a human being.”<br />
In Peter’s vision in Acts 10, what do the<br />
un-kosher animals represent?<br />
Pagans, Gentiles, unbelievers. Dogs.<br />
These were the un-kosher animals of the<br />
vision.<br />
”Peter, eat this, accept this, swallow it.”<br />
“Hey, wait a minute, there’s a kosher deli<br />
right down the street. I’m not touching this!”<br />
“Peter, eat it!”<br />
God makes unclean people clean. He saved<br />
the Gentiles, He made them edible. He made<br />
their beliefs right. He made them digestible.<br />
God can make anybody clean, even<br />
Christians who’ve gone into eating spiritual<br />
rats <strong>and</strong> cockroaches. God can make<br />
even them clean, if they repent.<br />
MUST INDIA STARVE?<br />
When I was a little boy in New York, the<br />
Monsoon rains failed to come to India in sufficient<br />
quantity one year <strong>and</strong> there was a famine<br />
in India. The second most populous country<br />
in the world was facing mass starvation.<br />
There was a big campaign: “Must India<br />
Starve?”<br />
The wheat producing nations of the<br />
world–like Argentina, America, Canada <strong>and</strong><br />
Australia–donated large quantities of wheat.<br />
People all over the world raised money.<br />
“Must India Starve?” was a big campaign.<br />
It was on billboards, it was in newspapers,<br />
it was on television, <strong>and</strong> magazines<br />
promoted the theme: “Must India Starve?”<br />
Christian farmers in the American Midwest–a<br />
lot of them were believers–tithed<br />
their wheat to India, or various Christian<br />
relief agencies.<br />
I’ll never forget this. A magazine in the<br />
United States came out with a full-page<br />
spread. The heading at the top of the page<br />
said, “Must India Starve?” <strong>and</strong> at the bottom<br />
of the page it said, “Why Not?”<br />
There was a photograph of two Hindu<br />
boys–skinny little bags of bones who were<br />
literally on the verge of dying of starvation,<br />
their bones sticking out.<br />
The boys were holding a big sack of<br />
grain which had printed on the side, “United<br />
States Emergency Wheat–NOT FOR<br />
SALE–a gift from the people of America to<br />
the people of India.”<br />
While these two boys were holding the<br />
bag, a cow was eating the wheat!<br />
RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTS A NATION<br />
False religion will always bring famine <strong>and</strong><br />
death, Just look at the countries where these<br />
famines occur–it is concentrated in places<br />
like Latin America, Africa <strong>and</strong> Asia where<br />
there is paganism, Catholicism <strong>and</strong> idolatry.<br />
I’m not saying that Christians are immune<br />
from suffering, but one is a reflection<br />
of the other–they were hungry, they were<br />
starving to death, but there was food right<br />
in front of them.<br />
The Bible says, “There will be a famine<br />
for hearing of the Word of God.” There is<br />
already a famine, but it’s going to get worse.<br />
What would happen in a persecution if<br />
there were no Bibles <strong>and</strong> no Christian meetings<br />
allowed, like in Saudi Arabia or Iran?<br />
When that comes to countries like Britain<br />
or Australia or New Zeal<strong>and</strong>, what are<br />
they going to do then?<br />
There is food all over the place now, but<br />
they’re not eating it. What is going to happen<br />
when there is no food? Who’s going to<br />
be the first to die?<br />
Those who refuse to eat the food that is<br />
in front of them will be the first to die.<br />
It was a tragedy with those two Hindu<br />
boys starving in India. The tragedy was not<br />
simply that they were starving, but rather<br />
that they were starving with food right in<br />
front of them.<br />
The famine I see happening in the<br />
church today, where people are eating<br />
anything–literally anything, no matter<br />
how crazy, how sickening, how poisonous–is<br />
a tragedy.<br />
But the bigger tragedy is that there is<br />
still plenty of grain in the silo!<br />
God bless,<br />
Jacob Prasch †††<br />
moriel’s<br />
prayer<br />
closet<br />
A Small corner of rest from the chaos<br />
<strong>and</strong> tumult of the world around us....<br />
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter<br />
onto thy closet, <strong>and</strong> when thou<br />
hast shut thy door, pray to thy<br />
Father which is in Secret; <strong>and</strong> thy<br />
Father which seeth in Secret will<br />
reward thee openly.”<br />
– Matthew 6:6 –<br />
• PrayER - <strong>Moriel</strong> & Jacob Prasch request<br />
prayer for Tony Wiggans, a Botanical biologist<br />
friend of <strong>Moriel</strong> <strong>and</strong> of Jacob in the Uk<br />
<strong>and</strong> his wife Brenda. Both are committed<br />
Christians <strong>and</strong> Tony is battling Chronic Lymphocytic<br />
Leukemia.<br />
We also request on going prayer for Maggie<br />
Vivienne <strong>and</strong> her husb<strong>and</strong> Richard as Maggie<br />
continues her struggle with cancer. Both<br />
are close friends of <strong>Moriel</strong> in the UK. <strong>Moriel</strong><br />
& Jacob Prasch request pray for Tony Wiggans,<br />
a Botanical biologist friend of <strong>Moriel</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> of Jacob in the Uk <strong>and</strong> his wife Brenda.<br />
Both are committed Christians <strong>and</strong> Tony is<br />
battling Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.<br />
We also request on going prayer for Maggie<br />
Vivienne <strong>and</strong> her husb<strong>and</strong> Richard as<br />
Maggie continues her struggle with cancer.<br />
Both are close friends of <strong>Moriel</strong> in the UK.<br />
• PrayER - <strong>Moriel</strong> & Jacob Prasch request<br />
prayer forAnother former leader who left<br />
mainstream Pentecostalism is former Australia<br />
General Secretary of The Assemblies of<br />
God Philip Powell who withstood the counterfeit<br />
revivals from Toronto & Pensacola<br />
<strong>and</strong> opposed the financial sc<strong>and</strong>als <strong>and</strong> sex<br />
sc<strong>and</strong>als of Hillsong. Philip, who pastors a<br />
church near Brisbane <strong>and</strong> who directs CWM<br />
(a partner ministry of <strong>Moriel</strong>) has been diagnosed<br />
with a tumour that is being biopsied<br />
next week. We do request prayer that it will<br />
prove benign.<br />
Friday, April 5, 2013, Dave Hunt drew<br />
his final breath <strong>and</strong> entered into the presence<br />
of our Lord <strong>and</strong> Savior Jesus Christ.<br />
His beloved wife Ruth was at his side.<br />
Born in 1926, David Charles Haddon Hunt<br />
enjoyed the advantages of a godly upbringing<br />
<strong>and</strong> placed his trust in Jesus Christ as his<br />
personal Savior <strong>and</strong> Lord in his early teens.<br />
As a young man, he served in the military<br />
toward the end of World War II. Afterward,<br />
he attended UCLA <strong>and</strong> received a degree<br />
in mathematics. It was during that time that<br />
he met the love of his life, Ruth Klassen.<br />
In 1950, they were married, <strong>and</strong> since both<br />
loved the outdoors, they enjoyed a beautiful<br />
honeymoon hiking in the High Sierras--<br />
perfect for two young people madly in love<br />
<strong>and</strong> with very little money to their name.<br />
Marriage was soon followed by the birth<br />
of two sons <strong>and</strong> two daughters. Ruth was<br />
a busy mother <strong>and</strong> also a gifted writer herself.<br />
She had a tremendous interest in <strong>and</strong><br />
knowledge of history, an ability that would<br />
help Dave further down the road. Dave’s<br />
own career path led him into a position as<br />
a CPA/management consultant <strong>and</strong> later as<br />
the manager of several corporations.<br />
Along with church-related activities,<br />
Dave initiated <strong>and</strong> became involved in numerous<br />
campus ministries <strong>and</strong> meetings in<br />
their home, with a special outreach to Jewish<br />
young people <strong>and</strong> foreign students. Many<br />
of these have stayed in touch with Dave<br />
<strong>and</strong> Ruth through the years, fondly recalling<br />
those Bible studies at the Hunts’ house.<br />
Dave <strong>and</strong> Ruth also traveled abroad,<br />
spending time in various locations throughout<br />
Europe, meeting with believers there<br />
<strong>and</strong> ministering in many ways while raising<br />
their own family. Dave also brought Bibles<br />
<strong>and</strong> other materials into the Soviet Union<br />
during a time when it was very difficult to<br />
do so. Throughout his later years, he <strong>and</strong><br />
Ruth traveled extensively as he was invited<br />
to speak in churches <strong>and</strong> fellowships,<br />
large <strong>and</strong> small, all over the world. Often<br />
they stayed in people’s homes, dining with<br />
them, learning their customs, <strong>and</strong> sharing<br />
God’s Word <strong>and</strong> God’s love.<br />
The desire of Dave’s heart was ultimately<br />
to be involved in fulltime ministry, especially<br />
since he saw firsth<strong>and</strong> everywhere he<br />
went the breaking down of the true church<br />
as the world began to work its way into her<br />
midst. He began to write in 1973, warning<br />
believers about the incursion into Western<br />
culture <strong>and</strong> into the church itself of Eastern<br />
religion, psychological <strong>and</strong> selfist philosophies,<br />
ecumenism, <strong>and</strong> other unbiblical<br />
teachings.<br />
The ministry of The Berean Call was<br />
founded by Dave in 1992. It grew out of<br />
a previous organization, of which Dave<br />
was also a founding member since 1986.<br />
With T.A. McMahon working alongside<br />
him at The Berean Call, Dave was able<br />
to share his love for <strong>and</strong> defense of Christ<br />
in the subsequent newsletters, books, videos,<br />
<strong>and</strong> speaking engagements that resulted<br />
from this ministry. Dave <strong>and</strong> T.A.<br />
wrote three books together, including the<br />
best-known The Seduction of Christianity,<br />
which was groundbreaking in its boldness,<br />
exposing false teachings in the church <strong>and</strong><br />
daring to identify the names of the ones behind<br />
the deception.<br />
By the early 2000s, Dave’s love for<br />
Christ <strong>and</strong> his desire to defend the name of<br />
the Lord had grown even stronger, <strong>and</strong> his<br />
concern over Islamic politics <strong>and</strong> religion<br />
are reflected in many of his articles, lectures,<br />
books, <strong>and</strong> interviews.<br />
Then Richard Dawkins <strong>and</strong> the “new<br />
atheists” came onto the scene with a vengeance,<br />
seeking to destroy the very concept<br />
of God in the minds of everyone. Dave began<br />
to write <strong>and</strong> teach <strong>and</strong> speak more passionately<br />
than ever about the absolute truth<br />
that is in the Word of God <strong>and</strong> our need to<br />
immerse ourselves in it daily in order to<br />
prevent being taken up in the evolutionist<br />
delusion that is sweeping the world.<br />
One of Dave’s favorite activities was to<br />
see whom God would seat next to him on<br />
airplanes as he traveled <strong>and</strong> spoke. He often<br />
said that he “could prove the existence of<br />
God” just by these providential occurrences.<br />
While writing about Islam, he would<br />
end up seated next to a Muslim who didn’t<br />
really underst<strong>and</strong> what Islam was about but<br />
was eager to hear the difference between the<br />
Bible <strong>and</strong> the Qur’an. When writing about<br />
creation vs. evolution, the Lord would bring<br />
him, as a seat companion, an atheistic scientist<br />
who thought he had all the answers<br />
<strong>and</strong> was very surprised that there was another<br />
verifiable explanation to this universe.<br />
Dave’s bold yet loving approach to any<br />
situation allowed him entrance into these<br />
conversations where many others would<br />
have been shut out. His love for Jesus, for<br />
Israel, <strong>and</strong> for people in general was obvious<br />
to all. His enthusiasm for the truth,<br />
along with his anger over the sin <strong>and</strong> wickedness<br />
that he knew was robbing people<br />
of what God wanted for them, flamed his<br />
desire to share the Lord with anyone with<br />
whom he had contact.<br />
At least 4 million copies of his books<br />
have been sold, many of them translated into<br />
more than 50 languages. He also wrote two<br />
novels, The Mind Invaders (formerly The<br />
Archon Conspiracy) <strong>and</strong> Sanctuary of<br />
the Chosen, along with a children’s book<br />
called The Money Tree, illustrated by his<br />
daughter Karen.<br />
One of his videos, Israel, Islam <strong>and</strong><br />
Armageddon, has become a tremendous tool<br />
for churches <strong>and</strong> for anyone interested in<br />
helping to spread the truth about events<br />
prior to <strong>and</strong> since the attack on the World<br />
Trade Center. His video A Woman Rides the<br />
Beast is a favorite among those who are witnessing<br />
to Catholics, a group for whom Dave<br />
had a deep love <strong>and</strong> sorrow, desiring to see<br />
them come to the knowledge of the truth.<br />
Dave Hunt’s own drive to find <strong>and</strong> then<br />
deliver the truth is evident in everything he<br />
did. His impeccable research <strong>and</strong> recognized<br />
scholarship were based on in-depth studies<br />
of original documents <strong>and</strong> publications, interviews<br />
with key experts from around the<br />
world, <strong>and</strong> extensive travel-including to<br />
South America, Australia, Europe, India,<br />
<strong>and</strong> throughout the Middle East.<br />
Dave has left us a legacy of inestimable<br />
value. We are blessed to be able to see <strong>and</strong><br />
hear <strong>and</strong> read what he has taught about the<br />
evidence for God in a breathtaking number<br />
of materials. From explaining about<br />
the history of Christianity, to exposing the<br />
deception that has crept into the church, to<br />
teaching about the prophecies that are being<br />
fulfilled even today, this humble, brilliant<br />
man will go on teaching us for a very long<br />
time. We look forward to the day when we<br />
will see him again.<br />
10 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 11
Sons of Zadok Jacob Prasch<br />
Jacob Prasch<br />
Sons of Zadok<br />
by James Jacob Prasch<br />
Sons of Zadok<br />
Ezekiel 44:1-6: ”Then he brought me<br />
by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary,<br />
which faces the East, <strong>and</strong> it was shut.<br />
And the Lord said to me, ‘This gate shall<br />
be shut; it shall not be opened, <strong>and</strong> no one<br />
shall enter by it, for the Lord God of Israel<br />
has entered by it. Therefore it shall be<br />
shut. As for the prince, he shall sit in it as<br />
a prince to eat bread before the Lord. He<br />
shall enter by way of the portico gate <strong>and</strong><br />
go out by the same way.<br />
“Then he brought me by way of the north<br />
gate to the front of the house, <strong>and</strong> I looked,<br />
<strong>and</strong> behold, the glory of the Lord filled the<br />
house of the Lord, <strong>and</strong> I fell on my face.<br />
And the Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, mark<br />
well; see with your eyes, hear with your<br />
ears all that I say to you concerning all<br />
the statutes of the house of the Lord, <strong>and</strong><br />
concerning all its laws. And mark well the<br />
entrance of the house with all exits of the<br />
sanctuary.<br />
“‘And you shall say to the rebellious ones,<br />
the house of Israel, “Thus says the Lord:<br />
‘Enough of all your abominations!’”’”<br />
Continuing with verse 8: “And you have<br />
not kept charge of My holy things yourselves,<br />
but you have sent foreigners to keep<br />
charge of My sanctuary. Thus says the<br />
Lord God: ‘No foreigner uncircumcised in<br />
heart <strong>and</strong> uncircumcised in flesh, of all the<br />
foreigners among the sons of Israel, shall<br />
enter My sanctuary. But the Levites, who<br />
went far from Me when Israel went astray,<br />
who went astray from Me after their idols,<br />
shall bear the punishment for their iniquities.<br />
Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary,<br />
having oversight at the gates of the<br />
house, <strong>and</strong> ministering in the house. They<br />
shall slaughter the burnt offering <strong>and</strong> the<br />
sacrifice for the people, <strong>and</strong> they shall<br />
st<strong>and</strong> before them <strong>and</strong> minister to them.<br />
But because they ministered to them before<br />
their idols, <strong>and</strong> became a stumbling block<br />
of iniquity to Israel, therefore I have sworn<br />
against them,’ declares the Lord, ‘that they<br />
shall bear the punishment for their iniquity.<br />
Sons of Righteousness<br />
They shall not come near to Me to serve<br />
as priests to Me, nor near to any of My<br />
holy things, the things that are most holy to<br />
Me; but they shall bear the disgrace of the<br />
abominations, which they have committed.<br />
Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of<br />
the house, of all its servants, <strong>and</strong> of all that<br />
shall be done in it.<br />
“‘But the Levitical priests, the sons of<br />
Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary<br />
when the sons of Israel went astray from<br />
Me, shall come near to Me to minister to<br />
Me, <strong>and</strong> they shall st<strong>and</strong> before Me to offer<br />
Me the fat <strong>and</strong> the blood,’ declares the Lord<br />
God. ‘They shall also enter My sanctuary,<br />
they shall come near to My table to minister<br />
to Me, <strong>and</strong> keep My charge.<br />
“‘And it shall be that when they enter<br />
the gates of the inner courts they shall be<br />
clothed with linen garments, <strong>and</strong> wool shall<br />
not be on them while they are ministering<br />
in the gates of the inner court of the house.<br />
Linen turbans shall be on their heads, <strong>and</strong><br />
linen undergarments shall be on their loins.<br />
They shall not gird themselves in anything<br />
which makes them sweat. And when they<br />
go out into the outer court, into the outer<br />
court to the people, they shall put up their<br />
garments in which they have been ministering<br />
<strong>and</strong> they shall lay them in the holy<br />
chambers. Then they shall put on garments,<br />
that they might not transmit holiness to the<br />
people with their garments.<br />
“‘Also, they shall not shave their heads,<br />
yet they shall not let their locks grow long.<br />
They shall only trim the hair of their heads.<br />
Nor shall any of the priests drink wine when<br />
they enter the inner courts. They shall not<br />
marry a widow or a divorced woman, but<br />
shall take virgins from the offspring of the<br />
house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow<br />
of a priest. Moreover, they shall teach<br />
My people the difference between the holy<br />
<strong>and</strong> the profane, <strong>and</strong> cause them to discern<br />
between the clean <strong>and</strong> the unclean.<br />
“‘If there is a dispute, they shall take their<br />
st<strong>and</strong> to judge. They shall judge it according<br />
to My ordinances. They shall also keep<br />
My laws <strong>and</strong> My statutes <strong>and</strong> all My appointed<br />
feasts, <strong>and</strong> sanctify My Sabbath.’“<br />
Ezekiel’s name in Hebrew means ‘in the<br />
strength of God.’ Like all of Israel’s prophets,<br />
his name indicates something about his<br />
character <strong>and</strong> the nature of his ministry.<br />
Also like all of the Hebrew prophets (he<br />
was specifically a prophet to Judah), he<br />
prophesied for three time frames: he prophesied<br />
for his own time, for the first coming<br />
of Jesus, <strong>and</strong> for the Return of Christ.<br />
Thirdly, like all of the Hebrew prophets,<br />
Ezekiel is a type— an Old Testament foreshadowing—of<br />
the Messiah. He is the only<br />
person in the Bible other than Jesus who is<br />
called “the son of man.”<br />
In the Book of Daniel it says that the king<br />
saw ‘one walking as the son of man,’ <strong>and</strong> I<br />
have personally always been convinced that<br />
that was a Christophany; an Old Testament<br />
manifestation of Jesus Christ. Again, the<br />
only person called ‘the son of man’ with the<br />
definite article, other than Jesus, is Ezekiel.<br />
He is a picture of Jesus eschatologically,<br />
specifically in the Millennium. The second<br />
half of Ezekiel’s book is largely concerned<br />
with the millennial reign of Jesus; that is its<br />
ultimate meaning.<br />
A while ago you perhaps heard about the<br />
riots <strong>and</strong> the shootings going on at the Temple<br />
Mount; we are certainly getting closer<br />
<strong>and</strong> closer to the return of the Lord. Zechariah<br />
chapter 12 tells us that Jerusalem will<br />
be a stumbling block to the nations round<br />
about it; the ultimate issue in the Middle<br />
East will not be the Golan Heights, or the<br />
West Bank or the Gaza Strip; it will be Jerusalem.<br />
Jerusalem is where Satan received<br />
his biggest defeat, <strong>and</strong> it is also where he<br />
will receive his final defeat; he knows this.<br />
Therefore, Jerusalem is a source of contention;<br />
there is a spiritual battle going on over<br />
that particular piece of turf.<br />
Ezekiel prophesies about this, <strong>and</strong> he<br />
sees the East Gate being shut. Now ultimately,<br />
this will take place in the Millennium<br />
when Jesus reigns from the City of<br />
David <strong>and</strong> the Shekinah goes through the<br />
East Gate. Ultimately, that is its meaning.<br />
However, it has a partial historic fulfillment<br />
already: Hebrew prophecy has a pattern.<br />
The Jews believed due to Zechariah<br />
9:9 that the Messiah would come on a donkey,<br />
<strong>and</strong> they believed that He would enter<br />
the East Gate, or what we call in Hebrew<br />
shaar HaRachamin, which is literally “The<br />
Gate of Mercy.” It lies on the western slope<br />
of the Temple Mount, opposite the Mount<br />
of Olives, with the Kidron Valley in the<br />
middle. If you have seen the East Gate, it is<br />
now cemented up. This happened because<br />
there was once a Turkish sultan during the<br />
Ottoman Empire, after they had conquered<br />
Israel, who knew that the Messiah would<br />
have to come through that gate according<br />
to Jewish beliefs. So he put an Islamic cemetery<br />
in front of the East Gate so that the<br />
Messiah could not go through it without<br />
being ritually defiled, <strong>and</strong> he cemented up<br />
the gate. He did not know, of course, that<br />
he was in part causing the prophecy to be<br />
fulfilled concerning the East Gate.<br />
When the second Temple was built,<br />
the Hebrews were promised that its glory<br />
would exceed that of the first Temple. Its<br />
architecture was not as great as that of the<br />
first Temple, but even more importantly, it<br />
did not have the Ark of the Covenant. Yet<br />
they were promised in the days of Ezra, Nehemiah,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Haggai that its glory would exceed<br />
that of the first. Indeed it has; its glory<br />
exceeded that of the first temple because<br />
the Lord God Himself entered the second<br />
temple. Yet after the Lord had entered it,<br />
the gate would be sealed up. Therefore,<br />
Jewish people today who do not believe in<br />
Jesus have a problem: if the gate is sealed,<br />
the Lord God had to have already entered<br />
by it. When did God enter it? Jesus, of<br />
course, was the Messiah, <strong>and</strong> He entered it.<br />
But again, the ultimate fulfillment of this<br />
will be in the Millennium.<br />
A born-again evangelical Christian archaeologist<br />
by the name of Dr. Jim Fleming<br />
found Herodian stones beneath the present<br />
East Gate; so we know that it is built on<br />
the same site as the gate, which Jesus went<br />
through.<br />
In Ezekiel’s day, something that had<br />
been predicted by Isaiah, Jeremiah, <strong>and</strong><br />
Joel, was already underway. The northern<br />
tribes had already gone into captivity in<br />
720 B.C.; now God’s judgment was coming<br />
on the south—on Judah. Isaiah <strong>and</strong> Joel<br />
warned about this, but their message was<br />
rejected. Jeremiah warned about it, <strong>and</strong> was<br />
persecuted. People preferred to listen to the<br />
false prophets. By Ezekiel’s day, it was<br />
underway, thus proving that Jeremiah had<br />
been right, while the popular false prophets<br />
were proven wrong. Yet remarkably, the<br />
people still would not repent. The captivity<br />
was already underway; Nebuchadnezzar<br />
had invaded four times. In fact, Ezekiel<br />
himself was prophesying from the captivity.<br />
People were saying things like, “It’s not<br />
so bad,” “It’s going to get better,” “It will<br />
be short-lived,” when in fact it was going<br />
to get worse.<br />
What happens here? It is an amazing<br />
thing: false prophets do not repent even<br />
when proven wrong, <strong>and</strong> then people forget<br />
that they prophesied falsely, <strong>and</strong> simply<br />
go on listening to the next false prophecy.<br />
Meanwhile, the true prophet is proven<br />
right, but they still reject him. Now they are<br />
rejecting Ezekiel in the same way they rejected<br />
Jeremiah before him.<br />
Ezekiel shows a contrast between two<br />
kinds of clergy: the sons of Zadok <strong>and</strong><br />
the ordinary Levites. Not all Levites were<br />
Zadokites, but all Zadokites were Levites.<br />
Let us begin by underst<strong>and</strong>ing about<br />
Zadok: the name comes from the Hebrew<br />
word tsodek meaning “to be right,” which<br />
is also the Hebrew word for ‘to be correct,’<br />
which is also related to the Hebrew word<br />
for “to be righteous.” The Hebrew word for<br />
‘a righteous one’ is tsadek; one who is righteous.<br />
The Hebrew word for “righteousness”<br />
is also the Hebrew word for “charity.”<br />
This word is tsdaka.<br />
As I have previously explained, in Hebrew<br />
thought sonship means more than<br />
pedigree; it means “in the character of.” For<br />
example, we have two pictures of the Messiah<br />
in the Hebrew faith: ha Moshiach ben<br />
Yosef <strong>and</strong> ha Moshiach ben David; Messiah<br />
the Son of Joseph, who is a suffering servant,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Messiah the Son of David, who is<br />
a conquering king. Jesus came in the character<br />
of Joseph at His first coming, but He<br />
will return in the character of David to set<br />
up His kingdom. In Matthew 16 Jesus rebukes<br />
Peter, but before He rebukes him he<br />
calls him “Simon bar Jonah,” in Aramaic<br />
“son of Jonah.” Why? In one sense, one of<br />
Peter’s father’s names may have been Jonah,<br />
like the prophet. But in biblical times<br />
Jews would name their children after heroes<br />
<strong>and</strong> characters of Israel’s more ancient<br />
biblical history, in the aspiration that the<br />
child would grow up to emulate the virtues<br />
of these figures. Jonah was somebody who<br />
argued with God; his first argument with<br />
God was at Joppa. What happens at Joppa<br />
with Peter in Acts chapter 10? He begins<br />
arguing with God. Jonah did not want to go<br />
to the Gentiles; neither did Peter. Simon bar<br />
Jonah; he is in the character of Jonah. Jesus<br />
Son of David is in the character of David;<br />
His biological father was not David, though<br />
David was one of His ancestors. In the same<br />
way, the Zadokites were in the character of<br />
Zadok. Zadok was the Old Testament priest<br />
who remained loyal to David through the<br />
rebellions of Absalom <strong>and</strong> Sheba. He was a<br />
righteous priest who remained loyal. Now,<br />
loyalty to David is an Old Testament foreshadowing<br />
of loyalty to Christ, the Son of<br />
David, the Good Shepherd.<br />
Zadok’s sons remained in his character;<br />
they were not only biologically descended<br />
from him, but they also remained faithful<br />
when the rest of the Levitical clergy<br />
became corrupt. They stayed faithful for<br />
generations, even for centuries. All the way<br />
to the time of the Maccabees there were<br />
Zadokites, all the way through the Hasmonian<br />
period. Finally, then they became corrupt.<br />
In Hebrew, Zadokites were called tzadukim.<br />
What Ezekiel is doing is comparing<br />
the righteous clergy—who were by far the<br />
minority, only descending from one lineage—with<br />
the other Levites, the popular<br />
clergy, who were unrighteous. He begins<br />
highlighting the differences between the<br />
ordinary Levites <strong>and</strong> the Zadokites. They<br />
were all sons of Levi.<br />
In Biblical thought, in the Hebrew language—which<br />
Paul tries to communicate<br />
to Greeks in Philippi, as I will show you<br />
momentarily—one cannot be righteous unless<br />
one is right. If one is not tzodek, one<br />
cannot be a tzadek. In other words, if what<br />
you believe is wrong, you have no chance<br />
of being righteous. The fact that what you<br />
believe is right, however, does not guarantee<br />
that you are righteous. One can believe<br />
what is right <strong>and</strong> still be unrighteous; Paul<br />
tells us this in I Corinthians 13. It cannot<br />
be assumed that because someone’s doctrine<br />
is right, they are also right. It may be<br />
an indication of righteousness, <strong>and</strong> in fact<br />
it is; however, it does not prove righteousness.<br />
However, if what someone believes is<br />
wrong, that person cannot be righteous.<br />
Philippians 1:9: “And this I pray, that<br />
your love may abound still more <strong>and</strong> more in<br />
real knowledge <strong>and</strong> all discernment.” Notice<br />
that real love, agape love, is dependent<br />
on biblical knowledge <strong>and</strong> discernment. If<br />
there is no discernment <strong>and</strong> no knowledge<br />
of the Scriptures, real love cannot abound.<br />
The political correctness of the world has<br />
found its way into the churches, <strong>and</strong> it<br />
makes love <strong>and</strong> truth mutually exclusive.<br />
In actual fact, however, God says that they<br />
are mutually dependent. One cannot really<br />
love if one has unbelief. (This is dealt with<br />
also in the teaching on Leviticus 2, the typology<br />
of the grain offering, with the honey<br />
<strong>and</strong> the leaven.)<br />
Ephesians 6:13: “Therefore take up the<br />
full armor of God, that you may be able<br />
to resist the evil day, <strong>and</strong> having done everything,<br />
to st<strong>and</strong> firm. St<strong>and</strong> firm, having<br />
girded your loins with truth, <strong>and</strong> having put<br />
on the breastplate of righteousness.” Notice<br />
that truth comes before righteousness.<br />
I once saw actual Roman armor at the ruins<br />
of the Colosseum in Rome. People were<br />
smaller then, but even by modern st<strong>and</strong>ards<br />
it is fairly heavy. The armor had to be put<br />
on in a certain way <strong>and</strong> in a certain order.<br />
12 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 13
Sons of Zadok – Continued<br />
Sons of Zadok – Continued<br />
Paul goes through that order in which the<br />
armor had to be put on. The gird was pulled<br />
up above the waist, <strong>and</strong> held the heavier<br />
pieces of armor in place. Unless you put on<br />
the gird first, you could not keep the breastplate<br />
on. In the same way, unless you have<br />
truth, you cannot be righteous; truth comes<br />
first, righteousness second. If what you believe<br />
is false, you cannot be righteous.<br />
Today we find people talking a lot of garbage,<br />
which goes something like this: “Well,<br />
I know this man is wrong about his belief<br />
in faith-prosperity, but he is still a good<br />
brother;” “I know that Pensacola is really<br />
not a revival, but the leader is such a loving<br />
man.” But if he lacks knowledge of God’s<br />
Word <strong>and</strong> is undiscerning, he is not a loving<br />
man. Love can only abound where there is<br />
knowledge <strong>and</strong> discernment. I once met<br />
Bill Hybels briefly. Is he a nice man? Oh, a<br />
very nice man. But is he a righteous man?<br />
No, he is not, because what he believes is<br />
false. Truth comes before righteousness,<br />
because unless you know the truth, you<br />
won’t know what righteousness is. One<br />
cannot know the difference between right<br />
<strong>and</strong> wrong unless one first has the truth.<br />
Yet people protest: “Oh, but he’s such a<br />
good brother,” “Oh, but they are such nice<br />
people,” “Oh, they’re so charitable, so caring,<br />
so loving, they do so much for the poor.”<br />
No. Mother Teresa was very charitable; yet<br />
several months before she died, she made<br />
it clear that she only converted Hindus <strong>and</strong><br />
Moslems to be better Hindus <strong>and</strong> Moslems;<br />
she sent those people to hell without Christ<br />
in the name of being charitable. Love can<br />
only abound where there is discernment<br />
<strong>and</strong> knowledge. The Bible tells us that<br />
other gods are demons; the gods of Hinduism<br />
are demonic. Mother Teresa had no<br />
discernment, nor did she have any knowledge<br />
of God’s Word; therefore true love<br />
could not abound. What real good is it to<br />
pick people up, clean them off, give them a<br />
place to die with dignity—<strong>and</strong> there is a lot<br />
more to that than most people have heard;<br />
we’ve mainly heard the embellished public<br />
relations stories, but when you talk to those<br />
in the medical profession who worked with<br />
her, you find there was much to be desired<br />
in what she did—<strong>and</strong> then send them to hell<br />
for a Christless eternity? Charity depends<br />
upon truth <strong>and</strong> discernment.<br />
Notice that the first difference Ezekiel<br />
points out between the sons of Zadok <strong>and</strong><br />
the ordinary Levites is this, in chapter<br />
44:8: “…they set foreigners to keep charge<br />
of My sanctuary.” Whenever there was a<br />
true move of God, the foreigner was kicked<br />
out. The Levite gave place to the secretly<br />
hostile alien; the Zadokites would kick the<br />
aliens out.<br />
To see how this works out in a true move<br />
of God, let’s look at Nehemiah 13. This is<br />
after the captivity is over; they had learned<br />
their lessons the hard way, <strong>and</strong> had longed<br />
to come back. Then, when Satan tried to seduce<br />
them, it did not work.<br />
Nehemiah 13:1: ”And that day they read<br />
aloud from the book of Moses in the hearing<br />
of the people.” Notice that there was a<br />
real move of God, with the rededication of<br />
the Temple <strong>and</strong> the city, the walls being rebuilt<br />
the emphasis on Scripture; there was<br />
revival here. In Nehemiah 8 there were allday<br />
Bible studies; notice that everything<br />
was based on Scripture. When there is a<br />
real move of God, the Word of God will be<br />
central <strong>and</strong> paramount; everything else will<br />
be derived from what is in the Bible. The<br />
minute you see people going to experience<br />
or subjective revelation <strong>and</strong> prophecy, you<br />
know it is not a real move of God—or, if it<br />
is a real move of God, it has been corrupted.<br />
A real move of God will be based 100%<br />
on Scripture. True prophecy is always<br />
based on the Bible; it is never a replacement<br />
for it, though that is what we see happening<br />
today. People are replacing what is<br />
in Scripture with personal ‘words,’ following<br />
people who are obviously false prophets,<br />
such as Kim Clement <strong>and</strong> Rick Joyner.<br />
“In the hearing of the people, it was found<br />
written that no Ammonite or Moabite should<br />
ever enter the assembly of God, because<br />
they did not meet the sons of Israel with<br />
bread <strong>and</strong> water, but hired Balaam against<br />
them to curse them. However, our God<br />
turned the curse into a blessing. So it came<br />
about that when they heard the law, they<br />
excluded all foreigners from Israel.” Notice<br />
that these foreigners who tried to join<br />
with Israel had an agenda to take over.<br />
Here with Sanballat <strong>and</strong> his people, they<br />
were enemies pretending to be friends,<br />
claiming, “Our god is your God, <strong>and</strong> we’re<br />
one with you.” There was a false basis for<br />
unity; they had a hidden agenda.<br />
“Now, prior to this, Eliakim the priest,<br />
who was appointed over the chamber of<br />
the house of our God, being related to Tobiah<br />
[The word ‘related’ there is ambiguous;<br />
it could mean physically related, but<br />
it could also simply mean ‘close to’] had<br />
prepared a large room, where formerly they<br />
put the grain offering, the frankincense,<br />
the utensils, the tithes of grain, wine <strong>and</strong><br />
oil prescribed for the Levites, the singers,<br />
the gatekeepers; the contributions for the<br />
priests.” Notice that when they brought this<br />
alien in, who had a secret agenda, the grain,<br />
the wine, <strong>and</strong> the oil stopped. The grain—<br />
the Word of God. Real anointing—the oil.<br />
Real worship—the wine. Where the singers<br />
used to be, real worship stopped. Real<br />
teaching, the feeding of the grain to the<br />
people, stopped. The real anointing stopped.<br />
It all stops when you bring the alien in.<br />
The alien’s name was Tobiah, which in<br />
Hebrew means “the goodness of Yahweh.”<br />
He is a bad man with a good name; many<br />
of the most sinister people in the Bible<br />
had good names. Absalom, for example,<br />
was a very bad man with a good name, as<br />
was Abimelech. This alludes to something<br />
about the Antichrist, though we will not go<br />
into that at this time. So here we have a bad<br />
man with a good name who is close to the<br />
high priest. He was an alien with a secret<br />
agenda, he was really bad, he meant them<br />
no good, yet he had a good name; <strong>and</strong> he<br />
got in bed with the clergy. The pope has a<br />
good name with Billy Graham; but he is an<br />
alien. What did the pope say not long ago?<br />
The Roman church is the one true church;<br />
same old story. Last year in Mexico, what<br />
did he say? He told the Catholics to rise up<br />
against the Protestants. As a result, there<br />
were churches burned <strong>and</strong> Christians killed<br />
in Mexico. The pope is an evil man, “All to<br />
You, Mary,” is written on his sleeve <strong>and</strong> is<br />
his personal belief. The man is an idolater<br />
<strong>and</strong> a necromancer.<br />
Yet he has a good name; Chuck Colson<br />
thinks he’s wonderful. “He’s the Holy Father,”<br />
says Robert Schuller. The Levite will<br />
always give place to the secretly hostile alien,<br />
but the righteous clergy will kick him out.<br />
Ecumenism is the first step toward the interfaith<br />
movement. They say that the pope<br />
is a great Christian leader, <strong>and</strong> the pope<br />
says that the Dalai Lama—a man who says<br />
that there is no God, yet allows himself to<br />
be worshiped—is a great spiritual leader.<br />
This is what Revelation warned about; yet<br />
he has a good name. He is allowed into<br />
God’s house.<br />
Today we have many people like Eliakim;<br />
Chuck Colson is one of them. Chuck<br />
Colson is a very dangerous man; he is more<br />
of a danger to the cause of Christ than any<br />
homosexual, any pornographer, or any<br />
Freemason—he is much more dangerous.<br />
An external enemy can be dealt with, but if<br />
a cancer is spreading in the body, look out.<br />
Colson’s wife is a practicing Catholic who<br />
says that Catholics should not be witnessed<br />
to. If you are an ex-Catholic, the Catholic<br />
Church says that you’re on your way to hell<br />
for leaving the one true church. And Chuck<br />
Colson has sold you out.<br />
What was the second contrasting characteristic<br />
in Ezekiel 44? Look at verse<br />
10: “…the Levites who went astray from<br />
Me when Israel went astray.” Isaiah begins<br />
by castigating the clergy for leading the<br />
people astray. Jeremiah begins in the same<br />
way. Earlier in his ministry, Ezekiel begins<br />
also by following the examples of his predecessors,<br />
Isaiah <strong>and</strong> Jeremiah. However,<br />
in the second half of his book, Ezekiel reverses<br />
it. He no longer says that it is the<br />
leaders leading the people away; the problem<br />
becomes the people leading the leaders<br />
astray. In other words, the blame of the<br />
leaders here is not that they are misleading<br />
the people, but that they are failing to be<br />
leaders. Instead, they are letting the people<br />
dictate what should be done. A Levite will<br />
always give the people what they say they<br />
want; the Zadokites, on the other h<strong>and</strong>, will<br />
give the people what God says they need.<br />
Today the big philosophy in church<br />
growth is, “Find out what the people want<br />
<strong>and</strong> give it to them.” It is derived from Bill<br />
Hybels’ church in Willow Creek. Do your<br />
market research, find out what the people<br />
want, <strong>and</strong> give it to them.<br />
There are a lot of very unscriptural ideas<br />
<strong>and</strong> influences coming from people like<br />
Peter Wagner <strong>and</strong> others, on how to grow<br />
a church. Whenever you use a human discipline<br />
or management philosophy, it must<br />
always be subordinate to Scripture. It has<br />
been said that the bait you use to catch<br />
someone is the food you must feed him in<br />
order to keep him. The church will therefore<br />
become more <strong>and</strong> more like the world. “Oh,<br />
they want Christian rock music <strong>and</strong> smoke<br />
machines, so we’ll give them to them.”<br />
So instead of having worship services,<br />
you basically have rock concerts in church,<br />
based not on the worship of God but on the<br />
worship of worship. That’s one example;<br />
there are others. There are churches that<br />
have food courts in them. There are pastors<br />
attending seminars at Willow Creek in Chicago<br />
to learn church growth.<br />
A while ago, hundreds <strong>and</strong> perhaps even<br />
thous<strong>and</strong>s of evangelical pastors met at Willow<br />
Creek Church with Bill Hybels, who<br />
interviewed President Clinton. In the Old<br />
Testament history of Israel, God’s judgment<br />
was looming because of the genocidal<br />
atrocity of sacrificing children to demons.<br />
God put up with a lot of things; He put up<br />
with immorality, social injustice, <strong>and</strong> even<br />
idolatry. But once they began taking babies<br />
<strong>and</strong> sacrificing them to other gods in a cruel<br />
manner, God drew the line. Judgment must<br />
come; even if there were a revival, it would<br />
only delay the judgment, not stop it altogether.<br />
We see this in the days of Josiah. The<br />
revival only delayed the inevitable because<br />
of the blood of the babies under Manasseh.<br />
God’s judgment is looming over the<br />
Protestant democracies, including the United<br />
States, because of abortion. Thirty-five<br />
million babies murdered, with less than<br />
one percent of them aborted for any clinical<br />
reason. Now we have partial-birth abortion;<br />
this procedure involves a suboccipital<br />
puncture—puncturing the baby’s skull—<br />
<strong>and</strong> suboccipital insertion of a catheter into<br />
the baby’s cranium, followed by suction of<br />
the baby’s brain from his or her skull while<br />
he or she is still alive. This is partial-birth<br />
abortion, supported vehemently by Clinton<br />
<strong>and</strong> the present administration.<br />
What did Amos, Isaiah, <strong>and</strong> Jeremiah say<br />
to the national leaders about the immorality<br />
that was going to bring God’s judgment?<br />
They openly confronted the king, knowing<br />
that they would be persecuted for doing<br />
so. But what did Bill Hybels say about<br />
partial-birth abortion—or any abortion,<br />
for that matter? What did Bill Hybels say<br />
about militant <strong>and</strong> radical homosexuality,<br />
with lesbianism being promoted by Clinton<br />
<strong>and</strong> his wife? Not one word. He was ‘politically<br />
correct,’ <strong>and</strong> people are looking to<br />
him. What did Christian leaders say to the<br />
national leaders when they were bringing<br />
God’s judgment? We are talking here about<br />
little babies having their brains sucked out;<br />
yet not one word is said. “Give the people<br />
what they want.”<br />
But the righteous clergy give the people<br />
what they need. They were the minority. Let<br />
us look further, to underst<strong>and</strong> how this works.<br />
Ezekiel 44:11: God leaves them in<br />
place. Don’t worry; God says in verse ten<br />
that they will bear the consequences of<br />
their iniquity—they will not get away with<br />
anything. Yet God leaves them in place for<br />
a season, to be ministers in the sanctuary. In<br />
verse 11 it says that they shall st<strong>and</strong> before<br />
the people <strong>and</strong> minister to the people; but<br />
in verse 15, the Zadokites kept charge of<br />
the sanctuary when the Lord’s people went<br />
astray. “They shall st<strong>and</strong> before Me.” A<br />
Levite will always minister to the people; a<br />
Zadokite will minister to the Lord.<br />
When the Levites give the people what<br />
they want, you don’t see a real move of<br />
God. There are places in the United States<br />
which are having real moves of God; there<br />
is something of a genuine revival taking<br />
place in my native New York City, with the<br />
radical decrease in crime <strong>and</strong> so on. There<br />
is an incredible move of God in the late<br />
David Wilkerson’s Times Square Church<br />
in Manhattan <strong>and</strong> in Jim Simbola’s church,<br />
Brooklyn Tabernacle. I remember when<br />
that was a small group of people meeting<br />
in a YWCA; now it’s a congregation of<br />
ten or twelve thous<strong>and</strong>. This has spread to<br />
other areas of the Northeast. Their growth<br />
is not based on people leaving one church<br />
for another; it is based on people being<br />
saved. I once taught a Bible study in David<br />
Wilkerson’s church’s rescue mission,<br />
called the Upper Room; every day we saw<br />
drug addicts, prostitutes, <strong>and</strong> homosexuals<br />
get saved. People are saved during every<br />
meeting in Times Square Church. I’m not<br />
saying David Wilkerson was perfect, but he<br />
was honest. The crime rate has plummeted<br />
in New York; the current murder rate is<br />
lower than that of 1964. This is opposed to<br />
places in which there has been no change<br />
<strong>and</strong> no growth, such as Pensacola, Toronto,<br />
<strong>and</strong> London, where instead things have gotten<br />
worse.<br />
If I take money from my right pocket<br />
<strong>and</strong> move it into my left pocket, am I any<br />
better off financially? What kind of businessman,<br />
or any person, would do such a<br />
thing <strong>and</strong> think themselves richer? Much of<br />
this seeker-friendly stuff, “Give the people<br />
what they want,” is transfer growth. People<br />
leaving one church for another to have<br />
their ears tickled, as Paul tells us. They find<br />
somebody who tells them what they want<br />
to hear. This is not people being saved; it’s<br />
not the forces of darkness being challenged;<br />
it’s not immorality being thrown back. It’s<br />
people taking money from one pocket <strong>and</strong><br />
transferring it to another. No businessman<br />
could run a business on transfer growth,<br />
taking money from one column <strong>and</strong> putting<br />
it into another. Only a Pentecostal preacher<br />
can get away with that.<br />
Believe me, I should know; I am a Pentecostal<br />
preacher. I am embarrassed to admit<br />
that the Pentecostal ministry has become<br />
a dumping ground for people who simply<br />
cannot do anything else. Do you really<br />
think that these guys could be electricians<br />
or plumbers <strong>and</strong> build up a good business?<br />
Could they be dentists or mathematicians?<br />
No, they’re not intelligent enough. The Pentecostal<br />
ministry becomes for these people<br />
a ticket to the success they couldn’t achieve<br />
in the world. I am not saying that they’re all<br />
this way, but most of what we see today is<br />
like that. It’s all hype artistry, psychological<br />
manipulation, <strong>and</strong> pop psychology, not<br />
the Bible. It’s “Give the people what they<br />
want”; they’re p<strong>and</strong>ering to a market.<br />
A lot of people knew Pensacola was<br />
not a revival. A lot of Assemblies of God<br />
ministers knew it was wrong, just as a lot<br />
of them knew that the PTL club was not<br />
of God. They went along with it anyway,<br />
why? Because the people liked it! “If we<br />
don’t have it,” they said, “we’ll lose members<br />
to the church up the street that does<br />
have it.” You see, they are no longer running<br />
a church; instead, they are running a<br />
business, an enterprise. Just as you have to<br />
give the customers what they want if you<br />
run a haberdashery shop, you have to give<br />
the customers what they want if you’re running<br />
a church. They are ministering to the<br />
people <strong>and</strong> not to the Lord.<br />
A Zadokite, however, a righteous clergyman,<br />
would rather teach the truth to 50 people<br />
than teach error to 50,000. He is ministering<br />
to the Lord, you see. The other guy,<br />
verse 11, he’s ministering to the people.<br />
There was no revival in Pensacola, <strong>and</strong><br />
none in Toronto. No real revival like we see<br />
in New York City, with people really getting<br />
saved. That didn’t happen in London<br />
at Holy Trinity Brompton with the Alpha<br />
Courses; the city has actually only gotten<br />
worse. All they do is get people leaving one<br />
church for another, <strong>and</strong> then say that the<br />
14 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 15
Sons of Zadok – Continued<br />
Sons of Zadok – Continued<br />
Lord is blessing them, for look how they’ve<br />
grown. But that’s silly; it is sheer idiocy. We<br />
have men st<strong>and</strong>ing in pulpits today behaving<br />
like idiots. Not a nice word; but Paul<br />
uses the word idiotae in Corinthians.<br />
I think that people should leave bad<br />
churches in order to come to good ones; yet<br />
the Gospel should be our focus. One danger<br />
that can happen in good churches is this: because<br />
they st<strong>and</strong> up for truth against error,<br />
they wind up becoming hospitals for Christians<br />
who have been ripped off <strong>and</strong> abused<br />
in bad churches, <strong>and</strong> lose their own evangelistic<br />
focus. This shouldn’t be allowed<br />
to happen; a balance should be kept. It can<br />
easily happen that a good church becomes<br />
a hospital for abused Christians rather than<br />
focusing on evangelistic outreach to the<br />
community.<br />
What comes next? “It shall be that when<br />
they enter, they shall be clothed with linen<br />
garments; wool shall not be on them while<br />
they are ministering in the gates to the inner<br />
court of the house. Linen turbans shall<br />
be on their heads, <strong>and</strong> linen undergarments<br />
shall be on their loins. They shall not gird<br />
themselves with anything which makes<br />
them sweat.”<br />
This refers to an elaborate Hebrew ritual<br />
for the Day of Atonement called the Mustafa.<br />
We read about this ritual in an ancient<br />
rabbinic tractate called yoma, which describes<br />
what the Day of Atonement was<br />
like in the day of Jesus. When you read the<br />
Book of Hebrews in light of its background,<br />
you underst<strong>and</strong> that book a lot better. In this<br />
ritual, the high priest is of course a picture<br />
of Christ, as we are told in Hebrews. But<br />
when he went to the Holy of Holies once<br />
a year, he put on different clothes that the<br />
people could not see; all-white linen garments.<br />
He looked different from the way<br />
he normally looked when he went into the<br />
Holy of Holies; this is a picture of Christ<br />
as well, when Jesus went before the Father<br />
to make atonement for our sin. It was a<br />
mystery what happened behind the curtain<br />
while the high priest was behind it; when<br />
Jesus went before the Father, He was different<br />
than when He was before the people.<br />
The apostles had only glimpses of this;<br />
the transfiguration, or later on when John<br />
saw Jesus in His manifest glory. And although<br />
John knew Jesus humanly, when he<br />
saw Him in His divinity, he was shocked,<br />
as we read in Revelation chapter 1.<br />
His disciples saw one Jesus; but when<br />
He went in back of that curtain, as it were,<br />
to make atonement, they didn’t see Him.<br />
Likewise the high priest had to change his<br />
clothes <strong>and</strong> put on these linen vestments<br />
once a year, that he would not transmit holiness<br />
to the people. After the final sacrifice<br />
on the Day of Atonement, he would again<br />
put on his ordinary clothes <strong>and</strong> come down<br />
the Temple Mount stairs on the south, to<br />
the City of David, <strong>and</strong> then he would make<br />
a right, turning west, <strong>and</strong> go up the stairs<br />
to the upper city where the high priest<br />
lived. As he attempted to come down the<br />
stairs <strong>and</strong> go up again to the upper city, the<br />
people would surround him, grab onto him<br />
<strong>and</strong> pull him, saying, “Don’t leave; don’t<br />
leave.” He would have to battle his way<br />
through the crowds in order to leave. After<br />
Jesus made atonement for our sins, He said,<br />
“I ascend now to My Father,” <strong>and</strong> they did<br />
not want Him to go; yet He said that it was<br />
to their (<strong>and</strong> our) advantage that He go.<br />
Notice that the high priest could not have<br />
a mixture. The Levites had a mixture, but<br />
the Zadokites had none. The Zadokites<br />
could also not wear anything that would<br />
make them sweat. Why? Let’s begin by<br />
looking at the mixture: they were forbidden<br />
to make a garment of flax <strong>and</strong> wool.<br />
God hates the mixture; He despises the<br />
mixture. Two passages we will touch on<br />
briefly:<br />
2 Peter 2:1: “False prophets arose among<br />
the people, just as there will be false teachers<br />
among you.” Peter uses false prophets<br />
<strong>and</strong> false teachers synonymously <strong>and</strong> interchangeably.<br />
Why? Because if someone’s<br />
doctrines are wrong, their prophecies will<br />
also be wrong! The reason that Kim Clement,<br />
Paul Cain, Rick Joyner, <strong>and</strong> Gerald<br />
Coates get it wrong—the reason their<br />
prophecies don’t come to pass—is that<br />
their doctrines are false.<br />
“…who will secretly introduce destructive<br />
heresies, even denying the Master who<br />
bought them.”<br />
Joyce Meyer did this; she said in her<br />
book that if you do not believe that Jesus<br />
went to hell, you cannot go to heaven. Kenneth<br />
Hagin <strong>and</strong> Kenneth Copel<strong>and</strong> got their<br />
beliefs from E.W. Kenyan; they too deny<br />
the Master who bought them.<br />
“…secretly introducing damnable heresies<br />
. . .” We translate it “destructive,” but<br />
a better word is “damnable.” That phrase<br />
is man’s best effort to translate this Greek<br />
word, parasaxousin. Para is the Greek prefix<br />
meaning “next to.” It means that they<br />
put truth adjacent or next to error. In other<br />
words, they use truth to camouflage error.<br />
There is always real cheese in the rat trap.<br />
What did Satan do when he tempted Adam<br />
<strong>and</strong> Eve? When the serpent beguiled the<br />
woman—a figure of Israel <strong>and</strong> the church<br />
being seduced—he took something the<br />
Lord said out of context. What did Satan<br />
do in Matthew chapter 4 when he tempted<br />
Jesus? The whole argument was from the<br />
book of Deuteronomy. Satan would quote<br />
from Deuteronomy, <strong>and</strong> Jesus would answer<br />
from Deuteronomy. Satan put truth<br />
next to error; he took verses out of context.<br />
Jesus answered in context.<br />
When you see people taking verses out<br />
of context <strong>and</strong> making it a pretext—Rodney<br />
Howard-Browne is a master at it, <strong>and</strong><br />
Mike Bickle is another—that is the signature<br />
of Satan; Lucifer manifesting himself<br />
as an angel of light. What does he do? He<br />
puts truth next to error. And Peter calls them<br />
“damnable” heresies; some Bibles translate<br />
the word as “destructive”; the King James<br />
is more accurate in this case, <strong>and</strong> calls them<br />
“damnable.”<br />
“Oh, there’s some truth in Pensacola!”<br />
“Someone once was actually healed at a<br />
Benny Hinn crusade!” For one thing, we<br />
know of people who were pronounced<br />
healed by Hinn who are now dead, <strong>and</strong> we<br />
know that there is no medical documentation<br />
of true healings. But even if there<br />
were, we must heed Matthew 7:22: “Lord,<br />
we did miracles in your name.” “I never<br />
knew you.” A true healing would not prove<br />
anything about Benny Hinn.<br />
People so often defend these things by<br />
pointing out that there is some good in<br />
them, some truth in them. Yes, <strong>and</strong> by virtue<br />
of the fact that it is a mixture of truth<br />
<strong>and</strong> error, it is clearly not of God.<br />
“Oh, there’s some good in it!”—God has<br />
damned it. There is a false wisdom of man<br />
that goes something like this: “Eat the meat<br />
<strong>and</strong> spit out the bones.” Again, think of a<br />
three-egg omelet, in which two of the eggs<br />
are good but one is rotten. If you want botulism,<br />
bon appetit.<br />
God hates the mixture; His priests were<br />
forbidden to have a mixture.<br />
Paul compares his own ministry <strong>and</strong><br />
those of Timothy <strong>and</strong> Silvanus with the<br />
Benny Hinns <strong>and</strong> Kenneth Copel<strong>and</strong>s of<br />
today, saying this in I Thessalonians 2:3:<br />
“Our exhortation does not come from error<br />
or impurity or by way of deceit, but just as<br />
we have been approved by God to be entrusted<br />
with the Gospel, so we speak not<br />
as pleasing men, but God, who examines<br />
our hearts. We never came with flattering<br />
speech, as you know, nor with a pretext of<br />
greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek<br />
glory from men—either from you or from<br />
others, even though as apostles of Christ<br />
we might have exerted our authority.”<br />
The true apostles were being compared<br />
to the false ones. What the false apostles<br />
did was flatter people with a motivation<br />
of greed—to get money out of them. They<br />
went around flattering people, telling them<br />
what they wanted to hear, in order to get<br />
money from them. Today they’re going<br />
around prophesying over people, telling<br />
them “You’re going to do this <strong>and</strong> have that<br />
<strong>and</strong> the other thing,” <strong>and</strong> then they take up<br />
a really big offering. The fact that none of it<br />
happens doesn’t matter; the people go back<br />
for still more false prophecies.<br />
Jeremiah 5 says that the prophets prophesy<br />
falsely <strong>and</strong> God’s people love it, but<br />
look at what God says through Paul: “Our<br />
exhortation does not come from error or<br />
impurity or by way of deceit …”<br />
Error, impurity, or by way of deceit. It<br />
begins with error; doctrinal error becomes<br />
mixed. That word for “mix” is akatharis,<br />
mix or mixture of pure <strong>and</strong> impure. The<br />
whole thing is impure because some of it<br />
is; it’s a mixture. Get a nice big glass of<br />
orange juice, <strong>and</strong> then pour in a few drops<br />
of arsenic; it becomes a homogeneous solution,<br />
doesn’t it? Can you decide to swallow<br />
the juice <strong>and</strong> spit out the arsenic? When<br />
you hear people saying that we have to “eat<br />
the meat <strong>and</strong> spit out the bones,” they don’t<br />
know the Greek language for one thing,<br />
but they don’t know basic doctrine either.<br />
Those are the babbling words of foolish<br />
men. It is impossible to swallow the juice<br />
<strong>and</strong> spit out the arsenic; it’s akatharis.<br />
At best a person who would say that is an<br />
ignoramus with no biblical right to be behind<br />
a pulpit. If someone is unable to teach<br />
truth, unable to rightly divide the Word of<br />
God, that person has no right to be in the<br />
ministry. James says, “Let few of you be<br />
teachers,” for teachers will be judged more<br />
strictly than the rest.<br />
When we st<strong>and</strong> before Jesus, your pastor<br />
<strong>and</strong> I are going to be held more accountable<br />
than most of you. And yet there are people<br />
who will teach you that you can swallow<br />
the juice <strong>and</strong> spit out the arsenic. But that’s<br />
absurd; it’s homogeneous! I don’t mind that<br />
these people don’t know Greek, but some<br />
of them don’t even know English.<br />
There is a mixture. Now, the mixture will<br />
make them sweat. But the Zadokites were<br />
different; they would not perspire because<br />
there was no mixture. Their garments were<br />
pure linen. Revelation 19:8: “It was given<br />
to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright<br />
<strong>and</strong> clean, for the fine linen is the righteous<br />
acts of the saints.”<br />
A Zadokite wore pure linen; his deeds<br />
were no mixture, so there would be no<br />
sweat. The Levite had a mixture, so there<br />
would be perspiration. In other words, a<br />
Zadokite would rest in the Lord, whereas<br />
the Levite would strive in the flesh. Again,<br />
if I have only 100 people in my church <strong>and</strong><br />
they are the 100 that God has given me, I<br />
am going to teach them the truth <strong>and</strong> I will<br />
rest in the Lord. I will be content with what<br />
I have, <strong>and</strong> ask that the Lord may add to my<br />
numbers. I will do my evangelism, I will<br />
preach the Gospel, I will pray, I’ll seek the<br />
Lord, I’ll do all that I can do; but it is the<br />
Lord who gives the increase. I’m not going<br />
to sweat about it.<br />
Today’s Levites, by contrast, devise one<br />
program after another. They are programoriented,<br />
<strong>and</strong> become event-oriented. They<br />
have to put on one big event after another<br />
to bring in numbers in order to bring in<br />
money to pay for the program that has never<br />
been ordained by God. They are striving<br />
in the flesh; they sweat. They have to<br />
worry. There is some good in what they say<br />
<strong>and</strong> what they teach, of course, because it<br />
is a mixture.<br />
A Zadokite will strive to be in the Lord,<br />
for that is where his rest is. Remember Jesus<br />
as our Sabbath rest? A Zadokite will<br />
strive to be in the Lord. Anything he does<br />
will be a result of his abiding in the Lord.<br />
A Levite, however, will strive in the flesh.<br />
He’ll have to get the latest gimmick, the latest<br />
program, the latest church-growth plan;<br />
<strong>and</strong> if those don’t work, he’ll have to get<br />
others. He’ll always be a mixture. There’s<br />
a mixture in what he preaches, a mixture in<br />
what he believes, <strong>and</strong> a mixture in what he<br />
does. It is impure; it is akatharis, because<br />
he is trying to please man instead of God.<br />
Ezekiel 44:23: “They shall teach My<br />
people the difference between holy <strong>and</strong><br />
profane, <strong>and</strong> cause them to discern.”<br />
A Levite <strong>and</strong> a Zadokite; a Zadokite will<br />
teach discernment. A Levite will be politically<br />
correct; he will not teach discernment.<br />
If your pastor is not teaching discernment,<br />
if he is not teaching the people to discern,<br />
he is not a faithful leader. Only a righteous<br />
leader will teach discernment. When you<br />
see churches that will not deal with error,<br />
will not teach the people what is wrong<br />
with what’s being shown <strong>and</strong> espoused on<br />
popular “Christian” television—when you<br />
see people who will not take a st<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
warn people when they go to a Christian<br />
book shop what kinds of books to keep<br />
away from—when you find that discernment<br />
is not being taught in a church—that<br />
is a Levite, not a Zadokite. He will always<br />
compromise. A Levite will always compromise<br />
truth. Once people begin compromising<br />
truth, it won’t be long before they are<br />
compromising morality. Give them enough<br />
time, <strong>and</strong> the same guys will begin to compromise<br />
morality.<br />
Finally, we’re told, “…they will take<br />
their st<strong>and</strong> in a dispute, <strong>and</strong> judge according<br />
to My statutes.”<br />
A Zadokite, a righteous minister, will<br />
take a st<strong>and</strong> in a dispute <strong>and</strong> judge biblically.<br />
Again, a Levite will be politically<br />
correct. He will come down on the fence.<br />
In Engl<strong>and</strong> we have a Baptist preacher<br />
whom I once respected, though I no longer<br />
can, by the name of David Pawson. He<br />
watched the videos of the laughing revival,<br />
<strong>and</strong> he was appalled; but when his followers<br />
began writing to him to ask whether it<br />
was of God or not, instead of telling them<br />
the truth, he called Toronto a “yellow<br />
light.” It wasn’t red, nor was it green; in<br />
other words, he said, proceed with caution;<br />
go into it cautiously. It’s a mixture, he said;<br />
<strong>and</strong> he’s a man who knows Greek as well<br />
as I do. By virtue of the fact that it is a mixture,<br />
it should not be gone into. He was told<br />
that by me <strong>and</strong> by another pastor, yet it did<br />
not change his mind. It was not politically<br />
correct to take a st<strong>and</strong>. Why would he not<br />
take a st<strong>and</strong>? Because he no longer ministers<br />
to the Lord, he ministers to the people.<br />
It is a tragedy, because he is a man who did<br />
take a st<strong>and</strong> in the past. He took a st<strong>and</strong> on<br />
a lot of issues; he stood against annihilationism,<br />
he said that leadership is male—he<br />
took a st<strong>and</strong> in the past, but now he no longer<br />
takes a st<strong>and</strong>. Now he bails out. He will<br />
not take a st<strong>and</strong> in a dispute.<br />
“It’s a mixture,” he says. Of course it’s<br />
a mixture! That very fact tells you it is not<br />
God, that it is damnable. How can you try<br />
to defend something, which, according to<br />
Peter, God has damned? If God has damned<br />
something, it is indefensible. There’s nothing<br />
more to be said.<br />
Remember that Ezekiel prophesied not<br />
only for his own day or even for the first<br />
coming of Jesus, he also prophesied for now.<br />
In whatever church you go to, does your<br />
minister give place to the secretly hostile<br />
alien? Will he fool around with the liberal<br />
Protestants or the Roman church, people<br />
with a stated agenda? Will he go down the<br />
road to Babylon? When that happens, true<br />
worship ends, the grain is no longer being<br />
shoveled out for the people, <strong>and</strong> the wine<br />
<strong>and</strong> oil are gone. Does your leader give place<br />
to the alien, or does he kick the alien out?<br />
Does your pastor give the people what<br />
they say they want, or does he give the<br />
people what God says they need? In other<br />
words, does he minister to the people, or<br />
does he minister to the Lord?<br />
Does your minister strive in the flesh?<br />
Does he allow a mixture of what is right<br />
<strong>and</strong> wrong, true <strong>and</strong> false, biblical <strong>and</strong><br />
unbiblical, spiritual <strong>and</strong> carnal? Does he<br />
allow for akatharis? Does he tell you to<br />
eat the meat <strong>and</strong> spit out the bones? And<br />
if there is a mixture, in the process of it is<br />
your minister always striving in the flesh<br />
for another gimmick, another program, <strong>and</strong><br />
another “celebration/praise” event? Or is<br />
he someone who has no mixture; what he<br />
teaches <strong>and</strong> what he does is purely scriptural?<br />
Does he rest in the Lord? Would he<br />
rather have 100 people that he can teach<br />
the truth to than 5,000 to whom he can only<br />
give a mixture?<br />
Does your pastor teach God’s people discernment?<br />
Does he teach you to discern?<br />
Does he protect the sheep from the wolves?<br />
Or is he a hireling as described by Jesus<br />
in John 10, who is not a shepherd, who is<br />
out for his hire—his job, his housing allowance,<br />
his credentials, his st<strong>and</strong>ing in<br />
the community? Is he a hireling or a pas-<br />
. . . . . continued on page 18<br />
16 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 17
<strong>Moriel</strong> Philippines<br />
tor? Does he teach discernment, or does he<br />
compromise truth?<br />
Finally, on a disputed issue such as seeker-friendliness,<br />
the Alpha courses, Promise<br />
Keepers, or the laughing “revival,” will he<br />
take his st<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> judge biblically? Or will<br />
he rather come down on the fence, refusing<br />
to take a st<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> refusing to judge biblically,<br />
even though he knows better, as so<br />
many of these guys do?<br />
These are not questions for me to answer;<br />
these are only questions for me to<br />
ask. I don’t know all of you, <strong>and</strong> I don’t<br />
know what churches you go to. I am only<br />
asking the question: your leader—is he a<br />
Levite or a Zadokite?<br />
If your minister is a Zadokite—if he<br />
is somebody who will kick the alien out,<br />
who will give the people what God says<br />
they need, who ministers to the Lord rather<br />
than to men, in whom there is no mixture<br />
in what he teaches, believes <strong>and</strong> does, who<br />
will rather rest in the Lord than strive in<br />
the flesh, who will teach people to discern,<br />
<strong>and</strong> who will take a st<strong>and</strong> in a dispute—if<br />
that is your pastor, you st<strong>and</strong> by him. You<br />
pray for him, you support him financially,<br />
<strong>and</strong> you help him in any way you can. He<br />
may not be a perfect man, but he is a good<br />
man, <strong>and</strong> he is God’s man. You st<strong>and</strong> by<br />
him; you pray for him; you support him;<br />
you be loyal to him so long as he is loyal<br />
to the Word of God. He needs your prayers,<br />
he deserves your support, <strong>and</strong> he is entitled<br />
to your help.<br />
On the other h<strong>and</strong>, if your minister is a<br />
Levite—if he will give place to the alien<br />
<strong>and</strong> walk down the ecumenical path to<br />
Babylon; if he’ll give the people what they<br />
want; if there is a mixture in what he teaches,<br />
believes <strong>and</strong> does; if he will not teach<br />
discernment but rather is politically correct,<br />
will not take his st<strong>and</strong> in a dispute <strong>and</strong> does<br />
not want any controversy—do not sit under<br />
that man’s ministry; do not bring your family<br />
under his ministry. He is not a shepherd;<br />
he is at best a hireling or an incompetent.<br />
He is somebody who does not deserve your<br />
support. You can pray for him, but get away<br />
from him <strong>and</strong> get your family away from<br />
him, <strong>and</strong> take anybody else away from him<br />
that you can. He is leading the sheep to destruction.<br />
At best, he is an ignoramus who<br />
should not be behind a pulpit. Don’t support<br />
his ministry, don’t support him financially,<br />
don’t st<strong>and</strong> by him, <strong>and</strong> don’t be loyal to<br />
him, because if you are you are being loyal<br />
to something not of God. God has damned<br />
what he does. If he is not right, he is not,<br />
<strong>and</strong> cannot possibly be, righteous.<br />
Again, I am not the one to answer this<br />
question, only the one to ask it. Is your<br />
minister a Levite or a Zadokite?<br />
Paul Sevilla<br />
Dear Bro. Jacob <strong>and</strong> Bro. David,<br />
Grace <strong>and</strong> peace be unto you from God our Father <strong>and</strong> the Lord Jesus Christ.<br />
The coming of Bro. Geoff Toole this April 14 th <strong>and</strong> 15t h was a blessing. We<br />
visited the four sick children at their home. (Rialyn Cali, Romar Ibanez,Shyrose<br />
Baladbad, Jenna rose Romero). They are our main concern, Brother Geoff prayed<br />
for them <strong>and</strong> brought encouraging words to their family. He also lead a Bible<br />
Seminar. The attendance was more than 35 people including mothers, one pastor’s<br />
wife, <strong>and</strong> young people. Every one received additional knowledge from the lessons<br />
of God’s word <strong>and</strong> we had a happy fellowship.<br />
Our young children who regularly attend the Young Peoples Fellowship along<br />
with other churches, was unanimously chosen to be the Host for the next YP Fellowship<br />
on June 1, 2013. This will be their first time hosting the activity. Let’s<br />
pray for them.<br />
Last week we attended church anniversary. Our young children sang their praise<br />
song number for the Lord.<br />
We’ve went Phil. Heart Center, the Doctor examined Jennarose who has a heart<br />
problem. The Doctor wants her to be confined, but the pregnant mother requested<br />
her child to be confined after she gave birth. The Doctor scheduled Jennarose to<br />
return on July 23 rd for an X-ray, CBC, APC, Urinalysis <strong>and</strong> 2D Echo. She will<br />
undergo electrocardiogram on July 31.<br />
Shyrose with the same heart problem is scheduled to return in May. Her mother<br />
will process the required papers to get the yellow card (access card).<br />
Regarding Rialyn, we brought her to an EENT Surgeon. The doctor advised her<br />
mother to let Rialyn’s bone mature before having the second surgery. The doctors<br />
explanation was: if second surgery is done (which is the cleft palate) on her fresh<br />
age <strong>and</strong> while she is growing up, the gums muscles will stretch <strong>and</strong> the bone will<br />
exp<strong>and</strong> which tend to deform. We had to look for another doctor <strong>and</strong> they had<br />
almost the same opinion. The mother decided to wait for a few years.<br />
We as God’s people are not only concerned about spiritual needs, but also for<br />
physical needs. Please let us pray together for them. Thank you very much. May<br />
the Lord God continue bless His ministry.<br />
Sincerely in Christ,<br />
Ptr. Paul<br />
WATCH AND PRAY<br />
It is one of the paradoxes of the faith that<br />
to live out a truth taught us in the Bible. We<br />
sometimes must first experience the opposite<br />
power working against us.<br />
For example, to become humble there<br />
often needs to be a corresponding awareness<br />
of just how potentially proud we can<br />
become. I have seen those of us therefore<br />
wishing to build <strong>and</strong> oversee a discernment<br />
ministry, must also be conscience of how<br />
quickly we ourselves might be deceived.<br />
Those who believe that they can never be<br />
led astray into error usually are the ones<br />
who will fall the quickest <strong>and</strong> the hardest.<br />
“Therefore let him who thinks he st<strong>and</strong>s<br />
take heed that he does not fall.” 1 Cor.<br />
10:12 (NASB).<br />
Even if we are strongly gifted by the Lord<br />
in prophetic matters <strong>and</strong> taught things by<br />
Yeshua himself; it’s often not strong enough<br />
to prevent our going into error. The classic<br />
example of this of course is Peter; though<br />
ready, willing <strong>and</strong> able to fight for The Lord,<br />
he ended up denying The Master. The faith<br />
he so strongly espoused was refuted by a<br />
mere servant girl.<br />
If we look at the warning that Jesus gave<br />
to Peter, regarding this issue; there is an important<br />
element that we often overlook.<br />
Luke 22:31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan<br />
has dem<strong>and</strong>ed permission to sift you like<br />
wheat; 32 but I have prayed for you, that<br />
your faith may not fail; <strong>and</strong> you, when once<br />
you have turned again, strengthen your<br />
brothers” (NASB). One vital thing that the<br />
Messiah did in preparing the disciples lives<br />
for tribulation was prayer. We see His example<br />
of a prayer marked life over <strong>and</strong> over<br />
again in the Gospels.<br />
Today it is in this area of developing a<br />
faithful consistent prayer life that we too<br />
have failed enormously; we have neither<br />
really listened to what Jesus said or acted<br />
upon it. Prayer has been largely neglected<br />
Steve Boot<br />
or underdeveloped<br />
in its importance.<br />
Don’t<br />
forget we were<br />
comm<strong>and</strong>ed to<br />
watch AND pray!<br />
(Mark 14:38). We<br />
may have been<br />
somewhat diligent<br />
in the watching<br />
part, but what<br />
about prayer?<br />
Now before<br />
you regard this<br />
article as just another<br />
exhortation<br />
to do more. Be<br />
aware the issue of<br />
prayer is strongly<br />
linked to the ministry of the end times. In<br />
Luke 17:20-37 when Yeshua is specifically<br />
talking about the coming of the kingdom of<br />
God <strong>and</strong> the Son of man. He then teaches<br />
in Luke 18 a corresponding parable about<br />
the necessity of faithful, persistent prayer;<br />
so as to not lose heart. The point being that,<br />
by its context, it is connected to the overcoming<br />
of end times troubles. The ability to<br />
withst<strong>and</strong> the distress <strong>and</strong> tribulation of this<br />
day <strong>and</strong> these times are linked to our being<br />
faithful to cry out to Him beforeh<strong>and</strong> (Luke<br />
18:8). Jesus seems to be indicating of all the<br />
actions we could take to remain faithful in<br />
the waiting of our redemption, we have to<br />
be praying rightly or in a right manner just<br />
as He taught us.<br />
Throughout Luke 18 <strong>and</strong>19 Jesus gives us<br />
examples of some people being deluded in<br />
their faith, whilst there are others who persist<br />
on crying out to Him. In 18:9-14, there is<br />
specifically a teaching about some who will<br />
pray to God, but be rejected; others who<br />
will pray <strong>and</strong> be judged as justified (heard).<br />
We also read in the later letters of Peter,<br />
after his restoration to Yeshua, that he urged<br />
fellow believers to be in Prayer for the end<br />
times. 1 Peter 4:7 warns us, “Now the end<br />
of all things is near; therefore, be serious<br />
<strong>and</strong> disciplined for prayer.” (HCSB). In the<br />
NASB it reads “The end of all things is near;<br />
therefore, be of sound judgment <strong>and</strong> sober<br />
spirit for the purpose of prayer.” The word<br />
for serious/sound is swfronew “sophreno,”<br />
which means to be in the right mind. The<br />
purpose for doing so is to then be clear<br />
headed for prayer.<br />
Yes it is vital to be discerning about the<br />
times we live in, the resulting action to be<br />
applied from this sober, disciplined mindset<br />
is to pray. It is not enough to have insightful<br />
teaching <strong>and</strong> exposition if we are not also<br />
linking it to an intercessory outpouring.<br />
Jesus prayed on the shore when the disciples<br />
were in the midst of the tribulation of<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Canada<br />
the storm. Abraham interceded with God<br />
over Lot in Sodom are but two examples.<br />
Throughout the scriptures we see the repeated<br />
pattern of the great leaders also being<br />
great intercessors. People like Jeremiah<br />
not only had highly developed prophetic<br />
skills but also highly developed prayer lives!<br />
In our time whilst we have a mountain of<br />
materials to do with end times predictions<br />
but there’s been a molehill regarding prayer.<br />
The choice is largely between books hundreds<br />
of years old, like the Andrew Murray’s<br />
Classics. Or flakey, charismanic pulp fiction<br />
from the likes of Cindy Jacobs. I strongly believe<br />
there is a “gap” or void in our prayer<br />
ministries <strong>and</strong> the enemy has correspondingly<br />
flooded this hole with a whole host<br />
of unsound teaching <strong>and</strong> so called “watchmen”<br />
who are not taking Jesus’ warning<br />
concerning prayer seriously. Prayer builds a<br />
wall that guards the watchman while he is<br />
on watch! Can you imagine a watchman out<br />
in the open? While he may be able to do his<br />
job, he is still very exposed without the covering<br />
of prayer. Also, can you imagine how<br />
he has to explain to The Lord why he didn’t<br />
build his defenses when he had time knowing<br />
what the days ahead will bring?<br />
In nearly all the “End Times Conferences”<br />
prayer time is largely noticeable by<br />
its absence or brevity. Very few sound CD’s,<br />
books or videos are present at the st<strong>and</strong>s<br />
on this subject.<br />
One of the failures the disciples had when<br />
Jesus was in distress at Gethsemane was<br />
their inability to remain awake AND pray.<br />
It seems before the second coming of The<br />
Lord that we too may end up repeating the<br />
same pattern of behavior. We are specifically<br />
warned that the love of many will grow<br />
cold (Matt 24:12), <strong>and</strong> because of this concern<br />
Jesus instructs us to be in prayer over<br />
these days of distress. Matthew 24:20 “But<br />
pray that your flight will not be in the winter,<br />
or on a Sabbath” (NASB). It doesn’t bode<br />
well that even as we begin to enter into<br />
these seasons of trial; deep, faithful, consistent<br />
prayers is lacking at a lot of our meetings<br />
<strong>and</strong> personal agendas,<br />
In 1 Timothy 2:1, we read “I exhort<br />
therefore, that, first of all, supplications,<br />
prayers, intercessions, <strong>and</strong> giving of thanks,<br />
be made for all men” (KJV). Paul is saying<br />
that we should be praying in some different<br />
ways; <strong>and</strong> one of them is by “intercessions”<br />
(nteuxeij), which means literally to<br />
“hit the mark,” an intervention led by God,<br />
between heaven <strong>and</strong> earth as it reflects the<br />
Lord’s specific will.<br />
Now in Hebrew, we have a corresponding<br />
term (ugP) paga, (Isaiah 59:16 “And was<br />
astonished that there was no one to intercede;<br />
Then His own arm brought salvation to<br />
Him.” It has the basic meaning of “to meet.”<br />
18 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 19
<strong>Moriel</strong> Canada – Continued<br />
David Royle<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> South Africa<br />
It conveys the idea of physical contact. Its<br />
three main usages are (1) “to intercede/<br />
plead for” (Isaiah 53:12, Jeremiah 36:25) (2)<br />
“to place a burden upon” (Isaiah 53:6, “the<br />
Lord has ‘laid’ upon him all our iniquity”). (3)<br />
“Making intercession” either to man (Ruth<br />
1:16, “entreat me not,” i.e. “don’t press me<br />
to leave you,”) or to God (Jeremiah 7:16,<br />
“don’t make intercession to me”).<br />
If therefore, we have been listening to<br />
the Lord’s voice. There should be evidenced<br />
among us that there are regular times set<br />
aside for meeting with God in prayer. Our<br />
lives <strong>and</strong> ministries should follow the pattern<br />
of the Messiah who was habitually was<br />
found praying over His disciples <strong>and</strong> ministry.<br />
Please note, that Yeshua is the only true<br />
“intercessor” per se. We do not take on the<br />
the weight of prayers upon ourselves. It<br />
is only through the will <strong>and</strong> work of The<br />
Holy Spirit is it possible for His “burdens”<br />
either to be placed on us or lifted from<br />
us. Hebrews 7:25 states, “Therefore He is<br />
able to save completely those who come to<br />
God through Him, (NIV).<br />
Might I suggest in the light of what The<br />
Lord is calling us to we must take some<br />
practical steps in response?<br />
First we must role model a prayer ministry<br />
as much as we emphasize the “teaching”<br />
ministry. Next, there must be a conscience<br />
effort to develop this intercessory praying<br />
over our lives <strong>and</strong> outreaches. If our Master<br />
in His important, busy life, took the time<br />
to teach on prayer, role model <strong>and</strong> explain<br />
prayer; then it behooves us too, to follow in<br />
His footsteps.<br />
Finally, we begin to lament, cry <strong>and</strong> ask<br />
for forgiveness for our Pray-less lives. We<br />
become as humble as the tax collector was<br />
in Luke 18:13; pleading with The Lord not<br />
to leave us as we are now. Let’s begin by<br />
asking Him to give us a true attitude towards<br />
intercession, so that the Bride of<br />
Christ be found watching <strong>and</strong> praying, when<br />
He comes. (Song of Solomon 5:2)<br />
Any comments ? Suggestions ? I do welcome<br />
any feedback <strong>and</strong>/or corrections to<br />
this article; please write to Steve at:<br />
canadamoriel@gmail.com.<br />
Thank you,<br />
Steve Boot<br />
Quotes of the QUARTER !<br />
“Fear knocked at the door. Faith<br />
answered. And lo, no one was<br />
there.”<br />
– Author Unknown –<br />
Special<br />
announcement<br />
from MORIEL MINISTRIES<br />
I had always promised before the Lord Jesus two things concerning Christian TV. The<br />
first is that I would never “Ride in Ahab’s Chariot”; that is I would not appear on the<br />
same channel, network, or station that broadcast heretical money preachers. I would not<br />
want <strong>Moriel</strong> to be misunderstood as endorsing such deceivers who have prostituted God’s<br />
Word or allow us to be identified with them in the eyes of the secular public. They discredit<br />
the Gospel of Salvation to the world, twisting the truth into a financial con game.<br />
It was therefore on this basis when Revelation TV began broadcasting American hype<br />
artist <strong>and</strong> money preacher Jesse Duplantis that I withdrew from the network, along with<br />
several of my colleagues including Bob Mitchell, Brian Gemmel, <strong>and</strong> Paul Wilkinson.<br />
Sadly, others knowing it was wrong, compromised with what they privately admitted to<br />
be wickedness but unfortunately public notoriety appeared to be more important to them<br />
than Christian integrity <strong>and</strong> not bringing public dishonor to the name of Jesus Christ <strong>and</strong><br />
disrepute to the message of His salvation.<br />
The price for my stance was to be daily br<strong>and</strong>ished as a ‘Pharisee’ for refusing to sell<br />
out to evil as they had done by Howard <strong>and</strong> Leslie Condor who like Jan <strong>and</strong> Paul, Jim<br />
<strong>and</strong> Tammy Bakker, <strong>and</strong> Wendy <strong>and</strong> Rory Alec pursue their Ahab <strong>and</strong> Jezebel imitation<br />
seducing the people of God in an escapade obviously motivated by money. Let them try<br />
to sue me. On the basis of the recorded evidence I will win in any court to say nothing of<br />
the court of public <strong>and</strong> Christian opinion, they will hurt their offerings, <strong>and</strong> as this is an<br />
American based <strong>and</strong> domain located website so they will need to litigate in the USA where<br />
I am anyway protected by the U.S. First Amendment.<br />
The second thing I promised was that I would not be doing fund raising ventures <strong>and</strong><br />
hyped up ‘Praise- a -thons in order to constantly raise money to remain on the air. Where<br />
God guides, He indeed provides. The only times <strong>Moriel</strong> has ever engaged in fund raising<br />
appeals is to provide help in some kind of terrible disaster such as the Haiti earthquake or<br />
Japanese tsunami.<br />
With the advent of ROKU <strong>and</strong> other new technologies however, it is fast becoming possible<br />
to have not only internet TV but internet TV that works like satellite TV or cable from<br />
one’s TV not only one’s computer. Moreover in North America <strong>and</strong> more advanced Asian<br />
countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, <strong>and</strong> Taiwan, it is becoming both easier<br />
<strong>and</strong> cheaper to circumvent both analog <strong>and</strong> satellite based digital broadcasting with newer<br />
technologies. While these advances are well underway in the USA <strong>and</strong> elsewhere where<br />
ventures such as “HIS CHANNEL” are providing a more doctrinally solid alternative to<br />
the hype artistry <strong>and</strong> conniving of popular Christian TV, a church in Brisbane, Australia<br />
has already launched an alternative Christian TV.<br />
ROKU however is not the only medium as Google TV is well advanced in its growing<br />
popularity. Multi media is becoming an affordable reality where the false prophets <strong>and</strong><br />
false teachers, who have until now dominated Christian TV <strong>and</strong> turned it into a scam damaging<br />
to the witness <strong>and</strong> testimony of the church replacing the gospel with compromise,<br />
anointing with hype, preaching with motivational speaking, doctrine with psychology <strong>and</strong><br />
worship with entertainment, are losing their monopoly.<br />
The aforementioned Ahab <strong>and</strong> Jezebel ministries can now be challenged by Elijah ministries.<br />
We are on the precipice of not needing to purchase very costly air time or satellite<br />
time.<br />
Until now, the availability of such alternative TV required the purchase of ancillary box<br />
mechanisms. This will no longer be the case as new televisions are being made with the<br />
box technology built into them. Already prolific in the USA <strong>and</strong> Canada <strong>and</strong> areas of Asia,<br />
this technology is arriving in Britain <strong>and</strong> Europe <strong>and</strong> the Middle East <strong>and</strong> before long will<br />
be global, even extending into the Third World <strong>and</strong> to Islamic <strong>and</strong> communist countries<br />
restricting gospel broadcasting. The potential is obvious. It will be just like switching onto<br />
any network or cable TV. Not least of all, if such a venture is properly based in the right<br />
source countries OFCOM <strong>and</strong> other regulatory agencies unfriendly to conservative Christian<br />
positions can be legally circumvented, at least for the time being.<br />
To this end, <strong>Moriel</strong> is now in a position to seek the Lord for His will <strong>and</strong> purpose as the<br />
. . . . . continued on page 30<br />
MORIEL TV ?<br />
Dear Friends <strong>and</strong> Family,<br />
Greetings in Jesus, we hope that you are<br />
all well <strong>and</strong> walking with the Lord by His<br />
truth <strong>and</strong> Grace.<br />
We have some important announcements<br />
this month that we hope will encourage you<br />
in your walk <strong>and</strong> draw us closer to him.<br />
First of all, our <strong>Moriel</strong> South Africa website<br />
went live. On this you will find a whole<br />
host of information <strong>and</strong> resource material.<br />
• Sermon Downloads<br />
• Bible study aids<br />
• Latest news<br />
• Photo Gallery<br />
• Links to like minded ministries<br />
• Bible school material<br />
• Films that make you think<br />
• A blog for discussing important <strong>and</strong> contemporary<br />
issues<br />
And so much more. Please visit our site<br />
<strong>and</strong> our new Face Book page, www.facebook.com/<strong>Moriel</strong>Missions<br />
also our Twitter<br />
account, twitter.com/<strong>Moriel</strong>SA. Links to<br />
these can be found on the website.<br />
We are nearing the completion of the first<br />
phase, a home for the children. The builders<br />
have been magnificent <strong>and</strong> have done the<br />
work as unto the Lord. Dennis the leader is<br />
a real godly man <strong>and</strong> it has been encouraging<br />
to hear hymns being sang by him while<br />
he works <strong>and</strong> begins the day in prayer.<br />
All walls inside are up <strong>and</strong> to date most<br />
of the inside plastering has been done with<br />
outside plastering being focused upon this<br />
week. On Monday the window panes are<br />
going in <strong>and</strong> wood fire fitted.<br />
Around the 25 th our electrician Rudi is<br />
coming to do the wiring at the same time as<br />
we do the plumbing. It is hoped that the ceilings<br />
will be placed around the same time.<br />
The Wind Turbine is now erected along<br />
with the solar panels. This brought a small<br />
delay because we did not know we was providing<br />
the housing <strong>and</strong> so our new building<br />
has a new extension already to hold the batteries,<br />
inverter <strong>and</strong> panel, with a plug for<br />
generator back up in case of emergency.<br />
Once these tasks have been completed we<br />
can move in <strong>and</strong> take our time painting <strong>and</strong><br />
fitting blinds etc. This will be welcome as<br />
the nights are getting colder <strong>and</strong> the thought<br />
of sleeping in a proper bed is such a draw.<br />
The children went to the pathology lab<br />
for their regular blood checks. All but 2 of<br />
the children are undetectable while the other<br />
two show a small viral load due to resistant<br />
HIV. All in all we are pleased with the results<br />
although Pee Wee has a low white blood<br />
count that has been there for over a year.<br />
Luke had his first real tooth ache this<br />
week which meant a trip to the Dentist <strong>and</strong><br />
unfortunately has to have an extraction this<br />
Tuesday the 16 th . He received a sticker <strong>and</strong><br />
a Balloon so he was quite happy. It’s strange<br />
though as his cleaning habits are quite strict<br />
<strong>and</strong> we don’t over indulge with too many<br />
sweets as not only are they no good for<br />
your teeth but can cause a dip in the CD4<br />
level. His medicines though are quite syrupy<br />
though. Diet is all important to help the<br />
drugs do what they do. We tend to have the<br />
children eat extra protein items as the drugs<br />
inhibit the crossover of the proteins into the<br />
body system.<br />
Prudence will be attending another<br />
course in Hermanus we hope very soon to<br />
help her with her career in the food industry,<br />
we just wait for confirmation.<br />
This week we set off planting again with<br />
100 African Lilac tree’s as wind breaks. This<br />
lovely tree is indigenous <strong>and</strong> grows rapidly.<br />
This week we are swapping our 4X4 (the<br />
beast) for a more practical open end 4X4<br />
Bakkie. This will enable us to fetch <strong>and</strong><br />
carry our own materials from the builders<br />
as well as carry future live stock. Our next<br />
vehicle will have to be a tractor with grass<br />
cutting <strong>and</strong> plough capabilies. Please pray<br />
the Lord will bring us to the right one.<br />
• Carol Adams in Ug<strong>and</strong>a who has health<br />
problems<br />
• For the children <strong>and</strong> their ongoing health<br />
issues<br />
• A school assistant for Lyn<br />
• Pray the school website will encourage<br />
many<br />
• A tractor <strong>and</strong> equipment so we can use<br />
the veggies produced for reaching the<br />
poor with the Gospel<br />
• Please pray that God will bless Chris in<br />
certain areas that God knows about<br />
• All our administrative people around the<br />
world who do a fantastic job<br />
As you may know we are an NGO in the<br />
UK <strong>and</strong> South Africa. If the Lord burdens<br />
you to help us financially please contact us<br />
at one of the ministry contacts above.<br />
Teaching<br />
DR. Gagnon is a lecturer I hold in high esteem.<br />
Over the years he has stood his ground<br />
amid torrid attacks on the issue of Homosexuality.<br />
The Pink agenda is something<br />
that all of us need to be concerned about.<br />
The elevation of same sex marriages, the<br />
adoption of children by same sex couples<br />
<strong>and</strong> the turning of academic disagreements<br />
into ‘hate speech’ has meant that many today<br />
are scared to talk about the issue. I even<br />
came across a United Methodist church that<br />
has refused to marry anyone until same sex<br />
weddings are seen as the norm.<br />
Well just how bad is Homosexuality? Are<br />
20 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 21
<strong>Moriel</strong> South Africa – Continued<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> South Africa – Continued<br />
we guilty of setting aside Homosexuality as<br />
something more than any other sin or practice.<br />
In his essay published several years ago<br />
DR. Gagnon provides some clear answers.<br />
How Bad Is Homosexual Practice According<br />
to Scripture <strong>and</strong> Does Scripture’s<br />
Indictment Apply to Committed Homosexual<br />
Unions?<br />
by Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.<br />
Associate Professor of New Testament,<br />
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary<br />
www.robgagnon.net, gagnon@pts.edu<br />
January 2007 (slightly modified December<br />
2007)<br />
This brief essay explores two of the most<br />
common questions asked about the Bible’s<br />
view of homosexual practice. First, how bad<br />
is homosexual practice according to Scripture?<br />
Second, does Scripture’s indictment<br />
of homosexual practice apply to committed<br />
homosexual unions?<br />
I. How Bad Is Homosexual Practice According<br />
to Scripture?<br />
It is my contention that homosexual practice<br />
is a more serious violation of Scripture’s<br />
sexual norms than even incest, adultery, plural<br />
marriage, <strong>and</strong> divorce. (The reader will<br />
note that I did not mention bestiality because<br />
the evidence from ancient Israel <strong>and</strong> early<br />
Judaism suggests that bestiality is a worse<br />
offense than same-sex intercourse.)<br />
A. Different Degrees of Severity as<br />
regards Sin<br />
At the outset there will be some readers<br />
who contend that it is both unscriptural <strong>and</strong><br />
un-Reformed to argue that any sins are more<br />
severe than any other sins. However, no one<br />
really believes such a claim. In fact, most<br />
people in the mainline churches today who<br />
want to see some sort of accommodation<br />
made to committed homosexual unions do<br />
so because, they rationalize, even if it is not<br />
God’s ideal it is nevertheless “not that bad<br />
of a sin” or at least a lesser evil than, say,<br />
promiscuous homosexual behavior. Proponents<br />
of homosexual unions often recoil<br />
in horror at the thought of any comparison<br />
with consensual incest or with adultery (to<br />
say nothing of bestiality) precisely because<br />
they operate with a notion that some sexual<br />
sins are truly more severe than others.<br />
Whatever concessions have been made to<br />
fornication <strong>and</strong> divorce in the church, I still<br />
see the mainline churches in the West holding<br />
reasonably consistent positions against<br />
sexual unions involving more than two<br />
partners <strong>and</strong> certainly incestuous unions of<br />
a first-order severity (e.g., incest with one’s<br />
parent, full sibling, or child), to say nothing<br />
of bestiality, sex with prostitutes, <strong>and</strong> sex<br />
with prepubescent children. Are we being<br />
unreasonable in giving precedence to some<br />
sins over others? Should we concede these<br />
other matters as well <strong>and</strong> be more consistently<br />
disobedient to the will of Christ? I<br />
don’t think so. Failing in some areas does<br />
not justify failing in more foundational matters.<br />
The church’s current practices tacitly<br />
acknowledge a different weight given to different<br />
sins.<br />
It is true that any sin, including sexual sin,<br />
can get one excluded from the kingdom of<br />
heaven if merit is the means of entrance. In<br />
that specific sense, all sins are equal. And<br />
there are certainly other sins, including sexual<br />
sins, that the apostle Paul indicates create<br />
a risk factor for the exclusion of Christians<br />
from the kingdom of God if they persist in<br />
such behavior in a serial, unrepentant way.<br />
Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 5-6 incest,<br />
adultery, <strong>and</strong> sex with prostitutes alongside<br />
same-sex intercourse.<br />
Yet none of this means that the church<br />
should regard all sexual sins, let alone all<br />
sins of any type, as basically of equal import<br />
or even that God views all sins as equally<br />
abhorrent. I am confident that few Christians,<br />
at least when hooked up to a lie detector<br />
or given truth serum, would assert that<br />
God views the taking home of a company<br />
pen as endangering the eternal destiny of<br />
the Christian perpetrator in the same way<br />
that, say, raping <strong>and</strong> eating children (thinking<br />
here of the serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer).<br />
The image is offensive, I grant. In fact, if<br />
you, the reader, feel any offense, this merely<br />
confirms my point: you don’t really believe<br />
that all sins are equally heinous, either to<br />
God or to us.<br />
In short, it is not true that all offenses<br />
to God are in all senses equally offensive to<br />
God.<br />
For those from the Reformed tradition<br />
it should be noted that such a view is “reformed.”<br />
For example, the Larger Catechism<br />
of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)<br />
states the obvious: “All transgressions of the<br />
law of God are not equally heinous; but some<br />
sins in themselves, <strong>and</strong> by reason of several<br />
aggravations, are more heinous in the sight<br />
of God than others” (7.260; elaboration in<br />
7.261; cf. the Shorter Catechism 7.083).<br />
The claim that Scripture does not support<br />
the notion of different weights of sins is also<br />
inaccurate, in my view. To take a few examples:<br />
• In the Old Testament there is a clear<br />
ranking of sins. For instance, when<br />
one goes to Leviticus 20, which reorders<br />
the sexual offenses in Leviticus 18<br />
according to penalty, the most severe<br />
offenses are grouped first, including<br />
same-sex intercourse. Of course, variegated<br />
penalties for different sins can be<br />
found throughout the legal material in<br />
the Old Testament.<br />
• Jesus also prioritized offenses, referring<br />
to “weightier matters of the law.”<br />
For instance, healing a sick person on the<br />
Sabbath takes precedence over resting.<br />
• Paul’s attitude toward the case of incest<br />
in 1 Corinthians 5 also makes clear<br />
that he differentiated between various<br />
sexual offenses, with some being more<br />
extreme than others. This is clear both<br />
from the horror in his tone at the case<br />
of incest but, even more, from the fact<br />
that he has to arbitrate between competing<br />
values when he condemns the<br />
incest. If there were no ranking of<br />
priorities, how could Paul reject out<br />
of h<strong>and</strong> a case of incest that was monogamous<br />
<strong>and</strong> committed? If the values<br />
of monogamy <strong>and</strong> commitment to<br />
longevity were of equal weight with a<br />
requirement of a certain degree of familial<br />
otherness, Paul could not have<br />
decided what to do. Would commitment<br />
to a monogamous, lifelong union cancel<br />
out the prohibition of incest? Obviously,<br />
this was not a difficult matter for<br />
Paul to decide. He knew that the incest<br />
prohibition was more foundational.<br />
© 2007 Robert A. J. Gagnon 2<br />
B. Why Homosexual Practice Is One of<br />
the Most Severe Sexual Sins<br />
Having established the principle that<br />
some offenses are more heavily weighted<br />
than others, both by Scripture <strong>and</strong> by the<br />
church, the question arises: How big a violation<br />
does Scripture view same-sex intercourse?<br />
I believe that Scripture indicates<br />
that the only sexual offense more severe is<br />
bestiality. Here are three main reasons why:<br />
• Homosexual practice, committed or<br />
otherwise, is the violation that most<br />
clearly <strong>and</strong> radically offends against<br />
God’s intentional creation of humans<br />
as “male <strong>and</strong> female” (Gen 1:27) <strong>and</strong><br />
definition of marriage as a union between<br />
a man <strong>and</strong> a woman (Gen 2:24).<br />
According to the story in Genesis 2, the<br />
differentiation into man <strong>and</strong> woman is<br />
the sole differentiation produced by the<br />
removal of a “rib” or (in my view a better<br />
rendering) “side” from the originally<br />
undifferentiated human. It is precisely<br />
because out of one flesh came two<br />
sexes (a story line that makes a transcendent<br />
point about the exclusivity of<br />
male-female complementarity) that the<br />
two sexes, <strong>and</strong> only the two sexes, can<br />
(re-)unite into one flesh (2:24). Since<br />
Jesus gave priority to these two texts<br />
from the creation stories in Genesis<br />
when he defined normative <strong>and</strong> prescriptive<br />
sexual ethics for his disciples,<br />
they have to be given special attention<br />
by us. Paul also clearly has the creation<br />
texts in the background of his indictments<br />
of homosexual practice in Rom<br />
1:24-27 <strong>and</strong> 1 Cor 6:9.<br />
• Every text that treats the issue of homosexual<br />
practice in Scripture treats<br />
it as a high offense abhorrent to God.<br />
That this is so is evident from (a) the<br />
triad of stories about extreme depravity,<br />
Ham, Sodom, <strong>and</strong> Gibeah (which<br />
incidentally are no more limited in their<br />
implications to coercive acts of samesex<br />
acts than is an indicting story about<br />
coercive sex with one’s parent limited<br />
in its implications only to coercive acts<br />
of adult incest), to (b) the Deuteronomic<br />
<strong>and</strong> Deuteronomistic legal <strong>and</strong> narrative<br />
materials that rail against the homoerotic<br />
associations of the qedeshim<br />
as an “abomination” or “abhorrent<br />
practice” (men who in a cultic context<br />
served as the passive receptive sexual<br />
partners for other men), to (c) the Levitical<br />
prohibitions (where the term<br />
“abomination” or “abhorrent practice”<br />
is specifically attached to man-male intercourse),<br />
to (d) texts in Ezekiel that<br />
refer to man-male intercourse by the<br />
metonym “abomination” or “abhorrent<br />
act,” to (e) Paul’s singling out of homosexual<br />
practice in Romans 1:24-27<br />
(compare 1 Cor 6:9) as a specially reprehensible<br />
instance, along with idolatry,<br />
of humans suppressing the truth<br />
accessible in the material creation set<br />
in motion by the Creator, labeling it<br />
sexual “uncleanness,” “dishonorable”<br />
or “degrading,” “contrary to nature,”<br />
<strong>and</strong> an “indecent” or “shameful” act.<br />
These views are also amply confirmed<br />
in texts from both early Judaism <strong>and</strong><br />
early Christianity after the New Testament<br />
period, where only bestiality<br />
appears to rank as a greater sexual offense,<br />
at least among “consensual” acts.<br />
There is, to be sure, some disagreement<br />
in early Judaism over whether sex with<br />
one’s parent is worse, comparable, or<br />
less severe, though most texts suggest<br />
a slightly lesser degree of severity. Yet<br />
while Scripture makes some exceptions,<br />
particularly in ancient Israel, for<br />
some forms of incest (though never<br />
for man-mother, man-child, man-sibling)<br />
<strong>and</strong> for sexual unions involving<br />
more than two partners (though a monogamy<br />
st<strong>and</strong>ard was always imposed<br />
on women), it makes absolutely no exceptions<br />
for same-sex intercourse. Indeed,<br />
every single text in Scripture that<br />
discusses sex, whether narrative, law,<br />
proverb, poetry, moral exhortation, or<br />
metaphor, presupposes a male-female<br />
prerequisite. There are no exceptions<br />
anywhere in Scripture. © 2007 Robert<br />
A. J. Gagnon 3<br />
• The male-female prerequisite is the<br />
foundation or prior analogue for defining<br />
other critical sexual norms. Jesus<br />
himself clearly predicated his view<br />
of marital monogamy <strong>and</strong> indissolubility<br />
on the foundation of Gen 1:27 <strong>and</strong><br />
2:24, texts that have only one thing in<br />
common: the fact that an acceptable<br />
sexual bond before God entails as its<br />
first prerequisite (after the assumption<br />
of an intra-human bond) a man <strong>and</strong> a<br />
woman (Mark 10:6-9; Matt 19:4-6).<br />
Jesus argued that the “twoness” of the<br />
sexes ordained by God at creation was<br />
the foundation for limiting the number<br />
of persons in a sexual bond to two,<br />
whether concurrently (as in polygamy)<br />
or serially (as in repetitive divorce <strong>and</strong><br />
remarriage). The foundation can hardly<br />
be less significant than the regulation<br />
predicated on it; indeed, it must be the<br />
reverse. Moreover, the dissolution of<br />
an otherwise natural union is not more<br />
severe than the active entrance into an<br />
inherently unnatural union (active entrance<br />
into an incestuous bond would<br />
be a parallel case in point). The principle<br />
by which same-sex intercourse is<br />
rejected is also the principle by which<br />
incest, even of an adult <strong>and</strong> consensual<br />
sort, is rejected. Incest is wrong because,<br />
as Lev 18:6 states, it involves<br />
sexual intercourse with “the flesh of<br />
one’s own flesh.” In other words, it<br />
involves the attempted merger with<br />
someone who is already too much of a<br />
formal or structural same on a familial<br />
level. The degree of formal or structural<br />
sameness is felt even more keenly in<br />
the case of homosexual practice, only<br />
now on the level of sex or gender, because<br />
sex or gender is a more integral<br />
component of sexual relations, <strong>and</strong><br />
more foundationally defines it, than is<br />
<strong>and</strong> does the degree of blood relatedness.<br />
So the prohibition of incest can<br />
be, <strong>and</strong> probably was, analogically<br />
derived from the more foundational<br />
prohibition of same-sex intercourse.<br />
Certainly, as noted above, there was<br />
more accommodation to some forms<br />
of incest in the Old Testament than<br />
ever there was to homosexual practice.<br />
Adultery becomes an applicable offense<br />
only when the sexual bond that<br />
the offender is cheating on is a valid<br />
sexual bond. Needless to say, it would<br />
be absurd to charge a man in an incestuous<br />
union or in a pedophilic union<br />
with adultery for having sexual relations<br />
with a person outside that pairbond.<br />
One can’t cheat against a union<br />
that was immoral from the beginning.<br />
My purpose in evaluating, from Scripture’s<br />
perspective, the severity of engaging<br />
in same-sex intercourse is not to exhort believers<br />
to hate those who engage in homosexual<br />
behavior but rather to inform love<br />
with knowledge of the truth. Many Christians<br />
have attempted to respond in love<br />
towards persons who act on homosexual<br />
urges, including ordained officers, by either<br />
“tolerating” the behavior or, worse, affirming<br />
it. If, however, same-sex intercourse is a<br />
high offense in the sexual realm toward God,<br />
then there can be no question of ordaining<br />
persons participating in such acts in a serial,<br />
unrepentant manner. To do such would<br />
only confirm the sin, leave the individual<br />
exposed to the wrath of God, <strong>and</strong> risk that<br />
one’s exclusion from an eternal relationship<br />
with God—not to mention produce deleterious<br />
effects on the community of believers<br />
(see 1 Cor 5:6-7: a little leaven leavens the<br />
whole lump of dough).<br />
It is also important to determine the relative<br />
severity of an offense because of polity<br />
decisions. Churches do not treat all sexual<br />
offenses as equal when it comes to decisions<br />
of ordination (<strong>and</strong> sometimes even membership)<br />
but rather make distinctions on the basis<br />
of the severity of the offense, its repetitive<br />
character, <strong>and</strong> whether the offender has<br />
expressed repentance. Churches will ordain<br />
persons who have <strong>and</strong> occasionally entertain<br />
lustful thoughts, though I’m not sure one will<br />
find many churches ordaining persons who<br />
affirm <strong>and</strong> promote such thoughts. They will<br />
ordain persons who have been divorced <strong>and</strong><br />
remarried, though I know of none who will<br />
ordain persons who have had five or more<br />
divorces <strong>and</strong> remarriages <strong>and</strong> plan to continue<br />
the cycle. Some churches may even<br />
ordain heterosexual persons in a committed<br />
sexual bond outside of marriage. However,<br />
few if any churches will ordain—at least not<br />
as of today—persons who are in committed<br />
sexual bonds involving close blood relations,<br />
more than two persons concurrently,<br />
or an adult <strong>and</strong> an adolescent or child. Few<br />
if any will ordain persons who are actively<br />
engaged in adulterous behavior. So knowing<br />
the severity of the sexual offense is an<br />
important factor in deciding what ordination<br />
decisions should be taken when violations<br />
are committed—<strong>and</strong> not only committed but<br />
committed repeatedly <strong>and</strong>, worse of all, unrepentantly.<br />
In fact, the more severe the sexual offense,<br />
the more acute becomes the question<br />
of whether churches <strong>and</strong> individuals should<br />
stay in a denomination that tolerates or perhaps<br />
even promotes such offenses among<br />
its ordained officers. For I know of few, if<br />
any, reasonable persons who would stay in a<br />
church that tolerated or promoted repetitive<br />
<strong>and</strong> unrepentant incest, adultery, or polyamory<br />
among its ordained officers. If same-sex<br />
intercourse is treated by Scripture as equally<br />
severe or worse than these sexual offenses,<br />
then serious issues about denominational<br />
unity are posed by a denomination’s toleration<br />
or affirmation of homosexual practice<br />
among its ordained officers.<br />
© 2007 Robert A. J. Gagnon 4<br />
Part II continued in September’s issue, Does<br />
Scripture’s Indictment of Homosexual Practice<br />
Apply to Committed Homosexual Unions?<br />
22 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 23
<strong>Moriel</strong> Israel<br />
Elon <strong>and</strong> Hadass Moreh<br />
Elon <strong>and</strong> Hadass Moreh<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Israel<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> office in Northern Israel<br />
Dear friends <strong>and</strong> supporters,<br />
We are now on the very brink of Summer,<br />
it always come as a shock because the change<br />
from pleasantly warm to hot <strong>and</strong> stuffy<br />
happens very rapidly here. For those of you<br />
who have been watching <strong>and</strong> praying for<br />
this nation <strong>and</strong> ourselves, I am sure that you<br />
will be delighted to know that some of your<br />
prayers have been answered, <strong>and</strong> some very<br />
significant things have happened recently.<br />
Some National Blessings, The Rains.<br />
We know that many of you have been<br />
praying about this matter, <strong>and</strong> we are delighted<br />
to say that winter rains were very<br />
good indeed <strong>and</strong> the Galilee is nicely filled<br />
for the first time in years; the shoreline has<br />
even moved back towards where it used<br />
to be. Considering that water levels have<br />
been critically low for many years <strong>and</strong> had<br />
dipped down almost to the point where the<br />
water table could have been irreparably<br />
damaged, this really is a major miracle, the<br />
LORD has pulled it back from the brink.<br />
The plentiful winter rains are a reminder<br />
that God is a good god <strong>and</strong> makes his rain to<br />
fall on the righteous <strong>and</strong> the wicked alike.<br />
We are not a righteous nation, but God in<br />
His goodness has blessed us.<br />
The Gas begins to flow.<br />
As those who read the Israeli media might<br />
be aware, an enormous natural gas deposit<br />
<strong>and</strong> large oil reserves were discovered off<br />
Haifa a few years ago. The natural gas has<br />
just begun to come on stream this year. This<br />
again is God’s goodness <strong>and</strong> perfect timing;<br />
the Arab ‘Winter’ chilled our relationship<br />
with Egypt <strong>and</strong> gas supplies from there<br />
have been frozen. However this new oil <strong>and</strong><br />
gas supply means that soon Israel could<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Israel /June 2013<br />
be energy-independent; very important<br />
indeed in a world that increasingly see us<br />
as a pariah state. This may be the LORD’s<br />
provision for a time when the world may<br />
impose restrictions or embargos upon us.<br />
Justice for the Ortiz family.<br />
Perhaps you might remember the story<br />
of Ami Ortiz; the pastor’s son from Ariel<br />
who was injured by a Purim parcel-bomb<br />
intended for his father. We were not sorry<br />
to hear on the news that Jack Teitel the<br />
Yad L’Achim anti-missionary operative<br />
who was behind this, several other violent<br />
crimes, <strong>and</strong> a number of murders was sent<br />
down for two life-sentences. There are<br />
some ultra-orthodox who would have seen<br />
Teitel as doing God’s work, thankfully the<br />
sentencing judge did not see it that way.<br />
Believers in this country will breath more<br />
easily that this dangerous <strong>and</strong> evil man will<br />
never be allowed to roam our streets again.<br />
The wind of political change<br />
A major development here is that after<br />
our last elections; -for possibly the first<br />
time in our state’s existence; the stranglehold<br />
that the immensely corrupt religious<br />
parties have held on our system of government<br />
has finally been broken <strong>and</strong> they are<br />
not part of the present governing coalition.<br />
Whether this situation will persist long term<br />
is not known yet, but at least for a while<br />
they won’t be able to extort concessions<br />
from the Government <strong>and</strong> leech massive<br />
amounts of cash <strong>and</strong> privileges away to<br />
their private interests. This has the potential<br />
to be immensely significant, <strong>and</strong> could,<br />
if the religious are kept out of power, eventually<br />
amongst other things lead to an easing<br />
of the difficulties that presently hinder<br />
Messianic believers from making Aliyah.<br />
Some brief news from us<br />
Though quiet in other respects, we continue<br />
to work with a number of others towards<br />
rolling out what will be a major<br />
outreach project. I had hoped to have more<br />
to report on this by now, sometimes here<br />
things don’t happen as fast as I would like;<br />
but this is definitely going ahead.<br />
I have volunteered some of my time each<br />
week to helping out in a coffee-shop outreach<br />
in a nearby Arab area. Coffee-house<br />
culture is very strong here in Israel, it’s the<br />
place to be if you want to sit down <strong>and</strong> have<br />
a chat, so it’s a good place to make contacts<br />
with people.<br />
We are about to become gr<strong>and</strong>-parents<br />
any time now <strong>and</strong> Haddas has come down<br />
with a severe case of baby-fever as the day<br />
grows near. The primary symptom of this<br />
ailment is a total inability to talk of anything<br />
else but childbirth. Apparently this<br />
condition, though probably incurable, can<br />
be alleviated by contact with its point of<br />
origin, so we are now abroad for a short<br />
while to be around for the arrival of our<br />
first gr<strong>and</strong>child <strong>and</strong> to see some family.<br />
Here the LORD has worked another miracle,<br />
our eldest daughter two years ago had<br />
an ectoptic pregnancy. Unfortunately it was<br />
misdiagnosed <strong>and</strong> the condition became<br />
serious. After surgery she acquired a hospital-borne<br />
infection (actually necrotising<br />
fasciitis) which resulted in her having to be<br />
opened up wholesale to clean out the mess<br />
<strong>and</strong> then a month long stay in hospital. She<br />
very nearly died <strong>and</strong> needed an ovary removed.<br />
So this new gr<strong>and</strong>child to be is a<br />
sign too of God’s grace.<br />
An interesting taxi ride.<br />
At this time of writing we are in Europe.<br />
A few days ago we hired a cab. The taxi<br />
driver who was defintely of non-European<br />
origin asked us where we came from, ‘Israel’<br />
we replied. “Oh’ he said, ‘I’m from<br />
Egypt’. Thankfully he eased my instant apprehension<br />
(filled with thoughts of being<br />
attacked by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood<br />
<strong>and</strong> how we could escape from a<br />
moving vehicle), with; ‘That’s fantastic!<br />
Someone who will underst<strong>and</strong> me; I’m a<br />
Copt, do you know what a Copt is?’ He<br />
then proceeded to tell us about what conditions<br />
are like for Coptic Christians in Egypt.<br />
In one sense all that he said was only<br />
a confirmation of what <strong>Moriel</strong> <strong>and</strong> others<br />
have been saying for a long time. The only<br />
people who are deceived, stupid or duplicitous<br />
enough to go around proclaiming Islam<br />
is a religion of peace <strong>and</strong> tolerance, are<br />
those tho have never had to live under an<br />
Islamic government.<br />
During the rest of the journey we received<br />
up close <strong>and</strong> personal testimony<br />
of some of the horrors that Copts endure<br />
in Egypt. This man though not born-again,<br />
had enough discerment to see what many<br />
Western Christians can not; that the Allah<br />
of the Koran is not the God of the Bible,<br />
that the essential nature of Islam is thoroughly<br />
demonic <strong>and</strong> that Muslim atrocities<br />
have nothing to do with poor conditions,<br />
grievance over ‘Palestinian’ suffering or<br />
any other like cause but everything to do<br />
with the diabolical spirit behind Islam. If<br />
you want to know about Islam ask a Copt.<br />
Up until this time I had been totally unaware<br />
that there were communities of Coptic<br />
exiles in Europe. This was a real eyeopener,<br />
<strong>and</strong> I felt that it was one of those<br />
‘divine appointments’. At the very least it is<br />
an encouragement to pray for these people,<br />
that the LORD would visit them with his<br />
salvation; but it also highlighted the terrible<br />
betrayal of these people by those Western<br />
christians <strong>and</strong> movements who have swept<br />
this issue under the carpet in order to pursue<br />
their agenda of hate-momgering against<br />
Israel unfettered.<br />
News from The Way; the <strong>Moriel</strong><br />
supported congregation in Karmiel<br />
<strong>and</strong> a brief note on Internet<br />
evangelism over here.<br />
Nothing major to report this quarter but<br />
since our last newsletter Kehilat HaDerekh<br />
congregation has launched its new website.<br />
It is still under development somewhat but<br />
it’s looking good. You can view it at http://<br />
www.kehilathaderech.org.<br />
You may remember from our last newsletter<br />
that Pastor Yossi reported that a number<br />
of people had come to faith via their<br />
congregational website. They are not the<br />
only congregation that has experienced this<br />
phenomenon. Our friends in the persecuted<br />
congregation down in Arad have also seen<br />
non-believers contacting them through<br />
their web site which you can see at http://<br />
hasdeyyeshua.com.<br />
It is a sign of our times that many Israelis<br />
are inquiring about the faith <strong>and</strong> coming<br />
to believe in Yeshua via the medium<br />
of the Internet. Internet take-up in Israeli<br />
is extremely high <strong>and</strong> apart from the its<br />
more unsavoury uses, the Net has become<br />
a means for the Word of God to enter directly<br />
into Israeli households. The Gospel<br />
can visit inquiring Israelis in the privacy<br />
<strong>and</strong> security of their own homes (or smartphone<br />
for that matter) without interference<br />
or harassment by the religious.<br />
Unsurprisingly among many ultra-orthodox<br />
groups (which are effectively cults)<br />
the Internet is banned by their leadership.<br />
This is not just to avoid the possible temptation<br />
to view unwholesome material, but<br />
also to prevent members of the these cult<br />
groups accessing knowledge <strong>and</strong> teachings<br />
from outside of which the leadership would<br />
disapprove; this would particularly apply<br />
to biblical <strong>and</strong> especially to Gospel material.<br />
This phenomenon is not restricted to<br />
hasidic cult groups, in many yeshivot (rabbinical<br />
colleges) study of the Bible (except<br />
through the filter of approved Rabbinic interpretations)<br />
is discouraged, <strong>and</strong> the older<br />
interpretive traditions regarding the Messiah<br />
(which are often very close to NT teachings)<br />
are censored or avoided.<br />
A Hebrew conundrum: -the Saviour<br />
who needs to be ‘saved’<br />
Here in Israel sometimes issues arise that<br />
probably would never come up in an English<br />
believing environment; for example I<br />
was discussing recently with a friend the<br />
significance of Zechariah 9:9 <strong>and</strong> I thought<br />
it might be of interest also to our readers:<br />
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;<br />
shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold,<br />
thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, <strong>and</strong><br />
having salvation; lowly, <strong>and</strong> riding upon<br />
an ass, <strong>and</strong> upon a colt the foal of an ass.<br />
My friend was translating an English<br />
book into Hebrew, <strong>and</strong> its exposition of this<br />
Messianic prophecy was heavily dependent<br />
on the wording of the English bible<br />
version being used. For this exact reason<br />
my translator friend had hit a problem <strong>and</strong><br />
said something like this to me: ‘his whole<br />
point depends upon where the English says<br />
“having salvation;” but it doesn’t say that<br />
in Hebrew.’ My friend was quite correct -<br />
it doesn’t say that in Hebrew. The underlying<br />
text in Hebrew is ‘uçcn’ (NoSha) <strong>and</strong><br />
is clearly a passive form of the verb ‘uçcy’<br />
(YaSHa), from which we get the word<br />
‘huwçcy’ Yeshuah ‘salvation’ <strong>and</strong> the name<br />
‘uwçcy’ -Yeshua. Strictly speaking this verb<br />
in the form it occurs in Zechariah 9:9 does<br />
not quite mean ‘having salvation’ at all, but<br />
‘saved’. The rendering ‘having salvation’<br />
is a bit of a fudge. The English translators<br />
did not want to render this passive verbal<br />
form (in which the subject the recipient<br />
of the action) as an active form -’saviour’,<br />
for they did not want to misrepresent the<br />
underlying Hebrew. On the other h<strong>and</strong><br />
they were uncomfortable with the idea<br />
of a Messiah that needed ‘saving’; hence<br />
they opted for something betwixt the two.<br />
So we have a conundrum here; in English<br />
we wouldn’t even notice this, it has been<br />
‘lost in translation’, but in Hebrew it exists.<br />
Consequently this is not the right verse<br />
to use to demonstrate that the Messiah is<br />
Saviour if you are speaking to Israelis.<br />
All right, you might say; but if the Messiah<br />
needs ‘saving’ wouldn’t this undermine<br />
what Scripture teaches us about the<br />
his sinlessness? This is where we hit another<br />
problem, a form of one-dimensional<br />
Christian thinking, which tends to always<br />
think of ‘huwçcy’ ‘salvation’ only in terms of<br />
‘salvation from sin’; however that is not its<br />
primary usage in the Old Testament, where<br />
it is more often seen in contexts of victory<br />
over, or salvation from enemies or deliverance<br />
from a bad situation. Now if we take<br />
this information into account <strong>and</strong> start to<br />
look at some other messianic passages we<br />
can actually see that they support this idea<br />
of the Messiah needing or receiving ‘salvation’<br />
e.g. Psalms 21, 22, 118; Isa. 49:1-12;<br />
Heb. 5:7 etc.<br />
A very good example from these is psalm<br />
22 particularly verse 19-21 where the same<br />
verbal root is employed:<br />
But be not thou far from me, O LORD:<br />
O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver<br />
my soul from the sword; my darling<br />
from the power of the dog. Save me<br />
(‘ynuycçoh’ from the same root ‘uçcy’) from<br />
the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me<br />
from the horns of the wild oxen.<br />
In the Servant Song of Isaiah 49 we<br />
see both ideas combined, the Messiah is<br />
presented as both Saviour <strong>and</strong> a recipient<br />
of salvation. He is presented as one<br />
who raise up the tribes of Jacob, restores<br />
the preserved of Israel, is the light of the<br />
nations <strong>and</strong> the LORD’s salvation to the<br />
end of of the earth. He is also described<br />
as the One who is given for a covenant of<br />
the people who would bring the prisoners<br />
out of darkness; but in the very same<br />
breath God says to the Messiah ‘in an<br />
acceptable time I have heard thee <strong>and</strong><br />
in a day of salvation have I helped thee’.<br />
If we look back to passage from Psalm<br />
22 we see the same terms ‘salvation’ <strong>and</strong><br />
‘help’ occurring together also.<br />
So putting it all together; the Gospels<br />
show us that Zechariah 9:9 is speaking<br />
24 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 25
<strong>Moriel</strong> Israel – Continued<br />
Margret Godwin<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Australia<br />
of the Messiah in his first coming as the<br />
Suffering Servant king, Moshiach ben<br />
Yosef; of his humbling himself <strong>and</strong> laying<br />
aside his glory for our sakes; of his<br />
total dependence on the Father for all<br />
things, including deliverance out from<br />
death; now the idea of the Messiah being<br />
‘saved’ actually makes perfect sense<br />
when seen this way. The Messiah of<br />
course had no sin to be saved from, but<br />
in his first coming he relied totally on the<br />
Father to save, preserve, help <strong>and</strong> sustain<br />
him to the end of his task, <strong>and</strong> ultimately<br />
raise him up from the dead (Rom. 6:4);<br />
<strong>and</strong> now mission accomplished he has<br />
become ‘uycom’, Moshia --Saviour; <strong>and</strong><br />
author of eternal salvation to all who<br />
trust in him (Heb. 5:9).<br />
Some prayer points<br />
Please pray for the outreach planned in<br />
this area <strong>and</strong> for the coffee-shop outreach,<br />
that they will be fruitful. There are quite a<br />
number of ministries operating in Hebrew<br />
that are doctrinally sound <strong>and</strong> have excellent<br />
web-sites with good evangelistic content.<br />
Please pray for these, <strong>and</strong> that God<br />
will use the Internet in a mighty way here<br />
to spread the good news of His Son.<br />
Our national institutions; that there will<br />
be a good ‘clean out’, <strong>and</strong> that God will use<br />
the ousting of our corrupt religious parties<br />
for the spread of the Gospel that perhaps<br />
for a season it will open the door for Messianic<br />
Jewish aliyah.<br />
For our taxi driver <strong>and</strong> his fellow Copts,<br />
especially those left behind in Egypt.<br />
May the LORD bless you all for your<br />
prayers <strong>and</strong> support.<br />
Elon <strong>and</strong> Hadas Moreh.<br />
Your Letters <strong>and</strong><br />
Comments<br />
Question: To Jacob Prasch:<br />
I want to start out by thanking you for<br />
your ministry, it has blessed me greatly,<br />
<strong>and</strong> I will continue to lift it up in prayer.<br />
I do have perhaps a request, but yet it’s<br />
a comment. I realize you speak out a lot<br />
against false teachers, either via teachings<br />
or through articles you write. I was<br />
wondering why you haven’t spoken out<br />
against the Hebrew Roots movement (notably<br />
false teacher Jim Staley or even Michael<br />
Rood or even 119 <strong>Ministries</strong>) since<br />
they teach we are still under the OT Law.<br />
They also teach that if we call Jesus Jesus<br />
<strong>and</strong> not Yeshua, then we are calling Him<br />
by a pagan name. This movement is growing,<br />
probably just as fast as the charismatic<br />
movement. And the Watchmen need to<br />
speak out. Whether you realize it or not,<br />
A LOT of the Hebrew Roots people follow<br />
you, even though you don’t teach Law<br />
doctrine, they still follow you because of<br />
your Hebrew stance, <strong>and</strong> that’s not your<br />
fault, you are a solid teacher, but since<br />
you hardly ever speak on the errors of the<br />
Hebrew Roots cult, they don’t decipher<br />
what’s truly Hebrew Roots <strong>and</strong> what’s not.<br />
People like Mike Hoggard have spoken<br />
out, but yet because he is sooo King James<br />
Only, it’s a turn off <strong>and</strong> just makes them<br />
pull away more. I know you are affiliated<br />
with Jackie Alnor <strong>and</strong> even Calvary Chapel<br />
(via Quintanas) but they hardly ever<br />
speak out against this either. It seems the<br />
Emergent Church or Rick Warren or Charismatic<br />
church is always the focus but not<br />
ever the growing dangers of the Hebrew<br />
Roots cult...<br />
Will you please consider teaching on<br />
this subject?<br />
God bless you,<br />
Sarah<br />
Reply: Dear Sarah:<br />
There is actually no monolithic entity<br />
called the Hebrew Roots Movement. To<br />
begin with , most of its proponents do not<br />
realize that the Greek term in Romans 11<br />
(shoresh in Hebrew) is “reza” <strong>and</strong> is the<br />
singular ‘root’ not roots. There are rather<br />
multiple str<strong>and</strong>s some good examining the<br />
theological origins of Christianity in a exegetically<br />
responsible way ( eg. Dr. Arnold<br />
Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Michael Rydelnik, <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>Moriel</strong>) while others such as Michael<br />
Rood are off the wall.<br />
There are extremist elements to the<br />
messianic movement lifting up Jewishness<br />
instead of “Jesusness” <strong>and</strong> placing<br />
even non Jews in bondage to Mosaic Law.<br />
We have two teachings confronting this<br />
error. One is The New Galatians <strong>and</strong> the<br />
other an article Satan’s Seduction of The<br />
Hebrew Movement. These are are found<br />
on our website in various places as well<br />
as in our electronic store in various media<br />
forms <strong>and</strong> in the book Israel, The Church,<br />
<strong>and</strong> The Jews.’<br />
We are not familiar with all of the figures<br />
you name but we do know who Michael<br />
Rood is <strong>and</strong> as we have stated he is<br />
not kosher. The sacred Name movement<br />
are a cult. The Jerusalem School of Synoptic<br />
Research are actual academics who<br />
are not crackpots or cultic but we disagree<br />
with them on a scholarly basis linguistically<br />
<strong>and</strong> in terms of manuscript history<br />
about all four Gospels having been originally<br />
composed in Hebrew.<br />
This is a wide subject <strong>and</strong> so we will<br />
refer you to our website <strong>and</strong> catalog.<br />
In Christ,<br />
JJP <strong>and</strong> <strong>Moriel</strong><br />
Question: Underst<strong>and</strong>ing the Mixture<br />
Can you explain God’s reasoning behind<br />
Leviticus 19:19?<br />
Reply: Blessings in The One who saved<br />
us. Your question was forwarded to me<br />
from The USA.<br />
We have explained this multiple times<br />
already-for instance on our recorded<br />
teachings of ‘parasoxousin’ (Greek text)<br />
in 2 Peter chapter 2 <strong>and</strong> elsewhere. The<br />
Torah/ Law of Moses is the Old Testament<br />
shadow of the substance found in Christ<br />
revealed in The New Testament. Parasoxousin<br />
mean to put truth next to error to<br />
camouflage the error; all cults, false teachers,<br />
false prophets, <strong>and</strong> false religions have<br />
elements of truth they sow next to error.<br />
God hates mixture.<br />
Our salvation is another example of how<br />
the principle undergirding Leviticus 19<br />
applies to us as it is fulfilled in Christ. it is<br />
all of God not of us. We do good works because<br />
we have been saved not to get saved.<br />
We work out our salvation, we cannot earn<br />
it or work for it – it is the gift of God. It<br />
is not man’s efforts mixed with God’s as<br />
Roman Catholicism <strong>and</strong> most other false<br />
religions <strong>and</strong> cults falsely teach.<br />
The garments are what Isaiah calls in<br />
Hebrew ‘bigda yesha’ the garments of salvation<br />
or what the New Testament calls ‘<br />
robes of righteousness’; it is the righteous-<br />
. . . . . continued on page 28<br />
AUSTRALIANnews<br />
Australian/New Zeal<strong>and</strong> Report – June Issue 2013<br />
Greetings in the Name of Jesus<br />
I am not sure if it is our advancing years that cause us to reflect on “what was – What is <strong>and</strong> What is to come”<br />
but personally I do seem to be looking at all three <strong>and</strong> most readers that I speak with are doing much the same<br />
thing. It appears too that is very much of the “world.” I pondered if it was fear of contemplating a whole new<br />
computerized/electronic way of life. Or is it a comparison of life today <strong>and</strong> that which we knew as children <strong>and</strong><br />
young adults? Maybe it is a part of the “aging” process. Is it that the nicer way of life that we knew has been<br />
replaced by what must almost make Sodom <strong>and</strong> Gomorrah pale into insignificance? How much more putrid <strong>and</strong><br />
vile can mankind become? Surely the end must be near!<br />
I am not too sure if I have shared this with you before (please be patient with me if I have) but I had one of<br />
our readers send me a copy of a government celebration ceremony/dinner that was held in Melbourne in 1901 to<br />
welcome Australia becoming a Federation. The ceremony <strong>and</strong> banquet was filled with prayer, hymns, acknowledgment<br />
as God being the cornerstone for our government, for our laws <strong>and</strong> constitution, our way of life, our<br />
freedom. Well here we are 112 years on – where is God in our government, our laws, our way of life. It seems<br />
that the cornerstone is now self gratification <strong>and</strong> greed. I think that is why I so sadly reflect on “what was.” Personally<br />
my total assurance can only be in my Lord & Saviour – He will orchestrate my going in <strong>and</strong> going out!<br />
Praise Him. What of those that do not have that assurance? I am sure we all have family, friends <strong>and</strong> loved ones<br />
who are not walking with the Lord <strong>and</strong> of course there is the “backslidden.”<br />
This is one of my “long winded” ways of getting to what I wanted to share <strong>and</strong> that is about using every<br />
single moment <strong>and</strong> opportunity to share the Lord. Reflection <strong>and</strong> memories in lots of instances are lovely but we<br />
must continually look forward <strong>and</strong> up. Encourage each other – there is one such person who Aunty does Pam that for & Bridget me. A<br />
lady I look after (in a local nursing home) who is a committed Christian who loves her Lord.<br />
Quite a number of you will know whom I am talking about (Shirley). Well this lady is 83 <strong>and</strong> bed ridden<br />
now-a- days <strong>and</strong> is dependent on the staff & lifting equipment for almost everything (bar eating). She is restricted<br />
to her room except for being moved by the staff to the dining room in a special wheel chair. There are<br />
some 40 or 50 other patients in the exact same position but the difference here is that this lady never misses an<br />
opportunity to share the Lord. She never compromises or backs down when it comes to her Lord <strong>and</strong> the Truth<br />
of His word. When she is in horrendous pain (which is quite often) she sings songs of her made up prayers to the<br />
Pastor Paul Lord giving <strong>and</strong> out the gifts worse to the children pain the louder she sings. Nothing excites her more than to share the Lord. Staff members<br />
who have no or little beliefs come to her <strong>and</strong> ask her to pray for them. One of her favourite visitors is the retired<br />
Catholic priest. This man has a great devotion to Mary –mother of Jesus <strong>and</strong> Mary McKillop (recently ordained<br />
nun) – well the moment he brings this up you hear “No, No …. the word of God tells us……).<br />
If anyone brings the name of the Lord falsely she is in tears (grieving) quite often sobbing. She constantly<br />
writes letters of encouragement to all in sundry. These letters are full of psalms <strong>and</strong> prayers <strong>and</strong> their timing is<br />
unbelievable. Now this dear lady is a sinner just like the rest of us <strong>and</strong> I know I will be in trouble when I share<br />
with you that sometimes she can be a wee dem<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> stubborn, BUT if you want a prayer warrior or partner<br />
– she surely is.<br />
I visit her to encourage her, <strong>and</strong> I come out being the encouraged with a renewed vigor to “speak out” <strong>and</strong><br />
calling out to the Lord for me to be ever bolder <strong>and</strong> watchful for an opportunity to share Him. If Shirley knew<br />
I was writing this she would say “Margie please emphasize that all of this is to the Glory of Precious Lord I am<br />
just so thrilled <strong>and</strong> excited to share Him with everyone He brings to my room.”<br />
As I finish this wee bit – Shirley loves getting letters <strong>and</strong> writing them so if you have a few spare moments<br />
do drop her a line. Send it to me at the office.<br />
A beautiful man has gone to be with His Lord<br />
My dear brother <strong>and</strong> friend Dave Hunt is now in the presence of the Lord <strong>and</strong> surely those words “well done<br />
oh good <strong>and</strong> faithful servant” are ringing out throughout heaven.<br />
Ross (my late husb<strong>and</strong>) <strong>and</strong> I had the pleasure of hosting Dave <strong>and</strong> Ruth in 2004, when we had Jacob <strong>and</strong><br />
Dave in Conference here in Melbourne. What a beautifully humble <strong>and</strong> gracious couple. They were such an<br />
inspiration to Ross <strong>and</strong> I. We had only been married four years <strong>and</strong> many of our friends will testify to the fact<br />
that I was quite often a “bossy boots” in this union but within hours of being in their company we were on our<br />
26 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 27
<strong>Moriel</strong> Australia – Continued<br />
Geoff Toole<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Japan<br />
knees – especially me – asking the Lord to lead our union to what we saw in<br />
Dave <strong>and</strong> Ruth.<br />
We brought them out to the country for a couple of days to give them a<br />
break from their very hectic schedule. Ruth fell in love with the beautiful<br />
Strezlecki Mountain Range behind us <strong>and</strong> marveled at the changing colors.<br />
Dave loved to share a joke with us, but at times it was lost in the American/Australian<br />
underst<strong>and</strong>ing or sayings, but we laughed ourselves silly at<br />
the joy Dave got from the telling us his jokes. One evening we went to dinner<br />
(driving for ages) for him to get spare ribs, <strong>and</strong> before long our table<br />
was surround by staff <strong>and</strong> diners listening to this dear man. Ruth was ever<br />
watchful <strong>and</strong> would ever so gently draw things to a close if she saw him getting<br />
weary.<br />
At the Conference (on a long weekend) the weather was dreadfully hot<br />
with north winds blowing constantly. I was mindful of Dave’s health <strong>and</strong><br />
suggested to him that after his session Ross would take him to the motel<br />
nearby for a little rest <strong>and</strong> his response was “Oh no my dear I never miss an<br />
opportunity to hear the boy preach, I always learn so much from him!”<br />
Of course the boy was Jacob. The love <strong>and</strong> respect between them was<br />
so apparent. At the end of the conference we had a question <strong>and</strong> answer<br />
time <strong>and</strong> it was move over Laurel <strong>and</strong> Hardy, they were so funny. Sure they<br />
answered the questions but the jokes flowed. Dave would say “now just a<br />
moment junior I will answer that one!”<br />
So many wonderful memories!<br />
A couple of years later, Dave <strong>and</strong> Ruth were here in Melbourne <strong>and</strong> I<br />
went to see them. I was just getting out of the car when they pulled up beside<br />
me <strong>and</strong> immediately that wonderful couple were giving hugs <strong>and</strong> expressing<br />
their sympathy at Ross’ passing. Of all the thous<strong>and</strong>s of people all over the<br />
world they would encounter they remembered us. I was so humbled.<br />
This dear man had earned his final reward, <strong>and</strong> while Ruth will miss him<br />
dreadfully she will have such inner joy <strong>and</strong> peace because she knows exactly<br />
where her beloved is.<br />
Dave <strong>and</strong> Ruth were wonderful friends of <strong>Moriel</strong> <strong>and</strong> Jacob. Please continue<br />
to pray for Ruth.<br />
Each of our administrators will be bringing you reports from their part of<br />
the world so I will bring this to a close with an apology if I have rambled on<br />
(which I do at times) too long but do close with a reminder to be ever watchful<br />
for that opportunity to share Our Lord & Saviour.<br />
Humbly in Christ,<br />
Marg<br />
Your Letters <strong>and</strong><br />
Comments<br />
ness of Christ imputed to us, not our own.<br />
There is no mixture. Salvation is all the<br />
work of God; we only respond to it.<br />
Another example still is Jesus’ caveat to<br />
The Church of Laodicea about spitting out<br />
the lukewarm. The area around Laodicea<br />
has hot springs fed from the Roman aqueduct<br />
from Pamukela in modern Turkey but<br />
there are cold springs also where the water<br />
seasonally chills forming both hot <strong>and</strong><br />
cold springs <strong>and</strong> wells. The springs where<br />
the hot <strong>and</strong> cold mix are lukewarm. As always,<br />
Jesus hates the mixture. We address<br />
this in the book The Lord led me to author<br />
“The Dilemma of Laodicea” (which you<br />
can get from <strong>Moriel</strong> website or catalogue<br />
or Amazon etc.).<br />
There is more to Leviticus 19 than<br />
this, but this is the essence of the meaning.<br />
How the Law of Moses is the shadow<br />
of New Testament truths fulfilled <strong>and</strong> revealed<br />
in Jesus is a massive subject <strong>and</strong><br />
therefore not something we can explain<br />
extensively by e mail. If you want to truly<br />
underst<strong>and</strong> the New Testament beyond a<br />
baby food level of milk instead of meat we<br />
must underst<strong>and</strong> it in light of The Old Testament<br />
(Hebrews 5: 10-14, 1 Cor. 3:1-2).<br />
Churches that do not expound the Old Testament<br />
in light if The New Testament only<br />
serve milk which is good for babies (new<br />
believers) but cannot produce real growth<br />
in older believers who have been saved<br />
any length of time. As a result we are told<br />
their spiritual senses cannot discern good<br />
from evil ( true doctrine <strong>and</strong> practice from<br />
false). It is like its counterpart when unsaved<br />
Jews cannot really underst<strong>and</strong> the<br />
Tenak (Old Testament) beyond a superficial<br />
level unless they underst<strong>and</strong> it points<br />
to Christ as the Messiah. The New cannot<br />
be understood properly without the Old,<br />
not the Old without the New.<br />
Again, this is a massive subject <strong>and</strong> goes<br />
into lengths beyond what we can respond<br />
to by email, but I hope this at least answers<br />
your question. We do have a wide variety<br />
of scriptural teachings <strong>and</strong> several books<br />
including ‘Grain For The <strong>Famine</strong>‘ where<br />
we attempt by God’s grace to address this<br />
issue with scriptural exposition. See also<br />
Underst<strong>and</strong>ing the Mixture.<br />
In Jesus,<br />
Jacob Prasch & <strong>Moriel</strong><br />
moriel japan<br />
News from the Far East<br />
June Report 2013<br />
It has been a busy <strong>and</strong> fruitful few<br />
months since our last <strong>Moriel</strong> Japan<br />
report. This term began with a lot of<br />
prayer <strong>and</strong> the Lord has blessed His work.<br />
Earlier in the year I began listening to a recording<br />
of Andrew Murray’s ‘With Christ<br />
in the school of Prayer’, which encouraged<br />
me to seek the Lord more specifically<br />
in prayer. The months of March <strong>and</strong> April<br />
were wonderful. There were opportunities<br />
to share the gospel at every turn. More<br />
people received tracts than ever previously.<br />
More people on buses, trains, <strong>and</strong> streets<br />
were asking about faith in God <strong>and</strong> the<br />
bible than ever. I have never experienced<br />
times like these. So I am encouraged, <strong>and</strong><br />
I also encourage you to remember what<br />
Christ <strong>and</strong> the apostles taught about our<br />
need for specific <strong>and</strong> zealous prayer. The<br />
Lord always proves His word true. How<br />
much more would be accomplished if we<br />
all believed in the importance of prayer!<br />
And how great is the work to be done!<br />
Scott <strong>and</strong> Khea Noble visited us in<br />
March for two great weeks of evangelism<br />
<strong>and</strong> teaching. I realized how different the<br />
Buddhism of Thail<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Japan are. There<br />
are relatively few sincere Buddhists here,<br />
but around the temples they can always be<br />
found. Scott <strong>and</strong> Khea led us to some of the<br />
temples in Kyushu where we distributed<br />
tracts <strong>and</strong> spoke with local worshippers.<br />
One priest’s testimony was that he had<br />
turned to Buddhism after his friend had died<br />
in a car crash. Although he truly believed<br />
his Zen Buddhism, he readily admitted to<br />
not having reached ‘enlightenment’ as they<br />
put it, <strong>and</strong> I sensed that his heart really was<br />
open to spiritual truth in a way that most<br />
Japanese are not. There must be many like<br />
him in the ‘priesthood’. Scott <strong>and</strong> Khea encouraged<br />
us a lot regarding reaching out to<br />
the local priests <strong>and</strong> their families. We had<br />
some good times street preaching <strong>and</strong> witnessing<br />
together in Fukuoka <strong>and</strong> Osaka.<br />
Another approach was to open an archaeology<br />
club in some local community<br />
centres. The aging population of Japan<br />
now boasts large numbers of recently retired<br />
people who have time to pursue new<br />
interests. I had an idea to advertise an archaeology<br />
club simply as a way of meeting<br />
new people <strong>and</strong> creating the ‘circle’ which<br />
seems to be so important in this culture.<br />
Japanese people trust others much more<br />
once they are connected in some kind of<br />
social circle or group. At our first meeting,<br />
Scott presented the archaeology of the Hittites<br />
<strong>and</strong> Assyria. Six new people attended.<br />
A few were English students, but two were<br />
strangers. One of which, ‘Shiokawa san’<br />
was encouraged to begin reading the old<br />
testament <strong>and</strong> happily received a Japanese<br />
creation magazine. He promised to come<br />
again. Another lady said she was interested<br />
in Indiana Jones! Right now I am preparing<br />
our next meeting on the topic of Egypt (<strong>and</strong><br />
of course what God did there!). Please pray<br />
that people will join this study <strong>and</strong> that it<br />
will lead to real opportunity to witness <strong>and</strong><br />
present the gospel. Especially ‘Shiokawa<br />
san’, who was encouraged to read the bible<br />
<strong>and</strong> learn more.<br />
Grant returned to Japan after a visit with<br />
his family back in the US. The Lord was<br />
able to make good use of him there, sharing<br />
about the need for missions in Japan <strong>and</strong><br />
encouraging people to pray for <strong>and</strong> join<br />
in the work here. Right now Grant is busy<br />
improving his Japanese <strong>and</strong> preparing for<br />
another term of evangelism. Last week God<br />
provided a local English teaching job. Pray<br />
for God’s direction for him now. It is an exciting<br />
time as summer is approaching <strong>and</strong><br />
the witnessing opportunities will be many.<br />
Leaving Scott <strong>and</strong> Khea on their way to<br />
Tokyo I left for the Philippines on April 1st.<br />
The work there has never been better. More<br />
<strong>and</strong> more young people from the universities<br />
came <strong>and</strong> joined our meetings. There I<br />
continually introduced the basic principles<br />
of midrash, this time in the context of the<br />
History <strong>and</strong> Prophecy of Egypt. We looked<br />
at Joseph’s famine <strong>and</strong> compared the<br />
plagues of Exodus, to those of Revelation,<br />
with particular emphasis on those that the<br />
Hebrews went through, <strong>and</strong> the last seven<br />
plagues from which they were spared. It is a<br />
great study <strong>and</strong> I encourage you to do it too!<br />
The false ‘grace’ teaching of Joseph<br />
Prince has divided up the body there, especially<br />
down in the isl<strong>and</strong>s. It was helpful<br />
for them to clear up some of the issues of<br />
what biblical grace really is. Pastor Hope,<br />
who exactly one year ago was removed<br />
from ministry on account of his <strong>Moriel</strong><br />
affiliation, is doing well. <strong>Moriel</strong> provided<br />
financial assistance to Hope which he has<br />
invested in a field of peanuts. By the time<br />
you read this the harvest will be done <strong>and</strong><br />
most of it will be peanut butter. He is reaching<br />
out to the ‘young people’ <strong>and</strong> providing<br />
a space for them to come <strong>and</strong> study more.<br />
Some of the young students asked their<br />
pastors to borrow the concordance but were<br />
refused. Their pastor told them they would<br />
“mis-interpret”, <strong>and</strong> that “It was only for<br />
those who had been to bible college”. No,<br />
these are not the Catholics but the ‘protestants’<br />
saying this. Hope is working hard to<br />
get lots of good teaching into their h<strong>and</strong>s<br />
<strong>and</strong> the h<strong>and</strong>s of their friends. I am convinced<br />
that they already know a great deal<br />
more than their teachers. They are the outcasts<br />
of Israel, that God is already beginning<br />
to use. May we provide them with<br />
what they need to study <strong>and</strong> teach others.<br />
One of them was threatened recently by his<br />
Catholic family at knifepoint on account of<br />
his conversion. He has been a faithful believer<br />
for three years <strong>and</strong> has a great deal<br />
of knowledge considering his situation. Yet<br />
his pastor, after three years, will not baptize<br />
him! The LORD is personally tending the<br />
needs of his scattered sheep.<br />
Hope has now joined Pastor Pol, also<br />
zealous in the promotion of midrash <strong>and</strong><br />
discernment, <strong>and</strong> together they are getting<br />
the teaching out to many in the various<br />
provinces of the Philippines. Pastor Pol was<br />
able to arrange a meeting in a central province<br />
where about 120 pastors <strong>and</strong> teachers<br />
could attend their first midrash <strong>and</strong> prophecy<br />
seminar. (As opposed to the ‘prophecy’<br />
seminars of Cindy Jacobs <strong>and</strong> the G12<br />
which are so popular now. Pol was overwhelmed<br />
with joy to watch his brothers <strong>and</strong><br />
sisters eyes open as they saw for the first<br />
time some deeper truths of scripture (which<br />
have become so familiar to us). One host<br />
pastor happens to be head of a university<br />
school of veterinary science, researching<br />
buffaloes. He treated us to a sample of their<br />
buffalo yogurt <strong>and</strong> buffalo milk café latte<br />
after the meeting. I have found the simplest<br />
way to teach midrash to new people is to<br />
use the exegesis of Melchizedek, in Hebrews<br />
Ch 7. This gives us such a clear pattern<br />
that we can repeat for any other bible<br />
passage. We are now planning a follow up<br />
seminar for them <strong>and</strong> another similar one in<br />
Manila, Lord willing, by Jacob next year.<br />
I was blessed to visit Olongapo again<br />
<strong>and</strong> see so many of the young children<br />
growing in their faith <strong>and</strong> knowledge of<br />
the Lord. Two years before, I mentioned to<br />
David Lister that soon the families of the<br />
children would come. Pastor Paul had a<br />
great idea to invite the mothers to help with<br />
the food preparation <strong>and</strong> through that many<br />
are now attending regular bible studies <strong>and</strong><br />
asking good questions. I was not sure if the<br />
28 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 29
<strong>Moriel</strong> Japan – Continued<br />
Scott Noble<br />
<strong>Moriel</strong> Thail<strong>and</strong><br />
Egypt teaching would be too hard for them,<br />
but they understood it well <strong>and</strong> were challenged<br />
by it. Praise the Lord!<br />
For now, having just returned from the<br />
Philippines, there is a long list of things<br />
to do, but the top of the list is to pray <strong>and</strong><br />
thank God for all his blessings to us in the<br />
last few months.<br />
Please pray with us for Japanese people’s<br />
hearts to be moved by the frequent earthquakes<br />
<strong>and</strong> political instability around us.<br />
May it lead them to God.<br />
Pray for the archaeology club meetings<br />
<strong>and</strong> our street witnessing this summer. That<br />
the message will be clearly presented <strong>and</strong><br />
understood.<br />
Pray for Hope <strong>and</strong> Pol’s work in the Philippines.<br />
That the materials will be widely<br />
distributed <strong>and</strong> read.<br />
Give thanks for the many eyes opened this<br />
year. May they continue to seek the truth.<br />
Shalom,<br />
Geoff<br />
mj<br />
Scott <strong>and</strong> Khea present<br />
evidence for the flood<br />
Geoff, Scott <strong>and</strong> Khea at the<br />
temple of 1028 idols<br />
inside a temple<br />
“Now how do I<br />
translate that?”<br />
Hope “working for peanuts”<br />
Pastor Pol<strong>and</strong> daughter<br />
Dianne<br />
Pastor Paul <strong>and</strong> some of the<br />
mothers who attend his<br />
bible study <strong>and</strong> help with<br />
the feeding program<br />
Olongapo youth full of<br />
Joy <strong>and</strong> thanks to God<br />
‘Outcasts’ who know more<br />
than their teachers<br />
. . . . . <strong>Moriel</strong> TV continued from page 20<br />
promised criteria of not begging for money<br />
all the time <strong>and</strong> compromising with heretics<br />
<strong>and</strong> money preaching religious charlatans<br />
as appear on the GodTV (better called<br />
“God-less”) channel, Revelation TV, <strong>and</strong><br />
TBN. Paul <strong>and</strong> Jan Crouch can have their<br />
sex sc<strong>and</strong>als <strong>and</strong> Benny Hinns, Wendy <strong>and</strong><br />
Rory Alec can have their Todd Bentleys,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Howard <strong>and</strong> Leslie Condor can have<br />
their Jesse Duplantis just as Ahab <strong>and</strong> Jezebel<br />
had their priests of Baal. By God’s<br />
grace our goal will be to lift up the true Jesus,<br />
proclaim the true Gospel, <strong>and</strong> expound<br />
true doctrine. Donations <strong>and</strong> subscriptions<br />
will be welcome to fund operating costs but<br />
we will not continually push fund raising<br />
gimmicks or feature any money preachers.<br />
If the Lord is in this, there will be regular<br />
open Questions & Answers with Jacob<br />
Prasch <strong>and</strong> guests as well as much exposition<br />
of God’s Word with no shortage of emphasis<br />
on prophecy, evangelism, Israel, <strong>and</strong><br />
discernment related issues. We also hope to<br />
invite <strong>and</strong> host other preachers from outside<br />
of <strong>Moriel</strong> who share our convictions.<br />
Our aim is to preach the return of Jesus<br />
while we are still able to do so <strong>and</strong> be an<br />
alternaive to the mess that Satan has made<br />
of most of Christian TV.<br />
To this end first <strong>and</strong> foremost, we seriously<br />
request prayer. Such a project will require<br />
money but we will trust God <strong>and</strong> the<br />
generosity of His people <strong>and</strong> not run such<br />
a ministry as an enterprise. We do however<br />
request prayer for adequate finances <strong>and</strong> an<br />
on-line contribution <strong>and</strong> subscription will<br />
be implemented.<br />
Your prayers <strong>and</strong> support will be much<br />
required <strong>and</strong> very much appreciated.<br />
In Jesus,<br />
Jacob Prasch<br />
And<br />
All at <strong>Moriel</strong><br />
MARANTAHA !<br />
Quotes of the QUARTER !<br />
“For if you forgive others their<br />
trespasses, your heavenly Father<br />
will also forgive you, but if you do<br />
not forgive others their trespasses,<br />
neither will your Father forgive<br />
your trespasses.”<br />
– Matthew 6:14-15 –<br />
B a n g k o k S k y l i n e<br />
Dear believers in grace,<br />
R i c e f i e l d s C h i a n g M a i<br />
thail<strong>and</strong><br />
Quadruple Potassium<br />
Recently three ladies from my home<br />
church in Iowa came to visit us for a<br />
ministry trip here. As it turned out, all of<br />
their names begin with the letter “K” (Kris,<br />
Kim, <strong>and</strong> Kayla). “K” is the chemical<br />
symbol for Potassium. Including my wife<br />
(Khae), I’ve named them the quadruple<br />
Potassium team. The three from Iowa were<br />
here for 10 days.<br />
Visiting Khae’s Parents<br />
After church on Sunday, we started driving<br />
towards Suphanburi to visit Khae’s parents.<br />
Khae’s Mom was actually very friendly<br />
<strong>and</strong> made some extremely delicious Thai<br />
food for us during the two days we were<br />
there. We had good conversation with her<br />
<strong>and</strong> before leaving we prayed for her, but<br />
Mom says she regrets letting us pray for her.<br />
Her stance is still very opposed to the gospel.<br />
I thought it was a good step in the right<br />
direction though for her to welcome this<br />
group of Christians for meals.<br />
We were also able to visit some of their<br />
neighbors who had stopped going to the<br />
temple. They stopped because they said<br />
that all of their “merit making” did them no<br />
good, since the wife is very sick now. They<br />
did not seem very open to the gospel either,<br />
but Khae shared with them with great zeal.<br />
May they call out to Jesus.<br />
Khae’s Dad took a bold st<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> shared<br />
with his son, telling him he should read the<br />
Bible <strong>and</strong> underst<strong>and</strong> it. This may sound<br />
like a small thing, but for Khae’s Dad this<br />
really is a big step. Right now Khae’s Mom<br />
has come back to putting heavy pressure on<br />
Dad again, scolding him for being a Christian.<br />
Maybe she feels conviction from the<br />
Holy Spirit <strong>and</strong> is fighting this conviction by<br />
scolding Dad. Please pray for Khae’s family<br />
<strong>and</strong> their neighborhood.<br />
School Program<br />
Also in Suphanburi we went to a Christian<br />
school <strong>and</strong> had a program for them.<br />
Most of the students <strong>and</strong> some of the teachers<br />
are Buddhists. The ladies from Iowa<br />
had some praise songs for the children<br />
<strong>and</strong> I shared a gospel balloon presentation.<br />
Afterwards we prayed with them, leading<br />
them in a prayer to Jesus. And, the weather<br />
was so hot, Kris was glad to have one of<br />
the girls throw a cup of cold water on her.<br />
Women’s Prison<br />
We went to a Women’s Prison, where<br />
the QP team had a great program for the<br />
ladies there, <strong>and</strong> Khae even did the translation<br />
for Kris’ message. That was the first<br />
time Khae has translated that long of a<br />
message <strong>and</strong> she did really well. One of<br />
the ladies in our group had some back pain<br />
that day, <strong>and</strong> she got a VIP massage- three<br />
of the prisoners massaging her at once. At<br />
the end they prayed for each of the ladies<br />
individually. And, they were able to go<br />
have lunch with one of the guards, while I<br />
prepared for our trip to Burma.<br />
Mae Sot<br />
We left Chiang Mai by air to go to Mae<br />
Sot. This was our first time to go there by<br />
air. It was a small airplane with plenty of<br />
turbulence, but a great view. Our friend<br />
Paul also came to help out. On arrival we<br />
bought some food to h<strong>and</strong> out the next day<br />
<strong>and</strong> then went to the hotel.<br />
In the morning, the six of us left the<br />
hotel in three-wheeled “tuk tuks,” fully<br />
weighed down with food <strong>and</strong> gospels in<br />
the Burmese language. I had a couple of<br />
contacts from our last trip there, but these<br />
two were not answering their phones, so<br />
we met a man who takes tourists into Burma<br />
for tours. He gave us a good price so<br />
we decided to go with him by van.<br />
Brick Yard<br />
First he brought us to a small village<br />
where they had many workers making<br />
bricks. The three ladies began singing some<br />
worship songs, <strong>and</strong> the children <strong>and</strong> some<br />
of the workers started gathering. After that<br />
I preached the gospel using balloons, <strong>and</strong><br />
Paul also preached the gospel. Afterwards<br />
we gave them some food items. It seemed<br />
that some of the workers were really listening<br />
sincerely during the messages. We pray<br />
that they will read the gospel of John we<br />
gave them <strong>and</strong> really get saved.<br />
Bus Station Village<br />
On the way to the brick yard I saw an area<br />
that looked interesting, so on the way back<br />
I asked the driver to stop there. It was a bus<br />
station <strong>and</strong> behind that was a small village.<br />
We found a shady area in front of one of<br />
the houses <strong>and</strong> asked them if we could have<br />
a program there. They agreed. We all sang<br />
“Amazing Grace” <strong>and</strong> then Kris shared a<br />
salvation message, which our tour guide<br />
translated. I added a few words about reading<br />
the gospel we were giving them, saying<br />
that God loves them, <strong>and</strong> as they read this,<br />
they will also come to love God. Then, we<br />
also gave them some food items.<br />
One of the food items was some canned<br />
fish, which had some incorrect grammar on<br />
the label, calling it “cutted fish.” I asked<br />
Paul if there was any more “cutted fish”<br />
left. He said it was all “gone- ded.”<br />
Back to the Border<br />
From the bus station we walked about<br />
two more blocks <strong>and</strong> then h<strong>and</strong>ed out some<br />
more gospels <strong>and</strong> food. Some motorcycle<br />
taxi drivers were waiting for customers <strong>and</strong><br />
asked me to explain a little bit about the gospel.<br />
One of them could speak a tiny bit of<br />
English, <strong>and</strong> I think I was able to convey to<br />
him enough of the gospel to get his interest<br />
to read the gospel for himself in Burmese.<br />
Then our guide called the van to come<br />
get us <strong>and</strong> we went back to the border. At<br />
the border we still had a lot of gospels left<br />
so we h<strong>and</strong>ed those out to people st<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
in line waiting to go to Thail<strong>and</strong>. In all<br />
we h<strong>and</strong>ed out over 500 gospels of John<br />
in Burmese <strong>and</strong> we were able to preach in<br />
two spots. Please pray for all who heard the<br />
gospel <strong>and</strong> for all who will read it, that their<br />
eyes will be opened to the truth <strong>and</strong> that<br />
they will find life through Jesus Christ.<br />
Jesus Has Overcome the World<br />
I was just reading in Mark about how<br />
the people chose a man who took life away<br />
(Barabbas), in order to reject the one who<br />
gives life (Jesus). When Pilate asked the<br />
people, “Why, what evil hath he done?,”<br />
30 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013 June 2013 • <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly 31
<strong>Moriel</strong> Thail<strong>and</strong> – Continued<br />
instead of giving a rational answer, “...they<br />
cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify<br />
him.” (Mark 15:14). Many times people’s<br />
rejection of Jesus is totally irrational. We<br />
should be able to give a rational answer for<br />
our faith, <strong>and</strong> sometimes people will listen.<br />
But, at other times, we have to show people<br />
the truth through a life of sacrifice, dying<br />
to self. Of course, this is not always easy.<br />
And, we cannot accomplish this in our own<br />
strength. We put our faith in the one who<br />
has overcome the world... “...this is the victory<br />
that overcometh the world, even our<br />
faith.” (I John 5:4) “...be of good cheer; I<br />
have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).<br />
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed<br />
about with so great a cloud of witnesses,<br />
let us lay aside every weight, <strong>and</strong><br />
the sin which doth so easily beset us, <strong>and</strong><br />
let us run with patience the race that is set<br />
before us, looking unto Jesus the author<br />
<strong>and</strong> finisher of our faith; who for the joy<br />
that was set before him endured the cross,<br />
despising the shame, <strong>and</strong> is set down at the<br />
right h<strong>and</strong> of the throne of God. (Hebrews<br />
12:1-2). Thank you to the Potassium team<br />
<strong>and</strong> others for making sacrifices to share the<br />
gospel. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.<br />
Peace in Christ,<br />
Scott <strong>and</strong> Khae<br />
A few photographs from <strong>Moriel</strong> Thail<strong>and</strong><br />
MORIEL MINISTRIES<br />
Israel<br />
L<strong>and</strong> of the Bible<br />
LWelcome to Bible Study Tours Led by Jacob Prasch<br />
<strong>and</strong> of the Bible, an unforgettable, life-enriching experience.<br />
Sept 29, 2013 through October 10, 2013<br />
11 Full days touring, 11 ½ days guiding, <strong>and</strong> airport assistance<br />
Bible study tours to Israel <strong>and</strong> other biblical l<strong>and</strong>s with<br />
Jacob Prasch emphasize spiritual, theological, <strong>and</strong> doctrinal<br />
content. Unlike most tours, we avoid becoming pilgrimages,<br />
devotional tours, or vacation packages. We visit places of<br />
biblical importance <strong>and</strong> proven archaeological <strong>and</strong> historical<br />
veracity, steering clear of tourist traps <strong>and</strong> unsubstantiated<br />
“holy” sites.<br />
Please check the <strong>Moriel</strong> website www.moriel.org/Tours/ for more<br />
information including a brochure, itinerary <strong>and</strong> information<br />
on accommodations. Any additional questions please email<br />
Polly Zabari: polly@archtours.co.uk.<br />
An unforgettable, life-enriching experience!<br />
Sea of Galilee<br />
32 <strong>Moriel</strong> Quarterly • June 2013