| (Copyright) by Robert B. MacDormand & John D. Keyser (Azusa, California) |
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  I believe the role of the church (ecclesia) is misunderstood in our day because people do not recognize the identity of the lost tribes of Israel. Christians today do not understand the relationship established by YEHOVAH God between Israel and the church in Israel. The church in Israel is called to do more than just preach the Gospel. “And Jesus approached, spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been imparted to me, in Heaven and on Earth. Go, disciple All the NATIONS [of Israel], immersing them into the NAME of the FATHER, and of the Son, and of the holy spirit‘” (Matthew 28:18-20, The Emphatic Diaglott Containing the Original Greek Text). This great commission involved more than just preaching the Gospel of personal salvation. The apostle Peter explained our identity as Christian-Israelites: “But ye are a chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood, a holy Nation, a people for a purpose; that you may declare the perfection of Him who called you from darkness into His wonderful light” (I Peter 2:9, ibid.). Calling us a royal priesthood implies two things. First, we are of royal descent. We are children of the king and our father is YEHOVAH God. He is the ruler and we are destined to rule as princes and princesses in His kingdom. Even in this mortal life we are given authority to conquer and rule: “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven [in the Book of Life]” (Luke 10:17-20). We have spiritual authority higher than that of demons. We can prevent them from carrying out their wicked plans. “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:18-19). Two Christian-Israelites can agree in prayer to bind demons. It is up to those Christians to stop demons from taking over the U.S.A., Canada, the U.K., and other Israel nations. Recognize the demons behind the evil people and bind those demons. You cannot bind the evil people but you can bind the demons giving power to those people. The people will be bound when YEHOVAH God and the Messiah return. When Peter called us a royal priesthood it also means we are all priests. Our High Priest is the Messiah who is a priest after the order of Melchizedec, the highest office of priesthood in existence. As priests it is our duty to intercede for our nations. We need to pray for our nations because we are the ones the Lord will listen to. We have the ear of the Messiah our High Priest and we are his priests. It is up to us to call on the Messiah and get help for our Israel people. Priests have a duty to bless the people and teach the people the laws of YEHOVAH God: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:18-19). Therefore we see that the duty of the church in the Israel nations is more than just preaching the Gospel. We have a duty to protect our nations from evil spirits, to intercede for our nation before YEHOVAH God, and to teach our people the laws of YEHOVAH God. How are we doing? We are our brother’s and sister’s keepers. Are we protecting them from evil? The condition of our nations reflects the condition of the Israel church. If the church is spiritually healthy our nations will be thriving. How are we doing? Many people are looking for an Antichrist to blame for the problems in our nations. Recently I saw the person who is responsible for the sin in our nation. I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror and he was looking back at me. You can see the guilty person if you look in your bathroom mirror. All of us must continually confess that we are sinners and claim the free gift of forgiveness and salvation by the sacrifice of the Messiah given to us when he died on the tree. Then we must go forth and do our small part in helping the church in our Israel nations do their duty to YEHOVAH God. Daniel was proclaimed to be a very righteous man by YEHOVAH God. When YEHOVAH spoke to Ezekiel about the sin of Israel he said, “Son of man, when the land sinneth against Me by trespassing grievously, then I stretch out Mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the LORD God” (Ezekiel 14:13-14). However, Daniel did not think he was righteous. He knew he was a sinner. He said, “And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation” (Daniel 9:20-21). Daniel was praying for Israel, confessing that they were sinners and that he was a sinner. Let us follow his example and not think too highly of ourselves. All of us are sinners and all of us are part of a sinful church and a sinful nation. Nevertheless, we of Israel are forgiven and protected from the wrath of YEHOVAH God by the blood of the Messiah, and until our mortal lives end we must work to do our part as royal priests in YEHOVAH’s service under the guidance of our High Priest, Yeshua the Messiah! Baptism into the Priesthood Since the Bible clearly affirms that baptism is NOT required for salvation, why did the Messiah permit himself to be baptized, and that it should be an example for those called of Israel to follow? Now let’s go to the Messiah and John at the Jordan river. The Messiah has requested that John baptize him to “fulfill all righteousness.” Like Aaron, the Messiah needed to be washed and anointed so that he could begin his ministry as High Priest. Let’s see what happened. The Messiah went into the water and was immersed. When he came up out of the water, the heavens were opened up and the holy spirit in the bodily form of a dove came and rested on the Messiah. The holy spirit is spirit and therefore invisible. The spirit’s descending as a dove was for the benefit of John and the others present. The dove was a symbol of purity, peace, gentleness, love and truth, all characteristics of the one true God. That John understood that it was the holy spirit descending on the Messiah is made clear by Peter in Acts 10:38 when he is preaching to Cornelius and his family and says, “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the holy spirit and with power…” The Messiah became the “Son of God,” but as a fully human being he would need the power of YEHOVAH God given to him in the spirit to accomplish the will of YEHOVAH God here upon the earth. If we see the Messiah’s own baptism by John as an inauguration to the priesthood, some light can be shed on a few of the details of that event — especially as recorded in Luke’s account (Luke 3:21-23). First, the question of why the Messiah was baptized at all, especially with a baptism “of repentance for the remission of sins” (3:3), has frequently been answered by saying that the Messiah was identifying himself with his kinsmen Israel. He submitted to baptism as part of his work as the sin-bearing substitute. This explanation fits very neatly with the view that the Messiah was baptized into the priestly ministry. The High Priest of Israel, after all, was a sin-bearer. Throughout the year, the sins of Israel “accumulated” on the High Priest until they were confessed over the scapegoat and sent out of the camp on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). The Aaronic priests were ordained to bear the sins of Israel, “baptized” into substitutionary ministry. As Duane Spencer points out in his book Holy Baptism, this explains what the Messiah meant when he said that his baptism was part of “fulfilling all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15): The Messiah fulfilled righteousness by undergoing baptism into the priesthood. Likewise, those called of Israel are also priests of YEHOVAH God and should “fulfill all righteousness” as the Messiah did! In 1 Peter 2 we read: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected, it is true, by men, but chosen, precious, with God, you yourselves also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house for the purpose of a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ….But you are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies’ of the One who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light…” (1 Peter 2:4-5, 9. The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures). Since we of Israel are priests like our elder brother the Messiah is also a (High) Priest, we should follow his example and be baptized so that we can have the power to “proclaim the praises of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The early “Church” Fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, and Augustine all claimed that baptism inducts the baptized person into membership in the royal priesthood of the church, and Thomas Aquinas said that baptism, by imprinting an indelible “character” on the soul, confers a share in the priesthood of Christ. This was even worked into some ancient baptismal liturgies; the actual water baptism was followed by an anointing with oil, and this was explained by reference to the anointing of priests and kings in the Old Testament. Second, Luke tells us that immediately after his baptism the Messiah “began his ministry,” being “about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23). Priests likewise began ministry at the age of 30 (Numbers 4:34-37), following their ordination — which included a ritual bath. Third, at the baptism of the Messiah, the Father identified the Messiah as the “Son of God” (Luke 3:22). This can be a royal rather than a priestly title (see 2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 2:6-7), and it surely carries that resonance in Luke 3. The Messiah is the royal priest, the priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-3). But sonship is not unconnected with priesthood. The Levites, who served in a semi-priestly capacity, took the place of the firstborn sons of Israel (Numbers 3:38-51). In Hebrews 4:14 the new High Priest is identified as “Jesus the Son of God,” and in 5:5 the author interprets Psalm 2:7 (“Thou art my Son”) as a prophecy of the Messiah’s glorification as High Priest. When we read Galatians 4 we learn that those called of YEHOVAH’s people Israel are also called “sons of God” — notice! “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son [the Messiah], born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law [the Israelites], that we [of Israel] might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:4-7). So, as “sons” of the Living God we, too, should follow the Messiah’s example and be baptized. While it is true that baptism is NOT required for salvation, and that “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (different responsibilities and duties), if we want to fulfill our calling — the highest responsibility in the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God — then we should follow the Messiah’s example and be baptized. “And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). It was the Messiah’s baptism that gave him the legal authority to carry out his priestly ministry. Notice what Ben Rose says: “As evidence of the fact that the Messiah was made a priest by John’s baptism, we note that when the Messiah cleansed the temple (Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15), he was exercising the authority of a priest. And when the Jews came to him asking, ‘By what authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee this authority?’ (Matthew 21:23; Mark 11:28), Yeshua cited to them John’s baptism, which he had received, and asked, ‘Was it from heaven or of men?’ In Yeshua’s mind there is obviously a definite connection between his priestly ‘authority’ and his ‘baptism by John.’ He indicates that if John’s baptism was from heaven, and he surely believed it was, then he had been truly ordained a priest and possessed authority to cleanse the temple” (Ben L. Rose, Reprint from the Southern Presbyterian Journal, Weaverville, 1949, pp. 10-11). We of Israel — who have been called by YEHOVAH God and as such are named priests throughout the scriptures — should take our calling seriously and immerse ourselves into the “Royal Priesthood” so that we can fulfill the highest call that YEHOVAH God has offered us. Since we fulfill our calling as priests when we are baptized, we too have the authority and duty to cleanse the Temple as the Messiah did — but what “temple” are we talking about here? Notice what the apostle Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17: “Don’t you know that you people are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you? So if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you yourselves are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Jewish New Testament). As priests in YEHOVAH’s service it is our duty to “cleanse” and protect His people Israel to the utmost of our ability. The Messiah’s action in “cleansing” the Temple in Matthew 21:12-13 was symbolic in nature and pointed to his sacrifice on the tree where his blood cleansed YEHOVAH’s people Israel who are the true Temple of YEHOVAH God. —————————————————————————————————– See John Keyser’s other articles at: Keyser, John – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) Reprinted with permission from: Hope of Israel Ministries https://www.hope-of-israel.org/ —————————————————————————————————– |
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