Posted by bkh on October 18, 1999 at 05:02:14:
An alternative method of preaching the gospel
Many Christians have become so locked into the ‘save them hell' method of preaching that they cannot conceive of an alternative. There is a summation of the message found in Zechariah that spells out it simply. "God was very angry with your ancestors. But now God says, return to me and I will return to you. Do not be like your ancestors who refused to stop doing evil things. Where are your ancestors now? Did not the punishment inflicted on your ancestors catch up with them in the end. Then they repented and said, ‘we got what we deserved. God treated us as our deeds and our conduct deserved, and as God was determined to do." Zechariah 1:1 This is the manner in which the prophets preached. It is more human, just, and reasonable, not to mention a more realistic presentation of the human situation than the ‘atonement' and ‘save them from hell' practices the church fathers introduced. For example Jeremiah ended his sermons against various nations by concluding, "But afterwards, God will restore the nation of Moab (or Ammon, etc)." And Isaiah wrote that afterwards God would restore Egypt and yrias fortunes. "Blessed be my people Egypt, yria and Israel." And of course, Ezekiel wrote, "Here was the sin of your sister Sodom. The lived in comfort and ease, and had everything they needed, but they grew arrogant, and crushed the poor...I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Gommorah, etc." Those who cannot conceive of another way to preach to people, now have an option.
In Deuteronomy we read, "When you wage war against you enemy and you see a beautiful woman and find her desirable then you may take her. If she ceases to please you then send her away." And in Numbers, "kill every woman who has had ual with a man, but keep the s for yourselves...Divide them up evenly." As the great Biblical critic, Hosea, wrote, "Ephraim's guilt is tied up in a scroll. Their sins are kept on record...Though they offer whole offerings sacrifices God will not accept them. Their guilt will be remembered and God is going to punish them for all their blasphemy."
The words of Jeremiah: "When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt I gave them no instructions or commands concerning whole offerings and sacrifice. (Ie. Leviticus in particular). But they did not listen, they paid no heed, and proceeded ahead with their own plans with the most stubbornly wicked and evil hearts. Truth has perished from their lips. It is no longer heard in the land." (Jeremiah 7:24) "Now my people do not know the requirements of God. How can you say, 'we are wise, for we have the Torah,' when, actually, the lying pens of the scribes had it falsified. Their leaders are dismayed, for they have been trapped and snared. But they rejected the WORD OF GOD, so what kind of wisdom did they have?" (I remind you of those various Bible pages teaching that one should war against an enemy, and take over their fields, homes, and their women. The sermon in Jeremiah continues:) "Therefore I will give YOUR FIELDS to new owners and YOUR WIVES to other men, because everyone both high and low is out for ill gotten gain. Priests and prophets are frauds. They dress my people's wounds on the surface only with that saying of theirs ‘all is well'. All is well? NOTHING IS WELL. They ought to be ashamed of themselves for practicing abominations but they don't even know how to blush. Therefore they will fall with a great crash on the day of my reckoning. God has spoken." Jeremiah 8:8 "I will give you new shepherds after my own heart, says God, and they will lead you with knowledge and understanding. No one will ever speak of the Ark of Moses any more; no one will think of it or remember it or resort to it; that will never be done again. At that time the nations will become united to honor God, and no longer will they follow the stubbornness of their own hearts." (Jeremiah 3:15)
Now you will recall the parable of the garden, where there were two trees, one of which gave life and the other called 'the Knowledge of Good and Evil' which, so the snake promised, would make you 'wise like God' but which actually KILLED. As the prophet wrote, "you have kept the laws of King Omri, all the practices of King Ahab. You have adopted all of their policies." And as Isaiah wrote, "I have no desire for the blood of bulls, of sheep and goats. Who asked you for all this? To bring me offerings is futile. The reek of sacrifice is abhorent to me. New moons and sabbaths and sacred emblies, such idolatrous ceremonies I can no longer endure. They have become an intolerable burden to me, and I can tolerate them no longer." Isaiah 1:11 Note that all the following practices, condemned by Isaiah, are found in books like Leviticus. "Sacrificing an ox is like killing a man, and slaughtering a sheep is like breaking a dog's neck. Making an offering of grain is like offering pig's blood, burning frankincence as a token, like worshipping an idol. People adopted these practices and revelled in their loathsome rites." Isaiah 66:3
Hosea wrote, "I am going to punish the dynasty of Jehu for the blood shed in the valley of Jezreel, and bring the Kingdom of Israel to an end." (Compare this to the 'historical' account where it says, "Jehu, you have done well in slaughtering the sons of Ahab in the valley of Jezreel and will keep the throne." And as Joshua Messiah taught, continuing the tradition of the prophets, "there is no such thing as an unclean food,' and again, "you have heard it said, 'an eye for an eye', BUT WHAT I SAY TO YOU IS THIS: DON'T DO THAT!!! Turn the other cheek." The practice of scribes defiling Holy Mcripts was not limited to the Jewish Testament, but appears again and again and again in the church Testament. One famous and confusing interpolation in the sermon on the mount, nullifies both the teachings of Joshua Messiah (as I call him) which follow, and all the teachings of the prophets: "Anyone who teaches people to keep the whole Torah will have the highest place in the Kingdom of Heaven." Obviously the prophets and Joshua himself had the lowest place, because the did not teach this message. The page is an interpolation. (How can you say, we are wise for we have the gospel of Jesus Christ, when, actually, the lying pens of those church fathers had it falsified?)
Paul also carried on the prophetic tradition of Biblical criticism, writing, "everything I know about God convinces me that nothing is unclean, only if someone gets the idea in their head that something is unclean, then for them it becomes unclean." And again in the book of Galatians, "Anyone who relies on obedience to the Torah has cut themselves off from Joshua Messiah (and the prophets too who warned against this practice, as well). You have put yourself outside of God's grace. Who stopped you from obeying the truth? WHATEVER PERSUASION WAS USED IT DID NOT COME FROM GOD. Remember, a little bit of yeast raises the whole lump of dough. God gives me confidence that you will not adopt the wrong view, but whoever is unsettling you must bear God's judgment. As for me my friends, if I am still upholding the Torah, then why am I being persecuted. To do that would be to remove the offence of the cross." You can compare Paul's teachings with the 'Acts of the Apostles' where the people say, "Paul, it has been said that you yourself are not a devout practicer of the Torah. Paul, say it isn't so." At this time Paul goes about nullifying Joshua and the prophets by practicing all the things he condemns in his own letters.
Now when one obeys the prophets, Joshua Messiah, and Paul, and the dictates of reason simple common sense. and tosses out those evil parts of the Bible and tosses out that Ark of Moses, it naturally follows that one must also toss out certain interpolations in the Church Testament as well (usually involving the repression of women, the Torah, and cursing the Jews, and offering unquestioning obedience to powerful authorities). The entire book of Hebrews, and its entire theology must be thrown out (if one keeps the prophets), built as it is upon the whole offerings sacrifice of Jesus to 'pay for everyone's sins' and the story of the 'Ark of Moses' as the 'story of his life'. For instance, in the book of Hebrews we read that God brought the people out of Egypt and they all went straight to hell forever, for they were preached to as we were preached to but they did not believe. In the books of Timothy we read, "Here is a saying you may trust completely, for we have set out hopes on the living God, for God is the savior of EVERYONE, but especially of those who believe." (1 Timothy 4:9) Hebrews states that "God IS NOT the savior of everyone, BUT ONLY OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE." The teachings of the Timothy book are in keeping with the teachings of the prophets, while Hebrews nullifies them (according to Hebrews Jeremiah taught that the covenant was flawless, and it was the people who were flawed. This is not what Jeremiah taught). Similarly Jeremiah prophecied against many nations, ending by saying, "but after wards I will restore the fortunes of Moab," "but afterwards I will restore the fortunes of Ammon,' etc, because, you see, God is the savior of everyone, but especially of those who believe. As that angry prophet Zephaniah wrote, "God will reduce them to terror, their tyrant idol to beggary. Then God will restore pure lips to them."
Now if the meaning of the crucifixion is not to be found in the ‘whole offerings sacrifice' theology of atonement, how can we understand this event. I would suggest that common sense indicates that the true meaning of the death of Joshua Messiah is found in the conquest of death. One example I frequently employ, is that of a Roman Slave, looking at the message of the cross for the first time, through fresh eyes. There has been no Christian theology, no evangelists, just a cross. The message of that cross to that slave is rather obvious. This is where rebellious slaves go to die. The message of the gospel in its original form (before it was corrupted and scribbled over by the Church Fathers) was :"CEASAR CRUCIFIES SLAVES, BUT GOD RAISES SLAVES FROM THE DEAD." Incorporated into this message is the ETERNAL GOSPEL message to the rich and powerful: "LET MY PEOPLE GO." Naturally, Ceasar and the powerful could not tolerate such a revolutionary message. After the Church Fathers finished their ‘theology', their book scribbling, and their HARMONIZING of those mcripts and pages condemned by the prophets, the gospel became, "everyone needs to get their souls saved from going to hell. The only way to do this is through the whole offerings sacrifice of Christ to ‘pay for everyone's sins.' Christ was a Levitical Cow sacrifice. The Ark was the story of his life.. Even the ‘unsaved good' burn in hell, for it does not depend on your works, but only on the graces of God (who, apparently, isn't very kind, gracious, or even just, killing even the innocent.) The slaves and the poor and everyone else needs sacraments and conversions for these are the only vehicles of grace. Famine victims are plunging ‘unsaved' into hell, dying without hope, either in this world or the next. Little children who have reached the ‘age of condemnation' go to hell. (And so on and so on)." I like to respond that "if you would have understood the meaning of the saying, "it is mercy that I require, and not sacraments (or a cow sacrifice) then you never would have condemned the innocent." In clic Christian ‘atonement' theology, this has become, "it is SACRIFICE that I require, and not mercy." This gospel was corrupted by the church fathers to replace the radically subversive social message of the original gospel. It is a gospel that detests and loathes mercy, for mercy is the great destroyer of the ancient SACRED COW SACRIFICE of the church, and renders sacraments useless and null and void.
. You can easily see how the corrupted form of the gospel serves the interests of the elite and powerful. Both Ceasar and the church would have to go out crusading and conquering many lands ‘to give the gospel before it was to late." As I like to write of this matter in a mock letter from Joshua, "Dear Ceasar, Could you please watch over those peasants for me until I get back. I grant you the DIVINE RIGHT TO RULE. Please take charge over those peasants as the LORD OF THEIR LIVES, ruling over them as their PERSONAL LORD AND MASTER, TAKING COMPLETE CONTROL. I suggest that if those peasants become uppity that you no longer crucify them, for that would be to embarring. Rather I recommend that you should burn them at the stake or them to death for heresy. Yours in truly extreme holiness, The Lord Jesus Christ. P.S. Could you please remember to take that gospel to all the nations for me. Well that's just great. Alright then. Thanks a lot."
The message of the prophets concerned social justice, condemnation of military spending and warfare, fighting to free those unjustly imprisoned, feeding the hungry, caring for the homeless, and so on. (The quotations can be found by anyone interested, and siting them here would make this message overly long.) When nations were oppressive and violated the law of God, the prophets ‘raged' at them. As Obadiah wrote, "as you have done, so it will be done to you,' a summation of the law of God. A church that abandons the falsehoods of traditional ideology should be on the forefront of social justice issues, not a repressive force in society. For example we read, "sell what you have and give to the poor." Or, in the prophets, such as Isaiah, we read, "is this not what I require - sharing your food with the hungry, taking the homeless poor in, clothing the , and fighting for the needs of the poor and wretched of the earth. Then your light will rise like noon day, and God will be with you constantly." (Isaiah 58:6) There are countless examples of the same thing. We are family, and to this is what is means to REALLY love your neighbour. Fight for the rights of the oppressed, the poor, help free the political prisoners, and do all these things, don't simply hear them and set them aside..
It is not those who simply hear the gospel who are righteous in the sight of God, but those who actually do what the Law of God requires. As Paul wrote, when those who do not have this religion, do what the law of God requires, then they are their own religion. They show that the requirements of God are written on their hearts. These (so called unsaved) people will judge those in the church, who, while they have the gospel, refuse to do what it requires (relying on substitutions instead, the most famous being the ‘substitution death of Christ').
In Timothy-Titus we read, "There are many reckless converts who talk wildly and lead others astray. They should be muzzled for they are RUINING WHOLE FAMILIES by teaching things that should not be taught. As the prophet said, such people are always lazy liars and vicious brutes and how truly he spoke. All the more reason you should rebuke them sharply so that they might be restored to a sound faith, instead of paying heed to certain Jewish (and Christian) myths and human commandments, the work of those who turned their backs on the truth. You are to instruct certain people to give up teaching erroneous doctrines and devoting themselves to interminable myths which give rise only to mere speculation and quarrels. The goal of this command is LOVE, THE LOVE which springs from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a genuine faith. Some people have spurned conscience and so have made a shipwreck out of their faith, and have been handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. Through lack of these qualities some people have gone astray into a wilderness of words. They set out to be teachers of the Torah, without understanding either the words they use or the subjects about which they are so dogmatic. We have been explicitly warned that in the latter days some will forsake the faith and surrender their minds to demon inspired doctrines, spread around through the plausible sounding falsehoods of those whose consciences have been branded as though with a red hot branding iron. (ie. those so called 'Bible harmonizers'). Have nothing to do with superstitious myths and old wives tales, for here is saying in which you can completely trust - we have set out hopes on the living God, for GOD IS THE SAVIOR OF EVERYONE, BUT ESPECIALLY OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE."
Brent Herbert
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