NEWSLETTER: Judaizers Raising Ugly Heads
From The Desk Of Steven Masone
Pastor-Evangelist 11th Hour Ministries Of The Lord Jesus Christ
September 7, 2014
Marriage & Divorce
With the controversy surrounding Kim Davis, county clerk in Kentucky who is refusing to issue same sex marriage licenses, and has been jailed for her convictions, Judaizers are raising their ugly heads again to attack her Christianity. Judaizers is a term for Christians who insist that their co-religionists should follow the Old Covenant laws. A Judiazer taught that, in order for a Christian to be in right standing with God, he must conform to the Mosaic Law. Circumcision, was promoted as necessary for salvation. Gentiles had to become Jewish proselytes first, and then they could come to Christ.
1 Timothy 4:3 says that, in later times, false teachers will “forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.” This is the the teachings of Roman Catholicism, which requires priests to be celibate (“forbidding to marry”) and proclaims some food to be off-limits during Lent (“abstaining from certain foods”).The Judiazers upheld the Mosaic Law as necessary for salvation; Catholics uphold man-made tradition as necessary.
Jerusalem Council Rules On Judaizers Claims
Matthew 16: 13 “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
“whatsoever thou (The Church/Apostles) shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
The purpose for the Jerusalem Council is given in Acts 15, verses 1 and 5, “But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’ . . . It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the Law of Moses.” Judaizers were teaching that Gentiles had to observe the Mosaic Law and Jewish customs in order to be saved. Since this teaching clearly contradicted the fact that salvation was by being born again, by Water and Spirit, in Christ alone (Acts 15:11), the apostles and church leaders held the first Christian council to settle the issue. In verses 7-11, the apostle Peter spoke of his ministry with the Gentiles, as recorded in Acts chapter 10.
Peter focused on the fact that the Holy Ghost was given to uncircumcised Gentiles in exactly the same manner the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles and Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost. This led Peter to the conclusion that there should be no “placing a yoke on the neck of the [Gentile] disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear” (Acts 15:10).
Jesus’ half-brother James, who had become a leader of the church in Jerusalem, agreed with Peter and declared, “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19). The Jerusalem Council then proceeded to give four “rules” that Gentile Christians should live by. These were not rules the Gentiles must follow in order to be saved. Rather, the rules were to build harmony between Jewish and Gentile Christians in the first century. The four rules the Jerusalem Council decided upon were that Gentile Christians should abstain from food polluted by idols, sexual immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and blood.
“Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things”.
1 John 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”
So we see we have witness in Heaven & Earth that Jesus has given authority to his Apostles by the Holy Ghost, to not put Jewish customs, including marriage customs upon the Gentiles. Only the commandments in the New Testament will apply to Gentiles. Paul himself proclaims “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient for me.” So, we also see that a Jew who becomes a born again Christian is also freed from the law.
Jesus praying for the Apostles and Disciples sets in order that their Gospel Message is what will save sinners from damnation.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— -John 17:20-22
Many Judaizers today claim a marriage before salvation is binding, and if someone gets divorced before their salvation they must remain unmarried or leave a new spouse and return to the first.
When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well, he met her there at the time when sinner women were allowed to get water, when the law abiding married women were not using the well.
We do not see Jesus telling her that she has to return to her first husband in order to partake of the “Living Water” he offers. We do not see Jesus telling her these things because all he wanted to tell her was that “Living Water” would be made available to her after made available to the Jews. (Samaritans were half Jew and followed the Torah)
John 4:21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Jesus when intervening for the woman caught in adultery also nullified the Law “In Type” as a foreshadow that his Blood was coming for all sins.
Yes, he told her to “go and sin no more”...as we all must do when we repent. For the first time to be born again, and every time after. The institution of marriage was never meant to be defined by secular powers! Is a marriage under secular or false religious customs binding on God’s word? Of course not! For millennia marriages of children and forced marriages against ones free will have been practiced and is not recognized by biblical standards.
There are many landmines in considering many factors concerning what constitutes a marriage not sanctioned by the Church. Many marriages are legal based on common law unions. If a couple without the light of the bible and gospel truth, are common law joined, and have children, then convert, we of course marry the couple under God as soon as possible.
But now we face a new dilemma, do we recognize marriages from the same authority that sanctions same sex marriage? That’s saying we will yoke ourselves with an unclean thing and continue in it’s sin that Grace may abound?...God forbid! Should we remarry all saints in a
Church exclusive ceremony with no secular powers and certifications? Absolutely! That would show to the entire world that we must obey God rather than wicked men!
Born Again... Or Not?
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5: 17-19
“For I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their sins no more. …” Hebrews 8:12
As an Apostolic preacher, who shares the same tenets of Kim Davis, many are calling her names based on her marriages before she was saved, born again and transferred from the Kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of God. She now has a new heavenly Father. The Church, New Jerusalem...is also her new Mother. “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Galatians 4:26
I have had to oppose some Apostolic preachers who Judaize this truth. I grew up in another christian group who were also Judaizers who were not even born again. I wonder how anyone with the baptism of the Holy Ghost cannot see the truth. Many are blinded by pharisaical pride because they have never been divorced and are self-righteous about that fact. “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” And when we rebel against the Word of God to gain position as one “Holier than thou” ...we are Judaizers partaking of evil spirits!
Only Marriage in the Kingdom of God is ordained of God. Just because the government authorized a marriage does not mean it can have power in God’s Kingdom! Does a conviction of a crime and the guilt of it by that same government have any power in God’s Kingdom? Of course not. Then how can anything? In God’s eyes according to scripture, only being married under God, and abiding by the New Testament commandments on divorce, that it is only lawful for one to remarry if divorced for the cause of adultery/fornication can we, the Church, say Amen.
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