Logo Copyright © 2007 NCCG - All Rights Reserved
Return to Main Page

RESOURCES

Disclaimer

Introduction

Symphony of Truth

In a Nutshell

Topical Guide

5-144000

5 Commissions

10 Commandments

333 NCCG Number

144,000, The

A

Action Stations

Agency, Free

Alcohol

Angels

Anointing

Apostles

Apostolic Interviews

Apostolic Epistles

Archive, Complete

Articles & Sermons

Atheism

Atonement

B

Banners

Baptism, Water

Baptism, Fire

Becoming a Christian

Bible Codes

Bible Courses

Bible & Creed

C

Calendar of Festivals

Celibacy

Charismata & Tongues

Chavurat Bekorot

Christian Paganism

Chrism, Confirmation

Christmas

Church, Fellowship

Contact us

Constitution

Copyright

Covenants & Vows

Critics

Culture

Cults

D

Deliverance

Demons

Desperation

Diaries

Discipleship

Dreams

E

Ephraimite Page, The

Essene Christianity

Existentialism

F

Faith

Family, The

Feminism

FAQ

Festivals of Yahweh

Festivals Calendar

Freedom

G

Gay Christians

Gnosticism

Godhead, The

H

Heaven

Heresy

Healing

Health

Hebrew Roots

Hell

Hinduism

History

Holiness

Holy Echad Marriage

Holy Order, The

Home Education

Homosexuality

Human Nature

Humour

Hymnody

I

Intro to NCCG.ORG

Islam

J

Jewish Page, The

Judaism, Messianic

Judaism, Talmudic

K

KJV-Only Cult

L

Links

Love

M

Marriage & Romance

Membership

Miracles

Messianic Judaism

Mormonism

Music

Mysticism

N

NCCG Life

NCCG Origins

NCCG Organisation

NCCG, Spirit of

NCCG Theology

NDE's

Nefilim

New Age & Occult

NCMHL

NCMM

New Covenant Torah

Norwegian Website

O

Occult Book, The

Occult Page, The

Olive Branch

Orphanages

P

Paganism, Christian

Pentecost

Poetry

Politics

Prayer

Pre-existence

Priesthood

Prophecy

Q

Questions

R

Rapture

Reincarnation

Resurrection

Revelation

RDP Page

S

Sabbath

Salvation

Satanic Ritual Abuse

Satanism

Science

Sermons & Articles

Sermons Misc

Sermonettes

Sex

Smoking

Sonship

Stewardship

Suffering

Swedish Website

T

Talmudic Judaism

Testimonies

Tithing

Tongues & Charismata

Torah

Trinity

True Church, The

TV

U

UFO's

United Order, The

V

Visions

W

Wicca & the Occult

Women

World News

Y

Yah'shua (Jesus)

Yahweh

Z

Zion


    61
    SOMETHING UNIQUE
    AND PRECIOUS

    The Messianic Evangelical Heritage
    Second Edition Greatly Expanded with
    New Material on the Bible Codes & Theomatics
    (15 October 2018)

    Beginnings

    Although NCAY was called into existence in 1984 and was formally organised in 1987, both events taking place in in Oxford, England, we didn't hook up to the Internet until December 1996. That was done in response to a direct revelation to do so in the form of a vision I received while commuting to work by train one day. Up until then our local ministry had operated exclusively through printed materials and our international one using the (expensive) regular postal service. I had never really considered cyberspace as a witnessing tool even though I myself was an IT educator at the time. (The school I worked for was a bit behind the times and had no internet link at all at the time and my own IT training was done in the days before the Internet was widely available).

    Exploring Cyberspace

    Going online began, for this minister, as an exploration of different Christian/Messianic groups, most of whom were represented to some extent or another. As a novice to this medium of mass communication, this was a wonderful adventure of exploration, seeking what other Christians had discovered, and learning and discovering where the general body of Christendom seemed to be headed. It was an incredible supplement to my large library of books. Every day I 'surfed the net' and every day I discovered something new. In those days, we used a dial-up modem and paid by the minute so it was very expensive to use, forcing me eventually to ration my time. After a month I had collected one billion bytes of information mostly in the form of articles that were printed out and bound in ring folders for careful study later so that I could read them at my leisure off line.

    Initial Aims

    My initial aim was to find light and truth that NCAY was unaware of (we were known as NCCG back then [1]) and to discover whether others had been told the same things as us by Yahweh with a view to sharing and cooperating in some way. Along the way I found myself involved quite 'accidentally' ministering to Christians with marriage problems and sharing this ministry with others from other evangelical Christian backgrounds. I focussed mainly on the Messianic/Christian Movement to see what they were doing and also independent evangelical groups. But despite the rhetoric and chameleon-like exoteric forms what I basically found was that they all shared essentially the same kind of vision. There was little there that was new. There were the usual 'Bible-thumpers', 'cult-bashers', and 'we're-saved-and-know-it-all' groups.

    I was astonished to find that there were an amazing number of 'independents' out there in cyberspace who, upon closer examination, despite claiming to be 'anti-denominational', were denominational in deed if not in word. I found a lot of word-fencing, a lot of dodging around sensitive issues. The only innovative materials I was able to find came from a few individuals walking a lonely path who were shunned (and usually viciously attacked) by the mainstream denominations. With few exceptions, most of these groups hailed from the USA and reflected the inevitable cultural biases of that nation.

    Learning to Program

    It was not long before I taught myself how to program in HTML by looking at the coding of other websites. Though friends have tried to persuade me to modernise, I still code directly using a very antiquated HTML program that only works on earlier versions of Windows!

    The Discovery of Torah Codes

    In the space of one month after going online, I read some very interesting materials that caused me to deeply and seriously reflect on my own neo-orthodox beliefs about the nature of the original Bible manuscripts. Research work on the Equi-Distant Spacing (EDS) methodology of the Torah Codes initially convinced me that the Torah, at least (and possibly the Nevi'im (Prophets) too), was not only word-perfect but letter-perfect too, and I started leaning more towards a verbal plenary view of the Scriptures. At that time I was not aware of the extent of either the anti-Messianic Masoretic tampering of the Tanakh (Old Testament), nor of its manuscript history and variants though I was intimately acquainted with the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) from my Oxford days thanks to contacts with scholars there like Geza Vermes.

    Trying to Witness With the Codes

    Initially enthusiastic about the Bible (Torah) Codes, I created the Fifth Dimension series of articles in 1998 but I never felt the Ruach (Spirit) leading me to take this matter any further. Subsequent research demonstrated how unreliable this method was for 'peeking into the future' and only seemed to reliably work in identifying persons and events who or which were already historically known. Nevertheless it was clear that there was 'something' to these codes. A subsequent encounter with a Swedish Messianic Jewish convert, who visited my home, made me even more suspicious as to the value of the codes in evangelism. I did try witnessing once to colleages at work who were all well educated, professional people. Though they were fascinated it did not produce repentance or conversion. I had no evidence that the Ruach (Spirit) was involved in this essentially 'scientific' approach, however fascinating intellectually the codes were.

    Abusing the Codes

    When I discovered that my Swedish Messianic friend was using the codes in place of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) as a form of divination (much as the Moslems do with the Quran), red flags started going up and it did not take me long to realise that there was a 'spirit' at work in those mesmerised by the codes. And that spirit was not qadosh (holy, set-apart). The fact that this brother eventually abandoned Yah'shua (Jesus) and converted to Orthodox Judaism only convinced me more that the codes do not lead to conversion and can be used idolatrously in an occult way.

    The Lazy Man's Substitute for the Holy Spirit

    Whatever the Torah Codes are, they have to be handled responsibilty, preferably by authentic nevi'im (prophets) who have the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). Certainly Yahweh has no need of any codes to get out a prophetic witness - He just needs devout talmidim (disciples) tuned into His Ruach (Spirit). I suspect the interest in the codes on the part of believers is principally as an alternative to direct revelation or inspiration which (which requires sanctification, purification and therefore hard work), like the centuries immediately before the coming of John the Baptist and Messiah (the inter-testamental period between Malachi and Matthew), was severely lacking in the Body of Messiah. There are plenty of counterfeit gifts (e.g. false charismata) but little that is authentic because we live in a time of great apostacy and spiritual uncleanness.

    What Matters More Than the Codes

    Though friends of mine have alerted me to interesting code finds from time to time, and though I have made a mental note of them, I have to admit that I am suspicious and cautious still. So what if Shakespeare, Hitler or Saddam Hussein are in the codes? What matters the most? Knowledge about Elohim (God), morality, and prophecy about the future are plainly stated in the exoteric text. What I won't do is go searching the codes to answer whether I should get a particular job or marry a particular person, which is what my friend did. I prefer to get my revelation direct from Heaven, the way the Bible actually tells me to.

    At best, the codes convince me that Yahweh was the Tanakh's (Old Testament's) Author, just as other kinds of studies do. At worst, they can play on the weakness of the flesh and lead to dark spiritual places and idolatry.

    New Testament Theomatics

    What about Theomatics? Around the same time I was investigating the Torah Codes, I was introduced to Del Washburn's New Testament equivalent and in June of 2000 finally obtained his two books, The Original Code of the Bible Using Scripture & Mathematics to Reveal God's Fingerprints (1998) and God's Best-Kept Secret Revealed: Theomatics II (1994). I found them fascinating and was initially just a little too credulous. Washburn, who has obviously done a lot of careful research, attempts to do Biblical exegesis using numerology on the Greek text. Remember, that most Christians (including Washburn) believe the New Testament was first penned in Greek and this has led evangelicals and orthodox Christians generally to believe that Greek was the original inspired text.

    Was the New Testament Really Written in Greek?

    I beg to differ. I think the evidence is to the contrary and if you would like to pursue that line of enqurey, then I invite you to read Raphael Lataster's Was the New Testament Really Written in Greek? and the Introduction to James Trimm's The Hebraic-Roots Version. That said, I could concede that whoever translated the New Testament from Aramaic (or Hebrew) might also have been inspired (though that is pure supposition). Even then you would still face the problem of identifying the original word- and letter-perfect Greek text(s) before all the copyist transcription errors crept in.

    Conceptual Revelation

    For both the Tanakh and Messianic Scriptures we still have a 'problem' for those looking for codes in the words and letters - no originals have survived. And though that is used as an excuse by liberals and unbelievers to claim the Bible is unreliable, scholars like James R. White have brilliantly showed that the Bible has been preserved precisely because of all the variant texts, thereby establishing that it is not the letters and words that are the main things needed for salvation but the original concepts, for words and letters can also become idolatrous if we handle them wrongly.

    What is a 'Name'?

    Thus when we speak of being saved by the "Name" of Yahweh or Yah'shua (Jesus) we are not talking about the correct pronunciation of the Name that saves a soul but what that Name represents - His character. Likewise, when Scripture talks of the "Name" of Yahweh inhabiting the Tabernacle and Temple we are not supposed to envisage the letters floating, or even the sound of the Name echoing, in or round that sacred space. The Name is the character, essense and power of the Deity and it is that we both worship and petition. Thus the word "love" is not that which makes the heart burn with joy but rather the essence or substance of what the word 'love' itself represents.

    The Problem With Languages

    I mention all of this principally because when I first began studying the Torah or Bible Codes and started believing the Bible was word- and letter-perfect in the original autographs (which no longer exist), I started to doubt my own revelations. Both the Torah Codes and Theomatics demand that we adopt a very dogmatic and rigid view of Scripture and Revelation by making a kind of 'super inerrancy' claim. To be clear from the outset, I do absolutely believe Bible emet (truth) is inerrant. What I do not believe, as the kabbalists do, is that every letter and word is perfect (in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek, which is why I accept the label 'neo-orthodox' in respect of the Scriptures). All three languages have evolved or changed in meaning over the centuries. Even the etymology of the word Torah has changed between Genesis and Malachi, initially meaning just 'Law' but increasingly taking on the wider meaning of 'Teaching' or 'Doctrine'. Other words like 'spirit' and 'soul' have also changed. That is why we must tread carefully when it comes to linguistic puritanism for there are many (Messianics especially) who think that 'Hebrew' is ultra-pure and that as the repository of the Divine Mind and Will must not only be elevated above all other languages but that it itself is flawless. No human language is that pure, every human language (including Hebrew) evolves. Hebrew did not exist in the Garden of Eden but evolved over millennia. Those who have done any serious study of linguistics know this to be true but unfortunately your average believer does not know these things.

    Just Who is Inspired?

    Even assuming we had the original autographs of both Testaments, we could not automatically assume that the letters and words would guarantee total clarity in the minds and hearts of the readers. And that is why the Scriptures themselves insist that you need the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to interpret them, and not just the parables, which deliberately conceal meanings from unbelievers, but all categories of Scripture. The next problem is, of course, believers claiming to have the Ruach (Spirit) and the correct interpretation who then disagree with each other. Baptists and Pentecostals both claim to have the Ruach (Spirit) yet interpret many passages radically differently. And not just those two denominations.

    The Subjective Haze

    Being exposed to the Internet opened up for me, personally, a whole Pandora's Box of scriptural interpretations. How does one deal with all of this? How do you resolve the conflicting claims of those who claim to be inspired by the same Ruach (Spirit) and then base their authority for being 'correct' on their own subjectivity?

    The Need for Scholarship

    The further you get away in time from the events being described in Scripture, the more you need scholarship on the history, culture and languages of those times. This knowledge is not, moreover, static but constantly expanding and we are particularly blessed in the 21st century to have a mountain-load of scholarship to compensate for those time problems.

    Apostles Going Forwards in a Time Machine

    When I first began this article in 1997 I was very naïve in these matters, in spite of being schooled in academia. I have needed the research of so many fine scholars to enable me to understand the biblical world and the revelatory message more clearly. We live in a totally different cultural, linguistic and theological world to the first Believers, and as is the unfortunate tendency of human nature, we have an uncanny and unfortunate way of adding more and more on top of the original simplicity. The apostles would probably have stared blankly at anyone reciting the historic creeds of Orthodox Christianity to them. Their Greek formulations would not have made a lot of sense to them. Similarly, they would have been baffled by later Catholic ideas of 'penance' for sins committed (saying a few 'Hail Marys'), very different as they were from the biblical idea of teshuvah or repentance involving an actual change of heart.

    Lost Innocence is Permanently Lost

    Having been initially schooled in the idea that we had to get back to the original doctrine and practice New Testament 'Church' or community (Campellites, Restorationists, etc.), it took me a while to understand that we can no more return to that time than we could ever return to Garden of Eden conditions of innocence. Yes, we need to look back, but we also have to live in the present. Man's consciousness-awareness has changed and can never be 'undone'. We have moved on. We have lost our early individual and collective innocence. Every generation faces different challenges. A first century talmid (disciple) would be as lost in our world as we would be frustrated in his. Yahweh has revealed more light and emet (truth) from both His Davar (Word) and His World or Creation (Science). We are, as both individuals and as a species, 'evolving' (and I don't mean that in the Darwinian sense).

    Bible Versions in an Imperfect World

    These things I did not fully understand 20 years ago when I first penned the much shorter version of this article. Becoming acquainted with dozens of English Bible Versions has forced me to view Scriptures somewhat differently than I did when I was a young believer in seach of the 'perfect translation'. I have long since concluded that such is impossible. Were we to possess a perfectly heavenly language which never changed, and were we as recipients, users and dispensers of this flawless language ourselves pure and perfect, then we would all be in perfect agreement and could present a perfect Bible to the world. But that is not reality. We do not have a perfect, unchanging language, and we ourselves are flawed and in constant flux.

    The Demand for Unity in a Disunited Sphere

    The bigger, and in some ways, more important question that has to be asked, therefore, is this: Why did Yahweh place us in such an imperfect situation as this? And especially why in the light of Paul's challenge to us:

      "He Himself gave some to be apostles, some nevi'im (prophets), some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Messiah, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of Elohim (God), to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Messiah" (Eph.4:11-13, NKJV).

    To "come to the unity of the faith" means to become the new "spiritual man" (1 Cor.2:15, NIV) or "spiritual people", that is to say, believers of the Ruach (Spirit), and specifically, "spiritual people discern[ing] everything, while nobody else can discern the emet (truth) about them" (KNT). They key here is spiritual discernment which leads specifically and especially to a unity of the knowledge - not about the Messiah, but specifically a knowledge which alone comes from being in Him.

    The Oxford Professors

    Now you can memorise your Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, have an intellectual grasp of culture, languages, history, and theology, and yet still not 'know' Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). I met a lot of brilliant professors of theology at Oxford who knew orders of magnitude more than I did about external things yet who were unsaved and in a spiritually pitiful condition. Their knowledge was profitless so long as they were un saved. They knew a lot about Messiah but did not know Him as a Living Being. He was simply an historical (or imaginary) character from the past, not alive today. Yet they all helped me to grow because I was saved. They fed the mind of my already living heart in Messiah. And every discipline can, and should, be helpful if used correctly.

    Corporate Perfection

    However, Paul never says that we can ever individually come to perfection - it's ultimately a corporate achievement, a communal state! He doesn't give all the gifts to individuals but distributes them. Salvation and an elementary knowledge of Messiah may begin with individuals (and indeed must begin with them) but salvation and perfection can only be done coporately or together with fellow believers. Here we learn to do it in a local congregation. One day we shall all be assembled, as a Single Corporate Bride, consisting of many saved souls who are echad (one) with Him and with each other in Him, at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

    The Gap Between the Bible and Our Own Revelations

    I mentioned earlier that my study of the Torah Codes and Theomatics, which led me to a verbal-plenary model of at least some of the Scriptures (the Pentateuch specifically), did have the positive effect of showing me the enormous gap between our own revelations and the Bible. And though I had always acknowledged this intellectually, I could then see spiritually the truth of the matter. It also had the desirable effect of making me appreciate the Bible even more. That led me to want to throw the Olive Branch out, even as 'secondary canon', and from time to time that feeling sometimes arises again. As the Bible revelation 'increased' in my own soul, so my own 'decreased'.

    The Olive Branch and the Slimmed-Down Version

    You have to remember that we had just spent a small fortune publishing the Olive Branch, made possible only by selling our home in Norway and moving to Sweden and getting a new mortgage on a new home. So it was a big economic sacrifice. Yahweh knew I was willing to burn the hundreds of beautiful hardbound copies we still have and to withdraw official endorsement of them by NCAY. And I am still willing to do that. Yahweh subsequently showed me a slimmed-down version of this book in a vision and said that the revelations and prophecies in this would be what would survive for posterity.

    Are All the Bible Books of Equal Spirituality?

    Messianic Evangelicals have long known that not all the books of the Bible are of comparible 'depth' spiritually-speaking. We speak of the whole corpus as being 'inspired' but given the choice between possessing, for example, John's Gospel or Solomon's book of despair, Ecclesiastes, there is little doubt which most would choose. Not many people (save historians) have much use for the chronologies in the two books of Chronicles even if both they, and Ecclesiastes, obviously have a divinely ordained rôle to play.

    The Nature and Experience of New Revelation

    I am still surprised when people write in to me and say how blessed they have been by the Olive Branch and other revelations like the Books of Abraham and the Cosmic Principle. There are, of course, many more who are opposed to them and indeed to the whole Messianic Evangelical labour, which is rather ironic since we hardly ever use these books anyway. We have had many critics in the past. Every group, ministry, denomination and church does, because people are who they are and where they are in their spiritual awareness. But then we are not trying to minister to everyone, were that even possible. Those who are drawn, are drawn, and those who stay the course are blessed. In many ways, this has been a work 'before its time', because any fresh revelation requires a prepared people. We have barely started, and have always known that, even though the earliest converts thought they could climb the 'Holy Mountain' in a day. And admittedly, some of the meat we have brought forth is hard for young stomachs to digest. There has to be a certain amount of maturing first before Yahweh's people are ready for the deeper things of the Ruach (Spirit) so it is hardly surprising that some have come who were not ready and have choked. We are responsible for what we serve. When the mortal Messiah claimed He was the "I AM" it was too much for some.

    The Expanded Millennial Bible

    We believe that when Yah'shua (Jesus) returns the primary canon, the Bible, will be considerably added to. These additions will contains books from the past both mentioned and unmentioned in the existing Bible, as well as the works of the latter-day apostles. There is bound to be much on the Final Exodus which according to the Tanakh (Old Testament) will be even more dramatic than the first one. We may well expect, then, a Second Exodus book. Whether our own works survive, we have no idea, but also false ones will certainly be destroyed. But will books of scripture even be as important then as they are today, what with the resurrected Messiah living amongst us? I can imagine volumes of His words being written and recoded. We will be as spoiled, if not more so, than those talmidim (disciples) who received instruction from the resurrected Yah'shua (Jesus) during those 40 days he was amongst them before His Ascension. Little of that has been recorded. But with our tech today we can record vast amounts of information and make it widely available!

    Personal Preferences for Bible Books

    We all of us are drawn to different parts of the Bible more than others. I sometimes ask people which book they would take with them to a desert island given the choice. One friend recently said '1 John', another 'Proverbs', others one of the gospels. Some of the answers were quite surprising showing that we are ministered to by different things no doubt because of different needs and issues.

    Infinite Depth, a Huge Spectrum of Meanings

    Messianic Evangelicals as a whole have a long-standing position that certain books of the Bible like Genesis, the Song of Solomon, the Gospel of John and Revelation have special mystical or spiritual qualities. Clearly some of them have multiple layers, some seemingly infinitely deep. And the occasional word like 'The Word' (Logos, Memra, Miltha) are so deep as to be unfathomable. I have seen so many translations of John 1:1 over the years - the "Word" can mean 'manifestation', 'instance', 'substance' (AENT), 'expression' (JBP), 'wisdom', 'discourse', 'reason', 'Torah', 'consequent deed(s)', etc. It's really not possible to translate this word which is why many translators leave it in its original language.

    The Bible is So Much 'Bigger'

    My studies 20 years ago, which formed the basis of the original article here, forced me to include Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy as well with those 'deepies'. Subsequent studies and experiences served only to reinforce the latter inclusion (see the Great Dedication to see why). I don't doubt the list will expand to include many others, if not all of them, proving that it is man that changes, not the Bible. In the end, when we behold the fullness, we won't be so picky.

    We Have Learned, and are Learning, from So Many

    After a month of considerable struggling with the challenges of all the new materials on the Internet 20 years ago, I arrived, on 15 January 1997, at a certain conclusion: that what we have in NCAY is something unique and precious. There are things 'out there' which we know we have to learn will, and no doubts lots of it, and there are people 'out there' who have discovered many of the things that we have with whom we desire fellowship. But nowhere have I been able to find the integrated wholeness which makes NCAY so special. And this is not just because of my own work but includes both those within NCAY (like Gabriel Ljungstrand, who is a great Torah Teacher and theologian with phenomenal knowledge and deep insights into the Word) and many so, so many outside our own 'cloisters'. In short, I have not been able to find the shalom (peace) in any other group or individual that has come to me through this work.

    No doubt others would say the same of themselves and the ministries they are a part of too. Indeed, I would be surprised if they did not. Yahweh is extraordinarily generous.

    History of the Olive Branch

    The publication of the Olive Branch was delayed on two counts as its publication had been originally planned for 1996. First, we didn't have the cash (we had pressing evangelistic and social needs in India and Moldova that needed meeting first, like our orphanages in Madras/Chenai); and second, I felt the need to make this personal search online. Of course, had I had more years, I could have made so many improvements to the commentaries, but 1997 was definitely the appointed time for publication. As the person having the chief responsibility for bringing this book to the world I had to be absolutely sure that what we were about to publish was not, in its total purpose and spirit, something that would add confusion to Christendom instead of bringing integration and wholeness.

    The Olive Branch was finally published in the late summer of 1997 and was delivered by the publisher just as we were moving into our new headquarters in Sweden. We had also been delayed economically by the pressing needs in India and Moldova which on our own we were not able to meet.

    Moving NCAY to the Internet

    After the move to Sweden, our ministry shifted big-time to the Internet. Whereas previously we had only ever been exposed to a few thousand people, now we were able to reach millions. Our first tentative website was created in Norway but did not really make a big impact until we purchased a Domain name of our own (nccg.org). Though we have not kept many statistics, we do know that between 2007 and 2009, a two-year period, our website had 6.47 million hits.

    Waves of Ministry

    NCAY has been through various waves of ministry. At one time we had about 40 congregations in India and another 18 in East Africa (mostly in Kenya). At other times we have been down to a mere handful of souls. There were times when we truly believed we would literally 'disappear', particularly as we became more involved with other groups and ministries. Part of the reason for this shifting has been because we have been given 5 Commissions and have focussed on different commissions at different times, adapting to circumstances and going through the doors Yahweh opened to us. We have never been idle in all our 30+ years of service.

    Passing on the Baton to the Next Generation

    As the leadership ages and falls foul of illness, we are looking toward the next and final generation. 'Moses' must always pass on the baton to 'Joshua'. We anticipate the next generation of Messianic Evangelicals to be both the same and very different from the first one, and that is how it should be. They will make their mistakes as we made ours but they will also enjoy rich blessings, though likely different, in the same way as their spiritual progenitors.

    Here to Stay

    One thing is abolutely clear now as it was 20 years ago when I penned the first edition of this article -- we are here to stay, not because we are stubbornly refusing to be a full and integral part of the mainstream but because we are established in the Ruach (Spirit). Our existence is not artificial or purely organisational -- it is real, and there is a need 'out there' for what has been given to us by the grace of Elohim (God). We provide a ministry which is not, I believe, possible to find anywhere else, even if obviously we overlaps in a lot of areas with lots of others.

    Repentance and Change

    As individuals we must all continue a life of repentance and change, but as a doctrine and a practice we have been endowed with Elohim's (God's) presence. And without it, we would never have survived the persecution and battering that has been out lot over the years. We bear the inward and outward scars as a witness of what we had to suffer to keep this work going.

    Conclusion

    Therefore my sincere prayer and conviction remains: "Yahweh bless the New Covenant Assemblies of Yahweh!"

    (15 October 2018)

    Endnotes

    [1] We had two names at that time, an 'evangelical' and a 'messianic' one, respectively, viz. The New Covenant Church of God (NCCG) and B'rit Chadashah Assembly of Yahweh (BCAY). As two names caused congregations to argue over which to use, we finally integrated them into a purely 'Messianic Evangelical' designation, the New Covenant Assemblies of Yahweh or NCAY after we re-established our headquarters in Sweden. We did not become fully Torah-compliant until 1998.

    Further Reading

    [1] Differences Between New Covenant and Orthodox Evangelical Theology: 10 Key Doctrines Examined
    [2] Lev's Hot Potatoes: Hard Truths for the Remnant

    This page was created on 10 April 1998
    Last updated on 15 December 2018

    Copyright © 1987-2018 NCAY - All Rights Reserved