Once upon a time there were two sons, Quarrel and Tardy. Quarrel was a large, overbearing man, bossy and really quite impressed with himself. Tardy was of moderate stature, unpreposessing, gentle but somewhat lazy and easy-going. Though other circumstances might have caused them to separate and go their own ways, they were at least agreed on one thing: their Father was a fine, upstanding man whom they both admired, loved and wanted to serve.

The two brothers began fraternal life well enough. As Quarrel was the elder brother it was understood between them that he would assume the responsibility for making the rules that both would follow and that he would be their leader. However, their Father had made it very clear that when the much younger Tardy came of age that he would assume leadership over the whole family. Quarrel did his job well and maintained good order in the family. His other siblings looked up to him for leadership and guidance. Tardy, on the other hand, was the one the siblings would go to when they had problems or were hurt for in Tardy they could always find a sympathetic ear and caring heart.

One day their Father said to them: "Sons, it is time for me to leave you as I must preside over the affairs of a distant land. It may be a very long time before I see you again." Their hearts sank. "But I will send messengers from time to time to check up for me, to bring you news of what I am doing, and to bring back word to me of what you are doing. At a time determined by me, I will send my Head Steward to reorganise my House and to appoint Tardy as my Firstborn Son. My Head Steward will then return to me. Messengers will continue to be sent after his departure until it is time for me to wrap up my business abroad and return home. I will send my Head Steward one last time to set everything in order and then, after a while I will come back again. I expect you to both serve and love one another in the meantime and to carry out my instructions."

To begin with, everything went well. Quarrel, Tardy and their brothers and sister laboured in harmony. Tardy deferred to Quarrel who made a good ruler to begin with but in the course of time Quarrel's heart began to change and to seek pleasures beyond the pale of his Father's rules. From being a wise and benign ruler, Quarrel gradually became a tyrant, lording it over his brothers and sister and creating no small amount of friction and resentment. But Tardy and the siblings deferred anyway for the sake of their Father.

A man can be puished only so far, though perhaps those made of sterner stuff might endure longer than most, but a breaking point came. As pride and rebellion ruled his heart, and as Quarrel's tyrrany worsened, so a breaking point was reached. When their Father heard of these sad events, he despatched a messenger to his two appointee sons, with a letter for each of the sons. Nine of the sons were instructed to move in with Tardy and submit to his leadership and one was told to remain with Quarrel and continue to submit to his ruldership. Tardy and his nine brothers moved out of Quarrel's house and established themself north of the estate in a new house.

Neither sons accounted for themselves particularly well and it was not long before Tardy and his brothers had almost completely forgotten their Father's instructions and no longer received his messengers. Things did not fare well with Quarrel and his brother either, though Quarrel did have moments when he returned to his old self but otherwise followed in the poor example of Tardy. One day thieves and robbers broke into Tardy's house and kidnapped all ten brothers and sold them into slavery, and they were not heard of again for a very, very long time. In due course a similar fate befell Quarrel and his brother who too were abdudcted and sold into slavery by another set of robbers.

After a period of charstisement and regret for his abominable behaviour, Quarrel and his brother were released on probation by their captors and were allowed to return home, though they remained under under house arrest. Tardy and his brothers never did return home and the once happy, united family was never the same again afterwards. Quarrel broke probation several times, was recaptured and punished, enjoying a brief period of freedom but was always brough to heel by his masters.

Then one day the promised Head Steward was send by his Father to restore his authority and rule. Part of Quarrel listened and accepted but the greater part of him preferred his independence, position of privilege and powers, even though he was not really free in his own house but under the rulership of his original captors. In the end he rejected the Head Steward and, stripped him of his rank and cast him out into the desert However Quarrel's Father, whom he had not seen in so long, had fully restored the Head Steward to his former position, and even given him equal authority and power to himself before taking him back to his country.

Quarrel rejected the Head Steward and his Father. His captors removed him one last time from his house and then demolished it. Quarrel and his brother disappeared just as Tardy had done.

The Father then proceeded to send the Head Steward out to find Tardy who by this time had completely forgotten who his Father even was for he has abandoned himself to anarchy. Tardy listened to the Head Steward, believed him, accepted his new authority, and was restored to his Father's House - not just him, but his nine other brothers also. Messengers once again travelled to and from Tardy and his Father. Tardy's heart was right but he was slovenly when it came to precisely carrying out his Father's instructions. He submitted himself to his Father's rule, but only in part. He followed his unruly heart all too often but not always his brain. And this is how he came to be called Tardy.

Quarrel stubbornly refused to to receive his Father's messengers and suffered at the hands of many oppressors. Occasionally he suffered under Tardy's rulership too but did not recognise who his brother was. The years passed, and Tardy and Quarrel grew older. Quarrel wondered at his long exile and slowly the sirrings of repentance began to be kindled within him. At length he began to receive his Father's messengers once again, but seldom. Gradually he began to start implementing his father's rules but never really had the same heart as Tardy and certainly refused to accept his rule, remembering how he had once been Sovereign over them both.

The two men, as they grew old, finally decided to meet. Tardy presented his credentials and reminded Quarrel that he had been appointed the new ruler since the Head Steward's first arrival. Quarrel angrily resisted and attempted to brow-beat Tardy into acceping his headship again. For a while Tardy yielded, remembering his former position, but as he saw the strains of tyrrany rise up in Quarrel's heart, he relented his appeasement and stood back. He would not make the same mistake twice. In time Tardy began to see his own tardiness and to realise that Quarrel had been right about some things, and began to implment them. At first Quarrel was pleased but once he saw that this would mean the end of his own overlordship, in harmony with their Father's wishes, and that the only real authority he had was in the dispensation of rules for which Tardy looked up to him to (because it helped him fill in his own defects), he became desperate, and tried to continue lording it over Tardy by inventing hew rules and authorities that their Father had never given them. Tardy put his foot down and refused his elder brother's hegemony any more, leaving him to quarrel amongst his friends until finally he would come to his senses and submit to their Father's wishes.

At length, after Tardy had accepted all his Father's rules and Quarrel had accepted Tardy's headship, the Head Steward returned and became their Head on behalf of the Father. A new House was built and all the brothers returned. After a period of settling in the Father returned too, and there was much celebrating and joy in His House!

Quarrel and Tardy are the two ruling sons God the Father, Yahweh-Elohim: Judah and Ephraim, respectively. The messengers are the prophets and apostles. The Head Steward is Yah'shua the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Their respective captors were the Assyrians and the Babylonians...and others. Ephraim (Tardy) was the first to accept Yah'shua as His Messiah but refused to obey all the commandments, the Torah, which remained a point of contention betwen him and Judah (Quarrel) who did but who added all his own commandments and refused to accept the Messiah or Ephraim's headship as the Prince of Israel under Yah'shua.

Today redeemed Ephraim is mostly to be found among Evangelical Christians and redeemed Judah amongst Messianic Jews, and both amongst the Messianic Israelites where Judah very definitely 'rules' Ephraim as a second-class servant. Evangelicals reject Messianics and vice versa primarily because of the defects of each other. As the designated Prince of Israel it devolves upon Ephraim to set the leadership example and repent from his lawlessness first and to cease being jealous of Judah and his great knowledge of the Law. So Evangelical Ephraimites are learning to obey the Torah as Judah has done. Messianic Judahites are still quarrelling and resenting Ephraim's headship, as well as oppressing him, but as they see him adhering to the father's commandments and yet loving them in their stubbornness and quarrelsomeness, they are slowly relenting and coming home, but not before first trying it alone as their forefather once did...and failed.

Messianic Evangelicals represent this prophetic and historical reconciliation. They face the hostility of jealous, tardy Evangelicals who refuse to submit to the commandments and the hostility and oppressiveness of quarrelsome Messianics who often think they are better than anyone else.

This parable was written to illustrate where we are today. I called the central players Quarrel and Tardy as a play on words of the famous Hollywood comedians, Laurel and Hardy, though I reversed the rôles of the characters to make the names rhyme - Hardy was the bully and Laurel the subservient one whereas Quarrel and Tardy were the opposite. The Evangelical movement with all its lawlessness is slowly being swallowed into the One World Religion of the Antichrist and the Messianics and being converted one by one back to Judaism and to the One World Religion by another route. Both are struggling to maintain their separate courses and identities but are being sucked into demonic whirlpools. Our misision is to call both to repentance and to reconcile them as you can read about in our Vision and Mission.

Don't be a Quarral and a Tardy. Get in contact with us and come to your true inheritance!

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