Sermons Series 3:85, 10 March 2007
Holy Echad Marriage
Part 2: In Practice
Main Themes:
Minor Themes:
Click here for Part 1
This morning we made a detailed study of the High Priestly Prayer of Yah'shua in the Gospel of John (Jn.17) and discovered the substance of human echad marriage which Yah'shua used to illustrate the spiritual or allegorical marriage between all true born-again believers and Himself. The things I have to share with you this afternoon are both amplifications of what I spoke to you then as well as some new insights that Yah'shua directly revealed to me at about 6.15 a.m. on the morning of 2 March 2007. In His introduction to the Lord's Prayer, Yah'shua told His disciples:
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room (KJV, 'closet'), close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" (Matt.6:5-8, NIV).
I think you would agree with me when I say that in most situations people behave differently when in a group of people then when they are talking one-to-one, especially if you talk one-to-one over a very long period of time. Group intimacy - getting to know many people really well - usually takes a lot of time and effort. Group bonding occurs more strongly with more shared experiences, particularly if those experiences involve intense feelings and near-death escapes. It is well known how soldiers bond together in wartime - they have shared life and death with one another, and as is always the case in war, both the best and the worst are brought out in them, both heroism and cowardice.
Recently my wife introduced me to a film I had never seen before called The Last Samurai which beautifully illustrates what I am talking about. Like El Cid which I used as an illustration in another sermon recently, this is the story of an American (played by Tom Cruise) who finds himself thrust into a Japanese civil war in the 1870's at the end of the Samurai era. He starts initially on the wrong side of the conflict as a mercenary but switches sides as a captive of the rebels when he discovers what true honour really is (see Olive Branch, Section 36). It is a story about intense loyalty, self-discipline, courage and love. It's a film I thoroughly recommend (though not for small children). It demonstrates how deep bonding and intense loyalty can take place between a larger group of people and illustrates the teaching of our Master who said:
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13, NIV).
There is a wonderful heart-wrenching scene at the end of the movie as the opposing government troops, moved deeply by the lofty morality of the Samurai, refuse to shoot at their compatriots whom they have been massacering with superior weaponry. Overwhelmed by their bravery and honour, and starting with a senior officer, the government troops fall down on their knees in deep respect to pay the Sammuri tribute. Oh if only we had values such as these today in our vulgar, hedonistic and utterly selfish society! Much as I detest almost everything Hollywood produces, there are some wonderful exceptions which as believers we can use to teach both adults and youth some of the principles of the Gospel. And since I am on the subject, another film I recommend to your viewing is The Mission (starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons) which gives a wonderful insight into how a United Order of All Things in Common should work and what echad can actually look like in practice.
As I was saying, I awoke early one morning a couple of weeks ago and Yah'shua started showing me things. He said: "Marriage is like prayer" and then he reminded me of the scripture I read to you about praying secretly in our closet or room behind closed doors. "Marriage must begin one-to-one", He said, "just as your relationship to Me did." I remembered the time how, behind a locked door, I fasted and prayed for many hours having as my passionate desire to know Him and His will. It would have been wrong to have admitted anyone at that moment of time. It was something I had to do alone. It is something we must all do alone. We can't lean on anyone in coming to Him. And coming to Him requires that we do something that is impossible to do with anyone else but our spouse: it requires that we render ourselves totally vulnerable and open.
Picture, in your mind, a group of people who do not know or each other who happen to be locking themselves in their rooms on a particular night and are kneeling on the ground in prayer, desiring to meet Yah'shua for the first time. None of them knows who or what they are going to meet. All they have before them are the promises of Scripture, such as these:
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Matt.11:28-30, KJV).
"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of Elohim" (Mark 10:14, KJV).
"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38, KJV).
"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Rev.3:19-22, NIV).
It was with scriptures such as these that I approached Yah'shua in 1977. My head was crammed full of theology from all kinds of churches and I was confused. In that moment of divine encounter, theology didn't matter, though in subsequent meetings with Him it has been very important as I have sought to go deeper in my relationship with Yahweh.
We begin simple and it gets progressively more intricate. When I met Him, I could not have been prepared for what was to come. I had read and heard accounts of new births and theophanies but these were but words which I could not relate to anything I had hitherto experienced, though listening to those who had experienced it and were speaking in the Ruach from the depths of their hearts, had me captivated - I still love to listen to such testimonies. When the moment of rebirth happened, I just suddenly 'knew', as though a floodlight had been turned on inside. Nothing could have prepared me for what was to come.
Picture, if you will, a football stadium in pitch black in the middle of the night. You've read that the stadium is full of people and wonderful things but you can't see or hear anything. And then, suddenly, all the lights are turned on simultaneously and your breath is taken away in wonderment because what you had pictured was far, far from what you actually see, and what you experience in your heart could not have been conceived in your wildest imagination. Such is what happens when a soul meets Yah'shua for the first time. And Yah'shua says that this is like a bride encountering the bridegroom for the first time. That's why the whole relationship we have with Him is described as a marriage in allegory.
There are, alas, a lot of people who are 'married' who aren't married. By that I mean they have signed a piece of paper (or, if it's a live-in relationship without formal commitment, maybe they have just exchanged a few words of agreement or have a silent understanding) and they have leaped into bed and experienced, at one level, the wonders of physical intimacy. Yet their hearts have not met. After the initial thrill of the physical encounter and some deeply stirred psychic emotions, there still remains a gnawing emptiness. The spirits of the two have never met. They still remain unknown to each other. Or maybe one has opened and the other has not, leaving the one who has opened with the feeling that he or she has been raped or betrayed, especially if the relationship is abruptly terminated for someone else.
"Marriage is like prayer. Marriage must begin one-to-one, just as your relationship to Me did," Yah'shua said to me. And it must continue that way. It is only then, when the heart has been fully opened and surrendered, and Yah'shua is sitting on the throne of that heart, that that heart is ready to begin an echad relationship with the wider Body of Messiah. And it begins in a local fellowship, assembly or church. There the new believer makes the first tentative steps towards building spiritual bonds in Yah'shua with others who have been reborn in Him too.
He soon discovers that there are those in the assembly who may not have been reborn - maybe they were investigators as he had been, or maybe they had only made an intellectual conversion to the Gospel - sadly in Christendom that is the vast majority. The unborn Christians are, in many respects, even more dangerous than unbelievers because they profess to be one thing and yet are another. And because they are unregenerated - unspiritual - they live out the Gospel in a wholly artificial or plastic way that to the untrained heart may seem to be real but which is, in fact, counterfeit. Yah'shua warned about these as we read earlier:
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men".
They are disconnected from Yahweh. They are unsurrendered to Him even if they may be pretending to be 'Christians', the 'sons of Moses', or whatever. They still rule their own hearts - they are still their own sovereigns. So what do they seek in their 'spiritual' life? To be admired, seen, praised, worshipped, just as the unregenerated Pharisees did. All they do is simply to get attention for themselves, especially if they are in positions of authority and power, or think they are. They feed like parasites off others. And if they don't have these, that is what they usually seek.
The same error takes place in marriage. The wife, to find her life, must go to her husband and surrender to him unconditionally in Yah'shua and Torah. She will not live spiritually, or emotionally for that matter, until she has relinquished the royal sceptres of self-management and self-rulership to her husband - or, if she has not done so, the management and rulership of her father and mother, or indeed anyone else who has exercised - or sought to exercise - authority in her life. And it need not be people - it must include anything and everything that would take her away from his side supporting him in his life-calling from Yahweh. That would include philosophies, tastes and habits that would break the echad bond. And whilst some of these (like tastes and habits) can happily be incorporated and accepted (e.g. diet - there are a million ways to enjoy kosher food) into the marriage, some cannot, and must be relinquished.
Parallel to this, if the husband has been preparing himself to belong to Yah'shua, he also must have relinquished, or be in the active process of relinquishing, habits and tastes that would remove him from the path down which Yahweh has called him. And perhaps one of the biggest challenges - whether after conversion or marriage - is the re-allignment of friendships and other associations. Yahweh demands complete consecration to Him and a willingness to sacrifice anything that would diminish the relationship between His allegorical Bride and Himself.
The wife must do no less. Spiritual rebirth and marriage are two enormous changes in life and living. They are revolutionary, requiring almost total change. That is why marriage is not a little thing and needs a lot of thought and preparation before it is entered into. It is the second greatest commitment of your life after Yah'shua. And you'd better not enter it without Yahweh's approval.
When a person becomes allegorically married to Yah'shua by giving their heart to Him, they are not only acquiring an allegorical Husband but also a Family - Messianic Israel. By joining yourself to Yah'shua, you also join yourself to a ready-made family too. You suddenly have brothers and sisters in huge numbers, and more especially in your local assembly. You also acquire a 'head' brother in the form of a Pastor or Overseer to whom the heads of families (husbands) are expected to give their loyalty and obedience in Yah'shua and in Torah in the building of the Kingdom. You have become part of a huge extended family of brethren and sisters who have obligations towards you, and you towards them. You have become part of a huge uniplural Bride - a Bride consisting of many people both in heaven and on earth. Not only that, there are authorities which Yah'shua has placed in it both locally (pastors), internationally (apostles) and, perhaps even more importantly, in the heavenlies (the Council of Yah's elohim) where our ancestral fathers (like Abraham) preside over us. You suddenly become part of something very big, a carefully structured but nevertheless living system saturated in Ruach that is far, far bigger than yourself. We are not, after all, little islands in the sea of the world but parts of a huge archipelago (group of islands) that form a single nation under a single government and with a united purpose.
Entering Messianic Israel or the Body of Messiah is almost as 'big' as coming to Yah'shua. You suddenly find yourself in a place where you are not only forming new relationships with fellow believers but relationships of a totally different type to anything you ever knew in the world. For one thing, everyone in the Body is already owned - they are all owned by a common Master, Yah'shua. The only other kinds of ownership relationships consist of those temporary ones between fathers and children, and those permanent ones between husbands and wives. There are various Torah fences in place. These have to be learned, accepted and absorbed into new life habits through studying the Scriptures and by observing maturer brothers and sisters living out their daily lives.
How are the relationships between believers different from those in the world? In the world, you are pretty much your own boss or authority. In the Messianic Kingdom, authorities are clearly defined, and breaching them is a serious offence against Yahweh constituting spititual adultery and idolatry.
As we saw in the High Priestly Prayer this morning, everything begins by defining authority. From those authorities come unique expressions of the eternal life that Yah'shua bequeathes upon His people - on those whom He owns, and especially to those who are themselves called to own so that they may give more of themselves. In the High Priestly prayer He explains in detail how we are to form and, where necessary, re-form those relationships if they go wrong or if they depart from the divine pattern. It is not a hit-and-miss affair, a thing of chance. The mitzvot or commandments are designed precisely to ensure that everything runs smoothly. It may seem clumsy and unnatural having to learn new ways of doing things but that is true in any change of circumstances: whether you have joined the army or become employed in a new business, there are new rules to be learned, new relationships to be formed, new habits to be engrained, and in general a 'settling in' period is required before comfort ensues. Also, once you have completed one type of training and have to move to a new school for more training, there is again an additional set of rules to be learrned (though they are a natural sequence and development from the first ones) and new relationships to be built. It happens, for instance, when grounded believers are called into priesthood service. The 'growing up' time of relative freedom from responsibility as simple baptised members is replaced by new demands and expectations as Yahweh calls us to move away from the simple, "elementary" things and progress further to perfection as His priests and priestesses:
"Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about the Messiah and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in Elohim, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And Elohim permitting, we will do so" (Heb.6:1-3, NIV).
The soul often resists change like this. It doesn't want to widen the fence of responsibility. Or it can go too far and wants to extend the fence beyond Yahweh's boundaries. When that is the case, anarchy results and the first lessons have to be learned again:
"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of Elohim's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Heb.5:11-14, NIV).
What is true of coming a part of Messianic Israel is as true as of getting married. In both, you enter kingdoms with servant-kings or rulers (e.g. pastors and husbands) in place. Just as there are kosher eating laws to be learned and applied in Yah'shua's Kingdom, requiring for many a major change of diet, so there are spiritual kosher or pure laws to govern right relationships between members of the collective Bride requiring a change of attitudes and behaviours.
When Leah and Rachel married Jacob they had to learn to relate to one another in a wholly new way, making the transition from sisters to wives. The relationship they had with Jacob was a very different one from what they had had with their father Laban. They initially lived their life through their father's headship, rules and expectations, which in Laban's case were pagan and had to be unlearned. (Ideally the father should bring up his daughters in a Torah-obedient enviornment). In Jacob they had to completely reorientate and learn the ways of Yahweh. Judging by some of Rachel's behaviours (like stealing Laban's idols), this took some time.
A father's responsibility towards his daughter is to train her up to belong to Yahweh and to her husband. His is a temporary stewardship. The husband's is permanent. These days, where there are no real headships anymore (other than the impersonal 'state'), different kinds of transitions have to be made, principally from lawlessness - of people 'doing their own thing' - to order and structure. Those with a background of independence without proper heads can find adjusting to Yahweh's ways challenging to say the least. They without fail meet a lot of powerful flesh-resistance. Such need more time before they are ready for leadership and responsibility than those who were raised in Yahweh-honouring homes. In the whole of Israel leaving Egypt, only two men - Joshua and Caleb - had what it took. Those are the odds when you come out of a pagan background and are starting from scratch again. The failure rate in the first generation of a new work of Elohim is always high, something Satan exploits with numerous accusations.
Just as there are practical rules in a household - whether domestic or in the Household of Faith (Gal.6:10) - there are, more importantly, spiritual rules to be learned that apply to both. They are not, moreover, perceived intellectually but spiritually. They can only be learned through the Ruach haQodesh. And that is where the High Priestly prayer of Yah'shua figures so prominently in showing us the pattern and the method of spiritual restoration.
Echad between believers consists of owned relationships - the believers do not own each other - they are owned by Yah'shua. Therefore their relationship between each other is defined by Yah'shua. He empowers that relationship. He calls for them to be one as He and Yahweh are one - i.e. through proper submission and energising. Additionally, they are to mutually submit in love:
"Be subject to one another in the love of the Messiah" (Eph.5:21, HRV).
All, whataver authority is given to them, are to subject themselves to the overriding authority which is Yahweh revealed in the love of Yah'shua. All of us - whether husbands, pastors, apostles, or other divinely-appointed authorities - are subject to the love of Yah'shua on a primary level. We are subject to that love in husbands, pastors and apostles, but husbands, pastors and apostles are also subject to the love in Yah'shua in every regenerated soul. Even children can teach us! By this means an ingenious system of checks-and-balances has been placed into the divine system of relationship to prevent unrighteous dominion and priestcraft from entering. We are to allow our hearts to be moved by the hearts of all others in whom Yah'shua dwells as Yah'shua speaks through them provided the binding is in Yah'shua, does not diminish the bonds with Him, or diminish or substitute the bonds they have with their husbands. It is by this means that unbelievers are moved - by the testimony of Yah'shua's servants. I am going to liken that love to the light and heat of the sun in our solar system.
This model of the true marriage relationship is not accepted by a lot of modernists who have defined gender rôles according to the philosophies of men. You will not untypically hear these days that husband and wife should - if I can use the model of the solar system - 'revolve together' around Yah'shua as co-equals. And whilst that is a half- truth - because both are co-heirs of salvation and are to submit to the truth and love of Yah'shua in each other - it is not true that they are co-heads or that they all supply the same things. Like a grocery store and ironmonger they supply each other with different commodities. But set over the grovery stores and ironmongers, there is a government that allows them to trade and regulate their activities. That government is Yahweh through His appointed heavenly and earthly heads.
I like to illustrate with a picture of the earth and moon. The moon revolves around the earth and influences its tides, seasons and animal behaviour. But it is the earth's gravity that holds it and makes it revolve around the earth. To remain in orbit, though, the moon must move at the correct velocity or otherwise it will fly off into outer space or crash into the earth.
The earth and moon are like the husband-wife relationship in terms of authorities. I have heard modernists protest against this model as chauvanistic and anti-christ. They say: 'A woman is supposed to revolve around Christ, not her husband! Yah'shua is supposed to be the centre of her universe, not some man after an ego-trip!' But this is highly misleading and misses the point entirely: because the moon, even though it revolves around the earth, is also revolving around the sun! It is the sun that fixes the earth in its orbit by its own gravitational pull. The moon is revolving around the sun in a similar way to the earth, only the earth moves in a circle and the moon moves around like a series of criss-crossing circles.
Let's illustrate here. Here are a football, tennis ball and pingpong ball. Let's get someone here to hold the football in the centre of a room. Now another of you can take the tennis ball with one hand and the pingpong ball with the other. As you walk around the person holding the football with your tennis ball, should move the pingpong ball around the tennis ball. What is the pingpong ball doing? It is going around the sun! But it is going around the sun with the tennis ball. The wife is still subject to Yah'shua (who is liked to the sun in scripture - see Mal.4:2). She moves with her husband around Yah'shua as she moves around him. There is no conflict of authorities nor does one authority exclude the other.
You can extend this model to a family head being subject to a pastor of a local assembly. The pastor has no direct authority over another man's wife - she is only answerable to her husband. But the pastor exerts an indirect authority over her by calling the husband to account if she is in violation of the mitzvot and her baptismal and other communal covenants. The pastor can only discipline the husband unless the husband temporarily lifts his covering off his wife so she can be judged (cp. Num.5:11ff.). If he refuses, then he must be judged and punished in her place as the head unless he has already taken the necessary disciplinary steps himself and informed the pastor. He should present his wife to the Pastor and Elders and declare what he has done until they are satisfied that proper disciplining has been done.
Then I want you to consider an even bigger picture. People sometimes forget that the sun is not stationary in space. It too is moving at great speed in a vast orbit around something much larger, just as Yah'shua is revolving around Yahweh who is the centre of the physical and spiritual universe. Though we can't see it, we too are revolving around Yahweh the Father. He is the ultimate centre. But the fact that I am revolving around Yah'shua does not mean that I am not revolving around the Father. Yah'shua revolves around Yahweh and we go wherever He goes.
Yahweh has built the cosmos in the same pattern. The same is true at the atomic level with electrons revolving around a nucleus. The hydrogen atom - which is the 'stuff' of the universe and the fuel of all stars - is a perfect model of a man-and-wife relationship. The fact of the matter is that Yahweh did not build the solar system with planets and moons sharing the same orbits. Every orbit is unique because every relationship with Yah'shua is unique. No two relationships are alike. They may be similar but they are not identical.
What of the Leah and Rachel situation? Again, look at the planets and you will see how that works. The earth only has one moon, but other planets have multiple numbers of satellites. Take Mars, around which revolve two moons, Deimos and Phobos. They both circle Mars as Leah and Rachel 'circled' Jacob, and both in their own separate orbits because each has a unique relationship with Jacob in their own places. And yet they share the same gravitational field - the same love that draws them to their common centre, which centre revolves around the sun as earth does. What of the relationship between Deimos and Phobos? Do they have no influence on each other? Oh yes, they too have an impact on each other which defines their orbits around their common planet. They reflect the echad principle on a planetary level. They relate and influence one another's motions around the common planet, affecting each other's orbits. Together they move around their husband-planet in a unique dance shaped by the masses of all three bodies. Their relationship is like that of believers in the Messianic Community. We all influence each other but we never supplant the primary relationship to our Master Yah'shua. Neither can the Leah-Rachel relationship supplant, replace or equal their individual relationships to Jacob because they are of a different substance and nature, even though they too are strong.
I say 'never' because that is the ideal though there are dangers. Because Yah'shua and the Ruach are invisible to us, there is a danger when we neglect the inner life of the spirit and transfer our focus to the outer. People often end up worshipping 'church' instead of Yahweh. We can often forget the goal and lose the focus. You may remember that the Ephesian believers were so busy building the Kingdom that they forgot their King! Yah'shua praised them for their hard work, perseverence, their intolerance of wicked men and their exposure of false prophets:
"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love" (Rev.2:4, NIV).
Ephesus was Messianic Israel headquarters after the believers were expelled from Judea and Jerusalem. It was the home of the presiding apostle, John. Mary, the mother of Yah'shua, lived there under his guardianship (Jn.19:26-27). This was 'church headquarters' and yet what was happening? They were so busy with the affairs of the Kingdom and each other that many of them had forsaken their "first love", Yah'shua! How is that possible??
Similar things happen in marriage. Husbands can get so absorbed with their buddies, work or even the ministry that they spend little or no time with Yah'shua in private 'closet' prayer and study. Billy Graham, when asked what he would have done differently if he had been able to live his life again, replied without hestitation that he would have spent more time in prayer. Husbands can wander away out of orbit and head into deep space chasing the wrong things and counterfeit suns, and go spiritually cold.
Wives can be so busy with girlfriends, children, family and other concerns that they neglect their first earthly love, their husband. They start wandering out of their husband's orbit and into the orbit of friends, or into mutual orbits around personal interests. They can even start being attracted by the gravitational pull of other men and be led into adultery. Then the spiritual solar system starts to break apart, allowing Satan to run rampant. Our own Solar System has a reminder to us of this danger in the presence of the Asteroid Belt. Though there are different views as to how the Asteroids came into existence - depending whether you are an evolutionist or a creationist - one of them is that they were once a large planet that came inbetween Jupiter and Mars and was ripped apart by them. This planet is known by some as Phaeton but is probably better known as Tiamat, the name given to it by the ancient Sumerians who believed another planet called Nibiru collided with it or had a close encounter with it that ripped it apart. Of interest to us spiritually, if this is what happened, is how wrong relationships can lead to destruction. It is important that we know and stay in our place to be happy and to thrive.
Why does this happen? People often turn to the outer world as their 'primary reality' because it appears to be more intense and real than the spiritual. It's also 'less demanding' because people aren't so penetrating as Yah'shua. You can 'touch' the physical by simply reaching out. The spiritual requires discipline and effort. I have consistently found that those who do not have regular, daily prayer and scripture study start drifting away little by little and moving, almost without realising it, into other, unauthorised and ungodly 'orbits'. A charismatic leader starts replacing Yah'shua. A friend who has 'more time' to spare starts replacing a husband. That is why those one-to-one relations are critical. That is why as believers we must dedicate ourselves to one-to-one time with Yahweh. That is why husbands must organise regular one-to-one time with their wives apart from the children and others. To meet Yah'shua corporately in assembly worship is vitally important but alone it is not enough because what then happens is that the leader of that worship may come to replace Yah'shua in spiritual importance, even if that leader is constantly saying, 'You must go to Yah'shua'. Not all, of course, do. We need both one-to-one and corporate relationships to be whole and echad, but we must always start with the one-to-one and maintain it.
The seven annual festivals show us how this is to be done properly. They show us how to relate one-to-one and one-to-many. Most importantly, they show us how to relate to each other in smaller or larger groups in the wider context of a totally Messiah-centred lifestyle. We start every year at Pesach or Passover remembering the elementary principles of one-to-one relationship between man and Elohim. We remember that there is a constant need to leave Egypt once and for all. First, each individual has to decide. And then when he has decided, he learns to move out with the others. But first he must be convinced in his own mind. And then the Ruach haRishon empowers him and binds his heart to Yah'shua, just as every year husbands and wives need to renew their covenants with each other. And not only that, but every week! Every Yom Rishon - every first day of the week - is a new beginning. Other parts of the self have to be delivered. Other parts of the self - the hidden parts - have to surrender anew to Yah'shua, and those other parts have to yield anew to their husband.
One lady complained to me saying: 'I don't believe any of this. This is just your opinion. Show me one scripture where it says that a wife should have her personal relationships with others defined in this way'. She was struggling with the idea that as a wife her relationships with others should in some way be defined by her husband. No amount of explanation seemed to satisfy her. I had already asked Yahweh to show me how she perceived relationships should be and He showed me a vision. He showed me the sun with three planets all revolving in a single orbit around that sun - herself, her husband and a very intimate friend. This is was Christian woman, mind you, who accepted the principle of male headship. She understood that she had to defer decision-making to her husband and that he needed to lead the family. But what she did not see - or did not want to see - was the model I have described to you, or planets and moon revolving around their respective orbits. When she finally did let go of all self-management and chose to surrender to her husband, she experienced one of the most amazing transformations of her life and became literally born-again a second time! The personality change was so total that she was to all intents and purposes a totally new and revitalised person. And she experienced her husband as a completely new person too. Yahweh's ways work, and they work dramatically!
Divine echad is not some giant pool of co-equal authority around a single authority, Yahweh. It's not millions of believers all clustered in a single orbit around Yah'shua. There are many different kinds of authorities and positionings. The local assembly reflects that in catechumens, baptised members, confirmed members, deacons, elders, pastors, apostles and so on. There are different kinds of deacons and elders. The solar system is not one single orbit of all the planets and moons together. It would disintegrate if it were organised like that as the gravitational fields of the larger planets would tear the smaller ones to pieces.
And it's not like that in society either. Look at the disasterous experiments of communism. I have often told you of the period in early communist China's history when it was decided that GI's or Privates were, to all intents and purposes, made functionally equal in authority to Generals. The ordinary soldier had the right to question and debate the General's decisions or orders. There was chaos. Mao-Tse Tung was in the centre - the political sun - and the great mass of other Chinese were in one giant orbit, even though each had different titles like 'General' or 'Corporal'. The system collapsed quite quickly.
The Pastor is not some symbolic 'father' with no real authority like the figure-head monarchs in today's democracies such as in Britian or Sweden. Neither is Yahweh. I appreciate that people want to keep things as simple as possible but there is also a danger of over-simplifying. Things are simple in the beginning but we cannot exist on a spiritual milk diet for ever - there is a time to move on and eat meat. If Yah'shua wanted everything to be simple, why did He speak in parables which His disciples rarely understood? Some truths had to be concealed from those who did not want to know it. And when you don't want to know the truth, then the Gospel will indeed appear to be 'mysterious' at times, or even repellant. That's why most people erect spiritual ceilings above their heads and say: 'No further! I'm staying put, right where I am.' They may 'demand' explanations but unless they are willing to say: 'OK, no restrictions, I'll trust you to take me where you want me to go, Father', can they possibly understand. That which requires their surrendering in trust will remain concealed to them until they have been willing to let go. Remember Paul's complaint?
"Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Messiah crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom Elohim has called, both Jews and Greeks, Messiah the power of Elohim and the wisdom of Elohim. For the foolishness of Elohim is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of Elohim is stronger than man's strength" (1 Cor.1:22-25, NIV).
If there are veils covering our eyes and hearts it is because we choose to remain in ignorance. We don't have to. Paul said:
"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (1 Cor.13:12, NIV).
Many assume that "now" means earth-life and "then" the resurrection. Well, it is quite true that the resurrection will be a huge revelation and quantum-leap in our spiritual understanding. However, nowhere does Scripture says that we should remain static. Yahweh is constantly inviting - sometimes pushing - us to 'move on', to 'look deeper', to 'seek and find'. We are not condemned to see only a "poor reflection" - everywhere the Scripture tells us to open our eyes! But many seek a cop-out, and an excuse to be spiritually lazy. It is easier to walk around half-blind because then you don't have as much responsibility, and you can plead ignorance when you fall into a hole. Well, I rather doubt Yahweh will allow any of us to get away with that excuse. His is not a static universe but a dynamic one.
You will not find any Scripture in the Old Testament giving a precise and detailed revelation on the Messiah. It's veiled and interspersed throughout the books and texts of the Tanakh. You have to seek to find it. The first disciples had problems enough, didn't they? Do you remember the discussion Cleopas had with the resurrected Yah'shua walking incognito on the road to Emmaus? They were depressed because Yah'shua had died and they thought His work had been a failure. He chided them, saying:
"How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" (Luke 24:25, NIV).
The data was all there but it wasn't spelled out in quite the way they expected. Likewise, the mystery of echad marriage isn't spelled out like in an instruction manual. Neither are we told directly that the Ruach is our Heavenly Mother, or that there are seven of Them, but it's all there and correctly labelled for anyone who wants top follow the instructions and assemble the pieces - if you can be bothered to invest some time and effort to search for it. And it all dovetails. Everything fits together. The truth always does.
So if people do not want to accept what I am preaching here today, or what I preached this morning, that's their choice. They can mark it down as my 'personal opinion' if they want to. Sometimes people want 'scriptures' the way the Jews wanted 'signs'. Well, the firstborn way is not always spelled out in the Bible in monosyllabic words. Goodness, look at the divisions in Christendom over the milk gospel - they can't even agree on that! They're still trying to get back to the 'New Testament Church'. Take, for example, the 'Restoration Movements' started by Alexander Campell and Joseph Smith, Jr. Both claimed to be restoring the 'New Testament Church'. Campbell founded the 'Church of Christ' denomination and Smith founded the 'Mormon Church'. Both claim to be the 'true church'. They're entirely different and neither are remotely like the first Messianic assemblies.
Scripture is so structured as to be hidden to all but those who have the Ruach haQodesh and obey. Some scripture will be opened up and the rest concealed. There are still people today who believe that John the Baptist was a 'Baptist' like your modern Southern Baptists. There are millions who call themselves 'Pentecostals' because they centre their beliefs around what happened on the Day of Pentecost (Shavu'ot). And yet what happened on that day isn't what they're doing at all. There isn't even any mystery about it. The first believers all spoke recognisable human languages and had tongues of flames on their heads. None of them were blabbering. A whole denomination focuses on the Seventh Day Sabbath but refuses to accept that the Seventh Day is on 'Sunday' in most of Asia because of the false International Date Line. People are selectively blind. They want to know some of the truth but not all of it. Their reasons may be varied but they are not honest.
Now there isn't a single Scripture commanding us to observe the seventh-day Sabbath in the New Testament because there isn't a need to. Everybody did it because everyone obeyed Torah. Those, like Puritans, who damn Christians to hell if they don't observe a Sunday 'sabbath', have blinded themselves with the lie that if it isn't specifically commanded in the New Testament, they aren't going to do it. There are others who live only by the Book of Acts. Some cut out the Book of Hebrews, etc.. You can't limit Elohim like that.
The reason there is such chaos in Christendom is because it is lawless. It rejects Torah. But what of Torah-obedient believers? Why is there disunity among them too? Because they pick and choose as well. Some reject the deity of Messiah. Some reject Paul. Some reject Hebrews. Some accept occultic kabbalism and the authority of the Talmudists. Most pick and choose. They believe in all sorts of lies too.
There are no disjunctive scriptures when you are in the truth because everything gels. The echad doctrine is the core of the true faith. It's in the Shema (Dt.6:4-9) which we are to spiritually bind to our foreheads and hands, and it's in the High Priestly Commission of Yah'shua to His disciples (Jn.17). Put everything together and it harmonises, as you'd expect if you believe that:
"All Scripture is Elohim-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of Elohim may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim.3:16-17, NIV).
As a husband, father and pastor, I teach what I know, and I do so uncomprimisingly. If I am wrong, I will be corrected. The echad doctrine has been progressively revealed to me over a 20 year period and developped quicker when we became Torah-obedient 8 years ago. The truth truly sets you free. We get a lot of opposition because of this teaching because it challenges the carnality of the human heart which hates self-surrender. It has always interested me why people attack certain teachings - I am always curious why they are so vehement. And what I discover usually is that what they hate is a willingness to be accountable.
One doctrine that Satan loathes is the doctrine that Yah'shua is fully Elohim or Deity. Another is the echad doctrine because Satan hates echad-unity. And I deliberately say echad-unity and not just 'unity' because humans can be united in error and sin too. In the Sinai wandering there were always two kinds of unity - unity with Yahweh and Moses, and unity with the rebels and Satan. We are told to keep "the unity of the Ruach through the bond of shalom" (Eph.4:3, NIV) and to "reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of Elohim and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Messiah" (Eph.4:13, NIV). This kind of unity is not atheistic consensus - it's not even unity between believers but the unity of believers in Yah'shua.
There is 'faith' and there is "the faith" - any old faith is not good enough. And that "faith" is a process that can only be fully understood - fully in the sense that that fullness finally brings us to maturity - in Yahweh's moedim or appointments - the Sabbath, seven festivals and new moons. It all starts one-to-One at Pesach and then becomes a family moving out together with other families as the Nation of Israel under fathers, clan and tribal heads, and a prophet-patriarch under Yahweh during Chag haMatzah. Then there is a full immersion or baptism at the Sea of Reeds at Yom haBikkurim, a sign of our commitment and total surrender to Yahweh through Yah'shua. It's still one-to-one commitment, as we're baptised one at a time into Yah'shua even though we're approaching as a Body. And it's paralleled by wives being baptised into their husbands, then clothed or covered, and adorned, a practice performed by the Judahites based on Yahweh's allegorical marriage to Israel as we read in Ezekiel:
"Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares Yahweh-Elohim, and you became mine. I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares Yahweh-Elohim" (Ezek.16:8-14, NIV).
At Shavu'ot we are given the Ten Commandments and other moedim to bind us together in a network of relationships under our heads in Yahweh that makes us into a set-apart or holy society. This union demands complete loyalty to Yahweh and separation from the world even after we have left Egypt because there are always other 'Egypts' claiming our allegiance after we have created sufficient distance from the old one. There are new temptations, other nations with their allures, other people. After a period of time there is testing which begins with a summonse to accountability and weighing at Yom Teruah followed by a strict judgment at Yom Kippur. This is both a one-to-One judgement and a collective judgment of the whole nation. Those who have been properly surrendered and obedient to their heads, or who fully repent if they have not, and re-covenant to renew their earlier covenants with broken hearts and contrite spirits, are admitted into the marriage feast of the Lamb at Shavu'ot where there is perfect unity or echad.
There is a huge contrast between Pesach and Sukkot. The first is one of suspense and a readiness to flee sin as we learn the first steps in total trusting with our very lives in danger if we get things wrong. In Sukkot there is complete rejoicing because the Bride, though consisting of many people, has overcome and is finally fully echad. She is one allegorical Wife of Yah'shua. Everyone thinks, feels and acts alike even though they have their different personalities. They have the same heart-dispositions, they have the same common behaviours. They are moving in their orbits in the same way even though they are different orbits. They treat their Husband deferentially, in complete submission, and with all their love, knowing that in doing so they are also honouring their Heavenly Father because they are echad or one.
There is only one Master, one faith and one baptism. There is only one Commonwealth of 12-Tribed Israel. There aren't hundreds and thousands of them like there are denominations and churches in the world. And it's not enough to just be "united in the essentials", which is the mantra of evangelicals. The 'essentials' won't get us beyond Yom haBikkurim - they won't bring us to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb - to Sukkot. They'll get us a second resurrection but not the first.
My desire is that everyone hearing me gets the best - the best relationships, the highest rewards, the best resurrection. And I want everyone to receive the best not just so they can feast and indulge themselves, but so that they can become the best servants too. The more you receive, the more is expecxted of you by our Father in Heaven. The greater the blessing, the greater the responsibility (Lk.12:48). There are no kings in Yahweh's Kingdom who don't wash the lowliest member's feet, and no queens who don't wash their husbands' feet either.
Echad is glorious but it will cost you everything you've got. And when you have released everything, you'll inherit the universe, but not before. The one who clings on to self will die a pauper, alone, lost and unmourned.
"The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves Me" (John 12:25-26, NIV).
Amen.
Author: Lev-Tsiyon
Glossary of MLT Hebraic, Greek and English Terms For other terms and full details please see the Micropedia
A
Adon(ai) = Master, a pagan fertility god, Adonis; used by many Messianics but not MLT
(a)eon(ian) = 7 dispensation- or age-long time periods, not forever (see le-olam-va-ed)
Alef-Tav = Alpha-Omega, A-Z, first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet = Yah'shua
Amen = truly, let it be so, written Amein by some Messianics
Apocrypha = Hebraic Scriptures not a part of the Protestant canon (e.g. Baruch)
Anti-Messiah = Hebraic term for the end-time Antichrist or anyone opposed to the Messiah
antinomian = lawless Christian who disregards all or part of Torah/commandments
Ashkenazi Jew = East European Jew descended from the Turkic-Japhethite Khazars
Assembly = church, congregation, ekklesia, community, fellowship, koinonia, gathering
Azazel = the Yom Kippur scapegoat
B
Baal, Ba'al = any other master than Yahweh, usually demonic in MLT terminology
Bachor(im) = firstborn son(s)
Bar/Bat Mitzvah = Son/Daughter of Commandment, covenant to obey Torah at age 12
being = soul, the whole person (spirit and body), e.g. "my whole being"
Beit, bet, beth = house, e.g. Beit Yisrael (House of Israel), Beth Lechem (House of Bread)
Beit haMikdash = Yahweh's Temple in Yerushalayim
B'rit Chadashah = the New Covenant; B'rit Chadashah Scriptures = New Testament
B'rit Milah = circumcision - abolished in the B'rit Chadashah, replaced by Mikvah
C
canon = authoritative Scripture (Heb. qaneh, Gk. kanôn = measuring instrument)
Catechumen = a serious, covenanted investigator seeking Mikvah or Baptism in MLT
Chag haMatzah = Feast of Unleavened Bread, second of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Chavurat Bekorot = MLT's Priesthood Order, Holy Order and Assembly of the Firstborn
Cohen = priest; Cohen Gadol = High Priest (also spelled Kohen)
Council of Yah's elohim = the heavenly Assembly of the Firstborn or Chavurat Bekorot
D
demon = fallen malek or angel in rebellion against Yahweh (Heb. shad; see Êl-Shaddai)
derech = the Way, Path or Road - Yah'shua and the Gospel are the Way
Drash = moral or homiletic interpretation of Scripture - see PaRDeS
E
Echad = One, Union of two or more in one (as opposed to Yachid) - see Elohim
Echad Godhead Doctrine = Father Yahweh, Son Yah'shua and Sevenfold Ruach (Mother)
Êl, Eloah, Elah = God the Father, Yahweh
Êl-Elyon = Most High God, Yahweh
Êl-Shaddai = Master/Lord over all shads or demons
Elohim = God, the Godhead (Father, Son & Holy Spirit), lit. 'Mighty One(s)', 'Ruler(s)'
elohim = Israelite judges, rulers, angels or gods (false deities, idols, demons)
emunah = faith, actively trusting, clinging or adhering to (especially Yahweh or Yah'shua)
emet = truth, Yah'shua is the Emet
Ephraimite = descendant of the patriarch Ephraim and head of Messsianic Israel
F
Feasts of Yahweh = the 7 annual Moedim (Pesach, Chag haMatzah, Yom haBikkurim, Shavu'ot, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot)
G
Gan-Eden = Garden of Eden, Paradise and state of the purified heart in Messiah
goy(im) = nation(s), Israelites or gentiles not born in or converted to the Covenant
H
hallelu-Yah = praise Yah(weh)!
Heylel = proper name of Satan or haSatan = the Adversary, the devil
Sabbath = Yom Shabbat (Friday to Saturday sunset, add 1 day in IDL Zone)
Hochmah = Wisdom, title of the 7-fold Ruach haQodesh
I
IDL = International Date Line, false man-made time division in Pacific Ocean
IDL Zone = Area between the true Divine Date Line (Lake Van/Eden) and the false one
Israeli = citizen of the modern Edomite-Khazar Republic of Israel (not Biblical Israel)
Israelite = citizen of biblical state of Israel or a modern follower of the Messiah
J
Jew = post-biblical term describing descendants of Edomite and Khazar converts to Judaism
Johannine = pertaining to the Apostle Yochanan (e.g. Gospel of John)
Josephite = descendant of the patriarch Joseph, the head of Messianic Israel
Judahite = a person in direct descent from the patriarch Judah, forefather of the Messiah
Judaism = a Talmudic-based religion rejecting Yah'shua the Messiah
Judean = a citizen of the Kingdom or Province of Judah until the 2nd Century diaspora
K
Kadosh la Yahweh = set-apart or dedicated to Yahweh, 'Holiness to the Lord', MLT motto
Karaites = Jews (from 700 AD) who reject the Talmud and accept only the Tanakh
kashrut = keeping kosher, food laws of Yahweh and correspinding lifestyle
Ketuvim = Writings or Hagiographa of the Tanakh
Khazar = a Turkic convert to Judaism ~700 AD forming the Ashkenazi Jewish community
kosher = clean foods authorised by Yahweh for human consumption
L
Lashon Hara = evil-speaking, gossip or slander
legalism = false route to salvation through works (self-salvation)
le-olam-va-ed = dispensation- or age-long, aeonian, not eternal, forever or for eternity
Lev = heart, as in Lev-Tsiyon = heart of Zion
Lev-Tsiyon = Heart of the Fortress [of Yahweh], Hebrew name of MLT's founder
M
Master = Lord, Sir, Adon(ai) - (one in authority, a ruler - a king, husband, prophet, judge)
Malak(im) = Angel(s), heavenly supernatural messenger(s)
manna = wafers of honey, bread from heaven (lit. 'what is this?')
matzah = unleavened bread, see Chag haMatzah
Menorah = 7-armed candlearbra = the 7 annual Moedim and 7-fold Ruach haQodesh
Messiah = Christ; Anti-Messiah = Antichrist
Messianic Community = Body of Christ, sum total of all true believers; all true fellowships
Messianic Israel = all who worship Yahweh, trust in Yah'shua, obey Torah and overcome
Messianic Jew = Messianic convert from Judaism still clinging to Talmudic traditions
Midrash = aggadic interpretation of scripture viâ Drash, a scriptural discussion
Mikvah = baptism by immersion of convert into Yah'shua or of wife into husband
Mishpachah = family: nuclear, congregational, tribal or the whole of Messianic Israel
MLT = Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon = family of the heart of the fortress [of Yahweh]
Mishpat = right-ruling or judgement
mitzvah/mitzvot = commandment(s)
moed(im) = appointment(s) of Yahweh, 7 Annual Feasts, Sabbath and Rosh Chodesh
N
Nefilim, Nephilim = giant offspring of materialised demons and human women
Nevi'im = prophetic writings of the Old Testament or Tanakh
New Birth = spiritual conversion in the Ruach haRishon, being 'born again' with new heart
Nidah = a woman's menstruation period during which no intercourse is permitted
O
Olive Branch = collection of revelations, prophecies and visions published by MLT
P
Paraclete = Comforter, Advocate (NEB), Counsellor, Ruach haQodesh (Gk. paraklêtos)
PaRDeS = method of textual interpretation (homiletics) - see P'shat, Remez, Drash, Sod
Patriarch = a father who is head of his family, clan or tribe (lit. 'father-ruler')
Pentateuch = first five books of the Tanakh (Genesis-Deuteronomy), also called Torah
peribolaion = headcovering worn by daughters/wives in submission to fathers/husbands
Pesach = Passover, first of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Peshitta = an Aramaic version of the Bible
Prototrinitarianism = early, simplified MLT formulation of the Echad Godhead Doctrine
Prush(im) = Pharisee(s)
Pseudepigrapha = Non-canonical Hebrew writings additional to the Apocrypha
P'shat = literal, contextual, philological, exoteric, outer meaning of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Q
Qadosh Qadoshim = Holy of Holies, most sacred set-apart room of the Beit haMikdash
Qodesh, Kodesh = set-apart, holy (see Ruach haQodesh)
R
Rabbi = Teacher, term used by Messianic Jews and some Messianic Israelites = Pastor
Refuge, the 12 Cities of = divinely protected MLT fortresses during the 7-year Tribulation
Remez = hint or allegorical level of Hebraic understanding of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Rosh Chodesh = monthly New Moon appointment of Yahweh
ruach = spirit of a person (lit.'breath')
Ruach Elohim = Spirit of God (the Spirit of the collective Godhead or Elohim)
Ruach haChamashee = 5th Ruach presides over Yom Teruah and Yom Chamashee
Ruach haQodesh = the Sevenfold Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost (lit. 'Set-Apart Breath')
Ruach haRevee = 4th Ruach presides over Shavu'ot, Yom Revee and Bar Mitzvah
Ruach haRishon = 1st Ruach presides over Pesach, Yom Rishon and the New Birth
Ruach haShanee = 2nd Ruach presides over Chag haMatzah and Yom Shanee
Ruach haSheshi = 6th Ruach presides over Yom Kippur and Yom Sheshi
Ruach haShleshi = 3rd Ruach presides over Yom haBikkurim, Yom Shleshi and Mikvah
S
Sabbath = Yom Shabbat (Friday to Saturday sunset, add 1 day in IDL Zone)
Satan = rebel archangel Heylel, father of lies, devil, chief demon (lit.'Adversary')
Sephardic Jew = West European Jew of mixed blood containing many Judahites
Septuagint = Greek translation of the Tanakh, LXX
Shegal haShabbat = 7th Ruach (Sabbath Queen) presides over Sukkot and Yom Shabbat
Shekinah = Divine Presence and Glory of Yahweh-Elohim
Set-apart = holy, sanctified, consecrated, dedicated, separated (to and by Yahweh)
Shabbat-Shabbaton = High Sabbath (e.g. Yom Kippur)
Shalom = heavenly peace, standard Hebraic greeting invoking Yahweh's peace
Shamash(im) = servant(s), deacon(s), attendant(s)
Shavu'ot = Pentecost or Weeks, fourth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Sheol = grave or pit, euphamism for Hades or hell - also see Tartarus
shofar = ram's horn, blown during Yahweh's Moedim
simcha = joy, keynote of Sukkot
Sod = mystical, anagogic, inner or esoteric understanding of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Sukkot = Tabernacles or Booths, seventh of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Synagogue = Greek word used by Jews and Messianics (but not MLT) for a meeting house
T
talmid(a) = male/female disciple or student
Talmud = scriptures, teachings and commentaries belonging to non-Messianic Judaism
Tanakh = acronym for Old Testament Scriptures - Torah, Nevi'im & Ketuvim
Tartarus = place of imprisonment under the earth for rebellious angels and Nephilim
teshuvah = repentance, remorse and contrition leading back to Torah obedience
Torah = Yahweh's teachings or Law; New Covenant Torah includes Yah'shua's teachings
Tribulation, the Great = the final 7 years of the present aeon when Anti-Messiah rules
Trinity = Catholic Godhead formula - see Echad Godhead Doctrine and Prototrinitarianism
Tsiyon = Zion, a fortress, a name of Jerusalem and a prominent hill
Tzitzit/Tizitziyot = tassel(s) worn by men in remembrance of Torah
U
Universalism = salvation of all at the cosmic Yovel, with different rewards and punishments
Y
Yachid = one, single person or item, as opposed to Echad (many in one, unity)
Yah'shua the Messiah = Jesus Christ (the Son)
Yahudah = Judah - see Judahite
Yahweh, Yah, YHWH = the true Name of our Heavenly Father, also carried by Yah'shua
Yahweh-Elohim = LORD God (the Father, Yahweh as Head of the Godhead or Elohim)
Yahweh haQatan = the sent Yahweh = Yah(weh)'shua, Malak of Yahweh's Presence
Yam Suf = Sea of Reeds, the true Israelite Exodus water crossing, not the Red Sea
Yarden = Jordan River (lit. 'meanderer')
Yerushalayim = Jerusalem
Yisrael = Israel (lit. 'ruling with Êl') = true believers under the New Covenant
Yom Chamashee = 5th day of the week (Thursday, Friday in IDL Zone)
Yom Din, Yom haDin = (the) Day of Judgement
Yom haBikkurim = Feast of Firstfruits, third of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yom Revee = 4th day of the week (Wednesday, Thursday in IDL Zone)
Yom Rishon = 1st day of the week (Sunday, Monday in IDL Zone)
Yom Kippur = Day of Atonement, sixth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yom Shabbat = 7th day of the week and Sabbath Rest (Saturday, Sunday in IDL Zone)
Yom Shanee = 2nd day of the week (Monday, Tuesday in IDL Zone)
Yom Sheshi = 6th day of the week (Friday, Saturday in IDL Zone)
Yom Shleshi = 3rd day of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday in IDL Zone)
Yom Teruah = Day of Trumpets, fifth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yosef = Joseph - see Josephite
Yovel = Jubilee or Year of Jubilee
Z
Zaqen(im) = elder(s) of an assembly or congregation, or senior members of a community
Zoë Life = Greek term for spiritual life in the Messiah
Commonly Used MLT Abbreviations
For additional abbreviations and explanations, please see the Micropedia
A
Amp.V(er). = Amplified Version of the Bible
Aram. = Aramaic
AV = Authorised Version of the Bible - see KJV
B
BCAY = B'rit Chadashah Assembly of Yahweh - see NCCG
BoA = Books of Abraham (e.g. 1Abr., 2Abr., etc.)
C
cp, cf = compare with
CB(Q) = Chavurat Bekorot
CEV = Contemporary English Version of the Bible
ch. = chapter
CJB = Complete Jewish Bible
CLNT = Concordant Literal New Testament
CYe = Council of Yah's elohim
E
Eng. = English
F
ff. = and onwards/forwards
fn = footnote
G
Gk. = Greek
GNB = Good News Bible - see TEV
H
Heb. = Hebrew, Hebraic
HEM = Holy Echad Marriage, eternal marriage
HO = Holy Order - see Chavurat Bekorot
HOC = Holy Order Collection of revelations - see OB
HRV = Hebraic-Roots Version of the Bible
I
ibid. = ibidem (lit. 'in the same place'), referring to a book previously cited
ICJC = Independent Church of Jesus Christ, earlier name of NCCF
ISRV = Institute for Scripture Research Version of the Bible
J
JB = Jerusalem Bible
JBP/Phillips = J.B.Phillips translation of the New Testament
JNT = Jewish New Testament
K
KJV = King James Version of the Bible - see AV
L
LB = Living Bible
lit. = literally or literature
LXX = Septuagint, Greek translation of the OT
M
MLT = Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon
Moff. = Moffatt translation of the Bible
MRC = Messianic Renewed Covenant Version of the NT
MS(S) = Manuscript(s)
N
NASB, NASV = New American Standard Bible/Version
NC&C = New Covenants & Commandments - see OB
NCCF = New Covenant Christian Fellowship, earlier name of NCCG
NCCG = New Covenant Church of God, earlier name of MLT - see BCAY
NCP = New Covenant Press, publishing arm of MLT
NCW = New Covenant Witness, MLT magazine
NEB = New English Bible
NIV = New International Version of the Bible
NKJV = New King James Version of the Bible
Nor. = Norwegian
NT = New Testament, B'rit Chadashah
NWT = New World Translation of the Bible, unreliable Jehovah's Witness version
O
OB = Olive Branch - see NC&C
op.cit. = opere citato (lit. in the work cited)
OT = Old Testament, Tanakh
P
p(p). = page(s)
pl. = plural - see s.
PWNC = Prophetic Words of the New Covenant, revelation cataloging system - see OB
Q
QED = quod erat demonstrandum (lit. which was shown to be proved)
R
RCF = Restoration Christian Fellowship, earlier name of ICJC
RhQ = Ruach haQodesh, Holy Spirit
RSTNE = Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition of the Bible
RSV = Revised Standard Version of the Bible
RV = Revised Version of the Bible
S
s. = singular - see pl.
S&G = Smith & Goodspeed Version of the Bible
T
TEV = Today's English Version of the Bible - see GNB
V
Vulg. = Biblia Vulgata, Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible
W
WEB = World English Bible
Glossary Copyright ©2007 Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon (MLT) - All Rights Reserved
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This page was first created on 20 March 2007
Last updated on 20 March 2007
Copyright ©2007 Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon (MLT) - All Rights Reserved