The
Eucharist of Christ is not a crumb, but a feast; and without it, all
nations shall be snared under the bondage of Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh,
and the Caesars of the world.
If
we will not be the servants of mankind, we will be the slaves of men.
“Take heed to
thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land
whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:”
(Exodus 34:12)
A brief look at Romans 13 before we begin, for those who have
not yet read the Church's essay on these controversial verses:
“Let every soul be subject unto the
higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be
are ordained of God.” Romans 13:1
This statement by Paul is very
true, but the common understanding that God desires men to be subject
to the will of other men is false. What Paul is clearly saying with
an honest reading of the Greek text is:
“Let every soul be subject
unto the higher liberty. For there is no liberty
but of God: the liberties that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth (opposes) the liberty,
resisteth (opposes) the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall
receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good
works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the liberty?
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.”
Romans 13: 1,3
This rendering of the text is
unquestionably correct, too, despite the fact that it seems to
contradict the interpretation often applied Romans. There are many
words that can be translated power, but the word used by Paul
in Romans is exousia. It
means specifically “power of choice, liberty of doing as one
pleases.” The same Greek word is even translated “liberty” in
1Corinthians 8:9 and “right” in both Hebrews 13:10 and
Revelations 22:14.
Aristotle
actually exemplifies exousia's use in the statement, “The right (exousia) to do anything one
wishes...”
Liberty is a power
and a right endowed by
God to every man. The translation in the King James Version is not
incorrect, though interpretations of it may be flawed.
The
reference in verse three that “rulers are not a terror to good
works, but to the evil” is also true. That does not mean that
God desires men to rule over men. If we recall the bondage of Egypt,
where men were subject to the rule of Pharaoh and forced by law to
pay 20 percent of their income to Pharaoh,
this was a direct result of the evil deed of abusing and selling
their own brother into slavery.
“When thou
sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be
not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.”
(Proverbs 23:1)
When
the
voice of the people
of Israel cried out for a commander in Chief to fight their battles
for them, God called it a rejection of
Him.
God was specific in His description of the multitude of problems that
would befall men who made such a wicked and foolish choice.
Prophecy
comes true when men fail to seek the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness. The power of God's precepts and the consequences for
their neglect are inescapable. The consequence is predictable, too.
“And ye shall cry out in that day
because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD
will not hear you in that day.” 1 Samuel 8:18
When
Saul
foolishly
forced the sacrifice of the people(taxed), his kingdom was doomed.
When David foolishly
numbered the young men of Israel for the draft, he repented. When Solomon and his son oppressed the
people,
they repented from their sin of rejecting God, that a man should rule
over them. But as the evil
had already been set in motion, the nation was divided and conquered.
“Go and cry unto the gods which ye
have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.”
Judges 10:14
There are other verses that may
lead to confusion if not seen in the context of the spirit of love
and the dominion of God:
“But chiefly them that walk after
the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.
Presumptuous [are they], self-willed, they are not afraid to speak
evil of dignities.” 2 Peter 2:10
Everywhere else the word is
translated as government; in
2 Peter 2 it is translated dominion.
If dominion is a right and responsibility endowed by God, and
men give that divine inheritance away in exchange for comforts of the
flesh, then have we despised the dominion of God?
“Then Jacob gave Esau bread and
pottage ... thus Esau despised [his] birthright.” Genesis 25:34
From Cain to Nimrod, or
from Pharaoh to Caesar, governments were instituted by men who would
not be ruled by God. God's
punishment has not the vengeful purpose that is sometimes applied to
God by men. It is God's desire to draw man to the natural state for
which he was created. The terror
of tyrants come from the sin of the wicked. The sting that results
from that sin is a gift
to awaken man to the wisdom of repentance.
The Bible says in James that you
should:
“Submit yourselves therefore to
God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
The word devil here is diabolos and is often applied to those “opposing the cause of God.”
God's cause is to free men, not to put them in bondage. If we desire
to set men free, evil will flee from our hearts.
“Then Peter and the [other]
apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.”
Acts 5:29
Should we submit to God or men?
Should we ever go under authority or sell ourselves into bondage in
exchange for free bread or pottage?
But we also see Peter say that
you should:
“Submit yourselves to every
ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as
supreme;” 1 Peter 2:13
If we look at this verse word by
word and put it into the context of the whole scripture we may see it
in a new light.
First, the Greek word Oun
is not translated in King James version. The meaning of oun is
consequently or therefore.
Peters verse 13 is an instruction in relation to prior statements.
“Having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as
evildoers, they may by [your] good works, which they shall behold,
glorify God in the day of visitation.” 1 Peter 2:12
We must always read the Bible in
the context of the whole Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Jesus preached
that Kingdom is at hand. While all the Jews of Judea did not
accept Him as the king, thousands of people did...at His entry into
Jerusalem, and at Pentecost.
All who accepted Him as the
Messiah
were cast out of the religion of the Pharisees. That means they would get no
benefits or aid from their government, no “Corban.” Both
the “world” of Rome, and Judea at that time, provided for
their needy in society through their civil temples. They collected
contributions from the people to provide welfare for the the widows,
orphans, and needy of their societies.
“Thou shalt
not covet... any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.” (Ex.
20:17)
About 78 BC, the Pharisees,
which were a political party, thought they had a better idea and
decided to create a socialist state that could exercise authority
over the people. They managed to enact a law to enforce the
collection of temple tribute for those who would become a member.
The right hand of government increased its power while reducing the
status of the people. The people lost the spiritually maturing
benefit of exercising charity in freedom and their right to choose.
“And through
covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you:
whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation
slumbereth not.” (2 Peter 2:3)
All governments expand their
power or influence over the people by offers of gifts, gratuities,
and benefits, in schemes that require a decrease in their individual
right to choose what they will contribute, to whom and for
what purpose. Someone else will have their power of choice.
Herod's grand scheme of a vast membership were baptized,
after an application and the prescribed fees, with annual
contributions collected and recorded by the scribes in a system
called Corban.
Members
were given a white stone as ID,
and Herod was able to expand his hope of a kingdom of
God on earth by this religious system of social security
(Corban) and statutory enforced collection of its taxed membership.
Pilate "... used the sacred treasure of the temple, called
corban (qorban), to pay for bringing water into Jerusalem by an
aqueduct. A crowd came together and clamored against him..."
because those funds were for their welfare, but their welfare system
had brought them into bondage.
“Let their table become a snare
before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let
it become a trap.” Psalms 69:22
Because this precept of God is
so fundamental, Paul repeats it:
“And David saith, Let their table
be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence
unto them:” Romans 11:9
Why do I say this social
security system was religious?
“Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself
unspotted from the world.” James 1:27
The Greek word for world in this verse is defined as “an apt and harmonious arrangement
or constitution, order, government” and comes the Greek word komizo, defined “to care for, take care of, provide
for.”
Christ's Kingdom offered the
same religious benefits, care, and assistance as the “world”,
but was dependent on faith, hope, and charity to provide the
resources of its government, as God has always intended.
Other nations offer social
contracts
that bind its members.
These subject citizens have duties incumbent
including full faith
and allegiance.
These were the benefactors who exercised authority one over
the other that Christ told us we
were not to be like
when He appointed the Kingdom to
His ambassadors.
This is why 1 Peter 2:12 talks
about our conduct among the Gentiles. The word Gentiles is
from ethnos meaning other nations.
The Kingdom is a nation at hand but it does not exercise
authority over the people. Like
Herod's kingdom, it had members all over the world, but unlike
Herod's kingdom, Christ's Kingdom was based on the perfect law of
liberty and free will choice spoken of by Paul.
“The
union and discipline of the Christian republic”
was praised by Edward
Gibbon concerning the early Church, as “it gradually formed an
independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman Empire.”
The word 'conversation' in 1
Peter 2:12 has the meaning of conduct, and is translated from
the Greek word anastrophe
which is from anastrepho
meaning to “to turn upside down, overturn, to turn back.”
We see a variation of that same
word referencing Jason and certain brethren accused of turning
the world upside down in
Thessalonica.
“And when they found them not, they
drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying,
These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;”
Acts 17:6
The nature of the charge was
that they were doing contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying
that there was another king. These acts were upsetting the
rulers, so much so that they were arrested and appear to have
been forced to post a bond in order to get out of jail. Then Paul and
Silas were sent away in secret and went to Berea where many believed
after researching the scriptures.
Believed what? What was
so controversial to the rulers and citizens, and what were they
discovering in Berea?
Paul did explain that Jesus came
and suffered for them, and that he was the Christ. Christ
meant Anointed or Messiah which have been terms used to
identify the king of Israel or Judea since King David. Jesus had
been proclaimed King by foreign rulers from the east, and by the
people of Jerusalem who hailed him as the highest son of David.
Pilate, as procurator of Rome, had
officially proclaimed Jesus as the King of the Jews.
Christians like Paul claimed this Christ as King, and preached His
government. Agrippa recognized their political position. By
Christ's sacrifice and death, He sealed the truth of His Kingship in
His innocent blood.
Jesus' Kingship was very
controversial. He was restoring every man to his possession and
family.
The Kingdom of God is a network of families coming together under the
perfect law of liberty,
binding themselves by faith, hope, and charity,
rather than social contracts
with civil benefactors who exercise authority one over the
other.
The early Church did not pray
to the Patronus of Rome
for mercy and justice, nor for free bread. Christians prayed
to Our Father who art in Heaven
for forgiveness, as they showed forgiveness for others, and for their
daily bread. Christian bread was contributed freely by the
thanksgiving of Christ's faithful believers. Anyone who
professed Christ was cast out of the social welfare system, Corban,
of the Pharisees at Herod's golden temple that made the word of
God to none effect.
“Making the word of God of none
effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” Mark
7:13
Corban is sacrifice.
It is also translated offering, oblation, offered, sacrifice, and
treasury in the Bible.The purpose of the sacrifice was to care for the needy of
society, which included anyone who did not have sufficient resources
within their family to provide for a crisis. Corban has been a part
of all governments and societies of man.
Corban was a religious Rite for
the welfare of the people. Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, Caesar, and Herod
were benefactors in the provision of free bread by forcing
the sacrifice, the contributions, of
the people.
The followers of Jesus the
Christ also made provision to care for the needy of their society.
They accomplished this without the benefactors of the “world”
which exercised authority over the contributions of the
people.
Pure Religion was providing for society in a way that was
unspotted by the covetous authoritarianism of the “world”.
“And he said unto them, The kings
of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise
authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so:”
Luke 22:25. Also Matthew 20:25, Mark 10:42.
Early Rome, the Republic,
depended entirely on the distribution of charity through the
congregation of the family hearths. These networked families provided
for the welfare needs of their society.
Public works projects,
commercial ventures, and even war was financed through similar fund
raising institutions or temples. This community, in affluence and
apathy, eventually built temples to manage services on a centralized
governmental scale with a broadened scope. By 70 B.C., a bread dole
was decreed, distributing free bread to 40,000 adult males
which increased over the centuries to include over 300,000.
There was little need for
individual charity with the government taking
over this responsibility. Every year, 500,000,000 bushels of
grain were imported from Egypt alone. This grain was stockpiled and
redistributed daily from warehouses along Trajan’s dock,
covering over 160 acres. With these massive government giveaway
programs in place, the local farmers needed to be subsidized, and
charity died from neglect.
As the republic moved away from
voluntarism and charity, the people were seduced by the temptation of
easy entitlements offered by benefactors who exercised
authority. The voluntary charitable network which had bound
families together into a strong society was gradually replaced by an
authoritarian system which imposed a civil duty and legal obligation
to contribute. A once titular leadership became lawmakers whose
authority and power was soon centralized into the hands of one Caesar
or dictator after another, until Rome declined and fell.
“Protection
draws to it subjection; subjection protection”
It has always been common
practice to expand the power of government through the offer of
social contracts and schemes to an acquiescing, if not consenting,
populace by enticing people with benefits and promises provided at
the expense of their neighbors.
“The
real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads
among them bounties, donations, and benefits.”
The Bible warns over and
over again concerning such covetous foolishness.
The modern Church, through ignorance or design, has subverted the
meaning and intent of the authors and followed an illicit and
covetous path, while neglecting the path of God's righteousness.
The unrighteous path is
the unrighteous mammon. Mammon is not money, although money may
represent a form of mammon. Mammon is entrusted wealth;
like the camp of the golden calf, people deposit their wealth under
the control of another. Jesus compares God and mammon as two
masters, both requiring service and bestowing benefits and grace upon
its faithful members. One will fail, the other is everlasting.
“And I say unto you, Make to
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye
fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.... If
therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who
will commit to your trust the true [riches]?” Luke 16:9-11
Jesus also tells us to be
faithful with the unrighteous mammon, while we should pursue the
righteous. We should not be cheating
the present master while we are in the process of seeking the
Kingdom.
The
people in Egypt were required to pay their tale of bricks,
but they gleaned in the field for their straw.
These are metaphors where the tale
was what they owed the government, and straw
was their entitlements and benefits. As these systems decline, so do
their benefits, but the burden increases upon the people and they cry
out to the true God.
If men understood that these
systems of entrusting benefactors who exercise authority
with the wealth and welfare of the people snares them in a plague of
bondage, then they might not seek the flesh pots
of Egypt, Rome, and Herod, and pursue the righteous path of God.
During the Christian
persecutions, emperor
Decius [249-251] required all to sacrifice to the gods of the
temple. The purpose was not to please idols of stone, but to fill the
treasury of the temples. The severe penalties were meant to
intimidate their members. We see that “...the chiliarchs were calling upon each one by name from a roll.”
Inflation had been
staggering since the silver was removed from the denarii, and the
endless fighting against the barbarian terrorists had drained the
funds of government. In order to keep the people placated and
passive, benefits would need to be provided. The government built
temples and institutions used to manage those “mammon”
funds.
There have been accusations that
“The Emperor Decius, wishing to break and suppress the law of
the Christians, issued his edicts throughout the world.”
Christians were not of that “world,” nor were
“believers” members on the “rolls” of the
temples or partakers of its mammon.
Although Christians were
separate, with their own law,
anyone not participating in those systems of sacrifice were
immediately suspect. This system of sacrifice and benefit was called
Qorban by the Romans, Corban in the Bible, Korban in the Hebrew, and
even Holy Qurbana.
All Corban is the same. The
Corban of the Pharisees made the word of God to none effect.
God had told the people to love their neighbor as themselves with
freewill offerings through a system of voluntary charity managed by
their public servants, the Levites. They were the public servants of
a Kingdom, chosen by ten families in congregations and paid based on
their service.
The Church was no different.
“The hand of the diligent shall
bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.” Proverbs
12:24
“Ye cannot drink the cup of the
Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s
table, and of the table of devils.” 1 Cor. 10:21
The Pagans had their “Liturgy”
from the Greek word leitourgi meaning “public
service.”
The Christian Liturgy was not about singing, pious rhetoric,
or vestments of modern religions. It was about the serving the public
in congregations of the Kingdom of God, operating under the perfect
law of liberty in true worship of God by actively loving one another
in a religious system of, by, and for the people.
The Christian community was
well-disciplined in their hearts and minds, and organized from the
bottom up, through a system of charity rather than force. The Roman
Mammon was failing. But the Christ's Mammon of righteousness
successfully provided for Christian welfare.
Justin Martyr, in about AD 150,
hoping to clear the misconceptions and prejudices surrounding
Christianity, wrote the Emperor Antoninus Pius in defense of the
Christian faith and allegiance to Christ:
“There is then brought to the
president of the brethren bread and a vessel of wine mixed with
water; and he taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of
the universe... And when the president has given thanks, and all the
people have expressed their assent, those who are called by us
deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and
wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and
to those who are absent they carry away a portion.”
“And the wealthy among us help the
needy ... and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is
collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans
and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in
want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among
us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.” (First
Apology, Ch. 65-67)
This was not a token breadcrumb
given as a mere ritual but was the life-saving Bread of Life. Through
charity and hope, a brotherhood is born in the Eucharist of Christ by
the charitable sharing of provisions.
"We call this food eucharist
(thanksgiving), and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except
one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in
the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration
[baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined.” (First
Apology, Chapter 66:1-20)
This was clearly the precept of
the Kingdom as defined by John the Baptist,
Christ,
and Moses.
This is the Kingdom of God at hand, doing the will of the Father, and
following the dictates of Christ.
The true faithful of Christ, not
deluded by half a gospel, would not send their brothers to the
benefactors who exercise authority.
Such welfare systems would snare them into bondage like like
Egypt. They would instead be partakers of the Eucharist of the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
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Published by
His Church at Summer
Lake
The
Ides of April, Two-thousand and eight
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