The Hijacking of the Faith
by
Rabbi Robert O. Miller
“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written aboutlong ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our Yahweh into a license for immorality and deny Messiah YahShua our only Sovereign and King. (Jude 1:2-4)”
Rebbe YahShua said that it was to Israel and only to Israel that He came to seek and save.
“[Messiah said] I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. (Matthew 15:24)”
“…the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)”
It is for the reconciliation of the Lost Sheep of Israel, primarily, and through them all of the other nations that would convert and become Israel, that Messiah had come.
“I have become its servant by the commission Yahweh gave me to present to you the word of Yahweh in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them Yahweh has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Messiah in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:25-27)”
The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations is, there is a Majority of the posterity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lost to their identity and inheritance among the nations of the world. Thus, there is a race of people living among the other races who do not know their family origin yet bare all the markings of Scripture in their lives causing not only themselves to suspicion but the rest of humanity to take notice and declare they are Israel.
“All the nations will ask: “Why has Yahweh done this to this land (Israel)? Why this fierce, burning anger?” And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the Elohim of their fathers…and when you and your children return to Yahweh your Elohim and obey Him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then Yahweh your Elohim will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where He scattered you… For Yahweh is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 29:24,25; 30:2,3,20)”
Rebbe YahShua said that before the restor[ation of] the Kingdom [of] Israel could happen we must preach the Full Messianic Message of the Kingdom to the Majority of the whole world because the majority of the people on this earth at this present time are Israelites and don’t even know it. “…this full Messianic message of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14)
“For surely I will command, and will sift the House of Israel among all nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. (Amos 9:9)”
The history of the Talmidim (disciples) of the one True Faith was to be the same as those they came to minister to. This preacher of the Full Messianic Message of the Kingdom was to be PERSECUTED — -SCATTERED! King Messiah YahShua said, “Remember the word that I said to you [Apostles], “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also (John 15:20)” On the night of the crucifixion, Rebbe YahShua revealed: “You will all fall away…for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ (Mark 14:27)” Earlier that same evening He had already told them: “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. (John 16:32)” And Rabbi Sha’ul told the young rabbinical student Timothy, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Messiah YahShua will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12).”
From the beginning Yahweh began to scatter the Talmidim abroad so that we would penetrate the Diaspora and sift Israel from the nations. “…On that day (of Brother Stephen’s death) a great persecution broke out against the ‘Called Out Ones’ at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. (Acts 8:1)”
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)”
At the same time, there was a counterfeit faith trying to destroy the True Message. “…contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written aboutlong ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our Yahweh into a license for immorality and deny Messiah YahShua our only Sovereign and King. (Jude 1:2-4)”
“[Yahweh] declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel. (Psalm 147:19)”
From the beginning there have been powers sent by the Sitre Ahurah (Dark Forces) to sabotage our Kingdom and hijack our Faith. We live amidst false teachers who propagate lies. And a lie is a deception that is intentionally constructed in order to be believed.
“…many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.” (Matthew 24:11)
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our Elohim into lasciviousness, and denying the only Sovereign Yahweh, and our King Messiah YahShua.” (Jude 1:4).
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Messiah. And no wonder! For haSatan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-14)
“…for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)”
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. ” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
“For this reason Yahweh sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:11,12)”
Amazing, but it’s true – most people are deceived. How have the majority been deceived? Simply by a preaching lies about the person of Messiah — extolling His virtues, worshipping Him, yet denying His Full Messianic Message of the Kingdom — His character —by substituting pagan myths for truth and by reinterpreting Him portraying Him as opposed to the Judaism of his time, and as an “anti-Jewish Jew!” What a clever counterfeit!
Concerning such men our Messiah quoted Isaiah 29:13, “’They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men’… Thus you nullify the word of Yahweh by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that. (Mark 7:7,13)”
The sad thing is the Majority has been so drugged, so poisoned, so deceived by haSatan’s counterfeit that even the pro-Torah teachings of Messiah YahShua are difficult to believe, so they must be twisted to fit into the teachings of the counterfeit faith.
“Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be very desolate,” says Yahweh. ‘For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters (as revealed in His word), And hewn themselves cisterns (a Counterfeit Faith) — broken cisterns that can hold no water (have no anointing).” (Jeremiah 2:12-13)
“Do not learn the way of the Heathen; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Heathen are dismayed at them. (Jeremiah 10:2)”
The True Faith
“…what advantage remains to the Jew? (How is he favored?) Or what is the value or benefit of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, to the Jews were entrusted the oracles (the communications, the intentions, the utterances) of Yahweh. What if some did not believe (inthe oracles of Yahweh) and were without faith? Does their unbelief and their lack of faith nullify and make ineffective and void the fidelity of the Faith of Yahweh (to His Word)? By no means! Let Yahweh be found true though every human being is false and a liar, as it is written, ‘That You (Yahweh) may be justified and shown to be upright in what You say, and prevail when You are judged [by sinful men](Psalm 51:4).’ (Romans 3:1-4)”
“[Yahweh] declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel. (Psalm 147:19)”
“All Scripture is Yahweh-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of Yahweh may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)”
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that Yahweh swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)”
Theologians and Prophets have wrestled with the question, “Who Is True Israel?” Why is this question so important? It is because the True Faith lies with True Israel. Rabbi Sha’ul wrote, “just as Abraham “believed Yahweh, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. (Galatians 3:6,7)”
Rabbi Sha’ul tackles this question of “Who is true Israel?” “Indeedyou are called a Jew, and rest on the Torah, and make your boast in Yahweh, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the Torah, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the Torah. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the Torah, do you dishonor Yahweh through breaking the Torah? For “the name of Yahweh is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,”as it is written. ‘For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the Torah; but if you are a breaker of the Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Torah, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the Torah, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the Torah? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from Yahweh. (Romans 2:17-29)” The truth is, one who does not keep the Faith is not “True Israel!”
Rabbi Sha’ul spoke about his “kinsmanaccording to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Torah, the service of Yahweh (liturgy), and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Messiah came, who is over all, the eternally blessed Elohim. Amien.
But it is not that the word of Yahweh has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham (Romans 9:3-6)”
All of this was given to Israel. “What if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the Faith of Yahweh without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let Yahweh be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged (Psalm 51:4).” (Romans 3:3,4)”
Then comes this bombshell, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”In other words, it is not the natural children who are Yahweh’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. (Romans 9:7,8)” Now do you see the importance of believing the Sacrifice of Isaac is a perfect type of the death, burial and resurrection of our Messiah.
“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. (Galatians 4:28 )” The “children of promise” are those who “receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:14)” In other words, “True Israel” are those who keep Covenant and we who were Gentiles get the Covenantal blessing of Abraham “through Messiah YahShua; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” as a part of the Commonwealth of Israel.
Like Abram, we must hear the call and seek Yahweh.
“I will whistle for Ephraim (1 King 19:9-18), and gather the remnant; for I have redeemed them, and they shall increase as they increased when I sowed them among the nations, and they shall remember me in far countries; and they and their children will live and return. (Zechariah 10:8-9)”
For only Yahweh can immerse you into His Spirit making you His own. “For we were all immersed byone Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (1 Corinthians 12:13)”
It is interesting to note that at the birth of the Commonwealth of Israel, they were immersed into the Spirit as they left Egypt readying themselves for the giving of Torah 49 days later on Shavuot (Pentecost). And at the rebirth of the Commonwealth on the Shavuot after the Messiah ascended Rabbi Shimon Kepha standing on the Temple Mount for all to hear proclaimed: “Repent and be immersed, every one of you, in the name of Messiah YahShua for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)”
And what name was Messiah YahShua proclaiming, not His own, but the name of the Heavenly Father, Yahweh. The last thing on Messiah’s mind as He ascended was: “…and no more am I in the world, but these are in the world, and I come unto Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, whom Thou hast given to me, that they may be one as we (John 17:11).”
The Talmidim (disciples) of Messiah YahShua went into the nations along the Diaspora route to bring the Full Messianic Message of Redemption in the person of King Messiah YahShua to the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.” Because of this, Ephraim has held on to the person of Messiah. The counterfeit has tried to reinterpret and destroy what the Talmidim did but True Israel has heard the call and is returning to the Faith of Yahweh bringing the revelation of Messiah with them.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? …My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred. …They shall walk after Yahweh. He will roar like a lion (Taking on the characteristics of Judah). When He roars, then His sons shall come trembling from the west. (Hosea 11:8,10)”
“They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble, because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son. Hear the word of Yahweh, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd. (Jeremiah 31:9-10)”
Covenant keeping Judah has stubbornly held on to Torah and preserved the Faith of Yahweh blinded to who Messiah is however ever longing for his coming. They have withstood the missionaries of the counterfeit and their Jesus keeping their Faith mostly intact forbidding assimilation.
Judah is being provoked to jealousy by the Netzarim (followers of Messiah YahShua) into seeking Messiah. When? “When the “Meelo Goyim,” has come in.” “I am talking to you nations. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the nations, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. (Romans 11:14)”
Yahweh tells Moses shortly before Moses dies: “….this people will start playing the harlot, following the alien gods of the land they are invading. They will desert Me and break this Covenant of Mine that I have made with them. On that day My Anger shall blaze against them. I shall forsake them and hide My face from them. A host of disasters will overtake them and devour them. (Deuteronomy 31:16)” So Yahweh says: “They have roused Me to jealousy with what is no elohim … I then will rouse them to jealousy with what is no people; I will anger them with an empty-headed nation. (Deuteronomy 31:16 32:21)”
Few Are Chosen
“For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:13)”
The promise to Abraham was that his descendants would be “The Majority” proving that the majority of the people on this earth at this present time are Israelites and don’t even know it, this passage, in Isaiah 10:20-22, answers us with the reality that most of the Majority will never realize their inheritance, only the Remnant will realize her destiny.
“Since Yahweh is with thee, O Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, this remnant will no longer rely upon alliances with the surrounding nations (to include the US), but upon Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty Elohim. Though your people, O Israel, be as the sand by the sea they will be Shear-Yashub, the remnant that will repent and be saved. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous. (Isaiah 10:20-22)”
“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.(1 Corinthians 1:26)”
The world cannot receive the truth. “…the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehendit. (John 1:5)” Why is this so? Because, as our Messiah said, “this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)”
Barely twenty years after our Messiah ascended to the Heavenly Tabernacle to officiate over the True Faith as its faithful High Priest, Rabbi Sha’ul was warning: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sinis revealed, the son of perdition (2 Thessalonians 2:3).” The wholesale departure from the Faith was prophesied as one of the signs of the “End.”
The Authority
The Spiritual Authority for the Faith of Yahweh was the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem. Here all sects of the Faith looked to for Truth. Many of our congregations were getting confused. To where did they turn for clarification? “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Rabbi Sha’ul and Ben Navi into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Rabbi Sha’ul and Ben Navi were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles (leaders of the Netzarim) and elders (of the Sanhedrin) about this question. (Acts 15:1-2)”
At Jerusalem the question had to be considered and DECIDED. After much deliberation, “Rav Yakkov (Brother of Rebbe YahShua and President of the Sanhedrin) spoke up: “Brothers, listen to me. Shimonhas described to us how Yahweh at first showed his concern by taking from the nations a people for himself. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen Tabernacle. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the remnant of men may seek Yahweh, and all the nations who bear my name, says Yahweh, who does these things’that have been known for ages.(Amos 9:11,12)’ It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to Yahweh. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from uncleanliness, idolatry, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath. (Acts 15:13-21)”
Concerning Rav Yakkov’s verdict, Rabbi Sha’ul said “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements…”
Through the influence of Rav Yakkov, the congregation at Jerusalem was kept PURE by the constant admonition and correction of the elders and apostles so that it might be an example to the rest of the congregations.
“For you, brothers (Thessalonians), became imitators of Yahweh’s congregations in Judea, which are in Messiah YahShua: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those congregations suffered from the Judeans (1 Thessalonians 2:14).”
The congregation in the West that Rabbi Sha’ul was raising up were supervised by Rabbi Shimon Kepha. “Kepha, an apostle of Messiah YahShua, to Yahweh’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1 Peter 1:1).” Rabbi Kepha watched over the Western congregations from the ancient city of Antioch. “From Attalia [Rabbi Sha’ul and Ben Navi] sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of Yahweh for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the “Called Out Ones” together and reported all that Yahweh had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the nations. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. (Acts 14:26-28 )”
The Falling Away
Rabbi Sha’ul, uniquely the Apostle sent to the nations, explained how the “falling away” would occur: “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
So now, brethren, I commend you to Yahweh and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:29-32)”
False ministers would come and incorporate themselves into the local body lying in stealth. Then, like a wolf patiently waits for its prey, at the right time will seek to draw away the disciples after themselves. To establish the counterfeit congregation.
Again, his advise to the young Rabbi Timothy, Rabbi Sha’ul instructed him: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. ” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Rabbi Shimon Kepha also warned our movement: “…many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. (2 Peter 2:2)”
Even members of the desposyni (Family of Rebbe YahShua, literally Greek, “belonging to the Sovereign”) warned us: “But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our King Messiah YahShua: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. (Jude 1:17-19)”
They have turned the liberty we have in Messiah of getting to do the Torah into a LICENSE TO DISOBEY the commandments.
Rabbi Yochannan warned: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from Yahweh, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of Yahweh: every spirit that acknowledges that Messiah YahShua has come in the flesh is from Yahweh, but every spirit that does not acknowledge YahShua is not from Yahweh. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from Yahweh and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from Yahweh, and whoever knows Yahweh listens to us; but whoever is not from Yahweh does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spiritof Truth and the Spirit of Falsehood. (1 John 4:1-6)” The WORLD BELIEVES THE MANY FALSE MINISTERS but the Faithful listen to Torah! “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (1 John 2:18-19)” This is why there are so many groups claiming Messiah but not willing to commit to one another let alone the Torah. “Let me renew commandment to you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34,35)” “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Messiah YahShua as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. (2 John 1:6-8)”
You may be thinking, no body in their right mind would deny that Messiah YahShua came in the flesh. But by their disobedience they act like they never will be held accountable by Him. So, to them, He’s not real. These false teachers who left the true Faith “professed to have a personal relationship with Yahweh,” they pretended to obey Yahweh, “…but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. (Titus 1:16)” They professed Yahweh but they denied Yahweh’s sovereignty as expressed in His Torah. They came in “Jesus’” but denied YahShua and the name He came in. They were DISOBEDIENT.
The Scattering
Gentiles soon became the “ethnic majority” in the Netzarim Movement. Many of the new converts felt more Roman than Israelite. With the repression of Rome, Roman converts never embraced the nationalism of the Faith. Antagonism began to manifest between those that preached the Kingdom message and those that were preaching a purely esoteric version steeped the pagan myths of the West.
The “adopted” children of Abraham, sifted from the nations effectively stole the birthright of the natural-born children, and drove the natural-born children out of the Community. Wherever the Counterfeit could not convert True Believers they expelled them. Rabbi Yochannan wrote to a man by the name of Gaius: “I wrote to the “Called Out Ones,” but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the (Israelite) brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the assembly. Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from Yahweh. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen Yahweh. Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true. (3 John 1:9-12)”
The True Brothers that had received the revelation of their place in the Commonwealth of Israel were being kicked out of the congregations. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of Yahweh! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1)”
By 70 CE, the Temple was destroyed, many of the Netzarim Rabbis were dead. And many of the congregations were cut off from the Jerusalem body. The local Netzarim congregation at Rome, which was established by Rabbi Sha’ul’s teaching, was severely persecuted by Nero in 64 CE. Wanting to remodel the city, Nero set fire to Rome blaming the Netzarim. Quickly, the authorities began arrested the Netzarim leadership. It took 3 years to round up Rabbi Sha’ul. He wrote the Netzarim in Traos to bring him his personal belongings especially his copies of the Scriptures and apostolic writings: “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. (2 Timothy 4:13)”
After the maryrdom of Rabbi Shimon Kepha and Rabbi Sha’ul; and after the assassination of Rabbi Yakkov, the counterfeit was developing rapidly — especially in the West. Many people who were listening to the false teachers began to look for new leaders and new headquarters. They did not look to Messiah! Where else could they turn but to Rome? It was the Government of Rome that aided these renegades in their hijacking of the birthright from Israel and gave it to the Gentile “church.”
When Alexander the Great conquered Babylon he brought back into the West its ancient mystery cult, by the time Rome inherited it, it had become wildly popular in Europe. Rome had long been a cosmopolitan center of religion. And the most important part of Rome was Vatican hill. “The Vatican sanctuary … seems to have been a well-known … cult center … of the worship of Cybele the Roman equivalent of Ishtar (the “Mother of God”) … No less than nine inscriptions referring to the same cult have long been known from the immediate vicinity of St. Peter’s …” (from The Shrine of St. Peter and the Vatican Excavations, by J. Toynbee and J. W. Perkins, p. 6).
In the days of Rabbi Sha’ul a “pagan cemetery lay on a knoll called Vaticanus” — Vatican hill, where the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church is today. “The Latin word “vatis” means a ‘prophet’ or ‘soothsayer.’ In days gone by there had been an Etruscan oracle on this spot,” writes Werner Keller in The Bible as History, p. 389.
In the Babylonian Mystery Cult, Nimrod, was “the opener” of secrets. In the Chaldaic (a dialect of Hebrew) the word for opener was “PETER”! (See Young’s Concordance.) Their prophets were called patres or keys to the secret door and the faithful drew on the wordplay and called them padres, fathers.
An apostate by the name of Anacletus, calling himself a bishop, dedicated the ancient shrine of the pagan Peter Nimrod to the apostle “Peter” redefining Rabbi Kepha into a Gentilized Bishop around 80 CE, according to a record in the Liber Pontificalis (i, p. 125).
It was a small jump for Anacletus to convince the drifting, unemployed pagan population of Rome — which was becoming interested in the mysteries — that the shrine at Rome was the site of burial of the Bishop “Peter” — for had not the Rabbi Kepha been at Babylon! And to cement his authority, he claimed to have been ordained by Rabbi Kepha that he now referred to as Bishop Peter.
Anacletus claimed to be the SOLE SUCCESSOR to Peter. He insisted that Rome should be the new headquarters of all the congregations and that they take on the Cercian title Church.
When the news of the apostate authority of the bishop of Rome spread abroad, many other false teachers saw the advantage of casting in their lot with him “to draw away the disciples after themselves. It now became a struggle to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
The Catholic historian Eusebius relates how the faithful Netzarim viewed the apostates: “But Polycarp also was not only instructed by the apostles, and conversed with many who had seen [Messiah], but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed [overseer] of the [Congregation] of Smyrna … He it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus” — bishop of Rome around 154 CE — “caused many to turn away from the … heretics to the [assembly of Yahweh], proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles … While at Rome, Polycarp discussed with the Roman bishop the matter of the introduction of the pagan Easter in place of the Passover.
Irenaeus continued: “For neither could Anicetus (the bishop of Rome) persuade Polycarp not to observe it” — the Passover — Because he had always observed it with [Yochannan], the disciple of our King, and the rest of the apostles, with whom he associated; and neither did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe it, who said that he was bound to follow the customs of the presbyters before him” (Quoted from Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chap. 24, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1).
“You have let go of the commands of Yahweh and are holding on to the traditions of men. (Mark 7:8)”
After Anicetus came Victor of Rome who for 35 years fought with the leadership of the Netzarim disfellowshipping whole congregations who returned to the True Faith. “As for us, then, we scrupulously observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great luminaries have gone to their rest, who shall rise again in the day of the coming of the King … I speak of Pinchas (Philip), one of the twelve apostles … Yochannan (John), moreover, who reclined on the Sovereign’s bosom … Then there is Polycarp … These all kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in accordance with the [Full Messianic Message] without ever deviating from it, but keeping to the rule of Faith.” (Vol. 8 of the Ante Nicene Fathers, pp. 773-774).
Even the anti-Semitic John Chrysostom had to admit: that “formerly it (the Passover) prevailed also at Antioch” from where Paul (Rabbi Sha’ul) began many of his apostolic journeys.”
Synagogue of haSatan
“I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of haSatan. (Revelation 2:9)”
The church claims that they are spiritually Jews. Why is it so important for the counterfeit to constantly refer to the True? Why is it so important for the Church to be identified as New Israel? Because, silly, “salvation is from the Jews. (John 4:22)”
The Church loves to quote: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 King James Version)”
“But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Romans 2:29 King James Version)”
In fact, the Church interprets Romans 11:16-27, as Rabbi Sha’ul explaining that Israel, namely the Jews, to whom salvation belonged, were broken off because of unbelief in Jesus. Gentiles were grafted in their place because they believed in Jesus. But once grafted in, they were no longer Gentiles — “Being in times past Gentiles in the flesh,” (Ephesians 2:11). Now they were all one in Christ Jesus, “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Christian saints,” (Ephesians 2:19), the New Jew. So the church made up of Gentiles, claiming the Birthright, claiming salvation, claiming to be Jews inwardly, masquerading as a “Christian” church, became the very synagogue of Satan, the apostate church which developed after 70 CE.
After “Emperor Hadrian had conquered Jerusalem in the year 135, all Jews, and that included Jewish [Netzarim], had been forbidden to enter Jerusalem under pain of instant death. (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church, Cardinal Walter Martin, College of Cardinals, Jesuit)” “…when the people of the [Natzarim] in Jerusalem, having been commanded by an oracle, given by revelation to men there approved, before the war, to depart from the city and to dwell in a certain city of Paraea, namely, Pella (Petra), and when those who believed on [Messiah] had migrated thither from Jerusalem . . .the judgment of God then fell upon the unbelieving Jews in the form of the Roman armies..” (Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, Book 3. v. 2-3). Eusebius goes on to add that all of Palestine at that time was completely emptied of Netzarim. The Natzarim believed this was the dawning of the Great Tribulation and that Messiah commanded them to flee to Petra to await His second coming. So they moved the Mother Congregation there. “That the [Netzarim] here subsisted not merely as an intimidated flock in hiding, but continued its communal living and its propaganda, is undoubtedly probable” (J. Weiss, Earliest Christianity, N.Y., Harper and Row, 1959, Vol. 2, p. 716).
Epiphanius, another Catholic historians exposes the Netzarim: “We shall now especially consider heretics who… call themselves Nazarenes; they are mainly… Jews and nothing else. They make use not only of the New Testament, but they also use in a way the Old Testament of the Jews; for they do not forbid the books of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings… so that they are approved of by the Jews, from whom the Nazarenes do not differ in anything, and they profess all the dogmas pertaining to the prescriptions of the Law and to the customs of the Jews, except they believe in [Messiah]…They preach that there is but one [Elohim], and his son [Messiah YahShua]. But they are very learned in the Hebrew language; for they, like the Jews, read the whole Law, then the Prophets…They differ from the Jews because they believe in [Messiah, and from the Christians in that they are to this day bound to the Jewish rites, such as circumcision, the Sabbath, and other ceremonies …Otherwise, this sect of the Nazarenes thrives most vigorously in the state of Berea, in Coele-Syria, in Decapolis, around [Petra], and in Bashan…After they departed from Jerusalem, they made their start from here, as all the disciples dwelt in [Petra], having been admonished by [Messiah to depart Jerusalem and emigrate because of imminent danger (Epiphanius; Panarion 29).”
The Jews, especially the Pharisees, who originally saw us as brothers, resented the Netzarim flight to Petra as an act of betrayal. In 90 CE, Rabbi Sh’muel HaKatan (Samuel the Lesser) was commissioned to add to the synagogue liturgy a prayer against the Netzarim, called the Birkat haMinim to the Eighteen Benedictions of the Amidah: “For the renegades let there be no hope, and may the arrogant kingdom soon be rooted out in our days, and the Netzarim and the Minim perish as in a moment and be blotted out from the book of life and with the righteous may they not be inscribed. Blessed are you, Yahweh, who humbles the arrogant. ”
It was the Government of Rome that aided these renegades in their hijacking of the birthright from Israel and gave it to the Gentile “church.” At the Council of Nicea in 325 CE . The Roman emperor Constantine organized the Roman Church and unified its doctrines. Constantine appointed Sylvester as the first Pope. “A meeting between Sylvester and the Jewish [Netzarim] leaders took place in 318…. [Rabbi] Joses, the oldest of the [Netzarim] Jews, spoke on behalf of the desposyni (Family of Rebbe YahShua) and the rest….They… asked Sylvester to revoke his confirmation of Greek Christian bishops in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Ephesus, in Alexandria, and to name instead desposynos [leaders]…. Sylvester curtly and decisively dismissed the claims of the Jewish [Netzarim]. He told them that the mother church was now in Rome, with the bones of the Apostle Peter, and he insisted that they accept Greek bishops to lead them. (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church, Cardinal Walter Martin, College of Cardinals, Jesuit)”
Jerome, an official of the Roman church sent to Israel to retrieve a full copy of the Scriptures, something the Church did not possess, says concerning the Netzarim: ‘desiring to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither the one nor the other” … while adhering as far as possible to the Mosaic economy as regarded circumcision, Sabbaths, foods and the like, they did not refuse to recognize the apostolicity of Paul (Rabbi Sha’ul) or the rights of heathen Christians (Jerome’s Commentary on Isaiah 9:1).”
The Netzarim had no place in a church structure. Constantine ordered the Roman garrisons to hunt the Netzarim especially the Desposyni (YahShua’s immediate family) as outlaws of the State and execute them.
“Victor Constantinus, Maximus Augustus, to the heretics: “… To speak of your criminality as it deserves demands more time and leisure than I can give … Why not at once strike, as it were, at the root of so great a mischief…Forasmuch, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, we give warning by this present statute That none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourself together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies: and (we) forbid the holding of your superstitious and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever… Take the far better course of entering the Catholic Church ….We have commanded … that you be positively deprived of every gathering point for your superstitious meetings, I mean all the houses of prayer … and that these be made over without delay to the Catholic Church; that any other places be confiscated to the public service, and no facility whatever be left for any future gathering, in order that from this day forward none of your unlawful assemblies may presume to appear in any public or private place. Let this edict be made public” (The Life of Constantine, book 3 Eusebius). By the fifth century the Roman Church had almost totally replaced the True Faith. And Eusebius gives full credit to Constantine: “And the credit of having achieved this mighty work” (of stamping out the truth) “our Heaven-protected Emperor alone, of all who had gone before him, was able to attribute to himself” (The Life of Constantine, book 3 ch. 66).
Still there were pockets of the True Faith. As late as the beginning of the fifth century in Asia Minor, the bishop John Chrysostom became angry when members of the Roman Catholic Church, that upon learning the True Message from the scattered remnants of the True Faith, repented of their ways and began to observe the Sabbath and “the feast of trumpets (Yom Teruah) , the feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), and the feast of the great expiation (The Eighth Day)” (Antiquities of the Christian Church, Bk. 16, ch. 6, Bingham).
The Revival
In about 650 CE, there was a man ironically by the name of Constantine of Mananali. By some miracle of Yahweh he got a hold of portions of the Scriptures. “These books became the measure of his studies and the rule of his faith; and the Catholics, who disputed his interpretation, acknowledged that his text was genuine and sincere. But he attached himself with peculiar devotion to the writings and character of Paul and the name of Paulicians is derived by their enemies (of “wretched little Paul”)… but I am confident that they gloried in their affinity to the apostle to the Gentiles” (Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Ch. 5. p. 386). As he read he became amazed at the truth contained in its pages. He began to preach, convincing even some Catholic ministers, and with their help he literally began converting thousands back to the Faith in Cappadocia and Armenia. Fearing the loss of these provinces from the Catholic Church and the Empire, men were sent to kill Constantine of Mananali. After twenty-seven years of ministry he was stoned to death in 684 CE by the command of the emperor.
However, one of the officers sent to kill Constantine, a man by the name of Shimon, was so stirred by the way Constantine of Mananali died that he became converted and carried forth his message until he was burned at the stake six years later!
The Empress Theodora instituted a Holocaust against the Paulicians in Armenia in which one hundred thousand are said to have been exterminated between 840 and 860 CE.
Driven by desperation, these Paulicians rose up and threw off the yoke of persecution and in the ninth century and established in Armenia the, free state of Teprice. “…it was [in a] huge recess or circular dam formed by the Taurus mountain range that furnished a comparatively secure abiding place for this ancient form of Christianity” (A Manual of Church History, volume 1, page 381). They gave absolute freedom of opinion to all of its inhabitants. They sent missionaries to convert the Slavonic tribes of Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Serbia to the True Faith. (Historical View of Bosnia, p. 30 Evans) “And one point in their favor must be noticed, and it is this, their system was, like that of the European Cathars, in its basal idea and conception alien to persecution; for membership in it depended upon immersion, voluntarily sought for, even with tears and supplications, by the faithful and penitent adult. Into such a community there could be no dragooning of the unwilling. On the contrary, the whole purpose of the scrutiny, to which the candidate for immersion was subjected, was to ensure that his heart and intelligence were won, and to guard against the merely outward conformity which is all that a persecutor can hope to impose. It was one of the worst results of infant baptism, that by making membership in the Christian church mechanical and outward, it made it cheap; and so paved the way of the persecutor (The Key of Truth, page 12 Conybeare).
In the late 19th century. British scholar and theologian Fred C. Conybeare discovered a seventh- or eighth-century Paulician manuscripts that had been stored in an Armenian monastery. This amazing find was called The Key of Truth. In it were the customs and beliefs of these Believers. Conybeare says he had at last ‘Understood who these Paulicians really were. All who had written about them had been misled by slander. I now realized that I had stumbled on the monument of a phase of the [Faith] so old and so outworn, that the very memory of it was lost.’ ” They preached the reality of the Kingdom; They believed only adults could receive immersion and that true repentance was a prerequisite for immersion; they denied the perpetual virginity of Miriam, the mother of YahShua, nor could they accept her as a mediator; they rejected the rudiments of the Catholic religion such as adoration of the cross, mass, communion and confession; they believed a true Believer was one who knows Messiah and keeps the commandments of Yahweh they believed in the laying on of hands for the receiving of the Holy Spirit; they kept the Sabbaths. “The general impression which the study of [The Key of Truth] leaves on us is that in it we have before us a form of [the Faith] not very remote from the primitive Jewish Christianity of Palestine” (The Key of Truth, page 193 Conybeare).
HaSatan took notice of this pocket of the Faith, knowing he could not overtly overthrow the Faith he began to introduce false teachers bringing with them the “doctrine of Ba’al Olam.” “I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Ba’al Olam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. (Revelation 2:14)” Looking at Numbers 31:16 we see that “these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Ba’al Olam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of Yahweh.” These false teachers began to introduce them to the observance of Christmas and Easter and to forsake the Jewish custom of Passover or the other Sabbaths. Trusting in their worldly political alliances with neighboring Arabs, Teprice lasted 150 years, when it was overcome betrayed and slaughtered, one hundred thousand of them!
The few True Believers, escaped into Southeastern Europe and were called Bogomils. “There they throve for centuries, and … spread … their tenets into Bohemia, Poland, Germany, Italy, France, and even into … England” (The Key of Truth, page 104 Conybeare).
As a result of the work of the missionaries sent by Paulicians of Bulgaria into the Alpine regions there arose numerous ministers and faithful congregations around 1000 CE One of these men was Peter de Bruys who preached the message of the Kingdom in the south of France (Jones’ Church History, ch. 4, sec. 3). Two other preachers of the time were Arnold and Henry. They were charged by the Catholic Church with remaining faithful to the whole law of [Yahweh] and of observing the Sabbath (Ecclesiastical History, by Peter Allix, pp. 168-169).
“As late as the eleventh century Cardinal Humbert still referred to the Nazarenes as a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time.” (History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week, J.N. Andrews & L.R. Conradi, p 545)
Mosheim, the Lutheran historian, admits that the congregations of the remnants of the Netzarim in the twelfth century held “a notion that the observance of the law of Moses, in everything except the offerings of sacrifices, was obligatory upon [believers] … they abstained from those meats the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic economy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. The second tenet which distinguished this sect was advanced in opposition to the doctrine of three persons in the divine nature.”
In the 1100’s, a man by the name of Peter Waldo began publicly preaching the Truth. Waldo came from Dauphiny, the same area of France as did Peter de Bruys. Peter came from an extremely wealthy family. However he committed a portion of his wealth to the translation of the Scriptures into the language of the people. He diligently began a personal study of Yahweh’s word. He was earnest in his search for the True Faith. Yahweh opened Peter’s mind to understand the Scriptures. He left the business to the family and he struck out to preach what he had found, his translation of the Scriptures always with him. As he preached people began to gravitate to him. He was educated and well spoken. As he went he found pockets of the True Faith in Picardy (in north of France), Flanders and the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and especially Bohemia. They kept the Sabbaths. And each Sukkot they held at their headquarters a great “conference.” As many as 700 persons attended from all over Europe. New students were chosen, ministerial assignments were made, and crowds gathered daily for sermons as they lived in tents.
The Waldenses, as Rome began to call them, began to be viewed as a threat by the Church. The archbishop of Lyons launched a persecution against the Waldenses. The Church officially forbade them from preaching in 1176. By 1197, all Waldenses were commanded to he tracked down and slaughtered or burned at the stake.
As late as the 12th century, the Netzarim were called Pasagini, “so named by the Italians from the Latin word ‘passagium,’ meaning ‘passage,’ because of the ‘wandering, unsettled life of these people.”(Article entitled: The Forgotten History of Messianic Judaism, Richard Chamberlin)
Concerning the Pasagini, the Catholic writings of Bonacursus says, “Let those who are not yet acquainted with them, please note how perverse their belief and doctrine are. First, they teach that we should obey the law of Moses according to the letter – the Sabbath, and circumcision, and the legal precepts still being in force. Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the Church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church.”(Article entitled: How Long, O Lord, how Long?: A History of Anti-Semitism, Luana Fabry)
In a History of the Faith written in 1404 it say: “We do not find anywhere in the writings of the Old Testament that the light of truth and of holiness was at any time completely extinguished. There have always been men who walked faithfully in the paths of righteousness. Their number has been at times reduced to a few; but has never been altogether lost. We believe that the same has been the case from the time of [Messiah YahShua] until now; and that it will be so unto the end. For if the [Community of Faith] was founded, it was in order that it might remain until the End of Time… We do not believe that the [Community of Faith] absolutely departed from the way of Truth; but one portion yielded, and, as is commonly seen, the majority was led away to evil.”
In 1315, a Waldenses preacher, Walter Lollard, came to England to preach the Truth. Through Lollard’s ministry, thousands were coming to the knowledge that baptism means immersion; that the world’s religious holidays came from paganism and that Sunday was not the Sabbath. “When confronted with imprisonment at the hands of Protestant “reformers” for their faith, several ministers gave up the Faith even though some of their followers remained steadfast (Cox’s Sabbath Literature, Vol. 1, p. 162).” The movement went underground. It was not until about 1650 that there were again enough True Faith Believers to establish local congregations out in the public in Europe.
From England the True Faith spread to America. From the beginning there were a number of Puritans that held to Word, they were called Separatists. They separated themselves in the colonies from Sunday worship and what they viewed as paganism of the rest and kept the Sabbaths. In 1664, Stephen Mumford, came to Newport, Rhode Island, to raise up a small community of Believers mainly from Puritan converts. Even today, the custom of the American Thanksgiving came from the Separatists custom of Feast of Tabernacles.
The Resurrection
From the smoldering ashes of every great revival in which elements of the True Faith has resurrected came the New Netzarim Movement. From the Baptists we received the realization of immersion; from the Methodists, the knowledge of holiness; from the Adventists that the Coming of Messiah was emanate; from the Pentecostals, that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit is still for today; and from the Messianics that we must return to Torah. And especially from Batya and Ages Wooten, that the two houses – Judah & Ephraim – and their companions had to unite in Messiah. Since the early seventies I have watched as the One True Faith has resurrected for these last days.
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25)”
Yahweh did not plant the counterfeit weeds. We, the True Believers, are the planting of Yahweh.
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases Yahweh. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephesians 5:8-11)”
Yahweh has given you eyes to see the Truth and that revelation is a “Pearl of Great Price.”
“See to yourselves that ye may not lose the things that we wrought, but a full reward may receive; every one who is transgressing, and is not remaining in the teaching of the Messiah, hath not Yahweh; he who is remaining in the teaching of the Messiah, this one hath both the Father and the Son; if any one doth come unto you, and this teaching doth not bear, receive him not into the house, and say not to him, `Shalom!’ for he who is saying to him, `Shalom,’ hath fellowship with his evil works. (2 John 1:8-11)”
We cannot have fellowship with the Sitre Ahurah and their followers – the Counterfeit.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Messiah YahShua. We write this to make ourjoy complete. This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: Yahweh is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of YahShua, his Son, purifies us from allsin. (1 John 1:1-7)”
“And this Full Messianic Message of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)”
Originally written by Rabbi Robert O. Miller on October 3rd, 2006
(Robert Owen Miller 1957-2021)
