Post 23928
James Trimm  <jstrimm@h...>
Date: Mon Nov 8, 1999 4:15pm
Subject: Jews, Gentiles and Ephraimites
 

                 The following is my humble opinion (it is not an officaial SANJ
                 position):

                 This is a complex issue.  Allow me to offer my own expanation:

                 The original true followers of YHWH (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
                 Jacob, etc.) did not call their religion "Judaism" (obviously).  We do not
                 know what they called it or if they called it anything.  For our own
                 purposes we will just call it YHWHism as oposed to Ba'alism.

                 The "YHWHism" involved a covenant (or series of covenants) between
                 YHWH and the Am-Yisrael (the people of Israel).

                 YHWH had initially mad a Covenent with all mankind (Gen. 9) the
                 Noachdic Covenant.

                 Later YHWH made a unique Covenant with Abraham and with his
                  seed Isaac and Jacob. (Gen. 17)  This covenant required circumcision)
                 The Abrahamic Covenant.

                 Still later YHWH made a further covenant with Am-Yisrael (the people
                 of Israel) and gave us the Torah (Ex. 34) The Mosaic Covenant.

                 A non-Israelite could enter this covenent and become part of the people
                 of Israel if he/she so chose to (Ruth) by joining into this covenant and
                 its people.

                 Am-Yisrael became YHWH's chosen covenant people.  There were still
                 other followers of YHWH who were not part of Am-Yisrael, but Am-
                 Yisrael was chosen to be YHWH's covenant people who would one day
                 rule the world.  They were to be a nation of priests to the rest of the
                 world.

                 Eventually Am-Yisrael split into two houses:

                         The House of Israel/Ephraim/Joseph (10 Tribes)

                         The House of Judah (2 tribes)

                 The House of Israel was divorced by YHWH (Jer. 3:8) but for whatever
                 reason the House of Judah was not.

                 The House of Isreal was scattered, mostlikely into Europe.  They
                 abandoned Torah and the covenants and turned entirely to pagan gods.
                 Eventually they embraced Christianity and continued in paganism.

                 Judah however always had a remnant maintaining the covenant.

                 As a result "YHWHism" became known as "Judaism"

                   When the Messiah came many thousand embraced him as Messiah.
                 These were the Nazarenes.  They took the message to the Gentiles,
                 many of whom were Ephraimites but did not know it.  These people
                 almost immeditaly paganized the message.  Eventually the Nazarene
                 movent disappeared, although there have always been Torah observant
                 Jews who believed Yeshua was Messiah.

                 Now the there were two Torahs to the Mosaic Torah of the Mosaic
                 Covenant. A Written Torah and an Oral Torah.  Without the Oral Torah
                 one would not know how to kill an animal, what a "bill of divorcement"
                 is, how the Hebrew calendar functions, etc. In short without the Oral
                 Torah there is no way to observe the written Torah and no Covenant.

                 Eventually many Ephraimites and Gentiles started to wake up from
                 their paganism and seek Torah.  Typical of this is the Yahwist
                 movenent and the old WWCG movement.

                 During the same time period many Jews started to wake up from their
                 messiah-blindness and see Yeshua as Messiah.  Typical of this was the
                 Messianic Movent and more recently the Nazarene Movement.

                 Now when the Ephraimites attempted to embrace the Mosaic Covenant
                 they found a problem.  There were no Ephraimites who had
                 maintained the covenant and preserved the Oral Torah for them to join
                 to.  So while they decided to start keeping the feasts, they had no idea
                 how.  They had no idea what to do on these days.  Even worse they still
                 cannot agree on a calendar.

                 There is no way for Ephraimites to enter the Mosaic covenant as
                 Ephraim. Ephraim was divorced and has not preserved the covenant.

                 However Judah HAS preserved the Mosaic Covenant.  Judah HAS
                 preserved both the written and Oral Torah.  Moreover a remnant of
                 Judah has woken up to who the Messiah is.  Moreover Judah's
                 understanding of these things gives Judah a better understanding of
                 Messiah as well.

                 The hope of Ephraim is not to reestablish herself as a separate House.
                 The hope of Ephraim is to be runited with Judah and come back from
                 her rebelion in the first place.  This is the prophetic picture in the
                 scriptures.  The stick of Ephraim is joined to the stick of Judah (Ezek.
                 37).  Branches from Ephraim are grafted into Judah to be fed by the root
                 of Judah.  (Rom. 11) and Ephraim will come to Judah and grab hold of
                 her tzitzit (a sign of the covenant) and say: "We have heard that Elohim
                 is with you (plural) and we will go with you (plural)." (Zech. 8 last
                 verse.)

                 In other words Ephraim should rejoice that Judah has preserved the
                 covenant as Judaism and join Judah.

                 Now the gentiles who are not Ephraimites (and who knows who is and
                 who isn't anyway). could theoretically just keep the Noachdic covenant
                 (Gen 9) and never progress into the Chosen people by entering the
                 House of Judah through the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants (Ge, 17
                 & Ex. 34).  However they would not be part of Am-Yisrael.  They
                 would NOT be part of the bride. They would NOT be a nation of
                 priests (they would be the ones we are priests to).  They would NOT
                 rule with Messiah from Jerusalem for 1,000 years.  Instead they would
                 make pilgrimages to Jerusalem at Sukkot (an the other feasts?) to pay
                 homage there.  They will be ruled over BY Am-Yisrael.

                 I am reminded of the comercial where the stork is looking at the two
                 hamburgers each with a pickle on it.  One with a small pickle and one
                 with a big pickle.  He looks back and forth at each of them and then
                 says: "duh!".

                 Now in theory a person could in my opinion remain outside of Am-
                 Yisrael and still be saved and still be a righteous gentile.  But I cannot
                 imagine someone choosing that position in the Kingdom when they
                 could rule with Messiah.