King Of The Jews - Part 4God had mandated 490 years exactly as the time span for the Jews to accomplish His work. With the destruction of Jerusalem the clock was stopped short at 483 years. There are still 7 years left on the Divine stopwatch. At the point in time that the Rapture occurs, the button will be pushed again, starting the last 7 years or "week of years" as Daniel prophesied. The first 3 1/2 years of "Peace" and Prosperity, the second half, 3 1/2 years of the most violent and destructive time ever to transpire on planet Earth. Conversely, it meant that the door for the Messiah to come had closed. "The sceptre (their Royal National symbol) shall not depart from Judah... until Shiloh (Jesus) come". Gen. 49:10. After Jesus' departure to the Heavenlies, the destruction He prophesied came upon Jerusalem and the Jews. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem which killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee: how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left desolate": Luke 13 34 & 35 Just as Jesus prophesied, "No stone would be left standing" and to this day the Temple remains destroyed, the only visible reminder being a section of the sub-foundation retaining wall, the famous "Wailing Wall". I believe this is symbolic in the same fashion that God allowed a remnant of the Jewish race to survive the multitude of pogroms and genocidal campaigns waged against them. The "Wailing Wall" is an ever-present reminder of long-past glories, failed opportunities and the frightening fulfillment of the prophetic words of Jesus. In the same fashion, the destruction of the Temple of God meant the end of sacrificing to cover their sin. Because God mandated the exact location of His Temple upon Mount Moriah (the site of Isaac's miraculous redemption from death) no substitute would do. "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin". Hebrews 9:22 And no other spot on Earth can be used to offer the blood sacrifice which God required of the Jews. "For this is my blood of the new testament (contract), which is shed for many for the remission of sins". Matt. 26:28 In God's incredible mercy He made a way out for all mankind. The Jewish Religious leaders were faced with a choice; accept Christ's blood offering for their and their people's sins, or ignore it and try to cobble together a "Religious" system that would placate God. They tried. As previously stated, this is impossible. During the final siege of Jerusalem, one Rabbi Johanan (or Yohanan ben Zakkal) escaped certain death by being spirited out of the besieged city. Disguising himself as a corpse the Rabbi's followers carried him out in a coffin, ostensibly for burial, risking death if discovered by the Zealots still in Jerusalem who swore to die rather than surrender. Additionally, the "dead" Rabbi and his pallbearers faced certain death at the hands of the encircling Roman army yet managed to get beyond the siege line at which time the "corpse" got up and made his way to Vespasian, the Roman general leading the siege. The astonished Vespasian was informed by the Rabbi that he wanted amnesty and safe passage to a certain place. Seizing an opportunity to pacify the moderate faction of Jews which Johanan led, Vespasian granted the strangely simple request of the old man. Asking for safe passage to Yavne, a small village on the seacoast and for a guarantee of amnesty as long as he remained there, Johanan was granted his request. Freed from the constraints of competing sects and factions, Rabbi Johanan set about to formulate a new Judaism, bereft of Temple and benefit of sacrifice, but one which would keep a form of Judaism alive which persists to the present. At one and the same time Johanan finessed a change in the "Shemonah-Essaria" (the eighteen blessings), a recitation required daily of all Jews. Because the Jesus movement had gained great strength as a result of Christ's death, burial and resurrection, the many Jews who were believers represented a huge threat to the status quo. The Rabbi Johanan saw the opportunity to marginalize and ultimately eliminate these upstarts. Settling in the seaport of Yavne (Jabne or Jamnia) he grafted together a new form of Judaism which persists until the present. It was in this new rabbinical form of Judaism that the anathema's or curses of believers in Y'shua were written, forever dividing the Jews into two camps. Those for Y'shua and those against Him. In fact, the first "Peace Movement" was wiped out inside the walls of Jerusalem, during the ongoing siege. The followers of Y'shua refused to fight with Bar Kocheba, a false Messiah and not as accused based on Jesus' command to turn the other cheek and merely pray for their enemies. The Zealot movement began throwing "Christians" (these early followers of Y'shua) over the city walls, to their deaths for refusing to fight. But the repercussions from Yavne still reverberate to this day. Jesus said He left us peace, but not the peace that the world contemplates. In fact He brought a sword, the Word of God which would divide: those for Him and those against Him. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword". Matt. 10:34 These words from Jesus lips make the case plain. But, don't confuse His sword, Spiritual Truth "... the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God". Eph. 6:17 with a physical sword which wounds and destroys. The Word of God, is sharper than any physical, material sword. "For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart". Hebrews 4:12 The swords of man are only able to kill and destroy. Peace purchased at the point of a sword is not true peace. The Romans subdued the whole world at the point of a sword and yet the "peace" that resulted was as false and fleeting as a cloud which promises rain and passes by leaving dust in its wake. The sword of Islam shall not bring peace but destruction. The swords of a united world community shall not bring lasting peace. Before the world can fulfill the U.N. motto, "They shall beat their swords into plows and their spears into pruning hooks", just the opposite must occur. "Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near... Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong". Joel 3: 9 & 10 Woodrow Wilson's U.S. backed "War that would end war for all time", was only the first in a series of World Wars which will ultimately consume planet Earth. As Y'shua said, "...the truth shall make you free". John 8:32 "The WORD which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ". Acts 10:36 The issue of "Peace" will dominate our lives, our thinking, our futures for as long as we dwell here on planet Earth. Many paths promise peace: Drugs, alcohol, sex, money, fame, occult powers, politics, music, theatre, books, hobbies, careers, travel, weaponry and on and on and on. The peace that the world offers is fleeting at best. A heroin "high", a prozac "peace", an alcohol attitude adjustment will dull the senses and give a temporary physiological relief, but the sting is always waiting in its tail. The same is true for the other world offered paths to peace. You may meditate into the ozone but when you come back to yourself you will still be the same miserable wretch with the same problems you had when you left this earthly plane. Jesus promised us a peace which is unattainable through worldly schemes. The Prince of Peace, left us with His Peace, the Peace that passes all understanding. He willingly gave His life to give us that Peace. That Peace was rejected by the Jewish leadership of Jesus'day. It was further rejected by Rabbi Johanan at Yavne, robbing the Jewish people of the Light for 2,000 years. Yes, he sinned not only against God Almighty but against God's own chosen people. The repercussions from Yavne are still palapable. Here's how in greater detail. Max Dimont, in his book, "Jews, God and History", explains how the deception began. Rabbi Johanan was a shrewd leader obsessed with keeping Judaism intact in a form consistent with his own vision and certainly no longer vulnerable to the upstart followers of Y'shua. From the time of Jesus' miraculous resurrection, the "Jesus Movement" had exploded. Had Jesus not resurrected, the "movement" would have died a quick death, as had all previous movements led by pretenders to the throne. "Christians" (Jewish believers in Y'shua) in the wake of the resurrection and after Pentecost were numerous. They sat in synagogues shoulder to shoulder with Jews who did not accept Y'shua, in the same way that a "Charismatic" might sit in a Baptist Church pew. The terrible legacy of Yavne and the Birkhat Minim curse on followers of Y'shua began with "another" climbing out of his own "final resting place". The "Resurrection" of Rabbi Johanan brought not life to the Jews but halted the giving of life to his fellow Jews. After Rabbi Johanan had successfully escaped the siege of Jerusalem and settled with a handful of followers in Yavne, the task at hand was to forestall and eliminate the influx of "Christians" into Jewish society and the synagogue. But how to tell "Christians" (Jewish believers in Christ Jesus) from their Jewish fellow citizens? By disguising a curse as a blessing. The Birkhat ha-Minim was a curse written and inserted into the daily spiritual affirmation required of every Jew. The "Minim" are the Jewish believers in Y'shua. The "Birkhat" is the curse leveled upon them. Jesus had told his followers, "They shall put you out of the synagogues". John 16:1 Before it occurred He foretold the coming persecution of His followers. Philip Moore, head researcher for Hal Lindsay, writes in his comprehensive tome "The Messiah Conspiracy", the following: "The personal integrity of the rabbis at Yavne and their belief regarding what constituted Judaism was at stake. They had to find a way to stop the spread of Messianic Judaism from reaching world Jewry. They felt that Judaism should be remolded into a cultural cement designed to keep Jewish and Gentile identities separate for all time. They felt that Jesus was a common personality whose message might threaten Jewish racial purity because so many Gentiles were accepting Him along with their Jewish friends. They were becoming interested in Jewish feasts and traditions, because their (the Gentiles) Messiah was Jewish". He continues. "In desperation, the rabbis at Yavne came up with a benediction which could identify any secret Messianic Jew in any orthodox congregation at that time. It was called the Birkhat ha-Minim... as the Talmud reveals: "Said Rabban Gamaliel to the Sages: can any one among you frame a benediction relating to the MINIM? Samuel the Lesser arose and composed it". "They then wrote letters which were circulated throughout the Diaspora with a copy of this malediction and instructions to add it to the Amidah Prayer, which was recited daily in all synagogues of that time". "Through their emissaries they propagated the idea that Messianic Jews were not legitimate members of the community, were not to be acknowledged, and in some cases, were even worthy of death. The first century patristic Father Justin Martyr noted: "But these Jews, though they read the books, fail to grasp their meaning and they consider us as if their enemies and adversaries, killing and punishing us, just as you do, whenever they are able to do so, as you can readily imagine. In the recent Jewish war, Bar Kocheba, the leader of the Jewish Uprising, ordered that only the Christians should be subjected to dreadful torments, unless they renounced and blasphemed Jesus Christ". "For there shall arise false Christs..." Matt. 24:24 Jesus prophesied the coming of others who would proclaim their Messiahship and having come in their own names, would be accepted. From Yavne the curse upon Y'shua followers spread like a cancer. The upshot being that whomsoever would not proclaim publicly this anathema/curse upon Jewish and Gentile "Christians"?Minim was obviously one of those being cursed. Spies were posted in every congregation to observe those attendees which remained silent during the recitation of the newly added curse. Those who did not roundly curse the Minim were routed out. Eventually the situation was untenable for those believers in Y'shua Messiah, Jesus Christ, and they simply quit the synagogues. Quoting again from the "Messiah Conspiracy" by Philip Moore. "Because Messianic Jews used the destruction of the Temple as proof that the Messiah had made the final sacrifice, there was an upsurge in the movement, with many Jews beginning to join it. Finally, the Rabbis decided to end... contact with the Messianic Jewish community. Messianic Jews were expelled from the synagogue". "It wasn't until later that they were expelled from the community. The Bar-Cochba Revolt occurred between 132 and 135 A.D.. It was the second Jewish uprising against Roman rule... Rabbi Akiba declared Bar-Cochba to be the Jewish Messiah. As a result, Jewish believers in Y'shua as Messiah pulled out of the revolt. They could not accept the false Messiah Bar-Cochba and it created the final split between the two Jewish communities. Philip Moore continues, "At this time, Bar-Kochba *** began to persecute Messianic Jews because of their refusal to render him Messianic recognition. Johannes Weiss documents this fact when he tells us: "The fate of the Jerusalem church (believers in Y'shua Messiah) underwent a decided change... under the Messiah-prophet Bar-Kokhba. Jerusalem fell into the hands of the rebels: and even during the Bar-Kokhba revolt, the Christians had much to suffer at their hands...". *** spellings variously: Kochba, Cochba, Kosebah, Kokhba and Kocheba |
