In the story of Ruth, can you see just how screwed up the doctrines and theology of the modern gentile church is?
It’s a freakin’ joke…
It’s laughable…
When Ruth joined Naomi and came to Israel, she willingly and from the sincerest place in her heart left behind her gentile ways FOREVER…
Let me try to translate this behavior into modern terms so this situation is easier to understand…
If Ruth had been eating pork chops and pepperoni pizza in the land of Moab, that stopped the instant she stepped foot into Israel.
If she had been celebrating pagan holidays such as Ishtar (Easter in English), Christmas or Halloween, that also stopped…
Can you see how the gentile church has taken the exact opposite position of Ruth?
They have arrogantly refused to forsake their gentile ways…
They have zero interest in observing the divinely ordained customs and festivals of God’s people…
They have misinterpreted Rabbi Shaul’s (also known as the Apostle Paul) teachings on the matter…
In fact, they’ve taken the extreme and arrogant position that they have replaced God’s chosen people.
Can you see how ridiculous this is?
Imagine if Ruth waltzed into Bethlehem and said…
“I want to worship your God but everything else has got to go homies”.
How do you think she’d fare if she went to Israel with the attitude that her Moabite ways were superior to the ways of God’s chosen people?
Or worse that in God’s eyes, she had replaced them?
That is precisely the position modern Christianity has taken towards Israel and the Jewish people today.
And they couldn’t be more wrong.
But I ain’t worried about it…
Because I can already see God making some big moves to overturn not only the apostasies of the gentile church but their authority as well (thank God!)…
The beginning of the end of the institutional gentile church began once the Lord resurrected Israel from the dead in 1948…
It was almost as if Hitler’s mad campaign to exterminate every Jew from the planet was the equivalent of watering the very seeds that would give birth to the very thing he wanted to eliminate.
And now with Hebrew Roots congregations springing up all over the globe, an awakening of unprecedented proportions is taking over.
I tell you this movement is unstoppable.
Like Ruth, these sincere believers are leaving behind their “Moabitish” past…
They are refusing to eat unclean foods…
They are making a sincere effort to learn the Lord’s true MOEDIM (appointed times)…
In addition, what warms my heart even more is that more and more Jewish people in both Israel and the diaspora are coming to faith in their messiah.
And they are assuming their rightful role of being the “head” and not the “tail” as the Lord promised they would be.
When Messiah returns, he will welcome them with open arms.
So let me conclude with this thought:
If you’re a gentile who has come to faith in the God of Israel, there are two paths you can take.
You can choose to walk the ungodly path that says it’s somehow possible to worship the God of Israel while at the same time throwing into the trash His divine commandments, His feasts and festivals and not having anything to do with His chosen people…
Or you can choose to adopt the faith of Ruth which says…
“Your people will be my people
and your God will be my God.
Where you die, I will die;
and there I will be buried.”
-Ruth 1:16-17
Choose wisely because your eternal future could be riding on that decision homie.
God bless you
I couldn’t agree more. With Israel it was literal to show the type of the believer.
However, the believer shouldn’t carry over pagan customs, but sometimes they do in ignorance. The Apostle Paul addressed this when he talked about meat being sacrificed to idols. He did not justify sacrificing to idols as being right, nor do the believer justify others ignorantly bringing pagan customs from their pagan past. The actions cannot be justified in the Word. They are pagan. Just because the tree Jeremiah talked about being pagan that we should avoid so we won’t learn the ways of the heathen isn’t the same pagan custom of Christmas trees that came from Europe doesn’t mean the pagan custom from Europe is any better. Pagan is pagan, it doesn’t matter if it came from Europe or the promised land. It is still pagan
What did Paul say concerning those that offered you meat sacrificed to idols? He said ask not for conscience sake because we shouldn’t offend the weak brethren. If a brother is poor and can only afford the cheaper meat, it isn’t a sin for him to eat it because we know there is only one God. The idol is not a god. So if a brother offers you a piece of candy offered to the false god of Halloween that was on sale, we shouldn’t make a big deal out of it. On the other hand if a weak brother makes a big deal out of the pagan Halloween candy, then we should obstain to keep from offending the weak brother. The sin isn’t the believer ignoring the pagan customs. The sin would be offending your brother that thinks the pagan customs somehow demeans his faith. If he ate meat sacrificed to idols because someone that is “supposed to be” further in their Christian walk ate it, it would cause the weak brother to sin against his own conscience. What we don’t do in faith is sin.
Paul never taught we should bring pagan customs of meat sacrificed to idols into the sanctuary, so churches bringing pagan customs into the church and calling it by a different name is not doing what Paul said do. They are promoting the pagan customs instead of understanding they are not to affect our Christian walk
So churches shouldn’t be bringing truck or treat parties into the church, they would be much better off keeping one of the Lord’s feasts spoken of in Leviticus 23.
As Paul said it eating meat causes my brother to offend, I won’t eat it.
Great points you shared and I agree.
This article is more about dealing with guiding principles as opposed to specific examples.
You too be blessed…
And SHALOM!