Open Letter to Lovers of Israel - God's Special People
Friends of The Father's Field Ministries,
I want to encourage all believers to ask the Father for a complete spiritual understanding of "the sufficiency of Christ." Then I would implore you to accept it and to be content in Him.
There are many true believers today who are persuaded to practice pure idolatry. Some have no idea that this is what they are doing; but it is true. I am not speaking of the kind of idolatry that is among evangelical cultural Christians who worship self by adorning themselves with selfish indulgences. I am speaking now of a small but growing multitude of very dear believers who really want to be all that God has called them to be - but who also can be persuaded if they are not careful.
Let us use Catholicism as an illustration to this point. We are all familiar with how the Catholic religion is filled with idolatry. I have been in many Catholic church buildings and have worked extensively throughout South America for nearly seven years, where Catholicism's idolatry is practiced to the full. However, Catholics and evangelical cultural Christians are not the only "believers" who blend idolatrous substitutes with the Savior's absolute sufficiency. I dare say that some truly born-again, blood-bought believers venerate religious places and ceremonies in much the same way that Catholics do. There is not a single shred of Catholicism that is worthy of slightest special attention, since it is corrupt from the beginning until now, and forever shall be. But neither should any place, ceremony, or thing be worshiped regardless of its true religious significance, either. Again, I humbly submit that any one of us can be led astray by truly spiritual places and things if we do not keep those things within the context of God's design. We must all be careful to keep a right perspective, even for the holiest of things.
The Catholics worship their "temples made with hands," their revered "Saints," and all kinds of monuments and statues; they venerate any special place or thing that they also connect directly to their religious understanding - or should I say, their lack of understanding. For example, even simple stopping points along a common road are revered if the Pope paused at that stop for a moment during a procession. Anything that they can possibly associate with their religious form of God and Jesus Christ according to their own understanding is revered and is considered to have special graces, just like those who worship false gods. Of course, we know that this is rubbish. However, in like manner, when it was prophesied through Jeremiah that Judah would be overthrown by Babylon, the people refused to give ear, saying, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." Of course, we know now that the temple was destroyed and burned by Jehovah's righteous judgment. The Jews worshiped their places and ceremonies of worship rather than God. They claimed to do God service by it, but they were all deceived! Today we would agree that, in much the same form of idolatry, millions of cultural Christians think they serve God by lowering themselves to the whoredoms of the world; by doing so, they think they fulfill Jesus' Great Commission command to go "into all the world." But can we not also see that many who are more conservative, Word-centered Christians have turned upside down the New Covenant call to a Spirit-filled life by overemphasizing Old Covenant places and things?
For example, there are many believers who are mesmerized by natural Israel these days. True enough, God's eternal promise to them is sure, and our responsibility to live His life before them is not to be belittled. But patiently hear me out for just a moment, and honestly ask the Spirit to reveal whether you have become a victim of this latest evangelical movement of men that not only gives Israel the special attention she deserves, but also leads believers to practically bow down at the very thought of her. Sure, there is growing antisemitism, and who is surprised? Does the Bible not prophesy this with crystal clarity? But the adoration of Israel is not the correct way to offset that antisemitism. Does God instruct us to worship those who are martyred? Of course not! Neither would the martyred want to be worshiped. Certainly it is our obligation to stand against antisemitism even though we know that it cannot be stopped. But let us not go overboard and begin to worship the land of Israel or her people. It is NOT our improper defense of Israel that will save her, but rather it is GOD who will save her. We should by all means stand in support of her, but GOD alone can save her. We only do her an injustice by exalting her above measure, just as we would do any man a disservice if we lift him up in that way. God said that "no flesh" should glory in His sight! "NO FLESH!" (I Cor. 1:29).
There are those who are so into Israel that they revere the Jews as if they have no need for saving grace. This is a modern-day heresy of the worst kind that was propagated by John Hagee. Hagee has exalted his own reasoning above the very Word of God and even claims to interpret the Word to agree with him. Much to the frustration of John Hagee types, the apostle Peter walked with Yeshua for approximately three years and then preached to the Jews under the undeniable inspiration of the Holy Spirit saying, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?' Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." Acts 2:36-39 Judaizers like Hagee act as if Jesus was privileged to have been born a Jew. They adore the chosen nation of Israel as if Israel chose God rather than the other way around. They are so natural-Israel conscious through celebrating Old Covenant types and shadows, which were only a picture of the True, that they have lost sight of the spiritual Israel of faith in Jesus Christ who IS the True! Dear ones! Have you gone overboard, too?
There are many who insist on practicing all the feasts of Israel as given for Old Covenant times - many actually worshiping the feasts themselves, just as the Judaizers did before them. Whatever happened to the substance of those feasts, and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the Messiah? The need for feast-worship under Jehovah's New Covenant has been taken far beyond what He ever intended. Let us remember, "the substance is Christ," and He has already come and completed His work! He FINISHED the Old Covenant, and now we are in a New Covenant that Jehovah issued for us to walk in! Yes. The Old Covenant truth shall never grow old, but the work of the Old Covenant "fades" into the reality of its fullness through Jehovah's mystery under the New Covenant - "CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY!" Indeed, the Old Covenant forms ALL pale by comparison to New Covenant life in Yeshua!
Dear fellow believers, many of you think that you do God service by worshiping His ceremonies of old! There were Jews of another time who did much the same. For example, they thought they did God service by fasting, but God rebuked them, saying the fast that He called them to involved HOLY, RIGHTEOUS living - something far beyond ceremony. Today God has called us to live and to walk in the Spirit in a life of supernatural maturity into His image.
Some say they practice the feasts of Israel for a further knowledge of Jesus Christ, while in fact they are growing backwards rather than forwards. Still others worship the Hebrew language and swear that there is no other way to understand God except by the mystery of Hebrew. Dear brothers and sisters, why have you backed up to exalt the ways and teachings of "rabbis"? They have exalted the Hebrew language above the Spirit of God! This is idolatry! Others worship the Wailing Wall and various religious sites throughout Israel, like the Garden of Gethsemane, the Sea of Galilee, the empty tomb, and more. They even believe their prayer requests will have special favor if stuffed in the Wailing Wall, or if floated across the Sea of Galilee on a boat, or if some rabbi acknowledges them and speaks Hebrew over them... and the list goes on and on. All of this is pure idolatry, just like Catholicism!
Wake up, dear Saints! I beseech you in Jesus' name! Do not get caught in this deceptive trap, and if you are already overcome and find yourself moving backwards, quickly run away into the spiritual man on this side of the Cross of Jesus Christ and into His resurrection life and power by His Spirit! The apostle Peter advises, "Make your calling and election sure." In the same way, I would advise, "Be sure that you are adoring Him alone and looking to His sufficiency while you carry on with rituals of a religious nature." No one loves Israel with a pure love more than I do, but it is a pure love from Jehovah's perspective, who also calls them to come to repentance by faith in Jesus Christ! To venerate Israel as if Jesus was privileged to have been born of her is no different than to be like the Catholics who venerate Mary for being "the mother of Jesus"! It is ALL pure idolatry! We are ALL created beings, and "NONE is righteous - no, not one."
Whatever happened to the sufficiency of Christ? For many, it does not exist! They act as if the One that the whole Old Covenant points to has not already come! Jesus (Yeshua, for those who prefer His Hebrew name) said, "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved" (Matthew 9:16-17 NKJV).
One problem is that most believers who overindulge in Israel and Old Covenantisms have never experienced the full sufficiency of Jesus Christ; thus they become victims of gimmicks and whatever they feel like they can touch and do that associates them with what they believe about God and Jesus Christ according to what they have been taught, leaning to their own understanding. They may have truly believed on Him, but not in His sufficiency - much like the Judaizers of Jesus' day, but with a different twist. And there are always a bus load of those who are easily proselytized by scholarly men, "puffed up" by knowledge.
Well, that is a heavy dose for many of you; for a few others, you will be thankful that I continue to speak the truth. It is because of my love for you and for His name that I do so. My prayer is that we learn that our sufficiency is in Christ alone, and it is only the Father, Son, and Spirit that we revere - not the ceremonies by which we see Him or see the people that He chose for an eternal purpose. If you are in Christ, then you are equally chosen for such a purpose! I pray that the body of Christ will give honor to Israel and all that she means, especially in this final hour when the whole world is turning against her. It does not take a prophet to tell us that! The Word is clear. But I also pray that, as true believers, we will happily forsake all forms of idolatry in exchange for the fullness of Jesus Christ who fills all in all.
Proclaiming Grace and Truth through Yeshua - Jesus Christ,
Mark S. Case
The Father's Field Ministries
I want to encourage all believers to ask the Father for a complete spiritual understanding of "the sufficiency of Christ." Then I would implore you to accept it and to be content in Him.
There are many true believers today who are persuaded to practice pure idolatry. Some have no idea that this is what they are doing; but it is true. I am not speaking of the kind of idolatry that is among evangelical cultural Christians who worship self by adorning themselves with selfish indulgences. I am speaking now of a small but growing multitude of very dear believers who really want to be all that God has called them to be - but who also can be persuaded if they are not careful.
Let us use Catholicism as an illustration to this point. We are all familiar with how the Catholic religion is filled with idolatry. I have been in many Catholic church buildings and have worked extensively throughout South America for nearly seven years, where Catholicism's idolatry is practiced to the full. However, Catholics and evangelical cultural Christians are not the only "believers" who blend idolatrous substitutes with the Savior's absolute sufficiency. I dare say that some truly born-again, blood-bought believers venerate religious places and ceremonies in much the same way that Catholics do. There is not a single shred of Catholicism that is worthy of slightest special attention, since it is corrupt from the beginning until now, and forever shall be. But neither should any place, ceremony, or thing be worshiped regardless of its true religious significance, either. Again, I humbly submit that any one of us can be led astray by truly spiritual places and things if we do not keep those things within the context of God's design. We must all be careful to keep a right perspective, even for the holiest of things.
The Catholics worship their "temples made with hands," their revered "Saints," and all kinds of monuments and statues; they venerate any special place or thing that they also connect directly to their religious understanding - or should I say, their lack of understanding. For example, even simple stopping points along a common road are revered if the Pope paused at that stop for a moment during a procession. Anything that they can possibly associate with their religious form of God and Jesus Christ according to their own understanding is revered and is considered to have special graces, just like those who worship false gods. Of course, we know that this is rubbish. However, in like manner, when it was prophesied through Jeremiah that Judah would be overthrown by Babylon, the people refused to give ear, saying, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." Of course, we know now that the temple was destroyed and burned by Jehovah's righteous judgment. The Jews worshiped their places and ceremonies of worship rather than God. They claimed to do God service by it, but they were all deceived! Today we would agree that, in much the same form of idolatry, millions of cultural Christians think they serve God by lowering themselves to the whoredoms of the world; by doing so, they think they fulfill Jesus' Great Commission command to go "into all the world." But can we not also see that many who are more conservative, Word-centered Christians have turned upside down the New Covenant call to a Spirit-filled life by overemphasizing Old Covenant places and things?
For example, there are many believers who are mesmerized by natural Israel these days. True enough, God's eternal promise to them is sure, and our responsibility to live His life before them is not to be belittled. But patiently hear me out for just a moment, and honestly ask the Spirit to reveal whether you have become a victim of this latest evangelical movement of men that not only gives Israel the special attention she deserves, but also leads believers to practically bow down at the very thought of her. Sure, there is growing antisemitism, and who is surprised? Does the Bible not prophesy this with crystal clarity? But the adoration of Israel is not the correct way to offset that antisemitism. Does God instruct us to worship those who are martyred? Of course not! Neither would the martyred want to be worshiped. Certainly it is our obligation to stand against antisemitism even though we know that it cannot be stopped. But let us not go overboard and begin to worship the land of Israel or her people. It is NOT our improper defense of Israel that will save her, but rather it is GOD who will save her. We should by all means stand in support of her, but GOD alone can save her. We only do her an injustice by exalting her above measure, just as we would do any man a disservice if we lift him up in that way. God said that "no flesh" should glory in His sight! "NO FLESH!" (I Cor. 1:29).
There are those who are so into Israel that they revere the Jews as if they have no need for saving grace. This is a modern-day heresy of the worst kind that was propagated by John Hagee. Hagee has exalted his own reasoning above the very Word of God and even claims to interpret the Word to agree with him. Much to the frustration of John Hagee types, the apostle Peter walked with Yeshua for approximately three years and then preached to the Jews under the undeniable inspiration of the Holy Spirit saying, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?' Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." Acts 2:36-39 Judaizers like Hagee act as if Jesus was privileged to have been born a Jew. They adore the chosen nation of Israel as if Israel chose God rather than the other way around. They are so natural-Israel conscious through celebrating Old Covenant types and shadows, which were only a picture of the True, that they have lost sight of the spiritual Israel of faith in Jesus Christ who IS the True! Dear ones! Have you gone overboard, too?
There are many who insist on practicing all the feasts of Israel as given for Old Covenant times - many actually worshiping the feasts themselves, just as the Judaizers did before them. Whatever happened to the substance of those feasts, and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the Messiah? The need for feast-worship under Jehovah's New Covenant has been taken far beyond what He ever intended. Let us remember, "the substance is Christ," and He has already come and completed His work! He FINISHED the Old Covenant, and now we are in a New Covenant that Jehovah issued for us to walk in! Yes. The Old Covenant truth shall never grow old, but the work of the Old Covenant "fades" into the reality of its fullness through Jehovah's mystery under the New Covenant - "CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY!" Indeed, the Old Covenant forms ALL pale by comparison to New Covenant life in Yeshua!
Dear fellow believers, many of you think that you do God service by worshiping His ceremonies of old! There were Jews of another time who did much the same. For example, they thought they did God service by fasting, but God rebuked them, saying the fast that He called them to involved HOLY, RIGHTEOUS living - something far beyond ceremony. Today God has called us to live and to walk in the Spirit in a life of supernatural maturity into His image.
Some say they practice the feasts of Israel for a further knowledge of Jesus Christ, while in fact they are growing backwards rather than forwards. Still others worship the Hebrew language and swear that there is no other way to understand God except by the mystery of Hebrew. Dear brothers and sisters, why have you backed up to exalt the ways and teachings of "rabbis"? They have exalted the Hebrew language above the Spirit of God! This is idolatry! Others worship the Wailing Wall and various religious sites throughout Israel, like the Garden of Gethsemane, the Sea of Galilee, the empty tomb, and more. They even believe their prayer requests will have special favor if stuffed in the Wailing Wall, or if floated across the Sea of Galilee on a boat, or if some rabbi acknowledges them and speaks Hebrew over them... and the list goes on and on. All of this is pure idolatry, just like Catholicism!
Wake up, dear Saints! I beseech you in Jesus' name! Do not get caught in this deceptive trap, and if you are already overcome and find yourself moving backwards, quickly run away into the spiritual man on this side of the Cross of Jesus Christ and into His resurrection life and power by His Spirit! The apostle Peter advises, "Make your calling and election sure." In the same way, I would advise, "Be sure that you are adoring Him alone and looking to His sufficiency while you carry on with rituals of a religious nature." No one loves Israel with a pure love more than I do, but it is a pure love from Jehovah's perspective, who also calls them to come to repentance by faith in Jesus Christ! To venerate Israel as if Jesus was privileged to have been born of her is no different than to be like the Catholics who venerate Mary for being "the mother of Jesus"! It is ALL pure idolatry! We are ALL created beings, and "NONE is righteous - no, not one."
Whatever happened to the sufficiency of Christ? For many, it does not exist! They act as if the One that the whole Old Covenant points to has not already come! Jesus (Yeshua, for those who prefer His Hebrew name) said, "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved" (Matthew 9:16-17 NKJV).
One problem is that most believers who overindulge in Israel and Old Covenantisms have never experienced the full sufficiency of Jesus Christ; thus they become victims of gimmicks and whatever they feel like they can touch and do that associates them with what they believe about God and Jesus Christ according to what they have been taught, leaning to their own understanding. They may have truly believed on Him, but not in His sufficiency - much like the Judaizers of Jesus' day, but with a different twist. And there are always a bus load of those who are easily proselytized by scholarly men, "puffed up" by knowledge.
Well, that is a heavy dose for many of you; for a few others, you will be thankful that I continue to speak the truth. It is because of my love for you and for His name that I do so. My prayer is that we learn that our sufficiency is in Christ alone, and it is only the Father, Son, and Spirit that we revere - not the ceremonies by which we see Him or see the people that He chose for an eternal purpose. If you are in Christ, then you are equally chosen for such a purpose! I pray that the body of Christ will give honor to Israel and all that she means, especially in this final hour when the whole world is turning against her. It does not take a prophet to tell us that! The Word is clear. But I also pray that, as true believers, we will happily forsake all forms of idolatry in exchange for the fullness of Jesus Christ who fills all in all.
Proclaiming Grace and Truth through Yeshua - Jesus Christ,
Mark S. Case
The Father's Field Ministries