The Work of The Spirit

In traditional Christian theology a foundational doctrine of soteriology is the doctrine of the work of the Spirit.  This is the teaching that the Spirit of God must prepare the soul before hand for regeneration.  In the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah it is evident that it is not first and foremost the individual that the Spirit of God prepares but Adam as a whole.

Just as each child born is first distinguished by what they are before any solid distinction of individual personality, who they are, is formed, so it is also with the rebirth of the soul.  Each person is first distinguished by their corporate aspect, that is to say, what they are, not who they are.  Each person in their corporate aspect has a conscience about what they are as a human being, irregardless of their distinction as an individual.  When people form collective strands of consciousness when they join in groups the corporate aspect of the individual is reinforced.  It is with that corporate aspect of the individual that the Spirit first works.

For example Adam/Humanity is conditioned to fear the righteousness and holiness of The Creator and so out of this fear not to blaspheme God or worship as God what is made by God.  Such fear is not necessarily eternal, but it is a proper conditioning of condemned Adam for the corporate repentance in each individual's corporate conscience, the proper conditioning for redemption - not a redemption of one isolted gentile at a time, as Chritianity has traditionally taught, but in Truth the redemption of Adam.

Matthew 5: 25, 26

25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him; lest suddenly the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you are cast into prison.

26 In truth I say to you, You shall by no means come out from there, till you have paid the last cent.

It can be said that this teaching has reference, most likely, to the Roman court and occupation. Saying this enables us to see a prophetic significance by extension. If it is a condition of the Roman occupation then there is an application for all Israel in respect to the whole Roman Captivity. And, like Jeremiah facing Babylon, Yehoshua is saying (in principle), as it were to Jacob, accept this chastisement from the Hand of HaShem and go down into Egypt/Rome from where you will be redeemed with great riches. But if you resist, the captivity will be counted literally as 400 years instead of 210 years (with the remaining years having already been served from the birth of Isaac). This is like the teaching of the rabbis that if Israel is worthy the redemption will come sooner but if she is not worthy then it will come later. Worthiness, according to this principle, is to accept the chastisement: i.e., for Jacob to honor Leah by not rebelling against Laban's (the old nature's treachery), but rather praising HaShem for His goodness, and likewise accepting the sale of Joseph into Egypt. Worthiness, according to this principle is also that Joseph must remain the ruler of Egypt even when it is revealed that he is alive - and Jacob must, even then, go all the way down into Egypt so that the correction of Israel can be fully received.

This is the revelation that when Mashiach comes he will not immediately bring the rule of the Jews over the nations but that both the Jews and the nations will continue to need to be ruled over by Mashiach himself for a period for the correction of Israel to be fully received and then at the end the adversary will even be released for a short time to come against Jerusalem and the whole court of the Mashiach in all the world, (the Pharaoh that did not know Joseph), to try the creature of God in one final trial of correction and then the true end will come and this is the compete re-creation of the world, where mortality puts on immortality and corruption puts on incorruptibility. Then in the eternal world the Jews, being taught to a higher level of Torah education than the gentiles will begin to teach all nations, each at their level, in that eternal academy where the atmosphere is only love and love is only satisfied in ever learning to know the Blessed Holy One better and better.

I would add to this one thing. Matthew 5:25 and 26 can also be read according to the principle of "if the shoe fits, wear it." That is, the reference to the judge can also be to the rabbinic judge where the rabbinic judge is in some way in collusion with the Roman authorities. Now such collusion would not be just on the outer political level but would also be on the deepest spiritual levels, where it is not even realized. If we are understanding the adversary that can deliver us to the judge as being our old nature, agreeing with it can be understood as agreeing that God has created beauty, face to face, to help engender our fruitfulness, etc. But - looking at the adversary as our old nature - here, we do not need to immediately see the judge as being HaShem but can initially see the judge to which the old nature turns us over as being the Torah judges. And the Torah judges, so long as they do not defer to Mashiach defer to the Roman authorities. This deference to the Roman authorities takes the form of the ruling principle that the old nature causes the majority of people to be not be liberal from the heart in their business dealings with others. This causes stringent Torah court rulings, or sometimes reactive lenient rulings, from which there can be no redemption for Israel without paying the last cent. However, even under captivity to the Roman authorities, Rabbi Akiva shows in Bava Basra 71b a way to rule according to the Messianic spirit. See there.

May Yehoshua's peace fill your home.

Corporate Repentance

“‘Whoever labels his fellow ‘wicked’ will himself go down to Gehinam...’ Zohar 2:122a. Since the Torah views each human being as having been created ‘in the image of G-d,’ i.e. with infinite potential, we must be very careful to distinguish between who/what a person is, and what he or she has done/is doing.” Rabbi Avraham Sutton

Matthew 5
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.
22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment; whoever insults the intelligence of his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, You complete fool! will be liable to the fire of Gehinam.
23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.
26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.


After the responsibility for leading the way in knowing and honoring the Creator, corporate responsibility has primarily to do with maintaining the knowledge of right and wrong. Corporate repentance, therefore, on this level has primarily to do first with acknowledgement of failure to maintain the knowledge of right and wrong and then with a corporate turning to the way wherein knowledge of the clear difference between right and wrong can be restored and maintained.

Judging others with spiritual or religious prejudice is a primary corporate sin. Even though it is the leaders of the nation who are most responsible for corporate righteousness, every individual also has a role to play in the life and health of the nation, and, indeed, while every public sin will have a corrupting influence upon the whole body of society, sins of judging others with false measures are the most corrupting sins of all. It is these sins which actually tear down the knowledge of the difference between right and wrong.

While Christianity among the nations has been able to emphasis the need for individual repentance and faith, it has only been able to highlight the possibility of individual repentance. Until there is a clear realization of the need for corporate repentance in the world the redemption of the world cannot be fully realized. And corporate responsibility for maintaining the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong can only be fully known and understood where the law, or way of life, of a nation is not created by fallible human beings but is entirely given directly from God. This law, this way of life, is the Torah, and the nation to whom God gave it is Israel. Therefore, the corporate repentance that must come for the complete redemption of the world can only come through the corporate repentance of Israel.

However, Bible students among the nations can help prepare for this corporate world repentance coming about by learning and understanding what corporate responsibility is and preparing their own lives and influencing their communities, especially in judging with righteous judgement in the fear of God and not with a false judgement that speaks out of hidden anger and stereotypes and labels others.

Direct, person to person dispute resolution can greatly contribute to this process of rectifying public ‘bad conscience’ in the corporate responsibility for maintaining knowledge and understanding of right and wrong. The principle of settling disputes ‘on the way to court’ is the same principle of settling disputes that would never be taken to court because they are to small but can still fester away between people. This spirit and practice of making partners of adversaries in the process of resolving disputes provides some measure of remedy for our inclination of thinking and speaking evil of others simply due to the impact that their actions have upon us. In this way, it can be seen as an example of the work of social rectification that is needed to help prepare the way for the corporate repentance in the world that must come about for the world’s complete redemption from rebellion against its Creator.

The Nature of The Flesh and The Evil Inclination

When Paul speaks of the flesh the concept is closely related to but not identical with the concept of the evil inclination. These two concepts and their relationship are very important to understand for the work of making talmidim to the Good News of Israel and her Messiah among all nations.

The evil inclination is an aspect of all human nature from the beginning of creation. It is augmented and empowered by the fall of Adam and by every sin. It is therefore a key element in the concept of what Paul calls the flesh, which is to say the flesh nature. The concept of the evil inclination is not, however, one that is set in the context of regeneration and the new creation, which is precisely the context in which the concept of the flesh is set. This context of regeneration and inclusion in the new, resurrected humanity of Mashiach is the key distinction between the concept of the flesh and the concept of the evil inclination.

Face Your Journey. Take Possession of The Land of Death and Resurrection: a poetic commentary

Turn around and face the journey that you must take, your jouney into the land of death and resurrection. Take possession of that land where you must undergo your journey. The land that was the place of the Amorites and their neighbors, even as theirs are the ways of false intimacy, the idolatry of the desolate heart, which you, like Adam, have also known and by which you have comforted yourself through the use of degenerate imagination and self-deception. Take possession of that land which lies before you and around you and in your soul, all the way from the south to Lebanon and to the great river, Euphrates, to remind you where your soul was incubated and from where it also has descended. For once your soul walked in Adam with God in the Garden of God as if in His Temple. And how can you return there except through your journey in the land of death and resurrection? For the land that God, your Lord, has given you is the land of death and resurrection for the whole world.

Deuteronomy 1:8 "See! I have given before you the land; come take possession of the land that HaShem swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their children after them."

TORAH TO THE NATIONS

THE GOOD NEWS CAN BE UNDERSTOOD AS THE GIVING OF THE BLESSING OF THE TORAH OF ISRAEL THROUGH THE GRACE OF MASHIACH TO THE NATIONS. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

"God came from Sinai, He shone to us from Sei’ir, He appeared from Mount Paran …”

The Zohar elaborates, “… He shone to us from what the children of Sei’ir said – that they are unwilling to accept the Torah …”

Did God redeem Edom from Egypt that He went first to offer Edom the first commandment? No. Rather, this is to say that Adam did not desire to abide in the commandment and Edom also loved the way of rebellion. But as to Israel, he followed the way of his fathers who walked with Hashem.

It has said that God could only offer the Torah to the nations on their purely physical level and that it was when they all rejected it on this level that God offered it to Israel on Israel's more exalted spiritual level but also on the physical level of the nations. It is necessary to understand the concepts of spiritual and physical correctly as they are used here.

So long as we are clear that we are speaking of the covenant of God with Abraham as that which defines Israel as spiritual and the nations as physical or non-spiritual, we can potentially proceed with the correct understanding of what is being taught.

It is not simply that the Torah was not given to the nations because they rejected it, but also that God did not purpose to give the nations the Torah and therefore He hardened them in their rebellion the way He hardened Pharaoh in his personal rebellion against the redemption of Israel and the giving of the Torah to Israel at Sinai.

The Torah is given to the covenant nation because it is the covenant nation. Just as a husband would not give his ring to one who was not his engaged wife and would not give the secret of his plan for life to another than his engaged wife, so God would never have given his Torah to another than to Israel. Nevertheless, by offering the Torah to the nations on their limited level, He demonstrated that His question to them whether they desired His Torah could only be rhetorical. Just as it was a forgone fact that Pharaoh would not desire to obey God and release his slaves to serve God, so it was a forgone fact that the nations would not desire to serve God. But in both of these cases it was beneficial that this should be demonstrated.

And what is most revealing is not the distinction of Israel, but the distinction of God as revealed by Himself from the notions of God as presented by the natural human interest and understanding. Truth and salvation exist only in the word of God being spoken in the voice of God and heard as God would have His word heard.

And Then The End Will Come

For many years before the final exile of Judah to Babylon we know that the Jewish government was already subject to the Empire of Babylon. Israel had become a province of the gentile empire. We have a reversal of that timeline today ( we are not moving toward captivity but toward the end of captivity), but we have never yet seen a reversal of the imperial situation.

The fact that the government of Israel today cannot simply do what it wants is the fact that would stand out in a history book. What "imperial" power is actually in control in the land of Israel today from the point of view of a future historical perspective looking back on this period? How would the present day situation read if it were written in a book of the Prophets?

The gentile world empire is split today between east and west, or rather, north and south, but it is no less still one empire, or as our governments are fond of calling it, one "civilization", which began in "Mesopotamia". We see that at the time of Mashiach's days on earth Israel was "managed" by the Romans, the fourth beast spoken of in the book of Daniel.

Whether it is with a Temple or without a Temple, since the days of Nebuchadnezzar, Israel has never been out from under the hand of gentile domination. The times of the gentiles did not start with the destruction of the second Temple. Nor have they yet ended.



Today the center of gentile power that "manages" Israel is the US. It is that simple. This is so whether we are looking at the people of the Jewish nation, G-d's nation, Israel, who live in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or New York or Buenos Aries.

But the gentile power is a house divided against itself. We should look at what divided it.

Historically speaking, when was it divided? The division began with the death of Alexander the Great, when the Greek Empire failed to establish a singular and settled control over Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. This is when the "prince" of Egypt and the "prince" of Persia (then centered on Syria) saw opportunity to ascend in power through the necessity of one or the other establishing clear dominance in the land of Israel.

We remember that Alexander himself had a vision of the High Priest of G-d who then met him on his way to conquering Jerusalem, which he then did not conquer out of fear of the word of G-d. However, this resulted in the Roman ascendancy to power over the Greeks, not the immediate ascendancy of Israel to power over the Greeks. For such was the purpose and plan of G-d.

But while the Romans ascended to power their empire did not heal the underlying spiritual division between the north and the south for control over Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. The first manifestation of this division between the Ptolemies of the south and the Seleucids of the north seemed to be obscured by the Hasmoneans. But the Hasmonean failure to messianically exploit the fear of HaShem instilled by prophetic power into Alexander resulted in their becoming merely a bridge to the Romans.



It could not have been otherwise. For it was the purpose of G-d that Mashiach should come and suffer for Israel's redemption, allowing for the ascendancy of an Edomite empire, the unG-dly kingdom of Rome.

It was no accident that the king of Judah at the time of Yehoshua HaMashiach was a prince of Edom, representing a prince of the south. Nor was it any accident that both Titus and Hadrian were representing the prince of the north. While the southern rule would always be a more sympathetic, pulling, force toward the Jews, the northern rule would always be a more anti-Semitic, pushing, force against the Jews.

The Hasmoneans seemed to obscure the struggle between the northern power and the southern power to control Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. Once the Romans took control they also took over the mantle of obscurity covering over this struggle from the eyes of the world. It appeared that Rome was one and that Jerusalem and the Land of Israel was now being 'managed' by one gentile power. This illusion was shattered when the Roman Empire was itself divided into two forces. In fact the division had always been there. It had been inherited from the Greeks and was simply manifesting itself again.

But why instead of being divided into a division of north and south was the Roman Empire divided into a division of east and west? To the eyes of the world this suggested that the division was based on new conflicts, merely gentile concerns, and not the old division between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, which centered on the Land of Israel. But to Biblical eyes it was and is clear that nothing had changed.

Edom/Rome took on the responsibility of ruling the world at the time when Israel and her Messiah ought to have been prepared to do this. But HaShem no longer had the same interest in sustaining this world that He had previously, in preparing for the coming of Mashiach to Israel.

HaShem was now interested in sustaining this world only for one purpose: bringing about the repentance of Jerusalem in order that she would receive her Messiah. After that there would be a new interest in sustaining this world for a time. For all these ages, from the time of Adam, were only for the purpose of preparing the world for re-creation, for cosmic redemption, for bringing a knowledge of HaShem that transcended sin and death.

Edom/Rome took on the responsibility of ruling the world and it was a responsibility that it did not merit or deserve and, despite its roads for commerce and military technique could not uphold. When Diocletian briefly reunited the splintering empire he did so by purely military force. It was as if the western Roman Empire was no longer needed as a united political entity by Divine Providence for the purposes of the captivity and purification of Israel and would not be needed as such again until the very end days.

The eastern Roman Empire, which came to be called the Byzantine Empire, but which was still the Roman Empire, was sufficient as a political entity for control of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel until modern times. Whether this power was "Christian" or Ottoman Muslim should not be allowed to confuse us. Only when Britain and then the US took over the management of the Land of Israel from the Turks did the balance of power shift back to the heirs of the west and the Holy Roman Empire.



The secret of how the east and west of the Roman Empire is actually north and south can only be understood when it is understood that the division of the Roman Empire into east and west always included a division into north and south. While the trouble for Rome and for the Empire was always coming from the north, while Diocletian labored to harness this power, pushing up the Danube, his main challenge, like every ruler of the fourth beast before and after him was to try to resolve the power struggle over the Land of Israel between the forces from Egypt and the forces from Persia. Nevertheless, the foundation of Rome's power is the division between north and south and it will never heal this division without destroying itself, although it must make every effort to do so in order to sustain itself.

We must understand that when Roman Diocletian or Gallerius would fight against the Egyptian powers they represented the spiritual prince of the north. When they turned around and fought against the Persian powers they represented the spiritual prince of the south. Ultimately, this effort to unify these forces and bring into one and bring "global peace" took form in a political manifestation of Christianity. Just how nearly this incurable division between north and south over the Land of Israel seemed to be healed by this political Christianity, after the invention of this system by Constantine, can be seen by consideration of the story of two sister-in-laws, Aelia Eudocia Augusta, Theodosius the Second's wife, and Pulchria, Theodosius's older sister.

Pulchria was a devout Constantinian Christian. While the anti-Semitic, (at that time German) forces of the north supported and filled Pulchria, so that she influenced her brother to exile the Jews and burn their synagogues, Eudocia used her influence at court to protect the Jews. That this was not merely a result of Eudocia's own non-Christian upbringing can be seen from the fact that she moved to Jerusalem to compose literary works and later died there, having paraphrased the first eight books of the Tanach, as well as Daniel and Zechariah. Thus we see a spirit of Byzantine (Roman) Christianity that seeks to be "Hebraic" and inviting and protective toward the Jews and a spirit of Byzantine (Roman) Christianity that seeks to destroy the Jews utterly and entirely. And these forces that united and divided Eudocia and Pulchria are the forces that moved the western empire out of Rome to Milan and produced the Holy Roman Empire and that carried the Byzantine Roman Empire to modern times, once it became disguised as the Moslem Empire.

We should not think then, that the military power that passed from Germany to Britain and the US is simply the power of the king of the north and that the Arab power is simply the power of the king of the south. Rather, we should recognize that whatever power is controlling Egypt is the king of the south and whatever power is controlling Persia is the king of the north, even if, as in the case of Diocletian, it is the same earthly power, simply being used as a pawn by one and then the other spiritual power. When the US controlled Persia it was in the position of the king of the north. When Russia controlled Egypt, it was in the position of king of the south.

What we need to understand is that these two forces are the forces of the captivity of Israel working in the heart of the Jewish person whether they live in Jerusalem, New York or La Paz. This is not about Christendom or Islam. There can be no true liberation of the people of Israel or of the Land of Israel until Israel as the only nation of G-d accepts fully her responsibility to take back from Edom the challenge of ruling the earth, from Adam to beast, from the grasses to the angels, Israel must rule all by rightly interpreting the Torah of G-d. And this will not happen by building settlements on the west bank. This will come only by the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah being made known unto the ends of the earth and by the ingathering of the gentiles through the conversion of their very messianic religion itself to the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the faith of Yehoshua the Messiah. Then, and only then, will the end of the captivity come.