PAGE 58 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST(THE BAD FIG TREE)

At the same time the shepherds of the post apostolic gentile church began separating the church from its Hebrew root, they also started  erecting dividing walls within the church. 

The apostles and Jesus warned about people, being used by Satan, who would bring teaching that differed with what the apostles taught and they warned believers to watch out and keep away from them.  The teaching of the apostles is now in written form in the New Testament scriptures. Paul says:

"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us." 2 Thes 3:6

"I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them." Romans 16:17

Paul uses words such as command, implore, beseech, and beg believers to guard against those that bring any teaching that is contrary to the Word of God that will cause division and create obstacles.  Just as Adam and Eve were to be watchman and guard the Tree of Life in the garden, believers were to watch over their assemblies and make sure the serpent Satan didn't enter in with false teaching. 

Jesus came to tear down walls of separation between Jews and Gentiles. It says in Ephesians 2:

"you who were Gentiles...at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ."

He came to tear down walls that divided an assembly of believers: all believers were priests, and no human was needed to mediate between Yahweh God and humans.

"For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5

"...and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--" Revelation 1:6

 There was to be no hierarchy of leadership but every believer was to offer their particular spiritual gift to the body.  Preaching, teaching, prophesying was not designated to a particular class of people because of birth or schooling,  but every believer could proclaim the gospel to unbelievers. There was to be no spiritual aristocracy or nobility and all believers are to be saints. 

"and have made us to our God kings and priests: and we shall reign upon earth." Revelation 5:10

The shepherd or overseer of their assembly was to make sure the body of Christ was flowing as it should according to the Word of Yahweh and that it was staying true to the renewed covenant of Yeshua Jesus. The body of Jesus was to be a living breathing organism and just as the human body survives because of the unity of all it's parts  and gets sick and will eventually die if there is anything blocking or dividing one section of itself from another.

However, after the Apostles died, men came in  that slowly started erecting dividing walls and obstacles in the church. Satan started his work in getting the shepherds or overseers of the church  to use their position for unjust gain. The verse in Romans 16 about men who cause division and obstacles is followed by:

"For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive."

PAGE 57 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST(BAD FIG TREE)

After the Apostles died, the shepherds of various churches began to not take heed or pay attention to Paul's warning in the book of Romans.  These shepherds that are known in history as the early church fathers began to slowly distance themselves from their Hebrew roots and the Word of God and began to boast over the branches:

Justin Martyr (100-165ad) - claimed God's covenant was no longer valid and that the gentiles had replaced the Jews.

Iraenaeus (130-202ad) - said the Jews were disinherited from God.

Tertullian (155-230ad) - said the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus and argued that they had been rejected by God.  He also said that the old law had been obliterated.

Origen (185-254ad) - wrote "If he who is commonly called a Jew murdered the Lord Jesus and is still today responsible for that murder, it is because he has not understood the law and the prophets in a hidden manner."

"The true Israelite, then, is everyone who knows Christ, if a man does not know Christ he is no Israelite."

"O Jews, when you come to Jerusalem, and find it destroyed, it had been changed into dust and ashes, don't weep as a child, don't be in grief but ask for a city in heaven instead of that which you search here on earth."

Cyprian (200-258ad) - "That the Jews should lose the bread and the cup of Christ, and all his grace; while we should receive them, and that the new name of Christians should be blessed in the earth."

"That rather the gentiles than the Jews should attain to the kingdom of heaven."

The shepherds of the church turned away from the Word of God and started boasting over the Jews and their covenant with God. They started separating themselves from their Hebrew root and said that earthly Israel and Jerusalem had lost its calling. These writings brought great cursing in the future as they became the justification Hitler needed, in order to do what he did to the Jewish people in Nazi Germany.

The Apostle Paul had stated that staying connected to the Hebrew root would bring the nourishing sap or spiritual blessing to the believer or assembly, and we see huge Holy Spirit power in the early believers in the time of the apostles as recorded in the book of Acts. After the Apostolic age, at the same time as these shepherds started breaking away from the Hebrew root, miracles and wonders began to decline significantly. So much so, that many people today believe that God ceased giving spiritual gifts after the time of the Apostles. Origen reports a decline in signs and wonders in AD 230.  He writes, "...Moreover the Holy Spirit gave signs of his presence at the beginning of Christ's ministry, and after his ascension he gave still more, but since that time these signs have diminished, although there are still traces of his presence in a few who have had their souls purified by the Gospel."

The Bible never declares that the gifting of the spiritual gifts will cease after the Apostles die, but it clearly states that if an individual or assembly cuts itself off from its Hebrew root and boasts over the non-believing Jewish people and Israel, it will also cut itself off from the power of the Holy Spirit.