In response to many questions about Judah ben Samuel’s prophecy ending in 2017 here’s my newest article: http://www.escapeallthesethings.com/judah-ben-samuel-prophecy.htm
Tim McHyde
Is Jesus the “Prince” of Ezekiel 40-48?
What Time Period Is Ezekiel 40-48?
Here’s an interesting question a friend asked on Ezekiel 40-48:
Knowing you have studied most Bible prophesy, to which time period(s) do you attribute these 9 chapters? Who is the prince mentioned? Note HIS sin sacrifice 45:22 and after. Also “his sons” 46:16 (If you want to do it as a Facebook blog I can read it there. Thanks Bro)
It is well known that Ezekiel 40-48 are prophecies of the Millennium (and beyond). The temple referred to there is therefore called the Millennial Temple, not to be confused with the next temple, the Third Temple. Ezekiel 40-46 describes the Millennial Temple, the priesthood and sacrifices there. To most Christians it’s shocking that sacrifices are coming back until they understand the purpose of the sacrifices.
Who is “The Prince?” at the Millennial Temple?
Also strange is how there are several mentions of “the prince” in these chapters. You would think these verses refer to Jesus at the temple:
Ezekiel 44:3 — It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.
Ezekiel 45:22 — And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.
Ezekiel 46:16 — Thus saith the Lord GOD; If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons’; it shall be their possession by inheritance.
However as noted in the question above, there are clear problems with this. For example, Jesus has no sons and is sinless needing no sacrifice. The New American Commentary agrees:
Equally intriguing is the “prince” who may sit inside the gate to “eat in the presence of the Lord,” probably meaning to eat a communal meal. Not even the prince used the entrance of the gate. When he entered it, he entered by the porch (v. 3).
Because of the messianic associations with the eastern gate, some have identified the “prince” as the Messiah, since 37:25 says, “David my servant will be their prince forever.” In spite of this reference, two important details suggest that the “prince” of 44:3 is not the Messiah. First, the prince is not a priest but has priests who minister for him. The Messiah is portrayed in Old Testament prophecy as the coming Priest-King (Zech 6:13). The offices of priest and king are always kept separate because the Messiah is to be the only one in whom these two offices are combined (2 Chr 26:16-21). Second, the prince is required to offer a sin offering for himself (Ezek 45:22) every day for seven days during feasts (45:23). By contrast, the Messiah was the sinless sacrifice for all people and a perfect High Priest (Heb 9:22-28).
If the prince is not the Messiah, then who is he? Some have identified the prince as David resurrected and serving in the temple during the millennium. More likely the prince is a special representative of the Messiah who will serve as an administrator of the temple, temple area, and sacred district. Such a conclusion is suggested by Levenson, who sees the prince as an apolitical messianic leader or a David-like administrator.
What else you want to know? =)
Update: Someone asked if the fact that “the prince” has to atone for his sins means he’s not a glorified saint but a physical man. I think that’s right. He’s not Jesus, David or any glorified saint. (Plus not only will David be glorified, but he will be king over Israel and Judah, not a prince.)
Biblical Holy Day Calendar: Why So Much Confusion?
Here’s a question I received on Facebook that is the same question I and everyone has early on in their “Torah keeping” adventure:
Seeing several people/sites claiming today (Sept 5) is the Feast of Trumpets (or Rosh Hashanah) .. your site lists Sept 8 and I’ve seen others list the 6th, 7th or 9th…. How come we have so much disagreement over something that should be pretty straightforward?
Actually, it was only straightforward for the people to whom the holy days were originally given to keep; ancient Israel. The rest of us, now some 3500 years later who it was not given to, must deal with many ambiguities in the written text all on our own. Some use Jewish tradition to resolve them (Jewish calendar), others astronomy (equinox calendar), others Karaite scholarship (aviv barley calendar) among other permutations.
What is missed by most today is that the Torah did not just drop out of the sky to be read on its own or followed by anyone who comes along. It was given to a specific people and given with key assistance. Namely, ancient Israel was given the Torah through the prophet Moses. When Israel had any question on what to do or what God’s will was in a matter, they could ask the prophet (or later, the priest with the urim and thumim). If he did not know the answer, he was able to inquire of God directly and get the answer reliably. No debate, no division, no doubts (like today).
There are a few examples of this in the Old Testament: 1. The man caught collecting wood on Sabbath, (Nu 15:33-36); 2. the blaspheming son (Lev 24:12-14); and 3. the question about the inheritance for the Daughters of Zelophehad (Nu 27:4-6). In addition they had the judges and Levites to explain what the Torah meant.
In contrast to this, anyone reading the Torah today is missing that key component for understanding it. It’s like trying to operate a complicated proprietary system for your business by reading only the owner’s manual without the onsite company trainer sent to answer all the questions that come up in reading the manual. It’s a recipe for confusion and frustration.
This crucial problem is one of the several reasons why I had to abandon “Torah keeping” years ago.
How I Came To Abandon “Torah Keeping”
My journey as a believer has taken me through more than my share of denominations and movements. Five in all. They each had unique biblical insights and truths to offer, so each was a helpful step in my growth in understanding…until they no longer were. I typically moved on when the errors they taught became obvious and too overwhelming to put up with.
The particular phase I was in during in the early 2000’s goes by various names such as Messianic Judaism, Hebrew Roots, Two House and “Torah Keeping.” It involves keeping as much the 613 commandments in the Torah or five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) as one can. The mainstay of these commandments is the Sabbath and the biblical feasts of Leviticus 23 (popularly known mostly as the Jewish holidays) and avoiding unclean meats.
I’m glad I got into Torah keeping. Through it I came to understand a lot more of the Bible than I did before, especially in the area of Bible prophecy. Yet after a few years, diminishing returns set in and more errors came to light, just as I experienced in all other movements/denominations.
Most importantly, I found myself unable to accept that all the Torah were what that Jesus and others in the NT referred to as the (universal) “commandments of God” (1Jo 5:2-3).
A few people have asked me lately how this came about. Here’s a brief summary:
1) I tried to practice it here in Costa Rica and saw not only was I unsure always on how to do it (calendar wars, Sabbath restriction debates, etc.), but even the ways I thought to try to keep the days God was not providing a way to do it. This seemed odd if I sincerely wanted to obey him and he wanted me to do it, that he was not blessing me with a way to do so.
Likewise, nobody else was really was “keeping Torah.” Instead of doing it all like Israel, they were all picking and choosing what parts God would hold them accountable to do. For example, I didn’t know anyone who went to Jerusalem for Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles as was required on all men. “Oh, well we can’t afford to do that, so God must wink at that one…”
2) I kept studying and seeing many verses that contradicted the Torah keeping premise. Timothy was circumcised not because “it was required on all” but to “please the Jews there.” Acts 15 was getting harder and harder to twist from its more plain reading (see http://www.gci.org/acts/decree1 http://www.gci.org/acts/decree2 ). Galatians was also hard to keep explaining away.
3) I finally learned about the rule of audience and saw how much Christian and Messianic exegesis depends on ignoring the specific audience spoken to and lifting it and making it universal. The audience of Torah was ancient Israel under Moses. You have to prove it is for someone else, not assume it is. (This audience point is a real bombshell because it destroys most of Christian doctrine based on NT passages to specific audiences, like the Great Commission given to the apostles.)
Once I stopped focusing on attempting to do something that was impossible for me to do, an interesting thing happened. While reading the Gospels, I began to notice what Jesus had been wanting for us all along. He never once told people to “keep Torah” (as Torah teachers claim) or defined the Torah as the “commandments of God” that are referenced in the NT (1Jo 5:2-3)Â He instead told people to trust God and to love your neighbor as yourself as the universal commandments of God. By loving your neighbor because it’s God’s will, you are obeying and loving God. He said that living that way fulfilled the Torah and the Prophets (the entire Hebrew Bible) and gave you eternal life.
Hebrew Roots had failed to explain what Jesus wanted for us to do, just as all the other denominations I had been in did. It did not put the emphasis on “doing for others what you would want done for you,” as Jesus did (Mt 7:12).
These days I just seek to fulfill the will of God for all men as Jesus himself expressed it. To be sure, loving your neighbor is not as stimulating or interesting as Torah keeping is, so it’s not likely to catch on. It even seems too simple to be correct coming from a 613 commandment Torah-keeping view. But when you make loving God and your neighbor your focus, you find it’s not so easy as it simple. It’s even more challenging than Torah keeping was.
America’s Fall: Why Does “Nobody” Buy the Merchants’ Goods “Anymore” After?
This post is about an interesting question in regards to my article Will America Crash Economically or Recover? — Bible’s Bittersweet Answer. (Note: If after reading the above article you still doubt Mystery Babylon the Great refers to America, check out 60 proofs America is Babylon.
Many people believe America is doomed to suffer an economic collapse worse than the Great Depression. They point to several reasons to support this view. A popular one cited is the shift of domestic manufacturing overseas. America once had a great manufacturing base. For example, it was a key factor in winning World War II. With the loss of that base, people assume America must go downhill. Sound familiar?
Here’s the question off that premise:
Reader Question: Loss of Manufacturing Base to Asia Reason For All the Merchant Ships?
This is an observation I have had for quite some time concerning your take on America’s financial status in the global community. When referring to the many ship captains and their vessels sitting out of port on the day of Mystery Babylon’s destruction and lamenting her destruction (Rev 18:17,18,19) – I believe you use this picture to explain away a great economic collapse which predicates the “single day destruction.”
My question to you is, due to the fact that America has forfeited her manufacturing base to Asia, wouldn’t it make sense for there to be many ship captains awaiting port of call regardless of America’s financial status? That is, whether markets are “up or down,” we need lots of ships on a daily cycle to maintain food, fuel and dry goods. Therefore, couldn’t Mystery Babylon’s destruction occur AFTER a major hit on our economy or at best, occur at a time of financial malaise?
Inquiring minds just gotta know!
My Answer: America’s Diversified, Top Wealth-Producing Economy
Maybe it’s time to shift our paradigm about the importance of a “manufacturing base?” Despite the importance people like to place on manufacturing, we’re still the world’s economic leader after supposedly losing the mantle of being the manufacturing leader. Why? We have a diversified high-tech information and manufacturing economy now. We’re still the wealthiest nation.
Remember, the merchant ships only come because we have “wealth seeking goods” as the economists say. And not just a little like a financial malaise would demand, but so many goods are bought here that these merchants are made rich by their trade with America the Babylon. As Revelation 18 plainly says, this prosperous trade scenario continues until the day America is burned with fire which is why sea-faring merchants are off the coast witnessing the burning and weeping for the great loss.
Why do they cry so badly? It’s not a small loss or even a partial loss. It’s a complete loss of their business…
“Nobody Buys Their Merchandise Anymore”??
Revelation says NOBODY buys their goods anymore (Rev 18:11). They’re not just out of business with America but with everyone. How come? If only America is destroyed why does this stop everyone from buying from the merchants?
I just understood how to explain this mysterious verse last year. When America is destroyed, the dollar is no longer a backed currency. Just imagine what would happen if the world’s reserve currency became worthless everywhere suddenly? It would bring global economic collapse beyond anything we’ve seen. Talk about pulling the rug out from under everyone. It would spell the end of prosperous commerce like we are accustomed to today (until the Beast rises and restores it – Mt 24:38-39)
Therefore, it well be doubly good for people to “move forth from the land of Babylon” not just for the fiery destruction but for the global pandemonium that will ensue. I’ve been thinking for a long time Elijah will warn people to flee Babylon and all nations at the same time since America’s fall is so catastrophic to the world and Wormwood is coming so soon after. Imagine people trying to travel to flee Babylon in a global meltdown? It will be tough for those who wait because they adopted a “wait and see” approach the Elijah’s warning.
Follow-up Comment:
That would make sense being that most of the world is capitalizing on “Mystery Babylon’s” buying power. If one feeds the neighbors big bad dog they shouldn’t be surprised to end up missing a hand or a few fingers. The “ripple effect” would indeed be catastrophic. Thanks for your timely response Timotheus!
Where Is The Third Temple Prophesied?
Many Christians consider the rebuilding of the Temple and restarting of animal sacrifices not a prophetic sign, but an affront to Christ and the church (the “real” temple?). If you learn what the Book of Hebrews says is the actual purpose of the Temple and sacrifices, the plain prophecies about them coming again will make more sense. Discover what must happen first before Temple construction can begin, what prophecy may bring it, when it happens in relation to the 70th week, and what if anything you should do when you see the Third Temple rebuilt.
Continue reading to find out what you need to know about the coming Third Temple.
Confused by Hebrew Roots/Torah Keeping?
My Conversation with a Confused Torah Keeper
After Nehemia Gordon shared my Facebook status on his Facebook wall, one of his friends found me and said:
Hey Tim, I have questions, how do I get some of them to you? I have tried to ask Nehemia Gordon and I think he’s busy right now! Anyway, I see how good you are about writing back.
I’m always up for helping people out of their confusion if I can as it feels great to see the fog of confusion lift and peace arrive. It also helps me get clearer on my thoughts along the lines of the Socratic method (used by Socrates to teach his students through questions).
Her confusion was over Torah Keeping. As someone who went through the same questions and confusion she did, I am able to point out some things that are easy to miss and not taught by the Torah teachers.
If you want to see what I said to her, read the complete dialog here posted with permission (but name withheld) in the interest of helping others confused over Torah keeping (TK), “walking as Jesus walked,” and “pagan holidays” like Christmas and Easter.
“Should I Keep Torah?”
Confused Torah Keeper: Long story short, I believe Jesus is the messiah, but have always had a deep interest in the truth of the Bible, how to follow Him in truth and it has taken me on a journey of finding out how much of what I had been taught wasn’t even “truth”. I started by finding out how Easter, Christmas, etc. were pagan holidays all of that. So I then was drawn to Hebraic root, messianic jew online congregations. Okay, now all of my family and friends then called me a jew because I felt that the feasts were something I should study and know about. The more serious I became about all things jewish, the backlash from friends, family, church members became pretty intense. Nehemia, blows my mind on his knowledge and now I have questions about do I follow Him in truth anymore? Do I follow the torah laws, does Jesus intend for us to? Then I was listening to truth2u radio and they talked about Hebrews 8 and how there is a new covenant. I guess the simple question is how do I tell people (and myself) that Jesus never came to do away with the old laws when so much of what Paul says messes that up and then there is Hebrews 8. Does any of that make sense? I do not have the support around me to help me work through some of these things and my spirit is taking a beating.
Tim: I started the same Torah journey back in 2000, so I appreciate your questions and where you are. I have learned so much through it and since then after realizing Torah keeping did not fit with the NT as you are seeing. I don’t regret Torah Keeping (TK) but once I saw that it did not produce the results/fruit Jesus talked about, I had to move on.
First, if you look at all the words of Jesus for what he directly told people to do, Jesus never told them to keep Torah while he instead told them other things, plenty of them. The only way to get that Jesus wanted us to do Torah is to point to the fact that he did it (ignoring why) and take some of his words out of context.
In Mt 19:17-19 when asked how to have eternal life, he specifically listed only five love your neighbor commandments and left off all the other five that come only through Torah revelation. People can learn to love their neighbor by being around people who teach them how to treat them. Plus governments have statutes around those five commandments too. But the five he left off and the rest of Torah only come through revelation that only Israel received. Plus they were about staying in the Promised Land, not about eternal life like the five love thy neighbor commands are.
Why Jesus did not list Sabbath and other commands bothered me when I was a TK. He went out of his way to not tell people to keep Torah stuff. Only the love stuff. Why, if TK was required? Well, now you know what I concluded and how I resolved that.
If TK is required, then 99% of humanity is damned because they never heard of it and if they did hear of it they see it as something given to Israel/Judah (and rightly so). But if love your neighbor is all that is required, then 100% of humanity living around people has the chance to figure this out. If God made us all, he would want us to not harm what he made. I think that’s why people universally admire the Mother Teresa’s, Ghandi’s, etc. Everyone knows what’s right.
CTK: I know He did it (because that was the way), that is my reason for wanting to also. Do you feel it’s important to keep the feasts, clean food eating, etc. in your walk?
Tim: Define “important.” As you can see above, if TK is in any way “important” where does that leave 99% of humanity who WE MUST REMEMBER never received Torah?
CTK: I guess, because I know these things I feel that “since I know better” I should follow how He walked.
“We Should Walk As He Walked…?”
Tim: ahh, that verse. Have you looked at it closely?
CTK: The more I study the less I know. I guess I haven’t looked close enough. Remind me where that verse is.
Tim: Read 1John 2:6 now in context and tell me if you had never heard a Torah Teacher tell you it means Torah, what is the context of that verse (verse 6)?
Verse 3 says keeping Jesus’ commands. Read Mt, Mk, Lk and Jn and you’ll never once see him say “Keep Torah” but he will tell people to love one another and explain what that looks like (Good Samaritan, separation of the Sheep and the Goats-“you did it unto me”)
TKs say verse 3 is Torah commands. But that does not fit. Keep reading and see how it talks about love in verse 5 and 10, before and after the verse on walking like Jesus (verse 6).
Jesus’ commandments are love thy neighbor in five points (Mt 19:18-19). By doing this for God, he says you inherit the kingdom. It’s simple, but not easy. That is the good news of the kingdom and why it requires repentance. We don’t naturally love each other. We’re naturally selfish. People who change that really stand out like the great servants I mentioned above. Torah does not produce that fruit. It was for Israel to be a great wise nation that inspired other nations. It was not about salvation.
And I have not even gotten into the fact that nobody can keep Torah today or since AD 70. It was an all or nothing contract with Israel. They were warned for neglecting points. Today people kid themselves when they say they are TK because they are just Torah Fans as Michael Rood says. That was the other thing I saw that made me realize I was just fooling myself about TK being required. How could God require or make important something that nobody can do today?
And when did he ever tell anyone, “It’s OK, just do the parts you can…”?
That’s the little inconvenient truth about TK that we all had to ignore in the movement. We could not even do what we said we did but we winked at it and said the best we could must be good enough.
Is any of what I concluded helping you? I bet you have tons of questions still. Feel free to ask others and just keep doing it until you’re sure. Just sharing why now I focus on Jesus’ actual words of instruction and not his actions (incl. dying on a cross, calling 12 apostles, turning over the money changers tables) or Torah teacher’s words.
CTK: I see what you are saying, and I agree. I guess this search for truth and taken me off track in trying to do His will. It is hard to love your neighbor. Your talk has helped me so much. It’s taken the edge of feeling ashamed that I’m not following right some how.
Tim: Phew! Good. Yes, shame and fear of missing something is a big driving force behind TK. When you can see for yourself that it’s really simple and you can’t possibly be missing it or everyone is missing it and we’re all damned, then you can have peace and confidence to step up and try to do that simple hard thing with God’s help (which he is very happy to give to those who take that pleasing step of faith to serve an invisible God by loving people for him)
CTK: I pray that God blesses you as you have blessed me in helping me see things a little clearer. The fence is not a good place to be, walking between two places.
Avoiding Pagan Holidays?
Tim: Thanks. I’m sure further questions will occur, so don’t hesitate….
CTK: Real quick, I still don’t to celebrate Easter and Christmas! Lol
Tim: oops, there we go…
Then don’t. If your conscience says don’t then don’t. But there is nothing sinful about keeping “pagan” holidays. Israel was told not to worship pagan idols but that is not what the days are today. They are confused dirty syncretism now, but that does not make them sin. Paul’s letters are good on this point. He never says a word about the “avoiding the pagan days” of his culture. He says you can eat food sacrificed to idols if it does not bother your conscience or the conscience of your brother. If they were as bad as TK or Michael Rood says, then it would be different.
CTK: Yep, it does bother me how these holidays were started. I have listened to Michael Rood, but wasn’t sure about his teaching.
Tim: Yes, they are false and I personally have no desire to keep them in my house ever since I knew they were shams. But if someone invited me to a Xmas party I would not be offended or tell them it’s pagan. I’d go if I felt like it without fear that I’m sinning or offending God. You can’t live your life without coming in contact with pagan words, ideas, inventions, traditions and philosophy.
CTK: My family is dead set on keeping them, they just know I’m not big on it. I have 3 grown children with 8 grandchildren and if I gave up on Christmas totally it would be world war three.
My heart is just not the same about it.
Tim: Yeah then I advise you keep the peace by putting aside your own disgust with the holiday’s origins. That’s love. (Love is not telling them it’s all pagan and making them feel ashamed. That’s what I did when I was young and naive in my teens and just figuring out the truth about Xmas. It’s a common mistake played out on Facebook every day.)
CTK: I’ll let you go, bless your heart. I’ll bug you some other day.
Afterword
I was messaged this after this posting of our conversation. It was very helpful of her to explain which of the arguments presented above were the key to her freedom from worry that she should keep Torah.
CTK: It was good to reread that. … I’m just so glad you took the time to talk, I just hope people don’t judge on how “stupid” I might have sounded, so the anonymous part is awesome! The part about not being able to keep all of it, but trying to “wink”, is good enough, is I think, what really made me wake up and be like, there is the simple truth of it, and I was missing that in my quest to be loyal to Him. Again, thank you.
For Further Reading
To answer some follow-up questions to this post, see How I Came To Abandon Torah Keeping.
Update 2016
Three years later, my position has not changed, but in helping another person on Facebook new to the Torah keeping issue and questioning it all, I wrote the following that I think sums it up even better:
As you said, nobody keeps the whole law today because it’s impossible. Just realizing that, you’re ahead of the field who deceive themselves into thinking they are keeping Torah, which was an all-or-nothing proposition when delivered by Moses to ancient Israel. Yet many still pick and choose to keep Sabbath, feasts, kosher, etc. which all only exist in the Law. As such, feast-keeping IS indeed keeping the law–part of it.
People do this thinking that adoption of these rituals given to ancient Israel would please God today, too. Common reasons?: “Jesus kept them”, “They are eternal”, “They are coming back as prophecy says so why not start today?”, etc. Or they think Christianity has negligently failed to teach these things as evidenced by their invented pagan holiday focus instead. Notice, that among these reasons is not, “Jesus plainly taught us to keep the Law of Moses. Just read the Sermon on the Mount!” because he taught anything but law keeping in his words.
Either way, while this heart to find and do all God wills is great and pleases God, I have personally experienced and observed for three decades how these practices end up being yet another ditch or distraction from what Jesus actually taught and called “good fruit” in the Sermon on the Mount. What Jesus taught is what God prefers we focus on developing, not what Moses taught ancient Israel to keep, yes?
Unfortunately, just as you rightly pointed out that Christianity does not teach us the truth on the days God once set apart and will set apart again and has introduced us to pagan feasts days (whether they are bad enough lies to reject or not is up to each person, as Greg said), Christianity also fails to teach and train us in how to be like Jesus by developing the good fruit he said to focus on. This fruit is the key determiner of how to choose who to let teach us and how to know if we are in the faith ourselves. Since leaving Torah keeping, my focus has been on understanding and developing this fruit which does bring you the fruits Jesus talked about, unlike how Law keeping did.
Hope this helps and blessings on your search for truth and to please Yehovah God.
Discussing End Time Prophecy With Children
Many who contact me and get my book are naturally concerned about understanding and even mentally prepared for the end times events. Those who are parents like me often bring up the subject of how to share this topic with their children. Here’s an example of what one lady wrote me:
Can you please tell me how you discuss these things [end times] with your children? I have a 15 y.o and he is difficult to talk to.
I thought perhaps that I should just pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give him revelation knowledge, understanding, wisdom, insight and discernment about the things to come and the things pertaining to God as he is moving away from the faith.
Here’s my answer:
Because I have been studying and talking about this topic everyday since my children were small, they have been used to it without me specifically discussing it with them. I don’t see any need to do so anyway. There is nothing children or teens (or anyone else) need to know or need to do about what’s coming. It tends to only make them anxious and wonder whether they will get a chance to finish school, have a career, get married, have kids. So I don’t recommend it.
It may help to remember that most people will know nothing about the end times. This is OK because God’s plan to save us does not depend on something other than that. Elijah will come, work miracles, speak with authority, get attention and share instructions no one else has. People of all walks and modes of belief or unbelief will not be able to miss that call to action when it comes and it will wake up even many skeptics and unbelievers. Many Christians who depend on pastors, religion, church structure, etc. may not respond in faith.
Therefore, instead of giving them the particulars about Bible prophecy, I think your best bet is to teach your children to look to God and his word directly now (Acts 17:11), instead of depending on others’ opinions about God for when the time comes to evaluate Elijah and what he says when he comes.
Sovereignty or Free Man Movement: WWJD?
The sovereignty or free man movement sucks in many people, sometimes ruining their lives. Believers who run into it even consider that following it is pleasing or God or something Jesus would do. I received the following email from someone new to it who wanted my opinion of it:
I just recently found out about this free man movement, who lawfully don’t cooperate with society or society’s rules/statutes which the society calls “laws” but they aren’t actually by definition laws. And they refuse to pay tax to a corporation which uses the money to kill innocent people with or withholds money from the vulnerable like the UK is doing now, disabled people are killing themselves because they are being denied money and have no food, people are being made homeless but the majority are paying these taxes in expectation that the vulnerable will be cared for. Then the gov are using the money for 10 million pound funerals for dead politicians and justifying building nukes because of the none existent threats of north Korea. I wasn’t born to have to fund this and I am researching it at the moment. Just randomly wanted to ask you if you’d heard of it and what you think. It all started with the straw man, realising that birth certificates are documents actually signing children over as property of the state. Then I found more things. That basically all that “law” we are TOLD to believe and obey, as free men of the land we are under common law but not all these man made laws. So basically by cooperating with the state and society we are agreeing to their conditions etc, and allowing them to enforce these things without giving consent in the first place so in other words we are willing slaves to a system most of us don’t even realise we have to be part of in anyway as long as we follow common law derived from common sense but for me God’s commandments are top.
I not only have heard of sovereignty / free men, but I studied it and considered following it for awhile. I even went to a weekend sovereignty seminar put on by a sovereignty leader who hosts a radio show. However, within a couple years I finally had to reject it after observing a few things:
1) The results of it in people’s lives was bad, often catastrophic. They were wasting their time fighting city hall or picking fights with city hall and losing their homes, their citizenship, their homeland, their jobs, etc. not to mention losing time in this unnecessary fight.
2) The fundamental premise of needing to withdrawal your name and involvement from society to avoid culpability in what institutions who receive your name or money might do wrong is deeply flawed. The problem with this is that no matter who you transact with you have the same “problem.” They are most likely evil and will do non-ideal or non-godly things by their nature. If you are truly responsible to make sure you don’t associate with not just sinful behavior, but any non-ideal activity like sovereignty teaches on, you really have no choice but to disconnect from society completely and live in the forest alone. Because if you don’t, you never know who you transact with that is doing these nefarious activities that sovereignty obsesses over.
3) Finally, I noticed in the Bible that did Jesus contradicted the sovereignty theory outright in his actions. He never taught on anything remotely close to the idea of wide personal accountability for who you transact with that does non-ideal things. In fact, he interacted with, healed and otherwise aided sinners. Also, he paid his taxes as Peter attested (Mt 17:24-25). His reason when asked was that it was to avoid provoking those collecting (Mt 17:27). His concern was for living his life and getting things done; not to fight to make sure he gave no money or help that could be used non-ideally or even for the suffering of others.
Sovereignty sounds very noble, but you have to ask, “where do you draw the line?” if you are going to live a productive life and get anything else done? The answer is that it is an unrealistic ideal that can be a dangerous distraction from the true focus Jesus had and taught. That focus is to shine your light by loving and helping others (even evil/non-ideal others) rather than spending your time avoiding all association with evil or even non-ideal activities.
Time to Flee America?
Over the years of my involvement in Bible prophecy, I have met many people who were worried by rumors about bad things coming in America. Usually this comes from hearing conspiracy theories or prophecy-based predictions. For some, it makes them so anxious that they are seriously considering a move out of America. For example, one person wrote me:
Tim this President believes he is a King. There are things going on that are very frightening. There are whispers of martial law between now and June. Everyday is a new outrage. They are trying to take our guns. He is turning against Israel. He has enemies lists and kill list supposedly for terrorist, but DHS has named conservatives terrorists now. They passed the NDAA which says Americans can now be detained indefinitely. Those of us that pay attention are mocked and called alarmists. It is not good.
Some perspective helps greatly here. What few who write me realize is that these kind of rumors and speculation are actually nothing new. Rumors like this swirl around every president. I’ve watched it since the ’90s. And they always comes to naught. Why? Because they were based on many unlikely scenarios and unsafe assumptions.
The question is not what is conceptually possible assuming so many variables and conditions line up, but what is really probable or likely. The best predictor of the future is the past, not what a few fringe voices on the web say is going to happen. People have an abysmal track record when it comes to predicting the future. What makes us think that anonymous nobodies on the Internet would be the exception?
Thus, to factor these fringe theories into your life choices makes little sense. It would be like not going outside because you think you can slip and fall (a possibility) or be hit by lightening (possible) when really neither is probable or good reason to change what you do.
When we look at it that way we see that most likely Obama will exit the presidency normally with the US intact and no major problems just as all forty-something presidents before him did. Even if they take our guns away, America’s threat is not its own government through martial law, etc. but in prophecy it is enemies from the north.