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By WRM, 18950 Highway 441 - #308, Mt. Dora, FL 32757 Charismatic Enthusiasm Filled with enthusiasm and vigor, aligned with the supernatural power of charismatic Pentecostalism, of which it is a branch, with interlinear Bible in hand, studying day and ii ight, knowing rudimentary Hebrew words, excited about what it believes, it is engaging eagerly down the line of battle in hand-to- hand combat with souls who have rested on the belief that they have the truth, but who have allowed themselves either to fall asleep spiritually, or to have their spiritual life vitiated by the apostasy which has spread like a leprosy through the Structure and the Independents. The recent surge, since the early 1970s, of Messianic Judaism, has distinctly traceable roots, and is being led by forces that the common person involved in it does not comprehend. Tens of thousands of people, eager to follow light, are, with unbounded enthusiasm, embracing Messianic Judaism, which has now brought the Old Testament back into vogue in the larger religious world. The emphasis on a living experience with Christ, the vibrancy of the excitement of believing that they hold “new light,” Messianic Judaism is a mix of truth and error, but the truth that elements of it do hold, such as the Seventh-day Sabbath, is awakening many in the world to the claims of God’s law. Messianic Judaism is a very diverse movement Some Messianic Jews are more oriented to the gospel, and are fervent evangelists, some are more oriented to Judaism; some Messianic Jewish leaders are committed to importing Judaism, --Rabbinic and Talmudic Judaism, into the interpretation of the New Testament. Some are New Agers, some are Roman Catholic nuns; some claim to be both Seventh-day Adventists and Messianic Jews and drink alcohol (wine drinking is very much part of Jewish rituals), and believe in Aliyah. Some are New Agers focused on dispensational theology. None that we have met so far have any grounding at all in the Great Controversy, the Three Angels’ Messages, or the Spirit of Prophecy. A Very Diverse Movement Why Many Adventists Are Interested in Judaism It provides acceptability in the broad way. Many Adventists, immersed for years in the confusion of apostasy, having abandoned the narrow way of the gospel such as crucifixion of self and separation from the world, are taking to Judaism because it offers a broader way than the self- denial demanded by true discipleship of Christ. Suddenly, by linking up with Messianic Judaism, they find that they are part of an exciting, new avant-garde religious movement in which drinking wine is no problem, dancing is no problem, jewelry is no problem. They have been conditioned by years of apostasy to accept these dimensions of life which are acceptable to Judaism. Now they have a religion which condones what they have been feeling guilty about, and a new religion which even is endorsed by the Structure, with its Hebrew/Adventist churches and its centers merging Jewish liturgy with Adventist theology. ‘their conscience is soothed with the idea that they think they still have the Sabbath, elements of the Sanctuary, the diet, and the Second Coming. And others they know are part of it. “Conservative” Structurites who have lost the clear
definition of faith found In true discipleship of Christ, find
in Jewish ritualism the definition they crave. There is another
class of Structuritcs, who desire to be considered “conservative”,
but who, under the onslaught of rampant pantheism in the Structure
which subtly and diffusively destroys true discipleship, and
the concern to not have to take the risk of bearing the cross
of rejection, shame, and reproach involved in true discipleship
(it might cost them their position in the Structure), have lost
the defining clarity of the experience of the true fear of the
Lord and the spiritual vision of the crystal clear experience
of true discipleship of Jesus Christ, which would mark them out
as separate |
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