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This is a non-WLC article. When using resources from outside authors, we only publish the content that is 100% in harmony with the Bible and WLC current biblical beliefs. So such articles can be treated as if coming directly from WLC. We have been greatly blessed by the ministry of many servants of Yahuwah. But we do not advise our members to explore other works by these authors. Such works, we have excluded from publications because they contain errors. Sadly, we have yet to find a ministry that is error-free. If you are shocked by some non-WLC published content [articles/episodes], keep in mind Proverbs 4:18. Our understanding of His truth is evolving, as more light is shed on our pathway. We cherish truth more than life, and seek it wherever it may be found. |
There’s an old bush saying: “Never drink downstream from where others are camping.” But when drinking upstream from others we are unaware that others are camped further upstream from us. Likewise, as we seek to preserve our theological purity we may be unaware of the influence on our beliefs of ancient Greek philosophy. Could it be that our beliefs, and those of the great reformers, and even those of the first post-biblical “Church Fathers,” are more polluted than we know?
So many different denominations have camped upstream from us in history that the doctrinal purity of the stream we now drink from is questionable. Yet we sense that if we could find the biblical source of the stream we could drink from it with confidence and comfort.
Many years ago, on a hot summer’s day, my family and I traced our local creek upstream into the tall timber of a state forest. There we parked our car and on foot traced it even further up a mountain range, until it was little more than a trickle. Our search ended at a moss- covered pond fed by a spring. We had found the source of the stream that wound its way down into a river which flowed into a greater river that lost itself in the ocean.
Just as we traced the source of the stream we drank from, we can also trace the source of our beliefs. In so doing we should find that the closer to the source we get, the purer the truth should become; until at last we are able to drink from the pure, sweet spring of New Testament and, as background, Old Testament truth.
The spiritual river that “makes glad the city of Yahuwah” (Ps. 46:4) is clear and pure, and streams Yahuwah’s unfailing love and mercy to His people. It has no tributaries, yet its depth and flow are constant, and its downstream supply is as pure as its upstream source.
Not so the theological river successive church leaders drank from in the early years of the Church. Clement, Origen and Athanasius, all of Alexandria, Justin Martyr of Samaria, and Tertullian imbibed the teachings of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and so polluted the doctrines taught by the apostles of Christ. Those downstream from them in time incorporated into their creeds the ideas of those pagan Greek philosophers.
It was Athanasius who at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD urged Constantine the Great to accept the Nicene Creed. The Roman Emperor presided over the opening of the historic event and closely monitored the proceedings. Although Constantine treated the bishops with respect they well knew that he favored the idea of a preexistent “God the Son” who was eternally co-equal with God the Father. They also knew that their stamp of agreement would encourage the emperor’s support for the Church.
The elevation of Yahushua the Messiah to Divinity severed the last remaining ties between Judaism and Christianity. No observant Jew, instructed since childhood in the Law of Moses, would accept that the One God of Israel was now to be worshipped as two divine Persons.
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The elevation of Yahushua the Messiah to Divinity severed the last remaining ties between Judaism and Christianity. No observant Jew, instructed since childhood in the Law of Moses, would accept that the One God of Israel was now to be worshipped as two divine Persons. At the Council of Constantinople (381 AD) the concept of the Holy Spirit as “the third member of the Trinity” was added, and the One God became three Persons. The Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) clarified and reaffirmed the decisions of previous councils, and from then on the scattered Jews, demonized as “God-killers,” were persecuted throughout Christendom. And so were those Christians who never accepted a triune Yahuwah.
Meanwhile in the Church itself Hellenistic ideas had long blended with the tradition of the church fathers to produce a religious entity the apostles would never have called Christian. After the fall of the pagan Roman Empire the papal Roman Empire rose in its place. The world must have marveled at such a miraculous recovery! What the city of Alexandria had been to the East the revived city of Rome was to the West. Religion and politics had embraced, and their union would thereafter be known as Christendom. The question then was, and still is, whether those who are known by Christ’s name should drink from a polluted stream of pagan philosophy?
The answer is, No. Not when we can drink from the pure stream of prophetic promise. That stream has its source in Yahuwah’s covenant with Abraham, a covenant later confirmed with Isaac and later again with Jacob. From His heavenly viewpoint Yahuwah usually begins by referring to the promises made by Him to Abraham.
“And Yahuwah heard their groaning, and Yahuwah remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And Yahuwah looked upon the children of Israel, and Yahuwah knew them” (Exod. 2:24). He recognized them! Yahuwah had confirmed the covenant with an oath (Deut. 7:8). To this day Israel is “beloved for the fathers’ sake” — for the sake of the covenant Yahuwah made with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Rom. 11:28). Yet the majority of national Israel has rejected its own Abrahamic promises in Messiah Yahushua. In Leviticus 26:42 Yahuwah does not follow the prophetic river of promise downstream, but instead traces it back upstream to its source: “Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and I will also remember my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.”
Zacharias began with the promise of his people’s salvation and traced the prophetic river of promise upstream to the mercy promised by Yahuwah to his fathers, and beyond that to its very source: the oath of the covenant.
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Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, traces the source of the stream to Abraham in his song of praise: “That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath that He swore to our father Abraham” (Luke 1:71-73). Zacharias began with the promise of his people’s salvation and traced the prophetic river of promise upstream to the mercy promised by Yahuwah to his fathers, and beyond that to its very source: the oath of the covenant.
Since Abraham is “the father of all those who believe” — not only of Jews but also of non-Jews — all who “walk in the steps” of Abraham (that is, in his faith) are now “Abraham’s descendants, and heirs according to the promise” (Rom. 4:11; Gal. 3:29). If this isn’t the WOW Factor, what is?
What does it mean to be a “son” or “daughter” of Abraham? When the dodgy tax gatherer Zacchaeus pledged to give half of his possessions to the poor, and to restore anything he had taken by false accusation — a statement of repentance and restitution — Yahushua called him a “son of Abraham” who had been lost but was now saved (Luke 19:9-10). Only in Christ did he regain his spiritual status.
When the ruler of a synagogue was angry with Yahushua for his Sabbath day healing of a woman who had been bent double for 18 years, Yahushua called him a hypocrite. “Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead it to water? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for 18 long years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:15-16).
Yahushua identified Zacchaeus as a “son of Abraham” and the woman as a “daughter of Abraham.” The first was saved and the second healed! Yahushua described healing as “the children’s bread” (Matt. 15:26). Some who called Abraham their father showed they were not his true descendants at all by wanting to kill Yahushua (John 8:33-40).
Why would you drink downstream from pagan philosophy polluted by doctrines of doubt and unbelief, when you can drink from a pure stream of prophetic promise to Abraham and to Christ his seed?
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Are you drinking this in? As a son or daughter of Abraham by faith in Yahushua Christ (Gal. 3:29; 6:16; Phil. 3:3), you should be! Why would you drink downstream from pagan philosophy polluted by doctrines of doubt and unbelief, when you can drink from a pure stream of prophetic promise to Abraham and to Christ his seed?
Trace your belief stream back to its source, and if that source is pagan philosophy — stop drinking from it! The effects downstream on those who drink from a river indicate whether or not it has been polluted upstream.
There is such a contrast between the polluted stream of ancient Greek philosophy and the pure stream of prophetic promise that it’s not all that difficult to spot the difference. The polluted stream has us in heaven in gowns, sitting on clouds and strumming harps; whereas the pure stream has us on a renewed earth, enjoying our kingdom inheritance with Abraham (Matt. 5:5; Rom. 4:13). The polluted stream would have us loathe the physical body and seek escape from it into an ethereal spiritual dimension, in a hazy life after life; whereas the pure stream brings the hope of the resurrection of the body, of life after death, and of a tangible immortality. The polluted stream would have us escape from the problems of life into unending personal bliss; whereas the pure stream renews our lives so that we can be a blessing to everyone we meet.
If your church teaches the polluted doctrines of ancient Greek philosophy, search out one that proclaims Yahuwah’s prophetic promises. This may take some time, though, since pure beliefs these days seem to be in short supply.
