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Background to a soon-coming prayer campaign, Part 7

On September 11, 2012, a group of us were led to make a trip north to Bemidji, MN to begin the work of rebuilding the wall of (New) Jerusalem. This came a year after we had been involved in Operation Jericho (September 11-17, 2011), where we prayed to throw down the dividing walls of the church.

As we drove north, the Lord revealed that there were two stones (laws) that needed to be placed in the wall, because the walls of a city are its boundaries, protecting the city. Hence, the walls represent their laws (moral boundaries), which protect a city from evil or destructive people. The two stones, or laws, were: (1) the law of victims rights, and (2) the law of impartiality.

We prayed to lay the first stone at Bemidji, and the second stone was laid on November 29, 2012 at a conference in Dallas, TX.

The Bemidji stone was laid on September 12, 2012, just 52 days after July 22 (7/22), which was a type of the 8^th day of Tabernacles (7/22 on the Hebrew calendar).

The Dallas stone was laid on November 29, 2012, just 52 days after October 8, which was the actual 8^th day of Tabernacles that year.

In both cases, this involved a 52-day cycle, because this is the biblical pattern in Nehemiah 6:15,

¹⁵ So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

These two law-stones are keys to the entire wall of the New Jerusalem. The law of victims rights gives all victims not only the right to obtain justice, but also the right to extend mercy and grace. It is a law of grace. The law of impartial judgment applies the law of God to all people equally, without regard to their nationality, genealogy, gender, or religion. Even the devil himself gets equal justice before the law, as we have seen so often.

Grace in the Law

The wisdom of the law has been hidden from the church for many centuries. The church long ago adopted the Jewish view that the law was devoid of grace and that law and grace were mutually exclusive principles. The difference is that the Jews simply chose law over grace, while the church rejected the law in favor of grace.

Both were incorrect. The law of Jubilee is the law of grace, because it limits the power of sin (debt) and gives grace in the end, even if a man has not yet worked off his full debt. The law of victims rights is the right of a victim to forgive debt to whatever extent he wishes. If he is led by the Spirit, he will know whether or not to hold a sinner accountable, as well as how long to hold him accountable. If the victim is filled with the love of God, he or she will ask: what is best for the sinner? As we all know when disciplining our children, sometimes it is best for them to be held accountable so that they learn righteousness. Other times it is best for them to forgive and show mercy.

Yet centuries ago, Christians were taught that the law was unmerciful, rigid, and unloving. They rejected it because it seemed so unlike Jesus. The problem, however, was not in the law, but in our ignorance and misapplication of the law. The justice of the law was seen as a duty, rather than as a right. While it is true that applying the justice of the law is a duty to the judge, it is a right to the victim. The judge has no choice but to apply the law with impartial judgment. Once his duty has been fulfilled, however, the victim has every right to forgive.

The misunderstanding in the church needed correction. For this reason, in 2012 we were led to go to Bemidji and begin the spiritual work of placing this key law into the walls of the New Jerusalem as part of the rebuilding of the wall. While we were on the road, God revealed the law of victims rights for the first time, enabling us to do this work.

Impartiality in the Law

The next “stone” to be placed was the law of impartial judgment, based on Exodus 23:2, 3, 6,

² You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice; ³ nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute… ⁶ You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute.

The popular Jewish interpretation of this defines “brother” as a fellow Jew, allowing them to pervert justice to all others. They ignore God’s instructions in Numbers 15:15, 16,

¹⁵ As for the assembly [kahal, “church”], there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before the Lord. ¹⁶ There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you.

In other words, the Jewish idea that Jews are to follow the whole law, while “gentiles” are limited to the so-called “Noahide laws” is entirely bogus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Laws_of_Noah

There is only one law for all who are part of the Kingdom of God. The laws of God apply equally and impartially to all men, regardless of their ethnicity. In fact, God’s law commands Israelites to love the aliens as themselves. God often reminds Israel to remember how they felt when the Egyptians treated them partially. Leviticus 19:33, 34 says,

³³ When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. ³⁴ The foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

Again, God commands in Deuteronomy 10:18, 19,

¹⁸ He executes justice for the orphan, and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

The idea that God loves Jews and Israelites more than gentiles is just rubbish. It has no place in a Christian community, any more than in a Jewish community. It is a clear violation of the law and the mind of God. Being “chosen” does not mean that God loves a chosen one more than one who is not chosen. Neither is it right to treat men partially. All are held to the same standard of measure according to the nature and character of God—as seen in Jesus Christ.

Partiality in History

The church as an institution (for the blind) stopped teaching the law quite early. At first, it was because they rejected the Jewish interpretation of the law—that is, the traditions of men (Matthew 15:8, 9). The problem, however, was not the law itself, but men’s carnal understanding of the law. But instead of correcting the misguided understanding of the law, as Jesus did in His “Sermon on the Mount,” the church rejected the law itself. They did not even believe Jesus’ own words in Matthew 5:17, 18, 19, where He warned believers of rejecting the law.

For this reason, in more recent centuries, when the Age of Exploration began in the late 1400’s, the “Christians” sailed to unknown lands and treated others as “savages.” The term allowed them to treat others partially, to say the least. They did not come to set men free, as Christ commanded, but to steal their wealth and labor. They did not eradicate black slavery, but legalized it and then defended their right to kidnap men from Africa and ship them as slaves to other counties.

Kidnapping calls for the death penalty. Buying a slave calls for the death penalty as well. Exodus 21:16 says,

¹⁶ And he who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.

In America, the native population usually was treated very badly as well. It was not until the mid-1800’s that the Supreme Court finally ruled that Indians were “men.” It came after a law suit in Nebraska. Prior to that time, treaties were drawn up by fraud, because the Indians did not realize that the term “men” did not apply to them and that the language of legalism allowed the US government to violate treaties at will. They did not know that the language of law is not the same as the popular language. Legal definitions of words are different from their street usage.

Many Christians disagreed with US government policy, but most were unaware of hidden reason for these oppressive policies. The non-believers, along with the multitude of believers who were ignorant of the law of impartial justice, were caught up in following the multitude to do evil. Having an Old Covenant mindset, “Christian society” as a whole simply overran the Indian people and blamed them when they fought back.

“Joe started it when he hit me back.”

There were Christian voices that objected, thankfully, but their voices were drowned out in the din of lawless behavior that refused to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. I believe it was for this reason God put America into slavery to the Babylonian beast system a century ago. We needed a sharp reminder of what slavery is.

Finally, the Israelis have done the same with the Palestinian people that Americans did with the Indians. By coming to steal land for their own benefit, they blamed the Palestinians for fighting back. It is true that sometimes land was purchased, but it is equally true that most of the land was stolen by violence or confiscated by unlawful means (according to God’s law).

To their credit, many Jews objected, even as many Christians had objected to the US government’s mistreatment of the Indians and African slaves. Men like Robert Friedman, who wrote Zealots for Zion, and Norman Finkelstein, who wrote Beyond Chutzpah, exposed the horrific treatment of the Palestinians at the hands of the Zionists. Some Jewish leaders in the early 1900’s were even killed by Zionists for their moral stand against Zionist crimes.

Yet Christian Zionists supported these terrorists and murderers, because they believed that the Jews were “chosen,” and that being chosen meant privileged to treat others without love. The Palestinians were blamed for not leaving their land. When children were killed for throwing stones, Christians indignantly sided with the Israelis in their tanks.

In other words, Christians in America have not yet learned the law of impartiality, even though James 2:9 reminds us,

⁹ But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

The Kingdom of God will not be established by lawlessness. Lawlessness is the stuff that worldly walls are made of. Laws establishing partiality are stones in the walls of the Old Jerusalem, not the New. That is one reason why God has “cast out the bondwoman and her son” (Galatians 4:30), which is the Old Jerusalem and its followers. The Israeli state has flawed foundations, for it was not built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. If we embrace the bondwoman as our spiritual mother, we are then her sons who are to be cast out with her.

For that matter, the same can be said about the Saul church. Saul’s reign has ended, for he was disqualified in favor of a man after God’s own heart. Virtually all believers identify themselves with David, rather than with Saul, but God searches the heart. If we act like Saul, we have no right to think that we are of David’s company.

The Kingdom of God is not a Jewish state, nor even an Israelite state. It is not based on ethnicity, but upon allegiance to one King—Jesus Christ. We are one in Him, and there is but one law that must be written in every heart in order to conform to His image. He is our righteous standard, regardless of how that standard is expressed through various colors of culture.

Our prayer campaign on April 9, then, will be based in large part on the law of impartial justice. We will ask God to investigate this matter and then give equal justice to all.