Gene Benjamin II
April 1, 2023
I was not born into a Messianic faith or Jewish faith family. Like many of you, I was born into a pagan “Christian” faith family. By pagan “Christian” I’m not speaking about believing individuals but am speaking about the institution of the “Christian” Church, Catholicism and its daughter denominational Protestant churches. The Church is a pagan unbiblical institution.
Today, April 1, 2023, marks 50 years of walking with Yeshua. For the first 30 years of my faith walk I believed in Jesus, I was a Sunday-go-to-meeting “Christian.” Why it took so long for the Father to get me turned around and into a Torah observant Messianic lifestyle, I simply do not know. The last 20 years have been a wild ride with my Savior Yeshua HaMashiach. He had to break my life 20 years ago in order for me to see the light and turn my life onto the true Path of faith in Yeshua. During that 3rd decade of “Christian” faith, I realized the Church of Jesus Christ was broken and apostatized. We quit going to church, we did home churches and home fellowship for many years. Finally, a friend told us about Simcha Torah Beit Midrash in Denver, Colorado. Congregation leader Ralph Messer held Bible studies in Colorado Springs once a week. We attended, studied our Bibles, and never looked back at pagan “Christianity” again. We had come out of Babylon, HalleluYah!! We changed our calendar and lifestyle, back to biblical standards, back to The Way, into the Nazarene Sect, into Messianic faith and practice.
The first believers were Messianic believers, there was no such thing as “Christianity” in the early centuries of our modern era. Acts 11:26, “When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. It came about, that for an entire year they gathered together with the Messianic congregation and taught many people (c. 41 AD). The disciples were called Messianics first in Antioch.” SOMB. That word Messianics, Strong’s # G5546, transliterated by many as Christianos, means “anointed ones” or “of the Messiah.” It means follower of Yeshua HaMashiach. His name was and is Yeshua. His title was and is Mashiach. Yeshua is the true Anointed One. If you want to truly follow him as your Savior and Messiah, then you must follow him in a Messianic faith, not a pagan “Christian” faith. Yeshua and the Apostles DID NOT observe Sunday, Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s Day, etc. Those are all pagan days of the sun-god Church, which has broken Torah and has replace Sabbath observance with Sunday observance.
The early Messianic believers did not separate from Judaism until the Roman emperors began paying incentives to the Jews to turn in Messianics, whom they called “atheists”, because the Messianics did not and would not believe in all the pagan deities of Rome. The Jews received tax breaks under Roman law. The lost Jews did not think Messianics should qualify for those tax breaks, so they turned the Messianics in to the Roman authorities for money, persecution, and martyrdom. So much for Messianics worshiping in the local Jewish synagogue any longer. The local synagogues had literally become the synagogue of Satan. The Messianics were forced underground, sometimes literally. Eventually, many stopped wearing their tallits, their tzitziyot, and had to worship in secret private meetings anywhere they felt somewhat safe.
The Messianic faith has been handed down from generation to generation for about 2,000 years now. Those of us brought up in pagan “Christianity” just never heard about them in Sunday School, until Yeshua made a way for each of us to find them. We had to jump off the way of pagan “Christianity” and get onto the Path of the true Messianic faith found in the set-apart Scriptures. Many Messianic believers were fortunate enough to be born into Messianic Jewish families, or into Messianic non-Jewish families. Many of us just weren’t that fortunate. We had to keep digging in our Bibles. We had to keep searching and seeking Yehowah and his Kingdom of Heaven. Eventually, he illuminated our hearts and minds and lit up our Path in the Messianic faith! Thank you Yeshua! Thank you Father Yehowah! For me to ever turn back to pagan Sunday “Christianity” would mean denying my Maker, denying the Mighty One of Israel, the Mighty One of Abraham, the Mighty One of Isaac, and the Mighty One of Jacob. It would mean denying my Savior and Lord, Yeshua HaMashiach. Well, that’s not going to happen.
If I’m persecuted, arrested, imprisoned, or martyred for my Messianic faith, so be it, that will be Father’s will, not mine. And until then, we’ll just keep poking the Devil in the eye and continue our ministry!!
We are called to join a Melchizedek priesthood, not a denomination. For more information on this, check out Matthew Nolan’s website: https://www.torahtothetribes.com
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