"For He himself is our peace, who has made the both [Jew and Gentile] ONE and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity of the law in decrees, so as to create in Himself ONE NEW MAN from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to G-d in one Body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by ONE Spirit to the Father."
It is almost grievous to have to write something like this, but in the interest of creating/preserving the unity of the Body, we feel we must.
There is a movement afoot in the Messianic Community called the "Two House" or "Two Stick" movement. As we are a Messianic Congregation, it has become necessary for us to express our position on this matter, both for those who are part of that movement, and for those who are not, who wish to know where we, Congregation Bat Tzion, stand on the issue.
This subject first came up almost a year ago for us, and we have undertaken since to study the movement and determine what stance we should take. First, it is necessary to point out that it is sad that ever the Messianic Community had to be divided in any way, which, in our view, defies the gospel and the mission of Messiah to unite Jew and Gentile. We realize that, since mankind is still steeped in sin and darkness, there will always be some measure of division, or more properly differences of opinion, but we are to strive with all men to be at peace, where possible; and those who worship the Creator should be able to do so together, until the edict "come out from among them" applies, as it has in many of our lives. Through the centuries, many learned, well-meaning men have severed with the mainstream, with local congregations, or with fellow believers over many issues: the only issue that is mandated to divide us is the moral issue: are we worshipping idols (paganism), are we having sexual deviance of any kind among us, are we drunk, et cetera; never are we supposed to divide over opinions over prophetic statements, be they about end times, words, or genealogies, or what; we're supposed to come together knowing none of us fully understand, and seek those things together. To presume that one knows absolutely more than anyone else is self-righteousness, and borders on being false; only the Messiah Yeshua could make such a claim.
Let us first consider some things about the Jewish People:
"The scepter shall not depart from Judah". Our Messiah, Yeshua, is presently and for eternity will be a Jew, the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah", "of the house and lineage of David", "The Root of Jesse", the eternal ruler of ALL the house of Israel, regardless of one's view of the genealogical content of that house. The Jews, and NO OTHER PEOPLE, have been the caretakers over the Torah of Yahweh for 2500 years, after Ephraim, Joseph, and ALL the other tribes ABANDONED the Torah and rejected Yahweh. Yeshua taught the FAITHFUL Jews who gathered round His feet for three and a half years to obey Torah, and the Torah Teachers, Pharisees, in spite of the fact that the majority of them would reject Him. Let us here point out that not every Pharisee rejected the Messiah; Nicodemus was apparently joined by a host of other Pharisees in belief in Yeshua. (Acts 15:5) Not to mention, the first harvest of Souls was completely Jewish, and the Gentile community was untouched by the gospel for years.
Were it not for Judah (Jews) we would NOT have had a Messiah! Ephraim was SCATTERED, and NEVER RETURNED to Yahweh and the Torah, but Judah was exiled to Babylon, and in a scant seventy years was MIRACULOUSLY restored to HaAretz Israel (the land of Israel) and entrusted with the duty of bringing Messiah into the world. And consider this: it was predicted by Messiah that Jews would be dispersed, and they were; but AFTER 2000 years of Diaspora, they maintained Torah observance, they preserved the Hebrew texts, they recorded the Oral Torah to save it from extinction, they have provided mountains of commentary on Torah, they resurrected "Lashon HaKadosh", the Holy Language of Hebrew, they regained the Promised Land miraculously, and by and large have preserved their identity as the tribe of Judah, and all of this in the face of great and terrible opposition, especially from "Christians". If Ephraim is still at all identifiable (and this is debatable), he has NO SUCH CLAIM during his tenure outside of the Promised Land, and, using "two-house" logic that states that Ephraim is anyone who is a Christian, he is therefore guilty of many of the atrocities against Israel, the tribe of Messiah Yeshua.
The Two House movement is rooted in three scriptures: Genesis 48:19, Jeremiah 3:18, and Ezekiel 37. We will start there in our evaluation. It is important to note that when Ezekiel received his call from the LORD, He was sent to "speak to the B'nai Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me"; the "Children of Israel" at this time were only the "Jews", the tribe of Judah, part of Levi, and Benjamin. The LORD referred to them often as "Israel".
A little background is necessary here. The Nation of Israel was divided in two shortly after the death of Solomon. Jeroboam became the king of the Northern kingdom, and because the largest tribes in the north were Ephraim and Joseph, later references to the northern kingdom by the prophets were often made by referring to them, all ten northern tribes, exclusively as "Ephraim" OR "Joseph", to avoid having to name all ten tribes. "Judah" refers to all Jews today, but that same technique is used, as Judah is actually today made up of Judahites, Benjamites, and Levites. How do we know? Before the first century, part of the tribe of Levi was "taken in" by Judah; Matthew the apostle was a Levite, so in spite of the knowledge that ten tribes were scattered, a portion of Levi survived with Judah even to this day [the surnames Levy, Levine, Cohen, Levi, are all names of Levites today]. Benjamin and Judah remained faithful to the LORD, they are the two remaining tribes of twelve minus two. Part of Levi, perhaps the greater part, was "swallowed up" by the north, as Jeroboam built two FALSE temples in the northern kingdom and compelled the Levites among them to lead worship to golden calves. The Apostle Paul was a Benjamite; the remainder of the Apostles were all Judahites, if memory serves. (please point out any others who may not have been). In all of that, keep in mind that the names Judah and Israel are interchangeable in scripture, and can be shown in context to be so.
Here are some Biblical statements that are true about Ephraim AND Joseph [and therefore ALL the ten tribes that are still "lost"]:
In the Last days the Lost Ten Tribes will indeed return and re-unite with Judah (Ezekiel 37). They will return as a result of Judah going out to them and bringing them back (Jeremiah 3:18 31:8). The Bible does NOT tell us "how" nor if they will discover their own identity, but it does imply that the return of Ephraim/Joseph to the Land will not happen until AFTER the resurrection, and at the beckoning of a Jewish (Judahite) prophet. It is interesting to note that one of the LONGEST, most detailed prophecies concerning the northern tribes, "Israel", calls Israel "out of the grave"; it is a clear picture of resurrection. The "two stick" prophecy that follows also speaks concerning the time of Messiah's physical, bodily presence and kingship on earth:
And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all...and my beloved servant shall be king over them [Messiah Yeshua]; and they shall have one shepherd.
The return of the lost tribes of Israel will include the occupation of Syria, Jordan (Micah 7:14) and Lebanon (Zechariah 10:10). This will precede the coming back to the Land of Ephraim which nevertheless will take place (Jeremiah 31:5). Ephraim is in fact called upon to return to his cities (Jeremiah 31:19-20). This however can only be done with the agreement of Judah and in coordination with Judah. Not all of the lost tribes will necessarily return physically to the Greater Land of Israel but rather representative portions (Jeremiah 3:14). (Isaiah 45:14). Judah and Joseph are the chosen people of God (Psalms 60:9). Judah will lead the way and prepare the path for the others (Hosea 6:11). The important thing to note is that all of these prophecies tend toward Judah, today's Jews, already serving Messiah when the others return!Noted proponents of the "Two House" movement:
Battya Wooten, Marshall Koniuchowsky, Monte Judah
What is taught:
Genesis 48:19 predicts that Ephraim, and therefore the northern Kingdom, Israel, will be transformed into a "gentile" nation. This is the "root" and "origin" of Ephraimite thinking.
This assertion is made by assuming that the word "goy" in Hebrew always means gentile; this is NOT true. In 48:19, Yaakov blesses Ephraim and says he will become a "meloh hagoyim", a "multitude of nations". [also properly translated a "populous nation"] In the Hebrew Bible, the word goy may refer to a Gentile nation, but it is also used to refer to the nation of Israel. The term is used to refer to Israel or the Jewish people in Exodus 19:6; Deut 32:28, cf. 32:45; Josh 10:12-13; Isa 1:4; Isa 26:2; Jer 31:36; Zeph 2:9.4 Note especially Jer 31:36: "'If this fixed order departs from before me,' declares the LORD, 'Then the offspring [lit. "seed"] of Israel also shall cease from being a nation (goy) before me forever."[the implication is that that will never happen] In the Greek New Testament, the word ethnos, which equates to the Hebrew word "goy", refers to the Jewish people in Luke 7:5; 23:2; John 11:48-52; 18:35; Acts 10:22; 24:2,10,17; 26:4; 28:19; 1 Cor 10:18; Phil 3:5. The basic building block of "Ephraim" thinking, around the word goy, is therefore erroneous.
Wootten, based on this erroneous interpretation of scripture, then posits a new term: "Gentile Israel". This is used to represent "Ephraim", or born again Christians who are actually the physical descendants of the lost tribes. The assertion seems to be that anyone who is a Christian is a member of the lost tribes by default, especially if they're being drawn into the Torah. This defies logic. Ephraim REJECTED Torah. Also, there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE of this in the world. The Assyrians are the ones who scattered "Israel", and therefore Ephraim/Joseph. That scattering was initially to the east. Today, Manasseh, one of the ten tribes, has been found in tact in INDIA, has proven their ancestral heritage to the current nation of Israel, and is making aliyah to the homeland. Evidence of Israeli customs were found by Marco Polo in China in the 1500s. Not one stitch of evidence of Yahweh worship is found in Western Europe where most of western Christianity inherits its history. The vast majority of those cultures were completely pagan, worshipping nothing but manmade concepts of god, without a trace of Creator/Savior theology. The Yahweh of the Bible, the notion of a creator and a divinely written law, was completely new to them when the gospel first reached them WAY BACK IN THE SECOND CENTURY AD. That they could be Ephraim is a reach, at best.
There are two other scriptures at the root of this doctrine: Jeremiah 3:18, and Ezekiel 37. It must be pointed out that in Jeremiah, the prediction about Judah walking with Israel is made in the context of verse 17, which establishes the time frame of verse 18: when Jerusalem has become the "Throne of the LORD"; in other words, that Messiah Yeshua is ruling from there bodily. And they do not return with pride, but with shame over their sins. Those who now claim to be "waking up" to the "knowledge" that they are Ephraim are not in shame over their sin, but almost prideful that they have found Torah, forgetting that the Jews never left it. These prophecies occurred during the time of Judah's exile to Babylon; seventy years later, they were restored to the Land, and since then have not once gone back into idolatry.
It is also important to note that when Ezekiel received his call from the LORD (chapter 2), He was sent to "speak to the B'nai Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me"; the "Children of Israel" at this time were only the "Jews", the tribe of Judah, part of Levi, and Benjamin. The Ephraimites had been long lost to the four winds. The LORD referred to Judah many times as "Israel", and even today they've honored their patriarch in naming the modern nation state. It is to this Israel that the prophecy of Ezekiel chapter 37 is spoken, as the massive resurrection depicted in the chapter has not occurred.
This contention over who is Israel has led some in the two-house movement to become slightly anti-Semitic in their tone/conversation. This is what concerns us most at Congregation Bat-Tzion/North Gate. While the tribe of Judah, as a majority, did reject their Messiah, they are not completely in error, they are not completely blind, they are "blinded in part" for our sakes! (Romans 11:25) And they still remain the only caretakers of the Torah (Romans 3:2), and they will all be called back into fellowship with Messiah. The term "Israel" is used freely in the old and new testaments in reference to Judah, and rarely does Yahweh exclude the ten tribes in doing so, though in the first century and now, visible Israel only consists of three tribes. Again, Judah remained faithful to Yahweh while Ephraim was spewed out due to rejecting Him. Judahites, Benjamites, and Levites were the first to preach the gospel message, and were the sole recorders of the earliest and inspired history and instruction to the believing Church [the Brit Chadasha, New Testament]. All twelve tribes of Israel are represented equally in the throne room, and the Gentiles are spiritual descendants only of Judahites, Benjamites, and Levites, since the gospel message came to the world only through them. We do NOT disagree that some, some are descendants of those ten tribes, but it is currently, and may always remain impossible to know who they are, until the Messiah comes back and calls them home. The fact that this "doctrine" is causing division in the Messianic Community and promotes a "separation" and "division" brings it under great suspicion in our minds.
Some verses to consider in regard to unity versus division:
Romans 10:12
We at Congregation Bat-Tzion welcome anyone who wants to worship Yahweh and Messiah Yeshua with us on Shabbat, regardless of doctrinal bent, unless that doctrine promotes anti-Semitism and causes strife and division. Messiah Yeshua is not about division. He does command His followers to come out of pagan ritual and errant behavior, but the world would be LOST in regard to Torah were it not for the Jew. We are about Jew and Gentile worshipping together, regardless of number and regardless of ethnic heritage, known or unknown. Any hint of anti-Semitism or implication that all Jewish theology is wrong will be strongly discouraged; we bless the Jews for their heritage, for preserving the Sabbath and the Feasts for us so that we could step into them and enjoy Torah life, and our mission is to reach those who are partly blinded so they can come in, so that Messiah can return.Out of respect to those who are of the "two house" mindset, here is an excellent article posted by one of your own, which deserves attention:
http://www.tnnonline.net/two-housenews/ephraim/anti-semitism/index.html
Here's another fine article:
http://www.cmy.on.ca/ephraim/ephraimite.htm
More study will follow, but, in summary, the calling back of Ephraim/Joseph to the Promised Land will be done upon Messiah's visible, bodily return to Jerusalem and beginning of His millennial reign. No one really knows who is or is not a descendent of those lost tribes, except those in India, who preserved their identity as Mannasseh. Israel is in its infancy in conducting that research, but the trail of evidence is sparse, and the task is nearly impossible. To declare oneself an Ephraimite arbitrarily is dangerous, and links one to the Mormon error, playing to people's pride through the spirit of jealousy over the Jew's place with G-d. There is no reason to be jealous, as anyone born in Messiah becomes a Jew, spiritually, descended from one of the Apostles. What an honor! The LORD will tell us all which "tribe" we belong to after the Tekiah HaGadol (the "great trumpet", or awakening blast of Yom Teruah (Rosh HaShannah)) For now, we glory in Messiah alone, (who happens to be Jewish, of the tribe of Judah).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EVIDENCE in the News!
Below is an article from the Jerusalem Post concerning The Ten Lost Tribes..
In our commentary [above] on the "Two-House" Ephraimite movement, it is asserted that these tribes were scattered initially to the east, and therefore highly unlikely that Europeans, especially Brits, whom the "two-housers" claim are the Ephraimites (and therefore the other nine tribes too) because they came to be "born again". This article shows that what I asserted is what Israel believes, and what archaeology and science are proving. In our article, I said that one tribe had already been found: Mannaseh. Ephraim has been added to that list! There's only eight more to go! Both of these were found in India. This article shows that the evidence is pointing predominantly east. We also asserted that JUDAH would call Ephraim back to the land! In the last days! This is exactly what is happening before our eyes!!!!!!!!! Judah is, in this context, the Jews who know they are Israel today...And they are making a VAST effort to find Ephraim (and all the tribes) !!! And they're NOT looking at Britain! [or subsequently America].This article is another "trickle" of prophetic fulfillment happening "right under our noses".
Enjoy the article. I highlighted in red parts that are applicable to our "Two House" article ..
The saga of the Ten Lost Israelite Tribes has fascinated and captivated generations of researchers, pilgrims, religious leaders, and believers of many faiths and of many nationalities. For over 2700 years, ever since the residents of the Northern Israelite Kingdom were exiled by the King of Assyria, the story of the Ten Lost Tribes has been shrouded in a mystery of anecdotal traditions and competing narratives. Based on important historical, anthropological, and archeological theories, important research has unearthed the beliefs and spiritual awakenings, and the fascinating political, ethnic, and religious struggles of the Ten Lost Tribes.
Photo: Courtesy
One thing is above all argument - this is a compelling phenomenon. The story of the Ten Lost Tribes has occupied and challenged human civilization for nearly 3,000 years, and it continues to stimulate the imagination and faith of peoples and cultures throughout the world.The Ten Lost Tribes Challenge is a multinational initiative that will provide the public, for whom the mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes is a source of profound interest, with a thrilling and unique intellectual experience.
The Ten Lost Tribes Challenge intends to launch a series of research and discovery expeditions that will provide authentic meetings in the field with varying ethnic groups around the world, who consider themselves - by their own traditions and beliefs, or according to historical and ethnographic research - to be descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes.
The integration between unhindered human encounters and an intensive scientific milieu will enable expedition members coming from all over the world as members of the Ten Lost Tribes Challenge to be part of an extraordinary and exceptional geographic and anthropological experience.
The expeditions are intended for people who are willing to travel to far-flung, remote and forsaken areas at the "ends of the earth," sometimes under difficult field conditions, in order to create a moving and direct dialogue with those groups who are part of the mysterious dispersion of the Ten Lost Tribes.
From the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia; from China and Mongolia through Southeast Asia, Korea and Japan; from the Caucus Mountains to the heart of Africa, the dispersed descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes are alive and breathing under different regimes, within a variety of cultures, religions, and languages, all the while inciting profound questions and wonder.
