Nazarene Israelite Two House Congregation of Port Elizabeth

Compromise?

Did you know that the ancient Arabic language spoken by Muslims do not have a word for ‘compromise’ in any form? Their law requires retribution or punishment for all who contravene the laws written in their sacred book without compromise. This ensures that most of their followers remain obedient as much as the death penalty used to scare people in South Africa not to kill and or rape, prior to 1994, when capital punishment was abolished by the government of today. Even though capital punishment is viewed as cruel by those who have been brainwashed to become supporters of the ‘so-called’ human rights of even the offenders of the law, it definitely deters people not to commit such serious crimes.

Our heavenly Father is not pleased with the abolition of capital punishment,which is a major component of His Torah teachings and name it as one of the reasons for the corrective punishment He is busy meting out on the Israelites living amongst the nations into which He has scattered us because of idolatry, as He also informedus through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 11: 7 – 12, saying: ‘Therefore, thus says Adonai Elohim, “Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of the city are the flesh, and this city is the pot; but I shall bring you out of it. (8) You have feared a sword; so I will bring a sword upon you,” Adonai Elohim declares. (9) And I shall bring you out of the midst of the city, and I shall deliver you into the hands of strangers and execute judgment against you. (10) You will fall by the sword, I shall judge you to the border of Israel; so you shall know that I am YHVH.(11)This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be flesh in the midst of it, but I shall judge you to the border of Israel. (12)Thus you will know that I am YHVH; for you have not walked in My statutes nor have you executed My ordinances, but have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.’Most of us from the lost sheep of the house of Israel are aware that Torah consists of commandments, statues and judgments. The commandments tell us at a higher level what to do and what not to do, such as in Deuteronomy 5: 7, ‘You shall have no other gods, before (or beside) Me (YHVH our Elohim).’ The statutes give us more details as to what is given in the command, by breaking it down as may be read from Deuteronomy 6: 14 as follows: “You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you.” The judgment in this case is given in verse 15, in this way: “For YHVH your Elohim in the midst of you is a jealous Elohim; otherwise the anger of YHVH your Elohim will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.” This is accordingly one of the reasons that the Israelites in South Africa and in other Israelite nations where they abolished capital punishment are being punished by severe weather conditions and striking workers, as we will see as we explore the subject further.

The war of compromise is one of the greatest fights Torah observers face today. The western world into which our Israelite forefathers were scattered because of idolatry is calling us to conform. Our children and grandchildren are bombarded with music, media and computer games that set the trends and examples for the weak to follow without question.The governments of Ephraim have no power to prevent the corrective punishment that YHVH started unleashing upon them since 2008. In fact they are not even aware that what is happening to us at this time, is (YHVH)’s punishment for our fast increasing sins. The reason for our governments being unaware of what is happening to us is that they do not know that we are part of the lost-ten-tribes of Israel, whom YHVH scattered into mainly the western nations of the world. If they understood this, they would have realized that most of the prophecies written in the Scriptures are about what is going to befall us at the end of the age and would have taken corrective action by turning to YHVH for help and guidance.However, because most people are presently blinded to these facts they do not understand; but we who understand need to proclaim the good news of the coming Kingdom to this dying world, giving them hope in what seems to be a very dark future for those who are not in the least concerned with what the Scriptures have to say about it. For those of us whom YHVH has called to come out of the religions of the world and to whom He is opening His Scriptures to our minds at this time, He tells us through Amos in chapter 3: 6 - 8, saying:‘If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not YHVH done it? (7) Surely YHVH Elohim does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. (8) A lion has roared! Who will not fear? YHVH Elohim has spoken! Who can but prophesy?’ YHVH said clearly in His word, the Scriptures, that He would get His warning message to His people; He said through the prophet Hosea in chapter 5: 9 , ‘Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.’  Continuing in Hosea 7: 8 -12, YHVH said: ‘Ephraim mixes himself with the nations; Ephraim has become a cake not turned. (9) Strangers devour his strength, yet he does not know it; gray hairs also are sprinkled on him, yet he does not know it. (10) Though the pride of Israel testifies against him, yet they have neither returned to YHVH their Elohim, nor have they sought Him, for all this. (11) So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. (12) When they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly’

The United States and the British Commonwealth of which South Africa was once part and in the mind of YHVH still is, are at this time being punished and more so, because they do not even realize that YHVH is in a process of correcting them, they are seeking alliances with those nations who persecuted them in the past, as YHVH warned through Hosea in chapter 2: 6 – 9, saying: “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. (7) And she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she will seek them, but will not find them.Then she will say, ’I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now!’ (8)  For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. (9)  Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time and My new wine in its season. I will also take away My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness.” In South Africa andthe other parts of Ephraim (The USA and the British commonwealth) YHVH has been punishing us through violent strikes by workersand inclement weather conditions, such a floods and excessive heat waves. But, the reason why I am honing in on especially the Israelites in South Africa is because of both their pretense to be very religious and their extreme arrogance. YHVH devoted the entire chapter of Zephaniah 3 about what is happening in South Africa as well as in the rest of the Ephraimite nations at this time. We start reading about the condition of this country which was once part of the developed world, but is fast deteriorating to becoming less than a third or even a fourth world nation – if there is anything like that. We start reading from verses 1 & 2 of Zephaniah 3, YHVH saying through Zephaniah: ‘Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the tyrannical city! (2) She heeded no voice; she accepted no instruction. She did not trust in YHVH; she did not draw near to Her Elohim.’ Even though South Africans claim to know their G-d, they have no idea who YHVH is and since they do not ever study the so-called ‘Old Testament’, because their G-d have either abolished the need to keep Torah, or He has fulfilled it for them, they have come to believe that they may do whatever they like, as long as they have a full abundant life and enjoy the time that they have on earth; and as long as they believe in J*e*s*u*s*.  But they have no idea what it means to believe in the name of the Savior and that believe in Him means that we are supposed to do what He taught and did whilst He was on earth. Yes, our people go to church every Sunday, the day they believe to be the Sabbath Day of the L-RD, but even though their forbears left Europe to get away from Catholic Europe, they are still very much part of the false religious system that YHVH is talking about in Ezekiel 22: 26, in this way: “Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.” Most of them have also come to agree with the New Age Religionists that the G-d of Christianity, the G-d of the Moslems, in fact the G-d of any known religion on earth is all one and the same being. This is also the reason why they do not care about using any specific name for the Mighty One whom they worship.

Like with all our Israelite forebears, YHVH scattered us amongst the peoples of the world, with the intention that we teach them about Elohim and His ways.  As His people He wanted us to be a model nation to show other nations how to serve and obey Him. However, we rather chose to teach them the paganism that we brought with us from Europe. We taught them about Xmas and Easter as taught us by the false religion that rubbed off on our fathers in Europe. We taught them a false gospel about the life, death and resurrection of J*e*s*u*s*, instead of the good news about the coming Kingdom of Elohim, during which Yahshua the true Messiah is coming to rule the world from Jerusalem. We taught them so-called gospel hymns filled with falsehood, and today these gospel performances look and sound more like something between a comedy show and a rock concert, where people wear flashy clothes and makeup and it looks more like a fashion parade than people worshipping Elohim. We taught the people amongst whom we live to become greedy and self-centered and to live a life of opulence, parties and get, without thinking where it comes from. As a result our government like most western governments solve their financial problems by printing more and more paper money without the backing of productivity and capital, and what has happened in 2008, will occur again in the foreseeable future, but this time it will be a lot worse – something our grandparents saw in 1929 – 1934 before Hitler came to power in Germany and forced the world into World War II. The next round of trouble will have the exact same results, as history repeats itself, until we eventually get to learn from our mistakes. During December 2019 the government of South Africa is promulgating a law to take the property of European descendants living in the country for more than 350 years away, giving it to the ‘indigenous’ people of the land without any compensation. This is bound to be the final nail in the proverbial coffin here in South Africa, as it will put an end to any investment by the western nations in South Africa, resulting in the final collapse of the economy as it happened in Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

Yes the European descendants living in South Africa are in for troubled times, but are in fact the master of their own destiny – we are the cause of what is happening to us at this time. From the beginning of creation, YHVH put in place a system of cause and effectand we will only reap what is good for us if we do what He teaches us in His words.  But, we have forgotten the two foremost commandments; That YHVH our Elohim is One YHVH, that we shall love YHVH our Elohim with our whole heart, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.  Instead we have become the most selfish people on the earth; nobody cares about anyone else. All we want to do is get more and more material things, for less work and more pleasure, parties and enjoyment. We work five days a week, instead of the six days that YHVH commanded us to and on the Sabbath, we go shopping and spend money we do not have, until we get to the position we are presently in. But even now we continue to spend as if there is no end to our riches – world-wide people bought luxuries during this past silly season, which most could not afford and all they can think about is the good life.  However, everything that was ever created has an end – all this is going to come to an end and even if we pray until we are blue in the face, YHVH has no intention to let this society continue for much longer. He is about to humble us as never before, because it is only when we are humbled that we seek Him. Instead we should have resisted any compromise, but the priests who were to teach the lost sheep of the house of Israel to be holy and set-apart taught us to mix with the cultures of the world and to mix the clean with the unclean. We were supposed to be different and stop blending falsehood with truth. The priest should have like Phinehas in Numbers 25: 7 - 13[1] and Mattitiyahu in the book of Maccabees been zealous for YHVH and made a firm commitment not to give in to falsehood. However, from seeing how people again went totally besides themselves to keep Xmas this year, we know that only a remnant will finally be saved as Rav Shaul also testified in Romans 9: 27, saying: ‘And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE AS THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED.”

The Europeans in South Africa are presently complaining about what is happening – but we are the cause of it. Instead of teaching our neighbors about Elohim and His ways, we taught them arrogance, greed, more paganism and now we are worried about our children learning pagan cultures. The point is if you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind.  People it is time for us to turn to YHVH for help or we will totally and utterly be destroyed in this beloved country of ours. We read about the new leaders in our country in verse 3 of Zephaniah 3, in this way: ‘Her princes within her are roaring lions, her judges are wolves at evening; they leave nothing for the morning.’  Like lions they threaten to take peoples possessions and jobs; they party from dusk to dawn, eating and drinking everything in sight. But why is this happening you ask? We read the answer in Jeremiah 5: 6 & 7, in this way: ‘Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the deserts shall destroy them, a leopard is watching their cities. Everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies (falling away from truth) are numerous.(7) Why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken Me and sworn by those who are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery and troopedto the harlot’s house.’  The words adultery and harlot here do not only refer to actual harlotry and adultery, but also to the false religions that we caused our children to follow. Zephaniah writes in Zephaniah 3 verse 4: ‘Her prophets (religious leaders) are reckless, treacherous men; her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.’  As shown in the news the priests and other leaders in society are setting the examples to people of how to sin and break Elohim’s commandments.

Despite all this we read from verse 5 of Zephaniah 3, ‘YHVH is righteous within her; He will do no injustice. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.’  We should continue to be ashamed because of our deeds, if we consider the blessings that YHVH bestows upon us daily, but most people know no shame.  Some drink, fornicate and kill during the night and get up and carry on as if nothing happened the very next day. YHVH therefore warns us through Zephaniah, saying in verses 6 – 8: “I have cut off nations; their corner towers are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate, with no one passing by; their cities are laid waste, without a man, without an inhabitant.’ (In recent months we’ve seen much destruction in places like Syria and elsewhere in the world including Africa, but we are not even concerned about it. We are totally oblivious of what is happening around us – and this is why Jeremiah asked in chapter 9: 12, ‘Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of YHVH has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?’) (7) “I said, ‘Surely you will revere Me, accept instruction.’ So her dwelling will not be cut off according to all that I have appointed concerning her. But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds. (The law of cause and effect is punishing us because we will not obey our Creator – despite believing that we are a ‘religious’ nation). (8) “Therefore, wait for Me,” declares YHVH, “For the day when I rise up to the prey. Indeed, My decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them My indignation, all My burning anger; for all the earth will be devoured by the fire of My zeal.’ People we can pray and do all we like to try and save our planet, if we do not start obeying YHVH, we might as well forget it, as follows: ‘Hewho turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination.’

We continue reading from verses 9 & 10:“For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of YHVH, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder. (10) From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshippers, My dispersed ones, will bring My offerings.” The purified lips that YHVH is talking about here have two meanings; firstly it means that people will stop swearing and cursing and secondly it means in especially the context of South Africa, the country beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, where most of the people are so overly concerned to speak only their own language, without being in the least concerned about communicating with our fellow human beings. We have 11 official languages and even though more than 90% of the people are able to speak and understand English, more confusion results because we all teach and write material for people in a language that only we understand. Then we wonder why other people do not understand us or why they mistrust us? In many cases people do not want to communicate with others, because they either hate them, or are too arrogant to speak to them in a language which both understands.  How absolutely weird can we get - this is exactly what YHVH did when the people of Babylon wanted to make a name for themselves, to confuse them, he gave them all different languages, but here in South Africa we are doing it to ourselves? But, as I said before, this is perhaps one way that YHVH is prolonging the inevitable for us. Even so, I am positive that the purified lips spoken about in Zephaniah will not be English, Afrikaans, Zulu or Xhosa, no it will be a pure dialect of Hebrew.

People, if we don’t humble ourselves before YHVH, meaning if we do not show Him that He is our Elohim, He is going to humble us. In verses 11 & 12, YHVH says through Zephaniah:  “In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against Me; for then I will remove from your midst your proud, exalting ones, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain. (12) But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of YHVH”.   YHVH is going to intervene severely, but because He promised our forefathers that He will give us the Promised Land of Israel for ever, He is going to save a remnant of the Lost–ten-tribes, plus those few Gentiles who are truly prepared to follow Him with us, from beyond the rivers of Africa. We read accordingly from verse 13: “The remnant of Israel will do no wrong and tell no lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths; for they shall feed and lie down with no one to make them tremble.” However, YHVH is not only talking about the Israelites in South Africa, He is also talking about the remnant of Israel world-wide who is at this time turning back to serve Him shoulder to shoulder. We read in more detail about this from Ezekiel 34: 13 – 16, in this way: “And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. (14) I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in good grazing ground, and they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. (15) I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares YHVH Elohim. (16)  I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment.”It is only at that time that things will change for us throughout the world, but especially in South Africa. 

Zephaniah further writes about that blessed time in verse 14 of chapter 3, saying: ‘Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion! (transliterated in Hebrew as Bat Tziyon, as used in many Messianic songs today) Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!  He continues to tell us why we need to rejoice at that time, saying in verse 15: ‘YHVH has taken away His judgment (not Torah, but the punishment due for breaking Torah) against you, He has cleared away your enemies. (From this it is clear to see that we have enemies, because of our past sins.) The King of Israel, YHVH, is in your midst; you will fear disaster no more.’  The prophet Isaiah wrote about this time in Isaiah 54: 14, saying: “In righteousness (doing what YHVH requires of you) you will be established; you will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; and from terror, for it will not come near you.” Zephaniah continues giving us the good news about what will follow because of (YHVH)’s promises in verses 16 & 17, saying:  ‘In that day it will be said to Jerusalem: “Do not be afraid, O Zion; do not let your hands fall limp. (17) YHVH your Elohim is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.’ The side note against verse 16 takes us to Isaiah 35: 3 & 4, from where we get more reassurance in this way: ‘Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. (4) Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your Elohim will come with vengeance; the recompense of Elohim will come, but He will save you.” People it is the duty of those of us who do not always feel the direct impact of the persecutions against our people to encourage the exhausted among us.

Next YHVH talks about those of us who are continually grieving because people do not keep Elohim’s appointed Feast days, or because some are adamant to keep Feast days of their own design, to try and prove that the Jews are also ‘wrong’, saying in verse 18: “I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts— they came from you, O Zion (these feasts came from Judah[2]); the reproach of exile is a burden on them.” Many people in South Africa believe we have never had it so good but few realize that we are living in exile, where our children do not get jobs and are persecuted for trying to obey YHVH.  Believe you me, those who tend to keep the Feast Days of Elohim, according to their own devised calendars are definitely not grieving about Elohim’s appointed Feast Days – no, they are too arrogant. They spend many hours watching for the crescent moon instead of using the calendar preserved for us by the house of Judah, since their return from captivity about 2,500 years ago in Nehemiah’s time. This is also perhaps why Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 47: 13: “You are wearied with your many counsels; let now the astrologers (among you), those who prophesy by the stars, those who predict by the new moons, stand up and save you from what will come upon you.”  Most of those who watch prophecies about the signs in the stars and the moons are doing it for the wrong reasons – they are doing it to try and save their own lives, not to serve YHVH better. No wonder Yahshua warned us about this very thing in Matthew 16: 25, saying: “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.”  Yes, we should watch for the signs of the times, but our motive should always be to serve YHVH better. The point is: even if we are killed by predicted tsunamis or whatever is prophesied to happen to us here in South Africa, if we remain faithful to YHVH to the end, we are promised to be resurrected to life anyway.

However, in the end YHVH will come to our aid, He will deal will those who persecute us, promising in verse 19: ‘“Behold, I am going to deal at that time with all your oppressors. I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will turn their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.”  YHVH promises further through the prophet Isaiah, saying in Isaiah 60: 14, “And the sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, and all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; and they will call you the city of YHVH, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”  When that happens one day in the not too distant future YHVH assures us that our lot will change forever, saying in verse 20: “Atthat time I will bring you in, even at the time when I gather you together; indeed, I will give you renown and praise, among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says YHVH.’  This is in line with (YHVH)’s promises in Deuteronomy 26: 17 - 19, in this way: “You have today declared YHVH to be your Elohim, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. (18) And YHVH has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; (19) and that He shall set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to YHVH your Elohim, as He has spoken.” The words in verse 19 of Deuteronomy 26 is confirmed in Jeremiah 29: 14, as follows: ‘And I will be found by you,’ declares YHVH, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares YHVH, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

The Israelite people in South Africa and indeed world-wide are not the world’s most favorite people at present, we are called all sorts of names and generally hated for things done by those who came before us. However, here YHVH is telling us that the remnant that He is going to save will be renowned and praised in the very near future. Have we like our forefathers forgotten all of (YHVH)’s promises, or are we waiting faithfully for it to happen in the near future? About 100 years ago another South African by the name of Van Rensburg warned his people about what he understood from studying the book of Zephaniah, but few listened to him. Are our people going to listen at this time? In a sense we as members of the lost sheep of Israel have to defy the laws of gravity. We must resist the pull of the world. We must reject mixing the pure covenant relationship our forefathers made with Elohim at Mount Sinai with the pagan customs of the world. The Talmud tells us that “All beginnings are difficult.” Yet it will get easier each time we choose not to compromise. There is a principle of momentum that states that every time you perform a good deed or refuse to go along with the ways of the world your character is strengthened. Barriers are broken down as you reject the urge to compromise.

Take for example the Sabbath and Feast Days of Elohim; at first they are new and difficult to celebrate. But as time goes by they become habitual and become part of our daily life. As the actions are repeated it gets easier each time we do it. Each time you refuse to allow your life to mix with the world, you stand as a witness and example of how a follower of YHVH the Elohim of Israel should live. Think about it!

 

 

[1] Numbers 25: 7 – 13: ‘When Phinehas the son of Eleazer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the(Midianites) woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. And those who died by the plague were 24, 000. Then YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Phinehas the son of Eleazer, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel, in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his Elohim, and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’”

[2]Zion is the house of Judah, as we read from Psalm 78: 67 & 68, in this way: ‘He also rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved.’ Yes, we become part of Zion when we do what they teach us and return to the covenant we made with Elohim at Mount Sinai, together with them.