No words with Christian Messianic circles cause more
heat than “Two House” talk. Everyone is afraid to address the issue because
they will immediately be labeled “British Israelists,” code words for “Kooks.”
The only group of supposed Sabbath-keepers that comments on Two House and
British Israelism is the Worldwide Church of God, and their neo-offshoots
aligned with Herbert W. Armstrong. These folks happen to be dangerous cultists.
So why would an eschatologist like me tackle this
subject? Whenever HaShem sends me two credible witnesses, I feel obliged to
comment. Last Sabbath, two men mentioned this topic.
Fact #1. The Old Covenant/Testament and the New Covenant/Testament
are one harmonious thought and book of theology. HaShem changes not.
Fact #2. We haven’t yet begun the New Covenant
frequently listed in Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 37, Romans 9-11, and eluded to
elsewhere.
Fact #3. Soon the House of Judah, and the House of
Israel will rejoin in the Machiach, and all will have the whole Bible written
on their fleshly hearts. (Sometimes it seems like we’re close; however, we’re
not there yet.)
Fact #4. The two nations/sticks/houses coming
together is an imperative part of eschatology, possibly second, only to Yahushua’s
returning.
Let’s examine the Bible passages:
“Here, the days are coming,” says Adonai, “when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Y’hudah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took
them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for
their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to
them,” says Adonai. “For this is the covenant I will make with the house of
Isra’el after those days,” says Adonai: “I will put my Torah within them and
write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. No
longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, ‘Know
Adonai’; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because
I will forgive their wickednesses and remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah
31:31-34 (CJB)
The word of Adonai came to me: “You, human being,
take one stick and write on it, ‘For Y’hudah and those joined with him [among]
the people of Isra’el.’ Next, take another stick and write on it, ‘For Yosef,
the stick of Efrayim, and all the house of Isra’el who are joined with him.’ Finally,
bring them together into a single stick, so that they become one in your hand. When
your people ask you what all this means, tell them that Adonai Elohim says
this: ‘I will take the stick of Yosef, which is in the hand of Efrayim, together
with the tribes of Isra’el who are joined with him, and put them together with
the stick of Y’hudah and make them a single stick, so that they become one in
my hand.’ The sticks on which you write are to be in your hand as they watch. Then
say to them that Adonai Elohim says: ‘I will take the people of Isra’el from
among the nations where they have gone and gather them from every side and
bring them back to their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on
the mountains of Isra’el; and one king will be king for all of them. They will
no longer be two nations, and they will never again be divided into two
kingdoms.
“‘They will never again defile themselves with their
idols, their detestable things, or any of their transgressions; but I will save
them from all the places where they have been living and sinning; and I will
cleanse them, so that they will be my people, and I will be their God. My
servant David will be king over them, and all of them will have one shepherd;
they will live by my rulings and keep and observe my regulations. They will
live in the land I gave to Ya‘akov my servant, where your ancestors lived; they
will live there — they, their children, and their grandchildren, forever; and
David my servant will be their leader forever. I will make a covenant of peace
with them, an everlasting covenant. I will give to them, increase their
numbers, and set my sanctuary among them forever. My home will be with them; I
will be their God, and they will be my people. The nations will know that I am
Adonai, who sets Isra’el apart as holy, when my sanctuary is with them
forever.’” Ezekiel 37:15-28 (CJB)
So take a good look at God’s kindness and his
severity: on the one hand, severity toward those who fell off; but, on the
other hand, God’s kindness toward you — provided you maintain yourself in that
kindness! Otherwise, you too will be cut off!
Moreover, the others, if they do not persist in their lack of trust,
will be grafted in; because God is able to graft them back in. For if you were
cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature,
into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be
grafted back into their own olive tree!
For, brothers, I want you to understand this truth
which God formerly concealed but has now revealed, so that you won’t imagine
you know more than you actually do. It is that stoniness, to a degree, has come
upon Isra’el, until the Gentile world enters in its fullness; and that it is in
this way that all Isra’el will be saved. Romans 11:22-26 (CJB)
My final opinion: The signs of the Two Sticks coming
back together should become more apparent soon. Below are two more resources of
this message from trusted sources named Daniel Botkin and Daniel Lancaster.
(Oddly enough, these two great men are separated by the “Two House” gulf.)
Shalom, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Thanksgiving!
The Hidden History of Halloween By Richard Evans
Years later I learned in an anthropology course that masks, chants and dancing are used to invoke spirits. "The person wearing the mask feels internally transformed and takes on temporarily the qualities of the god or demon represented by the mask" (Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism, p. 218)