A Bridge too Far

by Pastor Don Elmore

February 15, 2015

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:14-15

14) “For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

15) Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace;….”

Brief Comment on the Vaccine Controversy

I feel that I need to bring this controversy up as the media has been just slamming everyone who did not vaccinate either themselves or their children; many calling them “conspiracy” advocates.  Even Bill Cunningham, the Catholic local radio host argued for it.  NBC news all agreed; with their medical specialist correspondent, Nancy Snyderman lambasting the anti-vaccine people, calling them “stupid.”   Of course she is in trouble because she left the Ebola quarantine area and may lose her job.  Do you think that this is why she spoke so strongly against the unvaccinated?

While the media continues to spew emotionally charged tirades about how the anti-vaccination “movement” allegedly triggered the recent measles outbreak that health authorities believe started at Disneyland, actual science suggests that the most likely cause of this insanely overblown outbreak was a person who was recently vaccinated.

Numerous published studies reveal how live-virus vaccines like MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) actually shed these diseases for many weeks or even months following vaccination, potentially infecting others, both vaccinated and unvaccinated. This means that any child who was recently given an MMR vaccine is a walking disease-spreader, a truth that the media is refusing to report as even just a possibility in this case.

The fact that vaccinated individuals can and do carry around contagious measles for many weeks while displaying no symptoms of the disease suggests that this latest outbreak might just be another example of a vaccine-strain outbreak. While a handful of the roughly 100 measles cases identified so far have tested out as wild genotype B3 measles, according to the latest reports, the original source of the outbreak has yet to be identified.

“Numerous scientific studies indicate that children who receive a live virus vaccination can shed the disease and infect others for weeks or even months afterwards,” said Leslie Manookian, a documentary filmmaker and activist. “Thus, parents who vaccinate their children can indeed put others at risk.”

Disease Outbreaks Occur among Who?

There's still so much that's unknown about the current outbreak, including where and how it actually started, that it's painfully obvious the media has a sinister agenda. The unvaccinated are the easiest scapegoats, because they're a minority (and they contradict the official story), so they're the ones being tagged as the instigators in supposedly “bringing back” this disease.

Measles has been around forever and ever since the MMR vaccine was introduced outbreaks are quite common among both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. In many cases, those who succumb to the disease are those who were already vaccinated, developing the condition either from the vaccine itself or from others who received the vaccine. A 2014 report published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has this to say about who the real instigators of disease outbreaks typically are.

According to GlobalResearch.org, the report openly states “that the most highly vaccinated populations are also those with the greatest number of outbreaks for those same infectious diseases. This was especially the case for measles, mumps, and rubella, polio and pertussis outbreaks.”

Oh, but vaccines only work when most everyone is vaccinated because of a magical concept known as “herd immunity,” right? Not so fast. The Office of Medical and Scientific Justice (OMSJ), having thoroughly analyzed the conclusions presented in the CFR report, determined that even the CFR isn't convinced that herd immunity is a scientifically legitimate concept.

According to Global Research, the OMSJ concluded that given “the repeated incidences of infectious outbreaks in populations with 94% or more vaccine compliance [the alleged threshold when herd immunity is activated], and the emergence of new viral strains, the concept of herd immunity should be forgotten.

The Office offers several possibilities to explain the report:

1) Vaccines are increasingly becoming ineffective and causing ‘immune dysfunction,’ and

2) ‘Vaccine antigen responses’ may be reprogramming viruses while weakening the immune systems of the most vaccinated individuals.”

Don't expect to hear any of this from propaganda outlets like CNN, Fox and USA Today, which are preying on the weak-minded in order to advance the sentiment that unvaccinated people are a threat -- or worse, a societal scourge. If anything, the exact opposite is true when considering published science, which shows that vaccinated people are the biggest threats.

“Health officials should require a two-week quarantine of all children and adults who receive vaccinations,” contends Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF). “This is the minimum amount of time required to prevent transmission of infectious diseases to the rest of the population, including individuals who have been previously vaccinated.”  The above information was researched from Mike Adams; the Health Ranger.

There were three major reports on vaccines in the Sunday, February 8, Cincinnati Enquirer; our local newspaper.  One article asked the question:  Why are some parents choosing not to vaccinate? The answer was that: “Many parents are convinced that vaccines can cause autism, a belief that originated with a non-discredited 1998 study, which has circulated on the internet and has been promoted by some celebrities.”  It goes on to say that the British Journal which first published this study, called the “The Lancet” retracted it in 2010.

I never heard of this study.  I don’t believe that we shouldn’t be vaccinated because of a study that was written in 1998.  I stopped getting vaccinated before 1998. 

There was no reason given as to why I, and many Christians, don’t believe in vaccines.  It is because of the Word of God; the Bible.  Not a paragraph; not a sentence; not a word was said about our view.  I am against vaccines; because my God is against vaccines. 

The news media broadcasted and wrote that not one responsible doctor in the whole wide world disagrees with vaccines.  They are all quacks who do.   But over 1/3 of all doctors refuse to be vaccinated; both for themselves and/or for their children. 

And why the pharmaceutical companies in the United States should be granted immunity from lawsuits against autism and other dangerous diseases if it didn’t cause it.  The vaccines have contained mercury, aluminum, rat poison, diseased parts of animals and aborted babies as well as other toxic materials.   Autism; which use to occur in 1:10,000 babies in the United States, now occurs in 1:50.  What has changed to cause this massive change in behavior?

And why would a vaccinated person be mad at an unvaccinated person?  How could he catch the disease?  If the vaccine works, how could the vaccinated person get the disease from an unvaccinated person?  They tell us that the vaccinated person is immune from the disease. 

There are now about 60 vaccines that a young child has when he is growing up…and they don’t last for a life time.  They are constantly urged to get their renewal and their annual flu shot?  They are to get boosters every several years.

What the America press hasn’t told us is that in Italy that courts have just ruled against a drug company (GlaxoSmithKline) that produced the vaccine that is to protect children from polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, pertussis and Haemophilus influenza type B. The vaccine then contained thimerosal, the mercury=containing preservative; aluminum, an adjuvant, as well as other toxic ingredients.  The court ruled that they are responsible for causing autism in Italian children, as well as two years ago in the MMR vaccine.  The Italian government, not the drug company, is financially responsible.

And let’s look at this question of vaccines for a second.  If our enemies are correct, couldn’t every disease have a vaccine; and if every person took the vaccines that would eradicate every disease known to man?

But doesn’t this run counter to what the Bible says?  For example:  What happens to God’s people when they forsake His laws?

Deuteronomy 28:27-29:

27) “The LORD will smite thee with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

28) The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment to heart…

29) …and no man [doctor or vaccine maker] shall save thee.”    

May God have mercy on our souls.

One Race, One Blood

Afro-American Charles Ware ended chapter 2 (Page 62), in the book in which he co-wrote with Ken Ham of Answers to Genesis; One Race, One Blood; with the following verses:

Ephesians 2:14-16  (New American Standard Bible):

14)  “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,

15)  By abolishing in His flesh the enmity…so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.”

The part of verse 15 that he omitted has a line draw through it in the criptural quote at the beginning of this article:  “even the law of commandments contained in ordinances;” (KJV) or “which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances,” (NASV) which shows who the verses were addressed to.  It couldn’t have been anyone except Israel; for they were the only one who were given ordinances by God. 

Psalms 147:19-20: “He sheweth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation:  and as for His judgments, they have not known them.  Praise ye the LORD.”

Charles Ware does not mention any of the ordinances; he doesn’t even mention Israel in Chapter 2!    For example:  here is what the verse meant that he omitted.  The ordinances of the animal sacrifices that would take away the sins of Israel were abolished:  the reason; because they were fulfilled.

The Scapegoat Ordinance

Let us look at one of these ordinances:  the scapegoat ordinance.  This ordinance is no longer in existence.  Look what Israel use to have to do before Jesus Christ died and was resurrected.

The Day of Atonement presented two goats.  One was to be killed and the other was to be let go in the wilderness.  What was the purpose?

The time was the Day of Atonement.  Every year, in the fall, the High Priest made his offering and put on certain attire.  Then he made a sin offering for the children of Israel.    It was only for the sins of the children of Israel; nobody else (Leviticus 16:15-16, 21).  There is no record in the Bible of any sins or transgressions made by a Black, Asian, Indian, Mexican, mongrels or any other people other than Israel that were forgiven on the Day of Atonement. 

From the congregation of Israel, the High Priest was to take 2 goats:  one for a sin offering; the other for a scapegoat.  He would take both of them to the door of the congregation. According to tradition, the 2 goats were to be the same in size, color and value, and as nearly alike as possible.  Both were presented to the LORD by the High Priest and then the lots were cast to determine which one should die and which should live.  

The High Priest with the scapegoat After the High Priest made atonement for Himself and his family (he sacrificed a bullock and a ram), he went through the same ritual for the people.  He first killed the goat of the sin offering for the people and brought his blood within the veil and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.    

No man of Israel was allowed in the tabernacle while the High Priest was making atonement for the most holy place, the holy place and the outer court.  After the Priest sprinkled the blood of the bullock (for himself and his family) and the goat (for the people) on the golden altar and the ark inside the veil.

Then the High Priest was commanded to go out of the tabernacle, after placing the blood of the animal sacrifice on the:

1. Most holy place
2. The holy place
3. The brazen altar

He was now commanded to bring the live goat chosen to carry the sins of Israel into the wilderness; and thus complete the work of the great Day of Atonement for sins.  The High Priest placed both of his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat (Leviticus 16:21).  The goat was sent away by the hand of a fit man—a qualified man chosen for this particular time and occasion.  Tradition says that he was chosen for this work a year in advance. 

The 2 goats completed the one type of Christ in His work of (1) death and (2) resurrection.  One alone, could not do this because, being killed would make it impossible for an animal to represent the resurrection as when it was taken into the wilderness.  If Christ had died and remained dead His atoning work would have been in vain.  It was the resurrection that made it effective.

There were more ordinances to complete this day: 

1. What the man who burned the remaining of the sin offering goat did before he reentered the camp
2. What the fit man who led the goat out into the wilderness had to do before he reentered the camp
3. The fat of the sin offering was burned upon the brazen altar
4. The flesh, the skins, and the dung of the animals were carried outside the camp and burned there
5. Etc. 

The sins of Israel were put away for how long?  Just ONE YEAR.  Every year this Day of Atonement ritual was repeated;  over and over the Day of Atonement was done until it was finally fulfilled.  The Bible says nothing about the sins of Charles Ware’s relatives.  Did they have a Day of Atonement?  Were their sins put away for a year?  What about the Asians or the Polynesians? 

The Day of Atonement was for the covenant people of God only;  the High Priest was the High Priest of Israel.  He worked in the tabernacle of the God of Israel.  The 2 goats were taken out of the fold of Israel. The sins of Israel were on the sin offering and the scapegoat.  What does Charles Ware mean about the Scriptures being misinterpreted or was this scripture taken out of context?

Who are the Two Groups Made Into One?

Who are the two groups that are made one?  Charles Ware doesn’t say so directly; but he certainly does indirectly—for he means that the two groups are:

1. Caucasians
2. Blacks

The whole of chapter two is made up of many statements that the Bible hates racism and Darwinism. 

He repeatedly says that in the American Church, whether it stems from Darwinism or elsewhere, “…grows when the misinterpretation and misapplication of Scripture causes cultural division rather than biblical unity” (Page 38).  So, he implies that racism has a relationship with Darwinism; but he doesn’t come out and say it.

The Bible disagrees strongly against Darwinism; but not racism.  The Bible disagrees strongly against Darwinism and interracial marriages.   Charles Ware strongly disbelieves this last statement.

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But he does say that for close to 30 years he has “been passionately promoting reconciliation among various ethnic and cultural groups, especially within the Church.”  He, like his co-author, is a miscegenator; for he wrote:  “I am an African-American and my wife is ‘white’” (page 38).  He goes on to say that he is a “president of a Bible college and senior pastor of a church (both of which are ethnically and culturally diverse)”.  In other words, both his church and Bible College are of different races and cultures.

But he cannot hear God’s word.  He says later in this chapter that in “both Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures have been used to say that God forbids interracial marriage.  These theories have been taught as truth in many Christian groups, and until fairly recently, it was even taught at a respected Christian university” (Page 44, 45).

He then says:  “Due to beliefs that interracial marriage was at worst sin, and at best unwise, many fundamental/evangelical leaders supported segregated communities and segregated churches” (Page 45).

Ware points out that the Church were seeking to deal with cultural realities of  their day and expressed concern about oppression of African Americans, but that they also supported, at least for their time, the segregation of the so-called human “races.”  It eventually led to the day in 1965 when the blacks marched in Alabama.  He wrote:  “They asked for nothing special; they sought only to proclaim the truth that all men had been created equal” (Page 48). 

Do you remember where this “truth” or “lie” came from?  It is not from the Bible; but from New Age Theosophy.  Listen to what Madam Blavatsky stated about her Theosophical society:

“The House of Theosophy would formalize what began as the new thought movement into a religious system that would dramatically change the Western view of God and his relationship to mankind.  Theosophical teachings argued for the essential ONENESS OF ALL RELIGIONS and the omnipresence of divine spirit.  Theosophy declares that it was formed upon the basis of a UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD OF HUMANITY.”  

She adds that the main purpose of her anti-Christian group was “to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity; without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.”   This is integration.  This is multiculturalism.  This is being a pro-LGBT advocate.  This is being for the oneness of all religions.  And Madam Blavatsky was a Russian philosopher and occultist; a leading name in the New Age Movement. 

In this chapter Ware throws out the name of Julian Bond, “an African-American civil rights leader...” and he gives a quote from him about the Ku Klux Klan (Page 52). 

He fails to identify him as being a leader of the Communist Party.  He sponsored organizations which were devoted to the cause of democratic radicalism and aspiring to the creation of a new left in America.  He even endorsed Dick Gregory and Benjamin Spock as Presidential candidates. 

In the late Sixties, Bond voiced the possibility of financial reparations for slavery, suggesting that churches as well as the federal government should give money to African Americans.  In 1971, Bond collaborated with Morris Dees to co-found the Southern Poverty Law Center and became the organization’s first president.  Need I go on?

But Charles Ware doesn’t tell us about the virtues of integration; he just implies it comes from Scripture.  But he doesn’t give the chapter and verse number for that statement!  He adds: “The climax of the struggle against Jim Crow laws and discrimination was the passage of the Civil Rights Act.  With the stroke of a pen, legalized segregation and discrimination became history.  Not long after, so-called ‘interracial marriages’ were illegal in many states until the Supreme Court declared such legal restrictions to be unconstitutional in 1967 in the case of Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia” (Page 49).

But Charles Ware omits the role of the Jews in all of this.  The word Jew is omitted from this chapter. He totally ignores the role that they played in history. Even Louis Farrakhan knows the following about the history of the Jews and the Blacks: 

1. That they were the owners of the slave ships that brought their ancestors here
2. They were the lawyers that were fighting for the declaration of interracial marriages to become legal
3. They were the activists who were leading the walks against Jim Crow laws
4. They were the owners of the banks who were putting their people into the new slavery of usury

And they were the ones who were blaming Christianity for all of its segregation; etc.  Not one word is said about the evil Jew; for the Jew has a perpetual hated against Jesus Christ and Christians. 

Charles Ware never mentions that for almost two thousand years the Christian Church stood against interracial marriages; and now, since 1967 it is legal?  The same thing happened with birth control and abortion.  And the church was wrong for over 1900 years because they falsely interpreted the Scriptures to justify their racism and their hatred of murder (abortion)!

He Accuses Christian Identity

He then accuses the Christian Identity Movement as being a false organization.  He identifies it as sharing much of the Ku Klux Klan ideology.  He quotes from the Kingdom Identity Ministries (Harrison, Arkansas) of some of their beliefs (Page 53):

1. “We believe the White, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and kindred people to be God’s true, literal Children of Israel.”
2.   “…This chosen seedline making up the ‘Christian Nations’ (Gen. 35:11; Isa. 62:2; Acts 11:26) of the earth stands far superior to all other peoples in their call as God’s servant race (Isa. 41:8; 44:21; Luke 1:54).”
3. “We belief that the Man Adam…is father of the White race only….”

After telling his readers about what Christian Identity believes, he then tells us why Christian Identity is wrong:  “The verses they [Christian Identity] use to ‘prove’ their position are either taken out of context or severely misinterpreted” (Page 54).But he never gives any examples of what scriptures they have misinterpreted or taken out of context.

He adds that “A growing number of Christians are being inspired by a biblical dream of our oneness through the blood of Jesus Christ.  I define racial reconciliation in the Church as:  groups of different cultural, ethnic, economic, etc. backgrounds bonded together by redemption in Christ and growing together according to biblical principles for mutual edification, evangelism, and the glory of God” (Page 59).And he gives as one of his biblical verses:  “(…Eph. 2:11-22).” 

And how do these verses prove his point?  Is he implying that the gentiles are all the non-jews of the world?  But this includes the verses at the beginning of this article.  Even the phrase that was omitted by Charles Ware; the one about the ordinances being abolished.  Who were the two peoples that were “reconciled both unto God in one body by the cross….” (verse 16).

Who Can Be Reconciled?

Have you ever heard of two people who have never met each other; never known anything about each other; never even seen each other:  being reconciled?  They can’t be reconciled—i.e. “re” means “again”; re-conciled means “conciled again.”

There are people who have dated, married, and divorced who are looking for ways to reconcile after a divorce.  In fact, the dictionary definition is to restore friendship or harmony or to settle or resolve differences—transform both parties by bringing them to a new consciousness about the way they see, treat, and represent each other.  You can’t be reconciled unless you have a relationship first.

You have to have been “conciled” first. Reconciliation is what is called an unpaired opposite.  For example:  We recognized how often we are “disgruntled” or “overwhelmed”; but when are we “grunted” or “whelmed”?   “Concile” is an archaic word that means people meeting in agreement.  Thus, reconciliation is not the forging of a new relationship but the restoration of a relationship that once existed. 

At the time Ephesians was written was Israel and the ancestors of Charles Ware even seeing each other?  Did they have a relationship?  No. non-Israelites were not allowed to enter the tabernacle; if they tried, they would suffer death.

Numbers 1:51: “And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down:  and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up:  and the stranger (racial foreigner #2114) who cometh near shall be put to death.”

Deuteronomy 23:2: “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.”

But there were two groups who were once “conciled” and later broke off into their separate ways.  These two groups had to be reconciled.  They had to be reconciled by the blood of the covenant:  the blood of Jesus Christ.

These two groups were the House of Israel and the House of Judah.  They broke off into two separate kingdoms in the days of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.  The House of Israel just got worse and worse.  They even became open Baal worshippers by their seventh king.

They continued to get worse and worse until God finally divorced them.  They needed to be reconciled back to God and to the House of Judah.   There was only one way:  for they were without any hope.  None.  It was all depending on God keeping His covenant with the seed of the fathers that He loved.  It was hopeless for the House of Israel if Jesus Christ would not have died when He did and rose from the grave when He did.  It occurred on an Israelite Feast Day.

The same was true with the House of Judah.  They were forever stuck with the annual practice on the Day of Atonement;   the annual forgiving of their sins.  Kind of like the daily Eucharist of the false Catholic Church.  It ended with the sacrifice the Son of God made on their behalf.

The men of the House of Judah were the “NEARBY,” that is, physically speaking to the land and spiritually speaking in respect to the covenants.  The men of the House of Israel were the “FAR AWAY,” that is, physically speaking far away from their homeland and now residing “in all the countries” to which God had scattered them; and spiritually speaking because they were cut off from God as the Husband and from the Old covenant.

Conclusion

THE TIME OF JESUS CHRIST

Let’s go back in time and think what it was like to be an Israelite in the time of Jesus’ ministry.  The House of Israel was in a state of divorcement; but many Christians today don’t even know that Israel was once married to God.  But God had a:

1. Courtship
2. Marriage
3. Honeymoon
4. Estrangement
5. Divorce
6. Reconciliation
7. Remarriage

with His covenant people:  Israel.

Let us look at some verses that Charles Ware omitted:

Jeremiah 3:14: “Turn, O backsliding children [of Israel], saith the Lord; for I am married unto you:  and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:”

Isaiah 54:5: “For thy Maker is thine Husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.”

The LORD God had courted and eventually came to marry Israel.  In these verses Israel accepted the vows of the marriage.

Exodus 19:5-8: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people:  for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.  These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All the LORD hath spoken we will do.  And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.”

Jeremiah 3:1: “They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return to her again?  Shall not that land be greatly polluted?  But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to Me, saith the Lord.”

Jeremiah 3:8: “And I saw, when for all the causes for whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.”

Even though Israel proved to be an unfaithful wife which God put away by divorce, He promises to remain faithful to her in His relationship as husband.  Moreover, in order to divorce her, she had to first be married. 

Hosea 2:2:  “Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not MY WIFE, nor am I her Husband!  Let her put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts…”

But there was coming a day when:

Hosea 2:23: “…and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy and I will say to them who were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.”

Romans 9:25: “As He saith also in Hosea:  “I will call them my people, who were not my people; and her beloved, who was not beloved.”

There was nothing they, the House of Israel, could do to bring back their marriage again; for they had had other gods (Deuteronomy 24).  God had to die and be resurrected again; then they could be married “…to him who is raised from the dead” (Romans 7:4b).

The House of Judah was not much better.  The majority of them were taken captive by the Assyrians.  The remainder by the Babylonians.  A few returned.  The tribe of Judah mainly lived in Jerusalem; while the tribe of Benjamin mainly lived in Galilee.  There was only a few who kept the laws of God.

The death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection three days later was wonderful news to every Israelite.  It meant that the House of Israel would be reconciled to its God once again; and for the House of Judah it meant that their sins were now forever forgiven; not just for one year.  Now, they had to be reconciled to each other. 

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel.