The Called Out Assembly / August 1999

The Called Out Assembly

Contents

• The Called Out Assembly
• The Adoption of Sons
• The Glory
• The Covenants
• The Giving of the Law
• The Temple Service
• The Promises
• The Fathers
• Conclusion

Is the Church of today the same one in the Bible?

Church is one of those words that has changed in its meaning with time and usage. For most, church is a religious building. For others, church is the people in the religious building. Further, “church” is just the people, whether there is a building or not. The actual Greek word for church is “ekklesia” and it means “called out assembly.” The Apostle Paul's definition of the “called out assembly” (church) is given in Romans chapters 9 through 11.

Editor's Sidebar

Yavoh, He is Coming has published articles in the past that were challenging and controversial. We have endeavored to speak the truth as God has inspired and led us. This article is very challenging to our past and present concepts of the church. Our intention is clear; our purpose is measured. We believe that faith and obedience in God is the only way to live; we believe doing otherwise leads to disappointment and harm. Truth does not always have to be shared, especially when it will harm someone. However, truth must be shared even if it offends and harms others, if it is necessary. In those cases, it is a judgment call. Our intention is to benefit the reader by warning; our purpose is to awaken the reader to choices that soon must be made. Read this article only if you can look into your heart and life honestly. If you think an honest assessment of your local church will offend you, then set this aside for another time in your spiritual growth.

Recently, I spoke with a fellow Messianic brother who had begun to keep Sabbath in his home and was investigating all the Biblical festivals for future observance. He relayed his own conversation with his church pastor who also was very motivated toward the holidays. His pastor asked a deep and thoughtful question, “Where is the Biblical basis for the church to keep these holidays?” My friend relayed the question and their discussion onto me.

At first blush, the answer seems straight forward and unassuming. Paul has specifically commanded us to celebrate the feast, the Passover.

Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I Corinthians 5:8

But Paul's exhortation seems to spiritualize and not repeat verbatim the command. The modern church has spiritualized the command into oblivion. Another advocating argument is that Yeshua kept the holidays. “But that was before the cross,” the church counters. Paul warned us to not let anyone criticize our observance of any Sabbath or holiday.

Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day

Colossians 2:16

But, the average Sunday School teacher thinks this means that you should not be caught keeping any festival, new moon, or Sabbath. The truth has been twisted 180 degrees and is disputed.

Let's restate the question. “What is the Biblical basis for the church to keep the feasts and festivals?” The answer is not to prove Passover as the celebration of freedom from the slavery of sin. It is not to show that the Messiah used Passover to initiate the New Covenant. Nor is it to prove that the feast of first fruits, highlighting the resurrection, is meaningful to the Messiah's work for us. It is not to prove the principles of an unleavened life as in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is not to remind everyone that the Holy Spirit was given to us on the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the same day as the Law was given. It is not the need to explain the prophetic implications of how the Feast of Trumpets speaks of the coming of the Lord. It is not to explain in detail how the Day of Atonement speaks to the future Day of the Lord when God will judge the world by fire. And finally, it is not to discover that we will observe the Feast of Tabernacles first in the Messiah's kingdom (the wedding of the Lamb). Reviewing each holiday's understanding will not prove the Biblical basis for the church to keep those holidays! You would think that this parallel structure to the Messiah and New Covenant events would be the Biblical basis and answer the question posed, but it doesn't. It doesn't because there is no Biblical basis for the modern church today. The modern church doesn't match what the Bible says that the church should be. Therefore, we can not prove the Biblical basis of the modern church to keep any commandment or holiday. This comes as a shock to many Bible students when they discover the fundamentals of the modern church. We are not talking about cultural differences from the first century; we are talking about the historical organized church system of today dating back more that 1700 years that does not match the “called out assembly” of the New Testament.

That is a pretty challenging and confrontational statement about the modern church, especially if you go to a protestant, evangelical, denominational or non-denominational, independent, full gospel, half gospel, charismatic, Pentecostal, Bible believing, Bible preaching, local assembly, like-you-go-to-type church. It is pretty shocking to discover that you have invested a lot of your spiritual life and time in something that doesn't qualify as God's definition of the church. It is especially shocking when you vowed to only follow the Bible for everything in your life. Such a statement may be met with a host of counter arguments based on good works and the evidence of God's hand.

Before you go off like a 4th of July bottle rocket, let us review the firm foundation for the New Testament Church as defined in the Bible. You know, the same Bible you vowed to follow. Let us be clear in our judgments and understand the basis for such statements regardless of our likes and preferences. Let us first clearly define who is the recipient of the New Covenant and who is the “called out assembly” (church) according to the Bible.

First, the New Covenant was not given to the “Church” but to the House of Judah and the House of Israel according to Jeremiah the prophet.

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

It is a Biblical fact. The New Covenant was given to Israel. The characteristics of the New Covenant model are in the previous covenant given to Israel. Specifically, God is putting His Law on our hearts instead of on tablets of stone. Does this mean the commandments are different? No way! The election of God, in choosing every believer for salvation, models God's covenant with Israel. Does this mean that Israel is not going to be the chosen people anymore? No way! God is going to manifest Himself so that all men will know Him. God is going to forgive sin. Does this nullify or negate any truth expressed by Moses and the Prophets? No way! It just says that God is going to do a wonderful, awesome and better thing for us. Even though the Gentiles are not mentioned by Jeremiah, does this prophecy negate the Gentiles from being part of God's plan? No. Even if they are not specifically mentioned here, it does not mean that the New Covenant is an Israel only covenant. But it is clear, Israel is part of the New Covenant.

Secondly, the New Covenant does not come up with a new way of salvation. Paul uses the book of Romans to argue the New Testament Biblical basis of sin, justification, salvation, and the church. He does so by quoting and relying exclusively on the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He quotes the teaching of Moses to explain the work of our father Abraham. He quotes the prophets with their exhortative word for belief and obedience. He summarizes and emphasizes the work of Messiah Yeshua. He uses God's relationship with Israel to explain His relationship and basis with the church. In Romans 9 through 11, Paul details some very important aspects of our New Covenant faith, things that are present in the church.

…who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 9:4-5

Paul lists seven things that belong to Israel.

1. The Adoption of Sons
2. The Glory
3. The Covenants
4. The Giving of the Law
5. The Temple Service
6. The Promises
7. The Fathers

He totals up the list to say that the Messiah comes from Israel and is it not separate from Israel. Amen! This list and definition of Messiah does not exclude others outside of Israel, but it clearly includes them in Israel. Paul says that not all of the physical descendants of Israel are the Israel that enjoys the Messiah. The real Israel are physical descendants who believe God's promises. The real children of Abraham are those whose faith in God's promises is counted for righteousness.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but through Isaac your descendants will be named. That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

Romans 9:6-8

He argues that believing Israel is the remnant of Israel. He says that the remnant of Israel are the initial believers of the church. They are recipients of the New Covenant and salvation.

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; for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly.”

Romans 9:27-28

In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.

Romans 11:5

Having laid a sure foundation for the remnant of Israel, Paul then goes on to say that the New Covenant also belongs to Gentiles who come by faith (just as Israel). Whether Jew or Greek, everyone is saved the same way, by God's grace through faith in God's promise of salvation (Rom 10:12). Peter says this same thing when the issue of the Gentiles came up for discussion in Jerusalem.

But we believe that we [Israel] are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they [Gentiles] also are.

Acts 15:11

It is not the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; it is the children of promise and faith that are called the children of God. Does any of this negate physical Israel or the Nations? No. It just means that the New Testament Church is a combination of Israel and Gentiles who share the same faith in the same God. They have the same Messiah and same salvation by faith.

But the Gentiles part in this New Covenant is more than a conclusion in the New Testament. The prophet Hosea says it and Paul quotes from him.

…even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who were not My people, My people, and her who was not beloved, beloved. And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, you are not My people, There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

Romans 9:24-26

Even James in the Jerusalem meeting found evidence in the prophets for Gentiles to be part of God's chosen people and the New Covenant.

And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, after these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, in order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.

Acts 15:15-18

Therefore, God's plan was to use the remnant of Israel first and gather the Gentiles to them. Does this New Covenant salvation negate any benefit given to Israel previous? No. Instead, the benefits and blessing of believing Israel are retained and shared with the believing Gentiles as well. Paul calls these things the “commonwealth” of Israel. Paul emphasizes these things when speaking to the Gentiles when explaining their benefits of faith in the God of Israel.

remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Ephesians 2:12

Let's examine Paul's list of benefits that belong to Israel in more detail. Let's examine whether the modern church has this “commonwealth.”

The Adoption of Sons

Natural born children are hoped for and received with joy, but an adopted child is specifically chosen. God has emphatically stated that we have been elected (chosen) by Him to be Sons of the Living God. According to Hebrew tradition and teaching, an adopted son receives an inheritance of a double portion, like the first born. The doctrine of election in the New Testament is not a new concept; it is fundamentally the same relationship that God has with Israel, the chosen people.

In the Greek, the “elect” (ekkletos) of God is the same form of the word “church” (ekklesia). The church is understood as the entire collective group of God's elect. It is by God's unmerited favor, His gracious choice, that we are selected to be part of His house and family. It is a gift. It is the “elect” (those individually chosen) that will be gathered at His return (one at a time).

The modern church claims this same adoption; however, they have historically excluded Israel, the first born, in the process. They claim Israel refused God's election and there is no remnant left. The Biblical model for the church is God's elect from Israel and the Nations. Paul argues that He and other brethren from Israel are the remnant of Israel (Rom 11:1-5).

The Glory

We generally think that Glory is something only to do with God and it is true that God's glory is the most desirable among desirables. But, there is a glory for believers. Abraham and the fathers through Moses and the Prophets has embodied it. It is described to us by Paul as one of the great mysteries.

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

I Corinthians 2:6-9

The modern church has claimed this glory and used it to set themselves above even Moses and the Prophets. No longer does the church want to be separate from the world as a “called out assembly;” they want to be accepted and glorified by the world. They only emphasize their separation from the state to maintain control and avoid taxation.

The Covenants

Beginning with Adam, God has made covenants with mankind. This is how God has manifested Himself to mankind. To this day, we still see the evidence of the covenant made with Adam. Men still labor by the sweat of their brow; women still bear children in travail. God made a covenant with Noah. We still see the sign of this covenant in the rainbow - God's promise not to flood the earth again. God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God said that whoever blesses Abraham and His descendants would be blessed. Whoever curses them would be cursed. Many can testify to the truth of this blessing and curse. God made a covenant with Israel through Moses. The weekly Sabbath is a sign of that covenant. As it is said, “It is not that Israel has kept the Sabbath; the Sabbath has kept Israel.” God made a covenant with King David. God promised that his kingdom would have a son whom he would call “His Lord” and He would sit on the throne forever. Yeshua the Messiah is the King of Israel fulfilling the covenant made with David. Finally, we have the New Covenant (the Hebrew word for “new” could be translated “renewed”). There is nothing actually new in the covenant other than the tabernacle is now in the hearts of His People; however, it has been made like new. With that tabernacle comes the Spirit of God whom also dwells in the hearts of His People, just like the Spirit of the Holy One did in the tabernacle and temple. Every aspect of our New Covenant has been modeled from the previous covenants - they are progressive rather than replaced.

The modern church has dismissed the covenants made with Israel and ignores the tabernacle made in the hearts of men. They prefer to emphasize only one covenant and act as if it is the final covenant. On this last point they are Biblically incorrect. There is one more covenant to be given - the Covenant of Peace. It is to be given when the Messiah takes His rightful place here on earth as King of Kings. Even this covenant belongs to Israel, for Yeshua is to rule from Jerusalem when it takes effect.

And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them [Israel]. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations [Gentiles] will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.

Ezekiel 37:26-28

This may come as a shock to some but there will not be one single church building (Catholic or Protestant) in the millennial Kingdom; but, there will be an Israel. Consider that for a moment and survey how far from God‘s plan the modern church has gone astray. In His Kingdom, no one will be going to church on Sunday. There won't be Christmas nor Santa Claus; there won't be Easter nor Easter eggs. It will be Torah and temple. The Bible says this very clearly.

The Giving of the Law

It was an unprecedented event. God came down to a mountain and spoke His commandments for all to hear. God wrote them on two tablets of stone. God then gave instruction to Moses and he recounted those instructions to us in what we call the Torah. It was the beginning of what we call the Bible. No greater or wiser set of laws has ever been established to guide a nation. To this day, civilized people in every nation mimic and follow the same laws given at Mt. Sinai to Israel. But the Torah and instruction of Moses is more than a civil and moral code for nations and individuals. The God who spoke these commandments wants to have a relationship with us. Like a love letter, God has expressed His heart toward us. It is more than a guide, or a warning. It is more than an agreement or a detailed plan of action. The Torah has the very thoughts and words of God as He expresses Himself toward us from generation to generation. Moses said it this way.

Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you shall prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.

Deuteronomy 32:46-47

King David, who sought the very heart of God, had a special relationship with the Torah. Psalm 119 is an incredible piece of literature of its own, but its sole content and purpose is to express his love of God's Law, the Torah. David summed up his own thoughts by saying that he had found his deepest soul in the scroll of the Torah.

Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy Law is within my heart.”

Psalms 40:7-8

It almost sounds like David was on the brink of the New Covenant, when God's Law would be written on the tablets of our hearts. For the man who sought the very heart of God, his heart reveals what God wanted to do all along. I believe this is God's intent. I believe the real value of a Jew in this New Covenant faith is the teaching of the Torah (the oracles of God).

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

Romans 3:1-2

Some Churchmen simply don't get it about the Torah (the teaching). They want nothing to do with keeping commandments and following the Law. They argue that the New Covenant's purpose is to do away with (fulfill) the requirements of the Law. On this point, consider what the New Testament says concerning the first martyr Stephen. Stephen was executed on the evidence of false witnesses. They said he was teaching Jesus and that Jesus came to do away with the temple, the Law and alter the customs (the teaching) of Moses.

And they put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place, and the Law; for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.”

Acts 6:13-14

The New Testament says that this was false testimony and defines the falsehoods specifically. Yet, the modern church quotes this passage, unknowingly, to teach this same intent of Jesus. If ever there was a more clear message of what the New Covenant church is not about, it is this! How is it possible that the New Testament can reveal a false statement of intent about Yeshua and the Church uses the same statement of intent as official policy? It is possible only if the Church has become a false witness of Yeshua.

The Temple Service

The tribe of Levi, specifically the sons of Aaron, were charged with the temple service. From lighting the menorah, to burning incense and presenting the altar sacrifice, special requirements are to be met before God. Center court in the temple is the altar service. Scriptures give specific instruction for each sacrifice, for each festival, and for each service. However, none of these sacrifices (bulls, goats, lambs or turtle doves) ever took away sin. No act of obedience ever provided salvation. Instead, principles and symbols of substitution were made visible until the day when the true “Lamb of God” would come and “take away the sin of the world.” It is very clear that one was a symbol and the other was the substance. Very few brethren really see the temple service for what it really was. Very few religious men understand repentance and the altar that sanctifies the sacrifice. Very few understand that the altar is holy and is the table where God and man are reconciled. They don't understand the relationship between symbol and substance.

The church teaches that the temple service has been done away with, that it is no longer appropriate. Even if the temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem and the Cohen (priests) were re-established, churchmen would claim that the altar sacrifice would be an offense to Christ and His final sacrifice. That is a very strange teaching. How can the very symbol be an offense? That is like saying if a cross is shown today, it is an offense to Christ for showing His death again. Why is it that the symbols of Israel and the temple service are unacceptable but the symbols of the church are acceptable? I'll give you a hint: maybe the modern church isn't the same church of the New Testament.

The disciples went to temple service for nearly 40 years after the resurrection. Not one of them was offended. In fact, Paul was arrested in the temple performing the Nazerite service with four other Messianic Jews. If Paul was opposed to the temple service, why was he there performing it at great expense to himself (he paid the fee for the four other men)? Why does the New Testament give testimony to those disciples under James' instruction as numbering in the thousands (Acts 21:20) and “they are all zealous for the Law?” The reason is simple: the temple service which belongs to Israel didn't go away in the New Covenant. Maybe Israel was scattered into the nations as a punishment and Jerusalem destroyed, but that does not mean that God changed His commandments, symbols, or worship service. The book of Hebrews is quoted by many churchmen in an attempt to render the Old Covenant obsolete and of none effect. However, it is the book of Hebrews that gives its strongest statement on this matter.

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Hebrews 10:26-29

The temple service and the altar sacrifice shows us the substitution of the innocent for the guilty. It shows us how the blood of the sacrifice is the only covering for the life that has sinned. It is not the sacrifice alone that covers the sin. It is the altar that sanctifies that blood that covers the sin. It is at the altar that God resolves the matter of life and death, the holy and the profane, and accepts payment (propitiation) for redemption.

The altar of the Old Covenant sanctifies the blood of the New Covenant.

Churchmen proclaim the sacrifice of Jesus but they forget the altar that His blood was poured upon. If you take the altar out from under the blood of Yeshua, then you cast it to the ground, there to be trampled under foot. And if you trample under foot the precious blood of Yeshua, you have rendered an insult to God. Never mind that you didn't mean to do it or that you didn't understand what you were saying and doing, the fact is that you have made the biggest mistake possible in the New Covenant. Let me say it as simple as I can. If a man scorns and dishonors the altar in God's temple, he has scorned and dishonored everything on that altar, including the blood of the New Covenant which is sanctified by that altar. It is the altar of the Old Covenant that sanctifies the blood of the New Covenant! Remember, the Old Covenant altar is modeled after the altar in heaven that received the blood of Yeshua. That altar and sacrifices both symbol and substance belong to the “called out assembly” (believing Israel and the believing Gentiles).

The Promises

God has promised to give us life after death. He has promised to forgive our sins. He has promised that the payment for our sins has been made and we no longer are a people without hope. He has promised to include us in His kingdom, to give us a place at his table in His house. Even though Israel has been scattered because of unbelief and disobedience, He has promised that He will gather our hearts and us back to the Land of Israel. He has promised us much. Everyone of those promises was given to Israel first. By joining the believing assembly of Israel, by believing those same promises, the believing Gentiles become recipients of these promises. It is not because God has reissued these promises to the nations that they receive them; it is because they are already resident in Israel. By being partakers in the commonwealth of Israel, the Gentiles are rightful heirs with Israel. Isaiah the prophet argues for the inclusion of foreigners, Gentiles. In fact he goes further; he argues that Israel is to not permit the Gentiles to say they are separate from Israel.

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from His people.” Neither let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord, “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, to them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant; even those I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”

Isaiah 56:3-8

What has the modern church done with the promises given to Israel? They have misappropriated them. They have done what Isaiah said they are not to do; they have separated themselves from Israel. They have profaned the Sabbath because it was a sign of Israel. They have rejected God's covenant because it was made with Israel. By separating themselves from Israel they have also separated themselves from the God of Israel and the King of Israel. There is no other God. They have positioned themselves outside of the promises of deliverance and protection. Therefore, it is inevitable. The modern church will be the target of God's judgment just as unbelieving and disobedient Israel was earlier.

Many churchmen argue that they will not receive any judgment because the word “church” is not heard after Revelation 4:1. They err. The “church” is mentioned later, but they don't like the title: Babylon the Mother of Harlots. The Church is composed of one mother, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and a series of daughters, all the Protestant churches. Protestant churches may think themselves to be separate from Catholics but they are not. Protestants (even the independent ones) hold to the same traditional decisions of many years ago when the Catholic church fathers did away with Sabbath and established Sunday worship. They keep the same holidays of Christ Mass and the Babylonian festival of Easter. The Catholic and Protestant church has abandoned the Biblical festivals. (No wonder we can't find a Biblical basis for the church to keep them.) Protestants keep the same Gregorian (Pope Gregory) calendar, the same names for days and months (named for Roman gods), and the same pagan traditions adopted by the church fathers carried over from Babylon, Egypt, and Baal. Protestants are not fundamentally different from Catholics; they are primarily protesting the leadership of the Pope and the priesthood.

The historical and resulting modern church separated themselves from Israel and the promises made to Israel. However, the true church, the “called out assembly,” will soon be separated from them — Babylon, the mother of harlots.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

Revelation 18:4-5

The Fathers

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the fathers of the covenants and the promises. Because of God's love of the fathers, Israel has benefited much. As Paul said, the children of God are the children of promise. Abraham was given a promise to have many descendants. He was told that in his seed would all the families of the earth be blessed. Abraham was the first Hebrew. Abraham gave us the promise that God would provide a Lamb for the sacrifice. As New Covenant believers, we believe Abraham's word has been fulfilled in Yeshua's sacrifice as the Lamb of God. This doesn't make Abraham go away or cease to be our father.

Paul argues in the book of Romans that we are justified by the example of Abraham's righteousness, by faith. From Abraham comes the proper understanding of obedience leading to blessing as well. From Abraham we learn that hospitality leads to intercession in the example of Abraham's pleas for Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham was the first to be called out of his father's house and land. Abraham is the father of the “called out assembly.”

The church, however, wants nothing to do with the fathers of Israel. Fatherless children are victims of decisions beyond their control, but the church has made themselves fatherless by their own decision.

Conclusion

The most important part of the “called out assembly” is the head of that assembly - the Messiah. He is the One who has called us out and He is the One we are called to. He is the Son of God, our Glory, the Blood of the Covenant, the Living Word of God, the Lamb of God Sacrifice, the Promise, and the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let us make sure that we know who we are and that our standing is sure before God. Have you heard the call?

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