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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Revelations 20:4-6

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

About this time of future restoration and reorganization of the world, Paul, our Master’s apostle also specified, Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life (1 Corinthians 6:3)!

We are not given too many details about this judging of angels (and the secret things belong to God said Moses); we are simply told in that and other passages that at the time when Messiah will physically reign on earth the faithful will share in His exaltation and judging of the universe which therefore implies judging angels. The idea of mankind judging angels birthed from the Book of Enoch, which was a very widespread Jewish writing from the 1st century C.E., a book the early believers seem to have been familiar with.

What we are told though, (and the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever Moses also said (Deuteronomy 29:29)), is that if we are to judge angels in the future, we should today be able to judge earthly disputes between ourselves. In essence, our training for judging angels tomorrow starts today with learning to maturely take care of our own issues between oursleves.

The problem is that today, as with many other things, we are not encouraged to manage our issues and disagreements by ourselves. We go to the police, we get a lawyer, or worst, a psychologist! As far as I can understand from his epistles, to Paul the fact that those who called themselves by the name of Yeshua could not manage their own problems themselves was a disgrace and a bad testimony of Messiah’s congregation in front of the non-believers. He said that it would be more valuable to be defrauded that to be such a poor testimony in front of others (1 Corinthians 6:7).

It is high time that we take control of our lives; that we take responsibility of our affairs. We, as Messianic congregations, must organize ourselves into a coherent movement that is self sufficient in every way including self-legislated just as the Hebrew nation was taught to be by Moses in ancient times. Then and only then, we will ever be able to fulfill our destiny of entering the Promised Land of His divine will, and be an example to all nations of life under the rulership of Messiah.

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