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“Cattle and Sheep”
Way back, when God had a word for the people of Israel, He spoke it first to Moses who then spoke it to the people in such a way that the words of Moses were the words of God. As it turned out, whenever someone questioned Moses or whenever someone dismissed Moses, severe judgment from God was levied upon him.
“Pastors” today teach AND practice this same arrangement and actually enjoy saying that they have the same authority, the same administration, and the same functionality of Moses as it relates to “their own congregations.” Really?
Fasten your seatbelts as we very briefly examine this totally unscriptural and blasphemous policy that “pastors” employ as they seek to corral God’s people under their supposed rule.
The Reality
Why do you suppose “pastors” and various other “church leaders” support and teach this? Is it because they seek to follow God’s Word as they see it? Not very likely.
In many cases, multitudes follow along this dark path because of having been deeply deceived by their false theological training and upbringing. Remember, “church leaders” having rule, authority, power, and control is a classic foundation of local institutionalized churches. It’s the hallmark of Christendom; a hallmark that has been in place for about 1500 years.
Though it is wicked and corrupt, most church leaders are mislead, and in some cases, completely hardened in their stance through the false traditional teaching that what they are doing is Biblical and they are being obedient to the Lord.
Many are in this diabolical bubble, thinking that they have been called by God to behave in this fashion.
The Truth
It is true that under the Old Covenant, a select group was set apart from the rest of God's people and ordained to minister unto God. They were the spokespersons for the people in the name of God.
“And the priest shall make atonement for the soul that errs, when he sins unwittingly, before Jehovah, to make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven.” Numbers 15:28
There can be no question but that under the Old Covenant, (the ministration of death written and engraven in stones) God created a
“special clergy” separate and apart from the people. Members of this group stood between the body of Israel and the sanctuary where God dwelt. They wore beautiful robes which distinguished the wearers from the remainder of the people of God. They performed functions forbidden to those who had not been anointed. They held titles and implemented formulas and rituals prescribed by God.
But now, a new day has dawned.
The cross of Christ forever wiped out all such separations and distinctions. They were abolished and done away when the legal custodian delivered us to Jesus, and faith in God's Son replaced that righteousness which was by deeds of the law. Every child of God is now a priest.
Every person on this whole earth who has been justified by the blood of Jesus is a priest of God. "To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with His life's blood, who made us a royal house, to serve as the priests of his God and Father...to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen." Revelation 1:6
Every disciple of Jesus has entered the ministry. The word of God knows nothing of a disciple who is not a minister. "You also as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ…you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:5,9
The time of reformation has come!
The age of which the prophets spoke was ushered in. The new covenant, written not with ink, but with the Holy Spirit upon tablets of the heart became a reality. We are no longer minors in virtual slavery. The term was completed. God sent His own Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4
The church in the wilderness was now superseded by Christ’s Ecclesia. The nation of Israel was gone, the temple was gone, the priests were gone, the Levite's were gone, and concerning the very Law of Moses, we read:
"In that he says, a NEW covenant, He has made the first OLD. Now that which DECAYS and waxes OLD is ready to vanish away." Hebrews 8:13
“In the same way, He gave them the cup after the supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant sealed with my blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25
We have been set free. “For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1
Jesus has become the surety of a better covenant. Hebrews 7:22; Hebrews 9:11-12; Hebrews 8:2-8; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 10:9-10; Hebrews 12:24
“Who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:6
“…But their minds were hardened: for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted; which veil is done away in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 3:12-16
But instead, what do we see?
Today’s local institutional church doesn’t want the New Covenant to replace the Old. For two thousand years, it’s been trying to put the New Wine of the New Covenant, in the Old Bottles of the Old Covenant and put the New Cloth of the New Covenant, on the Old Cloth of the Old Covenant, and the results are always disastrous.
As a consequence, because the church and its leaders do not want to give up Old Testament thinking, they have done their best to weave both covenants together in a way that makes them void each other out completely!
Instead of the priesthood of all believers replacing the Old Covenant priesthood, today in virtually every local institutional church setting, we have pastors and elders who have replaced the Old Covenant priests and Levite's.
When the masses “go to church,” they do so with the same Old Covenant mindset that the people had in Moses’ day. They wait for “the pastor” to go to the mountain top and get the revelation from God for them, regardless of whether or not the Spirit has laid any message on his heart to begin with!
He then supposedly “comes down from the mountain” every Sunday, stands behind a pulpit, and delivers what is called “God’s message.” And all the people; the pew sitters; the clapping seals; nod their head in agreement to whatever is spoken, not daring to question or disagree!
Rather than know and hear God for themselves, they have traded that New Covenant reality for the way it was before Christ.
People go to church thinking they’re still in the Old Testament Era when God’s temple was a tent or a building that people come to in order to meet with Him and hear from Him. Rather than embrace that WE are now the temple of God, (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; Hebrews 3:6) many prefer it the old way.
There is a veil over many eyes in the reading of the Word. Many have refused to believe that the God who created heaven and earth and all that is in them does not dwell in temples made with hands, and neither is worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything. Acts 7:48; 17:24-25
They have not grown in grace and advanced in the Spirit. They have decreased and retreated to the law. They have gone back to the weak and beggarly elements.
They are acting as if the death of Jesus was a myth and the cross at Calvary a fantasy!
To the contrary, many professing Christians are not the family for which God planned. They establish institutions and organizations of their own design and come before God with a mixture of the Old and the New which they have blended together, calling it "the local church."
This is the mindset in today’s local institutional churches, and it’s very disturbing.
What else can we conclude from this overt display of clinging to these weak and beggarly elements?
What else can we conclude as we witness their indifference to the worth and blessing of Christ’s death on their behalf?
Only this:
Looking at the local institutionalized church today, you would think that the only ones who seemed to have benefited from the death of Christ was the cattle and sheep! That’s it! Sacrifices are no longer necessary. Corralling and slaughtering of these animals have ceased.
Because of Him, the cattle and sheep get to live!
But other than that, as we view church leaders and church members in local institutional churches today, it looks as though very little of anything else has changed!
Ken Cascio
wickedshepherds.com
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Cattle and Sheep
