RESPONSE TO AUTHORITY
CONT., page 4
When these things were being composed, this writer knew that there was a side to this matter of responding to authority that was not being addressed, and intended to not go into it. But, things happened and continuing revelation came so that it became inevitable that it be added. So, here is the other side of this issue of submission, a side one should not seek but is an unfortunate reality. The better choice is the guidance of section one.
We read concerning the sons of Israel that Yahweh brought them out of Egypt in order to bring them into the land of promise – “and He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers” (Deuteronomy 6:23). But there was one noted difference here in this intention – a delay in the wilderness due to their disobedience! The fact is they did not obey the authority of Yahweh, and this brought-out-to-bring-in was delayed by a period of wandering and death. This is the other side of response to authority – Yahweh will let us fail!
You have already seen my own failures to obey and how they lead me to never want to miss Him and to obey my father. This is the learned way of obedience, becoming like Yahshua who always did the will of the Father. But even concerning Yahshua we read – “although He was a Son, He (too) learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). This obedience is the way of the tree of life. But unfortunately, we are in the grave period of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil!!!
As much as this writer hates to address this, Yahweh lets us fail, or one could even say He plans for us to fail; and He uses this in the whole of His purposes to bring us into His promised land. But note, we need not try to fail. We need not try to resist authority. It comes all too natural for us. But even so, our failure is used ultimately for our good. Yes, even as the sons of Israel suffered death and loss and delay for their disobedience, so we too suffer death and loss and delay for our own disobedience.
The unwelcomed reality is that there is an alternate way to our response to authority. It is the same alternative that existed in the garden of Eden. There are two trees from which we can still choose to eat – the tree of life, which is to obey authority, or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is to reject authority. And even as eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil led to death and rejection from the garden, so disobedience results in a departure from Yahweh’s blessings and our death. But unfortunately this is the way that we as flesh men are so very prone to take, and sometimes in total ignorance (e.g., Christianity).
Let us consider further this matter of these two trees, yet in the larger picture. For 6,000 years since that original garden when Eve and then Adam ate from that cursed tree, man has been in the good and evil period. But even more significantly, for 2,000 years the church has been in this same period. This is very significant to realize. This is the period in which, because of man’s disobedience, he experiences the drama of evil and good. It is the period in which Yahweh performs evil in our lives. To restate this from the standpoint of the law of coverings, the tree of life was provided to be our true covering, but the inferior, inadequate, and temporary tree of the knowledge of good and evil with Satan has been our longstanding substitutionary covering. As in the case of all coverings though, in time, very gratefully, the true covering will be restored and the substitutionary covering will be done away with!
In the last writing titled 2004 Year-end Report, page 2, we began to look at this matter of Yahweh using evil in order to effect good. We will now consider this even further in this writing. And in order to do this, let me introduce you to someone.
The truth revealed in the first section of this writing came about as a result of communication with a man regarding his father. The man’s name is Jim Neumann. Jim came into the understanding of the restoration of all things and that there was no such thing as an eternal hell in which men are tormented as punishment forever (re., FAQ, fifth question), and his father asked him not to teach this. After reading some of the writings here that deal with one’s response to authority, he wondered what he was to do. This brought up a possible conflict between obeying his father, or presenting the truth regarding Yahweh.
I was scheduled to fly to Jim’s home to meet him, and I suggested in an e-mail that maybe Yahweh would give us wisdom about this. When I went to lie down and was meditating on a writing in which Jim talks of entering into Yahweh’s rest, that which was presented in the first section came to my understanding. I immediately called him and shared this with him, though not in the detail which you have here. Jim met with his father, and he sought to honor him and pursued the appeal process, something I have equally pursued with my father. Jim’s father then acknowledged Yahweh’s work in his life and the wisdom He has given him, and did not forbid him from teaching what he has learned.
My contact with Jim began on February 2, wherein he provided for my review the subject writing regarding rest. He also provided a brief account about his life. The first thing that impressed me about him was the incredible correlation between our two lives. Jim moved to Washington in 1995. I moved here in 1994. Jim left Washington and began a home for pregnant women, but only had one woman to come, and then Yahweh changed the direction in his life. Before moving to Washington, I started a home for women and children, and also had one woman to come, and then Yahweh changed direction in my life as well. (This is when He brought me into the Remnant Bride truth.) Jim went to the mission field in Africa (prophetic of Christianity – The Signs That Cause Belief, page 4), was rejected by the missionary group, and gave to those who rejected him the home he had already purchased. I built a home for women and children, was rejected by the Christian man who owned the property, and also gave everything to him who rejected me.
Jim has five children. I have five children. And the amazing list goes on. But what I then found out when reading his writing, was the incredible fact that what Yahweh had personally led me to understand, He had equally led Jim to understand. No man taught either of us the truths we had been led to see. Jim was taught by Yahweh that Christianity was never planned to stand, but to fall, that it was a wholly corrupt work, that it was filled with witchcraft and magic, and even as called forth in Revelation 18:4-5, we are to come out of it. This is a profound understanding to come to! He did not understand the full significance of all of this, nor the full outcome of it, but he no longer called himself a Christian. And equally significant, he also saw that in like regard a bride had to come out of the sleeping body of Christ.
These are incredible truths to come to, and Jim was the first man I had ever met who had come to this understanding on his own. And to make it even more phenomenal was the uncanny correlation between our lives, including arriving at the same truth. Yahweh took us through the same experiences, paying the same price, in order to bring us to the same understanding.
There is so very much that will be raised here, and as you will see, all of it is an incredible weaving of experiences and truth. And before we add another one of these amazing correlations between our lives, and that being a very significant one, let us continue to address this matter of good and evil.
With all of these correlations in Jim’s and my life, needless to say I was not surprised that he had recently written something regarding evil, in his case a very interesting look at the purpose of evil. Here is Jim’s reply to a friend who asked him about the difference between evil and sin.
What we perceive to be life is actually death on another plane or dimension. What we perceive to be the act of dying is actually birth on another plane.
Think of our life as we know it as a state of death. Compare our life on this earth to the life of a child in the womb. That child has not yet been born, but they are not really dead either. However, the only way for that child to “come into life” is to exit life as they know it. They must give up the support system they have come to depend on – the food (body), the blood (soul), the air (liquid) (spirit) and “die” to that life. As a testimony to this, there are three "tubes" in the umbilical cord that attaches a baby to life, that is, the baby’s mother. The newborn must come out through the birthing canal into “real” life.
Now, during this lifetime we are in our womb experience. If we resist the move toward “real” life, we will die in our mother’s womb, a miscarriage. However, to us, this womb experience is all that we know, and all our instincts and ambitions serve to drive us to continue in this life and avoid death at all costs. Something needs to push us toward death. In the case of a newborn baby, the mother's contractions serve this purpose. In our adult "womb life," that purpose is served by evil.
Evil, as a noun, is the entity or process that pushes us toward death/birth. As we experience evil we are terrified because it pushes toward death. So from the perspective of this dimension – evil is a bad thing. However, it is necessary in order to be born into life. For without our death (birth) we cannot live. If it were not for evil we would resist death and live forever, but in the wrong kind of life!
Notice what happened when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. First Adam was admonished:
“But of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17).
Why then put the tree there? Because we were supposed to eat from it so that we could die!
Then the result:
And the LORD God
said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and
now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat,
and live for ever: …” (Gen 3:22).
Why did God realize that the first thing Adam and Eve would want to do after being aware of good and evil was to partake of the tree of life? Because now they knew evil and that evil would move them toward death, just as God told them it would. What they didn’t know was that they needed to be moved toward death in order to enter into true life, and that is why God created evil in the first place.
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (Isa 45:7).
Some would tell you that God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden in order to give man the free choice to cause his own sin, but that is ridiculous. Why? Because if we were supposed to have free will, then why did God take us out of the garden after we ate the first tree? He stopped our “free will” from eating of the tree of life. He allowed our “free will” to eat of the first tree. If He had wanted us not to eat of that tree, we would not have eaten of it.
That is why He planted the tree where we would be tempted and then sent the devil to tempt us – so that we would fail and evil would begin it’s work of bringing creation to death, so that it could be birthed into true life.
Evil is death and the things that induce death.
Sin is the violation of God’s character. When someone sins, evil is the result. However, evil can be executed without it being sin. For example, a soldier in a war is committing evil, but in most cases he is doing it without sin. In most cases, the war in the first place is the result of sin, but even a righteous war (like the ones God commanded) are evil. A virus is committing evil, but it is not committing sin.
Once God has written His law on our hearts we will no longer commit sin. Eventually God will be champion over all, and all will be all in all, and at that point evil will have served its purpose, and that is why the last enemy is death. Once death is no more, evil has no more function because all will have been brought through death into life.
This addresses some very important truth. Jim is certainly right here. The period of man since the beginning, and more importantly the opening 2,000 years of the kingdom of God, or the church, has been the period of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Unfortunately, it is when Yahweh, and man, perform evil as well as good. This means that it is the period when Yahweh must do evil against man in order to bring him into the period of the tree of life. As Jim notes here, the tree of life period is the period when Yahweh writes His law on our hearts and we cease sinning, thus there is no more need for the evil.
So we see that this period of good and evil is the period in which Yahweh performs evil upon man. Of course relative to the church, Hosea 6:1-2 says this best:
“Come, let us return to Yahweh.
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
He will revive us after two days (or 2,000 years);
He will raise us up on the third day (the Millennial reign)
That we may live before Him.”
This is equally the evil we see in the book of Job where Yahweh sends Satan to afflict Job. This is precisely what Yahweh has done against the church for 2,000 years – He has given it over to Satan. It is the period in which He performs evil against the church, even as Job declared – “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept evil?” (Job 2:10). But in the end His purpose is to birth us into good, even into the tree of life period.
This is a very important truth to note. It helps us to understand even better what the period of Christianity is and what yet awaits us.
Now that we have considered further this matter of Yahweh using evil to bring good, and you have met Jim and know a little about him, we will once again draw another very striking similarity between our lives. As has already been said, this is a weaving of amazing truth.
After my wife and family left me in 2003 per their rejection of the Remnant Bride truth, my wife filed in court a legal separation from me. I signed an Agreement in order to buy some time, but it later became evident that that Agreement was going to destroy me because of the financial burden. I tried to get it overturned in court but was railroaded and the Agreement became a court order. However, within a few days a lawyer got the order overturned, and eventually the legal separation was completely dismissed. Thus, my own experience was that I was unjustly taken to court per the matter of my wife and placed under a financially burdensome order that would have destroyed me. But, that order was overturned. Now let us consider the identical situation in Jim’s life, but far more tragic and involved! Here we will see once again that evil came upon Jim in order to bring good.
On November 22, 1993, thirty years to the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a gunshot to the head and the very year that the 120 Jubilees from Adam came to an end, Jim’s first wife, Jane, put a shotgun in her mouth and pulled the trigger, killing herself. They had one son at the time, Jonathan. And if this tragedy was not already enough, this is where Jim’s nightmare only began.
To try to hide from Jane’s family the shame of her suicide, Jim altered the scene and told the investigating authorities that she was murdered. Obviously this did not work, and Jim finally confessed what had actually happened and the authorities determined it a suicide.
Four years later, Jim’s in-laws took him to civil court for murder, accusing him of killing Jane. Because of an ill-prepared lawyer and misleading circumstantial evidence, and the will of Yahweh, Jim was found guilty of wrongful death (murder) and was required to pay into Jane’s estate $5.4 million. Since this was filed in civil court, there was no incarceration. The family had hoped to file this in criminal court as well, but there has never been enough evidence to do so.
All of this took its toll on Jim. It was covered in local papers and even gained national attention on CBS’s “48 Hours,” and follows him wherever he goes.
Then in an appeal case in February, 2001, the $5.4 million was overturned and Jim agreed to pay approximately $500,000 that would go to his son. (Again, thank Yahweh for the appeal process.)
Almost two years after Jane’s tragic death, Jim married Heather, who was taking care of Jonathan after Jane’s death, and she was only available because of the death of her father that same year, which brought her back home. Thus, it was in fact two deaths that brought these two together.
From February 16 through 20 I was in Jim’s home, and there is no question in my mind that Jim is innocent, and that Yahweh used this evil to do good. One month following Jane’s death, Jim offered to take a lie detector test and passed it with six very direct questions regarding her death. It was also pointed out by the appeal court that there was evidence that Jane’s right hand was on the barrel of the shotgun, suggesting that she held it in her mouth, and that there were no signs of violence. Like me, Jim was railroaded.
Thus we see another amazing correlation between Jim and myself. Jim too was unjustly taken to court per the matter of his wife, found guilty, and placed under a financially burdensome order that would have destroyed him. And, that order too was overturned. But what we want to look at here is not so much this correlation, but the testimony of evil being used for good.
There is no question that Jane’s death was a tragic evil. But during my visit in Jim and Heather’s home, while walking with Jim in the woods of their 55 acres in Missouri, I told him that what happened to Jane and what he now has is a remarkable testimony of how Yahweh uses evil to effect good. My experience in their home was an experience of delight. Jonathan is one of the best-hearted young men I have met in a long time. He loves his father and now-adopted mother, and is very sensitive to honoring them and doing right. All the children have been trained to obey their parents, and are good to do so. They have a happy and healthy home, one that Jim would undoubtedly not have equaled in his former marriage. And with what they have gone through since Jane’s death and the trials associated with it, they have learned to not judge too quickly, which this man can attest was a rich virtue to experience. With what this man teaches, and with the addition of a dissenting and even lying voice that came to them in a most unusual set of circumstances, their unwillingness to quickly judge was much welcomed.
Thus we see in a most graphic way how Yahweh uses evil to “birth” one into good. But something else of necessity needs to be added here in order to make this story complete.
You have already read how my submission to my father regarding the purchase of the new car protected me as I came under his covering and was thus led into Yahweh’s blessings. This happened with Jim as well.
When Jim got out of the army after serving two years, he met Jane. For two years he wanted to marry her, but his father did not approve. Many would argue that Jim had a right to marry whomever he wished, but Jim waited for his father’s approval. He will be the first to tell you though that his wait was not perfect; for though he did obey him, he often objected. But that can be OK, for the bottom line is to obey.
After two years Jim’s father approved of the marriage. This waiting upon his father’s approval placed him under his covering, and when Jane committed suicide, Jim reaped the blessing of Heather. One sees here and should realize the necessity of submitting to authority in order to receive Yahweh’s favor and protection.
This was one of the things that Jim and I briefly discussed on our walk in his woods; let us now consider another most revealing truth we discussed as well.
When Jim and Heather prepared to go to Africa, they sold their home and half of their original 105 acres to a friend. That left them with 50 acres. As they finalized their move to Africa, people came to them and wanted to purchase the remaining 50 acres. But there was a problem. Jim had agreed to lease the grazing rights to someone for five years, so anyone who wanted to buy the land had to honor that lease. When the man who had the lease found this out, he told Jim that he did not have to hold to it. But no, Jim felt that he had made the agreement and he should keep his word. In the end, this protected Jim, for when the missionary group rejected him, he still possessed the property. What happened next was Yahweh’s provision for his faithfulness. A lady on five acres adjoining Jim’s 50 acres died, and they were able to purchase her home and five acres, giving him his present 55 acres with a home. Jim was willing to give up his home and 55 acres, and even sacrifice for awhile, and Yahweh gave him back a home and 55 acres. But how did He do this? By Jim keeping his word. Let us add here an e-mail from Jim regarding this.
One point I neglected to tell you is that when the offers came on our land, we were in the midst of trying to go to Africa; raising money for this move was a paramount "concern" of ours.
The $55,000 in cash that would have resulted in our selling
of the land would have greatly aided in our ability to get to Africa and could
have even been seen as a "sign" that God was working things for us to
go.
However, to see the offers as a sign from God and take the
money would have required violating our word to the man to whom we were leasing
the land.
So a choice had to be made – was God giving us
money? After all, He had given us
the word to go to Africa. We
determined that if God wanted to give us money toward Africa, then He would
have to give us the money some other way – a way that did not cause us to
violate the instruction of "letting our yes be yes."
When Jim shared this with me there in the woods, the truth of Galatians 3:24 immediately stood out – “Therefore the Law has become our (lit.) child-conductor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.” What we see here is a very important principle! The role of the “child-conductor” was to meet the child at a location and then conduct them home, or wherever they were going. They were a guide, an escort, a protector to the child. Such is the law, as we read here.
So how did the law protect Jim and get him to where he needed to be? In this case it was the law of keeping his word that protected him and caused him to keep the land that Yahweh wanted him to have and even to add to, as he walked in faith.
This is the same thing Yahweh did for me when I honored that twelve-month commitment to my boss. That law was my “child-conductor” to the ministry and place where Yahweh wanted me to be as well. Our faithfulness to our word, to the word of Yahweh, and to authorities, is the child-conductor to Yahweh’s promised blessings. And that law of coming under the authority of our fathers was the child-conductor for Jim and me when we submitted our wills to them. And it is this law that will guide, protect, and lead you if you will honor Yahweh’s established authorities, following the trinity of submission – authority, honor, and obedience.
Taking a quick look at Jim’s life, we find a man that at the ages of 11 and 12 was molested by a traveling evangelist, his wife committed suicide and he was taken to court by his in-laws for her death, he began a ministry to pregnant women and only took in one lady, actually two times he tried to go to Africa and was turned down, and Heather had a mid-term miscarriage. In many regard we see a man with whom Yahweh has dealt harshly. As we read in Jeremiah 30:21 – “For who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?” Such has been the price Jim Neumann has had to pay. He has suffered molestation from a minister, wrongful accusations, and has looked like a failure in his walk of faith with Yahweh. Such has been the price of His training. But He has given him an enduring Elisha heart and a will to obey Him and His law, and to trust in Him, and most importantly He has given him the word of truth.
This leads us to another thing I greatly appreciate and admire concerning Jim – he is a man who walks by faith. I asked him why he bought the land in Missouri and if he had a job opportunity there when he did so. No, he bought the land because he/they knew it was right. That is faith. Faith is not based on intellect or reasoning, but is to hear, to believe, and to act.
Jim also responded in complete faith when on two occasions he made plans to move to Africa. In both cases he and Heather sold almost all they had. I admire that kind of obedience and trust and sacrifice.
Now we are going to cover something that is additionally unique regarding this matter of lawlessness. On one occasion during our visit, Jim made the comment that “breaking” the law is not lawlessness IF one pays the consequences. This is certainly true. For example, Yahweh has a number of laws that if you commit certain acts, there are resulting consequences. Thus, if you commit the act and pay the consequence, then you are not lawless. However, if you commit the act and escape the consequence, then you are lawless.
Yahweh holds Himself to His own laws. For example, in Exodus 21:26 we read that if a man strikes his slave and blinds him, he must let the slave go free. This is what Yahweh has done to man – He has struck him with blindness and is thus obligated to set him free.
In Exodus 21:28-29, if a man has an ox that has a habit of goring people, and if it gores someone and they die, then the owner must also die. Yahweh has a beast who is Satan who has gored many a man to death. Since Yahweh has not taken precautions to prevent Satan from doing so, Yahshua had to be put to death. This is the same requirement per Deuteronomy 22:8 where if a man builds a house and does not build a parapet, a protective barrier, on the roof to prevent someone from falling off, then blood-gilt is on the house if someone falls from it. This is true with the house of God, the church, where many a man have fallen to death. Yahweh will not be lawless in this regard but takes responsibility through the death of His Son.
And in the writing, Carmel, page 7, we saw how Yahweh judged Himself in regard to the first Remnant and the death of Christianity by placing them in a situation whereby Satan would kill them.
Thus, it must be noted here that lawlessness is also to escape the consequences of doing wrong. But if the consequences are paid, then the person is not lawless.
This is the very purpose for disciplining children, or even adults. By disciplining someone, it keeps them from being lawless. When Yahshua says that there are those who call Him “Lord, Lord” and prophecy and cast out demons and heal in His name, yet He will declare that He does not know them, He does so because they “practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:21-23). They are performing aberrant deeds for which they are not being held accountable.
This was occurring in the church when Paul was writing. In 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 we read that since they were not correctly judging the body of Christ, many of them were sick and weak, and a number of them were dying. On the larger scale, this is true when one does not judge the true state of the body of Christ, Christianity, and come out of it. You too will die with the body.
On another note, this is why it is so important that parents and other authority train and instruct and discipline those under their authority – so as to lead them away from lawlessness. This is not an easy task. For example, my daughter, Rebekah, made vows to me and later decided to dishonor those vows without my consent. So what was I to do? Christians have told her that what she did was OK. But as her father, I have the responsibility to hold her to consequences until she repents. Otherwise, I train and lead my daughter into lawlessness, the very reason for which Yahshua will reject those who call Him Lord and perform works in His name. It is never easy to hold people under one’s authority to consequences, but for their sake this must be done. For those who do not keep His law, Yahshua will regard as workers of lawlessness and will reject them – “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” – both today and in time to come.
Is our examination here regarding authority entirely complete? Undoubtedly not. But it is sufficient to guide us in the correct way regarding our right response to authority, to collateral authorities, and to help us judge between truth and error. There is the issue of mercy as well. But mercy is not given with absolute abandonment of law, especially when being granted by authority, which again is the subject of this writing. How we relate to one another on an even level is entirely different. In that case mercy and forgiveness must be a standard practice. But one is to remember that both mercy and law are given to effect good. Good should always be the ultimate goal of authority – the tree of life. And there are two ways which will bring one to that tree – obedience to law, or disobedience and resulting evil.
Jim’s writing, This Is My House, regarding entering into His rest is an excellent writing, and can be read by clicking here.
Continue to final page of Response to Authority for THE BRIDE AND THE PROPHET