Restoring order to a divided Church
Matthew Moore, National Director of Ellel Ministries USA, was a partner in a prestigious international law firm before he sensed the call of God on his life. His book begins with a simple question: “With all the effort and thought and desire in the Church to overcome Satan and the spiritual darkness in the world, why is there so much division within the Body of Christ?" He reminds us that Jesus' final prayer for all who are in the Body of Christ was "That they may be one…"
Moore’s own cry is: “Why, nearly 2000 years later, is the Church more divided than ever?” He tells us that in the year 1900, there were 1,600 Christian denominations. By the year 2014, there were 45,000 Healing cannot take place where there is disunity, according to Psalm 133, so he devotes the book to showing how to restore that order, including the Church identifying with God’s covenant relationship with Israel. (Photo - Author Matthew Moore and his wife, Becky)
In several chapters the book talks about antisemitism – not antisemitism as we are seeing it on university campuses and street protests, but antisemitism in the Church. We are taken back in Church history, a few hundred years after Jesus' departure from earth, when the Church’s leaders decided to separate the Church from her identity with the Jewish people.
He quotes many of the early Church fathers, such as Origen of Alexandria (185AD–254AD) who wrote:
“We may thus assert in utter confidence that the Jews will not return to their earlier situation, for they have committed the most abominable of crimes, in forming this conspiracy against the Saviour of the human race … hence the city where Jesus suffered was necessarily destroyed, the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people was called by God to the blessed election.”
At the end of that chapter, readers are invited to turn to ‘Appendix 1’ in the book, where there are suggested prayers to repent of any antisemitism in their own lives. Having established his case, the author sets out the order that the Church should follow, using Scripture. He believes Scripture teaches there must be a return to the Hebraic roots and particularly challenges Christians to look at the feasts again.
The Church’s leaders decided to separate the Church from her identity with the Jewish people...
Why, nearly 2000 years later, is the Church more divided than ever?
He writes: “God never once refers to the ‘Jewish feasts’ or ‘the Jews’ appointed times’ … In every instance God refers to them as ‘my appointed festivals’, ‘the appointed festivals of the Lord’ … They were never meant to be exclusive to the Jews. God refers to these special days as his festivals.” He then has a chapter on each of the festivals, including Sabbath, Passover, First-fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles.
The book ends with ways Christians may wish to celebrate God’s ‘appointed festivals’ and embark on their own journey of healing.
Healing the One New Man (210 pages)
By Matthew J Moore