Apostolic Teaching
The Apostle Paul Preaching On The Ruins by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1744, a painter and architect who worked in Rome.
Welcome
The purpose of Apostolic Teaching is to promote sound doctrine. To do that we must study original intent, and that requires learning to think like Jesus and his early disciples.
In Jesus’ day, many of the religious leaders were misinterpreting and misapplying Scripture. They were teaching the doctrines of men as if they were the commandments of God. So Jesus comes along saying, “you have heard, or it is written, but I have come to tell you what my Father really means.” This is as true today as it was then.
Original Intent
As a youth, I started studying the original intent of America’s founding fathers, and it’s been a lifelong passion. Then, in 1972, I had a “road to Emmaus” experience that altered my worldview. I had an encounter with the Jewish Jesus that completely changed the way I view and study Scripture. I grew up in the Episcopal Church and studied Greek and Logic at College in the 1960s. But it was 1972 that I understood that there was a difference between the Hebrew mindset and the Greek or Western mindset.
I had been like the two disciples Jesus joins on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection. They did not recognize him even as he shares the Scriptures from Moses and all the Prophets the things concerning himself. It was not until they drew near to the village. Not until Jesus acted as if he would pass on by. Not until they invited him in and he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. It was only then that their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
Christianity and The Institutional Church
In 1972 when the scales started falling off my eyes, and I’m not saying they are completely off, it was then I understood that Jesus was Jewish. Now this might seem like an obvious and logical statement, but I had always seen Jesus through a gentile Christian worldview. I was baptized as an infant and raised in the Episcopal Church, I still love their Book of Common Prayer. I was the Episcopal version of the Catholic alter boy and later served in lay ministry. I loved every minute of it. I served in the Chaplain’s Corp of the United States Army during the era of the Vietnam conflict and was trained to do services for Protestants, Catholics and Jews. I felt warm and fuzzy feelings all during this time. I felt at home.
Why am I telling you this? Because this website is about original intent, and comparing where Christianity, the Church and church leadership are and have been in comparison to the original blueprint. I want you to know that the things I will be sharing, the things I hope we will be discussing together do not come out of a bitter or bad experience but come from the revelation that started for me in 1972.
It was then I saw Jesus as King of the Jews the long awaited Jewish Messiah as foretold in the books of Moses and the Prophets. I realized that the Bible we read was written by Jews for Jews and those of us Gentiles grafted in through faith as the Apostle Paul says “to the commonwealth of Israel.” I realized Jesus, Paul and the Apostles did not come to start a new religion called Christianity.
The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed
For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
I realized that if I was going to understand this mystery and the Apostle’s teachings, and therefore the teachings of Yeshua, I would somehow have to learn to hear and think about the Word as his disciples would have. I realized I had to learn the ways of the Jew without becoming a Jew, and contrary to what I had been taught, not to teach that the Jew to be saved must learn the ways of Christianity. For Paul did not say the mystery hidden from past ages was that Jews would be grafted in to a new religion called Christianity, but that we Gentiles would be the ones grafted in.
My dilemma then, was where do I go to learn His ways and as it says in Acts to devote myself “to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers?” At another time I’ll discuss my journey and how I learned first hand this actual mystery, but I will say it started in 1972 when I became involved with a fellowship of believers comprised of Jews and Gentiles.
Yeshua’s Church
In 2012 the Lord spoke to me that he was rebuilding his church according to his original blueprint. That the time had come, because the time of the Gentiles would soon be over. This is a reference to the Lord’s warning in Luke 21:24b “….Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” I believe the start of this count down clock began when the Israeli Defense Forces reclaimed all of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War, but was interrupted by what happen next. More on this another time, but for now check out this website.
The revelation of his government and the restoration of the ministry gifts of Ephesians 4:11-13 that I saw in 1972 now started to make sense. For Paul says,
"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13
When I look at the church universal or individual churches in particular I do not see this unity and maturity Paul talks about, I can only assume that there must still be a need for the entire ministry to function. I will start to include this information for your comments and discussion.
For Those Called to Leadership
This “site” is especially for those called to leadership in the body of Christ. You know who you are! Most of you are not presently in a leadership position. Some of you have resigned from one and moved on. Others are discontent about your present role in the church or the present state of the church. All of you fit the description in 1 Samuel 22:1-2:
"So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard of it, they went down there to him. Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.“
It is from these 400 that the Lord selected the leadership for David’s kingdom. I believe this is again what the Lord is doing for His present church; selecting those who are in distress, debt or discontented (some of you are all three) to be His leaders. These are not those the established churches of today would necessarily choose, but they are God’s called and anointed ones for His work of service.
If you are one of these, then this website is for you. The teachings presented on this website span over 40 years. They have been discussed and debated around the globe. Some of you will say yes and amen, others will be offended and leave and for some it will force you out of your comfort zone and challenge your worldview of the church.
May the Lord remove the scales from our eyes that we might clearly see him and the truth of his Kingdom. May the Lord welcome each of us home to his home church.
Thanks for reading and may the Lord richly bless you!
Rick Fox
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